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Good news, superfans! Supernatural has just been renewed for an eleventh season, proving for the eleventh time that the TV gods are just.
Welcome to week seven of the rewatch project! We are, of course, a VERY impartial audience and would NEVER prefer one Winchester to the other, being completely invested in both of their journeys. That said, these episodes are All About Dean. His feelings. His mortality. His rolling around shirtless in a delightfully awkward extended sex scene. Grab the popcorn, raise a glass and toast to our favorite the eldest Winchester.
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THE OFFICIAL FYA SUPERNATURAL DRINKING GAME
Take a drink every time:
• Dean or Sam flashes a badge and passes for federal law enforcement despite being clad in denim and/or flannel
• A demon possesses some hapless schmuck
• The camera gives tight artistic focus to blood being splattered
• Dean enjoys a cheeseburger crams his face full of junk food
• Sam purses his lips passive aggressively
• Either brother picks a lock
• Someone employs a Titan of Classic Rock as an alias
• The Glorious and Faithful Impala is damaged in the line of duty
1x12: Faith
Monster of the Week: We get a threefer this week with appearances by Rawhead, a Grim Reaper, and a black magic woman.
Sam and Dean are already on the job hunting Rawhead, a bogeyman that captures wicked children so he can turn their bloody bones into a throne.
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Dude. I know IKEA’s annoying to put together, but pick up a damn allen wrench and leave the kids alone.
Dean stalks through a leaky basement with a supercharged taser at the ready. When Rawhead attacks, knocking him to the ground, Dean fires off 10,000 volts of electricity at the monster. Which is currently standing in a puddle. That he is also lying in. *sighs* I’m guessing Dean’s not a big Bioshock player.
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Would you kindly exit the puddle before electrocuting your enemies?
The resulting jolt kills Rawhead, but also gives Dean a heart attack. At the hospital, a doctor says the damage to his heart was extensive. He only has a couple of weeks to live.
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A shocking twist of fate! (Sorry)(Not really tho)
Dean seems pretty resigned to death, spending his time in the hospital cracking jokes and watching daytime TV. Sam’s not ready to give up so easily. He finds a faith healer rumored to have true healing powers and drags Dean’s sickly ass out to his tent. They meet Layla, a gorgeous and sweet true believer who is hoping the preacher will cure her brain tumor. Dean, smitten, allows himself to be pulled into the tent. The preacher chooses him. Wouldn’t you?
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Who could resist the chance to lay hands upon him?
But as Dean’s being healed he sees a creepy man standing behind the preacher. It weirds him out and with good reason. When the boys go to the hospital to double check the preacher’s work, they learn that while there’s nothing wrong with Dean, a man his age died of a heart attack at the exact moment the faith healer touched him.
Turns out the faith healer’s miracles aren’t coming from God. Using dark magic, his wife has bound a Reaper and, unbeknownst to him, is siccing it on people she deems immoral, trading their lives for the congregants.
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Jeez, lady. Who died and made you Judge Judy?
The next marked for death? A man who has been protesting the church. As the Reaper begins stalking him, Sam rushes to his defense. Dean runs into the tent to stop the faith healing. Problem is, it’s finally Layla’s turn to be healed. After a bit of waffling, Dean sucks it up and chooses truth/ justice over a spectacularly hot blonde (character growth!), yelling “Fire” and disrupting the healing.
The next day, Sam heads into the preacher’s basement and finds a black magic altar with Dean’s picture on it, which DOES NOT resemble anything I have in my home despite what you may have heard. The preacher begins healing Layla. The Reaper appears next to Dean. Just as the reaper begins sucking away his life force, Sam destroys the altar, breaking the binding. The reaper lets go of Dean and comes for the woman who’d been controlling him with a wicked smile.
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If you love a monster, set it free! If it returns to you…you’ll likely be eviscerated.
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Morbid
Dean’s okay with dying. Really okay with it. Like, “I’m going to lay my burdens down!” kind of jazzed, which, given the fact that he’s only 27, is fairly depressing.
He’s skeptical of the faith healer at first. When Sam questions how, with everything he knows, he could be skeptical of anything, Dean says that he’s seen what evil does to good people, and so just can’t believe that anything powerful could be good. When he finds out that he was only healed through the death of another, he’s sick and angry because it proves he was right.
When the danger has passed, Layla comes to see him. She doesn’t mind that the preacher wasn’t able to heal her. Having faith means believing even when there aren’t miracles. Dean says he’ll pray for her, without even a hint of sarcasm.
Where in the World is Papa Winchester?: Still MIA. He doesn’t even respond to Sam’s call about Dean’s eminent death.
How Drunk Are We?: Early happy hour. Sam reigns in those pursed lips this week, so only two drinks are required.
Soundtrack: “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult.
The Quotable Winchesters: “That fabric softener teddy bear…oooh, I’ma hunt that little bitch down.” –Dean, fascinated by daytime television.
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic:
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Sam is never giving up you, Dean! Don’t you die on him, don’t you do it!
Notable Cameo:
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Layla is played by pop culture demigoddess Julie Benz of Buffy, Angel, Dexter and a host of other worthy shows.
1x13: Route 666
Monster of the Week: Racist Ghost Truck
A hapless schmuck drives down a dark country road! He’s being tailgated by a scary truck.
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The hillbilly highbeams really do add that perfect touch of evil
It rear ends him, then mysteriously disappears. Unfortunately, it reappears and when it does, rams the man offroad, killing him.
The formerly hapless and now dead schmuck turns out to be the father of Dean’s ex-girlfriend, Cassie. She calls the boys for help. Sam is surprised to learn Dean had a girlfriend who lasted longer than a one-night stand, and even more shocked to learn that while they were together, he confessed the Winchester family secret to her. Turns out Dean had it bad for Miss Cassie, and judging by her reaction when she sees him, the feeling was mutual.
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The original Dean girl.
Cassie’s dad isn’t the only corpse in town. Her dad’s best friend died the week before in similar circumstances. Cassie’s journalistic instincts tell her that something’s amiss. She believes the killings might be racially motivated. When her editor, another Black man, is killed on the same stretch of road, Cassie confronts the white town mayor, claiming that there’s a cover-up in place. The mayor vehemently denies this, saying he’s not a racist, as her (white) mother would know better than anyone.
As the investigation continues, Cassie and Dean are sparking hardcore, and Sam is delighted by the idea of his brother in love. Seriously, he makes this face for most of the episode:
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Smirking Sam is the best Sam.
The boys’ investigation turns up a string of similar murders in the 1960s. Several Black men were killed by, rumor had it, a black truck. Dean suggests this truck might be a Flying Dutchman situation, where an object becomes so infused with its owner’s malicious spirit, it becomes a vengeful ghost.
The ghost truck claims another victim, the mayor, and revs outside Cassie’s house, scaring the bejeesus out of her and her mother. Cassie’s mom spills her secret. Back in the day, while she was dating some redneck, she was also seeing Cassie’s dad on the sly. When she finally dumped the redneck, he didn’t take it well. The night before she and Cassie’s dad were supposed to get married, he set the church on fire, killing a children’s choir practicing within. He also almost beat Cassie’s dad to death. But her dad got the upperhand, killing the redneck instead. The other men who’ve been recently run down helped him dispose of the body by putting him in his truck and pushing it into a swamp.
Sam and Dean duly drag the corpse out of the swamp and salt and burn it. But the ghost truck comes for them anyway. Dean tells Sam to figure out how to salt and burn the truck, then hops in The Glorious and Faithful Impala.
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Car chase!
The ghost truck rear ends the Impala (drink) while Sam calls Dean on his cell, giving him turn by turn directions to the burned churchyard. Dean wins their game of chicken when the truck follows him and dissolves. Sam had a theory that if the evil spirit touched hallowed ground, it would maybe kill it. “Maybe!” Dean says. “What if you were wrong?” Sam smirks, saying the thought never occurred to him. Well, hey there, Sammy. When did you become cool?
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Unrequited
Years ago, Dean was all crazy, madly, deeply with Cassie, but when he told her what he and his dad did for a living, she thought he was crazypants and dumped him. Or that’s his side of the story anyway. Hers? She thought he wanted to break up with her and was making up some wild tale to get out of their relationship. Amidst all of this passionate confession, they lock eyes, which leads to them totally doing it. In the afterglow, Dean tells Cassie that though he’d seen a lot of scary things in his life, she was scarier than all of it.
Smoothtalker.
At the end of the episode, Dean is hopeful that he and Cassie might see each other again. Her? Not so much. She doesn’t see a relationship in their future, what with her being a journalist and him being a monster-hunting drifter. But he takes it on the chin, saying to keep faith, he’s seen stranger things happen.
Where in the World is Papa Winchester?: Location unknown.
How Drunk Are We?: Not at all. Only a single drink is required, brought to you by the hideous damage done to the Glorious and Faithful Impala.
Soundtrack: “Line of Love” by The Minors
The Quotable Winchesters: “I miss conversations that didn’t start with ‘This killer truck.’” –Sam, being nostalgic for his Stanford days.
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic:
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“Really? You gotta talk to your little brother right now?”
Notable Cameo:
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Megalyn Echikunwoke of 90210 (reboot) and House of Lies plays Cassie.
Next week: The hunters become the hunted.