प्लॉट

The renegade angel Anna escapes from her prison in heaven. She travels back in time to kill Sam and Dean's parents so that Sam is never born, and cannot be the vessel for Lucifer. Castiel sends Sam and Dean back to stop Anna.

Anna comes to Earth to kill Sam to avoid that Lucifer uses his vessel. However, Dean and Castiel protect Sam and Anna travels in time to kill John and Mary Winchester before they get married and conceive Sam. However Castiel sends Sam and Dean back in time to protect their parents. But Anna is very powerful and the Winchesters are helped by an unexpected angel.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The angels send Anna back in time to kill John and Mary Winchester before they can conceive Sam knowing that if Sam was never born then Lucifer won't be able to use him as his vessel. Castiel sends Sam and Dean back to 1978 so they can stop Anna, and the two brothers are reunited with their parents. Mary recognizes Dean as a hunter since he visited her in the past once before but tries to keep the truth from John.—CW Publicity

THEN

Dean met (and banged) Anna Milton, a fallen angel, a while back. In another episode, Dean went even farther back in time, to when John and Mary Winchester were young folks in love in Lawrence, Kansas. Dean met Mary and her father (his grandfather) just in time to witness Mary make a deal with the Yellow Eyed Demon to save John's life.

NOW

Warrant's "Cherry Pie" blasts as Dean (Jensen Ackles) sits in an opulent room, watching a stripper wearing horns (Daniela Dib) dance for him. "I take it all back...I love the devil," he says, as the woman leans down in front of him. As if that wasn't enough, then a stripper in an angel's getup (Juliana Semenova) appears and starts grinding on the devil. "Now that's what I call peace on Earth." Dean smiles broadly...then Anna (Julie McNiven) steps out from between them. The music stops and the strippers disappear.

Dean is understandably a bit embarrassed as Anna says, "So, this is what you dream about." Dean asks why she's gatecrashing his head, and she explains she can't find him. (Remember, Cas blocked the boys from angelic radar.) Dean tries to explain this, but at the mention of Cas's name, Anna stiffens. "Now there's a guy you can trust," she says sarcastically.

Dean is confused, and Anna explains Cas (Misha Collins), ever the good little soldier, turned her in. She's been in Heaven's prison.

"All the torture, twice the self-righteousness," she spits. She broke out and she doesn't have long.

"Meet me. 225 Industrial," she tells him. "And please, just hurry." With that, Dean snaps awake.

Elsewhere Anna waits in an empty warehouse, but realizes she's not alone. She calls out as the lights explode into sparks. Castiel appears. Anna is unpleasantly surprised the Winchesters don't trust her. Cas explains the boys do... but he doesn't. He knows that it's nearly impossible for any soul to break out of Heaven's prison, so if she's on Earth, it's because she's been sent to do someone's dirty work.

He apologizes to Anna for turning her in. She insists she escaped. "No one escapes," Cas repeats.

"All these centuries, and you're underestimating me now?" she asks.

"If you're not one of them, then what to do you want?" Cas asks her in return. She says she wants to help. That so? Then, he asks her, what is she doing carrying a knife? Anna produces a long blade from behind her back. Cas observes the blade can't kill angels. "It's not like this one." From his coat sleeve Cas produces a weapon which looks sleeker and nastier than the knife Anna has. She may not be working for Heaven, he says, but there's something she's not telling him.

Anna, after a pause, reveals her mission: "Sam Winchester has to die. I'm sorry, but we have no choice. He's Lucifer's vessel." He's the only vessel that matters. If Lucifer can't take Sam (Jared Padalecki), the plan short-circuits. Cas explains if Anna kills Sam, Satan will just restore him. Anna says that won't happen if she scatters Sam's cells across the universe.

"We'll find another way," Cas says. Anna bitterly brings up the crew's past failures: The Colt, the fruitless search for God.

"Is anything working? If you want to stop the Devil, this is how." Cas says the answer is still no because Sam is his friend.

Anna notices that Cas has changed. Cas tells her that in spite of all they've been through together, if she comes near Sam Winchester, he'll kill her. Anna suddenly vanishes.

We cut to a couple sitting in a Thunderbird listening to classic rock. The air crackles as Anna suddenly appears and collapses on the hood of the car, bleeding profusely from her nose and mouth. The couple quickly gets out and grabs her to help. On the outer wall of a building behind them is a massive billboard advertisement for the movie "Grease." As in, the original late-'70s classic. And it's fresh.

As Cas preps a locator spell back at the motel, Dean can't believe Anna has set herself against them. "So she's gone all Glenn Close, that's awesome." Cas doesn't get the reference. Sam asks if killing him would stop Satan. Cas, after a pause, says no. "She's, uh...Glenn Close." He casts the spell and finds Anna. The question isn't where she is, it's when. She's zapped herself back to 1978. The boys don't understand, and Cas explains Anna can't get to the Winchesters because he's protecting them. She's going after their parents instead. Dean orders Cas to send them back. Cas explains time travel is difficult even with the full powers of Heaven at his disposal, but now that he's cut off, the trick will substantially weaken him. And that's without two passengers along for the ride.

"So what, you're like a DeLorean with no plutonium?" Dean quips.

"I don't understand that reference." Cas says in frustration.

Dean insists -- it's their parents. The boys pack up some holy oil and other supplies. Cas blasts them back to a main street in Lawrence. Dean notices a new Pinto putter by -- yup, it's 1978. The time jump causes Castiel to collapse. He coughs up lots of blood. Dean and Sam pick him up. Sam heads off to locate John and Mary's residence while Dean checks Cas into the honeymoon suite of a hotel to recover.

Next stop: the Winchester mansion...er, cottage.

After they pull up and park, Sam gets out and strides purposefully toward his future parents door. Dean stops him, asking what they're going to tell them. "Um, the truth?" Sam offers.

"What, that their sons are back from the future to save them from an angel? Gone Terminator? I mean, c'mon, those movies haven't even come out yet," Dean says. He tells Sam to follow his lead.

Inside, Mary (Amy Gumenick) is setting the table and asking John (Matt Cohen) about work. He tells her it was "great," with a smile on his face. They embrace and look to all the world like the happiest couple alive. That's when the doorbell rings.

Mary goes to answer it and isn't too happy to see Dean. (Sam, meanwhile, looks like he's about to weep at the sight of her.) She tells him they shouldn't be here. She's not a hunter anymore and she has a normal life. John sneaks up behind her. Dean quickly introduces them as Mary's cousins. John seems delighted to see them and says Dean looks familiar. (In a previous episode, Dean persuaded John to purchase the Metallicar.)

John offers his hand to Sam who takes it with tears in his eyes and doesn't let go. John asks if he's OK. Sam recovers. Mary says they were just on their way out. John invites them in for a beer.

While they're sitting down, Sam stares at Mary sadly. John asks if he's sure they're OK. Sam tenderly tells Mary, "You're so beautiful." Dean covers for him, explaining he means it in a wholesome family kind of way. It's been so long since they've seen Mary. "See, she's the spitting image of our mom," Dean says.

John asks how they're related. Dean says they're distant cousins. Mary's dad was like a grandfather to them. Dean explains they're in town for business. John asks what they do. Sam says "plumbing" and Dean says "scrap metal." Mary lurches out of her seat and announces she has to get dinner going, but John insists they stay -- it would mean a lot to him since he hasn't met Mary's side of the family. Mary doesn't look happy about that. Before she can protest, the phone rings in the kitchen. John excuses himself to answer.

On the phone is John's boss, insinuating he wants to let John go, but John pleads with the man to keep his job, even on a part-time basis. The man relents and tells John to come down to the garage immediately so they can talk about it. John is grateful...but then we see who's really talking to him from the garage. It's Anna, imitating the boss's voice. She tells John not to keep her waiting.

In the living room, Mary tells Dean and Sam to leave, now. The memory of her last meeting with Dean (which ended with her parents being killed) scarred her. She just wants to keep her life as normal as possible. The boys tell her that she and John are in danger, something's coming for her -- an angel. Twice as strong, "and they're bigger dicks," Dean says. Mary can't believe it -- why would an angel want to kill them? Dean promises her he'll tell her all about it, but they have to leave now. Mary worries about what to tell John...and in that moment, Dean realizes he doesn't hear his daddy in the kitchen anymore. They head in and see he's written a note: "Back in 15. J."

John has headed down to the garage, which is dark when he enters. But when he flips on the light he finds his boss, Mr. Woodson, dead on the ground, his eyes burned out as if he's seen an angel in her true form. Anna appears and throws John across the garage with one hand. She looks slightly regretful and weakened, and as her eyes roll back in her head for a moment and her nose bleeds, John takes advantage of the opening and hits her in the head with a tire iron. She goes down for a moment, but when John turns, she's already behind him and sends him flying across the room again.

She wheels around to see Dean sneaking up behind her with a knife, and catches his attacking arm in one hand, grabbing him by the throat with the other. "Wish I could say it was nice to see you, Anna," Dean says. "You too, Dean," Anna replies quietly, and sends him flying through the window into the parking lot, knocking him out cold. Behind Anna, Mary picks up the blade and, spinning it with perfect form, squares off with Anna. She manages to cut the angel's hand before Anna knocks the blade away and throws Mary onto a car. "I'm sorry," Anna says sadly, as Mary crawls across the shattered windshield to the back and pulls herself up by a shelf full of tools. Anna walks up behind her and Mary spins around and impales Anna, right through the heart, with a tire iron. Anna spits up a bit of blood, then slowly pull the tire iron out of her torso and throws it to the ground as Mary looks on in shock.

"Sorry," Anna tells her. "It's not that easy to kill an angel."

"No, but you can distract them," Sam says, standing by a blood sigil on the wall. He puts his hand on the center and, pointing at Anna with the other, blasts her far away from them. John comes to and is completely shocked to see all of this.

John and Mary drive, with Dean and Sam in the back seat, as John freaks out. Monsters are real, and his sweet golden-haired missus fights them? (This is why Buffy can never get married.) He asks how long and, Mary answers softly, "All my life." Dean and Mary both try to explain they don't have a choice. John says, "Not another word, or so help me, I will turn this car around!"

Heckuva family vacation.

They drive out to an old house in Mary's family for years. Fully stocked to counteract demons, it has devil's traps painted on the floor, plenty of salt in the kitchen and all iron fixtures. Sam says all it'll do is tick Anna off, but Dean offers hope and unpacks their bag of supplies.

Sam grabs the holy oil and takes Mary into a room to show her how it works. John stands by Dean and asks how to make the blood sigil. Dean tries to tell John to help Sam do other things, but John is tired of being treated like he's useless, he can draw a sigil. Dean explains the sigil has to be drawn in human blood. Without a second thought, John picks up Dean's knife, slices open his hand and asks, "How big?" Dean smiles to himself and tells John he reminded him of his dad. John doesn't quite get how touching that is.

John draws the sigil. Sam comes up behind him and compliments his work. John asks how long he's known about demon hunting. Sam explains his dad raised him in it.

"Are you serious? Who the hell does that to a kid?" asks John Winchester. (The man who will do precisely that to, for, and with, his two kids. Who are standing in front of him. We're loving this episode.) John goes on to call Sam's dad (himself) an irresponsible bastard. "You know, you could have been killed!"

Sam replies, "I, uh...came kind of close."

"The number that must have done on your head," John says sympathetically. "Your father was supposed to protect you."

Sam says, "He was trying. He died trying. Believe me. I used to be mad at him, I used to, gosh, hate the guy. But now I get it. He was just doing the best he could. And he was just trying to keep it together in this impossible situation." Sam goes on to tell John the story of what will happen to Mary in the future, and says his dad would have gone crazy if he didn't do something. Sam also says his dad died before he had the chance to tell him he understands why he did what he did. He forgives him for what it did to him and Dean. "And just...I love him," Sam finishes. John is visibly affected.

In parts unknown, Anna stands alone in a leaf-strewn clearing but is soon joined by Uriel (Matt Ward) -- a younger version. Uriel chides Anna for calling him, saying they're under strict orders not to come down, much less take a vessel. Anna informs Uriel she's giving him the chance to kill the people who will kill him in the future. (That's a lie, of course -- she killed him.) Uriel appreciates the gesture saying, "Always happy to do some smiting."

Mary is prepping the holy oil traps, then tells Dean to explain what's going on. Dean tries to mumble something about it being complicated, but she pushes him. "It's kind of hard to believe," Dean says.

"OK...I'm walking out the door." She turns to leave. Dean stops her cold with: "I'm your son."

Dean informs her an angel -- a friendly one -- zapped him and Sam back from the year 2010 to save them. When Mary refuses to believe him, Dean tells her their names are Dean and Sam Winchester, named after her parents. When Dean got sick, she would make him tomato rice soup, because that's what her mom made her; than instead of a lullaby, she would sing him 'Hey Jude,' her favorite Beatles song. Mary starts crying at the realization she raised her kids to be hunters. Dean explains she didn't, because she was dead.

Dean tells her the story of her death in the nursery on Nov. 2, 1983. Dean tells her to remember that date and whatever she does, not to go in there. Sam enters the room and tells her it's not good enough. She should leave John as soon as this is over so the boys will never come to be. Dean agrees. "There's a big difference between dying, and never being born and trust me -- we're OK with that. I promise you that," Dean says. "Well, I'm not," Mary says. Sam softly explains to her she will never have the normal life she wants, that it's all going to go rotten, She will die and her children will be cursed.

Mary explains she can't leave John because it's too late -- she's already pregnant with Dean.

Before this can sink in, John enters the room in a panic. All the sigils he drew are gone. Mary checks the floor. The holy oil is also gone. The lights suddenly flicker and a deafening, high-pitched screech fills the room as Sam draws the angel-killing blade. Suddenly the windows blow inward, showering everyone inside with glass. Uriel has entered the building.

"Oh, come on," Dean says, ordering his parents to go. But Anna steps in and blocks the exit. "Well, here goes nothing." Dean moves to attack Uriel who throws him through to an adjacent room like a rag doll. John turns to pick up the blade, but Anna slowly lifts him up by the chin and with a palm-heel punch, sends him flying out of the window through the air, where he hits a structure in the field head first.

Sam moves to grab the blade but before he can get to it, Anna rips part of a beam out of the wall and impales Sam with it, twisting the implement for good measure. Sam spits up blood and collapses. Outside, John lays on the ground and is passing out ...but is suddenly flooded by a golden light. He looks up.

Sam is bleeding profusely from his gut and loses consciousness as Uriel holds Dean by the throat. Anna turns to kill Mary but before she makes her move, says, "I'm really sorry."

"ANNA," says a booming voice behind her, and Anna turns around to see John Winchester. Except it's not. "Michael!" Anna says in a surprised tone. The archangel reaches out and, with a touch, burns Anna to a crisp. Mary is doubly shocked. Uriel releases Dean and says, "Michael...I didn't know."

"Goodbye, Uriel," says Michael (Matt Cohen), and with a snap of his fingers, makes Uriel disappear.

A stammering Mary asks Michael what he's done to John. Michael calmly tells her John is fine. "Who..what are you?" Mary asks angrily. Michael puts his finger to his lips, telling her to hush, then touches her on the temple and makes her collapse.

"Well, I'd say that this conversation is long overdue, don't you?" Michael tells Dean, who insists Michael fix Sam. Only after they talk, says Michael.

Dean asks Michael how he got in his dad. Michael answers he told him he could save his wife, so John said yes. Dean says he supposes the forces of Heaven oversold him. Michael explains Dean is his true vessel, not his only one. "It's a bloodline," Michael explains, "stretching back to Cain and Abel. It's in your blood, your father's blood, your family's blood."

"Awesome," Dean whispers. "Six degrees of Heaven bacon." Dean asks what he wants with him. Michael can't believe he doesn't know the answer to that.

"I just want you to understand what you and I have to do," Michael says. Dean says he gets it -- he has beef with his brother Lucifer. Michael says he's wrong -- Lucifer defied Our Father and betrayed him, but he doesn't want the Apocalypse any more than Dean and Sam does.

Michael explains he raised his brother and took care of him and loved him, but he's going to kill Lucifer because it's right and he has to. Dean asks if it's because God says so. Michael says yes, from the beginning God knew this was how it was going to end. Michael says he's going to comply with God's wishes because he's a good son.

"Trust me pal, take it from someone who knows - -that is a dead-end street," Dean informs him. Michael asks what makes one unimportant little man think he knows better. Dean says he gets to choose what he does with his unimportant little life.

Michael informs him he's wrong. "You know how I know? Think of a million random acts of chance that let John and Mary be born. To meet. To fall in love. To have the two of you. Think of the million random choices that you make, and yet how each and every one of them brings you closer to your destiny. Do you know why that is? Because it's not random. It's not chance. It's a plan that is playing itself out perfectly. Free will is an illusion, Dean. That's why you're going to say yes," Michael says.

He adds Dean should buck up. Unlike his brothers, he won't leave Dean a drooling mess after he's done wearing him. As for John Winchester? He'll better than new -- in fact, he's going to do John and Mary a favor and scrub their minds so they don't remember Dean or Michael or any of this.

Dean angrily points out that means Mary's going to walk right into that nursery. "Obviously," Michael says. "She knew that was going to play out one way or another." Michael smiles and says, "You can't fight city hall."

He bends over Sam and, with a touch, restores him to 2010, whole, safe and sound. "Your turn," he says. "I'll see you soon, Dean." He touches Dean's forehead and zaps him back to the present.

Sam and Dean are back at the motel packing up, when Cas teleports back in. He says he's very surprised to have made it, and passes out. They lay him down on the bed. "I could use that drink now," Dean says.

He pours some bourbon into a glass for Sam and himself and as they each take a sip, Dean says, "Well, this is it."

"This is what?" Sam asks.

"Team Free Will," Dean replies. "One ex-blood junkie, one drop-out with six bucks to his name, and Mr. Comatose over there. That's awesome." Dean takes another swig.

"That's not funny," Sam growls.

"I'm not laughing," Dean tells him. Sam observes the angels are all saying the boys will say yes. What if they're right? "They're not," Dean insists.

Sam observes Michael got their dad to say yes. Dean counters tthe situation was different ; Anna was about to kill their mom. "And, if you could save mom?" Sam asks. "What would you say?" We don't get an answer.

The scene cuts back to the Winchesters in the late 70s, with a very pregnant Mary standing by a crib with John. As they look at something we can't see on a shelf above the crib, John asks where she got it, and a smiling Mary informs him she found it at a garage sale for 25 cents. He jokes he's glad about the cost and asks if she doesn't think it's a little cheesy. She says she can't even put her finger on why she likes it, it's just that she likes it.

Then we see what she's talking about: It's a smiling angel figurine. "Well then, I love it," John says, and kisses her and walks away.

Mary stares at it and breathes deeply.

"Oooh, quite a kick there," she whispers to a soon-to-be-born Dean. "Troublemaker already! It's OK, baby...it's all OK. Angels are watching over you."