April 20, 2014

Supernatural: Meta Fiction (9x18)

I don't know... I think I might have been in a bad mood when I was watching this episode, which makes it a tad difficult to be objective about it. In all honesty, I thought Curtis Armstrong did not have his A-game on as far as acting went, so I found myself utterly unconvinced by a lot of what Metatron was saying. But let's slow down and start with what actually happened.

Sam and Dean are still trying to find a way to get to Abaddon, with little success. Cas discovers a group of angels who have all been slaughtered, except for one: Hannah. She tells Cas that Gadreel came and slaughtered all of her fellow angels, on Metatron's orders. She also tells Cas that Gadreel said Metatron would let loyal angels back into Heaven. Cas relays this information to the Winchesters, who decide that they really need to deal with this Gadreel problem.

Sam and Dean manage to catch Gadreel, but they can't get ahold of Cas to tell him what's going on. Dean stays to try and get information about Heaven and Metatron. Sam goes to try and find Cas. Gadreel plays on Dean's insecurities about his relationship with Sam in order to get him to lose control. Dean very nearly kills Gadreel, which is what Gadreel seems to want, but he manages to stop himself. Sam, meanwhile, finds out that Metatron has Cas.

Backing up a bit: After talking with Hannah, Cas is very surprised to see Gabriel turn up and try and convince him to lead the angels against Metatron. Gabriel says he's tired of running and wants to do what's right for once. However, Cas notices a detail that shows him the whole thing is a trick. He finds himself tied up and at Metatron's mercy. Metatron tells him to lead the angel factions - essentially to play his part as the "villain" that Metatron must defeat.

Sam and Dean take Gadreel and go to trade him for Cas. Metatron is completely impervious to all of Sam and Dean's attempts to trap him. He takes Gadreel and hands over Cas, stating that he's going to have fun watching the Winchesters try and stop him. Cas finds out about the Mark of Cain and warns Sam to keep an eye on Dean.

Metatron continues his writing, telling Gadreel that it's his job to create good characters and see where they go, but that he's the only person who knows the ending.

Alllright. Let's start with my complaints.

Metatron's hammy performing. It was too much. His goofy laughter when Cas asked if he was supposed to be the hero... just way over the top in my opinion. It was jarring, and it made Metatron's little "plan" seem even more unbelievable. It seems like he's trying to take on a bit of a trickster-like role, and just wants to watch all the little pieces dance. But in my opinion, that makes him a crap villain. Like, with Crowley, it always makes sense why he keeps Sam and Dean around. He knows they're pretty much unstoppable, so he decides to use them to further his own goals. With Metatron... he says he's read those Carver Edlund books, but I'm not sure he read them close enough. Doesn't he know what happens if you try and make the Winchesters toe the line?

Why doesn't Cas go with Sam and Dean at the end? From a extradiegetic standpoint, I get that Misha isn't slotted to be in the next few episodes. But within the story, it doesn't make any sense why he can't just go with them. I wish they had at least tried to explain that one. A little bit.

And going back to Metatron's plan. At the end, it shows him typing out that Cas goes out to meet his flock, and it looks like Cas does just that. Are we supposed to believe, then, that Metatron really is controlling events by writing them out? Sort of like what Chuck was doing? And if that's the case, why on earth would he set up the whole deal with Gabriel to try and convince Cas to do what he wants? If he's that powerful, why all the theatrics? It doesn't make sense.

To be honest, Metatron's plan doesn't make a lick of sense to me, and it's causing real problems with my ability to see him as a threat. Since I had such a big problem with the very foundation of this episode, it's hard to rate it favorably. However, within the framework, there were a lot of things that I think worked very well.

First of all, kudos to whoever came up with the title "Meta Fiction." It works on so many levels. Metatron, anyone? And what a nice new attempt to break the fourth wall without just reusing the same tired jokes from before. Any mention of the Carver Edlund books is, of course, fantastic. One particularly chilling detail was when Metatron actually burned the book. Ouch.

Then there's Gabriel. Or Meta-Gabriel. Or whatever. At first, I was really disappointed by Richard Speight Jr.'s acting. I thought he seemed... off. Just, too extreme. Too over the top, even for him. He had none of that subtle cunning and underlying darkness that he seemed to have in his previous appearances. I'm listing this under the good section of the review, because I'm choosing to believe that Gabriel was supposed to seem off to us. He was supposed to seem different, because he wasn't real. If that's not the case, then I think it was some shoddy work by the writer, mostly, but also by the actor. But hey. Staying positive. If we're supposed to think that something's not quite right with Gabriel, then I think they did their job very well. Oh, and also, he said "bitch, please," to Cas. That was fantastic.

And hey, I should probably talk about Sam and Dean, right? Oddly, they really weren't the main focus of this episode. Cas was. Metatron was. Sam and Dean were almost a subplot, in a way. I love the way that Gadreel was able to get them both so worked up. For Sam, it was the fact that Gadreel has been inside his head, and knows his deepest thoughts. For Dean, it was playing on that same fact, and exploiting it to make it seem like Dean was hearing his worst imaginings of what Sam really thinks of him. Brilliantly executed by Gadreel. In fact, he was ten times more intimidating than Metatron in this episode, in my opinion.

Dean almost kills Gadreel. The most stressful part of the whole episode for me was when Sam realized that they needed to trade Gadreel for Cas, but he couldn't get Dean on the phone. For a moment, I wondered if they were really going to have Dean kill Gadreel. God, that would have been intense. Jensen did a fine bit of acting in the scene where Sam came back and found Gadreel beaten to a bloody pulp. He looked so lost and confused when he told Sam that he almost killed Gadreel, but then it's like he's trying to convince himself that everything's fine, because he stopped. He stopped in time.

Destiel subtext like woah. Now I don't normally like to comment too much on this stuff because I find it's hard to be objective about Destiel. I'm such a fan of the show and I want - for my own personal reasons - for Dean and Cas to be together. But in this episode... seriously, there are moments where it seems impossible to deny a romantic interpretation of their interactions. The most obvious one is actually the phone call. See, at first it's just Cas and Sam talking business. The first time Dean speaks, we see Cas' face, and it melts into this cute little smile, and says it's good to hear Dean's voice. While talking to Sam, it's about the case. While talking to Dean, it immediately becomes personal. Why on earth would they set it up this way? Clearly, we join them mid-conversation. But they make a special point in showing us Cas' face when he first hears Dean. Really. It's not like Dean says anything particularly clever or funny, and Cas gets this wistful little smile on his face. Also, Dean manages to smile only once in this whole episode, and it's when talking to Cas. Seriously. What the hell else am I supposed to make of that?

But let's not forget the fact that Sam and Cas' relationship is also showcased here. When Sam finds out that Metatron has Cas, he honestly looks terrified. More terrified than we ever see Dean, once he finds out. I think this is very telling: first of all, Sam loves Cas. Cas is a brother to him. Their relationship obviously doesn't get as much screen time as Dean and Cas, but it's still important. Secondly, Dean's lack of a panicked reaction to finding out that Metatron has Cas can be attributed to the Mark of Cain. We're seeing Dean fall farther and farther into this spiral. Lately, he hasn't shown any real concern over anything, even Sam. He's starting to be pulled in even deeper.

I'm so glad we got to see Cas' reaction to the Mark of Cain. This was another moment where they made a point of showing us something that they really didn't need to for the plot. Sam could have told Cas about the Mark of Cain. We could have just assumed that Cas learns about it off-screen somewhere, and move the plot forward like that. But instead, we see a face-to-face reaction as Cas grabs Dean's arm and holds it, examining the Mark, and then "Damn it, Dean." Why did we linger on this moment? Because obviously Dean is falling into a very dark place, and obviously Cas has to be part of what pulls him out of it. I'm beyond excited to see how it all goes down.

Sam and Dean are still strained, but it seems as if Sam's worry for Dean is overwhelming his need for distance. Dean, instead of trying to make things right with Sam, is trying to brush him off and hide his pain. It's going to explode eventually, and it's going to be gloriously filled with angst. I am so pumped.

I'll stop it there. The framework of this episode, especially Metatron's plan, felt weak to me. I wasn't sure what he was even getting at most of the time. However, most everything about this episode made me really anxious for more, which is part of any episode's entire purpose.

7.5/10

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