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Supernatural 5.14
AWESOME with a side of FUCK YEAH. This episode won't be to everyone's tastes, I imagine, but it's got enough of what I enjoy about SPN to satisfy me: horror, borderline absurdist and/or slapstick comedy, and mytharc. I mean, there are plenty of other things I enjoy about the show, but these things are crucial for me. And now for spoilers.
First, the big stuff:
With this episode we're creeping back into S4 territory, but this time without a demon on anyone's shoulder. It's interesting to see how much the map has changed, and how much it isn't - this felt so much like a S4 episode, but Castiel's presence on Team Free Will makes a noticeable difference. Not so much in terms of what weapons they have at hand, but in how the character relationships are subtly different.
1) Dean has faith. Kind of. This is an interesting development. It's not the first time he's asked for help, but previously he was asking for help from Castiel. Now that Cas is one of the gang, he's... too close? No longer representative of a higher power? It'll be interesting to see this unfold. That last scene draws wonderful parallels to: Dean's crowbar breakdown in S3; and to Dean praying last season. Possibly other scenes as well. I'm glad to see the show continuing to build on Dean's trauma, and not sweeping it under the rug. It'll be fun to rewatch this season when the DVDs come out - it might be clearer, when compressed, that Dean's goofiness this year is another reaction to his underlying failure to deal.
2) Sammy has to detox again. This entire series is just endless Sam!whump, good freaking god. Is he ever going to catch a break? Anyway - JP was, as usual, ovary-tinglingly hot while playing enraged. Ragetoxicated!Sammy brings me great joy, on a particular level. If you get what I'm saying, nudge nudge. I love the way this was handled, from start to finish. Sam smelling the demons. At first resisting the blood, but eventually succumbing - he showed a lot of strength in this episode. To the point of refusing to consume demons, during the final confrontation. Good for you Sammy! That said, the blood addiction is still a huge weakness, and a possible in for Lucifer. I also love how they staged all of it, recalling so many pivotal scenes from last season. That last shot of Dean and Cas standing outside the panic room. A++
3) Jimmy is apparently still in there. This is a strange development, but ok, I can roll with it. Hopefully Jimmy's continued presence will come up again. A question I'd now like answered is: what happened to Jimmy in the apocalyptic future depicted in The End? Did he 'die' when Castiel went mortal? Was he still in there, sharing a body with a mortal Cas? Another issue I have with this revelation is that we were shown Dean and Sam's big weaknesses in this episode: Dean's PTSD/emptiness, and Sam's addiction. Now, it's obviously not so important to find out Castiel's big weakness, as he's not a vessel for either Lucifer or Michael, but it's thematically mushy for Famine to be able to get a hold on Castiel because of Jimmy, and not his own growing humanity.
4) The destiny angle is pushed again. Cupids are heavenly matchmakers - their job is to ensure that certain bloodlines cross, and certain important, prophesied people are born. John and Mary were the victims of Cupidly interference - their great love was forced on them. This is a great pickup from last week's episode, and it's just an awful blow to the Winchesters, coming as it does on the heels of a such a complete failure to change their 'destinies'. We also get more of the destiny angle from Famine: Sam is what Satan intended him to be. JFC Sammy, you poor bastard. Seriously, when are you going to catch a break? In this light, it's not surprising that the brothers have reached another personal low.
4) Sammy's powers are still there, waiting to come out and play. His powers don't work on a Horseman. Two big revelations for the price of one. This is another interesting development, and is very much in line with how S5 is unfolding: a potential weapon comes to light, and then is shown to be useless. Just about every time the Winchesters have caught a break, or won a fight this year, it's been massively Pyrrhic. Castiel has been resurrected, but his powers are diminished. Find the Colt? Find out that it's useless. And every time they stop a Horsemen, it comes at a big emotional price. Last time the brothers broke up. This time they've both broken down.
And yet. Despite all of that, they did take out a Horseman, which leaves Pestilence and Death left to gank, and then Lucifer himself. Progress is being made.
Now, some of the small stuff:
1) Cupid. BRB LOLing forever guys. On a serious note, I know I said that when it came to Castiel, Famine's in was Jimmy, but Cupid too was affected and not because of his vessel. So that's another interesting angle - the Horsemen more powerful than ordinary angels? I think so. Regardless, I love the very existence of heaven's matchmakers, and all the ridiculousness that comes with them. The handshake. The crying. The endless lulz. YES SPN, A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
2) Misha's performance tonight was so so hilarious. The Castiel thousand yard stare, combined with the mad Jimmy NOMining. YES. Misha haters?
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3) The coroner. "Refrigerate after opening." Oh, love. Loved this character. Too bad he died. I have stern looks for you, show.
4) The gross out horror and gore. So effective tonight. Hands in a deep fryer! This one hit me hard. The couple literally eating each other. Perfect.
5) "A plague of locusts in stretch pants." Ah HELL yes.
6) Um. I don't know what goes here, actually. LOVE LOVE LOVE will go here, because, well, why the hell not? LOVE.
First, the big stuff:
With this episode we're creeping back into S4 territory, but this time without a demon on anyone's shoulder. It's interesting to see how much the map has changed, and how much it isn't - this felt so much like a S4 episode, but Castiel's presence on Team Free Will makes a noticeable difference. Not so much in terms of what weapons they have at hand, but in how the character relationships are subtly different.
1) Dean has faith. Kind of. This is an interesting development. It's not the first time he's asked for help, but previously he was asking for help from Castiel. Now that Cas is one of the gang, he's... too close? No longer representative of a higher power? It'll be interesting to see this unfold. That last scene draws wonderful parallels to: Dean's crowbar breakdown in S3; and to Dean praying last season. Possibly other scenes as well. I'm glad to see the show continuing to build on Dean's trauma, and not sweeping it under the rug. It'll be fun to rewatch this season when the DVDs come out - it might be clearer, when compressed, that Dean's goofiness this year is another reaction to his underlying failure to deal.
2) Sammy has to detox again. This entire series is just endless Sam!whump, good freaking god. Is he ever going to catch a break? Anyway - JP was, as usual, ovary-tinglingly hot while playing enraged. Ragetoxicated!Sammy brings me great joy, on a particular level. If you get what I'm saying, nudge nudge. I love the way this was handled, from start to finish. Sam smelling the demons. At first resisting the blood, but eventually succumbing - he showed a lot of strength in this episode. To the point of refusing to consume demons, during the final confrontation. Good for you Sammy! That said, the blood addiction is still a huge weakness, and a possible in for Lucifer. I also love how they staged all of it, recalling so many pivotal scenes from last season. That last shot of Dean and Cas standing outside the panic room. A++
3) Jimmy is apparently still in there. This is a strange development, but ok, I can roll with it. Hopefully Jimmy's continued presence will come up again. A question I'd now like answered is: what happened to Jimmy in the apocalyptic future depicted in The End? Did he 'die' when Castiel went mortal? Was he still in there, sharing a body with a mortal Cas? Another issue I have with this revelation is that we were shown Dean and Sam's big weaknesses in this episode: Dean's PTSD/emptiness, and Sam's addiction. Now, it's obviously not so important to find out Castiel's big weakness, as he's not a vessel for either Lucifer or Michael, but it's thematically mushy for Famine to be able to get a hold on Castiel because of Jimmy, and not his own growing humanity.
4) The destiny angle is pushed again. Cupids are heavenly matchmakers - their job is to ensure that certain bloodlines cross, and certain important, prophesied people are born. John and Mary were the victims of Cupidly interference - their great love was forced on them. This is a great pickup from last week's episode, and it's just an awful blow to the Winchesters, coming as it does on the heels of a such a complete failure to change their 'destinies'. We also get more of the destiny angle from Famine: Sam is what Satan intended him to be. JFC Sammy, you poor bastard. Seriously, when are you going to catch a break? In this light, it's not surprising that the brothers have reached another personal low.
4) Sammy's powers are still there, waiting to come out and play. His powers don't work on a Horseman. Two big revelations for the price of one. This is another interesting development, and is very much in line with how S5 is unfolding: a potential weapon comes to light, and then is shown to be useless. Just about every time the Winchesters have caught a break, or won a fight this year, it's been massively Pyrrhic. Castiel has been resurrected, but his powers are diminished. Find the Colt? Find out that it's useless. And every time they stop a Horsemen, it comes at a big emotional price. Last time the brothers broke up. This time they've both broken down.
And yet. Despite all of that, they did take out a Horseman, which leaves Pestilence and Death left to gank, and then Lucifer himself. Progress is being made.
Now, some of the small stuff:
1) Cupid. BRB LOLing forever guys. On a serious note, I know I said that when it came to Castiel, Famine's in was Jimmy, but Cupid too was affected and not because of his vessel. So that's another interesting angle - the Horsemen more powerful than ordinary angels? I think so. Regardless, I love the very existence of heaven's matchmakers, and all the ridiculousness that comes with them. The handshake. The crying. The endless lulz. YES SPN, A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
2) Misha's performance tonight was so so hilarious. The Castiel thousand yard stare, combined with the mad Jimmy NOMining. YES. Misha haters?
<------
3) The coroner. "Refrigerate after opening." Oh, love. Loved this character. Too bad he died. I have stern looks for you, show.
4) The gross out horror and gore. So effective tonight. Hands in a deep fryer! This one hit me hard. The couple literally eating each other. Perfect.
5) "A plague of locusts in stretch pants." Ah HELL yes.
6) Um. I don't know what goes here, actually. LOVE LOVE LOVE will go here, because, well, why the hell not? LOVE.
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Dean gave Sam his heart! And the cupid referred rather ambiguously to the Winchester bloodline as "you" when talking to Sam and Dean about how cupids were responsible for their romance.
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I think that Castiel has become part of the 'people I protect' and thus not someone Dean feels he can ask or demand that kind of help from.
At first resisting the blood, but eventually succumbing - he showed a lot of strength in this episode. To the point of refusing to consume demons, during the final confrontation.
I liked how Sam was handled too. Even under Famine's influence, he was able to resist going completely out of control with his urges. It implies that he'd normally be handling his blood addiction well -- no one else was able to overcome their Famine-induced wants, not even Castiel.
Jimmy is apparently still in there.
I was glad to have the confirmed. Maybe angels absolutely have to have a human soul in their Vessel for it to work right?
The destiny angle is pushed again. Cupids are heavenly matchmakers
See, I thought that Cupid admitting that Heaven had matched up John and Mary had totally undercut Michael's "It was destiny" speech from last week. It's hardly Destiny if Heaven has to keep *meddling* to get the results they need; it's more like have the cheat codes and abusing them shamelessly.
Sammy's powers are still there, waiting to come out and play. His powers don't work on a Horseman. Two big revelations for the price of one.
I'm hoping they do more with Sam's powers. Ruby did say he "didn't need the feather to fly" -- maybe his powers are going to be useful later on. He certainly used them creatively to deal with Famine, which I liked. Human ingenuity should be a big part of how the Winchester work against Heaven and Hell.
Regardless, I love the very existence of heaven's matchmakers, and all the ridiculousness that comes with them
I could have done with the Cupids being called 'cherubs', because the SPN writers are totally inverting traditional angelic hierarchies, but I did like the one we saw. It seemed so innocent and daft, and indicated that the lower orders of angels really have*no* idea what's going on. Is it wrong that I'm kind of hoping that the news will get around, and Zachariah will have to deal with a rebellion in the ranks from the lower angels who are still loyal to God's order of 'love the humans'?
The Castiel thousand yard stare, combined with the mad Jimmy NOMining.
He was adorable with his eating and his utter seriousness. I was seriously freaked out in the dinner, when Famine called Cas Dean's "dog", because him being on the floor eating raw meat just made that insults too blatant.