TV Verdict

It’s here–the much-anticipated very special Paris Hilton episode and by “anticipated” I mean “feared.” Does her presence make a once-bad-ass TV show permanently lame? Read on and beware of spoilers.

Determined to resuscitate their flagging relationship, Dean and Sam take on one of their vintage jobs–a straight-up ghost hunt. In the town of Canton, people have been meeting gruesome ends and everyone is at a loss as to who’s doing the killing. It may or may not be James Dean or Gandhi or Abraham Lincoln.

Their investigation reveals that the perpetrator behind the slayings is a pagan forest god that ate his followers, and this jerk has come to Canton to take advantage of the Apocalyptic shenanigans and begin indulging in a human buffet.

After taking on the form of a psycho Gandhi, the god turns into a Paris Hilton, kidnaps an airhead girl, lures Sam and Dean into his (her) lair, talks crap about how people have given up religion for celebrity-worship. She certainly has a point, but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have her stupid head cut off.

So Paris Hilton wasn’t too bad here, and in fact, seemed to be a pretty good sport poking fun at herself and the vapid celebrity culture in general. You also get her CGI-enhanced decapitated head.

The rest of the episode was very much an old-school monster-of-the-week bonanza and it was a pretty fun one. The murderous Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi cameos were very entertaining and the Sam/Dean banter was a welcome respite from the angst-ridden dialogue of prior episodes.

The highlight of the show: the coming attractions. It’s a bummer we’ll have to wait until new shows, but wow do they look hugely entertaining.