Supernatural Scoop

3.12 – Jus in Bello
Airdate: 21 February 2008

Writer: Sera Gamble
Director: Kim Manners

Sam and Dean are rifling through Bela’s hotel room. The room phone rings, and Dean answers. It’s Bela. She’s driving, claiming to be two states away –with the Colt, which she stole in Dream a Little Dream of Me. Dean warns that he’ll find her, because he has nothing better to do than hunt her down. She assures him that they’re about to be very occupied. Suddenly, Agent Henriksen (Skin, Nightshifter) and a horde of federal agents burst into the room and take Sam and Dean into custody.

That Bela makes me so angry!

Before delivering the boys, Henriksen goes to the sheriff’s department, and, against the wishes of the sheriff, releases his inmates. He tells the sheriff that he’s about to play host to the most dangerous criminals in the country –the “Satan worshippers”, Sam and Dean Winchester. The dark, evil talk makes the desk clerk, Nancy, clutch at the cross around her neck.

Over the phone, Henriksen’s superior chides him, telling him that he’s sending a helicopter, since Henriksen has already lost the boys twice.

After the boys are incarcerated, Henriksen gloats to them that he’s ready for them, this time. The boys will be separated, and they’ll never see each other again. They’re going to into super-maximum security prison in Nevada, where they’ll be held in windowless cells so small that they’re “probably not constitutional.”

Deputy Director Steven Groves shows up, giving Henriksen a big stack of paperwork to do. He walks past, goes into the jail, and confronts the boys. He draws a handgun, and shoots Dean in the shoulder. Sam grabs his arm, which is through the bars, and wrestles it up into the air. Groves’ eyes turn demon black –as we suspected, right? He says it’s too late for them, because he’s already called the for “the others”.

In the office, Nancy is desparately trying to make contact with anyone outside the building. The phone is out. The internet connection is out. The radios are silent. The men outside are dead. Henriksen shouts down the sheriff, who’s losing it. The agent believes that it’s a plot, by Dean and Sam’s crazy militant gang, to break them out. He seems confident that he’ll beat them, though.

Sam: How’s the shoulder?
Dean: [Holding a blood-stained handkerchief] It’s awesome.

Nancy stands in the opening to the holding area, shyly looking at Sam and Dean. Sam asks for a towel for Dean. Nancy leaves, then returns with one. As she hands it to Sam, he grabs her arm and pulls her against the cell bars. The officers come in to help her, and Sam lets her go. He reveals to Dean –and us- that he has taken a rosary from her.

Dean: It’s like they have a contract on us… cause we’re so awesome.

The sheriff comes in and starts to let the boys out. Henriksen comes in and asks what he’s doing. He shoots and kills the sheriff. Sam wrestles Henriksen, shoving his head into the toilet, where we see the rosary in the water. Sam recites the usual Latin exorcism litany, eventually releasing the demon from Henriksen. The deputy and Nancy are looking on –so, great, somebody finally sees what’s happening! The freed Henriksen revives.

Henriksen: I shot the sheriff.
Dean: But you didn’t shoot the deputy.

[Come on! You know you were thinking it, too! It was so funny, the way Jensen Ackles delivered that line, I wet my pants, just a little! I love it when Dean plays the guy-who-says-the-stupid-thing-that-everyone-was-thinking.]

Henriksen is loading shotguns. Of course, Dean tells them it’s like a BB gun. Dean tells them that they need salt, loads and loads of salt. Nancy tells them there’s road salt in the storeroom.

Dean goes out to the Impala to get supplies from the trunk. As he’s loading up his arms with… arms, we see the black smoke clouds of demons flying through the town, headed for the sheriff’s station. Dean notices the outside lights flicker, and sees the black smoke clouds come over/through the tree row.

As the rest are finishing up the pentagram, and are putting salt around the windows and doors, Dean makes it inside. They all watch as the black demon smoke surrounds the building.

Henriksen questions Dean about demons’ being real. Dean affirms, and adds that ghosts are also real.

Dean: If it makes you feel better, Bigfoot’s a hoax.

Ruby shows up, having killed her way into the building. Sam fixes the gap in the salt sealing the window. Ruby reports that there are about thirty demons outside. They serve the new big bad, Lilith, who doesn’t like Sam, and they’re there to kill the boys and everyone helping them.

Ruby asks about the Colt, and isn’t happy that they lost it. Ruby has a solution; a spell that will destroy all the demons within the vicinity, including herself. She doesn’t seem even remotely hesitant about sacrificing herself, though. She turns down Dean’s offer of help, because she needs the help of a virtuous person –a virgin. Nancy sheepishly volunteers. Dean is shocked that such a person –a virgin- exists. He’s impressed by Nancy. Ruby tells her to hold still, while she cuts her heart out. Whoa! Dean protests. Henriksen also protests. Ruby insists it’s the only way. Nancy interrupts the arguing to insist that she do it. Those people outside –the possessed people- are her friends, and she’s willing to give herself up to save them.

This dialogue gives the title –Jus in Bello- a lot more than the glancing blow at meaning that I thought it was going to have. This weighing of a sacrifice is exactly the sort of thing that the notion of Jus in Bello refers to –what actions are allowable in war, that might not otherwise be.

Dean insists that, instead, they let the demons in, and they fight them. Ruby leaves, saying she’s not going to stay around and watch them lose. The boys and Henriksen reak the seals protecting the doors.

The demons pour into the building.

Henriksen and the boys fight the demons, throwing holy water and salt on them. They lock them into the building, as Henriksen presses the play button on a cassette recorder. Through the building-wide PA, Sam’s recorded voice utters the exorcism ritual. One demon gets through the front door, just before Nancy and the deputy pour salt at the outside it, sealing the remaining demons in.

As the recitation continues, all the demons are forced out, and the victims are released –except, perhaps, for the one that escaped through the door. We never see him again, though.

In the aftermath, Dean asks Henriksen what he’s going to do about them. Henriksen says that he’s going to tell his superiors that the boys were in the helicopter, when it blew up.

After Sam and Dean leave, a little girl, with an entourage, enters the sheriff’s office. She asks for the Winchesters, describing them, and saying that her name is “Lilith”.

Lilith: Excuse me. I’m looking for two boys. They’re brothers. One’s really tall, and one’s really cute.

Her eyes turn white, and Henriksen approaches to attack her. Lilith raises her hand and blows the place up.

Ruby enters Sam and Dean’s motel room, telling them to turn on the television. They watch as the news tells of the apparent natural gas explosion that took the lives of the sheriff’s department personnel, several federal officers, and two prisoners that were being held there.

Lilith Sucks! Or, ask Ruby: Dean’s plan sucked. She was quick to point out that the body count of Dean’s plan was worse than that of hers, where only Ruby and Nancy had to die.

Ruby: (tossing the boys pouches that will throw Lilith off their scent, for the time being)

After they kill Ruby off, in Season Five or whatever, Kripke and Whedon –or someone- need to make Katie Cassidy the new badass vampire slayer.

NOTE: In the episodes in which he appears, it sounds like they call him “Hendricksen”, with a “d”. In some printed information, including credits, about the show, it appears as “Henricksen”. On this episode, in particular, the agent’s name appears, on the television news, as “Victor Henriksen”. To me, however, even the reporter seems to allow an intrusive “d”. [Did I mention my degree is in Linguistics.]

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