Supernatural Episode 8-14 Review – “Trial and Error”

Reviews, Shows

Kevin Tran has done it! After a few months of living in an abandoned freighter, sleeping two hours a night and eating way too many hot dogs, Mr. Tran has found a way to close the doors to hell forever. All it takes is a few magic words. However as Ash from Evil Dead will tell you that is easier said than done. This spell needs to be said after completing each of the three trials which God has set to block the caster’s path. Why would he block their path? I guess the best excuse is he works in mysterious ways.

While Kevin is hard at work the boys are busy moving into their new digs – the Men of Letters Meeting House which they discovered in the previous episode. Dean is hilariously in love with the place and is thrilled to finally have his own room for the first time since he was 7 years old. To quote the man himself he is “nesting”; being nice to Sam, cooking for both of them and making sure the place stays clean. This happiness is put on hold when Kevin calls them and informs them about the trials. The first task is to find, kill and bathe in the blood of a Hellhound. Sounds easy, right? Well considering that these beasts have ripped Dean literally to pieces and dragged his soul to hell….maybe not so much.

Since hellhounds often carry out the collection portion of soul “acquisitions”, the boys figure that they can find one by tracking down someone who had obviously cut a deal with the devil ten years ago. They quickly discover a family of yokels that struck oil in a place where they shouldn’t have – which obviously sets alarm bells ringing. Upon arriving Sam and Dean happen to show up when the farm is looking for extra sets of hands. I believe this is the first instance in quite sometime where they have not had to use a badge to get into good graces of those affected with a “supernatural” problem.

Almost immediately the hellhound strikes and kills family members. It is up to the boys to discover which of the family members sold their soul and set the hound on it’s trail. Is it the creepy father with the 20 year old girlfriend, the drunken pop singer, shy and smart girl living in Paris or the well meaning daughter? It turns into a rather fun little whodunnit even though once again the answer kinda leaps right out of you especially if you are familiar with how the show handles these kinds of scenarios. However it is entertaining, action packed and full of some great lines which more than makes up for any faults.

The real cornerstone of this episode are the speeches that Dean makes that outlines why he wants to take on these three challenges alone.    Without ruining it, let’s just say it is a long time coming. As long time fans we are used to a usual draw between Dean’s “born to do this” and Sam’s “serving with an exit strategy” that has gone on throughout the years. However this episode changes this and shows the new way forward and makes what has slowly been developing into actual words and actions. This once again shows the writer’s fantastic ability to take these characters and make them real by making these larger moments come from an organic place and not simply making them snap reactions to move the plot along. These two segments are some of the strongest of this half season, if not on the whole. This moment is also great because it respects us the fans who have been there and experienced it with the boys. We do not need to be spoon-fed the reasons and why they feel this way we just know. It is wonderful to see a show to know we are watching and care that we do.

After the pretty uneven “Everybody Hates Hitler”, it is nice to see the show bounce back with an episode like this one. It reestablishes the primary story line, distances from the iffy one that isn’t work that well (Men of Letters) and gives us a big moment that changes the motivations and attitudes of our main characters. Many of the scenes from this episode will not be played again but the speeches I mentioned previously, have almost guaranteed themselves a place on the “previously on…” segments which set the tone for every episode. It will also live on n the memories of us the fans. So don’t let last week’s episode sour you on Supernatural. “Trial and Error” is a good episode with a great moment and is a big win for me.

If you have any reactions positive or negative to the episode or your thoughts on the speeches I mentioned drop a comment and let me know.