Supernatural Review: ‘Dog Dean Afternoon’
“Dog Dean Afternoon” was a silly episode but a good one. After so many “mythology”-heavy episodes, it was nice to see the show focus on a fun one-off episode. It reminded me a lot of episodes from season 1 where the Winchester brothers were on the road together working a case and living in bad hotels.
After nine seasons you would think the writers would be having trouble coming up with “monsters of the week” for the Winchesters to hunt down, but they’ve still got a few tricks up their sleeve. This week’s monster was an animal-organ eating chef obsessed with using magic to cure his cancer. It was an interesting and somewhat creepy villain that drew from aspects of real-world shamanistic practices. I always think the show’s monsters are at their most interesting when they are drawn from real-world myths and lore and this week’s was no exception.
The plot of Dean using a spell to communicate with the dog that saw the first murder seemed really silly at first, but it grew on me. This is mainly because of how well Jensen Ackles does comedy. Dean has always been the more humorous of the two Winchester brothers in terms of his general outlook on life, but it’s rare that Ackles gets to show off just how well he does comedy. Seeing Dean be compelled to play fetch with a wad of paper that Sam kept trying to throw away made me laugh several times. I really hope they let Ackels do comedy like this more often because he does it really well.
Once again I have to complain about Dean constantly lying to Sam about Ezekiel’s presence in his body. Sam was nearly killed by the shaman and is healed by Ezekiel. Sam doesn’t remember being healed, but I’d imagine he remembers getting his throat slashed. I’m really getting tired of watching Dean make up excuses for Sam’s miraculous recovery every episode and I hope they end this plot element soon as it feels really drawn out.
Overall this was a silly episode, but it was a fun one. I love the serious story arcs in this show, but it’s nice to take a break and just watch a funny episode that doesn’t involve angels, demons or the possible end of the world.
Edited by Jennifer Brake
