Supernatural 'Rock and a Hard Place' review: Dean regains and re-loses his virginity

Supernatural came back on Tuesday night for Season 9 with another mostly filler episode in "Rock and a Hard Place." The story was pretty much a self-contained "Monster of the Week" episode until the final moments when we received an interesting twist in the overall season plot.

Sam and Dean infiltrated a church chastity group after four people in the group were murdered. Dean befriends the leader of the group and, upon discovering that she used to be a porn star (add another Casa Erotica reference to the Supernatural mythology), slept with her. Unfortunately, Sam and Sheriff Mills realized that the creature was abducting people who broke their born-again virgin vows, which meant that Dean and his new female cohort got kidnapped.

It turned out that the creature was the Roman goddess Vesta, who was abducting these people and then eating their livers on a sacrificial table. A few plot developments later and Sheriff Mills stabbed the blue light right out of the goddess and case closed.

There was nothing particularly wrong with the main plot, but it was nothing particularly special, either. It just happened. There were not any major twists or turns to get to the resolution and the plot resolved pretty neatly.

But the episode had numerous positives, so let's get to those. When Sam fought Vesta, she remarked that he was basically duct tape and strings on the inside and couldn't understand how he was alive. This FINALLY made Sam wake up to the fact that something fishy is going on with him. Dean was about to tell him the truth about Ezekiel, but the angel popped out and told Dean to wait. Zeke said that he is almost finished healing Sam but if Dean reveals the truth now, Sam will die.

The cynic in me wants to say that Ezekiel is doing something nefarious in there. This is Supernatural, after all. But maybe he is telling the truth. I keep coming back to the fact that Castiel vouched for him, but Zeke has definitely been shady for much of this season. Either way, I'm sure this entire thing will explode in next week's midseason finale.

The rest of the episode featured some hilarious moments, including Dean's speech at the chastity group and his realization about the porn star ("That scene with the tacos..."). It got a bit uncomfortable at times, but Jensen Ackles absolutely nails the comedic timing every time he gets the chance, and this episode was no exception.

The midseason finale looks to have plenty of action with Castiel, Ezekiel and an angel war all in play. The Samzekiel situation is likely to come to a head, and it's been a long time coming.

Notes from Dad's Journal

-       This episode had multiple parallels to Season 6's "Like a Virgin," which featured dragons, and Season 6's "You Can't Handle the Truth," in which a fallen goddess tried to attack Sam and realized something was wrong with him.

-       What exactly was the scene with the tacos?

-       Too much filler for you, Supernatural fans, or have you enjoyed these recent standalone installments?