Episode Title: “Captives”
Writer: Robert Berens
Director: Jerry Wanek
Previously on “Supernatural”
After a two-week hiatus “Supernatural” returned with a lackluster episode, filled with reiterated themes and old tricks seen from a mile away.
It could be that, just as a general person, I have high expectation for most things; my favorite TV show being that top of this preverbal list. But this week’s episode lacked a lot and I felt as if I was sitting in a Winchester History 102 recap lecture listening to the teacher doling out the same ol’ same ol’ linear character arc that we’ve seen before.
The episode opens to reveal that the bunker is hunted by a ghost that has to be someone who died there recently. Que: Kevin Tran! A well beloved character in this ever-growing, perpetually ecstatic fandom. I’m confident in saying I wasn’t the only one who suffered heartbreak when solider Angel Gadreel off-ed kind, defensiveness, and loyal Kevin and I’m confident in saying I was the only one desperate to see him return.
Was I satisfied with Kevin’s comeback? No. Not just because I think it could have been done better. Not just because the writer used it as an excuse to yet again drive home the bleak prophecy of anyone who gets close to that Dean Winchester ends up dead. But because as a fan, I’ll never be satisfied with a beloved character returning as anything less than a happy, alive human who rides off into a sunset with their perfect happily ever after or into a bombass heaven of their dreams. But that’s just me.
On the upside, Kevin’s return confirmed our suspicions of Heaven being closed off to everyone, including incoming souls. And we did learn the souls are stuck in what the writers are calling “The Veil”. If that’s not a band name, somebody get on that! Which, knowing our boys, they will want to do something about pronto. Yet another drive for them to find Metatron and try to reverse what he did. This could be view as progression to the season arc, but we’ll have to see what the writers will do with it. In any case, it’s new information. Finally another stick of dynamite to the inevitably explosive last few episodes.
After Kevin gives Dean and Sam the low down of what’s going down in The Veil, he asks the one favor you’d expect of Kevin: he wants Sam and Dean to find his mother. With a tip from Kevin via a word of mouth from a newly ghosted soul named Candy, the Winchesters set off and they are eventually directed to storage units. At the last storage unit on the list (isn’t it always the last one on the list?), the boys are greeted by an unassuming attendant.
Now as a fan I’ve learned it’s usually the unassuming people that you should be weary of, but either the boys’ emotions about all the unbearable tension between them is clouding those dreamy eyes or they’ve decreased in intelligence because said unassuming demon hipster gets the one up on both of them. And didn’t even have to be in the same room. But Sam just so happens to be locked up with Mrs. Tran!!! They found her….alive!!! And conveniently Mrs. Tran remembers how to rewire the door and get them out. Oh lucky day!!
The storyline turns out to be bittersweet with Mrs. Tran taking Ghost Kevin home and both Trans wanting nothing more than to protect the other. It wraps it up nicely enough if the writers want, but it also leaves it open to maybe see Kevin again. Which, I’m all for. Really….SUPER ALL FOR.
Meanwhile there’s Castiel. Searching desperately to right his wrongs by hunting down and questioning any angel with Metatron ties. But he gets taken by a few of Bartholomew’s winged minions. And like so many times before Castiel puts his trust in the wrong people, or rather angels this time, and then he must do the one thing he doesn’t want to do to get out: kill. Bartholomew, if you remember is the new big angel in town. Stocking up a little angel army and he is intent on finding Metatron while progressively becoming more power hungry.
Bartholomew’s played fantastically by Adam Harrington and I thought that he was meant to play a bigger role. There was an air of Dick Roman to his character that I found intriguing. But alas, he fought the Cas and the Cas won. We end on Castiel being confronted by one of the very minions that took him to Bart in the first placing vowing alliance to Cas for showing him that he had options other than blindly following a leader. To which I scream, DÉJÀ VU?! Come on writers, please something new for my angel love. Anything new. And if I’m being honest, am I the only one who severely misses human Cas?
In previous seasons, I’ve enjoyed the up and downs and twists and turns and shocks that lead up to the nail biting final few episodes. And in the beginning of this season I was very exciting even if it opened like an old book. One of the Winchester brothers keeping something from the other to protect them, everyone else be damned. But now I feel that I’m just binding my time until actual story progression happens. Honestly, I hope that I’m the only one who is this overly critical.
