Supernatural: The Prisoner Review

This episode of Supernatural had me on the edge of my seat. We’re heating up to an explosive finale for the Winchesters. We got to see the repercussions from Charlie’s death in the line of duty. There was no way all that was ending well. Dean is just a step away from going full Dark Side, as he loses faith in his brother and Cas after learning that the Book still exists. He goes after the Styne family, and wrecks their game of operation with a bloody vengeance. 

What’s up with these Stynes, anyway? I don’t understand how disposable they think they are. If you invested that much time and energy into bio-engineering, don’t you think those people would be worth keeping around? They’re also rather messy with their victims. How have they survived so long without being discovered? I figure we probably haven’t seen the last of the Stynes. They seem to reproduce like rabbits.

Both our boys are at questionable odds with morality. Sam still holds to his deal with Rowena after receiving Charlie’s decoder email. His encounter with Crowley is violent and angry, and very un-Sam. Crowley’s heart-to-heart connects his emerging humanity with how he’s changed things in Hell. But then he snaps out of it, and with smoky glowing red eyes takes Sam out easily, and reminds the younger Winchester how easily he could snuff his life out. This is a side we’d never seen of Crowley. He’s actually gone evil-er. Now it’s Crowley vs. Rowena. Lady, you really should have taken the three pigs. They don’t tend to go for revenge.

Dean’s moment in Hunter HQ showed how dark he really went. He entered the scene, framed by the decorative structure of the bunker in a low angle shot that showed his menacing attitude. Oh sure, we can see how he kills evil with ease, but episode writer Andrew Dabb did something wickedly clever with this scene that really show our boy’s new colors. The episode set up early on how the youngest Styne, the cousin who’s attending college, is nothing like his freakish family. He doesn’t want to kill and harvest organs. He wants to run away to California and start his own life. Sound like someone else we know? That was Sam, 10 years ago, turning his back on the family business to go to Stanford. The connections are really brilliant. Dabb set up the innocence and hope in this new character, building the potential that he could eventually work for the side of good. AND THEN DEAN KILLS HIM. (Oh yeah, spoilers). Showing this moment, in which normal Dean would have waited for an explanation and shown mercy, was the pivotal turning point. That nail-biting fight scene in which we were sure Cas was going to die was the icing on the cake. 

Seeing that preview for the finale makes me wonder how this Mark of Cain might transition into another burden for Dean. Is Death about to give him the job? One episode left, folks. Let’s see where this all ends.