Supernatural season 6 episode 12 review: Like A Virgin

This review contains spoilers.

6.12 Like A Virgin

After the mid-season break, the Winchester brothers are back. Properly. Sam has had his soul re-instated and things should be back to normal. Of course, this being Supernatural, normal is kind of a relative concept.

Let’s do the recap first.

Sam is in a coma-like state after his soul was returned by Death, while Dean, unsure how long Sam will be out for, is set to investigate a disappearance of a young woman from a light aircraft. Before he leaves, Sam wakes up. Thanks to the wall placed in his mind by Death, he has no knowledge of the past year and a half, including attempting to kill Bobby.

Appearing fit and well, Sam joins Dean in investigating the disappearance, where they discover that several young women have vanished, and that they were all virgins. When they question a victim who was attacked but not taken, she describes the attacker as a giant bat.

Further investigation leads to the idea that dragons are behind the attacks, and, after talking with Bobby, Dean seeks advice from an expert. Sam continues his research, but when he contacts Bobby, he notices how uncomfortable Bobby is talking to him. Sam calls down Castiel, who he gets to reveal the truth about what has happened to him.

Dean returns with a weapon that will kill dragons and he and Sam search a likely possibility for the dragon’s lair, so to speak. They discover the abducted women and set about freeing them. They are interrupted by the return of the dragons, which are in human form. Sam kills one of the dragons, but the other escapes.

Back at Bobby’s, Sam apologizes to Dean and tells him that he knows the truth. Bobby has been translating a book they found in the dragon’s lair. The book reveals how to open a doorway to Purgatory and how to let something out. Something called the ‘Mother of All’.

Unknown to the Winchesters, the dragon that escaped them has met with another dragon who still has his victims, one of which they sacrifice to open the doorway. The sacrifice returns, obviously possessed by something who states, “We have so much to do. Let’s get started.”

So, was all of this any good?

Well, I liked this episode. But there is something I found distractingly annoying in it, and with that in mind, this is a big spoiler for this episode.

There are no dragons in it. None. I suppose you could count the blur in the beginning of the episode, but that is it. Now, I fully appreciate television shows do not have the budget of major motion pictures, but considering how well Primeval manages, and more years ago than I care to work out, Angel had a dragon pop up, I don’t think a dragon scene would have been too much to ask.

The show had the perfect opportunity with the one dragon guy fleeing. It could easily have been show as a quick transmogrification and a rapid exit of flapping wings and a tail. I just felt a bit duped that we never really got to see the monster of the episode.

That said, the idea of the dragon men was very nicely done. It may have been a way to cut down on the budget, but it worked well and the logical step of fire breath to burning hands was very well realised, and as a means to an end to move the Purgatory plot onward, so be it.

Considering we are now over halfway through the season and I don’t know if a seventh season has been considered or not yet, I thought that Sam finding out the truth sooner rather than later was a very positive idea, as it allows the dynamic to move back to the two brothers working well together. Yes, all hell may break loose if Sam’s mind wall comes tumbling down, possibly quite literally. But I was worried it was going to be dragged out until the end of the season. Now it’s out of the way, we can move on.

After six years it would be easy to take for granted Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles portrayal of the brothers, but this episode, after all the mistrust and soulless Sam, show how well the two actors produce a believable relationship of siblings in the subtle changes that really show the characters are brothers.

Describing something as nice always seems to be doing that something a disservice, but this is a nice episode. I can’t honestly see it being on anybody’s favourite episode list, but it works very well at what the episode set out to do. Sam and Dean are back together and the villain of the piece has been revealed.

When Bobby said the name Mother of All, my brain automatically added ‘monsters’ to the end, which I knew from another series, but didn’t remember. One quick Google search later confirmed it was Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which can only mean one thing. Kevin Sorbo is bound to be guest starring soon. Either him or Bruce Campbell.

Read our review of episode 11, Appointment In Samarra, here.

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