CW's Supernatural: A Television Review and A Tribute to the Wild West in "Frontierland"

Creator: Eric Kirpke.

Director: Guy Norman Bee.

Writers: Jackson Stewart, Daniel Loflin and Andrew Dabb.

The boundaries between pop culture and the occult gets mixed up again in the latest episode of Supernatural. In “Frontierland,” both Sam and Dean request that they get sent back in time in order to find the phoenix and use its ashes in order to defeat the Mother of All. This episode is the most entertaining ever since they broke the fourth wall in “The French Mistake.”

Much to everyone else’s amusement, this era is thankfully not like what Dean expects it to be. Instead of a Spaghetti Western, the real west is a reflection of the times—people struggling to make end’s meat in an untamed land.

Director Guy Bee hit all the right cues by giving Dean a reality check when everything he says and does do not make sense to the people he's intereacting with. One can't help but feel sorry for him, and Dean needs to find some real grit in the genre he so fondly adores and knows nothing about. Just like Back to the Future II, he has that adorable, oh crap type of look when he doesn’t get to walk away, into the distant sunset. There's more to come but was that reference to that age-old Speilberg classic really needed? It probably would've been better without, but Supernatural has really gone overboard with its nods to 80's pop culture this season. Hopefully the last few episodes will tone it down a notch.

But with the recent announcement of green-lighting season seven, the Winchester brothers will have more adventures in store for them. And hopefully the Mother of All storyline will extend past this one. Who she really is, and what the confrontation will entail not in the coming episode, but down the road will prove interesting. "Fontierland" establishes a few new motifs that will no doubt affect the Winchester's future. And if this season continues exploring Classical mythology, perhaps Orpheus may make an appearance.

Audiences do know that Sam is told not to look back to his past year when he was with his grandfather, and at what’s been sealed away. To do so is dangerous. Dean has travelled to Hell and back himself, and even Bobby stared at the face of death a few times himself. When the real Death appears again, that should not be a shocker to audiences. When legendary heroes die, even their souls have to go somewhere.

Curiously, the phoenix, Elias Finch, here does not resurrect, so it says something about immortality. When they’re gone, they are erased from the mortal plane of existance and their energy disapates into the wind. In traditional lore, this fiery bird is said to rise from its own ashes, and to not witness it must be a set up for a future episode. As previous seasons have demonstrated, some mortals are ‘the chosen ones;’ Lucifer can only enter a special vessel without burning the body out. Perhaps this fact is true for legendary creatures as well, like the phoenix.

Either the ashes that Sam and Dean now have will either be unceremoniously dropped or shaped into some device where an innocent will get in the way, and thus inherit the phoenix-force. As the next episode title, “Mommy Dearest,” suggests, Eve will take this individual and nurture that person to be a leader of her new pantheon of evil monsters. This episode will be more than just about their reunion with Mary Winchester.

This episode also features Samuel Colt, an important figure in the series canon. He built the gun that can kill any immortal for good—save for Lucifer. In meeting up with Sam Winchester, Colt reveals that he is more interested in not continuing in the hunter profession. But as the final minutes suggest, he has a change of heart. For this old codger, he found his own true grit after a pep session with his contemporary from the future.

Even Castiel reverts back to how he was first introduced. He reveals some important facts about what souls are valued as for the angels and demons who highly prize them. Instead of just social currency, they represent a different kind of power. To see him reach in and make use of Bobby’s vitality to bring the Winchester Brothers back show that these souls also represent faith. To keep this concept as simple as that brings the entire series full circle, since the series is built on how the two brothers simply have faith in each other to overcome adversity. As long as they remain united, along with Bobby, they can overcome anything. Now if the angels in Heaven can only realize the same thing. Sadly, their civil war is simply going nowhere and they just don’t get it.

That’s why God abandoned them.

Watch episodes of Supernatural at the CW:

Supernatural on the CW

Previous seasons of Supernatural are below, along with pre-orders of Seas. 6:



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