Coming This Week

In case you haven't heard, the return of Supernatural from hiatus has been pushed back a week, to March 12. *sob* But don't worry! We're still here, feeding your obsession passion!

Topics this week:

Monday - MJ tells us why she wants an Impala.

Tuesday - Terri gives us the scoop on Jared's performance--and probably the rest of the movie, too--in Friday the 13th.

Wednesday - Trish continues her series comparing the brothers, talking about how Sam and Dean approach hunting.

Thursday - Tanya takes a look at Mary Winchester, whose backstory is a lot more interesting than we ever guessed!

Friday - Flashback! This week's episode is a repeat, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester," and Natalie will break it down for us.

Hope to see you here!

Yellow Fever

Yellow Fever is the episode that was the beginning of my slide from Dean Girl to Sammy Girl.

Why? Two words:

Denim shirt



Ahem. Well, anyway, that’s at the end of the show. And I apologize in advance for the pictures. I know Dean was in this episode, too. I just didn't see him :)

The show opens with Dean running for his life, the sound of barking dogs behind him. Hellhounds? Dean trips over a homeless guy’s cart and hollers, “Run! It’ll kill you!” The homeless guy looks from Dean to the dog….a fluffy little pup with a bow in her hair.

Cut to the Impala driving into town 43 hours earlier. The boys pose as Feds (agents Tyler and Perry-too easy) in the morgue, wanting an autopsy on a marathon runner who’d dropped dead from an autopsy. While the boys are observing, Dean has to hold the heart and Sam gets squirted with spleen juice, but not before Dean notices the dead man has an indentation from a wedding ring and he’s all scraped up. The mortician is surprised to discover there’s no blockage in the heart, that’s it’s pretty healthy.

They next pay a visit to the local sheriff, who makes them take their shoes off before entering his office, and has a thing for hand sanitizer. The sheriff knew the dead man, Frank. They were on the same softball team, the Gamecocks. Of course, Dean snickers. Sam asks if the victim was acting scared, and yes, he’d been real jumpy, though the sheriff doesn’t know why. Turns out there are two other victims who died the same way, jittery before they died, and all scraped up.


When they’re walking back to the Impala, Dean is wary of teenagers near the car. Dean. Nervous. Sam gives him a look, and follows him the long way around.

They go to the victim’s neighbor’s house, a guy with a houseful of reptiles. All I could think of, how must that smell! Dean is twitchy, though. The neighbor tells them the victim was freaking out, scared of witches, AlQaeda, Pez dispensers with the dead little eyes. The boys learn that Frank, the victim, had been a bully in high school, had pissed a lot of people off. They also learned his wife had died about 20 years ago. Before they leave, a beautiful big snake slides over Dean’s leg, paralyzing him.



Dean researches the dead wife, a suicide. Sam checks out Frank’s house and finds no signs he’s cursed. As they drive back to the motel, Sam notes Dean’s driving the speed limit, and that he won’t turn left into oncoming traffic because he’s not suicidal. Even he recognizes how weird that sounds. A sound from the backseat draws their attention. The EMF detector is going off, and when Sam points it at Dean, Dean trips. “Am I haunted?”

After the break, Sam comes out of the bakery to see Dean playing drums to “Eye of the Tiger” in the Impala. He hands Dean the box of pie, but Dean tosses it in the front seat of the car (sacrilege). Sam has been talking to Bobby, and Bobby thinks it’s ghost sickness, where he gets scared, then more scared, then terrified, then his heart gives out. Sam theorizes that Frank was the first victim, “our very own Outbreak monkey.” Dean got it from his corpse and has 24 hours to go insane, then die. When Dean questions why him and not Sam, Sam theorizes that all the victims had certain personality types, that they were all dicks. Dean’s offended that Sam thinks he’s a dick. Sam goes on to say the dead men all scared people. Dean protests that he doesn’t scare people.

“Dean, all we do is scare people,” Sam points out, so adorably.

“Then you’re a dick, too.”

“Apparently I’m not.” Also so adorably.

To combat it, they need to kill the ghost that infected Frank, and they suspect his wife. Sam asks why Dean is waiting in the car when they’re parked in front of the hotel and Dean sheepishly admits the fourth floor is too high for him.

Later, in the hotel room on the 1st floor, Dean’s researching, when words start jumping out at him, like, “Are you gonna cry?”and You’re dying. Again. Loser.” The clock overhead is ticking like a heartbeat. Moments later, Sam walks in to see the clock smashed and Dean drinking a beer. He reveals that the wife isn’t the ghost because she was cremated, then chides Dean not to pick on the rash erupting on his arm. Dean starts choking and coughs up a wood chip into the sink. Sam declares him their biggest clue.

“I don’t wanna be a clue!” Dean protests.

The boys drive out to an abandoned mill…hey, the Impala is getting a lot of air time. Dean doesn’t want to go in, so he fortifies himself with a drink. Sam offers him a gun, but Dean refuses, afraid it will go off.



“I’ll man the flashlight,” he says.

The EMF goes nuts, but Dean realizes it won’t work with him around. Sam finds a wedding ring on the floor. It belonged to Frank. The boys investigate further, and hear a sound in a locker. Sam opens it…to release a cat, while Dean screams his head off. Sam stares.

“That was scary!” Dean says with a goofy grin.

They continue on to find pictures of Frank’s wife in the mill, photos and sketches. When they rip one, the mill comes to life, and Dean sees a ghost over Sam’s shoulder. Sam turns, aims his gun, and Dean bolts. Sam finds him by the trunk of the Impala. They’ve found their ghost.



After the next break, the boys are back in FBI mode at the sheriff’s office. Dean is drunk and declares the young adorable deputy awesome. Sam wants to know the cause of death of Luther, the man whose ghost they saw. The deputy tells them the sheriff is out, but he’s scrubbing his skin with a Brillo pad. “They know,” he says to himself. “They know what we did.”

The boys walk into a prison, and Dean is freaking out about the fake FBI badges. Sam hushes him as they approach a prisoner, Luther’s brother, Mr. Garland. Mr. Garland tells them everyone was afraid of his brother, but that Luther had been kind, and had a crush on Frank’s wife. Her husband killed Luther, because he thought Luther had something to do with his wife’s disappearance. Frank road-hauled him, but got away with it because Frank was a pillar of the community and Luther was a freak. Garland forgives Frank, because he’d been afraid for his wife, and he spread that fear to Luther, who’s now spreading it to everyone. (Why now? Was that explained? This all happened 20 years ago.)

As they walk out, Dean realizes what his rash is-road rash. He’s ready to burn some bones to get healthy, but Sam knows it’s not going to be that easy. Bits of Luther are all over the road. Dean blows up.

“We’re hunting a ghost-exactly. Who does that? We search out things that want to kill us. You know who wants to do that? Crazy people?” He lets out all his frustrations about diner food and truckstop waitresses with bizarre rashes and Sam’s gassiness. Dean quits, walking away, only to encounter the evil dog with a bow.

Sam returns to the hotel room to find a tense and sweaty Dean waiting. When Dean asks what they’re going to do now, Sam turns and says, “You’re going back.” Dean doesn’t know what to make of it when Sam adds, “And about time.” Then Sam’s eyes glint yellow. Dean demands the demon get out of Sam, who, omigod is sexy when he’s possessed, but Sam tells Dean he’s not possessed. This is what he’ll become. This is what he wants to become. He pins Dean to the wall , his hand on his throat. Dean snaps to and Sam is normal, demanding to know what’s wrong. Dean can only stare, wondering if it was a hallucination or not.



While Dean is in the motel watching Pokey get road-hauled on TV, Bobby comes to help, presenting Sam with a book on the supernatural in Japanese. Bobby can read it and speak it. Sam is impressed. Bobby’s theory is that the ghost can be scared to death, because it’s born of fear. It is fear.



Meanwhile, Dean hears hellhounds at the door of the motel room. The door bursts open and the sheriff comes in, clearly sick. He yells that Frank was his friend and made a mistake and the sheriff didn’t bust him, so what? They fight, and the sheriff has a heart attack on the floor of the room.

Moments later, Lilith appears, her cheerful little voice so at odds with her evilness. She asks Dean if he remembers the fun he had in hell. He asks why he got infected and she tells him he knows why. (Now we do too. I hadn’t made the connection.) She tells him to listen to his heart and starts yelling “Ba-boom, ba-boom!” faster and faster, and his heart keeps pace.

Bobby and Sam drive out to the mill, where Sam lures Luther’s ghost out, wraps an iron chain etched with spellwork around his neck and hauls him behind the Impala until he disintegrates. I hate that they used the Impala like this.

The three of them meet up on the side of the road to drink beer….ahhh, that denim shirt. Guh. Sam asks Dean what he saw, seriously, and Dean sees a flash of yellow in Sam’s eyes. Of course, he doesn’t tell the truth.

Ruby: Love Her or Hate Her?

During Season 3 of Supernatural, two new characters strolled onto the Winchester scene, and they were – gasp! – girls. Many fans soon made it known that they didn’t like having these female interlopers into Winchester World. Perhaps they wanted the show to stay focused solely on the brothers, which is understandable and about which Kripke was quick to reassure them. Some just didn’t like the characters. While I could have taken or left Bela, I actually liked Ruby right from the start. She was the next in a line of kick-ass female characters I’ve enjoyed watching (Buffy, Faith, Sarah Connor, etc.). When she killed that demon with the knife in “The Magnificent Seven” (3-1), I was like, “Whoa! Who is this chick?” When she revealed herself to be a demon in the next episode, “The Kids are Alright,” but one who seemed to be on Sam’s side, I uttered another “Whoa.” Interesting twist that showed again that perhaps things aren’t all black and white in this war on evil. I don’t think anything illustrates this better than when she helps Bobby restore the Colt in “Sin City.” You can just tell that a demon offering to help and meaning it is just totally rocking his understanding of the world.

I loved Katie Cassidy’s sassy, tough, bad-girl portrayal of Ruby. And when budgetary constraints led to the demise of both her and Bela, I was bummed. I hated that Ruby had bit it. And I doubt she was welcomed back to Hell with open arms. Traitors usually aren’t.

Though Ruby works mostly with Sam, her snark is oh-so-Dean-like. A sampling:

Ruby: “It’s called witchcraft, shortbus.”

Dean: “But you’re a demon.”
Ruby: “Don’t be such a racist.”

Bobby (after he shoots Ruby): “What do you want?”
Ruby: “Peace on earth, a new shirt...”

Ruby: “Anyone got a breath mint? Some guts splashed in my mouth while I was killing my way in here.”

But Ruby is one tough, determined gal. She somehow convinces Lilith to give her another chance, and she’s let free from Hell with the task of killing Sam. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think some of the things she’s done to Sam lately have been killing him. But you’ve got to admire a girl who can totally trick Lilith.

Sure, she’s come back in a different body, and the feel of the character isn’t quite the same, but at least she’s back. I find her character really interesting, even though in my mind Katie Cassidy will always be Ruby. That’s not knocking Genevieve Cortese’s acting; it’s just that I’m never a fan of changing the actor when a role was established by another. I think it would be hard for any replacement actor to live up to the original. I do think that Genevieve has been creating more of an edge to Ruby lately. And even back when she was talking Sam into having sex, she’s going after what she wants like Katie often did in her portrayal – though Katie’s “Ruby” never got it on with Sam. (Her loss, btw. ) Here, see for yourself.



Sera Gamble has said that we’ll see and understand more about the changes in Ruby at some point. That should be interesting. I wonder if her punishment by Lilith has changed her somehow, or if the differences in hosts somehow effect the demons who possess them. We already know that there’s something different about Ruby because she’s helping the boys and she actually remembers being human when other demons don’t. She’s retained some of her humanity despite everything she’s been through. And I’m really curious why.

We’ve seen that Ruby can manipulate situations to her benefit. After all, she’s not pure as the driven snow, and she wouldn’t be half as interesting if she was. Even she says, in “No Rest for the Wicked” (3-16), “Uh, demon? Manipulative is kind of in the job description.” I suspect there’s debate about Ruby’s motives for getting Sam to use his powers to exorcise demons, but for now I’m going to believe that she truly is on Sam’s side and wants to defeat the baddies. But we all know that the writers have quite the ability to surprise us.

So, what’s your opinion of Ruby? Love her or hate her? And what do you think of Katie’s and Genevieve’s portrayals of the character?

Supernatural Origin - John's Story

Here at Supernatural Sisters we’ve put a lot of thought and discussion into John Winchester. What would make a dad take his kids on the road like that? How could he abandon them time and again? Did he really do the best he could? While we can only speculate what drove this man, haunted by his wife’s horrific death, there really haven’t been any clear answers. Until now.

In Supernatural Origins, the graphic novel prequel to the TV show we all know and love, we learn exactly what happened to John after Mary burst into flames. Yes, Terri, but it’s just a comic, you say. How tied to the show could it really be? Well, it was written by Supernatural’s co-executive producer Peter Johnson, with heavy input by Kripke himself. Who better to know the missing lore?

But before I reveal the insight Origin offers, let me just say this: I’m not any kind of comic book aficionado. I read Joss Whedon’s Fray and thoroughly enjoyed it and I do own every issue of Buffy Season 8, but that’s about it. I read Origin to extend my fan experience, however I have to say I was not a fan of the artwork. The Buffy 8 artists are amazing. I love their colorful and crisp work. In comparison, I found the artwork in Origin to be blocky, muddy and too heavily shadowed, the exception being two back-up covers I loved. Too bad the entire comic wasn’t drawn in that style. Instead, John Winchester comes off looking like Paul Bunyon. That complaint aside, I did like the little nuggets offered about his character

In the story we learn John didn’t have a funeral for Mary because he couldn’t think about shaking the hands of family and friends while he buried a secret deep in his gut and he couldn’t stand alongside a priest while he spoke of Heaven and peace on Earth. John knows what he saw! It was anything, but peaceful. Where does that leave him now? Poor Sammy can’t stop crying. It’s “like he’s got something TERRIBLE inside” and Dean stopped talking altogether. Torn up and wanting to understand what happened to his beloved wife, John leaves his boys with their mom’s best friend, Julie, while he does some investigating. When things dead end, John goes to a bar, clearly looking for trouble. He finds it, along with a psychic named Missouri. She gives him a reading and sees that someone nearby is in the same kind of danger Mary was. They rush to the house and find bloody words written on the wall: We’re Coming for the Children. John freaks and bolts for home. Julie’s dead, but the boys are safe in their beds. Missouri tells John he needs to leave NOW and take the boys with him and she hands him a ginormous tooth that belonged to the thing that killed his wife.

John ends up on Fletcher Gable’s doorstep where the eccentric advises John to write everything down in a blank book, starting with the fact that the tooth came from a Black shuck aka overgrown hellhound. That night, as John’s getting ready to hunt down the shuck, Mary’s very pissed off brother knocks down the hotel door. He thinks John’s going loco and Jacob plans to take his nephews. John, figuring there’s only one way to convince Jacob of the truth, drags him to the cemetery where his brother-in-law is promptly killed by the hellhound. Just as John himself is about to become kibble, a stranger shoots the dog.

It seems John has a mysterious mentor. Together they head to Harvelle’s where they join up with another hunter to find a Heeler. It’s there John ends up making his first kill…in front of Dean. That spurs John to leave the boys with relatives for a couple weeks while he hits the road again. On his journey John battles the uber-creepy Doc Benton (remember him?), has a celestial reunion with Mary--thanks to an I-See-Dead-People priest--saves his mentor’s life and ends up at The Fore Inn (The Inferno) a creepy motel where John’s mentor plays riddle-me-this and reveals that the hellhound is actually his, they had nothing to do with Mary’s death, but John really shouldn’t be so foolish and trusting.

“We need you out there, John. You and your boys. Hunting. Training. Becoming who you were meant to be. Drowning yourself on a barstool back in Kansas does yourself no good—and it certainly doesn’t work for us. Mary’s death lit your match. We just needed to give your fury a little focus.”

Throughout the story John is constantly told it takes “sacrifice” to move forward and his boys are part of the sacrifice he has to make. The end comes with John reclaiming his boys and hitting the road. “We got work to do.” But one question remains—WHO wanted them out there?

Who do you think is responsible for turning the Winchesters into hunters?

P.S. - Watch for a future review of Rising Son, the next installment in the comic series.

The Synergy of Fandom

Tanya's post yesterday fits nicely with mine, because cons are part of the synergy of fandom. That's what I call the phenomenon that takes a show you like and turns it into something joyous and fulfilling, not just a piece of entertainment that fills an hour once a week.

My first obsession passion was Brendan Fraser, shortly after the second Mummy movie came out. It only lasted long enough for me to rent everything he'd ever done. I didn't know anyone else who liked him, but a forum on a fan site gave me an outlet for a few months. Then Brendan kind of had a lull in his releases, and my obsession passion faded.

A few years later, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring came out. I'd never read the books, but oh, man, did I become obsessed with the movie phenomenon. That went on a long time, as long as new information from behind the scenes was released, and past the Oscars. I started watching Lost only because Dominic Monaghan was on it. (He played Merry, in case you never made the connection.) This was my first foray into "fandom," the world surrounding a great piece of entertainment. There were places I could go to get news every day, and tons of articles and interviews and videos to feed my obsession. But it could only climb so high, because back then, even the worldwide connection that is the Internet wasn't all that personal.

I have other passions. I'm a Browncoat. I listen to Pottercast and bought Harry, a History. From September to January, you'll be hard put to have a conversation with me that doesn't contain a football analogy. All of these have a commonality with my Supernatural obsession passion, but none come close to the intensity with which I love this show. And I blame the fandom.

When I first started watching the show, I had one friend (waves at AuthorM) who'd already been watching it. Slowly, we enticed some mutual friends, and some non-mutual friends, into giving it a try. They in turn found some more. I talked about it on my blog, and discovered some existing acquaintances (waves at Mary and Trish) who also liked it. When the show wasn't available to me (stoopid hiatuses), I put out feelers to find places that expanded on the experience of just watching (Plastic!Winchester Theater, Encyclopedia of Weirdness (comic), and an LJer who did Ten Things I Love About Episode X lists that numbered in the dozens). Through those, I made some new friends (waves at Gail). Sharing the experience enhanced it, gave my love some fertilizer and room to grow.

Then it got bigger. After season two, some of us held "Supernatural Summer," where we watched the first two seasons, a few episodes every week. We drew a new fan into the fold (waves at Ava) and did it again last summer, packing three seasons into about 12 weeks. And during season four I started weekly chats immediately after new episodes, and joined a blog with a group of brilliant writers who are fans like me (waves at Terri and Tanya, Trish and Mary).

All of that seems pretty extreme for a TV show, but I'm obviously not alone. There are huge forums like TWoP and Buddy TV, destinations for massive groups of fans of various shows where they dissect and analyze and discuss to levels far beyond what you find here. Tanya mentioned the fan conventions--Creation Entertainment also does them for Twilight, Stargate, Farscape, and Xena, as well as genre events for scifi and horror. Seven years later, there are still events being held for Firefly/Serenity, the Joss Whedon TV show that was canceled after 14 episodes and spawned an awesome but low-box-office movie. Do you think anyone would have cared this much 20 years ago, back before we could communicate with each other so easily?

No matter how much a person loves something, whether it's knitting or a game or sport or a TV show, if their love is self-contained, never shared, there is a limit to how big that love can get.

But put it out there, share it, and it can grow to infinity. It can make you cry at the prospect of losing it, or spend hundreds of dollars to go to a convention to get closer to it. The love can last far longer than the creation that generated it.

If I was alone in my love of Supernatural, it would still be there. I'd watch the show eagerly every week, and I'd watch it over and over. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki would still be on my List (you know what one I'm talking about!), and I'd still watch their horror movies and Jim Beaver's reportedly terrible new TV show (Harper's Island, starting in April!).

But it would be enough. If there weren't others for me to reach out and touch, I wouldn't spend hours analyzing the ramifications of a single line of dialogue. Thinking about the show from perspectives of my fellow bloggers or my friends or people over at Buddy TV whose opinions make me goggle inspires a host of new feelings as well as deeper thoughts.

The love, the excitement, grow logarithmically the more people I bring into my obsession passion.

That's synergy.

And I never want to be without it.

Jared on Bonnie Hunt on Tuesday

Set your Tivos! Jared Padalecki will be discussing his movie Friday the 13th on Bonnie Hunt Tuesday Feb. 10!

Got Con?

On this blog, Natalie regularly explores fandom (be sure to come back tomorrow and comment on her post!) and, boy, there's no better place to see fandom up close and personal than at a convention.

In elementary and middle school, I was mostly a nerd. Once I hit high school and AP classes, I found other likeminded souls, but until then, a lot of my peers simply knew me as "that weird book girl." And even then, FoxTrot was my favorite comic (with Jason, the nerdy little brother most likely to quote Star Wars verbatim and camp out for opening night tickets to Lord of the Rings, my favorite character.) One of the first friends I made when I went off to college had his own StarFleet uniform and Klingon dictionary. I was fairly secure by college, but I still thought of myself and a fair number of my friends as being on the outside of some invisible social norm. (Some people still see it this way. I was on a panel with some fellow published authors and asked one writer if she'd ever been to DragonCon--the woman to my left wrinkled her nose and actually said to me, "Isn't that where the crazy people with no life go?")

Now, frankly, I no longer think of myself as that far on the outside--it's fairly mainstream to see Harry Potter movies, read Kresley Cole (since she's on the NYT list, I know I'm not alone in buying her books!) or watch Supernatural (and let's face it, those Winchester boys are way more fun to look at than Harry and Ron *g*). I mean, it takes almost ten minutes of conversation before I start trying to discuss the philosophical importance of the Impala or sing you the entire Dr. Horrible Soundtrack, so if I'm quiet (and you ignore my Browncoats shirt), I almost pass for normal.

Peripherally, I've been aware of fan conventions (most commonly associated in pop culture with Star Wars or Star Trek) for years, but I never saw myself going to one. I don't have a lot of time or money to spare and it just seemed...odd. Going to a Renassiance Festival for a day of family fun was one thing, but actually trying to find room in the budget to travel to something where I'd spend a few days with strangers? I was content to share my raving FANaticism with friends on-line or try (possibly in vain) to beat my dad at Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit. But that's before I heard that Joss Whedon might be coming to DragonCon (held every Labor Day weekend in downtown Atlanta) and since he's a writer I've always wanted to meet, I decided to boldly go where I'd never gone before. (Ironically, Joss being on the guest list was apparently a misunderstanding, but I never regretted my decision. Now, I plan my family calendar around DragonCon, although I did miss it when my brother got married over Labor Day weekend.)

Now, conventions come in all flavors and sizes. I believe there are conventions dedicated SOLELY to Supernatural in Chicago, LA and Australia--I know Natalie's going to some kind of con or event soon and can't wait to hear all about it! Then there are events like Comic Con (this past weekend in NYC...I hear Jared Padalecki was there, which begs the question: why wasn't I?) The bigger cons have programming tracks from everything to music, anime, paranomal shows like Supernatural, Lost and Heroes, movies, novels, gaming, and comic books. Between attendees, guests and volunteers, DragonCon here in Atlanta involves approximately 40,000 people.

The noise and the color (and the costumes!) can be dizzying when you walk into one of the FOUR ginormous hotels that hosts the event (and that doesn't even count the numerous smaller overflow hotels). But once you've adjusted to the sensory overload and long lines (just bring a deck of cards, a good book, or strike up a debate with the girl behind you over whether you're SamGirls or DeanGirls), an amazing thing starts to happen. A bizarre camarederie with people you've never met before. It was like 40,000 people all sharing the same inside joke. (Trish and I were thoroughly entertained when we saw two women walk by in jerseys that simply stated on the front: "Bitch." "Jerk.") I got very little sleep and it felt like a zillion humid degrees, but I didn't care. In fact, my ONLY complaint about the weekend was that there weren't more panels dedicated specifically to Supernatural (and, of course, that Jensen Ackles wasn't there.)

I made new friends, picked up new insights, sang my heart out with a hundred other people (normally, something that only takes place in my shower [alone]) and stood in line at a local food court restaurant behind two Jedis, a dementor, Laura Croft, a few Cylons, a half dozen Dawns, and some guy so into his discussion of World of WarCraft that they had to call his order number four times. (This year, I'm going in costume!) Two of my biggest pasttimes are reading and writing, both pretty solitary, but I underestimated how much I would love the energy of the crowd and meeting people who have the same passions and laugh at the same jokes and get annoyed at the same cliffhangers and plot devices and memorize the same lines.

What about you? Ever been to a convention? Thinking about going? Do you think you'd prefer the small, intimate crowd of a con dedicated to just one thing or the crazy energy of one where you're likely to share an elevator with a Wookie, Jack Sparrow, the Yellow-Eyed demon and some dude toting bagpipes?