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Project SPN Rewatch: Fresh Blood

Project SPN Rewatch: Fresh Blood

(As I mentioned in my post announcing this rewatch project, there will be spoilers!)

Season 3, Episode 7: Fresh Blood

Image and episode summary from Wikipedia:

Gordon escapes from prison and tracks down Bela. She rebukes his threats to kill her unless she reveals the location of the brothers, but eventually acquiesces in exchange for a priceless mojo bag. Meanwhile, Sam and Dean capture and interrogate the vampire Lucy (Mercedes McNab), and learn that another vampire named Dixon (Matthew Humphreys) transformed her by spiking her drink with his own blood at a club in Albany, New York. Dean is forced to kill Lucy, as there is no known cure for vampirism. The brothers locate and confront Dixon, but are interrupted by Gordon and Kubrick. Sam and Dean escape, but in the mayhem, Dixon kidnaps Gordon. Though Dixon had planned on using Gordon as food, the hunter's continuous taunting prompts him to feed him his blood. When the brothers—having been informed by Bela of Gordon's location, which she discovered via Ouija board—arrive at Dixon's hideout, they discover that the vampiric Gordon has escaped. Elsewhere, Gordon returns to Kubrick, but kills him in self-defense. As night approaches, the brothers have not been able to find Gordon. Dean decides to go after Gordon while Sam stays hidden, but Sam refuses. He then confronts Dean about his reckless behavior since his deal; Dean relents and agrees to behave more like his old self again. Gordon later calls Sam and Dean, threatening to kill a young woman if they do not meet him. They head to the location and find the woman, but Gordon uses a rollerdoor to separate the brothers. The woman is revealed to be a vampire turned by Gordon. While Dean is forced to shoot her with the Colt, Sam decapitates Gordon with a razor wire. The brothers later stop on the side of the road to check a rattling noise made by the Impala, and Dean begins teaching Sam how to repair the car since his time is running out.

via GIPHY

I believe this is a vampire episode…oh look, it’s Bela. And Gordon! I forgot that they met! Gordon is not in prison anymore, is he? I believe we last saw him in Bad Day at Black Rock.

He is certainly interested in Sam and Dean’s whereabouts, and Bela is reluctant to tell him where they are. And why is Gordon so interested? “Sam Winchester’s the Antichrist”. Ah yes, that. I do like that Bela is sassing him.

Like he couldn’t find where Sam and Dean are any other way…and as if Bela is so interested in protecting them.

There it is! She wants Gordon’s mojo bag for the location of Sam and Dean. That Bela, always looking to make a deal. Thinking back on my comments about her from the last episode, I wonder at what the show could have done with her character if the writing for her had been better. I really feel like there was such potential.

Now we see Sam and Dean wandering around in the dark with flashlights. Classic. Ooh blood! This person is in trouble and Dean seems to know who they’re looking for. He’s got his vampire-killing machete!

I like this scene of Dean trying to figure out where to go, where this vampire is…ughhhh they always draw blood on this show. I hate it. But it works! It draws out the vampire.

And she’s Harmony from Buffy (and Angel)!! Love it!

Dean manages to inject her with dead man’s blood, but she gets a little bite first. Sam is not too impressed with how close Dean let it get. Worried face.

They take the vampire to the motel and wait for her to come to. They want to know where her nest is. The vampire claims not to know what they’re talking about. She says she took something and she doesn’t know what’s going on. They want to know what she took. Her name is Lucy and she wants them to let her go.

Sam says they will if she tells them what happened…but Dean doesn’t seem to agree and I doubt Sam.

Lucy says she was at a club and a guy was buying her drinks. She tries to describe him – “he was old, like 30” – lol. Brown hair, leather jacket. Deacon or Dixon or something; said he was a dealer and he had something for her. Something new. He put some drops in her drink.

Dean tells her the truth – this guy gave her vampire blood. So she’s a new vampire.

Dean breaks it to her. She’s a vampire.

Sam seems to feel bad for her but Dean says she’s already killed two people. They’ve been following a trail of corpses that led them to her. Lucy pleads with them, saying they have to help her. Sam makes a sad face at Dean and they go away to talk.

Of course Sam feels bad, and Dean says they don’t have a choice. Sam shakes his head but Dean goes back in with the machete. We hear the sounds but don’t see him as he kills her, offscreen.

The next scene opens on a man in a hospital bed, and who comes in all FBI’d up but Gordon and his friend, Drew (also last seen in Bad Day at Black Rock). They want to speak with this man about the attack that landed him in the hospital. It certainly sounds like he’s describing Lucy as his attacker, and Gordon is clearly trying to figure out if she turned him into a vampire.

So now Gordon seems to know Sam and Dean are here (“One of them was really tall”, the man tells Gordon and Drew about the men who came and helped him).

Sam and Dean are at the club where Lucy met the man who turned her into a vampire. They see a guy go off with a pretty girl and stop him before he can give her the vampire blood. Sam and Dean chase after him but run into Gordon and Drew. Uh oh!

Gordon and Drew don’t waste any time shooting at the Winchesters! They are not kidding around about taking out Sam, and they fire at Dean when he tries to distract them from Sam. Drew chases Dean and Gordon approaches Sam’s hiding spot, gun drawn.

Someone jumps Gordon from behind and is able to knock him out – but it wasn’t Sam! It was the vampire! Uh oh!

Back at the motel, Sam has been waiting for Dean. Sam is pissed that Dean basically ran right into the line of fire. They talk about how Gordon is out of jail and Sam wonders how he knew where to find them.

Dean calls Bela and she straight-up says that Gordon Walker paid her to tell him where the boys are. Dean is pissed, but Bela doesn’t care or feel bad. Dean threatens her. And now she seems worried??

Gordon comes to in what definitely looks like a vamp nest. There are two girls tied up and the vampire walks in, feeding them blood. So looks like he’s making vampires.

He tells Gordon that they’re family, but Gordon says he’s making them into monsters, just like he is. The vampire tells Gordon he had to – vampires area a dying breed. He knows Gordon’s name, knows he’s a big-deal vampire hunter. This guy says Gordon’s a big part of why his people are nearly extinct but Gordon says it’s because they’re mindless, bloodthirsty animals.

They have a conversation about vampires vs. hunters. The vampire gets an idea – rather than having his new vampires feed on Gordon’s blood, he turns Gordon into a vampire! Oh no!! That’s like the absolute last thing Gordon would want!!

Sam and Dean are preparing for what they’ll do when they meet up with Gordon again, and Sam – much to Dean’s surprise – says they’d better kill him. Sam says Gordon won’t stop until they’re dead.

Dean gets a call from Bela – her again? – and she tells him she got Gordon’s location. But the seer she got the information from also had a message for Dean, which basically boiled down to don’t go after Gordon. But I don’t think Dean’s going to take that advice.

Gordon wakes up and finds himself tied up like the blond girls. He seems to be exhibiting all the symptoms that Lucy, the new vampire, complained about at the beginning of the episode.

He breaks free and goes outside. Woah being a new vampire seems terrible.

Uh oh, a human. Gordon tries to fight the hunger but he gives in and definitely kills that guy.

Sam and Dean enter the warehouse and don’t find Gordon, but they do find the two girls, who Gordon killed before he left. The vampire is there and he is sad. He tells Dean to kill him, doesn’t fight it.

Sam asks what happened, and he says he never should have brought Gordon here. He wanted revenge but he exposed his family to Gordon. The vampire says Dean doesn’t understand; he was desperate. He talks to Dean about the hell of staring down eternity, alone. Says he didn’t care anymore; asks Dean if he knows what that’s like, when you just don’t give a damn. It’s like being dead already. He tells Dean to kill him already. This speech seems to resonate with Dean…

Sam tells Dean that the vampires Gordon killed didn’t have their heads cut off – they were ripped off, with someone’s bare hands. Sam asks the vampire what he did to Gordon. Dean and Sam seem to be getting a sense of how bad this situation is.

Drew is back in his trailer, and hears some noise. When he turns around, Gordon is inside! Drew is a bit shaken and asks Gordon if he’s okay. “Not even close,” Gordon says.

Drew tells Gordon he thought he was dead. He approaches Gordon and asks what’s going on. Gordon tells him something happened – he says they turned him. Drew apologizes and tells Gordon, “You know what this means.” Gordon says it means Drew is going to have to kill him…but not yet.

As much as the show is about Sam and Dean, I like this scene between these two hunters who are not part of our show – the Winchester brothers show – but who are part of the bigger world of hunters that Sam and Dean inhabit. And there does seem to be friendship between them, and the sadness but resignation that Drew feels for his friend, who has been turned into something that they hunt and who he must now kill…and Gordon, who for the moment seems resigned to that, but we know that Gordon is a fighter, so if I were Drew, I wouldn’t bet on taking Gordon out.

Gordon says Drew has to let him do one last thing first – kill Sam Winchester. Gordon says he’s stronger, he’s faster, and he can finish him. Killing Sam will be the one good thing to come out of this nightmare. Wow.

Drew says he can’t let Gordon walk out of here. But Gordon pleads, saying there’s nothing more important. He approaches a crucifix, saying he can do one last good thing for the world. Drew turns away, trying to pick up a weapon without arousing Gordon’s suspicions.

But Gordon – who, by all accounts, has always been a good hunter – meant it when he said he’s stronger and faster now. He kills his friend, whispering “I’m sorry” in his ear. And I think he meant it. Right now, this mission of his to kill Sam is all he has.

Back at the motel, Dean comes in, telling Sam he’s checked all over and no Gordon yet. Once the sun goes down, this will be more difficult.

Sam changes out their phones so that Gordon can’t track them that way. Dean tells Sam to stay while Dean goes back out after Gordon. Sam doesn’t want Dean to go alone, but Dean says Gordon is turbo charged and after Sam. Dean doesn’t want Sam in harm’s way.

Sam is understandably annoyed. “You’re the guy with nothing to lose now, huh? Oh wait, let me guess, because you’re already dead, right?” Sam says he’s tired of Dean’s kamikaze style. Dean tries to joke about it, but tells Sam he can’t sit around all day and write sad poems. Sam gets angry and tells Dean to stop joking and to stop acting like he’s not afraid. He tells Dean he’s scared because his year is running out and he’s still going to Hell and he’s freaked. Sam says he knows this because he knows Dean. He’s been looking up to him since he was four, studying him, trying to be like him, and he knows him better than anyone else. And this is how Dean acts when he’s terrified.

Sam says he can’t blame him, but he wishes Dean would drop the show and be his brother again.

THIS SCENE! I love the bond between these two. Sam does a lot of the talking, but Dean’s reactions show so much about what he’s feeling.

Sam’s speech seems to have affected Dean, who says they’ll hole up and wait the night out there in the motel. Hooray!

Dean’s phone rings (Sam teases him that he’s had that phone for two hours). It’s Gordon, who wants to know where they are. Dean tells him to come to them but Gordon reveals that he’s got a hostage. He tells Dean where the boys can find him. Dean tells him to let the girl, tells him that he doesn’t kill innocent people, he’s still a hunter. But Gordon says he’s a monster, and hangs up.

Sam and Dean go to the location Gordon gave them and find the girl tied up. They go to free her and while Dean carries her out, he tells Sam to stay close. But they get separated when a door closes from above, leaving Dean and the girl on the outside while Sam is inside. They can’t get the door open. Then the lights go out. Oh boy Sam, this is not good.

Sam creeps around, calling out for Gordon, telling him he might as well come out and fight. Gordon taunts Sam, saying he’s right there, calling him Sammy.

We know that Gordon has superior vision and hearing right now, so he seems to have the advantage. He tells Sam that he lost everything, but it’s worth it, because he’s finally going to kill the most dangerous thing he’s hunted: Sam. He says Sam isn’t human.

“Look who’s talking,” Sam replies. Gordon agrees, saying he’s a bloodthirsty killer. Sam tells Gordon that he has a choice, reminding him that he didn’t kill that girl. But Gordon says he did something much worse.

Back outside, Dean is trying to get inside, and we see what Gordon was talking about when the girl they saved suddenly attacks Dean. Gordon turned her into a vampire.

Dean kills her.

Inside, Gordon tells Sam that Sam has a lot of people fooled, but Gordon knows the truth, saying he knows what it’s like. “We’re the same now, you and me,” he tells Sam.

He says he knows how it is to walk around with something evil inside him, saying it’s too bad Sam won’t kill himself. Gordon says he’s going to kill himself when he’s done with Sam. His two last good deeds, he says.

He attacks Sam, and the fight begins. But Dean shows up! Gordon bites Dean and Sam attacks him. The two fight, and Sam manages to strangle Gordon using what looks to be barbed wire, and does it so intensely that Gordon’s head comes off!

Dean comes to, seeing Gordon’s headless body, and the two brothers just look at each other.

Dean comments that Sam took out a super vamped-out Gordon with no weapon. “It’s a little reckless, don’t you think?” Haha.

In daylight, the boys have a beer while Dean fixes something on the car. Dean pauses, and calls Sam over to look under the hood. He starts to talk to him about the problem he’s trying to fix, and then he starts showing him how to fix it, explaining what the different parts of the engine are. When Sam asks what’s with the auto shop, Dean hands Sam the tools and tells him it’s time that Sam knows how to fix it – he’s going to need to know these things for the future. SAD!!!

But Sam doesn’t argue and Dean says it’s his job, isn’t it? To show his little brother the ropes? And he watches while Sam gets to work.

Lore:

-Vampires

Overall Thoughts:

I really like this episode. I’m not all that big on vampires in the Supernatural world, and I really don’t think they have that many episodes that feature them, but I do like seeing how Gordon Walker’s character has changed since we first met him.

What a tragedy that Gordon, a hunter motivated by personal tragedy as so many (most? all?) of them are, is turned against his will into the thing he hunts. He and Dean really hit it off when they first met, even though Sam was never a big fan. If Sam hadn’t been around – if he had stayed at school, for example – and Dean was hunting on his own, would Dean have become the kind of hunter that Gordon was? More ruthless, colder, harder?

And for as much as Gordon has been out to get Sam, and he’s an adversary of Sam and Dean’s, I can’t bring myself to outright dislike him. I think Gordon is such an interesting character and this episode definitely hints at things to come with Sam’s storyline.

Great episode!

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