This is one of those episodes where the objective quality of the content does not match my actual enjoyment level. In many real ways, this episode was not that great. It had some serious problems. But I, personally, with my brain turned off, really loved it. Let's talk.
Cons:
The reason this episode isn't actually that good, despite some hella awesome acting, action, and one-liners, is because all of the bells and whistles are resting on an extremely weak foundation. We all know it's stupid that Sam and Dean got taken in the first place. Why did they hang around with an unconscious POTUS, again? And then there's the fact that these top-secret government guys take these two men who they believe to have attempted the assassination of the President, and there's no urgency to figure out how they got to the president? They aren't at all concerned with how their security was breached? Their method is to just wait Sam and Dean out. They think the worst torture of all is loneliness.
This is another problem with the episode. We see Sam and Dean being left alone in tiny little rooms for six weeks, but we're not really shown what was so torturous about this to them. Did they start to lose their grip on reality? Did either of them try and talk to the guy who brought them their food? No. But apparently, in Dean's words, the torture of solitary is worse than Hell itself. Is it, though? Is it really? I find it hard to believe that these two would be broken by six weeks alone. If the show wanted to sell me on that, they needed to show, more explicitly, why it was difficult for them. Maybe being left alone with their own thoughts about their mistakes starts to make them unravel? Or maybe instead of being left completely alone, they are given glimpses of authority figures, and hints and suggestions that the other brother is being tortured as they sit there? Anything more than just a terminal case of boredom, which is what it seemed like.
And did Dean not try and pray to Cas? It should have been fairly easy for him to find them, you would think. There was no attempt to explain why it was so difficult for all of these magical beings to track them down. There's even a scene where Cas goes to Crowley for help, and Crowley basically shrugs his shoulders and says that because his police officer contacts aren't important enough, he hasn't heard where Sam and Dean are. I mean... he's a demon. His mother is a witch. A tracking spell? Something? There wasn't even a discussion of using supernatural means to track down the boys, and that seems like a serious oversight.
All of the flaws listed above are with the premise of the episode itself. There is one flaw that I need to mention that goes a little deeper: Billie the Reaper is dead. Now, don't get me wrong, the scene where Cas kills Billie to save the Winchesters is really emotionally affecting. It brought new depth and understanding to Cas' character, something that's definitely sorely needed. But... come on. Have we not learned our lesson about killing off our very few female characters? Not to mention our only living named character of color (unless I'm forgetting somebody... but if I am, it's not somebody with as much screen time even as Billie). I'm about damn tired of this! And from a story perspective, Billie simply never played enough of a role! There were so many cool things you could have done with this whole Death 2.0 thing, but... no. Another fascinating character wasted.
Pros:
You would think after four long paragraphs of flaws, I'd come down pretty hard on this episode. But the fact is, I really loved it.
The plot is really just about Sam and Dean escaping, and Mary and Cas doing everything in their power to find them. It's a simple story, in a lot of ways. It goes back to the promise we got at the beginning of this season that we would be focusing on smaller stories. I mean, a secret government bunker seems like it would be big stakes, but there's no all-powerful being trying to destroy the universe, here. It's just Sam and Dean being trapped, and finding a way to get back to their family. I liked the basic story.
Sam and Dean communicating silently and being on the same page is one of my favorite elements of this show. Since Supernatural is built, naturally, on the conflicts between these two, it's always a special treat when we see how cohesive and competent they are. They trust each other, and they don't need to talk much to know exactly what to do. These soldiers don't stand a chance against them, and it shows in their brutal efficiency. What with all the crazy Big Bads that the Winchesters have had to face, it's sometimes difficult to remember just how bad ass they truly are. This episode is a good reminder of that.
Dean is the one who comes up with a plan to get them out of their prison: Billie will kill them, and when they're taken from their cells, they get to come back to life one more time. The catch? At midnight, one Winchester dies permanently. It's a simple conceit, and it's not as if the boys haven't been in similar situations in the past. The thing that makes it so powerful this time is that Dean doesn't sacrifice himself to save Sam, or vice versa. They both make the deal, knowing full well that they might be giving up their brother to gain their own freedom. Dean knows that Sam would never agree to the deal if he phrased it in such a way that insisted he be the one to die. And since they spend all their time working on a way to escape their pursuers, when the moment of truth arrives, they still haven't discussed who is to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Of course, Mary jumps in and offers to be the one to die, so we never get to see how that conversation would have played out. But I just love the trust that Sam and Dean showed in one another. They were both feeling such dread about this moment, both obviously wanting to take the sacrifice for the other. But they weren't insisting, weren't shutting each other down, weren't falling on their swords without talking it out first. Character development!
On the other side of things, you have Mary and Cas, both looking for Sam and Dean while also trying to continue to hunt, filling the void of the Winchesters' absence. Cas was just... wrecked during this whole episode. Misha really brought his A-game. He was stressed, and tired, and so, so scared. He felt like he had let down his family, and it was so sad to seem him struggling with that. Mary is back to hunting, as she's not sure what else to do with herself while she and Cas both wait for information. I think my favorite moment was when Cas expresses his own inadequacy and failures as a hunter. He tells Mary that he tried to investigate a string of mysterious deaths, but he didn't know who to talk to, or what questions to ask. Mary later takes care of it for him, proving that she still knows how this whole hunting game works. It was a great scene, because it showcased how helpless Cas still is, sometimes, when he's dealing with the human world around him. It also parallels him with Mary, who, despite still feeling a bit like an outsider, is starting to get her head back in the game.
The British Men of Letters are brutal as ever, here. Cas enlists their help in finding Sam and Dean in the woods, and they use satellite imaging technology to pinpoint their location. Mick isn't having much luck in recruiting American hunters, since none of them are happy at the idea of taking orders from bureaucrats. I like that the British MOL is maintaining its presence, and upping the creepy factor. See, Sam and Dean managed to escape without killing anybody. Later, Mick and Mr. Ketch go back and kill everybody who knew about Sam and Dean, leaving a whole wake of ruthlessly murdered bodies in their wake. We're upping their threat factor without making them too much the focus. It's infinitely preferable to all that stuff with the torture-happy chicks from the first few episodes of the season.
And... let's talk about that ending. Holy mother of Chuck. Sam and Dean are facing a terrible decision: who should die? Mary offers herself - she is a Winchester, after all. She holds her gun to her own head, but just as she's about to pull the trigger... Cas stabs Billie with an Angel blade, killing her. And then. Cas gives a speech that makes this whole episode worth it, even if there hadn't been anything else to praise. He talks about how he won't let any of them die, because this sad little world needs every Winchester it can get. "You mean too much to me. To everything." He looks like he's about to burst into tears, and the looks that Sam, Dean, and Mary give him are just devastating. This is obviously going to have ramifications down the road, but from the look on Cas' face, he doesn't care. He'd risk anything to avoid losing a Winchester.
There you have it. This episode can get away with quite a bit, in my eyes, for the simple fact that it focuses on the subtle interplay between Sam and Dean, and it shines a big spotlight on Cas, giving him really meaty material and emotional scenes. That's all too rare in Supernatural, and it's enormously satisfying when it does come around. This damn never-ending show seems as impossible to kill as a Winchester. We've got a Season Thirteen waiting for us after this season wraps up... and I for one will definitely be tuning in.
7/10
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