Slowly reaching the finale of the first "Supernatural" season (yes, I am terribly running behind), I definitely established that I prefer the 'random' and 'unconnected' episodes more than the ones digging deeper into the past of the Winchester family and their forever ongoing pursue of the demon that killed their mother as well as Sam's college girlfriend. By random and unconnected episodes, I mean the ones where Sam & Dean just go chasing after another creative type of evil force and defeat it, like "Provenance", "Asylum" or "Scarecrow" (some of my personal favorites). Every separate one of the episodes contains at least a few references to the Winchester family drama, but certain ones revolve almost entirely on the bizarre relationship with their father and the preparation for the ultimate confrontation with evil. "Dead Man's Blood" is a bit of a hybrid. Like another reviewer correctly stated already, this episode kick-starts the season's big climax, but not before settling a score with a bunch of vampires that killed one of John Winchester's old buddies. Fighting the vampires is actually just a formality in order to obtain the legendary Colt gun that, allegedly, kills everything. This is the gun they need when facing the dreadful family demon! The vampires here have more in common with the protagonists of "The Lost Boys" and "Near Dark" rather than with the more classic cinematic bloodsuckers Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee. They can stand daylight and literally laugh with crucifixes, garlic and wooden stakes. They sleep in hang mats instead of coffins and the only method to kill them is beheading, although the blood of a dead person can seriously slow them down as well. The idea of the episode is pretty cool and the vampire characters are reasonably compelling, but the script focuses too much on the Winchester situation and particularly the troubled relationship between John and Sam. The legend behind the Colt, illustrated through an atmospheric flashback, is easily the highlight of the episode. "Dead Man's Blood" also contains a few spicy death sequences and good make-up effects. Apparently there will be more episodes with vampires in the following seasons. They're definitely not my favorite type of evil opponents, but I like the personality twists the writers gave to the vampires. Basically just the blood thirst remained.