This was probably one of the most anticipated premieres in the history of Supernatural. Given the way the series season ended last spring, what would they do next? I had no idea coming into the season. And truth be told, I don’t have a lot of idea after having watched the premiere.
It was kind of an odd episode. The first question that comes to mind is whether that oddness came about as a result of Kripke handing over the reins. I tend to think not. My guess is that it has more to do with this being season six and the team back at HQ has to come up with some story to tell for these 22 episodes. The somewhat odd-feeling start was just the slow start to what I am confident will be another thrilling ride.
To the specifics of the episode, the return of Sam was both interesting, and frustrating. The fact that he is back, and by all appearances whole, is a bit of a relief. For a moment I was suspecting shapeshifter, or demon, but I’m much more interested in the real deal Sam. Unfortunately, no explanation for how or why he (or Gramps) is back was the first ‘dangit’ of the season. I’m sure we’ll get to that in due time, but I was really hoping for some sort of story after those final images last season.
The other big surprise was that Sam was back for a full year before bothering to let Dean know. Their relationship does seem to be in a much better place than it’s been at many times over the course of the series. The not telling Dean thing though, it does bring a new bucket of tension along with it. It’s also an interesting point in that you can really see both sides to the argument.
Were they all wrong in not telling Dean about Sam? From Dean’s perspective, certainly. But can you understand why they did it? I think so. Dean, in his new life with Lisa (Cindy Sampson) and Ben is living the hunter dream. At some point, they’d all like to be able to chuck it and go have the normal life. Sam, Bobby, and Samuel are all guilty of living vicariously through Dean. Their circumstances might not be great, but they can look to what Dean now has and imagine a better way.
The reality of all that is that it can’t work. From our TV watcher universe, you just have to have Sam and Dean together busting demon heads. It’s how this works. But it also doesn’t work in the Supernatural universe. As Dean said, he should have known something would come, because something always does. It does put Dean in a particularly interesting place now, because he has the chance to do the things he’s angry at John for not doing.
Now, as for Gramps (Mitch Pileggi) and the Campbell cousins (Corin Nemec, Jessica Heafey, David Paetkau)… They rubbed me the wrong way from jump street. My first guess was that their off-putting demeanor signaled that they might not be long for this world. After the reveal of team Campbell secreting away the lead djinn though, it looks like we are seeing the beginnings of a whole new family feud. Clearly there are dark forces at work as part of this, but I think we’re also going to be spending a fair bit of time watching the Winchester boys face off with Gramps and the cousins.
Being a season premiere, and starting a whole new volume of the greater Supernatural story, we really don’t have a lot to go on yet. But there were enough little kernels in the opener to make me quite curious about what’s in store for us in season six. I’d call it a solid first step.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Sep 24, 2010 @ 22:51 EST5EDT
For all of Sam saying he left Dean alone so that Dean could have a life he had wanted for a long time, I think there may be more to it. First, I do believe that he WAS thinking of Dean’s long term happiness when he made his decision. However, I also think that from the little Sam said, he is not now and was not then ready to face whatever happened in Hell. If he had returned to Dean, he would either have been in the situation Dean found himself in during season 4, hunting with his brother, not being able to be the Sam Dean loved and remembered and having a brother who wanted to help him get over the trauma. Sam may have avoided Dean so that he wouldn’t completely fall apart. Sam may have needed to get his barriers in place and his coping mechanisms set before he saw Dean and wanting Dean to have a normal life, was a good reason to give to himself to keep away until Sam was strong enough to deal with the one person who can open him up and possibly break him by getting him to open up.
The show felt off because they dropped some elements. We didn’t get much of a recap from last year, and what we did get had NO Music. No Impala.
And Sam seemed off even more than the Campbells. More grown up, but less feeling. I get they are trying to switch the boys roles, but it didn’t work for me.
Yeah, Sam was definitely off. We’re used to him being the emotional puppy of the duo and he was hard and cold. Now, is that b/c he’s shoving down his feelings about his Hellish experience (ha!), or is there something more sinister at work? Is he really Sam? Did he come back right (think Buffy when Willow resurrected her)? I like that we don’t have the answers to those questions — it will be a good season watching them unfold.
I agree with Brett too — it was an odd episode, and of I course I immediately attributed that to the lack of Kripke, but time will tell….
loved the episode, and can’t wait for what’s in the future of the series. :)
This was a rather…subdued…episode to say the least. I think Sam has merely continued in the same direction he’s been going in for a while now. Having been to hell and then hooking up with the Campbells (who give me the creeps) probably helped with that. I did really like that Sam didn’t take the Impala when Dean offered it. His line about having his car set up the way he likes it was hurtful to listen to at first, but I think it was just a way of leaving a reminder for Dean of what he’s missing out on. If he took the car, it would be like accepting that Dean would never join him again.
I liked it. It was fairly low-key but then after the apocalypse last season, I guess it had to be. I do hope Sam and Dean are soon back hunting together, however (preferably with Castiel in the back seat of the Impala!). It seems as if the brothers’ relationship has been too complicated now for too long. It’s time for them to actually just be brothers again, in my view, and this season seemed the ideal time to do that. I worry that instead we are going to have Sam as something other than just Sam for most of the season. I did like Dean’s response to Sam saying that he had always wanted a family: ‘I wanted my brother alive.’