Final Thoughts From the Supernatural Episode "The Vessel"

I think it is great the writers, in their own way, paid tribute to the men who lost their lives while fighting in World War II. However, other than that, I honestly didn't really see the point of this episode.

Basically, to summarize, Dean traveled back in time to recover the Hand of God. He succeeds in doing this but, when he returns, learns the weapon is pretty much used up and useless. Other than the fact they learned the truth about Castiel (more about that in a bit), it just seems like a waste of an hour-long episode because they ended up pretty much in the same situation they were in when the episode started.

The Hand of God isn't really used up and, instead, just changed forms. I say this because, the last time we saw Delphine (Weronika Rosati), she had absorbed the artifact's powers.

Based primarily on her description of the potential weapon, we were led to believe it would destroy its human user after a short while. But, part of me suspects that's not really the case and she will show up in a later episode. After all, it's not like we saw her die.

We saw Delphine stab the Nazi commander (Richard Stroh) get stabbed in the neck and survive and the rest of his crew seemed like they had similar powers. So, obviously, there was more to them than originally revealed.

This, of course, makes me question whether or not they were really killed when their ship was sunk. And, again, I wouldn't be surprised to see them (or, at least him) show up in a future episode.

As I mentioned before, I was still unclear about whether or not Lucifer entered Castiel or just his vessel and, while there was plenty of evidence it was the former, I wasn't completely sure until this episode, when Castiel finally made an appearance by fighting back and preventing Lucifer from killing Sam.

This does create a couple interesting questions about future episodes. For example, will Castiel ultimately change his mind and try to expel Lucifer? And, if he becomes a threat to do so, will Lucifer attempt to kill Castiel so he can remain inside his body?

As I mentioned, I'm not really sure what to think of this episode. On the surface, it really didn't seem to have much of a point. However, I also have a feeling this episode might be setting up a future episode so I guess I'll just have to wait and see before deciding completely.

My Grade: To Be Decided