From MadCap's Couch - "Supernatural: Salvation"

"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."
"What is your sin, my child?"
"I made Supernatural go on for a decade longer than it should have."
"...there's no hope for you. You're going to Hell, my child."

Salvation is an episode that, like many episodes in the early days, is noteable for a number of reasons. First and foremost, as we see the moment we start off, is that the recap title card reads "The Road So Far" and is set (for the first of many times) to "Carry on My Wayward Son" by Kansas. This will become a staple of Season finales to come, and it is indeed the Season finale as we are finally down to the last two episodes of Season 1.

Only took me way too long to get here, I admit!

After the opening, a Pastor - Pastor Jim Murphy - is tending to a sinner who has come into his church, namely Meg. She tells him that she's done terrible things such as lying, stealing, lusting. . .and murder, as she reveals demonic black eyes. Murphy mentions that demons can't exist on hollowed ground which, kind of like the racist ghost truck back in Route 666 not being able to go on hollowed ground, is never really brought up again after the first Season.

Meg is looking for the Winchesters. When Jim tells her that he doesn't know where the Winchesters are and wouldn't tell her if he did, she replies that she knows. . .and then kills him.

Back at the ranch, or rather the motel room, John shows Sam and Dean all the data he's collected tracking the Pilot from Con Air. Electrical storms, temperature drops, you name it John's got it. When the reveal comes that the death of Mary happened on the night that Sam turned six months old and that others have been occurring as well, Sam has some angst over Mary's death being his fault - something that Dean is noteably very quick to refute.

Also over Jess, considering the signs were apparently happening in California as well before her death about a year ago.

The signs have picked up again, this time around the town of Salvation, Iowa. While they're enroute, John gets a call from a hunter named Caleb about Jim having been found dead. John tells the boys that time is of the essence. . . which is why he stopped them in the middle of the highway to have this discussion instead of waiting until they got to where they were going. The brothers and their father break off into groups to tackle the two hospitals and find records of any child that will be six months old as of tonight.

Dean, of course, finds an opportunity to flirt with the cute receptionist at one hospital because he's Dean.

Sam starts having visions, seeing a woman in white with a baby in a nursery. There's the sound of a train going by, causing him to go out and look for the house, eventually managing to use a map to narrow it down. . .and just so happening to run into the woman in question, Monica. Her baby, Rosie, is such a quiet, almost angelic little thing who Monica almost thinks can read her mind. Rosie was, incidentally, born six months ago to the day.

Sam tells her to take care of herself, and then has a vision of her being murdered to death on the ceiling, her belly cut open and flames surrounding her and her baby. He then tells John about these visions. When John demands to know why they didn't call him the moment these things started happening, Dean carries on a bit more of the momentum from Dead Man's Blood and gives John hell for not picking up the phone all the other times that he and Sam have called.

John doesn't like Dean's new tone, but can't deny that his oldest boy is right.

"Glenn had it coming, don't @ me!"

Meg calls, having Caleb tied up. She makes it clear to John that she wants the Colt and, until she gets it, she's going to kill every single person that the Winchesters call a friend. John agrees, much to Sam and Dean's exasperation. Meg sets up their meeting time - a warehouse in Lincoln, Nebraska, at midnight. John has Dean go and purchase an antique pistol, hoping to pass it off as the Colt. He gives the real one to Sam and Dean, telling the boys that this is their fight to finish, now.

It's actually a really well-done, bittersweet moment. John entrusting the boys with the Colt so that they can do this, a full reversal from his original plan in Dead Man's Blood. It's very well done. Again, as I said in Dead Man's Blood, the Winchester men's actors are absolutely top notch together. John does tell the boys, too, that he's tired. He wants this to be over, he wants Sam to be able to go to college and for Dean to have a home. In short, Jeffrey Dean Morgan presents to us a weary man who has been trying for so, so long to achieve this end and now it's firmly within his grasp. He doesn't want to lose it.

Also, for those keeping score, there are four bullets left in the Colt. John tells the boys to make every shot count.

Getting to Lincoln, John sneaks around and rigs the water system with rosary beads and a little prayer to make holy water, while he narrowly avoids Meg stalking around the place. This is intercut with Sam and Dean in the Impala outside Monica's house. After a scene where the boys jokingly debate just going in and telling Monica and her husband the truth, there is a genuinely emotional scene where Sam gives Dean the whole "it's been an honor" speech. Dean takes it well, and by "well", I mean he tells Sam to stow it. He's not dying, neither is Sam nor Monica and her family. No one else is dying tonight - just the Demon.

Finally, John faces down Meg and her "brother" Tom as we'll later discover. Meg gets the "Colt" from John and gives it to Tom. . .who tests it on her. The jig being up, John makes a break for it and uses the pipes to hold off the demons so he can escape. . .only to find the tires of his truck slashed and later getting pinned against a wall, captured.

Back in Salvation, Sam and Dean hear the radio static and see lights flickering, knowing that the time has come. After a minor altercation with Monica's husband, Dean subdues him and Sam gets to the nursery in time to shoot at the Demon. . .sadly missing it. However, Monica and her baby are saved before the nursery goes up in flames. Once outside, they see the Demon's silhouette in the smoke and Dean manages to keep Sam from going back into the blaze after it.

Sam is less than pleased about this, and lets Dean know it. They have an argument about whether or not this hunt is worth them dying recklessly over. When Dean says that he hopes they never find the Demon if it means that Sam won't just throw his life away, Sam slams Dean up against the motel room wall (not like that, fangirls, calm down!) in a perfect parallel to a scene in another episode, likewise telling Dean not to talk that way.

Just one of the many acts of brotherly love on this show!

Dean does manage to talk Sam down, however, telling him that he doesn't know how he's holding everything together and that Sam and John are all he has left now. This done, Meg picks up John's phone when the boys call again - telling them that they're never going to see their father again.

"Yes, I would like to place an order for delivery. Meg. I think I'm in the computer?
Yes, that's it! I'd like a large...what? Huh? EXTRA THICK!
Thirty minutes or it's free? EXCELLENT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Then those three little words come up on the screen. . .

To. . .

Be. . .

Continued. . .

And continued it shall be in the Season finale, Devil's Trap. However, what of Salvation? It's pretty damn good. Supernatural (generally) does really good build ups with their finales and even gets some satisfying pay offs for them as well - though Season 2 and 5 in particular stand out for me as absolutely satisfying. Will Devil's Trap meet that expectation?

You'll have to come back next week to find out, as we find a new ally for the Brothers Winchester and see if they can save John and defeat Tom Baxter. Be there!

Supernatural is the property of Warner Brothers and the CW.

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