8.12 As Time Goes By
Title | As Time Goes By |
Episode # | Season 8, Episode 12 |
First aired | January 30, 2013 |
Directed by | Serge Ladouceur |
Written by | Adam Glass |
On IMDB | As Time Goes By |
Outline | Sam and Dean get's a visit from the past from their grandfather who is being chased by a powerful demon. They have to stop her from getting access to the largest collection of supernatural knowledge in the world. |
Monster | Abaddon |
Timeline | |
Location(s) | Normal, Illinois Lebanon, Kansas |
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Contents
Synopsis
Normal Illinois, 1958 Late at night, young John Winchester sleeps in his bed. His dad comes in and wakes him and says goodbye as he leaves for work. John asks about pin Henry is wearing. It is an Aquarian star. Henry tells him we will explain all about it one day.
A secret knock opens the door with a mark that matches the pin Henry is wearing. Inside, Henry meets Josie Sands. Josie is called into another room by a hooded man and then fighting, screaming and commotion ensues behind the door. Henry runs in and a man with bleeding eyes hands him a box and tells him not to let Abaddon get it. Abaddon has possessed Josie Sands. She kills the remaining men in the room, as Henry runs out. Henry hides and starts a spell which propels him into Sam and Dean’s hotel room. He falls out of their closet and asks for John.
Sam and Dean throw him against the wall questioning him. Since John isn’t there, Henry tries to leave. Sam and Dean attempt to handcuff him but Henry turns it on them and he escapes. Henry breaks into the Impala but Dean and Sam stop him before he had time to hotwire her and drive away. In the hotel room Dean and Sam start to interrogate him. Abaddon breaks through the closet door. Dean stabs her with the demon blade but it doesn’t kill her. Dean, Sam and Henry jump into the impala and drive away. The hotel manager tries to chase them own, but Abaddon reads his mind and then kills him. Roadside, Henry tells Sam and Dean about his time travel. Dean and Sam tell Henry John is dead. Henry confesses he is John’s father.
In a diner and stepped away from Henry, Dean and Sam hash out what they know. Henry’s knowledge proves his is who he says. He supposedly abandoned John and his mother as a child, but perhaps it was an accident. He traveled to 2013 and got stuck.
Henry assumes his grandsons are Men of Letters and explains who they are. Sam tells Henry they and John are/were hunters. Henry is appalled. “Hunters are apes.” Sam and Dean are legacies. Henry takes them to the building the Men of Letters were in the night he traveled. Henry’s father and grandfather were also Men of Letters. They are a family of preceptors. It is their responsibility to chronicle all things Supernatural. They share that knowledge with a few elite hunters. The three enter the building which in present day has become a comic shop.
Astro Comics. Henry thinks Abaddon is after the box he was given by the Men of Letters, but he has no idea what the box is. What happened the night Henry traveled through time as been covered up as a “fire.” All 4 of the men from the club there are dead. The three Winchesters head to their gravesite. One of the tombstones reads Albert Magnus – the alias the Men of letters would use incognito. The Aquarian Star is found on all of the tombstones except one, Larry Ganem.
Abaddon goes to the comic shop and finds out where the Winchesters headed next. Back in the graveyard, the boys have dug up Larry’s grave. The body is not his. Doing research, the boys find Larry is living in Labanon, Kansas with the alias of the body that was in his grave (Tom Carey). Also, Abaddon is a “knight of hell.” Knights of Hell are handpicked by Lucifer. They are the first fallen and first born demons. They are supposed to have all been killed by Archangels, so Abaddon may be the last of their kind. Henry tells Sam and Dean about John, and figures out John thinks he deserted him. Dean gets heated and walks out. That night, Henry sneaks away while Sam and Dean sleep. Henry breaks into a local Hoodoo shop, as well as the Impala trunk to get what he needs for the spell. When Sam and Dean are looking for him, they discover that the girl for the comic shop has been murdered. Sam heads to Larry’s home.
Larry tells Sam that the box Henry is carrying is the key to the Men Of Letters headquarters. Every scroll, spell and piece of knowledge the Men of Letters had is there. Larry gives Sam the coordinates to it. It is the safest place on earth, impervious to any entry without the key and protected from all evil. Abaddon is possessing Larry’s wife. She knocks Sam out and kills Larry. Dean finds Henry in the Hoodoo store starting the spell and they argue. Abaddon calls Dean. She wants to trade Henry and the key for Sam’s life. Henry refuses to stop the spell, so Dean knocks him out and takes him to Abaddon. She has Sam, and they make the trade, but Abaddon won’t let them leave. She wounds Henry, but he shoots her in the head with a devils trapped carved bullet. She’s not dead, but she is trapped in the head of the body. Henry is dying. He makes up with Sam and Dean. He apologizes and gives them the box. They bury him with the rest of the Men of Letters.
The crest of the Men of Letters is the Aquarian Star, representing great magic and power. They say it stood at the gates of Atlantis itself.
Characters
- Sam Winchester
- Dean Winchester
- John Winchester
- Henry Winchester
- Abaddon
- Josie Sands
- Larry Ganem
- Garth
- Cupid
Definitions
- Winchester Family Tree
- Soul
- Men of Letters
- Key to the Bunker
- Ruby's Knife
- Devil's Trap
- John's Journal
- Knights of Hell
- Aquarian Star
- Blood Spell
- Canon Discrepancies
- Demonology
- Time Travel
- Photo Album
Music
- (plays on young John Winchester's music box, and whistled by Henry Winchester)
- "The Future Is Strange" by Watt Son
- (plays from a car as Henry escapes the motel room)
- "Surf's Up America" by Bodega Girls feat. Anthony Rossomando
- (plays when Sam, Dean and Henry enter Atomic Comics)
Quotes
Trivia & References
In Star Wars, Yoda is a powerful Jedi master who trains other Jedi.
Minutiae
Sides, Scripts & Transcripts
Promotion
- Episode Title
- Episode and character spoilers by Zap2It
- Plot and casting spoilers by Zap2It
- Plot and casting spoilers and comments by Jensen and Jared on the episode by Huffington Post
- Jeremy Carver previews the episode with EW
- Jeremy Carver previews the episode with TVLine
- Official Synopsis
- Promo pics by tvovermind
- Promo Video
- Sneak Peek
- producers preview with Jeremy Carver
- Jared and Jensen talk about the episode with HuffPost
- Winchester Radio podcast for this episode and 8.12