#buckleming deserve to burn in hell

[i-isa-i]

i still don’t understand why they had to kill Charlie like that

[babygirl06301]

1x13: Route 666 Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Look here for my explanations of these reviews.

Written by: Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming

Directed by: Paul Shapiro

Oh, boy; here we go with the first Buckleming episode. And, what’s this? It isn’t good? No way, bro. No way.

Saltiness aside, this episode is really weird. The tone of it just… off, and Dean’s story is forced. Not to mention the actual story which feels very awkward. There were a couple of things I liked, which is why this got a 2 out of 5 rather than a 1 out of 5.

What I liked: My favorite scene, which I’ll talk about below, was really intriguing. Sam being a little shit toward Dean about Cassie was adorable. That’s sort of it.

What I didn’t like: Everything else, for real. I’ll talk about Dean’s side of things below, but the fact that they gave him a girl he was supposed to be so in love with just to never bring her up again? I was getting 15x19 and 15x20 feels all over again (keep in mind, I’m watching these with the viewpoint of someone who has seen the entire show; I’m not cutting it any slack because they didn’t know they wouldn’t use Cassie again at the time). The actual plot felt kind of thrown together, too, like Buckleming went to writingprompts.com and got “racist truck” and just built a shitty story around that. Plus—and I know this was a Dean-centric episode, but—where the hell was Sam the whole time? He’s just there to make quippy remarks and scare the shit out of Dean? What a rude way to treat Sam.

Character work: Okay. Here’s the thing: you can’t just scream in my face that Dean is really in love with this girl and expect me to feel that. Just dropping this girl in an episode with that much meaning attached to her felt stupid and weird and forced as all hell. And, on top of that, you have Dean reconcile with her and basically date her for the whole episode only for her to say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” at the end while Dean says, “Oh, we’ll be a thing again soon, but actually not really.” Like? Thanks for making me sit through an episode where Dean seems like he’s going to develop only for him to go right back to where he was at the beginning? This was definitely a we-need-a-smexy-sex-scene-for-the-views ploy rather than a let’s-give-Dean-some-substance thing.

Favorite scene: Okay, one of the few things I did like in this episode was this scene where Audrey, Cassie’s mom, is telling the story of Cyrus Dorian. Not only does she tell it over some flashbacks that feel very Holes (2003), but Kathleen Noone’s (Audrey’s) acting in this scene is, like, really good? She went in, y’all. She came into this single episode of SPN and said, “I’m going to weep like I’ve been traumatized by this shit for real,” and honestly, go off, queen. Legit, it’s not like the story was anything phenomenal, but her acting had me like, “Damn, okay.”

Favorite moment: When the dumb stupid truck was driving at Dean and then poofed.

Iconic quote: “I miss conversations that didn't start with 'this killer truck.'” I gotta say, Sam asking Dean how he was supposed to burn a truck is close second because what do you mean, how are you supposed to burn a truck? You just burn it, Sam.

Sam was 100% my highlight reel for this episode, and he deserved better than his quippy lines. They should’ve filled all the time they had filled with bullshit with Sam fucking Winchester.

[minimalisticmonstermash]

What the Fandom (actually) thinks about the SPN Finale 15x20!

A short while ago I posted a Quiz  [Which Part of Supernatural Season 16 are you?]  and the post has 27 notes, so I thought barely anyone would have taken this, but it turns out actually a couple people did.  And I´m so glad I did put in one free form question: “Would be please be so kind to sum up the finale in 3 words. (Or 333 if you want to...)”  Because the past days I clicked through the notifications on the quiz, which is kind of tedious, but I could not stop cause what people put in there is a mood, a riot, the pure unfiltered truth, eloquent and outrageous in the best way!   And so I collected the answers and tried to roughly group them. Which you can find under the cut. (If someone that took the quiz wants to be tagged or have the commentary removed please just message me!)  Can you guess what the most common 3 words were? 

 The rare acceptance or praise  not that bad  // Not entirely horrible.  //  satisfaction and closure :D  //  good idea, shaky execution, ultimately fulfilling  // epic love story

Grounded Truth & the well adjusted It was something // well that happened

CW & Network aka. put the blame where it (probably) belongs network fuckery afoot  //  Corporate Fuckery Ahoy!  // network bullshit ruined everything  // fuck the cw // Fuck the CW //  Fuck you cw //  cw ships wincest  //   FUCK ROBERT SINGER  // Greed won

Make some Effort (@show) Lazy //  half-assed fever dream  // feverish dream (nightmare)  // Could be better  // Not comprehensible, stupid, low budget  // How did buckleming do better  // Fuck you, spn writers. Could have done better

Hate Crime  A hate crime // literal hate crime  //  The hate crime //  I only need 2 and it's hate and crime // subtle-but-not hate crime // hatecrime to all Homophobia Call Out Straight Gay Chicken// not gay enough // bad unsexy homophobic // Where's my gay? // horrific hetero nightmare // Homophobic queerbait bullshit // no homo shitshow // Bury your gays // silencing, erasing, ugly  //  Homophobic and incestual  // homophobic disappointing stifd // Character assassination and homophobia //  Stinky, censorship, offensive // Disappointingly heterosexual & bland You need to speak  fandom for that  why lamp wtf //  It’s the turbo hell we were all sent to // Wheres the tapes??? Castiel centric  so no cas?  // So no cas? // Needs more Cas // No Cas, pathetic // where is cas // why no Cas // where was cas //  yo a ti  // where was castiel Bless you I released scripts for a reason

Deserving Better! Damn Right! They deserved better // They deserved better // They deserved better // dean deserved better //  dean deserved better  //  dean deserved better // Dean deserves better  //  destiel deserved better // Destiel deserve better. //  Jensen deserved better  //  dumb , idiotic , horrible and #deanwinchesterdeservedbetter

Trash, Shit  & Garbage aka. The scatological truth FUCK THIS SHIT // Shit shit shit // Shit shit shit // total shit //  Shittiest fucking shit// Total and utter shite. //  Piece of shit // Fuck this shit  //  Complete utter shit //   Fucking pointless shitshow // stupid As all fuck // That was shit.  // A shit show  // what a shitshow // An absolute shitshow // total shit show // a shit show // A shit show //  total shitshow lmao // absolute shit show  // A shit show // Rancid shit show  // i would say it's a shitshow but that's mean to shit // Complete utter shit   // fuck that shit //  fuck that shit //  fuck this shit // Absolute fuckin bullshit // fucked up shit  // Utter shit bro //  Distilled horse shit // Absolute horse shit // Absolute Horseshit. 3. //  Absolute dog crap // Piece of crap // pile of crap // piece of trash // Steaming trash fire // Shit ass garbage   //  Gar ba ge // Fucking trash fire // Absolute garbage fire // A dumpster fire //  piece of trash // unfortunate dumpster fire //  Flaming pile of garbage // disaster dumpster fire  // Unsatifying flaming garbage // Dumpster fire on ice. A mess. Underwhelming. Incomprehensible. Oof // I got 2: dumpster fire // Complete. Fucking. Bullshit.   // Complete utter bullshit // utter gross bullshit // Shit fuck shame // hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck

Still won´t read any praise here The worst thing  // a complete disaster // so fucked up //  It was terrible //  it really sucked  //  Man it sucked //  Well that sucked  //  Fucking sucked bro  //  it fucking sucked  // it sucked ass it was fucked // Sucked major ass.  // It sucked ass // very not good :(  //  it was bad :(  // Absolutely fucking awful  // The very worst //  bad. bad. wincest...  // Bad bad bad  //  bad poop ending // bad funni yuck // horrendous nightmare fuel  //   A fucking nightmare // worst thing i’ve never seen in my life //  an absolute atrocity  // a fucking disaster  it was terrible // an absolute disgrace  //  Just so awful // Really Fucking Bad // Literally the worst // Real real bad  //  Bad stupid bad  // uhh very bad  // crap bad lacking //  horrible rude worst // awful  //  bad // bad  //  Crap //  wack Ugh. // No  // UGH // Bad, messy, dumb   // Bad terrible worst ugh  // Oof my dude  // deep deep sigh 9000+ epic failure  //  Small dick energy

Demands!  Suck my dick   // Not it motherfucker

Thinking of all of us! We all lost

Summed up in 3 Words               Bitch. Fucker. Ass.    //  Death age heaven  // Dead, married, forgotten  // Sam Dead Car  // Dead, Sad, & Car.  // Dead, Sad, Car  // Slow shambling death  //  burns in hell // Absurd, wtf, huh  //  fucking odoriferous stench.

Not Canon & Fake  &  Insulting insulting. not canon  // Unsatisfying, degrading, noncanonical // Disgusting Insulting Fake // sad, bullshit, not-a-finale // Embarrassing, ridiculous, insulting // disheartening, harmful, horrible // Terrible. Disgusting. Hilarious  //                 Incomplete. Unkind. Nonsensical.  // Traumatising, stupid, horrendous  // horrible incomplete unsuccessful  // Disgusting, disrespectful, unreal

Disappointments & Complaints very big disappointment  //  disappointing, disrespectful, baffling  // An utter disappointment // disappointment of the decade  //  Fruitless, regressive, insulting, disturbing, and all-in-all just disappointing //  the complete unpackage  // supernatural finale clusterfuck  // WRONG, Horrible, Offensive //  poo rehash bad  // Unnecessary character deaths  Betrayal & Inconsistency   Stupid awful depressing poorly written inconsistent betrayal  // Boring betrayal // inconsistent, monotonous mess  //  inconsistent disappointing mess

Denial! Aka. The wise!  Finale? What finale? //   What finale ?  // what finale? //  Finale? What finale? Ohhhh yeah 15x18 was great // you mean 15x18?  // Did not happen.  // What the...what?? // What finale ??? // um.........what finale? // finale? what finale. // what finale? it didn't air yet. last episode that aired was 15x18 pffft  //  what finale :) //  Does Not Exist  //  It never happened  //   That didn’t happen // No, i refuse, there was a finale??? // what finale?? // It doesn't exist  // it doesn't exist // Weird of season 15 to end with 19 episodes and an open ending // what finale? the show got canceled after 15x18  // Finale? What finale? Supernatural isn’t over. I’m not in denial, you are //  an atrocity i've erased from my memory //  I Can't See Suddenly. I Don't Know// Don’t know her.        

Consequences & Emotions (I hope you´re all okay, have a hug!) Oh my god it was awful. Hated it. Made me reactivate in the fandom. And obses over that show AGAIN. Oh, and yeah, yeeted me to a place so dark that I got me some new scars.  // Ymmmmm, fuck the finale. It got me spiraling down back to depression and self harm. Didn't make sence. Badly written. Badly executed (well, except acting) // Never wanted to claw my own face off more than watching that heap of garbage // fuckin hated it // My heart hurts  // Stupid unsatisfying pain  //  slap inthe face // I am unhinged  // Im throwing up  //  I am sad //  i went feral  //  Broke my heart  // hurt my feelings  / I wanna die // i hate it <3  // I hated it  // I hate it //  Extreme rage inducing  // Trauma, It was   // Oh. Oh dear. // Absolute soul crushing, sucked sunshine and joy out of this world and any other possible reality this abomination exists in. It hurt so much I actually disassociated and had a real life horrible week. Luckily anger finally swept in and fan fiction ultimately saved the day. // AWFUL. HARMFUL. DEPRESSING. I HATE IT // Waste of time //  My villain origin story // Destroyed rewatch value

This is unfortunately too true  disturbingly pro-suicide   //   odd lacking empty

Valid Questions:  why’d’ya do that // Why why why

WTF?! What the …  “The popular 3” What The Fuck // What the fuck// what the fuck // What the fuck. // what the fuck // What the fuck //  What the fuck //  What the fuck. //  What the fuck // What. The. Fuck.  //   What The Fuck  //  What the fuck // what the fuck // what the fuck // What the fuck // What the fuck // What the fuck?! // What. The. Fuck. // What the fuck?!  // what. the. fuck. (was that????) // What the actual fuck? // 1. What 2. The 3. Fuck //  'what the fuck'  // The actual fuck? //  What the heck, //// What the heck //  What the heck // what the hell // What the hell? // what the hell

Narative & Character Development That was pointless // Failure of storytelling //  15 years of story and character development down the fucking drain // Fuck character arcs, no free will // Assassination of character  // Lost character development // character development is dead // disjointed alien mess I don't know these characters what the fuck // boring, loveless, characters are ignoring  // Season 1 Finale.  // From darker timeline // Awful Forgetable OOC //  piece of shit all the character development thrown out the window. cas deserved better (also to be with dean cause they are in love)   //  Underwhelming, disappointing garbage, a slap in the face of chatacter development. //  the dark ending //  The Chuck ending we didn't deserve. // a dumpster fire on the level of the GoT finale - all character dev & story arc thrown out. CLOWN VAMPIRES  

The Jokers among us, or those finding a laugh in the grimmest things a comedy  //  Just a joke

Relateable:  AAAA AAAAA AAAA  // AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I see what you did there and I love you 333 // 333 // 333  // 333  // 333 variations of the word fuck I especially love you  666

Rebels! 4 words (sorry): they showed their hand  //  The end of hope (that’s 4 words but too bad)

Didn´t watch the Finale  for various reasons  Haven’t seen it,  //  i didn't watch it out of spite  // haven't seen it yet for some reason // didn’t watch it  //  I didn’t watch it but everything that happened because of it activated the decade-old sleeper agent part of my brain that was a spn fan  // I stopped watching spn in the middle of season 12... The finale was awful from what I gathered

Hello Stranger, we welcome you here  I don't actually watch SPN I'm taking this for kicks bro

The Refusal (either of the finale or the  question) Nope //  No thank you // no // No   // No thanks, fuckers // No thank you. // No // This is bullshit // haha what? No  // Please, not this  // Oh god no // noooooo oooo ooo  // ....no. //  No. It sucks // I will not <3  //  no thank you  // no no no  //  no thank you  // Lmao wtf no // Nope. Just no. Refusal is self care!  No, I won't let it hurt me again. //  I can't, it's too bad

The offensive Wig! Party city wig // party city wig  //  party city wig // Homophobic, bad, wig // shitty sam wig // party city wig // Party City Wig // party city wig  // Jared's fucking wig //  bad, homophobic, party city wig // The Wig™ Blurry wife Sam's blurry wife

The Nail / Rebar!  ( @the-rusty-nail-that-killed-dean  @therustynailthatkilleddean  you are recognized) nailed by dickbar //  rusty nail wins  // Rusty fuckin nail.  //  Nail Dean Death Clown  //  dean got nailed  // Rebar. Cas helped.

All of those  Dickbar, Blurry Wife, Driving for 40yrs,Party City Wig, Drone Shot (cringe) // absolute trash fire garbage, burn the party city wig and the cw down but keep the dog

Those with crystal balls expected i guess // disappointed, not surprised

Puzzled (Yeah me too) or Undecided or Eh i don’t even fucking know // Jggfdv //  Huy  // Meh // Meh // meh  // it was bad ??

Let´s create great fanworks!! free real estate

Defies Categories and is good stuff  everything for nothing. // traumatizing, badly-written, comedic   //  devastating yet obnoxious //  God is dead but hegemonic masculinity is still kicking // maam this is a wendys  // am so glad that I was a whovian. I've dodged two bullets. // F's in the chat // >:((

I´m sorry, I failed you with this quiz quiz was wrong // Dude. Dude you gave me "liking the finale" a minute ago. I assure you; i did not. "You have found peace" bro I haven't known a SECOND of peace since that ill-begotten nightmare of a shitstorm  //  [[“I STILL HOPE UR DAY WAS G”:]]  HOW THE FUCK DID I GET THAT I LIKED THE FINALE PLS OP THIS IS NOT A MARK ON YOU OR ANYTHIG I LOVE U EVEN IF I DON'T KNOW YOU BTU PLS THE DEPRESSIVE STATE THAT I SPENT MY LIFE IN POST-FINALE DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE SHAMED IN THIS WAY I. PLEASE. I DID NOT LIKE THE FINALE. HOW DO I GET A DIFFERENT ANSWER PLEASE

Misha? Was that you? Rancid Nut Work

Particular Stuff Fuck john Winchester  // [[“ Mj”; ]]fucking disgusting shitshow [okay so that was 3 words, but MAY I JUST SAY, c*w was incredibly disrespectful to Misha, Cas, Jensen, and Dean. Misha played a Cas for 12 years, and then he's not even in the finale? and Cas gets mentioned a whopping total of 2 times after he confesses his love to Dean?? and then, Jensen. 15 years of his life on Supernatural. Jensen turned down the role to be Captain America, and his best friend is Dean, the character he plays. But then Dean dies on a rusty nail, never getting to actually live his life? Dean died how he always thought he would- and he died as "Daddy's Blunt Instrument", finishing off his dad's unfinished case. J*hn Winch*ster ab*sed him and Sam mentally, emotionally, and possibly physically too, and does NOT deserve to get a Heaven at all, least of all, a Heaven right by Deans. Dean never got to live how he wanted to and was repressed as fuck, and this is all because of his dad, the resident shit head. And don't even get me started on the queer erasure, and racism. Kevin Tran deserved better. He, after through all he suffered on Earth, deserves to go to Heaven, not be tortured in the afterlife forever. I fully believe that it's just because he was Asian. If J*hn got into Heaven, why couldn't Kevin. Also, not to mention, Charlie, Rowena, Claire, Patience, Kaia, Crowley, Donna, and Jodi, and probably countless of other queer characters who were erased. They were silenced and fuck the cw for doing that. I could add so much more, but for now, have an excellent day and a wonderful year :)]   //  [[“Yellowcollins”:]] hat the fuck was that literally what the fuck. I’m convinced the writers did not watch a single episode they made past season 3. There was literally not a SINGLE character from season 4 onwards in the finale. LITERALLY. NO. ONE. and what about “family don’t end in blood” that they’ve been preaching since LITERALLY season 1??? huh??????? nah fuck 15x20, this will go down and the WORST ending in the history of endings.

[cookie] < for everyone that made it that far ;)  

[spnreactionblogging]

DESPAIR

SPOILERS BELOW / tw suicide sort of

ah the title really does sum this up. I am filled with such dread going in. I know cas gets sent to super hell, I know the destiel shippers are declaring it canon (but then, when haven't they), and I've heard from a reliable source that the show officially as of just now is queerbaiting for real by making it vague and easy to ignore it instead of actually confirming anything. plus nobody seems to give a fuck about jack, as usual, and sam didn't get to say goodbye? god how can this get better???? I hope buckleming got to fucking murder castiel! that would really improve this for me!!! the cherry on the shit sundae for real so okay here goes. ugh. I have this angel's envy bourbon at 1PM, oops. I feel like I will need it for this one more than the others I also am ensconced in my castiel trenchcoat + "be super good" shirt, and cas, crowley, and sam the q-pals are joining me. dean is banished to remain in the tote bag they live in. god I want to scream. this fucking synopsis "With the plan in full motion, Sam, Dean, Castiel and Jack fight for the good for the common goal." oh the plan to use Jack as a suicide bomb???? great idea. lol I hate this. whose "common good"????????? ah but yes dean runs a dictatorship right. no wonder chuck butts heads with him dean looks so fucking smug in the amazon prime video app, hovering over the episode where cas will die horribly. fuck. there is nothing that can emotionally prepare me for this episode the show is going to end with sam and dean because it started with sam and dean and chuck/the IRL writers are bitter about it I guess??? delete fucking everything god, very fucking cute of dean to be like WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING!!! you fucking piece of shit you forcememed this to go as quickly as possible because you want Jack fucking dead, don't pretend you care god. fuck. jack apologizing for dying, to the empty. I hate everything so much ah, so that's why the opening title screen has been that. gross. horrible. a jack singularity is that it? really? jack's dead? just like that. okay. awful. oh he's MAYBE dead. reassuring. I see that briana buckmaster and jim beaver will be joining us my cat is sitting in front of the TV trying to prevent me from watching this, trying to save me from myself oh and felicia day oh this one's written by robert berens, I mostly trust him I think sam should've photocopied the book first oh hey RSJ directed this one I'm glad to have rachel miner back in any capacity that's... alpha/omega on the side there? makes sense I hope it's a fake book god I love sam sitting on the like. what is that, weird equipment panels? more confirmation sam is queer, you heard it here what leverage does dean even think he has cool jack's just getting tortured now "the boy is still useful" at least billie isn't pretending to care about him. oh she left the book thank fuck cas goes to him right away, please hug this child alcohol is not gonna help you guys sleep oh here's dean's half-assed apology. "sorry not sorry that I just couldn't stop, I couldn't help it, I just wanted to get what I wanted, and now that I didn't get what I wanted, sowwy uwu I guess" "you've snapped me out of worse" yeah don't minimize this, sam oh yeah michael exists. I notice dean refers to him as michael and not including adam. way to go I notice that sam does not drink right away "to somehow" those eggs look great "no guns at the table" is a solid rule not only for how miserable that is, but because everything surrounding firearms is a carcinogen and doesn't need to be near food please love yourself charlie please eat good eggs am I supposed to know stevie, was she part of the alternate universe, I still like never watched most of 10-13 oh we're gonna kill MULTIPLE queer characters in this episode, awesome. we gonna kill charlie AGAIN??????? we brought her back just to kill her off, AGAIN? LIKE KEVIN? and bobby I guess?? can I just say how much I hate the concept of a "final boss fight" like why is it always ending in a fight, why is violence always the answer, and why do we feel like one final violent action will solve all the problems huh charlie's shirt looks like a tycho album cover okay so I didn't forget stevie, she was brand new? maybe? I love cas and jack :( feels strange because this all sucks there's no such thing as destiny, jack don't fucking die for sam and dean and 'the world' damn right, cas, he doesn't need "absolution" well that's true for you, cas, you care because he's him. dean just wants to use him cas and jack are good. charlie this was so not your fault. as usual this is the winchesters' fault. tell 'em charlie!!! get 'em!!! you're not sorry, dean. "What now?" is a huge fucking mood, dean oh, greg! our old friend! greg was a real one (but not anymore) yeah eileen's screwed. this includes sam too. and dean i guess. sam is a good person who cares about people despite dean's best efforts to stop him I can't see who he's texting. are cas and jack in the back? poor eileen :( god poor sam having to basically get eileen in front of eyewitnesses who can attest that she disappeared cas and jack are in the backseat yeah I wish he'd tell her she's never gonna reply now yeah she's gone. interesting use of technology that they couldn't've done earlier in the series, to show she was typing but then stopped god that's awful. fuck. "If I let myself go then I'll lose my mind. I can't, right now." that's a huge fucking mood sam let's just postpone all that grief for later. gotta shove it down. huge fucking mood. god I'm so sorry somewhere central... the... bunker? don't split everyone up dean, fuck yes revenge is definitely the answer. killing things is the answer. "not having a choice" is obviously the answer. you fucker we get a sam and dean hug but where's the one for cas. you can like... see it in sam and jack's eyes that they are worried they're never gonna see them again. I'm horrified that cas isn't getting to say goodbye to jack nor sam. I can't handle this. I guess this scene is where they took that last group photo that misha posted back in march? RIP :( oh hey donna jack, that feeling is TheDepression oh gas-n-sip sam's sweet to try to give jack some autonomy here instead of having him just... being shuffled around like baggage. is that eileen's car then this music is intense don't burn the fucking library also wow dean with the reaper blade again is oof. wow. yikes. dean is become death, destroyer of worlds for real. jesus that is fucking horrifying to see. aren't you, dean? aren't you a bringer of death. remember when you hated doing that back in season... 4? 5? later? dean has learned nothing. sam's been trapped in a silo before hasn't he. or that panic room or something. donna is sweet. jack is good. jack deserves better. sam :( donna is very kind I like hearing jody and garth mentioned even if they're not in this episode (?) oh hey charlie sam at least knows how you feel, charlie I like this set god I've missed jim beaver is jack going around with spraypaint? I'm like oh god there's no ventilation. I guess it's a paint bucket but still the fumes are bad. better than being evaporated though I guess big man on campus. RIP stanford sam at least there's a bucket. praeses magna. "president large"? thinking about how it would be impossible to have extras for episodes 19 and 20 I like watching jack paint RIP that plant. apparently he has his powers dean walks around way too comfortably with the reaper scythe. oh but the plan has changed. did billie leave that book and nobody read it?????? dean you don't have friends, bud. yeah how did you tink you would even stand a chance, dean. this is the worst plan ever I'm so tired of seeing cas get tortured. I don't want to see billie get hurt either. is "billie" actually the empty or something "Has virtutes conliga. Eas integra. Eas firma. Nos omnes serva." = "These virtues bind. Those infected. These are strong. We keep them all." idk google translate, I feel like that may not be "infected" but more like integrity I like the effects they did on the wardings there yeah pretty much you can't stop god oh I'm real sad about that couple who vanished together :( bye charlie bye bobby. :( bye donna??? oh that like gold paint gossamer looking shit going on with billie's arm is cool god I'm glad billie smacked him in the face, dean deserves it. I just rewound it to see dean get clocked again, it's so worth it so they went back to the bunker... for what? billie can just go there. sam and jack are gonna have such a rough fucking day. all those double cheeseburgers are back for revenge on dean billie's right actually. dean always thinks the rules don't apply to him because he thinks he should be making the rules. castiel should be with jack, not with dean. fuck. can't cas still heal people the scythe on the wall is a good visual. I really like lisa berry, she does an amazing job is this the same room with the ma'lak box always happy to bleed for the winchesters. christ. fuck. even with dean's pocketknife. cas I'm so sorry. sweetheart you don't deserve this. 7B? so Jack was trapped in 5B, this is a different room but probably the same actual setpiece just rearranged do you just... have to wait her out yeah yeah dean you suck. correct, you never should've left sam and jack. wow I feel zero sympathy for dean at all. you do it to yourselllllf you do, that's what really hurts. oh baby don't summon the empty please :( I'm so glad to know that cas never told them about how he saved jack, it's none of their business yeah it would be with jack, cas. you should be with him man this is shitty. this is like a bad fanfic for real. wow these shots are like, when it cuts between them it's so obvious these were not the same camera lmao fuck. how many takes was this god i hate dean. he has not done this for love. dean is a spiteful person. "you're the most caring man on earth" literally kill me. I want to die. jesus fuck. i want to be dead this is awful this sucks this actually really hurts. this sucks so much. dean you squandered this angel's life. now jack has no father. i hate you dean winchester. i hate you. you don't deserve cas loving you jack knows, jack can feel it. I hate hate hate hate hate hate that jack is left alone with the winchesters. i hate this. jesus fuck i hate this so much i hate this jack sweetheart I'm so sorry dean you fucking ass please pick up the fucking phone. please answer sam. i hate you god dean i hate you fuck dean you are the worst. fuck my life. fuck all this. fuck this show. i'm so angry castiel deserves so much better than this. fuck i'm so mad. why wasn't his moment of happiness knowing that JACK WASN'T GOING TO DIE. i hate this. I'm so upset. fucking shit-ass writing. and it's still not fucking canon you morons at least uh they don't have to have extras for the last two episodes? did they add that footage after? is that what got changed up? everyone's gone huh. god just. dump the show right into the trash. bye. also for fuck's sake nobody gives a fuck about jack like I didn't even know he survived. nobody cares. "sam didn't get to say goodbye" FUCKING JACK DIDN'T GET TO SAY GOODBYE fuck this so much. fuck, is dean just chuck's OC? made in his image and furious that his mini-me isn't acting the way he wants? is that why he gets exonerated at every turn? "all the evil shit you did is fine dean you're the MOST LOVING AND THE BESTEST EVER!!!" fuuuuuck

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven (15x08)

I'm screaming.

Cons:

Buckleming episodes usually piss me off, but this one was actually really great. It was still plagued with the same pacing problems I always see in their episodes, though. A lot of great stuff happened here, but it didn't necessarily have a ton of room to breathe. Some of it did - the Cas and Dean stuff, the Michael and Adam stuff. And maybe that's the most important. But it might have been nice to have a longer beat with Rowena, or a bit more buildup with Eileen and the case. For an episode written by these two chuckle-fucks, though, I'm honestly really, really impressed.

Donatello is an okay-ish character, but his presence here felt mostly unnecessary. Didn't we have enough to juggle, without introducing him into the mix? Eileen, Cas, Rowena, Chuck, Michael, Adam... there's a lot going on here. It probably could have been done without him.

Pros:

I really don't know where to start, so let's start with Eileen. Just the fact that she's in this episode warms me from head to toe. She's... actually in the show. She's here, in the mid-season finale, where important Plot Stuff is happening. She's a real player in events, and after she came back from the dead, she stuck around in the bunker. Like she's... really in the show, you guys. Three episodes in a row!

On a more specific note, I love that Sam followed her and Eileen called him out on it... this could have been really creepy but I think they played it right. Eileen died and came back to life, and Sam is just starting to develop this relationship with her. It makes sense that he might be a little overbearing. And Eileen's reaction was pitch-perfect. She's a little annoyed, a little amused, but also maybe a little touched? And Sam takes the criticism to heart, realizing that he's probably overstepped. Later, when Eileen has a case that she needs to go on, to help an old friend, she goes to Sam and tells him, and he tags along. This seems like a good arrangement - Eileen isn't being stupid and running off by herself for no reason, but Sam is also respecting her boundaries and letting her approach him if and when she wants help with something.

We've also got Dean giving his seal of approval to the relationship, telling Sam that if he wants to do the family and relationship thing, Eileen is probably a good way of going about that. She's a hunter, she gets the life. And, as Dean says... Sam could do a lot worse. And Eileen could do so, so much better. I honestly think this little conversation was important to include. It's not like Sam needs Dean's blessing to start a relationship with Eileen, but... let's be honest, guys. Yes he does. Not literally, but can you really imagine either of the Winchester brothers being able to foster a healthy and lasting relationship with someone who didn't meet the other brother's approval? The codependency issues here are clear, and not to be discounted.

So then let's move on to Rowena. I loved her return here. It was totally unexpected, and totally brilliant. As I mentioned above, I really could have used more of her. The brief moment where Sam wants to hash out their last moments, and Rowena brushes him off, could have felt weightier. But the fact that we even got to see her again was such a gift. And what a natural end for her character! Queen of Hell. It fits, especially since I think we've pretty much confirmed that we won't be seeing Crowley again before the end. She got to show up looking like a boss-ass bitch, save Sam, Dean, and Castiel from getting their asses handed to them, shout orders, try to help them find Michael, assert her dominance and her happiness in her new role, and even try to kick Dean and Cas into gear, as she notices that they're clearly in some sort of "tiff." As brief as her return was, it certainly packed a punch, and I loved it so very much.

Cas and Dean's strained relationship right now is giving me life. This is the most Destiel-adjacent content we've gotten since Season Eight, and with the two of them returning to Purgatory, we're bound to get a lot of material in the new year, as well. The thing that I like so much about their story arc this season is that... there is a story arc. Dean has been cruel and dismissive of Cas in the past, and Cas has made mistakes, and circumstances have conspired to keep Castiel out of episodes as he goes off on his own quests... none of this is strictly new. But what is new is the narrative weight being placed on it. This is a slow-burn conflict that's going to have to have meaty screen-time to resolve. They had a serious fight, and it's actually affecting both of them in their actions.

Both Jensen and Misha are pulling out all the stops in giving this conflict the weight it deserves. There are so many delicious moments. They make their plans and discuss their options, but they can't even meet each other's eyes. There's the moment after Cas forces Michael to confront the truth, and Dean comes in and says "maybe you went too far." It's a gentle remonstrance, and he's clearly trying not to ruffle Cas' feathers. I loved the way Jensen played that, like he needed to talk to Cas about what went down, but he wanted to be careful not to antagonize him. When Rowena confronts them, they both do the typical thing of pretending everything's fine, still refusing to look at each other.

But the moment where my heart just squeezed in my chest was obviously when Dean cut his hand in order to do the spell to get to Hell, and Cas healed him, his hand hovering over Dean's fist without touching. Dean's hand unfurls and for a moment their fingers are centimeters apart, but they never touch. Many a meta has been written about the intimate way that Cas has always healed Dean, and how that juxtaposes to the way he heals other people. And in this moment, they don't touch, and it speaks volumes. I seriously have to ask the question - why was this moment in the episode? Sam could have been the one to cut his hand, or Dean could have, but then could have wrapped it up and moved on. It's not like we haven't seen Sam and Dean brush off wounds like this and ignore them before. This was a weighty, intentional moment. We lingered on it. I am alive, y'all.

Now let's turn to Adam/Michael. This is so amazing, and not at all what I think anyone was expecting when we found out Jake Abel was returning. Sure, Adam is a little pissed off at his brothers for leaving him in the cage, and sure Michael is still going on and on about being God's favorite, but even as so much has stagnated for these two characters, we've also learned what they've been up to in the cage for the past decade. They've made an arrangement. Only one body, but two brains... so they agree to share, more or less peacefully. Sam and Dean were shocked when Michael let Adam come to the forefront to say hi to his brothers. But the two of them seem to be... buddies. Adam is able to speak freely to Michael, to express his opinion that the Winchesters might have a point. Even though Michael can't quite listen to him in this instance, it's clear that he gives real consideration to Adam's opinions.

Adam was introduced on this show such a long time ago, and it would have felt disingenuous and annoying if we'd spent too long on the whole "you let me rot in hell" business. Of course that's something Adam would be thinking about, but it's not like Sam and Dean really knew him all that well. He doesn't seem to place much weight on his status as their brother, and I can't really blame him for that. He's had to forge his own path, and he's done so by becoming friends with the angel who is possessing him. I love that glow-up for Adam.

And Michael... he has to have his heart broken the same way Sam did when he found out that Chuck has been playing them all along. I loved the moment when Cas forcefully made him confront the truth, because of course it was too much, of course it was overwhelming, but ultimately it pushed him to understand that his loyalty to God is not worth the pain and suffering he's been through. And so, in much the way that Chuck knew how to cage Amara, Michael knows how to cage Chuck. He's willing to help by passing that information along. It's a spell, of course. And the most vital ingredient is something that can only be found in Purgatory. What with Sam and Eileen dealing with Chuck elsewhere, it's going to be up to Cas and Dean. They must return to the place where their epic romance really took off and began to slowly murder us all!

Chuck has Eileen and Sam right where he wants them, and even worse, Dean and Cas don't know. This is going to create great drama, as well as opportunities for our two couples (shut up and let me have this) to spend time together as we go in to the back half of the season. My heart is really starting to break, thinking about how little time we have left with this show!

I feel like this review could get out of hand very quickly. In many ways, this felt understated for a mid-season finale. Nobody died, the status quo didn't really shift all that much. But I actually liked it better for all that. Things are in motion. Character dynamics are being explored. This is a good season of Supernatural, y'all. Fingers crossed they can stick the landing!

9/10

[tinkdw]

14x01: watching notes / mini meta

This episode is just like one long tick list of previous meta and I love it even if the actual ep itself was slightly bland with a few niggles, the thematics are so exciting for what it means for the show overall and the characters we love. Here’s my watching notes / mini meta short versions of the themes, (previous longer meta’s on each theme are linked with x or underlined sentences). Here we go!

I called the Angel wings, yay!

Opening song: shot down in flames by AC/DC. A song about unrequieted romantic feelings. Lmao. OK, good start...

- Dean screaming at Sam “all I see is everything we’ve lost” - cuts to just Cas dying. OK. Thanks for clarifying that meta from last year up for us Dabb ;)

- That freeze frame tho. Even shortened it’s still terrible. Stawp.

- Cut to Sam in the car, this is like the one with Rowena where it went from the opening song to her in the car and I love it, please do more. Oh, bonus if we can get one where Dean does it and he looks at the camera like he’s on the office and switches it from something rocky to, like, Miley Cyrus :p

- The point of the Jamil scene, whilst in itself it is divisive and has offended some viewers (and I do not condone that but I write meta so here is the meta), was clear re: Michael. Showing that Michael essentially is that asshole who doesn’t care how much you redeemed yourself and now are trying to do good but says you want selfish things and remembers that one time you did something wrong 8 years ago and won’t let you get past it. He also enjoys putting words in others’ mouths and judging them from above because he somehow thinks he is some all knowing, all judging clever clogs (and better than Gabriel, pfft he doesn’t even know our Gabriel but just assumes he’s better, ok then...). He’s a self absorbed, self assured, arrogant, genocidal, doesn’t give a shit about humanity wanker with a chip on his shoulder having inherited some power from his daddy he doesn’t know what to do with and has only shown so far that he can balls it up royally but somehow thinks this time, this time it'll work cos he’s oh so intelligent and right. Oh look, Michael is Trump.

- “A better world”. Well I’ve talked about that a lot previously, how this links to the other extreme end of the MoL, essentially we have the MoL at one end telling us the world can only be better if you remove anything supernatural and Michael at the other saying it can only be better if you remove anything natural. Longer meta on these and how they also link to John and the season 1 onwards black/white to grey area progression here: x and x  Dabb is really hammering home the grey area / balance themes in the middle for endgame and I love him for it.

- DEAD MANS BLOOD BULLETS what a great idea! I’ve not seen anyone comment on this yet but honestly, this is up there with salt hoolahoops and exorcisms saved on your phone ;)

- Sam “chief” Winchester. I’m living. I mean let the dude take a nap but the concept and symbolism of him as the leader, taking charge of the hunters and the bunker, Mary as his lieutenant, everyone looking up to him with respect because of what he has done and who he is rather than out of fear or duty... I can’t express just how much I love this and am grateful it’s as blatant as it is.

- Castiel gets kidnapped and used as “bait” (yes there’s like 5 layers of symbolism here and I hate/love it) and the whole thing with Sam telling them there’ll be no king of Hell goes down in Detroit. Yeah sure tell me Dabb doesn’t care about mirrors and previous canon references, parallels and subversions ;)

- I just can’t even with Sassy!Cas *rolls eyes* *uses “GOD” as a blatant blasphemy* is just so human, being so done when Kip makes his stupid OTT grand entrance whilst Cas is calmly sat in front of the fire pit and then tells him he’ll burn him to ash. YES MY SON.

- “Joined at the... (Dick)”. Yes Kip I get you, everyone does, literally everyone thinks they’re boning, cos duh, but you see they could actually have an ounce of happiness within the chaos if they weren’t so bloody miscommunicative and self hating that they haven’t even admitted their feelings let alone touched each other yet below the shoulder. But yes, please, do join the hoards of characters on the show who assume they are a couple. 

*Tink stares into the camera*

- The less said about Michael’s puny ass winged ‘twuform’ the better. Yes it looks like a pigeon with disproportionally tiny wings, yes it looks like Dean bent his halo (lolz) but aside from the humour there’s nothing good about this.

- Michael: Dean said yes for love. Ah yes. The power of love. I love to be reminded that this whole show’s premise since the pilot is love. Thanks Satan.

- Michael thinks Anael is everything Cas is. “The rebel, the Angel who doesn’t like playing by Heaven’s rules” I mean jeez, like a hammer to the face much! Well, Danneel said she did want to play Castiel so ;) x and x 

- Tbh I also got massive self reflection vibes here off the next part on performing!Dean and I just love how all this comes out of Dean’s own mouth, it’s just so symbolic. Every time Michael says something it seems to be a reflection on John or Dean or daddy issues of some sort.

Re: Performing!Dean: “You pretend to care about these things... pretty things, but that’s all it is, pretending. These trinkets, they don’t make you happy they just pass the time, they’re not what you really want”. *Tink stares at all of the meta on Performing!Dean repression by overcompensating, especially with sex to pass the time and try to alleviate his mood with women, especially since season 7, every time Cas is gone and he’s pining*.

- What do you really want? This basically works for both Dean and Cas (and Sam too to be fair but he’s not been mirrored previously so I’m going with the symbolism here being most relevant to Cas mirror Anael and Dean whose literally saying it through a veil): “love, to belong, to have a place a home a family... it’s very very human”.

- *Cough* blatant easy link and exposition of endgame Human!Cas and Nonperforming!Dean. *sends Dabb a giant fruit and donut basket*

- Cleary the theme of season 14 is “what do you want” just as season 13′s was “who are you”. Excellently linked themes.

- Sam is just going around all episode fixing other peoples issues and taking no time for himself, he needs a friend and a nap.

- Jack is actually not doing badly considering and I’m so happy they made him sad and angsty without being an annoying whiney teenager (I do have an issue with how Claire was made into this and am annoyed with the m/f difference but sigh, clearly they were trying to do something better with WS. Sigh again).

- I actually kinda loved the Sam / Nick scene. Since it was clear Mark P was coming back (literally why Satan) I made peace with it and expected Nick and I hope they continue with it as well as I think it started. Mark’s little gestures of itching and wincing really helped with the overall feel here so through gritted teeth I say kudos. Jared steals the show though at his own minute facial expressions and the deep meaning of this scene for him, I’m sure he enjoyed acting this immensely as he’s always cared a lot for the Sam/Lucifer storyline and it’s closure. Obviously it’s got implications for Michael!Dean so let’s see what happens. Sam was amazing obviously, man, I just... really hope Bucklemming don’t fuck this up as Nick’s likely their play thing. Fingers crossed, it’s off to a good start.

- If they really do follow through on this really cack-handed obvious “we can kill Michael by stabbing Dean and save Dean” story then I’ll be really fucking disappointed. This is lazy and too obvious, it also negates all the possibility for the Dean/John mirror from 2x01 with John angry at them for not killing him to kill Azazel and thus leading into Dean’s blatantly exposed self worth arc throughout the season while he struggles to feel worthy of being alive at the potential expense of the world, with his family telling him he does deserve to be saved (>...>). I mean... I just can’t really get my head around this not happening? Or it being so frankly badly written if it is? It feels more like a red herring to me, like, a giant red herring. If it doesn’t happen like this and they just stab Michael with the shittyretconblade then I’ll be shocked. Though I’ll be less shocked if it’s in the Bucklemming episode and I’ll attribute this to their shitty writing and Dabb really having zero fucking says in his own show anymore and the whole thing going downhill moving forwards. So either way it’s bad. So fingers, toes and everything crossed this isn’t what happens.

- The fact that Cas knew Sam would come save him gives me so many happy feels whereas I feel only a few seasons ago he would have said he’s not worth saving / why would Sam bother. He trusts Sam and he believes Sam loves him. Happy Tink.

- “He just told you he’s a demon?” “Yep”. I love Sassy! Sam.

- Bait. It’s kind of what you’re for isn’t it? I just... That was so hilariously triple, quadruple, whatever, entendre... bait for the audience, bait for the Winchesters, bait associated with fish as Castiel usually is, just, it made me laugh out loud and @bluestar86 looked at me like I’d gone nuts but I loved the cleverness of it. Though also fuck you Cas is more than bait ;) I mean Dabb knows that he loves Cas he’s being tongue in cheek but yeah, this made me chuckle big time.

- Michael has been to see Kip and it again hopefully will be a continuation of the theme of Michael being so black and white he turns grey people black or white. I’d love to see an opposite where his asking this question of what do you want actually makes someone choose to do the right thing.

- Mary “I have to think about the good Sam, because if I don’t I’ll just drown in the bad, for Dean’s sake I can’t do that, we can’t do that”. Wow. Mary ploughing on, seemingly cold to others until she’s probed, revealing her internal emotional struggle, forever threatening to overflow and the actual drive for her actions that in full circle are what makes her come across as uncaring. If this isn’t Mary’s whole arc since her resurrection in one sentence. If it ain’t also a massive TFW mirror. IN ONE SENTENCE. GOD I LOVE ANDREW DABB OK?!

- Bobby re-emphasising the family theme to Jack in the impala, reminiscent of Jack telling the Winchester’s they are his family in the impala last season.

- Equating Sam to Beyoncé for his glorious physique, hair and overall legend / icon status is just A. Brilliantly hilarious and reminding us how great Sam is but also B. So cool to give zero shits that Beyoncé is a woman and is just as capable of being a role model for a guy. Kudos Dabb. C. I just imagine Cas looking on like but I’m Beyoncé! ;)

- The fight scene is just too embarrassing, that knife flip between Mary and Sam is so 80’s bionic man and more wires like, my dudes, my guys, stawwwwwwp. I’m also annoyed tbh that Maggie is for some reason a young, relatively helpless and hapless girl rather than being an AU survivor and hunter. Like, why even bring her from the off no questions asked while questioning Jack, if she’s so helpless she’s hiding and gormless to the point Mary had to actually ask her if she knows how to stab someone. This is weird and I hope they’re going to show her developing cos urgh. wtf.

- Cas is “still breathing” after fighting like a human and being all bloodied up like a human without healing himself. straight into the #human!cas tag. 

- Callbacks to Crowley and as @bluestar86 said Kip just reminds us of another demon dude from 14x08 and this is totally true, “Barthamus call me Bart" and “Kipling call me Kip”. What’s next, “Judas call me J”?. 

- Sam’s “enough!” 

is the best moment of this episode hands down and I am excite for this symbolism for his character growth. I don’t personally think this is at all him declaring he’s King or Regent, he’s just asserting his very puny human authority, albeit as the one time could have been ruler but he isn’t and doesn’t want to be, and regardless the demons fear him for who he is as Sam Winchester not as a potential king. 

BOOM> Sam Fucking Winchester amiright?!

He’s feared by demons because of who he chooses to be as a person and he’s respected by humans for who he chooses to be.

It’s a total mirror opposite.

It’s a bookend. 

I LOVE it.

DAMN DABB.

- Cas supporting Sam, the only one who really asks how he is, is such brother / best friend goals. Sam being honest about his feelings and the opposite mirror of Cas deflecting from his own when Sam asks how he is in return is painful. Please Cas, tell us what you want.

- “Sunshine”. OK but literally the whole point of that scene was Bobby calling Mary sunshine while flirting with beer bottles. Nothing else happened. It’s like Dabb is literally wielding a Destiel subtext hammer and bashing it into canon in new and interesting ways every moment he can at this point when they’re not even in the episode or scene. I’m reminded of David/Violet. I wanted Mary/Bobby Destiel parallels and we got it in episode 1. Excellent.

- Cas and Jack have their deeply meaningful mirroring scene about feeling human whilst both sporting mirroring injuries from mirrored wounds and both being punched in the face. (Dabb loves mirrors so much I may send him a fruit and donut basket with a great big mirror inside too for shits and giggles). 

Cas and Jack’s scene is yet more exposition that neither are valid due to their powers but valid and loved for who they are. 

Just as Sam is feared by demons and respected by humans for who he is not due to any demon blood or destiny. 

Just as Dean is loved and will be saved by his family because of who he is not how useful he is as a tool.

I’m reminded of my tag #season who we are 13 because that was so set up in that season from Dabb’s own premiere, showing just how much he does hark back and have a clear and consistent thematic overview of his story. 

You may by this point see why I’m quite so done with the Dabb bashing on SM this week? How it’s totally inconsistent with the actual canon of the show? That he clearly knows exactly what he’s doing thematically even if he’s not so hot on small details and Bucklemming/Singer take turns dumping a turd into his and the others writers’ pot of gold every now and again? Yeah, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

- LET SAM SLEEP 2k19!!!

[shirtlesssammy]

14x12: Prophet and Loss

Then:

Drama llama Dean spent an entire afternoon in a workshop surrounded by half naked men, and now he’s gonna bury himself at the bottom of the sea.

Now:

We open with Dean in the ma’lak box at the bottom on the ocean.

It is uncomfortable to watch. I’ve had a lot of thoughts about Dean dreaming about being in the box. It’s a huge call back to 3x16/4x01 and him yelling for Sam and waking from Hell in his own coffin --the coffin Sam insisted he be buried in --the coffin that Cas, the naive angel that lacked the people skills to know not to just reconstitute him and leave him six feet under. This is as bad, if not worse, than Hell for Dean. Dean’s been very low in the past, but to listen to Death and admit that he doesn’t have free will over this situation? Gah.

It is just a dream though, albeit one that was so visceral, he woke to bloody fingernails and scratches on the motel wall. Sam, who’s also awake, tries talking to Dean about his plan.

For This is a Beautiful Shot Science:

Sam insists that there has to be another way. Dean sees no other option than to lock himself away with Michael for eternity. (Sidenote: I just saw this post come across my dash about Swan Song, and I’M DYING.)

Aaaaaand, it wouldn’t be Buckleming without some torture porn! A man has a woman tied up. He’s dumping salt in a vat of water. Oooh, maybe super crazy demon torture? J/K, just a regular girl who doesn’t deserve to die tortured. Sigh. He carves something into her arm and sends her into the water to drown. Positive Note: She’s fully clothed.

Nick’s in the hospital and and as soon as his leg heals, he’ll be spending a lot of time in jail. Nick’s playing the “devil made me do it” card. And he’s also crying silent tears. NOT BUYING WHAT YOU’RE SELLING, EUGENIE.

On the road, the brothers take a moment to further dissect Dean’s plan. Both Sam and Mary hate it. Cas and Jack don’t even know about it. Sam calls Cas --who clearly gets the newsletter Sam sends out to everyone. He knows.

Rowena and Cas have been on the case to extract Michael, but both have come up empty. Cas offers to speak with Dean. Sam doesn’t think that’ll matter.

Torture Man has a new victim! This time it’s a dude that he’s trussed and laid out on a plastic sheet. Torture Man utters warped Bible quotes while he slits the man’s throat. He then carves something into his chest. Oh man, I have a high capacity for violence on TV, but this WAS NOT COOL TO WATCH. Do. Not. Like. After carving up his victim, he hears whispers and says, “I am the Lord.”

On the road, Michael continues to scream and pound on the inside of Dean’s mind. And, guh, Dean pulls himself together and side-eyes Sam to see if he noticed. He didn’t. SAM. I mean, I get it, he’s doing what he can to stop Dean’s plan. And if Dean really wants to convince his brother this is the best idea, why worry if he sees you struggle?

Anyway, Dean jumps into talking about their childhood, and how he “wasn’t always the greatest brother” to Sam. Sam’s baffled as to where this is going. Dean was his constant family when they were kids. Sam recognizes that Dean was not just there for him as a brother, but he raised Sam. Dean continues, apologizing for siding with their dad, for trying to keep the peace. I AM LIVING FOR THIS CONVERSATION. Dean admits that John would send Dean away when he would get mad at Dean. And, like we know this, and I’m still crying? Sometimes I feel like while every episode adds to the story of Sam and Dean, they’re often forgotten or never mentioned again, so did they really happen? If I ended up in an alternate world where I was rich and famous, I’d think back and rehash the fun in that on occasion. In any event, 9x7 did happen, and it happened on multiple occasions. Sam makes it clear to Dean that he let all that go a long time ago, also please stop with the deathbed apologies. Kthxbye.

Nick outsmarts the cop guarding him and escapes from the hospital.

Sam’s found a case! A nice distraction from their Road Trip of Bad Decisions. They head to investigate.

They arrive at the home of the brother of the last victim.

I found this shot SO weird, but didn’t really think about it again until I saw @neven-ebrez post, and was glad someone put some thought into it. :D We’re kind of hit over the head with brother parallels here. Dean gets to hear what it might feel like for Sam when he’s gone. Sam explains that the graffiti carvings were really Enochian. 

The brother talks about a friend, Tony Alvarez, who was more into Bible quotes than the average Millenial.

A Story in Three Parts:

I mean, really. REALLY? Cas has no chill. He also has no filter and spills that he knows about Dean’s plan. At first I was like “oh Cas bby, no” but now I’m ok with it. It’s almost more painful to know that Cas knows about Dean’s plan when Dean doesn’t know about Cas’s deal. (And equally painful to think that Cas doesn’t think about his deal because he doesn’t see himself ever being happy.) (Natasha: curls up into an unhappy knot on the floor.)

Anyway, Dean doesn’t want to talk to Cas about his plan and jumps right into why he called. Does Cas recognise the name Tony Alvarez? Cas says that he’s in line to be a prophet. Dean cuts him off, awkwardly tells him it’s good to hear his voice, and hangs up. He instantly chastises Sam for spilling his secret. “Dean, it’s Cas. I had to tell him.” Sam and Cas are the best brothers-in-law. HUGS.

And if Tony is now a killer prophet, is Donatello dead? Dean checks in with Donatello’s doctor. He’s still around (brain dead and all, but not dead dead.)

Dean and Sam break into Tony’s home, which looks perfectly normal EXCEPT for a creepy office covered with Enochian writing and pinned up photos of victims. They realize that the killer is cycling through different biblical deaths.

Cut to the Sphinx Machine Shop, where a deranged Tony has strung up his next victim. He gets ready to burn him (and I’m just cringing in horror please stop). Fortunately, the Winchesters rush in just in time. Sam tackles Tony while Dean puts out the fire and saves the victim. Tony babbles that God was telling him to kill those people. He manages to get a hold of Dean’s gun and kills himself.

U G H

Anyway, just like that, the whole case is over.

They go over the case with Cas, who speculates that Donatello’s not-dead-yet status has somehow triggered a malformed line of prophets. The answer seems clear...they’ve got to kill off Donatello.

Nick breaks into his old house and flashes back to the trauma of his family’s deaths. (Somehow there’s still electrical service? I’m going to chalk that up to an overzealous realtor, perhaps.) The room ices over as the ghost of his dead wife, Sarah, manifests. He addresses her as...“Lucifer?” AWKWARD. Sarah, played by a jarringly different actress, tells Nick that she’s been a ghost...the whole damn time. She saw him get possessed by Lucifer and that is part of the unfinished business that keeps her tethered to Earth. There are some major you’re-cheating-on-me vibes coming from her.

“You wanted him,” she accuses him. “You still do,” she says, surprising absolutely nobody. Nick tells Sarah that he’s gonna go find Lucifer and he leaves her behind to be a super grumpy ghost for all eternity. Thanks, man.

At the Happy Daze nursing home (rly?) a doctor tells the Winchesters that pulling the plug on Donnie is the right choice. Dean practically smirks at Sam like, “SEE? The nice doctor is telling you to let me be tortured for all of eternity.” Cas meets them in the guise of a doctor.

Doctor Sexy: A visual story in three parts:

Sam heads off with the (real) doctor to see what sort of babbled “nonsense” Donnie’s been dealing. (I take a break to pedantically google the difference between brain death and vegetative states.) Dean gives Cas some serious side-eye and sass about checking up on Donatello, but Cas pulls him back. He explains that what he did to Donatello was necessary at the time, but he still regrets it. Dean attempts to commiserate and Cas spits out, “Please don’t compare this with your suicidal plan. Just STOP.” 

Dean pleads with Cas to support his decision. “This is goodbye?” Cas demands in response, and then SAM BURSTS IN. God DAMN it, Interrupting!Sam.

Ugh. MAN. Give Dean and Cas five freakin’ minutes to talk through their issues 2k19. (You know I love it AND I hate it, bbys.)

Anyway, the footage of Donatello shows him speaking Enochian. He’s muttering about striking down the first born of Egypt...he’s just spewing out the Word of God. Cas thinks Donatello’s mind is rebuilding itself and stumbling through old prophecies. (Me: passive-aggressively googles vegetative states again.)

They head into Donatello’s room where Cas, bless him, continues to show an utter lack of an appropriately scaled cover persona. He orders the real doctor out of the room with a cursory “Get out.”

While Sam and Dean wait for Cas to try his healing mojo, Dean flinches as he continues to struggle with Michael. Oh, Dean Bean.

They reunite with Cas just in time for Cas to have his breakthrough healing moment.

For Science

They turn off the life support machines and, after a brief jolt, Donatello pulls through. It’s a miracle! He’s probably not evil, right? I mean, the lack of soul will almost certainly steer him well. (Lord, we’re going to be stuck with this chicken-addicted prophet forever, aren’t we?) 

Donatello wants to know what happened and Dean slaps Cas on the shoulder and somewhat snarkily leaves the job to him. Dean. Bean.

Sam greets Dean back at the Impala with beer and misery. After the “win” of getting Donatello back, it’s time for them to head on home so Dean can lock himself into his torture box. Sam delivers an emotional speech about their shared experiences and accuses Dean that he’s checking out of the world too soon. “If you quit on us today, there will be no tomorrow.” Sam rails at Dean, begging him to give them all a chance to save him. “I believe in us,” Sam shouts and punches Dean in rage and pain. 

Reluctantly, Dean promises to go home with Sam and hold out for another option for as long as he can. Dean offers a contingency agreement: if they have no other choice in the future, then Sam and Cas have to let him go.

“Let’s go home,” Dean says to them both. Hooray! And...that should get to me but what really quietly wrecked me was Dean telling Sam quietly, “Don’t hit me again, okay?” before they all climbed into the car. Welcome, hello, my heart is now in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean.

After they all depart, the title card fades ominously to white. 

Everybody knows what makes Doctor Sexy sexy is his Quotes:

Well, the woman has a remarkable command of profanity.

If we could not have conversations that sound like deathbed apologies, I would really appreciate it.

Dean, it’s so good to hear from you.

Thank you, and it’s good to hear your voice.

“Doctor.” “Doctor.” “Doctor.”

Dean. If there’s a spark, a hope, then I have to try. You taught me that.

No rest for the self-destructive.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[flamedoesart]

Season 13 Roundup Thoughts

Okay, so this post is gonna be a touch lengthy, and I will be ranting A LOT. So, readers beware.

So, season 13 has come and gone, and now it’s time for me to give my overall thoughts on the season. This season has had a shitload of ups, and downs, and I wanna discuss what I liked, and hated about this season, as well as some additional thoughts on it. And since I want this to end on a good note, I will start with what angered me, and then go to the good stuff. 

Also, these are in no particular order, I’m just going by what I think of first.

Things I hated:

1. Gabriel’s Arc 

Okay, WHAT THE FUCK. JUST......WHY??? When I found out Gabriel was back, I rejoiced. I was internally throwing a fucking party, because holy shit, one of my favorite characters has returned from the dead! Maybe we’ll keep him for good this time! NOPE!

Instead, we get like, 5 episodes of him, and then he’s dead again. What makes me the most angry about this, is that his resurrection was basically pointless this season, because they use Lucifer to get them into AU world anyways. THE ONLY REASON GABRIEL WAS BROUGHT BACK, WAS TO HAVE AN EXCUSE TO THROW DEAN AND KETCH INTO AU WORLD, AND TO KILL ASMODEUS. THAT’S IT.

And the worst part, is that Gabriel being brought back opened up SO MANY DOORS FOR HIS CHARACTER. Like, my personal favorite is his relationship with Sam, because I was hoping those two would become closer in terms of their trauma. Well, those hopes were basically thrown out the window, since it was almost glanced over. As a Sabriel shipper, this felt like a kick to the fucking face. I feel like the writers were like, “Oh, you ship Sabriel? Hahahaha, we’re gonna bring him back, give you guys some fanservice, and then kill him again!”

I mean yes, their relationship was somewhat brought out of nowhere, BUT that doesn’t ignore the fact that even if they weren’t on the best of terms in the early seasons, they still had something. And I’m angry that they threw away this opportunity for Sam to have a close friend, because GOD FORBID Sam have a close friend that doesn’t die.

What also angers me about Gabriel’s arc, is that they were building towards him being the new leader of Heaven, and then they throw it to the waste side. Like, why the FUCK were they hinting at that, if they were just gonna ignore that? It would’ve actually been awesome if Gabriel was the one to run Heaven, since he’d do a much better job than the other archangels. Besides, wasn’t Naomi the one to tell Cas to bring Gabriel back? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE GONNA TELL HER NOW???

I HATE it when the meta writers, and theorisers can write the show better than the writers can. And no, I don’t hate you guys, quite the contrary, but when the writers of the show have all these open doors that the meta writers, and theorisers run with, the writers almost ALWAYS ignore them! ALWAYS! 

Like for example, before last night’s episode aired, people were saying that Gabriel wasn’t actually dead, and that the him that was stabbed by Michael was an illusion, OR that it was him really leaving his vessel, and escaping within one of the Winchesters. Wouldn’t THAT have been more satisfying? Also, why did Lucifer say that angel handcuffs don’t work in that world, but the archangel blade in that world DOES?? THAT WENT LITERALLY NOWHERE ALSO!!

To close off this topic, I feel sorry for Richard, and the fact he got dealt into this show after such a long time, only for him to be kicked out again. I love Richard, and an actor as awesome as him doesn’t deserve this shit. RIP Gabriel.

2. Bucklemming.

I’m gonna be blunt here. Can we fire these two? Please?

They get the most important episodes this season, and THEY ALWAYS SUCK. The only episode from these two that I like is Exodus, because that episode actually had some goddamn EFFORT put into it. 

However, it’s also their fault that Gabriel is dead.

I haven’t payed super much attention to the episodes they have written, but out of the ones I KNOW they’ve written, Bring ‘Em Back Alive was the most disappointing episode for me. Almost everything in that episode was rushed, or forced, ESPECIALLY that “I need you” line. (Yeah, even as a Sabriel shipper, I thought that was stupid.)

These two can’t keep consistency AT ALL. The only writers whom I feel should stay on this show is everyone else (especially Perez and Dabb, because those two actually know their shit, and I trust them.)

But Buckner and Lemming need to quit working for this show, and move onto something easier, because writing a show like this is HARD AS FUCK. 

I hate these two as writers, but not as people. A person can be a shitty writer, but a good person, as the Fault In Our Stars once said.

But, the point is, these two need to either stop taking on the actually important episodes, or they just need to stop working on this show.

3. Asmodeus

This is the most disappointing villain I have ever seen. Like, I feel like the only reason he exists is to give Ketch a rival/abuser, thus resulting in his redemption arc. He serves literally no other purpose this season, and he dies too damn easily.

I expected the fight between him and Gabriel to be slightly more epic, but NOPE. They just DBZ each other, then he gets set on fire, and that’s it. 

I mean, we could’ve gotten a LITTLE more insight into who he is, and what his backstory is, but NOOOOO. The boys finding their mom and son is far more important than figuring out ONE OF THE MAIN VILLAINS OF THE SEASON. 

I wouldn’t have minded an entire episode where we find out more about Asmo’s backstory, because at least then we’d understand him a little better. All we get about him, is that Lucifer treated him like shit, and he was the weakest Prince of Hell. That’s literally it. 

Crowley didn’t die for this shit. Crowley SHOULD NOT have died, but if he didn’t, then this whole season would have been resolved in about 10 episodes. So, ya know, he just HAD to die.

Anyways, Asmodeus sucks. Moving on.

4. All The Unresolved Conflict

Okay, this bothers me way more than it honestly should. They had this (kinda?) subplot going on in the first half of the season about Dean and Cas, and how they aren’t communicating, and the season makes you think it’ll be resolved in the finale, and that doesn’t happen either. As a die-hard Destiel shipper, this was also a slap in the face. I mean I get it, it’s all part of the slow-burn, but we literally got NOTHING, other than Dean telling Cas all season not to do anything that’ll get him in danger. 

What also bothers me is the first half of the season is dedicated to a Destiel feels trip, but the second half is about Dean being protective over Sam again. I love Sam with my whole heart, I really do, but either Dean is worried about Cas, or Sam. PICK ONE, WRITERS!!!

And the situation in Heaven, just...ugh. That was brought up for literally ONE EPISODE, and they mention it in Beat the Devil, and then they’re just like, “lol nope, Gabe is dead now, so we’re fucked.” Again, how is Naomi going to react, knowing that the ONLY PERSON who can help them is now dead? Unless Chuck gets off his ass for once, and resurrects Gabriel, Heaven is basically fucked.

5. Lucifer

I am so glad this bastard is finally done for. The writers gave up on his character years ago. I prefer Kripke’s version of Lucifer, because he was...ya know...ACTUALLY THREATENING. 

But as for what he did this season...yeah, it was disappointing.

His whole relationship with Anael was just stupid, and pointless. Her only purpose was to give him Grace, and him running Heaven went by so fast, I forgot it even happened.

I heard from someone that maybe Lucifer would get a redemption arc through Jack, by learning to love him because of his humanity, BUT NO. I’m not asking for Lucifer to become a member of TFW (fuck no,) but I feel like it would’ve been great for him to learn to love his son despite him being half human.

So, that was all thrown to the waste side.

The worst part, is that they made it constantly seem like Lucifer would actually be redeemed, especially with his conversation with Gabriel in Exodus, but NOPE.

Eh, whatever, I stopped caring about him anyways, and I’m glad that my baby Sam is finally free.

6. The “Plot Twist”

Ever since Singer and Dabb opened up their mouths, and said Dean was gonna be someone else in the finale, everyone KNEW it was gonna be Michael.

Everyone predicted it, so it wasn’t surprising when it did happen.

The twist would’ve been less stupid if we were never told about it.

I mean, we didn’t see Gabriel’s (or Charlie’s) returns coming, so why the fuck were we told this massive spoiler (it WAS a spoiler, because everyone predicted it, and saw it coming,) if we knew it was gonna happen anyways? 

Ugh, it was bad and dumb.

Now, onto the things I DID like:

1. DESTIEL

Of course this is my first one. I mean, it wouldn’t be a seasonal roundup without it.

The Destiel in this season was fucking AWESOME.

I was not once afraid that they’d fuck it up this season.

And for what it was, they did pretty good.

As angsty as it was, I actually really liked Dean’s depression from the first five episodes, because we see how torn apart he is over Cas dying. We see how he’s basically dead inside, and how he has lost his faith, and how Cas is the thing that keeps him grounded, keeps him alive. Cas is his anchor, and it’s so blatantly obvious that he loves him (don’t tell me that him killing himself was “familial,” because it wasn’t. The show made that clear.)

I like how him and Cas are basically hunter husbands all damn season, and it’s always so fun to watch, especially when Dean is being cutesy and dorky, and Cas gets annoyed (seriously, I’d watch entire episodes where it’s just them being dorks.)

I always love Dean and Cas, and if season 14 is as promising as I think it is, then there is a very very VERY high chance that these two will become canon (and, it’d be their 10 year anniversary, so they HAVE TO)

True love’s kiss will break the spell....

2. SABRIEL

You can’t have Destiel without Sabriel, as I like to believe.

But yes, the Sabriel was awesome too.

I love how it all started with Sam giving Gabriel back his voice by cutting off the stitches. I love how soft, and gentle he is with him.

I love how Gabriel saved Sam’s life twice, because he cares about him.

I love how Sam asked Gabriel if he was okay, and didn’t push him when Gabriel lied.

I love how these two just care so much for each other (too bad it had to end in angst, jfc.)

And besides, Sabriel is kinda 50% canon already, since Richard himself said that Gabriel has a soft spot for Sam.

So, yes, these two are amazing.

3. Scoobynatural

A bit of background: I literally just caught up with the season by the time this episode came along, so I was really excited.

This episode didn’t disappoint at all, and I loved almost every second of it.

It was an animated fun little adventure for our boys, and while they were in danger that episode, it was clear they both enjoyed being there.

Just...yes, this episode was awesome.

4. Jack’s Arc

I love Jack as a character, and how he has to deal with having all this power, but not being able to save everyone. I also love his relationship towards his family (you know which one I’m talking about.)

I always say that Dean and Cas are his parents, and I will not argue that Sam is important, and was more of a father figure towards Jack than Dean this season.

But I feel like Dean teaches him how to remain strong, and Cas teaches him his morality.

I also like his relationship towards Mary, since they spent a long time together this season, and he grew to care for her (as we all saw when he instinctively protected her.)

I am upset that Lucifer took his grace, so now he’s stuck with being human, and a bunch of regret stacked on him.

I hope Jack learns to let things go, because while he may be a baby, he has a long way to go before he can truly feel comfortable with himself.

But...baby steps. He’ll learn through his family.

While there are more negatives than positives, I DO NOT hate this season, far from it. (Besides, my least favorite season will always be season 7.) But, I feel like this season should’ve changed a lot of things, and now that season 14 is happening, many things might not be resolved.

But, we had a good wrap, guys.

So, thank you Jensen, Jared, Misha, Richard, Mark, Alex, Samantha, and everyone else for another great season.

And until fall comes around, and we get into the next season, this is me signing off (for reviews).

Peace.

-Flame

@anxietywontmakethewordsgo

@mrspadaleckisworld

@archangelgabriellives

[idontneedasymbol]

13x13: Devil’s Bargain

Wow. Just, wow. Every time I think I’m prepared, Bucklemming proves me wrong. Okay, it wasn’t their worst episode ever in that it wasn’t as outright offensive as some, and it didn’t have the unrealized potential of 12x02, but it made up for those assets by being impressively, comprehensively, overwhelmingly boring. I think it was more boring than 12x08 last year (the one with Lucifer in the president, which was so dull I can’t recall the title). It was hard to follow what little was happening because it was so impossible to care about any of it.

The rest goes under a cut for negativity and putting more thought into this episode than it deserves:

I feel bad for Daneel, who turned in a decent performance with a character who could be interesting in other writers’ hands, but in this was reduced to being ickily sexual with Lucifer. Also, what is Bucklemming’s obsession with pillow talk? (Incredibly monotonous pillow talk.) We should add it to the bingo squares.

I am also disappointed because I was spoiled that a character came back, though not which character. @owehimeverything had the spoiler, though, and so could confirm my guess partway through. She didn’t know how he came back, though, and so for the last 20 minutes or so we were thinking that Asmodeus was Gabriel -- which would explain his shapeshifting, and his new mind-control powers, and also why he’s supposedly a big bad but hasn‘t done all that much really evil (such as keeping Cas alive for hazy reasons). So the end was a big disappointment (@owehimeverything is still hoping the prisoner could be part of Gabriel’s trick, but there is no way the writers would do something that clever.)

Ketch’s storyline with the boys illuminated the huge problem with how Bucklemming tries to write their villain redemption. Heroes having to work with villains against an even worse threat is a tried and true classic. But usually it’s the hero who is trying to get the villain to team up. Appealing to their better nature, reaching out -- see Thor with Loki. Because that’s what heroes do, try to see the best in people. Flipping the script, having Ketch be the one appealing to Sam & Dean for the sake of the world, makes Ketch look noble and our actual heroes look small-minded and unreasonably mistrustful -- even though they’re not, not with all Ketch has done, and they should just shoot him and actually burn his corpse this time. But the structure of this story, how it’s told, makes Ketch look sympathetic. It’s Ketch who is cast as the protagonist, while Sam & Dean are the obstacles to his road to redemption. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

Lucifer’s story has similar problems, though it’s more uneven; in any given scene we’re expected to either sympathize with Lucifer (which is impossible) or fear him -- which is also impossible, because he’s just not scary anymore. It shouldn’t matter whether Lucifer has his powers. He’s Lucifer. His true face is so terrifying that it inflicts lasting nightmares on some of the strongest people in the world. When they confront him in the hotel room, he should be able to dismantle them with just a few words. But that’s not who he is this week. (Except at the end, maybe? Was Lucifer on Heaven’s throne meant to be frightening? Or triumphant? Or what?) And meanwhile all the development of Sam’s character last week was completely left by the wayside; the script didn’t even give Jared an opportunity for a meaningful reaction shot, much less address in dialog how Sam’s worst nightmare is back in person.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with the episode is that, yet again, this isn’t Sam & Dean’s story anymore. The only useful thing they did in the episode was fail to lock Ketch in their trunk. When the heroes are only there to be incompetent, maybe you should rework your plot.

The usual plotholes and retcons are hardly worth mentioning. As usual, any one isn’t worse than what’s in any other ep; there’s just so many. Why was Lucifer begging for money and dumpster diving, rather than just killing someone for their wallet? He had no trouble killing an angel for its grace; even a cupid is stronger than a normal human being, and Lucifer historically has (or had) more respect for angels than for humans.

Why would Cas be so dismissive of Anael (sp?) because she had a crap job before? After the angels fell, everything got reorganized. As far as we know Hannah was just a regular low-level angel, but later she was running Heaven. Cas himself was just a soldier. For Cas to think so little of an angel who’d survived on Earth for years is yet another case of making the heroes petty to make Bucklemming’s preferred anti-heroes look good.

Why would Sam & Dean assume the world-crossing spell would be on the demon tablet, when we’ve never heard of the angel and demon tablets having any other info in common? Why had they not thought to put Donatello on the demon tablet before this, once they found out he was alive (especially knowing they have a demon with new superpowers on their hands)?

What was up with Donatello’s line about “I couldn’t live with myself”? He’s your character, Bucklemming, how did you forget he’s sans soul? And in that same scene, Casmodeus’s expression made it clear that Sam and Dean had in fact never “looped Cas in” on Jack being in the other world with Mary; it appears to be news to Asmodeus. Which...why? Why, if they did not suspect for a moment that “Cas” on the phone wasn’t who he claimed to be, would they let Cas go for weeks looking for Jack’s trail, already knowing that trail led nowhere?

A basic failure of Screenwriting 101 -- the scene in the Impala that Sam mentions tracking Sister Jo’s credit card was 100% pointless. A throwaway line could’ve covered the card-tracking; it didn’t need a separate scene. On the other hand, it was a perfect opportunity for a conversation about, say, Lucifer being back and how Sam’s dark place has gotten that much darker -- but we couldn’t have that; it would’ve taken time away from pillow talk with the devil.

Finally, it’s a minor point but it bugged me -- how did Cas get to the bunker in the beginning? I thought Crowley’s hell-throne was in New England somewhere. Did the boys drive out and get him? Did they paypal him bus money? Did he just jack a car? It’s an awkward transition that skips over one of the few opportunities in the episode to have any emotion between the characters we actually give a damn about.

[orionsangel86]

How do you want lucifer to go out in the show? Death, losing his grace? I'm sick of him at this point

SAME tbh. Plus it’s got so much worse ever since his main story arc was taken over by Bucklemming and is therefore so much more annoying.

I would like Lucifer to go out without any redemption. I absolutely 100% DO NOT want him to be redeemed in any way, shape, or form. I also desperately need SAM to confront him, to stand up to him and address his trauma once and for all. I would like Cas and Dean to also be present, and for Cas to maybe strip Lucifer of his grace first of all, to prove to Lucifer that he is so much better than him.

But ultimately, it has to be SAM who has the killing blow. SAM who stands right up against him, chest to chest, and says something like “I never chose you. I was never yours, will never be yours, and will ALWAYS be better than you. I will fight you, for the rest of my life, and you will NEVER have any influence over me again.” I then kinda want him to stab him upwards through the head. The way Dean did with Zachariah. Because Lucifer’s most powerful talent was his ability to manipulate and seduce with his words. So I need him to get an angel blade through his throat, mouth and up into his brain. 

I think this should all happen shortly after Jack rejects him by telling him straight to his face that Castiel is his father and that the Winchesters are his family, and that Lucifer will never have any power over him. I then need Jack to walk away and not watch his uncle kill his birth father because poor nougat doesn’t need that trauma in his life. Perhaps he will fall into Cas with a big hug whilst Dean pats his shoulder to comfort him whilst they both watch Sam kill Lucifer. 

Then I need Sam to walk back up to the three of them, hug them all and for all of them to walk away leaving Lucifer dead on the cold floor with wings burnt into the ground and not looking back, because he doesn’t deserve it. Let the wolves feast on his body for all I care. Or maybe Dean goes back and salt and burns his body right where it lies, because no way in hell is he getting a pyre hell no. 

Anyway, that’s just my ideal way for him to go. I can’t stand his story at the moment and I can’t stand him as a character or the actor that plays him so I’ll be glad when they are both gone from the show for good. 

Sorry that this got a bit dark and morbid. I have strong *feelings* about the character (and actor) hence I hardly ever mention them on my blog. 

[inacatastrophicmind]

hi! it's okay if you don't wanna answer this, but given that you always tend to see both sides of the situation when it comes to spn, i wanna ask you if you think cas was ooc in the last episode? and also about how he treated sam and dean, but mostly dean. it's okay if you don't wanna answer this.

This is a 2.6k answer and quite meta where I explain my point of view, so there you go

I’m goingto analyze and expose the events from s6 to s12 mostly regarding Cas’ choices,but also Dean’s and Sam’s.

In season6, Cas worked with Crowley behind the Winchester’s backs. He was fighting a waragainst Raphael that he couldn’t win. Before Sam let Dean know he was alive,Cas wanted to get Dean’s help but he knew Dean had lost too much and Castielwas going to ask him for more, so he couldn’t do it. Instead, he chose to workwith Crowley in order to let Dean have what he had.

Does thisjustify his acts? No. Even if Cas was trying to keep Dean, and later Sam, away fromthe war in heaven, as much as if might seem as a selfless act, Cas was workingbehind the Winchester’s backs and working with Crowley, leading him to do allthat shit he did at the end of season 6, consumed by power and the fake thoughtthat he was doing the right thing. Yes, he avoided Raphael to bring apocalypse2.0 but Cas’ win wasn’t much better.

In season8, Cas didn’t tell Dean that he was planning on staying in purgatory to pay forhis sins. He tried to, but he didn’t know how to tell him because Dean was sodesperate to get the two of them out. When Cas finally let him know, was whenthey were in the portal, and Dean couldn’t believe that Cas chose to staythere, so his mind created the false memory that Cas remained in purgatorybecause of his fault, leaving him destroyed, and even more destroyed when in8x07 Cas confesses that he stayed.

I’m goingto analyze this from my personal experience. If I were in Cas’ position, Iwould be struggling to confess my intentions of staying in purgatory. Why?Because on one hand I would know that my choice would hurt those I love, but onthe other hand I would know it would be the right thing to do because aftereverything I did, I deserve to pay for what I did and because I wouldn’t believethat those I love and who still love me after all, deserve to deal with meafter I hurt them and much less I would be able to let them forgive me. And Ithink this is what Cas felt when Dean found him in purgatory and Dean didn’twant to leave him. After all, Dean let Cas know that he was going to doeverything and more to get him out of there, even if it killed them.

The problemwith this is that, it didn’t mattered what happened, someone was going to gethurt one way or another. If Cas went with Dean, Cas would hate himself for notbeing able to stay and pay for what he did. If Cas remained in purgatory, Deanwas going to hate himself for failing to Cas. Dean was willing to fix thingsbut Cas didn’t think he deserved Dean’s forgiveness and help after what he did.

But onceCas comes back, you can see some progress in 8x08. Dean and Cas TALK, THEYFINALLY TALK ABOUT THEIR SHIT, Cas even confess that he might kill himself,which I can tell you is one of the hardest things to confess to someone youknow that cares about you. You see some important character development in thisepisode, and you get to see that both Dean and Cas are trying. They know whathappened during purgatory, they have talked and now they are taking baby stepsto build what they had.

But then,in 8x10 Cas disappears, this time because of Naomi, Cas isn’t in control ofwhat he is doing. And then he comes back in 8x17, and both Sam and Dean knowsomething is off with him.

Naomiforces Castiel to kill Dean, but Cas manages to pull away from her control andheals Dean, explaining him what happened, and at that moment you see that they’retalking again, but Cas decides to leave with the angel tablet without a word,something Dean hates and tells him in 8x21. Dean is pissed off, and he has allthe right to do so, and Cas is aware of his mistakes, but he disappears again afterrunning into Metatron, convinced that he can fix heaven, hoping all hismistakes without dragging Sam and Dean into the shit.

In 8x23,when Metatron is taken, Cas comes to tell Dean about their plan to close thegates of heaven. I think he should have told him earlier, but at least thistime isn’t like in s6, and Cas comes to talk too Dean about everything beforeit’s too late. So here you can see that Cas is learning from his mistakes,little by little, but he is learning. Even he and Dean have an honest talk inthe bar, talking about insecurities and what their plans to close the gates ofhell and heaven implies.

Later inthe episode, Cas decides to go back to heaven, afraid that Naomi lied to him,and he at least informs Dean instead of disappearing without a word.

Then, inseason 9, the tables turn and Dean is the one who doesn’t tell Cas aboutletting an angel possess Sam. Cas is human and struggling with it, and in hisweakest moments, Dean kicks him out of the bunker without an explanation. Deanthinks he is protecting both Sam and Cas, but he is only making things worse.

When in9x06 Dean and Cas reunites, Cas is pissed off, and he has every damn right tobe pissed, like Dean was in 8x21. The ending is bittersweet, Dean only lets Casknow a little about the reasons behind his forced departure, but at least Cashas something. They have a small talk, but it doesn’t feel like enough.

In 9x18,after Gadreel is exchanged for Castiel, TFW talk, and Castiel notices somethingwrong with Dean, and he sees he has the Mark of Cain. Cas gets angry andfrustrated, because he knows that Dean is doing something like he did duringseason 6. Cas worked with Crowley to defeat Raphael and Dean took the Mark ofCain to defeat Abaddon. Castiel knows this is a terrible choice, a choice Deanmake influenced by Crowley, and Castiel knows from his mistakes that Dean isrepeating them and he doesn’t want him to do the same. This is some importantcharacter development.

Duringseason 10, it seems like Dean, Cas and Sam are all on the same page, talkingabout how to remove the Mark of Cain from Dean’s arm, and they talk, but thingsfuck up when Sam doesn’t burn the book of the damned and decides to work withRowena. He even convinces Charlie and Cas to help him work on finding the curewithout Dean knowing. Charlie and Cas are against it, both aware of the consequences,but they end up agreeing.

I’m notgoing to get into too deep with that, given that all of this happened in 10x21,and episode written by Bucklemming, and I could write a whole book on whyeverything in this episode is wrong, everyone is written completely OOC and themany plot holes. So the fault falls completely on those two terrible writers.

Season 11,Cas says yes to Lucifer. He doesn’t tell Dean or Sam about this. He decides todo this in the last second, so it’s not like he has planned on doing it for along time. Yes, it’s reckless and he shouldn’t have done it, but during season11, Cas is extremely depressed and he is dying to show that he isn’t useless,that he can help Sam and Dean.

It’s aterrible choice, and I didn’t like it, Sam and Dean didn’t like it either, evenif Dean tells Cas in 11x23 that it was the only choice they had and Cas tookthe risk of making that choice. But Dean was also devastated when he found ofCas had decided to let Lucifer possess him. He even spends the second half ofthe season trying to save Cas.

I get whyCas took that decision. After failure after failure, he needed to let everyoneknow that he could be serve to the fight, and during this season, the big badwas the Darkness and they needed to defeat her one way or another, so Cas, believingall the toxic thoughts depression gives to you, thought that he was expendable andthat the only way to defeat Amara was to let Lucifer possess him.

We can’talso forget that Lucifer was telling Cas during 11x10 that the only way todefeat Amara was him, and Lucifer is really good at getting into your mind withwords and false promises, and Cas was depressed, so it didn’t take too much forLucifer to convince him. This was a bad place bad time for Cas. I know he tookthat choice, that he was conscious of the choice he was making, but depressionplayed a big part on that. And for personal experience, I can tell you thatwhen depression gets a hold on you, it plays a big part on everything you do.It’s not an excuse, but what I’m trying to say with this is that Cas wasinfluenced by his depression and he made a bad and desperate choice.

Finally,season 12. It started good. Sam, Dean and Cas talked and they didn’t hideanything from each other, but Cas was suffering. He had been Lucifer’s vessel,he thought that Dean had died and in a few hours Sam was taken by someone.Then, Lucifer was jumping to vessel to vessel, doing all kinds of twistedthings until he ended up as the President of USA, got Kelly pregnant. Afterexpelling Lucifer from the president, Cas leaves with Kelly, who laterdisappears and then Sam and Dean are taken, being Cas unable to find them formonths, and when Dean finally manages to reach him, he finds out that Dean andSam made a stupid deal that means one of them dies, so he kills Billie.

This doesn’thelp a lot with his depression. Cas’ failures keep adding and he blames himselffor all of them. He tells Sam and Dean he is going to find Kelly on their own,and he informs them constantly, which is great, until Kelvin appears and tellsCas about something he needs; forgiveness and redemption. Cas decides to gowith Kelvin and lies to Sam and Dean. Dean notices something is wrong with him,and we can even see that Cas doesn’t like what he is doing.

Now, let’sanalyze the events of 12x19. Cas comes back and Dean is really hurt. He evengoes to Dean’s bedroom to apologize and gives him the mixtape as a way to tellhim that he fucked up, and Dean gives it back to him, as a way of saying thathe still forgives him. This scene is really important, because both of themtalk. Dean even lets Cas know that he is hurt, and Cas is aware of that, andthey both still want to fix things, but both of them know the situation isn’tthe best one. Dean suspects Cas is lying, and Cas is lying and hates makingDean suffer.

The problemcomes after this scene. Cas has grown a lot since season 6 as a character. Hehas learnt from his mistakes, and he has learnt that lying to Sam and Dean isthe worst he can do. And suddenly, in this episode, all that progress meansnothing.

In 12x10,when Sam and Dean asked him what he would do with Kelly and the baby, Cas saidthat he wanted to find a way so he didn’t have to kill the both of them, but in12x19 he forgets about this and wants to kill her. What the actual fuck?

He evenuses Dean’s and Sam’s trust to betray them. This is season 6 all over again.What happened to his character development?

Some thingswere really contradicting during this episode. Cas tells the angels that he isdoing this so Dean and Sam don’t have to kill Kelly, but they don’t want tokill her, Dean even told him in his bedroom that they would find a way, and Casdidn’t want to kill her as he said in 12x10, so where’s the consistency? Also,Cas said he is following orders, that he has a mission but at the same time hesays while he and Kelly are in the motel room that he used to have a missionbut now he knows that everyone is just winging it. It doesn’t make sense. Andalso, Cas finally agrees with Sam and Dean to take Kelly to the bunker and thenhe does nothing when she drives the Impala and he is just asking what is shedoing. What the hell?

When Samasks Dean what’s wrong with Cas, Dean knows what it is. Lucifer, Billie, Ramiel…Cas hasn’t had it easy, so he is just desperate to have a win, he even tellsDean this, that he needs to come back to Sam and Dean with a victory. Somemight think he was playing so he could betray Dean later, but during the wholetime in the mixtape scene, Cas looks at Dean in the eyes. He doesn’t do thatwhen he is lying.

Gettingback to Cas needing a win. Dean even tells him that he and Sam have also fuckedup, and with this he is telling Cas that he isn’t alone, that they all fuck up,but when they are together, they always figure things out, that there’s no needto show anything to each other. But Cas thinks that he owes Sam and Dean, so heis now desperate to show Dean and Sam that he isn’t a failure.

So did Ifind Cas OOC on 12x19? Yes and no. Yes because there were the many contradictionsI mentioned above, mostly regarding about how all his character developmentduring the years was shattered, but during some moments he wasn’t OOC becausehe is desperate to win, because he has reached a point where he knows that ifhe fails one more time, he isn’t going to recover and he will be marked as afailure, which I believe this is what depression is telling him, leading him tothe acts he did during 12x19.

Dean evensays it, he’s no longer seeing straight, because Cas just wants to feel usefuland stop failing to his loved ones, and he is blind right now, so he is doing everythingto just get a win, causing Sam and Dean to hurt, which I hate.

He treatedSam and Dean like shit, honestly. I could also write a long post about how Samand Dean have treated Cas like shit in some seasons, but in this answer I’mfocusing on the events of 12x19 and Cas’ choices.

Inconclusion, I don’t think Cas’ actions in 12x19 are justified. I think heshould have explained Dean and Sam what was going on, because after all hischaracter development, that was the natural thing for him to do, but at thesame time, given that he is desperate for a win, he is willing to do almostanything to prove that he isn’t a failure, but some of his actions weren’t howI believe Cas would act, but some of them I know that are driven because of desperationand failure. Still, I think some parts of Cas were OOC while others showed howhe feels mentally.

[chelsorz07]

family feud

Not even sure how I’m gonna feel about this episode after last week. Nothing can really top the I Love You™ but I am somewhat excited for Gavin to come back and meet his smokin’ hot grandma lol

I see Mary’s still betraying like, everyone. 

Do y’all think we’re gonna see more Princes of Hell? Because I have a feeling Dagon will make an appearance.

This is eerily reminiscent of the time Mary burned on the ceiling. Like she should have.

It bugs me that this lady’s hangers don’t match but she’s got hospital corners on her bed. 

Also who TF sleeps on their back, directly in the middle? No one.

Whoaaa that’s creepy.

I still love how they talk to Cas on the phone even when he’s not in the episode.

No, mom’s busy lying to y’all just so she can play with the fancy BMoL toys. And probably bang Ketch on the side.

Oh this is a Bucklemming episode. Go figure.

Jesus fuck Pellegrino back as Luci makes me so happy!! 

Did Crowley god damn know where the magic egg was gonna send him?

PERMANENT PELLEGRINO

I think it’s going to end magnificently.

Oh Sammy, you’re in such denial.

So wait, are these ghosts? Because I’m confused on what the actual bad guy is here.

WAS THAT CAS IN THE WAITRESS? It would be so awesome if it was him and not some other angel dick trying to track her down. Although I wouldn’t be surprised since Angel Radio was going nuts as soon as the devil spawn was conceived.

Dean’s so smart lol

Okay Crowley. I’m ALL for this revenge thing. But you can’t just do the same shit Lucifer did to you. You, who claim to be the most imaginative torturer in the history of torture. Come up with something better.

Sam, with the grabbing. Not cool.

Except his little smirk there just about killed me.

You’d think that the mother of the spawn of Satan would have some kind of protection going on. Like when Piper was pregnant with Wyatt and he gave her a force field.

Okay so the angel wasn’t Cas but I’m like 97.3% sure that WAS Dagon.

Oh this is so rad I thought we’d have to wait a lot longer to see her.

I’m kind of emotional about this scene and I already saw it earlier today.

Can Gavin be a regular character? 

I love how all this supernatural shit still surprises him. He’s so precious.

I know the Winchesters stay in some seedy places but that is the skankiest motel I’ve ever seen.

So maybe she’s not banging Ketch. At least not yet. Still don’t trust the bitch.

Ohhhh shit they’re gonna send him back to the ship.

Alright the McLeod family feels are pretty intense right now. Like I might be tearing up a little. 

Gavin probably reminds Rowena of Oskar.

Why is Dean getting emotional? He barely knows the dude.

Nice of you to grace us with your presence, Mary.

Did you think burgers and beer would really be enough to make up for that?

Oh we know the face. And you fucking deserve the face.

Whoomp, there it is. Oskar. Point one to Rowena.

Are we really doing this song again?

Luci’s got plaaaans.

Fuck Riverdale, taking away our promo time. 

Yeah I’m kinda disappoint. I mean it was a good episode but nothing to make me scream at the tv or cry hysterically onto my laptop. Maybe next week. Not that we’ll know for like half an hour because we didn’t get our promo again. Screw it, I’m going to Wendy’s to eat what would normally be my feelings but tonight is severe ennui. Is that an oxymoron? I feel like it is.

[shirtlesssammy]

10x10: The Hunter Games

Welcome to our last Wayward episode before Thursday’s Wayward Sisters! I can hardly wait. Until Thursday, enjoy the recap!

Crowley wanders confused -and frightened- down the halls of his domain. Suddenly other demons appear, ready to attack. He fights back, but ultimately is overcome with stabby-stabs, and he sparks out. (Agh, I forgot we’ve seen him spark out before!) But this was just a dream! Rowena wakes him from the nightmare. She’s really hamming up the nurturing mother bit, aye? She’s Rowena though, and after Crowley walks away from his throne, she removes a hex bag and smiles with disgust behind her son’s back. (Natasha: and can I just say? How fascinating it is that Crowley dreams. Even if it’s magic-induced, that’s surely some human-adjacent behavior. The fact that he takes this vision in stride makes me wonder if he’s dreaming regularly. Oh, Crowley.)

Dean continues to have flashbacks to his very murderous ways. Cas and Sam discuss Claire. Cas is clueless about how to help her. They touch on Randy’s less than deserved fate (but kinda deserved...in a “this is a tv show and he was an evil child predator” kind of way). Dean interrupts Sam’s reflections. “There was a time I was a hunter, not a stone cold killer.” He wants the Mark of Cain gone. They’re all just as clueless as ever about how to do that though. They’re dealing with a pre-biblical curse. Cas gets to utter the motto for Team Free Will: “There may be another way.”

Back at Casa Crowley, Rowena continues to be her lovely self, snooping through her son’s things. The demon Guthrie catches her, and she tries her wiles on him to no avail. Crowley interrupts them for advice from Guthrie. Crowley knows what Rowena is up to though, but it doesn’t stop her from trying to work her magic.

We get some background story for our favorite witch. Ah, Bucklemming, always ready and able for the info dumping.

Cas paces, restless and anxious, at the gates of Heaven. It seems that Cas asked for help with the angels --they brought him Metatron. He’s brought back to the bunker for a fun interrogation on how to remove the Mark of Cain. Metatron is surprised Dean is alive (OH YEAH, GRR, METATRON) and is kind of incredulous that he’s not even a demon. He’s pretty happy to piece together that Dean’s “gone nuclear” though. Sam stands over him, defiant and demanding answers. Dean makes his dramatic appearance.

At the Astoria hotel, Cas walks into a room where Claire is hurriedly packing. She was hoping to be gone by the time he returned. (HOLD. Where is this hotel? Why isn’t she at the bunker? Cas had to have been gone DAYS --why’d it take so long for her to pack? RESUME.)

Claire’s having a hard time reconciling Cas with the face of her father. Cas doesn’t feel guilty, but he’s responsible for Claire. Claire tells him that he took away her father, and Dean took away the only other person that’s cared about her in her life. “Dean Winchester is a monster.” Cas, forgiving as ever, responds, “It’s possible there is a little monster in all of us.” Claire can’t believe he would defend Dean, and walks out.

Back at the bunker, Metatron’s chained up, completely at the mercy of two brothers with anger management issues, and still manages to be his most irritating self.

He tells the brothers that they’re going to need the First Blade again. And then I paused my screen. I thought I’d take a screenshot for posterity:

Sam and Dean argue through the halls of the bunker about how dangerous or necessary the blade really is. Sam is anti-Blade while Dean is pro-Blade (or maybe it’s the Mark telling him he wants it.)

Crowley and Rowena continue to share barbs when Crowley gets a call from Dean. Dean: “Crowley, we need to meet ASAP.” Crowley, instantly: ”Where?” Rowena watches as her son gets a call from his ex and eagerly jumps off to be with him. With Crowley gone, Rowena continues with her nefarious schemes.

Underage Claire Novak shoots some pool and breaks down her messy domestic life to a couple bar friends. They tell her she can hang with them for a bit.

The Winchesters tell Crowley they need him to bring back the First Blade.

Rowena does a little arts and crafts and magically eavesdrops in on her son’s conversation (“I thought you’d wanna go for a beer, catch a film.”) She now seemingly knows the location of the Blade. She puts Guthrie to the task.  

Back at the bunker Cas bursts in and doesn’t even wait to head downstairs before complaining about the Winchester’s new buffoonery with their latest plan regarding the first blade. Dean protests that he has no choice.

Cas reveals that Claire has taken off on her own and - bless your sweet angel face Cas - he’s decided to convince Dean to talk to Claire as one extremely messed up human to another. “You can explain why you killed her only friend” and...ba-da-bing ba-da-boom best friends. Cas bby. Still not quite understanding basic human interaction, eh? Dean accedes to his request and Cas doofs off (that’s a phrase right?) about how fun texting is while Dean leaves the room. Once Dean is gone, Cas turns back to Sam. “He seems calm,” he observes, considering that Metatron is hanging around.

Down in a crypt in...Guam, perhaps...Crowley opens up a Macleod coffin revealing his skeleton and a wooden chest. He opens the chest to reveal….nothing. The first blade is gone. (I’m always troubled by this scene because even if his bones weren’t “in Guam” this still means that Guthrie knows where Crowley’s skeleton is located. Given what we know about burning a demon’s bones, that means that Crowley has given an awful lot of power to Guthrie. Maybe his bones are bespelled and can’t be removed? Maybe that’s a decoy skeleton in the Macleod coffin? UGH if he died poor then why does he even have a fancy crypt with a Macleod-emblazoned coffin? This makes no sense but….whatever. Fine. Moving on.)

In Hell’s throne room Rowena is trying out the throne when Guthrie returns with the blade. Rowena thanks him by knifing him with an angel bade. Crowley walks in on this scene and Rowena’s attitude does a 180, affecting a desperate and fearful air. She was only trying to defend Crowley’s kingdom from the likes of scheming Guthrie!

Claire’s hanging out with her new super best friends who are relaying stories of getting caught squatting in other people’s houses. Claire gets a voicemail from Dean and her new serial murdering friends grin at each other. They make an offer to Claire to “permanently” deal with Dean.

Dean, meanwhile, gets the news from Crowley that the first blade has been acquired so Dean abandons his sandwich (HIS SANDWICH) and heads down to talk to Metatron. Metatron taunts him, which is a very healthy instinct. In response, Dean closes and locks the interrogation room door so he and Metatron can have a nice civilized chat.

Well. Let the torture begin. Metatron riles Dean up, reminding him of all the people he’s gotten hurt or killed. When Dean throws the first punch Metatron tells him to go darker. Deeper. He pushes Dean into a dark Mark of Cain spiral.

Back upstairs, Cas announces that he’s going to try to find Claire. They head past the kitchen only to find it abandoned. Uh oh. They race down to the interrogation room. Cas busts down the door as Metatron chokes out that the “river shall end at the source.”

Excuse me while I fan myself a little bit…

Sam pulls Dean back from his attack before he has a chance to kill Metatron. Cas brings Metatron back to Heaven. Oops...he was supposed to return him intact.

After Cas and Metatron leave Dean puzzles over Metatron’s clue. They’ve got no idea what it means but Sam throws another idea at Dean. Cas said a powerful force can overcome the Mark. “The Mark is strong, but Dean… Maybe there’s a part of you that wants to give in to it. And maybe you have to fight that, you know? Maybe part of that powerful force has to be you.” With that moral imparted, Dean gets a phone call from Claire. She wants to meet.

The next morning Dean pulls up outside of that skeevy trailer. Her new friends approach with a bat and an ax while Claire hides in the trailer. Claire loses her nerve at the last minute and runs out of the trailer to warn Dean. Dean fights off the two attackers, hoists the ax in the air...and Claire begs him to stop. Thankfully, he does - he’s not that far gone yet. Dean takes off and hopefully Claire does quickly because DUDE those people are dangerous.

Cut to Claire who has not been murdered and is now walking along a two lane road. Cas pulls up alongside her. He reveals that he can track longing....fueling fanfiction like WHOA. His power to track prayer is so shaky in this show, guys.

Claire tells Cas she’s got to go on her own and Cas lets her go (after she tells him that she liked him better with a tie.) Aw, she cares! Cas leaves, because he cares too. The last scene is Claire walking on her own in Cas’s rearview mirror.

Serial Quoters:

Anyway, it was no environment for a child!

Lovely room. It’s where you bring the kinky chicks, am I right?

It’s possible there’s a little monster in all of us.

I like texting. Emoticons.

But I’m your dickwad.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: Gods and Monsters (14x02)

This episode was written by Buckleming. So.... eww. But it was directed by Richard Speight Jr. So... yay? Where does this episode fall?

Cons:

I actually thought this episode was really good, and did not fall victim to a lot of the flaws that most Buckleming episodes have. But there were still some Buckleming-ish problems. One of the things I always hate about their writing is that it's too plot-y. So much happens, all very important A-plot stuff, and it gets crammed in without a lot of time to let it breathe. Thankfully, this episode didn't follow that pattern, with the exception of the Sam, Mary, and Bobby story. Oddly, while the Michael and Dean situation is undeniably the show's main conflict at the moment, in the structure of this episode, the quest to find Michael took a backseat to the two other plots with Nick and Jack. We see Sam, Mary, and Bobby looking in to a bunch of dead people that were clearly dropped by Michael. We see them discover that these corpses are vampires, and learn that Michael is experimenting on them.

And then at the end of the episode, it's... Dean. Michael let him go. Obviously we're going to learn more about that going forward, but the fact of the matter is, this episode was all go-go-go for Sam and Mary so we didn't get any follow-up on the emotional beats from last week. Cas and Jack have some good talks about the morality of defeating Michael even if it costs Dean's life. We see the emotional toll of everything that has happened. But with Sam, the character whose inner life should be the bigger focus, we get exposition, exposition, corpses, and then Dean is back. Not very satisfying.

Pros:

Surprisingly, however, everything else about this episode worked really well for me. There are the smaller details, like the fact that the fight scene was miles better than last week's clunky premiere. There's some good old fashioned Bobby sass. There's an interesting mystery with what exactly Michael wants to do with these new super vamps.

And then there's the bigger stuff, like Dean's performance in the final scene of the episode. He's shaken, and confused, and clearly devastated in a way difficult for him to articulate. We see that Sam is bewildered, obviously overwhelmed with relief and hope, but also still terrified. The best moment was when Sam asked if Dean was okay, and Dean replied "no, I'm not okay." There have been plenty of other circumstances in the past when Dean Winchester would have lied, would have brushed off his own trauma and said he was fine. But he's been possessed, and he's vulnerable, and he tells the honest truth to his brother. He's not okay. He's been through something awful.

The rest of this review is really going to be about the Jack plot and the Nick plot, but real quick I do want to lodge one more concern/complaint. Obviously I expected that we would get Dean back relatively soon. I knew it was too much to hope for that we'd actually do something long-form with Dean being possessed. I also have hope that there's something more complicated going on. Did Michael hop into another vessel that's closer than we might think? Or did he trick Dean into thinking he had left, only to lie dormant like Gadreel did with Sam? Regardless, obviously Michael has big plans, and there's no way he's done using Dean to accomplish those plans. So I have hope. At the same time, I am a little bit miffed that we only got two episodes of Michael!Dean. That's even shorter than his tenure as Deanmon! At least we got Soulless Sam for a whole half-season. It just seems a little unbalanced. Once again, the A-plot is being sacrificed so we can get things back to something approaching status-quo and go back to some monster-of-the-week stuff. I understand that this is the formula for the show, and it has been for a long time. But maybe it's time to mix things up and forego the C-plot crap! We've got an ensemble cast to work with now. Let's work with it!

Sorry. Anyway. Let's turn to Jack. I'm so glad that we're focusing on his feelings and how he's coping with all of the trauma he's experienced in his very short, very complicated life. We see multiple good talks with Cas, which was just great. Jack is trying to figure out who he is, separate from his grace and his powers. How does he do this? He goes to meet his maternal grandparents. This scene was interesting because it could work on a couple of different levels. You could take it at face value, and say that Kelly's parents are kind but naive folks who are willing to accept anything this random stranger says about their daughter. Or else you could take it as they kind of know something weird is going on, but they figure they can't ask questions about it, or they fear the truth enough to avoid confirmation. I think it works well either way. It's so interesting to see an emotional scene where one person knows so much more than the others. Poor Jack really deserved that hug from his grandma, and it made me a little emotional!

Then there's Nick, who is really struggling with all of the things he did while Lucifer was possessing him. As his memories start to resurface, he remembers that his wife and child were murdered, and he discovers that even all these years later, the case remains unsolved. He seeks vengeance, and nothing Cas says can calm him down. He ends up going to confront a man who was a witness at the time, but who later recanted and said he didn't see anyone leaving the house. Nick goes a little berserk, and kills this man, which is... not a great sign. The prevailing theory, at least in my mind, is that Nick actually killed his own family, but blocked the memory out, and gratefully accepted Lucifer's offer in order to push away the horror of his actions.

The best moment of the whole episode was when Cas tried to approach Nick, and Nick, in a moment of anger and instinct, snapped his finger. Cas takes a step back, horrified, and the two just stare at each other for a moment. Nick doesn't seem to realize what he's done, or at least the significance of it, but that one moment just stole the whole episode for me. Lucifer's grace is still poisoning Nick's soul in some way, and there are instincts, actions, thoughts, and ideas that might have insinuated their way into Nick through Lucifer. That's creepy and it's perfect and I love it.

Castiel gets MVP for the week. There are very few episodes in the long history of this show (this is Cas' eleventh season!) that have given Cas enough to do. He didn't get to go on the adventure to save Dean, but he did get to have quiet, contemplative, interesting conversations with both Jack and Nick. I love that he is having a hard time being around Nick. You have to remember that Cas was also possessed by Lucifer, and feels that trauma as well. Sam obviously wins the "Lucifer messed with my head" grand prize, but Cas' trauma is also real and important. And with Jack... that scene where Jack says that they need to kill Michael even if it means Dean dies... that was such a great scene. Because Jack is, quite simply, right. And Dean would certainly agree with him. But the look on Cas' face... the very idea is poison to him. Think about Cas in the early seasons. He obviously cared for Dean pretty much from the start, but he took a much more logical, pragmatic view of events. Hell, he was essentially working for Michael back then. Now, he'd let the world burn to save Dean, and I think it's probably about time for Cas to wrestle with what that means.

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, that feeling of dread I get whenever I see the Buckleming names appear on an episode, was actually pretty unsubstantiated. Yes, this was a plot-heavy episode with a lot of important moments, but there was actually plenty of space for some of the characters to contemplate their emotions, and I find myself fascinated by what's going to happen next!

Next week: Jody Mills!

9/10