Opinions on this latest season of Supernatural have been decidedly split, and in my view that's totally fair. Thus far we've had a few great episodes, a few lackluster ones, and a few in between. I'm happy to report that "Remember the Titans" was a perfectly decent addition to this season. While it won't go down in history as anything special for the show, it did have some great moments.
The plot follows Shane, a man who dies every day and has no memory of his life beyond the past seven years. Turns out, this gentleman is Prometheus, Titan and enemy of Zeus. Shane's introduction to the episode was really great, what with the dying on the road, bird picking out his liver, and then his getting back up again.
When we get to the Winchester boys, however, the episode starts to feel a little phoned in. I've noticed a trend this season of starting us out with a summary of where things stand: Dean succinctly says that he wants a case because Kevin isn't done translating the tablet, Castiel is nowhere to be found, and Sam is acting suspiciously. Great. Thanks for the lazy writing that runs down a list of all of the show's characters. Maybe I'm being nit-picky, but I'd love some more creative introductions for our boys, instead of just more of the same.
The guest stars this week were really strong, though. Shane/Prometheus (John Reardon) and Hayley (Brooke Langdon) had great chemistry with the Winchesters and with each other.
The character of Artemis (Anna Van Hooft) was interesting but a bit underused. We only see her once before the climax of the story, and the plot doesn't give her much motivation to stand up to her father in the end. The actress does a great job, but I felt like her character could have benefited from a bit more screen time.
The kid, Oliver, was not the best. Cute kid, but not really much with the acting chops. His scene with Sam at the end felt extremely forced. At first I thought it would be nice to see Sam interact with a kid on the show, because we usually get Dean sharing these moments with the youngsters. But, in reality, Sam only shares one line about ice cream with him, and then they watch solemnly together while Shane is given a hunters funeral. (The death of Shane/Prometheus was, incidentally, touching and well acted).
The shining moment of the episode comes - as is so often the case with Supernatural - when we give Jensen Ackles a chance to stretch his acting muscles. His scene in the car with Jared Padalecki is really great, with Dean just getting pissed at Sam for starting to doubt his mission. Not too sappy, but it still gets the point across. I like the idea of Dean holding Sam to his promise not to die, since that's probably the only reason Dean's still allowing his little brother to go through with these trials. Also, the bit about the heart attack coupled with eating the hamburgers... it was probably the lightest and best joke of the episode.
Dean's last scene, talking to the absent Castiel, was also enormously touching. It allowed Jensen to show us what he's got, but it had a slight problem in it: NO MISHA COLLINS! Where the hell is Castiel, people? When he first joined the show, us fans rebelled against the thought of anyone coming between Sam and Dean's legendary bond, but now that we all love our angel friend, they take him away from us?
Not cool.
In short: Good guest stars, decent plot (although Artemis was underdeveloped), great show from Jensen Ackles as always. But: Rather lackluster plot summary in Sam and Dean's first scene, and no Castiel.
I'll give this one a 7.5/10
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