The episode opens with Sam and Dean tailing a figure in black, and it is not a chase that bodes well for Dean. The figure is hovering over a body and glowing red, and so Dean charges in as he always does. With a flash, he is gone and we are taken back to two days ago.
The brothers get a call from Sheriff Mills about a mysterious death of a grad student. When he was found, the youth resembled a mummy. This is clearly something for the Winchester boys so they set out to survey the town and set up camp in an abandoned house. Their first witness describes the opening scene of the episode, and so the brothers begin researching strange deaths in the area. Canton is known for their withered corpses, and the mummies appear in groups of three. Two have died in this area already, so the brothers wait for the next victim.
A clue appears in seconds through the repeated images of a man in a fedora who hasn’t aged in any of the photos. He still lives in the area and the Winchesters begin tailing him. Now, we are back at the opening scene of the episode.
When Dean is back on his feet, he has once again been sent back in time. It is 1944 and Dean is arrested for running down the street with a gun. The cops think he’s a spy because of his cell phone, except for one. He listens to Dean describe the red light and his interest shows that he is another hunter. Dean is sitting before Elliot Ness, the famous Prohibition agent who hunted down Al Capone.
After Dean praising the movie “The Untouchables,” the two compare notes on how to catch this mysterious monster. Before they can actually go hunting, Dean must dress the part and not like a poor farm boy.
In the present, Sam and Sheriff Mills are working together to hunt the monster as well. With Bobby’s massive amount of notes and the internet, the two keep tracking the man Sam and Dean chased in the alley. He was far from a man, but in fact the god of Time. Dean is learning the same information in 1944 from Elliot’s tailor, and so the two groups set out to capture and kill a god several decades apart.
Ezra and Dean find the god’s house and the bookie he uses to bet on races he’s seen in the future. Interrogating the bookie, Dean does his best bad cop impression from all the movies he’s seen. He seems to be enjoying it.
Somewhat at the same time, Sam and the sheriff are discovering the hitch in summoning both Chronos and Dean at the same time. The god must be touching Dean to bring him back to 2012, otherwise it would all fall apart.
Instead of summoning him, Dean and Elliot tail the god. In the car, the two hunters compare back stories and Elliot makes it obvious how much they both need hunting to survive. The talk is cut short when the god follows a young woman down a dark alley. The hunters ready their guns to shoot when he attacks, but Chronos only kisses the girl instead of sucking out all her life. Elliot keeps on tailing him, while Dean goes back to the tailor to learn how exactly to kill the god of time. As he is holding the stick to shove into Chronos’ heart, it finally dawns on Dean that he will be stuck in 1944 if they do in fact succeed.
Then, in typical Dean fashion, he figures out what to do with a movie reference. Like in “Back to the Future 3” he writes a letter to his brother. Posing as a fed hunting termites, Dean enters the house where he and Sam were staying to leave the note.
As Sam is about to rest from his investigating, he notices his name carved into the wall and the note telling Sam everything that has happened. Now, they have the day that Dean fought Chronos. They only need the time, which the elderly girlfriend supplies. She also mentions that Chronos will kill Dean that night. Armed with everything they need, Sam and Sheriff Mills prepare for the ritual.
On the night in question, Dean attacks the god while Elliot holds his girlfriend as a hostage. The truth is revealed to the poor girl, but she seems more reluctant to believe how Chronos loves her and killed everyone to stay with her. The fight is cut short as Sam summons Dean and the god of time back to 2012. Just in time, Elliot tosses the stick that can kill him to Dean and it flies out of the time traveling fight to land at Sam’s feet. While Chronos is distracted by punching everyone, Sam is able to ram it through his heart. As he dies, the god of time tells the boy their future. Everything is covered in black ooze, the blood of the Leviathans. Things do not bode well for the Winchesters.