Supernatural Preview: Episode 7.07 – “The Mentalists”

Last week’s episode of “Supernatural” ended in a familiar place with Dean and Sam on the outs once again. But thanks to the preview trailer and clips for this week’s upcoming episode, we can see that the brothers are back together and working a new case and amazingly just in time for the November sweeps!

This week’s hunt takes the boys to Lily Dale, deemed the most “psychic” town in America, filled with self-proclaimed psychics and a multitude of spirits.  When one of the spirits seems to be systematically killing the psychics in town, Dean and Sam have to figure out which spirit is responsible.

It seems one medium has control of a very angry ghost and a deep grudge against other psychics in town. Problem is, in a town full of people who claim to be summoning spirits; the ghost-hunting siblings have a little trouble identifying the medium controlling the ghost. 
 
The trailer and extended promo started with a scene of Dean taking a tour of a well maintained establishment conducted by a very proper gentleman who is explaining that Lily Dale has long been the haven for the psychically gifted.

With that, we get to see just how many psychics are in town.  When Sam asked Dean how many ‘crystal balls’ he thought were there, Dean’s comment “Somewhere between 50 and…all of them.” (Smile)

We also are treated to a number of readings which end with ‘will that be cash or charge, please.”

 
We even see Dean having his palm read in a diner, and a world famous ‘spoon bender’ waiter.  (No, we don’t get to see the out-come of the spoon bending. Have to tune in Friday for that!)

And we hear some descriptions about how the mediums are dying. Sam has a book of the town’s psychic deaths which he shows Dean in a diner. The first medium, Sam explains, was ‘brained to death’ by her own crystal ball. Dean’s reply, “Bummer, and ironic.”

When Dean asks the local Chief what is the popular theory for the deaths he says it’s a tossup between ghosts and some sort of ogre that only attacks Russians. (Funny)  

…and we are treated to s few ghostly encounters which seem to be the most interesting.

In one scene we see Dean getting tossed on his derriere by a ghost in what looks like a disrupted seance.  I’m guessing this ghost was after the medium conducting the reading and Dean came charging to the rescue.

And while this is one nasty scepter, she is not the one who sends Sam flying in a cemetery. This ghost apparently wants a vote in whether the boys burn her bones or not. But that’s a big, NO!

Dean distracts ‘crazy eyes’ long enough for Sam to toss a match into a freshly salted and gasoline soaked grave which I’m guessing is her resting place. (Uh, correction ‘former’ resting place.)

Scratch one ghost!  But is it the one that has been causing all the deaths?
 
And finally we get a snippet of Sam breaking down a door and rushing into a house with gun drawn.  

Does seem like we get treated to a lot of action this week, but sadly no Baby.  She is still on ice somewhere.  (From Alice – Early guesses are that is one very uncared for 1972 Dodge Challenger.  It’s quite tragic given how classic that car is.)  

The last clip deals with the ending of last week’s episode where we saw Sam walking off saying he needed his space and Dean not objecting.  This week they are back hunting ghosts but all is not roses.  
 
The sneak peek gives us one of the many ‘heated’ moments we have seen from the series.  We see an angry, but controlled, exchange between the brothers about Dean killing Amy, Sam’s monster friend who killed 4 people when last Sam met her.  Dean killing Amy pisses Sam off, and Sam not killing Amy pisses Dean off. (For the record, this was one of the episodes this season I did not like and one of the reasons was that it generated sympathy for a killer and set up yet another rift between the boys.  That is very old, and boring, and dull, and so needs to end permanently.)  
 
Here, Dean is very adamant that he did the right thing about Amy, while Sam is still angry that Dean lied about killing his friend.  Dean explains that Sam’s hell-memories have not exactly made him the most stable of personalities recently and Dean wanted to make sure Sam was stable when Dean told him.  Sam almost killed them both shooting at a Lucifer hallucination in the warehouse and Dean didn’t want Sam going off the deep end again.  With that, Dean walked off saying Sam can be as pissed as he wants, but to stop being a bitch.  
 
The last bit of spoilery deals with a new character, Johnny Tomorrow, that is being introduced this episode.   Mr. Tomorrow is ‘a Murray-esque washout who owns a local Magic Emporium and manages to catches the Winchester boy’s eyes’.  He becomes a suspect when his competition, a famous psychic, turns up dead. 
 
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The official synopsis: MEDIUM RARE – Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate the gruesome murders of resident mediums in Lily Dale, the most “psychic” town in America. They discover that an angry spirit is killing off the psychics one by one, but in a town full of people who claim to be summoning spirits, they have a little trouble identifying the medium controlling the ghost. 
 
Mike Rohl directed the episode, his ninth for the series.  He directed his first episode, “The Usual Suspects” in 2006 and has gone on to direct “Folsom Prison Blues,” “On the Head of a Pin,”  “The Monster at the End of This Book,” “My Bloody Valentine,” and “Appointment in Samarra,” to name a few.
 
This time around he is paired with two first time writers for the series, Ben Acker and Ben Blacker. While new to TV series, they have written the short comedies “Drones,” “Switcheroo, and “Kidney Thieves”.
 
Cast (IMDb) includes Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Dan Willmott (Chief Bramberg) and Rukiya Bernard (Camille Thibideaux)
 
And the wonderful and ever persistent SPN fans did get some BTS set photos of the boys while they were on location.  

In other set photos, Sam and Dean (mostly Sam) are digging up a grave at a cemetery and ‘grooving’ out between takes.

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The CW was very skimpy with photos for this episode.  They only released three, one above (the boys and the ‘new’ car), and the two of Sam below.
 

A Sera Gamble Preview 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qjaIvNzvpY

Promo
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7bOgKa-LBs
 
Extended promo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzi1dICh68s
 
Promo clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nkeImIAIYI
 
Canadian CHCH station promo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rfX_8NmIfc
 
 
Happy episode everyone.