Supernatural S05E16 - Dark Side if the Moon (2010)

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Director Jeff Woolnough
Writers Eric Kripke, Andrew Dabb, Daniel Loflin
Starring Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles
Genre Angels
Tagline Lucifer Unbound
Country
Supernatural S05E16 - Dark Side of the Moon (2010)

Review

"This ain't the first time you been here. I mean, you boys die more than anyone I have ever met." - Ash

Dean wakes from what looks like a bender to find that along with Sam he is at gun point with a couple of masked dudes hovering over him. The Dudes are there to finish Sam, the whole Lucifer and pending apocalypse thing, which they proceed to do. Naturally since no one wants Dean Winchester after them they gank the older Winchester into the bargain. This being Supernatural, Dean wakes in the Impala on a dark deserted road. He learns, via surprisingly a radio message from Castiel, that he has died and is in heaven and needs to follow the "road" to meet an Angel called Joshua, who talks to God.

On the road to enlightenment there are of course going to be a few bumps, including Zachariah who wants to send them back to Earth and a number of memories that threaten the relationship between the brothers. On the bright side of the halo they do run across a few old friends living the life in their own private blue heavens.

Guess about the only difference to this episode and others like it are that both Winchester brothers die rather than a single brother dying. This of course is a plot device to get both the Bros into heaven and along the road to heavenly wisdom, though that wisdom isn't exactly what team Winchester had in mind. What did impress me was the other hunters are still jonesing to kill Sam, as they believe this will avert the end of times, clearly they haven't been keeping up with Supernatural developments, put a Winchester Bro down and they will regenerate like a slasher antagonist on steroids.

Trouble amongst the team, they still seem outgunned by the forces of evil Lucifer is gathering

Anyways on the long and winding road through heaven we learn which scenes in their respective lives Sam and Dean view as highlights. Unfortunately for Dean's family vision Sam's highlights are by and largely times when he wasn't rocking with the Winchester family dynamic model. This leads to a whingey Dean berating Sam, in Dean's world version there is nothing more important than family, while for Sam it was going his own way in an entirely independent fashion. Hey regular viewers of the show already know this right, so to a certain degree the episode loses some traction as we are simply covering the same ground that has been grinded over time and time again. When franchises start to repeat ideas there is a hint that maybe things are starting to slide, re-emphasising what we already know isn't going to keep fans glued to the screen.

On the bright side we do get to meet a couple of characters that had previously been killed due their involvement with the Winchester campaign against the demonic forces. The ever popular Ash, business in front party at the back, has a heaven comprised of the Roadhouse bar he made home in his former life. Naturally the mullet haired one has found the ways and means to venture beyond his own haven and into the wider boundaries of heaven. And we also get re-acquainted with Pamela Barnes, the psychic who ran afoul of the supernatural while helping the Winchester, could do with this character being engaged more in future episodes she rocks the house down.

Without pushing the wheel barrow down the street, or otherwise creating unnecessary work for us, the whole Zachariah, hereto called Zach, thing left me somewhat dazed and confused. The Angel of distrust wants to deposit the Winchesters back in the game, even though neither Dean or Sam are about to adopt their predestined roles anytime soon. Wouldn't it have made more sense to put the brothers Winchester on ice till they could be turned to face their roles in the apocalypse? If we take on board the garden at the centre of heaven, and of course groundsman Willie Joshua, then maybe Zach is just intervening to avoid the Winchesters gaining any additional information that might aid them in defeating the ultimate evil.

Unfortunately for team Winchester they learn from Joshua that God doesn't want to intervene to stop the apocalypse from happening and further doesn't want the Bros to have any involvement either. On the bright side it was God who saved the Boys when Sam inevitably raised Lucifer, he also resurrected Castiel, but cannot be found by use of Dean's amulet. So the big guy is on the sidelines for the time being and doesn't look like he is going to step in at the last moment to avert the coming storm.

Having informed the Boys there will be no divine intervention Joshua does return them to the now with their memories intact. Castiel is completely devastated by the news that God is on vacation and returns the amulet to Dean pointing out "It's worthless" before leaving stage left. Dean is also bent over the news, even though Sam explains that they may still defeat Lucifer somehow, and tosses the amulet in the rubbish. At the darkest moment and all that, expecting some turn off events to come at us in the next few weeks in the form of a Hail Mary pass.

Another three songs on the mullet hit parade this episode, lead off by Knockin'on Heaven's Door by the great Bob Dylan. We also get What A Way To Go by Jesse Turnbow and "Salmon Dean" In the Heartland by Jay Gruska. Not a bad result for those of us that dig some old time tunes in our music mix.

Overall I was digging what went down in Dark Side of the Moon, though I can understand if some folks think it was all some sort of a side trip with only a few things available to push the plot along. I can understand that we are really going over ground already covered but there were still some details to push the season along. Nice to catch up with a few characters from past seasons as well, and we finally got a good indication of how Heaven works in the Supernatural universe. Overall a decent episode that will have fans bopping to the beat, but if you haven't been spending time in the show then you will probably not get the importance of some of what you are seeing. Pity they didn't use a couple of the tracks from the Pink Floyd album of the same name.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...

Interesting enough, but besides the whole God thing was a bit like fuller to me.