Coming this week...

Whee, another week of Winchester goodness headed your way...

Monday -- Tanya asks if wishing is dangerous and explores how Supernatural looks at the dangers of hoping and wishing.

Tuesday --MJ will go looking for new cases for the boys among some well-known (and less well known) urban legends.

Wednesday -- Terri focuses on John Winchester's Journal.

Thursday -- I (Trish) will look at the pros and cons of Sam and Dean finding love.

Friday -- Natalie recaps this week's episode, "It's a Terrible Life."

On the Head of a Pin-Spoilers Abound

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!!!!!!

I knew going into this episode that it would go places I did not want the show to go, so reviewing it is going to be tough. Now we know what Sam didn’t like about drawing demons—eek! Who knew, watching Season One, we’d end up here? Even though Ben Edlund wrote it, I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to be cheery.

We open with Castiel kneeling beside a blonde beauty with an odd-shaped wound below her throat. He leaves as the cops arrive, and the camera pulls out to reveal the shadow of angel wings behind the woman.

The brothers are fighting in the Impala. They’ve just come from Pamela’s funeral and Dean is frustrated and angry. When Sam suggests they hook up with Ruby, Dean snarls that he doesn’t care. Sam argues Dean should be getting angry, not wary. They step into a motel room and there are Castiel and Uriel. Dean unleashes his anger on them when they ask for help. Dean snaps that they’ve just been helping another seal remain closed. The angels reveal that seven angels have been killed, and they need to find the demon who’s doing it. They need Dean to torture Allistair to find out who it is. The look on Dean’s face as they bring up his living nightmare, ask him to relive it….heartbreaking. Uriel says they’re not asking, and the angels disappear with Dean.

Dean looks into the room where the angels are holding Allistair in an elaborate devil’s trap. Dean still resists, and asks to talk to Castiel alone. Cas looks weary. He reveals that his superiors are questioning his sympathies, that he’s getting too close to his humans, that he’s beginning to expression emotions, and it’s affecting his judgment. He reveals he’d give anything not to have Dean torture Allistair after Dean warns him that if Dean walks through the door, Castiel won’t like what walks out.

Okay, here’s Ben Edlund’s touch, the snark of Allistair. I love this character. He taunts Dean, even as he’s chained to this Devil’s Trap. Allistair tells Dean how he tortured John for almost a century without breaking, that he was made of the stuff of heroes. Then he taunts Dean that he only lasted thirty years, that he wasn’t the man his father wanted him to be.

This is the part I found out about by accidentally watching a Canadian preview. I was hoping Allistair would reveal that John had broken, because though I like John’s character, I hate seeing Dean become more twisted up inside by knowing he had failed his father. Dean buries his reaction, as he’s so good at doing, and tells Allistair that he’s dreamed of payback, and he has some ideas. Some of the snark disappears when Dean loads a syringe with holy water.

Back at the motel, Ruby shows up to help Sam find where the angels have taken Dean. She thinks Sam is worried that Dean has to torture Allistair. Instead, Sam tells her he doesn’t think Dean is strong enough for the job, and Sam has to do it. And the way Sam gets strong enough? BY DRINKING RUBY’S BLOOD. Uh-huh, that’s right. (I actually saw this in that damn preview, too, and was thinking, “Tanya’s not going to like this one bit.”) So…wow, Kripke. That’s the part of pulling demons Sam didn’t like. Well, hell, he sure seemed to like it now.

(Can you believe my laptop battery died and now I’m watching over my shoulder as I type…grrr. I had it on the charger, damn it.)

We go back to Dean coating a knife with holy water as Allistair asks if Dean really thinks torturing Allistair will give him closure. Allistair reminds Dean he carved him into a new animal and there’s no going back.

Okay, the creepy is that Dean really seems to be into this.

The camera cuts to one of the pipes Allistair is strapped to, slipping, and a drop of water sizzles on the ground, erasing a line of the devil’s trap. Oops, we know what that means!

Outside the room, lights flicker and Anna returns in her old body, though it was destroyed. She said she called in some favors to get it back. She demands (okay, not demands, way too calm for that) to know why Cas is letting Dean do this. He tells her it’s God’s work. She doesn’t buy that torturing is God’s work. She’s afraid he’s going to ruin the one real weapon they have. Castiel chides her for questioning God’s will, but she doesn’t think it’s God’s will. She believes the orders are coming from somewhere, but not God. She doesn’t think God would ask that of Cas. She points out that what Cas is feeling is doubt.

Dean is meanwhile doing some awful things to Allistair. Not watching. Ick.

Anna tries to convince Cas to stop it, but he claims he’s not like her. She doubted and fell, and he’s not willing to do that. He tells her to go.

Meanwhile, Allistair reveals the Big Deal. The event that started the apocalypse. Because Dean doesn’t have enough baggage, he now learns that he broke the first seal when he, a righteous man, sheds blood in hell. Allistair wanted John to be the one to break the seal but he wouldn’t pick up the razor. Dean’s weakness got the ball rolling, started the dominos falling.

Dean turns his back, trying to recover himself, and when he turns back, ready to end Allistair, he finds the demon free of the trap and ready for payback. He beats the holy hell out of Dean and pins him to the trap. Dean is dying when Castiel rushes in (hello, where have you been?) . They fight and Allistair pins Castiel to the wall, ready to send him back to heaven in a kind of exorcism when Sam stops him, pinning Allistair to the wall (hey, Sam’s the only one not pinned to the wall tonight!) Castiel watches as Sam tortures Allistair without touching him, revealing that Lilith isn’t behind the deaths of the angels. She wouldn’t kill seven, she’d kill hundreds. Allistair taunts Sam to send him back to hell, but Sam reveals that he can KILL DEMONS WITH HIS MIND. Holy. Hell.

So he does. Man, I liked Allistair. Cas is absolutely freaked out. This is Not Good.

Dean’s back in the hospital, intubated, Sam by his side. Castiel comes by and Sam begs him for a miracle, that Dean deserves it after doing what he did for the angels. Castiel can’t, and his doubt deepens. He meets Uriel in a snowy park. Uriel is freaking out because he’s been told to stop hunting the demons responsible for killing angels. Cas tells him what Allistair said, what Anna said, that maybe the orders are coming from heaven, but not God. Both angels wonder what is going on up there. Are they being punished because they’re losing the war?

Cas calls Anna and tells her he’s considering disobedience, that he’s beginning to feel. She tells him it’s only going to get worse, that making choices is confusing and terrifying. He’s not sure what to do next. He needs her to tell him what to do, but she won’t.

He returns to the room where they held Allistair and inspects the devil’s trap. Uriel joins him to see if Cas is ready to fight with him (fight who? I missed that.)

This episode is just full of surprises, because while Cas is questioning why a leaky faucet can undo the work of angels, and Uriel reminds him that the only thing that can kill an angel is another angel, as he unsheathes a lethal looking knife. Uriel loathes being trapped with humans, and claims that God stopped being their father when He created humans. Uriel wants Castiel to join with him to raise Lucifer. Uriel envies Lucifer’s strength and beauty, and the fact he didn’t bow to humanity. He was cast out for standing up for the angels, according to Uriel. Uriel urges Cas to believe in Lucifer, and that God no longer cares about what they do.

Cas asks what Uriel’s plan was. Did he want to kill the whole garrison? But no, he’d only killed the ones who said no. He wants Cas to help him bring on the apocalypse. Cas fights him, and dayum. Hell of a fight, and boy, is it wrong to think an angel is sexy? Uriel has the upper hand, and is about to deal a killing blow, proclaiming there is no God. Then he jolts as a blade slices through his throat. Anna leans in, with one of the most awkward lines I’ve ever heard on this show. “Maybe not, but there’s still me.”

So, Allistair and Uriel are dead. Cas goes to the hospital to sit by Dean’s side. Groggy Dean sounds JUST like his daddy. Cas reveals that Uriel was working against them. Dean asks if it’s true, that he broke the seal. Cas confirms it. He says as soon as they learned Lilith’s plan, they laid siege to hell to get to him, but were too late. He then tells Dean that blame doesn’t fall on him, fate does, because the man who breaks the first seal is the only person who can end it. Dean does not want to hear that. He knows he’s not strong enough. He doesn’t want this responsibility. He’s not the man his father wanted him to be, or that God wanted him to be.

I love how so many story threads came together in this episode, and smoothly, IMO. Watching Dean torture was rough, knowing the effect of Allistair’s revelation was rougher. I hate what Sam has to do to get stronger in his abilities. I hate that Allistair is gone, since he was my favorite demon since Meg. I loved everything else (except forementioned line from Anna. Really, Ben?)

What did you think?

Brother vs. Brother

It started in the pilot.

Sam wakes up in the middle of the night, hearing an intruder in the house. He engages him, they fight, and I'm hooked. Passion ignited.

That "fight" scene did more than grab me (and many other fans). It grounded the boys' relationship, in a way. They were pretty evenly matched in that fight. Sure, Dean was holding back because he knew it was Sam, but Sam wasn't swinging to kill, either, just subdue. One got the upper hand, then the other, and such has been their relationship ever since.

For three seasons, Dean's role as protector and leader was undisrupted. He saved Sam from possession, from death, from the Yellow-Eyed Demon, even sacrificed himself to keep Sam safe. But all along, Sam has matured (in most ways) and learned how to lead, himself. He exerted some control when he saved Dean from Gordon and later killed Gordon with his bare hands. At the end of season 3, when they were going after Lilith and trying to save Dean from Hell, Sam pushed harder and harder to influence their course of action. He learned things about himself, and was forced to go out on his own when the Trickster killed Dean "for good."

And then he was alone. Dean's influence could never disappear, but when he was in Hell, Sam made all the decisions. He made his own choices, and explored every facet of his identity, including the part manifested by the demon blood forced on him when he was six months old.

You can't go back after that, and I knew the brotherly dynamics would change. Dean had missed four months, and his time in Hell would have permanent effects. Sam wouldn't be subverted to his brother's will anymore.

In some ways, I was right. I mean, Dean does still get to choose the music in the Impala. But Sam doesn't listen to him anymore, especially when his reasons are "Because I said so!" But I hoped their partnership would grow stronger, that they could see each other more as equals. That their fight against a common enemy would be enough to help them overcome the adjustment to the changes.

But Kripke doesn't play that way.

It starts out simple, and gets more and more complex the more detail you add:

Sam works with a demon. He has demon powers, and that's bad.

Dean works with an angel. Angels work for God, so that's good.

But the demon has a good goal, ridding the earth of one of the worst demons in existence. Her motives are suspicious and likely selfish. She manipulates to get her way.

The angels have a good goal, stopping that same really bad demon from freeing Lucifer and bringing hell to earth, but they don't seem to care how many people die to stop that from happening. They, too, manipulate to get their way.

Sam's powers enable him to save people while killing demons. Dean equates "demon" with "evil" and can't seem to unbend even a little. So Sam has stopped trying to make him understand. That opens a rift between them, one that gets wider and wider the more he lies. It was worsened by Dean lying, too, about Hell, but Dean's lies were internal and didn't affect others (so far!). And he came clean. He opened up to Sam, who didn't offer any support or commiseration for the pain Dean's been suffering. Is Sam too wrapped up in his own issues, or did Dean's confession change how Sam feels about him? Or does he just feel inadequate and therefore does nothing?

The angels, and Dean, and now Pam have all told Sam that he does not have the right idea, using his powers, that he's going down an unknown path they all fear. But Sam's intentions have always been noble. Even though he has a need for personal revenge, and his own pain to exorcise (hee--get it?), his goal, getting rid of Lilith, is consistent with the rest of their lives. Saving people, hunting things. Evil things.

Until "Sex and Violence," I could envision a path where the brothers were at personal odds but still had the same goals, the same core values, the same basic way of looking at things. They could continue down the road side by side, or fighting back to back, with nothing in the world more important or more valued than each other.

But then, under the siren's spell, Sam said some horrible things, things he really seems to believe, despite his repeated assertion that he didn't mean them. He has decided his powers, his history, elevates him above others. In "Death Takes a Holiday" he said the rules don't apply to "us," not just himself, but the fact that he's including Dean in the "specialness" doesn't help. It's not that he's wrong, on the face of it. They are different. They've escaped death, and Hell, and all manner of bad things. At this point, they've probably defeated more and worse things than any hunter on earth, which would put them at the top of the game.

But Sam now seems to be equating "different" with "better." He acts superior toward
demons, angels, and Dean alike. His disillusionment with the angels and his fear of the future have brought him to a dangerous place. A Spider-Man place*, a test that I think he's going to fail, devastatingly.

Since early in season 4, many people have predicted a "brother against brother" showdown. I've fought the idea not just because I hate it, but because I didn't think the events, early on, necessarily supported it. The complexity of the influences (good demon, bad angel) didn't pit the brothers against each other, and they had, and still have, the same goal.

My position is getting harder to hold onto, now that Sam is lying to little boy ghosts as well as his brother, and he seems to care less and less about the people than about winning the battle. Now that Dean seems to be letting Sam's attitude and his words sever the ties he has knotted so tightly in the past.

In season one's episode "Scarecrow," Dean leaves Sam on the side of the road. Their needs were at odds then, but it never felt like they were truly ready to cut each other off. If something similar happened now, I don't think it would be so easy to overcome. They've damaged each other, and been damaged by outside sources, and the bond that would hold them through anything is far more tenuous.

What's coming, though? Speculation is really difficult when we don't know if this war will continue into season 5, if we avoid any spoilers or pretend we didn't hear anything about the season finale. And the external framework still makes it really hard to envision Sam and Dean truly fighting each other, as themselves and not some monster's plaything.




Still, every episode, every moment of character development, seems to be leading us to that end. I'm kind of resigned to facing it, but I cling to the belief that Kripke and Co. know--they have to know, how can they not know?--that breaking the brothers the wrong way will break his show completely, so whatever they do to them in the end, they'll fix. I am, of course, fully invested in the ride.

Your turn! What do you think of the inevitability of a brother-vs.-brother showdown, and how do you think it will manifest? (Speculation only, let's avoid spoilers!)

~~~~~~~~
*With great power comes great responsibility.

Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons and Ghouls

Part of Supernatural’s allure is the monster-of-the-week mythology. The paranormal bounty brothers never lack for things to hunt. In The Supernatural Books of Monsters, Spirits, Demons and Ghouls, Alex Irvine delves deeper into the creatures Dean and Sam have given us a basic introduction to.

The book is divided into five parts and includes two appendixes—Herbs, Oils and Hoodoo Hands and Names and Attributes of European Demons.

I’ll tell you my biggest pet peeve right off the bat...the book is supposedly narrated by both Sam and Dean, but it comes off like this weird omniscient point-of-view that sounds nothing like them. Their “voices” on the show are distinctive and unique and none of that is carried on to the page. It would’ve been better for the author to write as an interested observer, perhaps a professor or a paranormal investigator fascinated with the Winchesters. Typically speaking, the kind of narration Irvine chose would create reader intimacy, as if the boys were sharing secrets, but because we know their personalities so well, and he does not emulate them at all, it has an immediate and opposite reaction, repelling the reader to think, “Who’re these dudes?”

Come to think of it, the perfect narrator for this book would’ve been Bobby Singer!

That complaint aside, and admittedly it’s a big one, how does the lore fare?

SPIRITS covers the importance of salt and burn, the woman in white, banshees, water spirits, urban legends and vengeful spirits like the Hook Man and Bloody Mary, land spirits: native and immigrant, such as the Indian curse, Amityville, Route 55, Wisconsin Lakes Curse and the Curse of Kaskaskia, plus Venir (scarecrow), Lawrence lore and Death Apparitions.

MONSTERS is all about the Wendigo, Shapeshifters, Yenaldooshi, Bearwalker, Leszy, Nahuales, Puca, The Animal Wives (Selkies, Swan Maidens and Kitsune), Lycanthropy, Tulpas, Humunculus, Golem and Rakshasa.

GHOULS, REVENANTS, ET CETERA is a paranormal potpourri of Ghouls, Shtrigas, Draugrs, Vamps, Zombies and others.

WITCHES, FAMILIARS AND BLACK DOGS is just that.

And DEMONS gets down and dirty with Succubus/Incubus, Jinn, Tengu, Abiku, Pishacha, Acheri, YED, Lesser Demons, Reaper and Goofer Dust.

The book does a great job of reintroducing the MOTW and expanding on their details, oftentimes giving culture differences. Did you know a Leszy is a Slavic forest spirit that likes to makes its appearance as a talking mushroom? Or that the word zombie comes the from the Bantu word nzambi and Haitian zombies were created from magic and the poison of a pufferfish? And, considering the recent Death Takes A Holiday, I enjoyed learning that Reapers are called psychopomps. Doesn’t that sound scarily solicitous? I’ve also adopted the hoodoo tradition of Goofer Dust and now, much to my husband's horror, walk around whispering “Kiss my ass” everywhere in case a witch is present.

In blending show elements and deepening the mythological stories, The Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons and Ghouls is an entertaining and fascinating read, even if it does miss the mark on giving the Winchesters a voice.

Pop Quiz!

I am a writer (with a lifelong love of stories) who holds a degree in history, so I have a geeky love for the tales that get passed down over the years and retold in different cultures worldwide. The varied urban legends and folklore that formed the backbone of season 1--and, to a lesser degree, later seasons--fascinate me (and, also, scare the hell out of me). And, on St. Patrick's Day, with its association with leprechauns and faerie folk, it seemed like a fitting time to offer this short quiz to see what you know about the mythological!

SPN's pilot jumped right in with something eerily familiar to me, the ghostly hitchiker, frequently known as the Woman in White. (As I've mentioned before, I grew up with the Ghost of White Rock Lake down the road, to speak.) Witch of the following (okay, I swear that was a totally Freduian typo) is also a well known regional tale of a paranormal passenger?

a) the Pasadena woman in white who, according to reports, predicted a major earthquake
b) the Georgia woman in white who warns of evil in the red clay
c) the Washington woman in white who warned her drivers of a Mt. Saint Helen's eruption


C
Tales of encountering her began after the major eruption in 1980 and were eventually reported in numerous media, such as the Tacoma Washington News Tribune. According to legend, she warned that MSH would erupt again on October 12. Which it did. In 2004. I prefer these "helpful" (or at least innocuous) sightings to the traditionally Hispanic and emotionally disquieting stories of La Lorona (the weeping woman who killed her children), which is the version in the SPN pilot. (Great ep, but that scene where her kids confronted her at the end? CHILLS. I am now officially sleeping with the light on. Oh, and speaking of me being a wuss, I understand that if you Google you Tube ghost hitchhiker, someone aparently posted an eerie little vid that, even if it turns out to have been doctored up by some high school kids who are good with a camcorder, I am still too chicken to check out. You feel free, though!)

When it comes to warding off evil, by now, we should have all learned the nifty properties of the all important salt circle (I briefly considered sleeping with a big ring of Morton around the king sized bed, but figure J is only willing to indulge my neuroses so far.) What else is suggested for keeping evil out of the house?

a) bamboo wind chimes outside the front door, sprinkled with Holy water the day they are first hung
b) burying an iron knife beneath your doorstep
c) cooking with lots of garlic


B
Iron has long been reputed one of the stronger wards against evil, helpful for barring entrance to demons, witches, spirits and even malicious fairies. (Then again, some superstitious might claim that you need the garlic to hedge your bets with vampires. But garlic apparently has a high sulfur content, which SPN generally associates with demons dropping by the neighborhood, so season at your own risk...)


Which of the following is a real medical syndrome based on a mythological creature depicted in Supernatural?

a) Wendigo psychosis
b) Vanaheimr
c) Djinn dementia


A
The second episode of Supernatural (Wendigo) is not among my favorite (although I cackled at "I'm Agent Ford, this is Agent Hamill.") But the legend stuck with me because, unlike Hook Man or Bloody Mary, it wasn't one I was familiar with. So I did a little research until it creeped me out too much. Variations of Wendigo legend were part of tribal lore for some Native American and Canadian peoples who believed that a person could be transformed if they resorted to cannabilism for any reason. The rare psychosis leads to an actual craving for human flesh (usually after having ingested it in life-threatening famine) which, yikes. And ew.

So, to change the subject, Vanaheimr was the mythological home to Vanir (Norse deities). Do you know what episode featured a Vanir without looking it up? (I'll give the answer in comments.)

And finally, I think we can agree that the Impala is nearly a supernatural being herself--preternaturally strong and sexy and full of life. So when did Chevy introduce the first Imapala? (Come on, Dean would want you to know.)

a) 1955
b) 1960
c) 1958


C
That's when the earliest version was introduced, but it didn't become its own model until 1959.

So, how'd you do? Ready to ride shotgun and rock out to Bon Jovi, or are you probably better off safely at home? Always assuming, of course, that "home" has no malevolent poltergeists...

Check back in April for my quiz on Which Hunter Type Are You? (Less educational trivia, more pictures of Dean and Sam.)

Bobby Singer: Supernatural's Giles?

I wonder if Bobby Singer has ever been called a Redneck Rupert Giles. Because, in a lot of ways, Bobby is to the Winchester boys what Giles was to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Think about it -- who gets called when the main character(s) is/are stumped? Who is surrounded by piles and piles of books about all kinds of supernatural baddies? Who acts as a father figure in the absence of a real father? Despite the contrast between the trucker caps and flannel Bobby always wears and the tweedy professor look Giles prefers, these two characters have a lot in common. Although we've yet to see Bobby and the rest of the Supernatural cast in a musical episode yet. :)

Okay, let's focus on Bobby, played wonderfully by Jim Beaver. I just love this guy. He's funny, smart, tells it like it is, and obviously loves Sam and Dean like they were his own sons. And he's pretty darn handy to have around when you're fighting demons and the like.

Bobby first showed up in the Supernatural-verse toward the end of Season One, after Papa Winchester has been taken captive by meanie Meg. He helps the boys trap and perform an exorcism on Meg, and also explains to them about how the girl Meg was is still trapped inside her body. Bobby starts appearing more regularly in Season Two. The emotions surrounding his scenes run the gamut from touching (when he understands that while Sam is on the surface talking about the Impala when he says it's worth saving as long as one thing works, he's really talking about the near-death Dean) to funny (when he loans the boys the only working vehicle he has -- a minivan!) I can't help but giggle thinking about Dean and the minivan.

Bobby shows just how smart he is about all this supernatural stuff in "Tall Tales" when, after listening to Sam and Dean's wildly varying accounting of events, tells them that they're dealing with a trickster. This is one of the times when you can just see Bobby's mental eye-rolling at the boys.

While Bobby loves the boys, he doesn't always agree with them. One such instance is when Dean refuses to bury Sam after he's killed in "All Hell Breaks Loose," instead choosing to trade his soul for Sam's resurrection.

In Season Three, we finally see that Bobby, like so many other hunters, got into hunting because of a personal loss -- that of his wife, whom he killed when she became possessed. We also see that the Winchester boys are becoming more and more like family to him. As the season winds down, and the attack on Lilith is imminent, Dean tells Bobby that it isn't his fight. To which Bobby says, "Family don't end with blood, boy!"

I think my favorite Bobby moment of Season Four so far is when the boys discover his ghost- and demon-proof panic room. When Dean asks, "You have a ghost-proof panic room?", Bobby, in typical Bobby style, says, "I had a weekend off."

I've heard buzz that someone close to the boys may be killed off, and I really, REALLY hope it's not Bobby. He's just way too much fun. But going back to the Giles comparison, Buffy had to stand alone at some point and not depend on Giles, so Giles left her. He didn't die, but he wasn't there for her to call. So the possibility is there for Bobby to go bye-bye in some way, but I can't say I like it.

What do you think? Do you think Bobby will be around for Season Five? Why or why not?

Coming this week...

Monday -- I'll share the reasons I love Bobby's character. I mean, what's not to love? :)

Tuesday -- Tanya will test everyone's demon-hunting knowledge.

Wednesday -- Terri will do a review of the Supernatural Book of Monsters, Spirits, Demons and Ghouls.

Thursday -- It's Brother vs. Brother time with Natalie.

Friday -- MJ is in the driver's seat for this week's episode recap, for "On the Head of a Pin." I'm guessing this is an angel episode. :)