A gift of an episode. Honestly. Such a gift. I don't have anything else to say in this intro... let's just get started.
Cons:
I will say, though, this episode did nothing to assuage my fears about the disjointed nature of this season. The going concerns at the beginning of the season were: Mary Winchester is back from the dead, and the British Men of Letters are simultaneously crazy and pretty boring from the viewer's perspective. Now, what with Billie being killed, the new thing we have to worry about is the "cosmic consequences" that will come from cheating their way out of a deal with Death. Not only does this sound like the typical big-scale-end-of-the-world stuff that Supernatural should be steering clear of right now, it also splits our focus. I'm not saying I loved the British MOL plot thread, but the longer they go without making some real progress on that, the more pointless it seems.
This episode featured flashbacks to the early twentieth century. These scenes did their job in terms of giving us exposition, but if you're going to flash back, show Cas in a female vessel, and get everybody dressed up in period clothing, it would be nice if the flashbacks added something really special. There was really no point to showing all of this stuff instead of just having our guest characters give an expository monologue. I wanted to explore all the possibilities. These angels have never been to earth before, so what does that mean for them? Do any of these characters have moral misgivings about killing the Nephilim? I guess what I'm saying is, the flashbacks were not utilized very well. There seemed to be no point to going through all that effort.
Pros:
But I'm nitpicking. I'll give a very concise plot summary: a woman named Lily is out for revenge against the angels who killed her daughter, a Nephilim. Cas teams up with angels he used to work with. We then learn that Lily's daughter was actually human, and that Ishim, one of Cas' old colleagues, knew this and killed her anyway. Lily teams up with the guys to kill Ishim, and leaves uncertain if her need for revenge is full quashed.
First off, I really loved the woman playing Lily Sunder. She was a total bad-ass, and managed to make that eye patch look properly threatening. Her dilemma was really rich, too. See, she's been keeping herself alive and healthy for over 100 years using Enochian magic, the magic of angels. However, every time she does this, it means she gives up part of her soul. Eventually, she'll feel nothing. Everything she's doing, she does to get revenge for losing her daughter. But in order to keep doing it, she's losing the very identity that makes her grieve her daughter in the first place. This is a fascinating dynamic. I really hope we see Lily again. She was far too cool of a character to waste on a one-off.
Learning more about angels is always interesting to me. The angel through-plot on this show has had a lot of missteps, but whenever the focus is put on them and it does work, it really works. This was such an example. There's a clear divide between our angel characters, here: Cas, who "fell in love with humanity," is perceived as weak by Ishim, who rejects humans as being no better than apes. Of course, Ishim is the one who became obsessed with Lily, and killed her child because of it.
The mythology of Nephilim, while discussed before, is still quite interesting to me. Obviously this helps remind us what a Nephilim is, for the very practical reason that there's a woman out there right now carrying around Lucifer's child. But it also cuts to the core of a very real moral dilemma. Cas believed - and in fact still seems to believe - that killing Nephilim is not wrong, because they are too powerful to be contained. He's not ashamed of playing his part in killing Lily's daughter, even if he knows it's tragic. When Cas finds out that this little girl, May, was human, he is deeply apologetic, but he still says that he "didn't know he was killing an innocent." Despite Lily's grief and drive for revenge, Cas still stands by the fact that killing Nephilim is right. It's an interesting direction to go. Sam and Dean can't quite get on board with that line of thinking. Somewhere out there is a mother and her unborn child. How can that be pure evil?
The best thing about this episode was the interplay between Sam, Dean, and Cas. There's so much to talk about here, I'm worried I'm going to miss some of this deliciousness in writing it all down.
It's an all too common problem in this show to introduce a big plot element (i.e. Billie being killed and the threat of "cosmic consequences") and then just let it lie fallow for too long. Reminders of the A-plot are shoved awkwardly in at the beginning of C-plot episodes in shoddy exposition. Instead, this episode does something really brilliant. Cas killing Billie is a bit plot point in this episode. Dean is furious at Cas for making such a risky decision, and Cas is angry at Dean for being mad at him for saving his life. Sam is trying to play peacekeeper.
What's so brilliant is that this resentment carries over into the actual plot of the episode, as we have a conflict of philosophies going on between Cas and Ishim. When Ishim taunts Cas for being friends with the Winchesters, he can point to the specific fact that Sam and Dean question his decisions, and belittle him by not believing he knows what's best. This is a simplistic way of looking at it, but Ishim is not entirely wrong. For all that Cas is an ancient and powerful being, the Winchester still tend to treat him as an incompetent but well-meaning ally some of the time. It all comes to a head when Dean and Sam sit down with Cas at the end of the episode and reassure him that they think he's strong. Dean isn't angry about Billie - he's worried. And Cas stays firm, too. He's not sorry for what he did.
In fact, just a general shout-out to Cas for this episode. He was definitely the MVP. The biggest laugh in the whole hour is when Dean, Sam, and Cas are all in the impala, heading to find out what happened to Cas' angel friend who called for help. Sam tries to break the awkward silence, while Dean and Cas just sit in stony silence. Dean makes a comment about Benjamin, Cas' friend, seeming like a level-headed guy who wouldn't make off-the-cuff risky decisions, and Cas responds that what he likes about Benjamin is that while he's sarcastic, he's also appreciative. Dean says "what's that supposed to mean?!" and Sam has to jump in to prevent escalation.
It was oddly refreshing to see these two angry with each other, because it felt like the way a family would really behave. Cas is staying in the bunker, by the way... we definitely got confirmation about that, and it's oh so glorious. Nobody is shunning anybody, nobody is betraying anybody... we've just got two family members in the middle of a nasty argument. The best thing is, as the story of the week unfolds, we don't lose this tension between Dean and Cas, but we also see that they're a good team. They check in on each other, they defend each other, even in the midst of their own arguments. That felt like something a family would do.
I liked seeing Cas interact with other angels, because it immediately made Sam and Dean the outsiders, which is all too rare. Cas basically orders Sam and Dean to play by his rules, and while they don't exactly adhere to that order, they seem to understand they're operating on Cas' turf, here.
I'm sure everybody's talking about the Destiel angle with this one, and while I didn't see it here as much as I have in other spots... yeah. It's still totally a thing. Especially when Ishim talks about cutting out Cas' weakness, and immediately goes to hurt Dean. And then Dean, who could have banished Ishim using an angel sigil, doesn't go through with it when Ishim threatens that a severely weakened Cas might be killed if he's banished right now. Quite a bit of casual touching in this episode as well, which I always appreciate.
I think my favorite subtle little moment was between Sam and Lily. Dean, albeit a bit unwillingly, has left Sam alone with Lily, to find Cas and Ishim and get to the bottom of Lily's story. Lily tells Sam that Ishim will kill Dean once he knows Dean suspects him of killing a human child. She tells Sam that she's willing to wait for that to happen, because she knows Sam will help her get her revenge once his brother is dead. Just the look in Sam's eyes is enough to impart so much: deep fear about losing his brother, and a bone-deep certainty that Lily is telling the truth. If anybody touches Dean, Sam will rip them apart. It pays off when Sam and Lily show up to help Dean and Cas take down Ishim. Dean says "I thought you were supposed to keep her out of this," and Sam just responds "Changed my mind."
I guess I'll stop there. I was thoroughly impressed. This episode managed to stand on its own, and also teach us a lot about these characters. The A-plot of this season of Supernatural has been something of an incoherent mess, but on an individual episode level? I'm pretty happy!
9.5/10
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