Getting a really good feeling, people! That was a wonderful episode – and truly in Robert Singers relationship-focused directorial wheelhouse. We’ve got a good conflict now going between the brothers – a conflict with long long roots. Back to season 2, when Dean admitted that John told him to “save or kill” Sam. Sam’s long memory of his own life – and the pain/issues/conflicts it has created in his character – was beautifully played by Padalecki – it was clear what he was playing even BEFORE he brought it up to Dean. Good acting.
The explosive argument at the end of the episode – wow. Things haven’t gotten that hot between them in a long time. As a matter of fact, this argument already stands out in the Pantheon of arguments between the brothers as more out of control, more angry, more filled with unspoken built-up resentments. It was thrilling to watch both of them.
Missouri! A callback to season ONE. SEASON ONE. What a RELIEF after an entire season where MOM has returned to the show and there is literally NO exploration of all the intervening years, about their childhood, about the past. This episode here was filled with references to the far past. Loretta Devine! Ackles’ reading of “Yes, ma’am.”
And finally: I’ve been pretty open about my dislike of Castiel’s continued presence on the show. I am now re-watching Seasons 4 and 5, and it makes me feel even more just how much that character has become … useless. He is so PHENOMENAL early on. Anyway, I realize he is a fan favorite –
… so I understand why he has stuck around.
What I really liked about the final moment in last night’s episode was:
1. It sort of re-introduced the “strange” element of Castiel, his Other-ness – something SO missing in the series for 4 years now, 5 years.
2. We were just talking about how awful the set for Hell is, its literal-ness, its cheap-ness. I never want to see that freakin’ dungeon throne-room again. In re-watching Season 4/5, I fell in love all over again with the “green room” set. How strange it is. How familiar and yet how … “off.” All of this is to say, I love the pitch-black-floating-indeterminate space Castiel is discovered in. And I loved how even though it looked like he was floating in the ether, there was a flat space on which he lay – a space you couldn’t see at first. It was an illusion. It was somewhere else, somewhere not literal.
All told, I felt it was a very good episode. I’m very encouraged by the focus on the argument/disagreement between Sam and Dean. I also projected onto that scene – as well as onto many of their individual moments throughout – a relief that finally these wonderful actors were being given SHIT TO ACT. They both seemed unleashed to me. They’ve been penned up for a year. Look at what happens when you let them go.
Thoughts?
Agree in spades! When Sam and Dean had the first argument and Dean stormed off alone I immediately was tense….and I reveled in it!!
Missouri…so incredibly amazing to see her on our screen again. Of course they broke my heart into a million pieces….of course they did.
Jared was incredible in his scenes. The richness of that history he was drawing from was evident in every word and look.
The fight!! Utterly incredible to watch them both. The richness of this most painful part of their past was again present in every word and look. It was painful to watch and I loved every second of it. Jack’s face as he huddled and heard all of it was heartbreaking.
The only thing I had the slightest bit of hesitation with was the character of Patience. I liked her and the actress that played her did a good job. But her Psychic gift seems to have the potential to go the way magic has lately…way too easy and convenient. If her “gift” allows her to become the super hero that is always going to be able to swoop in and save the day…that’s going to get old. It’s obvious we are going to see her again, so I’m going to reserve judgement until I see further what they are going to do with her.
Overall I loved the episode and can’t wait to watch it again. I haven’t missed Cas, but I agree they do have me intrigued with his reintroduction.
Okay finally coming back to read comments and comment.
I’m glad to hear others feel the same way I did about the ep. It’s early yet but I do like the direction they’re going in.
// The richness of that history he was drawing from was evident in every word and look. //
I know. There are times when a depthless sadness comes over his face and it’s heartbreaking – and he never seems to be “pushing.” It’s part of him. This is part of why the series copping out on Sam’s character at the end of S11 and through S12 was such a crime. He’s not just this balanced guy who can “handle” things – like LUCIFER being in his presence – or MOM coming back … they completely eradicated the richness of the character of Sam by having him be “Dean, calm down” as opposed to having his OWN complex feelings about it, if that makes sense.
So if I had to pick anything that was my favorite part of this episode – it would be the feeling that Sam is “back.” Someone over there remembered how to write the guy.
// But her Psychic gift seems to have the potential to go the way magic has lately…way too easy and convenient. If her “gift” allows her to become the super hero that is always going to be able to swoop in and save the day…that’s going to get old. //
I totally agree with this.
The show has such an ambivalent relationship with psychics. Watching S2, S3 it’s hilarious how FREAKED Dean and Bobby are by Sam … and yet la la la la they engage Pamela’s services left and right without demonizing her in any way.
Lurker chiming in…
Loved JP holding back tears when he talked about feeling like a freak to Jack. You know that pain is still there for Sam, and then I wonder if JP feels that way too, it is all so real and so, so deep.
Loved James’ “photos of absent hunter Mom in a box,” part two.
Loved Missouri’s comment about Baby. Not too meta, but just enough. If only they could have walked that line with the SPHT/heroes crap.
So over a season later we finally get to see the Big Empty. It is just as I pictured it.
Don’t think we needed the extra psychic flashback of what the wraith does to James and Jodi when we just saw it, but thanks for making sure we were tracking.
I have a cousin with the same hairline as the wraith. Yes, really!
And I want to note, I believe this is episode 3. The first 2 were “Lost and Found” and “The Rising Son”.
And why no Billie flashback on the Then/Now before the episode?
Yes, you’re right! I was so busy last week I got mixed up – it’s fixed!
That’s exactly what I thought when they did the extra psychic flashback. I’m like, “We JUST saw that! Our memory isn’t THAT short.” Good grief. It was a little heavy-handed. But at least Patience didn’t get free from the ropes and save everyone (teen superhero style). I would have hated that. Her using her ability to call out a warning was perfect so then they could use THEIR abilities to save her.
// But at least Patience didn’t get free from the ropes and save everyone (teen superhero style). //
I was afraid of that when I saw her one-two punch at the wraith. Like she had been doing karate all her life.
I love it when lurkers chime in. Welcome, Maureen C!
// I wonder if JP feels that way too, it is all so real and so, so deep. //
He taps into it just by breathing. It’s very there for him.
// “photos of absent hunter Mom in a box,” // hahahaha It’s a theme.
I loved the Baby comment too.
// Don’t think we needed the extra psychic flashback of what the wraith does to James and Jodi when we just saw it, but thanks for making sure we were tracking. //
Yes, that was lame.
So… Thanks to the CW app not working on my tablet combined with feeling… less than motivated? A little ambivalent? A LOT ambivalent? I actually haven’t watched any of the new season yet. So I’m honestly really glad to see these responses to the new season, and now I’m getting excited to watch. Maybe Singer and Dabb just needed to find their sea legs as showrunners?
Natalie – I’ll be very interested to hear your thoughts.
I was dreading this season. Hence, my re-watching of Seasons 3, 4, 5. I have been trying to just enjoy the show during its heyday and not think too much about how badly it all went off the rails.
I trust my reactions because I went in with a feeling of dread. Know what I mean? The show had to work through my skepticism.
But in the other thread I was saying with Jessie that that THING – the thing that is the show we all know and love – the thing that can’t really be classified or pointed to – it’s just a FEELING – THAT’S what I’ve felt in these episodes, particularly this one.
Sam and Dean appear to be moving in a different direction with a very long argument – it almost feels like the accumulation of years was IN the argument they had this last episode. Not just “oh God this again?” But a whole new level of rage – it was really intense. And it was very personal, calling back shit from their childhood. I hope they keep it up.
//a relief that finally these wonderful actors were being given SHIT TO ACT. They both seemed unleashed to me// UNLEASHED. That’s a good word for it. I enjoyed it. Their fight scenes felt real – true family dynamics when dealing with grief. All the anger and the withdrawal Dean shows and Sam trying to balance it out with all the compassion and problem solving. JP knocked it out with the two scenes with Jack and then with Dean. Sam was a bit of a Beautiful Toaster in s10 and s12 so I was glad to see him get angry and push back. Give me all that intimate brother conflict that is messy and everyone has a legitimate viewpoint as to why they’re right.
Again, the lighting in this episode was gorgeous and the fight sequence with Dean using a chain to fight looked fresh, a style we hadn’t seen before. Lou Bollo did a great job but the new stunt coordinator makes it look less staged (that sounds like an insult and it’s not meant to be) and more organic with quick movements and turns. A+ on that.
//we finally get to see the Big Empty. It is just as I pictured it// right?
(rope not chain in that fight scene)
// Sam was a bit of a Beautiful Toaster in s10 and s12 so I was glad to see him get angry and push back. //
Totally. I have missed Sam the most. I’ve said it before that Sam is the Key – in a way the show can’t happen without Sam in full operation. It doesn’t work. It flat out falls apart. If he’s just a calm and cool Yoda guy telling Dean to calm down – the entire character vanishes and the show can’t BE. It’s amazing how beautifully Kripke set up those dynamics from the pilot – I mean think about it!! He knew what he was doing – it’s all there. S12 shows how forGETTING that is totally destructive of the fabric of the show.
I liked the weirdo environment of the fight with all that stuff hanging from the ceiling – fabric? or was it cured meat? Whatever it was, it was a very confusing space. This is good.
I feel like Patience’s father could have been a little bit more tormented. A little bit more control-freak with Patience. And the man puts on a suit for a call when he works from home? Okay, okay. I just felt the character was a little thinly drawn. Any chance the show can get to highlight fucked up families they should go for broke.
A stylistic observation: I love how dark-fairy-tale Patience’s bedroom was. It was very atmospheric in a way the show hasn’t been for a while. To contrast: the downstairs area was like … Pristine. Well-lit to the point of being generic. And some of Singer’s choices – Jodie and Sam standing in the background watching Patience and her dad talk – were pretty boring – even a little cheesy.
But overall, I liked the atmosphere. I wish the psychic’s office had been darker. In general, I wish the whole SHOW was darker. I realize that battle was lost a long time ago.
//Any chance the show can get to highlight fucked up families they should go for broke.// and they usually do which is why I think Patience’s dad fell so flat. After all that, after keeping the divination stones hidden away, he just goes back to trading stocks? (Working as a remote employee myself, I’ve actually done the dress-up thing at home for video calls, but for a conference call? Get out. Pajamas and a robe.)
Supernatural is back. Thank God.
“SHIT TO ACT” – love that!
Just one additional comment – when they played a few notes of the family theme during the scene between Jodie, Dean and Patience. Hearing that made me cheer and tear up at the same time. I am so enjoying this.
I noticed that music too!
// when they played a few notes of the family theme during the scene between Jodie, Dean and Patience. Hearing that made me cheer and tear up at the same time. //
Carolyn – I felt the same way. A perfect use of it. Not manipulative.
It’s amazing how that “theme” works – almost in a Pavlovian way – they have to be really careful to not overuse it, to really pick their moments.
I thought that was a perfect moment. Especially since Dean was counseling her to run as fast as she can from a life like his.
I liked seeing Missouri; it was just hard for me to accept that she had basically disappeared from their lives for over a decade. All that they’ve been through and all those times they’ve felt utterly alone, wouldn’t it have helped to have had her to give wisdom and encouragement? The only way I can let myself sort of buy it is that they purposefully chose to distance themselves from her, fearing that her proximity to them might result in her death.
I also didn’t like that Missouri apparently is now a hunter. I preferred her to be a consultant to hunters, someone who knew what was out there but wasn’t necessarily down in the trenches battling but instead helping equip hunters who were. Obviously as we saw in “House,” she was capable of preparing and placing the protection bags, but I just never saw that as her primary calling. I prefer her as a psychic.
Aslan – I know, Missouri’s a hunter? NO. I didn’t care for that either. I said above that the show has always had an ambivalent and contradictory attitude towards psychics. I really like those contradictions. Missouri is a psychic – John consulted with her – Dean and Sam … then there’s Pamela, obviously someone they call upon. And then Sam gets psychic and everyone treats him like the Anti-christ. I really like that – how once something gets too close to home, everyone rejects it.
So Missouri as support-staff really worked.
So far, I’m enjoying the new season. However, there is one thing that did made go “oh please no” — the tease of some new creatures called “shedim”. I’m not too keen on the show bringing in another evil thing that takes the form of a human and that the Winchesters end up fist-fighting with. I roll my eyes whenever the boys end up wrassling around with an angel or a demon or some other powerful being.
At first I thought they said “shebeen” and I thought: oh my God, is the new Big Bad going to be Irish?
I admit that I got psyched.
I think they might mean the Hebrew word “Shedim” (Hebrew is my native language, yay!), which generally means “demons”. It’s the plural of “Shed”.
Shed: שֵׁד
Shedim: שֵדִים
(I hope the Hebrew fonts are displayed correctly in your browser).
Ooh thank you for this!
Hi Sheila and everyone, first time commenter finally (sheepishly) de-lurking. I enjoy reading these discussions and the detailed early season recaps so very much, and it never stops amazing me how much there is to notice (and how differently at times everyone – not just here, but all over – watches and interprets the same moments and episodes). The work you put in is incredible, and I wanted to thank you for providing so much entertainment, food for thought, and education re filming/acting techniques.
So, two things: 1) I thought was done with this goddamn show, but you might be pulling me back in. I didn’t watch most of Season 12, for the same reasons you and others here have articulated. I think I reached the same point you did in the end stages of Season 11, except I got there at the end of Season 10. But what you’re saying about the emotional heart of the show starting to beat again, and in particular the return of Castiel as Other….I can feel myself being drawn back.
Which brings me to: 2) I almost feel as if I should apologise for being a Castiel fan sometimes, because I agree that the angel plot-lines grew stale a long time ago. But his entry into the show blew everything open for me – that mix of ferocity, gradual compassion, foreign-ness, curiosity, and the fact that every time he was in an episode I knew the main story arc was going to rocket along. Plus I have an annoying tendency to get deeply invested in non-main characters :). Anyway, I agree that the showrunners have probably kept him around because of his popularity with fans, but in that case I really wish they had put more effort into working out what to do with him, because it’s pretty clear they’ve had no real idea since season 9. A character’s mere presence on screen is not sufficient by itself to keep all fans of that character interested. I, at least, kept watching in hopes that his storylines would improve, that he’d be allowed to interact with the Winchesters again, that he’d have a purpose. It was partly because of the lack of any of that, and the utter waste of such a fascinating character, that I “broke up” with the show. And now…see 1) above!
*waves* glad to have you delurk! Cas’s introduction was amazing and I loved him when he was Other like that.
SPN knocks it out of the park on these. Death was another one where I was breathless during that Jen Titus song, and I’ll admit to being awestruck with Cain striding across that Civil War cabin, all glorious hair and beard, with that gorgeous fiddle music.
Oh god yes. Sam’s hair wants to be Cain’s when it grows up.
I’m with Paula, Kirinleaf. So happy when people de-lurk! :)
// I thought was done with this goddamn show, but you might be pulling me back in. //
hahahaha I should either say “I’m sorry” or a tentative “You’re welcome??” We’ll see how it goes. I have mild PTSD from last season and yet I had to tune in. Last year was so depressing!!
In re: Castiel:
I love to hear from Castiel fans who basically got into it because of him. Yours is a very eloquent description as to why. I’ve been having so much fun re-watching his 1st seasons on the show – and he really does bring things to a whole other level. Helped along of course by MC’s truly brilliant performance. (I just watched Children are the Future – and how he leans into Sam’s face and says, “You didn’t” – with such contempt … I got goosebumps. I like Castiel as potentially dangerous.)
// A character’s mere presence on screen is not sufficient by itself to keep all fans of that character interested. I, at least, kept watching in hopes that his storylines would improve, that he’d be allowed to interact with the Winchesters again, that he’d have a purpose. //
Honestly, I don’t know how Castiel fans have managed it these past 4 years. It would have broken my heart, how little he had to do with anything.
They’re setting up a “connection” between demon-spawn Jack and Castiel – and Jack has some Castiel-like qualities – for sure – so there might be something interesting there. I still feel burnt by last season, but these episodes have given me hope.
and again: welcome!
My main response below was supposed to go here, gah. Sorry about that.
Thank you for the very kind welcome!
//(I just watched Children are the Future – and how he leans into Sam’s face and says, “You didn’t” – with such contempt … I got goosebumps. I like Castiel as potentially dangerous.)//
Oh my yes, me too. I love how intimidating he manages to be, despite being close to half a foot shorter than Sam. Richard Speight Jr as Gabriel was able to do this too – his revelation scenes in “Changing Channels” are fantastic.
Thank you so much!
//Honestly, I don’t know how Castiel fans have managed it these past 4 years. It would have broken my heart, how little he had to do with anything.//
You’re not wrong. And one of the worst effects of that for me, oddly enough, has been how poor a light it shows Dean and Sam in (I love them, and I don’t want to think they’re dicks!). They – or rather, the writers, whom I’m perfectly happy to blame at this point – pay lip service to Cas being “family”, or their “best friend”, but there’s really not much action any more to back it up. All tell, no show.
I was baffled by the plot decision to have Cas say yes to Lucifer in season 11, but it was such a relief to see Misha Collins have something to work with other than looking hangdog or getting beaten up that I just went with it. But over the years he’s gone from being an integral part of Team Free Will, to being a punchline and/or convenient source of plot-relevant abilities that are inconsistent from one episode to the next. And the writers don’t even seem to remember how to write “comic” Cas any more, if the if the lines like “I didn’t know dogs had breakfast” that you’ve mentioned are anything to go by.
The show is, as you say, about family. I would submit that it’s also about what it means to be human, what separates us from monsters, what it means to have free will. The show gave us a non-human character who slowly (painfully) questioned his beliefs, made (sometimes disastrous) choices, tried to atone for his mistakes, gave up everything he’d known for his newfound chosen family, learned doubt and compassion and love and free will…and apparently the result is a long, slow fall into despair, then an ignominious death. Thanks, Show.
Hrmph. Sorry everyone. Apparently I had a lot of Cas-related feelings to get out :) I will be interested to see where they take the Jack connection!
//Hrmph. Sorry everyone//
Kirinleaf, don’t apologize for what you love.
Welcome to The Island of The Prismatic Yes.
You say want a Cas Solution,
Well you know,
We all want to change the arc,
You tell me it’s angel pollution
Well you know,
We all want to change the arc, yeah.
So let’s talk about revision,
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright,
Alright,
Alright, yeah.
(crossing fingers, ’cause I hated the season 9-12 Cas).
*raises my Bic lighter high*