Recap of "The Splice Girls"

When a Supernatural episode starts off with some person you've never seen before home alone, you know that person is going to bite it. And the guy sitting on his couch looking at his laptop while it rains outside did, in fact, die -- very, very bloody. Poor dude got thrown against a wall, his hands and feet cut off and some weird symbol carved into his chest.

Switch scene to the Winchester boys in a beater car (am missing the Impala) with Sam driving as Dean sleeps. When Dean wakes up, he immediately reaches into his jacket for a flask that I'm sure isn't filled with chocolate milk. Sam notices that it's Bobby's beat-to-crap flask and gives Dean a little grief about it. Dean says it's his way of honoring Bobby's memory. The boys meet up with the local medical examiner who shows them the poor sliced-up dude, the latest in a string of sliced-up dudes. The medical examiner tells them that the DNA evidence they collected from all the scenes isn't human. As they leave the morgue, Dean reluctantly admits this might be in the ballpark of their kind of thing. Sam says, "'Didn't match anything human' usually seals the deal for me."

Sam also finds out from one of the dude's neighbors that he'd had a one-night stand with a woman recently. Hmm, that can't be good.

Dean goes to a bar called the Cobalt Room and hooks up with a gal named Lydia (hey, it's Jenna from The Vampire Diaries), and they go back to her place to have sex. When Dean calls her the next day to tell her that he left his flask there, we see that Lydia is big-time pregnant. Whoa! The next thing we know, Lydia is having the baby while a group of creepy, detached women watch. When she pops the kid out, she asks the head creepy lady what they will call her and the lady says Emma. Dean shows up at Lydia's apartment and she mistakenly calls him Don (LOL! He is SO not a Don.), signaling that he meant absolutely nothing to her. He sees the now several months old baby and swears Emma is talking like an adult when she says, "Hey, Mom, who's that guy?" He stakes out the place and sees two of the creepy ladies drive up and Lydia escort Emma, who is now like 5 years old, out to their car.

The creepy ladies take Emma to a place where there are other girls, and they are being branded and asked to eat something (I missed what, and I don't think I want to know) as an initiation.

Since the boys don't have Bobby to call for research help, Sam finds a Professor Morrison who can read Greek and knows something about ancient symbols. Morrison tells them that the symbol on the dead guys' chests is a variation of one on the temple of the Goddess Harmonia, who coupled with Ares, God of War, to produce the Amazons. The Amazons have no use for men other than procreation. They mate every two years and have their babies within 36 hours, then, you guessed it, kill off the fathers. In the midst of figuring all this out, the boys are looking through Bobby's books and papers when Dean swears the papers moved by themselves, leaving a paper written in Greek on top. Dean thinks it's Bobby's spirit because he could read Greek. Sam tells Dean to stay in the locked hotel room while he takes the paper to Professor Morrison. The professor reads it and tells Sam that the offspring are the ones who kill the fathers as part of their initiation into the tribe. Meanwhile, back at the hotel room, Emma, now a teenager, arrives at Dean's room and tells him she wants to run away and he's her only hope. Yeah, I didn't believe her. Even though Dean didn't trust her either and pulled a gun on her, he hesitates to shoot her. But Sam arrives and does it for him.

When the boys are driving away, Sam confronts Dean about wavering and being off his game. Sam had to kill an evil being for Dean the way Dean had to kill Amy, Sam's friend, for Sam. The episode ends with Sam telling Dean, "Don't get killed." Dean simply replies, "I'll do what I can."

So, what do you think? Is Bobby still around somehow, helping the boys? Or is it just Dean hoping Bobby is still there? What did you think of this episode?

Adventures in Babysitting

It's the beginning of new episodes after hiatus, so you know we had to have a recap at the beginning of the show. And, yay, we had some classic rock with REO Speedwagon's "Riding the Storm Out." We were reminded about saying bye-bye to Cass (sniffle), the nasty leviathans, and Bobby's final moment of writing down the mysterious numbers, saying, "Idjits," then dying (sniffle, sniffle).

When we launch into this episode, we see a guy in a diner watching out the window. Seriously, this dude (the actor, Ian Tracey) has been on everything I watch lately. Since he played bad guys on Sanctuary and Hell on Wheels, it was nice to see him play one of the good guys. He follows a woman out of the diner/truck stop, but she disappears between two semi trucks. When he turns back around, the waitress he'd just been talking to turns out to be a little more than a waitress. She's got herself some sharp-ass teeth and she bites him. When he crumples to the ground, she says, "That's for the crappy tip." Moral of the story: always tip your waitress well.

Next we see the words "Week One" and Sam and Dean just sitting in a room staring at nothing. We know they're still in shock over Bobby's death (I hate typing those words, btw). Then it's Week Two, and they're look at the mysterious numbers and trying to figure out what they can be. Week Three, Dean has constructed a clue board and Sam comes in and asks if they should call "Bobby's people" to let them know about his passing. But neither wants to be the one to do it. Sam answers a call from a young girl who sounds scared. Her dad told her to call Bobby if anything happened to him, so when Sam can't produce Bobby she hangs up on him. But Sam tracks Chrissy down and soon realizes that her father is a hunter and he's gone missing. Sam says he'll find her father and leaves.

Meanwhile, Dean has gone to find super computer nerd Frank to see why it's taking him so long to get back to him about the numbers. Frank's cleaned out his house, but he shows up pointing a gun at Dean in case he's a leviathan. Dean says he's not, but Frank says that, sure, he's not. Neither is Dick Roman or Gwyneth Paltrow. To end the standoff, they each cut themselves to prove they blood red blood instead of black goo. Frank takes Dean to a stashed RV where he's set up his computers. He says that the five numbers Bobby wrote down are a dead end, but he figured since Bobby was dying he didn't have time to write down all the numbers. He created a probability program and figured out that it was actually six numbers and that they were coordinates to a field in Wisconsin owned by Dick Roman's company.

When Sam calls to check in, Dean tells him what is going on. When Sam expresses concern about Dean and Frank heading there, Dean says, "Relax. It's a field, not the Death Star." :) Dean and Frank (by the way, I think Frank is hilarious and a necessary comedic edition in the absence of Bobby and Cass) pretend to be line workers to stake out the field, and the sight of Dean trying to operate a cherry picker was funny. As soon as he gets the picker up though, Frank tells him to get back down because there are cameras all over the place on the Roman property. Instead of setting up their own surveillance, Frank hacks into Roman's cameras and sees a woman who works for Roman and a surveying crew. They're going to build something on the property, but what we don't know. Goofy Frank also goes serious long enough to tell Dean that he wasn't always like he is now, but that he has to find a way to get through each day since he was 27 and came home to find his wife and kids gutted on the floor. Damn, everyone on this show has lost someone in a horrible way. Even Chrissy saw her mother killed.

Back in Sam-land, he thinks he's tracking one vetala. But since he doesn't know they work in pairs, he gets attacked and dragged back to their lair too. When he wakes up, there are lots of dead guys lying around but Chrissy's dad, Lee, is still hanging on. When Dean figures out what has likely happened, he goes to Chrissy's to find out where Sam might have gone. But Chrissy has destroyed the map and notes so that Dean has to take her with him. Enter some smack talk between Dean and a 14-year-old girl, LOL. When they finally find and follow the vetala back to their lair, Dean cuffs Chrissy to the steering wheel of the car and goes in. Luckily for him, she had not one but two lock picks and rushes in as he's getting his butt kicked. She pretends to get captured by one of the vetala, but then she stabs and kills her then cuts Sam's bonds. This gives Sam and and Dean the chance to kill the other vetala.

When we see Lee recovering in a hospital, the boys urge him to quit hunting so Chrissy can have a normal life. Lee asks if they've ever known anyone to quit the hunting life. Dean says no, that they all end up dead first. When Chrissy runs out of the hospital after Dean, she says they're giving up hunting. She also tells Dean he's "kind of amusing for an old guy." LOL.

What did you think of the episode? What about Frank? What do you think Dick and his leviathans are going to build in that field?

"Slash Fiction" Recap

Hmm, methinks the Sam and Dean who are robbing a bank and killing all the patrons and employees are not the real Sam and Dean.

Next we have Bobby trying to make the captured leviathan talk and he's having no luck. When Dean asks the leviathan how he found them, the guy says it was easy and starts talking about using algorithms tracking their known aliases.

Bobby: "Great. Just what we need, a Mensa monster."

The monster says he's the least of their worries, and Sam and Dean see the news that they supposedly robbed a bank and killed everyone.

Dean: "Those sons of bitches Xeroxed us. We find these ass monkeys and we kill them ourselves."

Bobby sends the boys to see a friend of his, Frank, but when they arrive the guy pulls a gun on them and asks who sent them. "NSA, the Feeb, March of Dimes?"

Frank seems freaked out and trigger-happy when the respond with Bobby's name. Okay, this guy is funny. He gives the boy new aliases, Tom and John Smith, and tells them no more rock shout-outs with their names. He tells them to ditch the Impala.

Dean is obviously not happy about having to leave the Impala behind, saying something about putting baby in a corner.

Sam: "You know that's a line from--"
Dean: "Swayze movie. Swayze always gets a pass."

LOL! Dean starts singing to the radio playing Air Supply's "I'm All Out of Love."

Sam is looking at a map of where the dopplegangers have hit, and he realizes they're places where he and Dean have done cases before. Jericho -- Lady in White. Black Water Ridge -- Wendigo. Lady Manatonka -- the kid in the lake. They're in order, from the day Sam left Stanford. Hello, Season 1!

Sam and Dean roll into the next town the dopplegangers are to hit and see them, but the cops roll up and arrest the real Sam and Dean. Oops.

Meanwhile, back at Bobby's cabin, the leviathan has turned into Bobby but then something starts dripping from the ceiling and burning holes in the guy. It's the first thing that has had any effect. Bobby runs upstairs where the lady sheriff (Jodi) is cleaning the floor and...he kisses her!!! Then he asks what was in the bucket.

The dopplegangers switch forms into two cops to get into the police station to see Sam and Dean.

Hey, look, the sheriff is Col. Tigh from Battlestar Galactica.

Sheriff sees the baddies eating one of his deputies and decides to trust Dean. He helps him take out bad Sam. Then we see bad Dean talking with real Sam, and he spills the beans that real Dean killed Amy a couple of episodes back.

Uh oh, one of the FBI agents is a leviathan (I had that suspicion) and comes back to kill the sheriff and his daughter, the medical examiner.

Crowley shows up in the car of the head leviathan trying to make deal, but the head leviathan doesn't think too highly of demons and tells Crowley so in no uncertain terms. I'm thinking this will tick off Crowley enough that he will go back to helping Sam and Dean, but who knows. Maybe I just want to see Crowley on the side of good because he cracks me up sometimes.

Sam confronts Dean about killing Amy then walks away, telling Dean he can't be around him now. And then Sam walks off. Sigh. Brothers separated again. I wonder how long this will last.

The New Boss

Welcome back to a new season of Supernatural and weekly recaps here at Supernatural Sisters!

We got off to a good start with tonight's episode ("The New Boss") with some Dean-appropriate music -- "Slow Ride" by Foghat. And we picked up right where last season left off, with Castiel proclaiming himself the new God and telling Dean, Sam and Bobby to bow down before him. Bobby goes down to his knees, and Dean starts to before Cas says to not bother because they're doing it out of fear, not out of love.

Poof, Cas is gone and we see him walking outside, talking to someone, telling them that he thought free will was the answer but now realizes now that it's a firm hand. When the camera pans back, we see a field of dead angels. Disturbing image, that.

I could almost hear MJ keening in agony when they showed the horrible state of the Impala. Once again, Dean was having to bring her back from the dead. While he and Bobby are talking about looking for Cas, Bobby delivered what I think was the best line of the episode: "What am I looking for? Miracles? Mass visions? Trenchcoat on a tortilla?" LOL!!!

Poor Sam, his noggin isn't what she used to be. He keeps hearing things and having hallucinations, part of his memories from Hell making it past the wall. Of course, he tells Dean he's fine. Dude, these guys need to stop keeping secrets.

Cas shows up at a church where a preachers is preaching against homosexuality. Cas says he's indifferent to sexual orientation and what he can't abide by is hypocrites. And then he kills the minister where he stands, one of only many killings of religious leaders. One of the members of the first preacher's congregation is giving a TV interview when she says that God didn't have a beard and wasn't old. "He was young...and sexy." Snort.

Okay, how many of you thought it was hilarious that Crowley was hiding out in an old RV in Tennessee? Cas shows up, tells Crowley (who gave some really funny expressions of surprise) that he's sending him back to be the king of Hell but that Cas will be the gatekeeper deciding where souls go from now on.

Next time we see Crowley, he's been called by Sam, Dean and Bobby. They want info that will help them bind Death in hopes he can kill the off-the-deep-end Cas before he royally screws up the world. Of course, they don't have one of the main ingredients for the spell to bind Death, so they have to go steal it (a spear-like thing of crystallized sand that was hit by lightning). When the security guard tries to stop them, Dean taps him on the shoulder and asks, "Do you have any Grey Poupon?" before punching the guy out. Giggle. I'm guessing some viewers of Supernatural are too young to remember that Grey Poupon commercial.

When Death shows up, Cas isn't far behind. Death tells Cas that there were things older than the souls that resided in Purgatory, Leviathans, beasts that God created before man. They were so powerful that God locked them away, but Cas swallowed them up and now they're fighting to get out. Thus, the gross way Castiel's skin seems to be melting off and that whole Alien-esque thing in his stomach. Death takes a seat and eats the pickle chips and milkshake Dean brought him. (Just for the record, I love Julian Richings' portrayal of Death.)

Cas goes poof again and heads for a senator's campaign headquarters, set on punishing her because she's doing immoral things in his name. But he collapses and later wakes up with a bunch of dead, really bloody people around him. Methinks the Leviathans inside him are winning.

Sam, still believing the old Cas is in there somewhere, calls him, and Cas comes. He says he needs help and agrees to go back to the lap where the door to Purgatory will be opened by Death. The spell works, the souls return to Purgatory, and after a momentary scare that Cas was dead, he wakes up and seems to be the old Cas. Yay!

Cas: "I'm embarrassed. I really overreached."
Dean: "You think?"

I wasn't looking forward to a whole season of Cas playing God. But, wait, that was too easy. Yep, the souls went back to Purgatory, but the Leviathans are still there, and they make their presence known, saying they've killed Cas. I will steadfastly believe Cas is still alive in there until it's proven otherwise.

What did you think of the season premiere? Do you think the old Cas is still in there somewhere? Will we not see him until the end of the season?

New Sam and Dean Promo Photos

TV Guide has posted some new promo photos. About time the CW did new shots, right?



Actually, I don't think they're totally new. Number 5 is the shot they used all last season for commercial-break teasers. But 2 and 3? Guh.

My Confession: I've Been Converted to Samdom

I confessed on Twitter and Facebook a few weeks ago that I think I've been converted. Then I started watching season 1 again, and I realize it's a lot more complicated than that.

From the first time I watched Supernatural, I was (for lack of a better term) a Dean girl. I mean, I was in my 30s, and he was the older, more experienced, more mature guy. I loved Sam just as much as I loved Dean, and I always identified more with Sam, but for attraction? It was Dean all the way.

Going back, I still feel that way about the early seasons, but I marvel at how freakin' much Jared Padalecki has changed.

During season 2, he started to really grow up. He filled out, caught up to his nose, and just kept getting bigger. And bigger. Not in a huge, scary way, and not in a lanky, buggy way. Just...big. The amazing thing is that he never stopped.

Take us through seasons 3, 4, 5, 6, and his character grew as much as his body did. Dean kept me through at least season 5 because of Jensen's fantastic acting (as well as the writing). He was tortured, and so full of loyalty and determination to save us all. He stayed true to his principles and his convictions. My goodness, how can anyone not stay hooked?

But Kripke always said Sam was the true protagonist of the show, and he faced and overcame some pretty intense obstacles. Season 6, especially the finale, made me flip.

Not that I realized it for a long time. I've never been all on one side—I always loved them both, and I still do. So I claimed to still be a Dean girl the whole time I marveled at the nuances of Padalecki's performance, and the challenges the writers threw at him. In the finale, he overcame all that fragmentation, all that pain, to go try to save his brother. Most of the talk I've seen has been about Castiel going dark side, but what *I* can't wait to see is how Sam comes out of the whole thing.

So all summer, whenever I thought about the show, Sam was who popped into my head. He's who my brain lingered over while I drove to work or did dishes (especially after my iPod got stolen and I had only my brain for company!). I would be lying if I didn't admit that I've been converted.

Except...Sam doesn't exist without Dean. All that character development couldn't have happened without his brother's influence. So it seems almost impossible to me that I or anyone else can really be all Dean girl or all Sam girl. Which puts me right where I was at the beginning of season one: in the middle, with a slight lean to one side.

I know some of you are rabid Sam girls and rabid Dean girls, but how many of you have found yourself switching back and forth? Tell us in the comments!

The Man Who Would Be King

Then

We see clips from Sam going into the cage, Castiel telling Dean that Sam's soul is missing, the revelation about Cas creating more souls for the war in Heaven through negating the sinking of the Titanic, Eve telling the boys she wants Crowley, and Crowley referring to having to clean up Cas's messes.

Now

Cas is sitting outside saying he's been around a long time and seen many things -- when the first fish crawled out of the ooze, the Tower of Babel ("all 37 feet of it, which I guess was impressive at the time. But come on, dry dung can only be stacked so high."), Cain and Abel, David and Goliath, Sodom and Gomorrah. And he also remembers the most remarkable things, remarkable because they never came to pass, prevented by "two boys, an old drunk and one fallen angel." Of that latter grand story, "We ripped up the ending, and the rules, and destiny, leaving nothing but freedom and choice, which is all well and good except what if I made the wrong choice? How am I supposed to know? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you my story. Let me tell you everything."

Next we see Dean driving down the road, and Castiel pops into the passenger seat to "check in." Both tell the other they haven't seen anything of "Satan Jr.", aka Crowley. It's painfully obvious that Cas is lying, and it's bothering Dean. But Dean's lying too. Poof, and Cas disappears. He shows up at some gruesome lab where Crowley is doing an autopsy on Eve with a side of torture to another monstery schmuck. Cas refers to Crowley saying Eve could open the door to Purgatory, and Crowley says that he believes she could have if she was still alive.

Crowley: "Your best change to get over the rainbow and the Winchesters killed her."

Crowley tells Cas that he's distracted and that makes Crowley nervous. Cas responds by saying he's holding up his end of their deal, but Crowley isn't happy Cas is still hanging with the Winchester boys.

"The stench of that Impala is all over your overcoat, angel."

Next we're back with Cas, telling his story. "We'd stopped Armageddon, but at a terrible cost." He reveals he's the one who brought Sam back from Hell and says he should have recognized the fact that he hadn't brought all of Sam back as a warning.

Crowley asks Cas to kill Sam and Dean or he'll do it. Cas tells him no and not to worry about them. Crowley begins listing all the people who didn't worry about the boys and died because of it -- Lucifer, Michael, Lilith, Alastair, Azazel.

Castiel: "Just find Purgatory. If you don't, we will both die again and again until the end of time. The Winchesters won't get to you."

When Dean reaches Bobby's, Sam and Bobby are questioning a monster named Red who's been hunting things for Crowley. They want to know where Crowley is, and Red isn't being cooperative. Dean tells Bobby and Sam about Cas popping in and how he fed him a line about being on some "crap monster hunt." They all hate the idea of Cas being in with Crowley, but they're being careful in case he is. Unknown to them, Castiel is in the room listening to their conversation about the fact that maybe he's gone dark side. Red finally reveals that he's never met Crowley, that he deals with The Dispatcher, a demon named Ellwsorth. Cas says that if there's a demon counterpart to Bobby Singer, Ellsworth would be it.

Knowing that Ellsworth and his demons would lead the Winchesters to Crowley, who'd tear their hearts out, Cas takes out Ellsworth and two other demons.

Cas: "I did it to protect the boys, or myself. I don't know anymore."

The boys and Bobby arrive at Ellsworth's place to find it empty. Cas laments the lies, the hiding and the sweeping away of evidence. "My motives used to be so pure." After supposedly saving Sam, Cas returned to Heaven. He says that there isn't one Heaven, that each soul creates its own paradise. He tells the angels they are free to choose what they want to do now. But he says those first weeks back were difficult. "Explaining freedom to angels is a lot like teaching poetry to fish." When he went to see Raphael, he asks whose Heaven he's in and Raphael says it's Ken Lay's and he's borrowing it. Raphael says that Castiel and all the angels will have to kneel to him, that he's going to free Lucifer and Michael and get the apocalypse back on the road.

Sam, Dean and Bobby try to call Cas for help, but he doesn't go to them because they have questions he doesn't want to answer. Then some demons show up and say, "Crowley says, 'Hi'." Cas shows up and smites the demons because the Winchesters and Bobby "are my friends. For a brief moment, I was me again." As they're talking, he slips up and reveals he's lying when he refers to going to the dark side, something the other three had mentioned when they didn't know he was there.

Castiel says that Raphael is stronger than him and he'd never stand a chance in a straight fight, so he went to Dean for help. Only when he thought about all Dean had sacrificed, he couldn't do it. That's when Crowley showed up wanting to make a deal.

"I'm an angel, you ass. I don't have a soul to sell."

Crowley shows Cas how he's redone hell. Everyone there is having to stand in an endless line, and when they get to the front they just come back to the end again. Crowley proposes an alliance in which each of them will get half the souls in Purgatory for his own use -- Cas for a civil war in Heaven, and Crowley to shore up his position as the king of Hell. He offers to float Cas a loan of 50,000 souls from the pit. Prideful, Cas accepts the deal and declares war on Raphael so he can avoid the apocalypse.

Back to the present, Bobby and the boys call Cas and when he arrives they trap him in the ring of fire and force him to tell the truth. Honestly, at this point I feel sorry for Cas because he seems like an angel who was in between a rock and a hard place. He might have made the wrong choices, but he had good intentions. But we all know what road is paved with good intentions. Dean tells him that he should have come to them for help.

Crowley shows up, and Cas tells Sam, Dean and Bobby to run, which they do. Crowley asks Cas what he's willing to do. Cas goes to Dean to try to explain, and Dean tells Cas that he's like a brother to him and asks him to stop this quest for Purgatory with Crowley. And if he doesn't, Dean says he'll do whatever he has to in order to stop him. Cas says he's sorry and disappears. Then we're back to Cas praying to God for a sign that he's on the right path. "Because if you don't, I'm going to do whatever I must." When no sign his offered, he drops his head.

The Truth About Fairies...

Sorry for the slight delay in my post--caught the 10 pm showing of Harry Potter last night and this was the soonest I could watch the show and post a recap! We open on a corn field in Indiana where a young couple is making out, until they hear something. An ill-fated Patrick announces, "There's something in the corn" and leaves his date to investigate. (Clearly he's never seen Children of the Corn!) But then he looks up to a bright light and disappears. The camera pans up over his date to show us a version of a crop circle and we go into hilariously X-files-esque credits. (Is it like the twentieth anniversary of X files or something this week? Castle had an homage, too. I know the boys have temporarily parted ways with Grandpa Samuel, but it would have been great to use Mitch Pileggi somehow!)

Cut to interviews of townspeople where everyone except the skeptical local law enforcement is claiming alien abduction--well, and a rosy-cheeked woman claiming the abduction was "Fairies!" Soulless Sam tells her it's fine that she puts glitter in the glue she's sniffing but that they don't want to step in her wackadoo, prompting a lecture from Dean on empathy. Dean tells him that from now on, he'll be Sam's conscience, which Sam says makes him his Jiminy Cricket :-)

From there, they go to interview missing Patrick's father, who insists they can't help. As soon as they leave, the man addresses a question to seemingly no one. The brothers agree to keep the father under observation and split up, with Dean admonishing Sam not to speak to or maim any of the populace. Then we see Dean in the crop circle. Sam calls (love Dean's ring tone) and while they're on the phone, Dean sees lights and yells "UFO! UFO! Close encounters!" (Sam, "What kind? First? Second? Better run man, I think Fourth kind is a butt thing." Dean, "Empathy, Sam! Empathy!") And then Dean is gone, although Sam--getting a beer and ogling the waitress--doesn't seem too distressed.

Dean's cell ringing again--it's Sam calling and trying to use the phone to find his brother. But no dice. Then we see the encampment of trailers and RVs decorated with little green men and playing Close Encounters of 3rd Kind music. Sam engages the guy in charge (who tells him the truth is out there) and asks how they get these ETs. Soulless Sam asks the guy if he's "considered the possibility that you suck at hunting UFOs." But even without empathy, he still manages to pick up a girl who volunteers to help.

When Dean is returned to the corn field, he makes his way to the hotel room and finds Sam and the helpful girl naked in bed. Soulless Sam: "Y-you're upset?" During the ensuing argument, Dean realizes he's been gone a lot longer than the hour he thought. Sam trying to "empathize" with Dean's experience is kind of hilarious.

After Dean showers, they go out for food and Dean's miffed that while "our reality's collapsing around us, you're trying to pick up the waitress?" Sam may have no soul, but he's totally got a libido. Dean tells him that when you're brother's abducted, you don't bang chicks, you "sit in the dark and feel the loss." Sam: "So having a soul equals suffering?" Dean: "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

Dean sees a creepy guy watching them through the diner window, but Sam doesn't. They split up to study UFO lore and Dean's alone in the hotel room (with "Ground Control to Major Tom" playing) when the "aliens" come back. This time, in the form of a small light...that is sort of kicking his butt until he traps it in the microwave and seemingly nukes it. But only Dean sees the blood and "eccck" in the microwave. He describes his assailant as "a little naked lady. A little, glowing...hot naked lady with nipples. And she hit me." Unempathetic Sam, "I'm not supposed to laugh, right?" It's Sam who asks if the tiny naked lady had wings and decides Crazy woman wasn't crazy after all. "Hey, you're the one who pizza-rolled Tinkerbell, I'm just doing the math."

They go see the crazy woman who tells them that Fairy comes in all kinds of mischievous shapes and sizes. Only people who've been abducted into the fairy realm can see the creatures in our world. She gives them lots of advice and shares her personal theory that people are abducted to "service Oberon, king of the fairies." Once they leave, Dean asks, "Is it on me? I feel like I got the crazy ON me." Sam, "No. You did sit in some glitter, though." They see Patrick's father loading up his car trunk with cream (which fairies apparently love.) Dean: "You stick with half and half, I'll check out his store. And no hippie chicks!"

At the watchworks store, Dean is now able to see all manner of short magical people and backs away. Tells Sam on the phone, "It's like the story with the shoe guy and all the elves." Sam approaches the watchmaker and accuses, "I don't know how one man could put out that much product...You have a bunch of elves working for you. How does a father decide to trade a son for a bunch of watches? I'm assuming you have a soul, so what's your excuse?" While Soulless Sammy grills the dad (who summoned magic folk for help when his Parkinson's threatened his ability to provide for his family) we cut to Dean on the street, still being watched--and followed--by the creepy guy. But then Dean mistakenly assaults the wrong guy on the street (the very short county DA) and is arrested for his "hate crime." (Doesn't help that Dean was yelling, "Fight the fairies!")

Sam and Patrick's hapless father, who has wanted to unsummon the fairies since they got here, go to the safe and try to get the spell book. The watchmaker gets killed while trying to send them back and it turns out that the lead UFO enthusiast is an evil leprechaun who realizes Sam is different. "Your soul is far away...but not completely out of reach." The leprecahun offers to get the soul back for a price. Sam: "So you're my blue fairy? You can make me a real boy again?" And then Sam shoots him with iron, which the leprechaun declares "painful but not a deal breaker" and attacks.

Meanwhile, creepy guy who's been following Dean shows up in Dean's cell. Now both bros are getting their butts kicked by Faery Folk. Sam ends up using some of crazy woman's bizarre advice to distract the leprechaun and read from the book, banishing all the creatures back to their own realm. Ends with guys having a beer on the Impala--very old times--but Dean is worried that Sam didn't take the leprechaun's deal because Sam is having second thoughts about being re-ensoulled. Although Sam says this isn't the case, it clearly is.

I want to thank the producers of the show for giving us our third relatively gore free episode in a row (especially one I had to recap) but from the previews of the next new ep (December 3rd, featuring "Hell's Prison") I'd say my vacation from gore is coming to an end. This ep was a realtively light look at the grim reality we've been dealing with all season--Sam's inhumanity. I found it to be pretty entertaining and a welcome light touch, considering how heavy this season has been so far. What did you guys think?

How About that Jared?

Last year, I did a post about the actors on the show, and that as far as Jared had come over the seasons, Jensen was just a better actor, and that was why he was getting all the solo shows and, with "The End," actually doubling his role.

So when are we going to get the Sam-only episode?

Setting aside all the issues we have with Soulless!Sam, let's look at Jared's performance for itself. He's spent 5 seasons honing his character. He knew all of Sam's nuances, his bitchface, his eyeroll, his puppy-dog eyes and intense determination. His best performances over the years were arguably when he was someone else (my vote goes, of course, to "Born Under a Bad Sign," when he channeled Meg), but by season 5, he'd gone far beyond the nostril-flare school of acting.

And now he's been asked to change everything, except not. He's supposed to still be Sam, but without the hallmarks that make him that character. No more puppy-dog eyes, no more bitchface, at least not the way he's always done them, as natural responses to his brother or any other character. Now, Sam has to think about how he would react to something, and fake it.

I like to think of acting as happening in one of two ways: putting in on, and projecting from within. I always said Jensen projects from within. He becomes the character on the inside, so he fully embodies Dean. Jared has usually been of the other type, as if he'd put on a Sam Suit and walked around inside the character. I think this season, he's made the switch to projection.

Jared has become a new Sam, and is living him from within. His character has become so much more complex, and I think Jared hasn't just stepped up his game, but leaped a few levels. Right from the start, we knew there was something wrong. And yet, he kept us guessing. He made us hate him (or at least dislike him), even some of those of us who loved him without reservation.

So do I miss Sammy-of-the-puppy-eyes-and-exasperation? Hell, yeah, and I really don't want him to go soulless for more than another episode or two. But I applaud Jared for his amazing performance, and I'm grateful to the writers for giving us the chance to see it, even if I don't want it anymore. :)

What do you think?

Live Free or Twihard

This was another one of those episodes that starts out with one tone and ends on a very different one. Though I'm a Twilight fan, I was chuckling at the early scenes that were so obviously spoofs of Twilight. You got a Bella-looking girl named Kristen (as in Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella in the movies, for those who might not know) and an Edward-based vampire named Robert (as in Pattinson) talking in a bar later revealed to be called the Black Rose. He says he can't stop thinking about her, that they can't be together. She says she's not scared. And then there the whole paper cut thing.

One problem -- Robert isn't all that Edward-like because he doesn't love Kristen. He's hunting her, to bring her back to his boss at the nest. And she's not the first. When we see Sam and Dean, they're discussing the fact that seven girls have gone missing, and when they go to the home of the latest missing girl, they find her room filled with movie vampire posters, pillows, all manner of decor.

Dean: "These aren't vampires. They're douche bags."

While Sam tries to figure out the girl's computer password, Dean tosses out that he should try Lautner, which surprises Sam. Dean replies that the kid is everywhere. :) When Sam tries "Pattinson", jackpot.

Next we see a quick scene of some vamps steeling a bunch of blood from a blood bank van.

When Sam and Dean go to the Black Rose to see if they can catch the vamp(s) luring the young girls, they split up and follow two suspects. Sam quickly dispatches his quarry, a real vampire, again without much emotion. Dean pulls his "vamp" off a girl in the alleyway, but it's just a guy dressing the part.

Dean: "Are you wearing glitter?"
Fake Vamp: "I only do it to get laid, man."
Dean: "Does it work?"
Fake Vamp: Shrugs in a positive answer.
Dean: "I'll be damned."

When Dean is attacked by a real vampire, he's forced to drink the vamp's blood as...OMG!...Sam sort of smiles and watches! What the frak?! This scene made me wonder if there are two beings inside Sam's body -- Sam (as evidenced by the times he actually acts like the old Sam) and some Big Bad (for the times like this when he is absolutely not acting like the old Sam).

Dean knows something is way wrong with Sam because he's not freaking out when they get free of the vampire. He can tell because he can hear how calm Sam's heart beat is. When Dean heads to the bathroom, he says one of my favorite lines from the episode:

"Newsflash, Mr. Wizard. Vampires pee."

Even while turning into a vampire, Dean is a funny dude.

While in the bathroom, he lips his upper lip while looking in the mirror and sees a fang growing. Then he makes a hasty departure out the window to go see Lisa and Ben for what he thinks will be the last time. He tells Lisa thanks for everything but leaves when he feels himself losing control and goes back to Sam and Samuel, prepared for them to kill him. But -- surprise! -- Samuel has a cure for vampirism since Dean hasn't fed yet. But Dean has to go to the nest and get the blood of the vampire who turned him (aka Boris).

More weirdness with Sam when Samuel asks him why he didn't tell Dean about the cure. Sam says that he didn't know about it. Samuel says that he told him months ago. Either Sam is lying or, if my theory pans out, Samuel told the other being in Sam's body.

While Dean is in the vampire nest, he figures out that the vamps are getting their orders from some higher power. Is it a rogue angel? When Dean and all the rest of the vampires pass out, Dean sees a series of creepy images including a guy wiping blood next to the mouths of twin girls. That was Balthazar, wasn't it? When Dean wakes, he proceeds to cut off the heads of all the vampires and get the blood of Boris for the cure.

Said cure is appropriately disgusting when he drinks it, and one of the effects is all the images from the previous day flash through his mind -- including that half-smile from Sam as he stand by and watches Dean get turned into a vampire.

When Sam asks Dean what he saw in the next, he reveals that the vampires' alpha is building an army..."And we don't scare them anymore."

In the episode-ending brothers-by-the-Impala scene, Dean asks Sam if he has his back. When Sam says "of course", Dean knows he's lying.

The preview for next week seems to indicate we're finally going to get some answers about what the hell is going on with Sam. Maybe we'll find out if any of our theories are right, or if it's something none of us have thought of. Can't wait! I wants me some answers.

"The Third Man" episode recap

Okay, I have one word for the first scene in this week's episode -- Gross! Cop #1 starts bleeding, starts shedding skin, and then explodes into puddle of blood. Dude, I'm glad I wasn't eating dinner while watching this episode. May I just say again, gross!

Next scene -- we've got some hot Dean/Lisa action. Only I knew from the fuzzy light that it wasn't real. Dean wakes up in the Impala.

Then we have what may be one of the most rewound, re-watched scenes ever in Supernatural history -- Sam working out shirtless. I think MJ's reaction was, "Please never make Sam wear a shirt again!" And we get more evidence that post-Hell Sam is not the same as Sam pre-Hell. Mysterious girl he obviously spent the night with (and from her comments, he pleasured well) emerges from bedroom, and he pays her. No, Sammy! Not a prostitute! She gives him her number, but he tosses it in the garbage as soon as she leaves. Part of me thinks something is really wonky with Sam, and part of me thinks this isn't Sam at all, that the real Sam is still in the Cage. And that makes me sad.

I was happy to see the return of snarky Dean. When he gets off the phone with Sam, he looks at the phone and says, "Who died and made you boss?" There's something about that line that makes me wonder about the identity of "Sam."

Next we have a shot of not exactly the world's best cop, some yokel who is sitting in the woods drinking alcohol from a pseudo-Big Gulp cup and not making the effort to catch a speeder because he's only blowing by at 70 mph. "You can do better than that." Within moments, he has bit it from another Egyptian plague, boils. More eew!

When Dean arrives in Easter, Pennsylvania, where Sam is waiting and the cops are being offed in icky ways, Dean is on the phone being all dad-like with Ben, telling him to "be a man" and tell his mom he broke something. I really am liking how we're seeing this "normal" side of Dean, but it really makes the changes in Sam stand out that much more. Sam: "Wow, you, molding the minds of tomorrow. Who knew?"

Anyone remember when Sam got nervous posing as federal agents with fake names? Yeah, those days are gone.

More of the old Dean comes out when he calls the killed cops "Skidmark" and "Bubblewrap." Eew, but funny.

Just when I think Sam isn't Sam, something funny and very brother-like happens, like the "car wars". I laughed when Dean raced Sam because he wants to prove the Impala is better, and laughed again when they got out of their cars and shut the doors at the same time.

They've arrived at the home of Officer Colfax (aka "Skidmark's" partner, who witnessed his really gross demise). He's acting odd, scratching out the faces on all the photos in his home and scratching his head a lot. He reveals that he and the two dead cops were the responding officers on a traffic stop where they shot and killed a young African-American man, Christopher Birch, for no reason other than maybe they were bigots. Ready for another plague? Yep, good ol' Officer Colfax keels over and Sam removes the guy's uniform cap to reveal...locusts crawling out of a hole in his head. I'm wondering if Tanya is watching with her fingers over her eyes at this point. I'm in danger of doing the same.

Despite the fact that Sam has been trying to get in touch with Castiel for a year, Dean gives it a shot in typical Dean fashion: "Now I lay be down to sleep. I pray to Castiel to get his feathery ass down here." Just when Sam starts to say, "I told you so," Cas shows up. Yay, Cas!!! He reveals neither he, nor any of his angel buddies, know who sprung Sam from Hell. (Did the Winchester brothers play a lot of supernatural Monopoly and been holding onto some Get Out of Hell Free cards?)

Okay, so they've all been through the Apocalypse (they and Buffy should compare notes), so what Big Bad come compare? A civil war in Heaven, you say? Ding, ding, ding. You're a winner! Evidently, chaos is all the rage in Heaven post-Apocalypse, and several powerful weapons were stolen, among them the Staff of Moses, which is evidently what's causing all the icky cop demises.

Dean: "What is Chuck Heston's disco stick doing down here anyway?" (Wouldn't you love to be in the writers' room when they come up with this stuff?)

Cas asks for the boys' help and then utters one of my favorite Cas lines ever, complete with air quotes: "Sam, Dean, my 'people skills' are a little 'rusty'. Pardon me, but I've spent the last 'year' as a multi-dimensional wavelength of celestial intent." Misha's delivery is awesome.

They go to the home of Christopher Birch's father, thinking he killed the cops, but then Chris's little brother, Aaron, points a sawed-off part of Moses' staff at them and tells them he did it, that he bought the staff from an angel for the price of his soul. Huh? Angels acting like crossroads demons? Things really are frakked up. Cas can find out who the angel is by searching for a mark inside the boy, though it will be excruciating for Aaron. Dean isn't happy with Cas, but he's more bothered by Sam's seeming lack of caring about what Aaron is experiencing, his "the ends justifies the means" attitude.

Castiel identifies the angel as Balthazar. Some other angel shows up, who I thought for a moment was Balthazar, then later realized was one of Raphael's minions. I admit I got a little confused. He and Cas fight and go out the window and crush a car. I didn't realize it was Sam's car until this interchange:

Sam: My car!
Dean: Okay, silver lining.

The look that Sam gives Dean is so pre-Hell Sam that I'm back to thinking it's really him. Man, I want to know what's going on here.

Cas reveals that the civil war in Heaven is pitting Raphael and his followers (who want to put the Apocalypse back on) against Castiel and his friends (who don't).

Cas, looking for ingredients to do some spell to find Balthazar: "I need myrrh." Simple line, awesome delivery by Misha. He finds Balthazar, and he and boys go to his house. Balthazar, who has a new vessel, is digging living a hedonistic life hiding out from Raphael. He's the one who stole the weapons from Heaven. When Raphael and two buddies show up, Balthazar says, "That's my cue. Tell Raphael to bite me."

Some angel toasting ensues, Cas and Raphael fight until Balthazar returns and uses a piece of the pillar of salt that killed Lot's wife to turn Raphael to salt. Of course, he'll have a new vessel soon, but this gives the rest of them a head start. Cas lets Balthazar go, saying his debt to him is paid.

We get one of those "brothers by the car" moments at the end of the episode. Dean asks if Sam is okay, Sam assures him he is despite his trip to Hell. Dean says, "I feel like I'm not getting the whole scoop." You and me both, buddy.

We also get a glimpse at some future episodes -- Bobby talking to Rufus about the weird way the monsters are acting, more tense moments between the brothers, and a bit of a Twilight dig when the boys are in what appears to be a teenager's room with movie vampires styled like Edward Cullen on posters. Dean: "These aren't vampires. These are douchebags." Even though I'm a Twilight fan, I thought that was funny.

One last thought -- I was glad to have a Campbell-free episode. I really don't like that bunch.

Thoughts?

The Sam Question

Last week, MJ asked the question of season six, namely what's up with the Campbells?

A tie-in question, and one perhaps far more important, is what's up with Sam?

After two episodes, I have to admit, I'm not sure. In the first episode, he was—as we said over and over LOL—cold and smug and dismissive and not at all like our Sammy.

In the second episode, he was more on his own, and less weird. He and Dean interacted a little more normally. In fact, when faced with something he couldn't handle, he automatically looked up to his big brother for help. And Dean, of course, leaped right in (okay, after some resistance).

But then they went back to the Campbells, and Sam seemed all too willing to defer to them. In a slightly less creepy way, but...

Why would Sam join them instead of hunting on his own?
I can actually think of some reasons for this. On the one hand, he was on his own for six months when the Trickster made him think Dean was dead, and again when Dean was in Hell, and you'd think he'd prefer it that way. On the other hand, all his other hunting experience—a lifetime of it—has been with someone else. Dad, and Dean, and Ruby. He may hate being alone now, especially after he decided to leave Dean alone, and welcomed companionship, people who are "like him." And supposed family to boot. He was trying to fill the void.

Why would the Campbells want Sam along?
So maybe we can buy why Sam wants to be with the Campbells, but why would they want him? Those people who claim to be cousins are too young to have known Samuel/Grandpa before YED killed him. If they'd been raised in the life, why would they suddenly follow him? Hunters are loners for the most part, that's well established. Whoops, I'm delving too far back into the damned Campbells question. Back to Sam, who freed Lucifer and came back from the cage. Why wouldn't they assume he was still possessed or something and try to kill him? Why wouldn't they hate him for unleashing so much onto the world and making their jobs and lives harder?

Why did Sam reveal himself to Dean?
If Sam truly thought Dean was better off thinking him dead and staying out of the life, he could have stayed that way. He could have killed the djinn, rescued Dean, and hidden or left so Dean never knew he was there. Or he could have sent Bobby to protect Dean and Lisa and Ben, or even just the Campbells. Yeah, Dean would have found out sooner or later, but there were ways Sam could have achieved his stated ends without revealing himself to Dean.

Is it really Sam?
This is the biggest, most disturbing question. I want it to not be Sam. I mean, the smugness during the hug was too reminiscent of Lucifer. I don't want him to just be changed by his possession or his time in the cage or his new life. Change is inevitable, and I don't mind it—but I don't want him to change like this. If it's not Sam, who could it be?

If it's really Sam, what else could be going on?
My favorite theory is that he's either under the Campbells' thumb somehow, or suspicious of them and scared so that he needs his brother. His oddness would be because of that fear, and the agenda he's trying to hide. But I'm sure there are a bunch of other things that could be going on. What's your favorite theory?

Thoughts?

Supernatural News

Of course the big news for the week was the premiere of the sixth season of Supernatural. Yay! If you Google "Supernatural" now, you'll get links to a million and one (okay, slight exaggeration) recaps and commentaries on the the premiere episode, "Exile on Main Street." From what I've read, there seems to be some consensus that something is definitely up with Grandpa Campbell and the oddball Campbell cousins.

I was worried about a falloff in viewership with the move to Friday, but the ratings held steady with last year's with 2.8 million viewers. I wonder if it might be helped a bit by science fiction fans who are used to having Friday night be their domain but are facing the odd decision by SyFy to move Caprica and Stargate Universe to Tuesdays so they can air WWE wrestling on Friday nights. Seriously, wrestling?

Confirmation that all is also not right with Sam. Dude, I hope it's really Sam, and he eventually gets back to his awesome Sammy self.

A glimpse at this week's episode, "Two and a Half Men" (which also happens to be the name of hubby's favorite TV show).

Julie McNiven (Anna the angel) will be headed to Stargate Universe this season as a love interest for Eli. Cool! I heart Eli.

Supernatural News

Drinking video for Misha's birthday. Some talk about Castiel.

Want to see what other Supernatural fans are hoping for in Season 6? Click here.

Some tidbits about what Sam and Dean have been up to in the time between the end of Season 5 and the beginning of Season 6.

Thomas Kincaid's Christmas Cottage, starring Jared Padalecki, will be out on Blu-ray in November.

Supernatural Shenanigans

You know, after what happened the other night while I was watching Supernatural, I think I've finally made my peace with the hiatus. It's been well-documented that I am a wuss, so enjoying this show has always been a bit of a stretch for me (although Jared and Jensen have helped me overcome my phobias just enough to keep watching...hmmm, Supernatural as therapy. Who knew?)

Has anything weird ever happened to you while you were watching something spooky? To date, I've had two freakish coincidences. One was when a light on the show started to flicker, Sam and Dean gave each other the significant "a-ha, demon presence!" look and my power went out shortly therafter. But since I was watching TV during a major thunderstorm, the electrical outage wasn't exactly a mystery worthy of calling Bobby. Then there was the time I was watching the first season DVDs with my husband after the kids were in bed and supposed to be asleep. We were right at the beginning of "Home," where a single mom moves into the Winchester's old house. Almost simultaneously, the girl on the television told her mother that there's "something in my closet" and my OWN daughter showed up in our doorway blurting, "there's something in my closet." (I admit, that freaked me out enough that I made my husband go check because I wasn't about to!)

But here's my latest. (And while I'm sure someone with a background in how televisions and DVD players work could explain this scientifically, I cannot. Big coward that I am, I'm just glad I wasn't alone.) A girlfriend was over who has only seen a couple of episodes before, so of course I pulled out my DVDs. We'd been watching late into the night and everyone else in the house was asleep. We half-heartedly commented that we should probably turn it off because it was so late, but then we talked ourselves into one more episode. In the middle of the episode, the picture went wonky--first it was staticky, then it went completely green (which is a new one on me) although we could still hear Sam and Dean discussing that what they had on their hands was a ghost problem, which of course meant digging up the bones. So I stood up, told her I was sorry that we didn't get to finish the episode, but that it was probably for the best since we both had to be up in the morning. I popped out the DVD to put away and all of the sudden, Sam and Dean appeared on the television, digging up a body (no sound, but the picture was clear as day.) I looked from the DVD in my hand to my friend, who brightly announced, "Gotta go!" I was right on her heels, hitting the TV remote over my shoulder as I left.

I realize this isn't on par with, say, my couch levitating or Zuul the gatekeeper appearing in my fridge, but watching two people dig up a grave on my TV after I'd already removed the DVD was sufficiently bizarre enough that I think I'm ready for a break from watching creepy shows. Say, from now until nine p.m. on Friday, September 24...

Lingering Questions

So it's the first week of a long summer without any new Supernatural episodes. Thursday night feels...odd. But while I was reading a recent Entertainment Weekly special section on LOST and its upcoming series finale, when they mentioned the lingering questions everyone has about the show it made me start thinking about the same thing for Supernatural. So here are some of my lingering questions:

1. Of course, the first one is what Natalie explored on Wednesday: Who is Sam now? I'm not sure I have a theory yet. I was just so surprised to see him at the end of the episode.

2. Doesn't Crowley still have Bobby's soul? If Crowley's around next season, will he still be on the boys' side or start making trouble for them like demons do?

3. What will Castiel do in heaven if he goes back there? Will we see him? If so, how often? I hate to say it, but I'm not sure the show with just the boys will be as satisfying anymore. I like what these great secondary characters like Castiel, Bobby and Crowley bring to the show and bring out in the brothers.

4. Does the entire road to the apocalypse just start over? Someone said (Was it Zachariah?) that this apocalypse wasn't the first one, that the earth had been wiped clean before. Does that mean we could go back to the type of monster-of-the-week episodes we had in Season 1? I'm not sure we could do that without it maybe feeling like a letdown after the past couple of seasons, but I could totally be wrong.

5. Will we see Papa Winchester again?

6. Do we ever get a definitive answer about whether Chuck is God? I'm not sure I like the whole portrayal of God as a figure who sits back and just gets his amusement from moving humans, demons and angels around like cheese pieces. Plus, I really wanted Chuck to just be the goofball Prophet Chuck.

5. Are the spoilers right? Or are they just messing with us? The text is hidden on the rest of this item so those avoiding spoilers can continue to do so. I saw a spoiler that says next season starts several years in the future, with Dean living that apple pie life but perhaps being dissatisfied with it. If Sam is really Sam, is he living that kind of life too? What could they possibly be doing? Is Dean a car mechanic? Working at Bobby's junkyard? Is Sam an attorney? Do they have kids? Wives? And just how far into the first episode of the season is something light-flickeringly weird going to happen to launch them back into the hunting life? How will they feel about that? Resigned? Restored? Useful again?

What are your theories and thoughts about the above questions. What are your lingering questions about the series?

Recap for "Point of No Return"

The 100th episode began with Zachariah (aka the angel we love to hate) in a bar, drinking away his sorrows just like the businessman next to him who got a pink slip. He bemoans not sealing the deal. Next thing we know, things start shaking. And we all know nothing good happens when things start shaking. Stuart, the fired businessman, says, "Earthquake?" Zachariah responds, "Nah. My boss." Zachariah is offered some new deal and he calmly finishes his drink and leaves the bar -- and its deal occupants -- behind.

Next we see a heartbreaking, man at the end of his rope scene with Dean. He's filling a box with his leather jacket, his car keys, his gun, and addressing it to Bobby. But before he can go any further with his plan, Sam turns up with Cas and Cas zaps them back to Bobby's. One of the most heart-wrenching things Dean has ever said was when he looked at Bobby, after Bobby had called him "son", and said, "You're not my father, and you ain't in my shoes." The look on Bobby's face -- before he got mad -- showed such hurt because he does feel like the boys' father. They're the only family he has left. But Bobby gets his point across about not giving up when he pulls out a gun and a bullet and admits that he thinks about killing himself every day but that he doesn't because he promised Dean he wouldn't.

Cas gets a pain in his head and disappears from the room only to reappear in a forest. He sees a spot in the ground moving, but before he can examine it too closely, he has to fight off two angels. When he does get back to the strange spot, a hand emerges -- one belonging to the now-back-alive younger Winchester brother, Adam. Turns out Adam was in Heaven, making out with a girl at prom, when Zachariah came and told him he was Michael's vessel and he would help defeat the devil.

Sam pleads with Adam to give them time to come up with another plan, and he asks what they've got so far. Loved the following exchage:

Dean: "We're working on the power of love."
Adam: "How's that going?"
Dean: "Not good."

I think the casting of Adam is fantastic. He looks like he could be Sam and Dean's brother, and he even has some of the same snark and resentment toward John. And how Jake Abel portrayed the real Adam is so much more believable than the fake Adam we saw previously.

Sam has locked Dean in Bobby's panic room (hello, payback!) to keep him from going to do something "Michael stupid". When he goes to talk to Dean, big bro says that he won't have Adam taking a bullet for him and that he's tired of fighting who he's meant to be. Sam says he believes that Dean will do the right thing, but Dean admits that he doesn't have the same faith in Sam. Damn, how many more of these heart-wrenching moments can we stand?

Sam and Dean try to tell him that the angels are liars, but Adam has a dream in which he talks to Zachariah and tips the angels off to where he is and is taken by the angels. He ends up in that same beautiful room full of beer, stacks of cheeseburgers and paintings on the walls that Dean once did. And Zachariah tells him he was just bait to get Dean because everyone knows Sam and Dean will come for Adam. They're like that with family. Dean manages to banish Cas with that angel-banishing symbol and takes off. But after Cas finds him and beats the living daylights out of him before bringing him back to Bobby's, Dean has learned the following lesson:

"Word to the wise. Don't piss off the nerd angels." :)

Of course, as Zachariah predicted, Sam and Dean ride to Adam's rescue. They're surprised to find out the beautiful room is an abandoned muffler factory in Van Nuys, California, but I thought that was so hilariously perfect. But this time, it's not just Sam and Dean taking on the superior forces. They have Nerd Angel on their side! And Cas proceeds to kick some butt, killing one angel and banishing the other four as well as himself.

They find Adam, Zachariah reveals himself, nasty exchange ensues, Zach makes Adam and Sam hemorrhage from the mouth, and Dean says "yes." But he has conditions -- he has a list of people he wants to keep safe, and Michael has to kill Zachariah. Zach laughs at this, but not for long because Dean pulls out one of those angel blades and kills Zach. Then he rushes for the door with Sam, with Adam following, as Michael arrives. Adam gets stuck in the room, and we assume that he is either dead or is now Michael's vessel. Guess only time will tell.

We end with Dean and Sam driving down the road, and Dean begins to come out of the defeated funk he's been in the past few episodes.

Dean: "Screw destiny. I saw we take the fight to them. Do it out way."
Sam: "Sounds good."

Is it me or was there only the one song on the jukebox in the first bar scene? A little surprising that they didn't work in "Point of No Return" by Kansas.

99 Problems

99 Problems starts off fast and furious with Sam and Dean in a high speed race. Sam is hurt, the boys are outnumbered by pursuing demons and they’ve just reached a dead end. Cue the calvary. Or in this case, the Sacrament Lutheran Militia. Armed with a tank of holy water and a fire hose, the group saves the Winchesters.

“I hate to tell you, but those are demons and this is the apocalypse. So buckle up!” SLM member

Sam and Dean are shocked to find this small town in the know. The church serves as their base, the pistol packing preacher as their leader and they’ve got twelve-year-olds packing salt rounds.

“I don’t know whether to run screaming or buy a condom.” - Dean

Even more shocking…the preacher’s daughter, Lea, is a prophet. She’s the one telling the town how to protect themselves. The boys leave a message for Castiel and decide to stick around to see what they can learn, despite Dean sounding like he’s given up. They join a group of hunters and experience what it’s like to work with a team. Unfortunately, Dillon, a likeable young teen, is killed under Sam and Dean’s watch and his mother blames them.

At his funeral Lea has a vision. She announces that Dillon will return from the dead. He’ll be resurrected on Judgment Day. Everyone in the town will be reunited with their departed loved ones and they’ll enjoy paradise on Earth. The angels have chosen them. All they have to do is follow their commandments.

“No drinking, no gambling, no premarital sex. Dean, they basically just outlawed 90% of your personality.” - Sam

Dean goes to see Lea. He’s so desperate to find some hope, to find something to renew his faith. She assures him they’re about to face a prize fight, but they will emerge victorious and well rewarded.

Meanwhile, Sam goes to the town pub where he and Paul, the bartender, bond over their rebellion. An annoyed Sam later returns to the hotel room venting about being trapped in a fundamentalist compound. Dean could care less. Again, he hints that he’s ready to give up. Sam tells him he can’t do that. He can’t count on anyone else and he can’t do it alone.

Dean breaks curfew and heads out to clear his head. He finds the bartender being attacked by the townies because of Lea’s new vision. According to her, they won’t be rewarded with paradise if they don’t take care of the sinners. Dean tries to save Paul, but Dillon’s despondent mother shoots him, not wanting anything to ruin her chance at reuniting with her son.

“I found a liquor store and I drank it.” - Castiel


Castiel finally pops in, very drunk and depressed. He informs them Lea is NOT a prophet, but a whore. She rises when Lucifer walks the Earth and bears false prophecy. She can read minds and take human form, but her main purpose is to turn the townies on each other and condemn as many souls to hell as possible. The only way to kill her it to have a servant of Heaven stab her with a stake made from a cypress tree in Babylon. The boys persuade the preacher to stab the thing that looks like his daughter.

When they get to the church they find Lea has stuffed a storage room with “sinners”, including children, and intends to torch them with kerosene. Her dad tries to stab her and she convinces her followers he’s a demon. Fighting ensues. Lea attacks Dean and taunts him, calling him pathetic, self-hating and faithless. Dean grabs the stake and stabs her. It shouldn’t work…but it does. The demon smokes out and her minions realize they’ve made a terrible mistake.

“Are you going to do something stupid? Like Michael stupid.” – Sam

Cas and the preacher are hurt. Dean and Sam take them to the hotel where Sam senses that something has shifted in Dean. He tries to get his big brother to stay, but Dean takes off. He shows up on his old girlfriend’s doorstep. He tells Lisa (The Kids are Alright and Dream a Little Dream of Me) he knows how things are going to end for him and he’s okay with that, but he wants her to know when he thinks about being happy he imagines himself with her and her son. Then he tells her things are going to get scary soon, but she shouldn’t worry because he’s going to make arrangements to keep her and Ben safe. He’s going to do what he needs to, but under his conditions. Lisa tries desperately to get him to explain, to stay, but Dean tearfully kisses her goodbye and leaves to meet his fate.

Damn…he is going to do something Michael stupid. Did Dean break your heart as much as he did mine?

Recap/Reassessment of Heart

There are ONLY spoilers for this one episode (Heart) but I completely ruin the ending for you if, for some reason, you haven't seen it. You've been warned.

Fridays are normally our day to recap new episodes, but as you know, SPN doesn’t come back until next week, so yet again we had no new show (I’ll pause while you join me in pouting or whatever its more dignified equal is). Sometimes instead we recap a “classic” SPN episode from an earlier season. Which works nicely since Supernatural is now in syndication and TNT has been showing it on weekday mornings, check your local listings.

Anyway, I was working at home a couple of weeks ago when I realized that Supernatural was about to come on and, since I had to run my kids’ school, I reflexively DVRed it. I’m not sure why since I actually own the DVD sets and could have watched the exact same episode, “Heart,” without the hassle of commercials. (Does anyone else do this? It’s like when ABC shows the Charlie Brown Christmas special every year and I make the family gather around the television even though we could pop in our copy whenever we want).

But I digress. When my husband got home, he thought it was maybe a new episode in our queue and sat down to watch it with me. (He gives me a lot of hell about my inappropriate appreciation of Sam and Dean—mostly Dean—but he gets wounded if I watch the show without him, witness our argument after I deleted the gory Cupid episode before he’d seen it. But I digress again).

Since my husband became a fan well after I did, he’d never seen “Heart,” and, as it’s not the kind of episode I enjoy watching over and over, I’d only seen it once. Since I, as a card carrying romance writer, really like happy endings, you can imagine why this episode is not my favorite. But beyond the ending, I recall thinking that I wasn’t crazy about the guest-actress's portrayal of Madison and that the chemistry between her and Sam seemed forced. Upon a second watching, I have decided that I was wrong.

We open on a scene in a nightclub that seemed a little more Angel or Charmed than SPN's normal grittier, low rent establishments. A woman deflects her druken boss, seemingly unperturbed as she's had practice with this lush, but then stiffens when she notices a scowling brute in the corner. Later she finds her drunken boss savaged in their office, blood aplenty, and Sam's trip to the morgue confirms an off the record suspicion of wolf attack and that the vic's heart is missing.

Apparently, the heart missing indicates werewolf and Dean turns up some previous similar crimes, so it looks like there's a werewolf in the area. Then the guys meet Madison, under the guise of investigating cops. It turns out the scowling brute was her ex and they wonder if he could be the wolf in question. One of them has to keep the beautiful slender brunette in protective custody while the other has to hit the mean-streets and look for a potentially dangerous guy. This leads to a very cute rock-paper-scissors, two out of three, both of which go to Sam. ("Dean, always with the scissors.")

But while Sam had no trouble insisting that he didn't want to hit the streets, he seems to lack his older brother's ease with women. Sam sorts of lurks uncomfortably around her apartment despite her flashing neon signs that She. Is. Interested. At one point when he's sitting at a table, she dumps a laundry basket of skimpy silky underwear in front of him and starts folding. This struck me as a lot funnier than I remember it being the first time around. (Later, when Madison goes to bed, she deliberately leaves the bedroom door ajar, and my husband rolled his eyes. "Even I would have picked up on a signal that obvious!") Probably the cutest moment between Sam and Madison was when she tells him that she never gets to watch her show (which, from the discussion they have, sounds like a soap opera) and that she won't put up with Sam making fun of it. Later, as the end credits roll, he is sitting in rapt attention discussing the show's villain with her and it is adorable. They also discuss how a seemingly self-confident woman like Madison let herself stay with a loser like her ex and she reveals that, ironically, a mugging a couple of months ago gave her a new outlook on life and changed hers for the better.

Later that night, Dean eventually catches up to Madison's very dead ex...who is missing his heart. Dean is also knocked aside by Madison the snarling werewolf. These boys really do have the worst luck with women!

Madison is surprised to wake up naked in her bed the next morning and even more surprised when cute Sam the policeman suddenly becomes menacing and withdrawn and ties her to a chair. Seeing the place on her arm where Dean nicked her with a silver knife, Sam has no doubt she's a werewolf but questions whether or not she's even aware of killing people at night or if it's just a protective instinct, sensing both of them men she's murdered as some level of threat to her. Sam asks if she was bitten during her mugging and she admits she was, on the neck, and Dean puzzles that the mark there is little more than a love bite. The brothers argue about what to do with her and Sam points out old lore that if you kill the person who turned you, it might free you (that I've actually heard before--in fact, I thin there was a short lived primetime drama revolving around that exact premise--but the whole missing heart thing was new to me; I think the writers just did that to symbolize how they plan to rip out Sam's heart and all of the viewers' at the end of the show).

Dean agrees to return the neighborhood where Madison was mugged and prostitutes have been murdered in the past, identifying that area as a werewolf hunting ground. Sam agrees to stay to keep an eye on Madison. Rather predictably, she breaks out of the chair when she turns and equally predictably, Sam can't bring himself to shoot her. But he does trap her in what I think is a closet after she manages to lacerate his pretty, pretty face. When Madison wakes at dawn and sees the destruction and clawed up walls, she becomes fully convince that Dean and Sam are not psychos after all.

Meanwhile, Dean manages a little destruction of his own, killing the werewolf who turned Madison (the neighbor who had a huge crush on her so, yes, it probably was a love bite after all). So the curse has probably been lifted, yes? (Yeah, you hold onto that dim hope.)

Dean, Sam, and Madison spend an entire full-moon night awake to see if she turns. Dean is noticeably the third wheel here. When dawn rises with no one wolfing out, they are in a celebratory mood. And Dean takes the most hilariously unsubtle exit ever so that Sam and Madison can...celebrate. Which, wow. They did not skimp on that love scene. There was definitely no fading to black or fogged up backseat of the Impala. Hello.

By the time night falls, Sam and Madison have drifted into happy afterglow sleep which doesn't last long. Madison turns wolf and bolts from her apartment, calling Sam scared from a payphone the next morning. They don't fully explain why she didn't wolf out the night before but the possibility is suggested that since she was awake the entire night, she was fighting it on a subconcious level. I don't suppose it would be possible for her to sleep during the day and stay awake nights of the full moon cycle? Or lock her up the way they always did with Oz on Buffy? But, no, because as Dean explains, those plans are not fail-safe. Eventually she would break out (or, with my plan, accidentally nod off, then wake up to find herself chowing down on some guy's heart in the east village). Dean spells out that she probably killed some one the night before and that, the first time their protective measures fail, she's going to end up killing again. The only permanent solution? Put her down.

Sam argues that they'll find a solution--he's deseperate to believe that because season 2 escalates his own self-worry that there's a monster within--but even Madison agrees with Dean. They have to kill her. And she asks Sam to be the one to do it. She puts the gun in his hand. He is poleaxed and just broken over the whole thing. Dean gently takes the gun and pulls his brother aside in conference, offering to do this for him, looking after Sam as he's tried to do ever since he carried the baby out of the burning house when he was a child. It was during their emotional discussion that I commented to my husband (completely without judgement, btw, it's merely an observation) that for a show about two very studly guys, they sure do cry a lot. Of course, I was crying along with them and even my husband was sitting next to me muttering, "Damn."

The last shot, if you'll pardon the double pun, is killer. Close up of Dean's face as he winces at the gunshot in the next room. Arguments have been made that, as we never see the body, Sam didn't go through with it and we might see her again. I don't buy it, but my husband said if he were Dean, he'd have to double-check, just to make sure.

It's definitely not a happy-shiny Supernatural (but then, so few are) but upon second-viewing, it was better than I remembered. I think one of my objections, formerly, were convenient plot holes, like why killing her had to be the only option and how she managed to stay human just long enough for the Big Love Scene and subsequent tragic ending. But after a re-listening of the dialogue, I think the writers at least made an attempt to spackle those holes and whereas I found the so-called chemistry between Sam and Madison awkwardly forced the first time around (oh, look, it's an episode where Sam's in close proximity to a beautiful woman, I don't suppose one thing could lead to another...) this time I found it awkwardly charming. Jared did a great job being sort of, well, gawky and making it believable that a gorgeous giant of a guy with those sculpted shoulders could still be uncomfortable with an attractive woman.

What about you guys--any episodes stand out for you where a second viewing left you with a completely different reaction than your first?

That's so Supernatural

For several years prior to writing full-time, I worked at a magazine that covered the people and places of interest across Tennessee. The vast majority of what we covered was in the non-city parts of the state, the rural areas. So I've been on lots and lots of highways and byways and country roads and visited many a small town. This was before Supernatural debuted, but as I think back now I know I passed many diners and dive motels that would have brought to mind the Winchester brothers. I've even eaten in some of those diners. And once I had to stay in the only motel in the little town where I grew up. It was so a Winchester boys motel. Worse even! I kid you not, the heat was a small space heater. And a WiFi connection? LOL. There wasn't even any Magic Fingers.

Now, I can barely have a slice of pie without thinking about Dean's love of pie. "Gimme pie!"

I can't hear a Kansas song, or a lot of other classic rock, without thinking about Dean and the Impala.

A year or so ago, I rode the train to California. On the way back, I woke up early in the morning before daybreak when the train made a stop. I put on my glasses and looked out the window to see where we were. I'll admit to a bit of excitement to see we were in Lawrence, Kansas. I can't tell you how much I wanted to go exploring. I wonder if there are any Supernatural-related tourist sites in Lawrence or even any mention of the show.

So I'm curious -- has anyone else being going about your normal, everyday life and had a "Supernatural" moment?