Supernatural – Recap & Review – 99 Problems

photo: cw

Supernatural
99 Problems

Original Air Date: Apr 8, 2010

Nicola – Associate Staff Writer
nicola@thetwocentscorp.com

Once again, it’s time for the boys to get the hell out of Dodge. They’re being pursued by demons in the Impala when the hit a roadblock. It looks bad until some allies turn up the holy water fire hose to full blast, then it’s all cake. Sam and Dean get out of the car to meet their saviors, a militia made up of hunters. They’ve turned their town into a base to fight against the demons flocking over the area, and Dean and Sam go to find out what’s what.

They head to the church and meet the local preacher, David. His daughter Leah knows all about the Winchesters. She’s a prophet, and the angels are the ones telling her how to prepare for demon attacks and when to expect them. Sam’s immediately a bit weirded out by this so he tries to get in contact with Castiel, who doesn’t answer his phone.

Leah gets a vision about another attack and Dean and Sam head to the outskirts of town to fight with the townspeople. It’s a pretty successful battle, but at the end one of the younger fighters Dylan gets killed under Dean and Sam’s noses, and they get the blame for it (sort of rightly so – wouldn’t their father have taught them to check under the car?!). During Dylan’s funeral, Leah has another vision, saying that Dylan will be back, that the day of judgment is upon them and they are all the chosen ones. They’ll be fine as long as they stop drinking, stop having premarital sex, and stick to curfew. Basically stop doing everything you’d want to do in the face of the apocalypse.

Dean talks to Leah one-on-one to see if he can figure out if she’s telling the truth, while Sam goes to the local bar to hang out with the bartender Paul, who’s not quite the holy roller type. He wants to fight for the good guys but he’s not quite sure he buys into all the angels and God stuff, so he’s not going to follow the rules right to the letter. After a few drinks he goes back to the hotel where he finds Dean being a good boy. He tells Dean that the town’s completely cut itself off from the outside world. Dean’s not too bothered by this, but Sam’s concerned about the situation going downhill real fast, Waco-style. Dean heads out, because that’s what Dean does when the conversation’s going somewhere he doesn’t like.

Back at church, Leah has another vision. None of them will get to paradise because some of them aren’t following the rules. It’s time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Cas shows up at the hotel room, a little intoxicated, and informs Sam that Leah’s not a real prophet. Dean comes back after witnessing Paul’s murder at the hands of Jane, Dylan’s mom, who says he’s one of the ones dragging them all down. Cas says that Leah’s actually the Whore of Babylon, a false prophet whose main goal is to damn as many souls as possible. She’s doing a good job, considering she’s already turned Jane into a murderer. She can be killed with a stake of cypress wielded by a true servant of heaven. Unfortunately, right now none of them really fit the bill. So Cas goes to get the preacher David to kill his own daughter.

They head to the church where Leah is rounding up all the dissident town people to burn. David goes to stake her but hesitates, which leads to a bit of a kerfuffle. Dean gets the stake and Leah, but she tells him he can’t kill her because he’s not a servant of heaven. Guess there’s still a bit of fight left in him though, because he stakes her and she burns. Go Dean!

Sam, Dean, Cas, and David head back to the hotel room to tend to their wounds. Sam’s concerned Dean’s going to go all Michael on him. But Dean says no, he’s just going to get something out of the car. And then he takes off.

And then comes a scene out of left field, with Dean going to visit Lisa (you know, from episode 3.2, “The Kids Are Alright”?) and telling her that he always imagined that he would be happiest with her and her son Ben, and that no matter what happened to Dean they would be provided for. Yeah, I don’t know either. So we’ll just ignore that part.

Actually, no we won’t. As much as I like the writers attempting to give Dean a modicum of hope, a future to look towards, why bring this random girl out of the middle of nowhere? Maybe he felt more for her than most of the others. But to me she’s still always just seemed like Carmen, the girl from the beer ad in episode 2.20, “What Is and What Should Never Be” – a placeholder for some long distant potential. But thus far in the show I have not been invested in the happily ever after, and even if I were I would be grateful enough to see my boys alive and whole and able to be normal brothers together. Yes, wives and kids and white picket fences factored in there somehow, but this is Supernatural, not Grey’s Anatomy. The domesticity was never a focal point, and certainly nothing that could be so specific as to be pinpointed to one woman.

Although this episode equaled a ton of heartbreak for the boys, especially Dean, it restored a bit of hope too. Dean hasn’t completely lost his way. He’s still a servant of heaven. Vessel of Michael or not, Dean is still fighting.

Ok guys, let’s brainstorm: how are we going to get Dean and Sam out of being vessels and still save the world? Discuss.