Recap: “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester”

Back in the car and Sam is quiet and distant, staring at the hex bag. His look of disappointment is crushing my heart. There, there Sammy, I’ll make it better. Dean easily picks up on this. “I thought they’d be different,” Sam explains. “I thought they’d be righteous.” Dean’s answer is perfect, “they are righteous, that’s kind of the problem. Of course there’s nothing more dangerous than an a-hole that thinks he’s on a holy mission.” That right there shows how differently these two see things just from one word. Sam associates righteous with mercy, Dean with power.

 

Sam confesses what’s really bothering him. “This is God and heaven, this is what I’ve been praying to?” Aside from a very strange “Jesus on a tortilla” reference, Dean’s perspective is stunning. “Just because there’s a couple of bad apples it doesn’t mean the whole barrel is rotten. For all we know, God hates these jerks.” He even pulls a baseball analogy. “Babe Ruth was a dick, but baseball’s still a beautiful game.” Aww, my heart is melting! The big brother pep talk. We don’t get too many of these anymore. Last time Dean lectured Sam, he punched him twice and threw a lamp across the room. This is so much better.   

 

Sam stares at the hex bag and Dean ends the tender moment with an insulting comment, and that’s also the classic way to end a sweet brotherly moment. “Are you going to figure out a way to find this witch or sit there fingering your bone?” Sam surmises that it takes a lot to burn a baby metacarpal bone like that, like say, a kiln. Back to the school, and it’s the teacher who’s evil. “Oh, yikes, color me stunned,” I say with deadpan and unexcited voice.   

 

Next is Castiel and Uriel in a park having a VERY interesting conversation. Something else is up. They must follow their true orders, and it involves Dean. Castiel pulls the righteous card with Uriel, and aww, he does have a conscience. Something tells me Castiel doesn’t like Uriel very much either. Good call there Cas!   

 

This next scene makes no sense to me and comes across as clunky. The girl witch is tied up in the basement, and evil teacher dude is about to perform the third blood sacrifice. Sam and Dean arrive, Sam shoots him, and checks out the body while Dean rescues her but oops, she’s evil too. There’s two of them, brother and sister, since the raising of Samhain is a two person job. She waves her had and pins Sam and Dean to the ground, and I’m thinking Sam better learn to use his stuff on more than demons. It would have come in handy here. 

 

Traci does some bad monologuing (always a weak spot with this show) about how she hated living with him for 600 years, grabs the cup, gets her brother’s blood and starts to perform the incantation. Come on guys, snap out of it and shoot her. The object was to stop the rising of Samhain. You know, seal breaking? How could Sam reach over and paint blood on his and Dean’s faces, but he can’t reach over and get his gun? Someone pointed out to me (thanks elle2!) that we should have seen the guns knocked across the room or something. All we saw was them drop to the ground along with Sam and Dean.

 

Black smoke rises from the ground and into dead brother, while Sam and Dean play dead nearby. You better play dead, for once Castiel and Uriel find out about the broken seal, you’re in trouble! Samhain goes to the girl, twists her neck and calls her a whore. She did have that coming. His eyes are gray, so this is a high pay grade demon. Because of the blood on Sam and Dean’s faces, he doesn’t see them clearly and walks off. “Halloween lore,” Sam explains after Samhain leaves. “People used to wear masks to hide from him, so I gave it a shot.” Dean isn’t impressed. “You gave it a shot?” I laugh as I’m taken back to the only good scene in “Route 666″ where Sam pulled a similar trick with the racist truck. Dean wanted to kill him then, and he looks the same now. 

 

Samhain walks the streets, but doesn’t get anyone because they’re all wearing masks. Sam and Dean quickly figure out he’s going to the cemetery. That’s where I’d go to raise the dead. I’m assuming there’s only one in town. The next scene isn’t necessary because we already know this show will go there, but Sam mentions the usual weapons might not work on this powerful demon. He gives Dean the “you know what I mean look” and Dean objects. The angels maybe jerks, but they’re right about Sam using his powers. Dean even reminds Sam of his own words, “It’s like playing with fire.” He hands Sam the demon killing ginsu, and its official, Sam is now the brother in charge of demon killing. I guess he does have the credentials for it. Sam isn’t happy, but says nothing.