Unforgiven - Recap

A year ago in Bristol, Rhode Island, Sam and Samuel are at an abandoned warehouse. Sam fires a series of shots while Samuel looks on. They then leave, and Sam says that his wounded arm will hold until they get out of town. As they drive out of Bristol, a deputy pulls them over, believing that their FBI agents, and asks if they know where Sheriff Roy Dobbs can be found. When they don’t give him a straight answer, he threatens to arrest them. Sam tries to bluff his way out, and then beats the deputy unconscious when his attempt doesn’t work. They get in the car and leave.



Now, Sam is at the brothers’ motel room keeping up on the news when Dean returns. Sam gets a text message with latitude and longitude, and confirms they indicate Bristol, Rhode Island. No one answers the phone when he calls the number it was sent from. Three women have disappeared into thin air, and Sam wonders if a hunter sent them the message asking for backup. Dean is reluctant to go, but Sam refuses to ignore the plight of the missing girls.

As the brothers arrive in Bristol, Sam has flashbacks of driving into town with Samuel. They go to a pirate-themed diner and check the missing posters of the missing women. They don’t seem to have anything in common. As Dean goes to the bathroom, Debbie Harris comes over and recognizes Sam from a year ago. She points out her husband, Don, and asks if he’s back to investigate the new disappearances. Sam plays along and asks them to report anything that they notice. As Dean leaves the restroom, he sees a photon the wall with Sam in it. As Debbie leaves, Sam gets a flash of having sex with her in a bathroom.



The brothers check into a motel and Sam learns that a year ago, five men disappeared. He figures that he and Samuel only thought they stopped something, but they failed. Dean wants to let Bobby deal with it, warning that hunters don’t hit the same town twice in a row. However, Sam wants to finish the job no matter what it might do to bring back his memories of Hell. Dean reluctantly agrees and talks to the roommate of one of the victims, Nicole Holder. He notices Sam’s fake FBI card on the desk and the roommate explains that Nicole got it from Sam. She eventually confirms that Sam and Nicole were having a sexual relationship.

Sam goes to the police station and the deputy he beat up a year ago arrests him. He knows that Sam isn’t an FBI agent, and demands to know where the bodies are buried. Sam says that he doesn’t remember, but the deputy doesn’t believe him. Later, a woman comes to see Sam and asks what happened to her husband. She knows that Sam is a hunter, and Sam remembers him and Samuel discussing the case a year ago with Sheriff Roy Dobbs and the woman, Roy’s wife Brenna. She finally accepts that Sam is telling the truth, and agrees to release him so he can find out what happened to Roy. Brenna lets him out and has him tie her up to make it look like an escape attempt.



Debbie is at home drinking while her husband angrily looks on. After he leaves, Debbie goes downstairs for a new bottle of wine, trips, and something attacks her.

At the motel, Sam is working when he hears someone outside. He draws a gun on... Dean, who tells Sam that he was involved with Nicole. They get word on the police scanner of another missing person and Dean insists that Sam stay put while he investigates. However, once Dean leaves, Sam slips out the back.

Dean goes to the Harris house and discovers that a year ago, Debbie had an affair with Sam. He calls Sam and leaves a message warning him that the entire thing is a trap.

Sam goes to Brenna’s house and says that he needs Roy’s case files. He’s already confirmed that they’re not at the police station. Brenna reluctantly turns them over to Sam. As they talk, he remembers a year ago when Samuel was talking about his family, and Sam saying that family just slows him down. In the present, Sam goes through the files and remembers flashes of the victims. He also remembers discussing the case with Samuel at the diner, and Samuel saying that an obscure monster named an arachne is responsible and they need to lure it to a park. In the present, Sam starts to leave and Brenna says that she wants to find out what happened to Roy. As he goes, Sam says that he’s sure Roy died as a hero. Outside, Sam checks his phone and gets Dean’s message. He notices spider webs all over the Dobbs house and starts to examine them, unaware that something is watching him from the nearby woods. Dean arrives and complains that Sam ignored his warning, and gets him out while the creature watches them.



Back at the motel, Sam tells dean that they’re dealing with an arachne. He refuses to turn the case over to Bobby, insisting that his newly-recovered soul won’t let him walk away. Sam asks Dean to back him up, and his brother reluctantly agrees. They go over Roy’s files and Sam starts to remember more:

Sam calls Roy and arranges to meet him at the park, and then explains that he’s setting him up to lure out the arachne. He doesn’t want to tell Roy what’s going on so that the sheriff will give a convincing performance. Samuel isn’t happy with the plan, but doesn’t have a better alternative. They watch Roy at the park, and the creature leaps out, attacks him, and drags him away before they can stop him. Sam reveals he turned on the GPS in Roy’s cell phone and can track the arachne. Samuel is shocked that Sam is so cold. They go to the warehouse and find the five men inside, wrapped in webs. The men are still alive, but dying of poison. The arachne attacks Sam, injuring his arm. Samuel shoots at it without effect, buying Sam enough time to decapitate it. Sam tells his grandfather there’s nothing they can do for the men, and prepares to shoot Roy first. He tells the sheriff that they couldn’t have killed the arachne without him, and that he’s a hero... and then shoots him and the others dead. They then burn the building to cover their tracks.



Sam tells Dean that he knows what happened.

Brenna hears someone outside the house and goes to investigate. She discovers... her husband, Roy, his face twisted into a spider-like form.



Sam calls Brenna, who asks him to swing by. He figures that she’s in trouble and the brothers go to the Dobbs house. They see a light in the shed and check it out, and find Brenna sitting in a corner. She asks if what he did to Roy is true. Roy grabs Dean and throws him aside, and then grabs Sam and tells him to answer the question.

Roy wraps the two brothers up in webs and points out the bullet wound in his forehead where Sam shot him. While Sam tells him to release Brenna, Dean manages to grab a piece of glass and starts cutting himself free. Roy tells Sam that he got everything wrong a year ago, and the arachne was there to breed. She bit the missing men to transform them into arachne, and Roy was no longer human when Sam shot him. The other transformed men fled after the fire, but Roy remained behind to lure Sam back and get revenge. It wasn’t until Sam returned and told Brenna he had amnesia that he realized why Sam didn’t respond to his bait. Now Roy wonders whether to kill Sam or turn him. Dean finally rips himself free and attacks Roy, who grabs him. Brenna cuts Sam free and he takes the knife and decapitates Roy.



Sam takes Brenna home and tries to apologize, but she goes inside without a word and closes the door in his face.

Back at the motel, Sam admits that he shouldn’t have come back. Dean says that he did a good thing, and what he did a year ago wasn’t him. His brother doesn’t believe him, and worries what else he did. Sam goes into convulsions and starts to remember being tortured in Hell.



Share this article with your friends