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    'Supernatural' Season 6, Episode 8 Recap

    by Maureen Ryan, posted Nov 14th 2010 8:50PM
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    ['Supernatural' - 'All Dogs Go to Heaven']

    Sure, it would be tempting to describe Friday's episode of 'Supernatural' as a dog, but that wouldn't be fair or accurate.

    Actually, Friday's solid episode was a good example of how monsters of the week episodes will probably work going forward. As such, it was a pretty satisfying outing.

    On the one hand, 'All Dogs Go to Heaven' was an old-school, let's-work-a-case episode in which the brothers faced off with a reasonably interesting foe. On the other, it layered in aspects of the new "me Charlie, you angels" of the Winchesters' relationship with Captain Snarky, a.k.a. Crowley. The brothers weren't just working the case for kicks; they had to worry about making enough progress to keep their new boss relatively happy (well, whatever passes for happy in Crowley's little corner of Hell).

    That dilemma -- working for a boss they hate in order to (possibly) save Sam -- feels much more 'Supernatural'-sized than the prevention of the Apocalypse. That was such a massive crisis that any Season 5 episode that didn't dwell on it tended to feel like stalling. But this season, as I wrote last week, has several meaty yet manageable story lines that may end up supplying intriguing payoffs.

    First and foremost, obviously, is the Save Sam campaign (or the Save the Person Who Is Not Really Sam campaign, more accurately). Getting Sam's soul back is the brothers' primary motivation -- even Sam himself realizes that the "harder" life of Sam-with-a-soul is the preferable mode of existence.

    But there are obviously some hitches there. As we saw in this episode, Crowley can still make Sam's life (and, by extension, Dean's life) hellish, despite the fact that both brothers are topside these days. As Crowley made clear, they're facing a "hostage situation" in which their failure to follow Crowley's orders could have a very terrible outcome for Sam. (Oh, I can't wait for the brothers' performance review. I have a feeling that might not go well.)

    The problem with the brothers' deal is, everything Crowley says is likely to be a lie. Sure, Sam's soul isn't in his body, that much we know for sure. Does Crowley really have the keys to the cage holding Lucifer and Michael? Does he really have the kind of mojo to put Sam's soul back, even if he could get it? And finally, does he intend to stick to the terms of their deal?

    The Winchesters are smart enough to suspect that, even if they served up half a dozen alphas to Crowley, he still might not honor the agreement they have with him. The Crowley we know would surely have no problem getting what he wanted from the Winchesters, then cutting them loose -- unless they can get some kind of leverage on him.

    But at this point, as Dean pointed out, they don't have much of a choice but to honor the agreement. Until they have a better plan, they've going to have to work for Crowley. But 'All Dogs Go to Heaven' made it clear that the Desouled!Sam is not exactly an ideal hunting partner.

    Sure, he doesn't need sleep (that's got to be handy on those long drives). But the downside is that his relentlessness allows him to live with snap judgments that may actually be wrong. Often people deliberate over decisions because they fear the consequences of bad choices -- guilt, emotional turmoil, blame, self-doubt, etc. Sam doesn't fear any of those things, because he doesn't feel them. He's actually a dangerous hunting partner because he may decide on a course of action without calculating all the human and emotional costs.

    Also, he's kind of a dick. Am I right? That was most evident when the brothers were questioning Lucky-as-a-human. Sam was taunting the guy with dog "jokes" that, as Dean pointed out, weren't helping at all. In various ways in this episode and others, we've seen how desouled!Sam is not only dangerous but, well, soulless in ways that made him a bit unpleasant.

    Here's the thing about that: I don't mind it so far. They've at least had Sam himself recognize his dickishness, and the fact that he's motivated to become a better man by getting his soul back counts for a lot.

    Also, at this stage of the game, Jared Padalecki is doing such an outstanding job of playing desouled!Sam that I can't argue with that story line yet. There's part of me that wonders if I'll get tired of that version of Sam as the season wears on, but truthfully, at this stage, I'm still interested to see Jared play this version of the character and I'm enjoying how this new version of Sam is affecting the brothers' relationship.

    Maybe the analogy between Lucky and Dean was a little heavy-handed: "This week's theme is family members who don't really belong." But Lucky and the dog pack were a reasonably interesting crew, and if the story took a couple of short cuts (just how did they find that second victim so fast?), I was willing to live with that, because 'Dogs' was a well-paced hour that had substance and quite a bit of humor, as was the case with last week's episode. (Some great Sam lines: "Already been [to Hell]. Didn't agree with me"; "[Skinwalkers] chow hearts like Snausages.")

    If there's one thing I struggled with in watching the episode, it was Dean's choice late in the episode. When he had to pick between going for the Alpha -- and thus pleasing the boss man -- or saving the 150 civilians the pack was planning to turn, he very quickly picked the civilians over his brother.

    That choice does very much play into Dean's savior complex -- he couldn't live with the idea of that many innocent people getting sucked into some murky, probably Hell-connected plot. But, given Crowley's willingness to not only torture Sam but put him back in the cage, why didn't we see Dean struggle with that decision a bit more?

    As it was, it almost felt as though he'd given up on Sam and/or the quest for his soul. And that doesn't feel right for the man who believes so much in family. Well, OK, clearly Dean's ideas about family are evolving, but surely he believes in saving his brother.

    I completely get that Dean is, at this point, a little frightened of Sam, given Sam's blithe admission that he could double-cross his own brother quite easily. There's a coldness to Sam's calculations that Dean is clearly still adjusting to. All I'm saying is, it felt somewhat odd that Dean didn't wrestle with the implications his choice might have for Sam, or that he didn't try that hard to come up with a solution that would allow the brothers bag the Alpha and save the civilians.

    Overall, I was willing to go along with what transpired, because Dean probably thought the Winchesters could some how outwit Crowley and get him to back off, even if they didn't grab an Alpha this time around. As we saw in this episode, Crowley doesn't appear to be a hands-on employer (aside from that part where he put his hand on Sam's hand -- meanest motivation scheme ever!). Crowley clearly wasn't keeping very close tabs on the brothers, or we would have seen him pop up for a progress report before the end of the episode.

    I guess we have to take it on faith that he's willing to give the brothers some breathing room as they go about trying to find Alphas. After all, if he kills either of them or puts both of them in Hell, that just impedes his own plans.

    In any case, I don't know that I'd call Dean's quick decision to save the civilians a problem per se, it's just one aspect of the episode I'm still pondering a couple days after watching the episode. Overall I found that 'Dogs' was pretty satisfying and full of good moments small and large.

    Still, who didn't squick out a little (or a lot) in that scene in which Lucky was in Mandy's bed? It was bad enough that she called him the best boyfriend ever, but when he watched her get in the shower -- bad dog! Dirty dog! OK, in all seriousness, Lucky's story went right up to the edge of good taste but it stayed on the right side of it, in the end. Lucky's plight wasn't played entirely for laughs -- in fact, his tortured apology to Mandy was quite sad, as was his departure from her life (the poor pup wandering away. Sniff!).

    We got a bit of new information about skinwalkers, who are, like every other critter clan out there, building an army. What's that all about? We're just getting pieces of that story, but so far, I'm digging the slow build on the non-human armies (the Seven Nation Army?). Surely that's tied to the turmoil in heaven, the return of Sam and Samuel, Crowley's ascension and the demon's Purgatory land grab. We know what the brothers' situation is at this point, but we don't quite know how all these pieces fit together, and I'm enjoying the discovery of one or two more clues each week.

    There seems to be a pattern developing this season, though -- there are big ol' information dumps or serious emotional confrontations at the end of each episode. The final scene between Sam and Dean was by far the most important one of the episode. Though the rest of the episode was solid enough, it almost felt as though the whole story was built around giving the brothers the chance to have that conversation.

    Sam isn't Sam, he admitted; he's not really Dean's brother because he doesn't possess a soul. This scene was tremendously well acted by Jared and by Jensen Ackles. It was so subtle, but recall the look on Dean's face when Sam talked about how "nothing really hurts" when you don't have a soul. Dean would love that, on some level -- his face certainly communicated how much he'd love a break from the pain. And it was almost heartbreaking to see Sam wonder what it would be like to be "a real boy," as it were.

    In any event, it was certainly hard for Dean to hear all that from his brother -- or not-brother -- and their partnership threatens to test him more than anything has tested him in the past. Dean will have to be compassionate enough for both brothers, which will be a difficult burden for a man who's tried to lock away and put a lid on his feelings.

    A couple of notes:

    • Now that we've set the stage for everything that will transpire this season, wouldn't you say it's about time for some Ben Edlund goodness? I can't wait for next week's episode, that's all I'm saying. I'm hoping for a dementedly hilarious and/or haunting pre-Thanksgiving treat. One of my fave 'Supernatural' sites, the SuperWiki, has some details on the episode.

    • Like 'Supernatural'? Check back here at the Stay Tuned site midweek. That's all I'm gonna say.

    • Oh, one more thing -- I guested on the Tuning In to Sci Fi TV podcast this week -- I talked 'Supernatural' for an hour with Wendy Hembrock from that site and Tina Charles from TVGuide.com. It was so much fun. Hope you enjoy it if you get a chance to listen!

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    'Supernatural' airs 9PM ET Fridays on the CW.


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