Supernatural: Changing Channels

I was ready to be angry and bitter about this episode from the teaser.  It seemed like a complete rehash of the sub par Paris Hilton episode from earlier this season.  The laugh track stuff got real old, real quick and I was afraid the entire episode would be stuck in that stale style.  Thankfully I was dead wrong!  

When they came back from commercial and the brothers were transplanted into "Seattle Mercy" hospital I knew the Supernatural crew had a much better episode in store for us than they originally let on.  As you may or may not be aware, my wife makes me watch "Grey's Anatomy" and other than the fact that the CW's version of Seattle Grace looked much shabbier than ABC's, the character names, cadence of speech, general dialog, and the background music were uncanny!

The generic "Cop Show" was terrific, I loved Dean saying that he hated procedurals!  Unbelievably, I almost missed the highlight of the episode.  I hope that Supernatural's advertisers  paid more for this particular hour of TV because after seeing Sam and Dean in a genital herpes commercial I made sure to scan each break carefully rather than fast forward through.  The Knight Rider skit was pure comic gold as well.  I laughed audibly when Sam was uncomfortable with Dean being in his "trunk".

Then Supernatural did the thing it really is great at and switched from comedy to tragedy without missing a beat.  Not only is the Trickster "an" angel, he's The Angel Gabriel!  Refusing to take sides and content to let the war play out in an effort to end it all is not how I pictured Gabriel but it is an interesting take.  In Supernatural lore it seems Gabriel did not bring the news of Jesus to Mary or deliver the Koran to Muhammad because he was busy avoiding his heavenly responsibilities.

I had a feeling that Sam was right to think that the Trickster would be a powerful ally but I did not come close to how powerful he actually is, considering he's Gabriel.  Gabriel and Castiel had an interesting little spat about finding/not finding God but I think Gabriel's tirade about Sam and Dean being chosen from the start of existence was the most interesting aspect of the episode.  

Here's hoping they can avoid their destinies because predetermination is a concept I was never comfortable with and tends to make for bad TV (see FlashForward before the episode entitled "The Gift").