BuddyTV Holiday Trivia Challenge

A lot of the readers to this blog (you're out there, even if you don't comment! :) ) come to us from BuddyTV, where we're listed as a Premiere Blogger. They understand the sickening dread falling upon us as the first unrelenting hellatus approaches.

So they're running a Holiday Trivia Challenge! Prizes for the Supernatural portion include a script signed by Jared, the anime series signed by Misha, and complete DVD sets, among other things. Other shows are included in the challenge, as well, and participants get entered into the overall prize drawings for Kindle Fire, gift cards, and more.

I'm heading over now to test my knowledge! Come join me!

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE MONSTERS

The episode starts with something running through Wharton State Forest in New Jersey. A couple of glampers are “roughing it” in a tent with their cherry wood, four poster bed and widescreen TV. (Do people really do this kind of glamorous camping? I’m appalled! I thought we were living it up when we bought blow-up mattresses to sleep on in our tent and our entertainment involves playing Skip-bo by lantern light while we eat Smores cooked over the fire.) Before you know it, a snoozing Mr. Glamper is hung upside down in a tree, wrapped tight like a burrito in his sleeping bag, while a mystery monster munches on him.

The Winchesters and Bobby find themselves another hell hole to hide in. The lack of amenities and being forced to stay so far off the grid they don’t even have the luxury of hot food or showers is really getting to Dean. After stopping the world’s end, twice, he wonders if they shouldn’t just let it finally bite the dust.

“Stop wrestling with the big picture, son, you’re going to hurt your head. “ – Bobby to Dean

The Jersey Devil is making headlines in the area due to a rash of strange deaths. It is Jersey, after all. Anything inexplicable has often been attributed to the urban creature which is described as human-like with bat wings and sometimes a tail or horse head.

“I took a look at the cadaver, what’s left of it, not a happy camper.” – Bobby

The boys interview Ranger Rick at Biggersons, a local restaurant. The warden seems stoned and completely unconcerned that his assistant might be missing. After being no help whatsoever, Rick leaves and Bobby joins the boys for dinner. A testy waiter named Brandon delivers food to “Big Bird, Ken Doll and Creepy Uncle” before mouthing off to his boss and storming out. An unperturbed Dean gleefully inhales a Pepperjack Turdunken Slammer.

“You don’t shoot Bambi, jackass. You shoot Bambi’s mother.” – Bobby

The trio of hunters head out into the woods where the brothers are impressed with Bobby’s survivalist skills. They find what remains of Rick’s assistant and call the ranger in. The dude’s unfazed that his partner’s dead. Just as Rick’s radioing in the crime, Bobby hears a noise. Quicker than you could scream “watch out!” an unseen force yanks Rick off his feet and hauls him up into the trees. All three guys train their rifles upward, but the night lamps don’t show a thing. Bobby instructs them to go dark. He closes his eyes, carefully listens, then takes a blind shot and—blam!—knocks it out of the tree. It appears to be a man with glaucoma fogged eyes and a cannibal’s appetite, not a Jersey Devil. (I'm intrigued, but kinda bummed.) The boys haul the corpse back to their cabin where he suddenly springs up in a rage. They riddle him with bullets and he finally dies. A crude, not to mention grody, autopsy by Bobby and Sam reveals a lot of gelatinous goo, a mongo adrenal gland (which explains his brute strength), bit and pieces of Rick, a pine cone and a—hork!—cat’s head. (Poor kitty.) While the two surgeons look green around the gills, Dean seems strangely uninterested and even more ravenous than usual. Not good, methinks.

“I think you pissed off my sandwhich.” – Dean

They go back to Biggersons because Dean is craving another Slammer. As he moans in ecstasy over his sandwich, Bobby and Sam start to look around the diner and notice the other patrons are equally enamored with their turducken. Much to Dean’s horror, they take away his meal. At home it erupts into purple snot. Yack! It’s the same goo that was in the dead body.

“If I wasn’t so chilled out right now, I’d puke.” – Dean

The guys stalk a Biggersons’ meat delivery truck. Dean’s passed out in a tryptophan coma in the back seat so Sam asks Bobby if he’s concerned about him. Bobby says the boys spend so much time worrying about each other that neither one of them is living.

Meanwhile, Biggersons bitchy Brandon (say that ten times fast) attacks a girl, but someone stops him before he’s able to chow down. Turns out it’s Edgar the Leviathan. What better way to create widespread chaos then through food?

“The world’s a suicide case, we save it, it just steals more pills.” – Bobby

Sleep and coffee have cleared Dean’s head. (But he’s so cute and goofy when he’s stoned) While Sam scouts the area, Bobby takes Dean to task for his shitty attitude. He says Dean’s talking like a hunter who’s about to die. Dean says he’s talking like someone who’s had it and can’t figure out why he once thought any of this mattered. Point blank, Bobby says he needs to find a reason to get his head back in the game because if Dean dies first Bobby will kill him. (Awww.)

THE RISE OF DICK (best TV news subtitle ev-er)

Dick shows up at the warehouse and everyone’s atwitter waiting for his arrival. The boys do some research and find he’s one of the Top 35 businessmen in America. A corporate shark billionaire Leviathan. Awesome.

He asks our trusty doc Leviathan about the failed subjects in their experiment. You know, the one’s with hyper-adrenalized cannibalism. Dick is pissed that these failed test subjects have made the news. His number 1, golden rule, is that “there are no monsters.” To punish doctor demented, and to set an example for his other employees, Dick “bibs” him, which means he’s got to open that razor-sharp maw and consume himself, leaving all the black goo on a bib. Niiice!

More spying gets Bobby nabbed. He figures his chance of being rescued is slim since Sam and Dean don’t have back-up and don’t know how to kill these big bads. Fortunately for Mr. Singer, a cleaning truck pulls up to the warehouse. The Winchesters hijack their cleaning supplies and bust through the front door spraying Leviathans as they go. The toothy monsters burn up, which at least slows them down. Dick goes to see what the commotion is. Bobby reads the files on his desk and blanches at something he see there, then he nabs a second gun Dick left behind. He shoots Dick’s assistant and heads into the fray. Between soap and shots the brothers manage to escape with Bobby slowly pulling up the rear. Why’s he hesitating? Bobby never hesitates.

Finally he runs out the door and heads for the side van door. Dick chases after him and shoots. Shit, shit, shit. Is Bobby hit? The boys are talking to him as they speed off, but he’s not answering. Sam starts to pass him back his ball cap, but notices a bullet hole in it. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The preview for Death's Door, the winter finale next week, shows Bobby in the hospital and things do NOT look good.

Okay, this has been my worst fear. If Sera kills Bobby I may have to hunt her down. I love that old coot and he better make it through this. It’s bad enough we lost Cass, but I understand it with us going back to the type of Season 1 stories we’ve been doing. But DO NOT kill Bobby. He has to continue being their surrogate father and he has to get together with Sheriff Jodi. Period. Other than my general freakedoutness over the ending of this episode I enjoyed it. Bobby had some of the best lines and stoned Dean was a hoot. What did you think and do you think Bobby will pull through or is this just one more thing the writers are going to take away from the boys to make them ill at ease and defenseless against the Leviathans?

GISHWHES

I can't believe we haven't talked about GISHWHES here!

Misha Collins is running the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, for the Guinness World Record. Have you signed up? I have!

http://greatestinternationalscavengerhunttheworldhaseverseen.com/

REGISTRATION CLOSES TOMORROW at 11:58 PM Moscow Time. (That's 2:58 in the afternoon in New York). So hurry! They'll be assigning teams because they all have to be fairly even, but you can name the people you want to be your teammates. Feel free to post your name in the comments if you want people to join your team. Also feel free to include my name if you don't know anyone else. :)

Natalie J. Damschroder

Good luck!

SPNews

On the Box's Chris Philpott posted half of his interview with Mark Sheppard where the wily demon talks about pursuing the role of Crowley because of Kim Manner. Definitely worth a read, no spoilers. I'll link the 2nd half when it's posted.

And then I'm posting this because I happened upon it and it made me giggle, so I thought I'd give you a smile today. Jared is such a crack-up when he goofs on his sexy charm.

"Season 7, Time for a Wedding!"

I love when the writers get all cheeky and poke fun at industry conventions! I wonder what else they'll decide is supposed to be included in season 7.

We start with "Then" and with so much focus on Becky, I'm guessing she's the one who will marry Sam. Yeah, despite my attempts to remain unspoiled, I knew Sam was the one getting married. :(

We're in Las Vegas, with Dean talking up a hot waitress. He's actually pretty relaxed and into the flirtation, which is nice to see. But this opening talk confuses the heck out of me. Since when do they have a sacred annual pilgrimage to Vegas? It took me a long time to get into the flow of the story after that.

Dean's main problem, coaxed out of him by the waitress (stripper?), is actually pretty great. His brother is batshit nuts, but the shit's not hitting the fan. He's all reasonable and stuff, though he's worried about Sam being out camping by himself. She says "we all need to face ourselves sometime," not referring to Sam, and when we get to the end of the episode, that idea is revisited. Nice circle there. But I'll come back to that.

So Sam texts Dean to come down the street, and wear his Fed suit. Hey, I recognize this church! It was the one where Sam defeated Samhain in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester." Pretty sure it was also the entry to the tombs in "Houses of the Holy," too. You know you're obsessed when you recognize repurposed locations. :)

So Dean comes in packing, but Sam assures him he doesn't need the pistol. Dean asks what their pretext is (I love when they use the lingo, though I'm not sure we've heard this one since "Tall Tales"). What are they hunting, a siren?

No. Sam's in love, and he's getting married.

Enter the creepy bride, with the thickest veil this side of the Boar's Head (<---Harry Potter reference). Dean's reaction, to both Sam's announcement and to his bride, is priceless. I LOVE when Jensen gets to do comedy! Beautiful black-and-white wedding cake that explodes into the title shot. That was AWESOME. Dean's still trying to figure this out. Sam's explanation? "We met, we ate..." Ah-HA. She had to do something to him, right? A spell or potion, maybe? But despite Sam being a bit mild and oddly unquestioning, he seems fine. Very natural with Becky, who of course is thrilled beyond belief. She doesn't care about the average life span of his hookups—eyes wide open—and is even paying for the wedding. "Really?! SuperFan99?!"

Sam and Becky leave for her home in Delaware. Dean calls Bobby but has to leave a message, as Bobby's got his hands full with a nest in Oregon. I love that Bobby's presence is so strong, even when he's not on screen.

Sam and Becky pull into a restaurant parking lot. Sam says they just ate, and for a moment I think Becky must be a monster of some sort who needs lots of calories, but no, it all becomes clear when she walks in to the site of her high school reunion, with the requisite mean girl handling the planning. Becky shows off Sam, then introduces him to her friend Guy, who has an interesting reaction to Sam. I assumed on first watch that he was part of Becky's plan, and he is, but his surprise is not just that it worked, as we later find out.

"Guy's a really good friend. We met in the erotic horror section at the Novel Hovel..."

Guy's an event planner, and reunion season is very busy for him, but Becky runs after him to get some silver-clad glass bottle and makes reference to him being Wiccan. Dean drives up as they drive away. He doesn't follow, but goes inside and pulls out Dad's journal, presumably to do research (though I'd think he has that thing memorized by now) or take notes (maybe it's his own journal now). He's immediately distracted by a newspaper story about some guy's good fortune and immediate tragedy.

Sam's sitting at a lovely dinner (rotisserie chicken from the grocery store) and Becky comes out in sexy lingerie. Anyone else reminded of "Wishful Thinking" at this point? Or, like, for the full 11 minutes up to this point? But Sam gets vision-like headaches and comes painfully to reality, with no clue how he got there, and I can't help wondering why I thought he seemed so normal. Now he's really Sam, for a few crucial seconds. Becky gives him the potion, and he's back to being in "love" with her. Poor Sam.

Cut to a guy hitting balls on a baseball field, and another guy using mojo of some sort (his hand movements remind me of Castiel, but I'm thinking more like demon or witch). Baseball to the face, requisite blood splatter, ewwwww.

Dean, being supportive, brings Sam a waffle iron. Sam's a little standoffish but displays no animosity. He's just...I don't know, kind of empty? Dean brings up the job in town. Baseball guy just got called up to the majors. Becky says their first thought was crossroads demon, but there's the 10-year time frame. Dean's totally flummoxed that Sam and Becky are working the case together. He's pissed at Becky, but even when Sam says "that's my wife you're talking about," there's no heat. He's talking the talk, but there's no real emotion behind it.

Dean says people who get their dreams come true bite it pretty quick. Sam says maybe what's bothering Dean is that Sam doesn't need him anymore. Ouch. Dean leaves, and tells Bobby he doesn't want another hunter, but since Bobby's all the way across the country (sorry, Dean, he's not close to his magic South Dakota wormhole), he's going to hook Dean up with someone local.

Sam catches Becky writing in her journal (swirly "Sam loves Becky" crap) and sniffing the presumably scented ink. When he licks his thumb and rubs the ink off her nose, there is nothing romantic about it. Except to her. He's found another dream-achiever...and Becky's journal. But despite her hilarious panic, he thinks it's beautiful and hugs the book. He's so adorable!

Dean goes back to the restaurant to meet the hunter, but the burly guy he approaches first isn't who he's looking for. It's the scrawny guy in the corner (DJ Qualls!), who says, "I thought you'd be taller." Bobby told him Dean would be all surly and premenstrual working with him, but he's cool with it. So do you think he'll go the way of Tamara, a hunter never seen again, or Rufus, recurring until he dies?

Dean (in a sweater vest?!) and his new partner cross paths with Sam and Becky at the CEO's office. Dean plays hard-hitting journalist very well, while Garth cuts right to the chase and hits the guy with "nefarious means" questions about black magic and hoodoo. Between the two of them, they get that the guy didn't want the job. But his bitchy wife obviously did want it. Dean tries to get the story from her, but she blows them off.

"Why do people keep thinking I'm threatening them?"
"Because it sounded exactly like a threat, dude."

Sam's trying to work the case while Becky tweets about going on a romantic getaway. The elixir wears off again, but it leaked in Becky's purse, and she can't stop Sam from reverting.

Dean saves the CEO's wife, whose story makes it sound like a demon deal. But the timeline is whack. Garth shows his hunter chops and lays out the plan. They'll stow the wife with his cousin, a tri-racial paraplegic sniper, while they go after the demon.

Becky makes a desperation call to Guy, Sam is in pain and asks Becky what's going on, and when he says he's calling Dean, she knocks him out with a waffle iron.

Sam wakes up tied to a bed in a nice cabin.

Tied. To a bed.

...

...

Okay, I'm back. Sam's fully himself, and what a friggin' relief! Becky tests him for concussion symptoms, says he's pantsless because they're very constricting, but don't worry, she didn't do anything weird. Guy calls her back on her computer, and she wants the elixir. She says the stuff is wearing off faster and faster and whines that they haven't even consummated their marriage. Guy says to meet him in an hour, and Sam heard everything. He's pissed, while Becky is full of justification. Sam knows right away that Guy is the one killing everyone, and says Becky is on his list. Crazy woman. She refuses to untie him, stuffs a rag in his mouth, and calls "love you too!" as she runs off for more love potion.

I know she's pathetic and doing something awful here, but I really like Becky!

But it turns out Sam was right. Guy wants payment now, and reveals his red eyes. Reunions give him tons of clients, and he admits (kind of) that he's responsible for the deaths. He says he wasn't thrilled to see her new hubby was Sam Freakin' Winchester, but he'll give her a special deal. Twenty-five years—unprecedented—with Sam for her soul and her promise not to tell the Winchesters any of it.

The timeline gets a little murky for me from this point. She wants a drink, but Guy hands over the potion, then she goes back to the house and talks to Sam, then she's drinking at the end of the reunion. I think the editing could have been tidied up a little.

Dean and Garth go to Becky's apartment and find enough clues to send them to the lake house (Loon Lake, nice pun :) ). Becky is there lamenting that her plan to show off Sam—he's tall and nice, and they'd think she was happy—isn't going according to plan. She does a short rundown of her life and fondles the bottle of elixir. Sam tells her she's better than this, she says she's not so sure, and now we're back at the restaurant after the reunion. She tells Guy she's in.

Wow. I can't believe we still have 20 minutes to go. This episode was actually shorter than normal, but seemed to go on for a long time.

Becky gets close enough to the demon to seal the deal, but instead drops a lighter on a devil's trap made from blueberry vodka. Sam, Dean, and Garth show up, so apparently they made it to the lake house. Guy asks for Dean's autograph, Dean pulls out the demon-killing knife. Guy claims to be an innovator instead of a cheater, using an "intern" to arrange accidents and collect early on the souls. Intern flings all three hunters across the room. He's pretty powerful. Fights ensue, Garth gets knocked out, Sam and Dean are getting throttled, season 1 style. Becky saves Sam with a knife through the intern's torso (that knife isn't that long!) and Sam tosses it to Dean, who turns it on Guy.

Guy says "oh crap" and Dean thinks it's because of him, but then Crowley appears. Oh, crap. But Crowley isn't too happy with Guy's stupidity. The "intern" ratted him out. Crowley's pissed at the damage to their credibility.

"There's a reason we don't call our chits in early. Consumer confidence. This isn't Wall Street, this is Hell! We have a little something called integrity."

Crowley makes a deal to cancel all Guy's deals (15 of them) and take Guy from Dean. Sam's suspicious, and Crowley points out that demons have left Sam and Dean alone while they're dealing with the Leviathans.

"You met that dick, yeah? Smuggest tub of goo since Mussolini. I hate the bastards. Squash them all. Please. I'll stay clear."

His "done. and done." when he cancels the deals reminds me of Ash. *sniff*

Man, I love Crowley.

Sam, with absolutely no sympathy for Becky, gets an annulment and says she'll probably never see him again. But he does take pity and tells her she's not a loser, to just do her thing, whatever that is, and the right guy will find her. Then Garth gets all crushy on her, but Dean squashes that pretty quick.

We have the goodbye scene, when Dean tells Garth he doesn't suck. "Thank you, man. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." I like Garth. I hope we see him again.

Sam says he does need Dean watching his back, but Dean admits Sam's a grown up and doesn't need him any more.

"It's still a Denver scramble up here, I just know my way around the plate now."

Sam says it's about time Dean gets to just look out for himself, but Dean doesn't look too thrilled about that. This is where we're supposed to reflect back on the waitress (stripper?) saying he needed to face himself. Come on, Dean, you can do it. You're a helluva guy, you know.

Final verdict: This wasn't my favorite episode, but I really liked the tone and the characters, and I have a feeling this will be one of my favorites to rewatch. It's always nice to have a light episode among all the heavy, dark ones.

What did you think?

Missing Misha?

If you've been missing seeing Misha Collins on your screen, consider watching some upcoming episodes of Ringer (the Sarah Michelle Gellar twisty noir drama on CW). According to TVguide.com, Misha will play someone from her past! It'll be strange to see him in something other than the trench coat :-)

SPN inspired book

Yay! I got the cover for my May YA release, HOLLYWEIRD. This book came about one day while I daydreamed about doing a set visit to SUPERNATURAL. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has fantasized about that or, for those of us who haven't been lucky enough to actually meet and take photos with the cast, meeting Jared and Jensen. I had so much fun writing this romantic paranormal and there are plenty of nods to SPN that fans will catch. You might also recognize a few Supernatural Sisters names in the book. ;)

As grand prize winner of EnterTEENment Magazine’s “Win a Date with Dakota” contest, Aly King, her best friend Desi, and Aly’s prima donna sister Missy are flown to Hollywood to meet teen heartthrob, Dakota Danvers (inspired by Sam).

Their dream-come-true vacation takes a turn for the weird when Aly discovers that Dakota is actually the son of Satan, sent to earth to prey on the souls of the vain and needy. When Dakota sets his sights on Missy, who will do anything to become a star, Aly joins forces with Jameson Dagon, a (hottie) fallen angel (inspired by Dean) sent to spy on Dakota as his personal assistant, to stop the errant demon.

HOLLYWEIRD is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The Mentalists Recap

So the question of the week is whether the boys will kiss and make up in this episode enough to work together. The previews make it seem impossible.

(I admit, I was halfway through the episode before I got the title, "The Mentalists." Duh.)

Now cuts to a medium holding a séance. Hey, I have a necklace like the medium’s! The woman in couple is eager to ask questions of the spirits, but the man is skeptical. He wants to know about paperwork, and when he puts his hands on the planchette, lights start flickering, the fire flares and the planchette moves on its own, lifting to jam into the throat of the medium.

Cut to Dean, stealing a POS with primer. (Wahhh! My Impala!) When he hotwires it, he hears about mediums dying in Lily Dale, the most psychic town in America. So Dean heads to the crime scene. You ever wonder if he thinks, “Screw it, not this time?”

At the crime scene, he finds the table rigged with tricks of a medium’s trade, switches to activate billowing curtains and such. (Okay, it amuses me up that this episode is written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker. Just caught my eye.) Dean walks into a local restaurant and is puzzled by the greeting, deciding to eat elsewhere, when he hears Sam. Dean is trying to act normal, but Sam’s expression is absolutely stony. Dean places his order, gets his free affirmation, which amuses Sam. Dean takes that opening to ask if they just shouldn’t work together. Before Sam agrees, a woman stops by their table and stares, then pulls out her phone. Sam assures her they’re not the evil Winchesters from last week’s episode. She puts her phone away, declaring that she can see by their auras that they’re truly gentle. Riiiighhhht. She’s joined by a Russian named Nicholas who claims to be intuitive, if they need help. He picks up Sam’s spoon, “focuses energy on it,” and sets it down, seemingly unchanged. The two walk away and Sam shows Dean what he has on the murders of the mediums—the first was brained with her own crystal ball. Sam goes to stir sugar into his coffee, and his spoon bends backwards.

“He broke my spoon!”

The next scene shows the brothers approaching a green house (I notice because I recently had my house painted green). It belongs to the psychic whose murder opened the show. Her granddaughter is there, who also works as a psychic, but declares her way as less “woo-woo” and more body language. She reads the boys well enough. The boys are looking for the necklace like mine, but it went to the Emporium. The grandmother had an arrangement with the owner.

The owner Jimmy looks like he’s wearing a ratty bathrobe, or an old Jedi costume. He offers to read Sam, and also nails the body language. Jimmy calls it the Orb of Thesa-something, and very powerful and rare. Also expensive. Dean declares that they’ll take the “states’ evidence discount.” Jimmy wants Sam to come for a reading and hands him a card that says, “No Future Too Grim.”

Sam notices that the necklace was made in Taiwan (I bet mine is, too!) A fake. Big shock.

Cut to Russian Nicholas spreading silverware on the coffee table. He bends a fork and it bends back, then all the utensils stand upright and Nicholas is lifted and---this won’t be pretty!

The local cop tells the boys he has leads coming out of his ass—40-something tips on the tip line, all from clairvoyants. They think it’s either a ghost or an ogre that only kills Russians. Dean declares that policing Lily Dale must be fun. The cop says it was here or LA. Then he tells them the clairvoyants told him Nicholas had a vision of his own death. The granddaughter, Natalie calls Dean and asks if he meant it when he said he had an open mind. The brothers go to her house, where Natalie is clearly upset and clutching a cordless phone. Apparently her grandmother had a vision of her own death. Her grandmother said it got cold—Dean stops her and says it must be a ghost. They confess they aren’t FBI agents. Not sure why they told her.

They walk out of the house speculating how a ghost could be bouncing all over the place. Sam asks how many crystal balls might be in Lily Dale. Dean says, “Somewhere between 50 and all of them.” Sam speculates quartz can act as a conduit for spirits, and Dean says, “So every storefront in town has a ghost satellite dish.” Sam points out that people are summoning spirits all over the place, but Dean replies most can’t even call a taxi. Sam says, “All it takes is one.”

So starts the needle in the haystack.

I miss Bobby.

Sam wants to split up and canvass. So they do.

Cut to a woman casting bones, giving a woman a reading about her brother going to prison. The psychic, Sister Thibodeaux, locks up her money, and her eyes go white. She has a vision that something’s coming for her, and she calls Natalie, who brings Dean. Dean notices a camera in one of her masks, and pulls the footage. They see a woman in black move behind Sister T as she has her vision. Natalie remembers having seen her photo in the museum.

Sam and Dean go to check it out. The curator sees the brothers looking at a picture of two brother psychics. He mentions it never worked out well for the siblings, the pressure of working together degraded their relationships. The brothers let that sink in before asking about the two women psychics, the Fox sisters, among the founders of Lily Dale. Kate Fox was able to levitate objects and foretell death. Her sister didn’t have the gift, but looked after Kate. “Sometimes one’s true gift is taking care of others.” The women are buried in the cemetery. Before Dean can leave, the curator grabs Dean’s arm and asks if he knows an Eleanor or an Ellen. The message she has for Dean is to tell someone how bad it is, that he has to trust someone again eventually.

Sam is all business, but Dean is fed up. Dean thinks he’s right, Sam thinks he is. “If something feels wrong, it probably is.” Dean reminds Sam about waving the gun at Satan and not being sure Sam’s off the high-dive. That was why he didn’t tell Sam right away. Dean says, “You can be pissed all you want but quit being a bitch.”

They’re digging up Kate. We’re half an hour in and there has to be more. Sam wonders why she’s warning the psychics before she kills them. Kate appears, all yellow-teethed and gross and demands to know why no one is listening. Sam ignites the bones before she can explain.

Dean calls Natalie and she assures Sister T that she’s safe. Natalie is with Sister T and they see the ghost of Kate’s sister. Natalie calls Dean. Sam takes the phone and tells her to get salt. They run out. Sam tells her to find iron, but Natalie is knocked away and Sister T is toast.

Hey, if this was a NaNoWriMo exercise, I’d almost be at my word count goal.

Natalie tells the brothers that the ghost ignored her, and enjoyed killing. The brothers go back to the cemetery and find an empty grave. Is someone hauling the bones around, a “ghost on a leash?”

Dean pulls an ad for the psychic fair out of the trunk, and he realized all the headliners for the fair are dead. Dean asks Natalie who would be next to replace them, and Natalie said probably herself. Sam goes back to Jimmy and asks for a name of someone who’d bought supplies. Jimmy gives it, while Dean makes a protective salt circle for Natalie. She asks if burning the bones hurts the ghosts, but of course he’s never thought about it.

Sam pulls up in front of a house and bursts in on the woman who’d thought he was evil-serial-killer-Sam. She’s running a Lamaze class, and is completely freaked. Sam realizes Jimmy’s the bad guy and calls Dean to let him know. Dean tells him to hurry up to find the bones, because Ghost Fox is at the window (and creepy as hell!)

I love this monster of the week story—I love vengeful spirit stories.

Sam breaks into Jimmy’s store, sees a lit candle next to a skull, and hears the click of a weapon. Jimmy, the sneaky bastard. Sam disarms Jimmy and tosses the altar, but Jimmy claims Margaret wants to help him. Jimmy and Margaret are the real thing, but they aren’t pretty enough to make a living. While Sam tries to find out the location of the bones, Dean fights off Margaret with salt rounds and iron. Sam has to shoot Jimmy dead before he can get past him to burn the bones, hidden in Jimmy’s bed, just in time to save Natalie.

Dean can’t believe the bones were in the bed. “I can’t believe he was boning her.” Sam is disgusted. Natalie shows up at the restaurant to thank Dean and Sam makes himself scarce. She notes he and Sam seem better. Dean seems encouraged. Natalie says she wishes they’d met on a better week. Dean says, “I wish I had better weeks.” She looks at his palm when he says something about no one knowing the future, and says, “The answer’s hazy. Try again later.”

When Dean walks out, Sam’s putting his gear in the back of Dean’s POS. He says he figures they can take one car. Dean says, “You don’t want to break my face?” Sam says, “Not at the moment.” Sam says he gets why Dean did it, but wants Dean to be honest. Dean’s drinking too much and not sleeping, but he says it isn’t guilt about Amy, but about not telling Sam, and having trouble trusting since Cass.

Dean said they’re poster kids of functional family life compared to the psychic sister act, and Sam said, “That’s a low bar.” “Grading on the curve has gotten me through everything since kindergarten,” Dean said.

Once in the car, Sam said, “I want to know how that guy bent my spoon.”

“Forget it, Sam. It’s Lily Dale.” I’m thinking that line has to be from something, but not sure what.

Overall I liked the episode, in my top five for the season, I think. I would have liked a touch more romance, of course. I’m glad the estrangement was short-lived. The boys are maturing. And next week looks intriguing!

How did you like it?

(Wow, totally would've met my word count goal for NaNoWriMo, with words to spare!)