Warning: this review contains clowns. Walk away, while you still can.

“Everybody Loves a Clown” opens on a typical scene at a carnival or circus: rides, balloons, happy people, clowns. One little girl is having a great time, especially with the clowns. When she sees one off to the side of all the action, she waves and the clown waves back. But when she tries to point him out to her parents, he’s disappeared. Fine, he walked off—whatever.

It doesn’t get creepy until she sees him standing on the side of the road as they’re driving home. And then it gets really bad.

In the dark of the night with everyone in bed, the girl hears something. She follows the noise to the door and sees the clown outside. I don’t know if the clown has cast some kind of spell on the girl, or if she’s just exceptionally naïve, but as we hapless viewers scream in our heads, she opens the door and invites him in.

The next scene takes us to a body being burned on a pyre. For a second there, I’d forgotten that John died in the last episode. I’m sure Sam and Dean would like to forget too. The former is crying, while the latter looks disturbed. Sam asks Dean if dad said anything to him at the hospital, and Dean lies, answering “No, nothing.” (I’d also like to know what they told the hospital about where they were taking John’s body. ‘No need to deal with a coroner or a funeral home—we’ve got it.’ Not suspicious at all.)

After the makeshift funeral, the boys end up at Bobby’s (who, by the way, was named after Executive Producer Robert Singer), where Dean throws himself into rebuilding the Impala. Sam doesn’t seem to know what to do with himself, and he’s worried about Dean. Bringing up dad’s death leads, as so often happens with Sam, to an argument. He can’t believe Dean only cares about fixing the car when the demon (Yellow Eyes) is still out there—doesn’t he want revenge?

Dean: “Revenge, huh?”

Sam: “Yeah!”

Dean: “Sounds good. You got any leads on where the demon is? Making heads or tails of any of dad’s research, because I sure ain’t? But you know when we do finally find it—oh, no, wait—like you said, the colt’s gone. But I’m sure you figured out another way to kill it. We got nothing, Sam. Nothing. Okay? Do you know the only thing I can do is work on the car.”

Surprisingly Sam does have a lead. He managed to get into one of John’s old phones, where he found a four-month-old voicemail from “Ellen.” She claims to possibly have something for John. Intrigued now, Dean tells Sam to ask Bobby if they can borrow a car.

After seeing the boys behind the wheel of the Impala every episode, it’s pretty hilarious to see Dean wrangling with a minivan that’s seen better days. Apparently it was the “only” car in Bobby’s extensive junkyard that was working. However bad shape it’s in, though, it does get them to where they’re going: Harvelle’s Roadhouse.

The roadhouse is closed when they get there, but they go inside anyway, where they find a man sleeping on one of the pool tables. Too bad he’s out cold and no help. As they’re checking the place out, Dean suddenly has a rifle against his back. He’s pretty smug when he spins around and grabs the rifle from the young woman holding it, but she earned my eternal respect by grabbing the gun before Dean can react, and slamming it into his nose. Then she takes the rifle back. Dean ends up calling out to Sam for help.

When Sam comes into view, he’s got his hands up and an older woman holding a gun to his head. Luckily when she hears their names, she realizes they’re John’s kids, and the room gets a lot friendlier. She’s Ellen, and the younger woman is her daughter, Jo. She called John because she can help him with Yellow Eyes.

Ellen isn’t a hunter, but her husband was. John used to be like family, until she, like so many others, had a falling out with him. Because of that she hasn’t actually spoken to him in years, and didn’t realize he’d died. She seems genuinely upset at the news, and offers her condolences. Dean is still insisting he’s fine, but Sam is more gracious. He also lets her know they’ll take all the help they can get.

The help is Ash, the man sleeping on the pool table. With an impressive mullet and sleeveless shirt, he looks (in Dean’s words) like a Lynyrd Skynyrd roadie. Jo insists he’s a genius. Skeptical, Sam and Dean agree to hand over all their dad’s research on Yellow Eyes. Ash looks it over and tells them to give him 51 hours to track the demon.

With time to kill, Sam asks Ellen about a folder he notices behind the bar. She’d been saving it for another hunter, but she’s happy to let the boys have it. The case turns out to be about a couple that was mysteriously murdered by a disappearing clown, while their child was left alive.

I don’t suffer from coulrophobia (fear of clowns), but I won’t deny they can be off-putting. Supposedly Johnny Depp and Daniel Radcliffe both have coulrophobia. And so does Sam Winchester, which Dean spends the entire episode reminding him about.

Dean: “Hey, you didn’t think I’d remember, did you? Come on, you still bust out crying when you see Ronald McDonald on the television.”

Sam: “At least I’m not afraid of flying.”

Dean: “Planes crash!”

That’s what he gets for making fun of someone’s phobia.

While the boys are researching similar murders, they discover clown killings that took place in 1981. Those murders happened three different times, in three different locations. Given the time span between the murders, and the reports that the clown disappears afterward, it’s a safe bet that they’re dealing with some kind of spirit. How does it move around when angry spirits are usually tied to a location? Dean suggests it could be attached to an object, one that travels with a circus. They find out what circus is in town and head there.

While they’re on their way, we see another family at the circus. The little boy, unlike the previous girl, is unimpressed with the whole thing, glued to his tablet while his dad tries to get him interested in the haunted house. When he spots the clown and it vanishes, the kid is freaked. But dad tells him not to be afraid of clowns because “they’re your friends.” Later that night, the boy wakes up his dad to tell him he was right: “He is my friend!” Dad’s bleary eyes focus just in time to see the clown standing behind his son. The camera cuts away as the man screams.

When the boys get to the circus, the cops are already there, thanks to the latest murder (once again, the child wasn’t hurt). Looking around, Sam and Dean realize it’s going to take a while to find the cursed object, so they decide to get jobs to blend in. When they meet with the owner (who inherited the business from his father), he tells them it’s a refuge for outcasts, and he doesn’t think they’re outcasts. He tells them they should go to school and have regular lives. Sam pipes up and says they don’t want school or regular—they want this. So Mr. Cooper hires them.

When they leave the office, Dean asks Sam if he meant what he said about not wanting school, or if he said it just to get the job. Sam admits he’s been having second thoughts about going back to school, and thinks sticking with the job is what dad would’ve wanted. This isn’t what Dean needed to hear. He snaps at Sam, asking since when did he care what dad wanted? Confused, Sam answers “since he died.” As happens whenever John’s death is mentioned, Dean shuts down.

Later they have a conversation about the evil clown spirit possibly being attached to its own bones. Basically, they’re repeating lore for those who missed the first season. But it’s also an excuse for the circus’s blind knife thrower (Barry Papazian) to overhear them talking about human remains. The man gets suspicious about what they’re up to and Dean tells him they’re writing a book on ghosts. He doesn’t seem convinced but he leaves them alone, which is good because it’s not long before they notice another little girl pointing out an invisible clown to her parents.

That night when the girl lets the clown into her house, the boys are waiting. Sam grabs the girl and pulls her to safety, while Dean unloads his gun into the clown. It falls, bleeding, then gets up again. Dean takes a step toward it, but it dematerializes and jumps through the window, breaking it. The boys flee as the parents yell at them to get out and the girl screams that they shot her clown. Well, that’s one way to get lifelong trauma.

After hiding the minivan, they discuss the case. It’s clear that whatever the clown is, it’s not a spirit. There’s nothing about a creature like that in John’s journal, and somehow this leads to another argument. Sam’s upset that Dean isn’t dealing with John’s death, although he insists he is. Dean is annoyed that Sam didn’t care what John wanted until it was too late. He thinks Sam is the one not dealing with his death. It’s easy to sympathize with both characters. Sam ends up walking away to call Ellen.

Despite claiming she only runs the roadhouse, Ellen seems to be as capable as any hunter. Her best guess is that the creature is a rakshasa: a Hindu demon or spirit that can take human form. They feed on human flesh, can make themselves invisible, and can’t enter a home without being invited. They also live in squalor and sleep on a bed of insects, and can be killed with a brass dagger. In Hindu lore, many rakshasas were evil people in their previous lives. They’re also known to desecrate graves, possess people, and feed on spoiled food as well as human flesh. Their fingernails are venomous and they’re skilled magicians and illusionists. I love that Supernatural featured them, and I wish we’d see more rakshasas in pop culture.

The boys decide that Cooper is most likely the creature, so while Sam goes to find evidence, Dean seeks out Papazian to ask if he has a brass knife they can borrow. The man points him to his trunk, where instead of knives, Dean finds a clown wig and outfit. Papazian is the rakshasa.

So…rakshasas can create illusions and change their form, but Papazian wears a clown outfit? One that disappears and reappears when he does? Maybe I’m being too picky, but there had to be a better way for Dean to realize Papazian is their killer—this just seems lazy.

Anyway, the rakshasa is not really blind, either, as we see when the milky sheen of its eyes clears up. It then disappears and starts throwing knives at Dean. So…the knife thrower tries to kill a person, on circus property, with knives? Maybe it just wants to get Dean out of the way until it can properly deal with him. Maybe it thinks no one in the circus will notice (or care) if it kills Dean. I don’t know, but I don’t find this any less lazy. I’m not the only person who has a problem with shows taking powerful characters and making them inexplicably stupid or weak in order for the hero to defeat them. Comparing how Supernatural treats the rakshasa vs. how they deal with the wendigo, I can’t help but be disappointed at the difference.

The boys end up running into the haunted house, where they get separated. While Dean keeps dodging knives until his jacket gets pinned to the wall by a couple of them, Sam is wrestling with the pipe organ. Why is there an organ in the haunted house? Is there such a thing as pipe organ phobia? (Apparently there is, according to a quick google search, although there’s no name for it.) Okay, pipe organs can be scary—but why is this one billowing steam? (Because apparently it’s a steam organ, or calliope [external link]). Okay, but why is the rakshasa toying with them instead of outright killing them? Maybe for the same reason that it wears clothes that disappear with it, instead of creating an illusion of being dressed.

In the end, Sam manages to wrench a brass pipe off the calliope. He uses the steam to show the outline of the rakshasa, then kills it by stabbing it with the pipe. I’ll give the writers this: they came up with a creative use for a musical instrument.

From there, they head back to Ellen’s, where Ash is waiting with a jacked up-looking laptop. He tells the boys that he set up an algorithm to track Yellow Eyes, and if the demon shows up anywhere in the world, he’ll know.

Sam: “Ash, where did you learn to do all this?”

Ash: “MIT. Before I got bounced for fighting.”

Sam: “MIT?”

Ash (nods): “It’s a school in Boston.”

Ash is already one of my favourite characters.

With nothing more to do than wait for a call from Ash, the boys head back to Bobby’s. Dean gets right back to working on the Impala, and Sam interrupts him. He tells Dean he’s right about Sam and their father; they never got along, that as far as he knows John died thinking Sam hated him. He misses John, feels incredibly guilty, and he’s not even close to being all right. Then he adds, “But neither are you.” After Sam leaves him, Dean is seething. He ends up taking a crowbar to the Impala’s trunk, smashing it to hell. Is this just grief, or is there more to it?

This is a bit of a mixed episode for me. The rakshasa is terrifying, until they have to kill it, and then it all goes to meh. They probably shouldn’t have spent so much screen time on the roadhouse, but then again they introduced some interesting characters there, and furthered the plot with Yellow Eyes. The show also showed some satisfying continuity, with the boys still showing signs of injuries from their last encounter with the demon, as well as the car accident. Overall, I think this was a good episode, but it may have suffered from trying to cover too much ground.

One last note: the episode ends with “In memory of our friend, Peter Ellis.” For anyone wondering, he was a director [external link] who worked on Supernatural, as well as other shows, including Sliders, Smallville, and Highlander. ASB