This week Supernatural gets back to basics with a simple case that involves Mayan gods and people who eat hearts. It’s pretty disgusting, but it all serves as a great, big metaphor for why Sam should NOT quit hunting. The problem is that he doesn’t get the memo.
The Case of the Week
A series of people are having their hearts ripped out in Minnesota, Iowa and Colorado, continuing this season’s trend of making sure every episode is set in at least three different states. Seriously, how can Sam and Dean possibly afford the gas?
All of the different suspects received organ transplants from Brick Holmes, who, despite having a name that makes him sound like a porn star, was a famous quarterback. It turns out he was actually an ancient Mayan athlete who made a deal with a god to live forever. He’s lived as many great athletes over the years, but then he fell in love with a woman (who is now posing as his mom since she ages and he doesn’t, which is just gross).
Staying young required sacrificing two people every year and eating their hearts, but Brick couldn’t handle that and he didn’t want to watch the woman he loved grow older, so he killed himself. Only his organs went into eight different people and the deal he made continued in them.
Sam and Dean ultimately track down the leader of the organ recipients, the one with the heart, and she’s a stripper. She straddles Dean to rip out his heart and eat it (forever ruining the fantasy of being straddled by a stripper in his eyes), but he stabs and kills her instead. Her death ends the deal and all the other organ recipients become normal , non-heart-eating people once again.
Sam’s Future
The Mayan stuff takes up most of the episode, but throughout the case Sam and Dean have conversations about Sam’s desire to quit hunting and settle down. It’s easy to find the metaphoric implications of the case of the week. Brick Holmes wanted to quit being a star athlete and give up his life for love, but he didn’t realize there was dangerous fallout, like his organs creating eight evil monsters in his absence. He thought quitting would be a good thing, but it only multiplied the problem.
Sorry, Sam, but the moral of the story is that you can’t quit hunting and settle down, because if you do, many innocent people will die.
The only problem is Sam doesn’t come to that same conclusion. As the boys drive away, Sam thinks back to the time Amelia threw him a surprise birthday picnic, and it was his happiest moment ever. He’s still saying that, once they find Kevin and the Demon Tablet and close the Gates of Hell forever, Sam is done hunting. I won’t hold my breath.
3 Things We Learned This Week
-Dean downloaded a translation app on his phone. Sam’s incredulity that Dean bought an app is priceless. I’m hoping to see a future episode where Dean has to battle angry birds and fruit ninjas as apps come to life. Perhaps Siri is actually some type of demonic creature.
-The boys are still in contact with Professor Morrison, played by Harry Groener in the season 7 episode “The Slice Girls.”
-Sam’s dog’s name is Riot. That’s an AWESOME name for a dog.
Next week on Supernatural: The show goes all Paranormal Activity, telling the story through shaky hand-held camera footage of a bunch of students.
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Jensen Ackles” />
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.
