“Plush”

Supernatural eases off the Darkness plot for a by the numbers ghost hunt episode that could have been in almost any season.

I’m not saying that every episode has to be completely on task and dazzle us with meaningful plot advancement and I’m all for an old fashioned ghost hunt now and again but I’d like this show to be beyond filler episodes like this by now.

I’m not sure there’s an awful lot to say about this episode other than it was fine. The return of Sheriff Donn was nice to see as she is a good character and this show is somewhat lacking in strong female characters. She seems to have settled into knowing what goes bump in the night pretty well and conducts herself really professionally when investigating this case.

This episode was more about Donna earning her stripes as a Hunter than it was the Winchesters doing anything. They do much of the heavy lifting in terms of fighting the evil spirit and telling Donna what to do about ghosts as well as giving her some handy facts that she can use in the future. When she was told that she earned the title of a Hunter it was a really nice moment and felt as if it had been earned.

In terms of the Darkness plot the only reference to it is Sam telling Dean about the vision of Lucifer’s cage that he had. Dean has his doubts as God hasn’t been forthcoming in the past and sees no reason why he would be now. Sam seems to have faith but wastes no time in mentioning how vague the visions are in his prayer. I hope there’s a full appearance from God as the season progresses as it feels like the right time.

Visually the episode was reasonably memorable with the ghostly killings being done by possessed people wearing different masks. I share Sam’s fear of clowns so this episode was particularly terrifying for me. I was right there with him when he was fighting in the elevator. I like that Sam has faced Lucifer himself and a whole manner of other terrifying supernatural evils but is still afraid of clowns. It’s completely illogical but that’s the beauty of an irrational fear.

Beyond the memorable visuals there was really nothing to this story. As I said above it could have fit into almost any season by inserting random references to whatever was going on around that time and it doesn’t bring anything new to the mythology in terms of how ghosts work nor does it reveal itself to be connected to Amara in any way.

The supporting characters around the town were annoyingly generic so I didn’t feel invested in them enough to want them to survive. There’s nothing especially bad about the episode but it is very dull. I’m really struggling to find things to say so I unfortunately have to cut this review very short or I’ll start waffling about things that aren’t relevant. This could well be my shortest review ever so enjoy your reprieve.