From MadCap's Couch - "Supernatural: Dead Man's Blood"

. . .it is my very favorite gun.

Now we come to one of my favorite supernatural creatures before Stephanie Meyer ruined them - the vampire!

And no, Supernatural vampires don't sparkle.

Our episode begins with a man named Daniel Elkins feverishly going through some collected papers of his in a bar, aloof to the bartender and seemingly completely oblivious to the world around him. . .until some new people enter, who he seems to recognize. By the time the bartender gets back to him, however, Daniel Elkins is gone, having taken his truck and left up to a lodge. Hurried getting inside, he finds himself face to face with the woman from the group, who he greets by throwing a dagger into the chest of. This seems to annoy her, as her eyes flash silver for a moment. Taking the time to barricade himself in his office, Daniel goes to a safe and pulls out a gun case, pulling from it a pistol that will become very familiar to us very soon.

Unfortunately, he doesn't get the opportunity to use it before not one, but three individuals (two coming down from the skylights in the room) subdue him. The woman takes the gun, mocking him for thinking he could use it on them. She then announces to the two others that they're eating in tonight, and Daniel screams bloody murder.

Sam and Dean are still on the road, having stopped at a restaurant. There's a mention of a woman who fell 10,000 feet from an airplane and survived (which they dismiss as not their thing) and mentions of Sarah from last episode. Sam looks through the computer and finds out about Daniel Elkins' death, which the police were ruling as a bear attack but now are considering murder since there are clear signs of robbery. The name strikes a chord with Dean, and he checks John's journal. Sure enough, there's a "D. Elkins" with a phone number that has a Colorado area code.

The boys head there and check the place out from top to bottom. There are salt lines at the door and some writings (that date back to the 1960's) that convince the boys that Elkins was a hunter. As they search, someone is watching them from outside. The boys eventually make it to the office where Elkins was killed, finding the empty gun case. . .and a message left by Elkins for John in scratches on the floor - the location and combination of a post office box.

In a transition, they hunt it down and indeed find that it is for John - an envelop marked "J.W." is the only thing there. Speak of the Devil and he appears, John Winchester knocks on the window before climbing into the Impala. He gets them up to speed and gets up to speed on what's going on. John had apparently come to check on Elkins as well, Elkins having taught him a lot about hunting before the two had a falling out for reasons John doesn't go into detail about.

"How that talk with the Walking Dead guys go?"
"Not good, Dean. Not good."

John reads the letter, asking the boys if they found a gun - an antique revolver. Dean mentions the case and John tells them they have to pick up the trail. When Sam presses him for information, John tells his sons that vampires are afoot. . .something that they all believed were extinct.

Which is kind of funny when you consider that they're the fourth-most common recurring creature on the show after demons, angels, and ghosts. . .but never mind me and logic coming into it. More on that later.

We see the vampires in their nest as John narrates some exposition. Most of vampire lore is completely wrong: crosses do nothing, sunlight and a stake to the heart won't kill them. They do have bloodlust, though, and a lot of it.

A couple driving down the highway is subjected to a fake out by the vampires, who jump them.

After a commercial break, John picks up radio chatter from the police and wakes the boys up to go investigate it, believing that it's connected. It turns out that John's hunch is correct - a 911 call was placed about a body in the road, but no one was there when the police arrived.

This leads to Sam pulling on the perceived reins that John is putting on them, but John does prove they're on the right track by producing a vampire fang taken from the scene. In the car, Dean drops a bit of lore about vampire nests and Sam takes issues with John's leadership skills, Dean defending the man. Sam is, needless to say, exasperated.

Luther would have made a very interesting recurring antagonist.
Not that Supernatural is a show that needs recurring antagonists.
cc: Whoever decided Crowley needed to live past Season 6

At the vampire nest, the vampires do vampire like things. Their leader, Luther, returns and the female vampire from earlier - Kate - tells him about the death of Elkins, which he is less than pleased about. However, he's a bit more awed when she produces the pistol she took from Elkins' place. He seems to recognize it and tells Kate that it's no ordinary gun.

Back at the plot, Dean has a quick conversation with John on the phone that leads to Sam nearly causing a wreck and confronting John. Sam demands to know what is going on and, when John tells him to do as he's told, Sam tells him to stow it. The old arguments flare up again, John insisting that Sam abandoned them, Sam holding that John was simply pissed off that he couldn't control him anymore. Dean breaks it up before it comes to blows.

So back at the vampires, the woman from the couple gets turned by Kate while Luther watches approvingly.

The next morning, presumably, the brothers and father Winchester are outside Luther's nest and John brings up the only direct way to kill a vampire - beheading. However, he has a brilliant plan - charge in machetes blazing. As they gear up, John begins to monologue again - this time about the Colt. Rather than summarize, I'm just gonna play the clip for you, because it's just that damn good. . .

TL;DW (Or the video gets taken down in the future) - Samuel Colt made a gun. 13 bullets, only six left. This gun can kill anything.

I will give Jeffrey Dean Morgan credit, though, he tells it waaaaay better. Regardless, this is why John wants the Colt - because it can kill Professor Michael Slateman. With this in their minds, they head in and the killing begins! . . .okay, not exactly. They sneak about, John tries to get a hold of the Colt while Sam and Dean find the woman from before and a bunch of other hostages in a kennel.

The former of the two screams, awakening the entire nest. The boys book it, leaving some openings for the sunlight and there's a moment where they think John might not have made it.  . .but he has, and tells them that they have to prepare, looking for a funeral home.

Dean goes, and John and Sam have a chance to talk at the motel room. It's another really good scene where John tells Sam about setting up a college fund for him when he was a baby, putting $100 into it every month and had done the same for Dean as well. His point was that he had never wanted this life for Sam, and he tells Sam that Mary's death broke him. He saw evil everywhere, and he realized that that made him get to a point where he stopped being a father.

It had never occurred to him what Sam wanted.

Sam admits, when John says they're different, that the two of them aren't that different. Not anymore, anyway.

(Also the fact that Sam is so much like John that it's painful, but that's not going to be evident until later)

Also, that college fund? Money for ammo.

Dean returns with a jar of Dead Man's Blood - which can weaken and even paralyze a vampire when it's injected into them.

They set up a trap, drawing in Kate and one of the mook vampires. They hit her with the Dead Man's Blood and cart her off, while John executes the mook.

Also, of note, one of the few times we see them pull a Buffy and use crossbows. Neat!

The Winchester Men powwow after, John telling the boys to get out of the area. He's taking on the vampires and getting the Colt - alone - reasoning that Luther is going to want Kate back. After all, vampires mate for life. . . again, little bit weird, but moving on. When Sam questions him about meeting up with them, John is clearly not wanting to have Sam and Dean involved as he goes after the Demon.

. . .and then Dean, of all people, tells John that he's full of crap.

They've hunted some terrible things, and John has sent them after terrible things himself. Dean pegs John for exactly what he's being - a reckless asshole. John insists that watching the boys die, after watching Mary die, is something he can't do.

Both the boys are onboard for hunting this together. John, however, changes the subject: telling them to do their job and get out of the area.

The vampires are massing like Bella Swan needs a lobotomy, Luther leading them after John.

"You did what to Glenn?!"

While Luther and the others are distracted by John, Sam and Dean kill the last vampire in the nest and free the humans left in the kennel. John squares off with Luther, using Kate as a hostage. However, Kate gets the upperhand on him and the vampires move to take him out. . .with him saved only by the timely arrival of Sam and Dean!

In the struggle that follows, Luther gets a hold of Sam and threatens to break his neck if Dean doesn't drop his weapon. . .which he does. John, however, shoves Luther's whining about vampires having as much right to live as they do in his face. . .along with the first shot from the Colt on the show. The impact crater erupts in the head, Luther stumbles a bit (losing Sam in the interim) his skull flashing across his face for a moment. The wind picks up. . .and he falls to the ground, dead.

Kate is set on vengeance, but the woman from the couple earlier pulls her away and they make an escape. . .never to be seen again.

Needless to say, the Colt works.

At the motel, John seems to be about to get onto the boys for ignoring a direct order. While Sam seems ready to take his licks, Dean shocks Sam by telling John that "[they] saved your ass". John. . .agrees. The boys are all he's got, and he agrees with Dean's earlier assertion that they're stronger as a family. They're going after this thing. . .together. In an awesome and heartwarming moment, all three Winchesters share a smile as the episode draws to a close.

Evil is about to get a big ol' boot up its ass.

So, as I said above, Dead Man's Blood introduces us to Supernatural's interpretation of vampires. There are certain things that will get retconned out or just ignored as time goes on - such as vampires apparently being so sparse that John and the boys believed they were hunted to extinction. Vampires being able to track by scent also doesn't really come up again. Also, the eye flash that we see most often with shapeshifters is showcased here for vampires. . .and then never again.

Not that that part is necessarily a bad thing, seeing as it does set them apart, but it's kind of interesting to see this when in the context of the show as a whole. Is this a hint early on that these seemingly unrelated creatures, perhaps, have some common ancestry? 

More on that much, much later.

The scenes with John and the boys are top notch. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jared Padalecki, and Jensen Ackles have an insanely good amount of chemistry. Top praise in particular go to Jeffrey and Jared, who show off the many facets of the relationship between John and Sam really well. Two men, father and son, who are more alike than they know.

"Got some soda. . .purple stuff. . .oh, hey! Sunny D! Alright!"

We also, finally after so many episodes, get the introduction of the Colt - an item that both fills me with wonder and irritates me for reasons we'll start getting into in a few seasons' time. It's a cool gun, but then it's a Western-style revolver decked out to kill anything that goes bump in the night. It had absolutely no choice but to be cool.

Seriously, if you make a gun with this premise and it's not cool. . .you've found a way to really, really screw up that I can't even process.

Next time, we enter finale time. The first time the wayward son will carry on, as the Winchesters zero in on Tommy Contanza. Will they succeed? Find out as we ride with them into Salvation.

Supernatural belongs to Warner Brothers and the CW.

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