CW'S Supernatural and Looking out for "Mommy Dearest:" A Television Review

Creator: Eric Kripke.

Director: John Showalter.

Writers: Eric Kripke and Adam Glass.

Supernatural's "Mommy Dearest" ended up being a disappointment. In all the lore that's been built up leading to the Winchester brother's confrontation with Eve, the Mother of All. She winds up being easily defeated, because Dean decided to be a wise guy.

The build-up to this episode came crashing down because everything that's been said about her abilities and powers all means nothing. From being able to see through the eyes of all of her babies, she recognizes that there is a demon back in town, Crowley, and he’s not really dead.

The meeting at a diner setup is trite, since it puts the season’s various subplots at a crossroads. The story-arc revolving around Eve simply concludes when she reveals that she's simply been running around trying to create a new human-monster hybrid that cannot be detected by the Hunters. She has her say about what souls are worth but honestly nothing new is revealed before she has her boys take away the shotgun, filled with the ashes of a phoenix.

They brothers knew it would not be that easy, but is Eve really that dumb? For a creature that's said to be older than the angels or demons, she should have more than a millenium's worth of experience to know when she is being duped. Where's her danger sense? Given all the creatures she's been said to create, including that of spiders, she should be able to realize that Dean has some more of the phoenix’s ashes up his sleeve. She really didn’t take a good chunk out of him and then realize what she’s consumed. And given the short amount of time for the ashes to course through Dean’s bloodstream, hopefully Eve is simply sleeping it off, like the best vampires out there. Nothing is shown by the episode’s end about cleaning up the mess, and that’s when Crowley appears.

Until then, the story is looking like it is going to shift direction and focus on the war in heaven. By the episode's end, one has to truly wonder whom Castiel is really allied with.

At least for the more powerful creatures, the act of burning their mortal remains shows that it is not an effective way to destroy either an angel or demon. If they’re not really dead, there is hope for Eve to return too.

After all, the phoenix is a legendary creature that's supposed to represent death and rebirth. Just when that'll happen will be up to the series’ writers—nearly everybody who's died has come back in one form or another, including a brief shapeshifting moment from Eve using Mary Winchester’s likeness when dealing with the Winchester brothers. The only two characters who appear permanently gone is Samuel Winchester, the grandfather, and Rufus, Bobby’s partner—but even that isn't set in stone, signed, sealed and delivered.

Like the comic books, to remain six feet under requires more than just a divine force to bring anyone back. Should there be a massive family reunion in the Afterlife, does that mean John Winchester, the father figure, is lurking around the corner?

Catch up on episodes of Supernatural at the CW:

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