Supernatural: Captives, Review
Captives frees Supernatural to get back on track, but don't screw with Mama Tran.
Supernatural returns and we finally get back into the season arc. The Men of Letters bunker is haunted by someone who died in the bunker, namely Kevin Tran. Kevin tells the Winchesters how he heard through the ghost grapevine that his mother is still alive somewhere.
Here’s the deal. After Heaven fell in that gloriously flashy fashion, the rules for dead folks went right out the window. Now when a person dies, they’re stuck in what Kevin calls “the veil,” which, if the show hadn’t already defined it, would normally be dubbed Purgatory. This will no doubt open up a can of worms for our characters later in the season. What will happen when all the ghosts are trapped in limbo, unable to move on or interact with Earth? They’ll go the way that many Supernatural ghosts do—straight into violence and insanity.
The boys interview a ghost named Candy to find Kevin’s mom. As Candy recalls the details leading up to her death, the scenes of her captivity in the storage unit and escaping into the woods play out like a horror film. It was an interesting style choice for Supernatural, which is usually shot like a drama with horror elements thrown in at key moments.
When Castiel meets Bartholomew, something appears very familiar in his scenes. Angels have always been depicted on this show like bureaucrats (at least when Zachariah was introduced) but it dawned on me later why this seemed so familiar. Bart has a Dick Roman-esque level of professional sleaze to him. It’s a very similar character, banding together like-minded individuals and rebelling against every other living thing on the planet.
Then we’ve got the poindexter demon that Crowley left in charge of guarding his prisoners. To say it was unique to have a nerdy demon is not to give it justice. The scenes with this guy were a little funnier than they probably should have been.
I love that Mama Tran takes the reigns and literally rips the screwdriver out of Sam’s hands when he’s trying to rewire the lock on the storage unit. For a lady who didn’t get too much screen time, she owned this episode.
There’s also a parallel theme with the storage unit demon and the angels “just following orders.” Surely this was an intentional way of showing that angels and demons are not simply good and evil anymore. The lines of morality are very fuzzy now.
Next episode, the Ghostfacers return! Seriously, do you need anything else? I’m halfway hoping the entire episode is just the Ghostfacers and the Winchesters bickering.
Den of Geek Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars
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Bridget is a graduate student attending the Savannah College of Art & Design for Film and Television. A self-professed geek, Bridget has been an avid reader…