Who needs a Delorean or a TARDIS when you have an angel in your pocket? Friday's episode of Supernatural, "Frontierland", was another test of Castiel's mad time-traveling skillz and an exploration of shattered illusions. Specifically, Dean's illusions. Jump right in with me, won't you?
SPOILERS!
The episode begins with a high-noon showdown in the Old West, between Dean and some rugged squinty-eyed guy we've never seen before. As the town's clock chimes the hour, the two of them square off and prepare to draw. Cut to the funnest old-timey show title ever, accompanied by a macho Western men's chorus.
48 hours earlier and 150 years later, Sam leads Dean and Bobby to the Campbell family library, which looks pretty abandoned since all of them are now dead. The three of them rifle through the poorly-organized collection of books to try to find a chink in the armor of the Mother of All, who so far has done nothing but send an evil brain slug after them. Not terribly impressive, as Big Bads go, but whatever. Bobby finds an obscure reference to the ashes of a Phoenix being able to burn the Mother, so they get started on tracking down information about a Phoenix. Dean discovers the journal of Samuel Colt (yes, that Colt) which contains a brief reference to the gun killing a Phoenix. Colt thoughtfully provided a date as well, and Dean gets a great idea - why not travel back in time? After all, they already know that a Phoenix will definitely be in Sunrise, Wyoming on March 5, 1856. After Dean fails to sell this idea to Sam and Bobby with a Star Trek IV reference, he prays for Cas.
A new female angel shows up, presumably as a call-waiting service. Her name is Rachel, and she says that she's come on Castiel's behalf. Dean isn't on board with this, and insists on speaking to Cas. Rachel wastes no time in launching a verbal assault, accusing them of calling Cas only when they need something and not being respectful of the fact that the angels are heavily invested in their Civil War (we thought she kind of had a point). Cas pops down and puts a stop to it before things get ugly, and sends Rachel away. She's obviously not pleased that he's taking the time to help the Winchesters, but she vanishes anyway.
As Dean is away on a "supply run", Cas explains to Sam that they will only have 24 hours to play cowboys. Apparently the further back in time they are, the harder it is for Cas to bring them back. If he were to wait longer than 24 hours, they'd likely be stuck in the past. Dean shows up with his hands full of shopping bags. He went to a Western apparel store so that he and Sam could "go native". Sam doesn't want to play dress-up, however, and accuses Dean of having an Old West fetish and having all of Clint Eastwood's movies memorized line-for-line. Dean insists that Sam at least wear the shirt, and he decks himself out in full "Western" gear, complete with poncho. Cas has an awesome "Is it customary to wear a blanket?" line, and then zaps them back in time. He then leaves Bobby, telling him to pray for him in 24 hours so that he can bring the boys back.
In 1856 Sunrise, Wyoming, the Winchesters mosey on into town just in time to witness a hanging. The condemned man tells the judge, sheriff, and a shifty-looking guy that they're all going to burn for this, and then the trap door is opened. Wincing at the brutality of old justice, Sam and Dean talk to the sheriff to see if he knows where Samuel Colt is. After making fun of Dean for being too clean, the sheriff directs them to the saloon owner. Dean is crestfallen when they enter the saloon, which has one or two drunken old prospectors and some tired-looking saloon girls. "This is not awesome," Dean says, and he orders a whiskey for him and a sasparilla for Sam. The saloon owner brings them their drinks and tells them that Colt has a cabin about 20 miles out of town. A saloon girl tries to get friendly with Dean, but he's incredibly turned off by the syphilis sores on her face. He then tries to drink his whiskey and finds that it's just about as smooth as gasoline. Sam smirks as he enjoys his sasparilla.
The judge from the hanging comes into the saloon and goes upstairs with one of the girls, who lets out a blood-curdling shriek after a few minutes. Sam and Dean rush upstairs to find that the judge is now a pile of ashes. The girl swears that the judge-burning culprit is Elias Finch, the man who was hanged. Dean and Sam raise their eyebrows at each other, and go check Finch's grave - which turns out to be empty. The brothers split up - Sam takes a horse to find Samuel Colt, and Dean stays in town so that he can join the Finch-hunting posse.
Back in the present, Rachel summons Cas to an empty warehouse for a chat. She demands to know if the rumors she's been hearing are true - apparently Cas has a "dirty little secret". Cas, terrible liar that he is, gets shifty and uncomfortable, and tells her that he has to defeat Rafael. Rachel tells him that he shouldn't do it this way, and Cas replies that he doesn't have a choice. Rachel whips out her angel sword and stabs Cas in the chest, and he's barely able to keep it from piercing his heart. The two of them duke it out, and though Cas is badly wounded, he uses his angel kung fu to stab Rachel. He stares sadly down at her body framed by ashy shadow wings, and whispers an apology.
Bobby's research is interrupted when Cas crash-lands in his kitchen. Cas waves him off as he crawls toward the fridge and uses the blood from his wound to paint a sigil, then forces himself to get to his feet. "Are we running or fighting?" asks Bobby, and gets his answer as Cas collapses into his arms.
Dean saunters back into the saloon in a brand-new wardrobe, one more suited to the flavor of the town. "I look good," he says, and wonders where the posse is. It turns out that the sheriff has also been burned to ashes, so Dean snags his sheriff star, completing his new ensemble. He goes to the jail to find the shifty-looking guy (from the hanging) terrified for his life. Dean stows him in the jail cell to use him as bait for Phoenix Finch.
Sam reaches Colt's cabin after the gunsmith shoots a few demons, and asks him to come back into town with him. Colt refuses, saying that he's hung up his hunting spurs for good. Sam tells him that he's from the year 2011, and gives him his Blackberry to prove it. Colt is unfazed by this, having seen so much in his lifetime that even a giant with a magic thingamajig is no big thing. Sam yells at him for refusing to help, and demands that Colt hand over the gun.
Cas finally regains consciousness on Bobby's couch - there's only an hour left before he has to retrieve Sam and Dean. Bobby is concerned about how beat the angel looks, and asks him what happened. Cas tells him that Rafael corrupted Rachel, who betrayed and attacked him (liar, liar, pants on fire!). He thanks Bobby for looking out for him - the sigil he painted was an angel-repelling ward. Cas tells Bobby that he's too drained by his injury to bring Sam and Dean back, and that he can't call in another angel to do it. The only way that Cas can regain enough power to get the job done is if Bobby allows him to touch his soul and siphon some of its energy. This must be done carefully, however, or else Bobby could explode.
Phoenix Finch bursts into the jail, demanding that Dean open the cell so that he can get at the shift-looking guy. Dean refuses, and notes that the Phoenix seems to be rendered powerless by iron, which is why he couldn't slip his shackles when he was being hanged. Finch tells him that he was married to a human woman, and that shifty-looking guy had raped her when they came into town. As Finch came to her rescue, shift-looking guy pulled his gun and shot both of them. Of course, being a Phoenix, Finch didn't die, but his wife died in his arms. The shots brought the sheriff, and they charged Finch with the murder and hung him to cover it up - the judge was in on it, too. Dean agrees that all of this is very sad, but he has to kill him anyway. Finch grabs a gun and shoots the shifty rapist guy (yay!), and Dean dives out the window to get away.
Sam somehow makes it back to town with the Colt (making the same trip before noon that took him all night before) and gives it to Dean, who immediately challenges Finch to a showdown. They get all squinty-eyed at each other as the clock chimes. They draw, and Dean kills him, burning the Phoenix to ashes. He races to gather them up as (in the present) Cas re-charges using Bobby's soul power. Cas yanks the Winchesters back before they can get the ashes, however (they cut it really close). Dean demands that Cas send them back, but Sam points out that Cas is completely fried, and Bobby's not doing any better. Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. A delivery man hands Sam a package, which contains a bottle of Phoenix ashes and a note from Samuel Colt, explaining that he got Bobby's address from his Blackberry. The Winchesters are ready to go Eve-hunting.
Questions that still need answers:
It seems as though I was right about souls being a power-source, and since Cas failed at minting souls in the last episode, he must be desperate to gather enough power to carry out his plan to defeat Rafael. Whatever this plan is, it's not something that he feels comfortable about, and his followers probably don't either, judging from Rachel's reaction. So what is the plan, and how is Cas going to use souls to accomplish it?
I really wish that the writers had structured the Phoenix mythology to allow the Winchesters to gather his ashes after a "death", rather than killing him for real with the Colt. After all, the poor guy was just trying to avenge his wife's rape and murder. He didn't seem too much of a monster to me.
Are we really ready to hunt the Mother of All? It seems as though the Winchesters are always willing to rush into anything once they think it has a shot at working. We alert viewers know that it's too early for Eve to be defeated.
Next Week:
The Winchesters, Bobby, and Cas try to kill the Mother of All. We will watch their failure with great interest.
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