Recap of Supernatural
Season 3, Episode 12:
Jus In Bello(Rules of War)
Dean: This is pretty wild, right? I mean it's like they're coming straight for us. They've never done that before. It's like we've got a contract on us. You think it's 'cause we're so awesome? I think it's 'cause we're so awesome.
Written by Sera Gamble.
Directed by Philip Sgriccia.
Air Date: February 21, 2008.
Captured by FBI Agent Victor Henriksen in Monument, Colorado
, the Winchesters find themselves in a siege when the police station is surrounded by demons.
Body count
For this episode = At least 11 humans.For the series so far = At least 247 humans (of which 3 were witches), 9 demons, 17 ghosts, 10 vampires, 6 changelings, 3 gods, 2 shapeshifters, 2 werewolves, 1 djinn, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shtriga, 1 wendigo, and 1 zombie.
Tropes
- A Death in the Limelight: This episode focuses heavily on Henriksen, revealing Hidden Depths, a little bit of Back Story, and giving him Character Development. So, of course, he dies at the end.
- Arrested for Heroism: All the charges leveled against Sam and Dean are components of their job taken out of context and interpreted by law enforcement officers who are Genre Blind.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Dean and Henriksen.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: "If it makes you feel better, Bigfoot's a hoax."
- Cassandra Truth: "You wouldn't believe us."
- Followed by an I Told You So.
- Continuity Nod
- Henriksen isn't the first to comment on warding off monsters with salt. "Fighting demons with condiments".
- We didn't see the Winchesters get possession-proof tattoos. We did see Sam get possessed, explaining the following exchange.Henriksen: [On seeing the tattoos] Smart. How long have you had those?
Sam: Not long enough. - FBI Deputy Director Steven Groves reminds Henriksen of the last two times the Winchester brothers got away.
- Crazy-Prepared: Sam and Dean have by this point gotten anti-possession tattoos.
- Crazy Survivalist: Henriksen (quite accurately) profiles the Winchester clan this way. However, he's wrong in his speculation that John was a white supremacist and child molester.
- Creepy Child: Lilith.
- Death Faked for You: Henriksen plans to call in Sam and Dean's death in the torched helicopter to get the FBI off their backs.Henriksen: I'm gonna kill you. Sam and Dean Winchester were in the chopper when it caught on fire. Nothing left. Can't even identify them with dental records. Rest in peace, guys.
- Death Glare: From Sam, following the "I shot the sheriff" "But you didn't kill the deputy" exchange.
- Demonic Possession: Henriksen, Groves, and at least 31 other people.
- Downer Ending: The possessed townspeople all survive, Sam and Dean get to leave, but Henriksen, Nancy and Deputy Amici survive the night only to be killed by Lilith.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Discussed a bit; Dean has trouble believing that Nancy could possibly be a virgin.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The Winchester brothers and Henriksen become friends after defeating a small army of demons.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Nancy the virgin secretary swears to have "so much sex" if she survives the demon invasion. But not with Deputy Amici.
- Inspector Javert: Henriksen takes a little too much satisfaction in telling Sam and Dean about the conditions they'll be imprisoned under.
- Miranda Rights: Recited when Dean and Sam are arrested.
- Motor Mouth: When he's trying to exorcise the demon in Deputy Director Groves, Sam starts reciting the ritual of exorcism extremely fast. Also doubles as a Call-Back to Dean's claiming that Sam knows the ritual by heart.
- Mundane Solution: Once all the demon-possessed townspeople are inside the jail, Henriksen plays a recording of Sam reciting the rite of exorcism over the P.A.
- Never Filled Out Official Paperwork: Henriksen finally arrests the Winchesters and is ordered to fill out and file paperwork. From his face, he seems to have forgotten about that.Steven Groves: What can I say? The FBI didn't invent bureaucracy; we perfected it.
- One-Man Army: Ruby apparently fought her way through the large crowd of demons to get into the station (“Some guts splattered in my mouth while I was killing my way in here.”) We don't see it, but this exchange when she leaves is rather telling:Ruby: (faces the crowd of demons and draws her knife) I’m leaving. Who wants to stop me?Demons: (let her pass)
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ruby lays one on the Winchesters when she reveals to them that their plan didn't work as well as they thought:Ruby: After your big speech about humanity in war, it looks like your plan was the one with the body count. Do you know how to win a war? You hit hard, you hit fast, and you don't leave any survivors to run back and tell the boss what happened.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Dean refuses her plan to save them, Ruby leaves having no interest in being there and watching them lose.
- Shout-Out: "I shot the sheriff!"—"But you didn't shoot the deputy."
- Sole Survivor: One demon manages to escape the mass exorcism. He tells Lilith that the Winchesters survived. She's not happy about that.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Ruby proposes a demon-killing spell that requires the death of a virgin. Nancy is actually willing to go through with it. Yet Dean in particular rejects this, causing Ruby to decide to leave.
