Supernatural Review: Season 10 Episode 4 "Paper Moon"

By: Adam Glass

**Spoilers**
If you have not seen this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.


       GAAAAH! Nooo! It burns! I'm melting! There was just too much character development and brotherly moments in this episode...I'm not sure I can take it!

      I jest, I jest. It was very good. We haven't had an episode like this since the latter half of Season 8 and we have DESPERATELY needed some. Sam and Dean are the heart and soul of Supernatural. Whenever they're not at least working together just the two of them as a team, things tend to break up a bit. Especially whenever the tension is dragged out insufferably. But now Sam and Dean are actually being honest and talking? Oh kill me now! I can die happily! This was beautiful...
   
        Kate the college werewolf returns. I didn't really like her in her ill-fated Season 8 episode, Bitten, probably because the lazily done 'found footage' format made me feel like someone had stuck my eyeballs in a blender. It got REALLY annoying after the first few minutes and - as things went on - made less and less sense as to why these college students would be filming all these things instead of freaking out like NORMAL people do. Needless to say I didn't really get a good first impression of this young werewolf, so when I heard that she was probably coming back for this episode, I groaned and resigned myself to another snooze fest.

     Ha. Haha. Hahahaha! Oh, Emily, you idiot! Nothing could be further from the truth because this episode was absolutely fantastic.



Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- I loved the 'Then' montage at the beginning of the episode where we got to see a reel of all the werewolves the boys have ever fought over the years. For those who don't follow the news of the show, it kept us guessing as to who we might see this week. (You'll notice Garth didn't appear in the montage because he is not dead).

- 'Werewolf of London' was playing whenever the girl walked into the bar. Nice touch.

- One thing I don't like about these new werewolves is the way that their 'Full Moon' personas have been retconned. Wasn't the whole point of Madison's story that the wolf comes out as the moon rises and takes over totally, turning you into an animal? Like, you don't remember anything you do while under the influence? You don't have coherent thought?

- Oh gosh...Sam and Dean are sitting out with a case of beer, basking in the sun with their shades on, and wearing about four layers of clothing. *snort* How are these guys even on the CW?

- Osiric's legacy lives on...

 

- Sorry, dude. I'm pretty sure they're going to mention it in every episode that Jared has the sling on.

- "Besides. Werewolf Barbie over here."  

- Sam offers to kill another werewolf girl so Dean won't have to. I am still crying over Madison...this is not okay!

- THEY ARE DRAWING PARALLELS BETWEEN THE SISTERS AND SAM AND DEAN AND IT'S THE BEST THING EVER!

- A lot of my warm, fuzzy feelings towards Dean were somewhat dampened by the whole Gadreel fiasco last season. That was not okay and no amount of waffling by the writers will ever convince me that Dean did the right thing. He didn't. Even if Sam didn't have the history with possession that he does, it still wouldn't have been right. For the longest of times I feared that this would just be glossed over. That the incredible job this show does of showing cause-and-effect and consequences for your choices was being undermined. That it had possibly even jumped the shark. But now, oh glorious now, now we had an episode SOLELY DEVOTED to indirectly talking about Sam and Dean and Gadreel what with the obvious parallels drawn between Tasha and Kate and the brothers. Some of the shots of Kate visiting her sister in the hospital even directly were shot to look like scenes from I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here.

- Those weren't the only parallels noticed in this episode, though:

- Go ahead, rub salt in the wounds by reminding me of Sacrifice. This is some of the best writing the show has seen in a while (which, considering what show this is, is saying a lot) and I'm excited to see where this arc is going.

- We had three (THREE) brotherly conversations in this episode. Wow.

- "Oh you were a demon?Aw...I didn't realize that!" Sassy Sammy is the best.

- The reveal that it was Kate's sister doing the killing wasn't all that incredible. Did they really expect us to believe that it was Kate?

- And Sam ends up being strangled again...twice in one episode. Why am I not surprised?

- There's definitely something off about Dean and I'm willing to bet that it's intentional rather than just character bleed because both Jared and Jensen are scarily good at switching between different versions of their characters effortlessly. He may be cured, but the ride isn't over yet.

- Sam took out two werewolves with his dominate hand in a sling. Let me repeat that: SAM TOOK OUT TWO WEREWOLVES WITH HIS DOMINATE HAND IN A SLING. The Winchester boys are awesome.

- "I am just trying to do the right thing, man, because I'm just sick and tired of doing the wrong one." 

           In case you can't tell, I really, REALLY enjoyed this episode. We got the brotherly moments that we've so desperately needed without it delving into fluffy OOC territory and the character development happened by leaps and bounds. Worlds was done for Kate's rather bland character and she's definitely someone I would be interesting in seeing again on the show. The Winchesters should have given her Garth's number. The writing was tight and witty and really raised some excellent points about Sam and Dean that addressed things that desperately needed to be addressed. Maybe the brothers are beginning to heal instead of just slapping a plaster over the festering wound and soldiering on. This is good. This is very good. Great episode. Paper Moon is a 5/5.




What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?