Review: Supernatural Season 9, Episode 14: Captives

Aw. This episode was sad! In fact, tragic is probably the best word to describe it.

Yes, Kevin is dead, but he isn’t done with the Winchesters yet. In this episode, we learn that Kevin has been hanging around in the bunker as a ghost. He is unable to move on because Heaven is “shut down” in some fashion. Souls are instead trapped in limbo.

This is an interesting aspect of the afterlife that I hope we explore further in future episodes (I’m especially interested in how the dead can pass messages to eachother; that’s fascinating). However, the more important thing is that Kevin has some unfinished business: his mother.

I can’t remember the last time we saw Mrs. Tran on this show. However, she is an important character, and the show probably should have addressed her fate a long time ago. It turns out that Crowley has been keeping her prisoner all this time, in a storage unit of all places! You would think that the King of Hell could devise a better place to store his prisoners. Also, he’s keeping them in pretty big units. I know something about the cost of getting a storage unit, and I’m fairly sure that he’s spending a small fortune on rent every month.

Of course, Sam and Dean are able to free her after vanquishing a couple of demons.

I have to say that my favorite part of the episode was listening to the storage unit demon grumbling about how boring it is to guard captives. “I wasn't even allowed to kill anyone. I was told to protect them. I mean, how sick is that? Am I not a young, vital demon with basic demon needs and rights?” has got to be the best line of the episode. I guess Crowley hasn’t been doing surveys on worker satisfaction.

Anyway, the upside of this episode is that Kevin can now rest in peace and his mother can take comfort from spending some time with his ghost. Not that it’s going to make his death hurt any less. I mean, I’m still mourning Kevin! I still think it’s crazy that the show killed him like that.

This episode is unique in that it was very relevant to the overarching plot of the show while still managing to feel like a self-contained, complete story. In my opinion, it was a really effective piece of storytelling, and I really enjoyed this episode. I give it full remarks for originality and good writing.

Let’s just hope that Kevin can move onto Heaven soon. I hate to think of him in a celestial DMV line for the rest of forever. 

 
Rating: 8/10