TV.com

Supernatural Season 6 Episode 11

Appointment in Samarra

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 6

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

AIRED: Dec 10, 2010

9.5

User Rating

647 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

Death agrees to help Dean get Sam's soul back, but requires Dean to serve in his place for 24 hours. Meanwhile, Sam decides that he doesn't want his soul back and turns to Balthazar for assistance. The rogue angel agrees to help, and informs Sam that the spell required needs the blood of his father... or a father figure.moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (25)

A very good episode where Dean gets to plan grim reaper for a day.

9.5

By farscapefanuk, Oct 31, 2011

After half a season with no soul, Dean finally gets Sams soul back...But the question remains will be he the same as he was? And will deaths "wall" really stop Sam from remembering all of the horrors from hell? Season 6 is turning out to be quite a good season. There was a nice appearance from Robert Eugland in this episode and the general primise of the episode was quite fun. Dean having to take over the role of death for 1 day was interesting and fun... he was met with some hard decisions as to whether to take the little girls soul or not and the consequences of messing up "deaths order or plan". This was a good way to end the show for the mid season break however I am excited to see where this season will go.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
3 0

Flag
Share Hide
What an epic midseason finale!

10

By nairhart01, Mar 14, 2011

This was such an epic midseason finale. I'll admit, when the season first started, I was worried that my favorite show had gone bad. But, thankfully, it's found its footing (and gave me one of my favorite episodes, "Weekend at Bobby's) and is back on track. This episode and "Caged Heat" were, no doubt, the best of the season so far. Especially this one, though. I loved both Dean and BadSam's storylines. Sam had me constantly on edge (thank goodness he didn't kill Bobby!) and I knew that Dean would end up having to kill a kid the minute he made the deal (that was so sad! That poor dad....) I'm mega happy (yes, I know how lame that sounds) that Sam has his soul back. I had kind of started to like soulless Sam, but I've missed regular Sam soooo much. Can't wait for "Like a Virgin!"moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
6 0

Flag
Share Hide
Supernatural 6x11 = Charmed 7x05 Anyone who watched Charmed has also ran into this storyline of Death (or The Angel of) recruiting a main character to do his job for a day. Was glad to see Supernatural pull it off...with a great cliffhangermoreless

9.0

By CharmedOneP391, Mar 06, 2011

So in this episode Dean goes to a specialist (for lack of a better term) to "die" for a few minutes in order to summon a reaper (Tessa) to get a hold of Death. When Death shows up...Dean tries to use the ring as leverage to get Sam & Adams soul out of the pit. Death agrees to get only one (Sam's) soul of the Cage and build a "wall" around his brain so he wont remember his experience in Hell...but only if Dean agrees to wear the ring for a day and do his job. Dean agrees and is awakened by the specialist (Robert Englund)after being "dead" for 7 minutes. When Dean puts the ring on he is guided by Tessa into doing the job. He has no problem until he runs into a 12 year girl with a major heart condition who he refuses to take. This act disrupts the "grand design" and results in the death of a nurse who was supposed to be in the girls surgery but left early. He then realizes his mistake and takes the girl. Her father then goes on a drinking and driving binge and Dean winds up in the passenger seat (with the ring on) and removes the ring trying to get the man to stop the car only for the man to freak out & crash. Since he took off the ring, Dean technically loses his bet with Death but once he realizes his mistakes Death agrees to get Sam out of the cage and alludes to Dean "currently digging into something...and he needs to keep digging". (assuming Death is looking for Purgatory also)

Sam summons Balthazar in hopes of finding a way to ensure that his soul can never be returned to his body..and the only way to do that is to commit an act so vial that the soul would reject the host...aka Pesticide. Seeing as how John is dead..Bobby fulfills that role and Sam goes ahead and tries that. Bobby puts up a hell of a fight in his rigged house...only to be saved by Dean in the final few minutes of the episode. The episode ends with Sam locked up in the panic room while Death comes in with a bag. He pulls out a glowing orb which is Sams Soul and puts it back into a screaming Sam.

A great episode with a great A & B plot... and a great cliffhanger for the winter hiatus.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
5 0

Flag
Share Hide
Dean Winchester and The Deathly Hallows

7.0

By lenzinoH20, Feb 11, 2011

Appointment In Samara-Death agrees to help Dean get Sam's soul back, but requires Dean to serve in his place for 24 hours. Meanwhile, Sam decides that he doesn't want his soul back and turns to Balthazar for assistance. The rogue angel agrees to help, and informs Sam that the spell required needs the blood of his father... or a father figure.

You know they say "Death is unpredictable" yet this episode was anything but! The idea of Dean taking on the role of Death was pure gold!! We even got some great moments like the deaths of the store robber and the heartattack guy. But as soon as the story took a more serious turn, things got really predictable that the rest of the episode just kinda fell apart. I was surprised that the writers went the whole "everyone must die, no matter what or there will be disastrous consequences". I mean it's the most cliche theme when dealing with Death at this point and I'm am shocked that Dean even had to learn this lesson considering he should have learned it after everything he's been through the past 5 years. Did he really think it would be that easy? Dean just came off really naive when we've seen him much sharper in situations worse than this.

Another character that came off dense this episode was Bobby. Did he really go down in that basement with the door open? They way he got caught was even more pathetic. Also, I can't stress enough how much I hate this new Sam at this point. I know he has no soul and doesn't care about the people around him without it but killing Bobby!? Really, not even an ounce of respect for the man who's been like a father his whole life? Well, the writers made a point to show Sam at his worst before getting his soul back. Watching Death painfully restore Sam his soul was the true highlight of the episode and presented an awesome cliffhanger as it leaves fans with hope that maybe the REAL Sam may return....or will Death's wall fail and we'll get another "new" Sam? You'd think an episode with such an abundance of quality guest stars/returning characters in Julian Richings(Death), Lindsey McKeon(Tessa), Sebastian Roché (Belthazar) and Freddy Kreuger himself, Robert Englund would be one of the best of the season, but "Appointment in Samara" was pretty average with the chilling cliffhanger that gives us hope the second half will be compelling!!moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
2 7

Flag
Share Hide
One HECK of a winter finale

10

By UltraStrata, Feb 05, 2011

This episode was awesome. It gave me a bit of a let-down (I kind of expected the powers and scope of death's job to be a little more grand-scale in nature [I mean, come on; this is the guy who'll supposedly outlive GOD] and I don't think that the episode did a good job of explaining exactly what happens to people when they die [I mean, if this episode were true concerning that, supposing the horseman took a day off, you'd have a bunch of clinically dead people walking the streets, it'd be Zombieland 2]) but, overal, it did an excellent job on several fronts. First, it made Dean confront an issue that he's been dealing with since possibly season 4- the debate of free will versus divine destiny. This series has badly mutilated the Judeo-Christian religion in terms of the way that the bible says that things will play out, but it does raise a question that humans have harbored since the beginning of time- Do we make our own decisions, or is it really just God pulling the strings and bringing us all to a pre-destined end? And I'm glad to see that some headway has finally been made in that department. How long it'll last before the next emotional conflict makes Dean change his mind and side with free will again is anybody's guess. Second, it illustrates just how badly the Supernatural universe needs God. If that were ever in question, the conversation between Sam and Balthazar removes all doubt. In the Bible, witchcraft is viewed as a terrible sin. So is murder. So is the seeking of revenge. Yet, because there is no God, we're living in a universe in which angels agree to use spells to help humans and endorse patricide, all of it to spite people that they hate (Balthazar agrees to help Sam in order to make Dean angry because he hates Dean). Third, it illustrates just how badly Sam needs his soul back. If THAT were ever in question, this episode removes all doubt. After all that Bobby has done for Sam and Dean in the absence of their father, Sam was willing to kill him without a second thought. Matter of fact, Sam would've been willing to kill his OWN father without a second thought. The only thing that stopped him was that John was dead. That's just scary. I don't know how Dean was even willing to sleep in the same room as that guy. No matter how much Sam tries to Say that he can be a good person, he never will be able to fulfill that promise and this episode proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt (for all Sam lovers) that he needs that soul back. Which brings us to number four. Sam gets his soul back. It might not be in the manner that was expected (and I'd be willing to bet 9 to 10 that the wall which Death so graciously constructed in Sam's head will be coming down by the end of this season), but the point is, he's back. The good old Sam is back (though, if I know him, he'll spend the next few episodes in depression over what he did as a soulless skin-bag). Number five. The series-long question is played up. First Balthazar, then Death. I get the feeling that the value of souls means a lot to this season. I don't know how it'll get tied in with the war in heaven, the search for Purgatory, and the Alphas (or if the latter two will even get coverage in the second half of the season, seeing as Crowley is now extra-crispy), but it'll make for a killer second half. Here's to the next episode (and WOW, Sam and Dean investigate virgins [so we'll get at least a few shots of Dean's tongue on the floor]).

*On a little side note, the mention of Adam makes me go back to a few issues that I've harbored since the end of season 5. One, though the beginning was excellent and the show confronted the Apocalypse well, the last few episodes were rushed and totally KILLED the season's potential. The last two horseman rings were obtained without any real fight or debate. It was never explained how Castiel lost his angel power when he used his body as an angel-dispelling symbol. And it was never even DEPICTED how Michael got Adam to say 'yes'. After all of the hype about there being a 'chosen' vessel, Adam was used as the choice. That never made sense. Adam told Zecchariah that he'd never let the angels use him in that manner. Moreover, Adam was meant to be a lure. He wasn't even CONSIDERED by the angels as a suitable replacement. Second, could Michael have even won a fight with Lucifer with Adam's body. Sam was Lucifer's TRUE vessel and Lucifer would be at his most powerful with Sam (which is saying something, seeing as he killed several powerful pagan gods with a weakening fake vessel). Michael would be at a disadvantage in Adam because Dean was his true vessel. For that matter, there wasn't even a real FIGHT between Michael and Lucifer. More like a testosterone-fueled staring contest with a little brotherly rivalry thrown in on the side. I'm sorry Iwent off on that tirade, but it just shot out when I thought about last season.*moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
6 0

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Jared Padalecki	Sam Winchester
Jensen Ackles	Dean Winchester

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Julian Richings	Death	Guest Star
Lindsey McKeon	Tessa	Guest Star
Robert Englund	Dr. Robert	Guest Star
Jim Beaver	Bobby Singer	Recurring Role
Sebastian Roché	Balthazar	Recurring Role

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Episode Photos

Julian Richings as Death and Jensen Ackl...

© 2010 The CW Television Network
Julian Richings as Death and Lindsey McK...

© 2010 The CW Television Network
Jensen Ackles as Dean and Lindsey McKeon...

© 2010 The CW Television Network
Jensen Ackles as Dean and Lindsey McKeon...

© 2010 The CW Television Network

See All Photos

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (0)
ADD TRIVIA
- ADD TRIVIA from this episode.
QUOTES (12)
ADD QUOTES
- Dean: Okay, a wall. Sounds good.
  Tessa: But it's not permanent.
  Death: She's right. Nothing lasts forever. Well, I do.
  EDIT SHARE
- Dean: What's the bet?
  Death: Don't roll your eyes, Dean. It's impolite. Now when you fetch my ring, put it on.
  Dean: What?
  Death: I want you to be me for one day.
  Dean: Are you serious?
  Death: No, I'm being incredibly sarcastic.
  EDIT SHARE
- Tessa: Wow. They'll just let any slack-jawed haircut be Death these days.
  Dean: Well, you're all charm today, aren't you?
  EDIT SHARE
- Balthazar: Well, here's one for the list of dumbest things ever. Summon the angel who wants to kill you.
  Sam: Desperate times. I need your help, Balthazar.
  Balthazar: Interesting. Since last time we met, you wanted to, what was it? Oh yes, yes. "Fry my wings, extra crispy."
  Sam: Well, that was a misunderstanding.
  Balthazar: Some misunderstanding.
  EDIT SHARE
- Tessa: Just so you know, when people die, they might have questions for you. Well, not you, but Death.
  Dean: You mean, like "How did Betty White outlast me"?
  EDIT SHARE
- Heart Attack Victim: Why?
  Dean: You think maybe it was the extra cheese?
  Heart Attack Victim: Yeah. It was good, though.
  Dean: That a local place?
  Tessa: Dean...
  Dean: Right. Umm, time to go, man. Sorry.
  Heart Attack Victim: Wait. Will you tell me what it all... means?
  Dean: Everything is dust in the wind.
  Heart Attack Victim: That's it? A Kansas song?
  Tessa: Sorry. He's new.
  EDIT SHARE
- Tessa: Dean, you have to take her.
  Dean: Says who?
  Tessa: Death.
  Dean: I'm Death.
  Tessa: You know what I mean.
  Dean: Well who tells him?
  Tessa: I don't know. It just is. It's destiny.
  Dean: Give me a break. I spent my whole life fighting that crap. There's no such thing as destiny. Just like there was no Apocalypse. Just a bunch of stuck up mooks who didn't want us human slaves asking questions.
  EDIT SHARE
- Bobby: I may have been born at night, boy, but I wasn't born last night.
  EDIT SHARE
- Bobby: Ain't nobody killing me in my house but me.
  EDIT SHARE
- Dean: Well what's with you and cheap food?
  Death: I could ask you the same thing.
  EDIT SHARE
- Death: You and your brother keep coming back. You're an affront to the balance of the universe and you cause disruption on a global scale.
  Dean: Apologies for that.
  EDIT SHARE
- Death: This is hard for you, Dean. You throw away your life because you've come to assume that it'll bounce right back into your lap. The human soul is not a rubber ball. It's vulnerable, impermanent, but stronger than you know... and more valuable than you can imagine.
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (3)
ADD NOTES
- International Airdates:
  Norway: March 18, 2011 on FEM
  Sweden: May 13, 2011 on Kanal 5
  Australia: June 13, 2011 on ELEVEN
  UK: August 17, 2011 on Sky LIVING
  Spain: November 14, 2011 on AXN
  Finland: January 29, 2013 on Sub
  EDIT SHARE
- Injoke: Dr. Robert's office is at Kiefer Street. In the movie Flatliners, Kiefer Sutherland played one of several characters who deliberately flatline themselves so that they can glimpse what lies beyond Death.
  EDIT SHARE
- Robert Englund is credited as Special Guest Star.
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (2)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- Bobby: Don't say "Here's Johnny."
  Referencing the 1980 movie The Shining, based on the novel by Stephen King, in which a man and his family go to an isolated hotel in the winter. After a while the father goes crazy. In one scene he breaks down a door with an axe and yells "Here's Johnny!"
  EDIT SHARE
- Title:
  Referencing W. Somerset Maugham's retelling of an old story about a servant who encounters a woman he realizes is Death at the marketplace. The servant witnesses Death make a threatening gesture towards him, so he tells this to his master, asks to borrow a horse, and flees to Samarra, where he believes Death will be unable to find him. The merchant then goes to the market, seeks out Death, and asks why she made the threatening gesture. Death replies that the gesture was merely a start of surprise at seeing the servant there at the market in Baghdad, since she had an appointment with him in Samarra.
  EDIT SHARE