Despite some of my misgivings about the quality of the ninth season of Supernatural, I couldn’t help but be excited at the potential of an episode directed by Misha Collins.  And Crowley’s gambit in the previous episode has a lot of potential to get things moving on the season arc, after so many fits and starts.  Dean’s use of the Mark of Cain and the First Blade is bringing them ever closer to the thematically inevitable battle between the Brothers Winchester.

 

The rift between Sam and Dean means that Dean is obsessed with bringing the whole mess with Abaddon to a close, rather than worry about pursuing cases.  And Dean’s hitting the bottle again, which is never a good sign.  Sam is therefore on his own, in more ways than one.  And he ends up in a town where folks keep lashing out in violent ways, all too similar to when he was soulless.

 

The connection to the Men of Letters makes the whole situation a lot more interesting.  That’s not hard to imagine, since the Men of Letters concept has been one of the best things about the Carver era.  Showing the adventure of Henry Winchester and Josie Sands, just before the events of “As Time Goes By”.  Given the timing, and the events of “Clip Show”, it’s somewhat like threading a continuity needle to make the timing work.  Making this the situation in which Abaddon takes possession of Josie is the perfect solution, and ties what seems to be a typical situation to the larger context.

 

Abaddon’s plan is actually pretty damn consistent with what has been revealed in past seasons, and I like the idea that she was setting her plan to take control in motion long before her current war with Crowley.  It makes sense that a Knight of Hell would be planning a long game.  And now that Sam is aware that there are other “factories” where souls are being collected to be turned, he actually might feel like he has a purpose.

 

Dean’s little “date” with Crowley is a rather interesting follow-up to the previous episode.  Crowley loves to mess with the mind of a Winchester, and Dean is in the perfect state of mind to get twisted. Crowley is trying to lead Dean down the garden path towards temptation, and what better way than to gently push him towards giving in to those violent urges?  But getting him to think of Crowley as something other than a threat is the first step, and that is child’s play for the once and (possibly) future King of Hell.

 

It’s not the most exciting episode of Supernatural, but it is much closer to the standard that the series has set in past seasons.  And that happens to make it one of the best episodes of the season thus far.  Sure, Dean should have probably seen the manipulation coming a mile away, but between the self-loathing, urges to kill, and copious alcohol, it’s not hard to rationalize what took place.  And for all the general lack of action in Sam’s side of the episode, it was more than balanced by the implications.