CW's "Supernatural" and Being Repossessed Won't Do in "Repo Man:" A Television Review

*spoiler alert.

Director: Thomas J. Wright.

Writer: Ben Edlund.

Mark Pellegrino certainly loves playing Lucifer in the series "Supernatural." In “Repo Man” he is back to treat viewers to his larger than life portrayal of the Devil. This time around, the gusto he puts into each appearance becomes far more memorable than the episode’s tale itself.

But for continuity trackers, this episode looks back at a job the Winchester boys did four years ago. Nora Havelock (Nicole Oliver), a white witch who helped lead the brothers to a possessed young man, Jeffrey (Russell Sams). The exorcism they conducted was seemingly successful, but when the episode moves back to the present, the job they did was not nicely wrapped up.

The adult Jeffrey had issues that no one was aware of. When he was possessed, he was able to become the murdering serial killer that he wanted to be. He may seem nice now that he’s “clean,” but there’s more. He yearns to be reintegrated with that demon from long ago. The darkness that has tainted his soul is beginning to sound familiar.

The parallels this episode makes with Sam’s plight is very nicely integrated. And the question of whether an individual can deal with the devil you know than the devil you don’t is a great one to present. This retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde formula has been used time and time again in many pop culture classics, and this one gets creative in having two stories play side-by-side with one another. And the problems Sam faces are one sided since the angels of heaven are still busy cleaning up the mess made last season.

For most of the series the hallucinations that Sam sees are all behind the scenes. They are nestled behind that curtain that the series writers do not want to unveil. Writer Ben Edlund is very careful in when to allow the horned one to reveal itself.

Even Jared Padalecki does a great job of being “Souless Sam” for a moment. He had to interrogate, if not intimidate, Nora. With the Devil goading him on, there is a lot that Sam has to hold together than the quintessential battle of the wills. Good or bad, just which approach should Sam use to get the information he needs?

Although director Thomas J. Wright is balancing these two narratives, most viewers are going to be more invested in wanting to know what is going on in Sam’s head. One of this serie's encompassing subplot is to show the conflict Sam is having about crossing that line that he cannot consciously bring himself to do. To kill in cold blood is not his moniker. Even as a young boy in "The Girl Next Door" he cannot bring himself to do it. Although he did have to kill to save Dean in "The Slice Girls," the remorse he felt is evident. Only the last few remaining episodes will tell if Sam will become a lethal weapon now that the Devil is seemingly back in control.

Overall: 7 out of 10.

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