Three and a Half Torches (Out of Five)
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the “The Song Remains the Same” episode of Supernatural.
Supernatural took us forward into the future earlier this years (to the nightmare that might be President Sarah Palin!). Now they’re taking us back into the past (again), to stop the renegade angel Anna from killing Sam’s parents, John and Mary, thus ensuring Sam is never born and never able to become Lucifer’s vessel.
Problem is, the show took us all that way without having anything very interesting to say.
I take that back. As usual, Dean had some pretty hilarious lines:
- “What exactly we going to tell them? That their sons are back from the future to save them from an angel gone Terminator? Come on — those movies haven’t even come out yet!”
- “Wow, awkward family trip.”
- “Awesome. Six degrees of heaven bacon.”
It was interesting hearing Sam have an argument with his own father (who doesn’t know he’s Sam’s father) about the character of “his father.”
“I used to hate the guy,” Sam tells John. “But now I get it. He was just trying to keep it together in this impossible situation. … The truth is, my dad died before I got to tell him that I understand why he did what he did. And I forgive him.”
A nice moment. Unfortunately, it felt way too much like a moment we’ve seen on this show before. In fact, didn’t Dean have a similar conversation with either John or Mary the last time he came back into the past?
The episode’s title is “The Song Remains the Same,” but apparently there’s a fine line between irony and an actual description of this episode.
One nice twist is that it turns out it wasn’t just Anna going into the past to change the future. Sam and Dean (especially) are too: they want Mary to leave John to make sure she doesn’t give birth, and get killed, and prompt their father to become a hunter, raising Sam and Dean to become hunters too. They’re “cursed,” so they don’t care if they’re never born.
Alas, it’s too late: Mary is pregnant. But then that was screamingly obvious even at the beginning of this scene.
All in all, it was just more talk about (a) how the weight of the world is on the shoulders of the Winchesters and (b) how everything is inevitable, including the fact that both Sam and Dean will allow themselves to become the vessels of Lucifer and Michael.
I love these themes, but come on: been there, done that. Sadly, this season is starting to feel like we’re in holding pattern, circling endlessly over an airport, waiting until we can finally land the plane in the last few episodes of the season.
(At least it’s not yet as bad as the final, worthless season of Buffy, where we and the characters spent 23 episodes sitting around waiting for the finale.)
Anyway, if Supernatural is going to go back to the season-long story arc (and I love that story, so I’m glad when they do), they have to move that story forward or we’ll just end up feeling unsatisfied.
That’s pretty much how this episode left me.
Similar Posts:
- SUPERNATURAL Episode Review: Dean Sees the Future (and it Involves President Sarah Palin!)
- SUPERNATURAL Episode Review (5-10): Thus Endeth the Comedy Episodes!
- Video Clip From This Thursday’s SUPERNATURAL
- SUPERNATURAL Episode Review (5-7): I Refuse to Believe That Dean Couldn’t Still Pick Up Girls, Even at Age 85
- Episode Review: SUPERNATURAL’s Boys Go in Search of God (But Don’t Get Far)
![[Bloglines]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[Digg]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Fark]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/fark.png)
![[Google]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Squidoo]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/squidoo.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
I actually enjoyed this eps. The only thing that bothered was how Castiel was passed out for the most of it.
Lol.
Maybe I was in a bad mood. Had a bit of a headache.
I didn’t mind this episode. BUT mainly because we finally “met” Michael at the very end of the episode. Were it not for that plot development, it definitely would have had a very “same, same, but different” vibe to it.
Also, I haven’t been keeping tabs, but do Sam and Dean have a track record with women that is almost as good as Gabrielle’s track record with men on Xena: Warrior Princess. It seems as soon as Sam or Dean sleep with a lady of their choice, her time is limited as she will soon be dead. It was a shame to see Anna depart. I quite liked the character, but it did seem they had written her into a corner. I guess she could always return in a new body since it wasn’t clear (to me) whether Anna’s “soul” was destroyed or just her meat-sack V2.0 vessel.
I don’t mind that the Apocalypse has taken a back seat. It kind of makes sense since their “one and only chance” was the Colt and it didn’t work. There doesn’t appear to be much for the brothers to do now, except go down fighting the “demon/ghost/monster/nasty of the week”. Until they accept their destiny as “vessels” that is.
Good point about Michael.
See, I don’t know that “apocalypse” storylines work very well with a 24-episode TV show. Naturally, they have to do “one ep” stories, and you’re left thinking, “Wait, wasn’t that kind of urgent, that thing about being Michael’s and Lucifer’s vessels?”
I felt that way about Season 3 of SUPERNATURAL, and definitely the last season of BUFFY. It’s one thing to have an uber-villain, but when the whole season is about the destruction of the world … well, I dunno. Ironically, it undercuts the tension.
I do see your point. They’ve written themselves into a comfortable little corner with the condition that Sam and Dean must say “yes” to being vessels. It means they’re pretty much at a stale-mate since no-one can do anything to the other.
I guess it would be good to see both the Angels and the Demons trying to convince Sam and Dean in a more pro-active manner. The “hint” in the last episode that Sam’s “soul” doesn’t actually need to be the one saying “yes”, just whomever/whatever is occupying his meat-sack seems to be a strong indication of an upcoming plot development.
The lack of Horsemen has also been disappointing. Sure, we got to meet “War” and we’ve been told that “Death” is out walking around, but we haven’t *seen* these developments really have an impact on the world.
Now, see, I’ll be REALLY disappointed if that is foreshadowing. I’m sorry, they’ve promised that both Sam and Dean will CHOOSE to become vessels, and they better deliver! Obviously, it won’t be for the reasons everyone thinks — but it’ll make sense at the time.
No, seriously. I’ll be really pissed if they cop out the way you suggest.