Supernatural: Proverbs 17:3 (15x05)

Ooh the parallels! The meta! The heavy-handed foreshadowing, and then the acknowledgment of said heavy-handed foreshadowing. And Lilith! Let's dive in.

Cons:

I've talked about this before, and I think it's pretty standard criticism of Supernatural, but it's still kind of funny to me when Sam and Dean get flung around the room and knocked unconscious all the time. There's no way Sam doesn't have concussion syndrome at this point. To not only get hit on the head, but to be knocked out because of it for several minutes? That's a serious, serious injury. It's always so funny to me when the boys get knocked about so easily in every episode, because it seems like dumb luck that they're still alive.

The episode was only slightly past the thirty minute mark when the werewolves were dead, so it was so obviously telegraphed that there was more to the story. I would have wanted just one more twist thrown in for good measure, to try and trick audiences into maybe falling for the C-plot setup just a bit more. As it was, everything was so standard, so predictable, that I was primed for a big twist from the start.

Pros:

But honestly? This episode kicked ass, and it furthered the main plot, and if the worst thing I can say about it is that maybe it was slightly too predictable, I think we've got a winner on our hands.

Before we touch on the meta stuff, let's talk about the parallels as they stand. The obvious one is with the werewolf brothers. One brother shoots the other and then kills himself, because they had both become monsters. Sam and Dean are forced to watch, and the symbolism is certainly not lost on them, even before Lilith spells it out. This is the telegraphed ending, the confrontation we've come across before. It's high melodrama, and it's been done as the climactic ending of several seasons of Supernatural. Again and again, Sam and Dean would rather let the world burn than lose one another.

The story of the werewolf brothers also continues one of Supernatural's most repeated and yet sometimes muddled themes, that of whether monsters are salvageable or all need to be killed. We seem to have landed pretty firmly on the side of things that says there is redemption for monsters. We just saw Benny for a moment there last week, and characters like Jack are meant to be an argument against the inevitability of evil. It's a free will thing, right? So this ending for the werewolves, where death is the only salvation left to them, is clearly Chuck's philosophy, not the one that the show is going to land on in the end.

There was another parallel that I thought was really interesting. Before we know that Ashley is actually Lilith, she has this super on-the-nose conversation with Dean about how she doesn't know what she wanted to do with her life. I suddenly realized that she's a new graduate from college, the same age that Sam was when this show started fifteen years ago (it makes the potential romantic angle between Dean and Ashley really gross, in my opinion - I was getting more of a father-daughter vibe from them). But in any case, one of the other big questions this show is going to have to answer is how Sam and Dean will end up. Alive or dead? I'm betting on alive. And if that's the case, we've got to decide whether they will keep hunting forever, or whether they get a different ending. Dean is telling us that he loves his job and wants to keep hunting. Sam, I think, probably wants to settle down if at all possible. I like that these questions are being introduced here, as it's starting to set up whatever sort of epilogue we'll get at the end of the show.

I just want to say thumbs up on the continuing nostalgia factor these days. Thus far, returning characters/cameos include Ketch, Rowena, Kevin, Benny, Lilith, Becky, Amara... and I'm sure the list will go on. It's fun to have nods to the past in almost every episode, and they are managing to make it feel all very organic because the show itself has become about the fact that it's a story. Does that sentence even make sense? Well, you get the point. The meta nature of our final A-plot makes it work to have so many call-backs to the past.

And let's talk about that meta, shall we? For all that I was digging the parallels in a lot of ways, I was almost going to put something in the "cons" section to complain about how on-the-nose it all was. There's something to be said for a bit of subtlety, after all. But then Ashley turned out to be Lilith, and everything changed. Because all of this heavy-handed storytelling isn't the show-runners or writers. I mean, it is, but it's on purpose, because that's how Chuck rolls.

It makes everything come full circle in a way that feels true to Supernatural's origins. To the amazing five-season arc that made up the best of what the show had to offer, a decade ago. It comes down to brother vs. brother, but what it really comes down to is free will vs. destiny. That's the beating heart of this show, and Chuck is the one writing the story. He might not realize it right now, being that he's a merciless villain, but if Sam and Dean thwart him, and achieve their happiness, that is the ending that is narratively earned. That is the only appropriate way to end the story. Chuck is stuck in a cycle of dramatic and ironic deaths, where Sam and Dean, two people who would let the world burn for one another, are forced by circumstance to die by each other's hand. And the only true ending to this show can be the one where Sam and Dean are forced by circumstance to make that choice, and choose to say no. It doesn't matter that we've been here before, so many times. That's the story Chuck wants to tell, and it's the story Sam and Dean will refuse.

I also want to touch base on Sam's dreams for a moment. We get the very predictable, yet still cool, revelation that Chuck and Sam are linked because of the "Equalizer" bullet that Sam shot Chuck with at the end of last season. Because of that, Sam is getting access into some of Chuck's imagined endings. We had the dream last week, and here we see Sam killing Dean again, this time with fire. And then we see Dean, a demon once again with the Mark of Cain back on his arm, stabbing Sam with the First Blade. Sam is disturbed by the nightmares, but keeps them from Dean until Dean tells Sam what Lilith told him about God's plan. I'm glad that Sam and Dean got to go a little while without knowing Chuck was still around, but it makes sense that as we're now 25% done with the season, they are back in the know and ready to face down their greatest challenge yet. This is exciting stuff, guys!

Lilith's return was everything it should have been. I knew a twist was coming, but when Ashley tripped and fell and was impaled on those antlers, I was legitimately shocked. And then - Lilith? Of all people? I was, as they say, shook. She destroys the Equalizer, which is good because I hate the super-powered weapon thing, and she tortures Dean a little bit just for fun, while under orders to leave both of the boys alive for Chuck's bigger plan. Obviously I am a sucker for Dean doing anything and everything to protect Sam, so that moment when Sam was lying there unconscious and Lilith starts to walk towards him, and Dean says "don't touch him," was just... *chef's kiss*.

And finally, let's turn to the Cas of it all. I am actually super delighted by the way they are doing this whole Cas and Dean breakup subplot. It's pretty clear from the brief mentions we get that Dean did not clue Sam in to what went down between them. Sam is texting and calling Cas and getting no answer, and Dean is shrugging and acting like nothing's wrong. Sam left a message cluing him in on the Chuck and Lilith situation, so what else can they do? I love that Dean is acting all casual and unconcerned. Because he's probably hurt and guilty, and he doesn't know how to process that right now when it comes to Cas. It's all leading up to some kind of resolution that I think I'm probably going to be happy with, no matter how blatantly no-homo they go with it. At least we're getting an entire emotional arc about their friendship. That's frankly more than I was expecting.

Dang, this review got long. I guess that's what happens when the episode ends up being really, really good! I'm pretty pumped for how the show is going to end, and ready for lots of nostalgia and gratuitous angst along the way!

9/10