Supernatural New Episode Review: 'There's No Place Like Home' Brings Charlie Back from Oz

Supernatural returned with a new Season 10 episode entitled "There's No Place Like Home" on Tuesday that featured the return of Felicia Day as Charlie. When we last saw the character, she had traveled to the Land of Oz, but she came back Tuesday with a dark side.

Sam stumbled across a video online of Charlie torturing what appeared to be an ordinary citizen. Dean assumed she was hunting, but it turned out that Charlie had been split in half during her time in Oz. To win a war for the Emerald City, she followed the Wizard's advice to split into her light and dark halves. Dark Charlie won the war singlehandedly, but she returned to the real world to try and win back regular Charlie, who wanted nothing to do with her after seeing her ruthlessness.

To do this, Dark Charlie began torturing and killing the people responsible for covering up the drunk driver who killed her parents years ago. While Sam and Charlie searched for a way to get to Oz (Dark Charlie destroyed the key) and find the Wizard to reverse the spell and rejoin the two halves, Dean went to stop Dark Charlie's spree.

Sam and Charlie discovered that a Man of Letters was still alive and may have had a means to get back to Oz. As it turns out, the man was the good half of the Wizard, and he decided to summon the Wizard by shooting himself because if one half gets hurt, the other also feels it.

Sure enough, the Wizard appeared, and Charlie had to kill the man in order to take the Wizard half down for good. From there, Sam and Dean used a key to rejoin the two halves. Charlie then promised to help the brothers fix the Mark of Cain problem.

Throughout the episode, Dean struggled with the Mark. He tried to purify himself with healthier foods and fewer alcoholic beverages, but his hand would continually shake in a sign that the Mark needed to be fed. So when it came down to a final fight with Dark Charlie, Dean still beat her to a pulp and broke her arm even though he knew he was hitting his friend, as well.

This brutal struggle served two purposes. First, it showed that despite his best efforts, Dean might not be able to resist the Mark. He was right to point out that Cain only learned to live with the Mark after centuries of killing. It's a powerful force unlike anything they've seen before, and Dean is not going to be able to overcome it with positive thinking or dietary changes.

Second, the fight damaged Charlie's psyche. Even after the reunion of the two halves, gone was the cheerful girl Dean affectionately called "kiddo." In her place was a woman who had gone through torture and come out the other side damaged. She may still help the Winchesters, but I have a hunch she'll be much different next time we see her.

The Mark of Cain continues to permeate Season 10, and even the standalone episodes such as "There's No Place Like Home" have touched on the Mark and its effects. Tonight's episode was just as much about moving the Mark storyline as it was about catching us up with Charlie, and it worked well on both fronts.

Notes From Dad's Journal:

- If shooting the good version of the Wizard in the head killed them both, then why didn't shooting him in the torso wound the Wizard, too?

- Those emerald chains around Sam were pretty cool.

- Someone needs to tell Dean that there are ways to spice up an egg white omelet.

- Dean: "What the hell is kale?"

- How long until the Winchesters find Cain?

What did you think of "There's No Place Like Home"? Let us know in the comments section.