Supernatural, Season 7, episode 1 “Meet the New Boss” (2011)
written by Sera Gamble
directed by Phil Sgriccia
It makes me emotional, seeing Sera Gamble’s name again. I’m in good hands. Castiel’s all evil, and I think Misha does a good – and subtle – job of showing how Castiel is basically inhabited by some other entity. No Cockney Clockwork Orange accent, in other words. It’s interesting, I’m trying to remember how the hell they got to that lab and I am failing. I know the “wall” in Sam’s head was broken and he’s getting flashes of hell. That I remember. Dean watching cartoon porn sitting in the kitchen. Not even stopping when Sam comes in.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 2 “Goodbye Cruel World” (2011)
written by Ben Edlund
directed by Guy Bee
The biggest thing that’s missing in later seasons – and I can’t even believe I’m saying this because it’s so elementary – is the brothers’ heavy heavy involvement with each other. Here, Sam is falling apart – rapidly – and Dean is freaking out with worry. This shit gets you through 23 episodes. They really lost sight of that. This episode gives us the raincoat that launched a thousand ships. This is also the beginning of Lucifer taunting Sam 24/7, on the periphery of scenes, basically the mocking voice inside Sam;s head. Is he dreaming, hallucinating? Either way: it works on the actual story level: Sam seeing through the crack in his wall-head. But it really works as a metaphor too of struggling (white-knuckling) mental illness. Had forgotten about how effective this was.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 3 “The Girl Next Door” (2011)
written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
directed by Jensen Ackles
I keep referencing later seasons. I’ll try to stop. But briefly: this episode opens with Dean in a full leg cast having broken his leg, and Sam having seizures in the ambulance before being given a head scan. Remember the episode much later when they have “bad luck”, and have to get it back, and suddenly they are incompetent and the car breaks down and they get headaches, and it’s so weird because nothing bad ever happens to them? As though they’re magical super-beings? Look at all the bad shit that has happened to them over the course of this series. What the HELL is your problem? Side note: I LOVE the motel room in this one with the full-wall mountainscape mural, so when Dean stands in front of it there’s so much visual interest. I just realized that this is the first time since I started this venture that I’ve had a couple of “wow, that is a great shot” thoughts. There were a couple this episode. And look who directed it. Dean and Amy: Dean is truly terrifying in this scene, but there’s a gentleness there too making him even more disturbing (it reminds me a little bit of Gandolfini in the scene with Patricia Arquette in True Romance. Dean is a fucking killer.)
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 4 “Defending Your Life” (2011)
written by Adam Glass
directed by Robert Singer
I’m not big on the ancient God episodes but what’s interesting here is THEY barely seem interested in it either. What interests them is finding a creative way to explore Dean’s guilt. This is the start of the Dean Guilty Arc, which leads to the brother break-up. Like the season 9 tension this feels like it goes on forever (and season 9 was worse because Dean hadn’t learned his lesson and Sam had had it). So you have a whole entire episode, yes, with an Egyptian God, JUST exploring the brothers’ relationship. I love the conversation between Dean and the pretty bartender. They used to know how to write these Dean-women interactions.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 5 “Shut Up, Dr. Phil” (2011)
written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming
directed by Phil Sgriccia
Dean’s alcoholic arc begins. And I am so into it. You can also see just how enmeshed they are as a couple (listen, just calling it like I see it). Sam has started running every day and Dean takes it personally. Dean counter-acts “new Sam” by drinking all day. This is not healthy. You are actually two separate beings, Dean. Sam isn’t running AT you. It has nothing to do with you. This dynamic is going to be interrogated within an inch of its life over Seasons 8 and 9. Seasons 7/8/9 all feature “breakups”, each one worse than the last. So into it. All of this is so intriguing I don’t even mind that I find the Leviathans a little bit silly. Digging their hair this season. Sam’s sideburns are dramatic. Dean’s hair is short. Always loved the visual interest in the final scene: Sam and Dean talking by the car, and all the buildings in the back have red lights in the windows and on outside stairways. This isn’t digitally done, as far as I can tell. This took care and thought and it gives the scene a visual POP (and also, in my opinion, connects subliminally to the scene in episode 2, I think, where Sam is in Bobby’s basement and suddenly everything glows red. So it’s not just visual interest: you only see it behind Sam here, so maybe it’s connecting us to his reality, which hasn’t been in evidence this episode: but it’s there in the red-lit backdrop.)
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 6 “Slash Fiction” (2011)
written by Robbie Thompson
directed by John Showalter
I LOVE Frank. And I love this new development, a bold one by a showrunner who decided to mess with the formula, but in a smart and story-driven way. The idea of Sam and Dean getting the attention of real-life FBI people has already been explored, with the wonderful Agent Henriksen. And they took that one to the limit, where Dean’s WANTED poster was still showing up in Season 15. Here, though, it’s even more serious and high-profile, so much so that they need to change their aliases and get rid of the car. Two beloved parts of the show. Here we are though in season 7 and it was good to shake things up (particularly – in my opinion – because the Leviathans feel a little silly). But it serves as an interesting emotional thing too, throwing the brothers out of their comfort zone (even though they already have so little comfort). But they’re thrown out into space, they are at risk, people are recognizing them, they are in true danger, and honestly it feels much more serious than the Leviathan threat. I dig it. This development helps ground the supernatural in the real and that’s always welcome.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 7 “The Mentalists” (2011)
written by Ben Acker, Ben Blacker
directed by Mike Rohl
“You’re not a necromancer.”
“This is a Lamaze class.”
I am on the record as being overly invested in the Melanie-Dean thing – the loneliest ship in this very very shippy show. My deepest thanks to Antipodes Annie (at least that was her name on Twitter) for making this gif specifcally for me:
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 8 “Season 7, Time for a Wedding” (2011)
written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
directed by Tim Andrew
I just think it’s so funny that Dean is in Las Vegas, talking to a hot waitress at a strip joint, getting along with her, and all he’s doing is bitching about how Sam decided to go for a hike. It’s like he learned nothing. Dean, enjoy your vacation. Bang the waitress. Let Sam do Sam, my God. This chick will come home to roost in season 9, a long long way away. Observation: the show still cared about the visuals at this point. Beautiful closeups: a clear love of their faces. Enter Garth! Re-enter Becky! And check out Leslie Odom Jr.!
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 9 “How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters” (2011)
written by Ben Edlund
directed by Guy Bee
The problem with the Leviathans is they serve a didactic purpose. Although I can’t argue with the overall message. Dean stoned is one of my favorite things: “I just want my damn slammer back.” The consequences of “slash fiction” continue to reverberate along with the Leviathans’ tech savvy tracking: Sam, Dean and Bobby are on the run. Hiding. I love this because it gives us a lot of time with them as a trio. I almost forgot how this one ended. I blocked it out.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 10 “Death’s Door” (2011)
written by Sera Gamble
directed by Robert Singer
Sera Gamble LOVES these characters. You can FEEL it. This episode brings me to tears every time. If you haven’t done so, please listen to it with the commentary track with Jim Beaver and Steven Williams. It’s an acting master class by two veterans. A final word: The show lost a lot when death stopped being final. Here, when Bobby dies, he dies. Both Jared and Jensen are heartbreaking in this, but this is Jim Beaver’s moment. He gives me chills.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 11 “Adventures in Babysitting” (2012)
written by Adam Glass
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
The episode is fine. The final shot is a stunner. Jensen Ackles, man.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 12 “Time After Time” (2012)
written by Robbie Thompson
directed by Phil Sgriccia
“Who’s he, some farmer clown?” Gets me every time
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 13 “Slice Girls” (2012)
written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming
directed by Jerry Wanek
Dean getting distracted and falling into flirty chatting with the morgue attendant. They could have just kept going. They clicked.It has nothing to do with anything, but it’s a character thing. I am watching the progression of this season and it’s been a while, things are presenting themselves to me. In the previous episode, the conversation Dean and Eliot Ness had in the car seemed to strike a chord with Dean, who has been apathetic and also slightly drunk for almost the whole entire season. Ness’ “don’t think so much, you’re doing good on the planet, stop being soft” commentary … I thought maybe this would be the thing – or one of the things – to get Dean back in the game. (This is so interesting to me: like, WHY is he so apathetic? It’s not that it seems un-motivated, its just that it’s unexpected and it deepens the character. Sam is literally walking around with Lucifer in his head and Dean is slowly but surely checking out. It’s really intersting.) Dean is apathetic and cranky. I love the Dean we see in this episode. Jensen gets to do some great schtick (“accidents happen” plus a symphony of private memories on his face), but I mostly like how this whole thing shows how “over it” he is, and how he’s getting sloppy, and also how he doesn’t care. All of this feels motivated: Cas is dead (supposedly) and so is Bobby. Dean had been so taken up with hovering over Sam, and he can’t even do it anymore. Now Sam is hovering around Dean. Dean is thrown out into space. He doesn’t even have his car anymore. The episode opens and closes with the brothers in the car – not THE car, but A car – and Sam is driving both times. Says it all.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 14 “Plucky Pennywhistles Magical Menagerie” (2012)
written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
directed by Mike Rohl
Pure enjoyment. Very light touch, connected to the continuum dating back to Season 2, episode 1, a mention of the Leviathans and irritation with Frank – but as I mentioned in re: another season: the Leviathan search at this moment is happening off-stage and being done by other people, not them, which then frees them to keep doing monster hunts. This balance was entirely lost in later seasons, where Castiel was given whole solo arcs, Lucifer, Jack, Rowena – with Sam and Dean being off-stage. Just … WHY. (Please don’t say “Jared and Jensen wanted to spend more time with their families.” I know they did and I totally get it. Then the show should have ended four seasons before.)
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 15 “Repo Man” (2012)
written by Ben Edlund
directed by Thomas J. Wright
Way too many monologues, my God. Good stuff with Lucifer and Sam: the moment Sam looks at him acknowledges Lucifer as real. Very clever metaphor for psychosis, actually.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 16 “Out with the Old” (2012)
written by Robert Singer and Jenny Klein
directed by John Showalter
Dean lovingly touching the ballet shoes. I think the main issue with the Leviathans is that what they are doing – buying up mom and pop shops, poisoning the food supply, gathering wealth for themselves, becoming a multi-national conglomerate – I mean, this is the hellscape we already live in. Like, there’s nothing Supernatural about what’s going on. And yes, it’s scary and we can’t be apathetic, but … it’s kind of like they’re satirizing our current reality, or trying to make it into something supernatural, when it’s just good old capitalism. Capitalism as a monster is an intriguing idea but maybe not for this show or in this way. The Leviathans already are our overlords.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 17 “The Born-Again Identity” (2012)
written by Sera Gamble
directed by Robert Singer
Really dark opener. Sam and the dealer asleep in the car, especially. Effective, especially since Sam was already so out of it in the previous episode. It’s a slow build to a crisis. In the same way that Dean’s fatalism and over-it-ness has been increasing steadily over the course of the season. I forgot about this: that basically both brothers are going off the rails in season 7. It’s fascinating. Usually they take turns. Here, they are just not equipped to help each other at all. I forgot all about Cas/Emmanuel. This might be my favorite Cas episode, honestly. It’s really well written, and very strange. I seem to recall Destiel fans being outraged because Cas had a wife. Season 7 must have been pretty tough for people who watched it only for Castiel.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 18 “Party On, Garth” (2012)
written by Adam Glass
directed by Phil Sgriccia
The season is peppered with troubled families and troubled siblings, which, of course, connects us to Sam and Dean’s increasingly operatic problems, with each other and alone. This is the thing with establishing an emotional arc rather than just a “and this is what happened next” plot. You can hang anything you want to on the emotional arc. It’s something to keep in mind in the writer’s room, it’s something that always – ALWAYS – should be in play. Once you don’t have an emotional arc, you’ve got nothing. I am writing this because of the opener, the kids telling ghost stories in the woods, and the brothers, older brother trying to manage younger brother. More specifically: I love this episode. It’s loosey-goosey, Garth is a wild card. Other “arcs” come into play: Dean has been drinking all season. So an alcohol-ghost connects us to Dean but it also connects us to Bobby. The potential that Bobby is a ghost has been floating around for episodes now, first discussed openly in “Slice Girls”. That’s eight episodes of percolating: they aren’t in any RUSH. I love that. I love the chef at the Japanese restaurant whom they visit TWICE with crazy requests. Funny actor.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 19 “Of Grave Importance” (2012)
written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming
directed by Tim Andrew
I just think the casting of Jamie Luner as Annie, a woman who slept with Bobby, Dean AND Sam, was just so counter-intuitive and perfect. It’s NOT “central casting”. Annie is like Ellen. She’s beautiful but a little rough, she’s got a lot of miles on her, she’s not what you would expect. I also like the lack of slut-shaming (even in the “hooker”/”fancy lady” motif. Nobody’s judging the “hookers”, but they are confused about the terminology.) I love how Jim Beaver has taken his well-known character and shown us how being a ghost changes him. He was always blunt, but now he’s blunt with a kind of viciousness and anger behind everything, which is distinctly NOT Bobby. It’s subtle, but it’s there and it needs to be established as context for the NEXT episode. Interesting, too, that the brothers’ disconnect is somewhat lessened, maybe by the bonding over the Bobby/flask thing.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 20 “The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo” (2012)
written by Robbie Thompson
directed by John MacCarthy
Dean directing Charlie what to say over the headset is the kind of stupid schticky schtick that warms my cold dead heart. “You look amazing!”
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 21 “Reading Is Fundamental” (2012)
written by Ben Edlund
directed by Ben Edlund
Enter the demon tablet and Kevin Tran. You really feel for Kevin. Chuck as Prophet makes sense because he was an author tuned in to the Supernatural metaverse. But Kevin? Why did he deserve this? Kevin is so relatable. He’s just a kid. He’s trying to get into college. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s stolen his mother’s car and broke into a mental hospital to steal a broken piece of rock. He doesn’t even know why. He is treated so poorly, too, especially by Dean. It’s chilling to see how this vibe was in place from the start. Dean doesn’t respect him, or at least doesn’t respect the fact that Kevin the Prophet might have some not-positive feelings at being roped into this thing against his will. Dean is just always so short with him. There are a couple of respites but … not enough.
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 22 “There Will Be Blood” (2012)
written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin
directed by Guy Bee
Gotta say, the secret pink room is perhaps the sickest this often very sick show has ever gotten. It makes my skin crawl. What had to have happened to Emily (who shows up as the newbie sheriff at the start of season 10) in that pink room to get her to the point where she doesn’t want to leave … Seriously. It’s so sick. Vampire episodes, man. The sex-trafficking of it all …
Supernatural, Season 7, episode 23 “Survival of the Fittest” (2012)
written by Sera Gamble
directed by Robert Singer
Moving backwards, again, has its uses. The final shot here is shocking – was shocking on first watch, still shocking now. Equally shocking is Sam’s choice to not look for Dean (which he was still apologizing about seasons later). I know there are many who basically rejected Sam’s choice as “OOO” (often, though, i see such critiques as coming from the idea that characters are meant to behave a certain way, and if it’s unexpected it’s OOO. I don’t know. I reject this. You might have an idea of who I am from the outside, and then I do something you don’t expect and you call it “OOO” when really, no, it’s still me, I’m just under enormous stress, or I wanted/needed to change, or … maybe you don’t know everything.) Does Sam checking out of his responsibilities track? I think, yes. The other time he did this he went to college, but he still knew his dad and brother were out there, still alive. Here, everyone’s gone. He had no one to talk to. And of course the longer you are inactive, the harder it is to jumpstart activity, especially if you’re ashamed of yourself – which Sam is. This, by the way, is of course why he would be attracted to a wreck like Amelia, who’s so got her own shit going on she’s not going to be all calm and bright-eyed and hoping you’re going to be healthy and sane. No. Interested to hear other people’s thoughts on Sam deciding not to look for Dean.
