Supernatural 9x05 "Dog Dean Afternoon"

I think they kind of set themselves up for high expectations with the opening previously bit. It was all clips from past funny episodes, thereby making us expect this episode to also be super funny. Did it succeed? Eh. I personally didn't find it all that funny, though maybe others did. For me it was more hokey than funny.

Shush, Sam, I have become the dog whisperer.

But the show was due for a more lighthearted episode after so many bleaker ones focused on the overall arc. Though they've been holed up in the Men of Letters bunker for a while know, ostensibly to let Sam heal from the trials, Sam is ready to get back to hunting. Dean, of course, is less than receptive to the idea, knowing all the secrety secrets that he does about Sam being angelfied inside. But, Sam will not be denied. They must go find out what happened to a man whose entire skeleton was seemingly broken.

They don't have a whole lot to go on when they research what happened to said dead taxidermist. Is it a giant snake monster because he was constricted to death? But also venomized, which apparently one snake alone cannot do both? Well, guess what, another dude is killed in a completely different animal-y way, so that can't be it! Oh no! What to do! How about we ask the dog that happened to be at both crime scenes!

The way to a dog's heart? Belly rubs.

Yes. We're going to ask the dog, because he barked at a guy in a cowboy hat, which seemed very suspiciously helpful. So Dean takes this potion that allows him to mind meld with the dog, named Colonel, who happens to have a gravelly voice and is generally sort of ornery. Colonel tells them all he can about the man in the hat, but it's not really enough. Good thing that this spell also allows Dean to hear other animals too, because he can interview the other dogs from the pound where the second murder happened.

So they talk to some more dogs, give one a hefty belly rub, and after setting them free, figure out that the bad guy in question is a local chef. He's doing some kind of shaman spell that involves eating animal parts to gain the aspects of the animal. Hence the snake-like kill and the other face-slashy kill. And he has a whole lot of other body parts to choose from. They track him down to his restaurant and have themselves some fisticuffs. Sam gets rather badly scratched by the guy and Zeke takes over to heal him, which makes the guy like oh shizz, I better eat you because that is some crazy healing power going on. So, he knocks Sam out.

Of course, Dean finds them and gets to hear him blather on about having cancer and there being no cure apart from this shaman spell, blah blah. Ultimately, Dean manages to lead the guy outside and calls on his dog posse that he let go from the pound earlier to basically rip the guy apart. Dead guy is dead.

Sam is becoming more and more aware that there's something weird going on with him, because Dean is terrible at coming up with decent lies that don't sound like obvious lies. And Dean loses the power of animal-speak just as the Colonel was about to tell him what a dog's purpose is, since it's really not being man's best friend. Ba dum bum.

Random Thoughts:

- I mean, I guess I'm glad they didn't go too overboard with the dog stuff becoming one with Dean, but even still it was kind of weird. Like looking at the poodle all sexy-like just felt stupid rather than funny. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, who knows.

- How long until THE TRUTH comes out? And what is Sam going to do once he finds out? Will Zeke get the boot, or does he really have some secret plan for doing what he's doing? It always seems like everyone has some kind of secret plan.

- This episode really just made me want to watch some of the better funny episodes of the past. Yellow Fever. Wishful Thinking. Tall Tales. Changing Channels. Ghostfacers. Ah, good times, good times.

Quotes:

Dean: All right, let's keep digging. But not here. I don't like the way that owl's looking at me.

Dean: Hey, you know who wears sunglasses inside? Blind people. And douchebags.

Sorry, that's all I have. I just didn't think it was super funny this week. Feel free to add any of your favorite quotes in the comments!

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