By: Matt Spaulding
Of all the things Supernatural has done well over the past ten years, holiday specials are near the top. And while this wasn't my favorite one of the bunch, it was still a really solid episode.
It begins on Valentine's Day with a married couple about to go on a date. The baby sitter arrives and we quickly learn that the husband is having an affair with her. She, of course, makes the demand he leave his wife, he says no, you know the story. Off the couple goes. While the babysitter is home alone watching TV, a man enters the room behind her. From her reaction to him (after he scares her) we get the idea that it's the man, home early from his date with his wife. Until he punches her heart out through her back with his bare hands!
Thus happens the first death of the episode, but it's not the last. When Sam and Dean arrive, they visit with the couple in their home and get the feeling the husband is hiding something. They then split up: Sam going to do research and Dean going to the husband's office to get the real story. It's there he finds out about the affair and the husband shows him video from the nanny cam of what appears to be him murdering the babysitter. But Dean sees a clue: the "husband" has glowing eyes on camera, the dead giveaway of a shapeshifter!
Or so Sam and Dean think at first. As the story unfolds, we get a tale that is part "It Follows" (which I found pretty cool), part witch story, and all fun.
The over-arching season story even comes to play in a visit from Amara...sorta...in which Dean has to come to grips with the reality of her true hold over him.
Like I said at the top of the article, this episode was a lot of fun, but it wasn't the best one, either. Solid acting all around, especially from Ackles and Padalecki (but even in the worst episodes they shine); but the hunt itself is a little lackluster. This one is good for a B.