Supernatural - Exile on Main Street, S06E01

It's been a year since the Winchester brothers stopped the apocalypse, sending Sam (Jared Padalecki) to a cage in Hell, and Dean (Jensen Ackles) to live happily ever after with his one true love. That would not have been a bad way of ending the series; in fact, that was the intended end, but now we find ourselves in a world where Sam has not only found himself back on Earth, but Grandpa Samuel (Mitch Pileggi) has come back too. Time for the Winchesters to team up with their Campbell relatives and figure out what is going on.

I'm not nervous anymore. At the end of last season, I was concerned that the decision to continue rather than concluding the show would ruin such a terrific series. But the premiere has me very excited. Why are Sam and Samuel back in the game? What twisted and horrible plan requires both of them? Or is it something that the good guys want?

And what about the Campbells and Samuel kidnapping that djinn? What have they got going on that they clearly feel the Winchester boys can't know about? Are they experimenting? Torturing the monsters for answers? Trying to use their powers against them? And if their methods are resulting in things like a cure for the djinn poison, then why must it be kept hush hush?

And speaking of the djinn, is revenge really enough to change their habits and have them become the aggressors? And what is the deal with the other monsters apparently equally disregarding their past restrictions? It's going to make things very interesting now that the hunters cannot accurately predict their foes' behaviours.

Finally, what happened to Sam? Dean was right about one thing - a year ago, Sam would not have hesitated to help people, regardless of the likelihood of it accomplishing anything. So what has changed? I guess we'll just have to keep watching.