First Impressions: 8x21 "The Great Escapist"
Was able to watch the East Coast feed this week along with live on the TV on West Coast time. These notes are a culmination of both viewings.
I'm trying to give myself a break and not kill myself doing these reviews. We'll see how it goes this season.
What's here are basic reactions I typed out during the show, with a few bits and pieces put in afterwards. Hopefully it'll be brief, but still interesting.
Kevin! He's at the boat again?
Dousing the boys with a Super Soaker. Heehee!
Dean: "Now it's wet me."
They got the other half of the tablet. Awesome.
Ok, something's not right here. Sam calling Kevin "Special K"?
I knew it! Crowley's deception at work.
Love Crowley teaching his demons how to be Dean & Sam. "Remember, I want two distinct, authentic characterizations." It's like SPN fanfic! Heehee!
Crowley: "I was born to direct." LOL
Sneak peak clip! Dean bringing "John Winchester's famous cure-all kitchen sink stew" to poor sick Sammy. :(
Gotta love what a mother hen Dean is, how he knows exactly how many days Sam hasn't eaten and that he even offers to do the spoon airplane thing.
Dean just wants to take care of Sam, but little brother's having none of it. He won't be good until he can start moving on the 3rd trial.
Dean: "Trial? I wouldn't let you start a moped!"
But of course, Sam's right...this isn't like cold that Dean can take care of. Sam's changing.
They got an email from Kevin....oh, Kevin. If they're getting this video message from him it means he's dead. :(
The boys are on their own....Kevin's sent them his research.
Of course, he's not dead, but they don't know that.
Dean doesn't take losing Kevin well. Another dead life for him to feel guilty for.
Printa, printa, printa....Sam's printing out tons of info. from Kevin.
Garth's still MIA..."Here we are...No lead, no tablet...squat!"
Uh, yeah, Dean....you should've moved Kevin to the bunker. Duh.
Cas! What the??? Talking to a waitress about the origins of coffee? LOL
Uh oh....the angels must be hot his trail.
Yep...they are.
Cas has been hanging out at Biggersons across the country, moving from one to another...and the angels can't track him. Heehee!
Sam recognizes a symbol on Kevin's notes...it's Native American...."Messenger of God".
Time to hunt down Metatron. Dean's not really gung-ho, but Sam is.
Oh no....the angels are on to you, Cas...
They left a blood bath....that poor woman. Of course, they'd use Cas's compassion for humanity against him. Damn you, Naomi!
They found him. :(
Boys in Colorado at a very quiet hotel with an empty bar.
Not so friendly service.
Sam's hearing something....
Oh, Naomi....I do not like you!
She calls Cas broken...like a bad car with a broken chassis.
Naomi: "You have never done what you were told, not completely.You don't even die right, do you?" She asks again where the angel tablet is.
Castiel: "In the words of a good friend....Bite me!" Awesome!
You tell her, Cas!
Back with fake Sam & Dean with Kevin...he needs food.
He's got a very specific list....this should be good.
Crowley: "Of course, if I wasn't running everything I could've played Dean myself."
Turns out the boys are the only guests at the motel in Colorado.
And Sam's reminiscing....and maybe drunk with delirium. He remembers them being at the Grand Canyon as kids and riding mules....
Sam: "You rode a farty donkey." LOL
Sam wants to follow the manager "Dr. Scowley-Scowl" but Dean convinces him to rest instead.
He can do that. Heh.
Oh....it's the hotel manager! Dean sees him in an old photo. He's been around a long time.
The people used to leave offerings to the Messenger Of God...stories.
Sam, you really shouldn't be up and around, buddy.
He's hearing the sound again...spots the manger leaving offerings...books.
Gets back to the room...gonna call Dean, but he collapses.
Naomi and her goons still can't find the angel tablet after searching all the Biggersons in the country.
Naomi: "I'm just going to have to pull you apart. Aren't I?"
Crowley crashes Naomi's little party.
Whoah! What a way to wake up! In a tub full of ice water.
Sam tells Dean he can hear Metatron and that he's there in the hotel.
Smart...Crowley had an angel sword melted down into bullets.
Crowley and Naomi have a little showdown...she takes off.
Oh....sneaky Crowley had an angel working for him. Ion was the little backstabber.
Bastard! Crowley shoots Cas in the stomach. :(
Uh oh....Kevin's gonna lead them to the other half of the tablet!!!
Meanwhile, Crowley's questioning Cas for where the angel tablet is.
"The tablets weren't meant for the angels and they weren't meant for you."
Crowley surmises that Cas is still touching the tablet...God! He just pulled it out of Cas's gut!
That was hard to watch. :(
Heehee! Kevin caught onto the fake Winchesters and trapped the demons.
Awww...Sam's remembering things...like Dean reading to him from a classics illustrated comic book when he was little. Oh...*wibbles*
He remembers the knights of the round table and Sir Galahad and thinking he could never go on a quest like that "because I'm not clean."
Oh Sammy....feels he knew he was unclean from the demon blood even when he was little. Thinks the trials are cleaning him, purifying him. *hugs him*
Well, they found the books inside the room....lots and lots of books.
So they saved all the books from Bobby's house set. *g*
Oh...hello Metatron....with a shotgun.
Sam's still hearing the noise....really loud.
Metatron thinks they might work for Michael or Lucifer.
Sam: "You really haven't heard of us? What kind of an angel are you? We're the friggin' Winchesters!"
Castiel: "We aren't machines for them to program and reprogram."
Oh....Cas got the bullet out.
Awesome work on the gory blood & guts in this ep.
Crowley crashes in on Kevin...with the angel tablet....wonders how Kevin figured it out.
Turns out it was the way Sam & Dean acted.
Crowley: "So, my demons were too polite?"
Kevin: "Yeah."
Crowley: "Well, I'll be the son of a whore."
Metatron doesn't know what's happened to the other angels.
He says Sam is resonating because of the trials.
God was very worried about his work, had Metatron write it down, then he disappeared. The angels wailed and then plotted...so he hid, shut himself off from the world.
Oh! Bullet in the eye for Ion. Yikes.
So all Metatron knows of humanity has been from stories.
"When you create stories you become Gods...of tiny, intricate dimensions unto themselves. So many worlds!"
Sam's had enough..."Pull the friggin' trigger!" He accuses Metatron of hiding like a coward while the rest of his kind destroyed mankind.
Dean backs it up, by telling him about Kevin....his prophet that he should've protected.
Kevin is very confident...He knows Crowley won't find out the 3rd trial.
Oh...Crowley just got angel burned. Ouch.
So Metatron saved Kevin!
He's caught up now with what's been going on in the world. Dean asks if he's with them now.
Metatron: "You really intend on closing the doors of Hell?"
Dean: "Seems like the thing to do, don't it?"
Metatron: "It's your choice. That’s what this has all been about, the choices your kind make. But you’re gonna have to weigh that choice. Ask yourself, 'What is it going to take to do this', and 'What will the world be like after it’s done?'."
Kevin wakes up and hands over the other half of the tablet he got from Crowley.
The 3rd trial is to cure a demon. WTH?
Dean hopes that once the 3rd trial is over that Sam will get better.
Sam: "But we're heading somewhere. The end."
They really need to stop using that same Dean's-boot-stomping-on-breaks CU from "99 Problems". I recognize it every time. Ugh.
Cas!!!!! He's in bad shape...
Bed Edlund doesn't disappoint! :D This episode was jam-packed with characters and solid story. Loved it!
Highlights:
// Dean being so protective of Sam during the whole episode. It wasn't just making stew for him at the beginning - watch how often Dean just grabs for Sam while they walk down that hotel hallway or how he puts his arm in front of his brother when they find Metatron. He was like a mother watching over a wobbly toddler. It was very sweet.
// Love how we got more insight into the brother's childhoods through Sam's emerging memories. Who knew they actually went to the Grand Canyon? Sounds like they were both too young to remember, which is why Dean thought they'd never been there back in Season 2, and thus preserving the canon timeline. Of course, it's sad once again to hear Sam put himself down because of the demon blood. Dean's right, it wasn't his fault plus he never fulfilled the plans that the YED had for him.
// Looks like a lot of fandom has been right and Sam probably is being cleansed of his demon blood. But what does that really mean? What state will he be in by the end of the 3rd trial? Will he still be Sam? Metatron doesn't exactly paint a rosy picture for what's to come. Will Dean have to decide whether they sacrifice Sam for closing out all the demons?
// I appreciate Edlund writing all the characters as smart cookies. We had Cas evading Naomi and her goons and hiding the angel tablet in his own body, Crowley manipulating Kevin with fake Sam & Dean demons and melting down an angel sword into a new weapon, and Kevin evading the fake Winchester brothers and sneaking the lost tablet half from Crowley. This episode didn't really show off the boys being smart, but that's okay. We already know they're smart. ;)
// So what happens to Kevin now? Do they even need him now that they know where Metatron is? Can Kevin ever go back to a normal life? I doubt it, but what's his purpose now? If he had the angel tablet he could decipher that, I suppose.
// Can I have next Wednesday now please?