Supernatural s04-ep16 – On the head of a Pin

Oh boy. This one is a doozy. It’s one of those episodes which make you turn around and go back, way back, and re-watch specific moments. Now this scene makes sense, now you know why this has happened. And ack, it broke my freaking heart!

The opening montage is beautifully done: a car accident, or so it seems, a woman, and then Castiel lights up the screen, staring gravely at the poor woman…and as the camera zooms out we see the outline of her wings on the bitumen…nice!

Our boys have just buried Pamela, who devastatingly died in the previous episode. I will most definitely miss her; she was the epitome of all the fans. And that would be why they killed her off, as every female character we like on this show never survives for very long. So they get into their hotel room and find Castiel and Uriel waiting for them. They’ve caught Alistair (What? He’s not dead?) And are trying to extract information from him, and for that, they need a torturer. Which is why they’ve come to Dean, the best torturer they know, seeing as he spent 40 years in hell. Sam is not having any of it, because he doesn’t believe Dean can break Alistair, as he sees his brother as weak. And damn Sammy, what has that Ruby girl done to you? Although I guess this is the result of 4 months of learning to stand on your own 2 feet out of your brother’s shadow….err…can you crawl back into it now? I preferred the optimistic, naïve and cute Sammy. Of course, being angels, Castiel and Uriel merely vanish…and take Dean along with them. Hmm. Now, Sammy sees his weak brother as being kidnapped by the angels. You know, I never thought I’d be writing that sentence.

Dean has a little chat with Castiel, who convinces to bring out his bad side and torture Alistair for information on who’s killing angels, and how. So he goes in and tyhey have annoying little moments of chit-chat, with Dean preparing his instruments of torture as Alistair tries to break him. Of course, he’d be the one person who knows how to.

He even drags out old Daddy Dearest yet again, claiming how Daddy dearest never broke, but Dean did after only 30 measly years. Dean calmly and quietly continues preparing his torture devices, which are nasty. Of course, the reason Alistair is baiting him is because he realises there is a leaking pump, resolutely breaking the devil’s trap holding him. He’s keeping Dean pre-occupied so he doesn’t notice.

In the meantime, Anna visits Castiel to tell him to think for himself and be all pale and ghost-like. Sam also has a visit from Ruby, and she helps him find Dean with a really cool trick…and then we find out exactly what Sammy has been getting up all these months, besides exorcising demons and sleeping with one. He’s been sucking demon blood from Ruby. Which…..I don’t think I even have words for. Just. Ick. Dammit Sammy…you are so screwed up right now! He gathers extra-strength from the demon blood, so he sucks some more up in order to go and break Dean free, because he’s so sure Dean is incapable of doing anything himself. Oh, this does so not bode well for our intrepid heroes’ futures. He goes racing off after Dean.

In the meantime…oh, I don’t know if I have the words for it. This bit…

Alistair pulls out his drawcard. He reveals to Dean exactly why he was in hell, exactly what the plan was. Apparently, once Lilith had the contract in her hand, she set the whole plan of releasing Lucifer into motion. Because the first seal had to be broken by a righteous man in hell, torturing others. Do you realise what this means?
It means Dean broke the first seal, he set it all into motion when he picked up that scythe and started slicing and dicing. All of this, all the seals, the deaths, Lucifer…it’s all HIS FAULT.

The close-up on Jensen here is beautiful, you know can see him holding resolutely, but in his eyes, you see him breaking. Gah.

And this is of course when Alistair breaks free and grabs Dean and slams him into the wall.

We come back into it a little later to find Dean practically pulverised and Castiel finally comes dashing into the room to take Alistair on, except, yet again, he is overtaken, plucked onto a meat-hook and nearly killed…when Sam comes in and kills Alistair once and for all. Of course, Castiel is really unhappy now, having seen Sam use his power…to rescue him. Oh the moral dilemmas!

Our next scene is Dean lying in a hospital bed. (SQUEE!) Sam is next to him, all terrified, begging Castiel to help him, but he can’t. I think Sam is also starting to come to some of his own realisations, and he ain’t happy with the angels.

Castiel goes back to the factory and realises the trap was broken, which was how Dean was so badly injured. And then Uriel comes back in..and it’s revealed Uriel is the one whose been killing the angels, because only an angel can kill another angel. He has decided Lucifer had the right idea and has joined a secret underground movement helping Lucifer’s escape, setting the trap to get rid of one his problems, ie Dean. And then we have an angelic showdown, which, inevitably, the gorgeous tousle-headed Castiel wins. Thank the heavens.

We come to our last scene, with Dean waking up in hospital and seeing his guardian angel by his bedside. They have a small chat, as Castiel tells Dean to be more careful, because some of the angels are bad and probably gunning for him. And then Dean asks if it’s true. If it’s true about him breaking the first seal. Castiel can’t lie. And Dean is so heartbreakingly destroyed right here….sniffle. Catsiel reveals ocne they figured out Lilith’s plan they battled their way into hell to try and stop it from happening, to save Dean. But they were too late. Dean wants to know why he rescued him.

Castiel looks at him and reveals, the one who started it, is the one who will end it.

Fudge. Hell. So…my god…..Dean…Dean actually has his own arc? He…has his own little path that is in absolutely no way tied to Sam? Are you people serious? I was terrified it was all tied to Sam, but….it’s all about DEAN! (Cue exuberant squeeing here).

Ahem.

Dean, in typical Dean-esque fashion, tells Castiel where he can stuff it. No, not there, sadly. He tells Castiel to find someone else, because he isn’t strong enough and he can’t do it.

Sounds to me like someone’s been listening to baby brother a little bit too much.

Never fear, 2 crazy ass episodes ahead before another hiatus and then the last 4 in a big bang!!

Supernatural – s04ep15 – Death takes a holiday

Pamela! Tessa! Reapers! Alistair! God, I love this episode.

We’re introduced to a town where people miraculously recover from fatal wounds and diseases, while Sam and Dean continue sniping away at each other. Dean is thoroughly sick and tired of all the crap thrown his way lately and you know, I kind of understand it. After all, this is the same guy who’s been brought up like a soldier by the father who then gave his life for him, thus totally screwing with the poor man’s head, and then given up his own life for his brother and gone to hell. He also understands it won’t end. Sam has his innocence filter on again, believing that once they get rid of Lilith all the bad stuff will go away and he can have a normal life again. Which is absolutely ridiculous, because let’s face it, this is life. You have the good and the bad to balance each other out. And after they took out ol’ yellow eyes (oh how we miss you) the bad stuff didn’t go away, it simply increased. Even stopping Lucifer form rising won’t keep the darkness at bay, and I think Dean knows this, which is why he’s sick of it.; He knows the only escape from this life is death, and come one, the poor guy’s been on death’s door at least twice and has actually died (although that wasn’t so pleasant either), so I totally see where he’s coming from. Meanwhile, Sam in his unbridled optimism truly believes he cans top the upcoming apocalypse and life can be hunky-dory again. Oh, ye of so little knowledge. I thought you’re meant to be the smart one, Sammy?

At any rate, the pleasantries of the last episode with the seductive siren are still eating away at Dean, who also realises Sam believes he doesn’t need him anymore, which is really nice Sam, considering your brother went to hell for you and wow…they’re really trying to make Sammy unlikeable, aren’t they? (Or at least painting Dean as a total martyr). Anyhoo, they make the drive up to the town and discover that no one has in a few days, not since a 12 year old was killed. And why? They boys surmise the town’s reaper is a no-show. So, they drag out the awesome Pamela who helps them leave their physical bodies behind and became part of the spiritual realm so they can communicate with the dead boy who’s been creating a bit of havoc at his mum’s place.

And here we start with some cute jokes as they plunge their fists into each other (depending on what level of slash you read determines how much squeeing occurred on your behalf) and they go find the little dead boy, who tells them about the reaper coming to visit and then being taken away…by a demon. Well, our boys figure that out. And then the wind picks up…and it’s Tessa! OH! The most kick-ass reaper ever makes a return visit to take over reaping duties in this town. Dean knows she looks familiar, and so she taps him on the head and his memory from nearly dying comes back, which just had me squeeing all over, because I absolutely adore In My Time of Dying and if she wasn’t a dead reaper, they’d be an awesome couple.

Anyway, she’s all pragmatic about carrying on with her duties and reaping the poor boy, but our boys convince her to leave him until they’ve rescued with the other reaper. At which point the wind blows up and Tessa is kidnapped.

So, now Dean and Sam need to learn how to move physical objects as our dead boy teaches them (it’s very cute) and they wander off to find where the reapers are being kept…in a house surrounded by charms to keep out angels. Huh. I didn’t think about that.

In the meantime, demons are trying to into the room where the boys spirit-less bodies lie with a blind woman…oh this isn’t going to end well. Pamela starts calling Sam back, but is stabbed in the process. Of course…there aren’t any reapers around, so she’s safe…for the time being. So they get in and try getting rid of one of the demons which they do but then end up caught and the original reaper is murdered and blood spilled…because of course this is all another seal, the blood of 2 reapers will break another seal. Alistair is also hanging around like a bad smell…man really wants his whipping boy back downstairs. (Mmmm…Dean as a whipping boy….sorry where was I again?) and just as he’s about to get Tessa….the boys have been concentrating very hard on pulling the chandelier off the ceiling and it smashes onto the ground, breaking the circle, allowing Tessa to escape and then release the boys (Who’ve been held back by an iron chain. Cute.)

Sam has vanished in the meantime, having been called back by Pamela and he fights off the demon with his super duper evil powers and tries to save Pamela…Dean is still stuck on the spiritual plane. He has a run-in with Alistair and it’s not looking good…and then zap! Alistair’s hit by lightning and vanishes, extra crispy. Heh.

Dean also has a chat with Tessa, who reveals she knows more than Dean does about this whole escapade and I don’t want her to leave my screen. I love her. She tells Dean not to trust the angels, because inevitably, he doesn’t know what their endgame is. And neither do we. After it’s all over and he saves the world, does he go back to hell? How does this all work? They go back to the house and Tessa reaps the little boy, allowing his mother to finally have peace.

And then Dean gets pulled back, just in time for Pamela to die. Oh. Oh no. Really? Oh show! Why do you keep killing off the awesome female characters and keep around the nasty ones? How you make me want to cry…until next episode, that is…