'we have an agreement to never go look for each other' pact that they supposedly have that none of us had ever heard of before.

Pirate law? "Them as falls behind stays behind."

That is more of a guideline.

I blame it all on the French.

Nothing but an exchange of glances?

I think I finally know what "my heart leapt into my mouth" is supposed to feel like (it is a very odd thing to say, but...). The minute Sam's hand showed that he had totally sussed the situation..I could not work out if Benny was going to live or die, but whatever way that turned out--massive Winchester friction.

It's been a long time sine so little movement and so little really said made me that nervous on any show. Dean's "no, don't" and Sam's eyes glinting with "The fuck? I'm shaking a vampire's hand? A vampire knows my name? This is not Lenore."

I fucking ADORED that moment. Next week is going to be hard, but I'm assuming two things a) the trailer is cut misleadingly and b) there is some twist/surprise/revelation that's not in it. I have not been this psyched for an episode that's not back from hiatus or the end of season in a while.

CAN'T WAIT.

(The continued love story of Dean and Cas doesn't hurt--and Amelia didn't bother me as much as before, but still--the before things still happened, and were still dodgy)

Totally unrelated to the pain, I just went by the Gawker tumblr (how ludicrous and low rent is that? I wonder if they flipped a coin and Livejournal lost?), and they had a 3D gimmick supercut featuring the following movies:

The films included are: Amityville 3D, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Dogs of Hell, The Final Destination, Final Destination 5, Friday the 13th Part III, House of Wax, Jaws 3D, Night of the Living Dead 3D, A Nightmare on Elm Street 6: Freddy’s Dead, Parasite, Piranha 3D, Priest, Saw 3D and Shark Night 3D.

Aw! Finally, the recognition they deserve! Except here was the explanation:

When 3D movies play to the technology by flinging things on screen directly at viewers, it looks silly. Then when those movies are converted to 2D for home viewing, those scenes look downright stupid. Here is a supercut I put together of some of the most ridiculous examples from some horror movies originally released in 3D (it’s still Halloween, so it’s still relevant).

I enjoyed most of that ep. But it's kind of sad that it was Benny and Dean being "brothers". Sadly I continue to hate they way Sam and Amelia are filmed. I liked her more than the LSD picnic scene but it's filmed oddly.

Sadly I continue to hate they way Sam and Amelia are filmed

Excuse me while I express some bitchiness, but that was a whole lot of "Dean and Benny and Castiel run around Purgatory like action heroes" and "Dean and Benny skulk around the creepy vampire pirate mansion" while we see Sam .... repair an air conditioner. And get criticized by Amelia. In other words, I really wish they'd move along with Sam's backstory.

And yes, ita, it was a loaded exchange of glances, but the entire thing couldn't have lasted more than 45 seconds or so. As I had said, since I'd been waiting the entire episode to see what happened after that point it was frustrating for me for the episode to stop just then.

WARNING: EXTREME TL/DR; TO FOLLOW Well, I guess Edlund did something right then, because cliffhangers are supposed to be frustrating, aren't they? If they left you feeling peaceful, they would have to call them something else.

However, except for the bits where we find out that Amelia is a kindred lonely soul (barf), I liked the slowness of Sam's story. I continue to expect we might be Jared light for a bit, and there really was very little Cas, but the Sam scenes accomplished a few things for me, I guess--the pace was a counterpoint to the hack and slash that Dean was engaged in (I felt like we saw him fight more than Benny, but that's probably because I'm not interested in watching Benny fight, so it's unmemorable to me).

For all anyone knows, he's posting on the Trek forums or something. And then he fixes stuff! I didn't know he was handy that way. I'd definitely have called that for a Dean reveal before Sam. So--we get Dean engaging in what he says he wants, and he's showing how it's an extension of Purgatory in more than one way, while Sam is reminded of what he gave up by the relative normalcy (motel's aren''t in the place they're in) of his year.

There's still acrimony between the boys, as evidenced by the lack of non-shouting between them (did Dean call him just for a decoy voice? Why does he need to meet him there anyway?) but Sam still comes to Dean even if he's dreaming of something else--he's got this responsibility to work out, and whether it's Amelia he's going back to, or just life, then he's out--hence the frustration at any deviation off course even for Dean's "day" with one of his dead friends (still accurate call, Sam).

I guess the rest of Sam's flashbacks will be barfy, but all I actually care about is how he gets to walk out and he's not the one sneaking phone calls in the parking lot. It was good enough for Ruby, but Amelia doesn't get that much?

As for Dean's flashbacks, I can watch the poetry of the fight scenes forever. I like Dean in Purgatory, solo or no, more than Benny alone on the docks. I am comparing Purgatory honing Dean as he had his simple twofold mission--find Cas, get back to Sam, and Now It's Wednesday Sam who had one task--fuck everything up on his way to the trickster. Dean got his pastoral shit out of the way, but at least--that was resolved by this far into the season, right?

I'm not excited to find out Amelia's deal, it's not good tenterhooks like the explosion I feel Sam will have next week (because that was rubber bands being stretched taut--I can still feel aftershocks of the sensation of tension--you know how all the fics (even the ones I write in my head) have them having entire conversations silently--for all that, I think it's more that they can predict each other's behaviour and choices. Which this wasn't. This was clearly "Dean, this s a threat. I don't care if he knows my name. I'm killing him unless you stop me." " Stop." " The fuck?"

But you know what? Killing Benny is off mission. I find that moderately interesting.

I am pumped for an hour of yelling and screaming and working it out through killing shit next week--I feel appropriately ramped up by this episode, and left dangling where the tension is *just* released from it's highest point--it's not will he/won't he kill Benny, but rather a whole metric buttload of Winchester aftermath. Nummy treat.

And finally! Sam will have something to yell back at Dean. He's kinda been wedged into the position where wanting a normal life too much means a) he is replaced by Cas or b) him not getting that life is a sad development. I don't like her, but please keep her out of the fridge. I'd imagine a motel would be relatively safe, unless the ice machine counts for extra points.

But they'd moved into a place with rooms, hadn't they? I seem to recall him leaving a bedroom explicitly.

Oh, hey! She can be a hunter doctor that Sam stays with when THEY COME BACK THROUGH TOWN WHILE DOING THE FAMILY BUSINESS. And he gets stitched up for free (I wanted him to say only his brother or father does a (continued...)

( continues...) better job, and she asks if they're in medicine, and he has to umm and ahhh his way out of that one...good times, good time)

Oh! Dean's facility with the docks. He's hardly a ship's captain, but I'm going to take "launch times" and him sitting on the prow (and *not* going for the joke (having established that your sense of humour doesn't survive transition)) and disembarking with assurance and pretending he tied shit up-- I need the story where he's a townie somewhere they have both townies and boats, and he's a boat wrangler, or whatever the real word is , and he meets the seems-snotty rich kid from the Ange family while he's picking up extra hours at the Yacht Club (I don't know who runs that yet. Not too many choices) to make sure his brother can have some luxuries he thinks are important for school.

Would New England all those tiny bitty states work? I want a place where you could cluster jobs, so they could be left there almost a year--but I can't decide what the story is robbing--Grease with no cars? Dirty Dancing (although jollysnidge got there first, damn her)...anything with the townies who have to survive the derision of the silver spoon kids, and two unlikely kids from different sides of the tracks see more in each other than their friends can, so they hide their growing attraction as best they can, but there comes a point where they don't want to have to lie anymore--for what will the be judged the most harshly, Being gay, or being gay for that trash/prig?

Okay, guys. That's the most words Show has gotten out of me this season. But I liked it. I think I felt most of the things that anger you, Morgana, I like their effect, and/or I liked what they told me, and since I don't know how much the new kid might be affecting his schedule (if any) I feel I give them a pass on lowered screentime. I'm sure they're not Michael Weatherly and counting the number of lines and bitching if Jensen gets more (that's seriously some dumb shit--I need to believe that a lot of dumb shit that happens we never hear about, so he had no reason to think we''d inevitably find out that HE IS A HUGE JEALOUS BORDERLINE-POSSESSIVE CREEPY BOYFRIEND. Every woman might deserve better than him, but few need a Jensen...)

Anyway--if it's Sam light, I can only assume that it's for a reason more important to the show. They know how to butter that bread.

I'm still digesting your post, but I just wanted to point out that I'm not counting out the number of minutes Dean had on screen vs. Sam's, I was more taken aback by the impact their actions on screen had on me. Dean's time onscreen was so much more visceral, of course, and exciting and all the creeping around the mansion was all the things we love about Show. Sam's time was 'so laid back it was practically horizontal,' as a friend used to say.

Also, I'm hoping next week will be the end of the "you took a year off/how many people died while you took a year off?." Because really Dean, that's way past getting old.