Review | 6x11 | Appointment In Samarra
Sera Gamble’s episode Appointment In Samarra brings the brothers main plotline to a head and as was to be expected for the usual midseason game-changer, she leaves us with a giant cliffhanger. I may not be entirely happy with some of the finer details in the plot, but overall the episode offered more than enough goodness to outweigh that. The premise of the episode is intriguing, there is some excellent character work and on top of it, it returns some beloved characters from the earlier seasons back to the screen.
I enjoyed Appointment In Samarra, even more so on the second to forth viewing than on the first. It is definitely an improvement to Caged Heat for me, and even if I have a couple of quibbles with the episode, there are no scenes that I actively dislike. If the episode has one major weakness though, it’s that it is terribly predictable. Both Sam and Dean's plotlines offer no real surprises for the viewer. I mean, as much as I enjoyed the showdown between Bobby and soulless Sam, it’s clear from the get-go that the writers would never go as far as to allow Sam to actually kill Bobby. It would cross an ultimate line and, soul or not, it would make Sam’s character pretty much irredeemable. Similarly, it’s easy to foresee that Dean's stint as a reaper would inevitably put him into a emotional conflict and tempt him to forfeit his deal with Death. And that a child would be involved was kind of a given. I guess at times I felt that Sera Gamble wrote the plot by the numbers and that the episode was never more than a means to an end to get Sam's soul back. So, while I liked the episode, I was initially a tad reserved, and it took me a while to get past that feeling and connect to it on a more profound level.
Dean: "Great, what’s the bet?"
Death: "Now, when you fetch my ring, put it on. I want you to be me. For one day."
Dean’s storyline in Appointment In Samarra is very reminiscent of the pilot episode of 'Dead Like Me', right down to the part where Dean refuses to reap a little girl, thus not only causing catastrophic after-effects for the girl whose life he tried to spare, but also triggering an uncontrollable chain of events that results in several other deaths. While the first two souls Dean is forced to reap are mostly played for laughs, the story of the little girl with a heart-condition at least triggers a more meaningful exploration of death and the natural order. Not that the consequences of Dean’s actions are all that surprising, but I think his conversations with Tessa and Death in aftermath of his 'failure' offer some very interesting insights into the interrelation between the Winchesters history with death and the chaos that is their lives.
Tessa’s statement that chaos and sadness will follow the little girl around for the rest of her life, because her existence is a disruption of the natural order, is easily transferable to the Winchester family. Death and disaster have been a fixture in the Winchesters lives ever since they started to mess with the natural order. Mary not only doomed her unborn son when she made a deal with Azazel in order to resurrect John, but she also signed her own death warrant, which, ultimately, set John on his path to becoming a hunter. When John sacrificed himself for Dean's sake, he paved the way for Dean’s deal for Sam's life, which led to the first seal being broken. Not to mention that Dean's death facilitated Sam's descend into darkness and as a result the last seal fell as well, unleashing Lucifer on earth. The bottom line is, the apocalypse was a result of the Winchesters’ inability to accept their mortality. Granted, they have been enabled by demons and angels in their 'quest' to reverse death, but in the end, the choices were their own. Furthermore, the consequences of the Winchesters' habit to mess with the natural order also impacted their family, friends and allies, who all paid a steep price for their connection to the Winchesters - from Mary’s family being eradicated to the deaths of Pastor Jim, Caleb, Jessica, Henriksen, Ellen or Jo, just to name a few. The Winchesters are at the core of a massive cause-and-effect chain and given the recent events, it stands to reason that they still are.
All this ties in with Death’s claim that the Winchesters are an affront to the balance of the universe and cause disruption on a global scale. So I think that teaching Dean a lesson about how his decisions affect others and opening his eyes to the far-reaching consequences of disrupting the natural order is no idle amusement on Death's side, but a warning that will come into play later in the season. After all, Death explicitly tells Dean that he will know what all this means when the time comes, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's referring to Mary's resurrection/soul. I mean, Dean could be tempted to once again interfere with the natural order where her soul is concerned, no matter how adamantly he was against it in his conversation with Samuel in Caged Heat. Now, I think there is no doubt that Dean is already quite aware that messing with the natural order is a monumentally bad idea that can lead to unforeseen consequences - previous experience taught him that and Tessa even calls him out on it - but the fact that just at the beginning of the episode he disregards that knowledge and 'kills himself' in order to contact Tessa and Death shows that Death isn’t all that far off when he states that death lost all meaning for the Winchesters because they keep coming back from it. So I think that Death’s wager with Dean serves a valid purpose and not only reinforces a lesson Dean likes to push to the back of his mind where his family is concerned, but also widens Dean’s understanding of the consequences of his life-and-death decisions.
In any case, despite his dire warning, Death tempers with the natural order himself by returning Sam’s soul to his body, and I think his motivation is rooted in a more personal agenda. It’s clear that Death wants Dean to continue his search for purgatory and the souls therein - to what end is not entirely clear yet - and, knowing Dean’s devotion to his family, that is never going to happen as long as his brother is trapped in hell. In the end saving Sam’s soul is an incentive for Dean to comply with Death’s request to keep on digging and, ultimately, do what he does best, i.e. 'throwing a wrench into everything'. I am curious as to what Death hopes to achieve through Dean though. I mean, one would think that he knows everything there is to know about every soul in the universe, no matter their location. And as I already said back after Two Minutes To Midnight, Death isn’t evil and I can’t quite imagine that he pursues ulterior motives here that would harm humanity - or souls for that matter. Only time will tell I guess, it’s obviously not the last we have seen of Death this season!
Sam: "Dean doesn’t care about me. He just cares about his little brother, Sammy, burning in hell. He’ll kill me to get that other guy back."
Bobby: "Look, I know how scary it is. But you know what’s scarier? You, right now. You’re not in your right head, Sam. You’re not giving us much choice here."
I enjoyed the confrontation between Bobby and Sam, not least because Bobby puts up such a formidable fight. Even if, ultimately, he allows his concern for Sam to get the better of him, the old man is still a challenge for the young hunter. Especially luring Sam on top of the trap door in front of the closet is such a typical Bobby move, and I like to think that he installed that trap door after he and Dean had their grim encounter with the zombies in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, where being trapped in the very same closet almost cost them their lives. That all being said, however, the way the confrontation between Sam and Bobby comes to pass has to be one of the most contrived plot points in the history of the show. I may get behind the fact that polluting the 'soul’s vessel' by committing patricide makes it inhabitable - even though I have to wonder why the souls of people who actually murdered their fathers are not expelled from the body then - but the rather liberal interpretation of the term 'patricide' makes it really hard for me to suspend disbelief for this particular plot point. 'You need the blood of your father, but your father needn’t be blood.' Really? How very convenient! I really wished the writers would have come up with something a little more plausible.
Anyway, I think the most important moment in the encounter between Sam and Bobby is their little heart-to-heart through the basement door, where Sam tries to rationalise his actions as a necessary step to protect himself. Of course Sam is right when he claims that Dean doesn’t really care about him. Sam’s soulless self is the only tangible link Dean has to his real brother and naturally that’s what the cares about. But then, Sam doesn’t truly care about Dean either. Up to this point their partnership has been driven by mutual goals rather than affection, and it has been sustained by instinct, to an extent, from Sam’s side and loyalty from Dean’s side. However, the really interesting point in Sam’s statement is that he claims that Sam Winchester, Dean’s little brother, is a completely different person than him. It’s apparent that Sam fully disassociated from his souled self and now constitutes himself as a person in his own right. This turn of events presents an interesting problem, namely if Dean and Bobby are morally obligated to accept Sam’s decision not to be resouled.
Now, obviously the right of self-determination, i.e. the right to determine one's own fate or course of action without compulsion, is a basic human right. However, it’s not without limitations. The right of self-determination is only applicable as long as it does not infringe on someone else’s rights, and the fact that Sam tries to kill Bobby to ensure his own survival shows that he is no longer able to draw that particular line. That’s also emphasised in his everyday actions, where Sam has taken to ignore other people’s rights, not with malevolent intent, mind you, but due to misjudgement and ruthlessness. Naturally Sam using Dean to obtain intel on the alpha vampire comes to mind, but that’s not an isolated case. If Dean hadn’t interfered, Sam would have killed Samuel for his betrayal of their trust. If Dean hadn’t insisted that they make sure that Mandy is indeed the skinwalker, Sam would have handed the woman over to Crowley to be tortured at the demon’s hands. Sam was willing to risk the lives of 150 people on the off chance that the leader of the skinwalker sleeper cell will lead him to an alpha. Sam himself even admitted that he killed innocents in the line of duty in the year he was without Dean. However efficient or competent Sam might seem at times, I think it’s clear that the lack of his soul compromises his judgement to an enormous degree, and as a result Sam has become a danger to the people around him.
So, ultimately, resouling Sam is a necessary action to protect innocent lives, and the real Sam would be the first to accept the risk to his own life, if it will ensure the safety of others. After all, back in Playthings Sam begged Dean to promise him that he will kill Sam, should he ever turn into something he is not. He trusted Dean to be able to make that judgement call in case he himself wouldn’t be able to care about that distinction anymore, and I guess we can all agree on the fact that this is currently the case. I think that, for the first time ever since he made that promise, Dean actually contemplates to fulfil it - at least that’s what I read in his expression when he locks eyes with his brother through the peephole of the panic room door - and if Death hadn’t agreed to return Sam’s soul regardless of Dean’s failure, I think he would have been forced to go through with it eventually. Overall, I am convinced that Dean has every right to override Sam’s decision to remain soulless, not only for the sake of others, but also because the real Sam explicitly expressed his own wishes in the matter. As things stand, I think that Sam is unable to make a truly informed decision here, because in order to understand why he needs his soul back, he would need to have a soul in the first place. And all this doesn’t even take into account that accepting Sam’s decision would condemn Sam’s soul to be tortured at the hands of Lucifer and Michael for all eternity. Someone has to step up and play advocate for Sam’s soul and who would be better suited for that task than Dean.
Death: "I’m going to put up a barrier inside your mind. You might feel a little itchy. Do me a favour. Don’t scratch the wall. Because trust me, you’re not gonna like what happens."
Sam: "Please, don’t do this. No. You don’t know what will happen to me."
The final scene, where Death resouls Sam despite his vehement protest, is pretty intense, and I think it’s noteworthy that even though Sam often suggested that he can’t feel anything, he shows real fear in this particular situation. We have seen on various other occasions earlier in the season that Sam isn’t void of all feelings, but he has never been as emotionally out of control as here and at first glance that might seem inconsistent. Now, it’s obvious that Sam can experience emotions that are responses to physical needs, like lust and desire. And since he has still all of his intellectual capacities, he can also experience emotions that are responses to intellectual stimulation, like satisfaction at being a good hunter, amusement at Dean’s jokes or irritation at Castiel’s unwillingness to answer to his prayers. Overall he seems limited to very basic emotions though, it’s the more complex emotions like love, hate, compassion or empathy that are missing from his repertoire. So, I think that the overwhelming fear Sam displays before his soul is returned to him is a basic emotion as well, namely a primal response linked to his survival instinct, much like a cornered animal would panic and lash about. So even if Sam seems to break pattern with this intensive display of emotions, I still think it’s within the parameters the show established for his soulless persona.
Anyway, I admit, I am a tad apprehensive about the solution to the dilemma of Sam’s damaged soul, i.e. Death creating a wall in Sam’s mind that will keep the horrible memories hidden from his consciousness. On the one hand I can see several narrative advantages here: Firstly, unlike with Dean’s hell memories, there will be a comprehensible reason why Sam is still a functioning human being instead of a traumatized wreck. It has always been my main point of discontentment with S4 that Dean’s hell experience was downplayed by the fact that, for no apparent reason, he was so little affected by his trauma. Secondly, the writers will be able to return to this plot point at any opportune time in the story. After all, they make such a point of the fact that the 'wall' may not be permanent that I have hope there will be consequences in the long run. I mean, we all know that Sam is the type of person who will inevitably poke at something if he is told that he is not allowed to. The slow breakdown of the mental 'wall' could affect Sam over time and lead to an interesting post-hell character arc. On the other hand, however, I fear that the writers might be tempted to use the mental wall as a full memory wipe - the wall not only blocking the memories of Sam’s soul but also the memories of soulless Sam for the rest of his life - thus rendering the whole first part of the season meaningless, and not only depriving Sam’s character of development, but also denying the brothers the opportunity to deal with the events of the last couple of weeks. So, overall my acceptance of this story device depends on how the writers will use it in the upcoming episodes.
So, where do we go from here? While I don't expect that things will go back to normal between Sam and Dean right away, I want the next 11 episodes to pick up where the brothers' relationship left off in S5, namely with Sam and Dean progressing to a more mature and equal partnership, rediscovering their brotherly bond in the process. Additionally, both characters suffered new trauma over the last couple of months, and I want that trauma to be acknowledged in some capacity. Dean suffered severe consequences from his partnership with soulless Sam, and Sam himself was once again violated and used to serve someone else’s purposes. His body and soul have been ripped apart and thus he has been turned into the very monster he always feared to be. Ultimately, Sam’s redemptive act of self-sacrifice in Swan Song has been turned around on the brothers in the most horrible manner imaginable, and I would really like to see an emotional fallout to that.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) It’s no secret that I love Tessa, and I have always been happy to see her in an episode. I not only enjoy the sense of story continuity that comes with her character, but also the history she shares with Dean and her usually compassionate and gentle demeanour. I have to say though that I feel a tad ambivalent about Tessa in Appointment In Samarra, mostly because I think that her characterisation is off. Throughout the episode she seems rather annoyed and irritated with Dean, and while I can understand that she doesn’t like Dean’s interference with her job, it’s not like Dean asked to be put in this position. There is one moment in particular that strikes me as very out of character for Tessa and that’s when she tells the newly deceased nurse Jolene that she will miss out on a bright and happy future because Dean screwed up. It seems rather petty and cruel to use the nurse just to make Dean feel guilty for his decision to save the little girl, causing Jolene’s already confused spirit such a distress in the process. Dean may have deserved that reprimand, but I simply don’t find it believable that Tessa would take her frustration with Dean out on a soul in her care.
(2) I am very happy that Adam’s fate has finally been acknowledged. It’s about time, too! Obviously there was never a doubt that Dean would choose Sam, when Death forces him to pick either Sam or Adam, but it’s nice to see that he at least tries to bargain for both of his brothers. Still, I find it rather unsettling that Adam’s storyline seems to end so bleakly. Forced to rise from the dead, used as bait and taken advantage of as a vessel, only to end up as Lucifer and Michael’s punching ball for all of eternity - I don’t think there has ever been a secondary character on Supernatural who met a more unfortunate fate than the youngest Winchester.
(3) I am rather nonplussed about the fact that apparently angels as well as reapers can now be summoned, just like demons. Why have we never even heard about that possibility before? And how did Sam and Dean, respectively, learn how to do that? Considering that both supernatural beings are not exactly common, who would even possess that kind of knowledge in the first place? Other than angels and reapers themselves, obviously, but I doubt either would care to share that knowledge with Sam and Dean. I feel that it starts to become a rather too convenient story tool for the writers to simply create summoning rituals for just about every powerful creature, thus having them at the Winchesters every beck and call. It's especially annoying because creating those summoning rituals was not at all imperative for the story. Sam could have prayed for Balthazar to come to him, and since Dean's death was real, it would not have been out of the ordinary if Tessa had just appeared to collect his soul.
(4) The title Appointment In Samarra instantly made it into my Top 10 of Supernatural episode titles. I have always loved the Somerset Maugham version of the story about the merchant’s servant in Baghdad, who tries to escape death and by doing so fulfils the very fate he is trying so hard to avoid. Obviously it’s a great match for the episode, not only because the narrator of the story is Death himself, but also because it resonates well with both Sam and Dean’s storylines. I really love it when the writers choose meaningful titles like that for an episode.
(5) I have to say that I feel pretty smug about the fact that my initial theory that Death most likely set Sam free because he is the only being powerful enough to snatch him from the cage without opening it first - besides God, obviously - was right. Granted, I was way off about the timing and Death’s motivation to help Sam, but, naturally, back at the beginning of the season I had no clue that Sam was not actually out of the cage yet. In any case, there is something very satisfactory about coming to the same conclusion as the writers of the show and seeing your own theories play out on screen.
In conclusion: Even though I had some reservations at first, I found myself rewatching Appointment In Samarra more often than other episodes this season. The fascinating dynamics between Dean & Death and Sam & Bobby won me over in the end and outweighed my quibbles with some of the plot points. I think though that my enjoyment of the episode is only partly due to the plot/character work, and partly due to the fact that the episode sparked a lot of anticipation for the second half of the season in me. That’s mirrored in the fact that I read more episode tags to Appointment In Samarra than to any other S6 episode so far. I really want to know how the story continues from here!
Looking back at the first half of S6, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it as much as I will ever enjoy a Supernatural that sadly lacks Sam and Dean's mutual bond and features one of the brothers as absent in spirit. Still, I think the 'soulless Sam' plot posed some really interesting questions regarding the definition of humanity and self-identity in the Supernatural universe and allowed the writers to explore Sam and Dean’s relationship from a very different angle. Moreover, in creating a void where Sam and Dean's bond used to be, the writers emphasised just how crucial that bond is to the story (and the viewer) and that kept me emotionally invested. I guess it also helped that I felt compassionate towards soulless Sam, even if he creeped me out at times. I admit, I am itching to actually write a comprehensive meta about soulless Sam, just to pull all the thoughts and observations that are scattered throughout my S6 reviews together, but I guess that will have to wait until I have more time at my hands.
I enjoyed Appointment In Samarra, even more so on the second to forth viewing than on the first. It is definitely an improvement to Caged Heat for me, and even if I have a couple of quibbles with the episode, there are no scenes that I actively dislike. If the episode has one major weakness though, it’s that it is terribly predictable. Both Sam and Dean's plotlines offer no real surprises for the viewer. I mean, as much as I enjoyed the showdown between Bobby and soulless Sam, it’s clear from the get-go that the writers would never go as far as to allow Sam to actually kill Bobby. It would cross an ultimate line and, soul or not, it would make Sam’s character pretty much irredeemable. Similarly, it’s easy to foresee that Dean's stint as a reaper would inevitably put him into a emotional conflict and tempt him to forfeit his deal with Death. And that a child would be involved was kind of a given. I guess at times I felt that Sera Gamble wrote the plot by the numbers and that the episode was never more than a means to an end to get Sam's soul back. So, while I liked the episode, I was initially a tad reserved, and it took me a while to get past that feeling and connect to it on a more profound level.
Dean: "Great, what’s the bet?"
Death: "Now, when you fetch my ring, put it on. I want you to be me. For one day."
Dean’s storyline in Appointment In Samarra is very reminiscent of the pilot episode of 'Dead Like Me', right down to the part where Dean refuses to reap a little girl, thus not only causing catastrophic after-effects for the girl whose life he tried to spare, but also triggering an uncontrollable chain of events that results in several other deaths. While the first two souls Dean is forced to reap are mostly played for laughs, the story of the little girl with a heart-condition at least triggers a more meaningful exploration of death and the natural order. Not that the consequences of Dean’s actions are all that surprising, but I think his conversations with Tessa and Death in aftermath of his 'failure' offer some very interesting insights into the interrelation between the Winchesters history with death and the chaos that is their lives.
Tessa’s statement that chaos and sadness will follow the little girl around for the rest of her life, because her existence is a disruption of the natural order, is easily transferable to the Winchester family. Death and disaster have been a fixture in the Winchesters lives ever since they started to mess with the natural order. Mary not only doomed her unborn son when she made a deal with Azazel in order to resurrect John, but she also signed her own death warrant, which, ultimately, set John on his path to becoming a hunter. When John sacrificed himself for Dean's sake, he paved the way for Dean’s deal for Sam's life, which led to the first seal being broken. Not to mention that Dean's death facilitated Sam's descend into darkness and as a result the last seal fell as well, unleashing Lucifer on earth. The bottom line is, the apocalypse was a result of the Winchesters’ inability to accept their mortality. Granted, they have been enabled by demons and angels in their 'quest' to reverse death, but in the end, the choices were their own. Furthermore, the consequences of the Winchesters' habit to mess with the natural order also impacted their family, friends and allies, who all paid a steep price for their connection to the Winchesters - from Mary’s family being eradicated to the deaths of Pastor Jim, Caleb, Jessica, Henriksen, Ellen or Jo, just to name a few. The Winchesters are at the core of a massive cause-and-effect chain and given the recent events, it stands to reason that they still are.
All this ties in with Death’s claim that the Winchesters are an affront to the balance of the universe and cause disruption on a global scale. So I think that teaching Dean a lesson about how his decisions affect others and opening his eyes to the far-reaching consequences of disrupting the natural order is no idle amusement on Death's side, but a warning that will come into play later in the season. After all, Death explicitly tells Dean that he will know what all this means when the time comes, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's referring to Mary's resurrection/soul. I mean, Dean could be tempted to once again interfere with the natural order where her soul is concerned, no matter how adamantly he was against it in his conversation with Samuel in Caged Heat. Now, I think there is no doubt that Dean is already quite aware that messing with the natural order is a monumentally bad idea that can lead to unforeseen consequences - previous experience taught him that and Tessa even calls him out on it - but the fact that just at the beginning of the episode he disregards that knowledge and 'kills himself' in order to contact Tessa and Death shows that Death isn’t all that far off when he states that death lost all meaning for the Winchesters because they keep coming back from it. So I think that Death’s wager with Dean serves a valid purpose and not only reinforces a lesson Dean likes to push to the back of his mind where his family is concerned, but also widens Dean’s understanding of the consequences of his life-and-death decisions.
In any case, despite his dire warning, Death tempers with the natural order himself by returning Sam’s soul to his body, and I think his motivation is rooted in a more personal agenda. It’s clear that Death wants Dean to continue his search for purgatory and the souls therein - to what end is not entirely clear yet - and, knowing Dean’s devotion to his family, that is never going to happen as long as his brother is trapped in hell. In the end saving Sam’s soul is an incentive for Dean to comply with Death’s request to keep on digging and, ultimately, do what he does best, i.e. 'throwing a wrench into everything'. I am curious as to what Death hopes to achieve through Dean though. I mean, one would think that he knows everything there is to know about every soul in the universe, no matter their location. And as I already said back after Two Minutes To Midnight, Death isn’t evil and I can’t quite imagine that he pursues ulterior motives here that would harm humanity - or souls for that matter. Only time will tell I guess, it’s obviously not the last we have seen of Death this season!
Sam: "Dean doesn’t care about me. He just cares about his little brother, Sammy, burning in hell. He’ll kill me to get that other guy back."
Bobby: "Look, I know how scary it is. But you know what’s scarier? You, right now. You’re not in your right head, Sam. You’re not giving us much choice here."
I enjoyed the confrontation between Bobby and Sam, not least because Bobby puts up such a formidable fight. Even if, ultimately, he allows his concern for Sam to get the better of him, the old man is still a challenge for the young hunter. Especially luring Sam on top of the trap door in front of the closet is such a typical Bobby move, and I like to think that he installed that trap door after he and Dean had their grim encounter with the zombies in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, where being trapped in the very same closet almost cost them their lives. That all being said, however, the way the confrontation between Sam and Bobby comes to pass has to be one of the most contrived plot points in the history of the show. I may get behind the fact that polluting the 'soul’s vessel' by committing patricide makes it inhabitable - even though I have to wonder why the souls of people who actually murdered their fathers are not expelled from the body then - but the rather liberal interpretation of the term 'patricide' makes it really hard for me to suspend disbelief for this particular plot point. 'You need the blood of your father, but your father needn’t be blood.' Really? How very convenient! I really wished the writers would have come up with something a little more plausible.
Anyway, I think the most important moment in the encounter between Sam and Bobby is their little heart-to-heart through the basement door, where Sam tries to rationalise his actions as a necessary step to protect himself. Of course Sam is right when he claims that Dean doesn’t really care about him. Sam’s soulless self is the only tangible link Dean has to his real brother and naturally that’s what the cares about. But then, Sam doesn’t truly care about Dean either. Up to this point their partnership has been driven by mutual goals rather than affection, and it has been sustained by instinct, to an extent, from Sam’s side and loyalty from Dean’s side. However, the really interesting point in Sam’s statement is that he claims that Sam Winchester, Dean’s little brother, is a completely different person than him. It’s apparent that Sam fully disassociated from his souled self and now constitutes himself as a person in his own right. This turn of events presents an interesting problem, namely if Dean and Bobby are morally obligated to accept Sam’s decision not to be resouled.
Now, obviously the right of self-determination, i.e. the right to determine one's own fate or course of action without compulsion, is a basic human right. However, it’s not without limitations. The right of self-determination is only applicable as long as it does not infringe on someone else’s rights, and the fact that Sam tries to kill Bobby to ensure his own survival shows that he is no longer able to draw that particular line. That’s also emphasised in his everyday actions, where Sam has taken to ignore other people’s rights, not with malevolent intent, mind you, but due to misjudgement and ruthlessness. Naturally Sam using Dean to obtain intel on the alpha vampire comes to mind, but that’s not an isolated case. If Dean hadn’t interfered, Sam would have killed Samuel for his betrayal of their trust. If Dean hadn’t insisted that they make sure that Mandy is indeed the skinwalker, Sam would have handed the woman over to Crowley to be tortured at the demon’s hands. Sam was willing to risk the lives of 150 people on the off chance that the leader of the skinwalker sleeper cell will lead him to an alpha. Sam himself even admitted that he killed innocents in the line of duty in the year he was without Dean. However efficient or competent Sam might seem at times, I think it’s clear that the lack of his soul compromises his judgement to an enormous degree, and as a result Sam has become a danger to the people around him.
So, ultimately, resouling Sam is a necessary action to protect innocent lives, and the real Sam would be the first to accept the risk to his own life, if it will ensure the safety of others. After all, back in Playthings Sam begged Dean to promise him that he will kill Sam, should he ever turn into something he is not. He trusted Dean to be able to make that judgement call in case he himself wouldn’t be able to care about that distinction anymore, and I guess we can all agree on the fact that this is currently the case. I think that, for the first time ever since he made that promise, Dean actually contemplates to fulfil it - at least that’s what I read in his expression when he locks eyes with his brother through the peephole of the panic room door - and if Death hadn’t agreed to return Sam’s soul regardless of Dean’s failure, I think he would have been forced to go through with it eventually. Overall, I am convinced that Dean has every right to override Sam’s decision to remain soulless, not only for the sake of others, but also because the real Sam explicitly expressed his own wishes in the matter. As things stand, I think that Sam is unable to make a truly informed decision here, because in order to understand why he needs his soul back, he would need to have a soul in the first place. And all this doesn’t even take into account that accepting Sam’s decision would condemn Sam’s soul to be tortured at the hands of Lucifer and Michael for all eternity. Someone has to step up and play advocate for Sam’s soul and who would be better suited for that task than Dean.
Death: "I’m going to put up a barrier inside your mind. You might feel a little itchy. Do me a favour. Don’t scratch the wall. Because trust me, you’re not gonna like what happens."
Sam: "Please, don’t do this. No. You don’t know what will happen to me."
The final scene, where Death resouls Sam despite his vehement protest, is pretty intense, and I think it’s noteworthy that even though Sam often suggested that he can’t feel anything, he shows real fear in this particular situation. We have seen on various other occasions earlier in the season that Sam isn’t void of all feelings, but he has never been as emotionally out of control as here and at first glance that might seem inconsistent. Now, it’s obvious that Sam can experience emotions that are responses to physical needs, like lust and desire. And since he has still all of his intellectual capacities, he can also experience emotions that are responses to intellectual stimulation, like satisfaction at being a good hunter, amusement at Dean’s jokes or irritation at Castiel’s unwillingness to answer to his prayers. Overall he seems limited to very basic emotions though, it’s the more complex emotions like love, hate, compassion or empathy that are missing from his repertoire. So, I think that the overwhelming fear Sam displays before his soul is returned to him is a basic emotion as well, namely a primal response linked to his survival instinct, much like a cornered animal would panic and lash about. So even if Sam seems to break pattern with this intensive display of emotions, I still think it’s within the parameters the show established for his soulless persona.
Anyway, I admit, I am a tad apprehensive about the solution to the dilemma of Sam’s damaged soul, i.e. Death creating a wall in Sam’s mind that will keep the horrible memories hidden from his consciousness. On the one hand I can see several narrative advantages here: Firstly, unlike with Dean’s hell memories, there will be a comprehensible reason why Sam is still a functioning human being instead of a traumatized wreck. It has always been my main point of discontentment with S4 that Dean’s hell experience was downplayed by the fact that, for no apparent reason, he was so little affected by his trauma. Secondly, the writers will be able to return to this plot point at any opportune time in the story. After all, they make such a point of the fact that the 'wall' may not be permanent that I have hope there will be consequences in the long run. I mean, we all know that Sam is the type of person who will inevitably poke at something if he is told that he is not allowed to. The slow breakdown of the mental 'wall' could affect Sam over time and lead to an interesting post-hell character arc. On the other hand, however, I fear that the writers might be tempted to use the mental wall as a full memory wipe - the wall not only blocking the memories of Sam’s soul but also the memories of soulless Sam for the rest of his life - thus rendering the whole first part of the season meaningless, and not only depriving Sam’s character of development, but also denying the brothers the opportunity to deal with the events of the last couple of weeks. So, overall my acceptance of this story device depends on how the writers will use it in the upcoming episodes.
So, where do we go from here? While I don't expect that things will go back to normal between Sam and Dean right away, I want the next 11 episodes to pick up where the brothers' relationship left off in S5, namely with Sam and Dean progressing to a more mature and equal partnership, rediscovering their brotherly bond in the process. Additionally, both characters suffered new trauma over the last couple of months, and I want that trauma to be acknowledged in some capacity. Dean suffered severe consequences from his partnership with soulless Sam, and Sam himself was once again violated and used to serve someone else’s purposes. His body and soul have been ripped apart and thus he has been turned into the very monster he always feared to be. Ultimately, Sam’s redemptive act of self-sacrifice in Swan Song has been turned around on the brothers in the most horrible manner imaginable, and I would really like to see an emotional fallout to that.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) It’s no secret that I love Tessa, and I have always been happy to see her in an episode. I not only enjoy the sense of story continuity that comes with her character, but also the history she shares with Dean and her usually compassionate and gentle demeanour. I have to say though that I feel a tad ambivalent about Tessa in Appointment In Samarra, mostly because I think that her characterisation is off. Throughout the episode she seems rather annoyed and irritated with Dean, and while I can understand that she doesn’t like Dean’s interference with her job, it’s not like Dean asked to be put in this position. There is one moment in particular that strikes me as very out of character for Tessa and that’s when she tells the newly deceased nurse Jolene that she will miss out on a bright and happy future because Dean screwed up. It seems rather petty and cruel to use the nurse just to make Dean feel guilty for his decision to save the little girl, causing Jolene’s already confused spirit such a distress in the process. Dean may have deserved that reprimand, but I simply don’t find it believable that Tessa would take her frustration with Dean out on a soul in her care.
(2) I am very happy that Adam’s fate has finally been acknowledged. It’s about time, too! Obviously there was never a doubt that Dean would choose Sam, when Death forces him to pick either Sam or Adam, but it’s nice to see that he at least tries to bargain for both of his brothers. Still, I find it rather unsettling that Adam’s storyline seems to end so bleakly. Forced to rise from the dead, used as bait and taken advantage of as a vessel, only to end up as Lucifer and Michael’s punching ball for all of eternity - I don’t think there has ever been a secondary character on Supernatural who met a more unfortunate fate than the youngest Winchester.
(3) I am rather nonplussed about the fact that apparently angels as well as reapers can now be summoned, just like demons. Why have we never even heard about that possibility before? And how did Sam and Dean, respectively, learn how to do that? Considering that both supernatural beings are not exactly common, who would even possess that kind of knowledge in the first place? Other than angels and reapers themselves, obviously, but I doubt either would care to share that knowledge with Sam and Dean. I feel that it starts to become a rather too convenient story tool for the writers to simply create summoning rituals for just about every powerful creature, thus having them at the Winchesters every beck and call. It's especially annoying because creating those summoning rituals was not at all imperative for the story. Sam could have prayed for Balthazar to come to him, and since Dean's death was real, it would not have been out of the ordinary if Tessa had just appeared to collect his soul.
(4) The title Appointment In Samarra instantly made it into my Top 10 of Supernatural episode titles. I have always loved the Somerset Maugham version of the story about the merchant’s servant in Baghdad, who tries to escape death and by doing so fulfils the very fate he is trying so hard to avoid. Obviously it’s a great match for the episode, not only because the narrator of the story is Death himself, but also because it resonates well with both Sam and Dean’s storylines. I really love it when the writers choose meaningful titles like that for an episode.
(5) I have to say that I feel pretty smug about the fact that my initial theory that Death most likely set Sam free because he is the only being powerful enough to snatch him from the cage without opening it first - besides God, obviously - was right. Granted, I was way off about the timing and Death’s motivation to help Sam, but, naturally, back at the beginning of the season I had no clue that Sam was not actually out of the cage yet. In any case, there is something very satisfactory about coming to the same conclusion as the writers of the show and seeing your own theories play out on screen.
In conclusion: Even though I had some reservations at first, I found myself rewatching Appointment In Samarra more often than other episodes this season. The fascinating dynamics between Dean & Death and Sam & Bobby won me over in the end and outweighed my quibbles with some of the plot points. I think though that my enjoyment of the episode is only partly due to the plot/character work, and partly due to the fact that the episode sparked a lot of anticipation for the second half of the season in me. That’s mirrored in the fact that I read more episode tags to Appointment In Samarra than to any other S6 episode so far. I really want to know how the story continues from here!
Looking back at the first half of S6, I can honestly say that I enjoyed it. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it as much as I will ever enjoy a Supernatural that sadly lacks Sam and Dean's mutual bond and features one of the brothers as absent in spirit. Still, I think the 'soulless Sam' plot posed some really interesting questions regarding the definition of humanity and self-identity in the Supernatural universe and allowed the writers to explore Sam and Dean’s relationship from a very different angle. Moreover, in creating a void where Sam and Dean's bond used to be, the writers emphasised just how crucial that bond is to the story (and the viewer) and that kept me emotionally invested. I guess it also helped that I felt compassionate towards soulless Sam, even if he creeped me out at times. I admit, I am itching to actually write a comprehensive meta about soulless Sam, just to pull all the thoughts and observations that are scattered throughout my S6 reviews together, but I guess that will have to wait until I have more time at my hands.