Supernatural – Death Takes A Holiday

I continue to be completely blown away by season six of Supernatural. As last season came to a close, I wasn’t really sure if there should even be a season six. With Kripke leaving, and the apocalypse story put to rest, it really would have been a good stopping point. The worry was that this could be one of those cases of a show overstaying its welcome. Well … so much for that idea. This is all going very well.

At the core of my glee is the fact that, much like last week,  “Appointment In Samarra” brought another revelation that was months ahead of where I expected it to arrive. After all of the cautions about what would happen if Sam got his soul back and the dispatching of Crowley, did anyone think Sam would be getting his soul back just a week later?

It was totally out of the blue. And the best part is that despite that, it all made perfect sense. The return of Death (Julian Richings) was the perfect solution to the problem. As soon as Dean proposed the idea, I bought into the fact that retrieving the soul was something that Death could pull off. That bit also worked perfectly with the rest of the episode. It raised the stakes for Dean, because his current grail was right in front of him. At the same time, when he failed, we also had every reason to believe that Death wasn’t going to come through on his end.

And that, of course, leads us to the big reveal at the end. Not so much the awesome glowing hand full of soul, although that was very cool. More important is what Death said to Dean about why he was doing it. The boys are digging at something, and he wants them to keep digging. As Mars Blackmon would put it, “Money, it’s gotta be the souls.” That sets the stage for the second half of the season, and also recalls two other things. Earlier, Death mentioned to Dean that the human soul is more valuable than he can imagine. That ties right in with the Balthazar (Sebastian Roché) quote from the opening where he asked if they have any idea what souls are worth or what power they hold. I suspect those are two things we’ll be learning much more about in the new year.

As for Sam, we really did get to rock bottom where he was concerned. Trying to kill Bobby was the end of the line. Without getting his soul back, there really was nowhere else for Dean and Bobby to go at that point. The other bit that I really liked was when soulless Sam started speaking about Sam’s soul as a completely different person, lamenting that Dean will kill him “to get that other guy back.”

Also worth mentioning, great guest casting. Dr. Robert was a small part that could have been played by any of a number of Canadian actors you’ve seen 20 times before on the various Canadian produced shows. Getting Robert Englund to do it just gives it that little something extra. I was also happy to see the return of Tessa (Lyndsey McKeon). She works well opposite Dean, and I wouldn’t be against having her show up again at some point in the future.

So, where are we going now? Short of following our intrepid detectives as they dig into the great soul conspiracy, I have no idea. Considering we are only half way through the season, that’s a very exciting prospect.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Dec 11, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT