The Winchesters S01 E03 Recap: You’re Lost Little Girl

This episode aired on Tuesday October 25th on The CW at 8/7c.

My Preamble

How was my Tuesday “date-night” viewing of The Winchesters, you ask?  LOL… well there’s nothing like getting wrapped up in your work!  Truth to tell I am behind in my episode reporting, so bear with me folks.  As always, The Winchesters isn’t just a great show, full of wonderful young actors bringing some good writing to life in exciting ways, it’s also got the 70’s references that let me swim in nostalgic waters.  A joy to relive!

In S01-E02, the Fab 4 have discovered a magic box capable of killing monsters but it doesn’t seem to be working, Samuel Campbell is still MIA, we discover there’s a “Betty,” John has worked through some emo issues with his mom Millie, Ada gathered some helpful intel while in a Jasmine-tea-induced trance, and there is a demon on the loose who can provide answers regarding the Akrida.

And the dramatic irony being played out in full technicolor, is the red-haired hooded figure who collected the soul of the felled La Tundra monster.  Who or what is she, I wonder?

Episode Recap

Craig Fitzgerald, BangShift XL-CB Radio

In the opening scene we see a small girl named Carrie reach out to her long-haul trucker mom using a CB radio.  Carrie is asking for help to find her beloved stuffed toy called Bernice.  After speaking with her mom, Carries sees a burlap sack appear on her bedroom floor.  She picks up her lost Bernice from the top of the bag and scuffles off to bed.  Immediately after, we see a monster emerge from the bag, and Carrie is taken.

Dean Winchester narrates:  There’s no map to being a hunter.  No playbook.  You gotta follow your gut.  But that can only take you so far.  Truth is, you can’t do it all on your own.  You need other people to help guide the way– your friends, your family.  Otherwise, you just end up lost.

Mary, Lata and John are in the Men-of-Letters (MOL) Clubhouse.  We find out that Mary’s mom and dad are separated, and Mary doesn’t know if her mom is aware that Samuel is missing.  There’s another reference to Maggie’s death, which is still a mystery.  Mary also shared with John and Lata that the last time she saw her dad, they argued about hunting.

Ada shares with the team that her tea-trance was a way to access the echo of the demon who possessed her.  What she learned was that, like Samuel, the demons were after the magical box.  They need to find the surviving demon to get answers and the writings reveal a recurring address, which gives them a place to start; 108 Magnolia St, Apt #14.

The CW-Betty

Carlos joins the others and tells Mary that there are enough police at her neighbor’s house that it looks like an episode of Dragnet.  Mary looks out for the kids when their mom is on the road, so she and John head over there to check up on them.

The kids are Ford, 12 and Carrie 8.  When John and Mary pull up John sees a familiar face in one of the police officers on the scene, Betty.  After introductions, Betty recognizes Mary’s name, as Mrs. Billups told the police to find her to watch out for Ford until she can get home.  Carrie is missing.

While Mary goes to talk with Ford, John tells Betty that he and Mary are friends from college, and they are in the same study group.  It’s obvious from their conversation that Betty and John have got some history.

While on the porch together, Ford tells Mary what he saw.  A long-twisted arm pulled Carrie into a sack just before it disappeared into thin air.  Mary and John go to investigate Carrie’s bedroom and she tells him what Ford saw.  John notices the CB Radio and Mary recalls her memories as a kid falling asleep while listening to truckers.  Mary always wondered what a “normal life” would be like, and John asked what she imagined for herself when she grew up.  While he wanted to be a catcher for the Kansas City Athletics,

The CW-Burlap

Mary said being the kid of hunters deprived her of those kinds of dreams.

Mary finds a piece of burlap, and the scene shifts to the monster’s lair.  A very creepy monster is sniffing at a pile of stuffed toys and in the middle, hiding, we see Carrie.

John and Mary take Ford back to her house while they place hex bags around the place for extra protection.  Ford wants to help them find Carrie, but Mary convinces him to stay put while she confides in him the secret that they are monster hunters.  Ford wants to join the “Monster Club” and they agree as long as he stays put and remembers to keep their secret.

Ada and Carlos are in the van while “Rockin Roxy” a pirate radio DJ plays “Restless Feeling” by Elderberry Jak.

The CW-Carlos Holy Water Pistol Demon

While Carlos complains about his boredom, Ada trims a bonsai tree.  The demon they are looking for appears beside Carlos’ door and pulls him onto the ground.  Carlos sprays him with holy water but it doesn’t seem to have any affect.  As he rounds the back of the van to go after Ada, she hits the demon with the door, and they toss him in the back and hold him hostage in the devil’s trap painted on the van ceiling.  Rather than calling in the others, Ada and Carlos take the demon somewhere quiet so they can chat.

Back at the MOL Clubhouse, Lata has examined the swatch of burlap fabric and while John makes a joke about not

The CW-Bori Baba

finding it a Woolworths catalog, Lata explains it’s pattern is from northern India near her birth-place.  It’s over 1000 years old.  She identifies the monster as Bori Baba who lures its victims by tempting them with a lost item that has deep meaning for them.  It keeps its victims alive long enough to taunt and hunt them until it eats them alive.

Lata has very little to go on and can’t tell the team how to track and kill the monster until she can connect with people from her childhood to learn more.  Mary tells John that Lata’s parents died years ago.  Lata will have to reach out to others.

The CW-Bori Baba grabs Ford

The next scene moves back to Mary’s house.  Ford hears a noise and goes outside, beyond the protection of the hex bags.  Bori Baba places Carrie’s hair barrette at the top of the bag to lure Ford in and he takes the bait.  John and Mary arrive with cheeseburgers and fries but cannot find Ford.  Betty arrives to check up on the boy and knocks on the door.  John answers while Mary continues to look.

Betty reminds John that they made a deal to talk once he got back from the war.  John eludes to having more pressing issues on his mind.  She offers to listen if he needs someone to talk too.

When John goes back in the house to look for Mary, he can hear a muffled sound and realizes that she’s gone next

The CW-Dads Hat

door to Ford’s house and the voice he hears is hers coming through the CB Radio.  Mary says she can’t leave the kids alone with Bori Baba and tells John to find a way to get them out.  He begs her not to go fearing they will all get stuck.  John makes a run for it to try and stop her but before he can get to her, she sees the sack, pulls out her Dad’s hat, and is lured in.

The CW-Trapped in a Bonsai

Just as Mary disappears, we hear “Something Got Into Your Life” by Spooky Tooth.

Ada and Carlos still have the demon trapped, this time in a salt circle while Ada threatens to trap him inside her bonsai tree unless he shares what he knows about the Akrida.  The demon says they are too late—even with the magical box, the Akrida are too many and their leader is hiding in a human.  A woman.  Ada does the spell and traps the demon in the bonsai tree anyway.

When John gets back to Lata, he’s desperate for her to find the answers they need to beat Bori Baba.  John confides in Lata that none of this hunter life works without Mary – he needs her.  Lata thinks she may have one more person she can contact to get the details they need.

They can’t kill Bori Baba, or it will also destroy his sack and everyone who has been trapped.  The only way to save Mary and the kids, is to get them out first, before they summon Bori Baba.  The trick is for his victims to willingly let go of the item that lured them in the first place.  Once they are free of the item, they will be released back into their world.

Bori Baba’s lair is room after room of lost items.  It stands to reason that if they use the CB Radio to try and reach Mary, there should be CB Radio parts in his lair that they can use to communicate.  It works, and they tell Mary what needs to be done.  Immediately the kids relinquish their attachment to their items and are transported back.

The CW-Kids Transported Home

Mary tries to burn her dad’s hat, but it doesn’t seem to be working.  The hat holds a deeper meaning for Mary then just her Dad.  It also represents the hunter’s life, and more personally, it represents Mary’s identity.  If she lets go of that, she has no idea who she is.  John convinces her to take the first step and it works.  She burns the hat and is transported out.  When the monster attempts to follow, John kills him.

The kids are delivered safely back home, and Betty is there with the mom, Mrs. Billups.  Betty sees John and takes the opportunity to return something to him.  It’s a ring.  It’s either a promise ring or an engagement ring, so we know that him and Betty must have been serious before he left for the war.  They agree to remain friends.

When Mary sees him, she asks “How’s Mod Squad?” in reference to Betty being a cop (I used to love this show when I was a kid.  I had a juvie-crush on Michael Cole.  For a real trip down memory lane, here’s the theme song).

The CW-Rockin Roxy Akrida Boss

John asks Mary if she is going to take a break from hunting and she says she will still be searching for her dad, but takes the night off and goes to see a movie – the Omega Man.  She is a little short when paying for admission and a young man in line offers to make up the difference.  They go in to the movie together and leave the theatre together.

John thanks Lata for all her help figuring out Bori Baba and they are both concerned that such rare monsters keep showing up in Lawrence.

John takes Bori Baba’s remains and burns them.  As he walks away, we see a spider-like monster come out of the shadows and take the burlap sack and deliver it to the red-haired woman, who just happens to be the radio announcer, as she introduces “Spooky” by Percy Sledge.

As the spider-monster delivers the sack to the red-haired Akrida woman, we see her collect the Bori Baba’s essence in a glass jar like she did with the others.  What they know now is that the Akrida leader posing as a woman, is powerful enough to terrify demons.

Cast

Next Episode

Tuesday November 1^st on The CW at 8/7c.