I share this glorious clip that opens Elvis Presley’s super-fun 1962 sex-musical romp Girls! Girls! Girls! because Season 11 for me, so far, is allllllll about girls. (And I’m convinced that the Season 10 episode of the same name was written by a fan of both Mötley Crüe AND Elvis. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.) And to loop in Samuel Taylor Coleridge (because of course he’s immediately what you think of when you think of Elvis), I’ll use him for my own purposes in re: Season 11: It’s “women women everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
In the meantime, enjoy Elvis. He wants you to. I just want to point out that he is really perched on a real boat, going up and down on real waves, and lip-synching to that ridiculous song and being so easy and natural and charming about it. You try it. See how easy it is.
I’m out tonight cavorting, so have fun y’all.
Guess I got spoiled from R. Berens past work, but I wasn’t feeling this one. I think it’s mainly because it was kinda talky and that I just don’t get a sense of menace from Amara. Instead of a Big Bad, she just gives me teen whiner. Maybe when she finally morphs into the adult version, things will change. It may take me a bit to wrap my mind around this “God’s sister” business. It really looks like Chuck/God is gonna show up this season. Yeah!
The favorite moment for me was The Cage!!!
I did pray a little during the episode – I prayed that Cas would kill Metatron so I didn’t have to hear him braying any more.
Pat, Pretty sure Amara is being purposefully portrayed as ambiguous in the big Bad department. Unlike say Abaddon we are meant to have some sympathy for her being locked away (and apparently sacrificed for the sake of creation). I do really like Amara’s joie de vivre. She seems so filled with excitement over the good and the bad. She loved Lizzy Borden axe murderer last week and this week she’s bopping down the street like freakin Mary Tyler Moore. As for the sister thing, Paula and I had speculated on God’s wife or daughter, so sister is pretty close. In keeping with Sam’s renewed save everybody policy #RedeemTheDarkness.
The cage, yay! And Sheila just said she longed for a return to the psycho spiderweb of hell from the season 3 finale. (That’s not exactly how she phrased it, but…) Glad to know what we’ve been seeing as Crowley’s lair is an abandoned asylum not hell. That was a pretty creepy place. I still long for his return to the Malibu mansion.
Dean and Crowley’s “summer of love” – still laughing.
Sister! We were so close, Melanie. Now instead of a messy divorce, it is even better. Chuck building his Lego set worlds and Amara walking in the room and smashing them. Chuck sitting down to enjoy his freshly baked cookies and Amara sweeping in and snatching them off his plate.
“Chuck, where’s you sister?” *muffled thumps from locked closet* “I have no idea.”
//freaking Mary Tyler Moore// exactly! Personally I loved that scene and the music.
The Paulanie mind meld is strong…
Paulanie is definitely better than Melala. The second one sounds like a Spice Girls who converted to Islam.
Pretty sure Melala is the new sushi roll at Sekisui Midtown…
So… something that would only be consumed by the soulless, then.
Referring back to the Linguist Guide to Shipping Names and its five rules (because science), Paulanie is definitely the winner.
//Glad to know what we’ve been seeing as Crowley’s lair is an abandoned asylum not hell.//
I’m so relieved. Hell is intact and scary and awesome still. :D And the Cage is… the Cage.
No AC/DC song would work in the lair. All AC/DC songs would work in Hell.
Q: Is this Hell?
A: Do you hear Angus’ guitar?
Oh, god, we have a litmus test
Raise your hand if you loved Sam’s v-neck!
Think I lost time during this ep because of this. That and Sam’s hair flying around during his fight scene. Do the director and Serge spend an inordinate amount of time talking about how to best shoot JP’s hair?
I know I would.
I can’t stop laughing
It’s mesmerising!
I’m just here for the fashion and the staring.
And the legs.
re: the staring, that face-off between Dean and Amara was some next-level shit. My read is on that one look on Dean’s face is:
1/3 William Holden every time Gloria Swanson calls on him
1/3 WIAWSNB when his mother touches him
1/3 The first time he picked up the blade in Cuthbert Sinclair’s Underground Palace
I think what I love about moments like this in Supernatural is how inarticulable they are. I love lots of things about SPN, its capacity for extraordinary verbal wit being one of them, but one of its greatest strengths is when it harnesses the power of imagery (swirling darkness, lying face down in a field of flowers, fingers poking through a wall, a cage suspended over an infinite dark space) and the human face to do its storytelling work. It bypasses the forebrain and goes straight for the limbic system. And therein lies the emotion, the potential for terror. These are moments that dissolve boundaries between the viewer and what they’re watching. And this ‘staring’ is definitely one of those moments. I actually don’t want to break it down. I just want to revel in the fact that it’s there.
I would love a Very Supernatural Silent Movie episode.
Sam’s hair, however, is another matter entirely, so yes please, articulate away all you want. Serge, c’mon let’s see those storyboards!
I 100% agree. Even those moments I see the staring calling out to are inarticulable. A mess of association and identification, repulsion and desire. The show feels pedestrian when its foes and plots and character dynamics are too literal and exposed.
The inarticularble and the unutterable, they’re what give the show its powerhouse mystery and glamour in many/most of its best moments.
// Even those moments I see the staring calling out to are inarticulable.//
Absolutely. All we can do can refer to other moments that resonate on the same wavelength.
And of course the characters can’t articulate it, either. We’ve all spotted how Dean is hiding whatever is going on, this inarticulable feeling, from Sam. When something becomes taboo, that’s an indication of its sheer power.
//When something becomes taboo, that’s an indication of its sheer power// all of this is so true.
Once again we got a great throwback image to another earlier episode with the visual of The Cage. Suspended on chains, isolated, like Dean in that epic shot from No Rest For The Wicked. Just like Dean calling out for Sam in that scene, we have someone calling for Sam.
Love the design of The Cage too. So baroque and heavy. Suitable for archangel containment.
Pat, I agree this was not Robert Berens’ best episode. He tweeted that a lot was cut from the ep. My guess is that because he likes a slower pace with focus on dialogue that maybe he had trouble cramming in everything to create what is a bridge not a standalone ep. Some of the editing wasn’t great so perhaps that added to it.
A lot of layers in this one- too talky, maybe, but still. I’m weirdly psyched about the Cage. Amara gets more interesting by the day. I have to say- I liked what Berens did with the Crowley stuff this episode- setting it up so I thought we were going to have some boring condescending family bonding stuff and then having Amara just destroy him.
The Metatron/Castiel stuff was surprisingly good.
Dean and Crowley’s Summer of Love. Sam and his unending snark for Crowley and the bromance and he’s not wrong. Dean kills that demon by playing an old voicemail on his phone from Crowley. Really Dean? Do you keep all your old boyfriends/mistresses messages on your phone?
I really loved this episode! The parallel storylines with the two fights. Sam trying out pacifism. “Daddy Crowley” (yeesh). Metatron’s evil speech over the poor guy in the alley (lit by a neon cross of all things). Dean’s genuine “I’m sorry, Amara.” Amara’s fascination (Who among us could deny that? My husband was teased, “5 million women right now are sooo jealous”–the age difference made it intentionally uncomfortable, though I think Jensen handled it well–confused and tender mixed with a little bit of “gazing into the eyes of a cobra” fear). The frickin CAGE, with the creepy hand and the setting call-back to that iconic shot in s.3. Amara’s stroll down the street at the end (to a tune which will always link to Uma Thurman for me). How many ways is that?
But especially, the reveal of the Darkness as God’s sister–you called it! It’s yin and yang made more literal. And it ties into so many mythologies involving twins and creation(I’m making an assumption that they are twins, here, but it fits, doesn’t it?) I remembered the Egyptian twins, Nut (sky goddess) and Geb (earth god), but a quick look online brought up twin creators from several Native American and Mesoamerican cultures, too– https://books.google.com/books?id=9I62BcuPxfYC&pg=PA357&lpg=PA357&dq=twins+in+creation+myths&source=bl&ots=4XODRlj0gS&sig=Lq4AX4OIMJ1CQLyHSOPo7Ksrfb8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAmoVChMIzYegiZCLyQIVBPFjCh2hcQJS#v=onepage&q=twins%20in%20creation%20myths&f=false — if you want to delve.
I guess you can tell, I’m enjoying this season, right? Bring on the killer bunny!
Barb – Geb and Nut! So glad that you said that because I was thinking the same thing about creation myths. It’s always a push-pull love-hate messy thing with other religions/cultures and how they view creation, versus a linear X-Y-Z. I think it is fascinating.
Barb –
//a tune which will always link to Uma Thurman for me//
Tarantino references for two out of three weeks, after “Spider’s caught a fly” from Baby.
//God’s sister–you called it! It’s yin and yang made more literal.//
Well this show has always been about siblings so it seems natural. We were gifted with that beautiful yen/yang scene in ‘Baby’.
1. Robert Berens saw “Nightcrawler” with Jake Gyllenhaal.
2. GIRLS. Starts with girls, ends with a girl.
3. Massachusetts is my stomping ground. My grandmother was from Needham and I still have cousins there. I realize it’s all filmed in Vancouver, but they so rarely go to the East Coast I am strangely thrilled.
4. I want Castiel’s pop culture wisdom to be erased.
5. This is also the second season with an ill Castiel. In Season 10 he had TB. Now this. I’m re-watching Season 4 and he is so frightening. I get it. Things change. But … sigh. Also I don’t understand what it is he’s so traumatized about. That’s because I kind of check out on the Castiel storylines. Sorry. My bad.
6. I love all Deans, but I think cranky Dean is my favorite. “Point of interest….”
7. It’s nice to see them in a motel room again. With that sunburst clock we’ve seen 746 times.
9. Summer of Love. hahahaha
10. That whole alley scene with Dean and Castiel and the glowing cross was beautiful.
11. There clearly are some people who find a corporate power-point Hell amusingly ironic. I am not one of them.
12. I loved 15 year old Amara. She played the HELL out of that scene with Dean. In regards to ambiguity and not knowing what to feel/think about characters: I love ambiguity. I love when the show swims in ambiguity, allows for those grey areas – where you’re just not sure. Who is Amara? I think of the first image of her. It was soft and somewhat flat-affect (as opposed to anything more recognizably human – she was not a sneering villain or a damsel in distress) and … there was a tenderness in that scene. Above morality. Not openly evil. There was a connection there. A separation from need/motivation/all the rest. There is so much possibility in that in-between-ness. This goes with the whole Girl thing and the role women have often played in this show. They represent something – and the men are so much in a manly world – and women bring this whole other vibe. and yes: it’s usually quite ambiguous.
13. Crowley reading a parenting book. hahahahaha
14. Finally! An image of where “Hell” actually IS.
15. Metatron: “Okay! I misjudged!” hahahaha
16. I liked the friendship of the girls in the teaser. It felt real and specific.
17. JP’s fight scenes. Amazing.
18. JA’s smushed-vulnerable face as he listened to Amara. Now this – this is what I’m interested in.
19. And Hell as I want it! Webbing and lightning and endless space and terror. FINALLY. Lucifer is quite present in this season – his name coming up – and I look forward to whatever is going to come of that.
20. JP is so hot.
22. Amara referring to Dean as the first thing she saw, the best of “His Creation” and all that harkens us back to Season 4 and 5, and Dean’s importance in the Heaven/Hell lexicon. It’s actually kind of nice to get a whiff of that again – especially since Heaven and Hell have become so casual in a way, taking place in recognizable ho-hum settings, etc. There’s mystery there and I like it. I also like that that scene was played as a love scene. On both sides. It wasn’t suggested – it was right there. This is what was set up in the first scene of the season … so it’s good and queasy and totally weird and how on earth will Dean talk about this with Sam? Which leads us to …
23. Secrets. Both brothers keeping secrets now. They can’t stop themselves. They will never learn.
I think Sam and Dean should be pretty much past “do we kill demons or exorcise them” argument by now. Save or kill? Hunt or heal? And Sam having to remind Dean they don’t kill people … I think they’re pretty much past such conversations now, too much has happened.
and yes: SAM’S V-NECK. I also love his hair this season (he’s lost the weird “That Girl” flip that he had last season) as well as the brown checked shirt he was wearing during the fight scene. He looks amazing.
Sheila, You came out to play hunters and demons with us! Yay! I get to be Meg 2.0…
//16. I liked the friendship of the girls in the teaser. It felt real and specific.//
This is what I mean when I say I love Amara’s zest for life. She walks up to this girl whose mom is so judgmental she has to go out to the tracks to eat a bag of chips and doesn’t say I’m hungry, I want to eat your soul. She says, so eagerly and adoringly, “I want to be like you.” She wants to BE a bag of raging hormones, insecurity, uncertainty, but also standing on the brink of womanhood. Those girls did feel real which is why Amara wanted to be them.
//23. Secrets.// I don’t see these as real secrets. The conversation in ‘Baby’ was a good start from both. Honestly anymore then that right now would be way too chickflick and out of character. I’m pretty sure Dean has appropriated the Werther device for keeping his feelings locked away. I think he’s so confused he couldn’t talk about it even if he wanted to. The warm, gooey feelings he has for Amara are so counterintuitive to his hunter instincts. Dean also is extremely uncomfortable with God (“I don’t even like being singled out at birthday parties”), so the focused attention of God’s sister, Amara, would only serve to fluster him even more.
As for Sam he knows Dean will try to shoot down his God theories, so I think he’s just waiting for some clarity before reengaging. As for not telling Dean about being infected, gee Dean, in the hours it took to drive back to the bunker you never once thought to ask what happened back at the hospital?
So, yeah, less secrets and more sibling communication – FAIL.
I think Sam and Dean should be pretty much past “do we kill demons or exorcise them” argument by now. Save or kill? Hunt or heal? And Sam having to remind Dean they don’t kill people … I think they’re pretty much past such conversations now, too much has happened.
I find this an interesting turn, myself, because I think it indicates something a little larger. Executed a little clumsily at times by the writers or by Sam himself but I see it speaking to the issues of Dean and violence that was so prevalent last season and still linger in plot threads and questions: Dean refusing to let Cas heal his face for a couple of episodes; Sam, kneeling for execution, insisting that Dean was a good man despite all his murderin’; soullessness vs rage zombies; Sam’s rededication to the-family-biz two-hunting-bros; ultimately, Dean’s self-perception. With Lucifer coming back into the fold the question of what is the Family Business is quite pertinent!
Jessie – I found this interesting as well. Overall, it is probably indicative of something bigger but Sam’s reactions are also a logical result of last season. He is like the husband of a recovering alcoholic, always sensitive to a possible relapse and evaluating each situation as to whether it will start a backslide.
//With Lucifer coming back into the fold the question of what is the Family Business is quite pertinent!//
I agree- particularly with all this hitherto unknown ancient chaos going around. I Sam trying to ground them? To drag them back to their roots? It makes sense to me that he’d feel the need to draw a line, after Season Ten.
Sheila! #17 and #20. Had to rewatch just for these two. #16 It did ring true.
//There is so much possibility in that in-between-ness// I feel like I am missing something with Amara that’s important and I love that I don’t know what the end-game is yet. Her attraction to and connection with these broken people – killer babysitters, misunderstood teens, emotional repressed hunters. She seems happy to meet them and that what she offers is a gift. But how is the removal of your soul a gift? Is it freedom? Is it the removal of a tether to God?
I’m actually finding the Castiel pop-culture wisdom far less annoying this season. The lack of Hannah probably helps.
I didn’t realize that sin was something that could be voted out of existence by state-level propositions and by state legislatures. Isn’t that the implication of fewer dawned souls coming from Washington and Colorado?
Plus, if you’re the boss and you surround yourself with incompetent people, doesn’t that mean you’re an incompetent boss? I would be shorting stock in Hell after watching Crowley as king.
But carping aside, the Amara/Dean interactions were just great. Dean’s in the same place Jack Nicholson was in Prizzi’s Honor with respect to Kathleen Turner,”I don’t know whether to ice her or marry her.”
“dawned” = “damned.” As in spellcheck.
Mutecypher – if Hell really is like corporate America, those who are lousy bosses are promoted up the ladder, not out. Maybe this explains Crowley’s rise to the top?
If Hell is just Heaven on perpetual Opposite Day, then that makes sense.
Loving thus season so far, but I see the Dean/Amara connection very differently. Amara is not nor has she ever been a child.I see her as Dean described her in the first episode. She is a force. Unformed and amorphous and ambiguous but she is way older than Dean. She’s robbing the cradle. I think that Dean sees it but he doesn’t understand it yet and may never understand. She’s God’s s sister. When was the last time you understood God?
Carolyn –
I agree she’s never been a child, except I’m thinking of the scene in episode 3, the Bad Seed, with the 6 year old Amara speaking to the older Amara/Darkness in the mirror. The mirror Amara referred to “us,” meaning herself and the child. Perhaps more versions? Does Amara come as a trinity? As something like the multiple avatars of Vishnu? The child is certainly new to our world. I don’t know what the requirement is, or the reason for, her being a child and growing up as she is. I’m not sure I want to explore any Jesus parallels, except one might wonder what it is she would be sacrificed for. Amara has already been sacrificed once.
Definitely God-like in being mysterious. I like it.
There certainly seems to be a duality to The Darkness as embodied in the lovely swirling smoke and the human baby/girl/young lady Amara. Amara is showing herself to have a very strong willfulness. One wonders if even The Darkness is concerned about losing control over her human incarnation. She keeps having to be reminded of the “old score” that needs to be settled. Stay on track, Amara.
I was sort of thinking crossroads collection was down because if everybody’s baked they could care less about making a deal. Possibly a stretch since it would theoretically take 10 years to see data from that trend. Help! The powerpoint minions are holding me hostage in douchy hell!
hahaha. I think too baked to care sums it up well.
I keep thinking about what Metatron said about creation being really hard work and requiring a HUGE sacrifice. And I keep remembering this scene with George Burns in ‘Oh, God, book II’. Also the whole yen yang, brother sister, light Darkness thing.
“God: [answering Tracy’s question about why there is so much suffering in the world] I know this sounds like a cop-out, Tracy, but there’s nothing I can do about pain and suffering. It’s built into the system.
Tracy Richards: Which You invented.
God: Right. But my problem was I could never figure out how to build anything with just one side to it.
Tracy Richards: One side?
God: You ever see a front without a back?
Tracy Richards: No.
God: A top without a bottom?
Tracy Richards: No.
God: An up without a down?
Tracy Richards: No.
God: OK. Then there can’t be good without bad, life without death, pleasure without pain. That’s the way it is. If I take sad away, happy has to go with it”
Re the HUGE sacrifice, perhaps God, recognizing the need for this duality (yen yang), took her soul to inject it with his own into creation/humanity. By consuming souls she is taking back what is hers. Why did he have to lock her away? Well sacrifice isn’t something you can do for someone else. Maybe she wasn’t ready, but he did it anyway. Metatron did seem to imply it was a thing God agonized over. I think Sister!god may eventually come to the conclusion that it was worth the sacrifice. I want to listen to what Metatron says again, but on first watch I was glad that he didn’t trivialize God’s involvement.
Baked?!? I just baked a lovely pecan pie if that’s what you mean.