Photo Courtesy Of The CW
Warning: Spoiler Alert
In the spirit of full disclosure, The CW series “Supernatural,” is a show that’s loved by almost, if not all the staff at NJATVS. Supernatural’s a poster child for a “cult-series,” as most viewers assumed that the show now in its tenth season, got axed by the network years ago. However, to fans of the show, the week-to-week exploits of Sam and Dean Winchester, guarantee that we’ll watch at least one-hour of television every week.
The show doesn’t generate strong numbers for The CW, or hits for this publication, we’ve held meetings on the subject of whether we should devote the time to write a weekly recap of the show. Although the math weighs in the other direction, I continue to recap this series as a labor of love. Now with my praise for the series, actors and show-runners acknowledged, it pains me to write that so far season ten has been a huge disappointment, the latest episode entitled “Hibbing 911,” while entertaining, became another in a series of episodes that’s failed to progress the season’s major storyline.
Every Supernatural fan, knows the drill, each season contains a major storyline and the series gets filled in with what’s termed as “one-offs,” episodes that are outside of the big picture, many times bringing back a reoccurring character. But the problem so far in season ten’s the lack of a major storyline, after Dean reverted back to human after existing as a demon in the first three episodes of the campaign. The closest element this season’s got that could become the main storyline, concerns “The Mark Of Cain,” given to Dean last season by the evil son of Adam and Eve. Apparently the older Winchester brother wants to rid himself of the mark, as he feels it still controls him.
The answer’s relatively simple, as the King Of Hell Crowley asked Dean last season, if he wanted to rid himself of the mark, after Winchester grumbled about it. Dean, on a mission to destroy Crowley’s rival Abaddon, declined quickly at the time, but except for the bad-blood, between the two former besties, what’s stopped Dean from approaching Crowley about his aid in removing “The Mark Of Cain“? That could lead off into a bunch of different directions, as we’re aware Crowley won’t help Winchester without bettering his own lot.
This episode “The Mark Of Cain,” got brought up twice once in the beginning and once as the hour concluded. They opened the episode with Dean trying to find any information on the mark and in the final scene, he tells Sam that he didn’t feel the mark pushing him as it had ever since he returned to humanity. If we had the last four episodes leading up to that point, then that’s great information to garner from a “one-off,” however even in the previous episode featuring Castiel and Crowley, the matter wasn’t discussed. Now, that looks like the situation could get rectified next week, but more about that later.
This episode gave us two, old friend Sheriff Jodi Mills, whose worked with “THE BOYS,” on lots of cases. The other returnee was Sheriff Donna Hanscum, that many fans remember from an episode a few years ago, entitled “The Purge,” as Sam and Dean rid her Minnesota town of fat-sucking monsters. The contrivance they use to bring the ladies together, a mandatory sheriffs retreat in Hibbing, Minnesota with Jodi and Donna thrown together as the Odd Couple. Jodi, pulls no punches, while Hanscum’s Little Miss Sunshine.
A Graffiti Artist, spray-paints Smiley-Faces under a bridge when he’s interrupted as he hears something, but soon returns to his creativity. We see the silhouette of a hulking figure behind him, then we hear screams and the obligatory stream of blood. It’s explained as a wild animal attack, but we’d know better, even without seeing the attack. When Mills sees the corpse, she calls Sam and Dean and they conveniently drop their research to help bail Jodi out.
Let’s cut to the chase, the attackers who devour two more victims are a coven of vampires, once led by the Hibbing Sheriff, Len Cuse. Len left his family after developing a conscience and survives on blood-bank plasma, wearing plenty of sun-screen to perform his job in daytime hours. The coven, imprisons Cuse, Jodi and Donna plus the Winchester Brothers. They try to convince Cuse to come back to them and he tells them if they let the others escape unharmed from there, he’ll rejoin. The female of the group, a former Woodstock-Era Flower-Child, tells Cuse he needs to kill all four humans. He tells her where to kiss him and she cuts off his head.
Dean and Donna are able to cut the rope, binding their wrists and they kill the remaining four members of the coven, with Donna cutting the head off of the woman, indoctrinating her into the world of hunting. After some bonding between Mills and Hanscum and Sam and Dean discussing the mark, they climb into the Impala and ride off into the night.
As I wrote earlier, it entertained, but we’ve seen this story numerous times throughout the series history, a vampire coven with a former member who now drinks from the bag only? That’s the story of Benny, the vampire that Dean rescued from purgatory. Although Jodi and Donna were great to see, it was just another episode of the show spinning it’s wheels, while in neutral.
However, as I teased above, Hope DOES exist as it appears that the series goes head-on into a story in the next episode, concerning the increasing hold “The Mark Of Cain,” exerts on Dean. All the evil may not have exited from the older Winchester’s body-and-soul and next week, the show’s Winter Finale looks like a wild ride.
The Story Continues Next Tuesday at 9:00pm on The CW.
