Season Eight Episode Sixteen “Remember The Titans” TV REVIEW

Episode 8.16
Writer: Daniel Loflin
Director: Steve Boyum

THE ONE WHERE The brothers stumble acrꦉoss the curious case of the Greek Titan Prometheus.

VERDICT The gods haven’t had much of a presence on Supernatural of late so their return here, i🐎n a story that filters an ancient fable through a modꦕern lens, is a welcome treat.

It’s the story of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods for humanity, complete with liver-pecking eagles and daily resurrections. Instead of crafting men from clay, however, we get a hefty dollop of family drama, with Shane’s son inheriting𝓡 his father’s curse and his wife on hand to triple the tragedy.

From the god-highlighting pre-credit montage to grisly sight of Shane having his insides made outsides by a hungry bird on the roadside, the episode leaves plenty of clues as to Shane’s true identity, but somehow ♑it still took me by surprise. It’s one of those great ideas that you can’t quite believe no-one has done before, and even though it replaces the Caucasus Mountains with a decidedly less epic string of morgues, motel rooms and generic warehouses it feels suitably legendary.

This is helped by the fact that it♐’s one of those rare episodes where the Winchesters don’t actually do anything. They pull Shane out of a morgue and help summon Zeus, but otherwise their role is to observe as the Titans have at it. In what little screentime they have, Zeus and Artemis make a disproportionately large impression. Artemis because of that striking castsuit (and an even more striking fringe) and Zeus because he’s an utter git. Shame his death feels a little anti-climactic, would have loved to see him suffer!

Despite a generally dour tone, unlike last week’s episode it’s driven by a script with flair (Dragon Penis, anyone?) and some season-best work by composer Jay Gruska (the ominous tones that play as Sam spits blood in the sink at the start of the episode is shiver-inducing stuff). Heart-wrenching closing monlogues are par-for-the-course on Supernatural now, but Jensen Ackles still m🦩anages to impress with this week’s impassioned plea. An episode worth remembering.

DEAN WISECRACKING
Sam: "Uhh... we need to think. Dean, what do we know of that has...uh, Jason Bourne fighting skills, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?
Dean: "I don't know - you?"

NITPICK Prometheus doesn’t r🌳emember Artemis so they fight to the death and she declares herself his “worst enemy”? Seems a little harsh, unless she was simply keeping up appeꦐarances for daddy.

SAM’S HANGDOG EXPRESSION OF THE WEEK

IT’S WOSSISNAME! Fans of Canadian-TV may recognise John Reardon (Prometheus) as the husband of main character Kiera Cameron in Continuum .

TITLE TRIVIA Remember The Titans is th𒅌e name of a 2000 American Football film starring Denzel Washington, sadly featuring zero Greek godꦏs.

THE SMALL PRINT In the newspaper featuring the article about Shane (prob🦋ably ) there’s a story below about a polar bear attacking a nuclear submarine at the North Pole. THAT EPISODE NEXT WEEK PLEASE.

BEHIND THE SCENES Twitter comes good again, this week𝔍 writer Daniel Loflin offers up this tidbit:

BEST LINE Was obviously Dean’s final plea to Cas, but that’s too long🅘 to repeat here so we’ve gone for:

Dean: “I got to say, I'm a little disappointed.”
Sam : “Yeah, because you wanted to shoot zombies.”
Dean : “Damn straight I wanted to shoot some z♔ombies.”