['Supernatural' - 'Mommy Dearest']

Here's a thought exercise for you: What if 'Mommy Dearest' had aired in February or March?

If it had, we'd have almost half a season to explore the issues raised by Castiel's war in Heaven and how he's been using souls in that fight. We'd have half a season to tie that story line to the thread about Sam's soul. We might even have time for a return appearance from a fan favorite -- Death.

Don't get me wrong, I thought 'Mommy' was generally satisfying, nicely atmospheric and teed up some interesting things to come. And I was happy to see a couple of my suspicions confirmed. I'd thought we'd see Crowley again, but I never imagined he'd be in an alliance with Cas. That was a well-played surprise. And as I wrote last week, I thought the Mother plot was really just a diversion and that Cas would occupy center stage toward the end of the season. The fact that we get some more quality time with Crowley is a bonus.

All that being said, I find it a bit frustrating that we are going to delve into the Cas/Heaven story lines with just three hours left in the season (an episode will air May 6, then there's a 2-hour finale May 20). It's been hard to get invested in that war, because we've only been getting occasional reports about it.

But the structural issue with the season is bigger than a mere lack of Cas. Though I had some quibbles here and there, the fall run of episodes built up the suspense in several story lines remarkably well, and 'Caged Heat' and 'Appointment in Samarra' finished up the first half of the season very strongly. There was the sense that the season was inexorably building up to a series of interesting, intersecting conflicts.

Then, when the show returned, various story lines were all over the map and didn't seem to have a clear sense of direction. The Campbell story line petered out disappointingly, and though I enjoyed 'Frontierland' and 'The French Mistake' a lot, they were one-offs that didn't really add a ton of heft to the season-long arc. And during the second half of the season, we also had to endure 'Mannequin 3,' one of my least favorite episodes ever ('Like a Virgin' wasn't that great either).

Generally speaking, there wasn't a sense of overall momentum and the show's energy and direction were erratic after it returned in February, even if individual episodes worked on their own. And as I said, though 'Mommy' provided some chewy food for thought, I wished we'd gotten to this episode -- and to this sense of palpable investment in the high stakes for the characters -- sooner.

Part of the problem with this run of episodes was that the Mother was a misfire. Perhaps she'd have been more interesting if the actress who'd been cast in the role was interesting or even competent, but she wasn't. I generally hate to be this hard on actors, but it has to be said -- Julia Maxwell was just terrible as the Mother. She had no presence and her line readings were wooden, at best. The terrible performance and the uninspired writing of this standard-issue character were a pretty deadly combination.

I am vastly relieved that the producers brought in Samantha Smith to do the heavy lifting in the Mother's diner scene with the Winchesters. If Maxwell had tried to deliver all that material, I might well have done and Elvis and shot my television.

Not surprisingly, Smith did really well in her big exposition scene (Oh, if only she'd played the Mother all season. Ah well.) All the same, that part of the episode felt a little rushed. It had to lay out a lot of information about souls that 'Supernatural' has never explicitly explained before (to my recollection, anyway), and it could have done a slightly better job on that front.

I consider myself a fairly devoted fan of the show, but I was unclear on what, exactly, happens to some souls within the universe of 'Supernatural,' so I could have used more clarity about where certain souls go, who gets them and why. I think the show was assuming more knowledge about this topic than I personally have. (And not to beat a dead horse, but there's that structural issue again. What if, prior to 'Mommy,' we'd gotten a refresher course on where souls go when critters turn civilians? That would have been nice. We did get intimations that Cas was doing bad things with souls but more info on the mechanics and properties of souls would have been helpful.)

Here's what I understand about souls at this point, based on what the Mother said and on assumptions I've made as I've watched the show over six seasons: If a human is taken over by a demon, that person's mind and soul remain inside the body but are trapped and essentially held hostage by the demon. But if a human is turned by the kind of creatures created by the Mother, those human souls are expelled from their bodies -- and those souls revert to the Mother. Maybe?

I may have that wrong -- feel free to share theories and information in comments. But what she said and things that transpired in the episode raised a whole host of questions for me. Here are my 'Mommy'-related queries:

• What does the Mother do with the souls she collects? Presumably she has received millions of them over the years.

• If Crowley is taking souls that "belong" to the mother on behalf of Cas, what will happen to the souls once they aren't being taken by Crowley or Cas any more? Theoretically, would they go to Heaven? Now that the Mother's gone, what would happen to them if they were no longer being diverted?

• Is that the normal process for humans who've never been turned -- that their souls just go to Heaven? Is that still happening for most humans who die? Or...

• Does Cas have to harvest some souls to power his war machine because Raphael's side is using all the "normal" souls that are arriving in Heaven? Hmmm. I wonder if that's what we'll learn in next week's episode, which I'm quite anxious to see, given that it was written and directed by Ben Edlund. (Feel free to speculate about this, but in comments, PLEASE don't share any spoilers about the episode. The general rule here is, speculation is fine, spoilers are not.)

• So the Mother is powerful and ancient -- and had access to a huge energy source, i.e., millions of souls -- yet phoenix ash still killed her? I wonder if she is really dead. In a way, I hope so, because I don't want to see that actress on the show again. But having said that, what a letdown. The character not only didn't really work, her arrival never created any palpable tension, at least not for me. She turned up, her worm minion issued some boilerplate threats, she finally encountered the Winchesters, then blammo, she's dead. As Big Bads go, she was just Bad. Not so much with the Big.

• Haven't souls been valuable forever? Why haven't they been stolen or harvested for nefarious purposes before? Is it only possible now because of the chaos in Heaven? Is it only possible with the help or complicity of angels?

• So why did Crowley need to come to the diner to help Cas? Why were he and Cas there? If all the possessed types were dead, what was the point of that? Perhaps they both needed to "clean up" the entire town, not just the diner. In any event, it was great to see Crowley. Very few shows have the guts to truly kill off a Mark Sheppard character once and for all, and it's easy to see why.

• Now that they're besties, have Cas and Crowley kissed? Excitement! There could be a whole love triangle as we head into the final stretch of the season.

In all seriousness, I got a season 2 or season 3 vibe from 'Mommy,' and I mean that in a good way. It reminded me of 'Jus in Bello,' possibly because it was partly set in a police station in a strangely off small town. And the investigation of the 'Jefferson Starships' was well orchestrated, and I especially loved the final scene -- the mood and the feel of it.

Despite his limited screen time, Misha Collins has done a terrific job of showing us a new Cas this season -- a man who has had to do so many terrible things that they hardly seem terrible any more. Castiel came down to Earth a few years ago not knowing much about human beings, and he learned to admire the compassion and loyalty that they are capable of. The look on his face as he's done various unpleasant things -- such as torture that Mother minion in the police station -- shows that he's nearly lost touch with the human qualities he'd learned to appreciate and cultivate.

As he looked around the diner, there was a real sense of tragedy about Cas, a mood perfectly defined by the mournful song (by Jefferson Starship, no less! A beautifully hilarious and appropriate touch). That scene, and the episode as a whole, had a driving feeling of tension and stakes, and also a bittersweet sense of what the characters have had to give up in order to "survive," if you can call it that. Hence the season 2 or 3 vibe.

The Mother did have one pretty great trick up her sleeve -- using Ryan as the test case for her new super-virus was a brilliant move. If you want the Winchesters' judgment to go wobbly, using a lost pair of brothers is the way to go. Unlike Cas, there are some things the Winchesters just can't do -- they just couldn't let those brothers die. But if they become as relentless and as hard as Cas, what will they give up? Is having a weak spot or two all that separates them from the demonic hordes?

Right now, the scariest person in the Winchesters' world is a man who's supposed to be one of their best (and only) friends, and that's one hell of a moral and personal dilemma. If 'Mommy' was supposed to get me excited about 'The Man Who Would Be King,' it did that well. On to next week.

A few final observations and favorite lines:

• "Cas, get out of my ass!"

• "Now it just looks like you're pooping."

• "Jefferson Starship. Because they're horrible and hard to kill."

• The Winchesters as well as Bobby and Cas hunting together is a pretty great combination. If the show featured those four every week, that would be pretty sweet.

• Normally Cas complains about having to help out the Winchesters, but this week we didn't get any of the "But I have a war to fight!" resistance. He knew he needed to eliminate the Mother -- or help in that effort -- so that the boys wouldn't find out about his alliance with Crowley.

• Now Dean will have to deal with not only Sam's soul-wall problem (which we haven't heard a peep about lately) but with Cas' betrayal. So many funtimes ahead for the Winchesters.

• "You know what whines? Babies whine." I love that they still made time for some good Dean-Cas comedy in the episode.

• I'm so, so glad that Mark Sheppard's names weren't in the opening credits. I really didn't know he was going to turn up (I've been trying to avoid spoilers for the last part of the season, so I don't know if rumors of his appearance had been circulating). Anyway, the show did a pretty excellent job of preserving that surprise.


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'Supernatural' airs 9PM ET on the CW.

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