Previously: Dean’s ideal partner was a dude. Also, an awful lot of misogyny shots, and a siren who loved Disney.
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Death Takes a Holiday
Kirsti: A couple of guys leave a bar, discussing fantasy football. As they pass an alley, a twitchy looking guy jumps out and asks if they have any change. Then he pulls a gun on them. A young dude in an apron is dumping rubbish in the dumpster and freaks, dropping the lid with a bang. Twitchy Guy starts, pulling the trigger and shooting the white guy, which makes for a nice change. Twitchy Dude runs. The black guy yells at the Apron Dude to call 911, and starts administering CPR.
The white guy miraculously goes from dead to totally fine in like 20 seconds. Except for that he has a massive bullet wound in his chest and there’s no blood. His friend asks how the hell he’s alive and he looks confused before saying he doesn’t know.
CREEPY BIRDS!
After the Not Credits, Dean grumpily pounds on a diner jukebox while Sam takes a call from Bobby. Once he hangs up, he tells Dean that they might have a case in Wyoming – no one’s died in a week and a half, including a terminal cancer patient and the dude from the teaser. Dean’s sceptical, but Sam reads a quote from a newspaper article about how teaser dude – Mr. Jenkins – was shot in the heart at point blank range and is still walking around. That gets Dean’s attention and he agrees they should check it out.
Sam wants to hit the road straight away, and tells Dean to get his burger to go. Dean grumps some more, then indicates that he’s still holding a grudge about that “you’re holding me back” thing from the previous episode. Sam eyerolls and insists it was the siren talking. Dean grumps some more.
Marines: He’s also eating that burger really weirdly and aggressively. I don’t like it.
K: It’s definitely one of those moments that I feel would have hilarious closed captions: [eats burger aggressively].
Cut to Wyoming, where they’re talking to Mr. Jenkins and claiming to be bloggers from FlooredBytheLord.com. Dean offers up their tagline: “All of God’s glory, fit to blog“. Dude. No. (M: YES.) They ask if his survival is a miracle, like people in town are saying, and he glances at his family in the next room before saying that he was a crappy father before and when he didn’t die, he knew it was God giving him a second chance. And he had a feeling like angels were watching over him. With that, Dean’s sceptical expression fades a little.
Sam asks if he’s been to a crossroads recently, maybe made some kind of a deal with someone who had black or red eyes, and Mr. Jenkins is all “Whut”. Dean makes excuses and they bail.
Mari: I really like whenever someone they are investigating for weird reasons looks at THEM like, “you guys are crazy.” It happens a lot and I imagine that it would annoy them, in that background annoyance kind of way.
K: True. They probably sigh internally every time it happens. Sam probably offers some nostril flaring action.
Later, Sam returns to the Motel of the Week and tells Dean that the cancer patient was clinically dead after his wife turned off life support, and now they’re going out to dinner for their 20th anniversary. Aww. Dean’s been doing research and has found out that the last person to die in town was a kid named Cole Griffith, who dropped dead 10 days earlier.
Dean suggests that maybe they’re legit miracles, seeing as their souls aren’t being taken anywhere, and Sam looks thoughtful before saying that maybe it’s because there’s no one there to collect said souls. Dean thinks it’s unlikely that Reapers take holidays – although sadly he stops short of being able to give him a gold star – and Sam suggests they talk to Cole and see what he knows. Dean’s all “Cole? The kid who’s DEAD??” and Sam’s all “Duh.” Dean eyerolls a little.
At the cemetery that night, the boys set up a ritual on Cole’s grave. He was 12, which just hurts a little bit. Dean flips through the Filofax of Shadows, not convinced the ritual will work. Sam keeps setting up, and says that if Cole’s spirit is around, the ritual should find him. Dean’s not on board with any of this, because while stopping monsters makes sense, digging into this case means that good people will die. Sam wibbles about the natural order of things, and Dean points out that the two of them do nothing but break the natural order of things where death is concerned. TRUE. (M: And it’s early yet.)
Sam points out that the rules don’t really apply to them because he’s got demon blood and Dean’s been to Hell. Neither of them are normal people any more.
Sam says they’re leaving and the guy looks creepily intense before saying “You’re not going anywhere ever again, Sam.” His eyes roll up in his head until there’s nothing but white – URGH – and Dean realises that it’s Alastair. Apparently he didn’t get fried by Anna getting re-angeled. It was just the poor bastard he was possessing. Alastair gestures and Dean goes flying across the cemetery and slams into a headstone, ending up unconscious on the ground.
Alastair and Sam face off. Alastair waves a hand, but it has no effect on Sam. Alastair’s impressed, saying that Sam’s clearly been practising with Ruby, who he calls “your little slut“. SHOTS!! Sam snaps that Alastair has no idea. He flicks his fingers, Piper Halliwell style, and Alastair goes flying and gets slammed up against a tree. Sam reaches out a hand to exorcise him, and Alastair NOPEs his way out of the poor bastard he’s possessing. Sam looks pissed. Fade to black.
Mari: Makes me wonder how Sam ever manages to exorcise anyone if you can just NOPE your way out, you know?
K: SERIOUSLY. But we probably shouldn’t poke the plot holes…
After the Not Commercial Break, we’re back at the Motel of the Week. Dean’s grumpy-ing about how much his head hurts and how he thinks he has concussion. He asks what happened, and Sam claims that Alastair tried to fling him around and it didn’t work so Alastair bailed. Dean’s confused because Alastair could fling Sam around last time, and Sam pleads ignorance. Dean sighs and says it’s fine for Sam to keep secrets but he’s sick of being treated like an idiot. Sam plays dumb and Dean’s all “bitch, please”.
Mari: Sam is annoying me. Dean is giving him the out to be partially honest and just say, “I don’t want to talk about it,” or something but he still lies. It’s weird.
K: Yup.
Then Dean promptly changes the subject, asking if Sam went back to finish the ritual and question Cole. Bobby phoned with the answer: apparently the local reaper has been kidnapped. Dean’s all “WTF? WHY??” and Sam reads something from the Filofax of Shadows. It’s an obscure version of Revelations and it basically says that if you kill a reaper under the solstice moon, it breaks a seal. Oh, and bee tee dubs, the solstice moon is tomorrow night. Of course.
Sam wants to know where the angels are for all of this, and Dean says it doesn’t matter because they’re clearly on their own. Sam wants to know how the fuck they can find a reaper when they’re only visible to the dead and dying, and Dean smirks before saying they should become ghosts. Obvs. Sam more or less looks directly into the camera like he’s on The Office, then asks how.
Cut to Dean ushering Pamela into their motel room. She insists that this – more specifically, astral projection – is the worst plan of ever and says she’s sick of being dragged into this angel/demon bullshit.
Mari: I associate astral projection with Prue on Charmed, so I’m sold on this being the worst plan ever as well.
K: Oh God, I’d forgotten about Prue’s astral projection. Or maybe I’d just blocked it out…
Dean points out that they’re trying to save the world, and insists that they need her help. Later, Sam draws the curtains as Dean lights a bunch of candles. Pamela wants to know what their plan is to save the reaper if/when they find it because they’ll basically be fog that can’t touch anything.
Sam points out that they’ve been attacked by tons of ghosts over the years, and Pamela points out that they had tons of time to practice. Dean says they’ll cram. Pamela sighs and tells them to lie down. She mutters a quick incantation and tells the boys they’re good to go. Dean sits up and is all “Yeah, right”. Then he turns around and sees his body lying on the bed. “Oh, I’m so feeling up Demi Moore…” he says with a grin. I, meanwhile, find the idea of Dean Winchester watching Ghost hilarious.
Pamela says she assumes it worked, and that she’ll whisper the incantation to bring them back into Sam’s ear. She leans over his body and whispers “You have got a GREAT ass“. Astral!Sam smirks and Dean demands to know what she said. Cut to them walking down the street. A jogger runs right through Sam and Dean chuckles because COOL. He sticks his arm into Sam’s chest and waves it around. Sam bitchfaces because that’s what Sams do best. Dean calls him a prude, and they head off to investigate.
K: Total Wincest baiting.
Several hours of fruitless searching later, Dean wants to go be a perve in Victoria’s Secret. Gross. Sam stops him, because there’s a kid watching them from the house across the street. It’s Cole, the last kid to die in town. He flickers and vanishes. Inside the house, Cole’s mother walks into his bedroom and asks if he’s still there. She says that her husband thinks she’s crazy, but she’s sure Cole’s there. A soccer ball on the dresser starts spinning, then flies past her. She buries her head in her hands and rushes from the room, walking straight through the Winchesters.
Cole throws more balls, and Dean demands to know how he’s doing that. Sam reassures Cole, and tells him that he’s a ghost, just like them. “Yeah, thanks, Haley Joel,” Cole sasses. He demands to know what they want, and Sam says they just want to talk. Down in the kitchen, they watch as Cole’s mum turns to day drinking. Cole says he was running around outside all morning, and the cold caused him to have an asthma attack. He tried to call for his mum, but it was too late. Then a creepy old man in a suit turned up, but he couldn’t leave his mother.
Dean asks how Cole got rid of the reaper, and Cole says it wasn’t him. It was the black smoke. He hid in the closet, and when he came out, the smoke and the reaper were gone. Dean asks if he knows where it went, and Cole says he doesn’t but he knows where it is. That…is a weird answer. Why wouldn’t you just be like “YUP, it’s here”? (M: 12-year old ghosts, right? Worst.) Just then, the lights start flickering. “They’re back,” Cole says in a panic. He vanishes. A blast of wind hits the boys, and something white flashes past them.
“Another reaper,” Sam says. They rush upstairs after it, calling out that they need to talk. A woman comes down the stairs, and it’s Tessa! Remember her from That Time Papa Winchester Died And Everything Was Awesome? Yeah. Her. She greets Dean by name, and he’s confused because he has no memory of what happened at the hospital. “We go way back,” Tessa informs him with a smirk. Fade to black.
Dean begs her to hold off until they fix things, and she reluctantly agrees, saying that when she starts reaping again, Cole’s the first to go. Sam says they understand, and heads off to find Cole. Upstairs, he finds Cole hiding in the closet and says it must be scary. Cole says sadly that the worst part is his mum, because she’s always coming into his room and talking aloud about how sad she is. He tried knocking stuff over to let her know he was still around, but that made it worse.
Sam says that he might want to ease up on the flying soccer balls. Cole says he’s not going to tell Sam where the black smoke is. Sam’s quiet for a second, then says “What if I told you that if you helped me, you wouldn’t have to leave here? Ever?” Dude, not cool. (M: The worst. And Cole must not be able to see his angsty nostril flaring or else he’d know this is a total lie.) (K: I’m tempted to make nostril flaring shots a thing, but our livers are taking enough of a battering already…) Cole asks about Tessa, and Sam says no reaper could bother him. Cole makes him promise, and he reluctantly does.
Down in the kitchen, Tessa’s flirting a little because Dean’s the one who got away and that almost never happens to her. He tells her that for the whole year after the accident, he felt like he had a hole in his gut, like he was missing something. He’s realised now that it was her. Or, more accurately, wishing that he’d gone with her. The tinkly piano tinkles. But things are different now. She sasses about the angel on his shoulder, but he was talking more about all the horrible things he did in Hell and the fact that someone gave him a second chance.
It’s all very manpain-y, and Tessa gives a sceptical “Uh huh” because she’s great. Sam clears his throat loudly from behind them. Tessa introduces herself to Cole and says she’s not going to hurt him. He tells them that he saw the black smoke at the funeral home during his funeral. The lights start flickering, and Dean asks if Tessa’s doing it. She’s not. The door bursts open, the house fills with black smoke, and when it vanishes, Tessa’s gone. Dean yells her name.
Mari: So Sam made horrible false promises just so the black smoke could find them anyway? Really not cool.
K: Pretty much.
Sam checks that Cole’s okay as Dean asks how the hell they’re supposed to fight that much demon smoke. Sam suggests they learn some ghost moves super fast, and Dean makes a Karate Kid joke. Cole asks who Mr Miyagi is, and Dean dies a little inside.
Cut to outside. Cole’s telling the boys that they have to concentrate in order to make things move. Dean tries to make a little windmill on the mailbox turn, and just ends up looking constipated. But eventually, he gets it to move a fraction. He’s super proud.
Back in the house, he slugs Sam in the gut, and Sam doubles over. Cole tells them that you have to get mad to be able to hit things. He encourages them to hit him, and they’re all “Uh, no”. He slaps Dean and, when Sam laughs, spins around and punches him in the face. Sam blocks a second punch, and Cole vanishes. He reappears out of reach, and Dean’s all “OMG TEACH ME THAT”.
At the funeral home that night, the whole building is covered in glowing symbols. No one on the street seems to notice, and Sam suggests that maybe you can only see it in the veil. They head inside, and find Tessa and an old man in a suit laid out on the floor in the centre of an eight pointed star. There’s a man standing guard over them. Dean flickers and vanishes, reappearing behind the man. He taps him on the shoulder, then slugs him when he turns. He vanishes, and Sam repeats the trick on the other side.
They tag team and he scrambles away to hide behind a coffin. They go to follow, but a second man staggers in, groaning in pain as his hands smoke. The first man scurries out of the way as the second man secures an iron chain, locking the boys in. Alastair – but a different Alastair from the cemetery. This one has a Godfather-y nasalness to his voice – walks into the room and sassily asks the boys if they found the place okay. Fade to black.
Mari: This Alastair’s voice is pure evil. What even is it doing?
K: It’s like he gargled with rocks and then stuffed his throat with cotton wool.
After the Not Commercial Break, Alastair walks towards the boys, who are frozen in place. One of his minions hands him a shotgun, and he blasts Dean with rock salt. As Dean reappears, looking pained and pissed off, Alastair consults the Big Book of Villain Gloating and tells them that it actually takes the deaths of TWO reapers to break the seal. He shoots them both a few more times as he talks. Dean sasses that shooting them won’t do much, and Alastair’s all “ORLY?”
Cut to the Motel of the Week. Pamela’s still sitting with the boys. There’s a creaky noise from the hallway. She makes her way to the door and puts the security chain on. But then she hears the wind blowing and realises the window’s open. Back at the funeral home, Alastair pulls out a scythe and says they should get on with the show because the moon’s in the right place and the board is set.
Dean scoffs over his choice of weapon, and Alastair tells him it’s on loan from a friend. A friend who doesn’t really ride a white horse, but who DOES have three friends. And all four of them are jonesing for a good apocalypse. It’s Death, in case you’re not up on Revelations (or, you know, Terry Pratchett). He walks over to the two reapers and drags the old man up by his collar. Then he mutters an incantation in Latin – Google Translate gave me a typically mangled approximation, but it’s something about blood breaking the seal to free Lucifer. (M: Obvs.)
He slices the reaper’s throat. There’s a blast of white light, and Alastair lowers the reaper’s corpse to the ground. Then he steps towards Tessa. Sam realises there’s a chandelier hanging above the reaper trap and stares at it intently. Alastair heaves Tessa off the ground and she wakes. She yells at him to stop. Sam stares at the chandelier in a constipated way as Alastair starts chanting again.
Motel of the Week. Pamela shuts the window. She turns back towards the boys, and announces to the room that she knows someone’s there. She yanks back the shower curtain, but NOPE. A heavy set demon is just hanging out, leaning against the wall. She somehow senses where he is, and sprints across to Sam. She shouts “Vis, vis, vis!” in his ear before the demon drags her away.
Funeral home. Alastair’s still chanting. The boys are now both looking constipated, and the chandelier is starting to shake. As Alastair finishes chanting, the chandelier falls. It lands on a corner of the trap, breaking it. Tessa vanishes, then reappears to remove the iron chain holding the boys. “Bye bye,” Dean sasses. All three of them vanish. Alastair looks pissed.
Mari: But will he ever put his murder star under a chandelier again? Probably not.
K: Life lessons from taking on the Winchesters.
Tessa and Dean reappear on the street outside. Tessa asks where Sam is, and Dean says he’ll find Sam while she gets to safety. Cut back to the motel. Pamela’s fighting for her life, and still manages to finish the incantation to wake Sam. But the demon pulls a knife and stabs her in the gut. Conveniently, Sam wakes and exorcises the demon with a clenched fist and another case of constipation face. The demon falls to the floor, dead, and Sam rushes to Pamela’s side. She laughs because there’s no blood. She literally can’t die in this town. Sam says she needs a doctor, but all she wants is a drink. Sam looks pained.
Elsewhere, Dean wanders the streets looking for Sam. Alastair appears and says there’s no point in running because “I’m inside that angsty little noggin of yours“. He stalks towards Dean, but then a bolt of lightning hits his head and he explodes into nothing. “What the hell?” Dean says in confusion. “Guess again,” Castiel says from behind him. I may have snort laughed.
Mari: Me too because Castiel takes himself real seriously and that was a terrible line.
K: SO BAD.
After the Not Commercial Break, Cas tells Dean that this was a victory because they saved a seal and captured Alastair. Dean’s all “Yeah, thanks for all your hard work, dick”, and Cas admits that they’ve been here the whole time but they couldn’t do anything because the glowy symbols on the funeral home are angel proofing. He also admits that it wasn’t Bobby who called Sam. It was him, pretending to be Bobby. I just pictured Cas saying “idjits” and it’s magical.
Dean wants to know why he didn’t just ask for help. Cas points out that whenever he’s done that, Dean does the opposite. Dean gets feelsy about the fact that people are just going to start dying again, and asks if Cas can make some exceptions. That earns a “NOPE”. Tessa appears and says she could use Dean’s help. When he looks back, Cas has vanished.
Cole’s house. His mum is looking at a photo album and crying. Cole watches sadly. Tessa and Dean appear, and Cole gets pissy about Sam’s broken promise. Tessa tells him that his mum will be in pain as long as she can feel him nearby, so he needs to cross over in order for her to be less sad. Okay, but like her kid died less than two weeks ago. I’m pretty sure quiet sobbing over a photo album is far more functional than most people would be.
Mari: I’m worse than that two weeks after watching really sad fictional content.
K: EXACTLY.
Cole wants to know what’s on the other side, but Tessa won’t answer him. Dean says it can’t possibly be worse than what will happen if he stays. He says it’s okay to be scared because the big secret is that everyone is scared. The tinkly piano tinkles. Cole looks at his mother sadly, then walks into Tessa’s open arms. She hugs him and he vanishes. Cole’s mum looks slightly less miserable. Tessa turns to Dean and tells him to stop lying to himself. The angels are offering him a second chance and something good. There has to be something nasty coming as a result. He asks what she means, and she vanishes. Rude.
Motel. Pamela wakes Dean, then doubles over as her wound starts to bleed. Dean asks what happened, and Sam demands to know where Tessa is. Dean has no idea. Sam apologises to Pamela and says she deserves better. She tearfully says that she told them she wanted nothing to do with this and they dragged her into it anyway. Then she says everyone has to go sometime.
She gestures for Sam to hug her. But when he does, she whispers in his ear that she knows what he did to the demon and can feel what’s inside of him. Any good intentions he has are misguided.
I quite like this episode. It’s great to see the return of Tessa, although it was incredibly unfortunate that we had to lose a recurring female character in order to gain a recurring female character. SIGH. And it would have been great to see less manpain and more of the boys learning to use ghost powers rather than just “HEEEEY, they can instantly do it because contrivance!”. But we can’t have everything.
Next time on Supernatural: Angels are dying and Cas has a REALLY big favour to ask of Dean in S04 E16 – On the Head of a Pin.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
