Would it surprize you that sometimes I watch old episodes of Supernatural just for fun? No? Well, I was watching some season two eppys on Netflix, and guess who showed up in “Bloodlust”? Our angsty little vamp, Benny. And he was playing a vampire! Who was a “vegetarian”. Someone digs Ty Olssen playing a vampire. This episode, “Taxi Driver”, gives us a a good chunk of Benny, angsty vampire extraordinaire!

Poor Kevin. Trapped in that dingy little boat, sweating out the Word of God, and then Crowley starts haunting him. This kid can’t catch a break. After a particularly gruesome nightmare, he calls Sam and Dean, greeting them at the door with a gigantic cast iron skillet. Seems as though he has translated the second trial: rescuing an innocent from Hell and delivering their soul to Heaven. Easy!

The boys quickly figure out a way in: rogue reapers can smuggle you across the border, and those beautiful boys torture a demon to help them track down one of these reapers, who happens to be the reaper to took Bobby’s soul to Hell. (Bobby’s in Hell? Hey, no fair!) This gives them not only a way to get to Hell, but an innocent on a platter. Sammy heads out with the taxi reaper, and tells Dean they’ll be back in 24 hours. Easy!

Boom. Sam and Taxi Reaper coast through the melty alleyway graffiti, holding hands (CUTE), and they are in Purgatory. Wait, where?

Not so fast, Sammy. You think it’d be that easy? You gotta slog through Purgatory to get to the super secret doorway in a tree to get to Hell, all Alice in Wonderland like. Purgatory is full of all kinds of portals, yo.

Meanwhile, Dean heads back to Kevin, who is now living in the closet, and tries to chill him the eff out with a burger. Dean does not give a very encouraging pep talk, and basically tells Kevin to Man Up. Kevin heads back to his room (closet) with Dean’s pie.

After a quick fight with some denizen of Purgatory, Sammy finds the portal and climbs into Hell. He wanders down a couple of halls, lined with tortured souls in cages, and finds Bobby. Easy!

It doesn’t take Sam very long to convince Tori Spelling lovin’ Bobby that it’s really him, and they high tail it outta Hell. Easy!

Meanwhile, Crowley is very cranky about his hell hound being ganked, and the Winchesters rescuing Bobby, and not having the fun part of the Word of God. He is having a bad day!

Meanwhile, Kevin spills the beans that he went and hid that pesky Word of God (temporarily), and then freakin Naomi shows up, spewing some tale about how she really is on their side. How poor Castiel is just mistaken and messed in the head. Dean doesn’t believe her, and NEITHER DO I. She drops a little info about where Sammy is, and then angels away, like angels do.

Dean goes to meet our taxi reaper, only to find him dead (courtesy of Crowley). In an act of desperation, Dean calls up Benny to help him get Sammy out. Benny is sad and desperate and fed up and I just want to give that vamp a big hug. Poor, doomed Benny.

Dean and Benny devise a plan which involves Dean cutting off Benny’s head (!!) so he can go back to Purgatory, and then ride the brother who hates him back out, a la episode one. It is tragic and loving and full of WIN. Any trepidation I had about this episode vanishes with this scene. Ty Olssen is the reason why I liked Benny so much right from the start, and I am a little sad that Jensen will most likely never get any great acclaim for what he’s done with Dean over these eight seasons. It’s gold, Jerry. GOLD. Now get out your tissues and watch, ’cause it’s that good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWl9F8zECV0

Boom, Benny’s head comes off (*WEEPS*), and we cut to Sam and Bobby getting in a bit of a tiff about Sammy’s Summer of Love when Benny comes to the rescue! “Dean sent me.” Bobby gets angrier about what the brothers have been up too since he bit it, and Sammy finally sees that he should have trusted Dean about this particular vampire.

They find the portal, and Sammy cuts open his arm to piggyback Bobby and Benny, but Benny, all tragic and such, decides that he’s better off in Purgatory. 🙁 He lets Sammy escape while he takes on some beasties, fighting to his apparent death.

Dean, somehow, gets to the woods of Maine in time to meet Sammy. Dean gets all choked up over the demise of his friend, and they release Bobby’s soul.

But wait! Crowley shows and tries to tamp that soul back into the pit. Crowley is holding a grudge, as he does.

But wait! Naomi shows, and smites Crowley from the woods, and lets Bobby’s soul rise to the heavens. “I told you, you could trust me.” Hmm. I still don’t trust you!

Sammy finishes the trial, inflicting more pain on himself. Easy?

Crowley finally tracks down Kevin, drops some awful (but maybe not true) news about Momma Tran, and then inflicts some more pain on poor ol’ Kevin.

Sam and Dean make up in Metallicar regarding Benny, and then go back to the boat, only to find that Kevin is nowhere to be found. Rats.

I gotta tell ya, this particular episode felt rushed and the trial didn’t seem too trying, but that Dean and Benny good-bye scene killed me. And now we only have one more trial to deal with, so that’s something.

Next: Charlie returns? YAY! Dean in a military uniform? YAY! Charlie and Dean trapped in a video game? Erm…