Supernatural Season 13 Episode 17 Review: The Thing

Sam and Dean take a road trip to a Men of Letter’s outpost in search of an item for the dimension spell. First though, they discover a damsel in distress and a creepy sub-section of the Men of Letters. Then there are some veiled hentai jokes.

Major props go to the writers here for some genuinely funny moments. From the beginning through much of the episode, Dean was a real card. He starts it off by putting teasing Post-It notes on Sam’s back (your standard “Kick Me” and such), whining and faking out Sam during the research scene, and making a number of funny comments. “Jinkies” was among those comments, which Sam was visibly annoyed at due to, no doubt, unrequited love interest Velma.

We had a real fish out of water situation with Sandy, the 1920’s flapper who  survives unaged until 2018. It’s sweet to see Sam and Dean taking care of her, guiding her through this new world. It is, however, obviously stupid. If there’s a 1920’s flapper tied to a ceremonial platform for nearly 100 years, you better bet I’m going to ask some questions. The boys really should have sensed something was wrong here instead of blindly trusting her.

A side plot involving Mr. Ketch and Asmodeus filled us in on their arrangement: notably that it’s not the business deal Ketch thought it was. After a rather rude beat down by the current King of Hell, Ketch decides to relinguish Gabriel from captivity and go to the Winchesters for help. It might be one of the most selfless things he’s done. I did want more out of Gabriel this episode. The extreme fear he showed at leaving his cell made me think he wanted to go back. Is it just the captivity getting to him, or is there something else going on? Hopefully having Gabriel in the bunker won’t put a bullseye on Hunter HQ.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this episode, including a lot of funny moments such as “This is what a car should look like” and demons enjoying kitty videos. For the geeks among us (everyone raise your hand now) we get references to Ghostbusters, Japanese tentacle anime, kryptonite and the classic horror movie, The Thing. The episode served to give us plenty of comedic relief, a new chapter in the Men of Letters saga and forward momentum on the search for Mom and Jack. All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to ride the wave after that polarizing Scooby-Doo episode.

One thing remains unanswered. Why did the Men of Letters open a portal to Cthulu and sacrifice Sandy? Why not send a postcard? Some chocolates? Get to know a girl first, will ya?