How does a show about ghouls and ghosts do a Halloween episode in a way that stands out from its normal fare? By doing a show about Halloween itself, apparently. In this episode, Supernatural managed to advance the overall arc while still providing a satisfying monster-of-the-week story; a balancing act the show carried off with typical aplomb.

The story involves Sam and Dean’s investigation of the death of Luke Wallace, a small-town Dad who met his demise from razor-bladed Halloween candy. His death is immediately suspicious to Sam and Dean, who agree with his widow that it is bizarre that he managed to eat four blades. (Blade-laden candy rarely causes serious injury, apparently – see here). Sure enough, Sam and Dean discover a witch’s hex bag on the premises. Sam notes that it’s not just any hex bag – it’s the mother of all hex bags, filled with centuries-old heavy-duty hex items. Another odd death soon follows, as a girl at a Halloween party is boiled alive while bobbing for apples. Sure enough, there’s another hex bag. A bit more research leads Sam to believe that the attacks are not about satisfying a grudge, but rather may be the first two of three blood sacrifices necessary to summon the demon Samhain, upon whom Halloween is based.

Sam’s explanation of the history of Halloween to Dean involves quite a bit of artistic license: For one thing, the text of the book from which he was reading (shown briefly on the screen) was actually a summary of Dante’s Inferno. It had nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween. Likely, the prop department just liked the picture on the opposite page, which Sam explained was a drawing of Samhain. For another, the whole idea of a demon named Samhain being the origin of Halloween is apocryphal. Sam explains that villagers wore masks to hide from Samhain, carved his likeness in pumpkins, and set candy at their doorstep to appease him. In fact, identifying Samhain as a Celtic God of the Dead is one of the most enduring fallacies associated with the holiday. While Halloween is indeed based upon the Celtic Feast of Samhain, describing Samhain as a God of the Dead is an error attributed to an 18th Century writer, which was carried over and eventually incorporated into the holiday despite the fact that no such god ever existed in Celtic lore. If anything, Samhain was a very minor hero in Celtic mythology, marginally famous for having a magical cow stolen from him, and likely named after the eponymous celebration at summer’s end rather than vice versa. (Samhuinn’ (the Scots Gaelic spelling) means “summer’s end”). Wiccans observe Samhain as a New Year of sorts, a night for remembering the dead as the seasons change. The holiday has nothing to do with a rampaging Demon or God of the Dead. It’s hard to find relatively non-biased information on Samhain and the origin of Halloween. The closest available may be here. For explanations on either extreme, see here or here.

Supernatural takes the modern Christian popular view of Halloween and wraps it into a story that suits the arc of the show – two witches are working to raise Samhain. This must be prevented at all costs, as Sam and Dean learn from the Angel Castiel and the newly introduced Angel Uriel. Samhain will bring with him all manner of hellish disaster and, in fact, his being raised is one of the 66 seals Lillith is striving to break to allow Lucifer to walk the earth. Castiel explains that the preferred course of action is just to angelically nuke the town, and that Uriel, an angel “specialist,” is on board to that end. Sam and Dean insist that they are close to finding and stopping the witch and that destroying the town of 1,214 people is overkill. However, Sam and Dean fail to stop Samhain’s raising as the girl they think they are rescuing turns out to be one of two witches. They free her and in so doing allow her to kill the second witch, making the third and final blood sacrifice. Ultimately, after a bit of Samhain raising some hell, Sam does manage to take down Samhain by doing his demon-exorcism bit. Samhain is particularly strong, and the exorcism takes a physical toll on Sam but he prevails. At the end of the episode, Castiel reveals that the angels’ true orders were to follow Dean’s orders, and he admits that he himself has questions and doubts about what is right and what is wrong.

As this episode marks Uriel’s introduction to the series, and he seems likely to be a recurring character, it may be worth learning a bit about the mythology of this particular angel. Some sources describe the archangel Uriel as “The Light of God,” or alternately as the “Fire of God.” He is known for transforming painful memories and bringing peace to a person’s past. (Interesting that, in this episode, Uriel confronted Dean about what he remembered from his time in Hell). Uriel is also known for confronting errant souls who have strayed from their spiritual path, earning him the occasional moniker “Angel of Repentance.” (Interesting that, in this episode, Uriel confronts Sam for having used his demon-granted powers, notwithstanding that Sam was doing so for the greater good). More on Uriel can be found here and here.

There were a couple of distinguishing things about this episode, for me, that made it stand out a bit from a normal episode. For one thing, there seemed to be more attention paid than normal to color. Some scenes (particularly those involving the town) were extremely grey. The opening scene, where Luke Wallace scarfs some candy and dies, is one such scene. Everything in that scene, except the bright orange pumpkin, is shades of grey. Grey walls, grey clothes, grey fridge, grey cabinets. Contrasted with this were scenes featuring Sam and Dean. Those scenes, particuarly in their motel, were awash with green and purple pastels and paisley patterning. At the episode’s climax, when Sam dispells Samhain, Sam has a colorful and brightly lit stained glass window over his shoulder. A second thing that made the episode a bit different was the use of perspective. This episode featured tons of unusual camera perspectives: There was the inside-the-mouth razor-cam. There was the bobbing-for-apples-cam. There was the inside-the-spacesuit-helmet trick-or-treater-cam. There was the through-the-blurry-eyes-of-Samhain-cam. One final distinguishing component of this episode was the treatment of Samhain himself: for the first time in quite a few episodes, the show summoned up a villain with no sympathetic qualities. Samhain was unquestionably, incontrovertibly, unrepentantly evil.

All in all, despite the three unusual bits outlined above, I’d say this was relatively typical fare for Supernatural in that it was entertaining and solid throughout. 4 out of 5 Metallicars.