The brothers roll into town to investigate a particularly stomach-churning double-homicide, where a man and a woman literally ate each other to death. Castiel shows up to inform Sam and Dean that is appears a rogue cherub is behind the malfeasance. That is, Cupid is the one doing the killing. But when they confront the cherub, an overly-sensitive nude man who cries when people yell at him, they realize that there’s something else behind the murders.

And that something is Famine, another Horseman of the Apocalypse, who’s rolled into town to gather souls and bring them to Lucifer (or something). Regardless, he needs killing. Unfortunately, Castiel has fallen victim to his meat-suit’s craving for, well, meat, and Sam is hit with some serious demon blood urges. Dean, curiously, is unaffected.

Famine explains why, during the face-off: Dean’s empty inside. While Dean-o processes his voidiness, Sam turns up, hopped up on the juice and smites Famine. The curse is lifted, Sam is dropped in a panic room to detox and Dean wanders outside and, in a rare moment of vulnerability, looks to Heaven and cries for help.

Good episode, earning bonus points for being maybe the goriest broadcast show I’ve seen in some time. The impromptu cannibalism in the beginning was genuinely disgusting. The humor was appreciated as well (“Unattached Drifter Christmas”), which is characteristic of a Ben Edlund script. The big surprise was Dean’s apparent lack of a soul (this point was vague, but the dude is obviously hollow) and his desperate plea at the end.

A huge hiatus awaits, but I foresee a Dean/God powwow sometime in the near future.

While in the middle of an apparently typical stripper dream, Dean has a vision of Anna, the fallen-angel-turned-resurrected-angel, who begs him for a meet-up; apparently she’s just escaped from Angel Jail and needs the Winchester boys to help out.

Castiel warns them that something seems a bit off and SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT his instincts are proven correct. Anna didn’t escape from Heaven; she was dispatched to kill Sam and prevent Lucifer from inhabiting his one true vessel and this unleashing all kinds of Hell on the planet. Castiel threatens her, so she travels back in time to kill the Sam’s parents.

Castiel and the brothers follow suit and manage to intercept the younger versions of their folks before Anna can drop the hammer–and blow their minds with the truth of their time-traveling shenanigans.

Eventually Anna tracks the family down and hires a younger Uriel to help out with the killing and their plan actually goes swimmingly: they kill Sam and are about to wipe out the rest of the Winchesters when a bright light appears before Young John Winchester and…BLAMMO! Michael the Archangel is in the house.

Wearing John as a vessel, Michael proceeds to nuke Anna from the inside out (in a pretty cool series of visual effects actually) and banish Uriel into the ether. Then Michael and Dean have a heart-to-heart, as Michael explains that a) he loves Lucifer like a brother but has to kill him because he’s a Good Son, b) Sam and Dean are descended from Cain and Abel (aren’t we all?), c) if Dean says yes, Michael won’t leave him drooling and inert, and, d) Free Will is a crock and he’s going to say yes because that’s the way it has to be.

Following those megatons, Michael resurrects Sam, scrubs the memories of John and Mary and teleports our heroes back to 2010.
Will Dean say yes? Is Free Will a myth? That Michael isn’t as big as a dong as we were expecting, huh?

We shall see how this all rolls out, but for now I am pleased as punch that we got back into the teeth of this arc. This was a great episode, and setting aside the problematic time travel gimmick (which leads inexorably to asking all kinds of questions about “”Shouldn’t they teleport to the Garden of Eden or something and step on Satan’s serpent head before all this craziness gets going?!”), lots of high-quality stuff transpired.

We finally got a look at Michael, and you have to admit the guy makes a persuasive case, even to the point where Dean’s holding out seems a bit wrong-headed. Good to see Castiel, though he was underused, and Anna’s fate was surprising and delectable. The best bits were Sam’s scenes with Mary and John, genuinely emotional and heart-ache-a-riffic.

Best of all, the episode kept the ambitious plot moving forward. Keep it coming gentlemen!

While helping out their former babysitter with a poltergeist, the brothers catch the attention of a cabal of teenaged Satan worshippers, who realize that Hell has a bounty on the Winchesters. So they set out to collect what they hope to be a lucrative reward by worknig a body swapping spell, that puts Sam in the meat suit of a 17 year-old boy. Sam’s body is then occupied by a kid who’s way too excited about drinking banana daiquiris and seeing adult women naked.

After some goofy Freaky Friday-like hijinks, the brothers realize the malevolence behind the plot. Unforutnately, one of the idiot teens summons a demon, who is ecstatic at the idea of delivering Dean and the Sam body to Lucifer. A surprisingly easy exorcism later (you kinda have to wonder why the brothers don’t have that Latin ready to roll out on a tape recorder at the first sight of demons) and everyone’s learned a Very Important Lesson. Sam: his life is actually more enjoyable than “normal” suburban living; Dean: his brother is a downer; the Satan-worshipping teen kids: demons from the pit of Hell aren’t the most trustworthy types.

This was another one-off episode but it floated my boat because a) there were suitable call-backs to the season’s storyline (there is an apocalypse still going on, right?) and b) it was clever and fun. The body swap stuff was entertaining, though it would have been funny to see more of Sam’s experience in the body of a 17 year-old, you know, squaring off with algebra and bullies and stuff. Also, this show was clearly made as an energy-saver for the actors, prepping them I’m sure for some long work days as we enter the home stretch.

Next week Castiel finally returns, which is cool.

Um, a monster-of-the-week episode.

It’s not that I’m against these one-and-done baddie shows; after all, that’s how the series made its bones back in the day. Just after the interminable wait for a new episode and the huge events that transpired when we last saw the Winchesters in action, it’s a bit of a letdown to get into a story that has very little to do with the compelling Acopalypse arc.

Sam and Dean admit themselves into a psychiatric ward, suspecting that a demon or ghost or whatever is feeding on the patients. They are, of course, right, and call upon the aid of a mentally unbalanced former Hunter to help track down the supernatural rapscallion. Turns out, the monster this time is a Wraith, which can take the form of a human and drive its victims batty.

The brothers eventually succumb to the Wraith’s poison and they both lose their grips with reality: Dean is off-the-charts paranoid and Sam can’t control his rage. Before they totally slip off the deep end, they’re able to corner the Wraith and kill it nice and dead. As they make their escape from the ward, Sam pauses and confesses to his brother that he is in fact chock full o’ rage and he’s worried about it. Dean suggests Sam bury those feelings and get on with his life. (Methinks that Sam’s anger problem will manifest once again in an inpportune moment.)

“Sam, Interrupted” was a decent filler episode, but I was hankering for more angel/demon tomfoolery and some grist for the season-long arc, which I really, really dig. The writers toss in a few one-off lines about it, but this is a straight monster-of-the-week show, and merely an okay one at that. As a villain the Wraith was sort of boring and seemed to serve only one purpose: getting Sam to say he’s mad at the world, which will no doubt figure heavily into future proceedings. All in all, a serviceable, if forgettable installment. And where’s Cas?

The Trickster returns and has an even more diabolically diabolical scheme cooked up for Sam and Dean. And as much as they might despise the predicament, I suspect the viewing audience likely enjoyed this gonzo episode as much as me; “Changing Channels” is probably the funniest installment of Supernatural ever aired.

The episode begins with the Winchesters trapped–in a sitcom. Complete with laugh track and awful jokes. And then it transitions into an awesome Full House-like intro.

We back up a couple of days and find Sam and Dean investigating a claim that a man was brutally murdered by the TV version of the Incredible Hulk. Following the clues, they end up trapped in “TV Land,” a concoction devised by the Trickster who’s trying to teach the boys to “play their roles,” namely that of Michael and Lucifer, the two dudes they’re supposedly destined to vessel.

After bouncing through a hospital melodrama, a police procedural, an insane Japanese game show and Knight Rider, the brothers finally trap the Trickster, who is revealed to be Gabriel the Archangel. Gabriel reveals he just wants all this infighting to end and for the boys to get their vesseling on.

The episode ends with Dean giving a stern talking-to to Gabriel about standing up for his beliefs, which seems to take and indicates that we might see more from him later.

Great, hilarious show, that actually grounds the parodies in the overall season arc. The Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are definitely having a great time goofing on TV stereotypes and seemed to especially delight in David Caruso mockery.

I enjoyed the Gabriel stuff, too, though his “I’m tired of all the bellyaching” argument was a bit fuzzy. The parallels between Michael/Lucifer and Dean/Sam were interesting, though hugely inconsistent with Biblical orthodoxy (Michael as Lucifer’s older brother; it’s pretty obvious that Satan was the second banana in Heaven).

No matter. This season isn’t a Sunday School lesson and I’m more than happy with that. What counts is the storytelling and so far Kripke and crew have put together some hugely entertaining stuff, none as hilarious as last night’s episode.

A 25 year-old dies of old age, and Dean and Sam are immediately on the case. Working off a tip from Bobby, the brothers discover that a so-called “man-witch” has rolled into town and is playing hapless losers in a high-stakes poker game. Said stakes? Years of life.

And when Bobby, suffering from serious wheelchair despair, decides to play a few hands and comes away down 25 years and in serious jeopardy of keeling over from old age, Dean enters the game. And he promptly loses, turning him into a crotchety 80-year-old.

With two bitchy old dudes on his tail, Sam has to find out a way to reverse the spells and win back the years for his brother. To do that will require him to give a round of Texas Hold’em a whirl–and Dean’s life hangs in the balance.

And what do you know, Sam surprises everyone and pulls it out, just as Dean is about to croak from a heart attack. The episode ends with Sam off to get a booster shot for a certain STD that the he-witch gifted him and Dean and Bobby having a sentimental discussion about how important Bobby is to the cause.

This was a solid episode, less for the Old Dean scenario–which certainly had its comedic moments–but more for the interesting antagonists Sam and Dean squared off with this week. I was surprised by the amount of screen time granted toward the card shark warlock and his assistant, but it was compelling stuff, their motives and back story well-written and well-acted.

Next week, where the Trickster has trapped the Winchesters in TV land looks to be quite memorable.

The first episode, post-brotherly-rift, and it’s a doozy of revelations and CGI lightning. Following their split, the brothers have embarked on separate life paths: Dean continues to do the hunting-things-and-stabbing-them-in-the-face bit and Sam has taken on an alias and started working as a busboy in a jerkwater town.

Meanwhile, Castiel is still determined to track down the Big Man Himself, God, and enlists Dean to help. His plan: to trap the archangel that snuffed him last season and squeeze him for info. Dean is reluctant at first, but can’t say no to Castiel’s puppy dog eyes, so they go off on a crrrrrrrazy misadventure that includes strippers and ancient plot device oil from Jerusalem.

They end up trapping the angel, who tells the duo that God is dead and Heaven is bored and a Paradise o’ suffering is primed and ready to be unrolled. Castiel doesn’t take the news well, though Dean, of all people, bucks up his spirits by telling him to look into his heart and if he thinks God is out there, then go get Him.

Sam, on the other hand, is doing all he can to ignore what lies within. As he’s busy suppressing his identity, a group of hunters show up to clean out some demons. They return post-slaughter, pissed and down one, and confront Sam about his demon-blood addiction, forcing him to drink some of the red stuff in hopes he goes berserk and kills bad guys.

Following the mandatory barroom brawl, Sam starts hallucinating, seeing his dead girlfriend, until Lucifer reveals himself as the source of the visions. Then he drops the megaton: Sam is Lucifer’s true vessel, and whether he likes it or not, Satan’s coming home.

Another great installment. Yes, there are plot devices galore, but the season arc is starting to shake out into something truly memorable. The Sam and Dean split might irritate some fans, but the structure is paying dividends: a) the actors are able to pace themselves and b) Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins are awesome together.

Can not wait for more, especially more Lucifer, whose interaction with Sam at the end of the show was dynamite TV.