Supernatural re-watch, Season 6

If you’re following along:
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Season 12-15

Plus: my season recaps from back in the day:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

Backwards rewatch continued:

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 1 “Exile on Main St.”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Mainly recalling my first response to this episode. I was just riveted and had NO idea where it was going. I felt the emotion, the conflict – that “Beautiful Loser” montage is killer – but mostly I remember how different Sam seemed, and I just didn’t understand, although I knew, of course, he appeared to have come right back, based on the final shot of Season 5. There was just something a little too jaunty and confident about him, and also just distant from Dean. He was trying to ACT like Sam would act but it didn’t feel right. Jared is excellent, and this is one of my favorite Sam seasons. Jared was playing a character he knew like the back of his hand, and he had to remove all the things that made Sam Sam. Not easy to do. Dean seems so vulnerable, so scared and hurt, the whole time. He’s being emasculated left and right. He feels that he is, but he can’t really stop it. I love how the montage at the start shows good moments – working on the car with Ben, a barbecue – but then it also shows the uneasiness/restlessness of this new life, an uneasiness he can’t share with Lisa because she “took him in”. The whole episode is a whirlwind. One of the best openers to a new season in the whole series, imo.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 2 “Two and a Half Men”
Written by Adam Glass
Directed by John Showalter
Dean is in a whirlwind of hurt. The way the Campbells treat him … that whole “you’ve gone soft” thing. Mocking him for being human, for feeling things. It’s gross but it’s interesting. Dean is the dominant one in most rooms, he can insist on his supremacy because he’s more competent, he’s tougher, he’s smarter. But they override him and he has no coping skills. He is in completely new territory. He cares about something other than hunting and he has no idea how to do it. Also his heart is broken because Sam is so different. He’s not used to ANYthing. I’m not crazy about this episode or the “monster” – Samuel being like “we’ll raise it”? Really? – but it’s fascinating to see Dean so thrown off, so anguished and unable to process or even deal.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 3 “The Third Man”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer
Heaven is still not interesting but the angels used to be. Try to imagine Balthazar working at the Amway version of Heaven. These angels were all unique and intimidating and confident. Not cookie-cutters. But still. Civil war in heaven? I mean, it’s sad, but we never see it, and there are other things going on. What’s interesting here is Castiel, racing around to clean up his mess – which seems to be his stock in trade – all while literally not caring that both Sam and Dean are irritated at his abandonment. Activated Castiel is way better than passive mopey Castiel. I forgot how upsetting this season was for me the first time around. I was just so upset that I had been denied a tearful hug between the brothers. Sam was so different. He’s paying for sex? Listen, I don’t judge but … Sam? Jared is so good, and is extremely convincing as an arrogant prick. It must have been so interesting for Jared and Jensen to play these early episodes where everything is so different, where the relationship itself isn’t even there. Early season 6 Dean is great. He’s so upset, he is upset about everything, he’s vulnerable, he’s panicking, and yet he’s facing all of it and feeling all of it. He CAN’T get the upper hand with this Sam, he can’t REACH Sam, and so he’s submitting – unhappily – to the new regime, but his entire body language, his essence, his spirit is unbearably uncomfortable.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 4 “Weekend at Bobby’s”
Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
Directed by Jensen Ackles
Jensen did a bangup job with this one. The episode is this mix of loneliness and humor, and the script is good, too. Bobby is filled out as a character and here we are in season 5 getting our first glimpse of all he really does, all those phone lines, etc. He can’t even eat a bite without being interrupted. Rufus. So funny. Great pacing, good structure.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 5 “Live Free or Twi-Hard”
Written by Brett Matthews
Directed by Rod Hardy
Sick episode and one I went back to a lot when I was writing about Dean. Vampire episodes tend to bring out those hidden connections. Vampires connote sexuality and Dean has been – not emasculated by being a husband/dad – but it’s like he’s gone underwater. He’s had to, in order to submit to domestic life. Getting the Impala back was literally getting his balls back. So here, in this episode, suddenly … he’s sexually aggressive with Lisa and it’s not domestic at all. So there’s that kind of hidden unspoken connection. The opener is a Twilight spoof, obviously, but again it goes deeper, suggesting that the Robert Pattinson vampire was acting as a Ghislaine Maxwell for the Jeffrey Epstein head honcho vampire. Vampires are all about human trafficking. And when Dean is “bit”, he’s trafficked too. And there’s a brief look on his face when the Epstein vamp gets close to him … a look gone in a flash … where you can tell that what is happening to him and being done to him is not just scary or threatening. It’s familiar. This features one of my favorite closeups of Jensen in the whole entire series. It’s a work of art and so much work went into this work of art: the lighting, the MAKEUP, the camera work.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 6 “You Can’t Handle the Truth”
Teleplay by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder
Story by David Reed, Eric Charmelo and Nicole SnyderWritten by Brett Matthews
Directed by Jan Eliasberg
I think our goddess Veritas does very well with what is a fairly silly role, and this episode really shows its structure: it’s a case, sure, but it’s really an opportunity for Sam to be “called out”, by an outside source, for having something truly wrong with him. I’ll just repeat myself: Jensen is great this season, with all of these new shadings he gets to play, sides of Dean we’ve never seen, but Jared is next level. There’s a lot of subtlety in what he’s doing, particularly the sort of flat affect, and also sheer unthinking aggression – very un-Sam-like. Dean is truly abandoned without Sam being Sam. And Sam doesn’t give a shit. To take this very well-known character, someone he knows, has lived with, and to remove the thing that makes him him, cannot have been easy. Jared’s performance is legit upsetting. Dean was a demon for two and a half episodes. Would have loved more. Jared got to stretch out in this. The exploration is so full.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 7 “Family Matters”
Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
Directed by Guy Norman Bee
The Campbells make me so uncomfortable. This whole scenario was just so traumatic: it was awful my first time viewing, and it remains so.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 8 “All Dogs Go to Heaven”
Written by Adam Glass
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
This is all very exciting. I haven’t watched in a long time so I had forgotten the arc of it, the episode by episode structure. We all know Kripke was in it til Season 5. Season 1-5 was his arc. In Season 6 the show spun out on its own. I think it’s really interesting – and bold – the direction the show went. Now, you could say that what was done to the show in seasons 12-15 was ALSO bold, seeing as it was a total destruction of every single thing that made the show the show. So when I say “bold” I have to clarify my use of the term. Sans Kripke, they reached out into very strange and almost existential waters with this whole soul business – and the soul, or Sam’s lack thereof, then connects in a kind of beautiful way to the larger arc – the Purgatory arc – which is fairly hidden for long stretches of time. It’s barely present. And, as I mentioned a couple other times, whatever that larger arc is – finding Purgatory – is mostly the concern of Samuel and Crowley, and it happens offscreen, leaving Sam and Dean to stew and angst and FEEL all over the place. Season6 has SO MANY FEELINGS. Dean is an emotional WRECK. He’s so transparent, he’s never been this “off his game”, and he’s in totally new waters. First of all, he’s got a girl and a kid and because he’s Dean he’s doing his best with that new role. Secomd of all, he has to deal with Sam who is not Sam. He’s never had to do either of these things before and he is SO thrown off. Season 6 features a very very vulnerable Dean. He’s almost in tears at points. He’s not just pissed. He’s scared and sad and confused. Meanwhile, Jared is doing such interesting work as soulless Sam. It’s VERY specific. A lesser actor would have just been a scowling commando. Jared just goes a little bit flat, enough to give you the creepy-crawly. It’s so good and SO upsetting. And it lasts for so long! They really spend their TIME with it. We don’t learn what Sam’s problem is until “Family Matters”. That’s a long time to have Sam walking around as Not Sam and Dean being emotionally shattered, all as he tries to be a good boyfriend and dad. Every episode has this richness to it because they landed upon such a fascinating exploration. It’s one of those things where you’re like “okay let Samuel worry about the alphas, let Crowley worry about Purgatory, leave us BE with the brothers as they attempt to literally be in the same room with each other for 10, 11, 12 episodes”. The larger arc is being taken care of elsewhere.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 9 “Clap Your Hands If You Believe”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by John Showalter
Case in point: they explored the no-soul thing to such an in-depth degree that they were then able to incorporate it into a comedic context, and have this awful upsetting thing where Sam is no longer Sam be FUNNY. Now that takes some real writing chops and acting chops. It also shows generosity and intelligence towards us the audience. What they’re exploring here is not particularly crowd-pleasing. You have literally deprived one of the main characters of his whole personality. But that’s what’s so juicy and interesting.
“What were they like?”
“They were grabby incandescent douchebags. Good night.”
“Too soon?”

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 10 “Caged Heat”
Teleplay by Brett Matthews
Story by Jenny Klein and Brett Matthews
Directed by Robert Singer
“I’d have given you an hour with her first.” There’s a boys’ club vibe going on here which, to me, stands out, because it’s something the show normally avoided – even with all the sex jokes, etc. There’s an ugliness here that stinks. Pizza Man. Dean literally noticing Castiel has a “boner”. Castiel making out with Meg. Like, what? Meg has always used sexual innuendo in her language and it’s often witty and sometimes disturbing, but in a good way: she makes everyone uncomfortable. But in this episode I feel like it’s used against her – I hate to sound uptight – but … the torture “gear” she’s strapped into – revealing most of her naked body … she’s barely covered … is upsetting and it makes me mad. Everyone calling her a whore. The torture is sexual in nature, and there’s one shot where it is implied literally that her genitals are being tortured. Plus the porn being watched early on – etc. etc. I do not like any of this at all and I do not like that they did this to Rachel Miner. This one got away from them. Innuendo is fine, in fact it’s great and later seasons suffered for the LACK of innuendo. But this is puerile nasty mean innuendo and she’s the only girl in the episode and look what they did to her. That’s not Supernatural.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 11 “Appointment in Samarra”
Written by Sera Gamble and Robert Singer
Directed by Mike Rohl
“Dr. Robert.” Ha. I love his rocker-chick assistant. Like, what is HER deal? Intriguing glimpses of a variety of environments and towns and locales which used to be in the DNA of the show. Plus: everything’s just a little bit grimy because everything is under the table. We’re back now in Supernatural Land where things look Beautiful again. We don’t have pancake makeup flat lighting of season 8, or the who the hell knows what of the Sweeney-Todd-ghosts-in-broad-daylight later seasons with no style at all. Jensen’s skin looks touchable and vulnerable – it’s how he’s lit – the shadows are deep, and characters move in and out of them. Bobby’s house is just one pool of shadow with red walls, and this eerie silence, with Jared a slash of blackness sitting in the shadowy kitchen. There’s real work put in to how this thing looks. It was one of my original “ways in” to this whole thing and it’s so good to see it back, to enjoy Supernatural aesthetically.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 12 “Like a Virgin”
Written by Adam Glass
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
P. Diddy joke. Uh-oh. Dean and the sword is played for comedy but it works as a metaphor about masculinity/being emasculated – which he has been since the start of the season. He assumes he will triumph with the sword. He is instead humbled. He cannot get the sword. He is not “the one”. The great thing about these early seasons is they could make their points but cloak it in humor. They didn’t think they only needed to make their point once and for all time, and do it literally in language (the way we see in later seasons). They’ve been working on ideas of masculinity for the entirety of season 6: the version of masculinity as represented by the Campbells and soulless Sam, the way they sniff out Dean’s “softness” with just one glance, and mock him for … playing golf? But even just looking at him the Campbells know: he’s different. This is how masculinity in its more toxic form plays out: men sniff it out of each other and immediately shun someone who seems to … give a shit about other people? lol You guys are ruining the world and you need to call out your brothers on this shit because women can’t keep doing it. So here we are, and Sam is back, and it’s wonderful and Dean is bathed in relief, but things are different. He can’t pull the sword out. So funny. And finally: I think my favorite moment of Jared’s acting in the whole series comes in this episode: when Castiel inadvertently spills the beans (because Castiel doesn’t do anything right. Ever.) and Sam realizes what has been happening, and the realization sort of washes over him, but he has to pretend he already knows. Tears flood his eyes as he speaks. It’s stunning work, very layered. It makes me cry every time.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 13 “Unforgiven”
Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
Directed by David Barrett
Another Rhode Island-based episode. I believe there are three total. When Sam gets the location of the phone that called him … sorry, but I can actually see the little spot where I live. Basically I’m on Supernatural. Sam’s real trials begin and these will lead us into Season 7. Consequences.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 14 “Mannequin 3: The Reckoning”
Written by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder
Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
I really love this one. There’s an ’80s sheen to everything, in keeping with the Mannequin “franchise”, including the music over the security-footage montage. Cheeseball! Plus you’ve got a romance and a cute kid. All 80s rom-com staples. I feel like Lisa was written well. She’s given substance and complexity, from her first episode. But that lasts until the end. She does her best, then has to set boundaries. She’s very clear in communicating with him. She knows he needs it. This episode also shows how they were willing to make tough non-crowd-pleasing choices, like Ben basically refusing Dean’s apology. Ben feels like Dean is abandoning them. And Dean is abandoning them. The situation remains unresolved and Dean has to drive away knowing he has crushed this child he loves. Later seasons wouldn’t have the guts for this. Ben would start crying, Dean would hug him, they would walk away from the interaction strong and complete, having learned/grown/zzzzzzzzz.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 15 “The French Mistake”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Charles Beeson
A stone-cold classic.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 16 “…And Then There Were None”
Written by Brett Matthews
Directed by Mike Rohl
RIP Rufus.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 17 “My Heart Will Go On”
Written by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
I remember not being a fan of this one originally. I can’t remember my reasoning. I think it’s quite effective, particularly when it comes to Castiel, and what this episode reveals about what he’s been doing. Castiel’s journey – independent of Sam and Dean – has always bored me a little bit, I just don’t care about Heaven, so I might not have been really tuned in to the whole purpose of the episode, which was that. I will say this: Castiel has this big speech at the end about how the Winchesters taught him that you can have free will. Fair enough. But I swear, every single time this angel has made an independent choice, it has been either woefully misguided or flat-out wrong.
“Too soon?” “Yeah, Dean, I’m pretty sure 6 seconds is too soon.”

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 18 “Frontierland”
Teleplay by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
Story by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin and Jackson Stewart
Directed by Guy Bee
Yet another treatise on masculinity in Season 6. “You going to a hoedown?” Even without his soul, Sam is more casually “masculine” (whatever that means) than glimmering eager Dean. Again, literally every man Dean encounters in this episode takes one look at him and knows he’s trying too hard. Sam fits right in. This is high-comedy for Jensen: time after time after time he is gently roasted by every man he meets. They just don’t accept him. When he’s activated and in crisis, he demands respect, and yet there’s other THING going on with him … This is extremely subtle and you just would not expect it in a show like Supernatural and it is not at all present in, say, the first episodes of the series, where the characters are broad-brushed. He’s the wisecracking tough guy, arrogant, and … one-dimensional. But Jensen adds this other THING, using his sensitivity/insight as an actor, playing the subtext of what Dean’s childhood was like, sure, but also, and this is really unexpected: who he is in the world and how the world has responded to him since he hit puberty probably. This is something only Jensen can know and it’s something obviously you wouldn’t want to talk about: “Well, I was gorgeous pretty early and sometimes shit got weird.” But come on, Jensen knows. And he plays Dean, so Dean knows too. They both “look like that”. Jensen actually incorporates this weird little phenomenon into his performance (there are too many examples to count). His pale-voiced weak “Don’t objectify me.” That’s not something a “normal” man would say. But Dean has always been objectified. The pilot shows him as a Han Solo love-em-and-leave-em gun-slinger bossypants. The show almost immediately starts undercutting this first impression, layering in sensitivity and the traumatic backstory, a young man in thrall to his controlling father, etc. “Dead in the Water”, of course, is where Dean starts to crack open (for Sam and for us). But I suggest it’s already there in “Wendigo” where he sexes up Roy in their initial confrontation. A lesser actor would have responded to Roy with alpha-toughness. But Jensen – weird intuitive Jensen – goes soft and seductive, completely destabilizing the man-on-man interaction. This is not in the script. All Dean says is “What’s going on, Roy?” And Jensen turns it into this pliable submissive thing, which totally deflates Roy. It’s a WILD choice and that’s ALL Jensen. The show goes on and on in the early seasons about Sam being a “freak” but … can we look at how Dean maneuvers through the world? His flirting isn’t just to get people into bed. He flirts to survive. And his flirting generates hostility more often than not, because a morgue attendant does not expect this beautiful man to try to sweet-talk him. It’s off-putting. “Frontierland” is all about that, and it’s done with humor. We’re 6 seasons in and there is still so much to be explored.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 19 “Mommy Dearest”
Written by Adam Glass
Directed by John Showalter
Sam screaming “JEFFERSON STARSHIPS” makes me laugh every time.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 20 “The Man Who Would Be King”
Written by Andrew Dabb
Directed by Ben Edlund
Crowley was such a delightful adversary. He was so dulled-out by Season 11 I almost forgot how truly dangerous – and wicked – he was. It’s been fun seeing him again. I mean, he cut Kevin Tran’s finger off. Crowley was … diabolical. Castiel continues to show consistently poor judgment. Any time he has to make a choice for himself he chooses wrong. This “betrayal” is a good one especially since Sam and Dean still are heavily involved with Castiel – in a way they aren’t in later seasons. So they are shocked and hurt and mad and therefore – lots of great acting opportunities to play all this complexity. And look at what his poor judgment has led to. “You’re family” says Dean, after 7 seasons of Castiel making horrible choices. Finally we understand why Castiel has been so sus the entire season. The problem is: I don’t care about who is in charge in heaven.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 21 “Let It Bleed”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by John F. Showalter
Another Rhode Island episode, at least the teaser! I hate the wiping of Lisa and Ben’s memory. It makes no sense. It leaves them so much more at risk. And how will Lisa deal with realizing she lost an entire YEAR of her life? And how will that work with the other people in her life who presumably met Dean and met this other Matt guy? They’ll say “hey you ever hear from Dean?” and she’d say “Who’s Dean?” It makes no sense. I realize they needed to just get rid of this storyline since it served its purpose but this felt like a cop-out. God, I miss Balthazar. What a fabulous eccentric unpredictable character. Why did we get rid of him again? Later teams definitely did not have the imagination to keep writing characters like him. And finally: Jensen is crushingly good in the final scene. We hardly ever see Dean this unraveled. Jensen is so good, he can do anything.

Supernatural, Season 6, episode 22 “The Man Who Knew Too Much”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Robert Singer
Kripke’s back! Here’s where Balthazar left us. Sad. Castiel is the villain in this season. In the next seasons when he keeps talking about doing penance and “I’m not worthy” and “I need to berate myself a little more” … it looks very differently in a backwards binge-watch. He’s BAD in this season. Truly malevolent. And it’s the worst kind of malevolence. Ends justify the means malevolence. Clearly Sam and Dean forgive him but … they never got back the intensity of the bond in Season 5-7.