Supernatural: The Executioner’s Song Review

Before we take a month’s break from Supernatural, we return to the main storyline of the Mark of Cain, with the actual Caine himself wreaking havoc murdering… murderers. Who knew he could have morally gray noble intentions?

Caine has been busy while we haven’t seen him on screen. Namely kidnapping and murdering folks like the death row inmate in the beginning of the episode. Caine thinks he’s doing the noble thing by getting rid of some of the evil he’s unleashed on the world through his bloodline, but the boys can’t turn a blind eye to this when Caine isn’t too picky on who he kills. 

The actor playing Caine is able to evoke this quiet, old timely malice to his character. Maybe it’s all in the low and carefully measured tone of his voice, but he does a great job portraying a character who has been on Earth for thousands of years. When he starts on his murderous mission, against insurmountable (and let’s say, impossible) odds, he simply says “I’ve got time.” Yeah, you do. 

The look of this episode wasn’t distinctive. We had some nice shaky cam technique again near the end, when Dean is about to fight Caine. But the most noticeable visual was Caine’s entrance. Caine walks down death row, cool as a cucumber, switching lights off as he passes them so he can remain in darkness. Simple, but effective. Crowley later has a similar appearance, walking out of the shadows. He’s our boys’ ally, so he walks into the light. Metaphors!

Dean’s tough guy exterior evaporates when he admits he’s scared. We don’t dwell on this long. We get a fight scene, in which Caine lays the horrible truth on him: Dean is cursed to live his life in reverse. He would finish his own reign of terror by killing Sam. When he ends the fight, he’s pale, shaken, and not at all like himself. 

Was Caine’s murder spree, and his heart-to-heart with Dean, just the ultimate plan for Caine to get some closure? When he first meets Dean, he seems tired and resigned to his life going wrong. Now, supposedly unable to control his murderous intent, he gets the boys’ attention again. After Dean slices his hand off, he submits. It appears that he gave himself up willingly.

There was a little addition to Crowley’s side story this episode. He finally admits that Rowena is manipulating him. Dean made a big mistake telling Crowley that he lied about him being in danger. Crowley will be hesitant to help in the future, and more likely to believe Rowena about her suspicions. In unrelated news, isn’t it great that Crowley’s cell phone labels Dean as “Not Moose“? I couldn’t not mention that.

There’s a strange little denouement at the end. I expected a cut-to-black directly after: “You’re going to kill your brother.” This time we were given time to stew on it. Sam tries to give Dean false hope. We get the feeling it’s Sam acting like his usual hopeful self, but his admission to Cas tells otherwise. Dean’s in trouble.

The next episode airs March 18^th as the show switches to Wednesday nights. 

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