...SPLAT! "EEEEEEEEEEEEE!" shrieks Raoul, having recovered from his earlier snit to writhe about atop his overstuffed armchair with unmitigated amounts of delight over the season's still-new title card, and have you forgiven my earlier outburst, friend of friends? "What outburst!?" Excellent.

"One Week Earlier" emerges from the darkness following the SPLAT! as the camera fades up once more on The Great Plains Motel, this time in daylight as Sam unfolds all 15 feet of himself from the passenger seat of his most recent ride to find himself in Garber, Oklahoma. Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" hits the soundtrack at roughly the same time, and there follows an artfully constructed, dialogue-free montage of Our Intrepid Heroes attempting to soldier on without each other wherein Darling Sammy's now-mundane actions and tasks are cleverly intercut with Dashing El Deano's still-daring escapades, as Sam burns his fake IDs and credit cards before landing a busboy job at "Hoyt's Bar" while Dean deploys his fake IDs and credit cards to track down and take out a nest of vampires. Oh, show. Oh, clever, clever show. By the way, they take as much care emphasizing a waitress's admiring appraisal of Darling Sammy's remarkably healthy physique as they do the spurt of vampiric arterial spray painting Dashing El Deano's face red. Make of that what you... "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!" Little slow on the uptake, there, Raoul. "My apologies, I'm sure!" Raoul gasps, struggling to regain his breath. "But I find that strapping young lad's remarkably healthy physique equally distracting when it's covered by little more than a v-necked t-shirt!" Rarely have words truer than those escaped your maw, my faithful companion. Maybe that's why Sam's typically smothered in layers of flannel? "Perhaps it's for the best!" Perhaps.