Review

Dean running in terror, clearly some unholy monster is after him; well okay if you count a toy dog as an unholy monster! How did Dean become petrified of small doggies with bows in their hair, well it all started 43 hours earlier in Rock Ridge, Colorado. The Winchester Bros were investigating the mysterious deaths of a couple of healthy men from heart attack. Dean get's infected with a "ghost sickness" and becomes terrified of everything. The clock is ticking toward a return date with the Pit.

Sam enlists the aid of Bobby to track down the issue and discovers what the ghost sickness is all about. You catch it from a victim of the ghost, only remedy is to gank the ghost. Sam discovers where the ghost is at but that's the simplest part of the problem, the ghost was smeared down a road, so how to toast it? One Hail Mary solution coming up, it's suddenly five parts serious.

After the last episode, Monster Movie, dialled into something a little surreal for us the Producers clearly wanted to get the session back onto the beaten path. Thankfully they enlisted scribes Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin who nailed it by having a humorous episode that suddenly turns serious. Hopefully this signifies we'll be back to the grindstone shortly and the Yellow Eyed Demon's ultimate game plan. Enjoyed the sabbatical but heck we're not getting any younger over here and a few things have been left hanging in the wind, Ruby immediately comes to mind.

The episode starts well, the Bros investigating a number of abnormal deaths, impersonating FBI agents, demanding autopsies, you know the usual. And it looks like we are going to be getting our standard hunt out the revenant and burn dem bones hour of television. And I'm not complaining, Supernatural is probably the best show on television currently when it comes to that content. But it starts to go a bit weird; Dean begins to act slightly strange. He is worried by three teens on the sidewalk, he's awfully jumpy, he refuses to turn across an oncoming lane, and isn't going anywhere near their motel room cause it's on the fourth floor, which he points out to Sam is high up. Now if it wasn't for the prologue scene the slow development of Dean's sickness would have been awesome, as it is we know what's coming and can chillax out to the developments.

An episode that was only lacking a decent resolution in order to become a classic

Speaking of knowing what's going down, or at least aware that Dean is doing his best impersonation of that kid in your gang that had the ability to slink away when adult trouble loomed, excellent work by Jensen Ackles. In the prologue scene Dean is running like a Bogan hearing whoop whoop, which is the sound the Police make, and there's this whole hell hound vibe going down helped out by the ambient sound in use. Actually the whole hell hound thing is a recurrent theme in this episode, showing perhaps one of Dean's greatest fears. As the scene reaches a climax we discover Dean is mortally terrified of what looks like a lap dog! Awesome stuff, only bettered by Dean giving the sort of reaction Director's are after when a cat suddenly jumps out of a closet. Actually was that scene referencing Jonesy in Alien? In the wash up Jensen is all over the terrified angle and delivers a great performance.

What really rocks about this episode is the switch between playing up the humour angles and gradually darkening the mix to go serious. In the first half it's kind of amusing, in that Supernatural fashion where the characters can take the piss out of themselves, however as we edge to the second half it's all hell hounds and Lilith and the clock is ticking on Dean. I took this as a natural bridge between the mayhem of Monster Movie and a return to the dark overtones of the season's plot arc, the Yellow Eyed Demon's ultimate end game. Two thumbs up for the attention to detail, one of the Hallmarks of a great show.

Anyone else feeling slightly sorry for the revenant in this one? Talk about getting the bum's rush of a deal as small town mentality kicks in big time. Some actual in depth writing here that is more than it first appears. We get all the elements of a typical Stephen King small town in Middle America. There's the marginalised, the bullies, the cover ups, and the general dark secret from the past that is going to come back and bite people on the arse. Quite a rich tapestry being spun in this episode to get at the background story, two thumbs up folks, very solid bit of writing and understanding nuances can add texture to an otherwise straight forward yarn.

For mine the weakest part of the episode was the resolution, come on that was some sort of bogus writing. I know the episode needed to conclude after showing Dean's biggest fears and reversing the Bros roles, who doesn't think Sam will take some sort of decisive action this season, but really vanquishing a revenant by using its greatest fear! The resolution for mine really hampered Yellow Fever, yes I get the pun in the title, from becoming a classic Supernatural episode.

Normally I would be up in arms over one mullet rock track, we get "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, but hey we also get Dean doing his thing, great epilogue there in this episode. Girls in particular, if members of Team Dean, will be grooving to this departure from normal viewing - is this a Jansen Ackles episode or what! Knock yourself out Ladies.

Overall I had a good time with the episode and am guessing it's the calm before the storm as things get really heavy from next episode onwards. The last couple of episodes have given us some light hearted relief; I think that's about to change. Worth catching Yellow Fever to see how diverse Supernatural can be, it's not all monster of the week or intense drama folks.