What's it about?
While Heaven remains in a state of disarray, Sam, Dean, and Castiel come face-to-face with an old foe when they attempt to track down the thief who stole the Staff of Moses from an arsenal of God's weapons in order to kill several police officers with the plagues of Egypt.
Review
If the purpose of last weeks episode was to bring Sam and Dean back together then the purpose of this weeks episode was to throw Castiel back in to the mix and my default this means that next week it's Bobby's turn to rejoin the gang on an almost full time basis.
It's good to have the trio back together has Cas can always provide some comical relief in the heavier, darker episodes that this show can throw at us. This might not quite be one of those episodes but this week we do get a look into a myth that doesn't revolve around either God or the Devil.
This episode does also provide a reminder of what a demon-of-the-week episode can feel like when there isn't a very big war or apocalypse building the background. There's a lack of immediacy in these recent episodes is a refreshing change from constantly heading full throttle towards the finale even at episode three but clearly there are members of the audience who are not yet comfortable with this change in tone.
There's a brilliant guest appearance by current 'Fringe' villain Sebastian Roché this week as the potentially evil angel Raphael who seems to be a foil for Castiel and I hope that is role as Newton doesn't interfere with any possible reoccuring appearances in this show.
This episode is a great reminder that sometimes on 'Supernatural' the supporting characters can play the most interesting roles and that Sam and Dean can almost take a back seat to their antagonists. Despite their strong on screen chemistry and the wealth of back story both on and prior to the show there is still a lot of mileage to be had out of some of the other stars of this show as was the case in season one with some of the more outstanding horror pieces which this show has provided.
It's this feel which the revised creative team are trying to evoke here but for me it is not quite working the way it should yet, possibly because so much time has past and the show has grown so far beyond that original premise.
My biggest concern this week is that the episode was wrapped up and credits rolling before we had even hit the 40min mark. It was nice to have a teaser of upcoming episodes tacked on at the end but for the story to be over and the credits finished before we've reached the usual running time is perhaps a bad sign. What was cut out of this episode which ended up with it running so short?
We can't leave this episode without discussing the teaser, clearly over the course of the next few episodes we're going to get to the meat of the arc of this season but generally 'Supernatural' has only teased like this at times when it is going on a break, there's no such break at this point so why feel the need to tease?
I am personally glad of the tease as part way through this episode I was beginning to feel uncomfortable with the direction this season is taking, I was aware going in that we were going to be discussing demons acting out of their normal behaviour but this is something we've really yet to experience. Also, this wedge between the bros which has existed in nearly every season from time-to-time is starting to feel contrived and over worked so hopefully after the upcoming truth telling episode we'll have some sense of the brotherly bond which is severely lacking at this point.
As is so often true with 'Supernatural' it will take Bobby to put this right!
Next week...
Bobby turns to Sam and Dean for help when the demon Crowley refuses to return his soul as agreed.
Overall
Story 3.5
Character 3.0
Scares 3.0
Overall 3.0
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