Recap of Supernatural
Season 7, Episode 4
Defending Your Life
- Osiris: Because I'm the judge, son. Now stop objecting, or I'll find you in contempt – that is, kill you. So I advise you to let me move it along. The prosecution calls Joanna Beth Harvelle to the stand.
Written by Adam Glass.
Directed by Robert Singer.
Air Date: October 14, 2011.
While investigating a series of very strange murders, Dean and Sam learn that the Egyptian god Osiris is responsible for the killings. A god with nothing but revenge on his mind, Osiris is putting random people on trial for any mistakes they've made in the past and then promptly killing them if they're found guilty. Upon sensing Dean's guilt, Osiris puts him on trial, with Sam becoming Dean's lawyer. But both Sam and Dean are stunned when Osiris calls a witness, someone they thought they'd never see again.
Body Count:
For this episode = 3 humans.
For the series so far = At least 703 humans (of which 6 were witches), 88 demons, 55 angels, 36 Jefferson Starships, 34 ghosts, 26 vampires, 19 zombies, 14 gods, 9 hellhounds, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 shapeshifters, 4 ghouls, 3 djinn, 2 Arachnes, 2 dogs, 2 kitsunes, 2 werewolves, 1 crocotta, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 Khan worm, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 rugaru, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- The Atoner: All the victims, but it doesn't save them. Turns out Osiris sentences the accused based on whether they think they're guilty.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Dean eyeing Mia's chest: "Now I know why people come here."
- Call-Back: Sam had been finishing up his pre-law studies back in...the very first episode, actually. Wow.
- Closest Thing We Got: Sam defends Dean in 'court', though he only studied pre-law.
- Continuity Nod: Amy Pond and Jo Harvelle.
- Deadly Euphemism: "Now, stop objecting, or I'll find you in contempt. That is, kill you."
- Died Happily Ever After: Dean comments that Jo actually seems happier now that she's dead than he'd ever seen her in life.
- Fighting Your Friend: Jo's spirit is forced to attack and kill Dean.
- Flashback: Showing Dean's memory of various events used against him at his trial.
- Forgiveness: At the end of the episode, when Dean asks why Osiris didn't go after Sam, Sam says that he has let go of his guilt and moved past it.
- Go Out with a Smile: The last we ever see of Jo on the show is her tenderly cupping Dean's cheek and smiling at him before vanishing back into whatever afterlife Osiris pulled her out of.
- Guilt Complex: Dean's is why Osiris picks him to put on trial.
- Homicide Machines: Including Villain Teleportation when the victim runs up a stairwell to his apartment, only to find the car inside waiting for him.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: "I learned that from The Good Wife."
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Notably averted; although she's clearly aware of what's happening and clearly doesn't approve, Dean doesn't even bother trying to convince his old friend to fight back against her Mind Control.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: Jo Harvelle's ghost is wearing the same clothes she died in. However, she doesn't seem to still have the injuries (disembowelment via hellhound) she died from.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Sam's reaction to Dean saying the ghost car had a license to kill.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Sam thanks Dean for letting Amy go...which he didn't actually do.
- Sadly Mythtaken: Osiris isn't the judge of the Underworld, he's the king. Anubis, as the Guardian of the Scales, is the one who runs the judging ceremony, the "weighing of the heart". He balances your heart against Ma'at ("truth"), generally represented as a feather. If your heart is heavier than the feather, Ammit the Devourer eats it.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Osiris can't actually be killed; the only option the boys have is to seal him away for a couple hundred years.
- Shout-Out: To Judge Judy, Ally McBeal, and The Good Wife. Christine gets the obligatory reference with the ghost car.
- Rule of Threes: Osiris agrees to only call three witnesses against Dean. However Dean calls for his sentence after the second witness, fearing that Amy Pond will be the third.
- Undeathly Pallor: Jo Harvelle is way paler now that she's a ghost than she ever was as a flesh-and-blood human.
