Supernatural season 6 episode 14 review: Mannequin 3: The Reckoning

This review contains spoilers.

6.14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning

This episode starts at the point where the last episode closed. Sam has collapsed and Dean fears the worst. However, Sam recovers, but is visibly shaken by his near miss. To distract him from this, Dean suggests they investigate a mysterious death.

During the investigation, Dean receives a call from Ben, son of Lisa, whom Dean settled down with. Ben tells Dean that there is something wrong with Lisa. On hearing this, Dean leaves Sam to continue with the case alone.

I liked this episode and felt it was a good continuation of the season and from last week, but felt it was let down slightly by the conclusion of the case.

The idea of possession and ghosts are not a new concept in Supernatural, and the twist of the ghost not being stopped by their remains being burnt, because of transplant surgery, I thought was an absolutely great idea and really questions what Sam and Dean would have to do about that. However, we don’t get the chance to find out, as the sister with the ghost kidney gets impaled on a large piece of glass and dies.

This is where I felt the episode let itself down. Not in the actual death of the sister, but the execution of the scene. Pun intended. I had expected the sister to somehow save Dean by sacrificing herself, and having her killed by a random piece of flying glass seemed, to me, almost a ‘we have three minutes of episode time left’ moment.

With that said, the rest of the episode was great. The actual ghost storyline was very well done and reminded me of the early days of Supernatural. The creepy school dummy in the beginning actually caused the wife to hide behind a cushion and not watch the rest of the episode!

I previously mentioned the idea of Sam’s collapse being a warning, rather than the wall coming down completely, and felt that this episode handled it brilliantly. The seriousness of the scene and how Sam and Dean dealt with it added weight to how close Sam came to actually losing it all, whilst at the same time allowing the brothers and the show to move on past it, but, at the same time, not ignoring it altogether.

I’d also like to mention bobsuncorp’s comment on last week’s review on the opening titles being symbolic of the wall in Sam’s mind coming down. Nice spot.

So much of the storyline of season six has been taken up by Sam that it would be understandable that Dean’s blissful life in suburbia was quietly forgotten about and, if I’m honest, I felt it was over and done. I was surprised by Lisa and Ben’s return this episode. I very much like the character of Lisa and feel that she is very well realised and her relationship with Dean is very believable.

I was also really impressed with Ben’s plan of bringing them back together. When Dean received the phone call, and knowing what we know about the world of Supernatural, I found myself immediately considering what fate had befallen Lisa. Finding out it was all a ruse was a great moment.

I have a lot of sympathy for Dean. When he had his idyllic life, he gave it up for Sam. But as soon as there was the merest suggestion that Lisa was in danger, he dropped everything to save her. Despite his big, bad hunter image, it’s very obvious that the two people he cares about most are Sam and Lisa, and it’s very sad that the choices he’s made have cost him so dearly.

Read our review of episode 13, Unforgiven, here.

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