This week’s episode of Supernatural was a little bit messy, and it definitely left some confusion in its wake. One thing I do know is that I really liked almost all of it (see, I don’t even really know if I liked it as a whole yet). This episode did manage to be entertaining as hell, work in some classic Winchester Bros’ comedy, and widen the gap between Sam and Dean. It just couldn’t do it in an orderly fashion.
The episode begins with a hot dog eating contest. The fat guy beats the little dude. Then he makes a joke about wieners because of course he does. After that, the fat man has all of his fat sucked out of him in his car at the end of the night. We cut to Sam and Dean having a conversation about Sam’s #letsnotbebrosmovement. Dean says he’s fine, but we all know he’s lying. Dean is transparent like a well run government. Anyway, there are some false leads. Another fat person dies. There is a weird mark on her, but that seems to come up empty. Eventually, Sam and Dean learn about some super health zone near the town. Now it’s time to go undercover.
The health zone is a solid setting for this episode. They manage to reverse Sam and Dean’s traditional roles by making Sam the one with the power position, and putting Dean in the kitchen. While running his yoga class, Sam discovers weird marks on all of his clients. Marks just like the one they found on the dead, fat lady.
Clearly something is up. Around the same time, Dean eats some pudding. It turns out there are roofies in the pudding (treachery!). Dean is drugged. That explains how everyone was able to sleep through the “cupping” procedure that drew the fat out of them and left the weird marks.
Who is it that does this “cupping”? Why it’s Maritza, the Peruvian lady that runs the health zone with her husband (I’m sure there’s a name for this kind of place, but as a generally unhealthy person I haven’t bothered to learn it). It turns out that she is a Pishtaco, a Peruvian fat sucking parasite.
She is not the one committing the murders though. She and her husband, Larry run the health zone in order to provide her with just enough fat to eat and survive, while at the same time helping people lose weight. It’s a brilliant scheme, except for one thing. Maritza has a hothead younger brother named Alonso. Alonso is not so frugal in his fat consumption, and, in fact, it is he who is behind the string of deaths.
While Dean is learning this Sam is just walking around, but then he hears a scream and a crash. The sounds of death! He rushes to the scene and finds Larry. Larry is dead, with a big ol’ hole in his dang neck. He’s really dead. It was Alonso. The Winchesters gather in Maritza’s office, and they get all the intel they need to begin their hunt. Sam goes down into a basement and finds Alonso’s home. It’s a cot and a fridge in a small room. The fridge contains several formerly full, now empty, jars of fat.
Alonso strikes! A fight ensues! Just as it seems Sam is going to get eaten up, Dean shows up and kills the monster. Classic Winchesters. They send Maritza on a one-way flight to Peru (accompanied by suitably generic vaguely Peruvian music). Then they return home for a final brotherly showdown. Hurtful words are exchanged. Sam basically calls Dean selfish for not letting him die. That’s pretty weird, but I think I get it.
Dean says that Sam would do the same thing if their positions were switched. Then Sam drops the bomb. Looking straight at Dean’s face (!!!!), he tells him that he would not save him from deaths door if he were ready to go. I assume that’s what he meant and not just a general moratorium on saving Dean. Dean is clearly offended.
So this episode was a classic, weird Supernatural adventure, and it definitely delivered on the fun and excitement. If the show is going to insist on being something other than the Constantine-esque conflict between Heaven, Hell, and Earth that it’s spent almost nine years setting up, then it should definitely be like this all of the time.
I just don’t love how they ruin the fun by throwing in this brother on brother violence. It’s the least awesome through-line going on this season. Also, this episode never explains exactly how the pishtacos eat or what was in that lady’s skin or how it got there. I’m assuming the pishtaco snuck in through her butt, but in other scenes that’s clearly not what happened, but in those scenes there was no under the skin action. It’s all very confusing. Anyway this episode was fun enough that only that error stuck in my head, so all in all it was a good way to say goodbye for the two week Olympic break. See y’all after Sochi