['Supernatural' - '...And Then There Were None']

Rufus and Bobby, the grumpiest old men in the hunting world, tracking a brand-new critter and working alongside the Winchesters?

Add to that the classic "one of us has been infected by a monster, but who is it?" scenario plus a side helping of Winchester-Campbell family drama.

All these elements can only portend good things, right?

Well, as it happened, 'None' didn't quite pan out, not in the manner I'd hoped.

The pieces were in place for something tasty, at first, anyway. A few minutes into the episode, my Spidey senses were tingling, telling me something good was coming. I'm a huge fan of locked-room mysteries, and when 'None' added the random monster-possession factor, my interest was truly piqued. I was also very happy to see Bobby and Rufus paired up in the episode, but truth be told, that was my clue that something funky was up.

I'm wondering how many of us pretty much knew Rufus was going to buy the farm less than 20 minutes into the episode. There were just a number of things about 'None' that were unusual -- Bobby working with the Winchesters, Bobby wearing a suit, Rufus and Bobby pairing up and working alongside the Winchesters. Individually, none of those things were tremendously unusual, but added together, all of those things got me wondering where all this would end up, how many bodies would drop and whether Rufus would contribute one of them. I just had a gut feeling he would die, and early on, I began hoping 'None' would be worthy of his death.

The thing is, I hold episodes that see the exits of major recurring characters to a pretty high standard. I think 'Abandon All Hope,' the episode in which we said goodbye to Ellen and Jo Harvelle, met that standard. 'None' didn't reach that level, for a few reasons.

One problem was, almost as soon as I began salivating over all the special elements and characters assembled for this episode, a mechanical problem with the plot reared its ugly, wormy head. The way the worm infected people in this episode just didn't make much sense to me, and, if you'll pardon the pun, that bugged me. The worm problems were just distracting enough to keep me from losing myself in the proceedings.

We learned from the trucker that while the worm was in his brain, he blacked out and recalled nothing. Yet when Dean was explaining the moment in which he killed Gwen, he specifically said he recalled talking to her in the hallway, and then he blanked out. So which is it -- people remember being possessed or they don't?

If Dean was possessed from the moment Gwen walked into that hallway, he would not have recalled their conversation. If the worm crawled up his body and into his ear as they conversed, am I supposed to buy the idea that neither of them noticed that? That's a stretch.

The episode never quite overcame this mechanical problem, for me, anyway. The creature clearly didn't just turn invisible and fly into people's ears, but 'None' acted as if the worm could magically get into people's brains without anyone noticing. Just to forestall all the comments I know will flow in about this -- I know all the characters who were taken over by the worm were alone for a period of time, and thus somehow the creature could have gotten into all of them without other characters seeing that. But the characters never noticed a five-inch green thing crawling around on their bodies? Hard to buy, that's all I'm saying.

And hey, here's an idea, why didn't the hunters stop up their ears so it couldn't get in? I know, practically speaking, having the characters communicate via hand signals and notes doesn't work, but still. This transitory monster-possession premise is a classic plot that has been well used on everything from 'The X-Files' to 'Star Trek.' But for it to work, you have to buy that characters can be possessed quite easily and that the monster/possessor can escape detection easily. That aspect of the story just didn't quite work for me here.

The second time I watched the episode, I knew the worm aspect of the story was what it was, so I tried to ignore that and focus on other parts of 'None.' And while I enjoyed the actors' performances and characters' interactions, I had to conclude what I concluded the first time around: That Rufus died in an episode in which the moral of the story was something we already knew -- that the Winchesters' definition of family has evolved.

Ever since Samuel sold the brothers out to Crowley, I think we all assumed that "family" status was not automatically extended to blood relations. I really wanted Rufus' death to have meaning, to have impact. For him to die in an episode that told us something we already knew (perhaps on an unspoken level), well, it just didn't fill the bill.

Part of the reason it was tough to lose Rufus stemmed from one of the episode's strengths: Steven Williams' performance as the grizzled hunter. I'm a huge fan of the actors' work, and his rapport with Bobby was always terrific ("You have a cranial saw in the car?" "Course."). Given how fabulous Williams and Jim Beaver were, it just stung all the more to lose Rufus, one of Bobby's last friends in the world.

Those of you who recall my Roadhouse rant will be familiar with my difference of opinion with 'Supernatural' when it comes to the way the show treats recurring characters. I've never agreed that the Roadhouse had to be burned down, and, in general, I very much wish we'd spent time with other hunters over the years. Watching this episode the second time, a part of me sighed, "Is the true definition of family 'people the show kills off'?

Now, I know that I get crabby about these things because the show does such a damn good job of making me care about the recurring characters. The truth is, I do and I don't understand 'Supernatural's' need to kill off people like Ash, Jo, Bobby, Gordon, Pamela, etc. On the one hand, I absolutely understand that there need to be real stakes for the Winchesters, and thus people they love need to die sometimes.

On the other hand, what's wrong with building up a world that has people in it that we get to know over a period of years? In my view, that can only add to the richness of the storytelling and to the emotional and moral stakes as well. It makes me sad for them sometimes, that the brothers have so little "family" left at this point. But I suppose I've more or less come to accept that recurring characters on this show always have targets on their backs.

The Campbells supplied both good and bad examples of how the show treats these kinds of characters. Samuel was pretty much played out -- I'm not sure he would have added much to the proceedings going forward. Also, the show, from all appearances, doesn't want Sam's Wall to get any more unstable, hence the need to get rid of a guy who could destabilize it with bad memories. All in all, I think we can agree that Mitch Pileggi is awesome, but it was time for Samuel to go.

Christian and Gwen, however, represent lost opportunities, in my opinion. I wished we'd learned more about what they thought of growing up in the hunting life. I know Christian was possessed, thus his information was always going to be questionable, but Corin Nemec is a good actor and he barely got to do anything but glower at the Winchesters before Christian was killed off. That was a waste.

And now the show has killed off Gwen as well, which is a real shame, given that she was raised to follow Samuel's orders yet she still had a mind of her own, one capable of learning from the Winchesters' very different approach. Sure, her death provided a shock within the episode, but in the end, I'm sorry she's gone. She could have been an interesting ally going forward, and the show isn't exactly oversupplied with female characters.

Having said all of that, some aspects of 'None' worked, most notably the rapport among the hunting crew at the cannery. Beaver did great work as possessed Bobby, and there was some effective tension derived from wondering who would be wormified next. Also, on a mechanical level, we learned what the Mother wants -- death to puny humans, world domination, yada yada.

So, what are your thoughts on the Mother? As Big Bads go, so far, she's not doing much for me. Well, if we don't love her (and who knows, at some point, she might really rock as an antagonist), it's not like we'll have to put up with her long. The show is on a break until April 15, then we've got a few weeks of 'Supernatural' before the two-hour season finale May 20.

A few more notes:

• I know I said it before, but it really was a little odd to see Bobby in a suit. Not bad, just a bit strange.

• A great Sam line: "I wouldn't go with the family thing. Try again."

• Dean's "clean slate" speech at the end was good, but it felt like there was a scene missing near the end of the episode. It went from the brothers wondering if they'd killed Bobby to them standing with Bobby at Rufus' grave very quickly -- perhaps too quickly. The pacing just seemed a bit off at that point.

• A great Rufus line: "I'm not a doctor but I'm going to go ahead and call this."

• I truly don't mean to nitpick, but when Bobby was wrapped up with duct tape, it looked as though at least one ear canal was still visible and uncovered. It detracted a bit from the tension of that climactic electrocution to think that the critter might still have a way out.

• Rufus, you'll be very much missed. Like Robin Vogel of the Winchester Family Business, I'd watch a spinoff that chronicled the hunting partnership of Rufus and Bobby.

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'Supernatural' airs 9PM ET Fridays on the CW.


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