TV Review: SUPERNATURAL Season 10, Episode 4: Paper Moon [The CW]

The CW’s Supernatural Paper Moon TV Show Review. Supernatural: Season 10, Episode 4: Paper Moon brings back Kate – a werewolf last seen in Season 8 – and possibly foreshadows the potential return of demon Dean.

“Paper Moon” was the first real monster-of-the-week type episode of this season. While I generally tend to fear these episodes, as I think they often fill space rather than advance the season’s major story arc and don’t typically acknowledge many characters other than Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), this particular episode was great. Not only did it continue a storyline from Season 8, but it also – in my opinion – foreshadowed what may be to come in Season 10.

This episode brought back Kate (Brit Sheridan), a werewolf whose transformation was featured in the Season 8 episode, “Bitten.” Now, “Bitten” was a fantastic episode in and of itself in that it differed from the usual Supernatural episode format, focusing more on the lives of the Supernatural creatures being hunted that week – even shot, at times, from their perspective – instead of the Winchesters’ pursuit.  The cliffhanger ending, of course, was that Kate, a newly-turned werewolf, left a video message for the brothers before getting away.  Two seasons later, we finally got to see where she ended up.

We learned that Kate has a sister – Tasha (Emily Tennant) – who she turned into a werewolf in order to save her life.  Drastic measures taken to save a sibling – sound familiar? Kate was having trouble controlling the monster her sister had turned into, and was asked a tough question: could she kill her sister if she couldn’t get her under control? It’s an interesting parallel to the same question Sam was faced with just one episode before – whether or not he could kill Dean if he could not cure him. Ultimately, Sam didn’t have to face that scenario, but Kate did. She took out her own sister to prevent further deaths, and the episode left off with her walking into the darkness, alone. While I’d love to see her back as some sort of bad-ass werewolf hunter or vigilante in the future, I think that Kate will be left off with the sad ending and a moral that tells us sometimes you can’t save your own family – not a new concept with this show.

I do have to admit that I was a little disappointed that her storyline was twisted a bit to parallel the season’s current plot, but it definitely made sense in how I think the episode will play into the overall season. All I saw in this episode was a lot of foreshadowing for the return of demon Dean. Besides all the obvious parallels between Kate and Tasha and Sam and Dean’s relationships, there was one subtle element of this episode that worries me: Dean has yet to kill anything. Sam stopped him from killing Kate when they first captured her, and, in the fight scene towards the end of the episode, Sam once again took over – killing for Dean. While it’s only one episode (and therefore entirely too soon to tell), I just have a feeling that the minute Dean kills anyone, Supernatural being or not, the Mark of Cain will turn him right back into demon Dean.  So I’m just a little bit wary about how things are going to go for the Winchester brothers in these next few episodes.

This excludes the next episode, of course, which I’m just plain excited for.

For anyone who hasn’t heard, the next episode, “Fan Fiction,” is the 200^th episode of Supernatural, and has been described as a “meta” and “musical-ish” “love letter to the fans.” There has been a lot of fan speculation and worry about this episode, but I, for one, can’t wait to see what Supernatural has in store for us next.

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