Series 1, Episode 22: Devil's Trap

I've just come back from my weekend in London. It was a great weekend the only drawback being that it was bloody boiling hot and I was a sweaty mess for a good deal of it.

As such we chose some indoor activities and went to see a play (A Curious Incident) which I loved and later went out for drinks at a "bring your own cheese" night. Sounds random I know but it was fun. How anyone could not like cheese is a mystery to me.

This morning Leanne joined me, as I nursed my slight hangover to watch the finale of the first season of Supernatural. I'm being spoilt really. I've have friend to share the last two episodes with!

The "trap" of the title refers to the symbol shown in the picture above which allows Dean and Sam to capture Meg. She gets tied down to a chair whilst they try to exorcise the demon out of her. To be honest I just thought it made a nice change to see someone besides Dean tied up!

This episode revealed that the demons are possessing people. Therefore Meg is a real person. By exorcising the demon then they will effectively kill her due to the injuries sustained in her fall. I quite liked this idea because it brought up something of a moral dilemma for the brothers and also demonstrated the lengths that Dean will go to in order to protect his family.

There was a lot of "body hopping" being done by the demons in this episode. So much so that it made me question why they didn't just possess Sam and Dean. Surely that would have been their problems solved. I assume that there must be some kind of protection over the brothers which is preventing the demons from doing so.

The brothers rescue their father but only after using another bullet in the magic gun. That's only two bullets left for those of you keeping count. 

A fantastic twist came about near the end of the episode when Dean and Sam discover that the demon that killed their mother is now possessing their father. I guessed this was the case a few moments before it was revealed due to the fact that John wasn't being as big of a dick as usual to his sons. The demon badly wounds Dean and then leaves Sam with an agonising decision. He can shoot his father and kill both him and the demon or he can let the demon escape and let his father survive. I guessed it would probably be the latter but the great thing about watching a series that I know nothing about is that I couldn't rule out the idea that Sam was going to kill his dad! Therefore this made for a pretty nail biting few moments. In the end the demon escapes after Sam shoots a bullet into his dad's leg. Only one bullet left!!

As the episode concludes, completely out of the blue, a large lorry smashes into the side of Dean's car whilst him, Sam and John are inside it. The lorry is being driven by one of John's old friends who is now also possessed (these things really do get around!). And that's where the episode ends! They all look pretty beat up. And Dean and John were already in a fairly bad way! It was a shocking conclusion because it didn't fall in naturally with anything that came before it. I liked it though. 

So that's the end of season one. It's taken me a good while to finish it but I really enjoyed it. There were a few episodes that I struggled with but on the whole I liked it. I hope the story of the demon is resolved fairly quickly in season two as I think we need a new plot to drive the show forward now. It's definitely got something to do with Sam. The demon pretty much said as much. I think it's because he has these psychic powers and so it is picking on him for some reason.

Can't believe I finally finished the season. Only nine more to go!

Series 1, Episode 21: Salvation

I have company for this episode. Matt Deeley is here and I've blagged him into watching an episode with me! I filled him in on everything that has happened so far and pressed play on the episode only to find a perfect summarisation of the series so far was played before the episode started so that was a waste of my time!

Meg is back and she is on the search for John. She finds a priest (who looks a little like Wes Craven) and when he refuses to tell her where John is, she slits his throat. Seems needlessly aggressive.

John discovers that the demon they are hunting for attacks families who have a child who is turning 6 months old, as Sam did on the night his mother was killed. They head to the town where they know the demon is hiding and plan to track down all children who are turning 6 months old, presumably so they can locate the demon's next victim. Matt rightly identified the problem of what if more than one child was turning 6 months old on the same day. I suggested that they would use the scientific and infallible method known commonly as "ippy dippy" to select the family that they would stake out.

Sam has one of his psychic moments which helps them track down the family in peril. Unfortunately Meg knows they have the super magic gun and phones John up to demand he hand it over otherwise more of his friends will die. They hit on the obvious plan of handing over a similar gun in the hope that that will fool her for a while. Dean goes out and buys such a gun at which point Matt asked the question that has been puzzling me for a good amount of the series. Just where the hell do they get their money from? Is fighting supernatural creatures on kickstarter now??

Sam got so frustratingly close to defeating the demon but it evaporated before he could get a shot at it. Meanwhile John has been captured by Meg. Overall I'd say they'd had better days.

A slightly underwhelming episode but it did leave me on a fairly good cliffhanger for the final episode. And it was nice to watch an episode with company for a change.

Tomorrow I shall be on a train down to London to meet up with Leanne for a fun filled weekend in the capital. Whilst there the intention is to watch the final episode. It's taken me a good while but season one of Supernatural is nearly over! 

Usually I post a picture from each episode in the blog at the end of each entry but as I've been on the hunt for one for this episode I think I stumbled across a massive spoiler for the next episode! Hopefully I didn't. I closed the page immediately. Hence no picture for this entry. Sorry..

Series 1, Episode 20: Dead Man's Blood

I'm very tired tonight as I've just come back from the gym where I did quite a lot of swimming. Well I say "swimming", it was probably more accurately described as "floundering", but I did my best!

In my shattered state I worry that I won't have much to say about this episode but I'll do my best. I want to get these next two episodes watched as soon as possible so that I'm free to watch the finale at the weekend.

Whilst investigating the death of a man who appears to have been mauled to death, Sam and Dean meet their dad again. It's quite funny how he just casually knocks on their car window and crawls into the back seat as if he's paying his boys a social visit. I hope the storyline about him constantly disappearing is resolved this season as I'm getting a bit tired of it now.

The man that was killed was a friend of their dads and the man who taught him loads of stuff about hunting. Their dad reveals that the creatures they are hunting are vampires. Dean is incredulous as he doesn't believe in such things. Really?? Is that where you've drawn the line? I wonder if he believes in unicorns and leprechauns. 

Sam has some real father issues which result in a massive falling out between him and his dad when he thinks information is being kept from them. His dad is still pissed off that Sam left them to go to college but I don't really blame him to be honest because their dad does seem to be a controlling pain in the ass. It's also good to see Sam losing his temper because he's usually the more level headed of the brothers.

Meanwhile the vampires are doing "vampiry" things with a woman that they've caught. Good grief I hate vampires! I blame Twilight for that! Bloody awful! These ones have glowing eyes...Wow...

It is revealed that the vampires are holding on to a special gun which can kill anything, including the demon that killed their mother so they sneak into a large stable where they find the vampires all asleep in hammocks. Not quite as sinister as sleeping in coffins but more comfortable I imagine. I don't know as I've never been in a coffin....saying that I've never been in a hammock either. Sorry, I'm rambling,I'm  very tired!

I'm afraid I don't have much more to say. It was an okay episode. Not one of the best. The exciting thing is that their father (his name is John! I'm getting fed up of referring to him as "their father") has finally decided that they are stronger as a family and therefore they are going to go after the demon together. With only two episodes left of this season I'm wondering if the next story will be a two part finale.

Series 1, Episode 19: Provenance

Well I can't even begin to guess what this episode will be about as I've no idea what "provenance" means!

A couple have bought a painting depicting a creepy looking family. As they prepare for an "early night", we see a man in the painting start to move! Just like the paintings in Harry Potter. I feel like I've been relating a lot of things back to Harry Potter just lately. Shortly afterwards we see that the couple have been brutally murdered, presumably by the man in the painting. Nasty. I've had worse dates though.

Here's something else I should have added in to the Supernatural Drinking Game, Dean flirting with a lady, double drinks if he gets her number as he seems to have done here. Meanwhile Sam is as ever the only one doing proper work and is scouring the newspapers for potential cases. He comes across the story of the recently murdered couple.

Dean and Sam believe that it was a cursed object in the house that caused the deaths, although they do not yet know it was a painting. They head over to an art auction where all the items are being sold on. Dean wastes no time in scoffing as much of the free food as possible. A man after my own heart.

It's Sam's turn for a bit of flirting now when he meets Sarah at the art show. She is the daughter of the owner and so Sam takes her out on a date in order to find out some information about the exhibits. The difference between Sam and Dean is that Sam feels genuinely bad about using Sarah in this way. Truth be told I think he's kind of into her anyway and she seems very nice so it's a shame that she'll almost certainly find out what he's up to which will lead to a great upset. Either that or she'll be killed like every other woman who gets close to Sam!

They discover the item they need is a specific painting so they break into the show at night, steal it and burn it. Problem solved!

That was the shortest episode ever! Or not. As the painting burns we see that another version of it reforms in its frame.. Oh dear. Maybe they should have burnt the frame too!

Returning to the show the next day to say goodbye to Sarah, Sam notices the picture is back and I think the phrase is "he completely loses his shit!" Poor Sarah is left confused and stunned at his outburst at discovering the painting has somehow reformed itself. 

Woah woah woah! Hold the front page! Literally actually. Whilst researching the family shown in the painting, a helpful librarian finds the front page of a newspaper from 1912. I had to pause the episode at this point as most of the front page was taken up with news of the sinking of the Titanic which is a particular interest of mine. I know what you're thinking, James such an interesting guy! Unfortunately this allowed me time to read the article about the murdered family in more detail and whoever made this newspaper page for this episode was a bit sloppy. It speaks of the murder of the family and then they must have run out of things to say so they printed the exact same text again afterwards! Sloppy work by the props department there. Did they really think they could get that past me?? Disgraceful. 

I am kidding of course. I couldn't give a crap about such things.

Sarah is pretty damn fantastic actually. She's discovered what is going on and has joined Sam and Dean in trying to defeat it. Dean tells Sam that Sam should marry her and I agree. I like her and I'm enjoying how she is throwing herself right into the action along with them. 

The man in the painting apparently murdered his whole family, also pictured. It was mentioned briefly that one of his children was adopted and I'm thinking that may be significant because it seems unusual to mention it if it wasn't going to lead to something. In the painting he is always looking towards one of the children's so I'm wondering if she is the adopted one. Not sure why that would lead him into killing his whole family though!

Well the adopted child was a big hint to the final reveal but not quite what I expected. It turns out it is the child who is doing the killing and not the man. The man has been looking at the girl as a hint that she is the one killing people. He could have made it a bit more obvious! Like pointing at her and holding up a sign saying "This bitch is crazy!"

To my great delight it is Dean who saves Sam and Sarah by finding the only remains left of the little girl and burning them.This was a great twist as it seems that all her remains were already destroyed before Sarah realised that the hair on the girls doll was the girls hair as was the tradition at the time.

I really enjoyed that one. Another good episode. It still doesn't feel like we are building up to a big finale yet but I have a few episodes to go so hopefully that will come soon. The episode ends with Sam running back to kiss Sarah. Aww. I hope she is in the next episode but I don't think she will be.

I'm going to have to give Dean the point for this one! It's 4:4!

Series 1, Episode 18: Something Wicked

I'm a little confused with this episode. Dean and Sam are having a conversation about their struggles to find their father. But they did find him a few episodes ago. So I don't understand. They found him and then split up because it wasn't safe for them to stay together for some reason. I'm watching the episodes in broadcast order but I'm wondering if this one was broadcast out of sequence for some reason. They did the same with the Star Trek Season One DVD and it was a fucking nightmare!

Some creature or witch is preying on children by sucking all the energy out of them and leaving them in a pneumonia-like state in hospital. Dean recognises the signs as it being the same creature that his dad once hunted when him and Sam were younger. We get to see a nice little flashback to Dean and Sam as children. Aww sweet. 

Sam doesn't seem to have any memory of these events so I'm wondering if he has previously fallen victim to this creature himself. This is further hinted at when Dean seems to suggest his knowledge that the creature is only vulnerable whilst feeding on a child so I'm guessing that it attacked Sam in the past and Dean saved him. Let me say that again "Dean saved Sam". Don't let me down now Dean, please let that be true!

Dean and Sam believe that an old woman in the local hospital may be the witch because she has an inverted crucifix hanging on her wall. As they sneak up to her with guns poised (which seems a little extreme to me! She could be a vulnerable old woman!) she suddenly turns as she is alerted to their precence and I absolutely shat myself! She's not the witch. Her crucifix has just flipped over on the wall. What a balls up that could have been!

Disappointing. My theory about Dean saving Sam wasn't correct. In fact Dean screwed up by leaving Sam alone, against his fathers wishes, which nearly allowed the creature to kill Sam. It's getting really frustrating. I just want him to do something right! 

Yay! Dean did it! He saved Sam when the creature started to attack him (it's a bit like a Dementor from Harry Potter) and Dean shot him straight through the head! Nice one! 4:3 to Sam.

Only four more episodes to go now. I hope it starts building up to the big finale. I'm wondering whether they will find the thing that killed their mum by the end of this season or whether that will be an on going plot. I hope they do find it and kill it as it would be nice to have something else going on in season two.

I'm also trying to develop a Supernatural drinking game. So far I've come up with the idea that you have to take a swig of a drink whenever the following things happen:

1) the word "supernatural" is mentioned which doesn't happen as often as you might think.

2) Dean and/or Sam gets tied up/locked up somewhere.

3) Any mention of their missing father.

And finally you have to finish your drink entirely if the last shot of the episode is Dean and Sam getting into their car and driving off into the distance which seems to happen at the end of every episode so far.

Series 1, Episode 17: Hell House

Hell House..... I wonder if this is going to be a sinister version of Fun House, the kids TV show presented by Pat Sharp. Probably not.

I'm on a deadline with this season now. I'm off to see Leanne in London on the 22nd August and as the Supernatural blog came about because she was kind enough to lend me the DVDs then I thought it would be a nice idea if we watched the season finale together. 

So let's make a start of Hell House...

A group of young people decide to explore an old abandoned cabin in the woods. Idiots! Have they never seen The Evil Dead or countless other horror movies?! (including the movie "Cabin In The Woods") Walking down into the basement they are shocked to discover a young woman hanging there, presumably dead. She looks dead-ish. Although there's no signs of her rotting away so I'm guessing she must have died recently. After reporting the body to the police it mysteriously disappears.

Sam and Dean are beginning to investigate the case by interviewing the teens involved. Something doesn't quite stack up so far. I get the impression that this could be all some kind of weird prank. I can't put my finger on why that is. I think the kid that lured his friends there was just tricking them. 

Haha! This is brilliant. Whilst investigating the house, Dean and Sam bump into another pair of paranormal investigators. These are more of the reality television type investigators. I was hoping something like this would happen in an episode! 

Maybe it's a bluff but I'm really starting to think it's definitely a prank. As a subplot to the main story of the episode, Sam and Dean are playing daft pranks on each other so it seems that that could be a clue as to the main story also being a prank. Or maybe that's what they want me to believe!

Well someone has just died now and I saw them being hung so it can't be a prank after all. Now I feel like a right moron! It looked like a farmer that did it which sits well with the supposed history of the house that a farmer hanged his daughters and then himself when the family ran into tough times and he didn't want them to starve to death.

Oh no! Now I'm really confused. The first "death" WAS a prank which was completely staged but the recent death was real and there is a real ghost there as I've just seen it swinging an axe at Dean and Sam! 

First topless scene of the series! It's Sam. Very nice! I didn't expect him to be that fit to be honest. Is my loyalty swaying from Dean?....I think I'd be safer with Sam to be honest.

I'm loving this episode, it's a really clever one. Interestingly the spirit has been brought about because of it's fame on the ghost hunters website. There was no actual spirit until people started to believe in it. As each small fact about the ghost changes on the website so the actual ghost changes too. Sam and Dean realise this and cleverly drop into conversation with the ghost hunters that the man died from a self inflicted gun shot wound and to this day his spirit is terrified of such guns and can be defeated by them. Presumably once this information is entered onto the website then Dean and Sam can shoot the spirit and kill it. Very clever boys! Well done! It would have been nice if they instead said that the spirit was actually friendly and loved playing with kittens, that might have worked too.

Unfortunately the website crashes and the information is never seen so their attack fails so Dean comes up with the idea of just burning the house down instead which seems an effective way of stopping people going in there.

Well I really enjoyed that one. It was quite different to the other episodes and a clever and new idea. Also I think I'm going to award Dean his first point of the series! It was fairly even between them both in this episode but as it was Dean who burnt down the house then I think he deserves to take the point on this one. I don't think I gave a point for the last episode so so far it's 4:1 to Sam.

I really liked the amateur ghost hunters. It would be nice to see them pop up again sometime.

Thinking about it, as I didn't score them for the first so many episodes maybe I should give Dean a bonus point for saving Sam when he was just a baby...It feels a bit like charity but what the heck, it's 4:2 to Sam.

Series 1, Episode 16: Shadow

In this episode people appear to be being killed by shadows. To be fair I've literally jumped at my own shadow in the past so I can see why that might be scary.

Dean is on full flirt mode this episode. I'm only a few minutes in and he's already been trying it on with a police officer and a bar maid. Sam tells him that he should be doing more thinking with his upstairs brain and I must say I agree! Dean has been letting the side down an awful lot just recently!

Ohhhhhhh dear. Look who has just turned up. Meg, the witch lady from episode 11. That can't be good. She's obviously got some kind of gripe with the brothers. I think she's great and I'm excited to see her again (not sexually).

Fortunately it doesn't take Sam long to realise there is something not quite right about Meg and he secretly follows her to her hideaway where he finds her messing about with all her "witchy" apparatus. He also discovers a sign which matches the one that was found at the recent shadow murder. Therefore it seems that Meg may be the one summoning the creature. I think the shadow may be her leader and she is trying to summon her or him into this world. The last murder victim was found with her heart missing so maybe the creature is stealing parts from its victims in order to build itself a body...that's my theory so far. That sounds a bit lame though so hopefully it's not that at all.

The brothers now believe that the thing that Meg is summoning is what killed their mother and they could now finally have their chance at revenge. During their preparation Sam says that when its all over he plans on going back to school. There then follows a genuinely sad little moment where Dean expresses his wishes that they stick together and carry on hunting with their father. That is clearly not what Sam wants and I feel really sorry for Dean that him and his brother may be splitting up. 

I'll take Sam's place if you want Dean! I can't promise I'll be much help and I will wet myself pretty much every day but it might be fun. I will insist on a proper ghost fighting uniform though. It did no harm to the Ghostbusters! 

Well Sam is the one to balls things up this time! It seems that the whole thing was a trap set by Meg to lure the boys there, capture them and then use them to lure their father there. Fortunately Meg is sent flying through a window before any real harm is done. It's Sam who saves the day (again!) but it was Sam that led them into the trap in the first place so he shouldn't congratulate himself too much!

Good news! They finally find their father when he comes to see them at the hotel they are stopping in. 

Bad news! Meg is not dead after all and the shadow monsters are now viciously attacking Dean, Sam and their father. The attack came just as Sam and his dad are finally reconciling their difference and was a major shock. I really thought I was coming to the end of the episode and then BANG! The attack came out of nowhere!  

Sam lights up a flare to scare off the shadows (again it's always Sam! It's actually getting irritating now!) and after fleeing the room they decide it's safer for their dad to leave them because he is always going to be more vulnerable with them around. I'm not sure I fully understand why that is but it seems to makes sense to them so I'm just going to go with it.

The brothers are both left with some fairly vicious slashes on their faces after the fight. I wonder if they'd leave a scar. I imagine they would in real life. I shall be on the look out for them in the next episode. Because if there's one thing this series prides itself on, it's realism! 

Series 1, Episode 15: The Benders

A promising title! Either Dean and Sam are going to turn into raving homosexuals or Uri Geller will turn up with his spoons!

A young boy witnesses a man being attacked by an unseen creature which pulls hum underneath a parked car. A few hours later and it seems that something similar has happened to Sam when he goes missing. Is Dean finally going to solve a case on his own and win his first point?

It seems that Sam hasn't been kidnapped by a supernatural creature at all but just a couple of ordinary people. He is locked up with another man. When the other man is seemingly let loose it becomes clear that he has been freed just for the kidnappers to hunt him down and kill him in some kind of sick sport. The sick bastards!

Meanwhile Dean is on the trail with the help of a lady police officer. She's great, she's not taking any crap from Dean and she doesn't trust him. She leaves him handcuffed to her car whilst she walks off down a forest trail to see what is down there. As she approaches the house where I know Sam is being held captive then I'm thinking she may regret going there without support.

And sure enough she's just received a shovel to the face!

I'm still not sure where the bending comes into this....

Dean gets loose from his cuffs and makes his way to the house where he finds Sam and the police officer locked up in cages. As he explores the house looking for the keys necessary to release them he comes across the sick photographs of the hunters posing with their dead pray I.e all the people they have murdered. The timing of me watching this episode is pretty good as there has been a lot of stuff in the news lately about an America dentist who illegally killed a lion. Its generally been in the news recently about these kind of hunters posing with their kills in a similar manner to the murderers in this episode. I mean, why would you want to kill a lion? Or a giraffe? Sick people.

I don't believe this! Dean has been caught and tied up to a chair. Meanwhile Sam makes his own escape by overpowering one of the killers when he comes to release him from his cage. I really thought this was Dean's chance to shine but it looks like Sam is going to save the day once again!

Another great episode. I really liked how it turned out there was nothing supernatural about it at all. They were just a group of crazy people. Human beings - the greatest monsters of them all.

Another point for Sam on this one. 4:0. Come on Dean! It's getting embarrassing now. Even as they walk off together at the end of the episode Sam is taking the piss out of Dean for being caught by the young girl in the family. She was about 12! Ridiculous!

And I've only just realised that I've still no idea why this episode is called The Benders. I wonder if that was the family's name. Mr Bender...

Series 1, Episode 14: Nightmare

I like the sound of this one. I'm fascinated by dreams and how weird they can be sometimes. Also as a kid I was terrified by the Nightmare On Elm Street movies so this one might be quite a scary one for me.

I'm tired this evening as I'm recovering from completing a huge pub crawl of all the pubs in Nantwich. There's 26! We had a pint in the first and last pubs and then half pints in the other 24. That's a lot of drink and as such I was feeling rather rough this morning! But I'm proud that we completed it! Just another daft achievement in my life. One day I'll do something worthwhile.  

So far the episode isn't turning out to be quite what I expected but it's still enjoyable. Sam is still having his nightmares that are then coming true. He dreams of a man being trapped inside his garage with his car running (seemingly trapped by some evil spirit). They race to the house but are not in time to save the man. It's a bit like in Harry Potter actually where Harry dreams that Mr Weasley is attacked by a snake. Except there's no snake this time....or wizards....In fact it's nothing like that at all.

In order to question the family over the mans death, Sam and Dean pretend to be priests. I'm wondering where they got their outfits from. Do they have a whole range of disguises in the boot of the car? Also it's really annoying me because I've seen the actress who plays the mans wife in something else and I can't think what! It's going to be on my mind throughout this whole episode now!

Was it Desperate Housewives? It might have been. Argh! This is driving me crazy. I want to look it up but I don't want to accidentally read something that will spoil this episode.

Sneaking upstairs, Dean performs a scan of the house by using this home made looking gizmo that shoots green lazer beams out of it. I want one! 

It turns out the father was abusive to his son, Max. The uncle was also abusive and he has just had his head chopped off by a window frame. (Must have been a pretty sharp frame). Max has somehow developed telekinetic powers and is using them to get revenge on the people who have abused him all his life, his next target being his step mum. So I was wrong, it's nothing like Harry Potter at all. It's like Matilda! 

As a side note it's still pissing me off that I can't remember what the mother has been in!

Wow! Major plot twist now. Max has just revealed that his real mum died in the exact same way that Sam and Dean's mum did! What can that mean? Sam already suspected that there must be a connection between them which is why he was having the dreams about Max's family.

Trapped in a closet (that's not a metaphor) Sam suddenly finds himself able to move the obstruction using the power of his mind just like Max and escapes in time to save Dean and Max's step mum.

I really really enjoyed this episode. It was a fairly straightforward story but it had some great twists and the overall story arc of the season is developing nicely. 

She was in Sabrina the teenage witch! That's where I've seen her! I had to google it. She was also in Lost but I don't remember her in that. I shall sleep soundly tonight!

If I had to award a point to one of the two brothers then I think I'd have to give the point to Sam again. He is the one with the powers which led them to the case and helped them ultimately save a life. Also he yet again saved Dean's life at the end of the episode so it's 3:0 to Sam.