Supernatural: Mother's Little Helper (9x17)

Misha's directorial debut! I feel bad, but I actually didn't watch it right away… to be honest, I wasn't in any rush, because I knew that we had a painful two weeks off before the next episode. Why make myself wait even longer? But I've watched it now. I wish I could report that this episode was outstanding, stupendous, one for the history books. I can't do that. But I'm happy to report that it was solid. And informative. And moved the story forward in some interesting new ways. It may not have done much more than fulfill its basic storytelling function, but that's really all we can look for, sometimes.

So. Dean has been researching Abaddon, and Sam points out that he's acting a bit obsessive. Dean says that he's just doing his job, and although Sam remains skeptical, he decides to go work a case, leaving Dean to his search.

While Sam is gone, Dean turns to alcohol. He ends up in a dive bar with Crowley. The two of them discuss the Mark of Cain and all that nonsense. At one point, Crowley gets up to use the restroom (actually to shoot up on human blood). Another hunter in the bar moves to go kill him, but Dean talks him out of it. Later, we see this "hunter" talking with Crowley. Apparently, it was a test, and Dean did exactly what Crowley thought he would by talking the hunter out of hurting Crowley.

Sam's case ends up being very informative. Apparently, normal townsfolk in Illinois have been turning randomly into violent killers. He ends up meeting a former nun who tells him that the Men of Letters had been here years before. Abaddon had apparently been hanging out at the convent, and when Henry Winchester and Josie Sands turn up, Abaddon decides to possess Henry in order to learn more about the Men of Letters from the inside. Josie begs Abaddon to take her instead. Henry was unconscious, but another nun saw the whole thing. Abaddon possessed Josie, intent on taking the Men of Letters down from the inside.

Sam hunts down the demon who has been pretending to be a nun. She has been stealing souls in order to turn them into an army of demons for Abaddon. Sam manages to kill her. Sam thanks the ex-nun for her help, and then goes back to the Bunker to tell Dean about Abaddon's plan. They both know they need to stop her ASAP.

Okay! Problems.

For one, I thought it was a little silly that Sam decided to take some random case in Illinois and then it ended up totally connected to their A-plot. Maybe a tad bit coincidental? It just sort of bothered me.

I was also a bit annoyed by how unconcerned Dean was that Sam was on a case by himself. Maybe this feeds in more to Dean's Mark of Cain business, but it seemed a little bit careless of him to let Sam do this without backup. I mean, when do their simple cases ever go easily? I hope this gets addressed at some point, in any case. It would be nice if Sam could get hurt because Dean wasn't there to back him up, and that's what makes Dean realize that he's really gone off the deep end.

Like I mentioned at the start, this episode had a fundamental lack of the "wow" factor. I'm about to list a lot of elements that I really truly did enjoy, but none of these scenes or moments made me want to go back and watch again and again. In particular, for an episode with a return appearance of Henry Winchester, I was a bit underwhelmed. Still, let's talk about the good bits.

Josie Sands! You poor dear! Her back story was already sad enough, and now we learn that she had feelings for Henry. So sad. I must say, Alaina Huffman did a lovely job playing this sweet yet spunky Woman of Letters. It's a sad yet poignant contradiction with Abaddon's crude and forward evil.

The nun who told Sam the story was a lovely character. She saw the whole thing happen, and yet she didn't say anything to Henry to warn him. Since that moment, she has felt a deep shame for her actions. She actually decided to stop being a nun because of what had happened. Sam had every right to be angry at this woman. After all, his grandfather and his entire legacy was nearly destroyed, and that might have been prevented if only she had told Henry what she had seen. Instead, Sam treated her with compassion. I loved it.

What is Crowley up to? That whole little fake-out with the "hunter" was really intriguing. Also, at Emerald City Comicon, Mark Sheppard said he was the one who insisted on saying "we’re besties" at the end of that little exchange!

Sam and Dean's phone calls. You know, in the past few episodes, we haven't had any real conversations between Sam and Dean about the state of their broken brotherhood. But still, it's abundantly clear that things are not all well between them. I loved Sam's hesitance when he told Dean he was just "checking in" to make sure he was alright. And when they talked on the phone, Sam couldn't just come out and say he was worried about Dean, but he could manage to say "stay safe." This odd little contrast between the obvious love and care that they have for one another, and the way they've been acting lately is just so interesting to see. Jared and Jensen do a great job with it, as of course I would expect.

I've been doing a good job lately of keeping these things to a manageable length, so I'll stop there. This was a strong episode, even if it didn't have a ton of sparkle. Kudos to Misha on his direction, though! He did a lovely job for a first timer.

7.5/10