Supernatural Review 6.13

Supernatural 6.13

“Unforgiven” Review

By Ella M. Nite

Another admission before we start this week's review for Supernatural's 'Unforgiven' ... I am easily pleased. I am probably the worst person to do reviews because I am usually happy with whatever a television show does. I love stories. As long as they are building towards an end point I am happy. This could refer to a seasonal arch, or even just a episodic story arch. Anyways, just thought I should clarify that one point. On with the review …

Opening Sequence … It felt a bit dragged on, but maybe I was just too excited for the episode to start. 

Bam, Bam, Bam … Soulless Sam … our resident psychopathic killer. When Samuel Campbell is unsettled, well, let’s just say my stomach dropped a bit with each gunshot because I had already figured that Sam was going to remember that. After that, we see the “sneak peek” footage of Sam beating the crap out the policeman to knock him out and then drive away. Well … at least he didn’t kill him …

Father References … It starts with the coordinates, but there felt to be an overwhelming presence of John Winchester in this episode. Mysterious coordinates like their father used to send. Also, when they were both quoting their dad when trying to decide whether they should stay or go, it was very … odd.

Following the mystery text … Sam starts to have flashbacks as soon as they arrive at Bristol. He tries to hide it from Dean for all of two minutes, before he is recognised in a diner and Dean sees him in the picture (though I was kind of hoping he would have been in the silly hat … but the background makes more sense …). And actually, it’s a restaurant. When was the last time they ate an actual restaurant? And was that a lime in Sam’s drink? Sorry, not important. All that matters is that at this restaurant we meet girl number 1000 that Soulless Sam slept with … and her husband (awkward). Obviously she was going to die. She was introduced but not really developed – making her perfect canon fodder for the show.

Brotherly Arguments … So Dean wants to leave town as soon as they realise Sam had worked a case with Samuel there, and he has some very good reasons. Firstly, ‘leaving messes behind’ is putting it lightly for the amount of damage hunters leave. Secondly, he doesn’t want Sam to remember anything because he doesn’t want the wall to fall. Sam however, feels the need to atone for whatever his ‘body’ did and convinces Dean to stay. After what happens at the end of the episode, I doubt Dean will be convinced to stay so easily ever again.

The Intrepid Detective … I don’t know why, but I loved when Dean was investigating. When he went to describe Sam and went ‘Yay high?’ while holding his hand way up high, I giggled uncontrollably. Dean eventually puts together the one thing the girls all had in common – they had all slept with Sam (which adds to the theory that a woman should never sleep with Sam because they all end up dead … or turned into monsters … no wonder these boys have issues).   

Sam is arrested … in the jail we meet Brenna Dobbs the Sheriff’s wife. After Sam lays the soul-charm on her, she is finally convinced to help him escape his cell. She wants to know what happened to her husband and Sam just wants to know what happened.

Fugitive again … side note: I loved the ‘I told you so’ dialogue. And while on the side note ... when was the last time we saw so much snow on the show?Anyways ... he so obviously was NOT going to just stay there. Dean figures out that it is a trap for Sam, and Sam gets the case files from Brenna. I thought for sure that she was going to call the police when she went upstairs to get the files and was slightly disappointed when she didn’t. I mean, from her perspective it REALLY looks like Sam is the guilty partner.

A year ago … In his flashbacks we eventually piece together what happened. There was this spider creature which was taking guys, and Sam, without letting Samuel on in the plan, let’s the Sheriff get taken by the creature. When they then track the Sheriff and creature back to

Random Abandoned Place

, a fight goes down and Sam ends up beheading the spider-girl. Then he systematically kills the men there because he THEORISES that the venom will kill them. 

Present … Dean’s spider senses are tingling, as they meet up with Brenna in the

Random Abandoned Place

. There we learn that the Sheriff was actually not killed when soulless Sam shot him point blank in his head, because the spider-chick (like all the other monsters this year) was actually turning the men she kidnapped. Sam ends up beheading the Sheriff-spider-monster and Sam tries to apologize to Brenna, who understandably wants nothing to do with him (he did kill her husband … twice).

The end conversation … Dean and Sam have their typical end-of-episode conversation. I keep thinking that Dean might have an easier time convincing Sam that his soulless-self was a different person if he maybe mentioned that soulless Sam actually referred to himself as another person. Maybe say ‘Dude, soulless you even told me he wasn’t you, so stop it’. I’m thinking this is the end and then …

Wham … Sam is convulsing on the floor because his WALL IS CRUMBLING! As he remembers being burned alive, I am left gaping at the screen unable to form a coherent thought.

Overall … I really enjoyed this episode. I liked the different style of mystery to it, with the flashbacks and a creature which didn’t just look human. I mean, it still looked like a disfigured human, but not like the average Joe. It was not my favourite episode of the season, but it’s definitely one I look forward to watching again.

Favourite moments –

I really enjoyed the fact that Sammy echoed some of the same wording as Soulless Sam. The most obvious being ‘he died a hero’. It shows that Soulless Sam is really Sam, just … not. Okay, that was as clear as mud … it showed that as vastly different as the two types of Sam are, there if still something fundamentally the same, which is why Sam feels so much guilt and why Dean was able to go back on the road with Soulless Sam even though he had his doubts.

Dean’s one-liners … from spidey-senses to cougar eyes, you can tell Dean is still in the ‘honeymoon’ phase of having got his brother back. Still chipper and upbeat, Dean is cracking out the jokes and … well, just behaving a bit more like he always has, which is nice.

The first thought when the show ended …

WHA-?!

The preview for next week …

Hey look! Sam's up and walking around! Yay! I almost feel sorry for this ghost-thingy ... messing with the Impala? Dean is going to kill it ... brutally.

Rating: 8/10

Written while …

Listening to: Fucking Perfect by Pink

Watching: Supernatural 6.13 online to refresh my memory

Eating/Drinking: Nothing!

Located: In the study, curled up on my favourite chair and my favourite blanket wrapped around me

February 12^th 2011

So, review #2 done! What did you think?