Initial reaction 12.19: "The Future"

[caranfindel]

THEN: Oh, goody. It's going to be a mytharc episode.

NOW: Sad, dirty Kelly Kline is being force-fed vitamins by Dagon. Dagon reminds her again that she's going to die when the Lucifetus is born, and I wonder again why she would have showed her hand like that. She had Kelly right where she wanted her; a willing, compliant, trusting incubator. Why did she throw that away? She nags Kelly into taking a bath, in the saddest bathroom ever, complete with broken mirror. Kelly fills the rusty tub with a garden hose, apologizes to her unborn baby, takes a shard of the broken mirror, and slits her wrist.

Title card!

We have a lovely montage of Sam in the bunker, in full-blown research mode, looking through books and writing arcane markings on the map room table and just looking absolutely fantastic. He's wearing a black button-up shirt with no apparent t-shirt underneath, and he's extra scruffy. Not "The Borne Again Identity" levels of scruffy, but scruffier than we normally see him, and it's marvelous. I don't know if it's supposed to indicate something wrong, some level of obsession or lack of self care, but daaaaaamn. It's fantastic.





The future looks fucking awesome, my friends.

Dean shows up, equally dark, also a bit scruffy (thank you baby Jesus) and is impressed by Sam’s work. Since he hasn’t seen any of it, either he’s been away, or Sam did all of this overnight. I’m going with B. He calls Sam “Beautiful Mind,” which I believe last happened when Sam was first having halluciferinations, and I know there’s no reason to assume this episode’s writer is actually aware of that. It’s probably a coincidence. But in a season full of callouts to earlier (better) days, it makes me wonder.

Sam’s been figuring out when the Lucifetus will be born, which doesn’t explain the symbols written all over the table, but that’s okay. We will deal. It does explain why we saw him circling the number 18, because he’s predicted the nephilim is due on May 18, which is coincidentally the day of the season finale.

(Sidebar: I’ve complained before about Entertainment Weekly ignoring SPN when they have roundups of the best shows to watch this week, season premieres, season finales, etc. This week’s EW actually did have a blurb about the SPN season finale. And I couldn’t read it because spoilers. File this under “be careful what you wish for.” Or maybe under “seriously, she’s never satisfied.”)

Dean comments that everything bad seems to happen in May (no, he really doesn’t, but don’t you think they should have noticed a pattern by now, and here is an excellent Tumblr post relating to that) and that this gives them less than a month to find Kelly. And they don’t know what to do with her once they do find her.






How am I supposed to care about a nephilim that will destroy all humanity when I’ve got this distracting scenario to contend with?

They’re interrupted by the sound of the bunker door opening. It’s Cas!


Can we have more of these interesting things happening above Dean’s head? And can Sam notice them too, please?

Sam is happy and surprised and asks where he’s been, and Dean is stunned and angry (and hot) and asks where the hell he’s been. He’s not impressed by Cas’s explanation that he had no bars in Heaven. Sam is still kind and welcoming, telling Cas “we’re glad you’re back” (because he’s Sam Winchester) and Dean is too hurt and angry at being abandoned to express any happiness or relief at all (because he’s Dean Winchester) and instead bitches at Cas about the fact that they lost Dagon and Kelly without backup. He stomps off, and they each fall into their assigned roles: Angry Dean, Guilty Cas, Conciliatory Sam.




Not that I’m complaining.

And if you want a case of the sads, watch Sam’s face fall as Dean stomps all over his happiness at Cas’s safe return. (Except this gif probably isn't working, so maybe not.)



Some time later (presumably, since Dean rubs his shoulder as if he’s been sitting at the computer for a while) Cas shows up at Dean’s bedroom and gives him back his mixtape. For the love of God.

Scenes from the Writers’ Room

I know Destiel is never gonna be canon.

Right.

And YOU know Destiel is never gonna be canon.

Right.

But it IS fun to get them all worked up, isn’t it?

Yes. Yes it is. What are we going to do this week? Old-married-couple-style squabbling? Declarations of love that turn out to be platonic and directed at all three Winchesters?

Nah, we’ve done those this season. I’ve got something better. Look at this.

Oh, God. You’re evil.

So Cas puts “Dean’s Top 13 Zeppelin Traxx” on the desk. Without looking at him, Dean hands it back and says “it’s a gift; you keep those.” Dean explains that they were worried while he was gone, and that’s not okay. Cas apologizes some more and says that all he does is fail, and he’s tired of failing. He says that “when you were taken, I searched for months,” which is odd, because they were only gone for six weeks, but maybe he kept looking after they were found, I don’t know, and he feels guilty about Kelly escaping on his watch and he just didn’t want to come back without a win. For you. (Oddly enough, he doesn’t apologize for letting Lucifer out of the cage, which seems like his biggest sin IMHO.)

Dean would rather talk about his own failures (because he’s Dean Winchester) and he says they had Kelly and lost her. Cas asks what they’ll do when they find her, and Dean says Sam’s working on it, and he’s hell-bent (no pun intended?) on finding a solution that doesn’t require killing Kelly or the baby. Cas asks if either of the Winchester's could “kill an innocent” if Sam doesn’t find that solution. “We will find a better way,” says Dean. Translation: No, we will not kill an innocent. Because they’ve never been in that position before. Nope. Cas notes the use of the word “we” and ponders if that includes him, and Dean says “Yes, dumbass. We. You, me, and Sam. We’re just better together. So now that you’re back, let’s go Team Free Will.” Another shout-out! When did we last hear “Team Free Will?” Was it ever used again after that one episode in S5?




Dean doesn’t actually look very happy about Team Free Will assembling again.

Dean stalks off to get a beer and Cas stands in the doorway, looking around Dean’s room with a kind of suspicious expression.

Back at Casa Dagon, the demon stomps downstairs and finds a bathtub full of bloody water. But no dead Kelly Kline inside. She spots Kelly in the corner, wrapped in a towel, with blood on her wrists but no wounds. “He wouldn’t let me die,” Kelly says, with a blessed-out look on her face. Since Show keeps reminding me about S5, I immediately assume Lucifer is the one who kept her alive, just as he promised to keep Sam alive.

In the bunker, Dean finds Sam still working, and tells him to get some sleep. (If Sam worked all night figuring out Kelly’s due date, he must have been up all day and this is night two?) But Sam’s on a roll.



Sam’s also got his feet up and it’s fucking glorious.

Maybe they're going about this all wrong, he says. They can’t track Dagon, but maybe they can track the Lucifetus. And then this lovely, lovely scene goes straight to Hell.

”Remember Gadreel?” Sam asks. Except he pronounces it GADreel, or even GADriel.

”How could I ever forget?” says Dean. “The angel I tricked you into serving as a vessel for. The angel who killed Kevin. The angel who indirectly led to me getting the Mark of Cain, which resulted in me coming damn close to killing you. Twice. The angel Crowley had to possess you in order to eject. I still have nightmares about all of that. I’d do anything to undo all of the damage I caused. Yes, I remember Gadreel.”

Oh, no, wait. He doesn’t say any of that at all. He says “The psycho angel that took your body for a test drive? Yeah, what about him?” As if he had nothing to do with it. As if it was just something weird that happened to Sam, that he happened to remember. What the fuck, show. (Also, Dean pronounces it GADriel too. So maybe they’re not talking about Gadreel at all. Maybe this is some other angel who took Sam for a spin. Some angel I’ve forgotten.)

Oh well. Carrying on.

(Seriously. What the fucking fuck, Show.)





Shhh. Don’t think about it. Just mute the sound and enjoy the pretty.

Sam reminds Dean that he and Cas were working on a spell to find this mysterious GADriel, and Dean reminds Sam that they needed Gadriel’s grace and Cas couldn’t get enough of it. Although I don’t know how Dean knows this, since he wasn’t there when any of it happened. I guess Sam and/or Cas told him about it later, as they tend to do (ha ha ha I crack myself up). And then Sam is all, wait, the grace extraction! We can just extract Lucifer’s grace from the Lucifetus, because a nephilim is just a human soul with angelic grace (is it? did we know that?) so if they just extract the grace from the baby, it will no longer be a nephilim and Kelly won’t have to die.

Now, when Sam says Kelly won’t have to die, I assume he means they were planning on killing her, if necessary, to prevent the Lucifetus from being born. I don’t think he means they’d extract the grace like some kind of supernatural amniocentesis and this plan would prevent her heretofore unavoidable death after giving birth. Because I don’t think he knows about that part of it. After all, Cas didn’t know the mother of a nephilim never survives the birth, so how would Sam have known? I can only assume he plans to have Cas extract the grace after the baby is born. And that leads to some uncomfortable issues if it doesn’t work. But Dean is convinced this is the answer and Sam is happy and proud of himself and aw, boys, I just want this for you. (What did I say earlier about being careful what you wish for?) Dean leaves to get Cas and finds his room empty. And there’s sad music playing, so we know he’s not just in the bathroom. (Also the fact that he’s an angel, but if God takes long showers, there’s no reason an angel couldn’t. Just saying.)

Cut to Kelly and Dagon, who have already long outworn their welcome on my screen. Dagon can’t imagine why Kelly doesn’t want to be the not-quite-virgin Mary giving birth to evil Jesus, but Kelly says her baby isn’t evil, because he saved her. Oh, it was the baby, and not Lucifer? That’s disappointing. Dagon says he saved himself, not Kelly, and she’s still going to die when he’s born. And Dagon will raise him. By the way, Kelly’s little bloodbath not only cleaned her up, but it freshened her makeup, hair, and clothes too. Oh, Lucifetus. What can’t you do?

Now we see Cas in his old truck, meeting Hot Angel Kelvin to give him… The Colt? Oh, no, Cas. Bad angel. He tells him there are only two bullets in the chamber, but that’s okay, because they only need one for Dagon and one for Evil Jesus’s incubator. Kelvin explains that Joshua tracked a “celestial pulse” to a house nearby. Cas’s phone rings, and it’s Dean, who’s calling for at least the third time. If I were Cas, I’d have silenced my phone by now. Kelvin praises him for following Joshua’s plan and putting angelkind above the Winchesters and Cas is all, I’m doing this for the Winchesters, because Sam is nice to me and Dean made me a mix tape and I want to keep them safe from Dagon, and kill the girl so they don’t have to do it.

Surprisingly enough, Cas doesn’t manage kill either Dagon or the girl (shocking, I know). Cas wastes a bullet, Dagon kills an angel, and Cas is unable to shoot Kelly after all, and flees with her instead. And that worked out so well last time.

In the bunker, Sam is calling Cas and getting no response, and wondering how he got the Colt out of the safe in the first place. Dean somewhat sheepishly admits it was under his pillow.



Dean Winchester has some regrets.

Dean’s ready to “kick his feathered ass,” and actually slides the angel blade into his bag. Okay, he’s probably planning to use it on a demon, but it’s still an interesting juxtaposition. Sam says Cas wouldn’t have taken the Colt unless he was up against something big, because he’s Sam Winchester. So Dean decides they'll save him and then kick his feathered ass.

Now we’re in Cas’s old truck, which reminds me that I miss the Pimpmobile. Kelly has astutely noted that he came to kill her, but didn’t. Cas considers himself a failure again, and says he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he’s just trying to put distance between Kelly and Dagon. Because it’s not like demons can teleport or anything.

Speaking of Dagon, she’s communicating with Lucifer, lying that everything is fine, but he knows she’s lying and gets marvelously angry. “So you let the Winchesters’ purse dog take my son?” Mmm. Gotta like some angry Lucifer, and when he blows up at Dagon, it’s hard not to imagine him blowing up at Sam in the cage. Lucky for her, Dagon has Hot Angel Kelvin chained up, so he’ll probably help.

Cas and Kelly made it to a hotel, where we see Cas on a cell phone “communicating with Joshua.” Is that the only way angels can communicate now? Because I’m pretty sure they used angel radio earlier in the season. Cas has been ordered to take Kelly to Heaven, where her life and the Lucifetus’s life will end, “swift and painless.” He tells her “your souls will ascend to Heaven, and every cell of your beings will return to the universe,” and considering that just yesterday she slit her wrists In a rusty bathtub, this doesn’t seem like such a bad end to me. He apologizes, and tells her it’s necessary because her child will be too powerful and “could bring the universe to its knees.” But Kelly believes her baby won’t be born evil, and Cas says “I can’t take that chance.” And I wish he had simply said “no, it’s a known fact that your baby will be born evil; there’s no other option.” Because that’s the assumption he’s been working on all along, and admitting that it’s not 100% kind of comes out of nowhere. (Unless I haven’t been paying attention because I’m not really into this particular plot? Perhaps.) Unfortunately, the crappy old truck won’t start (I bet the Pimpmobile would have started)

Meanwhile, Dagon is hard at work encouraging Hot Angel Kelvin to help. He says he doesn’t know where Cas is, and I’m surprised it doesn’t occur to anyone that he might take Kelly to the bunker.

Cas and Kelly have checked into the hotel, where he expects her to hang out while he fixes the truck and drives her to her death. At least this time he doesn’t let her disappear into the bathroom. Chances are they’re going to be there a while, since he’s googling websummoning “How to fix a truck.” (Also, I find Websummon an amusing name for a search engine.) Kelly tells him that she killed herself and the Lucifetus saved her, and he realizes that was the “celestial pulse” felt in Heaven. She’s sure her baby is good, even though Cas says the same thing Dagon did - the baby needs her alive. Kelly thinks that maybe everything she’s gone through is some sort of plan, and Cas knows differently. He tells her he used to think he had a mission, but now he knows otherwise. There’s no plan; Lucifer is just sowing destruction for the hell of it (ha ha) and she just happened to be there. She still thinks her baby could be good for this world, because she just doesn’t get it, and Cas tells her she won’t survive the birth, so even if her baby is good, and isn’t inevitably evil, who will take care of him and keep him on the righteous path?

Oh. Wait. Cas knows Kelly will die? He knows the mother of a nephilim doesn’t survive the birth? So he knew, just a few episodes ago, that Lily Sunder couldn’t possibly be the mother of a nephilim, and therefore he knew Naughty Angel Isham was lying? Because I swear it seems Ike that episode went in a different direction. How odd.

And then Kelly lets Cas feel the baby kick and he is lost in wonder at the miracle of life and then her eyes glow amber and he has a vision of telling someone to stay away from her at the stairway to Heaven. Well. That was unexpected. I thought it was going to be a mushy oh wow there’s a real live baby in there and Cas would suddenly be unable to end it, and I’m glad they didn’t go that direction.

Then there’s a knock on the door, and of course it’s Sam and Dean, and my joy is somewhat measured because Sam’s wearing that godawful orange coat again.


I hope someone manages to burn this coat before the end of the season.

Dean angrily slams Cas against a wall until Sam points out that he has Kelly. Cas wonders how they found him, and Dean says Sam put a tracking app on his phone. And I guess that makes sense, that after he was missing for a few weeks, they’d be more interested in keeping up with his whereabouts, but it’s not like it would have worked when he was in Heaven, so I’m going to call it a little too convenient and then get on with my life. Oh, wait, Sam says Cas wouldn’t look them in the eye, so his suspicion makes more sense.

Cas updates them on his progress, or lack thereof, and says he was trying to keep them safe by keeping them out of it. Not your job, Dean responds, and when have we ever been safe anyway? Which is funny because Dean has done this very thing to others (and by others I mean Sam). When the Winchesters learn of Cas’s plan to take Kelly and the Lucifetus to Heaven, Sam explains his idea about extracting the nephilim’s grace. Cas seems to think it could work, but the only reason it didn’t kill Sam is because they didn’t finish. But it beats the hell out of certain death, Dean says, because now Dean also knows Kelly can’t survive the nephilim’s birth? Whatever. Kelly doesn’t agree, because extracting his grace takes away the thing that makes him special. Cas agrees to take Kelly back to the bunker and work out a new plan, and he escorts her to the Impala. Since the car is locked, Dean tosses the keys to Cas. Cas helps Kelly into the front passenger seat and then sits in the back, tossing the keys into the driver’s seat. Kelly decides to take matters into her own hands, and as Sam and Dean “discuss” the situation in the parking lot, she slides into the driver’s seat and takes off.

Kelly now believes that Cas is part of the plan. When he put his hand on her stomach, the baby told her to go to the stairway to Heaven and follow Cas’s plan. She doesn’t want Sam and Dean to take away his special Lucifetus powers, and why Kelly keeps missing the Lucifer part of this is beyond me. Cas is disturbed to find out he’s the one who’s supposed to care for the nephilim, and oddly, it’s not because the child is Lucifer’s baby, it’s because Cas considers himself a failure and not capable of taking care of the baby. So he might… accidentally kill the baby he’s trying to kill? Kelly refers to her previous self as a “cut-rate political flack” and I don’t really know what a flack is. Does she mean hack? (Yes, she was such a bad hack that she didn’t even know the word is hack.) But if a failure like her can create something as wondrous as the Lucifetus, so can Cas!

Cut to Dean fixing Cas’s crappy old truck. Which makes perfect sense. We know the Winchesters are morally opposed to stealing cars, even if it’s the only way to catch up to someone who is about to do something really, really stupid and possibly universe-ending. The only thing to do is fix Cas’s truck and follow him in it.



But Mechanic!Dean is always a welcome treat, so okay.

Nighttime. Cas and Kelly approach the Heavenly Sandbox and are greeted by… No. No, this is not Joshua. Joshua was that sweet, gentle, older guy we saw in “Dark Side of the Moon.” This twerp is not Joshua. What’s wrong, Show; you think we can’t handle two black angels in the same episode? Anyway. Crappy!Joshua greets Cas and Kelly and is suddenly zapped by Dagon, who talks for a long time because we needed to hear whatever’s going on in Dagon’s head. This episode has really been light on Winchesters.

Luckily, just as she’s about to smite him, the Winchesters pull up. It must have taken about 10 minutes to fix Cas’s truck. Sam shoots her with a regular gun and does some badass reloading, then gets tossed aside while Dean shows up with the Colt. Unfortunately, Dagon wrests the Colt from Dean’s grip and melts it down with her evil demon grip. Which is sad, but I was concerned about it being a deus ex machina for every future monster, so I’m not gonna complain that much.

Cas tells Kelly to run, which she should have done as soon as Dagon showed up, rather than standing there with her mouth open. But I wanted to see the Winchesters on the ground too, so I can’t blame her for hanging around.









Mmmm. It was worth it.

Kelly takes Cas’s hand and her eyes glow amber again, and then we see fiery veins of power make their way from her hand to Cas’s, and up to his face. His eyes glow angel blue and then amber, and as Dagon rears back to smite him, he grabs her arm and stops her with the might power of the Lucifetus. “Call it a miracle,” he says, and she bursts into flame. Sadly, Sam’s coat is not involved in the conflagration.




Astonished Winchesters, so pretty.

Aftermath! Sam and Dean tentatively approach Cas and ask “what was that?”
“It was me,” he says, “but it was also…” Significant look at Kelly’s belly. He heals Dean’s injured arm, and there’s kind of a sense of wonder, as if he hasn’t been able to do that lately. But we know he’s had healing powers this season, so I don’t know.



Whatever. Look at the pretty pictures. Look at how tiny Cas is.

He thanks them for coming to the rescue, tells them he’s not lost any more, says that the child must be born with all of his power, and gently boops them on their foreheads. It’s a little reminiscent of Godstiel. Cas and Kelly leave the Winchesters sprawled on the ground, unconscious, which is probably perfectly safe. Kelly asks what the baby told him, and Cas says “He didn’t tell me; he showed me. The future.”

So. Is Cas under Lucifer’s influence? Or is the baby actually capable of good? What do you think about all of this? And whether or not the plot was worthwhile, wasn’t it awfully pretty? And directed by Amanda Tapping, who played Naomi! Once again, Naomi is telling Cas what to do. ;-)

No spoilers in the comments, please!

Comments

[mlknchz.livejournal.com]

"Dean's 13 all time best Zepp traxx" is SO middle-school circa 1976.

Sam was drawing astrological figures at the beginning, specifically Cancer

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Ah thanks. But a May baby wouldn't be a Cancer baby, would it?

[mlknchz.livejournal.com]

NOPE....but that's what he was drawing....ALSO, the ep was directed by Amanda Tapping, which is mega-cool :)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Aggggh I hated this episode...it's the first this season I've felt so vehemently about but I don't know if that's because my disappointment has been building for a while or because it specifically did many things I hated or because it was sooooooooooo boooooooooooooooooooring, it (almost) made BuckLemming episodes look interesting.

Does ANYONE like the Lucifer-baby plot? In the entire fandom? If so, why? I'm serious, I'd like some reason to care about this arc, even a little.

Thank you for blaming that stupid Gadreel line on the writers, and not on Dean, because it's not his fault his character is being butchered (okay Cas got the worst of it this ep. Forget the nonsensical stupidity of his betrayals -- he's seen what the Winchesters can do how many times now, and he wasn't willing to give them even another week to come up with a solution? -- I'm still trying to figure out how he was gone for weeks in Heaven doing nothing but having a chat with Joshua, does time flow slower there or what?)(also, it's great that Sam can be so forgiving and caring and understanding, because everyone knows Dean can never be any of those things; all he can ever be is angry or grudgingly apologetic, the s12 writer's guide says so. But given that Cas did just leave them hanging, for no reason, and then stole the Colt from them...wouldn't Sam be at least a little annoyed? Or did he become a Vulcan when I wasn't looking?)

Also yeah, why did no one remember how to pronounce Gadreel? It's said like it's spelled, not that hard...

So yeah, I wish this ep would go die in a fire. Along with Sam's jacket (except not really because I like that jacket, the color is a little much but the way it frames his shoulders makes up for it...)

Although I don’t know how Dean knows this, since he wasn’t there when any of it happened. I guess Sam and/or Cas told him about it later, as they tend to do (ha ha ha I crack myself up).

Actually this was one of the few things I liked. Because it means that Sam & Dean (and maybe Cas) did, at some point, talk about this attempt. And while I know the common assumption is that they never have dealt with the fallout of s9, I prefer to think it's something they have worked through off-screen, along with the other crap in their lives.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad you found some things to like, even if the orange coat was one of them. ;-)

So much weirdness. It was like the writers scoured early episodes to look for details to use (TFW! Zeppelin!) and forgot about the last 5 seasons.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The orange coat may prove to be the biggest point of contention in fandom for this season! (because we actually seem mostly in agreement that it's got massive problems otherwise...)

It's almost amazing, how the writers are managing to be so sensitive and aware about some of the stuff the fans love, and so completely tone-deaf to the rest of it?

[z-publicizes.livejournal.com]

I think you need at least a dark olive skin tone to pull of burnt sienna. But I like the jacket because it furthers my headcanon that Sam has questionable taste in clothes. Most of his outfits vary between drab and nondescript, but then occasionally you get plaid with clashing colors or a bunch of snaps in weird places or orange.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I confess, I have questioned Sam's fashion sense since early seasons and that hideous white+ shirt that always looked like it was inside out. HATED that shirt :P

...frankly the fact that Sam goes around wearing anything but that black workout suit in "The Purge" is a crime. Or should be. :P

[z-publicizes.livejournal.com]

That was the one with the yoga, right? The bunker could do with a yoga studio. Every episode's brother moment could be Sam and Dean doing yoga together and talking about their feelings.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

YES I am in full support of this plan! (can Dean wear ridiculous headbands? and maybe legwarmers from time to time. Basically I want Dean to look like he's stepped out of an 80s workout video.)(Sam can wear anything as long as it's tight.)

[z-publicizes.livejournal.com]

Well, Dean does have a thing for getting into character. I'm sure there's a way to get him to go for the full 80's Jane Fonda look.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

But the black shirt he wore in this episode belongs in the hall of fame!

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

It's almost amazing, how the writers are managing to be so sensitive and aware about some of the stuff the fans love, and so completely tone-deaf to the rest of it?

Odd, isn't it?

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

As usual, so much of this review had me laughing my head off!

By the way, Kelly’s little bloodbath not only cleaned her up, but it freshened her makeup, hair, and clothes too. Oh, Lucifetus. What can’t you do?

Lucifetus is now one of my top ten references to this plot-spawn from hell. Cas being all tale between his legs/I've fucked up/I always fuck up/I don't deserve to share the same earth with you guys/but fanservice is getting soooo old. They like to say we'll see the old Cas, but we haven't since S6. There's really no use for him these days but they keep him around. It's much more fun to watch Crowley, because even when the situations are arrant bullshit he's still snarky. Also because Rowena is still around. She used to bug me, but I enjoy her now most of the time.

I watched this morning after the broadcast and deleted it. So to be honest, some of your review was news to me! And how is one's eyes turning amber supposed to be a good thing? And why are we being subjected to brainwashed Cas AGAIN? It was lame enough the first time around! God, I despised that whole Naomi plotline. Ironic that Amanda Tapping directed this episode.

Which begs the question: does the show need directors anymore? Can't they just point the cameras and do it all in their sleep?

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Cas being all tale between his legs/I've fucked up/I always fuck up/I don't deserve to share the same earth with you guys/but fanservice is getting soooo old.

Yeah; I'd love old Cas, but not a retread of Godstiel or Leviathan!Cas.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Do you remember in S4, when he got in Dean's face and called him "boy"? I want that Cas back.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

YES PLEASE.

[kribban.livejournal.com]

Your reviews keep me sane.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

<3

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

For a heavy myth arch ep that was Winchester light - I really enjoyed it. The script was rich, and while there were a few holes, I still found it quite enthralling. I liked how they finally gave Cas some sort of purpose, even it if it could be a little misguided. I loved the Dagon and Lucifer scene, and I think Amanda did a lovely job directing and I hope we see her again. The ending was ominous and I loved it! I have no idea if Cas and Kelly are under some kind of 'spell' from the baby, or is they really are right. This could make for some interesting storytelling. Out of all the directions they could have gone with this, I'm happy this is the route they're taking, a kind of it-could-go either-way direction. Also it aligns the brother together again, and not on separate sides, which I'm always a fan of.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Also it aligns the brother together again, and not on separate sides, which I'm always a fan of.

That's something we can all agree on!

[ex1led-nyer.livejournal.com]

"The future looks fucking awesome, my friends." Indeed.

I disliked this episode overall, because I am among those who hate the whole Lucifetus plotline. And it concerns me that it's going to be born on the finale, because that suggests a clifffhanger that will continue the angel-demon drama in S13.

Also, how is it possible that Cas has STILL not learned that any time he thinks he's doing the right thing, he's not. Every single time he has one of those impulses, he should do the exact opposite. I'm way beyond ready to be rid of Cas. He doesn't have to die, just go to Heaven and fucking stay there.

I thought the music was a bit heavy-handed in this episode. Otherwise, nice directing by Amanda Tapping.

[percysowner.livejournal.com]

My personal opinion is that Cas doesn't learn because he always gets pretty close to insta-forgiveness after he screws up. He kills 50% of all angels, within 3 seasons the angels are announcing they need an leader and CAS is the ideal candidate. He breaks Sam's wall. As soon as he's back Sam forgives him. He takes Jimmy away from his family, then when Jimmy is free extorts Jimmy into taking him on again by saying he'll use Jimmy's daughter instead then gets Jimmy killed? Claire is mad at him for like 5.2 seconds then decides that since he looks like her Dad and since she's been told her Dad died a hero that what Cas did was okey dokey. Release Lucifer from the Cage a second time? Totally ignored because he got trapped in his own mind.

People were still banging on Sam for releasing Lucifer through what, season 11? Cas looks all woobie and says he feels bad and THAT is apparently enough to get him a get out of jail free card. Why should he learn that what he does is always wrong? Other people are the ones who bear the consequences of his decisions, Cas, not so much.

Sorry, it's one of my great problems with the character and story line for Cas.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Cas's only true consequence seems to be his own guilt!

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

It would be do nice to have old BAMF Cas back, who had his own agenda and wasn't the Winchesters' purse dog. And having him under the control of the Lucifetus is not the same thing!