Constant Cravings

The shit is getting real again on Supernatural as the end of the season draws near and we get ever closer to the big show-down between good and evil, Micheal and Luci, Dean and Sam.

Now that Kripke and Co. have decided that free will is so much bullshit, I kind of don't understand why we keep going around and around with the "will they or won't they give up their bodies for the fight to the death" hooey. I mean, if that's their destiny and free will is an illusion and destiny can't be changed no matter what, then aren't we kind of just killing time until the season finale?

Whatever, as episodes go, it was pretty good. Provided you don't want everything to make sense.

First it seems like we've got a rogue cupid on our hands - cupids being the cherub contingent of angels (third class) who are chubby and loving and naked - when a rash of lovers off each other and themselves in awesomely gruesome ways. But then people are dying in other gross ways like Twinky overdoses (with toilet brush chasers), and drinking themselves to death, and deep frying themselves. That's when Cas notices that his sudden insatiable hunger for red meat can mean only one thing - Famine done arrived on his black horse to usher in another section of the Apocalypse Parade.

I thought Famine would starve everyone but what it does is create a craving in everyone so strong that it can not be sated and they stop at nothing to fill it, ultimately leading to their own ruination and then Famine feasts on their souls. The guy they got to play Famine looks just like the kind of creepy-ass bastard who'd eat souls too. SHUDDER!

So Cas has the beef addiction and Sam has once again gone cuckoo for demon blood, but Dean doesn't seem to be craving anything. He doesn't want to pick up lonely, horny chicks and he isn't even hungry - it's like opposite day on Supernatural. Cas thinks there's something up (and so does Sam but he's got enough of his own problems that he really doesn't have time to wrestle a discussion of feelings out of his brother) but Dean insists that he's just plenty well fed.

Sam has Dean and Cas chain him to the hotel sink and barricade the bathroom door while they go find Famine and de-ring the old coot. But Famine, in turn, sends a couple of hapless demons to free Sammy and let the vessel of Satan roam free. Worst mistake those idiots have ever made. No sooner have they let Sam out of the toity than he feasts on their blood. It's completely gross and pretty damn awesome.

While Cas sits on the floor eating a metric ton of raw beef, Dean and Famine confab: turns out that Dean's lack of "hunger" is due to the fact that he's empty on the inside. Now, here's where I got confused because he clearly has a heart (the "feelings" kind of heart not the organ that pumps his blood) and he cares about things (as evidenced by his tearful plea to God at the end), so are we to take from this "emptiness" that Dean doesn't have a soul? And if there is no soul in there, what the hell does THAT mean? I mean, really, what does any of that mean? This is too effing confusing!

Well before my head could explode with questions, in comes Sam all covered in blood. While Dean is without hunger, Sam has as much as anyone else but will never be felled by it because...apparently the devil's vessel has a stronger constitution than most. Makes sense, I guess. (Also, shame about the bloody mess because while I thought Padelecki was looking a bit neck-less and puffy in his faux FBI suit, his plaid western shirt and jeans were a sight to behold and then all the blood sort of distracted me from the hotness again.) With a fresh batch of demon blood in him, he once again has the power to smite demons with his bare hand, so he does. Then Famine gobbles up all the body-less demon souls. Then Sam does his hand thing again, which obviously won't work on Famine, but works on the souls he just feasted on. But what it does to those souls is vague and puzzling because what it does to the demon souls when they're in people bodies is pull them out, but it appears that what it does to them when they're in Famine is...make them explode? I don't know!

The implication is that they've killed Famine.

That's especially interesting since they could merely cut War's finger off and steal his ring and they couldn't even manage that much with Death so that guy's just been trotting around the plains states on his horse racking up a body count since before Christmas! But Famine they can kill with exploding demon souls?

WTF, Kripke?

In the end, Dean and Cas have Sam locked up in Bobby's chamber of demonic torture and despair while he detoxes AGAIN from the blood. Oh yeah, and Dean pleads with the man upstairs to help him out in this nightmare. I hope God's listening because I just do not want to see the Winchester boys fight each other as nothing more than meat suits for a couple of petulant angels!