So once again, the creators of scripts for our favorite show have thought up another way to tell a story and advance the story line. This episode was something out of one of those classic Mickey Spillane type movies. 
Our two heroes were often in their “fake fed” threads and the episode had darker and rich color tones in just about every scene, giving it a classic film feel. They even donned those cool overcoats! All Sam and Dean needed were the cool hats like Dean wore in the episode that he went back in time and met Elliott Ness.
Even the way the woman of focus in the episode looked, with the thick, red, lip stick and green old-style dress suit and hair style, was a throwback to the older glamour days of film. The episode starts with a man breaking into a church and stealing a skull. Sam and Dean are of course, looking for the ingredients that Cass got out of the mind of Donatello, the ‘soulless’ prophet. They set out to get the first ingredient of the spell needed to re-open that tear into the alt-universe to save Mary, the blood of a ‘most holy man!‘
We meet our mystery lady, who obviously would like to get a little more intimate with Sam. Margaret Astor says she knows where to start so the boys might fulfill their request. Their goal will not be a cheap endeavor either! They’re pointed to a buyer- dealer named Richard Greenstreet, who easily exposes their FBI-agents fraud…but hires them to find the stolen skull of St. Peter, with the promise of the blood of “St. Ignatius” (a most holy man) in exchange for its return. I really liked the way the episode was a continuous unravelling mystery, with new suspects being added throughout. Somebody killed our man (Tony Homliay) whom we saw steal the skull at the beginning of the episode. Sam and Dean are led to Seattle, where they find his body, but someone finds them (he’s posing as a cop) and makes them handcuff themselves to the radiator.
By the time we stumble onto more and more characters, we don’t know who’s up to what until the big reveal at the very end—just like the kind we used to see in those classic detective mysteries! We knew the man Sam bumped in the hotel elevator would be significant. 
He turned out to be a Father (Luca Caminelli) from the church where the skull was stolen, sent to recover it with all the money the church had. We meet a mobster, (Tony Scarpotti), who collects, (steals) religious artifacts. He believes the skull is rightfully his because he made a down payment to have it stolen.
While attempting to figure out where the skull is and how this might lead to Sam and Dean getting the blood they want, we learn that everybody’s double-crossing everybody! Ms. Astor (who murdered our original skull thief) is going to sell the skull to the highest bidder, but Greenstreet offers her bodyguard a million cash to kill her on the spot (which he does) and the big shootout begins! The mobster’s goons are shooting. As is Astor’s body guard, Sam, (acting on behalf of the church from which the skull was stolen) then, later Dean. Greenstreet cowers behind cover after igniting the fire-fight by offering NOTHING for the skull because he had paid for at least one of his competitors to die!
I loved the style of the episode. My favorite parts were the exchanges between Sam and Dean…and Dean and everyone else. Dean is becoming more like a middle-aged Clint Eastwood. He grumpily mumbles his lines and acts like he’s pretty tired of the routine. He’s often got a sarcastic, blunt line to deliver and does so with a style that says, “I’ve seen it all! I no longer care!” Sam is still the emotional one, but far more mature! However, he and Dean act like an old married couple sometimes, which is evident in their exchanges here! To show you how far Sam has come, when would he have ever flirted right back with a stranger to get our boys a little closer to their goal? When would Dean roll his eyes in disgust over Ms. Astor’s obvious flirtation, rather than encouraging Sam to ‘hit that’ if he got the chance?
The best part was that the simplicity of the plot twist provided by optimistic padre’ Luca! He is praying (nicely inter-cut) during the shootout, and he makes a subtle, but honest plea to our heroes as they set out to recover the skull. He suggests it’s worth the effort to try as an individual to ‘do something’ to make this imperfect world a little better, which motivated Sam to become one of the double-crossers to try to get the skull back to the church. Luca is optimistic, even in the wake of Dean’s blunt and pessimistic outlook. “God doesn’t give a damn!” It turns out that after the smoke clears, Greenstreet is arrested, other suspects are wounded or dead, and the Father has the skull of St. Peter back. Sam and Dean learn that Greenstreet never possessed the blood of St. Ignatius, so all the stuff they went through was over a lie! However, quite innocently, Father Luca says he met the Pope, who gave him a title that means, “MOST HOLY MAN.” So after all that running around and all that mystery, they got their blood after all. Step one completed. Sam comes to a conclusion that there will always be monsters and people who need saving. Dean admits, “I have faith”, as the episode closes. It’s a neat, smartly done little package. Simple, fun, stylish and memorable because their goal was achieved in a most round-about way: No demons, ghosts, angels or monsters! Just the unlikeliest ‘holy man!’ “Brilliant!” What did you think?
Eric YankerNatural Clemons
(Photos: The CW and Supernatural: All rights Reserved)
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