Supernatural: S08E22 - Clip Show.

So after weeks and weeks of shit episodes from Supernatural, last weeks seemed like a glorious bastion, will this weeks episode continue to provide me respite or throw me back into the deep end?

This episode embodies one of the many, many problems with season 8. A majority of this season has been wasted on faffing about, yeah some of those of the week stories were some of the seasons strongest moments but they also had no wider purpose outside of their own episodes so they may as well count as filler. This ain't a road show any more about two brothers travelling from town to town saving people and ganking monsters, so even if your of the week stories are the strongest aspect of your show still, you need to focus on your damn story. And with so little time left now, because so much has been wasted, we get this episode which just tries to cram absolutely everything in.

And seriously, I mean everything, there is like five episodes of plot in this episode just all crammed in there unleashing this nauseating, unfocused nightmare. We've got demon curing, the tension between Cas and Dean, the return and escape of Abaddon, Castiel is starting the trials to seal Heaven, Crowley is killing off old cast members...Jesus Christ!

Because of this lack of focus, most of the interesting aspects of the episode are ultimately completely wasted. Like I like how they had no time to create a convincing escape for Abaddon, so they just had the brothers act mind numbingly stupid so Abaddon can just kind of walk off. I like how they have so little time to reintroduce and reestablish past characters that they just scream exposition at us instead. I like how they have so little time to focus on the Angel Trials that Castiel's first trial is just a retread of basically every Supernatural fight in the history of ever.

Really Crowley's killing off of past cast members is about the only part of the episode that manages to be some semblance of interesting, even while the focus leaps all around the map. Mainly because it's extremely clever and full of twists that work, for the most part, even without time spent on them at all. It's also a pretty damn convincing deterrent for the brothers as well, I'm not surprised Sam wants to hand over the tablet now.

I will also give demon curing aspect of the episode credit for basically ignoring the mess the last few seasons have made of all the demon and angel lore, it takes it all back to basics and basically runs from the same point and using the same rules my own headcanon and head editing does. I get you Clip Show, we should ignore basically everything that came after season four.

Oops I kinda wrote this review in reverse, didn't I? Well either way, overall it wasn't a bad episode, but if Season 8 had more focus on the overarching stories and spread this episode out better, it could have been great, instead the episode was just okay with some occasional moments of greatness instead.

Pros;

• Cas was pretty funny. 
• Crowley was awesome.
• Yay Abaddon!
• Back to basics.

Cons;

• Overstuffed like hell.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Clip Show'?