Winchester Family Business - the Supernatural guide to demon hunting (and fishing)
Contains spoilers through Supernatural Episode 5.02 “Good God, Y’All.”

This episode opens with the sobering sight of Bobby in a wheelchair, the obvious first casualty in the apocalyptic war. Everyone else in his hospital room is carrying scars too. Castiel was reborn, but he’s lost some of his mojo and cannot heal Bobby. He can’t even find the Winchesters without using a cell phone. When Dean laughs at his plan to draft God onto the team, Castiel airs his grievences – he had to kill two of his angel brothers, he’s cut off from Heaven. He lost everything for nothing since Dean failed to stop Sam and they didn’t save the world. Castiel figures God resurrected him and put the guys on the Soul Plane, so God can actually make a dent with Lucifer. Castiel borrows Dean’s amulet to use as a God EMF and disappears to locate God.

Dean’s still carrying his distrust of Sam when they start the job to help other hunters save a town overrun by demons. After killing two people he thinks are demons, Sam’s thirst for demonblood and power gets reawakened. Sam admits to Dean that he’s dangerous. Dean agrees that worrying about Sam is effecting how he can do his job right. They part ways, presumably to lick their wounds.

#1 Saving People - Hunting Things
Another demon hunt, but with a big twist – no demons, just WAR. WAR played havoc using confusion and isolation by disabling the bridge and knocking out the phones. Add the hallucination juice from Roger’s Ring, and then human fear does the rest to scramble the brains so everyone looks like a demon. The demons just manipulate situations and then the humans start making their own choices (similar to episodes like “Croatoan” and “Sin City”).

The confusion about who was a demon was rationalized once Ellen and Dean paused to think about how ‘DemonJo’ was acting. Sam came to the same conclusions as he realized ‘DemonJo’ and ‘DemonRufus’ were trying to exorcise him.

Roger’s visit to Sam seemed odd in hindsight, but perhaps excessive pride is a common trait amongst all evil creatures. Dean said ‘the hits keep on coming” and this poor town just took a lot. Maybe 10 people survived? Nobody even pauses to lament the civilians killed by the demon hunters. Speaking of demon hunters, Ellen showed some chops and worked well with Dean. Rufus and Jo were kind of wasted as action heroes and faux demons though.

This story had the right mix of a demon hunt along with advancing the Apocalypse mytharc. Kripke and Co. have tweaked the recipe to just about the perfect blend. (Made even sweeter with the return of more classic rock music!)

#2 The Road So Far
Another Apocalypse player arrives – the first of the Four Horsemen. WAR (in the body of Roger) operates a lot like the demons in “Sin City” did. He creates some problems then makes suggestions and leaves the rest to human weakness. Roger has a Ring to cause hallucinations. WAR says that he’s looking to join up with his three brothers, so hinting they will all be mixing it up soon. Roger also has some awful truth for Sam. Roger sees Sam’s thirst for power, to be the strongest, packaged up in good intentions, is still pounding in Sam’s brain. Sam and Dean cut off Roger’s Ring, but WAR can’t be killed and he got away along with his Red Mustang. Did taking the Precious off Roger make a dent in WAR’s powers? Will he come back for it with two hobbits?

Castiel is convinced he was resurrected by God and that God put Sam and Dean on the Soul Plane. He looked in Heaven and God wasn’t home, so He must be around on earth someplace. The reasoning by this angel is fascinating, and has nothing to do with what anyone believes about God or religion.

Castiel claims Dean’s amulet can help him. Now Dean’s amulet has a new story purpose – to glow blue in the presence of God (maybe Orks too). But the importance of Dean’s amulet isn’t so much as God’s EMF. The amulet represents Dean’s idea of himself. It’s a symbol of Sam’s love and belief Dean. Sam gave it to Dean because Sam decided he was most deserving of it and not John. The amulet also represents Dean’s mission as “Sam’s protector”. Ever since Hell, Dean’s been redefining himself for himself. Dean is reluctant to let go of the amulet, but he does. Dean’s purpose now is to lead the human resistance and saving Sammy has to come second.

The Ties That Bind
Poor Sammy, he’s killed 2 more civilians. The brotherly issues about trust and whether Sam is going to fall off the wagon are impacting the demon hunting job in a very bad way. The conclusion to take a timeout was awesomely sad, and extremely important for both Sam and Dean. Sam is being honest throughout the action and taking responsibility for his messed up feelings and motives. Dean is stepping into the leadership of the human resistance and thinking about the Big Picture again. Dean stopped himself from rushing off to save Sam and instead thought things through and came up with a plan. He also recognized that Sam is a liability to his performance, another sign of a leader emerging. By going on their own paths for a while, they may both come out stronger in the end. Dean offering the car to Sam indicates he has hope and expects to reunite with Sam again.

#3 Arsenal in the Trunk
Great use of locations. A few overturned cars really can make a town looked overrun. The gorgeous shot of the Impala driving up to the disabled bridge was wonderful setup for events to come. And the episode closed with a beautiful location for the Picnic Table Breakup Talk.

Giving WAR a Red Mustang instead of an actual horse was a nice reinterpretation.

The shakey camera effectively created confusion, but after a while just queasiness – too much of a good thing.

Great performances by the usual suspects – Sam (Jared Padalecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles), Bobby (Jim Beaver), and Castiel (Misha Collins). Ellen (Samantha Ferris) and Roger (Titus Welliver) were also excellent. Nice to see Jo and Rufus, but give they didn’t have enough to do or say.

The Good Words
“Get healing, now!”

“When you find God, tell Him to send legs!”

“God isn’t in Heaven, he has to be somewhere.”

“No, he’s not on any flatbread.”

“Where’d you serve? Hell. Seriously? Seriously - Hell.”

“She called me a bitch. Bruise a little easy don’t ya think?”

“How far I’ll go – there’s something in me and it scares the hell out of me.”

“So, pit stop on Mount Doom?”

“Do you want to take the Impala?”