TV.com

Supernatural Season 8 Episode 19

Taxi Driver

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 50

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

8.6

User Rating

169 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

AIRED: 4/3/13

Kevin calls in Sam and Dean when he hears Crowley inside of his mind. The brothers end up turning to Ajay, a Reaper, to help Sam with the second trial of the Tablet. Meanwhile, Naomi secretly visits Dean and gives him vital information, forcing him to seek out Benny's help.

moreless

FAN RECAP

TV.com Episode Review

265

Supernatural "Taxi Driver" Review: What the F*ck Are You Doing, Show?!

This episode was an important one, but it was also such a train wreck that I'm alternating between being speechless and yelling the filthiest insults I know.

By MaryAnn Sleasman, Apr 04, 2013

Fan Episode Reviews (8)

Sam picked Bobby up faster/easier than I would pick up milk from grocery store

3.0

By srdjanbajic58, May 22, 2013

If we disregard the fact that archangels no longer protect prophets out of a sudden, Sam's excursion in Hell is laughable. First of all, Crowley knows where Purgatory connects with Hell, and would send an army to guard the entrance/exit. Second, how did Sam find Bobby? Hell hosts billions of souls, yet it took Sam just a few corners to reach his cell. He didn't even have to fight anyone. If we presume that he was searching for him for 8 hours, then how did he know where to go, and how to go back to the door? Complete nonsense.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 0

Flag
Share Hide
taxi driver

7.0

By fairysngr1, Apr 09, 2013

okay first of all kevin seriously?! kevin i understand was thrust into the middle of all of this heaven vs hell at this point he understands the risks, he knows exactly what is at stake, and he was willing to live like a hermit in a protected boat for months. The guy spent every waking moment decoding and then as the end is in sight he decides to go and put the tablet god knows where and out of his sight?? c'mon! i've gotta beleive that if kevin was chosen to keep the tablet then he was chosen because he was strong willed and smart. I think that if sam can put up with lucifer in his head for months then kevin could've put up with crowley a little longer than a few just gave up sort of...

secondly i was so excited at the beginning of this episode because sam was going into hell! and then we find out he has to go through pergatory should've been way harder for sam then they portrayed it. There was like 1 fight and suddenly he found the "rabbit hole" into hell. it was so was the way sam found bobby.

a redeeming quality of this episode was the very emotional scene between dean and benny. I've never been one to cry while watching supernatural but this just did it. the way dean was so emotional about sam being in pergatory and the way he was willing to beg benny was heart wrenching to me. And then to see how willing benny was to help was just vampire helping the winchesters. Benny was probably my favorite monsters for that loyalty alone.

basically i think the idea behind this episode was fantastic but the way they televised it could've been so much better.

moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
Benny's phone resurrection

8.5

By sosmitlospsi, Apr 09, 2013

Benny's phone - the phone thrown in the sea in older episode -

alive and working fine again.
DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Flag
Share Hide
Hell and Back (Spoilers Ahead)

7.5

By Neksmater, Apr 07, 2013

Another trial, another episode, of Kevin freaking out. This week saw the return of two supporting characters one unexpected and one we knew would pop up eventually. Kevin decodes the second trial which is to deliver an innocent soul from Hell to Heaven so the brothers naturally pick Bobby (who had already had a great goodbye already last season), who is in Hell regrettably despite being a good guy. Sam and Dean make a deal with a Reaper who takes Sam to Purgatory and then tells him how to get to the back door portal to Hell while Dean stays on Earth. Crowley discovers the Reaper's involvement and kills him which leaves Sam stranded in Purgatory without a way out. Sam enters the portal into Hell, and I'm a little forgiving for budgetary reasons, that it was more like a haunted house attraction than the grim portrayal of Hell that we got in the end of Season 3 with Dean in chains yelling Sam's name that was so effective. Of course Sam finds Bobby in the first hallway near the supposedly secret portal and convinces Bobby that he's the real Sam in a rather funny way. Apparently demons visit you as people you know to mess with you, which is why Bobby didn't believe he was the real Sam at first. He gets him out the back door and back into Purgatory but at the rendezvous point the Reaper doesn't show. In the real world Dean is visited on Kevin's trusty boat by Naomi who points out that they're on the same side and that she wants to save the world via the Angel Tablet and doing away with Crowley forever. I really liked the point that Dean hadn't warded the place for angels in case Castiel did decide to come back which speaks to his loyalty to his wayward friend. I also hope more of the Angel Tablet is explored before the season ends since we're getting awful close to it now. But anyway, Dean reaches out to Benny with no other choice (except if he had found ya know another of a thousand Reapers in existence) but it made sense to go to Benny who seemed to not fit into the human world after his love had died and his whole coven after the events of "Blood Brother" so it makes a consistency of Benny resolved. Dean and his connection is one of my utmost favorite parts of this season and their war buddy bonding that they both seem to think they owe each other oh so much. Dean tearfully thanks Benny and then beheads him after telling him to find Sam and get him and Bobby out. Benny saves Bobby and Sam from a Leviathan attack in Purgatory and takes them to a portal to Earth. Since Sam is the only mortal Bobby has to get in him the same way Benny got into Dean so at least there're points for consistency there but Benny decides to stay which was kind of expected and hopefully not the last we ever see of him. But on that note it was nice to see Sam having changed his mind about Benny as a person after his sacrifice after almost a whole season although Bobby's right to be hesitant. When they arrive topside Crowley stops Bobby's soul from ascending to Heaven but Naomi puts a stop on him and sends Bobby's soul to Heaven after threatening Crowley after he calls her a bureaucrat. I like that Crowley had gotten into Kevin's head haven't mentioned this yet, and yet Crowley seems to be not behind it or else we might've had a scene where he was working some sort of magic on Kevin to get him out of hiding. But Kevin hid the tablet before he gets a visit from the not real Crowley (since the windows he supposedly broke were intact when Sam and Dean got back to the boat). Sam and Dean are right to think Kevin may be going off of the rails after all of the side effects they've seen him have working for so long on the monotony of decoding the tablet, which by the way Crowley says his half only has the footnotes amusingly. But while I bought Bobby's return for this one instance since I believe he deserves to be in Heaven doing away with Benny all in one episode was a little too convenient for me I would've liked for him to go at the end of the season fighting Crowley or something but this was noble enough of a way to go out for his character. Kevin's now gone, and the tablet is missing so I don't expect to see the third trial at least until the penultimate episode of the season. I also appreciate the effort to make Naomi a more nuanced character since she is interesting when she's not doing I don't know what to Castiel and other angels and has her own version of the story to tell. But whether she is a Winchester ally or not still remains to be seen. All we need now is for either Cass or Kevin to resurface to close the gates of Heaven and Hell are still way up in the air. I still would've liked to see more of Hell like in Season 3 than just the spooky hallway (although there were some great things there too) that just happened to have Bobby in it. Excited to see where this keeps going. Also Sam's whole "I'm good" despite the hand thing happening more severely now we should be a little worried about his well-being as Dean is).moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 1

Flag
Share Hide
Why i think taxi driver is a decent episode of Supernatural without serious plot holes

9.5

By xen9092, Apr 06, 2013

Well, I've read loads of reviews and criticisms concerning the plot holes of the 19th episode of latest season Supernatural & although I think Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming did not do their home work, this episode is not that far irrelevant from the canon.

This episode is mostly about the second trial regarding closing the gates of hell & Sam has to rescue an innocent soul from hell unto heaven according to Kevin. Then the Winchesters get hold of a crossroads demon and informed of a rogue reaper who can make a way through hell & back.

Now, reapers can be a sort of angel as they worked under Death the horseman (The big daddy reaper, the angel of death in lore from 'Abandon all hope'). So they can easily know the location of purgatory as Castiel rescued by many angels. So Ajay can easily hack into Angel radio & know the secret. Before season 6, Castiel & Crowley, how hardly they tried, could not know the unknown location even if they got hold of a rogue reaper. Now, for example, many top level angels know the location but not Crowley (unless he caught one of them and found their "factory settings"). Also reapers cannot be seen by someone other than dead but i think Ajay (like an angel) take a man's consent and ride his vessel (That's why Ajay exclaimed when Sam and Dean called him by his reaper name)

After that, Sam can find Bobby's soul so easily without that much of an effort. I think as Ajay is the reaper who send Bobby to hell, he may have tipped Sam on their way. Also 1 hour in topside may be 120 hell hours. So Sam has plenty of time. I also think Naomi has her way in this situation as there were not so many demon guards around to harm Sam ( only my speculation).

Sam cannot recognize hell may be because he was in Lucifer's cage, not the original hell. There may be different hells for everybody because we have seen three of them so far (the final of season 3, the long queue in 6x20 and this dungeon like hell)

Before season 4, Sam could not find a crossroads demon and thus a rogue reaper to save Dean because probably there isn't any. May be rogue reapers/angels (rogue angel Balthazar?)were not there before chaos in heaven( after season 5). And also as we all know the angels had their hand in apocalypse. So they wanted to jump started it by breaking the first righteous man & did not make it an easy task for Sam to rescue Dean back then. We also informed back then that many angels died to rescue Dean but that can also be a trick of Zachariah( he has his hand in killing many angels to break a seal).

After season 5 both heaven and hell is a mess now. As for Crowley, as sinister as he seems, he cannot make hell as creepy as season 4 because there were plenty of major demons out there (Alastair the picasso with razor, Lillith herself & maybe Crowley) back then. Crowley can be plenty sloppy & can not control all the demons as the new king of hell (It's only my opinion). Bobby is also not the prime target of major demon Alastair or Lucifer, so he can take the tortures of hell pretty easily than the Winchesters even after 120 years or so.

Benny does a huge favor for Dean & let himself getting beheaded to rescue Sam ( The same little brother who wants to kill him!). He leads Sam & Bobby's soul to the purgatory-earth portal (so easily because he knows the exact location) & decides to sacrifice himself. The goodbye scene between Dean & Benny is one of the high aspects of the episode (Mostly because of Jensen Ackles Seriously, what do they find in that Homeland guy, did not like him in 'Dreamcatcher' either).

Now, the writers can use this an opportunity to bring back Adam but that can only be possible by Death, not a possible task by Sam who has to complete the trials. Bringing back Bobby again & again may be a faulty decision but who can judge the boy's life in simpler way other than Bobby? They cannot find his replacement yet.

I am bedazzled by the ending as I cannot decide whether actually Crowley kidnaps Kevin again or it was just a mind trick by Naomi (She can enter the safe house) . By glass shattering I like to assume it is the work of an angel because Crowley has no reason to clean up the mess. Kevin's paranoid visions creeps me out though. Who says the show is not scary anymore?moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
4 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

Assaf Cohen	Ajay	Guest Star
Doron Bell	Crossroads Demon	Guest Star
Elizabeth Weinstein	Crowley's Assistant	Guest Star
Mark Sheppard	Crowley	Recurring Role
Osric Chau	Kevin Tran	Recurring Role
Ty Olsson	Benny	Recurring Role

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (0)
ADD TRIVIA
- ADD TRIVIA from this episode.
QUOTES (4)
ADD QUOTES
- Dean: Like I told you before, this isn't going to end. Look, man, other guys, they got it easy, you know? It's all backyard barbecues and... bowling teams. But you and me? We got to carry a little extra weight.
  Kevin: I can't take it.
  Dean: Hey, look at me. Now this whole thing sucks, I know. But you suck it up and you push through, because that's what we do. And when you get on board with that, the ride is a whole lot smoother. French fry?
  EDIT SHARE
- Crowley: As you may recall, patience isn't one of my virtues. Well, I don't have any virtues, but if I did, I'm certain that patience wouldn't be one.
  EDIT SHARE
- Dean: So, uh... Bobby--how... how'd he hold up down there?
  Sam: He's good, all things considered. Ornery as hell, of course.
  Dean: As he should be.
  EDIT SHARE
- Crowley: What you people never seem to understand is that you are nothing! Fleeting blips of light. I am forever.
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (2)
ADD NOTES
- Jim Beaver is credited as Special Appearance By in the end credits.
  EDIT SHARE
- International Airdates:
  Australia: April 15, 2013 on Eleven
  Norway: May 17, 2013 on FEM
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (1)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- Title:
  Referencing the 1976 movie starring Robert DeNiro as an ex-Marine who becomes obsessed with a child prostitute, Iris (Jodie Foster), and sets out to "save" her by killing her pimp. Would-be Presidential assassin John Hinckley cited the movie as a favorite and wanted to assassinate Ronald Reagan to impress Foster.
  EDIT SHARE