Bella, the sleek thief from the rabbit’s foot episode, returns. She’s a nice addition, a foil to Dean that Sam hasn’t been able to provide for a while. Of course she tries to screw over the brothers and then needs their help, which provides a tantalising bit of background, unexpected for a secondary character (we can only hope that this means Bella will be back). A young woman drowns in her own shower. When Dean and Sam go to interview her aunt, they find a lusty old lady who has a major thing for Sam and who mentions a mysterious “Alex”. It’s of course Bella, who gets the Impala towed. After some failed attempts by the boys to save another victim, Bella fills them in on everything they’ve been missing. The dead sailor wasn’t just hanged, but his hand was made into a hand of glory, one that ended up in the historical society.Cue tuxes! Sam makes nice with the old lady who has the tix for the private shindig while Bella and Dean steal the hand. Well, Dean steals the hand and Bella takes it from him. She sells it and then sees the ship, necessitating her asking for the boys help. In her defence, she does end up giving them ten thousand for their troubles (surely only a small amount of the money she made off the hand ofglory). The interactions between Dean and Sam were particularly interesting this week. I especially enjoyed the interchange concerning the late crossroads demon (Dean: “you shot her!” Sam: “She was a smartass”). Of course, the second car conversation was much less successful; it’s a nice parallel with the brothers coming together and then moving apart again. I think it’s become clear that they’re couching this division as Sam is growing up (and growing evil).
