March 2025 Viewing Diary, Supernatural Season 8

Full rewatch in reverse order continues:

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 1 “We Need to Talk About Kevin” (2012)
written by Jeremy Carver
directed by Robert Singer
Already signs of the slightly-orange-makeup tone in Dean’s face which is a fingerprint of this not-so-pretty season. But I have a lot of affection for season 8 – at least in memory – mainly because, like season 9, and season 10, the real game in town is the conflict/relationship, and also how PTSD presents in different ways. Sam dissociated, Dean dug in to the trauma. Jensen running through the forest in Purgatory is so freakin butch I don’t even know what to do with myself. “There’s a demon in you and you’re going to your safety school.”

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 2 “What’s Up, Tiger Mommy” (2012)
written by Andrew Dabb and Robert Loflin
directed by John F. Showalter
First two episodes have multiple flashbacks showing what everyone’s been up to and it’s a bit clunky. Sam didn’t look for Dean – ouch – and Castiel ran away leaving Dean alone in Purgatory. Dean takes it on the chin in Season 8. Which makes Season 9 even more fascinating if you consider the progression.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 3 “Heartache” (2012)
written by Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming
directed by Jensen Ackles
This is Too-Much-Makeup Jensen. It’s interesting to look at this so far: there isn’t a Big Bad, in the way there was instantly in episode 1 of Season 11. There are things that need to be handled: Kevin is gone. Castiel is dead? stuck? But there isn’t a ton of urgency in terms of them being under the gun. So far there really isnt a wider arc, although the “closing the gates of hell forever” thing will obviously be important, but right now it’s a long shot. Sam’s hair this season is wild: lush, flowing, legit Harlequin-paperback hero flowing hair, and I DIG his pointy sideburns. It’s a LOOK.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 4 “Bitten” (2012)
written by Robbie Thompson
directed by Thomas J. Wright
God, this one is freakin’ GOOD. It really holds up on repeat viewings. It gets better, deeper, each time.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 5 “Blood Brother” (2012)
written by Ben Edlund
directed by Guy Bee
I just want to point out we are five episodes in and people are still going in and out of fugue states having lengthy flashbacks in order to fill us in on what they were up to during the hiatus. Welcome to the show, Amelia, you crazy kid with your lime slices. I don’t exactly have your back but I appreciate your purpose in the story AND I appreciate how you were conceived, because the conception of the character tells us so much about where Sam is at. You’re not some healthy regular woman falling for the handiman. You are a wreck. You, like Dean, are in a state of unmanaged trauma. If you see her as a Dean surrogate, it tracks, and Sam choosing her tracks, especially in season 8: Dean has really never been in a worse mood for such a long time as he is in Season 8. Not to mention borderline alcoholic. He might not be shoving lime slices down the drain but it’s in the same wheelhouse. Both characters drowning anxieties with alcohol. One of the main reasons why the Amelia flashbacks are NOT successful is they are so damn UGLY. The coloring is unlike anything else ever seen on Supernatural (thank God), and it’s hard to know what they are going for. This is not the proverbial “golden glow” of nostalgia. It’s more like the “golden glow” as seen in a Lysol commercial. Anyway, my point is: someone like Amelia, in the state she is in, lashing out at Sam inappropriately – in an overly personal way from the jump … would totally “put off” a man who wasn’t in such a bad state. But Sam’s in a bad state. She’s under his skin immediately. She might have even seemed familiar. (Like Cranky Dean). However I must note the sentimentalization of this: I’ve been cranky for long periods of time and I’ve never attracted a man during those times who has flowing romance novel locks and glamorous pointy side-burns. Oh no. I either attract annoying pests who won’t leave me alone or charismatic charmers who turn their spotlight on me, dazzling me, as they show me a facsimile of the real thing all while masking their need of the ego boost only I can provide, yes, I am the only one, I, who writes so beautifully about other people’s art, and maybe they can get me to write about them, because they want to be “seen” by Sheila, but then they realize I’m actually a human with corporeal life of my own and they ghost me. Those are the guys I attract. (Listen: it’s very specific but this has happened to me literally 4 times in the last 10 years, and is probably very specific to me, since I’m a writer and people know my work. I realize I’m the common denominator in this scenario and although I don’t seek out guys like this they FIND me, and I kept falling for it. Even online dating/Tinder isn’t safe. Those guys look me up, find my writing, and, like clockwork, want to be “seen” by me. Fine. I see you. Do you see me though? Once you see me, lemme guess, you’ll ghost me. Never again.) Subject-change: You know what I just realized? This is PRE-BUNKER. God, the show feels so much freer without that anchor of a home base. The home base anchor is just against the whole aesthetic of the show. Having the bunker guaranteed them comfort. We don’t want that guarantee. Another thing: it’s wild to go backwards and see how different Castiel became in later seasons. He lost definition. Here, he is still well-defined as a character, with that really distinct other-ness in his line readings. It’s the definition that makes Castiel. Castiel was always a problem, his powers were (supposedly) too big – although this didn’t stop them keeping Rowena – who wasn’t half as interesting as Castiel, not by a long shot – for endless seasons. I like stark rough grumbly-voiced literal Castiel. The character here is almost unrecognizable to the Castiel mentoring Jack in later seasons. Character growth, you might say? I mean … okay? But it makes Castiel seem even less defined. Dean and Sam grow and change but they are recognizably themselves throughout. What made Cas Cas kind of vanished – and what remained was increasingly amorphous. So Dean goes to meet up with his boyfriend Benny, who is still in love with Andrea, and yearning for revenge against the Twink who Turned Him. A love quadrangle. This is potentially some very twisted shit and because the show, at this point, wasn’t afraid of sick-sexy subliminal messages, it really is still there. Sam is angry Dean is palling around with a vampire. Sam is also angry because Dean “cheated” on him. And vice versa. Like: what the hell is going on here:

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 6 “Southern Comfort” (2012)
written by Adam Glass
directed by Tim Andrew
Sam goes into so many random fugue states in this one it’s like he’s having a stroke. Very awkward use of flashbacks. I almost feel like it would have been better to devote a bit of time to this at the very start of the first episode, kind of like they did with Dean and Lisa in season 6. It gave you a picture of what’s been going on.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 7 “A Little Slice of Kevin” (2012)
written by Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming
directed by Charles Robert Carner
Flashbacks continuing. Guys, it’s episode 7. I do like this episode though. Again: I like this Castiel. Having him become amorphous – and also with his own plot-lines – didn’t do the show any favors. Uh-oh: Chuck reference. Conversation about prophets: “What about Chuck?” “I’m not sure what happened to Chuck.” Neither am I, but I miss these old days before Chuck – and the show – and its past – was destroyed. Very intriguing stuff between Dean and Cas. I am not a Destiel person but I have always understood why people were. I can see it. My thought is: something happened to this very VERY central relationship in later seasons, and this happened because Cas was watered down, to be made more … like us? Suddenly things like sarcasm came into play – that random awful scene of Dean, Sam and Cas drinking whiskey and laughing uproariously – in what freakin’ universe? And then Castiel’s out of the blue declaration of love when he said good bye … To me, that declaration would have made WAY more sense and not felt so out of the blue if we hadn’t had five straight seasons where Dean and Cas were barely in the same place at the same time, and there was none of that emotional tension I see here. The connection was somehow … if not severed, then downplayed, like the burner turned to low. I am only really perceiving this I think because I’m moving back in time and suddenly I’mw catching these scenes between them and I’m thinking, “Oh yeah I remember this whole THING between them.” Because it was not present later.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 8 “Hunteri Heroici” (2012)
written by Andrew Dabb
directed by Paul Edwards
Flashback fugue state continues for Sam. We’re on episode 8. Amelia’s dad has showed up and calls Sam a “real fixer-upper” but … I’m sorry. Sam is standing there with his long hair flowing in the breeze and his gorgeous hunkiness – in what world is THAT a “fixer-upper”? Again: it’s wild to see how involved Dean is with Cas, and how that basically disappeared in any meaningful way in the following seasons. They kept Cas around but they just … didn’t write him like this anymore. We still have Castiel not understanding things (“insect rabbit hybrid”) which gives all kinds of opportunity for humor. Once Cas “understands pop culture”, you lose that humor source. Then he just becomes an Everyman and it’s a shocking change from his former self. I didn’t notice it as it was happening my first time through: all I really felt was that Cas had become entirely peripheral and they gave him his own plot lines and I resented the time away from the real action.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 9 “Citizen Fang” (2012)
written by Andrew Loflin
directed by Nick Copus
Episode 9: Sam is still having strokes every 5 minutes so he can re-live Lysol Land. Whose bright idea was this? It’s a wacky structure to have Sam be dazed out for almost 10 episodes about hot dogs and spaghetti. This is a very good episode though. I had forgotten a lot of this. Not the particulars but the overall feel: Sam and Dean are not getting along. At all. Dean hasn’t shared anything about purgatory and he’s being so bitchy about Sam’s girlfriend. Understandable. Sam is on a rampage against Benny and it feels extremely strong, like he’s not willing to concede that Benny might have good points OR that Dean has his reasons. Sam goes behind Dean’s back and puts crazy Martin on Benny’s trail. He’s murderous about Benny. I am thinking now about how Sam was written in later seasons: this mild well-adjusted nerdy guy who always sees both sides, and is boring as fuck. This Sam has some JUICE. And maybe I’m reading into it but it seems like Sam’s determination to take Benny down has more to do with 1. his guilt that he gave up hunting for a year and is now trying to prove to Dean he’s “all in” 2. his hurt that Dean is cheating on him with a vampire than 3. good hunter ethics. Meanwhile, Dean pretending he’s Amelia to get Sam to come is as low as it gets. Finally: watch how Dean gets Elizabeth’s phone number. The subtlety of it but also the genuine-ness of it. This is Jensen’s magic at work, another thing lost and/or not understood about Dean in later seasons.
A question about the timeline, which I had then, and still have:
1. 1st episode of season: we see Sam leave the house, Amelia in bed, to clearly go meet Dean, who’s out of purgatory.
2. 9 episodes of flashbacks follow, where we watch the progression of this relationship.
3. In “Citizen Fang”, Dean “poses” as Amelia, sending out an SOS, basically to get Sam off Benny’s trail
4. Sam races to save Amelia, having one final flashback: of him packing his bags to leave Amelia and her confronting him.
So … did he … stay? What was that about in the first episode, him leaving in the night? Did I miss something?
Final observation to go with the Amelia/Dean observation: Sam stands at the window staring in at her, just like Cas stood at the window staring at Dean. I don’t know, I think these are intriguing ideas: there is a lot of doubling going on. Benny leaning his head on the counter for Martin, looking through the pie rack – which is empty – a pie rack we’ve already associated with Dean since he flirtatiously interacts with it. And on it goes.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 10 “Torn and Frayed” (2013)
written by Jenny Klein
directed by Robert Singer
Dean is being extremely obnoxious and hard-headed. I remembered that this was a season where they barely got along at all, although it was overshadowed in my memory by the operatic disconnect of Season 9. It’s kind of interesting: I think they both are behaving pretty poorly. And it feels deliberate (on the part of the writers, I mean: that this is part of the arc of the season). It’s hard to know what was going on behind the scenes and who was responsible for what. But Sam demanding Dean give Benny up … Dean using Amelia to get Sam out of the way … Dean choosing Benny over Sam … Sam choosing Amelia over Dean … Amelia choosing Sam over her husband … Amelia choosing her husband over Sam … Castiel is cheating on Sam and Dean when he’s consorting with Naomi in heaven … everyone’s cheating, on every front, creating the Winchester Hall of Mirrors that used to be effective before the ensemble got too damn big and the show got scared of sex and Sam and Dean basically sat around in the bunker looking at their laptops. In this episode, Sam and Dean finally break up with their mistresses and come back together.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 11 “LARP and the Real Girl” (2013)
written by Robbie Thompson
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Pure silly enjoyment.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 12 “As Time Goes By” (2013)
written by Adam Glass
directed by Serge Ladouceur
Enter the bunker. The show breaks, although we didn’t know that then.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 13 “Everybody Hates Hitler” (2013)
written by Ben Edlund
directed by Phil Sgriccia
“Oh my God. These guys are psychopaths.” One of my favorite moments of a total outsider getting a glimpse of these guys and running with his interpretation. “The French Mistake” is another great one for that.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 14 “Trial and Error” (2013)
written by Andrew Dabb
directed by Kevin Parks
My later feelings about the bunker colored even my memories of it but these first episodes really are special, and how having a home base changes both of them. Or, changes Dean. He’s bustling around cooking and cleaning and decorating and gushing over tomatoes and water pressure. It’s one of my favorite unexpected details, and please note who wrote it. This makes what happens when he became showrunner even more mysterious. A lazy writer would think Sam was neat, Dean was a slob. But no: Dean’s domesticity comes from a real psychological place and Sam’s complete disconnect comes from an equally real place. (Again: Sam was not at all put off by lime-slices and bottles lying around). Sam doesn’t give a shit. He’s much more basic than Dean is. This is interesting and something we hadn’t really seen before and they really explore it here. There’s a lot going on plot-wise in this episode – first mention of THE TRIALS – but I’m all about Dean loving his room.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 15 “Man’s Best Friend with Benefits” (2013)
written by Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming
directed by John F. Showalter
The less said about this the better.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 16 “Remember the Titans” (2013)
written by Daniel Loflin
directed by Steve Boyum
The Greek gods episodes are never really the strongest.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 17 “Goodbye Stranger” (2013)
written by Robbie Thompson
directed by Thomas J. Wright
The opening scene of this episode is chilling. “I’m going to go interrogate the strange-haired demon.” Again: Castiel is just so much more VITAL in this season. Did it stop in Season 9? Road trip with Hannah? Ambiguous angel status? Pop culture? Sam and Dean are so involved with him. Dean prays to him. It’s actually quite interesting, although I was bored by Castiel by this time in my first watch.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 18 “Freaks and Geeks” (2013)
written by Adam Glass
directed by John F. Showalter
I can’t get interested in Wayward Monster-Fighting Teens Living Communally. But again, just like Randy with Claire in a later season, there are always going to be creepy older guys who take it upon themselves to “mentor” – i.e. manipulate – troubled teens, and it’s gross and accurate. Just an observation about Season 8, a stark difference from the later seasons: The huge season-wide arcs – finding the demon/angel tablet to close gates of hell, etc. – mostly takes place offscreen and is mostly in the hands of Kevin, Crowley, Castiel and Naomi. Sam and Dean are involved, and here of course Sam has to go through the trials, but they’re almost like project managers, checking in with everyone. They still go on hunts. As everyone ELSE is working the overall arc, they’re Sam and Dean, flashing fake badges and working cases. It’s such a good structure. Why get rid of it?

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 19 “Taxi Driver” (2013)
written by Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming
directed by Guy Norman Bee
Member when hell was conceived by a team with imagination? Member when hell was scary and not a business with demons presenting statistics reports to their bored boss? What the hell HAPPENED. Heartbreaking scene between Benny and Dean in the alley. Stellar work by both actors.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 20 “Pac-Man Fever” (2013)
written by Robbie Thompson
directed by Robert Singer
I really really like this one. Charlie’s line “See? You can’t stop either.” is so good. It really nails the episode for me.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 21 “The Great Escapist” (2013)
written by Ben Edlund
directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
Enter Metatron. He is a mixed blessing but I prefer him to Chuck. Chuck, supposedly all-powerful, was just warmed-over over-it Metatron. Not interesting. It’s interesting: we’re on episode 21. The season is somewhat un-focused, but I prefer it to later seasons. Most of it was taken up with Dean and Sam being involved with their significant-others and all the problems arising from that. To me, that’s what I always remembered about this season, it’s the thing that stuck. Now we’re in the final stretch and Sam is getting sicker and sicker and Dean is now a mother-hen, vibrating with worry. It gives both of these great actors really substantial emotional things to play.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 22 “Clip Show” (2013)
written by Andrew Dabb
directed by Thomas J. Wright
Wow, I forgot how truly evil Crowley could be. He has some real psychopathic shit going on this season. He cut off Kevin’s finger. He kills Sarah. Like, he plays for keeps. For the 89th time: I hate what they did to the character. If you wanted to get rid of Crowley then give him a proper ending, this season or the next. Rowena showed up and neutralized him, which must have been humiliating to play, considering what a juicy role it was. He is so good.

Supernatural, Seasom 8, episode 23 “Sacrifice” (2013)
written by Jeremy Carver
directed by Phil Sgriccia
Sheppard is quite extraordinary in this episode. I forgot about the whole Cupid’s bow thing, which is very charming. Although I’m irritated: why does Casteil need Dean’s help for that, exactly? Sam needs Dean. Go away, Castiel. And here is where Metatron takes Castiel’s grace. THIS is when Castiel begins his journey to becoming an amorphous undefined Everyman, who still has powers? Or not? He can’t fly? It’s unclear. But here’s where it happens. Next thing you know he’ll be eating three-bean surprise. Jared Padalecki is overwhelming in this episode.