Review

In Milan Ohio a Banker shots himself due to being harassed by an apparent spirit from the other side, Dean and Sam naturally head to the State to check out the situation. Sam was hoping for an answer to Dean's deal with the devil problem, but Dean simply wants to get on with the job as he has pretty much resigned himself to the pit. Once in Ohio the Bros discover the Banker isn't the only one getting calls from beyond the grave.

Dean is contacted by John Winchester who informs him that the demon that holds his contract is in town. Meanwhile Sam has deduced that they are dealing with a Crocotta, an entity that lures humans to their deaths so it can feed on their souls, and is heading for a show down at the local telephone exchange. Was it just me or did this episode feel a bit flat?

Nice to see a return to how Supernatural used to be, the Bros hitting the monster of the week with some twists coming at you. Add in some chemistry between the leads and you pretty much have season one encapsulated in a single episode. Clearly with a couple of episodes left the season is going to head into the season climax build up shortly so excellent decision to give the fans some traditional Winchester shenanigans as an aperitif to the entree we can expect next episode. Anyone else getting slightly excited by Dean's final stand? We know he is going to twist his way out of his fate but currently I'm not seeing the exit clause.

The episode starts with Sam once again hitting a Professor to see if there might be some arcane knowledge Bobby isn't privy too. In a short statement it's made clear that Sam and Dean have been hitting every avenue of research that is open to them, with the same lack of result happening. Sam isn't giving up but Dean has pretty much thrown in the towel after Ruby's revelation. In a reveal that has been coming all season the Bros accuses each other of keeping secrets, possibly an indication of the split coming at us in a sort of another great divide between the characters. I was rocking out to this nice subtle touch that showed the Bros aren't simply gun tooting superhero types. If the Winchesters can have personality flaws then won't we, your average citizen, support them even more?

Moving along, we're trying to rein in the wandering nature of the reviews, for much of the rest of the episode we are expecting a revenant to be involved. A revenant that has a greater love affair with the phone than a chick or teenage school boy. Seems our resident Casper is phoning people and freaking them out by playing on their weaknesses. The Bros are lead to the local telephone exchange to try and trace a number that appears to have been last used 100 years ago, sort of back when phones were to call people rather than being a replacement for a home entertainment unit. Mudding the waters is the local museum that houses a device Thomas Edison was building to contact the spirit world. Of course this is all window dressing for the real antagonist but I appreciated the approach.

An episode that rolls the traditional story approach but which doesn't raise itself above the average television outing

While we're talking some pretty dark concepts and a series of murders the episode never really gets down and grungy with it. There's humour going down even when confrontations are happening, as writer Jeremy Carver shows he's approaching the subject matter in a pretty television safe fashion. That's right folks, another episode that doesn't try to slip out of the television wastelands but which still works within its confines. About the only thing missing is some truly memorable one liners, took a while to find a reasonable quote for the episode.

I'm kind of cool with a new monster being introduced to the Supernatural universe, but there's a general feeling the Crocotta has been done previously in differing guises. Even more problematic for mine was the long sharp teeth the humanoid creature displayed, exactly what purpose did they serve as the Crocotta kills without resorting to the dental and sort of sucks souls down, no biting involved yo! I guess the creature design folks were trying for something frightening but anatomically it doesn't work if you take five seconds to think about it. Interestingly according to mythology a Crocotta is a hyena like animal, if you believe the ancient scholars, which is in no way humanoid.

The less said about Robert Singer's directing the better, it's simply made for television stuff with no attempt to achieve anything above the norm. One of the things that has raised Supernatural above the usual television fodder is the attempt to bring movie standards to the small screen; Singer doesn't bother in this episode.

Dear god in heaven what the hell are they doing with this season, seriously no mullet rock! What's that about, hello prime reasons for viewing Singer, keep your finger on the pulse buddy.

The episode managed 2.63 million viewers, which is pretty much the average for the season, down from the previous two seasons, but at least a bit of an improvement from the previous week's shocking result.

Disappointing episode that didn't rise much above the television ghetto. Guess we're gearing toward the season cliff hanger, but still not a great episode to wind down the season with. If you want a bit of horror on your menu then dial into this one, it won't cause you to flee the lounge room screaming like a little girl but it just might pop a chill if you aren't a genre tragic like myself. Regular Supernatural viewers can safely give this one a miss.