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News for the Last Week of 2010

In the order I discovered them:

TV Guide's interview with Misha. Nothing really new, but he's as funny and adorable as ever.

I'm not sure if we mentioned this before, but Richard Speight Jr. is on Twitter as @dicksp8jr. He calls us "Twicksters." How adorable is that? :) He provided a link toPepsi Max behind the scenes and Snoop Dogg's Christmas story, featuring Richard.

I think this is the same promo we saw at the end of the last episode, but just in case you didn't see it...

Check out Spoiler TV's2010 awards. Supernatural won best returning show! Jensen Ackles won best lead actor in a drama, and Misha Collins came in 3rd for best guest star.

For some info (read: spoilers) on the show's return, and a clip from episode 6.12, check outTV Overmind.

The BIG NEWS (or rumor): Dawn Ostroff is reportedly leaving The CW when her contract is up in June. First article I saw was this one from The New York Post. Official word is expected next month. What will this mean for Supernatural, reportedly an Ostroff favorite?

When I prepared this, Supernatural was LOSING to Community over at the E! Online poll. WTF?! Voting continues through tomorrow 11:00 PST.

We Can Beat Community!!!

Supernatural is up against Community in EW's Best Show of the Year. Vote!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATALIE!!!

Slow News Day

But I found this one, that as a San Antonio native, I thought was fun.

And have you seen the new promo pictures?

Surviving the Hellatus

It used to be—or at least it seemed to me—that the hellatus mainly applied to Supernatural. I could get through it because, as long and lonely as the six to eight weeks off in midseason are, that wasn't universal. The other TV shows I watch used to be all staggered. Some started late in the season, so they went longer. Early cancellations mean shows finish out their run, maybe when they normally would have gone into repeats, and new shows premiere early.

This year, though, I seem to be facing a bigger entertainment desert. Almost all the shows I watch are finished and not coming back until late January. So I need to find some ways to fill in the gaps. Here's my plan:


1. Spend time with out-of-town family!
My brother, sister-in-law, and three-year-old nephew are coming to town for a few days next week. That will fill a few evenings! :)

2. Finally catch up on The Event.
I like Sean. (I think that's his name.) I want to see why he's such a target. Otherwise, there isn't another character on the show I really care about. That's the main thing missing. On FlashForward, I cared about almost everyone, even when they were bad. Anyway, I'm six or seven episodes behind at this point, so I'll have time to catch up.

3. Doctor Who!!!
For the first time, I'll be watching a Doctor Who Christmas special live, or close to it. He's smack in the middle of the Supernatural hellatus, and will be a welcome diversion.






4. Catch up on other shows
I'm mostly caught up, but Undercovers piled up a little, and there are a few shows I watch with my husband that we haven't been coordinated for.

5. Return of Leverage
Leverage only has three episodes, but that's an evening and a half covered! :)

7. Give The Cape a try
I wasn't too excited about this when I first read the synopsis back in May. But Summer Glau has a regular role, as does someone else I read that I now can't remember or find. Huh. Anyway, loving an actor doesn't make a show worth watching (Ref. No Ordinary Family), but it makes it worth trying. :)

8. Rewatch Season 5
I usually start at the beginning and rewatch all the seasons during the summer, but I started late this year, and ran out of time before this season began. I'm through season 4. Season 5 will keep me from going into withdrawal. :) Rewatching every episode so many times might seem excessive, but I love seeing little things—lines, actions, symbols—that feed into what goes on down the line, whether they were intentional at the time or not. Like Dean talking about the hole inside him after hell, and how that connects to Sam's decision not to seek his soul's return.

9. Put Netflix to its intended use
I had the DVD for Love and Basketball for more than three months before I watched it. I've been a little better with Entourage. After that, I really don't know what's in my queue. I'll try to burn through a lot of disks and Wii streaming during the break. Boost my stats for 2010 and get a good start to 2011.

10. Reading
I never stop, but during hiatus, I'll spend more evenings just reading, a cup of hot cocoa at my side and a kitty on my lap.

11. Okay, okay, I'll probably write, too.
After four years of working at home, I had my day structured nicely, and evenings were always for relaxing. Now that I have an outside day job plus freelance work into the early evening, my brain decides I'm done around dinner time. Writing late is problematic. But if I have no TV enticing me to just lie down on the couch and chill, maybe I'll increase the word count on my works in progress.

How about you? What will you fill this hellatus with?

No news?

I scoured through some Google Alerts (and, dude, a few of them were flat messed up) but found precious little news to report--maybe because of the hiatus and approaching holidays. Have you guys heard anything new you'd like to share with fellow fans?

In personal news, my younger sister just had a baby boy. But she totally rejected my suggestions to name him Dean, Sam or Cass. (Sheesh, I was just trying to be helpful!)

Appointment in Samarra

The episode opens with the Impala pulling in front of a Chinese food market. Inside, Dean is directed to a back hallway where Freddy Kruger greets him by name! Okay, he’s actually Dr. Robert and he’s stitched up Dean’s daddy more times than he can count. Money changes hands and Dean is noticeably nervous. If something goes wrong he wants a letter mailed to Benjamin Braeden, not Sam. Okay, just what the heck is Dean there for? He looks perfectly fine. The doc’s assistant, Eva, who looks like someone out of Kat Von D’s tatt shop, unceremoniously shoves an IV into Dean’s arm. Biatch! Doc then administers an injection and tells Dean he’s got 3 minutes.______ Flatline_____. The doc freakin’ killed Dean! After peering at his lifeless body, Dean’s spirit walks down to the shop and calls out for Tessa, our favorite reaper. Dean wants to talk to her boss. Death promptly shows up. Hmm, he showed up awfully quick and willingly. Dean asks the creepy old dude to get both of his bros outta Hell. Death tells him to pick one. Naturally, Dean picks Sam. Death warns him Sammy’s soul will be “Flayed to the raw nerve.” Dean wants to know if Death can hack the hell part out. Back in Kruger’s clinic, paddles shock Dean’s heart. Death tells Dean he can’t erase Sam’s hell, but he can put it behind a wall in his memory. Tessa warns it’s not permanent. In exchange for retrieving Sam’s soul Death wants Dean to put his ring on and be him for one day. Take the ring off before the 24 hours is up and Dean won’t get back Sam’s soul. Why does Death want Dean to do take over for a spell? Because…GASP…Dean comes back to life and we don’t get the answer.

Dean tells Sam and Bobby his brilliant plan. Predictably, Sam isn’t happy and Bobby wants to know what the catch is. Sam says he doesn’t want to take the deal because it’s not a permanent solution and he could still end up as pudding. He takes off in a huff, presumably to wrap his head around things. Instead he goes looking for Death’s ring. Sneaky Sam. Dean catches him and swears he won’t let anything bad happen to him. Sam says fine, he’ll trust Dean. Big bro doesn’t buy it—neither do I— and tells Bobby to keep an eye on him.

Dean slips the ring on. Tessa pops in and lays out the rules for his new job. She’s got a list. Dean will touch those meant to die. She’ll reap them. Easy peasy. Don’t go getting any other ideas. Riiiight. This is Dean we’re talking about.

Elsewhere, Sam’s calling on Balthazar. Uh oh. This can’t be good. Sam wants to know what he can do to keep his soul out forever. Really, I can’t say I blame him. Who wants to cope with that kind of damage? But at the same time we all want our Sammy back. Balthazar says he’ll help Sam for free, just to screw with Dean and put Sam in his debt. To stay soulless Sam needs to scar his vessel by committing patricide. Since his dad is gone a father figure will do. Eep!

A punk robs a convenience store, threatening to kill the owner’s little boy. The father draws a gun from under the cash register and shoots the robber. Dean is all too happy to see the punk off to hell, even allowing for a little extra suffering. Next comes an overweight man chowing down on pizza. Heartattack hits. When he asks Dean “what it all means?” Dean responds with an unsatisfactory, but hilarious “everything is dust in the wind.” Next Dean faces down a 12-year-old girl with a heart condition. She’s in the hospital with her single father. Dean says there’s no way he’s killing her. Tessa argues with him, but he says he’s Death so it’s his choice. The girl’s heart then miraculously heals. How’s that going to backfire?

Meanwhile, Sam returns to Bobby’s. They play a poker game, but there’s some very tense subtext going on as they watch each other warily over the cards. Bobby offers Sam a beer and when he reaches into the fridge to get the bottle Sam grabs something out of a toolbox and tries to clobber Bobby who in turns grabs a pipe out of the fridge and clubs Sam. Ha! You gotta love that Bobby keeps a weapon in the fridge. Sam hits the floor. Bobby goes to get some rope and when he turns back Sam is gone. That’s not good. Shotgun loaded, Bobby searches for Sam, saying, “let’s not do anything hasty.” Then—WTH?—he locks himself in a closet. Sam starts to axe through the door like Jack Nicholson and—ROTFL—Bobby says, “Don’t say ‘here’s Johnny.’” Sam tells Bobby he’s got to do this and he shouldn’t have cornered himself. Bobby says he didn’t and pulls a trap door trigger that sends Sam dropping to the basement. Ah, that makes more sense. The surrogate father and his soulless son talk through a “reinforced steel core, titanium kick plates” door that Sam can’t break down no matter how hard he tries. Sam finally explains that he doesn’t want his thrashed soul back in him and a spell cast with Bobby’s blood will ensure that doesn’t happen. He believes Dean just wants his little brother Sammy back at all costs and he’ll kill “Sam” to get that other guy back. Bobby tries to reason with him, but it suddenly gets very quiet. Bobby bravely goes down to the basement to find that Sam’s escaped through a grate in the panic room. Why would there be an escape route like that?

Back at the hospital the butterfly effect kicks in. Because Dean let the young girl live her nurse was sent home early. She in turn got into a car accident being somewhere she wouldn’t have otherwise been and she needs the heart surgeon that’s no longer there. Dean takes the nurse so he won’t start another chain reaction, but she was meant to live for many more decades and have children and grandchildren. Tess then tells Dean he has to restore the natural order of things and also take the girl he spared, the girl who is now happily planning a vacation with her father. As Dean watches out a window he sees the dead nurse’s husband leaving a pub drunk and climbing behind the wheel.

Bobby goes searching for Sam in the junkyard. Geesh, psycho Sammy is making me jumpy. And thwack, the idjit knocks Bobby’s out.

Dean has hopped into the car with the grieving husband. The guy is clearly on a suicide mission, speeding up and trying to plow into a bus. Dean tries to shout warnings, but the guy can’t hear. Dean yanks off the ring and steers the guy clear of death, saving the guy’s life and costing Sam his chance at having a soul. Now Dean better hurry and help Bobby. But wait, he feels like he has to clear up unfinished business. He returns to the hospital with Tessa and kills the young girl. He figures no one really skates by and now agrees there’s a natural order to things, even if that is stupid.

Sam’s got Bobby bound to a chair in the basement. And even though Bobby pleads for his life, Sam is getting ready to stab him to death when Dean shows up and punches his lights out. Let me go on record now as saying that I officially hate soulless Sam.

An unconscious Sam’s now handcuffed to a cot in the panic room. As Dean looks at him through the peep hole he tells Bobby he can’t keep doing this anymore. What’s he going to do keep tying Sam up everytime he tries to kill someone? Poor guy doesn’t know what to do anymore. And neither does Bobby. So sad. Sam opens his eyes and I find myself hoping Death gave him back his soul because Dean went back and killed that young girl when he didn’t have to.

Nope. Dean goes back upstairs and Death’s waiting for him at the dining table. Guy really seems to like food. Dean confesses that he sucked at being Death. Death says Dean got a rare look behind the curtain. “The human soul is not irreparable. It’s vulnerable, impermanent, but stronger than you know. And more valuable than you can imagine.” Hmm, where are we going with this? Whoa! Death is going to retrieve Sam’s soul because, although he and Dean keep coming back and disrupting the natural order of things on a global scale, they’re on to something with their investigations…something having to do with souls. Dean asks him Death last question. Will the wall really work? About 75%, he answers.

Down in the panic room Death gets ready to reinstall Sam’s soul. He says he’s going to put a wall up and it’ll itch, but Sam shouldn’t scratch at it because he won’t like what happens if he does. As Dean and Bobby watch on, Sam begs not to have his soul replaced. It’s sad to watch, but the way he ignored Bobby’s pleas makes me less sympathetic. The episode ends with him screaming as we—fingers crossed—get our Sammy back.

Whew! I’m glad we’re going into the hellatus (Show returns Jan. 28) on a hopeful note. I thought this was a great episode, but missed the sharp one-liners. Weren’t too many of those. However, I won’t miss Soulless Sam. The moment he tried to kill Bobby he crossed an unforgiveable line. Are you glad to see Soulless Sam go and how long do you think it’ll be before Sammy scratches that itch?

Castiel and What the Heck's Going on in Heaven?

My husband started talking about Castiel over breakfast the other morning. My husband has become a fan over the last two seasons, even watching without me :)

So he mentioned that he sees Castiel as a knight, as someone who's fighting on the side of right, on the side of God's will, instead of being out to serve himself, as it seems Raphael is doing. This made me wonder, then. Why does Castiel have so few allies/followers? Because it seems like he's getting his ass kicked up there. Is Raphael promising the other angels something so they'll fight alongside him? Is he offering them something in the future if the war comes out in his favor?

If God has abandoned heaven, and the angels are fighting against Castiel, who wants what's right, how much better is heaven than hell? (I know, the tortured souls and all that, but....who wants to die and go to a place in the midst of a civil war? Which also makes me wonder about the souls who are in heaven, like Ash. Are they aware of the war? Might they join in the battle? Castiel has come to humans for help before, even raised Dean from the dead. Might he convince some of the souls to fight on his side? And could they?

So yes, this started out being about Castiel and ended up with my mental ramblings, but to me the fight in heaven is as fascinating as what's going on with Sam's soul in the cage.

This Just In!

Remember all that voting everyone did for the TV Guide cover? Well, guess what? Supernatural won!

I'm not sure how I feel about the cover. I mean, how often do we see a sky that blue on the show? But there's a fun video of the photo shoot, with interviews with the guys.

And our show gets its profile raised at a pretty critical time. You know, when it goes on hellatus. *sigh*

So what do you think?

Supernatural News

Oh, don't those Winchesters ever learn? One of them is making a deal on the mid-season finale this Friday, in the episode titled "Appointment in Samarra." Check out the details here.

A few tidbits of Jared talking about Sam's missing soul.

Ever wonder what some of the former writers for Supernatural are up to? Find out here.

"Caged Heat" Recap and Impressions

Photo © The CW

Good evening, and welcome to Machiavelli's Supernatural.

First off, let me confess. I'm coming off three nights in a row averaging 4.5 hours of sleep. My work schedule this week was enough to leave me in tears. Tonight, my husband's company Christmas party meant I'm closing in on midnight. Put it all together, and it leaves me with a pretty sluggish brain. I just finished watching "Caged Heat." My intention was to watch it a second time, recapping and commenting. I mean, there were so many great lines in this episode! But I don't know if I can make it through another hour. So I'm going to stick with random impressions of the biggest stuff. I encourage (read: beg) you all to load the comments with all the stuff I miss!

Funniest Bits

"We're not supposed to talk about it."

Okay, maybe in the midst of a war he's losing, being pressured to help Sam and Dean with some pretty serious stuff, it's a bit of a stretch that Cas would be distracted by porn. But then again, he's kind of in a human body, he was almost completely human for a while, and even soldiers in real wars take breaks. So that whole scene killed me. I was really glad I wasn't watching with my daughter, though, when the boner line came up. (Ha!)

Extend that to the kiss with Meg. Poor, naive Castiel, thinking with his downstairs brain and letting a demon take his angel knife. Looks like his return kiss was pretty potent, though.

The Ends Justify the Means
I think Machiavelli might have been a little tame compared to these guys. Sam and Dean work with demon Meg, who works with angel Castiel, to try to take down Crowley. Sam bites into his own vein to bleed ink and make a devil's trap. Dean once again uses the "owe me" card to get Cas to help them, uncaring of what's going on in heaven. And Samuel...Samuel sells out his grandchildren, something Dean just can't fathom.

What else falls into this category?

Sam lies to Cas about finding the Ark of the Covenant, of all things

Sam threatens to kill Cas

Dean threatens to kill Samuel (though would we expect any less?

Demon!Christian tortures Meg, and the implication is of some pretty horrifying things

That's a lot of ugly means.

Relative Complexity
Sera Gamble et al have proven to be as unreliable (or deliberately misleading) as Eric Kripke when it comes to describing the show. We were told it was back to monster of the week, but that has been weak at best, the monsters serving only to feed the main storyline. They talked about exploring the Campbell side of the family, learning about hunting generationally, getting to know Grandpa. That was disingenuous at best.

But I'm not complaining. I'm kind of loving how this has developed. Dean never really trusted Samuel. Sam seemed to put all his trust in him, just because he's family. In retrospect, we can say maybe it was that simple, but in a logical, rather than emotional way. I was annoyed that Dean was so oblivious to Samuel's motivations. I thought it was obvious Crowley either had Deanna or Mary, though Samuel actually succumbed to promise rather than threat. Crowley wasn't saying he'd harm Mary, just promised to bring her back. I can understand Samuel wanting that, but being willing to serve a demon indefinitely, for such an ephemeral promise?

I know to Samuel, Mary is 17 (or however old she was), a child, rather than the adult she really was when she was killed. So he's operating from a different perspective than Dean has. To Dean, Mary has always been a powerful figure, despite the way she was taken, and despite the things he later learned. And Samuel saying Dean's a stranger, being willing to sacrifice Mary's sons to bring her back, even knowing there's no way she'd welcome that kind of outcome...well, it says a lot about what kind of man he's become.

NOOOOOOOOO! Not Crowley!
Okay, Crowley had become detestable. Not just an "oooh, I love to hate him!" character, but an antagonist with too much power, too much threat, doing too much damage to our boys. But I was still unprepared for what happened. At first, when Meg stepped into the devil's trap, I was all, "It's time for Crowley to die. But he can't die. They won't kill such a delicious character." (Ha! What show have *I* been watching for five and a half years?!) I was pretty sure they'd find a way for him to wiggle out of this. And sure enough, he got the best of Meg pretty quickly. And then along comes smoty Cas, with dem bones, and with a flick of the wrist (or a snap of the finger?), Crowley's toast. Or maybe roast.

RIP, Crowley. And thank you, Mark Sheppard.

Random question: Did anyone else think that demon looked like Kurt Evans, the actor who played Henricksen's partner, Carl Reidy? I'm talking about the demon who took the rugaru from Sam and Dean in the beginning.

The Sam Problem
Way to up the stakes, Supernatural writer's room! It was bad enough that Sam was wrong. Horrible that he has no soul, and completely gone is the compassionate, sensitive, puppy-dog Sammy who I was completely convinced was not capable of going dark side. This is 100% Dark Side Sammy, and it was hard seeing him thinking he didn't want his soul back, didn't want the conscience getting in the way, and suffering all the...suffering that Dean said was what life was all about.

Can it get any worse than this? Dark Side Sammy is unendurable. Unacceptable, given the preview (more on that later). But, yeah, it can get worse. How about a tortured, mutilated soul that Sam-the-meatsuit might not be able to tolerate or survive?

"When angels and demons agree? Call me crazy, but I'm inclined to listen."

This twist is solid and logical and fully motivates Sam's choice to walk away from the goal. The part of me missing Puppy-Dog!Sammy hates it. The writer in me, and the fan fascinated by a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, thinks it's genius.

SPOILER ZONE

A quick glimpse at next week...

Death's back! Awesome!

Robert Englund! Fantastic!

Death wants Dean to take over? Freakin' fabulous!

Sam wants to kill Bobby! WHAT?!

Is it next week yet?

SPNews

SPN returns December 3. Caged Heat will have Grandpa Samuel, Castiel and Meg. TVOvermind has a sneak peek clip and some spoilers.

Zap2it has some big time spoilers for Caged Heat. (I didn’t read them.)

Oh No They Didn’t has some cute pics of Mr. and Mrs. Ackles at a recent Lakers game.

Boo! Jared Padelecki lost out to The Vampire Diaries Paul Wesley in Entertainment Weekly’s Under-appreciated Entertainer of the Year poll.

A fan has started a 1,000,000 Fans to Get Jensen Ackles to host SNL facebook page.

Lastly I leave you with this LOL parody that somehow escaped my attention until now. Make sure you pay close attention to the awesome signs in Stupornatural.

Supernatural Gifts

I realized that there's not a new episode tonight, so I did some online shopping for y'all, to see what to give the Supernatural fan.

(Disclaimer: most of my links are to Amazon because I'm lazy.)

First, the calendar. What I don't get is how every other show/movie/idea has a calendar at Borders, but SPN does not. Anyway, Amazon has one. Old pics, but still.

Next, this really nifty throw. I want it a lot, and it's down $10 from when I found it.

If you haven't gotten season 5 on DVD yet, Amazon has it for less than $20!

Then there's this awesome keychain at Etsy. Since Best Buy SCREWED UP my DVD order and I didn't get my Impala keychain, I'd be very happy with this.

She has other SPN items as well.

What do you want Santa to bring you?

Monday News for Thanksgiving Week

There is no other way to start this post than to say I am thankful for Supernatural. I know, total cliché. Sorry. Moving on.

First, the bad news, which I discovered as I started preparing this last Wednesday but by now those who watched the preview at the end of the last episode will have discovered: no new Supernatural next week! What, they think people don't watch TV gorged with turkey leftovers and exhausted from doorbuster shopping? Crazy.

Worse news? Hellatus begins after the December 10th episode, as mentioned in this EW interview with Sera Gamble. What she says (SPOILER ALERT) may be encouraging. Or not. And we thought Kripke was evil!

Get your holiday gift list ready: The Supernatural Season Five Official Companion is out!

Don't forget to vote in the People's Choice Awards. Supernatural made the finals for "Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show."

I saw lots of spoilers in the news (this is why I delete all my Google alerts when I'm not responsible for News Monday!):

Upcoming guest star; TV Guide Preview; Episode 10 photos (possibly a duplicate from the guest star link); Interview with Misha. Here's another, slightly older, interview with Misha. More spoiler tidbits from Sera Gamble.

And a new interview with Jensen and Jared. It's a new post, but it was conducted before the premiere, so their hints are amusing now that we know the truth about things. There's only one thing that could be considered a spoiler, about the necklace.

Here's a Misha Collins property that's way too entertaining for its description. Warning: last ten seconds not safe for anyone under, like, 18.

Anyone watch Castle a couple of weeks ago? The actor who played Jesse, the AntiChrist, was an abducted child. His mother was played by Ever Carradine, who played his mother on Supernatural, too! What guest-star spottings have you made recently?

The Truth About Fairies...

Sorry for the slight delay in my post--caught the 10 pm showing of Harry Potter last night and this was the soonest I could watch the show and post a recap! We open on a corn field in Indiana where a young couple is making out, until they hear something. An ill-fated Patrick announces, "There's something in the corn" and leaves his date to investigate. (Clearly he's never seen Children of the Corn!) But then he looks up to a bright light and disappears. The camera pans up over his date to show us a version of a crop circle and we go into hilariously X-files-esque credits. (Is it like the twentieth anniversary of X files or something this week? Castle had an homage, too. I know the boys have temporarily parted ways with Grandpa Samuel, but it would have been great to use Mitch Pileggi somehow!)

Cut to interviews of townspeople where everyone except the skeptical local law enforcement is claiming alien abduction--well, and a rosy-cheeked woman claiming the abduction was "Fairies!" Soulless Sam tells her it's fine that she puts glitter in the glue she's sniffing but that they don't want to step in her wackadoo, prompting a lecture from Dean on empathy. Dean tells him that from now on, he'll be Sam's conscience, which Sam says makes him his Jiminy Cricket :-)

From there, they go to interview missing Patrick's father, who insists they can't help. As soon as they leave, the man addresses a question to seemingly no one. The brothers agree to keep the father under observation and split up, with Dean admonishing Sam not to speak to or maim any of the populace. Then we see Dean in the crop circle. Sam calls (love Dean's ring tone) and while they're on the phone, Dean sees lights and yells "UFO! UFO! Close encounters!" (Sam, "What kind? First? Second? Better run man, I think Fourth kind is a butt thing." Dean, "Empathy, Sam! Empathy!") And then Dean is gone, although Sam--getting a beer and ogling the waitress--doesn't seem too distressed.

Dean's cell ringing again--it's Sam calling and trying to use the phone to find his brother. But no dice. Then we see the encampment of trailers and RVs decorated with little green men and playing Close Encounters of 3rd Kind music. Sam engages the guy in charge (who tells him the truth is out there) and asks how they get these ETs. Soulless Sam asks the guy if he's "considered the possibility that you suck at hunting UFOs." But even without empathy, he still manages to pick up a girl who volunteers to help.

When Dean is returned to the corn field, he makes his way to the hotel room and finds Sam and the helpful girl naked in bed. Soulless Sam: "Y-you're upset?" During the ensuing argument, Dean realizes he's been gone a lot longer than the hour he thought. Sam trying to "empathize" with Dean's experience is kind of hilarious.

After Dean showers, they go out for food and Dean's miffed that while "our reality's collapsing around us, you're trying to pick up the waitress?" Sam may have no soul, but he's totally got a libido. Dean tells him that when you're brother's abducted, you don't bang chicks, you "sit in the dark and feel the loss." Sam: "So having a soul equals suffering?" Dean: "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."

Dean sees a creepy guy watching them through the diner window, but Sam doesn't. They split up to study UFO lore and Dean's alone in the hotel room (with "Ground Control to Major Tom" playing) when the "aliens" come back. This time, in the form of a small light...that is sort of kicking his butt until he traps it in the microwave and seemingly nukes it. But only Dean sees the blood and "eccck" in the microwave. He describes his assailant as "a little naked lady. A little, glowing...hot naked lady with nipples. And she hit me." Unempathetic Sam, "I'm not supposed to laugh, right?" It's Sam who asks if the tiny naked lady had wings and decides Crazy woman wasn't crazy after all. "Hey, you're the one who pizza-rolled Tinkerbell, I'm just doing the math."

They go see the crazy woman who tells them that Fairy comes in all kinds of mischievous shapes and sizes. Only people who've been abducted into the fairy realm can see the creatures in our world. She gives them lots of advice and shares her personal theory that people are abducted to "service Oberon, king of the fairies." Once they leave, Dean asks, "Is it on me? I feel like I got the crazy ON me." Sam, "No. You did sit in some glitter, though." They see Patrick's father loading up his car trunk with cream (which fairies apparently love.) Dean: "You stick with half and half, I'll check out his store. And no hippie chicks!"

At the watchworks store, Dean is now able to see all manner of short magical people and backs away. Tells Sam on the phone, "It's like the story with the shoe guy and all the elves." Sam approaches the watchmaker and accuses, "I don't know how one man could put out that much product...You have a bunch of elves working for you. How does a father decide to trade a son for a bunch of watches? I'm assuming you have a soul, so what's your excuse?" While Soulless Sammy grills the dad (who summoned magic folk for help when his Parkinson's threatened his ability to provide for his family) we cut to Dean on the street, still being watched--and followed--by the creepy guy. But then Dean mistakenly assaults the wrong guy on the street (the very short county DA) and is arrested for his "hate crime." (Doesn't help that Dean was yelling, "Fight the fairies!")

Sam and Patrick's hapless father, who has wanted to unsummon the fairies since they got here, go to the safe and try to get the spell book. The watchmaker gets killed while trying to send them back and it turns out that the lead UFO enthusiast is an evil leprechaun who realizes Sam is different. "Your soul is far away...but not completely out of reach." The leprecahun offers to get the soul back for a price. Sam: "So you're my blue fairy? You can make me a real boy again?" And then Sam shoots him with iron, which the leprechaun declares "painful but not a deal breaker" and attacks.

Meanwhile, creepy guy who's been following Dean shows up in Dean's cell. Now both bros are getting their butts kicked by Faery Folk. Sam ends up using some of crazy woman's bizarre advice to distract the leprechaun and read from the book, banishing all the creatures back to their own realm. Ends with guys having a beer on the Impala--very old times--but Dean is worried that Sam didn't take the leprechaun's deal because Sam is having second thoughts about being re-ensoulled. Although Sam says this isn't the case, it clearly is.

I want to thank the producers of the show for giving us our third relatively gore free episode in a row (especially one I had to recap) but from the previews of the next new ep (December 3rd, featuring "Hell's Prison") I'd say my vacation from gore is coming to an end. This ep was a realtively light look at the grim reality we've been dealing with all season--Sam's inhumanity. I found it to be pretty entertaining and a welcome light touch, considering how heavy this season has been so far. What did you guys think?

Vote for Jared!

I came across this when I was prepping Monday's news post, but I'm afraid if I wait until then, it will be too late.

Vote for Jared as Under-Appreciated Entertainer of the Year at Entertainment Weekly. He's losing pretty badly to Paul Wesley!

See all the matchups here.

Supernatural News

Not much this week, and what I could find is not good.

Supernatural was down in ratings 18% this past week, which is disturbing in light of the revelations the previous week. Did people get the answers they wanted and stop watching? Or did they not like the answers they got?

TVovermind.com talks about the online community as it relates to the TV Guide cover poll. Supernatural was in the top 3, the winner to be revealed in December.

Jared is up against fellow San Antonian James Roday as underappreciated actor of the year at EW.

Anyone else have any news?

All Dogs Go To Heaven Recap

Then: Werewolves! AWESOME!!! I’m reading a Lori Handeland novel, so I’m IN. DANG. Just realized Tivo didn’t pick up last night’s Vampire Diaries.

Now: Dude talking baby talk on the phone gets stalked by something snarly, then explodes bloody. YUM. Time for a cookie.

Dean’s on the phone with Bobby, when Crowley appears at his elbow with a job. Dean resists and Crowley burns Sam’s hand with a touch. (Trust me when I say OUCH. Also, wish Crowley had been around to heal me like that three weeks ago. Fingers just now returning to normal.) Dean caves. Crowley promises Sam’s soul if the boys bag him a live alpha, and shows them a paper about a businessman killed with his heart ripped out.

Crowley: Werewolves turning on the full moon. So…’09.

Sam tells Dean he and his Sampa ganked one on the half moon, so they go after it.

Dean to Sam, complaining about working for a demon: Crowley’s so far up our ass we’re coughing sulphur.

Sam’s determined Dean knows he’s still Sam as they drive to the next case, a dock worker whose chest was ripped open and whose heart is missing.

So, question. A soul is the part of the body that makes you sleep?

Anyway, Sam’s been playing connect the victims, and damn, there’s my car. I love that car so much. They pull up to the house of the man who’s the common denominator and the woman who opens the door looks a lot like Lisa, don’t you think? They ask to see Cal, who staggers into the kitchen rubbing his head like he has a hangover. His German shepherd growls at him. Turns out he’s the brother of one of the victims. They didn’t have the best relationship—Cal called the cops on his brother the last time because his brother was out of control. Also, the businessman was his landlord. Cal and Mandy don’t think it’s weird both were killed by an animal attack, even after the Winchesters point it out.

That night they stake out Cal, following him as he barhops.

Dean: I’m getting cirrhosis just watching him.

Dawn comes and the guy’s still standing. The brothers drive off—too soon, I fear. Cal walks out to his truck and his German shepherd attacks. We see the attack through the dog’s eyes, then the dog changes to a man.

The man shows up in Mandy’s bedroom while she’s sleeping, shifts back to a dog and licks her awake. She realizes Cal isn’t home, and goes to shower while the dog watches. (This is a fear of mine. Anyone else?)

The brothers realize since Cal is dead, Mandy might be their alpha. Sam asks Dean if he can serve her up to Crowley if she’s the one. Dean reluctantly agrees. They go out to Mandy’s and have to break the news that Cal’s dead. They want her to come with them, Sam pretty heartlessly when she tells him her kid is sick and she doesn’t want to leave him. She reveals that her kid was up all night (so why was she sleeping so soundly when the dog came in?). Dean believes her alibi, but Sam wants to stay and watch the house. While he’s hanging next to a pretty nice playscape, he sees a naked man stand up and stretch inside the house. The man walks out and sniffs. Sam follows and sees dog-man talking to someone else, who gestures him back to the house. The dog-man sniffs again and turns in Sam’s direction, then bolts. Sam jumps over the fence in a very nice move after him. The guy shifts and—oh no! Hit by a minivan!

The driver loads the dog in to take it to the vet and drives off.

Sam called Dean to tell him it’s a skinwalker, a werewolf cousin. Same weaknesses, but can change anywhere, any time.

They go to the animal hospital and retrieve Lucky, first showing him silver bullets, then giving him a choice. They can do things the easy way—clothing—or the hard way—silver chains.

Sam is actually kind of funny in the interrogation in the hotel room. He’s threatening Lucky with a knife, when Dean interjects. He knows why Lucky stays with the family, to protect them. Dean wants to know who Lucky was talking to, and he tells Lucky if he reveals who the man is, that will protect the family.

Lucky speaks. He says there are about 30 skinwalkers, and they were recruited. Lucky had been homeless. One bite and they’d be fast and strong. They were told to find families and lay low, waiting for the word. Once they’re settled, they’ll get a signal, turn on their families and turn them.

Sam wants to know who organized them. They have a pack leader. Dean plays on Lucky’s emotions, wondering how he plans to take out this family he cares for, and Lucky helps.

Dean wants to take out the pack leader, but Sam wants to get the pack leader to lead them to the alpha. Dean is appalled (his go-to emotion this season) and asks if Sam wants 150 people turned into monsters. He said that Sam isn’t Sam and to stop pretending.

While Dean is behind a sniper rifle, Sam says he bets Lucky will double cross them. Sam would. He thinks that’s the only way he’ll go on living. Some men drive up in an SUV and a garage door opens,, revealing more people. Sam tells Dean to take the shot but he doesn’t have a clean view. Then the SUV opens and Mandy and her son get out. Sam urges Dean to take the shot. Dean says Mandy’s in the way and Sam tells him to take it anyway. Dean doesn’t, of course, and she’s ushered into the garage and the door closes.

“Plan B?” Sam asks.

“We’ve got one?” Dean responds.

Inside the garage, Mandy is confused. Lucky’s in trouble for unauthorized murders, and is told to turn Mandy and her son while the others watch. Sam charges into the garage and starts shooting, the pack leader first. Lucky pulls Mandy and her son out of the line of fire, and Sam comes upon some empty clothes. The skin walkers have shifted.

One attacks Dean, who has the sniper rifle barrel through a grate. It’s stuck, so he whips out his pistol at the last minute.

Lucky shifts to protect his family, and the man who turned him says he was going to turn the family but now he’s going to kill them. He shoots Lucky, but before he can kill him, Dean fires. Sam comes around the corner to see a smear of blood and a confused Mandy.

In a transition I didn’t quite get, Lucky the man shows up at Mandy’s house and tells her thanks for being kind to him. She rejects him, telling him to get away, calling him a psycho. He shifts back to a dog and wanders off.

Dean and Sam are walking in a park and a girl with a dog runs by. Dean swears he’ll never look at a dog the same way again and wonders how many packs are out there, waiting for the signal.

Sam tells Dean he’s right, that he’s not Sam and doesn’t really care about things, doesn’t care about Lisa and Ben, or really Dean, for that matter. He says he’s done bad things, killed innocents in the line of duty. He should feel guilty, but doesn’t. It’s more efficient, you get the job done and don’t feel bad about it. He remembers his life before and thinks he should go back to being him, which is why he wants his soul back, and why he wants Dean’s help. Dean agrees because he wants his brother back.

Oh, hallelujah, next week is a light-hearted episode. I have to go with Terri’s review from last week. I’ve not rewatched one episode this year. Last year, with the Apocalypse looming, we had more levity. Now, it’s just too gloomy.

How About that Jared?

Last year, I did a post about the actors on the show, and that as far as Jared had come over the seasons, Jensen was just a better actor, and that was why he was getting all the solo shows and, with "The End," actually doubling his role.

So when are we going to get the Sam-only episode?

Setting aside all the issues we have with Soulless!Sam, let's look at Jared's performance for itself. He's spent 5 seasons honing his character. He knew all of Sam's nuances, his bitchface, his eyeroll, his puppy-dog eyes and intense determination. His best performances over the years were arguably when he was someone else (my vote goes, of course, to "Born Under a Bad Sign," when he channeled Meg), but by season 5, he'd gone far beyond the nostril-flare school of acting.

And now he's been asked to change everything, except not. He's supposed to still be Sam, but without the hallmarks that make him that character. No more puppy-dog eyes, no more bitchface, at least not the way he's always done them, as natural responses to his brother or any other character. Now, Sam has to think about how he would react to something, and fake it.

I like to think of acting as happening in one of two ways: putting in on, and projecting from within. I always said Jensen projects from within. He becomes the character on the inside, so he fully embodies Dean. Jared has usually been of the other type, as if he'd put on a Sam Suit and walked around inside the character. I think this season, he's made the switch to projection.

Jared has become a new Sam, and is living him from within. His character has become so much more complex, and I think Jared hasn't just stepped up his game, but leaped a few levels. Right from the start, we knew there was something wrong. And yet, he kept us guessing. He made us hate him (or at least dislike him), even some of those of us who loved him without reservation.

So do I miss Sammy-of-the-puppy-eyes-and-exasperation? Hell, yeah, and I really don't want him to go soulless for more than another episode or two. But I applaud Jared for his amazing performance, and I'm grateful to the writers for giving us the chance to see it, even if I don't want it anymore. :)

What do you think?

The Winner of the Six Degrees Game

Is Melissa! Melissa, go to Cafepress.com, pick out a magnet you want, and send me a link. I'll get it to you.

This is how she did it:

Jared to Gerard Butler and Nathan Fillion
Jared was in Gilmore Girls with Milo Ventimiglia who was in Gamer with Gerard Butler who was in Dracula 2000 with Nathan Fillion

Jensen to Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion
Jensen and Neil are voices in Batman: Under the Red Hood and Neil Patrick was in Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog with Nathan Fillion

Jared to Nicholas Cage
Jared was in Friday the 13th with Danielle Panabaker who was in Mr Brooks with Kevin Costner
Kevin was in The Untouchables with Sean Connery who was in The Rock with Nicholas Cage

Jared to Bill Murray and Jeff Goldblum
Jared was in Gilmore Girls with Milo Ventimiglia who was in Cursed with Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse was in Zombieland with Bill Murray who was in The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou with Jeff Goldblum

Jensen to Nicholas Cage
Jensen was in My Bloody Valentine with Jaime King who was in The Spirit with Samuel L. Jackson
Sam L was in Jumper with Diane Lane who was in Rumblefish with Nicholas Cage

Jensen to Viggo Mortensen
Jensen was in Dark Angel with Jessica Alba. Jessica was in Sin City with Elijah Wood
Elijah was in Lord of the Rings with Viggo Mortensen

Jensen to Gerard Butler
Jensen was in Dawson's Creek with Joshua Jackson who was in Bobby with Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins was in Amistad with Djimon Hounsou. Djimon was in Tomb Raider:Cradle of Life with Gerard Butler

Jensen to Tom Cruise
Jensen was in Smallville with Tom Welling who was in The Fog with Maggie Grace who was in Knight and Day with Tom Cruise

This is how I did it:

Nathan was in Firefly with Mark Shepard who was in SPN

Neil was in Glee with Cory Monteith from Glee who was in the Wendigo episode of SPN

Bill was in Ghostbusters with Sigourney Weaver who was in Avatar with Giovanni Rabisi who was in Flight of the Phoenix with Jared

Viggo was in LOTR with Dominic who was in LOST with Daniel Dae Kim who is in Hawaii Five-O with Grace Parks who was in Battlestar Galactica with Mark Shepard who was in SPN

Nicholas Cage was in Next with Jim Beaver who is in SPN.

Tom Cruise was in The Last Samurai with Chad Lindberg who was in SPN.

Jeff Goldblum was in Jurassic Park with Laura Dern who was with Chad in October Sky and Chad was on SPN.

Gerard was in The Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston who was in Friends with Hugh Laurie who was in Flight of the Phoenix with Jared.

Whew!

Family Matters

So after the major walloping Dean delivered last week we open with a bloody and battered Sam tied to a chair and Cas looking over him. Dean and the surly angel are trying to figure out what’s wrong with Sammy.

“What? You think there’s a clinic out there for people who just pop out of hell wrong?” --Dean

After some questioning, they realize Sam doesn’t sleep. He hasn’t closed his peepers since he got back from Hell. Next Cas asks him how he feels and like a fifteen year old boy Sam says, “I don’t know.” The lack of feeling raises suspicion in Cas and he shoves a belt into Sam’s mouth. (Uh oh, I know what’s coming.) Sam bites the leather in agony as Cas reaches into his chest and searches for his soul. It ain’t there.

“One more time, like I’m five.” -- Dean

Dean is stunned. Castiel says Sam’s soul is probably still in Lucifer’s cage. Dean wants to know if Sam is actually Sam then. Cas says that’s a good question. Dean wants to keep his little brother locked up indefinitely, but Sam proves that impossible. (Okay, he escaped some ropes, but to say a panic room couldn’t hold him makes me wonder if he’s capable of more than we know.)

Ultimately Dean and Sam decide the best course of action if to find out who resurrected him. Only Sam doesn’t remember anything. He woke up in a field, but he thinks Samuel might know more since he too was brought back.

The old man says he doesn’t know anything more than Sam does. Samuel just remembers waking on a ridge. Cas does an “angel cavity search” and finds (Whoo-boy. Didn’t expect that.) Samuel DOES have his soul. Hmm. I figured if anyone was evil, it was him. And yet he says he knew there was something wrong with Sam, because at times his hunting abilities actually scared him.

The boys want to know what Samuel's up to now. He reluctantly admits he’s going out at dawn to hunt the alpha vampire. Sam is upset his grandfather didn’t call him. Dean quickly realizes they were left out because the senior Winchester doesn’t like Dean. Dean tells him he wants in on the hunt and he’ll be good and obedient. A minute later he tells Sam he doesn’t trust Samuel, he can feel he’s hiding something.

“If you weren’t RoboSam, you would too.” -- Dean

Dean goes snooping for answers and has a confrontation with Christian. The next morn, Dean is relegated to the back of the line with Gwen, where they’re attacked by a vamp. Gwen beheads the bloodsucker and Dean is sprayed with blood. Nastiness!

Dean hears a shot and tears off after the other team, not following the “stay here” directive he’d been given. Bodies litter the front yard of a house, shots and screams are heard. Dean looks up at a crow weather vane on the roof and flashes on the images he had when he was a vampire under the Alpha’s power. Then he sees a woman beg for help at a window before she’s yanked away.

Dean hears Samuel yelling so he follows the sound to the back of the house where baldy is shoving a hooded man into a van. It’s the guy with the long fingernails from Dean’s vision! Dean hurries back to Gwen so no one knows he saw anything. Samuel shows up and Dean questions him about what happened. Samuel lies. Dean gets in the Impala with Sam and asks if anything unusual happened. Sam lies! Fortunately, instead of merely stewing over his brother’s treachery, as he’s recently done a lot of, Dean pulls over, gets out of the car and tells Sam what he witnessed. Sam admits he didn’t want Dean to know Samuel’s capturing creatures for intel. Dean calls Sam out on his cluelessness. Surely, he must see Samuel is up to no good. Then Dean has an epiphany… Sam has no instincts. Losing his soul also cost him his gut feelings. Sam is blindly trusting Samuel just because of their blood relation. Dean tells him family may not be as important to Samuel as it is to them and he shouldn’t be trusted just because of their familial lines. He then tells Sam he can stick with him, but he has to follow what Dean says since he’s freakin’ clueless, or he can choose to go with Samuel and see how that goes.

Sam shows up at Samuel’s place. He tells his grandfather Dean is gone, that the two of them aren’t seeing eye-to-eye anymore. (I think he’s there at the behest of Dean.) Sam then tells his namesake he wants in, that he’ll help with the interrogations and everything. Samuel says no, because of his absentee soul. (Ha! I’m right.) Sam meets up with Dean and says Plan A didn’t work, but Plan B—which Dean didn’t know about—did. Sam enabled the GPS tracker on Samuel’s phone. They follow him and Christian to a vacant warehouse.

“He thinks Velcro is big news.” --Sam

Oy! The Alpha has bolts nailed through his hands and feet. How biblical. He’s also strapped to a chair with chains and hooked up to electricity. Samuel asks him “where is it?” When the creepy-cool vamp doesn’t answer,Samual sends volts of electricity to the bolts. The vamp laughs and blithely says, “Ow.” A frustrated Samuel leaves and the Alpha invites Sam and Dean out of hiding.

Oh my, they’re pumping the Alpha with dead man’s blood through an IV. He doesn’t look the least phased though and watching his fingernails saw away at his bonds makes me nervous. Even more nerve-wracking is that he knows Dean, since he was his child for a short time. He taunts Dean, wanting to know if he enjoyed it.

“I’m asking the questions here, Frightnight.” – Dean

Alpha tells them he’s happy to answer any questions they have because “soon I’ll be ankle deep in your blood, sucking the marrow from your bones. “ Yipe! Sam marvels over him being the first and wants to know who made him. The Alpha says,“we all have our mothers, even me.” Dean wants to know what’s with the big surge of vamps and Alpa tells him they’re going to war. Then he notices Sam smells cold, that he has no soul and he wants to know how it feels to be so empty. Sam says he wants to know why Samuel is interrogating the Alpha. The Alpha says when freaks like himself die they don’t go to either Heaven or Hell. Dean glibly suggests they go to Legoland, but Sam realizes he means purgatory. Turns out the mid-place is full of every soul, of every hungry thing that walked the Earth. The real question of the day is, “WHERE is purgatory?” The answer to that question is what they’re kind-hearted grandpa is trying to beat out of the Alpha. Sam asks why Samuel would care and Alpha says he doesn’t care, he merely does what he’s told. Dean asks whose hand is up Samuel’s ass when they hear someone behind them cock a gun. Damn! You know it’s the puppet himself.

Yup, Samuel and Christian take away Dean and Sam’s impressive arsenal. Dean accuses gramps of being really stupid, that whatever he’s doing, whatever he’s hiding, will put him and everyone around him in the ground. Samuel takes offense and charges Dean, who disarms him. Sam then gets a hold of Christian and just as Dean’s going for a gun, putting them back in power, Gwen shows up with a cocked gun in hand.

One of Samuel’s minions was left to watch the alpha. Mr. Brawn and No Brains approaches the cage, machete in hand and the alpha asks, “Are you scared of me. I would be.” In an effort to demonstrate his fearlessness the ill-fated guard pulls the switch on the electricity. As the juice goes through the alpha, he breaks his bonds and yanks out the IV. The guard turns to run, takes one of those trite horror movie trips I hate and notices the cage behind him is empty, as he leaps up to run out of the room he finds the alpha standing before him. The camera cuts to the Winchesters who hear an unholy scream. Dumb dude’s dead and the alpha is gone. Big surprise. Not.

Samuel wants to know how much dead blood they have left. Christian holds up two syringes. They’ve got an hour before the alpha will be back at 100%. Samuel wants him back in the cage, Dean wants him dead. They spread out to find the master vamp. Dean says if they make it through this the three Winchesters are going to have one helluva family meeting.

The two Sams are on a team with Christian. Just as they start to wonder if the alpha escaped, he shows up in a blink and breaks Christian’s neck (good riddance). Samuel puts a slug in Alpha before he’s thrown into a wall. Sam attacks the vamp with his machete, but he’s quickly disarmed. Alpha informs Sam he’s got big plans for him. A boy with no soul would make the perfect animal. Just as Alpha flashes fang, Christian (Holy Hell, he’s got black demon eyes!) jabs him in the neck with a syringe. Dean and Gwen walk in on the scene. There’s a flash of light and two more demons join Christian in holding the alpha. Another flash of light and they all four disappear. WTH? Then we hear weak applause offscreen and the camera pivots to Crowley. Samuel tells him to remove the demon he just stuffed into his nephew, but Crowley tells him he protects his investments and he had Christian possessed ages ago. Dean is stunned to learn they know each other and have some sort of business pact.

“You’re Crowley’s bitch.” –Sam

It seems Crowley wants Purgatory as a developer. “It’s vast, underutilized and Hell adjacent.” Crowley tells the boys they’re now his employees thanks to Gramps. He says Samuel knows things, more than any of them. The smug demon also admits he knew the boys misguided family loyalty would have them going froggy if Samuel said jump. Dean assures Crowley they have no loyalty to Samuel, but the King of Hell tells them they can’t pull out of their deal if they want Sam’s soul back. He can return the missing piece with the snap of his fingers. Turns out it was him that pulled Samuel out of Heaven and Sam out of Hell. (I did not see that coming!) And gramps knew all along. (Now that doesn’t surprise me. Bastard!)Big picture—Crowley wants the Winchesters to keep bringing him creatures or he’ll shove Sam back into Hell.

“Me Charlie, you angels.” – Crowley

Crowley bails and Gwen questions Samuel. He says he’ll take care of Crowley, in the meantime they hunt. Nothing’s changed. Sam tells him he’s not the man he thought he was. Samuel says he doesn’t know a thing about him. He’s certainly not apologetic or in any way trying to make good with the boys. He won’t even share his reasons for making the deal with Crowley and I think the boys deserve that much since he dragged them into his muck.

“What’d he offer you, girls, money, hair?” – Dean

Then he has the audacity to pull out the damn family card. They’re all he’s got, but as he sees it they’ve got two choices--put a bullet in their grandfather or step aside. Sam yanks his gun out and I’m inclined to let him shoot his namesake, but Dean stops him even though Samuel sold them out. Dean then lets gramps go. Why? And WHY didn’t Dean insist on answers? He’s certainly been hard-nosed about knowing something was wrong with Samuel and then, once he’s proven right, he does a whole lotta nothing.

Left alone, the brothers talk about how they don’t want to work for Crowley, but really don’t have a choice. So, for now, they’re gonna punch the demon’s timeclock until they can figure out how to get Sam’s soul back and take down the King of Hell. Good news is we’ll see more Crowley, bad news is we’ll see more gramps and we still have no clue why he’s sold them into slavery. Think maybe it has to do with daughter Mary? What’s your theory? As for the episode itself, it was jam-packed, but I didn't care for it much. Some great one-liners and I liked the Crowley reveal, but I'm missing the old spirit of the show. I want Sam's soul back ASAP, more Castiel, more classic rock and a little more levity please.

Six Degrees of Jared and Jensen

So there are 2 degrees of separation between Jared and me because one of the teachers in my grade level went to high school with him. I thought it might be fun to see if I could make connections between the boys and some celebrities. Some are six degrees, but most are less.

Nathan Fillion

Neil Patrick Harris

Bill Murray

Viggo Mortensen

Nicholas Cage

Tom Cruise

Jeff Goldblum

Gerard Butler

Let me know each step of the connection. Send your answers to me at mfechter @ gmail dot com and whoever gets the most correct will get a prize (probably a magnet from Cafe Press. Love those!) And be patient, please, I'm doing NaNoWriMo!

If you have more ideas, mention them in the comments!

Supernatural News

Ever wonder where hunters go when they need a doctor? Click here for a spoilery answer.

Misha Collins reveals he thinks there will be a season seven of Supernatural.

Go now and vote for Supernatural to get on the cover of TV Guide! Polling ends today so vote, and vote, and vote.

You Can't Handle the Truth

"Hey, this is Jensen Ackles..."

Hi, Jensen Ackles!

Then: Sam's different, Dean can't lose Lisa and Ben,shooting stuff, Sam watching him get turned, Lisa getting shoved up...against...the...wall... Um. Yeah. Dean getting turned back, remembering the past few hours/days, count on Sam (yeah, right).

Okay, Now.

Bar. Calumet City, Illinois, waitress being stereotypical woman...until she invokes some truth spell and everyone starts telling her stuff. OMG, what did that guy put in the soup?

Why the hell is truth only negative?

This poor woman!

Oooh, I just noticed this was Biggerson's.

Have we figured out what the shattered glass represents yet?

Bobby insists Sam has been tested thoroughly. Dean believes Sam is Lucifer, but Bobby's fighting pretty hard. Trying to keep Dean restrained, or something else? Dean doesn't even want to ride in the car with Sam, he's so freaked about not knowing what the hell he is.

Lisa still hasn't called him back. It does suck, Sam, but so do you. *scowl*

Sam notices the sister's tell (it's pretty obvious, tucking the hair behind her ear), but he gets really cold and smug again, and man, that gives me shivers. And NOT the good kind.

Now we have a guy in the dental chair revealing some really sick stuff. WHOA. His confessions about the dentist's daughter drive the dentist to drill him. Literally. Can a dentist's drill really generate that much blood? (Tanya is hiding her eyes now.)

Commercial, so I have to worry this detail to death. There's a spell or something making people tell the truth, but the only truths we hear are horrible. The waitress is told she's ugly and creepy and pitied. An old lady says she killed a homeless man in a hit and run. The dental patient is disgusted by his wife's saggy skin and either had sex with a teenager or did something worse to her. Is this bad writing, oversimplifying that no one ever has anything nice to say? Or is that just part of the spell?

Back to Dean and Bobby. Bobby's research hasn't found anything that fits. Dean thinks the worst case is Lucifer, but Bobby's worst case is that it's just Sam. Dean tries to call Lisa, but stops himself. Sam comes in, pretty awfully gleeful about the drilling. Dean sends him off to interview the guy, says he'll stay and do research, try to figure out what they're up against.

Sam says the guy hung himself in the cell, but the patient was confessing stuff, and Sam said he'd have murdered him for it, too. Dean speculates that it's a curse. Sam will go to the morgue, Dean to the dentist's office, to see what they can see.

Blood. Lots of it. Creepy big-assed teeth and a...saxaphone? Ahhhh, Dean finds the common denominator. Jane had a label for House of Horns, and so does the dentist. The guy mentions a stolen horn, a museum piece, about a thousand years old, stolen about two weeks ago. Dean finds info on Gabriel's Horn of Truth. Huh, maybe Castiel will listen to him now.

Ha! He does.

Oooh, ouch, Dean, calling him names. Cas has nothing to offer about Sam. Except he knows he's not Lucifer. He'd feel it if Lucifer escaped the cage. He doesn't know what's wrong with Sam. Dean asks what's wrong with Cas, why he's not human-like anymore. Cas, very solemnly, very heavily, says he's at war. Certain regrettable things are now required of him. Dean mentions the horn and Cas disappears. When he comes back (he looked "everywhere" in 2 seconds) and it's not the Horn of Truth. Cas offers to make inquiries about Sam, he wants to help, and then he disappears again. Dean's pretty much at his wit's end.

Sam asks to see all the suicides, but the attendant says they're gone. "Gone" gone, whatever that means.

Dean's in a bar, where the news person on the TV mentioned the truth. Sam calls to tell about the missing bodies. He has a lead, a woman who died in a car accident a week before the other bodies. Dean tells the bartender, "I'd just like the freaking truth" and invokes the curse. At least the bartender is aware that she's saying odd things, whereas the others all seemed oblivious to the strangeness of blurting horrible truths. Her first one's not too bad, that she's in a sham marriage, but then she says she's snorting Oxy. A bar chick tells Dean she just bought her breasts and needs lots of attention, which Dean obliges.

Dean tests his theory by calling Bobby, who reveals some hilarious stuff. He watches Tori and Dean, gets a pedicure that's apparently, um, really good, and Dean's his favorite, though Sam's a better hunter. He, too, recognizes something's wrong, but Dean's glad. Bobby, apparently, doesn't have evil secrets, just disturbing ones.

Great line by Bobby: "Why is it half the time you clean a mess, you get dirty?"

Dean calls Sam, who doesn't answer, and says he has some things to ask him.

Sam's interviewing someone about the car accident death, saying it was a suicide. She says she was obsessed with finding out the truth about her boyfriend. Ding ding ding!

Lisa calls Dean, and she's very angry. She won't let Dean put her off. But he won't explain. Still, she goes off on him, telling him he can't push everything down the way he does without freaking, and she knew as soon as Sam came back it was over, that they have "the most unhealthy, tangled up, crazy thing I've ever seen, and as long as he's in your life, you're never going to be happy." She's close to her sister, but she wouldn't bring her back from the dead. Dean won't argue with her about that, but she won't let him say what she and Ben mean to her. She ends it, and Dean's crushed. *whimper*

Sam's exploring a neon-green bedroom and finds a box with a weird little skull (apparently the missing cat).

Dean demands answers from Sam, and he immediately knows Dean's cursed. First question, why Sam just stood there. Sam say's he didn't. Claims he froze, blames shock, and he's obviously lying. So he's immune to this curse, dammit. Sam puts on a decent replication of himself, and Dean backs down, which is a little annoying. Sam was immune to the demon light bombs, and the Croatoan virus, and all the demon kids. So why wouldn't he be immune to this? But Dean apparently doesn't even think of it.

If the previews hadn't shown us Sam apparently admitting stuff to Dean, I'd be furious right now! Those writers had better not be bait-and-switching us.

The box contained the ingredients of a summoning spell for Veritas, the goddess of truth, who slams you with the truth until you kill yourself, which feeds her (tribute). So they have to stop her before she takes Dean. Exposition reveals dogs are her Achilles heel, and she wanted to be worshipped. So Dean immediately thinks "attention whore" and connects the modern-day speaking truth to the masses to TV news. But I'm thinking the chick in the bar.

They go to the news station and get a huge box of tapes of Ashley Frank, and watch unedited segments of "Frank Talk." Time passes. Dean eats. Sam doesnt' move, just watches her recordings in fast forward. Dean eats some more. A dog on screen goes haywire during a location spot, and they catch camera flare in her eyes. Okay, maybe it wasn't the chick in the bar. :)

Off they go to chase down Veritas. Who drives a smokin' convertible. *want* The guys dip knives in dog's blood.

Dean: "Do I even want to know where you got that?"
Sam: "Probably not."

Ashley goes up her stairs in that provocative-casual manner that hints that she knows the guys are there. Modern, stylish home with water and fire and cats everywhere. They find a mosaic of her, and more cats. Eventually, they wind up in a room full of snacked-on dead bodies, and of course, she sneaks up on them, and tosses them into a tub or something, where they wake up tied to the safety handles.

Sam gets a knife to cut his rope as Veritas pulls out and nibbles on a tongue. Sorry, Tanya, but it IS the tastiest part. Dean gets mouthy, and she puts her truth mojo on him. What does he really feel about his brother? Dean says better now, as of yesterday he wanted to kill him in his sleep, as a monster, but now he thinks he's just acting like Dean. He blames the job, says he told himself he wanted out, wanted a family, but he's good at slicing throats. He's not a father, he's a killer, and now he knows there's no changing that.

*sob*

I don't get the "Mallory to your Mickey" reference.

She turns her mojo on Sam, asks how he feels about the band getting back together. He says what they do is hard, but they watch out for each other. We see slow realization dawning on Veritas's face, because she knows Sam's lying. She wants to know what he is, says he's not human. Sam cuts through the rope, tosses the knife to Dean, and starts fighting Veritas (who might be, IMO, the most beautiful woman to have guest starred on this show; something appealing about her, where so many are plastic).

Fight ensues, Dean frantically saws at his bonds, gets free, knifes Veritas as she chokes Sam (evocative of season one!). We see her true visage for a moment before Sam kills her with the second knife.

And then Dean turns the knife on Sam.

Sam's pretty convinced Dean will carve him up, and frantically tries to get him to listen. He admits Veritas was right, there's something wrong with him, he's known it for a while, he lied to Dean. He let him get turned by the vamp, because he knew there was a cure, they needed him to get in the nest, and he knew Dean could handle it. When Dean says he could have killed Ben, Sam says that should have stopped him cold, but he just doesn't feel it. He's a better hunter, nothing scares him anymore, because he can't feel it. He doesn't know what's wrong with him, and thinks he needs help. Dean sets down the knife. Sam seems relieved, unburdened, but that must be an act, too, if he can't feel anything.

Then, WHOA, Dean whollops (how the heck do you spell that word?) Sam. I mean, whales on him. Pounds his face in. WTH?

The preview for next week is very spoilery, so let me post a warning before I talk about it.

SPOILERS BELOW THIS LINE!!!!!!!!

Terri gets credit for first posting the possibility that Sam is without his soul. I high-fived her because, while watching "The Third Man," I voiced the same possibility. We deserve cookies! :) We postulated lots of viable theories over the last few weeks, but for me, this one grew as I watched past seasons and as this season went on. I think it's been a masterful build to this reveal, giving us plenty to keep us guessing, yet feeding that truth so completely. It really changes the whole face of the show from here on out.

And I'm very impressed with Jared's acting. He's internalizing the character now, and it's wonderful.

So I'll stop there and let you all start weighing in with your thoughts!

A Look at Lisa

I'm one of those who likes to stay spoiler-free, so this post only involves eps already aired and my own speculation (in other words, I haven't gone looking online to see if and when Cindy Sampson will be in more episodes).

It felt to me like last week's "Live Free or TwiHard" may have been Dean and Lisa's swan song (or, at the very least, the beginning of the end). The episode began with Dean very happy on the phone with her, saying that he and Sam were nearby and that he could come visit. Plans went awry when he got (temporarily) changed into a vampire. There was a funny/tense/sad scene when he showed up in her bedroom (watching her sleep, after he'd been mocking that exact scenario on the cover of a vampire novel) and told her thank you for all she'd done but that he couldn't keep bringing his dangerous life (and the monsters therein) home to her. This was not exactly a new conversation for them--but the fact that he then shoved her son in the hallway (in an attempt not to attack him) may spell doom for Lisa and Dean even if he does reconsider and want to reconnect. (Do you think his fruitless phone messages for her at the end were for another chance or just an apology and to make sure she/Ben are okay? Think we'll be seeing her again?)

Anyway, since I feel like the Lisa/Dean subplot is winding down, I wanted to take a look at their relationship and at Cindy Sampson's work on the show (not to mention get y'all's opinions ). We first met "bendy" Lisa in Season 3's "The Kids Are All Right" and maybe I'm biased toward her because I thought that episode was really well done (even if it does make me afraid of my own kids!). I loved the scenes with Dean and Lisa's son Ben--we saw very clearly how Dean wished Ben was actually his--and I thought Jensen and Cindy had pretty good chemistry (way better, IMO, than his and Cassie's in Season 1's Route 666). But while Dean seemed wistful about leaving Lisa and her son (due in part to the fact that he was headed for hell and realized he'd never have a wife and son), I didn't expect to ever see Lisa and Ben again.

But the writers reference the character again in "Dream a Little Dream of Me," when she appears in a dream sequence where she and Dean are a couple. Then we don't see her again until the impending apocalypse, toward the end of Season 5 (when Dean is contemplating making a deal to be Michael's vessel, he plans to secure some kind of protection for her and Ben.) Of course, it ends up being not Dean but Sam who sacrifices himself in "Swan Song," and Sam makes Dean promise that, rather than spend the next year trying to bust his brother out of hell, he'll settle down, have a life (with Lisa). And the last few seconds of season 5 show Dean doing just that.

The very construction of the show would seem to prevent either brother being in a healthy, happy relationship (they're on the road all the time and something tries to kill them at least once an episode), plus fans in the past have reacted negatively to some recurring female roles/perceived love interests. So putting Dean in a relationship is a somewhat risky move on the part of the writers. On the one hand, I think that it's organic to Dean's character--he's always wanted family, so in that regard, it makes sense. On the other, it was somewhat jarring after not seeing Lisa for all of Season 4 and most of Season 5 to ask us to believe she's the great love of his life. (Although, given Dean's career, how many people has he really had the chance to get close to? Here's a woman who already knows what he does, so he can actually talk to her, gave him some of the best sex of his life, and has a child that he can see being his, fulfilling his life long wish for family.)

So I came in to the sixth season with mixed feelings about this supposed relationship. I've always liked Cindy Sampson's portrayal of Lisa, but I wasn't sure how I felt about having she and Dean thrust on us almost out of the blue. Yet I have to say, she's won me over. I love her obvious care for Dean and acceptance of who he is and what he's done. I like her realistic attitude about his issues (because, let's face it, he would be SO screwed up). Of course, while all those are positives, watching Dean beat himself up about all the possible ways he could get Ben and Lisa killed is slightly less enjoyable (as the last episode demonstrated vividly, he's not just paranoid. It's a valid concern). While I never expected them to last together into their old age, I'm a little sad to think they're hitting goodbye. Especially since Dean's trust in Sam is fractured, taking away the person he was closest to.

What do you guys think? Did you buy her as Dean's true love? Will you miss her when she's gone, or be glad when the writers put this particular storyline to bed? So to speak.

SPNews

News was light this week, but here's what scoopage I could find.

Freddy Kruger is coming to SPN! Okay, not quite Freddy, but his portrayer Robert Englund. He’ll appear in the December 10th episode as an off-the-books doc who patches up hunters.

Buddy TV has pictures from this week’s “You Can’t Handle The Truth.”

For the first time in 57 years TV Guide is allowing fans to pick the cover image. It’s down to 6 fan favorites and Supernatural is one of them so vote as often as you can between November 1 and hopefully we’ll see Jensen, Jared and Misha on the front page.

Jensen is lending his voice to the video game Tron: Evolution. Check out WinchesterBros for more info.

Live Free or Twihard

This was another one of those episodes that starts out with one tone and ends on a very different one. Though I'm a Twilight fan, I was chuckling at the early scenes that were so obviously spoofs of Twilight. You got a Bella-looking girl named Kristen (as in Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella in the movies, for those who might not know) and an Edward-based vampire named Robert (as in Pattinson) talking in a bar later revealed to be called the Black Rose. He says he can't stop thinking about her, that they can't be together. She says she's not scared. And then there the whole paper cut thing.

One problem -- Robert isn't all that Edward-like because he doesn't love Kristen. He's hunting her, to bring her back to his boss at the nest. And she's not the first. When we see Sam and Dean, they're discussing the fact that seven girls have gone missing, and when they go to the home of the latest missing girl, they find her room filled with movie vampire posters, pillows, all manner of decor.

Dean: "These aren't vampires. They're douche bags."

While Sam tries to figure out the girl's computer password, Dean tosses out that he should try Lautner, which surprises Sam. Dean replies that the kid is everywhere. :) When Sam tries "Pattinson", jackpot.

Next we see a quick scene of some vamps steeling a bunch of blood from a blood bank van.

When Sam and Dean go to the Black Rose to see if they can catch the vamp(s) luring the young girls, they split up and follow two suspects. Sam quickly dispatches his quarry, a real vampire, again without much emotion. Dean pulls his "vamp" off a girl in the alleyway, but it's just a guy dressing the part.

Dean: "Are you wearing glitter?"
Fake Vamp: "I only do it to get laid, man."
Dean: "Does it work?"
Fake Vamp: Shrugs in a positive answer.
Dean: "I'll be damned."

When Dean is attacked by a real vampire, he's forced to drink the vamp's blood as...OMG!...Sam sort of smiles and watches! What the frak?! This scene made me wonder if there are two beings inside Sam's body -- Sam (as evidenced by the times he actually acts like the old Sam) and some Big Bad (for the times like this when he is absolutely not acting like the old Sam).

Dean knows something is way wrong with Sam because he's not freaking out when they get free of the vampire. He can tell because he can hear how calm Sam's heart beat is. When Dean heads to the bathroom, he says one of my favorite lines from the episode:

"Newsflash, Mr. Wizard. Vampires pee."

Even while turning into a vampire, Dean is a funny dude.

While in the bathroom, he lips his upper lip while looking in the mirror and sees a fang growing. Then he makes a hasty departure out the window to go see Lisa and Ben for what he thinks will be the last time. He tells Lisa thanks for everything but leaves when he feels himself losing control and goes back to Sam and Samuel, prepared for them to kill him. But -- surprise! -- Samuel has a cure for vampirism since Dean hasn't fed yet. But Dean has to go to the nest and get the blood of the vampire who turned him (aka Boris).

More weirdness with Sam when Samuel asks him why he didn't tell Dean about the cure. Sam says that he didn't know about it. Samuel says that he told him months ago. Either Sam is lying or, if my theory pans out, Samuel told the other being in Sam's body.

While Dean is in the vampire nest, he figures out that the vamps are getting their orders from some higher power. Is it a rogue angel? When Dean and all the rest of the vampires pass out, Dean sees a series of creepy images including a guy wiping blood next to the mouths of twin girls. That was Balthazar, wasn't it? When Dean wakes, he proceeds to cut off the heads of all the vampires and get the blood of Boris for the cure.

Said cure is appropriately disgusting when he drinks it, and one of the effects is all the images from the previous day flash through his mind -- including that half-smile from Sam as he stand by and watches Dean get turned into a vampire.

When Sam asks Dean what he saw in the next, he reveals that the vampires' alpha is building an army..."And we don't scare them anymore."

In the episode-ending brothers-by-the-Impala scene, Dean asks Sam if he has his back. When Sam says "of course", Dean knows he's lying.

The preview for next week seems to indicate we're finally going to get some answers about what the hell is going on with Sam. Maybe we'll find out if any of our theories are right, or if it's something none of us have thought of. Can't wait! I wants me some answers.