8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin

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Title We Need to Talk About Kevin
Episode # Season 8, Episode 1
First aired October 3, 2012
Directed by Robert Singer
Written by Jeremy Carver
On IMDB We Need to Talk About Kevin
Outline Dean escapes Purgatory after a year, but his reunion with a "retired" Sam is strained. Together they look for Kevin, who has managed to escape Crowley with a startling secret.
Monster Demons
Crowley
Timeline One year after the events of 7.23 Survival of the Fittest
Location(s) 100-mile Wilderness, Maine

Clayton, Louisiana
Kermit, Texas
Whitefish, Montana
Centreville, Michigan
Purgatory (flashbacks)
Fairfield, Iowa

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Synopsis

A year has passed since Dean and Castiel killed Dick Roman, the head of the Leviathans, and then disappeared in a cloud of black goo, leaving Sam alone. Somewhere in Maine's 100-Mile Wilderness, there is a flash of light and Dean emerges, covered in grime with a crude weapon in hand. He frightens two sleeping campers and demands to know where he is and the way to the nearest road. They point him in the right direction, and he takes one of their backpacks before fleeing.

Four days later, Dean has hitched a ride to Clayton, Louisiana, where he finds an old windmill. His left arm is bothering him, but he measures his steps from the windmill and starts to dig. When he uncovers a skeleton, he rolls up his left sleeve, telling someone to "hang on." His left arm is glowing red and bulging strangely, and he cuts across the bulge. He then drips glowing liquid from the wound into the grave, chanting in Latin. Once his arm is drained, a man appears behind him. He asks Dean what took him so long and Dean ignores him, asking if he's okay. The man answers in the affirmative and reveals vampiric fangs for a moment before asking Dean what they should do next. His name is Benny, and apparently he and Dean made it out of Purgatory together and are friends of a sort. They decide to go separate ways for now, though, and Dean tells Benny to keep his nose clean before hugging him.

Meanwhile, in Kermit, Texas, Sam is in a nice house packing a bag in the middle of the night. A woman and dog lay asleep on a bed nearby, and he pats the dog once before leaving quietly. The woman wakes and watches him go without saying anything. As Sam drives away from the house in the Impala, someone watches him from the shadows.

Later, Sam arrives in Whitefish, Montana, at Rufus's cabin. The moment he steps inside, he's tackled to the ground by Dean, who splashes him with holy water and borax, then cuts his arm with a silver knife. Sam resists, telling him that he isn't a demon, Leviathan, or shapeshifter and that he knows Dean isn't either. Dean performs the tests on himself anyways before pulling Sam into a hug. They talk, and Dean tells Sam that he's been in Purgatory for the last year. Sam asks how he escaped and what happened to Castiel, but Dean is evasive. He tells Sam that Castiel didn't make it and then asks Sam where he's been. He tried to call and left him messages, but Sam was unreachable.

Sam reveals that he's not hunting anymore. After he was left alone, he fixed the Impala and drifted. Dean asks if he looked for him and is hurt when he realizes that Sam gave him up for dead. He storms out and gets one of the phones that Sam left behind to play through the messages. On it he finds a number of messages from Kevin Tran, the prophet Crowley kidnapped a year ago. Kevin escaped the demons and called Sam, desperate for help. His messages span six months, and in the last one he tells Sam that he assumes he's dead and won't call again. Dean plays them back for Sam and tells him that Kevin was their responsibility. Chastened, Sam uses his computer to process Kevin's last message. In the background is a bus depot announcement for Centreville, Michigan. Sam also finds Kevin's girlfriend, Channing, online as a student at Centreville State College. They decide to look for Kevin there. Before they go, Dean checks over the Impala and is happy with what he sees, but not with what he smells: dog. Sam doesn't admit to anything, though.

On the way to Centreville they stop at a motel, and Dean has a flashback to his time in Purgatory. He is running through the woods hunting a vampire, and when he has him trapped against a tree he asks him where "the angel" is. The vampire doesn't know, and Dean cuts off his head. He's then tackled to the ground by another vampire and loses his weapon. He's struggling when someone else knocks the vampire down and beheads him: the vampire Benny. Dean is shaken up by his flashback and tells Sam that he wants to leave the motel, but Sam thinks Dean should get some rest. They start arguing and Dean asks Sam how he rationalized his year off. Sam defends himself, but Dean can't believe that Sam looked the other way when people were dying. He also intuits that a woman was involved, but Sam doesn't say anything except that there was a woman, and now there's not.

Later that night, Sam tells Dean that he didn't just stop hunting — he found something that he'd never had before. The woman's name was Amelia, and he met her when he hit a dog. Dean acts pissed that Sam had a dog in the Impala, but when Sam changes the subject and asks about Purgatory, he answers him. Although it was bloody and terrible, Dean says that there was something about being there: it felt pure. After his admission, Dean remembers what happened after Benny saved him from another vampire: Benny revealed that he knew a way for a human to escape Purgatory. He promised to show Dean the way out as long as he let him hitch a ride. Dean agreed to work with him if they looked for Castiel first.

When Dean and Sam arrive in Centreville, they go to question Channing. She denies seeing Kevin and tells them that they're over. The boys leave, deciding to split up to look for Kevin. Once they're gone, Channing's eyes turn black and she cuts her roommate's throat. She uses the blood to call her superiors, telling them that although Kevin still hasn't shown up, Dean Winchester is back.

Meanwhile, Sam is waiting for Dean when he sees a woman walking a dog. He has a brief flashback to the night he brought a dog into an animal hospital after hitting it with the Impala. He remembers being frantic until the doctor, a young woman, arrived and made him leave the exam room. He's jarred out of his memories when Dean arrives, telling him that he didn't find anything on campus. Sam reveals what he's discovered in the campus security archives: Kevin was on campus two months ago and he used a computer. Sam was able to hack his username and get his IP address, which leads to a coffee shop in Fairfield, Iowa.

When they arrive in Fairfield, a barista at the coffee shop leads them to an abandoned church in town where Kevin has been seen coming and going. Nobody answers when they knock so they go inside, where Kevin immediately sprays them with cleaning solution from a large water gun. They confirm that they are not Leviathans and Kevin asks them where they've been before inviting them inside.

Kevin tells Sam and Dean that after being kidnapped, Crowley took him to a warehouse where he had another tablet. He demanded that Kevin translate the tablet, and Kevin told Crowley that it contained a spell to open the gates of Hell. Crowley went to Wisconsin, where the Hell Gate was supposed to appear, while Kevin performed the spell that would open the gate. However, it was a trick and the spell Kevin cast killed the two demons guarding him so that he could escape.

Kevin then reveals what was really on the tablet: information about demons, including how to kill them and how to close the gates of Hell forever. He hid it before going into hiding himself. Dean wants to find the tablet and translate it right away, and is surprised when Sam is not immediately on board with the plan. Sam later apologizes to Kevin for abandoning him.

Crowley and a possessed Channing show up at the abandoned church, and Crowley offers to trade Channing for Kevin, proving that she is still alive by letting Channing talk. Kevin pretends to agree, but lures the demons into a back room where he drops holy water on them, allowing him, Sam, and Dean to escape. In revenge, as the group leaves in the Impala, Crowley kills Channing while a horrified Kevin watches.

Later, Sam, Dean, and Kevin stop at a gas station where Kevin reveals he is not taking things well, overwhelmed by everything he has been through and the murder of his girlfriend. As they're talking, Benny calls Dean, but he pretends it's a wrong number and hangs up. Dean then gets out of the car and, once he's out of sight, calls him back. Benny is watching a funeral, and Dean suggests that they stay away from each other until they adjust, but tells Benny he can call him if he gets into trouble. Benny says that he agrees with Dean that Purgatory is "pure" and that he wishes he had appreciated it more, like Dean.

Characters

Definitions

Music

  • "Locomotive Breath" by Jethro Tull
(plays during "The Road So Far" recap of events)
  • "Man in the Wilderness" by Styx
(plays over the montage of Dean post-Purgatory)

Quotes

Dean: C'mon. let's do this.

Sam: I don't know whether to give you a hug or take a shower.
[Sam and Dean hug]
Sam: Dude, you're freakin' alive! I mean, what the hell happened?
Dean: Well, I guess standing too close to exploding Dick sends your ass straight to Purgatory.
Sam: You were in Purgatory? For the whole year?

Dean: Yeah, time flies when you're running for your life.
Sam: So Cas is dead? You saw him die?
Dean: I saw enough.
Dean: No. You, Sam. You quit?

Sam: Yeah. Yeah, I – you were gone... Dean. Cas was gone, Bobby was dead. I mean, Crowley even shipped off Kevin and Meg to parts unknown.
Dean: So you just turned tail on the family business?
Sam: Nothing says family quite like the whole family being dead.
Dean: I wasn't dead. In fact, I was knee-deep in God's armpit, killing monsters. Which, I thought, is what we actually do.
Sam: Yes, Dean, and as far as I knew, what we do is the thing that got every single member of my family killed. I had no one. No one. And for the first time in my life I was completely alone, and honestly I didn't exactly have a road map. So, yeah, I fixed up the Impala and I just drove.
Dean: After you looked for me. Did you look for me, Sam?
Sam: ...
Dean: Good. That's good. No, we always told each other not to look for each other. That's smart, good for you. Of course we always ignored that because of our deep abiding love for each other. But not this time, right Sammy?
Sam: I'm still the same guy.

Dean: Well bully for you! I'm not.
Kevin: [phone message] Three months since you ditched my ass. Haven't slept for more than four hours a night. It's all good in the hood. Uh, if you're still alive, eat me.
Dean: The rules are simple, Sam. You don't take a joint from a guy named Don and there's no dogs in the car!
Dean: It was bloody, messy. 31 flavors of bottom-dwelling nasties. Hell, most days felt like 360 degree combat. But there was something about being there... it felt pure.
Kevin: What the hell happened to you guys?
Dean: Cliff notes? I went to Purgatory, Sam hit a dog.
Dean: Were you able to read anything else off the tablet before you stashed it?

Kevin: Only the stuff about closing the Gates of Hell. Forever.
Dean: ...Come again?
Kevin: Banish all demons off the face of the Earth. Lock them away forever. That could be important, right?

Dean: Closing the gates of Hell forever? Yeah! Yeah, that could be important.
Amelia: You're gonna take the dog?

Sam: Look, I-I would. He's... not mine.
Amelia: He's not anybody's.
Sam: I-I spend a lot of the time on the road.
Amelia: Don't you think you're responsible?
Sam: Why do you think I brought him here?
Amelia: Roberta, could you hand this man his trophy on his way out, please? Maybe if you were such an upstanding guy you wouldn't have hit him in the first place?
Sam: Fine. I'll take him.

Amelia: There's my hero.
Demon: Dean Winchester, back from Purgatory.
Dean: Spanky the demon, yeah I heard about you. You're the one that uses too much teeth, right?
Crowley: Dean, you're looking... well let's just say Purgatory didn't do you any favors. Where's your angel?

Dean: Ask your mother.
Crowley: There's that grade-school zip. Missed it, I really did.

Crowley: Moose! Still with the pork chops. I admire that.
Crowley: Chin up, gentleman. I'm a professional.

Dean: This ain't over by a long shot, Crowley.

Crowley: Really, Dean, who writes your stuff? A marshmallow?
Channing: Kevin... what's going on?
Kevin: There is a demon in you and you're going to your safety school.
Sam: Kevin? How you holding up?

Kevin: Awesome. The king of Hell just snapped my girlfriend's neck. How about you?

Dean: All right, listen to me. I'm sorry about your girlfriend, okay? I am. But the sooner you get this, the better. You're in it now, whether you like it or not. That means you do what you got to do. I'm hitting the head.
Benny: I think you had it right, bud.

Dean: What's that?

Benny: Purgatory was pure. I'm kind of wishin' I had appreciated it more. You know? Like you.

Trivia & References

The episode title is a reference to the book We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and later made into a a movie. The book is based around a series of letters from a woman to her husband, about her concerns about their son Kevin who eventually commits mass murder at his high school.
Sam: I guess something happened to me this year too. I don't hunt anymore.

Dean: Yeah, and Sasha Grey's gone legit.
Sam: Huh?
Dean: What?
Sam: Nothing... she did a Soderbergh film...

Sasha Grey is famous hardcore porn star. Her first non-porn feature was The Girlfriend Experience by renowned director Steven Soderbergh in 2009.
The scene in which Dean stands transfixed in front of a vending machine, and two boys run past pretending to shoot each other, is a reference to the final scenes in the movie The Hurt Locker, where a bomb disposal expert finds it hard to adjust to civilian life after coming home from Iraq. He finally admits to his family that, "There is only one thing I love" and returns to the adrenaline charged life on the front lines.
Dean: So what, you dropped your peanut butter in her chocolate?
A reference to the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercials of the '70s and '80s.
Kevin: What the hell happened to you guys?

Dean: Cliff notes? I went to Purgatory, Sam hit a dog.

Cliff notes is a series of study guides presenting information in bitesize chunks.
Sam: You know, it gets better.

Kevin: You know I'm not gay, right?

This is a reference to the campaign in support of LGBT Youth "It Gets Better." The campaign was created in response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school in September 2010.

Minutiae

This is the first episode to be written by Jeremy Carver since 5.18 Point of No Return. Jeremy left Supernatural at the end of season 5 to write and produced the U.S. version of Being Human with his wife Anna Fricke. It was announced on April 4, 2012 that Jeremy would return to Supernatural as co-showrunner with Robert Singer, to replace Sera Gamble who left Supernatural to develop her own series.
This was the 150th episode of Supernatural to air. However it was the 151st episode to shoot, as episode 3 for the season, again directed by Jensen, was shot first for the season.
Aside from 1.01 Pilot, this is the first premiere episode not to feature Bobby Singer.
When Dean is releasing Benny's soul from his body onto Benny's bones he speaks the words: Anima. Corpori. Fuerit corpus totem resurgent. Which translates as "Soul. Body. Whole body shall be raised."
Ty Olsson, who plays Benny, previously played the vampire bartender Eli in 2.03 Bloodlust
A Winchester demonstrating that he is not supernatural using holy water, silver, etc... was also seen in 4.01 Lazarus Rising when Dean sees Bobby after returning from Hell and in 6.01 Exile on Main St. when a soulless Sam reunites with Dean.
This is the sixth time we have seen the Winchesters hug. For a continuing tally see Hugs
Although unnamed in the episode the dog will be called Riot.
On the fake social media site — BFF Link — Sam hacks into Kevin's profile and Supernatural production co-ordinator Jason Fischer has left a comment on his page. On Channing's page, comments have been left by crewmembers Tara Larsen, Suzie Schultz, and Natalie Van Hest.
Sam and Dean stay at the Palm Motel.
The first Dean/Benny fic appeared within hours of the episode airing. Fandom dubbed the pairing Denny.
In 7.23 Survival Of The Fittest when Crowley has two demons kidnap Kevin, his hair is long. While in Kevin's flashback of the seemingly first minutes of his abduction during 8.01 We Need To Talk About Kevin his hair is short, just like in the rest of the episode. Crowley seems to have a thing for makeovers, as Meg's hair color changes in 8.17 Goodbye Stranger. In reality, the hair changes were due to changes by the actors. Osric was not expecting to return in season 8, and Rachel Miner was unable to dye her hair due to illness.
Deleted scenes: There were 2 deleted scenes from this episode included on the Season 8 DVD and Blu-ray:
  • The first is a short clip of Sam watching Amelia operate on Riot through a window in the veterinary hospital. Read the transcript here.
  • The second takes place outside the abandoned church that the Winchesters and Kevin are inside of. Crowley, two demons, and Channing (also possessed), discuss their plan to extract Kevin and the tablet from inside the church. The demons turn to head inside, but Crowley refuses to go inside with them, allowing them to do the dirty work. Read the transcript here.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

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