Supernatural: "How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters" Review

When I saw that Sam and Dean would be investigating the Jersey Devil, my main thought was that I hoped they would do better than The X-Files Season 1 episode about that particular urban legend. It turned out that I needn't have bothered comparing the two since "How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters" pulled a bait and switch and the monster in the woods had nothing to do with the Jersey Devil legend. They were actually failed subjects in an experiment the Leviathans were running.

The search for the supposed Jersey Devil kicked off as a typical investigation, but with a few off-beat moments. Things started to get weird at Biggerson's, a family restaurant that had shown up in a few episodes before, most notably Season 3's amusingly off-kilter "Bad Day at Black Rock". With the exception of the comically stoned Ranger Rick and the angry server Brandon, the case itself was somewhat boring. Brandon serving the food to "Big Bird" Sam, "Ken Doll" Dean and "Creepy Uncle" Bobby was a humorous blip in the midst of more tedious scenes of Sam, Dean and Bobby setting up shop in an abandoned house and hunting in the woods.

Things got a little more interesting once they shot one of the monsters and took it back to their home base to investigate the contents of its stomach. If you are into gross-out scenes this one was for you, as Bobby and Sam pulled random bits out of the dead monster's stomach. It was reminiscent of The Walking Dead's recent episode where they searched the contents of a zombie's stomach, both scenes came complete with disgustingly squishy sound effects.

Dean's stoned state was a highlight of the episode and Jensen Ackles was hilarious as Dean chilled out, not even caring that he didn't care. I appreciated getting a glimpse into Dean's head in a new way, rather than the more typical conversation at the end of the episode, sitting on the hood of a car. I could understand Dean being tired with saving the world too; he and the rest of the hunters out there have had a pretty tough couple of years.

Dean's mental state prompted a talk from Bobby, and if I had been thinking that Bobby was seriously in any danger, I might have been more prepared for the ending of the episode. When Bobby told Dean, "If you die before me, I will kill you," it should have rung alarm bells. But the Winchesters have lost so many people; they can't lose Bobby too, right? I guess we will have to wait and see how that goes. The shocking final moments of the episode left us with the sad sight of Bobby's trademark hat with a bullet hole in it.

The realization that something was wrong with the turducken (aside from it being turducken in the first place), led to the twist that they weren't investigating the Jersey Devil after all, it was the work of a Leviathan experiment. And our heroes didn't just stumble across some random Leviathans, but also the leader, Richard "Dick" Roman (James Patrick Stuart).

I loved how suave and smarmy Dick was to everyone; he was like your worst nightmare of a boss, someone who allows no room for error. The video introducing us to who Dick was in the "real world" was funny, despite -- and perhaps because of -- the terribly fake photoshopping of his face into pictures with famous people. It is always fun to see a villain as confident and sure of himself as Dick get taken out by the Winchesters, assuming they will be successful at some point in this season. The first thing Dick needs to learn is not to leave his captives alone in a room with a gun and a bunch of important information, the way he did with Bobby.

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