This is how you start a season. I'm pretty happy with everything that's being set up here. It was a smart move to keep us in suspense - you realize we still haven't seen Sam and Dean on screen together yet? And after those months and months of waiting! The anticipation is building, and with all of these interesting tensions and story lines being put into play, it seems like we're in for an intense season.
We see Sam on a desperate search for his brother. He spends day after day making calls, doing research, trying to find Crowley and/or Dean. He finds a possible lead, and calls Cas to tell him about it. Cas, who is very sick, tries to convince Sam that he can help him track down Dean, but Sam tells him that he needs to be focused on himself for now. The two of them wonder if there's any chance that Dean is still himself.
Meanwhile, Hannah shows up to ask Castiel for some help. Heaven has been doing pretty good at rebuilding itself without a ringleader, but there are a few angels who refuse to come back to Heaven. Two of them actually killed other angels, who were trying to get them to come home. Hannah asks Cas to help her find them to bring them in for punishment. They do indeed find these angels, but Cas is sympathetic to their cause - they see the beauty in free will, and living in the human world, and they only want to be left alone. However, things get tense, and Cas is forced to kill one of these angels to save Hannah. Hannah tells Cas that he needs to get more grace if he doesn't want to die, but of course Cas can't justify killing another angel to get the grace he needs.
Sam's hunt for Dean leads him to a town where a man was murdered in a convenience store. This man had gone missing years before, and had acted really crazy before vanishing, leading Sam to believe the victim might be a demon. He watches security footage and sees that the murderer of the demon in question is none other than Dean himself. Of course, the victim was actually trying to attack Dean, so the police aren't sure they can call it murder. Maybe it was self defense! Sam sees Dean's eyes flash black for a moment on the security feed, and he is understandably horrified.
The victim's phone, which had been left at the scene, is given to Sam. He uses it to call Crowley. Crowley brags about what a good time he and Dean are having, and Sam promises that Crowley will pay for this. It looks like Sam was tracking the call. He gets in his car and starts heading to Dean and Crowley.
However, he never makes it there - a mysterious man kidnaps Sam on his way, and tries him to use as leverage. Apparently, he's hunting Dean.
Dean has been partying hard - drinking, doing karaoke, and sleeping with a woman named Ann Marie. When Ann Marie is harassed by a man from her past, Dean steps up and beats the guy, telling him to leave her alone. Although he thinks he was "defending her honor," Ann Marie realizes that Dean is a messed up guy, and she decides to break it off with him. Crowley has been trying to convince Dean to stop partying and come rule Hell with him, but Dean is not interested. Crowley traps him into making a decision, however: he knew Sam would be tracking the call, and so he knows Sam will be heading towards them to find Dean. Dean will have to leave the bar unless he wants to see Sam.
In the last scene, we see the mysterious man who kidnapped Sam call Dean. He tells Dean that he will kill Sam unless Dean shows up. Dean doesn't seem concerned. He says he's not responsible for Sam's situation. But he does promise this: he will find this man eventually, and kill him. He's a man of his word.
If I had any complaints, it would be that the angel plot line doesn't seem to be offering anything new. We've already seen lots of iterations of this - Heaven is constantly going through upheavals, and they're constantly messing it up when they try to reinforce the rules. I'll definitely withhold judgment, though - there could be something different coming down the pipe. It's just that for this opening episode, I wasn't particularly grabbed by the whole debate between angels like Hannah, and angels like Daniel, the one Cas was forced to kill.
A nitpick - Jared Padalecki hurt his shoulder in real life, so they had no choice but to put him in a sling during these episodes. But their in-story explanation for it was very flimsy - Cas mentions that a demon "did something" to Sam's shoulder, in part because Cas wasn't able to have Sam's back. Maybe it was just because I knew the injury was real, but I found myself rolling my eyes at how sloppy this justification was. It was a weak moment in the script.
But who wants to talk about flaws, anyway? As I stated at the beginning, this is a solid opening, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.
First, there's Cas. While I mentioned above that I wasn't a big fan of his plot thread, I still loved his characterization here. He is always willing to help, even at the expense of his health. He wants to help Sam find Dean, but he also won't say no to Hannah when she asks for help with a problem in Heaven. He's very much a man/angel of two worlds. He can see Hannah's perspective, but he can see the appeal of staying on earth and living as a human, too. Throughout this season, I hope we can explore Cas' endgame goals - he needs to learn to embrace his love of ... humanity... and make the choice to stay on earth. Also, of course, he'll have to stop dying, first! My poor baby.
As far as Hannah goes, I'm not sure what to make of her character just yet. She could prove to be interesting, but at the moment she's basically just a standard indicator of the majority of angels and their struggles. Things are changing, and they're confusing, but she's trying to soldier on doing what she knows how to do. I hope we can add more dimensions to her character as we move forward, so that we can get to know her as more than just a symbol of the angels as a whole.
And now we must talk about Crowley. He was excellent in this episode. I don't think singing karaoke and having orgies was what Crowley had in mind when he told Dean they should go "howl at the moon." He's starting to become aware, slowly but surely, that Dean has no interest in being loyal to Crowley. He wants to do his own thing. And that's scary to Crowley, who has been waiting for a partner he could really trust and believe in for such a long time. Crowley wants Dean to be his best friend - he wants to be telling the truth when he says "Dean Winchester completes me." And yet things are not going his way. So, what does he do? He reverts back to old tricks, and he manipulates the situation to his advantage. He sends demons after Dean to keep him sharp, and to get him to practice with the First Blade. But beyond that, he actually uses Sam to manipulate Dean, since even in Dean's demonic state, Sam is still a pressure point for him. Now, this pressure point works very differently. Rather than a "protect Sammy" mindset, Dean now has a "stay the hell away from Sammy" mindset. Crowley uses that to get Dean to take action.
And let's talk about that, shall we? What's great about Dean as a demon is that he's still Dean. Not entirely, and he's different enough that we feel really uncomfortable about it. But he's also similar enough that we feel uncomfortable about it. That's what's genius here. You have to wonder why it is that Dean left Sam that note to tell him not to look for him. And you have to wonder why it is that he's so keen to not meet up with Sam. Dean, thus far, hasn't been murdering random innocent people in the streets. He kills demons, viciously, and he likes it, but he seems to be avoiding killing humans. He didn't kill the dude he beat up for Ann Marie, after all. A part of me thinks Dean's afraid of what would happen if he saw Sam. Will he kill Sam? Will he care if he kills Sam? Does Dean still care about Sam, and does Dean know if he still cares about Sam? I don't think Demon!Dean wants to wrestle with this complicated relationship. I think he just wants to avoid it.
It fits in with the entire theme of Demon!Dean. He's not letting loose and doing what he's always wanted. If he was, he'd be expressing his real emotions. He'd be cooking Sammy food in the bunker and probably confessing his undying love for Cas. He's not being himself - he's being an even more repressed version of himself, masquerading as a "free" version of Dean. He's drinking, singing, having sex, beating up on people, etc. But it's all about repressing any sort of deeper human emotion he's afraid of acknowledging.
There's also the mystery man who kidnaps Sam. This guy, like Crowley, knows that Sam is Dean's "weak spot," to put it into the language of the show itself. But of course, Crowley knows how things have changed, and this guy, whoever he is, does not. Now that he's aware that threatening Sam isn't going to bring Dean running, I wonder what's next? Of course, this mystery man also brings up the question - what exactly did Dean do to him in the past? When was this? Since we're going on the theme of "who's the real monster here?" It's interesting to see a character who wants revenge on Dean for something that ostensibly happened long before Dean ever became an official "monster."
And that brings us to Sam. The opening scene of the episode showed him ruthlessly torturing a demon for information about Dean. He looked quite deranged. If you couple that scene with the scene of Dean ruthlessly and coldly hacking demons apart, you can see that Sam's undeniably the more human of the two, but he's also perhaps the more dangerous. His single-mindedness is interesting, especially given the fact that he's previously been sort of aimless without Dean. Think about his drunken attempts to get a cross road's deal between Seasons Three and Four, or his detour to the apple-pie-life with Amelia between Seasons Seven and Eight. This time, we get a one-track-mind Sam, which I think is quite interesting.
Does anyone else think it's strange that Crowley actually made a reference to Amelia here? While on the phone with Sam, he remarks that it took Sam a long time to contact him, and then says "your brother and I were beginning to wonder if you had hit another dog." What does this mean? Has Dean been talking about Sam to Crowley recently? I find that unlikely. Crowley is poking open an old wound here for a reason, though - he's referencing a very sore spot in the Winchester brother's relationship, and I'm sure he knows that.
Before I end this long, rambling review, I want to look a bit closer at the final scene. First of all, did anyone notice the repetition of the word "brother?" Dean doesn't say the name "Sam" at all in this scene, or even in the episode, I don't think. There's this constant effect of reminding the audience that these two are brothers - obvious, I know, but it reconnects them in a certain sense. It's also distancing. Dean's not worried about Sam, he's just asking, vaguely, is my brother dead? "Brother" here becomes just a label, a descriptor that serves to distance Dean from the reality of Sam as a person. And then Sam, in this scene, when given an opportunity to say something to Dean for the first time in weeks, can't think of a single thing to say. He keeps quiet, and after being hit, his gut-punch reaction is to call out Dean's name. I think Sam's going to be pretty messed up about Demon!Dean for a long time to come, even when Dean's back to normal.
A nitpick - Jared Padalecki hurt his shoulder in real life, so they had no choice but to put him in a sling during these episodes. But their in-story explanation for it was very flimsy - Cas mentions that a demon "did something" to Sam's shoulder, in part because Cas wasn't able to have Sam's back. Maybe it was just because I knew the injury was real, but I found myself rolling my eyes at how sloppy this justification was. It was a weak moment in the script.
But who wants to talk about flaws, anyway? As I stated at the beginning, this is a solid opening, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season.
First, there's Cas. While I mentioned above that I wasn't a big fan of his plot thread, I still loved his characterization here. He is always willing to help, even at the expense of his health. He wants to help Sam find Dean, but he also won't say no to Hannah when she asks for help with a problem in Heaven. He's very much a man/angel of two worlds. He can see Hannah's perspective, but he can see the appeal of staying on earth and living as a human, too. Throughout this season, I hope we can explore Cas' endgame goals - he needs to learn to embrace his love of ... humanity... and make the choice to stay on earth. Also, of course, he'll have to stop dying, first! My poor baby.
As far as Hannah goes, I'm not sure what to make of her character just yet. She could prove to be interesting, but at the moment she's basically just a standard indicator of the majority of angels and their struggles. Things are changing, and they're confusing, but she's trying to soldier on doing what she knows how to do. I hope we can add more dimensions to her character as we move forward, so that we can get to know her as more than just a symbol of the angels as a whole.
And now we must talk about Crowley. He was excellent in this episode. I don't think singing karaoke and having orgies was what Crowley had in mind when he told Dean they should go "howl at the moon." He's starting to become aware, slowly but surely, that Dean has no interest in being loyal to Crowley. He wants to do his own thing. And that's scary to Crowley, who has been waiting for a partner he could really trust and believe in for such a long time. Crowley wants Dean to be his best friend - he wants to be telling the truth when he says "Dean Winchester completes me." And yet things are not going his way. So, what does he do? He reverts back to old tricks, and he manipulates the situation to his advantage. He sends demons after Dean to keep him sharp, and to get him to practice with the First Blade. But beyond that, he actually uses Sam to manipulate Dean, since even in Dean's demonic state, Sam is still a pressure point for him. Now, this pressure point works very differently. Rather than a "protect Sammy" mindset, Dean now has a "stay the hell away from Sammy" mindset. Crowley uses that to get Dean to take action.
And let's talk about that, shall we? What's great about Dean as a demon is that he's still Dean. Not entirely, and he's different enough that we feel really uncomfortable about it. But he's also similar enough that we feel uncomfortable about it. That's what's genius here. You have to wonder why it is that Dean left Sam that note to tell him not to look for him. And you have to wonder why it is that he's so keen to not meet up with Sam. Dean, thus far, hasn't been murdering random innocent people in the streets. He kills demons, viciously, and he likes it, but he seems to be avoiding killing humans. He didn't kill the dude he beat up for Ann Marie, after all. A part of me thinks Dean's afraid of what would happen if he saw Sam. Will he kill Sam? Will he care if he kills Sam? Does Dean still care about Sam, and does Dean know if he still cares about Sam? I don't think Demon!Dean wants to wrestle with this complicated relationship. I think he just wants to avoid it.
It fits in with the entire theme of Demon!Dean. He's not letting loose and doing what he's always wanted. If he was, he'd be expressing his real emotions. He'd be cooking Sammy food in the bunker and probably confessing his undying love for Cas. He's not being himself - he's being an even more repressed version of himself, masquerading as a "free" version of Dean. He's drinking, singing, having sex, beating up on people, etc. But it's all about repressing any sort of deeper human emotion he's afraid of acknowledging.
There's also the mystery man who kidnaps Sam. This guy, like Crowley, knows that Sam is Dean's "weak spot," to put it into the language of the show itself. But of course, Crowley knows how things have changed, and this guy, whoever he is, does not. Now that he's aware that threatening Sam isn't going to bring Dean running, I wonder what's next? Of course, this mystery man also brings up the question - what exactly did Dean do to him in the past? When was this? Since we're going on the theme of "who's the real monster here?" It's interesting to see a character who wants revenge on Dean for something that ostensibly happened long before Dean ever became an official "monster."
And that brings us to Sam. The opening scene of the episode showed him ruthlessly torturing a demon for information about Dean. He looked quite deranged. If you couple that scene with the scene of Dean ruthlessly and coldly hacking demons apart, you can see that Sam's undeniably the more human of the two, but he's also perhaps the more dangerous. His single-mindedness is interesting, especially given the fact that he's previously been sort of aimless without Dean. Think about his drunken attempts to get a cross road's deal between Seasons Three and Four, or his detour to the apple-pie-life with Amelia between Seasons Seven and Eight. This time, we get a one-track-mind Sam, which I think is quite interesting.
Does anyone else think it's strange that Crowley actually made a reference to Amelia here? While on the phone with Sam, he remarks that it took Sam a long time to contact him, and then says "your brother and I were beginning to wonder if you had hit another dog." What does this mean? Has Dean been talking about Sam to Crowley recently? I find that unlikely. Crowley is poking open an old wound here for a reason, though - he's referencing a very sore spot in the Winchester brother's relationship, and I'm sure he knows that.
Before I end this long, rambling review, I want to look a bit closer at the final scene. First of all, did anyone notice the repetition of the word "brother?" Dean doesn't say the name "Sam" at all in this scene, or even in the episode, I don't think. There's this constant effect of reminding the audience that these two are brothers - obvious, I know, but it reconnects them in a certain sense. It's also distancing. Dean's not worried about Sam, he's just asking, vaguely, is my brother dead? "Brother" here becomes just a label, a descriptor that serves to distance Dean from the reality of Sam as a person. And then Sam, in this scene, when given an opportunity to say something to Dean for the first time in weeks, can't think of a single thing to say. He keeps quiet, and after being hit, his gut-punch reaction is to call out Dean's name. I think Sam's going to be pretty messed up about Demon!Dean for a long time to come, even when Dean's back to normal.
The promo for next week looks so, so amazing. I can't wait to finally see Sam and Dean have their showdown on screen together! It's gonna hurt so good!
9/10
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!