Supernatural: Last Call

"God bless Texas."

Dean took a routine case, while Sam hung out at home doing research. And you know things are never as simple as that.

I was so happy that this week's guest star was Christian Kane. I spent five years reviewing Angel and watched all of Leverage, so I'm fond of him; once I actually drove a couple of hours to stand in line, meet him and get his autograph. And he was really wonderful and believable here as a very old friend of Dean's who had even gone hunting with Dean and John way back when, before the series even started and Sam was still in college.

And at first, it seemed like Lee Webb had transitioned successfully out of the hunter life. He owned a nice bar called Swayze's, because we know Swayze always gets a pass. Lee appeared to be quite happy about running into Dean and reminiscing, big time. And how could anyone not enjoy Christian Kane and Jensen Ackles singing "Good Ol' Boys" on stage together?

(That song is from The Dukes of Hazzard. This might be a good time to confess that I have never seen a single episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. Does that make me a bad person?)

But then Lee pretended he had never seen Angela, the missing woman, and Lorna reminded him that Angela hung out at Swayze's a lot. First clue that Lee was not what he seemed. Sigh.

A consistent theme that has run through this series is that the life of a hunter never ends well. If they don't die young in the line of duty, they go bad. I didn't want Lee Webb to be bad, and not just because it was Christian Kane. Sadly, running a bar in Texas would have been a perfect retirement gig for Dean, too, but Dean will never have nice things, will he? Dean has already acknowledged many times in this series that he knows how it will end for him: he'll keep fighting until he dies, and that's it. Dean could never go the way that Lee did. Losing an old friend this way is grief Dean did not need.

Meanwhile back at the bunker, it felt like Sam and Eileen were heading for something romantic when Castiel, with his usual bad timing, interrupted. Or was Sam about to turn Eileen down? I hope not. At least Eileen survived the episode. Is it too much to hope that she'll survive the series?

Right now, though, it's all about Chuck. Castiel decided to do an angelic probe of Sam's wound, hoping for info they could use – but all it did was nearly kill Sam. After some reluctant help from returning character Sergei the nomadic shaman, they realized that the wound in Sam's shoulder goes down to his soul and it's directly connected to Chuck. If Sam's connection to Chuck should break, Sam will die.

They also realized that, as Amara mentioned earlier, Chuck is weak right now. Maybe this is their one big chance to take him down. But as I mentioned in my opener, we all know that things are never that simple on Supernatural. Especially when it comes to God.

I was also intrigued by the objet d'art that Sergei wanted to trade for his help: the ominously named "Key to Death," a black key with a handle shaped like a skeleton that will open Billie's library. Apparently, it is somewhere in the Men of Letters bunker. What a cool MacGuffin that could be. I'm sure we're going to hear about it again.

Title musings: Of course, it was "Last Call" for Lee Webb. But there was a lot of booze in the entire episode, starting with Sally and Angela at the bar, to Dean in the bunker with many empty beer bottles, to Sam and Eileen hung over from margaritas. And then most of the action was at Swayze's, with Dean downing drink after drink but still sober enough to take down the bad guy in the end.

Bits:

— Apparently, Christian Kane, also from Texas, is a good friend of Jensen Ackles. I'm really sorry we never got an early episode with Lee as a good guy.

— Sergei was in last season's episode, "Unhuman Nature." I assume he was somewhere near Kansas if he could come to the bunker that same day.

— There was a new monster called a marid. The best part about it was when Dean rolled its head out on the bar room floor. Pun intended.

— Sheriff Dillon of the big toothy smile was a hoot. "I could have been the next Denzel."

— The Sheriff, and everyone at the bar, treated Dean as if he were very handsome. That's nice for a change. Actually, that's reality for a change.

— This week: Texhoma, Texas, and yes, it's on the Oklahoma border. Dean was Agent Dukes, which had to be another reference to The Dukes of Hazzard.

Quotes:

Lorna: "Best beer and wings in the world."
Dean: "I'll be the judge of that."
Lorna: "Sure you will, handsome. But first, hand it over."
Dean: "My gun?"
Lorna: "This is Texas, sweetheart. You can keep your gun. Cellphone."

Castiel: "I thought you were…"
Eileen: "Dead? Yeah. I got better."

Lee: "Chasing missing persons? I thought you'd be onto something bigger by now. Loch Ness Monster. Bigfoot."
Dean: "Trust me, bigger doesn't always equal better. Besides, who's gonna look out after the little guy? God certainly isn't."
Lee: "Damn, brother. That's dark."
Dean: "Yeah. It's been a rough decade, Lee."

Lee: "You can't just sit around lip syncing 'Eye of the Tiger' while no one's watching."

Sally: "She was a good girl, you know? She loved Jesus and..."
Lee: "And America too."
Free Fallin'.

Lee: "You can't rapture a car."
Sally: "It was a good car."

Sergei: "I like this you, Castiel. It's very… Russian."

(Castiel is getting less angel like, as I've said before. He actually had Bobby watch Sergei's niece Anna. Or maybe Castiel was bluffing?)

Lee: "After everything we've done, aren't we owed a little happiness, huh? Don't we deserve that much?"
Dean: "Listen to yourself. We're owed? We deserve? Come on, man, you're not God. God's not even God."
Lee: "Good or bad, the world doesn't care. No one cares, Dean."
Dean: "Well, I do."

Dean: (finding a shotgun behind the bar) "God bless Texas."

Lee: "You want a shot at the title?"
Dean: "Don't mind if I do."
Lethal Weapon.

I enjoyed this episode, even though it ended sadly. Three out of four bars in Texas,

Billie
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Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

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