I can't believe I'm saying this, but... eh. I wasn't really a fan. I mean, it wasn't bad. But it wasn't... it wasn't mid-season finale-ish. I felt sort of disappointed in the end. Let's go ahead and talk about what happened.
So. Cas decides to go find Claire Novak, because he feels guilty for taking her father away from her. He tracks her to Pontiac, Illinois, where he finds her in a group home. Claire is apparently quite the troublemaker. Cas talks to her, telling her that sadly her father is dead, but that he wants to help her in any way he can. Claire asks Cas to pretend to be her father and get her out of the group home. Cas tries, but the woman running the home doesn't let it happen. She says that Cas is looking to be Claire's friend, when Claire needs a father.
Cas is still determined to help Claire, so he helps her to escape. The two go out for food at a diner, but Claire manages to steal Cas' wallet and she runs off. Cas calls in the Winchesters to help him track her down, since he believes she is his responsibility.
It turns out, Claire lives with a father-figure-type person, Randy, who uses her and one other troubled teen to help him steal money. Randy is in trouble with a loan shark, and he needs big bucks, fast. Claire is sent to rob a convenience store. However, Cas and the boys track down the other kid who lives with Randy, and he spills the beans about what Claire is up to. Cas stops her before she can commit the crime. She is angry - she thinks of Cas as the monster who killed her father, and the Winchesters were just the jerks who stood by and let it happen.
Claire runs home to Randy. The loan sharks are there. They offer to let Randy off the hook for his debts, if he'll only turn over Claire. Randy does so, selling Claire to these evil men. Luckily, Cas is able to rescue her before she is raped. However, Dean's Mark of Cain is triggered by this terrible group of potential rapists. He slaughters them all brutally. Cas, Sam, and Claire, who had all been out in the car, come rushing back in to see the carnage. Sam desperately asks Dean to tell him that it was self defense, but Dean, in a bit of a daze, can't deny what really happened. The episode ends.
There's also a subplot about Rowena and Crowley. Crowley has been keeping Rowena locked up. Another demon is tossed into the cell with Rowena. Her crime is that she went up to Earth without Crowley's permission. Crowley will probably torture her to find out who helped her get topside. Rowena is desperate to get out of her prison, but Crowley is too busy ranting about what a terrible mother she always was. Rowena devises a plan. She gets the other demon to lie and say that Gerald, one of Crowley's henchmen, was responsible for sneaking demons up to Earth. Gerald starts to beat up on Rowena, and Crowley kills him. Crowley finally seems ready to move forward with his mother. The two of them leave the other demon down in her cage, despite Rowena's promises that she would help to get her out.
So, I started this review by saying that I wasn't the biggest fan of this episode. Here are a few of my problems:
It seemed like nothing really... happened. Using the mid-season finale to introduce Claire Novak could have worked in theory, but if you think about it, she was really only related to the A-plot at the very end, and that was almost a coincidence. Anybody could have been the near-victim to those rapists that triggered the Mark of Cain in Dean. The fact that it was Claire is not particularly relevant for the sake of Dean's character arc. So why introduce her now? Why not wait? Or if you were going to introduce her, at least make her more related to the A-plot! This is the mid-season finale, for goodness' sake!
The Crowley and Rowena plot had the same problem. Think about it - what really happened? Rowena spent a while in a dungeon, and then Crowley let her out. What did this tell us? That Crowley and Rowena are both evil? That we should fear them working together? Okay, sure, they're evil and I'm scared of them. But what does that have to do with Dean and the Mark? What's the focus here? Crowley and gang? Angel chaos in Heaven? Dean's descent into darkness? When are these things going to start clicking together?
So, they picked a really great actress to play Claire, in terms of her appearance. She looks very much like she could have been that little girl from Season Four, all grown up. However, in terms of acting, there were a few dicey moments. It might not be the actress's fault, really... maybe it was just scriptural things. In any case, there were several moments where she sounded just a bit too much like the cliche teenager with a chip on her shoulder. She played it tough and her anger seemed a touch insincere at times. However, as I'll talk about in a moment, there were other times when Claire was amazing.
Then there's... ugh. I don't know how to describe my problem with this. Because, see, the end of this episode was pretty great. I'm always down for some face-cradling action between Winchester bros. But in all honesty, I thought there was something a little... off, either in the script or in (sorry!) Jared's performance. When Sam sees the carnage all around, he immediately runs forward and just starts yelling in Dean's face. It felt a bit... well, it's not an overreaction, certainly. Obviously this is a huge deal. And Sam is very clearly worried about Dean in general, so he jumps to conclusions, and he jumps to the right conclusion and everything, but for me it just feels like Sam should have been a bit less in-Dean's-face about the whole thing. Like, woah, Sam. Approach the situation calmly. Get Dean somewhere safe. Don't just run up and start yelling at him.
Oh, and one other thing - when Cas called the Winchesters, Dean got all pissy at him for calling him for something that wasn't an "emergency." Like, what the hell, Winchester? Stop being such a jerk to your boyfriend! This was one of the more flimsy moments for me in regard to the always-hovering question: why isn't Cas living in the bunker with the boys? What the hell is stopping him now? The whole thing with Hannah and the angels was an excellent excuse. And his desire to go check on Claire also makes a lot of sense. But why can Cas only call when there's an emergency? Is there some sort of Winchesters Only, Keep Out sign on the bunker that I'm not aware of? Because they let Kevin live there with them. What, only people who are immediately useful to them are allowed to live in the bunker? Narrative-wise, I know they need to keep Cas and the Winchesters separate for a while, for lots of different reasons. But in-show, I could use a bit of a better excuse for it. Sorry, but this was just really bothering me.
I can't write this episode off, though. The thing is, even though it felt like it was slow, and maybe not worthy of mid-season-finale-status, everything in this episode worked really well as an individual piece. It's the cohesive element that I'm having trouble with.
Cas and Claire. So much adorable. I don't even know how to explain it. Cas wearing a tie and being a dad and talking in a higher voice. And the whole "he's an exterminator" business. So lovely. Cas' little wink as he says "sleep tight and don't let them bite" is one of the most precious things I've ever seen. Later, at lunch, Claire says that Cas used to be the kind of guy who you would want to punch in his "stupid angel face," but now he's different - "nicer and kind of a doof, no offense." Aww! Of course, the tragedy of this whole thing is that Claire can never look at Cas without seeing the father who was taken from her. Even so, after her escape from her would-be rapists, she turns to Cas for comfort. She lets him hold her while she's upset, and Cas just has this look of intense consternation and awe on his face. They have a really complex thing going on here, and I want more of it.
Probably the most intriguing and depressing moment in this episode for me was when Sam and Dean told Cas the story about John. Now, for those who don't know my thoughts on the matter, I think John Winchester was a rotten, terrible father. I don't think he was necessarily the utter monster that some people in the fandom make him out to be, but still - he's pretty much just awful. Which makes this story that Dean tells all the more interesting. The point, at least as far as what Dean is trying to do for Cas, is to tell him that kids are always resistant to their fathers, but that doesn't mean that fathers don't know best. What makes it tragic is that John didn't know best. I got so mad when I heard Dean say that John was always there when they needed him. Bullshit! He wasn't there most of the time! What is Dean even talking about? And, I'm sorry Dean, sweetie, but your father didn't "raise you right." In fact, it's taken you years to start to unpack a lot of the toxic and terrible things your father shoved into your brain. I know I'm ranting a bit here, but ultimately this scene was excellent, because it showcased the complexity of father figures, of guilt, of romanticizing the past, and of Dean's still messed up issues about authority.
It also created one of the many parallels between Claire and Dean - daddy issues much? The other most obvious parallel between the two of them was when Claire told Cas that she prayed to him every night, and Cas says "I know." It was pretty much a word-for-word rewrite of the scene between Dean and Cas in Purgatory. I'm not quite sure yet what these parallels are doing in terms of the larger structure, but they're interesting all the same.
Sam and Dean's relationship got a lot of attention in the brief moments we saw the two of them. There's the scene where Sam makes Dean food, and sees Dean laughing uproariously as he watches TV on his computer. Sam looks uncomfortable at this, because it seems a bit over the top, like Dean is trying too hard to behave normally. This theme continues throughout the episode. Did you see how much Dean was eating in this episode? He told funny stories and ate food, watched TV and laughed. It was like he was trying to force himself back to a place of happiness. But, it doesn't work. And Sam, as much as he wanted to buy into it, knows it's not real.
As far as the Rowena and Crowley plot goes, I was annoyed by how little actually happened, but I did like the humor from Rowena. Apparently Crowley's father is a mystery because Crowley was conceived during an orgy. Also, apparently Rowena tried to sell Crowley in exchange for pigs. Yikes. If I thought the Winchesters had daddy issues, it's nothing compared to Crowley's mommy issues!
That's where I'll leave things. Yeah, I'm excited by what's coming next. Dean descending into darkness is really addicting to watch. But as far as this episode? I think it could have been a lot stronger, unfortunately.
6.5/10
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