Supernatural Review: Sam is Soulless and Gramps is a Demon’s Biatch

This very enlightening episode of Supernatural spilled the beans on what’s really going on this season and we finally learn the truth about Sam, Samuel, and the monster army.

We start where the last episode ended, Sam tied to a chair in the motel with Cas there trying to figure out what’s wrong with him after learning from Veritas that the younger Winchester isn’t human. The angel acts like a doctor trying to diagnose what’s wrong with Sam before inserting his hand into the human’s chest. Cas confirms Dean’s fears; his brother’s soul is missing. They hypothesize that Sam’s soul is still in the cage with Michael and Lucifer. New questions arise like how the heck did that happen and who had the power to do that?

Sam in the meantime keeps protesting that he’s still himself while his older brother is set on keeping him under lock down until they figure out what’s going on. Sam somehow manages to untie the ropes binding him and tells Dean that there isn’t anything he can do to keep him subdued. Does Sammy have magical powers all of a sudden that ropes have no hold on him? Dean finds himself having to trust his brother as they figure that the only lead they have is Samuel.

They head back to the Campbell compound where Cas checks to see if Samuel’s soul is still in his body. It is and they’re right back to where they started, with no other lead. Grandpa and the others haven’t been idle though and they are preparing to hunt the vampire alpha down. Samuel doesn’t want to take Dean along because he doesn’t know this particular grandson as well as the other. Dean though says that he’ll defer to his grandfather’s lead and that he wants to come along because he wants payback after spending some time as a fanged one in the previous episode.

At the vampire’s lair, Dean is told to stay back with Gwen and the two are able to get to know the other a little better. Gwen apologizes for calling Dean a reject but she just hates getting left behind. She thinks it’s because she reminds Samuel of his daughter. Moments later a vampire appears and is about to get Dean when Gwen slices its head off. They hear gunshots and he takes off towards the house leaving his cousin behind.

Dean encounters a number of decapitated bodies and then witnesses Samuel, Sam and the others marching the alpha vamp into the back of a van in shackles and a black bag on top of its head a la terrorist prisoner. When Samuel and the others get back to Dean and Gwen by the cars, Dean asks his grandfather where the alpha is so that he can pay his last respects but Samuel lies and says that he’s burned the vamp. On the drive back, he asks his brother if anything weird happened to give Sam the opportunity to come clean but he only gets another lie. Fed up, Dean suddenly swerves to stop at the side of the road and confront Sam. He says that he saw them loading the vampire in the back of the truck.

Sam answers with an, “Oh, you weren’t supposed to see that” and finally tells his brother that it was his idea to keep Dean in the dark because he would mess it up. Sam says that Dean is a shoots first ask questions later kind of guy when they needed to ask it questions.

This is where things get really interesting because Dean is appalled that his brother can’t smell the shadiness of this entire operation. If Samuel needed the monsters alive, why doesn’t Sam question the motive behind it? Why does Grandpa Campbell need to question them? Sam spouts on about how they’re family and that he trusts Samuel but Dean angrily says that he has no instinct anymore now that his soul is missing. Dean lays it out flat, he’s not going to force Sam to work with him but if he does then he needs to listen to big brother because nothing about this situation is fine.

Sam returns to the compound and tells his grandfather that Dean left because they didn’t see things the same way. He adds that Samuel and the rest are all the family he’s got left now and that he wants in on the interrogation. Unfortunately Samuel refuses and Sam goes outside and fiddles with the elder man’s cell phone. Cut back to Dean who’s waiting inside the Impala and his brother coming back, saying that Samuel didn’t go for the bait so he had to resort to plan b, tracking them via GPS.

They follow Samuel and Christian to a warehouse where they are keeping the alpha under lockdown by injecting it with dead man’s blood as it’s strapped to an electric chair inside a jail cell. Sam and Dean listen to Samuel demand to know where “it” is but the vampire just laughs and says that he’s got all night long. Once Grandpa Campbell leaves, the alpha asks the brothers to come out of hiding. They find out that Samuel is looking for purgatory, the place where monsters go when they die. It was only a matter of time before this came up of course since heaven and hell have both been big parts of the Supernatural universe. The vampire also confirms that Sam has no soul because he is empty and cold and infers that he is building an army.

Samuel catches them and they have a hunter style family spat outside the hallway. Then the alpha vamp breaks free and kills the poor kid guarding him, which momentarily postpones the family showdown. Dean takes charge and has them searching through the warehouse with Sam, Samuel and Christian together. As the vamp is about to turn Sam, Christian whose eyes have turned black stabs the syringe full of dead man’s blood into the monster. Moments before it appeared that the vampire had twisted Christian’s neck and he was dead. A group of demons show up and take the alpha away.

The truth finally comes out and it confirmed my suspicions. Samuel has been working for Crowley the entire time and he had been the one to bring back both men. He needed Samuel to catch monsters for him because he wants to expand hell into purgatory. Crowley is holding Sam’s soul for ransom and demands that the Winchesters continue to work for him to get it back. If only they had kept part of Crowley’s bones as leverage. The new demon king had Christian possessed by one of his minions as a means to keep tabs on both Sam and Samuel. He also explained how easy it had been to manipulate the brothers’ sense of family and loyalty to his advantage.

Sam and Dean break off from Samuel’s group and find themselves in a bad spot as usual. The younger Winchester feels like they don’t have much of a choice but to play Crowley’s game until they figure out another way to get his soul back. Dean is reluctant but doesn’t have a better idea. This isn’t a new predicament though as both their souls have been held for ransom by the crossroads demon in the past. I’m confident they’ll figure out a way.

What’s more interesting though is figuring out what exactly is going on in purgatory. Are the monsters creating armies to fight against demons who want to take over their territory? Does Crowley have ambitions to eventually expand his real estate past territory and into heaven where the angels are going through civil war? It would be the perfect opportunity to launch something while his archenemies are divided. For once it seems like the supernatural creatures aren’t really focused on earth as they deal with problems in their own realms. But it doesn’t mean that the humans aren’t getting screwed over in the process.

It also wasn’t explained what Crowley really has on Samuel to make him agree to work for a demon. He certainly doesn’t care that much about Sam’s soul. There must be something else, maybe a someone else that Crowley can give to him. His daughter perhaps? One thing’s for sure though, Grandpa Campbell still has secrets.

It is great to finally know what is going on and it doesn’t feel like the writers just created something that doesn’t fit with the past seasons. The continuity is intact and the storyline still feels fresh and intriguing. They certainly threw me off with the first episode but now looking back it makes more sense to show viewers that Dean and Sam have both changed, as well as the circumstances they find themselves in. But some things stay the same and the brothers once again are ankle deep in supernatural crap that has them counting on each other now more than ever.

Season 6, Episode 7: Family Matters (originally aired November 5, 2010)

Fridays at 9/8C on The CW

Images courtesy of The CW and Michael Courtney.