Supernatural 4.6: Yellow Fever

Sam: "It's ghost sickness."
Dean: "Ghost sickness."
Sam: "Yeah."
Dean: "Oh god, no."
Sam: "Yeah."
Dean: "I don't even know what that is."

Was it fun? Absolutely. Clever and well-acted, too. But the more I thought about it, the more this episode bothered me.

Luthor's initial death felt off. It had the feel of a hate crime, not murderous jealousy. And it actually seemed mean-spirited, pun intended, for Sam and Bobby to kill huge, gentle, kitten-loving Luthor the way they did. And killing the dead? How do you kill the dead? Did they re-animate his body, somehow? They didn't really explain it. It was flimsy story-telling.

And while I'm complaining, I have to say that I really didn't enjoy seeing brash, fearless, hell-don't-scare-me Dean in a constant state of mortal terror and acting like a coward when it is so antithetical to his nature. But I did like the hint that Hell has changed Dean and he's a lot more interested in living than he used to be. It said a lot that the things Dean found most frightening were (1) hellhounds, (2) Lilith, and (3) Sam turning into Azazel.

Sam flashing a bit of yellow eye at the end did not make me happy, either. (I'm assuming that was real, and not a tiny bit of residual hallucination.) How do demons propagate? I assume that they don't, since demons are people who have done hard time in Hell. Is that Azazel's end game -- creating demonic offspring out of his "kids"? Is Sam actually *becoming* a Yellow Eyed Demon?

There has been a strong focus on Dean so far this season, and I certainly don't object to that. But I feel that season four Sam has become a stranger. And that makes me uncomfortable.

Bits and pieces:

-- The action took place in Rock Ridge, Colorado, which was also the name of the town in the great classic comedy, Blazing Saddles. (There were old west and galloping horse murals, too.)

-- They stayed at the Bluebird Hotel. As in "of happiness?" The guys were FBI agents Tyler and Perry (Aerosmith), which didn't get past Reptile guy. I liked Reptile guy. Fun character.

-- The paranoid Sheriff Al Britton of the antiseptic hand cleanser was fun. I knew I recognized him but couldn't place him. It was Jack Conley, who played Sahjahn the demon on Angel. (As well as the werewolf hunter on Buffy.)

-- Speaking of Angel, four months in Hell feels like forty years? Gee, that sounds familiar.

-- Bobby speaks Japanese. Yes, he can do anything.

-- Were they running short again? Yes, Jensen Ackles lipsynching Eye of the Tiger was pretty damned funny. I especially loved him doing air guitar on his thigh, and hearing Jared Padalecki laughing in the background. (Did Jared call him "Jenny"?)

Quotes, and there were lots of good ones:

Coroner: "Sorry. Spleen juice."

Sheriff Britton: "Me and Frank, we were friends. Hell, we were Gamecocks. (Dean snickers) That's our softball team's name. They're majestic animals."
Even better, their opponents were called the Cornjerkers.

Reptile guy: "The Wizard of Oz was on TV the other night, right? And he said that green bitch was totally out to get him."
Sam: "Anything else scare him?"
Reptile guy: "Everything else scared him. Al-Qaeda, ferrets, artificial sweetener, those Pez dispensers with their dead little eyes..."

Sam: "Dude, you're going twenty."
Dean: "And?"
Sam: "That's the speed limit."
Dean: "What, safety's a crime now?"

Dean: "I don't scare people."
Sam: "Dean, all we do is scare people."

Dean: "I'll man the flashlight."
Sam: "You do that."

Dean: "We search out things that want to kill us. Or eat us. You know who does that? Crazy people. We are insane! And then there's the bad diner food and the skeevy motel rooms, and the truck stop waitress with the bizarre rash..."

Dean: "Do you actually like being stuck in a car with me eight hours a day every single day? I don't think so! I mean, I drive too fast, and I listen to the same five albums over and over and over again, and I sing along. I'm annoying, I know that. And you! You're gassy. You eat half a burrito and you get toxic."

Dean: I'm fine! You wanna go hunting? I'll hunt. I'll kill anything."
Sam: "Aww."
Bobby: "He's adorable."

Two out of four stars,

Billie

(All of my Supernatural reviews are here.)