Amber Benson

The following contains spoilers about who lives, dies and is undead. If you prefer to be surprised, wait to watch the Oct. 12th Supernatural episode before proceeding.

Buffy fans, rejoice. Tara is back — sort of.

First of all, she’s not a witch. And this time she’s a brunette. I guess she’s not really Tara at all.

Amber Benson, whose character met an untimely end on Buffy the Vampire Slayer four years ago, makes a guest appearance on The CW’s Supernatural as none other than a vampire. You have to wait till about halfway through the episode to see her though, but it’s a juicy role with a potential for recurring appearances.

Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles),still recovering from their dad’s death, find a new case in Red Lodge, Montana a nice distraction. It seems that a couple of beheadings and a bunch of mutilated cows are creating a stir in the community. There, they encounter a fellow hunter, Gordon Walker (Sterling K. Brown), who has the local vampire extermination project well in hand (i.e. those decapitated bodies).

Sam’s not too keen on this new partnership though, especially since it looks like Dean and Gordy are hitting it off. When Sam’s abducted by vampires and brought to their nest, he learns from their leader Lenore (Benson) that they’re not evil bloodsuckers. As she puts it: "We’re not like the others. We don’t drink [human] blood. We haven’t for a long time. We found other ways: cattle blood. It’s not ideal. In fact, it’s disgusting, but it allows us to get by."

As the touchy-feely brother, Sam naturally realizes that he can’t allow Dean to kill Lenore and her group off, even if they are vamps. But not everyone sees the same shades of moral greyness that Sam does, and when Gordon gets his hands on Lenore, she might just have to rethink her policy on humans before the night is out.

(Just a reminder: These vamps aren’t from the Buffyverse, so there’s no going bumpy in the face or poofing when they’re killed.)

Benson looks pretty cool as a vampire since her new darker ’do complements her natural pallor. She appears more mature also: Her face is gaunter (A diet of nothing but bovine blood might do that to you) and she lacks that wide-eyed Tara-type sweetness. It’s a nice change up.

What’s really heartening is that plotwise, her character has a good chance of coming back and maybe helping those crazy Winchester boys, who are now reevaluating everything they learned at their father’s knee.

How did you like Benson as a vampire? Could she carry it off? Would you like to see her back? What would you like to see her do for the show?