[rating=2]
Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam (Jared Padalecki) travel back to 1861 to retrieve the Colt
Sunrise, Wyoming. March 5, 1861. It’s the time of the Wild West. Dean (Jensen Ackles) is locked in a standoff, and the scene closes with the sound of gunshots.
Oh, another time travel episode. This should excite me, right? Only it doesn’t. Almost anything can be anticipated on Supernatural now, even the Winchesters’ deaths. They die and are revived. Sam (Jared Padalecki) returning without his soul was the icing on the cake.
Dean, being a nutty fan of Westerns, is practically gleeful about the chance to return to 1861 to obtain the ashes of Elias Finch, a.k.a. the Phoenix (Matthew John Armstrong). Not so for Sam. He can be a killjoy sometimes. The reason for traveling back to this period is to obtain the ashes of the Phoenix so that the brothers can do away with Eve. For someone who’s such a fan of this period in history, Dean is oddly off the mark wanting to wear a … serape. A serape, Dean? Poor choice, but I realize it is probably played for laughs.
Samuel Colt (Sam Hennings) refuses to hand over his Colt
“Frontierland” has no real suspense. The catch is the brothers can only be in Sunrise for 24 hours. When Castiel (Misha Collins) is injured by Rachel (Sonya Salomaa), his lieutenant in the heavenly war, he doesn’t have the mojo to bring the boys back so he tells Bobby he “has to touch his soul.” This is a precarious situation, you see, because when you do something like this, you can cause something akin to a nuclear explosion! Did you know this? I did not. In previous episodes, this has happened quite a few times, and there was never any mention of the soul keeper possibly dying. This is just one of many plot holes in Supernatural.
The constant stream of pop culture references continues. It’s plausible that Dean knows his Westerns, but Star Trek IV: The Whales? I’ve not seen the Trek films, and apparently, neither has Sam nor Bobby. Then you have the cheesy theme song of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly playing when Sam and Dean enter the saloon looking for the Phoenix. Now, this film I’m familiar with, though I’ve never viewed it.
One glaring plot hole is the fact that traveling to 1861 does nothing to change the present. The brothers are able to get the Colt from none other than Samuel Colt (Sam Hennings), but how does their brief trip to the past not affect the course of history? Is it because the three men the Phoenix kills are still dead? When the brothers return to present day, Sam gets a package in the mail from Mr. Colt. In it are his cell phone and the ashes of the Phoenix. The obtaining of the ashes is that simple, but how does Mr. Colt know where and when (remember, it’s 150 years in the future) to send the package? The writers are expecting too much by asking us to suspend disbelief so often.
Dear Dean and Sam Winchester, I love you boys, but the writers don’t know what to do with you anymore. I cannot, in good conscience, watch you and your antics any longer. You both died a long time ago, and came back. The first time it happened, it was like a punch in the gut. But now? It’s different. There will always be monsters and spirits to hunt, but really? You should be dead. And then Supernatural would end a natural death.
Watch Supernatural 9/8c on the CW.
Photos courtesy of © 2011 The CW Network.
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