Supernatural: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Reports of the dead returning from the grave draw the Winchester brothers to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, home to their friend and mentor, Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) - only Bobby reckons there's nothing to the stories.

However, the brothers soon discover that one of the returned is Bobby's late wife, Karen Singer (Carrie Anne Fleming), and, like the other 'zombies' except for a pale complexion, she seems as normal as she was before she was possessed by a demon and Bobby had to kill her!

Of course, because Bobby had had her cremated after her death, there is something else at work here besides normal 'zombification' - and Bobby believes it is another sign of the Apocalypse, part of the work of the Horseman known as Death.

Sam and Dean are freaked out by all of this, but Bobby is naturally protective of his wife as is the town's Sheriff Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) of her returned son, Sean (Kai Kennedy).

While Dean keeps watch over Bobby and his wife, Sam investigates the other returnees and stumbles across the gruesome truth about the zombie townfolk... and what happens to them after they have been walking the earth for five days.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid manages to simultaneously put a clever psychological spin on the popular zombie genre in its opening acts, but then still deliver the requisite level of shocks and gore as it builds to its conclusion.

Pulling on many great zombie visuals - from the shocking sight of a flesh-eating child to Bobby and Dean trapped in a closet while a horde of creatures try to batter their way in - this is the closest Supernatural has come to an out-and-out Romero zombie homage.

And, as always, it wasn't what I was expecting at all from the trailer. But shock and gore aside, the heart of the episode belongs to Jim Beaver who really sells us on Bobby's torment and soul-crushing sadness at the situation.

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