SPN Reaction: Huge, Rambling, Meta-sprinkled Reaction to Supernatural 3.16

[caffienekitty]

Fair Warning: This entry is over 10,000 words long. No, I'm not kidding. And almost none of it is spoiler timeline. Obviously contains detailed spoilers for 3.16 and some speculation for season 4.

Huge, Rambling, Meta-sprinkled Reaction to Supernatural 3.16 - "No Rest for the Wicked"
(possibly with some emo and profanity)

Spoiler Timeline:

NONE.

8:50PM May 15th - Aside from the spoiler/rumor which has been carried forward since forever and is being carried forward to season 4 in vain hope? NOTHING! NO SPOILERS AT ALL! I have not seen, or do not remember any spoilers or promos or anything for this episode. Woo! *glee*

Let's do this!

*many hours later*

O. M. G.

That... that was eyeball-desiccatingly awesome! Hoo!

I so wish that had been a two-parter. Wow.

*breathes*

Holy crap.

Had to take a 12 hour brief interlude between first and second watching (including 3 hours of staring at a blue screen) to let my eyes go from popped wide open in shock, like so: O.O to something where I blinked once in a while and my eyebrows weren't orbiting Jupiter. And also to stop twitching, flailing and randomly going 'eee!'

*twitches*

Mostly.

And then... well anyway, I'll get to that as we go on.

Oh, and that brand new 32 page book I started the episode with? Has 28 pages filled with notes and flailing now. In case anyone was curious. I admit though, the writing in the first 14 is larger, scrawlier, less coherent and vastly more profane.

Cannot. Stop. Squeeing. Seriously.

Here we go!

-CARRY ON MY WAYWARD SON! *gets misty* Did anyone not have this song on repeat at some point in time on Thursday? Not a real surprise there, but still awesome. A lot of talking over top of it though, but probably that's a good thing, just in case someone who has no idea what's going has tuned in.

-That's interesting... there's a little bit of an extra long pause after "There'll be peace when you are done" this time... *ponders* *looks in gigglingkat's music meta-ing direction*

-Oh. "Lay your weary head to rest" juxtaposed with Dean in the dream, looking at dream!Lisa on the happy family picnic blanket. Oh. Oh, OW show.

-OMG! First season Impala action shots! Skidding around the corner in Devil's Trap! Busting through the gate in Route 666 for pete's sake! Sam driving and looking pissed because he's about to roar up past John and cut him off in "Dead Man's Blood"! OMG! Nostalgia overload!

-Special Psychic Sam reference in the previouslies! YES! *glee* *is preemptively smug*

-Eek! Hellhounds! *whimper*

-Ruby's lying Dean! And she's stealing the spotlights off the car!

-Eeek! Demon!Dean!

-NOW! Dean running through the woods from Hellhounds. Totally a dream. Interesting and possibly meta-able, though, the consistent continuity in Dean's subconscious landscape from "Dream a Little Dream". Forest, Impala, hotel rooms and hallways. Forest chasing is much cheaper than Dean trying to out-run the Hellhounds in the Impala (though how cool would that be?) and much less cracky than having the Hellhounds in Dean's dream chase him through a succession of all the hotel rooms they've been in this season. Although the hotel room thing wouldn't have been that hard to do, really, with some advance planning, just have Jensen run through each hotel set like he's being chased, wearing the same clothes each time, before the set people strike for the next layout. Merge 'em all together at the end. *nods*

-*randomly covets Dean's boots* Even though they'd be heavy as lead and not breathe at all and are completely not my style. I can't explain it. I just want Dean's boots. I have no idea what I'd even do with them.

-I know it's just panicked running breathing sounds but damn. Listening to the tone, the panic, the desperation... Jensen Ackles can act with his freaking lungs. Wow. *is in awe*

-Dean's face! During the running! Oh! I'd throw in a screencap but I can't cap from my VCR and kroki-refur does so much better at that than I ever could.

-I love that 'Hellhound Vision' is a little desaturated and fish-eye lensed. Makes it more doggy.

-Hee. I really want to see how these 'Hound-cam' bits were filmed. I'm seeing Jensen being chased through the bush by some camera guy with a steadi-cam rig down around his knees maybe?

-Ohhhh... Waking up from the nightmare to the waking nightmare. Dean with the darty eyes and the panting and the whole reflex thought of "oh thank god it was just a dream" losing ground and fading into the thought of "oh my god that's going to happen, really happen, soon". Also with a hint of "OMG I fell asleep while I was studying for the final exam, I'm not ready and I don't have time to sleep!" Only the final exam is going to be delivered by demonic dogs. So... more like "Differential Calculus on N-Dimensional Quantum Space" than "Intro to Pottery 101". And all that is right there on Dean's face. How the hell does Jensen Ackles do that?

-That is one nasty-looking puppy Dean passed out on. Like a storm with fangs. Gyah.

-Hi Sam! Oh crap, you look all hopeful again. What insane plan are you about to propose?

-I love how their voices sound all rough and sleepy. Aw.

-30 hours, good to know. Making it... 6PM the day before, give or take a time zone. Soooo, is Deal Day May 2nd like the Season 2 Companion says, and the date on last week's hotel receipt was wrong, or was the date on the hotel receipt correct and Dean's deal comes due on the *counts* First of July!? Kripke might be killing Dean and/or sending him to hell on Canada Day? Dude. That sucks. Not as much as doing it on Sam's birthday though, so okay. Either way, a concrete date would be cool. But after three years of dates set in Jello? Meh. It's all good.

-TJ run. Donkey show! \o/ Hee! I have a vague idea what that is and that is more than plenty, thanks. Yes Sam. Let's never do that. *pats Dean. Gingerly. And washes afterwards.*

-Oh Sam with the 9-year old hopeful expression again saying "I don't care what it takes, Dean. You're not gonna go to Hell. I'm not gonna let you." Oh Sam. Of course you don't care what it takes. And I think I know what it's gonna take, and where it's going to lead. *pats Sam* You scare the crap out of me sometimes, sweetie.

-Heh, and then Yaaaaah! Sam with the crazy-head-demon-face-hallucination thing! Yaaaah! Speaking of scaring the crap out of me. I love that effect. Awesome! \o/ And oh, Dean. Because Dean won't be saying a damn thing about it to anyone. Oh.

-Hey! It's the last Demon Belch title card! Maybe. Assuming they're going to change it for Season 4. Unless it would be bad for the budget. I'm okay with the title card being written with a Sharpie on a sheet of blank paper if it helps the budget at this point. Hee. With Kripke shaking it a little and going "Rawr!" *snerk* I'm suspecting something along the lines of a Lilith-nukey-hand-go-boom flash, maybe?

-Ooo! Ooo! It's one of those things! Ooo! I know the name of that thing! I think! Uhhh... It's not an astrolabe... what the heck is that? Not just a pendulum on a tripod... arg. That's going to bug me now.

-Hello title! I haven't met you before! *glee* "No Rest for the Wicked." Oooo. Oh...

-HI BOBBY! OMG please don't die! Heh. What's weird is that even though I know going into this that there is a 99% 50% chance of Dean dying, I'm not as worried about that because I know when if he does, he'll come back. Somehow. Probably in a way that will royally piss him off and involve a great deal of shouting. \o/ Bobby? Bobby is edging into John territory now. And we know what happened to John. *pouts*

-"The right name, the right ritual, ain't nothin' you can't suss out." Hm... and this must be something he's just found, or he'd have dragged out the tripod thingy in season one when they were looking for John... Ooo! Or maybe the demons had John's location scry-proofed or something. Aha! Plot logic! *nods*

-No, wait, Sam said he'd just figured it out. Which is a little weird, because the power of names is like a huge thing in the lore of just about every culture in the world, isn't it? Maybe he's just never had the right ritual thing before. *nods again*

-"We'll know the street." You're gonna need to Google up some street maps for that once you get the city. *nods* Cool.

-Oh holy crap, Bobby latinating! You guys! Bobby's latinating!! OMG. Hi floor! Wow. I have no idea why, but that was extra-awesome!

-New Harmony, Indiana? Really? What happened to the West? Although... heh. State motto of Indiana is: "The Crossroads of America." Very, very freaking cute, show. Hee. New Harmony is situated on the Wabash River, and if that's an obscure Matrix reference, it'd be the second one in a Supernatural finale. (On a personal note, I've never been to the place, I've never even heard about the place before, but I swear I've had nightmares featuring the freaky-looking weird building at the bottom of that page... O_o) It's right on the Illinois border, and therefore in Central Time, and at most a 1 hour time zone difference from Bobby's. Also, historically New Harmony seems to have some religious background, so Lilith is being a tad sassy in her choice of town, methinks.

-"Holster it up, there, Tex." Hee. Love how Dean's voice is still all rough and sleep-gravelly.

-When she breathes, the air comes out crooked. Awesome description of Bela.

-"The same Lilith that wants your giant head on a pike?" Ooo, Dean doesn't snark on Sam's size often. It's an awesome sign of how off-balance and freaked by all this he is and how annoyed he is that Sam seems to be finding new and even more inventive ways of sacrificing his own life to save Dean which is the absolute anti-thesis of Dean's general operating system of:

Danger:
10 IF danger exists, THEN protect Sam
20 IF Sam not in danger, THEN protect family
30 IF family not in danger, THEN protect friends
40 IF friends not in danger, THEN protect random normal people
50 IF random normal people not in danger, THEN protect car
60 IF car not in danger, THEN protect idiots that brought the danger on their own damned selves (IF they ask nice and/or IF Sam insists)
70 IF idiots that brought the danger on their own damned selves not in danger or not asking nicely and/or Sam doesn't give a crap about them, THEN protect anything else in danger in whole damn world
80 IF nothing else in danger in whole damn world, THEN protect self
90 IF self not in danger, THEN RUN "Stand Down"
100 END (only don't ever, really)

Stand Down:
10 RUN "Clean Guns", "Tease Sammy", "Snark", "Seek Case", "Drive", "Music", "Food", "Bar", "Pool", "Women", "Sleep"
20 GOTO 10

ETA: Thank you malevolent73 for field beta-testing Dean's programming and noticing there were two line 60's *fixes*

-Sorry. That totally got away on me. *facepalm* And, it's not exactly that simple anymore is it? Dean's been altering his own code a bit over the past three seasons... Anyway, moving on now. Yeesh. *facepalm again some more*

-Written by Eric Kripke! Hi! Not a surprise, but still *waves at the credits like a dork*

-"We go in smart or we don't go in at all." Yay! Strategy!!!

-Oh Sam, with the fevered gleeful face at pulling another dubious and/or insane 'save Dean' plan out of the hat. This one's more dubious than insane, but opinions may vary on that.

-"The Miss Universe of lying skanks." Yeah, I'll go with that as an apt description of Ruby.

-Man, considering Ackles and Padalecki are essentially on the fourth episode of shooting after a long break, rather than having that long built up run of episode shooting and being Sam and Dean day in and day out to build up momentum to thunder down into the intense 'pour it all out' of the finale episode, they are just hitting all the emotional stuff perfect. I think that's a true sign of how fully both these guys inhabit their characters. We are so lucky on this show to have people so intensely into character that they can pick up and go straight into a flat-out emotional gauntlet like this, character-wise. I've caught bits of other post-writers-strike shows and there are a few regular cast members who seem to have forgotten who their characters are. Not naming any names. That? Totally not happening on our show. These guys are more invested in their characters than most fans usually are, and that's astonishing given the sheer rabidity of this fandom. And also depressingly rare on TV shows. And yet, here they are. All snap and sparkle with the banter, and at the same time, all sharp-edged and shattering, careening down to a deadline which at least one is realizing is unavoidable. And it's driving the other one insane. Oh boys.

-Shouty boys! Intense Dean! Determined Sam, off to do stupid things in the name of saving his brother. He's got that bright-brittle hope on the crumbling edge of sanity face on again. Oh dear.

-"Just no." Oh Dean.

-"I guess to... find somethin' else." Bottle of whiskey sounds good. And maybe crush a few cars solely with the power of Winchester-induced frustration. *nods* Poor Bobby.

-Oh crap. Sam's drawing things on the floor. This can only lead to trouble. I am however far, far too amused that he's using one of those giant sticks of playground chalk to do so. Even though it's perfectly logical to use one.

-Hee. Silly me. I saw the big yellow thing in the center of the symbol Sam drew (which is very Devil's Trap-like, no?) and thought "... Citronella candle? Is Ruby attracted to citronella? Does that make her related in some way to mosquitoes? Or does that make her the Anti-Mosquito?" But it's not a citronella candle it's probably a potfull of stuff to set on fire and the yellow colour is probably from sulfur. Man, is Bobby's basement gonna reek.

-Speaking of Bobby's basement... surely he has wards against demons coming in... unless. Ooo.

-Sam latinating! Now, um. Normally I don't notice such things, but Sam's profile in the candle light here, with the hair, and the worry, and the stealthy (only not!) latinating? Yowza. A teeny bit. Like I say, I don't normally notice, but that stood out. *koff* Anyway.

-"Eos" is in the Latin a couple times, isn't that 'horse?' No sorry, that's equus. Never mind.

-The Winchesters need to use a squinch less gunpowder in their spellwork. Or whatever the stuff is that goes "FWOOSH!" Someone's gonna lose an eyebrow one of these days, and nothing's as embarrassing as summoning a demon and then losing vital yammering time because the demon's laughing their ass off at your lack of eyebrows. *nods like she knows what she's talking about*

-Hi, Ruby! You vacillating, manipulative, traitorous, lying, spotlight thief coward that ran away when the chips were down, saying you 'backed the wrong horse' and then came back to rant orders at the boys about how they'll dance to your tune from now on! Hi! I kind of hate you! Just thought you should know that, hon. *pats Ruby, then disinfects with boiling bleach*

-Bobby's basement is cool! With the moss and rocky-bricky-blocky walls. And rope! Hee.

-"How do you get around so fast?" 'Coz she's stalking you, Sam. Duh. Also, considering you ride around in a classic American land yacht (albeit a gorgeous, kickass, nimble land yacht) that has been known to get from any given point A to any given point B in under two hours, you probably shouldn't be wondering about other people's expeditiousness. Just sayin'.

-(*Gamer!self briefly wonders if the Impala has a permanent "Great Haste" spell on it*)

-"Superbowl Jetpack?" Eh? I know the Superbowl is supposed to be football, but if they've started using jetpacks, I might actually start watching it. :-P

-Hm. Didn't tell Sam 'coz he wasn't ready to do anything she told him to yet. Told Dean there was no way to save him so he'd believe she was lying to Sam, fight Sam about following Ruby's suggestions, tell him flat out not to talk to her, and trigger the patented Sam Winchester Kneejerk Order Resistance, thus ensuring Sam would call her, and be desperate enough to do anything she said to. Plotting, manipulative, backstabbing, and solely self-interested Ruby I can get behind. Too bad about the 'poor widdle me' backstory. They were contagious this season.

-Shore leave for demons. *shudder* Yeah. Do not want to know.

-"Hexbags. She won't sense that you're coming." Now, do we believe Ruby, Y/N? Could be little hexbag tracking devices for all we and the boys know. *ponders*

-"One little pig-sticker." She does have a point there, Sam. Just one. And it's little. Hee.

-"I know how to save your brother, Sam."/"No, you don't! You told Dean you couldn't!" ...Somewhere on my hard drive I swear I have this exact conversation between Sam and Ruby, almost verbatim, in a text file from last month sometime. So close that it freaked me right out. Like deja vu.

-The aforementioned scene is partly the reason I called it. Although I did back at the start of the season too (sort of) I guess 90% of fandom thought the same thing probably, but still. *glee* Because see, it's like the Wizard of Oz! Sam is Dorothy and has had the answer all along and all he has to do is click his ruby heels together! Or heel to Ruby's command. Or something... I swear I had a point there but I've been distracted suddenly by an image of Jared in sparkly red slippers... *smacks self in brain* *moves on*

-RETURN OF PSYCHIC SAMMY FTW!!!! \o/ YAHOOOOO! Soon, anyway! Yay!

-I know there's a portion of fandom that dislikes Sam having powers, and I can see where they are coming from, but I've been waiting for this plot-development since freaking "Nightmare"! No! Since "Bloody Mary"! That particular gun has been on the wall for an exorbitantly long time, since the start, and I really want to see it come down and get used, and in the end dealt with. Arg. *forces self not to launch into season 4 spec*

-Lilith's scared of Sam. This is a surprise? Really? When one of the possible special-kid powers is controlling demons?

-I love that Ruby is owning up to jerking the boys around the whole time with a shrug and a 'Hello? Demon?' Hee.

-"You can save your brother, and I can show you how. Just buy my complete set of Activating Your Demon-King Powers cassette tapes, for 66 easy payments of 6.66! Call now! Operators are standing by!" Sorry, sorry, I have no idea where that came from...

-You know, pretty much since the start with Ruby, I've had an old adage running through my head about her: "If you can't be a King, be a kingmaker." Since she can't lead the demons, she picks her side to back, and tries to push him to power and herself to a solid ally position in the new regime. And yet at the same time, I'm almost certain she's really on Lilith's side secretly. See? I love stuff like this. Uncertain allegiances, conspiracies, secret betrayals, all that jazz. Awesome.

-Oh yay! Dean versus Ruby! Let the snark-off begin! And shoutiness!

-I love the arguments between Dean and Ruby, I was so peeved at the end of Malleus because I figured there wouldn't be any more of them after the one brief one at Colt-point. I love the back and forth and the energy and the snap of them... Also, most of Ruby's non-"fighting with Dean" lines sound just like that to me; lines. Over-rehearsed and dead in the air. But when she and Dean get arguing? She doesn't sound like she's saying lines anymore. *nods* But that's just my perception of things. *shrug*

-"Because you were human once, and you like kittens, and long walks on the beach." YES!!! Dean didn't buy the 'poor widdle me' routine after all! I cannot express how much joy this brings me!!! \o/

-Sidenote: I don't know if you'll remember me saying last week how my VCR loves making Sam look like a goof, pausing on silly faces? I think my VCR is a DeanGi- Er. DeanThing. Every single time it pauses when Dean's on the screen it's some perfect and usually heart-breaking Dean expression that I wish I could screencap. Although it might like Ruby a little too, only when it pauses on her, she looks like a Maybelline commercial. Except more... vapid. Maybe it doesn't like her after all.

-Whoa! Dean punches Ruby!!! The whole punching girls thing doesn't apply if it's a demon. It's not a girl, it's a soot-cloud wearing a corpse. Totally punchable. Yah! Combat! \o/

-OMG! HA! VCR is making Sam look silly again! Sam's face in the background when Dean punches Ruby! It looks like he started to say "Shit!" and then stalled on the "SH" and his lips are all contorted and he looks like one of those salt-sucking vampires from Classic Star Trek!! XD

-Grr, too bad little miss Mary-Sue has to win the fig- No, wait... Oh hohoho! YEAH!!! It's a trap! Dean stole her knife mid-combat, and brawled her under a Solomon Seal! FTW!!! Wooo! Yay smart Deeeeeeean!! *glomphs*

-Ooo! Nice stone wall behind Ruby! *is distracted*

-OMG that fight was pure win! And yay for Sam and Dean tricking Ruby! I think Sam was involved, anyways, at least in the 'pretend I don't know Dean's spray-painted a Seal of Solomon on the ceiling over there' sort of way. Glee. So much win.

-Ruby also sounds a lot better when she's shrieking in frustrated rage. Looks good on her.

-"And I wish you'd shut yer pie hole, but we don't always get what we want." Hee!

-Guns! BOYS DOING GUN STUFF! *glomphs* I have no idea why, since guns aren't really used in the upcoming thing, but maybe it's like meditation for them. Or Dean's making sure Sam knows how to clean all the guns just in case he won't be there to clean them for him... *wibble*

-Sam's hopeful boyish face is gonna kill me yet...

-Carey stare? Hairy stare? Caring stare? Heh. Care Bear Stare? What was that Dean said there? My sound went muddy.

-"Don't you see a pattern here? Dad's Deal, my Deal, now this?" HAHAHAHAHAHHA! OMG! DEAN JUST META'D! Hee! 'Haven't you noticed a pattern, Sam? This happens at the end of every season, uh, I mean year, uh, I mean every time one of us is dying or dead. And then we come back to life. And then we hug.' Heeeeeee! That? Was freaking awesome.

-Except this keeps Dean as the Winchester martyr and Sam doesn't get his turn because there'll be no Winchesters left to martyr himself for. Which is not being fair to your little brother, Dean. No, wait... *smacks self in head*

-Also, Dean is now killing me with his face too. Screw magic knives and guns, boys, just go up to Lilith and look at her like that and she'll drop dead right there.

-"I know, and look how that turned out." *flappy hands* The music! OMG you guys! Oh! That little instrumental progression over Dean's speech? It's Dean's Theme! Dean's Family Dedication Theme! (near the bottom of that section) *flails* It's being played really overtly here, and I don't conciously recall hearing it this year, unless it's been really subtle. Oh! *glomphs the incidental music* Oh! Oh boys!

-Aw Dean. Aw Sam. The weak spot speech. Aw.

-Eye of the Tiger snark! Should have been Final Countdown. Although Dean's hardly heading for Venus.

-And, and with Sam's "Eye of the Tiger" comment, using snark to deflect, defuse or delay an emotional moment thing? Sam pretty much completes his objective stated earlier this season about becoming like Dean. So that he can deal with the world after Dean's gone. Ow. Oh Sam.

-Hee. "Totally rehearsed that speech." And I believe that. Dean's a tough guy, but he's essentially got less than a day to live. He's got a point he needs to make to Sam, he figures out how to say it so Sam might hear it, get it, accept it, and follow the path it suggests, out of the cycle. But it's too late, Sam isn't speaking emo today. He's got this bright hopeful possible way of saving Dean freshly waved in front of him. He's not hearing anything that means 'no' to that.

-"What does a demon do for fun?" You seriously don't want to know, Dean. I don't want to know. Oh crap, we're gonna find out anyway....

-Freaky child time. No children in the neighborhood, notice? No toys in the yards, and that ice cream truck is going way too fast in a cul de sac not to be driven by someone who knows there's never any kids buying ice cream in that part of the neighborhood. Or, yah know. Demon. Betting guard demon, especially if Ruby isn't lying about the anti-Lilith bags. If your biggest enemy suddenly disappears from your 'scope, you get guards.

-(Trivial Note for anyone confused by the apparent dearth of foliage on the larger trees, while the small landscape plants are thriving: Yes, this was filmed in mid-to-late April. Yes, normally, Vancouver has plenty of greenery at that time. This year was freakishly, abnormally cold, which set back all the plant growth cycles. All the small shrubs and bushes and stuff that's green and/or blooming in the landscaping and not an evergreen? I would bet the show had to get trowels and shovels and cleared out the landscaping section of the local Home Depot the day before the shoot. The growth you are seeing on the trees is normal for late February, and is what the plantlife in the area was actually doing in mid-to-late April when this episode was shot. It was exceptionally weird and still is.)

-The unlucky family with the possessed child are the Fremonts, and their house number is 16330. Just in case anyone's looking for more trivia.

-Ooo! Grampa Fremont has cool holdout skills! Judging by the condition of that note, he's been trying to do this for a very long time. Too bad his buddy is being an idiot and reading the stealthily passed note in front of the house in broad daylight. No, wait. Buddy's probably another demonic guard. Grampa Fremont? You are brave, but so very screwed.

-Judging from the way Grampa Fremont hopped over the dead body, I take it that's not Gramma Fremont.

-What the heck is up with the very pointy cake??? Lilith only wants cake that's potentially aerodynamic?

-Totally different kid than last time. I'm suddenly very disturbed by the thought that child meat-suits don't last very long, and need to be changed frequently because they wear out too fast. *shudders and feels a little nauseous*

-Freckles, hunh? Okay, Lilith can die now. *has issues* *moves on*

-Oh my god, the sound people on this show. There's a distinct wet 'squish' noise as blood-coated Lilith hugs Dad Fremont. Gyah. And a another sticky-squishy noise when she backs off because he's asking about being let go. Gyah. *facepalm*

-Hey! ficwriter1966! All that's missing is the corn field! :-D

-Gonna take a moment to meta here, or whatever. What a demon, or specifically Lilith, does for fun. Arranges a situation which mimics in an idealized and broadly unrealistic fashion, a 'normal human' life, while still being in absolute control of all the variables. Including controlling an unpossessed human family through torment and fear. She's trying to give herself the experience of innocence which she either does not remember having, or never had. She is forcing the situation to conform to her will, and disposing of anything and anyone that interferes with her view of 'carefree innocence' in any way. When the thing disturbing her carefully constructed reality is dealt with, she reverts to the stereotype happy innocent carefree child with the happy family (or else) between times. In the meantime everyone is walking on eggshells in self-preservation. Childhood, a family, carefree. Only it's an obscene mockery, and as far from true innocence as it's possible to get. And creepy as hell.

-Aw, Metallicar? Dean's on a tight schedule here, don't let him down! No wait, it was Bobby. Sorry I doubted, even for a second. Poor thing. People keep taking your parts away. *pats car*

-Hee! Bobby! Looks like the "Somethin' else" Bobby found was the... er.... *squints* The... uh... *scratches head* The, um.... all-important light grey plastic whatchamacallit! From the engine somewhere! Probably! (Maybe a distributor cap? Alternator cover?)

-Dean's door squeak is marginally higher pitched than Sam's. But the door shutting thump is marginally deeper. In case anyone was curious.

-"Do I look like a ditchable prom date to you?" HA! I'm totally not imagining Bobby in a taffeta prom dress with a little sparkly clutch-purse, standing in a high school parking lot and pouting. Not even slightly.

-Seriously though? Oh, Bobby!

-"Family don't end with blood, boy." I cheered. Full-throatedly, out loud, at 9:30 pm on a Thursday night, right next to my neighbors bedroom, cheered. And clapped. [And on the rewatch? May have had something in my eye.] *Updates e-mail tag-line file* *glomphs Bobby* BOBBY! OMG don't die Bobby!

-(Considering the first time I saw the character of Bobby I didn't take to him right away, since in Devil's Trap he reminded me of a creepy drunk uncle and was stuck doing rather blatant and awkward "Exposition Man!" duties... I've become scarily attached to Bobby. It's just... Sam and Dean? Will not stay dead. For many in-show reasons, and for the external-show reasons that Padalecki and Ackles are the show and are personally invested in it up to their wonderfully expressive eyebrows. Not that Jim Beaver isn't by now, just... I... it's... if... DON'T KILL BOBBY!!!! JUST DON'T!!! *clings*)

-VCR also loves Bobby. Just seems to have something against Sam, I guess.

-Bobby knows about the hallucinations!! Yay Bobby!

-"Don't be stoppin' to pee every ten minutes either!" HA! Bobby is made of undiluted, pure, high-grade awesome!

-Hi Chevellen! What happened to your door? Bobby been driving you into more bars? *pats* Sigh. Maybe next season...

-Sam's goodbye speech and Dean with the "socially awkward." Hee! Oh, boys.

-Bon Jovi? Seriously? Dean's playing Bon Jovi on what could very likely be his last day alive. Okay... Now. Is he playing them because he gave them a shot after he "Bad Sign" because he figured if Sam liked them, there had to be something worth listening to, or he's playing them because he figures Sam likes them and the weirdness of Dean playing them will short circuit any conversational awkwardness from Sam... OR did he specifically get that tape for Sam, and it's part of a secondary set of cassettes in a box hidden somewhere in the Impala marked 'For Sam.' Because Dean figures there's a high percentage chance he really won't be coming back (thank you so much for that lyric, Bon Jovi), has a vague idea of Sam's crappy taste in music being 90% not available on cassette, and so Dean's been secretly compiling tapes of "Sammy music" so Sam can listen to his own crap in the car after Dean's gone, and so Sam doesn't sit there in a dark parking lot somewhere listening to Dean's music and getting all woobie over it. Because woobie and Metallica do not mix. There's probably some Guns'N'Roses, My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Nickelback in there too. But for the love of god no Death Cab for Cutie. Not if Dean's seen the lyrics for "I Will Follow You Into the Dark". 'Coz yike.

-Sorry, brief runaway plot-bunny there. Regardless, I think Kripke cringing might have been visible from low orbit. I think maybe he'd justify Dean listening to them as Dean preparing himself to face the discordant howlings of Hell, given Kripke's musical opinions. Maybe.

-OMG Singing boys! I either need to stop reading Kripke's mind or Kripke needs to stop snooping on my hard drive, dammit, because I've had something very similar to that scene mostly written for an ongoing fic since last October! And was revising it the other day. Arg. This keeps happening. It's Kripke's way of telling me to light a fire under my damned bunnies so he doesn't snag my scenes. *slaps 'revise AGAIN, dammit' post-it on a very twitchy and very weird bunny's much post-it-ed head*

-That said, I have so. Much. Love. for the two of them flat-out caterwauling.

-And the lyrics sink in. Oh Dean.

-New Impala Cop Car! \o/ Again, for trivia's sake, cop car's license plate is: 36I24B3

-Cop is totally a demon. Love seeing how the boys would handle a traffic stop though.

-"Mr. Hagar" HA!!! As in Sammy Hagar. As in "I Can't Drive 55" Sammy Hagar. BWAH! Best name choice ever!

-Ya know, the back of the belt strikes me as a very poor location to keep an unsheathed knife. *thinks concernedly of all the various seats involved*

-Buh-wha? I knew the cop was a demon, but how did Dean know? Oh wow. Oh wow! OH WOW!

-[And this commercial break is where in my first watch notes I bust out with three and a half pages of very large and very incomprehensible flailing about Dean developing a power, and the implications thereof for the episode, the fandom, the series, the deal, and the Campbellian Hero cycle. Sort of. Okay, I admit, one page was just one really long "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" but anyway. Not transcribing any of that. Onward.]

-This show finds all the coolest freaky trees in the Lower Mainland. Seriously. That tree is awesome.

-"Car 54, Where Are You?" "Well... In the bush, covered in unconvincing shrubbery, full of recently possessed dead guy. Why do you ask?" Hee. Never saw that show, but I caught the giant 54 on the roof of the police car.

-See, now, that's no good, boys. That shrubbery is gonna start turning brown real quick because it's dead (and only very recently leafed) deciduous branches. This is why when you hide something under disconnected greenery, you use evergreens. They take a lot longer to go brown. *nods sagely* What? We had a section on building pit traps in Girl Guides. Didn't everybody? *shrug*

-It's also totally coated in fingerprints (unless Sam and Dean did the burning them off thing) and DNA traces, and hopefully they had the foresight to pull the tape or whatever from the traffic stop camera thing... unless it's beamed back to digital storage these days... uh oh... No! Wait! This guy was possessed. The demon would have taken all that stuff off-line because he's in charge of murdering random motorists about to impinge on Lilith's shore leave, probably, and he wouldn't want anything abnormal ringing any bells for the rest of the police, so he's already done any track covering that needs done! They just need to hide the car and the body! *nods*

-Five hours to go. So... 7PM? And it's that dark out? In May or July? Insta-night? Uhhhh... ooo! Ooo! It's the weather thing! Lilith is messing up local weather patterns for her bright sunny sparsely overcast (because even a high-level demon can't make Vancouver warm and sunny if it don't wanna be) super-saturated shore leave, and all the cloud cover she's diverting is forming an impenetrable stormy cloud cover over nearby areas! Totally. *nods and handwaves like the wind*

-Aw damn. Not empowered Dean. It's just a Hellhound effect. One way or another, I hope he keeps it, because that'd come in really handy later. After all this possibly dying and going to Hell business is dealt with *waves dismissively*

-Anyway, yay for Bobby logic on the explanation, which also explains why only the imminent hell-puppy targets can see and hear the Hounds themselves. Makes absolute sense.

-"This is a terrific plan. I'm excited to be a part of it. Can we go please?" Hee!

-(Due to extreme lack of foresight and an apparent need for stress on my day off, I had to stop in the middle of the rewatch and go to an appointment. Stupidest thing I ever did. Seriously. Was supposed to only be out about half an hour. Five hours later, I got back home. Anyway, I'll rant about it later. For now, I'll try to remove the extra bitchiness from subsequent re-watch notes. However, getting back to topic? Every single child I encountered while out was behaving exactly like Lilith. Well, minus the striking people dead and blood everywhere and stuff.)

-Back at Lilith's shore leave. HEE! I SPY TWIZZLERS! The red things in a vase on the table in front of Grampa Fremont! Hee! now we know where Jensen got the infamous Twizzler! *nods*

-Wonder if they tried to keep the guys out of the candy on the table or just gave up and kept re-stocking it?

-Oh hey, there's pie by Grampa Fremont's elbow... \o/ Also wine gums, cupcakes, salt water taffy, something else in bowls, cinnamon buns, licorice all-sorts, sour gummy somethings, some kind of mints, cookies and... bran muffins?? Over by Dad Fremont. Hunh. Well, I guess demonic irregularity might be a serious concern for Lilith...? *scratches head and moves on*

-"It's my birthday every day!" Lilith doing the child's fantasy of candy, birthday every day, permissive parents, and anyone not fun going foom. And again, shore leave as stolen, enforced innocence. Yeow.

-That freaking pointy cake is seriously bugging me.

-Told ya that guy was a demon. Kind of. Poor, stupidly brave Grampa.

-"Did you two know about this?" Ooo. Self-preservation versus family loyalty. Totally not an aspect of the themes this show has had since day one. Not at all.

-And the answer for the Fremont family is... Sell out Grampa. Who would indeed be 'Dad' to one of them. Nice. Mom and Dad Fremont? You suck.

-Oh, the look on Grampa Fremont's face! Aw. *kicks his family*

-Once again, Lilith killing anyone that's a threat to her happy play world facade of innocence. And thereby irrevocably tainting it. Demons. Yeesh.

-OMG!!! *FLAILS* OMG YOU GUYS LOOK!! KROKI-REFUR JUST GOT A MASSIVE SHOUT-OUT!!! LOOK!! SEE!!! GRAMPA FREMONT FELL ON PIE!!!! He totally did! Look! Pie! Complete with squish noise! OMG! Refur! Dude! You win the entire freaking universe!!! *glee* \o/

-Hee. I have to take a moment to recover from the serious awesomeness of that. *smishes kroki-refur* Hee!

-"Nobody scream, okay? Screaming makes me mad." Eeeeeeek...

-VCR is doing an awesome job of pausing for detail. Real estate agent selling the house Bobby and the boys have set up their base of operations in is "Kathy Larsen" and her phone number is 555-0103

-I love that we don't see the demon face thing that Dean sees, because it's good for the budget. And a little bit extra creepy to have everyone looking normal. *nods*

-"We ninja past those guys..." I have so much glee for that line. Sammy the ginormous ninja.

-"This isn't just about saving you, Dean." Ooo! Also, Sam with the good point. I bet he's been hanging on to that perfectly rational, Bobby-acceptable and Dean operating-system-bypassing convincer of "saving everybody" for a moment just like this, when time is running low and Dean's getting stroppy about people risking their lives to save him. Which is totally still why Sam is doing this. Screw the world. Save Dean. *nods* *reigns in some season four theory threatening to break free*

-Heh. Story about an evil dragon that likes to eat little kids. Wonder if the TWoP people will take that as a Raoul shout-out? Though I bet Raoul would run away screaming rather than eat his worst fear.

-Not recognizing the story book, haven't got a great deal of exposure to children's literature, however... Hm. Isn't it St. George who is supposed to have saved a princess with a longish name starting with Cleo and killed a dragon in the town of Silene? I think so... There's gotta be some meta in that somewhere...

-The two actresses here are doing awesome. And the juxtaposition of Lilith with her stolen innocence, sleepily snuggling into Mom Fremont who is terrified out of her mind is exceptionally horrifying.

-Hee! I'm finding the very grumpy way the possessed mailman is sorting the mail quite amusing. It's like: "Stupid mail." *fwip* "I signed up on Lilith's side 'coz I was promised eviscerations and crap. But noooooo." *fwip* "Here I am, standing around sorting meat-sack mail, when I could be out on my own, tearing some schlub's colon out through his esophagus. This sucks!" *extra hard fwip* "And this letter needs more postage. Stupid meat-sacks." *fwip* *crackle* "Ooo, yay, chase time!"

-Hahaha. Dean looking like a startled deer in the headlights to draw the demon off. Hee.

-Stealthy backstabbing boys makes me more gleeful than it really should.

-Sprinkler system cistern latination! OMG! Yay Bobby! \o/ Bobby rocks!

-I'm a bit disturbed by how entertaining I'm finding the little noises being made as the barbs on the back of the knife catch on bones or whatever as Sam's pulling the knife out of the guy. And also Sam wiping the blood off the knife (not very effectively) on a jacket sleeve as Dean drags the fresh corpse around the corner. Eeep.

-Hi Ruby! It's totally not suspicious at all that you've showed up exactly here and now, given you supposedly have no allies whatsoever (because you're the 'poor widdle demon' who remembers her humanity) who would come find you and release you from Bobby's solid rock and concrete basement way the hell and gone out in the sticks where not even if there was a passer-by would they hear you hollering... and you come straight to Dean who is ninja-ing around and not carrying your knife, even. Seriously. Not the slightest eensy-est weensy-est bit suspicious. Nope. Not at all. *eyeroll* Pft.

-Dean's reaction to Ruby with demon-vision. Hee.

-And Sam stops taking Ruby's BS! Woo!

-(Also, note the breath-fog from Sam there? When this was filmed, it was cold enough to see breath. It was about 3C/37F on average at night, occasionally down past freezing. Again, very unusual for April in Vancouver. *pats the boys and offers cocoa*)

-Hm. Ruby shows up and suddenly all the possessed neighbors know exactly where the boys are. Coincidence? I don't think so. Cause and effect? Probably. But is it because Ruby tipped them off, or because Ruby is a strange demon walking into Lilith-controlled territory with no "Lilith-can't-smell-me" bag. Which could also be deliberate. Ruby is still trying to raise the stakes for Sam, and the only way to get Sam desperate enough to dance to her tune now, is to get Dean killed and dragged to Hell. Unless she's been working with Lilith all along. Or both. *nods*

-So... Why exactly are you two letting Ruby tag along now? *facepalm*

-Hey! It's that guy! One of the demon guys looks really familiar, he's, uh... the one who's head is reminding me of a bunch of cauliflower, all long and stalky in the face and kind of slightly lumpy on top. Kind of like a very bland Harry Dean Stanton, maybe. He's probably just someone who's been "Bad guy #3" in half a zillion Vancouver productions, but still, he's familiar. *waves*

-Running! Yay! Crowds of people chasing them! Though a lot of the demons in that one crowd shot look like they're in a 10K Fun Run instead of evil henchthings chasing down their master's arch-nemesis. Nemesises. Whatever.

-*snerk* There's one woman in the pack who has this huge grin on her face, coming around the corner of what I guess is the parked mail van. Longish dark hair, wearing a grey cardigan. Nice to see a demon enjoying her job. Hee.

-HA! On the Fremont's porch, there's one of those weird craft-kit "Welcome!" hanger-things on the wall next to the door with an angel on it. Lilith really likes her enforced innocence with extra irony, doesn't she. Also, set design rocks!

-Blurry blonde woman in the business suit's looking pretty happy too. This guard gig must have been boring the poor demons out of their minds if they're this happy for a chance to splatter someone.

-Speed lockpicking! Go Sam!

-Yay! Holy Water Sprinkler System FTW!! Still, a lawn full of screaming demons? Not exactly stealthy.

-I love Dean's laugh and clap there. Just so alive and... just... Oh Dean. *wibble*

-Dad Fremont was hiding in the wardrobe-thing there. Had to go back and figure out where he came from.

-Hee! I love how tall these guys are in comparison to 90% of the other actors. Dad Fremont is tiny.

-Was that 'in her bedroom' or 'in our bedroom'? Because if it's 'in our bedroom' Mom and Dad Fremont, you need to talk to someone about the pink problem you seem to be having. Although, I totally sympathize, but... seek professional help.

-"Not without my wife." Oh. So you'll sell your own father (or father-in-law) out to your demon-infested evil child, but won't run downstairs and be out of the way of the people trying to help you without your wife? You morally vacillating moron. *is disgusted*

-YES! Moron punching! Yay! Dean needs to punch more morons... only... *wibble*

-Where's Dean while Sam and Ruby are heading- Oh, right. taking the unconscious morally vacillating moron to the basement to salt his ass in safely. Imperiled people are so damned inconvenient.

-Ya know, if I was Sam here, I wouldn't let Ruby out of my sight- Whoops. There she goes. Sigh. Never mind. Sam, you're an overly trusting idiot. Just thought you ought to know that.

-Bed curtains? Seriously? How common are those? I've only ever seen them in "A Christmas Carol" And pink, with a flounce around the top? Again, if this is Mom and Dad's room? Guys? Seek help. Although it makes more sense that Lilith has had them bring in the ludicrous Pink Princess bed with the curtains to prop up her false innocence vacation. *nods* *pats Mom and Dad Fremont* I should have realized the pink was due to demonic influence. I'm sorry I doubted your interior design choices. You family-betraying, morally vacillating morons.

-Ooo! It's just sunk in they're letting Jared handle apparently sharp objects now! \o/ Wasn't he not allowed to for the longest time after the jackknife thing back in Phantom Traveller? Just noticed the ve-e-e-e-ery careful way he switched grips on the knife before opening the curtain and thinking it looked a little odd. I'm thinking it's probably not really a sharp knife, but still.

-Oh. Oh Sam's face, with the prospect of stabbing a sleeping child with Mom going 'Do it!' and no first hand proof that it's Lilith. Splashing holy water, doing the cristo thing? Didn't work on YED-in-John, likely not going to work on Lilith, it'd just wake her up. And so Sam has the moral quandary and starts killing me with his damn face again.

-Now, I figured right away Lilith wasn't in the kid any more, but thought she might be in the Mom and had this idea that maybe Lilith wants to tarnish Sam's soul by having him kill an innocent child before she leaps up and goes 'Aha! Now look what you did! Bwahah!' and ganks him. Or Ruby tipped off Lilith so Sam would end up killing an innocent child and gain a Dark Force point and be easier to shove down the path she wants him on later.

-Now there's a massive potential meta. Sam's innocence versus Lilith's mockery of innocence. *ponders and releases meta-bunny into the wild*

-And Dean saves Sam from his moral quandary. And also doesn't say Lilith is in the Mom, so she isn't. And... oh look who it is, lurking oh so inobtrusively in the background all blurry. Hi "Ruby"! *singsongy* I know where Lilith's hiiiiiiding! *is hit by 10 ton missing scene plot bunny* Ow, damn! Get in the corral you behemoth.

-How did Lilith get out of the kid with the Mom there though? Did Mom Fremont just write off the spume of black smoke her daughter exuded as some new weird creepy thing her daughter could do and was just glad it didn't kill her? Did Lilith go out of the kid, into the Mom, then out of the Mom and out the window, leaving the Mom disoriented and thinking she'd dozed off and had an exceptionally messed-up dream? Or did Lilith force Mom to doze off, then snuck out while Mom had passed out. Hm.

-Either way, that kid's gonna need soooooooooo much therapy. Actually the whole family will.

-(Now... this is when I noticed something strange and kind of ridiculous. About me. I noticed that the entire rewatch was taking way longer than usual, and I caught myself actually flipping around channels randomly, not seeing anything when the VCR pause timed out. I was having avoidance behavior. Not because I was bored, not because the episode wasn't 100% solid awesome, and not because I hadn't guessed beforehand what was coming, but... anyway. You know you're into a show when you find yourself developing identifiable psychological signs of subconscious anxiety as a result of the season finale. Heh. Silly isn't it?)

-Oh look! Bobby has a stop watch! Hm. Maybe the reservoir on the sprinkler system is limited? Or the sprinkler is on a timer? *is in total denial that Bobby is looking at a pocket watch and checking how close to midnight it is*

-Aw Dean. Sending Mom Fremont down to the basement with the kid and her unconscious morally vacillating moronic husband. She's at least being smart and not arguing.

-"Could she get past the sprinklers?" Um... up? As a cloud of black smoke, up is a totally viable option, Sam. Sigh. No one ever thinks of up. Really, Lilith could be billowing her way halfway to Wisconsin by now. Or she could have stopped and possessed... meep. Bobby? Naw. He makes those charm things. Probably helped the boys adapt the pattern for use as a tattoo. Wonder if Bobby has a tattoo, too... Why am I finding that thought so distracting? Anyway, we know there's no Lilith in Bobby, don't we 'Ruby'? *arches eyebrow*

-It's interesting that Katie Cassidy is doing absolutely nothing to even slightly hint that 'Ruby' is anything but Ruby. I'm finding it vaguely annoying, because you'd figure there'd be something a tiny change in diction, a different way of carrying herself, but... I'm going to put it down to Lilith being exceptionally sneaky, and Ruby being exceptionally easy to emulate. *handwaves* Because she's totally Lilith. It's the only thing that makes sense. Unless Lilith really did flume out Wisconsin-ward. *considers* Nah.

-"Her pay grade, she ain't sweating the holy water." Like YED. Good to know.

-"What do you need me to do?" Oh Sam. Even the most insane plan is too late for Dean now. There's a nice big clock on that wall over there. Two minutes isn't enough time to cram in nearly enough reckless world-endangering stupidity to save Dean.

-Sam really would let the world burn to save Dean, wouldn't he? But Dean won't let him. But soon... Dean won't be there to stop him anymore. It's kind of weird that Dean's the rational one at this point. But that's how it is. Oh boys.

-"You can't just flip a switch!" Actually, 'Ruby', according to Ava and Jake? That's exactly how the psychic kid thing works. Although following their example might not be such a hot idea for Sam.

-Clock behind 'Ruby' too. Just in case we missed the giant one on the other wall.

-The whole 'stroke of midnight' thing is vaguely amusing to me because seriously, all timezone issues aside, I have never been to a New Years party where everyone's clock was set to the same time, or where every station's countdown matched up. I figure the Hellhound just kind of leisurely saunters out of Hell after its quarry whenever it feels the time is sufficiently midnight-ish. No strict time-card punching for Hellhounds. Hell uses flex-time. *nods*

-Eeee! Shouty boys!

-"I'm not gonna let you go to Hell!" "Yes you are! ...Yes you are." Oh. Oh boys. *meep* *wibble*

-Oh. The speech. Oh, oh, oh boys. Oh Dean. Oh Sam. Oh god. That speech, delivered by any two other actors would have been made of absolute pure cheese. But it's not. Because it's them. Because... Oh boys. *clings*

-"BONG" I hate that clock! Frigging clock! Damn the passage of time and all things associated with it! I want someone to shoot that clock!

-(This would be the point in my first watch notes where the majority of the profanity started. I'll be editing that out, mostly.)

-Oh, Dean's face, just watching the clock. Oh Dean.

-SAAAAAAAAAM with the teary-eyes! OMG.

-(Hoo. This is seriously hard, y'all. Even though I am certain that there's going to be a way back from what's coming, sometime in Season 4... this is hard.)

-*rehydrates*

-OMG! HUG! HUG YOU MORONS!!! WHILE THE CLOCK'S STILL BONGING! WHO CARES IF THERE'S A DEMON WHO WANTS TO KILL YOU WATCHING AND AN IMMINENT HELLHOUND ARRIVAL! HUG YOUR BROTHER, DAMMIT, BOTH OF YOU! HUUUUUUUUUUUUG!

-Crap. There better be a hug when this gets fixed, dammit Kripke!

-"I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy." OH SHUT UP, RUBY, LILITH, WHICHEVER YOU ARE! *fumes*

-Dogs. Hoo. And Dean with that brittle half-smirk/half-grimace, and the eyes, and, and... OMG Dean is killing me with his face! Again!

-Invisible Hellhound over by dead Grampa Fremont still in chair, fallen on pie. Nice corpse continuity. *nods*

-I'm glad there's no attempt at a CGI Hellhound because for one, it's a massive budget saving, two, it's creepier when you can't see where the monsters are, three, CGI tends to look cheeseball when it's trying too hard to be awesome, and fourth, I already have some significant issues regarding large dogs, thank you, I don't need large unrelenting vicious dogs from Hell to have any more detail than they already do. Though if they actually looked like daschunds or chihuahuas I could probably cope. Maybe.

-What's with the OMG face from 'Ruby'? If it's Ruby, why is she so shocked to see a Hellhound, and if it's Lilith, that's her minion. No one is watching her have this facial expression except maybe the Hound itself, making that expression translate to... what? "OMG! Fluffykins! What have you been rolling in?! You had better rinse yourself off in the Styx before going home, because if I find that all over my nice human-leather couch, I'll give your nose such a whapping with the Newsletter!" Hm. It bears pondering. *ponders*

-Oh yay, they are running. OMG. I thought for a second Dean was just gonna step forward and let the Hound take him. Hoo. YAY FOR RUNNING!

-Goofer dust! \o/ OMG Yay! Maybe there's a plan! Though the plan to barricade yourself in a room with flimsy french-ish doors might be a little dubious. Those things could have been shattered glass and matchsticks before you had time to lay down the goofer dust. Unless of course the hound is holding back because it doesn't want to anger its mistress who is holding the door closed....

-'Ruby' is still showing no sign whatsoever of being anything other than Ruby, including knowing what's going on with the doors and goofer dust. Although if Lilith owns all the Deal souls, then the Hellhound outside is hers, and she should know what effective weapons, barriers, etc, people have used against her doggy minions, so maybe the goofer dust is no surprise. *ponders* And she's letting the boys block them all into one room so she can play... ooo. Still. Some sign that it's not Ruby would be nice, because the idea of it not being Lilith after all is making me nervous.

-Dean! Did you get the air vents??? Yep, he ducks off and down to the side. *nods*

-Heh. Dean's "OMG that's not Ruby!" face in the background before he says anything makes up for all the lack of signage from 'Ruby' that she's totally Lilith. You, girly-girl? Are totally bus-ted. *snaps* Hee.

-"Gimme the knife, maybe I can fight it off." Suuuuure, Lilith. And it'll go nicely with the Colt. Sam's desperate, but he's not a complete moron. Maybe... Sam...?

-"Wait!" Hee. Bingo. *is smug*

-Whoa! That's a sturdy table. There was some significant airspace between Dean and the table when he hit.

-I know a lot of fandom will be saying things about Dean sprawling on the table, but all I can see is the salt and pepper grinders bouncing like bowling pins. Hee! It's bowling with Dean! *giggle*

-Just noting that the hell hound has completely shut up. 'Coz momma's talking. *shudders*

-MAN is the 'little girl' stuff here freaking creepy! Except it's also a little like she's trying to act like an air-headed bimbo, which is confusing me. *scratches head* *is slightly squicked anyway*

-"I sent her far, far away." ...Tatooine? O_o

-"Crunch-POP!" My neck does that too and I'm not even possessed... Or maybe instead of seeing a chiropractor, I should see a priest? *ponders*

-The kiss. Yep. And eeeevery single fan with a meta, thought, or opinion on the Lilith/Samael thing goes 'splody. That said, I'm even more skeeved out that she picked little girls to inhabit first. Hope she stays out of kids from now on, because that was disturbing.

-Oh Dean, with the hero-schtick of trying to get the big bad to spill her plans, distract her from Sammy, maybe buy some time for... something.

-"I don't have to answer to puppy-chow." Heh.

-"Sic 'em boy." Oh god. The little girl voice thing was extra creepy there too.

-(Hoo. *gets up, walks around room, refills drink* It's silly that this is so hard.)

-*briefly finds distraction in the fact that for Sam to be at Ruby's Lilith's height up against the wall, he's pretty much squatting and leaning on the desk-table-whatever-thing*

-And then. Oh. My. God. Dean, with the slashing, bleeding and screaming and I don't particularly care that the bleeding is unrealistically spurty sometimes, it's Dean being killed and Sam, stuck there like the bastards were foreshadowing in "Ghostfacers" and "Long-Distance Call" Sam stuck to the wall and watching someone be killed, only this time it's Dean and it's not a quick stab through the neck and it's not a quick stab in the chest it's Sam stuck helpless/unable to help while Dean is ripped to shreds in front of him. And Sam's horrified face, and Dean's expressive face going still and fixed, and, and, and. It. HURTS. Show. STOP IT!

-And then Lilith whips out her nukey-hand and nukes Sam. And for an entire commercial break I go insane.

-Because, seriously, I had a burst of hope (attended by manual capslocking in pen and much incoherent flailing) when Lilith did the nukey-power thing that "Hey! It's a vision! OMG It's totally a vision, because there's no way that just happened because that nukey-thing blows up entire buildings! Right? So it's a vision, Sam knows it's coming now, it's all gonna be fine! Sam's gonna stab Lilith with the magic knife and save Dean and then they'll go have ice cream and stuff. Right? Right?!"

-But no. Because it's Kripke, and this is a season finale and I knew there wasn't the slightest chance it was a vision. Dammit, this show is going to kill me stone dead.

-Holy crap. Sam survived. Sam survived Lilith's nukey-hand thing... and his clothes aren't even damaged and the whole room is fine! Nothing's singed or blown up like a gas explosion or anything. OMG. Wow. Yay Sammy! \o/

-That was probably due to the budget, ya know. Costs a lot to destroy a room, even temporarily. So, no room destruction = Good for the budget and makes Sam look even more awesome! DOUBLE WIN!! \o/\o/

-"Back!" Yeah, I don't think so either.

-Now Lilith's scared... aaaand she runs away. CHICKEN!!!!! CHICKEN LILITH!!! CHIIIIICKEEEEEEN! HA! That's right! You've more than just pissed off a Winchester, you've killed his brother! You better run! Bwahahahahahahha!

-So, Ruby... there? Not there? Either way the body has a big hole from Bobby testing the Colt on it, so I kind of doubt it'll start season 4 by sitting bolt upright. Or if it does, Sam'll probably reflexively stick it with the knife and render the 'Is Ruby still kicking around' question entirely moot.

-And then we see Dean again. Oh damn. At this point I'd like to share a scan from the notebook. It's mostly incomprehensible and entirely profane, but captures the essence of my instant reaction at this particular juncture. *nods soberly*

-Now, y'all may not have noticed since I have so few icons of the character and all *is being sarcastic* that I'm a little Dean-centric. And while Mystery Spot didn't get me, this really, truly did. Even though I know there's going to be a way back from this, and half of fandom can probably write a close approximation of the season 4 premiere right this second and fix everything in one episode? This got me.

-And Sam with his giant village-drowning tears got me too. Oh Sammy.

-Oh wow, does Dean ever look dead. Like really very dead. With the fixed open-eyed stare and... Ow. *clings to... something*

-AND THANK YOU SO VERY FRIGGING MUCH, INCIDENTAL MUSIC for making me, on the rewatch, turn into the literal waterworks I have, despite all bleatings to the contrary, managed to avoid being until this point. Because that slow music playing in the background as Sam's sobbing over Dean's corpse? Is a variation on DEAN'S GODDAMN FAMILY DEDICATION THEME, so recently brought back to the front of memory earlier in this very episode, only it's being played as a frigging dirge and now all the fluid in my body is shooting out my eyes and suddenly I'm the one drowning small villages with my frigging tear ducts. Thank you so much, Christopher Lennertz Jay Gruska, you cruel sadistic bastard. *sniffles messily*

-That was truly awesome though. Damn. *rehydrates*

-*notices Dean's oh so very dead face is still paused on the screen, switches to rehydrating with something that has a proof rating* Hoo.

-And in through the eye we go. Also cool. *breathes*

-Okay. I do like their depiction of Dean's Hell. Chains running down and through the desaturated storm-couldy thing, with the flashes of whatever going off. It reminds me of the CGI depictions of neurons and brain activity you see once in a while. And there's Dean, at a junction of chains we've been following, hanging there all ganglionesque (totally a word). Only with giant hooks... Eeeek.

-Dean screaming, utterly, completely alone, helpless, and held immobile. For a man who spent his life in constant motion, the forced immobility is a very personal touch in Dean's Hell. And no family anywhere. Utterly alone. And screaming for help, and for Sam. Oh Dean....

-...Oh wow. Oh WOW. Dean's still wearing the necklace! In Hell! OMG!!!! So, so... either that Sam gave it to him and he never takes it off has become so much a part of him that he has the necklace mapped onto the physical appearance memory of his soul or some kind of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo like that *handwaves*, or... that necklace has some serious crap going on after all! Even if it didn't at the start, it does now, because it's with Dean in Hell and it's a link to Sam or something because to Dean it's a link to Sam and- Eeee! Dude! *flails*

-Wow. That last scream of "Saaaaam!" from Dean, breaking at the end. OMG. OW.

So, sit-rep at the end of Season 3: We have Bobby in an empty house across the street from a house surrounded by the possessed where apparently a nuke has just gone off in the... dining room or whatever and then demon smoke took off like, well, like a bat out of Hell and the house is still standing and contains three live Fremonts in the basement, a Fremont fallen on pie, a babysitter corpse, a Ruby's-meat-sack (poor girl) corpse, and Sam huddled over and around Dean's corpse, and Dean is all alone in Hell.

*has absolute faith that Kripke has a way out of this*

*reiterates suspicion that Dean will not be happy with how Sam gets him out of this and also suspicion that it will involve a great deal of shouting*

*randomly hopes that the season 4 premiere montage will be done to "Raise a Little Hell" by Trooper, because they're the right era-ish and they must be affordable if the CBC can afford them once in a while*

*clings to you all again some more, just 'coz*

Season 4 is going to Kick serious ass, y'all!