This week’s episode
of Supernatural “Man’s Best Friend
With Benefits” was written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming and directed
by John Showalter. It’s pretty much a standalone monster of the week episode.
The episode had a few good moments, but overall the pacing was a bit slow and
uneven. The episode does touch on a few themes that have come up before,
particularly that grey area between good and evil.
Dean (Jensen Ackles) is still
concerned about Sam (Jared Padalecki) and the trials. It is a monster of the
week episode, so there is a throwaway line about Kevin not even knowing what
the next trial is. Dean tries to get Sam to let him tag him out, but Sam is
determined to continue with the trials himself. He wants Dean to believe that
he can complete the trials. Sam finally tells Dean “It’s not that you don’t
trust me, it’s that you can only trust you.” Given the history between the
brothers and Dean’s recent experiences in Purgatory, this is fairly
understandable.
During the climactic scene, when
Spencer messes with their minds, Sam is consumed only with his own memories of
Hell, while Dean flashes first to losing his mother and then turns to his own
memories of Hell, but Dean’s first thoughts are of letting down his family.
This spurs him to tell Sam – using “Sammy” as he always does when his emotions
are closest to the surface – that if Sam says he’s good, Dean is with him 100%.
Dean completely places his trust in Sam, and Sam returns that trust with a lie,
that he is fine, which is underscored by his coughing up blood.
The first scene with the brothers
actually underscores that their relationship is finally back on a more even
keel for the moment as there is a classic scene with them arguing over the
Three Stooges. They’re in town because a cop they worked with on another case,
James Frampton (Christian Campbell), texted to ask for their help. However, he’s
turned to witchcraft after his involvement with the brothers and it’s actually
his familiar, Portia (Mishael Morgan) who texted them. This episode opens up a
whole new chapter on witches for the show as we’ve never seen familiars before.
There is also a very active witch community that is flying under the radar.
Spencer (Curtis Caravaggio) asks James “How do you reconcile what you are with
what you do?” The witches live on the fringes of society much as the brothers
do.
Portia explains to Dean that a
familiar finds the master and they become inseparable. They share an unbreakable
bond like a melding of souls, and they would die for each other. In many ways,
this sounds like the bond between the brothers. It also sounds like the “profound
bond” that Castiel has said he shares with Dean.
Once again, the brothers are faced
with a “monster” who may not be a monster. Portia tells them that James has
only used witchcraft for good. As they prepare the spell to kill him, Dean says
that if they decide he has to die, they can’t hesitate, and Sam responds that
James wouldn’t be the first “monster” they’d let go. Dean, however, makes an
important distinction when he says that Benny and Kate (the werewolf from “Bitten”)
were forced into what they were while James has chosen to be a witch. Dean’s “code”
allows for them to live until they’ve proven they can’t be trusted not to kill.
That was Dean’s reasoning with the Rugaru in season four and with Amy in season
seven.
It turns out that James is being framed by
Spencer who is jealous of James and Portia: he’d hoped Portia would choose him
as her master. He accuses James of going all “Bella and Edward” and going
against the code of the community. Twilight
jokes will never cease to be funny on Supernatural.
Some of the other humor in the episode was rather jarring. When Portia insists
that Dean “lose the ignorant bigotry for two seconds” and give James a shot,
Dean responds with “That was incredibly hot.” Rather than the comedic effect
that was intended, I found it simply took away from Portia’s speech which I
found unfortunate as the speech itself could have been significant. Having Sam
then agree that it was hot just prolonged the agony. I also found that Dean
trying to wrap his head around Portia having sex with James was also belabored to
the point of ceasing to be funny and just being uncomfortable. The one scene
that did work for me was the scene while they were waiting for Drexel and Dean
asked what came first, the woman or the dog.
In the end, there were some
important moments in the episode. The episode also picked up some of the themes
we’ve seen before such as when is the line crossed between good and evil. Dean
reaffirmed his commitment to family and the brothers would appear to be back on
the same page for now, though that seems unlikely to last. I thought that
Morgan’s performance as the familiar was excellent. It would have been easy for
her to go overboard with dog mannerisms, but she played it perfectly, and her
devotion to James was completely believable. In many ways, her relationship
with her master is much like Dean’s with Sam – it’s hardly a coincidence that
Dean has been labelled as the “attack dog” previously.
What did you think of this week’s
episode? Let me know in the comments below.
