Supernatural Review: Frontierland – Less Disney, More Germy

This long awaited episode of Supernatural wasn’t a disappointment as we meet the legendary Samuel Colt. Colt of course is the inventor of “The Colt”, a gun that can kill almost any supernatural being (except for Lucifer and four others). The significance of this gun has been around since the beginning of the series and it is with great pleasure that audiences finally see the man behind it.

Bobby (Jim Beaver), Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) return to the Campbell Compound where Sam remembers that Samuel (Mitch Pileggi) had a hidden basement den of sorts where he collected books on the supernatural and the occult. The three men are there looking for clues on how to kill Eve. Finally Bobby comes across some text indicating that the ashes of a phoenix can kill the mother. Dean then ends up finding Samuel Colt’s diary where there is an entry where Colt shoots a phoenix. This of course is the perfect excuse to go back in time and just grab the ashes.

Dean calls on Cas (Misha Collins) but instead gets Cas’s not so friendly lieutenant Rachel. She’s pretty pissed at the brothers, feeling that they only call on her superior when they need something and in fact aren’t the angel’s friends at all. But Cas appears and orders her to go back to heaven. Reluctantly she does and our favorite trench coat wearing celestial being agrees to take Sam and Dean back to the Wild Wild West.

This is where the funny parts come in because who knew Dean was such a fan of western movies? According to Sam, his brother can recite every line from every Clint Eastwood movie. Dean returns to Bobby’s with bags of old west style gear for the boys to go “native” on their trip back to the past. Of course Dean looks ridiculous in his poncho but can’t fault the guy on his enthusiasm.

Cas explains that he can only send them back for twenty-four hours because any longer than that he might not be able to get them back. But once they get there, it was refreshing to see how awkward and out of place they were coming from the 21^st century. I mean you really felt the awkwardness there – from their clothes, mannerisms, slang, and how they carried themselves. It was great though to see Dean’s realization that his fantasies of the old west were greatly mistaken after meeting a saloon girl with sores on her mouth trying to kiss him.

When they first arrive in Sunrise, Wyoming on March 4, 1861, they witness a man about to be hung for murdering his wife. Except we learn that the man isn’t a man at all but a creature. Instead of a legendary bird with red feathers, Elias Finch very much looks like a man but just can’t be killed. As a phoenix he kills the judge and the local sheriff for hanging him by burning them to death with his touch. He kills the local deputy with a gun after he tells Dean that the guy had taken his wife and tried to rape her. When he came to save her the deputy shot him and then his wife then blamed it on him when the judge and sheriff came.

Meanwhile, Sam goes off in search of Colt but when he meets the man it doesn’t turn out the way he expected it. Colt has put himself out of the game and is refusing to help the Winchesters. Sam even explains that he’s a hunter from the year 2011 and gives his Blackberry to Colt.

It appears that Sam was unable to convince the older man to help them kill Finch but the younger Winchester at least is able to get the gun just in time for Dean’s showdown with the phoenix. Dean manages to shoot Finch first using the Colt but fails to collect the ashes in time because Cas has brought them back to the present.

Cas during all this time kills Rachel after she summons him at some seedy looking abandoned warehouse. She first confronts him if his deep dark secret is true. Audiences don’t get to know what this secret is though unfortunately, only Cas saying that he has no other choice in order to defeat Raphael. She tells him that it’s wrong and then they fight. She manages to wound him before he ends her life.

The angel manages to get himself back to Bobby’s where he draws a warding symbol with his own blood so that no angel can come into the house. When he regains consciousness, he tells Bobby that he doesn’t have enough energy to get the boys back after his fight with Rachel. The only way to recharge his batteries is to touch Bobby’s soul. The only thing is of course that one wrong move and the older hunter could explode. Balls! Still, Bobby says let’s do this since they can’t leave the two idiots in Deadwood.

With the Winchesters back in the present, all seems to have been for nothing since Bobby and Cas look like they went through something traumatizing and they lost the Colt (Dean drops it) and failed to get the phoenix ash. Suddenly, a deliveryman knocks at the door with a package to Sam from Samuel Colt. Colt had gotten his address from the “thingamabob” aka Sam’s Blackberry and has returned it, along with a note and the phoenix ashes in a bottle. Colt came through for them after all.

While a time travel episode into the old west could have turned out very bad, the show pulls it off once again by making fun of the situation and having Dean geek out at the opportunity to act out his fantasy. The over the top lines, western gear, using Clint Eastwood and Walker, Texas Ranger as pseudo names, and even the exaggerated hat tipping was so spot on to make the episode work. Plus Dean saying “We’ll Star Trek 4 this bitch!”, priceless.

Next up, the boys finally confront Eve. Will they vanquish her back into the pit she crawled out from? I’m guessing not till the end of the season.
Season 6, Episode 18: Frontierland (originally aired April 22, 2011)

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Fridays at 9/8C on The CW

Images courtesy of The CW and Jack Rowand