"There's so much evil out in the world, I feel like I could drown in it."

Okay, so this one takes the pace right off, after last week's thrill-a-minute action movie, taking on a much more sombre, downbeat and contemplative atmosphere.

Providence, Rhode Island. Hey, where'd the recap go? Anyway. A hooker we will later learn is called Gloria sits at home chain-smoking and watching trash TV, bored rigid. Flipping channels, she settles for a few seconds on a Christian station where a preacher is mid-sermon, but then turns the TV off in despair of finding anything worth watching. I sympathise entirely. At that moment, the whole flickering lights and static routine associated with spirits starts up and the TV turns itself back on so that the preacher may continue his sermon. Unsurprisingly, Gloria starts to freak out. Just as the scarily fervent TV preacher starts to really turn on the manic, imploring with his viewing audience to believe that they are all chosen for a higher purpose if they only listen out for God's voice, listen to those angels singing…the room starts to shake, rattle and roll. Kinda like an earthquake, in fact. Gloria freaks out some more. "It's time to receive the message He's sending," declares TV preacher. "It's time to listen to the Word of God!"

Timing is everything. For just then, as Gloria starts to panic in earnest, a bright light explodes into being in her apartment, and her fear just melts away.

Titles.

Gloria sits on the bed of her drab little room in the secure psychiatric unit she's been locked up in, reading a Bible and looking considerably more civilised than when we last saw her. Hearing someone enter the room, she glances up and smiles, all calm and polite. "Good morning, you're not the usual guy," she greets her visitor.

No indeed, for when the camera pans around to show us the newcomer, we see that it is none other than Sam, all costumed up in bright white scrubs that might almost have been designed to emphasise those broad shoulders of his. He's alone, we note.

Rather more awkwardly than usual, Sam lies his way through an excuse about filling in before moving on rather more smoothly to the interviewing-for-supernatural-oddness part of the conversation. Gloria is completely unruffled, completely at peace, completely calm, insists that what she saw was real.

"I'd like to know what you saw," Sam prompts, at his absolute sincerest, working the full puppy-eyes mojo.

"It was all over the news." Gloria smiles, serene. "I stabbed a man in the heart." And she seems perfectly content with that fact. "Because it was God's will," she tells Sam when he asks why she would do that. An angel visited her, she explains, practically glowing with belief, as Sam continues to carefully question her. This angel spoke God's word, she believes.

"And the word was…to kill someone?" Sam disbelieves.

Gloria insists that what she did was very important, helping God to 'smite an evil man'. "I was chosen for redemption," she rejoices. Sam looks like he's having a hard time deciding what to think about all this.

She hadn't been given the man's name, Gloria continues, but was told to wait for a sign. The next day she saw that sign beside the man's doorway, knew he was the one – and killed him. "This man was guilty to his deepest foundations," she insists. Sam still looks lost for what to think.

Motel of the week. Dean is having a fabulous time lounging on a vibrating bed listening to Led Zeppelin on his cell phone. 'Magic fingers'. Heh. Or, you know, he's making the best he can of being stuck indoors having to lay low because of that pesky arrest warrant he's got following him everywhere he goes and the federal agent on his tail. Distraction pushes the breaking point a little further away, and it's probably safe to say that he's already exhausted every single one of his usual downtime activities, such as knife sharpening and gun cleaning, while Sam's out working the job alone.

Dean looks very pale in this episode, I notice. More so than usual, and he's always paler than Sam, having a fairer skin tone.

Sam arrives and has to smack Dean's foot to get his attention. "Dean, you're enjoying that way too much, it's kind of making me uncomfortable." Hee.

"What am I supposed to do?" Dean protests, sounding more like a sulky teenager than we've ever heard him. "I mean, you've got me on lockdown here, I'm bored out of my skull."

"Hey, you were the bank robber on the eleven o'clock news, not me," Sam points out, in homage to continuity. Because they might have plunged straight into another case for this episode, but the events and ending of the last episode can't be left hanging – the legal situation is serious, likely to deteriorate, and the practical realities of it have to be acknowledged. "We can't risk you just walking into a government facility."

Of course, if the original plan had been stuck to Sam would have been the one escorting the ailing security guard outside, not Dean – sheer random chance seems to do for Dean every time.

But as it is, it's okay for Sam to wander around freely in public, apparently. The Feds are looking for him, too, although mostly in connection to Dean's supposed crimes rather than any of his own, and they'd have mugshots of Sam, surely, after his arrest in Baltimore, even though his face wasn't splashed all over the news as Dean's was when he escorted that hostage out of the bank in Nightshifter. But Sam doesn't seem to believe his face would be known in the public domain, whereas Dean's is likely to be after the bank siege was so widely reported in the media. And, realistically, a car as distinctive as the Impala would now also become an enormous liability, but this potential drawback is so far being glossed over in the interests of the show. Clearly it isn't that long after the siege – you might have expected them both to lie low a little longer after all that, and give it time to blow over. But I suppose, if a case comes up, they aren't going to ignore it. We aren't told whose idea this job was, or how they came upon it – by chance or by actively seeking out a new gig.

Anyway. Sam gives up on the conversation and heads into the bathroom. Dean stays right where he is until the magic bed loses its magic – or, rather, his last quarter runs out – and he follows Sam into the bathroom to ask if he's got any quarters, because winding Sam up is always good entertainment. So much for personal space, but then, they spend their lives in such closer proximity to one another that boundaries would start to blur. Instead of pointing out that they need their quarters for laundry, Sam simply snips an irritated no, and only then does Dean abruptly switch to business. "So, you get in to see the crazy hooker?"

"Gloria Sitnick," Sam primly corrects. "And I'm not so sure she's crazy."

Sam's started to decide which side to come down on, now he's had time to think and to decide that the notion of an actual angel is appealing. He quickly summarises Gloria's story for Dean, pointing out that she's living in a locked ward and yet is totally at peace. Dean, predictably, is deeply sceptical. The guy Gloria killed, one Carl Gully, remains a mystery, as she insists that he was evil but Sam has found no dirt on him as yet. Dean takes this as evidence against Gloria's angelic visitation; Sam points out that she is the second person in town to murder because an angel told them to. That does sound fishy, which is, of course, why the boys are here. "Little bit odd, don't you think?"

"Odd, yes, supernatural, maybe," Dean concedes. "But angels? I don't think so." Sam wants to know why, and Dean just looks at him like it should be glaringly obvious. "'Cause there's no such thing, Sam."

Sam can't quite believe this stance, although why is beyond me – doesn't he know his brother at all? In fact, this episode draws heavily on the notion of the brothers not really sharing their deeper spiritual beliefs, or lack thereof, with one another as a rule, and perhaps either not really listening or not fully comprehending the deeper implications on previous occasions when their differing beliefs have been raised.

Sam points out that there is ten times more lore about angels than anything else they've ever hunted, but Dean does not find this argument persuasive. "There's a ton of lore on unicorns, too. In fact, I hear that they ride on silver moonbeams and they shoot rainbows out of their ass."

"Wait, there's no such thing as unicorns?" Sam gasps, all wide-eyed innocence, and Dean is almost sucked in for just a second, but not quite. Hee. Sam isn't as good at that as Dean is. "That's cute," snorts Dean, before adding, "There's some legends that you just file under 'bullcrap'."

Sam still can't quite believe that Dean has got angels on the 'bullcrap' list. Was he not paying attention to anything Dean said in Faith? I like that the very different philosophies of the brothers sketched out in brief in that episode, entirely fitting with the character and life experiences of each, are returned to and fleshed out more fully here.

"Because I've never seen one," is the basis of Dean's argument. "I believe in what I can see." Sam points out that the two of them have seen things that most people couldn't even dream about, but Dean just takes that as weight for his own argument. "Exactly, with our own eyes – that's hard proof. But in all this time, I have never seen anything that looks like an angel." He insists that if angels really existed, they'd have seen one by now, or met someone who has, and that whatever is triggering these murders in town is a demon or spirit.

Having got his point across, and with the very different beliefs of the brothers on this subject having been made clear to the audience as set up for the rest of the episode, Dean changes the subject quick, 'fessing up to how stir crazy he is and suggesting they go check out Gloria's apartment for clues. Turns out Sam has already done that, and found nothing: no sulphur, no EMF. Which is odd, really, because no matter what it was that visited her, surely it should leave some kind of trace. And once we've found out what it is, it seems that it should definitely have left some kind of trace. Anyway, Sam tosses his brother a bone, though, suggesting that they check out Carl Gully's house and see if they can find that sign Gloria mentioned. With his cabin fever running high, Dean's all for it.

Carl Gully's house. The Impala pulls up outside, looking slightly cleaner than last time we saw it – one way for Dean to work off his boredom and frustrations, I suppose. Dean's attention goes straight to the tacky Christmas angel sitting by the front door, sardonically offering it as Gloria's sign from up above. "Well, I think I learned a valuable lesson: always take down your Christmas decorations after New Year's, or you might get filleted by a hooker from God." Heh.

So, it is early January now. We don't know how much time has passed since Nightshifter – long enough for a new job to be taken on rather than both of them lying low and long enough for Dean to be going stir crazy, but not so long that the bank robber on the news would be forgotten.

Dean thinks he's funny. Sam doesn't. "I'm laughing on the inside."

Wanting to do a thorough job, since they are there, the brothers head around to the back of the house, find the door to the cellar, and head on down, Dean going first because that's always the given. After all, Gloria did say the guy was 'guilty to his deepest foundations', so Sam wants to check out the actual foundations. That's kind of a leap to make, but we'll go with it. In the cellar, Sam finds a fingernail, of all things, which is pretty gross. Dean acknowledges it with a resigned sigh, and the brothers dig, and unearth a couple of skeletons. Yikes.

"So much for the innocent, church-going librarian," Sam notes, and Dean cedes him the point that whatever sent Gloria on the guy's trail knew what it was talking about. We aren't told what they do about their discovery – re-bury the skeletons, or anonymous tip off to the police, or what.

Elsewhere in town. Some random alcoholic lies on his bed drinking. The lights start flickering and the room starts shaking, and all that jazz. He starts to flip out, and not even because his alcohol stash is falling on the floor and smashing to bits. A bright white light explodes into being in front of him, and the panic just fades away.

Later, angelic-visitation-guy is wandering along a random road when he sees that same bright white light explode into being outside a random house, before fading away to become a birdbath with an angel statue on it. AVG goes to the front door and rings the bell, introduces himself as Zack, pulls out a knife and stabs the guy through the heart. Nasty.

Motel. Dean sits monitoring the police radio, bored, and thinking longingly of the vibrating bed, still minus any quarters. Alone, he kinda gives the impression of just barely hanging on. He and his brother have got a hell of a lot stacked up against them, and all they can do is keep plugging along trying to do the right thing the only way they know how. It isn't easy. And having to lie low from both cops and Feds while Sam does the lion's share of work on this case only makes it harder. Hence the need for distraction.

Sam returns, and Dean's all, "Did you bring quarters?" So…Dean can take a field trip to a murder victim's house, but not to the shops or bank or anything? Sam is exasperated. "Dude, I'm not enabling your sick habit. You're like one of those lab rats that presses the pleasure button instead of the food button until it dies." Hee.

"What are you talking about? I eat," grumbles Dean, totally not getting the point, adding that he's got news. So does Sam, as it turns out. Dean politely allows his brother to go first, and Sam explains that three students have gone missing from the local college in the past year, all three last seen at the library where Carl Gully worked.

Again, I wonder if they plan on tipping the local police off about those murders, or are content to know the truth themselves and leave the victims' families in limbo?

Anyway, Sam takes this as evidence that Gloria's 'angel' knew what it was talking about, clearly finding the idea of heavenly intervention to rid the world of evil greatly appealing. Dean protests the use of the word 'angel' until further evidence becomes available, and adds that whatever it is, it's struck again, giving Sam the gist of angelic-visitation-guy's story as heard via the police radio and finishing up by brandishing a post-it note bearing the victim's address.

Cut to: the victim's house. The streets are lined with snow, and it all looks very pretty and very cold. Around back, Sam and Dean scale the fence and make their way inside, Sam expertly using his knife to gain entry via a window. Those boys have many ways of picking locks. But…fingerprints! It's like they don't even care any more, not that they ever really did. Would it be so hard to invest in some gloves?

Dean searches the house, while Sam examines the computer, and they can find nothing to indicate why 'Frank' was targeted – until Sam hacks his way into a secret email file, and is all geekily proud of himself for so-doing, sneaking a quick glance at his brother to see if Dean has been impressed by his skill. Because little brother wants big brother to be proud, even if he'd never dream of saying so. Hee. Dean totally doesn't even notice, because he completely takes for granted that Sam can do stuff like that. It's a very cute, throwaway brother moment.

The emails reveal that Frank had used an Internet chatroom to groom a 13 year old girl, and was due to meet her for the first time that very day. Both brothers are appropriately sickened by the implication. "I guess if you're going to stab someone, good timing," Dean acknowledges, admitting that this is an odd MO for a spirit, since some are out for revenge, sure, but this one seems almost like a do-gooder, like –

"Like an avenging angel?" Sam suggests, positively spoiling for another heated debate on whether or not angels exist, as he fiercely reels off the evidence he feels supports that theory. Sam wants to believe, very much.

Heading Sam and this potential argument off at the pass rather than getting drawn in, Dean ignores all this completely and keeps his mind on the task at hand, continuing to poke around and finding a leaflet for a local church – the same church that the previous victim also attended: 'Our Lady of the Angels.' So there is a connection between the victims after all.

Our Lady of the Angels RC Church. Dean will never, ever sound convincing when he tries to talk to a priest or vicar about joining his church. He does try, though, in the name of the job. Father Reynolds totally calls the brothers on their story about moving to town from Texas (shout out to the actors' home state!) by knowing the parish priest in the town they claim to have come from. Sam's face is a picture, because honestly, what are the odds in a place as big as the US? But Dean keeps his cool and glosses over the dodgy details as he spins the story a little harder to get them off the hook.

"Like I always say, you can expect a miracle, but in the meantime you work your butt off," says Father Reynolds of the very low-class and seedy neighbourhood his church is sited in. He doesn't believe an angel told the recent murderers to go out and kill, which suits Dean's theory, but he does believe in angels, which is more in line with what Sam wants to hear.

Sam proves remarkably well informed about Catholic iconography, recognising a stained glass window of the archangel Michael and asking the priest about it, mainly so he can get a point across to his brother. "The archangel Michael, with the flaming sword – the fighter of demons, a holy force against evil." Not quite the hallmark card image, is the point Sam is trying to make, in hopes of selling his brother on the whole angel thing – that biblical angels weren't/aren't fluffily winged do-gooders, but rather God's warriors, inspiring fear and awe.

"I like to think of them as more loving than wrathful," Father Reynolds says, before conceding that scripture paints angels as God's warriors, and quoting Luke's Gospel as an example. Dean is adorably none the wiser about what he's talking about until the reference is given to clue him in. He uses religious symbols in his work readily enough, but has little or no interest in what lies behind them.

On their way out of the church, the brothers notice a small shrine has been set up and ask about it. Turns out a young priest at the church, Father Gregory, was murdered a couple of months ago, shot dead for his car keys right there on the steps of the church. "He was a good friend. I didn't even have time to administer his Last Rites," Father Reynolds mourns, admitting that, "Ever since he died I've been praying my heart out…for deliverance from the violence and the bloodshed around here. We could use a little Divine Intervention, I suppose."

Left alone on the steps of the church, the brothers discuss the evidence available thus far, and for this discussion Sam is standing several steps higher than Dean and thus towers over his brother even more than usual. Dean sees Father Gregory as prime vengeful spirit material, especially since as a priest, as a confessor, he could very well be aware of the darkest secrets of his parishioners. Sam doesn't want to give up the angel theory though, and points out that the murders/angelic visitations started at about the time Father Reynolds started praying. Dean, frustrated, wonders where all this is coming from, this sudden fervent belief in angels. "I mean, what's next, you going to start praying every day?"

"I do," Sam mildly says, and that stops Dean dead in his tracks. He's startled by the notion of Sam praying, but gives up the argument immediately. He might be a hardened cynic himself, but if Sam gets something out of it, the subject becomes off-limits for scorn.

The brothers head back inside the church to check out Father Gregory's grave down in the crypt. While Dean wanders on ahead, Sam hangs back, thinking he can hear something – a whispering sound. He notices a statue of an angel nearby starting to shake and gapes at it in amazement. And then a bright white light explodes into being behind him.

Dean, meanwhile, has noticed that Sam is no longer with him. He re-traces his steps – and finds Sam passed out on the floor. He must seriously wonder, sometimes, if he is ever going to be able to take his eyes off his brother for longer than two seconds at a time. Maybe he should invest in a collar and leash. He dashes to Sam's side with a panicked yell of, "Sammy!" and Sam comes around pretty much at once, sitting up with Dean's help, looking dazed – and delighted. Like all his dreams have come true.

After hauling Sam back to his feet, Dean ushers him into the main hall of the church, rather than continuing down to the crypt. "You saw it, didn't you?" he realises.

And, yes, Sam sure did. "Dean, I saw an angel," he breathes, awestruck.

Dean starts to say something, stops, and pulls out a little flask of whisky. Since when does he carry one of those around? I can well believe that he'd feel the need, though. Sam refuses the drink, so Dean takes a swig himself while gathering his thoughts before starting to question his brother on what he saw. Sam earnestly describes his experience, and the feeling of grace and peace that washed over him, but Dean doesn't buy it for a second.

That's valid. They've encountered plenty of spirits capable of altering a person's perception and mental state – Doctor Ellicott, anyone? And Dean is a sceptic at the best of times. Sam is irritated by Dean's flippant dismissal of his experience, insisting that the angel spoke to him and knew who he was. Dean counter-insists that it is just a spirit, and not the first one capable of reading minds. Both interpretations sound equally valid at this stage in the episode, and I like that it is kept so vague, with evidence to support both theories.

Dean moves a little further away to sit on another bench, now he's sure Sam is okay, putting physical distance between them symbolic of the vast gulf between their beliefs being demonstrated here. Dean tends to need a bit of physical space when things get personal and potentially painful. He guesses, based on the previous three 'angelic' encounters, that Sam has been personally chosen to smite some evil sinner.

Sam's all, "Yes, actually," like that should be a surprise, when, duh, it's the MO of this thing. Sam did ask what the supposed sinner has done, he continues, and the angel told him: "He hasn't done anything. Yet. But he will."

So the 'angel' wants him to get in a pre-emptive strike, and Sam is buying that based on the evidence against the previous victims, and that's where I tend to wonder just how much of this is everything Sam's going through catching up with him and how much is the angel messing with his head, because pre-emptive strike against a human is not something Sam in his right mind would ever endorse. The angel's instructions always revolve around stabbing evildoers or prospective evildoers through the heart, and at no stage in this argument does Sam mention that he is considering a less murderous alternative.

Dean is thinking along much the same lines, and Sam is infuriated by his disbelief. "Dean, someone is going to do something awful, and I can stop it." Isn't that what Gordon said about Sam himself, just a couple of episodes ago?

"You know, you're supposed to be bad, too, Sam," Dean points out. "Maybe I should just stop you right now."

Ouch. Sooner or later Sam's supposed destiny and the promise he forced out of Dean were bound to be used as ammunition in an argument. This is as good an opportunity as they've had for it, as yet.

Sam completely bypasses that part of the dispute and sticks firmly to what, in his mind, is the most salient point – why Dean won't even consider the possibility that it could be an actual angel. For him, what the angel wants is less important than the fact of it seeming to actually exist. Given how badly this season has gone, and what Sam is facing, the prospect of heavenly intervention coming down on his side has got to be truly intoxicating. "Maybe we're hunting an angel here, and we should stop. Maybe this is God's will."

"You know what? I get it. You got faith, good for you. I'm sure it makes things easier." Dean sounds very calm in comparison to Sam's impassioned shouting. "I'll tell you who else had faith like that – Mom." Sam's head snaps around. Dean never talks about the past, never talks about their mother, unless something to do with a case or someone else's emotional need drags it out of him. "She used to tell me when she tucked me in that angels were watching over us," Dean continues. Memories of a life that Sam never knew. "In fact, that was the last thing she ever said to me."

Dean was four years old when Mary died, but every now and then something happens to make it clear that he remembers enough from those happier days for the gulf between before and after to be vast and stark. Dean has experienced too much loss and witnessed too much evil to allow himself to believe in a benevolent God.

"You never told me that," Sam murmurs, surprised. Sam has no memories at all of the time before; he's completely reliant on Dean – and John, when he was alive – for his information about life with Mary. And neither of them are what you'd call forthcoming with the happy stories about what it was like to have a safe, normal life.

"Well, what's to tell?" Dean shrugs, offhand in that way he always gets when the subject is too personal and painful and a little emotional distance is called for. Physical distance, too, which is why he's sitting a little ways from Sam. "She was wrong. There was nothing protecting her. There's no higher power, there's no God. I mean, there's just chaos and violence, and random unpredictable evil that comes out of nowhere and rips you to shreds."

Damn, that's bleak. Here we see the belief systems of the brothers as outlined in Faith explored a little further, and it makes perfect sense that Dean would feel this way, after having his safe, normal life destroyed so completely at such a vulnerable age, and being exposed to nothing but evil ever since; his disbelief is an active choice. How can he allow himself to believe in a greater good, given his life experiences?

Sam, lacking that stark distinction between before and after, was more sheltered, and thus can be more open-minded on the subject. Plus, he has his mysterious demonic destiny hanging over him like an enormous black cloud. Sam needs to believe that there is good out there as well as evil, if he is to have any hope for his own future at all.

"So you want me to believe in this stuff?" Dean insists. "I'm gonna need to see some hard proof. You got any?" Sam doesn't. He just wants desperately for his angelic encounter to be real. "Well, I do," continues Dean, having made it down to the crypt before he noticed that Sam was no longer following. "Proof that we're dealing with a spirit."

Crypt. Father Gregory's grave marker has wormwood growing all over it, and both boys are able to identify the plant. Such botanists they are. Wormwood, apparently, is associated with the dead, specifically those not at rest. And Father Gregory's marker is the only one down there with wormwood growing over it. Dean sees this as evidence of Father Gregory's restless spirit being behind all this. Sam doesn't know what to think, because he wants so badly to believe in the angel, so Dean suggests a way of finding out for sure. "We'll summon Gregory's spirit," he says. Sam is incredulous at the idea of doing this in a church, but Dean is undeterred. All they need is to pick up a few odds and ends, and perform the séance ritual in John's journal, which remains their own personal bible. "If Gregory's spirit is around, the séance will bring him right to us. If it's him, then we'll put him to rest."

"But if it's an angel it won't show," Sam huffs, annoyed still. "Nothing'll happen."

That's pretty much Dean's point. "That's one of the perks of the job, Sam. We don't have to operate on faith. We can know for sure. Don't you want to know for sure?"

Sam's not sure he does, judging by the look on his face, but goes along with the idea because he knows it makes sense.

Convenience store someplace in town. Dean and Sam exit, Sam toting a large bag of 'odds and ends' for the ritual. "Dude, all right, I'll admit, we've gone pretty ghetto with the spellwork before, but this takes the cake. I mean, a Spongebob placemat in place of an altar cloth?" Hee. Dean's all, so we'll put it Spongebob-side down, no worries. And then the is-it-an-angel-or-spirit dilemma gets really urgent, because Sam sees his sign – bright white light exploding into being alongside a random man standing at a pedestrian crossing carrying a bag and bunch of flowers. Dean can't see anything, but Sam's got that light of fervour in his eyes once again. "It's him, Dean. We have to stop him."

I love that automatic 'we' when Sam and Sam alone was the one chosen by the supposed angel for this job.

The 'walk' light comes on, and Flower Guy starts to cross. Sam makes to follow, and Dean instantly stops him, all fierce and worried. "You're not going to go and kill someone just because a ghost told you to, are you insane?"

Sam protests that he isn't insane and isn't going to kill the man, just stop him. And that's a relief, because it was worrying to imagine Sam being so willing to kill just because a supernatural being told him to, whether angel or spirit. Dean asks him to define 'stop'. "What are you going to do?"

Sam can't answer, just sees Flower Guy getting in a car, getting away, and is becoming desperate with the need not to lose sight of him. He doesn't know what to do to stop the guy doing whatever he's going to do; he just knows that he has to, and begs his brother to support him on this. "Dean, please. He's going to hurt someone, you know it."

Dean gives in and heads for the Impala, and this is a very important moment. Dean gets in…but Sam can't, because the passenger door is locked. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time in a season and a half that we have ever seen the Impala locked.

Sam is indignant, but Dean stubbornly refuses to let him in. "You're not killing anyone, Sam. I got this guy, you go do the séance." I love it when Dean is sensible. Both John and Sam made him promise to watch out for Sam, and he regards that as his single most important duty. If Sam's destiny is to become evil, somehow, then keeping him away from any situation that could potentially help to trigger that is vital. Sam's hands must be kept clean, even at Dean's own expense. Sam might not be planning to kill this man, but in the heat of a confrontation unexpected things can happen, and Dean is as determined to keep his brother away from all possible danger as Sam is to complete the mission he was given.

I'd really like the show to address this at some point – the fact that Dean now has a fair bit of blood on his hands and the bulk of it came about either in defence of Sam or in place of Sam. Croatoan is the most obvious example of Dean killing so that Sam wouldn't have to, and the fact that in trying to prevent Sam becoming a killer Dean has been forced to kill instead is an interesting moral conundrum that really needs to be explored on the show, in the interests of the character development of both brothers.

Dean drives off, leaving Sam standing there fuming and disbelieving, desperate to follow through on what his 'angel' told him. And I'm still not sure how much of that is Sam's desperation to believe in the angel for his own reasons, as expanded upon later, and how much is having had his mind messed with by it. The bulk of it seems to stem directly from his own urgent need, but it makes sense that the visitation would come complete with an urgent sense of compulsion, rather than relying on the simple belief of the person visited to guarantee follow-through. Whether angel or spirit, it would want to make sure, surely.

Dean follows Flower Guy. Dean's stalking skills suck. Seriously. Like in Simon Said, he just sits on the guy's tail, making no attempt to hang back and thus avoid arousing suspicion. And even I know that when following someone by car, if they pull over you should drive on a little further before pulling over yourself, rather than instantly pulling in behind them, as Dean does here.

Flower Guy meets a young woman, hands her the flowers and chivalrously opens the car door for her to get in. So far so innocuous. They drive off, and Dean follows once more.

Church crypt. Sam sets about the makeshift séance. Latin chants are always good coming from the lips of our boys. But just as he completes the ritual, Father Reynolds walks in and is horrified at the notion of a séance on church ground. Sam flounders hopelessly. "Father, please, I can explain…. Actually, maybe I can't." Hee.

Father Reynolds remains furious about a séance being conducted in the house of God. "It's based on early Christian rites, if that helps any?" ventures Sam, which is more amusing than it should be.

Father Reynolds doesn't want to hear any more, grabbing Sam's arm to escort him off the premises, but at that moment a bright white light explodes into being behind them, in front of Father Gregory's grave marker. Sam is absolutely, utterly crushed, and it is heartbreaking to see. He wanted so badly to believe in the angel, but the fact that it has come in response to his summons proves that Dean was right – it is just another spirit after all. Sure enough, the white light fades to reveal the ghostly priest. "I've come in answer to your prayers," he smiles at his erstwhile colleague.

Impala. Dean continues to follow Flower Guy and his girl.

Crypt. Father Gregory is puzzled by Sam's presence. "I thought I sent you on your path. You should hurry." So…as a spirit, he not only can see the past sins of his parishioners, but sins they are going to commit? He knows that time is of the essence here. Sam apologises, but lays it on the line. "I'm sorry, but you're not an angel." You've got to love how professional Sam is here, pushing his personal distress aside so quickly in order to complete the job at hand.

Father Gregory is having none of that. "Of course I am," he says, serene.

"No," Sam tells him. "You're a man, a spirit, and you need to rest."

The spirit of Father Gregory believes completely that he has become an angel. "I felt that bullet pierce me, but there was no pain, and suddenly I could see everything." One of the things he saw was Father Reynolds, praying and crying. "I came to help you." But, being a spirit, his idea of help is kind of skewed, since the recent killing spree was the result. That's pretty consistent with what we know of spirits that have been seen on the show previously. They each have a modus operandi related directly to the events of their life, but distorted by the inability of a spirit to distinguish right from wrong, no matter how good or bad of a person they were in life.

Impala. The pursuit continues. Flower Guy's car turns a corner, and Dean follows – only to find that the other car has vanished into thin air, somehow. Concealed exit of some kind, clearly. Dean is dismayed and exasperated.

Crypt. Father Reynolds is horrified as he realises that the spirit of his colleague is behind the murders. He seems to be coping pretty well with the actual existence of the spirit, though. Father Gregory believes he is carrying out God's will, smiting the evil, but Father Reynolds sees it differently. "You're driving innocent people to kill."

"Those innocent people are being offered redemption," says Father Gregory. This episode raises so many interesting moral and theological conundrums. It is a fact that the people Father Gregory incited to murder are completely at peace with how that turned out for them, now, anyway – whether they remain so content in years to come remains to be seen. But it is also a fact that they are each suffering the consequences of the murders they were manipulated into committing, and will have to live with those consequences for the rest of their lives. And it is also a fact that murder is always wrong, no matter whether the victim of that murder was bad, good or indifferent.

"Some people need redemption, don't they, Sam?" Father Gregory adds, looking at Sam, who swallows hard. Sam has been seeking a get-out clause of some kind ever since Dean spilled the beans on John's final words, some kind of counter-weight to keep him from tipping over the edge into evil. Having an angel on his side must have seemed like all his prayers answered, only for that hope to be cruelly crushed.

Father Reynolds remains appalled, and Father Gregory gently tells him he can't understand it now. "The rules of man and the rules of God are two very different things." Sam points out that the three killers are now locked up; Father Gregory insists that they are happy. "They've found peace, beaten their demons. And I've given them the keys to heaven."

"No. This is vengeance, it's wrong," says an appalled Father Reynolds. I like Father Reynolds. I think the boys should keep him as a potentially useful contact for the future. He's reacting so calmly to the presence of a spirit, talking to him rationally, trying to make him see sense – that he is misguided, going against everything he believed, that he isn't an angel. "Men cannot be angels."

He gets through, as well. Father Gregory's calm, confident façade slowly starts to crack, and he becomes uncertain, frightened even, as the gulf between his living beliefs and dying actions is presented to him in stark detail. "Thou shalt not kill," Father Reynolds sternly insists. "That's the word of God."

Alleyway. Flower Guy parks up. Flower Girl wonders what happened to the movies. He lunges at her pretty abruptly, and she rebuffs him, but smilingly, pleasantly, still willing to get on with the date. He just lashes out in response and slaps her, and it's hard to really get into this scene because both these characters are mere ciphers – victim and assailant. Long story short, Flower Guy is a psycho, and the girl clearly didn't pick up on this before agreeing to go on a date with him. He's got her trapped in the car, and is going to do terrible things to her, and they are all alone, no one around to help…

Dean catches up just in the nick of time, smashes the car window to smack the guy in the face and daze him, and is unlocking the car door to haul him out when he sees the traumatised girl getting out of the passenger side and has to take his attention off the guy to vault across the hood and take care of her for a moment. While she's weeping into his arms, Flower Guy makes good his escape. Dean wishes he could be in two places at once, or had an extra set of hands – or Sam somewhere in the vicinity and not potentially under the influence of an unknown supernatural force – or something. He very quickly ascertains that the girl is unharmed and has a cell phone and will be safe if he leaves her alone, instructs her to call 911, dashes back to the Impala, and gives chase. I love this side of Dean, where he cares, but is so gruff and brusque, and businesslike and impatient with it.

Crypt. Between them, Sam and Father Reynolds persuade Father Gregory to let go and allow them to put him to his rest. Father Reynolds starts to administer the Last Rites, and Father Gregory starts to flicker, in that way spirits do, which causes Father Reynolds a moment's pause, but he continues.

Lots of respect for Father Gregory, who is well acted, making him a very sympathetic character, rather than the typical crazy murderous spirit. He comes across a good man confused by the circumstances of his death and genuinely believing in the righteousness of what he was doing. It's just that, as Dean said in The Usual Suspects, spirits tend to get things jumbled up.

Last Rites administered, Father Gregory explodes into bright white light for the final time, and then fades away into nothingness. Kudos to Father Reynolds for laying the spirit to rest – I mean, traditionally exorcisms and the like are in a priest's line of work, but I think it's safe to say that this is not something Father Reynolds has been called upon to actually do before. It's one thing to believe in unseen angels, but quite another to have the manifest spirit of a murdered colleague standing right in front of you!

Impala. High speed chase! Woot! Flower Guy is completely off his head by now, driving wildly and erratically, and Dean is all grim-faced as he gives chase. He could, of course, now that the girl is safe, just leave it to the cops. Except that Dean doesn't really trust the police. And maybe something in him is heeding the warning Sam was given and doesn't believe it is safe to let the guy out of his sight until he is safely banged up or whatever, unable to hurt anyone. Anyway. High speed car chase. Yay for the Impala. Flower Guy eventually, inevitably, causes an accident due to his crazy driving, forcing a van carrying a load of scaffold poles to brake suddenly and spin. One of these scaffold poles, just one, goes flying off the back of the van and smashes straight through Flower Guy's windscreen.

Dean screeches the Impala to a halt, managing to avoid any kind of pile-up, and is shocked at how the chase ended. Not surprising, since the guy is completely impaled. The van driver just sits there, let us note, making no move to call for help or see what the damage is, and it was his load that just flew into the car, so you'd think he'd take a bit of interest. He's probably in shock. Dean gets out of the car to have a look, still breathless with shock and the adrenaline rush of the chase. Flower Guy is very dead, impaled right through the heart – just as the other victims were all stabbed through the heart by instruction of Father Gregory. Dean is shaken by the manner of the guy's unexpected death coinciding so completely with the spirit's intentions for him.

Motel. Sam is stuffing clothes into a bag, the picture of abject misery, when Dean gets back. Kudos to Jared Padalecki for this scene. He looks and sounds absolutely shattered, devastated.

"How was your day?" Dean greets his brother, sounding grim.

Sam doesn't look at him and can't say anything for a moment, gloomily continuing to pack. "You were right," he says at last, his voice all husky with repressed emotion. Dean looks worried, and still a little shaken, as Sam quietly tells him that it wasn't an angel but Father Gregory, just as Dean had said all along.

Not inclined toward any form of 'I told you so' in these circumstances, Dean pulls out his newly acquired flask of whisky once more, and this time Sam gratefully accepts it and knocks back a mouthful. Dean looks almost as upset as Sam – he might have argued against Sam's faith earlier, but he hates that Sam has had that faith snatched from him and is so distressed as a result. Talking him out of his belief by way of reasoned debate is one thing, but crushing his hopes completely is something else entirely.

"I don't know, Dean." Sam needs to talk about this kind of thing; he can't internalise the way Dean tends to. "I just, um. I wanted to believe. So badly. It's so damn hard to do this. What we do. All alone, you know, and…there's so much evil out in the world, Dean, I feel like I could drown in it. And when I think about my destiny, when I think about how I could end up…"

"Yeah, well, don't worry about that." Dean is instantly into reassurance mode. It's his ground state of being where Sam is concerned. "I'm watching out for you."

"Yeah, I know you are," Sam softly acknowledges. He's relying on that fact. He knows Dean will do his best for him, with his last breath if need be, although Sam would do anything to prevent it coming to that – but what if Dean's best isn't enough? What they are facing is so enormous. Just how strong can he expect his brother to be? "But you're just one person, Dean," he adds. One person who's been buckling under the enormous weight of the burdens that have been laid on him this season. He hasn't broken yet, though, managing to pick himself up and keep on going every time he's come close.

Damn, this season has been hard on these boys.

Dean looks tired as Sam continues. "And I needed to think that there was something else watching, too, you know? Some…higher power. Some greater good. And that maybe…maybe I could be saved."

Knocking on Heaven's Door has been softly playing throughout this conversation. It's awesome. Both brothers now look weary and worn, weighed down by the fear of what's coming and by not knowing what that is other than to fear it. Having bared his soul, Sam tries to laugh it off, saying that this longing clouded his judgement and that Dean is right, they should go with what they know, what they can see.

"Yeah, well, it's funny you say that." It's Dean's turn to talk now, and you've got to wonder how much of this is Dean genuinely starting to open his mind a little on the subject and how much is Dean trying to give Sam back a little of the faith he lost today. Dean will say almost anything to comfort Sam, true or not; that's been a given for a long time now. He tells Sam that Gregory's spirit gave him pretty good information. "That guy in the car was bad news, I barely got there in time."

Sam asks what happened, and Dean tells him the guy is dead. Sam tentatively asks if Dean killed him, reasonably enough. Dean has killed before so that Sam wouldn't have to. He looks relieved but curious when Dean says that he didn't – curious enough to be pulled a little bit out of his misery, which is unquestionably at least part of what Dean hoped to achieve by telling him this.

"The way he died, if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes I never would have believed it," says Dean. And he doesn't mean so much the fact that the guy got into a car accident and was impaled, but that it happened that specific way at that specific time – stabbed through the heart just as Father Gregory had instructed Sam, but by artificial means rather than by human hand, since the would-be assassin failed to follow through. As if his execution was pre-determined, and only the agent remained variable.

Sam is intrigued now and questions his brother further, since Dean is being all cryptic and vague. "Dean, what did you see?" he presses.

"Maybe…God's will," Dean says at last, like he can't quite believe he's saying the words, which he probably can't. And the episode closes on both brothers looking unsure what to think.


February 2007

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