Shockingly, You Can’t Trust Demons
A year ago, shortly after Sam’s death, Bobby summoned Crowley to regain his soul. Crowley, being the demon that he is, reneged on the deal. When Bobby trapped him inside a devil’s trap, he convinced Bobby to let him go by summoning one of his hellhounds to scare Bobby into submitting.
In present day Wisconsin, the boys are investigating some pretty gory deaths. Bobby? Not having a great day. The boys interrupt his….whatever he’s doing. He has to break into the public library for research books, read all night long and Dean is very unappreciative of these facts when he calls him looking for answers to his earlier questions about what they’re hunting (it’s a lamia).
Shortly after we discover that, in his spare time, Bobby’s been kidnapping crossroads demons in an effort to learn more about Crowley in order to reclaim his soul. We learn that one of them calls Crowley the ‘king of Hell’.
The torture session is interrupted by one of Bobby’s neighbors, Marcy, who is obviously interested in him, bringing him cobbler and inviting him over for movies with white chocolate popcorn (forget Bobby, I want to date her).
After ditching Marcy with a promise to stop by and help fix something at her house, Bobby returns to the demon, torture her a bit more, and learns Crowley’s original name: Fergus Macleod.
Five Minutes to Himself
Bobby’s working the phones. Interestingly enough, he’s the contact and fake FBI supervisor for a lot of other hunters besides the Winchesters. Rufus shows up, needing Bobby’s help to bury a body. The body of a monster (an Okami) that no one’s seen outside of Japan. Bobby remarks how weird monsters have been acting lately.
The FBI stops by, along with Sheriff Mills, to question Bobby about Rufus. We soon discover that the Okami is most definitely not dead. She’s actually off to attack nice neighbor Marcy. Bobby, fortunately, arrives in the nick of time to feed her through a wood chipper instead. But not before Marcy runs out to scream uselessly for him to ‘look out!’. Also? She’s not too interested in having him over for dinner after she gets covered in the blood and guts of the now dead Okami. Poor Bobby. His work life is really not conducive to dating.
Rufus, however, calls with some good news – Crowley (a.k.a. Fergus Macleod) was born in Scotland in 1661. And he had a son, Gavin. Gavin’s ring just happens to be in an exhibit in a museum. Bobby asks Rufus to help him acquire the ring.
Dean calls, telling Bobby that he’s very worried about Sam, and wants to ask him some questions about the year he didn’t know Sam was alive. When Bobby answers Rufus’call on the other line, Dean seems shocked that Bobby would consider another call more important than Sam. We learn that Rufus is being chased by the cops and decides to swallow the ring to hide it, much to Bobby’s dismay. Dean expresses his frustration, saying that Bobby is the only one he can talk to about all the crappiness in his life, and Bobby understands, but he’s a little busy trying to save his own ass right now. Dean calls him selfish. I gasp in outrage. Then Bobby chews both boys out, telling them that he sure as hell wants to get out of the deal with Crowley and could they please get off their asses and stop being such whiny babies about each other, and their own problems, in order to help him out.
Well, that’s only slightly called for. God knows Dean and Sam do have a tendency to be melodramatic, selfish and whiny, but they have gone to great lengths to help Bobby out when needed (I’m thinking of that time he was stuck in his own dreams, or when they helped him with his zombie wife).
Bobby calls Mills, asking her to get Rufus extradited to his home town. Unfortunately, that’s going to take a lot more than Mills is willing to give and she refuses to help.
Until a few hours later, of course, when she shows up with Rufus on Bobby’s doorstop. She leaves them alone for an hour while Rufus hands over the ring.
Turning the Tables
Alone in his kitchen, Bobby summons the ghost of Crowley’s dead son. Bobby summons Crowley again and we learn that Crowley has taken over Hell now that Lucifer’s trapped again. Crowley laments about his new role – it wasn’t all he thought it would be. And he has to spend all day working with demons. Bobby puts Crowley and his son’s ghost face to face. But he doesn’t get the reaction he hoped for. It turns out Crowley isn’t too fond of his son. That’s okay, though, because Bobby just summoned him for information on Crowley. For example, Crowley sold his own soul in order to enlarge his….ahem, male anatomy. Sam and Dean, meanwhile, have ‘gone international’. They’re standing over Crowley’s bones in Scotland.
We learn that burning the bones of a crossroads demon will kill them. In fact, they’re not very different from regular spirits. Crowley removes his claim to Bobby’s soul (leaving in the part about his legs) and goes to join the boys in Scotland to remove his bones for safekeeping. Bobby talks with the boys again (I would hate to see their international phone charges) and apologizes for getting upset at them before, but they admit that they take him for granted.
Then Bobby finally, finally, finally sits down to enjoy a nice piece of cobbler from Marcy, only to be interrupted once again by another local police contact calling up to check the identity of a hunter posting as a law enforcement official.
A Real Father
There’s likely no truer example of the ‘you make your own family’mantra than Bobby and the Winchester boys. John may have raised them and taught them their hunting skills (and died to save Dean’s life), but Bobby has truly loved them unconditionally since John’s death. He’s been there through every important event in their lives since the end of the first season. Out of every relationship that the boys have ever had – even with each other – their relationship with Bobby has probably been the most steady and, ultimately, healthy relationship.
Most of us take our parents for granted at some point, don’t we? We think that they’ll be there to help us out, even when we don’t necessarily want to give as much in return. The fact that Bobby called out the boys on this (even if his anger wasn’t entirely justified in all instances, but maybe in this one), showed, once again, that this really is a show about family, even if it’s about the family that you create yourself.
Jim Beaver, though, needs to stop being so awesome on this show. I don’t think we’ve ever seen so many scenes with Bobby in an episode before, but I never got tired of him. I actually felt kind of sorry for Bobby. Despite obviously having friends in Mills and Rufus, Bobby’s life is very lonely. He really does spend a lot of time helping other people. The one time he’s truly focused on himself (and trying to regain his soul), he still finds it in himself to work the phones, protect the covers of various hunters, research, and help bury bodies. When he gets really angry – or amusing – Beaver has a tendency to steal any scene that he’s in. Despite missing him when he’s gone, I don’t think I want Bobby to appear in every episode. This way he comes in, gets a great episode with a lot of material to work with, and I get blown away until the next time he graces my screen.
Final Thoughts
With every episode that passes, I feel like the show finds more of its old ground. This episode cut quickly from one scene to the next and even from one character to the next. It felt choppy, but not in a bad way, because it allowed a lot of story to progress, and a lot of characters to interact, over a short period of time. More than other episodes this season, ‘Weekend at Bobby’s’had the classic Supernatural blend of humor, drama and gore. Obviously the lack of Sam and Dean appearances felt a little weird, but I feel more secure that this is the same Supernatural as we progress further into the season. There’s no reason not to expect – and even forgive – a period of allowing the show to find its legs again as it reboots after closing a big chapter in its own mythology. I’m willing to give it time, because I’m seeing that it’s delivering as time goes on.
Watch a promo and view photos for the next new episode of Supernatural, which will be airing on October 22.
clarissa @ tvovermind.com
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