Supernatural Review - 7.10 'Death's Door'

Posted by Joseph Lee on 12.03.2011

Jim Beaver deserves an Emmy. No, I'm serious.




The Road So Far: While hunting a rumored "Jersey Devil", Sam, Dean and Bobby get to the heart of the matter: the new Turducken Slammer at a restaurant is making people crazy. As it turns out, the Leviathans are making the new food to attempt to control humanity. The three get the jump on them, but are still no match and have to retreat. On the way out however, they see Bobby got shot as there is a bullet hole in his cap. Yes, the Leviathans apparently are willing to use guns. Bizarre.

Season Seven, Episode 10: Death's Door
Directed By: Robert Singer
Written By: Sera Gamble

Oh that's not a good episode title. Especially consider we enter this one knowing Bobby has a bullet in his brain. Add to that the fact that the last time Sera Gamble wrote an episode of the show we lost Cas, and the episode before that Lisa and Ben were purged of any memory of Dean and well...this one has the potential to be very depressing. I didn't like Bobby's chances going into this season and I liked them even less for this episode. For the purposes of this review, the only spoiler I'm going to avoid is whether or not Bobby dies. The rest is fair game.

Thankfully, this doesn't go the way of previous cliffhangers this season as we don't get any sort of resolution until the very end, and even then there's another cliffhanger to carry us over to January. The last string of episodes have been really great, from comedic value to just the usual action and drama we've come to expect. But this one's completely about one person, and whether or not he will survive to even see the end of this Leviathan story.

Much like Weekend at Bobby's, which I declared one of my favorite episodes so far, this one is all about Bobby's. This time it's not a light-hearted character study, but instead a dark and depressing tale into Bobby's mind. Remember when that Leviathan turned into him and wondered how he stayed sane? Now you're going to find out why.

Bobby is approached by a reaper and actually has to journey into his darkest memories in order to avoid him. That gets harder when you realize that the longer the bullet stays in his skull in the real world, the more brian damage it is causing. He manages to bring along Rufus (Steven Williams returns!), in memory form, to back him up as he tries to find a way to wake up from his coma. If you thought Sam and Dean have went through some stuff, I get the impression that Bobby's went through more. You especially figure that out when he outright says that killing his own demon-possessed wife was not the worst memory he's ever had. No wonder he constantly smells like alcohol.

Throughout the course of this series, we've watched Jensen Ackles kill it in the acting department, and Jared Padalecki really grow from "just there for his looks" to a legitimately decent actor in his own right. But when do you really get a chance to see Jim Beaver stretch his muscles and provide a powerhouse performance? Bobby doesn't just get one or two moments to do this, but several. Two are quite awesome and make you want to stand up and cheer, and the final one is very touching and poignant. There's a word I never thought I'd use with this show.

While the episode focuses entirely on Bobby, there's some other stuff going on too. We get to see how Sam and Dean are taking the death. Dean gets the line of the episode when Sam tries to comfort him: "We've been through enough". They really have. They've lost friends, family and just recently Castiel and it's absolutely destroying Dean. If Bobby doesn't make it, Dean will go off the deep end. From the looks of the way Sam was tugging on his scarred hand, he might join him.

I really have nothing negative to add about this episode. Maybe if I were nitpicking I'd say that the Leviathans really didn't need to show up. Yes, we get an appearance from Dick, and he acts like his namesake. But it wasn't necessary. We know who did this. All we need to know now is if Bobby's okay, and what it's doing to this family. Although I do wonder if there was some purpose to Dean threatening the guy with a crowd of people recording it via smartphone. Either they were just there to be a weird background choice or that's going to play a role down the line.

No, the worst part about this episode is the fact it's the mid-season finale and Superfans like myself have to wait until January to find out what happens. Whether or not Bobby is dead, this is Jim Beaver's finest episode.

The 411: At the beginning of the season, I thought the premiere would be hard to top. As it turns out, they have done that. Death's Door is one of the most well-acted episodes of the entire series' runs and one that really pulls at the viewer's heartstrings. This could be Bobby's swan song, it could not be. But Jim Beaver certainly went out there like he had something to prove and made this one of my favorite episodes of the show. Bravo, guys, Bravo.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]