Tuesdays are Supernatural!

[trancejeremy]

I missed the pilot - how exactly do these two guys afford to drive around the country in an old muscle car with a trunk full of guns investigating paranormal stuff? (I'd do that myself, if I could afford to...)

 

[Crothian]

I missed the pilot - how exactly do these two guys afford to drive around the country in an old muscle car with a trunk full of guns investigating paranormal stuff? (I'd do that myself, if I could afford to...)

credit card fraud. they don't explain it well enough but that seems to be it

 

[WayneLigon]

I'm kinda excited about tonight's episode. The whole "guy with a hook for a hand who attacks teenagers who are out making out in the woods in the backseat of their car" is one of the few urban legends that I actually remember fairly well off the top of my head.

I'm curious what kind of supernatural angle they've put on it, though.

Pretty darn good backstory to that, and the poltergeist angle was very good as well. They're being pretty consistant so far, as 'salt as a deterent to spirits' makes it's reappearance. Hopefully it'll not 'conveniently not work' in other episodes without an explanation. I really like that backstory; it will definately make a re-appearance in a game at some later date.

I missed the pilot - how exactly do these two guys afford to drive around the country in an old muscle car with a trunk full of guns investigating paranormal stuff?

Credit card fraud, mostly, like Crothian said. Dean (and the dad) especially seems very adept at flting under the radar and living without leaving a great deal of trace. Pretty good angle for supernatural investigators.

I really like how they are practiced at coming up with ways in, and means of ingratiating themselves with people. Like tonight's episode: Dean glances at the magazine subsciption label as the most likely source for the boy's name, thus subtly saying 'Yeah, I am who I say I am because otherwise how would I know that'.

 

[Steverooo]

Hooked Horrors!

Anyone else notice that the hook in the illustration wasn't like the one on the "man's" hand?

Okay, so the spirit was dispelled when the bracelet melted? Then how come it wasn't when the hook was melted down to make it?!?

Another "C" episode...

 

[Desdichado]

I liked the angle on the Hook-man legend. I also am really digging the characterization. Sam's got some obvious angst with his girlfriend dying in the first episode and all, but the last two episodes we're seeing some angst in Dean that's more subtle and more well-written. He obviously covers it up with a carefree, even flippant attitude, but we're starting to see more and more the bitterness that his lifestyle has instilled in him, not to mention his jealosy at the life that Sam had, even if it only lasted a few years. A lot of the quips he made at Sam while hanging around the college students were startling eye-opening.

However, the one gripe I had about the episode was the whole deal with the hook. Dean needed to melt it to get the ghost to go away, right? Well, hadn't it already been melted down and reforged? Huh?

 

[WizarDru]

Anyone else notice that the hook in the illustration wasn't like the one on the "man's" hand?

Okay, so the spirit was dispelled when the bracelet melted? Then how come it wasn't when the hook was melted down to make it?!?

Didn't notice, but I would hardly expect it to match, really. It was clearly a fanciful illustration from after the fact.

The spirit was dispelled after the WHOLE body, INCLUDING the hook, were destroyed. Melting the hook didn't destroy him because the bones were still in an unmarked grave. He persisted when hook was melted because his bones were still intact. After Dean destroyed his mortal remains, the hook (now necklace) remained his sole form of investiture.

 

[Desdichado]

The spirit was dispelled after the WHOLE body, INCLUDING the hook, were destroyed. Melting the hook didn't destroy him because the bones were still in an unmarked grave. He persisted when hook was melted because his bones were still intact. After Dean destroyed his mortal remains, the hook (now necklace) remained his sole form of investiture.

It is explainable, but the explanation ends up feeling a trifle convoluted, and the whole situation feels a bit contrived and "plot devicey."

 

[D.Shaffer]

I'm not sure how people can think it's contrived. This isnt the first time they've mentioned remains needing to be salted and burned to put a spirit to rest (They mentioned this in every 'ghost' episode so far). Additionally, this is the second time they had a spirit with a focus beyond just its remains. When they burned just the body, the spirit was able to 'remain' due to this focus. When they destroy the focus, then the spirit no longer has anything to attach to. It's a pretty good bit of consistancy, actually.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Here is a simpler explanation then. The differenece this time was the "Hook" was burned in a salted fire. It takes both salt and fire to destroy the spirit, so just reforging the hook won't do it. Perhaps it is burned salt that mixes with things that destroys the spirits. I think they also mentioned one other time a similar problem if the body is cremated.

 

[WizarDru]

It is explainable, but the explanation ends up feeling a trifle convoluted, and the whole situation feels a bit contrived and "plot devicey."

Well, that's how they explained it in the episode, when they said pretty clearly "You destroyed the body, why is he still here?" and discussed how that if the hook wasn't with the body, then he wasn't completely destroyed.

I agree with D.Shaffer; they've been fairly consistent in regards to destroying the undead they've mostly been facing.

Methods
[sblock=Spoilers for Previous Episodes]1. Woman in White: Closure of Ghost's Event
2. Wendigo: Burned with Fire
3. Ghost: Closure of Ghost's Event
4. Demon: Banished with Ritual and Salt
5. Bloody Mary: Destroyed Focus Item, Body Still Intact - Destroyed by own power
6. Doppelganger: Killed with Silver Bullets
7. Hook Man - Destroyed All Remains - sowed with Salt/Fire[/sblock]

So they've been pretty consistent from what I can tell. When the remains are available, a ghost/poltergiest/vengeful spirit can be destroyed by sowing the grave with salt and burning the body. However, when the physical remains aren't around to deal with properly (including the salt), you either have to fulfill whatever cycle of events has kept them on Earth or find a way to destroy them using their own power (or powers of another ghost linked to them).