Thoughts on SPN 6.11
OH YAY, SHOW!! \o/
SPOILERS under the cut.
6.11: Appointment in Samarra
Again, I didn't get the significance of the title, so off I went to google. This is the first thing I got:
The title is a reference to W. Somerset Maugham's retelling of an old story, which appears as an epigraph for the novel: A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. Shortly, the servant comes home white and trembling and tells him that in the marketplace he was jostled by a woman, who he recognized as Death, and she made a threatening gesture. Borrowing the merchant's horse, he flees at top speed to Samarra, a distance of about 75 miles (125 km), where he believes Death will not find him. The merchant then goes to the marketplace and finds Death, and asks why she made the threatening gesture. She replies, "That was not a threatening gesture, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
... Um. Okay? (Unsubtle Title is unsubtle).
The THEN sequence is unusually clumsily edited, but it gives us the essentials: Death, the Horseman, will be returning (yay!), and so will Tessa the Reaper (not so yay), not to mention Balthazar (YAY!!). Presumably the hand-wringing over Sam's soul will be put to rest this episode.
And... the episode proper!
It was my understanding that there is a special guest role by Robert Englund this episode. I heard that he plays a doctor who specialised in tending to Hunters (yeah, I really spoil myself before an episode, I know :p). The idea was fanficcy, but also incredibly exciting. Given much of this season is fanficcy, I was looking forward to some old-fashioned h/c.
Well, he and his redundant assistant make an appearance very early in this episode, but don't have any real role. We understand later that Dean wanted the good doctor to 'kill' him temporarily, so that he can have an out-of-body experience and communicate with Death, and try to get him to pop Sam's soul out of the box. The doctor pumps something into him - without even properly cleaning/preparing the injection site first! For the shame! - that, uh, presumably stops Dean's heart. The doctor says Dean has three minutes to do whatever it is he has to do.
Okay. Hold up here. What did he pump into Dean again?
Dean summons Tessa and asks her to call her master, Death. She doesn't want to, but Death appears anyway. He says that he can bring Sam's soul back from the Cage, but that it'll be damaged. Okay, okay, move on. Dean asks him if there's any way that he can bring Sam back so that the traumatised-in-Hell parts are cut out. Death scoffs at him, asks him if he really thought souls were like "pies, to be sliced". They can be tortured, but not torn apart.
Is there no other way, asks Dean. A way to ensure Sam doesn't come back a complete wreck?
Death says there might be. He can build a wall of sorts in Sam's head, holding back all of Sam's memories of Hell, but this will not be permanent. Once the dam breaks, Sam's done for. There's no telling how he might suffer. And right about now we get our nth instance of someone talking about how Michael and Lucifer are taking out their frustrations on Sam, and torturing him in all the most horrifying ways. It makes me sad and scared, all at once. Oh, Sam. :(
Dean's okay with the wall thing, even if it isn't permanent. Go ahead, then. Not yet, says Death. First, Dean must do something. Dean must wear Death's ring (which Death had loaned him to open Lucifer's cage last season) for one day. Dean must become Death. If at any point he removes the ring during those 24 hours, all bets are off. I was excited at this point. It had so many wild, wild possibilities!
Also, at some point during this scene, Death asks Dean to pick between Sam and Adam, because both of them were stuck in the Cage, and Death can only bring back one. Naturally, Dean picks Sam. Now. This is Show's first acknowledgement of Adam's existence ALL SEASON. And yet, it's Sam who gets the torture treatment. Not Adam?
At this point, Dean's three minutes are long over, and the doctor and his I-didn't-catch-her-name-because-she's-irrelevant assistant are trying to resuscitate Dean. They try to shock his heart back into functioning, inject adrenaline into his IV, and just as they're starting to get really desperate, Dean comes back to life, complete with theatrical gasp, a jerk, and a ready quip.
Sorry for rambling on and on about this scene, but I've got a few points/questions:
1. I wish there'd been a better lead-in to this. Summoning Death to get into Lucifer's cage is a good idea, but when exactly did Dean start thinking about this? A few clues in the previous episode, or in the beginning of this episode, would've been nice.
2. Following on from the previous point, Dean remembering about this doctor, or being reminded by someone - hell, even while rifling through his Dad's journal - would've made the doctor's introduction a whole lot smoother. Besides, it's implied that the doctor's done this before - this, as in, killing hunters temporarily so they can traipse around in the afterlife. Why would hunters want that? To get to reapers? What could your average hunter possibly want to do that involves him being dead for a few minutes? As it is, the doctor just seems to drop out of the sky, and then completely disappear later. An utterly unsatisfying cameo.
3. Dean was dead for seven minutes. And yet, when he comes back, he doesn't even display the slightest hint of disorientation! With no circulation to the brain for that long, the least that can happen is irreversible brain damage! I suppose Death might've had a part to play in Dean getting back whole and healthy with no repercussions, but given Show's Medical Fail regarding Sam's bloody devil's trap in the previous episode, I'm being a little sensitive.
4. In case something went wrong, Dean gave a letter to the doctor to be delivered to Ben. Okay, I get it, Show. You're telling me that Ben and Dean are really close; that Ben looks up to Dean like a father-figure. Except: Dean and Ben have had precious few minutes of interaction, leave alone bonding, in this season so far. Apart from the car-fixing bit in the Normal!Dean montage in the first episode, Dean yelling at Ben for touching the weapons in the Impala's trunk in the second, and talking to him on the phone in the third, they haven't done much together. Don't tell me they have a good bond, Show. Show me.
5. Tessa is actually likeable when she isn't standing around, indulging/instigating Dean's Neverending Angst. She was part of the conversation in 4.15 that made Dean talk about the "hole inside of [him]". I'm just starting to forgive her for that conversation.
Moving on...
Robo!Sam is totally against Dean's plan, starts talking about how it's his life Dean's "playing fast and loose" with (and at this point, I was totally humming Bon Jovi's "It's My Liiiiife"), and how there's no guarantee that this wall will protect him from the memories of Hell. He bluffs, he lies, he tries to get to Death's ring before Dean does, but is totally unsuccessful. Dean goes ahead with his plan, and asks Bobby to keep an eye on Sam until then.
Dean puts on the ring, and is immediately transported to a city street, and Tessa's with him. Turns out that his job as Death is to... um, touch those destined to die so their souls are released for Tessa to reap. Before getting reaped, the soul will ask him a question, which he needs to answer. They come across a few situations where Dean's responsibilities are put to the test: a goon raiding a small store, and is shot by the store owner; an obese artery-clogged man who collapses from a heart attack - and Dean has no problems with those? So they deserve their deaths ("you're a dick"; "you're a heart-attack waiting to happen"), maybe? I don't know. But Dean does his job, quips around a bit, and Tessa takes them away to go to Heaven/Hell, as is their fate.
This... seems like a remarkably inefficient way to go about things. Millions of people die around the world every minute of every day. Is there only one Death? Is he absolutely necessary for everyone to Pass On after their death? Is everybody else put on hold until soul after soul is reassured and dispatched? What? And how are ghosts created, anyway? This is one thing that's always nagged me on Show. Now I'm going to imagine that those souls who don't get satisfactory answers to the questions they pose to Death after they, uh, die, roam around as restless spirits and eventually become so twisted and nasty they turn into ghosts.
Anyway, Dean's next job is at the children's ward at the hospital, where a young girl, suffering from a serious heart condition and scheduled for surgery that night, is reminiscing and having a sweet moment with her father. Dean says he cannot kill this girl, that she is too young (she's twelve), that her father needs her (he has no other family). Tessa says, sorry, that's how it goes: if she's fated to die tonight, then she has to die. Dean tells her he's spent his whole life fighting destiny and fate, and that he will not allow that little girl to die. Tessa doesn't think Dean believes what he says, but before he can wrap his head around that statement, she shrugs and says he's the boss.
The little girl's heart is found to be miraculously healed, and the surgery is cancelled. The girl has a touching reunion with her father, but the nurse who goes home early because of the cancellation is killed in an RTA. (and as Tessa tells her while reaping her soul, "you were supposed to live for several decades, and have children, grandchildren, but" and here she looks at Dean, "you died because he screwed up.") Her husband is completely distraught, and drinks heavily before going for a spin in his car. Yeah, you know how that's going to go. Dean does, too, and unwilling to let another tragedy happen, he Flapparates into Scott's (the husband) car. Of course, Scott can't see him, and Dean removes the ring (oooh, Dean!) before pulling the car over (or trying to, anyway), avoiding a major fatal accident.
This is an extremely poignant moment. That was it. In trying to fix what he'd done and save the man's life, Dean has given up the last (and best) chance he had to save his brother's soul. He knows he's failed - on so many levels, and it hurts, and when he yells for Tessa, it's more hard-hitting than any "hole in me" conversations (I HATE THAT METAPHOR). He puts the ring back on, and Tessa's there. She agrees with him. Dean's failed to keep up his end of the bargain. Sam's soul is doomed to stay in the Cage longer.
Dean says he still has unfinished business, returns to the hospital, and takes the soul of the little girl. If he had done that in the first place, the nurse might not have died, Scott might not have been driven to suicide. Maybe. It's a natural order of things, Tessa tells him as she reaps the girl's soul; once he tries to change it, it's like tipping over a domino, and catastrophic things start to happen. Death tells Dean as much, later that episode: that it's hard to keep the ring on sometimes, but they have an order to stick to. Death tells him that he and Sam are aberrations in the natural order; that the way they keep bouncing back between life and death has already had far-reaching repercussions. Death kind of hates them for making his job tougher, I think. It turns out the purpose of Dean's little excursion was to see things from the perspective of those on the "other side of the veil". Uh... okay?
But, he says, he's helping Dean out because he and Sam have a very important purpose right now: to find out more about Purgatory, and the Alphas. He says that it's very important. Okay, thank you, death!
So what's going on with Sam all this while?
Robo!Sam manages to escape Bobby's scrutiny for long enough to summon Balthazar. At first, the angel is hostile, but is more receptive when he learns that Robo!Sam actually wants a favour from him. He wants to know if there's anything that'll keep his soul out of his body, permanently. Balthazar says there is, and what's more, he'll actually tell it to Sam for free. Sam's suspicious, but Balthazar tells him that he'll enjoy having Sam in his debt, and besides, he doesn't like Dean, so.
(And at some point during this scene, Balthazar refers to Castiel as Sam's "boyfriend", and I almost died laughing. Show is really screwing around with its fandom this season).
Sam's cool with this, but there's one catch: one of the ingredients they need involves Sam committing patricide. "But my father died long ago," Robo!Sam says, nonplussed.
Balthazar tells him that the father needn't be blood.
You can practically see the wheels turning in Sam's head, before they click, and form the horrifying conclusion: Bobby. (Nooooo, Sam!!! /o\ )
So Sam goes back to Bobby's with this in mind, and there are several very tense scenes between them. They drink, play poker, but Sam's scheming, and Bobby's... given Bobby's proven awesomeness in these matters (case in point: 2.14's "don't try to con a con-man") suspicious, but trying not to show it. When Bobby gets to the fridge for another drink, Sam's behind him, ready to knock him out, but Bobby's ready, too. He knocks out Sam, (and I have to say Sam takes several knocks to the head in this episode) but while he turns to get the rope to tie Sam down, Sam's gone.
And here starts a sequence of pure awesomeness. Seriously, this sequence made this episode for me. It might be the best thing I've seen all season, and I'm not overstating.
Bobby gets his shotgun out and searches for Sam in his own house, wary and as he says, "not hesitant to blow Sam's legs out if he needs to." Yikes. Bobby senses Sam's close by, and quickly locks himself behind the door leading to the basement.
A few seconds later, Sam's friggin hacking at the door with an axe to get to Bobby, crazed-looking and blood running down the side of his face. Bobby does... something, and it turns out Sam is actually standing on a trap-door, and he falls down to land in the basement AND THIS IS ALL SO AWESOME.
I'm not sure where in the basement Sam is, but he tries going at the door with a crowbar, but to no avail. Bobby informs him that the door is reinforced steel, with titanium plates, and what the hell? When did Bobby do all this? And for what?
Bobby and Robo!Sam have a wall-transmitted conversation, where Bobby finally gets an answer to the question of why the hell Sam was trying to kill him. It's a spell, and Robo!Sam isn't very happy about it either, because "[Bobby's] been nothing but good to [him]", but it needs to be done. He can't have his soul back; never mind about that "wall" nonsense. He brings up a good point: that Dean didn't care about him; that he only cared about "his little brother Sammy who's burning in Hell".
Bobby tells him that it's all a little frightening, yes, but he needs to trust Dean to know what he's doing. He doesn't get an answer, and dammit, ("BALLS!" Haha.) Robo!Sam has escaped again - this time, I think, through the Panic Room's vent. I think. Either Show wasn't clear on that part, or I wasn't paying enough attention. Anyway, Sam's out, and he's in the salvage yard. Bobby follows a trail of blood to a, uh, toolhouse, and there he gets ambushed and knocked out by Sam. Okay. I know Sam's bleeding from a head wound, and that he got his leg torn up during that fall, but so much blood? Hm.
We jump to Bobby tied up in a chair, and Sam getting the spell ready. He's examining a wicked-looking knife even as Bobby pleads with him to reconsider, that "[he]'s been like a father to [Sam]". Robo!Sam merely says, "I know" and dramatically raises the knife to plunge it into Bobby's throat (uh, just a thought, Robo!Sam: slicing Bobby's throat would've been more efficient, in terms of time, and how much blood you get).
Just as Sam's starting on his ~dramatic~ downswing, Dean arrives and catches his arm. "Hi, Sam, I'm back," he says (okay, it sounded more badass on the show), and knocks Sam out for the nth time in the episode.
The next scene we see Sam locked in the Panic Room, handcuffed to the bed. Things are back to being pretty bleak for the Winchesters: they muffed their best chance at getting Sam's soul back, and Robo!Sam has proved himself to be an utterly scary individual, "capable of anything" when it comes to getting what he wants.
Then Dean has that aforementioned conversation with Death, where the latter decides to retrieve Sam's soul. When Death disappears to do just that, Dean rushes to the Panic Room, and asks Bobby to open the door. And Death's there already, ready with Sam's soul. I presume only Robo!Sam can see him, but Bobby and Dean are aware that it's not thin air Robo!Sam's yelling at.
And, Robo!Sam -- he's screaming, he's begging Dean to see reason, because he has no idea what will happen once the soul is back inside of him. Dean doesn't - can't - do anything, and stands there looking sad, and Bobby's torn between pity and fear, and it's all very sad and frightening.
Death pulls out Sam's bright, shiny soul and tells Robo!Sam that he'll put up a wall in his head to keep the worst of the memories away; that it'll be "itchy", but Sam shouldn't "scratch at it" lest he wants to fall apart. Robo!Sam resists till the last moment, but he can't do anything, tied up as he is. Death pushes the soul into Robo!Sam's chest, and Sam throws his head back and screams in utter agony.
End episode, ON THAT ABSOLUTELY CRUEL CLIFFHANGER. Seven more weeks!
This was a good episode, overall - the Dean as Death bits dragged, but the Sam/Bobby awesomeness more than made up for it. However, I also think this episode never quite managed to match up to its own lofty ambitions.
Also: Sam's soul is definitely back! \o/
Also, also? Robo!Sam is gone! That makes me very, very sad. I'll miss you in all your scary, hilarious, badass glory, Robo!Sam. Rest knowing that you were incredibly entertaining while you lasted.
SPOILERS under the cut.
6.11: Appointment in Samarra
Again, I didn't get the significance of the title, so off I went to google. This is the first thing I got:
The title is a reference to W. Somerset Maugham's retelling of an old story, which appears as an epigraph for the novel: A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. Shortly, the servant comes home white and trembling and tells him that in the marketplace he was jostled by a woman, who he recognized as Death, and she made a threatening gesture. Borrowing the merchant's horse, he flees at top speed to Samarra, a distance of about 75 miles (125 km), where he believes Death will not find him. The merchant then goes to the marketplace and finds Death, and asks why she made the threatening gesture. She replies, "That was not a threatening gesture, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
... Um. Okay? (Unsubtle Title is unsubtle).
The THEN sequence is unusually clumsily edited, but it gives us the essentials: Death, the Horseman, will be returning (yay!), and so will Tessa the Reaper (not so yay), not to mention Balthazar (YAY!!). Presumably the hand-wringing over Sam's soul will be put to rest this episode.
And... the episode proper!
It was my understanding that there is a special guest role by Robert Englund this episode. I heard that he plays a doctor who specialised in tending to Hunters (yeah, I really spoil myself before an episode, I know :p). The idea was fanficcy, but also incredibly exciting. Given much of this season is fanficcy, I was looking forward to some old-fashioned h/c.
Well, he and his redundant assistant make an appearance very early in this episode, but don't have any real role. We understand later that Dean wanted the good doctor to 'kill' him temporarily, so that he can have an out-of-body experience and communicate with Death, and try to get him to pop Sam's soul out of the box. The doctor pumps something into him - without even properly cleaning/preparing the injection site first! For the shame! - that, uh, presumably stops Dean's heart. The doctor says Dean has three minutes to do whatever it is he has to do.
Okay. Hold up here. What did he pump into Dean again?
Dean summons Tessa and asks her to call her master, Death. She doesn't want to, but Death appears anyway. He says that he can bring Sam's soul back from the Cage, but that it'll be damaged. Okay, okay, move on. Dean asks him if there's any way that he can bring Sam back so that the traumatised-in-Hell parts are cut out. Death scoffs at him, asks him if he really thought souls were like "pies, to be sliced". They can be tortured, but not torn apart.
Is there no other way, asks Dean. A way to ensure Sam doesn't come back a complete wreck?
Death says there might be. He can build a wall of sorts in Sam's head, holding back all of Sam's memories of Hell, but this will not be permanent. Once the dam breaks, Sam's done for. There's no telling how he might suffer. And right about now we get our nth instance of someone talking about how Michael and Lucifer are taking out their frustrations on Sam, and torturing him in all the most horrifying ways. It makes me sad and scared, all at once. Oh, Sam. :(
Dean's okay with the wall thing, even if it isn't permanent. Go ahead, then. Not yet, says Death. First, Dean must do something. Dean must wear Death's ring (which Death had loaned him to open Lucifer's cage last season) for one day. Dean must become Death. If at any point he removes the ring during those 24 hours, all bets are off. I was excited at this point. It had so many wild, wild possibilities!
Also, at some point during this scene, Death asks Dean to pick between Sam and Adam, because both of them were stuck in the Cage, and Death can only bring back one. Naturally, Dean picks Sam. Now. This is Show's first acknowledgement of Adam's existence ALL SEASON. And yet, it's Sam who gets the torture treatment. Not Adam?
At this point, Dean's three minutes are long over, and the doctor and his I-didn't-catch-her-name-because-she's-irrelevant assistant are trying to resuscitate Dean. They try to shock his heart back into functioning, inject adrenaline into his IV, and just as they're starting to get really desperate, Dean comes back to life, complete with theatrical gasp, a jerk, and a ready quip.
Sorry for rambling on and on about this scene, but I've got a few points/questions:
1. I wish there'd been a better lead-in to this. Summoning Death to get into Lucifer's cage is a good idea, but when exactly did Dean start thinking about this? A few clues in the previous episode, or in the beginning of this episode, would've been nice.
2. Following on from the previous point, Dean remembering about this doctor, or being reminded by someone - hell, even while rifling through his Dad's journal - would've made the doctor's introduction a whole lot smoother. Besides, it's implied that the doctor's done this before - this, as in, killing hunters temporarily so they can traipse around in the afterlife. Why would hunters want that? To get to reapers? What could your average hunter possibly want to do that involves him being dead for a few minutes? As it is, the doctor just seems to drop out of the sky, and then completely disappear later. An utterly unsatisfying cameo.
3. Dean was dead for seven minutes. And yet, when he comes back, he doesn't even display the slightest hint of disorientation! With no circulation to the brain for that long, the least that can happen is irreversible brain damage! I suppose Death might've had a part to play in Dean getting back whole and healthy with no repercussions, but given Show's Medical Fail regarding Sam's bloody devil's trap in the previous episode, I'm being a little sensitive.
4. In case something went wrong, Dean gave a letter to the doctor to be delivered to Ben. Okay, I get it, Show. You're telling me that Ben and Dean are really close; that Ben looks up to Dean like a father-figure. Except: Dean and Ben have had precious few minutes of interaction, leave alone bonding, in this season so far. Apart from the car-fixing bit in the Normal!Dean montage in the first episode, Dean yelling at Ben for touching the weapons in the Impala's trunk in the second, and talking to him on the phone in the third, they haven't done much together. Don't tell me they have a good bond, Show. Show me.
5. Tessa is actually likeable when she isn't standing around, indulging/instigating Dean's Neverending Angst. She was part of the conversation in 4.15 that made Dean talk about the "hole inside of [him]". I'm just starting to forgive her for that conversation.
Moving on...
Robo!Sam is totally against Dean's plan, starts talking about how it's his life Dean's "playing fast and loose" with (and at this point, I was totally humming Bon Jovi's "It's My Liiiiife"), and how there's no guarantee that this wall will protect him from the memories of Hell. He bluffs, he lies, he tries to get to Death's ring before Dean does, but is totally unsuccessful. Dean goes ahead with his plan, and asks Bobby to keep an eye on Sam until then.
Dean puts on the ring, and is immediately transported to a city street, and Tessa's with him. Turns out that his job as Death is to... um, touch those destined to die so their souls are released for Tessa to reap. Before getting reaped, the soul will ask him a question, which he needs to answer. They come across a few situations where Dean's responsibilities are put to the test: a goon raiding a small store, and is shot by the store owner; an obese artery-clogged man who collapses from a heart attack - and Dean has no problems with those? So they deserve their deaths ("you're a dick"; "you're a heart-attack waiting to happen"), maybe? I don't know. But Dean does his job, quips around a bit, and Tessa takes them away to go to Heaven/Hell, as is their fate.
This... seems like a remarkably inefficient way to go about things. Millions of people die around the world every minute of every day. Is there only one Death? Is he absolutely necessary for everyone to Pass On after their death? Is everybody else put on hold until soul after soul is reassured and dispatched? What? And how are ghosts created, anyway? This is one thing that's always nagged me on Show. Now I'm going to imagine that those souls who don't get satisfactory answers to the questions they pose to Death after they, uh, die, roam around as restless spirits and eventually become so twisted and nasty they turn into ghosts.
Anyway, Dean's next job is at the children's ward at the hospital, where a young girl, suffering from a serious heart condition and scheduled for surgery that night, is reminiscing and having a sweet moment with her father. Dean says he cannot kill this girl, that she is too young (she's twelve), that her father needs her (he has no other family). Tessa says, sorry, that's how it goes: if she's fated to die tonight, then she has to die. Dean tells her he's spent his whole life fighting destiny and fate, and that he will not allow that little girl to die. Tessa doesn't think Dean believes what he says, but before he can wrap his head around that statement, she shrugs and says he's the boss.
The little girl's heart is found to be miraculously healed, and the surgery is cancelled. The girl has a touching reunion with her father, but the nurse who goes home early because of the cancellation is killed in an RTA. (and as Tessa tells her while reaping her soul, "you were supposed to live for several decades, and have children, grandchildren, but" and here she looks at Dean, "you died because he screwed up.") Her husband is completely distraught, and drinks heavily before going for a spin in his car. Yeah, you know how that's going to go. Dean does, too, and unwilling to let another tragedy happen, he Flapparates into Scott's (the husband) car. Of course, Scott can't see him, and Dean removes the ring (oooh, Dean!) before pulling the car over (or trying to, anyway), avoiding a major fatal accident.
This is an extremely poignant moment. That was it. In trying to fix what he'd done and save the man's life, Dean has given up the last (and best) chance he had to save his brother's soul. He knows he's failed - on so many levels, and it hurts, and when he yells for Tessa, it's more hard-hitting than any "hole in me" conversations (I HATE THAT METAPHOR). He puts the ring back on, and Tessa's there. She agrees with him. Dean's failed to keep up his end of the bargain. Sam's soul is doomed to stay in the Cage longer.
Dean says he still has unfinished business, returns to the hospital, and takes the soul of the little girl. If he had done that in the first place, the nurse might not have died, Scott might not have been driven to suicide. Maybe. It's a natural order of things, Tessa tells him as she reaps the girl's soul; once he tries to change it, it's like tipping over a domino, and catastrophic things start to happen. Death tells Dean as much, later that episode: that it's hard to keep the ring on sometimes, but they have an order to stick to. Death tells him that he and Sam are aberrations in the natural order; that the way they keep bouncing back between life and death has already had far-reaching repercussions. Death kind of hates them for making his job tougher, I think. It turns out the purpose of Dean's little excursion was to see things from the perspective of those on the "other side of the veil". Uh... okay?
But, he says, he's helping Dean out because he and Sam have a very important purpose right now: to find out more about Purgatory, and the Alphas. He says that it's very important. Okay, thank you, death!
So what's going on with Sam all this while?
Robo!Sam manages to escape Bobby's scrutiny for long enough to summon Balthazar. At first, the angel is hostile, but is more receptive when he learns that Robo!Sam actually wants a favour from him. He wants to know if there's anything that'll keep his soul out of his body, permanently. Balthazar says there is, and what's more, he'll actually tell it to Sam for free. Sam's suspicious, but Balthazar tells him that he'll enjoy having Sam in his debt, and besides, he doesn't like Dean, so.
(And at some point during this scene, Balthazar refers to Castiel as Sam's "boyfriend", and I almost died laughing. Show is really screwing around with its fandom this season).
Sam's cool with this, but there's one catch: one of the ingredients they need involves Sam committing patricide. "But my father died long ago," Robo!Sam says, nonplussed.
Balthazar tells him that the father needn't be blood.
You can practically see the wheels turning in Sam's head, before they click, and form the horrifying conclusion: Bobby. (Nooooo, Sam!!! /o\ )
So Sam goes back to Bobby's with this in mind, and there are several very tense scenes between them. They drink, play poker, but Sam's scheming, and Bobby's... given Bobby's proven awesomeness in these matters (case in point: 2.14's "don't try to con a con-man") suspicious, but trying not to show it. When Bobby gets to the fridge for another drink, Sam's behind him, ready to knock him out, but Bobby's ready, too. He knocks out Sam, (and I have to say Sam takes several knocks to the head in this episode) but while he turns to get the rope to tie Sam down, Sam's gone.
And here starts a sequence of pure awesomeness. Seriously, this sequence made this episode for me. It might be the best thing I've seen all season, and I'm not overstating.
Bobby gets his shotgun out and searches for Sam in his own house, wary and as he says, "not hesitant to blow Sam's legs out if he needs to." Yikes. Bobby senses Sam's close by, and quickly locks himself behind the door leading to the basement.
A few seconds later, Sam's friggin hacking at the door with an axe to get to Bobby, crazed-looking and blood running down the side of his face. Bobby does... something, and it turns out Sam is actually standing on a trap-door, and he falls down to land in the basement AND THIS IS ALL SO AWESOME.
I'm not sure where in the basement Sam is, but he tries going at the door with a crowbar, but to no avail. Bobby informs him that the door is reinforced steel, with titanium plates, and what the hell? When did Bobby do all this? And for what?
Bobby and Robo!Sam have a wall-transmitted conversation, where Bobby finally gets an answer to the question of why the hell Sam was trying to kill him. It's a spell, and Robo!Sam isn't very happy about it either, because "[Bobby's] been nothing but good to [him]", but it needs to be done. He can't have his soul back; never mind about that "wall" nonsense. He brings up a good point: that Dean didn't care about him; that he only cared about "his little brother Sammy who's burning in Hell".
Bobby tells him that it's all a little frightening, yes, but he needs to trust Dean to know what he's doing. He doesn't get an answer, and dammit, ("BALLS!" Haha.) Robo!Sam has escaped again - this time, I think, through the Panic Room's vent. I think. Either Show wasn't clear on that part, or I wasn't paying enough attention. Anyway, Sam's out, and he's in the salvage yard. Bobby follows a trail of blood to a, uh, toolhouse, and there he gets ambushed and knocked out by Sam. Okay. I know Sam's bleeding from a head wound, and that he got his leg torn up during that fall, but so much blood? Hm.
We jump to Bobby tied up in a chair, and Sam getting the spell ready. He's examining a wicked-looking knife even as Bobby pleads with him to reconsider, that "[he]'s been like a father to [Sam]". Robo!Sam merely says, "I know" and dramatically raises the knife to plunge it into Bobby's throat (uh, just a thought, Robo!Sam: slicing Bobby's throat would've been more efficient, in terms of time, and how much blood you get).
Just as Sam's starting on his ~dramatic~ downswing, Dean arrives and catches his arm. "Hi, Sam, I'm back," he says (okay, it sounded more badass on the show), and knocks Sam out for the nth time in the episode.
The next scene we see Sam locked in the Panic Room, handcuffed to the bed. Things are back to being pretty bleak for the Winchesters: they muffed their best chance at getting Sam's soul back, and Robo!Sam has proved himself to be an utterly scary individual, "capable of anything" when it comes to getting what he wants.
Then Dean has that aforementioned conversation with Death, where the latter decides to retrieve Sam's soul. When Death disappears to do just that, Dean rushes to the Panic Room, and asks Bobby to open the door. And Death's there already, ready with Sam's soul. I presume only Robo!Sam can see him, but Bobby and Dean are aware that it's not thin air Robo!Sam's yelling at.
And, Robo!Sam -- he's screaming, he's begging Dean to see reason, because he has no idea what will happen once the soul is back inside of him. Dean doesn't - can't - do anything, and stands there looking sad, and Bobby's torn between pity and fear, and it's all very sad and frightening.
Death pulls out Sam's bright, shiny soul and tells Robo!Sam that he'll put up a wall in his head to keep the worst of the memories away; that it'll be "itchy", but Sam shouldn't "scratch at it" lest he wants to fall apart. Robo!Sam resists till the last moment, but he can't do anything, tied up as he is. Death pushes the soul into Robo!Sam's chest, and Sam throws his head back and screams in utter agony.
End episode, ON THAT ABSOLUTELY CRUEL CLIFFHANGER. Seven more weeks!
This was a good episode, overall - the Dean as Death bits dragged, but the Sam/Bobby awesomeness more than made up for it. However, I also think this episode never quite managed to match up to its own lofty ambitions.
Also: Sam's soul is definitely back! \o/
Also, also? Robo!Sam is gone! That makes me very, very sad. I'll miss you in all your scary, hilarious, badass glory, Robo!Sam. Rest knowing that you were incredibly entertaining while you lasted.