caranfindel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
caranfindel) wrote2014-05-21 12:47 pm
caranfindel) wrote2014-05-21 12:47 pm
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9.23 Initial reaction: everything I thought I knew is wrong
I’m rewatching on Hulu right now (um, sorry, people who pay me to actually work – I’ll make it up to you, I promise). And according to Hulu, in this episode “Even though Dean continues to feel the effects of the First Blade, he strategizes a plan with Castiel and Sam to take down Metatron once and for all!” Um, no. Just no. Dean doesn’t do any strategizing. Dean just acts. Sam strategizes, Cas and Gadreel strategize, but Dean just goes.
Anyway, here we go!
After a strangely disjointed “Road So Far” that’s mostly people and angels getting stabbed, we open right where we left off last time, with Dean attacking Gadreel. Sam puts himself between Dean and Gadreel, and this is like, reason #237 why I love Sam Winchester. He is ready and able to get past what Gadreel did to him – not necessarily forgive him, but put it aside because other things are more important right now. I’m sure he’s had years of experience doing this with John and Dean, which is why he’s so good at it.
So, Dean ends up locked up, but of course he’s locked up with supplies that will allow him to summon Crowley (guess it’s a good thing Sam didn’t handcuff you to a cot in the panic room, huh, Dean?), who informs him he’s going to die unless he kills people. And casually mentions that Cain didn’t have this problem because Cain was a demon and what? What? What the fucking fuck? Because unless I really haven’t been paying attention, this is the first we’ve heard about Cain being a demon. Wouldn’t it have come up earlier? Don’t demons tend to recognize each other, so Crowley would have known he was Cain the first time he saw him? Wouldn’t Castiel have known, and said something? Anyway, this is when I knew. As soon as we learned Cain was a demon, I knew the promised “last five seconds” would be Dean’s eyes going black. (And thanks so much, Jensen, for fucking that up for me.) So my theory, in my earlier post, was kind of right and kind of wrong. I said we wouldn’t get the black eyes because the Mark wasn’t demonic. But since it is demonic, obviously we do get the black eyes. (And my prediction about Sam was entirely wrong, so don’t even listen to me.)
Team Free Will 2: The Redemption
Cas looks so short between Sam and Gadreel. Hee!
Wookie! Star Wars reference for the win. I wonder if Cas would have come up on this plan on his own (after all, it’s not like Star Wars invented using a fake prisoner to lie your way into a building) or if Metatron shot himself in the foot by filling him with cultural references. Either way, I love it. And I adore the way Gadreel has slipped into Castiel’s “I don’t understand that reference” role. And the way he calls Cas “brother.” I’d love to see more of these two in S10. (Spoiler alert: I won’t.)
Cas and Gadreel end up in angel jail, where Hannah and her weird too-short pants don’t believe their story. Gadreel starts freaking out, feeling guilty for only thinking of himself and his own redemption, rather than saving humanity, and boom! Another angel suicide bomber. Sorry, Gadreel. “Do you believe him now?” Castiel asks Hannah. Um, Cas, being ready to die for his cause doesn’t mean he was telling the truth. It doesn’t mean he was right. After all, the other angel suicide bombers were ready to die for their cause. But Hannah believes him now, which is convenient, and she takes him into Metatron’s office to find the angel tablet. I’m sorry to see Gadreel go. He was a great grey-area character, I liked the way he interacted with others, and he could have had a good, long, interesting redemption arc. Also he had a jawline that just won’t quit, and a bitchface to rival Sam Winchester’s. What’s not to love?
What would Metatron do?
While all this is going on, we have Metatron, who has re-opened Heaven and refuses to answer to “Metatron” and only answers to “God.” What a little prick. He’s given up on the trenchcoat plan and is instead trying to look pitiful (which isn’t too terribly difficult - sorry, Curtis Armstrong) to convince the people that he’s just some sad sack who happens to perform miracles. And he writes himself into a nice little story where a woman is hit by a car and he brings her back to life. Staring creepily into a bystander’s cellphone camera. I mean, really, seriously, creepily. Like, he’s trying to look beatific but he just looks creepy as hell.
Okay, this homeless lady has seen the video? And recognizes “Marv” from behind, with his face hidden? And how stupid is redhead angel, trying to condemn Metatron by declaring him an angel? Has he not been on earth long enough to understand that humans think angels are the bomb? They would have all been cheering “yes, angel, woo!” But no, poor redhead angel is conveniently covered with a tarp so no one will see him light up when he’s stabbed with Metatron’s angel blade. Bye bye, clueless angel.
Team Free Will 3: Howling at the Moon
Meanwhile, Dean and Crowley have hit the street, looking for soul food and a place to eat (we get a nice little bit of car porn with the Impala zooming around the corner, too). Actually, no, not a place to eat; a place to order coffee and use the wifi (and Crowley’s right; don’t take up the poor waitress’s table all day unless you’re going to tip her what she might have made if you weren’t wifi squatting. Just a helpful hint.) Crowley guilts Dean into ordering a burger, and hello! Extra onions? Dean, do you remember what happened the last time you ordered a burger with extra onions this close to the end of the season??? Does All Hell Breaks Loose pt 1 ring a bell??? Is this a coincidence? (Spoiler alert: It’s not.)
Crowley asks if Dean ever wants more than this, wants to howl at the moon, and is very interested when Dean doesn’t eat his burger. This is a lot more suspicious in hindsight. (And yes, shower sex is complicated, and in my opinion not really worth the trouble. And my shower is too small. If you want to get your freak on while getting squeaky clean, try a giant whirlpool bathtub. Another helpful hint.)
Crowley’s minions tell him what Sam already knows, somehow – where to find Miracle Lady (and, coincidentally, Sam). And now we get something that I was really, really afraid we wouldn’t get. Sam refers to Gadreel as one of “your real friends,” which Dean takes issue with, pointing out that he’s done some bad things. And Sam responds with: “Who you let in the front door in the first place? You tricked me Dean, and now I’m the one who wakes up in the middle of the night seeing my hands killing Kevin, not you.” Which is awesome because (a) come on, it’s awesome seeing Sam stand up for himself, and (b) I was afraid they would gloss over this, as they always seem to do with Dean does something to Sam, and (c) it’s so close to a fic I wrote that it just kind of makes me want to dance. \o/
Anyway, Dean still doesn’t apologize, and Sam doesn’t wait for it, because he knows it’s not going to happen. He just wants to get the job done. “I’m gonna take my best shot, no matter the consequences,” Dean says. Translation: This may get one or more of us killed. “I know,” says Sam. Translation: I understand, and I’m not going to try to stop you. Oh, boys. /o\ And Crowley is dismissed. “I guess I’ve been Winchestered.” Actually, I think most people who have been Winchestered are dead.
And now we get the open trunk speech (a subset of the over the Impala speech that happens before an event, rather than after). Poor Sam is obviously nervous and worried about Dean. Dean attempts to apologize for the last couple of months (which means his behavior while under the influence of the Mark, not tricking Sam into becoming an angel vessel, and as I’ve said before, Dean tends to apologize for things he had little or no control over, and gloss over the things he’s actually done). Sam insists there’s no need to apologize, let’s just do this, right? And so naturally Dean, having decided this is not Sam’s fight but no longer having a convenient way to send him away, punches him unconscious. And just leaves him there, on the ground, in a not-so-good part of town. Jesus, Dean, if you want to protect him, at least put him in the damn car. No, this isn’t about protecting him. It’s about the fight being Dean’s fight, not Sam’s.
The homeless crew is expecting Dean, and he confronts Metatron in a red-lit, yellow-trimmed area that just screams Danger, Bad Things Are Going to Happen Here. Metatron tells him the mission has already failed, since Cas and Gadreel are imprisoned, and “nothing’s going to come of this unless your pals succeed upstairs.” That’s not quite true. First, I don’t think Dean even knows what they’re trying to do upstairs. And second, no matter what happens with Cas and Gadreel, there’s no reason not to kill Metatron. God’s frumpiest angel does have a pretty good line when he sneers that Dean is “Powered by the bone of a jackass, and it is just awesome! Next time try to be powered by the word of God.” He then proves the word of God trumps the bone of an ass by beating the crap out of Dean and stabbing him.
Sam finds them just in time to see this. He yells “no,” and Dean looks at him with this brokenhearted “I failed and now I’m dying” face, and crack! It’s the sound of my heart breaking.
No, it’s the angel tablet – Castiel found it under the typewriter (is that why everything Metatron wrote came true, because his typewriter was running off the angel tablet, and if so, where can I get me one of those?) and Dean falls as the tablet shatters.
Sam grabs Metatron’s angel blade and tries to stab him, but he zaps back to his office. There, he gleefully informs Cas that Dean is dead (and in another bit of fanservice, points out that Castiel’s purpose wasn’t to save Heaven or mankind, but to save Dean) and, prompted by Cas, details his plan to lead the angelic sheep – unaware that Cas is broadcasting it all on angel radio. Yay Cas! Metatron is imprisoned, and Castiel faces the question of what to do now – he doesn’t want to lead, he’ll die if he doesn’t replenish his grace, but does anybody care? I don’t. Because back down on Earth, things are more interesting.
Just like the last episode, Jared Padalecki manages to make me forgive a lot of flaws. Because at this point, he picks up that angel blade and slices right into my chest, rips out my heart, throws it on the ground and stomps on it. I’m sure this is supposed to be Dean’s big scene, and he is great, but Sam? Dammit, boy. You kill me.
Sam tries to hold Dean together long enough to get him to a hospital, but Dean is ready to go. “It’s better this way. The mark, it’s making me into something I don’t want to be.” Sam is having none of this shit. “What happened with you being okay with this?” “I lied.” (If you’re keeping score, that means Sam understands Dean’s POV from 9.01, but Dean still doesn’t get Sam’s. Surprised? Me neither.)
But Dean’s not making it out of here alive. And I don’t know if the similarities to AHBL1 are intentional. It would make sense, since they’ve done callbacks to earlier episodes before, but that would assume the current writers and showrunner are actually familiar with earlier episodes, and I’m not too convinced of that. Anyway. As very, very similar music plays, Sam and Dean end up kneeling on the ground, Dean says “I’m proud of us,” Sam insists he going to be okay, Dean insists on dying instead, and there is face-holding and dead-brother-clutching and sobbing and shit. Okay. Damn you, Jared.
Cut to Sam carefully placing Dean’s body on a bed (sob) and sadly drinking in the library (sob) and then drunkenly swearing that Crowley “got him into this mess, you will get him out, or so help me God.” (Spoiler alert: there is no God.)
We then see Crowley in the doorway of Dean’s room (or wherever Dean is) and I actually thought they’d done a little jump, and he’d been summoned by Sam, until Crowley points out that Sam, “bless his soul,” is currently summoning him to “make a deal.” I don’t know about that. I think Sam was more into threatening than dealing. I really hate to think he’s willing to barter with his soul at this point.
Crowley monologues over Dean’s body (again, much like Dean did in AHBL), and it’s actually kind of affectionate in a weird way. He insists that he never lied to Dean (You know who else never lied? Lucifer. It doesn’t mean you’re a good guy.) and that “it wasn’t truly until you left that cheeseburger uneaten” that he believed what was happening, that his miracle was coming true. And what is Crowley’s miracle?
“Listen to me, Dean Winchester, what you’re feeling right now is not death; it’s life, a new kind of life.”
So, what do I think about this one? I didn’t get what I really wanted. I wanted Sam to be the hero and save Dean. I wanted Dean to understand and acknowledge how he had wronged Sam. And these could still happen in S10. And no one picked “Metatron kills Dean” as something they wanted to happen in last week’s poll, so, we all lost that one. I didn’t get what I expected, either. Abaddon was dead before the finale, Gadreel is gone, and the last horrifying scene wasn’t Dean sinking the Blade into Sam’s heart. (And no one picked “Metatron kills Dean” as something they expected to happen in the poll, so, again, we all lost that one.) And I got some things I really didn’t want. Angel drama, and Sam being pushed to the side. But I can’t say I disliked this. I can even say I loved large chunks of it. When you picked off the extra onions, it was a pretty good cheeseburger.
Let’s go howl at that moon.
Anyway, here we go!
After a strangely disjointed “Road So Far” that’s mostly people and angels getting stabbed, we open right where we left off last time, with Dean attacking Gadreel. Sam puts himself between Dean and Gadreel, and this is like, reason #237 why I love Sam Winchester. He is ready and able to get past what Gadreel did to him – not necessarily forgive him, but put it aside because other things are more important right now. I’m sure he’s had years of experience doing this with John and Dean, which is why he’s so good at it.
So, Dean ends up locked up, but of course he’s locked up with supplies that will allow him to summon Crowley (guess it’s a good thing Sam didn’t handcuff you to a cot in the panic room, huh, Dean?), who informs him he’s going to die unless he kills people. And casually mentions that Cain didn’t have this problem because Cain was a demon and what? What? What the fucking fuck? Because unless I really haven’t been paying attention, this is the first we’ve heard about Cain being a demon. Wouldn’t it have come up earlier? Don’t demons tend to recognize each other, so Crowley would have known he was Cain the first time he saw him? Wouldn’t Castiel have known, and said something? Anyway, this is when I knew. As soon as we learned Cain was a demon, I knew the promised “last five seconds” would be Dean’s eyes going black. (And thanks so much, Jensen, for fucking that up for me.) So my theory, in my earlier post, was kind of right and kind of wrong. I said we wouldn’t get the black eyes because the Mark wasn’t demonic. But since it is demonic, obviously we do get the black eyes. (And my prediction about Sam was entirely wrong, so don’t even listen to me.)
Team Free Will 2: The Redemption
Cas looks so short between Sam and Gadreel. Hee!
Wookie! Star Wars reference for the win. I wonder if Cas would have come up on this plan on his own (after all, it’s not like Star Wars invented using a fake prisoner to lie your way into a building) or if Metatron shot himself in the foot by filling him with cultural references. Either way, I love it. And I adore the way Gadreel has slipped into Castiel’s “I don’t understand that reference” role. And the way he calls Cas “brother.” I’d love to see more of these two in S10. (Spoiler alert: I won’t.)
Cas and Gadreel end up in angel jail, where Hannah and her weird too-short pants don’t believe their story. Gadreel starts freaking out, feeling guilty for only thinking of himself and his own redemption, rather than saving humanity, and boom! Another angel suicide bomber. Sorry, Gadreel. “Do you believe him now?” Castiel asks Hannah. Um, Cas, being ready to die for his cause doesn’t mean he was telling the truth. It doesn’t mean he was right. After all, the other angel suicide bombers were ready to die for their cause. But Hannah believes him now, which is convenient, and she takes him into Metatron’s office to find the angel tablet. I’m sorry to see Gadreel go. He was a great grey-area character, I liked the way he interacted with others, and he could have had a good, long, interesting redemption arc. Also he had a jawline that just won’t quit, and a bitchface to rival Sam Winchester’s. What’s not to love?
What would Metatron do?
While all this is going on, we have Metatron, who has re-opened Heaven and refuses to answer to “Metatron” and only answers to “God.” What a little prick. He’s given up on the trenchcoat plan and is instead trying to look pitiful (which isn’t too terribly difficult - sorry, Curtis Armstrong) to convince the people that he’s just some sad sack who happens to perform miracles. And he writes himself into a nice little story where a woman is hit by a car and he brings her back to life. Staring creepily into a bystander’s cellphone camera. I mean, really, seriously, creepily. Like, he’s trying to look beatific but he just looks creepy as hell.
Okay, this homeless lady has seen the video? And recognizes “Marv” from behind, with his face hidden? And how stupid is redhead angel, trying to condemn Metatron by declaring him an angel? Has he not been on earth long enough to understand that humans think angels are the bomb? They would have all been cheering “yes, angel, woo!” But no, poor redhead angel is conveniently covered with a tarp so no one will see him light up when he’s stabbed with Metatron’s angel blade. Bye bye, clueless angel.
Team Free Will 3: Howling at the Moon
Meanwhile, Dean and Crowley have hit the street, looking for soul food and a place to eat (we get a nice little bit of car porn with the Impala zooming around the corner, too). Actually, no, not a place to eat; a place to order coffee and use the wifi (and Crowley’s right; don’t take up the poor waitress’s table all day unless you’re going to tip her what she might have made if you weren’t wifi squatting. Just a helpful hint.) Crowley guilts Dean into ordering a burger, and hello! Extra onions? Dean, do you remember what happened the last time you ordered a burger with extra onions this close to the end of the season??? Does All Hell Breaks Loose pt 1 ring a bell??? Is this a coincidence? (Spoiler alert: It’s not.)
Crowley asks if Dean ever wants more than this, wants to howl at the moon, and is very interested when Dean doesn’t eat his burger. This is a lot more suspicious in hindsight. (And yes, shower sex is complicated, and in my opinion not really worth the trouble. And my shower is too small. If you want to get your freak on while getting squeaky clean, try a giant whirlpool bathtub. Another helpful hint.)
Crowley’s minions tell him what Sam already knows, somehow – where to find Miracle Lady (and, coincidentally, Sam). And now we get something that I was really, really afraid we wouldn’t get. Sam refers to Gadreel as one of “your real friends,” which Dean takes issue with, pointing out that he’s done some bad things. And Sam responds with: “Who you let in the front door in the first place? You tricked me Dean, and now I’m the one who wakes up in the middle of the night seeing my hands killing Kevin, not you.” Which is awesome because (a) come on, it’s awesome seeing Sam stand up for himself, and (b) I was afraid they would gloss over this, as they always seem to do with Dean does something to Sam, and (c) it’s so close to a fic I wrote that it just kind of makes me want to dance. \o/
Anyway, Dean still doesn’t apologize, and Sam doesn’t wait for it, because he knows it’s not going to happen. He just wants to get the job done. “I’m gonna take my best shot, no matter the consequences,” Dean says. Translation: This may get one or more of us killed. “I know,” says Sam. Translation: I understand, and I’m not going to try to stop you. Oh, boys. /o\ And Crowley is dismissed. “I guess I’ve been Winchestered.” Actually, I think most people who have been Winchestered are dead.
And now we get the open trunk speech (a subset of the over the Impala speech that happens before an event, rather than after). Poor Sam is obviously nervous and worried about Dean. Dean attempts to apologize for the last couple of months (which means his behavior while under the influence of the Mark, not tricking Sam into becoming an angel vessel, and as I’ve said before, Dean tends to apologize for things he had little or no control over, and gloss over the things he’s actually done). Sam insists there’s no need to apologize, let’s just do this, right? And so naturally Dean, having decided this is not Sam’s fight but no longer having a convenient way to send him away, punches him unconscious. And just leaves him there, on the ground, in a not-so-good part of town. Jesus, Dean, if you want to protect him, at least put him in the damn car. No, this isn’t about protecting him. It’s about the fight being Dean’s fight, not Sam’s.
The homeless crew is expecting Dean, and he confronts Metatron in a red-lit, yellow-trimmed area that just screams Danger, Bad Things Are Going to Happen Here. Metatron tells him the mission has already failed, since Cas and Gadreel are imprisoned, and “nothing’s going to come of this unless your pals succeed upstairs.” That’s not quite true. First, I don’t think Dean even knows what they’re trying to do upstairs. And second, no matter what happens with Cas and Gadreel, there’s no reason not to kill Metatron. God’s frumpiest angel does have a pretty good line when he sneers that Dean is “Powered by the bone of a jackass, and it is just awesome! Next time try to be powered by the word of God.” He then proves the word of God trumps the bone of an ass by beating the crap out of Dean and stabbing him.
Sam finds them just in time to see this. He yells “no,” and Dean looks at him with this brokenhearted “I failed and now I’m dying” face, and crack! It’s the sound of my heart breaking.
No, it’s the angel tablet – Castiel found it under the typewriter (is that why everything Metatron wrote came true, because his typewriter was running off the angel tablet, and if so, where can I get me one of those?) and Dean falls as the tablet shatters.
Sam grabs Metatron’s angel blade and tries to stab him, but he zaps back to his office. There, he gleefully informs Cas that Dean is dead (and in another bit of fanservice, points out that Castiel’s purpose wasn’t to save Heaven or mankind, but to save Dean) and, prompted by Cas, details his plan to lead the angelic sheep – unaware that Cas is broadcasting it all on angel radio. Yay Cas! Metatron is imprisoned, and Castiel faces the question of what to do now – he doesn’t want to lead, he’ll die if he doesn’t replenish his grace, but does anybody care? I don’t. Because back down on Earth, things are more interesting.
Just like the last episode, Jared Padalecki manages to make me forgive a lot of flaws. Because at this point, he picks up that angel blade and slices right into my chest, rips out my heart, throws it on the ground and stomps on it. I’m sure this is supposed to be Dean’s big scene, and he is great, but Sam? Dammit, boy. You kill me.
Sam tries to hold Dean together long enough to get him to a hospital, but Dean is ready to go. “It’s better this way. The mark, it’s making me into something I don’t want to be.” Sam is having none of this shit. “What happened with you being okay with this?” “I lied.” (If you’re keeping score, that means Sam understands Dean’s POV from 9.01, but Dean still doesn’t get Sam’s. Surprised? Me neither.)
But Dean’s not making it out of here alive. And I don’t know if the similarities to AHBL1 are intentional. It would make sense, since they’ve done callbacks to earlier episodes before, but that would assume the current writers and showrunner are actually familiar with earlier episodes, and I’m not too convinced of that. Anyway. As very, very similar music plays, Sam and Dean end up kneeling on the ground, Dean says “I’m proud of us,” Sam insists he going to be okay, Dean insists on dying instead, and there is face-holding and dead-brother-clutching and sobbing and shit. Okay. Damn you, Jared.
Cut to Sam carefully placing Dean’s body on a bed (sob) and sadly drinking in the library (sob) and then drunkenly swearing that Crowley “got him into this mess, you will get him out, or so help me God.” (Spoiler alert: there is no God.)
We then see Crowley in the doorway of Dean’s room (or wherever Dean is) and I actually thought they’d done a little jump, and he’d been summoned by Sam, until Crowley points out that Sam, “bless his soul,” is currently summoning him to “make a deal.” I don’t know about that. I think Sam was more into threatening than dealing. I really hate to think he’s willing to barter with his soul at this point.
Crowley monologues over Dean’s body (again, much like Dean did in AHBL), and it’s actually kind of affectionate in a weird way. He insists that he never lied to Dean (You know who else never lied? Lucifer. It doesn’t mean you’re a good guy.) and that “it wasn’t truly until you left that cheeseburger uneaten” that he believed what was happening, that his miracle was coming true. And what is Crowley’s miracle?
“Listen to me, Dean Winchester, what you’re feeling right now is not death; it’s life, a new kind of life.”
So, what do I think about this one? I didn’t get what I really wanted. I wanted Sam to be the hero and save Dean. I wanted Dean to understand and acknowledge how he had wronged Sam. And these could still happen in S10. And no one picked “Metatron kills Dean” as something they wanted to happen in last week’s poll, so, we all lost that one. I didn’t get what I expected, either. Abaddon was dead before the finale, Gadreel is gone, and the last horrifying scene wasn’t Dean sinking the Blade into Sam’s heart. (And no one picked “Metatron kills Dean” as something they expected to happen in the poll, so, again, we all lost that one.) And I got some things I really didn’t want. Angel drama, and Sam being pushed to the side. But I can’t say I disliked this. I can even say I loved large chunks of it. When you picked off the extra onions, it was a pretty good cheeseburger.
Let’s go howl at that moon.