I don't find Sam ambiguous anymore. Confusing, yes? With an unknown history and motivation, yes. But not ambiguous. Something's definitely wrong with him. Ambiguous, for me, was wondering when he hugged Dean what was up with his face.

But I get that ambiguity varies.

I laughed my ass off at the large parts of the episode, honestly. Was this a Sera one?

The homage to The Hunger pretty much had me.

It was Kripke! And some guy named Brett Matthews, who used to be an assistant of Joss's, and wrote a comic with him bridging the gap between Firefly and Serenity.

Does The Hunger open with "Bela Lugosi's Dead"?

I sort of thought they were still human and they were trying to torture them / brain wash them / compel them. If the caged women were actually vamped? I ... just don't even.

All the girls in the cages passed out too when they were receiving those visions from above. But not all the girls were in cages; there was a female vampire free and writing the bad emo poetry internet chat to ensnare more of them. Maybe the cages were to keep the Bella wannabe recruits from dramatically walking out in the sunlight or decapitating themselves by accident?

want brothers show back.

This. I'm all for dragging this out for the drama, but next week better be the beginning of resolution and getting our Sammy back. I miss the brothers badly.

I guess I always feel like this *is* the brothers, though. Even in S1, their relationship was far from perfect. Sure, there was more trust between them, and they worked together easier, but at the very beginning they were still working that part out.

I don't want this dragged out, but I don't mind seeing all the variations and new dynamics, either. People grow and change, and I expect them to, as well. Either with circumstance or age or whatever.

YWinchesterMV, of course.

there was a female vampire free and writing the bad emo poetry internet chat to ensnare more of them.

She wasn't exactly free - a male vamp was standing over her and I'm pretty sure she got put back in a cage. That said, it was 8 new recruits in a week, I'm willing to handwve the cages as SOP for new vamps that Dean sidestepped by getting taken away by Sam and presumed staked. Recruiter!Vamp hadn't been told what to do with him and struck me as also pretty new; Dean didn't behave like an erratic new recruit, so it didn't occur to him to lock him up.

t /wave

I really loved the episode.

And did you notice that DeKalb is in the center of influence of the Alpha!VAmp?? Also that the Alpha Vamp is Simon?

And that the boys were in Kankakee County?

Also, the Alpha!Vamp compelled my friend Sandy and I was rewatch multiple times and to watch Dead Man's Blood and Fresh Blood and we were SHOCKED at the contrast between earlier Sam and today Sam. And by the brokenness of the brotherly relationship and are all ready for all sorts of truthiness to happen next Friday.

Hey, the two female Vamps in Dead Man's Blood were allowed to escape - wouldn't it be cool if they came back?

The did a good job of doing Twilight but it is so true that the real thing is liek a lampoon already.

Hmm maybe Sam did not really remember the cure for vampirism, but just assumed that Dean could go veggie like Amber Benson in "Dead Man's Blood". (OK so his expression said he was lying. But it still could have been the backup plan. "Hey, probably we can cure him, and if not he can just eat animal blood.")