Initial reaction 14.11: “Damaged Goods”

[caranfindel]

THEN: Oh, good, we're going to have a Nick episode. I was hoping for that. (NOT.) Michael is trapped in Dean's internal walk-in. Billie has bad news related to that.

NOW: Nick interrogates a demon about another demon named Abraxis. The name sounds a little familiar and I waste a few seconds wondering where I've heard it before, but then I realize it's the demon who killed Nick's family and this has been Nick's entire focus and that's how little I care about Nick and his quest, that I couldn't even bother to remember who he was after. Anyway, he learns that the hunter who last dealt with Abraxis is in Hibbing. Oooh, who else do we know in Hibbing?

Title card!

Dean is packing. Books about angels. Tools. Work gloves. I was a little afraid we were going to ignore last week's horrifying revelation, and Dean would just sit on that information for a while. But he's wearing his Red Shirt of Bad Decisions, so we know the shit is going down tonight! \o/

He leaves the storeroom and kind of looks down the hallway, which is really insignificant the first time you watch this episode, but on rewatch you realize what he's thinking right here, and that he doesn't ever expect to see this hallway again... but I'm getting ahead of myself. He goes into the library, where Sam is quietly studying in the darkness (is that a new shirt? I like it). He ignores it when Sam asks how he's feeling. Dean tells Sam he appreciates that he's trying to help him, and Sam's all, yeah, what else would I do? He asks if Dean wants to join him, and they have this conversation.

Actually, I thought I'd go for a drive, you know, just me and Baby, long stretch of road. And figured I'd make it a two-fer, go see Mom at Donna's cabin.

Yeah, yeah, that sounds great. Be good to see them. Just let me find a stopping point and get packed up.

Actually, I was, uh, I was kind of hoping for some one-on-one time with Mom, if that's cool.

Yeah. Sure, yeah. Whatever you need.

And I thought this conversation was going to break my heart, because Sam clearly does NOT think this trip sounds great, but he's going to go anyway because it's what Dean wants/needs to do, and then Dean rejects that, and Sam's little face is going to do me in. And on rewatch, it kind of seems like Dean is stalling here, like he can't bring himself to leave (but again, I'm getting ahead of myself) AND THEN THIS HAPPENS.


Dean comes around behind Sam and HUGS HIM and says "take care, Sammy" and I'm just WHAAAAT. NO THIS IS NOT RIGHT. THIS IS SUCH A BAD, BAD SIGN, SAM WINCHESTER, AND YOU KNOW IT.





And also, there goes the rest of my heart.

Cut to Mary at the aforementioned cabin, talking to Sam on the phone. She says the cabin's been quiet since Bobby took off for a few days. The old "I need a little space after killing the ghoul version of my dead son" thing. Happens to the best of us. Sam tells her he's worried because Dean's acting so weird, and mentions the hug. Mary says "that's sweet," proving that she doesn't know her sons at all. Really, Mary, you've witnessed ONE hug between them. ONE. Sam points out that they don't hug unless it's "literally the end of the world," which isn't quite true. It would be more accurate to say "unless one of us is dying or just came back from the dead," which is slightly more frequent than the end of the world Either way, Mary assures him that everything will be fine. But as Sam's talking to her, he's walking through the storerooms in the bunker and he sees some books are missing.

(Sidebar: Why are these books kept in the storeroom and not the library? And why are regular tools apparently kept with supernatural paraphernalia? Couldn't that cause problems? What if a MoL novice was sent to Storeroom 2 for a reciprocating saw and he couldn't figure out why a saw would reciprocate or what that would look like and he came back with something he dug out of a curse box instead? I'm seeing all kinds of potential OSHA violations here.)

Now we see Dean enjoying a messy burger. Oh, he's with Donna! I love Dean and Donna, y'all. She tries to ask him about himself, but he keeps deflecting. Which doesn't fool her at all, and she finally says "just wondering if you've run out of ways to ask me how I'm doing, so as to avoid me repaying the favor." She knows about Michael, because of Sam. "What, has he got a freaking newsletter," Dean grumps. But I'm glad to see Sam's been talking to his support system, because in the past, he's not done that as often as he should.

Dean ends the conversation with the typical "I'm fine" nonsense and gives Donna one of those big hugs where he looks absolutely stricken while she can't see him and then plasters on a smile when they pull apart, and you KNOW how I love when he does that. He pulls away and says "I'll see ya." But it's pretty obvious Dean is on his farewell tour and never intends to see Donna again. It's also pretty obvious that Donna can tell something is up.


(Also, is this bench in the background the same bench Sam and Dean sat on, wearing sunglasses, in 10.04?)

Dean pulls up to the cabin, which is seriously in need of some work on the root, and immediately hears gunshots. It turns out to be Mary murdering some pumpkins for target practice. (SHE'S STILL GOT THAT LOCK OF TOO-LONG HAIR.) He tells her he wants to stick around for a couple of days, which surprises her. She suggests they call Sam to join them, but he says he wants to be "a little greedy with my Mom time." No, Dean, that's not suspicious at all. Jesus. (Or, as someone on Tumblr pointed out, Sorry Sam, but Mom was MY gift.)

Mary pushes it, and Dean comes right out and says "I don't want Sam here," and again, Dean, that's not suspicious at all. How is someone who lies professionally such a BAD liar? He explains his mood away by claiming to be hangry, even though he just finished the best burger in all of Minnesota, and tells Mary he wants the one thing she can cook, something called Winchester Surprise. She heads out to the grocery store, and doesn't suggest that the son who drove all this way to see her would want to ride along. Or maybe she does, and he refuses, and they just didn't show us that part. Anyway, the important thing is, Dean's alone and he has work to do.

He gets his bag out of the Impala and strides purposely into a large shed decorated with pictures of topless guys with 70s porn 'staches. The first one reminds me a LOT of Doug 2.0, so I laugh when Dean says "Well, Donna certainly has a type." Yes she does. He finds an 8-track player, of all things, but is interrupted by a sudden burst of Michael banging on his door. The tape he chooses is the Guess Who, and the song is "No Time Left For You," which I've never liked (lots of experience with 70s music here, kiddos) but it seems appropriate. And then he gets to work, and if you thought Sam soldering last week was hot, you're in for a treat. Let's forget our annoyance with the soundtrack and concentrate on how much we appreciate Metalworking!Dean, complete with welding helmet and safety goggles, under the watchful eyes of several shirtless moustachioed cowboys.





Mmmm, yes, we do appreciate it.

(Sidebar: Where did all this metal come from?)

Meanwhile, at the grocery store, we get a fake-out where we think someone threatening is accosting Mary, but it's only a friendly employee. And we also see that Mary puts her grocery bags in the bed of her truck? So not only does she not know how to cook, but she doesn't even know where to PUT FOOD? I.e., IN THE CAB? He says buying food is new for her, because she usually buys whiskey, pumpkins, and crossword puzzles. Damn, Mary, it really seems like things aren't going well out there at the Love Shack if you're spending all day drinking, shooting pumpkins, and doing crossword puzzles. I'm gonna go ahead and call it - Mobby is doomed. She tells him she has family in town, which I expect to turn into the inevitable oh no, this guy is a demon and now he knows Dean is there.

But I'm exactly wrong. Nick pulls up in the creepiest windowless van possible and asks the guy if he knows where Mary Winchester is. Because why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't Random Grocery Store Guy know where everyone in Hibbing Minnesota, population 16,361, resident or guest, lives? Random Grocery Store Guy pretends he doesn't know who she is. Good for him.

(BTW, the fastest route from Lebanon to Hibbing is about 12.5 hours. But it's all interstate and I suspect either Winchester would take the route that uses more state highways and is 13.5 hours.)

(Sidebar: Yes, when I open Mapquest, Lebanon is always in my Recents. Is that not normal?)

Apparently Nick decides he'll just cruise the greater Hibbing area and try to find her, because we seem him after nightfall driving his creepy van. A police car drives by, and then turns around and pulls him over. He makes sure his stolen angel blade is in place and hides a paperclip somewhere on his person before the officer gets to him. Oooh, it's Donna! She cuffs him and tells him the van's been reported stolen, but she also reveals she knows he's looking for Mary, and don't like the way she lays all her cards on the table like that. Let him think you're just arresting him for a stolen car, Donna. Don't let him know you're onto his Grand Scheme.

He says his name is "Nunya" and then "Eat Me" (oooh, is he related to the Eat Me Sam met a few seasons ago?), but she's got some kind of mobile fingerprint scanner. Does this thing exist? She discovers who he is, but while her back is turned, he uses his paperclip to get out of the cuffs. They fight, and she seems to have the upper hand, but he gets her taser and that's the end of that.

Love Shack. When Mary pulls up, Dean is outside by the door to the Shed of Mysterious Building. He lies about what he's doing out there and carries the groceries inside, to where the table is set and he wants to help her cook (THIS IS NOT OKAY) and she FINALLY realizes something is up. (Also, Dean, we know you're not a terrible cook. Don't lie just to make your mom feel better.) She quietly talks to Sam from upstairs (though not quietly enough, Dean totally would have heard her in the real world) and agrees that something is going on. Sam tells her about the missing items and says he thinks he should come up, but she says to give her more time. WHY, MARY. WHY DO YOU THINK YOU ARE THE PERSON TO ADDRESS THIS AND NOT SAM. WHY DO YOU INSIST ON KEEPING HIM 13.5 HOURS AWAY. WHY. It doesn't matter, because when Sam hangs up, we see he's already on his way. YES. THAT'S MY BOY.

Dinner. Dean tells a funny/tragic story about their childhood and Mary gets a case of The Sads, realizing how much she's missed and "how much the two of you just..." Just everything, Mary. They just EVERYTHING. Together. Without John, without you. AND STILL YOU THINK SAM SHOULD SIT IN THE BUNKER AND LET YOU HANDLE THIS. DAMMIT, MARY.

Anyway. Dean says her being alive has meant "everything to me, and everything to Sam." He claims to appreciate this wonderful time they're having, but he falters when he says "there's no clouds on the horizon." Because it's a LIE. She tells him he can talk to her about whatever he's going through, and he says "Everybody keeps asking me how I am. And how I am, is I don't want to talk about it. Please."


Oh lord, his face.

Later, as he snores gently on the couch, we see Mary tiptoe downstairs and outside, to check out what's happening in the Shed of Mysterious Building. (Sidebar: Dean sleeps with one arm flung behind his back, which I think we first saw in No Escape, and I always thought it was an odd and fake-looking way to sleep until I realized I actually do that sometimes myself.) She looks through the books and things and figures out what he's doing and it must be bad because she says "no, no, no." Meanwhile, Donna is waking up inside her own cruiser. I wonder why Nick left her alive?

Dean wakes up to the sound of a ringing phone. It's not his, it's Mary's. Donna is calling to warn him about Nick. But it's too late, because when Dean goes outside, Mary isn't there. But Sam is. "Hey, whoa, easy!" he says, facing down Dean's gun, and that tickles me for some reason.

Creepy van. Nick whines to Mary. He found email from Mary in Donna's phone, giving the address of the Love Shack. He thinks Mary knows where Abraxis is. She does - the demon is trapped inside an Enochian puzzle box in a storage locker, locately conveniently in or near Hibbing. I don't care about any of this.

At the Love Shack, Sam blames himself for Nick running around like a free madman, because of course he does. Donna's APB gets a result - the creepy van has been spotted outside Grand Rapids. Donna says that's 30-40 minutes away, but Grand Rapids is actually 11.5 hours away from Hibbing. Maybe there's a little town called Grand Rapids near Hibbing. A town so small that Mapquest doesn't even know about it.

(I KNOW. NO ONE CARES. MOVING ON.)

Nick gets the Enochian puzzle box (yeah, this scene goes on FOREVER and I'm skipping a lot here, is anyone complaining? nope didn't think so) and wants to release the demon so they can talk. Mary points out that the demon needs a host to talk, and it can't be Nick and it can't be her, and she flashes an anti-possession tattoo as explanation. So drills the box open and Nick forces the storage locker employee to be the host. Abraxis says he'll tell Nick why they killed his family if he kills Mary slow and bloody.

While this is happening, we see Sam and Dean on that 30 minute/11.5 hour drive to Grand Rapids. Sam looks despondent, and they have this conversation:

Say it. I can see you want to. Might as well go ahead and say it.

All right. Nick is not a project. He's not a freaking puppy. He was Lucifer's vessel for years.

I know that, Dean, I thought -

You thought he'd what, just walk it off? Come on, man, you're not that dumb.

It's not about being dumb, Dean, it's called compassion. Look, what happened to Nick could have happened to me. It almost happened to me. You change one little thing in our past and that WAS me! Lucifer wearing ME to the prom. Besides, since when do we give up on people? Since when do we just cut people loose?

Well, maybe you need to learn, okay? Because when people are past the point of saving, maybe you need to learn to walk away.

Ouch. I hurt for both of them. Poor Sam, seeing himself in Nick and wanting to save that guy the way he wishes someone had wanted to save him. Having faith in Nick's potential the way he wanted someone, anyone, to have faith in his own. And Dean obviously isn't talking about Nick, at least not there at the end, because we've heard it from Dean before, talking about himself. I can't be saved; walk away.

The guys arrive at the storage locker just in time to stop Nick from killing Mary slow and bloody. Nick scratches out the devil's trap that's holding the demon, and Abraxis immediately tosses them around and tells Nick he was chosen completely at random. Damn, Nick is as whiny as Lucifer was. (I wonder who influenced who? Discuss.) Dean tries to quietly exorcise the demon, but Abraxis flings him against a shelf and we get a flash of skin. But before he can start killing anyone, Nick stabs him with the stolen angel blade. Then Nick acts like he's going to stab the others if they don't let him escape, so Donna shoots him in the leg. Dammit, Donna, this was the perfect opportunity to kill him. He already killed one person, and he was threatening to kill the rest of you. It would have been a clean shoot. Instead, Mary punches the wounded whiny baby and Sam does a wee little version of his glorious post-exertion huff.

Outside, Sam gives Nick a sad, confused look.

Why?

I needed the truth, Sam. I needed revenge for my family. You would have done the same thing.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't help you, I'm sorry I didn't know how.

It's not about you, Sam. It was never about you. You couldn't fix me because I didn't want to be fixed. I was never broken.

Yeah, Nick, you are. I don't feel sorry for you, Nick. I feel sorry for the people you hurt, the people you murdered. The people whose faces will haunt you every night for the rest of your life. You can burn.

FUUUUUCK. That's cold as hell and it's not like Sam Winchester at all and I love it to pieces. He's finally given up on this asshole. But it's finally time to move away from the B plot, and Mary tells Dean she saw what he was building in the shed. She knows what he's building, she knows what he's planning, and the three of them ARE going to talk about it. And if he doesn't tell Sam, she will. So, you finally think Sam's input is important, Mary? Good to know.

When the sun rises, we're back at the Shed of Mysterious Building. Dean is showing Sam what he's done. He calls it something like a "maloch box," which I'm sure is spelled wrong. It looks like a giant coffin (yeah, about that...) Nothing can escape it, not even an archangel. Sam knows what they are but says they're impossible to build, and Dean's all, "not so much." And then they have this conversation and I'm sorry (no I'm not), but I had to transcribe the whole thing.

That's your plan? You want to be buried alive?

Buried's not safe enough. Plan is, pay a little hush money, charter a boat to take me out to the Pacific. Splash.

You and Michael, trapped, together, for eternity.

Yeah.

You do realize how insane this is, right?

It's the only sane play I've got. Michael gets out, that's it for this world. And he will get out.

How do you know that for sure?

Because I do. Because I can feel him, in my head. That door is giving. I can feel it giving.

There has to be another way.

There's not, okay? There's... Sam, you've tried. Cas has tried. Jack. And I love you for trying, but none of it's going to work.

But we don't know that!

Yeah, we do.

What?

Billie. She paid me a little visit. She said that there's only one way that this ends right. And this is it. This, right here. This box. So she gave up the special recipe and all I had to do was the work. It's fate.

Since when do we believe in fate?

Now, Sam. Since now.

So, you came out here, to see Donna, to see Mom, on some what, some sick secret farewell tour? You were gonna leave, and you weren't even gonna tell me. Me. Do you realize how messed up that is? How unfair that is?

I didn't have a choice! Sam, you're the last person I could tell, the last person I could be around, cause you're the only one that could have talked me out of it! And I won't be talked out of it. I won't. I'm doing this. Now you can either let me do it alone, or you could help me. But I'm doing this.

...

All right.








Oh, guys.

Well, I've got to admit, Dean's prophesied horrifying death was a letdown. First, because it wasn't even new - it was basically the same fate Death offered him when he had the MoC. Worse, sure. Being locked in a box with an angry archangel rather than floating in space and having some kind of dream life, never a good option. (ASK SAM. HE KNOWS.) But mostly because it didn't live up to his reaction when he first read Billie's book. I was sure (and I wasn't alone) that his tearful reaction meant it was going to involve something horrible for someone he loves (SAM). But this? The Dean we know would have reacted the way he did when Rowena told him he had to "be the bomb" in order to destroy Amara. Yeah, this sucks, but I always knew it was gonna end ugly, so, whaddya gonna do?

(Sidebar: This brings up an interesting question. I know an angel's vessel is immortal, but would Dean still be immortal even though Michael was trapped inside his head? Would the fact that Michael wasn't in the driver's seat stop him from keeping his vessel alive? Or would the angel's grace do that all on its own?)

But oh, guys. This scene. THIS SCENE. These two. Dean saying I love you for trying. Dean at the beginning, chin up, so defiant, so defensive because this is exactly what he was afraid of - telling Sam, and having to stick to his plan. (He's probably remembering the last time Sam talked him out of this very thing, kneeling on the floor in front of him, agreeing to support the plan for Dean to lock himself up with the Mark of Cain forever, looking up at him with the puppy dog eyes and nodding to accept that Dean has to cut his head off in order to prevent him from undoing that act; or maybe he's not actually remembering that but now I am, goddammit guys, I need a minute.) And Sam realizing that last little hug was Dean's last planned goodbye, and being so angry and so hurt, and the way he looks so young there at the end, when he stops and finally says "all right." I know we've seen this before but IT STILL GETS ME. EVERY DAMN TIME.

(Sidebar: Did Dean leave Sam a note? Is it in the bunker somewhere? Because Sam's last conversation with his father was the old man saying I don't know why we always fight, now go away and his last conversation with his brother would have been I want to go visit Mom without you. Discuss. Fanfic it. Come wail with me about it.)

(Also... Dean's farewell tour didn't include Cas? Jack? Jody?)

Well. Happy 40th birthday, Dean Winchester.


Worst. Birthday. Ever.

So, this episode? Too much Nick. Not enough Sam. Things that did not live up to expectations. But also, things that were wonderfully unexpected. I've seen worse, my friends. What did you think?

No spoilers in the comments, please!

Comments

[jennytork.livejournal.com]

Because of a hearing issue, I have the closed captioning on.

They say it is a Ma'alek Box.

[fanspired]

I can't stop thinking about the fact that Dean intended that to be the last hug he ever gave Sam, and what if it actually had been the last hug Dean ever gave Sam, when all it made Sam feel was anxiety and alarm. What a tragic last hug that would've been :(

[fanspired]

> It would be more accurate to say "unless one of us is dying or just came back from the dead,"

Come on! One of them dying is the end of the world. You know that. Eesh.

btw way, I totally approve of the new place Sam's shopping for his shirts.

[percysowner.livejournal.com]

I think Nick didn't kill Donna, because he hasn't killed many (maybe any?) people who are unrelated to his quest. You're making me think about what he has done, which is hard, because I too tend to zone when Nick is on screen (don't ever ask me about why Maggie does anything I have no clue). I know he killed the people he thought knew something about the night his family was killed, the neighbor, the cop, (did he kill the newspaper reporter, I don't think so but again I zoned). I'm pretty sure he resisted killing some woman he ran into on the street, just sent her off. Since he saw Donna as uninvolved and just doing her job (like the maybe alive reporter) he didn't see a reason to kill her.

I do think that the vessel for Lucifer does influence Lucifer's personality. The Rick Springfield Lucifer was very different from Nick Lucifer (wilder, angrier, more frightening, more dangerous - I like that Lucifer) and President/Lucifer was different as well, horny not as whiny. Sam/Lucifer in The End was calm and didn't whine and was very sure of himself. We haven't seen enough of different Archangel vessels to tell if it's just Lucifer or if Michael gets influenced as well.

This was a pretty good episode. Davy Perez is one of the newer writers and I've been happy with all three.

[sylsdarkplace]

"I do think that the vessel for Lucifer does influence Lucifer's personality"

I like your theory. My knee-jerk reaction was that he left her alive for the same reason she turned her back on him -- because it served the plot. But you're right, Lucifer behaves differently in different meat suits.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Dean's farewell tour just killed me...flashing back to season 4 when he ran off to say goodbye to Lisa before he was going to say yes to Michael then...His face when he gave Donna her last hug and how he pastes a smile back on before she can see it...

Smart!Sam who knows his brother 2 weeks in a row--last week knowing to look for a good memory, this week knowing something was wrong and heading out even while calling Mom!

Why didn't Dean say goodbye to Jody, Jack, Cas? My theory--he didn't trust himself to say goodbye to Jody because he feels too close to her. Donna was a stand-in for Jody because she is a little less close and he felt he could fool her--Jody would have seen through him. He didn't want to say goodbye to Jack because he didn't want to burden the kid and again, because he cares too much about him. He didn't say goodbye to Cas because he was planning on calling Cas to lock him down and throw him in the Pacific--Cas would argue but Dean knows Cas would ultimately cave.

Which also leads me to think he figured he could handle a farewell dinner with Mom because he wasn't close enough with her to lose it or for her to be insistent enough to get him to reveal what he was going to do...

Sam, you're the last person I could tell, the last person I could be around, cause you're the only one that could have talked me out of it!

THAT LINE! It totally killed me...

The parallels to Sam throwing himself in the Cage with Lucifer at the end of season 5 are awfully alarming!

I have the unfortunate feeling that we're not done with Nick yet :( I hope I'm wrong...but that was a very ordinary ending for such a prominent (to the showrunners) character...

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

I think you make an excellent point about Jody and why he wouldn't have seen her in person. She's always had a "cut the bullshit" way with Dean.

[z-publicizes.livejournal.com]

It could be a red herring and Dean's plan isn't what's written in the book after all--it could be something worse and being buried alive at the bottom of the ocean is him trying to avert that fate. Probably not, but it would be neat.

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

I agree with your nibbles and appreciations both, but dman, I really did feel an actual stab of emotional pain in my chest at that hug-shot and it was set up so well and telegraphed so I screamed out loud literally when it happened. Who directed this again? Oh, Phil Sgriccia yes of course the shows oldest remaining workhorse of a good eye.
And I also didn't care for the Nick-plot even a little bit but Sam's send off, Jeez Louise, he's really coming into that leadership isn't he.
Still, nothing killed me deader like that hug and the moment at the end where they had that honest, if agonizing, but truly honest talk with each other that laid the cards on the table. I still feel like there is going to be more to the end of the book, even though I do understand that Dean, being faced with his ultimate traumatic experience - being trapped with no way out and eternal torment for company (Hell) and leaving Sam on his own, making sure that he would neither cave to their need to be together and protect each other always as well setting him up in a way to have no in on Dean's deal with himself, would be quite horrifying. What we don't know is whether that's actually the end of Dean's book since 1) who's to say nothing more happens after he traps himself to his loved ones when he's not there anymore to prevent it 2) if we follow the theory that Dean - whether he's being kept alive passively by archangel grace or would eventually lose the fight to Michael giving him control back of the body and preserving it - has no natural way to die that way, like being dead dead, shouldn't the book be endlessly thick? I don't know, I feel like there's got to be a set up for a bigger episode hidden here we've half a season to go after all. If there isn't I will be thoroughly disappointed of course, but until we've reached the end of the line, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Man, now I've ranted on a lot, when I should be writing fic about how Sam was going to jump Dean over the top of that box with a desparate farewell kiss to unroll all that tension in a final acknowledgement of their feelings and stuff... ya know. As one does.

[sylsdarkplace]

Yeah, all of that. And do we really think that Sam is going to help lock Dean in the box and dump him in the Pacific Ocean? The former maybe but not the latter where there would be no chance of retrieval.

I wondered too if Dean would die in the box or if Michael's grace would keep him alive. The writers got something up their sleeve.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that the box wasn't the only thing in Billie's book, because it felt awful quick to be finding out that *terrible truth* thing - and we still have rather a lot of episodes to go this season.

Otherwise your reactions pretty much mirrored mine. Too much Nick blah blah who cares, I'd completely forgotten AU Bobby had had a son turn up and die, I'd also completely forgotten about that Abraxis demon thing. Though I did think the guy who got to play Abraxis did a great job. In a way I'm sad he got blitzed so soon.

[percysowner.livejournal.com]

Another review just mentioned that there is, in fact, a Grand Rapids Minnesota and a Google search puts it 34 miles from Hibbing. Someone did their actual homework on locations for once. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Rapids,_Minnesota

[sylsdarkplace]

Agreed -- too much Nick, not enough Sam. However, the Sam we got was glorious.

OSHA violations, LOL, yes. It doesn't even make any sense that scholars would have been so messy. Even if they had, you know Sam would have put those books in the library where they belonged.

Oh man, I love The Guess Who. I love that song! But then I probably spent far too much time eavesdropping on the music my older brother listened to when I was a kid.

Sam was cold to Nick. I love that part of Sam. It's like there's a sliver of Soulless in there that he lets out on rare occasions. Remember that time he was desperately looking for Dean and he bounced a guy's head off a bar? That was awesome. I love seeing that Sam every once in awhile.

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

So many brotherly scenes - I love it! I can't stop thinking about what if that hug was the last hug Sam ever got from Dean? It was such a sad little scene and he didn't really get the chance to hug back, adn how horrible would it have been for Sam to look back on it.

I was so positive that the terrible book was about someone other than Dean, and it does feel a little like a let down (maybe Dean does have a little more self-worth now, which should be a good thing, but it still feels kinda wrong since we've seen Dean happily sacrifice himself before. Maybe it's more the way it happens than anything else)

I'm happy that Sam doesn't want Dean to go though this alone, that shows growth and maturity, but in my heart of hearts I still want him to something very bad and desperate to save his brother, and since we've still got lots of eps left, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!!

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

(Sidebar: Yes, when I open Mapquest, Lebanon is always in my Recents. Is that not normal?)

YES it is, at least it is for me, and hopefully for most fic writers. I think less likely actual Show writers who don't seem to remember that Lebanon is surrounded by, at the very least, 60-70 miles of nothing in every direction.

Nick gets the Enochian puzzle box (yeah, this scene goes on FOREVER and I'm skipping a lot here, is anyone complaining? nope didn't think so)

I'm so blah blah blah with the Nick stuff but A) whose storage space is that? why does it have a severed head in a jar? and 2) what's so special about this box if any old regular joe (or serial killer Nick) can just get a normal drill to let out the demon? You don't even have to solve a puzzle. Laaaame.

I'm with everyone else, that ending scene got me good with all the brotherly feelings. Sam's FACE! It's too much.

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

Michael would definitely keep his vessel alive. How long has Cas been around? He could only be killed when he was human.

Awful thought that they probably won't do; Dean stabbing himself with an angel blade. No, angel blades aren't strong enough.