"It feels good to be back on the job, doesn't it?"

This is a gorgeous episode, written and produced in the style of a classic horror movie, in black and white and absolutely abundant with grace notes. As a love letter to the genre it is beautiful, and as an episode of this show it is fabulous, light-hearted fun.

However, the most important thing to note about this episode is the fact that it was aired out of order. Although written and produced as the third episode of the new season, it was aired as the fifth. This may not seem like a huge shift, but in fact has a great impact on continuity and ongoing character development, as the mood of both brothers and the state of their relationship in this episode is inconsistent both with the episode before and that which follows.

The brothers are light-hearted and at ease with one another throughout the episode, and this follows on well if this is considered as the third episode of the season, their first case alone together since Dean's return from hell, which is still very fresh. The ease of companionship is rather more jarring when viewed on the heels of their emotionally charged confrontations in Metamorphosis and does not lead well into Yellow Fever. It is possible to rationalise these characterisation issues and suspend disbelief for what is a highly entertaining and solidly standalone 40 minutes of television beauty, but to do this a lot of the meaning behind certain scenes is lost. When the episode is viewed and analysed in production order, however, the continuity of character development is smooth rather than jerky, with no rationalisation required, and many subtle moments are imbued with deep poignancy.

Therefore although I am numbering this as episode 5 and will discuss both possibilities for analysis, I will for the most part be thinking of it as episode 3 in the season.

Titles

Black and white titles, in the style of the classics – up to and including the old WB logo – superimposed over a thunderous sky and with dramatic music to boot, just to set the mood.



This entire episode is written, produced and directed as homage to the classic horror movies of bygone years, and it is wonderful, however most of the references sail right over my head, not being a film buff in any way, so don't expect me to list many of them!

We open on a stormy, moonlit night, the Impala zooming along another typical Supernatural deserted road. A crescent moon hangs in the sky.

Welcome to Pennsylvania, says a road sign that the car passes. Hee, but if you watch very carefully you can see that it changes to Transylvania as lightning flashes. Cute.

At the wheel, Dean understandably wearies of the plunky music and switches the radio off in disgust, grumbling that the radio around here sucks. Sam ignores him, browsing pages of research by torchlight, so Dean tries to poke his brother into making conversation. "Come on, man, jobs don't get much weirder than this. You know? Dead vic with a gnawed on neck, body drained of blood – and a witness who swears up and down that it was a vampire."



"No, I agree," mutters a subdued Sam, concentrating more on his reading than the conversation. "It's a hell of a case."

Dean eyes his brother appraisingly, tries again to jolly him along. "A little more gusto, please."

"It's just…" Sam sighs. "The world is coming to an end. Things are a little complicated, you know?"



"Well, we can't save the world," says Dean, determinedly upbeat. "Not today, anyway. But what we can do is chop off some vamps' heads. Come on, man – it's like the good old days. Honest to goodness monster hunt. It's about time the Winchesters got back to tackling a straightforward, black-and-white case."



Heh. Lightning crashes. The Impala zooms on.

Instead of cutting to the next scene, the shot fades out, a circle getting smaller and smaller, zeroing in around the Impala and then receding to a pinpoint until the screen is completely black. Nifty, but hard to describe if you don't know any technical terms!

Let us think about this scene for a moment. If we consider the episode in the order in which it aired, the fifth of the season and immediately following the intense conflicts of Metamorphosis, this scene doesn't seem too out of place: Sam subdued and Dean striving for the Winchester brand of normality in an attempt to smooth things over. That sounds about right.

However, it works even better when considered as the third episode of the season, as originally intended. From that perspective, this is the first job the brothers have worked alone together since Dean's miraculous return from the dead. They have only just left Bobby's and got back on the road, still re-adjusting to being back together, as well as to the massive upheavals of the first two episodes, in which they learned that angels are real and in the world and that Lilith is trying to bring about the Apocalypse.

Either way, however, they are both wonderfully them. Sam has always been inclined to broodiness when he is troubled about anything, while Dean has always tended toward denial when confronted with huge problems that he can't quite deal with, preferring instead to focus on something more immediate, whatever case is to hand, something within his ability to control. A seemingly straightforward vampire hunt? It figures he'd be all over it.

Town. Day

Oktoberfest is in full swing. Now, traditionally, this is a festival that can run for as many as 16 days through late September and into early October. Immigrants brought the tradition with them to the US and, according to my research, the festivals held in the Pennsylvania region generally run for a few days either in late September or early October. Bearing that in mind, then, it is safe to say that it is no later than the first weekend in October and possibly even still September, which means that Dean has been back from the dead no longer than two weeks at most and maybe even less than that.

Music plays. Tourists throng. Locals in costume mingle. Just outside the town square, Dean and Sam exit the Impala, dressed up to the nines in their best FBI suits. My, but the black and white cinematography looks good on them. They head into the square.

"We've still got the see the new Raiders movie," Dean conversationally remarks as they walk. Sam offhandedly replies that he has already seen it, however, and Dean is scandalised. "Without me?"

"You were in hell," Sam mildly points out. His tone is light, but guarded. He can make a joke of it because Dean is making a joke of it, because Dean doesn't remember hell, and because Dean is back now, it's over…but it is too fresh and too raw for him to be entirely comfortable.

In fact, it seems rather implausible that Sam would have gone to see the film at all. It was released in the US on 22 May, barely three weeks after Dean's death, and it doesn't seem likely that a freshly grieving Sam would be interested in going to the cinema at that time. On the other hand, however, it could be argued that going to see the film was an act of masochism, Sam's way of torturing himself for his failure to save his brother, because he knew that Dean would have loved it – just another way of wallowing in his despair. Just because he went to see the film doesn't mean it had anything to do with relaxation or entertainment.

Or perhaps we need a third hand to consider that maybe we aren't supposed to read so much into it!

"That's no excuse," Dean mocks, and is then distracted by food. "Big pretzel!"

Dean dashes off to explore the food, and Sam smiles fondly to himself, watching Dean being Dean and loving it.



This is one of those moments that loses all its depth and poignancy when the episode is viewed out of the original production order. It means so much more when considered as the third episode of the season, the first time the brothers have been alone together since Dean's return, to see scenes like this of Sam just watching Dean, loving having him back and still marvelling at the miracle.

Switching the episode order means that we have no scenes at all of Sam showing any real, simple pleasure over his brother's return until the fifth episode of the season, which is far too late, and creates very uneven character continuity after the intense confrontations of Metamorphosis. It makes all the difference to have this episode placed third, to be able to see Sam allowing himself to relax a little and to just sit back and enjoy having his brother back with him before the weight of the mytharc hits them again in In The Beginning and Metamorphosis.

Dean buys a giant pretzel each for both himself and Sam…and Sam eats it. He takes a big bite, chews and swallows. This comes as a tremendous shock to the entire viewing audience. Dean eats all the time on the show, but Sam almost never.



"Guten tag." A pretty blonde barmaid wearing a tiny, flouncy dirndl drifts past, tossing a flirty greeting at the brothers in passing. Well, at Dean, specifically, who likes what he sees.

Then the brothers spot the local Sheriff giving directions to some tourists and head over to talk to him, giving their names as Agents Angus and Young. Ah, Show.

I wonder what kind of names Sam dreamt up for himself while Dean wasn't around to insist they borrow from classic rock? We already know about Wedge Antilles…

Greeting the 'boys from the Fed', the officer introduces himself as Sheriff Dietrich and awkwardly suggests that they talk away from the crowd.

Morgue

Dietrich shows Dean and Sam the body of the unfortunate apparent vampire victim, one Marissa Wright, aged 26, who had been visiting town for the festival. "Terrible, just terrible," he sighs. "It's the last thing this town needs in peak tourist season."

"Definitely the last thing Marissa Wright needed," Sam dryly points out.



Dean reaches across and gently turns the dead woman's head to take a look at the bite mark on her neck. He is surprised to see that instead of the multiple teeth marks left by the vampires of the Supernatural universe, as Dean himself has experienced, she instead has just two neat little holes in her neck in line with the classic stereotype. "What the hell?" he mutters, taken aback.



"Yeah, you got me," Dietrich agrees. "I mean, this killer's some kind of Grade A wacko, right? Some Satan-worshipping, Anne Rice reading, gothic, psycho vampire-wannabe."

Heh.

Dean asks about the witness Dietrich mentioned in his report, and he sighs again, grumbling that he wouldn't have mentioned this witness at all if the man hadn't insisted. "Ed Brewer. Not exactly what you'd call reliable."

I kinda love the corpse-eye view we get of the brothers and Dietrich receding into the distance as the tray is pushed back into the locker and the door slammed shut.

Beerhaus

Oktoberfest remains in full swing. Tourists throng, and barmaids serve, all in costume, all having a merry old time.

Dean and Sam enter and approach the bar, where Dean's guten tag blonde from earlier is serving. "I remember you," she perkily smiles at Dean.



"And I remember you," Dean suaves, eyes drifting down to her chest – but only to take note of her nametag, of course. "Jamie. I never forget a pretty…everything."

It could come across as crude, but Jensen Ackles sells it for all he's worth, and Jamie smiles at the compliment, so that it reads as cute instead. Because people weren't crude in the old monster films.

Straight man Sam explains that they are looking for Ed Brewer and Jamie wonders what they want with him. Thus prompted, the brothers whip out their fake FBI badges and Dean starts to explain that as Ed Brewer was witness to a serious crime, they need to interview him.



Jamie interrupts, radiating disbelief. "You're a Fed? Wow. You don't come on like a Fed. Seriously?"

Met many, has she? Still, I love that she sees straight through Dean right from the off, but likes him anyway.

Sam looks amused, while Dean launches a massive charm offensive, leaning on the bar and laying the suave on thick. "I'm a maverick, ma'am. A rebel with a badge. One thing I don't play by – the rules." He winks, and there is even a little twink sound effect to go with it, emphasising the fact that in this story Dean has been well and truly cast as the romantic lead.



Jamie looks torn, because she's clearly amused that he's overplaying it so heavily, but also clearly digs it and is willing to play along. Sam, who has no such inner conflict, just looks amused and a little embarrassed as he reins his brother in and asks Jamie where they can find Ed Brewer.

Elsewhere in the bar

Ed is sitting in a corner of the bar, already drunk as a skunk and still enjoying swigs from an absolutely mahoosive stein full of beer. Or – actually, it is probably far from full, judging by the way Ed is digging in. He drunkenly explains that he already told the cops everything he saw, but no one believes him so he doesn't see why Dean and Sam will be any different.

"Believe me, Mr Brewer, we're different," Dean assures him.

Ed whines that he spoke the God's honest truth, and is now the town joke. Sam dourly states that Marissa Wright's murder is no joke to them and they want to hear everything, no matter how strange it may seem.

"We have a lot of experience with strange," Dean adds by way of reassuring understatement.

Ed still looks unconvinced and hurriedly bolsters his nerve with another quick swig from his mahoosive stein, then sloppily wipes his mouth with a hand and gives the brothers a double thumbs up before launching into his story. It was just after midnight, he explains. He was walking home through the park, as he always does, when he saw what he at first thought was a couple kissing. Then he realised that the woman was struggling too much and that the man was biting her neck. Sam asks if he can describe the assailant.

"Oh, he was a vampire," Ed says without hesitation.

Our boys are not accustomed to random eyewitnesses giving such a definitive identification of supernatural evil and it shows, although both work hard at keeping their poker faces firmly in place. Dean tries to ask for a little clarification of how exactly the man reached this conclusion, but Ed merely repeats that it was a vampire, complete with a little hand gesture that seems to equate vampire with viper. Sozzled.

Dean prompts again for an actual description of the man, but all Ed will say was that he looked like a vampire. "You know, with the fangs," he elaborates at last. "And the slicked back hair and the fancy cape and the little medallion thingy on the ribbon."

Dean recognises the description and is bemused. "You mean like a Dracula?"

Ed perks up, since they seem to be following him now, and confirms that yes, he means a Dracula, right down to the accent.

While Dean tries to get his head around what a wacko Ed appears to be, defining vampire by the old movie-style Dracula stereotype, Sam rather delicately asks about this accent he mentions. He can't quite keep the amused grin off his face, and has to hastily wipe it off when Ed frowns at this display of disbelief and derision. Sam schools his features back toward federal agent professionalism, and asks what the man said.

Ed adopts his very best interpretation of Transylvanian twang. "Stay avay, mortal. The night is mine," complete with pantomime to indicate hiding his face behind a cape. The boys just stare blankly, their faces an absolute picture of bzuh?



Ed eyes them suspiciously. "You do believe me, don't you?"

Elsewhere in the bar

Behind the bar, Jamie and a fellow barmaid, a brunette by the name of Lucy, watch the interview from afar. Gossipy Lucy comments on the murder investigation and mocks 'crazy Ed and his weird vampire stories'. Jamie takes a more measured stance, saying that while Ed might be weird, he isn't crazy. Lucy scoffs that Jamie is just saying that because he has a crush on her and tips in twenties. During this conversation, Lucy blots her lipstick on a napkin, folds it with the lipstick on the outside and leaves it on the counter. The camera focuses intently on this action, so we know it will be an Important Plot Point later. It's that kind of episode. Clues must be highlighted, in the best tradition of the genre.

Lucy sashays away to deal with a customer just in time for Dean, interview terminated, to wander over and try to put the moves on Jamie. Laying the charisma on as thick as he possibly can, every inch the old-school romantic lead, he asks for a beer and Jamie teasingly asks if he is off duty. She addresses him by name, Agent Young, so she clearly took a good look at his badge when he flashed it at her earlier, because he hasn't actually introduced himself to her. Dean confirms that he is most definitely off duty, and then turns back to Sam while Jamie busies herself pouring the beer.

Sam notices, picks up and frowns at the lipstick-stained napkin Lucy left on the bar, just so that we know he is aware of what will eventually become an Important Clue, and then tosses it aside to confer on the case with Dean.

"Goth psycho vampire-wannabe, right?" Dean paraphrases Dietrich's scathing profile of the perpetrator.

"Definitely not our kind of case," Sam agrees.

Leading the way to a vacant table nearby, Dean agrees. "But who cares?" he enthuses. "Room's paid for, and it's Oktoberfest. Come on, brother. Beer and bar-wenches."



"Pretty sure women today don't react well to the whole 'wench' thing, Dean," Sam dryly snarks, playing his role as straight man for all he is worth.

Dean takes this as a challenge and promptly hollers over to Jamie at the bar. "Hey, bar wench. Where's that beer?"

Jamie has taken a shine to Dean, plus of course it's Oktoberfest and she is being paid to keep the customers happy by getting into the spirit, so she just calls back a spirited "coming up, good sir."

Dean beams. "Dude. Oktoberfest."

Sam rolls his eyes and shakes his head, like he'd forgotten what Dean can be like when he's in an exuberant mood. But for all that he plays his part as disapproving little brother to the utmost, you just know that deep down he is revelling in it.



And again…I am going to keep harking on about the episode switch, because it is important. The playfulness of this scene feels so natural when considered as the third episode of the season, the first case the brothers have worked alone together since Dean's death, Dean adjusting to the strangeness of his restored life and keen to make the most of the second chance he has been given, wanting to experience everything anew, with Sam still likewise adjusting to and drawing great pleasure from his brother's presence. The brothers are still basking in the glow of the miracle and it shows.

As episode five, however, it does not follow on at all well from the two-parter of In The Beginning and Metamorphosis, in which the gift of Dean's life began to be overshadowed once more by the weight of newly discovered family history and the burdens of expectation laid upon him, still less his discovery of Sam's alliance with Ruby and use of his powers and the devastating confrontation between the brothers that stemmed from this.

Jamie delivers Dean's beer and asks if Sam would like to order anything. Before Sam can get a word in edgeways, Dean announces that his partner doesn't drink. Sam gapes in disbelief as Dean explains. "He's Christian Scientist. Doesn't even take aspirin. It's a real drag on stakeouts."

Instead of laughing at his brother and placing his order anyway, Sam just sighs and allows Dean to make him the butt of the joke. Jamie tells Dean he is funny. Dean immediately suaves that he is a lot more than that and would love to get a chance to show her the rest, asks what time she gets off.

"Haha," Jamie teases. "Like I said: funny."

Sam chuckles to himself at a) his brother's chutzpah, and b) the sight of a woman blowing Dean off, which for a little brother will never, ever get old. Dean is undaunted, watching Jamie sashay away with unbridled lust in his eyes.

"It is time to right some wrongs," he announces. Sam asks what he means, and Dean is only too happy to elaborate. "Look at me. I came back from the furnace without any of my old scars, right? No bullet wounds, knife-cuts, none of the off-angle fingers from all the breaks. I mean, my hide is as smooth as a baby's bottom."



Well, that's interesting information. Fandom has long speculated that, given the life they lead and the injuries we have seen them collect, both brothers' bodies should be littered with scars, even if we never actually see them.

We already know that one pre-death mark on his body Dean definitely does still have is his anti-possession tattoo, but a tattoo is not an injury. It was old injuries that were healed, evidently, beyond what normal human healing processes are capable of: wiped out as if they had never been when his decomposing body was restored. It seems entirely fitting that angelic healing, ordered by God himself, would be so very complete, especially compared to the incomplete healing processes we have seen as a result of demonic deals, in which injuries were healed just enough but no more, leaving soreness and visible scarring.

Dean's tattoo clearly did not fall under the heading of damage to be rectified, and I have no trouble believing that the divine power that restored his body would be able – and willing – to discriminate between injuries and an anti-possession tattoo designed to protect him. The handprint brand on his shoulder is another exception, being new rather than old: a stamp left by the process that removed all his older scars.

And, you know…Dean seems pretty blasé about his missing scars, because he's in a chipper mood and is rightly choosing to regard his restored life as a gift, a new start and all that. But deep down, it must feel incredibly weird to have such deeply personal evidence of his life history completely wiped out like that.

"Which leads me to conclude," Dean concludes with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Sadly, that my virginity is intact."

Sam splutters.



Dean takes this as licence to elaborate. "I have been re-hymenated," he declares, oh-so tongue-in-cheek, absolutely loving the opportunity to wind Sam up.

"Re…hy…" Sam can't even get the words out, he's laughing so much. "Please. Dean, maybe angels can pull you out of hell, but no one can do that."

Dean is on a roll now. "Brother, I have been re-hymenated," he enthusiastically repeats, thoroughly enjoying himself. "And the dude will not abide."



Sam laughs. "All right. Dude. Well, you go do whatever you've got to do, and I'm going to go back to the room and get some sleep."



My, they both look so pretty in this scene. In every scene, in fact. Those suits and the black-and-white really work for them!

Sam heads off and Dean contentedly sups his beer, then heads back to the bar to have another crack at Jamie about going out that night. However, although she is clearly attracted to him, she remains staunch in her refusal, offering as excuse that she has promised Lucy a girl's night out. "Besides, no self-respecting bar wench lets herself get picked up by a customer on the first try," she teases. Dean wheedles that he isn't a customer, he's a federal agent, but Jamie is having none of it. "Try again tomorrow, G-Man," she smiles.

Dean sincerely tells her that he wishes he could, but doubts he'll get the chance as it doesn't look like they will be staying on the case. Jamie teases that it must be too weird for them, but Dean begs to differ. "Not weird enough."

Someplace outside. Night

A wolf howls by the light of a beautiful full moon. Wasn't it a crescent moon just last night? Maybe it was partially obscured by the clouds, or something, and thus only looked like a crescent. Or maybe it's just a production error. I very much doubt the monster responsible for this week's shenanigans is capable of altering the moon's cycle! A Trickster, maybe, but not this creature.

All parked up in some suitably remote location – blatantly a dressed studio lot rather than an actual location, in keeping with the best traditions of the genre – a young couple are making out; the girl, Anne Marie, is naïve and nervous, while her boyfriend Rick is interested only in having his way with her, whether she is entirely willing or not.

Anne Marie is scared when she hears the wolf howling, but Rick isn't listening because he's too busy pawing at her clothing. He uses tired old passive-aggressive excuses such as "baby, if a man doesn't get the stuff out of his system regularly, it can back up and cause all kinds of medical-type problems" to try and persuade her to have sex with him, and totally deserves what he's got coming. Anne Marie falls for it, though, which – more fool her.



What can only be described as the shadow of a werewolf – the classic horror movie-type werewolf – falls upon the car. Anne Marie tenses up again, convinced she heard something. Rick scornfully rolls his eyes, as if she is being afraid on purpose just thwart him, and patronisingly speaks to her as if she's about four years old as he tells her that there aren't any wolves in Pennsylvania.

No sooner has he spoken than the car window is shattered by a pair of furry wolf arms, which then drag him out through it. Anne Marie screams long and loud as we hear the squelching sound of Rick being torn limb from limb.

Town square. Day

Dean and Sam interview Anne Marie, who sits slurping away at the biggest cup of soda I have ever seen. Even Dean, the original Mr Stomach-On-Legs, looks a little nauseated.

"And then it just tore Rick into little pieces," Anne Marie concludes, the soda having apparently given her the strength to finish her story. Dean sympathises and asks if she can describe the creature. Anne Marie looks worried, slurps at her soda again, and then oh-so matter-of-factly announces that it was a werewolf.



Dean and Sam are rather startled, once again. They are used to witnesses being in denial about what they saw, but no one seems to have that problem in this town.

Sam asks if she is sure. She is, and describes the creature's furry face, claws and torn-up clothing by way of evidence. "Like from the old movies." Well, that doesn't sound like the lycanthropes the Winchesters have encountered in the past, that's for sure.

The brothers really don't know what to do with any of this and flounder for a moment before thanking her for her time and making a sharp exit. Anne Marie just nods and continues to slurp away at her soda.

Morgue

"First a Dracula and then a full-on, movie-time wolf-man – what the hell is going on in this town?" Dean grumbles, just standing around looking irritated while Sam rather more pro-actively examines the labels on a few of the mortuary drawers before he finds the one they are looking for. Dean really wanted this to be a simple, straightforward case so that they could settle back into their old routine again, and is enormously disgruntled that it is not turning out that way at all.

Inside the body bag, there is not much left of Rick. The brothers recoil in disgust from both sight and smell. "All right. Whatever did this wasn't a psycho wannabe," Sam announces, gamely pulling out a pencil and poking around in the remains. He pulls out what looks like a few strands of tangled cassette tape dipped in jelly – good thing this episode is shot in black and white, huh – and Dean is disgusted.



The carnage doesn't seem to be triggering any flashbacks, however. Dean is grossed out, but there is not even a hint of any lingering background trauma – further evidence that the production order works better than airdate order for this episode. This is clearly very early in the season, before Dean's slowly awakening memories of his time in hell began to nag away at the back of his mind.

Sam invites Dean to take a look at the bite marks, which are apparently right down to the bone – and deeper. Well, given how little is clearly left of the guy, I would kind of expect that. Dean muses that something strong enough to tear a healthy man limb from limb could well be a werewolf, but Sam notes that the heart is still there, in one piece, and points out that werewolves never leave the heart behind. Dean sighs. "Thus I reiterate: what the hell is going on?"



That was kind of an erudite sentence for Dean, who is not generally the most articulate of guys ever, although he is a lot more intelligent than some writers give him credit for.

"I was hoping you boys could tell me," says Sheriff Dietrich, wandering into the room bearing the autopsy Rick's results. Apparently, he explains, certain fibres found on the body have been identified as canine – wolf hairs.

Thoroughly disgruntled with the bizarre mystery this case is turning out to be, Dean sighs and pinches at the bridge of his nose. "I'm getting a headache."



Bar

Just look at that! Sam's eating again! Twice in one episode; boy's on a roll.

Dean and Sam are just finishing up a pub lunch, and boy do they look pretty. Again. The black and white looks especially good on Sam.



"I don't know, man. It's like we've stumbled into a midnight showing of Dracula Meets Wolfman," Dean grumbles.

"The wolfman seems real enough," muses Sam. "Makes Dracula seem a little less impossible, I guess."



Dean points out that werewolves only actually grow wolf hair in myth, however – a detail that has them both stumped. "So, what?" Dean frowns. "We've got a vampire and a werewolf monster-mashing this town?"

The conversation is interrupted slightly by Jamie bringing the boys a couple of beers on the house, Sam clearly having set her straight about the whole Christian Scientist thing, although I'm going to guess it wasn't hard for her to figure out Dean was just pulling his 'partner's' leg there. She has also figured out that the supposed agents are going to be sticking around for a while, having heard about Rick's demise, and Dean agrees that the case has become weird enough for their department.

"Just so you know, I get off at midnight tonight," Jamie tells Dean, who nods toward Lucy and checks that the friends don't already have plans for another girl's night out. This allows us to notice that Lucy is once again blotting her lipstick on a napkin, which she then folds and leaves lying around. Definitely a Clue. Jamie smiles that it doesn't have to be a girl's night, so Dean makes plans to meet up with her when she finishes work. It's a nice little interplay between the two of them, because although the flirting and obvious physical attraction is still there, the tone has become a lot more serious than yesterday, because the reason Dean is still around to date Jamie is that someone else has died.

As Jamie heads back to the counter to continue working, Dean pulls an adorably delighted little victory face of triumph, while Sam can only smile and shake his head at his brother's success.



"Hey, you think this Dracula can turn into a bat? That would be cool," Dean muses, his inner ten-year-old surging right to the fore. He sups at his beer and winds up with a great big foam moustache, which is hilarious.



Canonsburg Museum of American History. Night

Hey, we finally have a location for this episode. Cool. We're in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania – which actually is, Google informs me, the hometown of the Pennsylvania Bavarian Oktoberfest.

Inside the museum, the night watchman is on the phone to someone higher up the ladder of authority trying to find out what he is supposed to do with an inexplicable delivery that has turned up in the loading bay minus any instructions. "An Egyptian kind of deal," is the best description he can manage of the sarcophagus, because he is a security guard, not an antiquarian. He has no idea what to do with it, and is so engrossed in his conversation that he doesn't notice the sarcophagus sliding open behind him.

The guard finally hears the scraping sounds behind him and turns around just in time to see an actual honest-to-goodness mummy rising up out of a haze of smoke, horizontal to vertical without bending. The guy freaks, understandably enough, and is so busy being frozen to the spot with shock that he completely forgets to run for his life, although he does manage to shoot at the thing, to no avail. The mummy kills him with ease.

Poor guy. This victim I feel sorry for. He was just getting on with his job, and he seemed so anxious and harassed. Totally did not deserve death by mummy.

Later

The crime scene is swarming with cops as Dean and Sam sift through the evidence, poking around the sarcophagus with no little confusion. Sam finds a label and snorts, holding it out to show his brother. "This sarcophagus isn't ancient. It's from a prophouse in Philly."

"Goes well with the bucket of dry ice he was keeping in it," Dean notes, showing Sam his own discovery.

"He was making his own special effects?" Sam is confused.

"A mummy with a good sense of showmanship." Dean is also confused.

None of this computes, which Sam finds rather annoying. "This is stupid," he grouchily declares.



Before the brothers can discuss the insanity of the case any further, Dean realises that he is late for his date with Jamie. "You're good here with the mummy and the…." He flails helplessly for a suitable description of the scene, eventually settling for "crazy?" Sam agrees that he can manage alone, so Dean takes off.

I really appreciate the way Jamie is woven into the case – we don't often get to see so much of one brother accommodating the other's romantic conquests, dating while working a job and trying to balance the two, and it adds an interesting dynamic to the case. I also like how seriously Dean is taking it, even if it is blatantly just a casual fling as he passes through town. If all he wanted was to get laid, he could have found himself someone else after Jamie first refused. He didn't – he liked her, as a person he wanted to spend time with, rather than just as the first available body. He isn't as indiscriminate about his flings as it might seem.

Bavarian Beerhaus Tavern

Jamie waits outside the tavern, post-shift. Dean is late. She gives him a few minutes, but has way too much self-respect to wait any longer. "Your loss, G-Man," she remarks to thin air and starts to walk away, presumably heading home.

As Jamie rounds a corner, she is disturbed to hear the flutter of wings behind her, with accompanying little thump, as if something is landing. Jamie tenses and turns…and there's Dracula, just as Ed Brewer described him.

"Gud eevening," says Dracula, complete with faux-Transylvanian accent.

Jamie turns and runs. Sensible girl. Unfortunately she runs into a dead end, but even if she hadn't, you really can't run away from Dracula. He catches up without even having to break into a trot, swishing his cloak around him in dramatic fashion. "I have watched you for many nights, from afar," he declares. "My passion knows no bounds…Mina."

Oh, and a little rectangle of lights falls on his face right across the eyes, highlighting them. Perfect homage to the movies of old.



Jamie fumbles in her bag, not listening to a word as Dracula pronounces her to be the reincarnation of his beloved. "And I must have you," he fervently declares, stepping closer and reaching toward her…. Jamie gets him right in the eyes with pepper spray and the accent disappears, as if by magic. "Argh! Mary…son of a…."

Jamie runs off, and Dracula is quick to give chase once more, even as he scrabbles at his eyes. However, luckily for Jamie she manages to run straight into Dean's arms as he wanders around hoping to catch up with her.

Pushing Jamie behind him, Dean turns and sees Dracula in all his glory. "Son of a bitch," is all he can say, startled, because…Dracula. Dracula reverts to the faux-Transylvanian accent as he chastises Dean for using such language in front of his bride. Dean blinks, says "okay" and then punches, hard, because Dean can only take so much crazy before he starts swinging.



Dracula comes back up hissing and showing off his classic vampire fangs. Dean is very slightly taken aback but, undeterred, takes another swing. Dracula blocks him with ease and they tussle, Dracula shoving Dean up against a wall and pinning him there. Dean shouts at Jamie to run – which she does, because she's smart and sensible – and strains to hold the supposed vampire off.

"You have no choice in the matter, Mr Harker," Dracula hisses. "Mina is mine."



He leans in for the bite, and try as he might Dean can't hold him off. He plants a hand against the side of Dracula's head in his effort at keeping the apparent vampire from biting him, wrenches desperately…and Dracula's ear comes off in his hand.

The medallion on a ribbon comes away in Dean's other hand as Dracula ducks away clutching at the side of his head and hissing in pain. It is Dracula's turn to flee now. Dean takes a moment to stare in surprise at the ear and attached tufts of hair in his hand and then he gives chase.

Dramatic music plays as Dean chases Dracula through deserted moonlit streets, past the town square.

Dracula manages to shake off Dean's pursuit by scaling a gate that must be 15 feet high with one impressive bound. Because Dean doesn't have springs in his feet, he is unable to follow and can only stare in amazement as Dracula…hops on a little Vespa scooter and drives away. There's even a little beep beep of the horn as he scoots off-screen. Hee! That'll never stop being funny.



Oh, and now the word 'intermission' pops up on-screen, superimposed over a curtain backdrop, like in the theatre, with along with traditionally cheesy intermission music, and everything. Cute. Hilarious.

Beerhaus

Now dressed down in his civvies, having presumably been summoned away from the motel after retiring for the night, Sam arrives at the bar to find Dean and Jamie sitting at one of the tables having a drink to soothe Jamie's rattled nerves.



Sam checks that they are both all right, and Dean announces that he thinks he knows what's going on, part of it at least. He pulls out a folded towel, presumably pinched from the bar, and tosses it onto the table in front of Sam. Sam opens it up to reveal the ear Dean tore off Dracula's head. Jamie wrinkles her nose in disgust, and so does Sam – the same Sam who went poking around inside the guts of an eviscerated werewolf victim with a pencil earlier!

Dean tells his brother to touch the ear. Sam thinks he's kidding at first, but one look at Dean's face tells him that no, he is completely serious, all business. So, Sam gingerly pokes at the ear, and is grossed out.



Seeing no sign of recognition on his brother's face, Dean prompts him by way of asking if it feels familiar. Sam's kind of slow on the uptake, which leads me to feel that maybe he left the museum immediately after Dean, went straight to the motel and was asleep by the time his brother called. Still, with Dean prodding him in the right direction, he gets there in the end, recognition flooding across his face as he breathes a dismayed "oh, man."

"Skin of a shapeshifter," Dean confirms. "Just like St Louis and just like Milwaukee. But this one's a whole new buckets-o'-crazy."

So many shapeshifters wandering around out there!

Dean digs in a pocket and pulls out the ribbon and medallion he also pulled off Dracula, handing it over for his brother to examine and directing his attention toward the label, because Dean already has the whole thing figured out and just needs Sam to catch up. The FX Shop PROPHOUSE, Philadelphia, says the label, just like the sarcophagus. Costume rental, Sam realises.

"All three monsters – the Dracula, the wolfman and the mummy – all the same critter," Dean summarises. "Which means we need to catch this freak before he Creature-from-the-Black-Lagoons somebody."

A very bewildered Jamie has been sitting quietly through this exchange, and I find myself wondering just how many of Dean's casual flings ever get to see the side of him that she is seeing here. Very few, it is safe to say! It was the public façade that first attracted her, plus obviously how good he looks in that suit, but this, what she's seeing right now? Professional, focused, a little weary, very serious about what he does? This is the real deal: the man behind the mask.



"So you guys are like…Mulder and Scully, or something?" Jamie is trying hard to understand and rationalise the insanity, what with the brothers just talking shop right there in front of her. "And the X-Files are real?"

Dean clearly isn't in the mood for humour, what with the crazy shapeshifter interrupting the date he was late for anyway, and all, because instead of jumping all over the opportunity to call his brother a redheaded woman again he just offers Jamie a humourless smile and says no. "The X-Files is a TV show. This is real."

Jamie is not terribly reassured, especially since no further explanation appears to be forthcoming.

Sam breaks it down. "So. The stagecraft, the costuming – it's like he's trying to re-enact his favourite monster movie moments, right down to the bloody murders."

Jamie interrupts to ask who the heck Mina is. Dean had forgotten that detail, and adds, having been reminded, that Dracula also called him Mr Harker. Sam instantly realises that Dracula meant Jonathan Harker. Dean is none the wiser, which means that for the first time since he walked into this scene, Sam gets to be one step ahead of his brother. He grins, amused, as he explains that Jonathan Harker and Mina are characters from the movies and novels: Mina was Dracula's intended bride and Harker the fiancé that stands in the way.



Shouldn't Dean know all that? I can believe that he wouldn't have read any Dracula novels, but Dean has always been the movie buff of the two brothers, and you'd think classic horror would be right up his street; we already know he loves the classic Godzilla movies. It figures that Sam would also know the genre well, despite his more general lack of film knowledge. He recognised the dead 1930s starlet in Hollywood Babylon, as well, so I'm guessing that Sam tends toward classic movies, the older the better, while remaining largely oblivious to anything later. But Dean has always been well versed in movie minutiae across the board and recognised Dracula from Ed Brewer's description, so he should also recognise the names of well-known characters from the Dracula movies!

Anyway. Sam realises that Dracula is fixating on Jamie, seeing her as his bride. Jamie, feeling less and less reassured by the minute, is understandably less than delighted to hear this and pours herself another drink. Sam guesses that the shifter must have seen her before in order to form this fixation and Dean asks if anyone strange has come to town lately and taken a specific notice of her.



Of course, it is Oktoberfest, so the town is full of strange people, and Jamie is a bartender, those strange people around her all day long. Still, after floundering for a moment she manages to come up with Ed Brewer by way of possible suspects, what with his being a little weird, only having moved to town about a month ago, that crush he supposedly has on her and the fact that he comes into the bar almost every night.

As evidence goes, it isn't much to go on, but it's good enough for the brothers. Even as Jamie adds that she really thinks Ed is harmless, Dean interrupts to ask where he lives. Jamie doesn't know, beyond that he works at the old movie theatre as a projectionist.

Dean hooks a thumb over his shoulder to point his brother toward the door. This one is all Sam's. Sam tells him to take care of 'Mina', as if there's any doubt that that's exactly what Dean intended anyway, and takes off to finish the hunt alone.



Let us think back to season one for a moment, those halcyon days when life was comparatively simple for the Winchester brothers as they began hunting together alone and as adults for the first time. Back then, Dean would never have dreamed of sending Sam off after a creature like this alone, however capable he knew his brother to be. On the (then) rare occasions they deliberately split up on a job, back then it was always Dean who dealt with the monster while Sam was given the safer task of caring for the innocents-of-the-week. Moreover, in their first shapeshifter encounter neither one was comfortable with the idea of the other being alone with the creature.

With two shapeshifter encounters now behind them, however, both brothers are a lot more at ease; it still isn't the easiest of creatures to take on, but it is relatively straightforward and familiar, something they know how to deal with. Further than that, it is a measure of how fluid their relationship has always been that even by the time of their second shapeshifter encounter in season two the pattern was already changing, Dean's automatic protectiveness of his brother easing up the longer they worked together, so that their partnership gradually became more even.

Now, of course, they have long worked as equals, and moreover Sam has been hunting alone for months while Dean was gone. When it comes to division of labour the divide is no longer automatically drawn between older and younger but rather comes about based on practicality, whatever works best in the specific situation. They have come a long way since those early days after Sam left Stanford.

Later

With Sam gone to find and kill the shapeshifter, Jamie paces, trying to process. Monsters are real? Some of them, yes, Dean confirms. And the shapeshifter can turn into different people? Yes, except that this one is turning into the great monsters of screenland, which is a new one for Dean.



Jamie turns back to him. "You're not really FBI, are you?"

"No, not so much," Dean admits.

"So, this is what you do?" she presses. "You and your partner? Just tramp across the country on your own dime until you find some horrible nightmare to fight?"

Oh, she still thinks Sam is his partner, which means the brother part hasn't been explained to her yet. Makes you wonder how she thinks they came to be working together.

Dean shrugs. "Some people paint," he offers. Heh.

Jamie is stunned. "Wow. That…must suck." Dean looks surprised to hear this, so she elaborates. "Giving up your life for this terrible…I don't know. Responsibility."

As guest characters and one-off romances go, Jamie is one of the strongest the show has ever had. She is both intelligent and thoughtful, more than capable of putting two and two together and coming up with four; Dean hasn't said much about what he does, but she has read between the lines extremely well and drawn her own, very accurate conclusions. She is calm and level-headed, was pro-active enough to defend herself from Dracula's attack earlier, has a sense of humour…it is easy to understand what Dean sees in her.

Dean thinks about Jamie's analysis of his lifestyle for a moment, and a little smile tugs at the edges of his lips. In the exchange that follows he is both completely and utterly sincere and totally milking the situation for all he's worth.

"Last few years," he begins. "I started thinking that way. It started weighing on me. Course, that was before…." Trailing off, he leans back in his seat, casting pensive, inward little glances up at Jamie as he weighs his words carefully. "A little while ago, I had this…let's call it a near death experience. Very near."

Yes, very near! Near and out the other side again!

Hanging on every word, Jamie sits down beside him. "When I came to," Dean continues. "Things were different. My life's been different. I realised that I help people. Not just help them, you know – I save them. I guess it's…it's awesome. It's kind of like a gift. Like a mission. Like a mission from God."



He still sounds a tad incredulous to hear himself saying those words – him, Dean, the great unbeliever – but whether this is the third or fifth episode, he now has enough encounters with Castiel behind him that he no longer doubts the divine origin of his salvation.

Saving people always was Dean's driving force and primary motivation, and back in season one he embraced it wholeheartedly. However, we have seen clearly that the events of recent years have weighed on him every bit as heavily as he states here, have seen him struggling badly as the traumas and losses of his life sapped the satisfaction he once drew from his ability to help others. Now, though, it seems he is re-embracing that mission.

Once again, though, we are confronted with the switch in episode order, because this scene and this re-affirmation of Dean's mission in life, his wholehearted embrace of the second chance he has been given – it belongs in the very earliest stages of the season, as episode three. Once the episode has been switched to the fifth slot, in the wake of the emotionally devastating events of In The Beginning and Metamorphosis, it no longer feels quite as in-keeping with his development and instead becomes a bump in the road of continuity. It carries far more weight to have this scene in the third episode, to see Dean so content to accept, with wonder, that he has been chosen by God for this mission, seeing it as a gift rather than a burden, and then to have the rug pulled out from under his feet, as it were, when the weight of the mytharc descends upon his head once more.

This is a gorgeous little scene, because Dean is utterly sincere, open and honest, baring his soul – vulnerable, even…but also, you just know that Dean knows women well enough to know that a story like this will be like catnip to a kitten. Irresistible.

Jamie is just lapping it up. "So," she all but purrs, leaning in close and gazing into his eyes. "Does that make you like...some kind of monk, or something?" Dean is puzzled, so she elaborates, teasing. "You know – celibate?"

Dean gazes back into her eyes. "Man, I hope not."

Thunder crashes as he leans in to kiss her, long and slow and passionate…



…the light flicks on, rather rudely interrupting the make-out session.

It's Lucy, who giggles insincere apologies for having disturbed the couple, excusing that she thought they were going out and just popped in to pick up a bottle for something she's got going on back at her place. I wonder if the manager knows his staff members have a habit of lifting the merchandise after hours?

Awkwardness abounds, and Lucy makes as if to get out of their way, but Jamie invites her to stay and have a drink. Now, you'd normally expect Dean to be all over the idea of a second winsome babe joining him on his date, given the threesome potential inherent in such a situation, but even as he seconds Jamie's invitation, it is instead clear that he kind of resents the intrusion. He likes Jamie. They've shared something here – this is no longer just a casual one-night stand, but rather something a notch or two higher up the ladder of meaningfulness. Third wheels are not welcome.



Another point worth noting is that if Lucy really did have something going on back at her place, she would surely want to get back to it asap, rather than playing third wheel to someone else's date. Suspicious!

Goethe Theatre

Sepulchral organ music plays as Sam makes his way inside. He follows the sound of the music, gun at the ready. As he cautiously makes his way through the theatre we see a skinny, shadowy figure playing the organ behind a screen. Sam also slips behind the screen, so that we get to see his silhouette creeping up on that of what could be the shapeshifter, in classically creepy fashion.



Sam seems mesmerised by the sight of what he sees – especially when the figure tires of the funereal organ music, and presses a button on his keyboard to switch it to some awful, zippy, chirpy standard Casio tune. Sam is perplexed, but stealthily creeps up behind Ed Brewer, for that is who it is: target attained, no searching through employee files necessary. Sheesh, and Ed is wearing nothing but a vest and underpants, and now I wonder if his employer knows what he gets up to on the premises after hours!

Ed senses Sam behind him right at the last moment and just about jumps out of his skin. The chair goes flying as Sam pounces, pinning Ed against the organ and waving the gun in his face.



Ed babbles, recognising Sam as one of the FBI agents and wondering what he is supposed to have done. Sam yells that Ed knows what he did and that Sam knows what he is. Ed is confused, babbling that he isn't anything, he just likes to play the Casio. In his underwear, it seems, but he doesn't add that part.

Sam comments that he has had time to grow his ear back, which – if this really was the shapeshifter, he's in a whole new form, so would have done a lot more than just growing back an ear! Sam grabs the ear and pulls…but it completely fails to come off in his hand. Ed bellows in pain, and it is Sam's turn to be confused. "It's supposed to come off!" he protests, rather weakly, as he starts to realise that there has been a misidentification here.

"No, it's not!" Ed fiercely protests, now convinced a madman has attacked him.

All Sam can do is offer his very best oops face by way of apology. And I so love the way Sam can swing from badass to gauche in the blink of an eye. Fantastic.



Beerhaus

Dean, Jamie and Lucy are all sitting around drinking together while Lucy listens to the story of the other two's interrupted evening. We get a pretty good view of the bottles on the table. Lucy's looks untouched, while the one Dean and Jamie opened earlier is not yet finished. So, they've had a bit to drink, but not enough to explain why both are looking decidedly the worse for wear all of a sudden.

Lucy commiserates, but the suddenly very drunk Jamie blithely insists that she is fine, that her attacker didn't even touch her, since Dean just flew right in and fought him off. Although also considerably on the tipsy side, Dean's Mr Suave public façade is right back in place as he faux-modestly shrugs that he didn't actually fly, although he's sure it seemed that way at the time.

Lucy blots her lipstick on a napkin one last time, folds it, and drops it to the table, smiling way too knowingly at the other two as Jamie rather dopily smiles that Dean's rescue of her was really, really something.

Although just as groggy, Dean frowns, starting to realise that something is wrong, but unable to think clearly enough to figure out just what. "Jamie?"

Lucy derails his train of thought, mockingly asking if he's a black belt or something, trained to fight at the academy. He can't quite think straight enough to process the question, looking down at his glass to find it spinning with the classic kaleidoscope effect of bygone days. Finally his fumbling brain puts two and two together. Not drunk – drugged. He looks up into Lucy's smiling, mocking face, pulls back and punches her as hard as he can.

Lucy goes flying to the floor. Jamie frowns, too muzzy to react. Dean pushes her out of the way so he can stagger out of the booth, and she promptly collapses back onto the seat, unconscious. Dean blinks owlishly down at her, and then turns his attention back to Lucy, swaying gently on his feet. "It's you, isn't it?" he accuses.

Lucy looks up, and her whole jaw is misshapen where Dean hit her. We've seen shapeshifters before, and we've even seen our boys getting into some serious smackdowns with them, but we've never seen a punch have that effect before! Still, it works well as clear visual confirmation that yes: Lucy is the shapeshifter.

Lucy pushes her jaw back into place, watching Dean intently, just waiting for the drug to fully take hold. Dean kicks her and she rolls backward, comes up in a crouch, expectant and triumphant. Dean is just barely hanging onto the last strands of consciousness as he grabs a liquor bottle off the table, demanding somewhat rhetorically to know what Lucy put in their drinks. He smashes the bottle against the table by way of providing himself with a weapon, albeit one that can't actually kill a shapeshifter. Then he turns back to Lucy, who is fading in and out of focus now as his vision grows more and more blurry.

"I'll skin you myself," he breathlessly snarls, and promptly falls flat on his face, vertical to horizontal without bending. For an actor, given the body's self-defence reflexes, that's a lot harder to achieve than it looks!



Lucy towers over Dean's prostrate form, smiling happily. "End. Scene," she coos, bringing her boot down smack on Dean's head, just to make sure he's out. Plus, you know, a touch of that that old staple: revenge.

Dracula's Dungeon/Frankenstein's Lab

Okay, so this scene is fabulous. In a room that resembles nothing so much as Doctor Frankenstein's laboratory crossed with Dracula's castle, the still unconscious Dean is firmly strapped to a wooden table that's been raised to a diagonal. He has been divested of his best FBI suit and dressed instead in lederhosen, complete with braces and knee-length white socks.

Yep indeed: Dean in lederhosen, with the added bonus of bondage, to boot.



The entire viewing audience falls about laughing with delight.

Dean regains consciousness, is alarmed to find that he is restrained and struggles briefly, only to be distracted by what he finds himself wearing when he glances down to assess the giant metal straps holding him firmly in place. "Oh, come on!" he protests, disgusted with the outfit, the thought of someone stripping and re-dressing him and this entire insane case.

Dean glances around the room, which, as I said, resembles nothing so much as a bizarre combination of Doctor Frankenstein's laboratory and Dracula's castle: weird laboratory equipment, big stone walls, candelabra, cobwebs, massive wooden doors. On the wall near a doorway leading to a spiral staircase, he sees a portrait of a woman that appears to be Lucy.

"She is beautiful. No?" Dracula has wandered into the room to find his prisoner awake. He is wearing his medallion on the ribbon around his neck again, having clearly reclaimed it once he had incapacitated Dean back at the bar. While Dean struggles against his bonds again, Dracula monologues, faux-Transylvanian accent at its thickest. "Bride Number Three from the first film. She never got the acclaim that she deserved, vich is vy I chose her shape, her form to move among the mortals unknown. To listen to the cricket songs of the living. That vas ven I discovered my bride had been reborn in this century."



Dean's wtf expression listening to all this is absolutely priceless. Finally he busts out laughing. "I can't get over what a pumpkin pie-eyed crazy son of a bitch you really are. You're not Dracula! You get that, right? Or even if you think you are Dracula, what the hell is up with the mummy?"

Dracula, who enjoys life cocooned away in his bubble of insanity, does not appreciate this attempt at bursting said bubble, and so punches Dean in the face, hard. No reality-based conversation permitted. While Dean recovers, Dracula declares that he is all monsters, complete with over-dramatic hand gestures by way of emphasising his point.

Dean is having none of it. "Life ain't a movie, you sorry sack of –"

Another punch. Dean grunts and works his jaw, painfully, while Dracula explains himself. "Life is small. Meagre. Messy. The movies are grand. Simple. Elegant. I have chosen elegance." He ends this statement with a grand flourish of his cape.

Dean offers another wtf face. "You think elegance is really the word for what you did to Marissa, or Rick Deacon, or any of the others?"

"But of course," Dracula shrugs. "It is a monster movie, after all.

"You do realise what happens at the end of every monster movie?" Dean snips.



Dracula merely points out that this is his movie, with more emphatic hand gestures thrown in for good measure. "And in it, the monster wins. The monster gets the girl. And the hero? He's... electrocuted."

He reaches for a massive switch on the wall, ready to hook Dean's iron bonds up with a hefty electrical current. Again with the electrocution for Dean! He's already been electrocuted in both Faith and Mystery Spot, even if the Mystery Spot occasion did happen in a time loop of alternate reality he has no memory of.

"And tonight, Jonathan Harker, you vill be my hero," Dracula taunts. Dean tries to stall, but to no avail. Dracula keeps reaching for that switch. He is in no rush, however, because a) he wants to savour the moment, and b) the baddie in old-style monster movies always moves in slow motion when he goes for the kill, allowing maximum escape time, and also filling in valuable seconds of screen-time.

Dracula reaches and reaches and reaches, slowly, slowly, slowly, while Dean strains desperately against his bonds, expecting to be fried at any moment…

The doorbell chimes. I half expect Dean to quip that Drac should get that, a la A Very Supernatural Christmas, but instead he just freezes, wondering what Dracula will do. What Dracula does is very politely excuse himself to go answer it, which is so anticlimactic it is hilariously surreal. He swooshes his cape around him in theatrical fashion once more and hurries up the stairs.

Left alone, Dean lets his head drop back against the table with an enormous sigh of relief. He's died too many times already.

Upstairs

Turns out, upstairs from Dracula's Dungeon is…a completely nondescript suburban house. Dracula looks marvellously incongruous stalking through it to the door, which he opens to find a bored-looking pizza delivery guy standing on the doorstep.

"Gud eevening," Dracula declares. Pizza Guy executes a fabulously bored-but-bemused double take at the sight of this complete fruitcake and announces that he has a pizza delivery. "Ah," says Dracula, laying it on thick. "You have brought a repast. Excellent. Continue to be of such service and your life will be spared."

Pizza Guy just rolls his eyes, like his round is nothing but lunatics and this is just the latest in a long line, and drones that Dracula owes $15.50 for the pizza. Dracula comes over all suspicious and demands to know if there is garlic on the pizza. Frustration starts to leak into Pizza Guy's bored monotone as he asks if Dracula ordered any garlic. Dracula recoils theatrically at the mere suggestion.

"Then no," huffs Pizza Guy. "Look, mister, I've got four other deliveries to make. You wanna just pay me the money so I can go?"

Dracula agrees that of course he will. "But I have a coupon."

Mwah.

Beerhaus. Early morning

Sam returns to the bar to report back that Ed Brewer was misidentified and the shapeshifter is still at large. Finding the bar empty, he pulls out his cell phone and leaves a message for Dean. "Dean, hey, listen. Ed is not our guy. I'm guessing you're at home with Jamie, so just give me a call, okay."

But then Sam notices the broken bottle on the floor and frowns, spidey senses a-tingling. Lightning flashes and thunder crashes as he sees three glasses on the table instead of two, and also notices the lipstick-stained napkin, remembers who he has seen leaving those around before. "Lucy!"



Now, it strikes me that the passage of time becomes a little wonky at around about this stage. Dracula has already had time to transport Dean and Jamie back to his house, strip, re-dress and restrain Dean, change his own skin and outfit, and order pizza and have it delivered. Yet Sam has only just returned to the bar despite seeming to have gone straight there from the theatre, with no reason to have made any stops along the way. Now, maybe the theatre is just a long way from the bar, but still it feels that the scenes could have been edited in a slightly different order to make the sequence of events feel a little smoother. This scene would slot in neatly between the shapeshifter knocking Dean out at the bar and Dean waking up down in the dungeon, and all the passage of time issues would go away with just that one minor edit. Still, it wasn't to be.

Dracula's House

Back at Dracula's house, the bedroom, like the basement, has been kitted out to look like it was lifted straight from a gothic castle as depicted in horror movies of yore: big stone walls, high arched windows, cobwebs, candles, four-poster bed. I wonder just how long it took the shapeshifter to get that lot installed in his nondescript suburban home.

Jamie lies on the four-poster bed, still sleeping off whatever she was drugged with. It must have hit her hard if she is still out cold now when Dean already came around following both drugs and that blow to the head. Smaller mass = longer recovery. Both Jamie and the bed have been artfully arranged so that the sunlight streaming in through one of those high arched windows falls across her.

She awakens at last, groggy and confused, and peers blearily around at her unfamiliar surroundings.

"You vake," Dracula's voice informs her, rather redundantly, since I'm pretty sure she'd already noticed that she was awake. What she hadn't noticed was the presence of the shapeshifter in the room, and the surprise blows those last cobwebs clear out of her mind.

Dracula directs Jamie's attention to a long white gown he has laid out for her, which he feels suits her beauty, and directs her to put it on. Instead of complying, Jamie regards him with wary suspicion and asks where she is and what he's done with Dean.



Dracula smoothly informs her that 'Harker' is resting elsewhere, and again directs her to put on the gown so that they can dine. "We are having…pizza," he announces, without a trace of irony. He employs his best theatrical flounce by way of revealing the pizza, which has been laid out on a silver platter as if it were a sumptuous feast and is now cooling rapidly.

"What?" Like Dean, Jamie can't get over what a fruitcake her kidnapper is. "What is wrong with you?" Being clever, she is quick to put all the pieces together, and her voice trembles as she adds, "You made up Lucy, right? Pretended to be my friend."

"I deedn't know eef you were the one," Dracula hurriedly offers by way of excuse, looking genuinely worried that he has offended her and unsure what to do about it. Her good opinion is important to him, and I doubt he had thought any further ahead than getting her here. The fact that she has a mind of her own and is not going to be amenable was a problem he had not accounted for. In his delusions, she was merely another prop in the story he is trying to create.

"Try talking to people!" Lucy indignantly protests. "But instead you become this!" Dracula does not like the way this conversation is going, so ignores Lucy's argument to instead reiterate his demand about the gown. Lucy is having none of it. "I don't want to play your stupid game!" she insists. "Okay? I just…I just want to go home."

Dracula's fragile grasp on his patience snaps. "PUT ON THE GOWN!" he bellows, and Jamie is frightened. She reaches tremulously for the gown, but she looks as angry as she is afraid. You can see that it is absolutely killing her to have to give in and meet the insane shapeshifter's demands.

Downstairs

Sam arrives at the front door. How he found the house we are not told. Maybe Lucy's address was right there on file at the bar, and the shapeshifter gave his actual address for her. I still feel that the minor change in scene order I suggested earlier could have been beneficial, allowing plenty of time for Sam to investigate Lucy and track down this location.

Anyway. Suspenseful music plays as Sam makes to pick the lock, only to find that the door has actually been left unlocked – either that or he is so skilled he can pick a lock in one second flat. He gains entrance with ridiculous ease, sidles inside, sliding his lockpick back into a pocket, and holds his gun at the ready as he cautiously, stealthily, makes his way through the nondescript section of the house.



Bedchamber

Lucy straightens the gown, having changed into it. Nearby, Dracula has politely turned his back to give her some privacy while she changed, and stands there looking tormented. Big kudos are due to the actor, Todd Stashwick, for he could easily have just chewed scenery and taken the role completely over the top, but instead he turns in a beautifully understated and nuanced performance that allows us to sympathise with the conflicted and mentally unstable shapeshifter even as we cheer on his inevitable demise.

"I – I scared you," Dracula murmurs, dropping the faux-Transylvanian accent by way of informing us that he is no longer playing the role of Dracula but instead letting himself shine through, whoever he is beneath all that borrowed skin. "You're the only one I don't want to scare."

He turns to face Jamie, who looks ashamed to be seen wearing the dress he forced her into, her anger simmering impotently.

"I used to love the movies," explains Dracula, quiet, wanting her to understand. Jamie firmly points out that they aren't real and he can't make them real. He turns away again, still looking tormented. "Real is being born this way," he says. "Different. Real is having your dad call you 'monster' – first time you hear the word. Then he tries to beat you to death with a shovel. Everywhere I ran, everywhere I tried to hide, people found me, dragged me out, attacked me. Called me freak. Called me monster."

Jamie stands there like stone throughout this speech, listening and thinking and looking every inch the beautiful damsel in distress of yore.

Dracula turns back to her, faint smile lighting up his face as he continues to wax nostalgic. "Then I found them. The great monsters. In their movies they were strong, they were feared – they were beautiful. And now I am like them. Commanding. Terrifying."

"Lonely," Jamie fires back at him, not prepared to accept any excuses or justification for what he has done.

Dracula allows that he was lonely. "But now I have you." He reaches out to stroke her hair, but Jamie flinches away from his touch and he pulls his hand away, nervous. Reality is not as easy to mould to his whims as he had hoped.



Jamie is having none of it. "You ever think that maybe you're lonely because you kill people?"

"Or I kill people because I'm lonely," he counters, deluded serial killer that he is.

A noise from downstairs draws both of their attention. Since Dean is securely trussed up, I'm going to assume that Sam has managed to not-so-stealthily stumble into something, but Jamie immediately cries out for Dean, hoping that he is on his way to her rescue. Panicking, because he has lost control of this situation and he knows it, Dracula belts her hard across the face, sending her flying back onto the bed, unconscious, blood trickling from her nose. Unravelling fast, he claps a hand to his mouth in horror at what he has done.

Basement Dungeon

Meanwhile down in the dungeon, Dean is still straining against his immovable bonds. He is alarmed when he hears someone approaching, expecting it to be Dracula returned to get on with frying him, but no – it is Sam.

Seeing his brother, Sam quickly puts his gun away and…pulls out a pocket-sized crowbar that he just happens to have to hand. You know, as you do. Honestly, the things these boys carry around in their inside pockets! Sam makes short work of Dean's bonds, and Dean's relief is palpable. "Oh thank God, just in the nick of time. The guy was about to Frankenstein me."

Only when Dean is free does Sam actually take in what his brother is wearing, and a delighted grin spreads across his face. "Hey there, Hansel," he quips.

Dean was having a bad enough night already, without his brother mocking him, so deploys his very sternest big brother voice to warn him to shut up. Sam desperately, desperately wants to tease more, can't hold back a little giggle of deep, deep amusement, but the discomfited Dean is glowering a baleful warning at him and they are mid-case with Jamie still to rescue, so, with a masterful effort, he holds the laughter in and hands his brother a silver blade.



Comedic music plays as the brothers approach a set of hefty double doors, rather than heading back up the stairs Sam just came down. I can't figure out the layout of this house at all. Sam looks at Dean, automatically expecting him to do the honours, because Dean loves kicking doors down, but Dean instead makes an after you gesture to indicate that this one is all Sam's. I daresay kicking doors in those lederhosen probably would be uncomfortable, not to mention undignified, and right now Dean needs to cling onto whatever dignity he can salvage!

Sam kicks the door…and his foot goes right through it and gets stuck. Just scenery. The door falls off its hinges, taking Sam's foot down with it, and he struggles to maintain his balance and shake the door off his foot. Then he turns, abashed, to look at his brother, who rolls his eyes. Yep, he noticed.

"Let's go," Sam urges, trying to pretend that didn't just happen. He takes off down the hallway. Dean follows rather less speedily, taking a moment to glance quizzically around at all the scenery first.

Bedchamber

Sam opens the next door he comes to, instead of kicking it, and sidles through with his gun at the ready. The first thing he sees is Jamie lying unconscious on the bed, so he hurries toward her, but in so doing completely lets his guard down. Dracula was standing just off to one side, out of sight, and now grabs Sam from behind and flings him into one of those big stone walls…and right through it. More flimsy scenery. But still it was a heavy enough crash landing that Sam is out for the count, his gun sent spinning across the floor.

"You vill never be Van Helsing!" shouts Dracula, faux-Transylvanian accent back in full swing. He turns to see Dean lunging at him with his silver blade and seizes him before he can strike, administers a few hefty blows and then grabs him by the throat. "And you, Harker – now you die!"

Dean punches the shapeshifter in the gut, hard enough that Dracula releases him. "How about now you shut the hell up," he grunts as they both regroup.

Dean notices Sam's gun lying on the floor, and Dracula follows his gaze, each instantly appraising the situation. Dean has to get past Dracula to get to the gun. He gives it his best shot, but Dracula is ready for him and knocks him to the ground, vamping out.

But before Dracula can strike for the kill, a couple of shots ring out from behind him, hitting him square in the back, the bullets punching clean through and out his chest. He looks down in disbelief. "Silver?"

Well, yeah: Sam knew he was hunting a shapeshifter so he wasn't going to have loaded anything else!

Sultry violin music plays as Dean looks past Dracula and then Dracula turns and the camera follows their eyes to reveal that it was Jamie who shot the shapeshifter. She stands there still holding Sam's gun at the ready, looking a little sickened by what she just did but also resolute.



Dracula staggers. "'Twas beauty that killed the beast," he murmurs wonderingly. In the best tradition of horror movie antagonists, he is not about to just roll over and die without a long drawn out soliloquy first, so he staggers backward a few more steps, imploring, "No, Mina, do not weep."

Jamie just looks at him like he's as utterly insane as he is, but says nothing. Dracula gets the last word, because this is his story. He drops onto a chair and arranges his cloak, theatrical to the last. "Perhaps this is how the movie should end." With a heavy sigh, he finally expires.

The camera pulls back to a wide shot, remaining focused on Dracula's corpse, but also granting us a fabulous view of Dean, still on the floor, legs all akimbo, with his knees showing between the top of his long white socks and the bottom of his lederhosen shorts. Marvellous.



The scene ends with that circular fade-out shot once more, this time the pinpoint trained on Dracula's corpse right to the last.

Town square. Day

Dean and Jamie are kissing farewell. And kissing, and kissing, and kissing…



I really like Jamie, for all the reasons already stated. She is intelligent, thoughtful and fun-loving, level-headed enough to stay calm in a crisis, feisty and pro-active enough to defend herself in a clinch, and took the revelation about the supernatural in her stride instead of freaking out in any way. In many respects she feels a little like a real-world version of the ideal woman Dean dreamt up for himself in What Is And What Will Never Be, and although she is blatantly never going to be any more than a passing fling, it actually feels like this could be the start of a relationship, if this was that kind of show.

I tend to feel that if either brother was ever going to establish any kind of meaningful romantic relationship with anyone, this is how it should start. In the past we have seen (or, rather, been told of) Sam keeping secrets from Jessica and Dean revealing the truth to Cassie without warning or any means of proof, but neither strategy is the best foundation for a relationship, given the lives they lead. Far better to start out from an encounter like this, with a girl who has learned the truth through the course of adventure and therefore can understand, at least to some extent, is feisty and capable in her own right, and has bags of chemistry with whichever brother she is involved with.

It would be complicated, obviously, requiring tremendous patience on the part of the girl, who would have to put up with it being a long-distance relationship much of the time, the ton of emotional baggage, and the fact that the brothers come as a job lot, while for the brothers it would require both willingness and courage to invest that kind of time, effort and emotion. And, of course, the Show will never go down that road anyway, given the plot-complications inherent (and the fact that this really isn't that kind of show)…but if they ever did, this is how it should begin! With small steps and a one-off character that works.

What Jamie also shows us is how Dean relates to the women he hooks up with along the way. For all that his many one-night stands are frequently referred to, we have never had the chance to actually see him in action before. Even allowing for the fact that the nature of this episode required it to be a definite romance and that Jamie's involvement in the case moves her onto another level, what she shows us is how much Dean invests in his flings, how much he loves women. He might love 'em and leave 'em with impunity, as much because that's all his lifestyle allows as anything else, but he gives them his heart, completely sincere for the duration of the fling – probably at least a part of the reason he is so successful with women.

It makes sense. For all that Sam comes across as the sympathetic one he generally tends to remain rather aloof, while Dean is the brother who has always forged the strongest bond with the various people they encounter along the way. He likes being able to connect with people, even if just for a short time, and this is just another facet of that.

"Well thank you, G-Man. You have been of great service to your country," Jamie murmurs in between smooches, as the camera circles the couple, and Dean laughingly agrees that he is very, very patriotic, also in between smooches.

Finally the camera completes enough of its circuit to reveal Sam standing around like the third wheel he totally is right now, waiting for Dean to finish saying his goodbyes so they can get back on the road. He fidgets, and the couple break apart and look at him, so he flashes an awkward grin by way of no, really, don't let me disturb you.

Dean turns back to Jamie, murmurs goodbye, and kisses her again. Finally they break apart; Dean joins Sam, and the brothers head for the Impala. Jamie calls after them. "You guys saved my life, you know. So…thanks." With that, she slinks away, having had enough quite of a public farewell for her one-night stand already.

Except that…she kind of ended up being the one who saved them, in the end! But then again, if they hadn't been there, she would have had no way of defending herself against the shapeshifter and it had already become obsessed with her. So the lifesaving was pretty reciprocal all around.

Dean and Sam look at one another. "I like her," Sam announces. He said the same thing about Cassie. I think Sam would dearly love to see his brother getting to experience a stable and loving relationship of the kind he had with Jessica, however much he knows that it isn't possible and however much he'd never dream of saying it in as many words. It's kind of sweet.



Dean beams. "It feels good to be back on the job, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does," Sam has to admit. Taking the episodes in production order, this is first job they have worked alone together since Dean returned – the first time since probably Ghostfacers if not earlier that they have worked a simple, straightforward job that wasn't overshadowed by the desperation of Dean's deal or the menace of the impending Apocalypse. Sam's reaction here is understated but nonetheless heartfelt.

Dean expounds. "The hero gets the girl; the monster gets the gank; all in all, a happy ending…with a happy ending, no less."



Snerk. Again, it was Jamie who killed the monster in the end, so if that makes her the hero and Dean already claimed to be the one with the hymen….

Sam laughs. "Real classy, Dean."

"Hey, all I'm saying is, the shifter might have had a point, you know," says Dean. "It would be nice if life was movie simple." Sam's shrug implies that yeah, there is something appealing to that notion. Life has become terribly complicated for the Winchesters in recent years.



Dean adds a rider, however: "Although if I was turning life into a movie, I wouldn't turn it into this Abbott and Costello Meet the Monster crap."

"Yeah, no. I know what you'd pick," Sam remarks. Dean immediately laughs and says that he doesn't. Sam insists that yes, he does, and Dean denies it again. It's like a pantomime. Sam finally ends the argument by just coming out with it. "Porky's II."

Dean is taken aback. "What?"

Sam is smug. "You heard me."

Dean stares, wind completely taken out of his sails. Sam is filled with glee. He knows his brother well, and Dean is alive once more for that knowledge to actually mean something. Right at this moment, whatever might be going on elsewhere, life is good for the Winchesters.

"Lucky guess," growls Dean, thwarted. He stalks off to the car as triumphant music swells to herald the end of the episode. Sam watches him go with an oh-so fond smile plastered all over his face, which, again, feels so much more suited to the third than fifth episode of the season, for all the reasons already stated. He follows his brother out of shot.



'The End... A WARNER BROS. TELEVISION PRODUCTION' flashes across the screen, but as the background fades to black, the end card changes to 'The End...?'



Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. Not to mention gloriously absurd.



January 2009

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