The (Other) Welcome Return
Benny was someone else that I had missed lately and I was also happy to see Ty Olsson return to Supernatural this week. I had my doubts about Benny back at the beginning of season 8, but he’s turned out to be one of the most noble characters on this show. His joy over hearing Dean’s voice again was genuine and his acceptance of the favor Dean had asked (to save Sam from Purgatory) was heartfelt. Benny could have fallen off the wagon when Dean “broke up” with him at the end of “Torn and Frayed”. Instead, we saw him sticking to blood bags. And given Sam’s hatred of him, he could have told Dean to shove his favor. But he didn’t. I think that it was driven by a genuine desire to escape earth, but it was also a genuine desire to help his friend. Benny’s willingness to sacrifice himself was a proper send-off for a character that has grown by leaps and bounds and escaped any one-dimensional “villainous” role in the show by virtue of his innate goodness despite the hand that he was dealt in life.
Sam’s new acceptance of Benny is long over-due. I’ve said this many times, but I always felt that Sam’s distrust of Benny was born more out of jealousy about his friendship with Dean and the way Dean kept Benny a secret than anything to do with Benny himself. But seeing Benny’s goodness with his own eyes clearly showed Sam that he was in the wrong. And while he didn’t exactly come out and say “sorry I tried to kill your friend before, Dean” when Dean admitted that he didn’t burn Benny’s bones, he did say “He’s a little different from what I thought. So go ahead and leave the door open if you want.”
Like with Bobby, I hope that the hints dropped in this episode will allow both him and Benny to be seen again some day.
Dead Trans?
In the end, Crowley met up with the boys after Sam escaped Purgatory. And while I’m sad that Bobby didn’t have a chance to speak with Dean one last time, I am happy that he his soul was freed from Crowley’s trap by Naomi, who stopped by to help the Winchesters (and, probably, herself in an attempt to get on their good side). Later, Crowley showed up at Garth’s boat, proving that he’s in Kevin’s head….or is he? He told the prophet that he killed his mother and then Kevin disappeared without a trace. But did anyone else notice that the windows that blew out just before Crowley appeared in front of Kevin were later completely intact when the Winchesters showed up? Was it simply a continuity error or could Kevin have hallucinated Crowley’s appearance (thereby proving that he’s definitely a hallucination)? Crowley’s conversation with his hench-demon also seemed to indicate that he was in the dark about a lot of things. He knew that Kevin was translating, but he didn’t know about the purpose of killing the hellhound or Sam’s trip into Hell. Wouldn’t he have known about those things if he was legitimately inside Kevin’s head? Or is it just a one-way communication mechanism now? Or is something more going on here that doesn’t necessarily involve the real Crowley?
I think there’s something more to Kevin hearing Crowley’s voice than it would appear at first glance. Until we know more, I’m convinced that there’s something else going on here because the clues don’t seem to add up quite yet.
From Point A to Point B
While the return of several characters was a welcome part of this episode, I’ll admit that I did have a few problems with it. The writers of this week’s Supernatural (Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner) have penned a few of the less loved episodes of the series (like “Man’s Best Friend with Benefits” this season). I’ve liked several of their episodes, such as “A Little Slice of Kevin” and “The Slice Girls”, but I found much of this episode to be a bit mechanical in terms of the writing. It’s almost as if the whole thing was a way to get from Point A to Point B and any obstacle put in its way was simply to be pushed aside.
Perhaps too much was simply crammed into the episode and it should have been divided into two episodes (which would have given Sam more time to explore Purgatory and even better understand Dean’s time down there). That may have allowed for more exploration of some of the big things that happened (Bobby’s return! Kevin’s craziness! Benny’s sacrifice!) and allowed for deeper character introspection. That also may have given the show more time to accomplish what should have been more difficult tasks, such as the ease with which Benny found Sam and Bobby in the first place and the ease with which Sam got in and out of both dimensions. I get that time moves differently down there, but everything seemed a bit too convenient have happened in a single episode.
Regardless, despite some of the more anvil-worthy lines of the episode, I enjoyed “Taxi Driver” for a very specific reason. More than mythological arcs, it’s the characters that make Supernatural what it is, and between Dean’s sadness about Benny, Sam’s willingness to do whatever it takes to complete the trials, Benny’s nobility, Bobby’s return and Kevin’s declining mental state, I thought the episode was a good showcase of the characters, but less so about the canon.
On a side note, as thrilled as I was to see Jim Beaver back on my screen, is it too much to ask for poor Adam to be saved from Hell? I don’t miss him the way that I miss Bobby, but I’m kind of sad that the poor guy got screwed over by virtue of his bloodline and was promptly forgotten about (after a quick throwaway line in “Appointment in Samarra”). A little closure for that guy – and some mindfulness on the part of his half-brothers – would have been nice.
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Hi Clarissa. Interesting review. I’m with you that I shrieked like a teenager at a Justin Bieber concert when Bobby came back. I can’t begin to say how much I’ve missed Bobby and I’m still kind of ticked about the fact that he was killed off in the first place. But that’s another discussion for another day.
I get what you’re saying about the writing on this episode, but I didn’t think it was all that bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t painful either. I tend to not be a fan of Buckner and Ross-Leming’s scripts as they tend to be very much hit or miss. But this one was ok. The actors’ performances significantly helped though. Jensen Ackles and Ty Olsson especially were outstanding. Their goodbye scene and Benny’s ultimate sacrifice were wonderfully done.
I also didn’t have a problem with the Purgatory plot hole as you put it. It’s not unreasonable to assume that back in S6 when Crowley and Cas were searching for Purgatory that they wouldn’t know all the ins and outs of it. It’s also not unreasonable to assume that even now Crowley doesn’t know all the back doors and rabbit holes to get into and out of Hell. And I wouldn’t say that it’s necessarily easy to get into and out of Purgatory either. Reapers can do it because, well, they’re Reapers. They are the only beings that can easily move between dimensions. It’s also not unreasonable that Cas and Crowley wouldn’t have called on a rogue Reaper to help them out back in S6 because they didn’t just want to get into and/or out of Purgatory. They wanted to bring all the souls in Purgatory back to this dimension.
I remember thinking at the beginning of the season when Sam was so angry about Dean’s relationship with Benny, that part of the problem was that Sam truly could not understand where Dean was coming from with Benny. Sam hadn’t gone through what they went through together, so there’s no possible way he could’ve understood. Since he was an outsider looking in, he was never going to be able to understand no matter how much Dean tried to explain it to him. I was kind of glad in this episode that Sam got a chance to get an extremely small taste of what Dean went through for the last year. He was only there for a few hours, but I think even that short amount of time changed his perspective. It also gave him a chance to see for himself the kind of guy that Benny is. I was so angry with Sam at the end of ‘Citizen Fang’ because he never really opened his mind to the possibility that Dean was right about Benny. A lot of what happened in ‘Fang’ was because Sam truly did not understand the Dean/Benny relationship and, at that point, I don’t think he really wanted to understand. He’s in a different place now though and it’s just sad that Benny had to die (maybe?) in order for Sam to see that Benny really was one of the good guys.
I agree with you that this was an excellent character showcase, and that’s one of the things that Supernatural does best. I’m still holding out hope that one day we’ll get Bobby back permanently because I don’t think I’ll ever be completely over the fact that he’s gone. Dean doesn’t trust Naomi and neither do I. Everything she did in this episode was to benefit herself. The fact that it helped the Winchesters and Bobby was simply a means to an end for her. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and it looks like the next one should be fun. Really good review.
The rape of continuity and weight of past sufferings in hell and Purgatory, by cheapening how difficult both were in the past, made this unwatchable and unforgiveable. Jensen & Ty were great in their scene together, but that’s in spite of it all.
Very good point on Kevin disappearance. I thought about the glasses too but I thought Crowley had fixed it somehow. But the more I think about it, the more I think that it wasn’t the real Crowley.
First of all, Crowley says he needed to torture Mama Tran, then killed her & get the info from her phone. If that is so, why waste time torturing her? Just kill her and get the info straight away. This seems more like Kevin imagining Crowley hurting his mom. Anyway, I don’t think Mama Tran too stupid to get caught.
Another thing, the floor is also littered with devils trap. Would be quite impossible for Crowley to leave the boat or use his power.
And Kevins’ notes are gone. Why would Crowley takes Kevins’ note when he got half of the tablet? He can always force Kevin to read the tablet properly after repairing it.
Well , I hope its just hallucinations. I like Kevin & I like Osric. Don’t hurt him too much. lol!
I’d say Benny found Sam so easily because he was killed and sent to purgatory at the same point on Earth that Sam was taken there by the Reaper, therefore appearing at the same spot. Great review!
Just an aside…was there not a review for episode 18?
@supersheltie – no, there wasn’t a review for last week’s episode. I was on vacation in Los Angeles. But I enjoyed the episode. It was obviously filler, but I liked the guest star and was happy to see her again.
Thanks Clarissa….really thought I was losing my mind there for a while LOL…Hope you had a nice vacay….!
i loved the episode! :) but seeing sam in the purgatory-woods made it pretty obvious that it’s no longer really scary on it’s own the way they show it, we’re just expecting it to be because we know the story. for newbies it’s just a desaturated forest with easy to beat enemies showing up once in a while. :( that’s really sad, because the first scene with dean in that dark purgatory with the lurking red eyes and the ominous sounds was totally frightening! i know shooting night scenes is tough for the crew, but…. *sigh
I’m so glad I’m not the only one seeing these huge holes in the stories. I’d say the writers are getting worn out except it’s a whole new staff practically. Which means they’re just lazy, it would seem. I’m a huge fan of the show, and I’ve tried to stay positive. I’ve tried to keep my mouth shut when I couldn’t be positive, but this season is lacking on a lot of fronts. I think Sam’s face when he was talking to Bobby about not looking for Dean showed that he didn’t want to tell Bobby that he didn’t even try to save his brother just because he was shacked up with a girl. At least I’m hoping at this point he’s feeling at least a little shame over that finally. Not that I expect he’ll apologize for it still. (And for those who will respond with the same tired excuse of “Sam finally had something….” I have one word for you: Jessica. I’m offended FOR Sam and the ENTIRE canon that came before because she was so easily swept aside.) I was desperately hoping Sam would get some sort of understanding of how horrible it was for Dean to be trapped down there FOR A YEAR. He had such an easy time of it, though, that he’s probably wondering what Dean was whining about. Typical. I miss their brotherhood. I remember a Sam who summoned a crossroads daemon and tried to trade himself for his brother. Sure, it was a stupid stunt, and by this time they know full well deals never work, but at least it showed he loved his brother enough to try. He didn’t have to try to make another deal, but he should have tried something.
There are so many plot holes and considering how much sera gamble messed up over the period of seasons 6 and 7 i think jeremy carver is doing a good job mending some of those mistakes. i hope they show a flash back of castiel getting out because really the only things that could kill angels there is leviathins and eve.
A few comments on the plot holes….
First, I doubt Cas had any angel powers in Purgatory, so potentially, everything could have killed him…he could have slipped on a rock and drowned in the stream for that matter. It would be nice to see how it happened, because the biggest plot hole really was the search for the doors to Purgatory in season 6. There really could be just a one- or two-line explanation on this one to close that hole. And yes, Carver is doing a good job of it, but I guess there are so many and he needs to just deal with selected ones moving forward.
I think the major points are that some of the myth-arc is being altered to fit the means to the end. Rogue Reapers? This is a new one. I can see this as a way to bring the character Bobby Singer back into the show as an entity in Heaven, either angel or good Obi-Wan type ghost.
I watched the episode again and I truly believe that Metatron has Kevin (the ship was warded against demons, not angels). Metatron is the long-overdue Archangel protector of the prophet. That plot hole never made sense from the jump. Chuck’s protector came pretty damn fast as soon as he was threatened…but not so Kevin Tran? Maybe Kevin is not a true prophet? I know Cas was crazy at the time, but it was the angels from the garrison who said Kevin was the prophet, but if all the names of the prophets including those not born yet are seared into the angel hard-wiring, why didn’t Cas know about Kevin? Cas looked pretty shifty too when stating that Chuck was perhaps dead. So hopefully when Metatron appears, a lot of these plot holes can be patched.
I don’t mind that Sam didn’t try to find Dean….it was what they agreed upon (even if they never actually did it in the past), but to Sam’s defense, he had nobody, absolutely nobody…and I think he just snapped. He is guilty now for not doing what he needed to do to at least try to protect Kevin. I think this will be dealt with probably at the end of this season. There is a reason why it seems to be a running gag that everybody says, “you didn’t look for him?” or “me” in the case of Meg. With the creation of Rogue Reapers, Carver could come up with another creature or process or “didn’t happen the way we saw it” type of thing where Meg can return….I really did want to see her as Queen of Hell. Benny should also come back. They left that door open. And that girl in Hell was there for a reason, so was leaving the rabbit hole open.
I just really hope that the next episode (which has filler written all over it, although I think it will be a fun episode), at least ties up some of the loose ends as the season ends. Then comes the long drawn out summer of boredom….
thats a really good theory on metatron taking kevin but i have doubts because he wrote the tablets he should know everything about them. with the chuck thing wish some belive him to be god (which i think would be a load of rubbish) my theory is there are two types of prophets ones that document and ones who can decipher tablets. The whole rogue reaper was a little ridiculous seeing as death created another lunar eclipse to get the door to purgurtory to reopen where this reaper only had to go down an alley way.
With bobby i was so glad they gave a little bit more closure than last season but the thing that bothered me the most was demons are twisted human souls if you burn a demons bones they die. Also that most likely means their mom and dad are back in hell.
and does anyone know who the shadowy firgure watching sam at the start of the season was?
sorry for the bad grammar, punctuation and spelling lol