"If that's how you win wars then I don't want to win."

'The rules of jus in bello (or justice in war) serve as guidelines for fighting well once war has begun. Some maintain that morality does not exist in warfare, and therefore object to just war theory. War is hell, the argument goes, and one is entitled to do whatever is necessary to ensure victory for one's own side. Just war theory, on the other hand, sets forth a moral framework for warfare and rejects the notion that "anything goes" during times of war. Belligerent armies are entitled to try to win, but they cannot do anything that is, or seems, necessary to achieve victory. There are restraints on the extent of harm, if any, that can be done to non-combatants, and restraints on the weapons of war. These restraints aim to limit war once it has begun […] Jus in bello also requires that the agents of war be held responsible for their actions.'
www.beyondintractability.org

Got all that? Good. Moving on.

This episode was not originally intended to air in this slot, we should note up front. At the time of writing and shooting, this was scheduled to air as episode 11, rather than episode 12, before last week's instalment, Mystery Spot. The switch does have an impact on continuity, and trying to figure out the ramifications and permutations makes my head ache! It'll be interesting to see which order they place in on the DVD box set.

"Hope to hell you boys are ready. 'Cause the war is just begun," Bobby warns, in place of Dean's usual voiceover.

Then.

Special Agent Victor Henriksen was on the trail of the brothers Winchester. It was his job to bring them in, alive being a bonus but not necessary, he informed Dean.

The demon Ruby provided enigmatic support and advice to Sam, and then finally also met Dean, who was less impressed. It was revealed that Ruby had been a witch back when she was still human.

Various newly freed demons conveyed the message that Sam had been intended to lead an army of demons on behalf of the Yellow-Eyed Demon. The demon Tammi informed Sam that there was a new demonic leader rising, who didn't like him very much, not wanting the competition.

"There are a couple hundred more demons out there now. There ain't enough hunters in the world to handle something like this," hunter Isaac warned, shortly before his death.

And Bela Talbot stole the Colt from Dean and Sam.

Now.

Monument, Colorado. Dean and Sam break into a hotel room, guns at the ready, and start searching the joint, only to find that it has already been well and truly cleaned out.

"Sure this is Bela's room?" Sam wonders.
Dean straightens up with a wig in each hand. "I'd say so."

The phone rings. Both brothers turn to stare at it in some alarm, but can't quite resist finding out who is calling and why, just in case it is a lead. Dean picks up the receiver.

"Dean? Sweetie? Are you there?" Bela coos.
"Where are you?" Dean demands.
"Two states away by now," Bela chirps.
"Where?" Dean grimly repeats.
"Where's our usual quippy banter? I miss it?" Bela laughs.

Dean's voice is very quiet and menacing as he tells her that he wants the Colt back, now. Bela has no interest in complying with this demand. "You understand how many people are going to die if you do this?" Dean presses. He's being remarkably restrained, considering. Bela wonders exactly what it is he expects her to do with the gun. "Take the only weapon we have against an army of demons and sell it to the highest bidder," Dean guesses, reasonably enough. It's what she always does with unique supernatural items, after all.

And right here in this first scene the episode switch is glaring, because all this so blatantly follows on immediately from the events of Dream a Little Dream of Me, rather than Mystery Spot. Bela even has the Colt sitting right alongside her in the car, rather than safely locked away someplace already.

"You know nothing about me," says Bela, taking offence despite the fact that she has never given Dean or Sam any reason to think anything other than the absolute worst of her. The implication of this little line is that she wants the Colt for something other than monetary profit, but who knows, with her?

"I know I'm going to stop you," Dean grimly insists. Bela retorts that those are tough words for a guy who can't even find her. Dean counters that he will find her. "You know why? 'Cause I have absolutely nothing better to do than to track you down."

Bela smirks that he's wrong there – he's about to be quite occupied. Dean becomes alarmed. "Did you really think I wouldn't take precautions?" she crows.

Right on cue, armed police kick the door down. Bela hangs up, smugly satisfied with her own evilness, as Dean and Sam are cornered without any hope of escape and quickly find themselves face down on the carpet being cuffed and arrested. Just to make an already bad day even worse, Special Agent Victor Henriksen comes strolling in. "Hi, guys," he quips. "It's been a while."

The brothers exchange worried glances, and Dean lets his head drop back down onto the carpet in despair, his expression the most perfect combination of oh crap and that bitch, while Sam just looks freaked as hell.

So, whatever lead it was that brought the brothers to this room was simply bait for Bela's trap. Unbelievable. She has managed to outwit and screw them over yet again. Please, Show, please let the brothers get their own back on her sooner rather than later, now that you have gone the whole hog and made her a pretty irrevocable enemy.

Titles.

Monument County Sheriff's office. Henriksen comes bustling in wondering where everyone is, since he asked for all their men. The place is almost deserted, just the sheriff, the deputy and a young receptionist, and the sheriff shrugs that Henriksen got all his men – they went with him on the raid. Henriksen can't believe that four men are all they've got. Sheriff snorts that that was all he could drum up with an hour's notice, pointing out that this is a small town. Henriksen steams off toward the cells, and all Sheriff and Deputy can do it trail after him.

There is just one occupant in the cells: a drunk, sleeping it off. Henriksen demands the keys, and throws the prisoner out. He doesn't know it yet, but he probably just saved the man's life. It says a lot that Henriksen is so leery of the boys pulling a Houdini on him again that he won't even risk leaving another prisoner in the same cell block with them. Sheriff protests that Henriksen can't just release his prisoners. Arrogant as always, Henriksen condescends that he understands that they are Mayberry PD and this isn't how he'd do it if he had his choice, but a tip's a tip and they had to move fast.

Sheriff takes offence, protesting that this isn't his first rodeo. Henriksen retorts that he's never been to a rodeo like this. "You have any idea who we're about to bring in here?" Couple of fugitives, Sheriff dismisses, unimpressed. "The most dangerous criminals you've ever laid your eyeballs on," Henriksen corrects. "Think Hannibal Lecter and his half-wit little brother."

Oy! How little he knows.

"You know what these guys do for kicks?" Henriksen continues. "Dig up graves and mutilate corpses. They're not just killers, sheriff, they're Satan-worshipping nutbag killers. So, work with me here."

Sitting at her desk nearby, the receptionist starts to look nervous, fingering the cross she's wearing. Her desk is littered with religious paraphernalia, just so we know that she's a good little Catholic girl.

Henriksen sneers that if Sheriff just goes along with his requests, he'll get the paperwork filed and the prisoners shipped off to Supermax in time for Sheriff to go home and watch the farming report. Sheriff takes offence once again, and rightly so, but swallows it and offers as tight smile as he grits "however we can help," while cursing with his eyes. Henriksen instructs him to post his four men at the exits. Sheriff rolls his eyes as he peels away to comply, while the little receptionist looks increasingly nervous at the prospect of encountering these dangerous criminals. Henriksen gets on the radio to his partner, Reidy, to bring them in, since they're as ready as they're going to be.

The doors open, and Dean and Sam Winchester are led in, heavily cuffed and shuffling along chained to each other at the ankle. They pause at the reception area, so we can get a good long look at Henriksen, Sheriff, Deputy and Receptionist all gathered around glowering at them.

"Why all the sour pusses?" Dean snarks, because Dean always reacts in exactly the same way to confrontations with authority, while Sam fidgets uncomfortably and takes note of the name plate giving Receptionist to us as Nancy Fitzgerald, and the rosary she is nervously hanging on to.

Reidy hauls on Dean's arm by way of encouragement to keep walking, but as the journey to the cells continues, Dean glances at Nancy with a warning. "We're not the ones you should be scared of, Nancy." Nancy continues to finger her rosary and twitch with nervousness about being in the presence of such notorious criminals.

Cell. The brothers shuffle inside in their chains and are locked in and left alone to get settled. It's a single cell with only one narrow bed, clearly not designed for double occupancy. Dean tries to wander over toward the window to look out, while Sam turns back to the barred door to have a look at the lock, but since their ankles are chained together all they succeed in doing is tripping each other up. Dean suggests that they try sitting, but for some reason they seem to feel this requires switching position so that Dean is nearer the door and Sam nearer the window – man, they've brainwashed themselves with that! They very gracelessly shuffle and fumble around one another, with rather more shoving than strictly necessary, although the frustration is understandable, and then drop onto the bed with a grunt. There's a moment of shocked silence at the magnitude of their predicament.

"How are we going to Houdini out of this one?" Dean wonders, at length.
"Good question," Sam mutters, sounding scared.

Reception. Henriksen gets on the phone to his superior to announce the good news, demanding that 'Steven' be hauled out of whatever meeting he's in to hear this.

Far away at FBI HQ, in an office whose wall is well decorated with Winchester mugshots, one agent Steven Groves takes Henriksen's call. Hey, it's Peter DeLuise – I almost didn't recognise him.

Okay, and here's the info from Dean's wanted poster, because we all know we need to have it recorded for posterity:
Aliases: J. Mahoggof, Jerry Garcia, John Smith, Donald Strump, etc.
Age: 26 (at the start of season one, yeah, but a couple of years have gone by since then!)
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 175lbs
Eyes: hazel
Hair: light brown
Build: fit
Complexion: fair
Race: white
Nationality: American
Markings: unknown
Language: English
Occupation: unknown

This is the third time we've caught a glimpse of Dean's police file, and the physical description has been slightly different each time. Alas, but we don't get a good look at Sam's description. But there's all kinds of other stuff pinned up there, as well – from Dean's phone number scribbled on a motel business card for a girl named Anna to a map of the US with all known sightings carefully marked out, plus random traffic camera footage, security camera footage from the bank in Milwaukee, and so on.

Henriksen announces that he's got them. "Well, I'll be damned," snarks Groves, leafing through a file. "I was betting on your headstone reading: couldn't catch the Winchester boys." And…he could just be a demanding boss, but there's just something about him that screams 'demon', right from the off.

Henriksen is proud to announce that the Winchester brothers will be at Supermax by morning. Groves wants to know how. Armoured bus loaded with men, is Henriksen's plan. Groves doesn't like the idea. Henriksen insists that they are taking every precaution. "Like the last time?" Groves digs. "And the time before that? Screw that. I'm sending a chopper."

Helicopter? Flying? Dean won't like that idea.

Henriksen can only defer to what his boss think is best. Groves adds that he'll be on the chopper himself. "Can't take you losing those boys again. They've been a primary thorn in my ass for months. So, Victor – glue your eyeballs to 'em until I get there."

Heading back to the cells, Henriksen informs Sheriff that there's a chopper in its way. Sheriff blusters that they don't have a helicopter pad, so Henriksen snaps for him to clear the parking lot, in that case.

Cell. It's very quiet. Dean is sitting on the edge of the bed still, while Sam has slumped back to slouch against the wall in depression. Sam's dejection never lifts, through the entire episode – this turn of events really has knocked the stuffing out of him. It's the first time they've been so badly tripped up by the authorities; the only other time they were both arrested at the same time without having planned it in advance was The Usual Suspects, when Sam, at least, was kept under only minimal security and there was no federal involvement to complicate matters. Escape was easy, and once Sam was free he had possibilities for retrieving his brother. This time, though, the security is watertight, and if they both go to jail with no pre-arranged exit strategy, they can't fight this war and Sam can't find a way to save Dean.

So here's another thought about the switch of episode order, and an instance in which it works extremely well: the relaxed good humour of both brothers at the start of Mystery Spot fitted very neatly with the positive resolution they reached at the end of Dream a Little Dream of Me, while Sam's downbeat attitude throughout Jus in Bello follows on well from his nightmare experience in Mystery Spot. Even the fact that he is so quiet in this episode works perfectly coming in the wake of Mystery Spot, in which he spent so many months living and working in absolute isolation, avoiding human contact where possible. Those months might not have really happened, but they were a very real experience for Sam, and one that should take a while to recover from.

Having been instructed to keep a close eye on the brothers, Henriksen arrives to gloat over their capture. They each spare him a glance and then turn away, disgusted and despondent. He starts waffling on about how he's trying to decide what to have for dinner tonight by way of celebration: steak or lobster. Sam flashes a morose glare at him, while Dean frowns in disbelief at the lameness of the mocking.

"I got a lot to celebrate, I mean, after all," Henriksen taunts. "Seeing you two in chains…"
"You kinky son-of-a-bitch, we don't swing that way," Dean instantly mocks.

All about the bravado, Dean warns the agent not to celebrate yet, pointing out that he couldn't catch them in that bank and couldn't keep him in that jail. Unconcerned, Henriksen freely admits that he screwed up there, that he underestimated them, didn't count on them being that smart. Didn't take his own advice, in other words, because he was all over bragging to everyone else about how smart and dangerous they are. "But now, I'm ready," he insists.

"Ready to lose us again?" Dean seems more than willing to engage in a little hostile banter, while Sam just stays right out of the conversation, still slumped against the wall in sullen silence.

"Ready like a court order to keep you in a Super-Maximum prison in Nevada till trial," Henriksen announces, and Sam's head whips around in alarm. "Ready like isolation in a soundproof windowless cell so small that, between you and me, probably unconstitutional," he smirks, and Dean looks shaken. "How's that for ready?"

The brothers are trapped and they know it: no way out of this one.

"Take a good look at Sam," Henriksen mocks. "You two will never see each other again."

Heh. Even human enemies know full well that that is the worst possible threat. Both brothers look deeply disturbed at the prospect of separation, snapping double-barrelled death glares at their captor.

"Aww, where's that smug smile, Dean?" Henriksen gloats, and Dean rolls his eyes. "I want to see it!"
Dean can only shake his head in disbelief that this is happening. "You've got the wrong guys," he sighs.
"Oh yeah, I forgot," Henriksen snips. "You fight monsters. Sorry, Dean. Truth is: your daddy brainwashed you with all that devil talk, and no doubt touched you in a bad place. That's all. That's reality."

Ooh, and that little dig about John finally draws a firm reaction from Sam, as he snaps upright immediately to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with his brother, a defiant gesture of solidarity.

"Why don't you shut your mouth," Dean snarls, smartass bravado crumbling in the face of an attack on his father, as usual.
"Well, guess what: life sucks, get a helmet, 'cause everybody's got a sob story, but not everybody becomes a killer," Henriksen proclaims.

The sound of a helicopter landing fills the room, and Sam glances in alarm at the light flooding through the tiny window. Dean doesn't react to the prospect of flying in any way; maybe Phantom Traveler really did cure him of that phobia, or maybe it's just the least of his worries right now. Henriksen is happy to think that he has two less killers to worry about now, checks his watch and grins that it's Surf-and-Turf time, before heading off with a laugh to greet his boss.

Left alone, Sam morosely broods and Dean drops his head into his hand.

Reception. Henriksen holds out a hand in greeting, but instead of shaking it, Groves instead hands him a stack of paperwork to fill out. "What can I say? The FBI didn't invent bureaucracy: we perfected it," Groves chirps. Oh yeah. He's definitely a demon. Henriksen is incredulous at the thought that he is expected to do all this paperwork right away, and Nancy looks amused at his discomfiture. Meanwhile, Groves announces, he is going to take a good long look at their fugitives. He heads off, Henriksen seethes, and Reidy hands him a pen.

Cells. Groves closes the door to the cellblock behind him, setting all kinds of metaphorical alarm bells ringing. So blatantly a demon. Tammi told us in Malleus Maleficarum that there was a faction of demons on the lookout for Sam on behalf of their new leader; it makes all kinds of sense that they'd plant one at the FBI, in the department also searching for the Winchesters, in case of a lead coming through that way – just as it now has. But still: what does it say about the efficiency of these demons that they haven't managed to track him down before now? Ruby never seems to have any trouble finding him! And neither did Meg, or the Yellow-Eyed Demon.

Sam stays sitting on the bed, but Dean stands to face this new visitor.

"Sam and Dean Winchester, I'm Deputy Director Steven Groves," Groves introduces himself, although neither brother is impressed by the formality. "This is a pleasure," he grins.
"I'm glad one of us feels that way," Dean snarks, with an eye roll.
"I've been waiting a long time for you two to come out of the woodwork," Groves continues.

Then, with no further ado, he pulls out a gun and shoots. Point-blank range. Luckily, he's a really suck shot – I mean, seriously: Dean is all of two feet away, but he can't manage a kill? Dean takes the shot clean through the left shoulder, and blood splatters across the wall behind him. That's the second time now he's been shot in that arm, but the first perforating injury either brother has suffered; they've tended to be penetrating before now. Let us take a moment to admire Sam's lightning reflexes, as he leaps off the bed at once and dives for the gun, grappling for it in a desperate attempt to divert the man's aim as he fires again and again. Let us also remember that both brothers are still handcuffed, and they are still joined at the ankle by that chain, so can't move more than a couple of feet from one another. Fortunately for Dean, who is too busy falling on the bed clutching at his wounded shoulder to take evasive action, Groves misses every time, although only just, even before Sam manages to grab the gun.

This attack follows a similar pattern to that in Malleus Maleficarum; this faction of demons seems very keen to take Dean out first, presumably so as to devote fuller time and attention to Sam at their leisure.

Groves reveals his demon-black eyes to Sam, who gasps in shock, but reacts instantly, rattling off a stream of Latin with incredible speed. I love that Sam has memorised at least one exorcism in case of need and, remembering Sin City, hope that Dean has followed this good example by now. Groves starts growling, head whipping around and spinning and whatnot, but the super-speed exorcism fails to expel the demon from his body. He regains his composure to grin evilly at Sam. "Sorry I've got to cut this short. Gonna be a long night, fellas."

With those parting words, the demon exits Groves' body and rushes away through an air vent, leaving Groves to collapse on the floor, dead, releasing his gun into Sam's grasp.

Out in the reception area, Henriksen and Reidy hear Groves bellowing as the demon leaves his body, and rush to investigate, along with Sheriff and Deputy. And yet they somehow failed to hear all those gunshots a moment earlier? A silencer on the weapon, I'm told. I know nothing about guns.

Sheriff and Deputy race into the cells, weapons at the ready, and start bellowing at Sam to put the gun down, yelling that he shot Groves. Alarmed at how fast this is escalating, Sam protests that he didn't shoot him, and Dean, who has regained his feet now, shouts that it was Groves who shot him. Henriksen and Reidy arrive to add to the number of people all yelling over the top of each other and bellow at Sam to get on his knees. Sam gingerly posts Groves' gun through the bars and insists again that he didn't shoot the man, suggesting that they check the body. Reidy does so and, just as Sam said, finds no bullet wound.

"He's probably been dead for months," Dean interjects, in a pained voice. Henriksen demands to know what they did to him. Dean insists that they didn't do anything, but Henriksen commands that they talk or he shoots. "You won't believe us," Dean wearily tells him.

"He was possessed," Sam explains, seeing no option but to at least try offering the truth.

Henriksen scoffs at the notion, and orders the chopper to be fired up so they can get the brothers out of there, immediately. Reidy tries to radio out to the helicopter, but gets only static. Because there's a demon in the building, of course. Consternation reigns, and Reidy heads outside to find out what's going on.

Outside. Reidy is highly alarmed to find that the two men posted to guard the exit are just lying around dead with their throats slit. Pulling out his gun, he proceeds with caution to the helicopter, only to find two more dead cops and a dead pilot. That's all Sheriff's men gone, then – he said he only had the four available, so this makes a wholesale slaughter. Reidy is horrified and tries to radio back to Henriksen that they are all dead, only to be blown off his feet as the helicopter explodes.

The explosion is heard in the cellblock, much to everyone's alarm. Henriksen wonders what the hell that was and tries to raise his partner by radio, while Sam and Dean gape at one another in shock at how fast and how badly this whole situation is spiralling out of control.

Outside, Reidy regains his senses as Henriksen's concerned voice asking him to please talk about what's going on comes crackling over the radio. He picks himself up to stare in amazement at the burning helicopter, and then turns to find one of the dead cops standing right behind him. He starts to scream as the demon punches its fist right through his chest, or whatever.

Inside. Reception area. Sheriff and Deputy frantically gear up, while Nancy desperately tries to get a call for help out of the building, but can't get a line, or a signal for her cell. Even the Internet connection is down. Sheriff and Deputy are panicking about their men. Henriksen ignores them all, staring pensively at the door, deep in thought, silently collecting himself in preparation for what needs to be done.

The lights go out. And see? This, right here, this is the sense of genuine danger and siege that is missing in Croatoan.

Down in the cells, Dean and Sam rise to stand in perfect unison at this latest development. "That can't be good," mutters Dean, as the emergency lights kick in.

Out in the reception area, local law enforcement is in full panic, Sheriff loudly stuttering that they all have to go, right now. Henriksen snaps into action and takes charge, telling them all to calm down, and I love that he is so composed and so competent. Sheriff shouts that Henriksen's partner is out there – his men are out there. Henriksen knows all this, but he's a cool head in a crisis and is going to focus on more immediate concerns, such as the safety of all the people still inside the building. "We go out there, we're asking to die, too," he firmly points out. "Don't you get it? They're out there and they're coming in here. This is a siege. So this might be a good time for you to lock the doors, and the windows, take a breath, and maybe deal with this like trained professionals who have some sense in their heads."

He has no idea who this 'they' he's talking about actually is, of course. The stern words do the trick, though, as Sheriff and Deputy take the point and calm down. With Sheriff and Deputy wandering off to make themselves useful locking down the building, Henriksen takes a moment to check on Nancy. He asks if she's okay. Nancy at first automatically nods that she's fine, but quickly breaks down into an almost-tearful shake of the head. "I wouldn't think so," Henriksen sympathises, and I love about him that the care and safety of civilians is such a top priority. "Nancy, right? I'm going to get you through this. You've got my word. You got that?" Nancy is reassured, and smiles.

Cell. This is as close as we've ever come to seeing one brother perform first aid on the other on the show, and it pleases me greatly. Sam has found what I hope is a clean handkerchief to apply pressure to Dean's gunshot wound, although he's focusing his attention on the entry wound, when research and 14 seasons of ER tell me that the exit wound would be a lot messier and bloodier and therefore should be more of a priority. "Don't be such a wuss," he mutters when Dean lets out the tiniest grunt of pain.

The switch in episode order comes slightly into play again here, Sam taking Dean's injury so much in his stride when you might expect him to be rather twitchier about his brother getting hurt again in the wake of his many deaths in Mystery Spot. On the other hand, though, you could argue that he spent all his immediate panic on dealing with the possessed Groves, and has no reason to be overly concerned now that it is clear the injury is not life threatening. They've both been shot before.

I can't help but wonder, mind…more pressing crisis of the siege notwithstanding, but if the brothers actually did go to trial, surely any good defence lawyer would have a field day with a situation like this: an unarmed prisoner in chains being shot in his cell by a federal agent and then left without medical attention for an extended period of time!

"What's the plan?" Henriksen asks, appearing outside the cell once more to glower at the brothers. "Kill everyone in the station, bust you two out?" Dean wonders what the hell he's talking about. "I'm talking about your psycho friends," Henriksen rages. "I'm talking about a bloodbath!"

"Okay, I promise you, whoever's out there is not here to help us," Dean firmly assures him.
"You've got to believe us," Sam adds. "Everyone here is in terrible danger."
"You think?" Henriksen snorts.
"Why don't you let us out of here so we can save your asses?" Dean grumps.
"From what?" Henriksen wants to know, steely-eyed. The brothers fidget and exchange uncomfortable glances, and Henriksen is enraged. "You gonna say demons? Don't you dare say demons! Let me tell you something: you should be a lot more scared of me."

He storms away, leaving the brothers alone again. Dean lets out a frustrated sigh.

"How's the shoulder?" Sam murmurs.
Dean shows him the bloody cloth he's been holding to the injury, and then throws it on the floor, frustrated. "Awesome. I'll live. You know: if we get out of here alive. So, you got a plan?"

Sam is too busy gingerly poking at the exit wound in Dean's back and wincing in sympathy to respond. You'd think they'd at least take his coat off to get a decent look at the injury and allow for cleaning it up properly. And Dean's too busy clenching and being in pain to listen even if Sam did have a cunning plan up his sleeve. I love that the props department have actually gone to the trouble of letting us clearly see the bloody holes in Dean's jacket this time, unlike in Born Under a Bad Sign, when his coat miraculously survived a similar injury undamaged. Makes the injury more convincing.

Dean notices that they have an audience, draws Sam's attention to the fact that Nancy is peeking at them from around the corner, and lets his brother take over.

"Please. Please, we need your help," Sam gently calls, gesturing at Dean with a rattle of shackles as he plays up their situation in hope of gaining the girl's sympathy and cooperation. "It's Nancy. Nancy, right? Nancy, my brother's been shot, he's bleeding really bad. You think maybe you could get us a towel? Please? Just one clean towel. Look, look at us, we're not the bad guys, I swear."

Sam's working his sincerest puppy-dog eyes to fullest advantage, although Dean can only manage to rustle up a quick flash of a very fake smile by way of convincing Nancy that he isn't one of the bad guys. Sam, with his mild manners, is very good at making a good impression on a superficial level and gaining the sympathy of strangers; Dean isn't so good at first impressions, but he is better at connecting with people on a more intimate level – and no, that doesn't just mean sex – given time and understanding.

Without saying a word, Nancy retreats back around the corner, and both brothers slump in defeat. Dean tells Sam it was a nice try, turning away to reflect on how much their situation sucks. But then Sam turns back to see that Nancy has reappeared with a clean, white towel clutched in her hand, as requested. Sam thanks her, and raises his hands to show that he is harmless as she edges closer, murmuring quiet reassurances as if she's a skittish horse that could bolt at any moment. Which, in fairness, she could. She's a good little Catholic girl from a small town where nothing ever happens, and she's been told that these men are dangerous, devil-worshipping killers, and was afraid of them even before the lights went out and people started to die. To her credit, though, she's the only person in the station showing any concern at all about the fact that they have an injured man locked up in chains with no access to first aid.

With Sam being as sympathetic and reassuring as he knows how, Nancy calms a little, and even manages a small smile as she carefully pushes the hand holding the towel through the bars so that he can take it. Putting her arm into the cell is a mistake, though, and one that no one who works at a police station even in a small town like this should make. All she needs to do is push enough of the cloth through for Sam to get hold of and pull. As it is, she leaves herself wide open, and Sam grabs her arm and pulls her hard against the bars, much to everyone's shock. Nancy screams, and Deputy comes running with his shotgun to save her. Dean hastily tries to calm the situation as Sam lets go of Nancy, who scurries away in renewed fear.

"Try something again, get shot," Deputy warns. "And not in the arm." He escorts Nancy away, and Dean smacks Sam, wondering what the hell that was all about. Sam turns to show his brother that, as well as the towel, he has purloined Nancy's rosary. That's very smart.

Later. Dean sits pressing the towel Nancy provided against his still-untreated injury. Shouldn't Sam have ripped it up as an impromptu bandage by now, or something?

"We're like sitting ducks in here," Sam grunts, morose.
"Yeah, I know," Dean murmurs, then raises his voice to shout down the hallway, annoyed with the entire situation. "Would it kill these cops to bring us a snack?"
"How many do you figure are out there?" Sam rather pointlessly asks, since Dean has no more way of knowing than he does.
"I don't know," Dean sighs.
"However many there are, they could be possessing anyone, anyone could just walk right in," Sam frets. Such a doom merchant, winding himself up.
"It's kind of wild, right?" Dean muses. "I mean it's like they're coming right for us. Never done that before." He grins, ever the glass-half-full guy. "It's like we've got a contract on us. Think it's because we're so awesome? I think its cause we're so awesome."

Successfully distracted from his worrying, if only for a moment, Sam bestows one of his patented bitchfaces on his brother. When you think about it, though, and bearing in mind later revelations and developments, Sam has no business being so snotty about Dean's rambling attempt to make sense of what's going on, given that he is deliberately withholding information from his brother that could and would shed a lot of light on their current situation. Maybe it just hasn't ever occurred to him that what he knows is relevant here, or that it might be useful for Dean to know as well.

Sheriff wanders up and unlocks the cell, without saying a word. "Well, howdy, there, sheriff," Dean chirps as the brothers stand to see what he wants, but the man can't look them in the eyes. He's lost it, in over his head and sinking fast. He says it's time to go, but the brothers, not getting a reassuring vibe off his attitude or actions, take a step back away from him, Dean evading that they are comfy where they are, thanks all the same. Whatever he wants them out of the cell for clearly isn't good, and they know only too well that the demon – demons – could be anywhere and anyone.

Henriksen arrives to ask what Sheriff thinks he's doing. Sheriff, scared out of his wits by a situation he is totally unprepared for, insists that he isn't going to sit around waiting to die and that they are going to make a run for it. Presumably he intends to use the brothers as a human shield, assuming – like Henriksen – that whoever is out there is trying to help them break free. The brothers cast anxious, and vaguely suspicious, glances at Henriksen as Sheriff argues that there is a SWAT facility in Boulder. Henriksen firmly states that they are not going anywhere. Sheriff insists that they are, whereupon Henriksen raises his gun and shoots him in the head, just like that. Bang! Yikes!

The brothers react instantly, Dean forgetting about his injured shoulder as he grabs Henriksen's gun arm to prevent him shooting anyone else, while Sam grabs the other arm, and then between the two of them they manage to haul him across the room and dunk his head in the little cell toilet. Because they've used Nancy's rosary to bless it and turn it into impromptu holy water, and there's just something so gross and practical about that kind of improvisation, it's fantastic. It's wonderful when they are allowed to be so competent and resourceful.

Holding Henriksen down, Sam hurriedly starts rattling off another exorcism, the words practically falling over one another as they trip off his tongue, he's talking so fast. Deputy comes running, shotgun in hand, and Dean promptly turns Henriksen's gun on him with a yell to stay back.

Sam hauls Henriksen up so he can take a breath, then dunks him once more as he continues to chant. As Nancy tentatively pops her head around the corner to see what's going on, Dean keeps his gun trained on Deputy and calls for Sam to hurry up. There's only so long they can keep this situation from escalating still further, what with that being an FBI agent they are assaulting in their cell, and a police officer being held at gunpoint, and all. Sam lets Henriksen take another breath, and the demon gloats that it is too late. "I already called them! They're already coming!"

Sam dunks him once more and keeps chanting. Finally, it's all over. For now. Sam pulls Henriksen back, and watches as the black demon smoke comes pouring out of him. Dean is distracted, and lowers his weapon to watch the show, so it's probably a good thing that Deputy is even more distracted, never having seen anything like this before, and so doesn't think to take advantage. Nancy is wide-eyed with amazement.

Henriksen slumps to the floor, and everyone else takes a moment to catch their breath. "Is he dead?" Nancy quavers, just as Henriksen coughs his way back to consciousness in answer to her question. Good timing, Vic.

"Henriksen. Hey. Is that you in there?" Sam gruffs, sounding almost as shaken as Nancy is.

Make or break time. Henriksen scrambles onto the bed and sits in shock. There doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rule about whether or not someone who has been possessed will remember their experience, but Henriksen appears to be enjoying – or not enjoying – full recall. "I, uh, I shot the sheriff," he disbelieves, struggling to process what just happened to him.

Dean struggles with himself for a moment, but simply can't resist an opening like that. "But you didn't shoot the deputy," he quips, earning himself Sam's very bitchiest bitchface of the entire episode. Inappropriate humour shot down in flames, he subsides.

"Five minutes ago I was fine, and then…"" Henriksen mumbles.
"Let me guess," Dean finishes for him. "Nasty black smoke? Jammed itself down your throat?"
Henriksen stares in shock, because that, of course, is exactly what happened.
"You were possessed," Sam tells him, still slumped on the floor of the cell as he has been ever since the exorcism kicked in, because the effort apparently sapped all his energy.

Henriksen stares for a moment. He has never believed the brothers for a moment when they talked about demons and monsters. But he will have seen Dean's taped 'confession' from The Usual Suspects, has spoken to numerous witnesses from various episodes, who all insisted that Sam and Dean saved their lives, and tacitly admitted in Folsom Prison Blues that the evidence against them is riddled with inconsistencies. The brothers have been very, very consistent with their story, and the evidence of his own experience is staring him right in the face, impossible to deny.

"Possessed, like…possessed?" he frowns, struggling to accept this statement as reality.
"That's what it feels like. Now you know," says Sam, who knows this only too well from his own experience.

A pox on technology, as my copy blips right there. Why does every copy always have at least one glitch? It settles again as Dean finishes remarking that this is the biggest 'I told you so' ever. Henriksen just stares at him for a moment longer, well and truly rattled. Dean holds the gun out to him, a gesture of good faith the agent would never have expected from a supposedly psychotic killer. Taking the gun, Henriksen struggles with himself and the situation and what to believe for a moment longer, before making a massive decision and asking Deputy Amici for his keys. So now the final member of the group has a name, but I think I'll stick with just Deputy.

A few moments later Dean and Sam's handcuffs and hobble chain are dropped to the floor. They spent the entire first half of the episode in bondage, both of them – that's got to be some kind of a record!

"All right," Henriksen reluctantly says, still scarcely able to believe that he is willingly cooperating with the fugitives he has pursued for so long. "So how do we survive?"

Damn, but I really would love to see a scene where Henriksen gets a chance to sit down with the brothers and ask questions about all their various run ins with the law and how and why they came about. De-brief. Seriously. It would be awesome!

Later. Sam spray paints a devil's trap on the floor in front of one of the exits. Back in the reception area, Dean pores over a blueprint of the building, having marked devil's traps in red pen in front of each exit on the plan. And, whew – hello, biceps! Nancy is just finishing up a field dressing on his shoulder, and she's doing a much more thorough job of it than Jo did in Born Under a Bad Sign, although granted Dean's impatience didn't exactly help there, but there is blood soaking through the bandage to remind us that this is just a temporary patch job to get him through the current crisis. Henriksen and Deputy arrive with arms full of weapons and ammunition, and start loading up, but Dean is unimpressed, informing them that their weaponry isn't going to do much good. Deputy protests that they've got an arsenal here.

"You don't poke a bear with a BB gun," says Dean, calm, competent and assured. "Just going to make it mad." Henriksen asks what he needs, in that case. "Salt," Dean flatly replies. "Lots and lots of salt." Deputy incredulously repeats the word salt, and Dean snorts that there's an echo in there. Nancy pipes up that there is road salt in the storeroom. She is so much more useful in this crisis than Deputy. Dean is encouraged by this news, announcing that road salt is perfect, and that they need it lining every window and every door. Henriksen and Deputy hasten to comply, and I am very impressed by Henriksen's willingness to defer to Dean's knowledge and expertise now that he has accepted the truth. He really isn't a man for half measures.

Dean gently asks Nancy how she's holding up, much as Henriksen did earlier. Henriksen is totally who Dean would have been if he had gone into law enforcement. Nancy manages a brave smile and whispers that she's okay. "When I was little," she murmurs. "I would come home from church and talk about the devil – my parents would tell me to stop being so literal. I guess I showed them, huh."

She finishes fixing the bandage in place and announces that it should hold, and Dean thanks her with a smile, and it's a nice little moment between them. Then Deputy returns with two large sacks of road salt, and Dean asks where his car is. Impound lot out back, Deputy tells him, and then expresses horror when he realises that Dean intends to go out there. Dean insists that he has to get something out of his trunk, and takes off.

Outside. Deputy has apparently given Dean the key to the impound lot in order to speed the process of getting in and back out of there in one piece. He hurries to the Impala, and starts stuffing anything they might need into a duffle bag.

The lights at a nearby gas station start to flicker, and a massive cloud of black demon smoke sweeps across the ground, crackling with electric blue energy.

Dean is keeping a wary lookout while he works, glancing nervously at a flickering light nearby and taking anxious note of the swirling wind, both demonic omens. Then he hears a sound and turns to see that huge cloud of demon smoke heading his way. He grabs the bag, slams the trunk shut, and runs for it.

Inside. Sam is just finishing the final devil's trap, while the others busily salt the windows, as instructed. Dean makes it safely back inside, and bellows to warn everyone that the demons are coming. Nancy looks up just in time to see a tendril of smoke thump into the window, and screams.

The little band of survivors gathers in the reception area as the mass of demon smoke hits the building and completely blankets it, blocking out all light. The humans trapped inside anxiously wait it out, wait to see if their defences will hold, wait to see what will happen next.

What happens next is that light returns as the cloud lifts and moves away. Sam checks that everybody is okay, and Henriksen wryly snarks for him to define 'okay'. Dean gets down to business now that the crisis has been temporarily averted, briskly handing out charms on bits of string for them all to put on, to keep them from being possessed. It's very cool continuity that these look the same as the charms that Bobby gave the boys after Born Under a Bad Sign, and possibly two of them are even the very same charms, although they've clearly acquired at least one more in the meantime, in case of need. Nancy asks about Dean and Sam, since they aren't donning on any charm necklaces themselves.

Big reveal. The brothers pull back their shirt collars – Dean grimacing a little because the action aggravates his shoulder injury – to reveal matching tattoos just below the collarbone that look like little pentagrams inside flaming suns. So cool! When the hell did they get those! It couldn't have been before Heart, because we saw plenty of bare Sam flesh in that episode, and there was no tattoo. It seems most likely that this is a season three development, extra precautions being deemed necessary since there are so many more demons out there in the world. I just hope the makeup department remembers to give us a flash of these tattoos every time we catch a glimpse of their chests from now on! They are clearly meant to be permanent.

"Smart," Henriksen approves. "How long you had those?" I love that he asks that question, after we saw the wanted poster earlier with identifying marks listed as 'unknown'.
"Not long enough," Sam sombrely notes, in another subtle reference to his possession in Born Under a Bad Sign, but again without coming out and mentioning it overtly.

Later. Henriksen quietly studies Sheriff's nameplate, which finally tells us his name: Melvin Dodd. This was the man that he killed while possessed, and I like that it is weighing on him just as much as I like that he isn't allowing it to affect his focus on the task at hand, which is getting them all out of this alive. Professional. Sitting nearby loading his sawn-off with rock salt (or possibly road salt) Dean watches him, thoughtful.

Elsewhere, Nancy looks out of a window and is startled to see a couple of dozen people gathering menacingly, and gasps that she recognises one of them. Since this is such a small town, she probably recognises quite a lot of them, but this one girl in particular, Jenna, draws her attention. Sam quietly notes that it's not Jenna any more. The dead police officer who killed Reidy is among the crowd, as well. Demons are more effective when they have a human body to possess; that has been well established previously. And, again, this menacing group is way more effective than the random couple of lurkers in Croatoan.

"That's where all that black demon smoke went?" Nancy demonstrates that she has developed a very firm grasp of how all this works.
"Looks like," Sam agrees.

In a storeroom, meanwhile, Deputy pulls a chair across one of Sam's devil's traps over to the window. Why a devil's trap in front of that small window but not any of the bigger ones? I thought they were only in front of the doors… Oh, never mind. Deputy wipes condensation off the window to take a look outside, and, as he wanders off again, we see that he has broken the salt line without noticing. Nancy is definitely more useful and competent than he is!

Office. "Shot gun shells full of salt," Henriksen incredulously snorts, as he and Dean continue to prepare their arms together.
"Whatever works," Dean shrugs.
"Fighting off monsters with condiments," Henriksen disbelievingly continues, and I like that for all his decision to accept this as real, he's still having a hard time coming to terms with it. Who wouldn't? "So," he continues, trying hard for matter-of-fact. "Turns out demons are real."
Dean glances at him. "FYI. Ghosts are real, too. So are werewolves, vampires, changelings. Evil clowns that eat people."
The look on Henriksen's face at that one is a picture, but he made the decision that he was going to accept all this as real, and isn't about to turn back now. "Okay then," he nods.
"If it makes you feel better, Bigfoot's a hoax," Dean adds with a shrug, wonderfully down-to-earth.

When Henriksen turns disbelieving eyes toward him he slaps on a big fake smile in exactly the same way that he does whenever he says something ridiculous just to distract Sam from whatever's worrying him. It's exactly the same tactic that he employed in the cell earlier when Sam was fretting about how dire their situation was, and the result is exactly the same.

"It doesn't," Henriksen flatly says, but a very slight lightening of the mood has been achieved and Dean ducks his head to hide a more genuine smile.

I really love this scene. I love that these two have been on opposite sides for so long, and yet are so rapidly achieving an easy and even comfortable rapport with one another now that they are working together with the truth out and accepted, all barriers and prejudice removed. They have a lot in common, when you scratch the surface.

"How many demons?" Henriksen asks, getting back down to basics.
Dean glances up again. "Total? No clue. A lot."

Henriksen takes that on board, and then asks if Dean knows what his job is. "You mean beside locking up the good guys?" Dean can't quite resist getting a dig in there, adding that he has no idea what Henriksen's job is.

"My job is boring," Henriksen announces. "It's frustrating. You work three years for one break, and then maybe you can save a few people. Maybe. That's the payoff."

Dean listens quietly and nods, taking this in and being serious, because the man's world has been blown apart and he is sharing something important here. Dean must have saved hundreds of people, over the years. And that, without knowing any specifics with which to directly compare, is pretty much the point Henriksen is trying to make.

"Been busting my ass for fifteen years and nailed a handful of guys." Henriksen shakes his head ruefully. "And all this while there was something off in the corner so big. So yeah. Sign me up for that big frosty mug of wasting my damn life."
"You didn't know," Dean quietly says, and I love his inability to hold a grudge.
Henriksen looks him right in the eyes. "But now I do."

Now he does, and it makes all the difference, and wow, he'd make an excellent fledgling hunter in his spare time, with his training and resources, and he'd be an amazing contact for Sam and Dean to have now that they are fighting on the same side and understand one another. Such a valuable ally.

"What's out there – can you guys beat it? Can you win?" Henriksen asks, straight out. He's taking Dean so, so seriously as a fellow professional, an equal, ever since making that decision down in the cells, and it is awesome to see. Especially after everything he's said about Dean in the past, while blindly pursuing a quarry he had no hope of understanding. Dean might struggle to make a good first impression, but when it comes to forming meaningful connections with the people they encounter, he comes out miles ahead of Sam, who is growing ever more aloof as time goes by.

Dean takes a moment, and glances away, before meeting Henriksen's eyes once more to reply. "Honestly? I think the world's gonna end bloody. But it doesn't mean we shouldn't fight. We do have choices. I choose to go down swinging."
"Plus, you've got nothing to go home to but your brother," Henriksen points out, impressed by this attitude.
Dean reflects on this observation, and agrees that it is true. "What about you? You rocking the white picket fence?"
"Uh-uh. Nah," Henriksen admits. "Empty apartment, string of angry ex-wives – I'm right where you are."
"Imagine that," Dean remarks, and they both have to chuckle a little at the irony of it.

I love this scene so damn much. I love seeing Dean and Henriksen bonding like this, and learning how much they have in common in spite of their thorny past as enemies, both of them amused and kind of weirded out by the fact that they are so rapidly developing this marvellous mutual respect. It's fantastic.

A window breaks elsewhere in the building, and everyone hurries to see what it is. A demon has broken in through the window where Deputy broke the salt line, but is now trapped in the devil's trap below. Nifty doubled-up defences, there. Henriksen wonders how they kill her, but Sam immediately says that they don't, because she's there to help. It's Ruby. Henriksen, Deputy and Nancy are all puzzled and disturbed by this development, having firmly grasped the lesson that Demons Are Bad. Dean rolls his eyes with a groan, Ruby being the last person he feels like dealing with on top of everything else, and Ruby asks Sam if he's going to let her out.

Sam uses his knife to scrape enough paint away to break the trap and release Ruby. "And they say chivalry's dead," she mocks. "Does anyone have a breath mint? Some guts splattered in my mouth while I was killing my way in here." Heh. Sam then fixes the broken salt line at the window before following everyone else back to the reception area. I hope he also fixes that devil's trap, just in case.

Dean asks how many demons are out there, and Ruby reports at least 30 so far. Dean is not encouraged by the notion of 30 hitmen all gunning for them, and wants to know who sent them.

Ruby turns hard eyes toward Sam. "You didn't tell Dean? I'm surprised."
Dean's head snaps around in surprise at the news that his little brother has been withholding information from him. "Tell me what?" he wants to know.
"There's a big new up-and-comer," Ruby explains, and she's talking to Dean but her eyes are fixed on Sam the whole time to watch his reaction. "Real Pied Piper."

Sam fidgets uncomfortably. Viewers wonder why he chose to remain silent on this particular point. After all, it is hardly news to Dean that Sam was intended to lead the newly released army of demons, so there seems little sense in withholding the news that a faction of these demons are now uniting behind a new and powerful leader. Keeping this information secret doesn't protect Sam from anything Dean didn't already know about him, and is in fact dangerous, because it leaves Dean fighting a war with incomplete information about his enemy, so Sam can hardly argue that it is for Dean's own good to remain in the dark. It's exactly the sort of illogical need-to-know stunt that John used to pull all the time, leaving his sons in the dark for the whole of season one and convincing himself that doing so protected them somehow, when in fact their ignorance only served to endanger them from an enemy they were entirely unaware of. Sam is so much like his father, and always has been, and seeing him taking on more and more of John's characteristics – especially the ones he railed against most once upon a time – is both incredibly poignant and incredibly real. And it makes for an intriguing shifting dynamic between the brothers.

"Who is he?" Dean asks.
"Not he," Ruby immediately corrects. "Her. Her name is Lilith… And she really, really wants Sam's intestines on a stick. Guess she sees him as competition."

It's a shame there's no reaction shot of Henriksen and the others to see what they are making of this intriguing conversation. They're missing out on all the backstory that would make sense of such cryptic remarks, but can hardly fail to note the salient point that there is something important about Sam and that this is all somehow about him.

Dean looks at his brother. "You knew about this?" Sam still says nothing, caught out like this without any excuses prepared. "Well, gee, Sam, is there anything else I should know?" Dean is really unhappy about this, unsurprisingly. And yes, there is more that he should know that Sam has been holding back. But we're back to the episode switch once again, because Mystery Spot was written to air after this episode, but there was no sign in it of Dean following up on this point.

"How 'bout the two of you talk about this later," Ruby briskly suggests, uninterested in their domestic dramas, at least for the time being. "We'll need the Colt." Cue more uncomfortable shuffling, this time on the part of both brothers. Ruby grows concerned. "Where's the Colt?"

"It got stolen," Sam sullenly admits at last.
"I'm sorry. I must have blood in my ear," Ruby grits, furious. "I thought I just heard you say that you were stupid enough to let the Colt get grabbed out of your thick, stupid, idiotic hands."

The brothers exchange glances once more, but this time as partners in a shared scolding.

"Fantastic," Ruby fumes. "This is just peachy." Sam tries to say something, but she gives him the hand. "Shut up." Everyone in the room fidgets. Dean glances at Henriksen to see how he's taking all this. "Fine," Ruby bites out at length. "Since I don't see that there's any other option, there's one other way that I know to get you out of here alive." Dean wonders what it is. "I know a spell," she says. "It'll vaporise every demon in a one mile radius. Myself included! So you let the Colt out of your sight, and now I have to die. So next time, be more careful. How's that for a dying wish."

Everyone is silent, taking this in.

Okay, so this one is a biggie, but without full understanding of Ruby's overall aims and objectives, we have no way of knowing if she is actually serious here. In the end, she does not have to go through with this self-sacrificial offer, so it is impossible to judge whether or not she truly meant it.

Let us ponder on what we do know. For starters, we know that Ruby's initial plan revolved around the Colt, since she didn't know that the brothers had lost it. Finding out that it is gone was a serious spanner in the works of whatever she had planned, and therefore this suggestion is a contingency plan. But consider for a moment just how much use the Colt really would be against 30+ demons. It's an old-fashioned hammer action, one shot at a time, and the demons are hardly going to just line up to be killed, so it isn't the most efficient of weapons for this scenario. And we should also bear in mind that any use of the Colt involves the sacrifice of whatever innocent person a demon might happen to be possessing at any given time, and therefore that it really should be a weapon of last resort, rather than being seen as the first and only option. I'm actually glad that it is gone, because it was becoming far too easy for the brothers to simply shoot any demon they encountered, rather than seeking out and working toward less fatal outcomes. There are always casualties in war, of course, and the killing of host bodies in order to destroy the demons inside has been increasingly necessary this season, but becoming desensitised to what this actually means as the body count rises is dangerous.

Oh, but wouldn't it be amazing if Ruby went and killed Bela to get the Colt back? Imagine that confrontation.

As for Ruby's intentions…well, we do, of course, have to consider the possibility that she is serious, that she genuinely is on the side of humanity and genuinely is offering up her own life for the greater good. But all the evidence weighs against her. We have seen her manipulating Sam all season, luring him down a slippery slope of ethical darkness, and her reasons have never been clear. She told Sam that she was interested in finding out what the Yellow-Eyed Demon had planned for him, and told Dean that she wants to get Sam ready to fight this war alone – but what she has never said is which side of the war she wants him to fight. We've seen her working hard to keep Sam alive, and Dean as well, because Dean is the key to her hold over Sam, but there has never been any indication that she is otherwise on the side of humanity, fighting for the greater good. She murdered her way into the police station today without batting an eyelid; human lives mean nothing to her, that much is clear.

So is all this just one big dramatic gesture or test of some kind? Or is she for real? Without fuller information regarding her aims and ambitions, it is impossible to draw any firm conclusions.

"Okay," says Dean, taking Ruby at face value and not offering the slightest argument against her suggestion of self-sacrifice. She's a demon and he still doesn't like or trust her. "What do we need to do?"
Ruby chuckles. "You can't do anything. This spell is very specific. It calls for a person of virtue."
"I got virtue," Dean immediately tries to insist, and somehow no one but Ruby laughs.
"Nice try," she snorts. "You're not a virgin."

Dean scoffs at the notion of anyone being a virgin in this day and age, but we get a few misleading shots of the young Deputy, just to tease us with the notion that it might be him, before all eyes in the room fall on sweet, innocent Nancy, the good little Catholic girl. Dean can't believe that a pretty girl like that would have hung onto her virtue – can't believe that anyone would hang onto their virtue. Nancy is embarrassed, protesting that it's a choice. Dean still can't believe it and is awed at the thought, which says a lot more about Dean than it does Nancy, but we've always known that Dean is a highly sexed guy who struggles to see past his own preconceptions, so it's nothing new.

Nancy deflects all this attention by asking about the spell and what she has to do, and she's being so brave and eager to do her bit to help out, it's all the more chilling when Ruby coldly replies: "You can hold still. While I cut your heart out of your chest."

Yikes. And here's where things get really interesting. Because Nancy, of course, is shocked at the suggestion, as is Deputy, while Dean and Henriksen both argue loudly and fiercely against the mere suggestion of sacrificing one of their own, but Sam? Sam stays out of the debate.

"I'm offering a solution," Ruby insists.
"You're offering to kill somebody!" Dean protests.
"And what do you think is going to happen to this girl when the demons get in?" Ruby argues.
"We're going to protect her, that's what," Henriksen firmly states.

Dean and Henriksen are both seeing Nancy in exactly the same way in this situation: she's a civilian, a non-combatant, and therefore inviolable, an innocent to be protected, rather than a pawn to sacrifice to the battle. This isn't about the fact of her being a girl or the fact of her being a virgin, however fixated Dean is on that point – the whole notion of the virgin sacrifice is simply the show twisting another traditional mythological motif for its own purposes, removing any time-wasting debate about who should be the sacrifice by narrowing the options to just one, and creating a scenario with which to highlight the murky issue of wartime ethics. This argument is about Nancy's position in the arena of this war: the difference between a civilian and a soldier. And it's about more than that. It's about war as hell versus jus in bello, about whether or not it is ever acceptable to sacrifice a member of your own side, whether soldier or civilian, in cold blood, for the possibility of a cheap and hollow victory. What Ruby is suggesting here is murder, plain and simple, and claiming that they might as well do it because the demons will kill the girl anyway is no argument.

Do the ends always justify the means, or are some prices simply too high to pay? That question has come up again and again this season, here perhaps more glaringly than ever.

Nancy tries a couple of times to get a quavering word in edgeways, while Ruby scoffs at these noble sentiments, insisting that they are all going to die and this is the only way. But she's expecting them all to simply take her word for that, and it is important to remember that just because she claims there is no other solution, doesn't mean that it is true. Misdirection has been a major ongoing theme this season.

Dean firmly argues that there is no way they are going to let this girl die, and Nancy finally shouts loudly enough to get them all to shut up so she can say her piece.

"All the people out there. Will it save them?" Nancy wants to know.
"It'll blow the demons out of the bodies," Ruby nods. "So if their bodies are okay, yeah."

Well, we know that at least one of the possessed bodies out there is already dead, if not several – there were at least six agents or officers killed, including Reidy and the helicopter pilot, and we know that at least one of those officers has been reanimated by a demon. We also know that Ruby killed her way inside, presumably using her demon-killing knife, so it's safe to say there are already a few corpses littering the ground. Bloodbath is the right word. All because there's a demon that won't believe Sam isn't interested in competing for rule over the demon army. And so, bearing all that in mind, we already know that Ruby is manipulating this situation, emphasising the evidence that supports her agenda while downplaying anything that doesn't. She isn't interested in saving any lives here, other than Sam's, of course, but it is in her interest to reassure Nancy that saving lives will be the outcome. Misdirection and manipulation.

Nancy and Ruby hold one another's eyes for a long, long moment. Since Ruby's plan also supposedly involves her own destruction, there has to be an element of pressure here for Nancy to live up to the self-sacrificial example before her. She's a good Christian girl, and she cares very much about her friends outside, being used as meat puppets by a bunch of demons. Plus, she's standing in a room flooded with testosterone, full of men prepared to fight to the death to protect her. She nods. "I'll do it."

Dean and Henriksen immediately explode with refusal to allow this to happen.

"All my friends are out there," Nancy says. She wants to save them, even if it costs her life. She's a hero.
"We don't sacrifice people," Henriksen firmly states. "We do that we're no better than them."

Dean casts an approving glance in his direction at this clear statement of their mutual moral stance here. It's amazing and wonderful and all kinds of ironic to see how utterly in sync these two have so quickly and easily become, hunter and FBI agent, both such natural warriors.

"We don't have a choice," Ruby insists.
"Your choice is not a choice," Dean angrily counters.
"Sam? You know I'm right." Ruby now tries to draw Sam into the debate, appealing to him to back her up, and that's interesting, that she expects him to.

Let us consider for a moment what Ruby could possibly gain from this plan, in the light of what she has appeared or claimed to be working toward all season. If she goes through with it and dies, she gains nothing – Sam might survive, but Ruby would no longer be around to pull his strings. Seen in this light, the offer looks pretty altruistic, self-sacrifice for the greater good.

But, as previously mentioned, there is no evidence whatsoever that Ruby cares in the slightest about the greater good, and we will never know if she actually would have gone through with this. The only thing we really know her to care about is Sam and Sam's future, and everything we have seen her do all season has been carefully calculated to guide him along the dark path toward becoming a cold and ruthless warrior willing to do whatever it takes to achieve success, but without stipulating how that success might be defined. Blurring the boundaries between what is and isn't acceptable until Sam can no longer see the lines he is crossing. What greater test of his progress could there be than this: the willing sacrifice of an innocent in pursuit of victory? If he sides with her, it is proof of how far along that path he has already come, and only then might we discover whether or not Ruby actually would allow herself to be destroyed, or if she has some other card up her sleeve. Everything we know about her makes willing self-sacrifice inconceivable, given that she has worked so hard to insinuate her way into Sam's life and trust and achieve this powerful hold over him. Achieving such an enormous success, as she would if Sam agreed with her here, would ultimately be worthless if she wasn't around to reap the reward, and it is far more likely that she is playing an intricate game here, one with incredibly high stakes, and that only she truly knows what the rules are.

I will feel a lot more comfortable analysing Ruby's actions and intentions once her aims and motivations have been fully revealed. For now, all we have to go on is supposition and speculation, half-truths and misdirection, all of which make an accurate assessment impossible.

Dean looks at his brother in amazement, clearly also finding it interesting and alarming that Ruby expects his support on this issue. Sam says nothing, just stands there brooding sullenly, but the fact that he hasn't rejected the suggestion out of hand as Dean and Henriksen did says everything that his mouth isn't. He's considering the idea.

"Sam?" Dean also tries to draw Sam into the debate, alarmed. "What the hell is going on? Sam, tell her!"

Still nothing. Sam has been training himself all season to make hard, fast and ruthless decisions like this, and his judgement and perspective have been becoming more and more skewed in the process, treading a line that grows finer all the while. He can't quite bring himself to say that he thinks they should go with Ruby's suggestion, because the idea of human sacrifice has to be repugnant to him as well, but he also isn't going to come out and argue against it, because he has learned to trust Ruby, and if she says this is the only way then he is inclined to believe her.

But Ruby is a demon, and it is important to remember that. She claims to remember her humanity, but that isn't the same as actually being human, and what we know of her past doesn't suggest that she had the most reliable moral compass even when she was human. She murdered her way in here, demonstrating clearly that she considers humans to be wholly expendable, that wanton killing is her first and only resort, with alternate options involving preservation of life not interesting her in the slightest. Demons lie, and demons twist truths and half-truths to their own advantage, and it is extremely dangerous to take her word at face value.

"It's my decision," Nancy insists, trying to be brave and keep her chin up as she makes this huge and noble offer to give up her own life for the sake of others.
"Damn straight, cherry pie," Ruby smirks.
"Stop!" Dean bellows, unable to take any more of this. "Stop! Nobody kill any virgins. Sam, I need to talk to you."

Sam follows Dean out into a hallway for a more private debate that resonates strongly with similar scenes in Croatoan, and the contrast between their respective positions then and now is marked.

"Please tell me you're not actually considering this," Dean anxiously asks. "Talking about holding down a girl and cutting out her heart!"
"And we're also talking about thirty people out there, Dean," Sam counters. "Innocent people. Who are all going to die, along with everyone in here."

So Sam is taking Ruby's word at face value, believes her when she says that her plan is the only way out of this situation, instead of thinking for himself and considering other options.

But we saw in Malleus Maleficarum that Ruby also wanted to recruit Dean's support in 'getting Sam ready' to fight this war alone, and if this is a test then, from her point of view, Dean has failed it. Far from aiding her efforts, for all that she claims to be working for Sam's own good, he is exercising his own judgement and actively standing in her way, hanging on to Sam's humanity for him when his brother barely even seems to notice that he is allowing it to slide away.

Dean can't believe he's hearing this. "So you mean that we throw away the rule book and stop acting like humans?" he hisses. "I'm not going to let that demon kill some nice, sweet innocent girl, who hasn't even been laid. Look, if that's how you win wars then I don't want to win."
"Then what?" Sam argues. "What do we do, Dean?"

This is the point in the episode at which the switch of airing order becomes most significant, because it has a massive impact on how we assess Sam's mindset and reasoning here. With the episodes airing in the order that they have, these events are following on immediately from Mystery Spot, so that Sam is coming into this situation in the wake of months of personal hell, in the wake of watching his brother die in every conceivable way, every day for months. In the wake of spending months alone, isolating himself from all human contact and channelling his grief and anger into ruthless vengefulness to the point where he didn't even blink at the suggestion of human sacrifice to achieve his objective. So, seen in that light, his willingness to entertain Ruby's suggestion here is simply following on from his experiences in that episode.

But the episodes weren't written to air in this order. Jus in Bello was written to air after Dream a Little Dream of Me and before Mystery Spot, and Sam's actions and thought-processes here fit neatly into the progression between those episodes. This is the Sam who admitted in Malleus Maleficarum that he is consciously trying to toughen up and make hard, fast decisions in preparation for when he is alone, who argued in that same episode that since they were at war they had to start thinking in terms of the big picture, had to strategise rather than continue to follow the dictates of their conscience first and foremost. This is the Sam who killed a non-possessed human for the first time in Dream a Little Dream of Me. His taking Ruby's suggestion under serious consideration here follows on perfectly from all of that, since, if you take her reasoning at face value, it sounds, on the surface, like mathematical good sense and a reasonable wartime strategy, the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few or the life of the one. It fits well with the ruthless approach Sam has deliberately adopted and justified to himself as acceptable of late, and then feeds on into Mystery Spot, in which he takes that final step toward letting go of his humanity and becoming little more than a killing machine.

Dean takes a moment to shake his head in disbelief that Sam is arguing this line, and to take a breath and compose himself. Then he turns back to his brother. "I got a plan," he says, with a shrug. "I'm not saying that it's a good one. I'm not even sure that it'll work. But it sure as hell beats killing a virgin."

Sam has been taking Ruby's word as gospel, believed her without question when she said there was no alternative to her plan, rather than assessing the situation and forming his own conclusions. He's in such a funk he's completely forgotten how to think for himself. But the moment his brother suggests that there is another possibility, Sam accepts it immediately. Dean's influence over him is still a hell of a lot stronger than Ruby's, thankfully.

"Okay," Sam says. "So what's the plan?"
"Open the doors," says Dean. "And let them all in. Then we fight."

And that's pretty much a reiteration of what he said to Henriksen earlier, about having a choice and his being to go down swinging, with the added rider that he wants to go down swinging with his integrity and humanity intact, thanks very much.

Later. Sam rejoins a Dean and a sullen Ruby. Dean asks if Sam got 'the equipment' to work, and Sam says that he did, so we know that there's more to this plan than immediately meets the eye.

"So?" Dean presses.
"So, this is insane," Sam wearily tells him.

He's also made a choice, though, and he has chosen to follow his brother's plan rather than Ruby's, what looks like suicide over murder. It's the difference between going into a hopeless battle yourself, prepared to give your own life to the cause if need be, and choosing to murder an innocent member of your own team in order to avoid that battle, the difference between acceptable and unacceptable. There's always a choice, even if it's a bad one.

"You win understatement of the year," Ruby snorts. Dean starts to say that he gets it, that she doesn't think the plan will work, but she cuts right across him. "I don't think. I know: it's not going to work. So long, boys."

She stands and walks over toward the window. Sam is amazed that she's just going to leave. "Hey, I was going to kill myself to help you win," Ruby snarls. "I'm not going to stand here and watch you lose. And I'm disappointed. Because I tried. I really did. But clearly, I bet on the wrong horse."

Bet on the wrong horse to do what, though, that's the question? Also, her walking out now makes no sense – in fact, nothing she's suggested makes any sense. If she's so eager to shape Sam's future, killing herself isn't going to help her achieve that, so she wins nothing. And walking away now, in a fit of pique, rather than trying to protect him in this battle with her magical demon-killing blade also serves no purpose in terms of her ambition. She needs Sam alive, after all, to stand any chance of a payoff for the work she's invested in him so far. But I'm guessing that her reaction here is shaped by anger at his failure to follow her lead, rather than strategy.

Sam lets Ruby out. Again, I hope he fixes the defences after she's gone, just in case, until they are ready.

Outside, Ruby faces down the demonic hordes with defiance and her magic knife. "I'm leaving. Who wants to stop me?"

Ruby not being the target here, the demons part to allow her through. Once again, the camera focuses on the girl Nancy named for us as Jenna, and we are clearly meant to wonder if she is Lilith.

Inside the police station, Dean, Sam and Henriksen prepare for battle. Dean grimaces as he throws open a set of double doors, reminding us that he is carrying an injury. They call to one another to confirm that they are ready, and then set about removing their defences – scratching through the paint of the devil's trap, and breaking the salt lines. Then, weapons at the ready, they wait for the demons to attack, just the three of them against the 30+ demons they know to be out there.

Nancy is not taking part in this battle, unsurprisingly, but neither is Deputy. Now, you could argue that his role is to protect Nancy, but I suspect that the others see him as a non-combatant, as well. He might be a police officer, but he just isn't a warrior in the way that they are, and that has been evident right from the start.

There's a long, tense moment as Dean, Sam and Henriksen each guard an open door, just waiting to be attacked. Then the fighting begins, as the demons start to pour in. Henriksen gets kicked in the face and goes down, straight off the bat. A demon rushes at Dean and gets a chest full of rock salt for its trouble.

We haven't seen the salt guns used against demons before, only ghosts. It can't kill them, of course, but it doesn't kill ghosts, either, and since demons can't cross a line of salt it makes sense that they wouldn't like being shot with it either. So, logically, it follows that shooting it at them should help fend them off, if only a little. In this scenario, it's also a suitably non-lethal-to-the-host way of fighting them back and buying a little time. Dean's plan revolves around saving as many lives as possible – and doesn't involve committing murder to achieve it.

Dean shoots another demon as he backs away down the hallway, drawing them in. Human bait, all three of these defenders. Sam shoots at one demon, but then gets tackled from the side by another. A demon slams Henriksen against a wall. While grappling, he fumbles with a bottle of holy water. Sam recovers and uses his shotgun as a blunt instrument with which to beat the demon attacking him. Henriksen takes forever to get the lid off his holy water, hopes like hell it works, and starts sprinkling it in the demon's face. The demon is beaten back, snarling and steaming.

More demons continue to rush into the building. They aren't too bright, mostly rushing straight past their human opponents and just heading for the centre. Maybe they are all under instructions to just focus on Sam. He is the ultimate target, after all.

Dean and Henriksen retreat down their respective hallways until they meet in the middle, and wind up fighting back to back. Who would ever have believed that before this episode? Marvellous. Dean reloads, ducking to allow Henriksen to shoot a demon over his shoulder. A moment later, he returns the favour. Then they continue their retreat down their respective hallways. This is only phase one of the plan.

Henriksen uses his shotgun to bludgeon a demon with, a la Sam, who at that very moment is being throttled by the dead police officer demon. Sam always gets choked. He manages to break the demon's hold on him, and uses his gun as a blunt instrument to beat it with again.

Outside. The last of the demons run into the building. They completely fail to notice Deputy and Nancy, crouching on the roof watching them. "When this is over," Nancy breathes. "I'm going to have so much sex!" There's a beat. Deputy turns to look at her. She looks back at him. "But not with you." Heh. "We'd better move," she decides, totally taking the lead even though she's just the scared little secretary and he's a trained police officer. She really has come into her own during the conflict, and has turned out to be so much more effective in a crisis than this guy!

Dean ducks to avoid a punch thrown by a random demon, whose arm goes through a window instead. He ducks another blow, this one taking out a wall, and then lands a punch of two of his own. He's effectively fighting one-handed, which is impressive, and all this hand-to-hand is not going to be doing his gunshot injury much good. There are demons everywhere, like a tidal wave. Dean shoots another one, but there are more running toward him from behind.

Outside, Deputy and Nancy drop a couple of bags of road salt to the ground, and jump down after them. Then they start closing doors and lining them with the salt, sealing the demons in. The full shape of the plan starts to become apparent. It's clever.

Sam takes a heavy punch to the face, rolls with it, and comes back up bearing holy water, which he throws in the face of his latest attacker, as well as any other demon that comes near.

They must have had so much fun filming all these action sequences.

Deputy and Nancy continue to line the doors and windows with salt.

Dean has joined Sam in the reception area now, both throwing holy water at the demons that surround them. Escape of any kind seems impossible as they find themselves facing a solid wall of demons.

The Jenna demon takes centre stage. Again, we are supposed to assume that this is Lilith. Again, it's a mislead, and the fact that she doesn't utter so much as a word is a clue to that. She raises a hand, and slams the brothers hard against the wall. They strain against the pressure, holy water dropped, defenceless.

"Henriksen, now!" Dean bellows.

Henriksen has fought his way to another room and, with a demon hanging off his neck, dives for a switch and presses it. It's a tape recorder, and it is piped into the speaker system. Sam's voice, sounding a little tinny but loud, starts to ring out through the whole police station, chanting Latin. A tape-recorded exorcism, and it works. The demons start to fall back, clutching their heads and whatever.

I really hope the show remembers that exorcisms can be taped and played back and still work. Hey, maybe the boys should start carrying little tape-recorded exorcisms around with them! Dean would have found it useful back in Sin City…

Outside. Nancy has just started on the final door when it opens and a sole demon comes rushing out. It's the dead police officer. Nancy screams in shock, and the demon stops to glare, but then decides not to waste time killing her and runs off. Deputy arrives too late to actually be of any help, and finishes sealing up that door.

Inside. The exorcism is really kicking in, and the police station is full of demons falling around howling and screaming and all the rest of it. It's kind of lame, but that's to be expected of any scene like this, with so many extras. The demons start rushing to the doors and hammering on them, but they can't get out, trapped by the salt lines. Dean and Sam are still pinned to the wall. There's wailing and head spinning and gnashing of teeth. Dean looks like his arm is really hurting, which, obviously, it should.

Finally, black demon smoke comes pouring out of all those host bodies, expelled by the continuing exorcism. It's probably a good thing it never occurred to any of those stricken demons to just smash the machine. The host bodies crumple to the floor. A huge cloud of black demon smoke swirls around the ceiling as the exorcism enters its final stage, and then explodes into fire and vanishes. Way to rid the world of 30+ demons in one fell swoop! Dean's plan might have been born of desperation, but it has worked brilliantly, with no loss of life other than the host bodies already killed by either Ruby or the other demons.

Finally released, Dean and Sam drop to the floor and take a moment to catch their breath. Then they regain their feet just as Henriksen comes to find them, and they all take a moment to reflect on this unexpected victory. The look Dean gives Henriksen is hilarious, a little shrug that combines a proud smirk with a touch of embarrassment, and a hint of well whaddya know!

The lights come back on, and then all those people the demons bodyjacked in here start to wake up. There are going to be a lot of confused people in this town sporting rocksalt pockmarks. But they are alive, and no one had to lay down their life to achieve the victory.

Imagine if the brothers had had the Colt, as Ruby expected when she arrived – how many of these people would still be alive now? How many would have been sacrificed to the cause? The Colt was a valuable weapon for a last resort, but it was also dangerous: it was becoming far to easy to simply shoot to kill, no questions asked, without pausing to look for any less bloody solutions.

Later. Nancy helps the last of the victims to make his way out of the building, while Dean and Sam gather up their weapons – and, presumably, any other belongings that were confiscated when they were arrested.

"I'd better call in," Henriksen muses. "Hell of a story I won't be telling."
"So what are you going to tell them?" Sam wonders.
"The least ridiculous lie I can come up with in the next five minutes," Henriksen ruefully offers.
"Good luck with that," says Dean. "Not to pressure you or anything, but what are you planning to do about us?"
"I'm gonna kill you," Henriksen deadpans, which gives the boys a bad second or two before he elaborates. "Sam and Dean Winchester were in the chopper when it caught on fire. Nothing was left. Can't even identify them with dental records. Rest in peace, guys."

Ooh, nice plan. They both get to be listed as legally dead this time. It's probably a good thing that Sam gave up on his law school dreams a long time ago. And so the long-running sub-plot of the brothers' deteriorating legal situation is brought to a close. For now, at least – Dean has been legally listed as dead before, after all, only for a run in with the law to re-open the file against him.

Handshakes and smiles all around, and a dreaded enemy has unexpectedly become a potentially very valuable ally. Henriksen knows the truth now, and he is in a position to do a lot of good with that knowledge, the kind of friend that the brothers desperately need in their lives.

Sam shoulders the duffle bag as the brothers make their exit, and Henriksen picks up the phone to make that call.

Later. A little girl enters the police station, hand-in-hand with her supposed parent or guardian. Nancy smiles and says hello to her. "Excuse me, I'm looking for two boys," the child announces. "They're brothers. One's really tall and one's really cute."

She's got Henriksen's attention now, the moment she said the word 'brothers', because he's a highly trained FBI agent and has a nose for trouble, but Nancy doesn't suspect a thing, just laughs and asks the girl what her name is.

"Lilith," says the child, dropping her cute-as-a-button schtick and becoming downright creepy, her eyes glossing over to reveal a new colour in the demon hierarchy: grey. Deputy's head snaps around, Nancy gasps and backs away, and Henriksen jumps to his feet and runs over, and I love that every one of them reacts to the name, because they all heard what Ruby said earlier, and they all paid attention and took it in and understand the significance. But that recognition does them no good and it can't save them, none of them.

Lilith raises a hand, and the three humans are engulfed in white-hot light.

Damn! I'm so gutted that the show killed Henriksen, just when he was at his awesomest and had so much potential for the future! I should have expected it, though. Show does have a habit of killing off recurring characters, thus cutting the brothers off from avenues of support they might otherwise have enjoyed.

As for Lilith…well, it might be a bit of a genre cliché to use a child as the Big Bad, and does come with numerous difficulties attached, not least of which is the habit of child actors to grow up. But this development lends a whole new layer of intrigue to the season. Will Sam and Dean be able to fight effectively against an enemy wearing the body of a child? Will this be another instance where the lessons learned in episodes such as this will come into play: the need to seek out a non-fatal solution rather than going straight for the kill? Or would such hesitation cost them dear? Will they be forced to kill the child to destroy the demon, and then live with the consequences? Only time will tell how the situation will develop.

Motel. Dean's the one with the gunshot injury, so Sam is the one lounging on the bed. There's a knock at the door, and Sam swings himself upright as Dean goes to see who it is. It's Ruby, and she comes steaming in with the curt instruction to turn on the news. Sam does so, and the television launches into the middle of a news report about an explosion at Monument County sheriff's office. "Authorities believe a gas main ruptured," the anchorwoman reports. "Causing the massive explosion that ripped apart the police station and claimed the lives of everyone inside."

Dean slowly sits down, shocked, nursing his injured arm. Sam stares. Ruby stands and pouts, practically vibrating with anger and disappointment.

"Among the deceased, at least six police officers and staff," the news reporter continues. "Including Sheriff Melvin Dodds, Deputy Phil Amici, secretary Nancy Fitzgerald, as well as three FBI agents identified as Steven Groves, Calvin Reidy and Victor Henriksen. Two fugitives in custody were also killed."

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank this episode for finally giving us an on-screen spelling for Henriksen's name, even if it did come way, way too late. I'd also like to note that the death toll mentioned here does not account for all the officers we know to have been killed during the episode, or for any civilian casualties racked up during Ruby's bloody entrance, although the use of the phrase 'at least' allows for the inaccuracy. It would take more than a few hours after an incident like this, of course, to calculate a final death toll.

Dean looks absolutely gutted by this turn of events. Sam looks to Ruby, trying to gauge her reaction. She turns the TV off and fumes. "Must have happened right after we left," Sam murmurs.

"Considering the size of the blast, smart money's on Lilith," Ruby remarks, tossing a little leather pouch to each brother. The boys wonder what they are. "Something that will protect you," Ruby irritably evades. "Throw Lilith off your trail. For the time being, at least." Sam thanks her, and she explodes. "Don't. Think. Lilith killed everyone. She slaughtered your precious little virgin, plus a half a dozen other people. So after your big speech about humanity and war, turns out your plan was the one with the body count. Do you know how to fight a battle? You strike fast, and you don't leave any survivors, so no one can go running to tell the boss. So next time? We go with my plan."

Ruby storms out, leaving the very shaken brothers alone.

It's kind of a shattering way to end an episode, both for the brothers and for viewers, but we must very quickly remind ourselves that Ruby's MO is emotional manipulation, and that it is never safe to take the word of a demon at face value. She is angry with Sam because he failed to follow her lead, knows that this outcome will hit the brothers hard, and so is making the most of the opportunity to hit them where it hurts and to plant a seed of doubt in their minds.

What she is saying might sound like solid military strategy, but she is wrong, in every way. The deliberate murder of one of your own can never, ever be acceptable, no matter how noble the cause might appear to be, and no matter how many other lives appear, on the surface, to balance the sacrifice. There is always a choice, even if that choice is to remain true to who you are by refusing to pay an unacceptable price rather than to win. Victory at all costs? No. Not if that cost involves abandoning your own moral and ethical code simply because your enemy doesn't have one, because in that case what the hell are you actually fighting for?

Ruby was also wrong when she said that her plan was the only way to get everyone out alive, either because she hadn't stopped to consider all the options or, more likely, because she was deliberately choosing to represent the situation in that way because it suited her purpose. Dean's plan worked, and it worked brilliantly, and we have to remember that, because Ruby is trying hard to devalue it here. He got everyone out of there without loss of life, against truly overwhelming odds. That's incredible. The only host bodies that died were the ones the demons killed themselves, or that Ruby killed on her way in. That counts as a resounding success.

Ruby is also misrepresenting the loss of life that resulted from Lilith's visit to the police station when the battle was all over. The only people Lilith killed were Henriksen, Nancy and Deputy Amici; everyone else mentioned in the news report was already dead long before the explosion, and long before the final battle. But Ruby's greatest falsification here is her statement that these deaths occurred as a direct result of the brothers choosing Dean's plan over hers, and I hate her for that. Yes, one of the demons escaped, and no doubt he did report back to Lilith. But Lilith already knew where her minions were, and would have very quickly known of their defeat no matter how it happened. Avenging that defeat by slaughtering the people who had supported Sam and Dean would have happened whichever plan was followed and however that victory was achieved. There was absolutely nothing the brothers could have done to prevent it.

But it suits Ruby's interests to suggest that the blame lies with them, because no matter how hard they rationalise their actions and no matter how convinced they are that they made the right choice, saying those words of censure out loud gives them power. Ruby wants Sam to doubt the choice that he made here to follow Dean's lead instead of hers, and she wants Dean to doubt his own judgement, because that way her influence over Sam's development can only grow stronger.

We still don't know what Ruby's overall objective is, other than that it revolves around Sam and the Yellow-Eyed Demon's plans for him. Maybe she is on the side of good, and is simply seeking to toughen him up enough to take on a powerful enemy who happens to be wearing the body of a child. Because, honestly, that really is going to be tricky dilemma, once the brothers know of it. But there is no evidence to support such altruism on Ruby's part, and it still seems most likely that she believes pushing Sam toward the role the Yellow-Eyed Demon had planned for him offers the best possibility for bolstering her own position in the demon hierarchy. Or, she could have some other motivation entirely that has yet to be revealed.

The plot really is thickening, and I can't wait to find out what comes next, when the show finally returns from post-strike hiatus!


February 2008

Back to top

Home