'Supernatural' 15.16 Review: Drag Me Away (From You)

This post contains spoilers for Supernatural.
Check out our last review here. 

The ladder half of Supernatural’s final season continues it’s very ok trajectory with “Drag Me Away (From You).” As we’ve already touched on several times, it’s really not their fault – we usually have several amped up episodes to get is through filler episode territory. Folks often look down on those mid-season episodes, but they can be a powerful tool when given the opportunity to be. There’s just no way to effectively do that when you don’t have the post mid-season return to get viewers revved up for what’s to come. The majority of the episode being “just ok” aside, there are a couple of shining moments worth breaking down.

With that in mind, this week’s episode takes us back to the past. Young Sam (Christian Michael Cooper) and Dean (Paxton Singleton) have their usual “but I just want to be normal” fight, they meet young Caitlin (Elle MccKinnon) and Travis (Liam Hughes), and find themselves shaking down some kind of mean supernatural (eh?) lady. An adult Travis (Ryan Alexander McDonald) returns to the hotel room where it all went down some thirty years later and finds himself on the receiving end of some bottle shards, leading to an adult Caitlin (Kelsey Crane) to call in the Winchester boys to deal with the problem. 

After hitting the books, they realize they’re dealing with a Baba Yaga. Those familiar with the lore will note that Baba Yaga only mess with kids, but turns out this one’s particularly pissed off that she was thwarted all those years ago. All of this ultimately ends up as a tool to remind Dean that keeping secrets is bad – because somehow a lifetime of that blowing up in his face still hasn’t been enough. An annoying and unnecessary setback for an hour, but I’m going to let it slide because at least it only lasted an episode this time.

In the middle of all this Baba Yaga nonsense, Dean gets a visit from Billie (Lisa Berry). This is where we finally get into the meat of things, as Billie’s there to inform the boys that Chuck (Rob Benedict) has destroyed the last world before Earth. It’s go time, people. This is not a drill. God’s comin’ home and he’s ready to roast it, and Billie wants to be sure everyone’s on the same page before the last pieces begin to fall. The discovery that Dean’s keeping things from Sam (again) sits with her about as well as you’d expect.

After getting nagged by, well, everyone who has the opportunity to nag him about it, Dean comes clean with Sam about the whole Jack (Alexander Calvert) being a bomb situation. Sam’s mad, they fight, yada… that’s not what’s interesting about this moment. What’s interesting here is the discussion of the ethical implications of allowing Jack to off himself to kill God. From Dean’s perspective, it’s the only way. From Sam and Cas’, there must be a way to save their surrogate son.

This takes us to one final tidbit in the Billie conversation – the fact that Jack agreed to sacrifice himself for the world because it was the only way he’d ever get Dean’s forgiveness for killing Mary (Samantha Smith). There’s a whole labyrinth of stuff to unpack from that (very true) notion, but it mostly just reminds us that the more things change the more they remain the same. We’re dealing with a Dean Winchester who’s now willing to admit that he’s afraid every time he goes on a hunt. He only lied for a week or so this time, rather than until he died, but his wrath could still be the end of humanity.

It’s not a knock on the guy. He’s got a million and one reasons to be furious. Where this truly becomes interesting isn’t the fact that while Sam may come around, but that Dean’s the more likely of the two to flip flop entirely and have a crisis of conscious in spite of himself. We’ve dealt with countless apocalypses on this show. The question of ethics, though? That’s the good stuff. 

“Drag Me Away (From You)” is a couple of interesting story developments wrapped up in a very ok villain of the week scenario that doesn’t quite nail what it’s trying to by taking us back into Sam and Dean’s past. Next week we’re meeting Adam and Eve, though, so who knows how long these chill episodes will last!