TV Review: SUPERNATURAL – Season 10 – “Brother’s Keeper”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF / Contributing Writer

Posted: October 8th, 2015 / 04:00 PM

Jared Padalecki as Sam and Jensen Ackles as Dean in SUPERNATURAL - Season 10 - "Brother's Keeper" | © 2015 The CW/Katie Yu

Stars: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Mark A. Sheppard, Ruth Connell, Julian Richings
Writer: Jeremy Carver, series created by Eric Kripke
Director: Phil Sgriccia
Network: The CW, Wednesdays @ 9 PM
Original Airdate: May 20, 2015

Let’s face it, all hell has been known to break loose on SUPERNATURAL at almost regular intervals, but in the Season 10 finale, “Brother’s Keeper,” it looks like we may be heading into the realm of the Cthulhu Mythos. For those unfamiliar with H.P. Lovecraft’s legacy, the short version is that it posits Old Ones and Ancient Ones that existed long before the creation of Earth, none of them kindly disposed to the residents of this dimension. Recent spoilers have suggested we’re going to get something more mundane, but here’s hoping.

In any case, how we get there is solid SUPERNATURAL drama. After a traditional season finale recap to the tune of “Wayward Son,” with the added bonus of starting off with the soprano musical rendition that transitions into the Kansas original, we find Dean (Jensen Ackles) gamely trying to work a case involving vampires, only to fail to rescue a would-be Hunter in the course of events. After the events of the previous episode (in which Dean killed a virtual innocent), Dean concludes he has to end things before the Mark of Cain turns him into a monster.

Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Castiel (Misha Collins) can’t find Dean, so they’re back with the witch Rowena (Ruth Connell). Since Sam proved pretty definitively unable to carry out Rowena’s wishes and kill her son, King of Hell Crowley (Mark A. Sheppard), Rowena has a new set of demands for enacting the spell that will remove the Mark of Cain from Dean’s arm: she wants her freedom and the codex of dangerous spells.

Dean summons Death (Julian Richings) and begs Death to take him, even going so far as to make quesadillas for the Grim Reaper. Death has reason to distrust the Winchesters (who doesn’t), but Dean assures him there are no tricks this time. Death informs Dean that there are, however, a couple of problems. The first of these is that Dean can’t die. Then there’s an even bigger issue …

We’ve of course seen brotherly devotion win the day on SUPERNATURAL many times – that’s the backbone of the show – but it arguably reaches new levels of trumping everything else in the cosmos here. Tell Dean he must die for the greater good, no argument. Tell Dean he must survive and Sam must die for the greater good – even Death should’ve seen how that would finally play out. We do wonder, besides about whatever the brothers just unleashed into the universe, what will happen with no Death in the world. Is SUPERNATURAL going to bring in a new form of Death, or is it going to do its own riff on TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY?

In any case, it’s still a powerful scene, well-played by Ackles and Padalecki and guest Richings. Since the Winchester bond is at once all-important and easy to over-depict, one surmises that finding new ways to highlight this is more challenging for the writers than coming up with new ghoulies and ghaesties. They’ve done it right in “Brother’s Keeper.”

In other news, Rowena (Ruth Connell), now armed with the Codex, is able to set her son Crowley (Mark A. Sheppard) and angel Castiel (Misha Collins) literally at each other’s throats. It looks pretty serious, but it feels more like how-will-they-get-out-of-this than auggh-we-might-lose-a-regular.

As season finales go, “Brother’s Keeper” is satisfying. Bring on Season (wow) 11.

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