Catching up on Supernatural Season 7: Episode 11, 12 & 13

I know it's been a while since I last posted, but I've been dealing with an injured foot and other things. (I also went to my second Supernatural convention last week, and it was awesome.) At any rate, I'd like to catch up by recapping the last three episodes.

Episode 11 - Adventures in Babysitting

In this episode, Sam and Dean deal (and refused to deal, respectively) with the fallout from Bobby's death, and hunt a pair of vampire-like creatures called Vitala. The creatures (who are in the fine tradition of Hot Monsters of the Week) have kidnap a hunter, and his teenage daughter seeks out Bobby's help and ends up enlisting the Winchesters. This episode was kind of "meh" for me, honestly. The plot isn't very complex, and the stakes never feel very high. One thing I did enjoy was seeing the boys interact with a female who wasn't an adult--who was too young, in other words, to be into them. The biggest take away was Frank Deveraux coming into his own as part of the Winchester's support team. Unsurprisingly, the writers are having to dull Deveraux's initial rough edges just a little to make him tolerable as a recurring character. (When he calls you an idiot, he means it.) I'm not crazy about Frank's "smile even when your heart is breaking"advice to Dean, but by the end of he episode, Dean sure seems to be taking it.

Episode 12 - Time after Time

After the "meh" of "Adventures in Babysitting," this episode is pure joy. Dean gets sent back in time tot he 1940's by Chronos, the god of Time (who is killing people, because apparently that's what the gods of antiquity do.) He meets Eliot Ness, and lots of sharp suits, Untouchables references, hero worship and fish-out-of-water gags ensue. Of course, in the end, Sam is able to get Dean back, with help from a message Dean cleverly leaves carved inside the house where Sam's staying.

I should mention that Ness was played by Nicholas Lea, of X-Files fame, who it was wonderful to see again on Supernatural and Once Upon a Time in the same week. My very favorite part, though, was seeing Sheriff Jodie Mills step forward to help Sam. Have I mentioned that I love Sheriff Mills? Have I mentioned that Kim Rhodes knows several forms of stage combat, and needs to be given something to do other than mop? If Jodie and Frank are the two new sidekicks, I can deal with that. My only question is: which one's Cas and which one's Bobby?

Episode 13 - Slice Girls

This is the one I don't really want to talk about. It's an easy candidate for the both the worst-written and most sexist episode of Supernatural ever. Dean has a one-night stand with a woman who turns out to be an Amazon. In this version, the historical Amazons were turned into monsters by the goddess Harmonia. They grow to adulthood quickly, and have "no use for men" except for breeding--which, of course, means that the men they breed with turn up dead, because women with no long-term use for men are evil, right? Apparently women should be willing to be used however a man sees fit (long or short term), but prepared to be cast off, but also be torn up enough over being cast off to feed the guy's ego. Normally, I wouldn't complain about any episode where Jensen takes his shirt off, but the tone of this one is just ugly. There's also no surprise at all to the reveal that it's the Amazon daughters who do the killing--unless, in this case, they get offed by their uncles before they get the chance.

Supernatural, ease up on the appropriation of mythology, and also on the conventionally attractive sex-pot white-chick villains.