Opening monster – St Louis and a family that seems like a
throwback from some previous decade. The daughter of the family randomly
decides to break down a basement wall to find a hidden arcane men of letters safe
which she opens – and releases green swirling smoke which I’m going to guess is
a bad thing
When she wakes up she finds her whole family have
committed suicide (except her mother who slits her own throat right there).
Over to Sam who, last episode, started making a deal with
Rowena which may be the worst idea ever. Her price is to kill Crowley – which Sam
is happy to do and doesn’t even care about her motives (and she’s all set to
sell a sob story). First step in reading the book is finding the codex of dead
coven witch, Nadia and bringing it to Rowena. Probably making her even more
powerful. This could not possibly be a worst idea. The Codex was taken by the
Men of Letters.
Dean, meanwhile, has gone on a bit of a killing spree and
really enjoyed himself much to Sam’s horror. His victims, however, are 6
vampires (on his own which is pretty impressive). Sam is upset that Dean went
killing without him – but Dean, after much light hearted snarking, admits it’s
the only way he can “take the edge off.” He’s also tried of Sam’s “diseased
killer puppy” look. I actually love that description – it’s a perfect way to
describe the mix of pity, disgust and horror on Sam’s face.
So back to the bunker and Sam looking for the codex,
which means listening to old minutes about Cuthbert’s
expulsion after he locked the codex inside the Werther Box which, by the
sound of it, is the arcane safe we saw. Cuthbert was expelled for this because
he created a lethal magical artefact that killed 2 men of letters without
telling anyone. Naughty. Cuthbert doesn’t understand why everyone is so upset
about a little murder box and stomps and snarls at them all – and refuses to
tell them how to shut it down. So it remained in St Louis where no-one can
touch it
Magical death box? Of course Sam is interested. Also when
hearing about a super dangerous magical death box (containing and even more
dangerous magical book), of course Sam calls Rowena (who isn’t a morning
person). At least he gets a spell from her rather than inviting her to come
along.
So off Sam goes and has two problems – a woman with a gun who objects to him picking the lock on her door and Dean following him. Dean understands Sam is pissed at him going off on his own and apologises – and Sam totally doesn’t have to go off alone to prove the point. Errr… ooops. Come clean now Sam, it’s the only way you’re getting out of this.
Dean has researched and knows about the suicide (and the
daughter who still owns the house) but is surprised that Sam is interested in
such a cold case – so Sam adds the whole info about the Werther box house (and
their responsibility as Men of Letters to stop their objects doing more damage)
while not mentioning the Codex. Dean goes ahead either because a) he’s really
sorry and wants to make it up to Sam or b) he knows Sam is lying and wants to
see why
So Dean distracts the woman, Suzy, playing neighbourhood
watch while Sam sneaks in the back. Dean gets to hear that not only did Suzy’s
family die but so did her aunt who came to look after her and, unwisely, went
in the basement. Suzy’s paranoia (and good instincts) leads to her point a gun
at Dean while Sam works the woo-woo in the basement. She demands Sam join Dean
upstairs. Then panics when she hears Sam open the door.
The green smoke is unleashed and Suzy starts shooting as
she hallucinates her dead family. Sam tries to help her as she shuts herself in
and her dead relatives try to drive her to suicide. He fails. Bye Suzy. She
makes a reappearance as a hallucination for Sam to point out how he’s pretty much
responsible for her death. She does make the awesome point of Sam considering
his search worth it so long as he and Dean get out alive – regardless of who
else doesn’t. She tries to shout him into suicide until she’s banished by
Rowena.
The fog also gets Dean and he hallucinates his
time in purgatory and with Benny meaning he can’t see Rowena. They tie up
Dean while they work on the box and hallucination Benny tells Dean how much he
loves killing and how suicide is the clear way out: the only way he can ensure
the Mark doesn’t make him kill other people. And the selfishness of Dean’s plan
– making Sam and Castiel kill him if he does go off the rails.
Sleepwalking Dean breaks the ropes holding him and smashes a glass bottle into a weapon. And then stabs Benny – the Mark of Cain does not let the cursed escape through suicide.
Opening the Werther box requires blood from a Man of
Letters – Sam. A lot of blood. Dean snaps out of his hallucination in time to
find Sam suffering from severe blood loss which he, naturally, assumes is
because of a hallucination. When Sam protests about the blood lock Dean points
out that they’re both legacies – 2 people can give blood rather than Sam dying.
They open the box, break the spell, get the codex and
smash the box for good measure. Still either in the dark or really trying to
push Sam to come clean, Dean apologises again to Sam for going rogue. Eat that
guilt Sam!
Sam takes the book to Rowena, but also has the half-way
decent sense to put anti-magic shackles on her. He also intends to burn the
book after she has taken the cure for Dean out of it.
Can I say again just how very very foolish this is? Rowena?
Working with Rowena? All the years of mystical people they’ve met and Rowena is
all they can come up with? She can’t even translate the book without another
evil book – why not try using the evil books yourself without getting the
wicked witch of Edinburgh on side?
As for the rest, I would say that any attempt to develop anything
substantial in this episode were kind of cut short: Suzy’s hallucination pointing out how Sam
leaves collateral damage in his wake. Or Benny pointing out the sheer awfulness
of what Dean expects from Sam and Castiel…
…but do we even need them developing? Really? I mean,
aren’t they already super clear and done? “You will kill anyone so long as you
and your brother are alive” uh… yes? Where have you been? They’ve been
literally selling souls for each other since season 1. The whole meta plot of
the entire show is that Sam and Dean will kind of let the whole world burn.
This whole episode left me feeling moderately bored – the plot of the week isn’t
that interesting, Sam’s actions are down right frustrating in their
ridiculousness and the attempted emotional punches have been done.
