‘The Winchesters’ Recap: Season 1, Episode 3 “You’re Lost Little Girl”
Mary’s next-door neighbor mysteriously goes missing, so she teams up with John to dig into the disappearance. During their investigation, John unexpectedly reunites with someone from his past. Carlos and Ada bond as they stakeout a potential lead for the demon’s partner. Meanwhile, Latika taps into old folklore passed down from her family in hopes it helps Mary and John. Check out our recap below to see what went down in this week’s episode, “You’re Lost Little Girl.”
Big Rig Momma
In a modest family home in Lawrence, a young girl named Carrie says goodnight to her mom, a long-haul trucker, over a CB radio. She bemoans the loss of her toy, “Bernice,” begging her mom to come home and help find her, but she’s told to go to sleep. On the way to bed, Carrie finds a sack on the floor of her room — with Bernice the bunny inside. Delighted, she abandons the bag and tucks herself in. In the dim light of her room, long, twisting hands begin to emerge from the sack.
You Need People
“There’s no map to being a hunter. Truth is, you
can’t do it all on your own. You need other people to guide the way: your
friends, your family. Otherwise, you just end up lost.”
Mary tries to contact her mother but doesn’t seem to be having any luck. Deanna is off on a case of her own and hasn’t been in contact for a while. Mary confesses to John and Lata that she isn’t even sure if Deanna knows that Samuel is missing. Frustrated, Mary seems ready to give up for a moment, suggesting that maybe John doesn’t want to be found. She confesses that they parted on an argument about her leaving hunting. John and Latika pick her back up by pointing out that perhaps Samuel is, in his own way, trying to respect what she wants and keep her out of the hunting life.
In a subtle yet genius bit of matchmaking, Lata advises that perhaps Mary should take a night off and maybe go see a movie. John jumps at the chance, but Mary fails to pick up the bait; she’s on a mission, and she can’t let it go.
Piles of handwritten notes from Ada’s trance haven’t turned up anything about the Akrida, but there might be something in there that will tell her how to fix the box. The demon that possessed Ada was in cahoots with the other demon going after the box, and she thinks they can get more information from him — maybe with the help of an address that keeps recurring throughout the notes.
With the news that there’s a disturbance at Mary’s neighbor’s house, the group split up — Carlos and Ada are off to check out the address, and John goes with Mary to check on the kids next door.
John and Mary arrive to find Ford, Carrie’s older brother, but not Carrie. A pretty, young police officer is at the property, and she instantly spots John — this is Betty, the person John’s mom mentioned previously. It seems that the two once knew each other well before John left for the army.
With a little lie about having enrolled in community college, John introduces Mary as a member of his “study group.” Betty recognizes her name and releases Ford to her, as per his mom’s wishes.
In private, Ford tells Mary that he didn’t tell the police everything, so they didn’t think he was crazy. Mary coaxes him to explain, and he confesses that when he ran into Carrie’s room, he saw a long, twisted arm grab her before pulling her into a sack and vanishing. Mary tells him that she believes him.
John finds a CB radio in Carrie’s room while investigating the house with Mary, and Mary tells him that Samuel taught her to pick up hunter code words on one when she was very young. When John asks her about her dreams as a kid — confessing that he wanted to pitch for Kansas City — Mary tells him that she didn’t have any dreams like that as a kid. She was never given a choice; She was raised to hunt monsters.
On the floor in Carrie’s room, Mary finds a scrap of sack fabric.
The First Rule of Monster Club
Mary adds a few hex bags to the Campbell house for extra protection, explaining to John what they are. Ford asks John about Betty, the cop, but John brushes it off, saying that he has more important things to think about right now. Ford is a smart kid, and he doesn’t buy John’s explanation that the hex bags are for good luck.
John and Mary explain that people like them take care of monsters. Ford wants to join the monster club too. Indulgently, Mary tells him that he can, but he has to know that the first rule of monster club is that it’s a secret.
Stakeout
“I got that restless feeling …” Rockin’ Roxy’s radio station tells us as Carlos and Ada sit in the front of Carlos’ van, staking out the address from her trance. Carlos makes it very clear that he is not about stakeout life (“Youth withering to decay”), and he thinks they are the worst part of hunting. He suggests they kick down the door and bust on in — “Good idea,” says the black-eyed demon from next to the car door.
They tussle, with Carlos shooting streams of holy water into the creature’s face. It doesn’t seem to have too much effect, but with Ada’s assistance, the demon winds up in the back of Carlos’ van — right under the devil’s trap he’s got on the roof.
Instead of going right back to the rest of the group or immediately exorcising the demon, Ada says she wants to take him somewhere quickly.
Bori Baba
From the scrap of sack fabric, Lata identifies the kid-snatching creature as her own childhood nightmare monster: a Bori Baba. Over 1,000 years old, it is summoned when someone wishes for a lost item.
Mary notes that it’s strange that two wayward monsters have now turned up just as the Akrida did. John suggests that Lata asks her parents about the Bori Baba, not realizing that Lata’s parents died years ago. Lata says she might know someone, though, and she’ll give them a call.
Back at the Campbell’s house, Ford hears a knocking on the door. He goes to open it, and there’s no one there — except there is. Ford walks out of the house and into the Bori Baba’s trap, following his own “lost item.”
John and Mary return with food for Ford to find the house empty and the door open. Betty turns up to check on Ford, and John distracts her by lying (somewhat badly) about Mary taking him on a snack run. The two end up having a heart-to-heart, revealing that they had some kind of relationship previously, but there’s no hard feelings about it now.
Heading back inside, John hears Mary on the CB radio, telling him that the Bori-Baba took Ford. She’s going to go after him, trusting John and the rest of the team to get them all out. John protests and Mary tells him, “You found me once, John Winchester. I have faith you’ll do it again.”
John panics and runs to Mary, but he’s too late, arriving just as she disappears into the sack.
Waking up inside the sack surrounded by lost toys and endless junk, Mary settles her lost item — her dad’s hat — onto her head and goes after the kids.
Tiny Tree Trap
Carlos watches Ada as she grinds up herbs for a spell that she claims will trap a demon inside a living object — a bonsai tree. Carlos is a little gob-smacked watching Ada be such a badass, but he supports her and definitely seems to approve.
The demon is not a fan of the idea of being a bonsai tree for life and agrees to talk. He doesn’t know much, but he tells them he and his buddy were AWOL from Hell and made a deal with the Akrida. Their leader is hiding inside a human, a woman.
Despite the demon’s cooperation, Ada traps him inside the bonsai anyway. Carlos seems impressed with her spunk but also mildly concerned.
The Rescue
Lata is running out of leads to asking about the Bori Baba. She says that she has one last call she can make — John desperately encourages her because he doesn’t want to lose Mary. “I need her,” he tells Lata, clearly already attached.
Meanwhile, Mary and the kids are running from the Bori Baba, and Mary’s attempts to decapitate it don’t seem to slow it down much.
On the phone, Lata talks to her mother — not dead, it seems! — and discovers that the monster is vulnerable outside of the sack, but they have to get everyone out first. The only way to escape is to let go of the thing they have lost.
John comes up with a plan to use the CB radio, hoping that among the years of junk in the sack, there might be one that Mary can pick up. It’s a long shot but a success — he manages to call Mary, who tells the kids they have to destroy their lost items.
Carrie doesn’t waste a moment ripping off Bernice’s head. Ford snaps his too, and they vanish, reappearing outside. But when Mary tries to burn her father’s hat, it won’t light. She panics, but John talks her through it — she has to let go of what the hat represents.
“Hunting is all I have,” Mary confesses. “I’m not like you. If I give it up, I don’t know who I am.”
With John’s help, Mary admits to herself that she can do it; she can make plans for life outside of hunting. She sets fire to the hat. Reappearing in the house with the kids, John and Lata, Mary runs to hug the kids.
The Bori Baba wastes no time showing up, though. Lata, the team’s self-proclaimed pacifist, bravely faces her childhood nightmare with a vicious shove, and John slits its throat. Carrie has the last word, stamping on the sack and declaring, “Stupid monster!”
Reunited
Carrie and Ford’s mom arrives home, hugely grateful that her kids are safe. Betty appears outside the house, and John confirms that Carrie wandered off looking for a lost toy bunny. The two continue their heart-to-heart, driving home that even though they needed to talk, there are no hard feelings now. Then, Betty pulls out something to return to John — a diamond ring! He takes it graciously, saying that they’d been too young and moved too fast. They agree to be friends.
Mary strolls over once Betty is gone, telling John that the kids are sticking to the cover story, but she recognizes the look in Ford’s eyes. He wants to make monster club jackets.
What Next?
Mary agrees to take a break — “One step,” she says — before returning to the search for her dad. She goes to see a movie, The Omega Man, by herself. A handsome stranger approaches and pays for her ticket, and after a brief back and forth about enjoying seeing movies alone, she agrees they can watch this one together.
John and Lata talk about the day and about Lata facing her childhood monster. Carlos and Ada return from their stakeout and bonsai-banishing to fill John and Lata in about the Akrida — that one of them is posing as a human woman.
As night falls, Rockin’ Roxy’s radio station can again be heard in an ominous voiceover about bringing “hellraisers” to Lawrence. John is outside in the dark, burning the sack remains of the Bori Baba in a fire pit. He’s deep in thought. Unbeknownst to him, a scuttling, leggy monster takes a piece of the sack material from the fire and steals away with it.
Elsewhere, Carlos watches Ada thoughtfully through a window.
The creature takes the stolen scrap from the fire to the redheaded DJ whose station has been playing. Presumably, this is Roxy. She pulls out a witchy-looking glass bottle and siphons a glowing, red power from it. Smirking, she replaces the cap.
The Winchesters airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on The CW. You can find our other coverage of the show here. Be sure to check out On The Road Again, Nerds & Beyond’s podcast covering all things The Winchesters! Additionally, give our recent interview with Jensen and Danneel Ackles, Robbie Thompson, Drake Rodger, and Meg Donnelly from New York Comic Con a read!