9.09, or, Dean, you poor bastard
Another surprisingly lovely outing from Ross-Leming and Buckner, beautifully directed, with stellar effects. Plus, we got Cas! I liked nearly all of it, aside from all the boring angel-war stuff. The "wars in heaven" haven't gotten more interesting with time, perhaps because we never actually SEE any of it ... not that that would probably make it more interesting, but hearing about these VERY IMPORTANT BATTLES--TRUST ME, THEY'RE WAY IMPORTANT for three solid seasons is wearing thin.
And of course it was terrible to see Kevin die (SURE am glad I had the spoiler on that one, or I'd have had a much harder time enjoying the episode after the fact), but at least his death was meaningful, and seeing Dean's reaction, after everything he's put poor Kevin through ... you kind of couldn't see another end for the kid. (And maybe the writers were out of ideas for the character.) His life sucked, hunted and terrorized by demons and angels (and Dean) alike. Kevin said it himself--he was working so hard because he HAD to get out of being a prophet, but there's no way out of being a prophet. A tragic end, sort of Sam and Dean's story in microcosm, of suffering and herculean effort and finally a redemptionless death. (I'm hoping for a happy ending for Sam and Dean, though, so maybe we can see this in Kevin and NOT have to see it in Sam and Dean, however likely an end it may be for them.)
Otherwise, I thought it pulled together a lot of confusing stuff we've been seeing all season quite nicely, especially the Ezekiel stuff. I kept wondering why Jared's acting seemed so off sometimes all season, but then knowing the spoiler also that Gadreel says Sam's "been gone for a long time," it made perfect sense and all came together here as in the first scenes I was like, "HE'S NOT ACTING LIKE SAM AT ALL--oh, riiiiiight." I mean, have we ever heard of an angel retreating behind a vessel's consciousness, or of a vessel being able to eject an angel at any time? Nooo, it's pretty much the vessel's the angel's to do with whatever it pleases as soon as it gets in, so this rather gracefully addresses those issues in retrospect.
Metatron's his deliciously devious self, Cas is his adorably righteous self ... and oh Cas, if you didn't think your reputation among angels could get any worse, you managed it. This development opens things up for a potential Theo/Cas amalgam that could be quite interesting in that we could see Cas do bad, unrighteous things that come in some part from his own motivations instead of pure-evil leviathans making him act entirely out of character.
I'm SO GLAD Gadreel is a deeper character than just plain old bad, and I love love love the parallels between him and Sam: their father's favorite, locked up in a life and with a reputation they don't deserve but couldn't escape, led ever further down a questionable path by the only person they have faith might be able to deliver them back to purity.
I really loved it. YAY, a very nice note on which to end the first part of the season before the hiatus!
And of course it was terrible to see Kevin die (SURE am glad I had the spoiler on that one, or I'd have had a much harder time enjoying the episode after the fact), but at least his death was meaningful, and seeing Dean's reaction, after everything he's put poor Kevin through ... you kind of couldn't see another end for the kid. (And maybe the writers were out of ideas for the character.) His life sucked, hunted and terrorized by demons and angels (and Dean) alike. Kevin said it himself--he was working so hard because he HAD to get out of being a prophet, but there's no way out of being a prophet. A tragic end, sort of Sam and Dean's story in microcosm, of suffering and herculean effort and finally a redemptionless death. (I'm hoping for a happy ending for Sam and Dean, though, so maybe we can see this in Kevin and NOT have to see it in Sam and Dean, however likely an end it may be for them.)
Otherwise, I thought it pulled together a lot of confusing stuff we've been seeing all season quite nicely, especially the Ezekiel stuff. I kept wondering why Jared's acting seemed so off sometimes all season, but then knowing the spoiler also that Gadreel says Sam's "been gone for a long time," it made perfect sense and all came together here as in the first scenes I was like, "HE'S NOT ACTING LIKE SAM AT ALL--oh, riiiiiight." I mean, have we ever heard of an angel retreating behind a vessel's consciousness, or of a vessel being able to eject an angel at any time? Nooo, it's pretty much the vessel's the angel's to do with whatever it pleases as soon as it gets in, so this rather gracefully addresses those issues in retrospect.
Metatron's his deliciously devious self, Cas is his adorably righteous self ... and oh Cas, if you didn't think your reputation among angels could get any worse, you managed it. This development opens things up for a potential Theo/Cas amalgam that could be quite interesting in that we could see Cas do bad, unrighteous things that come in some part from his own motivations instead of pure-evil leviathans making him act entirely out of character.
I'm SO GLAD Gadreel is a deeper character than just plain old bad, and I love love love the parallels between him and Sam: their father's favorite, locked up in a life and with a reputation they don't deserve but couldn't escape, led ever further down a questionable path by the only person they have faith might be able to deliver them back to purity.
I really loved it. YAY, a very nice note on which to end the first part of the season before the hiatus!