1.12 "Faith"
Trying to save some kids from a random monster, Dean gets electrocuted when he has only one chance: to use the taser even though it's in a puddle of water. He kills the thing but gets shocked himself, and when Sam gets the news at the hospital it is not good: the electric shock triggered a massive heart attack and Dean has perhaps weeks to live. Determined not to let that happen, Sam brings him to a faith healer who, though Dean is sceptical, seems to heal him and then while getting checked out at the hospital by a disbelieving doctor, Dean is troubled to hear that the same day he was healed another young man dropped dead of a heart attack. He confides to Sam that onstage at the faith healer, Roy LeGrange, he saw what looked like a very old and pale man, and he thinks it was a spirit, maybe Death himself, who passed him over. But why? And what link is there between his "miraculous" recovery and this other young man's unexpected death?
Unconvinced that his recovery is in fact a miracle, and worried that there might be some outside agency at work, maybe through Roy, Dean meets with him and his wife, Sue-Anne, and is told that some years ago Roy was diagnosed with cancer. He woke up blind, was expected to die, but he prayed and he was healed. Ever since then, he's been able to perform miracles: healing the crippled, bringing sight to the sightless, making lame men walk, the whole thing. Sam meanwhile has gone to check out the swimming pool where the guy who did die used to work, and he's told the guy was a fitness fanatic, very healthy, and his mate is surprised that he took a heart attack. He tells Sam that apparently at the time of his death the guy was running, from something that he said was after him. Sam notices the clock is stopped at 4:17, which un-coincidentally is the time of death. Since it stopped it hasn't worked again. 4:17 is also the exact time Dean was healed.
On the way out of Roy's house, Dean meets Layla, who has an inoperable brain tumour and is trying to see the healer, but has been rebuffed at every turn. "Roy wants to help you", Sue-Anne tells her and her frustrated mother, "and he will, just as soon as the Lord allows him." Angry that Dean has been cured when firstly he's a stranger (and they've attended every single service, this being their sixth time to try to get Layla seen) and secondly he's not a believer, the mother demands to know what gives Dean the right to be cured in Layla's place? Dean is sad but can say nothing and leaves. Back with Sam he gets the bad news: a death occurred at exactly the same time as he was cured, and with the same symptoms. Sam, checking further, has discovered a history of deaths linked to "miracles" Roy has performed. All take place at the same time, and mirror each other. So the guys now know that some agency is working through Roy, taking lives for those spared. Dean feels sick. He knows what they're dealing with: a Reaper.
Sam is sceptical: the Grim Reaper, he asks, but Dean says no, not THE Reaper, just A Reaper. He explains that every culture has its reaper legend, and that you can only see them when they're coming for you, which is why he could see the figure onstage when he was healed and Sam could not: the Reaper originally was coming for him. Reapers can also stop time, and Dean reasons that somehow Roy is working with one in order to perform his miracles. Dean remembers seeing an odd cross on the stage and checking now they see it's linked to the tarot. Roy must be using its magic to bind the reaper and make it do his will. Dean is for killing Roy, calling him a monster, but Sam refuses to slay a human, no matter how evil they may be. They decide the best thing is to find a way to break the spell and release the reaper.
Sam breaks into Roy's house while he's at service, and finds a small book with a picture of a reaper on the cover. He also finds newspaper cuttings about those who have died to give others life, and a darker subtext begins to reveal itself. There are gays, abortions rights advocates, people who surely Roy would consider impure and perhaps enemies. The latest is one about Wright, a man who does not believe Roy has been sent from God, and has been handing out protest pamphlets at every service. They just passed him on the way in. Sam calls Dean and tells him that he is going after the guy, to try to save him, but until he has Dean has to make sure nobody else gets healed.
Ironically, it's Layla's name that's called, and though Dean tries to explain to her that she can't go up, that someone will die in her place, she doesn't understand and is overjoyed at finally having her chance. Sam goes after Wright, but though the man is running from the reaper Sam can't see him, and has to rely on Wright to tell him where the creature is. Dean manages to interrupt the service by shouting "Fire!" and everyone evacuates, but the reaper still keeps coming. Confused, Dean realises that Roy is not the one controlling the thing, then sees Sue Anne reciting in the corner. SHE is the one in control! He tries to confront her but she screams and cops drag Dean away, throwing him out of the tent. But at least the reaper has been confused enough by the half-recited spell that it has stopped pursuing Wright.
Roy then tells Layla and her mother that he will heal Layla in a private ceremony tonight at his home. Dean and Sam discuss the fact that they believe Roy may not know that his wife is controlling the reaper. They reason that originally she may have bound the creature to save Roy from death, but now she's using it to pursue her own twisted moral agenda, having it kill people she sees as immoral, or who threaten her and her husband. The boys read that to bind a reaper a black altar has to be built, with human bones, blood and so on. They also think the large cross in the tent, which is mirrored in miniature around Sue Anne's neck, could be a key. They resolve to destroy both before Layla can be healed and another innocent dies in her place.
Sam finds the altar but Sue Anne gets the drop on him and locks him in the house, telling him that just as she was able to give life to Dean, she can as easily take it away, the inferrence being that Dean is now going to die in place of Layla. Not really sure how that works, as they are/were suffering from different complaints, but anyway... Dean is walking along towards the tent when the reaper comes after him. Sam has managed to break out and attacks Sue Anne in her recital, smashing a glass bottle of blood. Horrified, Sue Anne watches as the spell is broken and the reaper comes for her, taking her life. I particularly like the quote here, when she gasps "My God! What have you done?" and Sam snarls "He isn't your god!" Nice one, Sam!
Although everything has turned out for the best, it hasn't really. Layla still hasn't been healed, and Roy can no longer work his "miracles". Dean agonises over whether or not they did the right thing in stopping the reaper before Layla could have been cured, but there's no easy answer really.
MUSIC
(Anyone wanna guess?)
Blue Oyster Cult: "Don't fear the Reaper"
QUESTIONS?
Not really any as such.
PCRs
Again, none really. One of the victims of the reaper is jogging along and the music on her ipod is BOC, but it's a bit over-obvious, and the whole "Don't fear the Reaper" thing is totally overdone in terms of music. But then, what else could have been used?
The "WTF??!" moment
Probably right near the start, where we learn Dean has less than a month to live.
BROTHERS
This is a pretty dark time for Sam. He faces losing his brother, and no doubt blames himself for leaving him alone in the house with the monster, even though he was at the time getting the kids to safety. When it looks like Dean will die, Sam turns to the knowledge they have amassed over the months and tries to find something in ancient lore that can cure Dean, resulting in his taking him to see Roy. Dean is more philosophical about his impending death, although he could just be putting on a brave face for his brother. He reminds Sam that what they do is dangerous, and the chances of one or both of them dying in the course of their work are quite high. He seems oddly prepared to meet death.
Dean later has to face the fact that someone's life was taken to allow him to live. He was not complicit in the decision, of course, knew nothing about it, but even so he feels guilty. Then he has to deal with the extra guilt of preventing Layla from being cured, after she had waited so long. There's no doubting that this episode will have changed him from the happy-go-lucky, smartass wisecracker he was into a more sombre individual, much more aware of his mortality. You can't face Death and not come away a changed person.
1.13 "Route 666"
Allright, alright, so the titles are getting a little cliched. But as I said, season one is a little slow and plodding compared to what comes soon after. Keep the faith, people! This episode introduces us to, of all things, one of Dean's ex-girlfriends. Dean, as we know, is not known for staying with the same girl two nights in a row, yet it seems there is history with this one, because not only does Cassie call the guys in to help her solve a mystery surrounding the death of her father and his business partner, she knows what the brothers do. Dean told her, and when Sam finds out he is incensed: he reminds Dean that he had to lie over and over to Jessica about what the boys got up to, and here Dean is spilling the family secret to some girl he met a few years ago! Dean, however, seems more than taken with the girl and his reunion with her seems to bring up painful memories. For once --- and probably following on from his experience with death --- he's not wisecracking or making fun.
Cassie tells the boys that her father's car looks to have been run off the road, but there is only one set of tracks at the accident. Her father had previously worried about a big black truck that seemed to be following him, but had dismissed the idea. Now, with his business partner in the car dealership they ran together also dead by traffic accident, it's beginning to look a little more than just coincidence. As Cassie already knows (whether she believes or not is another story) about the brothers, they don't have to hide anything from her and can discuss the possibilites in the open, possibilities and theories they would normally have to talk about among themselves, out of earshot of the person involved.
When yet another death occurs, Dean and Sam talk to friends of the deceased, one of whom mentions that there was a story about a bunch of black guys disappearing in a big black truck, back in the sixties, though nothing was ever found. Both Cassie's father and his partner were black, as is the latest victim of these "accidents", and maybe things are beginning to slowly add up. Could someone have a racist agenda or grudge? But why only one set of tyre tracks at each accident scene?
Dean wonders about the possible connections between the victims --- he seems to think that it's more than that they're all black; he thinks they're all connected to Cassie's family, and so far they have been --- and goes to talk to Cassie, and it comes out that Cassie dumped him after he told her what he does for a living, as she thought he was just looking for an excuse not to commit, and she didn't believe him. Dean notes that it didn't seem so crazy once she needed help. One thing leads to another and they end up in bed. Meanwhile, the mayor of the town is run over by the big black truck, and when they hear about it Dean and Sam are mystified. The mayor wasn't black, and the attack didn't take place on the road, like the other three, but on the mayor's property, a building site. Plus, to their knowledge, the mayor has no direct connection to Cassie's family.
Research turns up some facts: the site the mayor was planning to build on used to be the family home of one of the most powerful families in the town, the Dorians, who also ran the paper Cassie works for. The mayor had the home bulldozed to make way for whatever he was planning to build, and on the next day the first killing occurred. Seems that Cyrus Dorian disappeared around the time all those black men went missing, too. Later that night a black truck revs up outside Cassie's house and she calls Dean in a panic. When they get to the house they quiz the mother, who helps reveal the story behind the mystery.
Seems she was dating Cyrus Dorian but seeing the man who became her husband, Martin, on the side. When Dorian found out about it he went mad, and ended up torching the church they were supposed to be married in. A bunch of children practicing for a choir were burned alive. The two men had a face-off where Dorian beat Martin up but he got free and started pounding on Cyrus, eventually killing him. Martin called his two friends (the other two who have now died in the "road accidents") and they helped him dispose of the body. Of course, Cyrus drove a big black truck.
Turns out the mayor knew what Martin and his friends had done, but kept quiet about it as he also knew, or suspected, about Dorian. The brothers decide they need to dredge the swamp and get the truck up so they can burn the body of Cyrus Dorian. However, as soon as they've done so, the ghost truck appears, so it seems they have been less than successful, and must think of a new plan. Dean leads the ghost truck away while telling Sam to burn the wreck. Sam wonders how in the hell he's supposed to do that?
But he has an idea. He talks to Cassie on the phone and gets the exact location of the church Dorian burned down forty years ago. When the truck rushes at Dean it hits the hallowed ground and vapourises.
MUSIC
Joe Walsh and The James Gang: "Walk away"
Blind Faith: "Can't find my way home"
Bad Company: "She brings me love"
QUESTIONS?
None.
The "WTF??!" moment
Not really one in this episode.
PCRs
Again, no.
BROTHERS
We continue to see beneath Dean's tough guy facade, as he comes face-to-face with a woman, perhaps the only woman other than his mother who seems to have truly meant something to him. Sam is amazed that such a woman even exists in Dean's life, but it transpires that they were very close --- marriage is not mentioned, but the relationship looks to have been pretty strong --- to the effect that Dean let down his guard and wanting to be totally honest with Cassie told her about his life hunting demons. Sadly, this seems to have had the opposite effect, and she took it as a sign he was looking for a way out of the relationship.
Sam can now see his brother in a new light. He's not now the one-night-stand, never-settle-down type, and while he'll never be as rooted as Sam is, he has at least now got one woman in his history who matters. There will of course be ribbing about this for some time, but Sam is glad Dean has, or had, someone: just a pity it didn't work out. As the episode closes though, Dean is already putting the events of the past few days behind him, or trying to, as he ignores and rebuffs his brother's gentle poking of fun at him. His ego has to be bruised, as he was the one who was dumped, and surely that has never happened before to him? But more than that, he realises that for the first time ever he let someone in, opened the door and they kicked it shut. It could very well be why he is the way he is now: fool me once...