Reviews That I Missed: Supernatural 9.10 – “Road Trip”
“I didn’t have a choice.” You DID! You just made the wrong one. Lots of times.
I did like “Road Trip” more than “Holy Terror”. This is an Andrew Dabb script and like his others, it was inconsistency galore. Some things worked, some things didn’t. The biggest strength, Crowley was really freaking awesome. Every single scene he was in. I’ve always been a fan of Crowley and I thought his story was butchered so much in his later seasons. Not here! The biggest weakness of this episode, well, most of the rest of it. I will concede though that this story was dragged down by the events of the season, so I’m cutting Dabb a little slack. A little. He was still guilty of a few atrocities.
I’m still trying to wrap around my head the whole “I didn’t have a choice” crap that Dean, Castiel, and Gadreel kept spouting to justify their weak and pathetic actions. That’s delusional behavior. There are always other choices, and they tend to be ones for the greater good at personal sacrifice. The problem is these guys are so desperate for relevance and/or fear of being alone that they’ve pushed themselves into a corner and are making selfish choices to get out of it. That has been both interesting and completely annoying too. I mean, I was gripped when we saw Sam go through that in season four. Dean’s story could have been that compelling if they didn’t make him look like such a whiny buffoon. Seeing three characters make the same stupid mistakes like we did in this episode, I’m not feeling it. It’s a bit much.
As for Castiel, the verdict is still out. By stealing another angel’s grace (still trying to figure out how that works, isn’t that like stealing a soul?), he has power to heal Sam now. That’s not a bad thing. Angels are barbarians right now and he still believes he’s more use powered than human. He may not be wrong. But he knows he’s not his normal self and this isn’t a short term fix. Knowing that, did he really have to do that? What is the means other than to help Sam and Dean? Prior episodes hinted that he desired something greater. Then again, this writing team post Edlund never did figure out what to do Castiel. His wayward ways had become more driven by bad writing than true character flaws.
Gadreel on the other hand is a weak character clearly being manipulated by a master in treachery. This guy does know the difference between right and wrong but falters at each turn because he lacks balls. For a character where we have so little emotional investment, spending a lot of time on his weakness makes for an eye rolling story. Oh, look at that, he killed his best friend because Metatron said to. Yawn. I get why it happened. It was so we could relate to Castiel’s outrage when he found it was Gadreel as opposed to Ezekiel possessing Sam. I mean, that was a pretty passionate “you broke the world” speech. But was the payoff worth it? Meh.
I get it. It’s a cruel world. But how entertaining is it to watch week after week everyone devolve into barbarianism? Remember when Supernatural used to rely on good old fashioned story telling and not constant stunt deaths every other scene? Deaths stopped being shocking in Supernatural seasons ago. It became cliche and predictable and did zero to enhance what we were watching. Did we have to waste time on Corey/Thaddeus the bad angel? That opener wasn’t necessary. It’s also hard to feel the outrage of watching a morally good angel like Abner die too when we only had two scenes with him. I think I grieved more for demon Cecily getting killed than Abner. We don’t think Gadreel is a real threat either because he’s a puppet. All it becomes is a waste of some air time that could have built more tension in the angel or demon war elsewhere.
But I digress, let’s get to the great part of the story, rescuing Sam from possession. I’m not sure what I enjoyed best. There’s Crowley, Dean and Castiel on a roadtrip, proving that Crowley has plenty of operatives out there with a lot of juicy information. The way he commended Cecily for playing both sides, well, that’s the mark of a great leader. Then there’s Crowley gleefully volunteering to stick needles in Sam’s noggin to get through to him (it’s more art than science) and I’m thinking Jared had a blast with that! Or there’s Crowley eagerly possessing Sam/Gadreel so he could get Sam to realize what was happening, and thus earn his freedom. Was Crowley’s scene in Sam’s head awesome? Yes, yes it was. Crowley didn’t beat around the bush once he got in. Shooting Sam in the chest to prove it wasn’t real was a nice touch! But Crowley did the best thing of all, he gave Sam his moment to play bad ass and take control of his life by expelling Gadreel. Oh man did Sam deliver! It was finally a great moment in this entire fiasco.
But Crowley wasn’t done yet. He didn’t have to fight Abaddon when he stayed behind to confront her. He just had to make a campaign speech! He gets being a demon, there’s no such thing as loyalty. Serving a hot tempered ginger that could kill anyone at a moment’s notice isn’t as much fun as being given the freedom to do whatever you want. Crowley is the ultimate used car salesman, and what do you know, that’s all Hell really needs to function. Plus, he got to do all this with his maximum level of snark, and it was every bit as fun as one would imagine.
The final scene reminded us though that the real victim in all this was Sam. He was ready to let go. He was essentially punished for wanting to do the right thing by the person he trusted the most. Dean took away his choices earlier in the season and then Gadreel did it here. He only got a rescue because Dean was finally forced to talk to Castiel after very bad things happened. When the good guy with the moral compass ends up being Crowley, you know things have gone wrong. Of course Sam had to be mortified by that. The scene at the docks was refreshing because Sam was too weak to completely lose it. He was pissed with restraint. He couldn’t top Dean beating himself up over what was done, yet he was having none of it. These words were all he could muster:
Dean: Alright, let me hear it.
Sam: What do you want me to say? I’m pissed? Okay I am, I’m pissed. You lied to me – again.
Dean: I didn’t have a choice.
Sam: I was ready to die Dean.
Dean: I know. But I wouldn’t let you, because that’s not in me.
Sam: So what, you decide to trick me into being possessed by some…psycho angel?
Dean: He saved your life.
Sam: So what. I was willing to die. And now…Kevin.
Dean: No, that is not on you. Kevin’s blood is on my hands. And that ain’t ever getting clean. I’ll burn for that. I will. But I’ll find Gadreel and I will end that son of a bitch. But I’ll do it alone.
Sam: What’s that supposed to mean?
Dean: Come on man, can’t you see, I’m poison. People get close to me they get killed, or worse. I tell myself I help more people than I hurt and I tell myself that I’m doing it all for the right reasons and I believe that. But I can’t — I won’t drag anyone anybody into the muck with me – not anymore.
Sam: Go. I’m not going to stop you. But don’t go thinking that’s the problem because it’s not.
Dean: What’s that supposed to mean?
Sam: Just go.
So what did Sam mean by that? I’d like to think it’s a verbal smackdown for this season long Dean pity party, but I’m sure it’s him just saying stop playing God. It’s not all on him. But hey, considering Sam spent much of the rest of the season moping, I’m not sure we ever find out. I’ll have to refresh my memory on that one as I go through the rest of my reviews for the season.
Other Stray Thoughts
The choice of “The Famous Final Scene” was a huge thrill for us at The WFB at the time. We had been campaigning since season five to have that song used in a Supernatural episode. We even did a musical montage. While I cannot confirm or deny that Andrew Dabb was finally delivering on our wishes, we took the win any way we could. While I don’t particularly like that the song was used for the Dean Winchester pity party, it was still a win.
I did love how Castiel took out Gadreel in a badass way, but he punched him? That’s how you disable another angel? I know it was never established how you knock out an angel, but that seemed so…human. Shouldn’t angels have some sort of Vulcan nerve pinch or something like that?
Most horrible line of the episode:
Castiel: Dean. If the angel possessing Sam isn’t Ezekiel, then who is it?
Dean: A dead man walking.
You tell ’em tough guy. Of course you’ve cut off your arms and legs at this point, but you make up for it with moxie and grit.
I’m also really glad that Tahmoh Penikett is back as Gadreel’s vessel. Jared did a great job in the dual role, but it was time to end that. It’s really interesting that Metatron was hanging out in the bar where he was working. It’s if he knew that Gadreel was no match for the Winchesters. I love the line, “Let me guess, Winchester trouble.”
Oh how great were all those Crowley lines! Let me count the ways…
-
- Crowley: I told him this was gonna happen. I was the only person who tried to warn him. I told him to run.
Dean: From what?
Crowley: You. How many times am I gonna have to say this? People in your general vicinity don’t have much in the way of a life-span. - No? Of course not. Because if I’m plan “A,” I’m sure you have a totally viable, much better plan “B.”
- “Your phallus on wheels just ran a red light in Somerset, Pennsylvania ten minutes ago.”
- “Laverne! Shirley! Get in here.”
- “I’m dead. Yes, I know. I love you, too.”
- Gadreel: I will destroy you.
Crowley: Eat me. - “It’s a campaign. Hearts and minds, that’s what’s important. See, the demons have a choice. Take orders from the world’s angriest ginger, and that’s saying something, or join my team where everyone gets a say, a virgin, and all the entrails they can eat.”
- Crowley: I told him this was gonna happen. I was the only person who tried to warn him. I told him to run.
Overall grade, an elevated B. Slightly higher than “Holy Terror,” but a bit too cliched in the writing to secure that B+. Coming up next, episode 9.11, “First Blood.” Awesome guest star alert!

Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
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