TV Review: Supernatural 5.01 Season Premiere

The boys return for their fifth season, picking up where Season 4 left off, with Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) stuck in a vault as Lucifer begins to rise from Hell, the boys having failed miserably to stop the Evil One’s return to Earth throughout much of last season. With the damage done, it’s all-out demon apocalypse! Right? Not really, as it turns out.

Of course the bad times don’t start rolling just yet. This is, after all, the first episode of what is supposed to be an epic and final season for Supernatural (unless the CW decides to grant creator Eric Kripke a sixth season, which is, at this point, not yet a given). As the saying goes, you can’t very well, er, “consummate” on the first episode, not with 20 or so more still waiting in the wings.

As a result, Lucifer’s return to Earth is somewhat uneventful, as the fallen angel circles a potential vessel (all angels need willing human vessels to move about on Earth, and Lucifer, being an angel, has to follow the rules just like everyone else) played by Dexter’s wife-beater extraordinaire Mark Pellegrino (right). Meanwhile, Sam and Dean are holed up at a motel to, well, sit around avoiding the 600lb gorilla in the room – the simmering conflict between the brothers in the aftermath of Sam’s, shall we say, less than stellar performance in Season 4.

So if you were expecting Hell on Earth, or something on a more apocalyptic scale, you can’t help but be a little disappointed by the seemingly unchanged state of the world post-Lucifer rising in the Season 5 premiere. Of course, when you’re the Winchesters, you realize there are a lot happening that people don’t know about: namely that the ongoing war between the angels and demons continue unabated, with the angels increasing the pressure on Dean to join their war. And since these angels are the renegade types, they aren’t really asking all that nicely.

Also, a familiar face, the demon Meg (played by Rachel Miner this time) makes a return appearance, while we’re informed that helpful angel guy Castiel (Misha Collins) has bit the bullet at the hands of his fellow angels. When angel start killing angels, well, that’s when you know things have gone downhill. Super prophet Chuck Shurley (Rob Benedict), meanwhile, is being watched, and not feeling very safe at the moment. Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver) is still around to lend a hand, though a tad, well, changed. No signs of Dean’s angel booty call Anna, though, which is curious. You’d think she would make an appearance with everything that’s going on, but not so much.

With the general lack of apocalyptic happenings, the Season 5 premiere is also a little short on action. Aside from Meg re-introducing herself to the boys at their motel, asshat angel head honcho Zachariah (Kurt Fuller) cripples the boys to “persuade” Dean to join their little war using that “When I say this happens, it happens without me actually having to do anything” power of his. And as usual, show creator and runner Eric Kripke, who also penned the episode, inserts plenty of chuckles, including the introduction of Sam’s “biggest fan” (Emily Perkins), who when we first see her is writing one of those Internet “slash fiction” about, er, the “brotherly love” between Sam and Dean, if you know what I mean.

But of course, the premiere isn’t really about the action, or the apocalypse. It’s a continuation of last year’s complete meltdown of the bond between Sam and Dean, a powerful moment punctuated by Sam’s trashing of Dean in a hotel while the demon Ruby looks on approvingly. You get the sense that, sure, the end of the world would suck, but that’s almost secondary to the brothers.

And that, when you get right down to it, is what makes Supernatural such a great show. Sure, the demons and angels stuff is fun, but it has always been Sam and Dean, and not the monsters, that kept us coming back. Eric Kripke knows that, and the Season 5 premiere of Supernatural reflects it perfectly. So in that respect, while I was disappointed that so little was made of Lucifer’s rising out of Hell, I was not completely surprised. There is an entire season, after all, to explore Hell on Earth, and Eric Kripke has promised us one hell of a ride.