Supernatural Season Five: Hits & Misses – Part 1
Season Five Hits and Misses: Part One
Okay, this was challenging for a couple reasons. First, season five is a particular favourite of mine and as such there are so many key moments that I think stand out. Which sort of bleeds into the second reason. Season five was a good season. There were some problems, and yes, there are some issues among the fans about it, but on the whole, it had some good content. Having said that, if the write-ups for why it is a Hit or a Miss are a bit lighter than usual, in a lot of cases it’s because it just rings obvious.
As always, the order in which these appear should not be taken to reflect preference.
Let’s go…
Hit – Bobby Overpowers Demonic Possession – 5×01
Of course this made the list as a hit. Bobby is a strong hunter, and his love for the boys is unmatched. He’s their father in every way that matters. Here we see the strength of his spirit and his heart.
Miss- Fallen Idols
Yes, the entire episode. It had its moments to be sure. But overall it can be summed up as an interesting premise and mostly okay filler at best.
Miss – Dean’s Detail Blindness: Swap Meat
This is pretty simple: I’ve always found it pretty spectacular that Dean was so slow to clue how wrong things were with so-called “Sam” in this episode. Given what they know about the occult, possession and all the other fun supernatural wonders in the world – everything says Dean would have caught on much, much faster to the wrongness of the situation.
Hit- Changing Channels
Does this need explanation? Okay, here’s one: It. Is. EPIC.
Miss – Dead Trickster *nitpick alert*
This is pure pout – no, not really a trickster and all that jazz. But I’m still deeming it a miss because he was awesome!
Hit- The End: The Characterization
Another spectacular episode, our three mains do particularly phenomenal jobs in their future incarnations: Dean as the disenchanted, hardened, militant leader; Castiel the hippie, human and imbibing but ever loyal follower and of course our vessel, Sam/Lucifer in a chillingly brilliant show as the devil on earth.
Miss – Hammer of the Gods
Yes, this is another whole episode miss. Unfortunately, this episode disappointed more than anything else. What could have been an impressive show or, in the right light, I suppose a humorous parody of various non-Christian Gods, resulted instead in a rather lackluster and forgettable production.
Hit – Sam in Swap Meat
This episode has it problems, undoubtedly, as evidenced above but Jared played Sam possessed by a horny teenage boy to a tee – particularly when referring to “the sex” at the bar and slurping his cocktail. Masterfully done. To have been on set during the filming of that scene….what a hilarious treat.
Miss – Brady Killing Jess
Why does this feel like a miss? Well, it has always felt like re-writing history to me. Azazel had a plan, he executed. That Yellow-Eyed bastard was intent on Sam and meticulous about the details. We know that he did the dirty work with Mary and baby Sam himself and we know he certainly wouldn’t hesitate to dive into the trenches himself, particularly for the important points – like Jess. Can I buy that Brady would be implanted into Sam’s life as a spy? Maybe. But the idea of him killing Jess rather than Azazel, well – it’s bit too “after-thought” feeling. Miss!
Hit – Horseman Rings as the Key
This was a hit in unique use of the idea of the Four Horsemen bringing about the apocalypse – they literally possess the keys to unlock the door. It wasn’t an over-thought, over-complex spell; there were no special ingredients or rare creatures. Simply four rings. No, the rings weren’t the easiest to come across but the fact that it wasn’t complication within complication is what makes Supernatural what it is: they have a good idea of where to put to challenge and where to keep it straightforward.
Thoughts?
Part 2 – coming soon!
Does anyone know if Kripke had already planned out 5×22 Swan Song, with Sam taking back control from Lucifer, when he had Bobby take control back from the demon in 5×01 Sympathy for the Devil?
I didn’t think Fallen Idols was a horrible episode; not particularly memorable but there were some meaningful Sam and Dean moments. And, besides, seeing Sam getting his ass kicked by Gandhi is always good for a laugh. Dean was right – that guy was squirrely.
Hammer of the Gods is best forgotten; the only good thing to come out of the episode was Gabriel telling Sam and Dean about the horseman’s rings. Brilliant in its simplicity and logic.
Brady killing Jess was a reasonable retcon, at least to me anyway. As we find out in Swan Song, it helped reinforce just how much Azazel and his gang had been manipulating Sam his entire life.
Hi Elle – The only one I would disagree with is “Hammer of the Gods”. I think I am the only fan who likes that episode. (with the exception of Gabriel being killed – don’t believe it really happened – he can’t die!)
Wet Winchesters? Too much pie for Dean? The elephant? The Trickster? All hits for me. Love the Trickster with the boys!
As for Brady – I hope he was lying to get a rise from Sam about killing Jess. Just didn’t seem right to me either.
I agree with you, Bevie. I actually didn’t mind Hammer of the Gods. For the reasons you stated, plus the fact that the boys were finally on the same page again and I love Sam’s reaction to Dean taunting the Gods. I just didn’t think it was all that bad.
I also didn’t mind Idols. It was fairly entertaining, and I like the fact that we got some actual dialogue about how Sam felt. How hard he was trying and how much he blamed himself, and what he needed from Dean. It was harsh, but Dean seemed to get it by the end, and I was kind of happy about that. Of course, it all went to hell afterward in the season, but for a bit at the beginning, it seemed like they were on the right road to seeing each other’s POV. Le sigh……
I have no idea why this double posted, but it did.
It felt to me that the episode Hammer of the Gods was just not complete-alot of gods with a little info about some of them and then Lucifer comes in and kills them all. OK-so much for other gods.
The episode Fallen Idols was, to me, enjoyable-I laughed during it several times. It was OK
The end was a great episode-wonderful acting, especially the scene between Dean and Cass in the truck when Cass says he “went mortal”. Dean was like a big brother. And of course, the scene with Dean and Lucifer in Sam’s body-Wow ! That was some great acting.
Loved the episode Swap Meat-laughed throughout it and I thought the young actors did a great job.
Personally, did not like the character Brady. Talk about swarmy. Ugh. But also, to me he was so unlikeable that I found it hard to believe Sam would have been friends with him.
Changing Channels was a great and funny episode.
Richard Speight Jr as the trickster/Gabriel was a favorite-hated to see him die. Really happy they brought his image back in Season 9-wish it could have been longer or more.
Loved the idea of the four rings. Ring power!
Of course, Bobby showing his love and his power/will because of that love-what a hero !! These are the characters and scenes and writings that draw me to Supernatural and make me a die hard fan.
Good article, Elle.
Mostly agree with your hits/misses. S 5 is also a favorite of mine despite the really bad misses-Fallen Idols- Hammer of the Gods. I did not like how they ended(?) Gabriel. Brady talks about how he engineered Sam and Jessica to meet. Did he really kill her? Maybe he was taunting Sam. It does change the YED canon and diminish the revenge Sam sought so badly in season 1. That futuristic Dean, Cas, Sam and even Chuck were well defined. The finale….hard to top it. It was to be the end of the series. And in a way it was. Season 6 was a fairly new series with known characters but the arc was a bit of a miss for me, but focusing on S5- Never get bored watching the hits.
Great points, Elle. I agree on all of them, although not quite as strongly about your misses, but I do agree.
And season five was my favorite Supernatural season too. Sometimes I still wish they had stopped at five…
Hammer of the Gods – Lucifer killing other cultures Gods. To better easily digest that Lucifer had that power i fanwank that all the Gods were actually Angels in their own personal Witness Protection like Gabriel and they were so good at keeping it secret that none of them knew about each other. Look at Gabriel….even if they suspected they can’t say anything because it would reveal themselves.
Swap Meat frusterated me to no end. If the roles were reversed Sam would have figured something was hinky with Dean in the first 15 minutes.
I dont know about Brady. The demon possessed Brady after he and Sam had been friends….the demon returned to school pretending to be addicted to drugs which we know alters personality. Personally i loved that Demon Brady acknowledged Sam did everything he could to help his friend kick the drugs. Sam is a loyal and stalwart Friend. Whihc we saw way back in Skin.
The trickster/gabriel. No matter how you dress him up…he will always be a pyschopathic killer murdering humans for whatever infraction he he is ‘punishing’ them for. I still feel really bad for the Mystery Spot debunkers daughter. She’s probably still searching for her father to this day.