Maple Street, USA. Late Summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and a flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 PM on Maple Street.

– From the introductory voice-over to “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” (The Twilight Zone, 1960).

“Good God, Y’all,” the second episode of the fifth season of Supernatural, picks up shortly after the conclusion of last week’s entry. Bobby is convalescing in the hospital. Sam and Dean mull over what to do to help him bounce back. A call comes in from Castiel. He asks where they are and then meets them at the hospital, explaining upon his arrival that the rib carvings he administered last week shield them even from his own view. Castiel upsets Bobby further by telling him that, cut off from heaven, he is unable to heal Bobby. Then he informs Sam and Dean that their plan to hunt down Lucifer is foolish, but that there is one person apart from Michael strong enough to kill Lucifer: God. Castiel confirms what was strongly alluded in the last episode; that it was God who resurrected Castiel and that it was God who put Sam and Dean on the plane, rescuing them from the scene of Lucifer’s arrival. Castiel explains that he is going on a mission to find God. He takes Dean’s amulet, which he explains is a powerful artifact that glows hot, like some elvish sword of great antiquity, when near God. I do not recall the significance of Dean’s amulet being explained in a prior episode: is this something we knew? Did we know it was special? Did Dean?

Castiel vanishes and shortly thereafter Bobby receives a call from fellow hunter Rufus. Rufus is pinned down and badly outgunned. He manages to convey that he is in the town of River Pass, Colorado. Sam and Dean immediately head there but find that only bridge leading into town has fallen down. Not the first time they’ve seen such a thing, and surely not the last. They decide to hoof it. As they reach the main street, they discover the town to be largely deserted. Wrecked cars are strewn across the road, a bloody baby carriage under the front wheel of one. Nice. Dean whistles appreciatively as he takes note of one car in particular: a pristine cherry red Mustang.

“Good God, Y’all,” the second episode of the fifth season of SupernaturalSam and Dean’s investigation of the town is interrupted by the appearance of none other than Ellen Harvelle, former Hunter roadhouse proprietor, marking the character’s first return to the show since Season Two. Ellen confirms to her satisfaction that Sam and Dean are not possessed and then takes them into a nearby church basement. She has fortified the basement against demonic attack and there has assembled the town’s surviving non-possessed. Introductions are made, with particular attention paid to a besuitted town resident by the name of Roger. Ellen explains that it is her plan to arm up and get out. Sam and Dean agree to assist, with Sam going for salt at a nearby convenience store and Dean for weapons at a sporting goods store. While in the convenience store, Sam fights off two possessed town hicks. He finds himself strongly drawn to their blood, the lust for power nearly overcoming him before Dean arrives. Sam gets himself under control but Dean takes in the scene and understands that Sam was nearly tempted. (Had Sam succumbed to his desire, he would have saved the town some trouble and likely would have figured out right then and there that something other than demonic forces were at work).

The boys return to the church basement and proceed to arm the survivors. Ellen explains she is going to go off and look for her daughter, Jo. Sam goes with her. They find what they presume to be the demon base camp, noting that Demons do not get cold that it is odd, then, for the chimney to be puffing smoke. This, in hindsight, is a clue that the demons are not demons. A bigger clue comes a few minutes later, when Sam and Ellen are jumped by Jo and a few townies. “Don’t you hurt her,” Ellen warns the demon she supposes is possessing Jo, even as Jo responds, “Give me back my mother, you black-eyed bitch.” Something definitely is not right. Why do they each see each other as demons? Even as Ellen and Jo are struggling, so too are Sam and Rufus. Rufus makes short work of Sam, however, and he and Jo take Sam upstairs for interrogation.

“Good God, Y’all,” the second episode of the fifth season of SupernaturalAs it becomes more evident that demonic forces are not at work in the town, Dean attempts to puzzle out the truth. He learns from Ellen that Rufus arrived in the town to investigate a water-related omen, and then from the surviving townies he learns that the day prior to the town going crazy, the local river started to run polluted. He’s also told that a meteor was seen in the sky right around the same time. This is enough to send Dean to the bible, where he flips to Revelation 8:10:

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” (Revelation 8:10, 11 – KJB).

“Good God, Y’all,” the second episode of the fifth season of SupernaturalDean explains that this particular omen is tied to the arrival of one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. He reasons out that the cherry red Mustang must therefore belong to War, who traditionally is pictured riding a red horse. (One has to wonder what Pestilence will drive when he arrives – a white Ford Bronco?) Dean reasons aloud that War is in town and is sowing distrust and hate – the town is not fighting demons; it is fighting itself. And, yes, it is the apocalypse. It is fortunate for Sam and Dean that so much of the apocalypse and the events leading up to it are transpiring within the continental United States.

Meanwhile, Roger drops in to talk to Sam. He reveals himself to be War but explains to Sam that he hasn’t had to do much: “take out a bridge here, lay in a little hallucination there… sit back, pop some corn, watch the show.” War tells Sam that Sam lusts for power and then sets Sam up for a fall; pretending to be injured at Sam’s hand to provoke a reaction from Rufus and Jo when they return. War does this as he has been doing everything else; with a twist of his ring. For some reason surely completely unrelated to gender-symbolism, the writers of Supernatural have seen fit to replace the large sword War traditionally brandishes (a phallic symbol) with a ring (a vulvar symbol). Why would War need to use a magic tool like a ring, anyhow? That seemed a bit off, though it did at least allow for a clever “detour to Mt. Doom” quip at the episode’s end. Roger/War returns to the church basement and riles up the survivors, telling them that the demons know they are about to try to make a break for it. Dean tries to calm everyone down, reminding them that there are no demons at play, but mob mentality has taken hold and a little push from Roger’s ring is enough to convince the survivors that Dean and Ellen are now demons. They flee, the town in pursuit.

“Good God, Y’all,” the second episode of the fifth season of SupernaturalEllen leads Dean to the “demon base camp.” They are able to overcome Jo and Rufus and to convince them of the truth. But the town is on the move. A firefight breaks out in the street. They rescue Sam from upstairs and Sam and Dean head out to confront War himself. They corner War by his car. War points out that he cannot be killed; he is War, after all. This, though, does not stop Sam and Dean from trying. Dean holds War still while Sam cuts off War’s fingers with his knife. The ring falls to the ground, and War’s hold on the town is released. Then, just like that, War and his cherry red Mustang are gone.

In this episode, Dean tells a resident of the town of River Pass, Colorado, that “this is not The X-Files, pal.”  In doing so, the show arguably seeks to accomplish several things: (1) Cleverly establish the ‘reality’ of the episode by grounding it in a world whose fictional entertainment is the same as our own. The more the show makes reference to our own reality – swine flu, popular television shows, real-world current events, and the like, the more natural the world of Supernatural necessarily feels. (2) Distinguish itself from its lineage. This, of course, is no longer necessary. Supernatural already is in its fifth season, its identity firmly established. Other, newer shows, like Fringe, may yet have to fight off comparisons to The X-Files, but Supernatural already has firmly established its own unique identity. (3) Make a tongue-in-cheek reference to one of Supernatural‘s spiritual forebears. In this, it has perhaps fallen shy of the mark. Rather than The X-Files, Dean should have stretched back farther to acknowledge the common parent of both The X-Files and Supernatural — The Twilight Zone. After all, this particular episode draws heavily on one of the classic episodes of that series: 1960′s “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.”

“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” first aired in 1960 as part of the original Twilight Zone‘s first season, put the sleepy suburban neighborhood of “Maple Street, USA” under Rod Serling’s microscope. The story begins with what is presumed to be the crash of a falling meteor. As night falls and things in the town start to go wrong (basically, technology starts to fail), the town’s residents begin to turn on each other. Everyone blames everyone for everything as suspicions rise. Neighbors and friends begin suspecting each other as aliens. By the episode’s close, the residents of Maple Street have descended into chaos. The episode closes with the reveal that the supposed meteor that preceded this series of events actually was an alien space ship. The town, which really is under observation by aliens, has fallen victim to an alien experiment – the aliens have been manipulating the town’s power using a device. They conclude that the easiest way to conquer our planet is simply to turn humans on each other, something “Maple Street” has demonstrated is quite easily done.

Replace the aliens with War, name the meteor “Wormwood” to help tie in Supernatural‘s apocalyptic story arc, and replace the aliens’ device with War’s ring, and you’ve successfully updated a Twilight Zone classic for use in Supernatural. The show makes good use of its borrowed source material, at least – this is quite a nice episode. War is well cast, if surprising in appearance. And the town turning on itself serves as an able backdrop and metaphor for the continuing deterioration and fracturing of Sam and Dean’s own relationship. Sam and Dean may save the town from itself (or, at least some of the town is saved) by recognizing that they are all victims of imposed hallucinations, but they are as yet unable to see that their own intra-family battle is destroying them with equal ferocity and efficiency. The episode ends as so many episodes of Supernatural have of late: with an earnest talk between Sam and Dean. This time, though, instead of flying accusations there is unexpected agreement. Sam feels he must go his own way, and Dean does not put up a fight – he lets his brother go. Dean even offers Sam the Metallicar. Hopefully they’ll find a way to reconcile before the end of the world. If they have been permanently fractured, then it may be that War’s mission at River Pass was not to divide the town but rather to divide the brothers – a mission that hopefully will not be successful.

Five seasons in, and I’m still loving Supernatural. I rate this episode 4 Metallicars (one for each Horseman).