This is a pretty special episode where the story is told from a car’s point of view, or so to speak. Dean’s pride and joy, a 1967 Chevrolet Impala, is nothing short of a miracle. She has been through hell and back and many more. But Dean knows his cars and always put an added extra love and touch to it. She was passed down from his father, John, and has given Dean security and a place to called home.
It’s a brother bonding road trip to Oregon to investigate an animal attack. The crime scene looks like a combination of werewolf and vampire attack. Dean came up with the name were-pire attack. Sam doesn’t find it amusing. Dean uses this time to drink up and have a one night stand as Sam sleeps in the car. He gets a rude awakening when he sees Sam in the back seat with a beautiful local woman in a rather uncompromising position. But Dean is proud of his little brother getting some. The Winchesters enjoy a drive with music they can sing to, songs like “Guitar Man” by Bread, “Night Moves” by Bob Segar, and “Coming Soon” by Judy Collins. As they are listening to the oldies, Sam talks about life after hunting. He wants more; a family, a dog, and a white picket fence. Dean on the other hand disagrees. He thinks that this is their lives and they can’t have any of those. Sam also mentions that he had a dream about Dad, the younger version. He tells Dean that he said he never wanted this for them, and wanted more for them. He also gave Sam a warning that the Darkness is coming and only you two can stop it. Sam tells his younger father about his prayer to get help from God. The younger John says, “God helps those who help themselves.” Trying to soak what Sam had said, Dean is bothered that Sam is still keeping things from him, like getting infected and his vision of him being impaled by wired chains. Sam believes that it is God who is talking to him, but Dean believes otherwise, and that nobody is going to help them.
They finally arrive in Oregon and goes straight to the crime scene. They meet Deputy Donnelly who is overly grateful that the Feds are here. But they had a long drive and are hungry. They drive to a restaurant with valet parking. Dean is conflicted to give his car to valet, but he does. That would be a mistake, because the female valet took his car for a joyride with her friends. She brings it back in a hurry because she doesn’t want to get fired. This little moment of valet joyriding is scary because now the image of someone taking your car and not knowing what happens to it is frightening.
Cass is stuck back at the Bunker giving the brothers research information of what they are dealing with. First he tells them they might be dealing with Whisperer, a species close to the bloodline of werewolves and kill real quiet like, hence the term Whisperers. Dean feels it maybe something else. He feels the crime scene is staged somehow. Cass is not amused with Dean’s mash-up of werewolves and vampires. Dean is attacked by Deputy Donnelly and he severs Donnelly head. Casss confirms that it is not a Whisperer due to the teeth Dean Instagrammed him. Driving into town he calls Sam telling him about what he found, but he gets jumped by a bunch of vampires. Cass calls back and tells Dean that they might be dealing with a Nechzehrer, a mix between ghouls and vampires. A ghampire or a vhoul, that is probably what Dean would have called them. Their weakness are copper coins. Just like Charon and the River Styx, they need to put a copper coin in the ghoul-vampire’s mouth to defeat them. But the only problem is that pennies today are not pure copper, only a mix a copper and zinc. Pennies that are pre-1982 are pure copper. Dean takes the victim’s wife, Lily Markham and takes her to safety while Sam goes to her house to get her kids. But things are not what they seem. When Dean is preoccupied, Lily attacks him, ties him up and drives away with Dean in the back with the Deputy’s severed head on the seat next to him. Going back to where Dean killed Donnelly, Lily takes the severed head places it back on the body. Donnelly comes to life, well sort of. It is revealed that Lily is also a Nechzehrer, a newly recruited one. Donnelly is the alpha of this pack, trying to recruit more of his kind to be ready for the Darkness. Lily tries to recruit her husband but he refused, so she killed him for food for the others. He wanted to recruit Sam and him, but since Dean cut off his head, he is going to be used for food. Dean finds a way to break free of his binds and cause Donnelly to veer off the road. Lily and Donnelly attack him but he is able to find a pre-1982 copper coin in Lily’s purse and kill him. With the alpha male dead, Lily is reverted back to human form. She immediately warns Dean of his kids and Sam. She is afraid that Sam might not know that they are cured now and kill him. Dean calls him and everything is fine. The kids are okay and Sam is waiting for him at Lily’s house.
Bob Seger is playing “Night Moves” in the car when the brothers drive away. This episode is a very different way of telling a story. Every single scene takes place in the car. A very different perspective of looking at an episode. I liked it. Even the monsters are scared of the Darkness. How can the Winchesters defeat something that even the monsters are afraid of? We shall see.
