By Sylvia Bond – And thusly the storyline picks up a little bit. This week, someone or something is killing the folks in a little town in Pennsylvania. Turns out, a small child, on behalf of his grieving father, hopes to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of three crooked cops. In order to do this most expediently, he has traded his soul for a bit of what Dean describes as “Charlton Heston’s disco stick,” otherwise known as the Staff of Moses.

By Sylvia Bond – When our intrepid heroes last left off, they were stalking some djinn. This week, they’re hunting ShapeShifters, there’s a really cute baby involved, and Sam and Dean barely talk. I mean, they talk but they’re not really saying anything to each other. But I liked this episode better than last week, because it gave me tons to think about, and, frankly, rant about. One night I even called my sister, expounding loudly over the phone to her after one too many cups of coffee, “What is Sam’s DEAL?”

By Sylvia Bond – After the summer hiatus, I watched this episode and realized that I could review it one of two ways. I could review it and determine whether or not I liked it because it did what I wanted it to do. Or, I could review it in the context of what it actually did, and whether or not that was effective.

By Sylvia Bond – Season Five’s final ep opens to the strains of “Carry On My Wayward Son,” by Kansas, which is a good thing, because I think there’d be a fannish uprising if it didn’t happen. The song represents Sam and Dean, their story, and their struggles, and I only associate the song with them. A lot of songs, like “Silent Lucidity” by Queensryche, are that way for me, Show having ruined them for anything else. But a fangirl likes to be ruined now and again, so I’m okay with it.

By Sylvia Bond – Did I like the episode this week? Yes, I did, very much. I had a good time watching it, the boys looked especially pretty (and sparkly and rosy and rested), and on top of all that, the story of how the boys are going to avert the apocalypse got told a little bit more. Plus, there were little tidbits of information and subtle switches and interesting turns in the relationship between the brothers, thusly I had things to think about, so all the way around, I was a happy fangirl.

By Sylvia Bond – Let’s just start off with what I didn’t like about this week’s episode, and then talk about what I did like. It’ll end up being a 50/50 split, but I think that’s the only way to get through the mixture of pretty and sparkly vs. the banal and ill-advised, and, in short, the hodgepodge of ideas that made up this week’s chapter in the story that, once upon a time, used to be about the Winchester boys saving people, hunting things.

By Sylvia Bond – The dive motel for this week’s ep was called The Elysian Fields Hotel, and is neither a motel nor a dive, but is instead a hotel refurbished by the gods for their one and only meeting about what to do about the apocalypse. Sam and Dean stumble upon the hotel after driving in the Impala in the rain, and soon discover that their one night off is not to be. If they would only stay in a Motel 6 once in a while, they might be able to get a good night’s sleep, because not only is the chain so low end that it will never be used by ancient deities to have a convocation, but they’ll also leave the light on for you.

By Slyvia Bond – Well, that was a pretty good episode, if I do say so myself. Not that I had anything to do with the making of it, of course, as my contribution has been in watching Show, keeping the faith, keeping my fingers crossed. Waiting for the moment that Dean and/or Sam would say yes to their respective meatsuit duties. But even though that did happen (sort of), and even though I was able to recite dialog along with the characters from time to time (mostly Zach for some odd reason), it didn’t turn out the way I would have thought. And that’s okay, because I would rather Show take an unexpected turn than to bore me to tears and make me wish I had watched something else.

By Sylvia Bond – I’d say that if the boys actually did have only 99 problems on any given day, that they’d be having a mighty fine day. An easy day. Perhaps a Saturday (or Caturday, if you prefer), where the only object would be to laze about in their jammies, watching cartoons (or perhaps porn), eating cereal directly of the box, and not worrying about crumbs.

By Sylvia Bond – I struggled this week with my enthusiasm for Show, on account of last week’s also-ran episode. And I was concerned about the direction Show seemed to be going, which was abroad-spectrum focus on secondary characters, with angels and demons living together, and less and less of Sam. Not that Show has to go exactly the way I want it, however, it should go the way it set up for itself. It should be true to itself, and to its fans. Of which I’m one.