(spoilers for Supernatural 6×05)

[rusty_halo]

They had me at "Bela Lugosi's Dead." The Hunger opens with that song and is quite possibility the sexiest vampire movie ever (vampire!David Bowie, anyone?).

Was that shot in the alley in the beginning a shoutout to Angel the Series? It looked so similar, I was expecting Spike's "How can I thank you, you mysterious black clad hunk of a night thing?" monologue to start up at any moment.

I've been a vampire movie junkie since I saw Interview with the Vampire at age 11. So as you can imagine, this episode struck very close to my heart. It was a love letter to vampires on film and a total rip on Twilight at the same time.

And all the ho!yay! All the ho!yay centered on vampire Dean. SERA GAMBLE IS FILMING FANFICTION. I approve of this so heartily I can't even put it into words.

WTF was that vision sequence in the middle? This episode was such a trip. I have to watch it again. I absolutely loved it.

The one opportunity they really missed, though? Sam and Dean went to a vampire club AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN GO UNDERCOVER IN GOTH OUTFITS. Sera Gamble, you missed a prime turning-fanfic-into-canon opportunity there. Although maybe it's best; if this episode had also featured Dean in black leather* pants, I might have died.

Um. Oh. And Sam is evil! Or he's taken that "ends justify the means" thing waaaaaay too far. I'm happy because it looks like we are finally getting actual evil Sam, after years of them teasing us with lots of angst and whining about Sam maybe kinda but not really going evil. I love that even Samuel is suspicious of Sam. Fandom's been all suspicious of Samuel ~when they should have been suspicious of Sam instead~. *evil grin*

And I like that this is still basically an incremental progression from what we've seen of Sam before; he's still got a good end in mind. But I wonder how much even he believes it now. All I hear from Sam fans is that they hate his story, but I am actually very impressed with how the show has taken Sam progressively darker in such an organic way. It's the antithesis of the "instant evil"/"instant good" BtVS gave us with Angel and Willow; Sam's transformation has been slow, based on the life he's lead and the questions he's grappled with, and there's no easy fix.

But um yes. Bauhaus! And the title "Live Free or Twihard" deserves an award of its own. Their Bella did a fantastic Kristin Stewart impression and their Edward was quite good too. "He's watching her sleep; how is that not rapey?" -- brilliant line, out of Dean Winchester's mouth, no less! Also LOL at Dean interrogating the kid about whether wearing glitter actually works when it comes to getting laid. And Dean making such a cranky vampire! And then Dean turning into Edward (and realizing it)! All the ho!yay! You guys, that dude turned Dean because he's pretty. jikafjekdkjla I can't even.

I love that Dean totally fucked up the thing with Lisa--having a vampire sneak into your bedroom at night IS NOT A GOOD THING. Although I feel terrible for Lisa and Ben and will understand better why Lisa may not want Dean in their lives anymore. I still can't get a read on exactly how Dean feels about Lisa--he was so adorably glad to be talking to her during the phone call (*SOB*), but when he came to say goodbye I was surprised to hear "Thanks" instead of "I love you." I wonder how much of Dean's feelings for Lisa are obligation/gratefulness and how much is actual love. Or maybe it is love and he's just afraid to say it. It's disturbing me that the thing I'm feeling most emotionally invested in this season is Dean's relationship with Lisa, when I know it can't turn out well.

I know the scene of Dean showing up in Lisa's bedroom was supposed to be a reference to Edward and Bella, but didn't it feel like Angel and Buffy, too? (Which makes sense--BtVS had a darker take more in line with SPN's.)

I'm okay with vampirism being curable before the vampire drinks--it doesn't interfere with past canon and it's a nice twist on the myth. (Plus it got me vampire Dean, so why would I complain? I wonder if he'll have any kind of lingering link to the alpha!vamp visions now.) I was much more annoyed at the "you can kill demons by burning their bones" nonsense last week. (Which really just makes no sense--people who are cremated can't turn into demons? Can they still go to hell? What do they do there? What about bones that disintegrate over time?)

This episode wasn't perfect. Vampire Dean could've been more awesome. He could've been hungrier and darker and more tempted toward evil and less ~heroic martyr~ the whole time. But for a 40 minute episode of television that also had to fit in Twilight parody and evil Sam, they did pretty damn well at fulfilling my vampire!Dean dreams. I love that Dean kept his goofball sense of humor even as a vamp and, wow, he was all dark and scary and powerful and pale and lost and bloodied and pretty and he killed alll those vampires and OMFG THAT WAS HOT.

Um, I have to go watch it again. And maybe watch The Hunger to get that Bauhaus song out of my head. And then watch Supernatural some more. Uh, and then at some point sleep.

I'm so happy to have this show. ♥♥♥

* Which I always pretend is faux because I'm vegan and I don't want to be horrified by otherwise sexy sexy things. Shhh.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. You can comment here or there.