SPN Rewatch #22
9.21 King of the Damned
I was on board with 7/8 of this episode.
We did know Crowley had a son, so as long as I don't think about the paradox of Rufus recovering Gavin's ring from a museum displaying artifacts of a shipwreck, I can be cool with Abaddon using Gavin as leverage. And the scenes with him and Crowley are pretty funny in an authentic way: Can you cook a pigeon on it?
Cas calls the boys to help--the call they got at the end of the previous episode. When alone, Cas asks Sam about what Gadreel's presence felt like. We understand shortly that Cas is trying to determine if Gadreel might respond to an appeal to honor, but when it happens it feels odd. (And okay, I'm shallow. The way Jared's hair was sticking out during that conversation was very distracting, as in 'why doesn't someone fix his hair before they shoot?' I know it's easy to appreciate when Jared's hair looks good, but does anyone else get annoyed at how often it is sticking out weirdly in scenes?)
The interrogation of the captured angel--major props to Sam for quick thinking and figuring out how to get the angel to talk, and yay for Dean immediately going with Sam. Another genuinely funny scene!
The two Cas/Gadreel meetings are necessary inserts to set up the rest of the season--Cas amps up the doubts Gadreel is fighting. More master psychology from Cas? Compare Cas' earnestness with Metatron's sliminess as he is trying to get Gadreel to help him--is there any doubt Cas genuinely is speaking what he believes?
Though maybe Cas is also drawing on some of the archetypes in the massive book-and-movie download Metatron gave him to figure out how to flip Gadreel. That would be delicious irony...
Abaddon thinks she has everything ready to take down Dean and then Crowley. Crowley using Poughkeepsie--another great continuity bit from the writers. Boys park the car and then Dean sends Sam to check the basement.
I know he had to do it. But seriously, could he have used a less klutzy distraction? Go in the place together and suggest separating with one of those silent handwaves, then duck up to the penthouse. Oh well.
Abaddon vs. Dean. I. Loved. This.
The struggle--the power--the breaking free--the killing rage--I felt it all. I was transfixed by the image of Abaddon suspended in mid-air on the Blade. I cheered for the end of Abaddon--and feared for what would become of Dean now that he had triumphed in blood.
Sam can still bring him back. But he's got to be feeling sick inside with worry over what's happening to Dean.
And then the WTF part--a nice leisurely friendly conversation with Crowley? WHY DIDN'T THEY KILL HIM RIGHT THEN? I know, no one for Dean to howl at the moon with in season 10...
Seriously, though, wouldn't Sam and Dean at least have discussed it? Dean all for using the blade again, Sam decides to let Crowley go because he doesn't want Dean using it again so soon because Sam's afraid of what it's doing to Dean. That would have been in character and made sense, not this relaxed chit-chat about what has to happen to Gavin. If they kill Crowley his opinion on Gavin's destiny is moot!
So close to a great episode...
----------------------------------------------
I just sat through the last two episodes of season 9 back-to-back.
I am limp. Exhausted. And heartbroken.
-----------------------------------------------
9.22 Stairway to Heaven
I am wondering if the reason SPN has increased its fanbase dramatically this year is because new viewers can watch and process entire seasons in one go. I am finding that watching these last 3 episodes together makes me feel very differently about them than waiting a week, picking it apart for clues to what is going to happen next, and not liking when my way of having it play out isn't the way it goes. It's like reading a book, where you tear through the chapters to see where the author is taking you instead of pausing to insert your own interpretations in between chapters. The latter is exactly what fandom does. But I'm finding that I appreciate the source for itself better when 'read' without interruption.
Dean pretends to acquiesce to Sam's request to leave the the Blade behind when they go to help Cas. I confess I thought that was a not-very-smart request, since there is no way to know if they would be encountering Metatron while with Cas.
I would love to know what sleight of hand Dean used to grab the Blade after he clearly left it on the table...although that can be ascribed to his 'Batman' skills...
Metatron's smugness makes my teeth crawl. He believes his own PR...his own superiority...his ultimate fail was sooooooooooo satisfying...but I am ahead of myself, I have to endure his hubris for the rest of this episode and all but the very end of the next...He's worse than Crowley who knows enough to respect the Winchesters even as he smarts off at them...
Dean doubting Cas' innocence in the bombings hurts...and yet it is believable that Dean would question it--there is a long history of Cas screwing up while trying to achieve a noble goal. A sign of how messed up Dean is with the Mark, though, is that he starts accusing Cas in front of his angels--it has been the Winchester style from day one to pull someone aside if they want to question something or rebuke them. And Dean totally disregards years of doing this to blow up in front of an audience.
I liked the bowling alley angel. And I have to admit Metatron's double agent suicide squad was a masterful idea. I assume that he 'appeared' to his converts disguised as Cas in order to get them to play along--Tessa was very clear that Cas had asked her to be a suicide bomber...Metatron bragged about all the other points of his plan, he could have just added that fact to avoid making the audience wonder why Tessa and the others were adamant they were doing what Cas told them to...
Dean's interrogation of the angel Flagstaff, Tessa and Oren's friend, is truly scary when he goes off on her--portent of what is to come...
Sam and Cas find the fake portal to heaven...it was a little weird, but on the other hand I could see Metatron thinking how the party vibe he'd left Cas was so ironically fitting, a subtle insult to what a naive loser Metatron considers Cas because Cas does not try to weave clever stories about his actions, Cas just does what he thinks he should.
I appreciated that Dean gave us the explanation of how he found Tessa--GPS on the ambulance she borrowed. Tessa's response to Dean's interrogation had me wondering, even on second watch, how could she have come to this from the empathetic Reaper we first met years ago?
She impales herself on the Blade--and we know that no one is going to believe Dean saying he didn't do it. One of those points where the inevitability of how it's going to end really hits home...
Metatron acts his role in his little broadcast perfectly, admitting a slight overreach but all in the intention of doing good, of fixing a broken heaven, and he is kind and benevolent while Cas is a deceiver...And Cas, whose strength is in his heart, not in a silver tongue, is unable to turn Metatron's words around, leading to Hannah's challenge--
The angels or Dean. Lots of tight camera angles, angsting looks...and Cas says he won't do it. Team Free Will triumphs, but at what cost?
I couldn't help but try to think of what Cas could have said to Hannah and the others about why the choice they were giving him was the wrong choice--how he would have to choose humans over angels to be true to their mission to protect humanity. I don't think Cas could have pulled it off, though I wish he'd tried...but it has never been Cas' style to defend his choices.
Metatron gloats and we see Gadreel realize he's been played. Cut to Sam, Dean, and Cas back at the bunker, and Dean is pulling rank: Oh, I'm not apologizing. I'm telling you how it's gonna be....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.
Have we ever heard Dean so flat-out shut Sam down without even listening to Sam's argument? And then Dean sits at the table by Cas
CASTIEL: Dean. Those bombers -- you don't really think that I --
DEAN: Cas, you just gave up an entire army for one guy. No, there's no way that you blew those people away.
CASTIEL: You really believe we three will be enough?
DEAN: We always have been.
Dean shuts down Sam but reconciles with Cas...there's still some Dean there...
Then Gadreel lets himself in the bunker, (knowing how from his time in Sam's head, obviously) and makes his pitch to join their side. Sam and Cas hold back, waiting for Dean's lead...he gives a handshake--and then slashes Gadreel with the Blade and goes berserk when Sam and Cas try to stop him...
Crap.
9.23 Do you Believe in Miracles?
We start immediately where we left off, Sam and Cas wrestling Dean back from Gadreel. Sam's order to "Drop the Blade, Dean" isn't working this time, he has to physically fight to get it from Dean's hand.
They lock Dean in the dungeon and we see Dean coughing blood--the reverse of where Sam was physically a year ago...But Sam and Cas appear to have forgotten the Dean is 'the best hunter, better than me, better than Dad' because they leave him in a dungeon filled with supplies with which to craft an escape!
Which he uses to summon his new BFF Crowley.
Meanwhile we've seen Metatron use an old-fashioned broadcast microphone to tell the angels that heaven's door is closing again, temporarily.Other than showing us once more what an ego Metatron has, even in the rewatch it feels like the only point of this scene is to set up the microphone system to be there for Cas at the end. But whatever...
Sam, Cas, and Gadreel discuss what to do next, and we cheer for the return of protective little brother at Sam's blunt words:
Excuse me. Sorry, guys. Uh, sorry I'm a little less than eager to hear that our best chance is -- is arming the warhead and hoping it hits the mark. This is not a bomb we're talking about. This is my brother.
Crowley tries to bond with Dean and we get a sense that he's still not back to badass King of Hell level:
You never get tired of the rat race? Never get the urge to just...bugger off and howl at the moon? Never ask yourself, "is this it? Is this all there is?" I kicked human blood, you know.
Crowley complains that Hell's complicated, and we get a perfect Dean Winchester line:
"Game of Thrones" is complicated. Shower sex -- that's complicated. Hell ain't complicated...
Oh my...the implications...
Ahem. Back to the episode...
Metatron's setting up his God reveal, Cas and Gadreel are wookie-ing themslves into heaven...but the angels aren't fooled and Gadreel is devastated to be back in heaven's prison.
Sam beats Dean to the trailer of Metatron's first miracle and we get an unsatisfactory conversation:
DEAN: Sam, whatever kind of intervention you think this is, trust me, it ain't. I'm not gonna explain myself to you.
SAM: Yeah, I sort of got that. I just thought you might like to know that while you two have been playing, uh, odd couple, your real friends, like Cas, like the angel you stabbed, Gadreel --they're out there right now risking their asses to help you win this fight.
DEAN: What the hell are you talking about?
SAM: A fight, I might add, you made that much more complicated when you decided to stab the one angel who could actually get us to Metatron.
DEAN: You mean the angel that took you for a joy ride? The angel that slaughtered Kevin? That angel?
SAM: Who you let in the front door in the first place. 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.
DEAN: I'm gonna take my shot, for better or worse.
SAM: I know.
DEAN: No matter the consequences.
SAM: I know. But if this is it, we're gonna do it together.
I figure that we don't get the apology Dean needs to give because he's too much under the influence of the Mark at this point, but Sam seems to be passing up the chance to really make Dean understand how being possessed violated him in favor of getting to the target. Or maybe he also realizes Dean isn't completely Dean now and he's saving the discussion for when the Mark is no longer an issue. He's not going to fight Dean over the upcoming battle...but he's not letting Dean do it alone, either.
Crowley labels his dismissal as being 'Winchester'd' Like being Garth'd, only way cooler :)
Metatron in the homeless camp was a truly scary scene--the indictment of what will drive people to kill...Metatron came so close to losing it to the angel calling him out, he had his blade out...if only...but then the humans do the dirty work for him.
The most implacable evil is that of the one convinced of the rightness of his own cause. Rabid religionists of all faiths...they terrify me more than zombies--zombies you just kill, you don't have to reason with them...Humans you have to talk to...and far too many people believe that their way of seeing things is the only truth...
Dean is ready for his last fight.
SAM: You good?
DEAN: Yeah, I'm good...Listen, Sammy, about, um, you know, 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?
[SAM turns to pick up his bag but as he turns back around to face his brother, DEAN throws a punch and knocks him out cold.]
DEAN: Sorry, little brother. It's not your fight.
Noooooooooooo!!!!!
In heaven Gadreel blows himself to pieces. Like Tessa, he can't stand the pain. I felt Cas' sadness at Gadreel's choice, but then Cas moves on to what he needs to do right now...
Dean and Metatron trade barbs. Hell, I'm blaming you for the Cubs not winning The World Series in the last 100 freaking years. Nice one, writers...What was with the weird yellow light on Dean's face? Yes, there was a glowing yellow light on the floor which would have given Dean's face a yellow cast, but it would have been coming from the floor and there would have been play between yellow and shadows, not the weird yellow circles all around Dean's eyes. Very distracting both times watching this!
Dean gets in the first punch...and then Metatron goes to town on Dean and we have to watch Dean suffer yet another brutal beating...and it hurts, oh does it hurt to watch, because it looks like Dean took on the Mark and Blade for nothing.
From the transcript:
DEAN, using the little strength he has, wills the Blade into his hand. Just as he goes to swing up and stab the Blade into METATRON, METATRON buries an angel blade deep into DEAN's chest with both hands. DEAN gasps horribly as the sound of his blood pouring out of his body reverberate in the open warehouse...
We cut back and forth between the warehouse and heaven. I know why they do it but unfortunately it breaks up the emotional continuity of watching Sam and Dean...
Castiel finds out he won the battle--broke the angel tablet--but lost the war:
And the Angel tablet...is in pieces, and for what again? Oh, that's right -- to save Dean Winchester...Well, guess what. He's dead, too.
Cas' face...
Back to the boys...Now we get Dean's truth, see that he is aware of what has been happening to him and knows how bad it is:
DEAN: Listen to me. It's better this way.
SAM: What?!
DEAN:The Mark. It's making me into something I don't want to be.
Metatron monologues--exactly what Cas wants him to do.
DEAN: What happened with you being okay with this?
SAM: I lied.
And all Sam's anger at Dean for tricking him into being possessed is washed away as mere posturing. I know there are strongly different reactions to this absolution...I can see both sides...but I am taking it as showing that the brother bond between Sam and Dean trumps everything, even when they've wronged each other beyond forgiveness.
Cas springs his trap for Metatron and the would-be god is taken away...
DEAN: ...I got to say something to you.
SAM: What?
DEAN: I'm proud of us.
[DEAN's hand falls from SAM's face and he closes his eyes and falls into his little brother's chest.]
I was stunned. How could they have killed Dean and left Metatron alive?!?!
Then comes the pain of watching Sam fall apart...
We get another couple minutes in heaven where Cas has Metatron locked up as 'the right thing to do' and reiterates that he is still not a fit leader for the angels...and he's probably going to die as his graces fades anyway...
Final scene--Sam in the bunker staring, drinking...he's been here before...we wait...which way will he go this time?
But it's not really a hard prediction that Sam will go for Crowley--he's got a year's worth of guilt at being angry at his brother to atone for.
Crowley is watching Dean's body, spinning one more story...
I didn't know this was going to happen. Not really. I mean, I might not have told you the entire truth. But I never lied. I never lied, Dean. That's important. It's fundamental.
Perhaps that is the difference between Metatron and Crowley--in spite of his evilness, somewhere in Crowley is a line he won't cross--stretch and twist to almost breaking, but he won't flat-out lie...
And Dean opens his black eyes...
And my heart fell.
118.5 hours to wait...
I was on board with 7/8 of this episode.
We did know Crowley had a son, so as long as I don't think about the paradox of Rufus recovering Gavin's ring from a museum displaying artifacts of a shipwreck, I can be cool with Abaddon using Gavin as leverage. And the scenes with him and Crowley are pretty funny in an authentic way: Can you cook a pigeon on it?
Cas calls the boys to help--the call they got at the end of the previous episode. When alone, Cas asks Sam about what Gadreel's presence felt like. We understand shortly that Cas is trying to determine if Gadreel might respond to an appeal to honor, but when it happens it feels odd. (And okay, I'm shallow. The way Jared's hair was sticking out during that conversation was very distracting, as in 'why doesn't someone fix his hair before they shoot?' I know it's easy to appreciate when Jared's hair looks good, but does anyone else get annoyed at how often it is sticking out weirdly in scenes?)
The interrogation of the captured angel--major props to Sam for quick thinking and figuring out how to get the angel to talk, and yay for Dean immediately going with Sam. Another genuinely funny scene!
The two Cas/Gadreel meetings are necessary inserts to set up the rest of the season--Cas amps up the doubts Gadreel is fighting. More master psychology from Cas? Compare Cas' earnestness with Metatron's sliminess as he is trying to get Gadreel to help him--is there any doubt Cas genuinely is speaking what he believes?
Though maybe Cas is also drawing on some of the archetypes in the massive book-and-movie download Metatron gave him to figure out how to flip Gadreel. That would be delicious irony...
Abaddon thinks she has everything ready to take down Dean and then Crowley. Crowley using Poughkeepsie--another great continuity bit from the writers. Boys park the car and then Dean sends Sam to check the basement.
I know he had to do it. But seriously, could he have used a less klutzy distraction? Go in the place together and suggest separating with one of those silent handwaves, then duck up to the penthouse. Oh well.
Abaddon vs. Dean. I. Loved. This.
The struggle--the power--the breaking free--the killing rage--I felt it all. I was transfixed by the image of Abaddon suspended in mid-air on the Blade. I cheered for the end of Abaddon--and feared for what would become of Dean now that he had triumphed in blood.
Sam can still bring him back. But he's got to be feeling sick inside with worry over what's happening to Dean.
And then the WTF part--a nice leisurely friendly conversation with Crowley? WHY DIDN'T THEY KILL HIM RIGHT THEN? I know, no one for Dean to howl at the moon with in season 10...
Seriously, though, wouldn't Sam and Dean at least have discussed it? Dean all for using the blade again, Sam decides to let Crowley go because he doesn't want Dean using it again so soon because Sam's afraid of what it's doing to Dean. That would have been in character and made sense, not this relaxed chit-chat about what has to happen to Gavin. If they kill Crowley his opinion on Gavin's destiny is moot!
So close to a great episode...
----------------------------------------------
I just sat through the last two episodes of season 9 back-to-back.
I am limp. Exhausted. And heartbroken.
-----------------------------------------------
9.22 Stairway to Heaven
I am wondering if the reason SPN has increased its fanbase dramatically this year is because new viewers can watch and process entire seasons in one go. I am finding that watching these last 3 episodes together makes me feel very differently about them than waiting a week, picking it apart for clues to what is going to happen next, and not liking when my way of having it play out isn't the way it goes. It's like reading a book, where you tear through the chapters to see where the author is taking you instead of pausing to insert your own interpretations in between chapters. The latter is exactly what fandom does. But I'm finding that I appreciate the source for itself better when 'read' without interruption.
Dean pretends to acquiesce to Sam's request to leave the the Blade behind when they go to help Cas. I confess I thought that was a not-very-smart request, since there is no way to know if they would be encountering Metatron while with Cas.
I would love to know what sleight of hand Dean used to grab the Blade after he clearly left it on the table...although that can be ascribed to his 'Batman' skills...
Metatron's smugness makes my teeth crawl. He believes his own PR...his own superiority...his ultimate fail was sooooooooooo satisfying...but I am ahead of myself, I have to endure his hubris for the rest of this episode and all but the very end of the next...He's worse than Crowley who knows enough to respect the Winchesters even as he smarts off at them...
Dean doubting Cas' innocence in the bombings hurts...and yet it is believable that Dean would question it--there is a long history of Cas screwing up while trying to achieve a noble goal. A sign of how messed up Dean is with the Mark, though, is that he starts accusing Cas in front of his angels--it has been the Winchester style from day one to pull someone aside if they want to question something or rebuke them. And Dean totally disregards years of doing this to blow up in front of an audience.
I liked the bowling alley angel. And I have to admit Metatron's double agent suicide squad was a masterful idea. I assume that he 'appeared' to his converts disguised as Cas in order to get them to play along--Tessa was very clear that Cas had asked her to be a suicide bomber...Metatron bragged about all the other points of his plan, he could have just added that fact to avoid making the audience wonder why Tessa and the others were adamant they were doing what Cas told them to...
Dean's interrogation of the angel Flagstaff, Tessa and Oren's friend, is truly scary when he goes off on her--portent of what is to come...
Sam and Cas find the fake portal to heaven...it was a little weird, but on the other hand I could see Metatron thinking how the party vibe he'd left Cas was so ironically fitting, a subtle insult to what a naive loser Metatron considers Cas because Cas does not try to weave clever stories about his actions, Cas just does what he thinks he should.
I appreciated that Dean gave us the explanation of how he found Tessa--GPS on the ambulance she borrowed. Tessa's response to Dean's interrogation had me wondering, even on second watch, how could she have come to this from the empathetic Reaper we first met years ago?
She impales herself on the Blade--and we know that no one is going to believe Dean saying he didn't do it. One of those points where the inevitability of how it's going to end really hits home...
Metatron acts his role in his little broadcast perfectly, admitting a slight overreach but all in the intention of doing good, of fixing a broken heaven, and he is kind and benevolent while Cas is a deceiver...And Cas, whose strength is in his heart, not in a silver tongue, is unable to turn Metatron's words around, leading to Hannah's challenge--
The angels or Dean. Lots of tight camera angles, angsting looks...and Cas says he won't do it. Team Free Will triumphs, but at what cost?
I couldn't help but try to think of what Cas could have said to Hannah and the others about why the choice they were giving him was the wrong choice--how he would have to choose humans over angels to be true to their mission to protect humanity. I don't think Cas could have pulled it off, though I wish he'd tried...but it has never been Cas' style to defend his choices.
Metatron gloats and we see Gadreel realize he's been played. Cut to Sam, Dean, and Cas back at the bunker, and Dean is pulling rank: Oh, I'm not apologizing. I'm telling you how it's gonna be....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.
Have we ever heard Dean so flat-out shut Sam down without even listening to Sam's argument? And then Dean sits at the table by Cas
CASTIEL: Dean. Those bombers -- you don't really think that I --
DEAN: Cas, you just gave up an entire army for one guy. No, there's no way that you blew those people away.
CASTIEL: You really believe we three will be enough?
DEAN: We always have been.
Dean shuts down Sam but reconciles with Cas...there's still some Dean there...
Then Gadreel lets himself in the bunker, (knowing how from his time in Sam's head, obviously) and makes his pitch to join their side. Sam and Cas hold back, waiting for Dean's lead...he gives a handshake--and then slashes Gadreel with the Blade and goes berserk when Sam and Cas try to stop him...
Crap.
9.23 Do you Believe in Miracles?
We start immediately where we left off, Sam and Cas wrestling Dean back from Gadreel. Sam's order to "Drop the Blade, Dean" isn't working this time, he has to physically fight to get it from Dean's hand.
They lock Dean in the dungeon and we see Dean coughing blood--the reverse of where Sam was physically a year ago...But Sam and Cas appear to have forgotten the Dean is 'the best hunter, better than me, better than Dad' because they leave him in a dungeon filled with supplies with which to craft an escape!
Which he uses to summon his new BFF Crowley.
Meanwhile we've seen Metatron use an old-fashioned broadcast microphone to tell the angels that heaven's door is closing again, temporarily.Other than showing us once more what an ego Metatron has, even in the rewatch it feels like the only point of this scene is to set up the microphone system to be there for Cas at the end. But whatever...
Sam, Cas, and Gadreel discuss what to do next, and we cheer for the return of protective little brother at Sam's blunt words:
Excuse me. Sorry, guys. Uh, sorry I'm a little less than eager to hear that our best chance is -- is arming the warhead and hoping it hits the mark. This is not a bomb we're talking about. This is my brother.
Crowley tries to bond with Dean and we get a sense that he's still not back to badass King of Hell level:
You never get tired of the rat race? Never get the urge to just...bugger off and howl at the moon? Never ask yourself, "is this it? Is this all there is?" I kicked human blood, you know.
Crowley complains that Hell's complicated, and we get a perfect Dean Winchester line:
"Game of Thrones" is complicated. Shower sex -- that's complicated. Hell ain't complicated...
Oh my...the implications...
Ahem. Back to the episode...
Metatron's setting up his God reveal, Cas and Gadreel are wookie-ing themslves into heaven...but the angels aren't fooled and Gadreel is devastated to be back in heaven's prison.
Sam beats Dean to the trailer of Metatron's first miracle and we get an unsatisfactory conversation:
DEAN: Sam, whatever kind of intervention you think this is, trust me, it ain't. I'm not gonna explain myself to you.
SAM: Yeah, I sort of got that. I just thought you might like to know that while you two have been playing, uh, odd couple, your real friends, like Cas, like the angel you stabbed, Gadreel --they're out there right now risking their asses to help you win this fight.
DEAN: What the hell are you talking about?
SAM: A fight, I might add, you made that much more complicated when you decided to stab the one angel who could actually get us to Metatron.
DEAN: You mean the angel that took you for a joy ride? The angel that slaughtered Kevin? That angel?
SAM: Who you let in the front door in the first place. 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.
DEAN: I'm gonna take my shot, for better or worse.
SAM: I know.
DEAN: No matter the consequences.
SAM: I know. But if this is it, we're gonna do it together.
I figure that we don't get the apology Dean needs to give because he's too much under the influence of the Mark at this point, but Sam seems to be passing up the chance to really make Dean understand how being possessed violated him in favor of getting to the target. Or maybe he also realizes Dean isn't completely Dean now and he's saving the discussion for when the Mark is no longer an issue. He's not going to fight Dean over the upcoming battle...but he's not letting Dean do it alone, either.
Crowley labels his dismissal as being 'Winchester'd' Like being Garth'd, only way cooler :)
Metatron in the homeless camp was a truly scary scene--the indictment of what will drive people to kill...Metatron came so close to losing it to the angel calling him out, he had his blade out...if only...but then the humans do the dirty work for him.
The most implacable evil is that of the one convinced of the rightness of his own cause. Rabid religionists of all faiths...they terrify me more than zombies--zombies you just kill, you don't have to reason with them...Humans you have to talk to...and far too many people believe that their way of seeing things is the only truth...
Dean is ready for his last fight.
SAM: You good?
DEAN: Yeah, I'm good...Listen, Sammy, about, um, you know, 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?
[SAM turns to pick up his bag but as he turns back around to face his brother, DEAN throws a punch and knocks him out cold.]
DEAN: Sorry, little brother. It's not your fight.
Noooooooooooo!!!!!
In heaven Gadreel blows himself to pieces. Like Tessa, he can't stand the pain. I felt Cas' sadness at Gadreel's choice, but then Cas moves on to what he needs to do right now...
Dean and Metatron trade barbs. Hell, I'm blaming you for the Cubs not winning The World Series in the last 100 freaking years. Nice one, writers...What was with the weird yellow light on Dean's face? Yes, there was a glowing yellow light on the floor which would have given Dean's face a yellow cast, but it would have been coming from the floor and there would have been play between yellow and shadows, not the weird yellow circles all around Dean's eyes. Very distracting both times watching this!
Dean gets in the first punch...and then Metatron goes to town on Dean and we have to watch Dean suffer yet another brutal beating...and it hurts, oh does it hurt to watch, because it looks like Dean took on the Mark and Blade for nothing.
From the transcript:
DEAN, using the little strength he has, wills the Blade into his hand. Just as he goes to swing up and stab the Blade into METATRON, METATRON buries an angel blade deep into DEAN's chest with both hands. DEAN gasps horribly as the sound of his blood pouring out of his body reverberate in the open warehouse...
We cut back and forth between the warehouse and heaven. I know why they do it but unfortunately it breaks up the emotional continuity of watching Sam and Dean...
Castiel finds out he won the battle--broke the angel tablet--but lost the war:
And the Angel tablet...is in pieces, and for what again? Oh, that's right -- to save Dean Winchester...Well, guess what. He's dead, too.
Cas' face...
Back to the boys...Now we get Dean's truth, see that he is aware of what has been happening to him and knows how bad it is:
DEAN: Listen to me. It's better this way.
SAM: What?!
DEAN:The Mark. It's making me into something I don't want to be.
Metatron monologues--exactly what Cas wants him to do.
DEAN: What happened with you being okay with this?
SAM: I lied.
And all Sam's anger at Dean for tricking him into being possessed is washed away as mere posturing. I know there are strongly different reactions to this absolution...I can see both sides...but I am taking it as showing that the brother bond between Sam and Dean trumps everything, even when they've wronged each other beyond forgiveness.
Cas springs his trap for Metatron and the would-be god is taken away...
DEAN: ...I got to say something to you.
SAM: What?
DEAN: I'm proud of us.
[DEAN's hand falls from SAM's face and he closes his eyes and falls into his little brother's chest.]
I was stunned. How could they have killed Dean and left Metatron alive?!?!
Then comes the pain of watching Sam fall apart...
We get another couple minutes in heaven where Cas has Metatron locked up as 'the right thing to do' and reiterates that he is still not a fit leader for the angels...and he's probably going to die as his graces fades anyway...
Final scene--Sam in the bunker staring, drinking...he's been here before...we wait...which way will he go this time?
But it's not really a hard prediction that Sam will go for Crowley--he's got a year's worth of guilt at being angry at his brother to atone for.
Crowley is watching Dean's body, spinning one more story...
I didn't know this was going to happen. Not really. I mean, I might not have told you the entire truth. But I never lied. I never lied, Dean. That's important. It's fundamental.
Perhaps that is the difference between Metatron and Crowley--in spite of his evilness, somewhere in Crowley is a line he won't cross--stretch and twist to almost breaking, but he won't flat-out lie...
And Dean opens his black eyes...
And my heart fell.
118.5 hours to wait...