Free to Be You and Holy Hell, No They Just Did Not! (um, recap)

Was so excited that I am writing this fresh off my DVRed viewing, so not so much careful quoting as major paraphrasing. I trust y'all to correct me if I get anything wrong :-)

And before we go any further, obligatory SPOILER alert for last night's ep "Free to Be You and Me" (in which our intrepid heroes have parted ways :sob:)

Okay, THEN, and now: Sam wakes up in a hotel bed with....Jessica. Who appears to be getting all pep-talky about how it's silly for him to run away from Dean/hunting because what he's really trying to do is run away from himself which ain't gonna fly. He will always be a freak. More or less. And I had two gut reactions to this scene.

1) Have you guys noticed that whenever the guys part ways/are separated by one of them being tortured in hell, Sam ends up alongside some chick? Meg, in Scarecrow, as early as season 1. Then later, the poor doomed engaged girl who was also "special." And do not even get me started on Ruby in the months Dean was dead. (I even think I might be missing one in there. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

2) I turned to my hubby and asked, "So do we think this is like the good spirit of Jess trying to put him back on his right path--ie fighting evil with his bro--or do we think it's something evil disguised as Jess trying to make him so hopeless he kills himself or something equally ill-advised and desperate?" (Stick around til the end of the recap for the exciting answer).

Show opens on fabulous "Simple Man" montage which juxtaposes Sam's new life as a barback (splattering lemon juice on himself) against Dean's continuing hunter's life (in which he of course is spattered in blood). Honestly, this couple of minutes was quite well done.

Sam is working in a bar under the name of "Keith" (really? I don't see it) and Dean...is being snuck up on by Castiel ("Cass, we've talked about this. Personal space!"). And now I must say something which is going to cause you guys to throw rotten fruit at me and disavow me as a blasphemer. Of COURSE I want the brothers to mend their falling out and rediscover their fun kicking butt chemistry circa season 2, but y'all, if Dean and Castiel ever got a spin-off, I would totally watch it. As always Dean has his pop-culture refs (namely, Thelma and Louise) but they're more hilarious now that he's bouncing him off someone who clearly Does Not Get It.

Cass is still on his quest to find God and has a lead in the form of the archangel Rafael (who used up a human vessel and left him pretty much a vegetable. Guy's now a vegevessel.) Dean takes Cass to interview a partially deaf sherrif who witnessed the angel smiting demons (even though the sheriff didn't realize that's what he saw). Dean was being his usual slick "Federal Agent So and So" self while Castiel was more like--as my husband put it--Rainman, not being able to wrap his mind around this whole "humans lie" concept.

Over in Sam world, a cute blond girl is falling for the mysterious brooding barback and challenges him to darts. If she wins, he has to tell his life story. No sooner has he kicked her butt while barely glancing at the dartboard than we get a local news report that the weather has gone all apocalypse nowish with freak storms. (And where I live, we had major rains and scary flooding earlier in the week, so quickly moving on...)

Sam calls Bobby, who kicks metaphorical butt even from his chair. When Sam wants Bobby to send a Hunter to investigate the end-times phenomena, Bobby ponders, "Well let me think who's the best hunter I know in the area. Oh, wait, that'd be YOU." Sam hangs up on him but a later scene shows three Hunters who blow his cover by showing up at the bar and calling him "Sam." (At which point, I totally said to my husband, you know at least one of these guys is going to die, now that Sam has refused to help them, adding to his overall guilt and Sideburns of Angst.)

Back to the Dean and Castiel show. Cass is fairly certain that while Dean (as Michael's vessel) might be safe, Rafael (aka the "teenage mutant ninja angel") is totally going to kick Cass ass after the planned interrogation. In fact, Cass might stay dead this time, and Dean decides Cass should not die a virgin. He takes him to a BROTHEL, where Misha Collins did some hilariously fine acting by looking terrified of a hooker. Named Chastity. No sooner had Dean sent Cass and Chas down the hall than she shrieks and angry looking bouncers ensue. (Apparetly Castiel tried to assure her that her father abandoning her was not her fault, which freaked her right the hell out. Dean makes a tawdry joke, but because the writers of this show are in no way lazy, the whole abandoned father theme makes a poignant return a few scenes later.)

Dean and Cass, with a few great lines riffing off each other, finally manage to trap rafael, who proclaims God is dead. (Who is this guy, Nietzsche?) Y'all, the whole There Is No God thing is starting to annoy me. My own personal beliefs aside, it lends SUCH an imbalance to the show. We have bad guys everywhere--including Team Angel--but other than Bobby, Cass (who Rafael actually thinks LUCIFER might have brought back to keep the angels fighting amongst themselves) and brothers we-inadvertently-started-the-endtimes Winchster, precious few good guys. Of course, even the question of God's absence results in a great scene, so no more whining from Tanya.

Samland: Sam has bonded with the cute blonde at the bar (who turns out to be a recovering alcoholic who recognizes a fellow addict) when suddenly the hunters return. Pissed. Because one of them was gutted and because the demon they captured said a lot about Sam, which they took seriously and not well. They force him to drink demon blood, hoping he'll go "hulk" and kill the rest of the demons. They threaten to kill Lindsay (aforementioned cute blonde) to make Sam do their bidding. He awesomely spits demon blood in their faces and kicks their collective butts before ordering them out of town.

Cass and Dean in car, fleeing angrily trapped archangel. Dean encourages Cass to "keep looking" for God because "I know a little something about fathers who disappear." It was an awesome exchange and also heart-breaking because John really did a number on his kids, especially the oldest (sorry, JDM, but you know it's true.) Furthermore, looking after Sam has ALSO done a number on Dean and he exposits that he's actually, unbelievably, much happier alone. At which point in the conversation Castiel disappears.

And I am both understanding and sad. I DO see how it would wear on Dean. Yet I cannot wait to see the brothers again in the same scene, not at odds with each other as they were for much of season four.

Flash to Sam waking in hotel room...not alone. This time his conversation with "Jess" is clearly more sinister as she encourages him to "abandon hope" and fades into Mark Pellegrino's Lucifer. My husband and I debated whether this was a dream sequence but Lou won the debate for me when he tells Sam, "you're hard to find. I don't suppose you'd tell me where you are?" So apparently he hasn't yet physically located him but can still reach out to him through his dreams. You see he's seeking Sam because Sam is--and it dawned on me bare moments before Lou said it--HIS VESSEL.

Which, you know, of course is awful, but damn! The writers set Dean up as Michael's vessel and Sam up as Lucifer's. Wow. Nicely done. (Although of course horrible and depressing and completely contrary to what Kripke said about this being a more "optimistic" season in which the brothers became "closer." To what? Annihilating each other?)

And did y'all SEE the previews for next week??????

Overall, even though I was expecting to balk more at the separated Winchesters (usually my least favorite eps) I thought the writers did really well with this one. What about you guys? Favorite/least favorite moments?