I actually burst out laughing when Dean asked Sam if he would be his valentine by pushing a real human heart toward him. God, I love that this show knows how to perfectly blend humor with the horror. This week there was plenty of both as we got to meet a real cupid, and another Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Castiel offers his punchlines with such a straight delivery, you almost miss them. When Dean was trying to verify that they were dealing with a real life cupid; the little flying babies in diapers, Castiel came back with a quick, "They're not incontinent." Then, just as quickly he went on.
The writers did a good job of pulling the rug out from under us by having us think it was a rogue cupid, though when we finally met the fat naked bastard, it was pretty clear he wasn't some kind of evil mastermind. In fact, he was little more than a child intellectually. Regardless, I didn't see Famine coming, nor did I expect him to be a wheelchair bound old man with disgusting teeth, either, but it actually worked quite well.
The people of that town feeding their various "hungers" created some very disturbing imagery. In fact, I found my own mouth turning a bit in disgust in the opening moments when that hot-and-heavy couple were ripping chunks out of one another. I'm all for a little nibbling and rough play, if that's your thing, but gorging on your lover's flesh is taking it a bit too far.
The gastric bypass guy who killed himself by stuffing his face with Twinkies, on the other hand? That I understand completely.
We're inching ever closer to the big confrontation between the forces of good and evil, and the Winchesters are right in the middle of it. Over the past four and a half years, these boys have been through hell and back. In Dean's case, he's even been to hell and back. As a viewer, you never really stop to think about how much it's destroying them.
Famine's revelation that he had no affect on Dean because there was an emptiness in his soul was just heartbreaking, as was his moment at the end of the episode. We don't even know for sure what it is that he's missing, though there are many, many things we can speculate on. You don't live an admitted life of excess in desires of all kinds if you're not trying to fill a void of some sort.
As for Sam, we know what demons he's fighting. Or, what demons he'd like to be fighting and sucking the blood out of. It was good to see that even in the depths of his Famine-induced bloodlust, he knew enough to exorcise the demons but not consume them, though I don't recall Sam ever "eating" the black smoke. I'm also not sure how he knew that Famine would, or why doing whatever he did to them while they were inside Famine would dispatch the Horseman ... for now. I just hope they got the ring.
I kept expecting Dean to rush up and take a swing at it, but I guess you shouldn't underestimate the strength and speed of an old man in a wheelchair on oxygen if you know he's one of the Horsemen. He's probably got a lot more hidden up his sleeve than we might expect.
Hopefully, as we get closer to the end game, we can see Kripke's interpretation of the other Horsemen, as I've really enjoyed our visits from the first two. In fact, the depth and richness of this reality that's been created is so thorough and captivating that I'm really hoping Kripke does get to keep it going beyond this fifth season, story arc wrapping, finale. I'm just not ready to say goodbye yet. Not in the same season I'm already losing Lost!
