The CW tortured us a wee bit by making us wait, but the new season is finally upon us! Let’s get on with the Jeremy Carver generated goodness, shall we? Firstly, nice new title card, with the witchy symbols and the flashy, grumbly-ness we expect.
We get a rousing The Road So Far via Jethro Tull, which is a nice switch up. I mean, how do you make last seasons so-so-ness seem awesome? Rockin’ flute solo of course!
NOW: Two campers get awoken by a crash and some lightening, only to be greeted by a feral, insanely HOT Dean Winchester who nicks their backpack and high tails it outta there.
We know Dean has changed, as he sheds his leather for a bright plaid shirt as he heads to a cemetery in Louisiana to empty his glowing arm goo onto a skeleton in a grave he just dug up. This glowy goo revives the beastie that laid there (HITG! Ty Olsson of Men In Trees, BSG), and him and Dean hug with a HeyWeMadeIt! glee. After brief a PromisesArePromises convo, Dean heads off to Montana (three states in less than 5 minutes!) to a safe house to wait for Sammy.
Apparently, Sammy has been sleeping with a girl and her dog, but he forlornly leaves to head out to the safe house that is housing his brother, who has been gone for a year. We get a replay of the famously hilarious I’mNotADemon schtick that Dean and Bobby had after Dean crawled outta Hell (anyone who doesn’t watch this show would think I am writing utter nonsense by now), and while not as funny as the first go round, this one ends with an awesome hug between those two beautiful boys, punctuated by the smile of relief and love that spreads across Sammy’s face. Adorbs.
After a sketchy exposition of the last year, we get the first set-up of the season: Dean is pissed at Sammy for not looking for him or hunting or anything, and so the TRUST ISSUES resurface. Boo. Honestly, I don’t blame Sammy for throwing in the towel, he must have been EXHAUSTED. I can see Dean’s side too, because Dean is a BigDamnHero, and he doesn’t understand giving up, and he really really wants his little brother to be on his side and help him save the world and stuff. Dean really is a teeny tiny bit like his father, no?
DEAN TURNS DOWN FOOD. The world ends. Sammy is confused.
Oooo-kay! Dean finds a series of messages from ProphetKevin, each one more disturbing than the last. This is enough for Sammy to put on his hunting face again (well that didn’t take too much cajoling!), and fling-flang some tech-fu to figure out where the wee prophet has gotten off too. The boys head off in the shiniest of shiny versions of Metallicar. So Pretty (full of pretty)!
ANYWAY! Dean: “People died, Sam.” Sam: “People ALWAYS die, Dean.” To that I say, WORD.Apparently, Sam and Dean talked about their ISSUES into the wee hours, and THANK GOD we only got a snippet of it. The interesting thing is, that Dean kinda liked Purgatory. Which I think is spot on fascinating. I’m gonna bet that the thing that made Dean fight his way out, was Sammy. It’s always Sammy, isn’t it? Which is why Dean is mad that Sammy, in his eyes, just gave up. Nice.
Sam and Dean interview ProphetKev’s old girlfriend Janet, who claims she hasn’t seen ol’ Kev, but turns out to be a demon! A demon who is being controlled by Crowley. Yay! I love Crowley.
Sam: “Dude, it’s a burger.” Dean: “It’s a treasure.” Hee. When Dean’s appetite returns, we are all better off.
More tech-fu and the Wonderful Winchesters finally track down ProphetKevin. Dean: “Cliff Notes? I went to Purgatory, Sam hit a dog.”
Seems as though there is more than one Word of God, and our intrepid prophet used it and his smarts to trick ol’ Crowley. I like this version of Kevin. Nothing like a tussle with the King of Hell and a year on the run to make someone interesting. Dean is impressed too!
So guess what? Good ol’ Kev and the Winchesters are gonna be on a mission to close the gates of Hell. Forever. I mean, Sammy seems a little leery about the whole thing, but that may have something to do with the dog, I guess.
ProphetKevin: “There’s a demon in you and you’re going to your safety school.” Janet: “WHAT?!!”
Kevin is really good at fooling Crowley in the most delightful ways. But as the boys escape, we get an awful slow-mo reveal of Crowley killing Janet while Kevin gawps from Metallicar. One of the reasons I like this show. We go from quippy fun to awfulness in a split second.
Back to the flashbacks. The beastie that Dean rescued, Benny, helped him slash his way out of Purgatory by helping him kill other beasties. They have an in-a-foxhole type link that seems to bother Dean more than Benny. The two are like friends who used to party together, and now are trying to adjust to the world sober. A tenuous dynamic that hopefully will prove interesting.
Sammy hit a dog and was bullied into keeping it. There’s gotta be more to it, but so far, that’s about it.
ProphetKevin was awesome.
Well, so far so good. This was the first time in a long time that I watched an episode and was surprized when it was almost over. I am giving Jeremy Carver a lot of leeway with this season, as I love him so much. The ISSUES between Sam and Dean feel a little old, but honestly, when the show only has two main characters, there is only so much you can do to keep things tense. And tension is essential for drama. So, as long as it’s not season five and six levels of ISSUES, I will be fine. Looking forward to this season. For realz.