Supernatural - As Time Goes By

GREAT episode introduced me to the Men of Letters and only Supernatural could introduce the Brothers Winchester to their grandfather, Henry, having used a “blood sigil” to time warp from 1958 to 2013! Looking for his son, John, instead he encounters Sam and Dean, literally dropping into their hotel room, startling them. John grew up believing Henry ran out on him, not realizing his father actually traveled forward in time to meet his boys! The blood sigil required specific ingredients and a certain incantation, and the one who uses them will be forwarded ahead to their closest blood relative. Since John is dead, his boys were next in line so Henry meets them, and they are faced with having to contend with “Hell’s First Knight”, a powerful demon named Abaddon. Abaddon has entered the body of a friend of Henry’s (Gil McKinney), Josie (Alaina Huffman). Josie infiltrated the American branch of the Men of Letters, a secret society of scholars and cerebral literary geniuses, having collected down through the years evidence and developed resources to combat demons, such as the use of alchemy. Henry used such alchemy to transport to 2013. Too bad Abaddon followed him, looking to take a specific box with a key pocketed by Henry when he was handed it by an injured Men of Letter named Larry. All of the knowledge attained by the Men of Letters could be Abaddon’s if she can just find it. Abaddon has the ability to read from the thoughts of those that came in contact with the Winchesters, using those details to follow her prey…and taking delight in not just invading these people but killing them afterward for no apparent reason but because Abaddon can. Will Abaddon get the box/key? The crest of the Men of Letters makes for a catchy symbol, getting good look-see into John’s badass journal as Henry studies his son’s work with all its artistic renderings and valuable notes/contents is gnarly, and Henry getting to go on an adventure with his grandsons (despite some early tension with Dean) as a demon knight pursues them makes for quite a memorable episode. The trip to the comic book store once an initiation building for the Men of Letters with the crest on the door, meeting the goth in the store with her “Devil made me do it” shirt, “As Times Go By” from Casablanca used in creative ways, a clever engraving on a bullet to stifle Abaddon, and Dean having to resort to graphic measures in order to put down the demon knight when his usual weapon of the knife does no good accumulate to make this episode a real winner. This episode would certainly go on my Top 10 for the show if I had one. The torturous sacrifices and decisions made in order to combat evil, often resulting in great loss, is especially emphasized throughout, as Henry nearly returns to 1958 to alter the timeline so John wouldn’t grow up hating him, while Dean and Sam address their own relationship with their father. The price paid in the fight between angels and demons, with the humans of Earth often in the middle (and dying through no fault of their own) is ongoing in Supernatural.

You’re also Winchesters. As long as we’re alive there’s always hope. I didn’t know my son as a man, but having met you two, I know I would have been proud of him.

They even stopped the Apocalypse!

My father and his father him before were both men of letters. As John and you two should have been. We're preceptors, beholders, chroniclers of all that which man does not understand. We share our findings with a few trusted hunters - the very elite. They do the rest.

That the Winchesters are "Legacies", it gives them greater stature, it appears. I think this detail mentioned gives them an understanding that with all the anguish and loss they've encountered, their importance in the grand scheme of things is substantial.