Supernatural S06E04 -Weekend at Bobby's (2010)

Review

Bobby is doing what Bobby does, taking care of Hunters and fending off the attentions of his next door neighbour who wants her some Bob6by. Naturally he's keen on finishing his deal with Crowley, who unfortunately has no intention of giving him his soul back. Well just so happens the king of Hell has a Son, Gavin MacLeod, who drowned but still has a score to settle with his dad. Oh and Bobby learns you can burn up a demon by burning their bones, pretty similar to ghosts, hence the quote above.

We also get to spend some time with sheriff Jody Mills, seems hunter Rufus Tanner has some Fed issues after he thinks he has taken care of a Okami monster, who is accompanying an FBI Agent intent on checking out Casa Del Singer. You may be wondering where the Winchester Bros are, well they're dealing with a Lamia in Wisconsin, this episode is solely focusing on Bobby though the Boys do take it international late in the episode. Buckle in folks we're spending some time with back room Bobby and his ongoing attempts to keep hunters alive and out of jail; "No, Garth, not me the FBI, the real FBI! How are you still alive?"

Well an episode of Supernatural that gets off the beaten track and takes a turn into risk taking television. I was personally okay with this approach, for mine all long running shows should occasionally get off the reservation and surprise us with out of the ordinary. Besides which we do get a monster of the week, some demonic interludes in the form of a demon and of course the ever urbane Crowley, and the Winchester Bros doing almost cameo spots. So in essence, if we wanted to be pedantic, a sort of regular episode except without the Winchesters being front and centre. So yes a change up, but without going completely into the wilds.

Checking out the Bobby Singer story, who's a busy little Beaver then

Yes you did read the director credit correctly, for the first time in the franchise Dean Winchester himself takes the reins and guides this one home for us. Ackles can direct as proven with the episode though I would of course much rather see him in front of the screen. There's some nice touches during festivities with Ackles showing he can handle action scenes and more lighter scenes like the pro he is. I would be up to view any dark genre movie Ackles is directing, I reckon the kid would do alright with feature length as well. Guess the only other issue you are going to have is whether or not Jim Beaver can carry an entire episode himself, once again I'm giving a firm thumbs up.

One of the great aspects of the episode is the humour that the script invests in a number of scenes. We see Crowley turning down Bobby's offering of redneck whiskey with an amusing exchange between the two. Bobby has to fix the situation next door with his would be girlfriend in danger of becoming the next meal for an errant Okami who Rufus didn't quite put down well enough. Throw in a wood chipper and hilarity ensues.

While Weekend at Bobby's might be focusing more on other characters and less on the current state of the Winchester Bros, it still rolls additional information at us to keep the overall season plot arc firmly in focus. Bobby comments that monsters seem strange recently and that Okamis and Lamias are not normally seen outside their countries of origin, Japan and Greece respectively. We already know Alphas are showing up for whatever reason, now we have non-traditional foreign monsters gobbling on the local livestock with gay abandonment. Yes am reclaiming the term "gay" which has been hijacked. Hey one sentence, probably have the Gay thought police on my arse and various Aviation authorities checking exactly how I am using the term "hijacked". So anyways the times they are a changing, something is happening in monster land, and the Winchesters will need to react.

Guess getting to the meat of the episode we get an insight into Bobby's world, which ranges from normal to freaking bizarre. The dude has a feeling everyone is taking him granted, for sure Dean Winchester is a bit of a dick when Bobby spends a lot of time discovering what the Bros are facing, but as the elder brother put it, Bobby only needs to ask and they will do whatever they can to help him out. While Dean might be ready to answer a call to arms at the drop of a hat other hunters seem to expect Bobby to drop everything at a moment's notice, Garth clearly has a case he isn't handling and as mentioned already Rufus drops in unannounced with a body that needs burying. So for sure Bobby is being used and abused, but given he is dealing with people that are facing death at any time of the day that could be excused. Guess in the wash up Bobby got a slap on the back figuratively from Dean and can count on help from team Bobby if he needs it.

So to go more in depth here and assume to know what the producers of Supernatural had in mind with the episode, it seems to me they are trying to flesh out the universe, shine some light on the supporting staff of the Hunter world. And that gets two thumbs up from me, make it multi-faceted and you are going to get a core cult fan base happening.

We do get a new character this episode that just might recur on occasion, I'm thinking that's more likely than not. Gavin MacLeod might be a ghost but since when has death or being either downstairs or upstairs really meant that a character isn't in a future episode. Actually we are probably going to run into more members of clan MacLeod as this would definitely be one weakness that can be exploited when dealing with Crowley.

Speaking of which Bobby learns the hard way that you can't make deals with the King of Hell and expect him to keep to his side of the bargain. Which was a timely reminder that Crowley may help out the Winchesters when it benefits his ungodliness, but will turn anything to his advantage if given half a chance.

Well I guess one song is better than last week's total lack of mullet rock and we do get The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. However we're talking Country and Western here and not actual rock, what the flock were the Producers thinking, sorry gift horse and all, but we want our music firmly in the hair product rock arena.

Weekend at Bobby'sSupernatural as something they should check out, normal viewers will have dug the episode already. Very solid episode I'm definitely booking in for a weekend at Bobby's place.