I was unsure what to expect going into this episode. Going by the promos, it seemed that they were advertising it as a funny one-shot episode that involved Dean and Sam (and no Castiel) going undercover to a resort in search of a person or monster who is killing people after taking away all of the fat in their body.
First off, they shouldn't have advertised this as a funny episode because I can think of probably 3 funny moments in the whole episode, and all 3 of those were scenes included in the promos. All together, it was not meant for laughs, it was a fairly serious episode.
I still hold to what I said with my last week's review; we're at a point where I think the characters need to focus on the actual story a bit more. Like always, the real story was written off in the first few scenes with the brothers, saying something along the lines of "well, I've been doing research regarding the important plot points in the story, but since I can't find anything, let's do a case instead." This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think the writers could be a little more subtle about avoiding the actual conflict.
The case itself was decent and enjoyable for the most part. And for people who enjoy the episodic cases of Supernatural, this might be the perfect episode for them because it's a simple enough conflict that can be resolved by the end of the hour. The supporting characters were good and given a bit of back-story that made them more relatable, which is really all I can ask of new supporting characters. If they're only going to be there for one episode, the least the writers can do is make them memorable in some way, and I think the writers accomplished that here.
One small gripe I have is that Castiel is, once again, not even mentioned. For a character who is now living with them, we really don't see him at all. It's not that Cas needed to be in this episode, in fact, it might have been better to leave him out because a lot of this was focused on the brothers and their relationship. However, I would have liked them to at least acknowledge Cas' existence.
I have no doubt that the deep, emotional scenes between the brothers will be the thing that viewers take away from this episode. Those scenes are more focused on discussing Gadreel and the angels. Whether these discussions will help the brothers or pull them further apart, I have no idea.
All in all, I liked the episode. It certainly wasn't my favourite episode this season, but for what it was, it was good.
7/10
First off, they shouldn't have advertised this as a funny episode because I can think of probably 3 funny moments in the whole episode, and all 3 of those were scenes included in the promos. All together, it was not meant for laughs, it was a fairly serious episode.
I still hold to what I said with my last week's review; we're at a point where I think the characters need to focus on the actual story a bit more. Like always, the real story was written off in the first few scenes with the brothers, saying something along the lines of "well, I've been doing research regarding the important plot points in the story, but since I can't find anything, let's do a case instead." This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think the writers could be a little more subtle about avoiding the actual conflict.
The case itself was decent and enjoyable for the most part. And for people who enjoy the episodic cases of Supernatural, this might be the perfect episode for them because it's a simple enough conflict that can be resolved by the end of the hour. The supporting characters were good and given a bit of back-story that made them more relatable, which is really all I can ask of new supporting characters. If they're only going to be there for one episode, the least the writers can do is make them memorable in some way, and I think the writers accomplished that here.
One small gripe I have is that Castiel is, once again, not even mentioned. For a character who is now living with them, we really don't see him at all. It's not that Cas needed to be in this episode, in fact, it might have been better to leave him out because a lot of this was focused on the brothers and their relationship. However, I would have liked them to at least acknowledge Cas' existence.
I have no doubt that the deep, emotional scenes between the brothers will be the thing that viewers take away from this episode. Those scenes are more focused on discussing Gadreel and the angels. Whether these discussions will help the brothers or pull them further apart, I have no idea.
All in all, I liked the episode. It certainly wasn't my favourite episode this season, but for what it was, it was good.
7/10