TV Review: SUPERNATURAL – Season 10 – “Angel Heart”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF / Contributing Writer

Posted: June 30th, 2015 / 06:31 PM

Stars: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Kathryn Love Newton, Leisha Hailey, Treva Etienne, Russell Porter
Writer: Robbie Thompson, series created by Eric Kripke
Director: Steve Boyum
Network: The CW, Wednesdays @ 9 PM
Original Airdate: April 29, 2015

“Angel Heart” falls somewhere between moving the arc along and mission of the week. It answers one regular, if not imperative, question, gives Misha Collins as Castiel some big moments and shows us that Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) are coping more or less as usual, despite everyone’s continued concern about the Mark of Cain’s influence.

As regular SUPERNATURAL viewers are aware, angel Castiel’s use of the body of human Jimmy Novak (also played by Collins) as a vessel for his Earthly form has caused no end of problems for Jimmy’s family. Jimmy’s troubled daughter Claire (Kathryn Love Newton) returns in “Angel Heart,” along with Jimmy’s wife/Claire’s long-missing mom Amelia (Leisha Hailey).

When Claire goes searching for her mom, she winds up in the hospital. Castiel is called in as he’s her emergency contacts list. Since he feels very guilty about everything to do with Claire – yes, it is his fault that she no longer has a family – Castiel calls in the Winchesters.

The trail to Amelia leads to soul-eating angel Tamiel (Treva Etienne), who has been posing as a faith healer. He has Amelia and several other poor captives/food sources tied up in his attic. Claire assumed Amelia had abandoned her – when she finds her mother has been held prisoner, all is forgiven. Claire tries to shoot Tamiel, he tries to stab Claire with his sword, Amelia gets in the way, Tamiel stabs her instead and almost stabs Sam. Claire comes to the rescue, stabbing Tamiel with an angel blade she’s “borrowed” from Dean.

Claire weeps over her dead mother, but takes comfort from Sam explaining to her that death isn’t always the end. We see Amelia and Jimmy reunited in Heaven, in that realm’s version of their house. Claire is sent to stay with Jody Mills. Before heading off to her new home, Claire forgives Dean for killing the people she was with the last time we saw her (in “The Hunter Games”), Dean forgives Claire for trying to get him killed by those people (also in “The Hunter Games”) and lets her keep the angel blade. He also gives her a copy of CADDYSHACK (which she’s never seen), a book of angelic lore and the advice not to become a hunter. Claire keeps the stuffed animal Castiel brought her as a birthday present and asks Dean to look out for Cass’ well-being.

“Angel Heart” is an agreeable enough episode. It would seem to wrap up Castiel’s feelings of extreme anxiety about Claire’s emotional health and physical safety – she knows now that her mother didn’t abandon her and she’s got a good place to go – without shutting the door entirely in case there’s a story reason to return here.

The scenes between Dean and Claire are fun and seeing Collins go between actual Castiel and the real Jimmy Novak is intriguing. The Heaven bit with the reunion of Amelia and Jimmy seems a little strange, especially after we’ve seen its human inhabitants apparently stuck in their individual rooms. Is Heaven like a hospital, where there are spousal privileges but no friend visits?

Sam also gets to be a font of calm, reasoned counsel, concerned but not freaked out over Dean’s keen interest in finding someone who deserves a beating, and there’s something like an acknowledgement that although Jimmy died due to letting Castiel use his body, had he not done so, the world might have ended. (On the flip side, Castiel almost ended the world himself a few times, but this is a SUPERNATURAL instance of all’s well that ends well.) Etienne makes a strong impression in a few scenes.

The episode isn’t great, but it’s good enough.

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