THUD REVIEW: SUPERNAURAL – "THE MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK"

This show is so good now I get a stiffy every week just watching it…which…to say the least…is quite disturbing.  Nevertheless, this particular episode is working on several levels: the personal interplay between Dean and Sam, the mythology expansion, and the meta action going on with the audience.  On the first note, Sam and Dean are dumbfounded that this guy they discover, Shurley, is so spot on with every detail of their lives, that they don’t know what to make of it.  In discussing the situation, they find out more about themselves and how freakishly accurate Shurley is.  There are a couple of great scenes where, knowing that Shurley is predicting not only what has happened, but will happen, they take steps to try to avoid it, with no success whatsoever.

The big secret of Shurley’s ability is that he’s a prophet of the Lord, receiving his info straight from upstairs in the form of headsplitting visions.  Everything that he sees comes to pass.  The angels, including Castiel, are bound to not interfere, because what Shurley sees is the divine word from their boss.  One of the things that Shurley has foreseen is that Sam will end up in bed with Lilith, who’ll be wearing the meat of the hottest dental hygienist I’ve ever seen.  This chick (Katherine Boecher) wouldn’t have any trouble getting people to show up for their six month check-ups, that’s for damn sure.  On a side note, another explanation for the weekly stiffy is the endless parade of smoking guest stars this show has.  It’s endless…thank God.

Anyway, Shurley also details events leading up to this fateful encounter, like Dean having a bacon cheeseburger, Sam and Dean staying at a “red” motel, Dean having pink band-aids on his face, and the back window of the Impala having a plastic tarp on it.  So the Winchesters try to avoid the confrontation with Lilith, but are stuck in town due to the local bridge being washed out.  So Dean tries to change his menu, only to still be served the foretold bacon cheeseburger by mistake (his reaction to his “veggie tofu burger” was great).  Other attempts to avoid the prophecy also meet with failure as everything Shurley saw happens, including the Impala being broken into, which leads Dean to being hit by a minivan, to a girl placing the pink band-aids on his face. 

Knowing that he can’t avoid Lilith, Sam decides to stay and wait for her.  When she arrives, they discover that neither of their powers work on the other.  So she makes him an interesting proposition.  She’ll stop the breaking of the seals and the raising of Lucifer if Sam agrees to sacrifice himself and Dean for the fate of the world, to which Sam agrees.  In order to consummate the deal, which Lilith would have been bound by, Sam would have to sleep with Lilith, who, thankfully, wasn’t in the body of a little girl.  But that goes south and the deal is off.  Lilith is scared off by an unseen archangel, heaven’s ultimate badass, thanks to his protecting Shurley and Dean bringing Shurley within proximity to Lilith. 

Some really fun and interesting stuff here.  First of all, Sam and Dean arguing without trying to argue, their scene when doing laundry where Dean reads off their current argument from Shurley’s pages, and Shurley being right about Sam brooding, and Sam thinking Dean’s being a dick, etc.  Shurley is also a fun guy, being a hack writer who just happens to be getting his info straight from Heaven.  Great scene between Sam and Dean and the publisher of the Supernatural books when she asks them about details of “Sam and Dean” the characters, including Sam’s test score and Dean’s favorite song, to prove that they’re really “fans” of the books.  Also great was Cas saying that one day, the books that Shurley has written will be known as the Gospel of the Winchesters…as in New New Testament.  And a comment that had me laughing out loud was Shurley commenting on how his writing himself into his own books would be “M. Night-level of douche-iness.”  “I am the prophet, Chuck” was also nice.

Shurley also foresaw an ominous future event for the Winchesters, about which Zachariah (Kurt Fuller) tells him he can’t inform them.  Another interesting tidbit was that Lilith (did I mention this chick was smoldering?) has some info that she won’t survive the Apocalypse, which was why she was willing to make the deal.  Not sure how she came by that knowledge, though.  Also of note is that this is her first appearance this entire season (to my recollection).  Not sure why she’s afraid of the demon-killing Bowie knife when it wouldn’t kill Alastair and she’s more powerful than he was, and powerful enough to not be affected by Sam’s powers, which have reached Colt-level by now.

Still, some really damn good stuff this episode, which mixed humor and mythology heaviness very well.  Of course now we have to wait abnother three friggin’ weeks until we meet the lost Winchester sib.  Now that’s hell.