Initial reaction 14.17: “Game Night”
Apr. 5th, 2019 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caranfindelLet the countdown begin, my friends. We only get to do this 24 more times.
THEN: Oh, god, Nick. SO MUCH NICK. It's not gonna be good. (In fact, I turned to The Husband and warned him it wasn't going to be a good one. I also pointed out that usually, when he watches with me, it turns out to not be a good one. Case in point: episodes The Husband has watched this season in their entirety include Unhuman Nature. Episodes he has missed include Mint Condition. He may not be allowed to ever watch with me again.) And also Jack and his soul, or lack thereof, but mostly Nick.
NOW: Donatello! He's baking cookies while singing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head." But more on that later.
[Poll #2091637]
Someone rings the doorbell, impatiently, and we see that Donatello still hasn't regained his ability to discern good and evil, because he answers the door to some unseen person and the next thing he knows, he's tied to a table and getting injected with something in an old-timey, completely metal (i.e., opaque) syringe. And screaming. Crap. Those cookies are gonna burn.
("Men of Letters?" The Husband asks. "He looks like he's wearing a suit, is he one of the Men of Letters?" If I weren't such a loving and patient wife, I'd remind him that 1) he's not supposed to talk during Supernatural, and b) especially not if he's going to stay that far behind. Men of Letters. Sheesh.)
Title card!
Bunker. Dean is playing... what is this game called... Mousetrap? Yeah, I think it's Mousetrap. It's one of those games that you never actually played according to the rules, you just played with the fun pieces (hello, Operation). Jack's in the kitchen, being questioned by Mary about his popcorn-popping, when we hear "son of a bitch!" from the other room. And I know some of you are not fans of the gendered insult, but regardless, I'm just glad they dropped that "son of a B" and "rhymes with itch" nonsense. Dean Winchester wouldn't talk that way. Jack feels game night might not be as relaxing for Dean as intended (what happened to movie night?), but Mary says it was his favorite game as a child (THIRTY SIX YEARS AGO, YOU MEAN?) and okay, who would know about making Dean happy better than Mary? I mean, she caught on to his farewell tour, right? Oh, no, wait, she totally didn't. Hmmm. Maybe you don't know him at all.
A little foreshadowing for a trap that will come up later? A metaphor for Dean's life? Discuss.
Anyway. She asks if Jack is feeling better, and he's frustrated that people keep asking him that, and she's all, we're family. That's what family does. Pretends they know you. He's not better. He's annoyed. As he walks away, she offers to listen to him talk or vent if he's so inclined, and we watch him very deliberately paste on a smile before he turns back to her and says "you're here, I know" and he pretends to appreciate her offer and oh, no, Jack. Jack, Jack, Jack. Mary turns away and seems to be thinking pretty much the same thing. But maybe it's not that Jack is going down a dark road. Maybe it's just that he's annoyed with Mary. Because that's ABSOLUTELY BELIEVABLE.
Game night will begin as soon as Sam gets back with the pizza. Jack expresses interest in the pineapple pizza, proving that he's at least got some decency left in him. Dean considers it a crime against humanity. (Sidebar: I love Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza, but my mom likes pineapple on her pepperoni pizza, and THAT, my friends, is criminal.)
[Poll #2091638]
Mary brings Dean his phone and tells him he missed a call. Dean, you've always got at least a dozen pockets on or about your person at any time; there is no excuse for not having your phone.
The message is from Donatello and it's obviously very disturbing. He puts it on speaker and plays it for Mary and Jack. Donatello begs Dean and Sam for help, and then starts speaking in a language that is not English. And what I want very much is for Sam to listen to this message and recognize it as Enochian and translate it, because OF COURSE SAM SPEAKS ENOCHIAN. But I'm sure we're not going to get that. Dean calls Sam and gets his voicemail message, which simply says "you've reached Sam Winchester, if this is an emergency, call my brother." I'm guessing this is the friends-and-family-and-trusted-hunters number, since he doesn't even give Dean's number. If you have this number, you have Dean's number. I like that theory a lot.
But why isn't Sam answering? Has something befallen him? Dean's not concerned, so I guess I don't need to be either. He complains that the whole town is a dead zone. (I guess Sam's supernatural ability to access wifi anywhere doesn't extend to LTE) and decides they can't wait for Sam. Oh, good, they're splitting the brothers up again! Yay! I love it when that happens.
Ahem.
Dean leaves Jack with his phone, so Sam can hear the voicemail and then call him back on his spare. I wonder if Dean's spare phone is his FBI phone, and if so, does his outgoing message say "you've reached Agent Mumbledymumble, if this is an emergency, call my partner?" I hope so. (Cas's says the same thing, except it says "call my partner, who is tall and has beautiful hair.")
We cut to a little restaurant and Cas and Anael, and I'm going to recap all of that now and get it out of the way. (Feel free to skip. I feel like skipping, but I'm going to recap it anyway, because that's just how dedicated I am.) He gives Anael a pair of earrings (16th century Burmese blood rubies, 5 carat, according to Anael) which are only lightly cursed, as a bribe. He wants to contact God. "Good luck with that," she laughs. But he knows she used to be Joshua's right hand, and God spoke to Joshua, and maybe she knows how he did it. He wants God to restore Jack's soul. He says, again, that he doesn't know how much of his soul is left, and the last time I complained about Cas's sudden inability to check that for himself, many of you pointed out that there could be very good reasons for this. Maybe it's different with a nephilim. Maybe it's too dangerous. And all of that would be fine, it really would, if the SHOW would give it to us. If Dean would have said "can't you check, like you did with Sam?" and Cas had replied "it would be too risky, Jack is a nephilim, not a human, and it could be like unleashing a nuclear weapon." But instead, we're just getting details about earrings. (Also, I'm saddened to learn that Joshua didn't survive. I liked him. The original Joshua, not the crappy AU version.)
Moving on. She figures the Winchesters don't know what he's up to, and says she can't help, because Joshua never initiated contact with God. He just received. Cas takes the earrings back and she suddenly gets a little more helpful. There was a rumor, after the fall, that Joshua called God and got an answer. She doesn't know how he did it, but she knows someone who does. They pull up (in yet another Cas vehicle, a huge pickup that I don't think we've seen before, or maybe we have, all I know is Sam still doesn't have his own gd car) at some kind of junk/antique store. The guy running the place is Methuselah, one of the few surviving angels. He says he and Joshua were roommates after the fall, and "the guy made a mean lasagna." I wonder why it didn't taste like molecules. Cas threatens to burn the place down, with Methuselah in it, and Methuselah calls him "kiddo" (hee!) and says he doesn't care. I don't know why another angel would be threatened by Cas, but when Cas calls his bluff and gives him the glowy eyes, he says the "thingamajig" Joshua used to contact God is around somewhere, and they'll know it when they see it. Or not.
They poke around, and I had something to say about Anael's "mulberry silk" but I've lost the will to write it out, and they find nothing. Anael doesn't think it matters, because she knows God won't answer and doesn't care, because according to Joshua he "doesn't meddle." Which Cas disputes, because God brought him back. (And put the Winchesters on a plane over Ilchester, but I digress.) As far as Anael is concerned, that's even worse - he lets millions of humans die screaming, but saves one angel. Huh. She also knows the real reason Cas is doing this is because he knows Jack has no soul at all, and he doesn't want to have to tell Sam and Dean. Also, she stepped in a dead rat and she's done. But on their way out, Cas notices something on a jewelry rack - a pendant that looks similar to the Samulet.
Actually, it looks like an evil version of the Samulet. I mean, it's a freaking SKULL.
Methuselah says Joshua forged it "before he fell," and I wonder why it didn't occur to him that this could be the item Cas was looking for. Or he did know and was just being a dick. Cas clutches the amulet and tries to call on God, invoking the names of Sam and Dean, but he gets no answer. "It never worked for Joshua either," says Methuselah, and again, why didn't he admit he knew exactly what the thing was, and that it didn't work? Outside the shop, Cas tells Anael he's going to go home and tell Sam and Dean the truth, and he doesn't know what he'll do after that. He tells her she was wrong when she said everyone is alone (which I think I skipped in my recap but WHATEVER), because they all have each other. Well, you have Sam and Dean and Jack, so it seems a little unfair to rub that in Anael's face, but go on then.
So let's go now to Sam, who is back at the bunker (wearing an orange plaid shirt that would probably go nicely with that orange jacket of his, if I liked that monstrosity) and telling Dean exactly what I said, which is that he should be with him. Oh, Sam. You and I have so much in common.
Dean blows off Sam's concern and asks about Donatello's message. Sam tells him it's not Enochian (OH HAPPY DAY) and he thinks it's ancient Hebrew, but they're still working on the translation. He tells Dean to watch his back. We stay with Dean and Mary in the Impala, driving through the perpetually-rainy darkness. (The Husband points out that we should be able to hear the windshield wipers. I really don't think he's going to be allowed to watch with me any more.)
Dean says Sam (Sammy!) sounds stressed, and Mary says Jack and Dean are stressed too, and she wishes... well, we don't know what she wishes, but Dean cuts her off and says "you're here," like that's an accomplishment. She wishes she could have been here more. I don't know, Mary. For a woman who was dead for more than 30 years, you've been here plenty. She admits that she can be closed-off and hard, and Dean says "that's where I get it from," as if John Winchester had none of those qualities. But okay. Mary wants Dean to know that she's grateful for every day she has with him and Sam. And on first watch, I assumed this was just some leftover emotion from "Lebanon." Because I'm always talking about foreshadowing but I miss it when it actually happens, don't I?
Bunker. Sam is still listening to the voicemail and consulting his English-to-ancient-Hebrew dictionary (and rubbing the back of his neck which is SO DAMN CUTE AND I CANNOT EXPLAIN WHY) when he suddenly recognizes that Donatello is quoting the Bible. And of course he knows exactly where, chapter and verse, because he's Sam Winchester. It translates as Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking who he may devour. WELL. If that doesn't send chills down a Winchester's spine.
Is this shirt ORANGE and BLUE? WHY, SAM, WHY??? (Never mind, just appreciate the veiny arms.)
Dean and Mary get to Donatellotown (sorry, Donny, I do not remember where you live), where there's snow on the ground. When they enter the house, they can hear the prophet calling for help. But it turns out it's just a recording on a phone, with no Donatello in sight. And who walks out of the kitchen but Nick, wearing Donatello's apron. Well, at least he saved the cookies. Dean cuffs him and Mary goes to search the rest of the house.
"So it's just you?" Nick asks. "Sammy's home sick?" And on first watch this is just Nick being Nick. But on rewatch... maybe not. It's interesting that Dean (and I guess all of the extended TFW) had no idea he'd escaped from prison. Mary finds no Donatello, but she did find Nick's discarded syringe in the trash. He tells them he injected Donatello with thalium, which will cause his organs to shut down in a day. Just to get their attention. He tells Dean to hit the livestream button on the not-really-Donatello phone, and it shows a video of Donatello, tied up and gagged, sitting on a concrete floor somewhere. "You can save him if you can find him." Dean pulls a gun on him, but Nick's not afraid of being killed, because 1) that means Donatello would die, so he knows Dean won't do it, and b) he has nothing to live for anyway. He wants to talk.
Bunker. Nick is still handcuffed, being led down the hall by Dean in slow motion. Sam and Jack are coming from the other direction. Sam looks anxious, so I assume he knows who's coming, and when he lays eyes on Nick he snarls and grabs him and throws him against the wall and I'm not a fan of the weird slo-mo thing they're doing here but otherwise? Angry Sam assaulting Nick? I am HERE FOR THAT. Dean pulls him off and says "not now, not yet," which sounds like he is perfectly fine with Nick being assaulted but now is not the time. Sam makes a frustrated face and stomps off, and Mary and Jack look upset.
Dean having to get all handsy, holding Sam back? I am here for THAT as well.
War room. Sam wonders what kind of game Nick was playing, just sitting there waiting for Dean. And he doesn't even know Donatello. "Lucifer did," Dean points out, and we could spend some time wondering how much bleed there was between Lucifer and his vessel, how much Nick saw, how much of Lucifer's thoughts he was exposed to, how much he absorbed. We might want to do that later.
But right now, Mary reminds us that Donatello is in danger, and Smart!Sam knows the antidote for thallium is something they already have on hand, Prussian blue, which sounds like a breed of cat but really is the antidote for thallium poisoning. And I suppose Sam could have looked it up on Wikipedia earlier, just like I did, but I choose to believe he just knew. He also thinks he might be able to hack the location of the live feed, but he doesn't know if they have enough time, and if I were so inclined, I'd comment about Sam's intermittent hacking abilities, where he's a hacking genius one day, and the next day Charlie needs to look smart so he needs Charlie to tell him how to hack into a bank. But I'm not going to comment on any of Sam's intermittent abilities right now. Maybe later.
Well, Nick wanted to talk, so Dean thinks it's time to talk. "Oh yeah, let's talk," Sam says enthusiastically, and I think he means talk with his fists. And for the second time in this episode, Dean lays a hand on him and stops him from going after Nick and once again, I'm here for it. So much. Angry vengeful Sam is really doing it for me. "The way you are right now," he says, "if Nick looks at you wrong, you're gonna waste him. That can't happen." Which doesn't really sound like Sam, but yeah, he has been pushed to the edge, so okay. Sam once again accepts the promise that he can get to Nick "later," and Mary once again looks concerned.
Hand porn.
After Dean leaves, Sam tells Mary that he's the reason Donatello is in this and a police offer is dead. "I'm the one who let Nick go, I'm the one..." and he can't even finish, he just looks up in frustration and despair with tears in his eyes. "What was I thinking?" (Sidebar: Did Sam really "let Nick go?" Nick actually left the bunker while Cas was "babysitting" him at Sam's request. Discuss.) Mary tries to get him not to blame himself, saying he couldn't have known, and he says "that's not an excuse." OH SAM. "You gave him a chance because you felt for him," she says. "Because you're a good man." (What do we think about this? Do we think that's the only, or even the main reason Sam felt sorry for Nick? Or was it because he was also Lucifer's vessel? Are we supposed to believe Mary actually knows his motivation, or is this yet another example of her Not Getting what's going on in her sons' heads? Or is it just bad writing?) Sam obviously doesn't believe he's a good man, and she repeats "You are; it's one of the reasons I'm so proud of you." Aw Sammy. Closure with Dad, approval from Mom. Kind of a parallel, isn't it?
The way Sam keeps looking up, in an apparent attempt to not cry, is simultaneously killing me and giving me life.
Cut to Dean punching Nick in the dungeon. Nick says he and Dean are almost like brothers because of the Michael and Lucifer thing. "You're not the same after something like that, are you? Being one, with one of them. Changes you. Makes you more than human." Huh. This reminds me of that one guy in season 7 who wanted his possessing demon back. Anyway, Nick wants to see "my son."
Ah, Grand Inquisitor Dean. Always a favorite.
His son? I say. "His son?" Mary says. Is Nick actually Lucifer? Are we going there? Dean is totally against it. Jack asks Sam, because AS WE ALL KNOW, Sam is Jack's primary dad. Dean is angry that Sam's not immediately against it, but as Sam points out, Nick is locked down and not a threat ("he's always a threat," Mary says, and for once I agree with her), and they're running out of time. I don't really like the juxtaposition of these scenes. Moments ago, Sam blamed himself for everything Nick has done and castigated himself for being stupid enough to "let him go." And now he's all, he's not a threat. If I were writing this, Sam would have said yes, it's risky and I'm not happy about it, but I don't think we have any other way to save Donatello. And Jack would have gone in with a phone in his pocket on speaker so Sam could hear everything that happened. But I didn't write this. So.
I'm sure Sam sitting on the table was done for blocking purposes, but him being shorter than Dean and Mary makes him look small and helpless.
Jack walks into the dungeon and demands to know where Donatello is. Nick is impressed by his spunk and says it comes from his father.
My father was a monster
Everybody's a monster. Even your three dads. How many innocent people you think they've killed?
Okay, we know I love any reference to Jack's three dads, so thank you for that, Nick. And also, yes, he's right. They've killed a lot of innocent people. Lots of not-so-innocent people too, but yeah, there's a lot of collateral damage out there.
Nick also tells Jack "He loved you. You know that? He did. I felt it. He loved you so much, and you broke his heart." And we knew Lucifer said he loved Jack, but it's interesting to get confirmation that he truly did. As well as confirmation that Nick felt all of Lucifer's emotions. Nick then clarifies that he was talking about "the old you, the you with a soul," because he heard all of that from Donatello. Oh, for a minute there, I thought Nick could detect souls. Jack says he has a soul but Nick eggs him on and then Jack gets in his face and I guess has a sudden angry outburst of nosebleed? It's hard to tell what's going on. But Jack's blood is all over his face, and his shirt, and Nick's shirt. Hope that washes out. Oh, don't need it, he takes care of all of it with his glowy-eyed power. Nick is afraid of him now. Unless he's lying. But why would Nick lie?
Jack steps out of the dungeon and tells his assembled fathers and grandmother that Nick will tell them where Donatello is. Sam wraps his arms around himself uncomfortably. Next we see the brothers and Nick in the Impala, driving through the night. Sidebar: Donatello's hometown of Lewis (yeah, I looked it up) doesn't exist, according to Mapquest, but elsewhere on the Internets one can learn that it's a "township" near Tushka, Oklahoma, which is almost an 8 hour drive from Lebanon. I wonder where Lucifer stashed him? In Lewis, or closer to Lebanon? Not that it matters. Carrying on.
When the guys get to Nick's hidey hole, it's daylight and it's snowing. Dean and Sam both threaten that Sam will shoot Nick if he does anything, Sam hands Dean the antidote, and Dean goes off on his own. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Meanwhile, in the bunker, Jack sees Mary going through the pile of stuff she carried back from Donatello's house for some reason, and recognizes that the hypodermic syringe held angel grace. Wait. Grace? Not thallium? Nick lied? Color me shocked.
Sam's sitting in the Impala with Nick, who is doing his best to be as annoying as Lucifer, and poor Sam looks like he wants to shoot either Nick or himself. He gets a call from Mary, and while he gets out of the car to talk to her, we see Nick has produced a something from somewhere and is picking at his handcuffs. Sam yanks the car door open, waves his gun at Nick, and orders him out of the car, because he knows that will make for a more dramatic and attractive confrontation. (Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing it out.) He tells Nick he knows about the grace and asks him why. Nick explains that prophets are like "old CB radios," and Sam knows that means he was trying to communicate with someone, and who could THAT be? Because Lucifer is dead, right? Well, yeah, if dead means awake, in the empty, and able to tell Nick how to bring him back using Jack's blood. "Come on, Sam," Nick says. "Nobody stays dead any more. You know that." Well, obviously Nick has been watching our show!
I know, Sam; I feel the same way about Lucifer coming back.
Nick reveals that demons have been hiding him, and obtained the angel grace for him, because they're as anxious to have Lucifer back as he is. It's your own fault, Sam. You denied them a leader. What did you expect them to do? Sam's standing there, holding a gun on Nick, and I'm going "shoot him, shoot him, dammit" and then Nick's handcuffs fall to the ground so Sam shoots him in the head. Oh no, he doesn't. He yells for Dean, who is in the warehouse, many yards away.(And it's not even a Bucklemming episode.)
They start punching each other, so I guess Sam drops his gun? He does end up pinning Nick, with his hands around his throat, so it looks like Sammy's gonna win this one. But he stops before Nick even loses consciousness (SAM! HAVE YOU STILL LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE WHOLE THING WITH JAKE?), because Sam is extremely skilled and efficient at hand-to-hand combat, except when he's mysteriously NOT. This gives Nick the opportunity to reach for a rock and bash his head in. Sam is dazed, and Nick throws him against the car (and we know hitting a hard object with your back and shoulders knocks you unconscious, we've seen it many times) and taunts him. "Lucifer's perfect vessel. You aren't so perfect now, are you?" Oooooooh, wait. Is Nick jealous? Jealous of Sam being the perfect vessel? Has Nick been feeling Lucifer's thoughts about Sam for all these years, feeling how much he preferred his perfect vessel, and gnashing his jealous little teeth? And if so, why couldn't we have had 17 episodes of that? Why is this delightful tidbit just coming to light NOW?
Dazed Sam manages to get in the car and lock the doors, and as Nick pounds on the window, he frantically honks the horn. Now, some folks on Tumblr think he was trying to warn Dean, but I think he's calling for help. Desperately, frantically calling for help.
As this is happening, Dean enters the warehouse (an abandoned warehouse? imagine that!), oblivious to a couple of shadowy figures watching him. He sees Donatello, and then hears Sam call him, but is attacked by demons just as that happens. He does, finally, conquer his demons by way of the angel blade. Donatello manages to free himself during the melee, and they run outside. Nick is gone and Sam has managed to get out of the car, but not to stand up. Dean runs up to him and there's some panicky "Sammy!" and looking around as if there's someone or something there to help, and Sam broken and bloody on the ground, just the way I like it.
This is not fair, Sammy. You just died on me last season.
As Nick yanks a guy out of his truck and makes his getaway, Dean calls Mary and tells her what happened. "He hurt Sam, he got him in the head. I don't even wanna move him. We called an ambulance but they said twenty minutes. It's not good, Mom, it's really bad." I didn't even get that this was supposed to be a serious head injury until this point. I mean, obviously it would be serious in real life, but in Supernatural life, Sam gets knocked unconscious on a regular basis and suffers no ill effects, and I thought this was just going to be another one of those. (In other words, my portents from yesterday were WRONG. The man down is Sam.)
Nick breaks into a cabin and sets up his little Lucifer spell. (It's a good thing - or a bad thing - that this abandoned cabin had an ample supply of salt, and apparently everything else Nick needs besides Jack's blood.) When he lights a fire, Jack reacts in the bunker, saying it feels like his blood is burning. And he can feel him. He can get to him. He says he needs to use his powers, and Mary says "do it," and I had forgotten that he promised not to use them without permission. Nick chants the spell and Lucifer appears, and for once, the effect is actually pretty cool and not cheesy. He's a swirling black snake-like mass, lit from within. He's still got that Terminator face, but it's mostly hidden by the rest of it, so that's good. "I'm here, I'm ready," says Nick. "Your vessel, your perfect vessel. Make me strong again. Make me you." Perfect vessel? I don't THINK so, Nick. Not in your wildest dreams. (And I appreciate another reference to Nick wanting what Sam has.) Lucifer reaches for him, but just before he can touch him, Jack and Mary show up and Jack zaps him out of existence. So, Jack gets to kill Michael and Lucifer? Seems unfair. Jack mutilates Nick's outreached hand and then sets him on fire, with Mary yelling at him to stop. So, it looks like Nick's dead, but I've been fooled before. And that makes it three for Jack and zero for Sam. If you're keeping track.
Over at Nick's hidey hole warehouse, Dean is in full-on "it's not even that bad" mode. He holds a bandanna against Sam's cracked-open head and tries t get him to count with him, but he only gets to two before Sam decides it's time to say goodbye. "You always put me first," he says, between raspy breaths. "Your whole life." (I had to resort to closed-captioning to understand that last bit.) And then he goes limp and Dean gets even more panicky and face-patty. Back at Nick's cabin, Mary tells Jack to go help Sam. He zaps over to the Impala and is horrified to see his favorite (I know it, you know it) father dying. He puts a hand on Sam's face and heals him, and as Sam gasps back to life, Dean quickly helps him to his feet and then even more quickly turns away and puts a hand to his face because he can't do this, he can't let anyone see how emotional he is, he needs a second to compose himself, he's going to burst out sobbing or screaming or something and he just has to turn away and godDAMN this is such a good acting choice on Jensen's part. I love it. We need to watch it some more.
And more and more.
Sam asks about Nick and Mary and Jack tells them he stopped Nick, and Mary is fine. "Everything's going to be fine."
Narrator: Everything was NOT going to be fine.
Back at the cabin, Mary's quietly freaking out. Jack zaps back and tells her he healed Sam and everything's okay (ha ha no), but she's obviously not happy. Apparently her concern isn't that Jack killed Nick, but that he did it "like that." Oh, come on, Mary. Get off your high horse. You seemed to enjoy a bit of "interrogation" back in the day with the BMoL. This isn't that different. Jack begs her to tell him he did okay, but she refuses. "It's not your fault, but the Jack I know would never have done that." Well, I have to disagree, but I can't think of any real evidence right now.
"If Sam and Dean saw what you did," she says, "they would be as worried as I am." Hi, Mary, have you met your son Dean, the Grand Inquisitor from earlier in the episode? Or your other son Sam, the sweet kind gentle giant who was ready to beat Nick to a pulp? Dean had to physically restrain him from pummeling Nick TWICE, and only managed it by promising he could have him "later." But anyway. She promises they'll help Jack, because they're family, but he yells at her to leave him alone and grabs his head and she can NOT take a hint and finally his eyes glow gold and he says "LEAVE ME ALONE" one more time and boom. The screen goes black and we hear "...Mary?"
(Me, to The Husband: "Mary's gone? Well, I guess this was a good episode after all!")
Well, that explains why we've had so much Mary-and-sons bonding and mutual appreciation in this episode. I mean, it didn't make me care any more about her being gone, but, okay. And there were a lot of things I could have done without. The guys being separated. Cas's endless B-plot. Sam not shooting Nick, and losing a fight he really should have won. But these things brought me hurt/dying Sam and frantic Dean, so I accept them. And I'm disappointed that Sam never got his "later" with Nick, and once again he didn't get to kill Lucifer, but at least SOMEBODY did, and you've gotta love that. And we got angry-vengeful Sam and trying-not-to-cry Sam and Grand Inquisitor Dean, so. That makes up for a lot of nonsense.
Oh, and the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head?" It's from the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." You know, the one with the Butch and Sundance ending Dean thinks they should have. And if you want that ending, you might think it's a good thing that they chose to give us this particular song. But not me.
So. One down, 23 to go!
I know, Dean. I know
As always, no spoilers in the comments, please, and that includes episode titles and casting information. Thanks!
THEN: Oh, god, Nick. SO MUCH NICK. It's not gonna be good. (In fact, I turned to The Husband and warned him it wasn't going to be a good one. I also pointed out that usually, when he watches with me, it turns out to not be a good one. Case in point: episodes The Husband has watched this season in their entirety include Unhuman Nature. Episodes he has missed include Mint Condition. He may not be allowed to ever watch with me again.) And also Jack and his soul, or lack thereof, but mostly Nick.
NOW: Donatello! He's baking cookies while singing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head." But more on that later.
[Poll #2091637]
Someone rings the doorbell, impatiently, and we see that Donatello still hasn't regained his ability to discern good and evil, because he answers the door to some unseen person and the next thing he knows, he's tied to a table and getting injected with something in an old-timey, completely metal (i.e., opaque) syringe. And screaming. Crap. Those cookies are gonna burn.
("Men of Letters?" The Husband asks. "He looks like he's wearing a suit, is he one of the Men of Letters?" If I weren't such a loving and patient wife, I'd remind him that 1) he's not supposed to talk during Supernatural, and b) especially not if he's going to stay that far behind. Men of Letters. Sheesh.)
Title card!
Bunker. Dean is playing... what is this game called... Mousetrap? Yeah, I think it's Mousetrap. It's one of those games that you never actually played according to the rules, you just played with the fun pieces (hello, Operation). Jack's in the kitchen, being questioned by Mary about his popcorn-popping, when we hear "son of a bitch!" from the other room. And I know some of you are not fans of the gendered insult, but regardless, I'm just glad they dropped that "son of a B" and "rhymes with itch" nonsense. Dean Winchester wouldn't talk that way. Jack feels game night might not be as relaxing for Dean as intended (what happened to movie night?), but Mary says it was his favorite game as a child (THIRTY SIX YEARS AGO, YOU MEAN?) and okay, who would know about making Dean happy better than Mary? I mean, she caught on to his farewell tour, right? Oh, no, wait, she totally didn't. Hmmm. Maybe you don't know him at all.
A little foreshadowing for a trap that will come up later? A metaphor for Dean's life? Discuss.
Anyway. She asks if Jack is feeling better, and he's frustrated that people keep asking him that, and she's all, we're family. That's what family does. Pretends they know you. He's not better. He's annoyed. As he walks away, she offers to listen to him talk or vent if he's so inclined, and we watch him very deliberately paste on a smile before he turns back to her and says "you're here, I know" and he pretends to appreciate her offer and oh, no, Jack. Jack, Jack, Jack. Mary turns away and seems to be thinking pretty much the same thing. But maybe it's not that Jack is going down a dark road. Maybe it's just that he's annoyed with Mary. Because that's ABSOLUTELY BELIEVABLE.
Game night will begin as soon as Sam gets back with the pizza. Jack expresses interest in the pineapple pizza, proving that he's at least got some decency left in him. Dean considers it a crime against humanity. (Sidebar: I love Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza, but my mom likes pineapple on her pepperoni pizza, and THAT, my friends, is criminal.)
[Poll #2091638]
Mary brings Dean his phone and tells him he missed a call. Dean, you've always got at least a dozen pockets on or about your person at any time; there is no excuse for not having your phone.
The message is from Donatello and it's obviously very disturbing. He puts it on speaker and plays it for Mary and Jack. Donatello begs Dean and Sam for help, and then starts speaking in a language that is not English. And what I want very much is for Sam to listen to this message and recognize it as Enochian and translate it, because OF COURSE SAM SPEAKS ENOCHIAN. But I'm sure we're not going to get that. Dean calls Sam and gets his voicemail message, which simply says "you've reached Sam Winchester, if this is an emergency, call my brother." I'm guessing this is the friends-and-family-and-trusted-hunters number, since he doesn't even give Dean's number. If you have this number, you have Dean's number. I like that theory a lot.
But why isn't Sam answering? Has something befallen him? Dean's not concerned, so I guess I don't need to be either. He complains that the whole town is a dead zone. (I guess Sam's supernatural ability to access wifi anywhere doesn't extend to LTE) and decides they can't wait for Sam. Oh, good, they're splitting the brothers up again! Yay! I love it when that happens.
Ahem.
Dean leaves Jack with his phone, so Sam can hear the voicemail and then call him back on his spare. I wonder if Dean's spare phone is his FBI phone, and if so, does his outgoing message say "you've reached Agent Mumbledymumble, if this is an emergency, call my partner?" I hope so. (Cas's says the same thing, except it says "call my partner, who is tall and has beautiful hair.")
We cut to a little restaurant and Cas and Anael, and I'm going to recap all of that now and get it out of the way. (Feel free to skip. I feel like skipping, but I'm going to recap it anyway, because that's just how dedicated I am.) He gives Anael a pair of earrings (16th century Burmese blood rubies, 5 carat, according to Anael) which are only lightly cursed, as a bribe. He wants to contact God. "Good luck with that," she laughs. But he knows she used to be Joshua's right hand, and God spoke to Joshua, and maybe she knows how he did it. He wants God to restore Jack's soul. He says, again, that he doesn't know how much of his soul is left, and the last time I complained about Cas's sudden inability to check that for himself, many of you pointed out that there could be very good reasons for this. Maybe it's different with a nephilim. Maybe it's too dangerous. And all of that would be fine, it really would, if the SHOW would give it to us. If Dean would have said "can't you check, like you did with Sam?" and Cas had replied "it would be too risky, Jack is a nephilim, not a human, and it could be like unleashing a nuclear weapon." But instead, we're just getting details about earrings. (Also, I'm saddened to learn that Joshua didn't survive. I liked him. The original Joshua, not the crappy AU version.)
Moving on. She figures the Winchesters don't know what he's up to, and says she can't help, because Joshua never initiated contact with God. He just received. Cas takes the earrings back and she suddenly gets a little more helpful. There was a rumor, after the fall, that Joshua called God and got an answer. She doesn't know how he did it, but she knows someone who does. They pull up (in yet another Cas vehicle, a huge pickup that I don't think we've seen before, or maybe we have, all I know is Sam still doesn't have his own gd car) at some kind of junk/antique store. The guy running the place is Methuselah, one of the few surviving angels. He says he and Joshua were roommates after the fall, and "the guy made a mean lasagna." I wonder why it didn't taste like molecules. Cas threatens to burn the place down, with Methuselah in it, and Methuselah calls him "kiddo" (hee!) and says he doesn't care. I don't know why another angel would be threatened by Cas, but when Cas calls his bluff and gives him the glowy eyes, he says the "thingamajig" Joshua used to contact God is around somewhere, and they'll know it when they see it. Or not.
They poke around, and I had something to say about Anael's "mulberry silk" but I've lost the will to write it out, and they find nothing. Anael doesn't think it matters, because she knows God won't answer and doesn't care, because according to Joshua he "doesn't meddle." Which Cas disputes, because God brought him back. (And put the Winchesters on a plane over Ilchester, but I digress.) As far as Anael is concerned, that's even worse - he lets millions of humans die screaming, but saves one angel. Huh. She also knows the real reason Cas is doing this is because he knows Jack has no soul at all, and he doesn't want to have to tell Sam and Dean. Also, she stepped in a dead rat and she's done. But on their way out, Cas notices something on a jewelry rack - a pendant that looks similar to the Samulet.
Actually, it looks like an evil version of the Samulet. I mean, it's a freaking SKULL.
Methuselah says Joshua forged it "before he fell," and I wonder why it didn't occur to him that this could be the item Cas was looking for. Or he did know and was just being a dick. Cas clutches the amulet and tries to call on God, invoking the names of Sam and Dean, but he gets no answer. "It never worked for Joshua either," says Methuselah, and again, why didn't he admit he knew exactly what the thing was, and that it didn't work? Outside the shop, Cas tells Anael he's going to go home and tell Sam and Dean the truth, and he doesn't know what he'll do after that. He tells her she was wrong when she said everyone is alone (which I think I skipped in my recap but WHATEVER), because they all have each other. Well, you have Sam and Dean and Jack, so it seems a little unfair to rub that in Anael's face, but go on then.
So let's go now to Sam, who is back at the bunker (wearing an orange plaid shirt that would probably go nicely with that orange jacket of his, if I liked that monstrosity) and telling Dean exactly what I said, which is that he should be with him. Oh, Sam. You and I have so much in common.
Dean blows off Sam's concern and asks about Donatello's message. Sam tells him it's not Enochian (OH HAPPY DAY) and he thinks it's ancient Hebrew, but they're still working on the translation. He tells Dean to watch his back. We stay with Dean and Mary in the Impala, driving through the perpetually-rainy darkness. (The Husband points out that we should be able to hear the windshield wipers. I really don't think he's going to be allowed to watch with me any more.)
Dean says Sam (Sammy!) sounds stressed, and Mary says Jack and Dean are stressed too, and she wishes... well, we don't know what she wishes, but Dean cuts her off and says "you're here," like that's an accomplishment. She wishes she could have been here more. I don't know, Mary. For a woman who was dead for more than 30 years, you've been here plenty. She admits that she can be closed-off and hard, and Dean says "that's where I get it from," as if John Winchester had none of those qualities. But okay. Mary wants Dean to know that she's grateful for every day she has with him and Sam. And on first watch, I assumed this was just some leftover emotion from "Lebanon." Because I'm always talking about foreshadowing but I miss it when it actually happens, don't I?
Bunker. Sam is still listening to the voicemail and consulting his English-to-ancient-Hebrew dictionary (and rubbing the back of his neck which is SO DAMN CUTE AND I CANNOT EXPLAIN WHY) when he suddenly recognizes that Donatello is quoting the Bible. And of course he knows exactly where, chapter and verse, because he's Sam Winchester. It translates as Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking who he may devour. WELL. If that doesn't send chills down a Winchester's spine.
Is this shirt ORANGE and BLUE? WHY, SAM, WHY??? (Never mind, just appreciate the veiny arms.)
Dean and Mary get to Donatellotown (sorry, Donny, I do not remember where you live), where there's snow on the ground. When they enter the house, they can hear the prophet calling for help. But it turns out it's just a recording on a phone, with no Donatello in sight. And who walks out of the kitchen but Nick, wearing Donatello's apron. Well, at least he saved the cookies. Dean cuffs him and Mary goes to search the rest of the house.
"So it's just you?" Nick asks. "Sammy's home sick?" And on first watch this is just Nick being Nick. But on rewatch... maybe not. It's interesting that Dean (and I guess all of the extended TFW) had no idea he'd escaped from prison. Mary finds no Donatello, but she did find Nick's discarded syringe in the trash. He tells them he injected Donatello with thalium, which will cause his organs to shut down in a day. Just to get their attention. He tells Dean to hit the livestream button on the not-really-Donatello phone, and it shows a video of Donatello, tied up and gagged, sitting on a concrete floor somewhere. "You can save him if you can find him." Dean pulls a gun on him, but Nick's not afraid of being killed, because 1) that means Donatello would die, so he knows Dean won't do it, and b) he has nothing to live for anyway. He wants to talk.
Bunker. Nick is still handcuffed, being led down the hall by Dean in slow motion. Sam and Jack are coming from the other direction. Sam looks anxious, so I assume he knows who's coming, and when he lays eyes on Nick he snarls and grabs him and throws him against the wall and I'm not a fan of the weird slo-mo thing they're doing here but otherwise? Angry Sam assaulting Nick? I am HERE FOR THAT. Dean pulls him off and says "not now, not yet," which sounds like he is perfectly fine with Nick being assaulted but now is not the time. Sam makes a frustrated face and stomps off, and Mary and Jack look upset.
Dean having to get all handsy, holding Sam back? I am here for THAT as well.
War room. Sam wonders what kind of game Nick was playing, just sitting there waiting for Dean. And he doesn't even know Donatello. "Lucifer did," Dean points out, and we could spend some time wondering how much bleed there was between Lucifer and his vessel, how much Nick saw, how much of Lucifer's thoughts he was exposed to, how much he absorbed. We might want to do that later.
But right now, Mary reminds us that Donatello is in danger, and Smart!Sam knows the antidote for thallium is something they already have on hand, Prussian blue, which sounds like a breed of cat but really is the antidote for thallium poisoning. And I suppose Sam could have looked it up on Wikipedia earlier, just like I did, but I choose to believe he just knew. He also thinks he might be able to hack the location of the live feed, but he doesn't know if they have enough time, and if I were so inclined, I'd comment about Sam's intermittent hacking abilities, where he's a hacking genius one day, and the next day Charlie needs to look smart so he needs Charlie to tell him how to hack into a bank. But I'm not going to comment on any of Sam's intermittent abilities right now. Maybe later.
Well, Nick wanted to talk, so Dean thinks it's time to talk. "Oh yeah, let's talk," Sam says enthusiastically, and I think he means talk with his fists. And for the second time in this episode, Dean lays a hand on him and stops him from going after Nick and once again, I'm here for it. So much. Angry vengeful Sam is really doing it for me. "The way you are right now," he says, "if Nick looks at you wrong, you're gonna waste him. That can't happen." Which doesn't really sound like Sam, but yeah, he has been pushed to the edge, so okay. Sam once again accepts the promise that he can get to Nick "later," and Mary once again looks concerned.
Hand porn.
After Dean leaves, Sam tells Mary that he's the reason Donatello is in this and a police offer is dead. "I'm the one who let Nick go, I'm the one..." and he can't even finish, he just looks up in frustration and despair with tears in his eyes. "What was I thinking?" (Sidebar: Did Sam really "let Nick go?" Nick actually left the bunker while Cas was "babysitting" him at Sam's request. Discuss.) Mary tries to get him not to blame himself, saying he couldn't have known, and he says "that's not an excuse." OH SAM. "You gave him a chance because you felt for him," she says. "Because you're a good man." (What do we think about this? Do we think that's the only, or even the main reason Sam felt sorry for Nick? Or was it because he was also Lucifer's vessel? Are we supposed to believe Mary actually knows his motivation, or is this yet another example of her Not Getting what's going on in her sons' heads? Or is it just bad writing?) Sam obviously doesn't believe he's a good man, and she repeats "You are; it's one of the reasons I'm so proud of you." Aw Sammy. Closure with Dad, approval from Mom. Kind of a parallel, isn't it?
The way Sam keeps looking up, in an apparent attempt to not cry, is simultaneously killing me and giving me life.
Cut to Dean punching Nick in the dungeon. Nick says he and Dean are almost like brothers because of the Michael and Lucifer thing. "You're not the same after something like that, are you? Being one, with one of them. Changes you. Makes you more than human." Huh. This reminds me of that one guy in season 7 who wanted his possessing demon back. Anyway, Nick wants to see "my son."
Ah, Grand Inquisitor Dean. Always a favorite.
His son? I say. "His son?" Mary says. Is Nick actually Lucifer? Are we going there? Dean is totally against it. Jack asks Sam, because AS WE ALL KNOW, Sam is Jack's primary dad. Dean is angry that Sam's not immediately against it, but as Sam points out, Nick is locked down and not a threat ("he's always a threat," Mary says, and for once I agree with her), and they're running out of time. I don't really like the juxtaposition of these scenes. Moments ago, Sam blamed himself for everything Nick has done and castigated himself for being stupid enough to "let him go." And now he's all, he's not a threat. If I were writing this, Sam would have said yes, it's risky and I'm not happy about it, but I don't think we have any other way to save Donatello. And Jack would have gone in with a phone in his pocket on speaker so Sam could hear everything that happened. But I didn't write this. So.
I'm sure Sam sitting on the table was done for blocking purposes, but him being shorter than Dean and Mary makes him look small and helpless.
Jack walks into the dungeon and demands to know where Donatello is. Nick is impressed by his spunk and says it comes from his father.
My father was a monster
Everybody's a monster. Even your three dads. How many innocent people you think they've killed?
Okay, we know I love any reference to Jack's three dads, so thank you for that, Nick. And also, yes, he's right. They've killed a lot of innocent people. Lots of not-so-innocent people too, but yeah, there's a lot of collateral damage out there.
Nick also tells Jack "He loved you. You know that? He did. I felt it. He loved you so much, and you broke his heart." And we knew Lucifer said he loved Jack, but it's interesting to get confirmation that he truly did. As well as confirmation that Nick felt all of Lucifer's emotions. Nick then clarifies that he was talking about "the old you, the you with a soul," because he heard all of that from Donatello. Oh, for a minute there, I thought Nick could detect souls. Jack says he has a soul but Nick eggs him on and then Jack gets in his face and I guess has a sudden angry outburst of nosebleed? It's hard to tell what's going on. But Jack's blood is all over his face, and his shirt, and Nick's shirt. Hope that washes out. Oh, don't need it, he takes care of all of it with his glowy-eyed power. Nick is afraid of him now. Unless he's lying. But why would Nick lie?
Jack steps out of the dungeon and tells his assembled fathers and grandmother that Nick will tell them where Donatello is. Sam wraps his arms around himself uncomfortably. Next we see the brothers and Nick in the Impala, driving through the night. Sidebar: Donatello's hometown of Lewis (yeah, I looked it up) doesn't exist, according to Mapquest, but elsewhere on the Internets one can learn that it's a "township" near Tushka, Oklahoma, which is almost an 8 hour drive from Lebanon. I wonder where Lucifer stashed him? In Lewis, or closer to Lebanon? Not that it matters. Carrying on.
When the guys get to Nick's hidey hole, it's daylight and it's snowing. Dean and Sam both threaten that Sam will shoot Nick if he does anything, Sam hands Dean the antidote, and Dean goes off on his own. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Meanwhile, in the bunker, Jack sees Mary going through the pile of stuff she carried back from Donatello's house for some reason, and recognizes that the hypodermic syringe held angel grace. Wait. Grace? Not thallium? Nick lied? Color me shocked.
Sam's sitting in the Impala with Nick, who is doing his best to be as annoying as Lucifer, and poor Sam looks like he wants to shoot either Nick or himself. He gets a call from Mary, and while he gets out of the car to talk to her, we see Nick has produced a something from somewhere and is picking at his handcuffs. Sam yanks the car door open, waves his gun at Nick, and orders him out of the car, because he knows that will make for a more dramatic and attractive confrontation. (Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing it out.) He tells Nick he knows about the grace and asks him why. Nick explains that prophets are like "old CB radios," and Sam knows that means he was trying to communicate with someone, and who could THAT be? Because Lucifer is dead, right? Well, yeah, if dead means awake, in the empty, and able to tell Nick how to bring him back using Jack's blood. "Come on, Sam," Nick says. "Nobody stays dead any more. You know that." Well, obviously Nick has been watching our show!
I know, Sam; I feel the same way about Lucifer coming back.
Nick reveals that demons have been hiding him, and obtained the angel grace for him, because they're as anxious to have Lucifer back as he is. It's your own fault, Sam. You denied them a leader. What did you expect them to do? Sam's standing there, holding a gun on Nick, and I'm going "shoot him, shoot him, dammit" and then Nick's handcuffs fall to the ground so Sam shoots him in the head. Oh no, he doesn't. He yells for Dean, who is in the warehouse, many yards away.(And it's not even a Bucklemming episode.)
They start punching each other, so I guess Sam drops his gun? He does end up pinning Nick, with his hands around his throat, so it looks like Sammy's gonna win this one. But he stops before Nick even loses consciousness (SAM! HAVE YOU STILL LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE WHOLE THING WITH JAKE?), because Sam is extremely skilled and efficient at hand-to-hand combat, except when he's mysteriously NOT. This gives Nick the opportunity to reach for a rock and bash his head in. Sam is dazed, and Nick throws him against the car (and we know hitting a hard object with your back and shoulders knocks you unconscious, we've seen it many times) and taunts him. "Lucifer's perfect vessel. You aren't so perfect now, are you?" Oooooooh, wait. Is Nick jealous? Jealous of Sam being the perfect vessel? Has Nick been feeling Lucifer's thoughts about Sam for all these years, feeling how much he preferred his perfect vessel, and gnashing his jealous little teeth? And if so, why couldn't we have had 17 episodes of that? Why is this delightful tidbit just coming to light NOW?
Dazed Sam manages to get in the car and lock the doors, and as Nick pounds on the window, he frantically honks the horn. Now, some folks on Tumblr think he was trying to warn Dean, but I think he's calling for help. Desperately, frantically calling for help.
As this is happening, Dean enters the warehouse (an abandoned warehouse? imagine that!), oblivious to a couple of shadowy figures watching him. He sees Donatello, and then hears Sam call him, but is attacked by demons just as that happens. He does, finally, conquer his demons by way of the angel blade. Donatello manages to free himself during the melee, and they run outside. Nick is gone and Sam has managed to get out of the car, but not to stand up. Dean runs up to him and there's some panicky "Sammy!" and looking around as if there's someone or something there to help, and Sam broken and bloody on the ground, just the way I like it.
This is not fair, Sammy. You just died on me last season.
As Nick yanks a guy out of his truck and makes his getaway, Dean calls Mary and tells her what happened. "He hurt Sam, he got him in the head. I don't even wanna move him. We called an ambulance but they said twenty minutes. It's not good, Mom, it's really bad." I didn't even get that this was supposed to be a serious head injury until this point. I mean, obviously it would be serious in real life, but in Supernatural life, Sam gets knocked unconscious on a regular basis and suffers no ill effects, and I thought this was just going to be another one of those. (In other words, my portents from yesterday were WRONG. The man down is Sam.)
Nick breaks into a cabin and sets up his little Lucifer spell. (It's a good thing - or a bad thing - that this abandoned cabin had an ample supply of salt, and apparently everything else Nick needs besides Jack's blood.) When he lights a fire, Jack reacts in the bunker, saying it feels like his blood is burning. And he can feel him. He can get to him. He says he needs to use his powers, and Mary says "do it," and I had forgotten that he promised not to use them without permission. Nick chants the spell and Lucifer appears, and for once, the effect is actually pretty cool and not cheesy. He's a swirling black snake-like mass, lit from within. He's still got that Terminator face, but it's mostly hidden by the rest of it, so that's good. "I'm here, I'm ready," says Nick. "Your vessel, your perfect vessel. Make me strong again. Make me you." Perfect vessel? I don't THINK so, Nick. Not in your wildest dreams. (And I appreciate another reference to Nick wanting what Sam has.) Lucifer reaches for him, but just before he can touch him, Jack and Mary show up and Jack zaps him out of existence. So, Jack gets to kill Michael and Lucifer? Seems unfair. Jack mutilates Nick's outreached hand and then sets him on fire, with Mary yelling at him to stop. So, it looks like Nick's dead, but I've been fooled before. And that makes it three for Jack and zero for Sam. If you're keeping track.
Over at Nick's hidey hole warehouse, Dean is in full-on "it's not even that bad" mode. He holds a bandanna against Sam's cracked-open head and tries t get him to count with him, but he only gets to two before Sam decides it's time to say goodbye. "You always put me first," he says, between raspy breaths. "Your whole life." (I had to resort to closed-captioning to understand that last bit.) And then he goes limp and Dean gets even more panicky and face-patty. Back at Nick's cabin, Mary tells Jack to go help Sam. He zaps over to the Impala and is horrified to see his favorite (I know it, you know it) father dying. He puts a hand on Sam's face and heals him, and as Sam gasps back to life, Dean quickly helps him to his feet and then even more quickly turns away and puts a hand to his face because he can't do this, he can't let anyone see how emotional he is, he needs a second to compose himself, he's going to burst out sobbing or screaming or something and he just has to turn away and godDAMN this is such a good acting choice on Jensen's part. I love it. We need to watch it some more.
And more and more.
Sam asks about Nick and Mary and Jack tells them he stopped Nick, and Mary is fine. "Everything's going to be fine."
Narrator: Everything was NOT going to be fine.
Back at the cabin, Mary's quietly freaking out. Jack zaps back and tells her he healed Sam and everything's okay (ha ha no), but she's obviously not happy. Apparently her concern isn't that Jack killed Nick, but that he did it "like that." Oh, come on, Mary. Get off your high horse. You seemed to enjoy a bit of "interrogation" back in the day with the BMoL. This isn't that different. Jack begs her to tell him he did okay, but she refuses. "It's not your fault, but the Jack I know would never have done that." Well, I have to disagree, but I can't think of any real evidence right now.
"If Sam and Dean saw what you did," she says, "they would be as worried as I am." Hi, Mary, have you met your son Dean, the Grand Inquisitor from earlier in the episode? Or your other son Sam, the sweet kind gentle giant who was ready to beat Nick to a pulp? Dean had to physically restrain him from pummeling Nick TWICE, and only managed it by promising he could have him "later." But anyway. She promises they'll help Jack, because they're family, but he yells at her to leave him alone and grabs his head and she can NOT take a hint and finally his eyes glow gold and he says "LEAVE ME ALONE" one more time and boom. The screen goes black and we hear "...Mary?"
(Me, to The Husband: "Mary's gone? Well, I guess this was a good episode after all!")
Well, that explains why we've had so much Mary-and-sons bonding and mutual appreciation in this episode. I mean, it didn't make me care any more about her being gone, but, okay. And there were a lot of things I could have done without. The guys being separated. Cas's endless B-plot. Sam not shooting Nick, and losing a fight he really should have won. But these things brought me hurt/dying Sam and frantic Dean, so I accept them. And I'm disappointed that Sam never got his "later" with Nick, and once again he didn't get to kill Lucifer, but at least SOMEBODY did, and you've gotta love that. And we got angry-vengeful Sam and trying-not-to-cry Sam and Grand Inquisitor Dean, so. That makes up for a lot of nonsense.
Oh, and the song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head?" It's from the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." You know, the one with the Butch and Sundance ending Dean thinks they should have. And if you want that ending, you might think it's a good thing that they chose to give us this particular song. But not me.
So. One down, 23 to go!
I know, Dean. I know
As always, no spoilers in the comments, please, and that includes episode titles and casting information. Thanks!
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no subject
Date: 2019-04-05 09:16 pm (UTC)Not that I cared about that part of the plot, but I didn't get the sense that Methuselah was an angel, I assumed he was the long-lived guy from the Old Testament.
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Date: 2019-04-06 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 08:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 02:47 pm (UTC)I get that the scene with Mary praising Sam for giving Nick a chance was supposed to be his motivation for not killing Nick, but I don't buy it. Mommy's praise wouldn't have overridden Sam's instinct to go to Dean's aid. That's just not how Sam is wired. There was some urgency to help Dean and shooting Nick would have been the quickest path to do that.
But hurt Sam, my heart
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Date: 2019-04-06 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 02:34 am (UTC)By the way, one of this morning's SPN re-runs was from Season 8. Sam's hair was freaking GLORIOUS.
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Date: 2019-04-06 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 08:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 02:49 am (UTC)I thought we saw Joshua get killed. Checks SuperWiki. Yep, he was killed by Dagon in the season 12 episode The Future. He wasn’t played by the same actor, so it was easy to miss.
The guy running the place is Methuselah, one of the few surviving angels
I don’t think Methuselah is an angel, just a really old human. He’s the guy from the Bible who is the oldest person ever, or at least ever mentioned in the Bible. In the Bible he died when he was 969, so he should be dead, but in Supernatural I guess he just never died. Maybe he’s part of a Highland crossover? Anyway, I think it's also why he's being a dick about the Not!Samulet. He doesn't much like angels, then Cas comes in and threatens to kill him if he doesn't help. So he makes Cas and Anael work to find the Not!Samulet.
I'm guessing Mary is upset about Jack's actions because they are worried about his potential soullessness. It's like when Dean lied to Jack about why the didn't want him to go with them on the hunt. It's really because Dean was worried about his use of powers and that maybe he's going to go all rogue. Mary is worried so she's taking everything Jack does and thinking it proves he's in trouble. This is kind of parallel with Season 2 and 3 Sam where Dean and the audience was worried that Sam came back 'wrong' and when Dean thought Sam would turn out to be evil and Dean would have to kill him. So even when Sam did things that Sam would have done in the past Dean and we the audience, questioned whether it was a sign that he was going dark.
I do think Sam calling for Dean as soon as he found out about the Thalium being Grace was because Nick told him that Nick had gotten residual grace from demons, who wanted Lucifer back. So Sam knew Dean was walking into a demon trap and he went into "protect my brother" mode, instead of watching Nick. Both brothers do that some time, so I was a little more accepting of Sam dropping the ball there. Nick winning the fight I took as Nick having some super strength because he was Lucifer's most recent vessel and because he contacted Lucifer.
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Date: 2019-04-06 08:52 am (UTC)And yes, I’m sure that’s what’s going on with Mary, but she’s seeing badness that isn’t there. Even if it turns out Jack is soulless, I don’t think he’s doing anything worse than he would have done while souled. (Watch them prove me wrong next week.)
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Date: 2019-04-06 03:03 am (UTC)Things I yelled at the screen:
SHUT UP MARY WINCHESTER
OMG MARY YOU SUCK
Mary you know nothing
Jesus Christ Sam shoot him what the fuck shoot him
Everything is not Going To Be FINE
A few of my thoughts: Sam was 100% calling for help with that car horn. I don't think Methuselah was supposed to be an angel, but I don't get how it makes sense for him to be the million year old guy from the Old Testament either. Can't they make Danneel use ASL instead of using that awful voice of hers? Castiel is in fact the world's worst babysitter, but I get why Sam was so broken up about Nick, and his tears bring me joy. His I'm Going To Bare Hands Murder You also brings me joy. That ep with Jeffrey who wanted his demon back is one of my very favorites from S7.
I think I need to settle in with the fact that even when writing is shitty and poor choices are made, I'm still going to love all of the episodes. I'm never going to get to the end and be like well that was terrible. I mean, I'm doing a S1 rewatch and I skipped the racist truck ep. But Show's not making them like that anymore.
PS - it's really not necessary for you to dis Sam's orange jacket.
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Date: 2019-04-06 03:25 am (UTC)You are my hero.
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Date: 2019-04-06 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 10:37 pm (UTC)http://caranfindel.tumblr.com/post/183996114392/dresslikejaredp-what-pullbear-check-shirt-in
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Date: 2019-04-06 11:17 pm (UTC)Even in an XL, it probably won't button up over my boobs but that's ok. I'll wear it to DC con in November.
EDIT - with a tshirt or something underneath it, I'm not a flasher
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Date: 2019-04-07 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 03:24 am (UTC)I'm surprised the simultaneous shouts of 'Just shoot him, Sam!' from fandom didn't register on the Richter scale...
I miss Sam from episode 1 of this season who took out a bar full of demons alone...
I would have sworn this was a Bucklemming episode and was really taken aback to discover it wasn't...which means we probably still have one of theirs coming up...
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Date: 2019-04-06 08:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-06 08:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-10 08:33 pm (UTC)*sigh*
Anyway. Thank you SO MUCH for making me laugh really hard despite my frustration, and for recapping the episodes in such detail and with so much care. xo
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Date: 2019-04-18 10:26 am (UTC)