Quick Reaction: 8x22 Clip Show
Okay, so this episode was soul-crushing....
(Once again, I'm rewatching while I type this up, thanks to house-sitting at a place with a PVR. Next week I'll be back in my own apartment though and doing my quick reaction from memory.)
We begin in Lost Creek, Colorado. And it's a testament to how much I'm obsessed with this show, because even though I didn't recognize Tommy (I'm horrible at recognizing people), I immediately thought "oh hey, wendigo!" when I saw the place. :P
But we do join up with Tommy and his girl, who has dragged him out into the woods... um, girlfriend, I don't think you should be dragging your PTSD boyfriend to the site where he got his PTSD. And... Tommy bites it, and it's gross... and I'm so SAD. Like, seriously... Supernatural writers accomplished what they wanted with this storyline...
Cut to the Bunker, and Sam and Dean are doing research. Dean's trying to look after Sam, and Sam's letting him a little bit... or at least not getting mad at him for being concerned.
Cas is there too! "Morning!" I'm willing to bet this is just the next day, and they all went home and got cleaned up and had a bit of a sleep...
But Dean is ignoring Cas. But hey, let's focus on the positive! Cas likes the bunker because it's "orderly" - aww, Cas, your soldier is showing. And Cas and Sam are having a chat! Yay! I have to admit, shipping aside, I'm actually more interested in the Sam+Cas friendship than the Dean+Cas friendship - just because Sam+Cas is so deliciously awkward.
"I have to cure a demon"
"Of what?"
-Haha, brilliant.
I love Dean's meal... a half-drunk beer, beef jerky, and three peanut butter cups. But what I love most about it is that he taste-tests the beer for Sam to make sure that it hasn't gone skunky. Brilliant.
And Cas tries to apologize... "for everything", but Dean isn't having it. Because Cas should be apologizing for not trusting Dean, because it's not the first time. "I thought I was doing the right thing." "Yeah, you always do." Ouch. But Dean has a point. As my mother says, "what do flowers have to do with anything?" If you're truly sorry, you change your behaviour - and this is a pattern of behaviour that Cas has never changed.
But Sam sticks up for Cas as soon as he has Dean alone. Dean argues that if Cas were anyone else, he would have stabbed him in the neck on principal, "why should I give him a free pass", and Sam answers, "because he's Cas." - and the thing is that Dean's already admitting that Cas is getting special treatment, so Sam has a point - but at the same time, Cas should be thankful for the special treatment he's getting and not expect more.
Anyway, time to nosy around some files and stumble upon a dungeon!
Sam: "So, we have a dungeon"
Dean: "Finally!"
- I love the acting for this line, because Dean being excited that there's a dungeon shouldn't actually be a good thing, given his history... and you see that in the way Sam reacts. My stomach just sort of sinks a little with Dean's smirk, rather than smirk back.
Movie night!
"Hey, those chains look exactly like the ones in our dungeon!"
"In your what?"
-See, even Cas isn't sure he's cool with it.
Anyway, exorcism movie gone wrong... the demon and the victim dies.
And even when Cas tries to help with the language, Dean makes fun of him... and Cas isn't allowed to come to, because Dean is still mad. "Just stay here and... get better." - well, at least he still cares about Cas' health. Poor Cas though...especially since you know, the Winchesters could have REALLY used him on this one.
The priest tells them about the rituals - the attempts to purify demons... and Sam starts coughing up blood again. I love Dean's speech to the father though, about how much faith he has in Sam. Awwww.
Cas is shopping! I love that he buys Dean's favourite porn, and beer... and just generally makes a mess.
"Where's the pie?"
"I think we're out."
"You don't understand. I. Need. Pie."
- Awesome.
"Put the virgin down, Castiel."
-You know, I'm thinking that going out with the intent to buy pie on Supernatural is a bad omen... or like... a death wish. Nothing good ever happens when you go out with the intent of buying Dean pie. I'm not saying Metatron is evil, but I AM saying that I don't entirely trust him.
Castiel is a little bit starstruck... and I love this conversation between Metatron and Castiel, about what heaven is like now. Apparently Naomi isn't as in charge as we thought she was either - instead it's anarchy/civil war, thanks to the power vacuum left by the archangels, and the devastation that Cas wrought. Cas feels bad. Metatron wants to fix it... he wants him and Cas to come to the rescue.
The plan is to shut-down Heaven... and yeah....I mean, I kind of saw that as a possible storyline for S9, myself, but I'm not sure now...
Back to the bunker and Sam can't find Cas, which means that Dean assumes Cas skipped out on them again without warning, which isn't going to help the grudge he's holding.
More flashbacks of attempts to cure demons. It involves injecting the demon with "purified" blood (taken after the priest had gone to confession)... and over several hours it actually worked. I love the fact that Dean and Sam can tell when it starts working by the quality of the demon's screams - I mean, that's crazy disturbing, but at the same time, kind of BAMF too.
They need blood, consecrated ground, and a demon.... I'd love to see a Winchester going to confession, I have to say.
Meanwhile, Cas and Metatron are continuing their conversation over crepes, with a flirty waitress. Metatron is jealous.
I just realised how beautiful the view is from that cafe. I wonder where it is. Gorgeous.
So, Metatron wants to shut the pearly gates so that the angels can sort themselves out without involving earth. The problem is that Metatron isn't strong enough to do it himself - Castiel, though, is a warrior. And Cas is on board, because he wants to fix the problems that he made.
And man, this is where Cas ALWAYS falls down. Because you know what would make Dean forgive Cas? CONSULTING HIM! Buying him beer, porn, and pie (ie: buying him flowers) is an empty gesture unless Cas changes the behaviour that made Dean angry with him in the first place - and that behaviour is the fact that Cas always leaves Dean out of his decision making. I'm not saying that Dean should be the boss of Cas, but I AM saying that Cas IS easily manipulated (hell, Dean's taken advantage of that trait himself) and it would really do Cas good to run his plans by Dean or Sam or SOMEONE who wasn't as easily manipulated as Cas is. Also, it would show that Cas DOES trust Dean with his affairs.
Already, with the first Angel trial, Cas has to kill an innocent girl - whose only crime is being the offspring of a human and an angel. And Cas doesn't like this one bit, it goes against his beliefs... but Metatron pushes...
"You have to ask yourself what's more important: Her life or your family?"
- And of course, putting it like that, Cas is going to choose family - but part of me wonders which family he's choosing at this point.
So, my question is, why do they assemble Abaddon in an abandoned dairy barn? I thought they needed consecrated ground?! Also, wouldn't it have been better to assemble her in their specially designed DEMON DUNGEON. I mean, really. Mind you, that would mean bringing Abaddon into the Bunker, which was what their grandfather died keeping her away from... but still. Seems weird.
And at this point, we've all but forgotten about poor Tommy in Colorado... but suddenly how he slots into the story is revealed. Crowley calls after they've assembled and de-handed Abaddon - who knows perfectly well what their after. The bonus here is that it means Abaddon learns that Crowley's become the King of Hell in her absence, and she is none too pleased about it. The bad news is the enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend - and Crowley's call gives Abaddon enough time to escape.
But guys, seriously, why did you... oh, they just said that they were going to consecrate the ground... I guess that explains the barn, but still, DO IT BEFORE YOU ASSEMBLE THE DEMON. Geez, boys! Also, don't BOTH GO OUTSIDE TO TAKE ONE CALL.
I do love Crowley's "Hello boy" and "what are you wearing?" - heheheh... oh Crowley. Also, "I'm sexting you an address"... heheheh.
"Oh well, I'll pour one out for Tommy later"
- I do love how Dean isn't actually that sad... mainly because he doesn't know the full extent of Crowley's plans, but I also like it because Dean and Sam save SO MANY PEOPLE, they're actually incapable of caring that deeply for them after a certain time has gone by.
And Crowley sends them to Prosperity, Indiana, to discover dead Jenny Klein back from S7...
Crowley will kill someone every 12 hours until he gets the demon tablet and the Winchesters give up the trials. He knows that Heaven doesn't have Kevin, so he assumes the Winchesters do. And he sends them to Indianapolis, to discover SARAH!
And this is where I simply said, "oh no" because you know the rules - no one is allowed to catch any breaks in the penultimate episode of the season, you have to bring the boys to their lowest point... so that in the finale they can either triumph or, since this is Supernatural, drop even lower...
Cas decides to go with Metatron's plans... even though he has the kicked puppy face on the whole time. The angel-girl fights back, but in the end, it's two against one and Castiel takes her out while she's focused on Metatron.
Sam tries to comfort Sarah, and this is the painful bit, because it works... Sarah has faith in Sam, because Sam's protected her before. :(
And if we weren't already sure of Sarah's fate given the episode number, we know that she's doomed as soon as we find out she's married and has a one-year-old daughter. (Also Sarah's room number is 116, I'm pretty sure that's also her episode number in S1 Nope, it was 1x19, oh SPN you missed out!) Anyway, Sarah points out what's different with Sam - more focused, and confident... and she misses the old haircut. I always thought that if Sarah ever met Sam again, he'd be unrecognizable to her, but I guess that would just be me (I really am horrible at recognizing people).
Crowley calls, and Sarah starts choking - and Crowley has a great monologue. Crowley's mother was apparently a witch and it's been a hex bag the whole time. Crowley knows that all the trials are hell-based, so he's keeping all hell-based things away from the Winchesters. He also knows that the reason they're able to keep going because of the people they save - that without the people they save, their lives are meaningless torture. Sam and Dean Winchester live SOLELY for other people, if you take those people away, they have nothing.
And the horrible thing is that the hexbag was in the phone the whole time - all they had to do was get angry at Crowley monologuing earlier and Sarah might have lived. But now, Sarah dies right in front of Sam, and there's nothing he can do about it.
As much as I HATE that they killed Sarah, I gotta hand it to the writers for it being a really brilliant move - because that HATE that I'm feeling is the exact same thing that Sam and Dean are feeling, and I don't think they would have been able to significantly gut me so completely with any other death.
Here is where the difficulty of having Cas around from a writing standpoint comes in, because WHY DIDN'T THEY CALL CAS!?! Also, do hex bags still work if you pick Sarah up and fireman carry her out of the room?! I guess this is all too late now, and I'm not one to talk - I love good decision making skills when I see a spider, let alone when demons are killing my long-lost friends.
Sam and Dean return to the bunker, and Sam is NOT okay, thanks Dean. And here is where the classic Winchester switch comes in - Sam's lost faith, Dean compensates by taking up the mantle of Sam's never-ending faith. This is why the Winchesters are an awesome team. We end on an "Are you with me?" but seriously, I think all Sam can do is TRY. I mean, they know EXACTLY what they need to do now, they just need one demon - and if Cas comes back to them, they could get one of those somehow, I'm sure.
Next week looks interesting.. the preview seemed to give a lot away, so I won't discuss it - but man, am I ever nervous. I really think something is going to go horribly wrong with the gate closing plan(s).
As usual, discussion in the comments is most welcome! I have to admit that I had a particularly horrible day at work, so I'm not sure my brain is properly in thinky-mode at the moment. I kind of feel a bit fried with trying my best not to rage quit my job.
(Once again, I'm rewatching while I type this up, thanks to house-sitting at a place with a PVR. Next week I'll be back in my own apartment though and doing my quick reaction from memory.)
We begin in Lost Creek, Colorado. And it's a testament to how much I'm obsessed with this show, because even though I didn't recognize Tommy (I'm horrible at recognizing people), I immediately thought "oh hey, wendigo!" when I saw the place. :P
But we do join up with Tommy and his girl, who has dragged him out into the woods... um, girlfriend, I don't think you should be dragging your PTSD boyfriend to the site where he got his PTSD. And... Tommy bites it, and it's gross... and I'm so SAD. Like, seriously... Supernatural writers accomplished what they wanted with this storyline...
Cut to the Bunker, and Sam and Dean are doing research. Dean's trying to look after Sam, and Sam's letting him a little bit... or at least not getting mad at him for being concerned.
Cas is there too! "Morning!" I'm willing to bet this is just the next day, and they all went home and got cleaned up and had a bit of a sleep...
But Dean is ignoring Cas. But hey, let's focus on the positive! Cas likes the bunker because it's "orderly" - aww, Cas, your soldier is showing. And Cas and Sam are having a chat! Yay! I have to admit, shipping aside, I'm actually more interested in the Sam+Cas friendship than the Dean+Cas friendship - just because Sam+Cas is so deliciously awkward.
"I have to cure a demon"
"Of what?"
-Haha, brilliant.
I love Dean's meal... a half-drunk beer, beef jerky, and three peanut butter cups. But what I love most about it is that he taste-tests the beer for Sam to make sure that it hasn't gone skunky. Brilliant.
And Cas tries to apologize... "for everything", but Dean isn't having it. Because Cas should be apologizing for not trusting Dean, because it's not the first time. "I thought I was doing the right thing." "Yeah, you always do." Ouch. But Dean has a point. As my mother says, "what do flowers have to do with anything?" If you're truly sorry, you change your behaviour - and this is a pattern of behaviour that Cas has never changed.
But Sam sticks up for Cas as soon as he has Dean alone. Dean argues that if Cas were anyone else, he would have stabbed him in the neck on principal, "why should I give him a free pass", and Sam answers, "because he's Cas." - and the thing is that Dean's already admitting that Cas is getting special treatment, so Sam has a point - but at the same time, Cas should be thankful for the special treatment he's getting and not expect more.
Anyway, time to nosy around some files and stumble upon a dungeon!
Sam: "So, we have a dungeon"
Dean: "Finally!"
- I love the acting for this line, because Dean being excited that there's a dungeon shouldn't actually be a good thing, given his history... and you see that in the way Sam reacts. My stomach just sort of sinks a little with Dean's smirk, rather than smirk back.
Movie night!
"Hey, those chains look exactly like the ones in our dungeon!"
"In your what?"
-See, even Cas isn't sure he's cool with it.
Anyway, exorcism movie gone wrong... the demon and the victim dies.
And even when Cas tries to help with the language, Dean makes fun of him... and Cas isn't allowed to come to, because Dean is still mad. "Just stay here and... get better." - well, at least he still cares about Cas' health. Poor Cas though...especially since you know, the Winchesters could have REALLY used him on this one.
The priest tells them about the rituals - the attempts to purify demons... and Sam starts coughing up blood again. I love Dean's speech to the father though, about how much faith he has in Sam. Awwww.
Cas is shopping! I love that he buys Dean's favourite porn, and beer... and just generally makes a mess.
"Where's the pie?"
"I think we're out."
"You don't understand. I. Need. Pie."
- Awesome.
"Put the virgin down, Castiel."
-You know, I'm thinking that going out with the intent to buy pie on Supernatural is a bad omen... or like... a death wish. Nothing good ever happens when you go out with the intent of buying Dean pie. I'm not saying Metatron is evil, but I AM saying that I don't entirely trust him.
Castiel is a little bit starstruck... and I love this conversation between Metatron and Castiel, about what heaven is like now. Apparently Naomi isn't as in charge as we thought she was either - instead it's anarchy/civil war, thanks to the power vacuum left by the archangels, and the devastation that Cas wrought. Cas feels bad. Metatron wants to fix it... he wants him and Cas to come to the rescue.
The plan is to shut-down Heaven... and yeah....I mean, I kind of saw that as a possible storyline for S9, myself, but I'm not sure now...
Back to the bunker and Sam can't find Cas, which means that Dean assumes Cas skipped out on them again without warning, which isn't going to help the grudge he's holding.
More flashbacks of attempts to cure demons. It involves injecting the demon with "purified" blood (taken after the priest had gone to confession)... and over several hours it actually worked. I love the fact that Dean and Sam can tell when it starts working by the quality of the demon's screams - I mean, that's crazy disturbing, but at the same time, kind of BAMF too.
They need blood, consecrated ground, and a demon.... I'd love to see a Winchester going to confession, I have to say.
Meanwhile, Cas and Metatron are continuing their conversation over crepes, with a flirty waitress. Metatron is jealous.
I just realised how beautiful the view is from that cafe. I wonder where it is. Gorgeous.
So, Metatron wants to shut the pearly gates so that the angels can sort themselves out without involving earth. The problem is that Metatron isn't strong enough to do it himself - Castiel, though, is a warrior. And Cas is on board, because he wants to fix the problems that he made.
And man, this is where Cas ALWAYS falls down. Because you know what would make Dean forgive Cas? CONSULTING HIM! Buying him beer, porn, and pie (ie: buying him flowers) is an empty gesture unless Cas changes the behaviour that made Dean angry with him in the first place - and that behaviour is the fact that Cas always leaves Dean out of his decision making. I'm not saying that Dean should be the boss of Cas, but I AM saying that Cas IS easily manipulated (hell, Dean's taken advantage of that trait himself) and it would really do Cas good to run his plans by Dean or Sam or SOMEONE who wasn't as easily manipulated as Cas is. Also, it would show that Cas DOES trust Dean with his affairs.
Already, with the first Angel trial, Cas has to kill an innocent girl - whose only crime is being the offspring of a human and an angel. And Cas doesn't like this one bit, it goes against his beliefs... but Metatron pushes...
"You have to ask yourself what's more important: Her life or your family?"
- And of course, putting it like that, Cas is going to choose family - but part of me wonders which family he's choosing at this point.
So, my question is, why do they assemble Abaddon in an abandoned dairy barn? I thought they needed consecrated ground?! Also, wouldn't it have been better to assemble her in their specially designed DEMON DUNGEON. I mean, really. Mind you, that would mean bringing Abaddon into the Bunker, which was what their grandfather died keeping her away from... but still. Seems weird.
And at this point, we've all but forgotten about poor Tommy in Colorado... but suddenly how he slots into the story is revealed. Crowley calls after they've assembled and de-handed Abaddon - who knows perfectly well what their after. The bonus here is that it means Abaddon learns that Crowley's become the King of Hell in her absence, and she is none too pleased about it. The bad news is the enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend - and Crowley's call gives Abaddon enough time to escape.
But guys, seriously, why did you... oh, they just said that they were going to consecrate the ground... I guess that explains the barn, but still, DO IT BEFORE YOU ASSEMBLE THE DEMON. Geez, boys! Also, don't BOTH GO OUTSIDE TO TAKE ONE CALL.
I do love Crowley's "Hello boy" and "what are you wearing?" - heheheh... oh Crowley. Also, "I'm sexting you an address"... heheheh.
"Oh well, I'll pour one out for Tommy later"
- I do love how Dean isn't actually that sad... mainly because he doesn't know the full extent of Crowley's plans, but I also like it because Dean and Sam save SO MANY PEOPLE, they're actually incapable of caring that deeply for them after a certain time has gone by.
And Crowley sends them to Prosperity, Indiana, to discover dead Jenny Klein back from S7...
Crowley will kill someone every 12 hours until he gets the demon tablet and the Winchesters give up the trials. He knows that Heaven doesn't have Kevin, so he assumes the Winchesters do. And he sends them to Indianapolis, to discover SARAH!
And this is where I simply said, "oh no" because you know the rules - no one is allowed to catch any breaks in the penultimate episode of the season, you have to bring the boys to their lowest point... so that in the finale they can either triumph or, since this is Supernatural, drop even lower...
Cas decides to go with Metatron's plans... even though he has the kicked puppy face on the whole time. The angel-girl fights back, but in the end, it's two against one and Castiel takes her out while she's focused on Metatron.
Sam tries to comfort Sarah, and this is the painful bit, because it works... Sarah has faith in Sam, because Sam's protected her before. :(
And if we weren't already sure of Sarah's fate given the episode number, we know that she's doomed as soon as we find out she's married and has a one-year-old daughter. (Also Sarah's room number is 116, I'm pretty sure that's also her episode number in S1 Nope, it was 1x19, oh SPN you missed out!) Anyway, Sarah points out what's different with Sam - more focused, and confident... and she misses the old haircut. I always thought that if Sarah ever met Sam again, he'd be unrecognizable to her, but I guess that would just be me (I really am horrible at recognizing people).
Crowley calls, and Sarah starts choking - and Crowley has a great monologue. Crowley's mother was apparently a witch and it's been a hex bag the whole time. Crowley knows that all the trials are hell-based, so he's keeping all hell-based things away from the Winchesters. He also knows that the reason they're able to keep going because of the people they save - that without the people they save, their lives are meaningless torture. Sam and Dean Winchester live SOLELY for other people, if you take those people away, they have nothing.
And the horrible thing is that the hexbag was in the phone the whole time - all they had to do was get angry at Crowley monologuing earlier and Sarah might have lived. But now, Sarah dies right in front of Sam, and there's nothing he can do about it.
As much as I HATE that they killed Sarah, I gotta hand it to the writers for it being a really brilliant move - because that HATE that I'm feeling is the exact same thing that Sam and Dean are feeling, and I don't think they would have been able to significantly gut me so completely with any other death.
Here is where the difficulty of having Cas around from a writing standpoint comes in, because WHY DIDN'T THEY CALL CAS!?! Also, do hex bags still work if you pick Sarah up and fireman carry her out of the room?! I guess this is all too late now, and I'm not one to talk - I love good decision making skills when I see a spider, let alone when demons are killing my long-lost friends.
Sam and Dean return to the bunker, and Sam is NOT okay, thanks Dean. And here is where the classic Winchester switch comes in - Sam's lost faith, Dean compensates by taking up the mantle of Sam's never-ending faith. This is why the Winchesters are an awesome team. We end on an "Are you with me?" but seriously, I think all Sam can do is TRY. I mean, they know EXACTLY what they need to do now, they just need one demon - and if Cas comes back to them, they could get one of those somehow, I'm sure.
Next week looks interesting.. the preview seemed to give a lot away, so I won't discuss it - but man, am I ever nervous. I really think something is going to go horribly wrong with the gate closing plan(s).
As usual, discussion in the comments is most welcome! I have to admit that I had a particularly horrible day at work, so I'm not sure my brain is properly in thinky-mode at the moment. I kind of feel a bit fried with trying my best not to rage quit my job.