8.07
Oh, my - it was all so good. I think the main emotion I feel is relief; I've had an awful fear that Dean did something in Purgatory that he wouldn't be able to get past (which, in his case, would probably mean that he put his own survival above someone else's, since self-sacrificing Dean is a role he's comfortable with, but looking-after-himself Dean is not), and I am so very glad that he betrayed no one, failed no one, and it has been forcibly brought home to him that this is the case.
I love the brotherly affection, and found it very believable. I rather thought that Sam's scene with Dean at the end of 8.06 was the nastiest that's ever played out between the two. Yes, I know, they've had bigger fights - 'When the levee breaks', for example - but they were full of despair and grief and desperation. Sam's threat to kill Benny was spiteful, and I honestly don't think they've gone there before.
So I think they did what people who love each other do when they stray into dangerous territory - they pulled back from the deeps. Neither of them liked where they'd gone, so they instinctively swam back into warmer water, and wasn't it just *nice* to see them splashing about in there? Yay for Sam being supportive and kind again. Yay for Dean allowing some of his vulnerability to be exposed. Just hot dollops of yayness all round.
I'm glad to see Cas back, and an affectionate Cas at that. And so grateful that he showed Dean what really happened. For once, Dean gets to drop a little of that burden I mentioned before. We've seen this notion of Dean having to save everyone before - in WIAWSNB, by the graveside ('why do we have to save everyone?'; in the mental health facility, where Dean's subconscious became his therapist and noted how he felt the need to save everyone, and what a load that was to carry. Dean, if asked, would deny that he believes it; he'd scoff, and say of course they can't save everyone, don't be ridiculous, he's a hunter, he knows the odds, etc. But in his heart? The little boy who saw his dad as a superhero still lives on, and that notion of the Winchesters as saviours is one that he clings to. He *has* to, to justify everything they've lost along the way - family, innocence, hope, faith. That it is an unrealistic ideal, one that places an untenable burden on them both, is something Dean is going to have to accept at some point, and Castiel's words are the beginning. It's interesting that this is echoing Sam's first ep assertion that 'people die'; this may be Dean's task on this season, to relinquish responsibility for everybody's lives - including Sam's.
I think Dean honestly believed Castiel to be dead. They'd fought so hard to get to that portal, they were exhausted; there were Leviathans, again, always, and they would have killed Cas if Dean hadn't saved him by cutting off the Leviathans' heads. Then, in Dean's mind, Cas 'gave up'. Anyone lacking the will or energy to fight, and without backup, would have been destroyed very quickly in Purgatory. I'm pretty sure Dean says in 8.01 that Cas 'didn't make it', a phrase long established as synonymous with 'didn't survive/ got killed'. He didn't actually see it, of course, but 'he saw enough' - saw Cas sliding back, too weak to hold on, back to where Leviathans would undoubtedly be appearing any second. Purgatory has brought Dean's pragmatism to the fore. A soldier seeing a comrade miss the chopper lift in a hot zone doesn't need to see what happens next to know their fate.
Did his subconscious feed him the memory that Castiel had rejected his rescue and wanted to stay there? It's another possibility, perhaps something that flavoured his thinking without ever coalescing for him into cogent thought.
Loved Mrs Tran, as ever. Thought Kevin played his hand pretty well - um, no pun intended. And I thought that Crowley had recaptured some menace in this episode. For me, he'd been becoming a little too comfortable - more twinkle, less terror. He was nicely threatening in this one.
And I think I'm going to start a beer-spotting chart. They had three different kinds in this episode, didn't they? These boys are not brand-loyal. If it's wet and alcoholic and answers to 'beer', they'll drink it.
So - very happy with the show, and our boys, and looking forward to the next one in two weeks' time. What were your thoughts?
I love the brotherly affection, and found it very believable. I rather thought that Sam's scene with Dean at the end of 8.06 was the nastiest that's ever played out between the two. Yes, I know, they've had bigger fights - 'When the levee breaks', for example - but they were full of despair and grief and desperation. Sam's threat to kill Benny was spiteful, and I honestly don't think they've gone there before.
So I think they did what people who love each other do when they stray into dangerous territory - they pulled back from the deeps. Neither of them liked where they'd gone, so they instinctively swam back into warmer water, and wasn't it just *nice* to see them splashing about in there? Yay for Sam being supportive and kind again. Yay for Dean allowing some of his vulnerability to be exposed. Just hot dollops of yayness all round.
I'm glad to see Cas back, and an affectionate Cas at that. And so grateful that he showed Dean what really happened. For once, Dean gets to drop a little of that burden I mentioned before. We've seen this notion of Dean having to save everyone before - in WIAWSNB, by the graveside ('why do we have to save everyone?'; in the mental health facility, where Dean's subconscious became his therapist and noted how he felt the need to save everyone, and what a load that was to carry. Dean, if asked, would deny that he believes it; he'd scoff, and say of course they can't save everyone, don't be ridiculous, he's a hunter, he knows the odds, etc. But in his heart? The little boy who saw his dad as a superhero still lives on, and that notion of the Winchesters as saviours is one that he clings to. He *has* to, to justify everything they've lost along the way - family, innocence, hope, faith. That it is an unrealistic ideal, one that places an untenable burden on them both, is something Dean is going to have to accept at some point, and Castiel's words are the beginning. It's interesting that this is echoing Sam's first ep assertion that 'people die'; this may be Dean's task on this season, to relinquish responsibility for everybody's lives - including Sam's.
I think Dean honestly believed Castiel to be dead. They'd fought so hard to get to that portal, they were exhausted; there were Leviathans, again, always, and they would have killed Cas if Dean hadn't saved him by cutting off the Leviathans' heads. Then, in Dean's mind, Cas 'gave up'. Anyone lacking the will or energy to fight, and without backup, would have been destroyed very quickly in Purgatory. I'm pretty sure Dean says in 8.01 that Cas 'didn't make it', a phrase long established as synonymous with 'didn't survive/ got killed'. He didn't actually see it, of course, but 'he saw enough' - saw Cas sliding back, too weak to hold on, back to where Leviathans would undoubtedly be appearing any second. Purgatory has brought Dean's pragmatism to the fore. A soldier seeing a comrade miss the chopper lift in a hot zone doesn't need to see what happens next to know their fate.
Did his subconscious feed him the memory that Castiel had rejected his rescue and wanted to stay there? It's another possibility, perhaps something that flavoured his thinking without ever coalescing for him into cogent thought.
Loved Mrs Tran, as ever. Thought Kevin played his hand pretty well - um, no pun intended. And I thought that Crowley had recaptured some menace in this episode. For me, he'd been becoming a little too comfortable - more twinkle, less terror. He was nicely threatening in this one.
And I think I'm going to start a beer-spotting chart. They had three different kinds in this episode, didn't they? These boys are not brand-loyal. If it's wet and alcoholic and answers to 'beer', they'll drink it.
So - very happy with the show, and our boys, and looking forward to the next one in two weeks' time. What were your thoughts?