REVIEW: Supernatural: Bone Key by Keith R. A. DeCandido (Chapter 19)
There's a lot of screaming. And references to screaming. And more screaming. Oh wait, that last is just me in response to this chapter.
There's also dancing and depression and introspection. Enjoy.
Chapter Nineteen: The Last Calusa thinks in the third person. In case you were wondering, the Last Calusa remembers-remembers so much that the book must tell us again the backstory of the Calusa, and how mighty the tribe was, and blah blah blah. Eventually, after two pages of this, we return to the brief surprise the Last Calusa felt when the wards shattered, and it (they?) find the “dead soul” - which is to say Dean. So, the Last Calusa does what any self-respecting collective of dead souls would do-it begins to dance.
The point of view switches to Dean seeing this dance, who decides that surely this must be stopped. He (they?) throws energy at it (them?), with the collective military training not just of Dean Winchester via John Winchester, but also of all the military souls he’s now schlepping about. This, however, accomplishes nothing. Conveniently, the soul of the dead poet (no, not Robin Williams. See chapter 18 for the various souls currently inhabiting Dean) tells him that “violence without passion doesn’t mean nothin’.” Naturally, while the composition teacher (that’d be me) cringes at the double negative, Dean takes this to mean that he … well, needs more passion, apparently. And it doesn’t seem to matter what kind of passion, because he calls up the treasure hunter’s passion for, well, hunting treasure, the musician’s passion for playing music, etc. You get the idea. So this time when he flings energy at the Last Calusa, the latter stumbles.
Yay?
Then Dean uses his own protective instinct towards Sam as well as the protective instinct of Harry S. Truman (yes, really) and a bunch of others and creates a ward around Sam and the other people slated to be sacrifices. They are protected then from the lightning which the Last Calusa calls up.
I can’t help but get the feeling that my cynicism is keeping me from enjoying this cosmic battle. Oh wait, no… that’d be the writing. My mistake.
The rain intensifies (and not mainly on the plain) to the point where it is denting the roofs of the police cars (but not the Impala, evidently.) Also, there’s pain. A lot of pain. All of you seeking hurt and comfort? Well, here’s the hurt bit. Dean feels everything, and now he feels pain. I have to assume this is because of something the Last Calusa did (sending its own energy at Dean?) but the book doesn’t actually tell us that. Bravo. But no matter how bad it gets, Dean keeps the wards up around the sacrifices because he figures he’s dead already so he has to just keep protecting the others.
Then he’s overwhelmed with the depression of the spirits.
I… Seriously. I’ve got nothing. Dean is actually impaired by Hemingway’s manic-depressiveness, for example. And while that actually seems like something that might happen if you have a spirit (or in this case, many) inside of you, it seems like it might be more of a long term effect rather than something that would happen in the middle of a cosmic supernatural battle. Just sayin’.
And speaking of which, there’s no clear information here on just how many spirits are inside of Dean at this point. In chapter seventeen it was posited that the Last Calusa was “thousands, maybe millions” of souls. Dean is now made up of all the spirits of Key West-presumably just the ones who’ve been milling about, however. There were maybe dozens hanging out in the Fedregotti’s hotel room. There has been no indication that there are more than that inside Dean-the only indication of number (in the previous chapter) was “so many more.” I know I argued that the idea of “millions” of Calusa was rather unlikely. Well, I’m saying that even “thousands” are unlikely for Dean. Key West is small. Yeah, it’s supposedly more haunted than many places, but come on-how many ghost stories can there really be? So even if the Last Calusa does not have “millions” it still has more than Dean and this is an unfair fight.
This is not addressed per se, but it does turn out that the Last Calusa can just keep hurling pain at Dean. The latter summons up the obstinacy of the ghosts inside of him, but it’s not enough and he starts screaming. (And, evidently, breathing in rainwater. No, seriously, the section ends with the following: Dean screamed to the heavens, the rain pelting into his open mouth… and the ellipsis is not mine-it’s quoted.)
I believe this puts the Last Calusa at 2 screams, Dean at 3, and actually quite a lot of references to screaming in general, as per a word search I just did in the Word document I use to write these reviews before posting them. Hm.
The perspective shifts again, this time to Bobby who observes the exact same situation we’re already aware of. Thanks, book, I really needed that. He notices that Dean seems to be losing (and that his scream was the most “soul-chilling a sound” he’d ever heard) and that Kat (then human in which Fedra currently resides) is bleeding and blistering. Fedra is burning out Kat-and the time it would take for Fedra to find a new host (even if she could get into Bobby or has another human nearby) would probably be fatal to Dean (who’s losing at the moment anyway). Also, Bobby’s biggest fear ever is being possessed, apparently (which on one hand annoys me because once again it’s a choice about canon, but on the other hand makes sense in light of his wife) so he’s keeping the Colt handy. Which… I’m not sure what good it will do him (since no one has tried to shoot the !@#$@$&@$% friggin’ Last Calusa with it) because when will he decide to shoot? Fedra won’t leave Kat ‘til Kat’s dead; Bobby won’t shoot Kat unless he has to. If Fedra leaves Kat to go for Bobby, she’ll be smoke and we know that the Colt (which can kill anything except when it can’t, as Demian pointed out oh so helpfully over at TWoP) doesn’t work on the smoke form of demons (ala “Salvation” 1.21, when Sam tried to shoot Azazel over Rosie’s crib.)
So the perspective shifts again, this time Sam who has miraculously broken completely free just before Dean starts screaming. This is quite the shift from being able to move his thumb at the end of the previous chapter (and only a matter of hours at most from this point.)
Sam promptly falls face first into the dirt. The cops around him want him to free them, too. There’s a battle of wills next, as the Last Calusa tries to force Sam back into the circle with the others, and Sam tries to keep it from winning. Dean’s scream (the fourth reference to it, for those keeping count) is what wills Sam on. For some reason his success also makes all the other captives able to move. Um. Sure.
Sam races out from under the tarp (at the construction site basement, you see) and takes in the situation, including Dean, screaming (fifth reference!) He realizes that Dean has agreed to work with Fedra.
And apparently this is the right time for some introspection on Sam’s part. Really, book? Really? Sam realizes that just because he has demon blood in him doesn’t make him a bad person-Dean is clearly doing a deal with a demon and he’s still Dean, just as premonitions or not, Sam is still Sam.
Heh. Guess DeCandido might have a few new thoughts in this new book now that we’ve seen season 4.
Sam runs to the Impala (past Bobby who just asks what he’s doing) to grab salt and lighter fluid and then salts and burns the bones in the construction site, figuring that that which doesn’t kill something will still hurt a helluva lot. Which, great and all, but couldn’t we have just salted and burnt the bones a long time ago and gotten this done with?
The chapter does a quick switch over to the Last Calusa’s perspective as part of it burns away. (Oh, for the record, during this event, it screams. LC: 3, Dean: 3.) In the time it takes to patch itself up, it’s vulnerable to Dean
Whiiiiich, is where we switch next. Dean sees Sam running about, then gathers up all the emotions of all the spirits in him (and I will spare you the bit wherein they all chime in; you may thank me later) and sends one big blow at the Last Calusa.
Bobby’s perspective swings back in as he watches the battle finish up. Dean’s energy toss works and the Last Calusa screams again (LC: 4, Dean: 3). There’s a blinding light and the Last Calusa discorporates. Alas, all the humans are then flung about because Fedra is finished playing well with others. (Her vessel, Kat, is now unharmed again. Which makes sense-Meg, for example, looked fine until she was vacated, despite falling out a window and all that. However, I wouldn’t place a bet as to whether DeCandido will kill Kat or not at this point.)
Apparently both the power of the Last Calusa and Dean are now under Fedra’s control. I’m fuzzy on this last part, but I guess it has to do with his having given himself over to her in order to be the vessel of all the power, and she not giving him back yet. Bobby shoots Fedra-Kat with the Colt, but the demon stops it (apparently like the demon in “Malleus Maleficarum”) and they head back to Dean’s hotel room for supplies, Dean robot-like and driving the Impala.
According to Bobby, thanks to the charms they have and the tattoos the Winchesters have (answering my question from chapter 15, but not my complaints about that chapter, nor why Sam didn't reference his tattoo then), they can’t be possessed, but because Fedra is so powerful, Dean’s body can be controlled. This seems like a hair to split. But hey, that’s where the chapter ends.
Join me Tuesday for the exciting (?) conclusion to Bone Key. Come on, y'know you waaaannnnaaa!
There's also dancing and depression and introspection. Enjoy.
Chapter Nineteen: The Last Calusa thinks in the third person. In case you were wondering, the Last Calusa remembers-remembers so much that the book must tell us again the backstory of the Calusa, and how mighty the tribe was, and blah blah blah. Eventually, after two pages of this, we return to the brief surprise the Last Calusa felt when the wards shattered, and it (they?) find the “dead soul” - which is to say Dean. So, the Last Calusa does what any self-respecting collective of dead souls would do-it begins to dance.
The point of view switches to Dean seeing this dance, who decides that surely this must be stopped. He (they?) throws energy at it (them?), with the collective military training not just of Dean Winchester via John Winchester, but also of all the military souls he’s now schlepping about. This, however, accomplishes nothing. Conveniently, the soul of the dead poet (no, not Robin Williams. See chapter 18 for the various souls currently inhabiting Dean) tells him that “violence without passion doesn’t mean nothin’.” Naturally, while the composition teacher (that’d be me) cringes at the double negative, Dean takes this to mean that he … well, needs more passion, apparently. And it doesn’t seem to matter what kind of passion, because he calls up the treasure hunter’s passion for, well, hunting treasure, the musician’s passion for playing music, etc. You get the idea. So this time when he flings energy at the Last Calusa, the latter stumbles.
Yay?
Then Dean uses his own protective instinct towards Sam as well as the protective instinct of Harry S. Truman (yes, really) and a bunch of others and creates a ward around Sam and the other people slated to be sacrifices. They are protected then from the lightning which the Last Calusa calls up.
I can’t help but get the feeling that my cynicism is keeping me from enjoying this cosmic battle. Oh wait, no… that’d be the writing. My mistake.
The rain intensifies (and not mainly on the plain) to the point where it is denting the roofs of the police cars (but not the Impala, evidently.) Also, there’s pain. A lot of pain. All of you seeking hurt and comfort? Well, here’s the hurt bit. Dean feels everything, and now he feels pain. I have to assume this is because of something the Last Calusa did (sending its own energy at Dean?) but the book doesn’t actually tell us that. Bravo. But no matter how bad it gets, Dean keeps the wards up around the sacrifices because he figures he’s dead already so he has to just keep protecting the others.
Then he’s overwhelmed with the depression of the spirits.
I… Seriously. I’ve got nothing. Dean is actually impaired by Hemingway’s manic-depressiveness, for example. And while that actually seems like something that might happen if you have a spirit (or in this case, many) inside of you, it seems like it might be more of a long term effect rather than something that would happen in the middle of a cosmic supernatural battle. Just sayin’.
And speaking of which, there’s no clear information here on just how many spirits are inside of Dean at this point. In chapter seventeen it was posited that the Last Calusa was “thousands, maybe millions” of souls. Dean is now made up of all the spirits of Key West-presumably just the ones who’ve been milling about, however. There were maybe dozens hanging out in the Fedregotti’s hotel room. There has been no indication that there are more than that inside Dean-the only indication of number (in the previous chapter) was “so many more.” I know I argued that the idea of “millions” of Calusa was rather unlikely. Well, I’m saying that even “thousands” are unlikely for Dean. Key West is small. Yeah, it’s supposedly more haunted than many places, but come on-how many ghost stories can there really be? So even if the Last Calusa does not have “millions” it still has more than Dean and this is an unfair fight.
This is not addressed per se, but it does turn out that the Last Calusa can just keep hurling pain at Dean. The latter summons up the obstinacy of the ghosts inside of him, but it’s not enough and he starts screaming. (And, evidently, breathing in rainwater. No, seriously, the section ends with the following: Dean screamed to the heavens, the rain pelting into his open mouth… and the ellipsis is not mine-it’s quoted.)
I believe this puts the Last Calusa at 2 screams, Dean at 3, and actually quite a lot of references to screaming in general, as per a word search I just did in the Word document I use to write these reviews before posting them. Hm.
The perspective shifts again, this time to Bobby who observes the exact same situation we’re already aware of. Thanks, book, I really needed that. He notices that Dean seems to be losing (and that his scream was the most “soul-chilling a sound” he’d ever heard) and that Kat (then human in which Fedra currently resides) is bleeding and blistering. Fedra is burning out Kat-and the time it would take for Fedra to find a new host (even if she could get into Bobby or has another human nearby) would probably be fatal to Dean (who’s losing at the moment anyway). Also, Bobby’s biggest fear ever is being possessed, apparently (which on one hand annoys me because once again it’s a choice about canon, but on the other hand makes sense in light of his wife) so he’s keeping the Colt handy. Which… I’m not sure what good it will do him (since no one has tried to shoot the !@#$@$&@$% friggin’ Last Calusa with it) because when will he decide to shoot? Fedra won’t leave Kat ‘til Kat’s dead; Bobby won’t shoot Kat unless he has to. If Fedra leaves Kat to go for Bobby, she’ll be smoke and we know that the Colt (which can kill anything except when it can’t, as Demian pointed out oh so helpfully over at TWoP) doesn’t work on the smoke form of demons (ala “Salvation” 1.21, when Sam tried to shoot Azazel over Rosie’s crib.)
So the perspective shifts again, this time Sam who has miraculously broken completely free just before Dean starts screaming. This is quite the shift from being able to move his thumb at the end of the previous chapter (and only a matter of hours at most from this point.)
Sam promptly falls face first into the dirt. The cops around him want him to free them, too. There’s a battle of wills next, as the Last Calusa tries to force Sam back into the circle with the others, and Sam tries to keep it from winning. Dean’s scream (the fourth reference to it, for those keeping count) is what wills Sam on. For some reason his success also makes all the other captives able to move. Um. Sure.
Sam races out from under the tarp (at the construction site basement, you see) and takes in the situation, including Dean, screaming (fifth reference!) He realizes that Dean has agreed to work with Fedra.
And apparently this is the right time for some introspection on Sam’s part. Really, book? Really? Sam realizes that just because he has demon blood in him doesn’t make him a bad person-Dean is clearly doing a deal with a demon and he’s still Dean, just as premonitions or not, Sam is still Sam.
Heh. Guess DeCandido might have a few new thoughts in this new book now that we’ve seen season 4.
Sam runs to the Impala (past Bobby who just asks what he’s doing) to grab salt and lighter fluid and then salts and burns the bones in the construction site, figuring that that which doesn’t kill something will still hurt a helluva lot. Which, great and all, but couldn’t we have just salted and burnt the bones a long time ago and gotten this done with?
The chapter does a quick switch over to the Last Calusa’s perspective as part of it burns away. (Oh, for the record, during this event, it screams. LC: 3, Dean: 3.) In the time it takes to patch itself up, it’s vulnerable to Dean
Whiiiiich, is where we switch next. Dean sees Sam running about, then gathers up all the emotions of all the spirits in him (and I will spare you the bit wherein they all chime in; you may thank me later) and sends one big blow at the Last Calusa.
Bobby’s perspective swings back in as he watches the battle finish up. Dean’s energy toss works and the Last Calusa screams again (LC: 4, Dean: 3). There’s a blinding light and the Last Calusa discorporates. Alas, all the humans are then flung about because Fedra is finished playing well with others. (Her vessel, Kat, is now unharmed again. Which makes sense-Meg, for example, looked fine until she was vacated, despite falling out a window and all that. However, I wouldn’t place a bet as to whether DeCandido will kill Kat or not at this point.)
Apparently both the power of the Last Calusa and Dean are now under Fedra’s control. I’m fuzzy on this last part, but I guess it has to do with his having given himself over to her in order to be the vessel of all the power, and she not giving him back yet. Bobby shoots Fedra-Kat with the Colt, but the demon stops it (apparently like the demon in “Malleus Maleficarum”) and they head back to Dean’s hotel room for supplies, Dean robot-like and driving the Impala.
According to Bobby, thanks to the charms they have and the tattoos the Winchesters have (answering my question from chapter 15, but not my complaints about that chapter, nor why Sam didn't reference his tattoo then), they can’t be possessed, but because Fedra is so powerful, Dean’s body can be controlled. This seems like a hair to split. But hey, that’s where the chapter ends.
Join me Tuesday for the exciting (?) conclusion to Bone Key. Come on, y'know you waaaannnnaaa!