Supernatural S13E15 Review: A Most Holy Man

This week’s Supernatural focused on retrieving one of the items needed to cast the spell to open the portal. And they did in the style of a 1940’s film noir.

We slowed things down on this week’s episode of Supernatural. In fact, we didn’t even have a supernatural being involved at all. Sam and Dean searched this week for what they were thinking would be an easy item to nab. And in true Supernatural fashion, they did it in the form of a film noir. Complete with amazing period music and lighting.

“Blood of a saint”

The cold open is of a man infiltrating a seminary in Malta and stealing a skull held behind glass. We quickly transfer back to The Winchesters, who we will be sticking with for the rest of the episode. It has been a while since we’ve had an episode that has focused solely on the brothers. Sam and Dean quickly fill us in on where they are with the spell ingredients. Castiel is in Syria tracking down fruit from the Tree of Life, they don’t know where Lucifer is, and they’ve hit a dead end with the seal. However, they have discovered an online market for holy relics and go off to chase a lead in San Francisco.

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In San Francisco, they meet with Margaret Astor, and this is where the film noir theme of the night kicks in. Astor shamelessly flirts with Sam, and he uses that to their advantage to gain a lead to find blood of a saint, who they have determined to be a most holy man. So, off they fly to Seattle. Where they end up meeting with Richard Greenstreet. Greenstreet wants them to find the skull of St. Peter for him. Once they find the skull, then he will give them the blood of St. Ignatius.

“You’re like a Boy Scout”

Sam and Dean follow their only lead of Antonio Mile, and it turns out he’s dead in his hotel room. While they’re in the room, they are accosted by a fake cop who has them handcuff themselves to the radiator. After the fake cop leaves, they get free because Sam has handcuff keys in his pocket. As they leave the hotel, they’re confronted by men who work for Scarpotti, the local mob boss. The men take them to Scarpotti who gives them a deal to find the skull for him, since he’s the original person to steal it, and then he’ll give them a lot of money.  The Winchesters take the deal.

They head back to the hotel, do their typical pull the fire alarm and evacuate the building trick and Sam goes into the room to look for clues. In the room he finds a piece of paper with some numbers in it, but he is quickly knocked out by another man, who has been following them.

“The world is not perfect”

The man who knocked them out turns out to be Father Lucca, the priest from the seminary where the skull had been taken. Father is in Seattle looking for the skull, and he’s carrying a suitcase of all the money the seminary has. He wants to buy it back. Father gives a speech about the world not always being a perfect place. However, it’s how you deal with the non-perfect world that can make it a better place. His words touch something inside Sam and he decides they need to double cross everyone else and help Father.

And it turns out that Father has a photographic memory! He remembered the numbers on that slip of paper, and after Sam typed it into his laptop (which has Internet while they’re driving?!), they discover it’s a tracking number.

They trace the package to a warehouse and watch as first Astor, then Scarpotti and finally Greenstreet all arrive at the warehouse. The Fake Cop, who ended up picking up the package, works for Astor. She has decided to take control of the skull and get rich off of it.

Sam, Dean and Father Lucca have a plan: Sam takes the suitcase of money and buys time for Dean to infiltrate the warehouse. The plan works, until there’s a huge shootout. Outside the warehouse, Father prays, and it is probably one of the best scenes of the show. Scored by a hymn of some sort, the scene moves between the gunfight and Father praying. It’s a truly beautiful scene. About 90% of the people in the warehouse are killed in the shootout, and Father Lucca get’s grazed with a bullet.

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“I have Faith.”

Turns out Greenstreet was lying about having the blood of a saint. Giving up on getting the ingredient they need, Sam and Dean take Father to the airport with his skull. Sam and Father Lucca start talking about Father’s career. Sam has some questions about some of the titles Father Lucca has. One of which translates to Most Holy Man, given to him by The Pope. So naturally, you can gather what happens next, since you probably saw this reveal a mile away. The boys get his blood and go back to the bunker.

Sam is tired, and he’s tired of always being on the defensive. If they kill a monster or stop an apocalypse, there’s always another one right behind it. He wonders what it would be like if everything just stopped. Dean answers that it “would be nice.” And he actually has faith that it will happen someday. I wonder if that’s a clue to how the series will eventually end?

Performer of the Week

I’m giving performer of the week to Massi Furlan, who played Father Lucca. He played his small role to perfection. I immediately fell in love with him. He was hilarious. And he was touching. Two of my favorite scenes of the night were because of him. First when he created the diversion and Dean called him out for saying he was a distraction. His response about lying being a sin was hilarious. The other scene, when he was talking to Sam and Dean about the world being not perfect was exactly what the boys needed to hear.

Having him tell them that even though the world wasn’t perfect it was what they did with it that mattered, allowed them to think about their actions a bit more. The character of Father Lucca was just the character the Winchesters needed to have in their lives right now. And he was very well acted by Furlan. I hope that we will see that character again in the future.

Next: Supernatural recap: The Winchesters get a little noir

What did you think of the episode? Did you like the film noir vibe?  Did you like that the episode only focused on the brothers? Who do you think is the performer of the week? Please let us know in the comments. 

Supernatural returns with new episodes Thursday, March 29 at 8/7c on The CW.