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Home is the 9th episode of Season 1. It aired on November 15, 2005.

Summary

Dean Purgatory Blade.png There was something about being there... It felt pure.

This episode summary is an official CW press release. It may contain errors.
DO NOT CHANGE!

Sam is haunted by a vision of a woman trapped in his childhood house and convinces a reluctant Dean that they need to go home. Upon arrival, they meet the woman in Sam's premonition and she reveals that the house is haunted. Looking into their personal history, the brothers discover their father had visited a psychic (guest star Loretta Devine, "Waiting to Exhale," "Crash") after their mother's death and they turn to the same woman for answers of their own. Together they discover a malevolent poltergeist has inhabited the house and set out to exorcise it, but are blindsided when another unseen spirit steps in.

Plot

Jenny has just moved into a new house in Lawrence, Kansas with her two children Sari and Ritchie, having moved from Wichita after her husband died. She settles Sari into bed. Her young daughter is nervous in the new house, but Jenny reassures her that there is nothing scary in her closet.

Jenny continues her unpacking, until a noise draws her down to the basement, where she discovers a trunk full of old photos. One shows a family, and is inscribed on the back "The Winchesters. John, Mary, Dean, and Little Sammy". Upstairs, Sari screams as the closet door swings open, revealing a figure made of flames.

Sam wakes up from a dream of Jenny, screaming from Sari's bedroom window.

Dean is researching new cases, but Sam is distracted as he sits, obsessively sketching the image of a tree. Finally he pulls out an old photo from his duffle, and recognizes the tree as the one that grew outside their childhood home in Lawrence.

Sam tells Dean has dreamed of something bad happening at their old house. Dean is skeptical as to why they should return to Kansas based on a dream, but Sam reveals he dreamed of Jessica's death, just the way it happened, several days before the actual event.

Dean is disquieted by returning to the family home. When they arrive, Sam explains they used to live there, and Jenny shows them around. She explains the strange occurrences – the flickering lights, noises, and the being Sari reports seeing.

After they leave, Sam and Dean decide they need to approach this like any case and research the past of the house. They compare notes on what John has told them of the night their mother died, and Dean relates what he remembers from the night. Sam is surprised; he never knew Dean carried him from the house.

When he has a moment alone, Dean tearfully calls John asking for his help, and reveals how upset he is over the whole situation.

Back at the house, Jenny has called in a plumber after the garbage disposal has stopped working. As he tries to fix it, a toy monkey mysteriously starts banging its cymbals, and the unit starts up, tearing apart the man's hand.

The boys go to a garage and speak to Mike Guenther who co-owned the garage with John. He reminisces about the time after Mary's death, and mentions that John visited every psychic in town.

As Sam searches through he telephone book for psychics, a name rings a bell with Dean - Missouri Mosely. The first sentence in John's Journal reads: "I went to Missouri and I learned the truth".

The boys visit Missouri Mosely, who is telling an insecure man that his wife wasn't cheating on him, but after he leaves, she mutters that his wife is having an affair with the gardener. She recognizes the boys without introduction, and also knows of Jess' death and John's disappearance.

Meanwhile, something has helped little Ritchie escape from his playpen, and then traps him inside the refrigerator, although Jenny rescues him.

Sam, Dean and Missouri return to the house, and explain to Jenny that they can help rid the house of whatever is there. Missouri senses two presences, one of which is a mean poltergeist, but neither of which were responsible for Mary's death.

Missouri has the boys help her prepare bags filled with ingredients that will help purify the house. As they start placing the bags, the poltergeist fights back violently, trying to stop them. Finally all the bags are placed, the house appears peaceful, and Missouri declares the house safe.

Sam is less sure, and he and Dean sit in the car watching the house. Suddenly Jenny appears, screaming at the upstairs window, just as she did in Sam's dream. The boys rush inside and Dean takes Jenny to safety. Sam sensing something stops and sets both kids on on the ground and tells Sari to take Ritchie and to go outside just as something attacks him.

Dean breaks down the front door, and finds Sam in the dining room, where some force has pinned him to the wall. Just then a fiery figure appears, but just before Dean shoots it, it coalesces into the figure of their mother, Mary.

She acknowledges Dean, and says "I'm sorry" to Sam, before commanding the poltergeist to leave the house, and disappearing herself in a ball of flame.

Jenny and her family return to the house. Missouri promises to keep an eye on them as Sam and Dean take their leave.

At home, Missouri muses that she is surprised that, given his powers, Sam couldn't sense the presence of his father - John Winchester is in her sitting room. Missouri tells him to go and see his sons, but he says he can't, until he knows the truth.

Characters

Main Cast

Recurring Cast

Guest Stars

Co-Stars

Featured Supernatural Beings

Continuity

  • This is the first appearance of Missouri Moseley.
  • John Winchester previously appeared in Pilot.
  • Mary Winchester previously appeared in Pilot.
  • Though not referred to by name, hex bags make their first appearance in the series. (They are what Dean, Sam and Missouri put in the walls to purify the house.)
  • Sam demonstrates the ability to sense paranormal presences to a degree greater than Missouri. He will never display this ability again. Also, through the rest of series, Sam's abilities are usually linked only to demons and those "infected" with demon blood, making his premonition of Jenny and his detection of the poltergeist and/or Mary's spirit an even more singular event. Although it could be explained by the Azazel's actions in the house.
  • Mary enigmatically apologizes to Sam. This is the first indication that her role in the story runs deeper than previously thought.
  • John Winchester makes his first on-screen appearance in the "present" time-line.
  • The child safety latch on the refrigerator that Ritchie is disconnected in the shots from the hallway, and is disconnected already when Jenny rushes to rescue Ritchie from inside of it.
  • When Sam tells Sari to carry her brother outside, he says almost the same thing his father, John, told Dean the night Mary died.

Trivia

  • Antagonist: Poltergeist
  • An alternate title for this episode is 'The Journey Home', which was shortened to 'Home'.
  • Missouri states that is unknown what happens to spirits after they cancel a poltergeist, later is revealed that they go to their place of resting peace, as Mary apprises that she went to Heaven.

Errors

  • Garbage disposal units work by using centrifugal force to grind food instead of blades. The plumber's hand would likely not have been damaged to the extent portrayed.
  • When Ritchie gets trapped in the refrigerator, the clasp that holds the door closed changes whether its locked and not, when Jenny rescues him, it is not locked although she pretends it is.
  • When Dean runs back to the house to rescue Sam, you can see the shadow of the camera man.
  • When Sam and Dean are at the gas station Sam sits down facing Dean. As they talk it's all head shots and it now shows Sam is facing the same direction as Dean. When Sam comments he never knew Dean had carried him out of the house he looks beside him at Dean and Dean does the same when he responds, when really they should not be facing the same direction. As again when the shot pulls back to full body Sam is once again facing Dean just as he was when the scene started.

Cultural References

Dean hacking away at the front door with an axe and then peering inside the hole is reminiscent of the scene from The Shining, albeit without Jack Nicholson's famous catchphrase.

Dean: All right, just slow down, would ya? I mean, first you tell me that you've got the Shining? And then you tell me that I've gotta go back home? Especially when...

  • The Shining (1980) is a feature film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. The film stars Jack Nicholson as tormented writer Jack Torrance. Jack's son, Danny, has creepy visions of impending evil. Another character referred to this "gift" as The Shining, hence the title. 

Jenny: That's Ritchie. He's kind of a juice junkie. But, hey, at least he won't get scurvy. Sari, this is Sam and Dean. They used to live here.

  • Scurvy is a disease derived from vitamin C deficiency. It was a common affliction for sailors and pirates who were out at sea longer than fruits and vegetables could be stored. 

Dean: Missouri did her whole Zelda Rubenstein thing. The house should be clean; this should be over. 

  • Zelda Rubenstein played psychic Tangina Barrons in the 1982 film Poltergeist and its sequels. There is a scene in the first film where she proclaims, "This house is clean!"

Quotes

Missouri: "Boy, you put your foot on my coffee table, I'm gonna whack you with a spoon."


Missouri: "John Winchester I could just slap you!"


Sam: "Alright, Sari, take your brother outside as fast as you can and don't look back!"

International Titles

  • Finnish: Takaisin kotiin (Back to Home)
  • Brazil: A Jornada Para Casa (The Journey Home)
  • Brazil: Volta ao Lar (Back to Home) - 2nd dubbing
  • French: La Maison des cauchemars (Home of Nightmares)
  • German: Zu Hause (At Home)
  • Italian: Ritorno a casa (Return to Home)
  • Polish: Dom (Home)
  • Romanian: Acasă (Home)

External Links

See Also

Home (the Japanese Animated remake of this epiosde)

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