Season 3, Episode 1: The Magnificent Seven

The eagerly awaited (by no one) blog finally returns!

Clearing away some DVDs today I came across (not literally! That would be vile) a dusty box set of Supernatural Season 3. "Oh yeah!" I cried. "I remember that show! I haven't watched this in months!"

As such I am now slipping the DVD into the blu ray player (that's right, I have a blu ray player. I've really moved up in the world in the last 2 and half years) and praying to a God I'm not sure that I believe in that this first episode has a really good recap on the last season's events!

The DVD comes with the option to watch a recap before each episode! I'm saved from having to read back through all my blog entries which would be arduous to say the least.

Dean has made a deal with a demon lady (I think!) to bring Sam back from the dead. In return he has one year left to live before she returns to claim his soul.

Meanwhile more demons have escaped from Hell as a result of the events from the end of the last season (which I remember of course!) and some poor fellow (who looks a little like the Star Wars director, Rian Johnson) is possessed by one of them as he's putting his bins out. I guess that could explain the abomination of The Last Jedi!

The brothers follow a lead from Bobby which takes them to a remote home in Lincoln, Nebraska. After investigating a horrid stench they discover the family dead in front of the television, their spirits drained, horror struck and wretched. Coincidentally not dissimilar to how I felt after watching The Last Jedi..

While investigating they bump into a married couple, Issac and Tamara, who are also hunters. At first it looks like they might be able to all work together until things turn a little sour and Issac tells them that he can't work with them because "this isn't Scooby Doo.." No indeed! That doesn't happen until a later season! Spoilers!

Meanwhile "Rian" enters a shoe shop and convinces a woman that she really needs a particular pair of shoes. Unfortunately these shoes have already been selected by another shopper who is killed when the hypnotised lady smashes her head into a car windscreen. She really wanted those shoes! I hope Derren Brown doesn't watch this show, he may get ideas...

Sam, Dean and Bobby track down the demon to a bar. Whilst scoping out the area, they see Issac and Tamara charge in there which proves to be a bad idea when it's revealed that all the other patrons of the bar are also demons! These demons are the seven deadly sins (hence the title!) and "Gluttony" kills Issac by convincing him to drink drain unblocking fluid!

Sam, Dean and Bobby rescue Tamara and kidnap "Rian" who they later find out is called Walter.
Soon they are being ambushed by the other deadly sins who have come looking for Walter and a battle ensues in which Sam is saved by a mysterious blonde lady with a magical demon killing knife!. I sense a story arc coming on! Please God don't let Dean try to sleep with her!

Speaking of Dean, throughout this whole episode he has been a bit..well...annoying. With only a year left to live he is using all the time left to him to indulge himself. Whilst that makes perfect sense, I'm finding it slightly irritating. Although I am interested to see how he gets out of the deal. Unless he doesn't and the next 10 or so seasons fit into one year in real time! Somehow I doubt that though.

A fairly interesting start to the new season. Here's hoping the next blog entry doesn't take another two and half years!

Series 2, Episodes 21 & 22: All Hell Breaks Loose

That's right, the laziness has begun and I've combined two episodes into one blog post. To be fair though these episodes were parts 1 and 2 of a the two part season finale so I feel that that is okay!

I also need to point out that I watched these episodes nearly 2 months ago and I'm only just getting round to writing up this blog entry. Season 3 will be different I promise! Regular viewings and regular blog updates.

As will hopefully become the tradition, I was yet again joined by Leanne to watch these final episodes. When Leanne comments on how different the Winchester brothers look in the early episodes it makes it hit home about how far I have left to go!

So let's see how well my memories hold up. Well first of all Sam is kidnapped by the yellow eyed demon. (Remember him? Not seen him for a while but he's still round and about!). He is taken to a deserted town along with other people who have gifts like Sam. They are set against each other so that ultimately one of them will emerge as the ultimate warrior to be used by the yellow eyed demon. Meanwhile Dean is trying to find where Sam has been taken.

The first episode ends with Dean arriving in the town just in time to see Sam being stabbed to death by Jake, the only other survivor of the demon's "chosen ones". Unfortunately it seems in this case Dean has arrived just after the nick of time. What the hell is a nick of time anyway!?

Dean summons the crossroad demon in order to make a deal for Sam's life. She strikes a hard bargain and only gives Dean another year to live if he wishes to bring his brother back to life. He agrees to this. I sense next season's story arc starting!

Meanwhile Jake has been instructed by the yellow eyed demon to reach a cemetery and open up a portal to hell...I think. This bit is all a bit hazy. The demon couldn't do this himself due to protection placed around the area and that is why he has been selecting potential candidates to do this on his behalf. I hope I'm mis-remembering that because after following this guy for two seasons then it seems a fairly lame resolution as to what his overall scheme was.

With all hell breaking loose (literally!) Dean and Sam's father appears out of hell and distracts the demon long enough for Dean to fire the magic Colt pistol and kill him.

In fact I have just looked the episode up and reminded myself that Ellen was also in this episode and Ash was killed! I remember that part now because they found his body in the burned down bar and I remember thinking that Ash had turned to ash and amusing myself greatly!

So that's the end of the yellow eyed demon I expect. Never say never I suppose but I don't really expect to see him again.

The shit hits the fan when Sam discovers what Dean has done to save him. He didn't realise he has been dead, just that he'd blacked out. I think I've had hangovers like that.

Speaking of hangovers, after finishing the episode, myself and Leanne headed into town to meet Sally and Andy for a meal out for my birthday which was awesome. It makes me realise just how late this blog entry is!

The end of the second season! I finally made it. There will now be a short break (hopefully not too long!) and then season 3 will commence!

Series 2, Episode 20: What Is And What Must Never Be

It's been a couple of weeks since I saw this episode so don't expect a great deal of detail. My memory is shockingly bad!

Dean is hunting down a genie. Well it's a thing like a genie anyway. He finds it but the genie attacks him and sends him into a dream world where his mother never died and as such Sam and he never started hunting. Meanwhile the genie is draining the life out of him.

I've always loved "what if?" type stories so this was right up my alley. Dean is a little confused at first to find himself waking up in bed with his girlfriend and then also discovering that his mother is still alive. Seeing Dean living a normal life for a change is kind of heart warming and I don't think I've seen a man look so happy to be mowing his mother's lawn. That sounds slightly dirty to me for some reason.

However it's not long before Dean starts to discover that his new world is not so perfect after all. His relationship with Sam is not great. Having never been thrown together in the quest to hunt down demons then they have lived totally different lives to each other and the differences between their personalities has not allowed them to form the close relationship that they have in the real world where they are forced to work together. You see, the demons aren't so bad after all! They've brought two brothers together!

Things start to get even worse for Dean when he realises that all the cases they have worked on have now been all undone as they were never there to fix things in this reality. There was an episode of Doctor Who that was very similar where we saw what the world would have become if the Doctor had not been around to put things right and fight off the various alien attacks. 

Eventually Dean discovers the truth about this fake world he is living in and realises that if he kills himself in this reality then he will wake up in the real world. His fake family try to persuade him to stay, telling him that he could live his entire life out in this place and for a moment it looks like he might decide to remain. As I know that there are a least another 9 seasons after this one then it didn't take a genius to work out that he would most likely leave and come back to the real world. It makes me wonder what I would do though. It would be really tempting.

Overall I enjoyed this episode. It was a very Dean centred episode which isn't a bad thing. Although saying that, I have dipped my toe into the world of Supernuatural interviews and convention clips on YouTube and a particular clip has upset me slightly where it appears that Jensen Ackles comes across a bit of a homophobic prick to a young bisexual girl who is trying to ask him a question about his characters sexuality. Maybe he was just having an off day. I can't look at too many interviews in case I'm spoiled! I hope he's not an arse though!

Coming next; the two part season finale! 

Series 2, Episode 19: Folsom Prison Blues

Time for a bit of a marathon viewing session. I've scheduled to watch the final episode with Leanne this Saturday. It's kind of become a nice little tradition for us to watch the final episodes together. Well it's not a tradition yet as we've only done it once. But it will become one! 

After an abandoned section of a jail is opened up, a spirit escapes and kills one of the guards. 

Three months later and Dean and Sam are arrested after being found breaking and entering into, well I'm not sure what is was to be honest. Don't think it matters, the most important thing is that all of their previous crimes are coming back to bite them and it looks like they are going to be doing a long stretch in prison. Two good looking guys locked up with a load of other sex starved men...anything could happen!

One of the cops comments that it seems disappointing that after all their previous escapes that it comes down to simply triggering a motion sensor which got them caught. I'm guessing that they allowed themselves to get caught in order to get access to the jail where the spirit is. Good plan but I have no idea how they'd then escape afterwards! I'm fairly sure I'm correct because they seem very eager to find out exactly which jail they are going to be sent to. It's like Supernatural meets Prison Break! I imagine. I don't know, I've never seen Prison Break.

Check out that pouty face!

Dean and Sam are locked up in separate cells but fortunately the cells are exactly opposite each other so that they can still chat. Not so fortunate is that Sam's cell mate keeps giving him "funny looks". 

It doesn't take long for them to get themselves in trouble when Sam accidentally bumps into someone in the canteen. Is it called a canteen? That doesn't seem to sound right for a prison. Feeding hall maybe? Anyway, that's irrelevant. It causes an altercation whereby Dean and a big guy get into a fight and are thrown into solitary confinement. 

This prison's idea of solitary confinement is a little odd. Even though they are locked up separately, it's still possible for Dean and the other guy to see and hear each other through the windows in the cell doors. Not very solitary.

That being said, Dean's confinement soon becomes a whole lot more solitary when the spirit appears and kills his fellow prisoner. 

The brothers find out that the spirit is most likely the ghost of an prisoner who was beaten to death by guards in the old part of the prison. I can't quite remember how they found this out. Truth be told, I started to watch this episode yesterday and I've already forgotten parts of it!

The good thing about this episode is seeing how the brothers cope when all their usual helpful devices are taken away from them. They have no guns and don't even have anything to use to set fire to the blood stains in the abandoned cell. Fortunately Sam is able to steal some of these things when Dean creates a diversion in the canteen (feeding hall? Dining hall?) by starting a fight. Maybe he could have picked a less painful diversion! Pretended to be ill or something!

After being taken to the infirmary along with the big guy he was fighting, it's not long before the spirit appears again. Honestly, don't leave prisoners alone with Dean in this place! Especially if they've just had a fight! We get a better look at the ghost this time and in a slightly surprising twist, it looks rather feminine. In fact it looks very feminine! It's a lady ghost! A nurse by the looks of it. I'm now slightly confused.

According to one of the older prisoners, the nurse that used to work at the prison liked to kill her patients. What a charming woman!

Oh no! Now Sam and Dean have had a little fight in the exercise yard! (Yes I know the name of that one, there was a sign on the wall). They are taken away. Does this mean Sam is the next one to be targeted? Maybe the ghost has the hots for Dean.

In yet another twist, it's now been revealed that one of the guards who has been giving them such a hard time is actually the man who put them up to finding the ghost in the first place! Dean and Sam knew this but I didn't! They shouldn't keep things from me like that! I get confused very easily! Anyway he lets them escape.

Hendrickson (he's the police officer obsessed with catching them, I probably should have mentioned him earlier) seems to smell a rat and suspects that they've been allowed to escape. I'm assuming he is going to be a recurring character. Actually I get the feeling he's been in the show before but I can't quite remember!

As Sam and Dean head for the grave of the nurse, they are being persued by Hendrickson after their lawyer lets slip that she was asked to research the burial place of the nurse. Or has she? No she hasn't. She's told the police the wrong cemertary on purpose. I like her. I hope she comes back. Next time I'll even try to make a note of her name!

A fairly good episode. There feels less of an overall story arc to this season compared to the last. The finale is just round the corner and at the moment I can't really see them building to anything. Isn't the yellowed eyed demon still around somewhere? 

Series 2, Episode 18: Hollywood Babylon

After having an absolutely filthy dream about Dean, I was reminded that I hadn't watched a Supernatural episode for a while and as I have a week off work it seemed a good time to get a few episodes watched. Well at least one episode at any rate. I hope this next one does something to take the bitter taste out of my mouth that was left there by the last dire piece of crap I was forced to watch (yes I'm still very angry!).

This is a promising start. At first the episode looked like it was going to be some kind of terrible Evil Dead rip off but as the first scene developed I could tell that something was slightly off about it. The acting was a little over the top and the background sky looked very fake. Just as I was about to lay into the episode, it was revealed that this was just a film set and the people I was watching were just in the middle of rehearsing a scene. 

One of the tech guys has a conversation with the lead actress (her name is Terra but I don't know how that is spelt so I'm sticking with that!) about how he thinks the set is haunted. Sure enough it doesn't take long for him to be found dead and hanging from the lighting gantry. Terra finds him and lets loose a brilliant scream, much to the director's delight who mistakenly believes she is rehearsing for the next scene. It's a good strong funny opening to an episode. Don't let me down now!

There was an inside joke! And I actually understood it! Dean and Sam are on a tour of the studios and the tour guide mentions that they will soon be passing the set of The Gilmore Girls and if they're lucky they may spot one of the stars of the show. At this Sam looks a little nervous and jumps from the tour bus. Jared Padalecki (Sam) also starred in The Gilmore Girls! I very much approve of this kind of humour. Brilliant!

I like it when things like that are aknowledged. I usually put too much thought into such things. For example, and I'm going slightly off topic here, I remember watching the movie Scream and in that movie there is a scene where a group of characters are watching Halloween. Now that's fair enough. However in Halloween H2O (a sequel to Halloween) there is a scene where a character is watching Scream 2. Now that got me thinking. In the Halloween universe, if someone can watch Scream 2 then they must also be able to watch Scream, at which point they will be watching a film where a group of characters are watching a film about them! Clear? Well it messes with my mind anyway so now it can mess with yours!

Anyway back to the plot. Sam has decided to take the trip to LA as a kind of holiday to get over what happened to Madison. I suppose it was made such a big deal of in the last episode that it had to be at least mentioned again but I just want to try to forget about the whole Madison incident. Dean mentions that he was expecting more sunshine from LA and that it feels more like Canada. This is another inside joke, because that's where Supernatural is filmed so they actually are in Canada! I'm on fire today! I'm so proud of myself!

Things are getting more interesting now. Dean and Sam have discovered that Frank (the crew guy that died) was actually an actor and isn't dead at all. It was all some kind of publicity stunt to make out that the studio is haunted. I was just starting to believe that this might turn out to be the first episode of Supernatural to not actually feature any supernatural elements...then a grey ghost lady turns up and hangs one of the producers. 

I'm not sure, but there might be another inside joke that I'm not quite getting. The director of the film (Hell Hazers 2) is being referred to as McG. Now I know that the main producer of Supernatural is McG. I don't think it's the same guy but I'm guessing they've used his name as joke. Adding credence to this idea is that when they show a trailer for Hell Hazers 2, it mentions that the director was also director of the Charlie's Angels movies, and the real McG was connected with those movies so maybe it's supposed to be the same guy.

All these references are making it more difficult to concentrate on the actual plot! Oh another person has been killed by the way. Sucked into a massive fan on the set...because fans can be set to suck apparently...and have the strength to drag a full grown man across a studio. That's ghosts for you!

The disgruntled writer of the movie has hidden actual summoning rituals into the script which has been causing the ghosts to materialise and kill people. Dean, Sam and one of the producers are trapped in the studio as the spirits surround them. Sam realises that the ghosts only show up on camera so he uses the camera on his phone to scan the area whilst Dean blasts any ghosts that turn up with a shotgun. Imagine a more adult version of Pokemon Go and you'll get the general idea.

Walter, the writer smashes the talisman he has been using to control the ghosts which lets them go free and they tear him to pieces. And all because he couldn't accept a few changes to his script.

And that's pretty much it. Except that the producer now introduces the idea of the camera phone into the movie which proves to be a hit and Dean randomly jumps into bed with Terra. (The bitch!)

Supernatural is back on top form! Although I'm a bit confused about Frank's "death" at the start. That took up a good 10 minutes of the episode and then it turned out to be fake and added nothing to the overall story. It felt like they'd realised the episode was under running by 10 minutes so they threw that in to bulk the story out. That being said, I still enjoyed it.

Series 2, Episode 17: Heart

The blog has been on hiatus for a couple of months, mainly due to a 3 week holiday I took in May to see friends in Melbourne and...well I don't really have an excuse for missing most of April except to say that most of that month was spent in a state of panic about the upcoming holiday and the likely chance of me being stranded halfway in Dubai airport. I'm happy to report that that didn't happen and I arrived and returned safely.

Thank goodness for these recaps included at the start of the episodes. I really needed them to get back into the swing of things.

Some colleagues are in a bar and the boss, Nate, tries tries to chat up one of his employees (Maddie) with little success. I feel sorry for him. I've recently joined Match.Com so I'm currently feeling a little sensitive to the whole rejection thing. After being turned down, Nate leaves and Maddie notices another guy staring at her. It seems she recognises him as she freaks out a little. The next day she finds Nate dead in his office, having suffered an horrific mauling of some kind. I've had some rejection in my time but so far I've been fortunate enough to avoid being literally ripped to pieces the next day.

My initial guess was werewolf and I think I've nailed it as that is what Sam and Dean are suspecting. Although maybe if they suspect it's a werewolf this early on in the episode then we are due a revelation later on when we find out it is a vicious bunny rabbit or similar!

It is discovered that Nate's heart is missing from his body. So his heart was broken and then stolen..That's tough.

Dean and Sam head over to Maddie's house to question her and we meet her neighbour, Glen. He seems like a really nice guy but one of those nice guys who are also a bit nervous so you know they are most likely hiding something terrible. That being said, I deem myself to be a fairly nice guy and it's true that I'm always nervous but I'm not hiding anything. Honest! 

Speaking of stalkers, Maddie tells Dean and Sam that she has been seeing her ex boyfriend, Curt, around a lot lately and it was him that she saw in the bar the night Nate was killed. 

Whilst Dean begins investigating Curt, Sam stays behind to watch out for Maddie. During a nice little conversation Sam asks her why she ever went out with someone like Curt and she reveals that it was because she was feeling low during that time of her life and needed the reassurance of Curt. She casually mentions that she was mugged. So this is what I think is happening. She is the werewolf! When she was mugged she was attacked and changed by another werewolf. I think it's possible she doesn't know this herself yet. Maybe Curt isn't stalking her but is watching out for her because he knows what she is and he is trying to stop her from hurting anyone. 

Plus Sam seems to really like her and he can't be allowed to have a happy relationship it seems.

I'm rather proud of my theory. I don't even feel like I need to watch the rest of the episode now.

I seriously could write for this series! I've completely nailed it. She is the werewolf! Although I'm confused that she didn't look very "wolfy" when she changed. I'm glad this twist has come fairly early on in the episode because it seems now we are going to have the really interesting dilemma of whether or not Dean and Sam should kill her when she doesn't seem to know what she is. 

They decide that if they kill the werewolf that attacked Maddie then Maddie will revert back to how she was. This seems like a neat enough way to resolve the problem but I'm a little irritated by this solution. If they don't feel they have the right to kill Maddie then what gives them the right to kill the other poor person who happened to attack her? Isn't that just bumping the issue back along the chain?? I suppose as long as the eventual person that is killed isn't a hot female then that's fine!!! I find this very annoying.

Dean tracks down the other werewolf which turns out to be the nice neighbour, Glen, and without a seconds hesitation he shoots him several times in the stomach, killing him. I'm feeling increasingly angry.

After apparently saving Maddie from her curse, Sam heads back to her apartment and has sex with her. I just feel I need to remind you that she has killed several people, but that's fine. And poor Glen is still dead...while Maddie gets to have sex with a hot guy. That's completely fine...

Sam wakes up the next day to find that Maddie has now turned back to her wolfy ways and she escapes through her bedroom window. He runs back to Dean and tells him that whatever they did does not seem to have worked and pleads with Dean to help him find another way to save her....Just like they did with Glen....

The episode is now reaching its emotional climax as Maddie accepts what she is and asks Sam to kill her. He obviously can't bring himself to do it. I'm doing a lot of eye rolling right now. 

After a lot more crying from Sam, he finally shoots her and the episode ends immediately.

This had the potential to be a really good episode. The dilemma faced of whether or not to kill Maddie could have been really interesting were it not ruined by the callous way that the brothers treated the other werewolf in the story. If that part had been taken out and they had tried some other way to save her (a potion maybe) which ultimately failed, then I imagine I would have found the final scenes really heart breaking, rather than nauseating. 

Oh dear, this is not a good start to my return to Supernatural.

RIP Glen. Another nice guy who finishes last. Not even given a second thought. Fucking disgraceful!

 

Series 2, Episode 16: Roadkill

Well it's been a while. This blog is now over a year old! I missed the actual day itself so that's a shame.

I'm contemplating whether this is reason enough to treat myself to pizza tonight. No I can't really...Can I? 

A couple, David and Molly, in true horror movie style are driving down some lonely road whilst they argue about being lost. Suddenly a man appears in the road and Molly is forced to swerve. The car rolls down a hill and collides with a tree. After regaining consciousness Molly discovers that David is missing so she leaves the car to go look for him. She finds a creepy house and is suddenly attacked by the same guy that had earlier appeared on the road and caused the crash. Well she's not exactly attacked but the guy has a hole in his stomach and transforms into something weird before the opening credits kicked in so I assume that is what happened.

As Molly runs off through the trees, brushing branches out her face and desperately glancing behind her to check if she is being pursued I tried to put myself in her situation. I think a small part of me would have to laugh. I'd just be thinking about how this is exactly the sort of thing that happens in horror movies and now it's happening to me, which is both terrifying but also a little cool.

Molly manages to escape back to the road and hails down the first passing car for help. And who should be in the car? It's Dean and Sam of course! Conveniently pitching up to solve this week's mystery in the same way that Jessica Fletcher stumbles upon her latest corpse!

It seems that Dean and Sam were already on the hunt for whatever the creature is so that makes sense that they were in the area. Meanwhile things go from bad to worse for Molly. After losing her husband she's now lost her car! She takes the brothers to the area of the crash to find the wreck has also now vanished. Sam suggests that they get Molly to safety.

Driving away from the crash the radio in Dean's car suddenly starts playing the same song that Molly and David were listening to before swerving off the road. I'm sure nothing good can come of this! A voice on the radio proclaims "She's mine!" rather rudely if you ask me! Shortly after Dean's car breaks down, most likely due to the spirit/creature's influence over it due to the fact that it doesn't want Molly to leave. I can sympathise with Dean. I'm sick of constant car trouble at the moment. In fact after replacing all the tyres, the wipers, the wiper motors, the clutch, the immobiliser system, most of the lights and probably many other issues which have slipped my mind, I think a supernatural entity would only do my car some good!

Sam reveals to Molly that they are hunting for the spirit of a farmer called Jonah who died 15 years ago on the highway. Every year he returns and picks someone to punish and in this case he has picked Molly.

I'm thinking there is more to Molly than we are being told. Dean and Sam seem a little evasive whenever she mentions her missing husband. That may be because they are assuming that David is dead but there seems more to it than that. Maybe David never even existed! 

They now split up to hunt for the site of Jonah's grave around the hunting shed that Molly found earlier. Sam sticks with Molly and warns her to stay close to him. She pays full attention to this precaution for all of about 2 seconds before she starts wondering off on her own when she thinks that she hears David calling out to her. Fortunately Dean appears in time to blast Jonah with salt before he can take Molly.

Finding Jonah's house they discover that his wife has hung herself (obviously many years ago by the looks of her) because she didn't want to live without her husband. There are a lot of scenes in this episode, particularly between Sam and Molly that explain how these spirits weren't necessarily evil people when they were alive. It really does feel like Molly is actually a spirit herself, holding on to this world for David and Sam are trying to break it to her gently.

As the same song suddenly starts to play in the house Dean goes to investigate whilst Sam looks after Molly by placing her beside a huge and fragile looking window....oh would you believe it? Jonah has just burst through the window and grabbed her!

Sam finds Jonah's body and burns it which saves Molly. And then the truth is revealed and I'm feeling rather smug right now. Molly is also a ghost and she is the person who killed Jonah and every year they appear together for him to torture her in revenge. It's a really good idea for an episode actually. I like how the rest of the story is told in flashbacks as we see Sam and Dean begin the investigation that then led them to the highway, including speaking to a much older David as the David we saw earlier on is the one from Molly's memory from 1993.

I really enjoyed this episode. As Molly decides to let go and move on there is a poignant moment that very nearly got me choked up when she recalls an earlier conversation with Sam regarding where spirits end up going to and how no one really knows. She's letting go but with no idea where she is going. Given the flash of bright white light that accompanied her disappearance I would say that she has either ascended to heaven or been beamed aboard the starship Enterprise.