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Well, it’s official. ‘Supernatural’ surely doesn’t fear the reaper.

We’ve seen the heavenly host, manifestations of the seven deadly sins, most of the riders of the Apocalypse and Lucifer himself. Heck, a few weeks ago we got a hotel consortium of pagan gods. But tonight’s episode gave us a concept as character; Death, in the flesh, roaming the streets of Chicago and preempting a massive, apocalyptic disaster. And, it worked, in a number of perfectly creepy ways.

Julian Richings, whose gaunt, Ichabod Crane features and inhuman complexion target him naturally for roles like this, was nothing short of spellbinding. Channeling the kind of mythological invention and magical realism that Neil Gamain would be proud of, the show heads delivered one of the finest scenes in Supernatural history; Dean sitting down reluctantly to share a deep-dish pizza with Death. Pepperoni and cheese has never seemed so foreboding.

The rest of the episode, ramping its way up for next week’s finale, demonstrated the same tragic-comic flair and graphic novel giddiness.The times have never been darker, but as a cast and crew, I’m not sure I’ve seen Supernatural more alive and cheerful. This episode was crammed full of incident and event, and character dynamics that made each new scene a joy to savor. From giving Matt Frewer a nice opening scene to wrap up the Pestilence story, to a scene sure to become the comedic high point of the season; Crowley’s camera phone snapshot of he and Bobby locking lips.

“Why did you take a picture?”

“ Why did you use your tongue?”

As per the usual, Kripke and company mixed the playfulness with the darker edge the show is known for.  The kiss is humorous, but what it signifies—a dangerous deal with Bobby’s soul hanging in the balance—isn’t so much.

 Crowley, a relatively new add-on to the cast, has his work cut out for him trying to join this well-knit gang, and so far he’s a welcome addition. I’m hoping he’s less treacherous than he seems, but he is a demon after all. Still unclear how holding Bobby’s soul for collateral is actually making him safe, as I seem to remember it being defined that if you kill the demon holding the contract, you regain the soul. Sort of puts a target on your head, no?  

It also must be admired how well the production staff has managed to conjure the apocalypse while delivering only limited carnage. There’s a feel that the world’s just on the edge of getting flushed, but most of it is down to how everything is shot, composed and presented. This is an entire universe taking one, collective deep breath. Just take a look at that fabulous moment where the Big Grim shows up in Chicago for the first time, with a haunting version of the folk song, ‘O, Death’ playing on the soundtrack.

Better still is the intelligence with which the scriptwriters have written the character of Death. He isn’t one more fallen angel, or a small beans demon, with an axe to grind. He’s so old in fact, that his contempt and disdain for such a small scale squabble (the apocalypse, a small scale squabble!) is palpable in his conversations with Dean. He offers the ring freely with the condition that the eldest Winchester make sure his brother does what needs to doing to trap Lucifer in the fire. Wily old Death no doubt already has seen this entire thing go down, and he’s just pushing what needs pushed.

Ackles and Padalecki, as well as Jim Beaver and Misha Collins continue to do fantastic work, and I commend everyone for avoiding more tearful/whiny moments where characters lament and struggle with their fate. Everyone here is behaving like they are in zero hour, making decisions with limited emotional thought because that’s what is needed.  Instead of the strange flip-flopping we see on Lost, there’s a consistency to the dramatic direction of the acting.

And now, it all comes down to Sam, it seems. Will Lucifer win the day? Are we going to wrap up the apocalypse this season? Will God make his much teased appearance? And when season 6 rolls around, will it echo what Sam said last night?

“Remember when all we used to do was hunt wendigos? Do you remember that?”

Yes, Sam, I do. And although I’d love to see that again, me thinks you have all come too far for that to happen again. No matter, you are currently in the midst of Supernatural’s best season. Enjoy the ride.