Spoilers.

Supernatural Official Site 

The Time: Thursdays, 9:00 PM, The CW

The Show:

Sam
and Dean Winchester are two brothers who roam the back roads of America
in a 1967 Chevy Impala hunting evil.  At first they fought all
of the usual: vampires, ghosts, werewolves and the like, but in recent
yeas they’ve found themselves more and more dealing with the literal
forces of Hell as a demon war has been brewing for decades, with their
family caught in the middle.  Sam has been pre-ordained from
birth by a past foe, the yellow-eyed demon, Azazel, to be a pivotal
figure in the war…on the demon side.  Meanwhile, Dean has
recently been resurrected from Hell by angels because they have the Lord’s work
for him to do.

The Stars:

•  Jared Padalecki – Sam Winchester
•  Jensen Ackles – Dean Winchester
•  Misha Collins – Castiel
•  Genevieve Cortese – Ruby

The Episode: “When The Levee Breaks”

Dean and Bobby are forced to lock Sam in Bobby’s demon / ghost panic room in order to get him to detox from the demon blood he’s been ingesting.  The brutal withdrawal process forces Sam to face his biggest fears and (no pun intended) demons.  But when the evercise doesn’t seem to be working and Sam makes his escape, Dean and his brother come to a fateful confrontation, even as the seals containing Lucifer in his prison continue to fall in greater numbers.  And a pivotal revelation is made concerning the final seal.

The Lowdown:

This is yet another great episode that is building on what has been a killer season and toward what looks to be and even better finale.  The Sam and Dean confrontation that had been brewing for months finally comes to a head.  The brothers had even come to blows earlier in the season, albeit under the influence of a Siren, but there are no pretensions this time.  Sam and Dean are now very clearly on opposite sides of the issue of how to prevent the upcoming apocalypse. 

The bulk of the episode finds Sam locked in the panic room, which is fortified by iron and salt to prevent demons and ghosts from entering.  It’s also handy for when you want to lock up a feening Winchester.  Sam’s withdrawal comes in the form of visions of friend and foe who engage him on the path he’s been taking by drinking demon blood in order to become strong enough to kill Lilith.  Dean has the requisite apprehensions about locking up his brother, but also the resolve to see it through to the end no matter what.  The greatest fear that Dean has isn’t his own death or even Sam’s, but having to hunt Sam if he becomes a monster.  Not coincidentally, it’s also Sam’s.

That’s also a concern for Castiel, who informs Dean that the amount of blood Sam would have to drink in order to become powerful enough to kill Lilith would change him forever, and not for the better.  Castiel is still sticking to the hardline stance he had to adopt in order to return from Heaven.  Dean remarks on this by saying that he’s become “such a dick” since Castiel returned.  This is no less apparent than when Anna shows back up to confront Castiel.  Castiel tells her that she shouldn’t have returned and has a couple of God Squad heavyweights waiting to take her into “custody.”  There’s something big that Castiel is keeping from Dean, which is linked to why he’s become such a hard ass.  It’s also the source of Castiel’s reason for freeing Sam from the panic room.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Castiel’s bosses want the apocalypse so that the earth could be purified and start over and they need to let the Winchester drama play out in order to make it happen.  Think Gabriel in Constantine.

There’s some really powerful stuff between Dean and Sam this peisode, the least of which certainly isn’t their climactic showdown.  Also some good stuff with Bobby.  I hope that Bobby is a resource that the show continues to use for its entire run, because he’s a great character and pretty much de facto family for the Winchesters.  The only thing that Supernatural is lesser for is the absence of Papa John. Jeffrey Dean Morgan can make continued and sustained reappearances on Grey’s Anatomy, even though he died three seasons ago, but can’t do the same on a show where coming back from the dead isn’t the ludicrous proposition that it is on the other show.  I hope that Morgan can make a return to the show before its end run, which could conceivably be next season if Eric Kripke has his druthers.

Finally, that final throwdown between the Winchester boys is short, but epic.  These guys should be in MMA because they’re heaving some lumber between themselves.  I don’t know if the demon blood makes Sam physically stronger, but I was kind of surprised to see him take Dean.  And Dean’s ultimatum to Sam is heavy shit.  I still don’t know if Ruby is working some sort of angle on Sam, or how exactly the climax for the final seal is going to play out, but I know that the consequences aren’t going to be wrapped up this season.  There is a big revelation about what role Lilith will play in the breaking of the final seal, though.  I wouldn’t put it past Kripke and company to have the apocalypse actually go down and carry into Season 5, with circumstances changed between Sam and Dean.  I believe Misha Collins is set to become a regular next season and I wonder if he and Dean could become regular partners in some sort of apocalyptic Earth, with Sam off doing his own thing, and maybe even becoming a villain.  That prospect has me anticipating next season even more than usual. 

Goddamn I love this show.

8.9 out of 10