In conjunction with the end of Supernatural Season 2, I will be doing a (nearly) blow by blow account of the two part finale, All Hell Breaks Loose, to exorcise its demonic hold on my higher brain functions. For the same price, I’ll throw in my razor-sharp analysis of the episodes so that all of you readers can ooh and aah at my insight and biting wit.
Here we go.
All Hell Breaks Loose Part One opens with a “Previously, on…….” montage, titled The Road So Far, complete with classic rock courtesy of Boston , and Bobby’s gravelly voice warning the Winchester boys, “Storm’s coming. And you boys, are smack in the middle of it.” As if they didn’t know. Although I do know what has been happening, the spooky, urgent strains of the opening music sent chills down my spine as we furiously flit by reminders of the psychic children, the Yellow-Eyed Demon’s plans for them, the impending war and finally Dean’s scared confession, “Dammit Sam, this whole thing is spinning out of control!”
Ah, Dean, if only you knew.
Introduction over and we see Sam and Dean in a happier mode, trundling along to a stop in front of some greasy spoon, where Dean thuggishly demands Sam to bring him some pie. I chuckle along at Dean’s little obsession over pie but we know any levity will soon go out the manually operable Impala’s window when the car radio starts fizzing out and Sam suddenly disappears from view. Oh-oh, should have gotten off your lazy ass, Dean and gone in with Sam, who despite his oversized abnormality, can’t look after himself without you looking over his shoulder all the time.
Bow-legged Dean runs over to the café, but finds two of the café’s staff and a customer swimming in pools of their own blood. Of the giant Sam, Dean finds no clue, except for traces of sulphur lining the café door. Oh dear, a demon’s got Sam. Poor Dean, having little Sammy disappear from him again. He must have been a nightmare to look after when he was a kid, always letting go of Mummy Dean’s hand in the shopping mall and wandering off to poke his sticky fingers in the fish pond.
Anyway, Sam wakes up on some muddied plank in the middle of some abandoned Wild West town. He scrabbles about a bit on the ground (damn that man has got some legs on him) before realising that he has been transported to the land where no mobile phone signal can reach. Eeeeekk!!!!
As Sam wanders around the seemingly deserted town, he runs across fellow special psychic child, Andy Gallagher, who is freaking out over his sudden transportation to Ghost Town. Their reunion is interrupted when they hear frantic girly screaming. They rush over to a padlocked shed, break it open and out stumbles, Ava Wilson, another special psychic child, who disappeared with a trace of sulphur five months ago. Ava, however thinks she has only been gone overnight and is horrified to know that she has been missing all this time. More freaking out follows, with her burying her head in Sam’s enormous chest. Mmmmm. Any further embracing is interrupted when the trio hear more voices and they come across a huge guy in army fatigues (but still, not as huge as Sam) called Jake and a goth girl called Lily, both having been transported from Afghanistan and San Diego respectively.
Sam, being the only one who has the full story, explains that they were all brought here by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, for what purpose he isn’t entirely sure. The two newbies understandably pooh-pooh him at first until Andy starts babbling about how his powers of Jedi-like persuasion has developed into sending images into people's minds, which includes sending gay porn imagery into the mind of a man Andy dislikes. Two questions arise here: one, what if this dude actually likes gay porn, so far from it being a punishment, guy likely goes "Cool! Free porn!' and two, where does Andy get all this 24 hour non-stop gay porn if he hasn't been watching it himself and if he watches it, surely he likes it a lot and wouldn't really consider it as a punishment for someone else? Okay, whatever, on with the plot.
Goth girl then gets antsy with Andy and with Sam's and Ava's psychic abilities because when the Yellow-Eyed Demon was giving out prizes, she was definitely last in line as she stops people's hearts with just a touch. Bummer.
The two newbies, having never had an episode to succumb to Sam's puppy dog-ness get fed up with all this bullshit. Despite his pleas for them to stay together and arm themselves against the demonic threat, those crazy kids just won't listen to him. Firstly, Jake nearly gets himself made into a pincushion by a demon disguised as a girl-child, then Lily runs off into the woods to escape. Poor kid hasn't watched enough horror movies - anyone who ignores the advice of the best looking guy there is bound to be the first to die. Funnily enough the creepy demon child doesn't poke Lily full of holes with her extra long fingernails but chooses to throw a rope around her neck and hang her from a tower. Less gore but makes for a very visible threat to the rest of the special children.
Meanwhile, Dean and Bobby are trying their darndest to find Sam, but have come to a dead end, until Ash calls from the roadhouse with info so hot he dare not talk about it over the phone. So Dean and Bobby wing it to Nebraska (from wherever they are in the States) but upon their arrival, they find the roadhouse burnt to the ground and Ash’s charred remains among the ruins. For everyone’s sakes, I won’t make any jokes about how Ash is now ash ……. awww, I just think I did.
Over in Ghost Town, Sam being the generation Y that he is, is lamenting the lack of instant communication with his brother Dean. Andy suggests sending images of their location to Dean via telepathy. He’s never tried it long distance but hey, if he can transmit porn into some guy’s head 24/7, then a distance of several hundred miles must be a piece of cake for him. Andy asks for an object that Dean has touched and Sam produces a receipt that Dean has signed ‘D. Hasselhoff’. Blimey! Has my mother been subconsciously transmitting her thoughts on Dean to the show’s writers? I know my mother has this unerring knack for knowing when her children are up to no good but has her maternal instinct developed into something bigger? Or does everyone else also think Dean looks like David Hasselhoff?
Anyway, Dean does his telepathic sending thing, Dean gets a big headache like Sam always has when he has visions, and between Dean and Bobby, they figure out that Sam is in Cold Oak, South Dakota – a town so haunted that every resident has fled. Dean and Bobby hop into the Batmobile, uh sorry, Impala and hurrah! off they go to rejoin Sam!
Spooked by Lily’s death, the gang hole up in a room lined with salt. Jake stands guard by the door, Andy’s asleep at the table, Ava’s staring into space and Sam is nodding off when holy shit, it’s the Yellow-Eyed Demon! He’s standing next to Jake! But nobody can hear or see him! Except Sam! Yowza!
Sam takes a walk with the YED and Sam is very angry with the YED. You can tell because he has adopted this hunched, neck out, Neanderthal-like stance in an attempt to appear threatening. The YED brushes these pitiful threats, because you know he is the YED and he can. (The YED, is played by the same bloke Fredric Lane, from In My Time of Dying, so I feel rather sorry for the poor hospital janitor who has been in continuous demon possession for nearly a year now.)
The YED tells Sam to shut his gob so that he can explain that he isn’t looking for soldiers, he is looking for soldier. “Why do you think so many have already flamed out?” the YED asks, referring to Max Miller and Andy’s brother, Anson. The special kids were brought to this desolate town to fight among themselves and the last one left standing will have the dubious honour of leading the YED’ soon to arrive army. Yessir, there can only be one. See, I was thinking of a battle to the death like The Highlander, but the YED compares this competition to the Miss America Pageant. Sheesh. What a sad, sad comparison, unless…….. there’s something about the Miss America Pageant that I don’t know about. The YED confesses to rooting for Sam in this one and does a good Peter Stormare impression when he breathes, “Saaaaammm. Sammy…….you’re my favourite.” Brrrrrrr!!!! Spooky.
Sam is not impressed and understandably wants to rip the YED to shreds because the YED killed his momma, his daddy, and his girlfriend. The YED tsks-tsks and shrugs his shoulders. Girlfriend was leading Sam into respectable lawyer-dom and suburbia and the YED couldn’t have that. He needed Sam sharp and on the road. And momma? Well, she just happened to be in the way. Sam looks at him in bewilderment. Even the YED can’t resist Sam’s confused puppy dog look, so he generously zips Sam and him to a “high def playback’ of the night Sam’s mother died.
Now, we’ve seen a little of this event in the series’ pilot but here, we get to see the action from inside Sam’s nursery. Here is the Past-YED in a long black outfit, shrouded in the shadows, standing over a cherubic six month old Sammy’s crib. (Awww, the little tyke is kinda cute.) A non-fried Mummy Winchester resplendent in the obligatory white nightgown, sleepily enters the room and asks the Past-YED, who she mistakes for her husband, if Sam is hungry again. The Past-YED shushes her, so Mummy exits the room to, as we know to go downstairs where she will find her husband John asleep in an armchair and will soon come high-tailing up those stairs. (Honestly, that is one of the most scary thing I imagine a mother could face and my own heart nearly stopped in empathy with Mary Winchester when I first saw the pilot.)
But for now, the Past-YED is alone with little Sammy. He uses the sharp edge of his fingernail to cut across his wrist (ewww, unhygienic!) and drips demonblood into Little Sammy's mouth. "Better than mother's milk," the Present-YED croons. Big Sammy is extremely grossed and horrified by this pseudo-vampiric activity. This scene puts to rest the question as to whether Sam and the other psychic children have demon blood in them. Okay, so it's ingested demon blood, not inherited but either way it sucks.
But wait! More revelations will be uh...... revealed. Mummy Winchester, now realising that some crazy stranger is in her son's room, comes storming into the nursery. The Past-Yed turns around, flashes his yellow eyes at her and she gasps, "It's you!"
Jeebus! Mary Winchester knows the YED. Goodness, I did not see that coming. In which life did Mary Winchester rub shoulders with the YED? Was she a hunter before she met John Winchester? Was she a psychic child of her generation? Blimey, she's a dark horse, that Mary.
Big Sam then sees the Past-YED throw mummy against the wall and when she starts to scream, the past scene vanishes and Sam wakes up in Ghost Town. Jake is standing over him and says, "Ava's missing."
The two big guys go out looking for Ava while wussy Andy stays in the salt-lines room. Ava suddenly turns up in the room looking highly suspicious. Andy hasn't cottoned on yet as Ava looks at him in an EVIL manner. She makes a hole in the salt border before doing some temple rubbing and suddenly black smoke comes pouring in through the gap in the salt. She -yeet, it's the demon-child who has trouble with nail clippers. This time there's no messing about as the demon-child lunges straight for Andy and starts ripping into him. We see blood coming out of his mouth then a huge spray of blood smacks a window. I might be wrong here, but I think Andy is dead. Poor guy, I kinda liked the little doofus.
Ava turns on the taps and starts screaming for help. Sam comes running in and is shocked by the sight that greets him. Ava acts all helpless and clueless but Sam is sharp and notices the gap in the salt line. He's not taken in by Ava's crocodile tears and starts badgering her. "I'll tell you what I think. Five months - you're the only one with all that time you can account for. And that headache you got? Right at the time when the demon got Lily."Ava still tries to maintain her innocence - she's got tears running down her face, lip trembling - but eventually she sees that Sam isn't buying it. She suddenly stops crying, her face changes and even her high pitched scared girl voice drops lower, "Had you going didn't I?" she smirks at Sam.
It turns out that this hasn't been the only Miss America pageant going. Ava had been here all this time and batches of three or four special psychic children have been appearing to fight it out. With each kill that she made, Ava's powers had grown from just having visions to being able to control demons. Ava proudly announces, "I'm the undefeated heavy-weight champ." Sam is horrified but Ava looks at him like he's two kinds of stupid. It was either kill or be killed. "If you would just quit your hand wringing...." she says. Hee hee.
After a plot explaining monologue, Ava proceeds to call forth a demon to kill Sam but Jake walks in behind her and breaks her neck in one resounding thwack. Sam can only stand there looking confounded.
It soon transpires that Jake also had the same visit form the YED and him killing Ava was more to do with coming out tops than saving Sam. Sam appeals to Jake to not succumb to the YED's games and stupidly puts down his knife to show his sincerity. Jake puts down his weapon as well but that was just a ploy because he sucker-punches Sam so hard that he flies back several metres. (Sam, not Jake.) Sam manages to fight back using his incredibly long legs while lying on the ground and reaches for not his knife, but Jake's iron rod next to it and gives Jake a good whack with the rod. Jake falls down, apparently senseless, and Sam looks like he is about to give Jake a life ending whack, but at the last minute decides against it because he is Good Boy Sam.
Suddenly, he hears Dean's voice calling for him, and Sam thinks he must be hallucinating what with all the hits he's taken to the head but he turns his back on Jake and there is Dean, and Bobby, walking towards him. A relieved smile breaks over his face and he staggers towards Dean but Jake has gotten up and grabbed the knife. Dean screams a warning to Sam but it is too late because Jake has plunged the knife into Sam, and he gives it a good jerk and a twist that leaves no viewer any doubt that Sam is done for. Jake turns and run as Bobby gives chase. Sam falls to his knees and Dean runs forward to catch him before he slumps face to the ground. Dean can't believe that Sam is done for because he's hugging him close and telling Sam (and himself) that the wound is not bad and things are going to be fine but the viewer sees all the Signs of Impending Death. Sam's got blood coming out of his mouth, his eyes are unfocused, his head is lolling - finally his eyes close.
Cue music which sounds like something from the sad bits of Lord of the Rings. End of Part One.
Part Two opens with a song that for me, is the anthem of Season 1 Supernatural - Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas, which we last heard in last season's penultimate episode. It turns up here again but its presence jars because it doesn't fit with the tone of what's happening here. Sam is dead for sure, because he's laid out on a smelly-looking mattress (and he isn't complaining) and he looks white as a sheet. Dean can't let go of Sam - the way he's got Sam laid out is like he's expecting Sam to wake up any minute. Bobby broaches the subject of burying Sam but this gets Dean mad as hell and he practically shoves Bobby out the door. At this point, I'm afraid for Dean's sanity as it looks like he might go pyscho and keep Sam's decomposing body in an attic somewhere and talk to and feed him like he was still alive. Then they'd have to change the show's name from Supernatural to Unnatural. There's a few more tears and Dean banging on to Sam's dead body about how Sam is his responsibility and he has failed Sam because Sam is now dead as a doorknob. I got really impatient with all this self-blame because:
Gawd, it's like Dean can only find any worth through his role as Sam's keeper. Get a life Dean!
Phewh.
Sorry, Dean. I still like you.
Meanwhile, the YED is a bit disappointed that his favourite, Sam, didn't win. (Favourite?!? Huh, I bet he says that to all the kids) but he's satisfied enough with Jake. Jake's already to kill the demon by this point but the YED threatens a slow, horrible death for his family if he doesn't comply.
In desperation, Dean heads off to what I think is the same spot in Crossroad Blues where humans make pacts with demons. The Red-Eyed Demon appears, only in a different body from the one we saw in Crossroad Blues. The RED (keep up now) is delighted to see Dean brought so low. Dean tries to strike the same deal that others have before (Sam's life and ten years of life for himself before the demon takes his soul) but the RED is feigns disinterest. She knows she's got Dean by the balls. (By the way, it's nice to see an actress over 30 who is not in a mother role pretending to have sons barely younger than them.)
In the end, Dean gets offered a really, really bad deal - Sam's life but only one year to live for him. Dean takes it and heads back to Cold Oak (that Impala must have magic wheels to get places real quick) where hallelujah, Sam is alive! He's a bit confused but takes Dean's word that he's alive because Bobby has patched him up good. Oh-ho, but Dean is not the only one lying because when Dean asks Sam what else the YED told him, Sam neglects to mention that little detail about their mother and the YED. Heh, another thing the brothers have in common, besides hunting and being RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD BY DEMONS.
Despite Dean's pleas to take it easy, Sam is keen to press on and they end up at Bobby's place, where Bobby is more than a little surprised at Sam's animated corpse. Bobby shoots lasers at Dean because he can guess what Dean has done. He distracts Sam with some books then takes Dean outside and tears a new one in him for his stupidity and recklessness. As Bobby is laying into Dean, they are distracted by a noise in the compound, which turns out to be Ellen. Not fried after all, hurray! Turns out she went out for more pretzels when the roadhouse was burnt down and managed to get a message from Ash before he died. She brings out a map of Wyoming which has crosses marked on it. After a bit of researching, the gang discover that the marks indicate abandoned churches built by Samuel Colt (he of The Colt that can kill any supernatural evil), all joined by iron railway tracks which make a giant pentagram covering several hundred miles. It is the only spot in the whole of Wyoming not showing any demonic activity. Sam surmises that there is something there that the demons want but are unable to get in so they all head off to Wyoming.
At the edge of said railway track, Jake arrives. The YED wants him to go to a cemetery in the middle of the pentagram and open a crypt for him as he can't go himself. He gives Jake the key which is The Colt. That was mighty efficient of Samuel Colt - you not only can kill people with this gun, you can also use it as a key. The YED also tells Jake that the gun is the only gun in the world that can shoot him dead. Jake naturally points the gun at the YED but the YED only sniggers and taunts Jake with his bleak future as an unemployable AWOL-ed soldier. He promises riches and power for Jake and his family in the future the YED wants to bring about. And because Jake is a greedy, short-sighted bastard, he doesn't shoot the other bastard there and then but chooses to do as he bids.
Down at the cemetery, Jake appraoches the crypt but he is surrounded by our intrepid heroes, all pointing guns at him. Jake gibbers when he sees Sam and buggers Dean's plans to keep Sam's resurrection secet when he blurts out that he killed Sam good when he stuck that knife in Sam's spinal cord. Sam is distracted for a bit but does not waver. At this point, Jake grins and using his recently developed demonic powers of persuasion, he tells Ellen to point the gun at her head. Ellen's hand shakes but she can't do anything else but comply. The others fume but drop their guns at Jake's orders. Jake then swiftly turns around to stick the gun in the lock and just as swiftly, Bobby and Dean grab and deflect Ellen's gun from her head and Sam reaches for his gun and without much hand wringing, plugs at least six bullets into Jake. This time, he makes sure he is dead.
There's little time to gape because the lock on the crypt's doors starts spinning. Bobby finally figures out that the crypt's doors are actually the gates to hell. Everybody takes cover as the doors fly open and demons spew forth from the opening. The plume of demons race over to the edge of the railway tracks and make a flaming hole in it, big enough to allow the YED to walk through.
Sam, Bobby and Ellen brace themselves against the crypt doors in a hernia-inducing attempt to close the gates of hell. Dean picks up the gun but the YED comes along and with a telekinetic sweep of his hand, throws Dean against a tombstone. Sam spots the YED and barrels along to help because foolish boy, he still hasn't learned he is no match for the YED. The YED taunts Dean for a bit but it's all too tedious by this time for me to spell it out. Let's just say that one of the things that crawl out of hell is Daddy Winchester (he was in hell because he sold his soul to the demon) and Daddy grapples with the demon long enough to distract the YED for Dean to grab the fallen Colt and shoot the bastard through the chest. The demon, not Daddy. Haw, haw.
They do something funny with the camera here because everybody's head looms bigger than the background as the Winchesters gaze moonily at each other. I'm getting flashbacks to Return of the Jedi because Daddy Winchester looks eerily like Obi Wan Kenobi when he appeared to Luke at Endor. Oh yeah, and I had flashbacks to The Empire Strikes Back in Season 1's finale when Dean was pleading to Daddy to overcome the demon and save him. Damn, you know I've got a weak spot when it comes to the old Star Wars movies.
So at long last, after 23 frigging years, the Yellow-Eyed Demon is finally dead and it was Dean and not super special Sam that did it. Hurrah! Uh, but on the downside, they just let a couple hundred demons loose in the world. Wooops.
Oh and Sam is not too thick to work out that Dean made a deal with a demon to save his life. Finally, he tells Dean off for thinking that his job is to protect him. "What do you think my job is?"asks Sam. So Sam vows to get Dean out of this mess if it's the last thing he'll ever do. The boys smile at each other and look forward to more demon hunting as I say thank God I'm not a recapper on Television Without Pity because this is harder work than I thought it would be and I'm nearly going out of my mind.
In conclusion, Season 2's finale is disappointing compared to Season 1's stonker. I understand there's only so much scary stuff you can fit into a television show, especially one that follows Smallville on a channel primarily catering to teens, but that shouldn't explain the oomph that is missing from the last episodes of the season. I'm kind of regretting my clamour for more Manly Angst this season because I certainly got plenty of that in All Hell Breaks Loose. More than I can stomach, actually. Too much chin wobbling and leaking tears does not look good on Jensen Ackles' pasty face. And Jared Padalecki looks like a goblin when he tries to emote too much. His cool indifference towards Dean in What Is And What Should Never Be or his delightful wickedness in Born Under A Bad Sign suits him better.
So I hear it's all systems go for Season 3. Will I still be a nut for Supernatural then? Will Mummy Winchester knowing the Yellow-Eyed Demon be relevant in Season 3 or are the writers going to forget about it now that he is dead? Will my blog still be subtitled The Dean Winchester Appreciation Society? Who knows? All I can say is, I'm beat and this must be the longest post I've ever done, so I'm going to mandi and go out and get treated to a nice lunch by my sister in Bangsar.
Goodbye, and goodnight.
Here we go.
All Hell Breaks Loose Part One opens with a “Previously, on…….” montage, titled The Road So Far, complete with classic rock courtesy of Boston , and Bobby’s gravelly voice warning the Winchester boys, “Storm’s coming. And you boys, are smack in the middle of it.” As if they didn’t know. Although I do know what has been happening, the spooky, urgent strains of the opening music sent chills down my spine as we furiously flit by reminders of the psychic children, the Yellow-Eyed Demon’s plans for them, the impending war and finally Dean’s scared confession, “Dammit Sam, this whole thing is spinning out of control!”
Ah, Dean, if only you knew.
Introduction over and we see Sam and Dean in a happier mode, trundling along to a stop in front of some greasy spoon, where Dean thuggishly demands Sam to bring him some pie. I chuckle along at Dean’s little obsession over pie but we know any levity will soon go out the manually operable Impala’s window when the car radio starts fizzing out and Sam suddenly disappears from view. Oh-oh, should have gotten off your lazy ass, Dean and gone in with Sam, who despite his oversized abnormality, can’t look after himself without you looking over his shoulder all the time.
Bow-legged Dean runs over to the café, but finds two of the café’s staff and a customer swimming in pools of their own blood. Of the giant Sam, Dean finds no clue, except for traces of sulphur lining the café door. Oh dear, a demon’s got Sam. Poor Dean, having little Sammy disappear from him again. He must have been a nightmare to look after when he was a kid, always letting go of Mummy Dean’s hand in the shopping mall and wandering off to poke his sticky fingers in the fish pond.
Anyway, Sam wakes up on some muddied plank in the middle of some abandoned Wild West town. He scrabbles about a bit on the ground (damn that man has got some legs on him) before realising that he has been transported to the land where no mobile phone signal can reach. Eeeeekk!!!!
As Sam wanders around the seemingly deserted town, he runs across fellow special psychic child, Andy Gallagher, who is freaking out over his sudden transportation to Ghost Town. Their reunion is interrupted when they hear frantic girly screaming. They rush over to a padlocked shed, break it open and out stumbles, Ava Wilson, another special psychic child, who disappeared with a trace of sulphur five months ago. Ava, however thinks she has only been gone overnight and is horrified to know that she has been missing all this time. More freaking out follows, with her burying her head in Sam’s enormous chest. Mmmmm. Any further embracing is interrupted when the trio hear more voices and they come across a huge guy in army fatigues (but still, not as huge as Sam) called Jake and a goth girl called Lily, both having been transported from Afghanistan and San Diego respectively.
Sam, being the only one who has the full story, explains that they were all brought here by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, for what purpose he isn’t entirely sure. The two newbies understandably pooh-pooh him at first until Andy starts babbling about how his powers of Jedi-like persuasion has developed into sending images into people's minds, which includes sending gay porn imagery into the mind of a man Andy dislikes. Two questions arise here: one, what if this dude actually likes gay porn, so far from it being a punishment, guy likely goes "Cool! Free porn!' and two, where does Andy get all this 24 hour non-stop gay porn if he hasn't been watching it himself and if he watches it, surely he likes it a lot and wouldn't really consider it as a punishment for someone else? Okay, whatever, on with the plot.
Goth girl then gets antsy with Andy and with Sam's and Ava's psychic abilities because when the Yellow-Eyed Demon was giving out prizes, she was definitely last in line as she stops people's hearts with just a touch. Bummer.
The two newbies, having never had an episode to succumb to Sam's puppy dog-ness get fed up with all this bullshit. Despite his pleas for them to stay together and arm themselves against the demonic threat, those crazy kids just won't listen to him. Firstly, Jake nearly gets himself made into a pincushion by a demon disguised as a girl-child, then Lily runs off into the woods to escape. Poor kid hasn't watched enough horror movies - anyone who ignores the advice of the best looking guy there is bound to be the first to die. Funnily enough the creepy demon child doesn't poke Lily full of holes with her extra long fingernails but chooses to throw a rope around her neck and hang her from a tower. Less gore but makes for a very visible threat to the rest of the special children.
Meanwhile, Dean and Bobby are trying their darndest to find Sam, but have come to a dead end, until Ash calls from the roadhouse with info so hot he dare not talk about it over the phone. So Dean and Bobby wing it to Nebraska (from wherever they are in the States) but upon their arrival, they find the roadhouse burnt to the ground and Ash’s charred remains among the ruins. For everyone’s sakes, I won’t make any jokes about how Ash is now ash ……. awww, I just think I did.
Over in Ghost Town, Sam being the generation Y that he is, is lamenting the lack of instant communication with his brother Dean. Andy suggests sending images of their location to Dean via telepathy. He’s never tried it long distance but hey, if he can transmit porn into some guy’s head 24/7, then a distance of several hundred miles must be a piece of cake for him. Andy asks for an object that Dean has touched and Sam produces a receipt that Dean has signed ‘D. Hasselhoff’. Blimey! Has my mother been subconsciously transmitting her thoughts on Dean to the show’s writers? I know my mother has this unerring knack for knowing when her children are up to no good but has her maternal instinct developed into something bigger? Or does everyone else also think Dean looks like David Hasselhoff?
Anyway, Dean does his telepathic sending thing, Dean gets a big headache like Sam always has when he has visions, and between Dean and Bobby, they figure out that Sam is in Cold Oak, South Dakota – a town so haunted that every resident has fled. Dean and Bobby hop into the Batmobile, uh sorry, Impala and hurrah! off they go to rejoin Sam!
Spooked by Lily’s death, the gang hole up in a room lined with salt. Jake stands guard by the door, Andy’s asleep at the table, Ava’s staring into space and Sam is nodding off when holy shit, it’s the Yellow-Eyed Demon! He’s standing next to Jake! But nobody can hear or see him! Except Sam! Yowza!
Sam takes a walk with the YED and Sam is very angry with the YED. You can tell because he has adopted this hunched, neck out, Neanderthal-like stance in an attempt to appear threatening. The YED brushes these pitiful threats, because you know he is the YED and he can. (The YED, is played by the same bloke Fredric Lane, from In My Time of Dying, so I feel rather sorry for the poor hospital janitor who has been in continuous demon possession for nearly a year now.)
The YED tells Sam to shut his gob so that he can explain that he isn’t looking for soldiers, he is looking for soldier. “Why do you think so many have already flamed out?” the YED asks, referring to Max Miller and Andy’s brother, Anson. The special kids were brought to this desolate town to fight among themselves and the last one left standing will have the dubious honour of leading the YED’ soon to arrive army. Yessir, there can only be one. See, I was thinking of a battle to the death like The Highlander, but the YED compares this competition to the Miss America Pageant. Sheesh. What a sad, sad comparison, unless…….. there’s something about the Miss America Pageant that I don’t know about. The YED confesses to rooting for Sam in this one and does a good Peter Stormare impression when he breathes, “Saaaaammm. Sammy…….you’re my favourite.” Brrrrrrr!!!! Spooky.
Sam is not impressed and understandably wants to rip the YED to shreds because the YED killed his momma, his daddy, and his girlfriend. The YED tsks-tsks and shrugs his shoulders. Girlfriend was leading Sam into respectable lawyer-dom and suburbia and the YED couldn’t have that. He needed Sam sharp and on the road. And momma? Well, she just happened to be in the way. Sam looks at him in bewilderment. Even the YED can’t resist Sam’s confused puppy dog look, so he generously zips Sam and him to a “high def playback’ of the night Sam’s mother died.
Now, we’ve seen a little of this event in the series’ pilot but here, we get to see the action from inside Sam’s nursery. Here is the Past-YED in a long black outfit, shrouded in the shadows, standing over a cherubic six month old Sammy’s crib. (Awww, the little tyke is kinda cute.) A non-fried Mummy Winchester resplendent in the obligatory white nightgown, sleepily enters the room and asks the Past-YED, who she mistakes for her husband, if Sam is hungry again. The Past-YED shushes her, so Mummy exits the room to, as we know to go downstairs where she will find her husband John asleep in an armchair and will soon come high-tailing up those stairs. (Honestly, that is one of the most scary thing I imagine a mother could face and my own heart nearly stopped in empathy with Mary Winchester when I first saw the pilot.)
But for now, the Past-YED is alone with little Sammy. He uses the sharp edge of his fingernail to cut across his wrist (ewww, unhygienic!) and drips demonblood into Little Sammy's mouth. "Better than mother's milk," the Present-YED croons. Big Sammy is extremely grossed and horrified by this pseudo-vampiric activity. This scene puts to rest the question as to whether Sam and the other psychic children have demon blood in them. Okay, so it's ingested demon blood, not inherited but either way it sucks.
But wait! More revelations will be uh...... revealed. Mummy Winchester, now realising that some crazy stranger is in her son's room, comes storming into the nursery. The Past-Yed turns around, flashes his yellow eyes at her and she gasps, "It's you!"
Jeebus! Mary Winchester knows the YED. Goodness, I did not see that coming. In which life did Mary Winchester rub shoulders with the YED? Was she a hunter before she met John Winchester? Was she a psychic child of her generation? Blimey, she's a dark horse, that Mary.
Big Sam then sees the Past-YED throw mummy against the wall and when she starts to scream, the past scene vanishes and Sam wakes up in Ghost Town. Jake is standing over him and says, "Ava's missing."
The two big guys go out looking for Ava while wussy Andy stays in the salt-lines room. Ava suddenly turns up in the room looking highly suspicious. Andy hasn't cottoned on yet as Ava looks at him in an EVIL manner. She makes a hole in the salt border before doing some temple rubbing and suddenly black smoke comes pouring in through the gap in the salt. She -yeet, it's the demon-child who has trouble with nail clippers. This time there's no messing about as the demon-child lunges straight for Andy and starts ripping into him. We see blood coming out of his mouth then a huge spray of blood smacks a window. I might be wrong here, but I think Andy is dead. Poor guy, I kinda liked the little doofus.
Ava turns on the taps and starts screaming for help. Sam comes running in and is shocked by the sight that greets him. Ava acts all helpless and clueless but Sam is sharp and notices the gap in the salt line. He's not taken in by Ava's crocodile tears and starts badgering her. "I'll tell you what I think. Five months - you're the only one with all that time you can account for. And that headache you got? Right at the time when the demon got Lily."Ava still tries to maintain her innocence - she's got tears running down her face, lip trembling - but eventually she sees that Sam isn't buying it. She suddenly stops crying, her face changes and even her high pitched scared girl voice drops lower, "Had you going didn't I?" she smirks at Sam.
It turns out that this hasn't been the only Miss America pageant going. Ava had been here all this time and batches of three or four special psychic children have been appearing to fight it out. With each kill that she made, Ava's powers had grown from just having visions to being able to control demons. Ava proudly announces, "I'm the undefeated heavy-weight champ." Sam is horrified but Ava looks at him like he's two kinds of stupid. It was either kill or be killed. "If you would just quit your hand wringing...." she says. Hee hee.
After a plot explaining monologue, Ava proceeds to call forth a demon to kill Sam but Jake walks in behind her and breaks her neck in one resounding thwack. Sam can only stand there looking confounded.
It soon transpires that Jake also had the same visit form the YED and him killing Ava was more to do with coming out tops than saving Sam. Sam appeals to Jake to not succumb to the YED's games and stupidly puts down his knife to show his sincerity. Jake puts down his weapon as well but that was just a ploy because he sucker-punches Sam so hard that he flies back several metres. (Sam, not Jake.) Sam manages to fight back using his incredibly long legs while lying on the ground and reaches for not his knife, but Jake's iron rod next to it and gives Jake a good whack with the rod. Jake falls down, apparently senseless, and Sam looks like he is about to give Jake a life ending whack, but at the last minute decides against it because he is Good Boy Sam.
Suddenly, he hears Dean's voice calling for him, and Sam thinks he must be hallucinating what with all the hits he's taken to the head but he turns his back on Jake and there is Dean, and Bobby, walking towards him. A relieved smile breaks over his face and he staggers towards Dean but Jake has gotten up and grabbed the knife. Dean screams a warning to Sam but it is too late because Jake has plunged the knife into Sam, and he gives it a good jerk and a twist that leaves no viewer any doubt that Sam is done for. Jake turns and run as Bobby gives chase. Sam falls to his knees and Dean runs forward to catch him before he slumps face to the ground. Dean can't believe that Sam is done for because he's hugging him close and telling Sam (and himself) that the wound is not bad and things are going to be fine but the viewer sees all the Signs of Impending Death. Sam's got blood coming out of his mouth, his eyes are unfocused, his head is lolling - finally his eyes close.
Cue music which sounds like something from the sad bits of Lord of the Rings. End of Part One.
Part Two opens with a song that for me, is the anthem of Season 1 Supernatural - Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas, which we last heard in last season's penultimate episode. It turns up here again but its presence jars because it doesn't fit with the tone of what's happening here. Sam is dead for sure, because he's laid out on a smelly-looking mattress (and he isn't complaining) and he looks white as a sheet. Dean can't let go of Sam - the way he's got Sam laid out is like he's expecting Sam to wake up any minute. Bobby broaches the subject of burying Sam but this gets Dean mad as hell and he practically shoves Bobby out the door. At this point, I'm afraid for Dean's sanity as it looks like he might go pyscho and keep Sam's decomposing body in an attic somewhere and talk to and feed him like he was still alive. Then they'd have to change the show's name from Supernatural to Unnatural. There's a few more tears and Dean banging on to Sam's dead body about how Sam is his responsibility and he has failed Sam because Sam is now dead as a doorknob. I got really impatient with all this self-blame because:
- I don't think anyone would be too happy if they thought they were a burden on their older siblings
- Sam is a frigging Sasquatch for goodness sake. You can't tell me that someone who is 6'4" and weighs more than 200 pounds can't beat anybody into pulp
- Sam is 23, stop treating him like a child and let him take some responsibility for himself
Gawd, it's like Dean can only find any worth through his role as Sam's keeper. Get a life Dean!
Phewh.
Sorry, Dean. I still like you.
Meanwhile, the YED is a bit disappointed that his favourite, Sam, didn't win. (Favourite?!? Huh, I bet he says that to all the kids) but he's satisfied enough with Jake. Jake's already to kill the demon by this point but the YED threatens a slow, horrible death for his family if he doesn't comply.
In desperation, Dean heads off to what I think is the same spot in Crossroad Blues where humans make pacts with demons. The Red-Eyed Demon appears, only in a different body from the one we saw in Crossroad Blues. The RED (keep up now) is delighted to see Dean brought so low. Dean tries to strike the same deal that others have before (Sam's life and ten years of life for himself before the demon takes his soul) but the RED is feigns disinterest. She knows she's got Dean by the balls. (By the way, it's nice to see an actress over 30 who is not in a mother role pretending to have sons barely younger than them.)
In the end, Dean gets offered a really, really bad deal - Sam's life but only one year to live for him. Dean takes it and heads back to Cold Oak (that Impala must have magic wheels to get places real quick) where hallelujah, Sam is alive! He's a bit confused but takes Dean's word that he's alive because Bobby has patched him up good. Oh-ho, but Dean is not the only one lying because when Dean asks Sam what else the YED told him, Sam neglects to mention that little detail about their mother and the YED. Heh, another thing the brothers have in common, besides hunting and being RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD BY DEMONS.
Despite Dean's pleas to take it easy, Sam is keen to press on and they end up at Bobby's place, where Bobby is more than a little surprised at Sam's animated corpse. Bobby shoots lasers at Dean because he can guess what Dean has done. He distracts Sam with some books then takes Dean outside and tears a new one in him for his stupidity and recklessness. As Bobby is laying into Dean, they are distracted by a noise in the compound, which turns out to be Ellen. Not fried after all, hurray! Turns out she went out for more pretzels when the roadhouse was burnt down and managed to get a message from Ash before he died. She brings out a map of Wyoming which has crosses marked on it. After a bit of researching, the gang discover that the marks indicate abandoned churches built by Samuel Colt (he of The Colt that can kill any supernatural evil), all joined by iron railway tracks which make a giant pentagram covering several hundred miles. It is the only spot in the whole of Wyoming not showing any demonic activity. Sam surmises that there is something there that the demons want but are unable to get in so they all head off to Wyoming.
At the edge of said railway track, Jake arrives. The YED wants him to go to a cemetery in the middle of the pentagram and open a crypt for him as he can't go himself. He gives Jake the key which is The Colt. That was mighty efficient of Samuel Colt - you not only can kill people with this gun, you can also use it as a key. The YED also tells Jake that the gun is the only gun in the world that can shoot him dead. Jake naturally points the gun at the YED but the YED only sniggers and taunts Jake with his bleak future as an unemployable AWOL-ed soldier. He promises riches and power for Jake and his family in the future the YED wants to bring about. And because Jake is a greedy, short-sighted bastard, he doesn't shoot the other bastard there and then but chooses to do as he bids.
Down at the cemetery, Jake appraoches the crypt but he is surrounded by our intrepid heroes, all pointing guns at him. Jake gibbers when he sees Sam and buggers Dean's plans to keep Sam's resurrection secet when he blurts out that he killed Sam good when he stuck that knife in Sam's spinal cord. Sam is distracted for a bit but does not waver. At this point, Jake grins and using his recently developed demonic powers of persuasion, he tells Ellen to point the gun at her head. Ellen's hand shakes but she can't do anything else but comply. The others fume but drop their guns at Jake's orders. Jake then swiftly turns around to stick the gun in the lock and just as swiftly, Bobby and Dean grab and deflect Ellen's gun from her head and Sam reaches for his gun and without much hand wringing, plugs at least six bullets into Jake. This time, he makes sure he is dead.
There's little time to gape because the lock on the crypt's doors starts spinning. Bobby finally figures out that the crypt's doors are actually the gates to hell. Everybody takes cover as the doors fly open and demons spew forth from the opening. The plume of demons race over to the edge of the railway tracks and make a flaming hole in it, big enough to allow the YED to walk through.
Sam, Bobby and Ellen brace themselves against the crypt doors in a hernia-inducing attempt to close the gates of hell. Dean picks up the gun but the YED comes along and with a telekinetic sweep of his hand, throws Dean against a tombstone. Sam spots the YED and barrels along to help because foolish boy, he still hasn't learned he is no match for the YED. The YED taunts Dean for a bit but it's all too tedious by this time for me to spell it out. Let's just say that one of the things that crawl out of hell is Daddy Winchester (he was in hell because he sold his soul to the demon) and Daddy grapples with the demon long enough to distract the YED for Dean to grab the fallen Colt and shoot the bastard through the chest. The demon, not Daddy. Haw, haw.
They do something funny with the camera here because everybody's head looms bigger than the background as the Winchesters gaze moonily at each other. I'm getting flashbacks to Return of the Jedi because Daddy Winchester looks eerily like Obi Wan Kenobi when he appeared to Luke at Endor. Oh yeah, and I had flashbacks to The Empire Strikes Back in Season 1's finale when Dean was pleading to Daddy to overcome the demon and save him. Damn, you know I've got a weak spot when it comes to the old Star Wars movies.
So at long last, after 23 frigging years, the Yellow-Eyed Demon is finally dead and it was Dean and not super special Sam that did it. Hurrah! Uh, but on the downside, they just let a couple hundred demons loose in the world. Wooops.
Oh and Sam is not too thick to work out that Dean made a deal with a demon to save his life. Finally, he tells Dean off for thinking that his job is to protect him. "What do you think my job is?"asks Sam. So Sam vows to get Dean out of this mess if it's the last thing he'll ever do. The boys smile at each other and look forward to more demon hunting as I say thank God I'm not a recapper on Television Without Pity because this is harder work than I thought it would be and I'm nearly going out of my mind.
In conclusion, Season 2's finale is disappointing compared to Season 1's stonker. I understand there's only so much scary stuff you can fit into a television show, especially one that follows Smallville on a channel primarily catering to teens, but that shouldn't explain the oomph that is missing from the last episodes of the season. I'm kind of regretting my clamour for more Manly Angst this season because I certainly got plenty of that in All Hell Breaks Loose. More than I can stomach, actually. Too much chin wobbling and leaking tears does not look good on Jensen Ackles' pasty face. And Jared Padalecki looks like a goblin when he tries to emote too much. His cool indifference towards Dean in What Is And What Should Never Be or his delightful wickedness in Born Under A Bad Sign suits him better.
So I hear it's all systems go for Season 3. Will I still be a nut for Supernatural then? Will Mummy Winchester knowing the Yellow-Eyed Demon be relevant in Season 3 or are the writers going to forget about it now that he is dead? Will my blog still be subtitled The Dean Winchester Appreciation Society? Who knows? All I can say is, I'm beat and this must be the longest post I've ever done, so I'm going to mandi and go out and get treated to a nice lunch by my sister in Bangsar.
Goodbye, and goodnight.
Comments
It's going to be a LONG summer waiting for the show to return.
I'm watching David Boreanaz on Bones now.
BTW I watched season's 1 finale :D
Hooray, you are being sucked in to Supernatural world.
Did you read the whole of this post? You've 'spoilered' yourself.