Supernatural 7.10 Episode Reaction and meta
I started this episode completely unsure what to expect; I hadn’t looked at any spoilers, clips or anything so I was going into it completely unaware of what was going to happen. By the end of the recap at the start, I was already nervous. By the end of the episode, I was crying buckets. I want to start by saying that this episode was heart-breaking and at times shocking but it was also a perfect tribute to the character and to Jim Beaver. It gave Jim Beaver a chance to show off those wonderful acting skills of his and it gave Bobby a proper send off (if he really is dead - the ending was still a bit ambiguous, wasn’t it?)
The opening of the episode with the zooming out from the bullet hole was a very interesting, effective shot - it kind of set the tone for the whole episode with the idea of moving in and out of the narratives. The ‘Sam, is he dead? Is he dead?’ ‘Just drive, Dean’ made me cry. Honestly. It was the desperation in their voices and on their faces. Dean’s frantic driving, because nothing was going to slow him down when Bobby was at risk. And then zooming back in through the bullet hole into Bobby’s head. The ‘something bad is about to happen’ (foreshadowing the rest of the episode - we were told he was going to die right from the start, basically.) The blood dripping: ‘or something bad has happened already.’ This, here, telling us it’s too late?
What I loved about this episode was how much it showed Bobby as a brave hunter, a brave father, who was going to do whatever it took - even when he was in a coma - to help his boys as much as he could. He knew he was most likely going to die but he still went through all of that - all of the horrible memories - for them.
Speaking of the memories, the show did so well with these - there was a perfect miss of the horrible, gut-wrenching ones and the ones where we saw almost normal moments with the boys which are the things that he’s been living for.
The memories with his wife were heart-breaking; they really seemed to fill in the gaps that have been untold with this story before. The fact that the scene we saw happened so soon before the possession just made us realise how hard Bobby has had it even more.
The scenes with his parents just told us so, so much about Bobby - things that maybe we could have partly guessed at but I don’t think any of us could have imagined it as being quite that bad for him.
And the scene with Sam and Dean with the boys arguing about Chuck Norris vs Jet Li - the normal moments that we don’t often actually get to see in the show and we saw them through Bobby’s eyes which made them all the more special.
Bobby asking Rufus about his near death experience. Rufus got out and this is why show is so clever and cruel because my reaction was definitely ‘if he did, will Bobby?’
The scene with Bobby and Dean in the park, and the way current!Bobby looked when he watched it, was PERFECT. Dean, questioning why he’s being allowed to just act like a kid. Bobby, making sure Dean does get some sort of a chance to be a kid. The scene also provided a nice contrast with the ones with Bobby’s parents. And then, of course, there was the phone call to John (how I wish JDM had been in this episode!): he’s just a kid, John. They both are. They’re entitled. Yeah, I know I ain’t their Dad.’ This is…yeah.
I’m just going to point to this:
‘I adopted two boys and they grew up great. They grew up heroes.’
Because Bobby was a father to them and this is pure proud father right there. Plus, you know, he does all this for them, he goes through his very worst memory for them and he fights back for them.
The reaper - ‘cute. First time anyone’s pulled one on me while unconscious.’ That’s because it’s Bobby and he’s not just anyone, he’s Bobby and he was doing it for his boys. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. We were told this so many times throughout the episode and yet there was still hope there because it’s Bobby!
Bobby’s confrontation with his father about what a good Dad should have been was just amazing. ‘Kids aren’t supposed to be grateful; they’re supposed to eat your food and break your heart, you selfish dick.’
And then Bobby woke up and he wrote the numbers down and he called them ‘idjits’ and then he flatlined and then he had his last memory. Which was the best in his eyes, his boys just bickering about movie snacks and he’s watching them proudly and it could almost be the normal that he so clearly wants for them. Oh, Bobby.
Okay, so that’s Bobby’s narrative. And it was amazing. The second narrative of the episode, Sam and Dean waiting in the hospital, was just as brilliant. The concern reflected in the expressions of Sam and Dean - the constant tension between the logical ‘cases like this usually die’, ‘we need to brace ourselves…because this is real’ and the hopeful ‘he’s not going to die, it’s just one bullet’, the relief when they said he was showing signs of responsiveness, the look on their faces when he woke up and then the flat line and the devastation.
Side note: ‘because this is real’ - Sam’s realised it, he doesn’t want Dean to get his hopes up, the idea of something being real is important considering where his head is at right now and he still does the hand thing as though maybe it’d all be a hallucination.
Jensen and Jared did an amazing, amazing job. That scene with the guy asking about organ donation and Dean shouting at him, punching the picture frame was just SO Dean. The scene with Sam trying to make Dean be realistic was just SO Sam.
The scene with Dick was also very well done - I like the fact he was in this episode, it was good continuity wise and it also allowed us to see where Dean’s was at. Also, it made us hate him that little bit more because he was smiling and making snarky comments and Dean’s ‘we’re coming for you’ meant that little bit more because of it.
‘You wanna hug and say we made it through it when Dad died?’ DEEEAN. ‘We’ve been through enough’ OMG. This, because losing their second father is something that is going to tear them up so much.
Bobby wants to help. Doesn’t want to turn into a restless spirit. ‘Bobby, you’ve helped. You got handed a small, unremarkable life and you did something with it.’ This was possibly the best tribute line show could have given to Bobby.
The scene at the end with the flatline was beautifully done. The slow motion was perfect and, I don’t know about anyone else, but it made me think so much of the end of In My Time Of Dying when Sam finds John and the mirrors there were lovely.
The slightly ambiguous ending. At first, I totally thought that was it, he was dead but after looking through some posts and stuff about it a lot of people seem to think he may still be saved at the last minute. I hope so, I do, but if he isn’t then this episode was a very good way for him to go.
One more thing, I wonder what the numbers are. They must be very important. I love the way even though the episode was about Bobby the Leviathan storyline still played a massive (if subtle) part in it.