Supernatural: What Is The Other Way?

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Dark days are coming up for Sam and Dean Winchester, so Jeremy Carver and company felt the time had come for a rather warm-and-fuzzy episode of The CW network series “Supernatural.” Well at least as warm-and-fuzzy as you can get while dealing with a story that contains two murders and another attempt that came close. However Sam with the help of his brother saved the life of someone who played a very important role in Sammy’s childhood, his imaginary friend Sully.

Although “THE BOYS” mainly deal with demons sometimes with an assist from Angels, Sammy and Dean have dealt with other mythological creatures in the past. The flashback in the episode’s introduction referenced some of them including Dean’s memorable encounter with Fairies. We’ve also met a jumbo sized Cupid who wore little more than a diaper and a smile and whose feelings got bruised quite easily.

Turns out that imaginary friends that some children have when they’re quite young are creatures known as the Zanna. According to Romanian folk-lore the Zanna help guide and protect the children they get assigned to until their services are no longer required. Then they find a new child that needs support, when the children grow-up they have fond memories of their imaginary playmates, never realizing that they actually interacted with another being.

Before John Winchester decided Sammy was ready to join he and Dean on hunting trips, he’d get left alone at home to pretty much fend for himself. With no friends or companions, Sully came to stay with Sam and the boy grew to rely on his new friend. Sully looks to be in his early thirties and rather rotund, he sports a set of rainbow-colored suspenders and he encouraged young Sam to be his own man. That he didn’t need to embrace the life that John and Dean lived, he could take off and go to school and make lots of friends.

Why after al these years has Sully come to visit Sam? Turns out to enlist his and Dean’s help to track down the murderer of another Zanna, Sully’s friend Sparkle. As Sparkle waited for his little girl Maddie to return from going out to dinner with her parents, somebody broke in and stabbed Sparkle to death. Considering that Zanna’s only allow those they want to see them the murderer had to possess special powers.

When the trio arrive at Maddie’s home in Menomonie, Wisconsin Sully gives Sam and Dean the ability to see exactly what the Zanna sees. Soon they see the creature’s corpse he’s a combination of a man and a unicorn (Dean comes up with the term Manicorn to describe him) and Sparkle’s glittery blood that covers Maddie’s room.

In another part of town a little girl named Zoe plays in her above ground pool with her imaginary friend Nicky the mermaid. Zoe heads off to take a gymnastic class and Nicky sits back and relaxes in the pool waiting for her return. Suddenly we hear the trees rustling behind her and Nicky gets stabbed with the same blade that took out Sparkle.

The trio arrive while the family’s still out and they find Nicky’s body and bury her in the garden. Both Nicky and Sparkle were very close friends of Sully’s and Dean asks the Zanna if he can think of anybody that would want to harm Nicky. Sully says her boyfriend Weems is pretty jealous but he’s Sully’s best friend and incapable of murder. After they finish burying Nicky they head over to where Weems lives.

Weems and his boy Fletcher are putting sheets on the clothesline as Fletcher wet his bed again. The boy’s afraid his mother will catch them but Weems says that his mother had too much grown-up juice and she’s now deep asleep. He tells Fletcher to go get some sleep and he’ll finish hanging the sheets. A few minutes later, Weems becomes the person with the knife’s third victim. This time we see somebody run off it appears to be a young woman wearing a hoodie and she drives a Volkswagen Beetle and takes off.

The trio get there a little later and follow the trail of blood into the tool shed where they find a living but terrified Weems. He says that his fat saved him and that it went straight through one of his love handles. Dean takes off to look for the female assailant while Sam stays with Weems and Sully. After Weems gets patched up he tells Sam that he broke Sully’s heart when Sammy said goodbye to him as a child.

We flashback and we see Sully all prepared for he and Sam to run away, he’s even got a stick with a hobo-bag tied to it. However Sam just got a call from John and he’s taking the bus to Milwaukee to join his father and Dean on the hunt. Sully tells Sam he doesn’t need to do what John and Dean want he can follow his own path, but the boy lashes out at him. He says that Sully’s just made-up and he wishes he never made him up to begin with. Sully says if that’s really what you want Sammy I can leave and the boy tells him to. The Zanna wishes the boy a long and happy life and vanishes.

Sam and Sully sit down and Sam apologizes for his behavior as a child and Sully takes the blame saying things shouldn’t have ended that way. He then tells Sam he’s a hero that he saved the world and smiles saying he keeps track of his kids. Sam says he’s done some bad things and he’s endangered the planet. Sully says he’s heard about the “Darkness” but doesn’t know much about it. Sam then says that he believes God wants him return to the Cage in Hell that he got trapped in with Lucifer and Michael when the apocalypse got averted. He says he’s afraid to go back there, but the conversation’s interrupted when Sam gets a text from Dean saying he’s found the young woman.

Turns out Dean didn’t send the text, the woman snuck up behind him knocked him out then tied him up. She texted Sammy as she’s setting a trap for Sully. When the two of them get there, the young woman says she’ll trade Sam his brother in exchange for Sully. Suddenly the Zanna realizes who she is, she’s one of his former kids and they’d been involved in a tragic situation.

After Sully left Sam he went to live with Reese and her twin sister Audrey. Tragedy struck when they played tag and Audrey chased Sully outside and into the street and she got killed by an oncoming car. Sully panicked and left the family, leaving Reese to grieve on her own when she needed him the most. She went to ten different shrinks as a girl and they all thought her nuts. So she went to Romania when she turned 18 and studied extensively about the Zanna. She then met a witch who sold her a spell so she could see the Zanna and the special blade to kill them. She said she wanted Sully to suffer grief before he died, but now it’s his turn to die.

Sam’s holding a pistol and tells Reese she’s not killing Sully, but the Zanna tells him everything’s alright this is what he does. He then looks Reese in the eyes and says that if she has to kill him in order to get over Audrey’s death, he’s okay with that. She has the blade touching his chest then drops it on the ground and the two embrace. Dean picks up the blade and everybody’s safe.

After Reese leaves Sully says to Sam that he’ll likely never want to see him again after hearing about the experience with Reese. Sam tells him he thinks of Sully as a hero and Sully says that hero’s get scared, because they realize they’re the only one with the balls to do the right thing.

Sam and Dean driving back to the Men Of Letters building and Sammy says it’s time to have a serious talk about the Hell-Cage. Dean says okay then says you’re not going, good talk. Sammy starts to protest and Dean says even if God’s really talking to him they’ll find another way, there’s always another way. Younger brother looks at his older brother and says okay then tell me, what is the other way? Next week’s the mid-season finale and Lucifer’s (Mark Pellegrino) in the preview. Looks like we’re in for some excitement.

The Mid-Season Finale Takes Place Next Wednesday Night at 9:00 pm on The CW.