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Supernatural: “Galaxy Brain” Review

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Supernatural -- "Galaxy Brain" -- Image Number: SN1512b_0491b.jpg -- Pictured (L-R): Jensen Ackles as Dean, Kim Rhodes as Jody Mills and Jared Padalecki as Sam -- Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW -- © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

New night, old time, but Sam and Dean are back to rock out for their remaining eight episodes!

We start tonight off with a simple quandary:

You ever get someone in your head? Under your skin? So deep you can’t get them out, no matter what you do. No matter how many versions of them you make? Oh, well, that last part might only apply to Chuck. See, God’s got something of a problem on his hands. He made the world, he filled it, and of all his creations Sam and Dean became his favorites. But they didn’t want to play, and once they found out about him, they weren’t exactly thrilled. Gotta hurt for the ultimate fanboy, right?

Maybe the moral of the story isn’t supposed to be “fans ruin everything” but that’s the one I’m seeing. Ever see that Futurama episode where a sentient ball of space gas kidnaps the entire original Star Trek cast because he “loves” them? Fan love can turn to hate so fast it’ll make your head spin clear off. Chuck tried to do the responsible thing (I guess?), to turn his attention to other worlds, make other versions in order to exorcise his unhealthy obsession and neediness, but to no avail. Now, he’s reached the inevitable conclusion that all spurned fans reach – destroy the thing you love.

Granted, he was after an end, but this is different. This is more along DC’s lines – which is a little funny considering the CW just ran through their “Crisis” storyline (also featuring the destruction of a multiverse). Good luck, Chuck! Saving the best for last?

With that out of the way, shall we explore the other aspects of this episode?

Jack is still back and on power lockdown, but he has learned some new tricks. Our soulless god grandson has a lot more understanding this time around. When faced with a “no”, he assesses the situation and turns it into a “yes”. Wonder what Billie’s been teaching the boy…

Sam and Dean are dealing with an old “friend” and an actual old friend. Sherriff Jody Mills gets kidnapped by Dark Kaia who is angry because Dean never returned her staff. This leads the Winchesters to help out the homicidal dream-walker, or, try to. Unfortunately, nothing they know of can open a portal to another world except Jack (hence my previous paragraph). With some help from a reaper, and Cass, the kids head back into Dark Kaia’s world – why? Oh, because their Kaia is alive, naturally.

Alls well that..oh shit! Billie just killed a bitch! Billie is not playing. Jack’s ability to convince the reaper (RIP Merle) sent to watch him to cooperate in their scheme to save/return Kaia/Kaia is a short-lived victory considering how it ends for her (this could apply to either Merle or Dark Kaia). For us, however, it’s super satisfying.

In the beginning of this episode Chuck walks into a Radio-Shack approximation and announces he’s going to monologue – which he does. But, aside from the revelation that he’s going to destroy all the worlds he’s made, it’s a lot of the same stuff we’ve heard already. Billie shows up in the bunker – scythe in hand and action – towards the end of this episode, and monologues with actual useful information.

What’s really nice here is that a lot of times characters in shows or movies can represent an unrealistic portrait of human memory and comprehension. The fact that Dean forgets what Death told him all those seasons ago is possibly partly because the writers’ gaffed, but more believably because he’s human and it’s been over ten years, who wouldn’t forget? There’s also Chuck’s ability to convince the boys that killing him would upset the balance of nature (again, contradicting what Death mentioned), thus destroying Sammy’s hope and ensuring his safety for a little while. Billie is a cosmic being. Sam and Dean are just humans. Humans may be able to think outside of themselves to an extent, but certain large-scale concepts can be hard for them to grasp. The idea that God can die being the important one here.

I’m liking where this is going, though I wasn’t a huge fan of this episode overall. As I may have mentioned the downside to a series’ final season is how they play it out. Will it be a hastily thrown together tie-up of loose ends the audience is clamoring for? Will it be a slow, satisfying burn of some loose ends tied up, with new and exciting twists and turns that lead to an inevitable finale? Will it be a normally run season that ends on a cliff-hanger and you don’t realize it was the final season until the show is cancelled (much less likely these days)? So far Supernatural’s final season could potentially be that second option – though I really do wish the stories were stronger. Yes, loose end tying is great, but if I compare this to the original intended final season (5) it’s no contest.

Ah well…let’s give the boys some time, is eight enough?

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