This Supernatural review contains spoilers.
Supernatural Season 15 Episode 10
This episode opens on a monster version of Fight Club with classical music playing over it. It’s corny and it means to be — amid the bloodshed, it’s setting the tone that this episode won’t be a serious one. Although the beginning is vicious, we soon find out our shish-kebabed werewolf is not dead, and the goal for the Winchesters is to investigate the monster fight club.
The Winchesters’ real problem, however, is a lot more pedestrian than roided-out monsters fighting in cage matches. This is illustrated by Sam’s disastrous attempts at making dinner, and Dean visiting Berens’ Quick Trip (a reference to executive producer Robert Berens) and having his credit card declined. Dean suddenly has 17 cavities, Sam gets sick and the ever-trusty Impala stalls out over bad spark plugs. They have — wait for it — normal people problems.
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What Supernatural is doing here is showing God pulling the rug out from underneath our boys, taking away their special lead character privileges and starting them on a more even playing field with everyone else. Luckily they get to ease into it by spending some time with the world’s most normal monster Garth.
Garth and his family are so sweet, and it’s precious for Sam and Dean to get this (probably last) episode alongside DJ Qualls as Garth. It’s also pretty funny how Sam and Dean meet Garth’s new twins, Sam and…Castiel. The look on Dean’s face when he realizes he didn’t get a namesake…probably the same look on every viewer’s face.
There were a lot of fun little moments in this episode. Sam and Dean bemoaning their secondary character status after each pratfall created some chuckles. The high-on-laughing-gas scene in Dean’s head was fun, even if it was pointless. Does Dean tap-dancing away in vintage style clothes advance the story or develop character? No, it does not. But the scene gets a mention because it appears Jensen Ackles did most of the dancing with hardly any stunt double — a feat to behold. He was quick on his feet!
We needed a palate cleanser after the last episode got so melancholy. The stakes are still high here — Sam and Dean are concerned they don’t have the skills anymore to hold their own against their monsters. Sam trips into every scene and Dean is now violently lactose intolerant. Never did I feel like there would be any lasting damage, especially when the episode got sillier.
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There’s a term in soundtrack music design called “Mickey Mousing.” It’s when the soundtrack music syncs up and literally tells you what’s going on screen, most commonly in old cartoons, when every step or punch is punctuated by an orchestra. The Supernatural editors pulled this old trick out when Dean and Sam fight the vampire they’ve jokingly named Meredith. Their attempts are flailing and pathetic. This isn’t the pair of well trained hunters that strike fear in creatures from Hell. These are dudes who look like they couldn’t handle themselves in a schoolyard brawl.
What’s interesting about this episode is the fact that it is not resolved by the end. We actually need to wait until next week, to see if their trip to a pool hall in Alaska will be just the thing to turn their luck around. They even end the episode with the Impala stalling out again, a humorous if not sad sight. Baby has been so darn reliable, it’s disheartening to see her acting like a normal antique car. Baby is 53 years old and feeling every bit of it these days, though you could argue a lot of her parts should be fairly new. She’s only been rebuilt twice during this series, right?
“We’ve been doing this our whole lives,” Dean said in an impassioned speech, punctuated by the familiar sad Supernatural theme playing in the background. “I say we go out there and we kick some ass.” Go out with a bang, boys. Maybe this turn of events is meant to align them on a different story path, one that shows resilience and hope returning to the pair, and victory in spite of being stripped of all special advantages.
It was the season’s finest episode, but it gave the fans a reprieve from the darkest moments of the soul expressed when Chuck last showed his face.
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