Initial reaction 12.19: "The Future"
Apr. 28th, 2017 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caranfindelTHEN: 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’sgoogling 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!
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
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!
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Date: 2017-05-01 04:08 am (UTC)