‘Supernatural’ 13x07 spoilers, review: ‘War of the Worlds’ is a weak entry

“Supernatural” season 13 episode 7 is one of the weaker episodes of the season so far. “War of the Worlds” saw the return of two fan favourites, and that is the only good thing about the show.

Spoiler alert: The following contains spoilers, recap and review of “Supernatural” 13x7. The twelfth season was aired in Australia on Eleven.

In the last episode, Jack the nephilim (Alexander Calvert) left the safety of the bunker and away from Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) and Castiel (Misha Collins) because he felt he was going to bring them harm. The trio was looking for him in this episode, but not together as Cas (again) wanted to ask for an angel’s help alone.

Back in the alternate universe, Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) was captured and tortured by Michael (guest star Christian Keyes), who revealed they had their own prophet to help them open a portal for Lucifer’s earth. That prophet was Kevin Tran (returning guest star Osric Chau), who didn’t seem like the kid in advanced placement studies that he was on earth. Taking some of Lucifer’s grace, and therefore weakening him in the process, Michael had Kevin successfully open the portal. Unfortunately for them, Lucifer had evaded capture and gone to the portal before it closed.

Castiel was again betrayed by his angel friend as two more angels showed up and were about to take him in to lure Jack to them. Lucifer showed up and scared the angels, leaving Castiel alone with him. After their initial shock from seeing each other alive/present, Lucifer tried to convince Cas to join forces to find Jack. Castiel wasn’t able to warn the Winchesters of Lucifer and they were eventually captured by Asmodeus (guest star Jeffrey Vincent Parise) and his demons. Asmodeus imprisoned Castiel and Lucifer and had imitated Cas’ voice to call Dean and say everything was fine.

Earlier, Sam and Dean were approached by a witch for help because a killer was hunting them down and asking for Rowena (Ruth Connell, not in the episode). They found out it was Arthur Ketch (guest star David Haydn-Jones), who was supposed to be dead. They eventually captured him but he claimed he was Alexander, Arthur’s less successful twin brother. Sam checked out his records and found he was telling the truth, but Dean was sceptical. When Sam and Dean were attacked by Asmodeus’ demons while they were tracking Cas’ phone signal, they were saved by Ketch. By that time, Dean had no doubt left that he was Arthur all along, and the story about having a twin was nonsense.

Mr Ketch admitted that there was no twin, and he was alive because he had helped Rowena escaped the British Men of Letters in exchange for a spell to cheat death. He needed Rowena now because the spell needed recharging. He was able to escape the brothers shortly after. It was revealed in the end that Ketch was working for Asmodeus.

‘War of the Worlds’ review

The episode, directed by Richard Speight Jr and written by Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner, was tropes-galore and it’s getting a bit tired. Castiel isn’t a noob soldier of war. He had led his own garrison for millennia. Why is it that the writers seemed to forget that he must know every dirty tactic of his fellow angels by now? He should also be able to hold his own against demons. And again, he had to be separated from the brothers just because the angels didn’t trust them. They never learned.

Sam and Dean had code words in case one of them was captured or under attack. They should have taught Cas as well. The great thing is Dean knew by instinct that there was something wrong just by listening to his angel best friend’s voice. Dean’s reaction after Asmodeus posed as Castiel wasn’t shown, so it’s not sure if he believed that. In any case, Cas should know what code to say to the brothers in such incidents.

Castiel is yet again written as some awkward incompetent fool. He isn’t that and he has time and time again proved that he is a fierce soldier and master tactician. This episode is a disservice to a great character.

Same goes for Sam. In the first season of the show, Sam was instantly suspicious of encountering Meg Masters again while in a bar. It was too much of a coincidence, so he had Dean check her story out without letting her know that he was onto her. Where did that Sam go? He believed Ketch’s story after one brief checking, even playing devil’s advocate to a doubting Dean. Sam is an intelligent character who wouldn’t believe anything right away. He knew that as a Man of Letter, Ketch was capable of manipulating records. So this was a bit uncharacteristic of him.

For someone of Ketch’s calibre, pulling the evil twin card was beneath him. It’s a corny excuse that induced eye-rolling among viewers. It’s soap opera-ish and so far-fetched, even for a show that has dead characters reviving to life multiple times. Bringing Haydn-Jones and Chau back was a great thing, probably the only good thing about this episode, but this is a lazy approach to it.