SUPERNATURAL: "THE HUNTER GAMES" REVIEW 

Supernatural\'s back, and the Winchesters are focused one hundred percent on the Mark of Cain. Finally. It was weird to see them treat the Mark casually throughout the first half of the season even knowing it was partially because Dean wasn\'t honest with everyone. The massacre made it crystal clear though, and it\'s apparent Dean feels guilty about letting it go on so long. It wasn\'t spelled out in so many words, but the subtext was there.

Fixing Dean\'s problem will take a village and that means getting assistance from Castiel and Crowley. The latter two complement the Winchesters to the point that they make them more entertaining so it\'s nice to see the band more or less back together. They\'re desperate for solutions, and I appreciate how they established they\'ve gone through traditional research to find a removal solution. It\'s a bad sign that they\'re already to the point of calling in Metatron.

Why did they think Metatron would help them? He has no motivation to help Castiel or save Dean, and it seemed doomed for failure from the beginning. On the other hand, they did squeeze a tiny bit of information from him. Regardless of Metatron\'s usefulness, it was a pleasure to see Curtis Armstrong back and better than ever. He balanced Metatron\'s quips with the fact that the scribe is so clearly over all of it and feeling weary. Also, Armstrong delivers smarm like no other.

Metatron\'s dialogue managed to make me laugh and roll my eyes. The zit analogy was something else, and the "bucko" and "slugger" nicknames got old. However, when Metatron turns off the fake friends bit and lays down real talk, I\'m completely on board. It was heartening to hear him call Dean out about constantly lying to Sam.

Supernatural: "The Hunter Games" Photo Gallery:

When Demon Dean was removed from the picture early on in the season, things didn\'t look so great for the eldest Winchester\'s future. I was concerned. It\'s not the same as having Demon Dean, but the presence of the Mark of Cain is making up for it. Watching a character we\'ve known for 10 years turn into a cold killer and wrestle with his inner darkness is painful to watch, but boy, it\'s so great for the plot. It\'s pushing Jensen Ackles into different territory, and it\'s bringing a fresh dynamic to the way he interacts with everyone. We\'re 10 seasons in – we need fresh.

While Dean is developing and becoming more and more interesting, Sam is kind of getting shafted. He\'s in full take care of his brother mode, and there\'s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it\'s quite respectable and the caretaker role is affecting the character. Given the scale of what\'s going on with Dean, it should absolutely have a huge effect on Sam. But, it would be good for Sam to get his own subplot or primary plot in the near future and not because it\'s just his turn to be the Winchester in danger.

Moving on from the Winchesters, Castiel doesn\'t only have the Mark of Cain on his mind. Claire\'s still in the picture, and he feels like he should look after her. Misha Collins poured so much emotion into the scene where Claire packs up and leaves the hotel with only a few lines of dialogue. He plays angel Castiel well too, but he\'s killer when he\'s playing Castiel channeling his humanity.

The Claire subplot was a stretch. She did go to an unsavory pool hall, but the first two people she chats with are Natural Born Killer types? Really? Her running off with them was a weird diversion, but it gave us a couple of things. First of all, it was endearing to hear Castiel ask Dean to talk to Claire because Dean and Claire are both "extremely messed up people." Secondly, Claire\'s call led to an instance of Dean controlling his rage. And with what we know about Claire and the trauma she\'s recently suffered, it\'s not terribly surprising to learn she would share her life story with complete strangers.

Crowley and Rowena rounded out the family groups in tonight\'s episode. Plain and simple, I don\'t like it. Crowley is too smart to be tricked by Rowena; he should see through her manipulations or at least show he\'s aware of her tricks by warning his immediate staff to never believe anything she says. Ugh. Yet we all know Crowley hasn\'t been the same since he took human blood. He mentions to Dean and Sam that he thought they called because they wanted to hang out, and yeah, he made it sound like a joke, but I think he was serious. If he wants connections and friends, it\'s natural for him to lean into his mother because she\'s there. I still don\'t like it.

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Tonight\'s Supernatural firmly established that removing the Mark of Cain is priority number one and also established it\'s going to be near impossible to do so. Mix that in with family drama everywhere and the back half of Season 10 is off to an interesting start.

Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN TV. You can follow her on on Twitter at @Amy_Geek and IGN at alratcliffe.

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This week\'s Supernatural focused on the Mark of Cain and showed the Winchesters are willing to do anything for answers.  RT

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