TV Review: Supernatural 6.22 – “The Man Who Knew Too Much”

Episode: Supernatural 6.22 – “The Man Who Knew Too Much”
Original Air Date: May 20, 2011

Screencaps by rawr_caps.

We have reached the end of Season Six of Supernatural. And oh what an end it was. As soon as I heard that Eric Kripke was writing the finale, my hopes rose exponentially. Kripke has never let me down and he didn’t start now. We got the breaking of Sam’s wall, the ultimate confrontation over Purgatory, and a twist ending that many did not see coming. And, as always in finales, there were deaths. Characters we loved had to die in order to reach the conclusion of this arc, but their sacrifices will not be soon forgotten. The door to Purgatory was about to be opened and we were front row, center to watch it all go down.

We started off the episode with Sam running from the police, having no memory of who he is or how he got there. But we soon got clues that this was not as it seemed, since we saw a sign for Castle Storage, the lock-up John Winchester used for harmful supernatural items. Another clue was that Sam remembered he had been staying in the Nite Owl motel, which was the same motel he and Dean stayed in during a previous episode. Could it be? Was Sam merely hallucinating? Well, not simply a hallucination gone wrong, but instead Sam’s been locked inside his mind since the wall came down. Yes, Sam’s wall, the one that Death put up to keep out the Hell memories, came tumbling down. And it didn’t do it all on its own. No, Cas brought it down on purpose to use as leverage against the boys. With Sam out of the fight, and hopefully Dean as well as he watched over Sam’s comatose body, Castiel was hoping that the Winchesters wouldn’t be able to interfere with his Purgatory plan any longer. Well, hopes and wishes aren’t always reality, but good try, Castiel.

Sam’s dreamscape was a wonderful way to deal with his fractured mind. He was broken into pieces, having to put himself back together in order to regain consciousness. The main narrator was Sam, souled but not whole, who was trying to piece together parts of his life with the help of a nice bartender named Robin. She went along with him through a lot of crazy things, but alas she was one more piece of his memory that he had to understand and accept on his journey. It turned out that she had been held hostage by a demon during Soulless!Sam’s year and instead of trying to save her, as Sam would do, Soulless!Sam simply shot and killed her, thus taking away the demon’s leverage. Always nice to remember how ruthless Soulless!Sam was. So, he reintegrated with Soulless!Sam and remembered everything that went down that year. Progress, always a good thing, but Soulless!Sam was the easy one. Now he had to integrate with Hell!Sam. Yes, 150 years of memories from being tortured in the cage all crashing down on Sam. I fear for his mental state. But we never got to see the long-term effects of that, since that’s something to be dealt with next season. Instead, we just know that he’s not 100% okay, but he went to extremes to fight his way back to reality and back to his brother’s side to help in the Purgatory showdown.

"I'm the one that remembers Hell."

Meanwhile, the plan for Purgatory was heating up. Castiel got greedy and instead of going half and half with Crowley, now he wants all the souls for himself. The renegotiation was not in Crowley’s favor. And the deeper Castiel got into this, the worse it got. He killed Dr. Visyak in order to harvest her blood, one of the key ingredients in opening the door to Purgatory. Then he killed Balthazar for double-crossing him to the Winchesters. He’s just really devoted to his ultimate goal it seems. But Crowley is never one to just sit back and let plans get changed on him. He brings in a horde of demons, which had the unfortunate side effect of flipping the Impala completely over with Dean and Bobby still in it. Oh no! Not the Impala! First order of business when this is all over is to haul that thing back to Bobby’s and fix it. There is no show without the car. Anyway, Crowley figured that if he can’t team up with one angel, he’ll team up with the angel’s enemy, and that meant Raphael. Unfortunately, neither side served his purposes, so he popped off before the fighting got too bloody. I have hopes that he will return again next season because he’s such a delicious character.

"Sounds sexy. Exit Stage Crowley."

So, in the end, it was Dean and Bobby bearing witness to how far Castiel has gone to secure his ultimate victory. He opened the door to Purgatory himself, taking in all the souls, and making him a walking nuclear bomb. His first task was to blow up Raphael. She’s now a bloody mess all along the walls of Crowley’s hideout. But Cas is not satisfied to stop there. No, he’s going to bring vengeance on all that stood against him. That means Raphael’s followers, but that also may mean the Winchesters as well. It’s interesting that Dean tried to talk him down, as if he were talking to a mentally unstable kidnapper with his finger on the trigger, because at this point that’s about who he is. And when Sam tried to stab him in the back with the angel sword, it didn’t go quite as planned. He’s no longer just an angel, he’s a force that is seeking to bring justice where he sees fit, despite whether it’s right or wrong. And there you have your set-up for next season.

"I'm your new god. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your lord, or I shall destroy you."

I found the finale very fulfilling and also unexpected. The wall in Sam’s head had to come down, we all knew that, but the way to handle it was always a point of concern. We saw what happened when Sam just got a few seconds glimpse at his memories of Hell, so having 150 years fall down upon him would surely kill him. But, the way Kripke presented it made sense and also preserved Sam’s sanity, we think. I guess we’ll have to wait until next season to find out if he has any lasting damage. The surprising twist was how Castiel came out of the season. I was expecting him to fall, to become human as a result of his straying from the path of righteousness. But, no, he decided to go in the opposite direction and become an all-powerful god. None of the weapons at the Winchesters’ disposal can harm him, so the boys will have to come up with some pretty crafty tricks if they have any hope of defeating Cas. It’s a long summer until we find out.

Rating: 5 / 5 Stars