Supernatural Episode Review: “Book of the Damned”

My daughters had their annual ice show last week and, because of the various practices and rehearsals leading up to it, we didn’t get an opportunity to finally watch this episode until last night. After doing so, I have to confess I had some mixed feelings about it.

As far as episodes go, I did think this one was somewhat dull. There were a couple short fight scenes toward the end with Castiel (Misha Collins) being ambushed by Metatron (Curtis Armstrong) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) having to protect Charlie and the book from that well-trained family. But, for the most part, this episode was more talk than actual action.

That being said, there were a couple things I did find I liked about this episode. The first was definitely the creepiness of The Book of the Damned. It’s the type of ancient document that needs to have something different about it to justify being so important. Having a book that is written out on a nun’s skin in her blood more than met that requirement. 

I also liked the fact the book is not only written in an ancient language, it’s also written in code. That, to me, means somebody really didn’t want the book to fall into the wrong hands, making Sam’s deal with Rowena (Ruth Connell) at the end much more ominous. She seems like the last person you would want to give such a powerful spell book to and I have to think that is going to backfire on a whole new level. I fully expect to see a lot of cast favorites dead or dying by the season finale.

I also liked the fact Castiel finally got his grace back, mostly because I was starting to wonder when he was going to start showing the negative effects of having a stolen grace (his current stolen grace seemed to work out for him considerably better than the first time he did it). However, I have to say the part in the library with Metatron couldn’t have been more predictable.

One thing I did find interesting about this part of the episode were Metatron’s surprisingly accurate observations about Castiel’s place now that Heaven is once again up and running and he’s starting to run out of rogue angels to hunt. It makes me wonder if maybe he’s reached a point in the series where the writers will decide to kill him off or, perhaps, he’ll do something unexpected, such as becoming human so he can look after his vessel’s daughter, Claire (Kathryn Newton). Of course, it’ll likely depend on the importance of the tablet Metatron discovered.

As I said, the episode could have used a little more action. However, it does a good job setting up the final season 10 episodes by giving two of the most dangerous characters powerful artifacts, something that you know can’t be a good idea.

My Grade: B