What I Loved About "Out with the Old" (and the little bit I didn't)

I've had a long, tiring day and my laptop battery only gives me about half an hour now, so instead of a long, detail-by-detail recap of this week's episode, I'm going to give you my thoughts as I watch it a second time. Spoiler alert: I was completely delighted.

During the opening sequence with the ballerina literally dancing her feet off, I wondered if the shoes were cursed or if the janitor was responsible (yes, despite the curse boxes in the "THEN" section). Nice parallelism with the mop, though.

Delight number one: Sam and Dean talking openly. Sam's not trying to hide his Lucifer hallucinations from his brother!!! Dean's not trying to father Sam about it!!! This is (one of) what we've been craving for six years!

Oh, backing up a little, I love Frank and Dean's banter. Frank is hilarious. We're getting a nice, quick overview of just how big Dick's reach is, even if nothing makes much sense.

Opposite of delight number one: Isn't this girl a little old to be completely unaware of the absolute creepiness of shoes showing up where they're not supposed to be and then adjusting themselves to her size? Okay, they cast her well--she has the build and moves of a dancer. BUT IT'S CREEPY.

My husband would not watch this episode if they didn't save the girl. I kept expecting someone to walk in and think they were attacking her. Phew that they just saved her, after poor Dean getting kicked in the face a few times. I thought the actress probably had a lot of fun with that scene, but I might have been projecting.

OMG, when they wanted to put the shoes on! "Do they...look like they're your...size?" "Shut up." "Are you..." "Getting the urge to French Siegfried myself into oblivion?"

I thought Joyce and George were awesome. A little cliche with the door thing, but as awful as the Leviathans are, they're FUN.

Oh, oops, we're not supposed to know they're Leviathans yet.

Hey, Scott Freeman is my husband's cousin! Sam and Dean are seeming a bit impatient with the whole flashing-the-FBI-badge routine. Like they think they shouldn't have to bother, that everyone should just see them as feds and do their bidding.

OMG, the scene with the knives was a total throwback to the scary first season. I expected, of course, knives chopping up fingers. Instead, I channeled Tanya and hid my face while the woman boiled herself to death with the cool ornate teapot.

I kept feeling like Scott's mom had to be more important. She had this safe full of curse boxes full of cursed objects. But she's the Macguffin? I don't actually understand what that is, so maybe not.

Sam. Dude. Get a haircut. Please.

They don't even show a hint of dismay at the dead body. I mean, why would they, after seven years? But usually there's some emotion at not getting there in time to save a life. When Sam called it in, I was a little eye-rolly that he wasn't prepared with a response when they asked his name. How many times have you done this, Sam? But I guess I should give him a pass for not having slept in, oh, six weeks. And "Bruce Hornsby" was funny.

So who's next on the list? A gramophone sold to Brenda Gluck and a vintage gentleman's magazine sold to Peter Yanket. Okay, immature and ridiculous, but also very funny.

Uh, oh, another kid thing. He's totally gonna kill his mom. Yet another threat to my husband watching this with me tomorrow. They brought it right down to the wire. Good thing Sam didn't knock! "Kid. This would be a really good time for a lesson in gratitude. Lucky for you, I'm too tired." Interesting that these two aren't more upset about Sam coming in here. Why do they seem to understand exactly what happened and aren't all freaked out?

Wow, I can't believe we're only 20 minutes into the episode. It took Sam WAY too long to get across town. I expected something to have happened to him with the gramophone. In the meantime, Dean's getting clues and is actually pretty into this, more than just "avenge Bobby" and stuff. I guess he listened to Elliot Ness.

I was a little shocked when Joyce turned into the hardware guy. I thought she was killing him with the handshake but then she went all Leviathan. I wasn't sure if George just worked for Mr. Roman and was human or if Leviathans actually have weaklings. I guess they actually have weaklings. Though George had a lot more to him in the long run.

This episode was no "Mystery Spot," but I liked the way all the threads drew together. HATED Sam falling asleep at the wheel (inevitable) and almost doing a head-on with an eighteen wheeler. (Deliberate connection to the end of season 1, or laziness? Given the song they play at the end of the episode, I'm going with deliberate connection. What it means, if anything, I don't know.)

Sam's progression of extreme fatigue brought him logically to the late-night barrista, as did George being sent there by his dictator of a boss ("How about you eat me?" "Don't tempt me." I guess he is a Leviathan!) I loved how George recognized Sam by his voice and seemed simultaneously excited and scared.

"I don't mean to double-dip in your crazy sauce." Ha! I have to remember that one!

"We have a chain of command here, George. You see a Winchester, you don't eat him! You tell me, and *I* eat him!" She's so over-the-top and yet so natural at it.

Frank's sarcasm is awesomeness. That Dean, the King of Sarcasm, never seems to get it is funny.

So Leviathans are Walmarting mom and pop stores in Portland and Lucifer is on a constant "Stairway to Heaven" loop, 50 times and counting. Poor Sam!

I watch Nikita before Supernatural, and Nikita and Michael and Birkhoff and (to a lesser extent) Alex and Sean are almost always one step ahead of their enemies. So it bothered me that Sam and Dean rushed in to save Scott with no preparation and no suspicions, even though they just figured out that Leviathans are operating here and most likely killed Scott's mother.

George doesn't seem thrilled about the idea of being Scott for 30 years. But I was nicely surprised when Joyce was kicking Dean's ass and George seemed about to do the same to Sam but had somehow prepared a bucket of borax and sacrificed himself to it so Sam had time to get the sword and cut off Joyce's head.

"Thank you, I guess." I think everyone Sam and Dean have helped in the last few years could have said it the exact same way. Bye, Scott. Good luck.

Despite the vast history of alliances-with-the-enemy falling apart, I still like the idea of having a Leviathan on their side. Luckily, Sam and Dean aren't so ready to take George at face value. But it's weird, after all the evil stuff we've seen them do, he's so corporate, even talking about the size of the plan.

"Listen to me, you gooey son of a bitch. You're gonna tell us what you're building here, or I'm gonna wash your mouth out with soap." Hee.

Okay, raise your hand if you saw this coming: "It's going to be a research center. This, gentlemen, is where we are going to cure cancer. We're only here to help." What a smug look on his face!

So, wait. That's where they leave it? Sam and Dean believe George? And there's no punchline about not being able to eat you if you're diseased?

And here we are, the very ominous return of "Bad Moon Rising" that transitions them from Oregon to wherever Frank's trailer is, I don't remember. Noooo! Don't kill Frank! He's so awesome! Not Bobby awesome, but awesome.

Well, crap. It looks like they killed Frank.

Guess who's back next week! And he's not the only one!

So what did you think of this episode? My appreciation average tends to be way above that of my fellow Supernatural Sisters here, but am I alone in liking this one a lot? Please share your thoughts!