Supernatural 'Sharp Teeth' Review: Garth returns with a few extra features

Supernatural returned with its latest Season 9 episode, "Sharp Teeth." After the action-packed, mythology-moving events of the last two episodes, this one stepped on the brakes a bit with a more familiar Monster of the Week case. Hey, not every episode can be about angels and demons and the like.

But this episode did feature the return of Garth (DJ Qualls), the lovable and quirky hunter who hasn't been seen since Season 8. As it turns out, Dean and Sam hadn't seen him either. But Garth had a halfway decent excuse: he's been turned into a werewolf! AND he's got a wife!

Once the Winchesters learned all this and discovered Garth was now part of a supposedly peaceful pack, they of course immediately went into "suspicious hunters" mode and assumed that Garth's new friends were murderous animals. And they were halfway right, as some of the members pledged allegiance to an old way of thinking in which the werewolves would bring about Ragnarok (or as Dean put it, "Thor/Loki/Odin stuff"), the death of all humans via total werewolf domination.

From there, this turned into a standard Supernatural Monster of the Week episode: a twist here, a near-death there and the brothers had wrapped up the case. Garth wanted to come hunt with Dean, but he reminded the werewolf that he now had happiness, which he should hold onto no matter how bizarre it is.

The real developments in this episode came from Sam and Dean's fractured relationship. The two were thrown together when they bumped into each other on the Garth case, and they decided to stick it out together once Sam realized that Dean was trying to get rid of him. By the end of the episode, Dean wanted to unite with his brother again so they could at least shoulder the load together, and that's when Sam dropped some truth on him.

For all the good he has done, Dean has also made some major mistakes, and his recent violation of Sam is probably the worst of all. Sam rightfully told Dean that he can't trust him, but it went deeper than that: the two brothers just are not on the same page anymore when it comes to the madness happening around them (hell, they may not even be reading the same book). Furthermore, Sam told his brother that the long-standing Winchester motto of "we're family" isn't some cure-all that they can throw around when they do something wrong. It was refreshing to see Sam lay down the law to his brother after all of Dean's righteousness throughout the series.

The reunion felt a bit rushed given the severity of the crime, but the show could not keep the brothers apart for too long, I suppose. Sam made his terms clear, that this is more or less a business relationship, and Dean accepted. Now we will find out if these two brothers can truly work their way back to each other.

Notes from Dad's Journal

-       Dean: "This was a gift from Cain."

Sam: "The wrestler?"

Dean: "No, but that would be awesome."

Yes, Dean. Yes, it would. Supernatural made a WWE reference, so there's pretty much no reason for me to watch anymore because it's not going to get any better than that.

-       Why is the Supernatural spinoff not called Garth's Werewolf Adventures?

-       Next week's episode appears to be about a supernatural weight loss case, which...we'll see. It looks like we're back to standalone episodes for now.

What did you think of tonight's episode? Let us know in the comments below.