Supernatural: Into the Mystic

Posted by: Kyle Tetarenko  •  January 27, 2016 @ 11:26pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

When a malevolent banshee attacks the vulnerable patrons of the an old folks home, Sam and Dean have to take action before it's too late.

After seeing Lucifer again in the cage, Sam is still pretty shaken up. Dean wants them to get out of the bunker and found a case where a man named Harold was found dead in his room with his head bashed open but there were no signs of a break in and the best part – it happened at a retirement home fifteen minutes away. Elsewhere, Castiel (now Lucifer in Castiel) is enjoying the simple things of his newfound freedom like a walk through the forest and snapping his fingers to make an annoying angel explode. At the retirement home, the Winchesters play federal agents and get a few details on Harold from the supervisor. The boys get wind that he had some enemies but after digging up a grave and burning the bones, a witch comes that night to claim its next victim. When the boys make their way back the next day, they see that the supervisor has been killed but a woman named Mildred saw everything. She tells them it was some type of spirit in a red dress and that the supervisor heard screams before he bashed his head through a window and jumped. Dean discovers the monster is a malevolent banshee that feeds on the vulnerable and whose screams make the victims crack their own heads open and for her to feed on. With an entire old folks of potentially vulnerable people, Sam and Dean have their work cut out for them.

Following last week's episode, Into the Mystic was a slow paced, albeit fun episode that returned to the monster of the week formula. The biggest strengths of Into the Mystic were the two guest stars and the characters they played with Shoshannah Stern as Eileen Leahy and Dee Wallace as Mildred. Both stars delivered wonderful performances and had characters that weren't treated as clichés. Eileen was deaf but more than capable of handling herself against Sam and ultimately killed the banshee. Mildred was a passionate woman who lived the life she wanted and loves the life she has now. The characters presented a strong message that perceptions of what a disability or old age means are simply perceptions rather than fact. It's a positive message from Supernatural and definitely unexpected.

While Misha Collins is great as Castiel, I'm not quite sold on him working double duty on Lucifer. Collins is a great actor and we've seen him take the character of Castiel to new heights throughout the course of the show but he doesn't have the natural charm of Mark Pellegrino or the snappy wit. I'm very curious to see where he takes the character going forward but this week felt like Castiel pretending to be Lucifer rather than a convincing portrayal.

Marred by average special effects and a repetitive MO, the malevolent banshee didn't exactly hit the mark. Let's be honest right now, those effects on the banshee were not great – or even good. Less lighting would have let our imagination fill in the gaps but we saw the whole floating thing in all of its glory. What was also odd was how every one of its victims killed themselves in the same exact way by bashing their heads in. Dean had a gun on him and would gotten the job done a lot faster if he just used that. My point being that seeing the victims do the same thing over and over in the simplest way possible makes the act lose affect pretty quickly. It's only an hour show after all.

Overall, Into the Mystic was enjoyable but fairly average. Besides a dull monster some low grade special effects it was a good episode with a positive message. We'll see what happens in next week's Don't You Forget About Me.

Tags: Supernatural, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Shoshannah Stern, Dee Wallace

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