From MadCap's Couch - "Supernatural: In My Time of Dying"

"All I did was ask him - 'Who's on first?'"

So, last time, Sam and Dean and John had finally tracked down the Yellow-Eyed Demon who killed Mary. It claimed to have further plans for Sammy and the other psychic children like him. After Sam failed to follow through on John's order to shoot him in the heart, the three heavily wounded Winchester boys found themselves leaving in the Impala...and were promptly t-boned by a possessed trucker and his 18-wheeler, our final shot of the episode and Season 1 being John, Sam, and Dean unconscious and at the doorstep of death.

. . .y'know, when that was still something that still actually held some weight in Supernatural.

We pick up with Season 2's opener In My Time of Dying. Let's have a look...

Our episode begins with Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold" over a recap of Season 1 (they hadn't quite worked out that AC/DC was the correct way to start a season of Supernatural yet), going over Mary's death and the Winchesters getting a hold of the Colt and so on, leading up to that fateful wreck. The possessed trucker leaves his truck to the tune of "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival and rips off the driver side door of the Impala to find Sam holding the Colt at the ready.

He warns the demon that he'll kill it and manages to get it to back down when it denies that he'll shoot it.

We do only have one bullet left, for those of you still keeping score from nine months ago.

The demon leaves the trucker and Sam calls out for his father and brother. The trio get helicoptered to a hospital where Dean awakens in short order, apparently no worse for wear. However, upon leaving his room looking for Sam and his father, he finds that no one seems to acknowledge his existence. Returning to the room, he finds himself on a ventilator.

So, Dean's now a ghost.

This...will actually happen more often than you might think.

Dean tries to speak to a clearly distraught Sam, but Sam can't hear him or see him. A doctor with the world's worse bedside manner informs Sam that John is awake, but that Dean's wounds are pretty serious. 

"I know what you're thinking, 'Did he fire one shot or only one?',
well, in all the excitement I've kind of forgotten myself..."

We get a joke about Dean and John with the fake credit cards and Sam and John have a bit of a heart to heart. While Dean and Sam have both had the thought of finding a hoodoo priest to lay some voodoo on him, John has some more realistic expectations and is already forming a plan. Also, there's a nice bit of continuity where Sam mentions the faith healer he found for Dean before, though John does mention that that was a one in a million shot.

John gives Sam a list of ingredients he says are for protection against demons. When Sam asks about what the Demon said, that it had plans for him and the other psychic kids, John denies knowing anything about it. After Sam leaves, John has a look on his face telling us that he's holding back, something that the ghostly Dean notices right away.

Bobby and Sam assess the damage to the Impala. When Bobby suggests selling the car's remains for scrap, Sam shoots it down immediately. Dean will fix it when he gets back, even if there's just one working part. Bobby realizes that he's not talking about the car and drops the issue. When Sam hands him the list of ingredients from John, though...it's clear it's not about protection.

As John looks pensively at his dying son, Ghost Dean almost begs and berates his father. All of Dean's issues are lain bare before us in this scene, as he feels that all of his love and dedication to his father has meant nothing. John has called no one, done nothing. We'll get back to this scene in a bit.

However, Dean's Daddy Issues will have to wait for many, many more episodes as he sees a ghostly specter heading down the hallway. Trailing it, he finds a woman dying...and is unable to help her or get anyone else to.

After a commercial break, Sam returns and confronts John. The ingredients aren't to protect against a demon, but to summon one. This boils into an argument that finally stops when Dean, in a rage, pushes a glass off of John's tray and gets the attention of both...although they still can't see or hear him. Indeed, rather like a ghost, his image flickers in and out like television static.

Down the hallway, Dean has officially flatlined and the medical staff are trying to bring him back while that same ghostly figure looms over his body. Dean shouts and grabs at it, trying to shove it away. When he shouts Sam...almost hears him, like a sort of echo. Dean does succeed in pushing the ghost away, but not without getting tossed around himself.

There is a pulse...Dean is alive. Dean is also rationalizing that, if he can grab the spirit, he can kill the spirit. Not long after this, however, Dean finds a woman screaming for help much as he was before...another dead spirit by the name of Tessa. Dean attempts to help with the transition, telling her about what they're having is an out of body experience. While Tessa is less than optimistic, Dean is adamant that they can get back in their bodies.

Sam and John talk, now a bit more amicably. Sam tells John about hearing Dean's voice, John promises him that he won't hunt the Demon until they know that Dean is okay. Sam tells him he has to go pick something up, leaving him there with another look that tells us John is up to something.

Dean, meanwhile, makes the first jab in the series about Free Will and then is too late to save a little girl from the ghost, who claims her. To his utter dismay, she dies.

Sam returns...with a Ouija Board of all things, which Dean scoffs and rolls his eyes at. However, it seems to work and Dean relays what he's learned to Sam...and what he speculates is doing it: a reaper. If it's here naturally, Sam reminds us of the lore, then there is no way to stop it. Sam goes to John for guidance, but John is gone.

Down in the boiler room, John brings a bag of goodies and draws out a symbol in chalk.

Sam reads through John's journal, trying to find anything that might help Dean. Dean thanks him for not giving up on him. When Sam reaches a specific page with an illustration, Dean puts two and two together about Tessa. Finding her again, he finds her in a black dress and she lays it out for him: he's dying and there's nothing he can do about it.

In my time of dying, I hope I get a Reaper this kind and patient.

In the basement, John completes a ritual and nothing seems to happen...only for a hospital handyman to come and tell him he's taking him to see security. John, unfazed, pulls the Colt on him. The Yellow-Eyed Demon reveals itself and they banter a bit. Yellow Eyes (now played by the fantastic Fredric Lehne) finally gets around to teasing him for trying to trap it, but John corrects it - he wants to make a deal.

Sam has a heartbreaking monologue over Dean's comatose body as it's clear that, between everything that's happened and John's machinations...he's falling apart.

Dean goes through stage three of grief, bargaining. Tessa's not having it. Dean tries to refuse, but Tessa reminds him of the ghosts and other spirits he's hunted - he's not getting back into his body and that's that, and he'll eventually become one of them.

Back in the basement, Yellow Eyes questions John about this being a trick. John sets his terms - the Colt and the bullet for Dean. We get some mention of Yellow Eyes and his vague plans for the psychic kids and we get confirmation that whatever it is, John knows. Yellow Eyes says they have a bargain...just so long as John adds one more thing to sweeten the pot...

Tessa tells Dean that he has to choose now, whether he's going or not. The lights start flickering before Dean can answer, something that Tessa insists she isn't doing. A demonic cloud possesses her, a pair of yellow eyes meet Dean's as Tessa tells him that it's his lucky day. With her hand to his forehead, Dean is brought back to the world of the living as Sam calls for a doctor.

Dean is completely healed, but remembers nothing of his time as a ghost. However, he feels this strange feeling in his gut...something's wrong. John returns and Sam berates him for not having been there the previous night. John asks him, just this once, that they don't fight. He tells Sam that he's made mistakes, but he's always tried to do the best he could.

Sam asks him if he's alright...and John just says that he's tired. He asks Sam to get him a cup of coffee. When Sam leaves, John tells Dean (and thus, us) a bit about his earliest days of hunting. How Dean would comfort him after all the terrible things he'd have to see and do, telling him that it was okay. How much John regretted that that had to be Dean comforting him, rather than the other way around. He put too much on Dean's shoulders, made him grow up too fast. John tells Dean that he is so, so proud of him.

When Dean asks him why he's saying this all, John tells him to watch out for his brother...and then whispers something into Dean's ear. Whatever it is drives John to tears and leaves Dean looking completely stunned. John steps out, handing over the Colt as agreed upon and tells an unseen person "okay".

Lilith who? Alistair who? Abaddon who?

Sam returns, finding John dead on the floor of a hospital room. As music plays over it, in slow motion, Sam screams for help. Despite the medical staff, there's nothing they can do. John is gone. Time of death, 10:41 AM.

. . .and roll credits!

In My Time of Dying is a little bit more of a low-key opener after Season 1's finale. Whereas Devil's Trap was an epic showdown with the thing that had murdered Mary Winchester, In My Time of Dying is what I like to call a 'licking your wounds' episode. It usually comes after a big event - though not usually a finale - and is very low-key with maybe a minor supernatural threat to deal with. It can have significance to the arc, however. It definitely does here.

Jensen Ackles pretty much always plays Dean great, but there's a lot to him in the role here in particular. Everything from his faith in his brother and his gratitude for not leaving him behind to his utter dismay and despair over what he believes to be his father's inaction to his short few lines to Tessa about the importance of Free Will to the utter soul-crushing terror and agony from what his father whispers to him (we'll be getting to that later, don't worry). It's all just so damn good.

That's not to say that Jared and Jeffrey Dean Morgan don't do well as well. Sam's still clearly got some resentment and anger built up from the last stretch of Season 1 as well as clearly trying to hold on as what little life he has is crumbling around him and John is clearly conflicted about what he feels he has to do in other to protect his sons and his apologies to both Dean and Sam near the episode absolutely bleed genuineness.

I mostly just wanted to give Jensen the props he deserved. He really ran the gamut in this one.

The additions to the Reaper lore are pretty interesting, and Tessa is a character that I thought was pretty neat and would have been an interesting reoccurring addition to the show. I mean, she technically was...just not quite in the way I was thinking. Someone who could be a wise, thoughtful influence that would maybe encourage Dean to be a bit more thoughtful about his actions and his decisions. Sort of a reaper-y Jiminy Cricket.

I do like how they dodge the question about the afterlife, or at least where people go when they die. Given how much exposure Heaven, Hell, and others have in the later seasons, it's nice that they weren't trying to spill all the beans right away about it all.

Bye, John! See you in twenty episodes!

Next time, we'll be going into an episode with a title that makes me immediately think "No." I'm sure that definitely won't be my opening joke for that one. Next time, Everybody Loves a Clown.

. . .no. See? I did it again already.