1.15 The Benders
Contents
Summary
Dean and Sam are investigating some mysterious disappearances when Sam himself goes missing, kidnapped from a parking lot in the same manner as the other victims. Dean ends up joining up with a local police officer, Deputy Kathleen Hudak, whose own brother went mysteriously missing years ago. Though she discovers Dean's true identity along with his damaging police record (1.06), she agrees to continue the search for "cousin" Sam in hopes that she will also discover what happened to her own brother. Dean and Kathleen learn that the perpetrators are not paranormal at all, but instead a backwoods hillbilly family that hunts, kills, and presumably eats human prey for sport. Both Dean and Kathleen are captured before Sam, who has been locked in a steel cage for the duration, is able to get the upperhand on the cannibalistic Benders and free the other two. Kathleen, upon learning the fate of her brother, enacts her revenge by shooting Pa Bender in the head as he laughs in her face. She allows Sam and Dean to flee the scene with her gratitude before police backup arrives.
Production
- First aired: February 14, 2006
- Directed by: Peter Ellis
- Written by: John Shiban
- Filming Location(s):
Trivia
- In the scene where Dean enters the Benders' barn to find Sam and Kathleen, the original script had Dean humming the "Dueling Banjos" theme from 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.
Quotes
Pad of Definitions
References
Mrs. McKay: Tell the officers what you were watching on TV.
Evan: Godzilla Vs. Mothra.
Dean: That’s my favorite Godzilla movie! It’s so much better than the original, huh?
Evan: Totally.
Dean: Yeah. [nodding towards Sam] He likes the remake.
Evan: Yuck!
Kathleen: These traffic cams take an image every three seconds, as part of the Amber Alert program.
- "In the United States and Canada, an AMBER Alert is a notification to the general public, by various media outlets, of a confirmed child abduction." The alert goes out through a large number of outlets, including television, radio, and email, and usually includes a description of the abductor and his/her car and license plate.
Jenkins: But I’m waitin’.
Sam: Waitin’ for what?
Jenkins:' Ned Beatty time, man.
- Ned Beatty is an award-winning actor whose debut role was in the famous 1972 horror movie Deliverance, where he played a suburban man viciously raped by psychotic mountain men. (This particular scene is referenced by Dean in 1.01 Pilot when he is being interrogated by the police).
Kathleen: It says here your badge was stolen. And there’s a picture of you. [she turns the computer to reveal a heavy-set African American man]
Dean: I lost some weight. [laughs nervously] And I got that Michael Jackson skin disease...
- One of the numerous controversies that have surrounded singer/performer Michael Jackson throughout his life has been his changing physical appearance. One of these changes was a drastic whitening of his skin, which Jackson has attributed to the skin disease vitiligo but has also been rumored to be the result of bleaching creams.
Others...
- This episode often draws from The X-Files episode "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.
