By John Keegan
The story itself felt uninspired, as if the writers were struggling with a way to bring Bela into the mix. This is somewhat surprising, given how often the Brothers Winchester should run into situations that would be a good fit for her ventures. This episode was designed to push the brothers and Bela into a strained alliance and reveal more about her past. On paper, that sounds intriguing, but it didn’t quite play out as well as it should have.
I’m also not sold on the cast chemistry. As a character, Bela is well-constructed and helps to balance out the idea that women have no business in the business, especially now that Ellen is out of the picture. I’m just not sure that the actress is meshing well with the leads. Perhaps the near-perfect interplay between Sam and Dean is so natural now that the slightest misstep is exposed. I’m not sure I can put my finger on it, but whenever Bela was interacting with the brothers together, something felt off-kilter.
Another annoyance was the “cougar” subplot. It was mildly amusing at first, but quickly became a running gag that desperately needed to die. This isn’t a case of double standard; I have exactly the same level of distaste for dirty old men pawing young attractive women. It’s not even the fact that Sam was basically treated like an object, because as I’ve said on many occasions, the eye candy is nice but boring if lacking in actual character depth. It simply went on for too long and wasn’t as amusing as the writers thought it was.
These issues would have been easy enough to avoid, but in many cases, the editing left scenes too long at the wrong time. “Supernatural” works best when the frenetic cinematic style is meshed with longer horror-inspired sequences. Longer scenes between characters are usually saved for exploration of tensions between the brothers or exposition. The idea is to maintain tension throughout the story. This episode seemed to linger too long on moments that defused the tension.
That said, the brothers continue to argue over Dean’s decision to sell his soul and Sam’s refusal to let it be. As noted previously, both brothers are acting out of concern for each other, and neither of them are particularly thankful for the risk and self-sacrifice. The conversation also reinforces the notion that Sam will do anything to save his brother. That adds to the growing suspicion that Sam will choose to take on his “anti-Christ” mantle with the intention of saving his brother and ending the war.
In the end, this is probably one of the more disappointing episodes for the season. It comes down to a combination of minor problems made more obvious by direction and editing that seemed at odds with the style of the series to date. Bela is still not meshing with the Brothers Winchester as completely as one would hope, and that adds to the effect. As with the previous episode, the strength emerges in the character exploration in the final scene.
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