Hibbing, Minnesota
A tagger is working in an alleyway, using a stencil on a wall. Something grabs him from behind and rips him apart, spraying blood on the wall.
Sheriff Jody Mills goes to the hotel lodge in Hibbing where local law enforcement is holding a sheriffs' retreat. A hippy girl, Starr, comes up panhandling for money and Jody takes pity on her and gives her some money. Jody then goes inside where Hibbing sheriff Donna Hanscum is handing out name tags. Jody admits that she left a foster daughter, Alex, back home in Sioux Falls. Donna offers her a sucker just as Sheriff Doug Kontos comes over and hits Donna up for a couple of extra meal vouchers. He comments about how she won't need them because she's watching her weigh, laughs, and moves on. Donna admits to Jody that she and Doug used to be married.
At the bunker, Dean is going through the Men of Letters archives to find anything they have on the Mark of Cain. He doesn't have any luck.
Sheriff Len Cuse calls the retreat to order and tells everyone to match up with a partner, someone that they haven't met before. Jody is distracted talking on the phone to Alex. By the time she gets done, everyone is partnered up...except Donna. They check the schedule and another sheriff, Kevin Ott, comments on how trash men in Hibbing found a mauled body in a dumpster. By all indications, something had eaten it. Jody asks if such attacks are common in the area, and Donna tells her that they're not. Intrigued, Jody calls the Winchesters and tells them what she's discovered. They don't recognize it as a typical monster feeding pattern and Dean is eager to help her out. Jody says that she can handle it and once she hangs up, Dean tells Sam that he'd rather be out in the field taking on monsters then going through the books. Sam finally gives in and they head for Hibbing.
Later, Jody meets with the coroner, Shelly, at the morgue. Shelly refuses to let Jody see the corpse, but Donna comes in and convinces the coroner to let them examine it. They discover that the victim's belt is missing, and Donna doesn't recognize the bite marks as belonging to any animal she's familiar with.
That night, a man named Howie is taking the garbage out when he hears something in the dumpster. He dismisses it as nothing and throws his garbage in, but then hears more noises. When he opens the lid, something pulls him in.
At the hotel bar, Jody and Donna approach Len as he drinks. He tells them that he's letting Animal Control handle the case, just as his deputy Graham comes over. Graham claims that they're having a problem with the raffle, and Len hastily draws him to the side. Donna is more concerned about Doug, who is dancing with a female officer, Goodhill. When she goes to the bathroom, Jody approaches Len and Graham, who assure her that the "raffle" is fine. Jody figures that they're discussing the case, and Len admits that there was another animal attack. However, he says that they'll handle it and leaves with Graham to make a couple of calls.
Jody goes outside to call Alex and worries about what she's doing. Once Alex hangs up, Donna comes and figures that Jody was trying to ditch her. When Jody explains that there was another death, Donna offers to help. She overheard the last part of Jody's conversation with her foster daughter and sympathizes with her, assuring Jody that Alex will come around. She then invites Jody back to her room but Jody passes, pleading fatigue.
The next day, Sam and Dean arrive disguised as FBI agents. Jody greets them and they explain that they already went to the morgue and confirmed the second body was eaten. Jody mentions the missing belt and Dean confirms that a wallet was missing from the second victim. The Winchesters spot Donna across the room and recognize her from the spa murder case from a year ago that happened nearby. They ask Jody to keep Donna out of their way, and Jody reluctantly agrees. Donna comes over and recognizes the brothers from when they posed as FBI agents a year ago, and Jody hastily suggests that they check out the gear expo and let Animal Control handle the deaths. Sam and Dean then talk to Len and Graham. Graham takes offense at having the FBI involved, while Len claims that there are no camera records of either murder. Once they leave, the brothers figure that Len is covering up something and Sam tells Dean to question Graham while he hacks the police server.
As Donna and Jody check out a gun table, Doug comes over. Donna reminds him that he was dancing with Goodhill, and Doug says that he just met her on a dating site. He casually refers to Donna being overweight and Jody calls him a douche. Surprised, Doug walks off and Donna tells Jody not to insult her ex, figuring she has no idea what it's like to lose a husband. Jody remembers the death of her husband and Donna, realizing that Jody has lost a husband, apologizes.
Dean convinces Graham to help him and the deputy says that they captured the first murder on a traffic camera. However, Len changed the access password and Graham has no way to get to it. The deputy assures Dean that Len is honest and Dean thanks Graham for his cooperation.
Donna goes outside to give Jody some time alone. As she walks around the back of the hotel, she sees a trail of blood leading down the hill. She follows it and sees Len kneeling over Goodhill's bloody corpse. Donna quickly ducks back as Len looks up and sniffs the air, bares his fangs, and then quickly leaves.
As the EMTs take Goodhill's corpse away, Jody and Dean watch and Jody asks Dean if he's doing okay. He assures his friend that he is handling the Mark of Cain. Sam returns and tells them that someone deleted the traffic camera recording. Donna calls Jody over to the bar and talks to her privately, and describes Len's fangs. Jody assures her new friend that she believes her and so do the Winchesters. Donna remembers Len taking some belongings to room 304 earlier, and Jody calls Sam. When she gets his voicemail, she tells him about what Donna saw and then goes to 304 with Donna. They break in and find tubes of sunlight on the bed. Donna gets an address from a pad next to the phone. Sam and Dean come bursting in, machetes drawn, and Jody tells the brothers that Len is a vampire. As Donna takes it all in, the Winchesters tell Jody to give her friend "the talk."
Once Jody explains what's going on to Donna, Dean and Sam tell her that they were at the spa a year earlier dealing with another monster. She shows them the address and Sam confirms via the Internet that it's an old farm outside of Hibbing. Donna insists on going with them to deal with the vampire, and Jody supports her. The Winchesters reluctantly but tell Donna to follow their lead.
When the group arrives at the farm, Dean gives a machete to Donna and tells her that decapitation is the only sure way to kill a vampire. They approach the farmhouse and Sam sees Len inside, praying. The sheriff notices Sam and yells at him to run, just as shadowy figures knock out Sam and Dean. As Sam passes out, he sees two other male vampires holding Donna and Jody... and Starr from earlier, also a vampire.
The vampires tie their prisoners up and Starr explains that they plan to turn them all. While Dean secretly works on his ropes, he points out that they're vampires but eating bodies. Starr tells him that they use very part of their victims and takes his leather belt. Len begs Starr to let them go, saying that he covered for them by erasing the video of their first murder. He's been drinking banked blood. Donna points out that he was feeding on Goodhill, and Len explains that when he found the corpse, Goodhill was already dead. He lost control briefly when he smelled the blood, but he didn't drink it. Starr isn't convinced and says that she will kill everyone in Hibbing if Len doesn't rejoin their den.
As Dean rubs his ropes through on a nail, Starr tells the prisoners that Len found her near Woodstock and turned her. He taught her and the others how to survive as vampires, but then he disappeared. They found a photo of him with an article on the retreat and came to Hibbing to return him to the den. Len says that he grew tired of killing and walked away to try and have a normal life. However, he offers to rejoin them if they let the prisoners go. Starr orders him to kill the prisoners to prove that he has what it takes, but Len refuses. Starr decapitates him and Dean breaks free and, grabbing a discarded machete, kills one of the male vampires and the second. Jody trips Starr and by the time the vampire gets up to kill her, Donna frees herself and decapitates the last vampire.
As the brothers pack, Jody tells Donna that she did good. She offers to fill her in on the other monsters in the world and Donna accepts. Meanwhile, Dean tells Sam that he felt normal for the first time since he was turned back into a human, and Sam says that they'll go with that.
Written by Gadfly on May 22, 2016