It’s not unusual for Supernatural to step outside the box. When it’s gone to extremes before – in episodes like “Changing Channels” and “The French Mistake” – it’s succeeded on a hilarious level. “Hunteri Heroici” proved that good things actually do come in threes. This week’s episode was Andrew Dabb’s first solo script (he typically writers with Daniel Loflin) and he delivered hilarity and a little bit of drama in a nicely-paced, amusing episode that had me laughing throughout.
The Third Wheel
The episode began with Castiel announcing his intention to become a hunter (or, a third wheel, as he told Sam and Dean). Naturally, the Winchester brothers were skeptical of Cas’ new career choice, but he’s determined to stay on Earth and out of Heaven, leaving him with some free time (more on that later). As it turns out, he’s pretty useful, because he’s already found a case involving a strange death where a man’s heart literally burst out of his chest (which left me laughing and feeling like a terrible human being for doing so).
The trio headed to Oklahoma City (after Castiel was relegated to the backseat of the Impala) and the crazy kept coming. The cause of the man’s death couldn’t be explained, but that was soon overshadowed by the death of a security guard at a robbed bank. By a falling anvil. Literally. The local detective seemed strangely at ease with the crazy deaths in town, but Cas and the Winchesters realized something more was going on. They realized that the bank robbery was one in a series of thefts, which was the connection to all of these strange cartoon occurrences.
Losing Your Marbles
This led the boys to a retirement home where they realized something strange was happening with the residents (and where Castiel was literally trying to interrogate a cat). But the discovery of a photo on the wall caused Sam to start putting the pieces together. One of the residents happened to be an old contact of John Winchester. Fred Jones had known the boys when they were young and was a psychokinetic. And he just so happened to be a resident at the retirement home.
The boys tracked him down and discovered that he was living in a semi-comatose state, but his declining mental health – and his love of cartoons – was leading his psychokinesis to project strange cartoon attributes on the world and people around him. And, as we soon learned, he was actually being used by the retirement home’s director, Doctor Mahoney, as an unwitting accomplice in a series of roberries.
The trio headed off to stop Mahoney when he kidnapped Fred and then Castiel brought himself and Sam into Fred’s head in an attempt to get through to him while Dean engaged in an utterly hilarious fight scene with Mahoney, who was robbing a bank. Sam implored Fred to take control of his mind and his powers once again and Fred was able to do it, forcing Mahoney to kill himself to stop him from hurting anyone else. But his mind would continue to decline with age, making it possible for him to hurt others with his powers, so Castiel offered to perform some sort of “procedure” that would render these powers void. In the end, Fred seemed semi-comatose once again, but at least he was happy.
That’s All, Folks!
The cartoon elements of this week’s Supernatural were ingenuous. The show could have gone the “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” route and put human versions of our heroes into a cartoon world, but I think it was actually funnier to see the cartoon elements in the real world. The contrast of the silliness of cartoons with the very real deaths was amusing in a way that made me feel slightly damaged for having enjoyed it. The fight between Dean and Mahoney in the bank was the pinnacle of hilarity. Seeing the pause with the Road Runner-like ID tabs (with Dean being “Hunterus Heroicus” and Mahoney labelled as “Grotesques Villianus”) had me laughing out loud. It was a gag, but it was an amusing one.
In addition, there were so many amazing one-liners in this episode, with a lot of them coming from Castiel himself. From his literal description of a “third wheel” to his whole “I’ll watch over you” creeper routine with a sleeping Dean, it was so lovely to see the old comic relief Castiel back in action. Props to Dabb for delivering on the funny and to the production team for making the whole cartoon integration gag work.
Concluded on next page…
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Thanks for the fast review Clarissa. I found the episode amusing with some laugh out loud moments, but after watching am fairly convinced that Sam’s year was just straightforward. He thought he had lost Don urrr, Dean to war and he ran. The dreamworld metaphors in the episode were anvil-heavy and incredibly obvious. I was not surprised at all that Dean urrr, Don came back from the dead because it has all been THAT simplistic and soap opera like. That the angels may have had a hand in bringing Don and perhaps even Dean back is interesting because at least it would add some layers to the story. As an aside, I still feel absolutely no warmth or chemistry between Sam and Amelia. The acting in their scenes is just not great. Her lukewarm reaction to finding out her husband was still alive mirrored Sam’s when he was reunited with Dean. Makes me think those were written that way on purpose to show their conflicting feelings, but how clunky! I find so much of the writing just like that this season, so over the top and simplistic. I keep thinking there must be more to it and perhaps we are being bamboozled . I have seen stranger things happen on this show.
S8 is firing all cylinders.
It seemed pretty clear that there is a connection with Don returning from the dead and Dean (Don..? Dean..? come on….LOL) I do think that Sam is dreaming now, as opposed to the flashbacks. I for one had the gleeful fleeting thought that how awesome to be able to bring back Lucifer in Sam’s dream….I know I know…but I want Mark Pellegrino to return just once. I love that character.
I laughed out loud so many times in this episode. I LOVE this Cas, which is actually all previous incarnations of him rolled into one delicious trenchcoat. Did anybody else see the Columbo inflection when Cas interrogated that woman…? The cat! The fight for the front seat….just all of this episode made me warm and fuzzy, and Clarissa, you are not alone in taking delight from seeing a squished guard under that anvil. This was SO well done.
I also loved the talk that Dean and Cas had….long time coming, and it brought a new level of brotherliness between the two.
The dreaded hellatus is coming upon us, but I am so excited for this season…I can’t wait to see what happens with Benny…I like him a lot and I hope he can remain a part of the show.
And Garth? House boat? Just awesome…..
Thank you thank you for bringing Supernatural back to its prime!
“Did anybody else see the Columbo inflection when Cas interrogated that woman…?”
YES! I thought it was just me though. haha.
Maybe out of context. The cat. Orange (Brownish), fat, seems lazy and talked with a low voice. Remind you of something? Am I the only one who think the cat was Fred recreation of Garfield?
In my opinion this wasn’t a perfect episode. For example I didn’t like how the Dean and Castiel’ talk about Castiel being suicidal was cut off. It’s too much of an important, serious issue to be just brushed aside. The humor also didn’t work for me all the time; I think they treated a very fine line with Castiel being used for comic relief and sometimes overstepped it even.
So, not a perfect episode, but still a very good one and one I want to watch again. I felt entertained and I loved seeing Sam, Dean and Castiel working together. I’ve missed that big time. I even warmed up to Amelia finally.
This episode made me realize that I have no interest in the brothers’ stories. I don’t like Sam’s Days of Our Lives, and Dean apparently doesn’t have one again this season, as his narrative said that it only took him a few weeks to get his “sea legs” (no PTSD for Dean); so, basically, Dean’s Purgatory was just a way to reset emoting Dean to hunter Dean, to bring Benny into the season for tension between the brothers, and to reset Cas and re-introduce the angel storyline.
Carver has turned out to be a very mainline TV guy and his vision of SPN is not what I expect from this show. It used to be unique, not mainstream.
The Sam we saw in this episode does not explain why Sam has been distainful of Dean or his jealousy over Benny and, at this point, I just don’t care. It’s a soap.
I did enjoy the episode for what it was and, once again, JA proved that he can carry an episode even when his character is in the background. I thought the Dean/Cas scenes were excellent. I liked Mike Farrel and Jerry, from Phantom Traveler, completely grabbed the JP scenes.
I’m going to continue to watch just to see JA perform his magic, but I’m terribly disappointed in Carver and his vision of the show.
No seriously, Castiel is the cutest thing ever.
I have to agree with everything you have just said. I have always thought the Dean/Cas relationship was important to both of them (and not the Destiel word please, it’s ridiculous)….the scene at the hotel was brilliant and Jensen and Misha played it beautifully….it was a powerful and poignant moment.
I loved the comedy and the sight gags, I loved the easter eggs and anvils (literally) and that cat was totally awesome….
I am praying that the show-runners realize what they have in this season…revitalization, and a damn good story arc for everybody….please just don’t mess with Team Free Will anymore please….
I wish someone would help Sam open up. I need to see Dean and Cas focus on Sam and ask him about his feelings.