Supernatural 10×16 Review: Paint It Black

Okay, so I have to say that this was very different kind of Supernatural episode than which we are generally accustomed. It was written by Brad Bucker & Eugenie Ross-Leming, who have given us a few other episodes this season (including “Soul Survivor” which was directed by Jensen Ackles). This episode’s title was a reference to the song by The Rolling Stones. Go listen it. So good. Interesting juxtaposition with the boys claiming to be FBI agents named after members of the Allman Brothers Band.

So it’s been two episodes in a row that I’ve reviewed and both of them seem a little bit off to me. I was very excited to see Crowley again, as I mentioned last week, but recently he seems to have become nothing more than a lapdog for his mom. Also, am I the only one who thinks whenever she calls him “Fergus,” it seems to be more condescending than anything? Don’t get me wrong, Rowena is the good kind of evil that you just want to stab in the eye. She’s like the female Metatron. I loved Abaddon more than you will ever know, but Rowena is just… ugh! She’s the kind of person that you love to hate. It’s also been revealed that she has another reason to hate the Winchesters. Thanks, Gramps! The boys finally have a home thanks to Henry and now it just gets thrown back at them. Poor kids can’t catch a break. (Yes, I know both Dean and Sam are older than me. Yes, I will still refer to them as “boys” and “kids.” Deal with it.)

Other than the big reveal even to us by Dr. Fraiser (anyone else like Stargate?), we did have a kind of monster of the week episode. So yeah, there were a lot of these soft focus flashbacks about this couple. Isabella killed her lover and then ground his bones into paint or something. We won’t talk about the creepy and weirdness factor of that, but these flashbacks… those were just awkward. I felt like I was watching one of those historical/present day dramas like Possession and The Red Violin (both of which are excellent, and the latter has Julian Richings – Death himself!), but just not as good. Also, that one nun watches way too many procedural TV dramas in her off time. Seriously.

The most heart-wrenching moments belonged to Jensen Ackles, yet again. He is such a great actor and has such depth to his performances. I swear he just deserves all the awards at this point. Everything else aside, he has really good range and does not get enough credit at all. The confessional where he starts out joking about women and then starts talking about real things, including dying (again)…we got a peek into the real Dean for a second. He knows that he wants more out of life, but he doesn’t know if he’ll get it. “There’s people. Feelings. That I want to experience differently, or maybe for the first time.” I do believe the writers are trying to kill me with feels. Then Sam chimes in later about how he is there for Dean if he needs to talk…yeah, I teared up, and I’m man enough to admit it. It was just a single man tear, though.

Ultimately, I kind of feel that this was mostly a filler episode, more so than last week. We did get more of the evil master plan, which I’m sure will help Dean resolve the MOC in the season finale. Oh, and I have a feeling that Rowena is going to destroy the Lebanon bunker, and the boys are going to go on the road in S11 to find the other ones. I suck at predictions, but that’s what I’ve got at the moment. Anyway, next week sees the return of everyone’s favorite surrogate father/uncle Bobby Singer… Jim Beaver! Oh, Bobby, how I’ve missed you, let me count the ways… And we also get the return of Mr. Comatose, the other member of Team Free Will – Castiel. Seriously, where’s the angel been? All in all, I’m excited about next week.

Author: Bandit

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