Supernatural—All Hell Breaks Loose Part II

Supernatural begins its season finale by revisiting last season's finale, music and all. And poor Sam is still dead. And not looking so good, stretched out on a bed while Dean looks on. Bobby comes in with a tub of chicken. Dean isn't hungry. He seems thirsty, though. At least for the whisky. Bobby suggests they bury Sam. Probably a good idea--he's going to start smelling funny any minute now. (How annoyed am I that the demon stole this joke later? Very. Demons suck.) But Dean's in a mood. Bobby's mention that they needs to go save the world puts Dean into a rage. He's hot when he's pissed. And props to Padalecki for not breathing.

Out in the woods, Jake is hanging out next to a campfire. Dude, we don't like you. You stabbed Sam. That's not good. The YED shows up to chat with him. He calls Jake the American Idol. Does that make the YED Simon or Paula? I can't picture either of them saying "the chewy taste of their own intestines." Okay, yeah, Simon would totally say that.

As Sam lies still dead, Dean chats with him about their childhood, and his responsibility to take care of Sam, and how he's failed to do that because he's a screw-up. Dean is way too hard on himself. Finally he tears off in the car. Looks like he's preparing to make a bargain with the Crossroad Demon. Dean, you moron, why would you do that? (Yes, I yelled at my TV.) After much bargaining, the demon finally offers to bring Sam back, but will only give Dean one year. (There's your Season Three quest!) Dean takes the deal.

Sam wakes up. Dean returns, and there is a heartfelt hug. Fangirls squee everywhere. Sam asks what happened. Dean explains. Sort of. But not really. Sam is all gung-ho to go after Jake and the demon, but Dean discourages him, wanting him to rest up from being dead. He tells Sam about the Roadhouse. Sam refuses to rest, so they head to Bobby's in the Impala. Bobby's a bit surprised to see Sam. His tracking of supernatural developments is giving him results very different from last week--stuff is going down like crazy, everywhere except southern Wyoming.

While Sam looks over the data, Bobby takes Dean out to the junkyard and reams him out for making the deal with the demon. Ellen shows up out of nowhere. Bobby gives her a shotglass of holy water to check her (a very smart move). Ellen escaped the Roadhouse because she had to go out for pretzels. Ash told her to check the safe when he called her, before the Roadhouse was torched. In the safe was a map of Wyoming. Bobby works out a connection to the map and Samuel Colt, who built a series of churches and a rail line that formed a devil's trap. Which is why there aren't any demons in that area. They're trying to get inside the devil's trap, which has a cowboy cemetery in the middle. Dean postulates that maybe the trap was put together to keep something inside.

So we're off to Wyoming. Jake is already headed that way, directed by the demon. Jake is supposed to open a crypt in the cemetery, using the Colt as the key. Jake is supposed to fetch a demon army from the crypt, and if he does he can be all powerful and stuff. The Last Temptation of Jake, let's call this scene. And he fails. Probably because he was worn down by the demon's constant yammering. Dude, that yellow-eyed guy can talk.

Dean and Sam are already in the cemetery waiting for Jake. Sam holds a gun on him. Jake tells Sam he killed him. Sam's a bit perplexed by this news, seeing as how he's alive. Jake has new powers of manipulation, like Andy's, and hey, he didn't even have to eat Andy's brains to get them. He opens the crypt and Sam empties his gun into him. I was thinking Sam was evil here, but it looks like maybe he isn't, but in a way that's even worse. Or not. I'm not sure. Sam just emptied the gun into him, and that was so very not Sam, but then again, Jake killed him and opened the gates of hell, so maybe it was a good call to be really pretty sure the guy was dead. Still... not a Sam-like thing to do, and this worries me.

The devil's gate in the crypt opens and a ton of demons emerge. The iron railroad lines of the devil's trap have been breached, so the demons can get out. YED shows up and flings Dean around. The demons look like the black smoke monster on Lost. Maybe there's a devil's gate on the island, too? I mean, the YED was on the plane, after all.

The demon is happy Sam's back in action, and mocks Dean about his deal. He suggests that Sam may not be all Sam. (See? I was thinking that, too. So yet another demon steals my lines. Demons suck.) We get to hear the, "What's dead should stay dead," line again. The demon prepares to kill Dean, but none other than John Winchester arrives to rescue his son. This gives Dean time to get the Colt back, and he shoots the YED. For good. Mary and Jess have been avenged.

The devil's gate closes. John is briefly reunited with his sons, then disappears again. Let's hope not back to hell. It was nice to see him, but I would have liked to have seen more, and it would have been nice, too, if he'd actually spoken.

In the coda, Sam continues to be not stupid and asks Dean what happened to him. Dean tells him the truth. Sam says he'll do whatever it takes to get Dean out of his bargain. It's his turn now to take care of Dean. And there are zillions of (okay, a couple hundred) demons loose now, swarming all over the place. So the Winchesters have something to do for another year, since they got renewed. In another nod to the pilot episode, Dean and Sam prepare to head out to face the hordes.

There are a lot of callbacks to last season in this episode, particularly to the pilot. It looks to me like Kripke hedged his bets here, because this episode would have played very well as a series finale, if it had come down to it. Thankfully it didn't--the official announcement was made today at the CW upfronts that Supernatural will, indeed, be returning next season. And the episode also played very well as a pilot redux--an introduction to a new direction for the Brothers Winchester to follow next year, and hopefully for more years after that. Some questions were left unanswered--we still don't know why Mary recognized the demon last week--and Dean has gotten himself into a nice mess that they'll have to sort out now. So the stage is set, and while I thought this episode was just a shade melodramatic in places, overall it was nicely done. And Jensen Ackles nailed his intensely emotional scenes once again. He's been submitted by the network to be considered for an Emmy for his performance in this episode. I think he deserves it.

Kansas--Carry On Wayward Son



Boston--Don't Look Back

Supernatural—What Is and What Should Never Be

Wow. Just... wow. Just when I think this show can't get any better, they air another episode and raise the bar again. This episode took several threads that have been running through the season and wove them together to heartwrenching perfection, as Dean was forced to choose between the life he thinks he wants and the life he feels he's stuck with.

The monster of the week proves to be a djinn--and a damn creepy one, with crazy tattoos, glowy blue eyes and funky teeth. As Sam says, not like Barbara Eden in harem pants. (I find it amusing that Dean has the hots for women in all the shows I used to watch after school. Daphne... Jeannie...) Dean decides to go after it on his own. (Dean! That is never a good idea! What are you thinking?) In any case, he tracks the djinn to an abandoned building, and it corners him and lays blue glowy hands on him. That can't be good.

Dean wakes up in bed next to a woman. Then he puts his shirt back on for no really good reason (I consider that a plot hole), and calls Sam. Dean doesn't know where he is. And for good reason--apparently he's in an alternate universe where he has a cool TV and wakes up next to a hot chick named Carmen on a regular basis. And Sam is still studying law. Dean's in Lawrence, Kansas, the old hometown. He's also wearing a different necklace, or at the very least it's on a nicer chain. (I'd like to know what the necklace was, but they never showed a close up. I have to assume, though, that it wasn't the protective amulet he normally wears.)

Freaking Carmen out, Dean runs from his new home and heads for his old home. Where he finds his mother alive and well, and not burning on the ceiling or stranded in the house as a ghost. His father, however, is dead--but of a stroke, and presumably not burning in hell after a deal with a demon. Dean is understandably shaken. When he wakes up the next morning and is still in the alternate universe, he starts to research djinn, trying to work out what has happened to him. Has the djinn granted his dearest wish? Or is something else going on?

Dean falls into his persona in the alternate reality every bit as easily as he's fallen into every other alias he's assumed. And alternate reality Dean isn't the greatest person. It's heartwrenching to me that he accepts this--even says it sounds like him--so easily.

At first, Dean finds lots to love in this new life. Sam is back in law school. Jessica is alive, and she and Sam are engaged. Dean's found a woman who really gets him, he has a normal, everyday job at a garage, and he gets to mow his mom's lawn (with endearingly unadulterated glee). But strange, seemingly dead people keep appearing in odd places, like his closet and the fancy restaurant where they take Mary for her birthday. And worst of all, Sam and Dean are mostly estranged.

It seems to be the latter shift in reality that disconcerts Dean the most. His one wish, that Mary hadn't died, hasn't given him the perfect life he's thought it would. And then there's the kicker--the hundreds of people the Winchesters saved when they became hunters are dead in this world, sacrificed so Dean and Sam can have a "normal" life. Dean is devastated by this. In a scene that had me weeping on my chaise, he talks to his father's grave, wondering why he and his family have had to lose so much.

As it turns out, the alternate world isn't real, but it feels real to Dean. In reality, the djinn has dosed him with some sort of hallucinogen, and is feeding off Dean's blood, as well as the blood of other victims, all hung like slabs of meat from the ceiling of the abandoned building. In the fantasy world, Dean chooses the sacrifice--willingly this time--just before Sam arrives to save him and one of the other victims from the djinn.

Some particularly nice touches--when Dean breaks into Mary's house for the silver, the sequence mirrors Dean's initial arrival in the pilot episode almost exactly--though it's a bit shorter, especially since Sam, being a wuss in this reality, barely fights back. But in spite of their estrangement, Sam tags along with Dean on the djinn hunt, though he doesn't know how to respond when Dean calls him a bitch. Also, Dean still has the Impala, though the license plate is different.

So Dean has, perhaps, finally accepted the burden of his life as a hunter. But even knowing it was the right choice, his scars obviously run deep. And I can't say enough good about Jensen Ackles' performance tonight. Padalecki did a great job, too, though his screen time was severely curtailed.

Led Zeppelin--What Is and What Should Never Be



Lynyrd Skynyrd--Saturday Night Special



Joey Ramone--It's a Wonderful World

Jensen Ackles Wears Eyeliner

A poster for Ten Inch Hero, starring Jensen Ackles, has finally hit the Internet. This movie may or may not end up reviewed here, depending on whether it gets a theatrical release or goes straight to DVD, but in the meantime, the poster is highly gaze-worthy. Jensen is the pretty one with the green eyes and eyeliner. No, the other one. The one with sideburns.

Heads up from many LJ friends/communities, including supernatural_tv and dean_sam.

Supernatural—Heart

Madison, this week's damsel in distress, is hanging out in a bar with her friends after work when her boss comes on to her. She handles it smoothly, then freaks and leaves when she catches sight of another man across the bar. The next morning at work, she finds her boss mutilated on his desk.

"Detective" Sam Winchester views the body in the morgue and questions the doctor, who says the man looks like he was attacked by a wolf. Also, his heart was missing. Apparently there's a pattern of mutilated bodies with their hearts removed, the deaths occurring just before the full moon. Dean is stoked--he thinks werewolves are cool and is looking forward to facing off against one. They go to have a chat with Madison. Madison mentions that her ex-boyfriend Kurt recently attacked her boss--Kurt being the man she saw in the bar.

Detectives Landis and Dante (John and Joe, the directors of An American Werewolf in London and The Howling, respectively), head out to investigate Kurt and look in his freezer for human hearts behind the Haagen Dazs. In the street below, a cop is attacked by something growly. Sam and Dean find the cop mutilated.

Feeling Madison needs protection, Sam and Dean duke it out with rock-paper-scissors to see who gets to stay with the "hot chick." Sam wins. Dean's scissors obsession cracks me up. Sparks fly between Sam and Madison, and before it's all over we get one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever seen on network TV. And that includes last season's smokin' hot bit between Dean and Cassie in "Route 666."

As the story plays out, the parallels between Sam and Madison are obvious but not hammered home--it all just hangs there in the subtext waiting until we feel safe and then it all comes out and eviscerates us. And Sam, who has his heart ripped out every bit as thoroughly as the werewolves' victims. (Yes, this is a pretty on-the-nose metaphor, but for some reason it worked, unlike the on-the-nose metaphors in "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things"). Like Sam, Madison has a monster inside her, but with her it's explicit, and no one can cure it. Like Sam, Madison is willing to die to keep from being this monster. And like Dean, Sam must face the necessity of having to kill someone he cares about to save her from herself. Dean offers to take on Sam's burden, but Sam refuses. Faced with the unthinkable, he cowboys up and does what he has to do. If and when the time comes, can Dean do anything less?

I really didn't see anything not to love in this episode. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles both knocked it out of the park, but Padalecki got another spotlight this week and he did it proud. This performance, while not quite as showy, was every bit as good as his turn in "Born Under a Bad Sign." Emmanuelle Vaugier was very good as Madison, and Sera Gamble gave us yet another heart-wrenching roller coaster ride. Kudos all around.


Supernatural at iTunes:

Supernatural—Tall Tales

First item tonight--in the "Then" section, they've switched from Dean's money shot coming out of the water in "Dead in the Water" to Sam's comparable shot from "Playthings." As pretty as that shot of Dean is, I think it's fair to give Sammy his due there.

Tonight's episode was... well, it was a trip. I laughed so hard I almost fell off the chaise. And the best part was, as goofy as it got, it all made sense in the end.

The teaser gives us a professor at a college, who approaches a student who's waiting for him out in the dark. Is it just me or does she look like a brunette Reese Witherspoon? The professor has written a book on Modern Morality. The girl isn't really a student. He thinks she's trying to seduce him because he's a celebrity and all. Man, I never get anybody wanting to seduce me cause I wrote some books. What's up with that? He acts all, "I don't want to take advantage of you, I respect you too much," and then macks all over her. But he gets what he deserves because she's a zombie and she throws him out the window onto the steps four stories below. He bleeds a lot.

One week later, Sam and Dean are researching in a ratty hotel and Dean is eating chicken wings in Sam's bed. Sammy is computerless and very tense, and Dean is being brattier than usual because apparently there's something wrong with the Impala. The tension is palpable. They've called in Bobby to help with the case, because it's so bizarre.

And here's where the fun begins. After a season and a half living in each other's back pockets, Sam and Dean are having friction. This comes out as they take turns relating the story to Bobby in a "he said/she said" fashion. Sam thinks Dean is a slutty horndog, Dean thinks Sam is an annoying pansy bitch. Bobby tells them they're squabbling like an old married couple. Which they are, and it's hysterical.

The case becomes more and more bizarre, as they find an apparent alien abduction and a man attacked by an alligator in the sewers. It's like every crazy urban legend that they couldn't spin into a full episode is crammed in here, and in this context it all works. Honestly, I want my very own slow dancing alien. I could do without the alligator, though. There doesn't seem to be a pattern, although Dean notices that all the victims were, in his words, dicks. Their fates are suited to their various crimes.

Bobby, providing a more objective point of view, points out that the fact that the brothers are at each others' throats is their biggest clue. They're dealing with a Trickster, who's been visiting retribution on the various victims. He's also been leaving Sam's laptop stuck on bustyasianbeauties.com and letting the air out of the Impala's tires to keep the boys occupied so they won't figure out what's going on. They work out that the janitor is probably their Trickster.

They hone in on their culprit, who tries almost successfully to distract Dean with a lecture hall filled with gorgeous women in a room with a bed, a disco ball and Barry White music. It's a peace offering from the Trickster, to bribe Dean to let him get out of town. In the final showdown, Dean gets the crap beaten out of him by girls in lingerie, but finally prevails. Over the hood of the Impala, Sam and Dean almost apologize to each other. And at the very end, we discover the Trickster isn't really dead. A predictable twist, but it still worked.

After last week's angst-fest, this was a welcome diversion into absurdity. Good absurdity, though, and I liked that the story supported even the most over the top bits of this episode, making them fit into the storyline, rather than just being gratuitously funny. The different kind of story let Ackles and Padalecki show a different set of talents than usual, and they carried it quite well. I'd like to see this show tackle comedy more often--they did a great job with it in "Hell House" last season, and once again tonight.

Now if we could just quit with these three-week breaks, I'd be a happy camper.

Supernatural—Born Under a Bad Sign

I don't know why it's so much harder to review shows I really like than ones I'm not quite so invested in. Maybe because I have to fight the urge to squee like a fangirl. So maybe if we get it out of the way up front--this was just--wow. Really, really good. Awesome. And I chewed off all my fingernails.

On to attempt a review.

This season has been moving toward the possibility of Sam going bad, driven by his unexplained connection to the Yellow Eyed Demon. And tonight we face this head-on.

We open with Dean looking for Sam--he's been missing for a while. Dean finally gets a phone call and goes to meet Sam, who's in a hotel room covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Following what little they can dredge up out of Sam's fuzzy memory and jacket pockets, the boys end up at a storage locker. Inside is a VW Bug (so uncool) full of blood and a bloody knife. Following the trail, they discover Sam has been a Very Bad Boy. He's been smoking, and if you ever watched Buffy, you know that means he was evil. They finally make their way to a house, where they find the body of a Hunter. Sam is certain he did it, and it appears the victim was a Hunter. Security tapes clearly show Sam slitting the man's throat.

Convinced he's murdered the Hunter, Sam begs Dean to kill him. He's been suffering from random attacks of rage and hate, which he feels are trying to take him over. The Yellow Eyed Demon is finally making a play, turning Sam evil to serve his grand plan.

Only on this show could they have an intensely powerful, emotional scene in the middle of a hotel room full of weird trout pictures.

Dean, of course, refuses to kill Sam, determined to save him, instead. Obviously following another agenda, Evil!Sam pushes Dean right to the edge, threatening Jo, then begging Dean to kill him so he won't kill her. Jared Padalecki's performance is chilling here, reminiscent of David Boreanaz's Angel/Angelus tour de force in Season Two of Buffy. Jensen Ackles is equally good, as Dean fights to save his brother from what turns out to be a demonic possession. Jo's involvement added a lot to the story this time, too, instead of feeling a bit added-on, as some of her other appearances have. The twist--which isn't that much of a twist but it doesn't even have to be because this episode is that good--is that the demon now possessing Sam is the same demon that possessed Meg last season. He (or she) is after revenge--the Winchester boys sent him back to hell, and he wants to return the favor in terms figurative or literal or both. Again we're told John is suffering in hell. They've dropped this tidbit too many times now for it to not have some relevance on how the rest of the season will develop. Of course, there's the question of whether the demon's stories can be trusted. Did he tell Jo the truth about how her father died? Is he telling the truth about John's whereabouts? Or is all this just a demony way of messing with the Hunters' heads, throwing them off their game?

The rapid build toward the climax was masterfully written--the commercial break after Sam knocked Jo unconscious nearly gave me a stroke. And the climactic scene between Sam and Dean, with Evil!Sam torturing Dean, and Bobby's final rescue--wow. Really well-played by Ackles and Padalecki. And just enough humor sprinkled through the final, most intense scenes to vary the mood without breaking it.

Overall, a very strong episode, one that seems to be setting us up for a powerful second half of the season, as the question of Sam's good versus evil status is explored further, and hopefully more is revealed about the Yellow Eyed Demon's plans and the coming demon war. (This is conjecture--I've remained largely spoiler-free--but it does seem like the direction they're going.) I really only had one quibble--if Bobby had charms to fend off possessions, mightn't this have been a good thing for them to have earlier? That bit seemed a bit forced, but I have a suspicion it'll come into play later.

Next week's episode looks like a good departure after the intensity of this week's episode. I love the way they're playing with the formats of the trailers, going beyond a simple "Next week on..." to have a little fun with them.

Supernatural—Houses of the Holy

The streak continues.

Tonight's episode was penned by Sera Gamble, the co-writer of "Faith", from season one, which had similar themes of faith and holy vengeance. But this episode put a slightly different spin on these themes, to excellent effect.

The episode opens with an unsavory looking woman--we find out later she's a hooker--faced with a televangelist who she can't turn off. (This has got to be one of the scariest damn things I've seen on this show ever.) Later, she's visited by Sam in a mental institution. Sam's looking good in the scrubs, and wants to know why Gloria committed a murder. Turns out she was told to by an angel.

And she's not the first person in town to be incited to commit murder in the name of divine retribution. Dean, sequestered in the hotel because of last week's close call with the Feds, and bored to the point of enjoying the magic fingers at the hotel, doesn't take too well to the angel theory.

As the story develops, the boys discover that the people who were targeted were, indeed, not nice people. One murdered at least three women, while another was a pedophile. Conversation with the priest of the local parish leads Sam and Dean to develop opposing theories. Sam believes they could actually be dealing with an angel, while Dean is convinced it's the spirit of a young priest, Father Gregory, who was killed about the time the murders started.

The Winchesters are set at ideological odds, Sam clinging to the idea that there are powers of good in the world, Dean convinced there's no such thing. Both are stripped heartbreakingly bare as they try to explain why they believe--or want to believe--the way they do. It's more than just stubbornness. Dean's cynicism is directly related to the death of his mother, and Sam's faith stems from a desperate need to believe some power of good can save him from his destiny.

In a predictable but still effective twist, Sam sees the "angel," as well, and is told to stop someone who is about to do something horrible. He's willing to accept this task. Dean, not so much--he parallels proactive retribution with what he's been told about Sam, and is not in favor. Leaving Sam to summon the spirit of Father Gregory (with a SpongeBob placemat instead of an altar cloth), Dean goes after Sam's chosen target. Again predictably but effectively, Sam discovers the "angel" is, indeed, Father Gregory's spirit. But at the same time, Dean sees evidence he can't refute that something more is at work here, possibly even the will of God.

On the surface, the general plot and setup of this episode is pretty basic, and exactly what we'd expect given the circumstances. The theme is faith versus skepticism, which we've seen a zillion times before in various contexts. When characters are made to ideologically oppose one another in this way, it often comes off as forced and pedantic, but not in this case. The plot is layered so well with its emotional repercussions on the Winchesters, and tied in so organically with the existing plot and character arcs, that the final result is more than just a series of plot points, more than just a morality play, but a story that's intrinsically important to the development of both of these characters.

And holy cow--next week's preview...

Supernatural--Nightshifter

Whatever they're paying Ben Edlund, they should give him more. Every time his name pops up under "written by," we get an episode that pushes the show to new levels. It was true on Angel, as well. I mean, dude, the guy turned Angel into a puppet. Tonight, he turned Sam into a badass and Dean into Tommy Shaw. Rock on!

"Nightshifter" is essentially a followup to "Skin," from last season. To make the obligatory X-Files reference, it's the "Tooms" to "Skin's" "Squeeze," as it were. I liked that they did this kind of follow-up episode on The X-Files, and it worked equally well here. When Dean was declared dead in "Skin," we knew--or rather hoped, at that point--that there'd be consequences, that the event wouldn't just be ignored. And it hasn't been, much to the credit of Supernatural's showrunners. They addressed the storyline in "The Usual Suspects," tangentially, and here they've faced it head-on.

Investigating an odd series of robberies, Sam and Dean come upon Ronald Resnick (Chris Gauthier, Eureka), a slightly off-kilter UFO conspiracist type who's convinced the robberies were committed by a robot shapeshifter. He's got it half right--it is, indeed, a shapeshifter, of the same sort that the Winchesters faced in St. Louis in "Skin." Knowing the shifters like to live in the sewers, they work out where the next robbery is likely to occur. They find the shifter, but unfortunately their plans to deal with it are derailed when Ronald appears, taking everyone in the bank "hostage" for their own protection so he can conquer the mandroid.

What follows is a twisty turny plot that gets our boys deeper and deeper into trouble, as not only the local police but the FBI get involved. And the FBI agent has a special interest in Dean. ("Yes, I know about Sam, too, Bonnie to your Clyde." And yeah, that part's true, but don't be badmouthing Dean's dad cause you don't know crap about his dad.) The second act break is killer, and I have to say I didn't see it coming. Sam goes as badass as we've ever seen him, and damn if that Jared Padalecki isn't starting to look hot to me...

In the end, of course, our boys take out the bad guy, and slip away from the Feds to some of the very best use of music in a TV show I've ever seen. This show is known for that, but this was extra good. The song, by the way, was Renegade, by Styx, a tune which brings back a few rather uncomfortable high school memories, but still rocks.

So kudos to Ben Edlund for yet another stellar piece of TV writing. Maybe later he can turn Dean into a puppet? Cause that'd be cool.

Also for today's post, I hunted down links to a couple of the source books mentioned in the If Magazine interview with Eric Kripke and Robert Singer. They look interesting, to say the least. I might have to snag them, myself...

Supernatural—Playthings

Dude. I love this show. Need I say more?

In fact, the more I love an individual episode, the harder it is for me to write a review right after I've seen it. So the fact that I'm posting this on Friday morning should give you some indication of how good this was. The story was very well put together, and covered both the monster of the week and the Winchester Boys' Emotional Arc equally well. And while I usually go on and on about Jensen Ackles, tonight I'll give a nod to Jared Padalecki for acting his ass off. Kudos, oh Tall One.

Apparently a month has passed since the last ep. I'm not sure they've had this much time pass between episodes before, but I'd have to look that up. In any case, the passage of time has been indicated by shearing Jensen Ackles' hair into a semi faux-hawk. I really have no problem with this. Sam is still looking for Ava, who is apparently 5'5" and 108 lbs, which means she should be out snarfing cheeseburgers to get her BMI into a normal range. But he's willing to drop his search for a case Ellen has tossed their way.

So off the boys go. The case of the week involves a creepy haunted hotel where people die mysteriously. Honestly, that's never good. The deaths are connected somehow to a dollhouse that's an exact replica of the hotel. A mysterious force "kills" the dolls, and these events are echoed in the real world. The boys suspect hoodoo magic, but there are even stranger things afoot.

Penned by Matt Witten ("No Exit"), "Playthings" was an impressive piece of TV. Seriously, I think this show has been on a streak of near-perfection since "Simon Said." Veering from laugh-out-loud humor to nicely intense drama to complete creepiness, this episode covered all the Supernatural bases, and covered them well. Seemingly calm at the beginning--Dean comments on his lack of emo-ness--by mid-episode Sam descends into an unexpected drunken emotional purge. He's afraid of himself, of what he might become. Saving people, he thinks, will tip the balance and keep him from becoming a pawn of the Yellow Eyed Demon. But everyone around him is dying. He couldn't save Ava, and he can't save the people at the hotel. Desperate, he entreats Dean to kill him if he becomes "something that I'm not." Dean doesn't want to promise, but he does, because he has to. It's an intensely emotional moment, which undoubtedly had fangirls everywhere collapsing in squeeing heaps. (I don't squee in these situations. I slide gracefully off the side of my chaise.)

By the end, though, Sam gets to save another soul, in a scene reminiscent of Dean's heroic turn in "Dead in the Water." And, in spite of Dean's hoping he forgot their conversation, Sam remembers Dean's promise. I have no doubt that will come into play in upcoming episodes. Probably the season finale. I'm picturing a cliffhanger where Dean has to make that call--is it Sam or is it Memorex? Find out next week if he pulls the trigger... Because that would just be cruel. And also perfect. Except they'll probably think of something even crueller and perfecter, knowing these writers.

Favorite Moments:
The gay antiquing jokes. Honestly, the whole king or two queens joke just never gets old.

Dean's riff on how much Sam loves to dress up his dolls.

Sasquatch. Does Kripke read fanfic, or what?

Interesting to no one but myself:
The normally semi-desaturated nature of this show tonight seemed extra pronounced, especially with Susan, who seems almost black-and-white in some shots, and with anything red, which seemed overly prominent, especially in the cars and the paint on the dolls. I thought the effect made it all extra creepy.

Devour

A 2005 direct-to-DVD movie starring Jensen Ackles, Devour (or, as it says at amazon, DeVour) is...well, let's just say if you're not a die-hard Jensen Ackles fan, you might want to skip this one.

If you are a die-hard Jensen Ackles fan, Devour delivers on the Looking at Jensen Being Pretty front. However, on the Having a Good Plot front, it's not so satisfying. Ackles plays Jake Gray, a normal sort of college student who works repairing computers. For his birthday, he's gifted with membership to an online game called the Pathway. Havoc ensues as the Pathway proves to be not just a game, but more of a, um...cultish kind of Satanic um... something or other. (Yes, I watched the movie. No, it's not clear at all.) His friends meet horrible fates, per the expectations of the horror genre. Not that their fates really make a great deal of sense within the context of the movie, but they're certainly horrible. Anyway, it appears the Pathway is ultimately geared toward guiding Jake to his final destiny and the truth about his past, none of which is well set up or foreshadowed in any way. The final reveal of what this destiny is provides a far from satisfying conclusion.

In short, I can't recommend this movie to anyone who isn't there just for Ackles, because if you're not appreciating the pretty, there's not much left to appreciate in this muddled storyline.

A bit of trivia--Jensen's father Alan Ackles appears in this movie as Paul Kilton.

Rated R for violence, language, random office chair sex, much smoking of pot, and confusing the viewing audience.

Supernatural—Hunted

First—I love that the CW is using a Johnny Cash song (God's Gonna Cut You Down) to promote Supernatural. Because I love Johnny Cash. And I love that song, and I love this show, so there you go. The great Trifecta of Love...

Ahem. On to the show.

With this episode, Raelle Tucker has completely redeemed herself for "Children Shoudln't Play With Dead Things." (I typed that "Children Shouldn't Play With Dean Things" the first time. What does that mean?) Also, tonight's director was a woman. Whatever complaints some people may have about the lack of female characters on this show, they certainly have a lot of ladies behind the scenes. (Not Kim Manners, though. He's a boy. I only mention this because I sat through nearly all nine seasons of The X-Files without knowing that. Go ahead. Mock freely.)

So...did tonight's episode live up to the online hype. Wait. Let me think about it yes. It did.

While regular viewers of this show undoubtedly had a good idea what the reveal would prove to be, based on how Sam's story has developed through the last two seasons, knowing more or less what was coming didn't detract at all from the impact of Dean's confession to Sam that his father asked him to protect Sam. To save him. And if he can't save him... he might have to kill him. Ackles' performance here was spot on—Dean was gutted by this, gutted because he's been carrying it around with him, gutted because he's broken his promise to his father, gutted because his greatest fear has been spoken aloud, and he has marching orders he's not sure he'll be able to carry out. Gordon (Sterling K. Brown) rubs his nose in this later, telling Dean he's not the man his father was, because in the end, John would have been able to kill Sam if it came down to it.

Speaking of Gordon... Having him in this episode created a perfect foil for Dean's struggles. Dean has been very black and white this season. Witness "Croatoan," when he was willing to shoot first, run viral cultures later. Until Sam stepped in. Gordon doesn't have a Sam to pull him back from that edge, and he's already passed judgment on Sam. Sam is one of the "children" being driven by the Yellow Eyed Demon, and Gordon's information, however dubiously obtained, has told him the Demon is gathering an army. The "children" are his soldiers. Thus Sam is on the wrong side, and has to die. Gordon has already brutally murdered one of the "children," a young man named Scott who could electrocute things. At the time of his death, he was seeking therapy, but hadn't killed anyone other than Mr. Tinkles, the neighbor's cat. But Gordon took him down.

In addition to Gordon, we have another new character, Ava Wilson (Katharine Isabelle), who dreams Sam's horrific demise (surprisingly horrific, given this is network TV). Ava is a neat character, and I like her. She holds up well against Sam's strong personality, and there was a lot more chemistry there than there was between, say, Sam and Jo. Or Jo and Dean. Or Jo and the wall, for that matter. Okay, I don't hate Jo. But I like Ava a lot more. Well, unless the ending of this episode is as it seems. But is anything on this show ever as it seems?

Then there was Ellen's appearance tonight, which added a few more layers of mystery. What really did happen between John and her husband? And who is the traitor at the Roadhouse? Undoubtedly, time will tell.

In the meantime, this was a really solid episode, and a great start to the second half of the season. It looks like Season Two will carry a similar arc to Season One, in that the "mythology" stories will start to really kick in and drive the second half. I'm very much looking forward to what happens next.

Is it next Thursday yet?

Happy New Year

It's January 1, so I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon and list my favorites of 2006.

Favorite New Show:
Dexter

Favorite "New to Me" Show:
Supernatural . I picked this up right before the season finale in May.

Favorite Fandom Collision:
David Duchovny directs David Boreanaz in Bones.

Favorite TV Trend:
Episodes being made available online.

Favorite Show Overall:
Supernatural by a hair over Bones. Though it's always hard to choose between Jensen Ackles' freckles and David Boreanaz's big shoulders.

For 2007 I'm looking forward to:

Discovering Sam's Big Scary Secret on Supernatural.

More of David Boreanaz's big shoulders on Bones.

The Dresden Files.

Season Two of Rome.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2007.

Supernatural—Croatoan

Eric Kripke is trying to kill me.

Seriously.

From the previews, tonight's episode seemed to promise zombies. Instead we got something entirely different.

Penned by John Shiban (The X-Files, Enterprise), "Croatoan" (and yes, that's Croatoan, not Croatian, as both IMDB and my DVR are trying to convince everybody) proved to be a taut, claustrophobic episode reminiscent of "Ice," from Season One of The X-Files. People are being infected, going crazy, and slaughtering each other in a small town in Oregon. The Winchester boys' only clue is the word "Croatoan" carved on a tree. Sam recalls this as the only clue left behind after the disappearance of the Lost Colony at Roanoke . Dean doesn't make the connection because apparently everything he knows, he learned from Schoolhouse Rock. (I will not judge. I passed my US Constitution test in Jr. High by singing, "We the people...")

Theorizing that the insanity is being caused by demonic germ warfare, the boys try to control the situation. Dean responds by shooting down half a family in near-cold blood. They're infected, so they're not human, so they die. He doesn't even think twice. Sam confronts him--Dean is crossing the line, he says, not thinking enough about what he's doing. This leads to a confrontation over the fate of one Duane Tanner (Da-wayne in Dean-speak...), who was originally brought to us courtesy of Sam-O-Vision. Sam argues against killing him until they're certain he's infected. Dean argues in favor of killing him before he becomes dangerous. In the end, Dean stays his hand, and Duane proves not to have been infected.

Then the unthinkable happens. Sam is exposed. And we find out what this episode is really about. While Sam puts on a brave if tearful front, offering to kill himself so Dean doesn't have to, Dean settles in to meet their shared fate. He won't leave Sam, no matter how much Sam begs:

Sam: You can keep going.
Dean: Who says I want to?

Dean is tired. And broken. Dean gives up his car (his car!) to save the others so he can stay with his brother. In this beautifully underplayed scene, a tearful Sam confronts Dean about the changes he's seen since their dad's death. But Sam, of course, doesn't understand that the weight on Dean's shoulders isn't the job, isn't the death of their father, but is instead the knowledge John passed to Dean before he died. And Dean promised John he wouldn't tell.

Five hours later, Sam's blood is still clean, and the town is completely deserted. The Tanner samples are clean now, too, now that time has gone by. Dean is more angry than relieved, because they don't understand what's going on. This sudden resolution of the Monster of the Week seems anticlimactic--but that's because we haven't gotten to the actual climax yet.

Elsewhere, Duane is on his way out of town, with one of the other townspeople. He says has to make a call. But there's no phone service... And before you can say Yellow-Eyed-Demon, Duane bleeds Sarge, just like Meg did the trucker back in "Scarecrow", and makes his "call" with the silver chalice. No more tests are necessary, he says. The Winchester boy is immune as expected, and nothing has been left behind. So the destruction of the town was a setup by the Yellow-Eyed Demon and his cronies, specifically to test their demonic virus and whether Sam, as one of the Favored Children, would be immune to it. But what exactly were they up to? Would the Tanners have returned to normal if Dean hadn't shot them, or would they have been disappeared by the demons like the rest of the town? Was Duane, after all, the only person Dean should have taken out? Or would it have made no difference? If Dean had shot him, the demon probably would have just body-switched to someone else. And why did Dean finally back off? Was he truly questioning his own judgment, or did the demon manage to comple him not to shoot?

In a quietly emotional denouement, Sam prods Dean again about what's bothering him. Dean's assertion that they should take a break, go to the Grand Canyon, try to bang Lindsay Lohan, is made all the more poignant by the fact that we know they won't. (Especially that Lindsay Lohan thing, cause... eww.) And finally Dean drops the bomb. That before he died, John told him something about Sam. With Sam's pained demand to know what, the episode ends.

And the show won't be back until January. Will Dean even spill the secret then? I have a feeling he will, because Dean's way to avoid answers is to just clam up, and once he starts to talk, he generally finishes. So, with luck, will get some answers in...gah...three or four weeks?!

I really hate cliffhangers...

Supernatural—Crossroad Blues

If David Boreanaz is the hottest hottie on TV, then Jensen Ackles is a very, very, very close second. By like a hair. Or, in Ackles’ case, a freckle. Mmmm, freckles. I’ve had a long-term relationship with Boreanaz, starting when I discovered Buffy, so I guess Ackles is my approaching-midlife-crisis fling with a younger man.

Yeah, Padalecki’s okay, too, but for me this is the Dean Winchester show. He’s hot and conflicted and tormented and angsty and bow-legged and freckled, with limpid green Anime eyes that emote more pain than a human being could possibly bear and the prettiest mouth I’ve ever seen on a man. Yeah.

Over the last few weeks, Crossroad Blues, based on the legend of blues great Robert Johnson, emerged as one of the most highly anticipated episodes of the season. Thematically, it promised tons of angst, because there was no way they could manage a case about deals with the devil without addressing what happened in In My Time of Dying, when John traded himself for Dean. Dean knew this implicitly, but not explicitly. The anticipation was that the dynamic would change in the course of this episode, and that Dean would take a painful trip into angst-ville, having to face full-on the fact that not only is he alive and his father isn’t, but he’s alive because his father isn’t.

Penned by Sera Gamble, Crossroad Blues definitely lived up to the hype. While the main plotline of folks bargaining with the devil was a bit pedestrian, it proved a perfect backdrop for Dean’s soul-searching encounter at the Crossroads, and a brilliant and hot performance by Ackles. Seriously, whose ovaries didn’t explode when Dean went from OMG I am in such pain with my limpid green Anime eyes to Gotcha complete with smirk when the demon stepped under the Devil’s Trap?

Even the Hellhounds plot had some great moments, though. The scene where the surgeon was torn apart on the hotel floor by the invisible Hellhounds was genuinely creepy, as were the brief incursions of the demons into the hotel manager and Evan’s wife. Evan’s bargain to save his wife was, of course, a good complement to Dean’s dilemma, and John’s decision to trade himself for his son. We’ve known since In My Time of Dying that Dean was eventually going to find out what happened, and that when he did, it was going to fuck him up. And guess what? We were right.

The final conversation between the demon and Dean left some highly charged questions unanswered. Like Sam, I have to wonder if John is really in hell, or if the demon was just taunting Dean. I think it could go either way…but the first option is probably the most likely, given this show’s tendencies and the storyline’s high potential for pain and angst and Dean being hot while conflicted and emoting with his limpid green Anime eyes.

And I am so looking forward to that.

Favorite Moments:
Sam pouting because Dean has a police record and he doesn't.
Dean: Usually I like a warning before I'm violated by demon tongue.