Every fan knows the Road So Far opening images are important; they basically set the tone for the entire season to come. This season’s focused on Dean’s fight against the Mark of Cain and Charlie’s death, along with Sam saying in the background, “I owe him everything.” It was set to Run Through The Jungle by Credence Clearwater Revival, because SPN’s music department is always on point.
As soon as the Now title is shown, we are with Dean in the cloud of Darkness. He spins around and spots a mysterious woman with suspiciously perfect hair throwing some amazing side eye.
Then we are zapped to Sam, knocked unconscious. After he wakes up, he remembers Dean disappearing as the cloud hit the Impala and this…
I’m not going to tell you how many 10-second replays it took me to grab this screenshot, but I had to have it because … that is a freakin’ foot. After the quick flashback, Sam finds Dean sprawled in a field of wildflowers. Dean tells Sam the woman is the Darkness and that she’s “thankful” for being set free.
After barely catching their breath, the Winchesters drive straight into a zombie scenario complete with wrecked vehicles, corpses and one crazed construction worker with a nasty looking rash. There is also a young Deputy at the scene. She’s injured so they head to the hospital. #probablynotagoodidea
As anyone who has every played any video game ever could tell you, the hospital is the last place you want to go. Predictably, everyone has gone 28 Days there too. Once inside, Sam realizes the zombies aren’t made for the long term. One keels over while viciously attacking a door. Inside, Sam finds a loving father and adorable baby. I don’t know why – maybe I’m just naturally suspicious of anything on this show – but I immediately didn’t trust the baby.
Baby Daddy rehashes what happened at the hospital. Members of the same construction crew Sam and Dean passed earlier broke into the hospital and started killing everybody. Even worse, he tells us the disease is transmittable by blood. He was attacked and knows he is infected. He gives his baby to the Deputy and, after much debate between death dealing Dean and sad puppy Sam, walks away to presumably die on his own terms. When a second batch of infected people shows up at the hospital, Sam turns into the morality police and starts dropping truth bombs.
https://youtu.be/A4lPaTCgaoM
Sam, always the martyr, decides the best plan is to use himself as bait so that Dean, Deputy Jenna and the baby can escape. Dean reluctantly agrees and skedaddles while Sam locks himself in a storage room … with a zombie. He successfully offs her, but … yep … gets splashed with infected blood. When the rest of the zombies break into the room, they sniff him – so gross – and then let him live.
Then something really interesting happens. Baby Daddy reappears and proves the zombies aren’t necessarily mindless nasty creatures. He gives his daughter a name, Amara, and then lets them pass.
40 miles away, Dean is with the Deputy and baby in relative safety. He calls Sam to check in and tell him he’ll be back in a few hours to “clean up the town and kick Darkness’s ass.” Then the show concludes with three cliffhangers. The first is no surprise, Sammy is super infected and probably has hours to live.
The second is a flashback shocker that Dean is hiding. Apparently, he and Ms. Darkness have a date with destiny. They are “bound” she says and “in whatever form she takes Dean will always protect her.”
That’s when the third bomb is dropped … remember when I said I was suspicious as hell of that baby … BOOM! That’s the Mark of Cain, folks. The baby is Ms. Darkness.
Bottom Line:
I love that Sam appears adamant in bringing the team back to their moral center … hunting things and saving people. Besides that, though, Ms. Darkness is the first big bad we’ve seen in years. Even the more boring parts of the episode, i.e. Crowley’s return from his mommy troubles and Castiel’s descent into whatever, solidified the idea that Ms. Darkness is an evil like we have never seen before. The implications that past big bads, Michael and Lucifer, are freaking out in “the cage” over her is also super intriguing. Are we going to have a demon/devil/angel/Winchester team up to bring this thing down? The idea makes me feel all tingly.
My only caveat about the episode is Dean and Sam keeping secrets from each other. I really hate the theme of deception that has been tearing the brothers apart the past few years, but the writers might just be playing it smart in making the boys stick to old habits at first. Sam won’t be able to hide his zombie rash for long and, hopefully, Dean will spill the beans on his connection to Ms. Darkness just as quickly.
Supernatural fans, what did you think of the season premiere? Are you hoping Michael or Lucifer will make an appearance? Did anyone else catch that quick glimpse of Bobby in the opening images?
