Initial reaction 14.07: “Unhuman Nature”
Nov. 30th, 2018 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caranfindelAh, Stewart. We meet again.
THEN: Dean will kill Jack if he has to, but Sam will stop him if he can. Jack lost his grace but gained Dean's love and then coughed up a bunch of blood and collapsed and also there's some Nick nonsense that I don't care about.
NOW: Nick killed a priest. thank u, next!
Title card!
Jack's in bed, seemingly asleep or unconscious. Cas does some healing mojo on him as Sam and Dean wait in the hall like a couple of expectant fathers in the 50s, but it doesn't work, and he coughs up more blood. Cas comes out and confesses his failure. We hear a thump from the bedroom and see Jack on the floor, convulsing and foaming at the mouth. The Impala speeds through the night, and then we're in a busy emergency room, where someone at a desk insists on asking a lot of questions before they take Jack anywhere. She starts with basic questions, like his name, and Dean has to look to Sam to see what his last name is. Surely he hasn't forgotten "Kline," right? I think they're just deciding which name to use. And I don't exactly want to erase Kelly Kline's presence, but I sure would have appreciated it if they'd decided to call him Winchester.
Dean also can't remember Jack's birthday, and once again Sam comes through, because Sam is the boy's real parent and we all know it. But then the clerk or nurse or whatever she is starts trying to get a medical history, and that's not how this works. At least, not in any ER I've ever seen. They're not going to get a lot more than insurance information up front, and then they'll take you back and start getting a medical history. In private. So this is annoying and stupid. And since (surprise, surprise!) it's a BuckLeming episode, we get some "humor" about his father's cause of death.
Then Jack collapses, and that's what it takes to get loaded onto a gurney and taken, I assume, into an ER exam room. So I'm annoyed when TFW is kicked out, because, once again, that's not how it works in any ER I've ever been in. But maybe they're just extraordinary flexible about that in these parts. They cut off his shirt and poke at him and take CT scans of his brain and the guys wait and pace and worry. Dean's freaking out quite a bit, to let us know that he really cares about Jack now, in case you were wondering. They interrupt this for some more Nick nonsense, but it's completely irrelevant so I'm going to ignore it.
Pretty worried Sam WITH A PEEK OF CHEST HAIR? YES, PLEASE.
The waiting continues. Dean comments that he was worried about Jack being hurt by a vampire or a ghoul, not a cough. The doctor shows up and tells them Jack's test results were all negative (which always reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where George thinks negative tests results are bad and positive are good), and they have no idea what's wrong with him. And they want to run more tests.
At this point, I finally see the sign on the door that says they're in ICU, not the ER. Which is a good place to be, because "Jack's in total systemic failure. His body's in the process of shutting down." (I've only heard this referred to as "systemic organ failure," and Google doesn't think "total systemic failure" has anything to do with medicine or the human body, but I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV, so maybe "total systemic failure" is a thing. Or maybe it's a BuckLeming thing. You be the judge.)
As Cas sits in the room with Jack, Dean asks Sam "how much longer are we going to do this?" I thought he was talking on a meta level, as in, our lives are a total systemic failure, how much longer are we going to keep losing people? But he actually means how many tests are they going to let Jack undergo. Sam agrees that they're done, since modern medicine doesn't even know what Jack is, let alone know how to figure out what's wrong with him and treat it. Dean says he even thought about calling Rowena, heh heh, how ridiculous would that be, and Sam's all, "I already called her." OF COURSE YOU DID. The doctor comes back as TFW bundles Jack up to leave, claiming they're getting a second opinion.
Bunker. Sam and Rowena! \o/ I really hope Jared and Ruth enjoy working together as much as I enjoy watching them work together. They have this conversation:
Thanks for coming.
I got here as quick as I could. How is he?
Well, um.
I brought the Book of the Damned.
Which ah, you stole.
Which I borrowed. Amidst the ruckus of those folks arriving from the other world, but we can talk about that later. Just how sick is Dean?
Yeah, about that. Um.
Is this a trick, Samuel? I thought we were beyond this!
I was confused at first, because why would Rowena care so much about Jack's well-being? And Sam knows it so he LIED TO HER to get her to come help and oh, Sam, you precious, precious boy. So this little exchange gave us (1) evidence that Rowena cares for Dean, (b) Rowena saying Samuel, and (3rd) Rowena acknowledging that she thought she and Sam had a relationship that goes beyond lying and manipulation. Relationship goals, y'all!
Enjoy these few lovely moments, because things are going to get much less enjoyable.
Rowena is not at all interested in preventing the death of Lucifer's son. "From what I know of the father, the world will be better off without the son." And we get the thing that was clever the first time this season but it's getting old, where it turns out Jack was behind her and heard what she said. "You might be right," he says. "We're all still figuring that out." He actually looks pretty damn good, considering that he was coughing up blood and foaming at the mouth pretty recently. He tells her he's trying not to be like his father, and that Sam and Dean have said such nice things about her (and behind her, Sam gives a nervous little exhale which could mean oh good, the kid can lie like a Winchester or oh god, Jack, please don't tell her the very specific nice things I said about her, I told you those in confidence and I know which one of those I want it to be), and thanks her for saving them from AU Land, and then collapses into a coughing fit like a fragile Victorian heroine.
Well, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, so kudos to the BuckLeming because I actually love this scene.
Rowena succumbs to his charms, because let's face it, the boy is charming. We see her performing a spell at his bedside, but apparently it's diagnostic, not therapeutic. He asks "how am I," and she gives him the I don't want to be the one to tell you you're dying look.
TFW is pacing in the hallway again, and Rowena comes out to tell them a nephilim falls into chaos without its grace, and its cells are "gobbling each other up." Interesting that Rowena knows so much more about nephilim than Cas does. (Sidebar: The singular should actually be nephil? nephili? Because nephilim is plural. I'm ignoring that, as the Show does.) Cas offers his own grace, because Cas never learns, does he, that his grace is always going to be inadequate. As Rowena explains that Jack needs archangel grace and blah blah blah or "it will be the end of him," we get a Dean POV with things going blurry and weird. OH NO, WHAT COULD BE WRONG WITH DEAN, I CAN'T POSSIBLY IMAGINE.
Nightclub. Nick. Don't care. (As I watched all of Nick's scenes last night, my finger hovered over the FF button but I said no, I have to watch this, there might be something important. For you guys. I do this for you. But only once.)
Bunker. Dean brings Jack a sandwich and finds that he's packing to go to Vegas, or Tahiti. My, he really seems to be in good shape right now. I've only known one person who died of systemic organ failure, and it's pretty much a downward slope. You don't have relapses where you feel like traveling to Tahiti. But maybe total systemic failure is different.
Jack is accepting that he's no longer immortal and is in fact, very very mortal, and he wants to live while he can. He doesn't want to waste time arguing with Dean, because he knows he disagrees. And of course Dean disagrees. This is Dean's MO. Dean will say no, you're not dying and will refuse to accept Jack's acceptance of it; he'll fight and fight and Sam will be the one to step in and say it's Jack's life, you have to let him do this.
Right? That's how this show has worked for 13 and a half seasons, right?
Cut to the library, where Cas, Sam, and Rowena are all frantically reading and calling and trying to find help. Sam talked to Ketch, who remains ever in our story even if he's not going to show up in person again, and got a recommendation for a shaman. Dean's vision goes weird and blurry again (SERIOUSLY GUYS I AM CONCERNED AND CONFUSED, WHAT COULD THIS POSSIBLY INDICATE) as Cas volunteers to visit Sergei the Shaman. Then Jack enters the room, carrying his bag, and Dean says they're "taking Baby for some exercise." Sam frowns at Jack trying to live his life because that's what Sam does.
NO IT ISN'T. NONE OF THIS IS RIGHT. WHY IS DEAN TAKING THE SAM ROLE AND SAM TAKING THE DEAN ROLE. WHY.
(sigh. I know why. You know why.)
(FUCKLEMING!)
Dean and Jack get food, and Dean tosses him the keys and lets him drive. It's cute but it goes on for a really long time. It's like they regret letting Sam have all the bonding scenes with Jack, and they feel like Dean has to catch up. It's annoying, is what it is.
But I do love me some ImpalaCam.
Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Sam and Cas discuss how Dean is taking the Jack situation "particularly hard." Because that's the most important thing happening here, the fact that Dean is upset about Jack's impending doom. (sigh) Sam thinks it's because he was so unfriendly to Jack at first, and feels guilty about it.
He's lost people; we've all lost people, but, um...
This feels different. Losing, um, a son, feels different.
Is it really important to emphasize that Dean feels like he's losing a son? Weren't Sam and Cas Jack's first father figures? Couldn't they be feeling some of this pain too, instead of being worried about how Dean feels about it? It's especially ironic since, of the three of them, Dean has come closest to losing a son before - with Ben, with Emma, and with Sam himself. He could be giving them some tips. ("It's gonna suck. Drink a lot. And prepare to do some really fucked-up shit to get him back.")
Oh well. Sad piano music for Dean.
At least it was a pretty scene.
Dean thinks Jack's next experience should be hooking up at a bar (aw, remember when he thought that was what Cas needed when he was on his way out?), but Jack would rather go fishing. (Yes, I did skip a Nick bit here. You're welcome.) He remembers Dean talking about fishing with John, and what a happy memory that was. And if Jack doesn't make it, he wants to have experienced "more time with you." Can we please, for the love of god, assume that he means the plural you? That he means Sam and Cas too, and not just Dean? Can we just all agree on that?
A tiny blue car pulls up at a lavishly painted travel trailer, and I'd love to see Sam Winchester unfold those long legs and emerge from it, but it's just Cas's visit to Sergei. Sergei is a suspicious type, so he's set up a holy fire trap. He has a bad fake Russian accent. I want him to say "moose and squirrel." So much. Sergei says Jack's condition can't be reversed, but it can be "shocked out of its progression." Like rebooting a computer, he says. Sir, have you tried shutting off your nephilim and then turning it back on again? Seriously, guys, it's always the first step.
Sergei pulls out a vial of archangel grace, which he bartered from Gabriel. Well, it seems like that would solve the problem of Jack's missing grace, wouldn't it? Just like when Cas absorbed another angel's grace and regained his powers? Wouldn't a refill of grace put Jack right back in factory condition? Sergei won't name a price for the grace and the necessary spell, but he says the Winchesters will owe him one.
(Sidebar: Let us never forget that they owe Rowena one as well, and I'm still waiting for her to collect.)
Back at the bunker, Rowena asks Jack if he's ready. He looks to Dean before saying yes, because Dean's blessing is the most important (OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE). Rowena reads the spell as Jack sucks down the grace. The lights flicker, so you know some magic is happening. Jack's eyes glow and at first he feels better, but then he collapses. Dean accuses Rowena of reading the words wrong, even though the words shouldn't even matter, even though the grace should have done its thing, spell or no spell.
(Thanks, Buckleming.)
Cas angrily phones Sergei, who says the spell wasn't guaranteed to work, so. Too bad, so sad, go call your dad.
All right, I can't ignore it any longer; let's get Nick's story out of the way. There's nothing you need to know other than this: the man who killed his wife and baby was possessed by a demon named Abraxis. Nick kills the poor meatsuit, and then weepily prays that he thought killing the guy would make him happy, and it didn't. I understand, Nick. At one point, I thought having Mark Pellegrino back as Lucifer would make me happy, and it didn't. It surely didn't.
Anyway. He likes killing people and doesn't want to stop. Oh, he's praying to Lucifer. Nice. Because he's bonded to him. Oooookay. And as Nick begs Lucifer to come back, we see a skeleton forming out a pool of black nothingness. Um. The Empty? Is this happening in The Empty? Is Lucifer forming like Empty Cas did? And if so, isn't it Empty Lucifer and not actually Lucifer himself? Would a vesselless angel even have a skeleton? And why is Nick powerful enough to pray an angel out of The Empty, since the only being we've seen do that before was Jack? And why am I asking about this as if it matters, as if I care, because the most important thing is I DO NOT WANT THIS. I DO NOT WANT LUCIFER TO COME BACK. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS??????
(We can't blame the BuckLeming. It's the showrunners who make that decision. But I still kinda want to punch them in the face anyway.)
So, with Lucifer's return, we get the possibility (probability) that his grace will be used to save Jack (it will turn out that he needs his original grace, not a transplant.) And it's possible (but very, very unlikely) that Sam will get to be the one who kills him. And it even opens the door to Gabriel being recalled from The Empty as well. But I still DO NOT WANT.
They do cleverly frame Nick with horns in a few shots, so, there's that.
We close with Rowena running her hands over Jack, and Dean whining that he shouldn't have taken him out. Even though THAT'S NOT EVEN THE PROBLEM, DEAN. Spare us your unnecessary guilt and angst. Sam says life is a risk, and Jack knew it. Cas said Dean made Jack happy, and did more for him "than any of us," and I start throwing things at the television, because NO. Sam and Cas gave Jack love and acceptance and protection and guidance from the very beginning and THIS IS NOT OKAY, SHOW. I can blame the Buckleming for this pile of shit, and I do, my friends, I do.
Rowena tells the boys that all they can do is "watch over him, stay by his side as he dies."
Was this the mid-season cliffhanger? It feels like the mid-season cliffhanger.
It also kind of feels like a punch in the face. And I can only blame the BuckLeming for part of it. {sigh} Oh well. As always, please keep the comments spoiler-free, thanks!
THEN: Dean will kill Jack if he has to, but Sam will stop him if he can. Jack lost his grace but gained Dean's love and then coughed up a bunch of blood and collapsed and also there's some Nick nonsense that I don't care about.
NOW: Nick killed a priest. thank u, next!
Title card!
Jack's in bed, seemingly asleep or unconscious. Cas does some healing mojo on him as Sam and Dean wait in the hall like a couple of expectant fathers in the 50s, but it doesn't work, and he coughs up more blood. Cas comes out and confesses his failure. We hear a thump from the bedroom and see Jack on the floor, convulsing and foaming at the mouth. The Impala speeds through the night, and then we're in a busy emergency room, where someone at a desk insists on asking a lot of questions before they take Jack anywhere. She starts with basic questions, like his name, and Dean has to look to Sam to see what his last name is. Surely he hasn't forgotten "Kline," right? I think they're just deciding which name to use. And I don't exactly want to erase Kelly Kline's presence, but I sure would have appreciated it if they'd decided to call him Winchester.
Dean also can't remember Jack's birthday, and once again Sam comes through, because Sam is the boy's real parent and we all know it. But then the clerk or nurse or whatever she is starts trying to get a medical history, and that's not how this works. At least, not in any ER I've ever seen. They're not going to get a lot more than insurance information up front, and then they'll take you back and start getting a medical history. In private. So this is annoying and stupid. And since (surprise, surprise!) it's a BuckLeming episode, we get some "humor" about his father's cause of death.
Then Jack collapses, and that's what it takes to get loaded onto a gurney and taken, I assume, into an ER exam room. So I'm annoyed when TFW is kicked out, because, once again, that's not how it works in any ER I've ever been in. But maybe they're just extraordinary flexible about that in these parts. They cut off his shirt and poke at him and take CT scans of his brain and the guys wait and pace and worry. Dean's freaking out quite a bit, to let us know that he really cares about Jack now, in case you were wondering. They interrupt this for some more Nick nonsense, but it's completely irrelevant so I'm going to ignore it.
Pretty worried Sam WITH A PEEK OF CHEST HAIR? YES, PLEASE.
The waiting continues. Dean comments that he was worried about Jack being hurt by a vampire or a ghoul, not a cough. The doctor shows up and tells them Jack's test results were all negative (which always reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where George thinks negative tests results are bad and positive are good), and they have no idea what's wrong with him. And they want to run more tests.
At this point, I finally see the sign on the door that says they're in ICU, not the ER. Which is a good place to be, because "Jack's in total systemic failure. His body's in the process of shutting down." (I've only heard this referred to as "systemic organ failure," and Google doesn't think "total systemic failure" has anything to do with medicine or the human body, but I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV, so maybe "total systemic failure" is a thing. Or maybe it's a BuckLeming thing. You be the judge.)
As Cas sits in the room with Jack, Dean asks Sam "how much longer are we going to do this?" I thought he was talking on a meta level, as in, our lives are a total systemic failure, how much longer are we going to keep losing people? But he actually means how many tests are they going to let Jack undergo. Sam agrees that they're done, since modern medicine doesn't even know what Jack is, let alone know how to figure out what's wrong with him and treat it. Dean says he even thought about calling Rowena, heh heh, how ridiculous would that be, and Sam's all, "I already called her." OF COURSE YOU DID. The doctor comes back as TFW bundles Jack up to leave, claiming they're getting a second opinion.
Bunker. Sam and Rowena! \o/ I really hope Jared and Ruth enjoy working together as much as I enjoy watching them work together. They have this conversation:
Thanks for coming.
I got here as quick as I could. How is he?
Well, um.
I brought the Book of the Damned.
Which ah, you stole.
Which I borrowed. Amidst the ruckus of those folks arriving from the other world, but we can talk about that later. Just how sick is Dean?
Yeah, about that. Um.
Is this a trick, Samuel? I thought we were beyond this!
I was confused at first, because why would Rowena care so much about Jack's well-being? And Sam knows it so he LIED TO HER to get her to come help and oh, Sam, you precious, precious boy. So this little exchange gave us (1) evidence that Rowena cares for Dean, (b) Rowena saying Samuel, and (3rd) Rowena acknowledging that she thought she and Sam had a relationship that goes beyond lying and manipulation. Relationship goals, y'all!
Enjoy these few lovely moments, because things are going to get much less enjoyable.
Rowena is not at all interested in preventing the death of Lucifer's son. "From what I know of the father, the world will be better off without the son." And we get the thing that was clever the first time this season but it's getting old, where it turns out Jack was behind her and heard what she said. "You might be right," he says. "We're all still figuring that out." He actually looks pretty damn good, considering that he was coughing up blood and foaming at the mouth pretty recently. He tells her he's trying not to be like his father, and that Sam and Dean have said such nice things about her (and behind her, Sam gives a nervous little exhale which could mean oh good, the kid can lie like a Winchester or oh god, Jack, please don't tell her the very specific nice things I said about her, I told you those in confidence and I know which one of those I want it to be), and thanks her for saving them from AU Land, and then collapses into a coughing fit like a fragile Victorian heroine.
Well, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, so kudos to the BuckLeming because I actually love this scene.
Rowena succumbs to his charms, because let's face it, the boy is charming. We see her performing a spell at his bedside, but apparently it's diagnostic, not therapeutic. He asks "how am I," and she gives him the I don't want to be the one to tell you you're dying look.
TFW is pacing in the hallway again, and Rowena comes out to tell them a nephilim falls into chaos without its grace, and its cells are "gobbling each other up." Interesting that Rowena knows so much more about nephilim than Cas does. (Sidebar: The singular should actually be nephil? nephili? Because nephilim is plural. I'm ignoring that, as the Show does.) Cas offers his own grace, because Cas never learns, does he, that his grace is always going to be inadequate. As Rowena explains that Jack needs archangel grace and blah blah blah or "it will be the end of him," we get a Dean POV with things going blurry and weird. OH NO, WHAT COULD BE WRONG WITH DEAN, I CAN'T POSSIBLY IMAGINE.
Nightclub. Nick. Don't care. (As I watched all of Nick's scenes last night, my finger hovered over the FF button but I said no, I have to watch this, there might be something important. For you guys. I do this for you. But only once.)
Bunker. Dean brings Jack a sandwich and finds that he's packing to go to Vegas, or Tahiti. My, he really seems to be in good shape right now. I've only known one person who died of systemic organ failure, and it's pretty much a downward slope. You don't have relapses where you feel like traveling to Tahiti. But maybe total systemic failure is different.
Jack is accepting that he's no longer immortal and is in fact, very very mortal, and he wants to live while he can. He doesn't want to waste time arguing with Dean, because he knows he disagrees. And of course Dean disagrees. This is Dean's MO. Dean will say no, you're not dying and will refuse to accept Jack's acceptance of it; he'll fight and fight and Sam will be the one to step in and say it's Jack's life, you have to let him do this.
Right? That's how this show has worked for 13 and a half seasons, right?
Cut to the library, where Cas, Sam, and Rowena are all frantically reading and calling and trying to find help. Sam talked to Ketch, who remains ever in our story even if he's not going to show up in person again, and got a recommendation for a shaman. Dean's vision goes weird and blurry again (SERIOUSLY GUYS I AM CONCERNED AND CONFUSED, WHAT COULD THIS POSSIBLY INDICATE) as Cas volunteers to visit Sergei the Shaman. Then Jack enters the room, carrying his bag, and Dean says they're "taking Baby for some exercise." Sam frowns at Jack trying to live his life because that's what Sam does.
NO IT ISN'T. NONE OF THIS IS RIGHT. WHY IS DEAN TAKING THE SAM ROLE AND SAM TAKING THE DEAN ROLE. WHY.
(sigh. I know why. You know why.)
(FUCKLEMING!)
Dean and Jack get food, and Dean tosses him the keys and lets him drive. It's cute but it goes on for a really long time. It's like they regret letting Sam have all the bonding scenes with Jack, and they feel like Dean has to catch up. It's annoying, is what it is.
But I do love me some ImpalaCam.
Meanwhile, back at the bunker, Sam and Cas discuss how Dean is taking the Jack situation "particularly hard." Because that's the most important thing happening here, the fact that Dean is upset about Jack's impending doom. (sigh) Sam thinks it's because he was so unfriendly to Jack at first, and feels guilty about it.
He's lost people; we've all lost people, but, um...
This feels different. Losing, um, a son, feels different.
Is it really important to emphasize that Dean feels like he's losing a son? Weren't Sam and Cas Jack's first father figures? Couldn't they be feeling some of this pain too, instead of being worried about how Dean feels about it? It's especially ironic since, of the three of them, Dean has come closest to losing a son before - with Ben, with Emma, and with Sam himself. He could be giving them some tips. ("It's gonna suck. Drink a lot. And prepare to do some really fucked-up shit to get him back.")
Oh well. Sad piano music for Dean.
At least it was a pretty scene.
Dean thinks Jack's next experience should be hooking up at a bar (aw, remember when he thought that was what Cas needed when he was on his way out?), but Jack would rather go fishing. (Yes, I did skip a Nick bit here. You're welcome.) He remembers Dean talking about fishing with John, and what a happy memory that was. And if Jack doesn't make it, he wants to have experienced "more time with you." Can we please, for the love of god, assume that he means the plural you? That he means Sam and Cas too, and not just Dean? Can we just all agree on that?
A tiny blue car pulls up at a lavishly painted travel trailer, and I'd love to see Sam Winchester unfold those long legs and emerge from it, but it's just Cas's visit to Sergei. Sergei is a suspicious type, so he's set up a holy fire trap. He has a bad fake Russian accent. I want him to say "moose and squirrel." So much. Sergei says Jack's condition can't be reversed, but it can be "shocked out of its progression." Like rebooting a computer, he says. Sir, have you tried shutting off your nephilim and then turning it back on again? Seriously, guys, it's always the first step.
Sergei pulls out a vial of archangel grace, which he bartered from Gabriel. Well, it seems like that would solve the problem of Jack's missing grace, wouldn't it? Just like when Cas absorbed another angel's grace and regained his powers? Wouldn't a refill of grace put Jack right back in factory condition? Sergei won't name a price for the grace and the necessary spell, but he says the Winchesters will owe him one.
(Sidebar: Let us never forget that they owe Rowena one as well, and I'm still waiting for her to collect.)
Back at the bunker, Rowena asks Jack if he's ready. He looks to Dean before saying yes, because Dean's blessing is the most important (OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE). Rowena reads the spell as Jack sucks down the grace. The lights flicker, so you know some magic is happening. Jack's eyes glow and at first he feels better, but then he collapses. Dean accuses Rowena of reading the words wrong, even though the words shouldn't even matter, even though the grace should have done its thing, spell or no spell.
(Thanks, Buckleming.)
Cas angrily phones Sergei, who says the spell wasn't guaranteed to work, so. Too bad, so sad, go call your dad.
All right, I can't ignore it any longer; let's get Nick's story out of the way. There's nothing you need to know other than this: the man who killed his wife and baby was possessed by a demon named Abraxis. Nick kills the poor meatsuit, and then weepily prays that he thought killing the guy would make him happy, and it didn't. I understand, Nick. At one point, I thought having Mark Pellegrino back as Lucifer would make me happy, and it didn't. It surely didn't.
Anyway. He likes killing people and doesn't want to stop. Oh, he's praying to Lucifer. Nice. Because he's bonded to him. Oooookay. And as Nick begs Lucifer to come back, we see a skeleton forming out a pool of black nothingness. Um. The Empty? Is this happening in The Empty? Is Lucifer forming like Empty Cas did? And if so, isn't it Empty Lucifer and not actually Lucifer himself? Would a vesselless angel even have a skeleton? And why is Nick powerful enough to pray an angel out of The Empty, since the only being we've seen do that before was Jack? And why am I asking about this as if it matters, as if I care, because the most important thing is I DO NOT WANT THIS. I DO NOT WANT LUCIFER TO COME BACK. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS??????
(We can't blame the BuckLeming. It's the showrunners who make that decision. But I still kinda want to punch them in the face anyway.)
So, with Lucifer's return, we get the possibility (probability) that his grace will be used to save Jack (it will turn out that he needs his original grace, not a transplant.) And it's possible (but very, very unlikely) that Sam will get to be the one who kills him. And it even opens the door to Gabriel being recalled from The Empty as well. But I still DO NOT WANT.
They do cleverly frame Nick with horns in a few shots, so, there's that.
We close with Rowena running her hands over Jack, and Dean whining that he shouldn't have taken him out. Even though THAT'S NOT EVEN THE PROBLEM, DEAN. Spare us your unnecessary guilt and angst. Sam says life is a risk, and Jack knew it. Cas said Dean made Jack happy, and did more for him "than any of us," and I start throwing things at the television, because NO. Sam and Cas gave Jack love and acceptance and protection and guidance from the very beginning and THIS IS NOT OKAY, SHOW. I can blame the Buckleming for this pile of shit, and I do, my friends, I do.
Rowena tells the boys that all they can do is "watch over him, stay by his side as he dies."
Was this the mid-season cliffhanger? It feels like the mid-season cliffhanger.
It also kind of feels like a punch in the face. And I can only blame the BuckLeming for part of it. {sigh} Oh well. As always, please keep the comments spoiler-free, thanks!
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no subject
Date: 2018-11-30 09:22 pm (UTC)But I'm very bitter that it took such a poorly written episode to get to this point.
Please, fastforward to the part where a very visibly sick Jack is dying and someone (please let it be Sam!) holds him while he slips into that good night.
I squealed happily when 'Jack Kline' became canon, because that's the name that he's tagged with at AO3, and it felt like fandom vindication.
I am choosing to ignore Lucifer/Nick/Mark Pellegrino because I only have so many fucks to give, and I'm all out.
Also: russians are not trustworthy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
no subject
Date: 2018-11-30 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-11-30 10:00 pm (UTC)Actually I didn't have a problem with the Dean and Jack bonding. I can see how Dean, since he wanted to kill Jack initially, would take Jack's impending demise really hard, like you know, his hating on Jack is what caused our little nougat to be in this condition...And I liked the reverse of Dean acting like Sam regarding respecting Jack's choice to live a little. Like it actually shows a little character growth on Dean's part (until it gets reversed...)
I'm going with Sam and Cas being so concerned with how Dean is handling Jack's condition because they see Dean as still emotionally fragile from being possessed and they are worried this will push him over the edge and back into his depressed and drinking-too-much mindset, and they don't want to have to deal with that again...
I have to say, my first thought about Dean's wonky vision is that whatever Jack has is contagious, but when it kept happening it seems like a major red flag about, hmm, a mysteriously missing presence that no one knows where he went...
Not sure what the point of Sergei was, other than as a plot device to materialize some archangel grace that doesn't work anyway...
The less said about Nick the better. In fact if nothing is said about the various characters that particular actor portrays, that is even better. Although I can't help myself: WHY????
BTW--Jensen said the scene in Baby with Jack was mostly improvised, the cameras were set up and the director just let the two of them go :)
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Date: 2018-11-30 11:01 pm (UTC)Maybe someday I will! :P
I don’t mind Dean bonding with Jack, but I hate the way it took away from Sam’s relationship. This episode crossed the line between in addition to Sam and instead of San, you know?
I do love that they improvised the Impala scenes. I wondered about that, since it tends to happen on ImpalaCam when they’re out on their own.
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Date: 2018-11-30 10:08 pm (UTC)I hated Dean's bonding with Jack being such a big deal. Dean wanted him dead and I don't care if he feels guilty now, Sam's bond should come first.
I don't want Lucifer back. WHY!! Okay maybe if Sam gets to kill him, I'd grudgingly accept it, but he won't. Cas who suffered so much by being FORCED to watch movies and TV and being totally unaware of what Lucifer was doing with his body, as opposed to Sam who was tortured for a thousand years by Lucifer, CAS will be the one to kill him to avenge his horrible, horrible torment. Sorry, I'm being a complete pessimist right now.
(Sidebar: Let us never forget that they owe Rowena one as well, and I'm still waiting for her to collect.) Hey I'm still waiting for the cosmic consequences of breaking the deal with Billie, but I'm not holding my breath.
DO NOT WANT THIS. I DO NOT WANT LUCIFER TO COME BACK. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS??????
(We can't blame the BuckLeming. It's the showrunners who make that decision. But I still kinda want to punch them in the face anyway.)
Hey, they are Executive Producers who pitch storylines and have the ear of Robert Singer who has a huge amount of influence on where the stories go. I'm willing to punch them in the face, no problem.
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Date: 2018-11-30 11:03 pm (UTC)Good point! I’m back in a punching mood.
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Date: 2018-12-01 01:56 am (UTC)I am also "concerned and confused" about Dean. I am confused because wtf is Michael waiting for? I thought for sure when he learned they had archangel grace he's leap out and snatch it, but no. Oh, well.
I am much more concerned however about the other theme that's been introduced this season, to whit: Dean not being a dick, or trying not to be. There are two possible reasons for this: 1/ Michael is faking Dean and getting it wrong. There's precedent for possessed vessels being nicer than the originals. For example, when YED possessed John he told Dean he was proud of him, and something similar happened when he possessed Dean's grandfather in "In the Beginning". (I have a theory, particularly in the case of John, that this happened because he had access to their thoughts so he acted out their real feelings but got how they would actually have behaved in that situation wrong.)
or, b/ (and this is why I'm concerned)
THIS IS DEAN'S LAST SEASON! O_O
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Date: 2018-12-01 02:36 pm (UTC)Oh, I would LOVE for this to be true. But I think it's way too subtle for this show.
I am much more concerned however about the other theme that's been introduced this season, to whit: Dean not being a dick, or trying not to be. There are two possible reasons for this: 1/ Michael is faking Dean and getting it wrong.
Hmm... Lots to ponder here!
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Date: 2018-12-01 10:39 am (UTC)Well, to get the linguistical question out of the way, I think nephilim is actually a pluralword, so both A nephilim and a MURDER of nephilim (my chosen crowd description) are true and correct. I don't know it for a fact I just know it's true.
I loved LOVED LOVED the scene between Sam, Rowena and Jack, I legit cried because Sam and Rowena are becoming my favourite odd couple and Jack has matured so much as a real boy. And all those shots of Sam's face again and again inbetween where you just see his sadness and his bewildered pain, trying to do everything in his power and still having to watch how his son gets taken from him, I felt like that told a lot of story that wasn't in the script. And I also felt like that line from Cas (was it) about losing a son feeling different, didn't only refer to Dean, but was supposed to emcompass what all three of them felt. Which is why I liked the bonding time between Dean and Jack and even though I can follow where you're coming from and if that was the original intention of the script (which lets be real it probably was) is a rather big and just bone to pick, I don't know why I interpreted it so differently on watching that what you laid out didn't occur to me during.
To me, it felt like Dean taking Jack out was the perfect fit BECAUSE he's one who took the longest to come around and he's the one who was there before, living on borrowed time and deciding that fuck it, he was going to live his life out to the fullest while Sam was busy never giving up (and secretly Dean counted on him not to). In a continuance of Sam's new leadership role, Dean kept his hands free to do what he does, rally the troops and find a solution, while Dean was off giving Jack something he needed, kept an eye on him and found out that yeah, in addition to Cas and Sam who are quite sure in their roles, he is actually a dad to Jack too, with all the trappings, and I did take Jack to mean all of them when he said he wanted to remember his time at the river. So I didn't feel like the bonding moments took away from Sam's relationship with Jack at all and more like it finally slotted into place the cohesiveness of their fourway bond from which Dean had been standing just a step away yet. I don't know, maybe I'm seeing too much colour in the margins. I think I'm going to have to get off my ass and fill in some blanks with another fix it...
.....
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Date: 2018-12-01 02:40 pm (UTC)Well, I like this spin on it. I don't know that I can fully buy into it, because Dean has always been about giving himself the right to die, but doing everything he can to keep others alive, whether they want it or not. (I guess one exception is, like I mentioned in my review, when he decided Cas wasn't going to die a virgin and tried to get him laid rather than trying to save him.) But it still felt like Dean was replacing Sam, not joining him, as far as being Jack's father. Maybe another spin is that he was Fun Dad, and Sam was Serious Dad, the one who knows his birthday and insurance information.
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Date: 2018-12-01 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-03 10:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-01 10:39 am (UTC)Last but not least... the Nick story of padding runtime so Jared and Jensen can spend more time with their kids. Sigh, what a collosal waste of opportunity. I do love Mark Pellegrino and I adored his Lucifer most of the way and I was willing to get on board with the Nick thread for a time, but oh lordy no. It could have been really great, had they decided to take a real look at what the trauma does to the hosts that get left behind to pick up the shambles of their lives through the lense of Nick's story and I could even have gotten the hell out of a tale where an ordinary guy that gets put through the wringer like that just snaps and goes darkside because he can't reconcile the years in the grasp of a being with no regard for ethics or human life with the structural norms of society that basically rests on us mutually agreeing that it's a good idea not to kill each other within reason. But did they HAVE bring in the all powerful supernatural element (and tease Lucifer again which is an even bigger NO NO)? Imagine if Nick had prayed to a higher power to help deal with wreck of a life - and nobody answered because what he did was just what he did - as we remember one of the best examples of show's subtle horror where it was just PEOPLE that were crazy? Now THAT I would have liked to watch. Sadly I feel like either the producers are too shallow and scared by now to tackle such a narrative path or they just think we, the audience, would be. I don't quite know which is worse.
But apart from that, I still have to give the episode credit for making me cry with the feels more than once, and endearing me more and more to the subtle awesomeness that is Alex Calvert, so it's a net positive for me.
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Date: 2018-12-01 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-01 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-01 09:01 pm (UTC)There are many, many, many other characters that could be used for this purpose. Nick/Lucifer is not necessary to the story at all, at this point!
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Date: 2018-12-03 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-03 10:15 am (UTC)So true. Unfortunately, TPTB love the guy. Or think we do.
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Date: 2018-12-03 03:25 am (UTC)I don't expect the show to be realistic, but urrrrgh, stop throwing me out of the story with unbelievable stuff like the emergency room and forgetting your own stupid canon. The best thing about this episode was Rowena calling Sam "Samuel".
Blech. All I can do is hope they've got some sort of storyline planned for Sam that actually makes a damned bit of difference after the mid-season hiatus. Not holding my breath, though. Dang, if I didn't love my fandom buds so much, I'd be bouncing this season. There's srsly next to nothing for me in 14, so far.
More blech. Sorry for the Debbie Downer-ing, heh...
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Date: 2018-12-03 10:13 am (UTC)That’s ALWAYS a good thing!
Blech. All I can do is hope they've got some sort of storyline planned for Sam that actually makes a damned bit of difference after the mid-season hiatus.
I hope so. They’ll have both Michael and Lucifer to deal with, apparently, and surely he’ll get a piece of one of them. SURELY.
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Date: 2018-12-03 06:56 am (UTC)I thought Jack was OOC. I didn’t like his brave speech or most of his dialogue with Dean which was either overly sentimental and full of platitudes like life is about the people in it, not going to Tahiti. I mean, I’ve heard that Tahiti is impoverished and not that fun outside of the resorts but that’s not the point. I did get Dean’s guilt. I was really irked when Jack said he’d had a good life. This the same person who stabbed himself, who beat up on himself for, among other things, not realizing Lucifer was evil. He’s not had a great life, he’s been motherless, threatened, confused, sad, angry. He felt exploited. Sure, he likes nougat. But honestly, not much of a reason for existing.
Of course, I’m team caramel, not team nougat, so maybe I’m missing something.
The episode felt static, like nothing really happened despite the frantic call for help to Rowena and the hospital and the fishing trip.
But I did like Sam knowing about Jack and the scene in the Impala.
(This is Ameliacareful fyi)
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Date: 2018-12-03 10:11 am (UTC)Interesting point about Jack. He’s actually had a pretty crappy life, hasn’t he?
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Date: 2018-12-03 02:29 pm (UTC)I was watched On Demand so I couldn't ff. So I just muted Nick's scenes. Because Nick. Why can't they do a fun subplot with Rowena saving people and hunting things (even if she really really doesn't want to). They managed to make Lucifer no fun after his awesomeness in Season 5.
Side note: I referred to Jack in front of my husband as "an adorable piece of nougat". He got upset, saying he could never say something like that about a woman. Trying to explain that it's not a sexual phrase but rather a i-want-to-hug-him-and-make-it-all better. I told him about "cinnamon roll" but that didn't fly either.
Side side note: Sergei? Shaman? Why? Why not bring him to the goddamn bunker?
Side side side note: Where are all of the other people roaming around the bunker?
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Date: 2018-12-03 08:03 pm (UTC)And I guess you’ll have to call Jack a cuddly widdle sugar cookie bunny next time. Maybe that will make sense to your husband.
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Date: 2018-12-03 08:38 pm (UTC)This episode was bad. There was some stuff I loved--mostly Sam looking gorgeous and his worry about Jack and him knowing when Jack's birthday is and his scenes with Rowena and Jack being sweet and winning Rowena over and Rowena calling Sam 'Samuel" (because it's always awesome when someone uses the full version of his name). I did enjoy Dean's scenes with Jack, because I don't mind the two of them bonding, but I do very much mind that all of a sudden Jack seems to be looking up to Dean more than Sam, because Sam's been there for Jack from the moment Jack was born and Dean took a long time to get around to accepting Jack at all. As for Nick/Lucifer, the less said the better.
I think that's all. Fuck sucklemming.
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Date: 2018-12-03 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-03 11:26 pm (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdxIJFe3zWM&fbclid=IwAR3a-4Xc_uUxbvqpCdfpPYaxaKRE3miQN8Bb76C-X0tfnjPDBWiljkT2XEo
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Date: 2018-12-04 01:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-04 04:09 am (UTC)Still, the only thing that rescued this episode was Rowena and unasked questions about three anxious fathers in the fake-ER setting.