Between the douche bags, magic tricks and gay S&M sex dungeons, the major storyline this season on Supernatural actually moved forward last night. Ruby showed up to inform Sam (and us), that Lilith has now broken 34 of the seals, putting her past the halfway point to raising Lucifer.

It was a significant moment for the season, and perhaps even more important, it put Sam back in the driver’s seat. While the brotherly dynamic is what truly drives Supernatural, the first half of the season focused largely on Dean. This isn’t a criticism since he was pulled out of Hell by an angel, which needed a lot of explanation.

But now we see Sam’s role in this. Instead of stopping a seal from being broken and going off to have a beer like Dean, Sam is getting proactive, even though it’s taking him down a dark path. He has already made some unpleasant decisions, but killing Lilith is the ultimate choice.

Yes, she’s pure evil, but it’s actually just a demon possessing the body of a little girl, and to kill the demon would most likely mean killing the little girl. Even with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, that is not a simple thing to do.

This marks the second episode in a row that ends with one of the Winchesters revealing their darker sides. Last week, Dean confessed to enjoying torturing people in Hell. Now Sam agrees to kill a little girl. It’s getting harder and harder to call them heroes.

As for the episode itself, as much as I was tickled pink by the constant use of “douche bag,” I must be honest: this is the second episode in a row that I’ve been disappointed in. I named Supernatural one of my favorite shows of 2008 because almost every episode was brilliant and worked on several levels.

However, 2009 has started off rather weak for Supernatural. “Family Remains” and “Criss Angel is a Douche Bag” were both fairly sub-par stand-alone episodes that were only saved by the brief moments at the end when they wrapped up the case and had a scene about the larger storyline of the season.

I’m hopeful that Supernatural will find its groove once again. Maybe we’re just in the mid-season slump, when all the great ideas the writers had over the summer break are used up and they’re holding back on the big story points for the end of the season, so now the show is biding its time.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of the CW)