10.12 About a Boy
Title | About a Boy |
Episode # | Season 10, Episode 12 |
First aired | February 3, 2015 |
Directed by | Serge Ladouceur |
Written by | Adam Glass |
On IMDB | About a Boy |
Outline | When Dean is transformed into a teenager, it appears to offer a solution to the Mark of Cain issue. However, while hunting down the witch that transformed him, he will need to make a choice: stay a teenager, or return to being the bearer of the Mark of Cain. |
Monster | Witch Hansel |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Pendleton, Oregon Lebanon, Kansas |
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Contents
Synopsis
In Pendleton, Oregon, two men are arguing inside a bar. One man, JP, is thrown out and, as a homeless man watches, JP walks towards his car. A mysterious man appears behind JP and there is a flash of bright light, and the homeless man finds only a pile of clothes.
In the bunker, a worried Dean sits in his room researching the Mark of Cain. Sam enters with the news that he has found a case. Dean wants Sam to check it out, but Sam tells Dean that he needs to get back in the game instead of locking himself away, and that Sam knows that Dean can beat this. Bolstered by Sam's confidence, Dean agrees.
In Oregon, Sam and Dean question the homeless man who says that he smelled flowery flowers but no sulfur, and who insists it was the work of aliens. An annoyed Sam and Dean walk away, and then they split up: Sam to check out JP's place and Dean to investigate the bar.
Dean enters the bar and orders a drink. After questioning the bartender, Dean starts talking with Tina, a woman at the bar, about JP. They begin drinking together and reminiscing about crappy childhoods. The man that attacked JP sits listening in the background. Sam calls Dean as Tina leaves the bar, and Dean watches as the mysterious man follows Tina out. Dean explains to Sam that he may have something so he hangs up and goes outside. Dean hears a scream and, when he goes to investigate, he finds a pile of clothing. The mysterious man approaches Dean and, with a flash of bright white light, Dean wakes up in a basement and discovers that he is a teenager.
Teen Dean looks like his 14-year-old self, but he has all his adult memories. A 14-year-old Tina is in the room next door. While Dean reassures Tina, they discover JP who is then taken away by the mysterious man. After snacking on cake, Dean finds a way out of the basement, and teen Tina tells him to go for help while she remains behind as a distraction.
Meanwhile, Sam goes to the bar looking for Dean. Sam questions the bartender who has Dean's jacket and phone. The bartender says he found it by the dumpster. Sam investigates further and finds Dean's boot and the smell of flowers. Back at the motel, Sam is researching flowers in an attempt to find Dean, when Dean knocks on the door. He greets a confused Sam with a “Hi'Ya Sammy.” Dean explains what happened, and the boys head out to save Tina.
In the car, Sam asks how it feels to be 14 again. Dean tells him that it feels weird, that he liked a Taylor Swift song, and that the Mark of Cain is gone. Sam says he found yarrow, flowers used in rituals, so the boys assume they are hunting a witch. Sam wants to get Dean changed back, but Dean isn't so sure; believing that, while not ideal, they've found a cure for the Mark of Cain.
Sam and Dean arrive at the house where Tina is being kept, Dean sneaks in the same way he got out, but Sam is too big to enter that way. Dean is attacked by the mysterious man, but Sam comes up behind him and saves Dean. The mysterious man explains that he is Hansel of Hansel and Gretel, and that the evil witch, Katja made him and his sister do terrible things. When Sam and Dean reveal to him they are hunters, he agrees to help them kill her. However, if Hansel wants to help, Sam first demands to know how to turn Dean back to his proper age. Hansel explains that the hex bag around his neck is the key.
Upstairs, Katja is cooking soup as Tina is tied to a chair. Hansel and the boys enter the kitchen, and she orders Hansel to take care of Sam and Dean who think Hansel is on their side. Katja explains that she never made Hansel do anything, and then Hansel knocks Sam down and takes his gun.
Katja explains to Sam and Dean that she loves to eat delicious children, and Sam questions why she changes adults to children instead of taking children. She explains that stealing children has become more difficult since the olden days, and it is much easier to just transform an adult no one will miss than attempt to kidnap a child. She explains that the Grand Coven sent her here to take care of Rowena. While Dean is distracting Katja with conversation, Sam pulls a switchblade from his back pocket and attacks Hansel, Sam then goes after Katja but she easily throws him against the wall. Meanwhile, Dean is being beaten by Hansel. Katja orders Hansel to turn Sam, but when Hansel reaches for the hex bag around his neck, it is gone. Dean has taken it, and he uses it to turn back into an adult. He picks up the witch's knife and kills Hansel, Dean then shoves the hex bag in Katja's mouth, keeping her from reciting any spells and pushes her into the fiery oven.
Afterwards, Sam and Dean explain to Tina that the hex bag was destroyed, but there is a chance they can figure out how to reverse the spell, but Tina sees her renewed youth as a second chance at life, and is willing to make the best of it. The next day, Sam and Dean give Tina a lift to the bus station and all the cash they have, and they depart. Sam and Dean now know that the Grand Coven may become an issue, however, Sam is more concerned about the Mark of Cain. Dean felt he had to change back to save Sam, which Sam understands: Dean saved them—Dean pulled a "Dean Winchester." After thanking Dean, Sam admits that he wants the Mark gone, but Sam also wanted Dean back. Sam counts it as a win because he has Dean back and Dean didn't “Hulk out.” Again, Sam reassures Dean that they will figure it out. Dean agrees, and they drive off while listening to a Taylor Swift song, much to Sam's befuddlement.
Characters
Definitions
- Alcohol
- Cake
- Curse
- Dean's Bedroom
- Dean's Cell Phone
- Food
- Grand Coven
- Hex Bag
- Impala
- Incredible Hulk
- Mark of Cain
- Men of Letters Bunker
- Sammy
- Son of a Bitch
- Spells
- Witches
Music
- "If It Don't Feel Right" by Josey James & Waylon Jefferson James (Extreme Music)
- (playing in the bar as JP is being tossed out)
- "Ashes, the Rain and I" by James Gang
- (plays while Dean is researching the Mark of Cain)
- "Only a Matter of Time" by Headwater
- (playing in the bar when Dean goes to question the bartender about JP)
- "Fever for Rock and Roll" by Bob Bradley & Steve Dymond (De Wolfe Music Library)
- (playing in the bar while Dean and Tina talk about their childhoods)
- "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift
- (plays as Sam and Dean drive off)
Quotes
Dean: Don't say it.
Homeless man: Aliens.
Dean: He said it.
Sam: Yeah, he did.
Sam: Not great. Turns out JP was about three days from getting evicted. His landlord said the guy blasted Neil Diamond 24/7, and that his bathroom was quote 'like staring into the Devil's butt.'
Dean: That's... vivid.
Sam: And accurate, I saw it.
Dean: You saw the john or-
Dean: I prefer functional alcoholic.
Sam: Nothing. Okay not nothing. This is bizarre, even for us. Dean This is insane, You're like 14, how does it even feel.
Dean: Well, I'm me. I'm old me, but a kid. It's freakin' weird dude, and...
Sam: What
Dean: There was a Taylor Swift song on the bus that I hopped to the motel, and uh, I liked it Sam. I liked it a lot.
Sam: Okay.
Dean: And my voice is weird, and I've got like nine zits, and I have zero control over this; I mean it's up, it's down, it's up for no reason-
Sam: That's enough yeah, no thanks. That's just called puberty.
Sam: Yeah sure. I mean you can drink again in what like, seven years?
Hansel: Because if you're going to fry that candy-coated bitch, I want in.
Dean: All the freakin' time.
Trivia & References
Dean: You knew him?
Tina: This isn't exactly Cheers, but yeah. And don't get me wrong, I would not buy a used car from the guy. But he was harmless.
Dean: So what was his problem?
Tina: What wasn't? You're in here getting stunned until the sun comes up, your life is a regular Charlie Foxtrot.
- Cheers was the eponymous bar in the '80s/'90s sitcom of the same name where, as the theme song said, "everybody knows your name."
- Charlie Foxtrot is an abbreviation for cluster fuck expressed using the NATO phonetic alphabet.
- One Direction is a famous Irish/English boy band formed during the 2010 series of The X-Factor.
Dean: No clue, some Scarface looking dude, bright light. Next thing I know, I wake up looking like Bieber.
- Scarface was a 1983 movie about a drug lord named Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino.
- Justin Bieber was a child pop star who, in a replay of a familiar trope, has grown into a young man whose life is beset with issues related to drugs, alcohol and violence.
Sam: Hell yeah. So we'll get you changed back and light Sabrina's ass up.
- Sabrina was the name of the witch in a comic book series and later a 1990s TV series.
Dean: First time you ever had to say that, huh?
Sam: Big talk from the guy wearing Underoos.
- Underoos are a brand of underwear for children featuring designs based on pop culture characters.
- Hansel and Gretel is a German fable written by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm about two children who are captured by a witch, who wishes to eat them. A previous episode of Supernatural—3.05 Bedtime Stories—alluded to Hansel and Gretel when, as part of a spirit-warping reality to make fairy tales come to life, an old woman in the woods tried to fatten up and then eat two hikers.
Dean: Yeah, I blame Obama.
- An AMBER Alert is a child abduction alert system, originated in the United States in 1996. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.
- Dean's "I blame Obama" is based on a meme (see: Thanks, Obama) which plays off the tendency of people to the right in American politics to blame President Obama for, well, everything.
- Kentucky Fry is a reference to the famous chicken fast food chain now known as KFC.
- To "Hulk out" is to fly into an uncontrollable violent rage, and refers to the behavior of the alter-ego of Marvel's Bruce Banner aka The Incredible Hulk.