Supernatural Episode Review: "Soul Survivor"

Guest stars include Jud Tylor, Ruth Connell, Russell Roberts and Adam Boys.

One of the things that attracted my wife and me to this series when we first discovered it on Netflix a few months ago was the variety of monsters Sam and Dean hunted in each episode. This season, so far at least, has been more about them fighting each other than actually going out and helping people by fighting other demons, werewolves, vampires, etc. And, I have to say, I’m a little disappointed by that.

While a little better than some of the other episodes this season, this particular one still fell into that “ho-hum” category. The highlight of it was the short but admittedly intense scene with Dean hunting down his brother with a hammer. With the exception of that, the episode was honestly a bit dull with much more talk than actual action.

That being said, there were a couple of things I did like about this particular episode. The part with Crowley trying to reclaim command of Hell is shaping up to be a somewhat interesting storyline since his subjects obviously aren’t as loyal as he’d like them to be and his attempts at ridding his kingdom of those who have opposed him is just creating more problems for him. I think it’s only a matter of time before some other powerful bad guy (perhaps that woman they showed at the very end) rises up to challenge him and, by default, the Winchesters.

Also, while I haven’t been a big fan of the whole “Dean-mon” thing through the first episodes of this season, the fact he is temporarily cured does have the potential to create some unique situations throughout the remainder of the season. After all, he does still have the Mark of Cain on him and I suspect that will have a negative effect on his personality whenever he does have to kill something, which, in this series, is pretty much a given.

I will, however, also mention that I’m still not feeling that whole Castiel lost his grace thing. I’m not sure why, but that storyline just hasn’t really done much for me. Perhaps it’s because it’s relatively easy for him to steal grace if and when he chooses to and, despite his objections, it’s pretty obvious he will do just that under the right circumstances. Hopefully, the writers will resolve that part of the story soon so future episodes can focus on other things instead.

I have definitely seen better episodes from this series in the past and, compared to most, I do think this one will be relatively forgettable. However, the season finally seems to be getting back on the right track so, hopefully, I’ll have a better feeling about future episodes.

My Grade: C