From MadCap's Couch - "Supernatural: Hook Man"

"Does this bridge look familiar?" "Shut up, Laurie..."

"No" means "No." Don't be a dick.

Oh, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. This is Hook, another of Supernatural's spins on an American urban legend - this time being that of the Hook Man legend.  We start out with a young woman named Laurie and her roommate discussing a party that evening. Laurie's roommate gives her a red cleavage-y top and tells her to live a little.  She and her boyfriend have a little makeout session under a bridge and her boyfriend decides to not live a little...getting out of the car and being attacked by an invisible attacker after not realizing that "No" does, in fact, mean "no".

See, now you see where I was going with that.

Nevertheless, afterwards, it's Sam and Dean to the rescue. Or, rather, Sam and Dean to come and investigate as they are wont to do in such situations.  In a shocking turn of events - Sam's still found no sign of John anywhere. Shock of shocks. Dean, on the other hand, actually wants to get the plot along and presents Sam with the scenario of Laurie's boyfriend getting skewered by the invisible attacker.

Arriving, they pose as frat boys from another university and get some exposition from the victim's housemates, which points them in the direction of Laurie - learning that she is also the local  Reverend's daughter. They meet, Dean having to bite the bullet and make small talk with the Reverend while Sam questions Laurie about what she saw. She apparently is stuck as suspect number one to the police and has nearly convinced herself that what she saw was her imagination, though Sam convinces her otherwise.

"Paint me like one of your French girls..."

At the library, Sam relates the rest of the story to Dean (pity she couldn't tell that, but whatever) about how she saw the body of her boyfriend suspended over the car - a textbook example of the Hook Man legend in action. So they hit the books and arrest records, eventually coming up with a name.  Preacher Jacob Karn had a hand replaced with a silver hook and later went on to murder several prostitutes.

Back at the sorority house, Laurie and her father have an argument that literally nobody cares about before she storms off up to her room and witnesses a red herring before seeing that her roommate is asleep and going about her business not bothering her.

Sam and Dean, meanwhile, head back to the site of the murder seeing as Karn's murders all took place in the same area.  With rock salt - a spirit deterrent - in tow, they don't get far before they get caught by the fuzz.

Back at the sorority, Laurie settles into bed and her roommate settles into getting Freddy Krueger'd as the ghost is apparently inside the room!!! And the next morning, Laurie wakes up to find her roommate skewered like a wild boar in her bed and a message scrawled on the wall "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" Which is, itself, another urban legend.

...and it doesn't really make sense, given that that is a completely different urban legend. And the thought of the ghost having that much pop culture awareness and that much of a sense of humor seems really, really unlike given the character we've been prese-

MadCap Crossed The Streams: 4

...oh, nevermind. The point is, Laurie's roommate is dead. Sam and Dean, meanwhile, get out due to Dean's clever use of "Nah, he's a pledge, brah!". Thus, they're in the perfect place to be there when the call about Laurie's roommate breaks out and follow them to the crime scene. Sam and Dean drive by and see Laurie and she sees them...but they don't stop, just driving off. Laurie's father gets the sheriff to agree to let him take her home after the ordeal.

I CROSSED THE STREAMS? NO, YOU CROSSED THE STREAMS!!!

Heading further down, Sam and Dean check out the crime scene and discuss why the spirit of Jacob Karn isn't haunting the site of his murders, chalking it up to him being raised from the dead by something else. After a would be tense moment where the cops are useless anyway, Sam and Dean find the inscription on the wall and say that it definitely is the Hook Man legend.  Which is bull because it's a completely separate urban legend that has no relation to-

MadCap Crossed The Streams: 5

...seriously?

Yes.

...fine. Within the inscription, Sam recognizes a symbol, the same symbol that was on the hook hand of Jacob Karn.  Thus, it's definitely the spirit of Jacob Karn and it's time to salt and burn...provided they can find the unmarked grave that he was laid to rest in. Dean latches on to Laurie as having something to do with it. By that evening, they're back at the frat house but can't find her there, seeing as one generally doesn't go to a party after finding out their roommate just became the blue plate special at the Hannibal Lecter diner.

Sam, however, has come up with something useful - there have been several arrests of clergymen in the town's history who preached against immorality, claiming that deaths were carried out by some invisible force.  With this, they think that the Reverend may be responsible for Jacob Karn attacking people, using it to protect his daughter or that he may be even subconsciously doing it.

With that, they split up - Dean to try and find the grave, Sam to keep an eye on Laurie. Dean succeeds with surprisingly little issue (finding a gravestone with the same sigil as on the hook) while Sam witnesses Laurie and her father arguing as he sets shop outside.  Afterwards, she comes out and they have a discussion about their mutual grief and the fact that they're both death magnets for the people around them.

"Dean, why'd we come to a party to have this conversation?" "Shut up, Sam."

We also get some traumatic stuff about Laurie's father dating a married woman that we really, really don't care about because they're all characters of the day. However, it does set him up to be on the chopping block as we should all pretty much expect at this point because - again - characters of the day. Laurie does say, however, that she was raised to believe that when you do something wrong...you should be punished.

Also, Sam comes dangerously close to getting him some because mutual grief is sexy...but he stops himself and says he can't because of what happened to Jess.

Oh, and the Reverend gets the hook.  No shock there. Though Sam is able to save him by utilizing rock salt, he has to be taken to the hospital.  There, Sam is questioned by the police who find it suspicious that Sam and Dean are always around when trouble strikes.  Sam relates the story to Dean, telling him that the salting and burning did nothing, and believes that Karn's spirit might be latching onto Laurie, rather than her father.  Her boyfriend tried to go to far, her roommate tried to change her personality, and now this has thrown her into complete emotional turmoil, and thus Karn is out and about.

When asking about the bones, though...Sam asks about the hook, which Dean notes wasn't there.  So it's not so much Laurie as it is...the hook. Provided they can find it. And that they do, hitting the books once more as Dean finds the personal effects of Karn from an old prison logbook, saying that they were all returned to Karn's place of worship upon his death...which would explain why Karn's spirit has been haunting Reverends and Reverends' daughters for years.

"Oh, c'mon, baby. I'm Jared Padalecki. Don't you wanna say you got with Jared Padalecki?"

Some further digging is required - because they sure as hell didn't see a silver hook in the church while they were there - and they learn that it was reforged, though the log doesn't specify just what it was reforged into.  So they break into the Church, going with a scorched Earth policy - if it's silver, it burns. And they go through doing just that, throwing everything into the furnace in the basement...until they hear the creaking of the floorboards. Heading upstairs, they find Laurie praying in the pews.

Sam comes to comfort her, Laurie apparently believing she's at fault for all of this, believing that she's somehow summoned up an Avenging Angel to do this.  Sam assures her that Jacob Karn is no angel...and I'll give the long-standing fans of the show a moment to laugh about this...

...no, take your time.

...

...okay, moving on.

But Laurie is not to be convinced and, unfortunately, comments that she deserves to be punished, too...and the ghost of Jacob Karn is lying in wait. He attacks, Sam and Laurie fleeing but not without Sam getting wounded rather grievously.  When Karn corners Laurie, Dean comes to the rescue and blasts him with rock salt.  It is then that Sam and Dean notice Laurie's necklace, apparently an old church heirloom that is apparently silver.

Sam takes the shotgun and Dean runs the necklace down to the furnace to destroy it. And of course, at the last moment, Karn is destroyed in a really awesome effect shot where the silver of the hook melts and the rest of his body burns away into ash.  Much like the demon effects back in Phantom Traveler, it's definitely a step above what we'll get for spirits later in the series, so kudos there.

Thus, the day is saved. The cops arrive to assess the damage to the church and get everyone's stories about the man with the hook. Laurie and Sam have a moment after Sam gets bandaged up. She thanks him for saving their lives before Sam heads back to the Impala. Dean offers him a chance to stay, but Sam just shakes his head and it's back off to the open road for them.

"With my last breath...I CURSE ZOIDBERG!!!"

This is not a bad episode and the only real issue I have with it is the mixing of two separate urban legends in the aforemention rant that crossed the streams twice. I do like it, though I do find Laurie and her father to both be very bland and one-dimensional, particularly Laurie who I'm sure Sam actually left behind because he couldn't stand the constant "oh, woe is me!" personality. Especially when you compare her to Charlie from Bloody Mary a few weeks ago.

Charlie actually got involved in the plot and, while she did end up needing to be saved by Sam and Dean (after all, the heroes do actually have to do something), she was at least somewhat proactive and didn't spend her entire time onscreen whining about how terrible the situation was. But again, Laurie's only a character of the week so we don't really care about it.

Next week, we're going to get involved in something that bugs a lot of Supernatural fans, even to this day. But is Bugs really so bad as everyone claims? You'll just have to check out the next review to find out...

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