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|outline= [[Sam]] is abducted by a family of cannibalistic hillbillies while he and [[Dean]] are investigating several decades' worth of missing people.
|motw= [[Pa Bender|Pa]], [[Missy Bender|Missy]], [[Jared and Lee Bender]]
|location= [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibbing%2C_Minnesota Hibbing, Minnesota]
|timeline=
|map=<googlemap lat="47.404856" lon="-92.944336" zoom="9" width="300" height="300" overview="yes" controls="small">
47.400256, -92.947045, Hibbing, MN, USA
</googlemap>
|prevep= 1.14 Nightmare
|nextep= 1.16 Shadow
}}
|Synopsis=
[[File:TheBendersPromoPoster.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Promotional poster for "The Benders."]]
[[Dean]] and [[Sam]] are investigating some mysterious disappearances in Hibbing, Minnesota. After interviewing a young boy who heard something when the last victim, [[Alvin Jenkins]], disappeared, Sam himself goes missing, -- kidnapped from a parking lot outside a bar in the same manner as the other victims.
Dean reports his disappearance to the local sheriff’s office, pretending to be a police officer looking for his cousin. Inside a barn, Sam is being held captive in a cage, as is [[Alvin Jenkins]]. Two hooded figures enter and leave food, and Sam is astonished to find their captors are not supernatural beings, but people.
[[Deputy Kathleen Hudak]] begins helping Dean, and they identify a truck making a noise similar to what the witness reported. However, Kathleen discovers Dean's true identity along with his damaging [[Dean Winchester#Police records|police record]] ([[1.06]]), but motivated by the disappearance of her brother years ago, she agrees to continue the search for "cousin" Sam in hopes that she will also discover what happened to her own brother.
While Sam is trying to escape, the door on Jenkin’s cage opens, and against Sam’s warning he leaves the cage. Once outside, Jenkins is pursued, hunted, by two men who eventually kill him. Kathleen and Dean follow the truck to where it enters a property, but as they prepare to follow on foot, Kathleen handcuffs Dean to the sheriff’s car.
When [[Deputy Kathleen Hudak|Kathleen]] approaches the house, the door is answered by a young girl, [[Missy Bender]], who distracts Kathleen her while her father, [[Pa Bender]] , knocks her out. Dean manages to escape from his restraints just before two other members of the Bender family approach. Dean finds Sam and Kathleen in the barn and he sadly confirms for Kathleen that he has seen her brother’s car near the house -- evidence that the Benders were responsible for his probable murder. Dean is unable to open the cages and goes to the house to search for a key. He finds grisly and gruesome human remains decorating the house. Missy Bender surprises him and stabs him, allowing the rest of her family to attack and overpower him.
Pa Bender boasts to Dean manages to escape from that his restraints just before two other members of the Bender family approach. Dean finds Sam and Kathleen in the barn has been hunting and he sadly confirms for Kathleen that he has seen her brother’s car near the house, evidence that the Benders were responsible killing humans for his probable murdergenerations. He threatens Dean is unable with torture to open find out if other police are on the cagesway, and goes to then says Dean must choose whether Sam or Kathleen will be the house to search prey for a way to open themthe next hunt. He finds grisly Dean chooses Sam, but then Pa instructs his son [[Jared and gruesome human remains decorating the house. Missy Lee Bender surprises him |Lee]] to go and stabs him, allowing the rest of her family to attack shoot both Sam and overpower himKathleen.
|Characters=
|Pad_of_Definitions=
* [[Aliases]]
* [[Costumes & Disguises]]
* [[Dean's Amulet]]
* [[Dean's Police Record]]
* [[Deliverance]]
* [[Green Cooler]]
* [[Impala]]
* [[John's Journal]]
* [[Phantom Attacker]]
* [[Phantom Gassers]]
* [[Photo Album]]
* [[Sam's Police Record]]
* [[Sammy]]
* [[Spring Heeled -heeled Jack]]* [[Table of Death]]* [[Tongues]]* [[Unconscious]]* [[The X-Files]]
|Music=
* "Rocky Mountain Way" by Joe Walsh
:''(plays at Kugel's Keg bar, with Dean playing darts and Sam doing research)''
* "Sweet and Low Down" by George Gershwin
:''(plays while Pa Bender is in the kitchen)''
'''Netflix'''
* "Whiskey and Guns" by Jim Moncur (AudioSparx)
:''(plays at Kugel's Kec bar, with Dean playing dart and Sam doing research)''
* "Sweet and Low Down" by George Gershwin
:''(plays while Pa Bender is in the kitchen)''
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
'''Dean:''' Don’t phantom attackers usually snatch people from their beds? Jenkins was taken from a parking lot.<br>
'''Sam:''' Well, there are all kinds. You know, Springhill Spring heeled Jacks, phantom gassers. They take people anywhere, anytime. Look, Dean, I don’t know if this is our kind of gig either.<br>
'''Dean:''' Yeah, you’re right, we should ask around more tomorrow.
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
'''Pa Bender:''' I’ve hunted all my life. Just like my father, his before him. I’ve hunted deer and bear—I even got a cougar once. Oh boy. But the best hunt is human. Oh, there’s nothin’ like it. Holdin’ their life in your hands. Seein’ the fear in their eyes just before they go dark. Makes you feel powerful alive.<br>
'''Dean:''' You’re a sick puppy.<br>
'''Pa Bender:''' We give ‘em a weapon. Give ‘em a fightin’ chance. It’s kind of like our tradition passed down, father to son. Of course'Course, only one or two a year. Never enough to bring the law down, we . We never been that sloppy.<br>'''Dean:''' Yeah, well, don't sell yourself short. You're plenty sloppy.}}{{TriviaQuote |Text='''Pa Bender:''' Tell me... any of the cops gonna come lookin' for you?<br>'''Dean:''' Oh, eat me. No, no, no, wait -- you actually might.
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
There was a family called [http://www.prairieghosts.com/bender.html The "Bloody" Benders] in Kansas in the 1870s, who killed over a dozen people. They were finally exposed by a man looking for his missing brother. [http://mentalfloss.com/article/53672/bloody-benders-americas-first-serial-killers More on the Bloddy Bloody Benders here.]
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
This episode has similar themes to the ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "[http://www.tv.com/the-x-files/home/episode/565/summary.html Home]," which features a secluded family that has a long tradition of inbreeding and violence toward anyone who comes close to its members. Both episodes play on the same themes: a strong (and perverted) sense of family and a vision of horror that isn't brought by demons or creatures, but humans. It is often said to be the scariest and most disturbing ''X-Files'' episode.
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
'''Deputy Hudak:''' Alright. What’s his name?<br>
'''Dean:''' Winchester. Sam Winchester.<br>
'''Deputy Hudak:''' Like the rifle?<br>
'''Dean:''' Like the rifle.
:''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_rifle Winchester rifle] is the blanket term for any lever-action repeating rifles produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.''
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
'''Alvin Jenkins:''' But I’m waitin’.<br>
'''Sam:''' Waitin’ for what?<br>
'''Alvin Jenkins:'''' Ned Beatty time, man.
:''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Beatty Ned Beatty] is an award-winning actor whose debut role was in the famous 1972 horror movie ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliverance Deliverance]'', where he played a suburban man viciously raped by psychotic mountain men. See [[Deliverance]] for other episodes which have quotes from this movie.''
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
'''Alvin Jenkins:''' They're just a bunch of psycho hillbilly rednecks... lookin' for love in all the wrong places.
:''"Looking for Love" is a song from the album of the same name by country singer [http://www.johnnyleefanclub.com/ Johnny Lee.]'':This is also a second reference to ''Deliverance'', which also featured "psycho hillbilly rednecks" who sexually assaulted the protagonist.''
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
In the scene where [[Dean]] enters the Benders' barn to find [[Sam]] and Kathleen, the original script had Dean humming the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dueling_Banjos "Dueling Banjos"] theme from ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliverance Deliverance]'', a horror film that shares some story elements with this episode (most notably the antagonists being murderous backwoods psychos). However, possibly because they couldn't get the rights to the music, in the episode itself the humming is cut out, though you can still see Dean's mouth moving.
}}
|Minutiae=
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1200569/ Shawn Reis] who played Lee Bender, previously played the Tall Deputy in [[1.12 Faith]].}}{{TriviaQuote |Text=[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2145177/ Alexia Fast] who played Missy Bender also played [[Emma]] in [[7.13 The Slice Girls]].}}{{TriviaQuote |Text=This is one of only two five episodes to date where the [[monsters]] are human, the other others being [[4.11 Family Remains]], [[11.08 Just My Imagination]], [[13.11 Breakdown]] and [[9.15 thinman]].
}}
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
{{TriviaQuote |Text=
According to police computer file Sam was born May 2, 1983, in [[Lawrence, Kansas]]. He is 6’4”, 180-190 lbs., brown hair, brown eyes. [[Dean]] was born January 24, 1979 and "died" March 7, 2006.
}}
|Promotion=
}}
==Episode Meta==
*[[SPN Heavy Meta]] Season One Meta Index
*Bond, Silvia. 2007. A Case of the Benders: "The Benders" Season 1, Episode 15. ''Pink Raygun'', September 19; [https://web.archive.org/web/20120326112136/http://www.pinkraygun.com/2007/09/19/supernatural-the-benders/ archive link]
[[Category:Canon|01]][[Category:Episodes|01]][[Category:Season 1]]
