Supernatural Review: Season 5 Episode 14 "My Bloody Valentine"

By: Ben Edlund

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

           All references aside, I can't think of a more accurate title for an episode. This was disgusting. But at least we got to meet Cupid...

          Whenever the story started off with a young couple literally eating each other to death, I very nearly threw my remote at the screen and turned it off. That right there was the most disgusting thing SPN has ever put to screen. Thankfully it was over fast and we went straight to the Winchesters from there. To be honest whenever this episode started out, I thought it would just be a funny (albeit gross) romp through the clichés and ridiculousness of St. Valentine's Day. Ha! How wrong I was!

        This episode is significant because it is the introduction of the second Horseman - Famine. I really found the way they did this character to be interesting. Instead of Famine riding across the land (Why does everything supernatural attack the US? Is it like London or Cardiff and alien invasions?) and killing the crops to bring literal famine, it's more like he gives everyone an insatiable hunger for the things they have been restricting themselves from. Food, drink, commitment, shopping, booze, sex...it doesn't matter what, once Famine gets his claws into you you're doomed to "...eat, drink, and screw yourself to death." (to quote Sam Winchester)

        And at least we got to meet Cupid...


Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- As I said before, this episode is not for the faint of heart (Really...what about SPN is?!) as it opens with a couple, starved for sex and who-knows-what, literally eating each other due to the influence of Famine. DISGUSTING!

- "Um...No EMF, no sulfur. Ghost possession and demonic possession are both probably out." You have to love how there is a sentence like this in almost every episode of SPN (even the ones that do involve possessions). I almost wonder why they even bother checking for those things any more seeing as how they rarely show up accurately.
         
- It makes me laugh whenever Sam's all concerned about Dean not taking advantage of Valentine's Day (a.k.a. Christmas for unattached free drifters) and compares it to when a dog refuses to eat, much to Dean's disgust.



- I have to say that portions of this episode put the biggest, sappiest, most ridiculous smile on my face ever. Why? Because of the Sam-Dean-Cas trio! I just love episodes where the three of them are working together on some mystery or case...and just working on the case, not dealing with inter-group bickering and tension. Do you know how rare that actually is?

- The scene where Dean calls Cas up on the phone because of the Enochian Sam spotted never fails to make me laugh. Cas' struggles to understand technology are always hilarious. How many years has his garrison been watching over Earth? You'd think he'd at least have learned something!

- "Cupid?! You mean the little fat guy in a diaper?" "No. They're not incontinent." Oh Cas...I don't think that's what Dean meant.

- This is also the episode where Cas becomes addicted to hamburgers. Well...it's because Jimmy, his vessel, has a taste for red meat and apparently even an angel of the Lord can't overcome the base instinct of hunger.

A hug from Cupid...Dean doesn't look happy!

- He even goes so far as to steal Dean's lunch before he's distracted by Cupid's presence.

- Cupid himself is a funny little chap with a grin and an obsession with spouting off romantic clichés.

- I think there was a reference to It's A Wonderful Life in there when Castiel started talking about the different 'classes' of angels. It's fascinating the way the angels of this universe seem to run Heaven very much like it's a tough and militaristic business corporation.

- Gotta love the boys' (and angel's) reaction to Cupid.

- Dean punched Cupid. Dean. Punched. CUPID! I'm laughing far too hard to make a joke about that right now...

- This is episode is interesting because it introduces the concepts of the pure power of souls that will feature prominently in later seasons. In this story it's because the demons are stealing the souls of the people killed by Famine for the Horseman to eat.

- It's also nice the way  this episode brings back the element of Sam's blood addiction again. Well...not exactly nice, but it is a good piece of continuity rather than having the deus ex machina (literally) cure him of it the way it looked like it had in the season première. It had played such a big part in the angst and plot of Season 4 that it would have been a MAJOR cop-out to just magic it away without consequences. There are subtle clues that Sam is starting to feel cravings again all throughout the episode, beginning whenever he and Dean step into the morgue. That should have been a clue for us as to what the boys were dealing with.

- I could watch Castiel eat burgers all day. I really wish we had gotten the full count of how many he actually devoured, though.

- The scene with the raw beef grossed me out. Think of the potential food poisoning! I hope Cas purged that from poor Jimmy's stomach once he came out from under Famine's influence!

- Also...how is Jimmy still alive? Raphael smote Castiel and totally destroyed the younger angel, vessel and all. Whenever God brought Cas back, did he restore Jimmy's soul too? Do angels have to inhabit a vessel containing a living soul? Why does it work like that? Is it ever explained?

- Famine's entrance is just epic. Dark and gross and scary, but epic. With Castiel reciting from the book of Revelations over the montage of the Horseman riding into the All You Can Eat buffet at Biggerson's (Why do things always go wrong in that restaurant on this show?) and striking down all the patrons with that damning, all-encompassing hunger.

- The french-fry guy was especially gross.

- I appreciate the way Sam came clean to Dean in this episode about the blood cravings and I really hope that Dean does too. It must have been hard for both boys to realize that Ruby's specter was still hanging over them. Poor Sam!

- I really want to know why, whenever he chained Sam up, Dean didn't pain a devil's trap over the hotel door or something like that. Did he and Cas just think that all the demons would be busy with their sneak assault or something?

- Of course demons find Sam and he ends up breaking free and totally wiping them out, giving in to Famine's influence in the process. He's a messy eater. (I'm sorry...that was a totally inappropriate joke.)

- And we finally get an answer as to why Dean seems to be immune to the poison that even Cas succumbs to: "...you're not hungry, Dean, because inside you're already dead." Oh Dean... *sniff*

- Sammy to the rescue again. He manages to get hold of himself long enough to resist further temptation from Famine and even figures out how to cripple the Horseman by tricking Famine into swallowing the demons and then using his powers of controlling them to rip Famine apart from the inside. Good for Sam! It was a great climax and an interesting twist that I did not see coming!

- But the episode ends on a downer note with Sam screaming in the panic room again with Dean and Cas slowly drinking their sorrows away outside. Team Free Will is in a dark place.

            This was a great episode. It started out as a satirical (and gross) comedy making fun of the soppy tropes and clichés surrounding the holiday of lurve and then morphed into something else entirely. Famine was a deliciously disgusting (pun intended) villain who really managed to get under the boys' skins as well as reminding us just how screwed up they are. As if we ever forgot! It was funny and depressing and dark and everything that a great Supernatural episode usually is. My Bloody Valentine is a 5/5.




What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?