WARNING: IT MAY SEEM OBVIOUS, BUT DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHOW. SOMETIMES I CAN WALK AROUND SPOILERS, BUT I DEFINITELY CAN'T AVOID SPOILERS HERE. SPOILERS IMMEDIATELY.
The other thing All Hell Breaks Loose manages to accomplish is make everything that happened before make sense. I seriously doubt creator Eric Kripke had the entire two-seasons planned out before he started this show, but it couldn't have worked out better. Why did the mother die? She was in the way. Why did Sam's girlfriend from the pilot die? She was in the way. What previously seemed horribly contrived now was all a part of the master plan. If all this demon had to do was get a human to unlock the gate, it's a little confusing why he doesn't just... do that instead of making a 23-year plan. Whatever, it doesn't matter everything else works well.
To begin the season, Sam and Dean's father sells his soul and at the end Dean sells his soul. Now, this I'm fairly certain was planned and it makes for a nice bookend to the season. It also makes it interesting how against Dean was on bringing back things from the dead - surely more to do with his father being in hell for him than an actual moral reason - and how ultimately he does it anyway. What makes this work is that never for a second would I doubt Dean would actually do it. Supernatural also nicely set up Dean's eventual soul selling in "Crossroad Blues," an episode that didn't seem that important in future events, but certainly worked in establishing Dean's feelings about his father trading his life for Dean's.
This second season introduces and promptly destroys the Roadhouse, a place for fellow hunters. I don't think the Roadhouse was a bad idea or that it failed in any particular way, but something tells me they had different plans for it that ultimately didn't pan out. I like Jo and Ellen as characters so in that sense, it certainly worked. But the fact that the show didn't do anything with the "fellow hunters" maybe influenced their decision to scrap it.
For a show that mostly works episode-to-episode with no need to have seen the particular episode, Supernatural is good at remembering past events. In particular, Dean gets accused of murder and subsequently killed, but they use this to their advantage when both Sam and Dean end up holding up a bank and later getting themselves arrested. Judging by the fact that they break out, and some seeds are planted in FBI agent Henriksen's mind that the brothers are possibly not that bad, this seems like a plot point they will return to.
I'm pretty sure this is the first season to feature outright comic episodes and they give us two of them. I mean if you're wondering how to fill out a season and you have a couple empty spots, there's worse ideas that making a comic episode. Both are pretty hilarious with "Tall Tales" using the brothers' exaggerated representations of themselves when telling the story to Bobby and "Hollywood Babylon" riffing on Hollywood and scary movies. (In hindsight, yeah I should have seen that type of episode coming.)
In addition to the two-part finale, I thought "Roadkill" was an exceptional episode, thanks largely to the performance of Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer. The episode helped establish the show's second season theme of "Maybe not all supernatural beings are bad" and had a pretty good twist. Also helping that theme is Gordon, a man who clearly has no qualms about killing supernatural beings and certainly represents the extreme of what the brothers do. If I had to guess, I would guess Sam killing Gordon will show Sam's deteriorating morality putting Dean's decision into question. (Well it's definitely already in question, but you know...)
Another standout episode - really the whole back half of the second season is a step up - is "What Is and Should Never Be." This is the alternate timeline if Sam and Dean's mother never died and it's depressing. It's odd that that Jeffrey Dean Morgan couldn't come onto the show considering he briefly appears in the finale, but I guess the explanation for his disappearance is as good as any. I'm probably not alone in thinking that despite how everything looks better in the alternate, Dean goes back because he's not friends with his brother at all. (I kind of wish his alternate wife had more personality than "She really knows me man")
But for the time being, I'm genuinely surprised at how there's basically no useless or bad episodes. Again, the show tries very hard to make sure every episode matters in some way - and when they don't appear to have any significance to the overarching plot, it's usually still a good episode. In essence, there is a distinct lack of filler episodes.
Due to the show's willingness to completely uproot the show in a different direction, it's focus on character, and it's incredible two-part finale, I am almost scared that the show has peaked. Of course, the finale also set up incredible potential and looks more serialized than its ever been. The limited episode list does worry me as it could have been rushed due to the writer's strike, but otherwise I'm looking forward to that season.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "Uptown Funk" - Bruno Mars (because of course)
2. "Banana Clipper" - Run the Jewels feat. Big Boi
3. "My Generation" - The Who
4. "Little Eyes" - Yo La Tengo
5. "Distortion to Static" - The Roots
This second season introduces and promptly destroys the Roadhouse, a place for fellow hunters. I don't think the Roadhouse was a bad idea or that it failed in any particular way, but something tells me they had different plans for it that ultimately didn't pan out. I like Jo and Ellen as characters so in that sense, it certainly worked. But the fact that the show didn't do anything with the "fellow hunters" maybe influenced their decision to scrap it.
For a show that mostly works episode-to-episode with no need to have seen the particular episode, Supernatural is good at remembering past events. In particular, Dean gets accused of murder and subsequently killed, but they use this to their advantage when both Sam and Dean end up holding up a bank and later getting themselves arrested. Judging by the fact that they break out, and some seeds are planted in FBI agent Henriksen's mind that the brothers are possibly not that bad, this seems like a plot point they will return to.
I'm pretty sure this is the first season to feature outright comic episodes and they give us two of them. I mean if you're wondering how to fill out a season and you have a couple empty spots, there's worse ideas that making a comic episode. Both are pretty hilarious with "Tall Tales" using the brothers' exaggerated representations of themselves when telling the story to Bobby and "Hollywood Babylon" riffing on Hollywood and scary movies. (In hindsight, yeah I should have seen that type of episode coming.)
In addition to the two-part finale, I thought "Roadkill" was an exceptional episode, thanks largely to the performance of Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer. The episode helped establish the show's second season theme of "Maybe not all supernatural beings are bad" and had a pretty good twist. Also helping that theme is Gordon, a man who clearly has no qualms about killing supernatural beings and certainly represents the extreme of what the brothers do. If I had to guess, I would guess Sam killing Gordon will show Sam's deteriorating morality putting Dean's decision into question. (Well it's definitely already in question, but you know...)
Another standout episode - really the whole back half of the second season is a step up - is "What Is and Should Never Be." This is the alternate timeline if Sam and Dean's mother never died and it's depressing. It's odd that that Jeffrey Dean Morgan couldn't come onto the show considering he briefly appears in the finale, but I guess the explanation for his disappearance is as good as any. I'm probably not alone in thinking that despite how everything looks better in the alternate, Dean goes back because he's not friends with his brother at all. (I kind of wish his alternate wife had more personality than "She really knows me man")
But for the time being, I'm genuinely surprised at how there's basically no useless or bad episodes. Again, the show tries very hard to make sure every episode matters in some way - and when they don't appear to have any significance to the overarching plot, it's usually still a good episode. In essence, there is a distinct lack of filler episodes.
Due to the show's willingness to completely uproot the show in a different direction, it's focus on character, and it's incredible two-part finale, I am almost scared that the show has peaked. Of course, the finale also set up incredible potential and looks more serialized than its ever been. The limited episode list does worry me as it could have been rushed due to the writer's strike, but otherwise I'm looking forward to that season.
Grade - A
Playlist
1. "Uptown Funk" - Bruno Mars (because of course)
2. "Banana Clipper" - Run the Jewels feat. Big Boi
3. "My Generation" - The Who
4. "Little Eyes" - Yo La Tengo
5. "Distortion to Static" - The Roots
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