Where Supernatural Season 10 Episode 9 focused on the major topic of Dean and the Mark of Cain at the very end of the hour for a brief moment, Supernatural Season 10 Episode 10 put far more emphasis on that topic.

It’s by far the most interesting storyline of Supernatural Season 10 - especially since the wildly entertaining demon Dean is no more – despite the fact it hasn’t been as central to the episodes so far as I would have liked.

I was pleased that the Winchester brothers were putting aside the one-off monster hunt for the hour and trying something new when it came to the Mark.

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Granted, the options of relying on both Metatron and Crowley to find success are bound to come with extreme strings attached, but they’ve been down these dangerous roads before. Fix one problem, then worry about the repercussions and fix those later.

I was surprised Castiel was able to get Metatron out of his prison so easily, but I guess who better than the scribe of God to know how to get rid of the Mark of Cain?

Except, and not really surprisingly, Metatron wasn’t quite willing to play ball. Sure, he said they needed the First Blade, but he wasn’t willing to give up anything else for free.

Clearly it seems like the Mark of Cain, even without the First Blade in Dean's presence, even without being a demon, still affects the elder Winchester. There still seems to be this urge to want to kill and it appears that the more powerful the person he goes after the more it fuels that itch.

Though, sometimes I still feel like I’m trying to figure out just what the Mark does and doesn’t do.

How much of that Metatron beat-down was Dean and how much of it was related to the Mark pushing Dean to be super violent? With each punch from Dean and sarcastic comment from Metatron, I couldn’t help but think of the Emperor in Star Wars: Let the hate flow through you, Dean Winchester.

But I was glad to see that Sam, even though he let Dean go off on his own knowing the damage Dean could cause, did talk to Dean about fighting the Mark and not giving in. Even their conversation about Cain and him living with the Mark was interesting. Certainly, Metatron’s remarks about ending it at the source made me think of Cain, too.

Might they have to kill Cain to get rid of the Mark? Or something involving Cain?

It definitely doesn’t seem like they are going to get any further help from Metatron.

Unfortunately, I was far less engaged when the hour cut to scenes involving Rowena or Claire. It’s great that both Crowley and Castiel have become series regulars, but I wish the storylines involving their characters were much more exciting.

Crowley dealing with his over-exaggerating mother (who, if she had a mustache would most certainly be twirling it) hasn’t gotten me excited for her as a big bad. It’s made Crowley far less menacing, and the fact that he believes her every word after she keeps killing his demons just feels ridiculous. If she seemed more sinister and not so obvious, I’d be more inclined to believe it. I’m really wondering just where her story is going to go.

As for the Castiel and Claire story, I’m glad it ended by the close of the hour, but it felt so jarring with everything else going on. One moment it’s super intense about helping Dean and dealing with the Mark and then it’s all about texting Claire or her complaining about losing Randy to new characters (I thought they might wind up being demons.)

I just really didn’t care, and there were moments between Castiel and Claire that felt like they could really head into soap opera territory.

And to end with Dean going to meet Claire, almost getting killed, then going their separate ways, only to have Castiel show up and they agree it’s best they go it alone? Sure, it showed Dean could control his killing ways and Castiel found a bit of closure in his sense of responsibility to her, but it felt a bit anticlimactic for the ending, especially considering all the huge Mark of Cain stuff for the hour.

I hope the arcs for Castiel and Crowley become more entertaining because I really do like their characters. They can and should be bringing much more to the table, but perhaps Supernatural Season 10 is waiting to really kick things into gear for them.

This was a much stronger outing than the last episode of 2014 (I almost feel like this would have been a better midseason finale), and I liked the heavy focus on Sam and Dean dealing with the Mark. Now, it's time to move things along while also getting Castiel and Crowley involved in a much more engrossing way.

What did you think of the episode? Will Dean have to kill Cain? Can he get rid of the Mark? Sound off below, and catch every moment of the hour again when you watch Supernatural online now.