Meg returns! As the Winchesters investigate a couple of gory deaths, Sam runs into Meg in a bar. Her being there is no coincidence.
Pre-show notes
I don’t remember this episode well. I remember it’s Meg’s second appearance, but I can’t remember the plot at all.
So, let’s just dive right in!
Episode notes
We are in Chicago, where a pretty young woman is walking alone In the dark. You just know this isn’t going to end well. A spooky voice calls her name. She starts walking faster, then breaks into a run as she nears her home. She gets inside and sets the alarm, She thinks she’s safe, but something with claws is in the shadows.
The Winchester brothers are at the apartment, pretending to be from the alarm company and the landlady agreed to show them around. She tells them the alarm was set and there was no sign of a struggle, but Meredith’s body was dismembered.
Sam says he knew this was their kind of thing – so he picked this job, not Dean. That’s a first, isn’t it? Except for Sam’s visions.
Dean is playing join-the-dots with the blood on the floor. It makes a weird symbol. Sam does some research, but can’t find the symbol anywhere.
The brothers talk over their lack of success in the bar where Meredith worked. Sam spots Meg in the crowd – small world! He heads over to her table and they have a nice flirty chat before Dean butts in. Since Sam spent most of his previous time with Meg complaining about Dean, she’s not happy to meet him. Sam gets Meg’s number and a promise that they’ll hook up.
Dean is pissed off that Sam talked about him, and Sam is suspicious of the coincidence. I mean, I know Sam’s right but he’s behaving like a stalker.
Dean has identified the symbol as representing a Zoroastrian demon called a daeva. They are savage creatures that have to be summoned.
Sam follows Meg to an abandoned building, where she does her phone call thing with the goblet of blood. She says “I don’t think you should come” because the Winchesters are in town, and is obviously overruled by whatever she’s talking to. Once she’s gone, Sam gets a closer look at her dark altar – and it includes the daeva symbol.
Sam and Dean start putting the clues together. Dean has discovered that the victims do have something in common – both were born in Lawrence, Kansas – as were they. They conclude that this is somehow connected to Lawrence and potentially to the demon that killed Mary. Dean wants to trash Meg’s altar and get answers from her. Sam wants to stake her out to see what’s coming to meet her. I’m not quite sure who wins, but they agree they need some backup on this one. Dean calls John And leaves a message asking him to hurry to Chicago.
Once again we have that clash of missions: Dean’s drive to “save people, hunt things” vs. Sam’s focus on revenge. I’m not sure adding John to that mix is a good plan. That’s a three-way clash.
Sam thinks they might get the demon tonight. He says if they do he’ll sleep for a month then go back to school “and be a person again”. Not the best choice of words and Dean isn’t happy. He wants Sam to stick around. He wants his family back the way it was. Sam is crushing that dream for him. I get where Sam is coming from, but that’s a tough conversation.
They sneak up on Meg in the warehouse. My Latin is weak, but I catch enough to know she’s summoning the daeva. Meg knows they are there, and it’s not long before this is revealed as a trap. The daeva attacks. Now the boys are tied up on the floor. We learn that Meg set the whole trail of breadcrumbs up to lure them as bait for John.
Dean talks tough, saying John is too good to fall for a trap. Meg says his judgement is clouded with his sons on the line, which is likely true: based on the little we’ve seen, John is desperate to keep the brothers out of his own hunt. Sam tells her to go to Hell and Meg says “I’m already there,” confirming her own nature, though I’m not sure the brothers pick up on it right away. She has some weird seduction thing going with Sam…who is playing along while Dean tries to cut his own bonds. Meg catches him at it but Sam also has a blade, and he’s free.
Sam destroyed the dark altar and the daeva turns on Meg, who is tossed out of the window. Apparently, she’s dead.
Back at their digs, the brothers find John waiting for them. It’s a touching reunion. Dean hugs his father hard before confessing it was a trap like a little boy confessing he ate the last cookie. John does not seem surprised. He and Sam have one of those very manly conversations where no one actually says sorry, but they both kinda mean it. John says he’s close to finding the demon and he intends to kill it – not just send it to Hell, but kill it. Sam wants in, but John is stubborn: he doesn’t want his sons in that kind of danger.
The chick-flick-moment is interrupted by the daeva which attacks from the shadows.
Sam lights up a flare which appears to banish the daeva and they escape the building together. They are about to flee together but Dean stops them.
“Sam, listen to me. We almost got Dad killed in there. They’re not gonna stop. They’re gonna try again, they’re gonna use us to get to him. Dad’s vulnerable when he’s with us.”
Dean
That’s Dean’s guilt talking, because he called John without realising it was a trap. But as much as Dean is making a good point, he is only seeing part of the picture. We know from Home how badly John wanted to rejoin his sons – Dean’s call just gave him a reason.
And Sam. Sam’s not thinking strategically. He wants to join John because he thinks their missions are the same – to kill the demon. But Dean’s words have affected John.
“Sammy, this fight is just starting, and we are all gonna have a part to play.”
John
Sam gives in, and father and sons go their separate ways as Meg watches them leave.
Nitpicks
Meg tells the brothers that the daevas are all around them, invisible, which makes sense. Why then did light defeat them? The shadows were the only way we could perceive their presence, but it shouldn’t have made them physically ineffective.
Zoroastrianism
The episode describes the daeva as demons, but they are demons in the same sense that the pagan gods of Europe became devils: they were “demoted” when new religions took over.
Zoroastrianism, as I understand it, describes a battle between good and evil, which are evenly matched forces. The war will last for 3000 years, and end with a final assault by evil, after which good will finally triumph. This sounds a lot like the world of Supernatural. There is very little indication of a Christian cosmology in season one (Latin exorcisms aside), though the show did adopt more of it later. In the world of season one, we see no sign of good winning out over evil; if the hunters are the forces of good they are at best holding the line. So a Zoroastrian cosmology makes sense: we are in the time when evil is ascendant – close to the end of the 3000 years.
Associations
Sister shows Hercules the Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess drew on Zoroastrian mythology for their twilight of the gods saga.
Final thoughts
Meg used the daeva to set a trap for John. Since the daeva attacked when John joined the brothers, it appears the trap was intended to be fatal. But while that makes sense at this point, it doesn’t chime with later canon. So I’m not sure what to think. Meg was always a bit of a wild card character.
John responds to Dean’s message even though he expects a trap. He hasn’t responded before when his sons asked for help: not when Dean called him in Home or Sam called in Faith. Hasn’t actually shown his face to his sons, I mean – he did go to Lawrence and it’s open for interpretation whether he intervened in Faith. But here he shows up for his sons, and that matters.
I think John showed up because he recognised the danger to his boys, but I also think he intended for the brothers to join him at this point. He’s stopped being secretive and tells them about the demon and his plans. Dean is the one who nixes that idea because he sees it as too dangerous for John. Oh, the irony!
John accepts Dean’s decision. I really want to shout that because it shows that John truly respects Dean as an equal. Sam thinks Dean takes John’s orders too easily, and I get that, but he doesn’t really see how the relationship between Dean and his father has changed since they were kids.
So, I must wait a few more episodes before I’ll get the Winchesters reunited.
