2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown

At Cooper's Carnival, Nora is with her parents having fun. At one point she sees a clown, but neither of her parents see him. On the way home, she sees the same clown again off the side of the road in the shadows, waving at her. Later that night lying in her bed, Nora notices a strange shadow on her ceiling coming from the window. She investigates and sees the clown waving at her from the lawn below. Nora walks downstairs, unlocks the front door, and invites the clown into the house. He takes her hand as he steps inside, shutting the door behind him.

Dean and Sam stand watch as Dad's remains burn into ashes on a funeral pyre. Sam fidgets while he is crying, but Dean is numb, just watching. Sam asks Dean if Dad said anything to him before he died. Dean only replies, "No", before a lone tear runs down his cheek.

A week later, Dean is working hard on repairing the Impala. Sam comes out to check on him, pushing for Dean to deal with Dad's death, to be mad at the demon, to get revenge. Dean is getting very frustrated with Sam because he keeps asking Dean if he is all right and Dean refuses to discuss John's death. Dean points out they cannot hunt this demon because they have got no lead on it and they have lost the Colt. Sam tells Dean that he has something - he retrieved a voicemail message on one of their dad's old cells phones that is four months old, from a woman named Ellen offering help. She is not in Dad's journal, but Sam traced it back to an address. Dean tells Sam to ask Bobby to use one of his cars.

The boys borrow a Dodge Caravan from Bobby that still needs work as a belt squeaks, and they pull up in front of Harvelle's Roadhouse, in what appears to be an abandoned roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. Dean is upset with the vehicle, feeling humiliated, but it was the only running vehicle Bobby had. The boys check around, before Dean picks the lock for them to enter the roadhouse. It appears empty, with one guy unconscious on the pool table. Sam heads to the back, and Dean is surprised with a rifle to his back. He takes it from the girl, but she hits him and takes it back. Dean calls for help, but Sam shows up with his hands in the air with a woman and a handgun aimed at his back. Ellen realizes the boys were Sam and Dean Winchester, John's boys, and so introduces herself and her daughter Jo. She offers help against the demon, to their surprise. Sam and Dean discover that this roadhouse is a meeting place for other supernatural hunters like themselves, and once was for their father, too. John's death comes up - that the demon got him before he got it - and Ellen offers condolences, while Dean stubbornly states they are all right. She tells them that Ash can help track the demon. Dean hands over all their father's research; Ash promises to have something in 51 hours. While Dean talks to Ellen's daughter Jo off to the side, and for once does not try to pick her up - wrong place, wrong time, Sam notices a folder behind the bar and asks Ellen if he could look at it. The folder contains an unsolved police case that occurred not far from the roadhouse. Sam tells her they'll check out this case.

While Dean is back to driving the minivan, Sam looks over the details of the case and explains that there have several murders over the past month in this small town. The suspect is said to be disguised as a clown from Cooper's Circus but all have alibis. Dean teases Sam about his fear of clowns, but it looks like a cursed object since similar murders occurred back in 1981 at Bunker Brothers Circus, moving from city to city. The brothers clash over Sam jumping on the case; Sam wants to work it because Dad would have wanted it.

Another murder happens, with a boy named Evan and a clown who killed Evan's parents. The boys arrive, watching detectives checking out alibis. When Dean comes back from hearing about the newest murders, Sam points out it will take forever to check EMF for a cursed object. Dean has the idea to blend in, and they go to get hired. Trying to find the owner, Mr. Cooper, the boys run across a blind man throwing knives, a dwarf clown, and another dwarf performer. They finally are able to sit down with Mr. Cooper. They try to lie about working the circuit, but he catches them. He gives them a speech about deformed and outcasts being home, but they are regular and should live their lives. Sam earnestly tells him they do not want regular, but this. Later Dean pushes Sam about what he said, since Sam was going back to school. Sam thinks that Dad would have wanted him to stick with the job, so he is having second thoughts about going back to college. Dean calls him on it, since Sam spent half his life doing exactly what Dad did not want, and Sam admits he is doing this because Dad died. Dean walks away, claiming he does not have a problem with it.

Later the boys are working on picking up litter and scanning EMF when Sam finds a skeleton in the funhouse. He calls Dean and they meet up, but they overhear another girl telling her mom about a clown no one can see.

Realizing this family might be next, the boys follow the family home and stake out. While waiting on the clown, Dean relays information to Sam that the blind man, Papazian, told him. Looks like Mr. Cooper worked for both places that had an evil clown murdering parents. Later that night, they spot the girl letting the clown inside her home and sneak in the other way to try to kill it. Unfortunately, the clown escapes, crashing through the glass in the door and disappearing, leaving the parents scared and confused why Sam and Dean are in their house with a shotgun. The boys run out.

Dean and Sam ditch the minivan off the side of an empty road, thinking that the girl's parents saw their license plates. Walking along the road, they discuss the case. When Sam goes to call Ellen for information, they clash over how Dean is silent over Dad's death. Dean, pissed, claims he is okay, and tells Sam that he is the one with the issues, since he is suddenly obedient to Dad. However, it is too little, too late. Sam calls Ellen, who tells him it is a Rakshasa. They discuss who it might be and guessed Mr. Cooper. Now for Sam to check to see if he is sleeping on a bed of dead insects, and Dean to grab a brass dagger.

Sam heads for Mr. Cooper's trailer, picking the lock and sneaking inside. Before he can slash the mattress open Mr. Cooper is there, pointing a gun at him. Meanwhile Dean meets up with Papazian, asking if any of his throwing knifes are brass. They go inside the trailer, where he invites Dean to search his trunk, and Dean finds the clown costume. Papazian changes to a Rakshasa, and disappears. Dean manages to escape while knives are thrown at him.

Dean runs by Sam, who stops Dean and they exchange information. It is not Mr. Cooper, it is Papazian, and no brass knife. Sam has an idea, and they head for the funhouse. They get separated, and knives are thrown at Dean again, pinning him to the wall. Sam manages to break a brass pipe off the calliope. Dean pulls a lever to release enough steam from the calliope to show an outline, which Dean calls out and Sam stabs behind him. With blood pouring out of the still-invisible screeching creature, it falls over. There are only empty dusty clothes with a bloody pipe.

Back at the Roadhouse, the bar is open and other hunters are about, cleaning guns. Ellen praises the boys, telling them, "Your dad would be proud." Sam awkwardly leaves Dean and Jo together, and they talk. Dean admits he would be hitting on Jo normally but now is wrong place, wrong time. Ash comes out with his rig - a homemade computer - and shows them the demon is nowhere to be found. However, if any of the signs (cattle mutilations and electrical storms) pop up, his rig will go off and let them know. Ellen offers them a place to crash out back, but Dean needs to finish something.

Dean is working on the Impala at Singer Salvage when Sam approaches him to apologize. He is sorry for trying to pick a fight with their dad the last time he saw him. For all he knows, their dad died thinking that Sam hated him. It is too little, too late, to make up for the things in the past. Sam is not dealing with Dad's death, but neither is Dean. Sam walks away. Dean picks up a crowbar and takes out his rage and grief by smashing the glass window of a nearby car, then the Impala's trunk over and over.