"Crazy's what, every day of our lives?"

Well, this is an intriguing little number for Halloween, isn't it? It's basically a sandwich episode – the reasonably straightforward case-of-the-week sandwiched in between inter-linked chunks of mytharc development, rather than having that mytharc woven into the fabric of the case-of-the week, as we had last time. And it has to be said: this season really isn't pulling any punches!

"Look, Dad's gone now, and we have to carry out his legacy – hunting down as many evil sons of bitches as we possibly can."

Hey, they cut the voiceover a wee bit. Was that just to see if we'd notice?

Then.

"Back in 1835, Samuel Colt made a gun for a hunter. This gun can kill anything," John told us, and there were only four bullets left.

We are treated to a quick recap on just how the remaining bullets were used: John shot vampire Luther to save Sam, Sam fired at the Yellow-Eyed Demon, who disapparated to prevent being hit, Dean shot a possessed man to save Sam, and Dean shot and killed the Yellow-Eyed Demon. We aren't reminded of the one where Sam shot Possessed!John in the leg, using a fifth bullet, presumably because the show only had a clip of someone commenting on having four bullets, rather than five. But boy, the Winchesters sure did rattle through those last few bullets at a rate of knots, after the first eight had lasted over a century and a half!

Without those bullets, the Colt was useless, John informed us, and Bobby remarked that the only thing the Colt was good for now all the bullets were gone was figuring out what made it tick. Ruby paid Bobby a little visit while he worked on the Colt, and Bobby shot her with the now useless Colt. "Ouch. Do you want me to help you out with that gun or not?" she asked.

Dean made a deal with the Crossroads Demon to save Sam, leaving him with only one year to live. "It's been kind of liberating actually," he told demon Casey, denying that he was afraid.

"How certain are you that what you brought back is 100% pure Sam?" the Yellow-Eyed Demon taunted Dean, and the resurrected Sam certainly seemed a lot more ruthless than anyone had previously come to expect from him.

"You think something's wrong with my brother?" Dean asked Bobby. Both agreed that they were sure Sam was fine, but neither seemed entirely convinced.

Finally, Sam shot and killed demon Casey with the newly rebooted Colt, and man! These previously segments get longer and longer every week, it seems!

Now.

Maple Springs, New York. Jingly music plays as the light of a full moon falls upon a large sign declaring 'once upon a time', just so we know we're in fairytale country this week. 'Once upon a time…all homes were built this well', is the punchline. By the light of that full moon, three rather portly brothers bicker about the construction they are working on. Ginger Brother hears what sounds like a large dog growling nearby, but another brother brushes it off, while the third grumbles about the poor quality of timber they have to work with. "One gust of wind, and the whole place is going to blow over!"

Heh. Less than two minutes in, and we're already playing spot the fairytale. Right here we have the three little pigs, with the big bad wolf almost upon them. Ginger Brother – Kyle – is again distracted by a sound nearby, and wanders off to investigate, while his brothers continue to bicker over a set of plans. He can't find anything, though, and dismisses his fears with a little snort, and turns back to his brothers just in time to see Brother#3 get dragged out of sight behind a pile of pipes with a scream. Kyle promptly dives for cover, while Brother#2 rushes forward to try to save his doomed brother, only to end up as a splatter of blood himself. Cringing with fear behind a stack of concrete blocks – thus still in keeping with the story, as the last pig was protected by his brick-built house. Nice one, show – Kyle plucks up the courage to have a look, but sees only his brothers' bloody corpses. Then he hears a snuffling sound, turns, and screams as something attacks him.

Titles.

Jingly fairytale music plays again, as the moonlight falls upon a frog, sitting nonchalantly in the middle of the road. The Impala narrowly misses it as it speeds past. Inside, the boys are arguing fiercely once again.

"I don't understand, Dean. Why not?" Sam angrily mutters.
"Because I said so," Dean firmly replies.

Sam furiously argues that they have the Colt now; he wants to summon the Crossroads Demon, pull the gun on her, and force her to release Dean from his deal. It's an encouragingly pro-active plan, in one sense a logical next step having had the Colt restored, going direct to the root of the problem – and it's also a plan that, if successful, would remove Sam from the hold Ruby has over him, which adds another layer of motivation into the mix. He's been so immensely miserable about her interest in him and his inability to shake her off, bound to her by that offer to save Dean. Caught between a rock and a hard place. If, by taking the gun Ruby has provided, he can save Dean himself, he stands a better chance of being freed from her disturbing attention.

But Dean won't hear of it, because there's no way of knowing if it will work, and he isn't prepared to risk Sam's restored life in any way. Sam shouts that they should just shoot her, and make the deal go away, but Dean argues that they don't know if that'll work, either.

"All you're pitching me at the moment is a bunch of ifs, maybes, and that's not good enough. Because if we screw with this deal, you die!" Dean furiously reminds his brother.
"And if we don't screw with it you die!" Sam shouts back.



Neither of them stops to mention that shooting the Crossroads Demon in an attempt to void the deal would mean voluntarily sacrificing her human host in cold blood, rather than in the heat of battle, perpetuating the chain of lives sacrificed one for another that stretches back as far as Faith in season one. Dean has already dismissed the suggestion as too dangerous to Sam's life before reaching the demon's human host as a stumbling block, and although we've seen in previous episodes that he's concerned about Sam's ruthlessness and lack of empathy this season he doesn't raise that issue here. Sam, meanwhile, has stated aloud in the past that he'd do anything for his brother, but this season is taking that vow to a whole new level, disturbingly so. Dean willingly offered up his own life in exchange for Sam's. Sam doesn't have that option, but way back in Faith the question was raised of whether or not he'd knowingly sacrifice someone else's life for Dean's, and this season the answer to that question is a very definite yes.

They argue over the top of one another for a moment longer, but basically Dean just refuses point blank to have this conversation, falling back on the age-old classic 'because I said so' as a means of drawing a line beneath it.

"You're not Dad!" Sam furiously protests, and Dean is startled into silence by this line of argument. Sam's eyes have been glued to Dean throughout the argument, while Dean kept his eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead, but now Dean finally looks Sam in the face for almost the first time in the scene.

Throwing the Dad angle into Dean's face is an easy way for Sam to score a few cheap points in the argument, intensely loaded as that subject is, but it's true: they're butting heads over this issue in the exact same way that Sam and John always used to butt heads, neither one prepared to give any ground, neither one prepared to listen to the other's argument, no compromise possible. Dean's determination not to let Sam search for a way around the deal is making him more like John than he's ever been: making sweeping, unilateral decisions and laying down the law, no argument allowed. Everything Sam has always instinctively reacted against even when it wasn't something as important as this. Dean's authoritarian stance is coming from a place of fear, because he can't see any other way of forcing Sam to drop this issue before he gets himself killed again by that fateful catch, but all he's really succeeding in is pushing his brother away, contributing to Sam's desperate and broken state of mind.

The trouble is that Dean honestly believes there is no way around the deal, that when his year is up only one of them gets to live, end of story, and from where he's standing it has to be Sam, there's no question. He can't see past that one simple, enormous fact, because that way lies total panic. And they can't have a calm, rational conversation about it, because the stakes are too high for them both and there's no apparent compromise to achieve. Irresistible force versus immovable object. All Dean has to do is remember how it felt when Sam died, and he starts freaking out, and then Sam imagines what it's going to feel like when Dean's gone, and he starts freaking out, and then they're both yelling.

"No, but I am the oldest," Dean eventually counter-argues, and Sam huffs with frustration at being shut down like this. "And I'm doing what's best, and you're going to let this go," Dean continues. "You understand me?"

They both glare, but Dean wins the battle of wills this time, Sam backing down and looking away with an angry little sigh. What Dean should really be bearing in mind right now, of course, is the fact that Sam has a history of disregarding prohibitions and doing what he wants to do regardless – he's never responded well to having the law laid down if it goes against something he really wants or believes. We've seen that many times. And right now he wants this more than he's ever wanted anything. Just like Dean, he's lost far too much already to be willing to let go of the little he has left.

The silence is uncomfortable, and it stretches. "Tell me about this psychotic killer," Dean says at last, to break the silence and change the subject. "Come on. Sam, tell me about the psychotic killer."

Wearing his most mulish expression, Sam gives in and starts talking about the case they are currently heading toward, which is the attack we saw in the teaser, as reported in the local press. Dean presses for more information, asking if there's any mention of razor-sharp teeth or animal eyes. Still sullen and subdued, Sam mutters that there isn't, but that the lunar cycle's right. Werewolf is their working theory, and you have to wonder if the memory of Madison is now adding to Sam's distress. With the last full moon of the cycle this coming Friday, they only have two days to wrap the case up, or they'll to wait another month for the next full moon.

Hospital. Ahhh, boys in their suits again. Dean introduces himself and Sam as detectives Plant and Page from the County Sheriff's department, and Ginger Brother Kyle nods that he's been expecting them, which throws them both slightly. "You are the sketch artist, right?" he adds.

Sam flounders slightly, but Dean doesn't skip a beat. "Absolutely," he smoothly assures the man. "That is exactly who my partner is. The things he can do with a pen."

Hee. Sam's face is a picture. This is the second time Dean has done this to him, the first being way back in Hookman.

Before getting into the nitty gritty of the attacker's description, Dean asks Kyle how he got away, but he doesn't know. He was hiding, and the attacker found him, came right for him…but then just stopped. "Stared at me with this blank look. And after that he just took off running."

Based on what we later learn of the case, you have to wonder if the attacker stopped because his strings were no longer being pulled, the spirit being distracted by something, or because in the story the third little pig, hiding in his brick house, survives. Kyle was the third, and he hid behind concrete blocks.

The brothers find this information a little perplexing. Sam pulls a notebook and pen out of his pocket and reluctantly starts to take down the physical details of the attacker, in his guise as sketch artist. To the surprise of both brothers, the attacker Kyle describes sounds entirely human – six feet tall with dark hair and blue eyes. Doesn't sound much like the werewolf they were expecting. They try a few leading questions, asking if the eyes seemed at all animalish, or if there was anything strange about the teeth or fingernails, but Kyle is puzzled by this line of enquiry. "He was just a normal guy," he insists. "With normal eyes, and teeth, and fingernails."

Sam tries to press further, but Kyle has had enough of the weird questions. "Those were my brothers. This guy, he killed my brothers. How would you feel?"

Oh, Sam. It's a bit anvilicious, of course, since, as we all know very well, it just so happens that very question is right at the forefront of Sam's mind these days. A wolf killed Kyle's brothers and it's only a matter of months until the hellhounds come for Dean. The parallel couldn't be plainer. But very effective, especially following on from that argument in the car, driving the point home deeper still for Sam of what lies ahead for him if he can't find a solution.

"I can't imagine anything worse," Sam sincerely replies. Standing alongside him, Dean shuffles uncomfortably. He's been in Kyle's position himself, and knows that he's asking – telling – Sam to go through the exact same thing. But he refuses to even contemplate going there again himself. If only one of them gets to live, Dean has decided that it should be Sam, and he refuses to budge from that standpoint.



Dean gently asks Kyle if he can recall any more details, and Kyle remembers something – the attacker had a tattoo on his arm of a cartoon character. He can't remember the name, does recall that it's the guy who always chased the Roadrunner. Dean, of course, instantly identifies the character as Wile E. Coyote. Film and TV is Dean's specialist subject.

A Doctor Garrison wanders over to check on his patient. Waving his fake ID, Dean takes the doctor aside to ask a few questions, leaving Sam alone with Kyle, who asks if he gets to see Sam's sketch.

Sam's mouth opens and shuts a few times as he regards his own work, and then he blusters that it's still a work in progress as he hands over the notebook. Kyle looks at Sam's drawing, which is hilarious – a little bubble man with a dog on the arm to represent Wile E. Coyote. "Hmm," is all he can say, taken aback. And here he'd always thought the police employed professionals for these sketches!

Outside. There's that frog again, just sitting in the grass minding its own business. Wandering along the sidewalk, Dean is chuckling gleefully over Sam's artwork. They both look so smart, all be-suited like that! It's fabulous. Snatching his notebook back, Sam asks what the doctor said about Kyle's brothers. Evidently there wasn't much to tell. Both were DOA at the scene, but the doctor did fill Dean in on the coroner's report. Sam guesses that their hearts were missing.

"Nope," Dean reports. "But chunks of their kidneys, lungs and intestines were."
"That's just gross," Sam says on my behalf.
"It's also not werewolf behaviour," Dean concludes.

Sam wonders if it could have been a demon. With a couple of hundred new demons in the world, Sam's seeing demons everywhere, whether the evidence supports that theory or not. But Dean doesn't see why a demon would stop halfway through an attack. Sam starts to offer possible explanations, but stutters to a stop. "I got nothing." Hee. Sam's more fun this season than he's ever been, in the moments when he isn't sinking beneath the weight of his own despair.

Woods. There's that twinkly music again, so we know we're into another fairytale. A young couple out hiking seem to have got lost. Tired, miserable, and hungry, they happen upon a little cottage in a random clearing. Hansel and Gretel. So…I'm not sure if they are partners or siblings, and I don't think we are told. Could be either, but to remain true to the fairytale they should be siblings.

"Civilisation," Female Hiker Julie sighs in relief. Personally, I'm not so sure I'd call it civilisation until there are at least two houses together, but that's just me. A little old lady comes out of the house to greet them, and they admit that they are lost. The old lady smiles that it happens – the trail gets twisty, and her house is the only one left up there. Her house is slap bang in the middle of thick woodland, so I'm not surprised. She offers to point them in the right direction, but warns that it'll take a while to get back. Male Hiker Ken, meanwhile, has spotted a pie left to cool on the porch, and is eyeing it covetously. I'm not sure why anyone would bake a pie and then take it outside where the flies can get at it, but never mind.

Old Lady sweetly but redundantly points out that the pair are really deep into the woods, which I'm pretty sure they'd already noticed, and invites them in to rest for a while before setting out again. Julie would prefer to just keep going, but Ken has his eye on that pie.

"She's a harmless old lady – what can happen?" Ken smiles. Such a fateful question to ask.

Later. Ken clears his plateful of pie with great enthusiasm, while Julie and Old Lady politely watch him eat. Turning down another helping, Ken says that he's full, and he isn't looking so well. Concerned, and having not wanted to stay in the first place, Julie decides it's time to go, but while she's busily thanking Old Lady for her hospitality, Ken collapses to the floor clutching his stomach in agony. Julie takes one step toward him before likewise doubling over with stomach pains, and Old Lady just sits there smiling sweetly the whole time. Julie realises that they've been drugged, but by then it is far, far too late to do anything about it.

Old Lady pulls an enormous carving knife out of a drawer, still smiling sweetly as she feels the blade to check that it's nice and sharp. Ken weakly tells Julie to run, and Julie weakly pleads for Old Lady to stop and let them go, but it's no use. "Don't worry, everything's fine. You just hold still now, dear," she coos as she slashes Ken's throat open, laughing like a little girl as she continues to stab away at his body long after he's stopped gurgling. Splattered with Ken's blood, Julie screams madly the whole time.

Outside the window stands a little girl, with skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. It's Snow White! And she just stands there, watching the murder. It's another Creepy Little Girl episode. What is it about little girls that's so immensely creepifying?

And that was kind of a lengthy segment of plot-furthering guest characters.

Hospital. Man, the boys are getting a lot of wear out of those suits in this episode. They stroll along a corridor, spot a couple of uniformed cops from the sheriff's department coming toward them, and nonchalantly turn aside to lurk at the handy nearby admittance desk as the officers pass. Nice touch. They do need to avoid drawing the attention of genuine law enforcement in their direction.



Once the cops have gone, they continue on to Julie's room, where a distraught Julie is desperate to go home and start making arrangements, and Doctor Garrison is soothingly convincing her that she needs to stay in for observation. Again, I'm not sure if Julie and Ken were a couple or siblings – to be really true to the Hansel and Gretel story, they should be siblings, in which case Sam is now presented with another example of what lies ahead for him.

Seeing the boys waiting outside the door, Doctor Garrison asks them what the hell's going on here. "My whole town's going insane!" Sam grimly tells him that they'll let him know as soon as they do.

Julie is distressed at the thought of having to go over her statement again, but Sam assures her that they'll be brief, and asks how she managed to escape. Distraught, Julie explains that she didn't eat as much pie as Ken did, so she wasn't as out of it. While Old Lady was carving up Ken, Julie shoved her, and she fell and hit her head on the stove. It's a nice touch that the writers got the stove in there – show is sticking as closely to the original story details as possible.

Dean asks if Julie has any idea why Old Lady would do this, but she doesn't – one minute she was a sweet old lady, and the next she was a monster. Sam asks if she remembers anything else, and she asks if they found the little girl she saw outside the window, then recalls that the girl seemed to vanish into thin air. Julie is inclined to blame the drugs, half-convinced she was hallucinating, but Dean asks for a description, Sam adding that every detail matters. Julie describes the girl as about eight years old, with dark hair and really pale skin.

Old Lady's house. The Impala is parked outside. How the hell did they manage to drive it all the way out there, along that twisty little trail? It's meant to be in the middle of nowhere, right? Dean confirms that there's no sulphur anywhere, which rules out a demon, and asks about the EMF. It's going nuts over the window, confirming that there was a spirit there.

Dean – who seems to be wiping down any prints they might have left, or at least using a cloth to avoid leaving any fingerprints, which is a nice touch – is a little perplexed over the notion of a spirit standing outside the crime scene watching, but Sam announces that he has a sort of a theory. He looks kind of proud of himself for putting it together, which is cute.

"Well, thinking about fairytales," Sam begins, which isn't quite what Dean was expecting.
"That's nice," Dean smiles, nonplussed. "You think about fairytales often?"
"I'm talking about the murders!" Sam huffs.

Sam points out the similarity between Ken and Julie's experience and the Hansel and Gretel story. And then they have the earlier case of three brothers arguing over how to build houses when they are attacked by the big, bad wolf. Three little pigs – even Dean recognises that one, snarking that those guys were a little chubby.

Dean's familiarity with fairytales is limited to the happily ever after modern versions, so Sam explains that the original tales set down in print by the Grimm brothers was the folklore of its day, full of sex, violence and cannibalism. They've been sanitised over the years, turned into Disney flicks and bedtime stories. Dean asks if Sam thinks these murders are a re-enactment of these fairytales, pointing out that it sounds a little crazy.

"Crazy's what, every day of our lives?" Sam shrugs, nonchalant.
"Touché." Dean concedes the point, wondering how the creepy ghost girl is involved.

Sam hasn't quite theorised that far yet, but reasons that she must have been present for a reason. He's willing to bet she was at the construction site, too. Dean wrinkles his nose. "We've got to do research now, don't we?" Heh. Dean's least favourite part of the job.

Cumberland County Central Library. Dean exits, looking bored, and finds Sam waiting outside for him, wanting to know what he's found. Dean recounts that he's checked every record in the place, and found that they have the usual amount of childhood deaths for a town this size. It says a lot about the life these boys lead that they know how many childhood deaths is usual for a town this size. Dean asks Sam to guess how many of those childhood deaths were little girls with black hair and pale skin, and Sam wins the prize with an answer of zero. The same answer goes for black haired, pale skinned little girls who've gone missing. "Zip. Zilch. Nada. Tell me you've got something good, 'cause I've totally wasted the last six hours."

Six hours researching in a library? No wonder Dean looks bored and sounds fed up. Incidentally, the location for this scene is lovely, as they walk through pretty parkland on a glorious sunny day. The shafts of light streaming through the trees are gorgeous.

Sam asks if Dean has heard of Lilian Bailey, a British medium from the 1930s. He hasn't. Sam explains that Bailey's speciality was trances – "she'd go into these unconscious states where, get this, her thoughts and actions were completely controlled by spirits."

"The ghost puppet master," Dean summarises. "Think that's what this kid's doing? Sending wolfboy and grandma into trances, making 'em go kill-crazy?"
"Could be," Sam hypothesises. "You know, kind of like a spirit hypnosis, or something."
"Trances I get, but fairytale trances?" Dean is still perplexed by the fairytale angle. "That's bizarre even for us."

Of course, it turns out that Sam is completely right, but it's an enormous conclusion to leap to based on very little evidence, really.

Croak. There's that frog again, complete with twinkly fairytale music. The boys actually see the frog this time, and stop to eye it with some suspicion as it just sits there at the side of the road, minding its own business.

"Yeah, you're right. That's completely normal," Sam scathingly remarks.
Dean looks at the frog. "Okay, maybe it is fairytales. Totally messed up fairytales. But I tell you one thing, there is no way I'm kissing a damn frog." Heh.



Sam glances up, and sees a house with a pumpkin sitting on the porch, draws Dean's attention to it. Dean points out that it's close to Halloween, and therefore there's nothing remarkable about the pumpkin.

The writers have me sighing with resigned frustration by locating the episode at Halloween – how did they get there? In All Hell Breaks Loose, Sam said he was still 23, and we know he'd have turned 24 at the start of May, so it had to be no later than April. Unless Sam completely forgot how old he is, which is possible, I suppose. Season three began one week later, and just last episode we were told it was now two months on from the devil's gate opening, which means it should be summer now, not autumn. So...what's up with the timeline, show? I know the writers can't be expected to keep track of every tiny detail, but it is nice to have a coherent sense of time passing – all the more now that we've got Dean on such a definite countdown! It's a production glitch, I know, and one I can live with – they just wanted a Halloween reference for the Halloween episode and weren't too concerned about whether or not it tied in with what little on-screen date-referencing there has been – but it's still a little irritating.

Since Sam's on the hunt for anything that even vaguely resembles a fairytale, he reminds Dean of the Cinderella story, pointing out a mouse running along the porch to further back up his point. Dean looks at his brother. "Dude. Could you be more gay?" Sam can only gape, speechless, as Dean quickly adds, "Don't answer that."

Shout-out to the slash fandom there, I guess. The gay jokes don't do anything for me, though, so I'd prefer not to see them escalate. I'm also going to guess that Dean didn't spend hours reading fairytales to his little brother when they were small, because if he had he'd be the one with them imprinted on his memory even now, rather than Sam, who has clearly picked all this up from a different source.

Dean picks the lock to gain entrance to the house, teasing Sam that he might find his fairy godmother inside. Hee. The teasing is totally worth the bitchface it draws, because of the bitchface it draws. The brothers peel off in different directions to start searching the house – based only on Sam's hunch at this stage, let us remember. They have no actual evidence to justify breaking and entering. But then they hear a noise and instantly go for their guns before moving to investigate.

The brothers hear someone calling for help, and find a rather battered teenage girl handcuffed to the kitchen sideboard. Turns out her stepmother just freaked out for no reason, screamed at her, beat her, and chained her up. Charming. Cinderella indeed. While Sam comforts the girl and asks where the stepmother went – she doesn't know – Dean sees the little girl Snow White peering in from another room and points her out to Sam.



The girl instantly retreats, so Dean leaves Sam to deal with Cinderella, while he goes after Snow White. And that is a sentence I never expected to have to type!

Dean follows Snow White into what looks like a conservatory at the back of the house, only to find the room empty. Hearing a floorboard creak, he turns, and there she is, standing behind him. "Who are you?" he asks. The girl just looks at him, solemn as a baby owl, then flickers away into static, leaving behind a large red apple in her place.



Outside. Dean leans attractively against the Impala, turning the apple over and over in his hands, waiting for Sam, who wanders out to join him and announces that the paramedics have picked up Cinderella. It amuses me no end that they are calling her Cinderella, rather than learning and using her real name. Dean tosses Sam the apple and asks if it means anything to him, 'fairytale boy'. Heh. Any ammunition is valid ammunition. There's a bit of a sharp edge to their interactions in this episode, though, of a kind that we haven't seen for a few episodes now, their professional focus on this case forming only a flimsy and brittle veneer over the fact that the serious disagreement they had at the start of the episode remains unresolved. Where in recent episodes Dean has been light-hearted and Sam indulgent, here Dean is using his humour as a way of pretending the argument never happened, a diversion from thorny issues he'd prefer to avoid, while Sam is un-amused by his brother's would-be wit in a way we haven't really seen since last season.

Rather than rise to the bait, Sam just explains that he thinks it is Snow White. Dean immediately starts to laugh that he saw that movie, the porn version anyway, distracting himself by thoughts of the wicked stepmother before Sam drags his attention back to the point. There is a wicked stepmother in the story, who tries to kill Snow White with a poisoned apple. Dean demonstrates that he isn't entirely ignorant of fairytales by knowing that the apple doesn't actually kill the girl. Tossing the apple back to him, Sam confirms that it puts her into a deep sleep, so deep it's almost like she's dead.

Hospital. The brothers are in street clothes now, but I daresay their cop credentials are already well established at the hospital from their previous visits. A nurse informs the boys that they don't have any comatose little girls among their patients. "It's mostly old guys," she helpfully adds. "And, well, Callie. She's been around since before I started here. It's so sad. And poor Doctor Garrison, he just won't give up on her."

Callie, it turns out, is Doctor Garrison's daughter. In her room, the good doctor is, at that very moment, reading to her from Grimm's fairytales. Well, that explains rather a lot. Today they are reading the tale of Red Riding Hood, and, as the doctor reads in voiceover the tale of the wolf attacking and eating grandma, we see an old lady carrying heavy bags of shopping back to her car. A young man with dark hair and blue eyes catches one of the bags just as she drops it, and helps her get it into the car. He turns to leave…but his face goes blank for a second, and then he snarls and attacks, trapping the old lady in her car as he beats her pretty mercilessly.

On the man's arm we see the tattoo of Wile E. Coyote that Kyle mentioned earlier, presumably the reason the spirit has chosen him to play the role of big bad wolf in her fairytale re-enactments. Standing nearby, Snow White watches as he drives Grandma's car away, with Grandma unconscious in the back.

Hospital. Dean and Sam find Callie's room, wherein Doctor Garrison is still reading the tale of Red Riding Hood to his comatose daughter, a young woman with long dark hair. He's just reached the bit where the huntsman uses a pair of scissors to cut open the wolf's belly. This will be relevant later. Hearing the story, Dean and Sam exchange incredulous looks, understanding now where all the fairytales are coming from.

Doctor Garrison sees them in the doorway and comes over to ask what they want. They stumble over a clumsy explanation of how they just heard about his daughter's condition and wanted to say how sorry they are. He thanks them and excuses himself, whereupon Dean cheerfully remarks that they are headed the same way and will walk with him.

As they walk, Dean asks how long Callie has been like this, and Sam hurriedly adds that they don't mean to intrude and can't possibly understand how hard it must be for the doctor to see her like this. Actually, I'm inclined to think that Sam, at least, can understand a little of what it feels like. After all, it's only about a year since he sat at Dean's bedside while his brother languished in a coma not expected to ever wake again. Even if it didn't last longer than a day or two, compared to the years Doctor Garrison's ordeal has dragged on, Sam won't have forgotten what it felt like.

Doctor Garrison acknowledges that it isn't easy. Callie has been in hospital since she was eight years old, he explains: she was poisoned, swallowed bleach, and they never figured out how she got her hands on the bottle. His wife found her and brought her to the ER, where he was on call – meaning that Callie was alone with his wife when it happened. Dean confirms with him that his wife was Callie's stepmother, not her birth mother, and the doctor is a little startled at this 'lucky guess', but explains that his wife, who passed away last year, was the only mother Callie ever knew. Surprisingly, this stepmother was called Julie, the same as the Female Hiker – the show does tend to recycle names, but not usually within the same episode!

"It's just my daughter and me now," Doctor Garrison concludes. "She's all I've got left."

Dean and Sam both fidget uncomfortably and shoot awkward side eyes at one another as the doctor heads back to work. This case is just chock-full of parallels for their own situation. Each of them is all the other has left, and that simple fact is the biggest cause of conflict between them this season, because as things stand only one of them can live beyond this year, and neither one can bear the thought of being the last man standing.

"Well, you're right. It's Snow White in spades," Dean remarks as the brothers continue to pedeconference through the hospital. Sam agrees, but wonders what the motive was. "Could be like Mischa Barton," Dean offers. Off Sam's look, he adds, "Sixth Sense, not the OC. Hey, you know fairytales, I know movies."

Sam works out that Dean is trying to offer Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy up to the table for consideration, and agrees that it's a strong possibility.

"So say Callie's been suffering silently for all these years, 'cause no one knows what mommy dearest did," Dean continues.
"And after all this time her spirit just gets angrier and angrier, until it just starts lashing out," Sam concludes.
"And meanwhile she has to listen to her dad tell her these deranged stories about a rabid wolf or a cannibalistic old lady, it's enough to drive anybody nuts," Dean adds.

The parallels between Callie's situation and Dean's in In My Time of Dying is marked – what has happened to Callie over the years, disembodied and trapped in the limbo between life and death, is exactly what the Reaper warned Dean about. I can't help wondering if his experience of communicating with Dean's disembodied spirit back then is on Sam's mind now, so it's a shame that Dean's experience of wandering around as a spirit while in a coma isn't mentioned at all here. Dean might have no memory of the incident, but Sam does. It's got to be the reason they were both so quick to realise a comatose patient could be at the root of this case – would they have been so quick to suspect a living person of having their disembodied spirit wandering around loose without the memory of that experience as inspiration?

Since they're in agreement on this issue, Sam moves onto the next problem – how are they going to stop Callie, since her father is keeping her body alive? Dean agrees that this does make it a bit hard to burn the bones. I'll say. I don't see just how the father is supposed to be artificially keeping the body alive, though, as there was no sign of life support or even feeding tubes of any kind.

The brothers' perambulations have brought them to the ER, and they are just in time to witness Grandma's arrival, badly battered and bruised. The paramedic suspects that a mad dog or wolf mauled her, and our boys, listening in, remember that Doctor Garrison was reading Little Red Riding Hood to Callie earlier.

Grandma dies and the boys exchange grim looks. Another death they weren't able to prevent. Whipping out their fake police IDs, they question the paramedic, who explains that the old lady was found at the side of the road. Dean announces that they need to find the next of kin, and the paramedic flips through his paperwork before offering that she has a granddaughter. Of course she does; the spirit chose her to play this role for a reason. The paramedic hands over the address.

"You find a way to stop Callie, all right?" Dean suggests to Sam, who wonders what Dean is going to do. "I'm going to go stop the big bad wolf," he says, as if it should be obvious. "Which is the weirdest thing I've ever said." Actually, I'm pretty sure I've heard weirder statements out of both their mouths, but I take his point.

Dean takes off, and Sam watches him leave, looking deeply troubled. This episode is about grief and loss, about letting go of loved ones and being the only one left, and it is hitting Sam hard. He was desperate not to let it happen to him even before having all these examples before him, driving that point home.

Washington Junior High School. A little girl wanders out wearing a bright red jacket with the hood up. Little Red Riding Hood. How fortunate Callie is to find so many people in town who fit the profile of the stories. Red Riding Hood sees Grandma's car parked nearby and hurries over to get in. So, if she's the only next of kin, this kid lives with her grandmother, clearly, which means she has now been left alone in the world. This episode is just chock-full of tragedy.

Young Red is shocked when she realises that Grandma is not at the wheel – wolf-man is, snarling menacingly. The girl tries to jump back out, but the doors are locked. They drive off.

Hospital. Sam finds Doctor Garrison and asks to speak to him about Callie. Finding the right words is awkward, though, for such a sensitive topic, and he asks if they could maybe go sit down somewhere more private. Since the subject of his daughter has been raised, the doctor isn't so keen on this idea – he just wants to know what this is about. Sam shuffles and glances around to make sure no one is within earshot, since they are holding this conversation in the middle of a corridor.

"Doctor, this isn't going to be easy," Sam begins, taking the bull by the horns, so to speak. "What happened to Callie was not an accident." The doctor can't take this in, is indignant at the suggestion, but Sam presses on. "I'm sorry, but it's true."

Not that he has any evidence to support this claim. It's just a hunch, based on an understanding of how spirits operate. Offended, the doctor insists that this stranger has no idea what happened to his daughter, and walks away. Sam pursues him, arguing that there are things Garrison doesn't know. "Doctor, your wife poisoned Callie," he calls out, right in the middle of the corridor. There is nothing private about this conversation.

Doctor Garrison is stunned, wonders why Sam would say something so horrible to him. Sam asks the man for his help, but the doctor is having none of it. He marches into Callie's room and shuts the door in Sam's face.

Sam huffs in frustration and wonders what to do now, then takes a deep breath, opens the door and barges in. This is too important to let it drop just because the girl's father is upset and doesn't believe. Doctor Garrison threatens to call security, but Sam puts his hand over the phone, all intimidating, and insists that the man listen.

"I don't have time to do this gently," he sternly announces. "If you don't listen to me, more people are going to get hurt. Because Callie is going to hurt them." Doctor Garrison does not have the faintest idea what this madman is talking about, and Sam allows that the man will probably think he's crazy, but asks him to listen anyway. "Your daughter, Callie, is still here. She's a spirit."

He's severe, but sincere, and there's sympathy in his eyes. He's been in a similar position himself, although he doesn't mention that. Doctor Garrison falters on hearing those words out loud, and he stops arguing, gazes at his comatose daughter for a moment, then sits on her bed. "So you've seen her too."

Sam wasn't expecting that.

Red Riding Hood's house. Dean kicks the door open, having apparently decided that there is no time for finesse this time, and charges in, gun in hand. He finds the little girl cowering in a corner, blood trickling from a gash on her face, and hurries over to ask if she's okay. Red just about has time to say yes before screaming ear-piercingly as warning that the wolf is right behind Dean.



Dean turns a shade too late to prevent the man having the advantage over him, and they fight, no holds barred. BIFF! POW! KER-SPLAT! Impressively, Dean manages to be both throttled and tossed into a wall during the course of the fight, combining both his own and Sam's usual fates. There is no longer any sign of Red Riding Hood anywhere, so presumably she has found herself a safe hiding place while the wolf-man is otherwise occupied.

Hospital. "I sensed her," Doctor Garrison tells Sam. "Callie. Her presence. Her scent. I even saw her standing at the foot of my bed, but I never…believed it. I thought I was dreaming."
"It wasn't a dream," Sam soberly tells the man. "She looks like she did when she was eight – white dress, red ribbon in her hair. She's been trying to talk to you."

This is Sam at his empathetic best, here in this scene, sympathising with both Doctor Garrison and Callie's situations immensely, and trying hard to find a creative solution that will be best for everyone concerned, since salting and burning is out of the question. There's not even a hint of that newfound ruthlessness that's been troubling Dean so much. Sam is still Sam; it's only when the newly released demons and Dean's deal come into play, the objects of the anger burning within him, that his hardened stance becomes apparent.

Struggling to take all this in, Doctor Garrison realises something fairly fundamental. "You're not a cop, are you?" Sam admits it, and the doctor asks who he is, in that case.

"Someone who knows a little bit about this kind of thing," Sam hedges. The doctor returns to Sam's first point, arguing that there is no way his wife would ever have poisoned Callie, but Sam interrupts. "Sir, Callie told us. Not in so many words, but in her own way, she told us."

Doctor Garrison angrily argues that his wife loved Callie, so how it is possible that she could have hurt her. Sam doesn't know, he just knows that it's what happened. Doctor Garrison still refuses to believe it.

"Look," Sam presses. "Callie is killing people. She's angry. She's desperate. Because nobody will listen to her. So you have to listen to her. Please. Listen to your daughter."

While Sam uses his words in an attempt to defuse the spirit, over at Red Riding Hood's house, Dean is still fighting for his life against the wolf-man, while Snow White stands and watches.

Since the wolf-man is being empowered by the spirit, Dean is taking quite a hammering, getting tossed all around the joint. On the floor yet again, he sees grandma's knitting bag nearby, and grabs a large pair of scissors out of it – totally taking his part in the story as the doctor was reading it earlier. I find myself wondering how much of Dean's actions here are entirely his own, and how much he too is being manipulated by the spirit, in the interest of re-enacting the story as told by the Brothers Grimm.

Now that he has a weapon, Dean launches himself back into the fray again. Snow White continues to watch – but then hears her father's voice calling her. She flickers out once more.

Hospital. Doctor Garrison talks to Callie. "Is it true? Did Mommy do that to you? I know I wasn't listening before, but I'm listening now. Daddy's here. Please, honey, is there a way you can tell me?" Sam draws his attention to little spirit Callie, Snow White, who has appeared behind him. "Is it true?" he asks her, and the little girl solemnly nods.

Red Riding Hood's house. Wolf-man charges Dean to the ground again and pins him down, as they wrestle over the scissors.

Hospital. Doctor Garrison is tearful now as he apologises to his daughter for what happened to her, for not knowing, for trusting his wife. "But listen to me. You've got to stop what you're doing, okay? You're hurting people. I know everything now. I know the truth. It's time for you to let go. It's time for me to let you go."

Again, I'm not sure how the doctor figures he's been holding onto her so hard, as there is no sign of any artificial life support, not even a feeding tube, but the point is clear. He turns away from the solemn little spirit, back to her comatose adult body, strokes her hair and kisses her forehead. Moments later, Callie flatlines.

Sam shuffles uncomfortably, witness to this private moment in someone else's family tragedy.

Red Riding Hood's house. Dean finally manages to overpower wolf-man and raises the scissors to deliver a killing strike…only for the man to suddenly snap back to himself, possessed by the spirit no longer. Lucky escape for them both, really. The former wolf-man gasps out a query as to where he is and what's going on. That's just great. This guy did all the attacking, and now from his point of view Dean looks like the bad guy. Dean can't answer, he's too busy gasping with relief at having been spared from having to kill the man. It was a very close thing.

Hospital. Doctor Garrison weeps over his daughter's body, and turns around to see that her spirit has gone as well.

Later. Dean and Sam talk to Doctor Garrison, confirming that the little girl Red Riding Hood is okay – well, physically, anyway. I'm sure she's traumatised and grieving, but that isn't mentioned. Neither is the fate of the wolf-man mentioned. The doctor says that it's really all over now, and Sam tells him it's all thanks to him.

"Callie was the most important thing in my life," Doctor Garrison sadly admits. "But I should have let her go a long time ago."
"See you around, Doc," says Dean by way of farewell.
Doctor Garrison takes a deep breath. "I sure hope not."

Heh. Well said. With the doctor gone, the brothers look at one another.

"You know, what he said – that's some good advice," Dean pointedly tells Sam, who looks at his brother for a long moment, digesting that statement.
"Is that what you want me to do, Dean?" he asks. "Just let you go?"

Dean breaks the eye contact, can't look Sam in the face for a moment, then glances up at him again, before walking silently away down the corridor. Not prepared to debate this point any further – Dean would always rather shut down a difficult conversation than face it head on.

Sam just stands there and bleakly watches him go, struggling with his emotions. It's a shot that's visually very reminiscent of In My Time of Dying, when Sam stood and gazed down a similar corridor, sensing Dean's ghostly presence but unable to see him, and the parallels and contrasts between that situation and this are sharp. Then, Dean was fighting hard for his life, desperate to return to his family, but now he's doing the opposite, asking Sam to let him go quietly, without a fight. But the thought of letting go and not fighting for his brother's life, when Dean is due to die in his place, is tearing Sam apart. Sam has never let go of anything without a fight.



Also, Dean isn't seeing the other side of the coin here. He's applying Doctor Garrison's words to Sam's situation regarding the deal, completely disregarding the fact that he is the one who was really in the doctor's position, unable to let go when he should have, and that's how this whole situation came about. However, his stance makes a lot of sense – it's tough love. We know that he's scared of what he's facing, and there has to be a part of him that desperately wants to be saved as long as doing so doesn't risk Sam in any way, but he simply doesn't believe it is possible. Fatalistic, he's trying to force Sam to face reality and accept the inevitable sooner rather than later, on the principle that it'll be easier for Sam in the long run than if he continues to cling to what Dean sees as false hope. Easier for Dean to prepare himself for what's coming, as well, if he doesn't allow himself to hope in any way.

Dean doesn't know, of course, about the other pressures being brought to bear on Sam, about Ruby and her machinations, or Sam's discovery regarding their mother's friends. As far as he knows, Sam's distress stems solely from the deal and its impending consequences, which means that the sooner Sam stops fighting and accepts the inevitable, the sooner his brother will find some kind of peace. Sooner or later he'll find out about everything Sam's been keeping from him, and how he'll react is anyone's guess. His clock is ticking down, he can't take the deal back, and he can't regret that he made it, so knowing in full just how much danger Sam is still in can only lead to all kinds of desperation, for them both. It's painful in the extreme, because it's such an impossible situation that they are both locked into, with no way out in sight.

Case closed – but with only 34 minutes gone, we know there's a twist in the tail still to come. I have to say, although this was an engaging little ghost-story-with-a-twist, it's been very straightforward and by-the-numbers. There really isn't much going on here to analyse in any depth! Most of the conversations between the brothers, and with the guest characters, have been about exposition, with very little subtext to mull over.

Motel. There's a lovely full moon. Inside, Dean is fast asleep in bed. It seems like a really long time since we had a domestic shot of the boys asleep.

The other bed, however, is rumpled but unoccupied. Grabbing his bag, Sam is up, dressed, and on his way out. He's an expert at sneaking out without waking Dean. At the door, he looks back at his sleeping brother for a moment, steeling his nerve and reminding himself why he's doing what he's doing, before continuing out into the night.

Crossroads. The episode comes full circle, linking right back to the plan Sam proposed in his opening argument with Dean. Sam always was one for doing exactly what he's set his heart on, whether he has the agreement and support of his family or not; if he can't talk them around to his way of thinking, he just sneaks away at the first opportunity and goes it alone. I like that Sam shared his plan with Dean earlier, rather than trying to hide it from the get-go, whatever Dean's refusal has now pushed him into. It feels healthy, to have that communication, even if it inevitably leads to conflict. But frankly – even if Dean had given his blessing, which he was never going to do with a plan like that, surely the catch would mean he couldn't be a part of this anyway. Also, just how common are these dirt crossroads in America? They seem to crop up regularly on the show.

Looking very troubled, because he knows this is dangerous, and because if this doesn't work he's out of options, Sam buries his little box of hoodoo, stands back up, and waits. Finally, the Crossroads Demon pops up behind him.

The show never actually uses the word 'teleport', but it does seem fairly clear that that's what this demon does to get its host bodies where they need to be. No way all these women in cocktail dresses are anywhere close by. On summoning, the demon just picks a suitable body and pops it out there in the blink of an eye. It's also presumably how the Yellow-Eyed Demon managed to transport Sam and the others to Cold Oak in the blink of an eye in All Hell Breaks Loose.

Today's incarnation of the Crossroads Demon is played by Sandra McCoy, who just happens to be Jared Padalecki's girlfriend in real life. This is a fact that passed me by entirely on first viewing, because I've remained spoiler-free, and because I don't pay a huge amount of attention to the love lives of the actors; even her name in the cast list didn't register with me. The knowledge does add a little twist to the shock end of the scene, though. It's confirmed here that it is the same demon each time a crossroads summoning takes place, but McCoy plays the role with a side of sweetness it hasn't had before.

"Little Sammy Winchester," the demon coos. "I'm touched. I mean, your brother's been to see me twice, but you? I've never had the pleasure. What can I do for you, Sam?"

This is the demon that stands to take his brother's life when the year is up. Lip curling with revulsion, Sam whips the Colt out and levels it at her. "You can beg for your life," he offers by way of opening gambit, setting his stall out nice and clearly.

Unruffled, the demon mocks him for ruining the mood of their nice little chat. Sam snips at her to drop the wisecracks and start acting scared, but she's unimpressed, retorting that it's not her style.

"That's not the original Colt," the demon adds. Interesting. Ruby clearly modified it quite a bit. "Where did you get that?" Sam says nothing, but the demon guesses. "Ruby. Had to be. She is such a pain in my ass. She'll get what's coming to her. You can count on it."

So even in an episode she isn't in, the plot thickens regarding Ruby. She certainly seems to have a reputation among her fellow demons, regarded as something of an upstart renegade, it is implied. It's interesting that she's referred to by name here. I'd assumed that Ruby was the name of her human host, so is the Crossroads Demon using that name because it's how Sam knows her, or is she known by that name among demon-kind?

"That's enough," Sam grits. "I came here to make you an offer."
"You're going to make me an offer?" the demon mocks. "That's adorable."
"You can let Dean out of his deal right now," Sam firmly tells her. "He lives. I live. You live. Everyone goes home happy. Or." He cocks the gun, ready to shoot. "You stop breathing. Permanently."

The demon laughs and starts to circle Sam, who has to pivot to keep her in his sights. "All this tough talk," she taunts, with her back him. It's a marvellous visual symbol of her disdain for his threat, even with that gun in his hand. "I have to tell you – it's not very convincing. I mean, come on, Sam. Do you even want to break the deal?"

"What do you think?" Sam automatically replies.
She turns back to him. "I don't know. Aren't you tired of cleaning up Dean's messes? Of dealing with that broken psyche of his? Aren't you tired of being bossed around like a snot-nosed little brother? You're stronger than Dean. You're better than him."
"Watch your mouth," Sam seethes.
"Admit it," the demon presses. "You're here going through the motions. The truth is, you'll be a tiny bit relieved when he's gone."

The demon possessing Father Gil in Sin City said something similar about Sam being his brother's keeper, and the Crossroads Demon here is really trying to hammer a similar point home. In All Hell Breaks Loose Part II Sam openly acknowledged how much he owes to his brother, and his desire and need to reciprocate, and the demons appear to be trying hard to weaken that bond. Presumably, they feel that Dean is the only tangible object standing between Sam and his intended destiny, and that driving a wedge between the brothers might help bend Sam to their cause and encourage him to explore his full potential.

This season so far has been all about misdirection and doubt. Demons lie, and they twist what truth they tell, delving deep into the subconscious to pull out and manipulate whatever they think will hurt most, cause the most damage. Sam's been alone with this burden for weeks now, trying desperately to find a way to save a brother who doesn't want to be saved, and he has to be feeling a little betrayed by that in more ways than one. This is the first episode this season not to feature at least one scene in which the brothers have been relaxed, enjoying one another's company, and that's significant. Ever since he learned about the deal, Sam has developed a whole new appreciation for his brother, but in this episode he hasn't had that: they began the episode sharply at odds, and papered over that disagreement by focusing on the job at hand, rather than actually resolving anything. Dean's dictatorial attitude toward Sam's attempts to find a way to save him, his determined blindness to Sam's distress, and the way in which he's been tormenting his brother have been frustrating Sam all through the episode. That makes this the best possible moment for the demon to be trying this approach. She's found a raw nerve to press on.

Whatever might lurk deep within the subconscious, it's an ugly thing to have presented to you as truth, and saying the words out loud lends them an air of authenticity that can be hard to shake off. Words have power, and a single conversation can cause a lot of damage. Sam knows that he's academically a lot more gifted than Dean, yet he grew up very much in the shadow of the non-academic standard his brother set, a standard of 'perfection' – Sam's own word – that he could never hope to attain, having neither the motivation nor opportunity. Many times we've seen him struggle with Dean's abandonment complex, seen him irritated by and scornful of his brother's uncouth habits and simple tastes. He has openly voiced his anger with Dean for putting him in this position, for the hypocrisy of making that deal in the first place, for presenting him with such an impossibly huge debt and then forbidding him to even try to repay it. The demon is appealing to his pride here, to that part of him that does look down on his brother at times, to the part of him that just wants for all of this to be over already, no matter how that comes about. Sowing seeds of doubt, with the intention of causing pain, and with the typical demonic inability to understand the complexities of human emotions and relationships – that it is possible to love someone deeply in spite of their flaws.

"Shut up," Sam grits, appalled at what the demon is implying, but not denying it, too shaken to think clearly. His love for his brother has always been tempered by a streak of resentment, and that tiny grain of truth is all the demon needs to throw him off balance and make him doubt himself. Her intention is to strengthen her own position, of course, but what she fails to understand is that making Sam doubt himself even a little can only lead to increased guilt, which will stiffen his resolve to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal and make him hate her all the more. And Sam's temper has always been vengeful.

"No more desperate, sloppy, needy Dean," she taunts. "You can finally be free."
"I said. Shut. Up," Sam angrily repeats.
"Huh," the demon lightly remarks. "Does protest too much, if you ask me."

Sam's heard enough and, rather than argue any further, returns to his point – that he wants her to let Dean out of his deal right now. The demon is having none of it: Dean is an adult, and he made that deal of his own free will, fair and square. She has a point. It's ironclad, she tells him. Sam insists that every deal can be broken. Not this one, the demon perkily claims.

"Fine," Sam decides. "Then I'll kill you. If you're gone, so's the deal."
The demon just laughs. "Guess again."

Oh man, the look of despair on Sam's face when he hears that just kills me dead. He's pinned everything on this confrontation. He's so desperate for all of this to be over, hurting badly, buckling under the strain of the burden he's carrying, and unable to share his load with anyone. Dean has shut down his every attempt to talk about ways around the deal, and he has chosen himself to keep the rest of his troubles secret from his brother.

"Sam, I'm just a saleswoman," the demon continues, her tone condescending in the extreme. "I got a boss like everybody. He holds the contract, not me. He wants Dean's soul, bad, and believe me – he's not going to let it go."

Interesting, interesting. In Crossroad Blues we saw that this demon had enough autonomy to release Evan Hudson from his contract in exchange for her own freedom, but it makes sense that a seasoned demon hunter like Dean would be a different matter entirely. It seems we have a new demon in the mix, higher level than this frontline Crossroads Demon. I look forward to learning more in the future. She told Dean in All Hell Breaks Loose Part II that she could get into trouble for making the deal with him in the first place, so the concept of the hierarchy above her head is not new, but how it actually works in practice remains unclear. Just why she thought she'd get into trouble for making the deal is also unclear, if her boss is so eager to get his hands on Dean, and since Yellow-Eyes was delighted to have Sam back in the game. We've only ever caught glimpses of what seem to be all kinds of demonic factions and politics.

"You're bluffing," Sam argues. He's trying hard to get his game face back in place, but all that fear and anguish just shines through regardless.
"Am I?" she smoothly asks. "Shoot me, if it'll get you off. But the deal still holds, and when Dean's time is up, he's going to get dragged into the pit."
Sam lowers the gun. "Then who's your boss? Who holds the contract?"

Who does he have to go after next, he's asking. How far does he have to go to bring this to an end?

"He's not as cuddly as me, I can tell you that," the demon laughs. Sam asks again who her boss is, but she simply replies that she can't tell him. "I'm sorry, Sam, but there's no way out of this one. Not this time."

Sam stands there looking at her for a long moment, desperate emotions warring on his face as he accepts that he isn't going to get what he wants from her, whether there is truth in what she's telling him or not. Crushed, he lowers his eyes and lets out a shaky breath, all the hopes he'd brought into this confrontation extinguished. And then he up and shoots her, dead centre of the forehead, just like that. Bang! In a crackle of red fire, the demon drops to the ground, dead, along with the human body she was inhabiting.

Man, that was cold, an innocent girl sacrificed out of pique. There's that newfound ruthless streak that's had Dean so worried this season. Sam always was a lot like his father in his tendency toward angry obsession that blinds him to the cost of his actions, but this season has really amplified it. If a demon is involved in any way, if Dean's life is threatened or Sam's attempts to save him thwarted, Sam doesn't even try to control his furious reactions any more. Where Dean's temper burns hot and quick and blows over almost at once, Sam's can simmer away indefinitely, a slow, vengeful burn, consuming everything in its path if left unchecked – we were told that as early as Wendigo. Back then he had Dean's full support and attention to help him find some kind of balance, but right now he's all alone with his anger and desperation, backing himself into ever darker corners. How much further down this slippery slope can he slide before Dean realises just how much his brother still needs to be saved?




November 2007

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