Oh boy. That was a doozy of a penultimate Supernatural episode. At a very high level, I thought it was an effective trip down memory lane, bringing us all the way back to season 1 of the show as well as reminding us of both the progress and the stagnation that the Winchesters have experienced throughout their journey. Not only that, but Crowley needs to rule, like…everything. Because that man/demon has gone from a sassy, opportunistic crossroads dealmaker into a cold-hearted villain and I don’t really care what it says about me that I love him so much.
Welcome to the Party…Now Please Leave
We opened with Sam suffering ever increasing side-effects, despite his proclamation last week that having a purpose was making him feel better (yeah, for about five seconds, Sammy). And then Castiel walked in. The boys saved him from bleeding in the middle of the road and brought him back to the Men of Letters bunker, but Dean is not exactly rolling out the welcome mat. When Castiel offers to accompany Dean on a food run, Dean refuses his company. And then this exchange happened: “I’m sorry,” Castiel apologized. “For what?” Dean shot back. “For everything,” Castiel explained. But that wasn’t good enough for Dean, who said: “Everything? Like ignoring us? Or bolting off with the Angel Tablet and then losing it because you didn’t trust me? You didn’t trust ME. No, that’s not gonna cut it. Not this time. So you can take your little apology and cram it up your ass.” Dean, I thought I was doing the right thing.” “Yeah, you always do.” Later, Sam told Dean to “go easy on Cas, he’s one of the good guys.” “Look, if anybody else…I mean anyone…pulled that kind of crap I would stab them in their neck on principle. Why should I give him a free pass?” Dean asked. “Because it’s Cas,” Sam shot back.
Of course we have to talk about this, don’t we? The truth of the matter is that Dean has never responded well to betrayal. When Dean cares about someone (Sam, his father, Bobby, Castiel) he loves them wholeheartedly and fears the severance of that connection or any accompanying betrayal. Sam lied to him and left him in season 4 and it took a very long time for him to heal from that. In fact, it may have taken four seasons to heal from that because he was still angry about it in the episode “Southern Comfort” earlier this season. Castiel already betrayed him once at the end of season 6 and while their journey through Purgatory reaffirmed their friendship, Dean was once again wounded by the fact that he appealed to Castiel in “Goodbye Stranger” and was “rebuffed” when Castiel took off with the Angel Tablet and no word of an explanation.
Dean’s anger at Cas is, I believe, understandable given what we know of Dean’s history with the various people in his life. Is it warranted? Well, yes and no. I don’t want to say that Dean is perfect, because Dean is obviously a flawed (though heroic) individual. But the one quality of Dean that rarely, if ever, falters is loyalty. He has been loyal to his brother and to Castiel through thick and thin. In fact, he fought his way through Purgatory for longer than he needed to to ensure he did not leave the dimension without his friend. In some respects, I feel that Dean has a right to be angry when the people he is unfailingly loyal to betray his trust. At the same time, Castiel is more human than most angels and he had just broken free of Naomi’s control, he was being hunted and was very clearly confused. His actions were understandable and Dean’s anger was understandable and they are currently at a stalemate that will not, I fear, be helped by their divergent paths. Because if Castiel makes a serious misstep in trying to close the Gates of Heaven (and we’ll get to that soon), then I don’t know if Dean will be able to look past that and help repair their friendship.
The truth is, I don’t know how this will play out with Castiel and Dean. I appreciate the fact that Castiel is clearly sorry and tried to make amends by buying pie for Dean (but, of course, they were out – foiled again!), but is it going to be enough for Dean? Only the season finale will tell…assuming they connect again in that episode. On the other hand, I did enjoy the fact that Sam stood up for Castiel and tried to appeal to Dean on his behalf. After all, Sam has been where Cas is now. In fact, the two of them have so many similarities – sometimes in personality, but more often in terms of individual journeys – that I’ve always felt both the characters and the show could benefit from a deeper friendship between the two.
To Cure a Demon
The good thing to come out of the Men of Letters discussion was the discovery of a film from 1957 that contained a “new” kind of exorcism, one never seen before by the Winchesters. They spotted Josie (the woman possessed by Abaddon) filming two priests attempting to “cure” a demon, which Sam and Dean later discovered essentially meant to “wash [the] taint away and restore [the corrupted demon soul’s] humanity”. This is not about expelling a demon from a human host, this is literally about stripping away the evilness that a human soul acquires after being corrupted in Hell and giving them…a conscience, if you will. Normally, you might think something like this is a bit of a Supernatural retcon, but I don’t think it is. Unlike burning a demon’s bones, the dimension-jumping powers of reapers and the shiny new powers of the angel blades, I think that this new exorcism is a fantastic addition to canon. Why haven’t we heard of it before? Because, it seems, only a select group of people knew it existed.
When the exorcism in the video in the MoL bunker failed, the Winchesters headed off to find the last surviving priest from that night, who provided further documentation from his fellow priest who eventually succeeded at his task. This new exorcism was finally achieved by purifying a demon’s host, reciting a modified exorcism chant and then “curing” the demon with a light similar to that seen when an angel kills a demon. This is fascinating. This is far beyond the powers of Ruby’s knife, the effectiveness of the Colt or even Sam’s abilities in season 4. Imagine if the Winchesters could perfect this technique…they would be unstoppable. Demons aren’t being sent back to Hell like Meg was at the end of season 1 only to come back even angrier than before. No, they’re sticking around with a conscience.
But the problem is that they needed a demon to test this on and their demon of choice was Abaddon. Fortunately, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men were able to put Abaddon back together again. She revealed that she had killed the priest who had accomplished the successful modified exorcism but seemed upset when the boys got a call from Crowley. She managed to escape before the Winchesters could even begin the exorcism, which left them back at square one.
Concluded on next page…
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Loved your review, Clarissa!
I agree with pretty much all of what you had to say. Crowley… Oh Crowley, he has proved himself a penultimate villain. I hate him so much, while at the same time I adore him. It’s quite a conundrum.
And the relationship between Dean and Cas… ouch! Like you, I can understand where both parties are coming from. I’m just hoping, praying, and crossing my fingers that they will have a reconciliation at some point. I couldn’t stand for there to be a permanent wedge between Dean and Cas, or between Dean and Sam, or between Sam and Cas. I really, really hope Season 9 will bring us lots of the three of them working together towards a common goal, like in Season 5. I miss Team Free Will being cohesive and kicking butt together.
I agree with Minion (and awesome article again, Clarissa!) that Team Free Will was a really good dynamic and I miss that. If Metatron betrays Cas and, like you said, he becomes “purified” would that strip him of his grace? Could it actually bring Jimmy back? (that’s out-there, I know) but human Cas is the better Cas….Cas being torn between Heaven and his penance and Dean is kind of been-there-done-that. Obviously Cas is very naive, and I love his innocence, but please don’t make him stupid. I think if Sam and Cas form some kind of deeper friendship or kinship, that might make Dean come around. I don’t blame Dean for being angry, but as Sam said, “It’s Cas.” I am hoping that Season 9 and 10 (hopefully) is that Team Free Will have to work together towards the common goal of reopening Heaven and Hell. As it has been pointed out, where do the souls who die go now if their destinations are locked? And Death might still be pretty pissed off…again.
Of course the “ultimate” deceiver, the one person who could literally be manipulating this whole thing is Lucifer. If true, and he succeeds in getting rid of the beings who give him the most trouble i.e. demons and angels, then he can get back to his original goal….conquer and destroy humans. Abbadon was pretty surprised and furious that Crowley was now King of Hell. After all, she is a Knight of Hell…she might know how to break Lucifer free as well.
And then there is that open door in Purgatory….
Excellent review, Clarissa. I agree with a lot of what you said. In all honesty, I can’t say that I was surprised at Dean’s reaction to Cas. But it seems to me that Dean’s anger at Cas is more than just about betrayal. Yes, Dean was justifiably upset about that. But primarily, he’s upset that Cas has, for the most part, been ignoring him. Dean has been shouldering the weight of everything alone these last few months, but even more than that, Sam is in danger and Cas has been MIA. Dean has been watching his little brother slowly die and the one person Dean really needs hasn’t been there. I get that Cas was running from Naomi, but one of the things he should’ve learned from everything that went down in S6 is that turning your back on and/or running away from Dean Winchester does not help your situation at all. I don’t think Dean would be as angry if (1) Sam weren’t dying, (2) this weren’t almost exactly the same thing Cas did back in S6 (with the exact same justification), and (3) Dean didn’t love Cas so much.
At the beginning of this season, I had a feeling we were going to see a much more sinister Crowley than we’ve seen before. He’s not just more sinister though. He’s brutally evil. The Winchesters turned him into a desperate man when they undertook the trials to close the gates and kill him. Desperate people do deadly things. Prior to this season, Crowley never seemed like a guy who could really command Big Bad status. He always seemed more like upper middle management. However, this season he has proven that he is more than capable of being the Big Bad. Not only is he one of the most clever adversaries the Winchesters have ever faced, he’s one of the cruelest. Not to mention that he knows them. Not just because of Chuck’s books (which once again came back to bite the Boys in the rear) but because he’s been watching them for years. He understands them. He knows their weaknesses and he believes he knows their limits. What I don’t think Crowley realizes is that just like the Winchesters made him desperate when they undertook the trials, he is making them desperate by wiping out all the good they’ve ever done. When the Winchesters get desperate, demons die.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t trust Metatron. I can’t really put my finger on it, but he’s obviously not being entirely forthcoming. I could be wrong, but I thought when Kevin was reading the demon tablet back in ‘A Little Slice of Kevin’ he said that Metatron signed the tablet as the Archangel Metatron. What if Metatron truly is an archangel but he’s been on earth so long that he’s sort of powered down and he needs Cas to help him power up again? What if he ran from heaven because he did challenge the other archangels and lost? Or, what if Metatron is exactly who he professes to be and is just trying to help? So many questions!
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode and it set up great things for the season finale. I don’t know what you’re talking about with the continuity issues in this episode though. If you mean about Crowley killing Jenny Klein because she’s not in Chuck’s books, I don’t have an issue with that. Crowley said that the Boys always leave messes behind whenever they go work a job, so it wouldn’t be all that hard for Crowley to find where they’ve been recently. If he knows what he’s looking for. So I don’t have a problem with that. Great review and I can’t wait for next week’s episode!
I’m afraid Lucifer is out of the picture, I suspect that Michael and he killed each other in the Cage, this is what happens in a power vacuum, Naomi trying to gain control of Heaven, vs Metatron, Abaddon now in a fight with Crowley over Hell.
The best thing about this episode, reinforcing that Saving People is what Winchesters do. This season was a lot about the supernatural – but meet and greets with other supernatural beings, and with the exception of Aaron and his Golem, I couldn’t care less, I had no investment in these creatures. We have to take the show back to it’s roots in this regard, or it is a series of events with no anchor for the audience to relate to.
After all, the strength of Dean and Sam as characters is that they are human, they have no superpowers, but they take on and beat an adversary. (and when I say no superpowers, its because Sam’s telepathy and ability to excorsize, as well as Dean having a profound bond with an angel ally has always come at a price.)
Also can I say, a kick ass season for female characters – Linda (hopefully not dead) Tran, Charlie Bradbury, Naomi and Abaddon.
I agree that the writers really need to work on developing the relationship between Sam and Cas. At this point, it is simply silly that their relationship has not really been explored.
I really don’t see any reason that Cas has to only be Dean’s “special” friend. Sam is constantly the one defending Cas to Dean. Sam has prayed to Cas, and put his faith in Cas when Dean couldn’t or wouldn’t.
It just baffles me that the writers have not bothered to delve in to their relationship. Cas is a friend to both Dean AND Sam. I think it would help to balance the show a little bit more, especially with Cas around as a regular next season.
Totally agree with you about Dean and Cas. We, the viewers, know a lot more than they do about their feelings. Dean exposed his raw emotions in the crypt scene and then Castiel vanished. Dean’s got abandonment issues, Castiel keeps disappearing, while Castiel seems to feel his own worthiness lies only in being useful and heroic. It was necessary for Dean’s character, and for Dean and Castiel’s relationship, for Dean to voice his anger and worries to Cas. I note he did tell Cas stay here and heal up–Dean isn’t rejecting Castiel. But there are issues they both need to deal with, and both seem like they can’t see what’s staring them both in the face, they still don’t quite see how strong their own profound bond is.
I loved seeing Sam and Dean and Castiel together in the MoL, this found family unit of theirs.
It was disappointing they brought back Sarah only to kill her off. But Crowley was effectively brutal in this ep, going after the core of Sam and Dean’s sense of worthiness, saving people. Abaddon is also a badass villain. Also I really liked the mythology of the ep, the old film clips.
Like you, I’m not sure I trust Metatron either. He doesn’t seem like the best guide for Castiel–and I think this will come down to Castiel making decisions for himself and becoming less confused about what’s right. I’m not sure where this is headed, except I’m also speculating Castiel may lose at least some of his power, hopefully by his own choice in the course of doing the right thing.
Interesting point, Clarissa, about the time travel theory….time travel of various sorts has been done on this show many times. They serve as both ways to see how it all started (i.e. Dean going back to learn that his mother, not his father, was the hunter, and Azazel in the nursery), see how it would have been had XXX not happened (i.e. not sinking the Titanic), and the inevitable future (Croatoan and Sam saying yes)…and then we have Henry Winchester coming to the future to find his son, John. I’m pretty sure that tidbit of knowledge is in the bunker somewhere.
I so hope there isn’t any sort of mind-wipe or “it was all a dream, honey” scenario. The writers and Carver have more intelligence than that.
However, no matter if it was a delusion caused by Zachariah, time travel by them pesky angels (Zach and Cas or Balthazar) as well as Henry, the story always returned to the present, the job at hand, and nothing was averted, and everything went back to the way it was. Knowledge was gained though, which was important to the story.
I am intrigued that the spoilers have Cas proclaiming that they were shutting down everything, heaven and hell. I am hoping that the conviction in his voice was because he, Dean and Sam now know what is necessary to do, and are doing it together on the same side.
Also, what would Crowley be like if his “taint” was removed and how awesome would Mark Shepperd play that? lol!
I also had this wild thought while watching this episode. What if Sam can’t complete the last trial because he’s got demon blood in him? The priest who developed the “curing” exorcism said he had to purify his blood before he could cure the demon. What if Sam can’t purify his blood? I know he said he believed the trials were purifying him, but what if they aren’t? I wonder what the effect would be if you’re trying to cure a demon with blood that you think is purified, but is actually impure. Would it make the demon stronger? Would it mean that they’d have to start the trials over with someone else (that someone else being Dean) completing each one? Would Sam still have to suffer those horrible side effects until the trials are ultimately completed? Could they use Dean’s blood as the purified blood but still have Sam somehow complete the trial? I mean, it was mentioned way back in S4 that Dean is a righteous man? I don’t know that the show would go that route, and I know it’s kind of a far-fetched idea but it’s just a thought that popped in my head.