Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks is the 18th episode of Season 8.

Summary
Sam and Dean investigate some recent vampire kills and are surprised to learn who is involved. They find Krissy and learn her father was killed and that she's been taken in by a man named Victor, who has taken in a group of orphan kids to teach them how to hunt. Victor is helping the teenagers find the vampires who took their parents so that they can get revenge. Sam is intrigued by Victor's method of giving the teenagers a home life as well as a hunting life, but Dean is suspicious of Victor's motives.

Plot
In Conway Springs, Kansas, two teens make out in a parked car by the roadside when a mysterious figure from a blue van darts around the car. The boy retrieves a knife and exits the car, when moments later the figure drags the girl out of the car window. The boy swiftly decapitates the figure, now revealed to be a vampire, as another girl steps onto the scene. The first girl, an older Krissy Chambers, sighs and insists that her companion Josephine play the bait next time.

The next day Sam and Dean roll into town in their FBI guises, learning from a local officer that two local women were drained of blood. The officer shows Sam and Dean footage of a security video from a previous night, as Dean recognizes Krissy in the tape. The brothers usurp the case for their department, and wonder aloud if Krissy’s father knows what she’s been up to.

At a seedy motel, Krissy and her group check in and gear up for their next mission, with a boy named Aidan acting continually flirty with Krissy. Aidan and Josephine head off to catch a vampire in a neighboring room, while Sam and Dean enter Krissy’s, having tracked her with their own means. Krissy explains that her father died some time ago, while Aidan and Josephine break into the vampire’s room, finding a girl tied to the bed. The vampire attacks, but when Sam and Dean burst in to intervene, the creature flees out the window and heads toward a nearby van.

Krissy beats Dean to the fleeing vampire and incapacitates the creature, whom Josephine identifies as the vampire that killed her family. The vampire protests his innocence, but Josephine swiftly decapitates him. Krissy explains to Dean that vampires caught up to her and her father after the Winchesters saw them last, with the vampires killing her father just as they killed Aidan and Josephine’s family. Dean insists she’s too young to hunt, but when he suggests sending her to live with her aunt, Krissy replies that their caretaker Victor would object.

Curious about Victor, Sam and Dean visit the man’s lavish home to find he takes care of all three youths, while making sure they stay in school and keep disciplined as well. Dean protests putting such young hunters in danger, but Victor assures the brothers that all three are a force to be reckoned with, and the next generation of hunters needs to be better than theirs. Unsure what to make of the situation, Dean resolves to question the captive victim from earlier, as we see the mysterious blue van and its driver pull up to the house.

The next morning the kids head off to school, as Victor reveals to Sam that his own family was killed by a Wendigo, and that he provides a less nomadic hunter life than they themselves had growing up. Elsewhere, Dean visits with the girl from the hotel, who reveals that the vampire Jimmy didn’t actually hurt her, but seemed confused and scared, having only returned from Afghanistan a month prior.

The three youths return home at Victor's request, having found surveillance photos of the vampire that supposedly killed Krissy's father. Dean calls Sam to point out that a vampire turned a month prior couldn't have killed Josephine's family three months earlier, as Sam spies the mysterious blue van nearby. Sam rushes to tell Victor, but finds that the youths have already gone on the hunt.

Sam and Victor slowly approach the van, while Dean visits a nearby lodge on a tip from the hotel clerk, finding the woman from Victor’s surveillance photos bound, confused and starting to show vampire signs. The three youths show up to the scene guns drawn, but Dean urges them to think more rationally about the situation and realize that they may have been set up to kill a vampire that couldn’t possibly have murdered Krissy’s father. Dean reminds the three that they can still save the girl from her vampirism, as we see Victor knock Sam unconscious with his apparent vampire ally, the van’s driver.

Sam comes to in Victor’s house, as Victor reveals that he intends to stage Sam’s death as a vampire attack, lest the children learn how they’ve been manipulated. Victor explains that last year’s Leviathan outbreak and his family’s murder were a wake-up call that he needs to train more hunters, as Dean returns to the home with the youths in tow.

Cornered, Victor admits that he arranged for his vampire friend, Seth, to kill the young hunters’ families to provide their motivation, before urging the youths to continue on with his cause. When the situation gets out of hand, Krissy incapacitates the vampire and trains a gun on Victor, but Dean urges her not to succumb to revenge. Krissy pulls the trigger, revealing the gun lacked any bullets, and she allows Victor to live with the shame and loneliness of his actions. Before they can react however, Victor grabs a hidden gun and ends his own life.

The next morning while the others tend to curing the vampire girl, Sam and Dean say their goodbyes to Krissy, who believes keeping with her young hunter group to be the most prudent course. Dean admits that Krissy isn’t a kid anymore, before advising her Garth will check in from time to time, and warning Aidan not to break Krissy’s heart, lest she kills him herself. Outside, Sam notes that things worked out, but Dean worries it won’t matter if they can’t close the gates of Hell in the near future.

Characters

 * Sam Winchester
 * Dean Winchester
 * Krissy Chambers
 * Victor Rogers
 * Jimmy Day
 * Aidan
 * Josephine

Quotes

 * Dean: I'll tell you what. Why don't I go get some herbal tea.

        Sam: Okay.

        Dean: And you can find some Cowboy Junkies on the dial.

        Sam: Eat me, Dean.

        Dean: And you know what? We'll just talk it out.         Dean: Watch it.
 * Victor: Oh, come on, guys. I know your friends. I mean, Martin was insane. And somebody obviously dropped Garth on his head when he was a baby. And I know you two loved that Bobby guy, but he was a barely functional alcoholic.
 * Dean: Yeah, I never trust a guy who wears a sweater.
 * Krissy: You're all right for an old guy.

        Dean: I'm really not that old.

        Krissy: You keep telling yourself that.

Continuity

 * Victor mentions Martin, Garth, Bobby and the Leviathan. Dean later states he'll assign Garth to check up on Krissy and her friends every so often.

Featured Music
I'll Surely Die by The Rubens

Trivia

 * This is the first appearance of Krissy Chambers since Adventures In Babysitting.