SUPERNATURAL: “Season 7, Time for a Wedding!” – RECAP

It’s becoming harder and harder to write about each individual episode of Supernatural. We are seven seasons in and quite frankly it feels like the show has run out of creative ways to tell its stories. I’ll ask you not to misinterpret what I’m saying. I still love and adore this show and have a blast every week, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t noticed, and have previously commented on, the blatant retreading of already told stories. And in between those stories are the same monsters over and over. You can throw all the quirkiness you want at the wall, like “Season 7, Time for a Wedding!” does, but some of us will notice there isn’t anything new being thrown in with the quirks.

This was one of those light-hearted, humorous episodes that Supernatural has done very well in the past, and it delivered in that regard. The opening title alone (exploding cake for the win!) was enough to make me giddy. But outside of Sam and Becky’s weird marriage, the monster of the week was rather… weak. Crossroads demons have been done to death, and even though a twist was tacked on to this particular demon it was still pretty uninspiring. But I’ll get to more on the that in a bit.

Bringing back Becky was a nice move. For weeks now I’ve been wondering who the woman Sam is marrying would be. However, Becky’s reveal was ruined by the episode recap reminding us about her and her obsession with Sam. As soon as I saw her face I knew she was the one. It’s been long enough the show had to remind us who she was, but it totally killed the surprise when Sam lifted her veil. Moving past that, I loved having her around. As the demon, Guy, put it, she’s “so pathetic, it actually looped back around to cute.” Her bizarre fan-crazed mind was fun to watch, especially when her love potion wore off and Sam returned to normal. The exchange the two had while Sam was tied up and gagged on a bed was fantastically hilarious; Becky speaking while Sam grunts through a sock.

Dean is forced to bring in a new hunter to replace Sam, and Bobby recommends Garth, a skinny hunter who’s not quite up to snuff. Garth is played by DJ Qualls, who does a fantastic job for the very little material he’s given. Despite his appearance, he manages to handle himself well. I wouldn’t mind the show bringing him back in the future, maybe giving him a bit more to do.

Getting back to Guy, the crossroads demon, it was painfully obvious he was the person behind all the killings. Dean even points out that the killer is always the guy you think it is, which unfortunately has turned out to be true for Supernatural. Like I’ve said, there just aren’t any surprises anymore. The show has fallen into a comfortable place where they don’t need to experiment very much and you can almost always predict events before they happen. The writers can simply say, “Alright, what we should do this week? Crossroads demon? Okay, pull out the template and we’ll break this bad boy.” That’s honestly what it feels like for me. If you happen to feel differently, that’s great! I’m happy the show still manages to keep you on your toes. I guess I’ve been around too long and seen too much.

Mark Sheppard popped it at the end of the episode, which is always welcome. Sheppard’s Crowley has been a very consistent villainous character, and to have him appear to scold Guy was welcome. I even liked his little speech about Hell not being like Wall Street (very topical), and Guy can’t cheat people out of their deals. To add a bit to the ongoing storyline, Crowley reveals he’s told his demons to back down from hunting Sam and Dean so they could hunt the Leviathan. On that note, I would love it if the Winchesters got back to hunting those pesky ink-bleeders.