Supernatural - Yelllow Fever

Well now, here I have an episode that is not what it appears to be. The team over at Supernatural played a bit of a trick on me. I can usually count on the “THEN” footage at the start of the show to set the mood for where an episode is headed. This episode the footage featured Lilith, Lilith/Ruby, Gordon, Castiel, and demon roasting Sam. On most occasions, an opening like that would signal a pretty heavy mythology episode with some big developments. That wasn’t really the case here. “Yellow Fever” is a pretty stand-alone entry in the Supernatural books, with just a tiny little bit of bigger picture stuff tucked away. But it would be hard to hold that against anyone, especially given that priceless ending.

Fake out preview aside, it really was a fun episode. The lion’s share of credit for that goes to Dean’s part of the story. Watching him spiral out of control as he progressed from not liking the looks of those teenagers, to not making a left turn against traffic, right on through to running from the killer Shih Tzu, was all very amusing. My favorite part of that was at the lumber mill. Both the high pitched scream when they found the cat, and the shot of Dean running away after Luther appeared, were hilarious.

More interesting for my ongoing story though, the ghost sickness did eventually lead to something a little more serious. The big scene that saw the return of Lilith gave me a nice update of where Dean is at with the changes in Sam. It was partly the yellow fever talking, but it came from something real. He’s scared of what Sam is, and what he might ultimately end up being. It was also a good way to bring Lilith back into the picture, without actually bringing Lilith back anyway. The little ba-boom, ba-boom as she tried to force Dean over the edge was very menacing. I do believe that little Lilith is growing on me.

As far as Luther, and the ghost sickness story, I thought it was pretty solid. I especially liked the bit about Luther being road-hauled and there being no way to find all the remains. Burned remains has been done too many times; it’s nice to see something new. I wouldn’t have minded a little more interaction with Luther, but they made up for that with his brother John.

Ultimately though, what made the episode work was the comedy. There were so many fun little bits that I wouldn’t begin to try to list them all. A few of my favorites include Hutchins calling them on the Agent names, Cornjerkers and Gamecocks (they’re majestic animals), spleen juice, and Dean’s meltdown. “A ghost! Exactly! Who does that? We hunt monsters! What the hell?!”

So, while I was initially a little disappointed that Lilith and Castiel in the opening didn’t pan out, it wound up being another really good episode. I've only seen six, so there is still a long way to go in season four. Plenty of time to get to the big stuff.