Review – “Fresh Blood”
Gordon Walker is out of prison and needs to find out where Sam is so he can kill him. He knows Bela has recently been hanging out with the brothers in Massachusetts, so he waits by her car and sticks a huge gun in her face, demanding to know where they are. “Kill me,” says Bela, “and good luck finding the Winchester boys.” He offers her three grand, but she doesn’t get out of bed for that. Noticing a priceless mojo bag hanging from his belt, she says she’ll take that and call it even. He refuses at first, but gives in when he realizes it’s that or no info. Bela calls Dean, asks “Where are you?” and apparently gets the information. WHY he would so easily trust her enough tell her is beyond me, given their sketchy relationship, but I don’t write the show, do I?
Sam and Dean are hunting for a female vampire who has already killed two men and has left a third lying near death on the ground. While Sam stays with the victim and calls for help, Dean offers himself as bait for the vamp, cutting his arm so she can smell how good he’ll taste. As soon as she pounces, breaking the skin on his throat, Dean injects her with dead man’s blood, rendering her unconscious. Sam is unnerved over how close Dean came to becoming vampire chow, but Dean laughs it off—just chum in the water. When the vamp, Lucy, comes to, the brothers have her tied to a chair and begin questioning her. Lucy seems to think Dixon, a guy she met in a bar, dropped roofies or something in her drink, but it turns out this man, Dixon, has turned her into a blood-sucker by pouring vampire blood into her drink. Lucy thought she was getting a new drug, better than anything she had ever tried, and just can’t come down. After she took it, he brought her to his place, but she was SO HUNGRY, she busted out. Lights are too bright, sunshine hurts her skin, she can really smell things, and she can hear Dean’s heart pumping from half a block away.
Lucy’s story is a sad one, but she has already killed and will kill again; Sam turns his back while Dean cuts the protesting Lucy’s head off. We hear the thump of her head hitting the ground.
Gordon Walker and his Jesus-loving friend, Kubrick, appear at the bedside of the man Sam and Dean saved and ask if the woman bled on him. She has a very dangerous virus, but you have to actually ingest the blood to be infected, they explain. “Good thing, too,” says Gordon, “we’d have had to kill ya.” The man chuckles, but sees Gordon’s dead serious face and stops. Gordon then asks what happened next, and learns about the two guys who helped him–“One of them was really tall.” That’s enough information for Gordon.
Sam and Dean exit Spider, the bar Lucy said she met Dixon. This is his hunting ground. They spy a guy fitting Lucy’s description of her attacker with his arm around a blond turning the corner across the street. The guy has an eyedropper of vampire blood poised over her mouth, promising, “One taste of this, you’ll never be the same.” The pretty girl opens her mouth eagerly, sticking out her tongue. Dean beats up the man while Sam orders the girl to go; she runs away. The vampire escapes Dean. The brothers race off on his trail but are stopped in their tracks when they find themselves face to face with Gordon and Kubrick. Sam looks at Dean, terror-stricken, as Gordon steps forward, pointing a gun at him.
Dean and Sam run behind parked cars as Kubrick and Gordon shoot at them, breaking every single window in all the cars. Dean and Sam lean against a wall, out of sight of the other two men. “You run, I’ll draw ’em off,” says Dean. Sam hates this plan, but Dean takes off, jumping on top of a car and off it, while they shoot at him and miss. Kubrick continues to shoot after Dean, who has jumped over a railing and down. Gordon separates to find Sam, but is, ironically, beaten and captured by Dixon, the guy who turned Lucy into a vampire.
At their hotel room, Sam paces, worried about Dean. When he finally returns, having “stopped for a slice,” Sam rebukes him for running right at the weapons. Dean claims to be a badass, and guesses Gordon is out of jail. How did he find us? wonders Sam. That bitch, realizes Dean, and calls Bela. She’s forthright about selling their whereabouts to Gordon, although he DID also have a gun to her head. As for warning them about his impending arrival, she WAS going to call, but she got sidetracked. Besides, there was only one of him and two of them, no big deal. There were two of them, Dean informs her, and promised that if they make it out of this alive, the first thing I’m going to do is kill you. She thinks he’s not serious, but he warns her to listen to his voice and think otherwise. He hangs up and you can see Bela is worried.
At a warehouse, Gordon is tied down to a bed frame. He awakens and looks around; two blonds are hanging by bound hands from the ceiling. Dixon goes over to them, apologizing for their discomfort–the hunger will pass–and they’ll feel much better. He feeds them blood from a jar, and they drink thirstily. Gordon asks who the girls are. Family, answers Dixon. “Do you always keep your family in shackles?” asks Gordon. We’re getting to know each other, says Dixon, they’ve just been re-born. You grabbed some poor girls off the street and made them monsters like you, accuses Gordon. I do what I have to, says Dixon, we’re a dying breed–but then, you know that, being one of the greatest living vampire hunters. You are the reason we’re nearly extinct. It’s because you’re mindless, bloodthirsty animals, says Gordon. So much more bloodthirsty than you, snarls Dixon–hunters slaughtered my entire nest, like they were having a party–murdered my daughter–I can’t tell you how satisfying this is, catching a hunter responsible for so many deaths! He shows Gordon a photo of a girl from perhaps the 1800’s, adding, “Making you lunch for my new daughters.” Daughters? mocks Gordon–try fang whores. Watch your mouth, warns Dixon. I forgot, you’re just a misunderstood victim, says Gordon, even though you murder and spread your disease on pure base instinct–you got less humanity than a sewer rat. I’m sorry you have such a low opinion of my people, says Dixon. You have no idea, says Gordon darkly. Dixon decides to change his plans; he’ll go out to get his daughters their lunch–he’s got a better idea for Gordon. He cuts Gordon’s arm, then his own. “NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” gasps Gordon as Dixon presses their blood together, mixing them.
In their room, Dean sharpens his knife. Sam warns him the vampire is still out there. First things first, says Dean–Gordon–and he’s not leaving us a whole lotta options. “We gotta kill him,” says Sam. Surprised, Dean asks if Sam isn’t going to object on the grounds Gordon’s a human, it’s wrong, but Sam says, “I’m done–Gordon’s not going to stop until we’re dead–or till he is.” Dean seems impressed by his brother’s logical train of thought. The phone rings. It’s Bela, who prefers that people don’t hold grudges against her or want to kill her–she’s found Gordon’s exact location for him. The talking board tells her Gordon is in a warehouse, two stories, riverfront, neon sign outside. The spirit also had a message for them–leave town, run like hell, and DON’T go after Gordon. They hang up.
At the warehouse, Gordon hangs from the ceiling by his hands. The neon light outside is far too bright, and he turns away from it. The ticking watch below feels like a mallet striking his head, unbearable. He yanks three times at the chain securing him to the ceiling and breaks free. “Please, help us,” begs one of the girls. He stares at her malevolently. He’s outside, disoriented, hungry. Streetlights bother him; passing headlights blind him; taillights look like blood. Hearing the heartbeat of a man changing a tire, he leans against a storefront and gazes at his bloodshot eyes–and his new vampire fangs–in his reflection. When the guy finishes changing his tire, he finds a very hungry Gordon in his car, all ready to party with his brand-new fangs. Blood heavily splashes the windows inside.
Guns aimed, Sam and Dean creep up behind Dixon, who is crying over his two headless sisters, destroyed by Gordon. “Kill me,” urges Dixon, “I never should have brought a hunter here, expose him to my family. “You’re such a family man, you son-of-a-” comments Dean sarcastically. Dixon tries to explain how desperate he was; he’d lost everyone he ever loved and was staring down eternity alone–can you think of a worse hell? “Well, there’s hell,” says Dean. “I wasn’t thinking, didn’t give a damn anymore, admits Dixon–do you know what that’s like?–like being dead already–just go ahead, do it. Sam tells Dean the girls’ heads weren’t cut off, but ripped off, with bare hands–“Dixon, what did you do to Gordon?” Sam and Dean look at each other, realizing Gordon’s been turned.
Gordon soundlessly appears inside Kubrick’s trailer. “You OK?” he asks Gordon. “Not even close,” his friend replies, “they turned me.” Kubrick closes his eyes, as if praying, and says, “I’m sorry.” Gordon agrees that Kubrick has to kill him, but first, he must kill Sam Winchester; that’s the only good thing to come from this nightmare–“I’m stronger, faster, I can finish him.” When Kubrick insists he can’t allow him to leave here alive, Gordon stares at the cross on the wall and begs to be allowed to do this one last good thing for the world. Even as he’s agreeing, Kubrick is grabbing for a large knife; Gordon, hearing his friend’s heartbeat, reaches into his chest and kills him. As Kubrick sinks against him, Gordon whispers, “I’m sorry” in his ear.
Dean returns to their room to report that he’s searched many places, trying to find Gordon, “a deadly needle in a large haystack.” Sam has, too, and he’s poring over maps. He asks for Dean’s phone; if Gordon knows their cell numbers, he can use the cell signal to track them down. Sam destroys the cell phones. Dean orders Sam, the vampire’s target, to stay at the hotel; he’s going after turbo-charged Gordon–alone. Sam won’t hear of it, Stop turning everything into a punchline, orders Sam angrily, and stop trying to act like you’re not afraid. “I’m not,” insists Dean. “You’re lying,” says Sam, “and you may as well drop it because I can see right through you. You’re scared, Dean, because your year is running out and you’re still going to hell and you’re freaked.” “How do you know that?” demands Dean. “Because I KNOW you!” says Sam–“I’ve been following you around my entire life!–I’ve been lookin’ up to you since I was four, Dean, studying you, trying to be just like my big brother, so yeah I know you, better than anyone else in the entire world. And THIS is exactly how you act when you’re terrified. I mean, I can’t blame you, it’s just. . .it’s just I wish you would drop the show and be my big brother again, ’cause. . .just ’cause.” Dean stares at him, at his puppy dog eyes close to tears. “All right, we’ll hole up,” says Dean, “cover our scent so he can’t track us, wait the night out here.” (One of the sweetest, most heart-soaring brotherly moments ever!) Sam and Dean make the room smell like anything but themselves and use the beds to build an even better fort around the windows and doors. The phone rings. “You have that phone only two hours,” says Sam, “who did you give the number to?” No one, answers Dean. It’s Gordon, who could smell Dean all over the cell phone store. Dean urges “Gordo” to come to them, but the vampire has a female victim who begs Dean for help. Gordon tells the brothers where to show up, or the girl dies. “Don’t do this,” pleads Dean, “you don’t kill innocent people, you’re still a hunter.” “No. . .I’m a monster,” corrects Gordon.
Sam and Dean find the bound and gagged girl Gordon kidnapped and untie her, but the vampire manages to separate the brothers between a corrugated garage door. The lights go out where Sam is, and he feels his way around, sword in hand. “So this is the way you want to do it, huh?” asks Sam. “Damn right I do,” says Gordon, who can see Sam bathed in red light while Sam stumbles around in complete darkness. Gordon says he’s lost everything to get here, but he’s finally killing the most dangerous thing he’s ever hunted–“You’re not human, Sam.” “Look who’s talking, counters Sam.” Gordon agrees, he’s a bloodthirsty killer. “Don’t talk about it like you don’t have a choice,” chastises Sam. “I don’t,” says Gordon. “You do,” says Sam, “you didn’t kill that girl.” “I did something much, much worse,” confesses Gordon.
Dean is trying desperately to force his way into where Sam is, banging fruitlessly at the mechanism on the corrugated door. He’s attacked by the girl he and Sam saved–she’s a vampire! He shoots her with the Colt, leaving a pretty starburst gunpowder pattern on her forehead. Dean lies on his back for a second, catching his breath. Gordon tells Sam, “I know what it’s like to be like you, to have something evil inside you–it’s just too bad you won’t do the right thing and kill yourself–I’m gonna, soon as I’m done with you–two last good deeds.” Gordon backs Sam into a wall and attacks, sending the two of them through the wall and Sam onto his back. They have ended up where Dean is. Dean is about to shoot Gordon when the vampire turns, disarms him, backs him into a wall, and begins to gnaw at his throat. Sam grabs him off his brother, they grapple, and Gordon bashes Sam’s head against a table a couple of times. Finally, Sam wraps barbed wire around Gordon’s throat and pulls tightly. Sam’s hands bleed with his efforts. Gordon’s vampire fangs protrude, covered with lots of blood. Sam concentrates all his strength. With a thump, Gordon’s head is severed from his body. Dean, rubbing the blood from his throat, staggers over to where his little brother, nose and forehead bleeding, stands beside Gordon’s headless body. “You just charged a super vamped-out Gordon with no weapon,” says Dean, “that’s a little reckless, doncha think?” Sam doesn’t reply, and our last view is of Gordon’s severed head, lying in a pool of blood.
“Crazy Circles” by Bad Company plays. While Dean works under the hood of the Impala, Sam opens a couple of beers and hands one to Dean, who asks his brother for a wrench. Suddenly, Dean asks Sam to come over and begins giving him a lesson in auto shop. Given that the car is going to belong to Sam, Dean hands him the wrench. “You fix it,” he says, to Sam’s amazement–his brother barely lets him drive the Impala! “You should know how to fix it,” insists Dean, “you’re gonna need to know these things for the future.” Sam’s smile fades, but he accepts the wrench. “And besides,” adds Dean, “it’s my job, right?–show my little brother the ropes?” Sam bends down to work the wrench and Dean sits down and drinks the beer. “Put your shoulder into it,” says Dean, as the song swells and ends.
An episode filled with angst, action, pathos, sad vampires, the end of Gordon Walker, a formidable, fun enemy and touching brotherly scenes. I had the great good fortune of being in Vancouver while this was being filmed, watched the filming, and met Jensen and Jared. It was absolutely one of the highlights of my entire life!
1. Do you think Sam and Dean beheaded Dixon or let him go? He was begging to die, but did they comply? What did you think of him as a character? Did you feel sorry for him, or that he deserved to die?
2. Dixon came up with a pretty cool, 21st century way of adding sisters to his family. Meet pretty blonds in bars, bite their throats, have them drink a few drops of his blood in their booze, and whammo, instant family! So easy, quick and, given how many gals looking for a “new drug,†to try, he had his pick! Sad for poor Lucy, though, who just thought she couldn’t come down. Like a sexual disease or just an addiction to a new drug, because once you’re a vampire, that craving for blood never ends!
3. Very emotional brother stuff here. Dean taking all sorts of crazy chances because he’s already dead in his own mind, so what difference does it make? Plenty to Sam, who wants Dean behaving more like his big brother. So Dean doesn’t go off hunting Gordon alone; he sticks with Sam. Not that it matters, Gordon manages to separate them fast enough. It’s the thought that counts. The final scene, with “Crazy Circles†playing, Dean hands “Baby†over to his brother, teaching him how to fix her since she will belong to him someday. Wibble! Sad, but necessary.
4. Sorry to see Gordon go, or would you have enjoyed having more of Gordon—as a vampire!—returning to the show? He started out as a sort of father figure to Dean after John’s death, but sadly proved himself a narrow-minded, bigoted enemy when he wouldn’t accept that Lenore was only drinking cattle blood—or that Sam wasn’t evil.
5. What about Kubrick? Will you miss him? I found him a fascinating second-hand character, especially since he believed God had led him to help with Sam’s demise. Gordon didn’t have to kill him, but he felt Kubrick might kill HIM before he could get rid of Sam, and he couldn’t have that, could he?
6. What did you think of Sam’s amazing strength in putting down Gordon? That was really some scene, both disgusting and riveting, like a car accident you can’t help staring at as you passed by.
1. I think Dean would have beheaded Dixon as he was turning innocents. Felt sorry for him anyway as we have no idea how he became what he was. Probably not voluntary. Liked the actor who made him kind of likeable. Liked him especially for how he took down Gordon!
2. Felt sorry for Lucy too as she had no idea what the hell was happening.
3. Loved the brotherly stuff here. Loved that Dean listened to Sam and stayed with him. Loved that he was teaching his little brother the ropes about his baby. Yeah, wibble! Lots of that in this episode.
4. Not really sorry to see Gordon go though as a vampire he would have made an even more formidable foe. He made me really nervous with his evil Sam must die mantra.
5. Yeah, sorry Kubrick was killed by his hero and friend. Poor guy! He really believed he was doing God’s work. Really interesting character and a good actor there too.
6. Yes Sammy was entirely amazing when he faced Gordon. When in dire straits or Dean is in dire straits Sam rises to the occasion as needs be. Wrenching off Gordon’s head amazed Dean as well as himself. Sam’s potential without demon blood seems unlimited if only he could find the key to unlock it. He better do it soon in this season! 😮
Another one from Sera Gamble. She still has to disappoint me.
This episodes features two of the very best brotherly scenes in the entire scenes – Sam’s puppy-eyed and teary plead to Dean and the ending, which is one of the most poignant endings in SPN if you consider the context. I’m surprised it didn’t make it to any of the best endings lists. Dean’s offering of the Impala to Sam is always a declaration of love, as it was in Good God Y’All and Wendigo.
All in all, high quality brotherly interaction. I wonder if we’ll see the likes of that again before the end of Season 5. A hug wouldn’t be bad either. A girl can dream. 😉
1. I never really gave it much thought as to if Dean or Sam beheaded Dixon. I would think one of them did probably kill him. They couldn’t just let him go and turn more women into vampires now, could they?!? But I did kind of feel sorry for Dixon. I mean all he wanted was family, someone to spend his days with. Who hasn’t ever wanted that or felt that? Being single with no children, even though I have my parents and brothers, I still want my own family – so that plea really resonated with me. I’m sure a part of what Dixon said also probably really resonated with Dean and Sam – the loss of his family, something Dean really felt at the end of S2 with Sam dying and feelings Sam is experiencing now with the soon to be loss of Dean. It just makes you wanna cry a little.
2. Yes, felt sorry for Lucy. She had no idea what had happened to her. Dixon should have at least told her what was happening after he turned her.
3. LOVED the brother moments in this episode. The cry from Sam for Dean to be his brother again, ugh! That gets me every time. Dean telling Sam he was being a little reckless – brings a smile to my face each time. And the ending with Dean teaching him the ropes of fixing the car. Very bittersweet, Dean showing his “little brother” the ropes. It reminds me of growing up and how I would always hang around my dad when he was changing the oil in our cars or fixing them. Great family moments.
4. I was NOT sorry to see Gordon go. Yes, he was a good foe for Dean and Sam, but I disliked him from the start and that opinion never changed. I also thought it was kind of interesting how Gordon says that now he was a vamp he was “stronger & faster”, yet when he goes up against Sam, he doesn’t play fair. He turns out the lights and turns the situation to His advantage, but he still lost. Thank goodness for that. I guess he wasn’t all that good after all. Or Sam is just better.
5. Not sad to see Kubrick meet his end either. Didn’t like the way he treated Sam in BDABR.
6. Loved Sam killing Gordon. Gordon so deserved it and glad Sam was the one to off him and not Dean. I loved the way Gordon’s lips moved when his head was severed from his body and on the ground. I remember hearing an interview about that episode and how that incident was something that happened kind of by accident. However it happened, I loved the effect. One troubling thought with Sam killing Gordon though – you can’t tell me that with Sam cutting off Gordon’s head and his blood spurting all over the place and Sam’s hands being cut from that wire that none of Gordon’s blood got into any of Sam’s wounds. It seems to me from the situation that somehow some of Gordon’s blood would have gotten on him. Of course, we can’t have Sam going all vamp on us now, could we. So, I guess that couldn’t have ever happened. But the logistics of the blood and all still kind of bothers me.
Loved the episode and am envious of you Alice in being able to watch some of the filming and meet Jensen and Jared. That must have been totally cool. Something that I can only dream about. I am so close to Vancouver – yet, so far.
I hated to see Gordon go, but this was a hell of an exit.
1. Always assumed he was beheaded and I think that SPN did a pretty good job of making the vampire culture, if not outright deserving of sympathy, then at least a bit less black and white, here, in Bloodlust and even Luther in Dead Man’s Blood wasn’t as bad as Gordon.
2. Blondes, so predictable. No love for the brunettes and redheads? 😀
3. As cool as the action scenes were, the hotel scene and the ending were the definite highlights of the episode. Well, maybe the death-by-barbed wire.
4. I loved Gordon as a bad guy precisely because he WAS dangerous. He COULD best Dean or Sam. The fact that he was so formidable provided a nice foil.
5. Kubrick, too. What’s with killing off all the interesting sidemen? Could’ve been a nice addition to the apocalyptic jazz of this season. “Don’t play with my Jesus.”
6. One of the all-time great TV deaths, period. Evelyn does bring up a good point, since unlike most lore, there’s no reciprocal blood-drinking with SPN’s vampires. Wear gloves next time!
WAIL! Gordon! Blank Eyed My-Cornflakes-Told-Me-To-Do-It Nutjob Extrodinaire! We shall not see your like again, sorry to lose Don’t-Touch-My-Jesus Guy too, they made a great double act. :cry::
Rands, blonds are MOTW victims of choice ‘cos they show up better in the dark. Deal with it, Dude! 😆