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Supernatural creator Eric Kripke delivered some bad news in an interview with TV Guide. Despite great admiration for Katie Cassidy, and a desire to bring her back in Season 4, the slumping value of the U.S. dollar has made it impossible to bring Ruby back from Hell.

Kripke said that Katie was great for the show. Despite this, and despite having the same budget as last year, producing the show in Canada where the U.S. Dollar is weak means making some hard decisions.

In order to balance the testosterone levels of the otherwise boy-heavy cast, Kripke plans to return to more transient female characters, that will come and go. The beginning of Season 4 will mean a change in the direction of the show, with Sam alone, and new hurdles, worldly and personal, to overcome. Kripke says they have also come up with innovative and “unexpected” ways to bring in, and dispose of, new characters.

So, we await a new season, with new surprises. It still sounds scary, though, doesn’t it?

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For the past week, we’ve polled our readers on who they liked best –Ruby, Bela, or Lilith. The results: Ruby is soundly trouncing Bela and Lilith. Currently, with 96 votes, Ruby has 57.

I have to admit, I agree. I began the season, fully thinking, “Bela is more serious looking. She’s smart. She’s crafty. She’s a thorn in the boys’ sides.” Once things got rolling, though, Ruby, the nice demon, turned out to be the most interesting, and even believable, character. I still see criticism of Katie Cassidy, but I thought she played the part well.

Bela, once they got into the season, appears to have been a difficult character to integrate into the boys’ world in a nice, organic way. That’s how things go. Often, a show introduces a character, and they have to see how things work, and be prepared to write the character out, if their instincts tell them so. I think, the way they used her to move the season’s story arc along worked. She was a pain in the butt. She sold the boys out, a handful of times. Then, hellhounds took her away. Nice doggies.

Lilith, who must return in season 4 –I guess- hasn’t been much, yet. We knew she was going to be this awesome, ancient, evil that the boys would have great difficulty facing. She came, she killed, she ran away screaming. Season 4 spoilage hasn’t really mentioned her, yet. Of course, she had two big goals: get Dean’s soul, and destroy Sam. She got Dean. Sam, in the final moments of the season, proved to be impervious to her power. Oh well, to an awesome, ancient evil, one out of two ain’t bad?!? I know the strike made it difficult, but we only saw her in two episodes, and, in the second one, Sam made her run away. There was never any real fight between her and the boys. They were no match for her in saving Dean. Sam hasn’t fought her. We just know that she can’t hurt him with her strobe from Hell.

What’s next? Ruby comes back. Lilith will um… I don’t know about Lilith. Maybe she’ll be back to have her butt sent back to where she can’t hurt anyone.

What do you think will happen with Lilith? I’m sure we’ll discuss this much, over the summer. So, let’s get it started.

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Supernatural creator, and all around cool guy, Eric Kripke, spoke to TV Guide, and appears in this week’s issue of the magazine. He talks a lot about setting up Supernatural fandom’s Summer of Angst, and a little on what his plans are for Dean’s new direction.

He confirms a lot of rumors and fills in a lot of spoilage for the curious:

• Dean will stay in Hell for six months, in human time. In Hell time, it could amount to years.
• Dean needed to go to Hell. He needed a “turning point”.
• What happens in Hell, and how Dean gets out, are primary arcs in Season 4.
• Once Dean is out, he’ll have to adjust to the world that was forced to move on without him.
• Is Dean a demon? No. As many suspected because of Ruby’s revelations, having your humanity burn away requires centuries in Hell.
• Dean won’t remember much about his ordeal in Hell.
• Ruby will return. [I admit it. I like Ruby. I want to see her help them kick butt again.]
• A new species will appear. YUM!
• We’ll see more of Rufus Turner, Bobby’s friend in Vermont, from Time is on My Side, who gave Dean the information on Bela.
• I suspect, from Kripke’s revelations that we’ll see quite a bit of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, when Dean returns. He’ll have lots of issues rebuilding his life, after being in Hell for a considerable length of (Hell) time.
• Sam may have promised Dean that he wouldn’t try to discover his special powers, but I believe we’ll see some of it come out. Kripke only hints vaguely, but how else are they going to take down Lilith?

Read the full interview at TV Guide.

Okay. How excited are you to see Dean return, and find out what’s up with Sam and his “power”? Leave a comment and let us hear what you think about Season 4.

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• Two words: Bon, Jovi. Nice, weird touch, Mr. Kripke.
• I’ve wished all season that Dean would have given Sam more credit, and trust that Ruby really did want to help them. You had to question her motives, yes, but they’ve had to compromise to get what they wanted before.
• How about that Dean vs. Ruby fight in the opening of the episode? It was quick, but exciting, no?
• This whole episode was so incredibly tense. I should have put a piece of leather between my teeth.
• Where did Lilith go? I’m sure they’ll have her regrouping somewhere to rear her head again.
• New Harmony, Indiana has a strong, and interesting, spiritual background. It was created by a German communal sect (The Harmonists), and was later sold to an early social reformer, who, early on, held a strong disregard for religion, and later a strong affinity for spiritualism.
• Those darn Winchester boys and Ruby’s knife. It was her knife, after all.
• Given just a second more, could Sam have used the knife successfully on Lilith?
• Obviously, Lilith’s seemingly strongest weapon had no effect on Sam, at all. Is there more, though, that scared her about Sam? Did she then see something like what Dean saw in Sam’s face, at the beginning of the episode?

What did you think of No Rest for the Wicked? How are you going to spend your Supernatural vacation?

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As expected, tonight’s Supernatural was very tense and exciting. Of course, the time is here, and Dean has the Lilith to pay.

With 30 hours to go, Dean dreams of running from hellhounds. Sam tells him that Bobby has a way to find Lilith. Dean sees Sam’s face in some kind of demonic form.

Bobby and the boys divine that Lilith is in New Harmony, Indiana. Dean doesn’t want to go, and risk getting Sam killed, until they have a real plan to defeat her. Sam and Bobby want to summon Ruby for help, but Dean resists. Sam summons her, and confronts her about not telling them that Lilith holds the contract for Dean. Sam wants Ruby’s knife.

Ruby looks Sam up and down, and tells him that he’s ready to take Lilith out. She’s on “shore leave”, so her guard is down. She tells Sam that he has the power –the “demonic” power- to take out Lilith. Dean shows up and berates Ruby, telling Sam that she’s a liar who’s trying to trick him.

Dean: So, that’s you, huh? Our slutty, little Yoda.

Dean punches Ruby, and she wails on Dean and Sam both. Dean, though, has tricked her into a demon trap, and lifted her demon knife. Dean and Sam take off, leaving Ruby stuck under the trap.

Sam questions Dean about whether Ruby is right. Dean is tired of the pattern where one of them is “up a creek”, and another of the Winchesters has to sell his soul. Dean believes that Sam’s using his “powers” would be like selling his soul.

In a nice suburban home, the family is terrorized by their little girl. This girl is blonde, not the Lilith “body” we saw, before, though.

Dean can’t start the Impala. Bobby has tampered with it to keep them from leaving without him. They take off with Bobby following. Dean and Sam sing along with Bon Jovi’s Dead or Alive. They get pulled over for a busted taillight. Dean freaks out and kills the officer with Ruby’s knife. When Bobby catches up and asks how he knew it was a demon, Dean explains that he just knew. Somehow, he could see his real face underneath.

Bobby and the boys hide the patrol car. Bobby tells Dean that he can detect demons, because he’s so close to going to Hell. He’s “Hell’s bitch”, so he can see “Hell’s other bitches.”

In the suburban house, the little girl confronts the granddad about passing a note asking for help to the neighbor. She kills him from across the table, merely flicking her wrist.

The boys have made it to the house with the little girl. Dean can see that the “late night” mailman, and neighbors are all demons. They kill two of the demons with the knife. Ruby catches up with them. “What you don’t know about me could fill a book.” The neighbors come after them, but Bobby has blessed the water supply, and turned on the lawn sprinkler. They escape, and break into the house where Lilith is terrorizing the family, and check the rooms. Sam finds the little girl and her mother, lying in the girl’s bed. As he’s about the kill the girl, Dean stops him. She’s no longer Lilith.

They lead the family downstairs. Sam begs Ruby to help him do “the thing” to save Dean. She says they can’t do it. They need time. At midnight, hellhounds come for Dean. Sam, Dean, and Ruby escape to the dining room, and seal the doors against them. Ruby asks for the knife, saying she can keep them back, while they take off. Dean realizes that Ruby isn’t Ruby anymore. She displays Lilith’s little girl talk and demeanor, throwing Dean onto the table, and kissing Sam. She lets the hellhounds in. As they tear Dean apart, Lilith turns to Sam. She hold out her hand, and uses her “big flash” trick, similar to when we first saw her. It doesn’t work, though. Sam stands up, and Lilith’s face looks very afraid. Sam raises the knife to strike her, but she escapes, black smoke into a ceiling vent. [Don't see a lot of dining room ceiling vents.]

We see Dean suspended in a vaguely Hellraiser trap of chains and hooks.

September can’t come fast enough.

Image: Newscom.

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Here are a couple of clips, a little later than we usually see them, but we have them now. Eat them up, digest, leave some comments expressing your thoughts, your worries, and your hopes.

In No Rest for the Wicked Clip 1, Sam (Jared Padalecki) is assuring Dean that he’s not going to go to Hell. When Dean looks at Sam, he gets a spooky glimpse of Sam’s face distorting into some demonic form. So, let the creep fest begin…

In No Rest for the Wicked Clip 2, Dean tells off Ruby, and tells Sam that she’s trying to trick him. Ruby is adamant that she can help Sam use his psychic, demon powers to destroy Lilith, and save Dean. Dean punches her, and the real action begins!

So, grab your lucky charms and rub, “Please, don’t be a cliffhanger. Please, don’t be a cliffhanger…”

What are your plans for the season finale of Supernatural?

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So, after the Ghost Hunters tribute episode, Ghostfacers, that gives us a little needed breather, we’ll turn headlong into the last three episodes of all Lilith and her fellow evil, all the time. Eric Kripke and Sera Gamble have promised that it’s not going to be pretty. Buffy fans remember seasons four, five, and six, where half of each season was spent fighting the unfightable. That’s what we’re likely to see in Lilith, just only in two or three episodes. Plus, now, they don’t have the Colt. Bela does, and she’s Kripke-knows-where. Of course, Dean will want to find and kill her. Sam, at this point, may or may not wish to stop him –depending on his frame of mind, at the time, especially his libido.

Ruby will be deep in the fight, and some speculate that we don’t really know what happened to Henriksen in the explosion. We only know that the news reported his death. Perhaps he’s gone rogue demon hunter, himself. More likely, though, he’s dead, but don’t put any of my hard earned cash on that.

Speaking of Henriksen, he and the demon horde in Jus in Bello were only the latest of the evils that Bela sent the boys’ way. That and her possession of the Colt, and her siccing Gordon on the boys, were more than enough to justify serious penalties from Sam and Dean, especially Dean.

So, enjoy the next couple of weeks of hard fought for reruns, then we’ll head into the fight.

What do you think will happen with Lilith, Ruby, and Bela? Why am I tempted to joke that they’ll move into a two-story Victorian in San Francisco, and begin saving innocents? Leave a comment and let us know where you think we’re headed in the closing episodes of Supernatural Season Three.

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Gamble also spills some spoilers for the rest of the season, as well as her thoughts on the potential for Season Four. That nagging question about Ruby and Bela, and the fans’ strong feelings about them. There’s even talk about an old semi-hunter friend showing up again, as well as a brand new hunter who shows up toward the end of this season. [I'll spoil a bit more after the break, if you're not squeamish about that.]

Girls, I’ve had loads of questions and comments about those “delicious tattoos”. Well, Ms. Gamble spills about those, too.

Episode 3.14

In the next episode, they steer clear –more or less- of the mythology introduced in Jus in Bello. It’s a bit of emotional relief –comic maybe- involving the Hellhound’s Lair boys from Season One episode Hell House. They show up doing a pilot for a cable show called Ghostfacers, so you can imagine the pseudo-documentary mayhem that will ensue. Sera Gamble says it will be “an entertaining episode.” Plus, it gives us –and them- a little emotional break before it gets too close to the big day for Dean, as his year comes to a close.

Miss Gamble also explains the crazy writing credits for Dream A Little Dream of Me, in that Cathryn Humphris completed the story that Sera Gamble began. Eric Kripke pulled her in to the writing of Jus in Bello.

Also appearing in Sera Gamble’s spoilage:

• Lilith
• Agent Henriksen
• The Tattoos! I know, already mentioned, but everyone keeps asking.
• Ellen Harvells returns in the season finale!
• New hunter, who, at this point, is a “paranoid survivalist type”.

So, check out exactly what she says at Interview: Sera Gamble.

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I thought this was fascinating, and just another pile of evidence of why Supernatural is one of the top dramas on television. Eric Kripke has led us, inch by inch, into Ruby’s little world. First, we had no idea who this crazy, Sam-stalking, demon-killing knife wielding woman was. Then, she reveals she’s a demon. Now, in Malleus, we find out how she came to be the demon that we know today. We also know –or so we think- why she wants to help the boys so much. She has really become the more likable character over Bela. Katie Cassidy’s acting is spot on for this role, too.

[Spoiler alert...]

So, like I was saying, I find Supernatural’s new take on demon origins very interesting. It’s similar to Buffy, in that many (or even all) demons are said to be former humans who made a deal. In Buffy, Anya had become a demon at the call or favor of a higher-order demon, D’Hoffryn. Ruby, we now know, gained demon status, after being a witch who served a demon. According to the story, all witches gain their power from a demon. It was unclear whether there are many demons who empower witches, but I would almost assume so. Now, we know that Ruby was a witch in the time of the plagues, and was granted demon status by the demon she served.

The best part, though, is Ruby’s explanation of what happens in Hell. She seemed to imply that some demons develop as humans cast into the darkness. After a while, they forget what it was like to enjoy life. They forget being human. All that’s left is a shell that can only think of evil. This came when she warned Dean that this was his fate. He was doomed to Hell, if he doesn’t find a way out of his deal. Once there, he’ll lose all of his humanity, and become just another one of the evil beings that he has spent his life fighting. This is a bigger deal, now, knowing that Dean’s not only losing his life, but losing all of his humanity.

Interestingly, though, Dean’s dad, John Winchester made a similar deal to save Dean’s life, just the year before. When he returned in the finale of Season Two, he didn’t seem to have lost his humanity. Did he not go to Hell, like Dean is supposed to? What does this mean? I’m going to have to re-watch some episodes and piece this together.

Besides John Winchester’s continued humanity, Ruby reveals, in contrast to her fervent warnings to Dean, that she still remembers what it’s like to be human. What is up with that?

There is definitely too much to figure out in three more episodes.

What did you think of Ruby and all the extraordinary revelations about her, demons, Dean, and evil? Discuss it in the comments below.

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Recap

A man and woman –Paul and Janet Dutton- enter their bedroom. Janet begins brushing her teeth, as we see another woman, somewhere else, chanting, and performing a spell on a toothbrush. As Janet brushes her teeth, they begin to come loose. She pulls a couple out of her mouth. She spits up blood, and more of her teeth, as the other woman ends her incantation. Paul Dutton finally succeeds in breaking into the bathroom to find Janet lying next to a pool of blood draining from her mouth.

Paul Dutton is talking to Dean, who is posing as a CDC investigator. Sam looks around, and finds a hex bag tied to the bathroom sink drain.

As the boys leave, Dean expresses his disgust over witches, and the nasty ways they conduct their business. They discuss how they’re going to find the witch that killed Mrs. Dutton.

In a nearby cul-de-sac, the woman who was casting the spell against Janet Dutton –Amanda. As Amanda carries groceries from her van, her neighbor, Elizabeth, asks her about her not showing up for “book club”, the night before. Amanda brushes her off and heads into her kitchen. She removes a bug-infested chicken from the oven. As Paul Dutton is eating in his car, Amanda is putting his watch into the chicken, holding a ceremonial knife, and saying that “this dinner was prepared for you…”. Suddenly, Paul’s chicken wrap is infested with worms. He begins to choke on the infested fast food. This sounds like a 1980s news item, to me.

Dutton more or less falls out of his car, going to his hands and knees, as Sam and Dean speed across the square in the Impala. Dean helps Dutton, as Sam digs the hex bag from under Dutton’s dashboard. Sam torches –literally, with a gas torch- the hex bag. Paul quickly seems to improve, as Dean tells him that someone killed his wife, and is trying to kill him. Dutton tells Dean about a mistake –an affair- that he had ended. It must be the scorned woman… Amanda.

In Amanda’s living room, knife-slashing sounds accompany sudden, deep cuts appearing on Amanda’s forearms. Amanda falls to the floor, dead.

Sam and Dean enter Amanda’s house, and find her dead. They figure that she ended the ordeal by offing herself. Dean disparages “witches”, and compares the “love triangle” to Fatal Attraction. Appropriately, Dean is suddenly startled by a rabbit carcass dangling at eye level, with teeth missing, and dripping blood. “Why does a rabbit always get screwed in the deal?” Aha! The real reason for Dean’s dislike for witches… bunny love.

Sam finds a hex bag under Amanda’s coffee table, and they know it wasn’t a “spurned lover’s hat trick.”

Elizabeth shows up to “book club”. She wants to stop “book club”, because people are dying. Renee challenges her, saying that the deaths are over, and look at all the great financial gain that it has yielded them.

Sam and Dean, posing as detectives, find Elizabeth tending her “herb” garden. Sam remarks how amazing it is that she gets the herbs to grow so well out of season. Elizabeth acts surprised when they tell her of Amanda’s black magic practices. “But she was Episcopalian.” Renee and Tami, evidently to shield Elizabeth, as if she’s a weak link. The conversation fizzles fairly quickly.

In the Impala, Dean talks of the herb garden evidence for Elizabeth’s being a witch: Belladonna, Wolf’s Bane, mandrake. Sam wants to stopthem. Dean questions his desire to “take them out”, since he’s usually the human-loving pacifist, but agrees, “Burn, Witch, burn.”

Ruby “kills” the Impala. Dean draws the Colt on her. Ruby tries to convince Sam to get in the car and leave this town, right away. Dean seems delighted at the opportunity to take her out, the Ruby that’s “messing with [Sam's] head.” Ruby reveals to them that the witches’ power comes from a demon, a powerful demon that Sam should get away from. Dean and Ruby argue about which of them is more concerned for Sam’s well-being. Dean readies to fire the Colt at her, but Sam thrusts Dean’s arm up, forcing the shot to fire harmlessly into the air.

As the boys enter their motel room, Dean chides Sam for being nice to Ruby. Sam defends his alliance with a demon as a strategy to win the war they’re in against the demons from the Devil’s Gate. Dean is upset that, recently, Sam has been cavorting with this demon, and hasn’t been acting like his usual nice-guy self. Sam’s easy willingness to fight and even kill disturbs Dean. He explains that they’re supposed to argue, and Sam’s supposed to be on the “sanctity of life” side of all their issues. Sam tells him he has had to learn to be more like Dean, since Dean’s not going to be around to play that role anymore.

As they argue, Dean starts getting sick, much like Dutton did. Sam frantically searches the room for the hex bag. When he doesn’t find, he grabs the Colt, and drives off.

Without a word, Ruby shows up at the motel, forces Dean to drink from your standard, everyday, Renaissance Faire wineskin flask, and, of course, saves him. Lances Dean, “It was ass. It tasted like ass.”

Storming in on “book club”, Sam questions the coven at Colt-point, demanding they release Dean. Sam focuses on Tami, since she’s the only one who isn’t obviously profiting from the coven’s spells. Her fake weeping gives way to the black-eyed demon look, and cocky expression. She taunts Sam, saying that Dean should already be dead. Sam fires the Colt, but she is able to stop the bullet by simply holding up her hand. She’s evidently more powerful than the usual demons they run across. Elizabeth and Renee look on in shock as Tami tells Sam that he’s “in a lot of trouble.”

Tami forces, magically, Sam against the wall. She then kills Renee, snapping her neck with a flick of her wrist in the air. She then explains to Elizabeth that she’s “wearing [Tami's] skin”, and all those incantations they chanted, were devotions to her. So, the coven had “sold themselves” to her.

Dean rushes in, but “Tami” stops him, forcing him to the wall. Ruby comes in, claiming that she misses “Tami” and wants her back. She claims she led the Winchesters to her, and wants to serve her. Ruby pulls out her famous demon-killing blade, but a fight ensues. Tami seems to overtake Ruby easily. As “Tami” taunts Ruby, lying on the floor, Elizabeth sneaks off to the table holding the witch supplies.

We learn that Ruby was a witch, devoted to “Tami”. After devoting herself to “Tami”, “Tami” made Ruby a demon. As Tami starts to suck the essence out of Ruby, Tami begins to bleed from her mouth, as she realizes Elizabeth is chanting over some relics in the corner. “Tami” kills Elizabeth, but too late to avoid Dean’s thrusting Ruby’s knife into her side, repeatedly, enjoying it a bit.

Ruby gets up and tells the boys to leave, and that she’ll clean up the mess.

Sam is splashing water on his face in the bathroom. As Dean stands outside the motel, the lights flicker, then Ruby shows up. Ruby became a demon “back when the plague was big.” Every Hell-bound soul eventually loses its humanity, leaving something like all the demons they’ve met. Ruby says she needs Dean’s help with Sam, to help get him ready to fight the war, on his own. Ruby says she wants them to win, because she’s not like the other demons. She remembers what it’s like being human. She doesn’t know why, she just does.

Okay. I admit. I like Ruby. Bring on the “oh, she’s just playing [herself]“, or whatever, but… Katie Cassidy is proving to be a strong actress. We’ve discussed, tonight, how much we wouldn’t hate seeing Katie Cassidy slip into the Whedonverse, as well, someday.

What do you think of the first new episode since mid-December? Three more to go. Is it enough? A new season? Just a couple more, if the strike ends soon?

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