Supernatural: The Bad Place (13x09)

You know, I'm tempted to say that this is jumping the shark, but... nah. Not really. This show can basically do whatever the heck it wants at this point.

Cons:

I miss Cas a lot. I'm annoyed that he returned from the dead just to get predictably sidelined. It's such a tired pattern. Why can't Misha appear in more episodes? I do not get it.

We have a subplot that's leading us in to Wayward Sisters quite nicely, with Patience finally going to join Jody. I had one problem with it, though. Patience tells her father that she needs to go and help, and her father says that if she chooses this life, she's not welcome to return home. This felt like a cheap cliche to get Patience away from her father and give her an excuse to live with Jody. After what happened with Missouri, you'd think that Patience's father would know better than to cut family members off for his own stupid reasons. It felt out of character.

Pros:

But whatever. Honestly, this episode kicked ass. First, we've got Kaia. I assume she's the fourth and final "sister" in the whole Wayward Sisters thing? She's pretty great. Bringing in another young woman of color is a smart idea, and she even makes a snarky comment about how she's not blonde and white and therefore isn't worth anybody's time as a damsel in distress. That was great. I also like that even though she has problems, she's not a basket case and she's able to help Jack out in the end. I can't wait to see more of this character. Between her and Patience, and then Claire and Alex... this new show seems like it's going to be really cool!

Sam and Dean find Jack, but at first they're starting to doubt him. Sam doesn't want to believe the worst, but the clues seem to point to the idea of Jack searching for Lucifer to reunite with him. Of course, it turns out that he's been looking for Mary, and he's able to show Sam and Dean that their mother is indeed alive in the apocalypse world. I like that there's no belaboring of the Jack guilt angle. He obviously feels horrible for taking a life, and he obviously still has issues to untangle. But at the same time, he wasn't planning on staying gone forever. He was hunting down information about Mary, and he was doing that in order to "bring a win" home to the Winchesters, just like Cas has done in the past.

The angels are really not messing around - they want Jack, and they may very well depend upon him for their continued survival. Their assault on Sam, Dean, Jack, and Kaia was wicked intense, even if it did suffer a bit from plot contrivance. Since when does warding have a time limit? Since when is it this easy to break through? Whatever. It looked cool, and it made for a bad-ass and intense climax.

Let's talk about Sam and Dean for a moment before we get to the big thing. Dean is horrified to learn that Sam was right about Mary. Not horrified that she's still alive, but horrified that he gave up on her. He resolves to get her back, no matter the cost. This leads to a moment where Dean Winchester, the hero and protagonist of this show, pulls a gun on Kaia, a teenage girl, forcing her to come with them to help Jack locate Mary. Wow. That was seriously low. Sam is horrified at Dean's actions, but Dean just repeats that they need to get to their mom. No matter what. Dean does offer a brief apology to Kaia, and it doesn't appear that she's unduly traumatized by all of this... but yikes. This was seriously messed up, and I kind of enjoy how dark we're going with all of this.

So... multiverse. Jack has the ability to open doorways to other worlds, as we've already seen, and Kaia, as a Dreamwalker, can see into these world and help Jack access them. This is what I was hoping we would get back when we introduced the apocalypse world at the end of last season. We see flashes of a couple of different places, and as the angels attack, Jack's power explodes outward, killing them and sending the Winchesters, Kaia, and Jack into other worlds. We see Jack appear at Mary's feet, where she's still being held prisoner. And we see Sam and Dean wake up... in a giant dinosaur footprint.

So, jumping the shark? Jumping the dinosaur? Sure, I guess. But this show has pulled so much stuff over the years that it barely bothers me. Sure! Dinosaurs! I can dig it! I love the idea of Sam and Dean being stuck there for a while, so we can get our backdoor pilot when the show comes back in January. This show is ridiculous but I love it.

8.5/10