tvthatdoesntsuck

REVIEW FOR

SUPERNATURAL
Season Four
“Are You There, God?  It’s Me Dean Winchester”
Written by Sera Gamble

To make up for being nearly a week late on the review for the Supernatural premiere, I’ve got the review for the second episode here and now, not 24 hours after it aired.  And don’t think I forgot Fringe and True Blood… or The Office for that matter.  Those reviews will be up by Monday, latest.  But let’s get down to business.

This episode had to walk a thin line.  In the premiere, it was revealed that Castiel, “an angel of the Lord” was the one who dragged Dean out of Hell.  Because God has a plan for him.  In a series that never before touched on religion, I was very interested to see how they could handle it.  Either they’d support religion and lose viewers or they’d condemn religion and lose viewers… or they could go a third route.  A nearly impossible route.  And that would be to include the idea of Christianity and religious figures without making a moral statement about it either way.  And this episode successfully walks that line.  While Dean is definitely skeptical of God, Sam’s faith balances that out nicely–and, thankfully, the religious aspect seems to be function as an element of plot, not a tool the writers are using to forward any agenda.  I think that aspect of it was handled very nicely, and adds a bit of a foreboding sense about this series… because it is going down an apocalyptic path, where angels and demons, and perhaps God and Lucifer (if things go sour) duke it out on Earth.  It’s the most epic story we’ve seen from Supernatural so far, and really makes things interesting.

There is also a standalone plot here.  In her effort to bring about the apocalypse, there are sixty six seals Lillith needs to open.  And one of them has to do with the her releasing the spirits of people that hunters have failed to save.  These spirits haunt and, you know, kill hunters for the length of this episode, and naturally chase after Dean, Sam, and Bobby, none of whom have a perfect track record.  I won’t reveal who we see in this episode, but there are at least three familiarly ghosty figures that show up.  This show has always been great with continuity, and this is no different.  They constantly bring back characters from the past that make you go, “Oh I remember him!”  The show demonstrates such tight writing with immense knowledge of the history of the Winchester’s long journey that I can’t help but think it’s one of the best written shows currently airing.

It’s not as great an episode as “Lazarus Rising,” but it’s still really good.  I would have liked to see a bit more of their reactions to the ghosts and a little less of a bullet-fest in the end.  But those are all small quibbles.  To sum it up quickly, it’s simply another good installment that forwards the story in ways I never could have seen coming.

8/10

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