Supernatural 7.19 review
I've never done a proper episode review of Supernatural before. Well I don't think I have. I'm pretty lazy, so I can't really be arsed to go back and check. I'm actually not going to do a long review now either...more a mini-cap.
"Hi I'm Bobby and I'm a ghost."
So all this season Sam and Dean (and by extension us) have been loosing people, places and things that mean a lot to them and us. First it was Castiel, then Bobby's house, then Baby went on lockdown, then Bobby, then Frank who I actually liked. They made him an interesting character by giving him some depth. Anyway, the point is they were pretty much left with only each other. One of them was going bat shit crazy and the other one was consuming enough whiskey daily to bring down a fleet of race horses. They were broken, battered and alone. That was pretty much the theme of this season. It was all really heartbreaking. In a way, it was an interesting idea to do it, but obviously the outcome of that is that not only are Dean and Sam missing all the things/people they love, but so are we. It comes to something when my heart lifted when I saw Ruby's Knife the other week, just because it was something familiar.
Then a couple of episodes ago, Castiel came back! It seems to be the catalyst for other things/people to come back. However, Cass hasn't returned in a great state and that seems to be the pattern. Last episode we found out that Bobby hadn't really gone anywhere, he was there all the time. Bad news is, he's a ghost.
So that leads us on the the start of this episode. Bobby's a ghost, but Sam and Dean don't know it. There have been a couple of little clues throughout the season, but not very many. I would have actually have liked them to have done even more, like really subltle clues that you wouldn't have noticed without being told, but I guess they didn't want to over do it. It turns out that Bobby is connected to his hip flask that Dean carries around everywhere.
I really liked that this episode centered on a good old fashioned ghost story that was quite simple, but very effective. It coupled well with the emotional and character driven plot of the episode. We meet Annie, a hunter, who is working this case, but when she heads to the haunted house, she gets killed.
As fortune would have it, she made lunch plans with Sam and Dean for that day. No 'lunch plans' is not a euphanism, only it kinda is. The boys wait around in the restaurant, but get suspicious when Annie doesn't turn up. The boys talk about her while they are waiting. As it turns out Annie used to have 'lunch plans' with Bobby....and with Dean...and with Sam....awkward. This part is both hilarious and horrifying in equal proportions. I have a feeling Annie probably knew John too. She's a little slutty, but I like her style. Go Annie!
Bobby and Annie go through Ghosting 101 and learn that it's not as easy as it looks. I thought it was a nice little perspective to see things from the ghost's pov, makes all the salt-and-burning a little more poignant. I won't dive into the ghost story too much. Evil ghosts kills humans, keeps their corpses so the ghosts stick around. Dean and Sam salt his bones. The End.
Although...maybe not. Right before Whitman, the evil ghost 'died', he was holding on to Bobby. Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick, but it seemed to me that Bobby sucked up a little of his ghost juice. It was after this event that Dean and Sam were able to see him.
Earlier in the episode Bobby managed to get hold of his zen and Swayze out a message to Dean on the bathroom mirror. If it weren't such a great and important scene, then I'd point out that the show totally missed the trick of Dean in a towel once he got out the shower. But I'm not that shallow. Well...ok...yes I am, but to be fair to the show I would have probably have missed any dialogue that was in that scene if Dean was standing there in a towel. I just about held attention when he was standing there all wet-haired.
I thought they played the moment when Sam and Dean first saw Bobby really well. None of them really knew what to say to each other. What do you say?
However, as it turns out Dean is more than a little pissed and feels Bobby is upsetting the 'natural order of things'. While part of me wants to scream at him that people in glass impala's shouldn't fire salt bullets, I get Dean's reaction. From his perspective, this year he lost Cas and Bobby, who both meant a huge amount to him. He didn't handle either very well, but I think part of him dealt with it by thinking that they were at peace and out of the game that caused so much damage. Now Cas is back, but with a screw loose, and Bobby is back, but is a ghost. He wants the people he cares about to be a peace and not suffer any more than they have to. He's dealt with the heartbreak of loosing his friends, even though its clearly messed him up, he's now afraid that he's going to have to do it all again and that they're going to go through more pain.
So now they're stuck with a grouchy ghost and a crazy angel. Speaking of which, I hope they're rolling aound to Loony Base Camp every once in a while to check on Castiel. Make sure Meg hasn't killed him in his sleep. I'm still a bit concerned that they are trusting a demon to look after him.
So what's going to become of Bobby? Either they are going to have to put him to rest, find a way to bring him back to life, or just have a ghost as a sidekick. I think the episode where Bobby died was so perfect that they can't kill him off again. They can't do that emotionally to an audience, it just wouldn't work. I'm hoping they bring him back to life. I'm not sure how a Ghost Sidekick works really and surely that's going to become awkward that he has to go wherever the flask is. As Dean said, I'm not sure this is going to end well.
So the Leviathan thing this season has been very patchy. Maybe I have to watch this season again, once it's ended so get a proper view, but it's seemed all over the place really. I think season 6 had that feel of not really knowing what's going on, but once it was finished it all became clear. They're not going to play that trick again with this season though, but I'll wait till it's ended to give a full impression. That's not to say it hasn't had some great parts and some great episodes, it has, it just hasn't flowed as well thematically as other seasons. Also what with the Leviathan's curing cancer and setting up historical digs, I'm more inclined to give up my weekends to volunteer for them rather than wish them dead at the moment. I'm not sure they have been a great 'big bad'. Although I suppose it could be argued that 'loss and solitude' was the real 'big bad' of the season, but that may be going a bit deep. It's what I'm going for anyway, cause the Leviathans have been a bit crap and I think all four of our main characters have been broken in some way over the course of the season, so it seems for of a consistant theme.
I actually think the show will find it's swing with the run up to the finale. I really enjoyed this episode so hopefully the remaining part of the season will be just as good.