In last night's episode of Supernatural, "Mommy Dearest", our favorite foursome began their quest to hunt down and kill the Mother of All. I predicted that they would fail, and fail miserably. Why? Because it's not even the end of the season yet, and all they've come across is a very brief and very obscure piece of lore that said that the Mother could be burned with Phoenix ashes (which they were barely able to get). Not killed. Not utterly destroyed. Just burned. Let's see how they did.
SPOILERS!
The episode opens with Eve walking into a bar, barefoot and in her skimpy white dress. She brushes the cheek of a guy coming out of the bar (we know that bad things will happen to this dude now). She kisses another guy inside (Arrrgh!) and touches a few more people, and they start turning into monsters and eating each other while Eve sips what we think is a Bloody Mary. Huh.
Dean is busy loading shotgun shells with Phoenix ash, preparing to do battle with Eve. He's skeptical about their effectiveness, since the ash doesn't seem to burn humans. He demonstrates by smearing some on his arm. Sam shrugs and says that it must be one of those things that only works on monsters, like iron.
Sam, Dean and Bobby are coming up empty on their search for Eve, so they decide to call in Castiel for his super special angel searching powers. Cas comes back with a blast from the past, a non-human-eating vampire called Lenore, who we met in the second season along with Gordon. Lenore's nest has abandoned her to obey the call of the wild (aka, Mother), and she is struggling to keep herself from eating humans. In fact, she admits that she's slipped up and fed on human blood. She gives the Winchesters Eve's location and begs them to kill her - Eve's voice is too difficult to resist. Sam and Dean dither about keeping Lenore secure until they take care of the Mother, but Cas promptly destroys her with angel fire and tells them to quit wasting time.
The four of them head to Oregon, glancing nervously around what seems to be a pretty normal town. As they head into a diner for Bobby to do research on and complain about an iPad (PRODUCT PLACEMENT!), Cas discovers that his angel powers have been blocked. He can't zap anywhere, and he can't burn monsters with angel fire. Dean gripes about how useless Cas is without his powers and Cas (understandably) gets sulky and offended. They split up into two teams: Dean and Cas with investigate the office of a doctor who has called in the CDC, while Sam and Bobby go to the doctor's house. Team Dean discovers the body of the guy Eve touched, and Team Sam discover that the doctor has flown the coop - there's no trace of him anywhere. As they head toward the dead guy's house, Cas notices someone exactly like him in the window. Sam and Dean rush in and get the dying man (who is the orignial guy's friend but is now somehow a very sick shapeshifter) to tell them about the bar.
The bar is a complete mess of bodies, full of people with vampire teeth and wraith spikes, culminating in some kinid of new monster that has both. Since Dean discovered this new monster, he calls them the Jefferson Starships (hard to kill, annoying as hell). The police burst in on the four of them surrounded by dozens of bodies. Dean ducks behind the bar in the confusion as the police arrest Sam, Bobby and Cas. Sam sees the security video feed as they're escorted into the police station and freaks out, warning Cas and Bobby that the cops are actually Starships. Dean comes in to save the day, beheading a few cops but leaving the sheriff alive for interrogation. As Bobby puts the squeeze on Sheriff Starship, Sam and Dean clear the building and discover two boys bound and gagged in one of the cells. It turns out that these are the sons of the disappeared doctor and his wife, who have become Starship food. Touched beyond the capacity for rational thought at the sight of two orphaned brothers (Sob!), Sam and Dean take precious time driving the kids fifteen miles out of town to leave them with their uncle. The car is silent, but it's completely obvious that Sam and Dean are completely lost in nostalgia for their "Us Against the World" childhood, and see themselves in these boys.
Back at the police station, Cas is grumbling about wasting time, and Bobby tells him that the Winchesters have always done whatever they wanted to do. Bobby's getting nowhere with Sheriff Starship, so Cas asks him for five minutes alone. Bobby seems a little sickened by the screams coming from the interrogation room, and Sam and Dean get back just in time for Cas to come out, wiping his bloody hands. Cas tells them that Eve is actually holed up in the diner they were in that afternoon, and there's a collective facepalm. The camera pans back to the bloody mess in the interrogation room, and we see that apparently, Cas pulled the Starship's head off with his bare hands. Not so useless now, right Dean?
Sam and Dean come up with a brilliant strategy of attack: Sam and Dean will go into the diner alone, and then if they don't succeed, Cas and Bobby will try it. See? Brilliant. Dean gives everyone a Phoenix bullet, and they head inside. The diner is filled with starships. The waitress comes over to take their order and introduces herself - she's Eve (we couldn't see if she had a nametag, but how awesome would it be if she did?). Cue another facepalm as Sam and Dean realize that she was right under their nose before. Eve explains that she was happy with the status quo - her monsters would turn a few people, a few hunters would kill a few monsters, whatever. But with Crowley torturing and killing monsters to discover the location of Purgatory, she's angry now and just wants to take over the entire world. That's why she developed the Starships. In fact, the Starships are so perfect that not even Sam and Dean realized that they transported one of them out of town, ready to begin the world domination thing. Cue another facepalm.
Eve takes the form of Sam and Dean's mother to highlight their major parental ISSUES. They whine a little about that. She offers them a deal: deliver Crowley to her, and she'll go back home without taking over the world. The brothers are confused - Crowley's dead, right? Eve insists that he's still alive and after monster souls (power source!), and then gloats as some Starships drag in Cas and Bobby. She does some specific gloating to Cas, telling him that because she's older than he is, she knows what makes angels tick, and as long as she's around he'll have no power. She threatens to turn Sam and Dean, to force them to do what she asks anyway. Dean tells her to bite him, and she does. Then she gets all burninated - Dean gloats a little as he explains that he took some of the ashes with a shot of whiskey, so his blood's contaminated with Phoenix ash. Eve dies, the Starships go berserk, and Cas shouts for everyone to close their eyes as he burns them with angel fire.
After the dust settles, so to speak, Cas heals Dean of his Eve bite and zaps them over to the kids' uncle's house so that they can stop the mini-Starships. They discover the body of the uncle (death by children) and the bodies of the kids. There's the smell of sulfur, so they conclude that a demon must have taken care of this somehow. They tell Cas what Eve said about Crowley being alive, and Cas gets huffy, saying that he'll look into it immediately. He vanishes. Bobby wonders aloud if Cas is being straight with them - an angel wouldn't make a "mistake" burning a demon's bones unless he meant to. Dean scoffs at this, but Sam quietly agrees with Bobby. Back at the diner, Cas surveys the carnage as Crowley appears behind him, asking how many times he has to clean up the angel's messes. (Dun dun DUNNNNN!)
Questions that still need answers:
Well, color me surprised. I honestly didn't expect the Phoenix ashes would work, or at least that they wouldn't get the chance to use them effectively. And Eve is dead. After all of that build-up, she goes out like a punk. Huh.
So who exactly is the Big Bad this season? Does this mean it's Rafael? Crowley?
Crowley's back, baby! I can't even tell you how happy this makes me, because I was infuriated by his death in "Caged Heat", and by that entire episode. Also, it makes perfect sense for Cas to be working with Crowley, because they both have the same ultimate goal: keep Lucifer and Michael caged for all eternity. Neither of them want "Apocalypse II: The Armageddoning", and this is the "dirty little secret" that Rachel got all stabby about in the last episode.
So Cas is after souls to defeat Rafael. But how is he going to use them? Does Rafael have access to more? What the Hell is going on?
Next Week:
We find out exactly how hard Cas' life has been since he's had to fight the Civil War in Heaven. Will the Winchesters understand? Probably not.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
When Fetish Meets Reality
Who needs a Delorean or a TARDIS when you have an angel in your pocket? Friday's episode of Supernatural, "Frontierland", was another test of Castiel's mad time-traveling skillz and an exploration of shattered illusions. Specifically, Dean's illusions. Jump right in with me, won't you?
SPOILERS!
The episode begins with a high-noon showdown in the Old West, between Dean and some rugged squinty-eyed guy we've never seen before. As the town's clock chimes the hour, the two of them square off and prepare to draw. Cut to the funnest old-timey show title ever, accompanied by a macho Western men's chorus.
48 hours earlier and 150 years later, Sam leads Dean and Bobby to the Campbell family library, which looks pretty abandoned since all of them are now dead. The three of them rifle through the poorly-organized collection of books to try to find a chink in the armor of the Mother of All, who so far has done nothing but send an evil brain slug after them. Not terribly impressive, as Big Bads go, but whatever. Bobby finds an obscure reference to the ashes of a Phoenix being able to burn the Mother, so they get started on tracking down information about a Phoenix. Dean discovers the journal of Samuel Colt (yes, that Colt) which contains a brief reference to the gun killing a Phoenix. Colt thoughtfully provided a date as well, and Dean gets a great idea - why not travel back in time? After all, they already know that a Phoenix will definitely be in Sunrise, Wyoming on March 5, 1856. After Dean fails to sell this idea to Sam and Bobby with a Star Trek IV reference, he prays for Cas.
A new female angel shows up, presumably as a call-waiting service. Her name is Rachel, and she says that she's come on Castiel's behalf. Dean isn't on board with this, and insists on speaking to Cas. Rachel wastes no time in launching a verbal assault, accusing them of calling Cas only when they need something and not being respectful of the fact that the angels are heavily invested in their Civil War (we thought she kind of had a point). Cas pops down and puts a stop to it before things get ugly, and sends Rachel away. She's obviously not pleased that he's taking the time to help the Winchesters, but she vanishes anyway.
As Dean is away on a "supply run", Cas explains to Sam that they will only have 24 hours to play cowboys. Apparently the further back in time they are, the harder it is for Cas to bring them back. If he were to wait longer than 24 hours, they'd likely be stuck in the past. Dean shows up with his hands full of shopping bags. He went to a Western apparel store so that he and Sam could "go native". Sam doesn't want to play dress-up, however, and accuses Dean of having an Old West fetish and having all of Clint Eastwood's movies memorized line-for-line. Dean insists that Sam at least wear the shirt, and he decks himself out in full "Western" gear, complete with poncho. Cas has an awesome "Is it customary to wear a blanket?" line, and then zaps them back in time. He then leaves Bobby, telling him to pray for him in 24 hours so that he can bring the boys back.
In 1856 Sunrise, Wyoming, the Winchesters mosey on into town just in time to witness a hanging. The condemned man tells the judge, sheriff, and a shifty-looking guy that they're all going to burn for this, and then the trap door is opened. Wincing at the brutality of old justice, Sam and Dean talk to the sheriff to see if he knows where Samuel Colt is. After making fun of Dean for being too clean, the sheriff directs them to the saloon owner. Dean is crestfallen when they enter the saloon, which has one or two drunken old prospectors and some tired-looking saloon girls. "This is not awesome," Dean says, and he orders a whiskey for him and a sasparilla for Sam. The saloon owner brings them their drinks and tells them that Colt has a cabin about 20 miles out of town. A saloon girl tries to get friendly with Dean, but he's incredibly turned off by the syphilis sores on her face. He then tries to drink his whiskey and finds that it's just about as smooth as gasoline. Sam smirks as he enjoys his sasparilla.
The judge from the hanging comes into the saloon and goes upstairs with one of the girls, who lets out a blood-curdling shriek after a few minutes. Sam and Dean rush upstairs to find that the judge is now a pile of ashes. The girl swears that the judge-burning culprit is Elias Finch, the man who was hanged. Dean and Sam raise their eyebrows at each other, and go check Finch's grave - which turns out to be empty. The brothers split up - Sam takes a horse to find Samuel Colt, and Dean stays in town so that he can join the Finch-hunting posse.
Back in the present, Rachel summons Cas to an empty warehouse for a chat. She demands to know if the rumors she's been hearing are true - apparently Cas has a "dirty little secret". Cas, terrible liar that he is, gets shifty and uncomfortable, and tells her that he has to defeat Rafael. Rachel tells him that he shouldn't do it this way, and Cas replies that he doesn't have a choice. Rachel whips out her angel sword and stabs Cas in the chest, and he's barely able to keep it from piercing his heart. The two of them duke it out, and though Cas is badly wounded, he uses his angel kung fu to stab Rachel. He stares sadly down at her body framed by ashy shadow wings, and whispers an apology.
Bobby's research is interrupted when Cas crash-lands in his kitchen. Cas waves him off as he crawls toward the fridge and uses the blood from his wound to paint a sigil, then forces himself to get to his feet. "Are we running or fighting?" asks Bobby, and gets his answer as Cas collapses into his arms.
Dean saunters back into the saloon in a brand-new wardrobe, one more suited to the flavor of the town. "I look good," he says, and wonders where the posse is. It turns out that the sheriff has also been burned to ashes, so Dean snags his sheriff star, completing his new ensemble. He goes to the jail to find the shifty-looking guy (from the hanging) terrified for his life. Dean stows him in the jail cell to use him as bait for Phoenix Finch.
Sam reaches Colt's cabin after the gunsmith shoots a few demons, and asks him to come back into town with him. Colt refuses, saying that he's hung up his hunting spurs for good. Sam tells him that he's from the year 2011, and gives him his Blackberry to prove it. Colt is unfazed by this, having seen so much in his lifetime that even a giant with a magic thingamajig is no big thing. Sam yells at him for refusing to help, and demands that Colt hand over the gun.
Cas finally regains consciousness on Bobby's couch - there's only an hour left before he has to retrieve Sam and Dean. Bobby is concerned about how beat the angel looks, and asks him what happened. Cas tells him that Rafael corrupted Rachel, who betrayed and attacked him (liar, liar, pants on fire!). He thanks Bobby for looking out for him - the sigil he painted was an angel-repelling ward. Cas tells Bobby that he's too drained by his injury to bring Sam and Dean back, and that he can't call in another angel to do it. The only way that Cas can regain enough power to get the job done is if Bobby allows him to touch his soul and siphon some of its energy. This must be done carefully, however, or else Bobby could explode.
Phoenix Finch bursts into the jail, demanding that Dean open the cell so that he can get at the shift-looking guy. Dean refuses, and notes that the Phoenix seems to be rendered powerless by iron, which is why he couldn't slip his shackles when he was being hanged. Finch tells him that he was married to a human woman, and that shifty-looking guy had raped her when they came into town. As Finch came to her rescue, shift-looking guy pulled his gun and shot both of them. Of course, being a Phoenix, Finch didn't die, but his wife died in his arms. The shots brought the sheriff, and they charged Finch with the murder and hung him to cover it up - the judge was in on it, too. Dean agrees that all of this is very sad, but he has to kill him anyway. Finch grabs a gun and shoots the shifty rapist guy (yay!), and Dean dives out the window to get away.
Sam somehow makes it back to town with the Colt (making the same trip before noon that took him all night before) and gives it to Dean, who immediately challenges Finch to a showdown. They get all squinty-eyed at each other as the clock chimes. They draw, and Dean kills him, burning the Phoenix to ashes. He races to gather them up as (in the present) Cas re-charges using Bobby's soul power. Cas yanks the Winchesters back before they can get the ashes, however (they cut it really close). Dean demands that Cas send them back, but Sam points out that Cas is completely fried, and Bobby's not doing any better. Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. A delivery man hands Sam a package, which contains a bottle of Phoenix ashes and a note from Samuel Colt, explaining that he got Bobby's address from his Blackberry. The Winchesters are ready to go Eve-hunting.
Questions that still need answers:
It seems as though I was right about souls being a power-source, and since Cas failed at minting souls in the last episode, he must be desperate to gather enough power to carry out his plan to defeat Rafael. Whatever this plan is, it's not something that he feels comfortable about, and his followers probably don't either, judging from Rachel's reaction. So what is the plan, and how is Cas going to use souls to accomplish it?
I really wish that the writers had structured the Phoenix mythology to allow the Winchesters to gather his ashes after a "death", rather than killing him for real with the Colt. After all, the poor guy was just trying to avenge his wife's rape and murder. He didn't seem too much of a monster to me.
Are we really ready to hunt the Mother of All? It seems as though the Winchesters are always willing to rush into anything once they think it has a shot at working. We alert viewers know that it's too early for Eve to be defeated.
Next Week:
The Winchesters, Bobby, and Cas try to kill the Mother of All. We will watch their failure with great interest.
SPOILERS!
The episode begins with a high-noon showdown in the Old West, between Dean and some rugged squinty-eyed guy we've never seen before. As the town's clock chimes the hour, the two of them square off and prepare to draw. Cut to the funnest old-timey show title ever, accompanied by a macho Western men's chorus.
48 hours earlier and 150 years later, Sam leads Dean and Bobby to the Campbell family library, which looks pretty abandoned since all of them are now dead. The three of them rifle through the poorly-organized collection of books to try to find a chink in the armor of the Mother of All, who so far has done nothing but send an evil brain slug after them. Not terribly impressive, as Big Bads go, but whatever. Bobby finds an obscure reference to the ashes of a Phoenix being able to burn the Mother, so they get started on tracking down information about a Phoenix. Dean discovers the journal of Samuel Colt (yes, that Colt) which contains a brief reference to the gun killing a Phoenix. Colt thoughtfully provided a date as well, and Dean gets a great idea - why not travel back in time? After all, they already know that a Phoenix will definitely be in Sunrise, Wyoming on March 5, 1856. After Dean fails to sell this idea to Sam and Bobby with a Star Trek IV reference, he prays for Cas.
A new female angel shows up, presumably as a call-waiting service. Her name is Rachel, and she says that she's come on Castiel's behalf. Dean isn't on board with this, and insists on speaking to Cas. Rachel wastes no time in launching a verbal assault, accusing them of calling Cas only when they need something and not being respectful of the fact that the angels are heavily invested in their Civil War (we thought she kind of had a point). Cas pops down and puts a stop to it before things get ugly, and sends Rachel away. She's obviously not pleased that he's taking the time to help the Winchesters, but she vanishes anyway.
As Dean is away on a "supply run", Cas explains to Sam that they will only have 24 hours to play cowboys. Apparently the further back in time they are, the harder it is for Cas to bring them back. If he were to wait longer than 24 hours, they'd likely be stuck in the past. Dean shows up with his hands full of shopping bags. He went to a Western apparel store so that he and Sam could "go native". Sam doesn't want to play dress-up, however, and accuses Dean of having an Old West fetish and having all of Clint Eastwood's movies memorized line-for-line. Dean insists that Sam at least wear the shirt, and he decks himself out in full "Western" gear, complete with poncho. Cas has an awesome "Is it customary to wear a blanket?" line, and then zaps them back in time. He then leaves Bobby, telling him to pray for him in 24 hours so that he can bring the boys back.
In 1856 Sunrise, Wyoming, the Winchesters mosey on into town just in time to witness a hanging. The condemned man tells the judge, sheriff, and a shifty-looking guy that they're all going to burn for this, and then the trap door is opened. Wincing at the brutality of old justice, Sam and Dean talk to the sheriff to see if he knows where Samuel Colt is. After making fun of Dean for being too clean, the sheriff directs them to the saloon owner. Dean is crestfallen when they enter the saloon, which has one or two drunken old prospectors and some tired-looking saloon girls. "This is not awesome," Dean says, and he orders a whiskey for him and a sasparilla for Sam. The saloon owner brings them their drinks and tells them that Colt has a cabin about 20 miles out of town. A saloon girl tries to get friendly with Dean, but he's incredibly turned off by the syphilis sores on her face. He then tries to drink his whiskey and finds that it's just about as smooth as gasoline. Sam smirks as he enjoys his sasparilla.
The judge from the hanging comes into the saloon and goes upstairs with one of the girls, who lets out a blood-curdling shriek after a few minutes. Sam and Dean rush upstairs to find that the judge is now a pile of ashes. The girl swears that the judge-burning culprit is Elias Finch, the man who was hanged. Dean and Sam raise their eyebrows at each other, and go check Finch's grave - which turns out to be empty. The brothers split up - Sam takes a horse to find Samuel Colt, and Dean stays in town so that he can join the Finch-hunting posse.
Back in the present, Rachel summons Cas to an empty warehouse for a chat. She demands to know if the rumors she's been hearing are true - apparently Cas has a "dirty little secret". Cas, terrible liar that he is, gets shifty and uncomfortable, and tells her that he has to defeat Rafael. Rachel tells him that he shouldn't do it this way, and Cas replies that he doesn't have a choice. Rachel whips out her angel sword and stabs Cas in the chest, and he's barely able to keep it from piercing his heart. The two of them duke it out, and though Cas is badly wounded, he uses his angel kung fu to stab Rachel. He stares sadly down at her body framed by ashy shadow wings, and whispers an apology.
Bobby's research is interrupted when Cas crash-lands in his kitchen. Cas waves him off as he crawls toward the fridge and uses the blood from his wound to paint a sigil, then forces himself to get to his feet. "Are we running or fighting?" asks Bobby, and gets his answer as Cas collapses into his arms.
Dean saunters back into the saloon in a brand-new wardrobe, one more suited to the flavor of the town. "I look good," he says, and wonders where the posse is. It turns out that the sheriff has also been burned to ashes, so Dean snags his sheriff star, completing his new ensemble. He goes to the jail to find the shifty-looking guy (from the hanging) terrified for his life. Dean stows him in the jail cell to use him as bait for Phoenix Finch.
Sam reaches Colt's cabin after the gunsmith shoots a few demons, and asks him to come back into town with him. Colt refuses, saying that he's hung up his hunting spurs for good. Sam tells him that he's from the year 2011, and gives him his Blackberry to prove it. Colt is unfazed by this, having seen so much in his lifetime that even a giant with a magic thingamajig is no big thing. Sam yells at him for refusing to help, and demands that Colt hand over the gun.
Cas finally regains consciousness on Bobby's couch - there's only an hour left before he has to retrieve Sam and Dean. Bobby is concerned about how beat the angel looks, and asks him what happened. Cas tells him that Rafael corrupted Rachel, who betrayed and attacked him (liar, liar, pants on fire!). He thanks Bobby for looking out for him - the sigil he painted was an angel-repelling ward. Cas tells Bobby that he's too drained by his injury to bring Sam and Dean back, and that he can't call in another angel to do it. The only way that Cas can regain enough power to get the job done is if Bobby allows him to touch his soul and siphon some of its energy. This must be done carefully, however, or else Bobby could explode.
Phoenix Finch bursts into the jail, demanding that Dean open the cell so that he can get at the shift-looking guy. Dean refuses, and notes that the Phoenix seems to be rendered powerless by iron, which is why he couldn't slip his shackles when he was being hanged. Finch tells him that he was married to a human woman, and that shifty-looking guy had raped her when they came into town. As Finch came to her rescue, shift-looking guy pulled his gun and shot both of them. Of course, being a Phoenix, Finch didn't die, but his wife died in his arms. The shots brought the sheriff, and they charged Finch with the murder and hung him to cover it up - the judge was in on it, too. Dean agrees that all of this is very sad, but he has to kill him anyway. Finch grabs a gun and shoots the shifty rapist guy (yay!), and Dean dives out the window to get away.
Sam somehow makes it back to town with the Colt (making the same trip before noon that took him all night before) and gives it to Dean, who immediately challenges Finch to a showdown. They get all squinty-eyed at each other as the clock chimes. They draw, and Dean kills him, burning the Phoenix to ashes. He races to gather them up as (in the present) Cas re-charges using Bobby's soul power. Cas yanks the Winchesters back before they can get the ashes, however (they cut it really close). Dean demands that Cas send them back, but Sam points out that Cas is completely fried, and Bobby's not doing any better. Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. A delivery man hands Sam a package, which contains a bottle of Phoenix ashes and a note from Samuel Colt, explaining that he got Bobby's address from his Blackberry. The Winchesters are ready to go Eve-hunting.
Questions that still need answers:
It seems as though I was right about souls being a power-source, and since Cas failed at minting souls in the last episode, he must be desperate to gather enough power to carry out his plan to defeat Rafael. Whatever this plan is, it's not something that he feels comfortable about, and his followers probably don't either, judging from Rachel's reaction. So what is the plan, and how is Cas going to use souls to accomplish it?
I really wish that the writers had structured the Phoenix mythology to allow the Winchesters to gather his ashes after a "death", rather than killing him for real with the Colt. After all, the poor guy was just trying to avenge his wife's rape and murder. He didn't seem too much of a monster to me.
Are we really ready to hunt the Mother of All? It seems as though the Winchesters are always willing to rush into anything once they think it has a shot at working. We alert viewers know that it's too early for Eve to be defeated.
Next Week:
The Winchesters, Bobby, and Cas try to kill the Mother of All. We will watch their failure with great interest.
Monday, April 18, 2011
What Might Have Been
Friday's episode of Supernatural, "My Heart Will Go On" was the perfect back-from-hiatus romp that we so desperately needed. Seriously, this felt like a really long break, and we're impatient to see how the last few episodes of the season go. When we last saw the Winchesters, they were helping Bobby say goodbye to Rufus, who was unnecessarily killed in the last episode. Speaking of people who were unnecessarily killed, we saw a familiar face in this episode - but we'll get to that.
SPOILERS!
The episode begins with our soon-to-be-dead person, Garage Door Guy. We knew immediately that this man would be Garage Door Guy, because the first thing he did was to prop open his garage door with a stick. Never a good sign. He starts fiddling with his Saturday project, and discovers that his beer has somehow translocated itself to another workbench. As he goes for it, he slips on a skateboard and nearly impales his face on some gardening implements. Close call. Then he steps on some golf balls, which causes him to fall on his back, his head in the perfect position to be messily severed from his body by the garage door guillotine. Hence, Garage Door Guy.
The Winchesters warily watch as Bobby leafs through books and pours himself drinks in a flurry of activity. Neither Sam nor Dean seem to be willing to be the first to speak, but after losing a furious but silent game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Sam wonders aloud if Bobby might possibly think about taking a break anytime soon? Please? Bobby gets all growly and refuses, heading to the kitchen for coffee. The brothers have a whispered discussion on whether or not to bring Bobby along on a job - the death of Garage Door Guy isn't the only strange fatal accident in that area. They try to broach the subject, but Bobby shoots them down and tells them to get the hell out of there. The boys are only too happy to go, and hope that Bobby will start feeling better when "she's" back. Wait, what?
Then we see the Winchesters climb into the car - no, wait! That's not their car! It's a Mustang! A black Mustang with orange racing stripes! Where the hell is the Impala?!
When Sam and Dean roll into Garage Door Guy's hometown, they quickly learn that all of the victims of the strange and deadly accidents are from the same extended family. A quick search of Garage Door Guy's garage yields a strange gold thread. Sam and Dean decide to split up - Sam to do research (like he does!), and Dean to completely freak out a surviving member of Garage Door Guy's extended family.
Meanwhile, in a "Honey, I'm home!" moment, who should walk into Bobby's house but Ellen?! That's right, awesome Ellen, who sacrificed herself with her daughter Jo back in the fifth season! She gives Bobby a quick peck on the cheek and scolds him for not taking care of himself. She busily unpacks some groceries, mentioning in passing that Jo is away on a hunting job (sadly, we don't get to see her). The camera lingers on a photo of Bobby and Ellen, arms wrapped around each other, and we realize (with help from the dialogue, of course) that Bobby and Ellen are - somehow - happily married. Whaaaa?
We see another soon-to-be-dead person, Copy Machine Lady, hard at work in her travel agency office. How do we know this is Copy Machine Lady? Because she dumps a stack of paper on the copier, blatantly wearing a long, flowing scarf. She bustles around, talking on the phone to a prospective traveller to Cuba (Whaaaa?). She finishes up the conversation and rummages in her bag for her car keys. They're nowhere to be found - but then she spots them on the floor behind the copier. As she reaches for them, the inevitable happens, and she is strangled when her scarf is caught by the office machine of death.
Sam calls Ellen when they reach a dead end in the case, and also to make sure that Bobby's all right. She lets them know that Jo's working on a similar case, and has discovered that all of her victims' ancestors all came to America at the same time. On the same ship, in fact. Specifically, the Titanic. Sam and Dean are baffled - what's the big deal with this ship? It was just a big boat that crossed the ocean, just like it was supposed to. They look into the history of the ship, and learn that it had a very close call with an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The alert crewmember who spotted it just in time was a fellow by the name of I.P. Freely. Their suspicions aroused, the Winchesters search for a picture, and see a familiar face looking back at them. It's Balthazar. They perform a summoning ritual lickety split in order to learn why Balthazar went back in time to save a ship.
It turns out that Balthazar didn't take his little field trip back in time in order to save the ship (and the people onboard), but rather to prevent both the movie Titanic and Celine Dion's lucrative and undeserved singing career (this rant is one of the best parts of the episode). Unfortunately, the ripple effect of this massive history retcon is that all of the people who died when the Titanic sank went on to finish their lives and have lots of descendents. Also, the Impala was never made (sob!). Sam and Dean figure out that something is killing all of the Titanic survivors' progeny - about fifty thousand people. They demand that Balthazar go back and sink the boat, but Balthazar tells them that if he does that, history will go back to the way it was, which means that Ellen and Jo will be dead.
Sam and Dean discuss all of this as they walk down the street, where they run into Garage Door Guy's distant lawyer relative - the one Dean freaked out when he told him his life was in danger. They try to warn him, and are barely able to prevent him from being run over by a truck. The guy is still freaked out, however, and in his efforts to get away from the Winchesters, he's hit by a bus. Dean notes with amusement that the bus advertisement is for the guy's law practice, and Sam glares at him in disapproval. Dean says "What? Too soon?" and Sam replies "Yeah, Dean, I think six seconds is too soon." Sam notices a woman watching them from the other side of the street, and they go into a large, empty restaurant kitchen to investigate. Time freezes, and the woman turns on all of the gas burners on the stoves. Dean's flashlight goes out, and he pulls out his lighter instead. Just when our boys are going to be blown to smithereens, Castiel yanks them out of harm's way. He tells them that Fate (one of the three, anyway) is angry about Balthazar's trip to the Titanic, and is trying to put things back into balance by killing all of the people who never should have been born. Dean is pissed that he and Sam are now Fate's targets because of Balthazar, and he tells Cas that he needs new friends. Cas angrily replies that he's trying to keep the ones he has. The angel tells them that the only way for everyone to stay alive (Ellen and Jo, the Titanic progeny, the Winchesters themselves) is to kill Fate. In order to draw her out into the open, they have to tempt her.
Sam and Dean psych themselves up for their Walk of Death. They begin their casual stroll down the street and encounter kids on bikes, large scary dogs, jugglers with knives and fire, etc. They eventually walk directly under a huge container that starts to crash down on them, but time freezes again. Cas and Fate meet and start discussing the situation. Fate is angry that she no longer knows what to do now that the Apocalypse has been averted, and refuses to allow the same kind of confusion in past eras in which the Fates had control. She accuses Cas of trying to "mint souls" for his "war machine" and threatens to kill the Winchesters if he doesn't have Balthazar go back and undo his retcon. Cas agrees, and stops Balthazar from sneaking up on Fate with his angel sword.
The Winchesters wake up in the Impala (Yes! All is as it should be!) to the tune of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". They look at each other in astonishment, thinking that they shared a very strange dream. Cas appears and tells them that it wasn't a dream, and he let them keep their memory of it so that they would know what he did for them. He tells them that they taught him what freedom was - no destiny, no Fate, no Apocalypse - and that he still believes that it's worth fighting for. He lets them believe that Balthazar really did change history just to prevent a terrible movie and its theme song, though he looks incredibly guilty about it. Sam and Dean decide not to tell Bobby about their experience - now that Ellen has gone back to being dead, there's no need to torture him with what might have been.
Questions that still need answers:
What's the deal with the souls? I'm still holding on to my belief that souls can be used as some sort of power source, and that's why angels and demons have collected them for Heaven and Hell for millennia. But what is Cas planning, that he needs a lot of souls to do it? We know that he's trying to win the War in Heaven, and that if he doesn't, the consequences will be terrible. But he's looking awfully squeamish about the things he's doing to accomplish that. We were extremely happy to see so much of him in this episode, however!
This is the first time we've really started to warm up to Balthazar, if only that it seems we share his taste in movies and music. We know that he's likely to die (Come on. You know it's true. The most entertaining angels always die.), but we're starting to be really sorry about it.
It was a cruel tease to briefly bring Ellen back. She really is an awesome character, and her marriage to Bobby was extremely fitting. We were very annoyed at the weird camera shots during her tearful moment with Bobby, however. Close-ups of the eyes? Really?
Next week:
Sam and Dean ask Castiel to send them back to the Old West to talk to Samuel Colt. Yup. That Samuel Colt. It's going to be awesome!
SPOILERS!
The episode begins with our soon-to-be-dead person, Garage Door Guy. We knew immediately that this man would be Garage Door Guy, because the first thing he did was to prop open his garage door with a stick. Never a good sign. He starts fiddling with his Saturday project, and discovers that his beer has somehow translocated itself to another workbench. As he goes for it, he slips on a skateboard and nearly impales his face on some gardening implements. Close call. Then he steps on some golf balls, which causes him to fall on his back, his head in the perfect position to be messily severed from his body by the garage door guillotine. Hence, Garage Door Guy.
The Winchesters warily watch as Bobby leafs through books and pours himself drinks in a flurry of activity. Neither Sam nor Dean seem to be willing to be the first to speak, but after losing a furious but silent game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Sam wonders aloud if Bobby might possibly think about taking a break anytime soon? Please? Bobby gets all growly and refuses, heading to the kitchen for coffee. The brothers have a whispered discussion on whether or not to bring Bobby along on a job - the death of Garage Door Guy isn't the only strange fatal accident in that area. They try to broach the subject, but Bobby shoots them down and tells them to get the hell out of there. The boys are only too happy to go, and hope that Bobby will start feeling better when "she's" back. Wait, what?
Then we see the Winchesters climb into the car - no, wait! That's not their car! It's a Mustang! A black Mustang with orange racing stripes! Where the hell is the Impala?!
When Sam and Dean roll into Garage Door Guy's hometown, they quickly learn that all of the victims of the strange and deadly accidents are from the same extended family. A quick search of Garage Door Guy's garage yields a strange gold thread. Sam and Dean decide to split up - Sam to do research (like he does!), and Dean to completely freak out a surviving member of Garage Door Guy's extended family.
Meanwhile, in a "Honey, I'm home!" moment, who should walk into Bobby's house but Ellen?! That's right, awesome Ellen, who sacrificed herself with her daughter Jo back in the fifth season! She gives Bobby a quick peck on the cheek and scolds him for not taking care of himself. She busily unpacks some groceries, mentioning in passing that Jo is away on a hunting job (sadly, we don't get to see her). The camera lingers on a photo of Bobby and Ellen, arms wrapped around each other, and we realize (with help from the dialogue, of course) that Bobby and Ellen are - somehow - happily married. Whaaaa?
We see another soon-to-be-dead person, Copy Machine Lady, hard at work in her travel agency office. How do we know this is Copy Machine Lady? Because she dumps a stack of paper on the copier, blatantly wearing a long, flowing scarf. She bustles around, talking on the phone to a prospective traveller to Cuba (Whaaaa?). She finishes up the conversation and rummages in her bag for her car keys. They're nowhere to be found - but then she spots them on the floor behind the copier. As she reaches for them, the inevitable happens, and she is strangled when her scarf is caught by the office machine of death.
Sam calls Ellen when they reach a dead end in the case, and also to make sure that Bobby's all right. She lets them know that Jo's working on a similar case, and has discovered that all of her victims' ancestors all came to America at the same time. On the same ship, in fact. Specifically, the Titanic. Sam and Dean are baffled - what's the big deal with this ship? It was just a big boat that crossed the ocean, just like it was supposed to. They look into the history of the ship, and learn that it had a very close call with an iceberg on its maiden voyage. The alert crewmember who spotted it just in time was a fellow by the name of I.P. Freely. Their suspicions aroused, the Winchesters search for a picture, and see a familiar face looking back at them. It's Balthazar. They perform a summoning ritual lickety split in order to learn why Balthazar went back in time to save a ship.
It turns out that Balthazar didn't take his little field trip back in time in order to save the ship (and the people onboard), but rather to prevent both the movie Titanic and Celine Dion's lucrative and undeserved singing career (this rant is one of the best parts of the episode). Unfortunately, the ripple effect of this massive history retcon is that all of the people who died when the Titanic sank went on to finish their lives and have lots of descendents. Also, the Impala was never made (sob!). Sam and Dean figure out that something is killing all of the Titanic survivors' progeny - about fifty thousand people. They demand that Balthazar go back and sink the boat, but Balthazar tells them that if he does that, history will go back to the way it was, which means that Ellen and Jo will be dead.
Sam and Dean discuss all of this as they walk down the street, where they run into Garage Door Guy's distant lawyer relative - the one Dean freaked out when he told him his life was in danger. They try to warn him, and are barely able to prevent him from being run over by a truck. The guy is still freaked out, however, and in his efforts to get away from the Winchesters, he's hit by a bus. Dean notes with amusement that the bus advertisement is for the guy's law practice, and Sam glares at him in disapproval. Dean says "What? Too soon?" and Sam replies "Yeah, Dean, I think six seconds is too soon." Sam notices a woman watching them from the other side of the street, and they go into a large, empty restaurant kitchen to investigate. Time freezes, and the woman turns on all of the gas burners on the stoves. Dean's flashlight goes out, and he pulls out his lighter instead. Just when our boys are going to be blown to smithereens, Castiel yanks them out of harm's way. He tells them that Fate (one of the three, anyway) is angry about Balthazar's trip to the Titanic, and is trying to put things back into balance by killing all of the people who never should have been born. Dean is pissed that he and Sam are now Fate's targets because of Balthazar, and he tells Cas that he needs new friends. Cas angrily replies that he's trying to keep the ones he has. The angel tells them that the only way for everyone to stay alive (Ellen and Jo, the Titanic progeny, the Winchesters themselves) is to kill Fate. In order to draw her out into the open, they have to tempt her.
Sam and Dean psych themselves up for their Walk of Death. They begin their casual stroll down the street and encounter kids on bikes, large scary dogs, jugglers with knives and fire, etc. They eventually walk directly under a huge container that starts to crash down on them, but time freezes again. Cas and Fate meet and start discussing the situation. Fate is angry that she no longer knows what to do now that the Apocalypse has been averted, and refuses to allow the same kind of confusion in past eras in which the Fates had control. She accuses Cas of trying to "mint souls" for his "war machine" and threatens to kill the Winchesters if he doesn't have Balthazar go back and undo his retcon. Cas agrees, and stops Balthazar from sneaking up on Fate with his angel sword.
The Winchesters wake up in the Impala (Yes! All is as it should be!) to the tune of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". They look at each other in astonishment, thinking that they shared a very strange dream. Cas appears and tells them that it wasn't a dream, and he let them keep their memory of it so that they would know what he did for them. He tells them that they taught him what freedom was - no destiny, no Fate, no Apocalypse - and that he still believes that it's worth fighting for. He lets them believe that Balthazar really did change history just to prevent a terrible movie and its theme song, though he looks incredibly guilty about it. Sam and Dean decide not to tell Bobby about their experience - now that Ellen has gone back to being dead, there's no need to torture him with what might have been.
Questions that still need answers:
What's the deal with the souls? I'm still holding on to my belief that souls can be used as some sort of power source, and that's why angels and demons have collected them for Heaven and Hell for millennia. But what is Cas planning, that he needs a lot of souls to do it? We know that he's trying to win the War in Heaven, and that if he doesn't, the consequences will be terrible. But he's looking awfully squeamish about the things he's doing to accomplish that. We were extremely happy to see so much of him in this episode, however!
This is the first time we've really started to warm up to Balthazar, if only that it seems we share his taste in movies and music. We know that he's likely to die (Come on. You know it's true. The most entertaining angels always die.), but we're starting to be really sorry about it.
It was a cruel tease to briefly bring Ellen back. She really is an awesome character, and her marriage to Bobby was extremely fitting. We were very annoyed at the weird camera shots during her tearful moment with Bobby, however. Close-ups of the eyes? Really?
Next week:
Sam and Dean ask Castiel to send them back to the Old West to talk to Samuel Colt. Yup. That Samuel Colt. It's going to be awesome!
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