Supernatural S06E05 - Live Free or Twihard (2010)

Review

After seven girls disappear in a small town the Bros suspect vampires might be involved and head into the neighbourhood to investigate. They discover the latest victim, Kristen, was heavily into the neck biters and Sam accesses her laptop, learning that she had agreed to meet someone at the Black Rose bar. The Boys naturally make the scene and discover a Gothic hell hole full of leather, rubber, chicks into the whole vampire things, and dudes only too happy to deliver that fantasy. Naturally Dean gets into trouble with an actual vampire and is forced to drink its blood. Guess Dean is going through changes and things look dicey for the Bros.

Samuel arrives and informs the Boys things can be reversed but they will need the blood of the head vamper. Dean can sense where the vampire nest is and goes in, the vampires accepting him as one of their own. Get ready for an epic battle as the older Winchester takes on the whole nest and learns there is a plan behind the teenage abductions. Sam seems over eager to learn about what Dean saw in the nest, which doesn't escape Samuel's attention.

Well I am definitely not against a vampire episode, for sure Supernatural don't hold back with this monster, though of course the sensibilities of prime time television come into play. What was surprising was Dean getting turned, wasn't expecting that and I reckon they played it brilliant with the older Winchester showing the effects of turning; lights are suddenly way too bright, sounds are amplified painfully, he can hear heart beats, and he can smell things out. Wasn't aware that Vampires have a heightened sense of smell, must do some homework on that ability, anyone else aware of it? Anyways if Supernatural do one thing right it's the fangs the Vampires have, now there's weapons of mass destruction.

Dean as Blade, yeah I would pay to see that!

The other development the episode threw up was Sam being prepared to throw Dean under the bus in order to find out what was going down in the nest. Seems Samuel and team are interested in tracking down the vampire Alpha which was sort of news to me, maybe I'm not paying enough attention. Problem for Sam is Dean now knows he can't be trusted, for the rest of us the feeling that there's something off with Sam has pretty much been confirmed.

In worse news for Dean while infected he dropped by to see Lisa and things didn't go as well as he might have desired. Lisa wakes and Dean starts to feel some bloodlust going down so attempts to make his escape, unfortunately he has to manhandle Ben out of the way before he can exit stage left. This for sure isn't going to improve his relationship with Lisa, I'm thinking they are going to need some couple counselling at the very least, but think Dean might have blown his chances there.

As one would expect there's a bunch of humour running through an otherwise dark episode with some heavy undertones. Besides Dean's notorious one liners coming at a reasonable clip, not complaining, we have Dean standing over Lisa's bed as she is sleeping in what can only be described as a slightly rapey scene which notably the big Bro thought was douchey earlier in the episode. Dean as Edward Cullen, now that sent a shiver down my back, though I would have enjoyed watching vampire Dean slaughtering the Cullen clan.

I've got to say Dean gives Blade a run for his money as the monster turning on his own with a keen blade and death dealing on his mind. Our boy runs through the new recruits like a hot knife through butter, taking out dudes and the vampire bride herd like a hunter on steroids. Guess the take for Monsters everywhere is don't supercharge Dean, he is twice as lethal as normal.

In keeping with monster of the week episodes Live Free or Twihard advances the overall plot, slowly adding some weight to what has previously risen above the surface. We learn there is a vampire Alpha, and he is building an army for some dubious reason via dispersed nests. Even more concerning for the Winchesters vampires are no longer afraid of hunters; they are almost fanatical in their belief about the Alpha's vision. In a trance like state Dean sees the Alpha, in a sort of similar fashion to the technique John Carpenter used in Prince of Darkness (1987). He also sees a creepy couple of little girls, which doesn't bode well my peace of mind when the Winchesters finally discover vampire ground zero.

Okay so we have a slight amount of controversy going down over what on the surface would appear to be a pretty normal episode of everyone's favourite monster show. Seems the normal PC crowd view any criticism of Twilight as being misogynistic and a chance to attack the largely female fandom that franchise has acquired. Yes Supernatural is throwing a few punches at the insipid tripe that Twilight is, and let's face facts folks Stephenie Meyer has created a franchise that is drenched in abusive relationships, is homophobic, degrades women, and is blatantly racist. The PC crowd need to realise that attacks on Twilight are attacks on its poorly written demeaning attitude to women, and not on the largely female fandom Meyer's tripe seems to attract. It should be noted that the novels and television series that make up the Outlander franchise, another outing aimed at females, are not being attacked and in fact pretty much receive universal praise.

Moving on, and let's hope the world is ready to do that with the abysmal Twilight, this episode rolls out in dark grungy fashion. And I'm talking from the bar that wannabee vampires hang at to the more than seedy vampire nest. The atmosphere in this episode is rocking the house down and had me grooving to the beat. We go from a fairly light hearted opening to some dark country with the design of the sets and the whole presentation reflecting the plot's descent into night.

So only one entry in the mullet hall of fame this episode, are we angry yet kids? On the bright side it's a classic, Bauhaus' Bela Lugosi's Dead. Some excitement built up here folks, love me some Bauhaus. Of course Bela Lugosi for mine played the definitive Dracular, some people would claim Christopher Lee deserves that accolade, but they would be dead wrong.

While I dug all the vampire mayhem going down, and for sure like the idea of monster overlords building armies, I think we really should be moving on with what ails Sam. Anyone else think just maybe he said yes, and how exactly he escaped the cage? But rounding out on Live Free or Twihard, decent grunge effort that doesn't pull away at poking fun at its source material while still going somewhere dark. One of those episodes that non-regular Supernatural watchers can sink their teeth into while the rest of my crew can nod sagely and get their groove on. Recommended, one of the better episodes thus far of season six, things are bubbling away quite nicely on the season plot arcs.