This episode may be hard with those with small children (and a fear of lethal kitchen sinks) to watch. The scene opens up with a classic scenario many people may have faced in their childhood. A little girl in bed as her is downstairs unpacking boxes. It’s obvious they have just moved, and the mom possibly had her husband pass away quite recently. She looks up when her daughter approaches her saying something is in her closet.
Of course, mom goes upstairs to check. She puts on a show of going to look in the closet. It’s obvious the mom doesn’t believe her daughter that there’s a monster lurking in there. After checking, the mom tells her daughter she has nothing to fear. Closing the closet doors, and after her daughter’s instance moves a chair in front of the doors as well. The mother goes back downstairs, but hears a scratching sound. She goes to check in the basement for rats. Only to discover a small box filled with family pictures from the previous family who lived there. It’s pictures of Sam, Dean, John, and Mary when they Winchester family lived there before the fire happened.
As the mom is gazing over the photos a fiery apparition appears in the daughter’s closet. Her worst fears now confirmed as the figure walks out towards the little girl.
One interesting aspect of this episode is the foreshadowing that takes place in it. Dean starts to show signs of having telepathic powers of some sort. As Dean is talking to him about tackling a new case Sam is obsessively drawing the picture of a tree over and over. After gazing at the tree for a while Sam puts two and two together. In his father’s journal he and his brother discover the tree Sam had been drawing earlier. The tree is in front of their old family home from when Sam was a baby and Dean was just a kid. So the brothers travel all the way back home.
The brothers talk with the woman and catch scent something is not quite right with the house. They become suspicious when the daughter confirms there’s a person who’s on fire living in her closet. Sam and Dean have warning bells going off in their heads, and go off to do some investigating on their own father. It doesn’t take them long to find themselves being led a psychic named Missouri.
While this is going on the mother has a plumber come to her home, and explains how her sink is backed up. She thanks him for coming and quickly leaves to go into another room. The plumber is checking the sink, and as he does he thinks something may be clogging it. He sticks his hand into the garbage disposal and well…
Let’s just say the mother ended up being on the phone talking about not being able to afford a lawyer. The Winchester brothers learn an evil spirit lives in the house. While they’re talking to Missouri the psychic, the mother’s little boy (at least 3-4 years old) is let out of his playpen. The door to the refrigerator closes on the little boy when he crawls into the fridge. The mother comes back into the kitchen, but finds her son gone. She starts yelling his name as she searches for him. Having no idea that her son was locked in the fridge by the spirit, even going so far as to put to snap the child safety lock in place.
As the mother frantically searches she notices milk is spilling out of the fridge. As she goes up to the fridge to unlock it there’s a brief shot that’s taken from afar. If you focus on the part where the child safety lock is in this far shot when the mother is bending down near the fridge, you will notice the lock is in fact undone. The actress does lift the lock (you can see her doing in the episode) pretend to undo it, and take the little boy out of the fridge.
Missouri, Sam, and Dean arrive at the front door soon after the incident. Missouri confronts the mother and reassures her that she isn’t crazy. There is an evil spirit in the house. After fighting with the poltergeist they manage to purify the house. Sam states he doesn’t quite want to leave even after they save the mother and her children. He says he just has a bad feeling. Dean continues to complain up until the point where they both see the mother silently screaming and pounding on her window.
They fly out of the car and go in to save the family. Sam gets the children out okay while Sam gets the mother out. Sam gets yanked back and held against a wall. Dean manages to smash his way in, and is about to shoot the flaming spirit coming at them until Sam tells Dean not to. The fire dies down, and both boys realize they’re staring at their mother. After greeting her sons Mary drives away the Poltergeist that had been plaguing the house, and sacrifices herself to save their lives.
The ending scene shows Missouri talking about Sam’s new powers and commenting how powerful they are. When she turns to look at John she states she can’t understand how Sam couldn’t even sense his own father.