Picspam Reaction: Supernatural 8.22
Warning: Contains profanity.
Spoiler and Theory Summary
Goodness gracious, I don't know what happened in this episode, but it apparently involves Castiel and quite a few people sure got pissed off about it! O.o
All I can hope is that it's the standard sort of "first half of a two-part finale" sort of issue, but from the overall level of ire, I suspect it isn't... :-/
Eeep.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.22 - "???" "Clip Show"
Going to try to do this ep and the next this weekend, so this could be short. [Hahaha. No.]
-*quick check* It's a THEN, not a 'ROAD SO FAR' so it's getting skipped. I'll check it after in case it was a montage. [Nope. Interesting slide transitions they're using now though.]
-Vaguely Familiar Guy and Girlfriend, if you're staying in a cabin in the woods before the show's title card, you might want to stay away from the windows.
-"Tommy." Wait, wait. And this is Colorado? HOLY CRAP IS THIS THE KID FROM WENDIGO??? O.O
-HOLY CRAP IT IS! UNEXPECTED RECURRING CHARACTERS ARE AWESOME. \o/
That said, Tommy, dude, why the blazing hell are you anywhere near the windows???
-"Ooo, maybe it's a bear!" *facepalm* To be fair, she has no idea she's in the pre-credits of Supernatural, so this is a somewhat less suicidally stupid statement than it first seems, at least from the point of view of those who have no idea how doomed they are.
-Heee! Well, blow-torches do have practical non-monster-killing applications when camping too. Good boy, Tommy.
-So. Thinking for a second while it's still paused. He's hearing it, she's not. Since this is the pre-credits sequence I doubt this is just a bad Post Monster Stress Disorder flashback (because let's face it, there'd be no way to get therapy for that time he was traumatized by a mythical creature killing all his friends and eating them), then something is on the attack. But is it a Wendigo, or something that's playing with his memories? Either way, Tommy, you are a grade A dumbass for going to a cabin in the woods with your girlfriend. Confronting your fear is all well and good, but not so much when your fear tried to eat you.
-Bleeding from the ears! Okay then! There's a vote for a messes-with-your-head monster. Might want to turn off the blowtorch if you're going to be rolling on the floor.
-I'm rather pleased she's not just freaking out because her boyfriend seems to be going insane, she looks worried for him too.
-GYAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAEAUGCH!!! DDD-: Oh poor Tommy!
-Title: "Clip Show" ...Ha. Hahahahah. Okay. So it's going to be something going after survivors of their old hunts, with flashbacks to the original episodes? AWESOME! But also, poor surviving Monster Chow, to have to go through it all all over again. DDD-:
-Oh cool they're looking up potential demons to cure in the archives. "We got Borden, Lizzie all the way to Crane, Ichabod." Well, Lizzie Borden being possessed in the Supernatural 'verse I can buy, but Ichabod was getting chased by a Headless Horseman, and that doesn't seem like a typical demonic possession experience... Oh, wait, maybe he's become a demon or sold his soul or something, since things would have run differently in SPN 'verse. Hm. Also, that's only Bor through Cra, where's the other 20 odd volumes of demonic possessions?
-Meanwhile, the Trial radiation sickness is giving Sam a recurrence of those psychic migraines he used to get back in season 1.
-"I've had that hangover. Jaeger, man." Heeeee.
-Aw, look who's in the bunker! *pinches Castiel's adorable cheeks* I'm not sure about that smile though... Naomi hasn't gotten at him again now that he's tabletless, has she?
-Speaking of tabletless, Castiel seems to be having issues with his recent tabletectomy. Between him and Sam, Dean's going to have to make an awful lot of John's stew.
-"I have to cure a demon."/"Of what?" Excellent point! Did they get any fine print with that? Can they find a demon with a cold and feed her/him John's stew for a week and have that count? ... probably not.
-Beer and peanut butter cups. You know, for trying to get some sugar and protein into Sam that might process some before he throws up, peanut butter cups are not the worst idea.
-Also jerky. Protein. *nods*
-And suddenly Dean's trust issues appear! Considering all Castiel's had done to him and been forced to do this season, Dean is looking like a a bit of a jerk here. I see his perspective, and Dean being Dean and he's reacting to how he's perceiving this given the relative lack of data that came from Castiel after the hold on him was broken and before he took off with the tablet, any other reaction would probably feel a little false.
-"So you can take your little apology and cram it up your ass." Make that more than just a bit of a jerk.
-"Dean, I thought I was doing the right thing."/"Yeah you always do." ...I'm starting to wonder exactly how far up Castiel's Winchester-related decision tree Dean is barking there.... O.o
-Meanwhile, Sam is awkwardly stuck being awkward with his breakfast of jerky, peanut butter cups and slightly used beer.
-"Do we have a room 7B?" Aw. They have rooms. With numbers. And a top secret base all of their own. Awwww.
-Nifty lighting thing.
-Written by Andrew Dabb, half of the duo of Dabb and Loflin. Hm. Directed by Thomas J. Wright who's been here before.
-"Why should I give him a free pass?"/"Because it's Cas." Dean is my favourite, that's no secret, but there are times I just want to pick him up by the scruff of the neck and shake him 'til his brains rattle.
-"Class five infernal event." Heee! Classification system! It's like Ghostbusters!
-"The Exorcist would have been a class 2." Okay, so no major public outbreak, few deaths, not part of a larger plot, contained, now I want to know how they rate these things. Is there a check list?
-"The word 'weird' with three exclamation points." Heeeeeee! So of course Sam picks that one instead of a nice simple class one. Because he subconsciously knows he is the Encyclopedia of Weird and must discover the nature of this unknown demonic weirdness. Also, if any of the exorcisms recorded by the Men of Letters is going to have cured a demon, it will be a weird one. *nods*
-OOOO!!! SECRET DOOR IN THE BATCAVE! LET'S GO! \o/
-An upside down pentagram inside a right side up pentagram, or vice versa depending where you're standing. Hm.....
-Ah, a holding cell. Or something. Interrogation room? Why's it hidden though? Secret room inside a secret base is a few extra layers of paranoid. Were all the Men of Letters at the base not supposed to be aware of it? Or was it in case of invasion so any infernal forces getting in wouldn't be able to find it? It's a very interesting question.
-"So we have a dungeon?"/"Finally." *sneeeerk*
-I have been slain by the Jiffy Pop. XD
-"Is that Abbadon?" Yep. Or at least her future host. Oh hey, Abbadon! What happened to her after they Devil's Trapped her inside her host? Oh right: " We're gonna cut you into steaks and bury each strip under cement." That could be a bit messy to try to cure her from. :-P
-"Hey, those chains look exactly like the ones in our dungeon."/"In your what?" Heeeee. No one tells Castiel anything.
-Hehe. He's new.
-Whoa, someone had his Holy Wheaties that morning!
-Gaaah. Demonic chestbursters! THAT DOESN'T HELP! O.O
-"What about the bloody high five or the chestburster?" Sometimes it alarms me when I think in the same terms as Dean, but mostly it's kind of cool.
-"Not you." Really, Dean? Really?
-Oh oh oh ow. *rocks back and forth for a bit* Seriously, Dean, I know you have trust and abandonment issues but OW.
-HI CAR!!! St. Louis Missouri, eh? If they run into the local police, Dean's going to cause some consternation, what with being declared a serial killer and also dead over 7 years ago. But then there was that FBI thing and who knows. Wonder if Sam's old college friends are still there? Also *squints at sign outside church* St. Benedict. Hahah.
-This guy looks and sounds familiar... Hey! It's Donnelly Rhodes! Best known for Canadian show Danger Bay and on Supernatural for being that survivor guy Sam and Dean talked to in Wendigo. It's a Wendigo night! \o/
-Sorry, they're just so cute sitting in pews.
-"Something tore him apart." Yeah, Men of Letters and Hunters, neither of them are much for dying quietly in bed.
-"Sammy there is going to take whatever shredded your friend and every other black-eyed bitch out there and he's gonna get rid of 'em. For good."/"...He is?" Yeah, he doesn't look too dangerous right now with the hacking up blood and all, but he's the one on the Trials, although I'm thinking that Dean's equanimity about Sam's ongoing Trial sickness etc means he thinks he's got a way to take the inevitable final bullet for Sam, which in the second to last episode of the season means a whole lot of DOOM.
-"There's not a doubt in my mind that he's gonna cross that finish line. Not one." Yep. And then Dean will bodycheck him and throw himself into whatever pit trap is waiting on the other side. Because he's Dean. I can see the shape of it coming. Aaaaarg.
-Castiel grocery shopping, oh god. XD
and I can see by the chips on the wall he's in a store that sells President's Choice products, so probably Superstore or an affiliate! Yay Canadian content, sort of! \o/
Heeee!
-"I have money." Oh good. Also, hello BC Lotteries ticket checker. Hee! XD
-"I need pie." Heeeeeeeee! Aw, he's trying to get all Dean's favourites as an apology. Plus toilet paper in case they need to start hoarding. Awwww.
-"Put the virgin down, Castiel." See, this is the problem with leaving your secured bunker, for whatever reason. People you don't want to interact with can find you.
-Or Metatron can! A better option than any of Naomi's or Crowley's goons. I think.
*giggles at french side of cracker box showing* Canadian content! Hee!
-Or maaaaybe not. Hm...
-"You're Metatron? The Metatron?" Heeee!
-"I thought we could socialize, maybe grab a bite."/"We can... what?" Hee. You know Castiel is hopeless when the Secretarial Angel who's been a hermit since nearly the dawn of time knows more about social activities and idioms than he does. You know what this means? Castiel really needs to read more books.
-"I thought Naomi was running things now."/"Is that what she told you?" Ahahahahaha. Yeah. Let's get an unbiased situation report on what's happening in Heaven for a change, not just whatever Naomi says. Open warfare, hunh? Sounds more logical an outcome than Naomi ruling everything topside unopposed.
-"There are factions upon factions..." *nods* Yep, that's more like it. Not that horrendous heavenly wars are a good thing, just more sensible than Naomi's magic Dremel in an iron fist.
-"It's all broke."/"I know. I'm the one that broke it." Awwwwww. True, but awwwwwwwww.
-"I've tried to atone for my sins, and I did penance and I've- betrayed my friends to protect our secrets, but I've just failed and now-" I don't know why, but Castiel working himself into a stress-induced ulcer over everything he's done makes me want to wrap him up in blankets and feed him soup. Especially since he's trying ineptly to get Dean to forgive him or accept him or something, with his little pie-less shopping trip of mostly beer and porn. Aw. *pats him*
-"We ride to the rescue, save the day. It'd make a great story." Ahahaahah. I don't know what Metatron is up to, but he's up to something. I mean look at that fuzzy little face. There's plotting there. I don't know what though.
-"Which is why we have to shut down Heaven." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Yeah. Okay, go for it. Crowley'd probably help. You know though, this is the guy who's the closest thing to IT SPN 'verse reality has, so since Heaven's been running since the start, it's probably due for a hard reboot to clear the buffers. ... Eeek.
-"Do you like crepes?" I like Metatron, he's stuck on random.
-Not so fun when someone is enigmatic, alarming and confusing and then does a flutterby on you, is it Cas?
-Incidentally, if Metatron's off having crepes with Castiel and plotting to reboot Heaven, who's guarding Kevin...? O.o
-"You think he blew town?"/"Sounds like him." Dean, dude. Seriously. You and Castiel need to be sat down in a room together to talk this crap out.
-Gotta hand it to set design, they can pull together some seriously messed up stuff just with a few candles and chains in a basement.
-"Purified how?"/"Before he started, Father Thompson went to confession." ...There's got to be more to it than that. Communion wafers? Sacramental wine? Drank nothing but Holy Water for a week? Seems too simple. Although if it gets us Sam or Dean going to confession, it could be interesting. And very very long.
-...and now the Trial radiation burning out Sam's Demon blood makes even more sense, doesn't it. Probably not a good idea to try to cure a demon with demon blood.
-Yeah, a demon crying is a little out of the norm. That much blood loss, the priest's got to be getting loopy though.
-"Now you are a man again, and you have been saved. *click*" I really hope they're going to listen to whatever's left on that tape, because there could be things on the tail-end there that they'll need to know. Along with how exactly the priest-guy died.
-"Or we use one we've already tagged." Well, Ruby's dead, Crowley would be hilarious, but a bit above your challenge rating, so if you're talking about Abaddon, get your cement picks and Krazy Glue out.
-"Do we still have Dad's old army field surgeon's kit?" *facepalm* *headdesk* Abaddon it is. I mean why not ignore any number of low-level demon flunkies running around topside helping Crowley in favour of doing your practicing on a KNIGHT OF HELL, who is in several pieces and well and truly peeved with you? Yeesh. On a side note, YAY THEY CARRY A FIELD SURGEON'S KIT IN THE CAR. \o/
-"Cool coat."/"No it's actually quite warm." *facepalm* In Castiel's defense he was getting his brains drilled out by Naomi for large swathes of the season, so maybe she drilled out some of his idiom detectors too. *pats Castiel*
-You know, that's another thing. Along with Metatron's grasp of idiom, if he's been holed up in that hotel since the dawn of whatever, how does he know this place in particular has good crepes...? And who the heck is guarding Kevin??? *side-eyes*
-"Angels get uppity, slam the Pearly Gates." Metatron's starting to tweak my alarm bells. He's either cut himself off from everything for so long he's completely nihilistic and detached, or he's been secretly plotting a takeover all along. Or something. *continues side-eying*
-"You're going to complete these tests?"/"No, I'm a pencil pusher *etc etc*" Oh and here we go. See, now, this is why Dean needs to sit down and work out his issues with Castiel, because now Cas is roaming around looking for ways to atone and, lo! Here comes Metatron, who he fangirled at a little upon meeting, with this grand plan to shut Heaven and keep the internecine fighting away from Earth, all sounding reasonable and rational, and looking for someone who can do the frigging Trials for it. You know, like a patsy. And of course Castiel's going to jump at it because he wants to do something to atone, and has good intentions and is as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to discerning whether the intel he's getting is valid or is intended to manipulate him into thinking that doing whatever the person talking to him wants is the right thing. THIS IS WHY YOU TALK TO YOUR ALLIES INSTEAD OF SHUTTING THEM OUT, DEAN. *headdesk*
-"Heaven needs your help, Castiel." Oh shut up, Metatron. Yeah. Total manipulation there, straight where Castiel has a weak spot. What the heck is Metatron's game here? And what has he done to Kevin??? O.O
-"I am the one who caused these problems, I should be the one to fix them." Cas, honey, you've spent most of the season being manipulated and having your brains scrambled, but I still want to grab you by the scruff of the neck and shake you til your brains rattle, whatever's left of them. You and Dean, one in each hand. Shake-a-shake-a-shake.
-"She's the first Trial. Gotta cut her heart out." Ooof. Right. Now. Is he lying to manipulate Castiel, or is this really a Trial. Compared to gutting a Hellhound, killing a human isn't much of a challenge, and unless there's some reason she's special to Heaven, it doesn't seem like it's directly thematic like the Hell Trials have been. It seems to me that if the Hell Trials were about taking or redeeming power from Hell, the Heaven Trials... well. This is going to get ugly isn't it.
-Aha. And Castiel's going to go through with it, and that's what the uproar was about when this aired, right? Castiel killing an innocent waitress, solely on Metatron's say-so?
-She's a Nephilim? Well, I guess that fits a Trial better, but seriously, she's a waitress and has nothing to do with who her parents were. Also, Nephilim are supposed to be giants, she's not nearly tall enough. And Castiel is still going to do it because he's an easily manipulated dumbass.
-*nods along with Castiel* Yep, that's what I said too, dude.
-"Her life or your family." Depends who Castiel's family is, doesn't it. Also, I've watched "Hot Fuzz" far too recently and I'm very glad Metatron didn't bust out with 'for the greater good' or I'd still be giggling next week.
-Seriously. Cas. Phone a friend. If Dean's not talking to you because he's being Dean, try Sam. Outside perspective you can trust will help you figure out when what you're thinking of doing is incredibly dumb or self-destructive or apocalypse triggering. ...On second thought, the Winchesters might not be the best resource on that reality check. Can you find Bobby in Heaven and get him to give you a smack upside the head? Do you have Charlie Bradbury's number? No? Damn. :-/
-Really guys, there's a couple demon flunkies trapped in a warehouse somewhere that Kevin can tell you how to get to. No need to do any amateur surgery that's not going to be to effective at assisting blood flow, or risk re-unleashing a Knight of Hell.
-Really doubt the boys are experts on vascular and neural surgery, so I hope Abaddon being demon-trapped in her skull isn't going to hinder whatever host-healing capacity might be available or this could be very messy. Also, why are they not doing this in their newly discovered demon dungeon? Unless they aren't sure they can keep her contained in there and don't want to risk the Batcave. Okay, fine, sure. *handwave*
-"It worked! You owe me a beer." Hee.
-They left her hands off. That... huh. Harder to pick locks, but there's also nothing to keep her pulling her arms out of the bindings without hands to get caught at the end, so... Huh. I mean if they had her upper arms bound to the chair that would be... ehhhh. She has a demon trap in her brain and isn't aware of the gaping loopholes in her restraints or something. *shrug* *handwave*
-"We're gonna consecrate the ground." ...that... is something new. You'd think though since they're trying this with Abaddon and not Demon Flunky Number 3 they'd want to do this somewhere as consecrated as they could get (is the demon dungeon consecrated? It probably is) rather than doing some quick and dirty consecrating on their own. Though most holy places kind of frown on hauling in crates of body parts and sewing a dead woman back together in the basement so this might be their only option. (Except their demon dungeon. Which they aren't using for perfectly sensible yet unknown reasons.)
-Of course she knows the priest and what he was doing. Golly gee, I wonder if she's the one that dispatched him way back when.
-"Who do you think ripped him apart?" Yep.
-AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! CROWLEY! XD
-"Crowley."/"The salesman?"/"Try the King of Hell."/"This is a joke, right?" Oh yeah... Someone skipped a few decades of memos when she went time-hopping after Grandad Winchester, didn't she?
-Just *handwaves* pretty.
-"Denver Times, from yesterday." Ah, Crowley's behind the survivor killings. Well singular killing so far, but this is Crowley so more can't be far behind.
-I don't know why Dean grimly looking up things on the internet with his phone is making me giggle, but it is.
-AHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH! It's Thing! Or Thing 1 and Thing 2 if both hands are there. I don't know how exactly the logic of this works but a combination of her being abole to seperate her smoke to secondarily possess others for info, and something something Demon Knight *handwave* whatever. Disembodied hands! Hee!
-OH! Clever demon. Digging out the bullet. The boys are screwed. Also idiots for leaving their prisoner unguarded. Doesn't take two people to answer a phone call.
-Car is pretty. Car is distracting. Car is pretty distracting. Hi Car. Shiny.
(Sorry, looooong day.)
-"We saved him from a wendigo like forever ago." Firstly, the way they way wendigo, hee. Second, if we're talking subjective time including time spent in Hell and assorted suburbs, forever's as good an estimate for when the second episode of season one was for Sam and Dean as any other.
-"We got everything we need to put hm in a permanent time out." Someone's about to get kicked in their complacency.
Their heights aren't that different, its just the way they're walking. But hee.
-And this is why you never ever leave a prisoner completely unguarded. Silly boys.
-And the slightly bigger problem than not having a freshly resurrected demon held prisoner to enact the demon conversion ritual, Abaddon is now loose in the world unhindered. They're really not having a good episode.
-Emoticon. Hee. Crowley is a fun adversary character.
Hm. Prosperity, Indiana. Ah. The witch couple with marital issues going back to the Renaissance.
-"A trap means demons and we could use one right now." HEEEE! IT'S NOT A TACTICAL ERROR, IT'S A SHOPPING TRIP. Pick a low grade disaffected-looking flunky, should be easier to revert them if they aren't that into being a demon.
-Well, I was resisting the urge to take a cap of the car in the rain, but if you're going to put that shiny grill front and center, why not.
-Oh right, the cupcakes with hearts in them.
-Seems to be an awful lot of smoke in that room. Beware of recent or active fires, guys.
-*body in stove* Eaugch. Told ya. That can't smell good.
-Crowley killed the cupcake baker, not the witches. That would have been a slightly bigger fight.
-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *applauds* I TOLD YOU BOYS THOSE BOOKS WERE A SECURITY RISK IF DEMONS WHO HAD AN IDEA OF WHAT TO DO WITH THEM GOT HOLD OF THEM. Love it. XD
(Though Prosperity wasn't a case in the books but Chuck showed Becky a bunch that hadn't been published and she probably emailed them to herself and posted them all online somewhere, and Chuck was ahead on writing the Winchester Gospel by two years, seasons, whatever so he had a book written for a case in Season 7 even though he disappeared in season five *HANDWAVEHANDWAVEHANDWAVE*)
-Oh ho! Or got them printed! The books only went to the end of season 2, that one's a season 3. Chuck did say he had a publishing deal in The real Ghostbusters back in 2009, for which I think I wrote something to the effect of if demons wanted to know what the Winchesters were up to, they'd be behind the 'mystery Scandinavian backer' offering the publishing deal, so... hee hee hee. :-)
(Though with the implications of Chuck at the end of season 5 he should have known, but really, at that point if Chuck was God, he seemed to be trolling the Universe a bit, so maybe letting demons publish the rest of the Winchester Gospel seemed like fun at the time)
-Crowley's droogs. Holy crap, a Clockwork Orange reference. O.o
-"I'm going to gut one person every 12 hours until you bring me the Demon tablet and stop this whole trials nonsense." Have I mentioned lately how much I like strategically smart adversary characters?
-"Word from the cloud is that it wasn't Heaven." Moles and spies and plotting oh my. Ion can't have been the only one, and I'm still side-eying Naomi and her implied past with Crowley...
-Cutest little prophet in the world. HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! \o/
-"Indianapolis." Phantom Traveller. So the flight attendant probably.
-Meanwhile, Castiel is... well, when you get down to it, Metatron is the last entity to officially be in direct contact with God, probably, in this 'verse, and Castiel's Daddy issues in that regard rival Dean's, so when his Father's trusted assistant tells him this is a good plan that needs to happen, Castiel's going to find it hard to resist that, especially given his brain's been scrambled and forced to follow counter-to-his-nature orders for a large part of the season, his will is probably like Silly Putty right now. Someone he feels he has a big reason to trust and was at one point really close to his Father gives him a clear order and tells him doing it will help heal the damage he's done to Heaven? Resistance is sadly futile.
-*GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASP!!!* HOLY CRAP IT'S SARAH! YOU GUYS! IT'S SARAH BLAKE!! FROM PROVENANCE! ONE OF THE GIRLS SAM'S KISSED WHO'S STILL ALIVE! OMG! SAM'S CURSE IS GONNA GET HER VIA CROWLEY AND THE DEMONS!! RUN, SARAH!!!!! RUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!!!!!
-SEASON ONE! LOOKIT THE SAM-PUPPY!
-"What's going on?" God, I love Sarah. Winchesters are here, weird crap must be happening, but no freaking out, just a down to business "What's going on?" Dammit, she's doomed, isn't she?
-SAM'S FAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!
-AND COMMERCIAL BREAK. I WANT TO GO REWATCH SEASON ONE SO HARD RIGHT NOW! SARAH, YOU GUYS! SARAH!!!
-The above is an example of why I like not knowing anything at all about shows I haven't seen yet. Because not knowing about things before I see them happen sometimes makes me go insane.
-Well, if you're going to do something morally inadvisable and strategically dubious, you may as well do it with the all the stealth and subtlety of a pair of tap-dancing wildebeest. *headshake*
-I am somewhat gratified that the poor doomed Nephilim-waitress will be kicking their asses around for a bit before the inevitable doom. Or at least Castiel's ass, since he's been talked into being Metatron's stalking-horse.
-And yeah, down goes the waitress with surprisingly little fanfare. Do the Heaven Trials not come with their own radiation, or is Sam getting dosed with his Trial radiation because of the Demon blood making him kind of connected to Hell? If so then Castiel should be getting an even bigger hit since he's a celestial trying to cut off Heaven while being part of Heaven. Something. Well, I suppose there's some phrase he's got to say before it kicks in. Regardless, that seemed a bit quick.
-"So, a demon named Crowley is gonna kill me in 16 minutes." Heeee! Sam's been updating Sarah on the salient parts of the past 7 years. Let's see if she passes her boggle-check.
-"No. No he's not." D'awww, puppy!
-"An exorcism, ready to play on a loop." *SNERK* Beats all heck out of the Mickey Mouse rig they had in Jus in Bello. Just upload it into iTunes, hit repeat track and let it run until the battery dies.
-"I know this is insane, but insane is kind of what we do." This isn't her first rodeo, Sam, but 7 years of normal might make the memory seem less than real, so the newbie speech is probably warranted. Heck of a way to re-meet someone after 7 years though. "Hi! Remember us? The King of Hell's coming to kill you because of us within the next few minutes. Mind if we paint crap all over your hotel room?"
-"...Okay." Practical, pragmatic, let's get on with it, no freaking out and no going on about how insane this all is. Sarah, you are my favourite. I'm so sorry you're probably doomed.
-Even Dean's impressed. Just look at that impressed face.
-"His name's Ian, works Search and Rescue. Guess I have a type." AWWWWWWW!! And so, so doomed.
-Oh crap, and she has a daughter. COULD YOU BE MORE DOOMED, SARAH? No pressure there, Sam.
Sam's hair is... I have no idea. Whatever it is, it's not evil. It's just. Like it's morphing and stuck between forms or something. O.o
-"What about you?" Ahehehehe. Yeah, that is a long weird story and you guys have like a minute before demons attack so maybe backburner it to discuss over 'yay we didn't die' beers or something. Which of course will never happen. So doomed.
-"You seem more focused. Confident. Like you know what you want." Okay, yeah, compared to first season 'first real Sam-initiated kiss since Jess died' Sam, he's more confident and all that, but he's also focused because he's got a checklist of things to do for the final Trial to seal off Hell, which is kind of going backwards at the moment.
-"I do miss the old haircut though." *SNEEEEERRRRRRK* Sarah is definitely my favorite. I really hope she lives. But of course she's doomed.
-They even gave her her own gun! Not that it will stop the impending doom, but way better than just hiding behind the boys and miscellaneous crap! Hope hey did that Devil's trap etching thing on the bullets. \o/
-CROWLEY COUNTDOWN! I don't know, but I flailed everywhere.
-Oh crap. Yeah, it's not going to be a defensible frontal assault if Crowley's giving you advance notice. It's going to be something already in place that the boys (hypothetically) can't do a damned thing to stop. I do like strategic-minded adversary characters, even when it makes them more effective at killing off characters I like.
-"Son of a witch, actually. My mommy taught me a few tricks." Oh really? Another snippet of Crowley backstory.
-"So from now on I'm going to keep everything Hell-related - demons etc - away from you guys." STRATEGICALLY SMART ADVERSARY CHARACTERRRRRRRRS!!!! HELL YEAH!! \o/
-"What's the line? 'Saving people, hunting things, the family business'?" *FLAAAAAAAAAAAIL* CROWLEY IS MY FAVORITE BAD GUY. \o/
-AND THEN HE PSYCHOANALYZES THEM WITH THE WHOLE HERO THING AND PEOPLE THEY SAVED GIVING THEM PEACE AND I FLAIL AGAIN SOME MORE.
-"Because when they're all gone, what will you have left?" GAaaaaaaaah!! *flappy hands everywhere*
-IT'S THE RING, YOU TURNIPS. TAKE OFF THE RING. IT'S ON HER RIGHT HAND. IF SHE'S MARRIED WITH A KID, THAT'S THE WRONG HAND. Or maybe they had the kid and they've only just gotten engaged now BUT IT'S WORTH A SHOT AT LEAST. ALSO CPR COULDN'T FREAKING HURT.
-Or it's in the phone. Yeah. Because Crowley'd know they aren't going to mess with the phone while Crowley's yammering on, in case he gives them a clue about where the hex bag is. Crowley is probably the smartest most tactically intelligent adversary they've ever had, and it makes him so much more dangerous, and awesome as a level of challenge for the show. All the game has to step up because Crowley's not making simple mistakes. Oh, god, and that countdown he did was probably the hex bag activation phrase or something. :-O
-Well, if she was still alive she'd have one hell of an explanation to give to the hotel staff, but that's not a problem for Sarah any more. But seriously though boys, BURN THE DAMNED HEX BAG AND START CPR.
-Dean's matter-of-fact 'we get a demon' is making me nervous.... If he tries something stupid like going to a crossroads, won't Crowley have his call refused anyway? And what would he be offering at the crossroads? He already sold his soul once, then Castiel et al stole it back, so... unless. Heh. It won't be this because it'd take too long, but. He could get a demon to take him to Hell, NOT resist instead of holding out for 30 years, become a demon as fast as possible, then find a way topside to get Sam to turn him back. I think that would be even harder to fly past Crowley than summoning a Crossroads Demon, though. Although Crowley might let Dean down to go demon just for giggles, but he'd never let him up again. Hmm. Eh. Anyway, not going to happen. But Dean's still acting like he has an Idea. It's making me nervous.
-"We'll kick it in the ass, like we always do." Aw, Kim Manners shout-out. *flail*
-"Are you with me?" Where else is Sam going to be?
So. Dean has a plan to fix everything and probably keep Sam from whatever Trial-related final doom awaits him. Of course he does. This is very nervous-making. Also Crowley's got the demons all in lockdown, except maybe Abbadon who is not terribly likely to want to get healed from being a Knight of Hell. Unless she and Crowley have an ancient beef and she knows it will screw him over. Hmmmm...
One more episode to go for me in Season 8, and that will be the one where everything blows up in everyone's face, yeah?
Soon. With a montage! \o/
(PLEASE NO REFERENCES TO EPISODES PAST 8.22 IN COMMENTS! One more to go!)
Spoiler and Theory Summary
Goodness gracious, I don't know what happened in this episode, but it apparently involves Castiel and quite a few people sure got pissed off about it! O.o
All I can hope is that it's the standard sort of "first half of a two-part finale" sort of issue, but from the overall level of ire, I suspect it isn't... :-/
Eeep.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.22 - "???" "Clip Show"
Going to try to do this ep and the next this weekend, so this could be short. [Hahaha. No.]
-*quick check* It's a THEN, not a 'ROAD SO FAR' so it's getting skipped. I'll check it after in case it was a montage. [Nope. Interesting slide transitions they're using now though.]
-Vaguely Familiar Guy and Girlfriend, if you're staying in a cabin in the woods before the show's title card, you might want to stay away from the windows.
-"Tommy." Wait, wait. And this is Colorado? HOLY CRAP IS THIS THE KID FROM WENDIGO??? O.O
-HOLY CRAP IT IS! UNEXPECTED RECURRING CHARACTERS ARE AWESOME. \o/
That said, Tommy, dude, why the blazing hell are you anywhere near the windows???
-"Ooo, maybe it's a bear!" *facepalm* To be fair, she has no idea she's in the pre-credits of Supernatural, so this is a somewhat less suicidally stupid statement than it first seems, at least from the point of view of those who have no idea how doomed they are.
-Heee! Well, blow-torches do have practical non-monster-killing applications when camping too. Good boy, Tommy.
-So. Thinking for a second while it's still paused. He's hearing it, she's not. Since this is the pre-credits sequence I doubt this is just a bad Post Monster Stress Disorder flashback (because let's face it, there'd be no way to get therapy for that time he was traumatized by a mythical creature killing all his friends and eating them), then something is on the attack. But is it a Wendigo, or something that's playing with his memories? Either way, Tommy, you are a grade A dumbass for going to a cabin in the woods with your girlfriend. Confronting your fear is all well and good, but not so much when your fear tried to eat you.
-Bleeding from the ears! Okay then! There's a vote for a messes-with-your-head monster. Might want to turn off the blowtorch if you're going to be rolling on the floor.
-I'm rather pleased she's not just freaking out because her boyfriend seems to be going insane, she looks worried for him too.
-GYAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAEAUGCH!!! DDD-: Oh poor Tommy!
-Title: "Clip Show" ...Ha. Hahahahah. Okay. So it's going to be something going after survivors of their old hunts, with flashbacks to the original episodes? AWESOME! But also, poor surviving Monster Chow, to have to go through it all all over again. DDD-:
-Oh cool they're looking up potential demons to cure in the archives. "We got Borden, Lizzie all the way to Crane, Ichabod." Well, Lizzie Borden being possessed in the Supernatural 'verse I can buy, but Ichabod was getting chased by a Headless Horseman, and that doesn't seem like a typical demonic possession experience... Oh, wait, maybe he's become a demon or sold his soul or something, since things would have run differently in SPN 'verse. Hm. Also, that's only Bor through Cra, where's the other 20 odd volumes of demonic possessions?
-Meanwhile, the Trial radiation sickness is giving Sam a recurrence of those psychic migraines he used to get back in season 1.
-"I've had that hangover. Jaeger, man." Heeeee.
-Aw, look who's in the bunker! *pinches Castiel's adorable cheeks* I'm not sure about that smile though... Naomi hasn't gotten at him again now that he's tabletless, has she?
-Speaking of tabletless, Castiel seems to be having issues with his recent tabletectomy. Between him and Sam, Dean's going to have to make an awful lot of John's stew.
-"I have to cure a demon."/"Of what?" Excellent point! Did they get any fine print with that? Can they find a demon with a cold and feed her/him John's stew for a week and have that count? ... probably not.
-Beer and peanut butter cups. You know, for trying to get some sugar and protein into Sam that might process some before he throws up, peanut butter cups are not the worst idea.
-Also jerky. Protein. *nods*
-And suddenly Dean's trust issues appear! Considering all Castiel's had done to him and been forced to do this season, Dean is looking like a a bit of a jerk here. I see his perspective, and Dean being Dean and he's reacting to how he's perceiving this given the relative lack of data that came from Castiel after the hold on him was broken and before he took off with the tablet, any other reaction would probably feel a little false.
-"So you can take your little apology and cram it up your ass." Make that more than just a bit of a jerk.
-"Dean, I thought I was doing the right thing."/"Yeah you always do." ...I'm starting to wonder exactly how far up Castiel's Winchester-related decision tree Dean is barking there.... O.o
-Meanwhile, Sam is awkwardly stuck being awkward with his breakfast of jerky, peanut butter cups and slightly used beer.
-"Do we have a room 7B?" Aw. They have rooms. With numbers. And a top secret base all of their own. Awwww.
-Nifty lighting thing.
-Written by Andrew Dabb, half of the duo of Dabb and Loflin. Hm. Directed by Thomas J. Wright who's been here before.
-"Why should I give him a free pass?"/"Because it's Cas." Dean is my favourite, that's no secret, but there are times I just want to pick him up by the scruff of the neck and shake him 'til his brains rattle.
-"Class five infernal event." Heee! Classification system! It's like Ghostbusters!
-"The Exorcist would have been a class 2." Okay, so no major public outbreak, few deaths, not part of a larger plot, contained, now I want to know how they rate these things. Is there a check list?
-"The word 'weird' with three exclamation points." Heeeeeee! So of course Sam picks that one instead of a nice simple class one. Because he subconsciously knows he is the Encyclopedia of Weird and must discover the nature of this unknown demonic weirdness. Also, if any of the exorcisms recorded by the Men of Letters is going to have cured a demon, it will be a weird one. *nods*
-OOOO!!! SECRET DOOR IN THE BATCAVE! LET'S GO! \o/
-An upside down pentagram inside a right side up pentagram, or vice versa depending where you're standing. Hm.....
-Ah, a holding cell. Or something. Interrogation room? Why's it hidden though? Secret room inside a secret base is a few extra layers of paranoid. Were all the Men of Letters at the base not supposed to be aware of it? Or was it in case of invasion so any infernal forces getting in wouldn't be able to find it? It's a very interesting question.
-"So we have a dungeon?"/"Finally." *sneeeerk*
-I have been slain by the Jiffy Pop. XD
-"Is that Abbadon?" Yep. Or at least her future host. Oh hey, Abbadon! What happened to her after they Devil's Trapped her inside her host? Oh right: " We're gonna cut you into steaks and bury each strip under cement." That could be a bit messy to try to cure her from. :-P
-"Hey, those chains look exactly like the ones in our dungeon."/"In your what?" Heeeee. No one tells Castiel anything.
-Hehe. He's new.
-Whoa, someone had his Holy Wheaties that morning!
-Gaaah. Demonic chestbursters! THAT DOESN'T HELP! O.O
-"What about the bloody high five or the chestburster?" Sometimes it alarms me when I think in the same terms as Dean, but mostly it's kind of cool.
-"Not you." Really, Dean? Really?
-Oh oh oh ow. *rocks back and forth for a bit* Seriously, Dean, I know you have trust and abandonment issues but OW.
-HI CAR!!! St. Louis Missouri, eh? If they run into the local police, Dean's going to cause some consternation, what with being declared a serial killer and also dead over 7 years ago. But then there was that FBI thing and who knows. Wonder if Sam's old college friends are still there? Also *squints at sign outside church* St. Benedict. Hahah.
-This guy looks and sounds familiar... Hey! It's Donnelly Rhodes! Best known for Canadian show Danger Bay and on Supernatural for being that survivor guy Sam and Dean talked to in Wendigo. It's a Wendigo night! \o/
-Sorry, they're just so cute sitting in pews.
-"Something tore him apart." Yeah, Men of Letters and Hunters, neither of them are much for dying quietly in bed.
-"Sammy there is going to take whatever shredded your friend and every other black-eyed bitch out there and he's gonna get rid of 'em. For good."/"...He is?" Yeah, he doesn't look too dangerous right now with the hacking up blood and all, but he's the one on the Trials, although I'm thinking that Dean's equanimity about Sam's ongoing Trial sickness etc means he thinks he's got a way to take the inevitable final bullet for Sam, which in the second to last episode of the season means a whole lot of DOOM.
-"There's not a doubt in my mind that he's gonna cross that finish line. Not one." Yep. And then Dean will bodycheck him and throw himself into whatever pit trap is waiting on the other side. Because he's Dean. I can see the shape of it coming. Aaaaarg.
-Castiel grocery shopping, oh god. XD
and I can see by the chips on the wall he's in a store that sells President's Choice products, so probably Superstore or an affiliate! Yay Canadian content, sort of! \o/
Heeee!
-"I have money." Oh good. Also, hello BC Lotteries ticket checker. Hee! XD
-"I need pie." Heeeeeeeee! Aw, he's trying to get all Dean's favourites as an apology. Plus toilet paper in case they need to start hoarding. Awwww.
-"Put the virgin down, Castiel." See, this is the problem with leaving your secured bunker, for whatever reason. People you don't want to interact with can find you.
-Or Metatron can! A better option than any of Naomi's or Crowley's goons. I think.
*giggles at french side of cracker box showing* Canadian content! Hee!
-Or maaaaybe not. Hm...
-"You're Metatron? The Metatron?" Heeee!
-"I thought we could socialize, maybe grab a bite."/"We can... what?" Hee. You know Castiel is hopeless when the Secretarial Angel who's been a hermit since nearly the dawn of time knows more about social activities and idioms than he does. You know what this means? Castiel really needs to read more books.
-"I thought Naomi was running things now."/"Is that what she told you?" Ahahahahaha. Yeah. Let's get an unbiased situation report on what's happening in Heaven for a change, not just whatever Naomi says. Open warfare, hunh? Sounds more logical an outcome than Naomi ruling everything topside unopposed.
-"There are factions upon factions..." *nods* Yep, that's more like it. Not that horrendous heavenly wars are a good thing, just more sensible than Naomi's magic Dremel in an iron fist.
-"It's all broke."/"I know. I'm the one that broke it." Awwwwww. True, but awwwwwwwww.
-"I've tried to atone for my sins, and I did penance and I've- betrayed my friends to protect our secrets, but I've just failed and now-" I don't know why, but Castiel working himself into a stress-induced ulcer over everything he's done makes me want to wrap him up in blankets and feed him soup. Especially since he's trying ineptly to get Dean to forgive him or accept him or something, with his little pie-less shopping trip of mostly beer and porn. Aw. *pats him*
-"We ride to the rescue, save the day. It'd make a great story." Ahahaahah. I don't know what Metatron is up to, but he's up to something. I mean look at that fuzzy little face. There's plotting there. I don't know what though.
-"Which is why we have to shut down Heaven." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Yeah. Okay, go for it. Crowley'd probably help. You know though, this is the guy who's the closest thing to IT SPN 'verse reality has, so since Heaven's been running since the start, it's probably due for a hard reboot to clear the buffers. ... Eeek.
-"Do you like crepes?" I like Metatron, he's stuck on random.
-Not so fun when someone is enigmatic, alarming and confusing and then does a flutterby on you, is it Cas?
-Incidentally, if Metatron's off having crepes with Castiel and plotting to reboot Heaven, who's guarding Kevin...? O.o
-"You think he blew town?"/"Sounds like him." Dean, dude. Seriously. You and Castiel need to be sat down in a room together to talk this crap out.
-Gotta hand it to set design, they can pull together some seriously messed up stuff just with a few candles and chains in a basement.
-"Purified how?"/"Before he started, Father Thompson went to confession." ...There's got to be more to it than that. Communion wafers? Sacramental wine? Drank nothing but Holy Water for a week? Seems too simple. Although if it gets us Sam or Dean going to confession, it could be interesting. And very very long.
-...and now the Trial radiation burning out Sam's Demon blood makes even more sense, doesn't it. Probably not a good idea to try to cure a demon with demon blood.
-Yeah, a demon crying is a little out of the norm. That much blood loss, the priest's got to be getting loopy though.
-"Now you are a man again, and you have been saved. *click*" I really hope they're going to listen to whatever's left on that tape, because there could be things on the tail-end there that they'll need to know. Along with how exactly the priest-guy died.
-"Or we use one we've already tagged." Well, Ruby's dead, Crowley would be hilarious, but a bit above your challenge rating, so if you're talking about Abaddon, get your cement picks and Krazy Glue out.
-"Do we still have Dad's old army field surgeon's kit?" *facepalm* *headdesk* Abaddon it is. I mean why not ignore any number of low-level demon flunkies running around topside helping Crowley in favour of doing your practicing on a KNIGHT OF HELL, who is in several pieces and well and truly peeved with you? Yeesh. On a side note, YAY THEY CARRY A FIELD SURGEON'S KIT IN THE CAR. \o/
-"Cool coat."/"No it's actually quite warm." *facepalm* In Castiel's defense he was getting his brains drilled out by Naomi for large swathes of the season, so maybe she drilled out some of his idiom detectors too. *pats Castiel*
-You know, that's another thing. Along with Metatron's grasp of idiom, if he's been holed up in that hotel since the dawn of whatever, how does he know this place in particular has good crepes...? And who the heck is guarding Kevin??? *side-eyes*
-"Angels get uppity, slam the Pearly Gates." Metatron's starting to tweak my alarm bells. He's either cut himself off from everything for so long he's completely nihilistic and detached, or he's been secretly plotting a takeover all along. Or something. *continues side-eying*
-"You're going to complete these tests?"/"No, I'm a pencil pusher *etc etc*" Oh and here we go. See, now, this is why Dean needs to sit down and work out his issues with Castiel, because now Cas is roaming around looking for ways to atone and, lo! Here comes Metatron, who he fangirled at a little upon meeting, with this grand plan to shut Heaven and keep the internecine fighting away from Earth, all sounding reasonable and rational, and looking for someone who can do the frigging Trials for it. You know, like a patsy. And of course Castiel's going to jump at it because he wants to do something to atone, and has good intentions and is as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to discerning whether the intel he's getting is valid or is intended to manipulate him into thinking that doing whatever the person talking to him wants is the right thing. THIS IS WHY YOU TALK TO YOUR ALLIES INSTEAD OF SHUTTING THEM OUT, DEAN. *headdesk*
-"Heaven needs your help, Castiel." Oh shut up, Metatron. Yeah. Total manipulation there, straight where Castiel has a weak spot. What the heck is Metatron's game here? And what has he done to Kevin??? O.O
-"I am the one who caused these problems, I should be the one to fix them." Cas, honey, you've spent most of the season being manipulated and having your brains scrambled, but I still want to grab you by the scruff of the neck and shake you til your brains rattle, whatever's left of them. You and Dean, one in each hand. Shake-a-shake-a-shake.
-"She's the first Trial. Gotta cut her heart out." Ooof. Right. Now. Is he lying to manipulate Castiel, or is this really a Trial. Compared to gutting a Hellhound, killing a human isn't much of a challenge, and unless there's some reason she's special to Heaven, it doesn't seem like it's directly thematic like the Hell Trials have been. It seems to me that if the Hell Trials were about taking or redeeming power from Hell, the Heaven Trials... well. This is going to get ugly isn't it.
-Aha. And Castiel's going to go through with it, and that's what the uproar was about when this aired, right? Castiel killing an innocent waitress, solely on Metatron's say-so?
-She's a Nephilim? Well, I guess that fits a Trial better, but seriously, she's a waitress and has nothing to do with who her parents were. Also, Nephilim are supposed to be giants, she's not nearly tall enough. And Castiel is still going to do it because he's an easily manipulated dumbass.
-*nods along with Castiel* Yep, that's what I said too, dude.
-"Her life or your family." Depends who Castiel's family is, doesn't it. Also, I've watched "Hot Fuzz" far too recently and I'm very glad Metatron didn't bust out with 'for the greater good' or I'd still be giggling next week.
-Seriously. Cas. Phone a friend. If Dean's not talking to you because he's being Dean, try Sam. Outside perspective you can trust will help you figure out when what you're thinking of doing is incredibly dumb or self-destructive or apocalypse triggering. ...On second thought, the Winchesters might not be the best resource on that reality check. Can you find Bobby in Heaven and get him to give you a smack upside the head? Do you have Charlie Bradbury's number? No? Damn. :-/
-Really guys, there's a couple demon flunkies trapped in a warehouse somewhere that Kevin can tell you how to get to. No need to do any amateur surgery that's not going to be to effective at assisting blood flow, or risk re-unleashing a Knight of Hell.
-Really doubt the boys are experts on vascular and neural surgery, so I hope Abaddon being demon-trapped in her skull isn't going to hinder whatever host-healing capacity might be available or this could be very messy. Also, why are they not doing this in their newly discovered demon dungeon? Unless they aren't sure they can keep her contained in there and don't want to risk the Batcave. Okay, fine, sure. *handwave*
-"It worked! You owe me a beer." Hee.
-They left her hands off. That... huh. Harder to pick locks, but there's also nothing to keep her pulling her arms out of the bindings without hands to get caught at the end, so... Huh. I mean if they had her upper arms bound to the chair that would be... ehhhh. She has a demon trap in her brain and isn't aware of the gaping loopholes in her restraints or something. *shrug* *handwave*
-"We're gonna consecrate the ground." ...that... is something new. You'd think though since they're trying this with Abaddon and not Demon Flunky Number 3 they'd want to do this somewhere as consecrated as they could get (is the demon dungeon consecrated? It probably is) rather than doing some quick and dirty consecrating on their own. Though most holy places kind of frown on hauling in crates of body parts and sewing a dead woman back together in the basement so this might be their only option. (Except their demon dungeon. Which they aren't using for perfectly sensible yet unknown reasons.)
-Of course she knows the priest and what he was doing. Golly gee, I wonder if she's the one that dispatched him way back when.
-"Who do you think ripped him apart?" Yep.
-AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! CROWLEY! XD
-"Crowley."/"The salesman?"/"Try the King of Hell."/"This is a joke, right?" Oh yeah... Someone skipped a few decades of memos when she went time-hopping after Grandad Winchester, didn't she?
-Just *handwaves* pretty.
-"Denver Times, from yesterday." Ah, Crowley's behind the survivor killings. Well singular killing so far, but this is Crowley so more can't be far behind.
-I don't know why Dean grimly looking up things on the internet with his phone is making me giggle, but it is.
-AHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH! It's Thing! Or Thing 1 and Thing 2 if both hands are there. I don't know how exactly the logic of this works but a combination of her being abole to seperate her smoke to secondarily possess others for info, and something something Demon Knight *handwave* whatever. Disembodied hands! Hee!
-OH! Clever demon. Digging out the bullet. The boys are screwed. Also idiots for leaving their prisoner unguarded. Doesn't take two people to answer a phone call.
-Car is pretty. Car is distracting. Car is pretty distracting. Hi Car. Shiny.
(Sorry, looooong day.)
-"We saved him from a wendigo like forever ago." Firstly, the way they way wendigo, hee. Second, if we're talking subjective time including time spent in Hell and assorted suburbs, forever's as good an estimate for when the second episode of season one was for Sam and Dean as any other.
-"We got everything we need to put hm in a permanent time out." Someone's about to get kicked in their complacency.
Their heights aren't that different, its just the way they're walking. But hee.
-And this is why you never ever leave a prisoner completely unguarded. Silly boys.
-And the slightly bigger problem than not having a freshly resurrected demon held prisoner to enact the demon conversion ritual, Abaddon is now loose in the world unhindered. They're really not having a good episode.
-Emoticon. Hee. Crowley is a fun adversary character.
Hm. Prosperity, Indiana. Ah. The witch couple with marital issues going back to the Renaissance.
-"A trap means demons and we could use one right now." HEEEE! IT'S NOT A TACTICAL ERROR, IT'S A SHOPPING TRIP. Pick a low grade disaffected-looking flunky, should be easier to revert them if they aren't that into being a demon.
-Well, I was resisting the urge to take a cap of the car in the rain, but if you're going to put that shiny grill front and center, why not.
-Oh right, the cupcakes with hearts in them.
-Seems to be an awful lot of smoke in that room. Beware of recent or active fires, guys.
-*body in stove* Eaugch. Told ya. That can't smell good.
-Crowley killed the cupcake baker, not the witches. That would have been a slightly bigger fight.
-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *applauds* I TOLD YOU BOYS THOSE BOOKS WERE A SECURITY RISK IF DEMONS WHO HAD AN IDEA OF WHAT TO DO WITH THEM GOT HOLD OF THEM. Love it. XD
(Though Prosperity wasn't a case in the books but Chuck showed Becky a bunch that hadn't been published and she probably emailed them to herself and posted them all online somewhere, and Chuck was ahead on writing the Winchester Gospel by two years, seasons, whatever so he had a book written for a case in Season 7 even though he disappeared in season five *HANDWAVEHANDWAVEHANDWAVE*)
-Oh ho! Or got them printed! The books only went to the end of season 2, that one's a season 3. Chuck did say he had a publishing deal in The real Ghostbusters back in 2009, for which I think I wrote something to the effect of if demons wanted to know what the Winchesters were up to, they'd be behind the 'mystery Scandinavian backer' offering the publishing deal, so... hee hee hee. :-)
(Though with the implications of Chuck at the end of season 5 he should have known, but really, at that point if Chuck was God, he seemed to be trolling the Universe a bit, so maybe letting demons publish the rest of the Winchester Gospel seemed like fun at the time)
-Crowley's droogs. Holy crap, a Clockwork Orange reference. O.o
-"I'm going to gut one person every 12 hours until you bring me the Demon tablet and stop this whole trials nonsense." Have I mentioned lately how much I like strategically smart adversary characters?
-"Word from the cloud is that it wasn't Heaven." Moles and spies and plotting oh my. Ion can't have been the only one, and I'm still side-eying Naomi and her implied past with Crowley...
-Cutest little prophet in the world. HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! \o/
-"Indianapolis." Phantom Traveller. So the flight attendant probably.
-Meanwhile, Castiel is... well, when you get down to it, Metatron is the last entity to officially be in direct contact with God, probably, in this 'verse, and Castiel's Daddy issues in that regard rival Dean's, so when his Father's trusted assistant tells him this is a good plan that needs to happen, Castiel's going to find it hard to resist that, especially given his brain's been scrambled and forced to follow counter-to-his-nature orders for a large part of the season, his will is probably like Silly Putty right now. Someone he feels he has a big reason to trust and was at one point really close to his Father gives him a clear order and tells him doing it will help heal the damage he's done to Heaven? Resistance is sadly futile.
-*GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASP!!!* HOLY CRAP IT'S SARAH! YOU GUYS! IT'S SARAH BLAKE!! FROM PROVENANCE! ONE OF THE GIRLS SAM'S KISSED WHO'S STILL ALIVE! OMG! SAM'S CURSE IS GONNA GET HER VIA CROWLEY AND THE DEMONS!! RUN, SARAH!!!!! RUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN!!!!!
-SEASON ONE! LOOKIT THE SAM-PUPPY!
-"What's going on?" God, I love Sarah. Winchesters are here, weird crap must be happening, but no freaking out, just a down to business "What's going on?" Dammit, she's doomed, isn't she?
-SAM'S FAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!
-AND COMMERCIAL BREAK. I WANT TO GO REWATCH SEASON ONE SO HARD RIGHT NOW! SARAH, YOU GUYS! SARAH!!!
-The above is an example of why I like not knowing anything at all about shows I haven't seen yet. Because not knowing about things before I see them happen sometimes makes me go insane.
-Well, if you're going to do something morally inadvisable and strategically dubious, you may as well do it with the all the stealth and subtlety of a pair of tap-dancing wildebeest. *headshake*
-I am somewhat gratified that the poor doomed Nephilim-waitress will be kicking their asses around for a bit before the inevitable doom. Or at least Castiel's ass, since he's been talked into being Metatron's stalking-horse.
-And yeah, down goes the waitress with surprisingly little fanfare. Do the Heaven Trials not come with their own radiation, or is Sam getting dosed with his Trial radiation because of the Demon blood making him kind of connected to Hell? If so then Castiel should be getting an even bigger hit since he's a celestial trying to cut off Heaven while being part of Heaven. Something. Well, I suppose there's some phrase he's got to say before it kicks in. Regardless, that seemed a bit quick.
-"So, a demon named Crowley is gonna kill me in 16 minutes." Heeee! Sam's been updating Sarah on the salient parts of the past 7 years. Let's see if she passes her boggle-check.
-"No. No he's not." D'awww, puppy!
-"An exorcism, ready to play on a loop." *SNERK* Beats all heck out of the Mickey Mouse rig they had in Jus in Bello. Just upload it into iTunes, hit repeat track and let it run until the battery dies.
-"I know this is insane, but insane is kind of what we do." This isn't her first rodeo, Sam, but 7 years of normal might make the memory seem less than real, so the newbie speech is probably warranted. Heck of a way to re-meet someone after 7 years though. "Hi! Remember us? The King of Hell's coming to kill you because of us within the next few minutes. Mind if we paint crap all over your hotel room?"
-"...Okay." Practical, pragmatic, let's get on with it, no freaking out and no going on about how insane this all is. Sarah, you are my favourite. I'm so sorry you're probably doomed.
-Even Dean's impressed. Just look at that impressed face.
-"His name's Ian, works Search and Rescue. Guess I have a type." AWWWWWWW!! And so, so doomed.
-Oh crap, and she has a daughter. COULD YOU BE MORE DOOMED, SARAH? No pressure there, Sam.
Sam's hair is... I have no idea. Whatever it is, it's not evil. It's just. Like it's morphing and stuck between forms or something. O.o
-"What about you?" Ahehehehe. Yeah, that is a long weird story and you guys have like a minute before demons attack so maybe backburner it to discuss over 'yay we didn't die' beers or something. Which of course will never happen. So doomed.
-"You seem more focused. Confident. Like you know what you want." Okay, yeah, compared to first season 'first real Sam-initiated kiss since Jess died' Sam, he's more confident and all that, but he's also focused because he's got a checklist of things to do for the final Trial to seal off Hell, which is kind of going backwards at the moment.
-"I do miss the old haircut though." *SNEEEEERRRRRRK* Sarah is definitely my favorite. I really hope she lives. But of course she's doomed.
-They even gave her her own gun! Not that it will stop the impending doom, but way better than just hiding behind the boys and miscellaneous crap! Hope hey did that Devil's trap etching thing on the bullets. \o/
-CROWLEY COUNTDOWN! I don't know, but I flailed everywhere.
-Oh crap. Yeah, it's not going to be a defensible frontal assault if Crowley's giving you advance notice. It's going to be something already in place that the boys (hypothetically) can't do a damned thing to stop. I do like strategic-minded adversary characters, even when it makes them more effective at killing off characters I like.
-"Son of a witch, actually. My mommy taught me a few tricks." Oh really? Another snippet of Crowley backstory.
-"So from now on I'm going to keep everything Hell-related - demons etc - away from you guys." STRATEGICALLY SMART ADVERSARY CHARACTERRRRRRRRS!!!! HELL YEAH!! \o/
-"What's the line? 'Saving people, hunting things, the family business'?" *FLAAAAAAAAAAAIL* CROWLEY IS MY FAVORITE BAD GUY. \o/
-AND THEN HE PSYCHOANALYZES THEM WITH THE WHOLE HERO THING AND PEOPLE THEY SAVED GIVING THEM PEACE AND I FLAIL AGAIN SOME MORE.
-"Because when they're all gone, what will you have left?" GAaaaaaaaah!! *flappy hands everywhere*
-IT'S THE RING, YOU TURNIPS. TAKE OFF THE RING. IT'S ON HER RIGHT HAND. IF SHE'S MARRIED WITH A KID, THAT'S THE WRONG HAND. Or maybe they had the kid and they've only just gotten engaged now BUT IT'S WORTH A SHOT AT LEAST. ALSO CPR COULDN'T FREAKING HURT.
-Or it's in the phone. Yeah. Because Crowley'd know they aren't going to mess with the phone while Crowley's yammering on, in case he gives them a clue about where the hex bag is. Crowley is probably the smartest most tactically intelligent adversary they've ever had, and it makes him so much more dangerous, and awesome as a level of challenge for the show. All the game has to step up because Crowley's not making simple mistakes. Oh, god, and that countdown he did was probably the hex bag activation phrase or something. :-O
-Well, if she was still alive she'd have one hell of an explanation to give to the hotel staff, but that's not a problem for Sarah any more. But seriously though boys, BURN THE DAMNED HEX BAG AND START CPR.
-Dean's matter-of-fact 'we get a demon' is making me nervous.... If he tries something stupid like going to a crossroads, won't Crowley have his call refused anyway? And what would he be offering at the crossroads? He already sold his soul once, then Castiel et al stole it back, so... unless. Heh. It won't be this because it'd take too long, but. He could get a demon to take him to Hell, NOT resist instead of holding out for 30 years, become a demon as fast as possible, then find a way topside to get Sam to turn him back. I think that would be even harder to fly past Crowley than summoning a Crossroads Demon, though. Although Crowley might let Dean down to go demon just for giggles, but he'd never let him up again. Hmm. Eh. Anyway, not going to happen. But Dean's still acting like he has an Idea. It's making me nervous.
-"We'll kick it in the ass, like we always do." Aw, Kim Manners shout-out. *flail*
-"Are you with me?" Where else is Sam going to be?
So. Dean has a plan to fix everything and probably keep Sam from whatever Trial-related final doom awaits him. Of course he does. This is very nervous-making. Also Crowley's got the demons all in lockdown, except maybe Abbadon who is not terribly likely to want to get healed from being a Knight of Hell. Unless she and Crowley have an ancient beef and she knows it will screw him over. Hmmmm...
One more episode to go for me in Season 8, and that will be the one where everything blows up in everyone's face, yeah?
Soon. With a montage! \o/
(PLEASE NO REFERENCES TO EPISODES PAST 8.22 IN COMMENTS! One more to go!)