Wow. Just…wow. Tonight’s episode of Supernatural was clearly the best episode of the season. While one might say ‘that’s kind of easy considering the episodes of season 6’, I honestly think we should be more fair than that. I believe the episodes have gotten better as the season has progressed. I really liked ‘Family Matters’, ‘Live Free or Twi-hard’and especially ‘Clap Your Hands If You Believe’.
And yet, this episode was incredibly fast-paced, tense, dirty, funny and moved the story forward in a way that not a lot of episodes this season have. In many respects, it brought forward a lot of the old elements of Supernatural from past seasons that we know and love. But enough introductory comments, let’s get to the story.
Two Crowleys for the Price of One
We open with Crowley torturing…himself. Or, rather, a shapeshifter who looks like him. He tries every trick in the book to get the alpha shapeshifter to give up the location of Purgatory. When he doesn’t, he kills him but good.
Meanwhile, the Winchester boys are still rounding up alphas for Crowley, who now sends his demon minions to collect them instead of meeting the boys himself. This time they hand over a rugaru and then go hole up in a abandoned house to regroup. Dean’s frustrated with the progress they’re making in retrieving Sam’s soul, but that’s quickly interrupted by the boys getting knocked out and tied up. By none other than Meg and a few of her demon buddies. While she’s more than happy to intimidate Dean, Sam quickly realizes that they’re in no danger from the demons. As far as he can tell, Meg actually needs their help to track down Crowley and kill him before he kills her for being a Lucifer loyalist.
When Your Co-Workers are Demons…
Dean is not pleased about the plan, but Sam rightly points out they’re already working with demons, so what’s a few more on their team. He goes outside to call on Cas (and hilariously uses the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark to trick him into thinking they found the Ark of the Covenant). Castiel is not pleased that Sam is dragging him away from his battle in Heaven, but Sam figures he owes him one (and also threatens him).
Cas realizes that he can’t track Crowley, so the boys go to Samuel’s to search for clues. Their grandfather finds them, but doesn’t want to help turn over Crowley. Why? Everyone who said ‘I bet Crowley is holding Mary over Samuel’s head’can give yourself a prize. Apparently Crowley promised to bring Mary back to life in exchange for his assistance. Dean is incredibly angry about the situation and tries to pull the ‘we’re your blood’card on Samuel, who’s having none of it. I find this method extremely hypocritical of Dean, but we’ll get to that shortly.
So the boys head back to the motel, where Castiel is watching porn. Like everything else about being human, Cas doesn’t really understand it, so Dean attempts to school him in porn-watching protocol. It’s probably one of the funniest scenes in the show.
Samuel shows up and offers up Crowley’s location – a prison where he’s keeping various demons and alphas. The boys and Castiel meet up with Meg and her goons and plan to track down Crowley. As it turns out Meg has Ruby’s demon-killing knife (I completely forget how she got her hands on that – was it in the season 5 premiere?), but Sam gets it from her and kills one of the demons.
The Amount of Dirty Warehouses on This Show Astounds Me
Before the team regroups outside of Crowley’s prison, Castiel expresses his concerns to Dean about retrieving Sam’s soul. He thinks Sam’s soul will be extremely traumatized, but Dean wants his brother back and is prepared to do what it takes to help him overcome his trauma.
Sam, meanwhile, was overhearing the entire conversation.
The group breaks into the prison, where they are ambushed by hellhounds, who rip apart Meg’s demon goons while the others escape. The group agrees that Meg will stay behind to hold off the hounds. Before she goes, she and Cas make out, which is profoundly disturbing, and also hilarious.
Unfortunately, Samuel proves himself extremely untrustworthy and banishes Cas with a sigil and reveals he told Crowley about their plan. The brothers are ambushed and thrown into prison cells, while Meg is tied up and tortured by none other than Christian (who is still possessed by a demon).
Dean is removed from his cell and locked in another room with demons who are out to kill him (after giving Samuel a severe dressing down and threatening to kill him for what he’s done), but Sam manages to escape from his cell and save Dean in the knick of time. The brothers also kill Christian and free Meg from her torture.
One of the Most Unwelcome Deaths on This Show…Ever
The boys eventually capture Crowley inside a devil’s trap, where he admits that he doesn’t actually have the power to retrieve Sam’s soul. Both Meg and Crowley tell Sam he’s actually better off without his soul, and he looks like he’s ready to agree with them.
The brothers send Meg into the devil’s trap to kill Crowley, but he attacks her and breaks free. Cas returns with Crowley’s bones. When Crowley confirms that he can’t retrieve Sam’s soul, Castiel burns his bones and kills him. Meg, meanwhile, used the distraction to escape.
Outside, Castiel admits that he’s losing to Raphael in Heaven. The boys offer to help, but Cas doesn’t believe there’s much they can do. When he leaves to take care of the demons inside the prison, Sam tells Dean that he took what Crowley, Meg and Castiel said into consideration and he will not be retrieving his soul as per Dean’s wishes. When Dean argues with him, Sam simply walks away
So, What Happens Next?
Before we speculate on what’s to come, let’s discuss Dean and his argument with Samuel. Dean seems to enjoy playing fast and loose with his definition of family sometimes. Back in ‘Family Matters’, he kept insisting to Sam that Samuel may be their grandfather, but he couldn’t really be trusted. Here, he used the ‘we’re your blood’argument against Samuel every chance he got and was indignant when Samuel choose to try and get Mary back while betraying his grandsons. In some respects, both of them are wrong. The truth is, that Sam and Dean are Mary’s children and, by virtue, should have been given more respect by Samuel, because we all know that Mary would never have wanted her boys killed in order to bring her back from the dead. On the other hand, it’s a bit understandable that Samuel feels no real allegiance to these boys that he doesn’t really know (though he’s been working for Sam for nearly a year and worked with Dean in the past). Neither of them are really wrong, but they’re also not right.
Since Sam has returned, Dean has also not – to my recollection – asked about their half-brother, Adam, who also fell into the box, or inquired as to whether he could get him out. Despite his insistence that blood and family is the most important thing, Dean sometimes only follows that when it’s convenient. I believe that Sam and Bobby would always come first, with one being his blood and the other being his surrogate father to a high degree, but others…I’m not so sure.
[Edit: I agree with Leeane’s comment below – that Samuel’s betrayal in this episode was far, far worse than any hesitant feelings Dean has had against him since the season 6 premiere. I guess my point was simply that I found Dean’s vehemence somewhat inconsistent with statements he’s made this season against Samuel – and against his other cousins, for that matter. As for Adam, he was in full possession of his resurrected body and soul when Michael took it over. Did Michael send his soul back to Heaven and just take over his body as some people have suggested? If that’s the explanation, then I’m okay with it. I honestly just wish someone – maybe Cas – would take one line to explain that.]
In any event, I’m very distressed with the death of Crowley. To my knowledge, burning a demon’s bones is a permanent death. Crowley brought a certain je ne sais quoi to the show and he will sorely be missed. But even more importantly, what does that mean for his storyline? I feel the previous episodes were really building to something concerning alphas and how they factored into the search for Purgatory. Without Crowley will Purgatory and the importance of alphas simply be dropped? That seems like a waste of a storyline if it happens. I also find it extremely odd that Castiel killed Crowley. Now Hell will be in a further state of unrest (much like Heaven). I suspect Meg might escape back there to try and take Crowley’s place. Or will another demon – even worse than Crowley and Meg – step up to be a leader?
Finally, there’s the issue of Sam. I can absolutely understand why he doesn’t want his soul. I believe that it’s probably suffering terrible torment in Lucifer’s box. But what’s the alternative? Leaving it in there to suffer for all eternity? Is that really better? The situation is bad no matter which way you slice it, but leaving Sam’s soul in Hell seems like a terrible thing to do. Dean obviously agrees with me and despite Sam walking away, I believe Dean will stop at nothing to retrieve his brother’s soul. Just like Sam will probably stop at nothing to prevent that.
Which is a nice segue into next week’s mid-season finale. Watch the promo here.
Parallel with Season 1
There’s been a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle parallels with corresponding season 1 episodes in season 6. In the first episodes one brother brought the back into a life of hunting. In the fourth episodes Dean flew on a plane. The list goes on and on. But this episode really took the cake. Episode 1×10 was ‘Asylum’. In ‘Caged Heat’and ‘Asylum’the boys traveled into dark and dirty abandoned buildings to hunt something. In ‘Asylum’Sam turned against Dean and told him a lot of things that Dean certainly didn’t want to hear. At the end of ‘Caged Heat’, Sam turned against Dean again and this time walked away. Family-wise, this was as tense an episode as ‘Asylum’.
Make sure you come back next week for our review of the mid-season finale of Supernatural!
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Regarding the Dean and Samuel thing, i find Samuel to be the hypocrit actually. He was pissed when Dean wasn't willing to trust him immediately in the first couple of episodes. He used the blood argument against Dean then. So it's not exactly a big surprise that Dean would expect someone who spouts so much stuff about blood and family to be willing to help them.
Also, there's a big difference between being wary of and questioning the motives of your "blood"(as Dean did) and not being willing helping them when they are clearly in trouble, not to mention outright betraying them and letting demons slaughter them.
As for Adam, from the conversations between all the characters so far it doesn't seem like Adam's soul is in the cage at all(everyone only mentions Sam, Lucifer and Michael being trapped together, nothing at all about Adam being there). Of course this could just mean that the writers have amnesia, but i think that we're meant to assume that Adam's soul was not actually in his body when Michael took over his meatsuit and that he's actually in heaven or something. Besides, Dean(and Sam) were willing to do anything they could to help Adam back in Point of No Return.
Leeane, I don't actually disagree with you regarding your comments about Samuel and Dean. You're right, Samuel's level of betrayal does go beyond anything Dean has done. I just find Dean's "we're family" argument to sometimes be inconsistent, is all.
And yes, they DID try to help Adam in Point of No Return (and Dean also apologized to him in the cemetery), but I thought that Michael took over Adam's body in the angel room and that Adam's soul was in there. Of course, we may be wrong about this and your assumption may be correct, but I also just find it odd that Adam isn't really mentioned at all.
In any event, your argument is an interesting one and it's definitely terrible what Samuel did. Now that he has no chance of seeing Mary again with Crowley being dead, I wonder if he'll go back to helping the boys. And whether they'll let him.
I guess my point is that Dean's stance(imo) regarding "we're family" is, trust isn't granted instantly and unconditionally (especially if your instincts are telling you they're hiding something) but if they genuinely need your help, you help them even if you don't exactly trust them. So far i think he has lived up to that standard and hence expects the same from others too. That's probably why i don't find it inconsistent. But i get that everyone has different opinions :)
And yes, i would love for the show to give us a definitive answer about Adam too.
I'm REALLY curious – with Crowley now gone – whether Samuel will be helping the boys more and whether they'll ever trust him again. That's another big question going forward. I hope Samuel doesn't just fall by the wayside.
Escriba Aquí Su comentario.The Dean's world, the reason of his life, his cable to land, the motive of continuing fighting, has been Sam, demons if even he has died and it went to the hell for Sam and insurance that would return to do it.
I am sure that dean goes to bring of return sam's soul, cost what costs and it was achieving that Sam turns to be nice and now Sam needs Dean more than never, though it does not admit it.
Happy crowley does not return nevermore.
Adam soul is on the heaven.
Its funny you mention the parallel episodes – now you come to think of it, wasn't season ones's episode 11 "Faith" where Dean gets saved from Death and the reaper that is under the control of some spell. I guess the shoe is on the other foot now.
Hey Charlotte, you're right! Faith WAS about Death and reapers. I guess the parallel for those two episodes will also be pretty obvious ;) I wasn't even thinking ahead to next week yet about that.
Thank you for the amazing review.
I really didn't find Cas making out with the demon responsible for Ellen's and Jo's deaths funny. Not to mention Meg's been tormenting his best friend for years. It felt like they trashed a character for a cheap laugh. Rest of the episode was great, though.
ok here is my thinking CROWLEY wil be back .. what has he been looking for and only the dead can go..Purgatory…. it is the only thing that makes sence as all been talked about is Purgatory. me im loving season 6 its one gr8 episode after another. i love how Jared is playing robo-Sam and in a way i hope he dont get his soul back,as for granpa Samuel you better hide as Dean is comming for you. haha ohh Cas you naughty boy hehe "learned it from pizza man " brill im glad they didnt kill Meg as i liked her she bought something different to the show and there are no females on show hardly so was a nice change.