Very happy to see Shosanna Stern on this show! Apparently, Robbie Thompson, who wrote this episode, was a writer on Jericho, on which Shoshanna played the the wonderful and awesome Bonnie Richmond. Cool. I’d post one of my Bonnie themed Jericho motivators if Photobucket wasn’t being such a jerk today.

THEN: Lucy tricked everyone, and with the help of Rowena and Castiel, escaped the cage.

NOW: Sam and Dean find themselves at one of those new-fangled retirement communities, catching a case, of they don’t know what just yet. After they bail, thinking they have burned the bones of another vengeful ghost, Mildred, a wonderful Dee Wallace, sees the attack of, and subsequent brain sucking of the building manager, and Sam and Dean are back on the case. Much to Mildred’s happiness, because this means she gets to flirt with Dean, and I support this, wholeheartedly.

In the mean time, Sam has struck up a conversation with “Marlene”, the cleaning lady who happens to be deaf. Except she’s not really the cleaning lady, she’s Eileen, the now grown woman who has been hunting the banshee that killed her parents 30 years earlier. In a wee bit of confusion involving some unfortunately timed lip reading, and some highly motivated revenge hunting, Eileen mistakes Sammy for the banshee she is hunting, and we learn a clever new trick for trapping monsters involving matching celtic looking sigils.

While Sam is doing research at the retirement home, being Sammy in the best way, Dean has gone back to the bunker for the weapon needed to kill a banshee: gold knives. As he enters, he hears banging and crashing coming from somewhere in the place, and he finds Castiel rummaging through files looking for lore on Amara. Although we all know its not our sweet little angel Cas standing there in shirtsleeves, but Lucifer. Misha Collins has spoken of his preference of calling him Lustiel, but I think I prefer Casifer.

REGARDLESS, can we all just take a deep breath and understand how horrible it is that Lucifer is not only in the bunker, but rummaging through it? And then, to add to the horribleness of Lucifer penetrating the beautiful boys batcave with ease, Dean goes and confesses all kinds of things about Amara, like how things are weird and compelling, and Lucifer just freakin’ eats this stuff up! It is awful. Dean is gonna be so upset when he realizes what is going on here.

Because Dean needs even more guilt to pile upon himself. SHEESH.

Mildred and Eileen are charming, signing very funny conversations about the level of hotness the boys are exuding, and this is definitely a very good reason to learn sign language. Mildred takes Dean over to the window to watch a sunset, and they have a sweet conversation about life and expectation, and then Mildred makes yet another pass at Dean, and it is all very cute.

So, this beastie likes to attack the vulnerable, so everyone expects the banshee to attack Mildred, who has some minor heart condition, but once the banshee shows, she makes a beeline for Dean. A move that surprizes not only Dean, but Sam and me as well. Dean is vulnerable? In what way? What are you trying to tell me show? Which brings me right back to his troubling-for-many-reasons conversation with Casifer, and his attraction or whatever to Amara. He is clearly in her thrall. I’m not sure I would use the words attraction, or the term pining for, but there is definitely a hold over him that is increasingly troublesome, and now freaking Lucifer knows all about it.

As does Mildred.

Turns out Eileen is a Legacy of the Men of Letters, and now that the banshee has been dispatched, she has realized that after all these years of seeking revenge, she is a hunter now. Sam tells her that she is welcome to stop by or call or whatever, and while I very much look forward to more Shoshanna, Eileen should think twice before seeking out the Winchesters. Just sayin’. (See Charlie Bradbury, Henry Winchester, et.al.)

And while we get all scrunchy about Dean confessing all that juicy Amara stuff to Castifer, we also have Sam feeling deep remorse about his actions over the past few years. Sam is understandably shaken by spending time with Lucifer again, and finally apologizes to Dean for not looking for him back when Dean was catapulted into Purgatory. Dean. of course, has forgiven his little brother for his lapse, and boom, yet another little piece of the Winchester healing has fallen into place. I suppose once Sam finds out about all the Amara stuff, we will get some shredding again, but we are watching these two brothers build back their stable foundation of love and trust, and it is sweet and very much welcome by this audience member.

 

Quotes!

Sam: “Turns out Harold was stealing the other residents Viagra.” Dean: “I know, real dick move, huh?”

Sam: “I got EMF in hit in pretty much every floor in the place. How many people have died in this place?”

Dean: “Fingers crossed its zombies, we can get our Walking Dead on.”

Mildred: “Where’s that partner of yours?” (Me: I would totally be a Mildred!)

Dean: “Your hand, is still on my knee.” Mildred: “I could move it up.”

Eileen” You can’t call me though.I mean, you could call me, but I won’t answer.”

Sam: “Something always seems a little off about Cas.”

Another excellent outing for the boys! Next episode, Castiel’s fake daughter Claire has been hunting, so yeah, high teenager irritation alert!