Sam and Dean enter their motel room in Carthage, which has the exact same table they had at the Willow Tree, only this time, Travis is sitting at it, drinking one of their beers. Dean teases that he knew they should have hidden the beer, and Travis calls him a smartass. I say, "So I take it you two have met?" On this show, think of heretofore unknown hunters that turn out to be great friends not only of John's but also Sam and Dean, as a bottomless well of retroactive continuity. It helps you wave it all away with your hands and move forward. So, Travis is an old hunter and friend of the Winchesters. The boys reckon they haven't seen him in 10 years. He remarks on Sam's extraordinary height and asks him if he's still a Mathlete. Oh c'mon, Kripke. Sam was a Mathlete and Dean hasn't tormented him about it over the past four years? Travis comments on how the boys have grown up, and says John would have been proud of them sticking together they way they have. Awkward. Dean grins and bears it. "Yeah, we're as thick as thieves." Then he decides to Drive Home A Big Brotherly Lesson, "Nothing more important than family." Uncomfortable.

Travis has a broken arm, which is why he requested the boys' help on this case. The boys update him on Jack's eating habits. Travis explains that Jack is a Rugaru, which Dean thinks sounds made up, but if it is, we can't blame the writers, unless they created that Wiki entry. I'm using the spelling from the episode description, not the closed captioning or the primary spelling in Wikipedia, mostly because it's simpler, but also because it's closest to Subaru, and Subaru's jingle has been haunting me since I read the program descriptions. What makes a Rugaru a Rugaru? Well, good ole boy Travis is here to tell us. "They're mean nasty little suckers. Rotted teeth, wormy skin, the works." They start out human (or human looking) and then they go through some sort of metamorphosis (Sam gets to say the episode title). Hearing impaired people, remember last week when I told you the closed captioning lies? They're up to it again, but this time in your favor. There's a whole line in the closed captioning that wasn't spoken on the show: "About age 30, they start changing -- bones shift around, animal instinct kicks in. They're hungry." As the captioners feed secret messages to the hearing impaired, we see Jack casing his fridge and Michelle preparing supper. She cuts her finger, which bleeds pretty badly. Cut to Travis who says (aloud and in the caption), "But most of all they're hungry." At first, they want to eat everything, but eventually they want the long pig. Dean is confused. "Long pig?" And I'm dizzy, because we're back to Sam being the smart brother, as he explains that means human flesh. Dean ponders it and smiles. "And that is my word of the day." I guess we know what makes a Rugaru a Rugaru, now. As Travis explains how fast the craving for human flesh comes on our beastie, the camera cuts to Michelle running water over her bleeding finger. Jack looks kind of like the lesser members of the Fellowship, whenever they spotted the precious. Michelle wants him to take her to get stitches, but he says he's got to go, and runs out. Monster or not, I would not want to come back to her, after leaving her there bleeding.