Supernatural 6.17 “My Heart Will Go On” Review

One Down, 49,999 To Go

Castiel is a lying liar who lies.

But before we discuss why – of which, there are several reasons – let’s talk about the case of the week. We open in Pennsylvania, where I immediately flashed back to the movie Final Destination. Because a man in his garage gets involved in a whole lot of little accidents that could potentially lead to his death, until one finally sticks, and it results in his beheading by his own garage door. Gross.

Cut to Bobby’s house, where he’s buried in booze and books, trying to drink away the recent pain of Rufus’death while attempting to find a way to stop Eve. The Winchester brothers look on worriedly and we actually get our first hint that something is different: when the boys play rock-paper-scissors to see who might intervene in Bobby’s drinking, Dean wins. I know, it’s nuts! Dean always loses.

After failing to get Bobby out of his depression, the boys head to Pennsylvania to investigate the three recent suspicious deaths. That’s when we see another change in this alternate timeline: Ellen and Jo are both alive, and Ellen’s married to Bobby.

In Pennsylvania, the boys do some digging around and question one of the cousins of the family members who have been dying (Shawn Russo). Unfortunately, they come up with no reason why the people are having freak accidents, although they do find a pure gold thread at one of the crime scenes. Then another woman dies and we finally see Fate, who is engineering the deaths of these victims and dropping gold threads from the tassel in her book.

It’s the Little Things That Make All the Difference

Ellen tells the boys over the phone that these freak deaths are nation-wide, and Jo is also out there investigating. She could only find one fact connecting these victims: all of their ancestors came to America on the same ship – the Titanic.

But the boys have never heard of the Titanic. A bit of research yields the fact that the ship narrowly avoided hitting an iceberg, and Balthazar was among the crew photographed on the ship. So the boys summon him and he reveals that he saved the ship and changed history because he hated the movie. While the Winchesters still averted the apocalypse in this timeline, many details are different, including the fact that Ellen and Jo are alive.

The boys call Bobby to tell them what Balthazar did, as well as the fact that Fate is involved. He suggests they have the angel go back and simply sink the ship, but Dean says that will actually cause Ellen and Jo to die, so none of the boys are on board with that plan.

Castiel, Master of Deception

After another victim dies, Sam and Dean spot Fate and attempt to find her in a building, but she turns on the gas and the boys nearly get blown up before Castiel saves them. He tells them that Fate is also gunning for them because they averted the apocalypse and messed with her plans. He wants them to draw her out and kill her.

Back at home, Ellen and Bobby discuss the case, and Ellen suggests sinking the boat as a strategy, but Bobby finally admits that doing so would cause her to die. She valiantly suggests that it might be the right thing to do, but he doesn’t want to believe it.

The Winchesters attempt to avoid death while walking through the town, but just before a large machine gets dropped on them, Castiel and Fate both appear, stopping time. That’s when things get very interesting. Fate actually accuses Cas of sending Balthazar back in time to unsink the Titanic, which leads to the creation of 50,000 new souls, which Castiel apparently needs to feed his ‘war machine’.

Say wha…..? Exactly.

Balthazar appears and he and Castiel agree to go back and sink the ship in order to prevent Fate from taking any more extreme measures.

The next moment the boys wake up in the Impala and discuss the weird dreams they both had, until Castiel comes by and reveals it wasn’t a dream. Then the lying begins. He tells them that Balthazar sunk the ship, but doesn’t reveal his own part in the plan. He also keeps secret everything that Fate accused him of, but tells the boys he wanted them to remember the alternate timeline. As the boys head inside, they find Bobby asleep on his couch and remark that it’s unfortunate he didn’t know how good he had it in the other timeline.

Soul Power

Despite the fact that I’ve been concerned this season about the slow pace of the apparently major storylines, I wasn’t displeased by this episode. Yes, it didn’t move along the mythology concerning Eve in a big way, and it was mostly a stop-gap sort of episode. But what it did do was finally (finally!) reveal some big information about Castiel. We knew from early episodes that angels are clearly interested in human souls and harnessing their power. Now we know that Castiel is one of those angels. And that he’s clearly getting so desperate to win the war in Heaven that he was willing to change history to create new souls to increase his own power, as well as lie to his human allies and friends. In other words, Castiel is getting all kinds of sketchy.

The real question is what will happen when the Winchesters and Bobby find out what he’s been up to, and when they’ll discover it (I assume they will, since it’s likely they’ll learn of the deception eventually). Also, we still don’t really know how Castiel and the other angels are actually using the souls. It sounds as if they’re some kind of a power source. But a power source for what? I’m extremely pleased that Castiel and his storyline are taking on more of a prominent role and I hope this continues to play out as the episodes progress.

Hello….Goodbye

Then there was the return of Ellen. I loved Ellen when she was alive, and her death scene, along with Jo’s, stills makes me very sad. It was wonderful seeing her interact with Bobby and the boys. But I think the impact of her re-appearance and subsequent disappearance was lessened by the little amount of screen time she had. I think the fact that she essentially died again would have resonated more if she had actually worked the case with Bobby and the Winchesters, giving us more time with her. Since her first sacrifice in season 5 was so poignant and sad, perhaps if she had told the Winchesters what she told Bobby – that maybe she and Jo were meant to die after all – the emotional impact of her departure again would have been felt stronger.

Although, I do love her character, and was extremely pleased to see her again. I was actually kind of sad that Jo wasn’t seen in the episode. It would have been interesting to see what kind of a person she grew into besides just being a hunter, and to see how she would have acted with the brothers, Dean in particular.

Finally, I appreciated all of the little details that went into making this new timeline different. Little touches like the EJ Smith on the business card of the travel agent (the name of the Titanic’s captain), the details about how Celine Dion wasn’t famous or about how Americans now travel freely to Cuba on vacation. There was also the amusing scene where Sam didn’t actually know how to beat Dean – like always – in rock-paper-scissors.

We’re winding down to the end of season 6 here, Supernatural fans. It’s a distressing state of affairs. I suspect the two-hour season finale on May 20 will actually be extremely busy, with Gamble and Kripke tying up all the loose ends. While there have been portions of this season that I wsn’t crazy about, I still put my faith in them that it will all make sense in the end.

You can check out the following sneak peeks and photos for a few upcoming episodes:

Trailer and photos for the April 22 episode ‘Frontierland’.
Photos for the April 29 episode ‘Mommy Dearest’.
Photos for the May 6 episode ‘The Man Who Would Be King.
Spoilers for all of the remaining season 6 episodes.

clarissa @ tvovermind.com
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