TV Review: Supernatural 1.17

Thursday, March 30, 2006

From WB: Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate a house haunted by the ghost of Mordecai, a man who killed his six daughters during the 1930s. The brothers discover a website dedicated to the Mordecai legend and realize the town is unknowingly conjuring up the evil spirit through the site.

My Rating: 3 out of 4

Supernatural returns with the first all new episode in weeks titled Hell House in its new time-slot. Tonight's episode opens with a group of teens going to what appears to be a haunted house. However, they find the body of a young woman hanging from the ceiling overhead. This catches the attention of the two brother's and they end up at the house two months later.

Once they are in town, the two brother's begin investigating the events at the house, and they quickly learn about the death of the man that owned the house and how he liked to kill young women and hangs them. However, the woman that the young teenagers saw wasn't there when the cops show up. Also when the brothers are searching for information on the house, Sam finds a website dedicated to the spirit.

They also end up talking a teenager that knows a lot about the spirit and the house it haunts. He tells them the story about the man that committed the murders. The teenager was one of the people that went into the house and saw the body of the girl. Next, Sam and Dean travel to the house themselves. They meet up with some other paranormal investigators that are inside the house looking for the spirit. Sam and Dean leave these two to their 'work.'

They move on to investigate at the records department, but they don't turn up much at all. Dean is ready to call the case a but and go home. Sam agrees at this point. However, when another group of teenagers visit the house, sending a young woman inside as some type of test, she ends up dead. Dean and Sam are still in town when it happens, so they are back on the case thinking they somehow missed something.

The Winchester's return to the house that night, but the cops have the house under guard to prevent any more killing. Sam and Dean find a way to create a distraction so they can get back inside to check things out. They aren't alone in the house as the spirit makes his appearance. Rock salt doesn't work in this spirit as others have in the past, and the spirit is after the two brothers. The other ghost hunters they had found in the house and used for a distraction also see the spirit and also catches him on film.

Sam goes back to the website about the spirit for more clues, and he finds another post. This telling of a ghost with an ax that chopped up his victims and slit his wrists, much like the spirit that came after the two brothers. they return to meet the teenager from before, and he tells them that the ghost story was actually just a story they created. There was no spirit to begin with, but it appears that one was created in some manner by the stories told. So the Winchester's aren't dealing with a ghost. Sam believes the spirit might actually be a thought created life form called a topa. The more he is thought about the more he lives. However, once the life form is created, they take on a life of their own.

The brothers go to the ghost hunters trying to get them to shut down their website, but they aren't willing to do so. however, Sam and Dean are able to trick them to post a new story on the website. One that will make it easier for them to rid the house of the life form. The story goes live on the website, so all the brothers need to do is wait for the legend to take affect and change.

That night the brothers go the house, and the spirit is there waiting for them, along with the ghost hunters. When the guns don't work on the spirit, the brothers find out the website had crashed, so their story hadn't had chance to take. So instead Dean burns the house down. The spirit can't leave the house, so this should work. The other ghost hunters are asked to Hollywood to make the film and role playing game based on the spirit. However, it was Sam that placed the call to rid them of the ghost hunters.

It was really great to see Supernatural back. This hiatus was way too long, and the brothers were really fun this week with their pranks. Not a whole lot of character, but a good episode to get us right back into the swing of things. Not your traditional ghost tale which helped make things more interesting as well. Next week, we have another all new episode of Supernatural to entertain us.