9.12 Sharp Teeth
Title | Sharp Teeth |
Episode # | Season 9, Episode 12 |
First aired | January 28, 2014 |
Directed by | John Showalter |
Written by | Adam Glass |
On IMDB | Sharp Teeth |
Outline | Sam and Dean locate Garth after months of him being gone only to find out he's a werewolf and part of an apparently human-friendly pack. |
Monster | Werewolves |
Timeline | Six months after 8.19 Taxi Driver & Two weeks since 9.10 Road Trip |
Location(s) | Grantsburg, Wisconsin |
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Synopsis
In Wisconsin, at night, a farmer shoots at a person who is in his herd of cows. The farmer pursues him through the woods, until the man runs onto a road and is hit by a car.
Having picked up a report on the police alerts, Sam visits a hospital and finds Dean also has picked up the same alert, and is at the bedside of Garth. Dean is about to inject Garth with adrenaline to wake him up, but Sam does the job with a slap to Garth's face. Garth says he was on a hunt, but as the boys push for more information, Garth seems to become very ill and runs to the bathroom.
While Garth is indisposed, the brothers briefly fill each other in on what has been happening - Sam tells Dean about Castiel getting rid of Gadreel's grace that was inside him, and Dean tells Sam about getting the Mark of Cain. They then realise that there is no noise in the bathroom and investigate to find Garth has absconded.
While Dean goes to check the hospital security tapes, Sam visits the farmer, who tells him a series of animals have recently been killed and their organs taken. Dean finds pictures of Garth getting into a car on the security tape, but lies to Sam about it. However he runs into Sam as he is on the phone and Sam calls him out on the lie. Dean insists they shouldn't work together, and Sam agrees to move on after this job.
Tracking the owner of the car, Sam and Dean find Garth in an apartment. A woman werewolf - Bess Myers attacks them, and Garth reveals that not only is she his wife, but he is a werewolf as well! Garth describes how he was bitten by a werewolf while on a hunt six months previously. He was going to kill himself when Bess found him. She took him into her pack, which is led by her father. Bess herself was born a werewolf. Garth tells the Winchesters that the pack only eats animal organs, and doesn't attack humans. Dean in particular is doubtful, but agrees to visit the pack and see for himself.
Dean is greeted by Bess' stepmother, Joy at a house where he finds Garth playing piano for the pack, which is singing a Christian hymn, led by Garth is frustrated by Reverend Jim Myers - Bess' father. Over a lunch of raw meat - although Dean gets cooked steak and pie - the Reverend explains that they are peaceful. Dean notices they all where a silver bullet around their neck, and Bess says its to remind them of their vulnerability. After lunch Kevin is upset that Dean is still sceptical as to the packs benign ways, and also saddened to hear about Kevin's death.
Sam meanwhile visits the local sheriff, Russ, who assures him that the Reverend's congregation are pillars of the community. That night he calls Sam and dean to the site of a deer slaying. However, it is a ruse and Russ, who is a werewolf, attacks them and in the fight is killed. On examining the body, Sam and Dean find him wearing a bullet with "Ragnarok" inscribed on it. Dean remembers that this is part of the apocalyptic legends of Norse mythology.
Sam goes to Garth's apartment, and find signs of a struggle, and calls Dean to tell him Bess and Garth are missing. Sam is then overpowered and taken captive.
At the pack's church, Dean finds a book about Ragnorak, but reverend Jim arrives to explain that it while it was linked to a cult called the Maw of Fenris that believed in werewolf domination over humanity, his pack no longer subscribed to these beliefs. When Dean tells him about Russ' and the inscribed bullet, and that Garth and Bess are missing, the Reverend realises who may be behind it.
Sam wakes up in a barn Garth and Bess are held by Joy Myers, Russ and Jobah. Joy reveals that they are part of the The Maw of Fenris, a cult dedicated to bringing about Ragnarok. Joy plans to murder Garth and Bess and frame Sam and Dean to turn the pack against humanity. Garth unsuccessfully pleads for Bess' life and struggles against his restraints to no avail. However, at the last minute, Dean breaks in, having killed Russ and kills Jobah and Joy.
Afterwards, Garth offers to return with Sam and Dean and use his werewolf powers to aid in hunting, as he feels responsible for Kevin's death. Dean tells Garth to remain with the people he now considers family. Dean then invites a surprised Garth to give him a hug which he happily does.
Dean drives Sam back to his car, but as Sam is about to leave, Dean apologizes for how he behaved when he left Sam two weeks previously. Sam says that he feels he can't trust Dean, and that the way they each see their relationship has changed radically. Dean suggests that if they get back to hunting, things will get better. Sam agrees, but argues that being family doesn't make things automatically better - in fact its at the root of their problems. So he agrees to return as Dean's hunting partner, leaving their relationship as brothers unresolved.
Characters
Definitions
Music
- "Bringing in the Sheaves"
- (sung during Reverend Jim's choir practice)
Quotes
Dean: No, you just go all Wolverine on cattle.
Sam: You mean the night you split?
Dean: Fair enough. I was messed up, man. Kevin was dead, and I…I don't know what I was.
Sam: Okay.
Dean: Hell, maybe I still don't. But uh, I know I took a piece of you in the process, and for that… somebody changed the playbook, man, you know? It’s like what’s right is wrong and what’s wrong is more wrong... I just know that when... when we rode together…
Sam: We split the crappiness.
Dean: Yeah... so...
Sam: Okay.
Dean: Okay.
Sam: But something’s broken here, Dean...
Dean: I am not saying it's not. I'm thinking we need to put a couple of "W"s on the board and we get past all this.
Sam: I don't think so. No, I wish but… we don’t see things the same way anymore, our roles in this whole thing. Back in that church, talking me out of boarding up Hell? Or tricking me into letting Gadreel possess me? I can’t trust you. Not the way I thought I could. Not the way I should be able to.
Dean: Okay, look. Whatever happened, we are family. OK?
Sam: You say that like it’s some sort of cure-all, like it can change the fact that everything that has ever gone wrong between us has been because we’re family.
Dean: So what -- we're not family now?
Trivia & References
- Ichabod Crane is a character in Washington Irving's 1820 story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, who is described as a school teacher who is very thin. This shoutout is a particular reference to the Fox TV series Sleepy Hollow. Orlando Jones, one of the stars of the series, often live-tweets during Supernatural and he and Supernatural writer Robbie Thompson have talked about writing a crossover series called SuperSleepy.
Sam: Actually, yeah. Turns out he left some grace in me before he bolted.
Dean: You know how wrong that sounds, right?
Sam: Wouldn't worry about it, Cas took care of it.
Dean: I've been gone for two weeks and it feels like an episode of Teen Mom!
- Teen Mom was a reality TV series which followed teenaged mothers.
Dean: It's a gift from Cain.
Sam: Like the wrestler dude?
Dean: No, that would be awesome.
- The X-Files was a TV series about the investigation of the paranormal.
- "Drinking the Kool Aid" has become a phrase meaning to be brainwashed, particularly in relation to religion and cults. It refers to the 1978 death of 918 followersof the Reverend Jim Jones in Guyana. The congregation was convinced, and sometimes forced, to kill themselves by drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.
- "The Powers That Be" is the name of a TV show in which Eve Gordon, who plays the Reverend's wife Joy Myers, had a major role.
- Sheriff Andy Taylor was the small town sheriff played by Andy Griffith in the eponymously titled The Andy Griffith Show.
Minutiae
Peter Benson who plays Sheriff Pat previously played police officer Walter Kelly in 1.10 Asylum.