Oh, to be young again. For one reason (or a hundred), every person has, at some point, thought about what it would be like if they were able to turn back time and get a second chance to re-live their lives, correcting for past mistakes or not passing on opportunities they’d pushed by the wayside. If there is someone searching for another chance more than Dean Winchester, I’m not sure who that could be. Well, he gets his chance in the unlikeliest of ways in this week’s ‘Supernatural.’

It seems as if the last few episodes have all started the same: Dean with his nose buried in books in his desperate attempt to find an answer for removing the Mark of Cain. So far, it’s been snake eyes in the information department and Sam finally has had enough. No more sitting around, pouring through old books. Dean needs “to get back in the game, for [his] own good.” The strength of Sam’s words spurs Dean on and the two brothers make their way to Pendleton, Oregon and investigate the disappearance of ne’er-do-well JP. While Sam talks to people outside of JP’s bar life, Dean puts feelers out at the bar, eventually making a connection with Tina. They chat away about life and Dean’s big break comes when he sees a scarred man following Tina out back. The woman’s screams draw the hunter to the side of the bar where he finds her clothes empty and smoking, just like JP’s. Unfortunately for Dean, he’s a bit to slow on the draw when the stranger re-appears, and ends up getting hit with the same white light as the scarred one’s previous two victims.

Sam and pre-teen Dean about to do some hunting

Not long after, he wakes up, trapped in a basement and, more to the point, in the body of his fourteen-year-old self. If that’s not a big enough mindbender, he finds out he’s not alone. Both Tina and JP in their respective adolescent bodies are sharing the basement prison with him and all three are uncertain to their fates. Only Dean’s able to put a plan together and, after JP is taken out of the cell, Dean ends up making his escape through the window and getting back to Sam. The latter is stunned to find Dean the Younger staring at him but it doesn’t take more than a few seconds for us to recognize the same snarky personality is still running under the hood. They ready up and, on the way back to the house, Sam talks about his research; yarrow, a flower, was discovered at the scene and points to a witch being involved in the process. So it’s pretty simple; kill the witch and things revert back to normal. But is that what Dean wants? Whatever spell was cast on the elder Winchester has thrust him back into his younger self. He doesn’t have any of the scars for hard living or, most importantly, the Mark of Cain. Sam’s not behind Dean allowing things to remain as is but big brother sees this as a potential opportunity to solve his biggest problem. But for now, first thing’s first.

They return to the house and find Tina gone. The scarred man gets the drop on Teen Dean but Sam comes in and take down the bruiser. He gives them his own sad story, of being in the witch’s employ for centuries along with his sister and, in the end, being forced to eat poor Gretel’s heart. That’s right folks, this magical kidnapper is none other than Hansel from the Grimm fairy tales. Sam and Dean’s arrival gives him the backup he needs to take down the witch and the three confront the witch in her kitchen where she prepares Tina for the next meal (poor JP’s already met his untimely fate). The Winchesters find out rather quickly that it wasn’t such a good idea to trust Hansel so openly. He double crosses the two and the portly witch does the rest.

Don’t trust a Grimm fairy tale character. Ever.

Down but not nearly out, the boys find out this witch is a part of a larger whole. She’s on Grand Coven business, searching for Rowena, Crowley’s red-headed biatch of a mother. A second scuffle ensues and Dean’s able to get the transformational pouch from Hansel’s neck and, using the cannibal witch lackey’s earlier advice, squeezes it, triggering the reset to his condition. He takes Hansel down with no problem and relives a bit of the Grimm fairy tale ending when he escorts the witch into the fires of her own oven.

Battle won, Sam and Dean say their goodbyes to Tina. With the pouch incinerated, she’s stuck in her younger form but realizes it may be a blessing in disguise. Her life hasn’t been the kosher dream she probably wished for and has the opportunity to amend some past mistakes. “Everyone wants a second chance, right?”

For Dean, the Mark is back in play but Sam believes they’ll figure things out. “We always do.”

“Damn right,” Dean says. And for the first time in a long time, it seems as if he finally believes it.

Driving away to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off”? Well, there really are no words…