Sheriff Jody Mills is forced to attend a sheriff's retreat, and rather reluctantly pairs up with Sheriff Donna Hanscum (who you might remember from The Purge back in season 9) when the two of them catch wind of a suspicious murder. Sam and Dean, of course, arrive on scene to aid them in their hunt.
Seeing as how this episode was (partially) made by Jenny Klein, I feared the worst. This isn't to say that Jenny Klein is a bad writer, however, as of late, I have not been too impressed with her episodes, such as the trainwreck known as Rock and a Hard Place back in season 9. However, Klein was not alone in creating this episode, the story was written by both her and Phil Sgriccia. Odd, since - to my knowledge - Sgriccia has been solely a director in Supernatural up until this point. It's unclear how much of a hand he had in the creation of the script, but whatever did happen between the two of them, it worked. Putting "Rock and a Hard Place" back to back with this episode and I wouldn't for a moment believe that it was by the same person, because this episode was actually really good.
If you wanted an episode about the brothers, you aren't going to get a whole lot of that here. The majority of the plot is focused on Jody and Donna, and I actually found myself invested in their stories and entertained by their screen time together, much more than I ever thought I would.
Donna is an absolute joy to watch. Last season, the Purge was not my favourite, but I do distinctly remember loving Donna's character in that episode. She had an energy and light to her that is extremely rare to see in a show about brooding men. Not only did she bring that same energy into this episode, but it was even better and more enjoyable than before. With more time on screen, we were able to see her character more in depth and expand upon some of the ideas that were introduced with her back in season 9.
Jody Mills returns this episode and, as always, she was wonderful. Both Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster were phenomenal. Their chemistry on screen felt very natural; those two bounced off each other perfectly. Anytime they were on screen together at the same time, it held my attention.
This episode, in sum, was a Monster of the Week episode, but focused a great deal on the characters and development rather than fighting a creature, which does eventually happen. And this is where I feel the episode took a bit of a dip. The characters are great, the actors are great, the setting and pacing were all great, but the monster aspect of the episode is where things went downhill. The build up toward the 'big bad' was much stronger and greater than the actual reveal. I don't want to give anything away, but I'll just say that I was not too impressed with the monster.
Even so, my disinterest in the actual case did not take over the other great parts of the episode. It was lighthearted for the most part, it was funny and enjoyable, and gave spotlight to some minor characters that are probably the most unique and interesting female characters we've ever had in Supernatural. All in all, the episode was well written and definitely worth watching.
