Cranky Tanya's Review of "well, at least we got to see Mark Pellegrino."

I know I've lucked out before and got to recap some really fun episodes of Supernatural. This was not one of those episodes (not that the title "Repo Man" particularly suggested a romp...) Anyway, if you don't mind major SPOILERS for the episode, stick around and I'll tell you what I did and didn't like.

(But first, random anecdote! Mark Pellegrino, the show's recurring Lucifer, recently turned up on the Castle episode "The Blue Butterfly." I said, "Hey, it's that guy from--" "Practically everything?" my husband joked. Like the show's recurring demon Crowley (played by Mark Sheppard) Pellegrino does turn up on several of the shows we like, including a vampire on Being Human and mystical island guardian dude on Lost. My husband and I cracked up at a reference to Pellegrino "not aging" on Castle since he's played some sort of immortal on pretty much everything we've seen him in.)

The show opens in Idaho "four years ago" when the boys were exorcising a serial killing demon from a local guy named Jeffrey, a sensitive postal employee. Unfortunatley, they had to torture Jeffrey's body to get info from the demon within but the upside of that was, since the demon squealed on higher-ups, they felt confident it wouldn't be allowed topside any time soon. It would be in hell for a good long while. The flashback included a white magic practicing Wiccan who helped them track down Jeffrey and ended with Dean dropping Jeffrey off at the hospital.

Flash forward... Bad news for the Winchesters (and Idaho in general), the killings have started again. Since Sam and Dean can't get a new lead on Leviathan leader Dick Roman, they decide to return to Idaho on what they consider unfinished business. The Wiccan is their first stop and she says she has to take care of a few things and then she's getting out of town (since the demon threatened her last time) and asks if they've checked on Jeffrey.

We then go to some sort of group therapy session where a guy is complaining about no access to Cinemax and discover that Jeffrey is in a halfway house but is doing better. He's just received permission to care for his very own pet and as soon as he went to get the dog, I turned to my husband. "If the dog doesn't survive this episode, I am going to be upSET." My husband waved away my concerns.

Sam and Dean nab Jeffrey and ascertain that he is not possessed again. (My CW was a bit on the blink, but I think they did this by pressing a magical blade to his skin.) Then Jeffrey tries to recall what he "heard" while the demon was living in his head to give them clues.

What I probably should have mentioned sooner is that Sam has been hallucinating the devil again for this whole episode. Mark Pellegrino's Lucifer is both playfully disturbed and truly scary. He's angry that Sam won't talk to him and acts out for attention not unlike a middle school boy (only, you know, way more gruesomely). When he stuck out his tongue at Sam, I was utterly repulsed (the tongue was forked) but may have also laughed out loud accidentally.

Jeffrey says that he thinks he knows who the next victim his (town librarian) and Sam goes to check on her, with pretend-Lucifer working as his creepy, unwanted but ultimately helpful sidekick. You know how Sam presses on his old wound to ground himself in reality and make Lucifer disappear? He did this several times and my favorite moment was when he reached to do that and Lucifer groused, "Oh, don't bother" and winked out.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey and Dean go to the demon's old nesting grounds. When they get there, Dean is surprised to find a young guy with a bloody wound on his head chained to a chair. (To date, the demon's killings have all been women.) Then we see a hand behind Dean inject him with something and realize...this can't be good. As soon as Dean and Jeffrey walked into the creepy place, I told my husband I did NOT have a good feeling about Jeffrey. He told me he thought Jeffrey would get a chance to help destroy the demon and find closure that way after the last few troubled years. (No, dear, that would be what we in the biz call a happy ending.)

Sam realizes that he's been sent on a wild goose choice and his subconscious (played by Lucifer) points out an inconsistency between the recent killings and those four years ago--the victims now have been tranqued. They also discover a summoning spell written in familiar handwriting and go to see the Wiccan for answers. She greets them by trying to bop Sam upside the head--but have you seen Sam? Tough for a woman to get the drop on him like that and he thwarts her pretty quickly. She tells him that Jeffrey took her son (the wounded college kid) and was holding him hostage for the summoning spell. He wants to bring BACK the demon who possessed him. But he needs the blood of the demon's exorciser (Dean) and the heart of his pet and, I ain't gonna lie, I pretty much checked out in disgust at that point.

Turns out Jeffrey had only been a wishy-washy WANNABE serial killer before his possession, which gave him the power to act on his darkest thoughts. And he misses that power. So he brings back the demon. But the demon inhabits the Wiccan's son and Jeffrey doesn't get what he was after. (Oh, boo hoo for Jeffrey.)

In the end, the demon is vanquished and the woman and her son are reunited but it's hard to feel like this was a victory for the good guys. Especially when Sam tries to banish his hallucinated Lucifer at the end...he won't go. Sam made the mistake of interacting with the devil in head throughout the episode and now he appears stuck with him.

Maybe this episode just seemed so flat and despairing after last week's fairly funny one, and maybe I'm just still bitter (really bitter) about the dog, but I really disliked it. What about you guys? Did you find the moments of genius in it that I haven't done justice here?

Supernatural News as We Count Down to the End

But we won't mention how there are only three episodes left. *sob*

Hooray! Last week's episode matched season high ratings!

TV Guide launched a series of articles with this one about the 100th episode, with quotes from all the major players, followed by a recap that calls it a "just about perfect episode." And THEN, Mark Pellegrino compares and contrasts his two roles on Supernatural and LOST.

Want some behind-the-scenes? Go here for a BTS video done by Jim Beaver of the zombie episode (I adore the actress that played the sheriff, she's adorable!) and some footage of the 100th episode party. Both clips are 2 1/2 minutes long.

Last week Terri posted about the new Ghostfacers webisodes. There will be two eps each Thursday until Supernatural's season finale on May 13. You can find a behind-the-scenes interview here. There are interviews with the stars here.

While we're doing videos, here's a long interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Variety, the entertainment industry newspaper, did an interview with Ackles and Padalecki a couple of weeks ago. It's mainly on their path to the show and what comes next, after the show's eventual end. Non spoilery.

A trailer is now available for Batman: Under the Red Hood, in which Jensen Ackles voices the titular villain.

Jensen accompanied Danneel Harris to the premiere of her movie The Back-Up Plan. There are some nice pictures here.

In a six degrees kind of thing...Lindsay of Support Supernatural interviewed psychic Dakota Lawrence here, and now author Tracy Madison, a huge Supernatural fan (thanks to me :) ), is giving away a prize package that includes a FREE reading with him! Hey, if one of us wins, we can ask him whether season six will be brilliant or anticlimactic... (Enter the contest here.)

Supernatural News

New Ghostfacers online show to debut April 15. Get the deets here.

Julie McNiven (Anna) has signed on for a five-episode guest arc on Stargate Universe. Yay, two of my favorite shows collide! Oh, and for fans of Robert Knepper (Prison Break and Heroes), he's signed on for some guest spots on SGU too. Both will be playing members of the Lucian Alliance, aka space pirates.

Jim Beaver's memoir, Life's That Way, comes out in paperback April 6. Here he talks about it and the upcoming season 6 of SPN.

Mark Pellegrino talks about the two ambiguous characters he plays -- Jacob on LOST and Lucifer on Supernatural.

Want to see Jensen playing guitar and singing with Jason Manns at Jus in Bello? Click here.

And here's some fun video of Misha crashing Jared and Jensen's panel. Courtesy of SupernaturalWiki's Twitter feed.

Some pics from the Jus in Bello con, complete with Jared wearing his brand new wedding ring.

Supernatural News

TV.com has put out its list of their top 20 favorite new TV characters of the year. Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) from Supernatural is among them.

http://www.tv.com/the-best-new-tv-characters-of-2009/story/20278.html?tag=news_list;title;0

Terri recently noticed some Supernatural-related Tweets on Twitter. Chad Lindberg announced that Ash will be back! He starts filming in January. And Colin Ford (young Sam) will be on Private Practice.

There are three new Supernatural novels coming in 2010:

Heart of the Dragon in February

Unholy Cause in April

War of the Sons in June

This column in The Huffington Post includes Supernatural in an alternative Top 10 list of best TV programs on TV in 2009.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-martin/isupernatural-the-middle_b_395016.html

Free to Be You and Holy Hell, No They Just Did Not! (um, recap)

Was so excited that I am writing this fresh off my DVRed viewing, so not so much careful quoting as major paraphrasing. I trust y'all to correct me if I get anything wrong :-)

And before we go any further, obligatory SPOILER alert for last night's ep "Free to Be You and Me" (in which our intrepid heroes have parted ways :sob:)

Okay, THEN, and now: Sam wakes up in a hotel bed with....Jessica. Who appears to be getting all pep-talky about how it's silly for him to run away from Dean/hunting because what he's really trying to do is run away from himself which ain't gonna fly. He will always be a freak. More or less. And I had two gut reactions to this scene.

1) Have you guys noticed that whenever the guys part ways/are separated by one of them being tortured in hell, Sam ends up alongside some chick? Meg, in Scarecrow, as early as season 1. Then later, the poor doomed engaged girl who was also "special." And do not even get me started on Ruby in the months Dean was dead. (I even think I might be missing one in there. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

2) I turned to my hubby and asked, "So do we think this is like the good spirit of Jess trying to put him back on his right path--ie fighting evil with his bro--or do we think it's something evil disguised as Jess trying to make him so hopeless he kills himself or something equally ill-advised and desperate?" (Stick around til the end of the recap for the exciting answer).

Show opens on fabulous "Simple Man" montage which juxtaposes Sam's new life as a barback (splattering lemon juice on himself) against Dean's continuing hunter's life (in which he of course is spattered in blood). Honestly, this couple of minutes was quite well done.

Sam is working in a bar under the name of "Keith" (really? I don't see it) and Dean...is being snuck up on by Castiel ("Cass, we've talked about this. Personal space!"). And now I must say something which is going to cause you guys to throw rotten fruit at me and disavow me as a blasphemer. Of COURSE I want the brothers to mend their falling out and rediscover their fun kicking butt chemistry circa season 2, but y'all, if Dean and Castiel ever got a spin-off, I would totally watch it. As always Dean has his pop-culture refs (namely, Thelma and Louise) but they're more hilarious now that he's bouncing him off someone who clearly Does Not Get It.

Cass is still on his quest to find God and has a lead in the form of the archangel Rafael (who used up a human vessel and left him pretty much a vegetable. Guy's now a vegevessel.) Dean takes Cass to interview a partially deaf sherrif who witnessed the angel smiting demons (even though the sheriff didn't realize that's what he saw). Dean was being his usual slick "Federal Agent So and So" self while Castiel was more like--as my husband put it--Rainman, not being able to wrap his mind around this whole "humans lie" concept.

Over in Sam world, a cute blond girl is falling for the mysterious brooding barback and challenges him to darts. If she wins, he has to tell his life story. No sooner has he kicked her butt while barely glancing at the dartboard than we get a local news report that the weather has gone all apocalypse nowish with freak storms. (And where I live, we had major rains and scary flooding earlier in the week, so quickly moving on...)

Sam calls Bobby, who kicks metaphorical butt even from his chair. When Sam wants Bobby to send a Hunter to investigate the end-times phenomena, Bobby ponders, "Well let me think who's the best hunter I know in the area. Oh, wait, that'd be YOU." Sam hangs up on him but a later scene shows three Hunters who blow his cover by showing up at the bar and calling him "Sam." (At which point, I totally said to my husband, you know at least one of these guys is going to die, now that Sam has refused to help them, adding to his overall guilt and Sideburns of Angst.)

Back to the Dean and Castiel show. Cass is fairly certain that while Dean (as Michael's vessel) might be safe, Rafael (aka the "teenage mutant ninja angel") is totally going to kick Cass ass after the planned interrogation. In fact, Cass might stay dead this time, and Dean decides Cass should not die a virgin. He takes him to a BROTHEL, where Misha Collins did some hilariously fine acting by looking terrified of a hooker. Named Chastity. No sooner had Dean sent Cass and Chas down the hall than she shrieks and angry looking bouncers ensue. (Apparetly Castiel tried to assure her that her father abandoning her was not her fault, which freaked her right the hell out. Dean makes a tawdry joke, but because the writers of this show are in no way lazy, the whole abandoned father theme makes a poignant return a few scenes later.)

Dean and Cass, with a few great lines riffing off each other, finally manage to trap rafael, who proclaims God is dead. (Who is this guy, Nietzsche?) Y'all, the whole There Is No God thing is starting to annoy me. My own personal beliefs aside, it lends SUCH an imbalance to the show. We have bad guys everywhere--including Team Angel--but other than Bobby, Cass (who Rafael actually thinks LUCIFER might have brought back to keep the angels fighting amongst themselves) and brothers we-inadvertently-started-the-endtimes Winchster, precious few good guys. Of course, even the question of God's absence results in a great scene, so no more whining from Tanya.

Samland: Sam has bonded with the cute blonde at the bar (who turns out to be a recovering alcoholic who recognizes a fellow addict) when suddenly the hunters return. Pissed. Because one of them was gutted and because the demon they captured said a lot about Sam, which they took seriously and not well. They force him to drink demon blood, hoping he'll go "hulk" and kill the rest of the demons. They threaten to kill Lindsay (aforementioned cute blonde) to make Sam do their bidding. He awesomely spits demon blood in their faces and kicks their collective butts before ordering them out of town.

Cass and Dean in car, fleeing angrily trapped archangel. Dean encourages Cass to "keep looking" for God because "I know a little something about fathers who disappear." It was an awesome exchange and also heart-breaking because John really did a number on his kids, especially the oldest (sorry, JDM, but you know it's true.) Furthermore, looking after Sam has ALSO done a number on Dean and he exposits that he's actually, unbelievably, much happier alone. At which point in the conversation Castiel disappears.

And I am both understanding and sad. I DO see how it would wear on Dean. Yet I cannot wait to see the brothers again in the same scene, not at odds with each other as they were for much of season four.

Flash to Sam waking in hotel room...not alone. This time his conversation with "Jess" is clearly more sinister as she encourages him to "abandon hope" and fades into Mark Pellegrino's Lucifer. My husband and I debated whether this was a dream sequence but Lou won the debate for me when he tells Sam, "you're hard to find. I don't suppose you'd tell me where you are?" So apparently he hasn't yet physically located him but can still reach out to him through his dreams. You see he's seeking Sam because Sam is--and it dawned on me bare moments before Lou said it--HIS VESSEL.

Which, you know, of course is awful, but damn! The writers set Dean up as Michael's vessel and Sam up as Lucifer's. Wow. Nicely done. (Although of course horrible and depressing and completely contrary to what Kripke said about this being a more "optimistic" season in which the brothers became "closer." To what? Annihilating each other?)

And did y'all SEE the previews for next week??????

Overall, even though I was expecting to balk more at the separated Winchesters (usually my least favorite eps) I thought the writers did really well with this one. What about you guys? Favorite/least favorite moments?