Pumpkin Coffee Cake

You guys, this cake. This cake! This cake is amazeballs. For. Real. If you like pumpkin at all, even if you're not entirely sure you're that into pumpkin... make it anyway!

And if you don't like pumpkin? Who are you?! Pumpkin is so great. Okay okay, fine. I used to not really like pumpkin pie because I thought it was strange as a child. But that has changed in the last few years. I will pretty much devour pumpkin anything. Cake, cookies, pancakes, waffles... Okay, maybe not pumpkin beer. I just don't like beer, what can I say?

It's so moist and delicious, it nearly melts in your mouth. The brown sugar double topping is just the right amount of sugary goodness. But yes, it IS sugary. Lots of sugar. In the cake, in the topping, in the glaze. Sugar sugar everywhere! You know you love it.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 18 Pieces
Prep time: 00:15 

Cook time: 00:30 

Total time: 00:45

Deliciously amazing coffee cake that doubles as a dessert, featuring the yummy pumpkin fall flavors.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup water
• 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 18 ounce box yellow cake mix
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup brown sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl mix together the water, pumpkin, eggs, 1 Tablespoon of vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice until well combined. Add the cake mix and baking soda and mix until just combined. Grease a 9×13 pan with butter and pour batter into pan.
3. In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and melted butter. Use fingers to sprinkle over the top of the cake. Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. For the glaze, combine the other 1/2 cup brown sugar, granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and heavy cream in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved.
5. When the cake is finished baking, poke holes in the top with a toothpick. Pour glaze over the cake, making sure to cover all surfaces. Serve cake warm or at room temperature.

In photos:

This is all of the bottom cake layer mixed together. I do not have step-by-step as the way I made this is different than the actual recipe you should follow. Shh. I only had pumpkin pie filling, so I made my own little guestimating version. It turned out great anyway.

Spread it out in your prepared pan.

Mix up the brown sugar crumbly stuff.

Crumble it on top. Mmmm.

  While it's baking, make the glaze. More brown sugary goodness!

It comes out lookin' like so.

And then the best part! Poke some holes, and drizzle on that glaze.

Struggle not to eat half of it all by yourself. I took it in to work, and it was devoured!

Chuck 5x01 "...vs. the Zoom"

It's been a long wait, but Chuck is finally back with it's new, and final, season. Was it everything you hoped and dreamed it would be? I may get slammed for this, but honestly, I'm kind of glad this is its final season. There's only so much you can do with the premise that hasn't already been done, and at least they get to go out with a clear end-date in mind, thereby wrapping things up properly.

But let's get to the episode at hand. After the events of last season, the team has opened up their own independent spy company called Carmichael Industries with the money from the Volkhoffs. They also bought the Buy More to keep control of Castle beneath it. Morgan got himself the Intersect, while Chuck had his taken out by some dude named Decker, who looks to be this season's adversary.

Now that they've got the company up and running, however, there are some kinks to work out. Though Morgan has the Intersect, he's only just learning how to use it, and since he's still Morgan, tends to mess up and break $6 million vases that were intended to bankroll the company. Chuck is also feeling some Intersect-envy, worrying that he's not going to be able to do the job well without it, and at first, it seems like he's going to be right about that.

When their next case comes in, they've got a mini-mission to get an invitation to a party this dude Bale is having. Chuck is supposed to distract a huge dude with massage skills while Casey breaks into the guy's phone, and Morgan plays squash with him. Only Casey gets caught trying to get into the phone, and Chuck is forced to try to fight the monstrous dude while his hands are covered in massage oils. This time, it's Morgan to the rescue, who manages to secure an invite to the party based on his winning charms alone.

This leaves Chuck to be relegated to the van during their next mission, rather than being the guy on the inside like he's used to. Instead, Morgan and Sarah are the hot couple dancing on the floor while Casey works to infiltrate Bale's computer system to do something about money and whatnot that I didn't particularly care about. Point is, they all get caught when the aforementioned Decker hacks into the van and takes over Bale's computers remotely. Sarah, Casey and Morgan are detained.

Luckily, Bale needs a computer whiz to come help with the computer problems they just caused. Enter Chuck. He works some magic, but when he's done, Bale is ready to kill him. Thinking on his feet, he grabs some fiber-optic cords that, if he were to pull them, would give the CIA access to Bale's system. He brokers a deal to get the others out. And this is where it got pretty cool.

He pretends to tell Sarah to leave him behind, but when they get to the van, they find a video from him giving them instructions about what to do. See, it was all a plan! They kill the lights and Chuck pulls the wires and runs for it. He jumps out of a window and lands on top of the van - straight up spy style. He didn't need the Intersect after all! I think we all knew that's where this was going.

But, when they get back to Castle, they find out that all of their monetary assets have been frozen thanks to Decker. See, they had to make an investment in order to look legit at the party, and Decker was able to track that back to their account. So basically, they have no more buckets of money. This is especially troubling to Chuck, who had been trying to secure Sarah's dream house for her throughout the episode, and had only just found it. Alas, they can no longer afford the cute white house with red door and picket fence. But, not to fear, if they can just get the Buy More to start turning a profit, they can still keep funding their spy business, which should then start turning a profit itself! Plans made!

And speaking of the Buy More, Jeff and Lester were up to their usual shady shenanigans, trying to raise money for Jeff's apparent possible paralization. Chuck and Morgan put a stop to it after Jeff totally outs himself as being perfectly fine. 

Back at Decker's lair, we find out that he has some kind of vendetta against Chuck, with some kind of plan to "not let him succeed." Not sure what this dude's agenda is, or why he has a haterade on for Chuck, but we'll find out soon I suspect.

Supposedly Mark Hamill was in this episode in some kind of cameo, but I totally missed it.

Choice Songs:

Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club

The Honest Truth - Typhoon

Quotes:

"He stole two million dollars from Rush Limbaugh."
"Tell me everything you know about this animal." - Casey

"Where's Lester? I can sense his evil little hand all over this." - Chuck

"They wouldn't! They couldn't! What am I talking about, it's Jeff and Lester, of course it's a scam." - Morgan

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 7x06 "Slash Fiction"

Apologies for the tardiness of the recap this week! I was out at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights getting scared out of my mind. Though it's true I love this show, it's also true that I don't really like to be scared by people popping out at me in real life, which is definitely what garnered the most screams from me last night! Anyway! On to the show!

This week's episode found the brothers Winchester in a whole heap of trouble thanks to their old buddies the Leviathan. Though they managed to capture one last week thanks to Don the witch doing some kind of witchy thing to him, now that they've got him holed up in Bobby's cabin (or Rufus' old cabin, depending on how you look at it), they still aren't making any headway into figuring out how to hurt them, let alone kill them. And we also find out, which I'm not sure we knew before, that when they take on someone's form, they also download all of their memories and thoughts - including Cas'.

Their Leviathan in the basement is the least of their problems, however, because it turns out that two other Leviathan have turned themselves into none other than Sam and Dean themselves - and have gone on a robbery-murder rampage around the country. This rampage gets the boys on the national news, and rockets them straight up to the second most wanted men in the country in two days. Uh oh. And just how did the Leviathan manage to copy them? Turns out, they went to one of their old motels and got some hair from the shower drain. Just goes to show - don't leave hair in the drain! Not only will you get yourself a clog, some creepsters can start cloning you!

While Bobby is all for the boys laying low until they at least figure out how to do some damage to these things, they are determined to go after them, as now it's personal (they're even driving their very own Impala!). He makes them take a pit stop at this guy named Frank's place, who gives them advice on how to lay low - no more with the rock aliases, new phones, a new laptop, and, gulp, no more driving the Impala! At least for now. You know they'll be driving it again eventually. Right?!

At first, the pattern to the Leviathan mayhem seems to be random, but when Sam takes a look at where they've been hitting places on the map, realization dawns. They're hitting all of the places, in order, where the two of them had hunts after Sam left Stanford. It was kind of cool to see callbacks to those old hunts of yore from the pilot, Wendigo, Dead in the Water, Skin and Hook Man. They finally manage to track them down in the fourth place, but get grabbed themselves by the police instead. Whoops.

Meanwhile, one Sheriff Jody Mills has come to visit Bobby. She wants to thank him for saving her from the Leviathan a few weeks back. This happens to be a lucky occurrence for Bobby, not only because he and Jody have a certain chemistry a-buildin', but also because she happens to accidentally give him a way to hurt the Leviathan. Thanks to some leaky wood floor, some of the cleaning stuff she was using drips down onto the Leviathan in the basement, making him burn. The magic stuff? Borax. Is the secret message of tonight's episode to clean? Clean out your drains, clean your floors! Don't let Leviathan in your doors!

Back in the police station, the boys are separated. Dean manages to convince the local sheriff dude, played by BSG's Captain Saul Tigh aka Michael Hogan, to let him make a phone call. He gets the info from Bobby about how to slow these things down, but Mr. Sheriff is having none of it. At least until he tries to go back into the station and sees the Leviathan eating his other deputies, then morphing back into Sam and Dean. Yeah, that'll convince someone easily enough!

He lets Dean out just in time to face LeviaSam. They fight, Dean gets tossed around, and finally the Sheriff comes to the rescue with some borax. They borax him up and cut off his head. Ka-ching! Meanwhile, Sam's locked up in a holding room, and he gets a visit from LeviaDean, who decides rather than killing him straight off, to mess with his head some - and tells him about Dean killing Amy some weeks back. Uh oh. Brotherly angst, thy time has arrived. Dean busts in and takes out LeviaDean, then convinces the Sheriff to make it look as though they've been killed, but things have already gone rotten in the state of Denmark.

Back at the ranch, er, cabin, Bobby is saying goodbye to Jody. Though he did kiss her full on the lips earlier for her discovery of the borax solution, this time around he's just giving her a little peck on the cheek. Dang Bobby, girls do not like that kind of wishy washy mumbo-jumbo! I can tell you this from personal experience! The kiss on the cheek is so disconcerting - what does it all mean?! But Jody does leave with a smile on her face, and also the Leviathan head in a box, so it's not the last we've seen of her.

That just leaves one more scene for the brothers - our patented by the impa--uh, random car, chat. Dean can tell something is up with Sam, so he forces the issue. And because Sam does not let things fester and rot inside him, he tells Dean what LeviaDean told him about Amy. Sam is straight up pissed, grabs his stuff, and tells Dean he really can't deal with him right now.

Uh oh. It never ends well when you guys split up, you know. But judging from next week's preview, it's not going to last for long anyway!

Oh! And, I nearly forgot! There were a couple FBI guys tracking down the brothers, but it turned out that one of them was also a Leviathan. He is forced to inform his boss that the Winchesters have escaped again, yada yada. What really matters is that later, said boss guy gets a visit from our favorite King of Hell - Crowley. Crowley wants to join up with them, but Mr. Leviathan refuses, knowing the only reason he let them out was to get all of the souls. Ah, Crowley, always looking out for your own hide.

Random Thoughts: 

- I really enjoyed the diner scene with LeviaSam and LeviaDean. I honestly thought it was real Sam and Dean at first, but then got confused by the dialogue and was all - oh! Duh. I had to rewind it to get the full effect. Dean loves those hamburgers so much, he almost equates them to sex. Sam's noggin is so full of Lucifer, they don't understand how he's still walking. It was pretty fun to see their opinions of the boys.

- I was never one who particularly cared one way or the other about Jody before, but I'm liking her quite a bit now. Hopefully she doesn't get killed! The ladies are always getting killed!

- Dean singing along to the song and trying to hide it = hilarious! Loved it.

- I wonder if the borax works because it has some kind of drying out properties? How long does it keep them incapacitated before they regenerate again?

Quotes: 

"Well if you're gonna be stupid, you might as well be smart about it." - Bobby

The usual? - Sam
Rhymes with sing songs. - Dean... who apparently means something called bing bongs instead of ding dongs?! Hahaha.

"Now who sent you - NSA, the Feebs... march of dimes?" - Frank

"Nobody puts baby in the corner!" - Dean, about the impala

You know, I had a brother with this many issues once. - LeviaSam
Yeah. - LeviaDean
You know what I did? - LeviaSam
Hm? - LeviaDean
I ate him. - LeviaSam
'Course you did. - LeviaDean

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Did you know, I used to be kind of disdainful of blueberries? I thought they were strange and dubbed them "gross." This is before ever actually trying them, I am loathe to admit. Because sweeping judgments when you are a young person are just a common thing, right?

Of course, later in life, I tried them out and discovered I had been missing out. Blueberries are yummy, duh. If they are ripe, anyway. If not, they can be kinda sour. But do you know what you can do with kinda sour blueberries? Toss them in some sugar and bake them up! Problem. Solved.

I had such a batch of not-so-great blueberries on hand recently, and after trying a handful of them by themselves and promptly making a sour face, I decided they must be baked!

After much searching for a recipe that sounded good, I came across this one for crumb bars. And boy am I glad I did, because oh man, it was gooooood. The blueberries were no longer sour, and the crumbly dough on the top and bottom was the perfect complement. Compliment? Oh, grammar, sometimes you elude me.

In all seriousness, if you like blueberries and crumbly breakfast/desserty stuff, make these! You will not be disappointed.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Please note, I halved the below recipe because I am but one wee person. This recipe will make enough for a 9x13 pan.

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 teaspoons white vinegar (or juice of 1 lemon)
• 4 cups fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons cornstarch

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 9x13 pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, the flour, baking powder and salt. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of the dough into the prepared pan.
3. In another bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch and vinegar. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Recipe via Smitten Kitchen

In photos:

Please note, I "forgot" to take photos of the earlier steps. Whoops!

Blueberry mixture on top of half the crumb mixture.

Rest of the crumb mixture goes on top of those blueberries.

Out of the oven, it's got a golden glow!

The blueberries kind of melt together to create a solid middle layer of bluey-purple goodness.

Supernatural 7x05 "Shut Up, Dr. Phil"

Unless you've been living under a rock, you had to know that tonight's episode featured two big guest stars in the form of James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter, of Buffy fame. Random sidenote, it always takes me a second to figure out James Marsters versus James Marsden when I just see their names. I cannot be alone in this, can I?

Moving on! After much doom and gloom over the past few weeks, this lighter episode was a welcome breath of fresh air, yes? I think Sam has perhaps retained some of his sense of humor from his soulless days, or has decided to just loosen up in general after all the crappy crap he's been through, because for real, he's seemed way more relaxed and kinda funny. You know he's still the same Sam, however, because he's still trying to get Dean to open up about his big, unwieldy feelings. Hey, that's his job.

Okay anyway, I'm very babble-mouth tonight. I was also laughing at the dumbest stuff during the episode, like the salon dude's scream, and when the guy got the nails through the eyes, because I was chanting "in the eye! in the eye!" and then it happened - in both! Because, yes, there were some creative deaths tonight. What made the salon dude scream so hilariously, you ask? Why, his customer was literally fried to death in a beehive-type dryer thing! Why she first tried to lift it off her head and didn't immediately try to slide down, I don't know. People are dumb, yo. It didn't matter anyway, because realtor Wendy Goodson, as was her name, was not long for this world. Burn, shackalacka, she was literally toast(ed).

The boys come to town to figure out what's going on, and soon after, the nails-in-the-eyes dude gets nailed in the eyes, among other places. Just what do these people have in common? They both were part of a failed real estate something or other (a mall? who cares.), all tied to a pillar of the community, a man named Don Stark, and they all had some strange Romanian coin nearby where they died. The guys go check out Don, and figure out that his currently separated wife has some strange witchy stuff up in their closet, and the reason these particular people have been dying is because Don was doing the horizontal mambo with someone other than her. That is, the aforementioned and toasted Wendy. They head off to check out the wife, Maggie, and find she has another victim lined up - Jenny, Don's assistant, who she assumes he must also be getting jiggy with.

Jenny, who loves to bake cupcakes (why, a soulmate Jenny!), finds herself suddenly choking on such a cupcake and spitting up lots of blood while an actual heart beats from the cupcake she took a bite out of. That's a new one. Lucky for her, the brothers Winchester show up before she chokes to death, and blast the coin hidden in her cupboards up, dissipating Maggie's magic.

Don, meanwhile, tries to go reason with Maggie about the whole thing while she is getting ready for an art charity auction, I think. She is in no mood to hear such things, and blows up a commemorative bust of Don. Don retaliates by killing off Maggie's annoying friend who clearly wants to be more than friends with her. Oh duh, Sam and Dean realize, Maggie's not the only witch in this town - Don is one too! They better stop them before they blow up the whole place.

When they show up, the two are just about to go at it. They do a spell thingy with some chicken feet, but it doesn't work. The witches are ready to cast some spells on the boys when they decide that the best way to fix the situation is to fix their relationship. So while they get flung around the place, they try to reason with the Starks that they still love each other, it takes two to make things go wrong, etc. etc. And wouldn't you know it, it ends up working! The two reconcile. Aw, schmoopy.

Back at the motel room, the guys are packing up, when this Leviathan dude shows up. Oh right, he's been tracking them down for a couple episodes now, and he's finally caught up to them. He's about to get to some ass kicking when Don shows up and puts him down for the count for a bit. He also snatches some more of the coins out of the brothers' beds, as Maggie was going to kill them anyway. Oh Maggie, what a jokester! The guys truss up the Leviathan to put him somewhere he can't get out.

And look! It's another end of the episode, by the Impala chat! I had not realized I missed these. Sam tries to confront Dean about his constant drinking (well technically, he tried to do that earlier) and how he knows something is up with him. Dean goes with deflection, per usual, even though Sam is rather astute in his arguments that he'll feel better if he just talks about it, or else it's just going to build and build until it explodes. And, dude, Dean? He's right, and you know he's right, but I guess Dean would not be Dean if he did not bottle things. It'll certainly come back to bite him in the ass later, I'm sure.

Random Thoughts: 

- Shout out to my friend, and Supernatural writer's assistant, Jenny Klein, this week as the namesake of Don Stark's cupcake-baking assistant!

- Please, for the love of all, tell me that you've seen the hilarious clip of an alternate version of an early motel room scene from tonight's episode. If you don't laugh, you have no sense of humor. It's a wonder Jensen was able to keep a straight face.

- The dream and the waking up scene gave me some serious deja vu back to season 4's Wishful Thinking episode, right up to where he grabs some alcohol after waking up.

- There was one moment where James Marsters made this face after he killed that woman that made me go, "Spike!" Aw, Spike. I loved him so.

- This thought struck me earlier today, about Dean's drinkin' issues... Whenever ole BDW (that's Big Daddy Winchester, please tell me you know this) is brought up, as in the flashback a couple episodes back, they seem to reference his drinking as well. Even way back in the pilot. Methinks the apple does not fall far from the tree.

- Dean tried to eat some pie again, but couldn't bring himself to do it after being presented with a bag of disgusting chicken feet. I mean, who can blame him? Just another example of Sam denying Dean his pie.

Quotes:

Dean: You ever heard of a town called Prosperity, Indiana?
Sam: Has anybody?

Sam: Yeah, okay.
Dean: No, don't say "yeah, okay" like "yeah okay."
Sam: Yeah, okay.

"I observe, with my eyes." - Dean

"Pretty good with the ladies there, Mr. Stark? It's a blessing and a curse, isn't it?" - Dean

"That's never happened before! Hearts in my cupcakes!" - Jenny

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 7x04 "Defending Your Life"

After a lot of Leviathan-ness the last three episodes, tonight the boys got back to brass tacks with a seemingly run of the mill ghost case. Of course, nothing is really run of the mill anymore, right? A regular ghost haunting? Pish posh! That's some kid stuff, that is. And when they're burning bones before the first commercial break, thinking they're done, hell, we all know it's more complicated than that.

After a couple guys get offed in rather strange ways - one seemingly by being hit by a car while in an upstairs apartment, another getting mauled by a dog in a bathroom - the boys notice that they both have a couple things in common. The car guy? Had killed a girl in a car accident. The dog guy? Had done something that made him do community service with an animal shelter. Alas, I do not really remember more than that about him, nor does it particularly matter. So, their deaths were basically like getting what they deserved. Except, they'd both made up for what they did over the years, so that didn't particularly make sense either. On top of which, they also both seemed to have mysterious red dirt near them where they died. Beware random suspicious red dirt!

The pair head off in the impala to check out where the red dirt came from (an apple orchard, if you must know), and nearly run into a clearly freaked out dude in the middle of the road. They take him back to their crappy motel of the moment, and he tells them he had been held on some kind of funky trial after he went to this bar. He killed some people years ago, blah de blah. Basically what we need to know from this - weird trial, some funky symbols, the bar he was at was also where one of the other guys had visited.

The boys then split up, which is nearly always a recipe for disaster, with Sam going back to the orchard and Dean going to check out the bar. Dean starts chatting up the pretty bar maiden while downing a LOT of scotch. Sam, meanwhile, finds this red barn the dude from the middle of the road was talking about, only he gets a call from Bobby before he can explore too much. Bobby has figured out that the thing they're dealing with is an Egyptian god - Osiris - who hunts down those who feel guilty and put them on trial. Bobby very wisely points out that they should get the hell out of there because, hello, Dean is mister guilt city.

Of course, by then, it's too late. Dean has already been picked up by Osiris after a rather adorable attempt at psyching himself up to get some action with the bar maiden. Luckily, she has the wherewithal to find Dean's dropped phone and answer it when Sam calls. He finds some more random suspicious red dirt (beware!) and proceeds back to the red barn he was just at. And just in time, because Osiris has Dean all trussed up and ready for trial.

Sam, a former pre-law student as he is, says he's going to be Dean's defense. And so begins the guilt trial. Osiris brings up his first witness - Jo. Osiris basically insinuates that she got into hunting because she was crushing on Dean, though Sam manages to also point out that it was more likely that she did it because of her dad. Next witness - Sam himself! Osiris discusses how Sam was on the path to a normal and happy life with Jess until Dean came back around, and though that is hard to argue with, Sam does, saying he would've been pulled back into the life at some point anyway. Though this is great, we learn that it's not Osiris that needs convincing, it's Dean himself. Uh oh, that could be a problem. So, Sam calls up Dean to the stand. He basically gets him to say that he doesn't blame himself for things he can't control, but when Osiris threatens a third witness (which we are led to believe would've been what's-her-name that he killed last week), Dean says to just end it now.

In that case? He's guilty.

But not to worry! He's got Sam and Bobby looking out for him, and it turns out Bobby has found a temporary fix to the situation. They just have to find a ram's horn and stick it in Osiris, and he'll be gone for a couple hundred years. Okey dokey, off to a synagogue Sam goes to find such a horn, leaving Dean to encircle himself in some salt and wait for spectral Jo to come put him to his death. Jo does show up, and they have a nice little chat, wherein she basically tells him she doesn't blame him for what happened, and she wouldn't be doing this if Osiris wasn't forcing her to. What's particularly upsetting about the way she's going to kill him is in how it mirrors her own death. She turns on the gas from the stove and gets ready to use Dean's lighter to burn the place down with him inside.

Luckily, that happens to be right after Sam has located a ram's horn and stabbed Osiris. Jo flickers out of being, leaving Dean to wrestle with his guilty conscience on his own time.

In the end, Dean wonders why Sam wasn't brought to trial the same as Dean. Sam says that after all he had to deal with in hell, he figures he's done his time. The past is the past and all that. Poor Dean wishes he could feel the same way, but alas, for now, he can't. Pretty sad when someone who frequently sees Hal-Luci-nations is feeling better than you, Dean, huh?

Random Thoughts:

- Dean is seriously depressed. He seems like he barely wants to get up and do anything. And the drinking? At least they're starting to make some comments about it, though I do wonder if more serious discussions of it will happen or not. Tonight's episode was the most blatant they've been about it, with Dean saying AA gives him the jeebs (I wonder why!) and Sam being concerned about his drinking on more than one occasion.

- Not that I don't like Bobby, but I do wonder if they use him a little too often now.

- Aw, Dean has to psych himself up before going home with the ladies now. His season one self would not believe it.

Quotes:

Sam: Some kind of ghost?
Dean: With a license. ... License to kill.
Sam: Seriously?

"Dead and sober. Double crappy." - Dean

Sam (talking about a guy who was killed by a dog): He was in the restroom of a diner. 
Dean: Yeah. That doesn't sound right.

"It's been a while, but you owe yourself. It's nothing but a ground ball, you just gotta put your mitt down. You are Dean Winchester, this is what you do." - Dean

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

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

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