Supernatural rebounded this week with a funny episode that featured the return of a fan favorite: Sheriff Jodie Mills. With so few strong female allies left for Sam and Dean, I was relieved that Jodie survived the episode in spite of being chained to a slaughtering table. The villain’s identity was no shocker but the twist that she was the Roman goddess Vesta and not a dragon was fun. This show has been hit-or-miss when it dips into Greek and Roman mythology. For the most part, I think Vesta was an intriguing villain. She actually kicked Jodie’s ass and chained her to the table during her monologue rather than just waiting for Sam to wake up and stab her. Sam did eventually wake up and keep Vesta from stabbing Jodie, but it was ultimately Jodie who pulled the oak spear from her chest and stabbed Vesta in the back. That was a nice change of pace from the show’s typical climactic formula.
Mystery aside (since we weren’t meant to care about the vow-breaking virgins) the real heart of this episode was Sam and Dean dipping into the world of born-again virgins. This scenario was ripe for comedy and the writers did an amazing job mining the brothers’ fish-out-of-water standing within the group for maximum laughs. Dean’s provocative “over share” was seriously hilarious and elicited the perfect reaction from the APU group members. Both Jensen and the writers really understand Dean’s character nine seasons in because his attitude during the meeting was spot-on. It was also amazing to watch Dean uncover Susie’s real identity and realize he was alone with one of his favorite porn stars. Rather than freaking out, Dean kept it amazingly suave and seduced Susie using probably the only Spanish he knows (“Si”). I cheered watching Dean cross this item off his bucket list. Good work, buddy.
In addition to Jodie’s return and Dean’s two standout moments, this episode also gave us a peek into Ezekiel’s psyche that hinted at his plans for Sam. I’ve been saying all season that Zeke plans to drag Sam to Heaven to face Metatron. With the midseason finale next week, now I’m beginning to think that Zeke and Sam will actually play a large role in the war between angels on Earth. Of course this begs the question: is Zeke an ally or adversary to Castiel? My money is on adversary. Imagine how juicy the conflict would be for Dean if that was the case. His brother on one side, kept alive only by Zeke’s presence, and Castiel on the other, fighting against Sam and the angel keeping him alive. What would Dean choose in this situation? And how will Sam react if it comes to this and he finds out that Dean kept him in the dark the entire time? Sam will never leave for good, but would he see this as a Ruby-level betrayal from his brother? I would anticipate some time apart for the brothers after next week’s episode, which I hope won’t feel rushed after straying from the main storylines these past two weeks.
One final note: to my knowledge, this is the first episode in Supernatural history that has mentioned Jesus. On a show about God, angels, demons, and Lucifer, I’m shocked it took until the ninth season for such a central figure in Bible mythology to be specifically mentioned. I understand that it’s not politically correct to talk about Jesus in 2013 and perhaps the writers didn’t want to sound preachy by bringing him up, but since Jesus is the basis for the Christian faith, I’m happy this oversight has finally been corrected. How appropriate it came during an episode that displayed both the flippant and genuine reactions to faith and organized religion.
Line of the week
“She said she heard sex noises, then Barb crying, then Neil telling Barb it didn’t count because it was under 30 seconds.” – Jodie Mills
Next week on Supernatural
Castiel gets his groove back.
