#ugh you just know buckleming wanted the dude standing there like that because they thought he looked soooo cool

[samsrowena]

why on earth would they chain someone up like this

[bibliophileiz]

A (not really) Ode to bucklemming

Last bucklemming episode, and you guys, it was just such a classic example of their stale mediocrity. And yet, at the end of this post, I found myself bizarrely happy with how the episode turned out.

This is the second time I’ve watched it, and while I was planning to just liveblog my thoughts, I realized quickly that would not work, because most of the episode is boring and miserable, (especially the first third or so) and that makes for boring and miserable note-taking. I think I said in a tag of a different post that Dabb assigning this one to bucklemming is just further proof that he hasn’t cared about plot at all this season, and honestly, I don’t know there’s much they COULD have done to make this plot entertaining. Chuck even says at one point that it ... isn’t entertaining.*

The first third or so is basically Sam, Dean, and Jack being miserable with nothing around them break that misery up (except, briefly, a dog). And that makes for a miserable viewing experience. Here are a handful of notes I took that give you the gist:

- Chuck standing there talking about how loneliness and no-people is “deep” and a “page-turner” is such a gratifying little critique of shitty writers who like their gritty stories about permanently miserable protagonists. Like dude, you know there’s a reason nobody rereads “The Road,” right? - Dean slurring his words because he’s hungover is the first time anything interesting has happened with the dialogue in this whole episode. - Rob Benedict is the only one who gets to inflect his dialogue this episode. I do think his acting in that last scene is great, where he’s screaming, “Guys, wait!” as they drive off. It’s not a terrible ending scene.

So there’s that. Now here are my notes not-related to how stale and boring everything is:

Beginning: -The shots of Kyoto and New York City remind me of all the shots in NYT and other major newspapers after COVID shut everything down last spring (except in this case all the traffic would still be in New York, just no people). - “I couldn’t save anybody.” Poor Sam. (must push down feelings about Sam’s leadership arc and how it always seems to end with people dying, ugh, repress, repress!) - Also, I wanted to see a shot of a sink running and one of them turning it off. Just a random thing.

Archangel stuff: - I guess it makes sense to lose Adam if you’re going to kill Michael at the end, but goddamn if Michael isn’t a way more boring character without him. - Ah, Lucifer, a.k.a bucklemming’s attempt at comic relief. I’m starting to miss the boring dialogue. - Ooh, awesome, the only female character in the episode shows up bound and gagged and immediately murdered so she can be used and then murdered again. (Also, the first time I watched this scene, I was sure she wouldn’t wake up and was gearing up to laugh at Lucifer for sucking.) - Jensen stays as far away from her as he can when he unties her, I’m sure that actress appreciates him trying not to give her COVID. Course then she immediately ruins it by head-butting him, which is NOT practicing social distancing. - Many have commented on whether Lucifer can actually kill Death by snapping his fingers. We don’t know, but the Scythe WAS right there, and if Dean can kill Death with it (twice), I’m sure Lucifer can. - On the other hand, it IS established lore that God doesn’t have power in the Empty. Presumably he could negotiate with it like Death, and possibly he just took advantage of the loud chaos of Jack exploding, Death dying, the Empty apparently being super pissed, etc. to sneak in and make off with Lucifer. - Also WHY DO ALL THE ARCHANGEL FIGHTS IN THIS SHOW SUCK ASS???? - “I haven’t been in a battle like that in several centuries,” Michael says, as if he just fought the Battle of the Blackwater in Game of Thrones, and not what appeared to be the archangel equivalent of Mario Kart.

And climax/last scene: - But the best moment of the episode is when they GET BACK UP BLOODY AND HOLDING ONTO EACH OTHER AND ABSOLUTELY BEAMING BECAUSE THEIR LITTLE BOY IS ABOUT TO BECOME GOD. - Also, I like the music in this scene. And it seems like it’s the same place they used to film the end of Season 12/beginning of Season 13, which was probably peak Dabb era, ngl. (Jensen as Michael was also great.) - I also like that Jack and Chuck are both wearing light jackets, but Jack’s is a leeeeeetle whiter. - Chuck looking at the blank book is that moment in every writer’s life, when they’re like, “NOOOOOO, the computer DELETED EVERYTHING I WROTE.” - “Dean Winchester, the ultimate killer” You guys, 10 is Chuck’s favorite season. - Of course it is sweet that Cas’s last words seem to have had an effect on Dean, how he goes from “That’s (killing) all I know how to do” to “That’s not who I am.” I’m far from the first person to point that out though. - What happened to Amara is THE WORST. - Also, I am annoyed that Jack isn’t going home with them, because I really wanted him to be God, and a hands-off one, but I also wanted him to drive the Impala and solve crimes, ya know?  - Jared at least seems to understand that this ending is upsetting, because Sam has tears in his eyes, whereas Dean is just kind of like, “ah, he’s leaving.” Which is fine because DEAN AND JACK ARE NOT AS CLOSE AS SAM AND JACK, fight me. - Him disappearing into light is stupid, though. - At least Dean and Sam get to sit close to each other at the end. I wonder if that was the first scene shot after they got out of quarantine. - WHERE ARE THEY DRIVING? - Maybe to go see Jody. - WE GOT BELA AND CROWLEY AND ANNA IN THE MONTAGE HELLZ YEAH, ALSO ABBADON AND ELLEN AND RUFUS, but we also got fucking Asmodeus and Ketch and no Benny, what the fuck, Showalter?

So I have questions.

Some of them are unimportant, like how did people in restaurants at the end react when they found themselves looking at food that seems to have undergone days’ worth of rot in the blink of an eye? Also, you got a shot of a full airport at the end, but that begs the question: were there airplanes in the sky at the time Chuck snapped everyone away, and did they crash, and did the people on them get snapped back into crashed airplanes and was that not super confusing for them and did the airlines lose billions of dollars because all their planes crashed right before COVID shut them down anyway and if all that’s the case is it really any wonder they needed a bailout from the federal government?

But some of them are plot-relevant and could have helped an episode in desperate need of it.

For example, I want to know what’s going on with the Empty, and if Mark Pellegrino had talked about it for more than two seconds, I might not have hated every second he was on screen. Also, there are other things happening this episode. Like Jack walking around sucking life and “power” out of plants catches Dean and Sam’s attention immediately. We know that, because we see them noticing it and exchanging confused glances in the flashback at the end of the episode.

Here’s the thing though: Why not have that in the beginning? It’s not a Huge Reveal, and it would have given Jensen and Jared something to do in that stale boring beginning other than Make Sad Face. As pretty as Jensen and Jared are, and as good as they are at making sad faces, you cannot build an entire episode around that. 

Related, there isn’t actually much of a beat in the plot where it makes sense for them to figure out Michael will betray them for God. It seems like it will happen in that conversation between Dean and Michael when Michael expresses his hurt that Chuck let Lucifer out of the Empty before even asking for help. But at that point, it seems Sam and Dean have already come up with their plan. The flashback makes it seem as if they began to suspect Michael would betray them when Lucifer called him a cuck, something I think they made a plot point purely to have the word “cuck” in the episode for the third time.**

There are a few hopeful beats that show that bucklemming understand on some level that there needed to be some flow to this episode, such as the dog and Dean thinking he may have gotten Cas back. But I don’t think those are substitutes for showing Sam and Dean come up with their plan to defeat God. Even if you don’t want to reveal that they know Michael will betray them, you can still get one scene in there of them saying something like, “You think this’ll work?” if you just cut two minutes of Michael’s boring monologue in the church and/or Lucifer’s bullshit.

It follows this weird pattern of bucklemming once again seeming to not find Sam and Dean particularly interesting, so they don’t spend any time writing them DOING anything, or at least succeeding at anything, because they’d rather write Lucifer killing women and generally being an asshole.

So ... who cares, right? It’s bucklemming, they were bound to be mediocre-to-bad anyway, it kind of makes sense for Dabb to give them this episode because nepotism definitely makes it a best case scenario. And while I take issue with Dabb as a showrunner, I do think he’s great at standalone episodes and character stuff, so I’m not too terribly worried about next episode. I just think there were things about this episode that could have sucked less.

There ARE things about it that were fine, dare I say even good. It was in my notes, but I just want to emphasize that I LOVED the shot of Sam and Dean getting up bloody and broken, holding onto each other and grinning their asses off knowing that Chuck’s about to lose to Jack, and they get to see it! They may very well have gone into that fight expecting to die -- Chuck nearly just zapped them from existence, which would have still unleashed God-power for Jack to soak up.

The ending scene is pretty good, with Sam and Dean seeming like they’re still pretty beaten down, but trying to get it together. That’s more Jensen and Jared’s acting than anything bucklemming wrote, but it’s still good. The montage is good (although I will say for like the third time, where. the fuck. was Benny?) 

Jensen’s acting over the dog was SO SOFT (doesn’t he have a dog?). I half-expected the dog to run to him at the end, which would have been cute.

There are also things that were ... potentially good, if they’d been brought up correctly? I actually really like that Jack is going to be “hands-off” (although I like less that he and Sam will never see each other again, but Dabb did say it was going to be a bittersweet ending, so ....). 

I also -- and God, I’m going to get hate mail for saying this -- don’t mind that he didn’t bring Cas back. That highlights the difference between him and Chuck. Chuck brings back Sam and Dean (and, in Season 5 at least, Cas) over and over again, not out of love, but just to throw them back into their exhausting existence. In contrast, Jack NOT bringing anyone back (except the people who’d been snapped out of existence, which I would argue is more about putting the world on its proper course again, as opposed to “violating the natural order,” as Billie would put it). He knows he has to let people go. You could argue that’s always been his arc -- he and Cas even talk about how hard it will be for them to one day lose Sam and Dean back in Season 14 when they think Dean is dying.

But I wish there had been dialogue exploring THAT instead of the weird vague stuff about how he would always be a part of them. It doesn’t have to be anything super analytical like what I just wrote, it just has to be him saying, “I understand that in order to be a just god, I have to let things go and be at peace.” 

(However, if the reason they DIDN’T go that direction is they didn’t want Dean to be like, “You know, he’s right,” next episode and not rescue Cas from the Empty, then I’m fine with them leaving that out. Screw the natural order, Dean -- go rescue Cas from the Empty!)

I also really really really want to get some sense that Sam’s faith has been rewarded. We got a tiny glimmer of that this episode in the hushed, awed way Jared delivers the line, “Are you really ... him?” Sam has always been the one with faith in a just and loving God, and one of the things that aggravated me about the end of Season 14 was his faith being so blatantly not rewarded, in favor of promoting Dean’s more cynical take on God.

The show has always, since the very first season, raised questions about where God is, whether his will is just, and how we know we’re following it, and the main characters all have different answers to that -- Sam’s being the more faithful, optimistic view of “God is good”, Dean’s being the more critical “If God is good then why do bad things happen?”, and, most interestingly, Cas’ viewpoint largely fluctuating with his own sense of identity and self-worth. The point is, we had all three of these opinions on God, without the show ever explicitly saying which one was right.

Until very recently, I thought it should have stayed that way. But now I love the idea that Sam’s faith in God was rewarded not by Chuck, but by Jack -- the very boy he took under his wing and raised as his own son, the boy who understands that he is good and that people are good largely because SAM TAUGHT HIM THEY CAN BE. It’s just so beautiful, and I’m getting more and more happy about this ending as I write about it, actually, so maybe I don’t entirely hate Jack’s ending after all.

That was a happier note than I planned on ending this on. I guess that is how you stop worrying and tolerate bucklemming. 

Goodbye, bucklemming. I hated many of your episodes, but I will miss you and your weird, inconsistent writing that was so entertaining to pick apart and analyze and make fun of. I hope you find some cop shows where you can churn out more mediocrity and make some money. And in the meantime, stop killing off women.

*Yet another example from this season of the writers intentionally writing a bad episode to highlight the fact that Chuck is a bad writer. NEWSFLASH DABB: Bad writing is still bad writing, I don’t care if the villain of the story is the writer, I still don’t want to watch it if it’s bad.

**Which is such a bizarre insult to use. Isn’t it slang for a guy who’s wife cheats on him? I swear I’m not innocent or sheltered, I have just literally never heard anyone use that insult in a real context in my entire life. 

[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.