Supernatural – Here be dragons

So, the first question that comes to mind for me this week is, “Are you ready to have soulful Sammy back?” After the way “Appointment In Samarra” ended, this was the likely outcome. But I do kind of miss the drama and chaos that lurked around every corner when T1000 Sam was with us. That’s not to say that there won’t be any drama from the return of the whole Sam. We got that first little peek as he endeavored to discover what Dean and Bobby were hiding from him. The real story moving forward will come from how long Death’s wall will hold. You are expecting some cracks sooner, rather than later, right? Even if you do miss Sam sans soul, this was a good way to bring the series back after an extended break.

I was also a big fan of the case of the week. Jumping right back in to a largely stand-a-lone story is par for the course, and this one easily surpassed my expectations. I had heard that there would be dragons. My first reaction to that was one of skepticism. Visions of cheesy Syfy Saturday movies danced in my head. Of course, I was silly to not trust that the team back at Supernatural HQ would have their own brilliant spin on “dragons.” The Supernatural universe dragon is very cool, and a creature that I suspect we’ll be seeing more of before the season is done.

Surely they’ll be in henchman form when the boys finally have their confrontation with “Mother.” It’s way too early to call, with only those brief few seconds of introduction, but so far I’m a fan of where this latest bigger picture story is headed. She does call to mind the story of Lilith, although one would suspect that being the “mother of all” carries a little more power. More importantly, it’s another good example of the thing that Supernatural does so well. They’re never afraid to finish a story. Azazel, Lilith, Lucifer, Crowley. … The writers are always ready to bring an end to one big story and move on to the next. And I’m always happy to move along with them.

Things between Sam and Dean played out mostly as expected. If there was one surprise to me it was that there wasn’t more of a fight in their final pow-wow. It was much more of a calm and rational discussion than I have come to expect from the two of them over the past couple of seasons. I suppose we can chalk it up to still settling in to the new soul.

Despite all of that goodness, I think Bobby kind of stole the show. At the end of the day, I leave “Like A Virgin” most curious about just what happened between him and Dr. Visyak (Kim Johnston Ulrich). That’s a cool character, and her secretive references to her relationship with Bobby seem ripe for exploration. I hope we’ll get to see a little more where those two are concerned.

Finally, perhaps it was a case of no new episodes for nearly two months, but it sure seemed like the quotable lines were flying fast and furious this week. A few of my favorites.

• “She was already de-hymenated. I think it just goes to show that being easy is all upside.” – Dean
• “What kind of thing likes virgins and gold?” – Sam
  “P-Diddy?” – Dean
• “They’re not like the Loch Ness Monster, Dean. Dragons aren’t real.” – Bobby
  “Could you make a few calls?” – Dean
  “To who, Hogwarts?” – Bobby
• “Where’d you get that?” – Dragon, asking about Dean’s sword
  “ComiCon.” – Dean

Bonus tip: Because of the scheduling shenanigans, it appears that next week’s episode is already available in iTunes, if you can’t wait.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Feb 05, 2011 @ 17:40 EST5EDT