Supernatural 11x04 "Baby"

I think I can safely say that was one of the best episodes of the show in quite a long time. While I did enjoy last season's Fan Fiction, if anything this episode was even more of a celebration of the show by focusing on ostensibly the third main character of the show that has been around since day one - the Impala. As Sam says at the end of this episode, the baby is their home more than anything else has been.

Anyway, let's get on with what actually happened this episode. I actually enjoyed the flash forward opening of this episode. Normally I think that's a bit of a cop out because it's done so often now, but I thought it did a good job of making me wonder what had happened to leave Dean beaten up in the back of the car, handcuffed, with the back window shot out.

But before that, he was back at the bunker washing the car. With nothing to go on with the Darkness or Metatron, Sam suggested a possible case in Oregon (whaaaat Oregon!). Dean was all for the distraction, so it was time for a road trip, which resulted in a nice stop over at a Roadhouse where Dean spent all night with some girl from a past hunt, and Sam apparently went and hooked up with a girl in the backseat of the car. Rarely do we see Sam picking up random girls, so both Dean and the audience was somewhat delighted.

Back on the road, we get a little road trip singing action, followed by a completely unexpected scene for me. I wasn't paying attention to the guest stars at the beginning of the episode, so when Sam woke up in a dream/vision thing and saw his young dad driving him, I was like what! Of course, it wasn't really our dearly departed John Winchester, but rather someone else warning Sam that the Darkness is coming, and he and Dean are the only ones who can stop it. Sam asks for, you know, some kind of actual clue to do that, but he just says "God helps those who help themselves." So... ultra helpful.

Sam tells Dean about this dream/vision, but Dean isn't convinced that this could be GAHHG* helping them out. They have a nice little moment in the car discussing some of the recurring dreams they have about a regular life with their parents, then it's off to Oregon to figure out what's going on with the case. After talking to the local deputy, the boys head to a local restaurant, and the valet girl as the audacity to go joy riding in the Impala while they eat. Which was the only odd thing about this episode to me, but I digress.

The boys then part ways - Dean to investigate the crime scene and Sam to go speak to the wife of the victim. While Cas calls Dean to tell him what he's found in the lore, Dean gets a little more hands on experience with the monster, which turns out to be the deputy. He tries shooting it with silver, and even decapitating it, but neither works, so he sticks the head in a cooler and heads back to find Sam, who sticks the wife in the back of the car. They get another call from Cas, who has now figured out what they're dealing with - some kind of ghoul/vampire combo who can only be killed by sticking copper in its mouth. Allrighty then!

Sam goes to find info or something, leaving Dean to get attacked by the wife, who is really part of a pack of these things. She knocks him out and drives the car back to the body of the deputy to reunite head with body. Turns out he's the pack leader. Dean manages to get himself out of the handcuffs thanks to the butterfly hair thing the girl Sam slept with earlier left in the car. Then he finds the pennies from the purse of the joyriding girl's friend and shoves them in the deputy's mouth. But not before poor baby got pretty much demolished with all of the fighting.

In the end, Dean and Sam reunite in the Impala, ready to head back to the bunker to fix up the car and fight another day.

*Great Almighty He Him God

Random Thoughts:

- I definitely enjoyed this episode that was focused just on the boys and the car rather than all of the whole angel/demon/Darkness business. Definitely one of the best episodes of the last few seasons.

- I read that they had to use all eight of their cars for this episode, and that some of them got quite beaten up and had to be fixed a lot. I can believe it with all of the shots they had to do. Some of them were a little funky, but it was a cool way to do the episode. Did you all enjoy it as much as me?

- The only thing that bothered me was that it felt a bit convenient that the valet girl decided to randomly take the car for a joyride and her friend just happened to leave her purse, which just happened to have some old pennies in it.  Suuuuure.... okay.

- It was fun to see Sam actually get some. Does he get it on more than thought? Obviously Dean seems like a girl in every port sort of guy, but Sam... haha. Anyway.

- This episode would definitely make it into the top 50 episodes that I did earlier this year.

Quotes:

Dean (raining after he just washed the car): Figures.

Dean: What is that?
Sam: Smoothie.
Dean: Where's the beer?
Sam: Underneath the smoothies.
Dean: Where's the rest of the beer?

Dean: Never use Swayze's name in vain.

Dean: Time heals all wounds, Sam. Especially good times.

Dean: Mistakes were made. Mmm hmm.

Sam: Don't "Night Moves" me.

Dean: Turns out I did shoot the Deputy.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 11x03 "The Bad Seed"

I don't really like to join in on the people that dis on certain characters, but sometimes Rowena just rubs me the wrong way as a character. Her scenes are just so... campy. That's really the only way to put it. Anyway.

As you may have guessed, this episode featured the return of Rowena, which had to happen eventually as she was the one who put the red-eye spell on Cas. And I do feel sorry for Misha for having to wear those contacts so much. I feel like they can't really be comfortable. But I digress. Rowena is off on her own, trying to form her own version of the Grand Coven, aka the Mega Coven. Other witches are a bit dubious, not least because the name is kind of terrible, but also because it's Rowena. At least until she reveals to a couple of them that she has the Book of the Damned. That perks their ears right up. Well, until a demon shows up and kills one of them. Those pesky demons.

Yeah, because Crowley still wants to find her, too, after she tried to have Cas kill him. You know, small things like that. But Crowley has other concerns on his mind at the moment as well. Like that little gal of darkness, Amara. He's got her set up with a demon nanny who is showing her Hitler's greatest hits, but she doesn't really seem to be satisfied unless her hunger is sated. And apparently eating souls also means eating demon souls, as she chows right on down on a bunch of demons. Crowley is a bit disconcerted by all of this, not knowing what she wants or what she plans to do to get it. Which is a question the audience has as well. What does this girl want, anyway? Other than to stick it to GAHHG?

We'll have to find out later, because while she does have another growth spurt at the end of the episode, it's clear we're not going to find out what she's really up to until she ages up to the main girl playing her. Duh.

So! Back to the Winchesters. They're holed up in the bunker, trying to find Rowena, to no avail. However, once that demon attack happens, they're on her trail, and manage to trap her and bring her back to the bunker. They want her to cure Castiel, making a supposed deal to let her go after she does it. But, of course, they rarely make good on their deals with evils, and want her to hand over the Book of the Damned as well. Though they have her codex for reading it, they want the book itself to be safe.

But no time to argue about it now, because Cas has escaped! Oh me, oh my! He's gone rabid again and is off tailing after some young girl, even though his spell would seemingly try to lead him back to Crowley. Whatever. The boys track him down, he beats on a Dean a bit, then Rowena lifts the spell. Before they can get her re-trapped, though, she's escaped and left them locked up for the moment. I suppose she must not just kill them straight up because she wants them to kill Crowley, or something? I mean, kind of silly that she wouldn't when she knows they'll keep coming for the Book, but whatever.

And that's about all she wrote. Dean did find out that Sam made a deal with Rowena to kill Crowley after lifting the Mark, but it would appear that Sam did not tell him about the whole I had the darkness virus and figured out holy oil cures it thing. So many secrets, young Winchester, so many secrets.

Random Thoughts:

- What the heck does Amara want? I guess that's supposed to be something of a mystery, but it feels a little like they're not quite sure and are trying to figure it out over a few episodes. I could be wrong, but it just seems like stalling. How long until she hits the peak age? A couple more episodes?

- I am glad they rid Cas of that spell, it was getting tedious watching him run around with the red veiny eyes all the time.

- This episode felt like a step back after last week's. I quite enjoyed last week's, but felt pretty much indifferent to this one. Not very much snappy dialogue either in comparison.

- Next week appears to be a break from the main throughline of this season with a monster of the week episode. I have to say, kind of looking forward to the break.

- Factoid: this one was directed by Jensen Ackles, as has now become tradition.

Quotes:

Dean: Why isn't he answering his phone?
Sam: Because he's a dick. And that's not breaking news.

Cas (about his car): You think it's crappy?
Dean: Eye of the beholder.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 11x02 "Form and Void"

I have to say, I thought this second episode of the season was an improvement over the first. At least to me. I know a lot of fans get all in a huff when the brothers are off doing their own things, but I thought it worked quite well for this episode, and did a good job of setting up some stuff and paying off other stuff. On to the recap!

As you may recall from last week, Dean is dropping off Deputy Jenna and baby Amara with Jenna's grandma in Iowa. Meanwhile, Sam is back in, I guess, Nebraska, dealing with the darkness sickness. That, you know, he has, but hasn't told Dean about. Because that's always good for building an already shaky ground of trust. Anyhow, Sam captures another infected dude and figures out that everyone seems to get infected on different timelines. Which is mighty convenient for him considering he's trying to find a cure before he goes cuckoo bananas. I'll just stick with Sam's story and then get to Dean's and Castiel's to make it all easy to follow.

So! While Sam's at the hospital, he encounters a reaper we are likely to see again, Billie, because why else would she get a name and such a speaking part? Anyway, she's basically like, well, us reapers are still doing the work even though Death is gone. Oh and she also tells him that the next time he and Dean die, the reapers aren't going to send them to Heaven or Hell, put rather into the empty, where they can't be brought back from. Comforting for Sam when he's facing death, no? But she also gives him a hint as to his salvation - he is unclean, in the biblical sense.

Well, that makes Sam head to the chapel for some guidance. God gives him some kind of hell vision, and then when he's having other hallucinatory thoughts as the darkness takes over, he realizes.. he needs to be cleansed, in the biblical sense. Which means some fire via holy oil. And what do you know, he just happens to have some holy oil on him! Voila, sickness gone! Time to cure some others!

Meanwhile, back in Iowa, Jenna and the baby are settling in. Or, sort of. Because the baby starts making letter blocks float and slam into the wall spelling out "Feed Me," which, you know, isn't normal baby behavior. Jenna's grandma flips out and calls the church for help, while Jenna of course calls Dean. When Dean shows up, he realizes the exorcist the grandma called is everyone's favorite King of Hell, Crowley. Crowley's there because he knew something big was going on.

And yes, it is, because dear baby Amara is, you know, The Darkness, and what does The Darkness want? Turns out, to eat souls. She steals poor Jenna's soul away, who then goes and kills her grandmother, and starts a fight with Dean. Crowley kills the poor girl, then threatens Dean a bit. Dean, for his part, doesn't kill Crowley when presented with the chance, but instead goes to find Amara after hearing Crowley wants her. But she's gone. Because, oh yes, she's turned into a little girl now that she's had a soul to eat. Bad for Dean as well, because Crowley does find her, and offers her up some more souls for feasting. Oh boy.

Let's not forget about cursed Castiel, who was captured by two angels, Ephraim and Jonah, who are trying to interrogate him as to the whereabouts of Metatron. Hannah comes to his seeming rescue before they start cutting off body parts, but it turns out that was all part of the angels' plan to get Cas to reveal information to them. Like, oh, where the brothers Winchester are. Cas is like ah hell to the no I won't ever reveal my precious babes' locations! So they try to drill into his head all medieval style, but he gets mad when Ephraim starts beating on Hannah when she tells them to stop. Fisticuffs! All the angels end up dead! Including Hannah. And of course not Castiel, what do you think this show is? Sheesh.

After all of that, the brothers head back to bunker to wrap their heads around what has happened, and find Cas there, groaning for help. Will Misha finally be able to stop wearing those red contacts? We'll find out next week!

Random Thoughts:

- Nice use of O, Death with Reaper Billie. Otherwise, the music felt a bit weird throughout the episode. Like, overly loud and dramatic. It was super distracting. Was I the only one to notice this? I literally said out loud multiple times, "what is up with this music?"

- Everyone seems to be majorly freaked out by The Darkness and how it was just stories. Yet it seems to be less of an it and more of a She. If you kill the girl, is The Darkness itself killed? And can you really kill it? It's just funny because at the end of season five it was like oh look, the worst is here, it's the apocalypse. Then it was like oh look the Leviathan are even worse. Now it's The Darkness. How much worse can it get here, people?

- Nonetheless, The Darkness and the whole angels/demons/heaven/hell of it all seem to be related in some way, as they said God was the one who banished it, or whatever, and both sides seem to be equally terrified of it.

- This show just likes creepy young evil girls, huh? Remember Lilith? 

- There was quite a lot of snappy dialogue throughout this episode. I tried to get as much of it as I could, but I may have missed a few Crowley lines.

Quotes:

Dean: What can I say, chicks dig me.

Jenna: Grandma, no.
Grandma: Well who we gonna call?
Dean: Ghostbusters.

Billie: You flirtin' with me, kid? 'Cause no offense, you're not my type.

Crowley: I have sources in the Catholic church, nuns who owe me a favor, Priests with a taste for...
Dean: Okay. Alright. I can imagine.
Crowley: You really can't.

Crowley: Well hello, plot twist.

Sam (after weird torture vision sign): What does that mean?!

Crowley (after Dean calls him Velma): I'm way more of a Daphne.

Crowley: The child likes you. Not a surprise, really. You're very maternal.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 11x01 "Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire"

Here we are folks, back in the saddle again. Ten seasons have come and gone, and here we are in season eleven of Supernatural, which seems rather insane considering the show was on the cusp of being cancelled back in season one. But after many years of demons, angels, leviathans, and evil marks, something even worse has been unleashed.

Yep. It's the year of The Darkness. As you may recall, at the end of last season, Dean killed Death, and Sam helped him remove the Mark of Cain, which led to the Darkness being unleashed. Rowena cursed Castiel to kill Crowley, and that's where things cliffhangered. Well, we're back in the thick of things. Just what happened after the Impala was enveloped by the ominous black smoke?

Sam was knocked unconscious while Dean was whisked off to points unknown. Turns out, he was taken out to a field to talk to the embodiment of the Darkness herself, who was most grateful to him for releasing her back into the world after so many millennia. But is that all? Why doesn't Dean try to kill her right here, right now? Well, we'll come to find out at the end of the episode it's because she is the one responsible for the Mark of Cain the first place, so he can't kill her. It's kind of a quid pro quo deal - she helps him, he helps her. And he can't do anything about it. Well, we'll certainly see about that, I'm sure.

Anyway, back to the main plot of the episode itself. Sam finds Dean in the field, and they start looking for civilization. Soon enough they come upon a road crew that has been murdered, but who did it? Luckily there is a cute female deputy there to let them in on some knowledge - the darkness swept through, they kind of lost it and all got these dark veiny marks all over themselves before starting to kill everyone. She managed to shoot a bunch of them, but did sustain a flesh wound.

So it's off to the nearest hospital for some more derring-do! Or, to try to figure some crap out. Sam sees another of the "rabid" as he takes to calling them in the hospital, trying to break down a door. Eventually the guy falls down to the ground, dead. Apparently this infection thing has a shelf life. He finds a man and his newborn baby inside the closet, so now the brothers have someone to try to save. Only the father turns out to be infected by the stuff, too. Which only means it's a matter of time before he starts trying to kill them all. So, the dad says he'll go off and leave them alone until he dies or they find a cure, so long as pretty deputy takes care of his baby. Okey dokey.

They're just about to try to leave the hospital when another car pulls up and unloads with a bunch of the rabid people. What to do now! Dean wants to gear up and go out there guns-a-blazing, killing them so they can save the baby. Sam is like whoa now, it's not just about the baby, those are people too, just infected by the...Darkness...stuff. So, Sam decides to run off as a diversion while Dean and the Deputy take off with the baby in tow.

Of course, Sam gets in a tussle with one of the rabid people, and she ends up spewing blood all over his mouth. The others come in to try to hurt him too, but upon seeing that he's been infected or whatever, they don't kill him. Uh oh. Guess Dean better start worrying about a cure now. But he has bigger things to worry about, too, because as we see at the end of the episode, that baby that Dean was so intent on protecting carries that little Mark of Cain. She's the Darkness! Dun dun dun.

Meanwhile, Crowley manages to escape from a raging Castiel. He takes over the body of a woman and partakes in an orgy before killing everyone and calling for help. But his help doesn't exactly have great news. They heard about the Darkness being unleashed, and although Crowley is like "hey, I'm the King of Hell, shouldn't the Darkness and I be besties?", his crew is like nope. Because half of Hell heard someone yelling from the cage something about the Darkness. Oh my! Will we finally hear more of poor Adam down in Hell? Alas, I doubt it.

What's up with Castiel, you wonder? After being unable to kill Crowley, he wanders around for a while, then calls up Heaven for help. As we've learned over the years, though, the angels can be kind of douchey. They take him to some hole of a place and tie him up and toss a bag over his head. What are their intentions? We'll just have to wait and see.

What's worse, though, is that Sam doesn't actually tell Dean about the Darkness plague taking over him when he calls him up at the end of the episode, either. Guys, have we learned nothing? Secrets never go over well with you Winchesters, sheesh!

Random Thoughts:

- To be honest, I was kind of excited for the start of a new season this year. Hoping for something fresh. But was it? Eh, I'm kind of on the fence. Even though Sam was saying stuff like haven't we learned anything, and we're just repeating the same mistakes over and over, I'm not sure this plot is hashing any new territory quite yet, as I'm sure they'll drag this Darkness thing out over the entire season to the point where it gets annoying. But maybe not, I don't want to get too harsh too soon.

- I know that everyone loves Cas, but I'm not sure what his purpose on the show is anymore. Angels are so played out at this point. I mean, maybe now they'll have a role again because of GAHHG* supposedly being the one who took down the Darkness the last time, but who knows.

- Will there be ramifications for killing Death? Like, what happens to all of these dead people now? Are there reapers to take them to the next plane, or whatever? Or will there just be a lot of unsatisfied ghosts mucking about?

- For those of you looking for a trip down memory lane, take a look at my post of the Top 50 Episodes of Supernatural. Obviously from seasons 1-10.

Quotes:

Dean: You're just gonna let me get in the car?
Sam: You were on a roll.

Officer: Show me some skin.
Dean: What is this, a Magic Mike moment?

Dean: Sure, why not. A couple hours ago I killed Death.

Dean: I'm good. I mean, I'm not great.

Sam: Saving people means all of the people.

*Great Almighty He Him God

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Easy Banana Pancakes

I woke up last weekend wanting to make some kind of breakfast, but soon realized my idea of breakfast burritos wasn't going to work when all of my eggs had gone bad and I didn't want to go to the store. I mean, I really hate grocery shopping. I don't know why, but I do.

Anyway! I ended up searching around and discovered that I could make some pancakes pretty easily without any eggs. Yay for the versatile banana! Technically the recipe I found was vegan and Gluten-Free, but I adapted it a bit back to gluten-full and used some regular milk. Of course, you can totally do her vegan variety, I just can't attest to what they're like.

But the ones I made? They're pretty dang delicious, and pretty dang easy too. Not that pancakes should be hard, but you know what I mean. What I enjoy most about these is that they don't even really need syrup, though you can always dribble some on if you want, I won't stop you. I used some, too, but soon realized it wasn't super necessary. They're sweet from the banana and honey, but not too sweet. Just right.

Easy Banana Pancakes
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 6-7 Pancakes
Prep time: 00:10

Cook time: 00:10

Total time: 00:20

Dense banana pancakes that can easily be made vegan – no eggs needed!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk or soy milk
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large mashed banana

Instructions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking powder, salt).
2. Mix wet ingredients together in a separate medium bowl (milk, honey, vanilla, oil). Add in the mashed bananas and mix well.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients.
4. Place 1/4 cup batter on a lightly greased hot pan. The batter is pretty thick, so I spread it a little with my spatula to make a bigger, more even, pancake. Cook for about 1 minute per side.

Adapted from Simple Vegan Blog