If you’re an avid fan of my posts on this blog (and I assume that most of you are) you’ll notice that I didn’t post last week. I’m hoping that the intervening week has removed some of the trauma and heartache from the experience, not to mention given you the opportunity to seek some much needed counsel from your spiritual guru or therapist.

It was my DVR’s fault. A week ago, I re-arranged the living room so that we’d have room for the television. I moved the television, along with the accompanying bundles of wires and electronic gizmos. Everything was working fine, hours before Friday night prime time television. But, sadly, the DVR still decided (and make no mistake, it was a conscious choice, of this I’m sure) not to record Supernatural.

So I went to the CW website, in hopes of watching the episode in time to review it … but to no avail, because it takes a week for them to post the episode. And my internet television of choice, Hulu, does not offer Supernatural. Thus why you, dear readers, are getting this recap more than a week after the show aired.

On the plus side, though: Dean gets abducted by aliens … or maybe fairies!

The episode begins with some teenagers making out in the woods, always a promising start … for the viewers, if not necessarily for the teenagers. And the pattern holds true, because the boy gets abducted by aliens.

And then, what is this … an alternate introduction! An X-Files rip-off? Nice!

The show kicks back in documentary-style, with Richard Picardo (the holographic doctor from Star Trek: Voyager) as a UFO-ologist who is exploring 4 disappearances in town. Sam and Dean are investigating as well, including questioning a woman who thinks it’s fairies, not aliens.

Of course, when Dean gets abducted, it certainly looks like a typical alien abduction, what with the light in the sky. He’s running through the cornfield, on the phone with a soulless, empathy-less Sam, who asks, “Close encounter? What kind? 1st? 2nd? 3rd already? Better watch out, I think the 4th kind is a butt thing.”

Still, despite no soul, Sam does actually investigate when Dean goes missing … until he gets distracted by an attractive UFO groupie who he shacks up with in his hotel room. Dean is returned and walks in on them, which sparks him to lecture Sam on prioritizing things. He is surprised, however, to learn he’s been missing for hours. “UFO time slip,” Sam says, deftly changing the subject from his distracted behavior.

Dean describes the event, being levitated toward some sort of table.

“A probing table!” says Sam.

“Don’t say that!” replies Dean.

Dean begins seeing a homeless man who Sam doesn’t see, as they attempt to catch up on UFO lore. Dean is alone in the hotel room when the lights flicker off. The door opens up and a sphere of light comes into the room. Dean leans in close, staring at the ball. “Nipples?” Then it attacks. He’s able to trap it in the microwave and turn it on … at which point the tiny ball of light explodes. But, oddly, only Dean can see her blood coating the microwave.

Sam’s investigations came up with a theory that alien abductions were actually fairy abductions, meaning that the crazy woman they interviewed may actually have been right … so back to crazy lady it is. Her theory is that the fairies abduct people (only first-born sons) to service Oberon, king of the fairies.

“Dean,” Sam asks, “did you service Oberon, king of the fairies?”

One of the leads is that fairies love cream, so when they see the father of the latest abductee buying loads of cream at the grocery, they follow him back to his watch repair shop. Dean busts in while Sam follows him around town. In the shop, Dean sees a crew of “Keeblers” working on watches.

Sam confronts the man, asking how a man can trade his son for a bunch of watches. He learns that he’d made a deal with a leprechaun to cure himself of Parkinson’s disease, accidentally agreeing to give up his firstborn in the process. There’s a book of fairy rituals in a safe in his office, which he used to summon the leprechaun, but the fairies now won’t let him near it.

Meanwhile, Dean is being followed by the strange homeless man. He sets up an ambush, but instead attacks a passing little person in front of a crowd of witnesses, all of whom can see him – so he’s not a fairy. Dean is arrested, shouting at Sam, “Fight the fairies.” Unfortunately, he was arrested for assaulting the district attorney of the county, who is a gay little person, prompting the sheriff to wonder exactly what sort of hate crime this was. “If he was a full-sized homosexual, would that be okay with you?”

Sam tries to go through with helping the watchmaker cancel the deal, but the ritual is ruined when the watchmaker is stabbed through the back by Richard Picardo … who is the leprechaun in question, it turns out. He realizes that Sam is missing a part, right in the center. “The human soul gives off a certain perfume.” He offers to get Sam his soul back.

Back in his jail cell, Dean is being attacked by the homeless-looking fairy. Sam is fighting the leprechaun, having turned down the deal. Finally, after bullets and other weapons don’t work, Sam drops a bunch of salt on the ground, having been told by the crazy lady that fairies have to count each and every grain of dropped sand. The leprechaun does so, leaving Sam with time to complete the spell to banish the fairies … including the one who is about to smash Dean’s head in.

A few comments on where this immensely fun episode leaves us:

• I don’t think they would bring in a relatively big name like Richard Picardo for such a bit part unless they had more plans to use him in the future. The leprechaun was not destroyed, just banished back to his realm, which leaves open a lot of possibilities for him to come back, in much the same way the Trickster demon periodically returned in past seasons … ultimately proving instrumental in the resolution of the Season 5 storyline, by giving them the tip they needed on how to stop Lucifer.
• I wonder if “Oberon, king of the fairies” has any bearing on the “Alpha monster” storyline running through the rest of the season. It seems like Oberon would likely be the Alpha Fairy, so if they return to this plotline, it might be in that direction.
• The fairies live in a whole other world. The leprechaun indicates that he can get into Lucifer’s cell to bust out Sam’s soul because they’re “good with back doors.” Either of these could be hints that the fairies either live in, or at least have access to, Purgatory.
• Though Sam says he turned down the deal with the leprechaun because deals with monsters are always bad, the implication of the final scene is that Sam may actually be having second thoughts on getting his soul back.

Related Articles:

• Episode 6.8 – “All Dogs Go to Heaven”
• Episode 6.7 – “Family Matters”
• Episode 6.6 – “You Can’t Handle the Truth”
• Episode 6.5 – “Live Free or Twi-hard”
• Episode 6.4 – “Weekend at Bobby’s”
• Episode 6.3 – “The Third Man”
• Episode 6.2 – “Two and a Half Men”
• Episode 6.1 – “Exile on Main Street”
• Supernatural Seasons 4 & 5
• Supernatural Seasons 2 & 3
• Supernatural Season 1
• Smart Pop Books – Supernatural: Reload