Supernatural New Episode Review: 'The Executioner's Song' Brings Back Cain and More Problems for Dean

The CW's Supernatural returned with a new episode tonight entitled "The Executioner's Song" that brought Cain back into the picture. What started out as a quest to figure out a way to remove the Mark of Cain ended with an even bleaker future for Dean Winchester.

The brothers and Castiel picked up Cain's trail after he succumbed to the Mark of Cain once again and started slaughtering people. Not just killing, we're talking fields' worth of bodies. By Cain's twisted logic, his murder of Abel poisoned his descendants and turned most of them into murderers and criminals. So to right this wrong, Cain decided to save these people by killing them.

Castiel found Cain's handiwork in a field and then encountered the man himself. This was a fantastic scene because it pit two ancient heavyweights against each other. It harkened back to Seasons 4 and 5, when angels and demons would square off and it felt like these powerful beings were in the middle of an all out war.

This scene also established Cain as an extremely formidable foe. He decides not to kill Castiel because...take your pick. He's not worth the time. He's not strong enough. He's not on the list.

Cut to later when the Winchesters, Castiel, and Crowley trapped Cain. Cas does his badass angel light beam thing, and Cain doesn't even blink. He swats Castiel away like he's brushing off a fly. This element of, for lack of a better term, "holy sh*t!" has been missing from Supernatural in recent seasons, but this episode made me exclaim more than once.

All of this served to make the eventual showdown between Dean and Cain even tenser. There was a real sense that Dean would lose or, at the very least, be changed irreversibly by the battle. These moments have been few and far between on Supernatural recently, but "The Executioner's Song" executed this entire sequence beautifully. From trapping Cain to the conversation among the four main players to the actual fight itself, it was all so well done.

Dean knew going into that fight that he could die, or worse, but he went in there anyway. Cain then revealed that he lured Dean in just to bring the First Blade back into his hands. Just when it seemed like all was lost, Cain dropped even more brutal knowledge upon Dean. The elder Winchester, he said, is essentially living Cain's life in reverse. First he'll kill Crowley, then Castiel, then Sam. A horrified Dean denied this, but Cain told him that it was inevitable.

Then we got one of the coolest shots Supernatural has pulled off in a while when Dean grabbed Cain's knife and sliced off his hand. A defeated Cain lowered his head like a lamb about to be slaughtered, and Dean delivered the killing blow.

All seemed well for the Winchesters, especially after Dean regained control and gave the First Blade to Castiel, not Crowley, to keep safe. But as Dean retired in the Men of Letters' bunker, a visibly disturbed Sam informed Cas that his brother is in trouble, even though he had just told Dean that they now have reason to hope.

Jeremy Carver said a while ago that Season 10's plot would be deeply personal. After "The Executioner's Song," that remark takes on a whole new meaning.

Notes:

- Dean seemed more or less fine at the end of the episode, so what did Sam see that freaked him out so much?

- I'm struggling to care about anything Rowena says or does.

- Crowley now has a reason to oppose the Winchesters again. Between that and Rowena's disappointment in him, the King of Hell is bound to snap sooner or later.

- Next time Supernatural airs, it will move to Wednesday nights.

What did you think of "The Executioner's Song"? Let us know in the comments section.