‘Supernatural’ Winter Premiere Recap & Review: “First Blood”

When we left off with the Winchesters, Sam and Dean had just succeeded in getting the President of the United States free of Lucifer. It was their freedom, however, that was taken away when they quickly got captured by the secret service and arrested for attempted murder of the POTUS.

 

Forget Hell, Now the Real Torture Begins

We pick up after the arrest of Sam and Dean as they are being transported to a government black site. They are separated into different cells and told that they will be locked in with nothing by the four walls around them until they talk. Since Sam and Dean rarely do what they are told, especially when told by any sort of law enforcement, weeks go by – 6 weeks, 10 days and 2 hours according to Castiel – before their situation changes.

While the guys are stuck in solitary confinement, Castiel reaches out to Mary, and to Crowley, for any assistance they can provide in somehow finding out where Dean and Sam are being kept. Not even the King of Hell can find out that information, and he’s not exactly broken up about it.

 

Cas: “Do you even care that they’re gone?”

Crowley: “No. Do you know how many all-powerful beings have tried to kill them?”

Cas: “Roughly, yes.”

Crowley: “As do I. I was bloody one of them. Sam and Dean, they’re like herpes. Just when you think they’re gone… hello! the boys are back, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. So, wherever they are; whoever has Sam and Dean, well, in the immortal words of Laurence Tureaud, ‘I pity da fool.'”

 

 

Death Becomes Them

Knowing there was no way out of their predicament, Dean does the only thing he can think to do – make a deal. They hold the details to this part of the story until the end of the episode, but what we know is that Sam and Dean are both found dead in their cells, and return to life once they are alone in the morgue. They are able to get the jump on the medical examiner and grab his phone. When they are clear of the building, get a call out to Castiel to come pick them up but with only a very rough idea of their location. Sam and Dean take off into the surrounding forest as the swat team takes off after them.

Unsure of what they are walking into, Cas and Mary consider reaching out for help but can’t agree on who to call. Cas suggests Crowley and Rowena, but Mary decides the British Men of Letters would be a better choices. Mick and Mr. Ketch agree to help target a more precise location on the guys by “borrowing” a geo thermal imaging satellite from space.

 

 

Dean and Sam get the jump on one of the swat team’s walkie talkie and his gun. Dean tries to warn them to turn back so they don’t get hurt, but of course the dude doesn’t listen. However, you and I both know they should’ve.

 

Dean: “We’re not trapped out here with you. You’re trapped out here with us.”

 

The guys stumble upon a cabin and set a trap for the swat team in pursuit in order to deter them from following any further. They are able to subdue the entire team with only minor injuries, including the two agents in charge of their capture. Sam tells them the truth about the President being possessed, and tell them they can believe it or not, but they would be smart to just let them go.

Sam and Dean leave the cabin and make it out to the road where they find Cas and Mary waiting, along with Mick and Mr. Ketch. The British MOL gang wasn’t happy to hear that Dean and Sam had left anyone alive, so of course, after the Winchesters leave, Mr. Ketch had to go and make sure that all the parties were ‘taken care of’.

 

Reunited, Until the Clock Strikes Midnight

In the midst of their getaway, the guys are reminded about the other part of their escape plan when Mary’s car suddenly shuts down and come to a halt. Standing in their way is Billy, the reaper. Remember that deal? Well, Dean called Billy to help out by allowing them to die and be brought back at the right time. Her condition: a Winchester must truly die by midnight. As Sam and Dean are ready for one of them to fulfil their blood pact promise to Billy when Mary steps up and decides to take their place. Just as she is about to take her own life and go with Billy, Castiel pierces his angel blade into the reaper, killing her.

Up until this point, there were a few moments that Castiel did look truly lost without Sam, and especially Dean; when he was desperately searching for them and enlisting Crowley’s help and even moreso when he was telling Mary how he failed at the vampire hunt. But it isn’t until he begins telling the guys why he killed Billy, do you truly see how much Castiel not only loves the Winchesters, but how he really believes they are the world’s only chance at salvation.

 

Cas: “You know this world.. this sad, doomed little world… it needs you. It needs every last Winchester it can get, and I will not let you die. I won’t let any of you die. And I won’t let you sacrifice yourselves, you mean too much to me… to everything. Yeah, you made a deal, you made a stupid deal, and I broke it. You’re welcome.”

 

Pictured: Misha Collins as Castiel — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW

 

For me, this was one of those moments that my eyes couldn’t help but sweat a little as Castiel poured his heart out in his own unique way, that leaves you half smiling and half crying, but completely pumped for what comes next.

 

What Does Come Next?

With the blood-pact broken, a dead reaper, and the secret service swat team taken care of, what could possibly be next for the Winchesters? Let’s not forget there is still a woman out there pregnant with Lucifer’s baby. I can see that being a hurdle they will have to deal with in the next nine months or so. And, even though the British MOL were there to help the Winchesters, this campaign across the U.S. to get hunters to fall in line with their ways doesn’t seem like something that will end well. Even if Mary is willing to hear them out when Mick paints her a picture of a world without death by monsters and demons.

Can you imagine that world where people don’t die because of the supernatural? That just feels…. unnatural.

 

Biggest WTF Moment of “First Blood”

Mick is corresponding with what I am going to assume is his home base headquarters via an old typewriter that types back to him?! Really? Fringe used that little trick back in the day, but they were communicating between parallel universes. So, they can hijack a satellite in space, but Mick can’t just, you know, make a secure phone call? Does that mean he isn’t communicating with his home base? Is there yet another party involved in this story?

 

What did you think of the ‘Supernatural’ winter premiere of “First Blood”? Were you surprised Dean made another deal? What could the ramifications be of the broken blood-pact and dead reaper? Use the comments below to tell us your thoughts on the episode!