Supernatural: The Rupture

Posted by: Kyle Tetarenko  •  October 24, 2019 @ 11:45pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

Goodbyes are never easy.

After averting the last crisis, Rowena, Castiel, Belpegor and the Winchesters need to seal the rupture and stop the ghosts and demons for good. Everything seems to be going well but Rowena's spell fails. There are too many souls with too much hate and anger all trying to break free at once. Fortunately, Belphegor has a plan and it is not easy. Lilith, the demon that was one of the seals holding Lucifer in his cage, had a tool for calling all demons back to hell if things got out of hand while they were topside on earth. Now that every door has been opened and all the demons are out of hell, they can make a play for it and hopefully pull it off. Never one to give up so easily, Rowena has another spell that will work; it requires Sam as her assistant witch and Dean to stand guard while Belphegor and Castiel descend into hell to retrieve the Lilith's horn. It's a long shot but if they manage to succeed, they would cast all of the spirits back to hell and who knows – they might just make it out alive.

One of the most memorable episode of Supernatural in quite some time, The Rupture was damn good television. Starting with a twist, Rowena's spell to seal the rupture immediately fails as she's overwhelmed by the shear force of every escaping soul from hell. Belphegor's plan takes the episode in an entirely different direction that used almost every character (Dean not so much) in meaningful way. The Rupture delivered spectacle, story and surprise throughout. As weird as it may sound, my issue was that there were too many cool things happening in this episode and some of it got lost in the shuffle. When you count it all, three big characters died in The Rupture and that was probably one too many. In this case, Ketch drew the short straw and while his death was good – I would argue that it was premature and should have happened later on in the season. Since the Men of Letters storyline concluded, Ketch has never had the chance to complete his redemption arc in a meaningful way. Though he was loyal to his friends to the last, it all happened so quickly and was overshadowed by Rowena and Belphagor's deaths. Combining that with the Ardat demon and it all felt like it should have been pushed to a later episode for a better payoff. More than anything, The Rupture felt like a season finale of Supernatural rather than the third episode of the season. It was a great episode and it was sad to see these characters pass on.

In what may have been her final appearance on Supernatural, Ruth Connell delivered all we could have asked for and more. It's pretty well documented over the years that I was not originally a fan of Connell at all but what she has brought to Rowena MacLeod over the years is a testament to her ability in her craft and her command in the role. Rowena's final moments were selfless and delivered on the prophecy that Sam Winchester would be the one to kill her in a way that I never saw coming, especially as the two have grown closer over the last few seasons. Rowena began as the conniving witch, was revealed as Crowley's mother (Fergus), and eventually grew beyond that. She was a part of the team and Dean's anger at her loss will impact Supernatural to the end.

Though he wasn't with us long, Belphegor's death was impactful and had Alexander Calvert at his best. Occupying Jack's corpse, Belphegor was a perversion of everything that Jack was to Castiel and their confrontation was as much a goodbye to Belphegor as it was Jack for Castiel. By the end, Castiel annihilated Jack's body to destroy Belphegor; it was both brutal for Castiel to endure as he was forced to accept that his son is gone. Following that, the fissure between him and Dean finally became too wide that the two of them parted ways. It was a powerful and heartbreaking scene to watch Castiel leave the bunker – alone and rejected by someone he considered family.

The Rupture was just a good episode of Supernatural, it was one of the best episodes of the series. Let's see what happens next week when Supernatural returns with Atomic Monsters.

Tags: Supernatural, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel, Rowena, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, Ruth Connell

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