Supernatural 13.10 Review “Wayward Sisters”
Fan movements get a bad rap. In a lot of cases that bad rap is earned, and the Supernatural fandom certainly has its shady areas, but the Wayward Daughters (the spinoff ended up getting a different, but similar, name) movement isn’t one of them. Starting back in 2016, the women of the Supernatural family decided they wanted to come together and make change. Fandom has done big things for several charities throughout the show’s thirteen year run, but Wayward Daughters was different. It wasn’t just about raising money, or about a spinoff. It was about empowering women who had found themselves in this weird ass little family of fans.
This could start to get very long if I listed out all of the ways Wayward Daughters has already inspired women and the benefits it has brought to the charities it’s supported, but suffice to say it’s already so much more than a show to its fanbase. A slogan turned into a movement. With positive fan outcry and countless things going on behind the scenes, that movement resulted in the backdoor pilot that we finally got to check out tonight.
After all that exposition, let’s maybe get to the episode, yeah? Sam and Dean went on a hunting trip, and they haven’t been home in a few days. As a result of that, and some inside tips from Patience (the psychic we met several episodes ago), Jodi calls Claire back home. Claire has all of the sunny disposition you remember and then some, and it doesn’t take long for her to get into it with Jodi over her hunting.
The protective mother and petulant daughter relationship that Jodi and Claire have is turned up to eleven because of Patience’s vision of Claire dying. Frankly, this is a Supernatural show and a backdoor pilot, there was no way some sad shit wasn’t going to go down in “Wayward Sisters”. But nothing’s allowed to hit the fan before Sheriff Donna Hanscomb joins the fray.
While Supernatural only has Sam and Dean to play with when it comes to character differences, Wayward Sisters will have a host of folks to explore. Jodi and Donna both rock the mom vibes, each bringing something different to the table. Claire’s all brawn, no brain, Alex the dutiful daughter who does what she must while still trying to have a normal life, and Patience the brains who’s stumbled into this life she didn’t ask for. Together they have to work with the dreamwalker Kaia to save Sam and Dean from the Bad Place.
Kaia is the antithesis of Claire. The daughter of Jimmy Novak has never run from a fight in her life, while Kaia runs every chance possible. The running seems like a reasonable decision when you end up in a hell world every time you sleep, but Claire’s choices are less understandable. Because she has always been alone, Claire doesn’t understand that her rash actions have consequences. Unfortunately, it appears that the Wayward Sisters might have the same problem as the Winchester brothers: they don’t learn lessons unless they end up with an innocent person’s blood on their hands.
The Wayward Sisters successfully save Sam and Dean, but it costs Kaia’s life. That price is one that had to be paid not because there were lives at stake, but because Claire Novak is a moron. Admittedly, it’s a little tired to see an old Supernatural trope in the first episode of the potential spinoff, but it’s challenging to think of another way that a character as bullheaded as Claire would learn. With the death of her friend on her shoulders, we will hopefully see Claire grow just a little bit faster than Dean has should the series get the order we all hope it does.
“Wayward Sisters” had some problems. The chemistry between some of the actors wasn’t quite there yet, they were forced into some old tropes that we’ve already seen a million times on the show, and the action scenes needed some serious help, but that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. The one-liners were flying and the love that has made Supernatural great for thirteen years was there in spades. Several of the women you saw on the show tonight fought tooth and nail to see this backdoor pilot become a reality, with the boys in their corner the whole way. Their slightly rocky start doesn’t seem to have taken away from fan excitement if the social media buzz is to be believed, so keep your fingers crossed for a season pick-up.
If you had thoughts on the episode, shout ‘em out in the comments!
