The Usual Suspects Review

By John Keegan

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After a long run of episodes devoted to the series mythology and the exploration of the grief process for the Brothers Winchester, this installment is a bit more self-contained. Even so, one of the key elements of the episode is a nice nod to previous continuity. The Brothers Winchester have been running around the country for well over a year now, and Dean was running cons on his own for much longer. Sooner or later, that should catch up with them, and that’s exactly what happens in this episode. As usual, the “supernatural” element of the story isn’t the most interesting aspect. The brothers manage to work together despite being kept apart, thinking along similar lines. That says a lot about how capable the two brothers are. In previous episodes, Dean has been the brawn and Sam has been the brains. This episode requires each brother to play in the other’s comfort zone, and that’s always a good time.

With the central mystery being so simple, this episode was all about the little details. This series has always been good at keeping the details straight, so it’s no surprise that a lot of familiar theories and ideas come up along the way. That’s one of the things I really like about this series. While it would be easy to change up the rules from episode to episode, they try very hard to keep the supernatural elements within a certain set of conditions.