"Season 7, Time for a Wedding!"

I love when the writers get all cheeky and poke fun at industry conventions! I wonder what else they'll decide is supposed to be included in season 7.

We start with "Then" and with so much focus on Becky, I'm guessing she's the one who will marry Sam. Yeah, despite my attempts to remain unspoiled, I knew Sam was the one getting married. :(

We're in Las Vegas, with Dean talking up a hot waitress. He's actually pretty relaxed and into the flirtation, which is nice to see. But this opening talk confuses the heck out of me. Since when do they have a sacred annual pilgrimage to Vegas? It took me a long time to get into the flow of the story after that.

Dean's main problem, coaxed out of him by the waitress (stripper?), is actually pretty great. His brother is batshit nuts, but the shit's not hitting the fan. He's all reasonable and stuff, though he's worried about Sam being out camping by himself. She says "we all need to face ourselves sometime," not referring to Sam, and when we get to the end of the episode, that idea is revisited. Nice circle there. But I'll come back to that.

So Sam texts Dean to come down the street, and wear his Fed suit. Hey, I recognize this church! It was the one where Sam defeated Samhain in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester." Pretty sure it was also the entry to the tombs in "Houses of the Holy," too. You know you're obsessed when you recognize repurposed locations. :)

So Dean comes in packing, but Sam assures him he doesn't need the pistol. Dean asks what their pretext is (I love when they use the lingo, though I'm not sure we've heard this one since "Tall Tales"). What are they hunting, a siren?

No. Sam's in love, and he's getting married.

Enter the creepy bride, with the thickest veil this side of the Boar's Head (<---Harry Potter reference). Dean's reaction, to both Sam's announcement and to his bride, is priceless. I LOVE when Jensen gets to do comedy! Beautiful black-and-white wedding cake that explodes into the title shot. That was AWESOME. Dean's still trying to figure this out. Sam's explanation? "We met, we ate..." Ah-HA. She had to do something to him, right? A spell or potion, maybe? But despite Sam being a bit mild and oddly unquestioning, he seems fine. Very natural with Becky, who of course is thrilled beyond belief. She doesn't care about the average life span of his hookups—eyes wide open—and is even paying for the wedding. "Really?! SuperFan99?!"

Sam and Becky leave for her home in Delaware. Dean calls Bobby but has to leave a message, as Bobby's got his hands full with a nest in Oregon. I love that Bobby's presence is so strong, even when he's not on screen.

Sam and Becky pull into a restaurant parking lot. Sam says they just ate, and for a moment I think Becky must be a monster of some sort who needs lots of calories, but no, it all becomes clear when she walks in to the site of her high school reunion, with the requisite mean girl handling the planning. Becky shows off Sam, then introduces him to her friend Guy, who has an interesting reaction to Sam. I assumed on first watch that he was part of Becky's plan, and he is, but his surprise is not just that it worked, as we later find out.

"Guy's a really good friend. We met in the erotic horror section at the Novel Hovel..."

Guy's an event planner, and reunion season is very busy for him, but Becky runs after him to get some silver-clad glass bottle and makes reference to him being Wiccan. Dean drives up as they drive away. He doesn't follow, but goes inside and pulls out Dad's journal, presumably to do research (though I'd think he has that thing memorized by now) or take notes (maybe it's his own journal now). He's immediately distracted by a newspaper story about some guy's good fortune and immediate tragedy.

Sam's sitting at a lovely dinner (rotisserie chicken from the grocery store) and Becky comes out in sexy lingerie. Anyone else reminded of "Wishful Thinking" at this point? Or, like, for the full 11 minutes up to this point? But Sam gets vision-like headaches and comes painfully to reality, with no clue how he got there, and I can't help wondering why I thought he seemed so normal. Now he's really Sam, for a few crucial seconds. Becky gives him the potion, and he's back to being in "love" with her. Poor Sam.

Cut to a guy hitting balls on a baseball field, and another guy using mojo of some sort (his hand movements remind me of Castiel, but I'm thinking more like demon or witch). Baseball to the face, requisite blood splatter, ewwwww.

Dean, being supportive, brings Sam a waffle iron. Sam's a little standoffish but displays no animosity. He's just...I don't know, kind of empty? Dean brings up the job in town. Baseball guy just got called up to the majors. Becky says their first thought was crossroads demon, but there's the 10-year time frame. Dean's totally flummoxed that Sam and Becky are working the case together. He's pissed at Becky, but even when Sam says "that's my wife you're talking about," there's no heat. He's talking the talk, but there's no real emotion behind it.

Dean says people who get their dreams come true bite it pretty quick. Sam says maybe what's bothering Dean is that Sam doesn't need him anymore. Ouch. Dean leaves, and tells Bobby he doesn't want another hunter, but since Bobby's all the way across the country (sorry, Dean, he's not close to his magic South Dakota wormhole), he's going to hook Dean up with someone local.

Sam catches Becky writing in her journal (swirly "Sam loves Becky" crap) and sniffing the presumably scented ink. When he licks his thumb and rubs the ink off her nose, there is nothing romantic about it. Except to her. He's found another dream-achiever...and Becky's journal. But despite her hilarious panic, he thinks it's beautiful and hugs the book. He's so adorable!

Dean goes back to the restaurant to meet the hunter, but the burly guy he approaches first isn't who he's looking for. It's the scrawny guy in the corner (DJ Qualls!), who says, "I thought you'd be taller." Bobby told him Dean would be all surly and premenstrual working with him, but he's cool with it. So do you think he'll go the way of Tamara, a hunter never seen again, or Rufus, recurring until he dies?

Dean (in a sweater vest?!) and his new partner cross paths with Sam and Becky at the CEO's office. Dean plays hard-hitting journalist very well, while Garth cuts right to the chase and hits the guy with "nefarious means" questions about black magic and hoodoo. Between the two of them, they get that the guy didn't want the job. But his bitchy wife obviously did want it. Dean tries to get the story from her, but she blows them off.

"Why do people keep thinking I'm threatening them?"
"Because it sounded exactly like a threat, dude."

Sam's trying to work the case while Becky tweets about going on a romantic getaway. The elixir wears off again, but it leaked in Becky's purse, and she can't stop Sam from reverting.

Dean saves the CEO's wife, whose story makes it sound like a demon deal. But the timeline is whack. Garth shows his hunter chops and lays out the plan. They'll stow the wife with his cousin, a tri-racial paraplegic sniper, while they go after the demon.

Becky makes a desperation call to Guy, Sam is in pain and asks Becky what's going on, and when he says he's calling Dean, she knocks him out with a waffle iron.

Sam wakes up tied to a bed in a nice cabin.

Tied. To a bed.

...

...

Okay, I'm back. Sam's fully himself, and what a friggin' relief! Becky tests him for concussion symptoms, says he's pantsless because they're very constricting, but don't worry, she didn't do anything weird. Guy calls her back on her computer, and she wants the elixir. She says the stuff is wearing off faster and faster and whines that they haven't even consummated their marriage. Guy says to meet him in an hour, and Sam heard everything. He's pissed, while Becky is full of justification. Sam knows right away that Guy is the one killing everyone, and says Becky is on his list. Crazy woman. She refuses to untie him, stuffs a rag in his mouth, and calls "love you too!" as she runs off for more love potion.

I know she's pathetic and doing something awful here, but I really like Becky!

But it turns out Sam was right. Guy wants payment now, and reveals his red eyes. Reunions give him tons of clients, and he admits (kind of) that he's responsible for the deaths. He says he wasn't thrilled to see her new hubby was Sam Freakin' Winchester, but he'll give her a special deal. Twenty-five years—unprecedented—with Sam for her soul and her promise not to tell the Winchesters any of it.

The timeline gets a little murky for me from this point. She wants a drink, but Guy hands over the potion, then she goes back to the house and talks to Sam, then she's drinking at the end of the reunion. I think the editing could have been tidied up a little.

Dean and Garth go to Becky's apartment and find enough clues to send them to the lake house (Loon Lake, nice pun :) ). Becky is there lamenting that her plan to show off Sam—he's tall and nice, and they'd think she was happy—isn't going according to plan. She does a short rundown of her life and fondles the bottle of elixir. Sam tells her she's better than this, she says she's not so sure, and now we're back at the restaurant after the reunion. She tells Guy she's in.

Wow. I can't believe we still have 20 minutes to go. This episode was actually shorter than normal, but seemed to go on for a long time.

Becky gets close enough to the demon to seal the deal, but instead drops a lighter on a devil's trap made from blueberry vodka. Sam, Dean, and Garth show up, so apparently they made it to the lake house. Guy asks for Dean's autograph, Dean pulls out the demon-killing knife. Guy claims to be an innovator instead of a cheater, using an "intern" to arrange accidents and collect early on the souls. Intern flings all three hunters across the room. He's pretty powerful. Fights ensue, Garth gets knocked out, Sam and Dean are getting throttled, season 1 style. Becky saves Sam with a knife through the intern's torso (that knife isn't that long!) and Sam tosses it to Dean, who turns it on Guy.

Guy says "oh crap" and Dean thinks it's because of him, but then Crowley appears. Oh, crap. But Crowley isn't too happy with Guy's stupidity. The "intern" ratted him out. Crowley's pissed at the damage to their credibility.

"There's a reason we don't call our chits in early. Consumer confidence. This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell! We have a little something called integrity."

Crowley makes a deal to cancel all Guy's deals (15 of them) and take Guy from Dean. Sam's suspicious, and Crowley points out that demons have left Sam and Dean alone while they're dealing with the Leviathans.

"You met that dick, yeah? Smuggest tub of goo since Mussolini. I hate the bastards. Squash them all. Please. I'll stay clear."

His "done. and done." when he cancels the deals reminds me of Ash. *sniff*

Man, I love Crowley.

Sam, with absolutely no sympathy for Becky, gets an annulment and says she'll probably never see him again. But he does take pity and tells her she's not a loser, to just do her thing, whatever that is, and the right guy will find her. Then Garth gets all crushy on her, but Dean squashes that pretty quick.

We have the goodbye scene, when Dean tells Garth he doesn't suck. "Thank you, man. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." I like Garth. I hope we see him again.

Sam says he does need Dean watching his back, but Dean admits Sam's a grown up and doesn't need him any more.

"It's still a Denver scramble up here, I just know my way around the plate now."

Sam says it's about time Dean gets to just look out for himself, but Dean doesn't look too thrilled about that. This is where we're supposed to reflect back on the waitress (stripper?) saying he needed to face himself. Come on, Dean, you can do it. You're a helluva guy, you know.

Final verdict: This wasn't my favorite episode, but I really liked the tone and the characters, and I have a feeling this will be one of my favorites to rewatch. It's always nice to have a light episode among all the heavy, dark ones.

What did you think?

Urban Legends

One of the things I loved about Supernatural is the way the boys investigated urban legends. (I’m one who prefers the stand-alone episodes, though I know the show wouldn’t be the same without the myth-arc.) I loved the Bloody Mary episode, the Hookman, the Woman in White.

I know the boys have bigger fish to fry right now, but here are some cases I would love to see them on.

La Bruja Lechuza is a Mexican legend. She is a witch who comes to a house in the form of a giant owl-type bird, to take away someone who is close to death. Some of my students claim to have seen her, and are terrified of her. I would love to see the boys come to town (how about a San Antonio set show? Hmm?) and hunt her down, only to find out she isn’t what they believe her to be?

The Jersey Devil is another interesting urban legend, but from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t do much, like a chupacabra. It just eats livestock and freaks people out. Still, I have faith Kripke could make it a fun monster-of-the-week.

A haunted lighthouse would make a good setting for an episode. Maybe set during a hurricane or something…definitely with a love interest.

New Orleans…something in the cemeteries. I know, cliché, but again, I have faith in Kripke. Wouldn’t it be cool to see the boys vs. a voodoo priestess? Or working side by side with one?

But my number one wish for a setting is Stull Cemetery in Lawrence, Kansas. (I wonder if this doesn’t tie in to Mary’s family’s careers as hunters.) Supposedly, Satan can manifest there, and does on Halloween. His only son is rumored to be buried there, and when Pope John Paul II flew across the country, he had his plane avoid Kansas. Weird, huh? It’s said to be a devil’s gate, which I know we’ve done, but how cool would it be to have it in a real place? They could even go up against a group of Satan worshipers or something.

What stories would you like to see the boys tackle?

Wishful Thinking

If I could have a wish right now, one that wouldn't backfire, it would be to squash this stupid bug I have. I'm blogging with a clogged head and fever. Thankfully, tonight's repeat at least cheered me up. The dialogue in Wishing Thinking is so freakin' funny I think I'll let it do most the work.


Sam and Dean are in a TGIF contemplating their next assignment. The waiter, with his flashing buttons and nauseating cheerfulness, is getting on Dean's nerves almost as much as Sam asking him why Uriel said he remembered hell. Dean insists he doesn't, but the three shots he downs in quick succession seem to say different.


Sam backs off and rattles some possible cases. One in Concrete, Washington has Dean throwing bills down and ready to hit the road.


Dean: "Women. Showers. We gotta save these people."


Turns out a Mrs. Candace Armstrong was accosted in the shower by a ghost. At least that's what she tells Sam when he questions her for the book he's writing. The title? Supernatural.


After his meeting with her at the Lucky Chin's restaurant, Sam decides she's just a little loony. The boys plan to leave and Dean is bummed because he didn't get to save any naked women. Before they can get to the Metallicar they bump into a man claiming he saw big foot. Some big freakin' prints lead them to a store where they find broken liquor bottles, missing porn mags and a hunk of fur.


Dean: "He's a girl drink drunk."


The scene outside the story has the boys seriously flummoxed and seeing them mentally suggest and dismiss possible explanations is just priceless.



Dean: "Or it's a big foot. You know, he's like some kind of alco-holer-porno addict. Kinda like a deep woods Duchovny."


They follow a trail of Busty Asian Beauties to a house.


Dean: "What is this? Like a Harry and the Henderson's deal?"


There they meet Audrey, a young girl who went to the wishing well and asked for a teddy that was "big, real and talked." Sam and Dean convince her they're teddy bear doctors and when she lets them into her room they find a gargantuan Gund with a depressive disorder.


Sam: "Are we gonna kill this damn bear?"
Dean: "How? We shoot it? Burn it?
Sam: "I don't know. Both."
Dean: "How do we even know that's gonna work. I don't want some giant flaming pissed off teddy on our hands."


After assuring Audrey she should go stay with a neighbor while they treat her bear for Lollipop disease, Dean and Sam head for Lucky Chin's and the wishing well.


Dean tests the well by ordering a foot-long italian sandwich with jalapenos. It shows up seconds later. While he chows down they discuss what they should do.


Dean: "What're we supposed to do? Stop people's wishes from coming true? That sounds like kind of a douchey thing to do."


Sam tells him things like this always come with a price, often a deadly one.


Claiming to be health inspectors they shut the restaurant down due to rats.


Dean asks Sam if he's tempted to make a wish? Maybe go back to before everything started where he'd most likely be a yuppy lawyer with a nice car and white picket fence. Sam says he's not that guy anymore and if he were to wish for anything it would be for Lillith's head on a plate. Bloody.


They find an old, unbudgeable, coin in the well. Dean is assigned to figure out what it is while Sam decides maybe the "ghost" needs a closer look. He captures the Peeping Tom and makes the kid swear he won't do any more invisible stalking. When Sam returns to the hotel Dean is hurling his jalapenos. Between breaths he tells Sam that the wishes turn bad, real bad, and that the coin is Babylonian. It comes from Tiamet, the God of primordial chaos and the only way they can stop things is to find the first wisher. Only that person will be able to remove the coin from the well.


Meanwhile, Teddy has shot his stuffing out, but lived to sob about it and Dean's sleep is plagued by hellish nightmares. When Sam confronts him about his bad dreams and drinking, Dean brushes it off. "Can we stow the couples therapy?"


They come to realize a beauty and her geek may be where the wishing started. They confront Wes, a nerd who inexplicably has a gorgeous fiancee who loves him more than anything, and learn that his grandfather found the wishing coin in North Africa. Wes used the coin because he could never get Hope's attention, but he has noticed that her desperate love is not healthy. Still he's unconvinced that things in town are really that bad until he sees Tiny Todd terrorizing a group of boys who'd previously bullied him. When Todd overturns a SUV, Wes thinks maybe things are out of hand. Dean stays behind to deal with the kid while Sam rushes Wes to Lucky Chin's only to be struck right out of his shoes by a bolt of lightning that Hope wished upon him. She didn't want anyone to take away her love for Wes. Scared, but seeing just how insane things are getting, Wes pulls the coin from the well. Hope doesn't remember him, Sam lives, Dean is saved from his pint-sized tormentor and everything else reverses. The brothers melt the coin down to make sure it can never again create chaos.


As they're about to leave town, Dean tells Sam he doesn't want to lie anymore. He does remember. Everything.


"The things that I saw. There aren't words. There is no forgetting. There's no making it better. Because it is right here. Forever. You wouldn't understand. And I could never make you understand."


And there, amidst a hugely funny episode, is something heart wrenchingly raw and real. The juxtaposition is brilliantly played out. We laugh. We cry. And we remember...be careful what you wish for.