Season 10 Episode 10 – “The Hunter Games”

Welcome back Supernatural. After a long break we finally get to see the fallout of Dean’s massacre and renewed determination to remove the troublesome Mark of Cain from his arm.

It’s about time there was some movement on the Mark of Cain plot as they’ve been letting it fester for a while now. It didn’t make much dramatic sense to do so as it’s been a major problem for them in the past. Seems that it takes a massacre to spur them into action on this one.

Any part of the episode dealing with the Mark of Cain was very well done. There was a real sense of urgency and desperation to it as well as frustration associated with having no idea how to deal with this. It makes sense that a quick Google -or search the web- search wouldn’t find anything because the only person to have the mark before Dean was Cain himself. Though I am surprised that nobody has considered the fact that it can be passed on since that’s how Dean got it in the first place.

Bringing Metatron in for information is a particularly desperate act. I’m not sure why they thought this plan would work as Metatron has no motivation to help them and nothing to gain by saving Dean. There is the argument that Dean is dangerous to Metatron with the mark but it seems he’s relatively safe tucked away in his heavenly prison.

Naturally Metatron is less than cooperative when it comes to giving them information. He does tell them that they need the first blade but doesn’t tell them why. It definitely seems that he’s just messing them about to see what he can get them to do. I guess he has that luxury given his situation. I do wonder if he has some kind of bigger plan for Dean that involves the blade in some way. I can’t imagine what it would be but I suppose we’ll see.

Jensen Ackles did a great job of playing Dean towing the line between sanity and rage. The mark is poisoning him and making him act very out of character. Seeing him beat Metatron on the pretense of finding information was a great scene especially when he dialed up his torture to include the Angel blade. I really liked how disgusted Metatron seemed once that started as well as the undercurrent of fear in his reaction. Dean is clearly pretty far gone but this episode did show that’s he’s not beyond redemption when he managed to stop himself from killing.

I do think that more work needs to be done to build the Mark of Cain as a credible threat to everyone. There’s been a lot of talk of how dangerous it is but we haven’t actually seen a lot of evidence of that happening on screen. Though this is coming from the guy who thinks that we should still be dealing with Demon Dean at this point. It is a shame they sacrificed that so soon but the Mark of Cain development is going some way towards making up for it.

The subplots in this episode were far less exciting. I really can’t express how uninterested I am in Crowley’s relationship with his mother. The Crowley that has been set up so far wouldn’t fall for his mother’s manipulations so easily. He’s too smart for that so having her around is really destroying his character. I find Rowena to be incredibly annoying which I suspect is supposed to be the point but it would be better if she seemed a little more sinister in the way she acted. I suppose she’s trying to act aloof to keep people fooled about her capabilities but Crowley should be wise to the fact that she’s an intelligent survivor and probably should have told his underlings not to believe a word that comes out of her mouth.

Castiel’s mission to partially redeem himself in the eyes of his host’s daughter Claire is hit and miss as far as plots go. Misha Collins is doing a great job of playing Castiel exploring his humanity. The scene where Claire packed up her stuff and left the hotel room was really well done. The two actors conveyed the emotion of that moment really well.

The rest of this plot was so full of conveniences that it couldn’t help but seem ridiculous. Claire going to a seedy pool hall and just happening to speak to people that are willing to kill to help out someone they just met. It was clearly a plot contrivance to get Claire to the point where she starts to understand Castiel and begins to accept him as well as create a situation where Dean would have to control his rage.

Sam is getting sold a bit short these days. He’s pretty much been relegated to a support role while Dean is given the biggest share of attention. It makes sense from a plot perspective but it’s making Sam seem a little less important in any given episode. The subplots are mostly being given to other characters so Sam just seems to be present. Hopefully he’ll be given some more to do on his own in later episodes.