Thursday's episode of Supernatural brought back the old family business.
"Patience" took the audience for an emotional roller-coaster when Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Jack (Alexander Calvert) stayed back at the bunker to start to harness Jack’s powers for good.
Meanwhile, Dean (Jensen Ackles), Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) and Missouri Moseley (Loretta Devine) teamed up to hunt and kill a Wraith. Wraiths are supernatural creatures that feed on brain fluids and can infect victims with high doses of dopamine, rendering them incapacitated and likely dead.
Missouri was featured way back in season 1, when helping the brothers with a poltergeist. Now, more than a decade later, Missouri returned only to be killed off. A wraith came into town with a taste for psychics, to which Dean and Jody responded to Missouri’s call for help as she was concerned that her granddaughter, Patience, was being targeted.
While Dean and Jody followed Missouri’s request, the wraith killed Missouri and, not surprisingly, targeted Patience as well. The wraith kidnapped Patience, but Dean, Jody and Missouri’s son, James, were able to track Patience down using divination gems.
In a clever scene, the rescue team was killed by the wraith, but after using her newfound psychic powers, Patience could go back into time and replay the rescue scene without any bodies hitting the floor. Dean then effortlessly stabbed and killed the wraith without a trace of emotion.
Throughout the hunt, Sam and Jack made no real progress in controlling Jack’s powers. In Jack’s eyes, he is a burden, full of damage and hurt. Sam saw this and assured Jack that he can be good. Cutting scenes, Dean said goodbye to Jody. Dean told Patience to hide her powers and be "normal" if she was able to.
"There's no joy in it," he said about hunting monsters. "There's nothing but pain, horror and death. So if you get a chance at normal, take it."
He returned to the bunker after having a necessary, but painful, conversation with Sam about whether or not Jack deserves to die.
Jack is seen eavesdropping and whispers “Castiel,” which cuts to Cas lying in a dark abyss, then suddenly waking when he heard his name — leaving the audience to question whether Cas will truly be Cas.
The episode title suits the show because Dean lacks patience. It becomes apparent everyone Dean has known or loved eventually dies.
In previous seasons, Dean has listed the deaths: his mom, dad, Kevin, Charlie, Crowley, Benny, Bobby, supposedly Cas and now Missouri. In the episode, Dean particularly looks sleep-deprived, depressed and angry. He is shown drinking and has obvious dark circles and bruises. When Dean heard about Missouri’s death, he wasn’t fazed. There was no crumbling of emotion; he didn’t flinch. Simply, he walked to Jody and then decided to progress with the hunt because it was Missouri wanted.
The audience sees a sense of respect Dean has for Missouri when he answers, “Yes, ma’am,” and it's hard to not be heartbroken when Dean isn’t surprised to have another death on his hands.
The entire episode reintroduces the family business. In the earlier seasons, the brothers were saving people, hunting things and carrying out the family business. The cases were simpler with the end-all goal being to kill what killed their mom. Now, the disasters facing them are beyond them. They are concerned about God dying, an apocalypse and closing the gates of Hell.
In that way, Dean has become a shell of the man he once was. He’s harder and suspicious, but equally passionate about saving people. Viewers specifically see that in the ending dialogue between the brothers when Dean almost screams about everyone he's lost.
“So if you wanna pretend, that's fine. But me? I can hardly look at the kid. Cause when I do, all I see is everybody we've lost," he said. "And what about Cas? … He manipulated him. He made him promises and said paradise on Earth. And Cas bought it. And you know what that got him? It got him dead! Now you might be able to forget about that, but I can’t!”
The family business is at the forefront of the show, because the brothers consistently do what they do to help people and better others’ lives.
Supernatural airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.
