Sam and Dean Winchester are the dreamiest demon killers in town, but don’t hate them because they’re beautiful. Sam might have a dark destiny, thanks to his psychic tie to the Yellow-Eyed Demon that killed his parents, and Dean is now wanted by the FBI. Sometimes being pretty is pretty hard...

Episode 2.13: "Houses of the Holy"

Supernatural - I have such a bone to pick with you. You’re coming off last week’s tremendous "Night Shifter," which is still my pick for best episode of the season so far, and this week’s episode is named after a Led Zeppelin album. Things were moving in the right direction... and then you completely dropped the ball.

In my last column, I raved about "Night Shifter" because it proved that the Supernatural writers cared about consequences. Events from past episodes built up until there was a revelation that shook the show to its very core - the FBI are aware of the Winchesters and are actively searching for them. The hunters become the hunted. It’s a simple, plausible, and clever way to raise the stakes for the entire series and, oh man, did it make me excited for the future of the Winchesters. So, in "Houses of the Holy," what did the Supernatural writers do with last week’s massive, show-altering revelation? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing. They added in one scene where Dean says, "Oh man, I’m stir crazy because I can’t go outside because the cops are looking for me" and that was it. They completely ignored everything that happened last week. Imagine if after Buffy died and, in the very next episode, the Scooby gang said, "Oh, that sucks that Buffy’s dead, but let’s have this completely unrelated adventure and never speak of her death again." Last week, Supernatural blew open the Hatch and met the Others, and this week, they were just milling about on the beach, helping Hurley build a golf course. THIS is how Supernatural celebrates the first day of February sweeps? Sheesh...

And it didn’t help that "Houses of the Holy" was one of the most uncharacteristically schmaltzy episodes in the series’ history, but I guess what can you expect from an episode about angels? That’s right, the Winchesters went theological this week, investigating a series of murders, in which random people are instructed by angels to kill in the name of "God’s will." (Turns out that all of the victims were secretly really, really bad people - a killer, a child predator - lending the angel story a bit more credence.) Sam turns into Fox Mulder about the angels - he wants to believe so badly - but Dean, despite all of the paranormal creatures he’s experienced, still thinks that angels belong on his "bullcrap list." During the investigation, it turns out that all the victims went to the same church, Our Lady of Angels (subtle!). The priest, Father Reynolds, tells them that one of his fellow pastors, Father Gregory, was gunned down on the church’s steps a few weeks ago, and Dean concludes that the angel is really Gregory’s angry, confused spirit looking for vengeance. But Sam still thinks that there might be some divine intervention in play, particularly after he gets his own angelic visitation. In the end, Dean’s right, but a Final Destination-esque ending makes them question the presence of God’s will.

It could have been an interesting concept - the ghost of a man of God wrongly believes he’s an avenging angel - but everything about "Houses of the Holy" was so painfully trite and hacky that the coolness of the conceit went right out the window. All of a sudden, Sam admits that he prays every day (coming across like a bargain basement Nightcrawler), and Dean tells Sam that he doesn’t believe in angels because his mom told him that angels protected them and she died and... boo hoo, someone call the Oxygen Network to come pick up their dialogue. When did the Winchesters get so wussy? And, sure, the series has a long history of using classic rock favorites, but ending an episode about angels with "Knocking on Heaven’s Door?" WOW. That’s not on-the-nose AT ALL. Thanks for making the obvious choice, guys.

You’re on notice, Supernatural. If you’re going to shake up the status quo of your entire series in one episode, that means you have to actually DO SOMETHING about it in the next. Heaven knows what you were thinking with "Houses of the Holy."