SPN 3X15 Time Is On My Side

Part One: Summary

With three weeks left until Dean is taken down under, Sam talks his brother into doing an investigation into what seems to be a zombie case. Once there, the brothers figure out that it is the immortal Dr. Benton kidnapping people and performing surgery to take their organs so that he may stay alive. Sam then gets the idea to steal Benton's formula and have Dean use it in order to avoid the end of the deal he made, but Dean refuses as Bobby calls him with news on the professional thief, Bela Thorton, who stole the Colt from them. After finding out about why Sam wanted to go on this mission, Dean decides that they should split up. Dean goes after Bela and Sam hunts down Dr. Benton. After meeting up with Bobby's old hunting partner, Dean gets a hold of Bela's case file and finds out her real identity all the while Sam gets kidnapped after rescuing a victim. In the end, the brothers hit the road with one last hope in getting Dean out of the deal as they get word on who holds his contract.

Part Two: Review

I had very mixed feelings about this episode. I'm easily grossed out by bodily fluids, so during the scene when Sam was openly sharing to Dean, who was eating, all the gross things Dr. Benton has done I could sympathize with Dean. Supernatural Season 3 was filmed around the time the Writer's Guild of America strike was taking place in 2007. This is part of the reason why there are only 16 episodes in this season instead of the usual 22. The strike put a real deadline on Supernatural, December 5th of that year. So with this, it's very interesting to peer at this episode from the writing perspective.
There is a lot of risks they took with this episode, with the actual filming of Benton performing surgery (which I'll get to in the next paragraph), the sudden develop of Bela's character, the theme of “chasing immortality” alluding to the story of the Fall of Man often found in roots of Christianity, and the small, but significant details that were added in for affect, such as the heart rate monitor on the runner Benton took the heart out of and the devil's shoestring hanging above her door (which I mistaken to be a noose at first). Bela is first introduced to the audience at the beginning of season 3, episode 3 “Bad Day at Black Rock.” To be honest, when I first met Bela I was intrigued yet infuriated by her. I think the boys felt the same way (and I really wish the writers would have gone more in depth with Dean and Bela but a fan can only dream). I'm sorry I'm putting a lot of parentheses in this paragraph by high school AP Lang teacher would be so pissed.
        Anyway, the sudden wrap-up of Bela's story was pleasing and disheartening at the same time for me. It was nice to see Dean interact with her again, for some reason to me those actors do a fantastic job in a scene together. I loved that we got more in depth with Bela's layers and yet we still saw a bit of the same old thief we saw in the beginning. Watching her go in the end was kind of difficult for me. I was very conflicted but satisfied. That probably makes me sound like a horrible person, but Bela herself was a conflict with everything that surrounded her!
On to the next thing, the allusion. The dialogue between Sam, Dean, and Dr. Benton about immortality was a bore. It's the same set-up as every story there is about immortality to exist, especially within Greek mythology. I just know noticed that the episodes in season 10 about the Styne family are very similar to this set up right here. That's really creepy. Anyway, I felt like both Sam and Dean were playing devil's advocate in their own way. Sam was pushing for Dean to partake in the dark ritual so that he could end up like Dr. Benton, while Dean was accepting the fact that he was going to hell and that they both had to deal with it. Sam was coming from the perspective similar to the snake that tempted Eve to take the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Except in a twist of events, Dean (Eve) doesn't take it and ends up dead anyway (Eve was technically “spiritually dead” to God once she took the fruit).
Supernatural has always been a show that wasn't afraid to show some gore and really gross out an audience, which is one of the first elements I think the writer's used to show the difference between Sam and Dean, good versus evil, and justice in the end. Sam is fascinated with all the gory details, reveling in information for fun while Dean sticks to the usual “shoot first, ask questions later” mantra.

Part Three: Questions, Problems, Concerns,

        Despite stating earlier that this was a weird episode for me, I thought that the writers did a wonderful job at using it to set up the much-anticipated season finale. The only questions I had were, "How do they acquire these different cars?" because Sam didn't use the Impala to get to Dr. Benton's shack. Also, I thought about, "Why go for Sam's eyes?" when Benton kidnapped him. The writers could have picked any organ, but they chose that. Why? I think the one question that really resonated in my head was this, "How far would you really go for someone you love?" Think about Supernatural as a whole: that's literally the entire show. Somehow they have to stop this sacrificial relationship the brothers.