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I liked it! It had a light-hearted goofy energy – we haven’t had one of those for a long time.
I still can’t stand how they say “monsters” now. And Jack has literally been on the show for how long now and his entire purpose has been Sad Boy Who Needs Pep Talks.
A word about Jensen and Jared: they were doing such heavy-lifting (in a good way) with the sometimes (often) on the nose presentational dialogue. It’s like the writers just don’t know how to express these guys inner lives now. The “ignoring your trauma isn’t healthy” line made me roll my eyes – especially since these writers have been literally IGNORING things like trauma for FOUR YEARS. You just toss that line in there without EXPLORING the trauma?
But anyway: Jensen was turning literally every moment into something comedic. Or … extra. He added so many layers in between lines, during lines – little double takes, pauses, sudden switch-backs – and none of it felt like schtick to me. This is Jensen in the zone – the place I love to see him. He’s so FREE as an actor.
The Scooby Doo “underthings” were a funny touch but I loved even more Dean saying the word “underthings” – what the hell …
I really liked that actress. I enjoyed the “one off” nature of the episode – it reminded me of, oh, Into the Mystic – or Just My Imagination – everything doesn’t have to be so damn heavy all the time.
Plus. PLUS. Only four characters in the whole ep (besides that one moment with the vampires). So much Sam and Dean!!
I totally forgot Eileen was alive again which tells you how poorly they managed her arc. The second I realized she was alive again, I remembered her resurrection scene/spa day with the big tub and how uncomfortable Jared looked kissing her and I felt a swoon of despair. I was happier not remembering that.
Dean getting super into Mrs. Butters was a nice touch. It would have been an obvious choice to make him cranky and protective – the way he was with Sully – but instead he was “all in”.
Dean flashing Sam was fantastic.
I found the repeat scenes of Dean and Sam literally kicking doors down – coming in with bigger and bigger weapons – funny. The show doesn’t goof off enough anymore. Jared raising that huge mallet ? Like, that’s your weapon?
Overall, I liked it.
Oh and was it me – but I think Jensen was adding a little bit of “Amara hangover” in the Amara conversation. It’s not in the language – because these writers are incompetent – but I thought Jensen was adding something “extra” – the pull that he maybe didn’t feel anymore but he remembered feeling it – the moment had a nice depth, Jensen dropping in to a deeper level, providing some continuity with Season 10. Because … the writers didn’t write it into the script and so he took it upon himself to add it?
That’s what I mean by heavy lifting.
Why am I such a grump!!! haha. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Mrs Butters was great, it’s true – one of the more entertaining and honest guest performances in a long time. I loved all her little squeaks and boops and her awkward ohs to Jack’s murder confession. Her Christmas dance! It make me smile. I felt that the link between wood nymph and ’50s maid-mummy was fairly tenuous (although I’m desperately glad to not to have gotten some ivy-draped hottie or whatever) and extremely confused about the end: didn’t she come to realise that Sinclair had tortured and manipulated her? Why was she gaga over the picture? Anyway I hope her lovely tweed doesn’t get muddy in the Forest, whichever and wherever that is.
I did love that it was four(ish) people in the bunker, dealing with a problem that the bunker threw up. This is the kind of story opportunity I wish they’d been taking all along.
Otherwise, the energy was too manic for me and Sam and Dean kinda lobotomised. Or am I the dumb one — why did Dean hit reset and not standby to put Mrs Butters into stasis? Why had they never been down to that room in the first place? That put me offside from the start.
If we’re going to have wholesome candlelit dinner parties, I prefer the artificial constructed wholesomeness of these. We all know Dean’s a sybarite and responds to mothering so that, you know, made sense to me, even if it was too much for me. Sam being on the outside of that mothering, a permanently bemused/amused onlooker, was consistent too but I wish it had been explored more. And more Eileen dates offscreen? okay, whatever. Dean hanging back from calling Sam because “it had been a while” for Sam was pretty great even if it made it seem like Dean didn’t really rate anything in the episode as a threat – really, the whole episode was toothless — not a speck of peril! I didn’t even worry about Sam’s fingernails. I think your point about it being one of those tonally dislocated “one off” episodes is spot on, but it didn’t work for me as well as others in that genre have.
(speaking of fingernails, the connections to A Very Supernatural Christmas are cuteish but show up how distressingly superficial it was. And speaking of references, the return of Mjolnir made me roll my eyes because I am a giant grinch).
The grey in Sam’s hair was STRONG tonight!!!!! If only his dissembling had been as powerful :(
The whole Monster issue is so confused. Isn’t Mrs Butters a monster? I guess that’s meant to be the point, qua metaphor? But, like, weren’t those vamps drinking from blood bags and not dead victims? Thank god Monster Radar didn’t stick around, and thank god we didn’t have to deal with any mcguffin quests this week. Still, these intoned conversations about [Name] killing [Name] and where [Name] is and what they’re doing and what gadget they need to acquire and what special power they have and what their confused motive is are deeeeeeeeeeathly dull and I’m not looking forward to more of it.
Visually not much struck me. Unnecessary yellow flashback, no thanks!! I liked those closeups of Mrs Butters in the interrogation scene with the light behind her intruding. The red bunker light, which is usually electrifying, seemed muddier and cheaper than usual, I’m not sure why. The Ghostbusters reference was cut but again, too manic for me – still, Dean’s increasingly ridiculous faces at those paper bag lunches got to me. I’m weak!
I confess to being stumped as to the film the vamps were watching. Mr Barnabas? Was it Dark Shadows?
// didn’t she come to realise that Sinclair had tortured and manipulated her? Why was she gaga over the picture? //
lol Yes, that made no sense!!
// Why had they never been down to that room in the first place? //
Same reason they never found the spa room with the huge bathtub.
I mean … isn’t that the “computer” Charlie fixed? I’d have to go back and watch that other episode – it felt like they should have known what that machine was.
// We all know Dean’s a sybarite and responds to mothering so that, you know, made sense to me, even if it was too much for me. Sam being on the outside of that mothering, a permanently bemused/amused onlooker, was consistent too but I wish it had been explored more. //
I love this observation and agree – wish it had been explored more. I am thinking of that ep when they moved into the bunker – when Dorothy/Wicked Witch showed up – but REALLY the whole thing was about “home” – and how Dean saw “home” and how Sam saw “home” – and also “no place like home” thematic connection … Not the best episode in the world but it was exploring a THEME, not the pLOT. If I had to boil down what has been missing in the Dabb years, it’s that they have no idea how to explore smaller THEMES. When I think about that Wizard of Oz episode, I think of Sam throwing the piece of paper on the floor, I think of Dean glorying in the memory foam – the vulnerability of Dean’s happiness – but also how revealing it was that Sam basically didn’t care. FASCINATING.
This kind of complexity is way beyond this team.
// And more Eileen dates offscreen? okay, whatever. //
SO ANNOYING.
also: they’re still so proud of themselves on the “I killed Hitler” thing – one of the major reasons I found Season 12 so egregious and jarring. I was so offended by how OFF that whole thing was, and how OFF Dean’s reaction was. And Here they are, referencing it again – and NOT referencing – as you observe – Supernatural Christmas as deeply as they could.
// Thank god Monster Radar didn’t stick around, //
You said it. The second I saw that “radar” – with computer technology way way beyond 1958 or whatever – I rolled my eyes.
// still, Dean’s increasingly ridiculous faces at those paper bag lunches got to me. I’m weak! //
This is the Jensen I love. Goofball.
And so I hear you on all your complaints – the “no big deal” on the fingernails thing was particularly bad – they forget these guys are human beings, not superheroes – member when the fingernail was torn off in Supernatural Christmas?? I can’t even WATCH that moment – I don’t think I’ve actually kept my eyes open to watch the moment the fingernail comes off – but I liked the GOOFY energy to the episode, an energy I missed. And it felt like, as I said, a lot of this was clearly Jared and Jensen’s additions to the proceedings. I would bet “underthings” was Jensen’s own improvisation. I’m not familiar with this writer – I’ll go check his other eps – but that felt very Jensen-ish. He knew that Dean suddenly felt like a little boy talking to this woman – and so even saying “underwear” felt wrong. Jensen’s sensitivity to context – just a guess.
And I was wondering what the vampires were watching too. I’ll do some digging.
I caught that ever so slight trancelike stare flit across Jensen’s face at the Amara mention, and I LOVED it. He’s just SO GOOD at all of it. And he’s definitely not acting as though this was anything like the last 3 seasons—he’s acting his (beautiful) face off.
And I realize I’m just so happy to have them back, you know?
This is gonna hurt.
PS The writer of this episode was a former writer of Scooby Doo. I believe he co-wrote ScoobyNatural, Dabb said give us a call, we’ll have room for you, and voila. I thought much of the dialogue was at the level of a kids’ show, almost. I hope he grows up before the end.
// I caught that ever so slight trancelike stare flit across Jensen’s face at the Amara mention, and I LOVED it. //
So glad you caught it too. Amazing – a sense-memory of what it felt like to be hypnotized by her. This is the kind of emotional continuity that is no longer built into the show – thank God Jensen remembers.
and thanks for the intel on the writer – I was wondering about him. Yes, there was a very Scooby-Doo vibe to the whole thing.
I really appreciate your take, Sheila.
I watched it as it aired and was underwhelmed (I think I’m expecting episodes to do so much) and even a little frustrated. I just wasn’t able to connect with the story and kept wondering, how much time is passing? What is going on with Chuck? Are we just… eating ham and killing vampires and laughing jollily by candlelight? For how long? It had the same ishy feeling as the pocketwatch future of Cas and Jack and Eileen all drinking beer in the library, One Big Happy Winchester Family, where they laugh and laugh! Oh how they laugh! Aren’t worlds being destroyed?
But after you posted I watched it again, with a calmer, more generous eye. Mrs. Butters was magnificent. She managed to be so camp and so other, like Jack and Cas at his best, yet so sincere and moving at the same time, a real sense of deep loss and trauma, of her forest world taken from her and not even really accessible in memory or imagination. I got the strong sense that while she knew about the forest and her life there, Sinclair had damaged her so badly that she couldn’t feel it, could just remember what it was supposed to feel like. Her boys were the only things that had substance for her anymore.
Calvert’s face is so good. I loved his bits with Dean, how he is so trusting and at the same time so clearly expects pain. Loved watching Dean’s heart swell as he looked down at the christmas tree – for some reason the train made me laugh.
Spent a lot of time just looking at Date Sam – I don’t know if it was the lighting or the makeup or what, but his skin was so clear and even, the shadows gone, the red triangles over his eyes gone, his eyes themselves clear and almost blue. He looked young and rested – I liked how Sam and Dean both seemed to get younger after so much aggressive mothering. His whole attitude towards the date was nothing so much as teenaged.
It isn’t going to go down as one of my favorites, but I liked it much more second time round, so thank you.
// Aren’t worlds being destroyed? //
lol I was so relieved to not really have to focus on that plot , because I can’t “believe” in it and am upset that it’s taking up so much time. I don’t like the “multiple worlds” thing and “multiple Sam and Deans” … so I was happy to see an episode that basically had nothing to do with that.
// She managed to be so camp and so other, like Jack and Cas at his best, yet so sincere and moving at the same time, a real sense of deep loss and trauma, of her forest world taken from her and not even really accessible in memory or imagination. //
Yes, I really liked that. Much of it made no logical sense – but I was okay with that.
// Loved watching Dean’s heart swell as he looked down at the christmas tree – for some reason the train made me laugh. //
The train was great!
This episode brings up a problem which they have never been able to deal with – it started with Cas and now it’s Jack – they introduce these all-powerful beings, and then have to power them down for seasons on end – otherwise they could snap their fingers and make everything right. So we have endless seasons of Cas having tuberculosis, or Cas being at half-power, of Cas needing to have constant pep talks so he feels like he’s not useless – all that same tiresome shit has now happened with Jack. It’s so repetitive. I know they’re committed to an ensemble show now – which I hate – but whatever … it’s just Jack being a gloomy Gus for three seasons on end has way outstayed its welcome.
But I do love Calvert – he does “fit” with the guys – and I actually don’t mind him as much as I eventually minded Cas.
I’ve lost the plot by the way in the intervening months: where is Cas now ? What’s his status? What’s the plot of this season again?
// I liked how Sam and Dean both seemed to get younger after so much aggressive mothering. His whole attitude towards the date was nothing so much as teenaged. //
That’s interesting. I can totally see that.
I’m gonna be honest – I barely remember the rest of the season at this point – the arc of the episodes – I should refresh my memory before we move into this final arc.
Ha, I think Cas is Looking for Amara? And I just watched all these shows in the last week, but I don’t remember the whole “gotta kill Amara” conversation they said they had.
I did just see the one with the Fiat Winchesters, with their manbuns and their loafers, and the one with Garth where they’re now “normal”, so I think this is an example of where binging alters my perception – the show has seemed pretty silly of late, but these things happened over the course of weeks or months, not just last Saturday. Hopefully the empty geodimensionaloscilloradioscope or whatever means the alt worlds are done now.
I wish Cas had gone out at the end of s6. It was a perfect summation to his arc. I don’t think he’s made sense in universe or out since. I honestly came in to watching the show expecting to like him best, but wow that’s not how it turned out.
Jack just the opposite – I dreaded him, but I do still love him. I feel like they’ve really shot themselves in the foot with him. My partner and I just watched the episode from s13 where they evacuate the altworlders to the bunker and leave Lucifer behind. “This is great,” said my partner, “Sam stranding Lucifer like that – it had to be done but now Jack has lost his father before he could figure out what a dick he is. That’s big stuff and it’s going to make things difficult for a while, I bet.” Lol no worries they resolved that about 15 minutes into the next episode, but not before they depowered Jack and scheduled his recurring appointments at the pep talk clinic, as you noted.
I’m expecting something ugly to come out of his birthday wish. Maybe he’ll just wish Cas happy and the Empty will come for him?
Oooh, birthday wish consequences! Good thought.
They played that theme of foreboding when he blew out the candle cue theme of foreboding
Also wonder how far the Mrs B/Jack parallels go – what happened to Jack in the Empty? Death is creeping me out a bit, since she killed her reaper babysitter. And Mrs Butters asking if S&D knew how powerful and dangerous Jack had become, and Sam worrying that Jack is hiding something. Also wondering what the connection between Death and the Empty is – God has no power there but Death clearly does.
It all feels like it is adding up to Death & the Empty manipulating Jack into doing something terrible (add in the parallel of Sam drinking demon blood in order to become strong enough to prevent the apocalypse with Jack eating Grigori hearts to become strong enough to keep God from ending the world (and less direct but also: Dean taking the MoC to become strong enough to defeat Abaddon)) – but, like, this also seems like the repeating plot of the last few years? Idk. I’ve been wrong about 79% of my hunches in the past 4 seasons.
//The grey in Sam’s hair was STRONG tonight!!!!! If only his dissembling had been as powerful :(//
Wait, what? Sam has grey hair? You mean, he is turning into a giant silver fox?
listen it’s a work in progress but IT’S HAPPENING.
I don’t know why that’s not opening for me but I am dying to know what it is.
Oh man he’s going to get those silver streaks just above the ears.
Silver hair alert and the use of the word ‘sybarite’ – that’s enough for me! But it does hurt my heart a little that there is explicit Scoobyness in the first eps of show’s final run into the sunset (is there Beowulfness too? Hard to tell from your comments) but i am just too many seasons out of the loop to appreciate it. hwaet the fuck :-(
He is going to be such a hunky silver fox.
Saving it for the Texas Rangers!
yesssss something to look forward to!
will he drink Sarsaparilla at the bar? Inquiring minds want to know.
I thought Mrs. Butters was great. I liked the Van Halen shout out during Cuthbert’s film (“file 5150”). I assume it was one of the usual hard rock call outs and not added after Eddie’s passing.
Wood nymphs make me think of C. S. Lewis. Too bad we didn’t get Faun Sam. Mr. Samnus.
It was so good to see an episode with so much Sam and Dean. A fun one off.
I’ve been watching The Boys to get up to speed for JA’s next show. Wonderfully eff’d up! Looking forward to him joining.
I appreciated the VH shoutout too! And I’ve been eyeing The Boys too. I’m still working out where to head next.
I missed that shoutout – that’s great – and perfect timing in re: Eddie.
// Too bad we didn’t get Faun Sam. Mr. Samnus. //
Thank God we didn’t actually. That sounds horrifying.
I gotta start watching The Boys!
oh and I’m sure you’ve all seen this, but still: this is exciting news:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/jensen-danneel-ackles-ink-overall-deal-at-warner-bros-tv
“because these writers are incompetent”. LOL! God, I was waiting for someone to say that out loud. Where Ben Edlund or Robbie Thompson or Jennie Klein when you need them?
But, I enjoyed this episode, too, as long as I didn’t think too much or try to analyze it. Mrs. Butters was adorable until she went evil, but there are so many holes in the canon at this point that I just watch it for Sam, Dean, and sometimes, Jack. I’m not a big Cas fan either and the rumor mill says that he doesn’t make it to the final chapter, whatever that is.
Your comment re Sam and Dean’s reactions to Mrs. Butters was dead on. Someone also mentioned the fact that Dean enjoys this so much because he never had it as a child ( of course, he never was a child) but he made sure that Sam had some sense of holiday (fireworks on the 4th of July, Christmas presents). Sam had some sense of holiday and love and specialness (is that a word) while Dean had little or none. Talk about emotional abuse.
But, I’m hoping that the powers that be are planning to end this the way it began, just Sam and Dean. Considering that Sam was the very first character we see in the very first episode, I think the symmetry would be that Sam survives and Dean doesn’t. That is definitely not the way that I want this to end, but I think that it’s a remote possibility.
// But, I enjoyed this episode, too, as long as I didn’t think too much or try to analyze it. //
hahaha Yes. I felt the same way.
// I’m not a big Cas fan either and the rumor mill says that he doesn’t make it to the final chapter, whatever that is. //
Wow, okay, I hadn’t heard that – really? Are Cas fans flipping out?
// Sam had some sense of holiday and love and specialness (is that a word) while Dean had little or none. Talk about emotional abuse. //
Right, I think of Something Wicked – with Dean breaking into someone’s house to steal presents for Sam. It’s a heart-cracker.
// I’m hoping that the powers that be are planning to end this the way it began, just Sam and Dean. //
You and me both. There was that recent ad on Twitter, something like “this show has always been about two brothers …” and there was a lot of pushback from fans who … didn’t like the first three seasons, I guess?
To answer your question;
//TV Line talked to showrunner Andrew Dabb, who previewed the series finale: Ultimately, it’s gonna come down to Sam and Dean, two guys from Kansas, facing off against the Supreme Being.//
Looks like the rumor mill is right this time.
I overall liked this episode as well. Mrs. Butters was great and I totally agree seeing Dean goofy and relaxed in this episode was nice. Plus the fact that there was no secondary plotline going on!
My main quibble with the episode is probably somewhat nitpicky, but the whole “Monster Radar” irritated me on an even deeper level than just how over the top advanced it was. From what I remember The Men of Letters held Hunters somewhat in contempt. Hunters were the grunts so to speak that went out and got their hands dirty with the monsters. Henry Winchester seemed quite unhappy when he met Sam and Dean that they had been raised as hunters instead of the legacies that they were meant to be. I don’t quite picture Cuthbert Sinclair dashing out the door with a sack lunch in his hands so he could go clear out a vamp nest (might have stained his suit) I think the Men of Letters considered themselves superior, and considered their purpose to be more about accumulating knowledge, artifacts, and dealing with deeper threats such as Thulls, demons and the like.
I also have no idea where the whole “Death says we have to kill Amara too” came from. I rewatched all the previous episodes of this season prior to it starting back and Billie/Death hadn’t mentioned anything about Amara. Dean mentioned to Sam that he thought maybe they should kill Amara as well as Chuck so that there wouldn’t be that imbalance that would occur by taking out only one of them, but Death wasn’t involved in the conversation. If that is a conversation that has taken place off screen so to speak then I find it incredibly annoying considering how high these stakes are supposed to be.
Overall though I did like the episode and it was good to see the goofiness…maybe one last time? I think this one might be the last light hearted episode that we get.
// Plus the fact that there was no secondary plotline going on! //
YES. I hadn’t put that into words – but that’s exactly it. One episode, one plot. It’s been so damn long since we’ve had that. Even though I am so sick of the bunker – and I rolled my eyes at the first shot – the kajillionth opening shot of Sam reading in the bunker – but the lack of other distractions made me not mind so much.
// From what I remember The Men of Letters held Hunters somewhat in contempt. Hunters were the grunts so to speak that went out and got their hands dirty with the monsters. //
This is a REALLY good point. I didn’t pick up on that. They didn’t care about fighting said monsters – but researching them and gathering knowledge. If they had to trap a monster to do experiments, so be it – but yes, hunters were seen as brutes, beneath notice.
// I rewatched all the previous episodes of this season prior to it starting back and Billie/Death hadn’t mentioned anything about Amara. Dean mentioned to Sam that he thought maybe they should kill Amara as well as Chuck so that there wouldn’t be that imbalance that would occur by taking out only one of them, but Death wasn’t involved in the conversation. If that is a conversation that has taken place off screen so to speak then I find it incredibly annoying considering how high these stakes are supposed to be. //
Thanks for the perspective – I hadn’t re-watched the episodes leading up so I completely forget where we’re at with basically all of those other plots – what is Rowena doing, where is Cas, where is Chuck – I just can’t keep track.
If it took place offscreen – like Sam’s date with Eileen – it’s incredibly shoddy (and unfair) work. Kinda like Sam making a deal with Crowley – OFF SCREEN – that he’d take on the Mark of Cain. That was when the whole show slipped off the rails – and it’s never really been back since!
// I think this one might be the last light hearted episode that we get. //
yeah, that’s my thought too. It’s gonna be all plot all the time from here on out. And to those of us who wish Rowena et al had gone away seasons ago … it might be rather difficult to sit through stuff I just don’t care about. I don’t need ROWENA’S story to be “tied up” – as far as I was concerned, that happened years ago before you all brought her BACK – for no other reason than that you needed someone who could be on speed dial to get them out of messes … so irritating.
But I digress.
I’ve been wondering about how covid restrictions might play into the filming of these last few episodes…if it means more Sam and Dean on screen and less “Demon 3 and Angel 5 Chat at a Bar,” I’m here for it.
The vampires pouring blood bags into Big Swig cups was so stupid, but God help me, it made me laugh.
For me the hardest part to believe was Dean patiently waiting outside of Jack’s door, as if Dean believes in giving people privacy. He is fully a Barge-Right-In-There kind of guy, privacy be damned.
It wasn’t a henley, but I did enjoy Sam in dark one-layer long-sleeves.
At this point I think I look forward to reading the comments here more than I look forward to watching the actual episodes!
I’m glad so many liked it! I usually enjoy the goofier episodes, but I found the goofy tone of this one very strange considering this is the ending of the entire show. I think it really threw me off.
I agree with some above comments about the timeline, all of a sudden it just felt like we were in stasis when it seems like we should be racing to figure things out find the bad guys, etc. etc. Why are we all just moping around the bunker all of a sudden? How long were they doing this monster hunting? Am I supposed to believe that Cas never checks in with an update on whatever the hell he’s doing, looking for Amara right? Everything about it just felt STRANGE.
I’m mentally prepared to be VERY SAD for the rest of the episodes, but also VERY DISAPPOINTED because the current writing team is really bad. I mean, how did they even do this bizzaro the boys get a “bunker mom” and we get NOTHING about actual Mary? I really felt like the emotional lives of Sam and Dean were sidelined so we could explore Jack’s emotional life, but honestly, I am not that invested in his emotional life. I’ve been invested in SAM and DEAN for 15 years, so please don’t just have some Bunker Mary Poppins show up but then not explore how this makes SAM and DEAN feel about the real not at all mom-like mom they were just living with until she was brutally murdered by their weird sad stepson? *frustrated noises*
I think I’m mostly watching the episodes to be able to enjoy the comments here at this point, but it’s fun to have something to look forward to!
I was interested in the comparisons between “A Very Supernatural Christmas” and “Last Holiday.” Both are about holidays; Christmas is featured first in this episode. Mrs. Butters goes all out with her decorating (though perhaps just in the foyer and the table where they eat) in the same way Mrs. Carrigan, the pagan god, over-decorated her house. Both Mrs. Carrigan and Mrs. Butters seemed like innocuous, friendly middle-aged women, but in reality they were powerful. Like Mrs. Carrigan, Mrs. Butters doesn’t like profanity, and, in both situations, it is Dean doing the swearing. With the pagan God, he does use the term “fudge” as she’d lectured him, and in this episode he modified his language as well, at least until he realized she was planning on killing him and Jack. Sam ends up restrained in a chair in both, and, lastly, both the Carrigans and Mrs. Butters torture Sam by ripping off his fingernails (just one with the meadowsweet-loving deities – primarily because they just needed one for their sacrifice whereas Mrs. Butters was trying to break Sam into agreeing with her view of things.)
I’m glad to read all the positive replies and responses to the Mrs Butters episode. I couldn’t engage with the tone of that midsection while watching but I wonder if it’ll be one of those that improves in memory or on rewatch. And the actress who plays Mrs Butters is on my permanent pleased-to-see-you roster.
As for the most recent episode, I’d heard going in that it was mostly Cas-and-Jack and, expectations duly managed, I found it a necessary catch up with exactly what is going on with Cas and Jack (because I have been extremely confused about their stories). Engaging enough, and some notably well-written conversations. I think it’s tacky to use homeless people as a metaphor and the case itself was fairly undercooked but Calvert in particular is good, and I enjoyed Cas more than I have recently. What was up with the demon at the end, I wonder?
I think this might have been the least consequential Sam has ever been in an episode. I wonder if he said fewer words in this or in the episode with alt-world Charlie and the fly monsters. I don’t have the energy to be mad or depressed about it; nor the brain power to dig into anything of import that came out of the Dean-Amara conversations. I like watching Dean think, so I think my favourite moment of the whole episode was him in the car deciding to go back in to talk to her, and I liked the “I’m furious” conversation that came after. Also, an episode with zero flashbacks and montages – they didn’t even try to make the mechanics of the case make sense! What a treat!
Calvert in particular is good, and I enjoyed Cas more than I have recently
I hate to keep harping on Cas, but he is such an uncomfortable pea under my 23 mattresses! But I agree here – Cas’s interactions with Jack help the character make sense to me in a way he has not in years. I feel his emotional attachment to Jack in a way I haven’t to the Winchesters, and I suspect Misha Collins finds this aspect of Castiel easier to believe in, too. He’s like Ally McBeal, finally finding true love. And Calvert. “I have more dads than most.” Oh, baby :( It’s no picnic to have the Righteous Man for a dad. Sam and Dean could tell you all about it.
I very much liked Dean’s interactions with Amara. I like Amara, full stop. I liked her comment on his -musk- and I very much liked their conversation re: Mary, but then I would. I felt it glossed a story that wasn’t well-told and obscured a lot of unnecessary nonsense, and I don’t think that Dean is the type to constructively brood over what it all meant. But there’s a nugget of salvation there, under all the alt worlds and British mind control and superangel hybrids. Dean never was a kid, but he also never stopped being a kid. It would be good if he could lay that down.
I felt it glossed a story that wasn’t well-told and obscured a lot of unnecessary nonsense
This is very much the feeling I got as well. Well, honestly, what I feel is outmatched by this era’s storytelling and the need to synthesise what is actually on screen with what we are told the story is with what the story seems to be at any one time, but this is close enough. So while I don’t really buy what Amara is selling — how would seeing that Mary was a “real, complicated woman” (writer-justification alert!) help Dean “finally accept his life” especially when s11 is a pinnacle of Sam and Dean grooving down into a mutually supportive hunter lifestyle? — everyone made mouth-noises that kinda battered the whole thing into shape, and really the true story was just the faces they made at each other. Flicking through it again what struck me was the link Dean never quite drew between Chuck as a cosmic dick of a writer and Amara manipulating Dean’s environment/family for her own storytelling purpose (“fixing” Dean). Gives a bit more depth to “We’re all trapped in a story and the writer is mean and we’re angry about it” which is, one must accept, where we are for s15.
Ally McBeal Cas, haha!
Pam’s up through Absence as of last night; she’s likely going to be caught up before the end. I ended up playing the “I’m furious” conversation for her because – well, she was furious, spitting mad at the soft focus flashbacks of tender loving Mary momming all over Sam and Dean and Jack and Cas.
So again with the writers telling us what the story is in opposition to what the story on the screen has been – Mary was a gentle supportive patient present mother, flipping knives with Jack and mouthing platitudes at Cas and sleeping on her son’s shoulder and every moment spent with them meant more to her than she could say, electing in to the family and carving her initials and what a momumental loss for all of them. And Amara’s version: Mary wasn’t going to save you from your life, she’s not that interested and your life will never stop coming for you anyway.
Neither one is all there but Amara’s version is definitely closer to what we saw, and so it goes down easier and offers more useful tools for unpacking it. And also, you know, I’m tired. There are five eps left and that whole story sucked and if this is their best offer, then, sold. I will take it, like I will take fatherhood-changes-you Cas.
the link Dean never quite drew between Chuck as a cosmic dick of a writer and Amara manipulating Dean’s environment/family for her own storytelling purpose (“fixing” Dean)
I was genuinely surprised Dean didn’t get there, that Amara outlines how she moved Dean and Mary around in her giant dollhouse and Dean replies, I’m furious… at Chuck. But Dean is always so rigid about who he allows himself to be angry with and whose treacheries he allows himself to acknowledge. And I guess he’s not there yet with Amara.
(Also:
help Dean “finally accept his life” especially when s11 is a pinnacle of Sam and Dean grooving down into a mutually supportive hunter lifestyle?
And dude, they even renewed their vows after John dropped by for a cheese and bologna dinner! At what point does Dean get his certificate of completion here?)
go pam! what a trooper. Absence is a TOUGH pill to swallow.
Amara’s version is definitely closer to what we saw, and so it goes down easier and offers more useful tools for unpacking it.
Absoluuuutely. Amara’s speech made it seem like someone took the unusual step of watching previously produced seasons of the show and realised that they had in fact told the story we were seeing unfold all along: that Mary is a black hole in Ellen Harvelle drag. Then they used Amara to try to tell us that a black hole in Ellen Harvelle drag is just a “real, complicated woman,” because they can only conceptualise characters in terms of Staff Pick cards in the graphic novel shelves at Borders.
I’m like you: if this is their best offer, I’m tired enough to take it.
I guess he’s not there yet with Amara.
This glimmer of remaining undertow was what made the episode for me.
At what point does Dean get his certificate of completion here?
He helped with the dishes and made eyes at his brother! Isn’t this man self-actualised enough for you people yet?!
At what point does Dean get his certificate of completion here?
I have an idea, maybe Dean gets his certificate at the top of his own personal Jacob’s Ladder?