TV Verdict

Hey look it’s another Creepy-Looking Girl with Messy Hair and Pointy Teeth! But, wait, this isn’t your normal CLGWMHPT.

That’s right, back from their hiatus and the tearful exchange about what life is like in the Pit, the Winchester boys are on the hunt. This time, they may not be dealing with a monster that plays by the rules.

Spoilers ahead!

During the last conversation between Sam and Dean before the show went dark way back when, the elder brother confessed that he had been a naughty soul in Hell, torturing other souls on the rack with whichever demonic kitchen implement is used for that sort of thing.

Apparently, Dean is on a mission to redeem the awfulness he was responsible for and that means a record number of ghost hunts, the latest of which finds the brothers protecting a family from a diabolical little wench determined to get her stab on.

Except the ghost isn’t really a ghost but a psychotic incest baby that grew up in the basement eating rats and probably urinating wherever she pleased.

Of course, Dean ends up seeing her as a metaphor for the monster he became down under and as is the game plan for the show, the bros have a heart to heart at the very end, with Dean revealing a bit more about what he’s sulking about. This time we discover he got a kick out of torturing the @#$% out of souls and he’s been wracked (ka-ching!) with guilt.

Good episode, nice and tense and claustrophobic and surprisingly brutal. Uncle Ted’s knife wound could just as easily belong in a straight-to-DVD R-rated horror movie. Plus I liked how the family went along with the brothers and didn’t get in the way. A great Nell joke, too.

I do, however, look forward to getting back to the angels and demons antagonism that has been the season’s bread and butter.