​ "Proverbs 17:3" – Supernatural S15E05 Review

So that's what it has all meant.

Well, not really. But at least we have a glimmer of a Supernatural season arc. Everything that has happened is part of Chuck's story. Although Sam was having dreams of the "ending" last week before Chuck got over his writer's block, or depression, or whatever.

FYI; the translation of Proverbs 17:3 is a variation on how silver and gold are tested by fire, but men's hearts are tested by the Lord. What that has to do with what happens in "Proverbs 17:3", I have no idea.

The episode unfolds in a pretty standard manner. There's an opening tag with three girls on a camping trip and two of them die amidst growling noises. The Winchesters learn about what happens, drive to Colorado, and we get some jokes about the photos on their fake IDs are from over a decade ago when they looked much younger, and Dean insisting he looks just the same.

I also wonder about their aliases sometimes. Do people just dismiss two Wildlife agents named "Hamill" and "Ford" as coincidence? Are the rock star names any more convincing? But if (Mark) Hamill and (Harrison) Ford actually exist in the Supernatural-verse, why does no one ever comment on the "coincidence"? I know people in the show have commented very occasionally on the similarity of the brothers' aliases to real-life people. But Hamill and Ford are pretty well known.

Anyhoo, the Winchesters soon befriend the one surviving girl, Ashley Munroe (Anna Grace Barlow). She tells Dean two werewolves attacked them, and provides their names. Dean doesn't find that at all suspicious, and after a brief conversation with the suspicious-acting brothers Andy and Josh, the Winchesters go back to their motel room.

Ashley talks like she isn't really Ashley, and soon after Dean falls asleep, Ashley disappears. The brothers go out to the werewolves' cabin, The werewolves are ready to kill Ashley, but the Winchesters arrive. There's a fight, and one brother ends up killing the other. He says he's a monster and then shoots himself. Just as we the viewers realize this sounds a lot like last week, Ashley reveals she's really Lilith. Chuck set the whole thing up to foreshadow the whole brother kills brother ending he's writing for the Winchesters.

Lilith wants the Equalizer, knocks out Sam, and Dean takes her to their motel to give her the gun. However, he then says he doesn't have it. Sam arrives and shoots Lilith with a Devil's Trap bullet. It doesn't stop her for long, and she immobilizes the Winchesters, finds the Equalizer in the Impala's glove compartment, and melts it to slag before disappearing.

In the end, Sam and Dean return to the bunker and Dean wonders how they can beat Chuck. Particularly since they've lost the Equalizer.

In the subplot department, Sam has dreams of first him killing Dean. And then Dean, bearing the Mark of Cain, killing him. Also, Sam texts Castiel but gets no response.

"Proverbs 17:3" suffers a bit from having the same general plot as last week. A monster suffers guilt and ends up dead because of it. Then again, since the conceit is Chuck is a hack writer, maybe the idea he has one basic story plot and repeats it is the point. However, it doesn't make for particularly interesting viewing. It's a trap of sorts: if the creative team wants to show Chuck is repetitive and unimaginative, they have to present stories that are repetitive and unimaginative. If they don’t do that, they're not characterizing Chuck the way they have so far.

It also raises the question Dean asks at the end: how do you fight God? I had that issue with Preacher as well: making God the Big Bad raises a host of questions. Like why does God need Lilith to find and destroy the Equalizer? Why can't He just concentrate and melt it into slag wherever He is? If He's omnipotent and omniscience, why does he have to use underlings? There's only so far the creative team can take the "Chuck is toying with the Winchesters" story, and then it becomes nothing but an excuse to drag the season out for 20 or so episodes.

Bringing Chuck and his storytelling into the equation does give the creative team a chance to bring back old faces. But if last week's Benny (killed in a Sam-vision after he died several seasons ago) and Lilith this week (in yet another host body) are any examples, it's a rather half-hearted series of attempts at bringing back old friends and foes while killing off others. Hopefully, the creative team will do better with any other old faces they bring back.

We're only five episodes into the season, so it's hard to tell where the creative team will take the whole "Chuck plans to have the Winchesters kill each other" storyline. Maybe it will turn into something different. So far, it just doesn't seem to be coming together very well. The performances are okay, the stories are adequate if a bit monotonous. It's just Chuck manages to be not that impressive a Big Bad, but at the same time he has too much power without any limits or restrictions. And his plan to run the Winchesters through his "maze" is so far boring. Which makes sense: watching rats run through a maze is boring. The vision-dreams comes across as bad fanfic: "How can we kill off a Winchester this week?" Set Dean on fire, shoot Sam in the head with the Equalizer, stab Sam with the First Blade. Making these bits essentially imaginary sequences help. Whatever thrill there was in seeing a Winchester die has come and gone and we're only on episode 5. Hopefully the creative team can come up with something that breaks the mold a bit.

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