Supernatural New Episode Review: 'Halt and Catch Fire' is Most Ridiculous Episode in Months

Supernatural returned with a new Season 10 episode tonight entitled "Halt and Catch Fire," which may have been the most absurd and ridiculous episode of the CW show in a long, long time.

After a decade on television, Supernatural needs to innovate to stay fresh. But an episode like tonight's proved that maybe, after 10 years on the air, Supernatural is starting to run out of gas. This is not to say that Supernatural is a bad show, because it's far from that. But it might be a show that's better served in trimming down to 13 episodes a season instead of 22 and focusing just on its heavier mythology rather than these Monster of the Week episodes.

The plot of this episode was interesting in that it kept the viewer guessing as to the identity of the ghost and how exactly he or she was haunting all these different people. We eventually learned that the ghost was Andrew, the victim of a car accident in which four college students left him to die.

Of course, here's where the episode went completely off the rails. The power cable that shocked Andrew's car was connected to a wi-fi tower, which allowed him to conduct his spirit into the wi-fi signals throughout town. So he could kill someone through a GPS, a computer, and a pair of wireless speakers. It was as ridiculous as it sounds.

The deaths themselves were gruesome, but also over the top. The GPS one worked somewhat because we've seen the possessed vehicle thing on the show in the past. The death by computer cord strangulation was probably the least absurd of the three (in fact, the instant message conversation on the computer was particularly creepy). The wireless speaker thing...I don't even know what to say. So kudos to the episode for providing some thrills reminiscent of a horror movie, but the campiness of it was a bit too much.

As if that weren't enough, Sam and Dean got rid of the ghost by having Andrew's widow talk to him through cell phone video and convincing him to move on in peace. The quality of the footage on that cell phone, by the way, was completely implausible. They had already said the basement had horrible reception, yet the picture was crystal clear. I couldn't get reception like that if I were standing inside Verizon's damn headquarters.

To top it off, the ending Impala scene with the brothers featured one of the weakest and loosest connections to the Mark of Cain so far. Dean decided to take a cue from Andrew's ghost and move on in peace. So instead of trying to figure out how to remove the Mark or cure it, he chose to just live with it and find some peace by working cases, saving people, and hunting things.

It's not a completely irrational decision, but Dean should know by now that something like the Mark of Cain doesn't just go away through the power of positive thinking. For all we know, he's right, and Cain doesn't have the cure. But Dean was wrong when he said that false hope was better than no hope at all. He knows good and well Sam and Castiel will keep trying to find Cain and the cure, yet he's choosing to just pack it in and go home.

Next week's episode brings Cain back into the picture, and the previews made it seem like Dean will inadvertently reunite the First Blade with Cain, which can only be horrible news for everyone involved.

Notes from Dad's Journal:

- I know Dean is an old man in a lot of ways, but this episode made it seem like had no idea what the Internet was or how to use it.

- But LOL at Dean's face when he realized what he could have left out there on the Internet.

- Was this the most ridiculous Supernatural episode this season? Two seasons? Three?

What did you think of "Halt and Catch Fire"? Let us know in the comments section.