Review | 9x09 | Holy Terror
Sorry, this review is so late, again. To tell the truth, I felt little motivation to write about Holy Terror, mainly because I barely managed to stay awake during the episode. The majority of the plot consists of angels posturing, scheming, torturing or killing each other, all of which does not exactly constitute as exciting TV for me. There is precious little time spent on Sam and Dean, and in what little time with them we are given, Sam himself is hardly ever present at all. Overall, Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner delivered another lacklustre script with canonical problems and a plot-over-character approach. At the very least, though, the final moments of the episode should provide the season with some forward momentum.
Sam: "This kind of thing has been happening to me. Like there are chunks of time just missing. Like there are times when I’m not here."
Dean: "Well, like I’ve said -"
Sam: "Yes, the trials. I know. I heard you. I heard you when you said it last week. And the week before then. And the week before that."
Dean: "Yeah, because - damn straight, the trials. They whacked you, man. You’re not up to warp speed yet. Okay. But you will be. Would I lie?"
I admit, Holy Terror managed to frustrate me right away, namely with the opening scene between the brothers in the Impala. Sam’s confession that he feels like he has been missing time, like he has been absent sometimes, really threw me for a loop. I mean, there was never any indication that Sam felt something was amiss, when he came back to himself after Gadreel took over; he did not seem to be confused and always continued talking mid-sentence, as if nothing had happened. I always assumed the fact that Sam did not seem to have any awareness of losing time or suffering from black-outs and was strangely oblivious to Dean’s peculiar behaviour was an actual plot point. It suggested to me that Gadreel’s influence on Sam’s perception/self-awareness was much more extensive than the angel let on. So Sam’s confession here comes completely out of the blue for me, and I find the resulting conclusion that the writers just could not be bothered to actually address Sam’s thoughts and feelings incredibly aggravating. Would it really have killed the writers to show us Sam’s confusion? To offer some insight into Sam’s attempts at rationalisation for the strange things happening to him and explore his hesitation to confide in Dean about it? These past nine episodes, the writers put a lot of effort into trying to make Dean sympathetic by highlighting his point of view, and there have also been several episodes dedicated to Castiel’s struggle with his humanity, but apparently exploring Sam’s situation has been altogether dispensable, despite the fact that the brothers’ entire story arc this season revolves around it. Not to mention that he is supposed to be one of the main characters of the show.
Anyway, there are two other aspects about the brothers’ conversation in the car that bother me to some extent. Firstly, I am really struggling with the information that, apparently, Dean drove fifty miles - a distance which, by my count, would amount to at least forty-five minutes - talking to Gadreel. So far, not one of the exchanges we witnessed between Dean and the angel lasted longer than a couple of minutes, so this prolonged contact between them stands out to me. It really drives the point home that, by now, Dean feels pretty comfortable in the angel’s presence. Moreover, though, the fact that, for as long as Dean decides to converse with the angel, Sam himself is forcibly held under by Gadreel does not seem to concern Dean in the slightest, and I find that rather disturbing. Of course, Dean cannot control when and where Gadreel chooses to initiate a conversation, but he does have control over his response to it - and socialising with Gadreel at his brother’s expense seems a strangely callous one. Secondly, I am growing really tired of Dean’s attempts to downplay Sam’s genuine concerns about his own body/mind in order to keep Gadreel’s presence a secret, especially given Sam’s history with physical and mental illness. Usually, there is at least an undercurrent of guilt in Dean’s lies to Sam, but this time he comes off as comparatively unconcerned, and that does not sit quite right with me. In that context, I really hope the fact that Dean was forced to systematically undermine Sam’s perception of himself all season long, will have consequences further down the line. I mean, considering how hard Sam struggled with feelings of inadequacy and failure (Sacrifice), I would assume that Dean’s continuous emphasis on Sam being weak had a major impact on him, and I would like to see that explored.
Dean: "Sam?"
Gadreel: "There is no more Sam. But I played him convincingly, I thought."
Dean: "How did you -?"
Gadreel: "I heard you talk with Kevin Tran tonight. Alter a sigil, even the slightest, alter the spell. Sorry about Kevin, but ultimately it’s for the best. I did what I had to."
I daresay the reveal that Gadreel deceived Dean about his real identity comes as no surprise at this point. As I said before, if he had really been just another foot soldier, who was cast out of heaven by Metatron, he would not have needed to hide from his fellow angels. Similarly, it is not all that surprising that Gadreel takes full possession of Sam’s body as soon as he feels threatened by Dean. The inconsistencies in his behaviour, as well as his obvious attempts to manipulate Dean, always suggested that Gadreel has little intention of holding up his end of the deal. It is odd, though, that the angel would choose to act out Sam’s angry reaction to Dean’s confession, instead of just knocking Dean out right away and leave. I can see no comprehensible reason for him to play pretend in this instance, and the fact that the writers chose to stage a fake confrontation between Sam and Dean, even though there was no narrative necessity for it, worries me. It suggests that the brothers’ actual conversation will play out differently, and I do not find the prospect of an all-forgiving and understanding Sam particularly thrilling. In any case, while I am hesitant to take Gadreel’s reaction as Sam at face value - his reaction may genuinely feel like Sam’s, but Gadreel is still only acting - at least Dean’s part of the conversation is real and gives us some insight into his thought process. Now, while Dean obviously feels guilty about his actions, I am not sure he actually understands the extent of his betrayal. He clearly anticipates Sam’s anger, but I do not think he anticipates losing Sam’s trust. In Dean’s mind, his choice was tough, but not necessarily wrong, and I cannot imagine that Sam will share that point of view. In that context, I find it particularly chilling that Dean’s I did what I had to in defence of allowing Sam’s possession echoes Gadreel’s exact same words in defence of killing Kevin. The truth is, though, that people usually do what they want to rather than what they have to; they always have a choice, it is just that sometimes they do not particularly like their choices.
As a side note, in Gadreel’s final exchange with Dean, the angel tells him There is no more Sam. But I played him convincingly, I thought. - a statement that seems rather ambiguous. It is possible that, rather than just referring to his prior confrontation with Dean in the storeroom, Gadreel tried to imply that Sam never really came out of the coma and that he has been in charge all along (which would obviously render my earlier rant about the lack of Sam’s perspective redundant). However, I do not find that scenario very likely, mainly because Gadreel’s actions do not make much sense in that context. I mean, if Gadreel’s main objective as 'Sam' was to stay hidden from the other angels while he regained his strength, he needed to secure Dean’s continued cooperation - and that is exactly what he did at the beginning of the season by constantly soothing Dean’s guilty conscience. Gadreel’s tactic even worked so well that, after a while, Dean came to see him as somewhat of an ally. So why would he deliberately risk losing Dean’s trust by deviating from that pattern? For example, why would Gadreel tell Dean about Vesta’s comment on Sam’s fragile health or about Chef Leo’s inquiry regarding Sam’s nature? Dean had not been present in either instance, so there was no reason to set off his alarm bells. Or why would Gadreel pretend for Sam to feel despondent and thus push Dean into spilling his secret? No, I think it is reasonable to assume that Gadreel’s ominous statement simply refers to the fact that he took control of Sam as soon as he realised that Dean was conspiring against him.
Anyway, the episode closes with the image of a devastated Dean hovering over Kevin’s burnt body, but I have to admit that said image left me feeling detached rather than moved. I mean, I liked Kevin well enough, but I always felt the writers were more interested in Kevin as a plot device than in Kevin as a person, and consequently they did little to flesh him out, thus failing to strengthen my emotional investment in the character. These last couple of episodes in particular the writers had plenty of opportunity to explore Kevin and his relationship with Sam and Dean - he was living with the brothers, after all - but alas, he was only ever present if he was needed for the plot. Surprisingly, though, I also struggled to sympathise with Dean’s situation, and it took me a while to figure out why. I think my initial anger at Dean’s choice to make the appalling deal with Gadreel in the first place never really went away, and part of me always wanted for his choice to have drastic consequences, so Dean would finally be forced to question his decision making. Ultimately, I guess I feel validated in my critical assessment of Dean’s actions and that plays into my reaction to Dean’s grief. In the end, all my own grief is directed at Sam, who was once again made instrumental in an act of destruction against his will. Sam was prepared to die to prevent this very thing from happening, and yet his control over his own fate was once again taken away, leaving him to deal with feelings of guilt for someone else’s choices. And I have little doubt that Sam will feel guilty, no matter how little say he had in the matter.
Random Notes:
Now, while the brothers’ main storyline this season at least manages to hold my interest, I am watching it with a strange mixture of fascination and discomfort. I mean, in essence, the writers turned 'the epic love story of Sam and Dean' into a horror story this season, and my feelings constantly fluctuate between pleasure (at seeing the brothers getting along) and dismay (at thinking about the horrific violation at the root of it all). However, as I already suspected at the beginning of S9, the writers seem to have set this storyline up without any narrative intent. Instead of examining the broader thematic implications of the storyline and look at general issues like consent, abuse of power/trust and loss of physical and mental autonomy, they largely ignore the more disturbing overtones of it. Moreover, the exploration of the emotional ramifications of the storyline for the characters is basically non-existent. I had high hopes the writers would use the storyline to explore Dean’s issues and allow him to take a long hard look at his decisions and what motivates them, but his characterisation remains entirely on the surface. So far, the extent of Dean’s feelings on the matter does not seem to go beyond a vague feeling of guilt. Mind you, said guilt did not keep him from using Ezekiel at his leisure anyway. And Sam’s perspective on everything that is happening to him is pretty much absent from the story. You know, these past couple of weeks, I have been watching random old episodes, and that fresh reminder of the writers’ past habit to frequently delve into the characters’ psychology or connect standalone episodes effectively to the overarching themes of the season, really highlighted for me how flat and generic the show has become.
In that context, I have to say that the writers’ treatment of Dean’s character has become somewhat problematic for me, and there are several reasons for that. First of all, even though Dean is the point-of-view character in almost every episode, we did not learn anything new about Dean these past one and a half seasons. Instead, the writer hit the same character beats over and over again, thus rendering them meaningless. I know some fans attribute this to the fact that Dean's story revolves entirely around Sam, but I do not agree with that. Dean’s character arcs have always been tied to Sam’s, but in the earlier seasons the writers actually used Dean's focus on Sam to explore Dean's issues, and that no longer holds true. Furthermore, the writers continue to trample all over Dean’s past character growth, and I find that aggravating. It seems they are intent on erasing all of Dean’s development from late S5 onwards for no valid narrative reason. What bothers me the most, though, is that Dean comes off as increasingly manipulative, controlling and mean. Of course, Dean always had some dickish tendencies, but his more offensive character traits have always been outbalanced by his genuinely caring personality, and it seems to me that the current team of writers has no grasp on the many nuances in Dean’s character that used to make him such a compelling and sympathetic character. Now, if the changes in Dean would come off as a deliberate character development on the writers’ part, I could try to work with this version of him, but since they are so bad at tracing character motivation or psychological cause and effect, it just looks like Dean took an inexplicable turn to the worse. By the way, I do not think the writers treat Sam much better, but if their refusal to make Sam the point-of-view character has one advantage, it is that they have less opportunity to screw with his characterisation.
Last but not least, the mytharc this season bores me to death. At this point, the angel and demon mythology of the show has become wholly convoluted, inconsistent and unimaginative. Honestly, I cannot imagine that anyone is still interested in the petty squabbles between the angels or in the power struggle concerning hell’s leadership. The fact that Sam and Dean have once again become entirely incidental to the mytharc does not do it any favours either. I mean, Abaddon is fun and all, but I am not emotionally invested in her, and the same goes for Crowley, Bartholomew, Malachi, Metatron or Gadreel. For me, the villains of a season are only as interesting as their connection to Sam and Dean, and this season’s villains only regard the brothers as inconvenient obstacles or convenient tools; their actions have little to do with the brothers, personally, and there is no emotional element to their relationship with them. Now, I am the last person to praise S8, but at the very least Sam and Dean’s mission to close the gates of heaven and hell gave the angel & demon arc in S8 a sense of direction and purpose. Moreover, by introducing the trials, the writers pulled the brothers right back into the centre of the mytharc. But by abandoning those storylines in the S8 finale, the writers once again disconnected Sam and Dean’s story from the mytharc, with the result that both plot-strands run side by side, rather than hand in hand.
Sam: "This kind of thing has been happening to me. Like there are chunks of time just missing. Like there are times when I’m not here."
Dean: "Well, like I’ve said -"
Sam: "Yes, the trials. I know. I heard you. I heard you when you said it last week. And the week before then. And the week before that."
Dean: "Yeah, because - damn straight, the trials. They whacked you, man. You’re not up to warp speed yet. Okay. But you will be. Would I lie?"
I admit, Holy Terror managed to frustrate me right away, namely with the opening scene between the brothers in the Impala. Sam’s confession that he feels like he has been missing time, like he has been absent sometimes, really threw me for a loop. I mean, there was never any indication that Sam felt something was amiss, when he came back to himself after Gadreel took over; he did not seem to be confused and always continued talking mid-sentence, as if nothing had happened. I always assumed the fact that Sam did not seem to have any awareness of losing time or suffering from black-outs and was strangely oblivious to Dean’s peculiar behaviour was an actual plot point. It suggested to me that Gadreel’s influence on Sam’s perception/self-awareness was much more extensive than the angel let on. So Sam’s confession here comes completely out of the blue for me, and I find the resulting conclusion that the writers just could not be bothered to actually address Sam’s thoughts and feelings incredibly aggravating. Would it really have killed the writers to show us Sam’s confusion? To offer some insight into Sam’s attempts at rationalisation for the strange things happening to him and explore his hesitation to confide in Dean about it? These past nine episodes, the writers put a lot of effort into trying to make Dean sympathetic by highlighting his point of view, and there have also been several episodes dedicated to Castiel’s struggle with his humanity, but apparently exploring Sam’s situation has been altogether dispensable, despite the fact that the brothers’ entire story arc this season revolves around it. Not to mention that he is supposed to be one of the main characters of the show.
Anyway, there are two other aspects about the brothers’ conversation in the car that bother me to some extent. Firstly, I am really struggling with the information that, apparently, Dean drove fifty miles - a distance which, by my count, would amount to at least forty-five minutes - talking to Gadreel. So far, not one of the exchanges we witnessed between Dean and the angel lasted longer than a couple of minutes, so this prolonged contact between them stands out to me. It really drives the point home that, by now, Dean feels pretty comfortable in the angel’s presence. Moreover, though, the fact that, for as long as Dean decides to converse with the angel, Sam himself is forcibly held under by Gadreel does not seem to concern Dean in the slightest, and I find that rather disturbing. Of course, Dean cannot control when and where Gadreel chooses to initiate a conversation, but he does have control over his response to it - and socialising with Gadreel at his brother’s expense seems a strangely callous one. Secondly, I am growing really tired of Dean’s attempts to downplay Sam’s genuine concerns about his own body/mind in order to keep Gadreel’s presence a secret, especially given Sam’s history with physical and mental illness. Usually, there is at least an undercurrent of guilt in Dean’s lies to Sam, but this time he comes off as comparatively unconcerned, and that does not sit quite right with me. In that context, I really hope the fact that Dean was forced to systematically undermine Sam’s perception of himself all season long, will have consequences further down the line. I mean, considering how hard Sam struggled with feelings of inadequacy and failure (Sacrifice), I would assume that Dean’s continuous emphasis on Sam being weak had a major impact on him, and I would like to see that explored.
Dean: "Sam?"
Gadreel: "There is no more Sam. But I played him convincingly, I thought."
Dean: "How did you -?"
Gadreel: "I heard you talk with Kevin Tran tonight. Alter a sigil, even the slightest, alter the spell. Sorry about Kevin, but ultimately it’s for the best. I did what I had to."
I daresay the reveal that Gadreel deceived Dean about his real identity comes as no surprise at this point. As I said before, if he had really been just another foot soldier, who was cast out of heaven by Metatron, he would not have needed to hide from his fellow angels. Similarly, it is not all that surprising that Gadreel takes full possession of Sam’s body as soon as he feels threatened by Dean. The inconsistencies in his behaviour, as well as his obvious attempts to manipulate Dean, always suggested that Gadreel has little intention of holding up his end of the deal. It is odd, though, that the angel would choose to act out Sam’s angry reaction to Dean’s confession, instead of just knocking Dean out right away and leave. I can see no comprehensible reason for him to play pretend in this instance, and the fact that the writers chose to stage a fake confrontation between Sam and Dean, even though there was no narrative necessity for it, worries me. It suggests that the brothers’ actual conversation will play out differently, and I do not find the prospect of an all-forgiving and understanding Sam particularly thrilling. In any case, while I am hesitant to take Gadreel’s reaction as Sam at face value - his reaction may genuinely feel like Sam’s, but Gadreel is still only acting - at least Dean’s part of the conversation is real and gives us some insight into his thought process. Now, while Dean obviously feels guilty about his actions, I am not sure he actually understands the extent of his betrayal. He clearly anticipates Sam’s anger, but I do not think he anticipates losing Sam’s trust. In Dean’s mind, his choice was tough, but not necessarily wrong, and I cannot imagine that Sam will share that point of view. In that context, I find it particularly chilling that Dean’s I did what I had to in defence of allowing Sam’s possession echoes Gadreel’s exact same words in defence of killing Kevin. The truth is, though, that people usually do what they want to rather than what they have to; they always have a choice, it is just that sometimes they do not particularly like their choices.
As a side note, in Gadreel’s final exchange with Dean, the angel tells him There is no more Sam. But I played him convincingly, I thought. - a statement that seems rather ambiguous. It is possible that, rather than just referring to his prior confrontation with Dean in the storeroom, Gadreel tried to imply that Sam never really came out of the coma and that he has been in charge all along (which would obviously render my earlier rant about the lack of Sam’s perspective redundant). However, I do not find that scenario very likely, mainly because Gadreel’s actions do not make much sense in that context. I mean, if Gadreel’s main objective as 'Sam' was to stay hidden from the other angels while he regained his strength, he needed to secure Dean’s continued cooperation - and that is exactly what he did at the beginning of the season by constantly soothing Dean’s guilty conscience. Gadreel’s tactic even worked so well that, after a while, Dean came to see him as somewhat of an ally. So why would he deliberately risk losing Dean’s trust by deviating from that pattern? For example, why would Gadreel tell Dean about Vesta’s comment on Sam’s fragile health or about Chef Leo’s inquiry regarding Sam’s nature? Dean had not been present in either instance, so there was no reason to set off his alarm bells. Or why would Gadreel pretend for Sam to feel despondent and thus push Dean into spilling his secret? No, I think it is reasonable to assume that Gadreel’s ominous statement simply refers to the fact that he took control of Sam as soon as he realised that Dean was conspiring against him.
Anyway, the episode closes with the image of a devastated Dean hovering over Kevin’s burnt body, but I have to admit that said image left me feeling detached rather than moved. I mean, I liked Kevin well enough, but I always felt the writers were more interested in Kevin as a plot device than in Kevin as a person, and consequently they did little to flesh him out, thus failing to strengthen my emotional investment in the character. These last couple of episodes in particular the writers had plenty of opportunity to explore Kevin and his relationship with Sam and Dean - he was living with the brothers, after all - but alas, he was only ever present if he was needed for the plot. Surprisingly, though, I also struggled to sympathise with Dean’s situation, and it took me a while to figure out why. I think my initial anger at Dean’s choice to make the appalling deal with Gadreel in the first place never really went away, and part of me always wanted for his choice to have drastic consequences, so Dean would finally be forced to question his decision making. Ultimately, I guess I feel validated in my critical assessment of Dean’s actions and that plays into my reaction to Dean’s grief. In the end, all my own grief is directed at Sam, who was once again made instrumental in an act of destruction against his will. Sam was prepared to die to prevent this very thing from happening, and yet his control over his own fate was once again taken away, leaving him to deal with feelings of guilt for someone else’s choices. And I have little doubt that Sam will feel guilty, no matter how little say he had in the matter.
Random Notes:
- In Holy Terror Castiel steals the grace of another angel in order to restore his own angelic status, a development I find quite baffling, really. So, apparently, angelic grace is just generic energy and not actually the essence of one particular angel, which makes a certain kind of sense, I guess, given that Castiel still remained Castiel even though Metatron took his grace. Clearly, Castiel’s personhood is not determined by his grace, so what exactly does determine it then? I mean, we know that angels have no soul, and with the grace out of the picture, there is really nothing tangible left to explain the existence of individual angels. Besides, canon somewhat contradicts the notion that the grace is not the (personal) essence of an angel. Anna, for example, was forced to retrieve her own grace in order to be restored to an angel, and whenever the grace of an angel enters a human body, obviously the angel’s persona enters with it. So, whichever way I look at it, it is difficult to reconcile the different information we are given about angelic grace and vessels.
- And speaking about Castiel, why create all that 'drama' around Castiel losing his grace and becoming human, only to restore him to his former status within the span of a couple of episodes? Seriously, what was the point of Castiel’s short-lived storyline as a human? Call me cynical, but the timing of Castiel’s restoration at least suggests to me that, now that Gadreel is out of the picture and can no longer serve as Sam and Dean’s personal angel-ex-machina, the writers want to be able to fall back on Castiel as a convenient plot device. I think the abrupt ending of Castiel’s storyline makes little sense otherwise.
Now, while the brothers’ main storyline this season at least manages to hold my interest, I am watching it with a strange mixture of fascination and discomfort. I mean, in essence, the writers turned 'the epic love story of Sam and Dean' into a horror story this season, and my feelings constantly fluctuate between pleasure (at seeing the brothers getting along) and dismay (at thinking about the horrific violation at the root of it all). However, as I already suspected at the beginning of S9, the writers seem to have set this storyline up without any narrative intent. Instead of examining the broader thematic implications of the storyline and look at general issues like consent, abuse of power/trust and loss of physical and mental autonomy, they largely ignore the more disturbing overtones of it. Moreover, the exploration of the emotional ramifications of the storyline for the characters is basically non-existent. I had high hopes the writers would use the storyline to explore Dean’s issues and allow him to take a long hard look at his decisions and what motivates them, but his characterisation remains entirely on the surface. So far, the extent of Dean’s feelings on the matter does not seem to go beyond a vague feeling of guilt. Mind you, said guilt did not keep him from using Ezekiel at his leisure anyway. And Sam’s perspective on everything that is happening to him is pretty much absent from the story. You know, these past couple of weeks, I have been watching random old episodes, and that fresh reminder of the writers’ past habit to frequently delve into the characters’ psychology or connect standalone episodes effectively to the overarching themes of the season, really highlighted for me how flat and generic the show has become.
In that context, I have to say that the writers’ treatment of Dean’s character has become somewhat problematic for me, and there are several reasons for that. First of all, even though Dean is the point-of-view character in almost every episode, we did not learn anything new about Dean these past one and a half seasons. Instead, the writer hit the same character beats over and over again, thus rendering them meaningless. I know some fans attribute this to the fact that Dean's story revolves entirely around Sam, but I do not agree with that. Dean’s character arcs have always been tied to Sam’s, but in the earlier seasons the writers actually used Dean's focus on Sam to explore Dean's issues, and that no longer holds true. Furthermore, the writers continue to trample all over Dean’s past character growth, and I find that aggravating. It seems they are intent on erasing all of Dean’s development from late S5 onwards for no valid narrative reason. What bothers me the most, though, is that Dean comes off as increasingly manipulative, controlling and mean. Of course, Dean always had some dickish tendencies, but his more offensive character traits have always been outbalanced by his genuinely caring personality, and it seems to me that the current team of writers has no grasp on the many nuances in Dean’s character that used to make him such a compelling and sympathetic character. Now, if the changes in Dean would come off as a deliberate character development on the writers’ part, I could try to work with this version of him, but since they are so bad at tracing character motivation or psychological cause and effect, it just looks like Dean took an inexplicable turn to the worse. By the way, I do not think the writers treat Sam much better, but if their refusal to make Sam the point-of-view character has one advantage, it is that they have less opportunity to screw with his characterisation.
Last but not least, the mytharc this season bores me to death. At this point, the angel and demon mythology of the show has become wholly convoluted, inconsistent and unimaginative. Honestly, I cannot imagine that anyone is still interested in the petty squabbles between the angels or in the power struggle concerning hell’s leadership. The fact that Sam and Dean have once again become entirely incidental to the mytharc does not do it any favours either. I mean, Abaddon is fun and all, but I am not emotionally invested in her, and the same goes for Crowley, Bartholomew, Malachi, Metatron or Gadreel. For me, the villains of a season are only as interesting as their connection to Sam and Dean, and this season’s villains only regard the brothers as inconvenient obstacles or convenient tools; their actions have little to do with the brothers, personally, and there is no emotional element to their relationship with them. Now, I am the last person to praise S8, but at the very least Sam and Dean’s mission to close the gates of heaven and hell gave the angel & demon arc in S8 a sense of direction and purpose. Moreover, by introducing the trials, the writers pulled the brothers right back into the centre of the mytharc. But by abandoning those storylines in the S8 finale, the writers once again disconnected Sam and Dean’s story from the mytharc, with the result that both plot-strands run side by side, rather than hand in hand.