Supernatural: Mint Condition (14x04)

A simple C-plot episode with lots of great brotherly moments. I'm pretty pleased.

Cons:

Just some of the same complaints I often have about this show and its horrible exposition. There's a moment when Sam comes in to Dean's room, and Dean rattles off a summary of the main plots - Cas is off showing Jack the ropes, they have no leads on Michael, the weapon is gone with Dark!Kaia. It's a blatant info-dump and it's clumsy.

I saw the entire internet complaining about one other thing, and while I wanted to be unique, I have to admit that it bothered me too. Throughout the whole episode, Sam expresses his dislike for Halloween. In the end, Dean finally gets him to fess up the reason: when he was in the 6th grade, he threw up on his crush at a Halloween party. Okay... no. Do you remember the Season Three Christmas episode, where Dean gets on Sam about hating Christmas? Turns out, Sam's dislike for the holiday is tied up in unhappy childhood memories, and on ruminating that it's going to be Dean's last Christmas before getting dragged to Hell. That was a meaningful answer to the question, one that elevated the themes of the season and added insight to the characters. Here, it's a one-note joke answer, after a whole episode of buildup. And you know what? There were several better answers just ready for the taking! Sam could have expanded a bit more on how their lives are constantly scary, and how he maybe resents the care-free attitudes of those who don't know the truth. Or, even better, the dude could have brought up Jessica, who Sam saw alive for the last time on Halloween, right before Dean whisked him away to look for John in the pilot! Two answers, either of which would have added something to the story. Instead, it's just a weird one-off? This seemed really out of place to me.

Wow. Sorry. I didn't realize I had that much of a rant in me about that one brief moment. Let's turn to the good stuff, shall we?

Pros:

Like I said, this was a fairly standard C-plot episode, but I mean that in a good way. We got a basic case, an easy-to-follow story, we got to see Sam and Dean work together, and also work separately to defeat the bad guy, and in the end everything worked out for the best. We even got the traditional spooky ending where it's implied that maybe the bad guy will come back for further revenge... dun dun dunnnn.

I like how this episode draped itself in the trappings of a traditional horror flick but didn't go too far with it. We see lots of clips from these fake slasher movies, and even a trailer, which was hilarious, but there aren't too many absurd moments to the point where it lost all sense of reality. The ghost inhabits a life-size figurine of Dean's favorite horror baddie, so Dean gets to actually fight with a real-life manifestation of him. There's also the hospital security guards watching a scary movie while a real-life version of the same scene is playing out on the security cameras. This is Supernatural camp at its finest.

We see the return of Dean the Nerd in a big way in this episode, and I am all about it. Him and one of the comic-book owners geek out over these movies, discussing which are their favorites, and which horror movie kills they like the most. It's fun to see Dean let loose in this way and let his geek flag fly. We also get some nice insight into why Dean likes these horror movies. He says he likes watching a story where he knows the bad guy is going to lose. While Sam rejects Halloween stuff for his own reasons, Dean seems to embrace the fakeness of it all as a nice escapist contrast to the reality of his life. This is an unsurprising revelation, and tracks very well with what we already know about these characters.

Supernatural has had a spotty track record portraying nerd and geek culture in the past, so whenever we get an episode like this I'm a little anxious about how it will all go down. But here, I'm happy to report that nerd culture was portrayed respectfully. There's the one nerd who is overzealous and a little unhinged, but he's not portrayed as completely inhuman, and he has two friends who really care about him and help keep him on track. They all love nerd stuff and talk about the ins and outs of comic books, video games, films, and more. It felt more true to fandom as I experience it (in the good segments of fandom, of course).

There's a BM at the end of the episode, as Sam tells Dean that he needs to stop hiding out in his room, and Dean agrees, even though he says he'll never get over what happened with Michael. Again, I'm glad we're exploring Dean's pain and trauma. It's encouraging to know that this isn't going to be swept under the rug. Of course, I'm sure Michael will be back in some shape or form very soon, but for now we get to explore how Dean's experiences have hurt and changed him. Even though it was obvious already, it was still nice to hear Sam talk about Dean's reasons for saying yes to Michael. He did it for Sam and Jack, and nobody can blame him for that.

So, I hated Sam's reason for hating Halloween, but I kind of loved Dean's response to it. He says that he and Sam should do Halloween right next year, and dress up in matching costumes. He throws out a lot of ideas, but rejects Bert and Ernie as being too weird, which I thought was a fun little moment for the Destiel crowd, even if it was unintentional. I was a little miffed for Crowley's sake that Dean didn't mention Rocky and Bullwinkle, but that's okay!

Next week looks like another C-plot, but the promo was incredibly vague. Hopefully it's another good one!

8.5/10