Supernatural “The One You’ve Been Waiting For” was written by Meredith Glynn and was directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado. Glynn is another addition to the Supernatural writers’ room this season. According to IMDb, she has been listed as a writer for only two years, but her other credits include
Eye Candy and
Scream: The TV Series, so she has a good background in horror. In keeping with this season’s greatest hits parade, this episode takes us back to the Thule Society which we first met in “Everybody Hates Hitler.” I was really excited that we’d get to see Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) team up with Aaron Bass (Adam Rose) and the Golem (John DeSantis) again. Alas, we get only a brief phone call with Aaron…
The episode opens with a woman – Mrs Lloyd (Colleen Winton) making a shady deal for a Nazi pocket watch from Marvin Brickell (Charles Siegel). Both end up spontaneously combusting which immediately points the brothers to a potential witch or dragon.
As the episode opens, Dean’s distress is manifested in his refusing food and pie from Sam. He’s got a case, but Sam knows he’s still stewing about Mary – it’s called sublimation. Dean admits it, calling it his thing – and don’t we know that! But it’s progress that they both acknowledge it anyway.
The two searching Brickell’s antiques store is hilarious. We get some nice physical comedy from Ackles as Dean starts knocking stuff off shelves while Sam searches the database looking for potential cursed objects. Dean finds a secret door leading to a secret room – filled with Nazi crap. The two immediately put the crap and the spontaneous combustion together with the Thule society. Dean, fittingly, quotes Indiana Jones: “Nazis. I hate these guys.”
Cut to damsel in distress Ellie (Allison Paige) who is on her first Tinder date. I have to say that I found her character irritating. They need her because she has Hitler’s blood, but she’s a complete mess. She was also directed a bit too broadly for my tastes. Supernatural always seems to struggle with writing for women and Ellie seems to follow that pattern. Over the last few seasons, I’ve also felt that the comedy was drawn a bit too broadly – much of Rowena and almost all of Metatron – which really takes away from the horror. So when Hitler finally does re-manifest, he’s simply a buffoon. Hitler was far from a buffoon. But this seems somewhat ripped from the headlines…
Ellie manages to get away, leaving behind a bit of blood that Nauhaus (Gil Darnell) tells Christoph (Keenan Tracey) is all they need to track her.
Dean and Sam touch base with Aaron and learn that he and the Golem are in Germany and are halfway through the ledger. Sam tells him that his Grandfather would be proud, but Aaron says his Mom’s dream wasn’t for him to drop out of college to wipe out Nazi-corpse-bags – earning Sam and Dean an odd look from the waitress who overhears the speaker phone!
Emily manages to get to the police but Christoph kidnaps her before Dean and Sam can get to her. And this lets Dean finally get to say – “Follow that car!” Dean and Sam rescue Ellie, who doesn’t want to believe any of it, and capture Christoph, who gives up the information pretty easily.
He tells them it started at the end of the war. Everyone knew it was over except his father – Nauhaus. Hitler was about to shoot himself in the head when Nauhaus told him there was another way. The watch is like a Horcrux – it holds Hitler’s soul. Christoph wasn’t there – he was born in Buffalo in ’94! The watch was lost at the end of the war when the Thule overrun by Soviets. Christoph knows everything about Ellie – including that she was adopted, which flips her life inside out.
Sam comforts Ellie, and Paige is very good in this scene, making me wish they’d handled the episode a bit more seriously and less dramedically. Ellie refuses to believe Sam when he tries to commiserate – after all he was supposed to bring back Lucifer – even worse than Hitler, right?
It takes Dean and Sam to try to get Ellie on board to help. Dean tells her it’s time to stand and fight. But before they can actually get her to agree, the Thule arrive and we get one of the best fight scenes we’ve seen on the show for some time. It was great to see Ackles and Padalecki clearly mixing it up! Christoph gets away and Ellie runs, again – right into Nauhaus’ hands… again.
Nauhaus tells Christoph that he’s a grave disappointment. He’s shocked that Christoph told about Hitler. He’s also clearly aware of Aaron and the Golem hunting them – and he’s afraid of them which was a nice touch. Darnell’s performance is over-the-top comic. Having him be a raving zealot as they have been in the past would have been a lot scarier. He wants to blame the world on Millenials and weak government for failing economies. Who does he sound like? Ripped from the headlines? Who else do we know that is supported by the Neo-Nazis? It’s simply not funny. But at least on the show, we get the satisfaction of seeing the raving lunatics lose.
Given that they are listening to Sam and Dean’s message on her phone, why couldn’t they track her cell phone? Nauhaus is prepared to kill his own son, but Christoph kills Fritz (Wolfgang Klassen) and runs to Dean and Sam. He tells them he’ll help them get Ellie if they’ll help protect him. He tells them that having a Nazi-necromancer for a Dad was awful! Certainly makes John look better, right? Though I’m sure they could commiserate with the bad Career Days at school!
Nauhaus has no intention of putting Hitler in Ellie’s body. His end goal has always been to host him himself. There were some really great special effects as the watch sinks into Nauhaus. Of course, any actual horror at seeing the embodiment of Hitler is completely ruined by his laughing and jumping around like an idiot. He thanks Ellie – his great, great, great grand niece, buy then tells them to take the rest of her blood and feed the rest to the dogs. Hitler was well-known to have loved his dogs, and for me this was also a shout out to Ramsey Snow on
Game of Thrones. Without the little doggie remark, this too could have been a much more chilling scene.
One of my favorite scenes in the episode is the brothers arming up to go in. And here’s another bit of fan service. Dean takes out the grenade launcher for the first time in 12 years – yep. It’s been in the trunk since the “Pilot.” I loved Sam having to tell him no! They have to do it stealthily. Ackles is brilliant here as we see his disappointment – without a single word.
Dean and Sam are captured – naturally – and treated to an audience with Hitler. Hitler tells them that Nauhaus feared them. He is also excited about the upgrades – like his two testicles (Hitler did have only one) – but mainly about the cell phone. He’s excited about the prospect of using Twitter – hmmmmm. Who does that sound like? He suddenly shouts for his plane – clearly no impulse control here either.
Ellie manages to get a gun, and Dean goes for Hitler – he’s clearly, and unsurprisingly a coward. Dean knocks him out, and then tells him, “Heil this!” before shooting him in the head. I loved Padalecki’s face as Sam, in wonder, says, “You killed Hitler!” And then Dean’s “Awesome!”
Dean wants t-shirts, free drinks, and most importantly pie because “I killed Hitler!” Sam and Dean tell Christoph to run – maybe back to Buffalo. They are clearly not prepared to really help him. Sam sees Ellie home. She says she should call her Mom – you can only run for so long. She’s even considering going back to med school. Maybe she’s over her own sublimation?
There were certainly some really memorable moments in this episode. It was nice to see the return of Aaron – if only on the phone – and the grenade launcher come out. There were some great fight scenes and special effects. Padalecki and Ackles delivered really good performances. However, I’m still left dissatisfied by the overall tone of the episode.
Supernatural hasn’t been a scare a minute horror show for a long time, but this episode might have been a lot more powerful if it hadn’t been treated so much like a dramedy. Keep in mind that this is my personal review. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! And please be aware of our comment policies.
