Supernatural: Clip Show (8x22)

So, when I watch TV, I have my computer with me and I take notes as I watch so that I can better write these reviews. When I finished this episode, the last note I wrote as the screen faded to black was "I'm dying. I'm dead. Goodbye." I literally wrote that in my notes. And you know what, it's a pretty accurate description of how I'm feeling right now. This episode just about killed me. So many feelings are coursing through me that I feel like I may explode if I don't get to watch the finale right this minute.

I should probably try to coherently review the episode, though, huh? If only for the sake of sorting through my feelings. I'll start with the plot.

Oh my God, Crowley. I want to kill you myself. I cannot believe how depressing it was to see characters from the past start getting killed off. Tommy Collins! He was from the second episode of the first season, and I remembered him fondly. (Do you think they named him after the Rent character Tom Collins, or is that just a coincidence?) It was so depressing to lose these people, especially Sarah, of course. I'm going to talk a lot more about her in a minute. Crowley's villain speech was one of the best speeches I have heard ever. On television, in film, in real life. It was seriously epic. The way he continued to be a sass master while being more genuinely terrifying than he's ever been before... I had chills the entire time he was talking.

And then we have the ending, where Sam is very close to throwing in the towel and letting Crowley win, if only to stop him from killing more innocent people. Dean's determination coupled with Sam's indecision... it broke my heart.

And meanwhile, Cas and Metatron. Apparently there are also trials to close the gates of Heaven. Cas decides to undertake these because that way it will force all of the warring factions in Heaven to calm down and talk. Basically, Naomi is not the only player vying for the top spot right now, and things are in chaos. After some indecision, Cas decides to do the trials. The first one involves killing a Nephilim (the child of an angel and a human). Now that Cas has these trials under way with the help of Metatron, things are really heating up for this finale.

 So, there are a lot of things to talk about in this episode. I mean a lot. Let's start with everyone's feelings about Dean and Cas' relationship.

I think that Dean has a right to be mad, but for more than just hurt feelings. As Dean actually says during his conversation with Cas, the angel ran off with the tablet and then managed to get it lost. That's a pretty serious tactical error. On the other hand, I think that Dean needs to give Cas a break. I don't think either Winchester truly understands the extent to which Cas is struggling right now. He outlines it pretty clearly when talking to Metatron: "I tried to atone for my sins and I did penance, and I... betrayed my friends to protect our secrets." Obviously, "my friends" refers to the Winchesters, and "our" refers to the angels. Cas has got a really messed up situation on his hands here. He doesn't find it easy to betray Heaven, any more than Dean would find it easy to betray Earth. Some other heartbreaking quotes from Cas' conversation with Metatron: Metatron says that heaven is all broken, and Cas says "I know, I'm the one who broke it." He agrees to do the trials because, as he says, "I am the one that caused these problems. I should be the one to fix them." The poor dear is just carrying around so much guilt!

I think the most heartbreaking moment of this conflict in the episode was when Dean and Sam go to leave and track down more information about this strange exorcism. Dean says "alright, let's role," but when Cas starts to stand, he barks out: "Not you!" Cas tries to argue: "Sam is more damaged than I am." Dean: "Yeah, well, you know, even banged up, Sammy comes through." "Dean, I just wanna help!" "We don't need your help." Dean pauses for a long moment. "Just... stay here, and get better."

I think Cas really does want to help, and he wants to do the right thing. What he doesn't seem to understand is that everything would go better if he would just be honest and open about his plans. Dean isn't necessarily pissed that Cas lost the angel tablet (although he's obviously not thrilled about it). He's more pissed that Cas disappeared again, and didn't trust him enough to let him in on what was going on. I really hope that Cas comes clean to Dean in the finale and they all work together towards a common goal.

Everyone has of course been freaking out about the shopping scene, but rather than finding it cute or funny as I expected, I actually found it sort of tragic. He's definitely losing it a bit, and he really wants to make things okay between him and Dean. The reactions of the employee were pretty funny, though.

One final note on Cas... I absolutely loved Sam's interactions with/about him this week. When Cas first makes his entrance, he stands up straight and tall until Dean leaves and then he sags in pain into a chair. It broke my heart because it was clear he didn't want Dean to see he was in pain, but he can allow himself to be vulnerable in front of Sam because he just knows Sam isn't angry. He's also concerned for Sam, saying that while he is getting better, clearly Sam is getting worse. Sam later tells Dean to go easy on Cas, which I thought was a wonderful moment.

Now moving on to some acting accolades for the week. Mark A. Sheppard. I already mentioned how freakin' bad-ass his villain speech was this week, but he had other moments in the episode that were really fantastic as well. Some highlights: the fact that his number is 666, while obvious, still made me chuckle. At one point Crowley called Sam "Moosey," which had me laughing at loud, as did his "I'm sexting you an address." I think the best was when he calls Sam, and says: "First thing's first. What are you wearing." Dean is not amused: "Oh, okay, hanging up now! Hang up!" His evil plan is so intense. It's one of the most personal and awful things I can think of, and that's saying something for a show that basically takes every single loved one possible away from these boys. Their purpose, their drive, their reason for going forward... Crowley tries to take that from the Winchesters, and if we go by Sam's reaction at the end, he's started to succeed.

I have to spend a moment talking about how cool the Men of Letters are. I'm really hoping that this concept sticks around and continues to be a regular part of the show. One of Supernatural's strongest moves overall is that the show feels comfortable and familiar as long as we have Sam, Dean and the Impala, which means that home base can move around a lot. I think about shows like Buffy, and how hard it was to get used to a new meeting place once the library was gone, or how weird a show like Gilmore Girls would be without Luke's Diner. The Men of Letters HQ is a great location and I hope to Chuck it sticks around.

Some great Men of Letters related moments: I love that they keep all this information. This must be like Sam's dream come true. Apparently there are records on every demonic possession of the last 300 years. Also, they have a dungeon. A dungeon! One of the best moments of the whole episode was when they were watching the recording of the weird-with-three-exclamation-marks-exorcism, and Sam says "those chains look exactly like the ones in our dungeon!" he looks so genuinely surprised and excited. Cas just looks over at him with this look of bewilderment. "In your what?" It's also so fascinating that the Men of Letters had been trying to save demons in the past. I wonder how long it took them to find that ritual?

I knew this review was going to be long, but bear with me, there are still quite a few more things to discuss. I must briefly touch on the continuing awesomeness of Jensen and Jared. Jared Padalecki is playing Sick!Sam so well that I cannot stand it. And Jensen has been playing Dean with just the right amount of suppressed panic. Sam tells Dean how he's feeling: "Honestly, my whole body hurts, I feel nauseous and like I'm starving at the same time, and everything smells like rotting meat." Dean, clearly worried as all Hell about his baby brother, simply responds with: "I've had that hangover. Jagger, man." He's trying to keep up a calm front so that Sam doesn't see how scared he is. Jensen Ackles is in really fine form, as always.

Then you have his beautiful speech to the priest. Sam, bless his soul, starts coughing up blood in the middle of their conversation, and after he excuses himself, the Father asks if Sam's okay. Dean answers honestly that he's pretty far from okay, but he says that Sam is going to slam the gates of Hell once and for all. The priest seems rather shocked by this, and questions whether Sam is up to it. Here is Dean's answer, in full:

"Father, over the past couple of months, I've seen him do crap that I didn't even think was possible. I mean sure he's miserable and he's hurting, but you know what? There's not a doubt in my mind that he's gonna cross that finish line. Not one. So will you help us?"

This speech seems to be the strongest sign of faith that Dean could have given. I almost wish they had pulled a cliche Sam-is-listening-around-the-corner moment here, because I think Sam would have really loved to hear that from his big brother. Their trust in one another is amazing, and I think they are - ironically - in a better place now as brothers than they have been in a very long time, maybe ever.

Alright, so now that I've talked on and on about different elements of the show that I really loved, I want to touch on two things that I didn't. The first is just sort of a minor problem with this episode in particular, and the other one is a larger over-arching element of Supernatural that I take issue with. 

So... Abaddon. She's awesome, she really is. Great performance, great presence, really scary... but what was the point of her? Why couldn't the boys track down a demon elsewhere? I mean, the things are almost constantly trying to kill them, I'm sure that there's another one around! Instead, they actually re-assemble the demon they themselves ripped to pieces. It was creepy, it was kind of cool, but it just felt like overkill. And I get that they thought she was incapacitated because of the bullet and because of having no hands, but did they really leave her alone without so much as a devil's trap? That felt like a rookie move, and I would have expected a lot more from hunters with as much experience as the Winchesters.

And here comes the second problem, which I'm going to rant about quite extensively. Sarah. Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing her again. She was a great character in her first appearance, and she didn't disappoint in her brief moments on screen. Her death packed a real punch, coupled as it was with Sam and Dean's frantic searching and Crowley's epic speech. But here's the issue: first off, they really over-hyped the connection she had with Sam all those years ago. Sure, the two of them hung out and there was a kiss, but it's not the same as, say, Dean's connection with Lisa or something.

I started thinking about why this bothered me so much, and I think I've come up with one of Supernatural's biggest over-all failings. It's not that they can't write good female characters. Sure they can. Think about Charlie! And Naomi may be evil, but she's a great villain. I think Ellen and Jo are both great, Lisa was interesting, Anna, Meg, even Lilith and Ruby were compelling villains. What Supernatural struggles with are canonical romantic relationships. Think about it. 

Of the women that Sam has had particularly important romantic connections to on this show, only one of them is still living, and most of the others only appear in one or two episodes. We've got Jessica, who seemed really cool, but she died before we knew much about her. We've got Madison, who was amazing, but if we're being honest she was really just a plot device in order to let Sam feel vulnerable and confront his feelings. She was only in one episode. Then there's Sarah, who Sam seemed to genuinely like, and who died in this most recent episode. Amelia, the only one still living, was boring enough that my mind is still struggling to understand why she was there at all. She was there as a threat to the legendary Winchester bond, and thus pretty much hated or ignored by the fans. Ruby was a villain, and Dean was constantly telling Sam to stay away from her. She ended up more as a cautionary tale about how Sam should always listen to Dean.

Then there are Dean's ladies. Other than Cassie and Lisa, most of his girls are just one night stands, so they aren't important in terms of characterization. Cassie's connection with Dean seemed genuine, and she made it out of the experience still living, even if things will never work out between them. Then there's Lisa, who got a ton of character development and was in several episodes, and even though when she left the show it was really tragic, at least she's with Ben, safe and happy. There's also Jo, but her connection with Dean never felt very romantic, and the writers knew that. She ended up being more of a sister figure for him.

And then it hit me. Sam's ladies are all either dead or generally disliked by the fans. Dean's girls get no such treatment. Even Jo, who is dead, is generally received positively by fans. This seems to tie in with something I was saying a few reviews back, about how Dean always gets to have special connections with other people but Sam doesn't get to be close with anyone other than Dean. I'm fine with the fact that the boys aren't very lucky in love. It makes sense that it would be hard to maintain any sort of relationship while living like they do. It begs the question, though, why can't they introduce another hunter, someone like Garth or Charlie, who doesn't have to be in every episode or anything, but could be something of a regular guest star, and could actually form a connection with one of the boys? A genuine relationship? I'm also fine with a canonical non-heterosexual couple such as everyone's favorite ship, Destiel. But the show seems more intent on baiting than on actually making anything between Dean and Cas canon. 

So... all of this ties back around to why I was frustrated with Sarah's appearance. Sure, it was gut-wrenching that she died, and that was the point. I'm glad we got to see a character who bonded more with Sam than with Dean, for once. But then they killed her. Why couldn't it have been someone else? Someone that Sam connected with that wasn't a love interest? This show does not have a lot of female characters as is, and as Misha Collins himself recently pointed out, the only ones that have survived thus far are ones that really aren't any sort of threat to the Winchesters romantically (Charlie is gay, Naomi is evil). 

One more thing: notice how Dean was all pissed at Sam for not looking for him while he was in Purgatory? Sam was with Amelia, right? Has Amelia been treated with much respect by the writers or the fans? No. I'm not at all interested in her, and it's not the actress's fault. The character was poorly written and had basically no purpose other than as an obstacle to Sam and Dean's bromantic reunion. In contrast, Sam never gave Dean any crap about living with Lisa and Ben for a year. And, yeah, I know that Dean looked for ways to get Sam out of the Cage and all that, but think about it for a second - when Sam finally gets his soul back, he seems genuinely upset that Dean didn't stick to the original plan and start a life with Lisa. Dean, on the other hand, is epically pissed when he finds out that Sam tried to find happiness with someone after his brother died. Remember, everyone, Sam thought that Dean was dead. In Heaven, probably. And what with all of Sam's issues of doubt and blame, he probably doesn't think he himself will be making it to Heaven when he dies. Which means he thought he would never ever see his brother again. Can everyone stop being mad at him for finding a girl and a dog to spend the years with?

I know this was a pretty epic rant, but I just find it really important to critically think about the problems in media today. Supernatural is one of my favorite shows of all time, and it has so many excellent things going for it. I think that's why I'm hard on it when I need to be. I'd just love to see more female characters in the future.

In all, this episode was really amazing, despite the issues which I have ranted about so extensively. It set up the finale in a really compelling way, and I'm dying to see it! If an episode of television can inspire you to write as much as I've just written, then you know it's doing something right.

8/10