Supernatural Episode 4.8 Review: Wishful Thinking

The eighth episode of the fourth season of Supernatural aired on 11/6/08. The episode is titled Wishful Thinking. Wishful Thinking centers on a town with a wishing well that actually makes wishes come true. Warning: my episode review contains plot spoilers.

Wishful Thinking is another episode of Supernatural that is more funny then serious. With no seemingly supernatural events to investigate at the moment, Dean and Sam search the internet for anything to save when a story of a ghost haunting women's showers quickly catching Dean's eye. The boys head to concrete Washington and investigate strange happenings around the town. The boys alternate between poses as a writer, FBI agents, and health inspectors. I didn't find Sam and Dean convincing as any of those covers but it worked for the clueless townsfolk.

The episode starts off a little slow but quickly catches steam as the boys realize people's wishes are coming true. Of course the old saying "be careful what you wish for" holds true as the wishes start to go bad. Turns out the source of the wishing well's power is a cursed coin with the power to sow the seeds of chaos. Dean and Sam realize the only way to stop the curse is to have the first wisher take his wishing coin back. In my favorite guest appearance for the season, Ted Raimi stars as the geeky Wes who wished for his high school crush, Hope, to fall in love with him. Of course Wes doesn't want to reverse that wish even though Hope is turning into an obsessive crazy woman. With the help of a gun, the boys convince Wes to head to the wishing well and reverse the curse. After much indecision, Wes does save the day and reverses the wishes; which is a good thing since Hope wished Sam dead and Dean was about to be choked to death by a young boy.

Ted Raimi did a great acting job but he always does a great acting job. What can I say; I've been a huge Ted Raimi fan since the days of Seaquest. I even got to meet him once at a convention and he is super nice in person. Anyway, back to the episode; Dean had his usual great one liners. My personal favorite is when the boys are bummed that their really isn't a ghost haunting the ladies showers. Deans says he really "wanted to save some naked woman." I'm sure he did. Sam also had some good lines but even better he had some great looks. He was excellent at looking confused, stumped, and just plain surprised.

And last but not least, the idea of having a life sized Teddy Bear become an alcoholic because he can't deal with the horrors of the world is genius. It was so wrong but yet so right.

The not too serious episode did take a turn to the way too serious side when Dean finally confessed to Sam that he remembers every detail about his three months in Hell. Dean tells Sam that he won't lie anymore but he won't tell Sam about it either. Dean basically says nothing Sam says or does will make the memories go away so there is no point in talking about it. Earlier in the episode Sam says his only wish would be to have Lilith's head on a platter. Clearly both of the boys are upset about Dean having to go to Hell. It will be interesting to see how Sam now deals with the guilt because for some reason he obviously blames himself for Dean's trip to Hell. I must have missed that episode because I can't remember why Sam has so much guilt.

Wishful Thinking is another great episode showcasing Jensen Ackles and Jared Padaleckis comedic abilities. I give the episode 4 out of 5 stars.