Supernatural 10x08 "Hibbing 911"

After last week's big mythology episode revealing both the big bad of the season and her relation to Crowley, this episode went in an entirely different direction, featuring more of a monster-of-the-week classic. But, while that may have been a recipe for eh, this was a fun episode because it featured the return of two favorites, two sheriffs from past episodes - Jody and Donna. While we've seen Jody a bunch of times, duh, this is only the second time we've seen Donna, but probably not the last.

Jody is forced to attend a Sheriff's Retreat in Hibbing, Minnesota - where Donna happens to be attending the very same retreat. Jody is a little turned off by Donna's chipperness at first, but as they get to know one another, that changes. While Donna may seem overly chipper, she knows her stuff and is a good sheriff.

Anyway! On to the actual story here. Turns out, the Sheriff's Retreat is not the only thing going on in Hibbing. There are also some dead bodies piling up, that look a little less than normal. Jody calls up Sam and Dean, and although at first they decide they shouldn't come out, Dean is feeling cooped up and decides they need to go anyway. And it turns out it's a good thing they do, because something nefarious is definitely going on.

Things seem hinky the moment they arrive in town. Either the lead sheriff or his deputy is hiding something, and it turns out that it's actually the sheriff. The deputy informs Dean that the sheriff has been hiding the surveillance tape of how one of the guys was killed. Fishy, fishy. It becomes all the more fishy, though, when Donna happens upon the sheriff looking like he's just killed and is feasting on another lady sheriff, who just happened to be hooking up with Donna's ex Doug there at the retreat.

Donna never really knew what happened in her last encounter with the Winchesters, and despite them trying to get Jody to keep her out of harm's way and not aware of the darker side of the world, now she has to be brought up to speed on the things that go bump in the night. Although she is, of course, surprised and dismayed at this turn of events, she is ready to go when Sam and Dean want to head out to try to find the sheriff and dispatch him.

When they arrive at the ramshackle barn the sheriff seems to be hanging out at, things take a turn. He warns them to run just before they all get jumped by a group of vampires, one of whom happens to be a teenage girl Jody gave money to earlier when she thought she was a homeless person. It turns out that the sheriff used to sort of run their little outfit, but he took off years ago. Do we really care about the vampire backstory here? Not really. Though they're all tied up, Dean and Donna both manage to escape their bonds and do some vampire be-heading. Although the vampire sheriff was sort of technically good, he didn't make it, so they don't have any questionable decisions to make there at the end.

As they part ways, Jody tells Donna to call her if she wants any tips on what kills what in her new crazy world, and Donna seemed pretty apt for that. A spinoff with those two? Now that would be much better than that stupid Bloodlines crap last year. Meanwhile, Dean claims that when he killed the vampire this time around, he didn't feel pushed by the Mark at all, which seems like progress... or something. Since he kind of rubs his arm and looks like he may have been lying about that to Sam. Who the heck knows.

Random Thoughts:

- I didn't really touch on a lot of the smaller moments between Jody and Donna, but they were all great. Jody was so annoyed by Donna's ex-husband Doug treating her terribly, that she finally told him to basically shove it. And seeing the memories of Jody's own lost husband and son was pretty sad to see as well. She's always so sassy that sometimes it's hard to remember that she had this tragic things happen so many seasons back.

- Jody also is dealing with the teenage Alex she took in last season, who seems to be acting much like teenagers do - that is, kind of like a jerk. Will we be seeing Alex again, or just these mentions of her?

- Sam and Dean are still trying to find information on the Mark of Cain in the Men of Letters bunker, but not having much luck. Instead, Dean is able to find long treatises on transgender werewolves, which is definitely not super helpful.

Quotes:

Dean: I love the smell of parchment in the morning.

Sam: Enjoy the retreat.
Jody: Screw you, Winchester.

Jody: You know my stalker?

Sam: This time, try to be a little less defensive of your pretend job.
Dean: You know, this badge means something.
Sam: I made it at Kinko's.
Dean: Yes you did. Be proud of that.

Donna: What the cuss! A vampire?!

Donna: Hakuna Matata, lady.

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