Reviews That I Missed: Supernatural 9.17 – “Mother’s Little Helper”

Adam Glass again? I know that my availability was spotty in season nine, but it seems that I had a nasty habit at the time of skipping reviews on his episodes. Maybe because…well…he rarely delivered a winner. So how did I feel about “Mother’s Little Helper?” It was better than most of his episodes, but it still suffered from the burdens of season nine.

Dean is still obsessed with the idea of killing Abaddon because that’s going to solve all his problems. Sam is worried, but still keeping his distance. Yep, welcome to season nine. Dean is well shaken after “Blade Runners” and rightfully so. It has shaken something loose inside, and he’s having trouble coping. You know, flashbacks, nightmares, not sleeping, yada. Dean won’t go on this latest hunt with Sam, and is even snapping at him over insisting they should go together since they’ve had no luck with Abaddon. Sam is noticing the obvious, Dean is taking his fixation a bit too far. He backs off though and leaves Dean behind, with a giant bottle of whiskey. Oh yeah, Dean isn’t good.

Crowley: You’re lying to Sam like he’s your wife, which kind of makes me your mistress.

A devil on his shoulder.  How brilliant! 

Oh Crowley, you always knew the right things to say, especially when Dean was lying to his brother. The Dean and Crowley scenes were interesting, in that Crowley was fun and Dean was insufferable. Crowley is the master of opportunity and here’s his wounded puppy, both lashing out at him yet still needing him. Dean’s encounter with the first blade has magnified all that internal propensity to kill things, and he’s spooked for sure. So, he sits in a bar, drinks, and lives in total denial.

It was really crafty of Crowley to test Dean, and the end showed how much Dean was off his game. He didn’t suspect that the other hunter was a plant by Crowley. It was pretty obvious. Crowley was delighted with the results, which is what made their little time in the bar fun. Dean talks a good game, but Crowley knows that he’s too valuable right now. He had Dean right where he wanted him.

I’ll tell you one thing I hated at the time, and that was the habit of writers to keep bringing back characters from their prior episodes just because they could. That tactic rarely serviced the story well. No one was more guilty of that than Adam. If I remember correctly, there were incentives at the time to do that, but geez, how predictable did this get? At the time it felt desperate and grasping for straws story wise. You knew that Josie and Henry Winchester were on Adam’s list. Which I certainly enjoyed seeing these characters, talk about contrived plotting to service a story.

Seriously, Josie was in love with Henry? Really?? She decided to sacrifice herself for him? How quaint. That part wasn’t necessary. Abaddon could have just possessed her outright without going through all that sap. She even said she didn’t need permission. Did Josie’s act really matter? It got Henry killed anyway, as well as all of the other Men of Letters. I’m not sure any of this made Josie any more sympathetic or endearing. If anything, it made her look naive and stupid. It certainly didn’t add any complexity or dimensions to her character.

Still, among of those forced character dynamics, Glass did come up with an intriguing twist to the whole Abaddon threat, the stealing of souls. That part played out very well in this episode and Sam could easily figure out what was happening given that he’d been there. We do know from past history that human souls contain power that could easily be used for benefit. But, she has demons taking them from people and turning them into demons for Abaddon’s army? This was going on in factories everywhere? Wouldn’t there have been red flags about this before now? Reports from all over the country about…I don’t know…multiple meatloaf massacres in common households? It just seems odd that it only was ever investigated in this town.

The most frustrating thing about this plot was this finally got Sam and Dean on the same page, Abaddon is a huge threat because she was stealing souls now. Except, THAT WAS THE LAST WE HEARD OF IT! The whole souls thing never came up again. They created a menacing turn to the mytharc and then abandoned it? Did they think it was a stupid idea? Obviously everyone was too focused on the spinoff at the time, because they weren’t focused on much else. That seems to be the theme of season nine, short attention span theater.

The strongest parts of the episode were scenes with Sam and Julia. There’s nothing like a crazy old lady showing up to the police station going on about how the demons are back and Sam just happens to be right there. Talk about a stroke of luck. She soon realizes he must be part of the Men of Letters since he believed her so quickly. She really sold her story and guilt over what she did in the past. She was clearly haunted by it all.

If you think about it, Julia really had an impact on the Winchester family. She didn’t warn Henry that Abaddon was possessing Josie, and that eventually got Henry killed, not to mention wiped out the Men of Letters and their chance at legacy. No doubt that impacted John and how he raised his boys. Henry did choose this life though, thinking he was making a difference, and the cycle of sacrifice for the greater good became a Winchester trait. What goes around comes around I guess. Julia did eventually get her chance at redemption though, something we are still out to lunch on with the Winchesters.

This episode was also Misha’s one and only outing as director. How did he do? Very well I thought. I looked at my review roundtable that I did with TV Fanatic at the time and I was rather impressed with his outing. I remained impressed on the rewatch. I did like the way the story unfolded visually from beginning to end and it did manage to deliver some emotional moments. I was quite taken by the scene where Sam released the souls and they found their way back to their owners. The way these people were visually overtaken with guilt and remorse as they were restored, well, it did have a familiar ring to it.  Here are some of the more memorable shots. 

Releasing the souls.  Love the light reflection on Sam’s face.

This is the look of pure evil.  No wonder Julia was spooked. 

Someone is falling apart.

There’s also this shot of the brothers sitting apart at a different desk in the library. It’s wonderful. It shows that both brothers are on the same page about what they must do, but they’re still not completely united. Progress has been made, but things are still off. It’s just a perfect snapshot of the situation at the time.

Some Stray Brotherly Thoughts

By this time in the season, I was more than done with the brotherly drama. Yeah, it made sense, what Dean did, Sam would be sore for a while. But man, watching this was so tedious. Come on already, go on a hunt together and enjoy it! I get it, they were going to a season four parallel. But Sam is noticing real changes in Dean and…he’s cautiously concerned? He’s still keeping his distance, but acting slightly more worried. Yawn. I do like that he tried to get Dean to come join him, even calling him later with a doozy of a mystery, but he didn’t push hard when Dean rejected the idea. Whatever.

Overall grade, a B. That’s a real good grade given season nine. Coming up next, Alex, Annie, Alexis, Ann. Whew, I like that one.

Here’s some BTS shots of Misha directing for fun: