Um. Ouch? I'm ready to cry like a baby during next week's finale, to be honest. I just want to find Sam Winchester and hug him for like ten hours. And then Cas. And then Dean, although I feel like that would be a good way to get myself killed. I still haven't forgiven the creative team for killing off Charlie, but I'm going to try and take a look at this episode without dissolving into another rant on that topic. Let's start with the plot.
Sam and Dean burn Charlie's body. Dean blames Sam for what happened, and says he's going to go after whoever did this and then kill everybody they ever loved. Sam is worried that this is the Mark talking, but Dean walks away, intent on revenge. Sam tells Cas what happened, and that he promised Dean he would shut down their attempts to read the Book of the Damned. Just as they're about ready to give up, Sam gets the email from Charlie, with her notes from the codex. Rowena confirms that with this new information, she should be able to read the Book of the Damned. Sam is torn, but ultimately he decides he has to do whatever it takes to cure Dean. He sends Cas after Dean, to make sure that he doesn't go too far off the rails.
Rowena tells Sam that she won't read the Book until Sam holds up his end of the bargain and kills Crowley. Sam lures Crowley to him by faking a phone call from Dean. He shoots Crowley with a devil's trap bullet, and then uses a hex bag that Rowena gave him to kill Crowley. Crowley takes a while to die, and Sam uses that time to tell him that no matter what everybody else may think, Sam still remembers that he's a villain. Crowley, who has lately tried to redeem himself by making Hell less... Hellish, finally remembers who he really is. He's able to set the hex bag on fire, proving himself stronger than his mother's magic. He spares Sam's life, telling him to go deliver a message to Rowena: he'll be coming for her, and there's no stopping him. Sam calls Rowena, who tells Sam to find another way to kill Crowley.
Meanwhile, Dean manages to track the Stynes down. They capture him and tie him down, attempting to harvest his body parts, but Dean escapes and slaughters them all. The patriarch of the Styne family had earlier sent three of his family members to the bunker, since Eldon knows where it is after having been held hostage there. Cas shows up in Shreveport and finds the remains of the Styne family, then rushes back to the bunker where Dean has gone to take out the rest of them. He kills Eldon, shooting him in the head. He then turns to the last remaining Styne, the youngest - his name is Cyrus, and he hates his family. He has been wanting to escape his whole life. He pleads for his life, but Dean shows no mercy, shooting and killing him.
Cas shows up in time to confront Dean about his behavior. Dean says there's no point in trying to save him, but Cas points out that he's the one who will survive to see Dean turn into a monster again. Even if he resists the Mark of Cain for centuries, eventually he will succumb, and Cas will have to see it. Dean attacks Cas, nearly killing him. At the last moment he realizes what he's done, and he runs off, warning Cas (and Sam) to stay away from him.
Uhummmm.... I'm in pain, okay? This is going to kill me. Really. Just like Dean almost killed Cas. Ouch. If I were to lodge a complaint...
Well, I promised I wouldn't rant about the Charlie issue, but I do have to say one thing: they didn't even ask Cas if he could bring her back?! The internal inconsistencies are mind boggling. I mean what the hell! We've seen angels bring Charlie and Cas and Sam and any other number of people back to life before, but this time they can't be bothered to even give it a try. That's just lazy writing, people.
But okay. Given that they made a really stupid-ass decision in the Charlie department, I'm going to have to find a way to move past it and talk about something else. Because honestly, this episode was actually really good. And it got me all pumped for the finale. Even though I'm still grieving for Charlie like nobody's business.
Cyrus Styne! I knew he was going to die the second he made those snarky comments to his bullies. "What a likable character! I betcha Dean will kill him." Yep. Sure enough. Honestly, I think what worked really well about Cyrus was that he was a little bit like early-show Sam Winchester. Youngest of the family, just wants to escape to college, uncomfortable with doing terrible things in the name of loyalty to his family. I mean, John Winchester was a bad father, but I acknowledge that this Styne guy is way worse. Still, I think the parallels are interesting, especially given the fact that Dean does kill both the father and Cyrus in the end.
They're doing a really good job showing Dean's decline. The trail of bodies is really sinister, and of course his coldblooded murder of Cyrus really puts the nail in the coffin. Dean probably would have gotten along with Cyrus. He's a smart kid who doesn't put up with crap, similar to a younger Sam. But now Dean will never know - he's too far gone.
Really, though, Sam is the Winchester brother who is giving me the most feelings right now. When Dean said, at Charlie's funeral, that Sam should have been the one that died, my heart broke for him. Sam knows that Dean isn't really himself right now, but on some level I think Sam believes him. He's never going to forgive himself for what's happened. He's never going to forget it. I think it's worth pointing out that when the situation was reversed, and Dean's actions led to Kevin's death (much more directly than Sam's actions led to Charlie's death, actually), Sam never said anything like that to Dean. In fact, if anything, Sam blamed himself for Kevin's death. This is one of those issues I hope we can work out once the Winchesters finally start to untangle all this messy codependency and such.
There was also the really emotional scene between Cas and Sam, when Sam comes to tell Cas about Charlie. Cas' reaction was really heartbreaking - "oh no. God." The look on his face was one of absolute devastation. Charlie was such a good person, and she's really going to be missed. When Sam realized that Charlie's last act was cracking the code, he looked so torn. He promised Dean he would stop, and he knows if he keeps going, there could be terrible consequences. But this is Dean. He would do anything to save Dean, just like Dean has always done everything in his power to save Sam. I liked the way Sam pointed out the parallels - he's been in Dean's situation before, and Dean did whatever it took to pull him back from the edge. Sam says that he owes Dean everything. It's not quite as cut and dry as that, in my opinion, but Sam has a point. Dean has done everything to keep him alive and safe. God this is just so painful.
Then there's the scene with Crowley and Sam - that's the first time I've been properly afraid of Crowley in years. I felt like Sam was sort of talking to the fandom when he commented that people seem to have forgotten that Crowley's a villain. I know it's easy to do. And Crowley acknowledges that he's been toning things down for quite some time. In fact, he tried to reform Hell to make it less terrible! But Sam has had enough of that - Crowley is a monster, and he wants to watch him die slowly. That's pretty intense, Sammy. We finally get to see Crowley's demon eyes! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we've seen those before. They were scary. And bad ass. And I really felt Sam's fear when Crowley was standing over him. Crowley hasn't been a true threat to the boys in such a long time, and a part of me thinks that newly evil Crowley still wouldn't kill Sam without a very good reason. But still... the threat felt real.
Actually, this whole episode did a good job of making the threats feel real. Crowley felt like he might really kill Sam. The Stynes certainly felt creepy enough to actually slice into Dean. And Dean seems just enough off the rails that it seemed like he might really kill Cas. (I mean, let's be real - if Cas does die in the finale, it's not permanent. But still. Dean wouldn't know that).
That fight between Cas and Dean was just all sorts of intense. The buildup to it works really well, and my Destiel shipper heart was pounding really fast the whole time. The fact that Cas says he'll stay with Dean, and watch him turn to darkness... ugh. Too much. Cas here admits that he knows Dean loves him - whatever form that love takes, they do canonically love each other and they both canonically know this to be true. That might not seem like a big thing, but on Supernatural, the word "love" isn't thrown around lightly. Cas also totally puts his hand over where Dean's hand print would be from when Cas raised him from perdition. The pain is real. Cas doesn't fight back - he really doesn't want to hurt Dean, and with his new angel powers, he probably could hurt Dean pretty badly if he wanted to. The way he looks up at Dean, with blood filling his mouth, and just grabs his wrist - ouch ouch ouch. Great work with the camera angles, too - when Dean brings the knife down, the only reason I knew he hadn't just stabbed Cas is that I figured something that big only had a place in the finale. Dean felt off the rails enough to really do it. Yikes.
And Dean telling Cas and Sam to stay away from him is really important - he's definitely pissed at them, sure, but he's also saying that because he's afraid he really will kill them. This is such a totally depressing and yet really interesting way to set up our principle characters heading into the finale next week. This is going to be crazy.
I could ramble on forever more, but I won't. I'm scared. And excited. And I'm still really, really pissed about Charlie.
9/10
There was also the really emotional scene between Cas and Sam, when Sam comes to tell Cas about Charlie. Cas' reaction was really heartbreaking - "oh no. God." The look on his face was one of absolute devastation. Charlie was such a good person, and she's really going to be missed. When Sam realized that Charlie's last act was cracking the code, he looked so torn. He promised Dean he would stop, and he knows if he keeps going, there could be terrible consequences. But this is Dean. He would do anything to save Dean, just like Dean has always done everything in his power to save Sam. I liked the way Sam pointed out the parallels - he's been in Dean's situation before, and Dean did whatever it took to pull him back from the edge. Sam says that he owes Dean everything. It's not quite as cut and dry as that, in my opinion, but Sam has a point. Dean has done everything to keep him alive and safe. God this is just so painful.
Then there's the scene with Crowley and Sam - that's the first time I've been properly afraid of Crowley in years. I felt like Sam was sort of talking to the fandom when he commented that people seem to have forgotten that Crowley's a villain. I know it's easy to do. And Crowley acknowledges that he's been toning things down for quite some time. In fact, he tried to reform Hell to make it less terrible! But Sam has had enough of that - Crowley is a monster, and he wants to watch him die slowly. That's pretty intense, Sammy. We finally get to see Crowley's demon eyes! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we've seen those before. They were scary. And bad ass. And I really felt Sam's fear when Crowley was standing over him. Crowley hasn't been a true threat to the boys in such a long time, and a part of me thinks that newly evil Crowley still wouldn't kill Sam without a very good reason. But still... the threat felt real.
Actually, this whole episode did a good job of making the threats feel real. Crowley felt like he might really kill Sam. The Stynes certainly felt creepy enough to actually slice into Dean. And Dean seems just enough off the rails that it seemed like he might really kill Cas. (I mean, let's be real - if Cas does die in the finale, it's not permanent. But still. Dean wouldn't know that).
That fight between Cas and Dean was just all sorts of intense. The buildup to it works really well, and my Destiel shipper heart was pounding really fast the whole time. The fact that Cas says he'll stay with Dean, and watch him turn to darkness... ugh. Too much. Cas here admits that he knows Dean loves him - whatever form that love takes, they do canonically love each other and they both canonically know this to be true. That might not seem like a big thing, but on Supernatural, the word "love" isn't thrown around lightly. Cas also totally puts his hand over where Dean's hand print would be from when Cas raised him from perdition. The pain is real. Cas doesn't fight back - he really doesn't want to hurt Dean, and with his new angel powers, he probably could hurt Dean pretty badly if he wanted to. The way he looks up at Dean, with blood filling his mouth, and just grabs his wrist - ouch ouch ouch. Great work with the camera angles, too - when Dean brings the knife down, the only reason I knew he hadn't just stabbed Cas is that I figured something that big only had a place in the finale. Dean felt off the rails enough to really do it. Yikes.
And Dean telling Cas and Sam to stay away from him is really important - he's definitely pissed at them, sure, but he's also saying that because he's afraid he really will kill them. This is such a totally depressing and yet really interesting way to set up our principle characters heading into the finale next week. This is going to be crazy.
I could ramble on forever more, but I won't. I'm scared. And excited. And I'm still really, really pissed about Charlie.
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!