SN 1.05: You're my brother and I'd die for you, but there are some things I need to keep to myself.

[llywela]

Episode five opens on a group of adolescent girls enjoying a game of truth or dare during a slumber party. A young sceptic by the name of Lily – the host of the slumber party – accepts a dare: to go into the bathroom and say the phrase 'Bloody Mary' in front of the mirror three times. She does, and nothing happens – until Lily's dad enters the bathroom a little later…

Lily's older sister Donna later finds him still in there, lying in a very large pool of blood.

I love the Bloody Mary effects, with Mary's dark, indistinct figure appearing in any and every reflective surface, usually just out of sight.

Cut to Sam having another nightmare about Jessica's death, in which she whispers the question 'Why, Sam?' before he is woken from it by Dean.

Dean: "Sam, wake up."
Sam: "I take it I was having a nightmare."
Dean: "Yeah, another one."
Sam: "Hey, at least I got some sleep."
Dean: "You know, sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this."
Sam: "Are we here?"

Nice follow up on the previous episode, in which the fact that Sam wasn't getting much sleep was highlighted. Also, note that Dean isn't the only member of this family to employ verbal evasive manoeuvres in order to avoid conversations that threaten to be difficult or painful.

They've come to investigate the unusual death of Mr Shoemaker, as seen in the teaser, drawn to it by the obituary notice. There is no mention of whose idea this was, although it seems safe to assume, based on previous form and MO, that it was Dean who scoured the local papers and pulled it up as a potential gig. But, significantly, there is no sign of protest from Sam about yet another diversion from their unsuccessful search for their father.

They head into the morgue and Dean launches straight into his usual cock-and-bull story, trying to talk the technician into letting them see Mr Shoemaker's body. The guy seems to buy the story, but refuses access, until Sam takes over and smoothly offers a cash incentive, which works a treat.

Dean: "Dude, I earned that money."
Sam: "You won it in a poker game."
Dean: "Yeah."

Hehehe. Another telling insight into the finances of the Winchester family, and note that Dean obviously doesn't hesitate to share his ill-gotten gains with his brother.

Here, as in Dead in the Water and Wendigo, when dealing with someone even semi official, Sam leaves the talking to Dean, even when Dean's lies go wrong. It's when dealing with members of the public that Sam tends to interrupt and take over – or Dean hands over to him – to work his puppy-eyes mojo.

The technician is morbidly animated when talking about the corpse, with its virtually liquefied eyeballs and massive cerebral haemorrhaging and all. In comparison, the boys seem mildly grossed out, which is a trait I really love about them. In spite of all the horrific things we see them dealing with, and are led to assume they've grown up dealing with, they are still grossed out by the corpses and stuff they encounter in the course of their work.

Dean: "How many times in Dad's long and varied career has it actually been a freak medical thing and not some sign of an awful supernatural death?"
Sam: "Uh, almost never."
Dean: "Exactly."
Sam: "All right, let’s go talk to the daughter."

Every episode, one or other of them has to raise the possibility that it might not be 'their kind of gig'. Yet is always – almost always – is.

So, off they head to gatecrash the wake.

Dean: "Feel like we're underdressed."

They gatecrash a fair few wakes during the course of the season, and very rarely get called on the fact that they really have no right to be there – a lame cover story of the 'we worked with your dad' variety seems to be all it takes to buy credibility. Rooms full of strangers are pretty much par for the course post-funeral.

Daughters Donna and Lily are out back with a couple of Donna's friends, none of them especially welcoming, but Donna answers questions about her father's death readily enough. Then young Lily comes up with the kind of information the boys actually need to hear, blaming herself for it because she said 'Blood Mary' into the mirror three times.

It is Sam who gets down to eyelevel to talk to Lily, but both brothers offer reassurance.

Dean: "I think your sister's right, Lily. There's no way it could have been Bloody Mary. Your dad didn't say it, did he?"

It amuses me that Dean can say that so openly and honestly and mean what he's saying quite literally, and get away with it because to onlookers it just seems like he's playing along with the little girl's fears in order to help dispel them. Donna's friend Charlie is looking suspicious, though…

The bathroom still has bloodstains on the floor, resistant to all attempts at washing them out. Gruesome realism there. While peering around – and carefully avoiding saying you-know-what while in front of the mirror – the boys rattle off rapid conversation about the Bloody Mary legend, possible twists and permutations thereof.

Sam: "It's worth checking into."

Yep, Sam seems to be completely on board with this case, right from the start. Not even a hint of resistance, frustration or disinclination.

Donna's suspicious friend Charlie comes upstairs to investigate, and I have to admit that there is no way that two guys hanging around someone's bathroom together can't look dodgy to the casual observer. She challenges and questions and refuses to be fobbed off with lame lies and excuses, and for a long time, while Dean is floundering, Sam just keeps his mouth shut and keeps looking to his brother to talk them out of it. Only when that fails does Sam allow his natural inclination to just tell the truth – or as much of it as possible – to take over. And Dean, for all his natural inclination to lie through his teeth, promptly goes along with this new strategy.

Sam: "All right, all right. We think something happened to Donna's dad."
Charlie: "Yeah, a stroke."
Sam: "That's not a sign of a typical stroke. We think it might be something else."
Charlie: "Like what?"
Sam: "Honestly? We don't know yet. But we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth."

It works, too. That's always the amazing thing. When they actually do come out and tell the truth – or at least hint at it – the person they are telling very often does believe enough to let them get away with whatever they are doing.

Sam gives Charlie his number. And because it is Sam, not Dean, his intentions therein really are pure.

The next stage of the investigation is research. This takes place at a local library, to the accompaniment of more brotherly trading back and forth of mythology, theories and suggestions.

Sam: "Every version's got a few things in common. It's always a woman named Mary, and she always dies right in front of a mirror. So we've gotta search local newspapers – public records as far back as they go. See if we can find a Mary who fits the bill."
Dean: "Well, that sounds annoying."
Sam: "No, it won't be so bad, as long as we...[He looks at the computers, which all have 'out of order' signs on them.] Huh. I take it back. This will be very annoying."

Driving home, Charlie is on the phone to her friend Jill. Now, in my country, it is illegal to talk on a mobile phone while driving. I'm guessing this isn't the case in America since I see TV characters doing it so often. The topic of conversation is the brothers Winchester.

Charlie: "I'm not sure. They were cops or detectives or something."
Jill: "Whoever they were, they were cute."

She is not wrong there. Charlie is more than a little freaked out about the Bloody Mary connection and Jill, a complete sceptic, picks up on this and freaks her out still further by saying the fateful phrase three times into her mirror as a joke.

Some joke. Almost as soon as Jill has hung up the phone, Mary's dark, shadowed reflection starts following her around her room, from one reflective surface to another, until Jill's own reflection finally takes on a life of it's own and starts talking back to her, and blood starts to trickle from her eyes.

Reflection: "You did it. You killed that boy."

And that's the end of Jill.

At the latest motel, Sam is dreaming about Jessica's death again. He wakes to find Dean sitting nearby, quietly researching still – and eyeing him with concern once more.

Sam: "Why'd you let me fall asleep?"
Dean: "'Cause I'm an awesome brother. So what did you dream about?"
Sam: "Lollipops and candy canes."
Dean: "Yeah, sure."
Sam: "Did you find anything?"

Again with the evasion tactics and refusal to actually talk about what's wrong. Just as earlier in this episode – and in the previous episode – Dean offers Sam the option of talking things through if he wants to, but doesn't push when Sam turns him down. He's obviously worried about his brother, and unsure how best to handle him, feeling his way forward very cautiously. Although Dean generally gives the impression of always knowing what to do, he really doesn't know how to deal with a grieving Sam. And he's such a bloke, talking about sensitive matters doesn't come easily to him – but for Sam's sake he repeatedly makes the offer, regardless.

Sam's dark, grievy mood isn't so quickly shaken off this time, and lingers throughout the conversation that follows – basically, the research is turning up a big fat zero.

Seems like Dean has done most of the researching this time around, while Sam was sleeping. Evidence that Dean is more than capable of handling the research end of things if he really has to, despite all disparaging comments made throughout the series about his aversion to books in contrast to Sam's preference for them.

Then Charlie phones, in a state of distress, and they head out to meet up with her in a random park someplace presumably nearby.

Charlie: "And they found her on the bathroom floor. And her—her eyes. They were gone."
Sam: "I'm sorry."
Charlie: "And she said it. I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?"
Dean: "No, you're not insane."
Charlie: "Oh God, that makes me feel so much worse."
Sam: "Look. We think something's happening here. Something that can't be explained."
Dean: "And we're gonna stop it but we could use your help."

So, Charlie sneaks them into Jill's room to investigate the crime scene, after spinning Jill's parents a line about wanting to spend time alone with Jill's things. Even limited exposure to the brothers Winchester turns casual bystanders in their investigations into hardened liars.

Sam pulls out a nifty little digital camcorder that he's clearly not used much before because he has to ask Dean to turn on the night vision for him, which really tickles me, and also highlights once more the fact that Sam has only just returned to this line of work after an extended period of absence.

Dean: [seeing the camera pointing in his direction] "Do I look like Paris Hilton?

This amuses Charlie, even in her grief and confusion, but not Sam. Since I too come from a family where no two people share a sense of humour (except me and my mum), I completely sympathise with Dean's roll of the eyes here at his oh-so earnest brother's lack of appreciation for his levity.

Sam's scan of the room turns up a trickle of presumably blood – invisible blood, I guess, since it was unseen by normal light – coming from behind the mirror. And a black light shone on the back of the mirror shows them a handprint and a name: Gary Bryman.

Further research reveals that Gary Bryman was an eight-year-old killed in a hit and run accident two years previously – killed by a car whose description matches the one Jill drove.

Back at the Shoemaker house, the mirror Mr Shoemaker died in front of turns out to have a similar message on the back – Linda Shoemaker. Donna, unsurprisingly, proves hostile to questioning, however, insisting that her mother died from an overdose of sleeping pills and nothing more sinister than that.

If both parents are now dead, I guess that means young Donna now has the responsibility of raising her little sister, since they are still living in their parents' home with no sign of any other relatives stepping forward to help out. That's bleak.

Charlie: "Oh my God. Do you really think her dad could’ve killed her mom?"

By now, Charlie is one hundred percent believer, all wide-eyed horror at the thought that Donna's dad could have killed her mother. I'm guessing, though, that he didn't have to be directly responsible for it to count as a guilty secret – chances are he just felt responsible in some way, either for the physical overdose, or for the reasons she took it in the first place. There are lots of ways in which a person can blame themselves for someone else's death without actually being in any way responsible.

Sam: "Wait, wait, wait, you're doing a nationwide search?"
Dean: "Yep. The NCIC, the FBI database – at this point any Mary who died in front of a mirror is good enough for me."
Sam: "But if she's haunting the town, she should have died in the town."
Dean: "I'm telling you there's nothing local, I've checked. So unless you got a better idea…"

I include this little quote snippet to highlight again the fact that Sam so clearly isn't the only member of the family with research credentials, and also the fact that Dean is completely at home in front of the laptop (which, according to the official website, is his not Sam's). It makes sense that Dean should know what he's doing research-wise as well – after all, they were both raised to hunt like this, research is a large part of the job, and Dean and John apparently coped perfectly well while Sam was away.

While Dean trawls the internet for clues, he and Sam do some more of that bouncing ideas back and forth off one another, trying to puzzle out the case.

Sam: "I mean there's a lot of folklore about mirrors – that they reveal all your lies, all your secrets, that they're a true reflection of your soul, which is why it's bad luck to break them."
Dean: "Right, right. So maybe if you've got a secret, I mean like a really nasty one where someone died, then Mary sees it, and punishes you for it."
Sam: "Whether you're the one that summoned her or not."

Then Dean's research hits paydirt, turning up a Mary who was murdered in front of a mirror in strikingly similar fashion to the recent victims – same handprint on the mirror and everything. They head off to talk to the detective that headed up the case, posing this time as reporters. A plausible lie for every occasion, these boys.

Seems Mary had tried to spell out the name of her killer in her own blood before she died, but couldn't quite manage it, and so the murder was never resolved.

Detective: "If you ask me, Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guy's secret. But she never could."

Mary was cremated. No bones to salt and burn. But the mirror – and fortunately there's a photo of it – was returned to her family. That's what the boys now have to track down.

Meanwhile, Charlie is now in trouble with Donna for taking the guys to her house, for believing – Donna is as much a sceptic as Charlie has become a believer. To prove her sceptical point, Donna turns to the mirror in the school bathroom and says the words Bloody Mary three times. Charlie is horrified.

Charlie: "Why would you do that?"
Donna: "Oh my God. There really is something wrong with you."

For supposedly close friends, they don't actually seem to like each other that much.

Heading off to class, Charlie is followed by the dark, shadowy reflection that is Mary. And then, peering into a mirror to check that her eyes haven't started to bleed, she actually sees it – I'm guessing because she's already aware there's something to look out for, since neither of the previous victims noticed anything until it was too late. She flips out completely, smashing windows and screaming hysterically, and running out of the school.

There is no way this girl can ever live that down, no matter what happens – she certainly can't ever tell her teachers and classmates the truth. Ever. They'll think she's completely nuts anyway, even without owning up to her fear of Bloody Mary.

Mary's mirror was sold one week previously, to an antique store in Toledo – thus sparking the recent deaths there.

Dean: "So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?"
Sam: "Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow."

But she can also move from one mirror to another, throughout the town, which is a neat trick. Finding and smashing the original mirror looks like the way to go.

This conversation takes place in the car, with the really bad green screen scenery that always amuses me so much flashing past the windows…

Then Charlie phones, still in a state of panic. They take her to their motel room and set about diligently covering up any and every reflective surface that Mary could use to get to her, while she huddles on the bed hiding her eyes. Her secret? She had a boyfriend who committed suicide, and she blamed herself for breaking up with him. Thus proving that being directly responsible for someone's death isn't necessary for Mary to go after you – it's enough to have any kind of secret regarding a death.

But now that Charlie has told the boys, it isn't really a secret any more, is it? Maybe her confession wasn't public enough to placate Mary, or maybe once Mary has got someone in her sights she stops caring, being a spirit and therefore not exactly a creature of reason. Or maybe Charlie is now safe, but they can't take a chance on finding out…

And since Charlie can't exactly avoid reflective surfaces for the rest of her life, finding Mary's mirror and destroying her vengeful spirit is now even more of a priority.

Sam: "You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror."
Dean: "Why, what do you mean?"
Sam: "Well, Mary's hard to pin down, right? I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror so who's to say that she's not just gonna keep hiding in them forever? So maybe we should try to pin her down, you know, summon her to her mirror and then smash it."
Dean: "Well how do you know that's going to work?"
Sam: "I don't, not for sure."
Dean: "Well, who's gonna summon her?"
Sam: "I will. She'll come after me."

That does it. Dean has said a few times now that they need to talk about Jessica's death and Sam's nightmares, but he hasn't pushed it when Sam refused. Now, though, he pulls the car over and insists. But Sam continues to resist.

Dean: "This is about Jessica, isn't it? You think that's your dirty little secret, that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night – it's gonna kill you. Now listen to me – it wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me? I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place."

Sam sits there staring straight ahead in stony, sullen silence throughout this little speech, right up to the point where Dean offers to take the blame on himself, which finally draws a reaction.

Sam: "I don't blame you."

I should hope not, too, because chances are it would have gone after Jessica whether Sam was there or not that night.

Dean: "Well you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done."
Sam: "I could've warned her."
Dean: "About what? You didn't know what was gonna happen! And besides, all of this isn't a secret; I mean I know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway."
Sam: "No, you don't."
Dean: "I don't what?"
Sam: "You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything."
Dean: "What are you talking about?"
Sam: "Well it wouldn’t really be a secret if I told you, would it?"

That's kind of a stunner for Dean, brought to a spluttering halt by this guarded revelation that Sam then refuses to elaborate on. It has to remain a secret for the plan to work, although chances are he wouldn't tell anyway – it has taken this case for him to say even as much as this. Dean still doesn't like it – Sam placing himself in danger like that. Sam insists, though, and they don't have any better plan.

Sam picks the lock. If there's a lock to be picked, nine times out of ten it's Sam that picks it. Dean's specialty runs more along the lines of kicking doors down.

Turns out the antique store is wall to wall mirrors, just to make life nice and difficult. And while wandering through in search of Mary's mirror, the boys fail to notice that a silent alarm has been tripped.

Sam finds the right mirror and, crowbar at the ready, says Bloody Mary three times. At which point the cops show up outside the store to investigate the alarm, in a stunning example of truly bad timing, and Dean is forced to leave Sam alone while he goes to deal with them.

Dean: "Stay here; be careful. Smash anything that moves."

Sam waits, poised, but completely fails to notice Mary's reflection appearing in the mirror while he's looking in another direction entirely.

Police: "Hold it."
Dean: "Whoa, guys, false alarm, I tripped the system."
Police: "Who are you?"
Dean: "I'm the boss's kid."
Police: "You're Mister Yamashiro's kid?"

Heh. We've already seen on a few occasions that Dean will string a lie out long past it's sell by date in order to stall, so he keeps spinning about being adopted, trying to find a line that will work, before finally giving it up as a bad job.

Dean: "You know, I just – I really don't have time for this right now."

So he just knocks both cops out. Just like that. Very efficient with the violence, is Dean. And clearly better trained than the local police.

Assaulting a police officer is a serious offence, no? Means they now have to solve the case, get rid of Mary and get out of there before the cops wake up and raise the alarm.

Meanwhile back inside, Sam has now seen Mary's reflection popping up here and there all around him and started smashing mirrors, but Mary hasn't come into her own mirror yet – instead Sam's own reflection in that mirror takes on a life of its own.

Reflection: "It's your fault. You killed her. You killed Jessica. You never told her the truth – who you really were. But it's more than that, isn't it? Those nightmares you've been having of Jessica dying, screaming, burning – you had them for days before she died. Didn't you? You were so desperate to ignore them, to believe they were just dreams. How could you ignore them like that? How could you leave her alone to die? You dreamt it would happen!"

Sam's eyes have started to bleed, and he's struggling to breathe, dropping to the floor…

Then Dean shows up just in the nick of time and smashes the mirror, before rushing to check that Sammy is okay. I love that Dean always reverts to using Sam's baby name when he's in danger; it's just so natural, and you just know that Sam was known as Sammy to the family for almost his entire life until he decided somewhere in his teens that it sounded babyish and he wanted to be just 'Sam' instead, but knowing him as 'Sammy' is ingrained habit that Dean just can't break.

Sam: "It's Sam."

Since Sam is all woozy, Dean has to support him as they head for the exit – but Mary then crawls out of her mirror in physical form, and comes after them. They both go down, bleeding from the eyes, but Dean manages to grab another mirror and holds it up to her, and she kinds of self-destructs, inflicting her own punishment upon herself as the one responsible for so many deaths.

Dean's eyes also bled when confronted by Mary. Because she was lashing out against the attempt to destroy her? Or because Dean is also harbouring a deep, dark secret involving a death…?

It's entirely possible. Dean is very guarded about his murky past. The only thing that bugs me about this theory is that if Dean had a secret that would draw Mary out, why would he allow Sam to do it instead, being as protective of Sam as he is and when he so clearly hated the idea of Sam placing himself in that kind of danger?

Smashed mirrors abound, all around the store.

Dean: "Hey, Sam?"
Sam: "Yeah?"
Dean: "This has got to be like...what? Six hundreds years of bad luck?"

Case closed, the boys drive Charlie home.

Sam: "Charlie? Your boyfriend's death…you really should try to forgive yourself. No matter what you did, you probably couldn't have stopped it. Sometimes bad things just happen."
[Charlie smiles faintly, and then turns around to go into the house.]
Dean: [Gently hits Sam's arm] "That's good advice."

Sam fails to rise, so, as they drive off, Dean tries again.

Dean: "Hey, Sam?"
Sam: "Yeah?"
Dean: "Now that this is all over, I want you to tell me what that secret is."
Sam: "Look...you're my brother and I'd die for you, but there are some things I need to keep to myself."

So Dean still doesn't know that Sam had dreams foretelling Jessica's death, but the viewers now do, and are intrigued – especially added to what comes next. As the boys drive, Sam looks out the window and sees Jessica in a white dress on the street corner standing next to a light pole. Then, as they turn the corner she disappears behind the pole, and vanishes.

A final farewell? Forgiveness that Sam needed from her? Certainly a sign that Sam can now start to put the past behind him and begin to move on. And a vision, which, added to those premonitory dreams and the fact that two women close to Sam were targeted for the same fiery death by the same creature, confirms that there is something very special about Sam that neither we nor he really understand yet...