Bloodlust
Original Air Date 10/12/2006

Sam and Dean meet another hunter named Gordon, but Ellen warns the brothers that his zeal is dangerous. Later, Sam makes a surprising discovery about a group of vampires.

Notes

Writer

Sera Gamble

Director

Robert Singer

Guest Stars:

Amber Benson (Lenore)
Sterling K. Brown (Gordon)
Ty Olsson (Eli)
Samantha Ferris (Ellen)

Filming Locations:

Pitt Meadows

Completely useless trivia:

Gordon's licence plate reads TRI 208

Jeff Manners works at the
Candler County Hospital, and his ID tag is #3476-B

The real Candler County is in Georgia, not in Montana.

Review

Welcome to Red Lodge, Montana, home of Lenore, the friendly vampire. After the then/now clips bring us up to date on the triumphs and perils of our heroes lives, set to Wheel in the Sky by Journey, our episode opens with a beautiful girl running through the forest. Our hearts go out to this young maiden who is being chased by a sinister trench-coated figure. Terrified, she evades him by hiding behind a tree, but just as she thinks she's safe he appears with a curved blade knife and takes off her head. Get your seat belts on, it's going to be one heck of an episode! And speaking of seat belts, I betcha Dean isn't wearing one as he purrs down the road in his glorious, shiny, fully repaired Impala! You got it, Metallicar is back! It's great to see Dean's carefree smile again as he and Sam cruise down the road in the Impala. AC/DC's Back in Black plays, and the words seem uncannily relevant to both Dean and the car. (I'm just livin' on the side 'cause it's gettin' me high, forget the hearse cause I never die. I got nine lives, cat's eyes, each and every one of them is wonderin' why, cause I'm back!) I love Sam's line here when he asks why Dean's in such a good mood. "Give you a couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows, and you're Mr. Sunshine!" I think it has a lot more to do with the car and the freedom she represents than it does the cows, Sammy!

The boys visit the sheriffs office posing as reporters from the World Weekly News, I mean the Weekly World News. "I'm new" says Dean, unable to get it right. Sheriff doesn't share much about the beheadings and the cows don't concern him. He's sure it's natural, nothing to do with satanic ritual. This guy is great, he laughs at the idea with such a look of incredulity and it's so naturally done, too. Give him a round of applause! On to the morgue, they send poor Mr. Manners scurrying off to Dr. Dorkin's office and I just know the poor guy's going to get fired for it! His name tag is a nice shout-out to producer Kim Manners, and it would have been really cute if they had made his first name Jim instead of Jeff. With young Mr. Manners out of the picture, the boys are free to examine the severed head of the young woman. In the tradition of older brothers everywhere, Dean makes Sam stick his fingers in her mouth to check for moths like in Silence of the Lambs. Poor Sammy. He doesn't find any, but they do notice an odd hole in her gumline. A little pressure and a vampire fang is revealed. Suddenly the beheading makes sense.

Off to the nearest bar, Dean and Sam ask around to find out if the bartender has noticed any vampire-like behavior. This draws the attention of Gordon, fellow hunter and one of the guest stars for tonight. He's supposed to be a very good hunter, but not only does he somehow tip the boys off that he's following them, he later requires rescuing as well. Can't say I'm overly impressed with his hunting skills! After his introduction to the boys in the alley behind the bar, he tells them that he works alone and doesn't want their help with the nest of vampires. He drives away without them and goes to kill Conrad who, vampire or not, holds down a nice steady job as a security guard at what looks like the local mill. Conrad gets the best of Gordon and is about to do a little beheading of his own when Sam pulls Gordon to safety and Dean kills Conrad with an unsettling look of satisfaction on his face. Nice and gory kripkean blood spatter here, but don't worry, Dean cleans up real nice for the bar later.

In the bar, Dean and Gordon celebrate with beers and shots while Sam looks on disapprovingly. He doesn't think that killing should be celebrated. He opts to go back to the hotel, where he calls Ellen to ask about Gordon. Ellen says he's a great hunter, but when Sam says they're working together, she warns him off, saying that Gordon is a danger to everyone around him. Meanwhile, Dean and Gordon are trading war stories, having found a kindred spirit. Dean tells of the moment he embraced the life of a hunter; having killed some creature, watching it burn he first realized that he was different from all the other 16-year-old boys who were sitting in school and worrying about zits. Gordon understands, and this encourages Dean to open up about the death of his father. He explains that he's not handling it well, that his father left a gaping hole in his life and he doesn't know how to fill it. Gordon tries to encourage him, saying it's okay to fill the hole with the hunt. Use the darkness inside for strength in killing the creatures. This leaves an unsettling feeling about Gordon's moral character. He tells about his first experience, trying to fight off a vampire that attacked his sister. He failed to save her and that led to his life of killing all the vampires he can find. It's wonderful here to see Dean sharing his thoughts. He would never be able to tell these things to Sam, so he opens up to Gordon instead. For a few precious moments he's able to be honest with himself, to examine the darkness that normally eludes him. To have someone look at the black hole within him and tell him it's okay, he's not the only one. That the dark doesn't make him any less human, any less worthy.

Sam, back at the Adobe Court Motel, steps outside for a soda and feels the prickle of prying eyes. Alert but unafraid, he makes his way back to the room, trying to figure out the source of the threat. Inside with the door closed, he lets out a sigh of relief and we know he's safe. Just as we're allowed to relax, the vampire Eli jumps out of the shadows and clocks Sam over the head with the telephone. He wakes up in an unfamiliar farmhouse with Eli standing over him. Fangs bared, Eli threatens Sam but is stopped by Lenore, his mate. Lenore wants to talk, and Sam replies with "okay, but I might have a tough time paying attention to much besides Eli's teeth." Lenore assures him he's safe. She doesn't want to hurt him. She pleads her case, that her nest isn't hurting anyone. They're surviving on cattle blood instead of killing people. She asks to be left alone, they're leaving town and don't want to be followed. She proves her truthfulness by having Eli take Sam back unharmed to the hotel. This gives Sam a lot to think about. What makes a creature evil? Who has the right to live? Who should die?

Dean and Gordon are in the hotel room searching out possible nest locations on the map. They have it narrowed down, but there's still about 40 farms to search. Sam enters and asks to talk to Dean alone. The two go outside and Sam tells of his run-in with Lenore. He tries to explain the dilemma, but Dean won't listen. They're vampires, that alone makes them evil. The disagreement turns ugly when Sam accuses Dean of using Gordon to fill the void their father left. It's an insult to John's memory. Dean responds to the offense with a powerful right hook, but it doesn't make him feel any better. Meanwhile, Gordon has been eavesdropping on the conversation and having heard that the vampire nest is across the wooden bridge, he takes the Impala keys and goes off on his own to find the nest. Dean has to hotwire the car to follow, which leaves him disgruntled to say the least. Poor Metallicar, just freshly repaired and already her wiring is being messed with.

Gordon finds Lenore and stabs her with a tainted knife. He tortures her with dead man's blood until Dean and Sam find him. One observation here, why did it take Sam so much longer to figure out which was the correct farm? He had his checklist of directions from his trip back to the hotel; he and Dean should have been there long before Gordon, who had to guess at the direction on instinct alone. Yet somehow he had time to find the farm, capture Lenore, get her tied up inside, and cut her 10 or 15 times before the others showed up. When the boys arrive, they are shocked to see Gordon torturing her with such a casual air. Lenore is suffering, barely able to breathe. (Kudos to Amber Benson for a completely believable performance here, by the way.) Gordon continues to cut her, and each slice of the tainted knife shows rivulets of dead man's blood snaking through her veins with a very cool special effect. Sam moves to stop him, but he turns on him with a giant bowie knife. Dean immediately pulls his gun, consummate protector that he is, to stop Gordon from hurting his brother. Determined to make his point that all vampires are evil, Gordon cuts Sam and holds his bleeding arm over Lenore's face. The fresh human blood could restore her to full health, and the few drops that fall are enough to bring her vampire fangs unbidden to the fore. Gordon is right, she must be evil. But Sam is willing to carry the experiment one step farther. Waiting while Lenore struggles to regain control, Sam leaves his arm within easy reach. She fights the instinct and her fangs retract. She refuses to feed, even though it may save her life. Surprised, Dean sides with Sam and tells him to take her to safety. Sam picks her up in a gesture of trust, his neck in easy reach of her fangs should she choose to attack.

Dean and Gordon face off, gun versus knife. Dean is planted firmly between Gordon and the door, saying if he wants to kill the vampires, he'll have to get past Dean first. Realizing his disadvantage, Gordon puts the knife down and squares off for a fist fight. Dean, accepting the challenge, removes the clip from his gun and returns it to his pocket. Gordon attacks while Dean's eyes are lowered and gets the first punch. It's not enough, though, Dean lands several punches of his own and Gordon, choosing to play dirty, retrieves his knife. I love Dean's "I should have known" look here. He gains the advantage and knocks the knife from Gordon's hand and is rewarded by being tossed onto the wooden coffee table, smashing it to smithereens. Gordon should know that nobody can keep Dean down. In just a couple of heartbeats, Dean spins Gordon into the wall, knocks him senseless and puts him in a headlock. Walking him back to the kitchen, Dean "accidentally" knocks his head into the door frame with an unconvincing "oh, sorry" on the way through. He ties him to a chair and waits for Sam to get back.

Come morning, all the vampires are safely away and Sam is back to pick up Dean, who promises Gordon they'll call someone to come and let him loose in a couple of days. Sam asks if he's ready to go. Dean replies with "not yet". He turns back to Gordon and punches him with all his pent-up anger, sending the chair tumbling backwards and showing us only flailing feet from Gordon. "Okay, I'm good." Says Dean. "Now we can go." Although I hate to see Dean dealing with his anger through his fists, I understand the emotion behind this punch. In the bar, Dean really opened up to Gordon, sharing intimate thoughts that have never been voiced before. Now he feels betrayed; that Gordon wasn't worthy of his trust. And not only that, but Sam tried to let him know this fact earlier and was rewarded with a punch of his own. I'm sure Dean feels shock and anger that this stranger could make him turn on his own brother so easily, and Gordon will likely remember for a very, very long time that it's not wise to get on Dean Winchester's bad side!

Outside, Dean tries to apologize to Sam by encouraging him to return the punch. Sam takes a rain check and I can't wait to see that, although technically they should be square since Sam shot Dean with a salt rifle in the basement of the Rockford Asylum. Nevertheless, I'm sure it's not the last we've seen of the sibling rivalry. Dean opens up a little, telling Sam that he hates the creatures he was raised to hunt, and he was willing to kill all the vampires regardless of their peaceful actions. Sam tells him that what matters is that in the end he chose not to kill. That it's the actions that betray the character beneath, not the thoughts. Dean thanks Sam for being a pain in the neck, to which Sam promises to stick around and be more of a pain. Together these two are stronger than either one is alone, and I think Dean is finally realizing this fact. He sees one possible future for himself in Gordon, and it's not one he likes. Without Sam to temper his anger, Dean would give in to his own darkness, killing everything he sees as evil. We've seen earlier that Dean is willing to kill humans as well, not only with Meg and her "brother", but also with Reverend Roy and Max. Sam is the one who stops him, reminding him that people aren't the same as the creatures they hunt. Perhaps now that Dean has seen the possibilities, he'll be less eager to kill and more willing to examine the situation first. Then again, a leopard can't change its spots, and Dean wouldn't be Dean without his "devil may care" attitude. While a little angst is good for the soul, in the end we all have to be true to who we are. Dean is the protector. Strong. Steadfast. Confident. Leave the thinking to Sam, he's got existential angst in spades. He'll eventually figure out the meaning of life and being a good little brother he'll almost definitely possibly maybe might share the secret.

Bloodlust Original Air Date 10/12/2006