Supernatural S4E8: Wishful Thinking

“Are we gonna kill this teddy bear?”

The above photo has nothing to do with this episode, I just think it’s funny.

Not a whole lot of substance here, but since it’s apparently impossible for Supernatural to produce a bad episode, there was still plenty to love. The bros travel to Washington and discover a wishing well that really does grant wishes. A young girl brings her teddy bear to full-sized life, a nerdy guy dates the girl of his dreams, and a bullied child gains the strength to overturn SUVs with one hand.

The Winchesters’ first tip that something is really, really wrong occurs when they run across a small girl who says her teddy bear is sick. They enter the house to find a six-foot teddy bear drinking heavily and bemoaning the futility of life. Eventually, the bear tries to kill itself in what is, hands down, one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen. We open on a suicide note, pan over to the bear holding a rifle, and then pan slowly to the wall behind the bear. Were this a human, we would hear the shot and see a splatter of red hit the wall. Instead, we hear the shot and see a puff of stuffing float through the air. Then we pan back to the bear, still very much alive, who screams, “Nooooooo!” It was brilliant.

Anyway, the boys find a Babylonian coin in the well, but can’t remove it. Only the person who made the original wish can, and thus reverse all of the damage. They figure out it’s the nerdy guy, and take him to the well, but Super-Strength Child gets in the way and kicks Dean’s ass while Crazy-In-Love Girlfriend of Nerdy Guy kills Sam with a lightning bolt. Horrified, Nerdy Guy removes the coin and all returns to normal.

During the episode, Sam confronts Dean about what Uriel has told him. “I’m with you all the time,” Sam says, so he can’t help but notice Dean’s heavy drinking and constant nightmares. He asks, again, if Dean remembers hell. Dean blows him off. But at the end, he finally admits that he does remember. He remembers everything. Sam encourages him to talk about it, but he refuses. Sam could never understand, and Dean could never make him understand. He has to suffer through this burden alone.