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Step into my office.

It’s probably one of the contributions Frank Capra didn’t count on – the blatant transformation of the premise of “It’s a Wonderful Life” into a television lexicon, and no, I’m not talking about reruns on Christmas Eve. Sooner or later, it seems like every TV show features an episode where a character wakes up in a reality markedly different from their own that features the road less traveled.

It’s the same with Supernatural. Dean wakes up at 6:00 AM, puts on a suit, complains about carbs and extra pounds, switches the radio station to NPR and works as a chummy desk jockey in a marketing office job. He also meets a familiar-looking tech support worker named Sam, who asks if he knows him. Displaying the attitude we’re all familiar with, Dean blows him off before the credits roll.

Sam mans the customer service hotline. His job mainly consists of telling people where the power switch on a PC is. But he also has dreams he’s meant to for something more – fighting ghosts, vampires and worst alongside his new manager Dean. Sam tells his lax co-worker Ian, who promptly compares him to a D&D fan. Meanwhile, another tech support rep named Paul is getting nervous and agitated. Sam tries confiding in Dean about his visions, but Dean – already wierded out by the supposed stranger’s first approach – tells him he shares too much. When his files disappear, Paul snaps and puts his head in the microwave. As the coroner carries his body away the next day, even Dean notices something is up, and both Sam and Dean carry out their own independent investigations.

Meanwhile, Ian is called to HR and returns to the office a new man, cleanly-shaven, well-dressed, anal-retentive, and stressed to the point of suicide, as Dean unfortunately learns when he asks him for revisions on some forms. Dean also spots a mysterious figure in the bathroom where Ian jabs a pencil into his own neck. Dean calls Sam into his office and agrees something strange is up, and after saving another employee from the phantom, the two reluctantly agree to stop the haunting. They turn to the internet for help and soon find a brilliant website with all the answers. That’s right.

Ghostfacers.

“These guys are genius,” Dean exclaims. By watching instructional videos from the bumbling ghost hunters, Sam and Dean get a rudimentarily crash course in the supernatural, while Ed Zeddmore and Harry Spangler repeatedly insult a certain two “useless douchebags” – the Winchesters. Sam discovers the ghost is a former employee hailed as the life blood of the business in the Great Depression. From Ghostfacers, Sam and Dean also learn they have to burn the earthly remains of the ghost to truly kill it. They set out to search his office – now a storage room – for the genetic material the Ghostfacers mention.

Things hit a snag when a security guard catches Sam in the office and takes him to the elevator – which promptly shows signs of ghostly tampering. The elevator, of course, falls down a floor when the security guard reaches for Sam, cutting the unfortunate rent-a-cop in two and covering Sam in blood. Dean, however, finds what they are looking for, the ghost’s human gloves in a display case. They smash the display case and fight off the ghost long enough for Sam to burn the gloves just before the ghost performs a mind shock on Dean. With the ghost gone, Sam suggests doing this full time, believing it to be his destiny, but Dean doesn’t believe in destiny and rebukes Sam despite his dreams.

At work the next day, Sam pounds his telephone into oblivion and promptly quits. The boss upstairs, however, wants a word with Dean and even offers a “go-getter” like him a generous offer. But Dean hesitantly turns it down, saving he is leaving and he just isn’t meant for this job. The boss says “Finally” and touches Dean on his forehead – who suddenly reverts back to his hunter self. It turns out the boss upstairs really is the boss upstairs – or one of them anyway. His boss was the angel Zacharias all along – Castiel’s own supervisor.

Dean naturally isn’t too happy and gives Zacharias a lot of lip, but Zacharias makes a point: even without his training, his memories or his experience, Dean is simply built to be a hunter and he’ll choose that life no matter what. It’s who he is – not because of what happened in Hell or what happened with his father. And Dean doesn’t seem to disagree.

Overall, this was another good episode, although a quieter scale than what you might expect. It’s the little things like Dean embracing research or Sam responding to Dean calling him “Sammy” that really make this episode work. Jared Padalecki does a really good job in this episode – it’s the first time since season three that he really gets to flex his comedic timing, and there’s something naively energetic about his tech support self throughout the episode – like he’s hopped up on caffeine all the way through.

The Ghostfacers bit was also a hilarious addition, although you can bet your bottom dollar I’m going to spend the rest of the night searching for those instructional videos on the website. I’ve heard rumblings of the a Ghostfacers viral campaign and I’m hoping CW makes good on just such a promotion with its two faux ghost experts.

The reason Supernatural exceeds far above so many others is that it’s willing to take risks. Quite a few other shows have fallen into stagnancy for not pressing this advantage – after all, what do you think almost killed “Heroes” during Bryan Fuller’s absence? Some of these risks payoff and some of them don’t. “It’s a Terrible Life” works – for the most part. It’s a subtly solid episode, but certainly not one of Supernatual’s best nor the hilarious pick-me-up the show really needs right now. But for what it’s worth, Supernatural seems to be consistently back on track now – let’s just hope they can keep it up for the rest of the season.

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