SPN Rewatch--Season 9
Rewatch of Supernatural 2022
Season 9
I must have used up all my agravation on season 8 because I didn’t find myself having a very intense reaction to season 9. It was kind of, well, you have to accept the mess of season 8 as canon, so all there is to do is see how they play it out in season 9…
173. I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here (9.01)-W: Carver/D: Showalter
Recap-lots of monster killing; last season’s highlights
Boys in the car, Sam concerned about angels falling, background shifts and Dean says ‘You’re dying, Sam’-it was all in Sam’ head
Sam suffered massive internal burns and oxygen deprivation to the brain
Dean is pissed off at ‘it’s in God’s hands’ from the doctor, goes to chapel to pray for Cas
Then he throws his prayer to any angel-a desperate but dumb move…
‘Just because you’re dying doesn’t mean you’re dead’
Sam to ‘Dean’: ‘You’re the part of me that wants to fight to live…’
Crowley’s in the trunk
Angel who comes to kill Dean doesn’t recognize the angel that rescued Dean
Cas’ grace is gone but he still hears angel radio (for now, anyway)
Hael built the Grand Canyon
Dean holy oil circles his rescuer angel before trusting him
Cas confirms Ezekiel is a good guy
Dean wants Cas to stop helping angels and protect himself
Dean has an angel blade
Dean kills Bobby in Sam’s brain
Smart Dean makes angel sigil while being beaten up
Death comes for Sam personally: ‘I consider it to be quite the honor to be collecting the likes of Sam Winchester. I try so hard not to pass judgment at times like this - not my bag, you see, but you...Well played, my boy’
Sam flatlines
Dean knows what Sam would say: ‘There’s no way in hell he’d say yes to being possessed by anything’
Dean bottom line fear: ‘There ain’t no me if there ain’t no you’
Hael has one very messed-up body after the car crash
Dean’s first intention is to tell Sam about Ezekiel but the angel scares him into keeping the secret out of expecting Sam would immediately eject the angel and die
Cas, you don’t put a suit in the washing machine!
Sam: ‘What the hell happened?’-Dean’s evasive answer (tactic he used when Sam was resouled, too): ‘What do you remember?’
Interesting to think of what Sam, Dean, and Bobby represent in Sam’s head. The part of Sam that wants to keep fighting, not just this death but always hanging in against the odds, is Dean, the big brother he has always looked up to and has internalized as going on no matter what and managing to come out of disaster. Bobby is the part of Sam that knows you can’t win every battle and that at a certain point you have to surrender to the inevitable. And the Sam construct is caught in the middle, the part of Sam that is totally him and trying decide what is right for him, which he decides is not only to die, but to make sure he can’t be brought back. We’re going to see this season that Dean sees Sam’s life as Dean’s total justification for existing, to the point of unapologetically overriding what he knows Sam would want.
174. Devil May Care (9.02)-W: Dabb/D: Bee
Recap: Abaddon, Zeke’s possession of Sam
Dean is lying on a picnic table in a scenic area-a bit odd…
A couple thousand angels fell
Dean re putting Crowley in trunk: ‘And then I thought to myself what would Same do?’-Sam: ‘I’d’ve stabbed him in the brain’
Appreciate show wrote Abaddon recreating her meatsuit in a logical way via spell
Dean is giving other hunters the heads’ up about the angels
Suits
Kevin pulls up social media dirt on female military person to get her cooperation-a demonstration of Smart Kevin but I hated that they made it sexual blackmail of a woman
Irv Franklin hunted a Siamese twin werewolf with Bobby
Tracy Bell began hunting when her family was killed by demons bragging about Sam freeing Lucifer so that would have been 5 years ago in season 4
If only Kevin would just ignore Crowley!
Crowley says Ms. Tran is alive
Dean walks into demon area carrying duffle but no weapon in his hand
Not exactly sure why they set up a defense in the building instead of just getting the hostages and getting out
Smart boys using cellphone as bait
Dean gives Tracy the car keys
Abaddon threatening Dean, he doesn’t blink, but that is pretty awful threat to possess him and make him watch her commit horrors
Zeke tells Dean he did the right thing for Sam
Dean tells Kevin he’s family and that Dean would die for Kevin
Sam: ‘I feel better than I have in a long time…we have trouble coming for us, but I look around and I see friends, and family. I am happy with my life, for the first time in forever...things are good’-Dean’s face
Setting up Sam for a big upset…
175. I’m No Angel ((9.03)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Hooks
Recap: Cas losing grace; falling angels; Hael; reapers; Zeke
Cas using Clarence as name
Sam is running for exercise again (Sam is a lot healthier in the beginning of the season than in later episodes which feels backward)
Bartholomew is another dick angel
Cas: ‘I’m finding that often people with the least to give are the most generous’
Suits
Dean doesn’t know Clarence from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’-out of character, he definitely would know that movie!
Woman in church to Cas: ‘Your lack of faith doesn’t cancel what I believe’
Now reapers are angels who can be used for strategic purposes
Very odd how the reaper April treats Cas-assuming he would stay all day by the restaurant she’s working in, then her kindness followed by initiating sex-there wasn’t a hint she was other than she appeared, usually viewers get a little hint…
Smart boys know they are being followed and capture the reaper
After listening to Cas’ explanation of being duped when he let his guard down with April, why is she convinced he is withholding information? (That is a pattern of all the angels-they never believe the victims they are torturing, which says a lot about them…)
Zeke heals Cas unasked
Dean quickly comes up with explanation that he made a deal with April to restore Cas, then killed her anyway
Zeke kicks Cas out because Zeke will be in trouble from the angels, though I think it’s more that he’s afraid Cas will figure out what’s going on with Sam and who Zeke really is-and the tangle of lies Dean has to keep track of gets bigger
I sincerely hope that when Dean kicked Cas out he gave him money and supplies!!!
176. Slumber Party (9.04)-W: Thompson/D: Singer
Recap: Charlie, history of bunker
1935-we get to see the bunker get powered up; it took 3 years to build
Dorothy comes in the bunker but we never see the MOL do anything to unlock the door for her
Kevin taking a break in a hotel in Branson
Dean bought ‘Game of Thrones’ season 1 for Sam
Sam doesn’t know why Cas left-Dean says it was Cas’ idea
Dean thinks to call Charlie to help with the MOL computer
Charlie’s been hunting
Dorothy has tried cutting off her head, burning her, holy water to kill the Wicked Witch and she cut out her tongue
Several nice visual transitions in the episode switching between present and 1935 by focusing on an object
Superfan Becky uploaded all the unpublished stories about Supernatural
Sam hasn’t read all the ‘Game of Thrones’ books yet
Sam: This isn’t our home. This is where we work’
Dorothy and the witch are the first case documented in the bunker
Sam refers to Charlie as ‘the smartest person in the room’ to Dorothy
Frank Baum was a MOL and wrote the Oz books for Dorothy but he revised them to make them more palatable to the public
Poppy bullets slow witch down
Continuity!-the key Dean finds is one we saw him find in the archives in season 8
Charlie dies jumping in front of Dean-Dean calls Zeke and tells him to bring her back
Zeke says he’s only at half strength and healing Charlie will make it take longer to heal Sam
Charlie comes back from Christmas with her parents in heaven-except we find out later that heaven is closed and she should only have gone in the veil…
Sam remembers Dean calling Zeke, Dean deflects
Dorothy to Charlie: ‘You’re not a real hunter until you’ve died and come back again’
Dean pushes Sam about why he hasn’t moved in-Sam: ‘I don't have any memories of home. And whenever I've tried to make a home of my own, it really hasn't ended well’
Apparently the Wicked Witch’s mind control is more powerful than an angel
Smart Charlie does not give warning before she stabs the witch (Finally someone who knows not to telegraph their intentions)
Apparently boys did not know there was a garage until Dorothy showed them-Dean parks Impala inside
Dorothy: ‘You have no idea how odd it is having a series of books written about you’-Sam: Actually I do know…’
Dorothy invites Charlie to Oz
Trying to fit Wizard of Oz into Supernatural could have been a disaster, but it actually worked.
177. Dog Dean Afternoon (9.05)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Andrew
Recap: Zeke/Sam; Zeke healing Charlie; ‘saving people, hunting things’; various monsters
Kevin is recovering from his trip to Branson
Dean wants Sam to take it easy, Sam says he feels good
Suits
Dean drinks the animal spell because ‘you got enough on your plate…you’re on the mend…you’ve got a sensitive stomach’ which puzzles Sam
Dean starts acting like a dog
Sam drives, Dean hangs out the window
It is creepy when the villain comes out of the wall camouflaged
Dean can smell cancer
Zeke heals Sam immediately
Smart Dean calls all the dogs he freed earlier
This episode contradicts last season’s canon that Dean hates dogs
Sam: ‘Why would he want to know what I was?’-Dean: ‘Who the hell knows? He was all jacked up…Trust me Sam, you got nothing to worry about’-Dean’s lies get deeper
178. Heaven Can’t Wait (9.06)-W: Berens/D: Spera
Recap: Heaven finding vessels; Crowley; Abaddon; Cas is human
I dunno, I kind of like the pink-all-over look…
Cas is using the name Steve
Dean makes fun of Cas trying to make it work in his job-not cool, Dean!
Sam to Crowley: ‘Our last encounter with Abaddon, she…was pretty terrifying. Scarier than you've been in years’
Dean discussing dating with Cas: ‘…my dates usually end when I run out of singles…’-I have no idea what that means
When Cas says he can’t help on the case because he doesn’t have his powers anymore-Dean: ‘I’ve never had powers’
This class of angels is Rit Zien
Aarrgh, why do the boys/Kevin keep giving in to Crowley’s machinations???
Kevin is surprisingly good at hitting a vein in his arm to draw blood
Dean tells Cas to go live a normal life, he and Sam will take care of the angels
Kevin says the falling angels spell can’t be undone-Dean says he’ll tell Cas but doesn’t-more deciding what is best for others…
Crowley is shooting up blood
Kevin translated the Leviathan tablet in just a couple days back in season 7…the demon tablet took longer because he only had part of it…but he has the whole angel tablet so what is taking so long (and later on why is it suddenly in a totally different language?) Also the way Cas’ boss asked him to come over was so artificially worded to make Cas and viewers think it was a date-no way would it have gone like that in real life
179. Bad Boys (9.07)-W: Glass/D: Parks
Recap: flashbacks from boys’ childhood; Zeke/Sam
The boys’ camp Dean was left at in spring 1995 when he was 16 is in Hurleyville NY
Sonny calls Dean ‘D-Dog’ (Sonny had a working phone number for Dean from 1995??? Or had Dean stopped by to see Sonny over the years???)
Flashbacks-Dad was hunting a rugaru (oops, in season 4 Dean didn’t know what a rugaru was); Dean lost the food money in a card game and got caught stealing bread and peanutbutter; Dad left Dean there for 2 months to teach him a lesson and shipped Sam off to Bobby’s, telling Sam Dean was lost on a hunt; Dean had bruises on his arms from a werewolf hunt; he won a Champion plaque in wrestling while at Sonny’s; he was not very experienced when Robin initiates a kiss; he was taking Robin to the first school dance he was ever going to
Young Dean says his dad does ‘boring stuff and Robin asks if Dean likes it: ‘No, not really. But my dad expects me to follow in his footsteps. So I've kind of gotten used to it’-Robin asks what he wants to do: ‘I want to be a rock star, but...I also really like cars…Cars are freaking cool as hell. Fixing them is like a puzzle, and the best part is when you're done, they leave, and you're not responsible for them anymore’-So Dean had his own moments of wishing for normal and for not being solely responsible for Sam
Dean had marked a sigil on his bedpost; Sam peels off 5 layers of tape to see Dean’s name
Dean destroys Timmy’s action figure and it turns out he didn’t need to-that made me sad
Dean to Timmy about letting his mom go: ‘Sometimes you got to do what's best for you, even if it's gonna hurt the ones you love’-Of course Dean can’t let Sam go…
Flashback-Sonny is willing to fight John so Dean can stay and Dean is torn until he sees Sam in the car
Present day Sam: ‘Why’d you ever leave?-Dean: ‘Never felt right…I couldn’t wait to get out of here’
I love the backstory we get about Dean, particularly that he wasn’t always 100% sold on following in John’s footsteps, and of course in the present he wants to deny he ever could have wanted anything else. However I have some issues with the Sam part of the backstory-from what we know of Sam’s anxiety as a kid over his family getting hurt while hunting (in previous flashbacks) there is no way that Sam would have been contentedly playing with an airplane in the car waiting for Dean. And present-day Sam would have remembered the time Dean was lost on a hunt as very traumatic. Plus that kid looked way too young for being 12. Also that was a weird present-day hunt.
180. A Rock and a Hard Place (9.08)-W: Klein/D: MacCarthy
Recap: Dragons, Jody, Crowley
Sam, who has been doing fine up to now, suddenly feels ‘like my battery can’t recharge’-how come now he’s having issues?
Jody has a case
Arrive in suits
Jody is laying off blind dates-reference to what happened with Crowley
We are supposed to find the idea of the boys making chastity pledges funny
They sign their real names
Why Sam is going celibate: ‘ I guess because every woman I've ever had relations with it hasn't ended well’
Dean: ‘Sometimes, it just makes you feel bad, you know? You're drunk. You shack up. Then, it's the whole morning thing. You know, 'Hey, that was fun.' And then, 'adios,' you know?...But, you know, when you get down to it, what's the big deal, right? I mean, sure, there's the touching and the feeling all of each other, my hands everywhere, tracing every inch of her body, the two of us moving together, pressing and pulling... Grinding. Then you hit that sweet spot, and everything just builds and builds and builds until it all just... ‘
Dean doesn’t answer Sam’s warning call
Jody: ‘You and Dean?’ That’s something special, don’t you think?’
Dean to Suzy: ‘I've seen a lot of awful things, stuff of nightmares, okay? But you -- you're the good dreams’
Smart Dean has a spare phone today
Jody punches the fussing girl to get virgin blood
Jody gets staked
Vesta to Sam: ‘Your liver is no good…You’re all duct tape and safety pins inside. How are you still alive?’-So what has Zeke been doing all this time???
Hero Jody pulls the stake out of herself, gets uncuffed, and stakes Vesta
Sam: ‘I feel like maybe I’m never gonna actually be all right…this is just the way I am’-Dean: ‘It’s not you, Sam’-he’s going to tell Sam the truth but Zeke tells Dean Sam is not ready yet and Dean guiltily tells Sam there’s nothing wrong with him, have a little faith
While trying to be coyly mocking of virginity and porn, Dean’s take on sex shows just how much he does appreciate the physicality of it and his comment to Suzy-you’re the good dreams-is very poignant when you think about how little Dean has in his life to just enjoy.
When Vesta stabs Jody it looks like the stake goes in her abdomen but she ends up with her arm in a sling???
181. Holy Terror (9.09)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Wright
Recap-Cas has no grace, is human; Kevin is prophet; angel situation
Dean starting to have concerns about Zeke-‘Are you hearing everything between me and Sam?’
Sam realizing he’s missing chunks of time, Dean blames fallout from the trials
Dean: ‘Would I lie?’-Oh Dean…
Suits, and Cas is there also in a suit (without his trenchcoat)
Metatron calls Zeke ‘Gadreel’ and begins his manipulation of him
Dean tells Cas that Zeke healed Sam but not that Zeke possessed Sam
More angel torturers who won’t believe their victims are telling the truth!
Smart Cas figures how to play the traitor angel to get free and then takes his grace
Gadreel says he’s with Metatron and then Metatron gives him a test-right there is where Gadreel could have made his stand if he was honorable and refused to kill Kevin
Upon learning that the angel in Sam cannot be Ezekiel Dean panics and presses Kevin for a spell to power down an angel to talk to its vessel without it hearing-Smart Kevin comes through
When Kevin asks Dean what’s going on Dean just says to trust him-Kevin: ‘I always trust you. And I always end up screwed’
Dean thinking he’s talking to Sam: ‘I got to tell you some stuff fast. It's gonna piss you off…Those trials really messed you up, like almost dead…Well, that messed me up, so I made a move about you without talking it over because you were in a coma…I let an angel in…I tricked you into saying yes. It seemed like the only way…I did what I had to do! You would've never agreed to it, and you would've died’
And it all goes to hell, Gadreel kills Kevin who didn’t deserve that and Dean realizes how badly he screwed up
Gadreel also takes all the tablets
I hate Metatron the most of all the big bads so far! He manipulates Cas and Gadreel (and everyone else) by offering redemption for things someone has done wrong, which is such a reprehensible thing to do. He is way worse than Crowley, even though Crowley is also a master manipulator, because Crowley doesn’t pretend he’s going to help someone without there being benefit to himself
182. Road Trip (9.10)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
Road So Far-season to date
Dean gives Kevin a hunter’s funeral then trashes the bunker table
Cas is back in his trenchcoat
Dean has to end the angel possessing Sam-Cas points out that will kill Sam-Dean: ‘Think I don’t know that?’
Cas: ‘You were stupid for the right reasons’
Metatron ‘flipped a switch’ so there are no more prophets
Dean and Cas need Crowley’s help to eject an angel
Gadreel/Sam took the Impala so they have to go in Cas’ car
Metatron sends Gadreel to kill his best friend Abner to prove his loyalty-again, Gadreel does even though the Abner has settled into a good life-Abner: ‘it's our second chance. We can forget our old hates, who we were…The key to happiness? It's getting the one thing you want most and never letting it go’-Abner just doomed himsefl
Cas is able to knock Gadreel out with one punch
Crowley poking needles into Sam’s head is horrible to watch (for me and Dean)
Gadreel has Sam in his head on a case involving ghouls and cheerleaders
Cas trying to comfort Dean: ‘I thought I was saving Heaven. I got played too’-Dean: So you’re saying we’re both a couple of dumbasses?’-Cas: ‘I prefer the word trusting. Less dumb, less ass’
Cas burns off Sam’s tattoo
Codeword ‘Poughkeepsie’ means ‘drop everything and run’
When Crowley is trying to get Sam to kick Gadreel out-Sam: ‘Did I kill Kevin?’-Crowley: ‘No, you didn’t, he did’
Crowley tells the boys and Cas to leave, he will handle Abaddon
Abaddon has an angel blade now
Crowley engages in war of words and vanishes
Sam: ‘I was ready to die, Dean’-Dean: ‘I know But I wouldn’t let you because that’s not in me’-and then Dean makes it all about himself: ‘…can’t you see, I’m poison. People get close to me they get killed, or worse. I tell myself I help more people than I hurt and I tell myself that I’m doing it all for the right reasons and I believe that. But I can’t -- I won’t drag anyone anybody into the muck with me, not anymore’
Dean says he has to find Gadreel alone and Sam says go.
For all that Dean is the hero and we are supposed to find how he keeps putting Sam above everything so admirable, honestly, he is so flawed in his inability to think he can’t survive without Sam and therefore believes he is entitled to do anything, including overriding Sam’s autonomy, to keep Sam with him. How much can this be connected to Dean having to live a year without Sam when he thought Sam was in the Cage and how much goes to their childhood? I keep going back to how Dean accepted Sam’s plan back in season 5 to put Lucifer in the Cage-Dean said Sam got to decide for himself. Four years later Dean has regressed badly and I don’t know if that is because of flawed writing or if his character really would have backslid into not being able to live without Sam
183. First Born (9.11)-W: Thompson/D: Badham
Recap: Abaddon; Sam/Dean fight; Metatron/Gadreel; Crowley saves Sam
1863 fight
Dean very scruffy for rest of season
Sam to Cas: ‘You’re a terrible liar’-Cas: ‘That is not true. I once deceived and betrayed both you and your brother’
Tara hunted with John Winchester and spent a weekend together
Crowley seems scared of Cain
Smart Dean figures out woman in photo is Cain’s wife from rings both have
Cas wants to involve Dean when he finds Gadreel’s grace leftover, Sam says no
Sam is ready to die if extracting grace will ‘fix’ things
As Cas withdraws Gadreel’s grace remnant he says Sam’s body is regressing to the state it was in before Gadreel-which could have been a serious problem except that Cas later heals Sam completely with one touch. Oddly Cas couldn’t do anything to heal Sam while he was undergoing the trials, and before the grace extraction he had been healing Sam in stages, and Gadreel couldn’t heal Sam all at once, but hey…
‘You’re good-but I’m Crowley’
Dean: ‘…you never give up on family ever’-Cain: ‘Where’s your brother now?’
Cas to Sam: ‘The only person who has screwed thing up more consistently than you is me’
Revision of Cain and Abel story-Lucifer was luring Abel, Cain offered himself to save his brother, but Lucifer made Cain having to kill Abel part of the deal
Cain: ‘The mark can be transferred to someone who’s worthy’-Dean: ‘You mean a killer like you?’
Cain: ‘When I call you…you come find me and use the blade on me’
Cas won’t let Sam sacrifice himself
Sam hugs Cas
Crowley to Dean: ‘Your problem, mate, is that nobody hates you more than you do. Believe me, I've tried’
Dean figures out that Crowley played him
184. Sharp Teeth (9.12)-W: Glass/D: Showalter
Recap: Kevin’s death; Dean/Sam fight; mark; Garth
Sam already on scene, in suit
Garth has been MIA for 6 months
Boys have been apart for 2 weeks
Sam driving a blue car
Sam sees Mark on Dean: ‘…he gave me this so that I could 86 Abaddon once and for all’
Dean lies to Sam about security camera footage so Sam will leave: ‘I told you we can’t hunt together. It’s for your own good’-Sam: ‘And after we find Garth and get to the bottom of this, I’m gone’
Garth: ‘…that's Dean. Now, he could start a fight in an empty house, but deep down inside, he's just a big ol' Teddy bear. And Sam here…can be a bit insecure at times but for good reason. Bless his heart’
Bess is second generation born wolf, her stepmother is 4th generation, her dad is a ‘bitten’
Reverend werewolf: ‘…I realized the road to revenge is a dark and lonely one, which you never get off’
Dean tells Garth about Kevin: ‘When he needed me I wasn’t there’
Super Dean throws knife and nails werewolf
Dean is back to giving orders to Sam, telling him to clean up the werewolf sheriff they killed and find Garth while Dean goes to check further
Smart Dean uses one of the werewolf’s jackets to mask his scent
Dean gives Garth his blessing: ‘You got something here. Okay?...Don't let that go…Besides, somebody's got to live to tell this damn story someday, and who better than you?’
Dean tries to apologize to Sam: ‘I was messed up…Kevin was dead…I know I took a piece of you in the process, and for that…Somebody changed the playbook, man, you know? It's like…what's right is wrong and what's wrong is more wrong, and...I just know that when.. When we rode together...’-Sam: ‘We split the crappiness…but something’s broken here, Dean…We don't see things the same way anymore…Back in that church, talking me out of boarding up hell? Or tricking me into letting Gadreel possess me? I can't trust you, not the way I thought I could, not the way I should be able to’-Dean: ‘We are family, okay?’-Sam: ‘You say that like it's some sort of cure-all, like it can change the fact that everything that has ever gone wrong between us has been because we're family…I'm saying, you want to work? Let's work. If you want to be brothers...Those are my terms’
185. The Purge (9.13)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Sgriccia
Recap: ‘something’s broken’
Sam: ‘This isn't about what I said the other day, is it?’-Dean: ‘Oh, about how we're not supposed to be brothers? No, don't flatter yourself. I don't break that easy’-Sam: ‘Good, 'cause I was just being honest’
Suits
Hi Donna!
Sam: ‘You’re not the only one whose dated someone bendy’
Dean knows what roofies look like
Dean to Donna: ‘Doug’s a dick. You deserve better’
Dean thinks they should kill the pishtaco: ‘You said that you wanted to keep things strictly business. Well, last I checked, we were in the business of killing monsters’-Sam: ‘I wanted to keep things strictly business between us. But I still have a heart. What if I had crossed paths with a hunter back when I was possessed by Gadreel? I could've ended up dead, too. Would I have deserved that? Would I have deserved to die?’
Dean: ‘About what you said the other day’-Sam: ‘I thought it didn’t bother you’-Dean: ‘…I saved your hide at that church…in the hospital. I may not think things all the way through but when I do, it’s because it’s the right thing. I’d do it again’-Sam: ‘And that is the problem. You think you’re my savior, my brother, the hero. You swoop in and even when you mess up you think what you’re doing is worth it because you’ve convinced yourself you’re doing more good than bad...but you’re not. Kevin’s dead, Crowley’s in the wind, we’re no closer to beating this angel thing, please tell me, what is the upside to me being alive?’ -Dean: ‘Are you kidding me? You and me, fighting the good fight together’-
Sam: ‘… you didn’t save me for me. You did it for you…I was ready to die, I was ready. I should have died. But you, you didn’t want to be alone. That’s what this boils down to, you can’t stand the thought of being alone. I’ll give you this much, you are certainly willing to do the sacrifice, as long as you’re not the one being hurt’-Dean: ‘Alright, you want to be honest, if the situation was reversed, and I was dying, you’d do the same thing’-Sam: ‘No Dean, I wouldn’t. Same circumstances, I wouldn’t’-The conversation that sends Dean spiraling and that, when push comes to shove, Sam doesn’t mean
186. Captive (9.14)-W: Berens/D: Wanek
Recap: Angel wars; Kevin; ‘No, Dean I wouldn’t’
Sam: ‘…the bunker is warded and sigiled from top to bottom. There’s no way something came in from the outside’-well, until the writers need something to get in…
Kevin: ‘Heaven's closed for business. Everyone who's died since the angels fell are just stuck inside the veil, waiting’ (Except for Charlie who made it to heaven briefly before Zeke called her back…)
Boys are by the iconic bridge when they head into the woods
Cas was Bartholomew’s commander-while serving together Cas was bypassed and Bart was given orders to kill captives because commanders knew Cas was to soft
Ms. Tran takes active part in her escape with Sam
Sam stops her mid-escape to tell her about Kevin, he doesn’t need words, his face tells her--heartbreaking
Bart offers Cas co-leadership if Cas will kill angel captive-(similar to the ploy Metatron used on Gadreel) but Cas won’t kill
Cas beats Bart in fight but won’t kill him-as he walks away Bart comes at him with blade and then Cas kills him
Ms. Tran kills her demon captor
Kevin: ‘Can you two... Get over it?...The drama, the fighting...It's stupid. My mom's taking home a ghost. You two...You're both still here’-Sam: ‘Of course’-Dean: ‘Yeah’-then Sam walks away after Kevin leaves
187. #Thinman (9.15)-W: Klein/D: Szwarc
Recap: Ghostbusters, Sam/Dean fight
Dean tells Sam he is going on a hunt, Sam: ‘Do you want me to come with?’-Dean: ‘Do you want to come?’
Suits
Ed and Harry
Boys argue over case, Sam thinks Thinman is a possibility, Dean thinks it’s a ghost
Dean recalls how Sam dressed up as Batman and jumped off a shed because he thought he could fly-Sam: ‘After you jumped first’-Dean: I was nine and I was dressed up like superman…everybody knows that Batman can’t fly’-Sam: ‘Well I didn’t know that. I broke my arm’-Dean: ‘…I drove you to the ER on my handlebars’-I sure hope John was in the vicinity to get to the ER before child protective services questioned why they were alone
Sam to Ed: ‘Secrets ruin relationships’
Ed thinks he did the right thing to save Harry from a boring life
Sam sits on chair backwards like Jared always does
Sam to Harry: ‘…there are things you can forgive and there are things you can’t’
The monsters are humans
Ed steps in front of Sam to stop the deputy from shooting, Harry shoots deputy to save Ed
Ed: ‘I’ve done all this crap for us. I don’t know why you don’t see that’-Harry: ‘No, you did this for you’
Harry to boys: ‘You roll with a guy so many years, you start to think he's always gonna be next to you. Like, when you're old and you're drinking on the porch, he'll be in that other rocking chair. And then something happens, and you realize that other chair has gone empty’
I remember when I watched this the first time I was annoyed by how blatant Ed and Harry’s story was being set up to parallel Sam and Dean’s issues, but honestly on rewatch I appreciated it more
188. Blade Runners (9.16)-W: Bucker & Ross-Leming/D: Ladouceur
Recap: Henry, MOL, Knights of Hell, Mark, Blade
Sam researching Cain and Abel
Crowley’s phone says ‘Not Moose’ for Dean
Crowley’s syringe is just like the MOL one Cas used to extract Gadreel’s grace from Sam-odd
Even messed-up Crowley on top of being double-crossed
Sam wants Dean to make killing Crowley a priority
Suits
Sam and Dean give Crowley an intervention
Crowley negotiates being allowed in the bunker proper
Crowley leads them to where he’d tracked Cuthbert Sinclair
Sinclair said Henry Winchester visited him
Dean gets a power rush from holding the blade
Dean is enthralled by the blade after killing Sinclair but Sam gets through to him
Sam: ‘…you said Crowley was only useful till we got the blade. We got the blade’ but before Dean can act Crowley gets the blade and vanishes
189. Mother’s Little Helper (9.17)-W: Glass/D: Misha Collins
Recap: Henry, Josie/Abaddon, Crowley shooting up, Blade
Dean obsessing over finding Abaddon, Sam wants to take a hunt, Dean tells him to go
Dean is drinking and feeling aftereffects from blade
When kid is rude to waitress in restaurant Sam tries to defuse the kid
Sam figures out the perpetrators are acting soulless
Sam calls Dean to help, Dean declines, staying in bar to drink but says he’s still researching
Dean gathers the pool table balls with his forearms-hot!
1958-Henry and Josie are on last assignment before initiation-Henry questions why they have to work in the field because it’s dangerous and he doesn’t want to leave his family (his wife is Millie)
Crowley to Dean: ‘How did you feel when you sunk the first blade into Magnus’ (Sinclair’s) head?...I think you felt powerful…virile…and afraid…Cain gave you his mark for a reason. Why are you fighting what you really are?’
Dean: ‘I kill for a reason, I’m nothing like Cain’
Dean stops hunter from going after Crowley, ostensibly to keep Crowley from killing the hunter-only it was a set-up by Crowley to test Dean’s loyalty
Dean to Crowley: ‘I’m all in no matter what the consequences’
Julia as old woman was dynamic character
Abaddon is turning souls into demons, has ‘factories’ all over
Smart Sam has exorcism on phone (Why don’t they do that more often???)
We are told why Abaddon is collecting souls now-but why was she collecting them in 1958???
Josie is now possessed by Abaddon (Abaddon killed the priest who was attempting to cure a demon, mentioned in 8.22-before she possessed Josie)
Sam returns to bunker and throws himself into finding Abaddon
190. Meta Fiction (9.18)-W: Thompson/D: Wright
Recap: Dean feeling pull of Mark; Metatron/Gadreel; Cas stealing grace
Metatron addressing camera-we find out later he is talking to Cas
Titlecard ‘Supernatural’ changes to ‘Metatron’
Dean is showering
Sam says there are more cases of soulless people being reported (and then this is never mentioned again)
Cas meets angel Hannah who wants Cas to lead them
Boys head out to meet up with Cas
Dean says they worked a case in Ogden, UT, and a kid helped them
Cas cites hunter signs on store when he asks for ingredients
Gabriel!
Boys track Gadreel and manage to have holy oil ring in perfect position to catch him
Gabriel urges Cas to step up to leading the angels
Left unclear if Gabriel is completely Metatron’s construct or if he is really still alive
Metatron uploads pop culture into Cas’ head
Metatron cites the Supernatural books as ‘The Winchester Gospels’
Metatron explains Cas is the villain in Metatron’s story
Dean sends Sam away from Gadreel when Sam loses it, tells him to find Cas
Gadreel says he knows how Sam really feels about Dean: ‘He would not trade his life for yours…he thinks you are just a scared little boy who's afraid to be on his own because daddy never loved him enough? And he is right, isn't he? Right to think you are a coward, a sad, clingy, needy... Pathetic bottom-feeder who cannot even take care of himself, who would rather drag everyone through the mud than be alone, who would let everyone around him die!’-Dean is about to kill Gadreel then realizes that is what Gadreel wants
Missed cellphone call trope (I should have been tracking those from the start…)
Cas gets Dean’s Death Star reference and boys are startled
Cas sees Mark and is concerned
Metatron: ‘…what writer doesn't love a good twist? My job is to set up interesting characters and see where they lead me. The by-product of having well-drawn characters is...They may surprise you. But I know something they don't know...the ending. How I get there doesn't matter as long as everybody plays their part’
(Metatron’s smugness infuriates me…)
191. Alex Annie Alexis Ann (9.19)-W: Berens/D: Pleszczynski
Recap: Vamp lore, Jody’s history
Jody to the rescue!
Alex was with the vamps for 8 years-she is 16
Another missed cellphone call
Dean does not think Alex worth saving: ‘She’s got more blood on her hands than most monsters we kill’
Jody going to save Alex
Vamps draining Sam leave Dean untied, think he is unconscious
Smart Dean doesn’t react to being kicked-then has dead man’s syringe ready
Dean beheads vamp with blunt edge of machete-‘Look at me, bitch!’
Dean to Sam: ‘I know. You wouldn’t have done the same for me’
Jody to Alex: ‘Don’t watch this, sweetheart’
Sam: ‘…it looked to me like you were enjoying it. Maybe too much’-Dean: ‘Killing things that need killing is kind of our job. Last I checked, taking pleasure in that is not a crime’
Man, they did a number on Jody-her face looks nearly as bad as Dean’s when Cas or Lucifer whaled on him, and her leg!
Jody is 100% the hero in this story
192. Bloodlines (9.20)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
No recap
Hi Chicago!
North Chicago University does not exist
Suits
‘No such thing as monsters’ to Ennis who doesn’t believe them
Shifters vs werewolves with ghouls and djinn undecided (what is the 5th family???)
Smart Ennis figures out the cop visiting him is not really the cop
Werewolves run Gold Coast, Djinn run South Side
Why didn’t any hunters know about the monster mafia in Chicago???
What has werewolf Violet been living on?
Ennis kills the human bad guy in cold blood without hesitating
Violet keeps secret that David’s brother kept her away when they were going to run away
Cas calls Dean with a lead on Metatron so the boys have to go, saying they’ll call in some other hunters
I remember not liking this episode, but upon rewatch, if you slide past the monster mafia idea, watching the outsider POV of the boys is fun. It would never have worked as a spin-off, though, way too soap-opera-like
Personal note: I live in Chicago and went to Union Station to watch filming late at night. Unfortunately the scene I watched them film never made it into the episode, but it was very cool to be there!
193. King of the Damned (9.21)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Pesce
Recap: angel war; Gadreel; Abaddon; First Blade and Mark; Hellhounds; Junkie Crowley
Scotland 1723-Abaddon uses spell to grab Crowley’s son Gavin
Cas has quite the information set-up with his troops who call him ‘commander’
Cas wants to keep his hands clean so he needs the boys to make Metatron’s angel talk
Crowley says he doesn’t care about Gavin
Sam turns interrogation of angel into a mind game instead of physically torturing and Dean plays along seamlessly (and it’s hysterical) thus keeping Dean from killing
Side note-Sam’s hair has ridiculous flippy ‘wings’ this episode
Cas and Gadreel have secret meeting which Metatron’s angels crash
Dean jonesing for the blade
Random hellhound attack for what reason? BTW boys hear hellhound-used to be only the victim could hear them…
Sam gets blade from corpse, doesn’t want Dean to touch it
Crowley says Poughkeepsie on phone to Dean as warning, Dean does not tell Sam
Cas getting tougher when discussing Metatron with Gadreel: ‘Just fighting fire with fire’
Once again Dean decides what Sam should do and sends him to the basement while he goes after Abaddon
Brutal kill of Abaddon
Boys do not kill Crowley-why???
Dean: ‘I didn't tell you about the warning because I knew exactly what you would do. You would make sure that you were right alongside me going in that room’-Sam: ‘You mean like we always do? Because we're actually partners in this and we watch each other's backs?’-Dean: ‘First time I touched that Blade...I knew. I knew that I wouldn't be stopped. I knew I would take down Abaddon and anything else if I had to. And it wasn't a hero thing. You know, it wasn't... It was just calm. I knew. And I had to go it alone, Sammy’
Sam realizing blade is fueling Dean’s bloodlust
194. Stairway to Heaven (9.22)-W: Dabb/D: Bee
Recap: first blade and effect on Dean; angel war; Cas’ stolen grace; Tessa
Sam sleeping in clothes, pulls gun on Dean from under pillow when woken suddenly
Sam wants Dean to leave the blade in bunker: ‘Magic that powerful comes at a price, and right now we don't know what that price is’-Dean says okay
Suits
Dean chews Cas out in front of his team-previously Dean has been pretty consistent about doing that kind of thing in private-effect of the mark?
Dean doesn’t trust Cas’ judgment: ‘Cas, I know you try to be a good guy, okay? I do. You try. But what you got here, this is a a freakin' cult’-has Sam go with Cas to find heaven’s door
Sam drives Cas’ car
Cas: ‘I’m not trying to play god. I’m just trying to get my people home’
Angel accuses Dean of being a killer, he goes ballistic
Dean stops Tessa from murder/suicide
Metatron’s plotting has deceptions within deceptions…
Angels take Dean’s angel blade before letting him interrogate Tessa
Dean stops Hannah from attacking Tessa
Hannah: ‘Is she telling the truth?’-Dean: ‘She thinks she is’
Dean grilling Tessa: ‘Why are you doing this? What would make a person want to pop their top, huh? I mean, look, I've been in bad shape. I have. But I have never been that damn low’-Tessa: ‘Castiel gave me a reason to die’-Dean: ‘See, that just doesn’t sound like the Cas I know’-Dean still believing in Cas
Tessa impales herself on first blade and Dean is accused of killing her
Metatron turns Cas’ army against him by telling about the stolen grace
Hannah demands Cas prove his loyalty to the angels by killing Dean but Cas can’t so the angels leave
Sam tries to call out Dean for bringing the blade after saying he wouldn’t but Dean is unapologetic: ‘I lied, but you were being an infant…That Blade's the only thing that can kill Metatron, and I am the only one who can use it...so from here on out, I'm calling the shots. Capisce? Look, until I jam that Blade through that douchebag's heart, we are not a team. This is a dictatorship. Now, you don't have to like it, but that's how it's gonna be’
Dean back to being on Cas’ side: ‘…you just gave up an entire for one guy’
Dean slashes Gadreel under guise of shaking hands
What a waste of Tessa’s character…I want to punch Metatron in the face so bad…
195. Do You believe in Miracles? (9.23)-W: Carver/D: Wright
Road so far-at ‘lay your weary head to rest’ Dean decapitates a vamp; at ‘but I flew too high’ we get angel grace
Start right where previous episode ended
Sam: ‘Something is wrong with you, Dean’-and they lock him in the dungeon
Dumb Sam leaves the blade on the library table and supplies in dungeon
Dean: ‘I can't turn it off! Ever since I killed Abaddon…it's like this whole...other thing. I get this high and I need to kill. I mean, I really, really need to kill. And if I don't’ --Crowley tells Dean he needs to kill to satisfy the mark or he will die
Sam does not want to use Dean as a weapon: ‘This is not a bomb we’re talking about. This is my brother’
Heaven’s door is in a playground
Dean and Crowley pursue leads on Metatron, meet up with Sam-Dean: ‘I’m not gonna explain myself to you’-Sam: ‘You tricked me, Dean. And now I'm the one who wakes up in the middle of the night seeing my hands killing Kevin, not you. So, please, when you say you don't want to explain anything to me, don't. I get it. And I also get that Metatron has to go. And I know you're our best shot to do that… But if this is it, we're gonna do it together’
Boys tell Crowley to get lost-opposite of when Dean said he’d go with Sam to kill Lilith if Sam dumped Ruby and Sam wouldn’t
Scene showing how easily humans are manipulated as they kill the angel warning them Metatron is a fraud
Ready to go after Metatron-Dean: ‘Listen Sammy, about…the last couple of months…’-Sam: ‘I know. So before we find something else to fight about…tell me are you ready to gut this bitch?’-and Dean knocks Sam out: ‘Sorry little brother, it’s not your fight’
Gadreel sacrifices himself
Weird yellow lighting on Dean’s face as he fights Metatron
Metatron keeps talking…
Metatron stabs Dean as Sam enters
Dean: ‘Listen to me. It’s better this way…The mark. It’s making me into something I don’t want to be’-Sam: ‘Don’t worry about the mark. We’ll figure out the mark later. Just hold on, okay?’-Dean: ‘What happened with you being okay with this?’-Sam: ‘I lied’-Dean: ‘I’m proud of us’-Watching this I flash-forwarded to the series finale and that made this even worse…
Smart Cas had the sound system on so Metatron’s gloating was broadcast all over
Sam has wiped the worst of the blood from Dean’s face when he lays him on the bed
Sam drinking in the library
Sam decides to summon Crowley: ‘You got him into this mess. You will get him out or so help me god’
Crowley: ‘Your brother…is summoning me as I speak. Make a deal, bring you back…When I suggested you take on the Mark of Cain, I didn't know this was going to happen…I might not have told you the entire truth. But I never lied…But there is one story about Cain that I might have forgotten to tell you. Apparently, he, too, was willing to accept death, rather than becoming the killer the Mark wanted him to be. So he took his own life with the Blade. He died. Except, as rumor has it, the Mark never quite let go…Open your eyes, Dean. See what I see. Feel what I feel. And let's go take a howl at that moon’
Dean’s eyes are black
Final thoughts on season 9-First off, I had to simply accept that season 8’s tearing down of the brothers’ relationship happened. Given that, my main reaction to this season is that a) the boys’ behavior makes sense and traveled a believable arc (more on that in a minute) and b) that wanting to strangle Metatron while watching his gaslighting of all the angels kept me interested and c) much as I hate Crowley, his arc was also fascinating to watch.
About the boys-season 8 started with Dean angry at Sam for abandoning him, Sam is ready to die to redeem himself, and ends with Dean desperate for Sam to disregard everything accusatory he’d said. Season 9 reverses that neatly, with Dean betraying Sam by letting an angel possess him, Sam severing his brotherly relationship with Dean, Dean getting himself in trouble, and Sam really not letting Dean go after all. (‘I lied’ was brilliant.) Dean’s fall into the pull of the Mark and Blade was paced and acted very well.
The monster cases were okay, not as compelling as they have been written in the past…we did get more Jody (yay!) and Charlie (double yay!), but the primary new characters were Abaddon, Metatron, and Gadreel, and the mytharc ran on a parallel track between Crowley’s troubles and Metatron’s machinations. I have never really cared about the angels, but Metatron was a riveting character even as I got so mad at how he played on Gadreel’s and Cas’ sincere desire to redeem themselves to luring them down that road that’s paved with good intentions. Likewise, I don’t believe Crowley is redeemable because of what he has done, but the dissolution of his character while presenting a ‘I have everything just as I planned’ façade was written believably. And the difference between Crowley’s version of hell and Abaddon’s was a fascinating contrast in leadership styles.
It is fascinating to contrast Crowley’s style of manipulation with Metatron’s. Metatron presents his ideas as something beneficial to his mark and minimal benefit to him personally. Crowley, on the other hand, is not pretending to have his mark’s best interests at heart-he is upfront that what he wants his mark to do will benefit him, but he presents it as mutually beneficial. Both of them are so smug, though!
I also have to say I was surprised at how much I cared about Castiel once he regained his angel status. His reluctance to be a leader again was completely believable given what happened last time he thought he was doing the right thing for heaven. His self-doubt felt real.
Season 9
I must have used up all my agravation on season 8 because I didn’t find myself having a very intense reaction to season 9. It was kind of, well, you have to accept the mess of season 8 as canon, so all there is to do is see how they play it out in season 9…
173. I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here (9.01)-W: Carver/D: Showalter
Recap-lots of monster killing; last season’s highlights
Boys in the car, Sam concerned about angels falling, background shifts and Dean says ‘You’re dying, Sam’-it was all in Sam’ head
Sam suffered massive internal burns and oxygen deprivation to the brain
Dean is pissed off at ‘it’s in God’s hands’ from the doctor, goes to chapel to pray for Cas
Then he throws his prayer to any angel-a desperate but dumb move…
‘Just because you’re dying doesn’t mean you’re dead’
Sam to ‘Dean’: ‘You’re the part of me that wants to fight to live…’
Crowley’s in the trunk
Angel who comes to kill Dean doesn’t recognize the angel that rescued Dean
Cas’ grace is gone but he still hears angel radio (for now, anyway)
Hael built the Grand Canyon
Dean holy oil circles his rescuer angel before trusting him
Cas confirms Ezekiel is a good guy
Dean wants Cas to stop helping angels and protect himself
Dean has an angel blade
Dean kills Bobby in Sam’s brain
Smart Dean makes angel sigil while being beaten up
Death comes for Sam personally: ‘I consider it to be quite the honor to be collecting the likes of Sam Winchester. I try so hard not to pass judgment at times like this - not my bag, you see, but you...Well played, my boy’
Sam flatlines
Dean knows what Sam would say: ‘There’s no way in hell he’d say yes to being possessed by anything’
Dean bottom line fear: ‘There ain’t no me if there ain’t no you’
Hael has one very messed-up body after the car crash
Dean’s first intention is to tell Sam about Ezekiel but the angel scares him into keeping the secret out of expecting Sam would immediately eject the angel and die
Cas, you don’t put a suit in the washing machine!
Sam: ‘What the hell happened?’-Dean’s evasive answer (tactic he used when Sam was resouled, too): ‘What do you remember?’
Interesting to think of what Sam, Dean, and Bobby represent in Sam’s head. The part of Sam that wants to keep fighting, not just this death but always hanging in against the odds, is Dean, the big brother he has always looked up to and has internalized as going on no matter what and managing to come out of disaster. Bobby is the part of Sam that knows you can’t win every battle and that at a certain point you have to surrender to the inevitable. And the Sam construct is caught in the middle, the part of Sam that is totally him and trying decide what is right for him, which he decides is not only to die, but to make sure he can’t be brought back. We’re going to see this season that Dean sees Sam’s life as Dean’s total justification for existing, to the point of unapologetically overriding what he knows Sam would want.
174. Devil May Care (9.02)-W: Dabb/D: Bee
Recap: Abaddon, Zeke’s possession of Sam
Dean is lying on a picnic table in a scenic area-a bit odd…
A couple thousand angels fell
Dean re putting Crowley in trunk: ‘And then I thought to myself what would Same do?’-Sam: ‘I’d’ve stabbed him in the brain’
Appreciate show wrote Abaddon recreating her meatsuit in a logical way via spell
Dean is giving other hunters the heads’ up about the angels
Suits
Kevin pulls up social media dirt on female military person to get her cooperation-a demonstration of Smart Kevin but I hated that they made it sexual blackmail of a woman
Irv Franklin hunted a Siamese twin werewolf with Bobby
Tracy Bell began hunting when her family was killed by demons bragging about Sam freeing Lucifer so that would have been 5 years ago in season 4
If only Kevin would just ignore Crowley!
Crowley says Ms. Tran is alive
Dean walks into demon area carrying duffle but no weapon in his hand
Not exactly sure why they set up a defense in the building instead of just getting the hostages and getting out
Smart boys using cellphone as bait
Dean gives Tracy the car keys
Abaddon threatening Dean, he doesn’t blink, but that is pretty awful threat to possess him and make him watch her commit horrors
Zeke tells Dean he did the right thing for Sam
Dean tells Kevin he’s family and that Dean would die for Kevin
Sam: ‘I feel better than I have in a long time…we have trouble coming for us, but I look around and I see friends, and family. I am happy with my life, for the first time in forever...things are good’-Dean’s face
Setting up Sam for a big upset…
175. I’m No Angel ((9.03)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Hooks
Recap: Cas losing grace; falling angels; Hael; reapers; Zeke
Cas using Clarence as name
Sam is running for exercise again (Sam is a lot healthier in the beginning of the season than in later episodes which feels backward)
Bartholomew is another dick angel
Cas: ‘I’m finding that often people with the least to give are the most generous’
Suits
Dean doesn’t know Clarence from ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’-out of character, he definitely would know that movie!
Woman in church to Cas: ‘Your lack of faith doesn’t cancel what I believe’
Now reapers are angels who can be used for strategic purposes
Very odd how the reaper April treats Cas-assuming he would stay all day by the restaurant she’s working in, then her kindness followed by initiating sex-there wasn’t a hint she was other than she appeared, usually viewers get a little hint…
Smart boys know they are being followed and capture the reaper
After listening to Cas’ explanation of being duped when he let his guard down with April, why is she convinced he is withholding information? (That is a pattern of all the angels-they never believe the victims they are torturing, which says a lot about them…)
Zeke heals Cas unasked
Dean quickly comes up with explanation that he made a deal with April to restore Cas, then killed her anyway
Zeke kicks Cas out because Zeke will be in trouble from the angels, though I think it’s more that he’s afraid Cas will figure out what’s going on with Sam and who Zeke really is-and the tangle of lies Dean has to keep track of gets bigger
I sincerely hope that when Dean kicked Cas out he gave him money and supplies!!!
176. Slumber Party (9.04)-W: Thompson/D: Singer
Recap: Charlie, history of bunker
1935-we get to see the bunker get powered up; it took 3 years to build
Dorothy comes in the bunker but we never see the MOL do anything to unlock the door for her
Kevin taking a break in a hotel in Branson
Dean bought ‘Game of Thrones’ season 1 for Sam
Sam doesn’t know why Cas left-Dean says it was Cas’ idea
Dean thinks to call Charlie to help with the MOL computer
Charlie’s been hunting
Dorothy has tried cutting off her head, burning her, holy water to kill the Wicked Witch and she cut out her tongue
Several nice visual transitions in the episode switching between present and 1935 by focusing on an object
Superfan Becky uploaded all the unpublished stories about Supernatural
Sam hasn’t read all the ‘Game of Thrones’ books yet
Sam: This isn’t our home. This is where we work’
Dorothy and the witch are the first case documented in the bunker
Sam refers to Charlie as ‘the smartest person in the room’ to Dorothy
Frank Baum was a MOL and wrote the Oz books for Dorothy but he revised them to make them more palatable to the public
Poppy bullets slow witch down
Continuity!-the key Dean finds is one we saw him find in the archives in season 8
Charlie dies jumping in front of Dean-Dean calls Zeke and tells him to bring her back
Zeke says he’s only at half strength and healing Charlie will make it take longer to heal Sam
Charlie comes back from Christmas with her parents in heaven-except we find out later that heaven is closed and she should only have gone in the veil…
Sam remembers Dean calling Zeke, Dean deflects
Dorothy to Charlie: ‘You’re not a real hunter until you’ve died and come back again’
Dean pushes Sam about why he hasn’t moved in-Sam: ‘I don't have any memories of home. And whenever I've tried to make a home of my own, it really hasn't ended well’
Apparently the Wicked Witch’s mind control is more powerful than an angel
Smart Charlie does not give warning before she stabs the witch (Finally someone who knows not to telegraph their intentions)
Apparently boys did not know there was a garage until Dorothy showed them-Dean parks Impala inside
Dorothy: ‘You have no idea how odd it is having a series of books written about you’-Sam: Actually I do know…’
Dorothy invites Charlie to Oz
Trying to fit Wizard of Oz into Supernatural could have been a disaster, but it actually worked.
177. Dog Dean Afternoon (9.05)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Andrew
Recap: Zeke/Sam; Zeke healing Charlie; ‘saving people, hunting things’; various monsters
Kevin is recovering from his trip to Branson
Dean wants Sam to take it easy, Sam says he feels good
Suits
Dean drinks the animal spell because ‘you got enough on your plate…you’re on the mend…you’ve got a sensitive stomach’ which puzzles Sam
Dean starts acting like a dog
Sam drives, Dean hangs out the window
It is creepy when the villain comes out of the wall camouflaged
Dean can smell cancer
Zeke heals Sam immediately
Smart Dean calls all the dogs he freed earlier
This episode contradicts last season’s canon that Dean hates dogs
Sam: ‘Why would he want to know what I was?’-Dean: ‘Who the hell knows? He was all jacked up…Trust me Sam, you got nothing to worry about’-Dean’s lies get deeper
178. Heaven Can’t Wait (9.06)-W: Berens/D: Spera
Recap: Heaven finding vessels; Crowley; Abaddon; Cas is human
I dunno, I kind of like the pink-all-over look…
Cas is using the name Steve
Dean makes fun of Cas trying to make it work in his job-not cool, Dean!
Sam to Crowley: ‘Our last encounter with Abaddon, she…was pretty terrifying. Scarier than you've been in years’
Dean discussing dating with Cas: ‘…my dates usually end when I run out of singles…’-I have no idea what that means
When Cas says he can’t help on the case because he doesn’t have his powers anymore-Dean: ‘I’ve never had powers’
This class of angels is Rit Zien
Aarrgh, why do the boys/Kevin keep giving in to Crowley’s machinations???
Kevin is surprisingly good at hitting a vein in his arm to draw blood
Dean tells Cas to go live a normal life, he and Sam will take care of the angels
Kevin says the falling angels spell can’t be undone-Dean says he’ll tell Cas but doesn’t-more deciding what is best for others…
Crowley is shooting up blood
Kevin translated the Leviathan tablet in just a couple days back in season 7…the demon tablet took longer because he only had part of it…but he has the whole angel tablet so what is taking so long (and later on why is it suddenly in a totally different language?) Also the way Cas’ boss asked him to come over was so artificially worded to make Cas and viewers think it was a date-no way would it have gone like that in real life
179. Bad Boys (9.07)-W: Glass/D: Parks
Recap: flashbacks from boys’ childhood; Zeke/Sam
The boys’ camp Dean was left at in spring 1995 when he was 16 is in Hurleyville NY
Sonny calls Dean ‘D-Dog’ (Sonny had a working phone number for Dean from 1995??? Or had Dean stopped by to see Sonny over the years???)
Flashbacks-Dad was hunting a rugaru (oops, in season 4 Dean didn’t know what a rugaru was); Dean lost the food money in a card game and got caught stealing bread and peanutbutter; Dad left Dean there for 2 months to teach him a lesson and shipped Sam off to Bobby’s, telling Sam Dean was lost on a hunt; Dean had bruises on his arms from a werewolf hunt; he won a Champion plaque in wrestling while at Sonny’s; he was not very experienced when Robin initiates a kiss; he was taking Robin to the first school dance he was ever going to
Young Dean says his dad does ‘boring stuff and Robin asks if Dean likes it: ‘No, not really. But my dad expects me to follow in his footsteps. So I've kind of gotten used to it’-Robin asks what he wants to do: ‘I want to be a rock star, but...I also really like cars…Cars are freaking cool as hell. Fixing them is like a puzzle, and the best part is when you're done, they leave, and you're not responsible for them anymore’-So Dean had his own moments of wishing for normal and for not being solely responsible for Sam
Dean had marked a sigil on his bedpost; Sam peels off 5 layers of tape to see Dean’s name
Dean destroys Timmy’s action figure and it turns out he didn’t need to-that made me sad
Dean to Timmy about letting his mom go: ‘Sometimes you got to do what's best for you, even if it's gonna hurt the ones you love’-Of course Dean can’t let Sam go…
Flashback-Sonny is willing to fight John so Dean can stay and Dean is torn until he sees Sam in the car
Present day Sam: ‘Why’d you ever leave?-Dean: ‘Never felt right…I couldn’t wait to get out of here’
I love the backstory we get about Dean, particularly that he wasn’t always 100% sold on following in John’s footsteps, and of course in the present he wants to deny he ever could have wanted anything else. However I have some issues with the Sam part of the backstory-from what we know of Sam’s anxiety as a kid over his family getting hurt while hunting (in previous flashbacks) there is no way that Sam would have been contentedly playing with an airplane in the car waiting for Dean. And present-day Sam would have remembered the time Dean was lost on a hunt as very traumatic. Plus that kid looked way too young for being 12. Also that was a weird present-day hunt.
180. A Rock and a Hard Place (9.08)-W: Klein/D: MacCarthy
Recap: Dragons, Jody, Crowley
Sam, who has been doing fine up to now, suddenly feels ‘like my battery can’t recharge’-how come now he’s having issues?
Jody has a case
Arrive in suits
Jody is laying off blind dates-reference to what happened with Crowley
We are supposed to find the idea of the boys making chastity pledges funny
They sign their real names
Why Sam is going celibate: ‘ I guess because every woman I've ever had relations with it hasn't ended well’
Dean: ‘Sometimes, it just makes you feel bad, you know? You're drunk. You shack up. Then, it's the whole morning thing. You know, 'Hey, that was fun.' And then, 'adios,' you know?...But, you know, when you get down to it, what's the big deal, right? I mean, sure, there's the touching and the feeling all of each other, my hands everywhere, tracing every inch of her body, the two of us moving together, pressing and pulling... Grinding. Then you hit that sweet spot, and everything just builds and builds and builds until it all just... ‘
Dean doesn’t answer Sam’s warning call
Jody: ‘You and Dean?’ That’s something special, don’t you think?’
Dean to Suzy: ‘I've seen a lot of awful things, stuff of nightmares, okay? But you -- you're the good dreams’
Smart Dean has a spare phone today
Jody punches the fussing girl to get virgin blood
Jody gets staked
Vesta to Sam: ‘Your liver is no good…You’re all duct tape and safety pins inside. How are you still alive?’-So what has Zeke been doing all this time???
Hero Jody pulls the stake out of herself, gets uncuffed, and stakes Vesta
Sam: ‘I feel like maybe I’m never gonna actually be all right…this is just the way I am’-Dean: ‘It’s not you, Sam’-he’s going to tell Sam the truth but Zeke tells Dean Sam is not ready yet and Dean guiltily tells Sam there’s nothing wrong with him, have a little faith
While trying to be coyly mocking of virginity and porn, Dean’s take on sex shows just how much he does appreciate the physicality of it and his comment to Suzy-you’re the good dreams-is very poignant when you think about how little Dean has in his life to just enjoy.
When Vesta stabs Jody it looks like the stake goes in her abdomen but she ends up with her arm in a sling???
181. Holy Terror (9.09)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Wright
Recap-Cas has no grace, is human; Kevin is prophet; angel situation
Dean starting to have concerns about Zeke-‘Are you hearing everything between me and Sam?’
Sam realizing he’s missing chunks of time, Dean blames fallout from the trials
Dean: ‘Would I lie?’-Oh Dean…
Suits, and Cas is there also in a suit (without his trenchcoat)
Metatron calls Zeke ‘Gadreel’ and begins his manipulation of him
Dean tells Cas that Zeke healed Sam but not that Zeke possessed Sam
More angel torturers who won’t believe their victims are telling the truth!
Smart Cas figures how to play the traitor angel to get free and then takes his grace
Gadreel says he’s with Metatron and then Metatron gives him a test-right there is where Gadreel could have made his stand if he was honorable and refused to kill Kevin
Upon learning that the angel in Sam cannot be Ezekiel Dean panics and presses Kevin for a spell to power down an angel to talk to its vessel without it hearing-Smart Kevin comes through
When Kevin asks Dean what’s going on Dean just says to trust him-Kevin: ‘I always trust you. And I always end up screwed’
Dean thinking he’s talking to Sam: ‘I got to tell you some stuff fast. It's gonna piss you off…Those trials really messed you up, like almost dead…Well, that messed me up, so I made a move about you without talking it over because you were in a coma…I let an angel in…I tricked you into saying yes. It seemed like the only way…I did what I had to do! You would've never agreed to it, and you would've died’
And it all goes to hell, Gadreel kills Kevin who didn’t deserve that and Dean realizes how badly he screwed up
Gadreel also takes all the tablets
I hate Metatron the most of all the big bads so far! He manipulates Cas and Gadreel (and everyone else) by offering redemption for things someone has done wrong, which is such a reprehensible thing to do. He is way worse than Crowley, even though Crowley is also a master manipulator, because Crowley doesn’t pretend he’s going to help someone without there being benefit to himself
182. Road Trip (9.10)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
Road So Far-season to date
Dean gives Kevin a hunter’s funeral then trashes the bunker table
Cas is back in his trenchcoat
Dean has to end the angel possessing Sam-Cas points out that will kill Sam-Dean: ‘Think I don’t know that?’
Cas: ‘You were stupid for the right reasons’
Metatron ‘flipped a switch’ so there are no more prophets
Dean and Cas need Crowley’s help to eject an angel
Gadreel/Sam took the Impala so they have to go in Cas’ car
Metatron sends Gadreel to kill his best friend Abner to prove his loyalty-again, Gadreel does even though the Abner has settled into a good life-Abner: ‘it's our second chance. We can forget our old hates, who we were…The key to happiness? It's getting the one thing you want most and never letting it go’-Abner just doomed himsefl
Cas is able to knock Gadreel out with one punch
Crowley poking needles into Sam’s head is horrible to watch (for me and Dean)
Gadreel has Sam in his head on a case involving ghouls and cheerleaders
Cas trying to comfort Dean: ‘I thought I was saving Heaven. I got played too’-Dean: So you’re saying we’re both a couple of dumbasses?’-Cas: ‘I prefer the word trusting. Less dumb, less ass’
Cas burns off Sam’s tattoo
Codeword ‘Poughkeepsie’ means ‘drop everything and run’
When Crowley is trying to get Sam to kick Gadreel out-Sam: ‘Did I kill Kevin?’-Crowley: ‘No, you didn’t, he did’
Crowley tells the boys and Cas to leave, he will handle Abaddon
Abaddon has an angel blade now
Crowley engages in war of words and vanishes
Sam: ‘I was ready to die, Dean’-Dean: ‘I know But I wouldn’t let you because that’s not in me’-and then Dean makes it all about himself: ‘…can’t you see, I’m poison. People get close to me they get killed, or worse. I tell myself I help more people than I hurt and I tell myself that I’m doing it all for the right reasons and I believe that. But I can’t -- I won’t drag anyone anybody into the muck with me, not anymore’
Dean says he has to find Gadreel alone and Sam says go.
For all that Dean is the hero and we are supposed to find how he keeps putting Sam above everything so admirable, honestly, he is so flawed in his inability to think he can’t survive without Sam and therefore believes he is entitled to do anything, including overriding Sam’s autonomy, to keep Sam with him. How much can this be connected to Dean having to live a year without Sam when he thought Sam was in the Cage and how much goes to their childhood? I keep going back to how Dean accepted Sam’s plan back in season 5 to put Lucifer in the Cage-Dean said Sam got to decide for himself. Four years later Dean has regressed badly and I don’t know if that is because of flawed writing or if his character really would have backslid into not being able to live without Sam
183. First Born (9.11)-W: Thompson/D: Badham
Recap: Abaddon; Sam/Dean fight; Metatron/Gadreel; Crowley saves Sam
1863 fight
Dean very scruffy for rest of season
Sam to Cas: ‘You’re a terrible liar’-Cas: ‘That is not true. I once deceived and betrayed both you and your brother’
Tara hunted with John Winchester and spent a weekend together
Crowley seems scared of Cain
Smart Dean figures out woman in photo is Cain’s wife from rings both have
Cas wants to involve Dean when he finds Gadreel’s grace leftover, Sam says no
Sam is ready to die if extracting grace will ‘fix’ things
As Cas withdraws Gadreel’s grace remnant he says Sam’s body is regressing to the state it was in before Gadreel-which could have been a serious problem except that Cas later heals Sam completely with one touch. Oddly Cas couldn’t do anything to heal Sam while he was undergoing the trials, and before the grace extraction he had been healing Sam in stages, and Gadreel couldn’t heal Sam all at once, but hey…
‘You’re good-but I’m Crowley’
Dean: ‘…you never give up on family ever’-Cain: ‘Where’s your brother now?’
Cas to Sam: ‘The only person who has screwed thing up more consistently than you is me’
Revision of Cain and Abel story-Lucifer was luring Abel, Cain offered himself to save his brother, but Lucifer made Cain having to kill Abel part of the deal
Cain: ‘The mark can be transferred to someone who’s worthy’-Dean: ‘You mean a killer like you?’
Cain: ‘When I call you…you come find me and use the blade on me’
Cas won’t let Sam sacrifice himself
Sam hugs Cas
Crowley to Dean: ‘Your problem, mate, is that nobody hates you more than you do. Believe me, I've tried’
Dean figures out that Crowley played him
184. Sharp Teeth (9.12)-W: Glass/D: Showalter
Recap: Kevin’s death; Dean/Sam fight; mark; Garth
Sam already on scene, in suit
Garth has been MIA for 6 months
Boys have been apart for 2 weeks
Sam driving a blue car
Sam sees Mark on Dean: ‘…he gave me this so that I could 86 Abaddon once and for all’
Dean lies to Sam about security camera footage so Sam will leave: ‘I told you we can’t hunt together. It’s for your own good’-Sam: ‘And after we find Garth and get to the bottom of this, I’m gone’
Garth: ‘…that's Dean. Now, he could start a fight in an empty house, but deep down inside, he's just a big ol' Teddy bear. And Sam here…can be a bit insecure at times but for good reason. Bless his heart’
Bess is second generation born wolf, her stepmother is 4th generation, her dad is a ‘bitten’
Reverend werewolf: ‘…I realized the road to revenge is a dark and lonely one, which you never get off’
Dean tells Garth about Kevin: ‘When he needed me I wasn’t there’
Super Dean throws knife and nails werewolf
Dean is back to giving orders to Sam, telling him to clean up the werewolf sheriff they killed and find Garth while Dean goes to check further
Smart Dean uses one of the werewolf’s jackets to mask his scent
Dean gives Garth his blessing: ‘You got something here. Okay?...Don't let that go…Besides, somebody's got to live to tell this damn story someday, and who better than you?’
Dean tries to apologize to Sam: ‘I was messed up…Kevin was dead…I know I took a piece of you in the process, and for that…Somebody changed the playbook, man, you know? It's like…what's right is wrong and what's wrong is more wrong, and...I just know that when.. When we rode together...’-Sam: ‘We split the crappiness…but something’s broken here, Dean…We don't see things the same way anymore…Back in that church, talking me out of boarding up hell? Or tricking me into letting Gadreel possess me? I can't trust you, not the way I thought I could, not the way I should be able to’-Dean: ‘We are family, okay?’-Sam: ‘You say that like it's some sort of cure-all, like it can change the fact that everything that has ever gone wrong between us has been because we're family…I'm saying, you want to work? Let's work. If you want to be brothers...Those are my terms’
185. The Purge (9.13)-W: Charmelo & Snyder/D: Sgriccia
Recap: ‘something’s broken’
Sam: ‘This isn't about what I said the other day, is it?’-Dean: ‘Oh, about how we're not supposed to be brothers? No, don't flatter yourself. I don't break that easy’-Sam: ‘Good, 'cause I was just being honest’
Suits
Hi Donna!
Sam: ‘You’re not the only one whose dated someone bendy’
Dean knows what roofies look like
Dean to Donna: ‘Doug’s a dick. You deserve better’
Dean thinks they should kill the pishtaco: ‘You said that you wanted to keep things strictly business. Well, last I checked, we were in the business of killing monsters’-Sam: ‘I wanted to keep things strictly business between us. But I still have a heart. What if I had crossed paths with a hunter back when I was possessed by Gadreel? I could've ended up dead, too. Would I have deserved that? Would I have deserved to die?’
Dean: ‘About what you said the other day’-Sam: ‘I thought it didn’t bother you’-Dean: ‘…I saved your hide at that church…in the hospital. I may not think things all the way through but when I do, it’s because it’s the right thing. I’d do it again’-Sam: ‘And that is the problem. You think you’re my savior, my brother, the hero. You swoop in and even when you mess up you think what you’re doing is worth it because you’ve convinced yourself you’re doing more good than bad...but you’re not. Kevin’s dead, Crowley’s in the wind, we’re no closer to beating this angel thing, please tell me, what is the upside to me being alive?’ -Dean: ‘Are you kidding me? You and me, fighting the good fight together’-
Sam: ‘… you didn’t save me for me. You did it for you…I was ready to die, I was ready. I should have died. But you, you didn’t want to be alone. That’s what this boils down to, you can’t stand the thought of being alone. I’ll give you this much, you are certainly willing to do the sacrifice, as long as you’re not the one being hurt’-Dean: ‘Alright, you want to be honest, if the situation was reversed, and I was dying, you’d do the same thing’-Sam: ‘No Dean, I wouldn’t. Same circumstances, I wouldn’t’-The conversation that sends Dean spiraling and that, when push comes to shove, Sam doesn’t mean
186. Captive (9.14)-W: Berens/D: Wanek
Recap: Angel wars; Kevin; ‘No, Dean I wouldn’t’
Sam: ‘…the bunker is warded and sigiled from top to bottom. There’s no way something came in from the outside’-well, until the writers need something to get in…
Kevin: ‘Heaven's closed for business. Everyone who's died since the angels fell are just stuck inside the veil, waiting’ (Except for Charlie who made it to heaven briefly before Zeke called her back…)
Boys are by the iconic bridge when they head into the woods
Cas was Bartholomew’s commander-while serving together Cas was bypassed and Bart was given orders to kill captives because commanders knew Cas was to soft
Ms. Tran takes active part in her escape with Sam
Sam stops her mid-escape to tell her about Kevin, he doesn’t need words, his face tells her--heartbreaking
Bart offers Cas co-leadership if Cas will kill angel captive-(similar to the ploy Metatron used on Gadreel) but Cas won’t kill
Cas beats Bart in fight but won’t kill him-as he walks away Bart comes at him with blade and then Cas kills him
Ms. Tran kills her demon captor
Kevin: ‘Can you two... Get over it?...The drama, the fighting...It's stupid. My mom's taking home a ghost. You two...You're both still here’-Sam: ‘Of course’-Dean: ‘Yeah’-then Sam walks away after Kevin leaves
187. #Thinman (9.15)-W: Klein/D: Szwarc
Recap: Ghostbusters, Sam/Dean fight
Dean tells Sam he is going on a hunt, Sam: ‘Do you want me to come with?’-Dean: ‘Do you want to come?’
Suits
Ed and Harry
Boys argue over case, Sam thinks Thinman is a possibility, Dean thinks it’s a ghost
Dean recalls how Sam dressed up as Batman and jumped off a shed because he thought he could fly-Sam: ‘After you jumped first’-Dean: I was nine and I was dressed up like superman…everybody knows that Batman can’t fly’-Sam: ‘Well I didn’t know that. I broke my arm’-Dean: ‘…I drove you to the ER on my handlebars’-I sure hope John was in the vicinity to get to the ER before child protective services questioned why they were alone
Sam to Ed: ‘Secrets ruin relationships’
Ed thinks he did the right thing to save Harry from a boring life
Sam sits on chair backwards like Jared always does
Sam to Harry: ‘…there are things you can forgive and there are things you can’t’
The monsters are humans
Ed steps in front of Sam to stop the deputy from shooting, Harry shoots deputy to save Ed
Ed: ‘I’ve done all this crap for us. I don’t know why you don’t see that’-Harry: ‘No, you did this for you’
Harry to boys: ‘You roll with a guy so many years, you start to think he's always gonna be next to you. Like, when you're old and you're drinking on the porch, he'll be in that other rocking chair. And then something happens, and you realize that other chair has gone empty’
I remember when I watched this the first time I was annoyed by how blatant Ed and Harry’s story was being set up to parallel Sam and Dean’s issues, but honestly on rewatch I appreciated it more
188. Blade Runners (9.16)-W: Bucker & Ross-Leming/D: Ladouceur
Recap: Henry, MOL, Knights of Hell, Mark, Blade
Sam researching Cain and Abel
Crowley’s phone says ‘Not Moose’ for Dean
Crowley’s syringe is just like the MOL one Cas used to extract Gadreel’s grace from Sam-odd
Even messed-up Crowley on top of being double-crossed
Sam wants Dean to make killing Crowley a priority
Suits
Sam and Dean give Crowley an intervention
Crowley negotiates being allowed in the bunker proper
Crowley leads them to where he’d tracked Cuthbert Sinclair
Sinclair said Henry Winchester visited him
Dean gets a power rush from holding the blade
Dean is enthralled by the blade after killing Sinclair but Sam gets through to him
Sam: ‘…you said Crowley was only useful till we got the blade. We got the blade’ but before Dean can act Crowley gets the blade and vanishes
189. Mother’s Little Helper (9.17)-W: Glass/D: Misha Collins
Recap: Henry, Josie/Abaddon, Crowley shooting up, Blade
Dean obsessing over finding Abaddon, Sam wants to take a hunt, Dean tells him to go
Dean is drinking and feeling aftereffects from blade
When kid is rude to waitress in restaurant Sam tries to defuse the kid
Sam figures out the perpetrators are acting soulless
Sam calls Dean to help, Dean declines, staying in bar to drink but says he’s still researching
Dean gathers the pool table balls with his forearms-hot!
1958-Henry and Josie are on last assignment before initiation-Henry questions why they have to work in the field because it’s dangerous and he doesn’t want to leave his family (his wife is Millie)
Crowley to Dean: ‘How did you feel when you sunk the first blade into Magnus’ (Sinclair’s) head?...I think you felt powerful…virile…and afraid…Cain gave you his mark for a reason. Why are you fighting what you really are?’
Dean: ‘I kill for a reason, I’m nothing like Cain’
Dean stops hunter from going after Crowley, ostensibly to keep Crowley from killing the hunter-only it was a set-up by Crowley to test Dean’s loyalty
Dean to Crowley: ‘I’m all in no matter what the consequences’
Julia as old woman was dynamic character
Abaddon is turning souls into demons, has ‘factories’ all over
Smart Sam has exorcism on phone (Why don’t they do that more often???)
We are told why Abaddon is collecting souls now-but why was she collecting them in 1958???
Josie is now possessed by Abaddon (Abaddon killed the priest who was attempting to cure a demon, mentioned in 8.22-before she possessed Josie)
Sam returns to bunker and throws himself into finding Abaddon
190. Meta Fiction (9.18)-W: Thompson/D: Wright
Recap: Dean feeling pull of Mark; Metatron/Gadreel; Cas stealing grace
Metatron addressing camera-we find out later he is talking to Cas
Titlecard ‘Supernatural’ changes to ‘Metatron’
Dean is showering
Sam says there are more cases of soulless people being reported (and then this is never mentioned again)
Cas meets angel Hannah who wants Cas to lead them
Boys head out to meet up with Cas
Dean says they worked a case in Ogden, UT, and a kid helped them
Cas cites hunter signs on store when he asks for ingredients
Gabriel!
Boys track Gadreel and manage to have holy oil ring in perfect position to catch him
Gabriel urges Cas to step up to leading the angels
Left unclear if Gabriel is completely Metatron’s construct or if he is really still alive
Metatron uploads pop culture into Cas’ head
Metatron cites the Supernatural books as ‘The Winchester Gospels’
Metatron explains Cas is the villain in Metatron’s story
Dean sends Sam away from Gadreel when Sam loses it, tells him to find Cas
Gadreel says he knows how Sam really feels about Dean: ‘He would not trade his life for yours…he thinks you are just a scared little boy who's afraid to be on his own because daddy never loved him enough? And he is right, isn't he? Right to think you are a coward, a sad, clingy, needy... Pathetic bottom-feeder who cannot even take care of himself, who would rather drag everyone through the mud than be alone, who would let everyone around him die!’-Dean is about to kill Gadreel then realizes that is what Gadreel wants
Missed cellphone call trope (I should have been tracking those from the start…)
Cas gets Dean’s Death Star reference and boys are startled
Cas sees Mark and is concerned
Metatron: ‘…what writer doesn't love a good twist? My job is to set up interesting characters and see where they lead me. The by-product of having well-drawn characters is...They may surprise you. But I know something they don't know...the ending. How I get there doesn't matter as long as everybody plays their part’
(Metatron’s smugness infuriates me…)
191. Alex Annie Alexis Ann (9.19)-W: Berens/D: Pleszczynski
Recap: Vamp lore, Jody’s history
Jody to the rescue!
Alex was with the vamps for 8 years-she is 16
Another missed cellphone call
Dean does not think Alex worth saving: ‘She’s got more blood on her hands than most monsters we kill’
Jody going to save Alex
Vamps draining Sam leave Dean untied, think he is unconscious
Smart Dean doesn’t react to being kicked-then has dead man’s syringe ready
Dean beheads vamp with blunt edge of machete-‘Look at me, bitch!’
Dean to Sam: ‘I know. You wouldn’t have done the same for me’
Jody to Alex: ‘Don’t watch this, sweetheart’
Sam: ‘…it looked to me like you were enjoying it. Maybe too much’-Dean: ‘Killing things that need killing is kind of our job. Last I checked, taking pleasure in that is not a crime’
Man, they did a number on Jody-her face looks nearly as bad as Dean’s when Cas or Lucifer whaled on him, and her leg!
Jody is 100% the hero in this story
192. Bloodlines (9.20)-W: Dabb/D: Singer
No recap
Hi Chicago!
North Chicago University does not exist
Suits
‘No such thing as monsters’ to Ennis who doesn’t believe them
Shifters vs werewolves with ghouls and djinn undecided (what is the 5th family???)
Smart Ennis figures out the cop visiting him is not really the cop
Werewolves run Gold Coast, Djinn run South Side
Why didn’t any hunters know about the monster mafia in Chicago???
What has werewolf Violet been living on?
Ennis kills the human bad guy in cold blood without hesitating
Violet keeps secret that David’s brother kept her away when they were going to run away
Cas calls Dean with a lead on Metatron so the boys have to go, saying they’ll call in some other hunters
I remember not liking this episode, but upon rewatch, if you slide past the monster mafia idea, watching the outsider POV of the boys is fun. It would never have worked as a spin-off, though, way too soap-opera-like
Personal note: I live in Chicago and went to Union Station to watch filming late at night. Unfortunately the scene I watched them film never made it into the episode, but it was very cool to be there!
193. King of the Damned (9.21)-W: Buckner & Ross-Leming/D: Pesce
Recap: angel war; Gadreel; Abaddon; First Blade and Mark; Hellhounds; Junkie Crowley
Scotland 1723-Abaddon uses spell to grab Crowley’s son Gavin
Cas has quite the information set-up with his troops who call him ‘commander’
Cas wants to keep his hands clean so he needs the boys to make Metatron’s angel talk
Crowley says he doesn’t care about Gavin
Sam turns interrogation of angel into a mind game instead of physically torturing and Dean plays along seamlessly (and it’s hysterical) thus keeping Dean from killing
Side note-Sam’s hair has ridiculous flippy ‘wings’ this episode
Cas and Gadreel have secret meeting which Metatron’s angels crash
Dean jonesing for the blade
Random hellhound attack for what reason? BTW boys hear hellhound-used to be only the victim could hear them…
Sam gets blade from corpse, doesn’t want Dean to touch it
Crowley says Poughkeepsie on phone to Dean as warning, Dean does not tell Sam
Cas getting tougher when discussing Metatron with Gadreel: ‘Just fighting fire with fire’
Once again Dean decides what Sam should do and sends him to the basement while he goes after Abaddon
Brutal kill of Abaddon
Boys do not kill Crowley-why???
Dean: ‘I didn't tell you about the warning because I knew exactly what you would do. You would make sure that you were right alongside me going in that room’-Sam: ‘You mean like we always do? Because we're actually partners in this and we watch each other's backs?’-Dean: ‘First time I touched that Blade...I knew. I knew that I wouldn't be stopped. I knew I would take down Abaddon and anything else if I had to. And it wasn't a hero thing. You know, it wasn't... It was just calm. I knew. And I had to go it alone, Sammy’
Sam realizing blade is fueling Dean’s bloodlust
194. Stairway to Heaven (9.22)-W: Dabb/D: Bee
Recap: first blade and effect on Dean; angel war; Cas’ stolen grace; Tessa
Sam sleeping in clothes, pulls gun on Dean from under pillow when woken suddenly
Sam wants Dean to leave the blade in bunker: ‘Magic that powerful comes at a price, and right now we don't know what that price is’-Dean says okay
Suits
Dean chews Cas out in front of his team-previously Dean has been pretty consistent about doing that kind of thing in private-effect of the mark?
Dean doesn’t trust Cas’ judgment: ‘Cas, I know you try to be a good guy, okay? I do. You try. But what you got here, this is a a freakin' cult’-has Sam go with Cas to find heaven’s door
Sam drives Cas’ car
Cas: ‘I’m not trying to play god. I’m just trying to get my people home’
Angel accuses Dean of being a killer, he goes ballistic
Dean stops Tessa from murder/suicide
Metatron’s plotting has deceptions within deceptions…
Angels take Dean’s angel blade before letting him interrogate Tessa
Dean stops Hannah from attacking Tessa
Hannah: ‘Is she telling the truth?’-Dean: ‘She thinks she is’
Dean grilling Tessa: ‘Why are you doing this? What would make a person want to pop their top, huh? I mean, look, I've been in bad shape. I have. But I have never been that damn low’-Tessa: ‘Castiel gave me a reason to die’-Dean: ‘See, that just doesn’t sound like the Cas I know’-Dean still believing in Cas
Tessa impales herself on first blade and Dean is accused of killing her
Metatron turns Cas’ army against him by telling about the stolen grace
Hannah demands Cas prove his loyalty to the angels by killing Dean but Cas can’t so the angels leave
Sam tries to call out Dean for bringing the blade after saying he wouldn’t but Dean is unapologetic: ‘I lied, but you were being an infant…That Blade's the only thing that can kill Metatron, and I am the only one who can use it...so from here on out, I'm calling the shots. Capisce? Look, until I jam that Blade through that douchebag's heart, we are not a team. This is a dictatorship. Now, you don't have to like it, but that's how it's gonna be’
Dean back to being on Cas’ side: ‘…you just gave up an entire for one guy’
Dean slashes Gadreel under guise of shaking hands
What a waste of Tessa’s character…I want to punch Metatron in the face so bad…
195. Do You believe in Miracles? (9.23)-W: Carver/D: Wright
Road so far-at ‘lay your weary head to rest’ Dean decapitates a vamp; at ‘but I flew too high’ we get angel grace
Start right where previous episode ended
Sam: ‘Something is wrong with you, Dean’-and they lock him in the dungeon
Dumb Sam leaves the blade on the library table and supplies in dungeon
Dean: ‘I can't turn it off! Ever since I killed Abaddon…it's like this whole...other thing. I get this high and I need to kill. I mean, I really, really need to kill. And if I don't’ --Crowley tells Dean he needs to kill to satisfy the mark or he will die
Sam does not want to use Dean as a weapon: ‘This is not a bomb we’re talking about. This is my brother’
Heaven’s door is in a playground
Dean and Crowley pursue leads on Metatron, meet up with Sam-Dean: ‘I’m not gonna explain myself to you’-Sam: ‘You tricked me, Dean. And now I'm the one who wakes up in the middle of the night seeing my hands killing Kevin, not you. So, please, when you say you don't want to explain anything to me, don't. I get it. And I also get that Metatron has to go. And I know you're our best shot to do that… But if this is it, we're gonna do it together’
Boys tell Crowley to get lost-opposite of when Dean said he’d go with Sam to kill Lilith if Sam dumped Ruby and Sam wouldn’t
Scene showing how easily humans are manipulated as they kill the angel warning them Metatron is a fraud
Ready to go after Metatron-Dean: ‘Listen Sammy, about…the last couple of months…’-Sam: ‘I know. So before we find something else to fight about…tell me are you ready to gut this bitch?’-and Dean knocks Sam out: ‘Sorry little brother, it’s not your fight’
Gadreel sacrifices himself
Weird yellow lighting on Dean’s face as he fights Metatron
Metatron keeps talking…
Metatron stabs Dean as Sam enters
Dean: ‘Listen to me. It’s better this way…The mark. It’s making me into something I don’t want to be’-Sam: ‘Don’t worry about the mark. We’ll figure out the mark later. Just hold on, okay?’-Dean: ‘What happened with you being okay with this?’-Sam: ‘I lied’-Dean: ‘I’m proud of us’-Watching this I flash-forwarded to the series finale and that made this even worse…
Smart Cas had the sound system on so Metatron’s gloating was broadcast all over
Sam has wiped the worst of the blood from Dean’s face when he lays him on the bed
Sam drinking in the library
Sam decides to summon Crowley: ‘You got him into this mess. You will get him out or so help me god’
Crowley: ‘Your brother…is summoning me as I speak. Make a deal, bring you back…When I suggested you take on the Mark of Cain, I didn't know this was going to happen…I might not have told you the entire truth. But I never lied…But there is one story about Cain that I might have forgotten to tell you. Apparently, he, too, was willing to accept death, rather than becoming the killer the Mark wanted him to be. So he took his own life with the Blade. He died. Except, as rumor has it, the Mark never quite let go…Open your eyes, Dean. See what I see. Feel what I feel. And let's go take a howl at that moon’
Dean’s eyes are black
Final thoughts on season 9-First off, I had to simply accept that season 8’s tearing down of the brothers’ relationship happened. Given that, my main reaction to this season is that a) the boys’ behavior makes sense and traveled a believable arc (more on that in a minute) and b) that wanting to strangle Metatron while watching his gaslighting of all the angels kept me interested and c) much as I hate Crowley, his arc was also fascinating to watch.
About the boys-season 8 started with Dean angry at Sam for abandoning him, Sam is ready to die to redeem himself, and ends with Dean desperate for Sam to disregard everything accusatory he’d said. Season 9 reverses that neatly, with Dean betraying Sam by letting an angel possess him, Sam severing his brotherly relationship with Dean, Dean getting himself in trouble, and Sam really not letting Dean go after all. (‘I lied’ was brilliant.) Dean’s fall into the pull of the Mark and Blade was paced and acted very well.
The monster cases were okay, not as compelling as they have been written in the past…we did get more Jody (yay!) and Charlie (double yay!), but the primary new characters were Abaddon, Metatron, and Gadreel, and the mytharc ran on a parallel track between Crowley’s troubles and Metatron’s machinations. I have never really cared about the angels, but Metatron was a riveting character even as I got so mad at how he played on Gadreel’s and Cas’ sincere desire to redeem themselves to luring them down that road that’s paved with good intentions. Likewise, I don’t believe Crowley is redeemable because of what he has done, but the dissolution of his character while presenting a ‘I have everything just as I planned’ façade was written believably. And the difference between Crowley’s version of hell and Abaddon’s was a fascinating contrast in leadership styles.
It is fascinating to contrast Crowley’s style of manipulation with Metatron’s. Metatron presents his ideas as something beneficial to his mark and minimal benefit to him personally. Crowley, on the other hand, is not pretending to have his mark’s best interests at heart-he is upfront that what he wants his mark to do will benefit him, but he presents it as mutually beneficial. Both of them are so smug, though!
I also have to say I was surprised at how much I cared about Castiel once he regained his angel status. His reluctance to be a leader again was completely believable given what happened last time he thought he was doing the right thing for heaven. His self-doubt felt real.