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This week sees the brothers taking another break from the impending Apocalypse to investigate the bizarre case of a man who ages from mid-30s to dead-on-the-bathroom-floor in a manner of minutes. The culprit turns out to be a 600-year-old Irish “he-witch” (love that term) who runs a secret high-stakes poker game where players bet years of life rather than cold hard cash. When Bobby gets involved, one bad choice leads to another until he and both Winchesters are in rough shape.
I’m not usually much of a fan of these done-in-one stories. “Supernatural” has done such a tremendous job over the last few years of building a deep and compelling mythology that I tend to get impatient when they digress to do a little character work. In this case I didn’t mind so much, as Bobby was the character getting the most work done. Since ending up in a wheelchair in the season premiere, there’s been an undercurrent of anger and despair to the character that finally boils over. Like many a soldier taken off the front lines through injury, without being able to contact the Personal Injury Lawyer, he’s feeling useless and worse, and he’ll seize any chance to get back in the fight, even if that means risking the years he has left.
Which of course is what really gets the plot rolling, as Dean’s attempt to win back Bobby’s years fails miserably. I’ve got to tip my hat to actor Chad Everett stepping in as the 70-something version of Dean. He absolutely nails the sarcastic bravado and physicality that Jensen Ackles has been putting into the role for five years. There have been other episodes of this show that have shown the brothers at different ages, but none that so completely convinced me that these two actors were portraying the same person. Add in some great back-and-forth exchanges with Bobby and Sam about the hell of getting old (especially when you were 30 something like 5 minutes ago), and you had one of the better guest spots of the series.
The other guest star this week also turned in a solid performance. Hal Oszan brings just the right mix of charm, opportunism and sheer vindictiveness to the role of Patrick, the eternally-young poker shark. He’s one of the show’s more complex villains, as well. Patrick repeatedly demonstrates a compassionate side, as he refuses to allow Dean to play again when he knows he won’t survive losing or as he throws a game to an old man hoping to live long enough to see his granddaughter’s bat mitzvah. He also genuinely cares for his girlfriend Lia, even as she goes behind his back to give Sam and Dean a spell to break his power and restore the youth of everyone he’s stolen from. That doing so will result in Patrick’s and her death as age catches up with them adds to the stakes.
Of course, he’s not about to let that happen, and his nasty side quickly reemerges as he realizes that the game he’s playing with Sam is a diversion for Bobby and Dean to complete the spell. It doesn’t work, of course. You don’t get to be 600 years old without developing a canny knack for when someone’s trying to take you down. And it’s here, as Patrick taunts and pushes Sam into losing everything, that we get a nifty reminder about how very smart and dangerous the younger Winchester brother can be. After playing safe all night and amping up a display of real concern for Dean and Bobby, he expertly bluffs Patrick into a big hand, winning enough years to restore Dean back to his young self. It’s a brilliant play, and the only reason I didn’t fall for it as completely as Patrick did was the knowledge that, you know, Sam and Dean are the stars of the show and Patrick is just a guest player. I guess you could call that an unfair advantage.
After all the fun and games during the hour (and Dean awesomely kicking up his heels as he strolls out to see Bobby full restored), the show ends on two extremely powerful one-on-one confrontations. On one hand we have Patrick and Lia, as she presses him to play a game that he knows she wants to lose. After having watched her daughter die of old age, she’s tired and ready to go. He’s not, and you can see how much it pains him to take the chips and flip over the cards. I’ve read some grumbling that the Winchesters never finished the job this week, but really, nothing they could have done would have been as punishing as that scene.
Meanwhile Dean takes a moment to have a heart-to-heart with Bobby, who’s finally giving full voice to his despair and his desire to check out early if he can’t be whole again. One of the greatest scenes last season came in the finale, with Bobby’s speech about the importance of family. Here Dean gently returns that lesson. Yes, things get damned hard, but in the end family’s what matters, and Bobby’s part of that, no matter what shape he’s in. That’s one of the things I love about “Supernatural” – it’s got creepy monsters, dirty jokes, classic rock and hard-boiled action for sure, but at the end of the day it’s about taking care of the people that matter to you.
“The Curious Case of Dean Winchester” is one of the more unique episodes for the series, and certainly one of their best stand-alone stories. That said, I have to say I’m hoping they return to the main thread of the series soon. The Apocalypse is, after all, kind of a big deal.
