Episode Details

Supernatural Season 4, Episode 3, In the Beginning recap ⌚ Castiel sends Dean back to 1973 Lawrence, Kansas, where he meets his young parents, John and Mary, and the Yellow-Eyed Demon, Azazel, on Denim-wrapped Nightmares, a Supernatural rewatch podcast. It's Supernatural's version of Back to the Future, and they went there.

The episode opens with Sam acting like the shadiest of shady, sneaking out of the motel at night to meet Ruby while Dean sleeps fully clothed under his leather jacket. Then Castiel touches Dean's forehead, and suddenly Dean's at a diner where the bench advertises Tab, and the charming guy next to him is his dad (Matt Cohen, shout-out!). Dean quickly learns that Mary (Amy Gumenick) comes from a family of HUNTERS, meets his grandfather Samuel Campbell (Mitch Pileggi, aka Skinner from The X-Files, and aka another cleft chin in the Supernatural arsenal of fine men), and races to stop Azazel before the demon gets what he came for.

Episode Highlights:

• Dean asking where to get a signal, and John answering with the USS Enterprise
• Dean breaking the news to a hippie that Sonny and Cher broke up (John is devastated)
• Dean talking John OUT of a Volkswagen van and INTO the Impala (the origin story we deserved)
• Samuel's gross sexism about Mary wanting out of hunting (lovely, Grandpa)
• Azazel's creepy obsession with getting PERMISSION (why, though?!)
• The black-smoke demon vomit that's become the show's go-to effect
• Callbacks galore: Daniel Elkins from Dead Man's Blood, What Is and What Should Never Be, and the psychic kids (our headcanon: Charlie was Andy's dad)
• Castiel's pop-ins keeping us on our toes, and his warning about Sam

In the lore segment, we dig into Azazel, the fallen angel of Jewish and Christian tradition: his role in the Book of Enoch, the scapegoat sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible, and why he's sometimes depicted in a goat skull, and his cameos in X-Men and Sandman. Plus, a love letter to Fallen, the Denzel Washington movie about a demon that jumps from person to person.

"Sam, wherever you are... Mom is a babe. I'm going to hell. Again." – Dean Winchester

Your turn, hunters: If you could go back in time and meet your parents, would you want to? And did Matt Cohen nail young John or WHAT? Tell us in the Spotify comments, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts (it's how new hunters find us), or send us fan mail. Bonus points for fandom fun facts we missed.

Sources:

• https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/In_The_Beginning
• https://mythology.net/demons/azazel/
• https://www.christianity.com/wiki/angels-and-demons/who-was-azazel.html
• Fallen (1998): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119099/

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Denim-wrapped Nightmares is a Supernatural rewatch podcast hosted by Berly and LA, breaking down every episode of the Winchester saga with lore deep-dives plus cast and crew interviews. Special thanks to David Fesliyan and Fesliyan Studios.

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