Last week ended with the promise that Dean was going to find out all about Sam, Ruby and the psychic powers. And that’s exactly what we got. As one might expect, Dean was less than thrilled that Sam was using quasi-demon powers. The showdown was cut short though after a call from a never-before-mentioned old friend of the family. From that point, the episode veered into mediocrity.
Predictability reigned supreme tonight. As soon as Travis was introduced it seemed obvious he wouldn’t survive the episode. Normally if they need another hunter for these kinds of plots, it would be Bobby. The obvious reason not to use Bobby is because they needed someone expendable for Jack to kill (plus, Bobby would have never gone after Jack’s wife like that).
While the moral dilemma was a good one, the nature of television meant that Jack giving in to his hunger was even more obvious than Travis’ death. For starters, the episode would have been incredibly anti-climatic if it had just been about some guy resisting the urge to eat people. And, Jack giving in to his dark side has an obvious parallel with Sam and his own dark side. Jack beating his demons would have been too hopeful. And, just in case there was any lingering hint of doubt, the preview for this week’s episode showed Jack after he had turned.
Speaking of predictability, does anyone believe, even for a second, that Sam’s really going to stop using his powers now just like that? Now that would make for one major anti-climax on the season. Sure he might hold out for a little while, but sooner or later (my money is on sooner), Sam’s going to find himself in a tight spot and he’ll use the powers to save himself and/or Dean. And then we will be right back where we started.
It seems like Sam’s powers are obviously intended to be evil, but is the power to exorcise demons really all that sinister? What about all those exorcism rituals the boys would normally use, how come those aren’t considered “evil” too? Is it somehow more holy to banish demons by speaking Latin at them?
On the subject of Sam’s powers, it seems that Sam is, in fact, still getting headaches from using his powers (judging from his face and the way he was holding his head while he talked to Travis on the phone). Of course, this is the first we’ve heard of the headaches but from his conversation with Ruby, it seems like he’s had them for a while.
Sam lied to Ruby about the headaches, and told her that he’s over them. Now, This is just speculation on my part but the fact Sam’s lying to Ruby about the headaches kind of suggests that she was trying to get him to take it easier as far as power use goes. This could be evidence that she truly cares about Sam and wants him to take care of himself, or it could be that she just doesn’t want to damage her instrument unnecessarily. My money is on the former, but I’m still very much looking to support my theory that Ruby is the good one, while Castiel is the true villain so my judgment could be biased.
I get what the writers wanted to do with this episode. By having Jack fail to defeat his demons and ultimately give into his dark side, it weakens Sam’s confidence in his own ability to resist and should make us fear for Sam’s soul. Unfortunately, it was so obvious that Jack would go bad that it was difficult to really root for the guy to make it. The result was a decent, but formulaic, episode.
Trevor MacKay is the sci-fi/horror/fantasy/cheesy/random geeky stuff guy. If something is geeky and/or unbelievably cheesy, he’s there.
