Review

Late one night Bela Talbot is accosted by Winchester nemesis Gordon Walker who is once again on the hunt for Sam. Bela sells the Boys' location for Gordon's voodoo bag, and Walker with partner Kubrick is soon closing in on the Winchesters. The boys meanwhile are hunting a Vampire who is trying to build a new nest, apparently full of blonde bimbos.

Confronting the head Vampire the Winchester Bros aren't expecting Gordon and Kubrick to get involved, with a fire fight ensuing. The Vampire disappears, the Winchester Bros vacate the scene, and Gordon runs into the big nasty as things deteriorate rapidly. If the Winchesters thought Gordon was a pain in the arse previously, they suddenly have to confront a super charged Gordon still out for Winchester blood in more ways than one. Sam is going to have to go cold blooded to get the iron out of the fire, can he submerge his normal emo self?

For once we have got beyond the impending Hell vacation for Dean, okay it's the focal point of the season but it's getting slightly boring as the sole focus. What's interesting in this episode, from a season themes point of view, is the concept of family and being left on your own. The Vampire, Dixon, is trying to re-establish his nest in the face of the possible genocide of his race. He fears being alone for eternity and will even take the final death over facing that eventuality. I got the feeling this gave Dean pause to reflect on the Winchester situation.

Okay while the deep and meaningfulls are going down we still get a pretty good episode. There's a vampire to fight, Dean is pretty close to the fang a couple of times, and Gordon is in "shot now and let God sort them out" mode. After a couple of episodes that were pretty much chick moments, Dean hand in your man card, it was good to get back to Supernatural as it should be. To be honest I think the team need to look back at season one and think about why it was held in such regard, the current season pales in comparison.

Gordon has always been a great antagonist for mine, the character is a tragic figure in the making due to his almost Captain Ahab obsession with Sam. The dude is in no way evil, he fights the vampires and creatures of the night with the best of then, it's just this thing he has of killing Sam as he believes the younger Winchester Bro is the anti-Christ. To be honest I can't remember where he got that idea, but the dude is obsessed with it, even allowing it to override his driven need to destroy all vampires due to his family members becoming victims to the bloodsuckers. The salient point of the character, I believe, is a warning to the Bros not to become focused on a single outcome, there's more under heaven and hell after all. Things aren't going to end well for Gordon, he is a fanatic in a fantasy situation where the black and white doesn't belong. Can't believe I just wrote that to be honest, will try and take my hand off it for the rest of the review.

Just when the season really needed it, a pretty good episode comes along

The other aspect of this episode I really dug was the first victim the Winchester team run into, Lucy. Okay she is going for the throat when Dean throws some chum into the equation, but a quick application of dead man's blood resolves that situation. Notably Sam is pissed off with Dean taking unnecessary risks, which is fair enough given Dean's disregard for the situations in this episode and previous Winchester outings since the deal that will dominate the season. Back to Lucy, she wakes sometime later tied to a chair with the Winchester Bros wanting some answers to their questions. Lucy believes some old dude, he must have been thirty - given Lucy has a few miles on the clock that's sort of ironic really, gave her a drug she can't get down from. Under Dean's scrutiny she acknowledges the standard vampire side effects. Moral quandary for Sam, Lucy is an innocent who does not know she is a monster, Dean hasn't got the same issues and resolves the situation with a judicial use of a machete. Talk about your Gordian knot, are we back at square one here? Sam as the thinker, the Winchester who questions their actions, while Dean continues John's tradition of using action rather than words, two peas in a pod with a pending pot of hot water in the near future. Is this review edging right into the desolate wastelands of complete boredom?

Think I've pretty much covered the bases, Lucy's innocence, Dixon being frightened of being left alone for eternity wondering who the real monsters are, and Sam and Dean still sparing with each other but Dean coming to the realisation that he needs to pass the legacy to Sam. Surprisingly for a pretty good action packed episode there's a whole bunch of themes under the surface that breach at the most surprising moments.

Fresh Blood surprisingly slumped to 2.88 million viewers in North America when it aired, a season low thus far. I'm not blaming this episode, rather the very unconvincing episodes leading up to Gordon's Waterloo. Are we seeing the Supernatural juggernaut wobbling, or will the Producers rally to put their house in order as the season moves ahead?

After zero in the way of mullet rock over the past couple of episode we finally get the cassette player switched back on with Bad Company's "Crazy Circles" being the only track I noted. Once again, what the hell is going on Dean?

The season continues its uneven output with a pretty good episode after a couple of ones that pushed even me to get through. Sera Gamble delivered an above average script and Kim Manners managed to visualise in convincing fashion. I was pretty happy with the result and Fresh Blood pretty much is my favourite episode of the season thus far. With the writers' strike making things difficult, I'm expected a few more lack lustre episodes prior to season's end, so I'll take anything half decent at this stage.