Jus in Bello Review

 

This season of “Supernatural” has focused most of its attention on Dean’s deal with the devil, but Sam’s legacy as the intended Anti-Christ has never been far from the beaten path. Ruby claims to be one of Sam’s devoted followers, ready to take up his banner should he decide to take command. Others have been far less patient with him, and now the rumblings of another demonic leader have come to fruition.

It makes sense that Lilith would want to take out the competition, and that she would take advantage of Sam and Dean’s capture. In fact, their circumstances are about as bad as they’ve been of late. This makes Bela’s theft of the Colt far more worrisome; it seems just a bit too convenient that she would deliver the Brothers Winchester into the hands of the enemy so completely by sheer chance. Then again, Lilith seemed to have her followers in all the right places to take advantage.

Ruby continues to be on Sam’s side, but her patience appears to be running thin. She still sees Sam as a potentially worthy leader, and she’s willing to sacrifice herself to keep him alive. She’s also willing, based on her remaining humanity, to think in terms of the lowest possible body count. Unfortunately, that sometimes means the same thing as “acceptable losses”, and Sam’s not quite ready for that. Hence the title “Jus in Bello”, a term for acceptable practices in a time of war.

More correctly, Dean isn’t willing to let Sam take that kind of step into darker territory. This touches on much of what has been explored since the return from the winter hiatus. From Ruby’s perspective, Dean is still holding Sam back, and by the end of this episode, she may be right. Instead of a horrifying but meaningful sacrifice, the brothers must take responsibility for several meaningless deaths.

On the other hand, we’ve seen in “Mystery Spot” that Sam is all too capable of becoming the kind of single-minded soldier that Ruby would happily accept. While she’s dialed back the semi-seductive sell, she’s still staying close to Sam, pushing him to take a more proactive posture in the war. This episode gives us a look at the kind of tactics she would advise Sam to use in Dean’s absence, and how easily Sam could be influenced away from good intentions.

In terms of sheer escalation, this takes the war to another level, while changing the general landscape for the Brothers Winchester in some critical aspects. Agent Henricksen’s death is deeply unfortunate, given how useful he would have been to the brothers and the series as a whole. But now the brothers are considered dead, so they’re no longer fugitives from the law. That gives them more room to maneuver.

Lilith’s emergence also gives them (and the writers) a central figure to oppose. This is something that could be communicated through back channels to the rest of the hunting community. They may not trust the Winchesters, but they could hardly ignore information about a leader organizing the demons against a known quantity.

This is a great episode to close out this run of “sweeps” episodes, and it gave the series a strong ratings boost at just the right time. This season has demonstrated the staying power of “Supernatural”, relative to the rest of the CW schedule, and the network would be foolish to ignore its following. If the final batch of episodes can maintain the same quality, a fourth season should be a no-brainer.