You Gotta Have Faith
I hate bringing up an old 80’s cliché, but you gotta have faith. Sure that’s true but what if your faith rests in the totally wrong thing? Do you stick with everything you believe in when times get tough or change your ways out of desperation? What happens when faith is tested and you end up making bad decisions based on the blindness of that faith? In just a mere forty minutes, Supernatural tries to take on those questions while using a device that’s been working so well so far this season, an antagonist rooted in apocalyptic mythology. For such a heavy subject, the lessons learned end up being what we’ve grown to expect for this program - darn right tragic.
Sure, it was established in last week’s stellar episode “Dark Side of The Moon” that Dean was all out of faith. Castiel was despondent too and Sam was trying to hold it all together. “99 Problems” tries to carry on the dire emotional states of our trio and as expected they’re really struggling. But first, there’s no time for crying in the beer. In another great teaser, Sam and Dean frantically try to flee something. Dean pushes the Impala to its limits and Sam’s bloody shoulder tells us something’s amiss. Considering this is a Julie Siege script, something bad must happen to the Impala and she gets that out of the way early when a demon smashes through the window and grabs Sam. Then the Sacrament Lutheran Militia arrives. When a group of holy hollers can extinguish a set of demons quickly with a fire hose, a tank of holy water and a one sentence Enochian exorcism that it leaves Sam and Dean stunned, they must be doing something extraordinary.
Think about it, what would happen if your town was stormed with demons and a local prophet in the form of the preacher’s daughter tells all of you an apocalypse is in full swing? How would you react? Would you do whatever it takes in defense? Who would you put your faith in? God? Better yet, how about the prophet spreading God’s word? The locals face that test, as do Sam, Dean and Castiel. The townspeople do what any good folks would do at first - they band together. They take arms, learn tricks for survival, and rely on one another, that is until their faith is pushed to the limit. When innocents like a teenage boy start dying, priorities begin to shift. The lines between right and wrong disappear.
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Article comments
1 - carlotspeak
Thank you very much for the review. I've been waiting patiently for it. I feel a bit disconnected with Lisa's part of the story as well. Although I do believe that Ben meant a lot to Dean. As the same as the other child in 'dead in the water'. There is some longing there for Dean. Not as much for the mother, as comparable for the son, perhaps. I could be wrong. Also as you said it, the time given for the episode is not enough, the emotional wrenching impact that the viewers experienced and the story it meant to tell are ran through in a hurry.
2 - Alice Jester
carlotspeak - I do apologize for the lateness of this review. My goal is to usually have them out by Sunday nights, but this week there's plenty going on with the 100th episode and I've had to delay this. Thanks for reading and sending comments. I'm glad I wasn't the only one that saw that.
3 - Tiecg1
I liked this ep, but the last scene w/Lisa felt off. But I have always felt that his "thing" for Lisa and Ben was a last resort thing for some normal family, and to show how desperate he had become. He was done with Sam so he ran to his fantasy. I felt robbed when Lisa didn't say Ben was his son (which I assume he really isn't), but that's the only reason I thought she would be brought back into the picture when I saw the "Then" clips. Oh well. But even though it would have probably upset fandom so much more, I would've rather Dean run to Cassie, since he really loved her at one point. Or on bringing back Lisa, at least show her with a husband... something to make the scene more awkward for her and Dean (make him seem more crazy for taking such a risk). I understood that Lisa saw the gravity of Dean's demeanor and became an anti-suicide coach, but maybe she will show up again later, and this scene will make more sense. We'll see.
Love the action sequences at the beginning and enjoyed the pacing, although I felt it was weird to see Sam cutting all those possessed beings with "the" knife. Those were people he was killing, right? It seemed a little cold to me: killing innocents and nobody seemed to care. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess, but it wasn't their fault they were possessed. They don't have the tattoos.
4 - Alice Jester
Tiecg1 - I agree, Sam cutting people with the knife did put me off. I wonder how much that still bothers him.
5 - cassi
Great review Alice, it's a real solid episode, trying to connect the Moftw with the Apocalypse in a good way, we had worse this season, but my absolute highlight of this episode is definitely Michael Shanks! I'm a huge SG-1 fan and having Daniel Jackson save Sam and Dean from demons amuses me to no end.