PopSyndicate.com

Supernatural‘s Halloween episode is a grab-bag shocker.

The episode begins at the Wallace house, where the wife recounts the trouble she went through to get the candy at the grocery store. She playfully tells her husband he’ll have to wait till after Halloween to scarf down the candy but he doesn’t listen, chomping down several pieces after she leaves the room – and swallowing some razor blades as a result. The wife returns to find her husband dead on the floor.

Sam and Dean interview the wife as FBI agents while combing the place, eventually finding a tell-tale hex bag in the kitchen. But this is no ordinary witch’s brew, with ingredients dating back thousands of years. All indications they are dealing with powerful, centuries-old witches planning to summon Samhain, the demon for which Halloween is named.
At a school party, another victim emerges – or rather – submerges as she goes bobbing for apples and winds up drowning in scalding hot water despite two people trying to pull her out. The Winchesters next interview the witness Tracy, who seems to have very little connection with the Wallace’s. But while Sam pours through the research, Dean stakes out the Wallace household, making a shocking discovery – Tracy is the Wallace’s baby sitter.

Next, Sam and Dean interview “Don”, Tracy’s art teacher who suspended her after a violent altercation. While Dean suffers ominous sensations of Hell looking at one mask, the brothers are able to confirm Tracy drew violent and graphic pictures which ultimately led to her suspension from school. Returning to the motel, Dean has an altercation of his own – with a pint-sized astronaut trick-or-treater whom he refuses to give candy to. Sam opens the hotel door to find a stranger sitting in the room, but Dean tells Sam to stand down – it’s Castiel and another angel waiting for them.

After a chilly reception to Sam, Castiel introduces his associate as Uriel – a “specialist” intent on destroying the entire town to stop the witch. Raising Ramhain, it turns out, would break another of the sixty-sixth seals holding Lucifer back, and the witches have already targeted the Winchesters, as the angels found hex bags on the premises. Uriel and Castiel insist this is the only way, but Sam and Dean offer an alternative – let them hunt down the witch and save the town. When Uriel refuses, Dean gives him an ultimatum – either let the Winchesters do their job or waste them along with the town. Castiel keeps his partner in line and tells the Winchesters to get moving. Dean finds his car egged by the astronaut, who chose trick over treat.

Sam, meanwhile, is forlorn over his meeting with the angels, whom he expected more from. Though ever the agnostic, Dean tells Sam to keep faith – just because these angels are admittedly jerks doesn’t mean God is. Sam makes another observation – it would take a lot of heat to char a bone like the one found in the hex bag. Returning to the class room, Sam and Dean find more human teeth in Don’s kiln, confirming the hex bag was found after they spoke to Don instead of Tracy.

Meanwhile, Uriel disparages the mission being in the hands of “mud-monkeys” and Castiel rebukes him for his insults. Though Uriel still wants to destroy the place, Castiel reminds him of their true orders – and asks rhetorically if Uriel is truly willing to disobey them. His partner – for once – is silent.

Sam and Dean find Don about to sacrifice Tracy. They rush in, shooting Don dead and saving Tracy, but with twenty-three minutes left, it’s revealed that Don and Tracy are brother and sister, explaining their ability to keep both the Winchesters and the angels guessing. Tossing Sam and Dean to the ground, Tracy explains how Don intended for her to be the final sacrifice necessary, but through subtle manipulation, Tracy turned the tables on him. With the needed blood added to the equation, Tracy succeeds in raising Samhain, who possesses Don’s body and promptly snaps Tracy’s neck.

Sam and Dean hide by smearing blood on their faces, as Sam half-heartedly reveals people hid from Samhain by wearing masks – hence the Halloween tradition – and he figured he’d give it a shot. It works, as Samhain passes not only by them but also by several trick-or-treaters. As Sam and Dean race off in hot pursuit, Sam raises the possibility of using his psychic powers on Samhain but Dean insists he use Ruby’s knife.

Dean fights all manner of zombies and ghosts in a makeshift Halloween party in the graveyard while Sam goes toe-to-toe with Samhain. Ruby’s knife doesn’t seem to affect Samhain that much, and even so, he knocks it out of Sam’s hands before he can get closer. Rather than giving it another try, Sam decides to use his psychic powers, painfully ripping Samhain out of Don’s corpse before a mortified Dean.

The next morning, Uriel reminds Sam of the approaching anniversary of both his mother and Jessica’s death at the hands of Azazel, the Yellow-Eyed Demon – all the while Sam uses the very power given to him by the demon. Uriel repeatedly points out Sam was warned not the use the power, and yet did so twice already. Though Sam points out he has little choice in the face of Samhain, Uriel remains unconvinced, explaining the moment Sam becomes “more trouble than he’s worth”, Uriel plans on reducing him to dust. He also tells Sam to ask Dean about what he remembers of Hell.

Meeting Dean at a playground, Castiel reveals their orders were to follow Dean and to test him under “battlefield conditions.” Dean says he might have failed their test, but he’d make the same decision all over again because he saved the town, Samhain or not. Castiel tells Dean he misunderstands – he was praying Dean would save the town, and like him, he has doubts and questions about his role in the war against Hell. In the end, Castiel doesn’t envy Dean, for the Winchester will face many more decisions in the coming month, with hopefully many more great episodes for us to see!

This episode was pretty good for its delivery and content. I liked the Halloween setting as well as the Samhain mythology behind it. I also liked the deepening of the angelic mythology that Krikpe and company is doing an astounding job of creating. The introduction of Uriel – one of the seven archangels – brought all of this point to him with a profane angel embodying the combined fates of Sodom, Gomera and the Ten Plagues all in one sobering personality. I loved how subtly Supernatural ingrains the power of the angels in the scenes – like the way Uriel appears inches away from Sam’s face in a scene with only a simple editing and the sound of feathered wings bursting into action. When Uriel says he’ll turn Sam to dust, we believe every word.

Yet Misha Collins also has a great episode here, providing a counter-balance to Uriel which goes far beyond “good cop/bad cop” and into the conflict between Justice and Mercy. The parallels between Dean and Castiel are many, as both are dutiful yet doubtful soldiers struggling with both their roles and convictions in the conflict to come. I especially liked how the episode ends with the two on common ground for once in the series.

With that said, there were some drawbacks. Unlike “A Very Supernatural Christmas”, this episode was more set during Halloween than about Halloween. Sure, Samhain is a major part of the holiday’s origins, which we learn a great deal about. But the spirit of Halloween seems to be missing, at least in as much as “A Very Supernatural Christmas” – despite being one of the most torturous and violent of season three – managed to indulge itself in the holiday spirit. The latter was also relatively stand-alone, while this one was more heavily driven by the major conflicts running rampant during its season.

“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” was also more than a little predictable at times. Everything from Tracy’s far-too-early revelation as main baddie to her way-too-overdone neck break could be seen a mile away. It was the dialogue – between Sam and Dean, Winchester and angel, and most of all, Dean and astronaut – which really made the episode come alive, but in plotting alone, the Halloween episode seemed a bit too paint-by-numbers.

Overall, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester” is a great episode, following the myth-arc Supernatural has to offer this season. While it wasn’t the Halloween episode I was expecting, it remains on the epic scale which has lead Supernatural to earn its namesake one broken seal at a time.

4