This episode was directed by the lovely and talented Jensen Ackles! Too bad the writers gave him a lame-o story that is a rehash of the Sammy’s Love Kills All trope. Sheesh, thanks a lot guys.

Remember last week when we had this exciting, tightly written story that was not only fun, but gave us some character love and ended with a harrowing ride to the hospital for our heroes? Well, all solved in mere minutes. Bobby pops up with no explanation as to why he was missing, or how he got back to he hospital; Dean gets his leg set and a full leg cast put on in record time, before the leviathan have a chance to realize he and Sammy are even in the building; Sammy, unconscious and conveniently gurney bound in the hall for a quick getaway; hell, even the potentially devastating fire at Bobby’s is hand-waved away with a lousy, “I made copies” of all the pertinent books supposedly lost. Wow. Ben Edlund gives us a tasty treat, with real potential for our beautiful boys to be in peril and be clever and smart, and we get this opening bit. I have gone from giddy fangirl to bittercakes in one, short week.

So let’s see how the rest of the episode fares, shall we? (full disclosure: I have been fighting a nasty cold this week, and may be extra cranky because of it)

Three weeks later we find our barely battered boys and Bobby holed up in Rufus’ cabin in the woods of Whitefish, Montana. I have been to Whitefish. It is lovely. Dean has been entranced by Mexican tv novellas (hee!) and Sammy has been… reading? Dean sends Sam off to the grocery for grub, with a special request for pie, a Winchester favorite. Then Sam turns into a jerk, and not only gets cake instead of pie for his hobbled brother (cake is so not the same as pie, Sam!), but after reading about a familiar to him serial killer, he takes off, leaving Dean the most vague “I’m outta here and I’m fine!!” note ever! Nice Sam. Leave your defenseless brother in the Montana woods for a few days… so of course Dean decides to saw off the cast and head out looking for MaybeCrazySammy. Also, somewhere in the past three weeks those wily leviathan have procured a list of the Winchester credit card aliases, and have a tracker working at the credit card company, making it that much easier to track those boys down. Hmm. Con-veeen-ient.

Sepia toned flashback! to twelve year-old Sammy, on his own, doing research for his Dad (terrible parenting alert!), and falling for his first lovely lady monster, setting up a pattern we all know too well. Oh Sam, such bad judgement when it comes to the ladies! By the way, the actor who has played young Sammy several times, Colin Ford, is a good little actor, and he does a great job being a nervous, lovelorn kiddo here. We learn that this particular lady monster is a ‘kitsune’, which I have never heard of, and likes the taste of human pituitary glands. Nom.

Anyway, this particular lady monster is named Amy Pond (wait *rewind* did I hear that right?), and then we find out that the grown-up version of Amy Pond(!!) is played by Jewel Staite (a fangirl squee! rings out in the room. Doctor Who and Firefly references in the same show? Hooray!). The short of all of this is that young Amy killed her brain hungry momma to save young Sammy, and so when grown Amy shows grown Sam her son, her reason for the current killing spree, he lets her go, the old softy.

Meanwhile, Dean is tracking down Sammy, amazingly mobile for a man three weeks off a compound fracture to the leg. And then, we get the best gag of the show, when Sammy shows up at his motel, he gets a well deserved punch in the face from an off-screen Dean, awesomely flailing backwards and falling to the ground. Ha! Well deserved!! After a little confessional between those pretty brothers in the motel room (I have missed those motel rooms!), we retread the Sam Is A Freak blah blah, and the Will Dean Trust Sammy thing, and blah blah, because we all know Dean can’t let that keeping a monster alive thing go, and heads off to kill Amy Pond. Of course Dean is an old softy too, and can’t bear to kill Amy’s son – ’cause he’s just a kid! who hasn’t killed anyone (yet) – and plants a nice seed of revenge for that little kitsune to water and grow for a few years until he comes looking for that extra pretty pituitary in Dean’s noodle. Well done, Dean.

The episode ends with an awesome death assisted by nacho cheese by our tracker leviathan, because as we all know, everything is better with cheese! Nice! That and the punch were the best parts of this one. Hey, I don’t mind a place holder episode, but I am kinda tired of Sammy is a Freak and Dean Doesn’t Trust His Brother. We know! I mean, they are at least talking a bit and not being totally secret keepers, but let’s get on with it, please. All in all, not a totally horrible episode, but after last week I had such high hopes.

Next week: Jo!!! (I’m not the only one who loves her, right?)

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Dean is awesome. That is all.

Just kidding!! Honestly, I couldn’t ask for much more from this episode. Funny, sweet, gore-riffic, and a couple gut-punches. *claps* Also, one of the funniest running gags of the season, Dean naming the new hybrid monsters Jefferson Starships because “They’re horrible, and hard to kill.” My favorite bit was Sam, clearly not believing he was going along with it, but calling them Starships anyway. Hee. By the end of the episode, all of them were referring to the Starships like they had been doing it for years. Loved it.

And you know what, I am not in the right frame of mind to recap, so here are the important points from this episode.

• Castiel is awesome, and madly in love with Dean. Can you blame him? I mean not only is the man hot, but we got to see that ingenuity that hasn’t been so prevalent recently with the tricky way he delivered the Phoenix ash to Eve. Once Eve was done, Cas gets his angel mojo back and WHOOSH, takes out all the monsters with that deadly and heavenly light of his. Totally swoonworthy. Also, I think Dean has a total man crush on Cas, what with all the ribbing that went on between those two this episode. Dean and Castiel are now officially my favorite couple on TV.
• Crowley is not dead. Now, if I had been paying close attention, this shouldn’t have been such a big surprize as it was. Castiel has been dropping massive hints all along that something dodgy was going on, and quite frankly that sweet little angel does not lie well at all. I am pretty sure where they are gonna go with the Cas/Crowley partnership, because I am not totally stupid, but any chance to see more of Mark Sheppard on my TV is fine with me.
• Castiel+Bobby+Sam+Dean make a great team. More of these four working together please! I loved every combo of these guys, and it gave the show a nice close, familial vibe making me want root for them again. After a few seasons of whiny, angsty, apocalypse-ness we get to see them work together like the close family they are. Yay!!
• Sam and Dean have truly reconnected. This all felt very much like a good season two episode with all the brotherly love and trust going on. It is such a relief to have those boys back in each others good graces. Even though taking those kids back to their uncle ultimately bit them in the ass, the look they gave each other in the NotMetallicar was melty goodness. Also, the reaction to Eve turning into MommaWinchester gave me further proof that these two lovely boys are back on the same page.

This felt like an old school Supernatural. There have certainly been some missteps this season, but if this is where we end up, then that’s fine with me. There was a magnificent balance of funny digs and splendid gore. A big pit of despair mixed with cunning and a sweet victory for our boys. This week’s episode is gonna be all about Castiel, and I am excited. I have a feeling we are gonna be a wee bit disappointed in our sweet little angel. Hopefully Dean will not be too hard on his new Bestie.

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HEE!

Always love a good dose of META on this show. The hilariousity was brought to us by none other than Ben Edlund, which is awesome, because he gets to write a  particularly pompous character close to his heart, “Eric Kripke”, who gets shot multiple times soon after his snotty, self-centered self shows up on set. The whole episode was a laugh riot.

screencaps courtesy of homeofthenutty.com

But first! The two previous episodes, “Unforgiven” and “Mannequin 3: The Reckoning”, which were okay story wise, were important to me mostly because of the continuing healing of the relationship between Sammy and his big brother Dean. Creepy mannequins and Slutty Sammy just weren’t all that compelling to me, but those two boys working together and trusting each other more and more? That warms this gal’s heart.

So now we get to what is usually a favorite every season, the wild shenanigans of a Edlund episode! This week starts out with the beautiful boys at Bobby’s when Balthazar, of the angel contingent, shows up all ranty and ripping apart Bobby’s den for ingredients for a spell of some immediately needed magical-ness. I am momentarily confused as I thought Balthazar was left dead or was a ‘bad’ angel of some sort the last time we saw him but I soldier on, because sometimes the angels confuse me and I have a hard time keeping straight who is with whom. Balthazar spouts on about how the boys need to help hide the key to the room of angel weapons from Raphael, who has recouped from his salting and is pretty pissed about gettin’ played. Amidst the chaos of his sudden appearance and urgent task for the brothers, Balthazar is preparing a sigil on the window to send the wonderful Winchesters on a little journey…

…to the set of a little, low-rated television show called ‘Supernatural’ that is filmed, in all places, Canada! Hee! Our boys have been on a movie set before, back in season two’s “Hollywood Babylon”, so they aren’t completely out of their element, until they are confronted with a make-up woman and an entertainment reporter who call them ‘Jared’ and ‘Jensen’, much to their mutual confusion.

My favorite thing about episodes like this is the joy of knowing almost exactly what is going on, while our beloved characters become more and more befuddled trying to comprehend what-the-hay is going on. We as fans of the show are treated to a myriad of inside jokes regarding the uneven state of season 6, the trappings of wealth and fame, and the vanity that runs wild in Hollywood (“What kind of douchebag names a character after himself??”). I found every joke about as brilliant and cunning as you can get.

So our lovely boys stumble around the world of the pampered TV stars, only to figure out that this is a world with no magic, no demons, no angels. No supernatural at all, which leads them in quite a pickle as to how to get back to their unfamous, thankless lives of Saving the Damn World!

After several amusing encounters with “Misha”, the tweeting, fawning co-star of the show (and enjoying the sound of his actual, non-Castiel voice), poor, poor, screams-like-a-girl, innocent “Misha” gets killed by one of Raphael’s thugs who has also been sent over, in pursuit of the boys and their precious key cargo. He too doesn’t have access to his angelic magic, so he goes on a Terminator-style rampage of this alternate universe looking for Sam and Dean and then a way out of there.

It all culminates in Raphael’s thug, Sam and Dean ending up in the right place at the right time as Raphael pulls our beautiful brothers back to their world instead of his thug, and we are faced with a new-faced Raphael. His new meatsuit is a woman, and she is fierce! Balthazar and Castiel flutter in on their manly wings to save the boys from her wrath, and let them in on the fact that being sent to the alt. world was just a ploy to keep Raphael busy while they stashed all the weapons of Heaven somewhere safe.

Soooo, most of that episode didn’t take us anywhere except for the hilarity of it. Basically a time filler, with a little more information regarding the war in Heaven, and where we seem to be headed on that front. Fine with me. This show sometimes gets so mired in its own dreariness, especially in the last couple of seasons, I am happy to have some hi-jinks with my boys. Plus, as in the previous two episodes, they were working together and being all brotherly and stuff. Even Sammy said the worst thing about the alt. universe was that they weren’t real brothers there. Aww!! Love that guy.

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We are about to start the second half of Supernatural‘s sixth season and so far, it has been quite the uneven year. As you may recall, I was excited about Sera Gamble and her promise of more monsters for our beautiful boys to fight back at the beginning of the season, but I fear her promises were not kept. Not really.

First of all, I am not here to rip apart Sera. She obviously loves working on the show, and when Kripke decided he didn’t want to continue, I am sure she happily stepped up to continue the story of The Winchesters, both for her career, and for the joy of this little family she has helped create. Unfortunately, I think that maybe she has been too close to the show for too long to see through the weeds.

My favorite thing about Supernatural from the beginning was the love of the brothers Dean and Sam. They never said it, and rarely showed it with a hug, but it was obvious to me that it was strong. The annoyance of the last few seasons was the slow destruction of that love. I soldiered on though, because I knew that this was part of Kripke’s grand plan, and so I was happy to follow along. When Sera took over I had hopes that she would restore the love between Sam and Dean, and instead we got more suspicion, more angst, and more of Dean pulling away from his family. How disappointing!!

The reintroduction of Grandpa Winchester as villain made me miss Papa Winchester even more. If they can bring back all kinds of dead characters, and in this kind of show this is certainly plausible, why oh why can’t we get, even for one episode, a visit from John? I have no idea if Jeffrey Dean Morgan can’t find time in his schedule, or if he simply hasn’t been asked, but his character is sorely missed, and just one little episode with him could reinvigorate those poor, lost brothers.

Another disappointment is that once again there is a war being waged that we see nothing of. If this was the best idea they had to keep Castiel a part of the action, I am grateful because I adore that little angel, but would it be so hard  to actually show us some of this war up in Heaven? This was the similar flaw of last season, where we were told over and over that he apocalypse was raging, but we never really saw much of it. This isn’t a book, this is television, a visual medium, and I would like to see some of these so called wars.

All is not lost, however. Among the dismal familial relationship storylines, and having to listen to Dean mope about his brother yet again, we did get some wonderful Supernatural-ness.

• Soulless Sam was the most entertaining version of Sammy in the whole series. Sam has traditionally been the level head of the two, and to see him unleashed from his dreary soul was a treat. It was nice to see Jared get to flex his acting chops in a different way.
• Jensen was handed some wonderful moments in this first half. I love Dean, clearly, and he got to be HilariousDean as a vampire and as a faerie abductee, and EmoDean with the sadness of leaving Lisa, a storyline that I surprisingly mostly enjoyed.
• Bobby gets his very own episode! Possibly one of the best episodes of the season we see the sweet hope of a romantic possibility and the tragic consequences that Bobby has endured by being a hunter and pseudo daddy to those kinda selfish Winchester boys.
• Crowley returns in a shaky arc, but who cares because Mark Sheppard just kills it no matter what kind of material he is given. I’ll watch that guy do just about anything.
• Castiel get a bit of a reboot, which was nice seeing that his angel became sort of a caricature by the end of last season. I love the fish out of water aspect of Castiel, but I also like the badass edge of his warrior angel.

I find myself looking forward to the next half of the season. I was pleased that they resolved the Sammy Doesn’t Have A Soul story before the break. I just hope that the ‘damaged soul’ story doesn’t grate, because it has the potential for major suckage. Is it asking too much to make the Re-en-souledSammy the thing that brings those lovely boys back together? We’re getting the return of a few well loved characters this second half (go ahead you non-spoilerphobes, google it!) and that always makes me happy. Most of the muck of the first half seems to have been resolved, albeit clunkily, and there is hope that things can be set straight.

Supernatural is one of my favorite TV indulgences, and it gets a lot of leeway from me because of that fact. I will be sitting in front of my DVR on Friday with my fingers crossed.

PS – took a bunch of my old motivators to decorate this post, mainly just to amuse myself.

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I am a little ashamed to admit that I had no idea this contest even existed, and by the time I found out about it I missed the chance to vote! Seems the rabid DeanGirls and SamGirls banded together and voted Supernatural Fan Favorite, and the prize is our beautiful boy’s mugs on next week’s TV Guide cover.

SPN FTW!!!

Now, they look a little airbrushed to me, and we all know that the last thing those two need is airbrushing, but I am not gonna nitpick. Considering that most people I mention this show to look at me like I am speaking a foreign language, and this season has been pretty uneven for me, I am thrilled that the Winchester’s are getting some wider recognition out there in the land of TV. Plus, The CW released this fun ‘Thank You’ clip starring Jensen, Jared, and our favorite little angel, Misha. Please enjoy:

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We all knew it was coming. There is something up with our Darling Sammy, and this episode we saw a most disturbing sight: Sammy looking on while Dean was turned into a vamp. I haven’t yelled that much at the TV during this show is a very long time!

But the honest truth is, Sam is much more interesting like this (OMG, I was so done with him whining about Dean all the time), and it gives our lovely brothers some juicy conflict, which is needed in a show with only two main characters. Many may disagree with me, but if done right, conflict between these two helps propel the story.

Being a fan of the Twilight books (hey, don’t look at me like that!!), I was greatly amused by the opening sequence. There must be legions of young’uns out there setting themselves up for similar encounters. Only this time, we get some really, really bloody vampires. This show is doing the monster thing up right this season, and it’s nice to be reminded that vampires are supposed to be hella scary, not broody and sparkly.

So, Dean turns into the hottest vampire this side of I don’t know where, and after much angst, we find out, quite matter-of-factly, that there is a cure for vampirism, as long as you haven’t fed. I am willing to buy that, although watching VampireDean feed would have been… well, let me stop myself right there.

The casual way Grandpa Winchester offered the cure, and the dismissive air of Sammy was interesting, and made me trust Gramps a little more. Of course the Smirk of Eeee-vil from Sammy while his one and only brother was turned… well, that was pretty chilling. Hopefully next week, with the addition of Castiel, we will get some more dirt on what is up with SammyFromTheDead.

A word about this season so far: I am really digging it! I have no idea what the rest of the fandom is feeling, but I feel like this show has been saved by some great new energy, and by a showrunner who clearly loves these characters. The episodes have had a lot of that old crackle from early seasons, and even though we have conflicted Winchesters, it doesn’t feel as rotten and dreary as the last couple of Kripke! seasons. Hooray!!

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Y’all know I watch this show first and foremost for The Pretty, so I was a little miffed at the beginning of this episode when I realized it was gonna be a Bobby episode. Don’t get me wrong, I love Bobby, but a whole episode? Turns out it was one of the best episodes of this show is a very, very long time.

Those pretty, pretty Winchester brothers are relegated to the background this week as we get to see a couple days in the life of Bobby Singer. Bobby, you see, sold his soul to Crowley (played once again by the ever awesome Mark Sheppard) back in the wheelchair days of last season. Now that Bobby and the boys put the kibosh on The Apocalypse by shutting Lucifer up in a box in hell, Crowley has taken over as the Big Bad down there. Bobby decides to take matters into his own hands to get his soul back, and we get an episode that veers swimmingly from frustration to potential romance to straight-up slapstick and back to frustration. There is just enough of all the supporting players to keep Bobby on his toes for the entire thing, and by god, by the end of the episode all I wanted was Bobby to get a bite of that damn cobbler! Poor guy.

I also enjoyed: Bobby putting the smack-down on Sam and Dean’s whiny ways; the Crowley/Fergus twisty-ness; Marcy – the sweet new neighbor; the freakin’ woodchipper gag; and an assist from that kook Rufus (honestly, I forgot he was still alive).

Haven’t had that much fun watching Supernatural in a long time. Here’s to hoping we get more solid, but free flowing episodes like that.

Extra added bonus: This episode was directed by the lovely Jensen Ackles!! Well done, sir.

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Now that was a lot of goodness! Naked!Dean, Naked!Sam, the boys in suits, disgustingly gross deaths, shiny black cars, hilarity and Castiel. I am a happy woman.

While the past season or so of Supernatural was pretty good, one of my gripes was all that angst between the beautiful brothers. I watch this show for the camaraderie between Sam and Dean (and yes, for the pretty), so watching all those episodes where they were so far from each other was tough. I am guessing that Sera was feeling the same way, because she didn’t take long to get that slap happy vibe back between our lovely Winchesters. Yes, there is some trepidation on the part of Dean, which is totally fair considering his experience in the pit, but the scenes in the motel room and at the morgue were peppy and those two seemed to be having more fun together than they had had in ages. It made me all gooey inside.

So. The Angels up in heaven, and down here on Earth. I am glad to see the repercussions of Castiel helping to end the Apocalypse, and I am always up for a civil war among the angels. We had some good smiting and some fun twisty turns with Raphael and Balthazar. Loved the pillar of salt gag. Nice how Sam and Dean’s knowledge can let them contribute to the fight. This struggle makes me wonder if we will be encountering many demons this season. I am kinda demon-ed out, and the warring angels give us a whole new host of tricks and treats. Plus, any reason to have more Castiel on my TV!

Speaking of our fair Cas, I like how he has become more solemn. By the end of last season, the fish-out-of-water trope was veering awfully close to camp. I adore that side of Cas, but he is a warrior, he needs to have that strength and resolve to set him apart from the humans. I hope this balance continues. I also enjoy being introduced to new angels, and look forward to seeing who else is on their way.

So far, it looks like we are gonna have a pretty good balance of monster episodes and what’s-up-with-heaven episodes, which is fine with me. My favorite SPN eps. are the ones that are both funny and scary, something I think the writers have been pretty adept at through the years. I am also a sucker for myth arcs and continuing stories in my shows, so I am hoping Ms. Gamble can get those parts of the show back in balance after the myth heavy season five. I am happy with most everything so far. Next week is monsters (and Bobby!), and I am excited.

Lastly, while Sam’s car sure was pretty, I loved it being crushed by a couple of falling angels, because Metallicar just ain’t the same without both of those beautiful boys riding inside.

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I was nervous about the newly run-by-Sera-Gamble Supernatural. Not because I don’t have confidence in her, I surely do, but because after five years of Kripke!, who knew if anyone else could do it? So far, I think she has done a fine job.

Episode one: No one is surprized (except for Dean, I suppose), that Sammy is back and out killing him some monsters. The real surprize is the resurrection of Grandpa Winchester, the lovely and buff Mitch Pileggi. So, we have two reanimated Winchesters, and a slew of cousins off fighting monsters, as a good family should, when the genie from season two(?) offspring decide to come after Dean.

Whatever. The episode is all set-up for the season, so I wasn’t expecting anything too awesome. New season, new show runner, new season arc, blah blah blah. At least we got a glamor shot of Metallicar, the savior of the world!

Episode two: Muuuuch better!! With all the exposition out of the way, I think I see where we are headed this season. Sera Gamble had said that they were gonna go back to hunting, and monsters, and so far we have gotten souped up versions of old monsters we thought we knew. I am hoping this trend continues. The Alpha shape-shifter freaked me right out, and that is how I like my Supernatural. A nice dash of silly Dean/Sammy & baby shape-shifter riding shotgun made me giggle. Plus, as much as I was annoyed that Lisa and kiddo seemed to be kind of shoe-horned into Deans conscience, I have really enjoyed her character these first two episodes. Could a strong, loving and understanding woman for Dean be the influence of our new show runner? Very possible.

And, of course, Grandpa Winchester ain’t necessarily what he seems to be, and I predict we will lose at least one Winchester cousin an episode until we are back down to our lovely duo. Fine with me, because next week? Castiel!!

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I am sensing a pattern here, and I just hope that it means from now on that if the third-to-last episode of the season/series bores me (I’m looking at you, Lost), then the penultimate episode will be awesome, as occurred here.

All the goodness! Castiel came back to save those beautiful Winchesters from Pestilence, even though he is less angel-y and more human-y. How awesome is Castiel? Anyhoo, Bobby actually did sell (or lend?) his soul to Crowley, sealed with an iPhone documented kiss, and for his trouble, got the use of his legs back. Which was great as he and Sammy headed to firebomb the warehouse full of the Vaccine That’s Really Croatoan, where Sammy proceeded to be a BigDamnHero saving all the non-zombied workers from the Croatoaned zombies. Meanwhile, Dean finds Death at a diner in Chicago eating yummy pie. Turns out Death is just as sick and tired of Lucifer’s antics as everyone else, so he gives Dean a few tips about the rings, and makes him promise to throw his darling bother Sammy into the void. Which turns Dean into a liar as he agrees, because we all know he would never do that. Right?

I love how this show continues to tweak the presumptions we have about myth and religion, and much like Lost, has been toying with the idea of Good vs. Evil, and all those hues in between. I wonder if Darlton and Kripke are cursing each other for stealing each others ideas. Hee.

So, what can only be seen as the stupidest plan in the world seems to have been hatched. Sammy will let Lucifer use his vessel-ness and then, THEN! Sam will use his demony powers to make Lucifer jump back into whence he came, so the rest of the crew can seal him back in with the Horsemen rings. It seems like a really bad idea, although I certainly don’t have a better one, so I guess we’ll go with this.

I have no idea how it will all play out, but after this episode, I am very excited to find out.

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