Episode bliss and 'help me, I'm a little lost...'
Okay, I posted last night, asking for reassurance because I have been trying so hard to preserve my love for this damn show, despite season 8's dogged persistence in persuading me otherwise....I only want to watch episodes that I will love. Or like an awful lot
( Read more... )
How much do you know? I'll just go from the top:
Basically, Kevin Tran - the current prophet, only one can be alive at a time - is the only one who can read the tablets. In the earlier episodes of this season, the brothers and Kevin get a second tablet (meeting an angel named Samandriel in the process) which says that there is a way to close the gates of Hell, forever.
Now is where Castiel comes in.
Purgatory was an experience. About the only awesome thing about the episodes in which Sam and Dean did nothing but argue was the Purgatory flashbacks and Benny the vampire.
Cas buggered off at the end of season 7 because an angel in Purgatory is effectively a beacon; he didn't want to draw any Leviathan to Dean. Dean goes looking for Cas and meets a vampire named Benny who knows of a portal to get Dean out (Purgatory wasn't meant for humans, which is why it would work for him), and will show him it in return for a lift out. Dean agrees. They find a now-sane Cas and make their way to the portal. However, turns out that Cas didn't want to leave, as he feels being in Purgatory is his penance for committing the crimes he did against Heaven and Earth. Cas pushes Dean through the portal and that seems to be it.
Dean did keep his promise to the vampire and there's two episodes where his background is expanded on. He's a decent character, but Sam can't get over the fact that Dean's palling around with a monster. It also turns out that after Dean disappeared, Sam ran to try and escape his pain of not knowing what to do to get him back. He met a girl called Amelia in this time and though I personally wouldn't call it love, they were both in a rut and soothed each other. Sam didn't search for Dean and stayed with her, nor did he uphold any other responsibilities and answer any calls from a struggling Kevin during this time. That is where Dean and Sam's arguments come from.
Cas later appears to Dean and Sam, with no clue how he got out.
The second tablet, by this time, is in the hands of Crowley as well as Kevin and the angel Samadriel. Kevin reads the tablet and we find out that this one also contains a brief mention of other tablets. Cas comes in and faces off with Crowley in just about the coolest Cas scene ever, breaking the tablet in half as Crowley tries to leave.
Turns out that the Angels rescued Castiel. An angel named Naomi tells him that delivering information to her is his repayment, and that he will never remember the weird split seconds where he flits between time and space to appear in her office and report to her.
Later on, Samandriel is being tortured by Crowley. Naomi tasks Cas with saving him and he gets Dean (and later Sam too, this is the same episode that Sam and Dean finally sorted themselves out) to help, as they have to break some angel warding for him. But they're too late to prevent Crowley from doing something funky to Samandriel - involving metal rods drilled into his head - to get the angel to tell the demon that there is an Angel Tablet too (they called it 'Angel Factory Settings', Samandriel had no conscious knowledge of this fact before the torture).
Cas whisks Samandriel away and he starts to tell Cas that the angels are being controlled. Naomi interrupts and tells Cas to kill Samandriel. Cas refuses and he has flashbacks which show Naomi leaning over Cas and using some sort of metal drill-bit in the corner of his eye which apparently is causing him to both comply AND forget. In the end, he has no choice.
Sam and Dean arrive just after Cas has been forced to kill Samandriel. Naomi puts the words of each sentence Cas says next into his mouth, and the brothers actually see blood running from one of Cas' eyes like a tear as a result of her doing this.
After he leaves, the brothers are suspicious. They copy the warding that they had to get rid of in Crowley's lair to keep Cas away. They know something is wrong, but Dean has wrongly concluded that it can't be the angels causing Cas to kill their own.
I guess you know the next part about the mythology story-arc, which is the key to the Men of Letters' supernatural vault?
Reply
I'm seriously amused. What kind of angel name is Samandriel?
I am seriously so done with angel arcs. I just don't get the appeal.
But yes, Men of Letters is an awesome idea! I really hope that becomes the show's new breath of life because it has so much promise. The Family Business, you know?
Reply
I disliked Cas' arcs in seasons 6 and 7 and any other angels we've seen recently have merely been a means to an end and haven't really shown us what is happening in Heaven.
This is the first serious attempt that the writers have made to show us and I find it quite interesting, as we're not being given much information and when we are, it just gives us more questions rather than simply throwing it all in our faces. I like that it keeps us guessing.
Hell yeah! Finally introducing us to the Winchester bloodline is the best move they've made so far. Much as I love Cas and Kevin, the show is finally getting back to it's roots about family.
If they can finally find the balance they had between family and the mythology like they had in season 5... they'll have it made.
Reply
Leave a comment