By John Keegan
Those moments, largely at the end of the episode, save this installment from being an early season flop. As a general rule, any story involving children being “cute” is likely to annoy me and leave me cold, which means that MiniDean was amusing for about five seconds. In the end, the purpose of MiniDean was perfectly clear, but getting through the silliness was a chore. Presentation is very important, and that gag was too self-aware for my tastes.
It’s also a general rule that I find the “case” each week to be less interesting than the brothers themselves. I enjoy the exploration of folklore and the creative retooling of myths and legends, but if the characters don’t change and grow as a result, it might as well be an anthology series. Taking that thought further, we are seeing the myths and legends interpreted through the eyes of the Brothers Winchester, and that filter can be equally revealing.
So two things made this episode work for me, and both of them pertain to character exploration (hence the emphasis on that aspect of the show in this review). First and foremost, we get to see what is hiding beneath the tough veneer of Dean’s bravado. He’s presenting a front to Sam and everybody else regarding his delayed death sentence, but underneath, he’s making a list of his regrets and trying to reconcile them. He wants to live for the day, but like a healthy man suddenly diagnosed with a terminal disease, he considers what might have been.
This is interesting on a number of levels, because it confirms that Dean is not simply a stereotype. Fans of “Supernatural” know that already, but this episode should be revealing to new viewers as well. Dean could go in a few different directions, and not all of them are good. It’s certain that he wants to avoid imprisonment, so any run-in with the FBI would likely be more frantic than ever. The stakes are higher, and they could escalate even more if Sam starts showing signs of walking the wrong path.
Sam’s interaction with Ruby (still unnamed in the episode, but named in public sources) has the potential to go wrong in some spectacular ways. Ruby’s true nature was a jaw-dropping reveal, and should quickly calm any fears about her role on the show. Previous female demons have all been seductive in their own way, and Ruby is certainly attractive. Giving Sam a reason to play “strange bedfellows” with a demon is a very nice touch.
Ruby was probably released during the opening of the hellgate, and in the eyes of many, that will make her their responsibility. If it gets out that Sam is working with a demon that he supposedly helped release, it will only damage their reputation even more. It strikes at the heart of the possibility that Sam is still meant for some evil purpose as some kind of anti-Christ (never a good title). Yet this is also the perfect way to explore some of the background behind the yellow-eyed demon’s activities and plans, particularly why Mary Winchester was meant to bear such a child.
In the end, while the exploration of Dean’s psychology made up for the focus on MiniDean, it was the revelations surrounding Sam and Ruby that saved the episode from complete mediocrity. Not everyone will be happy about Ruby’s presence on the show, but if this was a network-mandated addition, it has been handled very well, providing an organic means of exploring the back story for the Winchesters while logically complicating their status quo. Sometimes it’s worth embracing change.
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