Whoa. With the way that the previous episodes were building the back-story up here, I thought that this father of them left Sam and Dean to fend off for their own for more than ten years ago, in typical anime fashion. Of course, this isn’t an anime. This episode revealed that at least three years ago Dean was working together with his father, while Sam was still in college. Looking back, this explains why Dean seemed to be much more… passionate (if that’s the correct word) to any developments regarding their father: he always was the older brother who spent the most time with his father, while his younger brother was still much younger. This episode also hinted that Dean was always with his father, while Sam spend a few years away from him. A few episodes back, I remember how Sam said that Dean was their father’s favourite.
So, six episodes in, and this show is really good. It’s episodic, yet every episode has its purpose. In this case, every episode added new stuff to the main characters’ back-story. Six episodes in, and the pieces of the puzzle are starting to stick together. This episode also introduced the mysterious Jessica. She hasn’t died yet, but the previous episodes are really hinting towards the fact that the same thing that killed Sam and Dean’s mother killed her.
Also, throughout the past six episodes, I noticed that this show likes to use subtle humour once in a while. It’s often just one or two laughs every episode, like how in this episode Sam and Dean’s father delivers a few witty lines about why he didn’t tell Dean that Sam was dating Jessica, but they work surprisingly well. They don’t break the mood, but they nicely flesh out the different characters. In a series that is serious as this one, having a tiny bit of comedy once in a while gets an interesting effect.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
This is the best episode yet. I loved everything about it. The characterizations of John & Jessica were great.
Hmmm… So you haven’t watched the show? I mean the original Live Action show?
maskedguy: nope, I haven’t.
Although there are differences from the live-action, I accept this show as an excellent adaptation.
They even changed some plot-lines and twists that even a surprised me, a hard-core fan of the live-action.
As a veteran watcher of the original network series, and having not seen anything of this animated adaptation, I’m surprised to see you describe the series as being light on the jokes. The Supernatural that I know is as much a comedy as it is an angst-ridden, bromantic science-fiction.
@instantnoodles
Although I guess you can say its light on jokes when it needs to be. I urge you to try some lighthearted humor in the season two finalle(apart from pie).
I always liked the first three seasons of Supernatural, because they managed to balance the humor, genre-savy-ness and etc with real plot and real skin-shivering twists and horror.
It had humor(Dean’s obsession with impala, sam/dean banter, pop culture and music references, Dean’s huge…hm…obsession with women), but it was serious when it needed to be.
It was a crapsack world with quite real middle and bellow, but unknown “up”.
The show did get way less serious on its fourth year, though…