Welcome to week fifteen of the Supernatural rewatch, superfans. Much of the mythology that will carry this show for ten seasons (and counting) is built in these episodes. Sam and Dean’s ever-more-costly brushes with the law, the option of dealing with demons are all laid out with great aplomb.
Cheers to the canon!
THE OFFICIAL FYA SUPERNATURAL DRINKING GAME:
Take a drink every time:
• Dean or Sam flashes a badge
• A demon possesses some hapless schmuck
• Sam tries to talk about feelings only to be spurned by Dean
• Dean crams his face full of junk food
• Anyone makes a deal with a demon
• 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
2x7: The Usual Suspects
Monster of the Week: Ghost/A Poh-leese
The episode opens with shots of a SWAT team hustling along the hallway of a Baltimore motel intercut with a cop interrogating an unseen suspect about a brutal murder. The camera pans away to reveal the person in custody is our very own Dean just as SWAT breaks down a motel room door to reveal Sam.
Our heroes are in peril!
Unsurprisingly, also in cuffs. “Restraints” must account for like 80% of this show’s costume budget.
Back at the station, a detective interviews Sam. She says they’ve got Dean cold on a recent murder (not to mention the St. Louis murders he was accused of in “Skins”). Sam’s different, she says, a good kid who doesn’t have to go down with his psycho brother if he just talks. This leads Sam to identify her as “Good Cop.” She confirms “Bad Cop” is questioning Dean, and Sam quickly begins spinning lies about what they’re doing in Baltimore.
But here’s the real version, darlings. The Winchesters came to investigate the brutal throat-slitting murder of a defense attorney. His widow tells them that the night before he died, the lawyer had a nightmare about a red-eyed woman. When they break into his office, they find the name “Dana Shulps” printed over and over again on reams of paper.
“Seems perfectly normal to me.”
Sam sticks around the lawyer’s office while Dean leaves to interview the widow again. But the red-eyed ghost gets there before he can, making the widow’s
printer spontaneously spew pages filled with “Dana Shulps”. When Dean comes into the house, he finds the widow dead. As he checks the corpse, the police show up.
Back at the station, Good Cop and Bad Cop conference about the Winchesters, and from the way they get all touchy-feely, it’s clear they’re more than just partners-in-the-law, if you know what I mean.
Meanwhile, both Sam and Dean sit in their respective interrogation rooms, trying to work out “Dana Shulps” as anagram, because apparently ghosts like wordplay. Sure, okay.
After Dean gets a lead from his public defender on the anagram front, he sends him with a letter to Sam, then pretends he wants to confess. And he does, telling them the real truth: he didn’t kill the lawyer and his wife, a ghost did. Oh, and also, he didn’t kill anyone in St. Louis. That was a shapeshifter. The cops make rage faces. But it’s nothing compared to their expressions when they realize Dean was just creating a distraction while Sam escaped custody.
But Good Cop starts to come around after her printer starts spontaneously spewing out “Dana Shulps” pages. When she goes to the ladies’ room for a moment’s peace, the faucets turn on spontaneously steaming up the window and writing “Dana Shulps.” Then she runs into this gal.
SOMEONE’S IN HERE, WAIT YOUR TURN!
It’s the ghost! Good Cop runs to find Dean, showing him the ringed bruises the ghost left on her wrists. Dean tells her that Sam’s her only hope of staying alive.
Using Dean’s tips, Good Cop finds Sam and together they ID the ghost, a heroin dealer who disappeared from an abandoned supermarket. It still has a sign that reads “Ashland Sup” and thus the mystery of Dana Shulps is solved.
“Are you relieved that incessant plot point is cleared up? I know I am.”
The ghost appears again, but she doesn’t hurt anyone, which leads Sam to believe that instead of a vengeful spirit, she’s a death omen. They find her corpse bricked up in the market, still wearing an odd necklace. Good Cop is wearing its twin, designed specially by her boyfriend, Bad Cop! It turns out he stole heroin from the evidence locker last year and is killing anyone who knew about it.
They go to confront Bad Cop, and just in time too. He’s checked Dean out of jail, saying he’s transferring him to St. Louis, when in fact, he plans to take him to the woods and straight up murder him. When Good Cop shows with Sam, Bad Cop tries to talk her into killing Dean and pinning the murders on him. With an assist from the ghost herself, Good Cop shoots her bad man down.
She offers to clear up Dean’s current charges, but says she can’t do anything about the shapeshifter crimes. They take option B, disappearing into the night, which makes them Fugitives from Justice. Is it me or did it just get sexier in here?
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Nil. I can hardly believe it either, darlings, but the Winchesters were all business.
Yellow-Eyed Demon: Not mentioned.
How Drunk Are We?: Classy. Two drinks for locks picked.
The Quotable Winchesters: “My name is Dean Winchester. I’m an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach and frisky women.” –Dean, starting his taped confession.
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic:
When it comes to Sam, Dean has an active imagination.
Notable Cameos:
Linda Blair of The Exorcist plays Detective Diana Ballard, a.k.a. “Good Cop”
Keegan Connor Tracy, of many a SF/F series, including Once Upon A Time and Battlestar Galactica, plays the murder victim.
Jason Gedrick of Desperate Housewives, Dexter and Bosch, plays Bad Cop.
2x8: Crossroad Blues
Monster of the Week: Hellhounds
We open in 1938 where Robert Johnson is playing the blues in a little nightclub.
The first time someone on the show ever out-sexy-ed Jensen Ackles. It won’t be the last (hey Castiel).
In the middle of his set, he begins to hear hounds baying and jumps up, running away. The dog sounds follow him, and when his friends eventually break into his hiding place, they find him rolling around on the floor like something invisible is attacking him.
Back in the twenty-first century, Sam and Dean are investigating the death of an architect who committed suicide days after suffering from a wild dog attack in a penthouse. His partner says that ten years ago, the dead guy was a loser bartender at a dive called Lloyd’s, but then became an overnight genius.
Another person who became an overnight success ten years earlier and has recently contacted animal control? The local chief of surgery. Mc-Soon-to-be-Deady (sorry) has skipped town trying to escape the dogs, hiding out in a motel room. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work.
Apparently, hellhounds aren’t fazed by the hotel’s “no-pets” policy.
The Winchesters head to Lloyd’s bar and notice something unusual.
It has customers.
Also? It’s at a crossroads. They dig up the dead center of the road and find a tin box with bones and graveyard dirt or “hoodoo stuff” as Dean calls it. We flashback to 1938 when Robert Johnson met the devil. He summoned a crossroads demon, which appeared as a beautiful girl in a white dress, and he asked her to make him the best guitar player in the world. She agreed and they sealed the deal with a kiss.
Lucky demon.
Now that Dean knows people dying through their own folly of making deals with a demon, he’s no longer interested in helping. Sam is, though and drags him along to interview another couple of deal-makers. One doesn’t want to be helped, but he gives the boys a bag of “goofer dust,” which wards off hellhounds. They find the last deal-maker, a hapless schmuck who ten years ago traded his soul to save his terminally-ill wife’s life.
The hellhounds are already coming. Dean has a plan: he’ll summon the crossroads demon and then exorcise it, buying them some time. Sam’s stuck defending the hapless schmuck, locking them both in a ring of goofer dust while an invisible hellhound stalks around them and absolutely destroys his beautiful hardwood floor.
Even a Magic Eraser’s not going to help that.
Meanwhile, Dean summons the demon who appears as a pretty lady in a black nightie. He tricks her into walking into a devil’s trap and then bargains, saying she can release the hapless schmuck’s soul and leave him and his family alone, or he’ll exorcise her. She tries to taunt him, saying he could bargain for his father back instead, but Dean remains steadfast and she eventually agrees. The hellhounds disappear and all is well.
OR IS IT?
Brotherly Angst Quotient: Hellish
When the hapless schmuck tries to say he traded his soul for his wife, Dean calls BS. He said it was a selfish act, because now she’ll have to live without him, and worse, she’ll have to live with knowing she’s the one responsible for his destruction. Of course, everyone knows that Dean’s talking about Papa.
Later, the demon tries to get Dean to sell his soul, confirming that Papa sold his to bring Dean back, and saying she’ll give him the same deal. She can bring Papa back and give them ten years together in exchange for his soul. Dean is clearly tempted, but refuses. Later, she gets nasty saying that Papa is in unbelievable torment in Hell. Dean has a sad.
Enough so that he actually talks to Sam about it, saying he’s disappointed that Papa went out bargaining with evil instead of fighting it. But Sam offers solace, saying it doesn’t matter how Papa died, just how many lives he saved through his own efforts, and now, through his sons. But Sam needs comfort too and asks Dean to say that he never actually considered making the deal with the demon. Dean just turns up the stereo.
All-in-all, some mighty fine angsting, darlings.
Yellow-Eyed Demon: Referenced in terms of his dealings with Papa, but not a clear and present danger.
How Drunk Are We?: Being carted away by an ambulance. Thanks to the MANY deals with demons, possession, and junk food consumed, 9 drinks await you, darlings.
The Quotable Winchesters: “You know, I usually like to be warned before I'm violated by demon tongue.” -Dean
Moment Most Likely to Inspire Troubling Fan-Fic:
Dean’s face as he questions Sam on what “Myspace” is.
Notable Cameos:
La Monde Byrd of Mad Men, plays Robert Johnson
Christie Laing of Once Upon A Time and Arrow, plays Robert Johnson’s crossroads demon
Leah Cairns of Battlestar Galactica and Kyle XY, plays the wife saved by demon deals
Next Week: A Supernatural super-virus meets historic legend