This week on Supernatural Dean is caught between two brothers (and I’m not talking about Adam Milligan). There’s Sam, his real brother, and Benny, his vampire brother in arms he bonded with in Purgatory. And it turns out Sam and Benny aren’t so different after all.
It all starts with Benny the vampire going after his Maker (who also killed him and sent him to Purgatory) which gets him severely injured. He calls up Dean for assistance, and Dean instantly comes running, though he doesn’t tell Sam anything about where he’s going or who he’s meeting. After all the crap Dean gave Sam over sleeping with Ruby, it’s understandable that he’d want to keep his friendship with a monster a secret.
In his old life, Benny was a vampirate (vampire pirate, which is a great Halloween costume idea) as his nest preyed on yachters. One day he met a girl named Andrea and fell in love, so he wanted to leave his entire life behind and settle down with her in Louisiana (gee, that sounds an awful lot like Sam’s predicament).
Unfortunately his Maker tracked him down and killed him, because the moral of this season is that you can’t escape your past. You can’t change who you are, no matter how badly you want to.
Benny and Dean track down the Maker, but Benny is stunned to see Andrea there too (and she’s a vampire). Benny gets taken, forcing Dean to do the one thing he didn’t want to do: Call his other brother for help.
As Sam makes his way over and Dean chops the heads off all the vampire guards he can find, Benny meets up with his Maker. The two have an interesting conversation where the Maker tries to point out that Benny’s problem is that he thinks too much and tries too hard to be human when, in reality, he’s dead inside. As with every episode this season, the theme of who you are vs. who you want to be is front and center.
Benny eventually kills his Maker and goes to see Andrea, but she wants to be a vampirate. Benny is saddened and disappointed that, even though Andrea is right there, the girl he loved is dead. She’s about to attack him when Dean comes in for the save by chopping her head off. Poor Benny.
Benny is lost and confused about what he is and what he should do, but Dean still believes in him. They meet up with Sam, and when Sam and Benny shake hands, Sam quickly realizes there’s no pulse. He slowly starts to pull a weapon, but Dean silently gets him to stop. Sadly we don’t get to see the fallout, but needless to say, the fact that Dean was hiding his vampire BFF is gonna cause some friction.
The Best of Times (Sam’s Flashbacks)
We learn a little bit more about Sam’s year of early retirement. He got a job as a local handyman at the motel where he unclogged Amelia’s pipes (which is both literal and a dirty euphemism). The whole thing plays like a Katherine Heigl romantic comedy. Best of all, before Sam named his dog Riot, he just called him Dog.
The Worst of Times (Dean’s Flashbacks)
There are also some more flashbacks to Dean’s time in Purgatory. The unlikely trio of Dean, Benny and Cas feels like a bad joke. A Hunter, a Vampire and an Angel walk into Purgatory.
Dean is adamant about bringing Cas with them back home, but Benny and Cas don’t think he’ll be able to make it, and they also worry that Cas is attracting too many monsters. Indeed some Leviathans find them, but luckily Benny saves Castiel’s life by chopping one of their heads off.
I’m really starting to wish we could just have an entire episode set in Purgatory.
Next week on Supernatural: Sam and Dean are fighting because Sam gave up hunting for a girl and Dean befriended a vampire. Luckily Garth is back as a relationship counselor.
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
