Quick Reaction: 5x21 Two Minutes To Midnight
I think my palms were sweating for that whole episode...
Ok...where to start?
Teaser: Pestilence is gross.
Winchester Opener: In the midst of an argument! Is it just me, or does Dean seem sort of drunk during this argument? Just - the way he's walking and has his eyelids drooping...maybe it's just me. I like "a heads-up would have been nice!" I also like how it's the really the classic argument between Dean and Sam:
Sam: I want to put myself in danger
Dean: No!
Some things never change.
What happened next? Oh! Cas phoned!!
Yay Castiel! That was a great phone conversation - but dude, it's happened. Castiel is human now. They no longer have an angel on their side, they have a grumpy-former-angel-human. Poor Castiel. He's really more human too - facial expressions, bluntness, miserable outlook on life...he's still got his gravely voice though!
Dean and Sam are off to fight Pestilence and it really doesn't go so well. It's actually Castiel who saves the day and defeats the horseman.
Pestilence: How did you get here!?!
Castiel: I took the bus.
Hilarious. And I'm glad Castiel got himself a horseman.
But Pestilence tells them it's too late, and Dean worries.
Crowley shows up and spills the beans about Bobby's soul. Says it's insurance so that they let him live afterwards...smart one Crowley. Oddly, that makes me actually believe that he'll give the soul back. That scene was pretty funny.
Then Dean and Sam have a talk...and I like the lead into that - the way Sam walks over and sighs dramatically, and Dean says "we're about to have a talk, aren't we?" ...all I'm saying is that if they were an old married couple (and they are), I'd say Sam is playing the part of the stereotypical wife there. And I love how Crowley makes fun of it with the whole "and scene" motion - brilliant. Crowley kept interrupting their "moments" in this episode.
So, anyway, Team Free Will splits up to save the world. Surprisingly it's just Dean and Crowley who head to Chicago to face Death, while Sam, Bobby, and Castiel make their way to umm...somewhere...to stop the spread of the Croatoan virus. Before they leave though, Crowley mentions that he worded the deal in such a way that Bobby gets to walk! Yay for Bobby - but I wonder if that'll be something that goes away when he gets his soul back, or if it's permanent? Or...WILL Bobby get his soul back? Will Bobby survive next week?!
Admission: If Bobby WERE to die, I don't think I'd actually be that upset, because it would mean that I didn't have to worry about him anymore. I'm a horrible person that way.
If I had been Team Free Will, I think I would have send someone else along with Crowley and Dean - I mean, Crowley wasn't that nice to Dean the last time they had a mission together...
Oh, that's the other thing...Crowley just HAPPENING to have Death's scythe? Kind of circumspect in my opinion...I really don't trust this Crowley dude.
Ok...Sam, Castiel, and Bobby are on their way to Niveus and Sam tells Cas his Lucifer plan and Castiel actually BELIEVES in Sam. Wow. Man, Castiel is a good friend...but, after that I was pretty positive that this is indeed what is going to happen.
Castiel also confirms all of our suspicions though and tells us that Michael is currently wearing an AdamMilligan-suit...whether or not Sam can get the devil into the pit, whether or not Dean says yes, the Michael-Lucifer fight is going to happen.
Then they get to Niveus and Sam starts rescuing the civilians and there was this long lingering shot of Bobby as Sam ran off to rescue more of civilians and I couldn't figure out what the heck it meant - it seemed like Bobby was realizing something about Sam, and I sort of thought that it might be a bad thing...but we'll come back to this.
Castiel totally blows a guys head RIGHT OFF and they SHOW IT...the stuff you can get away with on American TV astounds me sometimes. I'm wondering how on earth their going to edit that in Germany.
Meanwhile, in Chicago...Dean and Crowley find Death, eventually. Death's scythe burns hot in Death's presence and Dean can't use it.
We find out an interesting fact about Supernatural's Mythology: Death and God are the same age (or Death is older) and God is not immortal, but possibly Death is. God is also equated with Life.
We also find out that Lucifer has Death on a leash, and Death does not like it - he gives Dean the ring, and that makes a hell of a lot more sense than Dean being able to kill Death.
But Dean has to promise to let Sam jump into the pit with Lucifer. Dean does. At this point, I'm wondering if Dean has finally learnt his lesson: Let your brother die when it's his time to die....
....but that doesn't seem to be the case. Dean tells Bobby he was lying. He's still planning to prevent Sam from sacrificing himself somehow. Bobby then reveals what he realized in the warehouse: They don't give Sam enough credit. For all of Sam's darkness, he's also filled with equal amounts light - and man, that imagery makes me want to cry for some reason. Maybe it's because I have a thing for duality in characters, but I really have to agree with Bobby that Sam is rarely given the benefit of the doubt by any of the other characters (except Castiel in this episode). He's also disproportionately blamed for everything that goes wrong.
And then Bobby asks Dean the right question: "Are you afraid of losing or are you afraid of losing your brother?"
After 5 seasons, we all know the answer to this question. The classic Sam and Dean argument in the Winchester opening of this very episode gave us our answer. Dean is more worried about losing his brother than he is about losing himself or the world.
So...is it next week yet?