Supernatural: Shadow

Spoilers for the episode

Story:

Sam runs into a friend who he doesn’t know is evil while investigating some suspicious murders that turn out to be connected to the demon who killed their mother.

Recap:

A woman walks down the street at night as the music she’s listening to stops and a creepy wind starts talking to her. She walks faster and a shadow follows her. She runs and gets inside her apartment and activates her security system. She thinks she’s safe but the shadow has followed her inside and it kills her shadow.
A week later and the Winchesters have turned up. Dean doesn’t like the costumes they’re wearing and uses this to mock Sam who was in a play.
They’re pretending to be with the alarm company and talk to the land lady. The woman was in pieces on the floor and the landlady thinks a wild animal did it. She leaves them to it.
They get out the emf and they’ve found out her heart was missing. Dean looks at the blood stain on the floor and decides to play connect the dots with masking tape. Neither of them have ever seen that symbol before. So basically Dean’s made his own symbol and they are taking that as a clue. Maybe they should play with blood at other crime scenes.
At a bar Dean flirts with the bartender to get information and her phone number. Sam can’t find any information on the symbol. They’ve found another victim but no other connection.
Sam spots Meg across the bar and goes over. He asks how California went but she’s living here now. Dean makes it awkward and Meg yells at him for how he treats Sam. Dean goes to get a drink. Sam defends Dean by saying he means well and then he gets her phone number.
Outside Sam thinks it’s weird that he’s seen her again at a place where a case is happening. Dean thinks he just likes her and is reading into it. Dean wants to know if he’s keeping Sam against his will. Sam asks him to check if there’s a Meg Master.
Sam’s lurks outside Meg’s apartment when Dean calls to say she’s real. He found what the symbol is. It’s for a demon of darkness. They have to be summoned so some one is controlling them and they tend to kill the person who does. They’re really old so it takes some one who really knows what they’re doing. Dean annoys Sam about Meg until he hangs up on him.
Sam then watches Meg changing and a woman on the street judges him. At this point Sam has no evidence she’s evil so he’s just being a stalker. And he’s meant to be the nice brother who respects women.
Meg leaves and Sam follows her into an abandoned building. He get stuck and decides to climb the lift shaft to the top.
He watches Meg talking into her cup of blood that allows her to communicate with someone. She tells someone not to come because the brothers are there then blows out the candles. Does she leave this stuff out in the open?
Sam waits until she leaves and climbs into the room. The symbol from the crime scene is drawn in blood on the table.
Back at the room and they’ve both got news. Sam tells his and then Dean says both the victims are from Lawrence Kansas where they used to live. They’re going to stake out the warehouse but Dean doesn’t think they should do it alone so he calls their Dad.
Sam brings all their weapons and supplies into the room because he doesn’t know what to expect.
They both pretend not to be nervous. Sam’s being optimistic and thinking about what happens if they find the demon. He’d go back to school and be a normal person. He asks what Dean will do. He says it won’t ever be over. Dean drags Sam everywhere because he wants them to be a family again. Sam says they are a family but things won’t be like they were before and he doesn’t want them to be. He won’t live this life for ever. That shows what he knows. He’s got ten more years of this.
They go back to the warehouse and climb the lift and find Meg chanting. How did they get up there without making any noise. When Sam climbed it earlier he made quite a bit of noise and now there’s two of them.
They sneak around the back without her stopping but she knows they’re there and tells them to come out. The shadow monster’s around and as she reveals she was waiting for them it attacks.
They get tied up and Sam states the obvious that the whole thing was a trap. Dean wants to know why she hasn’t killed them. The trap is for their Dad because they are just a liability. Dean has a lot of confidence in their Dad and says he wouldn’t walk into a trap. Or his low self esteem is kicking in and he doesn’t think his Dad will save him.
Meg acknowledges that he’s good but they are his weakness and she knows he’s in town. The Daeva aren’t actually shadows they’re invisible and it’s only the shadows you can see. That makes them a bit less interesting.
She tells Sam she liked him watching her change. Then she takes Dean’s knife away and goes back to Sam.
She accuses him of distracting her so Dean could cut his way free but he’s got his own knife. He knocks her away and destroys the alter. She gets pulled out the window and falls to her death. Dean tells him to find a non evil girlfriend.
They go back to their room and find their Dad. Dean gives him a hug but Sam doesn’t. Dean apologises for it being a trap. John got there in time to see the end. He’s got a plan to kill the demon not exorcise it or send it back to hell. Sam tells him not to worry about them but he says of course he does. He acknowledges the fight he had with Sam but doesn’t apologise for any of it. Then they hug.
The Daeva attacks and Meg’s alive watching from the street.
Sam lights a flare because they’re shadow demons. They get out but they’re pretty banged up. Sam says as soon as the flare goes out they’ll be back. Which doesn’t make any sense because it’s not a shadow and has a body.
Dean tells them their Dad can’t come with them but Sam won’t listen. He wants to be part of the fight. John says the fight is only just starting but they have to let him go. That was the shortest reunion ever.
He tells them to be careful and he drives away. If that’s what he’s like when he’s attached and emotional what’s he like when he’s not attached.
Meg sees them drive away and that’s it.

Thoughts:

This episode was quite good. I like that Sam’s immediately suspicious of Meg just showing up. He’s right they don’t have coincidence. But he’s not smart enough to think she’s competent enough to fool them.
I remembered it was a trap but I can’t remember my reaction the first time I watched it. There’s enough little twists in the episode and it goes beyond the first obvious twist so at least they’re putting some effort in. Dean and Sam playing Meg to get away but then it turns out she wanted them to get away anyway.
I’m not impressed with the Daeva. They were interesting as shadow creatures but being invisible takes away from that. I liked the idea of them having no physical form and just attacking your shadow. They might as well be hell hounds but I guess they haven’t introduced them yet so they can get away with it. I’m skeptical that a flare would scare them off. Meg said they had bodies they weren’t just shadows so how does light make them disappear. Also the beginning doesn’t make much sense now or why the blood was in that pattern.
Now I understand what John said in ‘Home’ and why he couldn’t show them he was around. They are a liability to him but they’d be less of a liability if he told them some information.
I like that they always call him sir as well. It goes back to what Sam said earlier in the season about them being raised as warriors. Their Dad is a leader first and father second.
I think Sam only wanted to go with him because he’s so focused on revenge. I guess that’ll be his arc this season to get over it.
I know Meg’s evil but Dean’s got to stop calling her sweetheart it’s really annoying. It’s patronizing and I don’t care that she’s evil. You don’t use the female part of her to insult her. It’s like having an evil character who’s black and using racial slurs against them. I don’t like how Meg is handled at all. She could be a much better villain if the writers could forget she’s female and just treat her as a character first.

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