Supernatural: There's No Place Like Home (10x11)

Charlie!! CHARLIE! Charlie Charlie Charlie! Or should I say Celeste? Okay - I'm clearly excited about Charlie. But what about the rest of the episode? Let's dive in.

As Sam and Dean are searching for info on Mark of Cain, Sam comes across a disturbing video of Charlie beating somebody up. They both want to give her the benefit of the doubt - it's possible that she's just hunting something. However, they feel the need to go track her down. They find Charlie by talking to the victims of her torturing, and discovering who her next target is likely to be. It looks like Charlie is tracking down people connected to her parents' deaths.

They do find Charlie - and she seems pretty darn evil. She is able to fight Dean and get away. At this point, another Charlie pulls up in a car, her old chipper self. What's going on? Well, Charlie fills us in: in Oz, there was a great battle for Emerald City, and the good guys were losing. She made a deal with the Wizard to save the city. To do so, she needed to unleash her true darkness using a special key to open the soul. Apparently this was meant literally, and now there are two Charlies: Dark!Charlie and Good!Charlie.

Dean is sent to go keep an eye on Dark!Charlie to stop her from hurting the man who hit her parents in a drunk driving accident. Unfortunately, Dean fails - he believes Dark!Charlie when she says that she just wants to make this guy look at her and understand everything he had taken from her. Dean is fooled into letting her enter the room with the guy, but Charlie quickly closes and locks the door, kills the man, and then jumps out the window. She gets away in the Impala.

Meanwhile, Sam and Charlie have been doing research about the key that could get them back to Oz, and therefore could lead to putting the two Charlies back together. It looks like there's an old man, Clive Dylan, who used to be in the Men of Letters, and who has also been to Oz. They find his house, and learn that the same thing happened to him as happened to Charlie. The evil version of Clive Dylan is the Wizard himself. The only way to get the Wizard to come is to mortally wound Clive - since they are the same person, if one of them gets hurt, so does the other one. When Clive hurts himself, the Wizard appears. He incapacitates Sam.

Outside, Dean has just shown up to join Sam and Charlie, when Dark!Charlie follows him. She goads Dean into a fight. As Dean hurts Dark!Charlie, Good!Charlie feels the pain of it. Good!Charlie manages to get a gun and shoot Clive, with his blessing. This kills Clive and the Wizard. Broken and bloodied, the two halves of Charlie can now be put back together with the help of the Wizard's magic key.

Dean feels horribly guilty for what he did to Charlie, but Charlie says she forgives him. She sets off to go track down a possible lead on the Mark of Cain, while Sam tells Dean that he knows they can figure this out - together. Dean isn't broken yet - he's determined to keep going.

If I were to have one complaint, it's that this episode sort of hits you over the head with its message. Charlie having a good and an evil half is obviously meant to represent Dean's inner darkness. There was no attempt at subtlety in this message. Supernatural likes to do C-plot episodes that parallel Sam and Dean's problems, but this one was too on the nose, even for this show.

Also - no Dorothy! I hope they find a way to bring her back at some point. I would sooo watch a spin-off about Charlie and Dorothy's epic romance in Oz.

But I did ultimately like this episode, even if it was about as subtle as a brick wall. Let's go ahead and talk about the good stuff.

First of all, this episode plays homage to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and to Star Trek: The Original Series. Each of these shows has an episode where a character is split in two - in Buffy it's Xander, and in Star Trek it's Kirk. The lessons are the same - the evil, dark side is obviously bad news, but the good side is deficient without it. Xander is a total wimp without his dark side, and Kirk has no command authority without a bit of evil inside of him. The same sort of thing is happening here: Dark!Charlie is pretty much without redemption, but she's still recognizably Charlie. The good Charlie is much more the character we all know and love, but she doesn't have the guts to hack into things, or to flirt with people. She's the stereotypical "good girl," and that's never been Charlie. It's not a particularly original or complicated idea, but I liked seeing Supernatural's take on this classic Sci-Fi trope.

Some acting accolades: Felicia Day! She did a fantastic job playing these two different versions of Charlie. I enjoyed the fact that Dark!Charlie still had that essence of Charlie within her, and Good!Charlie was sort of missing some of her spunk. She also did a fantastic job of breaking my heart when she was injured and crying.

Jensen Ackles. He looked like a poor, lost puppy for most of this episode. Dean is trying as hard as he can not to relapse and become an uncontrollable monster again, but it's not easy. He's quit drinking (wow, canonical recognition of Dean's alcoholism!), is eating healthier, and is even trying to listen to relaxation tapes. The frustrating thing is that no matter what, Dean doesn't feel strong enough. Along comes Charlie, one of the sweetest, most supportive people he knows, and everything is all messed up with her. She betrays him - but worse than that, she seems to have been corrupted by Sam and Dean's lifestyle. Dean can't reconcile the Charlie he loves to this evil woman in front of him. And then, even worse than that? He hurts her! He hurts the sweet, kind good Charlie because he can't control his own addiction to the Mark. He's not strong enough. It's a heartbreaking character arc for poor Dean. He's trying so hard, but it's still not good enough.

Jared Padalecki didn't have as much to do in this episode, but Sam's constant worry and silent, stoic support of Dean is really touching. You can see the fear boiling just beneath the surface, but Sam is doing everything he can to be a solid support system for Dean. It's lovely and it's going to hurt so bad when Dean inevitably relapses again.

Cas wasn't in this episode, but we did get two phone-call scenes, where Sam and Cas talk about Dean. It's adorable that Cas is checking up on Dean - but I do have a question: why isn't he in the bunker? I mean, I know why Misha can't be in all the episodes. But what's the show's flimsy excuse for why Cas isn't around? I really, really want Cas and Charlie to meet! It's my dream!

I think that's all I really have to say. This show is going to be the death of me, I swear.

8/10