‘Supernatural’ season 11 episode 17 recap: ‘Red Meat’ delivers tearjerker episode as Dean tries to sacrifice life for Sam [VIDEO]

“Supernatural” season 11 episode 17 “Red Meat” packs an emotional punch on Thursday night in the US, with Sam (Jared Padalecki) dying and Dean (Jensen Ackles) pleading for a deal with a death reaper. It’s the same trope that runs since the show’s first season, and which the viewers never tire of.

Spoilers ahead for ‘Red Meat’

The Winchesters were trying to save a couple, Corbin and Michelle, from werewolves in the middle of nowhere when Sam was shot. Frightened for his brother’s life, Dean tried to administer first aid on Sam, but Corbin was insistent he save them first. Dean didn’t want to move out of their location, thinking Sam wouldn’t make it, so Corbin appeared to have killed him while Dean was unaware.

Devastated but on a mission, Dean took the couple to safety, but just as he was about to run back to his brother, he was waylaid by the sheriff giving the couple a ride to the hospital. He woke up in a hospital some time later. With Sam dead, Dean asked Michelle for help, committing suicide in a bid to talk to the grouchy grim reaper, Billie (guest star Lisa Berry).

As expected, Dean begged for Billie to take him in exchange for his brother’s life. Unfortunately for him, Billie (and probably all other reapers) hated the Winchesters after they killed Death. As she warned from the first episode of the season, there’s no more second chance for the brothers. Once they are dead, they will not be revived again. She did, however, reveal that Sam has survived.

Sam was indeed alive. Although weak, he was able to kill two werewolves and drive out from the house. He was also able to call Dean, but because of poor network reception, he failed to tell him that Corbin was bitten by a werewolf (and therefore would turn into one soon).

Corbin did turn into a werewolf at the hospital, killing the doctor and the sheriff. Dean tried to restrain him, though it was Sam who shot him dead.

When Sam later asked Dean what Dean had done when he thought Sam was dead, Dean lied and said he knew Sam was alive, not revealing his bargain plea with Billie.

Season 11 episode 17 review

One of the brothers dying and the other begging for a deal to save the other is a plot that has been used and reused in “Supernatural.” There’s an online joke there somewhere in which fans acknowledge the whole brotherly-love-sacrifice thing is actually what the show is all about. It’s moving but also very funny because it’s already so predictable. And that’s just fine.

If the show goes on forever with the brothers doing the same thing (sacrificing their own lives for the other), it doesn’t look like it would still get old. It’s the very essence of the show; fans wouldn’t expect any less.

Though the boys dealt with werewolves in this episode, “Red Meat” isn’t really about them. The werewolves were killed almost effortlessly by the critically wounded Sam, so it’s clearly not about werewolves. The episode just meant to remind viewers that it’s Sam and Dean’s last life, and they will not be given another lifeline, perhaps just to scare viewers and take away the predictability factor in the show. If it is successful in doing so, probably not. Good try, anyway.

Apart from the reminder, the episode also more importantly stressed the Winchester brothers’ unconditional love for each other. The brief look of pain and panic in Dean’s eyes when Sam laid unmoving on the floor was all it took for the viewers to cry with him. No matter how many times each brother has died in the past, the other would never get used to it or even accept it. The fans wouldn’t as well.

It was also a moving scene with Dean and Michelle (guest star Erin Way), when Michelle went to Dean’s hospital room, wanting to apologise for Sam’s death. She knew in her heart that it was Corbin who killed Sam, and she was torn between her loyalty to her husband and showing compassion to the stranger who selflessly saved them.

“Supernatural” airs Mondays in Australia on the Eleven channel.

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