New writers.

IJS.

I do have to agree on the resolution for the ghost. Even Sam called the method they used "brutal".

The resolution was horrid, and the plot was a hot mess. They're lucky the Ackles was so funny during the episode (and I wonder if they know that, and that's why we got what should be a DVD extra at the end of a regular old episode).

I agree with Bobby, in that that was a TERRIBLE plan.

Also, just because the dude was roadhauled doesn't mean that he doesn't have a corpse somewhere. They don't have to hunt down every plant and bird and small creature that ingests or absorbs part of someone who was dead and buried in order to put them to rest, do they?

Guess ghost-killing canon, like Jensen's leg, is flexible.

Yeah, for the first half (the first time through) I was watching from the hallway. I started to type in the W&P that my least favorite episode had been knocked down to second place. However, I would encourage a second watch. There were many subtle layers that I missed the first go around. This in no way should be attributed to the writers, but felt like choices in acting and directing. The writers left me confused.

Luther and Luther's brother are exquisite in their roles. Both of them could have easily had more screen time. I said during the W&P that the solution bothered me, but someone pointed out this is the reality of the 'verse and we should be hit with that from time to time. Tessa drove it home to Dean in the second season premiere. Most of these "monsters" that Dean and Sam hunt, start out just like Dean. The ghost on the highway that kept killing Trisha Helfer wasn't a bad person. He was a victim, who was just really pissed that he was killed and exacted revenge on a responsible party. Meg and Hendrickson we knew were okay people, but not so much as ghosts. According to Luther's brother, Luther was the kindest guy in the world. His death was supposed to be the worst kind of death. I think it was a good choice on the writers part to make a character, even if it is a oft copied one (Did anyone else think he should name the kitty George?), so sympathetic and then hit us with a method of death that was unacceptable beyond the fact that he was killed.

I think it is right that we point out that these monsters have choices, like the shifters, and make the wrong ones. But I also think we are definitely being shown them in a way that has to cause at least some sympathy for their situation. That is continuity that I hope is not foreshadowing for the boys, but might be possible.

eta: I can't shut up.

IMHO, this is an important episode. It reiterates some truths of the SPN verse. Good guys are bad and bad guys are ggood...Lo-lo-lo-lola. We get to see Sam as he would have been as the older brother, fully competent and capable to take care of both of the brothers. Dean doesn't have to bear as much of a burden as he thinks he has to endure. If he had more faith in Sam, Sam could be alright on his own. We found out two shocking things from Lilith. Dean was in Hell for forty years, and he remembers EVERY second. Either Demons lie, or we just haven't seen inside his memory yet. The time line is interesting for me because we saw how much Sam changed after living a year plus something without Dean. How much is Dean changed after forty years without Sam? Is that why he clutched the Bible and prayed when he was scared? Is that why he told Jamie that he sees himself on a mission from God instead of how Croatoan Dean viewed the world? Would he now fight on, without Sam?

More Winchester Plastic Theatre!

A really good post, Austin, very thought-provoking. I agree on almost every point. I do think this "disregard" for distasteful despatching of ghosts was addressed by Bobby's repugnance of the method and reluctance to perform it beforehand, and by Sam saying flat out afterward that it was "brutal". But with Dean's life on the line, it was necessary, because it worked.

I could draw corollaries to other unpleasantnesses, but because of the outright scripted acknowledgement of how awful the method of destroying the ghost actually was, I think I'm willing to accept it.

It's not a pleasant job. There are many repugnant necessities that go with it, but somebody has to do it. And I think that point needed to be made because it's too easy to romanticize ghosthunting, or only look at the comedic or heroic aspects of it. Ultimately, the job isn't helping souls find their final rest, it's saving living people from the ones who've been dead long enough to become vicious and mean.

::snacks on Austin's and Bev's spicy brains::

I agree with Austin's point, though I still wish that they hadn't used this particular brutal method, because of all the cultural baggage that goes along with it.

I still think this script was incredibly weak, and I really hope we get more of a reason that Sam wasn't infected than that "he's not as much of a dick as Dean", because I think that's just not true, especially once you get past the surface niceties.

Personally, my guess is that his innate demon powers prevent the ghost from infecting him. (Like the powers are a bigger infection or something.)

Plastic Winchester Theatre - people: it had me laughing out loud and on a day when I am unusually irate.