Supernatural - Angel Heart - Review

Supernatural, “Angel Heart,” was written by Robbie Thompson and directed by Steve Boyum. It continues the tendency of the show to have a Cas-centric episode or a filler episode in the 20-slot – we were introduced to the Novaks in 4.20, “The Rapture.” While this episode had some fun moments and was structurally interesting, there were just too many holes and inconsistencies, not to mention obvious outcomes, to make it a really memorable episode. I apologize for not having as rich a choice of photos for this review, but the site I normally get them from hadn't posted any by the time I was ready to get this up.

We finally get some closure on the Jimmy Novak (Misha Collins doing double duty as Castiel) storyline. He is definitively now in Heaven – as is Amelia (Leisha Hailey) by the end of the episode. I actually really do like how they handled that. We begin the episode with Jimmy arriving in Amelia’s heaven and we end it with Amelia arriving in Jimmy’s. It’s a nice bookend to the episode, but it also demonstrates how strong their love was for each other - not everyone gets to share their Heaven. Collins is especially good in the final scene, and Jimmy really does feel like an entirely different character from Cas. Given how Cas-centric the story is, I really didn’t feel that we actually got that much of Collins in the actual episode.

I’m sure many viewers noticed that, like Claire (Kathryn Newton), Amelia had been re-cast, having originally been played by Wynn Everett. Also like Claire, this re-casting was not an improvement. I can only imagine that Everett was not able to fit it into her schedule, which is a shame because she’s very talented (check her out in The Newsroom). You may have recognized Ronnie (Russell Porter) – from “Exile on Main Street” in which he played Sid and also had a scene in a bar with Dean – though much more amenably!

The episode also continues the recent tradition of everyone who comes into Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) life being turned into hunters. Is anyone going to be surprised in season eleven when the new hunters are the center of the episode and Sam and Dean provide back up over the phone? Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with Sam that Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) is good people, and I thoroughly enjoy watching Jody help the boys on a case. A lot of that is due to Rhodes acting abilities and a lot is due to the fact that Jody is a trained Sheriff. But why not center on the really good actors you’ve accumulated – like Rhodes – instead of picking up new ones at the drop of a hat. What happened to we do what we do and shut up about it?

As the episode opens, Claire is trying to track down Amelia to tell her she ruined her life. Thank you hair and makeup for getting rid of that stupid hairdo! We find out that she’s not off trying to find herself as we were told as recently as “The Things We Left Behind” but is trying to find Jimmy and reunite their family. We also learn that she’s been being held for two years and the last postcard she sent said she was coming home to Claire. Sam points out to Claire that that hardly sounds like someone trying to abandon her. And of course, she was being held when Claire’s grandmother died. Perhaps I’m being too harsh in feeling like this is changing the story after the fact rather than simply peeling back a layer of the story. What did you think? Ret-con or not?

Claire has tracked Amelia to Ronnie and meets him at Susie’s Bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For those who don’t know, this is a pretty sweet shout out to SE Hinton – author of The Outsiders and a huge Supernatural fan and supporter – who lives in Tulsa. The location gave Jerry Wanek a really good excuse for that oil-themed hotel too!

I liked that Cas called Sam and Dean in for backup because they were troubled teens and therefore speak her language. Sam proves it almost immediately when she denies being in the bar and he realizes it’s simply an evasion. I will admit that Newton is much improved in this episode and shares some good scenes with both Padalecki and Ackles. However, it still grates that both seem to have no problem indoctrinating her into the world of hunting.

Sam is the first to offer her “pro-tips” like using an alias when checking into a hotel and committing credit card fraud – I’m betting Jody will have something to say about that last one. He admires the hunter’s wall she’s constructed to find Amelia. One has to wonder where she learned how to do that. Amelia’s diary was a very heavy-handed shout out to John’s journal, of course. I did like the conversation they had about mothers. One thing the show has done consistently this season is look back to past seasons. Unfortunately, this isn’t always successful given the re-writing of so much canon in recent years. The important take away from this scene is Sam telling Claire that in this line of work, death isn’t always good bye.

Claire echoes Sam’s words in the final scene. She says to Sam that death isn’t always good bye, so good bye isn’t always forever. Now, this may simply mean that she will see them again, or it may mean she’s thinking about ways to see her parents again. Dean does tell her to call them if she needs them. He also lets her take the angel sword. Why does she need this? To fight her way into Heaven? Why wouldn’t Sam and Dean – or even Cas – have taken it? Surely, they would have more need of it and should add it to the Men of Letters collection at the very least? But Dean lets her take it and even tells her to do her homework.

The episode has a few nicely parallel sequences. Jimmy and Amelia’s heavens are one, but we also see both Dean and Sam tell Claire that they hunt in order to help people. Given the allusion to John’s journal, this is a nice demonstration that both brothers are still on the same page of “hunting things, saving people.”

However, the two seem to be on very different pages when it comes to advice for Cas over Claire. And here, we have some extremely heavy-handed foreshadowing. Dean tells Cas to simply let her go, she’s stronger on her own when Cas asks him what he should do about her. Sam on the other hand tells Cas that she’s family: “Going alone? That’s no way to live. You being there for her, even if she doesn’t want you to be, is good for both of you.” Anybody else see Dean insisting on going it alone and Sam insisting on sticking together?

Meanwhile, Sam and Cas seem to be freaking out over how much worse Dean is when I’m not seeing a lot of actual evidence that that is the case. Dean determines from what Claire tells them that is looks like a case and says, “Give me something to punch already!” Dean immediately tells them he’s kidding – and really, is this out of character for Dean? He assures them he’s fine, but they clearly don’t believe him. At the bar, Dean slams Ronnie’s face into the table twice to get him to talk. He stops immediately when he does talk, and he doesn’t even draw blood! How hard was he really slamming his head into the table? However, this is enough for Sam and Cas to bench him from coming to the farm.

It was a nice role reversal to have Dean doing the research and Sam the hunting. I loved the moment when they meet in the farmhouse and say “is a Grigori” in unison. A quick word about the disappointing monster of the week. Grigori were a sect of “Watcher” angels – and technically, that’s what Castiel was doing before he was sent to Hell to retrieve Dean. You can look up the full write up about them on Wikipedia, but the interesting part is that they didn’t feed off humans but lusted after and procreated with human women, creating the Nephilim. In the episode, it would appear that Tamiel (Treva Etienne) is simply feeding off human souls and keeping them quiet by putting them in their own piece of heaven. Frankly, he’s a supped-up Djinn. Though Djinn haven’t been impressive since “What Is and What Should Never Be.”

Dean and Claire playing mini-golf was fun. It certainly looked like they both got holes in one, but as Ackles is more than an avid golfer in real life, maybe not such a stretch – but fun for Claire to make it look not impressive. It was also fun for them to have the pop culture generation gap between Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore. The scene provides some needed comic relief but also turns more serious as Dean tells Claire that he’s sorry about her dad. This is another nicely parallel scene as Dean talks fathers in contrast to Sam and mothers. Dean tells Claire that her father was a hero. It’s one of the things that Dean holds onto about John – that he was a hero – so he knows that this will comfort her. He tells her that by allowing Cas to use his body, Jimmy helped Cas help to save the world. There’s a nice reaction shot of Claire smiling as she turns away from Dean.

Claire receives three birthday gifts. I actually found Cas showing up with the first one a bit jarring as I didn’t take Claire saying it was her birthday the next day in the bar seriously, so it went unnoticed by me. Cas’ choice of a stuffed Grumpy cat is perfect – she is a grumpy kid after all! Dean gives Claire a gun and lets her come with him to save Cas and Sam, but later takes it back, replacing it with a copy of Caddyshack and a book – The Enochian Myth – so she can continue her homework. Of course, she’s already proven that she’s hunter material because she’s the one to kill Tamiel.

The final fight scene was good, though having Amelia killed saving Claire seemed a bit on the nose. And of course, it’s the 18 year old fledgling hunter who must save the others. It does allow for Claire to satisfy her need for revenge – which we know she would have had given her history. However, in the scene in which she tags along to see Ronnie’s body, she is squeamish in viewing the dead body. Just a quick aside about my love for the Page/Clapton alias and “It’s bring you daughter to work day at the Bureau.” So, when Claire kills Tamiel, she seems to have no qualms – she’s also a remarkably good shot.

The final thing to note about that final fight scene is that Dean does seem to be affected during the fight – and I have to say I wish Ackles wouldn’t adopt the “monster-robot” face when this happens. Actually, I found both Ackles and Padalecki’s performances a bit off in the sequences they were both in at the farm. Perhaps this was the end of the filming for the episode and they were running out of time. However, the most important take away from that fight is that Dean seems perfectly okay once it’s over. Seeing as he didn’t get to do the killing himself, shouldn’t he still be jonesing for blood? They just aren’t doing enough to demonstrate Dean getting worse for me. I felt there was more evidence at the end of last season and in the previous season, when Sam was succumbing, he was clearly more ill in each successive episode.

The final scene provides some closure to Claire’s story – she’s made her peace with her mother and with Castiel – she hugs him good bye and asks Dean to watch out for him. Instead of blithely letting her wander off, hitching hiking alone along America’s highways, they actually ship her off to Jody’s. Here’s my other fear about Jody Mills – is she now just a convenient place to stash people? I hope not! Of course, whether or not Claire has any intention of staying there remains to be seen. The taxi driver asks Claire if she’s leaving or going home, and she answers, “Just going.”

While this episode did have some bright spots – Collins and Newton do deliver excellent performances – there were a lot of clunkers too. Robbie Thompson actually tweeted “Enough of this MOTW business.” Clearly, this was a considered a filler episode even for the writers! And I can’t think that’s a good way to approach writing an episode. For those concerned that Thompson would once again be “Mary Sueing” his way in with Charlie, this was his last episode for the season. The bad news is that Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner are writing the next episode. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

About the Author - Lisa Macklem

I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Forever, Defiance, Bitten, Glee, and a few others! Highlights of this past year include covering San Diego Comic Con as press and a set visit to Bitten. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.