SPN Season 6 Review
Rewatch of Supernatural 2022
Season 6
General Observation-When you watch season 6 knowing the secrets behind the behavior of Sam and Cas the season really holds up. And once again we get to watch Dean suffer through feeling betrayed by his brother and best friend, angsting about the mega-monster problem, and finding out that family doesn’t mean the same thing to others…
To the episodes-
105. Exile on Main Street (6.01)-W: Gamble/D: Sgriccia
Recap-One year ago Sam making Dean promise to go to Lisa and going in the Cage
7 AM-Dean’s day-his face as he wakes up just shows so much of ‘why am I doing this when Sam’s in Hell’ as ‘Beautiful Loser’ plays and his new life is shown intercut with comparable scenes from his old life: salt into eggs/salting against ghosts; opening his trunk for construction tools/opening Impala trunk for weapons; hammering a wall/staking a vamp; table saw at work/sawing off vamp head; beer after work/beer with Sam; teaching Ben mechanics/showing Sam mechanics
Interspersed are new life stand-alones like BBQ with neighbors, locking the doors
When he goes to bed we see holy water and a gun under the bed (really, a gun that easily accessible to Ben???)
Neighbor/co-worker Sid and Dean having beers, Sid talking about how 15 years ago he never would have dreamed this life in suburbia-oh, the poignancy of that remark to Dean!
Dean does excellent job of deflecting Sid’s nosiness
Waitress gives him phone number-‘It’s like chicks specifically dig unavailable guys’-he is a one-woman man now
Dean still has his gun in his truck
Fake-out bird scare
And Dean’s hiding that he’s checking into a case from Lisa…
Dean checking locks walking around barefoot highlights his vulnerability now (and for some reason is really hot)
Sid catching Dean waving a gun: ‘I got a permit!’-question if that is true…
Impala’s trunk still packed
Lisa: ‘Did you almost shoot a Yorkie?’-Dean: ‘Technically’
Lisa presses for truth and Dean gives half-truth that he was hunting something but thinks it’s nothing really
His jacket, dad’s journal…
All the clues to this point have pointed to a real case and it’s believable that Azazel was brought back!
Azazel: …did you really think you were gonna get to keep all of this?...You can’t outrun your past’-and we get the first theme of the season
Dean’s first words upon seeing Sam: ‘So I’m dead? This is heaven?’-That’s Dean’s whole story, Dean’s heaven is being with Sam
Dean hugs Sam-Sam is oddly detached
Dean is immediately concerned with what brought Sam back-he can’t trust anything good ever happens to him
Sam has been back a year-Sam: ‘You finally had what you wanted, Dean’-Dean: ‘I wanted my brother back!’-Sam: ‘You wanted a family. You have for a long time, maybe the whole time…You only gave it up because of the way we lived. But you had something, and you were building something. Had I shown up, Dean, you would have just run off. I'm sorry. But it felt like after everything, you deserve some regular life’
The Campbell contemporaries are 3rd cousins
Grandpa initiates a hug with Dean who is reeling
‘We’re guessing whatever pulled Sam up pulled me down’-Based on future events I doubt Grandpa was pulled from heaven…
So Sam was hit by the djinn a couple days ago-I wonder what nightmare he had
All the pictures of Dean, Lisa, and Ben
When Dean shows up at Bobby’s-‘If you’re here something’s wrong’
Dean’s face when he realizes Bobby knew Sam had been back for a year-Bobby’s excuse: ‘You got out, Dean’
Dean: ‘I showed up on their doorstep half out of my head with grief. God knows why they even let me in. I drank too much. I had nightmares. I looked everywhere. I collected hundreds of books, trying to find anything to bust you out’-Sam: ‘You promised you’d leave it alone’-Dean: ‘Of course I didn’t leave it alone!’
Lisa and Dean’s conversation-she calls him on his self-esteem issues and cares about him anyway-I always felt she really cared and understood him and wasn’t afraid to call him on his fear of failing
Lisa: ‘…the guy that basically just saved the world shows up at your door, you expect him to have a couple of issues. And you're always so amazing with Ben. You know what I wanted, more than anything was a guy that Ben could look up to like a dad. So, you're saying it's all bad, Dean? 'Cause it was the best year of my life’-that last line feels like she was saying it to get through to Dean that he wasn’t a failure…also Dean must have told her a version of the events of the apocalypse
Sam has his snazzy car
Christian: ‘Leave it to the professionals’-him I would like to punch in the face
And Dean comes up with a plan because he’s not just going to sit around and wait for the monsters-‘It’s almost like I’m a professional’
It was uncalled for of the hunters to mock Dean’s home and life
Grandpa makes a pitch to recruit Dean: ‘I get it, Dean. You wanted a normal life. Your mom wanted a normal life, too. You remind me of her, actually’
Monsters are acting weird
Campbells were killing vamps on the Mayflower (that would be an interesting prequel…)
It’s daylight when the decision is made for the Campbells to leave the premises but it’s night when they actually drive off?
Sam doesn’t want to talk about the Cage
Dean’s nightmare is Lisa burning on the ceiling and Ben drinking demon blood-he can’t get away from his past-‘It’s all your fault’
That fight really trashes Dean’s house
And Grandpa is up to something with capturing the djinn
Sam thinks Dean shouldn’t stay with Lisa-Dean: ‘…I did this to them. I made them vulnerable the moment I knocked on their door…’
Sam wants Dean back: ‘You didn't hesitate. Because you care, and that's who you are. Me? I wouldn't even think to try…it’s just better with you around’-the first hint
Dean offers Sam the Impala-the second time he has offered to give Sam a tangible part of himself-Sam says no because he has his car set up the way he likes it-what a cold turndown
106. Two and a Half Men (6.02)-W: Glass/D: Showalter
Recap: Sam’s back for a year; Dean has a family; Grandpa; shapeshifters
The fireplace in that victim’s house is also Bobby’s
That teaser is exceptionally horrific because the mom is protecting the baby and that got to me
Dean has moved them to a new house-and is putting them on lockdown out of fear
Sam has an upgraded suit
Grandpa: ‘Baby stew is bad’ whether it’s monsters or people
Ben wants to learn about hunting-Dean: ‘Ben, you will never, ever shoot a gun’-this line is particularly hard because of what will happen at the end of the season when Dean shoves a gun into Ben’s hands
Dean doesn’t know how to find the middle ground between ‘all normal’ and ‘all hunting’
Lisa calls him out that he has to let them live their lives
Dean teaches Lisa how to use a gun and she understands he needs to go and also feels he needs to stay: ‘If you don’t walk out that door I’m gonna shoot you’
It’s day when Sam calls from 30 minutes away, night when they meet (and the baby hasn’t been fed or changed that whole time???)
Dean still driving his truck
Sam’s car’s seatbelt warning
That baby gives Dean the most adorable smile
Dean: ‘Bobby’-Sam: ‘John’-they each picked the father they feel closest to-because Sam is now more like John than Dean ever was in his single-mindedness
Dean: ‘I kind of feel like I have a chance to do something different with Ben, you know?-Sam: ‘But moving them around? Keeping them on lockdown?...How is any of that different from how we were raised?’ Dean: ‘This is temporary’-Sam: ‘Dad always said it was temporary, Dean. He said it for 22 years. Look, I get it. You want to watch out for them. That's great. I'm just asking, how do you do that and not turn into Dad?’-Way to be supportive, Sam…
Whiskey on the baby’s gums is not recommended, Dean!
Magic fingers bed
Dean’s switchblade reacts on shifter like it’s silver-must have had it customized?
Sam to Dean: ‘Samuel is a lot like you’
Dean hands the baby to Sam who immediately gives it to Samuel when Dean won’t hand it to Samuel directly
Christian knows about Dean torturing in hell
Shifter comes in as Grandpa, then Sam, then Dean
First idea of alphas
Dean questions Sam if he was using the baby shifter as bait-not sure how Dean jumped to that idea
Dean: ‘…if I knew for sure what the safest thing was, then I'd do it. Stay here and look after you guys or get as far away as I possibly can, but I don't know. And I get what I've been doing lately…with the yelling and the acting like a prison guard…You tell yourself you're not gonna be something, you know? But my dad was exactly like this. All the time. It's scaring the hell out of me.’-Lisa: ‘Maybe we're safer with you here, maybe gone. I don't know. The one thing that I do know is that you're not a construction worker. You're a hunter. And now you know your brother's out there, things are different. You don't want to be here, Dean… if there's some rule that says this all has to be either/or, how about we break it? Me and Ben will be here, and you come when you can. Just come in one piece, okay?’-And that is why I loved Lisa
Baby is back!
107. The Third Man (6.03)-W: Edlund/D: Singer
Recap: Sam’s back, Lisa lets Dean go, Archangels, holy oil, Cas going to be sheriff of heaven
Dean and Lisa in bed-but it’s only a dream interrupted by road noises
Dean’s morning routine of a few stretches while Sam works out shirtless after a night of paid-for sex
Extra gross deaths
Suits
Dean on the phone with Ben: ‘I know you're lying. Because I lie professionally, that's how. Now tell your mom that you broke the damn thing and take it like a man. Okay?’
Dean races Sam to the interview and wins
Cas comes when Dean calls, has not answered Sam all year, is very brusque and down-to-business-we can assume from later events Cas is feeling guilty
Dean is the only one who thinks torturing the boy is wrong
Sam’s car is crushed
First mention of civil war in heaven
Balthazar says Cas taught him that rules were breakable and the angels have freedom to do what they want
Sam has an angel blade
Why does Raphael fistfight with Cas??? They’re angels!
How convenient they had a holy oil circle in just the right place for Balthazar
Cas lets Dean handle Balthazar: ‘I believe the hairless ape has the floor’
First mention that souls have power
Ben’s Halloween mask-a wendigo-in the trunk (did Dean put it there when he drove off? Or when else would it have been put in the Impala???)
Dean tells Sam something is different with him-Sam: ‘ I’ve been hunting non-stop for the past year…I suppose I’m a little rough around the edges’-Dean: ‘You went to hell, Sam…I know what that does to a guy’-Sam: ‘To you…it tortured you…I think it still does…But I’m okay’
108. Weekend at Bobby’s (6.04)-W: Dabb & Loflin/D: Ackles!!!
Recap: Crowley/Bobby deal; Rufus; Jody; Dean’s concern about Sam
1 year ago we see Crowley getting out of having to return Bobby’s soul on a technicality
The contract is written on Bobby’s skin
Dean sends claw picture to Bobby by cellphone-first time we see that phone technology used
Bobby’s day montage to ‘The Gambler’
Demon in Bobby’s basement-throughout the episode he is discomfitingly ruthless and has no concern for the meatsuit
First time we seeing burning the demon’s bones (had to think about this one-a hunter would have to find out the demon’s human identity before it went to hell and became a demon which would seem rather daunting. However it does fall in line with burning the bones of a ghost gets rid of them so same thing could apply to demons)
Crowley is now the King of Hell
Marcie has been Bobby’s neighbor for 6 months-her suggestion of watching the movie ‘Drag Me to Hell’ is extremely ironic
Garth calls Bobby on the FBI line-loved that they made him a real character later on
Monsters are showing up in the wrong places
Bobby has a backhoe for digging graves LOL
Rufus deduces Crowley AKA Fergus McCloud’s place of origin because of knowing Craig whiskey
Crowley’s son Gavin sailed on a ship that sank
Dean wants to talk to Bobby about Sam not being right-Bobby has bigger problems and lays into the boys
Jody turns down Bobby’s request to extradite Rufus because it could mean the end of her career…and then she does it anyway
Bobby uses a different summoning spell for Gavin than he used for Crowley (someone should catalog all the different summoning spells they use throughout the show to see if there’s any correlation to what their summoning/what spell they use)
Crowley’s having a rough time running hell, poor baby
Sam and Dean flew to Scotland??? (That feels like the writers dug themselves into a hole with Crowley’s bones and just hand-waved to get out of it)
Sam keeps Dean from burning the bones-'a deal’s a deal’-It would have been a lot shorter season if Sam had let him…
Bobby actually got the best of Crowley!
109. Live Free or Twihard (6.05)-W: Matthews/D: Hardy
Recap: vamp info, worry about Sam, Grandpa, Lisa telling Dean to come and go as he can
Dean tells Lisa he’s only a night’s drive from Cicero and will stop by
Grandpa is the go-to guy for information now? Hmmm
Boris: ‘You’re pretty’-Dean: ‘I don’t play for your team’
Sam watches Dean get turned
Dean knows he has to be killed
Dean wonders why Sam’s heartbeat is so steady instead of elevated from anxiety over what happened
Dean’s visit to Lisa is intense-he’s fighting his urges so hard while she wants to know what is going on
All things considered, that wasn’t a very big shove to Ben…
Dean comes back to be killed
Sam denies knowing about the cure
Message from the Vampire ‘dad’ saves Dean from Boris unleashing the other vamps on him
Dean mows down those vamps like nobody’s business; we don’t actually see him kill Boris though
Grandpa: ‘Looks like your brother has some Campbell in him after all’
Dean remembers Sam watching
Sam is pushing about what did Dean see
Vamps are on a recruiting drive
Lisa won’t take Dean’s calls
Dean: ‘I can always count on you, right, Sammy?’-Loaded question
110. You Can’t Handle the Truth (6.06)-W: Charmelo & Snyder & Reed/D: Eliasberg
Recap: Sam’s not right; Lisa last episode; highlights of the previous episode
Suicide of waitress at Biggersons
Dean venting to Bobby about Sam, convinced that it’s not Sam
Suits
Dean drinking, freaking out about Sam, looking up doppelgangers on-line
Cas comes because Dean thinks the horn of Gabriel is there and Dean is upset Cas ignored all his other requests to help with Sam: ‘I didn’t come about Sam because I have nothing to offer about Sam’
Cas is disappointing Dean too: ‘What happened to you? You used to be human, or at least like one’
When Lisa tells Dean the truth she is honest but not cruel: ‘ You've got so much buried in there, and you push it down, and you push it down. Do you honestly think that you can go through life like that and not freak out? Just, what, drink half a fifth a night and you're good?’-Dean: You knew what you signed up for’-Lisa: ‘Yeah. But I didn't expect Sam to come back. And I'm glad he's okay. I am. But the minute he walked through that door, I knew. It was over. You two have the most unhealthy, tangled-up, crazy thing I've ever seen. And as long as he's in your life, you're never gonna be happy. That came out so much harsher than I meant…I'm not saying don't be close to Sam. I'm close to my sister. But if she got killed, I wouldn't bring her back from the dead!..Me and Ben can't be in this with you. I'm sorry.’
Dean’s face when he hangs up…
This might have gone differently if Dean had just told her the truth about being temporarily vamped
Sam lies about not stopping the vampire with the cover that he ‘can’t lie here’
Smart Dean figures out it’s the TV personality
(The case is a little weak-she would only have been in town a few weeks since the summoning yet she’s a TV celeb already? A little dialog about her fast rise would have helped. And watching video outtakes for hours looking for a clue? Why not just walk a dog past her to get a live reaction?)
Dean’s truth-telling: ‘You're covered in blood until you're covered in your own blood. Half the time, you're about to die. Like right now. I told myself I wanted out... that I wanted a family…But what I'm good at... is slicing throats. I ain't a father. I'm a killer. And there's no changing that. I know that now’-And Dean condemns himself
Even though Veritas has already announced that Sam isn’t right they boys work seamlessly to kill her
Sam talking to stop Dean from killing him: ‘There's something wrong with me, really wrong. I've known it for a while. I lied to you…Ever since I came back, I am a better hunter than I've ever been! Nothing scares me anymore! 'Cause I can't feel it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think I need help’-Was anything in that statement the truth???
14 brutal punches-if it was overlookable in the previous 5 seasons, it should be really clear now that Dean has anger management issues that can be very scary
111. Family Matters (6.07)-W: Dabb & Loflin/D: Bee
Recap: Vamp episode; Grandpa; what happened with Veritas
Painful cavity search
Sam is soulless and suddenly it all makes sense
We find out shortly that Christian Campbell has been a demon for a long time. Why didn’t Cas see that?
Dean doubles down on Cas to do something
Grandpa is not comfortable with Dean’s questioning of authority
Grandpa’s been hiding what he’s really doing from Dean since the beginning. Why is that, Grandpa? Conscience bothering you just a little? Dean reminds you a little too much of what Mary would say about what you’re doing?
Gwen Campbell is at least potentially a decent person
Dean trying to control Sam again: ‘Nobody's forcing you to work with me, okay? But if we do this... I drive the bus, I call the shots, and you tell me everything, whether you think it's important or not, because you can't tell the difference’ And Dean once again becomes his brother’s monitor because he doesn’t trust Sam
Dean figured it was 60/40 whether Sam would stay with him or go with Grandpa
The timing in the episode seems kind of wonky here-Sam turns the cell GPS on in Grandpa’s car, goes to where Dean is waiting, and gets the ping from the GPS right away-but how did Grandpa get to the destination that fast?
Alpha vamp: ‘We all have our mothers…where do we go when we die’-and the season plot starts its shift from soulless Sam to Eve and Purgatory
Christian’s demon reveal
Grandpa’s been playing Crowley’s game
Grandpa has been told Crowley pulled both him and Sam back (a lie, but we don’t know that yet)
And Crowley dangles Sam’s soul (which he doesn’t actually have)-and right now Sam wants it back so he tells Dean to suck it up
Sam: ‘He sold us out’-but Dean won’t let him shoot Grandpa
A lot of plot machinations in this episode but it never got me emotionally involved
112. All Dogs Go to Heaven (6.08)-W: Glass/D: Sgriccia
Recap: Werewolves lore, Soulless Sam, Alphas, Crowley is their boss
Dean does not want to work with Crowley but his threat to Sam followed by promise of soul make him give in
Sam still thinks about Susie Heizer from biology class-Dean remembers her
Suits
Dean sleeping in his clothes, Sam up and dressed (in suit) already
Sam can tell the interviewee is sweating vodka-does soullessness give him heightened sensory perception as well?
Dean insists they need proof before turning Mandy over to Crowley-Sam would just do it already
‘The last werewolf was in bed with me and she wolfed out’-soulless Sam really has no feelings!
Knowing from hindsight the dog is really a man, watching him with Mandy is creepy!
Dean staring at Lisa’s number
They haven’t heard of a skinwalker in years
Interrogating human Lucky, Dean uses the danger to Mandy and kid to get information-protecting their innocent families is something they have in common-while Sam threatening and contemptuous which doesn’t work
30 skinwalkers recruited to turn their families when the signal comes down
Dean with sniper rifle-and he’s the one manning it, not Sam
Dean tries to get Sam to see they can’t get his soul back if it costs 150 people their lives
Sam: ‘I’d double-cross us’
Dean can’t get a clean shot, and the hostages change the situation
Dean lets Lucky get away
Lucky is rejected by Mandy-I couldn’t help but feel bad for him, but here we have another person doing the wrong thing for the ‘right’ reasons and getting burned
And Sam reveals that he really doesn’t care about Dean but does think his soul is a good idea: ‘Like Lisa and Ben, right? I've been acting like I care about them. But I don't. I couldn't care less…I don't even really care about you. Except that I need your help…I don't know if how I am is better or worse…You get the job done, and nothing really hurts…But there are also things about it I remember that I... Let's just say I think I should probably go back to being him’
113. Clap Your Hands if You Believe (6.09)-W: Edlund/D: Showalter
Recap: Lisa saying goodbye, Sam soulless
X-Files style title card with lots of images flashing behind the actors’ names and ‘The Truth is In There’ card
Townspeople are talking directly to camera-we eventually see that Sam and Dean are interviewing them
Sam is rude to the woman who says it’s fairies, not aliens
Dean doubles down that Sam has to follow his lead and let Dean be his conscience
It’s daylight when Dean tells Sam to follow the watchmaker and Dean will check out the field but it’s night when Dean gets there-also Dean drives out there, and then Sam goes out there and drives the Impala back to the motel-how did Sam get out there?
Use of the ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ music
Girl: ‘Your brother was abducted?’-Sam: ‘I’ve had time to adjust’-Girl: ‘Did it happen when you were kids?-Sam: ‘No, like half an hour ago’
Sam: ‘So, you’ve been hunting UFO’s for over three decades and you basically have no concrete data and zero workable leads…Have you considered the possibility that you suck at hunting UFO’s?’
‘Grabby incandescent douchebags’
Dean starts to sit on the bed Sam and the girl were in and stops, sits on the other bed
Dean trying to get Sam to see the proper course of action-Sam: ‘…what about when there are no more leads for the night? Are you supposed to just sit there in the dark and suffer, even when there’s nothing that can be done at that moment?’ Dean: ‘Yes, you sit in the dark and feel the loss’-Sam: ‘Absolutely! But couldn’t I just do all that and have sex with the hippie chick?...So you’re saying having a soul equals suffering’-Dean: ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying’-And the first seeds of doubt are planted in Sam about getting his soul back
Sam researching in the library, Dean on-line: ‘At least books have punctuation’
‘Space Oddity’ playing while Dean has the fight with Tinkerbell is very funny
The microwave dings after the screen goes black for commercial
‘…it was a little, glowing, hot naked lady. With nipples. And she hit me’
Daylight when they split up, Sam after watchmaker, Dean going to the shop and night when he comes out?
Sam: ‘How does a father decide to trade his son for a bunch of watches? I mean, I assume you have a soul so what’s your excuse?’
Leprechaun can get Sam’s soul-his magic can slip in back doors
Green cooler
Dean is surprised Sam said no to leprechaun’s offer: ‘You’re not having second thoughts?’
114. Caged Heat (6.10)-D: Matthews & Klein/D: Singer
Recap: Meg, alphas, working for Crowley
Crowley uses an iridium knife on the alpha shifter
Dean upset at working with Crowley-Sam: ‘If you wanna get my soul back, that’s what we gotta do’
Meg is back, wants boys’ help against Crowley because he is hunting the Lucifer loyalists
Sam laughs when Meg holds a knife to Dean’s neck-more proof of his changed persona; challenges Meg because he senses the ‘flop sweat’ on the demons
Meg: ‘I apprenticed under Alastair in Hell just like your brother. So Dean, can I make Crowley do whatever I want?’-Dean’s face
Dean doesn’t want to work with Meg-who was responsible for Ellen and Jo’s deaths-any more than he wants to work with Crowley, Sam says he has a plan to screw her after they get Crowley
Sam uses the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ plot to lure Cas down, then threatens him if Cas won’t help: ‘I will hunt you down and kill you’
Grandpa is working for Crowley because Crowley promised to bring Mary back-it feels kind of icky that he wants Mary more than his wife…
Dean: ‘I’m asking you to learn from our mistakes! Doing this, this is how the bad guy gets us every time. It’s our Achilles' heel. Apparently it runs in the family. We will figure something else out. Okay?... Fine. Bring her back. But what are you gonna tell her? You gonna tell her you made a deal with a demon? That you wouldn’t help out her sons?’
So after protesting he has so much to do in heaven Cas is just sitting there watching porn in the motel? Why not go back to heaven until called again? (This scene and Cas kissing Meg later feel like they were put in because a writer thought it would be funny without considering whether it made any sense for the character…)
Meg has the demon-killing knife-now I can’t remember when we last saw it used to figure out how she got it…But Sam gets it back
Cas expresses concern for the state of Sam’s soul and what will happen if it’s put back…and Sam overhears
Hellhounds…Meg locked in meatsuit by spell on the building
Meg stays to kill the hounds so the boys can go after Crowley-sneaks the angel blade from Cas during the kiss that makes no sense
Grandpa sold them out: ‘I don’t even know what Sam is. And you want me to protect him? And you? You’re a stranger... exactly are you supposed to be to me?’-Dean: ‘I’m the guy you never wanna see again. ’Cause I’ll make it out of here, trust me. And the next time you see me, I’ll be there to kill you’ (What is it about seeing Dean’s ruthless certainty that makes him so appealing in that moment???)
Of course Meg has to be naked when tortured in a particularly sadistically ‘seductive’ way
Sam biting his arm to make the devil’s trap out of blood-yikes! My first thought was he was going to drink his own demon blood-wonder if we were supposed to think that
Dean frees Meg-interesting that he keeps his word with her when he was ready to break his word to torch Crowley’s bones
Meg has the power to torture Crowley from a distance with a hand gesture…hmmm
Crowley still playing that he brought Sam back but can’t get his soul-and why would Sam want the messed-up thing anyway?
Crowley and Cas exchange words-we find out later that it was an act
Cas burns the bones and Crowley flames out-it was a triumphant moment when the episode first aired, now it just leads to the question of how they pulled that off
Dean was going to kill Meg-after giving Cas an hour with her first-ick
Sam: ‘You heard what Crowley said. And I heard what Cas said. Putting this thing back in would smash me to bits…I don’t think I want it back…You obviously care, a lot. But I think maybe I’m better off without it’
115. Appointment in Samarra (6.11)-W: Gamble & Singer/D: Rohl
Recap: Death, his ring, Tessa, Balthazar, souls are powerful, Sam’s soul wrecked
Dr. Roberts stitched John up a lot
75% success rate for revival
Dean has a letter for Ben if it doesn’t work, not Sam: ‘If I don’t make it back nothing I say is gonna mean a damn thing to him’
Doc says Dean will have 3 minutes-he ends up being dead for 7 minutes
Death: ‘…you have hubris but no leverage…’
Dean asks for Sam and Adam, picks Sam without hesitation (sorry Adam)
‘…is there any way that you could, uh, I don't know, hack the hell part off?’-Dean always trying for a solution
Sam does not want his soul back even with the wall idea-Dean: ‘Sam. I'm your brother. I'm not gonna let you get hurt. I know what I'm doing here…I won’t let it go wrong’-back to steamroller Dean
The rings were buried in Bobby’s yard
Tessa has a list, Death touches them, they die and she reaps them-who has to die is destiny (there will be questions about exactly how this works when Fate shows up later…)
Balthazar will help Sam just to screw Dean
Dean lets the robber linger in pain…there’s that dark side again…
Dean won’t kill the little girl-the father being alone figures into his decision
Plothole-Dean healed the girl, surgery cancelled, so nurse went home. But if Dean had killed the girl the surgery would still have been cancelled and the nurse would still have left early. Someone didn’t think that all the way through
Sam: ‘He’ll kill me to get that other guy back’
Bobby made a trap door in front of his closet
Bobby, why go in the basement after Sam? Why not stay safe in the panic room???
Tessa tells Jolene she was supposed to live a long life but Dean screwed up…so how does destiny fit into that, Tessa?
Moment of truth-Dean takes off ring, sacrificing Sam to save the busload of people…that’s why he’s our (tortured) hero
Dean has to explain to the little girl that she has to go because of the ‘natural order of things’ when he doesn’t want to believe it
Last minute Dean stops Sam from killing Bobby
Soulless Sam gets locked in the panic room and Dean is wrecked over what to do
Dean says he would have killed the girl if he had to do it again and Death is happy Dean learned his lesson. And then we get the message from Death that souls are valuable
Death will put Sam’s soul back because he wants the boys to keep digging about the souls, not for Dean because Dean and Sam are ‘an affront to the balance of the universe’ (Thought that occurs to me from future season revelations-is Death helping the boys to foil God’s plotting?)
‘Don’t scratch the wall’
116. Like a Virgin (6.12)-W: Glass/D: Sgriccia
Road so Far recap of the season
The visual effect of the plane is pretty lame, unfortunately
Cas offers such comfort: ‘Let me tell you what his soul felt like when I touched it. Like it had been skinned alive, Dean. If you wanted to kill your brother, you should have done it outright’
Hug
Sam didn’t know Bobby and Cas were alive-doesn’t remember anything
Dean makes the executive decision to keep Sam in the dark-once again not trusting Sam, this time to ‘properly’ handle the information that he was darkside for a year and a half, uber-protective because it might crack the wall…sigh…
‘Slate’s wiped’
Bobby is not so sanguine about Sam’s presence -‘I’m having a bit of a hard time even looking at him’-and disagrees with Dean’s decision: ‘…when Sam realizes we're shining him, it ain't gonna be cute’
Sam asks about what Dean did about Lisa and Ben: ‘You do remember you promised that, right? So, why didn't you try?’-Dean: ‘What makes you think I didn’t?’-Sam: ‘Cause look at you. Look at this. You're exactly the same’-Dean: ‘I was with them for a year…didn’t work out’
Suits
Dean is so happy empathy Sam is back
Casting misstep--The actress being chased looks too old for a high school student
References to World of Warcraft, Hogwarts
Sam déjà vu about skinwalkers and Dean lies
Sigh, so many inappropriate virgin jokes
Hi Dr. Visyak! You’re a cool character…sorry you won’t be around too long…
The sword in the stone scene amusingness is enhanced by the music
Bobby taught Dean about explosives
Sam calls Cas who tells him about his past year-didn’t take long for that to happen…Sam hides that he knows from Dean
Dean grabs the dragons’ gold
‘I kind of feel like I got slipped the worst mickey of all time...and I woke up to find out that I had burnt the whole city down. And you can say it wasn't me, but...I'm the one with the zippo in my pocket, you know?...I appreciate you trying to protect me. I really do. But I got to fix...What I got to fix.
117. Unforgiven (6.13)-W: Dabb & Loflin/D: Barrett
Recap: Sam’s soul restored; wall; ‘you should have told me’
1 year ago-Sam and Grandpa on case-Sam firing gun, brutally beating cop who stops them
‘Mel Gibson really took a turn this past year’-‘Or he’s possessed’
Sam determined to follow mystery coordinates
Sam starts getting flashbacks but hides them from Dean
Sam distressed at flashback of bathroom sex
Dean wants to leave, citing: ‘One of dad’s rules-you never use the same crapper twice’ to protect Sam-Sam: ‘Everyone uses the same crapper twice’
Suits
Dean discovers soulless Sam had a fling with one of the victims ‘loud and athletic’
Lighting on Sam in jail keeps half his face in the dark the whole time-nice touch
Soulless Sam in flashback: ‘Family just slows you down’
‘I have to set things right, 'cause I got a frigging soul now, and it won't let me just walk away. I'm staying here. And I need you to back me up’
Soulless Sam uses Roy as unknowing bait; uses GPS trick to track him; is ruthless dispatching the victims, no attempt to save them
End result is more monsters running around…what a mess
Brenna doesn’t absolve Sam
Sam takes it very hard
Hell flashback of Sam burning
118. Mannequin 3: The Reckoning (6.14)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Swarzoc
Recap: Lisa mess; ‘don’t scratch the wall’
Dean is both crying and angry trying to revive Sam
Dean offers Sam coffee, food, and a container of pills-Sam: ‘What are they?’-Dean: ‘Effective’-when did Dean get them and what are they for???
Dean’s advice: ‘You shove it down and you let it come out in spurts of violence and alcoholism’
Suits
Dean doesn’t take Lisa’s calls-Sam tells him he has to deal with his past year too
Ben knows what to say to get Dean to come
Sam interviews the company staff and zeroes in on Jonny
Dean figures out right away what Ben did when Lisa answers the door
Dean: ‘Dr. Matt, how respectable’-Lisa: ‘That’s how this is going to be?’-Dean: ‘What do you want from me?’-Lisa: ‘I’m not asking for something’-Dean: ‘Then ask for something!’
Dean and Lisa to Ben: ‘Go to your room!’
Lisa: ‘Don't apologize or anything. It's just... It's just I get to this place where I'm okay, and then you show up at our door. You keep doing that, every time I think I'm never gonna see you again. I'm trying to get over you. What are you trying to do? What do you want from us, Dean?’-Dean doesn’t answer, scene ends-what was said next???
The workers were really cruel bullies and honestly deserved what happened to them!
Ben: ‘Why won't you come home? Can't you just say "I'm sorry" and then come back?...What ever I did, I’m sorry’-Dean: ‘… Just 'cause you love someone doesn't mean you should stick around and screw up their life. So I can't be here… I think my job turns me into somebody that can't sit at your dinner table. And if I stayed, you'd end up just like me’-Ben: ‘You’re a liar, Dean…You say family's so important, but what do you call people who care for you, who love you even when you're a dick? You know you're walking out on your family, right?’
Montage of Lisa memories as Dean drives back
Sam has his own car
When Impala engine starts up-Dean: ‘This is not a sex doll!’ and Impala headlights come on with his words LOL
What a cheat way to resolve the dilemma-accidentally kill the innocent girl!
Dean: ‘What exactly did we do back there, Sam?’-Sam: ‘Yeah, I’m not putting it in the win column either’
Other than the Dean/Lisa/Ben scenes this episode was a waste. Lots of creepy visuals of the mannequins to make it ‘scary’ because the writer had a visual they wanted in the show but the story was distasteful and the ending was a real cop-out
119. The French Mistake (6.15)-W: Edlund/D: Beeson
Recap: heaven civil war, Balthazar has weapons, Meg making blood phone call, Ruby
Bobby on supply run
Balthazar likes to hear himself talk
‘Should we be killing anybody?’
Entire episode is one lovingly crafted in-joke
Dean: ‘No, seriously. Why? Why would anybody want to watch our lives?’ -Sam: ‘…according to that interviewer, not very many people do’
‘Misha’ reads lines and explains the plot of the episode being filmed in the alternate universe-which is exactly what is happening to Sam and Dean
‘You married fake Ruby’-‘Yeah, I really ought to figure out her name’
Alpaca noise heard when scene blacks out to commercial
I would think with all the faking they have to do as hunters that they’d be able to fake-act a little better…And Dean was a PA on ‘Hollywood Babylon’ so again he should be a little more with it…
Smart Dean remembered the sigil and spell with just seeing Balthazar do it once!
The episode is all fun and games until Misha is murdered
‘Where?’ in sync
And Dean angsts about whether Sam would have a better life staying there
Kripke’s death is horrifyingly funny
When they return to their world through the window their backs are to it but they land forward
Cas justifies what was done: ‘If I lose against Raphael we all lose everything’
‘We’re broke again’-they went through the dragon’s hoard that fast?
It’s crazy but the background story makes it totally fit in the show and I love all the in-jokes!
In the episode commentary, Singer, Gamble, and Edlund say the bad acting scene is one of their favorites of the show and that Kripke was all in on killing himself
120. …And Then There Were None (6.16)-W: Matthews/D: Rohl
Recap: Rufus, Alphas, Grandpa’s betrayal, mention of ‘mother’ from purgatory
The trucker was a decent person
Monsters all along I80
Suits with overcoats
Rufus!
Ear goo is not ectoplasm
Hi Gwen…
Dean is ready to kill Grandpa immediately-Sam stops him-reversal of what happened earlier-Sam: ‘…not saying don’t, I’m saying not yet’
Dean kills Gwen under the influence-and this is completely ignored for the rest of the episode. I would have expected some remorse!
Sam: ‘We’re gonna find him alive, Samuel, or I’m gonna put a bullet into your head’
If looks could kill…Dean’s look at Grandpa…
Bobby’s idea of locking up the weapons was a good one…too bad Grandpa cheated…
Bobby says to go in with guns blazing-Rufus: ‘Like Omaha?
Smart Sam sees the booby trap wire
Grandpa dangles telling Sam about what he did last year
Sam shoots Grandpa when he won’t stop coming and then: ‘He wasn’t a monster when I ganked him?’ (Actually he was)
Sam: ‘What would Mom say?’-Dean: ‘You know what I think Mom would say? She'd say just 'cause you're blood doesn't make you family. You got to earn that’
Bobby tries to take the blame for Omaha: ‘You lost her because of me’-Rufus: ‘I will never forgive you for what happened’
Boys simultaneous kick to open the door is a thing of beauty
Dean goes first with the electrocution test
So Eve made this monster specifically to tell the hunters that they’re all gonna die??? That seems like a lot of effort to make a point she could make a lot easier…
When the worm fell on the floor I yelled ‘step on it!’
Shot of grave makes us think it’s Bobby’s at first-effective trick
Rufus saved Bobby from possessed Karen and they worked together for years
Dean: ‘Something's gonna get us eventually, and when my guts get ripped out, just so you two know, we're good. Blanket apology for all the crap that anybody's done all the way around’-except Dean really doesn’t forgive it all, he continues to bring Sam’s mistakes up in the future…and he never forgives himself
It was a shame that Rufus died, he was a cool character
121. My Heart Will Go on (6.17)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Sgriccia
Recap: Ellen and Jo, Balthazar, Rufus, Eve, souls are valuable
Okay, that is the most elaborate death trap ever…
Rock/paper/scissors-Dean throws paper and Sam loses!
Everything in the dialog seems normal…until we see the Mustang instead of Impala
Same Kansas license plate though
Ellen’s been gone a week…but Rufus still just died…
Smart Sam knows how to test the fiber to see if it’s gold
Dean in suit
Very weird list of questions Dean asking Russo-hasn’t asked those sorts of things in other cases…
And we get the case-the Titanic never sank
Balthazar says there are no more rules, history can be changed now
50,000 people shouldn’t have been born
Fates are ‘…the ones who hammer out the details of how you die’-Please explain to me how that is supposed to fit in with Death and reapers???
Bobby: ‘…big difference between dying awful and never being born’-Ellen says the same thing later…we’ve heard that line before
Ellen and Jo live because the Titanic didn’t sink so boys and Bobby reject that as a solution
‘Your kind of librarian or my kind of librarian?’
Cas pulls them to White Russia?
Fate is pissed because averting the apocalypse rendered her obsolete-huh?
Ellen gets truth from Bobby and it is so sad because the 2 of them were really good together
Personal reaction-I laughed so hard when the boys had to get through the jugglers because one of my sons-in-law is a professional juggler and I’ve seen him juggle machetes and fire…
So Balthazar created the 50,000 new souls for the angel war…but really, wouldn’t they have to die for Cas to access them so he should be all in favor of what Fate is doing?
Wake to ‘My Heart Will Go On’ on car radio
Boys figure out they had the same dream
Cas lies about why Balthazar unsunk the ship and says he did it to keep the boys safe-time to start wondering what’s going on with Cas
Cas: ‘You're the ones who taught me that you can make your own destiny. You don't have to be ruled by fate. You can choose freedom. I still believe that that's something worth fighting for. I just wanted you to understand that’
Dean covers sleeping Bobby with blanket
122. Frontierland (6.18)-W: Dabb & Loflin & Stewart/D: Bee
Recap: Samuel Colt backstory; Cas doing time travel; ‘mother’
Opens with showdown on March 5, 1861 and wow, does Dean rock the cowboy look!!!
Title card mimics that of old TV series ‘Bonanza’
48 hours earlier looking through Grandpa’s secret library
Dean’s glee over finding Colt’s journal
‘We’ll Star Trek 4 this bitch’
Rachel comes instead of Cas and she is not a Winchester fan
They still have some of the dragon loot
Marshall Clint Eastwood and Walker, Texas Ranger-that was just meant to be, wasn’t it…
Elkins runs the saloon
Music really enhances the episode
Dean makes a plan pretty quickly, sends Sam for the Colt
That is not Sam riding the horse across the horizon LOL
Rachel accuses Cas of doing unethical things-‘I don’t have a choice’
Cas again has some really slick fighting movies
Dean given the sheriff’s badge
Sam tells Colt the truth-‘When you’ve done this job as long as I have, a giant from the future with some magic brick doesn’t exactly give you the vapors’
Cas lies to Bobby about why Rachel fought him
Phoenix has a tragic story and the victims had it coming…but Dean slapped him with the ‘monster’ label anyway
Cas needs to use Bobby’s soul to power himself up
‘Yippee-ki-yay, motherf...’
Missing the ashes by inches-that was hard to watch
How did Colt unlock Sam’s phone to get Bobby’s address???
Dean is back in non-stop mode: ‘We take the fight to her’
Dean in cowboy gear and in the shoot-out…
123. Mommy Dearest (6.19)-W: Glass/D: Showalter
Recap: Alphas, monsters, Crowley burning, Eve, phoenix ashes
What is the fascination with making girls and young women evil???
Dean makes 5 phoenix bullets
Cas kills Lenore when Sam and Dean hesitate
Cas is being very hard-ass no-nonsense
Bobby improvises being FBI very slickly when stopped by cop
Dean and Sam have to drive ‘borrowed’ cars since Cas zapped them from Bobby’s
Eve is not very good at creating monsters, since all of her new types are dying…she spends a lot of time working on her beta versions…
Jefferson Starships-and Sam calls them Starships going forward
Dean evades capture by the cops and manages to rescue Sam and Bobby in the station
They test the kids before taking off the handcuffs
Bobby torturing again…he seems scarily comfortable with it
Cas strongly disapproves of boys taking time to take the kids to safety-'Pardon me for highlighting their crippling and dangerous empathetic response with "sarcasm." It was a bad idea letting them go’-Bobby: ‘You don't let Sam and Dean Winchester do squat. They got what they gotta’
Dean feeling good about doing one good thing
Cas tortures the monster and gets the address
Dean: ‘Is there anybody in this diner that is not a flesh-eating monster?’-Sam: ‘Uh, me and you’
Eve knows who they are and can smell the phoenix ash in the guns
Eve was happy with the natural order-'My children turned a few of you, you hunted a few of them. I was happy’ but Crowley’s actions upset the balance so she was pushed into taking over the world
Eve says Crowley is still alive and that he wants the souls from Purgatory (so monsters have souls but not angels)
The younger boy is the perfect monster and Dean set him loose-Dean is crushed
Supersmart Dean goads Eve into biting him because he ingested the ash from the last bullet which was brilliant strategy on his part (only when the heck did he do that???)
Cas powers on and wipes out the monsters in the diner
Demons took out the kid monsters fortunately
Cas is surprised to hear Crowley is still alive
Bobby is suspicious of Cas, Dean absolutely trusts him, Sam in the middle (I’m not seeing what of Cas’ behavior would trigger Bobby’s suspicions though)
And we see Crowley discussing cleaning up Cas’ mess
For all the lead-up to Eve being the big bad, meeting and dispatching her in the same episode felt rushed, likewise her gloating over having made the perfect monster only to have them eliminated, like these were ideas that were put into play without fully figuring out how to end them-so writers just handwaved them away…plus the whole concept of her gathering her existing monsters into armies just was dropped
124. The Man Who Would Be King (6.20)-W: Edlund/D: Edlund
Recap: Stull; Cas in a war; Soulless Sam; Purgatory and power of its souls; Eve’s death; Crowley’s alive
We don’t know who Cas is talking to
‘I remember the most remarkable event. Remarkable because it never came to pass. It was averted by two boys, an old drunk, and a fallen angel. The grand story, and we ripped up the ending, and the rules, and destiny, leaving nothing but freedom and choice. Which is all well and good, except... but what if I've made the wrong choice?’
Cas acts baffled in front of boys by how Crowley tricked him with the bones
Crowley and Cas have words-Crowley needed Eve alive, and he sees Cas having a conflict of interest between his deal with Crowley and being friends with Sam and Dean
We see Cas being resurrected at Stull and he frees Sam from the Cage without realizing right away he left Sam’s soul there
Red is a hunter who is now a demon; Bobby tortures him ruthlessly for info on Crowley
Dean conflicted, wants to believe in Cas-‘he can make a mistake’
Cas is listening to the conversation
Ellsworth is the demon counterpart to Bobby
We see the deal between Crowley and Cas in flashback-Rachel and some of the angels wanted Cas to be their new leader but he wanted the angels to see they had freedom; Raphael is planning to restart the apocalypse plan; Crowley manipulates Cas perfectly: ‘Cas, you love God. God loves you. He brought you back. Did it occur to you that maybe he did this so you could be the new sheriff upstairs?’ and offers Cas 50,000 souls from hell for the confrontation with Raphael; Cas accepts because he doesn’t want to ask more from Dean who is now with Lisa; Crowley brings back Grandpa for his expertise-Cas thinks he knows what he’s doing: ‘I was no fool. I knew who Crowley was and what he did. But I was smarter than him, stronger. I see now that I was prideful. And in all likelihood, I was a fool’
We see that Crowley has reformed hell into an endless line (though he still has demons working for him topside obviously)
Dean: ‘Look me in the eye and tell me you're not working with Crowley’-Cas drops his gaze
Cas to Sam: ‘I’m the one who raised you from perdition’-Sam: ‘Wait, did you bring me back soulless on purpose?’-ouch
Cas insists he had no choice in order to save the world from Raphael
Dean: ‘Why else would you keep this whole thing a secret, huh, unless you knew that it was wrong? When crap like this comes around, we deal with it... Like we always have. What we don't do is we don't go out and make another deal with the Devil!’-a little hypocritical there, Dean…
Cas’ protestations of having to do this for the greater good mirror Sam’s arguments in season 4 and Dean has really got to be feeling the betrayal all over again
Cas makes Crowley swear not to hurt the Winchesters
Cas tries to convince Dean one last time: ‘I'm doing this for you, Dean. I'm doing this because of you…You're the one who taught me that freedom and free will…’ -Dean: ‘Just because you can do what you want doesn't mean that you get to do whatever you want!’-Cas: ‘I know what I'm doing, Dean’-Dean: ‘I’m asking you not to…you are like a brother to me…You got to trust me, man’-He couldn’t stop Sam and he can’t stop Cas…
And we find out Cas has been telling his story to God as he asks for a sign
125. Let It Bleed (6.21)-W: Gamble/D: Showalter
Recap: Lisa, Dr. Visyak, Cas/Crowley deal, Balthazar, Dean asking Cas not to work with Crowley
Lovecraft’s murder March 15, 1937
Cas stole Moshe Campbell’s journals when he saw Dean last night, but Bobby had copies
Dean doesn’t know Lovecraft? That doesn’t track at all!
Ben is reading Cthulhu Tales when kidnapped
Crowley is holding Ben and Lisa hostage to make boys stand down
Dean freaks out
Dean assumes Cas was in on the kidnapping
They summon Balthazar for help, he claims he already knew about Cas and Crowley and won’t help them find Lisa and Ben
Dean is torturing demons and drinking, won’t accept help from Sam: ‘This is 100% on me’
Sam calls Cas anyway who rescues Dean when devil’s trap is broached-‘I didn’t ask for your help’
Balthazar asks Cas for the truth, not happy that Cas plans on absorbing all the souls-could go nuclear
Bobby has found out the truth about Dr. Visyak-she is from Purgatory; she rejects his offer of safety
Balthazar decides to help the boys-gets them to where Lisa and Ben are
It seems odd that Dean would be carrying the duffle in one hand while he is heading in to fight demons
Dean takes out multiple demons off-screen
Lisa is possessed and taunts: ‘She wishes she never met you, Dean. You're the worst mistake she ever made. (to Ben) Second worst, after keeping you’
Dean jumps into exorcism but demon has Lisa stab herself (just like Azazel did with Grandpa)-Dean finishes the exorcism knowing it’s a no-win situation
When Ben freezes Dean slaps him and then orders him to shoot the demons (He also has Ben pick up Ruby’s knife and I don’t see how the kid can fire the shotgun while holding the knife but it is still in his hand when they finally exit the building…)
Cas is still trying to make Dean see why he has to open Purgatory-he heals Lisa unprompted-Dean: ‘Thank you. I wish this changed anything’
Dean makes the worst decision out of all 15 seasons when he has Cas wipe him from Lisa and Ben’s memories and I am still pissed at him for that even as he looks so gutted leaving the hospital-he had no right to do that…plus it doesn’t even make sense as far as keeping them safe-monsters can still come for them and now they don’t know who to call for protection!!! And, biggest issue of all, over 9 more seasons nothing is heard about what happened to them ever again!!! (How would that even work, that they don’t remember Dean-what about everyone they know who knew Dean? Did their memories get changed too? What happens when Lisa finds out her boyfriend was murdered? Aargh…)
‘I’m the guy who hit you…I lost control for a minute’
Sam objects-Dean: ‘If you ever mention Lisa and Ben to me again I will break your nose’
126. The Man Who Knew Too Much (6.22)-W: Kripke/D: Singer
Road so Far covers the season
Remember watching this for the first time and being totally taken in by the opening, trying to figure out what’s happening…until we see that it’s all in Sam’s head
We see that Cas took down Sam’s wall-the ultimate betrayal of Dean
Cool transition of Dean flashing light into Sam’s eyes and Dream Sam being blinded by the sudden daylight
Dream Sam and Soulless Sam are 2 completely different people (kudos to Jared!)
And Dream Sam is the smart one
Sam remembering that he shot Robin to get at a demon…
Cas renegotiates his deal with Crowley (why did Crowley give Cas the jar of blood? Crowley is smarter than that!)
Dean is at the end of coping…
He leaves the address and a note with Sam’s body
Hell Sam wants Sam to live a happy life in his head but Sam can’t: ‘I’m not leaving my brother alone out there’-and here is where we see the strength Sam has and his devotion to his brother
Hell Sam doesn’t fight
Cass kills Balthazar when he realizes his betrayal-his death lights up the building
The demon cloud upends the Impala-ouch!
Crowley shows up with Raphael to re-renegotiate the deal
Even though Cas is in the wrong, had to cheer that he outsmarted Crowley
Dean’s swan dive over the railing should have left him in a lot worse condition
And now Cas is very scary: ‘You doubted me, fought against me, but I was right all along’-Dean, very carefully: ‘Okay, Cas, you were. We're sorry. Now let's just defuse you, okay?’-Cas: ‘No, I'm not finished yet. Raphael had many followers, and I must punish them all severely… I'm glad you made it, Sam. But the angel blade won't work, because I'm not an angel anymore. I'm your new God. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your Lord. Or I shall destroy you’ (Misha delivers these lines chillingly)
Overall thoughts:
Season 6 is a decent season. I thought the pacing was pretty good in setting up the various problems: what’s wrong with Sam?; what to do about soulless Sam; what’s going on with Cas?; and oh yeah, there’s something weird going on with monsters…and don’t forget what’s going on with Grandpa and with Crowley. So a lot of balls being juggled but most of them were caught, though the monster/Eve story was the weakest.
It was confusing to have episodes titled ‘Two and a Half Men’ and ‘The Third Man’ back-to-back and later ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ and ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ one episode apart…
I didn’t realize Kripke wrote the finale.
The most important thing to me, though, is that the character development of Sam and Dean felt true.
One last thought-we run into soulless people again in season 11 when Amara takes them, and it will be interesting to compare how they acted with how soulless Sam acted. My gut reaction is that his behavior-have no moral restrictions, making decisions on logic alone, does fall in line with what we get then.
Season 6
General Observation-When you watch season 6 knowing the secrets behind the behavior of Sam and Cas the season really holds up. And once again we get to watch Dean suffer through feeling betrayed by his brother and best friend, angsting about the mega-monster problem, and finding out that family doesn’t mean the same thing to others…
To the episodes-
105. Exile on Main Street (6.01)-W: Gamble/D: Sgriccia
Recap-One year ago Sam making Dean promise to go to Lisa and going in the Cage
7 AM-Dean’s day-his face as he wakes up just shows so much of ‘why am I doing this when Sam’s in Hell’ as ‘Beautiful Loser’ plays and his new life is shown intercut with comparable scenes from his old life: salt into eggs/salting against ghosts; opening his trunk for construction tools/opening Impala trunk for weapons; hammering a wall/staking a vamp; table saw at work/sawing off vamp head; beer after work/beer with Sam; teaching Ben mechanics/showing Sam mechanics
Interspersed are new life stand-alones like BBQ with neighbors, locking the doors
When he goes to bed we see holy water and a gun under the bed (really, a gun that easily accessible to Ben???)
Neighbor/co-worker Sid and Dean having beers, Sid talking about how 15 years ago he never would have dreamed this life in suburbia-oh, the poignancy of that remark to Dean!
Dean does excellent job of deflecting Sid’s nosiness
Waitress gives him phone number-‘It’s like chicks specifically dig unavailable guys’-he is a one-woman man now
Dean still has his gun in his truck
Fake-out bird scare
And Dean’s hiding that he’s checking into a case from Lisa…
Dean checking locks walking around barefoot highlights his vulnerability now (and for some reason is really hot)
Sid catching Dean waving a gun: ‘I got a permit!’-question if that is true…
Impala’s trunk still packed
Lisa: ‘Did you almost shoot a Yorkie?’-Dean: ‘Technically’
Lisa presses for truth and Dean gives half-truth that he was hunting something but thinks it’s nothing really
His jacket, dad’s journal…
All the clues to this point have pointed to a real case and it’s believable that Azazel was brought back!
Azazel: …did you really think you were gonna get to keep all of this?...You can’t outrun your past’-and we get the first theme of the season
Dean’s first words upon seeing Sam: ‘So I’m dead? This is heaven?’-That’s Dean’s whole story, Dean’s heaven is being with Sam
Dean hugs Sam-Sam is oddly detached
Dean is immediately concerned with what brought Sam back-he can’t trust anything good ever happens to him
Sam has been back a year-Sam: ‘You finally had what you wanted, Dean’-Dean: ‘I wanted my brother back!’-Sam: ‘You wanted a family. You have for a long time, maybe the whole time…You only gave it up because of the way we lived. But you had something, and you were building something. Had I shown up, Dean, you would have just run off. I'm sorry. But it felt like after everything, you deserve some regular life’
The Campbell contemporaries are 3rd cousins
Grandpa initiates a hug with Dean who is reeling
‘We’re guessing whatever pulled Sam up pulled me down’-Based on future events I doubt Grandpa was pulled from heaven…
So Sam was hit by the djinn a couple days ago-I wonder what nightmare he had
All the pictures of Dean, Lisa, and Ben
When Dean shows up at Bobby’s-‘If you’re here something’s wrong’
Dean’s face when he realizes Bobby knew Sam had been back for a year-Bobby’s excuse: ‘You got out, Dean’
Dean: ‘I showed up on their doorstep half out of my head with grief. God knows why they even let me in. I drank too much. I had nightmares. I looked everywhere. I collected hundreds of books, trying to find anything to bust you out’-Sam: ‘You promised you’d leave it alone’-Dean: ‘Of course I didn’t leave it alone!’
Lisa and Dean’s conversation-she calls him on his self-esteem issues and cares about him anyway-I always felt she really cared and understood him and wasn’t afraid to call him on his fear of failing
Lisa: ‘…the guy that basically just saved the world shows up at your door, you expect him to have a couple of issues. And you're always so amazing with Ben. You know what I wanted, more than anything was a guy that Ben could look up to like a dad. So, you're saying it's all bad, Dean? 'Cause it was the best year of my life’-that last line feels like she was saying it to get through to Dean that he wasn’t a failure…also Dean must have told her a version of the events of the apocalypse
Sam has his snazzy car
Christian: ‘Leave it to the professionals’-him I would like to punch in the face
And Dean comes up with a plan because he’s not just going to sit around and wait for the monsters-‘It’s almost like I’m a professional’
It was uncalled for of the hunters to mock Dean’s home and life
Grandpa makes a pitch to recruit Dean: ‘I get it, Dean. You wanted a normal life. Your mom wanted a normal life, too. You remind me of her, actually’
Monsters are acting weird
Campbells were killing vamps on the Mayflower (that would be an interesting prequel…)
It’s daylight when the decision is made for the Campbells to leave the premises but it’s night when they actually drive off?
Sam doesn’t want to talk about the Cage
Dean’s nightmare is Lisa burning on the ceiling and Ben drinking demon blood-he can’t get away from his past-‘It’s all your fault’
That fight really trashes Dean’s house
And Grandpa is up to something with capturing the djinn
Sam thinks Dean shouldn’t stay with Lisa-Dean: ‘…I did this to them. I made them vulnerable the moment I knocked on their door…’
Sam wants Dean back: ‘You didn't hesitate. Because you care, and that's who you are. Me? I wouldn't even think to try…it’s just better with you around’-the first hint
Dean offers Sam the Impala-the second time he has offered to give Sam a tangible part of himself-Sam says no because he has his car set up the way he likes it-what a cold turndown
106. Two and a Half Men (6.02)-W: Glass/D: Showalter
Recap: Sam’s back for a year; Dean has a family; Grandpa; shapeshifters
The fireplace in that victim’s house is also Bobby’s
That teaser is exceptionally horrific because the mom is protecting the baby and that got to me
Dean has moved them to a new house-and is putting them on lockdown out of fear
Sam has an upgraded suit
Grandpa: ‘Baby stew is bad’ whether it’s monsters or people
Ben wants to learn about hunting-Dean: ‘Ben, you will never, ever shoot a gun’-this line is particularly hard because of what will happen at the end of the season when Dean shoves a gun into Ben’s hands
Dean doesn’t know how to find the middle ground between ‘all normal’ and ‘all hunting’
Lisa calls him out that he has to let them live their lives
Dean teaches Lisa how to use a gun and she understands he needs to go and also feels he needs to stay: ‘If you don’t walk out that door I’m gonna shoot you’
It’s day when Sam calls from 30 minutes away, night when they meet (and the baby hasn’t been fed or changed that whole time???)
Dean still driving his truck
Sam’s car’s seatbelt warning
That baby gives Dean the most adorable smile
Dean: ‘Bobby’-Sam: ‘John’-they each picked the father they feel closest to-because Sam is now more like John than Dean ever was in his single-mindedness
Dean: ‘I kind of feel like I have a chance to do something different with Ben, you know?-Sam: ‘But moving them around? Keeping them on lockdown?...How is any of that different from how we were raised?’ Dean: ‘This is temporary’-Sam: ‘Dad always said it was temporary, Dean. He said it for 22 years. Look, I get it. You want to watch out for them. That's great. I'm just asking, how do you do that and not turn into Dad?’-Way to be supportive, Sam…
Whiskey on the baby’s gums is not recommended, Dean!
Magic fingers bed
Dean’s switchblade reacts on shifter like it’s silver-must have had it customized?
Sam to Dean: ‘Samuel is a lot like you’
Dean hands the baby to Sam who immediately gives it to Samuel when Dean won’t hand it to Samuel directly
Christian knows about Dean torturing in hell
Shifter comes in as Grandpa, then Sam, then Dean
First idea of alphas
Dean questions Sam if he was using the baby shifter as bait-not sure how Dean jumped to that idea
Dean: ‘…if I knew for sure what the safest thing was, then I'd do it. Stay here and look after you guys or get as far away as I possibly can, but I don't know. And I get what I've been doing lately…with the yelling and the acting like a prison guard…You tell yourself you're not gonna be something, you know? But my dad was exactly like this. All the time. It's scaring the hell out of me.’-Lisa: ‘Maybe we're safer with you here, maybe gone. I don't know. The one thing that I do know is that you're not a construction worker. You're a hunter. And now you know your brother's out there, things are different. You don't want to be here, Dean… if there's some rule that says this all has to be either/or, how about we break it? Me and Ben will be here, and you come when you can. Just come in one piece, okay?’-And that is why I loved Lisa
Baby is back!
107. The Third Man (6.03)-W: Edlund/D: Singer
Recap: Sam’s back, Lisa lets Dean go, Archangels, holy oil, Cas going to be sheriff of heaven
Dean and Lisa in bed-but it’s only a dream interrupted by road noises
Dean’s morning routine of a few stretches while Sam works out shirtless after a night of paid-for sex
Extra gross deaths
Suits
Dean on the phone with Ben: ‘I know you're lying. Because I lie professionally, that's how. Now tell your mom that you broke the damn thing and take it like a man. Okay?’
Dean races Sam to the interview and wins
Cas comes when Dean calls, has not answered Sam all year, is very brusque and down-to-business-we can assume from later events Cas is feeling guilty
Dean is the only one who thinks torturing the boy is wrong
Sam’s car is crushed
First mention of civil war in heaven
Balthazar says Cas taught him that rules were breakable and the angels have freedom to do what they want
Sam has an angel blade
Why does Raphael fistfight with Cas??? They’re angels!
How convenient they had a holy oil circle in just the right place for Balthazar
Cas lets Dean handle Balthazar: ‘I believe the hairless ape has the floor’
First mention that souls have power
Ben’s Halloween mask-a wendigo-in the trunk (did Dean put it there when he drove off? Or when else would it have been put in the Impala???)
Dean tells Sam something is different with him-Sam: ‘ I’ve been hunting non-stop for the past year…I suppose I’m a little rough around the edges’-Dean: ‘You went to hell, Sam…I know what that does to a guy’-Sam: ‘To you…it tortured you…I think it still does…But I’m okay’
108. Weekend at Bobby’s (6.04)-W: Dabb & Loflin/D: Ackles!!!
Recap: Crowley/Bobby deal; Rufus; Jody; Dean’s concern about Sam
1 year ago we see Crowley getting out of having to return Bobby’s soul on a technicality
The contract is written on Bobby’s skin
Dean sends claw picture to Bobby by cellphone-first time we see that phone technology used
Bobby’s day montage to ‘The Gambler’
Demon in Bobby’s basement-throughout the episode he is discomfitingly ruthless and has no concern for the meatsuit
First time we seeing burning the demon’s bones (had to think about this one-a hunter would have to find out the demon’s human identity before it went to hell and became a demon which would seem rather daunting. However it does fall in line with burning the bones of a ghost gets rid of them so same thing could apply to demons)
Crowley is now the King of Hell
Marcie has been Bobby’s neighbor for 6 months-her suggestion of watching the movie ‘Drag Me to Hell’ is extremely ironic
Garth calls Bobby on the FBI line-loved that they made him a real character later on
Monsters are showing up in the wrong places
Bobby has a backhoe for digging graves LOL
Rufus deduces Crowley AKA Fergus McCloud’s place of origin because of knowing Craig whiskey
Crowley’s son Gavin sailed on a ship that sank
Dean wants to talk to Bobby about Sam not being right-Bobby has bigger problems and lays into the boys
Jody turns down Bobby’s request to extradite Rufus because it could mean the end of her career…and then she does it anyway
Bobby uses a different summoning spell for Gavin than he used for Crowley (someone should catalog all the different summoning spells they use throughout the show to see if there’s any correlation to what their summoning/what spell they use)
Crowley’s having a rough time running hell, poor baby
Sam and Dean flew to Scotland??? (That feels like the writers dug themselves into a hole with Crowley’s bones and just hand-waved to get out of it)
Sam keeps Dean from burning the bones-'a deal’s a deal’-It would have been a lot shorter season if Sam had let him…
Bobby actually got the best of Crowley!
109. Live Free or Twihard (6.05)-W: Matthews/D: Hardy
Recap: vamp info, worry about Sam, Grandpa, Lisa telling Dean to come and go as he can
Dean tells Lisa he’s only a night’s drive from Cicero and will stop by
Grandpa is the go-to guy for information now? Hmmm
Boris: ‘You’re pretty’-Dean: ‘I don’t play for your team’
Sam watches Dean get turned
Dean knows he has to be killed
Dean wonders why Sam’s heartbeat is so steady instead of elevated from anxiety over what happened
Dean’s visit to Lisa is intense-he’s fighting his urges so hard while she wants to know what is going on
All things considered, that wasn’t a very big shove to Ben…
Dean comes back to be killed
Sam denies knowing about the cure
Message from the Vampire ‘dad’ saves Dean from Boris unleashing the other vamps on him
Dean mows down those vamps like nobody’s business; we don’t actually see him kill Boris though
Grandpa: ‘Looks like your brother has some Campbell in him after all’
Dean remembers Sam watching
Sam is pushing about what did Dean see
Vamps are on a recruiting drive
Lisa won’t take Dean’s calls
Dean: ‘I can always count on you, right, Sammy?’-Loaded question
110. You Can’t Handle the Truth (6.06)-W: Charmelo & Snyder & Reed/D: Eliasberg
Recap: Sam’s not right; Lisa last episode; highlights of the previous episode
Suicide of waitress at Biggersons
Dean venting to Bobby about Sam, convinced that it’s not Sam
Suits
Dean drinking, freaking out about Sam, looking up doppelgangers on-line
Cas comes because Dean thinks the horn of Gabriel is there and Dean is upset Cas ignored all his other requests to help with Sam: ‘I didn’t come about Sam because I have nothing to offer about Sam’
Cas is disappointing Dean too: ‘What happened to you? You used to be human, or at least like one’
When Lisa tells Dean the truth she is honest but not cruel: ‘ You've got so much buried in there, and you push it down, and you push it down. Do you honestly think that you can go through life like that and not freak out? Just, what, drink half a fifth a night and you're good?’-Dean: You knew what you signed up for’-Lisa: ‘Yeah. But I didn't expect Sam to come back. And I'm glad he's okay. I am. But the minute he walked through that door, I knew. It was over. You two have the most unhealthy, tangled-up, crazy thing I've ever seen. And as long as he's in your life, you're never gonna be happy. That came out so much harsher than I meant…I'm not saying don't be close to Sam. I'm close to my sister. But if she got killed, I wouldn't bring her back from the dead!..Me and Ben can't be in this with you. I'm sorry.’
Dean’s face when he hangs up…
This might have gone differently if Dean had just told her the truth about being temporarily vamped
Sam lies about not stopping the vampire with the cover that he ‘can’t lie here’
Smart Dean figures out it’s the TV personality
(The case is a little weak-she would only have been in town a few weeks since the summoning yet she’s a TV celeb already? A little dialog about her fast rise would have helped. And watching video outtakes for hours looking for a clue? Why not just walk a dog past her to get a live reaction?)
Dean’s truth-telling: ‘You're covered in blood until you're covered in your own blood. Half the time, you're about to die. Like right now. I told myself I wanted out... that I wanted a family…But what I'm good at... is slicing throats. I ain't a father. I'm a killer. And there's no changing that. I know that now’-And Dean condemns himself
Even though Veritas has already announced that Sam isn’t right they boys work seamlessly to kill her
Sam talking to stop Dean from killing him: ‘There's something wrong with me, really wrong. I've known it for a while. I lied to you…Ever since I came back, I am a better hunter than I've ever been! Nothing scares me anymore! 'Cause I can't feel it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think I need help’-Was anything in that statement the truth???
14 brutal punches-if it was overlookable in the previous 5 seasons, it should be really clear now that Dean has anger management issues that can be very scary
111. Family Matters (6.07)-W: Dabb & Loflin/D: Bee
Recap: Vamp episode; Grandpa; what happened with Veritas
Painful cavity search
Sam is soulless and suddenly it all makes sense
We find out shortly that Christian Campbell has been a demon for a long time. Why didn’t Cas see that?
Dean doubles down on Cas to do something
Grandpa is not comfortable with Dean’s questioning of authority
Grandpa’s been hiding what he’s really doing from Dean since the beginning. Why is that, Grandpa? Conscience bothering you just a little? Dean reminds you a little too much of what Mary would say about what you’re doing?
Gwen Campbell is at least potentially a decent person
Dean trying to control Sam again: ‘Nobody's forcing you to work with me, okay? But if we do this... I drive the bus, I call the shots, and you tell me everything, whether you think it's important or not, because you can't tell the difference’ And Dean once again becomes his brother’s monitor because he doesn’t trust Sam
Dean figured it was 60/40 whether Sam would stay with him or go with Grandpa
The timing in the episode seems kind of wonky here-Sam turns the cell GPS on in Grandpa’s car, goes to where Dean is waiting, and gets the ping from the GPS right away-but how did Grandpa get to the destination that fast?
Alpha vamp: ‘We all have our mothers…where do we go when we die’-and the season plot starts its shift from soulless Sam to Eve and Purgatory
Christian’s demon reveal
Grandpa’s been playing Crowley’s game
Grandpa has been told Crowley pulled both him and Sam back (a lie, but we don’t know that yet)
And Crowley dangles Sam’s soul (which he doesn’t actually have)-and right now Sam wants it back so he tells Dean to suck it up
Sam: ‘He sold us out’-but Dean won’t let him shoot Grandpa
A lot of plot machinations in this episode but it never got me emotionally involved
112. All Dogs Go to Heaven (6.08)-W: Glass/D: Sgriccia
Recap: Werewolves lore, Soulless Sam, Alphas, Crowley is their boss
Dean does not want to work with Crowley but his threat to Sam followed by promise of soul make him give in
Sam still thinks about Susie Heizer from biology class-Dean remembers her
Suits
Dean sleeping in his clothes, Sam up and dressed (in suit) already
Sam can tell the interviewee is sweating vodka-does soullessness give him heightened sensory perception as well?
Dean insists they need proof before turning Mandy over to Crowley-Sam would just do it already
‘The last werewolf was in bed with me and she wolfed out’-soulless Sam really has no feelings!
Knowing from hindsight the dog is really a man, watching him with Mandy is creepy!
Dean staring at Lisa’s number
They haven’t heard of a skinwalker in years
Interrogating human Lucky, Dean uses the danger to Mandy and kid to get information-protecting their innocent families is something they have in common-while Sam threatening and contemptuous which doesn’t work
30 skinwalkers recruited to turn their families when the signal comes down
Dean with sniper rifle-and he’s the one manning it, not Sam
Dean tries to get Sam to see they can’t get his soul back if it costs 150 people their lives
Sam: ‘I’d double-cross us’
Dean can’t get a clean shot, and the hostages change the situation
Dean lets Lucky get away
Lucky is rejected by Mandy-I couldn’t help but feel bad for him, but here we have another person doing the wrong thing for the ‘right’ reasons and getting burned
And Sam reveals that he really doesn’t care about Dean but does think his soul is a good idea: ‘Like Lisa and Ben, right? I've been acting like I care about them. But I don't. I couldn't care less…I don't even really care about you. Except that I need your help…I don't know if how I am is better or worse…You get the job done, and nothing really hurts…But there are also things about it I remember that I... Let's just say I think I should probably go back to being him’
113. Clap Your Hands if You Believe (6.09)-W: Edlund/D: Showalter
Recap: Lisa saying goodbye, Sam soulless
X-Files style title card with lots of images flashing behind the actors’ names and ‘The Truth is In There’ card
Townspeople are talking directly to camera-we eventually see that Sam and Dean are interviewing them
Sam is rude to the woman who says it’s fairies, not aliens
Dean doubles down that Sam has to follow his lead and let Dean be his conscience
It’s daylight when Dean tells Sam to follow the watchmaker and Dean will check out the field but it’s night when Dean gets there-also Dean drives out there, and then Sam goes out there and drives the Impala back to the motel-how did Sam get out there?
Use of the ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ music
Girl: ‘Your brother was abducted?’-Sam: ‘I’ve had time to adjust’-Girl: ‘Did it happen when you were kids?-Sam: ‘No, like half an hour ago’
Sam: ‘So, you’ve been hunting UFO’s for over three decades and you basically have no concrete data and zero workable leads…Have you considered the possibility that you suck at hunting UFO’s?’
‘Grabby incandescent douchebags’
Dean starts to sit on the bed Sam and the girl were in and stops, sits on the other bed
Dean trying to get Sam to see the proper course of action-Sam: ‘…what about when there are no more leads for the night? Are you supposed to just sit there in the dark and suffer, even when there’s nothing that can be done at that moment?’ Dean: ‘Yes, you sit in the dark and feel the loss’-Sam: ‘Absolutely! But couldn’t I just do all that and have sex with the hippie chick?...So you’re saying having a soul equals suffering’-Dean: ‘Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying’-And the first seeds of doubt are planted in Sam about getting his soul back
Sam researching in the library, Dean on-line: ‘At least books have punctuation’
‘Space Oddity’ playing while Dean has the fight with Tinkerbell is very funny
The microwave dings after the screen goes black for commercial
‘…it was a little, glowing, hot naked lady. With nipples. And she hit me’
Daylight when they split up, Sam after watchmaker, Dean going to the shop and night when he comes out?
Sam: ‘How does a father decide to trade his son for a bunch of watches? I mean, I assume you have a soul so what’s your excuse?’
Leprechaun can get Sam’s soul-his magic can slip in back doors
Green cooler
Dean is surprised Sam said no to leprechaun’s offer: ‘You’re not having second thoughts?’
114. Caged Heat (6.10)-D: Matthews & Klein/D: Singer
Recap: Meg, alphas, working for Crowley
Crowley uses an iridium knife on the alpha shifter
Dean upset at working with Crowley-Sam: ‘If you wanna get my soul back, that’s what we gotta do’
Meg is back, wants boys’ help against Crowley because he is hunting the Lucifer loyalists
Sam laughs when Meg holds a knife to Dean’s neck-more proof of his changed persona; challenges Meg because he senses the ‘flop sweat’ on the demons
Meg: ‘I apprenticed under Alastair in Hell just like your brother. So Dean, can I make Crowley do whatever I want?’-Dean’s face
Dean doesn’t want to work with Meg-who was responsible for Ellen and Jo’s deaths-any more than he wants to work with Crowley, Sam says he has a plan to screw her after they get Crowley
Sam uses the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ plot to lure Cas down, then threatens him if Cas won’t help: ‘I will hunt you down and kill you’
Grandpa is working for Crowley because Crowley promised to bring Mary back-it feels kind of icky that he wants Mary more than his wife…
Dean: ‘I’m asking you to learn from our mistakes! Doing this, this is how the bad guy gets us every time. It’s our Achilles' heel. Apparently it runs in the family. We will figure something else out. Okay?... Fine. Bring her back. But what are you gonna tell her? You gonna tell her you made a deal with a demon? That you wouldn’t help out her sons?’
So after protesting he has so much to do in heaven Cas is just sitting there watching porn in the motel? Why not go back to heaven until called again? (This scene and Cas kissing Meg later feel like they were put in because a writer thought it would be funny without considering whether it made any sense for the character…)
Meg has the demon-killing knife-now I can’t remember when we last saw it used to figure out how she got it…But Sam gets it back
Cas expresses concern for the state of Sam’s soul and what will happen if it’s put back…and Sam overhears
Hellhounds…Meg locked in meatsuit by spell on the building
Meg stays to kill the hounds so the boys can go after Crowley-sneaks the angel blade from Cas during the kiss that makes no sense
Grandpa sold them out: ‘I don’t even know what Sam is. And you want me to protect him? And you? You’re a stranger... exactly are you supposed to be to me?’-Dean: ‘I’m the guy you never wanna see again. ’Cause I’ll make it out of here, trust me. And the next time you see me, I’ll be there to kill you’ (What is it about seeing Dean’s ruthless certainty that makes him so appealing in that moment???)
Of course Meg has to be naked when tortured in a particularly sadistically ‘seductive’ way
Sam biting his arm to make the devil’s trap out of blood-yikes! My first thought was he was going to drink his own demon blood-wonder if we were supposed to think that
Dean frees Meg-interesting that he keeps his word with her when he was ready to break his word to torch Crowley’s bones
Meg has the power to torture Crowley from a distance with a hand gesture…hmmm
Crowley still playing that he brought Sam back but can’t get his soul-and why would Sam want the messed-up thing anyway?
Crowley and Cas exchange words-we find out later that it was an act
Cas burns the bones and Crowley flames out-it was a triumphant moment when the episode first aired, now it just leads to the question of how they pulled that off
Dean was going to kill Meg-after giving Cas an hour with her first-ick
Sam: ‘You heard what Crowley said. And I heard what Cas said. Putting this thing back in would smash me to bits…I don’t think I want it back…You obviously care, a lot. But I think maybe I’m better off without it’
115. Appointment in Samarra (6.11)-W: Gamble & Singer/D: Rohl
Recap: Death, his ring, Tessa, Balthazar, souls are powerful, Sam’s soul wrecked
Dr. Roberts stitched John up a lot
75% success rate for revival
Dean has a letter for Ben if it doesn’t work, not Sam: ‘If I don’t make it back nothing I say is gonna mean a damn thing to him’
Doc says Dean will have 3 minutes-he ends up being dead for 7 minutes
Death: ‘…you have hubris but no leverage…’
Dean asks for Sam and Adam, picks Sam without hesitation (sorry Adam)
‘…is there any way that you could, uh, I don't know, hack the hell part off?’-Dean always trying for a solution
Sam does not want his soul back even with the wall idea-Dean: ‘Sam. I'm your brother. I'm not gonna let you get hurt. I know what I'm doing here…I won’t let it go wrong’-back to steamroller Dean
The rings were buried in Bobby’s yard
Tessa has a list, Death touches them, they die and she reaps them-who has to die is destiny (there will be questions about exactly how this works when Fate shows up later…)
Balthazar will help Sam just to screw Dean
Dean lets the robber linger in pain…there’s that dark side again…
Dean won’t kill the little girl-the father being alone figures into his decision
Plothole-Dean healed the girl, surgery cancelled, so nurse went home. But if Dean had killed the girl the surgery would still have been cancelled and the nurse would still have left early. Someone didn’t think that all the way through
Sam: ‘He’ll kill me to get that other guy back’
Bobby made a trap door in front of his closet
Bobby, why go in the basement after Sam? Why not stay safe in the panic room???
Tessa tells Jolene she was supposed to live a long life but Dean screwed up…so how does destiny fit into that, Tessa?
Moment of truth-Dean takes off ring, sacrificing Sam to save the busload of people…that’s why he’s our (tortured) hero
Dean has to explain to the little girl that she has to go because of the ‘natural order of things’ when he doesn’t want to believe it
Last minute Dean stops Sam from killing Bobby
Soulless Sam gets locked in the panic room and Dean is wrecked over what to do
Dean says he would have killed the girl if he had to do it again and Death is happy Dean learned his lesson. And then we get the message from Death that souls are valuable
Death will put Sam’s soul back because he wants the boys to keep digging about the souls, not for Dean because Dean and Sam are ‘an affront to the balance of the universe’ (Thought that occurs to me from future season revelations-is Death helping the boys to foil God’s plotting?)
‘Don’t scratch the wall’
116. Like a Virgin (6.12)-W: Glass/D: Sgriccia
Road so Far recap of the season
The visual effect of the plane is pretty lame, unfortunately
Cas offers such comfort: ‘Let me tell you what his soul felt like when I touched it. Like it had been skinned alive, Dean. If you wanted to kill your brother, you should have done it outright’
Hug
Sam didn’t know Bobby and Cas were alive-doesn’t remember anything
Dean makes the executive decision to keep Sam in the dark-once again not trusting Sam, this time to ‘properly’ handle the information that he was darkside for a year and a half, uber-protective because it might crack the wall…sigh…
‘Slate’s wiped’
Bobby is not so sanguine about Sam’s presence -‘I’m having a bit of a hard time even looking at him’-and disagrees with Dean’s decision: ‘…when Sam realizes we're shining him, it ain't gonna be cute’
Sam asks about what Dean did about Lisa and Ben: ‘You do remember you promised that, right? So, why didn't you try?’-Dean: ‘What makes you think I didn’t?’-Sam: ‘Cause look at you. Look at this. You're exactly the same’-Dean: ‘I was with them for a year…didn’t work out’
Suits
Dean is so happy empathy Sam is back
Casting misstep--The actress being chased looks too old for a high school student
References to World of Warcraft, Hogwarts
Sam déjà vu about skinwalkers and Dean lies
Sigh, so many inappropriate virgin jokes
Hi Dr. Visyak! You’re a cool character…sorry you won’t be around too long…
The sword in the stone scene amusingness is enhanced by the music
Bobby taught Dean about explosives
Sam calls Cas who tells him about his past year-didn’t take long for that to happen…Sam hides that he knows from Dean
Dean grabs the dragons’ gold
‘I kind of feel like I got slipped the worst mickey of all time...and I woke up to find out that I had burnt the whole city down. And you can say it wasn't me, but...I'm the one with the zippo in my pocket, you know?...I appreciate you trying to protect me. I really do. But I got to fix...What I got to fix.
117. Unforgiven (6.13)-W: Dabb & Loflin/D: Barrett
Recap: Sam’s soul restored; wall; ‘you should have told me’
1 year ago-Sam and Grandpa on case-Sam firing gun, brutally beating cop who stops them
‘Mel Gibson really took a turn this past year’-‘Or he’s possessed’
Sam determined to follow mystery coordinates
Sam starts getting flashbacks but hides them from Dean
Sam distressed at flashback of bathroom sex
Dean wants to leave, citing: ‘One of dad’s rules-you never use the same crapper twice’ to protect Sam-Sam: ‘Everyone uses the same crapper twice’
Suits
Dean discovers soulless Sam had a fling with one of the victims ‘loud and athletic’
Lighting on Sam in jail keeps half his face in the dark the whole time-nice touch
Soulless Sam in flashback: ‘Family just slows you down’
‘I have to set things right, 'cause I got a frigging soul now, and it won't let me just walk away. I'm staying here. And I need you to back me up’
Soulless Sam uses Roy as unknowing bait; uses GPS trick to track him; is ruthless dispatching the victims, no attempt to save them
End result is more monsters running around…what a mess
Brenna doesn’t absolve Sam
Sam takes it very hard
Hell flashback of Sam burning
118. Mannequin 3: The Reckoning (6.14)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Swarzoc
Recap: Lisa mess; ‘don’t scratch the wall’
Dean is both crying and angry trying to revive Sam
Dean offers Sam coffee, food, and a container of pills-Sam: ‘What are they?’-Dean: ‘Effective’-when did Dean get them and what are they for???
Dean’s advice: ‘You shove it down and you let it come out in spurts of violence and alcoholism’
Suits
Dean doesn’t take Lisa’s calls-Sam tells him he has to deal with his past year too
Ben knows what to say to get Dean to come
Sam interviews the company staff and zeroes in on Jonny
Dean figures out right away what Ben did when Lisa answers the door
Dean: ‘Dr. Matt, how respectable’-Lisa: ‘That’s how this is going to be?’-Dean: ‘What do you want from me?’-Lisa: ‘I’m not asking for something’-Dean: ‘Then ask for something!’
Dean and Lisa to Ben: ‘Go to your room!’
Lisa: ‘Don't apologize or anything. It's just... It's just I get to this place where I'm okay, and then you show up at our door. You keep doing that, every time I think I'm never gonna see you again. I'm trying to get over you. What are you trying to do? What do you want from us, Dean?’-Dean doesn’t answer, scene ends-what was said next???
The workers were really cruel bullies and honestly deserved what happened to them!
Ben: ‘Why won't you come home? Can't you just say "I'm sorry" and then come back?...What ever I did, I’m sorry’-Dean: ‘… Just 'cause you love someone doesn't mean you should stick around and screw up their life. So I can't be here… I think my job turns me into somebody that can't sit at your dinner table. And if I stayed, you'd end up just like me’-Ben: ‘You’re a liar, Dean…You say family's so important, but what do you call people who care for you, who love you even when you're a dick? You know you're walking out on your family, right?’
Montage of Lisa memories as Dean drives back
Sam has his own car
When Impala engine starts up-Dean: ‘This is not a sex doll!’ and Impala headlights come on with his words LOL
What a cheat way to resolve the dilemma-accidentally kill the innocent girl!
Dean: ‘What exactly did we do back there, Sam?’-Sam: ‘Yeah, I’m not putting it in the win column either’
Other than the Dean/Lisa/Ben scenes this episode was a waste. Lots of creepy visuals of the mannequins to make it ‘scary’ because the writer had a visual they wanted in the show but the story was distasteful and the ending was a real cop-out
119. The French Mistake (6.15)-W: Edlund/D: Beeson
Recap: heaven civil war, Balthazar has weapons, Meg making blood phone call, Ruby
Bobby on supply run
Balthazar likes to hear himself talk
‘Should we be killing anybody?’
Entire episode is one lovingly crafted in-joke
Dean: ‘No, seriously. Why? Why would anybody want to watch our lives?’ -Sam: ‘…according to that interviewer, not very many people do’
‘Misha’ reads lines and explains the plot of the episode being filmed in the alternate universe-which is exactly what is happening to Sam and Dean
‘You married fake Ruby’-‘Yeah, I really ought to figure out her name’
Alpaca noise heard when scene blacks out to commercial
I would think with all the faking they have to do as hunters that they’d be able to fake-act a little better…And Dean was a PA on ‘Hollywood Babylon’ so again he should be a little more with it…
Smart Dean remembered the sigil and spell with just seeing Balthazar do it once!
The episode is all fun and games until Misha is murdered
‘Where?’ in sync
And Dean angsts about whether Sam would have a better life staying there
Kripke’s death is horrifyingly funny
When they return to their world through the window their backs are to it but they land forward
Cas justifies what was done: ‘If I lose against Raphael we all lose everything’
‘We’re broke again’-they went through the dragon’s hoard that fast?
It’s crazy but the background story makes it totally fit in the show and I love all the in-jokes!
In the episode commentary, Singer, Gamble, and Edlund say the bad acting scene is one of their favorites of the show and that Kripke was all in on killing himself
120. …And Then There Were None (6.16)-W: Matthews/D: Rohl
Recap: Rufus, Alphas, Grandpa’s betrayal, mention of ‘mother’ from purgatory
The trucker was a decent person
Monsters all along I80
Suits with overcoats
Rufus!
Ear goo is not ectoplasm
Hi Gwen…
Dean is ready to kill Grandpa immediately-Sam stops him-reversal of what happened earlier-Sam: ‘…not saying don’t, I’m saying not yet’
Dean kills Gwen under the influence-and this is completely ignored for the rest of the episode. I would have expected some remorse!
Sam: ‘We’re gonna find him alive, Samuel, or I’m gonna put a bullet into your head’
If looks could kill…Dean’s look at Grandpa…
Bobby’s idea of locking up the weapons was a good one…too bad Grandpa cheated…
Bobby says to go in with guns blazing-Rufus: ‘Like Omaha?
Smart Sam sees the booby trap wire
Grandpa dangles telling Sam about what he did last year
Sam shoots Grandpa when he won’t stop coming and then: ‘He wasn’t a monster when I ganked him?’ (Actually he was)
Sam: ‘What would Mom say?’-Dean: ‘You know what I think Mom would say? She'd say just 'cause you're blood doesn't make you family. You got to earn that’
Bobby tries to take the blame for Omaha: ‘You lost her because of me’-Rufus: ‘I will never forgive you for what happened’
Boys simultaneous kick to open the door is a thing of beauty
Dean goes first with the electrocution test
So Eve made this monster specifically to tell the hunters that they’re all gonna die??? That seems like a lot of effort to make a point she could make a lot easier…
When the worm fell on the floor I yelled ‘step on it!’
Shot of grave makes us think it’s Bobby’s at first-effective trick
Rufus saved Bobby from possessed Karen and they worked together for years
Dean: ‘Something's gonna get us eventually, and when my guts get ripped out, just so you two know, we're good. Blanket apology for all the crap that anybody's done all the way around’-except Dean really doesn’t forgive it all, he continues to bring Sam’s mistakes up in the future…and he never forgives himself
It was a shame that Rufus died, he was a cool character
121. My Heart Will Go on (6.17)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Sgriccia
Recap: Ellen and Jo, Balthazar, Rufus, Eve, souls are valuable
Okay, that is the most elaborate death trap ever…
Rock/paper/scissors-Dean throws paper and Sam loses!
Everything in the dialog seems normal…until we see the Mustang instead of Impala
Same Kansas license plate though
Ellen’s been gone a week…but Rufus still just died…
Smart Sam knows how to test the fiber to see if it’s gold
Dean in suit
Very weird list of questions Dean asking Russo-hasn’t asked those sorts of things in other cases…
And we get the case-the Titanic never sank
Balthazar says there are no more rules, history can be changed now
50,000 people shouldn’t have been born
Fates are ‘…the ones who hammer out the details of how you die’-Please explain to me how that is supposed to fit in with Death and reapers???
Bobby: ‘…big difference between dying awful and never being born’-Ellen says the same thing later…we’ve heard that line before
Ellen and Jo live because the Titanic didn’t sink so boys and Bobby reject that as a solution
‘Your kind of librarian or my kind of librarian?’
Cas pulls them to White Russia?
Fate is pissed because averting the apocalypse rendered her obsolete-huh?
Ellen gets truth from Bobby and it is so sad because the 2 of them were really good together
Personal reaction-I laughed so hard when the boys had to get through the jugglers because one of my sons-in-law is a professional juggler and I’ve seen him juggle machetes and fire…
So Balthazar created the 50,000 new souls for the angel war…but really, wouldn’t they have to die for Cas to access them so he should be all in favor of what Fate is doing?
Wake to ‘My Heart Will Go On’ on car radio
Boys figure out they had the same dream
Cas lies about why Balthazar unsunk the ship and says he did it to keep the boys safe-time to start wondering what’s going on with Cas
Cas: ‘You're the ones who taught me that you can make your own destiny. You don't have to be ruled by fate. You can choose freedom. I still believe that that's something worth fighting for. I just wanted you to understand that’
Dean covers sleeping Bobby with blanket
122. Frontierland (6.18)-W: Dabb & Loflin & Stewart/D: Bee
Recap: Samuel Colt backstory; Cas doing time travel; ‘mother’
Opens with showdown on March 5, 1861 and wow, does Dean rock the cowboy look!!!
Title card mimics that of old TV series ‘Bonanza’
48 hours earlier looking through Grandpa’s secret library
Dean’s glee over finding Colt’s journal
‘We’ll Star Trek 4 this bitch’
Rachel comes instead of Cas and she is not a Winchester fan
They still have some of the dragon loot
Marshall Clint Eastwood and Walker, Texas Ranger-that was just meant to be, wasn’t it…
Elkins runs the saloon
Music really enhances the episode
Dean makes a plan pretty quickly, sends Sam for the Colt
That is not Sam riding the horse across the horizon LOL
Rachel accuses Cas of doing unethical things-‘I don’t have a choice’
Cas again has some really slick fighting movies
Dean given the sheriff’s badge
Sam tells Colt the truth-‘When you’ve done this job as long as I have, a giant from the future with some magic brick doesn’t exactly give you the vapors’
Cas lies to Bobby about why Rachel fought him
Phoenix has a tragic story and the victims had it coming…but Dean slapped him with the ‘monster’ label anyway
Cas needs to use Bobby’s soul to power himself up
‘Yippee-ki-yay, motherf...’
Missing the ashes by inches-that was hard to watch
How did Colt unlock Sam’s phone to get Bobby’s address???
Dean is back in non-stop mode: ‘We take the fight to her’
Dean in cowboy gear and in the shoot-out…
123. Mommy Dearest (6.19)-W: Glass/D: Showalter
Recap: Alphas, monsters, Crowley burning, Eve, phoenix ashes
What is the fascination with making girls and young women evil???
Dean makes 5 phoenix bullets
Cas kills Lenore when Sam and Dean hesitate
Cas is being very hard-ass no-nonsense
Bobby improvises being FBI very slickly when stopped by cop
Dean and Sam have to drive ‘borrowed’ cars since Cas zapped them from Bobby’s
Eve is not very good at creating monsters, since all of her new types are dying…she spends a lot of time working on her beta versions…
Jefferson Starships-and Sam calls them Starships going forward
Dean evades capture by the cops and manages to rescue Sam and Bobby in the station
They test the kids before taking off the handcuffs
Bobby torturing again…he seems scarily comfortable with it
Cas strongly disapproves of boys taking time to take the kids to safety-'Pardon me for highlighting their crippling and dangerous empathetic response with "sarcasm." It was a bad idea letting them go’-Bobby: ‘You don't let Sam and Dean Winchester do squat. They got what they gotta’
Dean feeling good about doing one good thing
Cas tortures the monster and gets the address
Dean: ‘Is there anybody in this diner that is not a flesh-eating monster?’-Sam: ‘Uh, me and you’
Eve knows who they are and can smell the phoenix ash in the guns
Eve was happy with the natural order-'My children turned a few of you, you hunted a few of them. I was happy’ but Crowley’s actions upset the balance so she was pushed into taking over the world
Eve says Crowley is still alive and that he wants the souls from Purgatory (so monsters have souls but not angels)
The younger boy is the perfect monster and Dean set him loose-Dean is crushed
Supersmart Dean goads Eve into biting him because he ingested the ash from the last bullet which was brilliant strategy on his part (only when the heck did he do that???)
Cas powers on and wipes out the monsters in the diner
Demons took out the kid monsters fortunately
Cas is surprised to hear Crowley is still alive
Bobby is suspicious of Cas, Dean absolutely trusts him, Sam in the middle (I’m not seeing what of Cas’ behavior would trigger Bobby’s suspicions though)
And we see Crowley discussing cleaning up Cas’ mess
For all the lead-up to Eve being the big bad, meeting and dispatching her in the same episode felt rushed, likewise her gloating over having made the perfect monster only to have them eliminated, like these were ideas that were put into play without fully figuring out how to end them-so writers just handwaved them away…plus the whole concept of her gathering her existing monsters into armies just was dropped
124. The Man Who Would Be King (6.20)-W: Edlund/D: Edlund
Recap: Stull; Cas in a war; Soulless Sam; Purgatory and power of its souls; Eve’s death; Crowley’s alive
We don’t know who Cas is talking to
‘I remember the most remarkable event. Remarkable because it never came to pass. It was averted by two boys, an old drunk, and a fallen angel. The grand story, and we ripped up the ending, and the rules, and destiny, leaving nothing but freedom and choice. Which is all well and good, except... but what if I've made the wrong choice?’
Cas acts baffled in front of boys by how Crowley tricked him with the bones
Crowley and Cas have words-Crowley needed Eve alive, and he sees Cas having a conflict of interest between his deal with Crowley and being friends with Sam and Dean
We see Cas being resurrected at Stull and he frees Sam from the Cage without realizing right away he left Sam’s soul there
Red is a hunter who is now a demon; Bobby tortures him ruthlessly for info on Crowley
Dean conflicted, wants to believe in Cas-‘he can make a mistake’
Cas is listening to the conversation
Ellsworth is the demon counterpart to Bobby
We see the deal between Crowley and Cas in flashback-Rachel and some of the angels wanted Cas to be their new leader but he wanted the angels to see they had freedom; Raphael is planning to restart the apocalypse plan; Crowley manipulates Cas perfectly: ‘Cas, you love God. God loves you. He brought you back. Did it occur to you that maybe he did this so you could be the new sheriff upstairs?’ and offers Cas 50,000 souls from hell for the confrontation with Raphael; Cas accepts because he doesn’t want to ask more from Dean who is now with Lisa; Crowley brings back Grandpa for his expertise-Cas thinks he knows what he’s doing: ‘I was no fool. I knew who Crowley was and what he did. But I was smarter than him, stronger. I see now that I was prideful. And in all likelihood, I was a fool’
We see that Crowley has reformed hell into an endless line (though he still has demons working for him topside obviously)
Dean: ‘Look me in the eye and tell me you're not working with Crowley’-Cas drops his gaze
Cas to Sam: ‘I’m the one who raised you from perdition’-Sam: ‘Wait, did you bring me back soulless on purpose?’-ouch
Cas insists he had no choice in order to save the world from Raphael
Dean: ‘Why else would you keep this whole thing a secret, huh, unless you knew that it was wrong? When crap like this comes around, we deal with it... Like we always have. What we don't do is we don't go out and make another deal with the Devil!’-a little hypocritical there, Dean…
Cas’ protestations of having to do this for the greater good mirror Sam’s arguments in season 4 and Dean has really got to be feeling the betrayal all over again
Cas makes Crowley swear not to hurt the Winchesters
Cas tries to convince Dean one last time: ‘I'm doing this for you, Dean. I'm doing this because of you…You're the one who taught me that freedom and free will…’ -Dean: ‘Just because you can do what you want doesn't mean that you get to do whatever you want!’-Cas: ‘I know what I'm doing, Dean’-Dean: ‘I’m asking you not to…you are like a brother to me…You got to trust me, man’-He couldn’t stop Sam and he can’t stop Cas…
And we find out Cas has been telling his story to God as he asks for a sign
125. Let It Bleed (6.21)-W: Gamble/D: Showalter
Recap: Lisa, Dr. Visyak, Cas/Crowley deal, Balthazar, Dean asking Cas not to work with Crowley
Lovecraft’s murder March 15, 1937
Cas stole Moshe Campbell’s journals when he saw Dean last night, but Bobby had copies
Dean doesn’t know Lovecraft? That doesn’t track at all!
Ben is reading Cthulhu Tales when kidnapped
Crowley is holding Ben and Lisa hostage to make boys stand down
Dean freaks out
Dean assumes Cas was in on the kidnapping
They summon Balthazar for help, he claims he already knew about Cas and Crowley and won’t help them find Lisa and Ben
Dean is torturing demons and drinking, won’t accept help from Sam: ‘This is 100% on me’
Sam calls Cas anyway who rescues Dean when devil’s trap is broached-‘I didn’t ask for your help’
Balthazar asks Cas for the truth, not happy that Cas plans on absorbing all the souls-could go nuclear
Bobby has found out the truth about Dr. Visyak-she is from Purgatory; she rejects his offer of safety
Balthazar decides to help the boys-gets them to where Lisa and Ben are
It seems odd that Dean would be carrying the duffle in one hand while he is heading in to fight demons
Dean takes out multiple demons off-screen
Lisa is possessed and taunts: ‘She wishes she never met you, Dean. You're the worst mistake she ever made. (to Ben) Second worst, after keeping you’
Dean jumps into exorcism but demon has Lisa stab herself (just like Azazel did with Grandpa)-Dean finishes the exorcism knowing it’s a no-win situation
When Ben freezes Dean slaps him and then orders him to shoot the demons (He also has Ben pick up Ruby’s knife and I don’t see how the kid can fire the shotgun while holding the knife but it is still in his hand when they finally exit the building…)
Cas is still trying to make Dean see why he has to open Purgatory-he heals Lisa unprompted-Dean: ‘Thank you. I wish this changed anything’
Dean makes the worst decision out of all 15 seasons when he has Cas wipe him from Lisa and Ben’s memories and I am still pissed at him for that even as he looks so gutted leaving the hospital-he had no right to do that…plus it doesn’t even make sense as far as keeping them safe-monsters can still come for them and now they don’t know who to call for protection!!! And, biggest issue of all, over 9 more seasons nothing is heard about what happened to them ever again!!! (How would that even work, that they don’t remember Dean-what about everyone they know who knew Dean? Did their memories get changed too? What happens when Lisa finds out her boyfriend was murdered? Aargh…)
‘I’m the guy who hit you…I lost control for a minute’
Sam objects-Dean: ‘If you ever mention Lisa and Ben to me again I will break your nose’
126. The Man Who Knew Too Much (6.22)-W: Kripke/D: Singer
Road so Far covers the season
Remember watching this for the first time and being totally taken in by the opening, trying to figure out what’s happening…until we see that it’s all in Sam’s head
We see that Cas took down Sam’s wall-the ultimate betrayal of Dean
Cool transition of Dean flashing light into Sam’s eyes and Dream Sam being blinded by the sudden daylight
Dream Sam and Soulless Sam are 2 completely different people (kudos to Jared!)
And Dream Sam is the smart one
Sam remembering that he shot Robin to get at a demon…
Cas renegotiates his deal with Crowley (why did Crowley give Cas the jar of blood? Crowley is smarter than that!)
Dean is at the end of coping…
He leaves the address and a note with Sam’s body
Hell Sam wants Sam to live a happy life in his head but Sam can’t: ‘I’m not leaving my brother alone out there’-and here is where we see the strength Sam has and his devotion to his brother
Hell Sam doesn’t fight
Cass kills Balthazar when he realizes his betrayal-his death lights up the building
The demon cloud upends the Impala-ouch!
Crowley shows up with Raphael to re-renegotiate the deal
Even though Cas is in the wrong, had to cheer that he outsmarted Crowley
Dean’s swan dive over the railing should have left him in a lot worse condition
And now Cas is very scary: ‘You doubted me, fought against me, but I was right all along’-Dean, very carefully: ‘Okay, Cas, you were. We're sorry. Now let's just defuse you, okay?’-Cas: ‘No, I'm not finished yet. Raphael had many followers, and I must punish them all severely… I'm glad you made it, Sam. But the angel blade won't work, because I'm not an angel anymore. I'm your new God. A better one. So you will bow down and profess your love unto me, your Lord. Or I shall destroy you’ (Misha delivers these lines chillingly)
Overall thoughts:
Season 6 is a decent season. I thought the pacing was pretty good in setting up the various problems: what’s wrong with Sam?; what to do about soulless Sam; what’s going on with Cas?; and oh yeah, there’s something weird going on with monsters…and don’t forget what’s going on with Grandpa and with Crowley. So a lot of balls being juggled but most of them were caught, though the monster/Eve story was the weakest.
It was confusing to have episodes titled ‘Two and a Half Men’ and ‘The Third Man’ back-to-back and later ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ and ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ one episode apart…
I didn’t realize Kripke wrote the finale.
The most important thing to me, though, is that the character development of Sam and Dean felt true.
One last thought-we run into soulless people again in season 11 when Amara takes them, and it will be interesting to compare how they acted with how soulless Sam acted. My gut reaction is that his behavior-have no moral restrictions, making decisions on logic alone, does fall in line with what we get then.