6x11 “Appointment in Samara” Review

Part one: Summary

When things look hopeless for getting Sam’s soul back from Lucifer’s cage Dean goes to his last option: Death. He makes a deal with Dean, 24 hours with Death’s ring on for Sam’s soul. While Dean is struggling with his task, Sam is trying to find a way to keep a soul out. Soulless Sam learns that to scar his vessel he has to kill Bobby, his father figure. While Sam is chasing Bobby around his house Shining style, Dean faces the consequences of his actions and ultimately loses because he takes off the ring before his time. In the end, Death thinks Dean has learned his lesson anyway and puts Sam’s soul back into his vessel.

Part two: Review

Because this episode is split into Dean’s and Soulless Sam’s stories, it has two major themes: Destiny and Identity. Throughout Supernatural, the boys have always fought their destiny in the grand scheme of things but as Dean sees in this episode, theres a natural order to things and their actions cause a butterfly effect. Death is a powerful character who will even be there to reap God at the end of the world so when he decides the Winchesters need a lesson on the nature of the Universe, he means business. Soulless Sam makes interesting commentary on duality and the separation of identity because he both is and isn’t Sam. Ultimately, “Appointment in Samara” brings up interesting topics about the nature of the Supernatural Universe outside its supernatural landscape.

When Dean first puts on the ring, he's hesitant about “killing” people and naturally assumes an aggressive role when it comes to being told what to do without question. Tessa acts as Dean’s guide and provides a limited scope on the knowledge of the universe so she can explain some things while keeping others in the unknown. With each of his subjects, Dean tries to answer the age old questions of, “What does it all mean?” and “Why are things the way they are?” After trying to challenge fate by keeping a sick girl alive and reaping the consequences with multiple deaths and heart aches, Dean concludes that theres just a “natural order to things” and knocking down one domino sets off a slew of consequences.

After Dean fails to keep the ring on for 24 hours, he has a date with Death where he gets to ask his own questions. Of course, Death still doesn't coddle Dean but explains that the events of the episode were a test to see if Dean could take a look behind the curtain to clean his own mess. Death also acts as a sobering lesson of humility for Dean with the way he puts Dean into his place and highlights his flaws. Death has a way of making the situations Sam and Dean go through look like the follies of children who won’t behave and lends the viewer a macro lens of, not only the world of Supernatural, but of our world in general.

Changing scenes to Soulless Sam, the audience is given a micro lens to focus on the affairs of the individual. Traditionally, the soul is the source of humanity and its morals and a person without a soul is a monster who only causes disharmony but Soulless Sam is more complicated than that. Throughout Season 6, the audience sees that even though Sam without a soul is less of the emotional teddy bear we all fell in love with, he's a good hunter and works on a disturbing amount of logic. He’s not necessarily a monster and he makes sense. As an added layer, Soulless Sam reveals that he isn't just a broken piece of Sam but a separate identity; his actions are dictated by his will to survive, a basic human instinct. Soulless Sam’s separation of identity from Sam is solidified when he says, “Dean doesn’t care about me.” His actions seem a lot less heartless when you consider the fact that reuniting soul and body kills Soulless Sam.

On a similar note, when you look back at the mystery spot, Soulless Sam is eerily similar to Deanless Sam begging the question on Dean’s role as Sam’s soul. But that’s a topic for another time. In conclusion, this episode has heavy philosophic themes that are both grounded and extend beyond the Universe of Supernatural and since paradox is also a philosophic term I rest my case.