Supernatural S06E08 - All Dogs Go to Heaven (2010)

Review

Crowley has the Winchesters by the short and curlies, and wants them to capture a werewolf alpha in order to get Sam's soul back. So its off to Buffalo, New York to investigate a couple of dudes who have had their hearts ripped out by something unseen. All clues point to solo mom Mandy and her drunk boyfriend, who is immediately suspect number one. So the Bros end up staking out the boyfriend only to discover its an all night drinking session. As soon as the boys give it up as a bad joke however the boyfriend gets it from monster unseen.

It doesn't take too long for the Winchesters to discover they aren't facing a werewolf but a shape shifter with his own agenda. Unfortunately we aren't talking a single creature, there's a whole nest of them who plan to expand their numbers when the call comes. And even more disturbing there are multiple nests spread around the country! Can the Bros sort out the current crisis in Buffalo and how is their new working relationship going?

Well guess Dean should have a big load of apology ready for his grandfather as the Bros find themselves in exactly the same predicament, working for Crowley the current prince of hell. Not quite sure if they have bothered actually telling us yet why Samuel is pimping for Crowley, hey maybe not paying that much attention over here, but Dean should surely be able to get beyond his own dramatic moments to check out the reflection in the mirror here. Some self evaluation is good for the soul, in my often times weird opinion, like I evaluate occasionally why I'm not an internationally renowned sports person and put it down to I simply can't be arsed training because that's like hard work right there.

Not entirely sure the monster of the week is back to the same chill of earlier seasons

In between working out its a dog's life for some, the episode spends a bit of time talking about the value of family, because hell I can't get enough of that this season, no ladle more on that's the good stuff I'm dialling in to see again and again. Anyone else noticing the Dean refrain of "no chick moments" isn't being heard anymore? That would be because every episode this season we are getting more chick moments than your average rom-com! We get it already, Dean is all about family and will go some distance in maintaining what's left of team Winchester while Sam is more your individual rebelling as the script requires against the family business. Shouldn't we be all over this by now, season six and all.

On the bright side we do get some time for Sam to explain he is on spectrum, lack of empathy for people's problems, hey don't write in complaining have relatives with exactly the same issue oh and a bank manager. Sam explains to Dean he isn't who he used to be, no kidding we haven't covered this ground already, but is going to work to get back to what he once was. Guess that would be the Moody demon blood addicted Sam rather than the balls to the walls go get them Sam we are seeing through the first half of this season. Hey writing reviews of by-gone tellie shows, shut up all about being available on disc, so all about holding up mirrors.

Okay so there might be a tad bit of moving the season along, Crowley making the Winchesters his bitches, and Sam acknowledging he needs to get back to where he was which I guess means getting his soul back via Crowley or other means. But pretty much this is a monster of the week episode, involving everyone's favourite pet the dog! Okay cat people might disagree with that but hey hat stands and needing a cup of cement. So we get a new monster, been calling it a shape shifter for want of a better word as its more a sort of lesser werewolf, that infects others by biting them. We also learn that the monsters have a plan and an alpha. So hey that's something to hang our hats on, oh wait we aren't cat people so no need to putting out fire with gasoline.

While we may have been having some fuzzy feelings towards Crowley previously, he definitely fits into the likeable rogue category, this episode does point out he is the prince of hell and has a nasty streak when it comes to getting what he wants. Not entirely sure that painting Crowley as the big bad for the season is the best idea ever in the Supernatural universe but am quite happy to see where the whole purgatory idea is going to take us, Crowley may have bitten off more than he can chew with this idea.

Guess I haven't been talking as much about the minor characters as I should have been, as in do I generally mention them at all, but thought Andrew Rothenberg (Lucky) did an admirable job in bringing across his almost tragic role as the monster with a protective bent. Rothenberg plays the role well, former street dude turned into a monster that isn't entirely up with the monstrous requirements of his new lease on life. Actually Dean should have had some sympathy for the dude, having gone through the same thing.

So this episode we get two tunes to keep us rocking, Black Mustangs City Rock and Flirtin' With Disaster by Molly Hatchet. I'm reasonably happy with the result here and am giving the episode a passing mark on the mullet hair rock front.

There was some talk at the start of the season that things were going to return to the monster of the week style show that originally attracted a whole bunch of fans and I guess this episode was showing a definite move in that direction. While All Dogs Go to Heaven might be monster munch is still didn't have the chills one would expect, though to be honest there hasn't been that much chill factor in Supernatural since season four. The episode is well worth your time catching but don't expect a whole bunch more than standard television fare. I'm giving the episode at least one thumb up but leave it to you to determine whether or not you are going to be all in with a viewing.