SUPERNATURAL Recap: And Then There Were None

So, I didn’t hate this episode, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed, especially in light of last week’s excellent showing and the fact that this was the ep taking us into a long hiatus.

I really enjoyed the fact that it was basically one long Mexican standoff between the six (well, five really) main characters present – it’s always fun when a group of people who know each other suddenly don’t know who to trust among them. But overall, I had some issues with it. The powers that be decided it was time for some serious spring-cleaning, and two and a half major supporting characters (half because Gwen, while interesting, just doesn’t have the history that Samuel and Rufus do) were killed off. Yet the deaths lacked the punch and purpose you’d think would accompany the loss of characters of this caliber.

The last time we had multiple major deaths of people we knew it was Jo and Ellen, and it was much more harrowing. Of course, there was a stronger emotional connection to the mother/daughter team, but the deaths in this episode felt almost peripheral and not as meaningful as they should have, given who these characters were to the main trio, and to us as viewers.

Essentially the plot boiled down to the Mother planting an evil earworm in a trucker that caused the host person to kill (seemingly for no other purpose than causing death and destruction and maybe helping out with the human/monster ratio in the long run). Bobby*, Sam and Dean tracked the thing to a cannery, where they ran into not only Rufus, but Samuel and Gwen too, who’d also decided to work the case.

*Is this the first time we’ve seen Bobby throw on a suit and take part in the investigation the way he did last night? I feel like it can’t be, but it was jarring seeing him at an active crime scene with a tie and a trench coat.

The six naturally formed pairs, and I entertained myself by referring to them as Team Experience (Rufus & Bobby), Team Shady (Samuel & Gwen) and Team Swagger (who else?). Once they figured out what was going on, nobody could be trusted because it was impossible to tell who the worm was infecting at any given moment. This is the aspect of the show that worked best for me – it’s been done before and will be done again, but it’s a great way to create genuine tension amongst characters who are all familiar with each other, even those who implicitly trust each other under normal circumstances.

The stuff that didn’t work for me was almost everything else. Let’s start with Gwen, and how her death contributes to one of the show’s major long-term problems; the female factor. SUPERNATURAL has always had trouble with female characters, both because the more rabid of the fans have never been able to accept romantic interests for the brothers and because the show insists on making almost every woman either evil or destined for an early grave (which one will it ultimately be for Lisa, do you think?). Gwen could have served a function on the show after Samuel’s death – she could have had other hunter friends to join full-time. I would have enjoyed seeing her come back to help out the brothers from time to time, but no. Instead, she was killed off by possessed Dean before the first commercial break. Sigh.

That brings us to Samuel and what, to me, seemed like an abrupt and mostly lacking end to Mitch Pileggi’s excellent work as the boys’ maternal grandfather (although it was cool that he came back to life after his head had been partially sawed open). We all hated Samuel as much as Dean did, and I’m sure none of us were sad to see him go, but wouldn’t you have wanted it to be somehow…more? There is nobody left now who hunted with Soulless Sam and can shed some light on that year. Plus I guess I had imagined he’d meet his end trying to torture/kill Sam with information from his sociopath days (they started to go there last night, but it didn’t get to the point of actual danger before Sam took him out).

Finally, and most inexplicably, was Rufus. I don’t quite understand why the show had to kill him off in an episode that already had two other relatively significant deaths. It seemed to be for no other purpose than shock value. I guess from the title of the episode the point was to convey that after the events at the cannery, Bobby and the brothers are all alone in dealing with things going forward. Except, they still have Cas, and Bobby is still in touch with oh, I don’t know, a hundred other hunters, give or take? So why was killing Rufus so important? I guess I’m taking it a little hard because Rufus was such a great guest character, and he’s so funny that Cas’ absence last night only registered for me in the last ten minutes (normally it’s much sooner).

So, now that I’ve adequately complained, let’s end on some positive notes. First of all, possessed Bobby! How have they only done this now, in the sixth season of the show? Jim Beaver is GREAT at being evil! That voice might seriously haunt my nightmares, and his movements and facial expressions were equally terrifying.

Secondly, I did like Dean’s acknowledgement at Rufus’ grave that holding grudges against family when you’re in the business they’re in is wasted effort. None of them are meant to live into old age, and to spend whatever time they may have angry at the people they love is useless.

Lastly, below are a few great quotes from the episode, and please note that Rufus is responsible for most – I’m really going to miss that dude:

* Come on man, it’s not rocket surgery.

* “Bobby, you got a cranial saw in the car?” “‘Course.”

* If anything crawls out of anybody, somebody step on it.

* I’m not a doctor, but I’m gonna go ahead and call this one.

* “Why do you keep talking about herpes?” “What? I don’t, shut up.”

Okay, that’s it for me and my hard feelings. Although the promo for last night’s episode turned out to be much better than the episode itself, the good news is that the trailer for the April return is even greater. I have to give them credit – the CW marketing department has really stepped it up lately – the promo below is essentially a series of sound effects paired with quick cuts of dialogue-free shots, and it’s super cool. Not so cool is the fact that we have to wait until April 15th to see it:

So, am I alone in my disappointment? How did you feel about the massive character clearance? Hit the comments to share your thoughts, and pour out some Johnny Walker Blue for Rufus while you’re there.

NOTE: Hey guys…Kath here.  I’m going to be interviewing Jared, Jensen and the rest of the cast and creative behind SUPERNATURAL next Sunday.  I would LOVE to include some questions from die hard SPN fans.  So leave your questions here, send them to me via Twitter @GMMRtv (use the #GMMRPaley hashtag), or email me directly at kath@givememyremote.com.  Thanks!

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