'Supernatural' Season 6, Episode 2 Recap

['Supernatural' - 'Two and a Half Men']

There have been a lot of either-ors on 'Supernatural' over the years.

Either you're a demon or you're not. You stick with your family or you don't. You're a hunter or you're not. You're a normal person with a significant other or you're not.

Of course, within the world of the show, there are many shades of grey to be found (death, for instance, isn't an absolute; it's often about as fatal as a bad head cold). And of course, the choices the characters have had to make have often been painfully complex.

But what's so exciting to me about Season 6 is that 'Supernatural' is questioning a lot of the foundational principles of the show -- the rules that, like John Winchester's kids, we've unquestioningly accepted for years.

One of those implicit rules was, You stick with kin. They'll have your back no matter what. Taking two young boys on the road while he hunted demons and other supernatural beings surely wasn't the dream John Winchester had for his family, but by keeping all three Winchesters together, he drilled it into them that family -- and the family business -- comes first.

But should family come first? And if so, which family? As I wrote in my review last week, the Campbells are a bunch of strangers to Dean. Why would he throw Lisa and Ben over in favor of some semi-douchey strangers who seem more untrustworthy every week?

Like the Winchesters, we've accepted that hunters can't be in relationships (unless it's with a fellow hunter, and even then, good luck with that). But as Lisa gently pointed out to Dean, it doesn't have to be that way. Loving someone doesn't necessarily mean controlling them or obsessing about their safety. It means accepting that they have autonomy and intelligence and doing what you can to be there for them.

I've always been a geek for the emotional journeys of the characters and enjoying how those stories are woven into the show's overall mythology, which is about finding a balance between independence and dependence in a frightening world. So on that score, the scene between Lisa and Dean in the kitchen near the end of the episode was major to me. Not only was he able to articulate his fears about becoming his father, he was able to listen to Lisa's rational analysis of the situation and take her advice.

The whole episode hinged on the idea of responsibility. Who was responsible for these shifter babies and why were they being born? Who would take responsibility for Lisa and Ben? Was it the responsibility of the Winchesters to hunt with their relatives? Or was it their responsibility to stand up to those relatives? When does a sense of responsibility to family become suffocating and destructive? (Dean at least asked himself that question, though Samuel is the one who really should.)

When 'Supernatural' is firing on all cylinders, it sets up interesting questions about loyalty, independence and love, but it doesn't necessarily supply easy answers, because life isn't predictable or easy.

Aren't we all afraid of becoming our parents (whom we often admire in many ways)? Yet despite his tangled family history, he's moving well beyond anger at John to a place of understanding. Finally Dean is figuring out a new path, one that works for him, one that he didn't know was possible. His bond with Sam is of course crucial, but that doesn't have to be all there is in his life.

Well, it may have to be all there is, if we get the expected "Lisa and Ben in mortal danger" episode later this season. But here's why I'm very pleased about Season 6 -- I don't think that episode will go the way I expect, because the Lisa story line hasn't gone where I expected so far. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Lisa saved herself, or made an independent and rational decision to sacrifice herself. Allow me a squee moment to say that I LOVE the way they are writing Lisa.

On television the last few years, I've grown very frustrated with what I've come to call the LLF -- the Limited, Limiting Female. The LLF is a narrowly written, cliche-ridden character who is there to nag the male character, point out his shortcomings, or have sex with him. Yeah, there's a whole grand scope of human behavior and nuance that ladies don't get to display on so many shows that should know so much better. But thankfully, that's not what we're getting here.

Of course, Lisa's going to be somewhat limited by the fact that she's not a hunter. She's never going to be a Castiel for the boys. But she's allowed to be a human being with her own will, thoughts and desires. Hallelujah! She chose to have Dean in her life. She wanted to give her son a strong role model, knowing full well that every role model worth a damn has flaws.

And now she's choosing to tell Dean to go pursue his passion. Far from limiting his ambition and desires, she's telling him to do what he lives to do. She's able to see past her own needs and she knows that hunting with Sam is what Dean needs to do -- it's his calling. If he can still be in their lives, then fabulous. She's not going to make him stay at her house, knowing he'd be miserable there.

So beware, critters that inevitably come to Casa Lisa later in the season. She may not be a hunter, but she's no helpless dummy.

Now babies. They're helpless. Also sometimes demonic! That was another nice twist -- that the innocent are sometimes not so innocent. Or are they? Of course the baby was an adorable little munchkin. But he may be a pawn in a much bigger game (as the Winchesters and Campbells appear to be at this point).

I call a little bit of shenanigans on a mechanical front (it was convenient that none of the shifter babies ever shifted while their parents were living, right?) And there were a few flying anvils in the scenes in which the PapaShifter came to the Campbell compound and changed into Samuel, then Sam, then Dean ("I get it," I sighed. "It's about the family business. Got it!")

Still, "Two and a Half Men" was a solid outing. Last week, I talked about my disappointment in the fact that season 5 put the boys' relationship issues on the back burner. And this week the show got them back together quite soon after their parting, but that didn't disappoint me.

I think there is still plenty of mileage in the idea that the Winchester boys are still on the path to full adulthood, and they're traveling at different speeds. As long as the show continues to explore those issues in non-contrived ways, I'm fully on board and very enthused about where things are headed.

The episode was also very effective in that it added another layer of fraught, subtle suspense on the Campbell front.

They're bad, right?

The show is very good at giving us the willies (as it did in that opening sequence of the babysnatching, which was a series of horror-movie basics executed very well). And everything about the depiction of the Campbells and their grim separatist compound was meant to set our alarm bells ringing. Ding ding ding! Danger zone!

Dean, who was a gung-ho, stake-first-ask-questions-never hunter for a long time, had retained enough of his humanity to know that the Campbells were not quite right. This child was human, at least partly, and thus he didn't deserve to be passed around like a football by the Campbells, who had decided they could do whatever they wanted with him.

Dean wasn't particularly keen on Grandpa Samuel when they met last week, but now he's full-on turned off by the guy. And why wouldn't he be? For all John's faults as a parent, his kids have turned out pretty well. They're mature enough to question their own beliefs when appropriate, they're fully aware of all their flaws, and they still hold on a few scraps of compassion.

The Campbells, on the other hand, have an arrogance that comes from always believing they're right. 'Supernatural' does like its parallel stories, so maybe part of this season will have the Winchesters teaching Gwen and Christian a little humility or honesty. Or who knows, maybe it's the season of Cousin vs. Cousin.

If so, that'll be later down the road, because for now, Sam is still buying what the Campbells are selling. I love how Jared Padalecki has given us a sense, in every Season 6 scene he's been in, that there's something not quite right about Sam. He's not necessarily our Sam. Now, I have no idea what that means yet. Maybe Sam was brought back from downstairs "wrong." Maybe hunting with the Campbells has hardened him. There could be any number of explanations to Sam being off and I look forward to seeing how that plays out.

But the key scene in the Campbell sequence was a short one -- it was of Samuel on the phone. As we saw last week, he's keeping secrets from Sam (and possibly the rest of his family) and he's clearly answering to someone else higher up the food chain. Another hunter? A demonic potentate? It's unclear, and the mystery is an intriguing one. I'm also interested to learn exactly how Grandpa Samuel came back -- and from where. He does not seem all that heavenly, that's for sure.

Speaking of family drama, there's clearly something afoot in the critter community, as we saw last week with the djinns avenging their father and this week with the shifters procreating like rabbits. Why am I not surprised that there are so many daddy issues on display! What is this, 'Lost'?!

I kid. A little. I don't mind the daddy issues, and in fact, it'd be a smart move for the show to take the next logical step and show us that the Family Business isn't just a Winchester or a Campbell thing. Demons have families too, apparently. Last season we met the squabbling angels who made up God's family. Now we may find that demonic creatures have their own set of daddy issues.

If the episode had a flaw, it wasn't a huge one, but I thought it was overkill (and didn't make much logical sense) for the shifters to change into the forms of the people they were fighting. Why, if Dean was defending the baby, would he give it up to a shifter version of himself? Or are the shifters privy to the Winchesters' therapeutic issues and wanted to throw them off their game by bringing the Family Business into it?

In any case, at a few points, the show was hitting us with the Obvious Stick, but given that the rest of the show worked, and generally built well on emotional and tonal issues that were introduced in the season premiere, I was able to let that go.

Finally, who didn't love the scene of Dean getting the Metallicar ready to rumble? Awesome.

A few last points:

• I didn't really mention the baby comedy, but that was fairly well executed if somewhat by the book (the comedy conceit of men who have no idea how to take care of a baby is not a new one). The moment of Dean singing 'Smoke on the Water' as a lullaby was great.

• Now, as to the issue of whether Sam knew the baby would be bait -- personally speaking, I don't think he planned on that. I think he did just want the baby to be safe, relatively speaking. I say "relatively" because Sam had to know that Samuel might have an unconventional plan in mind for the infant. I don't think Sam hoped the baby would be bait for the Alpha, but maybe he didn't particularly care what solution Samuel would come up with regarding the baby dilemma. Again, we've yet to find out what's going on with Sam this season. He's certainly colder and more calculating than the Sam we've known in the past, and presumably we'll find out why that is in coming weeks.

• One thing 'Supernatural' does really well is make domestic scenarios seem incredibly scary. That opening sequence made a normal house seem like a chamber of horrors. For God's sake, don't go near the dryer!

• RIP Mark. We hardly knew ye. Actually we didn't know ye at all. Anyway, later, dude.

• One important note: Next week's 'Supernatural' episode won't air until Saturday night in Chicago. So don't expect a review before midday Sunday. If it's going to be delayed until Monday, I'll tweet that some time Saturday or Sunday.

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'Supernatural' airs 9PM ET Fridays on the CW.


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