Violet recaps Season 9 Episode 7 of Supernatural, titled Bad Boys, where Dean gets a call about a ghostly case from someone from his past, and the boys go out on the road to investigate! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Supernatural, Season 9 Episode 7: Bad Boys Recap Overview
Need a quick Supernatural episode recap of Season 9 Episode 7, titled Bad Boys? Here is a summary of events for the episode. Each event is linked to the more detailed Supernatural episode recap for Bad Boys if you need more information!
- A tractor runs a guy over on its own. Sam and Dean get a call about the case, which happened at Sonny’s Home for Boys, where Dean was sent for a couple months when he was 16.
- After questioning the housekeeper, Ruth, and a boy named Timmy, Sam and Dean dig up a grave and burn the bones of the farm’s previous owner to get rid of his ghost.
- Apparently the bone burning didn’t work, because the ghost kills Ruth. Dean recognizes a waitress named Robin at the local restaurant, but she doesn’t remember him.
- Dean saves Timmy from being picked on. Timmy makes the lawnmower cut a boy’s hand. Sam and Dean figure out that Timmy is being possessed by a ghost.
- Robin comes to the home and it turns out she does remember Dean. Dean had his first kiss with Robin. They try to leave the house, but the ghost of Timmy’s mom stops them.
- Timmy tells the story of the car crash in which his mom died. Dean burns Timmy‘s action figure, thinking that will get rid of the ghost, but they soon discover it’s Timmy anchoring his mom’s ghost. Dean convinces Timmy to ask his mom to leave.
- In a flashback, we see the night Dean’s dad came back for him. Dean considered staying with Sonny, but one look at Sam made him decide to go.
Supernatural Episode Recap: Bad Boys, the Details
Death by Tractor; Sonny’s Home for Boys
Season 9 Episode 7 of Supernatural, titled Bad Boys, begins with two teenage boys running away from something. They run into a barn to hide, but it turns out they are running from another boy, who they were playing hide and seek with. A man comes into the barn looking for them, when a tractor turns on by itself, and plows the man to death against the wall.
Down in the bunker, Sam seems to be alone. He gets a phone call for “D-Dawg.” Just then, Dean comes in and says it’s for him. Dean reveals that when he was 16, he shoplifted and was sent to a Boys’ Home, which was a farm run by a man named Sonny, who was on the phone for Dean with a case. Dean checks to make sure “everyone” is okay with going, which confuses Sam since he thinks he is “everyone.” Sam then wonders why Dean and his father lied to him, telling him that Dean had been lost on a hunt for a couple of months. Dean dismisses it as having been their Dad’s idea.
When Sam and Dean arrive at Sonny’s Home for Boys, the housekeeper reluctantly lets them in, and Sam learns that Sonny is an ex-con. Dean then has a flashback of when he was first brought to the home — for stealing peanut butter and bread. The police located his father, but his dad said let him rot in jail, so the policeman brought him to Sonny. We also find out that Dean punched the cop in the eye. Sonny helps Dean get out of the cuffs the cop left on him. Sonny notices bruises on Dean’s arms, which Dean says he got from a werewolf.
In the present, after getting the eavesdropping housekeeper, Ruth, out of the room, Sonny informs Sam and Dean about the tractor that came to life and ran over his co-worker, Jack. Sonny also mentions that there have been strange things happening lately, like lights flickering, scratching sounds, windows and doors slamming. Sam checks out the house, while Dean checks out the barn.
Grave Digging
Sam investigates a bedroom, and finds Dean’s old bed. He hears a sound from the other room, but it’s just Ruth. She says she was praying for the ghost that haunts the farm to leave.
In the barn, Dean hears a child laughing. He finds the boy from the beginning of the episode who was “it” during hide and seek. The boy, Timmy, says he’s looking for monsters. Dean teaches him how to shake hands properly. Then Dean asks him about Jack. Timmy reveals that he and the other boys were playing in the barn during the accident, but they didn’t see anything. Timmy also says it suddenly got really cold that night.
Back in the house, Ruth tells Sam about the previous owners of the farm, Howard and Doreen. Jack used to work as a farmhand, and Howard thought his wife was cheating on him with Jack, so he tried to kill them both. Jack got away, but he killed Doreen — with a meat cleaver, and got life in jail. He died a year ago.
Sam and Dean go dig up Howard’s grave. Sam is still wondering why their dad never told him about the boys’ home. They reach Howard’s coffin, and burn his bones.
Another Victim
The next day, Ruth is taking a bath, when an unseen force suffocates her with the shower curtain. Sonny hears her struggling and tries to help her, but he can’t get the door to open. Then it’s too late.
Sam and Dean stop to eat at a restaurant. We then see a flashback of Sonny taking teenage Dean to eat at this restaurant after he’d been at the home for a month. Sonny tells Dean he can stay as long as he wants, considering that they can’t find his dad, and he’s doing well in school. Sonny asks if Dean’s into “devil worshipping” stuff because of occult symbols he found carved into his bed, but Dean doesn’t really want to talk about it. In the present, Dean recognizes a waitress named Robin that he knew from back then, but she doesn’t remember him. Suddenly, Dean wants to leave. On the way out, Sam wonders who that waitress was. But just then, Sonny calls.
Sam and Dean return to the farm, and Sonny tells them how he tried to save Ruth, but the door wouldn’t open — and the farm doesn’t have any locks. Sonny also tells Dean that Ruth always had her rosary beads with her, but now they can’t find them. Dean goes to talk to the kids, while Sam goes with Sonny to check out employee records on the victims.
Timmy is Possessed
Dean finds the older boys outside picking on Timmy and stops them. The older boys are reluctant to talk, but Dean flashes his FBI badge. They swear they were in town getting chicken feed when Ruth had her accident. Other than saying Ruth was a bible thumper, they don’t have anything else to say about her. Dean tries to cheer Timmy up, encouraging him to stand up to the other boys. In the house, Sam discovers that Dean was a wrestling champion.
The older boys get to their chores of mowing the lawn and raking the leaves, when Robin pulls up with her guitar and goes inside. Just then, the boys find Ruth’s rosary on the lawnmower blades, and try to free it, while Timmy creepily watches from the upstairs bedroom. The lawnmower comes on and presumably slices the boy’s hand, as blood goes everywhere. A shriveled looking hand is placed on Timmy’s shoulder.
Dean reports to Sam that the kid needs stitches but is going to be fine. Sam has been looking at Timmy’s file, and thinks Timmy is being possessed by a ghost. Dean makes Sam go to the creepy barn this time. Sam finds a stairway that leads up to an attic. There, he finds drawings on the wall that Timmy did, showing he and his mom were in a car accident.
Timmy Can’t Control Mommy
Meanwhile, Dean comes across Robin playing the guitar, and has a flashback to sitting and talking with Robin on the couch, while she played guitar. They talk about their fathers wanting them to follow in their footsteps, and reveal to each other what they really want to do. Robin wants to be a photographer, while Dean wants to be a mechanic. She kisses him — and it turns out to be his first kiss. They kiss some more. Back in the present, Dean tells Robin she has to cancel Timmy’s guitar lesson, and that they have to get out of here — and to trust him. She wonders why she would trust him again — apparently she does remember him.
Flashback to teenage Dean and Robin making out. She says she hopes this lasts, and Dean says he’s not going anywhere. He asks her to the school dance. Back in the present, Dean tries to drag Robin out of the house, but the door shuts, and Timmy walks up saying he’s sorry, and that he can’t stop it. Objects starts flying around and breaking. Sam comes in and makes a circle of salt around Robin. Timmy again apologizes that he can’t control “her” — his mother.
Sometimes You Gotta Do What’s Best for You…
Timmy tells them about the car accident he was in with his mom, when they crashed in the woods, and everything was on fire, but she saved him before the car blew up with her in it. He ran and hid in an empty building, where he cried for his mother, and she finally came to him. Dean realizes that Timmy’s mother gave him his action figure. Sam tries to take it, but the ghost of Timmy’s mother tries to stop them. Dean is able to snatch the action figure away, and burns it on the stove. However, Sam realizes it wasn’t the action figure that was anchoring her here: it’s Timmy.
Dean comments to Sam, “So unless we waste the kid, we’re sitting ducks?” at which Robin runs from the room, saying, “This is crazy!” Dean runs after her and catches her, but Timmy’s mom attacks Dean. Then Timmy’s mom hears Sam talking to Timmy, and beings attacking Sam. Dean tries to help Sam, and she attacks both of them. Dean tells Timmy he has to tell his mom to go away, saying, “Sometimes you gotta do what’s best for you, even if it’s gonna hurt the ones you love,” echoing the same words Sonny told him that day at the restaurant. Timmy asks his mom to go, promising he’ll be okay. Her decomposed skin goes away, revealing what she looked like before. Then she disappears. Timmy runs to Dean and hugs him.
Sometimes You Gotta Do What’s Best for You…
Robin figures out that this is Dean’s “family business.” It turns out she loves her own family business of running the diner. She kisses him on the cheek and goes inside with Timmy. Sonny thanks D-Dawg for his help. Sam wonders how Dean knew Timmy asking his mom to leave was going to work, but Dean says he didn’t, he just got lucky. Sam realizes that this was the best part of Dean’s life, and asks why he left. Dean says it never felt right.
We get a flashback to Dean getting ready for the school dance he was going to take Robin to. However, Sonny comes in and tells him that his dad is waiting outside, and refused to come back later, because he has a job for Dean. Sonny offers Dean a second chance, saying that he’ll fight for Dean to stay. However, his dad honks the horn, and Dean looks outside and sees Sam. He decides he has to go.
Back to the present, Sam thanks Dean for always being there and having his back. But Dean replies, “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 9 Episode 7 of Supernatural: Bad Boys
This was one of those heart-wrenching episodes where we see just how much Dean loves Sam, and how much he will sacrifice for him. I’ll admit, I bought into it, and I really enjoyed the flashbacks in this episode. It’s obvious that Dean was so happy in his life with Sonny, and he gave it all up because of Sam. His life could have been completely different, but one look at his little brother was enough for him to throw it all away. On the other hand, I think we know by now that Sam is Dean’s top priority, and vice versa. The show doesn’t really have to keep hitting us over the head with that fact.
I felt like things were wrapped up a little too quickly with Robin, and that that whole situation felt a little unresolved. She seemed like a much more important person the way Dean reacted to being snubbed by her, and by Sam’s pestering about who she was. It just seemed like they’d give her a little more than a 10 second wrap up at the end.
Honestly, I enjoyed the flashbacks a lot more than I enjoyed the present day storyline, although that wasn’t too bad. The tractor coming to life made me think of the episode where there was a monster truck ghost, and I was hoping it wasn’t a tractor ghost! It was also nice to see the boys out on the road, working another case, and was interesting to find out this whole side of Dean’s life that we never knew about. It did nothing to advance the overarching storyline, but that was fine with me.
Josh’s Thoughts: Supernatural, Season 9 Episode 7: Bad Boys
This episode of Supernatural gives us a brief snippet of history about Dean that we didn’t have before, which is kind of interesting to see. I felt like this episode was showing how Dean maybe wasn’t 100% sold on the family business, but maybe more sold on loyalty to his father. It was pretty sad seeing Dean have to ditch out on this girl that he seemed to really like, and based on some of the inferences I made, he may have had his first kiss with this Robin. I guess we see the girl who turned Dean into the player he is today!
I guess Sonny is another father figure that has come in and out of Dean’s life as well. The show seems to ask quite a bit, how their life could be different if X happened. For example, if Dean would have stayed at the farm, where would he be now? Living the normal life? Maybe happier? Maybe without Dean the apocalypse would have come? Are hunters the only reason the world still goes round? That seems to be a running theme for the show–that Seam and Dean seem to be chosen to save the world, and therefore can’t do anything else.
Unfortunately, I am a little annoyed that the overarching story of the episode seems to be dragging along, but that is not surprising, as last season felt like it was dong to same thing. I guess I am just ready for things to progress, so we can get this show on the road! I guess we will see what happens next episode.
Scenes from Supernatural, Season 9 Episode 8: Rock and a Hard Place
Here are scenes from the next Supernatural episode, titled Rock and a Hard Place:
What did you think of Season 9 Episode 7 of Supernatural, titled Bad Boys? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
It was sad to see Dean’s life when he was younger. He found great happiness at the farm, but family always comes first for him. It was a good episode for Dean’s backstory.