Reaction: Supernatural 4.09 -Reaction, Meta, Spec, Theories, and Poll

[caffienekitty]

Spoiler and Spec Timeline


-Mid-September People freaking out about canon Sam/Ruby. I think it's just relating to the Ruby-in-underwear of the premiere, but it seems less speculative and more 'OMG they went there', and a bit of a spike there. So it might have a basis in info from the show that's been leaked. Noting it.


-Sep 24th: Everyone and their dog is going on about the masses of sides for 4.09 Masses of sides = masses of characters with speaking parts, or a few characters with huge speaking parts, none of whom are previously cast, all of whom have lines. Not likely to be Lillith and an army of her demon flunkies, since she doesn't seem to be the type of leader to allow exorcism-fodder underlings to freely and extensively express their thoughts. Hm. It's a bit late in the arc to introduce the 'Hunters of Sam' Club that I am certain exists, but maybe.


-Nov 6 AM IMDB while looking up some info. Sigh. There will be an episode called "I Know What You Did Last Summer" Too rushed to process.


-Nov 6 PM Delayed Processing. Okay, just because no one wants to know, here is an example of how my brain works. While driving home, see someone with their big red government-mandated "learning driver" L in the back window of a car slowing down traffic ahead of me. Think: "Okay, they're learning to drive in the dark on a wet road, and they're obeying the speed limit. That's good. Beats the driving lessons I got from my ex, most of which consisted of him screaming in my ear 'JUST RUN THAT ASSHOLE OVER!!' They're probably getting extra night-driving lessons because of the accident on the highway with a Learning driver recently. That poor kid, they're going to feel guilty about that the rest of their life. Like that movie they're using the title of for a future episode of Supernatural... They wouldn't do the same plot as the movie? Hit and run driver? Naw. Last summer. What happened last summer... Dean was in... and Sam was with... OMG!" And at that point I started shrieking and flailing and did not stop until I got home and could type this, so God only knows what the hell the poor learning driver thought was going on.

SO! We get 'what happened in those four months', possibly Dean, but I think his is going to be just before the hiatus, so I am betting. BETTING. This will be Sam's missing months. With Ruby. AND!!! That the 'Hunt Sam' club I am certain is out there and has been since Steve Wandell which has yet to make an overt appearance? Is going to enter the scene, possibly in a huge way.


-Nov 10th Episode blurb ambush, dammit. There's going to be an 'Anne', who can hear angels, and Castiel and Uriel aren't going to be thrilled about her. Why does that sound like a summary for a Mary-Sue fic? How does that fit in...?

Also, possibly two parts. Betting a second part cliffhanger too. *eyes impending hiatus nervously*


-Nov 11th Widely disseminated comments from Jim Beaver's Myspace. Bobby will not be appearing in this episode.

Given the little backstory we got in 4.01 re: Sam and Bobby while Dean was in Hell? The potential lack of Bobby in this episode saddens me greatly. Maybe we'll get some unanswered phone calls, or something that ties back to that. Sigh. I was so hoping for Bobby. I miss him.


-Nov 12th + 13th Everyone everywhere preemptively freaking over Sam/Ruby. Suddenly and with conviction. Collateral spoilage includes:
-Castiel and Uriel are in this episode. (Knew that from the blurb. But yay! *pats them*)
-There's a new girl named Anna who can hear angels and knows about the Apocalypse. (So that's confirmed. Obviously demons will want her, angels will want her dead, because duh, she's a back door into angel communications. I know how this security of information stuff goes. I watch "Chuck". *nods*)
-There's a new biggish bad called Alastair. He knows Dean from Hell and possibly vice versa. (That sounds nifty... and worrisome.)
-Castiel and Uriel are not happy with Anna, and want her dead. (See 'duh' above)
-Sam, somewhere in the process of dealing with the Anna and Alastair show, is going to tell Dean about his missing four months, where the Sam/Ruby comes in. (*eyeroll* Aaaaand cue wank. Glad he's telling Dean. Or... hm.)
-Ruby's inhabiting a coma victim. (That may explain why she's so far in this form been portrayed a little like a dead fish. I gotta wonder, did they... go shopping for coma victims? O.O Gaaaaah...)
-Sam will reveal "how Ruby saved his life." (So either the angsty 'kept me from committing suicide by monster/demon/whatever' way, or the other 'rescued my ass, because I become utterly incompetent in the presence of a Mary Sue sparkly demon with a human soul, a tragic past and a magic knife' way. Sigh.)

*facepalm* Honest. To. Pete.

Alright. That's it, I think I've seen damn near everything already, I have no need to watch the episode now. *folds arms and refuses to pick up remote*

Yeah right. *picks up remote*

GOD I HATE SPOILERS!



Reaction with MASSES of meta, spec, theory, plot analysis, more meta, more spec, a mild case of insanity and a short poll for Supernatural 4.09 - "I Know Who* What You Did Last Summer"
*-Sorry, sorry, I had to.


Since other segments of fandom will probably be ranting about dissecting any Issues involved in certain aspects of this episode and therefore those will be well-covered elsewhere, I'm going to focus on the mytharc, plot, characters and squee, and any quibble or analysis will be based in that.



-Watching promos because there's no point in avoiding last minute spoilers *shrug*: Hi Castiel, hi rising witnesses/breaking seals (hi Bobby!), hi apocalypse, hi Lilith, hi pie (hee!), hi 'months without your brother', hi Dean confronting Sam about the psychic crap, hi SAM HANE/breaking of another seal, hi Uriel with the 'turn you to dust' which has dropped the 'one word' qualifier in the previouslies, I note, hm. Hi Dean's red eyes dream flashback with screaming. What a long and thorough recap that was. That was kind of awesome. Like mytharc summary from the S3 finale to date in convenient pill form.

-And hello, Riverview Hospital Conner-Beverly Behavioral Medicine Centre, and hello Anna. Ooo, Anna's a redhead! She's reminding me of Penny from Dr. Horrible. *glee* Wow, she has huge eyes.

-What did she say? "Same by whine?" Oh, "same bottom line". Nice tightrope walking on the 'it's Biblical except not really' thing there, gang.

-"Smoke 'em if you got 'em." Hehe. I think I like Anna. She has snark. She does a fantastic 'listening to angels' face.

-600 seals of which any 66 breaking raise Lucifer?? Whoa! They really are screwed! And Lilith has some strategy! Because she's got demonic minions, gullible dupes like SAM HANE's followers, and assorted other entities etc. in her power structure, they could be going after hundreds of them simultaneously, and she can just sit back and wait while the angels and any allies they have flail away trying cover everything. I don't know how big the angel strike team on Earth is these days, but- ooo. *flails* They can have-! Gnh! They could have people observing for them! But... Arg! *flails some more and babbles senselessly* Things just got way more interesting, and way more believable that the 66 seals would all go down, since they are probably going to before the end of this season, I'm guessing. Ooo! Way to raise the stakes, Kripke and co.! *applauds*

-Angels are losing. Yeah, no wonder.

-Yep. She's an angelic wiretap. Which is why demons want her, and angels want her dead. Security risk. Like I said in the spoiler timeline, I watch "Chuck" *nods* Heh. Random association there. Uriel = John Casey, only not as cuddly? XD

-Orderly is totally a demon coming to break her out. Yep. Ooo! She can see demons?! Hear angels and see demons. Wow.

-Ooo! She has psi-powers too??? Ones she uses without being freaked out by them? What the heck? Is she a late-blooming Psikid? Differently-seeded kid to be a tool for whoever won YED's pageant? Some other Demon's plot? Whoa. So maybe there's other demons seeding kids for a different plot? Ooo! *wriggles with glee*

-Kind of a lack of foresight in nearly blocking the door, though. The orderly on the other side is gonna take more damage when they force that door open. Of course, after the demon smokes out, because his job of getting her out of the hospital is now done. The demon pick up team can go after her now. *nods*

-*GLEE* POOL SHARKING! TEAM WINCHESTER POOL SHARKING FTW!!!! \o/ Sam is such a bad fake drunk. And hee on the "Sam sinks two, possibly three solids off the break" shot. I see what you did there, show. *winks*

-Hi Ruby. Didn't miss you. BTW, you owe Dean about 700 bucks, the 200 they were down and the 500 on the table in the game you disrupted. *glares*

-Anna Milton? As in Milton Milton? Are you kidding me!? That's fantastic! Hey tigriswolf did you catch that? :-D

-Odd camera angle, horses over the bar oddly prominent... I think I've been near that bar... those horses are familiar. *peers*

-"Capture alive." Of course, because she's a wiretap into the angel communication system, an angel-band scanner. She's an asset to demons and a liability to the angels. Either way she's totally hooped.

-... okay, I will admit, Genevieve Cortese is doing a bit better at being awake and involved during her scenes. A bit. She's succeeding in not sucking all the energy and spark out of an argument with Dean, so that's an improvement. I'm kind of wondering if she's having difficulty connecting with the material.

-I totally agree with Dean. They have no reason to trust Ruby. [Rewatch: I still agree with Dean]

-Three days to get there??? Considering it's usually 2 hours to anywhere in the Impala, that's quite impressive. Still, Washington state to the midwest is about that, isn't it?

-"Sure, Dean, let's trade stories." Wow, Sam. You're being a bit of an ass. Considering what Dean just said last time, and that compared to his four months in Hell, your four months were on Earth, messing around with a demon and watching Indiana Jones movies, um. Yeah. Ass.

-Ah, an unshared flashback. 6 months ago. So, right after Dean went down, making current episode time November 18th-ish, and given I'm certain this is going to be continued, that'll keep next episode synched up with real time. Which is making me nervous as frigging hell. *glances nervously at upcoming hiatus*

-Ohhh crossroads. Oh really drunk Sam. (Ooo! Overhead camera angle!) Oh bellowing. Oh Saaaaaaam! *flappy hands* Woo. Entirely appropriate that Sam's wearing the Hoodie of Angst here. *nods and applauds wardrobe performance*

-Written by Sera Gamble. And by inference and assorted reports Sam's probably gonna have sex with a demon. I would never have guessed in a billion years that an episode that might involve a sex scene with Sam would have been written by Sera Gamble. Wow. Shocker. Hee! *pats Sera* Directed by Charles Beeson who's done a few episodes. *nods*

-A guy Red-Eyed-Demon! So the male equivalent of a skimpy black cocktail dress is a cheap suit? I suppose that's better than a ruffled poet shirt, black pleather pants and pirate boots. *shrugs*

-This is a cute RED. I like his eyebrowing. He'd be, what? RED 4? No wait, Johnson's RED, Bela's RED, Dean's first RED, Dean's second RED, Sam's RED, and now this one, making him RED 6. And Sandy was RED 5! Sandy was Luke Skywalker! Woo! \o/ *is an obscure nonsensical sci-fi dork*

-"You shot one of my co-workers." Hee. He's got a valid point there. Also good to have confirmed that there's more than one crossroads demon, and Sam shooting RED 5 didn't end the procedure. *takes notes*

-I love this RED's quirky eyebrow. It's almost toon-like.

-Gyah! Hand pinning! Gyah!

-"I don't want 10 years, I don't want one year, I don't want candy." Ooo. Straight trade places. Oh OW Sam. You really... just. OW. Dean would kick your ass if you told him that part! So, wise editing on the backstory there boyo. Though you also aren't telling Dean that Hell is where Lilith wanted him. Which is also nice to get confirmation on. *looks at mytharc and nods* And your brother really needs to know. All the deal stuff was just to get your brother's soul in Hell. What was it Dean's first RED said? "Your pain is the whole point," something like that? Yep. I thought that was what she was talking about. Breaking Dean. *glances nervously at the future*

-Ooo. He's made peace with his lord. Ooo. Ooo. Very nice touch. Massively creepy. Well delivered, with a sense of earnestness, and yet a nice "I know this creeps you out/How're you sitting with your Lord?" sense. Very awesome. [RED 6 was played by Drew Nelson. Love your eyebrows, man.]

-Oh, the little silent frown, going to say something, don't say something, frown some more in the car! So, so awesome.

-Ward 42. Hitchhikers reference. Cool. So, Anna's the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything? Doesn't that make her the planet Earth?

-Schizophrenia. Yep. That's what 90% of hunters and affiliates would get locked up as. Monsters are real? You hear voices? The end of the world is nigh? Suuuure. Remember, it's only paranoia if they aren't really out to get you.

-Oooo, Anna draws well! I love the boys' reactions to the drawings and the psychology woman babbling with subdued and slightly stuffed looking OMG faces. (Pst, Anna, it's SAM HANE. You spelled it wrong. Also, Dean, SAM HANE is not in Revelations the Book of Revelation unless he scrawled himself in there in crayon, but if he did, he probably drew in some jack'o'lanterns. Sigh.)

-Hey, it's the house that belongs to the Milton! Which is either something like "the McKinnon" or belongs to the Milton, as in John Milton, which would make it Cambridge, England and the seventeenth century. Which would explain why it took three days to drive there in the Impala. *nods*

-Bet her folks are dead or possessed. Any takers? Yep, throat slashed, like someone's been making blood-phone calls. Hmm... Really surprised the boys' didn't smell that. Large amounts of congealed blood, two corpses, with all the usual transition from living to corpse... events, even if they aren't rotting yet. But Sam can smell the sulfur, so a head cold is out as an excuse. Maybe there's a meat packing plant nearby and they mistook the smell in the house as the smell from that. *nods*

-Hehehe. She's hiding in a Church. Heh. The demons after her must not be Meg-level if she's still safe in there. Hehe. Ooo. *has silly bunny*

-Ooo! Their shadows go by on the right-side tower windows as they go up the staircase! Well done, show! Nice detail! \o/

-"Sam Winchester?" Oh dear. The girl who hears angels knows your name. This could go bad fast. Or... not. Hunh. Cool.

-"Dean? The Dean?" HA! Not 'best night of her life, Dean', though. Not yet anyways. After all, they've only just met. I mean, I like her, so she's obviously going to die before too long here, but there might be a chance for Dean to sneak in some wooing before she gets inevitably whacked somehow.

-Angels talk about them all the time, some think Dean will help save everything, some really don't like Sam... Dude. The angels are blogging. Heee! Like they've got a Winchester fandom, maybe with, like, ImmortalJournal communities dedicated to the apocalyptic significance of Sam's hair. *giggles*

-Hm... Why does Anna have four points of light in each eye and Sam and Dean only have one? There's not a cluster of four light sources behind Sam and Dean in the scene, and yeah, obviously it's because that's what light they're using for shooting, but it seems an oddly deliberate configuration. *ponders*

-September 18th *nods* So either she hadn't switched on before then, or the angels weren't talking in her reception area because they took the long route to get to earth. *eyes theory nervously*

-First words: "Dean Winchester is saved." Aaaand cue boggle check from Dean. Thank you Dean. Very nice.

-Oh SHUT UP Ruby. Yep, still agreeing with Dean about having no reason to trust Ruby. Her line delivery is showing again, too.

-Ooo! Bleeding statue! That was massively cool, and unexpected. And a cheap special effect!

-Ruby is being... weirdly emphatic and I can't tell if it's meant to mean something or if it's just the odd line delivery. Also good to know, Ruby can cross Holy Ground and enter a Church. Like Meg. No I haven't given up on that yet. I want Meg back, somehow. *pouts*

-Hello, Alastair! Ooo, now there's an entrance! Complete with coming up the stairwell from blackness like he's climbing straight up out of Hell. Nicely done, show! There's a character introduction to rival Castiel's. Not a huge rivalry, but at least it's trying to kick Castiel's massively cool intro in the shins while wearing fuzzy slippers. Much better than Uriel's moody, pissy window-staring.

-I'm getting a Fred!YED vibe from Alastair already, which is fantastic.

-White-eyes! Same kind of 'roll-back' white-eyes as Lilith, not like SAM HANE of the sooper-eeevil novelty contacts. Ooo, so, similar to Lilith level then.

-"I'm wearing a pediatrician." That was far funnier than it had any right to be. Really getting YED vibes from Alastair. That's awesome. Nothing like a good campy evil bastard to perk things up.

-"We were so close." And hundreds of Dean/Alastair fics were born, no doubt.

-Ooo. Dean recognized him. Oh crap. Ohhhh crap. *clutches theory protectively*

-Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaitaminute. ALASTAIR? As in CROWLEY???? O.O OOOOOO!!! Cue Supernatural Good Omens crossovers! Although truth be told, Crowley's a little more grumpy than usual. And where's Aziraphale? No, no, wait. I'm an idiot. Good Omen's Crowley's first name was Anthony. And the other one was Aleister Crowley not Alastair. Damn. *tosses fine pile of cracky theorems*

-Ooo. He's resistant to Ruby's knife! About damn time. Doesn't look like it tickles, exactly, but it's obviously not doing the super-insta-death thing. Also, bye bye pediatrician. We never knew you. Not like he wouldn't have been dead by the time Alastair was done with him, but a knife in the chest kind of confirms it.

-O.O Did the knife break!? Did the knife break!?

-Ow! Glass! Ow! Landing! Owww. Yikes, guys! You aren't cartoon characters! That would be, judging from the height you were at when your shadows passed the window, about a thirty foot drop, followed by a tumble down the cement steps! Ahhh... But! The window they just jumped through is not the same as any of the ones on the front of the Church, so it must have been on the back side of that tower, and facing out over that roof that goes behind the towers and entrance, making the drop maybe twelve feet max, followed by a roll down the shingles and a second drop from the edge of the roof. Totally survivable and much less toon-like. *nods*

-And no, Ruby's knife didn't break. DAMMIT! I was hoping they'd permanently lose a magic item plot device. So Alastair has Ruby's knife and I believe that the implication in "Time is on My Side" was that Bela gave Lilith the Colt, yes? Just keeping track of the set pieces. Wonder why Lilith hasn't used the Colt to re-open the gate yet? Or has she? *ponders*

-Stitches and hotel first aid! Someone's been reading the faaaanfic! With extra booze to support the 'tough guy' image.

-Ooo. Interesting little unobserved look from Dean on him saying "No one good." Hm. Kind of a 'protecting Sammy from something' look, maybe? *ponders*

-Hee. Shoulder on three. One- *squ-runch* Yep, catch it before the muscles can tense in anticipation and make it hurt worse. I think. First aid was a long time ago...

-And again, I still agree with Dean. It could all be a ploy, or part of a plot or something.

-"She saved my life." Here we go.

-Ooo, blonde in the black long-coat has an interesting take on the Ruby vibe. It feels like she's more mature and confident than Katie Cassidy's Ruby or Genevieve Cortese's. Approaching Meg-like. Very cool.

-And Ruby the turncoat has turned again. Less than, what, a week after being sent 'far far away *cr-crick*', she's back on Earth and working for Lilith. Hm... That's not suspicious at all. She's so lucky Lilith trusts her that much. Hah. I smell plot. *ponders*

-Oh come on, Sam, not assassinating you does not count as saving your life! Wait, maybe there's more.

-And turncoat again, back to Sam, so she says. Wow, Ruby's freaking fickle. At least it's a shiny black Matrixy coat she's turning.

-So. She turned on Sam in Hell, and Lilith just let her out right away to get her knife back and kill her former chosen leader? Oh no freaking way. Lilith is not that stupid. If Ruby just switched sides? No way she'd see daylight for a couple months. Shipping her back out right away, makes me think there's a 'look like you're switching allegiances again, get close to him, stick close and... uh. Stage 3=Profit.' *needs brain* Of course she could always be pretending to be pretending to switch sides, really be backing Sam, and until there's a face-off situation we won't see who's surprised who isn't on which side. Really, I think Ruby's on Ruby's side and backs whoever the wind is favoring at any given time, but even so, Lilith had to know she'd turn on her, so why let her loose? And why send her in a frontal attack to kill Sam? Why not get her to re-establish the pre-existing "trust" she had with Sam and slit his throat while he's sleeping? Well, except for the whole "Lilith has everything just the way she wants it, Dean in Hell, and by implication, Sam alive and topside" thing. *ponders* Maybe the frontal assault was a change of plan. Or a plan to make it more likely that Sam would accept her as being out of Hell and on his side again now, or... gah. Needs much more brain. *ponders*

-Incidentally... "Do it." Oh Saaaaaaaaaaaam Gah.

-"You have no idea what I've been through." She's been gone a week, max! Pthplt! And in that time she went to Hell, was subjected to creative torments, betrayed you to Lilith, got out of Hell, found someone to inhabit, went shopping for clothes, tracked you down, laid in wait in your hotel, betrayed Lilith for you, and now she wants fries. Well okay, maybe fries for not stabbing you. But seriously, she was in Hell two days, max. That's like *does painful math* 242 days, eight hours. Compared to Dean's "four months is like forty years in Hell" tour, which as far as Sam knows currently is a 'forever' tour, that's a cakewalk. Particularly considering until all this gate-opening and demons rising business happened, she lived there for the past couple hundred years. Ruby, suck it up and stop whining.

-'Can you help me save Dean? No? There's the curb. Bye.' *nods* Thank you Sam. Even though it's not going to stick.

-Yay! Sam takes a stand on Demon Host rights FTW! [FYI Secretary!Ruby was played by Anna Williams, wish we could've kept her.]

-Ah, and here's coma girl. "Who do I have to kill to get a plate of fries around here?" Hee. How convenient that a young pretty brain-dead comatose woman with no family attachments was available for Ruby to slip into. Things might have been a lot different if the only option available had been a big hairy trucker from New Jersey. *nods*

-SO! As I mentioned in the Spoiler Timeline, Genevieve Cortese's portrayal of Ruby is actually much more perspicacious than I've been giving her credit for; she's doing a fine job of acting like a coma victim. Actually, I'm not being sarcastic there. See, I have a (possibly really insane) theory. Maybe in regular possessions, besides keeping the resident soul around to torment, maybe the demon keeps it around to keep the body running. Given the 'rode hard and put away wet' from Ruby in 'Sin City', they probably keep the hosts running 24/7, in addition to the assorted damage and so forth they take in the course of conducting assorted nefarious activities. No rest, biological systems slowly breaking down due to toxin build-up, the human inside feels the pain and wear and retracts to a point where they are focussed on keeping their body alive. The demon erodes the person away, just doing the basic biological maintenance. Yike. Demons just got a zillion times freakier to me. Of course, this is only theory.

-Anyway, back to Ruby. I figure, if a body was brain-dead, brain activity zero, nothing firing, a possessing demon would need to put way more effort into keeping the body alive, moving, temperature regulated, all those nifty autonomic functions that aren't functioning. Like she's moving, breathing and talking, but the heart monitors which appear to still be attached (cables down front of gown, thingy on finger was detached before the heart monitor stopped so who knows what it was tracking) aren't picking up a heartbeat because she's not gotten around to rebooting it yet, although she'll realize the necessity for a circulatory system soon enough as the oxygen she's pulling in because she's figured out the diaphragm is not doing a thing. Which is why she's gasping. *nods* The hypothalamus and medulla and all that good 'keep everything running' stuff is all offline, and the original occupant is not there to do autopilot duties on the basic respiration, digestion, temperature regulation, etc. I'm guessing after that first plate of fries, Ruby avoided doing much eating since regulating digestion and blood sugar manually has got to be a cast iron bitch. Not to mention waste management. She might keep the body functioning on sugar water and protein drinks just to cut down on the er, personal housekeeping. So, all that basic biology going on in background processes, way less runtime to use on engaging in effective, connected, and intelligible communication. *nods again*

-Because of this completely insane theory, I am now more at peace with this portrayal of Ruby to date. Not dancing with delight, but I have a no doubt entirely erroneous rationale now for some of the quibbles I have with the portrayal of the character. And with that said: Best depiction of a possessed brain-dead corpse ever. Well done Genevieve Cortese. *handwaves with great ceremony* Moving on.

-And no, that still wasn't snarky. At all. What?

-The pump action shotgun with one hand. Ooo. That was shiny. Ooo! And the gun aimed through the door! Sam's well on his way to becoming Mystery Spot Sam. *nods*

-"I recycled." Heh. So is this the long-hinted at 'green' episode?

-New Ruby is actually getting better. A bit. She's still... off. But she's currently being distracted by the background traffic control on a plate of fries, which she probably had to figure out how to turn on taste buds, salivary glands, peristalsis, etc, etc to even eat, let alone enjoy, so that's okay. *pats*

-"I made sure that the spirit was gone." That is a vastly unreassuring statement. There's more than one way to 'make sure' a person is gone... o.O

-'We can't bring Dean back but I can help you go after Lilith'/"Let's go." Wow. Fast switch, Sammy. What about the trying everything to get Dean back you said in 4.01? I guess maybe he dragged Ruby along for that. Whining all the way. That'd've been fun to watch.

-Psychic migraine with nosebleed yay! Just yay! Been waiting for stuff like this since 'Bloody Mary', and it's been so very worth the wait. *hugs Psychic Sammy and hands him a tissue and some Percocet*

-Oh shut up about Dean, Ruby! Grr.

-Oh, here goes the 'I'm the most speciallest demon ever because I remember being human' malarkey again. I still think someone made her retain her memories of being human so she'd be a more useful tool for interacting with whoever won YED's PsychicKid showdown, or whatever. I don't think it's due to any intrinsic personal quality in Ruby.

-Ruby crawling all over Sam. Hm. Take the situation out of the context. Ruby's a possibly once-female cloud of smoke inside a female corpse, Sam's a guy in the depths of self-loathing, desperate, drunk, and emotionally traumatized. Got that? Now, If Sam was female and Ruby was inhabiting a male body, and the exact same lines and reactions took place how would the situation read? Who would be doing what to whom? Or same genders. Whatever. Gender in this case to me is immaterial. Ruby probably selected female as a strategic move, like the blonde hair of the last two hosts, to attain this end. As to the person whose body that was, she's done with it. She left. Or was removed, which, again, is a different kettle of fish. Anyway, to me, either way, it reads like at the very least, Ruby's taking advantage of Sam. She's certainly not taking his very firmly stated unwillingness to engage in sexual activity for an answer.

-And they're off. As far as I'm concerned, Ruby is a smoke cloud wearing a corpse, as always. (Which, yeah, ew Sam, and ow Sam that he was in that dark a place alone, and dammit, Sam you don't know where that thing's been!) The only difference this time is she's piloting it alone, the original owner jumped out (or was pushed, I still have my doubts *eyes Ruby*) Considering how deep Sam was in despair and self-loathing, et cetera? I'm not surprised he broke and did something he obviously considers personally reprehensible on several levels and will no doubt regret later. Self-loathing is a bitch that way.

-Now, on first watch, this scene felt a little "gotta meet the CW's skin quota"-tacked-on. It felt like a lazy-writer convenience of "We need to show a developing emotional connection between these characters, so let's make them boink." However, I think there's more to this. Ruby may have encouraged this in an attempt to forge a bond with Sam. Either in the old-fashioned hormonal appeal way, or by using the sexual act as part of some kind of ritual or spell. She says she used to be a witch gullible person duped by a demon into thinking she was a 'witch', and she's demonstrated the capacity to make anti-hex liquid (which tastes like ass) and has done spell-casty things, and of course the whole 'sacrifice a virgin to get out of jail free' thing. Sex could be a somatic component of some kind of spell. Sex magic, so to speak. *shrug* I'm thinking this... interaction was likely part of Ruby's plan all along, 'gain trust and access, bind emotionally, and again, phase 3 = profit'. Either as a Kingmaker and right hand demon of the new head dude, or right hand demon to the chosen vessel of big L if things go the way I think they will, OR as ultimate betrayer of Lilith's enemy at the no doubt big final confrontation, in order to force Sam to become a vessel for big L, while Lilith gets whatever reward she's expecting, and Ruby becomes Kingmaker (Queenmaker, whatever) again for a different person. A wise character in a book once said something like: the secret of success is not to plan to attain a specific victory, but to plan so that all roads lead to a victory. Ruby has three success paths here, and the only thing screwing it up is Dean. And Angels, and the fact that Ruby's gonna get it in the end, as I don't think her 'reward' for whichever victory she attains will be one she really wants.

-Wow. Shoulders. *blinks*

-Sorry, got distracted there. Also, spinning off from my prior ramblings about the highly unlikely process of a demon possessing a brain dead corpse, that puts that whole sex thing in a waaaay different light for me, as probably I'm the only person who's going to buy that explanation for something no one else wanted explained. There is a lot going on in a human body in that process, more than just the obvious stuff. There's freaking endocrine and hormones and crap to mess with. That would have taken a lot of very deliberate focus to emulate and maintain. Very deliberate action on Ruby's part, and definitely not a moment of wanting to play or any 'needs' or such crap. She's wearing a corpse, all a corpse 'needs' is to decompose, one way or another, and she's not letting it do that.

-On the up side, she might escape the 'everyone who has sex with Sam dies' curse, since she's already dead. Although if she gets cacked before the season is out, I will laugh and laugh and laugh.

-WTF random fireplace? Seriously, does Sam having sex set off fireplaces or what?

-"TMI!" And again, I agree with Dean. Although... that brings up another possibility. This is Sam relating this, and there's a lovely little story-telling device called 'Unreliable Narrator'. Sam told Dean about this incident in apparently tremendous squicky detail... what if he was fabricating it, in whole or in part, to distract Dean from other aspects of what he's been up to? To dissuade Dean from asking any other questions about the missing months for fear of getting a segue into detailed, erm, interpersonal lubrication viscosity report. :-P

-"So far all you've told me about is a manipulative bitch who screwed you, played mind-games with you and did everything in the book to get you to go bad." YES EXACTLY! THANK YOU DEAN!!!

-Five months before now, a month after Dean went down, so early June?

-"You're the only one who can do it, Sam." Oh reaaally? How interesting... O.O Also, who exactly is the 'we' in "We need you to take the bitch out" Ruby? AND while I'm thinking about it, you've been training Sam a month and don't think he's ready to face Lilith. Back in "No Rest for the Wicked" at about 30 hours to go 'til Dean's deadline, you said you could show Sam how to access his powers in order to eradicate Lilith. In 30 hours. Now 30 days isn't enough? Dean never had a chance. You were lying to Sam again to get him to dance to your tune. This has all been about getting Sam to use his powers by any means necessary. I'm not sure exactly why, but I have a theory on what the plan might be for Sam...

-"This isn't what Dean would've wanted." Shut up, Ruby. Gah.

-Nice knife maneuver at the door. BTW Ruby? That whole 'no human spirit' bit also lets Sam know he won't be destroying a human too if he feels the need to stab you with your own knife as you betray him, again, because that's what you do, apparently. *nods*

-I can see the Sam/Ruby thing as somehow being part of a plot, but I'm not getting 'functional ongoing relationship' vibes there. But I'm kind of bad at seeing that kind of stuff. I say plot. *nods*

-Little girl sitting alone at a table surrounded by candy. Yeah, of course it's a trap. With the least menacing demons ever. Must be for a reason. Hm. Under orders to menace Sam, but not kill him, to let Ruby swoop in and 'rescue' him, and cement the whole trust thing? And conveniently provide a live-fire exercise with a demon not safely stuck in a seal of Solomon to try out the demon emetic hand thing! Aha! It makes sense! All a plot. *nods*

-Sammy's getting choked! Hee! By someone his height this time even.

-Also, I am suspicious when demons get into the whole punching each other type fighting. They're beating up each other's hosts. And she's still got the knife, why pull the second demon off Sam at all, why not knife him in the back and get out of there. But no, she pulls him away and starts whacking at him with her borrowed meat. That was a total set-up. First, get Sam to theoretically "bond" with her, then imperil herself so Sam will use his powers to rescue her. Or something. All part of the plot. Or a plot. It's all plots. *nods*

-Speaking of Sam's powers, why is he using his powers? The knife's right there. I guess to hopefully save whatever remains of the poor human bastard the demon's riding around in. Only it doesn't look like it mattered, buddy was looking pretty fixed and glassy when the smoke boiled away. *pats Sam*

-"Ruby came back for me. Whatever you have to say, she saved me. More than that she got through to me. What she said to me, it's what you would've said." If you hadn't been away, slacking off in Hell. Sorry, Sam didn't say that last bit, but it looks kind of like that's what Dean's hearing. Wow. Yeah, ouch? Dean's face as Sam's checking off the list of things. And Dean's face of 'I failed. He's got Ruby now.' Don't give up, Dean. Ruby's tricking Sam. She has him completely snowed.

-Incidentally, also? Remember what RED 6 said earlier this episode? They want Dean in Hell, everything is as they want it, including by inference Sam alive, topside. And Ruby is keeping Sam alive, topside. Who's side is she really on again, hmm? ;-)

-I LOVE MACHIAVELLIAN PLOTTING!!! And to me, all this is potentially part of plotting! *chortles and rubs hands gleefully*

-OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE CAN WE KEEP HOUSEKEEPING!RUBY!!!!! Please! Please!!!! That was the best Ruby yet! Ever! OMFG! She can get a leather duster and an awesome hat and some kick-ass boots and follow them around in a, a, I dunno, a Buick or something, being snappy and snarky all day and trying to order them around before betraying them again and again and I WOULD NOT MIND! I don't even mind that the boys apparently followed her orders there without questioning, I think she is THAT AWESOME! \o/ Her short portrayal of Ruby there was someone I could like as an adversary character! OMG! I WANNA SEE HER ARGUE WITH DEAN!!1! *fangirls like whoa* Hee! [She was played by the awesome Michelle Hewitt-Williams, who I've never heard of before. You kick ass, girl! \o/]

-Also, her being so vibrant supports my 'New Ruby is being distracted by biology' theory, because the Housekeeping person's original spirit is still in there running the autonomic stuff and biological things, so Ruby is more able to focus on effective communication. Ah HAH! QED! *nods*

-"Don't take the car?" Wait, what? So the Impala is stuck at the hotel, supposedly under watch by hostile demons?? *is ridiculously worried for the safety of the car*

-Heh. That must've been a fun afternoon for Anna. Sitting alone in an abandoned room with a 6 month old corpse full of undigested fries... and... other things. Ewww!

-"Guess I owe you." I owe you?? Stow that frigging noise, Dean! She's turning your brother! She's manipulating him and events massively! He would have pulled out on his own, because he's a Winchester, and undoubtedly gone all Mystery Spot Sam on his own, as he was beginning to when she showed up, maybe got his own powers to work somehow. Maybe he'd have even gone back to talking to Bobby, if Ruby hadn't interfered with her own (or someone else's) agenda. Aside from seducing him and doing 'suck the demon outta this guy' drills, I didn't see much in the way of training. You do not owe her jack-all, Dean. She's plotting.

-[I am entirely SUFFUSED WITH SQUEE over the depth of the potential plotting! \o/]

-Oh, Anna. Oh poor Anna. I love that she makes squawky noises, goes fetal and rocks when she hears about her parents. A genuine reaction, instead of some kind of emo wibbling at an angle intended to best display cheekbones or whatever. She just folds right up. I love that. It makes her seem more real. And the hair everywhere and the very moist "Why is this happening to me?" I totally love Anna. Can we keep her? Please? I still get the feeling she's going to be dying though. She's got that 'doomed' feel, since she's being targeted by both sides.

-"They're coming." ...waaait, she hears angels. Why is everyone panicking about angels coming? For that matter, why is she freaked? No one at this point knows Castiel and Uriel are after her, though given what she can do, and what that means strategically for the side of the angels, it's entirely possible the more strategically savvy in the room have figured it out.

-Whoopsie, lost your knife, sorry Ruby. I so wish it had broken. Just snapped right off. Too many powerful magic items and tricks roaming free round here.

-Hey look. Ruby, Dean and Sam are in an AT&T commercial. The heights thing. *is incomprehensible again*

-[Did the CW need another commercial break that badly??]

-See? Angels. Knowing that Castiel and Uriel would be showing up kind of sucks the tension out there. Although if it hadn't been in the episode blurb and the previously by inference, the credits would have given it away. I guess it'd be kind of silly to hold plot-significant actor credits to the end in a "BTW, Also starring Misha Collins and Robert Wisdom" section.

-"Stain." Ooo. Nasty.

-"She has to die." Yep. Hm. Dean doesn't look terribly surprised by that. Wonder if he did figure that out before the angels showed up.

-And a TBC. And I'm finally done with all the spoilers for this episode. Cue credits. Have I mentioned how much I freaking hate spoilers? I'd be clawing my way back from orbit now instead of just dropping gracefully from the ceiling.


So, Sam is a damaged, damaged boy, and Ruby is up to something for someone, probably, and manipulating the crap out of Sam and the situation as suits whatever agenda she's following. Glad they did the four months as a flashback instead of the originally intended couple episodes while leaving Dean in Hell. Gahhh.

Now, poll!

Given the "she can't save Dean from Hell/Sam can save Dean from Hell and she can show him how in under 30 hours/she has no idea how to save Dean from Hell, but hey let's go whack Lilith now, but not yet" and Lilith letting her out of Hell even though she had to know Ruby was most likely going back to Sam stuff...
[Poll #1298729]



NO SPOILERS IN COMMENTS, OR REFERENCES TO ANY PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL OR PREVIEWS FOR UNAIRED EPISODES, PLEASE.