TV Review: SUPERNATURAL – Season 11 – “Form and Void”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF / Contributing Writer

Posted: October 28th, 2015 / 07:11 AM

Misha Collins in SUPERNATURAL - Season 11 - "Form and Void" | © 2015 The CWCarole Segal

Stars: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Mark A. Sheppard, Laci J. Mailey, Lee Majdoub, Gracyn Shinyei, Christina Willes, Lisa Berry
Writer: Andrew Dabb, series created by Eric Kripke
Director: Phil Sgriccia
Network: The CW, Wednesdays @ 9 PM
Original Airdate: October 14, 2015

Besides the epic plot plate-spinning in the SUPERNATURAL episode “Form and Void” – Sam (Jared Padalecki) is dying! Castiel (Misha Collins) is cursed and being tortured by angels! Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Crowley (Mark A. Sheppard) are dealing with an apocalyptic baby! – you have to hand it to the creative team for a great sleight of hand. Usually, either a show has a distinctive editing style or it doesn’t. SUPERNATURAL is generally pretty straightforward in this respect. Directed by Phil Sgriccia and written by Andrew Dabb, “Form and Void” tries something just a little subtle, just a little new for this show by dovetailing the start of a motion in one sequence – say, a downward knife strike toward Cass – to the conclusion in another, as Sam removes fluid from a captive infected man he’s trying to cure.

Sam, as we know, is slowly but surely succumbing to whatever disease the Darkness unleashed. He’s still in the abandoned hospital, trying to find a cure. He’s visited by the Reaper Billie (Lisa Berry), who informs Sam that the Reapers as a group are angry at him and Dean for killing Death. People are still dying, but next time Sam and/or Dean die, they will not only stay dead but be tossed out into the Empty. Billie also tells Sam he is “unclean in the Biblical sense.” After Sam tries praying to God, he gets a vision of himself from his time in Hell. Then he has an epiphany, Googles Biblical uncleanliness and devises a cure by burning himself with holy oil. He then lures other infected people into the building and cures them in the same manner.

Castiel is being tortured for information by two angels, who wrongly think he knows the whereabouts of the treacherous Metatron. (Guys, if Cass knew, he’d be happy to gank Metatron himself at this point.) Hanna, now in a male body (Lee Majdoub), apparently saves Castiel from his tormentors, but it’s a good angel/bad angel set-up. Even so, Hanna won’t let the other angels kill Castiel. Castiel’s curse allows him to free himself. In the ensuing fracas, the torturers kill Hanna and Cass kills them.

Dean drops off Jenna (Laci J. Mailey) and baby Amara with Jenna’s loving, religious Grandma (Christina Willes). However, when Amara begins to display telekinetic abilities – making her ABC blocks spin in the air, then spell out “Feed Me” – Jenna calls Dean to come right back. Grandma meanwhile has called the local priest, who has sent an exorcist: Father Crowley. Crowley observes that Dean adores the baby (Dean doesn’t seem to remember, but he’s bound to the Darkness, who is grateful for him freeing her). While they’re talking, the baby eats Jenna’s soul. Jenna then kills her grandmother and tries to kill Dean. Crowley kills Jenna, to Dean’s great anger. Dean and Crowley squabble, but the baby has grown and literally left the building.

Sam and Dean meet up back at the Men of Letters headquarters, where a badly injured Castiel seeks their help.

Crowley finds the now-child Amara and tempts her with a van full of people he’s captured so she can eat their souls.

This is all pretty intriguing stuff, especially in terms of what is going to happen with the quadrangular situation emerging between Amara, Crowley, Dean and Sam, who all have different agendas. Cass and the curse obviously need to find some kind of resolution, though this seems a little less curiosity-engaging, as there don’t seem to be other elements involved – it just requires a counter-spell.

But what’s really fun here is how deftly the scenes flow together, how the creative team gets one shot to lead into the next. It’s not just style for its own sake, it’s pizzazz in the service of storytelling, and it’s super.

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