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Recap of Supernatural
Season 9, Episode 20
Bloodlines
Written by Andrew Dabb.
Directed by Robert Singer.
Air Date: April 29, 2014.
Sam and Dean head to Chicago to investigate a suspected monster killing, only to learn that the whole city is run by five families of monsters.
Body Count:
For this episode: 2 humans, 1 werewolf, 1 shapeshifter, and 1 vampire.
For the series so far = At least 1098 angels, 1023 humans (of which 8 were witches), 165 demons, 58 vampires, 49 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 21 gods, 19 zombies, 10 hellhounds, 9 werewolves, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 6 shapeshifters, 5 djinn, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 4 reapers, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 Thule, 2 vetalas, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, 1 deer, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 Khan worm, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 pishtaco, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- Big Damn Heroes: Sam and Dean behead the vampire who was about to kill Ennis.
- Subverted later. Ennis gets the killing shot into the monster killer, but Violet would have killed him first if David hadn't stopped her.
- Coconut Superpowers: Shapeshifters in the family are able to change without shedding their skin.
- Enemy Mine: Ennis and the Winchesters side with shapeshifter David.Dean: Sometimes, you've got to work with the bad guy to get to the worse guys.
- Evil Versus Evil: The shapeshifter tribe led by Margo Lassiter starts a war against the werewolf tribe led by Julian Duval.
- Fantastic Racism: Plenty of it. According to Saul, the one thing all five monster families can agree on is that their bloodlines must remain pure.
- Glamour Failure: One of the ways that Ennis figures out that the Detective Costa he's talking to is a shapeshifter is pull out his phone and look at his face, which shows said failure with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- Interspecies Romance: David Lassiter the shapeshifter and Violet Duval the werewolf.
- Jumped at the Call: Sam, seeing his younger self in Ennis, repeatedly warns him to stay out of the hunting life, but Ennis won't have any of it.
- Left Hanging: The episode was so poorly received that CW execs canceled plans for the spin-off. All plotlines are thus left open.
- Mirror Character: David and Ennis both lost someone they loved to the silver-clawed killer.
- The Nicknamer: Dean nicknames David "Romeo" and David calls Dean "Buffy".
- Obviously Evil: Julian Duval. He may not have actually hit Violet, but he did come close to throttling her.
- Out of Focus: Dean and Sam are barely in the episode.
- Phone Call from the Dead: Ennis' father, established to be dead for years, calls him as the episode ends. And then gets cut off.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The werewolf family is quite misogynistic, evident in their treatment of Violet. Her father sells her off to some New York City wolves in an Arranged Marriage, and Julian makes clear to her that she's there to be pretty and silent.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: If Supernatural: Bloodlines
had gotten picked up, that is. Unfortunately, plans for the spinoff were canceled. - Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "I only see one monster here."
- Recycled In Space: Lampshaded by Dean.Dean: What is this? Godfather with fangs?
- Revealing Hug: Margo's smile vanishes when she hugs her brother, implying she's not so happy he's back in the family. Look closely and you can see her nostrils flare.
- Scary Black Man: Subverted with Ennis. He might not be that tall compared to the rest of the cast, but he can shout and he can shoot.
- Shaped Like Itself: David explains what a shapeshifter is: "We shift...our shape. It's kind of all there in the name."
- Spotting the Thread: When Detective Costa comes over, Ennis quickly realizes something's wrong when he keeps asking Ennis to repeat information and contradicting himself. Which leads to Pull the Thread when Ennis says that his father will be home soon, and "Costa" says "Yeah, it'd be great to see him, too," convincing Ennis he's a disguised monster.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: David and Violet.
- Unstoppable Rage: Violet hulks out when David is hurt by Irv.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Since the silver-clawed killer lost his son to monsters—or so he thinks—he's determined to kill as many as he can regardless of whether they're good or bad, and goading the rest into killing each other.
