In Review: Supernatural, Episode 290 “Let the Good Times Roll”

Supernatural, Episode 290 “Let the Good Times Roll” Broadcast on May 17, 2018

SEASON 13 FINALE

Written by Andrew Dabb

Directed by Robert Singer

The show begins with some flashbacks accompanied by narration from Dean from an earlier episode. “My name is Dean Winchester. This is my brother Sam. We kill monsters.” The scene moves to another flashback scene with Rowena in a car. “This is boring. Is there music?” That’s when “Carry on Wayward Son” by Kansas starts up. A montage of scenes from this year’s season kicks in.

Now: Sam is giving a catch-up of the world’s recent events to the surviving humans that were brought over from the Apocalypse World. A phone call from Dean has Sam going to his brother’s locale which is at a house on a lake. Joining the brothers are Jack and Castiel, who tells the group he can hear four people inside. The individuals within are werewolves and they’re there to take them down. They begin to do so, but the action moves outside the bunker where Mary and Bobby are going for a walk in the rain. After making doe eyes at one another, they spot blood on the ground. Following the trail they find Maggie dead. Cue opening title card.

The acting is really good in this episode, with the script giving the characters a lot to do. Mark Pellegrino stands out as a broken trickster, trying to pull a fast one, and then things take a turn. He’s stellar. Also killing it is Alexander Calvert, who plays the confused teen fantastically, with his character getting some juicy scenes. Jared Padalecki is at his warmest in this episode, with Sam doing everything he can to protect Jack. Jensen Ackles has the expected funny Dean lines, which he continues to deliver superbly, but the last quarter of the episode has his character making a major decision, allowing the actor to do something new. Sadly, Mischa Collins doesn’t get to do to much, with his character out of the main action. This is also true for Jim Beaver and Samantha Smith. Christian Keyes is fine as Michael, but his character hasn’t had any changes in tone or behavior since he first appeared on Apocalypse World. The effects are great, with evil eyes, explosions, and some terrific ground rumblings. Not great is The Lost Boys fight. You’ll understand this when you get to it. It had to happen that way, but it just looks like the actors are on rigs from forty years ago. After the final fight scene, the ending is exactly as one would expect. It works on a story level, but that final shot was 1970’s cheese.

The good: Mark Pellegrino killing every scene he’s in, Jared Padalecki reinforcing that Sammy is the most warm character on the show, Jensen Ackles getting a cool closing scene, Alexander Calvert being fantastic, Castiel again being Mr. Subtlety, cool attention getter from Dean early in the episode, big bonus points for discussing a specific film franchise, and the season cliffhanger.

Fun lines: “Hell, yeah,” “You’re family, kid,” “I’m sorry,” “Hey, fellas. Miss me?”, “…giant litterbox world,” “…different,” and “Do you ever quit?”

The bad: Not enough Jim Beaver! You can never have enough Jim Beaver in a Supernatural episode, even if this is the Mirror Universe Bobby. The Lost Boys fighting in the climax; yes, it made sense, but it didn’t look good. The final shot of the episode was a 1970’s sleaze tight close-up. It might work for others, but I would have preferred the character to just walk out of frame.

The final line: A solid season finale with the leads getting much to do and the tease for next season scream worthy. Lucifer and Jack’s arc comes to a close, but does anything really come to a end on Supernatural? The actors really gets some strong scenes and they rise to the them. Minor nits, but still undeniably fun. Overall grade: B+