Supernatural (TV Series) Appointment in Samarra (2010) User Reviews

Death is back!

[Sammyshortt · 10/10 · 25 December 2010]

Death played by Julian Richings returns to Supernatural along with the beautiful Reaper Tessa (Lindsey McKeon) for this amazing episode. Any SN fan will remember that even though Death only had one scene in the fifth season, he made an epic impact that had people begging to see him again and now, here he is! Now that Crowley is gone, Dean goes to more extreme measures to get Sam's soul back. That means contacting the only thing on the same level as God himself and that is Death! Death makes Dean a deal; he'll retreive Sam's soul and protect him from the damage it ma cause him if Dean becomes Death for 24 hours.

Dean gets a hard and in true SN style, realistic and brutal look at life and death and the backlash that comes from messing with the natural order of things. Once again, Julian Richings steals this entire episode because of his amazing and terrifying presence as Death and it ends with a very surprising conclusion. Dean, Tessa and Death have great chemistry and it leaves me hoping that they get together again at some point.

In my opinion, this is easily the best episode of the sixth season so far. I'm waiting for Jan 27th to see whether or not they can top this but it's a pretty tall order.

The Natural Order

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 26 November 2012]

Dean goes to Dr. Robert to have a 3 minutes near-death experience to meet Death. They have a meeting and Death proposes Dean to wear his ring for 24 hours; in return, her would bring Sam's soul back and build a wall to isolate his traumatic period in Hell. Dean plays Death with Tessa and soon he learns that the natural order cannot be violated. Meanwhile Sam summons Balthazar to have a spell to avoid having his soul back and he needs to kill Bobby for the spell work.

"Appointment in Samarra" is one of the best episodes of Supernatural. Dean playing Death is great despite the problem he brings violating the natural order. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Encontro em Samarra" ("Meeting in Samarra")

Big Daddy Reaper is back!

[yevettecastro · 10/10 · 11 June 2019]

Any episode with Death you know it's gonna be a good one. Julian is superb if not one of my fave characters besides Lucifer and Crowley. Even though his screen time is brief. His performance always makes an impact. One of the most important characters of the series in my opinion.

Everything is dust in the wind.

[zombiehigh18 · 10/10 · 17 December 2011]

Looking back at my ratings this season I realized that I didn't give any episode a full 10 yet, So if any episode deserves the top grade it's definitely this one. Bobby is back, I'm having a strong Bobby and Cas withdrawal syndromes this season, they should be here more often. Sebastian Roché delivers another charming portrayal as Balthazar and I'm pretty sure we will see him again. Lindsey McKeon is also back as the reaper Tessa, she is always a welcome guest, though I don't understand why exactly she was angry with Dean as I recall the last time she met the Winchester brothers they saved her life.

Then here comes one of my favourite villains on the show, Creepy Julian Richings is amazingly intimidating as the horseman Death.

Bits and pieces:

• It's good to know that Dean actually remembers Adam too needs to be saved but sadly he could only save one brother.

• Robert Englund was good in his tiny role as Dr. Robert, that guy needed more on screen time for crying out loud.

• It was cute but sad when Dean chose to write a letter for some one it was Ben, so different from his season five letter to Sam when he was going to say Yes to Michael, But I totally agree with Dean: nothing he would say would mean a thing to RoboSam.

• I'm glad they didn't stretch out the soulless Sam story any further, though I enjoyed his soulless persona at some points, I miss good old Sam now more than ever, because our Sammy would never attempt to kill Bobby, Kill Bobby Sam! You should know this would be totally unforgiven but I guess the only instinct you have now is the survival instinct.

• I'm looking forward to see how long the wall will last in Sam's head and what will happen next? Will Sam remember his time in Hell anyway? How will he deal with the actions his soulless self had done?

• What is the deal about human souls? What is it that Death wants Dean it keep digging on?

very interesting episode

[tiriake · 10/10 · 1 August 2013]

Unexpected, but definitely excellent episode.

Dean makes a wager with Death, to get Sam's soul back. Death agrees, but says that for that Dean must wear his ring for 24 hours. If he takes the ring off, he loses. Nice to see Tessa again. Of course soulless Sam decides, to stop Deans plan at any cost. It was truly horrible, how he was ready to kill Bobby. I mean I knew ever since he let Dean being turned into a vampire that he is dangerous, but this episode it was really portrayed how very dangerous. And how important it is to get Sam his soul back, because without his soul he is a monster.

It was an important episode, because Dean actually experienced what are the consequences for cheating death. Like he and Sam..actually his entire family has been doing for a long time. Family member gets killed, someone makes a deal (Mary to save John, John to save Dean, Dean to save Sam, Samuel to save Mary...) and that messes up natural order.

Episode ends with Death giving Sam his soul back.

One of the best

[goetzalli · 10/10 · 2 May 2022]

Ok, so any episode with Death is going to be a great episode hands down. Love the inclusion of Tessa as well. Was so heart wrenching watching Dean struggle being Death for a day and learning to accept the natural order. This is the real turning point in the show where we will start to FINALLY see the boys being true brothers again. After all the pain, hurt, and distrust for each other from the last couple seasons, it's nice seeing them put it all behind them for a while after this episode. And it goes to show how much they can thank Death for that, especially since Dean lost the bet! 10/10 love this episode.

Some clunky aspects aside this is a really good episode.

[CubsandCulture · 9/10 · 7 April 2020]

The overall plot of the episode of Death teaching the boys a lesson about the natural order of things coupled with Dean playing god makes one of the more thoughtful episodes of the show. It was really nice to see Tessa again and Death as well. It has one of the more intense Ackles performances as well. Unfortunately the show and episode never really deal with Adam being stuck in the cage well. Dean seems way too callous and unconflicted by how he readily chooses Sam. That beat should have been stretched out a little more. Perhaps have Dean choose at the end of the episode instead?

Death is back and i get him

[shwetafabm · 8/10 · 20 June 2020]

I love Dean, like i have an unhealthy obsession with the character, but my added 10 years from 14 and the rewatch has me seriously annoyed. Dean is an idiot, i also hate that Sam gets blamed for the apocalypse because if anyone should even be blamed it's Dean. In probably season 1's best episode "faith" we see Dean accept his fate of dying when electrocuted on the job. He understands it comes with the job. Now i think it's the second last or last episode of season 1 when he tells John he couldn't care too much for their safety if he wanted them to hunt. Dean also wants Sam to hunt with him because he misses Sam. Now given that this guy at some point did have the common sense that people die i guess that screwed up when he got Sam back and then came back too. After preventing the apocalypse Dean can't swallow that nothing makes sense and that people just die. Death wants him to learn this lesson and i think that's understandable on Death's part. And i think that also plays into the future. I like death, he probably did it because he felt indebted to Dean, i like the girl reaper too, infact her lines in S4 to Dean about knowing nothing good is planned were one of my favourites. So it was really good to see them back. Ya so he is an idiot because he lets his chance of getting Sam back go... Now as this show deepens in mythology it just starts to raise questions, like the reapers and death and how that works i guess but it's not a problem. I didn't really buy the whole thing with Sam and the spell. Seemed weird plot device nonsense. Also i felt like i missed something, like i missed him being worse, something happening, also what happened to the demon blood...i just wanted to see more of evil Sam.

This episode is a game changer

[annasjoeberg · 7/10 · 9 May 2021]

Unitl this episode, Sam and Dean fight demons. And I like that Sam always questions his brother dominant way. And there had always been some connection between the demonblood and Sam. But after this episode, when he gets his soul back, the fact that he had some demon blood in him and had psychic abilities just vanish, like they never existed. What happened to the demon blood and psychic abilities?

After this episode it is like Sam just get all weak and soft, with no opinions of his own and he always gets himself into trouble. Always need help from his brother. Boring. I had wanted to see more of evil Sam.