Cruising along in the car, Dean interrogates Sam about the missing bullet in the Colt. Thus confronted, Sam confesses to killing the Crossroads Demon. Dean's not happy, saying Sam took too much of a risk. The victim's aunt flirts with Sam, though she's old enough to be their grandma. I like her. The ghost ship lore connects it to strange dry-land drownings. Dean has a panic attack when his car disappears, but then Bela shows up to confess she had it towed. Sam tells Dean he can't shoot her, at least not in public.
Investigation of the ghost ship keeps the Winchester boys crossing paths with Bela. Bela determines to take out the ship, while Sam and Dean try to protect the next victim, but he drowns in his car. The loss hits Sam hard. Bela proposes a plan which gets Dean into a tux and yeah, did anything happen after he walked down the stairs looking all freaking HOT? Dean doesn't really know how to behave like a tux-wearing sort of person, which is ausing given his past ability to blend in with about any crowd. Sam gets to date Gert, the aunt, who's quite happy with the arrangement.
Anyway the plan involves stealing a Hand of Glory that was made out of the sailor who's drowning everyone. Dean and Bela make a good team, with Bela bossing Dean around and Dean whining a lot. But of course Bela has her own reasons for wanting the hand--namely so she can sell it--and when she sees the ghost ship herself, she's forced to go to Sam and Dean for help.
Since the spirit is only going after people who shed their own family's blood, and since she stole the hand from them, they're not too inclined to help her, but they do, anyway, summoning the sailor's spirit. There's a lot of rain and a lot of Latin, and Bela nearly drowns, but in the end the spirit faces the spirit of the brother who hanged him, and they blow the special effects budget in a final, watery confrontation between the two ghosts. She gives them part of her take in return. Dean decides to take the money to Atlantic City. I've been there, Dean--it's kinda boring.
Then we wrap up with another confrontation between the brothers, Sam angry with Dean for not caring about his impending death, Dean obviously caring so much about it he's scared shitless and far beyond talking about it.
So, a bit of angst, a good ghost story, a large dollop of humor, and Dean in a tux. In a lot of ways this wasn't a stellar episode, but it was very entertaining. The drownings harked back to "Dead in the Water," maybe a little too much, especially in the tub scene, and the final confrontation was strongly reminiscent of the final confrontation with the ghost in Angel's Season One episode "Rm w/a Vu." I very much enjoy the dynamic between Bela and the boys, especially Bela and Dean, and any excuse to get Ackles into a tuxedo is fine by me.
