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llywelaUm. Okay. I'm kind of in two minds about this episode. There were bits that I liked very much…and other bits that I really didn't. Overall, then, my feelings are rather mixed, although mostly on the positive side, since I definitely liked a lot more than I disliked.
Sam
Sam's story was really nicely handled throughout this episode, no? I loved the little montage at the beginning, contrasting the two brothers as they settled into their time apart. Burning his fake IDs, taking a job at a bar, the clear implication that until spotting Apocalyptic omens he could not ignore Sam had severed contact with Bobby, as well as Dean, and his absolute resolve not to get involved in the case he had found – it all served to demonstrate clearly just how determined Sam is to make a clean break from hunting and the supernatural, believing it to be his best hope of not falling into temptation once more, since he doesn't trust himself not to give in.
Sam's determination to avoid all human interaction, as far as possible, also shone through, despite being constantly thwarted by his co-worker Lindsey, and the slow, reluctant bond he established with her over the course of the episode was really well played. Ever since season one Sam has believed that he brings danger to the people around him – how much more so now? Trouble is, no man can be an island, and so his effort to isolate himself was perhaps always doomed to failure. Lindsey saw him as a mystery she wanted to solve – and her reassurances and the unexpected parallel she provided to his situation gave him reason to at least begin to hope, for the first time in a long time.
"No one has ever done anything so bad they can't be forgiven, that they can't change," said Lindsey, and those were words that Sam desperately needed to hear, while her situation, as a recovered alcoholic working in a bar, provided evidence that it is possible to resist temptation, even when it surrounds you. Having overcome her personal demons, Lindsey demonstrated a kind of inner strength that Sam now needs to aspire to, and her example maybe gave him the confidence to believe that perhaps he can achieve it after all.
Given that first Bobby and then the random trio of hunters he sent on the case Sam had found – not to mention the vision of Jessica that Lucifer sent to him – all heavily implied that Sam's decision to retire from hunting to focus on his personal problems amounted to little more than running away, the message of this episode would seem to be that Sam has to be Lindsey. He needs to become the equivalent of an alcoholic working in a bar, surrounded by temptation yet strong enough to resist – has to pick up his weapons and start hunting again, allow himself to come face to face with temptation and find the strength within himself to resist it, because fighting the Apocalypse is more important than dealing with his own issues.
The trouble with that comparison is that Lindsey has had three years sober, time and space to build up her strength and determination to reach this point, no doubt slipping and sliding along the way – and without anything like the pressure of a full-scale Apocalypse on her shoulders. Sam has only been clean for a couple of weeks at most, and is struggling with overwhelming, catastrophic guilt and shame as well as his addiction. It hardly seems fair to expect such superhuman feats of emotional endurance from him…but then again, it also wasn't fair that Dean was expected to simply shrug off his hell trauma last season because it was inconvenient to the war effort. At times it seems that Show is sending out something of an uncomfortable message that Real Men do not suffer from emotional baggage, but instead are able to instantly repress, no matter how awful, and can achieve the impossible regardless. It isn't the healthiest message ever, however expedient in terms of progressing seasonal arcs.
Still. Time will tell how the character arcs play out this season.
Sam's dramatic and painful confrontation with the trio of hunters was intriguing for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it confirmed that the close involvement the Winchesters have had with the unfolding Apocalypse has remained a closely guarded secret up until now…but it remains a secret no longer, and it remains to be seen how the hunting community at large will react to the news of Sam's demon blood addiction, psychic powers and responsibility for triggering the Apocalypse.
On that point, yes, I know that Sam merely broke the final Seal and there were 65 before it, but those hunters we saw here aren't going to care for such technicalities any more than Sam himself does – for it was also clear from this episode that, perhaps understandably, Sam remains fixated on the breaking of that final Seal as the symbol of his catastrophic failure. "I did it. I started the Apocalypse," he said, taking full responsibility onto his own shoulders and unable to see past his overwhelming guilt. That will be the message that the surviving hunters take back to the rest of the community – and this coming after Gordon Walker had already sowed such seeds of doubt about Sam's humanity way back when. It'll be very interesting to see how the hunting world reacts to this news. Having missed the variety provided by interaction with the ever-paranoid hunting community since Gordon's demise, I look forward to seeing how this one plays out.
Actually, it also really makes me long to see Ellen and Jo again, to see their reaction as the news reaches them, which it surely will – especially after last week, when they saw both brothers and Ellen specifically asked Sam what was wrong with him and Dean, and he prevaricated, avoided confessing the full truth.
One thing this episode did prove, however, was that Sam is stronger than he maybe believes, where the demon blood is concerned. We saw his addiction growing ever greater in intensity last season, saw the agonies of his withdrawal, saw how desperately he wanted it as recently as last week – but here, even after having it forced into his mouth, he maintained his fierce resolve to abstain and spat it back out. I don't think I have ever been so proud of him.
I'm just not sure he is capable, yet, of recognising that achievement for what it was, especially not given the circumstances in which it happened and what came later, with his dream/vision/whatever putting the fear of Lucifer into him – and being designed, as it was, to undermine his self-confidence, just as he had learned to at least begin to hope once more. Plus, the violence and rage he displayed in that fight with the hunters demonstrated another reason why he has removed himself from the field of play – he is still teetering on the edge, and that wasn't because of the blood. The problem is me, he said last week. How far I'll go. There's something in me – scares the hell out of me. He caught another glimpse here, and it clearly unnerved him as much as it terrified Lindsey. Sam is making progress, and we are seeing more and more of the old Sam with each passing week, but he still has a ways to go.
The revelation that Sam is Lucifer's intended vessel came as no surprise, but did draw an almighty groan from me. Seriously. I know a lot of fans are terribly excited about the dramatic parallel being set up here, Dean as Michael's vessel and Sam as Lucifer's, but the whole thing just feels ridiculously overblown and contrived to me at present, and I am really beginning to struggle with the scale of coincidence we are being asked to swallow of late. More than anything I do not want to see Dean and Sam duking it out as Michael and Lucifer. I want them to end this season and this Apocalypse as themselves, Dean and Sam, reunited and reconciled and at one another's side, working as a team to fend off all comers – and since the Michael and Lucifer cards are being laid out on the table so very early in the season, I fully anticipate many a twist in the tail still to come.
Rather more frustratingly, this revelation saw yet another contradiction to the ever changing rules regarding angelic possession, a mythology that was already fraying at the seams. First it seemed that any suitably special person who consented and was convenient would do, then we learned that each angel was matched to a very particular individual and only that individual (or perhaps another in their bloodline) would do, this concept being the entire basis of the Dean-Michael connection. But now we are told that actually angels can take alternate hosts, after all – a reserve, as it were. So, that being the case, why doesn't Michael just go find his reserve, since Dean is so unwilling, and use the backup to go after Lucifer (and his reserve), leave the Winchesters out of it? Why do either Michael or Lucifer need a host in the first place? Michael doesn't need to interact with humanity to fight Lucifer, surely – and it isn't as if he is likely to be concerned about human casualties anyway!
Also, I'm still not entirely convinced by Lucifer's whole 'I always tell the truth' routine, because…well, just because someone says something doesn't mean that it is true, especially on this show! Just because he says 'I always tell the truth' doesn't mean that he isn't lying!
Overall, Sam's story here gets a thumbs up – while judgement on the mytharc shall be reserved until further information becomes available.
Dean
Dean's story…wasn't as smoothly or as consistently told as Sam's in this episode, unfortunately, combining elements that I really enjoyed with elements that I really, strongly disliked. The overall impression, however, was pretty much what I might have expected: the story of a deeply lonely man trying hard to make the best of his situation and pretending to be completely okay with it. Dean always was the king of denial.
That little montage of the brothers apart at the beginning showed a Dean who was dealing with being alone pretty much as might be expected: burying himself in the hunt and taking grim, albeit lonely satisfaction from his work, that work being all he currently has in his life. It showed a Dean who was focused and driven – while his pensive little glance at the empty passenger seat showed clearly how much he misses having his brother at his side, however determined he is not to admit it.
Being alone is exactly what Dean has never wanted for himself – it is how he has spent most of his life fighting not to end up. And yet here he is, after all those years of striving, alone anyway – and more or less by his own choice, at that, but a choice that was made as a result of painful circumstance rather than any personal ambition. The Dean we saw in this episode is off-balance, struggling to establish his individual identity without his family around to define himself by, somewhat bitter toward the universe in general for placing him in this position, and yet fiercely determined to convince himself that this is a good thing, that he wants to embrace life alone. He certainly isn't ready to deal with Sam again just yet, and after 26 years of devoted care and attention the sheer relief of not having to look after his brother any more must surely be immense – and yet his attitude throughout the episode betrayed how much he does want Sam back, despite it all, even if he won't admit it, even to himself. He certainly stressed the temporary nature of his separation from his brother when Castiel asked.
Dean's reaction to Castiel's unheralded and uninvited appearance predictably revolved around mild irritation. He has come to consider Castiel a friend and an ally, albeit highly unpredictable on both counts, but that doesn't mean that the angel's presence is either welcomed or especially desired, signalling trouble as it usually does.
It was very interesting to hear, incidentally, that Castiel asked Bobby for Dean's current location. For one thing, boy would I have loved to see that conversation, Bobby and Castiel alone together! And for another…it struck me as slightly worrying that if it could occur to Castiel to get to Dean via Bobby, then it could occur to Zachariah, as well, which would not be good. It's a point worth pondering, even if Show never takes that angle. Castiel's statement also confirmed for us that Dean has remained in close contact with Bobby, unlike his brother – which makes sense, of course, since Dean has no reason to break off contact the way that Sam has.
I really enjoyed the whole first scene between Dean and Castiel, at the motel: the two of them dancing around one another as usual, Dean adversarial, Castiel defensive, neither entirely sure where he stands with the other and yet tied to one another by circumstance. Dean still resolute in his conviction that Castiel's search for God is a fool's errand, but less aggressive about it, more mindful of Castiel's feelings on the subject, although taking pains to make the point that he would like his necklace back, please, another subtle hint that he misses his brother. Castiel trying hard to maintain his poise but visibly floundering – and it was this that convinced Dean to join him on his apparent fool's errand in the end.
After millennia of service to heaven and constant communion with his angelic brothers, although he is trying hard to at least give the appearance of confidence, drive and purpose, Castiel is now alone and very afraid and is way, way out of his depth, clutching tightly to Dean as his sole anchor in this bleak and uncertain landscape. And I just really like that all his apparently logical reasoning was absolutely not going to get Dean to budge from his anti-God stance, but that his simple and honest plea for help, one friend to another, one lonely soul to another, was all it took to overcome Dean's objections and bring out his inner caretaker. That was just so Dean.
I also enjoyed Dean's objection to Castiel's automatic intent to teleport them wherever they needed to go. I mean, on the one hand it was light comic relief – "Last time you zapped me someplace I didn't poop for a week" – but on the other hand, it demonstrates Dean's determination to remain in control of his own body and destiny. He might have come to trust Castiel as a friend and ally in this war, but he has been pushed around by angels too many times already – it was only the episode before last, just a matter of days ago for Dean, that Castiel carved Enochian sigils into Dean's ribcage without asking permission first, for example. A necessary precaution, perhaps, but just another example of thoughtless angelic high-handedness toward a person who has already spent too much of his existence having other beings do whatever the hell they want to him without his consent. By insisting on driving instead of allowing Castiel to teleport him around without so much as a by your leave, Dean was exerting a little much needed control over proceedings.
Take-charge Dean is always good to see.
From that grim focus we saw at the beginning, Dean visibly brightened up once Castiel was with him, reminding us how intensely he relishes companionship – although the course of their adventure together mostly served to highlight that, as companions go, the angel really is not ideal, perplexing at best, high-handed and autocratic at worst. It is human companionship that Dean really needs and craves, specifically that of his brother – someone who knows what they are doing, whom he can trust to watch his back, and someone he can play off without effort.
Having said all that, it was (mostly) great fun to watch Dean and Castiel's interaction through the episode, as for just about the first time since they met they were each giving the other something that he needed, since in this instance what they each needed was pretty much the same thing: they both simply needed someone to be there, a companion, to not be alone. Dean was able to enjoy and appreciate Castiel's company precisely because it carried none of the emotional baggage he has with Sam.
I especially loved the scenes at the sheriff's office, both inside and out, which clearly demonstrated both just how far out of his depth Castiel is and how much of a natural caretaker Dean is. Upon arrival, Dean was content to sit back and let Castiel take the lead, since this was his investigation and Dean was merely there to lend support. It was immediately obvious, however, that Castiel did not have the first clue how to conduct the investigation, and so Dean effortlessly stepped up and took charge, every inch the mother hen, guiding his rookie partner through the process of acquiring the information they needed – and then stepping back once more once that part of the job was complete, allowing Castiel to do his thing.
I have no idea whose picture was in the fake ID Dean gave Castiel, however – presumably merely one that was vague enough to pass if not inspected closely.
The strip club/brothel…well, the less said about that the better. The whole scenario simply reeked of male writers locked away in a room someplace giggling to themselves over the mental image of an angel in a strip club so much that they just didn't think it through in terms of either storyline or characterisation. The actors did what they could with the material, but it was just really bad – appallingly sleazy, un-funny and out of character. I don't even want to go into all the ways in which it was wrong, other than to say that however much of a slut Dean can be, it felt out of character for him to push Castiel into a situation like that and to mock the girls selling their bodies for sex, and even more out of character for Castiel to appear embarrassed about being a virgin – as if angels even think such terms anyway – and for him to be so nervous and panicky at the strip club.
I can rationalise. Dean came across mostly as if he were trying to humanise Castiel, trying to find a level on which he can relate better to this bizarre and otherworldly new companion with whom his life has become entangled. Missing Sam, and with Castiel a poor replacement – and struck as he was by the bleakness of Castiel's expectations, another reminder of the grim outlook for them all – he wanted to do something utterly normal and human and stupid to try to forget about all their woes. Castiel, as mentioned, is clinging to Dean as his life raft in a stormy sea at the moment – he has rebelled against heaven and what it stands for, is lost and confused in the absence of God, and is searching for alternate guidance by which to pick his way through the troubled times ahead. He finds humans perplexing and wishes to understand them better.
Yes, I can rationalise. I still find the scenes out of character and in poor taste, however.
It was good to see Dean laughing so hard as they emerged from the strip club, though, since we rarely if ever get to see such merriment from him these days. There was an edge of hysteria to that laughter, however – a lot of pent-up emotion finding an outlet as the sheer ludicrousness of both the immediate situation and his life in general suddenly hit him hard. Sometimes you simply have to laugh. It's either that or cry. And when he said that he hadn't laughed that hard in years…all I could think of were those decades that he spent in hell. There have been fun times since he got back, but those were few and far between, and no doubt drowned out by all the bad memories currently so fresh and raw.
Castiel swearing at Raphael felt very odd – another sign, perhaps, that he has been hanging out with Dean a little too much! Or, more seriously, another sign that he is, whether consciously or not, replacing the morals of heaven that he now sees as suspect with the more questionable moral standard of his new ally, who he sees as having considerably more integrity.
When Castiel set that fire around the incapacitated man in the hospital, I expected all the fire alarms and sprinklers to go off! As for the condition of Raphael's unfortunate vessel, temporarily abandoned and highlighted to us as what Dean has to look forward to if he consents to Michael's use of his body, well, it was pretty grim. However, Jimmy suffered no such incapacity when Castiel left his body for a time – the explanation that the greater the power of the angel the worse the damage wasn't really all that convincing, either. Mostly, I found myself remembering how avidly the demons sought to capture Jimmy when Castiel left him, and wondered why Raphael's host wasn't in similar danger.
I also couldn't help noticing that the danger Castiel had believed himself to be in never really materialised – Raphael was powerful, sure, but Castiel never looked to be in serious danger. Maybe he was just incredibly lucky that his plan worked so well. Or maybe he overestimated the danger as a result of his general despondency – he and Raphael both came across pretty much as drama queens, in fact! I did, though, enjoy the subtlety of the acting, demonstrating clearly just how much Dean and Castiel's bravado was just that: a veneer of bravado employed to cover up how very afraid and uncertain they both were. And Raphael, far more than Zachariah, offered what felt like a truly honest insight into how the angels have ended up in this position: feeling the absence of God keenly, worn down by millennia of service with no end in sight, tired of the responsibility, confused and angry and resentful.
Actually, in some ways I could see parallels between the situation Raphael described and that in which Dean grew up. The angels have effectively been left alone in charge of their younger siblings: humanity. Dean throughout his childhood was regularly and repeatedly left alone in charge of his little brother, Sam. The difference is that Dean never shirked that responsibility the way the angels have now chosen to do, with their decision to let humanity go to hell in hopes that they themselves can achieve that holy grail of paradise.
So Castiel's whole Raphael expedition was pretty much a bust, in the end, gaining him only the implacable enmity of an archangel who already despised him. Nice job!
I really loved that Dean's instinctive reaction to Castiel's despondency was to try to bolster the angel's flagging hope and faith - even in a God Dean does not want to believe in himself. It is something we have seen him do for Sam on numerous occasions, and served as another reminder of what a natural caretaker he is. However much he wants to believe that he is perfectly happy to be on his own right now, the truth is that Dean needs to be needed, always has and probably always will, and having Castiel with him and so needy in this episode gave him someone to look after, went at least some way to filling that gap.
It was, however, only a stopgap measure and it was notable that even with Castiel sitting right there alongside him, Dean still defined himself as alone. He wants his brother, but right now he cannot be with his brother, and although he is trying very hard to convince himself that he is okay with that fact, claimed to be happy and content, his tone was anything but happy, speaking volumes for his bitterness and resignation, that after everything he and Sam have been through together, he has ended up alone after all.
Man, I look forward to seeing the brothers reconciled, I really do, but it feels like there is still a ways to go before it is possible for them.
Other Points
1. I really wish that Castiel and Dean would stop with the growly voice competition already!
2. Sam's naked chest! With bonus tattoo thrown in, to boot!
3. Very nice lack of layers on Dean, too, in that opening scene at the motel.
4. My, but both brothers were smoking hot in this episode. ♥
5. Domesticity, ahoy! Dean washing blood off the Impala – kinda careless of him to behead the vampire right there, though – and then washing blood out of his jacket. I love domestic boys and wish to see more details like this!
6. How come Bobby is home from hospital already? Shouldn't he have weeks of rehab first, not to mention time to get his house adapted for the wheelchair?
7. "You were wasted by a teenage mutant ninja angel?" Hee!
8. Sam calling himself Keith. Heh. Oh, Sam.
9. Hey, so Sam is clearly just as familiar with Revelation these days as Dean is. Those boys have clearly been doing a lot of Bible study this past year.
10. "Cas. We've talked about this. Personal space." A line straight out of fanfic, that one – but so exactly what needed to be said.
In other news, I appear to have totally lost my recapping mojo. Not only do my evenings and weekend keep getting hijacked, but my attention span is totally shot to pieces at the moment. So, full recaps remain on an as and when basis for the forseeable future, sorry, folks.
Sam
Sam's story was really nicely handled throughout this episode, no? I loved the little montage at the beginning, contrasting the two brothers as they settled into their time apart. Burning his fake IDs, taking a job at a bar, the clear implication that until spotting Apocalyptic omens he could not ignore Sam had severed contact with Bobby, as well as Dean, and his absolute resolve not to get involved in the case he had found – it all served to demonstrate clearly just how determined Sam is to make a clean break from hunting and the supernatural, believing it to be his best hope of not falling into temptation once more, since he doesn't trust himself not to give in.
Sam's determination to avoid all human interaction, as far as possible, also shone through, despite being constantly thwarted by his co-worker Lindsey, and the slow, reluctant bond he established with her over the course of the episode was really well played. Ever since season one Sam has believed that he brings danger to the people around him – how much more so now? Trouble is, no man can be an island, and so his effort to isolate himself was perhaps always doomed to failure. Lindsey saw him as a mystery she wanted to solve – and her reassurances and the unexpected parallel she provided to his situation gave him reason to at least begin to hope, for the first time in a long time.
"No one has ever done anything so bad they can't be forgiven, that they can't change," said Lindsey, and those were words that Sam desperately needed to hear, while her situation, as a recovered alcoholic working in a bar, provided evidence that it is possible to resist temptation, even when it surrounds you. Having overcome her personal demons, Lindsey demonstrated a kind of inner strength that Sam now needs to aspire to, and her example maybe gave him the confidence to believe that perhaps he can achieve it after all.
Given that first Bobby and then the random trio of hunters he sent on the case Sam had found – not to mention the vision of Jessica that Lucifer sent to him – all heavily implied that Sam's decision to retire from hunting to focus on his personal problems amounted to little more than running away, the message of this episode would seem to be that Sam has to be Lindsey. He needs to become the equivalent of an alcoholic working in a bar, surrounded by temptation yet strong enough to resist – has to pick up his weapons and start hunting again, allow himself to come face to face with temptation and find the strength within himself to resist it, because fighting the Apocalypse is more important than dealing with his own issues.
The trouble with that comparison is that Lindsey has had three years sober, time and space to build up her strength and determination to reach this point, no doubt slipping and sliding along the way – and without anything like the pressure of a full-scale Apocalypse on her shoulders. Sam has only been clean for a couple of weeks at most, and is struggling with overwhelming, catastrophic guilt and shame as well as his addiction. It hardly seems fair to expect such superhuman feats of emotional endurance from him…but then again, it also wasn't fair that Dean was expected to simply shrug off his hell trauma last season because it was inconvenient to the war effort. At times it seems that Show is sending out something of an uncomfortable message that Real Men do not suffer from emotional baggage, but instead are able to instantly repress, no matter how awful, and can achieve the impossible regardless. It isn't the healthiest message ever, however expedient in terms of progressing seasonal arcs.
Still. Time will tell how the character arcs play out this season.
Sam's dramatic and painful confrontation with the trio of hunters was intriguing for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it confirmed that the close involvement the Winchesters have had with the unfolding Apocalypse has remained a closely guarded secret up until now…but it remains a secret no longer, and it remains to be seen how the hunting community at large will react to the news of Sam's demon blood addiction, psychic powers and responsibility for triggering the Apocalypse.
On that point, yes, I know that Sam merely broke the final Seal and there were 65 before it, but those hunters we saw here aren't going to care for such technicalities any more than Sam himself does – for it was also clear from this episode that, perhaps understandably, Sam remains fixated on the breaking of that final Seal as the symbol of his catastrophic failure. "I did it. I started the Apocalypse," he said, taking full responsibility onto his own shoulders and unable to see past his overwhelming guilt. That will be the message that the surviving hunters take back to the rest of the community – and this coming after Gordon Walker had already sowed such seeds of doubt about Sam's humanity way back when. It'll be very interesting to see how the hunting world reacts to this news. Having missed the variety provided by interaction with the ever-paranoid hunting community since Gordon's demise, I look forward to seeing how this one plays out.
Actually, it also really makes me long to see Ellen and Jo again, to see their reaction as the news reaches them, which it surely will – especially after last week, when they saw both brothers and Ellen specifically asked Sam what was wrong with him and Dean, and he prevaricated, avoided confessing the full truth.
One thing this episode did prove, however, was that Sam is stronger than he maybe believes, where the demon blood is concerned. We saw his addiction growing ever greater in intensity last season, saw the agonies of his withdrawal, saw how desperately he wanted it as recently as last week – but here, even after having it forced into his mouth, he maintained his fierce resolve to abstain and spat it back out. I don't think I have ever been so proud of him.
I'm just not sure he is capable, yet, of recognising that achievement for what it was, especially not given the circumstances in which it happened and what came later, with his dream/vision/whatever putting the fear of Lucifer into him – and being designed, as it was, to undermine his self-confidence, just as he had learned to at least begin to hope once more. Plus, the violence and rage he displayed in that fight with the hunters demonstrated another reason why he has removed himself from the field of play – he is still teetering on the edge, and that wasn't because of the blood. The problem is me, he said last week. How far I'll go. There's something in me – scares the hell out of me. He caught another glimpse here, and it clearly unnerved him as much as it terrified Lindsey. Sam is making progress, and we are seeing more and more of the old Sam with each passing week, but he still has a ways to go.
The revelation that Sam is Lucifer's intended vessel came as no surprise, but did draw an almighty groan from me. Seriously. I know a lot of fans are terribly excited about the dramatic parallel being set up here, Dean as Michael's vessel and Sam as Lucifer's, but the whole thing just feels ridiculously overblown and contrived to me at present, and I am really beginning to struggle with the scale of coincidence we are being asked to swallow of late. More than anything I do not want to see Dean and Sam duking it out as Michael and Lucifer. I want them to end this season and this Apocalypse as themselves, Dean and Sam, reunited and reconciled and at one another's side, working as a team to fend off all comers – and since the Michael and Lucifer cards are being laid out on the table so very early in the season, I fully anticipate many a twist in the tail still to come.
Rather more frustratingly, this revelation saw yet another contradiction to the ever changing rules regarding angelic possession, a mythology that was already fraying at the seams. First it seemed that any suitably special person who consented and was convenient would do, then we learned that each angel was matched to a very particular individual and only that individual (or perhaps another in their bloodline) would do, this concept being the entire basis of the Dean-Michael connection. But now we are told that actually angels can take alternate hosts, after all – a reserve, as it were. So, that being the case, why doesn't Michael just go find his reserve, since Dean is so unwilling, and use the backup to go after Lucifer (and his reserve), leave the Winchesters out of it? Why do either Michael or Lucifer need a host in the first place? Michael doesn't need to interact with humanity to fight Lucifer, surely – and it isn't as if he is likely to be concerned about human casualties anyway!
Also, I'm still not entirely convinced by Lucifer's whole 'I always tell the truth' routine, because…well, just because someone says something doesn't mean that it is true, especially on this show! Just because he says 'I always tell the truth' doesn't mean that he isn't lying!
Overall, Sam's story here gets a thumbs up – while judgement on the mytharc shall be reserved until further information becomes available.
Dean
Dean's story…wasn't as smoothly or as consistently told as Sam's in this episode, unfortunately, combining elements that I really enjoyed with elements that I really, strongly disliked. The overall impression, however, was pretty much what I might have expected: the story of a deeply lonely man trying hard to make the best of his situation and pretending to be completely okay with it. Dean always was the king of denial.
That little montage of the brothers apart at the beginning showed a Dean who was dealing with being alone pretty much as might be expected: burying himself in the hunt and taking grim, albeit lonely satisfaction from his work, that work being all he currently has in his life. It showed a Dean who was focused and driven – while his pensive little glance at the empty passenger seat showed clearly how much he misses having his brother at his side, however determined he is not to admit it.
Being alone is exactly what Dean has never wanted for himself – it is how he has spent most of his life fighting not to end up. And yet here he is, after all those years of striving, alone anyway – and more or less by his own choice, at that, but a choice that was made as a result of painful circumstance rather than any personal ambition. The Dean we saw in this episode is off-balance, struggling to establish his individual identity without his family around to define himself by, somewhat bitter toward the universe in general for placing him in this position, and yet fiercely determined to convince himself that this is a good thing, that he wants to embrace life alone. He certainly isn't ready to deal with Sam again just yet, and after 26 years of devoted care and attention the sheer relief of not having to look after his brother any more must surely be immense – and yet his attitude throughout the episode betrayed how much he does want Sam back, despite it all, even if he won't admit it, even to himself. He certainly stressed the temporary nature of his separation from his brother when Castiel asked.
Dean's reaction to Castiel's unheralded and uninvited appearance predictably revolved around mild irritation. He has come to consider Castiel a friend and an ally, albeit highly unpredictable on both counts, but that doesn't mean that the angel's presence is either welcomed or especially desired, signalling trouble as it usually does.
It was very interesting to hear, incidentally, that Castiel asked Bobby for Dean's current location. For one thing, boy would I have loved to see that conversation, Bobby and Castiel alone together! And for another…it struck me as slightly worrying that if it could occur to Castiel to get to Dean via Bobby, then it could occur to Zachariah, as well, which would not be good. It's a point worth pondering, even if Show never takes that angle. Castiel's statement also confirmed for us that Dean has remained in close contact with Bobby, unlike his brother – which makes sense, of course, since Dean has no reason to break off contact the way that Sam has.
I really enjoyed the whole first scene between Dean and Castiel, at the motel: the two of them dancing around one another as usual, Dean adversarial, Castiel defensive, neither entirely sure where he stands with the other and yet tied to one another by circumstance. Dean still resolute in his conviction that Castiel's search for God is a fool's errand, but less aggressive about it, more mindful of Castiel's feelings on the subject, although taking pains to make the point that he would like his necklace back, please, another subtle hint that he misses his brother. Castiel trying hard to maintain his poise but visibly floundering – and it was this that convinced Dean to join him on his apparent fool's errand in the end.
After millennia of service to heaven and constant communion with his angelic brothers, although he is trying hard to at least give the appearance of confidence, drive and purpose, Castiel is now alone and very afraid and is way, way out of his depth, clutching tightly to Dean as his sole anchor in this bleak and uncertain landscape. And I just really like that all his apparently logical reasoning was absolutely not going to get Dean to budge from his anti-God stance, but that his simple and honest plea for help, one friend to another, one lonely soul to another, was all it took to overcome Dean's objections and bring out his inner caretaker. That was just so Dean.
I also enjoyed Dean's objection to Castiel's automatic intent to teleport them wherever they needed to go. I mean, on the one hand it was light comic relief – "Last time you zapped me someplace I didn't poop for a week" – but on the other hand, it demonstrates Dean's determination to remain in control of his own body and destiny. He might have come to trust Castiel as a friend and ally in this war, but he has been pushed around by angels too many times already – it was only the episode before last, just a matter of days ago for Dean, that Castiel carved Enochian sigils into Dean's ribcage without asking permission first, for example. A necessary precaution, perhaps, but just another example of thoughtless angelic high-handedness toward a person who has already spent too much of his existence having other beings do whatever the hell they want to him without his consent. By insisting on driving instead of allowing Castiel to teleport him around without so much as a by your leave, Dean was exerting a little much needed control over proceedings.
Take-charge Dean is always good to see.
From that grim focus we saw at the beginning, Dean visibly brightened up once Castiel was with him, reminding us how intensely he relishes companionship – although the course of their adventure together mostly served to highlight that, as companions go, the angel really is not ideal, perplexing at best, high-handed and autocratic at worst. It is human companionship that Dean really needs and craves, specifically that of his brother – someone who knows what they are doing, whom he can trust to watch his back, and someone he can play off without effort.
Having said all that, it was (mostly) great fun to watch Dean and Castiel's interaction through the episode, as for just about the first time since they met they were each giving the other something that he needed, since in this instance what they each needed was pretty much the same thing: they both simply needed someone to be there, a companion, to not be alone. Dean was able to enjoy and appreciate Castiel's company precisely because it carried none of the emotional baggage he has with Sam.
I especially loved the scenes at the sheriff's office, both inside and out, which clearly demonstrated both just how far out of his depth Castiel is and how much of a natural caretaker Dean is. Upon arrival, Dean was content to sit back and let Castiel take the lead, since this was his investigation and Dean was merely there to lend support. It was immediately obvious, however, that Castiel did not have the first clue how to conduct the investigation, and so Dean effortlessly stepped up and took charge, every inch the mother hen, guiding his rookie partner through the process of acquiring the information they needed – and then stepping back once more once that part of the job was complete, allowing Castiel to do his thing.
I have no idea whose picture was in the fake ID Dean gave Castiel, however – presumably merely one that was vague enough to pass if not inspected closely.
The strip club/brothel…well, the less said about that the better. The whole scenario simply reeked of male writers locked away in a room someplace giggling to themselves over the mental image of an angel in a strip club so much that they just didn't think it through in terms of either storyline or characterisation. The actors did what they could with the material, but it was just really bad – appallingly sleazy, un-funny and out of character. I don't even want to go into all the ways in which it was wrong, other than to say that however much of a slut Dean can be, it felt out of character for him to push Castiel into a situation like that and to mock the girls selling their bodies for sex, and even more out of character for Castiel to appear embarrassed about being a virgin – as if angels even think such terms anyway – and for him to be so nervous and panicky at the strip club.
I can rationalise. Dean came across mostly as if he were trying to humanise Castiel, trying to find a level on which he can relate better to this bizarre and otherworldly new companion with whom his life has become entangled. Missing Sam, and with Castiel a poor replacement – and struck as he was by the bleakness of Castiel's expectations, another reminder of the grim outlook for them all – he wanted to do something utterly normal and human and stupid to try to forget about all their woes. Castiel, as mentioned, is clinging to Dean as his life raft in a stormy sea at the moment – he has rebelled against heaven and what it stands for, is lost and confused in the absence of God, and is searching for alternate guidance by which to pick his way through the troubled times ahead. He finds humans perplexing and wishes to understand them better.
Yes, I can rationalise. I still find the scenes out of character and in poor taste, however.
It was good to see Dean laughing so hard as they emerged from the strip club, though, since we rarely if ever get to see such merriment from him these days. There was an edge of hysteria to that laughter, however – a lot of pent-up emotion finding an outlet as the sheer ludicrousness of both the immediate situation and his life in general suddenly hit him hard. Sometimes you simply have to laugh. It's either that or cry. And when he said that he hadn't laughed that hard in years…all I could think of were those decades that he spent in hell. There have been fun times since he got back, but those were few and far between, and no doubt drowned out by all the bad memories currently so fresh and raw.
Castiel swearing at Raphael felt very odd – another sign, perhaps, that he has been hanging out with Dean a little too much! Or, more seriously, another sign that he is, whether consciously or not, replacing the morals of heaven that he now sees as suspect with the more questionable moral standard of his new ally, who he sees as having considerably more integrity.
When Castiel set that fire around the incapacitated man in the hospital, I expected all the fire alarms and sprinklers to go off! As for the condition of Raphael's unfortunate vessel, temporarily abandoned and highlighted to us as what Dean has to look forward to if he consents to Michael's use of his body, well, it was pretty grim. However, Jimmy suffered no such incapacity when Castiel left his body for a time – the explanation that the greater the power of the angel the worse the damage wasn't really all that convincing, either. Mostly, I found myself remembering how avidly the demons sought to capture Jimmy when Castiel left him, and wondered why Raphael's host wasn't in similar danger.
I also couldn't help noticing that the danger Castiel had believed himself to be in never really materialised – Raphael was powerful, sure, but Castiel never looked to be in serious danger. Maybe he was just incredibly lucky that his plan worked so well. Or maybe he overestimated the danger as a result of his general despondency – he and Raphael both came across pretty much as drama queens, in fact! I did, though, enjoy the subtlety of the acting, demonstrating clearly just how much Dean and Castiel's bravado was just that: a veneer of bravado employed to cover up how very afraid and uncertain they both were. And Raphael, far more than Zachariah, offered what felt like a truly honest insight into how the angels have ended up in this position: feeling the absence of God keenly, worn down by millennia of service with no end in sight, tired of the responsibility, confused and angry and resentful.
Actually, in some ways I could see parallels between the situation Raphael described and that in which Dean grew up. The angels have effectively been left alone in charge of their younger siblings: humanity. Dean throughout his childhood was regularly and repeatedly left alone in charge of his little brother, Sam. The difference is that Dean never shirked that responsibility the way the angels have now chosen to do, with their decision to let humanity go to hell in hopes that they themselves can achieve that holy grail of paradise.
So Castiel's whole Raphael expedition was pretty much a bust, in the end, gaining him only the implacable enmity of an archangel who already despised him. Nice job!
I really loved that Dean's instinctive reaction to Castiel's despondency was to try to bolster the angel's flagging hope and faith - even in a God Dean does not want to believe in himself. It is something we have seen him do for Sam on numerous occasions, and served as another reminder of what a natural caretaker he is. However much he wants to believe that he is perfectly happy to be on his own right now, the truth is that Dean needs to be needed, always has and probably always will, and having Castiel with him and so needy in this episode gave him someone to look after, went at least some way to filling that gap.
It was, however, only a stopgap measure and it was notable that even with Castiel sitting right there alongside him, Dean still defined himself as alone. He wants his brother, but right now he cannot be with his brother, and although he is trying very hard to convince himself that he is okay with that fact, claimed to be happy and content, his tone was anything but happy, speaking volumes for his bitterness and resignation, that after everything he and Sam have been through together, he has ended up alone after all.
Man, I look forward to seeing the brothers reconciled, I really do, but it feels like there is still a ways to go before it is possible for them.
Other Points
1. I really wish that Castiel and Dean would stop with the growly voice competition already!
2. Sam's naked chest! With bonus tattoo thrown in, to boot!
3. Very nice lack of layers on Dean, too, in that opening scene at the motel.
4. My, but both brothers were smoking hot in this episode. ♥
5. Domesticity, ahoy! Dean washing blood off the Impala – kinda careless of him to behead the vampire right there, though – and then washing blood out of his jacket. I love domestic boys and wish to see more details like this!
6. How come Bobby is home from hospital already? Shouldn't he have weeks of rehab first, not to mention time to get his house adapted for the wheelchair?
7. "You were wasted by a teenage mutant ninja angel?" Hee!
8. Sam calling himself Keith. Heh. Oh, Sam.
9. Hey, so Sam is clearly just as familiar with Revelation these days as Dean is. Those boys have clearly been doing a lot of Bible study this past year.
10. "Cas. We've talked about this. Personal space." A line straight out of fanfic, that one – but so exactly what needed to be said.
In other news, I appear to have totally lost my recapping mojo. Not only do my evenings and weekend keep getting hijacked, but my attention span is totally shot to pieces at the moment. So, full recaps remain on an as and when basis for the forseeable future, sorry, folks.
