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Supernatural Season 6 Episode 7

Family Matters

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AIRED: Nov 05, 2010

9.2

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Episode Summary

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Despite his suspicions, Dean accompanies Sam with his cousins and Samuel on a hunting trip. However, deep in the woods, things go wrong.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (20)

This used to be a very good show, but this season's just disapointing.

6.0

By viidu, Jul 24, 2011

Finally, we know the name of the all-mighty that pull Sam from the cage. This guy is ....... wait for it ...... Crowley! I'm speechless! How lame is this!! Now he is not only king of hell, but also capable, just of everything.

No one cares about Samuel and his pathetic gang of so called hunters. The only family Dean and Sam has ever got is John and nobody else. Each time the so called family members pop out, I want to switch channel. This is just stupid.

Now I am almost certain that they should never have made the current season ......moreless
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He's a Soul(less) Man!

8.0

By lenzinoH20, Jun 02, 2011

Family Matters-Despite his suspicions, Dean accompanies Sam with his cousins and Samuel on a hunting trip. However, deep in the woods, things go wrong.

Well, this episode was full of surprises wasn't it? This season's arc is quickly gaining my interesting again and the developments here are promising for one HELL of a season. The episode begins just moments after last episode with Sam tied up after Dean almost beat him to death. Castiel's diagnosis was an intense scene and I loved how it was played out by my favorite trio. The only thing hurts the big reveal is that it was spoiled in the trailer, so when Castiel delcares Sam has no soul, there's shock or twist, even if it a chilling development for the brothers. It does make sense given Sam's emtionless behavior as if he doesn't care about anything. It's certainly the most troubling situation the brothers have ever been in...emotionally anyway. This brings up a lot of philosophical questions: Is Sam really still Sam without his soul or is he just a walking piece of flesh? While a thought-provoking plot point, it means the more fun aspects of the brothers' relationship is no longer present. Without Sam's soul, Sam just has an obligation to feel as a brother, not actually feeling compelled to do for the brother he loves and they essentially can't have a relationship without his soul which is one of the series' strongest attributes.

This week we get to meet the Alpha Vamp that was teased two episodes ago. Rick Worthy gives a tremendously menancing performance as first of his kind. His cool and collected performance was a sound choice and the revelations he brings to the table propells the story in intriguing way. The idea of Purgatory and it's whereabouts puts some new life into the season's arc. We finally find out where all the monsters that gets killed go and the fact that it's location poses a game changer for both Hevaen and Hell is pretty exciting. Even more exciting was Crowley's appearence. Now we know it was he who freed Sam and his grandfather. The fact that Samuel was hidding it and Crowley's plan was no surprise considering he's been shaddy from the start. But At least it explains why the cousins have been d!icks, especially when one of them was possessed all along! Too bad Dean couldn't get the satisfaction to kill Christiain himself! lol But this epsiode brings a new outlook and dynamic that it's needed since the beginning. Dean, Sam and the rest of the hunters are forced to work for the Devil....literally. Sure, Sam tells Dean they will find another way while they play along, but Sam's soullessness leaves his trust in question with his brother, while Samuel and Gwen also having trust issues. It will be interesting to see how the brothers get out of this one, gets Sam's soul back and Dean handling all of this while trying to all hell from breaking loose again! Soild episode, feeling that familiar Supernatural groove again!moreless
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Samuel returns and the group goes after the Alpha Vampire

8.7

By JaCkKbAuEr2424, May 20, 2011

I love that this season of Supernatural is focusing more on the story and less on the individual stand-alone episodes. It gives the season a sense of urgency, and while I do wish they would've done this for seasons with plots that were much larger than this one, I'm completely surprised at the turn that the season has taken. I thought this was going to be a huge let-down after the first episode, but I shouldn't judge a book by its cover I suppose.

This episode finds Sam and Dean teaming up once again with Samuel, their grandfather, in order to help him track down the Alpha Vampire. As we know, Dean foresaw many of the events in this episode while he was a vampire, and the idea of going after the Alpha's because of their plans makes everything very interesting. Things become twice as interesting after Crowley appears and we finally learn the truth: he's the one who pulled Samuel and Sam from Heaven and Hell, respectively, and he's the one who has Sam's soul. Thats right, we learn Sam has no soul thanks to Castiel (it's so nice to see him return every now and then. I've always thought he was the best supporting character of the show, along with Bobby). We also learn that Crowley is looking for purgatory for reasons that remain unknown. He claims if they help him find purgatory and the Alpha's of each creature, he'll give Sam his soul back.

Now the real question is this: how does this match up with other seasons? For me, I would've said it's disappointing, but it has the potential to be right up there as one of the best. So far, it's solid as hell, and I can't really find anything wrong with it. The show now has a direction to move in, and it's just a matter of time before things keep getting more and more intense. Fingers crossed that the writers keep the show moving in a good direction.moreless
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Lost souls and revelations

9.0

By entil2001, Apr 02, 2011

After "Live Free and Twi-Hard", I was wondering if we would get much follow-up on the Alpha Vampire and Dean's visions of a recruitment drive. As it turns out, this episode provides the answer, but it turns out to be a minor consideration compared to the rest of the revelations. This was definitely the end of the introductory portion of the season, and we are rushing knee-deep into the complication phase.

The episode starts with what the promos already told us: Sam was pulled out of Lucifer's cage without his soul. As expected, this was not the thrust of the entire episode, but just the starting point for exploration of the much larger context. And the writers go to the most obvious next step: if Sam came back incomplete and wrong, what about Samuel? Did he come back whole, and who is pulling his strings?

Given the tight continuity of the series, there were only going to be a couple of potential answers: Raphael or Crowley. I was leaning towards Raphael, because I could believe that he would be willing to use the various monsters and such as cannon fodder against the demonic horde. But it makes sense that Crowley would be looking to cement control over Hell and find a new realm to rule, especially now that they have put Purgatory in play.

I'm still not sure what to think about that little twist, though I suppose it was an obvious enough direction to take. With Heaven in the midst of a civil war, the usual checks and balances are no longer in place. The borders are ripe for shifting. And what I would suspect is that Crowley is leaving out the obvious point: if Purgatory is metaphysically adjacent to Hell, then logically, it is also in a similar relationship to Heaven.

In "Weekend at Bobby's", Crowley made it clear that taking control of Hell is one thing; maintaining that control is another. So what is the easiest way to unite the various factions and keep them from gunning for the big chair? Give them a common goal. Somehow, I doubt taking control of Purgatory is the endgame. Getting (or forcing) the cooperation of the Alphas feels like another step to a much larger goal. And with the angelic civil war raging on, are they prepared to withstand an invasion out of Purgatory?

Of course, that seems like a story on the scale of the Apocalypse, so the writers have to be careful to keep the scope manageable. Hinging the plan on the careful manipulation of key individuals makes it workable. Keeping it within the family amps up the usual drama to another level. Frankly, this is exactly the kind of construction of an arc that the end of the Apocalypse needed. And the cast has been doing a brilliant job of selling it from the start.

I've said all along that this is a great return to form for the series, easily matching the fourth season for sheer complexity, character exploration, and plot progression, and this episode is just more proof. If this is where the story has begun, I can't wait to see where the writers take us as things get really complicated!moreless
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Best of the season

10

By UltraStrata, Mar 29, 2011

This episode is the best of this season so far. It had a lot of action from second one. First, we finally find out what's wrong with Sam. He has no soul. yes, he still can dance, but he can't make conscious decisions. Literally. He feels no emotion, needs no sleep, and is basically an animal with apposable thumbs. He can, no matter how hard he tries to behave differently, only think of what's best for himself and the mission that he feels he needs to accomplish at the time. Basically, he'd sell his own mom at the auction if he needed to buy a pair of panties for his girlfriend. Second, we find out why Sammuel wants to capture monsters so badly. He works for Crowley. The demon has some sort of hold on Sammuel and that involves capturing Alpha creatures. This part of the episode left me wanting more. You're talking about the king of a SPECIES. The most powerful vampire ther is, and it took 5minutes of OFFSCREEN action to capture him. That's stupid. It was an issue that I had with the fourth and fifth seasons as well. They just REPORTED action and didn't show it. Season 4, most of the seals got broken and you didn't even get to SEE the angel fights. Fifth season, you hear that a war is going on, but it was next to NEVER played up. Anyways, moving on. We also get to find out WHY Crowley wants Alphas so badly. He wants to find the third option for dead creatures- Purgatory. Humans can go to heaven or hell and monsters go to Purgatory (this was a question that I never really had but that makes a lot of sense when you think about it- where do monsters go when they die). Also, it seems that even Alphas have a 'mother' and that there is a creature created every single monster species that hunters are currently fighting. It's a sobering (and scary) thought. Sammuel must have been TICKED to find out that a demon has been in his son for all of this time (though it was kind of left ambiguous as to what happened to the Alpha Vampire that Christian kept at bay). Dean forces Sam into the pact that, seeing as sam has no instinct anymore, Dean will now wear the pants and make the decisions in his relationship with Sam and Sam will tell Dean every little detail about what he does and how he does it. We now know that Crowley got the two Sammys out of the afterlife and now Sam and Dean are basically working as bounty hunters for Crowley. Let's see where that interesting plot line takes us next week.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Jared Padalecki	Sam Winchester
Jensen Ackles	Dean Winchester
Misha Collins	Castiel

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Corin Nemec	Christian Campbell	Guest Star
Jessica Heafey	Gwen Campbell	Guest Star
Rick Worthy	Alpha Vampire	Guest Star
Mitch Pileggi	Samuel Campbell	Recurring Role
Mark Sheppard	Crowley	Recurring Role

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Jensen Ackles as Dean on Supernatural fr...

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (9)
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- Samuel: This Castiel? You're scrawnier than I pictured.
  Castiel: This is a vessel. My true form is approximately the size of your Chrysler Building.
  Dean: All right, all right, quit bragging.
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- Dean: It's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
  Christian: What the hell?
  Dean: Angel cavity search.
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- Christian: You lost, Dean?
  Dean: Had to make a phone call. Just needed some privacy.
  Christian: Huh. Samuel's locked offices. That's pretty private.
  Dean: Wasn't locked.
  Christian: Who you calling?
  Dean: Your wife. Let her know I'm not going to make it over tonight.
  Christian: What, you know, I've tried playing nice, Dean, but I think I'm done.
  Dean: You telling me that you're a bigger knob than you've been letting on?
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- Sam: So, Samuel didn't take the bait. So I went with Plan B.
  Dean: We had a Plan B?
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- Alpha Vampire: When your kind first huddled around the fire, I was the thing in the dark. Now you think you can hurt me?
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- Alpha Vampire: The thing about souls, if you've got one, of course, is they're predictable. You die, you go up or down. Where do my kind go?
  Dean: All right, enough with the sermon, freak.
  Alpha Vampire: I'm trying to answer the question. Now, when we freaks die, where do we go? Not Heaven, not Hell. So?
  Dean: Legoland?
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- Dean: Since when do you give a crap about vampires?
  Crowleyn: Since, uh... what's today, Friday? Since, let's see... mind your business.
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- Crowley: Best shut your gob. Employees don't question management.
  Dean: We ain't your employees.
  Crowley: Of course you are! Have been for some time now, thanks to Gramps. I don't keep Captain Chromedome around for his wit, do I? Samuel knows things. More than any of you, actually. Walking encyclopedia of the creepy and the crawly. And I knew, you two are so hung up on family-loyalty nonsense, he said jump, you'd get froggy.
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- Sam: Working with a demon, huh? You're not who I thought you were.
  Samuel: You don't know anything about me, son.
  Dean: So what's so important that you're the king of Hell's cabana boy, huh? What'd he offer you? Girls, money, hair?
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NOTES (2)
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- International Airdates:
  Norway: February 18, 2011 on FEM
  Sweden: April 15, 2011 on Kanal 5
  Australia: May 30, 2011 on ELEVEN
  UK: July 20, 2011 on Sky LIVING
  Spain: October 17, 2011 on AXN
  Finland: January 1, 2013 on Sub
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- Mark A. Sheppard is uncredited.
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ALLUSIONS (6)
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- Dean: Hello, Newman.
  Referencing Seinfeld, and recurring character Newman (Wayne Knight). Jerry Seinfeld typically greets Newman, his nemesis, by sarcastically saying, "Hello, Newman."
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- Dean: And if you weren't Robo-Sam, you'd feel it too.
  Referencing the 1987 science fiction movie, RoboCop, which features a policeman who is killed and then used as the basis for a project that turns him into an emotionless cyborg law enforcement officer.
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- Dean: I'm asking the questions here, Fright Night.
  Referencing the 1985 horror-comedy movie which featured a vampire moving into a quiet suburban neighborhood. A neighborhood boy, Charlie, realizes the vampire's true nature but is unable to convince anyone of the truth. As of the time this episode premiered, a remake was in production.
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- Dean: If the old man's Kermit, whose hand is up his ass?
  Referencing one of the lead characters from The Muppet Show. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, Kermit is a puppet of a talking frog.
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- Dean: Putting Jaws in a fishbowl.
  Referencing Jaws, a 1975 movie based on Peter Benchley's novel about a man-eating shark that wreaks havoc upon a small vacation island. The movie spawned three sequels and a Universal theme park ride.
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- Crowley: Me Charlie, you angels.
  Referencing the TV series Charlie's Angels (1976), which featured John Forsythe as the mysterious Charlie, who always addresses his female Angel agents by speakerphone.
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