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I wasn’t particularly pleased with the previous episode, mainly because the direction of the humor wasn’t to my taste. This episode was a lot more along the lines of what I was looking for, right down to the exploration of Dean’s complicated relationship to Sam. Dean operates from a deep sense of guilt in this episode, and we finally get a look at the Winchesters on the road.

I think my favorite parts of the episode took place in the past. We got to see Dean as the not-so-dutiful son, bristling at the command to watch over the younger, less capable Sam. Considering Dean’s almost obsessive desire to protect and maintain family, it’s a nice bit of contrast. What child doesn’t occasionally wish that siblings would disappear and no longer be a responsibility?

It also highlights just how screwed up childhood was for Dean and Sam. They were running around the country from place to place, dealing with demonic entities and a father whose idea of education was unique, to say the least. It’s surprising that Dean and Sam were able to function in normal society at any level.

I’m not sure if it was adjustment to the new night, or my mental state due to a bad sinus cold, but this episode didn’t really do it for me. Even the banter between the Brothers Winchester didn’t really strike me as particularly substantial. I like the fact that they can relax enough around each other to pull pranks, but since I prefer the more conflicted psychology between Sam and Dean, I wasn’t as interested in the wacky.

I also wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of mocking “ghost hunters”. I will be the first to admit that there are a lot of people running around out there with no clue what they’re doing when it comes to investigating unusual phenomena. Many probably look and act the way the characters in this episode did. That’s all well and good, except that I got the distinct feeling that the writers were portraying all paranormal investigators as geeks without a clue.

From a personal perspective, I happen to listen to a few podcasts with established paranormal investigators and I’m quite the fan of “Ghost Hunters”, which is a show based on the investigations carried out by TAPS, a group with strong credentials and integrity.