Supernatural: Top 5 Season Ten Episodes

Even though I felt like a lot of season 10 of Supernatural was spinning its wheels until it could actually deal with the Mark of Cain business, looking back at the episode list, I have to admit, there were quite a few pretty good episodes. Now, I don't know if any of them would make my ultimate top 10 episodes ever list, but perhaps one of them could get a spot... maybe? Hmm that's hard. I'm sure one day, when the show has finally been salted and burned, I will try to rank all of the episodes from all of the seasons. That will be an epic task, to be sure. Because who knows how many episodes will exist by that point. We're already over 200! Oh gosh I don't even want to think about how hard that will be.

So let's get back to season ten. Definitely one of the better seasons in the post-Kripke era. I had kind of a hard time picking out which were really the best episodes and which ones I just enjoyed myself. So, hopefully most of you will agree with the below list. As always, though, let me know what you think in the comments, and don't forget to vote in the poll at the end!

As usual, the title next to the number is a link to a favorite scene from each episode.

5. Soul Survivor (10x03)

Originally, I didn't have this episode on my top 5 list. I get why a lot of people like it - Dean was returned to his demon-less self, and there was Cas getting another grace to use as a stopgap until he could get his own back. So I'm including it because a lot of people seemed to like this one a lot. If I had my own druthers, I would probably swap it for one of my honorable mentions below, likely Angel Heart.

4. About a Boy (10x12)

There have been many iterations of young Dean in the past. While young Sam got it right when they cast Colin Ford, young Dean had a bit of a harder time finding the right fit. But finally, they seem to have done it with Dylan Everett. About a Boy was only tangentially about the overall plot of the season, but that was perfectly fine. It brought some much needed humor to the party, and I admit I had a hard time picking which scene to feature in my link. Now, if only we can get an episode with BOTH Colin and Dylan as the teenChesters, that would be awesome.

3. Book of the Damned (10x18)

You can't have a top episodes list for season 10 without including at least one Felicia Day episode. I know, the season was her swan song as Charlie, which kind of made me mad because she was one of the only recurring female characters on the show, but at least they gave her some good material on the way out. The boys would not have been able to get anywhere near figuring out how to get rid of the Mark without her. I chose this episode because it got the arc of the season finally moving with the discovery of the Book of the Damned, and had Charlie and Castiel meet for the first time, which seems odd but is true. Cas also got his own grace back with the "help" of Metatron, so that story was finally wrapped up as well. All in all, a very strong episode.

2. Brother's Keeper (10x23)

The season finale featured some very intense moments for the brothers at the end of the hour. Things finally come to a head with the whole Mark of Cain business. At first it seems like maybe Dean will go along with Death's plan to send him off to points unknown (but he'd have to kill Sam first to ensure he wouldn't go looking for him). But, the Winchesters can never give up on each other, so instead they opt for killing Death and allowing Rowena to finish getting rid of the Mark, which, uh... has some nasty consequences. It was a satisfying conclusion to the Mark storyline, even if it took a whole season to finally get to it.

1. Fan Fiction (10x05)

Honestly, this episode gets the top spot for sheer nostalgia power. For any longtime fan of the show, it touched on so many in jokes and scenes from the past that you would have to be kind of crazy not to get a little warm fuzzy feeling in your heart when you watch it. Particularly when they sing Carry On at the end - I mean, how can you not love that? Sure, the monster of the week wasn't that interesting, but the episode wasn't really about that, rather more about the brothers and the importance of their journey together. Aw...

Honorable Mentions: Ask Jeeves (I liked the humor), Hibbing 911 (again, I like the two ladies and the humor of the episode), There's No Place Like Home (I enjoyed the dichotomy of Dark and Light Charlie), The Executioner's Song (mainly just for the scene between Dean and Cain), Angel Heart (I thought it was a well-crafted episode).

Worst Episode of the Season: Halt and Catch Fire... just... no.

What is your favorite season 10 episode of Supernatural?

Fan Fiction

Brother's Keeper

Book of the Damned

About a Boy

Soul Survivor

Other

 

pollcode.com free polls

For more of my countdowns, check out my top 10 lists page.

Supernatural 10x23 "Brother's Keeper"

Here we are at the end of a decade of Supernatural. That sounds completely insane, especially given the fact that it basically means I've been living in Los Angeles for a decade as well. Where has the time gone?

I digress. We're here to talk about Supernatural, not my own life milestones. After an entire season all about ridding Dean of the Mark of Cain, things finally came to a conclusion tonight. I thought to myself as this episode was playing that there probably wasn't anything the show could do to surprise me anymore. And, to be honest, I'm really not that surprised by the ending, but that's not to say that I didn't like it. It looks like the brothers will be getting back to more of the working together to take down evil stuff rather than this save one another from something stuff, so that's at least something.

Anywho, let's get to the actual recap of it all. Sam is still hellbent on getting the Mark off of Dean no matter the cost, and you know that by using the Book of the Damned, there will certainly be a cost. Rowena has translated what is needed to do that thing, but it's not going to be easy. And her new terms for cooperating? She gets to go free, with the codex and the book. A bad idea, which Castiel voices, but Sam is in no mood. So just what do they need to work the spell? The forbidden fruit (a quince, apparently, not an apple), the golden calf, and the sacrifice of something the person casting the spell loves. That last bit appears to be the toughest part of the spell, because Rowena seemingly doesn't love anything. Or does she?

Meanwhile, Dean is off working a case brought to his attention by another hunter, Rudy. Dean is not in a very sharing mood, and basically takes over the case, and in not so nice a fashion. He ends up saving the missing girl in question, but in the process ends up getting Rudy killed by basically taunting a vampire. Or was the kid just a kid? I think he was a vampire. Anyway, yes, Rudy was killed. Dean is feeling very morose about letting a fellow hunter die, and decides to take things into his own hands with the whole Mark business.

What does that mean, exactly? Why, he calls up his old buddy Death. He wants Death to kill him for good this time, and rid the world of the Mark. But Death is like ummm dude, no. Turns out, the Mark is actually some sort of stopper against some even bigger evil than heretofore seen, called The Darkness. Basically, the Earth was overtaken by said darkness millennia ago, God came and smote it with his angels, and created the Mark as a way of keeping it at bay. He gave the Mark to Lucifer as a safekeeper, but the Mark corrupted him, so God had to send him to Hell. Lucifer then gave the Mark to Cain, who gave it to Dean, etc. Basically, Death could take the Mark off of Dean, but unless he wanted the darkness to take over again, he would have to pass it on to someone else. Dean doesn't want that, so Death gives him another option. That is, he can take Dean to some other realm to live, and leave the Earth in peace.

Dean is all for this plan, and calls up Sam. Sam happens to be in town as Rudy had called him up earlier on when Dean was acting rude. He heads over to hear this big plan. Death has also basically told Dean that in order for this whole thing to work, Sam must also sacrifice himself, because if he took Dean away, Sam would still work at trying to find him, thereby endangering the world. It's a bit of a flimsy argument, but whatever. Dean and Sam have some talky time that leads to fisticuffs that leads to Sam eventually agreeing that he will sacrifice himself for the greater good. So Death hands Dean his scythe to do it, but... wait! You know Dean can never kill his little brother. He takes that scythe and at the last minute turns it on Death himself. Uh oh.

Back at wherever they have Rowena holed up, Castiel has called up Crowley for help in getting the items on the Mark removal list. He agrees, mostly I think to stick it to Rowena, and actually finds the one thing she ever loved. Apparently, back in the day, she was nursed back to health by a Polish family after fleeing Scotland, and took to their son. He was deathly ill, so she repaid their kindness by healing him and giving him everlasting life. Crowley finds him, that guy from that diner he visited recently, and brings him to Rowena. Will she sacrifice the poor sap to work her magic?

You bet she will. She stabs the poor guy in the neck and uses his blood for the spell. After she's done the spell, she traps Crowley and Castiel in their places, takes the codex and the Book of the Damned, and puts some kind of spell on Castiel to sic him on Crowley. It appears to be the same one she did to those girls earlier in the season, with the bloody eyes. But Cas is an angel, so... hmm.

The spell she did, however, works in getting the Mark off of Dean. It zaps away in a hiss of lightning, leaving his arm all nice and shiny. The brothers head outside, thinking all might be well, when lightning starts zapping all over the place, and dark billowing smoke shoots out of the holes and starts coalescing together. They run for the Impala to try to drive away from it, but it gets stuck in a pothole. Damn lack of road maintenance, always ruining the fast getaway.

And, as the darkness engulfs the Impala, the screen goes black. Until next season...

Random Thoughts:

- Who knows what The Darkness actually entails. The black smoke is very reminiscent of demon smoke that we've seen a great number of times, and it seemed to be shooting up from the ground. So it would seem Hell is some kind of stopgap for the darkness, and now it's going to run amok or something? Hmm.

- What does it mean that Death is dead, so to speak? Will souls still be reaped? I mean, there are other Reapers, but it does seem like it would set things out of order, or like someone else would be called upon to be Death (it seems like it would be Dean since he was the one to kill Death with his own scythe).

- That Mexican restaurant looked very much like the old Roadhouse to me. Same set?

- How was there a chair blocking the door from the inside that hotel room if Dean wasn't inside, hmm? Did he really go to the trouble of setting up that chair and leaving through a bathroom window if he was just leaving Sam a note with the keys to the Impala? Maybe I misinterpreted that chair, but whatever.

- Last episode, Crowley seemed to say that he was returning to his evil ways, but I'm not so sure that's entirely the case. It's still not quite clear what his goals are, and those may shift now with the release of this darkness stuff.

- I'm never sure if I really want to keep recapping the show anymore. It's lost it's luster for me that it had in seasons 1 thru 5, in fact I would probably put all of the seasons after five behind those first ones, which is saying something when that was only half the show's life at this point. I suppose I will keep watching to the bitter end, but it does get difficult to care very much. Anyway, I'm just rambling.

Quotes:

Dean: I'm good. I'm good.

Crowley: Who summons anymore. Couldn't you call?
Castiel: You're not in my contacts list.

Death: Don't tell me that's queso.

Dean: So Genesis was a lie? Shocker.

Crowley: A long, long time ago there lived an ugly bitch. Sorry. Witch.

Crowley: It's only cruel if you actually go through with it. Though, who's the cruel one then?

Sam: You'll never, ever hear me say that you, the real you, is anything but good.

Dean: I think I just killed death.

Previous Episode

Supernatural 10x22 "The Prisoner"

For those of you thinking that the Styne family was going to be the next big bad, I guess, uh, think again? For such a big, bad family that's lasted generations, they seemed to go down pretty easily once Dean was focused enough. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself again, aren't I?

Basically, Dean is pretty pissed after last week's episode where, you know, the terrible decision was made to kill off Charlie. He pretty much blames Sam for the whole thing, since he was the one who brought her in to try to help decode the book of the damned. While he treks off to find the Stynes and go to town, he tells Sam to stop the whole business of looking for a cure. Or, rather, pretty much orders him to. Because that's always going to work well.

Nonetheless, Sam does go to see Cas and Rowena with the intention of stopping the whole thing, but when he receives the files from Charlie containing the decoder for the book, he decides no, Dean has literally gone to hell and back to save him, so he's not going to stop. He sends Cas off to look after Dean and tells Rowena to get to work. Only Rowena wants her end of the bargain struck now - for Sam to kill Crowley.

Sam, equipped with devil's trap bullets, the magic knife, and a hex bag from Rowena, manages to trap Crowley...for a bit. Though Rowena's hex bag is supposed to kill him, he's just too powerful of a demon for all that. And this murder attempt is going to come back and bite Sam in the butt sooner or later, because it turns out Crowley was acting more docile on purpose, in an attempt to feel something again. But Sam's reminder that he's just a big, bad monster serves as nothing more than a push back in that direction. He burns up the hex bag and, though he could kill Sam, decides to spare him so he can send a message back to Rowena that she's number one on his shit list.

Meanwhile, Dean heads to Louisiana in search of the Stynes. He gets pulled over and arrested just as he gets to town by some obviously shady cops who are working for the Stynes, but that only serves as a minor detour on the way to his destination - the house of the family Styne. Though he is met by an ambush of sorts once he gets there, and the manage to knock him out and get him strapped down to try to do some experimenting on the boy who can't die, Dean of course rockets into badass Mark mode and full on kills everyone in the house. Oh boy. Cas shows up just in time to see the leftover carnage, and calls up Sam to let him know of the damage, and that Dean's headed back to the bunker.

That's bad news for some of the other Stynes, who headed to the bunker themselves to ransack and burn down the joint. Among them is one of the younger, less evil-inclined, Cyrus, who earlier in the episode was forced to do some nasty stuff to a bully. He's not so hot on the family business, so when Dean comes in and kills the other two guys with him, he pleads with him to spare him. He's not evil like the rest. Now normal, regular Dean probably would've been fine with this. But Mark-crazy Dean decides that he's some kind of monster still, and just kills the kid.

Cas shows up just after this happens and they have a bit of a confrontation, wherein Cas basically tells Dean they're going to keep trying to get rid of the Mark, because in the end he'll be the one who has to watch him turn darkside over the years. Dean decides to teach Cas a lesson and beats him up a bit, sparing him the angel blade in the end, but seemingly only just. Dean, you're really not selling your compatriots on the idea that you're fine and dandy when you act like that, you know.

Well, until next week's finale...

Random Thoughts:

- I was thinking to myself, where is that Cyrus kid from? I knew I'd seen him somewhere before, and it turns out he was on Being Human. Connor Price, for those wondering. He's been in kind of a crazy amount of stuff when you look at his IMDB profile, actually. Surprised I haven't seen him in more.

- Is this really the last of the Stynes? I mean, there could be quite a few more of them around the world, I suppose, so perhaps they will come after Dean for killing the USA chapter or something.

- Everyone keeps bringing up what the price could be for using magic from the book of the damned to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean, but no one has so far had any conjectures about what it might be. Any ideas from the peanut gallery? It seems like it would have to be something pretty major. But you know they're not going to kill Sam. I suppose they could do a surprise twist and kill Castiel, but that seems unlikely. What's worse than either of those two things for Dean? Someone worse getting the Mark, like Rowena? Hmm.

Quotes:

Rowena: Eh, hello? Anyone wanna tell me what's going on?
Sam & Castiel: No.

Castiel: I'd be happy to kill her. She just called me a fish.

Officer: They're practically gods around here.
Dean: Yeah, well I kill gods.

Sam: By the way, she said to tell you - she should've taken the three pigs.

Dean: So you can save me the speech on the three hearts, the two spleens, the seven nipples... for the ladies. Or the fellas. I don't judge. But even with all that, you still only have one brain.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x21 "Dark Dynasty"

Sigh.

I just... sigh. Really? You finally have a likable female recurring character on the show, so of course the best thing to do is kill her. I know it's "finale time" and all that, so the stakes must be big and whatever, but personally I'm disappointed that they killed off Charlie. One more time: sigh.

But fine, I'll get to the recap, because that's what I do. Sam recruits Charlie to help decode the Book of the Damned, because Rowena is having a tough time, as apparently the codex is also coded. He calls in Castiel to help keep the peace between the two, while he goes back to help Dean on a case and pretend like they aren't doing all of that in secret.

The case they're working on this week brings back the Styne family from some episodes back, who are in search of the book. In performing a ritual, one of the sons, Eldon, kills a girl and leaves the body along with video of him jumping from three stories and landing perfectly fine. You know, not weird and suspicious at all. The brothers catch wind of this, but the Stynes are on the lookout for them as well, and try to corner Dean while he's out getting pizza. Dean kills one of them, but captures Eldon.

Meanwhile, back at the mysterious wherever-it-is place where the other three are working on the book, Charlie is getting rattled by Rowena's many comments about her. And it all started to become clear here that they were heading in the direction of killing her, even though I didn't want it to happen. While Castiel takes Rowena into another room to giver her some space, Charlie decides to be an idiot and bolts to go to a motel for true alone time. Seriously?

Because back with the brothers, Dean is getting some information out of Eldon that seems rather hokey, but whatever. Apparently Styne is actually short for Frankenstein, and the family has been around for centuries causing mayhem for their own profit. He also lets slip to Dean that the book can't be burned. So, Dean leans into Sam about it all and finds out the truth - that he's been secretly working on a way to get rid of the curse. Dean is rightly pissed, especially after Eldon escapes. After, you know, just tearing off his arm.

He tracks down Charlie to the motel she is holed up in just as she is able to crack the code. Though she manages to get the Winchesters on the phone, and they tell her to just give the dude what he wants, she instead uploads the code somewhere and then destroys the computer. She holds out a knife to defend herself against Eldon, but the dude is all Frankenstein-y, so when the brothers show up to save her, they're too late. And time for another sigh.

Meanwhile, Crowley is a bit bored and talking to the woman Rowena transformed into a hamster some episodes back. The hamster tells Crowley about some person who is involved in something or other, and sends one of his minions off to find said person. At this point I still have no idea what Crowley's end game is here, and this didn't really help things.

Random Thoughts:

- Well, is anyone else as disappointed as I am that Charlie died? She was one of the few lighter characters in this dark Supernatural world, and I'm kind of pissed they killed her off.

- What exactly happens if they do manage to get the Mark off of Dean, anyway? Aren't there some kind of consequences? You know, a price or something? They were hinting at always needing a balance for things in life, so what would the balance be here?

- I don't really know what Castiel or Crowley's goals are at this point. Rowena just kind of wants to cause havoc and get rid of the Mark and Crowley himself, but the other two guys? Yeah.

- If this family has been around so long, causing so much havoc, how have they remained under the radar from hunters and the like? Sure, the Men of Letters had stuff on the Stynes, but they didn't connect them to Frankenstein or anything. Seems like something they would have connected.

- Two more episodes to go. I'm not even sure what I'm hoping for.

Quotes:

Sam: So now we need to break a code... to break a code?

Dean: They helped Hitler get started, and God knows what else. Probably disco.

Charlie: Of course, he doesn't know. Jeez, the two of you.

Rowena: Hell's Bells. More distractions. Which are you, witch or nerd?
Castiel: Angel.

Castiel: When I was human, I grew very fond of these pork rinds.

Crowley: Fail on pain of infinite pain.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x20 "Angel Heart"

I must say, for an episode that doesn't entirely have anything to do with the whole Mark storyline, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It may, in fact, be one of my favorite ones of the season, maybe? Who would've thought, particularly since the actress playing Claire is sometimes a bit... questionable with emotional heaviness. Not that I would be any better because I'm not actor. Anyway.

That's right, it's time to revisit the family Novak. As you may recall, Claire went off to points unknown last we saw her. She turns back up in search of her mother, only to get knocked out by a shifty guy, which gets her in the hospital. The hospital calls up Castiel since he's listed as her emergency contact, and he recruits the boys to help him out. Because, you know, teenage angst was their forte.

So, they track her down, she's snarky, per usual (I would've written the abbreviation here, per the ushe or whatever, but I have no idea how to actually spell that!), yet she has a point. Her mom disappeared two years ago after having stayed in contact via postcards up until then. She knows of a guy in town that her mom mentioned in her journal, and has a postcard from the last place she stayed, so it's a legitimate lead. Cas and Dean go to check out the guy and see what information he has while Sam stays back with Claire to do some research.

Cas and Dean find out that the guy used to basically take people to a supposed faith healer, but Amelia was the last one he took, as he saw the guy was doing some weird stuff to them rather than healing them. He gives up the guy's name, but then tips off the dude, who of course comes and kills him for that.

Sam decides he and Cas should head out to the last place the supposed faith healer was at, while Dean should stay back with Claire because, apparently, his questioning technique earlier was a bit too violent and Mark-y. Not one to sit around go crazy at home, Dean takes Claire to a local putt-putt, and they actually get to know one another a bit better. Claire says something that makes Dean have a revelation about this wound on the guy he saw earlier, and figures out that the faith healer isn't a faith healer, but rather a Grigori angel. Time to go after Cas and Sam, but not before giving Claire a little gun of her own to try.

Cas and Sam split up - Cas finds Amelia looking not so hot, and is not able to heal her, to boot, while Sam finds himself face to face with the angel Tamiel, who apparently sucks bits of human soul to get off or something. He gets tied up, but not for long, and unties himself just in time for Dean and Claire to show up. Claire gets a nice little reunion with her mom, who she was super mad at earlier on, but now seeing her all disheveled, is a but more ready for forgiveness.

But their reunion is to be short-lived, as Tamiel would much rather just, you know, kill her. But Amelia steps in to save her daughter's life at the point of a blade, just as the boys come running back in to fight him off. They fight some, Dean gets all anger-faced, but in the end it's a girl with a sword that takes out the Grigori angel. But, her mom's still dead. So, there's that. But at least her mom gets to have a piece of real heaven with her Jimmy.

Claire seems a little better tempered at the end of the episode, despite being hauled off to stay with Jody Mills and that other teenage girl she's got rambling about. Dean lets her keep the angel sword for the future, and there likely will be a future where we'll see her again, it would seem. Hopefully to not just be killed off, as sometimes happens on this show.


Random Thoughts:

- The Winchesters sure get knocked out a lot. Would this not eventually cause brain damage? Oh wait, Cas can just heal them up now, I guess.

- I guess I liked this episode because it felt way more emotional than most episodes have this season. I didn't really like Claire in her other episode this season, but I warmed up a lot more to her in this episode. Probably because of her banter with both boys. I wrote down quite a few quotes this episode, which I haven't done in a while.

- Only three episodes left of the season. I'm still miffed that they are taking a whole dang season to deal with this Mark stuff. I know I've mentioned it before, but some notes could be taken from both The Flash and Arrow here. They certainly would not dilly dally this long.

Quotes:

Castiel: I need help from both of you. You were both troubled teens; you speak her language.
Sam: All right, how is she?
Castiel: I haven't gone in yet, I was waiting for backup.
Dean: Backup? Three men and a lady. Let's do this.

Dean: Come on, give me something to punch already.

Claire: You guys are credit card scammers, too?
Sam: Yeah. Hunting monsters doesn't exactly pay the bills.
Claire: Then why do you do it?
Sam: To help people. Make a difference.
Claire: That's it?
Sam: That's not enough?

Dean: If we stay cooped up all night in this hotel room, I'm gonna lose my mind.
Claire: Spoiler alert: you already have.

Dean: Billy Murray. Caddyshack. It's a classic.
Claire: Never seen it. Not a fan.
Dean: How dare you.
Claire: You done?
Dean: Yeah I'm done. Done with your whole generation.

Dean: You go down this path, it's not a long life.
Claire: I don't know, you seem pretty old.
Dean: Thanks.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x19 "The Werther Project"

As you may remember from last week, Sam is making a deal with Rowena to decode the book of the damned to find the spell to remove the Mark from Dean. Just what are her terms? She wants Sam to kill Crowley. Sam is quick to agree, because obviously he's never been a very big fan of Crowley in the first place. The only thing is, Rowena can't actually decode the book just yet. She needs another book to do it, the special spell book that had a certain name that I've now forgotten from a long dead witch named Nadia.

But just how is Sam supposed to find some old grand coven witch's special book? Well, luckily the Men of Letters are now involved in basically everything even though the Winchesters had never heard of them until a few seasons ago, because it turns out they took the book many moons ago. Sam does some research and discovers that a rogue Man of Letters that we saw last season created a box to keep the book in, only when people get too close to the box, it activates and makes those near it kill themselves. Well, that's no good now, is it?

Sam heads off to where he believes the book to be, a former St. Louis Men of Letters chapter house. He tries to do it without Dean, but Dean ends up following him and taking it as a sign that he needs to apologize for going after a nest of vamps by himself earlier on. This development, of course, forces Sam to lie about what he's really doing there, in a matter of speaking, because it's only technically not telling him the whole truth than full on lying. Anyhow, while Dean chats up the woman of the house, Sam heads down to the basement to try to deactivate the box's enchantment. But, it doesn't work, the thing gets released and infects all three of them.

While the owner lady kills herself rather quickly, Dean goes into a kind of catatonic hallucinatory state, where he believes he's back in Purgatory with Benny. Sam, meanwhile, faces the accusatory ghost of the owner lady, who is starting to get to him until Rowena appears and dispels her. She and Sam head back down to the basement to try to figure out this box, tying Dean up to a chair so he doesn't try to kill himself in the meantime.

Dean and Benny walk around Purgatory, talking about how Dean was better off there, because there's always an easy fight around the corner, and blah blah. I mean, we know this isn't really Benny, and Dean knows it isn't really Benny either, so when he starts going on about how Dean should really just end things himself rather than relying on Sam or Castiel to do it, I was thinking to myself - um, Dean can't kill himself, precisely because of the Mark. Which, thankfully, Dean pointed out anyway, and pulls himself out of his catatonic state.

Meanwhile, Sam and Rowena have deciphered the box's encryption - it needs Men of Letters blood in order to open. Except it wants a lot of blood. So much that Sam is starting to look a bit pale and weak from losing so much blood. Luckily, Dean comes running in just in time to stop him and give it some of his own blood to finish the ritual or whatever you want to call it. But wait, you say, if he sees Rowena, then he'll know what Sam is doing! Ah, yes. This Rowena is but a figment of Sam's imagination, trying to get him to kill himself with the whole blood spillage deal.

Lucky for him, the box really did want Men of Letters blood to open, so Dean is able to add some of his to the mix and they do actually get the box open, retrieving the book inside. Sam feigns innocence as to its contents, but we know better. He takes it to Rowena with the book of the damned later. But, as he doesn't trust her, he chains her up until she does what they agreed to, and nothing more. Bum bum bum!

Random Thoughts:

- There was supposed to be kind of this suspense around whether Sam would be able to deactivate the box in time to stop Dean from trying to kill himself, but to me that kind of lacked suspense because duh, the Mark won't actually let Dean kill himself. Were they trying to say if he tried he would go demon again or something? Or was it just assuming we wouldn't think of that?

- Would that really be the situation Dean's unconscious would go to when hit with that stuff? I feel like there are other, more effective, ways the stuff could've tried to get to him, but maybe that's just me.

- I feel like I enjoy Rowena a lot more when she's interacting with Sam than I did when she was hanging out with Crowley all the time. Not sure why, per se, but that's why this is called a random thought.

- One has to wonder what is in store next after they get this whole Mark of Cain business figured out. Is it going to be more of Rowena as the villain, or something completely new?

Quotes:

Susie: Tall white fella. Pretty hair.

Rowena: We had an agreement, giant.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x18 "Book of the Damned"

Can I just say - finally?! After so many episodes where it just felt like blah blah let's waste some time until we get to the interesting stuff, tonight was actually some interesting stuff. Finally!

As you may or may not remember, Charlie went off to points unknown to see what she could figure out about the whole Mark business. Turns out, she was able to turn up the Book of the Damned after searching pretty much around the globe. Only now she has some creepy dudes on her tail with strange markings on their arms. Luckily, she manages to get away from them, but they're able to track the book with this magical compass, so she calls up Sam and Dean for help.

They meet her in one of Bobby's cabins, as apparently he has quite a few in random spots, and she gives them the dish on the book. Basically, it's in such an ancient language that no one can read it. Some nun had dark visions many years ago and wrote the book on pieces of her own skin in her own blood. Yeah.... that's definitely a book you want to be messing with. And on top of all that, the book seems to be sort of calling out to Dean, wanting him to take it and run away with it.

Eventually, Sam is able to figure out that it's in some ancient dialect, but the words don't seem to make any sense when translated. Charlie deduces that it must be in code, only they aren't having any luck in deciphering it. Meanwhile, Dean has looked up the dudes who were after Charlie, and they are part of an old family called the Stynes that have basically caused mayhem over the years thanks to the help of the book, which they lost about 800 years ago or thereabouts, and now they want it back. Dean runs into one of them, Jacob, at the local gas station when picking up some snacks, and though he is able to fend them off, they follow him back to the cabin. He urges Sam to burn the damn book of the damned, because nothing good can come of using it, despite the dude saying that there really is a cure for the Mark inside it. They have some fisticuffs, and Sam throws the book into the fire - or does he?

I admit I saw this twist coming, because duh, when Sam was talking about how he couldn't keep hunting if his brother wasn't around, you just knew he wasn't really going to get rid of the seeming one shot at getting it done. Instead, he pretend to burn the book, and then took it to Rowena in secret to have her decipher it and remove the Mark. What will be the price? That remains to be seen. Dun dun dun.

MEANWHILE! Castiel is on the hunt for his grace with human-Metatron in tow. Metatron is enjoying the human existence thanks to some waffles, but is clearly delaying their search for the grace. Finally, he leads Cas to a library that he says he had another angel give him clues to where Cas' grace is hidden. That is - he had another angel hide it so he couldn't be tortured for the information. Of course, Metatron is always sneaky and secretly writes some angel-hurting sigils around the library, putting Castiel down for the count. Turns out, he had hidden the demon tablet there, which he takes and runs off with. BUT, he also really did hide Cas' grace there, which Cas manages to find and restores himself. So, no more worrying about Cas' missing grace.

And in a fun little scene, Cas and Charlie meet. I guess I never realized they hadn't met before, but it was a cute scene, and he healed Charlie's bullet wound (oh yeah, she was shot in that opening scene too) and her carpal tunnel. Aw.

Random Thoughts:

- Is it just me, or did Cas' angel wings not look quite so healthy when he got his grace back? They looked kind of falling apart.

- Did anyone really believe that Sam actually burned that book? I mean, you knew Rowena was going to have to come into play in all of this somehow, and seeing as it's some kind of spellbook, it only makes sense she would have to get involved with it. What that means for them in the long run, who knows. Because who knows what the heck she's going to want in exchange for her help. Seems a bad idea to let her stay in possession of such a thing.

- What does the demon tablet do? I honestly can't remember if they ever found the demon tablet before, or if it was only the angel tablet? Man, canon. I just know it's probably not good if Metatron is running around with it.

- Did I count not one but two classic rock songs in this episode? Nice!

Quotes:

Metatron: Goosebumps! Don't even get me started on those. Creepy. And yet, arousing.

Dean: When was the last time either one of us was on a beach?
Sam: Never.

Metatron: You were human. Don't you miss this?
Castiel: No. I don't miss digestion. Indigestion.

Metatron: Sorry about the mess. I guess I'm lactose intolerant.
Castiel: Let's never speak of it again.

Charlie: I thought you'd be shorter.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x17 "Inside Man"

Rowena said something in tonight's episode that I feel pretty much sums up my feelings: you're stalling! Or something close to that anyway. Watching this show compared to others like Arrow and The Flash, which go through storylines really quickly, it makes this whole Mark of Cain storyline feel neverending, and not going much of anywhere. I mean, we're at episode 17 now, so we must be getting close to a resolution here, but an entire season? Sheesh. Whereas other things that would be interesting to last more than one episode, don't. Maybe I'm the only one feeling this way? Hmm.

Despite all of the above, this episode was actually one of the better ones of late. There was some movement in the whole Mark storyline, and the whole Rowena/Crowley neverending storyline that was beginning to feel extremely repetitive and, dare I say, kind of pointless. So let's start with that one and get it out of the way here. Basically, Rowena is tired of Crowley not acting against the Winchesters, which we've heard her complain about ad nauseam. She decides to take things into her own hands and, in the guise of going on a date, takes the fight to Dean himself. She tries to use some big spell written in blood on her skin against him, but it doesn't do a thing thanks to the Mark. So, she heads back to the den of Hell and beats herself up, then pretends it was Dean who did all that, trying to get a rise out of Crowley to send him after Dean.

Well, Crowley does go to see Dean, but only to have a wee chat. Dean tells him Rowena lied and has this whole speech about family not necessarily having anything to do with blood, so Crowley heads back and kicks Rowena out. And, oh yes, forgot this bit which may come in to play later, she also claims that the Mark is just a curse, and as a curse, it can be removed, though she doesn't know how. So, Rowena heads off to points unknown with goals rather unknown, leaving Crowley to pursue his own... unknown goals. Hmm. Did I miss the goals somewhere? Hmm.

Why was Dean hanging out by himself where Rowena could just pay him a visit? Because Sam and Castiel are teaming up to try to get to Metatron, since he claimed he knew how to get rid of the Mark. To do that, they need to get into Heaven, but the angels are barring Cas from entering and releasing Metatron. So they come up with this brilliant plan to use a psychic to contact Bobby in Heaven and get him to help open up the portal.

Do I really need to recount how that goes down? No. Bobby escapes his slice of Heaven and opens up the portal. Cas jumps in and manages to escape with Metatron. Metatron is all like I have all the leverage here, you can't do anything without me, so you better let me go, so they finally get some smarts and take out his grace, turning him mortal, and shoot him in the leg for good measure. Which then forces him to reveal that he, in fact, does NOT know how to get rid of the Mark. But he does know where some of Cas' grace is hiding. While Cas gets to decide what to do with that information, Sam heads back to the bunker, where he reads a heartfelt letter from Bobby basically saying, you know, he shouldn't hide this stuff from Dean, yada yada.

Random Thoughts:

- I enjoyed the whole pool hustling scene, though I didn't recount it above as it's not really necessary to the overall story. But those guys were kind of idiots to not realize he was hustling them. I mean, come on, dudes. It was pretty obvious when he said let's make it $300. Duh.

- What did you all think of the return of Bobby? At least it was in Heaven and not another way of resurrecting him, I guess. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Bobby, but I really didn't like the Ghost Bobby storyline.

- Why wouldn't they ever try contacting anyone else in Heaven like that? Like, oh, say, their parents? I mean, Papa Winchester surely would have been a help in that situation too, no? Or are we saying he isn't actually up in Heaven?

- What exactly were those angels planning to do with Bobby at the end there? 

Quotes:

Sam: I was thinking about seeing a movie.
Dean: That could be cool.
Sam: It's a French movie.
Dean: You mean like nudie French?
Sam: Even better. It's about a mime, that's secretly a cockroach.

Crowley: You're my mother, I don't want to see anything. I've been to Hell, thanks.

Oliver: What are you?
Castiel: I'm an angel.
Oliver: You can't be. I'm an athiest.

Crowley: Squirrel.
Dean: Boris. Where's Natasha?

Bobby: This is the scribe of God? Looks like a Fraggle.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x16 "Paint it Black"

I don't mean to be a drag, but... snooooooooze. Like, literally, I was falling asleep watching this episode. Was it just me? The last couple have felt like a lot of treading water. Which is when you start to think how cable series have it right when it comes to serialized stuff. Because if this show was only 12 or so episodes a season, we wouldn't be faced with so much filler waiting to get to interesting stuff. Just saying.

But, recapping is what I do here, so I suppose I shall get on with it. The brothers Winchester find themselves on a new job, where some dudes are killing themselves rather terribly. Though at first there doesn't seem to be much connection between them, they soon figure out that all of the men were Catholic and went to the same church, and all of them happened to go to confessional right before they died. Suspicious, much?

Rather than focus too much on the actual investigating of Sam and Dean, the show decided instead to have us listen in on one sister telling another her tragic tale of love and loss. It was quite clear all of this was taking place a long time ago in the past, to me, before the "big reveal" partway through the episode, but whatever. Turns out it's a vengeful spirit all along, possessing people's bodies after she hears them confess to cheating, because that's what her paramour did in the past, then killing them before leaving their bodies once more. Of course, the brothers aren't quite sure of this at first, so Dean has a confessional moment wherein he talks about his feelings and blah blah. You know, I'm sure back in like season two or four, a confessional like that would've made my heart go pitter pat, but now it just seems like more of the same, over and over.

Anyway. The other sister tells them this woman's stuff was sent over from Italy, along with this journal where she confesses her murder, so Dean is like let's burn that stuff since there are no bones to find (she was burned at the stake, yada yada), while Sam is like wait there could be clues. Luckily Sam does not listen to Dean here, because he discovers that the crazy woman cut off part of her finger to be ground up and used in the paint her dude painted her with. So, burn the painting, and the ghost burns up with it. Bing, bang, boom.

MEANWHILE! You may have been wondering what is going on with Crowley and his wee mother Rowena. Or maybe not, but you're going to find out anyway. She's in a huff because she feels like her baby doesn't care about her. Crowley, either feeling magnanimous or bored or something, decides to deliver the head coven woman Olivette to Rowena to basically torture and huff indignantly to. She wants to know about some special potions and whatnot that were taken many moons ago, and Olivette confesses it was the Men of Letters that took it all, and that Sam and Dean happen to be some of the last Men of Letters around. Thus, Rowena's hatred of the brothers intensifies, as surely she is now on the hunt for them as well as their bunker that apparently contains these magic witchy things.

And... that's pretty much all she wrote, apart from the patented brother moment in the car at the end of the episode, where Sam basically tells Dean yet again that he needs to keep fighting and they'll figure out how to get rid of the Mark, which is a lot of the same refrain we've been hearing for a while now.

Random Thoughts:

- Next week's episode at least looks interesting, even though they are doing what they love to do and not letting dead characters stay dead. I wouldn't have thought I was looking forward to Castiel and the angels being back in the mix, but dang if I don't just want the story to move forward already.

- Witches seem crazy powerful in this world. Like, she can make mini faces appear on the back of heads and turn people into hamsters? That seems kind of scarier than some of the other things they've faced in the past, just because of the unpredictability.

- I know a lot of people are not huge fans of Rowena. I think part of it is they've made her a bit too whiny and vindictive rather than seeming like she has her crap together and is super powerful. Obviously she's powerful enough to have stayed alive this long, and certainly she is good at manipulation, but it's still not quite clear what her real goal is, and maybe that's the real problem people are having with her.

Quotes:

Dean: We'll figure out what's going on with Terry Sloan.
Sam: Probably nude selfies.
Dean: I'm feeling good about this.

Sam: Sister, I've got a question.
Dean: I'm sure it's a different question.

Dean: Tell me you didn't think that nun was hot. I think she had a little thing for me too.
Sam: Dean, she was married to Jesus.

Dean: I believe there is a god, but I'm not sure he still believes in us.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x15 "The Things They Carried"

Well, that was kind of a gross way to come back into season ten, huh? After the last episode, which was definitely one of the overall arc episodes, this episode was a break from all of that, focusing on a single case for the brothers to solve. Of course, the case of the week episodes always have thematic connections to the overall story, and this was no exception.

The episode started as many an episode has in the past, featuring a gruesome death of a young woman. This time, she was hanging from the ceiling upside down, and got her throat slit, to drain her blood into a nice bucket, you know, for ease of drinking. The brothers catch wind of this troublesome death and decide to investigate. Or, rather, Dean decides they should investigate, while Sam is still stewing about the Mark. Sorry dear Mark, you need to go on the backburner for a bit.

They head off to a military town, and soon find out that the girl was killed by an army vet. They're a bit suspicious as to whether the killer was actually the killer, but when the local sheriff tells them that he followed that up by dousing himself in gas and setting himself on fire, well, it became a little more credible. They head off to talk to the deceased's wife to see if she knows anything, and find out that he was definitely acting weird. Mostly in that he was thirsty, like, all the time. She also tells them that the husband of a friend of hers has also been acting strange in much the same way, so it's off to investigate this new dude!

But it's only the wife who's home. After some rather unconvincing lies about how her husband Kit is just having a normal decompression after coming home from overseas, she confesses that he has been acting weird, and thirsty, and all that. But what does it all mean? Before the boys can try to figure that out, they run into Cole, who happens to be friends with this wife, and wants to know what the Winchesters are up to, as it never seems to be anything good. They want him to skedaddle, but he has some nice army connections that can give them good intel, so he gets to hang around.

Said intel includes a video of the overseas mission those two army guys were on together, attempting to rescue a POW. But the POW basically attacked them when they were trying to get him, so they ended up killing him. At least that's what is implied. Alas, this does really give them much information to go on, so they really need to find that dude Kit. Cole gets a call from the wife cluing him into a secret cabin that Kit may be at. Instead of telling Sam and Dean about it, though, he tries to be sneaky and go off to check it out on his own. Because, you know, he doesn't want them to kill his buddy. Oh Cole. Oh silly Cole.

At least Dean and Sam aren't stupid enough to fall for it, and know he's up to something, so they follow him to the cabin. And good thing, because Kit is there, and attacks Cole. But he doesn't kill him, instead he goes full ick and opens his mouth, dropping out this worm parasite thing right into Cole's mouth. Uh oh. The brothers are too late to stop this, and Kit also manages to get away. But now Cole is infected with this parasite thing, and while the easiest thing would be to just kill him and be done with it, they're not so into that idea. You know, saving people being one of their family mantras.

Sam goes off to try to track down the wayward Kit while Dean stays back with Cole. First they try shocking Cole a bunch, since that worked with the last ear worm thing they encountered, but it's no good. But, since the parasite seems to love water, they decide the best way to try to get it to leave its host is to dry it out, so they turn the cabin into a veritable sweat lodge. Cole struggles to fight against the thing inside him taking over, which is clearly a mirror of Dean fighting the Mark, etc. Though they do struggle, and Cole tries to attack Dean a couple times, eventually the sweat lodge works, and the worm comes back up Cole's gullet to be foot-stomped by Dean.

Meanwhile, back at Kit's house, Sam is not so lucky. Though he is able to tie up Kit for a time, he manages to get free. The only way for Sam to protect himself and the wife is to kill Kit. Right before Dean calls him up with the good news about the sweat lodge, too. Poor Sam feels terrible since he was not able to save the guy, but again this is supposed to be about him being able to accept that he might not be able to save Dean in much the same way.

Cole is back off to go be with his family, and possibly return another day. And that's all she wrote!

 
Random Thoughts:

- Sam, why do you deny Dean his cake? Homemade cake at that! And Dean, why don't you just take some of it and spite Sam? Who cares! It's cake! Ahem.

- I'm not the biggest fan of Cole as a character, but what about everyone else? I feel like the fandom isn't vehement one way or the other, but then again, I may be off base.

- I don't have much to say about this episode, to be honest. Though it was thematically relevant, it was kind of a filler episode in terms of overall story. I mean, that worm thing coming out of Cole's mouth at the end, though, that was pretty gross.

Quotes:

Dean: So I'm gonna keep doing what we do, while we still can. And I'd like you to be there with me.

Dean: And you bought him dinner.

Cole: At least I get a medal for my efforts. But you, I tried to kill your ass.

Dean: All right, let's fire this puppy up.
Cole: You say that like it's just another Tuesday.
Dean: Oh buddy, it's only Monday.

Cole: Guess I've seen it all now, huh.
Dean: Some. Not all.

Previous Episode

Supernatural 10x14 "The Executioner's Song"

After some more lighthearted episodes, it's back to business this week. Finally, the showdown with Cain. But wait, you say, wasn't Cain okay before? Wasn't he just holed up on a farm somewhere? Well, as the saying goes - that was then, this is now.

Because Cain has succumbed to his darker urges. He's been taking out murderers and other evildoers across the globe, centering around those that have descended from his bloodline, because it's all tainted and such. But that means he's starting to leave a trail, one the Winchesters pick up on without knowing it's his at first. Castiel has also managed to track him down after some tortuous bits with a demon, wherein he learns about his agenda.

Of course, Team Free Will, which I suppose is still relevant even now, is not so into Cain's idea of a culling of the bloodline, particularly when next up on the list is a boy of twelve who just happens to be the son of a murderer. Thing is, Cain's pretty dang strong. The only thing that can kill him at this point? You guessed it - the first blade.

Which means the team is going to need Crowley to bring it on over to them. He's still hanging out in his bunker of sorts, bored to tears despite his mother actively trying to manipulate him into helping her kill some grand coven mother. He doesn't seem easily fooled by her, but then again, she does have a way at touching at his sore spots. One of which happens to be that he's helping the Winchesters when they wouldn't do the same in return. But Crowley isn't having none of that, particularly not after Dean tells him he's on Cain's kill list (even though he isn't), so he heads off, blade in tow.


The whole gang is ready for their trap for Cain, using the kid he wants to kill as bait. Or, pretend bait, as they use an illusion spell thing Rowena was going to use for something else to make it just appear like the kid was there, and trapping Cain in a devil's trap. Which means it's time for Dean to take up the blade and go meet his "maker." Dean gets beat around quite easily, even with the blade in his hand. Cain manages to get the blade away from him, and does the one thing all villains should never do - pontificates about how he's saving Dean from going truly dark side, because he believes that one day the Mark will take over, and Dean will end up doing what Cain did - kill his brother.

Well, today is not that day. Dean manages to use Cain's own knife against him, cutting off his blade-wielding arm. So we must then bid farewell to ole Cain, as Dean has no choice but to use the blade on him when he says he'll never stop with the mad killing stuff. Slightly anticlimactic when you compare this scene to another where Dean is confronting a big bad demon - On the Head of a Pin, anyone?

Dean doesn't let the blade overtake him after their confrontation, but he doesn't give the blade back to Crowley like he said he would either. Instead, he gives it to Cas, who hides it in points unknown, leaving Crowley to go home and be berated by his dear mum for, you know, being a terrible King of Hell and all.

Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Dean is putting on a brave face, and so is Sam, but neither of them seem all that optimistic about Dean's prospects. In case you couldn't figure that out, Sam spells it out for us by telling Cas that Dean's in trouble. You think?

Random Thoughts:

- Was anyone else a bit distracted by some of the music in this episode? It seemed to be a bit loud in some of the talking scenes. Maybe I'm just nutty.

- I mean... I kind of wanted more from a showdown between Cain and Dean. Like, a lot of build up for not a lot of reward here. And it was kind of... melodramatic? I suppose maybe because we know Dean is going to get out of this Mark business somehow that all of the near tears feels little like yeah blah blah okay. Or maybe I'm just being cynical, who knows.

- Does anyone know what the heck Cas' goal is for this season apart from helping Dean? There was that whole bit with Hannah earlier rounding up wayward angels, but is that still his thing? The even bigger question: do we care?

- Similarly, what the heck does Crowley want? I suppose that's sort of what he's trying to figure out, as he's so very clearly bored of his day to day King duties. But he needs to get some kind of goal, stat.

- Now the show is taking a bit of a break until mid March, when it moves back to... Wednesdays. Good? Bad? No difference?

Quotes:

Dean: Bass fishing, needlepoint, that's a hobby. Collecting serial killer stats, that's an illness.

Cain: I prefer to be thorough.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x13 "Halt and Catch Fire"

Ahem. Well. I don't know about the rest of you, but this episode was not my favorite. In fact, it is probably my least favorite of the season so far. The idea of an internet ghost isn't necessarily a bad one, but I don't know, there was a lot of hokey going on. But a recap is what I do, so here we go...

A guy and his girl are driving along, listening to their nav app Trini tell them how to get to Taco Town, only Trini is taking them some ass backwards way to get there, and when they call her on it, she tells the girl to get out of the car all menace-y. The girl obliges, only to have the car lock the dude inside and then drive him off a broken bridge. And smash to credits!

Meanwhile, Sam informs Dean that Cas is close to finding out something, maybe, that can lead them to Cain, or something. But Dean is more interested in working on this mysterious killer truck case, so they head off to the college town of Spencer, Iowa to do some digging. Turns out, the guy had a brother he didn't get along with who died in Afghanistan, and left that evil truck to him. So it must be the dead brother possessing the truck, right? Not sure why we didn't get a call back to the evil ghost truck from season one, but I digress.

Back at the school, it's time for the second killing, because that's just the timing of the show. A sorority girl gets strangled to death by her computer cord after being taunted by an online princesselsa8 telling her "810" and "I know" and "You'll pay." You know, typical things said by a Frozen fan. The roommate Delilah is supposedly shocked by this death, but clearly hiding something. Dun dun dun.

The boys are now off to investigate just what the whole 810 business means after Sam does some hacking into the dead girl's computer and discovers that weird chat. Turns out, it's an address. And across the street from that address, a woman is going to pick up a bunch of flowers left at a power line. Turns out, her husband Andrew was killed there in a car accident months ago. Do we have our pissed off spirit now? Yeah, probably. Because yet another college kid dies, this time after talking with Delilah in cryptic tones about coming clean and blah blah. I should say, Delilah wants to come clean while this douche just threatens her. Well, too bad for him, because he gets music-ed to death by his stereo. Gross.

Obviously, they know Delilah has something to do with Andrew's death, and it turns out that she and the other three already dead ran him off the road into a power line, then rather than calling for help when the power line came down and shocked him to death, they just drove off. Andrew is naturally pissed at his untimely death by some stupid college yahoos and is going for revenge. While Dean stays behind to protect Delilah, Sam goes to the power line to try to figure out how Andrew is doing the killing, and because I've already said it, I'll just repeat it - he's getting around in the wifi. Uh huh. Okay.

Sam goes to talk to the wife, who confesses that Andrew was actually talking to her online for a while and she didn't want him to go away so she didn't do anything about it. Meanwhile, Dean is fending off ghost Andrew, who is now attacking them. He tries to talk some sense into him about how revenge is not the way and blah blah, but it's only the wife who is able to make him stop and move on to a better afterlife.

In their patented brotherly Impala chat moment, Dean tells Sam that he doesn't want to look for a cure for the Mark anymore, that the way he can live with it is by continuing to hunt and save people, thereby assuaging the evil inside or something. Obviously that's going to last.


Random Thoughts:

- Love how the end of the episode Dean is talking about not looking for a cure, and in the preview for the next episode he's all up in Cain's business. That lasted long! Not that I'm upset. Because finally, Cain.

- I mean, am I crazy or was this episode just... not good? Honestly I don't think it's because ghosts are boring any more, the whole thing just felt a bit stilted. Even Dean getting excited about the college food and the college girls just didn't feel quite right. Which is a bummer because I quite liked last week's episode. I suppose there have to be clunkers every now and then.

- It's interesting, I've been going through a lot of my old posts to update some of the more technical stuff, and I remember so many more of the season five episodes that I was looking through than any of the following seasons (I only started recapping halfway through season five). Ah, the glory days.

- Do you ever have those moments where you're watching a show like this with someone who doesn't necessarily know it, and you're just rattling off explanations for things? Like "iron dissipates ghosts" and such? Always a good time.

Quotes:

Sam: What in the world?
Dean: A crossookie.
Sam: A crossookie?
Dean: Yeah they're the new cronuts.

Dean (checking out college girls): Sorry I ever made you leave.

Dean: I'm not gonna make it.

Dean: Oh yeah, sure Sammy. We'll just kill the internet. Wait, can we?

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Supernatural 10x12 "About a Boy"

You know, sometimes these more "event" episodes featuring the younger versions of Sam and/or Dean can be a bit of a let down, but I have to say this was probably one of my favorite episodes of the season so far. The dialogue was really funny throughout the episode, and honestly, I was just happy to have it be good old Sam and Dean.

Anywho, let's get to the meat of this recap. Some people have gone missing in Pendleton, Oregon, in bright flashes of light, leaving nothing but their clothes behind in a smoking pile. Sam convinces Dean he should take a break from the relentless research to take on the case. Of course, Dean is feeling a little guilty after his beat down of Dark Charlie, but he ends up agreeing to go.

While Sam heads off to check out the victim's house, Dean checks out the local bar where the guy went missing. He decides to have a few drinks, and chats up a friendly woman named Tina. Of course, Tina ends up being nabbed by this dude who does something to the people, making them disappear in the white light, and Dean, going to find out what happened, ends up getting zoinked as well.

What does zoinked mean in this case? Well, he wakes up in some kind of basement... in his teenage body. He's still regular Dean, just in his younger body. And Tina is also there in the room next door, also in her teenage body. Dean, of course, does not intend to just sit around while the dude comes and takes them one by one, so he manages to escape, and goes to look for Sam.

Sam has been trying to find Dean, but coming up empty apart from finding some flowers at the scene of the disappearance that witches often use in transfiguration spells. Hmm! Dean shows up at their motel and Sam is understandably a bit flabbergasted. But at least they sort of know what they're dealing with here - a witch. But this presents an interesting opportunity, as being back in his teenage body means Dean doesn't have the Mark anymore. Does that mean he should just stay in his teenage body, weird hormones and all? Something to think about.

But no time to think about it now. They've got a girl to save and a witch to kill. It turns out that the dude who was hunting them down happens to be done other than Hansel, of Hansel and Gretel fame. He weaves a sob story about the witch making him do her bidding for hundreds of years, and he's ready to help take her out. He also lets a little piece of valuable information out, too - the satchel around his neck, if Dean squeezes it, will turn him back to his correct age.

They head upstairs to do battle with the witch, who is getting ready to cook Tina. But it turns out that Hansel was lying and isn't really on their side after all - he was just luring them upstairs so the witch could aid in taking them out. While all of this is going on, the witch lets slip that she's in the US by order of the Grand Coven, to take out a wayward witch. Could that be... Rowena? Indeed.

No time to think what that means right now, though, as they get to the fisticuffs. Sam, as he is wont to do, gets knocked to the ground and is down for the count, looking dazed. Dean gets beaten up a lot by Hansel, but manages to steal the hex bag from around his neck. Just in time, too, or the witch was going to turn Sam into Colin Ford and eat them all. Or is that just in time? We all would love to see some Colin Ford, I'm sure.

Anyway! Dean squeezes that hex back to get back his man size and Mark powers, and throws that witch into the fire to burn, baby, burn. Along with the hex bag, which I'm not sure was entirely necessary when he knew young Tina was sitting right there in her teenage body. It turns out, though, that she may be perfectly happy to stay that age, getting a second chance to do her life right. If only I could do that, Dean thinks to himself.

And what would the end of a Supernatural episode be without the brotherly chat? You know, Sam's not happy the Mark is back, but at least he has his brother. D'ah.

Random Thoughts:

- Really? We're supposed to believe Sam believed in the Easter Bunny until he was nearly twelve with everything they saw as kids? Yeah. Sure.

- I thought Dylan Everett did a great job as Dean. He looked so tiny next to Jared, though, ha. It's also kind of funny that he's actually twenty in real life but playing fourteen. Ha. But yeah he did a good job at the Dean gravel voice stuff.

- The whole Taylor Swift bit and callback were pretty funny. That song is so frickin' catchy, man!

- When the heck are they going to go looking for Cain, already? I mean, it's clear they aren't finding anything in the lore, yet they don't seem to be on the lookout for Cain. What's the deal?

Quotes:

Dean: You also believed in the Easter Bunny until you were twelve.
Sam: No, I didn't.... Look, I was eleven.
Dean: And a half.
Sam: And a half, right.

Homeless Man: Look, we all know what's going on here, okay?
Dean: Don't say it.
Homeless Man: Aliens.
Dean: He said it.
Sam: Yeah, he did.

Sam: ...and that his bathroom was quote, staring into the devil's butt.
Dean: That's... vivid.
Sam: And accurate. I saw it.

Tina: You know, before, I thought you were just a drunk.
Dean: I prefer functional alcoholic.

Woman: Your son is so polite.
Sam: ... Thanks.

Sam: Cake. Why would they give you cake?
Dean: Don't know. It wasn't even good cake. Too dry.

Sam: I'm way too big to fit in that.
Dean: First time you ever had to say that, huh?

Hansel: If you're going to fry that candy-coated bitch, I want in.

Sam: You pulled a Dean Winchester.

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Supernatural 10x11 "There's No Place Like Home"

The Mark of Cain is looming ever larger in Dean's mind, so much so that he's decided to try a cleanse of sorts - no more eating greasy foods or indulging in the booze, just some egg whites and water. But the darkness is still there, showing up in a new tremble in Dean's hand, especially as he holds a nasty knife. Good thing we've got a nice parallel storyline to help our wee minds understand what's going on with him this week!

Before the brothers can find Cain to ask him about the Mark, they must attend to some other business - namely, Charlie is back from Oz, and is apparently wrecking havoc, beating up seemingly innocent people. The boys soon find out these people aren't so innocent. Rather, they are all tied to the death of Charlie's parents. Or should we say Celeste's parents? Apparently that is her real name! Anyhow, they track down the next person she will be targeting, and find her to be super badass, to the point where she can kind of take down Dean.

Whaaa?

Charlie drives off, but then another Charlie drives up. Oh! There are two Charlies. Basically, back in Oz, they were going to lose the war, so Charlie decided to let wizard release the darkest part of her self in order to help win the war. Well, they did, but she did some pretty terrible things to do it, so Good Charlie didn't want to let her back inside. Dark Charlie was pissed and came back to the real world to track down their parents' killer in order to win Good Charlie back over, or something. Only she breaks the key to Oz, which was the thing that performed their magical separation, so right now... they're stuck. Which is no good, because if you hurt Dark Charlie, it also hurts Good Charlie. Got it?

Okay! Well, Good Charlie and Sam go off to try to see if they can find another key to Oz. They discover that a former Man of Letters had gone to Oz in the past, eventually came back thanks to the help of L. Frank Baum, and went into a witness protection of sorts. They set off to find him.

Meanwhile, Dean has tracked down the guy who killed Charlie's parents, and waits there for Dark Charlie to show up. Show up she does, but convinces Dean that she just wants to talk to the guy, nothing more. That, of course, is a lie. She just kills him, even after he is rather apologetic. Dean heads to the local watering hole to think about drowning his sorrows, only to have a strategically timed conversation with DC, who then steals the Impala to go off in search of GC and Sam.

GC and Sam have tracked down the dude and find out that he is actually also the good version of himself. The dark version of himself is the wizard back in Oz. The only way to get them back together is to mortally wound the good guy to get the wizard to come and save him, thus bringing a key with him. They do, and the wizard appears, but as soon as he does he starts trying to kill Sam. GC has to kill the good guy in order to also kill the wizard and prevent him killing Sam. Meanwhile, Dean has stopped DC from going inside by, you know, punching her a lot, satisfying his inner Mark rage stuff for the moment.

In the end, they are able to reunite the two halves of Charlie to make her whole again. She lives to fight another day, but not with the boys, and hopefully not to die at some close time in the future. She vows to help them figure out this Mark thing, and forgives Dean for the beating, even though he's not so keen to forgive himself, which is, as Charlie points out, kind of his thing.


Random Thoughts:

- This was probably a pretty fun episode for Felicia Day to do, getting to play the badass side of Charlie while also doing the more funny side-kicky side too.

- They were laying it on a little thick with the comparisons between Dean and Dark Charlie, sheeeeesh.

- I enjoyed not having the whole angel and demon of it all for this episode. While certainly Castiel and Crowley are big parts of the show now, sometimes it's nice to just have the brothers doing their thing, even if it did still involve a big recurring guest star.

- Next week's episode looks like it could be pretty funny, but then the one with old Dean wasn't as great as it could've been, so who knows if Teen Dean will be better. Too bad we can't get some Teen Sam in there too, but alas I think Colin Ford probably looks older than the current Teen Dean, though technically Dylan Everett is one year older than Colin. Hmm... hmm...

Quotes:

Dean: As soon as we get rid of this demonic tramp stamp, I am back on the booze, burgers, and... more booze.

Dark Charlie: Should've known Rocket and Groot would track me down.

Dark Charlie: You lied to yourself... that's kind of your move.

Dean: Oh you son of a bitch!

Dark Charlie: You hit like a girl who never learned how to hit.

Sam: Be careful out there.
Charlie: Does that sound like either of me?

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