1.07 Hook Man

Taylor and Lori are sorority roommates. Taylor helps Lori choose an outfit to wear on a date with her boyfriend Rich. Although Lori is not too sure about the outfit, Taylor convinces her to wear it. Rich and Lori leave for the party. When Rich parks the car in the woods on 9 Mile Road on the way to the party, he and Lori start making out. When she becomes uncomfortable with how far he is going, they hear a noise outside. Rich goes to investigate. Something invisible attacks the car, bursting the tire and causes an elongated scratch along the bodywork. When Rich disappears and Lori hears banging on the car roof, she locks herself in and screams. After a while, when there is no more noise, she gets out to run. Turning around to look back, Lori finds Rich dead, hanging from a tree above the car.

Sam is making inquiries, trying to locate their dad, when Dean comes across a case about an invisible attack. They decide to investigate, and arrive in Ankeny, Iowa.

At the fraternity house where Rich lived, they find out he was seeing Lori, who is the daughter of Reverend Sorenson. They attend a service at the Reverend's church. After church Taylor is trying to get Lori to come to a girls night, but she is not sure. Later Sam and Dean introduce themselves to Lori. After Dean pulls the Reverend away to talk, Sam talks with her about what she saw. Sam and Dean think the story sounds right out of the Hook Man Legend, with the possibility of it being a spirit. They head to the local library to research it, searching through several dusty boxes of arrest records. They find that in 1862 a preacher named Jacob Karns killed 13 prostitutes on 9 Mile Road, using the silver hook he wore in place of the hand he lost in an accident. He was later arrested and then executed.

That night the boys travel to 9 Mile Road, in search of the Hook Man, but the Sheriff discovers them, and then arrests them. Meanwhile, Reverend Sorensen drops off Lori back at the sorority house, upset about her choices in friends. After she storms off from her dad, she lets herself into her bedroom and sees Taylor asleep. Rather than waking Taylor up, she readies herself for bed in the bathroom, before climbing into bed to sleep. In the shadows, the Hook Man is looking into the bedroom from the closet.

The next morning, Lori wakes up in her dorm room to find her roommate Taylor dead and the words, "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" written in blood on the wall. Dean convinces the sheriff that he was hazing Sam for Hell Week, including using a shotgun with rock salt to shoot at ghosts. So after being released by the sheriff, Sam and Dean hear about Taylor's murder. They sneak in and search the dorm room, noting the strong ozone smell that accompanies ghosts, and that there is a cross symbol drawn in the blood that they found in their research.

Sam, after researching more, find other killings have occurred in the area, both times also by clergymen. The boys postulate that the spirit of Karns is latching onto the reverend's repressed emotions and killing those he feels are immoral, trying to save his daughter. While Dean goes to find Karn's grave, Sam goes to watch over Lori. They talk, and she shares with him that she has found out that her father is having an affair with a married woman. Lori thinks she is cursed, that people around her keep dying. Sam knows how she feels.

Dean salts and burns Karns' corpse at the Old North Cemetery. Lori leans into Sam for comfort, but it becomes obvious that Sam lost someone close to him and he cannot move on. Reverend Sorensen comes to the door to call Lori in, after seeing them kiss, but Jacob Karns reappears and attacks Reverend Sorensen. Sam and Lori witness the Hook Man pulling him inside, and Sam grabs a gun to follow and protect the Reverend, finally dissipating the spirit and saving his life.

At the hospital the next day the sheriff questions Sam, before releasing him. Sam proposes to Dean that Jacob's spirit has latched onto Lori, rather than her father. First the boyfriend, who had been trying to go too far and then the roommate, who had been trying to turn Lori into a party girl, and finally her dad for having an affair. Sam and Dean were wondering why burning the corpse did not stop Jacob, until Sam remembers the silver hook. Dean confirmed that it was not buried with him in the coffin. After more research at the library, they find out his hook was melted down and made into objects for the church.

After Sam took the church and Dean took the house, they both gathered all the silver they could find to burn at the church's furnace. Lori comes to the church to cry for forgiveness, and is joined by Sam for a heartfelt talk. Hook Man attacks Lori and Sam, while Dean finishes burning the silver. Dean comes back to shoot the spirit, before they realize Lori's silver necklace is the silver hook. Dean races downstairs to burn it, leaving Sam with a gun and shells to defend them.

The sheriff questions Dean on what happens, before taking Dean's testimony that the man with the hook showed up and they all fought him off before he ran. The sheriff is getting antsy at seeing Sam and Dean in trouble so much the last few days, and Dean interrupts him to tell him that they were leaving town. Lori takes the time to thank Sam for saving her life, and her father's life, before Sam joins Dean in the car. Dean offers to stay, but Sam shakes his head and they drive on down the road.