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Supernatural S08E06: "Southern Comfort"

OKAY FINE, you win. The Amelia/Sam story is that special kind of awful where it's actually funny if you stayed up into the wee hours of the morning watching election coverage on Tuesday and subsequently tuned in to "Southern Comfort" while running on little more than three hours of sleep and a wholesome dinner of sugar-free Red Bull and guacamole. I don't know if it's the utter lack of chemistry between Liane Balaban and Jared Padalecki, my ongoing inability to accept Sam leaving Dean to rot (however unknowingly) in Purgatory, or the flashbacks seemingly plunked down randomly throughout any given episode, but Padalecki is channeling Scrubs-era Zach Braff for just the right amount of blissed-out staring into space to go with his artfully tilted head. It's probably some unholy combination of all three, and while at first I thought that Sammy Winchester's 129,847th attempt at "being normal" might not actually suck, I'm beginning to entertain the notion that it might... actually suck.

This possibility comes despite the fact that I actually kind of got the relationship I was hoping for. Amelia and Sam are both barely functional war widows brought together by their mutual losses. They have Issues. They take things slow. They get drunk and say things they wish they could take back in the morning. They barely know who they are as the surviving halves of their respective partnerships, let alone what their relationship is supposed to be. This is the kind of relationship I could understand Sam gravitating toward, and in this sense, I am very happy about the Sam and Amelia situation.

It's everything else about it that just completely implodes, especially the chemistry problem.

We've seen Sam in love and in "love" before. Jessica Moore's place in Supernatural's mythology is ironclad, not just because she got toasted on the ceiling, Momma Winchester-style, but because the whopping ten minutes during which we saw her interact with Sam felt genuine. Adrianne Palicki brought that same sincerity in all subsequent Jess sightings while, Padalecki reciprocated with good old-fashioned Winchester longing.

Emmanuelle Vaugier brought the same easy believability to her short tenure as the ill-fated Madison, joining the ranks of Sam's great loves despite the fact that they literally spent maaaaybe 48 hours together before he had to waste her.

Then there's Ruby, who was a different kind of ladyfriend, but an important and understandable one nonetheless. And sure, we can easily chalk THEIR on-screen chemistry up to the budding real-life romance between Padalecki and future-wife Genevieve Cortese, but hey, it doesn't matter how it got there. What matters is that it was there.

And it just ain't there between Padalecki and Balaban. They seem awkward and wooden and honestly, kind of bored. I'm beginning to take a less-is-more stance regarding Sam and Amelia, just because I've found myself cringing through most of their scenes over the past two weeks.

But, Sam and Amelia aside, "Southern Comfort" was incredibly satisfying—yes, even the bro-on-bro smackdown that had me eye-rolling my way through the promo.

DJ Qualls returned as Garth. I unapologetically love Garth, mostly because I love DJ Qualls, but also because his evolution from a lighthearted character to a lighthearted character with substance has been satisfying, and while I wasn't so sure about his whole "becoming the new Bobby" mission, by the end of the episode, I found his attempts to emulate the late, great hunter touching. He even managed to earn Dean's blessing, and let's face is, whomever chose to pick up the mantle couldn't have done so without Dean Winchester's blessing.

An apparent ghost possession sent our not-so-merry band of hunters down to the land of Dixie, where the possession in question was a little bit out of the ordinary. While the ectoplasm left in a possession's wake is typically black, this stuff was green. Additional cases happened randomly and didn't seem tied to a particular location or person. Nor were they halted by torching the corpse. Some good old-fashioned research (with a side of Bobby ex machina) revealed the true culprit to be a specter—an "avenging ghost" that exploits the supposed betrayals in an individual's life, including those as petty as a bad call during a baseball game.

Our specter leapt—literally—at the chance to revel in some Winchester resentment (it's like a fine wine), and Dean, still smarting over Sam's "abandonment" of both him and the hunting life, was ripe for the picking. I knew they were screwed as soon as the research revealed two brothers fighting on opposing sides during the Civil War. Mr. Specter attached himself to a lucky penny traditionally given to the Southern farmboys who made up the bulk of the Confederate Army and traveled from meatsuit to meatsuit as the penny changed hands.

It's kind of sad that the only way we can get some honest discussion about FEELINGS is when one of Winchesters is possessed. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. Dean let it all hang out: Sam should have looked for him in Purgatory, Sam's laundry list of screw-ups is extensive and impressive, and the icing on top of the resentment cake reads, "I never once left you to die."

Ohhhh snap. Sammy's got some 'splainin' to do.

Actually, he tried that. Dean "died." Sam's world imploded. He ran away. I'm trying REALLY hard to buy what Sam's selling, but mostly, what I hear is "blah blah blah Jeremy Carver hated Season 7." I'm holding out for more information, but I did that with Amelia and it backfired. I'm also chalking that whole BENNY IS MY BFF rant up to ghost possession because shut up, Dean.

Garth took one for the team and broke his hand on Dean's face, jarring him enough to drop the penny and deflate his inner rage balloon. He subsequently melted the penny down because his super-chill demeanor made him immune to the specter's machinations. Sam, who was quite sassy throughout much of "Southern Comfort" and seemed to have a perpetual bitchface in place except for when we were in flashback mode, told Dean to "move on" from his self-rightous guilt-tripping, "...or I will."

Can you feel the brotherly love? CAN YOU?

– "Bobby belonged to all of us, not just you and Sam." PREACH IT, GARTH.

– Ohhh snap, Sam brought up Amy. It went better than I thought it would, mostly because no one got punched.

– Sam also basically promised to waste Benny, nullifying the semi-decent argument he had going about Dean's habit of indiscriminately killing his monster pals before giving them a chance to prove that they don't eat people. These boys will never learn.

– As much as I generally hate the Winchesters Divided storylines, I can honestly say that this is the first time in a long time, maybe even ever, that the strife feels "right." A lot of the issues that Sam and Dean are currently fighting about are old, but have never been adequately dealt with before. "Sam Winchester's Greatest Hits" may be mostly old news, but I fall in with Sam here, and his argument that even though Dean may have been under the specter's influence when he said those things, the fact that he said them meant the resentment was there. Garth's immunity to the penny pretty much confirmed this—he didn't harbor any "betrayals" for the ghost to feed on.

– Did anyone get a Sam Winchester bitchface count? I lost track.

– Was it just me, or did the Impala look uncharacteristically dusty in a few scenes? BLASPHEMY. BLASPHEMYYYY!

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Hot dudes all over The CW will be coming back next season! The network may have been the last to get its 2012-2013 season started, but it's the first to get its 2013-2014 season started, having just ordered a ninth season of Supernatural, a fifth season of The Vampire Diaries, and a second season of Arrow to debut next fall.

The CW is actually building on something here, people. Arrow has become the network's most-watched show with 4.3 million viewers, though it didn't elaborate on that number (we're guessing it includes DVR numbers and maybe online streams). Arrow's success has been a boon for Supernatural, which has seen its numbers tick up 15 percent (the fact that Season 7 was pretty bad and aired on Fridays also contributed to the Season 8 jump). Meanwhile, The Vampire Diaries continues to chug along as The CW's highest rated series and most Bing'd about show.

The fates of the rest of The CW's series are up in the air, but it's obvious where the network is going with its strategy, which is to stick with what's been working. Its 2013-2014 development slate is heavy on young adult genre projects with all but two out of eight pilots in contention having either supernatural, fantasy, or science-fiction bents to them. A Vampire Diaries spin-off, the prequel-ish The Originals, looks like a sure thing to be paired with TVD next fall, and if it's at least halfway competent, I know I'd like to see Oxygen, starring Aimee Teegarden as a chick who falls in love with an alien. The CW is also so high on trying a television adaptation of The Selection that it's ordered a second pilot after last year's didn't quite work.

If The Originals does pair with TVD, then The CW will have to make a decision on what to do with Beauty and the Beast, but I don't like its chances at returning (wouldn't Jay Ryan and Aimee Teegarden make an adorable couple?). I'd also guess that by the end of the season, Dr. Zoe Hart will have done her last surgery on Hart of Dixie, Division will end up with a remainder of zero on Nikita, and 90210 will be out for a permanent summer. All three of those shows are hovering around the 0.5 rating mark. The CW will probably search for one non-sci-fi show to pair with The Carrie Diaries, which should follow positive critics' buzz into a second season. Major caveat: This all depends on how the new development slate looks.

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Supernatural S08E14: "Trial and Error"

I know that for the sake of moving the plot along, we can't just have an entire episode of Dean and Sam hanging out in the Batcave eating cheeseburgers and geeking out over vinyl, so fortunately, a little taste of Winchester domestic bliss goes a long way. I'll just go ahead and file Dean's nesting habits away for the next rainy day... which, given the unfortunate implications of God's little obstacle course from Hell—or rather, to Hell—that day will surely be upon us soon. We can harp on Dean for being a cynical bastard all we want, but the man made a good point: The Winchesters don't have a great survival rate when it comes to grand gestures of heroism. Then the brothers said a spell and Sam's arm glowed and that looked uncomfortable. When have glowing limbs ever worked out for anyone on this show? Hm? Yeah.

However, in case you haven't heard, Supernatural was renewed for a ninth season this week (PARTY! PARTY! PARTY!) so... I'm gonna go ahead and guess that Sam and Dean will prove Dean wrong and make it. Or at the very least end up resurrected. Again. Or reanimated? Reanimated could be a fun conflict of interest. IDK. My point is, Supernatural has been renewed and both Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are on board, so I'm assuming their respective Winchesters will be joining us as well.

Kevin's survival, however, is still up for debate. Boy was NOT looking so hot when he interrupted Bonding with Cheeseburgers time in the Batcave to announce that he'd made a breakthrough on the God tablet. He's been hiding on Garth's houseboat, Fizzles' Folly, and you know, for as sucky as Kevin's luck is with the unfortunate matter of a prophet destiny getting in the way of his college aspirations, at least he's experiencing some aspects of university life, like living off hot dogs, coffee, and No-Doz; forgetting to shower; and sleeping a grand total of three hours each night. Somebody drop off a keg for the kid and he's set. It'll be fun. He's already reached the point of taking conveniently timed nosebleeds/mini-strokes in stride. And uptight bookworm types make the most fun drunks.

So Sam and Dean had to kill a hellhound and bathe in its blood. SUPER BUMMED at the show's definition of "bathing in blood," but that's just me and my shallow self wishing Supernatural would embrace its stars' abs as wholly as its Wednesday-night partner in primetime does (LOOKIN' GOOD THIS WEEK, OLLIE). And though I say "Sam and Dean" had to kill a hellhound, in actuality it was Sam OR Dean because God hates tag-team matches. Whoever committed to the first trial would be obligated to complete the last two and since Kevin hasn't gotten that far yet, we don't know what those last two are. Knowing this show and the fact that "kill a beast and bathe in its guts" is supposedly the easy part, I'm sure things'll get good and cray by the time season GR8 wraps up.

Our diligent duo took off to find an upcoming crossroads deal—and a soul-snatchin' hellhound by extension—and managed to find an entire family of pre-processed Puppy Chow all in the same spot because Crowley was apparently working a lot of overtime back in 2003. Dean made it very clear that HE was the one who would gank Clifford the Big Mean Dog and HE would do the trials because whoever did the trials was probably going to die and blah blah blah Sam is the smart one and the tall and the one with the prettiest hair so it's more important that he survives to ensure those gangly moose-like genes continue onward into the future. Dean even threatened to shoot Sam in the leg if Sam tried to defy his orders, but since Sam is a chronic defier of orders, it was pretty much a given that he'd don his super-special Hellhound goggles and come running. Dean was pretty pissed. Dean was also in the middle of getting his ass clawed, so his protest could really only go so far, but this episode went from adorable to depressing rather quickly. Nobody does emotional whiplash quite like Dean Winchester. One minute we're preening over our surprise cooking skillz and the next we're talking about suicide missions and how we're not the Best Winchester. Good grief, Dean, this argument sucks when FANS insist on having it; don't you join the fray too!

The thing is, there is no "best" Winchester. Sam and Dean are different, and sometimes one exhibits traits that are more favorable than the other's in a particular situation—but fundamentally, neither brother is objectively better. Their symbiotic relationship hasn't been played up much since Season 5, when the conflict that resulted from their usually-complimentary-but-occasionally-dissonant roles highlighted the parallels between the Winchesters and the God Squad—specifically brothers Lucifer and Michael. Season 5 gave us a lot of growth for Dean as he stepped aside from his Protective Big Brother role and essentially allowed Sam to fling himself into Hell to save the world. In the two seasons since the apocalypse, Dean got Sam brother back and watched him fall apart—essentially reverting to the Dependent Younger Brother status we saw in the aftermath of Jess's death and the self-trust issues caused by the Special Children storyline in Season 2. It's not a step back for Dean to be rehashing his bossypants stance. Outside of Sam's big gesture at the end of the world, there hasn't been much opportunity for Dean to NOT be perpetually parenting his younger brother.

Though Dean was forced by circumstance to again find it in himself to let Sam shoulder a bit of responsibility, the precedent was there and we knew Sam was capable. However, after eight seasons, we've yet to truly see Sam emulate the role of fearless leader—or at least be really good at faking fearless—as completely as Dean has. Even when Sam sacrificed himself at the end of "Swan Song," the gesture was somewhat short-sighted in that Sam would essentially "die" in the fight and force Dean to accept a life that Dean never really wanted: one without Sam. I'm not saying that Sam's time in Hell was a walk in the park or anything, I'm just saying that he wasn't the one who had to pick up the pieces back here on Earth. This time around, he's determined to live and he's determined to make sure Dean lives too, which sets him up to be redeemed for what he feels is his own failure to save Dean from Hell in Season 3, and for Dean's beef with him over shacking up with Amelia while Dean fought his way out of Purgatory.

By emulating and embracing what's come before without reusing the same old tropes verbatim, Supernatural has finally allowed Sam to grow up by confirming that the bright and shiny future that Dean wants for Sam is the same kind of future that Sam wants for Dean. For so long, the sentiment has been that only one brother is happy, only one brother survives at a time, like a bad Highlander rip-off or something. Season 8 has worked hard to get the brothers to forgive the past and see eye to eye about the present, and with the Winchester Mission Statement finally reading "Save the World AND LIVE," it seems that the series has turned its gaze toward the future... and the future looks pretty good.

Well, except for the glowing hand thing. That didn't look good at all.

– "Memory foam. It remembers me." It's the little things that please Dean Winchester. Also, can we talk about him sticking his mom's picture in his first-ever-honest-to-glob own room? I was weeping. Just weeping. Okay, not really, but Dean has spent so much time jabbing us with his sharp edges over the course of the past few seasons that it was nice to get the reminder that he's a big softie underneath all the bravado and psychopathic tendencies.

– "It's a suicide mission for you. But I want to survive it. And you should too.... I see the light at the end of this tunnel and I'm sorry if you don't, but if you come with me, I can take you there." TAKE ME THERE, SAM. TAKE ME INTO THAT TUNNEL. ANY TUNNEL. JUST TAKE ME.

– Loved the hellhound glasses. They should be required attire for all demon-hunting activities from now on.

– Any theories what the last two trials could be?

– Where's Cas? I'm really, REALLY loving the Men of Letters stuff and I'm excited about the trials, but the Cas and Naomi thing was starting to get real and then we just dropped it, which is super-annoying, Supernatural. Soooo...yeah.

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What to watch on Wednesday, February 6...

8pm, The CW
Arrow
Heinous erstwhile crime boss Cyrus Vanch (guest-star and all-purpose TV baddie David Anders) is out of prison, and his first order of business is to eliminate Starling City's newest costumed do-gooder. Elsewhere in "Betrayal," Lance's mistake leads to grave danger for Laurel, and Oliver questions Moira about his father's notebook.

9pm, The CW
Supernatural
"Everybody Hates Hitler" is giving Monday's Switched at Birth a run for its money for the honor of best episode title of the week—and that's before even hitting the episode summary. A representative sample of phrases contained therein: "attacked by a golem;" "spontaneously combusted;" "Nazi sorcerers." What more do you need to know?

9pm, NBC
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Convicted sexual predator Mike Tyson guest-stars as a convicted murderer and victim of a sexual predator in "Monster's Legacy." Benson takes an interest in the death-row convict's case and asks Bayard Ellis to reopen it.

9pm, ABC
Modern Family
Manny has a cunning plan to step into the lead role in Cameron's school production of The Phantom of the Opera, Phil and Jay team up against Mitchell and Pepper on a golf outing, and two small children are allowed extended exposure to Claire in contravention of all accepted parenting guidelines and several state laws. All this plus Alex and Gloria's trip to a psychic (!) in "A Slight at the Opera."

10pm, ABC
Nashville
Juliette wants to demolish her reputation for bubblegum pop, but her team is less than keen on the idea. Meanwhile in "I've Been Down That Road Before," Rayna learns that Deacon has taken to strumming his instrument for Juliette. What? In her band! He plays guitar! Get your minds out of the gutter, people.

10pm, CBS
CSI
"In Vino Veritas" kicks off a two-part crossover that concludes on this Friday's CSI: NY. Big Apple detective Mac Taylor drops by Las Vegas to visit his girlfriend, and turns to his good buddy Russell when he learns said girlfriend has mysteriously vanished.

10pm, TV Land
Hot in Cleveland
"Victoria learns the true meaning of friendship," according to the summary for "Fast and Furious," and if that doesn't imply this episode will be at least partly Claymation, then I don't know my way around the televisionverse.

10pm, FX
The Americans
Philip and Elizabeth encounter trouble during a scheme to bug the office of Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in "The Clock." It's hard not to see that plot as anything but a sop to the internet's legion of Felicity-Caspar Weinberger fanfic writers. I'm glad the excellent rookie drama is getting that out of the way early in its run.

LATE-NITE:
– Rooney Mara, Jeff Ross, and Dirty Projectors on Conan, 11pm, TBS
– Elton John and guest host Dave Grohl on Chelsea Lately, 11pm, E!
– Former General Motors chairman Ed Whitacre on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11pm, Comedy Central
– Author Lawrence Wright on The Colbert Report, 11:30pm, Comedy Central
– Tim McGraw and Bar Refaeli on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35pm, NBC
– Joel McHale, dog trainer/reality television star Kenny Licklider, and Elvis tribute artist Justin Shandor on Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35pm, CBS
– Ewan McGregor, Julianne Hough, and Gary Clark Jr. on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35pm, ABC
– Whoopi Goldberg, Tavi Gevinson, Tommy Mottola, Kurt Metzger on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:37am, NBC
– Emmy Rossum and Jon Ronson on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37am, CBS

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Supernatural S08E12: "As Time Goes By"

Let's be real for a second: Sometimes the seasons following Supernatural Season 5 feel like sucky sequels. The first five seasons tell a cohesive story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The question of how a show that built so much of its mythology around the (Judeo-Christian) apocalypse could move forward loomed over Season 6 and frankly, Season 6 failed to answer that question in any satisfying way. Season 7 was an improvement, but only slightly, still plagued by the sense that we were all just treading water, killing time until the story mattered again. Outside of the woefully mismanaged Sam-outta-Hell and domesticated Dean storylines, there was barely any connection to the early seasons of the show. We learned that Sam and Dean were bred to be archangel vessels, their entire usefulness tied up in the brotherly showdown-that-wasn't, and it seemed, at times, that even the writers themselves didn't quite understand how to make their protagonists important without their heavenly pedigrees.

"As Time Goes By" was the episode we've been waiting for, the keystone that ties the mythology of Seasons 1 through 5 to the often aimless wanderings of more recent seasons—and it managed to be completely awesome while doing so.

Also it was heartbreaking, because of course it was. Raise your hand if you pegged that kid in the bed for John Winchester as soon as he popped onto the screen. Keep it up there if you knew he was never going to see his papa (played by Friday Night Lights' Gil McKinney) again. Yeah, me too. This isn't the first time we've sat through an episode of Supernatural that, right from the beginning, we knew couldn't possibly end with anything other than sadness. Seasons 3 and 4 were good for those. The best-case scenario for Henry Winchester was that he got stuck in 2013 and became another Bobby for his grandsons to hit up for some deus ex machina action, but we've HAD formerly long-lost grandparents show up to hang out and it kind of sucked. I still don't REALLY understand what the point of the Campbell's Season 6 storyline was. Anyone? Anyone at all?

When Henry's 1958 initiation into the mysterious "Men of Letters" was crashed by one seriously pissed-off demon named Abaddon, he whipped up a spell and jumped into the future looking for John. He ended up with Sam and Dean and a mountain of angst. Sam acted nicely as our audience mouthpiece, asking all the questions we were thinking, like WTF are the Men of Letters and if they work with hunters like Henry claims, then why haven't we (or the Winchesters) heard of them before? Dean sulked, because daddy issues, but I saw that coming, and he made his contribution too, pointing out that John despised his father, Henry, and claimed that the dude ran out on the family when John was a kid. And with that little piece of Winchester Family Wangst, the nagging feeling that Henry was going to meet an unfortunate fate was all but confirmed.

R.I.P. Henry, we hardly knew ye—but what we did know was enough to understand why the angels worked so hard to make sure Mary Campbell and John Winchester popped out their genetically gifted sons (as revealed in Season 5's "My Bloody Valentine.") Audience mouthpiece Sam conveniently made the connection again in case we didn't get there ourselves. The Campbells were a legendary hunting family while the Winchesters descended from a long line of supernatural scholars. John and Mary represented the perfect union of "brains and brawn" that Dean and Sam would need to survive their apocalyptic coming of age. Fate REALLY screwed this bunch over, didn't it?

Beyond providing a link to the past, however, Henry Winchester also presented an invaluable tool for the Winchesters' future: the key to deciphering every scroll, spell, and—even though they didn't explicitly say it, we were all thinking it—tablet, as well as the coordinates to an impenetrable safe zone in which to use it.

I think we all know where this is going.

Unfortunately, we will be going there without Henry. MISS U ALREADY, HENRY. KISSES. Despite reading John's ode to Winchester Wangst (revealed to have been written in his own journal because SADNESS) and resolving to redo his time travel spell to go back and be a good dad to John, Henry ultimately carried on that long-held Winchester tradition of sacrificing oneself for the famdiddly when he took a demon fist to the gut during that hostage exchange with Abaddon—who, aside from Crowley, I would say is the demon with the best fashion sense we've seen so far. Loved the "devil made me do it" T-shirt and the fact that she just waltzed around in a bloodstained cocktail dress for half the episode like it was no big thing. Way to be fierce, girl.

Despite their initial apprehension, Dean and his grandpa ended up reaching an understanding before his death. Dean originally clung to his own father's resentment of Henry's perceived abandonment and balked at Henry's justification that sometimes there's a hefty personal price to be paid for the responsibility that comes with being a Man of Letters. To Henry's credit, his original impression that hunters were nothing more than "apes"—and the apparent disappointment that his esteemed family eventually sunk to their level—gave way to an understanding that sometimes legacies and traditions evolve because they must. I would say that Henry's parting affirmation to his grandsons—that despite not being Men of Letters, they're still Winchesters, and "As long as we're alive, there's always hope," should be put on their crest or something—but in retrospect, that's rather generously optimistic for that clan.

What did you think of the newest addition to the Winchester family tree?

– I could be wrong about this, as my love of tacky things is well documented, but I thought Sam and Dean's Ugly Motel Room of the Week was actually kind of pleasing in a budget retro kind of way.

– If I were Dean Winchester, I'd think time travel was the ultimate in suckass too.

– LOL @ hunters being the mouthbreathers of the supernatural underworld. I can't say I haven't had that thought myself from time to time.

– Smart Winchester Sighting! The fact that Dean and Sam are legacies in some smartypants supernatural book club/cult/library of weird is one of the best developments of the series. It's kind of like when Luke Skywalker found out what the Jedi were and what his connection to them was—complete with the daddy issues. Also, devil's trap bullet FTW!

– This episode was confirmed to take place in 2013, even though technically we've skipped what, like two years in continuity between Sam being in Hell and Dean doing the Purgatory thing? Whatevs. I always just hand-waved the time jumps myself anyway.

– When Henry broke the Impala's window, "OMG DEAN'S GONNA KILL YO ASS."

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Supernatural S08E03: "Heartache"

Jensen Ackles' third turn in the director's chair brought out the gore when the recipients of a star athlete's vital organs suddenly developed a taste for hearts. Sam pined for a boring normal life with the sort of willful tunnel vision we haven't seen since Season 1, which was an annoying trait, even back when it made sense. Dean continued to sulk over Sam not looking for him during his year in Purgatory, but also tossed tons of olive branches into Sam's side of the Impala and seemed almost manic in his drive to recreate the good old days, but Sam didn't bite. He misses his ladyfriend and the normal life he never had before... except for those four years at Stanford that I guess we're just pretending never happened. The scene at the end of the episode with Amelia and Riot was touching and on a weird note, I really liked the background music, but the implication that Sam Winchester has never in his entire life had a birthday cake just didn't gel with what we know about his past. Tween Dean stole baby bro Christmas presents to make the holiday special, you don't think he did the same for birthdays? Dearly departed Jess baked cookies in the pilot purely because she missed her boyfriend. I don't think birthday cake would have been a stretch.

When Jeremy Carver was first recruited as the new showrunner and voiced his intention to cast off some of the show's heavy mythology and return to the roots of the series, I was concerned, but optimistic. Absolutely, the mythology had grown daunting. Sam and Dean were both broken down by loss and Hell; shadows of their former selves who, admittedly, weren't a whole heck of a lot of fun to watch at times. However, as unpleasant as their evolution often was, the fact that Sam and Dean ARE fundamentally different individuals than those we were introduced to eight seasons ago speaks volumes of the writing and production staff's attention to character development and that's a very good thing. No, watching Dean drink himself stupid week in and week out was not the least bit entertaining and while the Sam and Hallucifer saga was one of the better storylines of Season 7, realistically, it couldn't go on indefinitely. Supernatural wrote its leads into some very dark places and the decision to move them back toward being functional people is welcome, but my concern with what we are seeing is that, rather than considering all of the character development that has come before and incorporating those experiences into our new and improved Winchesters, Carver has instead simply hit the redo button.

But this isn't a comic book. You can't just stop everything and start over when you don't like the characters you've been given to work with.

Sam wants a normal, apple pie life. Dean just wants to drive around and gank monsters with his little brother. Dean doesn't understand how Sam can turn his back on their born-and-bred duty, the family business and all that. Sam doesn't understand why Dean doesn't want to be normal, or at least why Dean won't let HIM be normal. It's Season 1 all over again. We've DEALT with these issues. Dean gradually came to want the normal life himself and got it during his time with Lisa. Conversely, Sam came to understand and accept his place in life and for awhile, adopted Dean's dedication and drive to save people and hunt things.

Supernatural "Heartache" Photos

Jeremy Carver has written some of the very best episodes of the entire series, ("A Very Supernatural Christmas" and "Mystery Spot" EASILY make my top ten), and I know that he knows who Dean and Sam Winchester are. So for that reason, despite my grumbling, I remain optimistic... but very cautiously so. I hate Sam's storyline because it makes zero sense, but on the bright side, for once, Dean's story is interesting, believable, and awesome. We are dealing with Purgatory with an honesty that was sadly lacking when we "dealt" with Hell. Please, oh please, don't blow it.

Sam brooded over losing Kevin and remaining away from his dog and woman, but Dean spotted the news report about some jogger literally having his heart ripped from his body and became positively giddy at the idea of a new hunt. It was off to Minneapolis, Minnesota and then Boulder, Colorado as the pieces gradually came together—Brick Holmes, a revered professional football player, was an organ donor who perished in a mysterious car accident the previous year. Recipients of his organs seemed to develop amazing health and athletic prowess, as well as a nasty habit of ripping people's hearts from their bodies.

It just so happened that Brick Holmes was actually a semi-immortal, millennia-old Mayan warrior who made a deal with a corn god to never grow old or weak. The only catch was that he had to occasionally sacrifice an innocent's ticker, but things went well for a few hundred years. Brick earned fame and fortune under various aliases, excelling at various sports. Then he met Betsy, got married, and got sad when he realized that while he got to stay young and healthy forever, she was still aging on schedule and would someday make him a widower. He drove his car off of a bridge intending to destroy the body and finally die. The fact that its organs ended up donated was the result of a publicity stunt a few years earlier when famous athletes encouraged others to sign up as organ donors by signing up themselves.

Despite her initial apprehension, Betsy was quick to cooperate with Sam and Dean when confronted with their evidence and a quick trip to the Bunny Hole Strip Club to waste the exotic dancer who received Brick's heart, put an end to the ritualistic sacrifices. Huzzah.

In contrast to the past two episodes, in which we saw Dean reluctantly pining for the purity of Purgatory and taking top-secret phone calls from vampire BFF Benny, this week we saw a Dean who was clearly trying to enjoy his freedom. He ate donuts and made faces at Sam's fancy organic apples. He even toned down his ongoing anger over Sam leaving the life to try being nice, straight-up telling Sam that he was happy to be hunting with him again. Dean said that he knew what it felt like to be a warrior and he embraced it. I don't think we've seen him this well-adjusted since at least Season 3.

What say you? I'm sure Dean was sincere about everything he said, but after two episodes full of brooding, flashbacks, and nods toward PTSD-induced disorientation, Dean's assertiveness that he's happy, content, and fine seemed forced. Is Dean taking the fake-it-'til-you-make-it approach to coping with Purgatory? How long until it backfires brilliantly?

1. Okay. What's Amelia's story? I know, I know we'll get it eventually, but what are your theories? Are they still together? Did Sam break things off or is he just on a "hunting trip" with his brother? Will she survive the season or become another unfortunate victim of Sam Winchester's Peen o' Death?

2. Dean bought an app. I'm so proud. I mean, just a few years ago he was clueless as to what Myspace was.

3. HELLO PAPA ACKLES! Jensen Ackles' real-life father Alan Ackles played the cop in the beginning of this episode. The last time we saw/heard him was as the news anchor in Season 6's "Weekend at Bobby's."

4. "Personally, I prefer the Keith Richards version."

5. MaryAnn Whining About Sam's Storyline Some More: "I just want my time to count for something." What, going to Hell and stopping the Apocalypse wasn't good enough for you? (Except that it WAS, and Sam said as much last season during his Zen phase, so there's really no point in continuing to flog this dead, mummified, and sealed-in-carbonite horse.)

6. I liked the fact that Sam sent their recording of Crazy Arthur's dead language ramblings to that professor from "The Slice Girls." The brothers need some new friends and acquaintances since everyone else is dead. I'm holding out for a Sheriff Mills sighting, myself. Who would you like to see visit this season?

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Supernatural S08E02 "What's Up, Tiger Mommy"

Quite frankly, that bank teller had it coming. I mean, I was a teller for like, a whole month, and the cardinal rule of the safety deposit box room was that tellers weren't allowed to be nosing around when patrons were opening their boxes. No, not even if said patron was a creepy little old dude hoarding a frost giant finger bone in his ancient safety deposit box.

Oh well, at least that 5/8 of a virgin went to a good cause. Hell yeah, Hammer of Thor.

After watching Crowley snap his girlfriend's neck last week, Kevin, understandably, wanted to check in on his mom. Dean, coping with his Purgatory flashbacks and manly angst the only way he knew how (that didn't involve drinking himself into a stupor) was in full-blown perfect soldier mode. He argued that not only would backtracking to Michigan to see Tiger Mommy take time away from finding the Word of God, but knowing Crowley, she was probably surrounded by demons anyway. Yeah, not the best line of thinking to persuade the worried teenager, Dean, but good effort. I got your point.

Despite the trail of formerly demon-inhabited bodies leading to her front door, Momma Tran was refreshingly chilled about the whole wanted-by-the-king-of-Hell thing. I suspect that she was one of those really cool soccer moms who look all hovery and overbearing at first glance but have a secretly awesome past, like maybe she followed Phish around for an entire summer or hitchhiked across the country or something. She didn't even flinch when Sam and Dean made the family Tran get their very own set of those handy-dandy demon repelling tattoos. Badass Kevin, meanwhile, cried like a baby.

With Momma Tran and Kevin reunited and inked, it was time to bust the tablet out of Kevin's lockdown... except the rented locker he stashed it in had been broken into earlier and the Word of God was MIA. OMG CROWLEY? No, just your average human thief who insisted on keeping his gob shut about what he did with the tablet. Whatever, Dean has ways of making people talk.

CUE FLASHBACKS.

Let's take a moment to talk about Dean's apparent love of killing things.But first, let's also talk about Castiel because admittedly, I'm in the camp that generally believes that the angel storyline is done and has been done for about three seasons now and Castiel's continued presence is pretty much pandering. Sorry! Not sorry. Okay, a little bit sorry.

I like Castiel. I like Misha Collins. The only episode of Ringer that I didn't hate was the one with Misha Collins in it and the only reason I didn't hate it was that Misha Collins was in it. But for the past two seasons, I just couldn't embrace the Castiel. "Why are you still here?" became the mantra for every appearance and like douchey Brock Lovett in Titanic I just didn't "let it in," man.

In Thank You For Smoking there was a scene where Aaron Eckhart and Rob Lowe talked about their plan to get smoking portrayed in a positive light in movies again. They wanted to have Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta Jones smoke in a sexy futuristic spaceship after having sexy futuristic space sex and Aaron Eckhart pointed out that if you smoke in a spaceship, it'll blow up. Rob Lowe assured him that they could explain that detail away with a line of dialogue, "Thank God we invented the whatever."

Castiel got his own "Thank God we invented the whatever" treatment in "What's Up, Tiger Mommy," when Alfie the apparent angel of foodservice popped in to ask Dean what'd happened to the wayward angel. Dean continued his evasive act, but we learned that he did eventually track Cas down in Purgatory. We also learned that when Castiel poofed into thin air when he and Dean first arrived in Purgatory, he did it on purpose. He deliberately avoided Dean in order to keep the Leviathan prowling Purgatory for revenge, away from him. Dean grumbled about it, but seemed to accept Castiel's logic, and revealed that Benny the Friendly Vampire knew of an escape hatch back to Earth. Still, Cas apparently didn't make the trip and we got no further elaboration from Dean with regard to why.

But we did get some general insight into Castiel from Alfie, just one line of dialogue, and for me, it smoothed over a lot of the wrinkles I've struggled with when it comes to Cas and pretty much everything post-Season 5. Alfie told Dean that there is still a chunk of Heaven's population that, despite everything, still believes that Castiel's heart was in the right place, but personally, Alfie thought the root of Castiel's problem was too much heart.

Everything just clicked. I know that I'm probably late to the Castiel-love party, but hey, at least I got here.

Then there's Dean and his post-Purgatory turmoil. It certainly mirrors his post-Hell experience in that he struggles with the ramifications of what he had to do during his incarceration, but something in the current storyline just doesn't sit quite right with me. Dean tortured other souls in Hell in order to spare himself from being tortured. He also tortured souls in Purgatory for information about Castiel. You can argue that in both instances, he had to do what he did. However, when he returned from Hell, Dean was pretty broken up about the whole torture thing; he even pleaded with Castiel not to make him torture Alastair, despite the fact that Alastair totally deserved it and the information they needed from the demon was for the greater good and all that.

In contrast, Post-Purgatory Dean seems to have shaken off the guilt and regret surrounding his previous stint as a terrifying tormentor. While interrogating the thief who hocked the God tablet, Dean got pretty dark and scary and didn't seem phased by what he did or even Sam's shocked response to it. I suspect that this is where the "purity" of Purgatory comes in, but for someone who railed against his "torturer" identity so hard for so long, it must have taken quite a bit for for him to be, well, pretty okay with it now.

So the tablet ended up at an auction held by Plutus, the God of Greed. Kevin and the gang earned an invite to the exclusive event based on Kevin's prophet status, a status that totally backfired when Plutus, unhappy with the offers of Vatican City, Alaska, and the Moon from Crowley and Alfie, added Kevin to the auction lot in hopes of upping the bids. Enter Momma Tran, offering up her soul for the tablet and her kid. Sold!

It would have been entirely too easy just to let the Winchesters walk out with the tablet though and this was only the second episode of the season, so Crowley was more than happy to complicate matters. I have to say, I'm loving the new menacing direction the writers have taken Crowley in this season. He was always evil before, but he was also kind of a joke. The fact that he's actually calculating and cruel, as opposed to a caricature of a villain, makes for a great Big Bad. It also helps that Mark Sheppard is just awesome in general.

Crowley burned Mrs. Tran's tattoo right off and hopped into her meatsuit, stole the tablet, left the lady traumatized, and taunted Kevin with some Maury Povich paternity angst and the Winchesters' terrible track record when it comes to keeping their friends alive. Kevin ultimately decided to take him mom and bail, arguing that the Winchesters no longer needed him around if they didn't need him to translate the tablet and close the gates of Hell for good. Or, as Dean put it, "He thinks the people I don't need end up dead."

Well, yeah. I mean, you did gank Clem there in Purgatory as soon as he gave you all the information that he had about Castiel. Granted, Kevin didn't know about that one, but... just make some friends, make sure they live, and get your numbers up, Dean.

1. I really missed characters on this show being SMART—Mrs. Tran with the tax math, Sam and the backward exorcism. Keep it coming! Can we get Dean arrested just to watch him break out of custody using nothing but some office supplies? That one's a classic.

2. So angels can grow facial hair in Purgatory but Dean Winchester can't? Okay. At this point I'm just going to assume that Dean can't grow facial hair at all.

3. Okay, fine, Alfie's real name is Samandiriel and he isn't the angel of foodservice, he's the angel of imagination. I think that just makes him MORE awesome. PLEASE DON'T KILL HIM.

4. Oh, who am I kidding, Alfie's a goner.

5. Alfie offered to put Kevin under angelic protection, but shouldn't he already BE under it? Remember whenever the Prophet Chuck found himself in mortal peril and an archangel just swept in and saved the day? Shouldn't Kevin theoretically be in the same situation?

6. Dean and the metal detector was really a thing of beauty. I know the whole how-many-weapons-can-the-paranoid-badass-hide-on-his-body joke has been done before on other shows, but it cracks me up every single time.

7. Post-Hell Dean vs. Post-Purgatory Dean. Go.

Supernatural "What's Up Tiger Mommy" Photos

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