Supernatural Season 7, Episode 12 recap: Dean heads back to the past

Dean Winchester teams up with Eliot Ness after a hunt gone wrong in Supernatural Season 7, Episode 12. Here’s a reminder of the events that happened.

When a hunt goes wrong, Dean finds himself transported to 1944, where he has to work with Eliot Ness in Supernatural Season 7, Episode 12. Meanwhile, Sam turned to Jody Mills for help. Here’s a look back at the event to get a reminder of this excellent monster-of-the-week episode.

Figuring out the case

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Dean sees a man in a fedora suck the life out of someone in the alley. He attacks, and Sam arrives to the scene just in time to see Dean vanish. Of course, Sam has no idea where Dean has gone and we don’t really know anything about the situation.

It’s not surprising that the show takes us back two days to get a few answers. Dean is still obsessing over Dick Roman when Jody calls Sam with a case. There have been two deaths that are suspicious since the victims have been mummified. Yes, really!

Off the Winchesters go, where they find out the witness of one of the victims saw a man dressed in old-fashioned clothes and a fedora. When the brothers research the town, there are stories of people in 1928, 1954, and 1974 dying from mysterious circumstances. All these deaths happen in threes, so the brothers know another one is coming up.

After hacking some live CCTV, Dean and Sam spot a man in a fedora. This man just happens to look like a guy in a 1954 newspaper article. It doesn’t take long to figure out how the Winchesters get to the situation they were in during the opening moments.

Now it’s up to Sam to figure out where Dean has gone. We already get to find out.

Dean ends up in the past

Dean finds himself in 1944, still struggling with Snyder, the man he attacked. He sees a mysterious ring before Snyder manages to get free and runs away. Dean chases Snyder with his gun ready, but ends up on a crowded street with two police officers ready to arrest him.

The police don’t know what to make of Dean. After all, his FBI badge says that it was issued in 2012, 68 years from this point. His cell phone looks alien and they can’t figure out why it says “no signal.” When a man does come to question Dean alone, Dean quickly realizes that the guy is a hunter. This hunter is called Eliot Ness.

Yes, the Eliot Ness, who is the one behind the bringing down of Al Capone. Naturally, when Dean tells Eliot about The Untouchables, Eliot has no idea what Dean is talking about. However, he does believe in time travel once Dean explains the situation. Dean now needs to fit in and Eliot takes him to Ezra Moore, a friend and tailor.

Ezra is also a hunter and she can help figure out what’s happened to Dean. She’s very much like Bobby for Eliot, and theorizes that Chronos is using victims to travel through time. However, she doesn’t know how to get Dean back to his own time, but she will research it and how to kill the god.

Eliot and Dean head off to Snyder’s house, where they find a book of horse race bettings. He already knows the outcomes so he can win. Next to bets in 1944, the initials “L.Y.” are spotted. That’s the initials of Lester Young, so the two head off to get answers to find Chronos.

One thing the time in the past does for Dean is give him perspective. Eliot didn’t get into hunting because someone died, but because he wanted to help in a way the red tape in his job wouldn’t let him.

Meanwhile, Ezra has answers for Dean. There’s a way to kill Chronos but it will mean Dean is stuck in the past forever. This is something Dean needs to figure out if he has to do, but first, he tries to get a message to Sam by using a newspaper and heading to the house Sam is staying at in 2012.

Sam searches for his brother

Back in the present day, Sam has to figure out what happened to Dean. He turns to Jody for help, and to do that he needs her to empty one of Bobby’s storage lockers. She brings 20 boxes of junk to Sam, so he can go through notes. Jody, meanwhile, searches the federal criminal database, where Snyder is listed.

Sam and Jody see the ring with the infinite hourglass symbol. Sam has seen that ring. It’s a symbol of Chronos, the God of Time. They know that Dean has been taken to somewhere in time and they’ll need to summon Chronos to get him back.

When the two find out how to summon Chronos, they learn there’s a problem. Chronos will need to have his hands on Dean when the summon spell takes place. Otherwise, Dean will be lost in time forever.

That’s not quite the case. Dean’s plan to get a message to Sam works. Sam finds a newspaper dated Nov. 5, 1944, and finds out that Dean is working with Eliot Ness. Dean also shares about Lila Taylor, a woman Chronos is involved with. Now that Sam and Jody have a date, they just need a time. That means heading to a nursing home to speak to Lila Taylor.

Lila shares that she last saw Snyder in November 1944 when the clocks stopped at 11:34 p.m. She also says that Chronos strangled a man to death. When shown a picture of Dean, she confirms that was him. Sam and Jody have a time.

It’s enough to go on. When Dean and Eliot go to Chronos’ house to stop him, things play out so Chronos starts strangling Dean. Eliot is able to throw the weapon to kill Chronos to Dean, but Chronos and Dean disappear in a flash of red light. Sam and Jody have brought them back to their own time.

Chronos shouts at the Winchesters and Jody that they’ve ruined everything. Before he can share more, Sam stabs Chronos with the weapon. Chronos’ dying words tell the Winchesters that there’s black ooze everywhere and to “enjoy oblivion.”

What did you think of Dean’s fanboying in the past? What did you think of seeing Sam get to save his brother for one? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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