'Supernatural' Season 6, Episode 1 Recap

First of all, welcome! It's wonderful to be back writing about 'Supernatural.'

I've been missing my fellow 'Supernatural' fans as much as Dean has been missing his leather jacket and riding in the Impala.

At my previous Chicago Tribune site, I wrote about 'Supernatural' each week, and my fellow fans were kind enough to build a cool little community there. I'm eager to hear from you all again and hang with you each week to discuss all things Winchester.

The general plan is to get these weekly recaps up on Friday nights, but that might not always be possible. Plan B is to get them up by noon CT on Saturdays. We'll see how that goes. I love 'Supernatural' but the Friday night time slot may interfere a bit with my not-extensive social life. But I'll certainly try to get these weekly posts up by Saturday morning, if at all possible.

As people who read my 'Supernatural' posts last season know, there are rules about commenting on my posts. The short version: You can disagree with me, like or dislike the episode, whatever -- just don't attack other commenters and, generally speaking, be nice. No matter what your opinion is, keep you comments polite and civil. No Samgirl or Deangirl nonsense will be tolerated on this site, and if you think the show has completely lost its creative mojo and has become unwatchable and/or a crime against humanity, then this is not the site for you.

You don't have to love every episode that airs -- I don't. But if you express yourself in a screechy, repetitive, unpleasant fashion and if your starting point is that 'Supernatural' and/or a particular character has been ruined for all time, then please take your thoughts elsewhere. People who can't be polite, thoughtful, respectful and considerate of their fellow commenters will be banned. You won't get a warning first.

OK, I'm sorry to get all hardcore there for a second, but I just wanted to make sure that we're all on the same page as the new season begins. The fact that so many cool 'Supernatural' fans came together to talk about the show on my site last season was a beautiful thing, and I simply want to keep that vibe going. And if you need any clarification on what the rules are, there are guidelines at the end of this post.

So, here are my thoughts on 'Exile on Main St.'

If there was one word that came to mind during the season premiere of 'Supernatural,' it was "melancholy."

Sure, a lot happened -- there was fighting, hallucinations of the Yellow Eyed Demon, a visit to Uncle Bobby's (where there are always plenty of Readers Digests), a family reunion between the Winchesters and their long-lost Campbell relatives and, of course, Sam and Dean's reunion, which was emotional but in a subdued way. The brothers were glad to see each other, but things between them were somewhat strained and difficult.

Of course, as we know, going to Hell and back can play havoc with your relationships. Ask any Winchester! But there was a quality of sad surprise nicely threaded through the episode, as if Dean was disappointed to have expected so much from seeing Sam, and Sam was disappointed to have expected so little.

The ending of "Exile on Main St" was the best part of this solid episode -- I don't know about you, but I expected the brothers to reunite and be on their merry, demon-hunting way as the Season 6 premiere came to a close. That seemed especially likely given that there is as also an extended family in the picture. Hunting together with your brother and with a clan you'd always kind of wanted but never knew about? Maybe it wasn't the perfect, apple-pie life, but for a long time, that was the most that either Winchester could probably have hoped for.

But the family business has changed. So has the makeup of the people in that family. Dean, now that he's gotten a taste of the suburban life and now that he also has something to protect, wants to stay with his new family. And he doesn't really know the Campbells. He's loyal to Sam, sure, but he's got no particular reason at this point to want to spend time with those people, who can surely take care of themselves, unlike Lisa and Ben.

Dean spent years protecting Sam (arguably well beyond the point that Sam needed protecting), and given that horrific hallucination that he had -- a scenario in which he relived the hell his own father went through -- he's more likely than ever to go into guardian mode. Dean needs to feel needed; he derives much of the meaning in his life from taking care of others. I can understand why he felt Lisa and Ben needed him. Sam had never appeared to need him less.

Why is Sam so guarded, so cold? Was it his time in Hell? His year on the road with the Campbells, who appear to be a rather efficient, unemotional crew (for Dean to comment on someone else not talking is kind of hilarious, when you think about it). It might be something deeper -- maybe Sam has given up his dream. He never wanted hunting to be the only thing in his life -- he fought against that for so long. Now he's accepted that that's his life, but at the cost of part of his soul?

I'm not entirely sure what's going on with Sam, but I certainly want to find out. I have to admit, I'm both heartened by and nervous about the direction the show appears to be going in.

If you read my weekly 'Supernatural' reviews last year, then you'll know that one of my biggest Season 5 disappointments was the way that the brothers' relationship was handled. The show appeared ready to examine where they were in their lives and to highlight the differences that ended up driving them apart early in the season. This looked like rich storytelling territory to me, but the boys were reunited not long after they split up, and then their relationship was put on the back burner for the rest of the season, in favor of an Apocalypse that sometimes didn't seem Apocalypt-y enough to deserve the attention that it was taking away from the character journeys.

Will Season 6 be different? I hope so. There were things to like about Season 5, which had some terrific episodes, but I'm frankly glad that this year, they're not facing down something a big as the Apocalypse. It was such a giant (and expensive) concept that the show just couldn't execute it every week and anyway, 'Supernatural' has always been most effective when it's about the personal stakes among the characters.

In any case, Sera Gamble said here that Season 6 will have a noir feel, which was music to my ears. I love the sense of melancholy and missed opportunities that pervades film noir and detective novels written in that genre. In noir, it's not just about catching the bad guy (though that can be interesting and twisty in the most satisfying ways). It's about trying to find connections that mean something in a cold and cruel world. And the tagline for the season -- "You can't outrun your past" -- perfectly fits into that bittersweet worldview.

If Season 6 can pull off the mix of action, mythology and character work we saw in 'Exile on Main St' and revisit that thoughtful atmosphere of melancholy and regret, then I'm quite encouraged about where things are headed.

Of course, I reserve the right to be very excited about the next Ben Edlund episode, or any episode with some funny. 'Exile' wasn't that funny, which was only appropriate for an episode about djinns inflicting nightmares and a reunion with the brother you thought was dead. That story is never going to be a laugh riot, and rightly so. But as we all know, one of the pleasures of 'Supernatural' is the way that it is able to mix tones and styles within seasons. I look forward to that variety.

Now, on to a few specific thoughts about the episode before I finish up here:

• I loved all the callbacks in the opening minutes of the episode. For some reason, I especially loved the stars on the ceiling of Ben's room -- they reminded me of the fireworks scene in 'Dark Side of the Moon.'

• Excellent line: "You have no idea what's in some people's walls."

• No matter where he is or how he lives his life, Dean is haunted by a sense of failure. He thinks he's only been a burden to Lisa and Ben, and his djinn hallucination, which comes from his own subconscious, has him repeating the tragic life of John Winchester. But I loved Lisa's response to Dean's pity party. I have to watch a ton of TV, and so many times, the female character is the one who nags, disciplines or otherwise bugs the male characters. But I really liked Lisa's response, which is that Dean gave her son someone to look up to, and it had been the best year of their lives. As with the ending of the episode, that wasn't what I expected -- it was much better.

• Having said that, I wish we'd gotten more than a montage of Lisa and Dean's life together. There were fans that weren't especially pleased that he suddenly ended up on her doorstep in Season 5 -- it did seem a bit convenient and a bit random. It was as if the show had to end up using her, given that she was the one of the few female character who was still alive. Then again, would we have wanted a lot of Lisa-Dean schmoopiness in 'Exile,' given that they weren't ever a star-crossed pair of lovers? Maybe it was better to tacitly acknowledge that these two certainly care for each other, but there was something of an arrangement between them -- they would build a life of contentment and safety, but neither lived under the illusion that they were engaged in some sort of epic romance. Still, the Ben-Lisa aspect of things would have more stakes if we got a better sense of how these three interact and what they have to lose as a family unit.

• So Grandpa Samuel has something to hide, huh? Who else bets he's torturing these demons to find out what manner of weirdness is affecting the demonic-critter community? There's something a little shifty about how Samuel took the djinn and hid that fact from Sam. I'm betting the Campbells have something to hide, and given how much I enjoy Mitch Pileggi and his ability to play ambiguous characters, I'm quite keen to see where that goes.

• So far I also dig Corin Nemec as Christian and Jessica Heafey as Gwen (is it me or do Heafey and Jensen Ackles look like they could be brother and sister?).

• I call minor plot shenanigans, in that the djinn could have taken Dean out when he was home with Lisa and Ben (who presented no challenge to them), or at any point when he was simply by himself, before Sam or the Campbells came to town. It was pretty convenient that they waited until he potentially had backup around. Ah well. I'll let that go.

• Those golf clubs weren't so funny when you were trapped with the djinn, eh, Sammy?

• Great work by both actors in the last scene. Sam seemed honestly surprised, in a low-key way, by his own inability to care, by his own callousness. Meanwhile Dean was torn up by how much he cared about Sam leaving. They were family, they were supposed to stick together -- that's been the code that Dean has lived by forever. But this appears to be a season about family ties and how, sometimes, they are earned instead of automatic. Both of these brothers have been through a lot, and the exploration of their choices as experienced, thoughtful grown men could be very interesting indeed.

OK, now for a recap of the rules. If you don't see your comment, it's probably because of something below. If you ever have a question about why your comment hasn't appeared, please email me at maureen.ryan@teamaol.com.

If you can't follow the common-sense guidelines that follow, I'll ban you from commenting on this site without warning. New commenters, please read them. Veterans can skip this part.

• On this site, we observe the Lurkers Rule: The environment here should be so accepting, so calm and so non-screechy that most timid lurker should feel it's safe to comment. I simply won't let angry, vicious, annoying or repetitive people hijack the comment areas.

• You can express any opinion you like, as long as it's on topic and as long as you express yourself without vitriol and without attacking others. You don't have to like the episode, but you do have to be polite and on-topic.

• To reiterate: Be nice. To further quote from Alan Sepinwall's Rules for Commenting: "There's a difference between arguing with passion and arguing with hostility. If you can't find a way to express your viewpoint without insulting other commenters, or getting strident and self-righteous -- say, equating your opinion with fact, and deriding other people for not seeing the truth of your words -- then either tone down your words until they're more respectful to other people, or don't comment."

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