Supernatural Sisters

Author Interviews Emily Perkins, Supernatural's Becky

2012-01-27T16:16:00.000-06:00

Angela Campbell, a fellow author who is as die-hard a fan of Supernatural as we are, had the opportunity to interview the actress who plays superfan Becky Rosen on the show. Find out how much input she had into her character and where she sees Becky ending up by clicking here.

News and Hiatus

2012-01-16T15:48:00.000-06:00

The TCA was held recently, and there's an interview with Jared Padalecki that's FULL OF SPOILERS, so beware!

There's also an interview with Robert Singer at Digital Spy.

I admit, after last week's awesome episode, I gobbled up details about what's upcoming, and I'm excited. :)

Not so excited, though, about another hiatus. According to a sneak peek note on Dread Central, we're back to reruns until February 3rd. WTH?

(In a related note, the local CBS and CW stations went black in Verizon here in Central PA from late Thursday through Sunday, because Verizon and the station group owner couldn't agree to a new contract. There was much wailing and anger! Luckily for me, I'm on DirecTV. :) )

Time After Time After Time

2012-01-14T00:09:00.000-06:00

Time After Time After Time already has a Cyndi Lauper song playing in my head. I miss the music from the old days. In fact, I heard Bad Company on the way to dinner and thought of Meg. Remember Meg? I liked her.

ANYWAY, tonight the boys are stalking something that looks like a priest from The Exorcist movie. They split up to follow him, and Dean comes upon the monster sucking the life force out of what looks like a homeless man. As Dean rushes forward, the creature dissolves into a ball of red light, taking Dean with it as Sam arrives, shouting his brother’s name.

TWO DAYS EARLIER

Dean is looking up Dick Roman info on the laptop when Sam’s phone rings. It’s Sheriff Jodi Mills, and she has a case for him, a mummified body in Canton Ohio. (OMG—credits, RAT BOY is going to be in this one!) Apparently the sheriff knows about Bobby because she’s choked up when she speaks his name, talking about all she went through with him and the Winchesters. Sam (who needs a hair cut, he’s about to be a dad , already!) tells Dean she caught a case for them. Dean replies with, “Aw, I feel bad. We didn’t get her anything.” Sam then chides Dean for reading Dick Roman stuff over and over, that he’s just punishing himself.

In the next scene, they pull up in what looks like a new car in front of a dilapidated house (from Ghost Facers?) The brothers do rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets the bedroom. Apparently Dean has moved on from scissors because he chose rock and Sam chose paper. “How does paper beat a rock?”

They show up at some guy’s house. Apparently he witnessed the victim being sucked dry. They go back to the house where they’re squatting, and can’t find anything about turning bodies into cryptkeepers, but Greater Canton is a magnet for weird bodies. Random years, but always in threes. Two bodies have already been found. Dean taps into local surveillance cameras, a trick he learned from Frank, impressing Sam. But they found pictures of the same man on local surveillance and in an old newspaper story about one of the strange bodies. They locate the girl who found the body in 1957 and ask if she recognizes the man. She does, and the boys go stake out the house.

And we’re back to the first scene, where Dean attacks and disappears into a ball of energy. He’s grappling with the creature—and finds himself in on a street in…the 1940s? The police see him and demand he drops the gun. He is arrested and learns he’s 68 years in the past. He takes a minute to do the math. “I’m stuck in 1944?”

The cop leaves him and another man in plainclothes comes in. Rat Boy!!! Wow, X-Files was a while back, huh? Dean figures he’s screwed anyway, so tells the truth, and is surprised when Rat Boy (OMG, Elliot Ness!) believes him. He accuses the man of being a hunter, but Ness rolls his shoulders and denies it, then introduces himself. Dean is suitably impressed.

Meanwhile, back in 2011, Sam is on the phone with the sheriff. BTW, those shirts he wears? Hella expensive, because I keep trying to buy them for my husband but don’t trust him in $70 shirts. Okay, now the sheriff wants to help find Dean since she got them into this mess.

Back in the ‘40s, Dean is going fanboy on Elliott Ness. Ness says they’re hunting the same thing in different centuries. Dean gets all excited to be an “untouchable” but Ness doesn’t know what he’s talking about. They go shopping to get Dean new clothes. Ness tells the seamstress Dean is from the future. Dean says, “Gas is $4 a gallon, you can get cheese from a spray can, and the president is a black guy.”

In 2011, the sheriff is bringing Sam paperwork from Bobby’s locker. She’s pretty sure something is alive in three of the boxes.

In the 40s, OMG, Dean looks GOOD. Goooooooooood. He keeps saying “awesome,” which makes the seamstress ask if he’s a religious kook. Then she calls he and Ness “idjits,” which amuses Dean. He tells her she reminds him of someone.

In 2011, Jodi is helping Sam on the internet. They are magically able to enhance a picture to see a ring on their suspect’s finger, which bears the symbol of Kronos, the god of time. He’s an old god, who used to get his power from people feeding him. Now he makes up for lack of power with being “twice as pissed, and a lot more hands on.” Sam decides they have to summon him.

In the 1940s, Dean and Ness go to find the house Sam and Dean had staked out. Dean quotes Sean Connery from The Untouchables, but Ness says, “Who talks like that?” Dean swears he’s never watching one of his favorite movies again. They break into the house and discover Kronos is laying bets on races where he already knows the outcome. So Ness and Dean go look for the bookie who places his bets. Dean plays muscle, loving every minute of it, but doesn’t have to do much to threaten him to get a location.

In 2011, Sam and Jodi find a way to call Kronos, but Dean has to be touching him when they do, or Dean will be stuck in another time forever. They find an old bottle in Bobby’s things and decide to drink it.

In the 1940s Dean and Ness stake out the bar where Kronos is drinking. Dean asks Ness who died in his life that made him become a hunter. Ness calls him morbid, and says he started because vampires were turning people and he caught the bug. Ness asks why Dean is doing it and Dean said because of his family, but they keep dying and he doesn’t know why he does anything anymore. Ness calls him a nancy and wants to know if all hunters are as soft as Dean in the future. Dean is taken aback—certainly Dean has never been soft. “At least you’re making a difference. Hunting’s the only clarity you’re going to find in this life. That makes you luckier than most.”

After Ness makes his speech, a lovely woman walks by the car, and Kronos follows her. Ness leads Dean to the trunk of his car—loaded with all manner of weaponry. “Sweet merciful awesome!” Dean exclaims.

Dean and Ness follow Kronos, weapons at the ready (could that BE any hotter?) only to see Kronos and the girl embrace. They’re stunned.

Ness and Dean split up, Ness going to watch Kronos, I guess, who went home with the girl. Dean goes back to the seamstress. She’s found a way to kill Kronos, with an olive branch carved by vestal virgins and dipped in the blood of you-don’t-wanna-know-what. Dean realizes if he kills Kronos he’s stuck in 1944. The seamstress tells him there’s lots of ways to pass the time and lays a kiss on him. As he’s leaving he remembers Back to the Future 3 (is that the western one?) and decides to write himself a letter—at least I think so.

Okay, I JUST recognized Kronos as Logan from Veronica Mars. Holy smokes, I love Logan. I didn’t recognize him until he spoke, before beating up Ness. He’s interrupted by the girl telling him he forgot to take out the trash, apparently his excuse for going out. Ness disappears. Kronos tells his girl to pack a bag, she’s going with him. When she hesitates, he snaps at her, which surprises her.

Dean pulls up in front the house Sam and Dean were squatting in. He tells the owner he’s the head of homeland termite inspection. He finds the bedroom where Sam made his bed, lays on the floor and looks for the perfect spot to hide his message to Sam.

Back in 2011, Jodi sends Sam to bed, and he sees the message from Dean—his name carved into the baseboard and Dean’s note behind it. He runs down to show Jodi the letter which has the name of the woman, Lila, and the exact date Dean had contact with him. Sam and Jodi find Lila at a rest home and ask her about Ethan. She hadn’t seen him since 1944, the night the clocks stopped at 11:34, when he said awful things, and strangled that poor man. Sam shows her a picture of Dean and she said Ethan choked the life out of him.

In 1944, Dean goes back to the house looking for Ness and breaks in. He and Kronos fight. Ness holds Lila hostage with a gun pointed at her belly. Kronos said he does his sacrifices so he can get back to Lila because he loves her. He used to wander but now he has her. When she calls him a monster, you can feel his heart breaking.

Meanwhile, Sam and Jodi call Kronos, who slides back to 2011. Ness tosses the olive branch to Dean just as he and Kronos disappears in a ball of light. Once back in the house, Sam stabs Kronos, who dies after telling the brothers their future is covered in a thick black ooze. They’re everywhere. And then Kronos dies. The end.

Now, I’m not a fan of the drawn-out ending but THAT was a little abrupt. But awesome.

People's Choice

2012-01-13T00:01:00.001-06:00

In case you, like me, have your head buried in your to-do list, Supernatural won the People's Choice award for both Favorite Network TV Drama and Favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show. The boys did a short thank-you video to the fans:

Laura Prudom at Huffpost TV has a really good article about the injustice of the Favorite Network TV Drama being left out of the live telecast.

Jim Beaver's New Bullet Phobia

2012-01-12T14:39:00.001-06:00

Did you guys see this great TV guide interview with Jim Beaver?

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Jim-Beaver-Supernatural-1041550.aspx

Maybe we won't see Bobby again for a while on SPN, but looks like fans can catch Jim on Justified sometime in the future!

Guest Star Bingo

2012-01-09T17:48:00.000-06:00

Seriously, we should set it up. I bet someone else has, though. Anyone got a link? :)

Okay, here are some places I recently saw Supernatural guest stars:

An episode of Entourage from the last season, the one where Vince buys the dinosaur head. The actress who played Sarah in "Provenance" was in a similar role in the auction house.

Last week's episode of Leverage (two Sundays ago) had Todd Stashwick and the actress who played Casey in "Sin City."

I know there were others but I failed to write them down and my brain is starting to malfunction from hunger. I'm going to go make dinner--you tell me more in the comments!

Adventures in Babysitting

2012-01-06T21:10:00.004-06:00

It's the beginning of new episodes after hiatus, so you know we had to have a recap at the beginning of the show. And, yay, we had some classic rock with REO Speedwagon's "Riding the Storm Out." We were reminded about saying bye-bye to Cass (sniffle), the nasty leviathans, and Bobby's final moment of writing down the mysterious numbers, saying, "Idjits," then dying (sniffle, sniffle).

When we launch into this episode, we see a guy in a diner watching out the window. Seriously, this dude (the actor, Ian Tracey) has been on everything I watch lately. Since he played bad guys on Sanctuary and Hell on Wheels, it was nice to see him play one of the good guys. He follows a woman out of the diner/truck stop, but she disappears between two semi trucks. When he turns back around, the waitress he'd just been talking to turns out to be a little more than a waitress. She's got herself some sharp-ass teeth and she bites him. When he crumples to the ground, she says, "That's for the crappy tip." Moral of the story: always tip your waitress well.

Next we see the words "Week One" and Sam and Dean just sitting in a room staring at nothing. We know they're still in shock over Bobby's death (I hate typing those words, btw). Then it's Week Two, and they're look at the mysterious numbers and trying to figure out what they can be. Week Three, Dean has constructed a clue board and Sam comes in and asks if they should call "Bobby's people" to let them know about his passing. But neither wants to be the one to do it. Sam answers a call from a young girl who sounds scared. Her dad told her to call Bobby if anything happened to him, so when Sam can't produce Bobby she hangs up on him. But Sam tracks Chrissy down and soon realizes that her father is a hunter and he's gone missing. Sam says he'll find her father and leaves.

Meanwhile, Dean has gone to find super computer nerd Frank to see why it's taking him so long to get back to him about the numbers. Frank's cleaned out his house, but he shows up pointing a gun at Dean in case he's a leviathan. Dean says he's not, but Frank says that, sure, he's not. Neither is Dick Roman or Gwyneth Paltrow. To end the standoff, they each cut themselves to prove they blood red blood instead of black goo. Frank takes Dean to a stashed RV where he's set up his computers. He says that the five numbers Bobby wrote down are a dead end, but he figured since Bobby was dying he didn't have time to write down all the numbers. He created a probability program and figured out that it was actually six numbers and that they were coordinates to a field in Wisconsin owned by Dick Roman's company.

When Sam calls to check in, Dean tells him what is going on. When Sam expresses concern about Dean and Frank heading there, Dean says, "Relax. It's a field, not the Death Star." :) Dean and Frank (by the way, I think Frank is hilarious and a necessary comedic edition in the absence of Bobby and Cass) pretend to be line workers to stake out the field, and the sight of Dean trying to operate a cherry picker was funny. As soon as he gets the picker up though, Frank tells him to get back down because there are cameras all over the place on the Roman property. Instead of setting up their own surveillance, Frank hacks into Roman's cameras and sees a woman who works for Roman and a surveying crew. They're going to build something on the property, but what we don't know. Goofy Frank also goes serious long enough to tell Dean that he wasn't always like he is now, but that he has to find a way to get through each day since he was 27 and came home to find his wife and kids gutted on the floor. Damn, everyone on this show has lost someone in a horrible way. Even Chrissy saw her mother killed.

Back in Sam-land, he thinks he's tracking one vetala. But since he doesn't know they work in pairs, he gets attacked and dragged back to their lair too. When he wakes up, there are lots of dead guys lying around but Chrissy's dad, Lee, is still hanging on. When Dean figures out what has likely happened, he goes to Chrissy's to find out where Sam might have gone. But Chrissy has destroyed the map and notes so that Dean has to take her with him. Enter some smack talk between Dean and a 14-year-old girl, LOL. When they finally find and follow the vetala back to their lair, Dean cuffs Chrissy to the steering wheel of the car and goes in. Luckily for him, she had not one but two lock picks and rushes in as he's getting his butt kicked. She pretends to get captured by one of the vetala, but then she stabs and kills her then cuts Sam's bonds. This gives Sam and and Dean the chance to kill the other vetala.

When we see Lee recovering in a hospital, the boys urge him to quit hunting so Chrissy can have a normal life. Lee asks if they've ever known anyone to quit the hunting life. Dean says no, that they all end up dead first. When Chrissy runs out of the hospital after Dean, she says they're giving up hunting. She also tells Dean he's "kind of amusing for an old guy." LOL.

What did you think of the episode? What about Frank? What do you think Dick and his leviathans are going to build in that field?

Midseason Polls and stuff

2012-01-02T14:35:00.000-06:00

Hellatus is almost over! *does the Sam!and!Dean!dance* I think this is the earliest return in a few years. It almost feels like it sped by!

Spoiler TV is holding some midseason polls. Go here to vote on which of the episodes that leaned heavily on comedy are your favorites. Some of these are tough! How can you choose between "You've gotta go be gay for that poor dead intern" and Sam tied to a bed?!

And stay tuned for Friday night's new episode and our recap/review!

Guest star news!

2011-12-05T22:39:00.003-06:00

People who actually read spoilers probably knew this already, but it was new to me :-) (No plot spoilers, btw.)

Go here to see who has a multi-episode arc coming up!

People's Choice Awards

2011-12-04T15:12:00.003-06:00

The boys have posted this adorable video to encourage your votes for the People's Choice Awards.

Tanya's Holy Crap Recap (Death's Door)

2011-12-02T22:24:00.009-06:00

You should be aware that this post contains mega spoilers for the Dec. 2 episode "Death's Door," as well as wildly uninformed speculation on where Bobby's character goes from here.

I've mentioned before that I don't read spoilers. I like talking about ideas with other fans and I like taking note of what future guest stars may be on the show (Jason Dohring!) but beyond that, I don't look. So I went into this episode with no idea whether or not Jim Beaver is shuffling off the show ala Misha Collins. The show certainly hasn't hesitated to kill off characters in the past, so I've been a little concerned ever since the last episode when the aptly named Dick, aka Head Leviathan, shot Bobby in the head.

We pick up where we left off, with Sam and Dean freaking out and Bobby bleeding. As they rush him to the hospital, we cut to a different take from a scene last week, when they find a victim up a tree. But Bobby quickly realizes that this isn't exactly reality and that he in fact is the victim. From there, he begins bouncing around to different scenes in his life, including a meaningful conversation with his wife (although we're not sure yet why it's meaningful) and a job he once worked with Rufus (nice to see him again!) There are also some memories of Sam and Dean, then Bobby seeing his mother in his kitchen and instantly closing the door. (Major foreshadowing and I called the eventual plot development right there.)

Meanwhile, in what Bobby calls the waking world, doctors tell Dean and Sam to prepare themselves for Bobby's likely death. At one point later in the episode, a hapless hospital admin approaches Dean to ask how Bobby felt about being an organ donor. Who else got chills in that scene?

It turns out that the reason Bobby's mind went to that particular job with Rufus was because his former partner had a near-death experience. Rufus shared with Bobby that the way he escaped death was finding the right door--the one that makes you walk right through the memory you least want to face. Bobby explains that he's been shot and that Rufus isn't even real and his former partner becomes his spirit guide or what have you. They return to the scene where his wife Karen was, who is now violently upset. Turns out that she and Bobby had argued bitterly that night because he didn't want to have kids. (More accurately, because he didn't want to be a father.) Their argument was only three days before her posession and his eventually having to kill her and one of his worst regrets. Rufus is hopeful that this was the memory Bobby had to confront, but of course there's way too much left in the episode for it to be that easy! And, as Bobby has a Reaper on his tail (or, as Bobby put it, in his custard) we know it's going to be quite difficult. At this point, I was betting Bobby would in fact die.

In one of my favorite scenes, we see Bobby playing baseball with a young Dean even though they'd been expressly ordered by John Winchester (worst dad ever) to practice shooting. We also get a funny memory of adult Sam and Dean asking Bobby to solve the debate of who's a bigger bad-ass: Chuck Norris or Jet-Li. (Feel free to weigh in with your vote in the comments.)

Bobby tells Rufus that while you can't stop a Reaper permanently, he and the boys have run across them enough to pick up a few tricks. He manages to trap the Reaper, but the Reaper points out how parts of Bobby's mental world are disappearing because his brain is dying. Because of that, the trap will eventually fade and the Reaper will get him. Is Bobby merely postponing the inevitable because he has knowledge of the Leviathans he needs to give the boys?

The theme of the episode was clearly fatherhood (with the secondary theme of Bobby Singer Rocks) and we get a glimpse of Bobby on the phone arguing with John and admitting, "I know I'm not their father." But come on, we all know differently. Bobby Singer was the best parent those poor kids ever had. And in the final confrontation with his own abusive, aloholic father, Bobby concludes that as well. Bobby's late dad sneers that he's glad Bobby never had kids because he would have sucked and Bobby rejoins that, as a matter of fact, he adopted two and they grew up GREAT. They're HEROES. (Big Damn, if you'll pardon the Firefly reference.)

The awful childhood memory played out the way I figured it would, with young Bobby shooting his father in order to save his mother (at which point she immediately told him God would punish him. Yikes, the parents on this show.) And as the Reaper lunges for Bobby, he finally escapes death through the right door and...

His eyes opened in the hospital. Dean and Sam were ecstatic and for a second I actually thought the status had been returned to quo (they've dodged death plenty of times before). He tries unsuccessfully to tell them something and when they get him a pen, he scrawls the important numbers (what they are and why they're important, I don't know) on Sam's hand. Then he smiles at them and it hit me in the gut that he was totally gonna die. He opened his mouth and I braced myself for an admission of "I love you" that would make me sob. My husband said, "He's gonna say 'I'm ready.'" But, no. In classic Bobby fashion, all he said was, "Idjits." And then he flatlined. And I sobbed.

I thought that was the end of the show and was surprised to see us back again in Bobby's "house," the darkness ever growing outside it. Sam and Dean are in the living room arguing about proper movie snacks (and I laughed out loud at Dean's insistence that licorice is "chewy bites of heaven"). The Reaper tells Bobby it's now or never, is he gonna cross over peacefully or become a stuck spirit? He also says, "They'll be all right without you," the boys fade, and credits roll.

So, without citing interviews or spoilers that give us the answer (assuming they exist), what do you guys think? Is Bobby gone??? Will he return a horrible shade in the new year, caught between two worlds and warped by his own good intentions? (If so, did dude learn NOTHING from Cass?) What were those numbers? It all makes my head hurt. Although that could be from the crying.

What I do know is that, even if Bobby's "gone," this show is great at unexpectedly bringing back the dead for guest spots and episodes showcasing Jim Beaver's talents are always excellent. That said, holy crap, they killed Bobby!

BuddyTV Holiday Trivia Challenge

2011-11-30T14:14:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-19T20:15:00.008-06:00

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

2011-11-15T23:42:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-14T10:58:00.004-06:00

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!"

2011-11-11T23:32:00.000-06:00

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?

2011-11-10T20:35:00.006-06:00

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

2011-11-07T13:21:00.006-06:00

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

2011-11-05T00:24:00.000-05:00

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!)

"Slash Fiction" Recap

2011-10-28T21:30:00.003-05:00

Hmm, methinks the Sam and Dean who are robbing a bank and killing all the patrons and employees are not the real Sam and Dean.

Next we have Bobby trying to make the captured leviathan talk and he's having no luck. When Dean asks the leviathan how he found them, the guy says it was easy and starts talking about using algorithms tracking their known aliases.

Bobby: "Great. Just what we need, a Mensa monster."

The monster says he's the least of their worries, and Sam and Dean see the news that they supposedly robbed a bank and killed everyone.

Dean: "Those sons of bitches Xeroxed us. We find these ass monkeys and we kill them ourselves."

Bobby sends the boys to see a friend of his, Frank, but when they arrive the guy pulls a gun on them and asks who sent them. "NSA, the Feeb, March of Dimes?"

Frank seems freaked out and trigger-happy when the respond with Bobby's name. Okay, this guy is funny. He gives the boy new aliases, Tom and John Smith, and tells them no more rock shout-outs with their names. He tells them to ditch the Impala.

Dean is obviously not happy about having to leave the Impala behind, saying something about putting baby in a corner.

Sam: "You know that's a line from--"
Dean: "Swayze movie. Swayze always gets a pass."

LOL! Dean starts singing to the radio playing Air Supply's "I'm All Out of Love."

Sam is looking at a map of where the dopplegangers have hit, and he realizes they're places where he and Dean have done cases before. Jericho -- Lady in White. Black Water Ridge -- Wendigo. Lady Manatonka -- the kid in the lake. They're in order, from the day Sam left Stanford. Hello, Season 1!

Sam and Dean roll into the next town the dopplegangers are to hit and see them, but the cops roll up and arrest the real Sam and Dean. Oops.

Meanwhile, back at Bobby's cabin, the leviathan has turned into Bobby but then something starts dripping from the ceiling and burning holes in the guy. It's the first thing that has had any effect. Bobby runs upstairs where the lady sheriff (Jodi) is cleaning the floor and...he kisses her!!! Then he asks what was in the bucket.

The dopplegangers switch forms into two cops to get into the police station to see Sam and Dean.

Hey, look, the sheriff is Col. Tigh from Battlestar Galactica.

Sheriff sees the baddies eating one of his deputies and decides to trust Dean. He helps him take out bad Sam. Then we see bad Dean talking with real Sam, and he spills the beans that real Dean killed Amy a couple of episodes back.

Uh oh, one of the FBI agents is a leviathan (I had that suspicion) and comes back to kill the sheriff and his daughter, the medical examiner.

Crowley shows up in the car of the head leviathan trying to make deal, but the head leviathan doesn't think too highly of demons and tells Crowley so in no uncertain terms. I'm thinking this will tick off Crowley enough that he will go back to helping Sam and Dean, but who knows. Maybe I just want to see Crowley on the side of good because he cracks me up sometimes.

Sam confronts Dean about killing Amy then walks away, telling Dean he can't be around him now. And then Sam walks off. Sigh. Brothers separated again. I wonder how long this will last.

"Shut Up, Dr. Phil"

2011-10-24T21:37:00.000-05:00

We had some technical difficulties, so we apologize for not having our usual timely, amusing, insightful recap and review of the most recent episode. :(

I'm sliding rapidly into the semi-conscious blur that comes with having two books coming out one day apart (Behind the Scenes on 10/31 and Under the Moon on 11/1! /plug), so this is just an impression review rather than a full recap.

This episode has the long-awaited featured guests Charisma Carpenter and James Marsters, formerly of Buffy and Angel fame. They played husband and wife witches having a little feud. Don Stark stepped out on Maggie, who is punishing him by murdering everyone connected to his affair—the woman he slept with, the guy who introduced them, someone who covered for him. Don retaliates by killing Maggie's best friend and ruining the art she's so passionate about. But, as the boys point out in an under-duress counseling session near the end, there must still be love there, because they're not trying to kill each other.

This wasn't a high-emotion, high-intensity, high-mythology, high-anything episode, but as I break it down, I really liked it. The boys engaged in true sleuthing-style investigation, following clues and conducting interviews like someone from a non-paranormal crime drama or something. They worked really well together, despite New!Sam irritating the hell out of Same!Old!Dean, and Dean getting even further into the bottle (I wonder when that's gonna come to a head?).

Bobby's presence on the show was so solid I have to keep reminding myself he never was actually there. I loved how Maggie knew the boys were hunters from the get-go, and Don was actually a pretty quiet character, so different from his flamboyant Spike, while Maggie could have been the original high-school Cordelia all grown up.

A show this old starts to struggle with freshness. But I thought they altered the familiar just enough. They offered great, gruesome new deaths (frying under a hair dryer, nail gun through the eyes, little tiny beating hearts in cupcakes and literally coughing up a lung). We've had witches before, but these are old married witches with no grand agenda, no evil plans, just a typical, personal battle taken a little (lot!) too far.

Probably my only quibble with the whole thing was that Dean killed Amy when her motivation had been pure, when she'd worked hard not to kill in the first place, and now he didn't seem to try hard enough to kill the Starks. Yes, they are extremely powerful witches who totally outmatched the boys, and they haven't actually defeated witches before, but they seemed to give up too easily against people who killed innocents without compunction.

On the other hand, Don Stark putting a spell on the Leviathan and saving the boys from his wife was kind of cool, and left things open for them both to return, which I'm fully in favor of.

So what did you think? Love or hate the episode? Did the guest stars make the show, or was their cult standing too distracting? Do you want to see them again? Weigh in in the comments!

Why We Love These Guys So Much

2011-10-21T15:25:00.000-05:00

Read the article at Zap2It!

Supernatural/Whedon Crossover!

2011-10-19T21:12:00.002-05:00

Some of these surprised me, some humbled me because I should have recognized them! See how many you get!

Slideshow ‘Supernatural’ and the Whedonverse: 20 Stars Who’ve Crossed Over

Defending Your Life

2011-10-15T15:57:00.003-05:00

I’m currently recovering from having my appendix and gallbladder out on Tuesday, so this will not be a full recap. Instead I’m just going to share my thoughts on Defending Your Life. However, I’m doing so under the influence of pain killers.

Between the killer car (and I called Christine before Dean did) and the killer dog my first thought was that Stephen King was responsible for killing these people. Frankly, I kinda liked the idea of an author’s fantasies materializing. I wanted to see ole Stevie with a cameo. But it wasn’t long before I realized their demise was caused by the method of their guilt. When the old dude was being haunted by the couple he killed in a robbery I actually felt saddened to lose the King connection. (Maybe there still is one and I don’t know it.)

What really struck me in this episode was how old and tired Dean acted. From stretching out his aching back to bitching about just wanting a simple day job for once, he’s showing a wear and tear we haven’t seen before. Did anyone else think he seemed more than a little resigned to his death sentence? Has the fight gone out of him?

I actually enjoyed the character of Osiris and particularly enjoyed the trial…until the end. The whole time I was thinking, “Oh, no, here it is, Sam’s going to find out Dean killed Amy.” Dean positively squirmed with guilt and the viewer knew it was that deadly deed and lying to his brother about it that would ultimately cost Dean his life. But he wouldn’t allow Osiris to call her to the stand. I was concerned for nothing.

While Dean was waiting for Sam and Bobby to figure something out I just knew Amy would show up then…but no, it’s Jo. Okay, I get that. It’s a lot meaner for Osiris to send Jo to snuff Dean out. It’s more personal. Cruel. Reciprocal, even. But still…

Overall, I wasn’t real keen on this episode. I like that we learned Dean never wanted to be a lone hunter. I liked seeing Jo again. But the false threat of Dean’s betrayal hanging over the episode like a black cloud and then amounting to a whole lot of nada made me feel cheated. At the very least wouldn’t Sam press him harder to find out who that secret witness was? What did you think? Maybe I’ll rewatch the episode one day and see if I feel different post-recovery. In the meantime, I’m just looking forward to seeing Cordy and Spike next week!

Netflix to Stream Supernatural

2011-10-13T15:48:00.000-05:00

Netflix, Warner Bros. Television, and the CW have signed a deal to stream CW shows instantly on Netflix for U.S. customers.

Supernatural will start in January 2012. This season will be available in the fall, and future seasons will be added in a "commensurate window." It sounds like they won't be streaming current episodes in any ongoing season; those will stay on the CW's website.

The Power of Fandom

2011-10-13T12:35:00.000-05:00

So a few days ago, @jarpad announced on Twitter that he and Genevieve will be having a baby. Apparently some people wanted to send gifts, and he asked for donations to St. Jude Children's Hospital instead. Someone started an official fundraiser, and in 12 hours, they'd raised $3,700 for cancer research.

Part of me thinks that's incredible. Sometimes entertainment seems so frivolous, and our focus on celebrity ridiculous. And then it's turned into something so beneficial and powerful. The ease with which a group can be incited to do good is astounding.

Part of me wonders why we need to be incited. Why do we leap into action just because some tall, good-looking, good-natured guy asks us to? Why is his request more worthy than the little entreaty cards we get in the mail every other day? Is it just because we want him to think well of us?

I hope that's not it. I hope it's more that there is so much need in this world, and we're bombarded with requests and get jaded because it seems so impossible. The focus by someone we admire makes it easy.

In reality, it's probably a combination of the two, and that's okay. The children being helped by that money don't care why it was given, after all.

~~~~~~~~~
If you'd like to participate in this specific fundraiser, click here. They are just shy of $8,000 toward the goal of $20,000.

Breaking News

2011-10-11T18:27:00.002-05:00

Jared Padalecki just tweeted that Genevieve his wife is expecting! What a pretty baby that will be.

@jarpad OK yall I'd rather you officially hear it from me.. So, yes. Genevieve is pregnant. We'll be welcoming a new member to our family in 2012 :)

"The Girl Next Door" Recap and Review

2011-10-07T23:28:00.001-05:00

First impressions: It was a good thing I kept my expectations low for this episode, knowing they can't all be as good as the first two. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot to love about "The Girl Next Door," but it didn't have the same grab-me-by-the-throat effect. I was disappointed that Jewel Staite's role was so small, but very pleased that the rude, selfish edge Dean had in Jensen's directing debut was gone here. He did a great job, especially given that his screen time was greater. I think he has a future behind the camera. I just hope he doesn't pull a Ron Howard and do it for good!

Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Watching "THEN," I feel like we've had a lot more than two episodes so far. This is a rich, meaty start to season 7. Just like the last two episodes, we start right where we left off. Dean's in the hospital, foggy until they set his leg, which jerks him into the ER. He wants to get out, but Sam's been sent up for an MRI, and they dope Dean before he can try to leave on that broken leg. Fade out on morphine drip...

...and fade in on Dean forgetting why he's at Sioux Falls General. Love the way he rips out his IV, but whoops! Down on the floor.

Bobby comes in. Dean's shocked he's alive. "Course I am," he scoffs, but I'm suspicious that it's not really Bobby. He doesn't explain (ever!) where he was, but he turns out to be the real deal.

Dean: "Hey, look, a monster broke my leg."

Bobby has very little sympathy for Dean's plight. I don't get why he has a full-leg cast for a tibial fracture. I'm sure there are some circumstances that warrant it. I've just never encountered them in real life. Anyway, Dean says he's a gimp, Bobby just hands him crutches and an encouraging smile and heads off to find Sam.

I kind of love the Leviathans. The surgeon takes his "job" so seriously. I mean, they're going to remove and eat someone's internal organs, but he still maintains sterility and lets the "nurse" hold his phone for him. But geez, these guys are gonna be tough. Dropping a car on them doesn't kill them. There's no lore, since they came before humanity, and were put away before us, too. And despite their extreme age and lack of exposure to technology, they've learned it fast. They know when the Winchesters are brought in to the hospital, and...well, let's not jump ahead.

Bobby takes over Sam with an entirely plausible "no insurance, shipping him to County" excuse, and Dean barely makes it to the ambulance in time to get away. Okay, the Leviathans are not invincible. They can't run faster than a vehicle. Good to know.

Now we're in Whitefish, Montana, three weeks later, in what we soon learn is Rufus's cabin. Sam's reading, Dean's watching a telenovella, and he and Bobby are totally hooked. Bobby has retrieved the Impala and gathered info from hunters, who don't know what the Leviathans are but have worked out what they do pretty well.

Bobby's saying the doctor and nurse never showed back up (moving the Big Bad to the background to leave room for other kinds of episodes) while Sam zones out for a minute. He strokes a thumb over the nasty-looking, shiny, puckered scar on his hand, his touchstone.

All Bobby's resources are gone, but he says he's going to go round up his old library. He's stashed copies of his one-of-a-kind books all over the place. Love Bobby!

Dean sends Sam on a grocery run and demands pie, then wants to talk to Bobby about "Girl, Interrupted over there." Bobby swears Sam's healing, but Dean just won't believe that. He's waiting for the other shoe, because that's how things always go.

Bobby: "Look. You sittin' there wringing your hands ain't gonna do nothin'. Maybe, he'll surprise you.

Whoa. Culture shock. The convenience store is way too bright, and way too colorful. I think they're on the wrong show here.

Sam pays with a credit card for Lenny Kilmister (Lemmy Kilmister is from Motorhead), which rings us to a customer service rep for a credit card company, looking for suspicious charges for a customer. He asks about "Mistress Magda," who was Chuck's phone sex operator of choice. (Man, I miss Chuck!) An alert for Lenny Kilmister pops up, and the guy calls the Leviathan supervisor. See? They somehow learned all their aliases and fake credit cards and can track them that way. Pretty advanced for ancient beings!

At the store, Sam spots a newspaper story about an icepick killer. Just the kind of thing that would trip their initial triggers for a hunt.

Sam gets back to the cabin, Dean asks how he's doing, he says "fine." If, of course, seeing crap that's not real is fine. He doesn't know if it's getting better, but he knows what's real and not—and fondles that scar again. And again.

Sam brought Dean cake instead of pie. Passive aggressive? I mean, by now Sam knows that no, it's not close enough. Sheesh.

Dean is asleep on the couch in a really uncomfortable-looking position. Sam pulls out the paper, and flashes back to Colin Ford yay! Young Sam doing research for Dean and Dad, talking to them on an early mobile phone.

Sam sneaks out as a (fake, cheesy?) promo for My Bloody Valentine 3D plays on the TV.

A sleazy drug dealer is about to take advantage of a strung-out girl when sirens scare them off. He's ducking through a skate park when someone tackles him. Blood sprays, and he's dead.

Back in the cabin, Dean awakes with a wildlife program on TV. He reads Sam's note: "Back in a few days. I'm fine."

Dean (on the phone to Bobby): "Other shoe."

He's pissed Sam took off. Bobby tries to tell him to calm down, give Sam a couple of days, they'll keep trying to reach him. He tells Dean to give it until he gets the cast off, and then hunt him down. Dean's not waiting. He takes a circular saw to the cast himself. Yikes!

Sam's at the morgue, asking a cop about the new dead guy. He clearly knows more than was revealed about the news story. He ignores a third missed call from "Lars Ulrich" (Metallica!) and heads in to check out the body.

In the meantime, Dean is driving a woody wagon (reminiscent of the wood-sided minivan in "Everybody Loves a Clown" in season 2). He stops at the store and finds the paper Sam saw. He's on the hunt.

Sam learns the body's pituitary gland is gone, and flashes back again. We get grown-up Sam setting up his board on the hotel wall (reminiscent of the pilot, and many of their "normal" hunts) interspersed with Young Sam doing the same research years ago. He sees a girl he likes, and we get lots of the awkward adolescent glances.

Adult Sam figures out the next target spot and sits in wait, as Young Sam finalizes his research (yelling "I said you stab it in the heart!" in the library), asks Dean how to talk to girls, and is instantly shot down before he even finishes saying hi to her. Colin Ford is so good. His subtle facial expressions convey his utter devastation at her rejection.

Two boys stride by in the background. They're clearly up to no good. And hey, isn't that one Nico McEown, who played Lucas in "Dead in the Water"?

Outside, Young Sam watches the boys follow the girl and of course he follows, too. And of course they're hassling her, and YES, that's Nico McEown, playing a bully. Sam makes short work of them, though one gets a hit on his cheek before running off.

Adult Sam stalks a clearly adult Amy through the woods. She's about to approach a drunk fumbling with his keys when Sam grabs her. Her necklace confirms her identity. She recognizes him, despite them only spending a few hours together, max, over 10 years ago, and despite "You got tall, huh?" how different he looks.

Amy insists she lives normally, and Sam doesn't believe her. Flash back again to Amy nursing his boo boo and asking how he's such a good fighter. She gets him a soda from a brain-filled fridge. They exchange life stories in five minutes. Both travel a lot and are freaks, though Amy owns the label while Sam rejects it. They bond, and Sam kisses her. Wow, fast mover, Sammy! But okay, "all the coolest people are freaks" is a kiss-worthy line.

In the present, she's trying to get Sam to believe she's not a killer, that she did what she had to and it's over. He can't believe her and apologizes for it. She apologizes too, right before she knocks him into a tree. God! Sam will never be okay if he keeps getting hit in the head!

Dean's hot on the trail, figuring out what Sam's hunting. Sam follows Amy home and is ready to kill her even if he doesn't want to, because she obviously killed again. She tells him he knows her. What kind of person she is. Back in the past, Sam tells Amy that he's been around enough bad to know good when he sees it, even though Amy believes her mother to be bad, which must make her bad, too.

Grown-up Sam won't back off, so Amy shows him her son, which does the trick. She feeds on the dead, working as a mortician, and it's too risky for a kid. Her son got sick, was dying, and needed fresh meat. She swears now that he's better, she's done. She pulls the "after what I did for you" card, and we see her hide Young Sam, who hears Amy's mother say that "a couple of pros in a piece of crap Impala" have caught up to them. So now he knows what he's dealing with. He confronts young Amy, and she understands what he is, too. She talks Sam out of killing her and tells him to run.

Adult Sam unlocks his hotel room door, and we get a spectacular sucker punch from Dean. Holy CRAP, poor Sam! Nice backward swan dive, Padalecki. :) I'd say thanks for the flash of skin, but that would be superficial.

Dean: "New rule. You steal my baby, you get punched." (Shades of "Hunted" in season 2.)

Their confrontation has some nice openness, and Sam tells about the past, when Amy's capitulation made her mother suspicious, and she was about to tear Sam apart when Amy killed her own mother to save him. He explains why he let Amy go now, and Dean still says they have to kill her. It's that simple. Of course, Sam says nothing in their lives is ever simple. When Dean uses the word freak, Sam's ready to walk out. But instead, he finally accepts that trying to be normal his whole life has been stupid. He's a freak, and it's okay. He's managing it. He begs Dean to trust him, and WHOA. Dean says okay. Gotta start somewhere.

A sign things are actually going to change?

Uh, not so fast.

Yep, Dean lies to Sam, leaves him at a hotel while he goes to the "candy store." My first thought is uh, oh, not a painkiller addiction! But no, his next look at Sam is all about subterfuge. Dammit, Dean!

He's in Amy's hotel room. Tracked her license plates. He tells her, not without a hint of compassion, that she is what she is, and she will kill again. She swears she won't, but he says the other shoe always drops...and he stabs her in the heart. With an apology. And then he turns around, bloody knife in hand, to face her son.

And boy, Dean is cold. He asks the kid if he has someone he can go to, then if he ever killed anyone. Tells him not to, or Dean will come for him. The kid makes a vow to kill Dean, and Dean says to come look him up in a few years, assuming he lives that long.

We end with the Leviathan goon "grabbing a bite" after confirming that they will continue tracking every name they have for the Winchesters. We end with the guy pouring hot cheese on the clerk and his gaping, horror-movie mouth coming at the camera.

Yeah, Supernatural has definitely returned to its roots.

Next is a gum commercial that really confused me the first time I saw it. This tiger shows up randomly with a clamp on its foot and asks if he rally has to holler? This time, though, I actually pay attention to the "eenie meenie miney mo" and get the joke. Tiger by the toe! Ahahahaaha!

The promo for next week leaves me full of !!!!!!!!. Dean's final farewell kiss to Jo, and Alona Tal is back! Gosh, I love this show. You never know who's gonna pop up, from important recurring guest star who died spectacularly to random kid playing a new random kid.

I really don't know how I feel about Dean killing Amy. They keep giving us all these little growth moments, with honesty and trust, and the boys are really trying to improve the way they handle things and interact. And then this happens. Dean was convinced Lenore ("Bloodlust" season 2!) could control her hunger, and Amy has even bigger incentive to stay on the straight and narrow—her son. Dean's cold disregard for the shades of gray feels like a step back. On the other hand, could he really let her go?

Part of my ambivalence is because I felt there were details glossed over that could have aided the decision-making, even by making it harder. They implied she was trying to kill scumbags, but she never used that as a defense. And when she swore she wouldn't kill again, why didn't either Sam or Dean point out that she'd obviously do anything for her son, so she couldn't make that promise? But then, leaving Jacob without a mother, especially the way it happened, almost guarantees he's going to follow his grandmother's path rather than his mother's.

So what are your thoughts? Like the episode? What could they have done differently?

How does this episode affect your feelings on the season so far?

SPOILERS!

2011-10-04T21:59:00.000-05:00

This is how much I love you, readers of this blog. I am subjecting myself to spoilers because my Google Alert were full of REALLY AWESOME STUFF! So read at your own risk. Seriously—the post title should be warning enough. :)

We already knew James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter were going to guest star. Reports on the October 21st episode say they play a married couple getting a divorce, and Charisma plays a witch.

I didn't watch the sneak peek, but couldn't help clicking the headline when I learned that Jewel Staite (of Firefly!) plays a character named "Amy Pond" in this week's episode. Love the Doctor Who tribute!

Geez, my head might explode from the convergence of all my geektastic faves.

Okay, this is the story that made me stop squinching my eyes shut, covering my ears, and going "lalalalalala!" so I didn't learn anything about the season. Episode 8, titled "Season 7: Time for a Wedding," is going to be one of the light, funny, slightly meta episodes we love. And one of the boys is going to be a groom. Boy, I can't WAIT to see what they have in store for us with that!

In that same story, Sera Gamble says Cas will be back, though she won't give any hints as to how. She also does an interview for TVLine that addresses lots of questions about Cas, Misha (yes, two different things!), Crowley, angels, and more. Generalized spoilers in that interview.

That's all for now! I'll see you late Friday night when I recap episode 3, "The Girl Next Door"!

The Holy Sh..... Episode

2011-09-30T23:59:00.000-05:00

I'd planned to watch the episode first, then recap on the second viewing, but it's Friday night and I'm toast. So, here we go:

I’ve been so excited about this season since the season premiere. I love the idea of Leviathans, which I never really understood, but now I want to find out. Now I’m watching Cass walk out on Dean and bobby, leaking blood and I’m so glad Tanya isn’t writing this recap.

Then we have Sam being choked (must be Friday) by Lucifer, who claims he’s real, Sam’s real, and all the rest is set dressing. Sam’s so confused, and Lucifer’s voice becomes Dean’s, and Lucifer disappears.

Dean, Sam and Bobby chase after Cass, who goes into a lake and causes a whirlpool. Snake-like ribbons of smoke appear, heading in all directions (husband was not impressed with effects), and they notice the sign that says “Public Water Supply.” Oops.

Then Dean notices the trench coat floating in the water and pulls it out, regret in his every move. Cass had made the choices he made because he felt he had to. Of all people, Dean understands that.

The camera cuts to all manner of water being utilized, including one little girl drinking from a fountain, trembling, then turning to her brother with a chilling smile. A mechanic’s pipes are rattling and he’s sprayed with black liquid.

Sam is sleeping and hears a voice calling his name. Lucifer? No, Dean, who hands him a water bottle and a protein bar—breakfast in bed. Dean checks Sam’s hand, which he cut on broken glass (worst stitches ever?), and Sam sees Lucifer over his shoulder, taunting him. Sam admits he’s hallucinating. Dean questions why Lucifer would create a world for Sam. Sam and Lucifer together say, “You can’t torture someone if there’s nothing left for you to take away.” Lucifer says the life he created has to be a mess so Sam would believe it was his life.

Creepy possessed girl is flipping through the channels and lands on Dr. Sexy, MD. The dialogue therein gives her an idea, because she smiles.

Bobby’s as worried about Dean as he is about Sam, but Dean brushes off his concern. Is it me, or is Bobby getting all the best lines this season? “You just lost one of the best friends you ever had, your brother’s in the bell jar, and purgatory’s most wanted are surfing the sewer lines, but you’re fine.” He assures him that he’ll always be there, and then end the scene with some banter that seems to reassure both of them.

Meanwhile, a member of the HS swim team dashes out the brains of his teammates, and a doctor checks on his post-op patients. One is Sheriff Jody Mills. I didn’t recognize her.

Sam and Bobby find the story of the swim team, and they send Dean on his own. Sam’s in no shape to go on a hunt and Bobby’s running the hub.

The mechanic meets up with the creepy girl meet up in a park. She complains that the girl knows nothing, can’t even see over counters. She is hungry, and repeats it again and again. Apparently she is somewhat in charge because she needs to get the others in line. The killings made the papers, and that’s unacceptable. The “boss” wants to know it’s been taken care of. Boss, eh? More and more interesting. She says she has an idea, and shows up at the hospital, where she meets the doctor who’d been checking on his post-op patients. She grasps his wrists and says she wants to grow up now. She takes on his form!

Turns out the one patient was pre-op, and the doctor Leviathan comes to take her away. The sheriff decides to check it out. She sees Dr. Leviathan eating one of the woman’s internal organs (again glad Tanya isn’t doing this recap). The nurse gives her a sedative and the doctor comes in with a promise to check on her later. She rips out her IV but the meds are already taking effect.

Dean checks out the scene, then calls Sam, who can’t concentrate with Lucifer reading tabloids behind him. Sam demands Lucifer end the torture, but Lucifer says this is his sweet spot, watching all the paint melting off his walls. This will end when Sam can’t take it anymore. Is that why Sam’s cleaning his guns? Sam orders Lucifer to shut up and Bobby comes in, wanting to know if Sam is having “a bag lady moment.” As Bobby tries to comfort him, Lucifer stands behind Bobby with a poker and stabs him through the heart.

Sheriff Mills manages to call Bobby to ask for help. Bobby tells Sam, “Either Sheriff Mills is having an Obamacare-insured opium dream, or something is eating folks down at Sioux Falls General Hospital.” He has to leave Sam alone with his visions of Lucifer.

At this point I’m seeing what Natalie means about being more interested in Sam than Dean these days.

Two of the swim team arrive with the mechanic and Dr. Leviathan takes them deeper into the hospital where they can feast every day. As the swim team boys tak over the bodies of the head nurse and the administrator, the mechanic talks about the boss some more.

Sam is cleaning his gun when Dean comes home. He needs back-up because there are more than 2 Leviathans. Sam is hesitant, but gets his gun.

Bobby rescues the sheriff and puts her in a taxi, then goes into the hospital to investigate the lady Dr. Leviathan killed. She’s already been autopsied, which confuses him.

Dean’s conversation with Sam, about Sam being crazy, that he’s never going to be okay, raises some red flags. Not Dean! Not Dean! Didn’t see that coming. What is Lucifer’s plan here? Dean gets to Bobby’s and discovers Sam is missing. The Dean who is with Sam morphs into Lucifer and Sam starts shooting. Lucifer taunts him, wanting to shoot himself.

Dr. Leviathan comes upon Bobby, who tries to bluff his way out of the hospital, but the Leviathan knows him because of Cass. Bobby hits him, saying, “Let’s try for amnesia,” then shoots him and runs when it has no effects.

Dean finds Sam in the warehouse where Lucifer led him and Sam points a gun at him. Dean is freaking, but is desperate to reach his brother. He points out Sam’s injured hand. “This is real.” He squeezes it, reminding him he got it not too long ago, not before he went to hell. “You got away. We got you out. Believe in that.” Lucifer flickers. “You’ve got to believe me. Make it stone number one and build on it.” Sam nods, breathless.

Bobby calls and fills them in on the Leviathan, and they’re to meet back at Bobby’s, but when they do---oh, no!! Bobby’s house burned! No! No sign of Bobby, all the books are gone, all the stuff for spells. The first thing they should have done is call. Now Dean does, and he says if Bobby’s dead, he’s going to strap his “Beautiful Mind” brother in the car and drive off the pier. “You asked how I was doing? Well, not good.”

I’m not doing too good myself right now. They’ve lost everything. That absolutely breaks me.

Sam comes upon the mechanic in the junkyard. Dean shoots him in the head but that only pisses him off. The Winchesters are marked for annihilation. He hits Dean hard enough to break his leg and clocks Sam in the head, knocking him unconscious. Dean drops a car on him, and black ooze appears from beneath the car.

Somehow an ambulance finds them. The EMT says Sam has increased inter-cranial pressure and look, Lucifer is back. He promises not to go anywhere, and Sam starts seizing as they’re pulling into Sioux Falls General Hospital. Meanwhile, back in the junkyard, the black ooze is sucked back into the Leviathan’s body.

And….end credits???? NOOOOOOO!!!!! Bobby??? BOBBY???? Bobby’s house, his belongings…they’re going to have to start everything from scratch. And Dean with a broken leg? How is he going to get around? Not to mention the loss of Cass…I wanted to see more of Misha as the Leviathans.

Supernatural doesn’t look to be pulling any stops now, does it?

Big Fan Girl Squee

2011-09-26T13:50:00.003-05:00

OMG! Eric Kripke is teaming up with J.J. Abrams to create a one-hour NBC "epic adventure thriller.” No real details other than Kripke wrote the pilot and will produce along with Abrams and Bryan Burk. Pairing these two together makes REVOLUTION an automatic watch for me. How about you? Is this a genius duo or what?

Supernatural Co-Star Beaten

2011-09-26T10:43:00.003-05:00

D.J. Qualls was shooting Supernatural last Friday, when he was severely beaten by Vancouver police. Qualls witnessed a fight and when he tried to tell an officer what he saw he was attacked. He's okay, but he took to this twitter account to demand justice. You can read the complete article here.

You'll see Qualls in the SPN episode entitled "Time for a Wedding." He plays a laid back hunter named Garth who annoys Dean.

The New Boss

2011-09-23T21:47:00.004-05:00

Welcome back to a new season of Supernatural and weekly recaps here at Supernatural Sisters!

We got off to a good start with tonight's episode ("The New Boss") with some Dean-appropriate music -- "Slow Ride" by Foghat. And we picked up right where last season left off, with Castiel proclaiming himself the new God and telling Dean, Sam and Bobby to bow down before him. Bobby goes down to his knees, and Dean starts to before Cas says to not bother because they're doing it out of fear, not out of love.

Poof, Cas is gone and we see him walking outside, talking to someone, telling them that he thought free will was the answer but now realizes now that it's a firm hand. When the camera pans back, we see a field of dead angels. Disturbing image, that.

I could almost hear MJ keening in agony when they showed the horrible state of the Impala. Once again, Dean was having to bring her back from the dead. While he and Bobby are talking about looking for Cas, Bobby delivered what I think was the best line of the episode: "What am I looking for? Miracles? Mass visions? Trenchcoat on a tortilla?" LOL!!!

Poor Sam, his noggin isn't what she used to be. He keeps hearing things and having hallucinations, part of his memories from Hell making it past the wall. Of course, he tells Dean he's fine. Dude, these guys need to stop keeping secrets.

Cas shows up at a church where a preachers is preaching against homosexuality. Cas says he's indifferent to sexual orientation and what he can't abide by is hypocrites. And then he kills the minister where he stands, one of only many killings of religious leaders. One of the members of the first preacher's congregation is giving a TV interview when she says that God didn't have a beard and wasn't old. "He was young...and sexy." Snort.

Okay, how many of you thought it was hilarious that Crowley was hiding out in an old RV in Tennessee? Cas shows up, tells Crowley (who gave some really funny expressions of surprise) that he's sending him back to be the king of Hell but that Cas will be the gatekeeper deciding where souls go from now on.

Next time we see Crowley, he's been called by Sam, Dean and Bobby. They want info that will help them bind Death in hopes he can kill the off-the-deep-end Cas before he royally screws up the world. Of course, they don't have one of the main ingredients for the spell to bind Death, so they have to go steal it (a spear-like thing of crystallized sand that was hit by lightning). When the security guard tries to stop them, Dean taps him on the shoulder and asks, "Do you have any Grey Poupon?" before punching the guy out. Giggle. I'm guessing some viewers of Supernatural are too young to remember that Grey Poupon commercial.

When Death shows up, Cas isn't far behind. Death tells Cas that there were things older than the souls that resided in Purgatory, Leviathans, beasts that God created before man. They were so powerful that God locked them away, but Cas swallowed them up and now they're fighting to get out. Thus, the gross way Castiel's skin seems to be melting off and that whole Alien-esque thing in his stomach. Death takes a seat and eats the pickle chips and milkshake Dean brought him. (Just for the record, I love Julian Richings' portrayal of Death.)

Cas goes poof again and heads for a senator's campaign headquarters, set on punishing her because she's doing immoral things in his name. But he collapses and later wakes up with a bunch of dead, really bloody people around him. Methinks the Leviathans inside him are winning.

Sam, still believing the old Cas is in there somewhere, calls him, and Cas comes. He says he needs help and agrees to go back to the lap where the door to Purgatory will be opened by Death. The spell works, the souls return to Purgatory, and after a momentary scare that Cas was dead, he wakes up and seems to be the old Cas. Yay!

Cas: "I'm embarrassed. I really overreached."
Dean: "You think?"

I wasn't looking forward to a whole season of Cas playing God. But, wait, that was too easy. Yep, the souls went back to Purgatory, but the Leviathans are still there, and they make their presence known, saying they've killed Cas. I will steadfastly believe Cas is still alive in there until it's proven otherwise.

What did you think of the season premiere? Do you think the old Cas is still in there somewhere? Will we not see him until the end of the season?

News for the Day the Show Returns!

2011-09-23T14:21:00.001-05:00

Just a few little things:

Jared and Jensen are reportedly going to attend a big charity fundraiser this weekend. Keep an eye out for photos. I'm hoping tuxes! :)

Mitch Pileggi will be guest starring on The Finder the Bones spinoff.

E! Online did a set visit. Boys in T-shirts! On video. That I will watch LATER, because I want no spoilers. :)

Here's a video (snagged from JaredPadaleckiFan but originated at Spoiler TV) of the boys on MTV Top Ten (talking about season 7; they made #2):

Enjoy the show tonight!!!

New Sam and Dean Promo Photos

2011-09-20T23:30:00.001-05:00

TV Guide has posted some new promo photos. About time the CW did new shots, right?

Actually, I don't think they're totally new. Number 5 is the shot they used all last season for commercial-break teasers. But 2 and 3? Guh.

Misha Interview

2011-09-20T12:15:00.005-05:00

After Elton has a great interview with Misha. He talks about realizing when he'd been accepted by the SPN community, despite fans usual reticence to embrace anyone other than Jared and Jensen, and how it came to his attention that he'd gained a big gay following. Fun interview, no spoilers.

Jared Padalecki and the Great Scary Haircut

2011-09-18T10:54:00.004-05:00

There's a great (fake!) article on The Spoof about Jared Padalecki losing a movie role because he got a haircut.

Other men have come under media fire for their hair in recent times.

Since Tom Brady went 14-2 with that hair and was the first unanimous MVP in the NFL, I think Jared Padalecki's safe, no matter what he does with his hair.

The Supernatural fandom used to talk about Sam's hair all the time. I'm rewatching season 2 right now, and it started out just as ridiculous as in season 1. But after that—with occasional relapses—it was good hair.

What do we think about it now? Personally, I love it. Makes me want to be a hairdresser so I can get my hands in it. I could definitely do without those gigantic sideburns, though.

You?

Season Six DVDs

2011-09-14T18:12:00.003-05:00

The Season Six DVDs came out yesterday!

Who has their copies already? Where's the best deal/special offer?

SPNews

2011-09-12T13:31:00.003-05:00

The boys are talking about Season 7 and it sounds like it's really going to be something else!

Entertainment Weekly phone Jared for a S7 interview for their fall tv issue.

Check out TV Guide's great interview with Jensen about Season 7. But be warned, there's some spoilage, including an interesting guest star and unexpected returning character!

Makes me want to rewatch the teaser trailer.

I'm all revved up for next Friday. Are you?

A Ghostly Charm's Inspiration

2011-09-02T00:10:00.001-05:00

A Ghostly Charm, releasing today from The Wild Rose Press, started as a dream. I dreamed that Dean was running a ghost tour for Halloween, to help support he and Sam's demon-fighting job. I started writing it, may even have finished it that way, but it didn't really work for me. I know I completed it, but let it sit. It wasn't ready. Then another writer friend came up with the idea of having connected stories, based on a cursed object from an antique shop, and I pulled this up and started again. This time I thought--what if he led the ghost trips and DIDN'T believe in ghosts? That made writing the story a lot more fun, as was cutting the word count to pick up the pace of the story.
Here's the blurb:
An isolated island off the coast of South Carolina, a cursed Celtic symbol, a ghost tour led by a handsome charlatan, and a reporter determined to debunk anything supernatural come together in A Ghostly Charm.
Maddy Saunders has come to McDavid Island on assignment for a new magazine, wondering how she’ll ever rebuild her ruined reputation by writing about ghosts.
Mal Sheridan leads a ghost tour to bring business to the island for his sister’s New Age shop. Business is good as long as no one is looking too closely. When his creative stories start to come true, he has to figure out why there are ghosts where there weren’t before.
Maddy decides to help Mal figure out why this is happening, while fighting her attraction for this inappropriate man. She has to put her faith in Mal, in something she never thought she could believe, to break a curse.
Available at: Barnes and Noble
Amazon
The Wild Rose Press

Kripke Developing New Show

2011-08-27T11:41:00.003-05:00

According to an MTV article, Kripke is developing a new super hero show for the CW to replace the retired Smallville. Deadman, is about a murdered trapeze artist who can take possession of other living bodies--thanks to a Hindu goddess--to solve crimes and save the world.

Honestly, they had me at Kripke. That's enough for me to give it a try, how about you? Let's just hope the hero looks more like J&J and not the comic character!

My Confession: I've Been Converted to Samdom

2011-08-26T00:01:00.003-05:00

I confessed on Twitter and Facebook a few weeks ago that I think I've been converted. Then I started watching season 1 again, and I realize it's a lot more complicated than that.

From the first time I watched Supernatural, I was (for lack of a better term) a Dean girl. I mean, I was in my 30s, and he was the older, more experienced, more mature guy. I loved Sam just as much as I loved Dean, and I always identified more with Sam, but for attraction? It was Dean all the way.

Going back, I still feel that way about the early seasons, but I marvel at how freakin' much Jared Padalecki has changed.

During season 2, he started to really grow up. He filled out, caught up to his nose, and just kept getting bigger. And bigger. Not in a huge, scary way, and not in a lanky, buggy way. Just...big. The amazing thing is that he never stopped.

Take us through seasons 3, 4, 5, 6, and his character grew as much as his body did. Dean kept me through at least season 5 because of Jensen's fantastic acting (as well as the writing). He was tortured, and so full of loyalty and determination to save us all. He stayed true to his principles and his convictions. My goodness, how can anyone not stay hooked?

But Kripke always said Sam was the true protagonist of the show, and he faced and overcame some pretty intense obstacles. Season 6, especially the finale, made me flip.

Not that I realized it for a long time. I've never been all on one side—I always loved them both, and I still do. So I claimed to still be a Dean girl the whole time I marveled at the nuances of Padalecki's performance, and the challenges the writers threw at him. In the finale, he overcame all that fragmentation, all that pain, to go try to save his brother. Most of the talk I've seen has been about Castiel going dark side, but what *I* can't wait to see is how Sam comes out of the whole thing.

So all summer, whenever I thought about the show, Sam was who popped into my head. He's who my brain lingered over while I drove to work or did dishes (especially after my iPod got stolen and I had only my brain for company!). I would be lying if I didn't admit that I've been converted.

Except...Sam doesn't exist without Dean. All that character development couldn't have happened without his brother's influence. So it seems almost impossible to me that I or anyone else can really be all Dean girl or all Sam girl. Which puts me right where I was at the beginning of season one: in the middle, with a slight lean to one side.

I know some of you are rabid Sam girls and rabid Dean girls, but how many of you have found yourself switching back and forth? Tell us in the comments!

Supernatural News

2011-08-22T00:25:00.001-05:00

Wow, you'd think SPN news would be easier to come by this close to the beginning of the season. I do know Jarpad and Jim Beaver aren't tweeting as much, so I'm thinking they're busy.

Both Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia from Buffy) and James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) will be on an episode. I didn't read the article because it contained spoilers.

I had the Castiel teaser here but Natalie scooped me!

And y'all, with the season starting in less than a month, that's all I can find!

Teaser for Season 7 Premiere

2011-08-21T16:16:00.000-05:00

Interviews and Videos and News and Stuff

2011-08-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

The best news this week?

Supernatural got an extra episode! The CW ordered 23, which will either extend the season a week or make one of the hellatuses shorter. New CW president Mark Pedowicz says it's part of an attempt to keep out of the ratings black hole they fall into during those breaks.

Bunches of interviews out! I'll mark the ones I know contain spoilers, but I didn't watch the videos, so proceed with caution.

Jim Beaver talks about Bobby and the boys in season 7 (spoilers!).

Buzz Focus interviews Jensen. And Jim.

Mo Ryan interviewed Misha at TCA.

If you're a Vampire Diaries fan, another SPN recurring actor will be showing up over there. Sebastian Roche has been cast as a "mysterious vampire hunter."

Last week's "Supernatural Thursdays" post at Daemon's TV was the show's most quotable lines. I don't care how many times I see posts like that, or watch the show's themselves, I love reading them. Check it out! :)

What's Up in the Supernatural World?

2011-08-03T00:01:00.013-05:00

Just some random links to keep us all going as we near the end of summer. Obsessives will probably have already seen many of these. Got some new stuff just last night, though, so read on! (Saved the best for last!!!)

A new nonfiction book related to the show came out this week, "The Mythology of Supernatural." The link goes to a review of the book.

Set images featuring Castiel/Misha.

If you're in the UK, you'll be able to get Season 6, Volume 1, on DVD on August 29. This volume has the first 11 episodes.

Lots of interviews from Comic-Con:
Mark Sheppard
Ben Edlund
Sera Gamble
Jensen Ackles
Jared Padalecki

Some Comic-Con Photo Galleries
Jenson
Jared
Misha
Mark Sheppard
Sera and Ben

And now, the best for last! A new Ghostfacers video!!!! ETA: Apparently, this video has been leaked or something, as it got removed by Vimeo and YouTube. We'll post again if it ever shows up officially! ETA2: New upload below. As they disappear and reappear, I'll keep updating. :)

Bringing Back God...or Chuck

2011-07-22T00:01:00.030-05:00

In a recent article, Rob Benedict talked about the difficulty of bringing his character back. "It’s so self-conscious…" he says. "It’s kind of hard to just have him walk through the door and be like ‘Hey, how’s it going'?"

I don't think it's hard at all! You just have to love Chuck and Rob Benedict enough to be motivated to find the solution. :)

I think Chuck was not meant to be God from the beginning of his story thread. I just can't buy that God would sit alone in a ratty bathrobe and dial up porn while drinking bad whiskey. Yes, he took on a role to hide his true identity from the boys, but when they weren't around, who was he playing for?

Therefore, I think Kripke came up with that very fitting closure to his tenure as showrunner well into the season. It made "early Chuck as God" a little unbelievable, but now it makes bringing Chuck back super easy.

I don't think they have to bring Chuck back as God, or bring the "real" God onto the show at all. So far, God's presence—except for that one episode in the final moments of the Big Battle—has been off screen. He's done incredible things, like bringing Cas back (twice, really, and geez, this is how Cas repays him?!), but all from afar. Gentle nudging of events, not direct interference. Cas isn't the first being to declare himself lord and master, so God really doesn't have to change his behavior. If he wasn't going to jump in to prevent the apocalypse, he's not likely to show up for this poser.

Sam and Dean don't know that Chuck was "God." As far as we've seen, they haven't tried to find or contact him since Sam went into the pit. They can do a quick explainer, of course. Dean saying, "Dude, I tried to call you like fifty times." Or they can just admit to having been so wrapped up in their own issues they didn't think about him.

But what do Sam and Dean think happened to Chuck? (Rhetorical question.) If God only took Chuck's role for a short time, where did Chuck go during that? Maybe he was sleeping some real, awesome, dreamless sleep while God took over his prophet duties. Maybe, when he woke up, he realized he could have his life back. Or actually have a life. He wrote a new book, all his own ideas, and sold it and became a bestseller. In the meantime, he worked in a toilet paper factory (because it takes a long time to get from Page One to NY Times Bestseller list).

Okay, that established, what kind of storyline could draw Chuck back to the screen for us? Throw out some ideas!

Supernatural @ Comic-Con

2011-07-20T14:41:00.004-05:00

Comic Con starts today and HOW I wish I was there. One day, I hope. I really, really hope. Although I must confess I don't want to go by myself because it seems somewhat terrifying. LOL.

Meanwhile, Supernatural has a panel this Sunday with Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund, Jared, Jensen, Jim, Misha and Mark Sheppard. The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke with Jared who, God bless him, spoke about his geekiness. He confesses to an irrational love for Star Wars Boba Fett as a child. He really wanted to grow up to be a bounty hunter. I think he actually did as Sam, sans the rocket he seems to adore.

Fans have high hopes they’ll see the gag reel from season 6 at the session as well as a sneak peek of season 7, perhaps the episode Jensen directed since it was the first to be filmed. The panel will be moderated by Eric Goldman, the Executive Editor for the TV channel at IGN.com. You can tweet questions you'd like to hear at the panel via @EricIGN. They’ll also be previewing the anime series which arrives on DVD July 26. For updates visit the Supernatural Comic Con wiki page.

But the most interesting thing I got from the THR article was Jared’s hint that there’s going to be a major big baddie in the new season. “We have to go big or go home and Supernatural has a tendency to go big and badder and this season the foe will be bigger than Armageddon, bigger than the apocalypse, bigger than Lucifer and bigger than God. “ I’m thinking holy crap, just what could that be?

Supernatural News

2011-07-18T08:29:00.002-05:00

Sorry this is late--couldn't get my husband out the door this AM!

You may already know:

filming for season 7 has started, and Jensen directed. According to Jared's tweets, he kicked ass :)

the release date for the Season 6 DVDs is September 13. The premiere date is September 23, so 10 days to rewatch :)

Here's an interview with Misha about Season 7. The formatting on my PC is all messed up so I didn't read it.

Kripke's new script, Haunted, a story told from a ghost's perspective has been purchased by WB. Can I just say it sounds AWESOME?

Matt Cohen, baby Papa Winchester, will be on 90210 this season! Guess which new show is going on my Tivo? He's replacing someone or another...who cares? Matt Cohen!

Jewel Staite from Firefly will be a guest on SPN this season! I love her, but never recognize her until she says something.

You can now watch full-length episodes on your smart phone with an app from CW. My husband had shown me this earlier this week.

I leave you with some behind-the-scene photos of season 7. I think there are only 3. My laptop is being a bitch this AM and I can't load them.

SPN News as Shooting for Season 7 Begins

2011-07-11T06:34:00.000-05:00

Slow trickle of news at this time of year. It should pick up now that they're filming again, though! :)

Are you one of the fans upset or cautiously optimistic about Misha Collins' role as Castiel in season 7? Laura Prudom of AOL TV went to Haiti with Misha and Random Acts, and took the opportunity to ask him about it. Mild spoilers.

Alona Tal tweeted (in a vague kind of way) that she'll be back on the show in some capacity in season 7. You can read an analysis here.

In other casting news, Kim Rhodes (Bobby's Sheriff Millsannounced at the NJ Salute to Supernatural that she'll be back this season, too—filming right after Comic-Con.

My two favorite shows collide yet again! Yesterday my Google alert included links to an article confirming that Jewel Staite will be guest-starring in the episode Jensen is directing! Set photos can be found here, taken by a fan. You can't see Jewel's face in either shot, but die-hard fans may recognize body language and head shape. LOL

At Comic-Con's preview night on July 20th, Warner Bros. will be sneak-peaking the anime series. (Details here.

Speaking of Comic-Con... If you're going, you're in for a treat. Warner Bros. is putting Supernatural in Hall H! The panel will be Sunday from 11:15 to 12:15. Be warned: It's followed by the Doctor Who panel. There's a lot of overlap in fandoms, so that might work out nicely, but still take the huge Doctor Who following into account in your planning. (Remember when the Twihards filled the hall early so the Avatar people couldn't get in?)

Anyone hear any other news?

Hiatus

2011-07-06T07:07:00.003-05:00

The crew is back at work on Season 7 starting this week. From what I can tell, neither Jared nor Jensen had any extra curricular activities this hiatus--no new movies for us.

So I was thinking--what kind of movies would you like to see the guys in?

I had so wanted Jensen to play Captain America. My husband, a big Marvel fan, said he's too old, though.

I had also wanted Jensen to play Captain Kirk (clearly I want him in some position of authority.)

He'd be a great romantic comedy lead. Or even a romantic lead in a movie like The Notebook.

I'd love to see Jared in an action hero role. Or maybe a cyberpunk kind of role. Or a post-apoc movie.

What are the dream roles you have for the Js?

Supernatural Conference: Misha

2011-07-01T08:19:00.000-05:00

At the Salute to Supernatural conference Tanya and I attended in early June, it seemed that Misha Collins (Castiel) just might have been as big a hit as Jared and Jensen. He really has won the hearts of fans, not something particularly easy to do when you're a new character introduced into the Supernatural world.

The line to get pictures taken with him was fairly lengthy, so much so that when he walked up the stairs next to me with his handlers, he made a face like, "Wow, where did all these people come from?" Something that was different from the day before when we'd gone to get photos with Jared and Jensen was increased security. There was a Metro Nashville police officer at the door, another next to Misha and a TBI agent in the middle of the room. Turns out somebody had threatened Misha online, perhaps because they were upset that he was playing God. I mean, come on people! Sure, the religious stuff on Supernatural makes me squirm sometimes, but it's fiction. The actors don't actually believe this stuff.

Threats aside, Misha was very friendly as were Jared and Jensen the day before. We exchanged "nice to meet yous", the picture was snapped, and off I went to the rest of my day. Tanya showed me a video tweet Misha had posted that morning. Evidently he'd gone for a run and one of the cicadas that were then in swarm mode (thank goodness they're all gone now for another 13 years) attached itself to the front of his shorts. Misha, being Misha, said something about the cicada "going for the gold." Hee hee.

Later, when Misha took the stage, the roar from the crowd was quite impressive. And unlike some of the other panelists from previous sessions, he understandably stayed on the stage, except for when a girl dressed in a pretty good Castiel costume came to the microphone to ask a question. It was funny to watch her get a little flustered as he deliberately moved closer and closer into her personal space.

I really should have written this post right after the conference so I could remember the specifics of the question-and-answer session. I remember him talking about Random Acts and how he was getting ready to head to Haiti to help build an orphanage. He does a lot of really good charity work like that. And that's something that always endears a star to me much more than anything else, a friendly and giving nature. When they don't let stardom go to their heads and make them jerks.

I'm not sure what will happen to Castiel this year, but I wish Misha Collins much continued success in his career, wherever that takes him.

My Favorite Episodes of Season Six

2011-06-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

This might change after I've watched the whole season over again (which I can't do until I get the DVDs, THANKS A LOT, stupid DVR), but for now, these were my favorite episodes of this season.

"Weekend at Bobby's"
Dean's edge aside, I loved getting insight into Bobby's life. There was so much humor, and pathos, too, because my god, he must be lonely.

"Clap Your Hands if You Believe"
The story-of-the-week was delightful, with evil fairies and alien abduction and "crazy" people who knew what they were talking about. But really, the best part was seeing Sam freed of the constraints of hiding himself from everyone. It was a step beyond knowing why he was acting so strange, and I loved watching him acting at a whole new level.

"Appointment in Samarra"
Death is just an awesome character, and Dean's courage in seeking him was fantastic. It was great to see Tessa again, especially with her attitude toward Dean. She was a little tired of his defiance of the natural order of things.

From episode 15 on, things just got really good. "The French Mistake," because I love the meta. "My Heart Will Go On," because of the way they changed everything. I had to laugh that they were driving a Mustang, because of Kripke planning to have them drive that, and being told by his neighbor that it's a good car for pussies. "Frontierland" and "Mommy Dearest," finding ways to bring back old threads and old guests. Samantha Smith just rocks every time she's on.

"Let it Bleed" killed me, with Dean making that big sacrifice, and I will forever be impressed with Jared Padalecki playing FOUR different versions of Sam in "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

So that's my list of favorites. What's yours?

Supernatural News

2011-06-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

Director Guy Norman Bee set to direct three episodes next season.

More meta in store for Season 7.

Season 6 DVDs to release Sept. 13. One featurette to focus on Jensen's directorial debut.

Anyone else heard any other news?

How Far Do YOU Go?

2011-06-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

I started watching Supernatural the summer between the first and second seasons. My cable package didn't have the WB for season 1, and though my best friend (*waves at Megan*) gave me the pilot, I didn't bother watching because it was too much effort for her to have to do that for me every week. But by season two, I had DirecTV, so I watched the first season on DVD via Netflix and was instantly hooked.

By the summer after season two, Megan and I had hooked other friends, and we missed the show so much, we started Supernatural Summer. Every week, some or all of us got together and watched a few episodes. Of course, back then, it was easy. Even after season 3, when we repeated Supernatural Summer, we could get through all three seasons by doing four episodes every week and maybe skipping "Bugs."

It got harder after that. Our lives were busier, and we couldn't meet every week. And, of course, with more seasons, we didn't have time to watch all the episodes. So I did it myself, season 1 through season 4.

can tell you the names of every episode in those first three seasons, and most of the ones in season 4. But of course, I've watched those first three a lot more than the last three, and I'm embarrassingly unfamiliar with episode titles in 5 and 6.

I wasn't sure I was going to bother watching this year. As we've discussed, that level of passion is hard to sustain past six seasons. But already, I'm missing the boys. I decided to start with season 4, the episodes I can't quote word-for-word. But then, the other night, I couldn't access the DVDs and I was worried about file degradation on my old DVR, so I started watching season 6 again. As soon as I log off here, I'm going to go watch episode 3. Probably some time in July, I'll dig out the DVDs and go back to season 4.

Mainly, I love rewatching because every story arc gives a new perspective to what came before. That makes watching a completely new experience. Yeah, some of it is marveling yet again how small Jared was in the beginning compared to now. But some of it is bittersweet relationship stuff flavored by what I know is coming for them.

Great. Now I want to start with the pilot again. I just LOVE that first fight scene between them!

I know my obsession goes far beyond most of my friends. How many times have YOU watched each season? Do you plan to rewatch any of season 6 this summer?

Meta Madness

2011-06-15T11:59:00.006-05:00

On Michael Ausiello's TVLine he was asked if there would be any more meta episodes of Supernatural. Sera Gamble responded by saying, "We have not put the kibosh on meta. It’s completely about somebody pitching a story that would work for us.” Sera said the French Mistake would be hard to top but adds, "I thought we were never going to be able to do meta again long before ‘The French Mistake.’ And then that got pitched, and we had to do it, of course. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in Season 7 or beyond, someone pitches something that enables us to do a fun episode like that again.”

Okay, so what kind of meta episode would you like to see? How would you break down the fourth wall?

Captioned photo credit: Tim Surettte, TV.com

Supernatural News

2011-06-13T00:42:00.000-05:00

Okay, it's not easy to find news during hellatus.

Here's an article talking about Jim Beaver being a series regular and Misha being a special guest star.

Jensen took advantage of being in Nashville last week to go to the Country Music Awards. I like hiatus beard.

Jensen's wife Daneel will be in an NBC sitcom this summer called "Friends with Benefits."

That's all I've got, y'all! Anyone else?

I Heart Richard Speight Jr.

2011-06-10T09:42:00.006-05:00

As Trish mentioned in her Wednesday post, she and I just attended the SALUTE TO SUPERNATURAL con in Nashville. Great time! And seeing the actors in person (all of whom were lovely to the fans) solidified my deep admiration for them--especially for my favorite guest star of all time, Richard Speight Jr. (aka The Trickster aka Gabriel). I didn't know this, but Nashville is actually his "hometown." Also, the people who put on this convention have already decided to come back to Nashville next year and Jensen/Jared are on board, so start making plans now!

We actually saw two panels with Richard--one on the first day, alongside Matt Cohen who plays John Winchester (and Michael!) in trips to the past, plus another on the second day, with Brock Kelly (young Dean in "After School Special") and Chad Lindberg (the awesome Ash, aka Dr. Badass.) You can tell Richard by the empty chairs in both sessions--because the man constantly moved, usually through the audience and paying particular attention to the back rows, where it was hardest to hear and see. I tried like crazy to snap pictures, but they're all a blur because the man is a bundle of nonstop energy! So the picture here is from Trish. I'm almost sorry we missed him as master of ceremonies for the Karaoke party the night before the con started!

Richard is a quick thinker, extremely funny, generous (he is soon to jump out of a plane in order to help raise money for a monument but all the guys there are active with different causes--Misha and Matt are about to go to Haiti to help build an orphanage!) Anyway, Richard is very personable and answered questions about everything from the recent Pepsi commercials (in which he got to snap and do some magic which got Pepsi fanmail) to guesting on Justified (he could not say enough good about Walton Goggins). But of course most questions were about Supernatural and he encouraged fans to write letters demanding his comeback :-D His pet theory is that Gabriel trapped an ACTUAL Trickster to model himself after. He wants to play the real Trickster escaped and his first prank should be to shrink Sam and Dean, especially Sam, and chase them around. Richard joked that the reason he doesn't stay on stage is so you can't see how short he is next to co-stars. Unfortunately, Richard is so nice that some fans took radical advantage--and began the nonstop HUG request, even requesting him to get Chad and Brock down off stage for "threesome" hugs. I was cringing like you wouldn't believe.

Chad was very laid-back about the whole thing (he actually DOES remind me of Ash, but without the mullet and he admits to not being very computer-saavy) but Brock seemed a little uncomfortable with the repeated manhandling (although once he'd started accepting hug requests, he never told anyone no. Seriously good sports). Okay, guys, if you've never been to a con, here are my two pieces of advice: Wear comfortable shoes and don't molest the guest celebrities kind enough to appear.

BTW, the guests got asked lots of miscellaneous questions, from the random "what's your favorite color?" "what would be your spirit animal?" to the vaguely inappropriate, which I won't be repeating here. Toward the end, Brock Kelly, looking slightly dazed by things, gave one of my favorite answers. He was asked what he would do if time travel turns out to be possible, and he said he'd like to see the future. "I'd go forward. I'd just go and go and go until there was nothing left. Then I'd back up a little bit."

These panels reminded me of a big reason I love Supernatural. Yes, Jared and Jensen are completely awesome, but they often find just the right guest stars, even for single appearances and supporting roles. It was suggested by one of the fans that sarcastic "party-angel" Balthazar was a replacement for Gabriel, leading to several jokes by Richard including "glad to hear he's dead...I want my damn job back."

So if YOU were going to write an episode where you brought back the Trickster, young John, young Dean or Ash, how would you do it?

Supernatural Conference, Part 1

2011-06-08T00:35:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, fellow Supernatural Sister Tanya and I attended a Supernatural fan conference held in Nashville. We found out about this conference last Labor Day weekend while in a line for a panel at Dragon*Con, and when the Silver (second-tier) weekend passes went on sale we nabbed a couple. I was actually nervous waiting for those Silver packages to go on sale, afraid the con would sell out while only the Gold packages were available. We didn't need the Gold package because that included the hotel room, and we didn't need that expense because I only live a few miles from the hotel and planned to drive it each day.

We did get our Silver packages finally, and last Friday Tanya made the drive up for the weekend. Nothing better than a visit with a good friend while being fangirls. There wasn't much going on con-wise on Friday night, so we just went out to dinner and enjoyed catching up. I had just finished up with some crazy deadlines earlier in the week and was ready for a weekend of pure fun.

On Saturday morning, we headed to the hotel to register. We noticed right off that this conference was much different than what we were used to at Dragon*Con. Not only was the crowd much smaller (well, most every con crowd would be compared to the 40,000-50,000 people who attend Dragon*Con each year), but also there were very few costumes and not all that many Supernatural-themed T-shirts. It seemed that the majority female crowd had opted to dress nicer for their upcoming photos with Jared and Jensen. Yep, you read that right -- Jared and Jensen were in the house. We also had assigned seats, which is so much different than the crazy rush and enormously long lines at Dragon*Con. We were in row K right in the middle of the stage, so nice seats. They called those getting photos made with the stars by row, so we had a bit to wait. But we're never without something to read, so when we weren't talking or having our photo taken next to a huge poster of the Impala (because we knew MJ loves it so) Tanya was reading one of the Game of Thrones books and I was reading my friend T.R. Ragan's new thriller, Abducted.

Finally it was time to get in line for our photos with Jared and Jensen. I've had photos taken with several stars at Dragon*Con, but I'll admit to being a wee bit jittery for this one. When we finally got into the room where the photos were being taken and saw J&J, it was a bit of a surreal moment. Like many TV stars, they were "rocking the hiatus beards" (a term used on Twitter by one of the guys from Castle, not sure which one). Tanya and I, geek girls that we are, actually were wearing Supernatural T-shirts, and I was wearing one I'd gotten off CafePress that said, "Don't fear the Reaper. The Winchesters took care of it." The guys read it as I stepped up for my photo and Jensen said, "Nice." Yes, I'm a goob because that made me smile like a fool, I'm sure. And yes, Jared really is tall (6'5"). I'm used to being around tall guys (hubby is 6'3" and brother-in-law is 6'7"), but it was still notable.

After lunch, we headed back to the ballroom where all the main sessions were being held. First up was the panel with Jared and Jensen. As you might imagine, much clapping and screaming ensued when they took the stage. They answered audience questions, talked about the show and goofed around about Jared's new Twitter account, which seemed to mightily confuse Jensen. They, as well as some of the other stars, talked about how they had no idea what would happen next season as they haven't yet seen any scripts. So evidently our guesses are as good as anyone's.

Following the panel, Jared and Jensen signed autographs. This took a good long while. One of the conference organizers said that this was the biggest crowd for Jared and Jensen at any of their cons to date. But we finally got our autographs (part of our weekend package), and let me just say that I was both happy and relieved that J&J were both really nice. It's going to be a little odd next season watching the show knowing that I've met them. Sort of like when I watch Castle and realize I've met Nathan Fillion. Tanya and I were talking about how if we could go back and tell our childhood selves that we would someday meet all these stars, we wouldn't have believed it.

So much happened at the conference that Tanya and I will be devoting several posts to it. Check back on Friday to read Tanya's post on another aspect of the weekend.

Breaking News

2011-06-04T15:47:00.001-05:00

May I have your attention please.

Jared Padalecki is now on Twitter. (@jarpad)

(Sorry, I had a typo in the link. Is fixed now.)

(It is too breaking news, he only posted his first tweet 15 hours ago!)

According to Zap 2 It, he confirmed to the Nashville Supernatural convention crowd that it's him, and Misha Collins and Jim Beaver both tweeted at him.

jumblejim Jim Beaver
@jarpad You'll be sorry!!!!

mishacollins Misha Collins
RT @jarpad: I changed my pic buy it hasn't shown?... Twitter doesn't like me :( No. They just don't allow u to post photos of testicles.

(Note: "buy" instead of "but" was an original @jarpad typo. I want everyone to know it's not Misha who doesn't care about accuracy. ;) )

In 15 hours, Jared has over 30,000 followers. Let's see how high he climbs, how fast.

Theresa Meyers Talks About Her Favorite Episode of Season Six

2011-05-30T00:01:00.001-05:00

In lieu of our normal Monday news, I'm delighted to host author Theresa Meyers today. She's a great fan of Supernatural, and her upcoming book, The Hunter, is inspired by our favorite show. If I hadn't already decided to buy this book the moment Theresa told me about the premise, I'd be buying it based on the cover alone! Take it away, Theresa...

Okay, I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit of a Supernatural nut. In fact my best friend (who is also addicted to the show) and I get along for the simple reason that she’s a Sam girl and I’m a Dean girl, so we don’t have to fight each other over the same Winchester when we’re watching the show together. Sometimes Supernatural is what gets me through a week of tough writing on the novel in progress.

One of my favorite episodes from this season had to be "Frontierland," not because it was the best written show of the season, but because it touched on some back story of Dean we’d never seen before – his love of all things western.

I know that in an earlier outtake interview (was it season 3?) Kripke talks about how he’d like to do something back in the Old West revolving around Samuel Colt. I think this was their shot at the idea. Did I love the whole idea of the Phoenix being a man that couldn’t die? Oh yeah! That was brilliant.

I also liked how Dean was almost *squee-fan-girl* over the whole chance to go to the Old West, but when he gets there it’s not nearly as romantic as it seemed. (Witness the whiskey that tastes like gasoline and the diseased saloon girl who freaked him out.) And in contrast Sam was totally out of his element (going so far as to try as scrape horse poo of his shoe and carry about his cell phone for comfort.)

Putting Samuel Colt and Elkins in there was a fantastic means to integrate the back story of the revolver (which is almost a character itself in some seasons) with the current hunt the boys are on, and I really liked how they discovered the journal in the Campbell family vault of hunter knowledge. The only thing that would have made the episode better for me was if Dean had gotten to collect the ashes of the Phoenix himself rather than having it all tied in a neat “back-to-the-Future-3” style bow where the ashes miraculously appear just on the right day and the right time after they’ve returned home from their visit to the wild west.

Another reason I loved the episode was because I wanted to see how close it came to the book I just finished writing that comes out in November. The Hunter, which is steampunk and best described as Supernatural meets Wild Wild West with a little bit of Indiana Jones for flavoring, features three brothers all out to unite the Book of Legend, which is kind of the compendium of Hunter knowledge and can help protect against the Gates of Nyx opening and letting all the Darkin into the world (think purgatory and Hell combined). Truth was, while my three brothers hunt down Darkin, they really don’t have anything close to the abundance of resources the Winchesters have. Sure they’ve got cooler steampunk weapons and the hero has a mechanical horse instead of a throaty muscle car, but overall, their world is just a little bit different because the society I’ve created is a little bit different because of the more advanced steam-powered technology. The Supernatural episode was gritty, real west, which I could appreciate. My stories have just a shade more sci-fi and romance.

Sure there were other episodes that were better written than "Frontierland," and certainly those that gave us more eye-candy than others (Souless!Sam, I’m looking at you). But overall, after so many shows in several seasons, it was nice to see a little glimpse of the characters that we didn’t know. Those little nuggets of surprise are part of what keep me addicted to the show—okay, well that and my absolute adoration of Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester.

So, in looking back at season six, what was your favorite episode?

Goodbye Season 6

2011-05-27T00:01:00.002-05:00

Since there's no new episode to recap today, I thought I'd focus on wrapping up season 6 and get a head start on season 7 info.

Articles reference an interview with Sera that addresses, in oblique fashion, what Castiel has become and how that affects the tone of season 7.

All the boys have is each other? I'm on board with that! (Unless that means no Bobby, of course, but I haven't seen a hint of that.)

A new tie-in novel by Rebecca Dessertine fills in the missing year when Dean was domesticated and Sam had no soul.

The Internet is abuzz with the news that Misha Collins will no longer be a series regular. They've been cagey on what this means for how many episodes he'll be in, and whether or not he'll be a season-long "big bad."

An answer to an After Elton reader question talks about the appeal of shows like Supernatural to the gay community.

Speaking of After Elton, AE readers voted on the World's Hottest 100 Men. Our guys made a respectable showing, with Jensen moving from #14 last year to #8, Jared going from 37 to 16, and Misha climbing a little from 44 to 40.

Supernatural won't be the only supernatural-y series come fall. Besides the other returning shows (like Fringe and Vampire Diaries), the networks are bringing in a plethora of new ones. Grimm appears closest to SPN, with a guy who finds out he's the end of a long line of hunters.

Let It Bleed recap

2011-05-21T00:00:00.001-05:00

The first thing I have to say is, my son will love this episode. First, we have a man typing The End on a book in March of 1937, only to have something crash through the window and kill him, spraying his blood on the manuscript, written by H.P. Lovecraft.

Cool!

Meanwhile, back at Bobby’s, Sam, Dean and Bobby are talking about the journals, and H.P. Lovecraft, who often wrote about opening doors between dimensions, when Ben calls. Some men have broken into the house, killed Lisa’s new boyfriend and have taken her, and are coming for Ben. Dean tells Ben to jump out the window, but too late. The phone falls and Crowley picks it up. Crowley’s lines are too great and numerous to recount here, but he wants Dean and “Jolly Green” to stand down, and Lisa and Ben will keep breathing. Dean still wants to go after Ben and Lisa, and they call Balthazar to help. He’s snarky, until they reveal that Castiel is working with Crowley, going halvsies on the souls in purgatory. Balthazar disappears without helping, but he’s clearly surprised by their revelation.

Meanwhile, Bobby follows the Lovecraft lead, to an expert who lives in a basement and has a long-term online relationship. He has some of Lovecraft’s personal papers, and the man asks if he’s working with the other guy, “Trench coat, looks like Columbo, talks like Rain Man.” Bobby said they’re rivals, working on rival magazines. The man tells Bobby that there was a dinner party at Lovecraft’s house, a group of people casting a spell to open a door to another dimension. The man had papers about it, but when he went to fetch them, they were gone. Bobby realizes Castiel took them. He calls Sam to tell him about the dinner party, and the fact that all invited guests were dead or disappeared within a year. Bobby is heading to talk to the maid’s son, who was nine at the time, now 83, locked in a mental ward.

The old man asks about Castiel, calling him a liar. He tells Bobby about the spell, and how it didn’t fail. Something invisible came through, but it came for his mother. It went into her, and then killed the others. Bobby tells him he’s sorry about his mom, the first person to say so. Then he shows Bobby a picture of his mom that shocks Bobby, but we aren’t shown.

Balthazar summons Castiel from a conversation with Crowley to ask him about his involvement with Crowley. Turns out the souls will give him power. Balthazar says it can go wrong, Castiel can explode, taking half the planet with him. Balthazar agrees to go along with the plan, while telling Cass how upset Sam and Dean are.

Sam and Dean are interrogating demons, looking for Ben and Lisa. Dean smudges the devil’s trap and one of the demons gets free and is killing him when Castiel steps in. Dean says he didn’t ask for his help, which surprises Cass, who says, “You’re welcome,” anyway. Castiel tells Dean he didn’t know about Lisa and Ben. Cass says trust should run both ways, but Dean can’t. He’s torn up. Castiel promises to find Lisa and Ben and bring them back, but he wants Dean to stand behind him the one time he asks. He denies Cass’s offer.

Bobby heads for a cabin with a symbol on the door, and a beautiful blonde opens the door. “It’s been awhile,” Bobby says. Not sure if he’s calling her Ellie or Allie, but she’s the woman from the picture. He knows what she is. She’s 900 years old. He asks why she’s taking so long. “You’re from freaking Purgatory. You never thought to mention that when we were sleeping together?” She likes the planet and has been trying to keep purgatory closed for 75 years. Bobby warns her that Castiel is looking for her. He wants to know how to open the door, but she said it’s too dangerous. He offers to protect her but she declines, saying she’s better protecting herself.

Sam is back at Bobby’s, and Balthazar shows up, officially on their team. He’s there for his survival, thinking Castiel is bonkers for wanting to swallow up all those souls. He has found Lisa and Ben, but can’t get them because it’s angel-proof. He takes Sam and Dean to a warehouse, where they stab a demon who’s coming out. They enter the building and split up. Sam gets knocked unconscious and thrown into a dirty cell. Lisa and Ben are tied up, old-fashioned villain style, to a post, and hear fighting outside the door. LOL! The other demons go to investigate, more fighting, a demon comes crashing through the door, and Lisa and Ben see Dean fighting. Dean cuts them loose. But, yikes, as he’s leaving, Lisa grabs Ben back and lifts a knife ♦to his throat. She’s possessed! Didn’t see that coming. Crowley had a demon possess her just in case Dean came. The demon says some crappy things, like Dean being the worst mistake she made, other than keeping Ben. Dean throws holy water on her and she releases Ben, and Dean attacks her, but can’t hit her. He starts exorcising her. She grabs the knife and STABS HERSELF! The demon taunts him to exorcise her now, because she’ll die. He continues the exorcism, crying, and Lisa falls. He can’t reach Sam, who’s been knocked unconscious and locked up. He carries Lisa out, and Ben has to carry the shotgun. He shoots three, then they find Sam, who steals a car and they race to a hospital with a bleeding Lisa.

After the LONGEST COMMERCIAL BREAK EVER, we see Dean and Ben at Lisa’s side in the hospital. She’s intubated and comatose, and Ben’s devastated. He won’t talk to Dean. Castiel walks in and places a hand on Lisa’s head, healing her. Dean is grateful, but it changes nothing. Castiel walks out, saying he wanted to fix what he could. Dean asks for one more favor. When Lisa wakes up, Ben tells her they were in a car crash, which apparently he also believes. And they don’t remember Dean when he shows up, saying he was the guy who hit them. He’d lost control and was glad they were okay, and that their lives could get back to normal. HEARTBREAKING! Poor Dean looks like he’s been hit in the gut.

Sam tells him it’s the crappiest thing he’s ever done, whitewashing their memories. Dean tells Sam never to mention Lisa and Ben to him, or he’ll break his nose. They drive off.

The last scene is Ellie/Allie walking to her car, only to be confronted by Castiel, who takes her away. WHERE???

How awesome was that? Now....the second hour!

Recap of "The Man Who Knew Too Much"

2011-05-20T23:59:00.001-05:00

Note: I wanted MJ's first episode recap to appear on the page ahead of this one, but if you get this in a Google Reader or some other kind of feed, please read her recap of "Let it Bleed" first!

We start with the traditional "The Road So Far" reminders to Kansas's "Carry On, Wayward Son, culminating in Cas saying "You have to trust me." Which doesn't bode well for what happens if we do.

We open with Sam on the run from police, frantic. He hides, and a cop car crawls by Castle Storage, which should be a clue (it's Dad's storage place!), especially since Sam doesn't go there. He ducks into a bar and tells the freaked-out bartender that he just needs a minute to think, and he doesn't know who he is. (I love this actress!)

I love the editing on this show. "I don't remember anything" and cut to shattering glass and growls. *sigh* I'm so sad this is the season finale.

The last thing Sam remembers, he woke up on a park bench and clocked the cops trying to take him in (For what, Sam? You hardly look like a vagrant. Clue #2.) The bartender assures Sam it will come to him if he relaxes. He finds an HP Lovecraft book on a shelf, and it triggers a few memories of the last episode, plus a motel. He borrows a laptop and finds the motel, a dump.

Bartender: "Maybe you're a hooker."

She insists on accompanying Sam, who tries to tell her no, but she's as stubborn as he is. When she tells him she's been called crazy, and that she's dying to know how it all turns out, I get a little suspicious that she's not just a random bystander.

They go to the motel and the room Sam would choose, and break in with a credit card. (I did that once when I locked myself out of my dorm room! I don't remember why I had my keycard in the shower but not my key...) Anyway! The room is full of their old research boards, with data on their current case, though this isn't a method they've used in a long time. An image of Ellie (aka Eleanor, aka Bobby's old squeeze the professor with the dragon sword, aka something out of purgatory) triggers another memory for Sam.

Bobby, Dean, and Sam are trying to find Ellie, who called them to this alley. They call her and hear her phone live, and find her dying. She could have handled the demon, but when the angel got involved... She told them how to open purgatory. She manages to tell them the formula before she dies. Cas arrives with an insincere apology. He tells them to stay out of it, but when they refuse, he says, "I promise when this is over, I'll save Sam. But only if you stand. down." Then he touches Sam.

Who is back to himself again, aware of who he is, and just a little unsettled.

Sam: "I just remember I was with two guys. One was a male model type, and the other was an older guy."

Man, would Dean love that!

Sam finds Bobby's address but not phone number, and is going to head to South Dakota. The bartender (whose name we never do learn) says this is where she gets off. Sam finds car keys and they go outside where he says, "That's mine." Um...really, Sam? LOL

The bartender tells Sam that whatever he's looking for, he may not like what he finds. Again, I'm suspicious. Sam senses something, and the world goes slo-mo. He knocks the bartender down before someone fires on them.

Me and Number One: "Noooo! They shattered the Impala!"

The shooter...

...is Sam. Cold, hard, soulless Sam.

And now we get it. The bartender is calling Sam, but when she says "Sammy," we know that's got to be Dean. And sure enough, we flash into the panic room at Bobby's, angel proofed, with Sam on his cot (yum) and Dean hovering, worried beyond sanity.

I think this is about when I said, "How the hell am I going to recap this episode?!"

We come back to the Rolling Stones "Play with Fire" and Dean struggling to find a solution. Bobby clarifies for us that Cas actually removed the wall in Sam's brain. Now they have 15 hours to stop Cas from opening purgatory and Dean frantic to help Sam, and they have no ideas on how to do any of it.

Back in Sam's head, in the Impala, he smells whisky (whiskey? didn't see what they were drinking LOL). Bartender is no longer happy to be with Sam, but he thinks she's safer with him. Then Dean shines a flashlight in Sam's eye and suddenly he's blinded and it's suddenly daylight. He's freaked, she's freaked, but he hears something in the woods and tells her to get in the car. Then he opens the Impala's trunk and is a bit floored by the arsenal. He loads up and heads into the woods to find whatever's stalking him. A very Sam move, and I think he's starting to read the clues.

And now we slide into Jared Padalecki's greatest performance. We have Less!Than!Sam, a diminished, "gawky," frightened version of himself, face-to-face with Soulless!Sam, who explains that when Cas took down the wall, Sam shattered into pieces. Here are two of them. Soulless!Sam waxes rhapsodic about himself and derides Less!Than!Sam, and decides to take charge around here, before it's too late. But Soulless!Sam is a crappy shot, so when LT!Sam takes off, SL!Sam misses, like, five times.

The pathetic infant isn't so much, though. He tricks SL!Sam with a decoy and circles around, shooting himself in the back. SL!Sam says "You think I'm bad, wait till you meet the other one." Then his piece of soul merges with LT!Sam, to create one close to whole. When he comes out of the woods, he's the Sam we know, remembering who he is, everything he did...and the bartender who isn't, as I thought, just a random bystander. Sam pulled a Speed on her when he was soulless, shooting her to remove a creature's leverage. Sam apologizes, and she says "Not as sorry as you're gonna be" before she fades away.

Balthazar shows up at Bobby's. Dean asks what took him so long, and he says he was trying to decide whether to help them or rip out their sticky bits. Ew. He hands over the address where Cas and Crowley are. 221 Piermont Ave., Bootback, Kansas. Which doesn't exist, unless I'm reading it wrong, but nothing close exists, either. Far as I can tell, Bootback or Bootbock is a tribute to the, what, computer geeks?

Anyway. Balthazar won't zap them there, because he's betraying a friend, they all are, and he thinks he's stuck his neck out far enough.

Crowley hands over the purgatory power shake to Cas, who "renegotiates" the terms. Crowley gets nothing. Cas gives him two options: flee, or die. I start to have hope that Cas has a big wonderful plan, when he tells Crowley he wasn't going to hand over souls to the King of Hell because he's neither stupid, nor wicked. Crowley chooses, of course, to flee.

Sam is now in a house full of candles and dropcloth-shrouded furniture that turns out to be Bobby's place. In the kitchen is a half-slumped figure. Sam shouts at him, and he raises his head. "Oh. Hi, Sam." And drops it again. Utterly defeated and despairing. Sam asks which one he is, and a bloodied, battered Sam stands up and says "I'm the one who remembers hell."

Bobby finishes packing while Dean leaves the address with Sam's gun next to him, and begs him to wake up and follow them. "Sammy, please" breaks my heart every time.

Hellfire!Sam says he wishes Sam hadn't come. Sam says he had to, that this is where he is in the real world, right? Bobby's? Hellfire!Sam asks how he knows that, and Sam says this whole time he's been smelling Old Spice and whiskey. He figures if he came here, he could snap out of it somehow. HF!Sam says he has to go through him, that Humpty Dumpty has to put himself back together before he can wake up, and he's the last piece. So Sam has to know what happened in the cage in order to go back. HF!Sam says he doesn't want to know it, and begs Sam to stay. He tells Sam he knows him, and that he's not strong enough.

But...but...he's HIM. If Hellfire!Sam is strong enough to withstand it, then Whole!Sam would have to be, right? Of course, HF!Sam is just a manifestation of Whole!Sam's fears that he CAN'T handle it. But Sam won't leave his brother alone out there, so he will do it.

HF!Sam won't fight him. He hands over a knife and Sam stabs himself, writhing and arching and flailing and arching and... ahem. As his soul pieces merge.

Balthazar appears to Cas, who summoned him. Cas says Dean is on his way, that they have a Judas in their midst, and holy hell, none of these angels can lie worth a damn! Cas reads Balthy, of course, and laments how everyone has turned on him. Then he stabs Balthazar through the heart. When Cas says "Yes, I'll always have you," I think he's taking Balthazar's soul! Hmmm. That gives me some ideas for next season's direction...

But I'm jumping ahead. It's really hard to have hope now that Cas has any good left in him. Bobby and Dean are on site now, and they can't take on a dozen angel-mooks, so Bobby says they'll Ninja their way in. Dean says yeah, until Bobby's knee squeaks. But now they have something thudding toward them, and spot a cloud of demons. They get in the car, which gets utterly plowed over as the demons attack the building.

Cas is distracted from the Latin ritual on a piece of paper by the demon attack and Crowley's return. Cas tries to palm him, but Crowley has switched sides. He's protected by Raphael. Cas reveals utter hypocrisy in judging Raphael for consorting with demons. After a mildly amusing exchange in which Crowley can't decide whether to call Raphael a he or she, Raphael says something very telling. "Taking that much power? If anyone is going to be 'the new God,' it's me." Cas says it will bring on the apocalypse. Crowley doesn't care, he just took the best offer on the table. He gives Cas the same offer, to flee or die.

Cas tosses the jar of blood to Crowley and disappears, and god help me, I STILL had hope for a big meaty awesome wonderful plan in which Castiel is still worthy of our love.

Crowley starts the ritual. Dean and Bobby struggle out from the smashed Impala and get inside. Dean flings an angel knife at Raphael, who catches it—not that it had very good aim, anyway. Crowley flings Bobby down the stairs and Dean over a rail onto a table. A shaky, exhausted Sam, struggling to suppress his memories, stumbles by the Impala, further evidence of that wormhole extending from Bobby's to everywhere else in the country. Crowley finishes the ritual, but nothing happens.

"Maybe I said it wrong."

"You said it perfectly," says a smug, clearly victorious Cas. Raphael isn't as smart as Crowley, and orders Cas to hand over the blood. Crowley knows it's too late, and invites Cas to display his power, which he does, in a flare of light that calls to mind the rise of Lucifer at the end of last season.

Cas is pretty mellow/high. He lets Crowley go, but says he has plans for him when Raphael protests him letting the demon go but not his own brother. Cas snaps his fingers, and Raphael goes all esplodey. The angel knife clatters to the floor.

Cas is very scary, and Dean plays placater, apologizing and thanking and trying to talk Cas into defusing, into releasing the souls back to purgatory. But it's too late. It's pretty clear what's going to happen immediately next: Sam sneaks in and picks up the angel knife and stabs Cas with it, but...

Cas isn't an angel anymore. He says "You're not my family, Dean. I have no family." And we know he's lost to us. When Sam stabs him and nothing happens, Dean, Sam, and Bobby show nothing but terror.

"I'm your new god. A better one. So you will bow down, profess your love unto me, your lord. Or I shall destroy you."

Aaaaannnnddd....scene.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Random Thoughts:

So the theme of season 6 was apparently hypocrisy. I won't explore all the ways we saw it displayed over 22 episodes, but it culminated in the ultimate hypocrisy: In trying to stop Raphael, Cas became exactly what he was fighting.

I half expected Chuck to appear at the end and say something like "I don't think so." :)

Where the heck is Jesse? I really want to see the Antichrist come back and put some mojo on the boys' side for once.

Part of me mourns the loss of Castiel, but I'm strangely not upset by his transformation. I mean, I am, but it was done so gradually and skillfully (maybe...or maybe it was done so poorly I lost all emotional connection, but I prefer to think that's not it) that I'm shocked and dismayed, but not angry or shredded.

I think this can put the rumors to rest of Misha not returning next season.

I don't think we can call Jensen the better actor anymore. While he may still have a more natural ability to display emotion from within, Jared had to play not just two different versions of himself, but FOUR, with varying levels of subtlety (or lack thereof). I think he was brilliant, giving us the extremes with LessThan!Sam and Soulless!Sam, then merging to Our!Sam and facing poor, damaged Hellfire!Sam. We haven't gotten to see Whole!Sam yet, not really, but I can't wait.

So we had a pretty rocky season 6. The loose threads wove a pretty tight tapestry in the end, but the inability to see any of that picture from early on was frustrating at times. Taken as a whole, I think the season was brilliant, and I can't wait for season 7, when I hope they'll have learned from this season and give us one less haphazard-feeling but still with the depth of emotion we had this year.

Your turn! What did you think of the finale, and the season as a whole? Unleash the Kraken!

Supernatural News the Week of No Show :(

2011-05-09T00:21:00.000-05:00

So Smallville will get 2 hours for their finale this week, so SPN gets theirs next week.

This week:

Buddy TV had an exclusive interview with Mark Sheppard.

Supernatural had better ratings than Smallville, so yay!

Sam and Dean were voted second favorite lead male characters by Starpulse, second only to Alex O from Hawaii 5-0, who is hot but not so interesting, actually.

SuperWiki has a Cafe Press store, with "Posse Magnet" shirts, and "Beware of the Jefferson Starships."

That's all I know. You?

The Man Who Would Be King

2011-05-06T21:12:00.007-05:00

Then

We see clips from Sam going into the cage, Castiel telling Dean that Sam's soul is missing, the revelation about Cas creating more souls for the war in Heaven through negating the sinking of the Titanic, Eve telling the boys she wants Crowley, and Crowley referring to having to clean up Cas's messes.

Now

Cas is sitting outside saying he's been around a long time and seen many things -- when the first fish crawled out of the ooze, the Tower of Babel ("all 37 feet of it, which I guess was impressive at the time. But come on, dry dung can only be stacked so high."), Cain and Abel, David and Goliath, Sodom and Gomorrah. And he also remembers the most remarkable things, remarkable because they never came to pass, prevented by "two boys, an old drunk and one fallen angel." Of that latter grand story, "We ripped up the ending, and the rules, and destiny, leaving nothing but freedom and choice, which is all well and good except what if I made the wrong choice? How am I supposed to know? But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you my story. Let me tell you everything."

Next we see Dean driving down the road, and Castiel pops into the passenger seat to "check in." Both tell the other they haven't seen anything of "Satan Jr.", aka Crowley. It's painfully obvious that Cas is lying, and it's bothering Dean. But Dean's lying too. Poof, and Cas disappears. He shows up at some gruesome lab where Crowley is doing an autopsy on Eve with a side of torture to another monstery schmuck. Cas refers to Crowley saying Eve could open the door to Purgatory, and Crowley says that he believes she could have if she was still alive.

Crowley: "Your best change to get over the rainbow and the Winchesters killed her."

Crowley tells Cas that he's distracted and that makes Crowley nervous. Cas responds by saying he's holding up his end of their deal, but Crowley isn't happy Cas is still hanging with the Winchester boys.

"The stench of that Impala is all over your overcoat, angel."

Next we're back with Cas, telling his story. "We'd stopped Armageddon, but at a terrible cost." He reveals he's the one who brought Sam back from Hell and says he should have recognized the fact that he hadn't brought all of Sam back as a warning.

Crowley asks Cas to kill Sam and Dean or he'll do it. Cas tells him no and not to worry about them. Crowley begins listing all the people who didn't worry about the boys and died because of it -- Lucifer, Michael, Lilith, Alastair, Azazel.

Castiel: "Just find Purgatory. If you don't, we will both die again and again until the end of time. The Winchesters won't get to you."

When Dean reaches Bobby's, Sam and Bobby are questioning a monster named Red who's been hunting things for Crowley. They want to know where Crowley is, and Red isn't being cooperative. Dean tells Bobby and Sam about Cas popping in and how he fed him a line about being on some "crap monster hunt." They all hate the idea of Cas being in with Crowley, but they're being careful in case he is. Unknown to them, Castiel is in the room listening to their conversation about the fact that maybe he's gone dark side. Red finally reveals that he's never met Crowley, that he deals with The Dispatcher, a demon named Ellwsorth. Cas says that if there's a demon counterpart to Bobby Singer, Ellsworth would be it.

Knowing that Ellsworth and his demons would lead the Winchesters to Crowley, who'd tear their hearts out, Cas takes out Ellsworth and two other demons.

Cas: "I did it to protect the boys, or myself. I don't know anymore."

The boys and Bobby arrive at Ellsworth's place to find it empty. Cas laments the lies, the hiding and the sweeping away of evidence. "My motives used to be so pure." After supposedly saving Sam, Cas returned to Heaven. He says that there isn't one Heaven, that each soul creates its own paradise. He tells the angels they are free to choose what they want to do now. But he says those first weeks back were difficult. "Explaining freedom to angels is a lot like teaching poetry to fish." When he went to see Raphael, he asks whose Heaven he's in and Raphael says it's Ken Lay's and he's borrowing it. Raphael says that Castiel and all the angels will have to kneel to him, that he's going to free Lucifer and Michael and get the apocalypse back on the road.

Sam, Dean and Bobby try to call Cas for help, but he doesn't go to them because they have questions he doesn't want to answer. Then some demons show up and say, "Crowley says, 'Hi'." Cas shows up and smites the demons because the Winchesters and Bobby "are my friends. For a brief moment, I was me again." As they're talking, he slips up and reveals he's lying when he refers to going to the dark side, something the other three had mentioned when they didn't know he was there.

Castiel says that Raphael is stronger than him and he'd never stand a chance in a straight fight, so he went to Dean for help. Only when he thought about all Dean had sacrificed, he couldn't do it. That's when Crowley showed up wanting to make a deal.

"I'm an angel, you ass. I don't have a soul to sell."

Crowley shows Cas how he's redone hell. Everyone there is having to stand in an endless line, and when they get to the front they just come back to the end again. Crowley proposes an alliance in which each of them will get half the souls in Purgatory for his own use -- Cas for a civil war in Heaven, and Crowley to shore up his position as the king of Hell. He offers to float Cas a loan of 50,000 souls from the pit. Prideful, Cas accepts the deal and declares war on Raphael so he can avoid the apocalypse.

Back to the present, Bobby and the boys call Cas and when he arrives they trap him in the ring of fire and force him to tell the truth. Honestly, at this point I feel sorry for Cas because he seems like an angel who was in between a rock and a hard place. He might have made the wrong choices, but he had good intentions. But we all know what road is paved with good intentions. Dean tells him that he should have come to them for help.

Crowley shows up, and Cas tells Sam, Dean and Bobby to run, which they do. Crowley asks Cas what he's willing to do. Cas goes to Dean to try to explain, and Dean tells Cas that he's like a brother to him and asks him to stop this quest for Purgatory with Crowley. And if he doesn't, Dean says he'll do whatever he has to in order to stop him. Cas says he's sorry and disappears. Then we're back to Cas praying to God for a sign that he's on the right path. "Because if you don't, I'm going to do whatever I must." When no sign his offered, he drops his head.

The End Approaches

2011-05-04T00:01:00.041-05:00

Is it me, or did this season just fly by? I mean, I don't feel like I ever stopped longing for the show to come back, and now we're about to say goodbye again. But I also can't wait to see how it ends.

Back in January, I was talking about season 6 with some friends. A couple of them expressed some of the same disappointment a lot of you have, and said the season has felt sloppier or more haphazard, with too much going on.

At the time, I agreed but said I had hopes that it wasn't going to end up that way overall. I thought that once we got to the end of the season, we'd look back or rewatch and find it extremely well done. And it's shaping up to be that way.

It's DIFFERENT, for sure. In all the past seasons, we knew what the goal was, and every detail fed that goal. We had the framework of a puzzle already put together, and every piece of information filled it in and gave us a better picture.

This season, we started with a jumble of pieces and no picture of what we were making. As we got pieces and started to fit things together, we got different parts of the whole put together. Instead of filling in from, say, top to bottom, we got two pieces in the top left corner, and then a chunk in the middle, and a bit from the right side.

Now we only have a few key pieces missing, and everything fits together. I really can't wait to see the end and then watch again from the beginning.

Going back to last week's episode...

I loved that they kept Mark Sheppard's name out of the opening credits. When he was killed, I felt let down because it seemed so easy and final. I always had a tiny seed of hope that it wasn't the end of him. And then the big reveal came, and it would have been totally ruined if we knew he was going to be there. (I'm good at avoiding spoilers during the week, but despite hating to know ahead of time, I can't stop myself from reading the guest star list!)

I also liked that once they came up against the "big bad," they vanquished her in the clever, determined way they used to do. They could have dragged it out longer, but making the Mother more powerful than Lucifer would have been a mistake, in my opinion.

So now we have three episodes left, and we finally can see a glimmer of everything tying together. I'm thinking it all comes down to the war in heaven. Purgatory, the Mother, the souls, bringing back the Campbells, maybe even leaving Sam's soul in the pit all connect to whatever stakes Cas is fighting for (or against).

I'm betting next week's Cas-centric episode will give us a lot of the answers, and then the last two episodes will be the big fight and the setup for season 7.

You know what? I might just go start watching season 6 from the beginning right now...

SPN in the news

2011-05-02T14:37:00.006-05:00

Of course, the biggest news over the last week was (as has already been mentioned here) the renewal for season 7! Other mentions include:

A slide show of Season 6 questions we hope to see answered:

Questions

A summary of SPOILERS for the last three eps of the season:

Final Three

There were also, I am sad to say, a slew of rumors about Misha not coming back after this season. But (the good news is) I was never able to find official confirmation of that!

Besides, even if someone does "leave" the show, they could always come back, right, Crowley?

Mommy Dearest

2011-04-30T01:50:00.008-05:00

So Mommy Dearest starts with two guys leaving a bar and running into Eve, the Mother of All, in a bloody white dress. One of them says, “Heaven must be missing an angel.” Umm, he’d be a tool just for saying that, but who says that to a woman covered in blood? Eve caresses his cheek and we see black webs crackle across his skin and then disappear.

She then steps into the pub, bars the door and starts contaminating people with her evil touch. Carnage ensues as the infected attack the “untouched.”

Meanwhile, Dean is making a handful of shotgun shells with the Phoenix ash. He’s grows worried about their effectiveness after accidentally discovering the soot has no affect on him. Now that they’re armed, they have to find Eve. The boys have no way of tracking her and she’s hidden from Cass so they decide their best shot is finding something with “claws and sympathy.” Their good monster turns out to be Lenore, the vegetarian vampire from Season 2’s Bloodlust. She confesses she’s been fighting a losing battle against Eve’s siren’s call. In fact, Lenore’s nest turned bad. The boys mange to persuade her to reveal Eve’s location, but she asks that they kill her in return. As Dean and Sam hem and haw excuses, Cass dispatches her without a blink of hesitation and then zaps the boys and Bobby to Grant’s Pass, Oregon. (Angel boy gets less and less angelic.)

“I was expecting more Zombieland, less Pleasantville.” – Dean

They arrive in a small, seemingly sweet town and quickly learn Cass has been rendered powerless, which gives us my two favorite lines of the night, both delivered by Dean. “Mom is making you limp” and “Without your power you’re basically just a baby in a trench coat.”

Bobby does some research on an I-Pad to his consternation and discovers a Dr. Silver called the CDC about an illness he couldn’t identify. At the doc’s office to treat Cass’s “painful, burning sensation” they find the doctor’s gone AWOL and the ill patient is dead and oozey in the nearby shed.

The four musketeers head to the patient’s house to see if they can learn anything more. They see his “twin” at the window. Sam and Dean find five more of the same guy inside the house, all dead! WTF, is this an evil version of Multiplicity? The guy they saw at the window is barely alive. My advice? Stay away from the bleeding, coughing guy. You don’t know if he’s contagious! But noooo, they’ve got to talk to him. The guys figure out Eve’s responsible and poor Marshall croaks. Which just doesn’t make sense. If Eve is making some kind of army why would she make them sick, dying and gooey?

“I’m bathing in Purell tonight.” --Dean

The supernatural squad heads over to the bar where it all began and finds complete carnage inside. Now why wouldn’t the Sherriff know about this? Dean examines one of the bodies and finds it has vamp teeth, but the spike of a wraith. Say what? Eve’s making hybrids. Bobby tells Dean he can name the new species since he discovered it. Dean decides to call them Jefferson Starships. “Because they’re horrible and hard to kill.” A closer look shows the starships burned up, like they died from a fever.

Ah, here comes that stupid sheriff. Of course, he’s there to arrest the boys for the carnage. Fortunately, Dean hides and follows them. At the station Sam see the cops are actually starships. They kill all but one, hoping they can get some answers out of him.

They also find Dr. Silvers’ sons bound and gagged in a cell. Poor Joe and Ryan are orphans and the cute little one won’t talk. Sam and Dean see themselves in these two boys and want to safely deliver them to their uncles. Cass is pissed that they’re leaving. He wants Dean to serve the greater purpose and find Eve.

Bobby tells Cass to get over it and suggests they go poke that pig until he squeals. Bobby does his best to torture a little cooperation out of the guy, but he holds tough. Finally Cass tells him he wants five minutes alone with the guy. Bobby asks what he could possibly do without powers. We never do learn the answer to that but we hear a scream, Cass returns with his hands covered in blood and he’s got the answer they need. This dark, unsympathetic Cass is disturbing and scary. Not only has he lost his humanity, he no longer seems to care about doing what’s right in the religious sense of things.

They all head back to Ervin’s diner, the first place they went when they arrived in town. Sam wonders why she ever let them in or out. Sam and Dean intend to walk into the restaurant to draw her out. If they fail, then Bobby and Cass will still have their ash bullets. Inside, the brothers are scared to learn everyone in the diner is a starship. Just as they’re getting ready to bail the waitress, Eve, tells them to stay put. She then disarms them. Damn, so much for the phoenix bullets.

But it turns out she doesn’t want to hurt them. Even more surprising, she doesn’t want the planet destroyed. She felt she had no choice because the natural order was disturbed. Her children were being kidnapped and tortured and a mother defends her kids. To gives some punch to her message she morphs into their mom. Seems the person she wants dead is Crowley. That’s right, he’s not dead! And he’s the one hurting her babies. He’s using them to collect souls, because they’re like super fuel. He’d be all powerful with all those souls. So she’s turning everyone into her children to fight back. Her “beta tests” failed, but eventually she got it right….in little Ryan. Dirty pool! Now, we know why he didn’t speak. And the bad seed turned his brother, then killed his uncle. Wow! The 2.0 version of her infector was really clever, especially when you consider that they tested the kids.

“Beat me with a wire hanger, the answer is still no.” -- Dean

Eve wants the boys to deliver Crowley to her. In return she’ll let them live. She’ll even let Bobby and Cass, who’ve been hauled into the diner, live. Dean refuses so she threatens to turn them. Still Dean continues to bait her. Um, has he lost his ever-loving mind? He finally tells her to bite him and she does. Aaaah! Wait, she’s coughing. OMG, he fricking drank down the ash with some whiskey. She oozes to death in a most awesome way. The starships start to attack and Cass blazes them with light then heals Dean. Yay-ya!

To Cass’s disgust Dean insists on going to find Ryan. At the uncle’s house they find they’ve been ganked by demons. Cass takes off, telling the boys he’ll find Crowley. As Sam, Bobby and Dean discuss how on Earth Crowley could’ve survived, Bobby wonders if Cass let Crowley go on purpose. Dean is stunned by the accusation, but Sam is obviously following Bobby’s train of thought. I’m afraid they might be right. And, yup, they are. Cass and Crowley meet up at the diner where Crowley asks how many times he’ll have to clean up Cass’ mess. Holy cannoli. What does this mean? I thought at first Cass might be genuinely evil, but the previews show him questioning what he’s doing. That at least leaves me with hope and a whole lotta questions. Overall, great episode. I think we’re on the fast train to the finale now. I don’t expect to see a lot of levity, like last week’s show, but that’s okay as long as they have this kind of balance between humor and dark within the episode. I just ask that they keep the damn wall up in Sammy’s head because I like the brothers relationship as is. What did you think of Mommy Dearest?

Supernatural Wish List

2011-04-27T00:21:00.001-05:00

So Supernatural has officially been renewed! What's on your wishlist for the new season? Several times in SPN, the show seems to be about one thing but moves in another direction, which is good and unexpected, but how about something familiar? What about a Bermuda Triangle episode? Or Atlantis?

What about a musical episode? That could be hilarious. Or a several episode romantic arc for Sam.

Can we have more about the heavenly weapons, the objects from the Bible? I was really hoping we'd have more of that this season. I'm done with alternate universes and time travel, though. How about you?

Breaking News!

2011-04-26T21:13:00.000-05:00

Supernatural got an early renewal for season 7!

Here's the first link I saw with the full press release, but Creation Entertainment gets credit for getting to me first. :)

So what does everyone think? I know there will probably be much of the same debate as last season, especially because season 6 hasn't had the cohesiveness of past seasons. But I, for one, am just glad we don't have to say goodbye to the boys yet. :) And that we won't have a massive cliffhanger with no resolution. And I think this year has some of the best acting and writing of all the seasons, so I do look forward to one more!

Supernatural News

2011-04-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

Supernatural ratings stay steady.

Sera Gamble talks about the structure of the season finale.

Nice interview with Jared and Jensen.

"Frontierland" Review

2011-04-22T22:12:00.001-05:00

Warning: I did not do a cool "as I watched" recap like the others do, so this is a fairly random stream of my thoughts on tonight's episode.

I'll start with the things I didn't like, because they are few.

No, wait. I'll start with OMG, Dean in a hat.

Also?

Sam in a hat.

Yum. Mee.

Best Line of the Episode:
"I didn't get a soulonoscopy for nothin'."

Oh, wait, I was doing the things I didn't like. Okay, first, why didn't we get to see Sam racing across the plain on horseback? You know, that photo over his desk in "The French Mistake"? I wanted to see that galloping live. *sigh*

While Number One swooned repeatedly over all the Back to the Future homages, I found it a little hard to buy that Sam would have had Bobby's address in his phone. It was a plausible explanation for how Samuel Colt found him, but these guys have spent half their lives trying not to be found.

Okay, that's it. That's all I didn't like. Unless you count the saloon girl's mouth, and the authenticity was so fantastic, I can't not like it, disgusting as it was. :)

So, what did I like?

Soooooo much. I have to admit, I've had this fantasy where Castiel gets wounded with an angel sword, with his grace all exposed, and he comes to me to heal him, because I'm the only one who can. My heart beat a little faster at that scene. :)

Poor, beaten-down Cas. I'm kind of hoping they get The Mother taken care of tout suite and address this war in heaven in the last episodes, because man, I'm dying 1) to know what Castiel has been doing, and 2) for the boys to finally step up and HELP him. I want major sacrifices, guys, no holding back. After everything Cas has done for you, the least you can do it throw yourselves into his war and save him.

Speaking of which, I loved how Bobby didn't hesitate when it came to letting Cas touch his soul. Granted, that was actually minor compared to other things he's faced, but still.

Let me backtrack a little. There were a few threads to follow in this episode. (I love it when they do that!)

First, there's the Mother thing. Bobby and the Idjits break into the Campbell's hidden stash of research materials, looking for something about how to kill The Mother. They find reference to the ashes of a phoenix doing the trick, but come on, how do you kill something that is reborn immediately every time it dies? Dean geeks out when he finds Samuel Colt's original journal, which contains a note that "the gun killed a phoenix today." (As a word geek, I love how that's written!)

Which brings me to thread 2, the return of Samuel Colt and The Colt. Everything looped so awesomely here. Colt was building the railroads around the Devil's Gate. Elkins was the bartender in the town where Dean dropped the Very Special Gun, which explains how the later Elkins had it in 1973 and 2006. I wonder if he knew how special it was—like, he was watching from the saloon and saw this unkillable thing die—and kept it safe. I loved the portrayal of Colt himself. A tired, unflinching, seen-it-all tough guy is exactly what I would have expected.

Castiel's war is another thread. I got the impression, when reading about Rachel's casting, that she was a bigger character, but she didn't last long. When we first see her, she's vociferously protective of Cas, and I agreed wholeheartedly with her assessment of the boys' expectations of Cas. Later, she's a disillusioned lieutenant who turns on her leader when she learns he's doing...something despicable. Whoa, Cas, what are you UP to, anyway?

Plenty of humor in this episode. I love, love, love the easiness the brothers have with each other. I know we've said this before, but they have a comfort level that harks back to the early days, but it's tenfold because there's finally no tension between them. (Oh, yikes, I just remembered that wall in Sam's head that's destined to come down...) I can't wait to watch the season all the way through again, with no breaks. I know I'll be marveling at the acting, at the difference in hardness and coldness versus charm and ease.

Dean was such a nerd about the Westerns. Okay, this is the first we've ever heard of his obsession, but it does fit in with his late-night movie watching habit. He was pretty adorable. And hot in his "authentic" clothing, once he got rid of the ill-fitting, silly stuff.

Then there was the monster-of-the-week element. We have undertones of the typical "is he a monster, or is he just living his life and humanity is the monster?" The phoenix's wife was nearly raped and then murdered by the deputy, and the phoenix himself (Elias, I think) hanged for her murder. Now, when he told the story to Sheriff Dean, it sounded like the previous sheriff and judge had misinterpreted the situation, or took the deputy at his lying word, but when the sheriff apologized to Elias before being smoked, that seemed to imply they railroaded him to protect their guy. Elias murdered three people, and after what he'd been through, what would stop him from murdering others? An interesting question is if Dean would have had more compunction about killing Elias if he hadn't needed his ashes. Oh, and if Elias wasn't shooting at him. That was good incentive. :)

I was a little shocked and dismayed when they got flashed back to the present without the ashes. All that effort, Cas and Bobby risking themselves, for naught! And then Colt getting them the ashes anyway. He had to be curious about whether the gun worked on the phoenix and followed Sam back to town. I wonder how he felt about his revolver going missing, especially when the demons were still after him. Hey, how about a few webisodes featuring Colt? I'd love to find out some of his story!

So...your turn! What did I forget? What did you like or not like about the episode?

SPNSisters

2011-04-18T12:39:00.007-05:00

Jensen talks about the impact fans have on the show in this new CW video.

TVGuide has this awesome video of Jensen, Jared & Misha talking about their fan favorite wins.

"After four weeks, seven rounds, 64 competitors, 12,000 Facebook likes, 8,000 blog comments and 1.5 million votes" the winner of the 2011 E! Online Alpha Male Madness tournament is...Jensen!

E!Online has an exclusive interview with executive producer Bob Singer where he talks about cowboys and cliffhangers and the possibility of season 7.

I for one can't wait to see this week's wild west episode.

My Heart Will Go On

2011-04-16T00:05:00.000-05:00

THE SHOW IS BACK! I haven’t been this excited about an episode in a long time, y’all. Interesting that the title is “My Heart Will Go On” and it’s the 99^th anniversary of the Titanic. I wonder if that's why they extended hellatus another week.

THEN shows us some of the hunters we’ve lost over the past couple of seasons—Jo, Ellen and Rufus, then talks about the angel rebellion.

The first scene is like one of those Rube-Goldberg machines, just like that OK Go video, only with a lot more blood. EWW! Who was that guy, and why do we care?

It’s funny to see Bobby’s house after seeing it in The French Mistake as a set. Turns out Bobby hasn’t slept for days after killing Rufus when he was possessed. The brothers decide to take him out of the house on a job, where three members who are blood relatives have all died freaky deaths, including the guy in the first scene. They suspect a curse. Bobby kicked them out of the house to go on the job.

The brothers get into a Mustang (where’s the Impala?) that has the Impala’s old license plates from the first season, and ask if they shouldn’t wait until “SHE” gets here. “SHE” turns out to be Ellen, who’s been gone a week hunting with Jo. What did I miss here? She kisses Bobby’s cheek and when he calls her a pain in the ass, she says that’s why he married her.

What is going on?

New scene shows the brothers being all X-Files in the garage, looking for clues about the man in the first scene’s death. They find gold, which alarms them. Sam goes to check family records and sends Dean to talk to next of kin. Dean talks to a cousin under the guise of doing geneaology research, trying to find the source of a curse. He doesn’t cover himself very well.

The next scene is a travel agent, and while she’s talking, the scene pauses. A blonde walks on, steals the woman’s keys and sets them on the floor by the copy machine. She reaches to pick them up and knocks over a vase of water, which falls on the machine, shorting it out. While the woman tries to stop it, her scarf is caught in the feeder and she’s strangled. The blonde returns, crosses out a name in a book with a gold-tasseled pen and walks away.

The brothers investigate, but are puzzled because the woman isn’t related to the original family they were investigating. They find a gold tassel from the pen and call Ellen, who says they’ve seen about 75 nationwide, and Jo and her crew are investigating.

ZOMG! All the families came over on the same boat in 1912, the Titanic. In this reality, it never sank. It had a close call with an iceberg. The first mate who spotted it in the nick of time—Balthazar. They call him to question him about it. It was meant to sink and he saved it. Why? Because he hated the movie, and the Celine Dion song made him want to kill himself. When Sam asks who is Celine Dion, Balthazar responds that she’s a destitute lounge singer in Quebec, and to keep it that way, please. When Sam asks how he can change history, and Balthazar said there are no rules. Sam accuses him of “Butterfly Effect-ing” history. Dean stops him to say, “Dude. Rule 1. No Kutcher references.”

Balthazar says just small details are different, that they don’t drive an Impala. The brothers look at each other. Balthazar tells them not to ask what an Impala is. He also drops the bomb that Ellen and Jo are alive because of that action. Dean and Sam tell him because of that, 50,000 people will die. He tells them he doesn’t care, that’s the other angel in the dirty trench coat who’s in love with you. He looks at Dean when he says it.

Bobby reasons out that it’s Fate, who spins out the way you die on a piece of pure gold. Sam recognizes the reference and Dean calls him a nerd, which harks back to the first season. The book she has is her “dayrunner of death.” Bobby doesn’t think they can stop Fate. The easiest way would be to get the angel to sink the boat. Dean confesses Ellen and Jo’s fates depend on the boat not sinking. Bobby stares at a picture of him and Ellen all happy in front of the scrapyard and demands that they do not let the angels sink the boat.

They decide to try to save the guy Dean had gone to see as a researcher and almost had a part in his death. When he’s walking away from them, he’s creamed by a bus while the brothers watch, horrified. The bus even has an ad for his law firm. Sam spots the blonde in the window of an unoccupied building. Dean asks what she looked like, and Sam says a librarian. Dean asks, “Your kind of librarian, or my kind of librarian?” Sam replies that she had clothes on. I’m loving the banter. They decide to go “talk” to her. Dean flashes his gun and they step into the building. The clock stops while all the gas knobs are turned on, and time starts again. Dean’s flashlight goes out so he draws out a lighter, and now my Tivo is stuttering. They step through the kitchen doors as Dean’s lighter catches, and the boys are snatched to a park or something by Castiel. Castiel reveals that Fate has it in for the brothers because they averted the apocalypse and rendering her obsolete. He tells them they have to kill her, that Balthazar has a weapon that would do the job. He said they’re going to “Tempt Fate.”

Back at Bobby’s, he lets Ellen know what would happen if the boat sinks. I love seeing Ellen again. He tells her he needs her, and she goes all Han Solo. “I know.”

The boys are jumpy knowing Fate is after them, and as “One Way or Another” by Blondie plays, they almost get nailed by a skateboarder, a bike rider, angry big dogs, jugglers with knives and hatchets ON FIRE. They walk through, Sam with his eyes closed. There’s a guy with a malfunctioning nail gun, a falling AC unit (I think that’s what it was) and then time stops. Castiel walks into the scene, followed by the blonde. She accuses Castiel and the brothers of ruining her life. God had given her a job and she had a script until Castiel threw out the book. He said freedom is better, but she said it’s not freedom, it’s chaos. He tells her that her services are no longer required. She tells him he’s already changed the future, but he can’t change the past. She accuses him of sending Balthazar back to save those people for the souls, 50,000 more for his war machine. She said if he doesn’t go back to sink the boat, she’ll kill his two favorite pets. And if he kills her, her sisters will come at Sam and Dean. While she’s talking to Cas, Balthazar comes up behind her with his weapon, but Cas stops him just in time. “Awkward,” Balthazar says. She orders Castiel to set things right. Before she goes, Blathazar offers to remove the stick from her—She stops him, and he agrees to sink the Titanic. The AC unit crashes to the ground.

The boys wake up in the Impala to “My Heart Will Go On” playing on the radio. Sam says he had the weirdest dream. Dean said his was weirder because it had the Titanic in it. Castiel appears and tells them it wasn’t a dream. He says they went back to sink the Titanic, and Sam is stunned. “You killed 50,000 people for us.” “No I didn’t. They were never born.” Dean asks about Ellen and Jo, and they’re gone. Dean asks if that timeline is just erased. Castiel says yes, but Dean and Sam remember because Castiel wanted them to remember, wanted them to understand Fate because he still believes freedom is the most important thing, worth fighting for. Sam and Dean taught Cas to choose his own destiny. He doesn’t reveal that he sent Balthazar back to do the job.

The brothers feel bad for Bobby, who doesn’t know how good he had it. The ending shot is the photo of Bobby, alone in front of the scrapyard.

I really liked the episode. It had a feel of the older episodes. I'll have to watch again though, when I'm not writing it up!

SPN News for the week of YAY the show's back!

2011-04-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

The 22-episode anime series based on Supernatural is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray on July 26, here in the U.S. You can read details of the set here. The main storyline follows seasons 1 and 2, but includes new stories.

Misha Collins tweeted a cast-and-crew photo, possibly from the wrap of season 6.

It seems they've changed the order of upcoming episodes, according to a Zap2it article. SPOILERS Whew. I thought I was nuts, that the preview they showed at the end of the last episode was NOT the same preview they've shown for the last few weeks. I'm still a little confused, between the episode title and the images, but I'm sure all will become clear. :)

Dean (Jensen Ackles) is up against Glee's Blaine (Darren Criss) in Kristin-from-E!Online's Alpha Male Madness showdown finale. I'm sorry, I love Blaine/Darren Criss, but alpha male? Not in this universe. Vote for Dean! Poll closes tomorrow.

Buddy TV posted some fan-generated ideas for a Supernatural spinoff.

Jim Beaver returned to his alma mater, the University of Central Oklahoma, to star in a play, "The Guys."

The show returns this week with "My Heart Will Go On." With one exception (May 13), we get new episodes straight through to the season finale. Hopefully, by then we'll know if we get a season 7!

Supernatural News

2011-04-04T00:31:00.000-05:00

Supernatural wrapped up the season already, even without knowing if they're renewed yet. Soo....cliffhanger ending or no? Word is that the CW won't make a decision until closer to the end of the season. Why???

I found this nice little article to share about why to watch Supernatural. Preaching to the choir, I know, but you maybe could pass it on.

Mark Sheppard was at WonderCon and of course someone asked him about Crowley. He said of course they can't get rid of Crowley. Other than McG, I didn't see anyone else listed to attend WonderCon.

How many more days until SPN returns???

Hero Showdown

2011-03-31T16:12:00.003-05:00

So MJ and I had a month-long discussion at our personal blogs about heroic traits as portrayed in certain fictional characters. This week, we've been having a showdown of those characters—all the ones she and I talked about, plus all the additional ones brought up in the comments.

Dean Winchester has made it to the final "four"! It's actually the final 5, because he and Booth tied the first time around. And oh, no, this time, he's losing!

Help Dean make it to the championship tomorrow! Poll closes at 9:00 p.m. EDT.

Creepiest Supernatural Monsters Evah

2011-03-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

Please welcome guest blogger Lisa Paitz Spindler to Supernatural Sisters!

Week in and week out, the Winchester boys kick some monster ass and deal with angsty family issues, all the while driving one heck of a cool car. Not too long ago, TV critic Maureen Ryan called the show "unheralded but excellent . . . packing meaty thrills, dude-tastic humor, and solid storytelling into each episode."

While it’s easy and fun to get caught up in the Padalecki-Ackles axis of eye candy and the classic rock soundtrack, the show also, as another reviewer points out, “effortlessly mixes traditional horror along with schlock and B-Movie” thrills, while “[S]imultaneously parodying and honouring the genre at the same time...”

In other words, we wouldn’t get to so often watch the brothers Winchester flex their muscles if it weren’t the tremendously creepy and formidable monsters they’ve had to face down. After all, a hero is only as good as the dragon he must slay. So, while we wait for Supernatural to return, let’s take a look at the top five most dangerous, nasty and creepiest monsters Sam and Dean have had to fight yet.

Vampires

The vampires of Supernatural aren’t the beautiful and flawed fiends à la Ann Rice and Paranormal Romance. (The exception to this rule is, of course, Dean’s brief stint as an undead bloodsucker.) Nope, these monsters have several rows of nasty looking fangs rather than two elegantly sharp incisors.

Left, open wide vampy.

They infect others virally with their blood and younger vamps often cart victims off to their nests to be enjoyed by vampire elders for weeks. These immortals can smell human blood and hear a heartbeat a mile away.

In “Dead Man's Blood,” Daddy Winchester said that a vampire has a person’s scent for life. The only way to kill a vampire is by beheading – and the Colt, of course.

Wendigos

The scariest aspect of a wendigo is that it was once human, but after embracing cannibalism was transformed into a monster that craves human flesh. They can mimic the voices of humans and are impervious to knives and guns.

Right, wendigo claw sharpening 101.

Wendigos are described as standing over fifteen feet tall and possessing glowing eyes and yellow skin, as well as overly long tongues. The only way to kill them is to burn them to death.

Doc Benton
Thomas Benton creeped me out so much in the episode “Time is on My Side” that he deserves his own entry. A doctor in the 1800s, Benton discovered the secret to becoming immortal. It’s simple, really. Just steal other people’s organs when yours wear out.

Left, a facelift, Doc Benton style?

If you wake up in a hotel bathtub full of ice with one kidney gone, blame Doc Benton.

John Winchester cut out the man’s heart years ago, but that didn’t stop the doctor, nope. Benton kidnaps Sam with the intent to harvest his organs and offers Dean a chance to avoid Hell by joining in his immortality.

Djinns
Not your average genie in a bottle, djinns in the Supernatural universe can pass as humans, but in their true form have tattoos and scars over their entire bodies. Their eyes glow blue when they attack and they possess superhuman strength.

Right, is that Khan herpe tattoo on his cheek?

Rather than granting wishes, they poison their victims and convince them the hallucinations that result are the victim’s dreams come true. In the meantime, the djinn feeds on the blood of the victim. The only way out is for the victim to commit suicide in their alternate reality. These cave-dwelling monsters can only be killed with a silver knife dipped in lamb’s blood.

Khan Worm
Nicknamed the “twelve inch long herpe” by Dean, the Khan Worm was created by Eve and enters a person’s body through the ear. Then it controls their actions, which usually involves killing the victim’s friends and family.

Left, Khan!!

The only way to remove a Khan Worm is to electrocute the victim near to death. This monster isn’t really scary until you see it—on the floor in a puddle of icky goo.
Then it just gives me the heebie-jeebies. Reminiscent of the Centaurian worm from Star Trek and the Ceti eel from Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, this worm looks like a freaky cross between a snail and an eel. Plus goo. Ewwww.

I need to wash out my brain now, thanks. As I mentioned above, just keep in mind that without all that scary stuff, we wouldn’t get to watch Sam and Dean sending these nasties packing. Case in point:

What about you? What do you think is the scariest monster on Supernatural? What’s your favorite Sam or Dean monster fighting moment?

Lisa Paitz Spindler is a science fiction author, web designer, blogger, and pop culture geek. Her debut space opera novella, THE SPIRAL PATH, will be released March 28, 2011, from Carina Press. In addition to some fun science underpinnings and a moving love story, readers will find a bonus deliciously creepy character buried deep in a mysterious wormhole.

She also contributes book reviews and television recaps to SF Signal and maintains the Danger Gal Blog hosted by her alter ego, Danger Gal, whose stiletto heels are licensed weapons and whose ninja stars travel faster than light. Lisa can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Buy THE SPIRAL PATH now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Carina Press

As part of her Out Of This World Blog Tour, Lisa is giving away a copy of THE SPIRAL PATH and this Retro Saturn T-shirt to one lucky reader. Everyone who enters will receive a door prize: THE SPIRAL PATH electronic trading cards depicting the four main characters in the story.
Click here to enter.

On Sunday, April 3 Lisa will draw the winning name.

Guest Blogger Lisa Paitz Spindler

2011-03-29T18:51:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow we are honored to have a special guest! Lisa Paitz Spindler (who is celebrating her release this week of her book The Spiral Path from Carina Press) will talk about The Creepiest Supernatural Monsters EVAH! Be sure to come by!

Supernatural News

2011-03-21T01:44:00.003-05:00

Some fun ways to survive the current hiatus can be found in this piece at BuddyTV.

The list of Supernatural-related guests at Dragon*Con is growing, now up to four: Misha Collins, Jim Beaver, Mark A. Sheppard, and Julie McNiven.

Another fun hangout for fans of Supernatural, BuddyTV's Supernatural Insider page on Facebook.

News is a little thin, so here's an extra tidbit that doesn't have anything to do with Supernatural but does include supernatural beings. SyFy's Being Human has been picked up for a second season. Yay!

Reasons to Watch

2011-03-18T13:45:00.000-05:00

I just remembered it's my recap day, but we've already recapped this episode, so I'm copping out and linking to an excellent article you can use to encourage others to watch. (Since if you're reading this, you probably already do! :) )

Really, though, all we need is this:

SPNews

2011-03-14T14:01:00.005-05:00

The big news this week comes from PaleyFest:

TV Overmind has a must-read write-up of the festival, including some fun behind-the-scenes info on The French Mistake, as well as great tidbits about the show in general. Some highlights: Bobby almost didn't make it on the show, there's going to be an episode entirely from Castiel's POV and it's Ben Edlund's directorial debut and the finale will be two back-to-back episodes, the first written my Sera, the second written by Kripke!

The Examiner offers another review. Here's another review of PaleyFest. Most interesting scoop - Dean's jacket is MIA because it was stolen at a photoshoot.

Eep! Entertainment Weekly talks about the finale. Nothing really spoiled, but apparently they've saved the scariest for last. We better get a season 7 because they promise it's one heckuva cliffhanger.

An Inner Space video interview with Jared and Jensen discussing Season 6.

Entertainment Weekly's TV Survival Scorecard for returning shows has Supernatural in the "Could Go Either Way" column. Let's see a renewal already CW!

A disgruntled SPN fan write's TV Guide's Matt Rousch for his opinion on Season 6.

E! Online's Watch with Kristin talks about the likelihood of a seventh season.

TV Guide talks about the season finale. Bad news - "two unexpected deaths." Good news - Kripke says, "We're actually enjoying that, for the first time in a long time, the brothers are a really strong, cohesive unit, so we're going to keep them like that for the foreseeable future."

Hope that last bit of news keeps you happy for awhile. :)

Partying Supernatural Style

2011-03-11T15:17:00.003-06:00

This was supposed to be my day to recap an episode (since MJ was was kind enough to cover when I was CW-less last week). But there will be no new episodes until APRIL freaking FIFTEENTH. So instead of a recap, you get a Random Musing, although not as random as it first appears, I promise.

I recently threw an Oscar party. I had nine dishes (such as Cheesy True Grits) and a bottle of Black Swan Cabernet, something to represent each Best Picture Nom. Minor confession: my nod to 127 hours wasn't so much a "dish" as a backpack on the table filled with Band-aids, bottled water and granola bars, but that's neither here nor there. When my guests arrived, I had my movie soundtrack playlist on the iPod. We ate and talked, then settled into my living room with the Oscar Bingo Cards I'd typed up (which had spots for stuff like "The Fighter Wins An Award," "Car Commercial" or "Helena Bonham Carter is shown with crazy hair.") A good time was had by all.

Unlike some die hard fans of Supernatural, I didn't start watching it as soon as it aired. No, my friend Trish got me hooked a couple of seasons in. In turn, I got two of my good friends and my sister hooked. (Supernatural is kind of viral that way, isn't it? But like good virus-y. Not Croatoan virus-y) It's come to my attention that in my current circle of friends, there are about 3 women (all of whom attended my Oscar nite) who have never seen Supernatural but are intrigued by the show, who've been wanting to watch it but haven't got a hold of the early eps yet. So I'm thinking...Supernatural party!

Playlist is easy. I've already got one on my iPod and I'm sure you could put one together if you don't have one yet. Snacks? Hmmm. Well, pig in a poke comes to mind (defined in a southern food article as sausage and potatoes). I could also borrow my calamari dish from Oscar Night (The Squids Are All Right, for the Annette Bening/Julianne Moore movie that shares its name with the season 3 SPN ep where we first meet Gumby Lisa). Of course there would have to be pie, as well as Devil's food cake and Seven (Sins) Layer Dip. And I still have some for-fun wine labels from Halloween that you can wrap around a bottle--proclaiming "Zombie Juice," "Bad Blood," "Night of the Living Red."

The bingo card would be fun, as well. A friend of mine recently pointed out a dialogue quirk of the show that I'd never noticed--how almost every character from Dean to Bobby to Ruby doubles up on the verb for emphasis. "I want to help--I do!" or "I really have tried, I have!" So that would have to be one of my bingo squares. Others would probably include a shot of the Impala cruising down the road at night, Bobby using the word "ijit," any song of AC/DCs playing, Dean's eyes glistening with manly, unshed tears...

What about you? If you threw a Supernatural viewing party, what snacks and games would be on the list?

Monday News (and Eye Candy)

2011-03-07T00:01:00.001-06:00

The New York Post had an article about CW network boss Dawn Ostroff leaving in June, and the network interviewing candidates to replace her. On the plus side, Ostroff will pick the fall shows before leaving, which bodes well for Supernatural. On the minus side, the parent companies seem to be undecided about the future of the network overall.

Want to see Jared and Jensen introduce a few of the Supernatural Anime episodes?Awkward video here.

After Elton has the details and pictures of a Misha/Jared prank exchange (that was also tweeted by Misha).

Trish mentioned in last week's news comments that Adrienne Palicki, aka Jessica, has been cast as the new Wonder Woman in the upcoming TV series. Chad Lindberg has been seen on Criminal Minds and The Cape, and yesterday, my husband was watching a werewolf movie anachronistically named Ginger Snaps Back, and I recognized Emily Perkins, Supernatural's Becky. That's an old movie, but when I recognized her, my husband said, "Geez, is it six degrees of Supernatural now?" Yes, dear, now and always. :)

To finish off on a sweet (as in suh-weet), TV Overmind did a slideshow of Winchester hotness. Not news, of course, but it might help tide us over during the stupid hellatus.

ETA, thanks to MJ: Supernatural is up for Best in Show at Hulu!

Anything else I'm missing?

Recap of "And Then There Were None"

2011-03-05T00:30:00.000-06:00

So…how many episodes ago was “Mother of All” released? Too long, maybe. But now she’s turned up barefoot at a gas station, looking for a ride. She’s calling herself Eve, and she comes on strong to the trucker who is willing to give her a ride. Turns out, the trucker is a religious man, telling her she needs Jesus in her life. She counters with saying his Father abandoned him, that the apocalypse came and went without him noticing, and that a mother would never do that to her children. Then she bends to tell him something, and the camera zooms in on his horrified face. Next think you know, he’s murdering his wife with a hammer.

Let me just say it’s interesting watching Bobby after JUST watching him in Deadwood, completely different character. He’s been tracking weird phenomenon along I-80, including werewolves and ghouls, which Dean calls a “Sherman’s March Monster Mash.” All leading to a man who killed his family.

Bobby joins the boys in the interrogation. The man claimed to have blacked out. The last thing he remembers is offering a kid a ride at the gas station. The three of them go through surveillance tapes and see the girl, only her face is horrible. They figure out right away that she’s the Mother of All, and all the monsters are coming in for Mother’s Day. But they don’t know how to kill her.

While they’re discussing it, another call comes in about a man losing it at the cannery. When Bobby goes, as Agent Willis, he encounters Rufus, also posing as an agent. They examine the body of the man who did the shooting—and was shot by cops. They find some gross stuff in his ear, which Bobby says is something new. Rufus corrects him that there is nothing new.

Rufus and Bobby meet up with Sam and Dean back at the cannery, where both crazies worked. Guess who they encounter? Gwen and Grandpa. Dean threatens to make good on his threat to kill the old man, but Bobby tells Sam to take Dean for a walk. Sam says, “I’m not saying don’t. I’m saying not yet.”

I’m loving the encounter between Bobby and Grandpa. Grandpa says, “You must be the guy pretending to be their father.” Bobby counters with, “Someone has to.” Then Grandpa mentions that Sam looks good, to which Sam says, “No thanks to you, I hear.” Grandpa is intrigued that Sam doesn’t remember.

Also, Grandpa knows way more about Eve than Bobby, that she was on the earth 10,000 years ago and every living thing can be traced back to her. He calls Bobby a kid, and Bobby accuses him of throwing his own kin to ghouls. Gwen is stunned by this, and goes to ask Dean, who SHOOTS her! Rufus and Bobby try to save her while Sam goes after Dean. She dies. (The attrition rate in the Campbell family is pretty high since they met the Winchesters, no?) Sam thinks Dean is possessed. Bobby wants to find Dean before Dean finds them, if that’s the case. Sam warns his grandfather that he wants to find Dean alive, or he’ll put a bullet in Grandpa’s head.

Sam thinks to call Dean, and when his phone rings, Rufus and Sam find Dean, then Bobby and Sam burst through. Dean says a worm thing just crawled out of his ear and down the drain. He looks horrified that he’d killed Gwen. Bobby wants to check his ear, and when Rufus does, he announces Dean is “Goo-positive.”

Bobby calls for them all to disarm in case one of them is still possessed, so they won’t kill each other. Bobby locks the weapons up and calls for a plan. While Bobby and Rufus make calls, Dean and Sam talk to Grandpa about his betrayal, who appears to be possessed. Dean fights him and he bolts. They re-arm and go hunting.

Samuel takes the time to booby-trap the place, and Sam is trapped on the other side of a metal door. When he encounter Samuel, he can’t shoot him. Samuel offers to tell him about his soulless time. He approaches, and Sam shoots him—OMG, in the head! I had a feeling that was what the episode meant. But, was Grandpa still possessed? Bobby tells Sam to drop the gun. I think he’s right. Rufus asks if anything came out of his ear, but no. No goo. Rufus asks if Bobby has a cranial saw in the car. “Of course,” Bobby says. The two of them go to get it, while Sam watches his grandfather’s body for sign of the wormy thing, and Dean watches Sam. Dean tells Sam he did the right thing killing Samuel. Sam says he can’t remember much about his grandfather and what he does remember isn’t good. But he wonders what his mother would say.

Dean responds with, “Just because you’re blood doesn’t mean you’re family. You’ve got to earn that.”

The power comes on and Bobby and Rufus return, ready to “play operation.” Bobby sends the boys off so they don’t have to see their grandpa’s brain. Rufus and Bobby discuss a battle in the past, about something that happened in Omaha, something that was Bobby’s fault, that Rufus lost “her” because of Bobby. Rufus said nothing will change, that he’ll never forgive Bobby for what happens, so he may as well change the subject.

As they’re cutting into Grandpa, he COMES BACK! OMG! He blocks the door so Sam and Dean can’t get to him as he kicks Rufus’s ass. Bobby shoves him up against something electrical and the worm thing escapes from Grandpa’s ear. But where is it? I’m loving the “I Heart Polka” sign on one of the lockers. They all think each other could be possessed, so they check their own ears for goo. Sam figures the only way to be sure is to shock themselves, since that made it leave Sam’s body. Sam shocks Dean, then himself, and nothing happens. Rufus waves off the test because he has a pacemaker. Dean says he hopes it’s a good one. Rufus takes the wire to shock Bobby, and Bobby stabs Rufus in the chest!!! (I do not ordinarily use this many exclamation marks, but this episode has surprised me again and again.)

The next scene shows Bobby tied to a chair, and Dean shocking him. The thing inside Bobby tells them he’s comfy inside Bobby, since they love him. He says if they kill him, he’ll take Bobby with him. Dean is ready for an interrogation. The thing in Bobby says it has nothing to hide. It has no name—Eve cooked it up herself. She’s going to make more creatures so they can imprison the humans. She has a message, that they’re all going to die, that from here on in, it’s all pain from here on.

They want the thing out of Bobby, so they seal up his mouth, nose and ears and shock the hell out of him. The thing falls out of his ear, dead, and Bobby isn’t breathing.

The next scene shows the boys standing over a new grave, and Bobby comes to join them. It’s Rufus’s grave. Apparently he was religious and didn’t want his body burned. Bobby shares the story of how Rufus helped him when his wife was possessed, sent the demon to hell and cleaned up so Bobby wasn’t sent away for killing her. Bobby starts to tell them about what he did in Omaha, but Dean says it doesn’t matter. Their lives are too short, and offers blanket apology for all the crap they’ve pulled on each other. Rufus should have forgiven Bobby because they were family. And we all know what that means to Dean.

And WTH?? No more episodes until April 15??? DUDE!!!

Happy birthday, Jensen!

2011-03-01T04:47:00.000-06:00

He's 33. I don't feel quite so dirty anymore.

Supernatural News

2011-02-28T00:13:00.000-06:00

Supernatural was written up in the New York Times. I found the article condescending, but still, NYT!

The ratings are holding steady.

According to EW, Supernatural is almost a sure thing to be renewed.

Supernatural has been nominated as best TV series in the Saturn Awards. No noms for the actors, though :(

And the season finale will be 2 hours! Finally!

What do you know?

The French Mistake

2011-02-25T21:56:00.004-06:00

Let me just say I'm glad I got a funny episode. It's been awhile since I had so many laugh-out-loud moments during a Supernatural episode.

I'm not sure about the name of the episode. Is it a reference to the movie The French Connection? I've never seen that, so I have no idea. Or I could have just missed something.

We open with the Then recap, which shows Ruby, Meg, some other stuff I can't remember, and Castiel talking to the boys about the civil war in Heaven. Then in the Now we see Sam and Dean at Bobby's, who has run out for some alcohol (aka Hunter's Helper). Then, poof, Balthazar strolls in and starts looking for supplies for a spell, talking about The Godfather (which I also have not seen, don't like gangster movies) and how Don Corleone is now being played by Raphael. Ol' Raphie evidently has put out a hit list for anyone who ever helped Castiel, including Balthazar and, you guessed, Sam and Dean. Next thing you know, Balthazar gives them a key which leads to the weapons of Heaven and sends them crashing through the window. When they come out on the other side, they're in an alternate universe where they are actors in a show called Supernatural. Their names? Jensen Ackles and Jarad Padalecki. :)

Dean: "Why would anyone want to watch our lives?"
Sam: "According to the interview, not that many people do."

When they are able to leave the set, they're confused about what the heck is going on.

Sam: "I'm something called a Jared Padalecki."
Dean: "So what, you're Polish now?"

That's when Dean sees what he thinks is the Impala and thinks his baby made it through. But as he walks forward, he notices several Impalas, in various states of repair or disrepair.

Dean: "I feel sick. I'm gonna be sick. I wanna go home. I feel like this whole place is bad touching me."

Then they see Castiel and head for him. You know what's coming, right? For a moment, Misha plays it well, like he's really Castiel, but then the boys realize he's just another actor. The look and tone in Dean's voice when he finds out the actor's name was hilarious.

"Misha?" Hee hee.

Misha: "I'm totally going to Tweet this one." And more funny, in the alternate universe, Misha's followers aren't minions, they're the MishAmigos! LOL!

Next, Sam and Dean find Jensen's trailer and go inside where they find a remote-controlled helicopter and a nice built-in fish tank. Dean finds a copy of Supernatural magazine and has to make fun of Sam's/Jared's expression on the cover.

Dean: "That's Blue Steel, Sam."

Even better, Sam gets on a laptop and finds a clip of when Jensen was on Days of Our Lives.

Sam: "You were on a soap opera."

Another classic look of disbelief and disgust on Dean's face. :)

As Cliff drives them to Jared's place, Dean sees the sign for Vancouver and says to Sam: "Dude, we're not even in America." When they arrive at Jared's place, it's rather swank and they see a tanning bed.

Sam: "What am I, Dracula?"
Dean: "George Hamilton Dracula."

That might have been the part that made me laugh the most.

Then Ruby/Genevieve comes in, and Dean calls her Ruby. She looks exasperated as she tells him, yeah, that never gets old. Then Dean sees Jared and Genevieve's wedding photo. I love when this show makes fun of itself and is self-aware. She, like the people on the show's set, are surprised that Jared and Jensen are talking because, evidently, they don't like each other much in this alternate world.

More hilarity ensues when Sam and Dean go back to the set, thinking they can use Balthazar's spell to get themselves back to their universe, only to be forced to try to act out a scene for the show. OMG, the horribleness of it. Dean's too-intense look, and Sam looking "anywhere but the camera." Dude, I'm laughing now just typing this.

Virgil, Raphael's angel hitman, makes it to the Jared/Jensen universe and tries to take out the boys. But his angel powers don't work here, in what Dean calls the "mojo free zone." They try to take out the angel, but the rest of the show's crew thinks they're high and beating an extra to death. In the melee, Virgil takes the key and flees. He carjacks Misha and kills him in an alley. After hearing the news from Genevieve, the guys head to the scene and talk to the homeless man who witnessed the murder.

Homeless man: "The scary man stabbed the attractive crying man." LOL! Misha was a bit of a wienie in this universe. :)

Virgil, now armed with many guns, shoots "Eric Kripke" and a lot of members of the crew on his way back to the set where Raphael is supposed to pull him and the key back through the portal to the other universe. But Sam and Dean take him out and they are pulled through instead. Raphael, now a woman, is closing in on Sam and Dean when Balthazar shows up and says Sam and Dean were just decoys and the key a fake to give Raphael time to get rid of the weapons of Heaven. Then Castiel shows up, now in possession of said weapons. And I had a squee moment when they did the lightning and the shadows of outspread wings thing that they did the first time we ever met Cas. I love that effect, makes him look particularly badass. Raphael skedaddles, and Dean is predictably not happy about the whole decoys-without-his-knowledge thing Balthazar and Castiel had going. To which Castiel reminds boy the Winchester boys that he'd do it again because he'll do whatever is necessary to make sure Raphael does not win the war.

When they're left alone again...

Dean: "We're broke again."
Sam: "At least we're talking."

What did you think of the episode? While there's still a bigger story going on, I've enjoyed the past couple of episodes that felt a bit more like throwbacks to earlier seasons, the ones that made me fall in love with the show in the first place.

Favorite Season Six Quotes (So Far)

2011-02-23T06:07:00.000-06:00

One of my concerns about the loss of Eric Kripke and some of the writers from past seasons was the potential that Sam and Dean (and everyone else) would lose their flavor. Supernatural's one-liners and exchanges have always been fantastic. (I use "again and again and again and again and again and then one more time" constantly!) I didn't dislike the last season of Gilmore Girls at all, but there was a definite change in tone, and all of the wittiness felt forced rather than greased.

So while I've sometimes thought Dean was being too much of a dick, or that soulless Sam drew too much of what we love away from the show, I've been relieved that the banter and one-liners didn't change! Here are some of my favorite lines from each episode in season 6. So far.

"Exile on Main Street"

Bobby to Ben: Just don't touch the decor, okay? Assume it's all loaded.

"Two and a Half Men"

Dean about the shapeshifter baby: What the hell are we gonna do with it? We can't actually drop it off at an orphanage. They might get upset when it turns Asian.

"The Third Man"

Castiel: Sam, Dean, my "people skills" are "rusty." Pardon me, but I have spent the last "year" as a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent.

"Weekend at Bobby's"

Bobby: Do I sound like I'm done? Now look, I know you've got issues. God knows, I know. But I got a news flash for you: you ain't the center of the universe. Now, it may have slipped your mind, but Crowley owns my soul, and the meter is running, and I will be damned if I am gonna sit around and be damned! So how about you two sack up and help me for once?

"Live Free or Twihard"

Dean: Look at this. He's watching her sleep. How is that not rapey?

"You Can't Handle the Truth"

Bobby: Tori Spelling. I'm a huge fan. Girl's a real talent...You know what else? I get a pedicure once and a while at this nice Vietnamese joint. This one girl, Nhung Phuong, name means "velvet phoenix." Tiny thing, but the grip on her! She starts on my toes and I feel like I am gonna - ... I never told anyone that. Why am I telling you? Maybe because you're my favorite. Although Sam's a better hunter - lately, anyway. Whoa, whoa, why the hell am I telling you this?

"Family Matters"

Castiel: This is a vessel. My true form is approximately the size of your Chrysler Building.

"All Dogs Go to Heaven"

Crime scene tech: What are the feds doing here?
Sam: Oh, we're specialists. They call us in to answer the questions of mouth-breathing dick monkeys.

"Clap Your Hands if You Believe"

Sam: If you want to add glitter to that glue you're sniffing, that's fine, but don't dump your whackadoo all over us. We'd rather not step in it.

"Caged Heat"

Samuel: Is this what you boys do? Sit around watching pornos with angels?
Castiel: We're not supposed to talk about it.

ties with

Castiel: I learned that from the pizza man.

"Appointment in Samarra"

Tessa: Just so you know, when people die, they might have questions for you.
Dean: You mean like, "how did Betty White outlast me?"

"Like a Virgin"

Bobby: They're not like the Loch Ness Monster, Dean. Dragons aren't real.
Dean: Could you make a few calls?
Bobby: To who? Hogwarts?

"Unforgiven"

Sam: Mel Gibson really took a turn this past year, huh?
Dean: Or he's possessed.

"Mannequin 3: The Reckoning"

Dean: They don't even dissect anything good in there. I mean, bigger than Kermit, they use an iPad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your turn! What are some of your favorite lines from this season? Which one is your all-time season 6 favorite? (I gotta go with Bobby telling Dean the truth and much more than the truth. :) ) I have a feeling we might get some even better ones this week, though.

Mannequin 3: The Reckoning

2011-02-19T01:26:00.005-06:00

We open with a distraught Dean trying to wake Sam after his seizure. Things don’t look good and then Sam gasps awake.

We switch to a Chemistry classroom with a creepy, full-size human body model. I keep expecting the bug eyes to follow the janitor as he’s mopping. Eek! I’m right! Uh oh, the model has escaped from his supporting chain. Ack, Sylar from Heroes has attacked the custodian. Blood streaks across his forehead. Cold breath. The lights go out. A tray of dissection instruments drops to the floor. The man cries out, “Who’s there?” Then he takes off running and comes face to face with what I can only assume is the mannequin this episode is named for. Stab, the custodian is dead.

“You got a big, fat face full of Hell.” -- Dean

Sam feels like crap. Dean tries to doctor him up with coffee, grub and some “effective” but unnamed drug. When Dean asks Sam what happened, he stays pretty mum, other than to say he’s fine. An upset Dean wants him to completely ignore the past and do what he does to cope. “You shove it down and you let it come out in spurts of violence and alcoholism.” Dean tries to convey to Sammy how his life is on the line. Dean’s got his real brother back and not that soulless dipbag. He wants to keep it that way. To distract Sam they take a job in New Jersey.

“Hey, maybe we’ll have a Snooki sighting.” -- Dean
“What’s a Snooki?” -- Sam
“That’s a good question.” – Dean

The guys get to the university Chemistry lab and Dean immediately starts manhandling the model’s internal organs. He yanks the heart out and starts cracking jokes, which I find especially funny considering he starred in My Bloody Valentine which had to do with eviscerated hearts. Dean’s lighthearted mood shifts when Lisa calls. He ignores her despite Sam’s encouragement to talk. Refocused, they find the EMF goes bonkers near the human body model. They dismiss the plastic dude, but are happy to see the lab has a video camera. Unfortunately, the tape reveals a blank spot in the footage. The boys ask around about the custodian, but come up empty.

Later that night a security guard at a garment factory is murdered by a pack of faceless mannequins. Interesting. Guess maybe it’s all mannequins. Not just the uber-creepy Body Worlds model. Our boy detectives show up and after the EMF goes wild near a cart of severed mannequin limbs Sam makes the connection, but Dean is slow to believe.

“So, what, we’ve got a bunch of killer dolls? Like Chucky? That’s just… friggin’ creepy.” -- Dean

This victim has a squeaky clean background like the last, so the boys don’t know what to do. Then Sam finds a news article about a seamstress from the factory who disappeared and is survived by her sister. Dean thinks maybe they’re dealing with a vengeful spirit.

Lisa calls again and Sam tells Dean to answer, which is exactly what I wanted to yell at the TV. Turns out it’s Ben. He says his mom won’t get out of bed, that things are bad and Dean needs to come. Sam sends him on his way, saying he can handle the case alone for 24 hours. He also says he had to handle his past and now Dean has to handle his.

Sam goes to interview the seamstress’ sister, Isabel. There he learns Rose was a shy, awkward girl who was often given a hard time. Isabel feels like she defended her sister her whole life, but it went two ways. Hmm, I wonder if Rose is defending Isabel from the grave. Flipping through a photo album, Sam discovers Isabel worked at the same factory as Rose and so did the college janitor.

Sam conducts interviews at the factory. One dude, Johnny, seems especially twitchy when asked about Rose.

Dean shows up on Lisa’s doorstep to find her dressed for a date. Seems they’ve been “parent trapped” by a meddling Ben. The green-eyed monster takes over Dean when he learns his girlfriend is getting ready to go out with Dr. Matt. She’s pissed Dean never returned her calls. He tries to placate her and prove he cares by saying he dropped everything and ran when Ben called. Speak of the not-so-little devil (growth spurt much?), he peeks his head around the corner and both “parents” bark at him to go to his room. In their heated exchange Dean asks Lisa what she wants from him. She says she’s not asking him for anything and he tells her to. She says she can’t ask for anything because she knows what she wants and he can’t give it to her. She says she’s trying to get over him, but he keeps showing up on her doorstep. She turns his question around and asks what he wants from them.

It’s these quiet moments when Jensen’s acting is so powerful and I get lost in the exquisite beauty of his face. LOL

A freaked out Johnny is talking on his cell to someone, saying he’s losing his cool because his friends are dead. And, yet, he’s stupid enough to go to the factory. Alone. At night. The deadly dummies waste no time in trying to dispatch him, but Sam arrives in the nick of time. He and Johnny take refuge in the lunch room, behind salted lines of security. Sam presses Johnny into confessing what he and his friends did to Rose. They pretended to be her secret admirer and invited her to an apartment where they had a candle lit dinner set up. When she reached out to touch her “date” she discovered it was a mannequin. Her cruel co-workers then came out of hiding to make fun of her. When she tried to get away one of the guys tried to stop her. She tugged out of his grip and tripped, falling and hitting her head on the coffee table. The cut that’s been showing up on the victims foreheads matches the lethal one she received from the blow. Sam plans to put a stop to Rose by burning her remains. He tells Johnny to stay inside the salt lines. (Wouldn’t he be safe going with Sammy though? There are no mannequins in a clearing.)

“Just because you love someone doesn’t mean you should stick around and screw up their life.” -- Dean

Ben tells Dean he considered this an emergency situation because it was Lisa’s third date with the doctor. He watches TV and knows how that number is significant. Ben wants Dean to come home. Like a kid caught between two divorcing parents he wants to know if Dean hates Lisa or him. (And I’m distracted by Jensen’s left eyebrow. Half of it seems to be gone.)

Dean explains to his surrogate son that he isn’t afraid that something would follow him home, but that his job turns him into somebody that shouldn’t sit at their dinner table and that if he stuck around Ben would turn out like him. The boy thinks he should get a vote in the matter, but Dean says it’s non-negotiable. By leaving he’s insuring that Ben can have any life he wants, Dean has only had the one option. The boy calls Dean a liar because he always talks about the importance of family, but he’s walking out on his. You can see how Ben’s words, the revelation that the boys speaks the truth, clobber poor Dean. (Sniff. Sniff.) As Dean’s driving away he flashes back on all his moments with Lisa and Ben.

“What do you call people who care for you, who love you even when you’re a dick?” -- Ben

Salt and burn. Sam calls Johnny and tells him he’s safe and should take advantage of his second chance. He wastes no time scurrying home, an apartment above McOwen’s pub, where we see Rose’s sister hanging out. Johnny tells his unseen girlfriend, Jenny, to pack up, they’re leaving tonight and she should only take the essentials. All he wants for them to do is move on with their lives. The camera shifts to the girlfriend and--WTF?—she’s a mannequin! Ew, is he into dolls? Then she turns her head and startles the hell outta him. I heart how Love Hurts plays in the background. Guess maybe it wasn’t Rose after all. I’m betting on the sister.

Sam shows up at the crime scene to find that Johnny’s been strangled by the sash from his “girlfriend’s” robe. The buxom, and I do mean BUXOM, blonde looks on from the couch. Plastic bitch! Frustrated, Sam goes to the sister’s house in search of more answers. He gets them when he learns she’s a student at the University where the custodian was killed, she’d been to the factory the same week the security guard was stabbed and she was present at the bar when Johnny was strangled. She is the common denominator. Sam wants to know what she’s wearing of Rose’s—a ring, locket, bracelet, etc. Nope, not that simple. Turns out she’s got Rose’s freakin’ kidney!

“Is that the girl with the haunted kidney?” -- Dean

Sam meets up with Dean. They’re both stumped as what to do. They can’t exactly excise Isabel’s kidney. They decide on Hoo Doo as a band-aid to the problem. Then the Metallicar goes all Christine and tries to run them down. She chases Dean all over the parking lot until he forces her to drive into a storefront. Isabel is accidentally stabbed by flying glass. She collapses to the ground and her sister’s ghost shows up to apologize. Too little, too late.

Back at Singer Auto, Dean is working to fix his baby. But he wants to know what they accomplished on their last job. They saved a couple dicks, while an innocent lady lost her life. Plus he’s got a kid who’s heartbroken and a woman who is beyond pissed at him. He doesn’t know if he and Sammy are doing any good. His brother assures him they are. Dean says he’s tired of all the bad luck. Sam tries to look on the bright side—he’s got his soul back, right?— and thanks Dean for getting him back. He then advised that they keep their heads down and keep swinging. Sure they’ll lose some, but hopefully they’ll win more. And no matter what, he has Dean’s back. Dean says he knows and you can see the great pleasure that gives him. The end.

I can not say enough how much I loved this episode. It evoked the monster-of-the-week sensibility of seasons one and two, but progressed the current storyline of dealing with past demons. And it did so with rich emotion that demonstrated the deep love these two brothers have for each other. There was great humor, definite freakiness, raw emotion and tenderness. I guess the only qualm I had was how easily Sam got over his seizure and his flashback to Hell. To be honest, I didn’t let it bother me too much because I don’t want to go down that dark road again any time soon. This episode took me exactly where I’ve wanted to go and I just hope we hang onto this path for awhile. There’s only so much wrenching drama and separation you can drag us through. I know the Great Wall of Sammy is going to come down sometime, but I pray it stays solid for awhile. The brothers are back! And I couldn’t be happier. I also like that things weren’t tidied up with Lisa and Ben. I love what they bring out in Dean. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see him become Mr. Cleaver, but I don’t want that door permanently shut. Major kudos to Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder for penning a fantastic episode. This is only their second, their first being last year’s You Can’t Handle the Truth, with the Goddess Veritas. No question about it, I’ll be keeping an eye out for their name from now on. What did you think?

Showing Vs. Telling

2011-02-16T05:11:00.002-06:00

As writers, we're told to show a scene, an emotion, a pivotal event instead of tell the reader about it. Telling removes the reader from the experience and makes it less powerful.

But.

I remember an episode of Frasier when he came home from karaoke with some people from work and was telling his father about it. I was ROFL, no joke, at his delivery at some of the impossible events he described. At the very end of the episode, during the credits, some of the karaoke scene was shown, and I didn't find it as funny as his description.

Why am I talking about Frasier on the Supernatural blog? Because I've been a bit disappointed with some of the "showing" on Supernatural, most recently Sam's visit in hell. I understand SPN doesn't have a big budget for special effects, and I understand they wanted to show Sam scratching at that wall in his head. But I trust its excellent writers to help ME form a picture in my head. They've been doing so all year, talking about the cage and Sam being flayed alive and wow, that was scary. So showing him screaming against a bad 80s video took some of the power of that from me.

Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to have seen Castiel leading his army into hell to rescue Dean, or the battle of the psychic kids, if it was able to be done right. Those would absolutely be awesome scenes with the right budget. But until SPN gets a better budget, I'd rather the writers tell me than take the power away by showing.

What do you think? Am I just cranky?

Supernatural News

2011-02-14T00:04:00.002-06:00

The CW has scheduled two back-to-back episodes to end the season on May 20.

Finally! There is going to be a main cast member from Supernatural at Dragon*Con this year. Yes, Mark Sheppard was there last year and he's back again this year, but we're also getting Misha Collins! Tanya and I will be there with bells (Hell's bells?) on.

Jared will be dubbing the Supernatural anime.