Warning: Spoiler Alert
If you’ve followed our recaps for the CW series “Supernatural,” you’re aware of the terms I use to differentiate the shows episodes. There are stories, that advance the long-term story-arc of the season, getting “THE BOYS,” one step closer to the answer they seek, well represented by the two previous episodes. Then there are “One-Offs,” an episode that deals with another issue and rarely advances the plot for the season. Although some of the long-time series, finest episodes were “One-Offs,” most times fans of the show prefer episodes that show the light at the end of the tunnel.
There are of course, exceptions to every rule and in the case of Supernatural, it usually involves an episode with fan favorite Charlie Bradbury, the only woman accepted into the Men Of Letters Society. The last time we saw our favorite redhead, she traveled to Oz, with L. Frank Baum’s daughter Dorothy, last season. Sam and Dean found out about her return to our dimension via an internet report.
The story starts at night, as we see an expensive looking home, then notice there are lights flashing and the sounds of glass breaking from an upstairs room. We head inside and see a man running down a flight of stairs, his hands bound together, while he dodges objects thrown at him. He gets outside and trips over his garden-hose and falls on his lawn, he looks back at his house and things look calm, but he turns around and there’s a figure in the shadows. He says he told everything he knows and a woman emerges, it’s Charlie with a stylish bob hairdo. She tells him, she believes him, but she’s still going to torture him, who doesn’t like a little torture?
We then join Dean and Sam, in the early morning at the Men Of Letters headquarters, with Sam talking to Castiel on the phone while Dean makes breakfast. He comes to the table with egg-white omelets for them both, Dean’s trying a new regimen to keep from going dark-side, but he hates what he’s eating. He tells Sam that once the Mark Of Cain’s removed, he’s returning to a diet of booze, burgers and more booze.
Sam’s surfing the net, when his attention’s caught by a story, Dean asks if it’s Cas or Crowley, but Sam responds it’s Charlie. There’s a video of Charlie Bradbury, kicking the stuffing out of a middle aged-man on his front lawn. Sam finds out the man’s a District Attorney from Topeka, named Peter Harper and the court stenographer, got assaulted the night before. Dean and Sam decide to drive to Topeka to talk to Harper.
They identify themselves to Harper as FBI special agents Collins and Gabriel and ask what went on the night of the attack. He tells her this insane woman came in and attacked him wanting the records of a traffic-accident years ago that resulted in two deaths. Sam interrupts him and says Harper’s referring to the Middleton case, Dean says the FBI does their homework. Harper tells the pair that the case never went to trial and when he went looking for the records they’d gotten taken. All he’s got is the case history of their 12-year-old daughter Celeste Middleton, Charlie’s real name.
Sam tells Harper that they’d talk to the court stenographer earlier and she said her attacker wouldn’t leave until she gave her a name, yours. Whose name did you give up? The DA tries to bluff his way out of it but Dean threatens him and he tells him City Council Woman Barbra Cordry’s the name he gave up. Sam and Dean try to talk with her about the situation, but she says she’s still on vacation, call her office and set-up an appointment.
The pair sit in the Impala outside her house and suddenly hear Cordry scream, they run inside and see Charlie holding the woman with a blade to her neck. Sam and Dean aim their pistols at Charlie and she looks at Sam and tells him he’s adorable and he won’t shoot her because he’s too good. She looks at Dean and asks when he’s going to take this albatross (gesturing to Sam,) off your neck?
Dean and Sam put their weapons away and Dean says that they love her but this is ridiculous, let the woman go before he has to hurt her. Charlie hits the woman in the mouth and starts to run out, Dean tackles her, but she takes him out, with a scissors-hold and blow to the head, she starts to leave and kicks him in the head then runs.
Dean gets off the floor, but too late to stop her as he watches her drive off in a dark-colored car, then we have a “Back To The Future II” moment, as another Charlie then pulls up in a little yellow car and says to Dean What’s Up. Sam, runs out of the house and he looks incredulous and Charlie says they’ve got catching up to do.
They stop at a diner and we learn that Oz was awesome until it wasn’t so awesome. There was a war for the Emerald City and they were losing, so she made a deal with the Wizard Of Oz. She allowed him to use one of the six Oz keys, to release her inner darkness, an actual second Charlie that had all of her anger, hatred and inner pain, while the Charlie they’re eating with is All Good, she can’t do anything wrong and says it’s annoying. She can’t get situation rectified as Dark Charlie broke the Oz key.
She says that Dark Charlie’s trying to find that killed her dad and put her mother in a lifelong coma, in a DWI accident when she was 12. She wants to get him to endear the Dark Charlie to her, but Yellow Charlie (for the yellow car!) despises some acts she committed and wants no part of her other half. They hack into the financial records of Barbra Cordry that Dark Charlie stole and they realize the man that was the other driver’s Russell Wellington. They split up with Sam and Charlie heading to the Men Of Letters Headquarters, while Dean goes to Wellington, whose a real estate broker.
After Wellington quickly figures Dean’s not there to buy property, Winchester tells him he’s the guy that’s going to save his life. Then the power’s cutoff and Dean tells Wellington not to leave the room. We see Dark Charlie standing outside the office, twirling her little sword from Oz and says she’s not going in there. She gives Dean the sword, says she doesn’t want to kill him, she just wants to see his face when he looks at her, when he realizes what he took away from her. Then they’ll turn her over to the cops, Dean agrees and she opens Wellington’s office door.
She walks in and the broker recognizes her and calls her Celeste and begs her forgiveness, she says she hadn’t been called that in years. He then says that the accident was terrible enough, however he compounded things by covering it up, he says he should and will get punished for that. She says she forgives him, shuts the officer door, which locks and we hear screams and then broken glass, Dean breaks in and finds Wellington dead with what looks like a screwdriver shoved into his abdomen and Charlie’s left through the broken window.
Sam and Yellow Charlie go through the lore and discover that a man named Clive Dillon found the key but left it on Earth when he traveled to Oz. L. Frank Baum, found the key and went to Oz to bring Dillon home and that’s when Dorothy stowed away and got trapped in Oz herself. Dillon got put into a Men Of Letters version of the witness protection program and his name’s Michael Carter, but Sam says he’d be over 100-years-old, Charlie informs him that time changes in Oz. They find his house and drive over, as they’re riding Dean calls and tells Sam to put him on the speaker and tells them both that Dark Charlie killed Wellington, they tell him where they’re headed and tells Dean to meet them there.
Perhaps Dean was closer to Junction City than Sam, or maybe just a needed plot point for the writers, but Dean stops at a bar along the way, interesting as he hasn’t had a drink in over a week. He’s sitting at the bar with an untouched shot in front of him, when Dark Charlie sits on the stool next to him. He tells her she lied to him, she says he lied to himself, that’s what he always does, but there’s something off about him. She then says that she’s not the monster Wellington was and Dean knows he got the punishment he deserved.
Yellow Charlie and Sam reach the house and a man who looks to be in his sixties answers the door, and Charlie asks if he’s Clive Dillon? He says no and Sam interrupts him saying yes Michael Carter, but you were Clive Dillon during your time as a member of the Men Of Letters, or his time in Oz. Carter laughs nervously and says Oz is just a fairy-tale and Charlie shows him the broken Oz key and says then he’s never seen one of these then? Dillon lets them in the house.
Charlie makes a remark about their attractive waitress and Dean calls her Dark Charlie. She scoffs at him, there’s no good or evil, it’s just us against them. Dean says she’s not going to be around much longer and she asks if her other half found the key, he tells her yes and gives her a location the other direction. She says she’s going to hit on the waitress and walks down a hall, The waitress returns and he asks if his friend struck out and she replies your friend just left out the back. She hotwired the Impala and took off, Dean grabs another car and says he’ll be there as soon as he can.
Dillon says the six Oz keys were made with Oz Metal and the only place the can get repaired is Oz, however he says that he can get the Wizard to go there. He explains, that he’d had the same procedure as Charlie as a coven of witches kidnapped him and released his dark-side. That half killed all the witches then went crazy and power-hungry and he became the Wizard of Oz. If he mortally wounds himself, the Wizard will have to come to attempt to save them both.
Dean pulls up and hears the gunshot from Dillon’s pistol, then Dark Charlie arrives seconds later. As she sees Dean, the mirror starts pulsating emerald-green, then explodes and out steps the Wizard, wearing a robe and a mask. He takes off the mask revealing he hasn’t aged since 1911, he looks at Dillon and asks what he did?
He tells his good half that his only responsibility’s to remain alive and he can’t do that right, Sam grabs his pistol but the Wizard’s magic pulls it out of his hands, then he binds Winchester’s hands and feet with green bands. Suddenly Charlie yelps and her mouth’s bleeding as Dean and Dark Charlie start fighting. She gets the best of him at first, but the size and strength advantage Dean has, wears her out and Dean pummels her, with Yellow Charlie feeling every punch.
He asks the Wizard if he can help his friend and he starts choking Sam with the green bands, saying Charlie wanted to become a hero and heroes always die. Dillon gestures to Charlie to pick up his gun and shoot him again. She says no several times, but Sam’s gasping for air, she looks at the old man and says I forgive you, we both do. He shoots Dillon in the head and the Wizard crumbles with a hole in his face, the magic ends, Sam’s fine.
He takes Yellow Charlie outside while Dean keeps hitting Dark Charlie and Sam yells Dean and the older brother looks at the good Charlie and lets the other half down gently. Sam puts her next to her dark-side and Dark Charlie says you did it, you killed the Wizard and Yellow Charlie nods. The dark-side says I knew you had the magic in you Celeste. Sam gives good Charlie the key causing her to glow and the other version to elevate and they become one again.
Charlie’s out for 48-hours when she wakes up at the Men Of Letters Headquarters, a broken arm and stitches on her face. Sam asks how the two sides are coexisting and she says she’ll settle for balance. Dean and she hug as she tells him, she forgives him and then she says we’re going to make this right.
The Story Continues, Next Tuesday Night at 9:00 pm on The CW.
