Supernatural: In The Beginning

If ever an episode of Supernatural screamed "fanservice" it's In The Beginning.

Sam has snuck off in the night with Ruby again and Castiel visits Dean, telling him "you have to stop it" before sending him back in time and space to Lawrence, Kansas, 1973 where he meets a young couple called John Winchester (Matt Cohen) and Mary Campbell (Amy Gumenick)... his future parents!

Acclimatising to his new surroundings Dean manages to talk young John in buying the Impala that in 30 years time will become his own car. John, fresh out of the army, is a mechanic and besotted by Mary (who, in Dean's words, is "a babe") who has a secret of her own - her parents are hunters.

At first I wasn't sure what to make of this revelation. Did it cheapen Sam and Dean's heritage in some way?

Despite my enthusiasm for time travel in programmes like Doctor Who, where it is a key and essential ingredient, I'm usually not so happy when it crops up in shows as an almost random "gimmick". But here I was pleasantly surprised.

As the story unfolded and Dean discovered he was tracking the Yellow-Eyed Demon aka Azazel, I began to appreciate the brilliance of the story, especially given its rather downbeat and "to be continued..." ending.

Castiel makes a key statement around the mid-point of the episode, pointing out to Dean that if he is able to kill the Yellow-Eyed Demon now then he, his father and brother will never be hunters and all the people they've saved over the years will die.

Of course, the crowning glory of the episode was finding out that The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi was playing Dean's grandfather, Samuel, and I almost wish there was some way that Samuel and his wife, Deanna (Allison Hossack), could be in the show again, but then I fear it would actually be a cheap gimmick.

Jeremy Carver's script superbly subverted my expectations of where it was going, with the added touch that John Winchester was pretty much a passive participant, on the sidelines, and totally oblivious to all the paranormal activity going on; and yet was still central to the crucial plot thread of how Mary - and eventually Sam - became entangled in the machinations of Azazel (and his mysterious long-term "endgame") in the first place.