Not!Sam is a little disappointed to see Dean. "Dean, back from the dead. Getting to be a regular thing for you, isn't it? Like a cockroach." Dean is threatening not!Sam's smart mouth, and not!Sam comes up with one of my favorite lines of the series. "Careful now, wouldn't want to bruise this fine packaging." That's so funny coming from Sam, even though its not him. Dean assures this won't hurt Sam much and throws a whole bucket of holy water on him. He smokes and yells. Dean wants to know if he's ready to talk. "Sam's still my meat puppet. I'll make him bite off his tongue."



Dean in badass form assures that won't happen and has Bobby start the latinating. At first not!Sam struggles, while Dean promises the master plan won't work. Then not!Sam busts out in laughter. "I don't give a rats ass about the master plan." Bobby latinates again, but it's not working. Uh oh. Not!Sam starts latinating himself, the fire flashes and the room rattles. Dean wants to know what's going wrong then Bobby finds the problem, the welt on Sam's arm. It's a binding link and the demon has trapped itself in Sam's body. Bobby doesn't know how to break it. Not good.

The devil's trap then cracks. Not!Sam cracks his neck and proclaims "There, that's better." He slams Bobby and Dean against the wall with his mind and busts out of the ropes. Not!Sam goes over to Dean, grabs him, and starts the evil villain monologuing. "When people describe the worst possible thing, they say it's like Hell." He punches Dean. "Hell, it's like (punches Dean), well it's like Hell. Even for demons. A prison made of bone and flesh and blood and fear (punches Dean). And you sent me back there."



Dean, blood streaming out of his nose, figures out who he's dealing with. Meg. Meg so cleverly points out now she's Sam. She's really hot in that body too. Meg punches him again and digs into Dean's wound with Sam's thumb. "I saw your dad there. He says howdi." Meg goes on, mentioning how all she dreamed about was coming back and torturing Dean nice and slow, like "pulling the wings off an insect." That's a nice graphic metaphor.



Dean groans some more in pain, so Meg goes for the psychological torture next, because demons do that, "But whatever I do to you, it's nothing compared to what you do to yourself is it? I can see it in your eyes Dean. You're worthless. You couldn't save your dad, and deep down, you know that you can't save your brother. They'd have been better off without you."



Meg goes to deliver one more blow but Bobby swoops in from behind and grabs Sam's arm, putting a red hot fire poker on the binding link. A ton of black smoke pours out of a yelling Sam, escaping through the chimney. Sam collaspes, Dean tries to pull himself together and Bobby watches stunned. Sam comes to, winces over the pain in his burning arm, and is really disoriented. He looks and Dean and Bobby in total confusion. "Did I miss anything?" An over the edge Dean reaches out with what little strength he's got left and punches Sam in the jaw. Then Dean falls over in pain while Sam clutches his jaw with no clue as to why that just happened. End scene with Sam's befuddlement, and our laughter.



Sam and Dean sit at Bobby's desk. Dean has an ice pack on his eye, Sam has one on his arm. They both look awful and Sam decides to point out the obvious. "By the way, you really look like crap, Dean." "Yeah, right back at ya." Aww, they just need a little mothering. Here boys, I'll make it all better.

Bobby comes in, looking bothered about something. He asks if they've heard of a guy named Steve Wandell. He was murdered in his house. Dean plays dumb, but Sam looks guilty as Hell. Still, they admit nothing, despite Sam's small protest. Bobby tells them to keep it that way, because Wandell's buddies are "looking for something or someone to string up." They apparently aren't the kind of guys who will listen to the "I was possessed by a vengeful demon" excuse. Dean says they're ready to leave, but where do they think they're going at this hour? They both have obviously been through a lot. They should hang at Uncle Bobby's for a few days and get some rest.

Bobby gives them both some anti-possession charms. The demon is still out there, so its their best defense. It's been widely speculated that it was around this time they took these charms to a tattoo artist and got the anti-possession symbols from in "Jus In Bello" inked onto their chests. I would imagine that was as good a time as any.



Bobby tells them to be careful, and oh how his concern over the boys get me. I love how he's way better than their own Dad. I love how Dean told him he was like a father to him later. Sam looks back at Bobby with humble gratitude, but the guilt is still pouring from him. Dean also gives Bobby a look of thanks, but more of a "we'll see what happens next" glance.





REO Speedwagon comes on. REO is another classic rock band I never cared for but if there is one song of theirs I did like, it's "Back On The Road Again." Still, it didn't fit here in my opinion. It's too upbeat for the really somber tone this episode has had so far. This is where some depressing grunge would be better.

Anyway, the boys are in the Impala, and Sam is somber and quiet. Dean is naturally concerned and asks Sam if he's okay. Uh duh, I think not! Needless to say, Sam doesn't answer right away. Sam then admits he was awake for some of it. He watched himself kill Wandell with his own two hands and saw the light go out in his eyes. What's bothering him the most though is that Dean wouldn't kill him, even when he almost carved up Jo. Wow, what an ungrateful brother.

Dean defends himself, saying it wasn't Sam. "Yeah, this time. What about next time?" "Sam when Dad told me that I might have to kill you, it was only if I couldn't save you. Now if its the last thing I do, I'm going to save you." Awww. Sam isn't comforted by this though, so Dean makes a joke instead. "Dude, you like full-on girl had a girl inside you for a whole week. It's pretty naughty." Dean laughs, Sam smiles. Fade to credits.

That ending right there triggers some criticism on my part, but not for this episode. Sam just went through one of the most horrific experiences of his life. He's riddled with guilt, with uncertainty, with lack of confidence in Dean being able to do the right thing should he go evil. With the exception of two comments in "Jus In Bello" a whole season later, we never see the ramifications of this ordeal on Sam. It's almost like it was all made better by one joke and everything reset back to normal. It's a missed opportunity, and that continued story arc would have played out great. However, in Kripke's defense, the show looked like it was going to be cancelled after season two, so I could see where those extra arcs couldn't be explored. They avoided that chance though for BornUnderABadSign like "Roadkill," "Hollywood Babylon," and "Folsom Prison Blues?" For a viewer looking back like this, it feels off.

My grade on this episode is an A+. Definitely a classic. The squandered Sam story line mars the season for me, but not the episode.