Supernatural: Regarding Dean (12x11)

As much as I love the angst and pain on Supernatural, I will freely admit that most of their best episodes have been comedic, with a nice strong heartfelt foundation. Think about "Mystery Spot," an episode that takes a turn for the dark, obviously, but that has at its core a lot of laughs. When I saw the description for this episode a while back, I wondered if they'd be taking a dramatic or a comedic take on the idea. I'm pretty happy with the results!

Cons:

Our plot is basic - a witch places a curse on Dean, who slowly starts to forget everything. Rowena comes in to help. I liked the basics, and I liked most of what came out of it. But it's always a little frustrating when the bad guys are super generic. This family of witches was instantly forgettable. I didn't care about them or feel particularly threatened by them at all. I could have used a bit more nuance with them.

Also, I felt like the drama/comedy balance in this episode was mostly great, but there was just one moment I thought failed - at the end, Dean comes in to save the day with witch killing bullets. He sees one of the witches, then sees Sam, and hesitates, pointing his gun between them. He doesn't remember who Sam is, so he's not sure who to shoot. Sam just tells him - I'm your brother, that guy's a witch - and Dean shoots the witch. This could have been a great moment, if the witch hadn't just stood there and let it happen. Maybe he could have tried to convince Dean that Sam was the witch. And then Dean could shoot the witch, and when asked why he picked the way he did, we could see that Dean has some sort of inherent sense about Sam. After all, he remembered Sam's name after forgetting his own. This could have been a very powerful moment. As it was, it's not like it was bad, it was just... eh.

Pros:

I laughed out loud watching this episode. Jensen Ackles has such amazing comedic talent. It's always a treat when he gets to stretch his comedy legs on Supernatural, and it hasn't happened effectively in far too long. I loved Dean's utter delight upon learning about the world of the supernatural. He was just so happy about witch killing bullets, and "our best friend's an angel... whaaaaat?!" Dean giggles delightedly at Scooby Doo, is fascinated by Rowena's bouncy hair, and says "cool!" upon seeing what he believes to be his "first dead body." We also get to see him ride a mechanical bull - and enjoy it a little too much - at the end of the episode, which just capped off this hour beautifully. It's all funny, and light, and kind of sweet. Dean is reverting back to this simplistic person who doesn't know what's going on, and who seems to be oddly okay with that. At least to start.

Of course, Jensen can really pull out all the stops when it comes to angst, as well. The critical scene is when he's in the bathroom, looking into the mirror and repeating: "My name is Dean Winchester. Sam is my brother. Mary is my mom, and Cas is my best friend." He's trying to remember, but each time he says it, the truth of his identity is slipping away from him. When he finally admits to himself that he can't remember his own name, it's a real punch to the gut. This is what makes the episode so effective - at this point in the show's long run, no viewer is worried for either Winchester brother's life, especially not in a C-plot episode. But Dean losing his memories? Losing who he is? That's actually a really effective way of ramping up the drama.

The end of this episode sums up the point - Sam says he felt a little jealous of Dean. Losing his memories meant losing all the horrors of their admittedly horrible lives. And Dean admits that Sam has a point - letting go of his burdens for a bit was really nice. But Dean doesn't want to forget the people he loves - he'd rather take the good with the bad. Not the most original of messages, but it was really well done.

Rowena was an unexpected treat in this episode. She can easily be annoying or superfluous, but here it made sense that they would call in their one witch-y asset to help with a witch-related problem. Rowena using Dean to vent some of her personal insecurities was really great. Basically, she knows Dean won't remember, so she feels free to talk a bit more openly about things. She says that her quest for power has always been a quest for happiness, but now that she's seen how unhappy God and Amara were, she's starting to think she has no chance to be really satisfied. It was emotionally effective, and a nice way to have Dean be a sounding board for the motivations of one of our longest lasting baddies.

C-plot episodes of Supernatural often fail to integrate the A-plot in a way that makes sense, but this episode actually did so quite well. There was heavy mention of the other absent characters, especially Cas and Mary, and as Dean kept forgetting everything, it gave Sam an excuse to remind him of their goals: find Lucifer's baby mama. I always appreciate the effort to make the C-plot episodes feel a little less isolated.

Like I said, I'm glad this episode chose to go the comedic route. There's a part of me that wanted more of the angst - I wanted to see how hard it was on Sam to watch his brother forget him. I wanted Dean to freak out at the thought of forgetting the people he loves. I mean, we got one scene of it, but more would have been great. My soul feeds on Winchester angst. But that's a personal preference thing. This episode was better for the fact that it kept things light, while still heartwarming.

And holy mother of Chuck did you guys see the promo for next week?!?! I'm so excited. That's where I'll leave off. Seriously, go watch it if you haven't seen it.

8/10