Supernatural: Stranger in a Strange Land (14x01)

And we're back. Let's just dive right in.

Cons:

This was a perfectly serviceable episode, but it didn't have some of the high energy and epic moments and intense emotion that I'm used to from a Supernatural premiere. It's possible I wasn't in the right head space. I think part of the problem is that this show is really at its best when Sam and Dean are onscreen together, or rather when Jensen and Jared are onscreen together. As a necessary part of the story, we don't get that here.

I have been really forgiving of Samantha Smith's performance as Mary Winchester, but I've got to be brutally honest and say that she gives kind of a flat read, and she's often a bit unconvincing. Sam is so clearly devastated by what's happened to Dean, and Mary is supposed to be, too. It's just... not totally gripping me.

I don't ordinarily comment on the direction and editing, but the fight scene between Sam, Mary, Bobby, Jack, and the random girl whose name I haven't learned on one side, and random demons on the other was... badly edited. The pacing was weird, there was odd zooms ans slow-motion... it looked ridiculous. Bad fight choreography and editing and directing. Or at least one of those things.

At one point the Crowley wanna-be demon, Kip, points out that Cas is basically only good for being bait for the Winchesters. We've seen Cas do plenty of bad-ass things in the past, but it must be said that this show is pretty wildly inconsistent with Cas' capabilities. Sometimes he's totally competent, and other times he's kind of an idiot, getting himself into trouble and finding himself too weak to deal with stuff that Sam can take care of, no problem. I don't want Cas to be a joke!

Okay, one other note: The CW screwed up pretty big by trying to be clever with an advertisement. There was a commercial for the new Halloween movie with the famous character Michael, so they showed a clip of Sam asking Nick (Lucifer's vessel) about "Michael" so they could ease in to the commercial. The problem? This little clip came before we had seen Nick in the episode, and the moment when that happens was supposed to be a big reveal. We get Sam walking hesitantly into the room, we see a figure in shadow, and slowly we see that it's Mark Pellegrino's face. This "surprise" was totally undercut by the ad. Bummer.

Pros:

But while we're at it, let's talk about Nick, shall we? I can completely understand why a lot of people are less than thrilled to see Mark Pellegrino hanging around. It doesn't make a lick of sense, for one thing - how on earth did this vessel survive all of that? Also, is this just a way for Lucifer to stealthily come back at some point? Because that would really undercut a lot of the tension. All that said, I think Mark Pellegrino is a good actor, and I'm excited that we get to keep him around. They also seem to be taking Sam's past trauma seriously for once, as he is clearly very uncomfortable around Nick, seeing the face of his tormentor when he looks at him. Jared did a great job with that.

It's a little too early to say for sure, but I really like the potential with having the Apocalypse world people around. Now that Michael is terrorizing this dimension, maybe they will be able to go back home at some point and save their own world, but for the time being it's cool to have something of a bigger ensemble around. They hang out in the bunker, they make food, they go on organized hunts, planned and led by Sam Winchester. It's a totally different feel, and I'm really curious to see if they actually keep it up for a while instead of just doing a typical three-and-out thing like they usually do with shake-ups to the structure of the show. I think we can still do C-plot episodes with this gang around, and I hope we do. At any rate, it's definitely nice to have some version of Bobby back on the show!

Poor Jack. I love this kid and I feel for him so much. He's struggling without his grace. He feels useless, and no amount of pep talk from Sam or Bobby can fix that. However, he does come along with Sam on the mission to save Cas, and hopefully he will learn to see his value, separate from his powers. I'm thrilled that Jack has become such a big part of the show. I was so nervous about him at the beginning of last season, and now I just love him to pieces and hope he's around for the long haul. Hearing Sam try to comfort him gave me all the feels.

God. Sam. He's just devastated. He's exhausted, and stressed, he has a sexy depression beard, and he looks on the verge of bursting into tears at any second. We see how he's holding it together for the sake of the people around him. He's ordering troops around on vampire hunts, he's checking in on Jack, he's trying to help out Nick, he's going on rescue missions to get Cas back, all while barely holding on to his control.

I loved the moment in the car between Sam and Mary, when he tells her to stop with the empty platitudes that they'll be able to get Dean back, that Cas will be okay... Sam is hyper-aware of the fact that Dean is gone, that he has no idea where is brother is, if Dean is even alive. Of course Sam will never stop looking for him. Of course. But he doesn't want to keep pretending to be optimistic. We see how various characters are handling Dean being gone throughout the episode. But the final exchange we see is between Sam and Cas, both expressing that they would do anything in the world to get Dean back. Mary is Dean's mother, but the show appropriately shows us the two people in the world who Dean loves the most, the only two people who can truly understand each other's pain and fear. That's Sam and Cas, and I love that the show seems to know that.

Also, a quick update on how much of a bad-ass Sam Winchester has come to be: holy shit! He took down Kip, which was a relief (I don't want a knock-off Crowley, thanks much), and he literally shouted down the rest of the demons and got them to run scared. Sam Winchester has declared that there will be no new King of Hell, and it seems that at least for the moment, the demons are heeding that warning. Yes! You tell 'em, Sammy!

It was so strange to have a full episode of Supernatural without Dean Winchester in it. Jensen is doing a pretty good job playing Michael, although I did notice a few Dean mannerisms creeping in. I like that we didn't get too much Michael. His ultimate plan is still something of a mystery. He wants to understand people's motivations, and thus far he seems disappointed by what he views as humanity's hypocrisy. He finds Sister Jo, which means we got a fun scene between Jensen and Danneel, and it looks like Jo is, at least mostly, on the side of the angels. By which I mean not the angel Michael, but the good guys.

In the past, whenever we've had some big shake-up separating the brothers, we've gotten back to status-quo fairly quickly. Demon Dean was cured at the end of the third episode of the season. Sam and Dean were reunited immediately in episodes 4x01, 6x01, and 8x01, after their various deaths and resurrections/escapes. I mentioned that the energy of this show is best when Jensen and Jared share the screen. But at the same time, I would love to see them actually play the long-game here. What would it look like if Jensen Ackles actually played Michael until the midseason break? What would it be like if we actually waited until 2019 to see Sam and Dean reunite? It seems highly unlikely, but I do hope they stretch it out a little further than usual this time.

In all, this wasn't the strongest premiere ever, but Sam and Cas gave me enough good material, and there are various other little threads that look like they have the potential to be really cool in future!

7.5/10