Even better than the premiere! This season has me so pumped!
So. Cole, the mysterious man who kidnapped Sam last episode, tells Sam (and the audience) about how, thirteen years ago, Dean Winchester killed his father. Cole has vowed revenge, searching for Dean his whole life. However, Sam won't tell him where Dean is. Cole takes a phone call from his family, leaving a knife within Sam's reach. Sam, predictably, escapes. However, we later find out that Cole set him free on purpose, figuring that he could just follow him to Dean, instead of trying to force an answer out of him.
Dean, meanwhile, is busy touching strippers without their consent, and beating up security guards for very reasonably trying to stop him from this sleazy behavior. Crowley tracks him down and says that because of the Mark of Cain, Dean needs to kill. He tells Dean about a deal - a man caught his wife cheating on him, and she's going to get half the money in the divorce. The guy made a deal to get his wife out of the way so he doesn't have to give up his stuff. Crowley suggests that Dean be the one to kill the woman, so he can help Crowley out and also appease that murderous impulse. Dean goes to do that, but he ends up running into the husband, who is there to watch the murder go down. The guy is a sexist pig, and when he says that it's okay for men to cheat but not for women, Dean decides this guy is too odious to continue living, and so he kills him.
Crowley is furious that Dean killed the client, and when Dean announces that he's going to do whatever he wants, Crowley demands that Dean "pick a side." He seemed to feel sorry for the woman he was supposed to kill - does that mean he's actually more human than demon? Dean and Crowley "break up," essentially, and Crowley knows that something must be done. So... he goes to find Sam. Crowley tells Sam that he's done with Dean, and wants to hand him over to be Sam's responsibility.
Meanwhile, Cas is still recovering from his injuries. Hannah helps to heal him, but Cas still isn't looking so good. Sam calls Cas and tells him the news about Dean being a demon. He asks Cas to come and help him out. Hannah says she'll come along. On the drive, Cas falls asleep at the wheel and they get into a crash. A kind woman lets them stay at her house overnight while she repairs the car for them. Cas bonds with a little girl, and Hannah looks on fondly. Hannah can't bear the thought of Cas just dying, so she goes up to Heaven to confront Metatron. She asks Metatron if he still has any of Cas' grace left from when he did the spell to expel the angels from Heaven.
Metatron says that he does have some of Cas' grace - but he'll only hand it over if Hannah releases him. Before she can do that, Cas shows up and tells Hannah no - it's his life, and his choice. He doesn't want his grace back, if Metatron's freedom is the price. Hannah is upset, but she agrees to leave it alone. She leaves, and Metatron reveals that he really does have some of Cas' grace left. Cas says he's made peace with his fate, and he's happy to think of Metatron rotting in his cage until the end of time.
Sam finds Dean, who has been contemplating whether he's a more of a demon or a human. Sam tells Dean that he's here to bring Dean home, which Dean scoffs at. He says he's doing everything he can not to rip Sam's throat out with his teeth, and that he's not going to leave with Sam. Sam takes out some handcuffs with devil's traps on them, but before he can try to capture Dean with them, Cole shows up. Sam is knocked out, and a showdown begins.
Even after all of Cole's training and preparing, Dean is still able to easily best him. He lets Cole live, but he does reveal that he's a demon. In the chaos of the fight, Sam is able to douse Dean with holy water and get the cuffs on him. Sam hands over the First Blade to Crowley, who wants to take it far away from Dean. Sam drives, while Dean sulks in the back of the impala. Dean says that the impala is "just a car," which of course shocks Sam. Dean also says that letting Cole live wasn't an act of mercy - he wants him to live with the fact that he couldn't avenge his father. Dean also promises that he won't show mercy on Sam, either.
Do I have complaints? No! I don't! I don't even know what to say. Well... okay, there is one thing. But this isn't so much a complaint about the episode as a... warning? A concerned statement? About the way a few things in this episode were perceived.
See, when Dean killed the sexist asshole, the fandom pretty much universally applauded him for being a "feminist." Of course, as some people pointed out, in the previous scene he had been touching a woman without her permission, so where does that land us? I'll throw my two cents in - I don't think we were supposed to think of Dean suddenly as a feminist or some great champion for women's rights. Remember when he beat up that guy in last week's episode, but Ann Marie understood that he wasn't protecting her virtue, but rather dealing with his own crap? Killing the sexist husband dude in this episode was more like that. Sure, he was annoyed at the guy's crappy double standard about monogamy, but at the end of the day he still murdered a human being in cold blood. No matter the douche-y-ness of the human involved, I don't think we're supposed to applaud that as a moment of enlightened behavior on Dean's behalf. We're supposed to be grossed out by his behavior with the stripper, too. I don't think the show is setting up an inconsistent message - I think the fandom is jumping too eagerly on the feminist Demon!Dean bandwagon, and they're forgetting to discuss Dean's molestation of a woman in an earlier scene. This is all supposed to make us profoundly uneasy and upset. It's dangerous to forget that, I think.
But other than that, I think this episode was hitting pretty much every mark possible.
First of all, Hannah. I like her, so sue me. People who are worried that she's going to stand between Cas and Dean... I just have one thing to say to you: Dean is a demon. He and Cas aren't going to be holding hands and making googly eyes at each other any time soon. And do we really have to critique Hannah just for being a character that spends time with Cas? Even if they go the romance angle, that's no reason to hate her right off the bat. And I don't hate her. I think she's pretty likable so far, actually. She has this surpassing sweetness about her. Even though she's still an angel, she's starting to show some human tendencies, and she's beginning to understand what's appealing about this human life. And, when Cas tells her he's ready to die, and to let it go, she does. I mean, she's not happy about it, but she does let it go. If we're looking at Hannah as a parallel to Dean in terms of relationships to Cas, then I think it's interesting to note that she does the right thing in this situation, unlike Dean, who has decided to save Sam against his will, on multiple occasions.
The entire Cas plot line was actually so lovely. We see Cas' surpassing love for humanity, especially in that adorable moment with the little kid. Cas' smile is heart-breaking-ly cute!
I was surprised to see Metatron. I didn't think they would dust him off and bring him back into the story so soon, but I think it's a good move to show him again. Even behind bars, he's an intimidating force. He knows how to use his words, obviously, to get what he wants, and as Cas walked away from him, he screamed out "dead man walking," which I thought was a really creepy and effective note on which to end this scene.
Then there's Cole. He isn't, perhaps, the most interesting of all villains. He's got a basic back story. A bad guy killed his father, and he wants revenge. However, I think it works really well, as a sort of parallel for Dean himself. Revenge over the death of a parent? Going to extremes only to lose horribly in the first round? Sounds a bit familiar. Dean just became Cole's Azazel!
On another note, very nice VFX, seeing pre-show Dean like that. We saw the samulet and John's leather jacket, and a younger Dean. Even though this was just a quick moment, I think it shows how much Dean has changed. Thirteen years ago, there he was. With a symbol of his father over his shoulders and a symbol of Sam around his neck. And yet, even in the past, he killed people. There's got to be more of a story there... we're not sure what Cole's father was, exactly, but I think it's a good bet that he was some sort of a monster. But still, this brief moment was a good way to quickly remind us of everything that's changed in Dean over the years... and everything that's stayed the same.
And Cole is clearly coming back - I'm excited to see where they take this character. He might need a bit more originality soon, and I will admit... you had the opportunity to cast a new recurring character here, and you cast another white dude? Sigh.
Then there's Sam! I know I'm a bad person, but I just love seeing Sam in pain. The angst feeds me. I just keep thinking - the more battered and beaten down he is, the more guilty Dean is going to feel when he's finally Dean again. It's going to be so deliciously angst-y and I cannot wait! But seriously, though... props to Jared's acting. When someone as physically large as he is can come across looking like a scared child, you know there's a lot of talent there. His scenes with Dean were of course majorly depressing, from Sam's point of view. You can tell that he didn't really want to believe it until, there he was, right in front of Dean. And Dean said he wanted to kill him. Sam was holding on to hope that he could blame everything on Crowley - maybe Dean wasn't actually as far gone as all that? Maybe he could be reasoned with? But no. Sam has such a kicked puppy look on his face as he's talking to Dean. He opens himself up. "You're my brother, and I'm here to take you home."
And then Dean just shatters Sam, by laughing him off and acting like a coldblooded bastard. The thing that hurts the most, though, is that even though Dean literally says that he wants to rip Sam's throat out, Sam's only truly surprised when Dean says that the impala is "just a car." It's at that point that Sam shows real shock: "It's just a - car? Wow. You really have gone dark." The fact that Sam doesn't truly get it until this point - even after the death threats - is just so depressing. Poor baby Sammy.
Then there's poor Crowley. Or... you know, I probably shouldn't say "poor Crowley," given some of the things this guy has done, but it's difficult not to. Dean really put him through the ringer here. The whole "bestie" bit seems to have died with this episode, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. Crowley is really acting like a jilted lover, and I'm starting to think he had plans to whisk Dean away and marry him in some ceremony of the underworld. Seriously. Crowley is a bit love struck. But he also can't afford to be seen as weak, and so he tries to "break up" with Dean before Dean can dump him. It makes for an awkward moment in front of Crowley's cronies... it'll be interesting to see if he loses street cred over this.
I think my favorite Crowley moments were when he was looking at the picture of him and Dean, reminiscing about the good times, and then when he goes to get Sam, and he says "Hello Bullwinkle. You miss me?" Sam's response is "So much," which I thought was perfect also.
First of all, Hannah. I like her, so sue me. People who are worried that she's going to stand between Cas and Dean... I just have one thing to say to you: Dean is a demon. He and Cas aren't going to be holding hands and making googly eyes at each other any time soon. And do we really have to critique Hannah just for being a character that spends time with Cas? Even if they go the romance angle, that's no reason to hate her right off the bat. And I don't hate her. I think she's pretty likable so far, actually. She has this surpassing sweetness about her. Even though she's still an angel, she's starting to show some human tendencies, and she's beginning to understand what's appealing about this human life. And, when Cas tells her he's ready to die, and to let it go, she does. I mean, she's not happy about it, but she does let it go. If we're looking at Hannah as a parallel to Dean in terms of relationships to Cas, then I think it's interesting to note that she does the right thing in this situation, unlike Dean, who has decided to save Sam against his will, on multiple occasions.
The entire Cas plot line was actually so lovely. We see Cas' surpassing love for humanity, especially in that adorable moment with the little kid. Cas' smile is heart-breaking-ly cute!
I was surprised to see Metatron. I didn't think they would dust him off and bring him back into the story so soon, but I think it's a good move to show him again. Even behind bars, he's an intimidating force. He knows how to use his words, obviously, to get what he wants, and as Cas walked away from him, he screamed out "dead man walking," which I thought was a really creepy and effective note on which to end this scene.
Then there's Cole. He isn't, perhaps, the most interesting of all villains. He's got a basic back story. A bad guy killed his father, and he wants revenge. However, I think it works really well, as a sort of parallel for Dean himself. Revenge over the death of a parent? Going to extremes only to lose horribly in the first round? Sounds a bit familiar. Dean just became Cole's Azazel!
On another note, very nice VFX, seeing pre-show Dean like that. We saw the samulet and John's leather jacket, and a younger Dean. Even though this was just a quick moment, I think it shows how much Dean has changed. Thirteen years ago, there he was. With a symbol of his father over his shoulders and a symbol of Sam around his neck. And yet, even in the past, he killed people. There's got to be more of a story there... we're not sure what Cole's father was, exactly, but I think it's a good bet that he was some sort of a monster. But still, this brief moment was a good way to quickly remind us of everything that's changed in Dean over the years... and everything that's stayed the same.
And Cole is clearly coming back - I'm excited to see where they take this character. He might need a bit more originality soon, and I will admit... you had the opportunity to cast a new recurring character here, and you cast another white dude? Sigh.
Then there's Sam! I know I'm a bad person, but I just love seeing Sam in pain. The angst feeds me. I just keep thinking - the more battered and beaten down he is, the more guilty Dean is going to feel when he's finally Dean again. It's going to be so deliciously angst-y and I cannot wait! But seriously, though... props to Jared's acting. When someone as physically large as he is can come across looking like a scared child, you know there's a lot of talent there. His scenes with Dean were of course majorly depressing, from Sam's point of view. You can tell that he didn't really want to believe it until, there he was, right in front of Dean. And Dean said he wanted to kill him. Sam was holding on to hope that he could blame everything on Crowley - maybe Dean wasn't actually as far gone as all that? Maybe he could be reasoned with? But no. Sam has such a kicked puppy look on his face as he's talking to Dean. He opens himself up. "You're my brother, and I'm here to take you home."
And then Dean just shatters Sam, by laughing him off and acting like a coldblooded bastard. The thing that hurts the most, though, is that even though Dean literally says that he wants to rip Sam's throat out, Sam's only truly surprised when Dean says that the impala is "just a car." It's at that point that Sam shows real shock: "It's just a - car? Wow. You really have gone dark." The fact that Sam doesn't truly get it until this point - even after the death threats - is just so depressing. Poor baby Sammy.
Then there's poor Crowley. Or... you know, I probably shouldn't say "poor Crowley," given some of the things this guy has done, but it's difficult not to. Dean really put him through the ringer here. The whole "bestie" bit seems to have died with this episode, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. Crowley is really acting like a jilted lover, and I'm starting to think he had plans to whisk Dean away and marry him in some ceremony of the underworld. Seriously. Crowley is a bit love struck. But he also can't afford to be seen as weak, and so he tries to "break up" with Dean before Dean can dump him. It makes for an awkward moment in front of Crowley's cronies... it'll be interesting to see if he loses street cred over this.
I think my favorite Crowley moments were when he was looking at the picture of him and Dean, reminiscing about the good times, and then when he goes to get Sam, and he says "Hello Bullwinkle. You miss me?" Sam's response is "So much," which I thought was perfect also.
I saved Dean for last. Holy Hell, Jensen. Get this boy a trophy. He can act, let me tell ya. Demon!Dean is so sassy, it gives me life. He has this creepy little smile that he does, and it's just so obvious that this is not Dean. It's not right. And yet, as the writers and Jensen have taken great pains to show us, Demon!Dean is no more a one-note character than Human!Dean ever was. He's a complex being, and he's got his own set of insecurities. The scene where he cuts himself with the blade and watches himself heal was quite interesting. It might just be dawning on him that he's no longer mortal - that if he can stick with this and keep going, he's going to live forever. There's no way out. I can't imagine any version of Dean being very comfortable with that. Then, later, when he's fighting Cole, he says "I'm a demon," which was a real moment of affirmation for him. He was, as Crowley told him to do earlier, picking a side.
Some particular moments of sass that I loved: "you're the guy who's supposed to put a bullet in Sammy's brain. Did you miss?" Also, the Princess Bride quote obviously made me very happy.
Some particular moments of sass that I loved: "you're the guy who's supposed to put a bullet in Sammy's brain. Did you miss?" Also, the Princess Bride quote obviously made me very happy.
The cruelest moments in this season so far come in the interactions between Sam and Dean, of course. You could almost believe that Dean was still Dean - he's always been chauvinistic, he's always been quick to anger and he's always been violent... it's just like Dean's been altered to a more extreme level than ever before. But then you put him in a room with Sam, and you hear him say he wants to kill Sam, and that he won't show mercy... and then you know. There's no doubting it. Dean is not Dean.
I'll leave it there. Next week, we finally get the scene of Dean trying to kill Sam in the bunker. I'm so excited, you have no idea. Also... more Cas and Crowley? I'm loving this!
9.5/10
I'll leave it there. Next week, we finally get the scene of Dean trying to kill Sam in the bunker. I'm so excited, you have no idea. Also... more Cas and Crowley? I'm loving this!
9.5/10
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