Supernatural – “Frontierland” – review

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You know you’re in for a fantastic episode of Supernatural when they have a special title card. Hold on to your spurs, Supernatural’s going western! When it was originally conceived, Supernatual was meant to be like a modern day western (guys roll into town, kill the bad guy, kiss the girl, ride out into the sunset), but with the obvious addition of monsters and ghosts.

The brothers make a big discovery on how to defeat Eve, the Mother of All, and have to find the ashes of a phoenix. Normally a big plot advancing episode like this would be a bit heavier, but this one’s pretty campy and lighthearted, which is something Supernatural does extremely well. But we’ve had a number of episodes that were more fun than dramatic lately, so it’ll be nice to get knee deep in the grittier stuff again.

Dean’s eager giddiness at getting to travel back to the wild west was the highlight of the episode. It was great seeing him so excited and going out to buy “authentic” cowboy outfits. Of course he wound up as a sheriff in the past, and of course he’d say his name is Clint Eastwood. You could just tell that even though they had an important, time sensitive job to do, Dean was loving every minute of his time in the past. There were quite a few references to Back to the Future Part III, Dean getting made fun of for his clothing, and Sam getting a package sent to him in the mail from the past.

After so many seasons, and hearing a lot about him, it was great to finally see Samuel Colt. He was what you would expect from a lone hunter, jaded and just wanting out. And you just know because there’s time travel, Sam has to tell Samuel about his future deeds in order for them to come true. I laughed quite hard when Samuel just flat out accepted that Sam was from the future. Clearly this guy isn’t surprised by anything anymore.

Over on the angelic side of things, Castiel is busy with his civil war against Raphael. We get some juicy tidbits that Cas might not be fighting a clean war. I’m interested to find out exactly what our angel buddy has been up to. And what a change of pace to have Castiel wounded and weak for a change. He’s died a couple of times, but he’s never been stabbed by an angel spear and lived to tell the tale.

This was a solid, fun episode. Lots a great references, good jokes, and a sizable step forward in the plot of the season.