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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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 is asks how it feels to be 14. 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 the 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 the 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

• Sam Winchester
• Dean Winchester
• Tina
• Hansel
• Katja

Definitions

• Alcohol
• Curse
• Dean's Bedroom
• Hex Bag
• Impala
• Incredible Hulk
• Mark of Cain
• Men of Letters Bunker
• Sammy
• 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

Bum: Look we all know whats going here, okay.

Dean: Don't say it.
Bum: Aliens.
Dean: He said it.
Sam: Yeah, he did.

Bum: Dude was abducted believe me I know. May 2003 those suckers they grabbed me, and they probed me everywhere. I'm talking everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

Dean: How we looking?

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-

Sam: Don't.

Tina: You know before, I thought you were just another drunk.
Dean: I prefer functional alcoholic.

Dean: Really Sam, now? I got no grass on the infield and a girl's gonna to die. Sorry if I'm not in a chatty mood, look you wanted me back in the game, I'm back in the damn game. Come on.

Dean: What?

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.

Dean: Yeah, which sucks. Again.

Dean: Some good news though, virgin liver. So, what do you say when we're done doing our hero thing, we take it out for a test drive?

Sam: Yeah sure. I mean you can drink again in what like, seven years?

Dean: That's not funny.

Dean: Okay, we get to barbecue a celebrity, cool.

Dean: Help? What's in it for you?
Hansel: Because if you're going to fry that candy-coated bitch, I want in.

Tina: That was crazy. Like psycho crazy, and you do this all the time?

Dean: All the freakin' time.

Sam: Not all the time.

Dean: I'm back baby.

Trivia & References

About a Boy is the title of a coming of age novel, which was later adapted into a film and TV series. The title of the novel was also a reference to the Nirvana song "About a Girl."

Tina: JP wasn't that bad.

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.

Tina: Stay calm? I'm a friggin' tween, and you look like some One Direction reject, and we're in some freaky serial killer basement, I can't-

One Direction is a famous Irish/English boy band formed during the 2010 series of The X-Factor.

Sam: How?

Dean: No clue, some Scarface looking dude, bright light. Next thing I know, I wake up looking like Bieber.

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.

Dean: Okay. We still got some of that witch killing crap in the trunk?

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.

Sam: Dean I'm way too big to fit in that.

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.

Sam: Hansel, and then and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel, like the fable? Like Brothers Grimm?

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.

Katja: In the olden days, if a child went missing... the young died all the time. Now though with all your AMBER Alerts and your milk cartons, a person fillets one rugrat and people get so angry.

Dean: Yeah, I blame Obama.

An AMBER Alert is 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.

Dean: And then Kentucky fry them.

Kentucky Fry is a reference to the famous chicken fast food chain now known as KFC.

Sam: Look, man do I wish the Mark was gone? Yes of course, absolutely I do. But I wanted you back, and here you are and you didn't Hulk out, I'll take the win.

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.

Minutiae

Filming Locations: Map of known filming locations

At the end of the episode Dean turns on the radio, only to discover Shake It Off by Taylor Swift is playing. The Hillywood Show on YouTube did a parody of Supernatural using Swift's Shake It Off by changing the lyrics to make it Supernatural oriented. The parody is highly praised by the cast of Supernatural, many of whom are featured in the video. Watch it on Youtube here.

During VegasCon in 2015, Jared explained of the Taylor Swift ending to this episode, "We got a call like two months later. Like, hey, we're shooting some additional scenes for Serge's episode." When they found out it was going to be Dean as an adult jamming out to the song, Jared and Jensen were both like, "Whoa, whoa whoa. That's not gonna happen." Jared goes on to relate how Jensen tried to play the scene differently, pretending to like the music then saying "just kidding" and switching it off. Jensen says he finally "gave them one" take because, "Serge, the director, was begging me. 'Please, just give me one the way that they wanted.' So I was like, "I'm gonna give you one, but it's gonna be really bad. And, is that the one they used? I didn't see the end of it. Of course it's the one they used."

Live tweets from the cast and crew during the episode.

Nels Lennarson, who played the Bartender, previously played Walt in 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon.

Mark Acheson, who played Hansel, previously played the Tooth Fairy in 5.06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future.

Katja marks only the third witch to die at the hands of a Winchester in the entire series' run.

Sides, Scripts & Transcripts

• 10.12 About a Boy (transcript)

Promotion

• Audio interview with Dylan Everett and Madeline Arthur with After Buzz TV
• Synopsis
• Casting News by Variety
• Promo Stills
• Promo
• Sneak Peek