Supernatural 7x03 "The Girl Next Door"

Oh ho, those previews from last week were kind of deceiving, were they not? Here I was, expecting to spend a decent amount of time in the hospital, when before the title card even came up they had already split the joint! Dang. I must confess, I wanted to like this episode more than I actually did. Not that I didn't, but the pacing felt a little bit off to me. Hmm. Let's get down to business so you can see what I mean. Unless you already think I'm nuts, then whatever, just skip to my random thoughts and quotes sections.

Things pick up where they left off last week, with Sam and Dean getting admitted to Sioux Falls General Hospital. While Sam gets carted off for an MRI, Dean gets shot up with some sedatives and the doctors fix his leg. He wakes up and literally falls out of bed thanks to a combo of morphine and a giant leg cast. Luckily, Bobby, who is not dead (duh), shows up to help. He tells Dean to get his ass out to the ambulance bay while he grabs Sam before the Leviathan do. And they get out just in time.

After holing up in Rufus' place in Whitefish, Montana for a few weeks, Bobby goes off to start picking up his various books he's left stashed places now that his home has been destroyed. Sam goes out to get some provisions for gimp leg Dean, and spots a strange case in the local paper. And in this week's boneheaded move, he decides to go off on his own to chase after this case. Yes, we find out why and whatever, but obviously leaving Dean completely out of the loop is not going to end well.

But what made him go off on his own, you wonder? Why, because this case just so happens to remind him of a time from 1998 when he was in his teens, hunting down the same thing. Flashback time! Young Sam is doing some research on these Kitsunes, as they are called, and ends up meeting a cute girl named Amy at the library. She rebuffs his attempts at saying hello at first, but when he defends her from some creepy types, she invites him over... for BRAINS! Muahahaha. Okay so she doesn't tell him about the brains, but the fact remains that her fridge is damn full of them. She just gives Sam a soda to use on his rapidly forming black eye, and also to have a little sip from. Because heck, it's soda. Kids like the soda.

Soon enough, the two are getting kissy and confessing they don't enjoy their lives that much. Their commiseration time is short-lived, however, as Amy's mom shows up, telling her they need to leave because there are some hunters looking for them. Amy first tries to smuggle Sam out, but he draws his knife on her. She then appeals to his softer side, even wanting to run away together, but Amy's mom interrupts all the fun and goes about trying to kill poor wiry Sam. Amy steps in and stabs her mom straight in the heart. That went well. Amy escapes.

Back in the present, Sam tracks down the grown-up Amy, played by guest star Jewel Staite of Firefly fame. It appears despite her protestations that she would never kill people, she has been doing just that. Sam is a bit miffed about that, to be sure, but Amy manages to convince him to let her go. Because, well, she was only doing it because she had a kid who was sick. She's been snacking on dead brains in the meantime, but her little boy needed the fresh stuff to survive. She promises to never do it again.

Sam lets her go and heads back to his motel, only to find Dean waiting there with a punch to his face at the ready. Obviously Dean would find you, Sam, no matter if you turned off your GPS and stopped answering your phone. Sam pleads Amy's case to Dean, and it appears that he'll let this one go. But I knew better.

Dean drops Sam off at a new motel and goes off to find Amy. He straight up stabs her despite her giving him the puppy eyes. Only Sam's puppy eyes work on Dean, girl, everyone knows that. Of course, it's not just her that he has to deal with. She's got a kid, who has just seen Dean kill his mom. Dean tells the kid that if never kills anyone, things will be just fine, and to run along. The kid gives Dean a death glare and tells him that the only person he wants to kill is that dastardly Winchester standing before him. Dean tells him to give it a few years and takes off, leaving the poor kid to his mom's dead body. Yeesh. I was a little worried that he might've been planning to kill the kid too, but that's probably just too heavy for network TV.

Meanwhile, we've learned that the Leviathan have started tracking the Winchesters using their credit card aliases. That can't be good.

Random Thoughts:

- I enjoyed the symmetry of young Sam and current Sam holding the pop can to their faces after getting punched. Some things never change!

- My Bloodiest Valentine 3D commercial on the TV. Haha, gotta love the in jokes.

- Colin Ford was really looking like Jared, right? Workin' those puppy dog eyes.

- Jensen Ackles directed this episode. Fine work, as expected.

- Did you like the heavy sepia tones of the flashbacks? I wanted them to ease up on it a little bit, but I can understand the impulse.

- Um, I know he's Dean - but does it really only take a month for a broken leg to heal?

Quotes:


Dean: And, uh, Sam...
Sam: Yeah?
Dean: Pie.
Sam: Obviously.

Dean: Where's the pie?
Sam: You get cake. Close enough, right? (never!!)

"All the coolest people are freaks." - Amy

"New rule: you steal my baby, you get punched." - Dean

Previous Episode -- Next Episode