"Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven" – Supernatural S15E08 Review

And... the tour of Supernatural's greatest hits continues, as Adam (Jake Abel) returns. A character who even the viewers who knew him were probably surprised he was featured so prominently in the Previouslies

The strange thing was, there wasn't any reason to bring Adam (and Michael) back. Yes, Michael gave Dean a spell that can take advantage of Chuck's weakness, whatever it is. But at this point, it seems like the Winchesters can find whatever spell or artifact they need to, one way or another. Yes, having Michael provide the spell makes a certain amount of sense. But the creative team has never been worried about "a certain amount of sense" before. If they need to resurrect Eileen, then they're going to find a spell to bring back Eileen.

So why are Adam and Michael back? Let's find out. "Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven", is literally true as we find out in the opening sequence. Which has Chuck playing a slot machine after smiting a casino bar full of patrons. Except for one very nervous waitress, who keeps bringing Chuck drinks. And this is what I've meant in previous reviews: why is Chuck sitting around playing slots? All the opening sequence does is make Chuck look petty and cruel. Which, granted, he is. But do we need more proof of this? He only made Becky and her family disintegrate: now he's leaving corpses on the floor around him. It just doesn't seem very... Godlike, somehow. It's not low-profile, but it's not godlike, either. Can't Chuck turn people into salt statues, or turn them inside out, or something a bit more impressive? Instead he just makes humans drop around him, which is something we've seen monsters do on the show for many seasons.

That's it for Chuck in the flesh this week. Then we get a scene of Sam and Eileen hunting... a vampire, I think. It's humanoid, bald, has nasty fingernails, and snarls. This sequence is a little pointless, too: Eileen comments Sam is overprotective of her, and that's all it shows.

Back at the bunker, Dean figures out God has a weakness because he had Metatron transcribe the demon tablets. They bring in Donatello, who translates the tablet and finds out Michael knows God's weakness. Then Chuck does a long-range possession of Donatello and tells the Winchesters to stop coming at him or he'll smite their friends. And again, this doesn't seem like much of a power play. Chuck can smite people anytime he wants to: why doesn't he just give Donatello a fatal heart attack? Heck, why didn't Chuck do it before Donatello transcribed the tablet? Omnipotent, remember? Maybe it's all some kind of complicated version of Solitaire Chuck is playing against himself to get his perfect story about "The End". But it still seems overly complicated for a Supreme Being. And at the same time, Chuck isn't doing what he's presumably capable of.

The Winchesters go to Hell, and Castiel somehow goes with them. The brothers spill blood into a bowl to cast the transport spell. Castiel heals Dean's bleeding hand and... goes with them? They get attacked by demons, and guess who shows up? Rowena (Ruth Connell), that's who. Rowena is the new Queen of Hell, so she sends her new subjects to find Michael. And the red-haired sorceress/demon queen is still a bright spot on the show. Rowena talks about how she has some regrets involving Napoleon, Mick Jagger, and her son Crowley. And tries to get Dean and Castiel to talk about their issues.

It turns out Adam/Michael aren't in Hell because they were freed when Chuck caused the Rupture. Adam is sitting in a diner eating a hamburger and fries, enjoying his first real food in... nine years? When Michael "appears", he's only visible to Adam and is also played by Abel. As they wonder what to do next, Lilith (in her human body) approaches them and says they're to come with her to see Chuck. And again, why? Can't Chuck just snaps his fingers and teleport Michael to him? Michael smites Lilith and then makes everyone in the diner forget what they've seen.

Michael blips around the world for some reason, and Donatello can sense him. And Keith Szarabajka as Donatello is pretty amusing, too. I like his generally "what the hell am I into?" attitude, his fondness for chicken, and his "Whoa! There! No, there!" when he's trying to telepathically keep track of Michael blipping around the world.

Castiel contacts Michael via angel radio and gets him to the bunker. They trap him in a circle of burning holy oil and somehow slap angelic handcuffs on him. Then they try to convince Michael Chuck is the enemy of everyone. And kudos to Abel as Michael. He does a great job of portraying Michael as the proud, obstinate, and loyal son of God. He doesn't accept Chuck has turned against his creations until Castiel feeds him memories of the Chuck he and the Winchesters have known. This convinces Michael to turn against Chuck and give Dean a spell, but it requires a Leviathan blossom as an ingredient, and the blossom only grows in Purgatory. So Michael creates a portal to Purgatory and Dean frees him.

Before Michael goes, he lets Adam take over their shared body. Dean apologizes to Adam for leaving him in Hell for nine years. And Adam just shrugs and says none of them get what they deserve, and then heads off. And it amuses me the creative team tried to give us two spinoffs, but never bothered to draw on the background lore of the characters already introduced. Watching Michael and Adam travel around the country, sharing Adam's body and trying to get odd jobs, sounds a lot more entertaining than either "Bloodlines" or "Wayward Sisters" were.

Where has Sam been during all of this? He is around to briefly get on the apology train to Adamville. Eileen goes off at the end to help a fellow Hunter take on some vampire. She asks Sam to help her, and he goes. When they get there, the friend is Chuck in disguise. Chuck drops the disguise and it's ruh-roh! time.

Castiel doesn't get much of significance to do. He heals Dean's hand, and it goes okay given the previous problems Castiel has had with using his powers. Castiel has a couple of good lines, like "you had an entire oak tree shoved up your ass", and Misha Collins is always a welcome presence on the show when they actually let him be the humanized angel he's become over the years. The line above is immediately followed by one where he tells Michael he pities him because he was never God's favorite, and Collins' delivery on that is spot-on, too.

It's apparently the mid-season finale for Supernatural, although a new episode will be back on 1/16/20. Because holidays in the States, right? Granted, it's only episode 8 in a 20-episode season, but Supernatural's mid-season breaks and The CW's odd shuffling of them has never made much sense. Chuck confronts Sam, and Dean and Castiel prepare to go to Purgatory. Where they'll probably meet Benny, although we've already seen him get killed in a dream sequence.

Overall, "Our Father" was a decent episode. It didn't really do much, other than establish Team Winchester can do something against Chuck. The episode does highlight the problem with Chuck being a Big Bad: he's too powerful because he's omnipotent and omniscient, but the creative team has to have him not use his powers or he'd wipe out the Winchesters with one snap of his fingers if he was really portrayed as powerfully as the characters keep talking about him being. It's a tricky tightrope act between making sure Chuck isn't overly powerful, but also being... God. The creative team hasn't done too good a job of it so far. Maybe it's the near-standard CW season of 20 episodes stretching things out. Or maybe not. Even on Preacher, God seemed to be too dumb to be too powerful. And that show only had ten episodes in its last season. Maybe making God a Big Bad on a show is just an unworkable idea no matter how few episodes you try to pull it off in.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?