Supernatural - S10E1 - Black
The road so far…. (Cue “Carry On Wayward Son”)
When we last left the Winchester brothers, they had just defeated the angel Metatron, preventing him from becoming God, but at the expense of Dean’s supposed death, which led to the season’s cliffhanger of Dean opening black eyes that revealed he’s now a demon.
We open up 2 weeks later, with Sam interrogating a demon while looking for Dean and Crowley; demon, of course, doesn’t cooperate, so Sam continues to cut her despite her begging,
Four weeks later, while Sam is still searching, he comes across a letter from Dean saying to let it go. Sam then calls a sleeping Castiel (Angels sleep?) Sam—hearing Castiel cough, probably because he’s losing his grace—changes his mind about asking for help and continues the search alone.
We’re introduced to Demon Dean singing “I’m too sexy” while getting booed and not caring a damn about it. He notices the waitress checking him out, which of course leads to the next scene and him climbing off of her. They have pillow talk yada, yada, and he basically tells her not to get attached because he is just rolling through. She comments that there’s a million other ways he could’ve said that, but Demon Dean doesn’t give a fuck. Crowley walks in to find out that they were doing it in his bed (yuck). As the chick leaves, Crowley and Demon Dean stare at each other awkwardly until Crowley points out that Demon Dean’s not wearing any pants. The banter between Crawley and Demon Dean is reminiscent of the way Sam and Dean used to call each other names, and I’m guessing that’s going to be a theme this season.
BFFs Demon Dean and Crowley are then playing foosball when Demon Dean notices the waitress he banged arguing with her man. He comes over and excessively beats the crap out of the boyfriend just because he can.
We go back to Castiel where he’s awakened by Hannah the angel. He comments “Why are you standing there awkwardly?” then the camera pans down to his open robe. (I guess that’s a thing now). She comments that there are still two rogue angels on earth and asks Castiel for his help in finding them.
Sam goes to the sheriff’s office posing as FBI to investigate a murder. The sheriff tells him he’s wasted his time because the victim was not murdered but was more a casualty of self-defense. He then shows Sam a video of Demon Dean looking at porn at a convenience store while being stalked by someone from behind. At the same time, Double Dean confronts a demon loyalist of Abaddon that was spying on him. As the demon takes out the basic angel/demon killing sword, Demon Dean takes out his version of “That’s not a sword; this is a Sword” (The First Blade). The next series of events proceed to show us how much more violent Demon Dean has become, as Sam is watching Double Dean take down the guy stalking him while at the same time Double Dean takes out the Abaddon loyalist. While Sam reviews the tape, he notices, for the first time, Demon Dean’s black eyes, causing him to make beer/vinegar face.
We come back to some dude working out in an ‘80s-style montage when he gets a fax of Dean’s picture. Wifey asks if it’s him, and he proceeds to load up on massive amounts of firepower. Castiel and Hannah pull over because apparently angels get car sick. Hannah notices that Castiel is getting worst because of him losing his grace, but Castiel refuses to take the life of another angel to replenish his grace. Sam is at the convenience store where he saw Dean and gets an exciting retelling of events from the store clerk. Sam chastises the store clerk for not doing anything, and the clerk was like, “Oh, I’m sorry for not conducting a field interview while porn guy was excessively stabbing another guy 10 feet from me, causing me to shit my pants because I thought I was next.” The clerk did give Sam the phone the dead guy left, and when Sam calls the number, it goes to Crawley. Sam accuses Crawley of having a demon using Dean’s body as a meat suit, but Crawley assures Sam that it’s all Dean. Crawley accuses Sam of being jealous because they’re best buds and “Dean Winchester completes him.” Sam promises that he will save Dean and kill Crawley.
Castiel and Hannah find one of the rogue angels, Daniel, fishing for trout. Yawn. They confront him about not following Heaven’s command and killing one of their own and that he is—and forever will be—an angel, but Daniel tells them that was before they were unwillingly and unknowingly dropped from heaven, and now he’s discovered what it is to be free. Hannah is done with it and takes out her Angel shank, but Castiel convinces her to wait for the other angel.
Crawley is confessing to Demon Dean that he sent those demons after him to keep him sharp and the Mark of Cain satiated when Demon Dean accuses him of lying to him Crawley says, “Of course I lied; I’m the king of Hell. It’s what I do.” Crawley tells Demon Dean of his plan for Hell and them ruling side by side, then tells him that he fucked up by talking too much to Sam and allowing him to trace the call.
Sam’s car dies in the middle of the road; the workout dude pulls up behind him and offers to help him out before he tells him that the car broke down because he placed a kill switch in his car and proceeds to know him out.
We go back to terribly singing Demon Dean drunk and in the dumps getting booed off the stage again. He wakes up to the same waitress he slept with earlier where he first tells her they should go somewhere together then when she points out they barely know each other he basically calls her a skank. She walks away in tears; feeling bad for herself. Then we go to Angel’s camp fire (double yawn) when second rogue angel, Adina, comes words are said swords are drawn and the girl angels get into fight causing Castiel to have to save Hannah by killing Daniel. Adina wounds Castiel and runs away.
Sam is taken prisoner by workout guy. Apparently, he and Dean go way back. He’s says he’s a hunter if Dean counts. Sam warns that he should not go after Dean; that it will only turn badly for him, but of course, the guy doesn’t listen. Hannah and Castiel and talk about something; who cares? Workout guy calls Dean and tells him he has Sam and to meet him somewhere or Sam dies. Demon Dean says there’s no deal; he can go ahead and kill Sam but with 100% assurance the he will find him and kill him, and the episode ends.
Overall solid opener. I like the dynamic between Dean and Crowley as they always make for a fun duo. It’s interesting how they are changing things up, as there are no scenes with Sam and Dean together. Looks like we are being setup up for Dean & Crowley vs. Sam & Castiel. Should be interesting.
Things that work.
- Demon Dean. It’s so refreshing to see Dean let loose without any constraints or consequences, as one of the things that I didn’t enjoy over the last couple of seasons was Emo Dean and his whining.
- Dean and Crowley. I really enjoy the dynamic between these two, and it will be interesting how the show assimilates that with Sam trying to save his brother.
What didn’t work.
The Angels. I like Castiel, but man, this angel story is so boring and pointless. They need to just pair up Castiel with Sam and have them go against Dean and Crowley and let the hijinks commence.- Dean and Sam. What makes Supernatural so appealing, and a show with the following that allows it to last 10 years, is the chemistry between Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles). So it’s weird to have an episode when the two are never shown on screen at the same time. It’s not that big of a deal for one episode, but hopefully they meet up next week.
