This episode was somewhat controversial in the fandom, but then again, most episodes are. I, for one, didn’t see much of a problem with it, but each to their own, I guess.
It was a filler episode, the Winchesters taking a break from the Trials of God in order to swing by and help an old friend of theirs, who is a prominent officer of that law in town. However, when they get there, they’re met not by the officer, but by his familiar.
As in, the (sometimes) animal companion that serves as a witch’s partner—in this case, a female Doberman, who both of the Winchesters agree is a fairly attractive female human, as well. But, that’s not really the issue they were facing. The issue was that their buddy had apparently delved into black magic while the Winchesters were out saving the world, and they’re none too happy about it.
Though, it has to be said that the officer wasn’t actually killing anyone…well, not on purpose, at least. The reason the familiar called the hunters over was that the witch had been having nightmares about murdering people. And then, he found one of his shirts in his trash can, covered by one of the victim’s blood. So, he was understandably freaked out.
Dean ends up going to a sort of witch club with the familiar to ask around about things, and Sam checks with the actual police in the ever present FBI guise. But, neither seem to turn up with much, except that the police are acting spectacularly shifty about the case, and Sam notices one carrying around a giant file full of information that they were pretending they didn’t have.
So, deciding to actually make use of the witch on their hands, they ask him for help, and he does a sort of “astral projection” (which the Winchesters seemed awfully suspicious about, despite having done it themselves a few seasons previous) into the evidence room, to find an entire wall full of evidence that finds the witch himself guilty of the crimes.
But, the Winchesters are willing to take the familiar’s advice, and believe that it couldn’t have been the witch that did it, and Dean goes back to the witch club to forcefully interrogate another familiar he suspected of collecting the evidence against their friend, only for the familiar to get murdered by his own witch right before spilling the beans.
Of course, it was that witch who was framing the Winchester’s friend for the crime, apparently because he was jealous of the other guy getting the familiar he wanted. So kind of a jerk. Luckily, he dies, and everything sort of works out.
Though of course, throughout the entire episode the Winchesters are once again fighting about which one of them is going to do the God Trials, even though everyone already knows that Sam isn’t going to let Dean do them. By the end of the episode, they seem to have come to an understanding, but then again, it seemed an awful lot like they came to an understanding last episode, too.
Oh, well. Those guys’ll fight about anything.
Catch the next episode of Supernatural next Wednesday the 27th on the CW at 9/8c!