RECAP: One of my favorite combinations of things on “Supernatural”: A haunted house, stupid young people, scary ghosts and Hunters! “Of Grave Importance” was more than just a haunted-house episode though.
Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) received a phone call from an old hunter friend, Annie (Jamie Luner). Annie isn’t just any hunter though; she seems to have had her fair share of “intimate time” with the Winchesters and Bobby. Amusing! She’s heard about Bobby’s death and wants to pass on some of his books to the boys. They arrange a meeting time and then things unravel.
Annie is on a hunt of her own at Van Ness House. She’s trying to track down a young couple who have disappeared mysteriously … of course, we know where they went. Honestly, you’d think by now that people would know better than to venture into haunted houses. To steal a phrase from Dean, “it never ends well.” Annie is rushed by a huge ghost and everything goes dark.
Bobby’s back and he’s haunting the boys. The problem is that the boys haven’t seen him yet. It turns out that being a ghost doesn’t come with an instruction manual and Bobby is struggling to come up with ways to make himself known. Fortunately, his spirit is connected to the flask that Dean has so lovingly been drinking whisky from.
Annie, of course, stands the boys up and they know that something must be wrong so they begin investigating. Bobby tags along when Sam and Dean head to the Van Ness house and, sadly, he encounters Annie. Poor Annie is a ghost. As they catch up with one another we find out a bit more about Bobby. It’s been a couple of months since he died and yes, all those tricky little things that “Supernatural” fans spotted along the way were, in fact, failed attempts at contacting the boys.
Bobby and Annie meet up with another ghost and he tries to school them in the fine-art of interacting with the living world. There are two ways for a spirit to move an object: a blind rage or achieving a kind of Zen state. Bobby can’t summon a blind rage so he has a go at the Zen thing but it just doesn’t work for him.
Finding little or nothing at the Van Ness House, Sam and Dean go to a local museum to see what they can learn. The house has a rather colorful history. The big guy that ran at Annie is the spirit of one of Mr. Whitman’s staff. But he was also convicted of murdering Mr. Whitman’s wife. It could explain the haunting but then, this is “Supernatural” and there’s always a twist. Poor Bobby spends most of his time attempting to interact in some way with the brothers.
By the time the boys are back at the motel and talking about the case Bobby has become frustrated enough to give himself a talking to. Finally Bobby manages to write a message on a steamy bathroom mirror, “Annie trapped in house”. Sam and Dean ask who it is and, “Bobby”, is written on the mirror.
Back at the house a couple more stupid young people have arrived and are trying to do a tribute video. Unfortunately, they become the next victims of … and here’s where we get the twist! It’s not Dexter the wife-murdering-lunatic-ghost who is doing the killing it’s Mr. Whitman himself. He’s a ghost killing people and a serial killer of ghosts. I think that might need a new villain category.
The hunters return to the house dragging Bobby along with them. While they’ve been gone Annie has been befriending another ghost in the house. Victoria is a “fancy lady” who worked in the house and she seems to know a lot of secrets. Annie convinces her to speak to Sam and Dean, warn them about Mr. Whitman.
Things go from bad to worse. Bobby has hidden his flask in the house and Mr. Whitman has slipped a key into Sam’s pocket. As Sam and Dean drive off we see Mr. Whitman grinning evilly from the back seat.
Bobby and Annie do what hunters do best. They search the house for the location of the bodies that Mr. Whitman has been taking. Once they discover them, they start salting and burning.
Meanwhile, in yet another non-Impala, Sam and Dean are heading to salt and burn Mr. Whitman. Mr. Whitman has other plans and tries to force the car off the road. Dean manages to pull the car over and quickly realizes that they must have an object of Whitman’s on them. Turns out that if you shoot at an object a spirit is linked to them the spirit gets bungeed back to where they came from. Good for the Winchesters, not so good for Annie and Bobby.
Mr. Whitman is pretty pissed off at Bobby for interfering with things and proceeds to turn him inside out, or set him on ghost-fire or something. I’m not quite sure but it certainly looked uncomfortable.
The Winchesters set fire to Mr. Whitman and Bobby hit the floor. He was out for a while, something he had earlier said was happening to him on and off. Being a ghost is “exhausting”. For some strange reason when Sam and Dean return to the Van Ness House they are suddenly able to see Bobby.
It’s a strange reunion. Neither Winchester seems all that thrilled to see Bobby. They know what happens to spirits; they know that Bobby is going to end up like a screaming banshee as he slowly deteriorates.
Dean, as usual, is the one who is most unhappy with finding out that Bobby is a ghost. It’s not the “natural order” and he can’t believe that Bobby actually chose to stay. Rightfully, Bobby is a little pissed after spending two months trying to contact Sam and Dean. He was sitting in the back seat of the car at the end of the episode listening when Dean asked his brother, “What are the odds that this ends well?” Good question.
REVIEW: I was excited to see another female hunter. I should have known that she would only be alive for 35 seconds. Oh “Supernatural” – can we please have a female who is a series regular? I know! How about Sheriff Mills (Kim Rhodes). You already gave her a backstory and she’s a good fit to provide some support to the boys! Think on it and get back to me, show.
I’m not sure about the timeline of things for Bobby getting a handle on being a ghost. I found it a bit odd that in two months he couldn’t do more than flutter a curtain then suddenly he was able to make himself visible. Was his sudden manifestation to do with the trauma his ghostly self had just encountered or was it something he learned to do?
The special effects in this episode were pretty great. I loved the mirror writing. I’m trying to convince Ivan Hayden (special effects) to tell me how it was done.
I missed Sam’s snarky comments about Dean’s drinking in this episode. Has Sam given up on his older brother?
