Supernatural Preview: “Mother’s Little Helper” [VIDEO] 

In “Blade Runners,” Dean finally held the First Blade, which triggered the Mark of Cain. The effect was immediate. The mark lit up and Dean started changing. He looked more dangerous and deadly than he ever has before and it took a lot for Sam to snap him out of it.

In Tuesday’s “Mother’s Little Helper,” Dean already seems different. The look on his face? Can’t mean anything good.

Look at the expression on Sam’s face below. We got a break from the sibling tension in “Blade Runners” and that was refreshingly wonderful and much needed. But that break seems to be over. The conflict between the brothers is back. Could it be exacerbated by whatever Dean’s going through now that he’s made a connection with the First Blade? I hate that the boys are going to be separate in this episode, but it’s cool Sam’s going to learn more about his grandfather and the Men of Letters.

A synopsis for “Mother’s Little Helper”:

MISHA COLLINS MAKES HIS DIRECTING DEBUT — Dean (Jensen Ackles) struggles with the after effects of the Mark of Cain.  Meanwhile, Sam (Jared Padalecki) hears about a case where straight-laced people are turning into violent murderers.  Sam suspects possession and suggests to Dean that they investigate, but Dean tells him to go without him.  While interviewing the local townsfolk, Sam meets an elderly woman named Julia (guest star Jenny O’Hara), who tells him the Men of Letters came to town in 1958.  Julia tells Sam the story of a young man named Henry Winchester (guest star Gil McKinney) and his female companion, Josie Sands (guest star Alaina Huffman). While Sam is away, Crowley (Mark Sheppard) tests Dean. Misha Collins directed the episode written by Adam Glass (#917).

“Mother’s Little Helper” Promo

“Mother’s Little Helper” Clip
I’m not going to lie. Dean playing pool and being all, I don’t know — intensely broody — is super sexy. Here he is in a clip with Crowley. So glad Mark Sheppard is around in this one. He’s been having a stellar season nine. So whenever he’s not part of the action, his absence is felt. And Jensen is going to rule my world as Dean navigates this new existence of his. I love how Ackles pulls off being so comfortable around a pool table. Dean should be comfortable. As we know, in the past, the Winchesters have had to hustle pool for money.

And we can’t forget how “Mother’s Little Helper” also signals the directorial debut of our favorite actor who plays an angel, Misha Collins. At last year’s Salute to Supernatural convention in Burbank, we were part of a round table of bloggers who got the chance to talk to Misha about getting to direct the show for the first time.

His prediction on how the crew would react to his taking on this challenge

MISHA COLLINS: I think that for the most part the crew is gonna be supportive and helpful at least for the first day or so. Once they see how badly I’m botching things they might sort of throw their hands up in disgust and stop helping me. I think the crew will be helpful and that’s nice. It’s nice going into my first big directing experience with a crew that knows me that I know that, you know, I’m not gonna feel like a fish out of water. And then, I don’t know. Jared and Jensen generally speaking are pretty respectful of directors that come in — the first time directors on the show. They kind of give them a wide berth and certainly give them a fair shot. I’m not gonna have that experience. So that’s too bad.

On Supernatural directors dealing with the special effects

MISHA: Directors are definitely responsible for overseeing special effects. You have department heads with all of the crew — you have visual effects and special effects and makeup effects. And all these different departments and department heads who have your back. And they want to do their best job they possibly can but the director has to synthesize all of those inputs and bring it into a cohesive whole. I think Supernatural probably more than a lot of episodic television gives directors a fair amount of leeway and allows them to do their thing. We don’t have a director/producer up on the site. A lot of shows that shoot out of L.A. where the writers and executive producers aren’t around watching what’s going on in production will have a point guy, a producer/director who will maybe direct five episodes in a season but also keep an eye on the production and make sure that the guest directors coming in are doing, you know, toeing the party line, doing things the way they’re supposed to be doing that. We don’t have that on Supernatural. But we also have the same cinematographer and the same wardrobe department. We have a lot of same key department heads who are actually giving a consistent tone to it. That helps even things out a little bit.

On observing other Supernatural directors and asking Jensen for advice

MISHA: I have talked to Jensen about his experiences. He’ll deny it but he actually gave me a bunch of advice that was helpful. And I basically grilled every director that’s come along and asked them for their input and have assembled a long…I have some cloud app that I have been storing all my director input on.

Well, we’re sure that in the end, things must have gone smoothly, although there were a couple instances of Jared and Jensen having fun at the director’s expense. How much do we love this show?

Supernatural “Mother’s Little Helper” airs Tuesday March 25 at 9/8c on the CW.