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.
