Supernatural season 6 episode 10 review: Caged Heat

This review contains spoilers.

6.10 Caged Heat

In an episode filled with surprises, Sam and Dean receive a visit from Meg, a demon loyal to Lucifer, who wants to find and kill Crowley. Sam convinces Meg to form an uneasy alliance to get to him. The three of them sneak into Samuel Winchester’s place to look for clues, but are discovered. He tells them the reason he is helping Crowley is that the demon has promised he will resurrect his daughter, Sam and Dean’s Mother. Based on this, Samuel refuses to help.

Samuel has a change of heart and reveals to Sam and Dean where he has been taking the creatures he has captured, and where he believes Crowley can be found. Sam asks him to come with them but Samuel turns him down.

Sam, Dean and Castiel meet with Meg to plan their attack, and whilst preparations are made, Castiel, seemingly unaware that Sam is eavesdropping, voices his concern to Dean that Sam’s soul would have been corrupted by Lucifer and would be unfit to put back into Sam.

Crowley is holed up in what appears to be an old, abandoned hospital, and after breaking in they are attacked by hell hounds. Unable to leave her host body, Meg decides to take on the hounds to allow Sam, Dean and Castiel to try to find Crowley.

Castiel suddenly vanishes as a result of Samuel using a sigil. Sam and Dean realise that their grandfather has betrayed them. Crowley appears and the brothers are thrown into cells, but later escape.

Meg, having defeated the Hell hounds, has been captured by the demon-possessed Christian Campbell and is being tortured by him when Dean kills him and frees her.

Crowley gets lured into a trap set by Sam, Dean and Meg. Allowing Meg to torture Crowley, Sam asks for his soul back, but Crowley confesses he isn’t able to get it back, and again states that it would have been corrupted by Lucifer. In a moment of distraction, Crowley escapes and has the three at his mercy when Castiel returns with Crowley’s bones. The angel questions again whether or not Crowley can return Sam’s soul and Crowley admits he can’t, so Castiel burns his bones and, quite unexpectedly, destroys Crowley.

I have to admit, I really did not see Crowley’s demise coming. I liked the idea of Crowley as the villain of the piece, and was intrigued by his Purgatory scheme. This, in addition to the fact that Mark Sheppard really seemed to relish the role, meant that I thought he was here for the duration of the season. It certainly now throws up some interesting questions. Who’s going to replace him? Firstly, as the King of Hell, and secondly, as the big bad in this season?

Samuel Winchester’s betrayal is certainly going to have interesting repercussions. He is completely on his own now. A small part of me actually feels a bit sorry for him, as I can sympathise with his desperation. Now he has lost his ‘boss’ and has a very annoyed grandson out to get him.

The idea of Sam’s soul is an interesting dilemma. Early in this season, it was made very clear that things weren’t right with Sam, and then it was discovered that he was missing his soul, leaving him emotionless and unable to sleep.

In this episode, Sam’s lack of soul is seemingly a positive. When Meg first appears, he is able to see her desperation for what it is, and is able to ignore the prejudices that Dean shows to allow them to get the job done.  So, like Sam, the audience is left questioning, especially considering the thought that it’s been Lucifer’s plaything all this time.

I have had a thought. Just the one, and it hurt a bit. One of the core elements of Supernatural is its depiction of demons taking advantage of people in desperate situations, and offering deals to get out of those situations. A lot has been made, in this episode, of Castiel’s struggle in heaven and how things are going against him, and as Purgatory is between heaven and hell with a lot of untapped resources, and possibly recruits, a desperate angel may see no other alternative but to do a deal with a demon. Part of that deal may be faking said demon’s death.

I don’t think it will come to pass, and I wouldn’t want to see Castiel go down that path, but if he does, I get to say I told you so…

Read our review of episode 9, Clap Your Hands If You Believe, here.

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