Things have gotten pretty messy for the Winchesters, and really the entire world, haven't they? What do you do after more than four years of battling evil when you've unleashed the gates of hell and kick-started the apocalypse? Angels and demons are poised for the final battle? Maybe it'd be best to go back to the beginning and try again. Anna returned, only she wasn't being as nice as we've gotten used to seeing. Instead, she'd decided that one way to keep Lucifer from winning the war was to keep him from claiming his vessel. In other words, all you have to do is kill Sam and scatter his atoms across the universe. The only problem is that handy hex spell Castiel put on the boys so the angels couldn't find them. If she can't successfully kill Sam, and I'll give her points for trying, she decided to make things a little easier. Why take on a couple of seasoned hunters and their angel buddy when you can simply go kill a young married couple before they even conceive the devil's future vessel. So it was off to '78, where Dean could meet his younger mother again, and Sam could meet both his younger parents for the first time. The revelation that Mary was from a line of hunters came as a shock to me the first time around, and this time it was just as crazy to see John Winchester as a happy-go-lucky, regular joe. We also got to see a younger Uriel, but he was just as big a dick back then as he wound up being later. All in all, the action was pretty limited and straightforward. Anna tried to kill Mary and John -- or really either one -- while the boys decided maybe it was a good idea to have the two break up. They also revealed their true identities to their mother, who revealed to them that she was already pregnant with Dean. As Castiel said, the past is written, and as this isn't Lost, it's not likely to be rewritten and changed, so the boys just need to deal with their bed. They made it, so they need to go face off against the hordes of heaven and hell in it. What did we learn that was new? We learned that the ability to be Michael's vessel is in the bloodline, meaning that Michael was able to possess John. He also wiped both John and Mary of the memory of this visit. I want to know if that means Sam being Lucifer is also a lineage thing? If so, couldn't Lucifer just hop back in time and take whatever vessel he wants. If he can't bring it forward, than inhabit the body and impregnate as many chicks as he can over a lifspan. Jump back to the present, and it's a vessel buffet! Normally I'm okay with these middle of the season one-off episodes, and I've even enjoyed the ones we've seen. But with everything that's at stake this season, I'm really getting antsy for them to get back to the meat of the story.
