Last week’s Supernatural gave us plenty of information to ponder. Crowley, now the King of Hell, has made a deal with Samuel Campbell and holds Sam’s soul hostage.

Plus he’s using devilish blackmail abilities to force this hunter family to capture Alpha Creatures, all so he can find the location of Purgatory. If that’s not enough, Castiel is dealing with angel civil war and stolen weapons of Heaven.

Whew, give me some time to let it all sink in.

Luckily, this week’s “All Dogs Go to Heaven,” allowed us to stray from the season’s storyline and brought Sam and Dean together for a good old-fashioned monster hunt.

Crowley appeared only for a few minutes, but it was enough to remind the boys that he holds the power and hasn’t forgotten the deal regarding Sam’s soul. It’s weird seeing the boys take orders, but it’s great that Dean does it so reluctantly. Nothing good has ever come from working with a demon, but he knows that it’s currently the only way to get Sam’s soul back.

With that in mind, the brothers took up Crowley’s mission and began their hunt. Werewolves were the first suspects to come to mind, but the boys soon learned that it was the creature’s cousin, the skin-walker, that was the real culprit.

Who knew the wagging tail and puppy eyed man’s best friend could be the newest form of sleeper cell? Well, technically it was a person who could turn into a dog, but still.

Take one look at your precious Fido, and you’d never think that he’d ever want to do more than simply play fetch or roll over. Creepy.

What’s more disturbing was the fact that they were infiltrating homes in order to bite the families and turn them into more skin-walkers. It seems like each Alpha Creature is attempting to build its own army. Is there really a war coming? What is causing these monsters to act so differently?

In a blood bath filled with silver bullets, Sam and Dean took to fighting a group of skin-walkers in order to save a mother and her son. Their teamwork is unstoppable even in some of the direst situations and Dean’s not too bad with a sniper rifle either. It’s just too bad that they couldn’t capture the Alpha to save Sam.

I really liked how the writers were able to take the character of Lucky and make him appear creepy and perverted, then by the end of the episode make me not only like him for protecting the family, but sorry for him. All he really wanted was someone to love him. It also showed how Dean is a truly great brother. Even with Sam a completely different person, Dean refuses to give up on him. He is determined to fix the problem.

This brother bonding led to one of the great moments of the night at the conclusion of the episode. Sam finally admitted his changes and came clean about what he has become.

Sam has no feelings and could care less about anyone. He acknowledged that it has made him a far better hunter and that lacking a conscience has made it easier to do his job. Being the old Sam was hard, but he knows that it is the person he needs to go back to. The out loud acceptance is certainly a step in the right direction. I just hope that their distanced relationship can be mended once Sam’s soul is returned.

While basically a filler episode, it was a nice break that had me reminiscing over the old days of the monster of the week seasons. Watching Sam and Dean work together makes me want them to get Sam’s soul back that much more. Here’s to hoping they can find a way to dupe Crowley and figure out what is going on with the monsters.

Sean McKenna was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. He retired in May of 2017. Follow him on Twitter.