Supernatural 13x08 "The Scorpion and the Frog"

After last week's guest star fest, this week it's back to a tried and true Winchester-focused episode. It was a bit of a filler episode, not really accomplishing much of anything, but when you've got to fill in at least 22 episodes of show a season, I guess that happens from time to time. Will anyone remember this episode by the end of the season? Unlikely, but oh well.

The Winchesters are still at a loss as to how to find Jack, but wouldn't you know it, they get a call from a demon named Bart who has something that will help them find the missing nephilim - a tracking spell. Of course, considering this Bart is the new head crossroads demon, you know he's not just going to hand over the spell for nothing. He gives them half the spell up front, and promises to give them the other half if they do him just a little favor.

What's this favor, one wonders? Well, he wants to steal something from some guy. Why can't he just till it himself, the brothers themselves wonder. Why, because there are anti-demon cloaking spells and such blocking him. But why does he need the Winchesters when he could get someone else to help? Turns out the only way to get access to whatever it is he wants to get requires blood from someone who has been to Hell and back. Ah, okay then.

The brothers agree, but with a secret caveat that they'll kill Bart once they've got the spell. Because these secret pacts always end up going so well for them, but sure. Bart has a couple other helpers for the job, a girl named Alice aka Smash, and a demon named Grab. Well, he's not really named Grab, but you get the joke here. Sam heads in to the estate claiming he's got something supernatural to sell to this reclusive dude Luther with whatever the thing is Bart wants.

While Sam distracts the guy, Dean and the others work to find the secret place where the loot is hidden. Grab does some spell to make Dean's blood pull him toward the thing, and off they go. It eventually leads them to the secret place, but at this point Luther isn't really fooled by Sam's selling tactics. Sam tries to stab him with the demon-killing knife, but it turns out that the guy can't be killed on his own property. I'm not sure if it was established that the guy was or wasn't a demon, but it turns out he's not, I think? I don't know how he's stayed alive so long, but do we really care? Not really.

ANYwayz, Grab ends up getting killed and Alice runs off in the melee, but Sam and Dean manage to knock out Luther and use him to get to the secret vault with an old safe. Alice shows back up to help out at this point, but really she's only doing it because she made a deal with Bart and he agrees not to take her soul if she continues working for him. They grab a big chest from the safe and head out, but Luther has escaped from his bonds and is, for some reason, waiting for them down the street in a car, outside of his property. People be so stupid sometimes.

Luther has a whole sob story about Bart using the fine print in a deal to only temporarily save the life of his sick son, so Luther ended up finding Bart's bones and hid them, and that's how he's stayed alive all these years? It's unclear why he didn't just burn them himself at this point... but okay. Bart shows up and kills Luther. He wants to finish the deal with the Winchesters, but they aren't into it now that they see they can kill Bart if they burn his bones. Bart uses Alice as a human shield of sorts, threatening to kill her if they kill him, so they agree to exchange the bones for her.

Of course, Dean has a trick up his sleeve, and has placed his lighter in the box of bones, and gives Alice a clue about it - so she ends up being the one who burns up his bones. Alas, the rest of the Jack-finding spell burns up with him, because that would be too easy. The brothers bid farewell to Alice, and go back to where they were at the beginning of the episode, pretty much. Ba dum bum.

Random Thoughts:

- Why do they act like Dean is the only one of them who has been to Hell, and thus the only one they can use the blood of for this spell thingy? Sam's technically been there too, he was just in the cage. Am I wrong?

- Hard to tell if they're trying to set up Alice to be a recurring character or not. Technically they never really said why she sold her soul or anything, and typically they would have had a character like that explain it if they were to never be seen again, so it seems likely she may be back. That said, they seem like they kind of want her to be a more emo standoffish version of Charlie, and no thanks, I would've preferred Charlie.

- Next week is the midseason finale, which means we're probably going to find out what's been going on with Jack the last couple episodes.

Quotes:

Bart: Natural destructors. We have that in common, you and I.
Dean: Oh yeah, we're twinsies.

Dean: What is this, a heist? Hold up, is this a heist?

Dean: Hey Winona, '90s called they'd like their shoes back.

Dean: Hey Alice, stay weird.

Dean: We just keep working, 'cause that's what we do.
Sam: Feels really good to hear you talk like that again.
Dean: I'll drink to that.

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