EPISODE: "Angel Heart"
THE PLOT: Sam (Jared Padelecki), Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Castiel (Misha Collins) tag up with Castiel's vessel's daughter (Get all that?) Claire Novack (Kathryn Newton) to save the latter's mom from an evil soul feeding angel.
WARNING! SPOILERS BELOW!
Dean man-dancing…again!
THE DEALIO: Last night's Supernatural was a mix of two types of episodes rolled up into one. 1- A monster of the week party with the boys hunting a rogue angel who's feeding off poor lowly humans. 2- A tie up the character arc affair having to do with teenage Claire Novack who was introduced in Episode 9 (The Things We Left Behind) and last seen in Episode 10 (The Hunter Games) of this season. To be honest, even though they left the door wide open at the end of Ep 10, I thought that would be the last we'd see of Claire in Season 10. I just didn't think there was much more left to say about her. Boy was I wrong! Hence this episode wound up being somewhat of a surprise; a pleasant one at that!
I really dug what they did with Claire's story here. First they sowed all of the old wounds shut. Claire's justifiable loathing for Castiel and Dean is now gone. Her anger and resentment over being abandoned by her dad (who basically sacrificed himself so the world could live by letting Castiel in) and her mom (who never left her, she just got kidnapped by a vampire angel) will dissipate being that Claire FINALLY has the big picture now. And although I was taken aback at the show killing off the mom at the end (that was cold); after some thought, I understood why they did it. By taking the mother out of the equation, the episode acted as a 100% new beginning for the Claire character. And if I go by the hints that were elbow-dropped in this episode; I wouldn’t be surprised to see the lass re-surface on the show as a badass female hunter. I sure hope so! This sausage part needs a pinch of estrogen and badass to spice things up and Claire fits that bill! The fact that Kathryn Newton totally owns the role, hitting the varied notes with gusto is also a big plus! Make it happen Supernatural people!
The big "awwww" moment of the episode…
Having Claire in the mix also resulted in some pretty badass chemistry between her and Dean (Ackles). It was kind of trip to see Dean play "would-be father knows best"! In his world an underage girl wielding a gun is all good – but don't talk to him about having a "brewski". It kind of cracked me up! Jensen Ackles and Kathryn Newton shared a wonderful chemistry together and were simply a pleasure to watch. It was "on" when the characters didn't care for each other in past episodes, but it was even more "on" now that they're on the same side. In a way Claire is very much like Dean in terms of angst and that rebellious streak – so it was nice to see them tag team for the better good! More reasons to have "hunter Claire" return to the show on a more frequent basis.
Misha Collins hit the jackpot this week too! He got to play two roles and excelled at them on all fronts! 1- He was Jimmy, the pre Castiel vessel and of course Castiel the conflicted angel with a big load of guilt weighting on his shoulders. To witness Cast get relieved of that burden AT LAST was heartwarming to say the least. All about that long overdue hug! Good on ya Castiel! Good on ya! Couple to that Dean's violent ways carving a smile on my face (I loved his interrogation techniques) and some sly circumstantial humor and you get an engaging, fan pleasing (in more ways than one) and all around entertaining episode. Complaints? I wish they would have explored the monster a bit more as the concept of a soul sucking angel was fascinating (he was skimmed over) and addressing the mark further would have been swell; but I guess they're keeping that last one for the remaining two episodes! BRING EM!
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE EPISODE? COMMENT BELOW!