Gunnison, Colorado: 1989
Two siblings, Matt and Jesse, are going through the woods to a fishing spot. Jesse tells his older brother about how he kissed a boy, and Matt doesn't want to hear it. Matt warns that not everyone in town will understand Jesse's situation, and Jesse wants to move to California. His brother promises that as soon as he turns 18, they're going to get out of Gunnison. Jesse asks to see it, and Matt gets out his rare coin. Satisfied, Jesse hands it back after a moment and goes off the path to urinate. He hears a rattling noise and then Matt screams. When Jesse runs back, he sees something dragging Matt off into the woods. Jesse runs after his brother and then turns to see something behind him.
Now
At the bunker, Dean is still going through the lore trying to find a way to locate and free Castiel from Lucifer's possession. Sam assures him that Castiel is tougher than they could look, but Dean figures that Amara will swat Castiel like a fly to get at God. His brother shows him an article on Libby Strouss, who went missing near Gunnison. Libby's friend said that a mutant with glowing green eyes carried Libby off. When the friend followed, she found Libby but Libby had become a mutant with green eyes.
The brothers drive to Gunnison and meet with Sheriff Tyson. She admits that she's had six people missing in the last 48 hours. Libby and her friend were visiting from Tucson and Libby went missing first. The others were locals. Tyson admits that the friend isn't a reliable witness because she's a pothead. Sam asks if similar disappearances have happened before, and Tyson admits that 27 years ago, seven residents went missing. Twenty-eight years before that, another eight disappeared. Gunnison has only been there since the 50s, and Tyson says that some of the old-timers have theories that the town was built on an old Indian burial ground. The sheriff figures that people just upped and left, but she really doesn't care.
Once Tyson leaves, Sam goes to check the reports on the missing. Dean talks to the friend, Cori Kim, who insists that she wasn't hallucinating. She says that the creature that took Libby was naked and pale except for the green flashing eyes. It didn't have any hair and was shaped like a human, but it didn't have any genitals. Cori says that when she found Libby, her friend was standing there shaking, a buzzing noise coming from her body. Then her eyes flashed green and she snarled, and Cori ran off.
Dean tells Sam what Cori described, and Sam turns up nothing on the research. He has found a report from Sheriff Joe Cochran in 1989, and there's no mention of buzzing. Cochran was closing in on some of the missing, and then he dropped the case and resigned a few months later. No one knows where he moved to. Sam discovers that there is one witness still in town from 1989, Etta Fraser.
The brothers talk to Etta, who says that her second husband Pete disappeared after having two affairs. The two women he was having affairs with disappeared that year as well, and Etta figures that Pete ran off with the women. Dean notices that Etta has packed bags, and she says that she's going to live with her sister for a few weeks. Etta reluctantly says that when Pete went missing, her grandmother said that he "got the chitters." According to the grandmother, once a generation around the spring equinox, people started going nuts and having orgies in the woods. Etta figures that people are disappearing again, and Gran told her to burn sage to keep the chitters away. The chitters made the same buzzing noise, and their eyes shined like emeralds. As the Winchesters leave, they determine that the spring equinox was the day before.
Two residents, Cliff and his girlfriend, take a shortcut through an alley. They hear the chittering noise and see two of the creatures together. Another one appears behind them and leaps on Cliff, biting his neck as the girl runs off.
Later at the sheriff's station, the girl tells Sam, Dean, and Tyson what happened. She recognized the one who attacked Cliff as Coach Grant Hollister. The girl realized that one of the two copulating Chitters was a local Deaver boy, and the other one was Mrs. Limoski. She thinks there were more Chitters in the alley, and Dean wonders if it was an orgy. Tyson cuts him off and leaves, and the brothers go after her. She points out that all the people the girl described were missing, and Dean admits that it's a new one for them. Once the sheriff leaves, Cori calls Dean and tells him that she saw Libby in the woods. Dean goes to check it out while Sam investigates the alley.
Dean drives out to meet Cori and he hears the chittering noise. Libby is standing alone, shaking, and glares up at Dean. Another chitter jumps Dean, but a man comes up and decapitates the chitter. Another man arrives and stabs the chitter repeatedly, and tells Jesse that the creature is dead. Dean goes to a bar with the two men, Jesse and Cesar. They explain that they've been hunting for seven years, and have heard of the Winchesters. Sam arrives and Dean introduces the hunters. Jesse says that they're hunting Bisaan, a cicada spirit. They're rare in America, and every 27 years they come up from underground and mate for a couple of days. Then they disappear and come up again when the new generation dies off. The Bisaan are insect-like creatures that can't reproduce on their own, so they take over human bodies by entering through the mouth. The buzzing is the Bisaan mating call. Jesse explains that one of them took his brother 27 years ago, and he's been waiting years to come back and get revenge. He asks the Winchesters to back off, and says that they've been in the woods looking for the burrow. Cesar says that Jesse hates the town and everyone in it, and Jesse tells his partner that he can talk to people if he wants. The older hunter admits that they fight like a married couple, and Dean wonders what it's like for two married hunters.
Sam asks about Cochran, and Jesse says that the former sheriff ran to the hills and holed up there. He doesn't see the point in talking to Cochran, but Cesar points out that they've accomplished nothing lurking in the woods. He figures that they're losing, and Dean offers to go back to the forest with Cesar while Sam and Jesse talk to Cochran.
As they drive back to the woods, Cesar says that the Bitaan will retreat underground by the next day and will disappear for 27 years. He warns that if they don't kill the creatures then the guilt will consume Jesse. Dean says that he understands what it's like to watch someone go through that, and Cesar tells him that he's seen it before and it never heals over. A few hunters get their revenge but they're never fixed. Dean figures that they have to help them get their revenge anyway.
As they drive to Cochran's cabin, Jesse explains how he lost his brother 27 years ago. He found him, possessed by a Bitaan, and ran away. Everyone in town thought some pervert took Matt, and his mother thought Matt was lying. She moved away, and she and the townspeople all blamed Jesse.
Dean and Cesar split up, and a chitter crawls out of the dirt behind him. It jumps Cesar but Dean arrives and drives it off, and then chases after it.
Sam and Jesse talk to Cochran, who claims that he doesn't remember anything. Jesse blames him for not helping any of the missing, and Sam tells Cochran that more people have gone missing the same way. Cochran insists that it's done.
Dean returns and tells Cesar that he followed the chitter to the burrow. It attacked Cesar because he was getting close to the burrow. There's no cell service, and they head for the burrow on their own.
Cochran tries to get rid of his visitors, and Sam asks him to tell them what he knows. The ex-sheriff admits that he never found anything and it's on him, so he bought the cabin and made his peace. Jesse explains that he never got over losing Matt, and Sam insists that what took the townspeople isn't human. Cochran finally says that he tracked one of the chitters down in 1989. He followed it back to its lair and found his missing daughter there, transformed into a chitter. All of the missing people were dead because his daughter and the other chitter killed them. Cochran couldn't get through to his daughter, and she attacked him. He had no choice but to kill her.
Furious, Jesse grabs Cochran and says that he knew the truth. Cochran insists that no one would have believed him, but Jesse figures that Cochran didn't want to admit that he killed his own daughter. Sam wonders what Cochran did, and Cochran admits that he just let the townspeople think their townspeople had run off. He tells them that the burrow is at the old Donnelly Mine, and Sam leaves with Jesse.
Dean and Cesar arrive at the mine and go inside. They split up and head down the shafts, and Dean finds Libby's body. A chitter is gestating in the body's stomach. A chitter comes up behind Dean and lunges at him.
Another chitter attacks Cesar, knocking him down and disarming him. Cesar manages to shove it off, grab his knife, and decapitate the creature.
Den struggles with the chitter and finally hits it with a shovel. He then cuts off its head with the shovel blade, just as Cesar arrives. They continue on and find more chitter corpses. There's a hole leading to the surface, and Dean figure that the males were protecting the female's corpses. They go to the Impala to get gasoline to burn the burrow, and Sam and Jesse arrive. Cesar tells Jesse that it's finally over, and Dean asks Jesse if he wants to finish the chitters off.
Jesse goes into the mine and finds his brother's bones. He pulls out the case with the coin, and Dean says that they'll take care of the remains.
The next day, the hunters make a pyre for Matt. As they watch, Sam tells Dean that when he left with John and were late, he always figured that one of monsters got them. Dean points out that Jesse turned out all right, and suggests that Jesse and Cesar could give them a hand with Amara. Meanwhile, Cesar and Jesse set the pyre on fire.
As the hunters head back to the car, Cesar tells the Winchesters that he and Jesse had a deal. When they finished the hunt, they'd retire. Jesse wonders if they need help, and Dean says that they're all set. The couple is heading to the spread they bought in New Mexico to raise horses, and Cesar figures that it's time to start living. Once they leave, Sam and Dean figure that once their new friends reached the finish line, they should leave them alone.
Written by Gadfly on Apr 28, 2016