Watch Supernatural Thursday nights (9/8c) on the CW.
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Non-Spoilery Review:
So far in the Supernatural season we’ve had so much about the overall arch that it was nice to take a break and do a “case of the week” type story. While the episode isn’t the highlight of the season it still cleaned up some important emotional points. Sadly it was one of the most poorly constructed (story-wise) episodes I’ve seen from Supernatural in a long time.
Rating: [rating:2.5]
Quotes of the Episode:
Dean: And you beat me here.
Bobby: Brains trumps legs, apparently.
Sam: Have you seen … you?
Dean: The old chick in Titanic, I know.
Doctor: You expect me to believe you’re CDC?
Sam: Excuse me?
Doctor: It’s just that you’re a day early. First time in history I haven’t sat on my ass waiting for you people.
Dean: New administration. Change you can believe in.
Spoilers after the cut.
Episode Review:
The Curious Case of Dean Winchester started out with the scary teasers we’ve come to know and love in Supernatural. A guy ages in the bathroom and his wife finds his body with a blood curdling scream. The special effects are fantastic, though the whole cheat with the mirror was a bit obvious.
The story fell down in a lot of respects, but not for lack of great elements. I really loved Patrick (the man-witch) and thought he was a very intriguing and morally grey “villain”. He was charming, funny and smart (though apparently not as smart as he thought he was). If he returns, it’ll be all for good.
I also loved the idea of introducing the idea that immortality is not natural and how it would effect people. Though this is the part that was super confusing story-telling wise, especially with the final scene coming after Dean, Sam and Bobby being wrapped up. It’s kind of like “oh man! We forgot to explain what the deal was with Patrick’s girlfriend”. However, there was a high mistep with the whole suicide angle. Apparently only Bobby is not allowed to contemplate suicide, but Patrick’s girlfriend should go with it (or at least assisted suicide). A mixed message that could have been explained a bit better (i.e. living your natural life is the way to go).
It was also wonderful to have the family aspect back with Sam, Dean and Bobby. And to see Bobby take a misstep himself (after chiding the WInchesters so much for resorting to magic to fix their problems). I was happy with the build up to this misstep too, it was believable because of how much pain we’ve seen Bobby in since he lost his legs. Unlike some other character moments with Bobby, this one was allowed time to grow, and I appreciate it.
We’ve seen several different actors “play Dean”, and I’m sad to say the only person who could really pull it off wasn’t even actually playing Dean! The kid from Season 3’s The Kids Are Alright was really the only person who could pull it off. As much as I enjoyed the banter with old!Dean and Bobby, there was just something missing.
Speaking of old!Dean, the best exchange has to be him and the hotel maid. It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten to see cocky, flirty Dean and the added “old man” element just added to the funny. The downside of old!Dean? The ailments joke got old after the first one. It really should have stopped with the cheeseburger. We received all the info we needed out of Dean’s reaction to not being able to eat his beloved cheeseburger with extra bacon anymore.
All of this to say, it’s not the worst episode of Supernatural, but it wasn’t the best either. Mainly it’s what we’ve come to expect from a mid-season episode. It’s just one of those filler episodes that is disappointing because it had such promise. Just seems like too many folks got busy elsewhere so the script lost a lot of the tight oversight and it became kind of messy and unfocused. Kind of sad because newcomer writer Jen Klein was paired with Julie Siege, who wrote some brilliant episodes (It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester and The Monster at the End of This Book ).
I do hope Patrick returns, for a man-witch he’s not a bad guy.
(Special Thanks to the Supernatural Fan Wiki for the quotes/info, and to Oxoniensis Screencaps for the image.)
