Supernatural Review: Season 8 Episode 22 "Clip Show"

By: Andrew Dabb

**Spoilers**

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

"Honestly, um... My, uh, my whole body hurts. I feel nauseous and like I'm starving at the same time, and everything smells like rotting meat."

Sam is getting worse and Crowley is on the offensive in their great game of chess. He has got hold of the 'Supernatural' books and, starting at the beginning, is systematically backtracking through the Winchesters' adventures and using witchcraft to pick off everyone that they worked so hard to save. That slimy politician...

This week finds him all the way up to 'Provenance' and so brings about the return of Sarah Blake, Sam's sort-of flame from Season 1. The reunion between them was very bittersweet and sad. They're no longer the boy and girl who met and bonded and fell in love. Sam's a hell-scarred, weary hunter now and Sarah is both a wife and a mother. But even after all of these years, they still clearly felt a fondness for each other and I think they could have been good friends. If Crowley hadn't gotten to her first.

The second story line of this episode involves Castiel and Metatron. Castiel, in an effort to win back the good graces of the brothers, goes out to buy toilet paper, beer, and pie for them. He becomes quite upset with a hapless minimart clerk whenever the poor kid tells him that they're freshly out of pie. Metatron comes in to save the guy from an impromptu smiting and offers Castiel another way to fix his mistakes and help the Winchesters. Apparently, along with the Hellgate Trials, there are three trials that one can undergo to slam shut the pearly gates too. Metatron takes our favorite angel out for crepes to discuss this test.

Sam and Dean also discover that the Batcave has a dungeon and they start seeking a way to cure a demon (which is what Kevin says is the last Trial). After a bit of digging, they find a set of old film reels in the Men of Letters records and, with Castiel, sit down for a rather weird movie night. They are distracted from this, though, by the phone call from Crowley where he gleefully tells 'Moose' and 'Not Moose' about his dastardly plan.

Sarah returns, as lovely and kind as she ever was, and tells Sam that she's married now and has a daughter. Sam and Dean set about painting wards and spreading salt to protect her from Crowley's demons, but Crowley still manages to get through all of this by planting a hex bag in Sarah's phone. Apparently Crowley's 'dear old mum' was a witch. 

As Sarah lays gasping for breath in Sam's arms (Crowley has a very sick sense of humor. He chokes her to death because "...Sammy took that bird's breath away.") Dean ransacks the room in search of the hex bag that will turn out to be in the phone while Crowley gives probably his most hard-hitting and evil speech ever. 

Just ouch.

There may have been a few pacing issues with this episode here and there, as the multiple story lines do sometimes bog it down a bit, but the emotions rang true, I think, and the actors were as on-point as ever. I really enjoyed it.

4/5