#502: 'Good God, Y'All!'
Wr: Sera Gamble
Dr: Phil Scriggica
Synopsis: Hunter Rufus Turner calls in Bobby, Sam, and Dean to deal with a demon infestation in his town, but they soon discover the truth is much more horrifying. Meanwhile, Castiel goes to seek the only entity that can defeat Lucifer.
Review: Well, this season’s turning into a right royal soiree, isn’t it? First we get Chuck, Castiel, Zachariah and age-old fan favourite Meg returning to our screens, fresh faced and raring to cause insurmountable bother for our brotherly leads, and now the hunters of years past are blazing a trail of destruction, intrigue and unfortunate misinterpretation right across the ongoing narrative, as Rufus, Ellen and Jo find themselves embroiled in a dastardly plot, woven with much malicious bravado by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Thankfully, unlike the clusterfuck rush job of ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, in which dramatic developments unfolded in decidedly flat fashion, Sera Gamble’s script treats everything with the care and attention it deserves, taking time to meticulously construct scenarios and build up story tropes so that pay-offs develop significance; consequently, the return of the three characters feels much more organic (well, this is a hunt, after all) and acquires purpose. Oh, and naturally, it helps rather a lot that they’re all familiar faces and top notch actors, selling their lines with the appropriate levels of aplomb or reservation, whereas Meg has been given a new meat suit and the jury’s still out on the actress’ ability to portray the character.
‘Good God, Y’All!’ (great title) is also careful with its plot, taking time to establish the threat at the heart of the story and weave it intricately around the various character beats with which we are currently preoccupied. Gamble turns the pacing down several notches from last week’s effort and greatly simplifies the melting pot, throwing in a few choice ingredients rather than the entire contents of the kitchen cupboard. So, we are treated to what, at first, seems like a fairly conventional ‘demon infestation’ plot but this is certainly no bad thing. The orchestration is absolutely spot on: everything from Sam and Dean’s initial apprehensive walk into town, beautifully underplayed by the two actors and quietly directed by the wonderful Phil Scriggica (there’s barely a sound once ‘Spirit in the Sky’ stops playing, which is considerably unnerving), to the claustrophobic binarity of the narrative, in which the two warring factions are purposefully separated and only meagre glimpses of the supposed ‘demons’ are allowed, is designed to disturb and disquieten, to keep the viewer gnawing his or her nails to the bone. And as if all of this wasn’t delicious enough, the plot does a fascinating about-turn at the halfway mark, introducing a highly unexpected twist that bolsters the episode’s originality. The idea that there are no demons and that this is a piece of sadistic frivolity from a horrifically malevolent God, is brilliantly disturbing.
It certainly helps that the actor cast as the quite literally mesmerising Wart is a dab hand at the old cult television thang, and imbues the character with just the right levels of arrogance and black humour to accentuate his maliciousness. He plays it absolutely straight, despite the hints of comedy that filter through in the dialogue, and this perfectly sells the role, allowing the viewer to invest wholeheartedly in events. His two-hander with Sam is particularly brilliant, cutting to the heart of the warped psychology behind his ‘experiment’ and the unquestionably horrifying truth in the notion that we are this easy to manipulate and coerce. Supernatural is always at its best when its minutiae act as metaphor, speaking to the horrors of the human psyche with all its woes, faults and issues and this episode is no exception. Gamble uses the fantastical to illustrate our brutality, paranoia and fear of otherness and does a superlative job of delineating it in War’s disturbingly matter-of-fact, laconic dialogue: his references to ‘being there in Germany, then again in Germany, and then Vietnam’ hammer the point home without seeming ham-fisted or preachy.
There are a number of other strong character moments too, particularly in relation to Sam’s struggle to keep himself away from the ol’ demon blood. The scene in the supermarket is astutely shot in a deliberately understated way again, and Jared Padalecki sells the moment in which Sam is tempted exceptionally well. Of course, all of this is simply leading to the pay-off in the closing scene which is, hand on heart, one of the most melancholic and moving double-headers in the show’s history. Credit to Jared but also to Jensen Ackles for some fine, fine performances that use body language as well as vocal delivery to communicate the palpable rift between the brothers. Dean’s agreement with Sam’s assertion that they need to be apart is genuinely shocking and feels like the end of a relationship… which, in essence, it is. Again, Gamble and the crew manage to convey gravitas without bombast and that’s certainly no small feat.
‘Good God, Y’All!’ is a considerable improvement on ‘Sympathy for the Devil’; rather than throwing story developments at the plot and hoping they’ll stick, Sera Gamble takes a smattering of narrative threads and pores over them, giving them room to breathe and space to manoeuvre. By concentrating on a fairly simple conceit – the supposed take over of a town by several demons – the episode is able to provide some truly outstanding character development that feels natural rather than grafted on, and also deliver a thoroughly satisfying mid-narrative plot swerve. While Marc Pallengrino is nowhere to be seen and Castiel is left with minimal screen time in a rather odd teaser sequence that has no bearing on the rest of the episode, Gamble’s script still stands and head and shoulders above most other US television and sits comfortably next to some of Supernatural’s finest work. A real triumph and frankly, a bit of a relief. 9.1
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