From MadCap's Couch - "Supernatural: Houses of the Holy"

Bliiiiinded by the light!

Happy Week of Christmas, everyone!

. . .yeah, there isn't a Christmas episode in Season 2. Sue me. You're getting this.

House of the Holy gives us...not a recap to start off? Will wonders ever cease?!

A woman, smoking heavily and sitting surrounded by angel statues, watches some bad television when the lights start flickering wildly. Even though she turns off the television, it comes back on and a televangelist rants about God speaking to all his children and that they have a purpose....and, as he does, the entire house gets shaken as though by an earthquake. The woman turns to see a bright light shrouding a figure in her doorway...

. . .and we cut to the opening title card.

I get that same reaction whenever I watch an RTD episode of Doctor Who.

Sam, posing as an asylum employee, questions the woman - Gloria - several days later. Apparently, Gloria is in an asylum after having stabbed a man to death. When Sam asks her why she killed the man, Gloria tells him that the angel told her to do it. The angel had told her the man was guilty down to his deepest foundations.

After that particularly unnerving scene, cut to Dean at the motel putting to use the bed's magic fingers. Because comic relief. Dean gets a bit annoyed, mentioning that Sam has had him on lockdown since what happened in Milwaukee, though Sam rightly points out that that's why he has Dean on lockdown. Can't just have someone who is wanted by the FBI traipsing into a government building, after all!

While Dean think Gloria is crazy, Sam isn't so sure. However, Sam does refute the claim that the man was evil - he wasn't able to find anything on the man. He also points out that this is the second person that has claimed that an angel told them to kill someone, something which Dean refutes: angels don't exist, after all. When Sam points out that there's more lore on angel than any other supernatural creature that exists, Dean gives what I like to call the Unicorn argument:

Sam takes it well, turning it into a joke. Nevertheless, Dean doesn't believe it's an angel, he only believes in things that he can see. This is either a spirit or a demon. The pair head out to check the house of the murder victim, seeing as Gloria said the angel had given her a sign that the man was evil and needed to be murdered.

They find a plastic angel statue (which Dean mocks Sam over) and then begin actually searching. Finding a cellar door, Sam remembers Gloria said the man was "guilty to his deepest foundations" and the two head down, finding a fingernail in the wall and further within they dig up a dead body. So, whatever it was that told Gloria to kill someone knew what they were talking about.

Elsewhere, a man - Zack - heavily drinking finds his lights flickering, his room getting rocked, and that same white light has come to him. Leaving his home, walking down the street, he finds bright light illuminating a doorway and proceeds toward it with murderous intent. A man answers the door and is promptly stabbed in the gut. The camera panning away to show an angel statue out front.

Dean listens to a police radio and looks mournfully toward the magic finger machine. Sam returns with food and news: three students have disappeared from the college campus, all of them connected to the first murder victim. Dean tells Sam that the "angel" has struck again, and they head off to the house of the man who got murdered by Zack. They hack the man' computer and Sam finds emails from a woman named Jennifer...who is thirteen years old and said emails very personal.

Don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead...

Say it with me, kiddos: EWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Another victim who was hiding an evil crime...as Sam puts it "an avenging angel". From a newsletter, the boys work out that at least two of the victims went to the same church - Our Lady of Angels. They speak to the Father - Father Reynolds - who tells them that the men were all parishioners of his church. While he does believe in angels, the man doesn't believe that angels would command anyone to kill in God's name.

Given what happens in Season 4 and onward, he's right: they do it themselves, but we'll get to that in due time.

We also get what I think is the first introduction of one of the Archangels in Supernatural, namely Michael from a stained glass window. Reynolds referring to the angels as "kind and loving" is especially ironic given later seasons. Again, we'll get there when we get there.

Outside, they find a small shrine to a former Father, Gregory. The man had apparently been a priest there, but was shot for his car keys two months previously and was interred there at the church. Reynolds tells Sam and Dean that he didn't have time to administer his last rites. While Dean thinks this is unquestionably a vengeful spirit, Sam still holds to the angel theory. When Dean confronts him on this, Sam tells Dean that he prays every day and has done for a long time. Dean seems very put off by this but, as we've come to expect from Dean, he deflects.

The pair go into the crypt to check the body, where Sam is witness to a choppy vibrating angel statue effect and sees the bright light. When Dean comes back to check on him, he finds Sam sprawled out on the floor. Sam is alright in body, at least, and he is stunned at having just seen an angel. Dean remains skeptical (even giving him his flask to work out his problems in a short, funny exchange), but Sam insists that the angel knew who he was and spoke directly to him.

Sam has been told that the man he's supposed to kill hasn't done anything bad...yet. This leads to an argument between the pair of them about their respective faith. We get a bit of backstory where Dean tells Sam that Mary used to tell him that angels were watching over him. It was the last thing she ever said to him. Hence, we get the reason why Dean doesn't believe in God or any higher power - the world is filled with random, unpredictable evil.

The boys head back to the crypt and find wormwood all over the grave, a plant usually associated with the dead who are not at rest. Dean plans to summon Gregory's spirit via a séance. If it's a spirit, he'll show up. If it's actually an angel, nothing will happen and they'll have proof positive. The boys go to get supplies and Sam sees the light behind a man on the street: the mark of someone the "angel" has ordered him to kill.

Sam declares his intention not to kill the man, but stop him. Dean tricks Sam by locking the Impala doors and going after the man, leaving Sam behind on the street corner. Dean trails the man, finding nothing much out of the ordinary. He picks up a woman and then leaves.

So that's what boobs look like!

Back at the church, Sam does the séance to summon Gregory's spirit and gets caught by Reynolds, who is indeed incensed by Sam performing it in the House of God. However, the séance works and Father Gregory is revealed as a spirit and not an angel. Gregory tries to tell Sam to go and kill the man, but Sam refutes him and insists that he's a spirit  that needs to rest. Gregory, though, is convinced that he's an angel and not a spirit and that his murders have been righteous smiting of the wicked.

Reynolds rebukes Gregory for his murders, saying that "thou shall not kill" is a pretty big law that God must follow.

Meanwhile, the man Sam was tagged to kill attempts to kill a woman in his car. Dean intervenes and saves her, the man managing to drive off. After making sure the woman is alright, Dean pursues.

Reynolds gives Gregory his last rites. Also, Reynolds calls upon a second archangel - Raphael - during the ceremony. Upon completion, the bright light overtakes Gregory and he disappears into the next life. Dean, meanwhile, is still pursuing the attempted murderer. The chase leads into a crossroad where a truck loses a bit of metal piping...which impales the man through the chest, apparently killing him instantly.

Sam and Dean reunite at the motel, both a great deal more somber than before. Sam is disheartened about Gregory having been a spirit rather than an actual angel. He wanted to believe so hard that something could be good in a world that is so full of evil and darkness and that he worries about his destiny. Dean reaffirms that he's watching out for Sam and Sam says he's aware, but he knows. He just hoped that he could believe in something better, that in the end he might be able to be saved.

While he tries to claim Dean was right all along, Dean tells him about what happened to the man in the car...he was bad news and the man did die, and the only way that Dean can justify it is (being that he saw it)…god's will.

And that was Houses of the Holy. It's a pretty good one and done episode that advances the both the characters. We get a more in-depth look at the psychology of both Sam and Dean and their respective views on faith, largely why they believe what they do as well as both coming, I think, to better understand their views on things by the end.

The mentions of angels for the first real time in the show is both intriguing and a little heartbreaking knowing what comes in the seasons following this one. Kripke's original intention for the show did not actually involve God or angels, though that very obviously changed by the time of Season 4. Nevertheless, it's neat that they chose to play around with the idea in this episode as well as set up some unintentional foreshadowing for later seasons.

"Remember, Highlander...you've both still got your full measure of life. Use it well, and your future will be glorious!"

Next time, have Sam's fears of turning evil come true? Will Dean be able to save his brother from the monster he has become or is something even more nefarious at play? Sam may just be Born Under a Bad Sign.

Be there!