The Benders

The Benders is the 15th episode of Season 1. It aired on February 14th, 2006. 

Summary
A nice decoration for the wall. A backwoods family of hunters likes to stuff and mount their kill as trophies. Only they hunt humans. And they've got Sam.

Recap
Hibbing, Minnesota

A young boy, Evan, is at his apartment and sees a man take out the garbage. On the way back the man hears something strange, kneels to look under a car and gets pulled underneath. Later Sam and Dean, disguised as state policemen, interview the boy and his mother but don’t get anything. The brothers head to a bar to regroup and discuss that their dad marked the area as having a “phantom abductor,” and the county has a higher-than-average disappearance rate.

Sam goes outside and hears a strange noise – it’s only a cat. But when he gets in his car something approaches him from underneath. When Dean goes out a minute or so later there’s no sign of Sam. He spots a video camera but otherwise no clue. Meeting with the deputy the next day, Dean passes himself off as an officer and tries to get a lead, but the deputy refuses to take him along – Dean insists.

Sam wakes up in a cage while the local deputy gives Dean an image of a trailer pulling out of the parking lot just after Sam left the bar. An old truck passes by and gives off an odd noise that matches what the boy Evan described. Sam finds a prisoner in the next cell, the missing man, Alvin Jenkins. They’re in a barn and two hooded figures come in and give them food. Sam quickly figures out they’re just people, not monsters.

The deputy quickly sees through Dean’s impersonation as they track down the truck. The deputy considers taking him in but reconsiders after Dean’s desperate plea. Meanwhile Sam has ripped free the electrical cable and Jenkins’ cell door opens. Sam suspects something is up but Jenkins ignores him – after he leaves, the cell doors swing shut again and lock by remote. Outside in the rain, Jenkins finds a knife and runs, but is ambushed by a guy. He keeps going but another man takes him down but then the two men drive him into a tripwire. Finally satisfied with their game, the men kill Jenkins as Sam hears his screams.

Dean asks the deputy, Kathleen, why she’s helping and she reveals her brother Riley disappeared the same way. They track down the truck and Kathleen handcuffs Dean to the squad car before going to the house to investigate. She knocks on the door and a teenager, Missy, answers. The girl acts strange and just smiles at her…as her father sneaks up and knocks Kathleen out. Dean tries to grab the car antenna to pick the handcuffs as the family truck approaches. He manages to get it loose and gets the cuffs off as the two men, brothers, arrive and spot the car and take it away.

Kathleen wakes up in a cell with Sam and Dean sneaks in. He reassures them then goes looking for the key. In the basement he finds jars filled with the brothers’ “trophies” as well as photographs of them with their victims. Going upstairs he finds a man cutting something while music plays on an old Victrola. He stumbles across the girl, Missy, who stabs at him, pinning his jacket to the door frame. She then calls for her dad, who shows up. Dean gets uncaught from the knife and the two fight it out until another family member clubs him over the head.

They wake up Dean and Pa Bender boasts about how his favorite hunt is human, and how they’ve been doing it for generations. They want to know if Dean’s disappearance will bring more cops and give Dean the choice of selecting Kathleen or Sam. When Pa threatens to put out his eye, Dean picks Sam but Pa simply tells one of his sons to shoot first Sam then Kathleen.

The brother Lee lets Sam out, but he has the bracket from the cable he pulled down early and throws it at the guy. That buys him enough time to take the guy out and get his rifle, but it’s busted. Pa and his other son Jared go out to investigate and find Lee, unconscious, and the power cut off. They search the barn for Sam and Kathleen jumps Jared but he gets the best of her and throws her down and prepares to shoot her. Sam who is continually being shot at by Pa runs in and manages to distract Jared and as he turns to fire Sam ducks, causing Jared to shoot his father. Sam then knocks Jared out and goes to find Dean while Kathleen covers Pa Bender. When he laughs about killing her brother, she shoots him and walks out. She meets up with Dean and Sam, who have locked up the girl, and claims she shot Pa trying to escape. Kathleen tells the brothers to hit the road before the cops arrive and they go strolling down the road, arguing.

Characters

 * Dean Winchester
 * Sam Winchester
 * Kathleen Hudak
 * Pa Bender
 * Missy Bender
 * Lee Bender
 * Jared Bender

Featured Supernatural Beings
Humans (This is the first episode in the series that doesn't feature any supernatural creatures. The enemy is strictly human.

Spring-Heeled Jack (mentioned)

Phantom Attacker/Phantom Gasser

Featured Music
"Rocky Mountain Way" by Joe Walsh

"Sweet And Low Down" by Composer

Trivia & References
Mrs McKay: Tell the officers what you were watching on TV.

Evan: Godzilla vs Mothra.

Dean: That's my favorite Godzilla movie! It's so much better than the original, huh?

Evan: Totally.

Dean: Yeah. He likes the remake. Alvin Jenkins: But I'm waitin'.
 * Godzillafirst appeared in a self-titled 1954 Japanese film. Many flims featured Godzilla - in the fourth flim Godzilla vs Mothra Mothrawas enlisted to fight him. The remake Dean refers to Sam liking is probably the universally hated 1998 American remake Godzilla . 

Sam: Waitin' for what?

Alvin Jenkins: Ned Beatty time, man.
 * Ned Beatty is an award-winning actor whose debut role was in the famous 1972 horror movie Deliverance, where he played a suburban man viciously raped by psychotic mountain men.
 * The Bender family is based on the actual Bender family that killed visitors to their Kansas hotel in the early 1870s. Though the actual Bender family killed for robbery.
 * Pa Bender's comment about a human being the best hunt is from the short story, The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell.
 * On the Deputy's screen when she searches up Sam Winchester it says that he is 6'4"
 * Goof: On the Deputy's screen when she looks up Dean Winchester it says that he is 6'4" when in reality he is 6'1"
 * Goof: The side of Deputy Hudak's car says "Hibbing County" but there is no such thing, Hibbing is actually part of St. Louis County
 * Alexia Fast, the actress who played Missy Bender, also appeared in season 7, when she played Dean's amazon daughter.
 * Hibbing is also the setting for the Sheriff's Retreat in Season 10's Hibbing 911.

Quotes
Dean: "I'll say it again - Demons I get; people are crazy."

Kathleen: It says here your badge was stolen. And there’s a picture of you.[She turns the computer to reveal a heavy-set black man]

Dean: I lost some weight. [laughs nervously] And I got that Michael Jackson skin disease.

Sam: Dude, they're just people.

Dean: And they jumped you? Must be gettin' a little rusty there, kiddo.

Sam: So you got sidelined by a thirteen-year-old girl, huh? Dean: Oh, shut up. Sam: Just saying you're getting rusty there, kiddo.

Dean: Shut up.

Kathleen: Alright. What’s his name?

Dean: Winchester. Sam Winchester.

Kathleen: Like the rifle?

Dean : Like the rifle.

International Titles

 * Finnish: Metsäläiset (Woodlanders)


 * French: Les Chasseurs (The Hunters)


 * German: Menschenjäger (Human Hunters)
 * Italian: La Famiglia Bender (The Bender Family)
 * Polish: Bendersi (The Benders)
 * Spanish: Los Bender (The Benders)