It would be great to blame unnatural forces for the delay in updating this season's reviews of Supernatural episodes, but a far more earth-bound explanation is all that can be offered: behind the scenes situations that have settled down and allowed us to play catch up. What follows is Voices From Krypton's Gloria Atwater's take on the episodes "Sin City," "Bed Time Stories" and "Red Sky at Morning."
SUPERNATURAL
Episode 3.4
Sin City
Written by: Robert Singer and Jeremy Carver
Directed by: Charles Beeson
Guest Starring: Jim Beaver, Katy Cassidy, Robert Curtis Brown, Sasha Barrese, Martin A. Papazian, Don S. Davis
Plot Summary: Two months after the Devil's Gate in Wyoming, Sam and Dean learn of violent deaths and suspicious omens in the rundown factory town of Elizabethville, Ohio. But they arrive to find a boomtown thriving on decadence and vice, and the boys are hard-put to tell demonic from human malfeasance. Meanwhile Ruby returns to turn up the heat in her strange gambit to help Sam fight the demon threat.
Review:
This may go down as the episode in which we learned a lot, but not a lot happened. Was it affective? You be the judge.
The episode opens with a familiar theme in horror: a nun working alone at night inside a gloomy church, and a strange gust blows out some candles. She pauses then continues putting out hymnals until a dark figure appears - but it's only the parish priest.
Which, of course, we all know means something is wrong. Sure enough, a voice speaks from the choir loft and a man appears above, haloed against the church's rose window. "God's not with us. Not any more," he says. "He can't help us. And if He can, He won't." Then he produces a gun and blows the top of his own head off.
God has never entered into the Winchesters boys' fight against evil, only trappings of religion like holy water and exorcisms. That and a ghost with illusions of angel-hood in the second season's "House of the Holy". Nobody's minded the lack, really, since this is just TV entertainment. But now the show is giving us new food for thought.
This week's episode revolves around a small factory town, Elizabethville, Ohio, which has been showing markers of demonic activity. Sam and Dean leave Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) deep in gunsmithing on the old magical Colt Patterson revolver, and head out to investigate. But instead of a half-dead blue-collar hamlet, they find a town positively teeming with people - and with vice.
Posing as insurance investigators, Sam and Dean talk to the priest, and learn that about two months ago, Mr. Trotter, the head of the local Rotary Club, turned mercenary and decided to encourage gambling, prostitution and vice. Lo, the masses came. That coincides with the opening of the Devil's Gate in Wyoming, which along with the mysterious deaths and suicides has the Winchester boys' demon-sensors buzzing.
The players are swiftly introduced: the priest, soft-spoken and vaguely creepy: Mr. Trotter, bald and shifty: Ritchie, a bumbling, slightly sleazy, but somehow endearing spook hunter with a Jersey accent: and amongst the busty women filling the town (much to Dean's delight) is a sultry bartender named Casey. However, Ritchie says he's found nothing in the way of demons. Sam and Dean are not convinced.
When Ritchie disappears, Dean becomes worried, and Sam sets his suspicions on Trotter. The two split up, Dean in search of Ritchie and Sam tailing Trotter. More physical comedy ensues, when Sam goes from a Rambo-esque face-off with Trotter's bodyguard, to the stunned realization that Trotter et al are just ordinary human sleaze balls. But Dean zeroes in on the bartender, Casey, last known to be with Ritchie.
What he finds surprises no one: Casey is possessed. Dean accompanies her to her place where he handily tricks her into a Devil's Trap, but a blast of her demonic power traps him in the basement with her. There they sit, enemies with nothing but time to kill - and of course, no cell phone reception. And there things sort of ... slow ... down. There's a lot of exposition between Dean and the lusciously played demon, Casey, info we will need through episodes to come. But nonetheless, not a whole lot happens. The most interesting event is back at Bobby's place, where Ruby shows up and, after the requisite snide remarks, offers to help restore the Colt's magical properties.
Meanwhile, however, we learn some curious things. One, Casey asserts she did nothing to the town but whisper in a few willing ears: a doubtful claim, given how the demon of Envy in 3.1 corrupted people with a tap on the shoulder. Two, the current chaos exists due to the death of ol' Yellow Eyes - arch-demon, Azazel - which left the demons with no general, and due to Sam's failure to step up and lead the armies of darkness. Three, demons have faith in Lucifer much like mankind believes in God.
Once again, we are treated to the demons' conviction that they are nothing more than a mirror of man's darker side. Yet I think Kripke is simply showing us the enemy point of view, skewing perceptions to show us the logic of evil, and nudge that little voice within us all that sometimes whispers: If there is a God, why do bad things happen? That, at least, is a question the Winchesters must know well.
Anyhow, we get to see Sam in Hunter mode: cagey, wary, and focused. He enlists the padre's help but plays close to the vest, and when he finds Dean trapped, he heeds his brother's warnings. It's no surprise to learn the priest is also possessed: the centuries-long paramour of demon Casey. (More food for thought: can demons truly love?). Only the timely arrival of Bobby and Ruby - (never mind how they got from South Dakota to Ohio in time) - with the now-restored Colt turns the game in the Winchesters' favor.
What is surprising is that, as the possessed priest breaks his way in and seizes Dean in a brutal chokehold, demon Casey pleads for Dean to be spared. No chance of that: Sam bursts in with the Colt - and coolly blasts the priest and then lovely Casey. In a red-flaring X-ray blast of power, both demons - and their unfortunate human hosts - collapse dead to the floor. Over which Sam stands cold and resolute.
Probably he could have done nothing else. That Colt was his only weapon when Dean's life hung in the balance. But it's a moment of calculated violence that shakes Dean to the core. Kindhearted, compassionate Sammy does not kill people. The next morning, Dean tells Bobby of Yellow Eyes' warning that Sam might not be pure Sam, and the grizzled hunter is not quite convincing in his assertion that Sam is all right. The final scene between Ruby and Sam does little to allay our fears.
“This won’t be easy, Sam," she warns. "You’re going to have to do things that go against that gentle nature of yours. There’ll be collateral damage. But it has to be done.”
Is he still our Sam? Or did something dark come back with him from death? Or has he simply learned the true and brutal cost of war? Perhaps Sam is not so different from his father, after all, in this revenge-driven quest to save Dean from Hell. The question remains, how far will he let demon Ruby nudge him down that well-paved road of best intentions? Only time and Eric Kripke will tell....
Peace, out.
~ Gloria Atwater / ErinRua
SUPERNATURAL
Episode 3.5
Bed Time Stories
Written by: Cathryn Humphris
Directed by: Mike Rohl
Guest Starring: Ava Rebecca Hughes, Christopher Cousins, Sandra McCoy
Plot Summary: Sam and Dean investigate reports of violence in the sleepy town of Maple Springs, which take on similarities to the old Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Also, Sam has words with a certain female demon....
Review:
This episode disturbed me. It messed with my sleep. And I'm still trying to decide if that's a good thing.
The story is actually pretty straightforward, reminiscent of Season One. We open with three chubby brothers working late on a construction site in Maple Springs, New York, when one hears the sound of ominous breathing. It seems to be nothing, but then something grabs one brother and drags him screaming into the dark. In moments, the second brother is dead and the third one braces for the unseen monster's attack.
Subsequently, a young couple is lost hiking in the woods and come across an isolated cottage. The old woman there is apple-cheeked and smiling, as she kindly invites them in. However, she has drugged the pie she serves them, and the horrified girl can only lay there and watch while, in a truly creepy perversion of grandmotherly sweetness, the old lady cheerfully stabs the boyfriend with a kitchen knife.
Sam and Dean have a heated argument in the car, this time about whether they can use the now-restored Colt revolver to break Dean's deal with the crossroads demon. But Dean pulls the "I'm the oldest" card, to which Sam can only surrender, and the brotherly teamwork is firmly back in play. The savagery of the killings leads the boys to suspect a werewolf, but the gruesome attacks don't match werewolf M.O. Their only lead is from the girl hiker, who survived by knocking psycho-granny to crack her skull. Oddly, she tells of a beautiful little girl who watched through the window.
The boys are at a loss until Sam hits upon the admittedly wild idea that maybe the killings are some weird fairy tale reenactment. Three chubby brothers = the Three Little Pigs, the lost hikers = Hansel and Gretel. When they see a frog in their path, Sam spots a house with a pumpkin on the porch and several mice dashing about. Could it be ... Cinderella? The boys break in to find a teenaged girl handcuffed to the kitchen stove. Her stepmother had gone crazy, she tells them, tied her up and tried to kill her.
While they un-cuff the girl, they look up to see a pretty child staring impassively at them. Dean follows the child to the parlor, but rather than answer his questions, she flickers then disappears, leaving a shiny red apple on the carpet - shades of Snow White.
The boys' investigation into 8-year-old girls leads to a doctor's daughter, a resident in special care at the local hospital. The girl drank some bleach at 8 years old and though her stepmother rushed her to the hospital, Callie's been in a coma for the past ten years. But upon comparing a few supernatural notes, Sam and Dean realize what Snow White's apple meant: just like in the tale, the evil stepmother poisoned Callie into an endless sleep. Now, in revenge, spirit!Callie is driving people to commit these brutal deeds because no one will listen or see the truth about her.
When the boys see an older woman being rushed in unconscious, apparently the victim of another animal attack, the boys put two and two together. The doctor has been reading Grimm's Fairy Tales to his comatose daughter, most recently "Little Red Riding Hood". The old woman's next of kin is a granddaughter, and Sam and Dean know she will be the Big Bad Wolf's next victim. Dean races off stop the Wolf, while Sam confronts the doctor, demanding that he hear the truth.
And here is where the linear simplicity of the story grows some knots. We didn't actually see the Wolf attack Grandma in her van, but we saw the brutality of his fists striking something again and again. When Dean faces the Wolf, the man is a ravening beast, reminding us of his vicious attack on the three chubby construction workers.
However, when the doctor caves to Sam's insistence that he must let Callie go to save other lives, there simply are no consequences for all the violence and death. Callie is herself a victim, an angry spirit whose truth no one heard, relenting only when her grieving father says goodbye. The monitors flatline, the Callie-ghost disappears, and over at Grandma's house, Dean is about to stab the Wolf with ten-inch sewing scissors - but the Wolf snaps back to an ordinary, desperately befuddled man.
Who pays for the deaths and heartache Callie caused? What happens to the Wolf, who murdered Grandma and two of the Three Pigs? There is nothing of justice, here. The doctor admits he should have let Callie go years before, but when Dean tries to nudge Sam towards seeing the same cosmic light, Sam replies, "Is that what you want me to do, Dean? Just let you go?" With a sweet, sad look, Dean simply walks away.
That night, the lesson misfires as no one could imagine. The scene is gorgeous: Sam fully dressed looks his slumbering brother, and Dean is so peaceful, beautiful as a sleeping saint. But the way Sam's eyes linger begins to feel ominously like goodbye. Then he steps into the dark, and outside of town, he summon the crossroads demon.
It doesn't go well. It can't. In a startling turn, the demon confesses that the deal is out of her hands: the contract is with her unnamed boss, who does not intend to give Dean Winchester up. To this, Sam reacts with irreversible finality. He aims the magic Colt at her and our gentle Sammy shoots the crossroads demon stone cold dead.
Oh, Sam, are you lost already? Did the demons send you back wrong, or is it just the cost of war and loss eroding that beautiful soul? Mr. Kripke, I swear you're gonna kill us ...
Peace, out.
~ Gloria Atwater / ErinRua
SUPERNATURAL
Episode 3.6
Red Sky at Morning
Written by: Laurence Andries
Directed by: Cliff Bole
Guest Starring: Lauren Cohan, Ellen Geer
Plot Summary: A ghost ship, several dry land drownings, and a curse that returns every thirty-seven years are the components of a mystery that Sam and Dean must solve. Things don't get any easier when antiquities thief, Bela, enters the game.
Review:
Ghost ships, boys in tuxes, and things that go squelch in the night. How fun is that?
We open with a girl jogging alone at night - a no-no in any city but never mind - and what to her wondering eyes should appear but a ghost ship with tatters for sails. Glowy, dark, and sliding ominously from the mist: I could kiss Mr. Kripke for that shot alone. Yeah, I'm a kid: I've wanted a ghost ship episode for ages.
Jogging Girl wisely turns her well-toned tail for home, but once there, a shadowy figure appears outside her shower. In a scene reminiscent of "Psycho", we see her face and palms splat against the foggy glass, ere something yanks her from our sight. The Creep Quotient has given way to the sort of half-seen threat that I find truly scary, and thus we meet - or don't - our Monster of the Week.
We also see the Argument of the Week: Dean has found one round missing from the magick Colt's precious stash and he goads Sam to admit he killed the Crossroads Demon. He rails at Sam for recklessness, but Sam is unrepentant, and in a little heart/clutch moment, Dean asks, "So, what, I'm out of my deal?" Of course, he's not. But, "You're my brother, Dean," Sam storms, "and no matter what you do, I'm gonna try and save you." It seems the blade of brotherly sacrifice turns both ways.
Acting as plainclothes detectives, Sam and Dean then visit the dead girl's aunt, a wealthy, grey-haired, fading beauty named Ms. Case. She reports that her niece spoke of a ghostly ship and then, between come-hither looks at Sam, asks if they are helping "Alex" with her case. The boys have no clue what sort of player Alex is, but local lore says a ghost ship appears here every 37 years. When it does, the people who see it die. Trouble is there are over 150 potential ghost ships recorded lost along the coast.
Nor are those their only difficulties: when they get outside, the Impala is missing. Who should appear but their smirking, beautiful nemesis, Bela, the artifacts thief. She is "Alex", and the boys have just screwed up her game of milking Ms. Case for a lot of money. "Can I shoot her?" Dean asks, as she walks away. "Not in public," Sam replies.
And off we go on a venture that looks a bit like James Bond meets Mission Impossible, with a little Flying Dutchman thrown in. With the Impala rescued from impound, the boys' investigation continues. Overnight, the heir of a wealthy real estate mogul drowns in his own bathtub, and they learn both the dead man and his brother had seen the ghost ship. With the body count climbing, Sam and Dean focus on saving the brother, but not before Bela engages them in a spiteful debate of motives: Sam and Dean driven by revenge and obsession versus her working for a mercenary wage.
Staking out the surviving brother's house doesn't go well: the man spots them and in a panic of anger jumps in his car to leave. But the car stalls and before Sam and Dean can scale the fence into the yard, a sopping, wild-eyed ghost attacks the man. A blast of rock salt comes too late: the ghost ship's curse has claimed another victim.
Quiet and dispirited at their failure, Sam and Dean hunker for the night in an abandoned house. Bela finds them there but this time, albeit in her snide way, she has a peace offering. She has learned that their killer ghost is a sailor hanged aboard ship for treason in 1859. His body was cremated but his right hand cut off and kept for a "Hand of Glory", a powerful occult object. That Hand is the physical remains that keeps the ghost coming back - and Bela knows where it is.
Cue the James Bond music as Dean appears in a very dapper tuxedo. His oafish bearing somewhat mars the effect, but methinks he does it just to spite Bela. Off they go to a posh bash at the local maritime museum, thanks to an invite by wealthy patron, Ms. Case. Leaving Sam to suffer Ms. Case's boozy and increasingly amorous advances, Dean and Bela slip off to seek the Hand of Glory. Bela's treatment of Dean is brutally sarcastic, but it takes Dean's skill to liberate the Hand from a security-wired glass case. They need only commit it to a ritual burning, and the curse will end.
But, once in the car, Dean finds the Hand is gone, a worthless trinket left in its place. Elsewhere, Bela smiles smugly as she fondles a bag of money on the seat of her car. However, that smile shrivels when she sees the ghost ship out on the dark water.
It's only fitting that she slinks back to Sam and Dean, who stand unified in their lack of welcome. Her nastiness towards Dean is rewarded when Sam reveals that the ghost ship only appears to people who are guilty of spilling a family member's blood. Since Bela has sold the hand, as Dean sarcastically remarks, looks like she's fresh out of luck. However, our boys can't put aside the lifelong instinct to save even undeserving lives.
In the deep of night in a silent graveyard, Sam performs a ritual that calls up storm and rain - and something else. The ghost of the hanged sailor appears, dripping and malignant, to hurl Dean against a gravestone and seize Bela in a killing, watery grip. But another figure materializes: the ship's captain who had hanged the man. It is the doomed sailor's own brother. The ghostly captain pleads that he's sorry, but the sailor charges and the kindred spirits explode into a spray of liquid nothingness. The night sky clears, the curse is done, and Bela still chokes and coughs amongst the living.
A tale of twisted family connections ends on an interesting note. Bela can't bring herself to say thanks, but she can give the boys ten thousand dollars from the price she got for the Hand. Later discussing this turn, Dean makes a surprisingly heartfelt announcement. He is, he says, sorry for all he's putting Sam through. He knows it's hard on Sam with him "going away", but he swears Sam is the stronger one and he'll get through it. Meanwhile, though, Dean's sorry.
And Sam is just plain pissed. He doesn't want Dean's sorry, he doesn't want Dean to put on a façade for his sake, and he sure as hell doesn't want Dean to go quietly into that good night. This is the new Sam: a soldier with a cause and his cause is riding in the driver's seat beside him. If this episode touched on familial betrayal, it would seem the Winchesters are guilty only of caring too much.
Peace, out.
~ Gloria Atwater / ErinRua
While on the hunt for a nest of vampires, Sam and Dean run into their old nemesis, Gordon Walker. And if you thought that was bad enough...
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