Russell, Colter’s older brother, tracks him down for help finding an old forces buddy.

It’s perhaps a mark of how compelling Colter and his team have quietly become that both episodes featuring other Shaw siblings have felt a little off. It’s not bad off either just a very definite step change first with Melissa Roxburgh as Dory and now Jensen Ackles as Russell.

The inevitable triple reunion is going to be immense fun because once again we have a new Shaw sibling with some very strong personality traits. The interesting thing about Russell is that he’s found a  third path besides Colter’s pathological family loyalty and Dory’s wish to put it all as far behind her as humanly possible. Russell is up to his elbows in blood and he seems pretty okay with that. Ackles is typically great here, and there are a couple of lovely tips of the hat to Supernatural but what really stands out here is how different Russell is. He has none of Colter’s sincere charm and little of Dean Winchester’s motormouth affability. Ackles does something very subtle here, playing the other Shaw sibling as someone working very hard to do a good impression of a ‘normal’ person. So much so that you’re not entirely sure he’s legit, even as the episode ends.

On an individual level this is compelling and Ackles and Fiona Rene are tremendous fun, flirting and messing with Colter as they do so. For the episode it proves a little more problematic. Because Russell is such a strong personality, the show’s increasingly traditional fondness for well rounded supporting characters gets just a little squeezed out most notably Christopher Seivright as Russell’s buddy who gets almost no development. This is exacerbated by the sense that Russell’s black ops past, and the villain we hear of but don’t see here, are all set up for future episodes.

Verdict: This isn’t a bad episode by any means, in fact it’s a very fun one. But it feels like something different for the show and that takes a while to bed in. There’s still a lot of to enjoy here, especially Catherine Lough Haggquist of Fort Salem as Russell’s handler and an episode-stealing turn from Maria J. Cruz as a morgue clerk. The hints about the Shaw kids’ father’s death are intriguing too. But while all this is fun, the central case gets lost a little bit. For a show that’s championed the return of ‘case of the week’ episodes that’s a shame. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart