song (God's Gonna Cut You Down) to promote Supernatural
. Because I love Johnny Cash. And I love that song, and I love this show, so there you go. The great Trifecta of Love...Ahem. On to the show.
With this episode, Raelle Tucker has completely redeemed herself for "Children Shoudln't Play With Dead Things." (I typed that "Children Shouldn't Play With Dean Things" the first time. What does that mean?) Also, tonight's director was a woman. Whatever complaints some people may have about the lack of female characters on this show, they certainly have a lot of ladies behind the scenes. (Not Kim Manners, though. He's a boy. I only mention this because I sat through nearly all nine seasons of The X-Files
without knowing that. Go ahead. Mock freely.)So...did tonight's episode live up to the online hype. Wait. Let me think about it yes. It did.
While regular viewers of this show undoubtedly had a good idea what the reveal would prove to be, based on how Sam's story has developed through the last two seasons, knowing more or less what was coming didn't detract at all from the impact of Dean's confession to Sam that his father asked him to protect Sam. To save him. And if he can't save him... he might have to kill him. Ackles' performance here was spot on—Dean was gutted by this, gutted because he's been carrying it around with him, gutted because he's broken his promise to his father, gutted because his greatest fear has been spoken aloud, and he has marching orders he's not sure he'll be able to carry out. Gordon (Sterling K. Brown) rubs his nose in this later, telling Dean he's not the man his father was, because in the end, John would have been able to kill Sam if it came down to it.
Speaking of Gordon... Having him in this episode created a perfect foil for Dean's struggles. Dean has been very black and white this season. Witness "Croatoan," when he was willing to shoot first, run viral cultures later. Until Sam stepped in. Gordon doesn't have a Sam to pull him back from that edge, and he's already passed judgment on Sam. Sam is one of the "children" being driven by the Yellow Eyed Demon, and Gordon's information, however dubiously obtained, has told him the Demon is gathering an army. The "children" are his soldiers. Thus Sam is on the wrong side, and has to die. Gordon has already brutally murdered one of the "children," a young man named Scott who could electrocute things. At the time of his death, he was seeking therapy, but hadn't killed anyone other than Mr. Tinkles, the neighbor's cat. But Gordon took him down.
In addition to Gordon, we have another new character, Ava Wilson (Katharine Isabelle), who dreams Sam's horrific demise (surprisingly horrific, given this is network TV). Ava is a neat character, and I like her. She holds up well against Sam's strong personality, and there was a lot more chemistry there than there was between, say, Sam and Jo. Or Jo and Dean. Or Jo and the wall, for that matter. Okay, I don't hate Jo. But I like Ava a lot more. Well, unless the ending of this episode is as it seems. But is anything on this show ever as it seems?
Then there was Ellen's appearance tonight, which added a few more layers of mystery. What really did happen between John and her husband? And who is the traitor at the Roadhouse? Undoubtedly, time will tell.
In the meantime, this was a really solid episode, and a great start to the second half of the season. It looks like Season Two will carry a similar arc to Season One, in that the "mythology" stories will start to really kick in and drive the second half. I'm very much looking forward to what happens next.
Is it next Thursday yet?
