The Benders - Recap

In Hibbing, Minnesota, a young boy, Evan McKay, looks out the window of his apartment and watches a neighbor, Alvin Jenkins, take his garbage out to the dumpster. The man hears something moving beneath a nearby car, looks under it to investigate, and something pulls him under the car. Later that week, Dean and Sam arrive, posing as state policeman, and ask what Evan saw. He says that he heard a noise like a monster would make, and his mother makes him admit that he was watching a monster movie at the time. Evan describes the monster's noise as a whining growl.



The brothers go to a bar to check their notes, and Dean wonders if it's a normal kidnapping. However, John's journal has the area marked as the possible hunting grounds of a phantom attacker that grabs people and vanishes. The county has more missing people per capita than anywhere else in the state. Sam says they should check it out, and Dean quickly agrees. He reluctantly agrees to find a hotel room for the night, and tells Sam to meet him outside after he visits the restroom. Sam goes out to the Impala and hears something moving nearby. Sam sets the journal down and looks under a nearby car and finds a cat, startling him.

Dean comes out a minute later. The journal is there, but there's no sign of Sam. Dean spots a surveillance camera and checks its lines of sight. The next morning, he goes to the sheriff's department and poses as a state policeman. He claims that his cousin was abducted and the sheriff, Kathleen Hudak, checks the files. It shows that Dean is dead, after his encounter with a skinwalker. Dean asks to see the surveillance footage from the bar, but she tells Dean to stay there and fill out a missing persons report while she checks it out. Dean notes that none of the missing persons in the county have ever returned, and insists on going with her.



Sam wakes up in a metal cage.

Kathleen meets with Dean and shows him the footage from the security camera. It shows an old camper leaving the parking lot, but it has new plates, indicating that it's stolen. A van drives by, and the engine makes a whining growling noise, and Dean figures that's what Evan heard.

Sam tries to break out of the cell without success. The prisoner in the next cell, Jenkins, wakes up, and admits that they're in the middle of nowhere and "they" are going to kill them. When Sam wonders what grabbed them, Jenkins tells them to see for himself. Two hooded figures come in, unlock Jenkins' cage from a remote switch, and gives him food. Sam realizes that they're normal human beings. He grabs an electrical cable above his cage and tries to break it.



That night, Kathleen and Dean start driving down the road between the bar and the next surveillance camera. While they drive, Kathleen says that she ran his badge number and it turned up stolen... and the ID picture is of a large black man. She prepares to arrest him, and Dean asks her to continue the search no matter what, and he feels responsible for Sam. Kathleen say she has to take Dean in, but then looks at a photo of her and a man on the visor... and says she'll take him in after they find Dean.

Jenkins warns Sam that there's no way out, but he finally pries loose a bracket. Jenkins' cell door opens and he figures that Sam shorted out the wire. Sam tells him to get back into the cage because it was too easy, but Jenkins is eager to get out. As he runs out, his cage closes automatically behind him. Outside, Jenkins finds a knife on the ground and runs into the woods. One of his captors clubs him down and tries to spear him, but Jenkins manages to get up and keep running. Finally one of his pursuers stabs him in the leg. Jenkins tries to limp away and hits a tripwire, and the two pursuers catch up to him. Back in the barn, Sam hears Jenkins scream.



The next morning, Dean asks Kathleen why she hasn't locked him up, and she explains that she lost her brother Riley the same way that Dean lost Sam... and Riley never showed up again. As they drive down the road, Dean spots a turnoff with fresh tracks. Kathleen tells him to stay with the car. When he refuses, she handcuffs him to her car and goes on without him. She finds an old house with a camper parked outside and approaches it. A girl, Missy Bender, comes out and introduces herself. She explains that her mother is dead and her father isn't there, and tells Kathleen that she can't come in. Kathleen shows her a photo of Sam, and Missy smiles as her father comes up behind Kathleen and clubs her unconscious.

As Dean tries to grab the antenna from the top of the deputy's car, he hears the camper coming down the road. Pa Bender's two sons, Jared and Lee, open the gate and walk down the road to move the police car. Dean manages to get out of the handcuffs just in time and get away before the brothers spot him.

Kathleen wakes up in a cage next to Sam's and tells him what happened to Dean. Dean sneaks in and Sam directs him to the opening switch, while explaining what happened to Jenkins. he says that he saw a number of junked cars in the back, and Kathleen confirms that one of them belonged to her brother. The switch box requires a key, and Dean goes to find it.



Dean sneaks into the basement of the house and finds the pickled remains of the Benders' previous victims, along with photos of them killing their prey. One of the photos is of Riley Hudak. He goes upstairs and finds Pa Bender cutting something up in the kitchen. Missy finds Dean and he mistakes her for a victim, but she stabs pins him to a wall. Jared and Lee jump Dean and soon subdue him with some help from their father. They tie him up and Pa Bender explains that they've hunted human beings, taking one or two a year to avoid giving themselves away. They prepare to torture him to find out if the police will be arriving, and then tell him to choose between Sam and Kathleen. When Dean refuses to choose, Pa Bender puts a hot poker to his chest and threatens to put out his eye next. Dean chooses Sam, and Pa Bender sends Lee to shoo both of them in the cage.



Lee unlocks the cell doors, and Kathleen yells to distract him while Sam throws the bracket from the wiring at him. He jumps Lee and knocks him out, but discovers that Lee's rifle is jammed.

Pa Bender realizes that something is wrong and takes Jared with him, while Missy stands guard. They go into the barn and find Lee locked up in one of the cages. The lights are dead, and the two men search the barn. Sam has hidden up in the hay loft, while Kathleen is on the ground floor. Jared hears her moving inside of a closet and shoots through the door, and then opens it. Kathleen jumps him from above, while Pa Bender spots Sam and opens fire. Sam runs toward Jared and ducks so that Jared shoots his father, who is pursuing Sam. Sam then knocks out the shocked Jared.



Once Sam has locked up Jared and Lee, he makes sure that Kathleen is watching over the wounded Pa. She tells Sam to go on ahead. Once he goes, Pa threatens to bleed her for what she's done to her family, and she explains that he killed her brother. He laughs and says that he did it was because it was fun, and Kathleen shoots the trigger. She goes outside and tells Sam and Dean that she shot Pa trying to escape. They don't question her further, and tell her that they locked Missy up in the closet. Kathleen calls in backup and tells Sam and Dean to get away before they arrive. When Dean asks for a ride, she tells them to start walking. Dean offers his condolences to her, and she admits that finally knowing what happened to Riley didn't help. As they walk away, Dean tells Sam never to disappear again.



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