Previously: Dean died. Like, a lot. And Sam kind of turned into a sociopath as a result. But it’s okay – the Trickster fixed everything. Ish.
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Jus In Bello
Kirsti: First things first: this episode is a bitch and a half to find gifs for on account of the Jus in Bello convention. So I’m sorry about any giant slabs of text…
Monument, Colorado. The boys break into an incredibly white hotel room and search it. Apparently it’s Bela’s room and they’re looking for the Colt. Suddenly the phone rings. After staring at it awkwardly for a minute, Dean answers. It’s Bela, who informs him that she’s two states away already. He demands the Colt back, and she’s all “LOL NOPE”. He murder-nounces that he’s going to find her because he has nothing better to do with his life, and she informs him that he’s about to get suuuuuuper busy on account of she gave the cops a tip off. The door bursts open, the cops appear, and the boys are arrested. As they lie face down on the floor, a pair of shiny shoes walk towards them. They look up to see Agent Henriksen. “Hi guys… It’s been a while,” he says. The boys exchange “OH SHIT, WE’RE DEAD” looks.
Marines: I’ve seen very little of Bela, and know that’s she often on the EW STOP end of Dean’s misogyny, but I’m kind of with him at this moment with the whole, “YOU ARE SO DEAD,” feeling. This was beyond RUDE.
K: In the past, I would have felt the same. But I’ve developed an irrational soft spot for Bela’s story on this rewatch.
SATAN’S SCREENSAVER!
After the Not Credits, we’re at the Monument Police Station. Or Sheriff’s Department? I never know the difference. In Australia, sheriffs are the ones who clamp your car if you have unpaid parking fines. The police do everything else.
Mari: I’m pretty sure that the main difference is jurisdiction. Police departments operate in specific cities or towns and sheriff’s departments operate in counties. A brief Google search leads me to believe that I’m at least not entirely wrong.
K: Huh. We have one police department per state (with multiple branches, obviously) and then the Australian Federal Police who do the every day stuff in Canberra, as well as acting like the FBI. From what I’ve heard, the AFP would fit in nicely with the Traumaland LOLPD.
ANYWAY. There’s some back and forth between the sheriff and Henriksen to emphasise to us that this is a small town with limited resources and staff. Henriksen releases a guy who’s in for drunk and disorderly so that the cells are free, and Small Town Sheriff gets pissy. Henriksen says STS has no idea what the boys are like: “The most dangerous criminals you’ve ever laid your eyeballs on. Think Hannibal Lecter and his half-wit little brother.” Um. Really? REALLY?? Can we talk about Jack the Ripper or Ted Bundy or any number of other serial killers, rapists and sociopaths? But you’re worried about the dudes who occasionally dig up skeletons and set them on fire. Sure, FBI. Sure.
Nancy, the pretty young secretary, clutches at her crucifix when she hears this assessment of the Winchesters. I roll my eyes so hard they fall out of my head. (M: Aw, she’s cute though.) Henriksen assures STS that this is just a temporary measure until he can get them to maximum security, and tells him to station his limited number of deputies at the doors while they bring the boys in. Sam and Dean are brought in, shackled together. Dean grins at everyone. Nancy clutches her rosary. It’s unclear whether it’s because he’s scary or pretty. (M: Maybe both!)
Another FBI agent grabs at Dean’s arm to lead him to the cells, and he yanks away. Nancy looks terrified. Dean reads her name from her desk plate and says “We’re not the ones you should be scared of, Nancy.” She clutches her rosary even harder. Calm down, girl. (M: The episode is young. You’ll catch a cramp.) The boys are locked into a cell, and try to brood in opposite corners but nearly fall over because they’re still shackled together. They awkward, then sit down to come up with an escape plan.
Meanwhile, Henriksen phones his boss, who has wanted posters of the boys on his office wall. Again, I’m not convinced grave desecration puts you on the FBI’s most wanted list, but whatever. Boss Guy’s impressed. Henriksen asks for an armoured bus loaded with agents to escort the boys to maximum security. Boss Guy’s all “Hahahahaha, NO” which is pretty legit. But then he says he’s sending a helicopter instead, which seems even more expensive. He orders Henriksen to keep his eyes on the boys until the helicopter arrives, and hangs up. Henriksen tells STS to prepare for a helicopter, and he’s all “….we don’t have a helipad”. Clearing the car park will have to do.
Henriksen heads into the cells to gloat. Apparently seeing the Winchesters in chains makes him happy, and Dean snaps “You kinky son of a bitch. We don’t swing that way.” Yeah, but if Sam wasn’t there…. #BisexualDeanWinchester
Mari: I’m so sorry your partner in ship is out of town. COME BACK, ANNA.
K: SERIOUSLY. WE MISS YOU.
Aaaaaaaanywho. Dean sasses about how they’ll escape again, but Henriksen smugly informs them of his plans: to keep them in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison in Nevada until the trial. He smirks that Sam and Dean will never see each other again. They exchange a glance.
Mari: Probably shouldn’t have threatened their codependency, Henriksen. Now they’ll really find a way out of this.
K: Accurate.
Dean insists that Henriksen’s got the wrong guys, and Henriksen’s all “Ohhhh, right. You guys hunt monsters” before saying that it’s all just Papa Winchester’s brainwashing and that he probably molested them as well. Right, because jokes about child abuse are fucking hilarious. Excuse me while I drag my ottoman closer to the booze. Dean snaps at him, and Henriksen says “Life sucks. Get a helmet. ‘Cause everybody’s got a sob story. But not everybody becomes a killer.” True. But also you’re kind of a dick. (M: Yep.) We hear a helicopter approaching, and Henriksen smirks at the boys on his way out.
In the main office, Henriksen greets Boss Guy. Boss Guy hands him a massive stack of paperwork to do before the boys can be transferred. He pissily starts to fill them in as Boss Guy goes to gloat at the boys. Blah blah, gloat gloat, he pulls out his gun and shoot Dean in the shoulder. Because surprise! He’s a demon. Sam grapples for the gun through the bars of the cell while Dean grunts in pain. When Boss Guy’s eyes turn black, Sam starts an exorcism. Part way through the demon screams its way out because he has an elsewhere to be.
Mari: I imagine if you are a demon, during an exorcism is the optimal time to have any elsewhere to be. Any one.
K: “Oh, would you look at the time, it’s rubbish night and I have to pick Little Sally up from soccer practice BYE”.
Out in the main office, Henriksen, STS and some other cops hear the scream. They rush in and find Boss Guy dead on the floor and Sam holding a gun. They do the shouty cop thing, and Sam insists that they didn’t do anything. He hands the gun over and tells them to check the body. They do, and there’s no bullet wound. Dean says that Boss Guy’s probably been dead for months with a demon hanging out in his corpse. Gross. Henriksen refuses to believe them and tells one of the cops to get the helicopter started.
Mari: I thought surely someone would’ve suggested checking out the security footage. Does black demon smoke appear on tape, because I’m thinking yes.
K: Huh. Good point.
The cop pulls out his walkie talkie to give the order, but there’s no answer. He heads outside to check and finds all the cops and agents dead. Suddenly, there’s a flash of light and the helicopter explodes. The cop staggers towards it, and one of the dead cops jumps up, his eyes black, and crushes the cop’s throat. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, everyone’s panicking inside the station. All links to the outside world – phone, cell phones, internet – are dead. And then the lights go out. “Oh, that can’t be good…” Dean mutters. STS panics some more and Nancy hyperventilates. Henriksen says that it’s a siege and they should lock all the doors and windows. STS goes off to give his men orders, and Henriksen assures Nancy that he’ll get her through this. She nods tearfully.
In the cell, Sam examines Dean’s shoulder wound. Henriksen walks in and demands to know how their big escape plan is supposed to work. The boys insist that it’s nothing to do with them and that everyone’s about to die so he should probably let them out so they can help. Henriksen’s all “If you say it’s fucking demons, I will fucking shoot your faces off” and leaves. Sam goes back to checking Dean’s shoulder, then realises that Nancy’s peeping around the corner at them. He asks if she could possibly get them a towel for Dean’s bullet wound and she looks terrified and disappears.
The boys sigh but a second later, she reappears with a towel. Apparently she’s distracted by the pretty because when Sam – the dude in a cell in handcuffs and shackles who the FBI are about to send to maximum security prison – asks her to hand it to him, she does. Sam grabs her and slams her up against the bars. Nancy screams and one of the small town cops, Phil, rushes in with his gun drawn. Sam releases Nancy, and the cop escorts her out. Dean’s all “The fuck was that?” and Sam reveals that he’s stolen Nancy’s rosary. Dude. Use your words.
Mari: She got you a damn towel and she’s got a back-up cross necklace. You never know unless you ask.
K: Seriously. Just be like “Hey, I’d like to pray. Can I borrow your rosary?” Not that hard.
Sometime later, Dean’s pressing the towel into his wound and yelling about how he’d like a snack. Sam freaks that anyone could be a demon, and Dean says it’s kind of exciting. He wonders why they’ve suddenly got a contract out on them, then says “Think it’s because we’re so awesome? I think it’s ‘cause we’re so awesome.”
More likely it’s because you keep killing demons, but sure! STS walks in, and unlocks the cell door. He tells them that it’s time to leave, and they’re all “Uh, no thank you”.
Henriksen walks in and demands to know what STS is doing. STS says he wants to make a run for it and that there’s a facility in Boulder that can hold the boys. Henriksen pulls his gun and shoots STS in the head. The boys grab Henriksen and shove his head in the toilet as Sam starts an exorcism. An underwater shot shows us that they’ve turned the toilet water into holy water. Okay, shoving someone’s head underwater in a toilet is literally only something that would work in America. Because y’all’s toilets are weird. Anywhere else in the world, the water doesn’t fill the whole damned bowl. It fills an area like 4 inches across. Good luck shoving someone’s head in that. </random segue about toilets>
Mari: Well, I hope you never have to emergency turn-some-toilet-water-into-holy-water then. PLUS ONE FOR AMERICA. (Maybe.)
K: Considering there never seem to be any hunters from other countries, I’mma go ahead and assume that only America has demon problems. We just have to worry about the spiders and the snakes and the cassowaries…
Henriksen manages to get his head out of the water to scream a few times and show us that his face is all blistered from the holy water. Sam shoves him back under. Nancy and Phil come running in. Henriksen lifts his head again, his eyes black, and says that it’s too late because he’s already called “them“. Sam finishes the exorcism, and Henriksen screams, collapsing on the floor when the demon leaves his body. Nancy asks if he’s dead, but Henriksen coughs. Sam asks if he’s okay, and he sits heavily on the bed as he realises that he killed the sheriff. “But you didn’t shoot the deputy,” Dean smirks. Sam gives him bitchface.
As Nancy bandages his bullet wound, Dean asks how she’s doing. She says that as a kid, she’d come home from church talking about the devil, and her parents told her not to be so literal. She figures she’s just proved that she was right. Dean looks thoughtful as she places the last piece of tape on his bandage. Phil comes back with a bag of salt, and Dean asks where the Bromobile is. Phil says it’s in impound, and Dean heads out there because he needs something from the boot.
We follow Dean out to the Bromobile, where he starts loading stuff into a bag. For someone with a bullet wound in his shoulder, he’s sure doing a lot of work with that arm. Across the road, the lights start to flicker at a petrol station. The special effects are totally awful. A giant cloud of demon smoke races towards Dean, and he hurriedly grabs a handful of amulets and runs back into the police station. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, Sam’s spray painting another devil’s trap on the floor while cops line the windows with salt. Dean enter-nounces that the demons are coming, and everyone springs into action. Demon smoke smashes into the windows, and Nancy screams. We get a shot of the outside of the building to show us that it’s totally surrounded by demon smoke. Nancy clutches her crucifix as dust rains down from the ceiling. Then the smoke vanishes and everything settles down again.
Sam asks if everyone’s okay, and Dean hands out protective amulets to prevent everyone from getting possessed. (M: Probably could’ve done that while the demon smoke was attacking…) Nancy asks about the boys, and in tandem, they pull down the necks of their shirts to reveal anti-possession tattoos. Obviously, these have spread like wildfire through the more rampant parts of the Supernatural fandom.
Mari: Of course.
Still better than this, though:
K: Anything is better than that. Except maybe a 50 Shades of Grey tattoo… (OH MY GOD, MARI, DIDN’T WE SEE ONE OF THOSE AT DISNEY?!?! I swear there was a woman in front of us in a line up with the tie and the handcuffs tattooed on her shoulder…) (M: Reading this made a flicker of a memory appear, but I did a real goo djob burying that image in my head. I don’t want to try and remember it too hard.)
Cut to sometime later. Henriksen looks at the sheriff’s nameplate guiltily. Nancy spots a crowd of people outside, and realises that it’s a bunch of townspeople. Or, more accurately, POSSESSED townspeople. In the back room, Phil stands on a chair to peer out the window and breaks the salt line without realising. Back in the main office, Henriksen is incredulous about “Fighting off monsters with condiments“, but he’s accepted that demons are real. Dean rattles off a bunch of other real things, then attempts to reassure him by pointing out that Bigfoot is a hoax. Henriksen gives zero fucks about Bigfoot and wants to know how many demons exist. “A lot,” Dean replies. Super helpful, bro.
Henriksen then has a rant about how this whole thing has caused him to realise that his entire life has been a waste. He’s devoted years to hunting down bad guys, and catching them has saved a handful of lives, tops. Meanwhile, there was this giant other world of stuff endangering people, and he had no idea. He wants to know if the boys can beat whatever’s after them, and Dean replies that he’s not sure but he’s going to go down fighting.
There’s a crash from the other room, and they rush in there with their guns drawn to find Ruby stuck in a devil’s trap. Nancy, Henriksen and Phil freak out, but Dean sighs as Sam says that she’s there to help. He scratches off some of the paint, breaking the trap, and Ruby sasses her way into the police station: “And they say chivalry’s dead. Does anyone have a breath mint? Some guts splattered in my mouth while I was killing my way in here.” Sam fixes the salt line while everyone else follows Ruby into the main office.
Dean asks how many demons are out there, and Ruby informs everyone that there’s at least 30. Dean wants to know who sent them, and Ruby turns to look at Sam, surprised that he didn’t share the information with his brother. Dean looks confused. So do I, because I’d totally forgotten that Ruby told Sam anything. (M: ME TOO. I thought she was BSing.) Anyway, there’s a new big dog in town, and her name is Lilith. And she sees Sam as direct competition. Dean bitchfaces, Sam looks shifty, and Ruby asks where the Colt is because they’re going to need it. Sam looks like a kicked puppy and reluctantly admits it got stolen. Ruby’s reaction is basically this:
Sam tries to apologise, and she tells him to STFU. She has a back up plan. It’s a spell that will kill every demon in a one mile radius, her included. But it’ll keep them safe. Dean asks what they need to do, and Ruby sasses some more. The spell, apparently, requires a person of virtue. Dean offers up himself, and Ruby basically falls off her chair laughing. She clarifies that the “virtue” part means being a virgin. Dean insists that no one is a virgin, and Ruby looks straight at Nancy, who stares at the ground.
Mari: This is stupid, but at least we get to use our “virgins are magic” tag.
K: TRUE.
Dean doesn’t quite know how to process this information. Nancy says it’s a choice, and Dean ends up torn between shock and respect. Or something. Nancy turns to Ruby and asks what she has to do. “You can hold still…while I cut your heart out of your chest.” Everyone’s all “Skkkkrt, WHAT”. They argue back and forth until Nancy interrupts to ask what will happen to the possessed people outside. Ruby says it’ll blast the demons out of them, and they’ll be fine. There’s a long pause before Nancy nods and says she’ll be the human sacrifice.
Henriksen and Dean both immediately say no, and tell Nancy she doesn’t need to do this. She says that all her friends are possessed, so she has to. Henriksen snaps that sacrificing people makes them no better than the demons. Ruby says they don’t have a choice, and turns to Sam for back up. Dean smirks, sure that Sam will side with him. Sam doesn’t say anything. Nancy says again that it’s her decision, and Dean snaps “Stop! Stop! Nobody kill any virgins.” He pulls Sam aside to talk to him.
In the hall, Dean says that there’s no way they can give up their humanity and sacrifice a virgin. Sam argues that the people outside are human too, and there are way more of them than there are of Nancy. Dean replies “if that’s how you win wars, then I don’t want to win“.
Mari: I’m sure this is a little bit of how he won so much after the millions of Tuesdays, when the world went on for a little while without Dean…
K: Valid point.
He turns away, then tells Sam that he has a plan. It’s pretty terrible, but it’s a plan: open the doors, let the demons in, and fight. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, Ruby declares that this is the worst plan ever and she’s leaving. Sam’s all “Wait, what?”, and Ruby replies that she was willing to kill herself for them, but she’s not willing to hang around and watch them lose. At the front door, someone scratches the devil’s trap and breaks the salt line. Ruby leaves, untouched by the demons.
Back inside, everyone takes their places. They break the traps and salt lines, and throw the doors open. Demons rush in, and the boys and Henriksen start fighting. Henriksen pulls a flask from his pocket and mutters that he hopes it works before throwing holy water at the demon he’s fighting. Obviously, it does. Henriksen and Dean end up fighting back to back, each shooting a demon with rock salt. Sam’s fighting in the main office. The whole building is full of demons.
Cut outside to Nancy and Phil laying salt lines along the outside of the doors and windows.
Inside, the demons scream as the exorcism continues. Black smoke starts to pour from the possessed people and swirl around near the ceiling. As the exorcism finishes, there’s a big flash of light and the smoke vanishes. The boys pull themselves up, groaning, as the formerly possessed people start to come to and the lights come back on.
Sometime later, Henriksen says he should call this in. Dean asks what he’s going to say about them, and Henriksen replies that Sam and Dean Winchester officially died in the helicopter explosion, so they’re free to go do their thing. They exchange smiles and handshakes, and the boys leave as Henriksen picks up the phone.
Later again, a woman and a little girl walk into the slightly wrecked police station. The little girl says she’s looking for two brothers: “One’s really tall and one’s really cute.” Poor Sam. Forever doomed to be Dean Winchester’s taller, less attractive sibling… (M: Depends who you ask?) Anyway, Nancy chuckles and asks what the girl’s name is. “Lilith,” she replies, and her eyes turn white. Nancy and Phil realise that she’s a demon, and Henriksen goes for his gun, but it’s too late. Lilith raises a hand and the station is filled with white light. Nancy, Phil, and Henriksen scream. Fade to black.
After the Not Commercial Break, the boys are at the Motel of the Week (nice of you to turn up, old friend). Ruby bursts in and tells them to turn on the news. They watch in horror as a news anchor reports that the police station exploded, killing everyone inside. Ruby gives the boys a smug “I told you so” look, and says it was probably Lilith. She throws them a couple of hex bags, and says they’ll protect the boys from Lilith for a while. Sam thanks her, and she says their plan was the one with the body count, and that they have no idea how to run a battle, so next time they’ll be going with her plan, thank you very much. She leaves, the boys exchange a look, and we fade to black.
Okay, so this whole episode felt a little like a 42 minute way of introducing Lilith. Sure, it also wraps up the Henriksen storyline, but I would have LOVED to see Henriksen stick around as a recurring character who calls the boys in when X-Files-y shit starts happening or having him lead an FBI-agent-by-day-hunter-by-night existence. Instead? BOOM, DEAD. Another potentially awesome character sacrificed on the altar of average plot lines. Sigh.
So yeah. This episode leaves me cold. I know the fandom loves it, but…nope.
Mari: Yep, I liked it. I mean, sure it would’ve been cool for Henriksen to stick around, but he doesn’t. People dying around the Winchesters as they try to do the good and right thing is kind of a thing, as far as I can tell, so I’m not going to judge this episode for a thing it probably-maybe could’ve done. Besides, it makes the ending all the more gut-wrenching. They did a pretty good job of making me switch my opinion on Henriksen just in time for the final blow.
This wasn’t perfect. While I liked the actress who played her, the whole entire character of Nancy was a walking trope. I do like that she was ultimately willing to sacrifice herself for others and that despite some screams here and there, she ended up being braver than I would be in that whole situation. The Latina virgin woman clutching her rosary was a bit much, though.
I really liked that this episode took the time to introduce Lilith because we’ve only heard murmurings about her to this point. I mean, we even forgot that Ruby told Sam about this! So much of this season (that I’ve watched) has been about Dean dying that it was really effectively jarring to switch gears and be reminded that hello! There are untold number of demons out there and an upcoming war and a demon that really, really has it out for Sam. It shifts the perspective away from the more close-to-home problems the brothers are having. And like I’ve mentioned 32 times, I was having trouble connecting with Dean’s Death Drama anyway.
This, though? OOF. The entire commentary on humanity and what Dean and Sam have to continue to sacrifice finally made me care. It’s an impossible situation and I was so proud when they managed to defeat the demons in a pretty smart way (trap them inside! The PA system! Yes!) only to have that all undone with a motion of Lilith’s hand.
This is probably this best episode I’ve seen yet and the only one to give me more feelings than, “well that was a thing that happened.”
K: I feel like this is an episode that works better on first viewing when you don’t know that it’s going to be a 42 minute introduction to Lilith?? Or something?? IDK IDK. MIXED FEELINGS.
Next time on Supernatural: Some old friends turn up to make a reality show in S03 E13 – Ghostfacers.
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.
