Supernatural Review: The Truth Shall Set You Free, If Free Means Death

In this week’s episode of Supernatural, Dean and Sam find themselves dealing with a bizarre set of murder/suicides where the people involved are unable to say anything but the cruel truth to a person leading them to kill others and then themselves.

The opening scene shows a young waitress having a hard day. She’s on the phone with someone when she says that she wants to learn the truth, which begins a chain of events where her boss, customers, and her own sister tell her cruel things. The waitress then takes a small pistol out of a desk drawer and proceeds to shoot herself. Then a dentist decides to drill his patient to death after the man reveals that he sexually molested the dentist’s daughter. The dentist kills himself soon after as well.

The brothers’ investigation first leads them to believe that they are dealing with Gabriel’s horn of truth. But Cas appears to Dean and checks out the town, unable to find the horn anywhere. Dean is still pissed off that Cas isn’t helping him figure out what’s wrong with Sam, but the angel sticks to his guns and is unable to explain what is happening to the younger Winchester. Still Cas does offer to help and says he’ll make his inquiries.

Dean is trying his best to appear normal when he’s going out of his mind trying to figure out if Sam is still Sam or if it’s something else. Cas tells him that it’s not old Lucifer, so it must be some new ailment that has Sammy smirk when the waitress’s sister confesses that she had said go kill yourself to her own sister.

As the dead bodies begin to disappear though, the brothers discover that they are up against Veritas, goddess of truth. Dean accidentally invokes the curse while drinking at a bar when he says, “I’d just like the freaking truth.” Immediately thereafter the bartender and a woman wearing a low cut dress begin telling him exactly what’s on their minds. He calls Bobby up to test if it works over the phone and things get a little TMI for Dean’s comfort. The silver lining though is that he now sees the curse as an opportunity to get the real truth from Sam once and for all. Before that though Lisa finally returns his call and she confirms Dean’s thoughts on being unable to keep them in his life because of the nature of his world. Lisa is furious that he had pushed Ben and tells him that Sam and he have an unhealthy relationship and that he’ll never be happy as long as his brother is in his life.

When Dean finally confronts Sam, the younger Winchester tells him that he froze and that’s why he let Dean get turned into a vampire. Dean appears to take this explanation, for now.

They figure out that Veritas is moonlighting as a local television reporter and make their way to her house, which is crawling with cats. They find the dead bodies in her swanky basement and Veritas manages to knock them out and then tie them up. She begins to explain how her favorite part of the human body is the tongue because of all the lies that goes through it as they are spoken. She cuts out the tongue from a dead body and takes a big bite.

Dean is forced to say that he feels better about his brother now from wanting to kill him in his sleep because he has been unsure about Sam. When Veritas tries to get Sam to tell the truth we find out the big twist, he can lie to her! She is horrified and screams that he’s not human because no one should be able to do that. Sam breaks free of the ropes and gets into a scuffle with the goddess only to be rescued by Dean in the nick of time. The elder Winchester though is back on the defense because he knows Sam lied to him.

Sam, under the threat of a bloody mini saw being wielded by his brother, says that he has been unable to feel any emotion since returning from the cage but that has made him a better hunter. He pleads for help and Dean begins to lower the weapon. But just when you think Dean has bought this explanation, he beats Sam until the younger man looses consciousness. Sam is just as agile and strong as Dean and he could have defended himself against the attack. But why didn’t he? Was he taking the beating to make Dean trust him? We still don’t know what’s wrong with him but at least now we know he’s no longer human.

Jensen and Jared continue to do a superb job in showing us new Dean and new Sam. It’s the subtle nuances they add to their characters that make their performances believable. Dean continues to struggle to make sense of his life having to deal with bizzaro Sam and the family he built with Lisa and Ben. Bizzaro Sam in the meantime seems to be on the verge of showing his cruelness with every new smirk.

This was a solid episode that continues to drive the plot forward. I have never particularly warmed up to Lisa and Ben but they are valid means of character development for Dean. I wish we’d get more of what’s going on in heaven and hell, but I’m guessing we’ll find out more during sweeps. I also like this non-whiney, possibly evil Sam. I can’t wait till we learn what actually happened to him. Maybe Grandpa Campbell will be able to help; I’m guessing that’s where Dean is going to take Sam.

Season 6, Episode 6: You Can’t Handle the Truth (originally aired October 29, 2010)

Fridays at 9/8C on The CW

Images courtesy of The CW and Jack Rowand.