Supernatural Review S10E22
Enraged by Charlie’s death, Dean allows the Mark to take the wheel and goes on a murderous spree of epic proportions in the latest Supernatural.
Sam and Dean reminisce on all things Charlie while they build her funeral pyre and send her soul off to wherever overly enthusiastic wanna-be hunter souls go. The scene is actually quite touching, up until the point where Dean chews Sammy out for his role in Charlie’s death. Dean wants all the Stynes’ dead, pronto, as vengeance for Charlie – and quite frankly, he doesn’t sound too concerned if Sam ends up on a funeral pyre either. This, it seems the show is telling us, is the Point of No Return (capitalised and italicised because this is important, y’all!) – Dean is going down a path that is only going to end in death and destruction.
So, you know, the same path the Winchester brothers are always travelling.
Dean does get his wish of killing all things Styne – including newly introduced Baby Styne, which, not cool Dean, not cool – but the payoff of the showdown between Dean and various interchangeable Styne family members is not worth the hype of the last few Styne appearances. The Styne family is set up as this huge, insurmountable force that Dean needs the Mark to wipe out. Granted, the Mark does help Dean in his quest, but it feels anti-climatic. Formerly One-Armed Styne gives this big tough talk at the final showdown about how powerful the Styne family is and how they will destroy everything the Winchesters hold dear…and Dean just shoots him in the head.
That’s all. Done. Formerly One-Armed Styne is dead. Along with all the other Stynes’. All over.
Anti-climatic, thy name be Supernatural.
Things kicked up a gear again when Castiel rocks up to the bunker and tries to hit Dean with a rolled up newspaper for being a bad dog and killing Baby Styne. Oh, and all those other Styne characters as well, I guess. But mainly Baby Styne. Castiel tries to talk sense to Dean – in a few centuries when Dean (who totally believes he is in control of the Mark right now) really does unleash his inner green rage monster and destroys Earth, Castiel will be the one who has to watch. So he’d like to order off the menu, thank you very much, and put a stop to this right now. It doesn’t go particularly well and Castiel gets his ass kicked and almost gets an angel blade to the head.
And herein lies the major problem I have with the Mark storyline. Dean is convinced he isn’t being controlled by the Mark. The Styne family is no match for Dean. Castiel is no match for Dean. Crowley is – maybe – a match for Dean, but likely not once Dean starts to seriously juice on the Mark’s power. Using The Book of the Damned to stop the Mark feels like too much of a call-back to Sammy opening the Gates of Hell that one time – unleashing a greater evil under the pretence of doing good.
So how the hell is this thing going to resolve itself?
Meanwhile, Sam – still desperate to use the Book to get rid of the Mark, even though y’know, Charlie died for this – tries to compete Rowena’s mission for him. It doesn’t go well. It would be safe to say that Sam gets owned by Crowley, who vows war on Rowena. I feel as if the bromance of Sam-Dean-Crowley has just broken up and the perfect mix of suit-accent-snark that is the King of Hell might just be on the warpath. As long as Dean doesn’t set his Mark-addled sights on him in next week’s finale, then I’m good with this, for the time being.
On a complete non-essential plot point note: one thing that really puzzled me in this episode was the repeated move of putting a bag over someone’s head and choking them out with it. Why does everyone go for the hands holding the bag over their head? Why not try and break the bag itself. It’s plastic. It’ll rip if you try hard enough.
Overall, it looks like there are grey skies ahead for the Winchesters and Castiel, with trouble coming at them from all quarters. Sam is no match for Crowley and Castiel is no match for Dean. But with the show setting up these insurmountable forces against the boys, how can they hope to deliver a reasonable – and most importantly, satisfying – season finale next week?
Review by Hannah Fitzpatrick.
