Photo cred: Katie Yu/The CW
Season 10, Episode 8, “Hibbing 911”, Aired Dec 2, 2014
A brief history of Jody Mills so far in Supernatural:
- Sheriff of Sioux Falls who thought Bobby was some crazy drunk until local people rose from the dead
- Her resurrected son turned into a zombie and killed her husband
- Helped Bobby and Rufus escape from the FBI
- Discovered that Leviathan were working in the hospital, didn’t get eaten
- Accidentally discovered that Leviathan could be harmed with Borax
- Never quite got it together with Bobby
- Has seriously good taste in jackets
- Killed the Roman Goddess, Vesta, saving Sam & the re-virginized Dean’s lives
- Went on a blind date with Crowley, somehow lived
- Took Alex (former vampire bait) under her wing
Yep, Sheriff Jody Badass Mills, you rock!
Jody’s attending a Sheriff’s retreat in Hibbing, Minnesota. Looking suitably enthused, she’s on her way in to the small hotel when a young girl panhandles lunch money from her. Tough she may be, but she’s a sucker for kids. When she does enter the lobby, she is greeted by Sheriff Donna Hanscum.
Sheriff Donna is a very different kettle of fish to Jody. She is a total sweetheart, eager to help and ridiculously welcoming. The last time we saw Sheriff Donna, she was getting fat sucked out of her by a Pishtaco in a health spa in nearby Stillwater, Minnesota. Sam and Dean never came clean with her about the monsters in the spa, and told her that the unexplained deaths were due to a psycho-killer. I really don’t know if I’d find that comforting.
Donna had been at the health spa because her husband, Doug, had left her after she’d gained weight. As Dean told her at the time, “Doug’s a dick. You deserve better.” And he was right. Doug the douche shows up at the reception table while Jody is there, and makes remarks on Donna’s weight that, quite frankly, should have had him knocked out on the floor within seconds. But Donna is too sweet to say anything, and just stands there looking embarrassed instead. Wanker.
The local Sheriff who is hosting the convention, Sheriff Cuse, seems a little awkward when addressing the gathering. He suggests that everyone grab a partner for the weekend to get to know them. Jody thinks she’s escaped this, but, Donna to the rescue! She spends the rest of the weekend being called ‘Jodes’ and ‘Jodio’. (Oh c’mon, it’s too cute)! We find out that Sheriff Cuse is all worked up because of a body that’s been torn apart in a local alley, by some so far unidentified animal. This sounds like a job for…
The boys are holed up in the bunker doing research on the Mark of Cain. Dean doing research is like me doing sit ups; it involves a lot of complaining and whining and yields less results than expected. They’re getting nowhere fast researching the Mark, so when Jody calls to give them a heads up on the body, Dean is anxious to help, and gives Sam a taste of his own medicine with the puppy-dog eyes.
Jody goes to the local morgue to have a look at the body, but finds that just flashing her badge isn’t going to get her anywhere. Luckily, Donna shows up, and a bit of hometown charm seems to do the trick. The body has been devoured to the bone from the mid-torso down, “the whole kit and caboodle” as Donna says. Jody looks at his personal effects, and sees that the tagger’s belt is missing from his jeans. Very weird.
Of course it can’t end there. Another body turns up in a dumpster after a man went outside for a sneaky cigarette and never came back. Sheriff Cuse and his deputy try to keep it quiet, but Jody sniffs it out almost immediately. Donna is surprised too.
It’s too late to check it out though, so they decide to wait till the next morning, at which stage, Sam and Dean show up. Just a thought, but shouldn’t the boys be very, very careful walking into a Sheriff’s retreat? I mean, how many of these people could they have dealt with? And with how many different names? As if to prove that point, Donna sees them almost immediately when they arrive. They’ve been talking to Jody, though, and have decided not to tell Donna about the monsters, so Jody is sent off to distract her while they have a poke around.
While Dean almost has an altercation with a Deputy for disrespecting his fake badge, Donna and Jody look at the weapons expo where they are treated to plenty of the usual sexist ‘banter’, and some more humor from Doug, Donna’s ex. He takes it too far for Jody’s liking though, and she lays into him for fat-shaming and being a douche. Yay Jody! Except, no, Donna’s really embarrassed again and tells Jody to wait until she’s lost a husband and see how it feels. Ouch! If only she knew. She does realize that she’s taken it a step too far, though, and steps outside for some air.
Dean and the Deputy have made up, and he tells Dean that there was surveillance footage of the location of the first murder, but that the Sheriff had insisted he’d take care of it himself. And poor Donna discovers why outside. The pretty cop that Doug had been cozying up to is dead, and as Donna follows the trail of blood to her body, she spots Sheriff Cuse leaning over it, and baring his vampire fangs.
Gotta admit, I did not see that coming. She tells Jody about the pointy teeth, and they go and search Cuse’s room, almost killing Sam and Dean in the process as they come to check it too. Jody gives her ‘the talk’ about monsters. Donna may be small town, but she handles all this news remarkably well, and will not hear of being left behind when they boys go to check out the address she found. She does look freaked when Dean hands her a machete and explains that Vampire heads ‘gotta roll’, but who wouldn’t? Especially with him looking at her that intensely, with those eyes… *sigh* …..sorry, back to the scary stuff.
Sam peers in the window of the barn, and there is Sheriff Cuse, sitting at a desk. He turns away to signal to the others, only to turn back and be confronted with Cuse’s face in the window, telling him to ‘run’. Too late, Sam and Dean get whacked on the back of the head while the Sheriffs are held by the throat by the vampires, who include the girl Jody gave lunch money to.
This girl is Starr, and her vampire family consists of a guy called Rain, and one with a bad sweater. Len Cuse was their maker–he got tired of killing people while listening to them beg for mercy, so went straight, and now lives on bagged blood. How very Bon Temps! He had taught his nest to use all of the body that they killed, including clothes and cash, Hence Starr removing Dean’s belt… lucky girl.
During all the chatter, Donna is working away on using her reading glasses as a means of escaping her bonds. The nest wants Len back, or they’re going to eat the whole town. He finally agrees, if they’ll let everyone here go. Len, they’re psychos, it’s not going to be that simple. Yep, I was right. They want him to kill the Sheriffs and the Winchesters. He refuses, and Starr decapitates him.
Dean has managed to work through his rope, and is able to get free and chop up two of the vamps. Starr turns to kill Jody, only for Donna to slice her head off from behind. “Hakuna Matata, lady.”
Afterwards, as she talks to Jody, she’s slightly freaked about monsters, but Jody will tell her how to kill what, so it’s all good. And Dean tells Sam that for the first time since he’s back, that he didn’t feel the Mark was driving him when he killed the vamps. “The first time?”, asks Sam. Yep, Dean’s been holding back on Sammy AGAIN.
It was awesome to have both these Sheriffs back in this episode. Such polar opposite characters, but really strong females. And they both survived! So, yay–door is still open to their return.
Next week is the mid-season finale before the Hellatus, and it looks like a doozy. In the meantime, check out the other recaps for the story so far, and the Christmas list that you can leave out for Santa.
Supernatural airs Tuesday nights on The CW at 9/8c.
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