'Supernatural' react: Lucifer returns -- but for once, Sam's not the craziest of them all

I imagine if given any choice, Sam would happily tango with evil clowns instead of Lucifer and his mind games. Unfortunately, Sammy was given no such opportunity, and this week found himself once again grappling with his visions of His Evilness (Mark Pellegrino) as the brothers worked a pretty twisted case.

In seven seasons, there have been less than a handful of times when the Winchesters have worked a case that turned out to have a troubling human element. The first such instance was in “The Benders” from season one, when the cause of a string of missing people turned out to have nothing to do with lore and everything to do with a crazy family of hillbillies. (Why’s it always the hillbillies?)

This week’s episode took a page from that approach, with a case involving a young man Dean and Sam had met four years ago. (Is someone keeping track of the “blasts from the past” we’re meeting this season?) This boy had been possessed by a demon who Dean and Sam needed to squeeze for info on Lilith and the whereabouts of her lieutenants. (Yup, it was that far back. Supernatural better thank their lucky stars their headliners have aged well, enabling them to utilize this storytelling device.) So in order to get the information they needed, Dean and Sam had to torture the poor kid and then sent the demon back to hell after they got what they needed. Four years later, mysterious murders began happening that led the boys to believe the demon was back in action. Not so, it turned out.

Actually, the boy they saved had started murdering women. To be fair, his eggs were totally scrambled after his demon encounter all those years ago, but sorry, bud, that’s no excuse for going on a murder spree. I mean, look at Sam, he’s plagued by the devil himself and manages to keep a pure heart. (I wonder, if psycho boy had a Dean-like figure in his life, could he have resisted the dark force that consumed him? Hmm.)

And while this week’s episode certainly had a little more to do with the supernatural than that “The Benders” did, I can say that the serial killer element caught me totally off guard — in a great way. In fact, I found the overall blend of the episode to be pretty pitch perfect. We had a case with a twist, a formidable foe (in killer Jeffrey AND the demon), a person from the boys past whom we’d never met before (a woman who’d helped them four years ago ended up leading them into the trap, but only to save her son), a brother in peril (oh, Dean), and a nod to the bigger arc (Sam dealing with Luci).

Could it be?! Yet another incredibly strong episode? Why, yes! How spoiled I feel! I mean, not to sound gushy. One can always find nit-picks, but I just don’t see a point in dwelling in the minor things when the episode was so enjoyable.

I really hope you all feel the same way I do about these last two episodes. Because I think overwhelmingly positive response might send the most important message of all: After seven years, fans haven’t tired of the things that made Supernatural great in the first place. There’s still steam left in this engine. Oh, and keep Mark Pellegrino on the payroll.

I’m eager for your thoughts, readers. What did you think of the episode? Did you like the human twist? Did you feel bad for the puppy!? Were you totally freaked out by the library head-bashing scene/Lucifer’s disgusting tongue? And are you dying because the wait for the next new episode is so long? (March 9, see you soon. Misha Collins, see you in my dreams until then.)