My Thoughts on Season 15 So Far...
Sep. 21st, 2020 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
borgmama1of5I rewatched all 13 episodes of season 15 Saturday to prepare for October 8, and had some thoughts, mainly that there are some good episodes and good parts of episodes but there is so much wasted screen time and non-logical action that I’m struggling with dread over what the writers are doing to the last 7 episodes…
So sharing my thoughts after watching till 4:30 am…
15.01—Back and to the Future—What a wasted season premiere. Okay, having Jack’s vessel commandeered by Belphegor was a cool way to keep Alex Calvert, and he did a great job being another personality. I could live with his character being the deus ex machina. It’s the ‘ghosts in the town’ that was just awful. First off, why have the big confrontation between Sam, Cas, and the ghosts in broad daylight? And the set-up—Sam and Cas going house to house makes absolutely no sense. Surely there could have been a more creative way to have a clown beat up Sam. As they are trying to escape, why did the little girl just stand at the pond looking in the water? For that matter why did all of them stand around so much? And what is the logic of having some of the ghosts possess the closest bodies, i.e., the cemetery zombie ghosts, and others, like Gacy’s clown, being able to conjure their original forms? I don’t want to pick my beloved show apart, but when I spend pretty much the whole episode going ‘huh?’ it’s not good. The whole episode smacked of the writer thinking of ‘cool scenes’ and not bothering to tie them together coherently.
And Sam and Dean could look at a bloody car windshield and quickly identify that the missing driver had been a victim of a Woman in White? And Sam jumps immediately to it’s their Woman in White? I mean, I know they’re good…but maybe two clues?
However I will give the writers credit for setting Dean up as the brother struggling with having been a rat in Chuck’s maze all these years while Sam is optimistic. In fact, the emotional struggle of free will vs. Chuck plays very well as a through line for all 13 episodes, the hopelessness switching between the boys in a way that makes organic sense. Maybe there’s hope for an emotionally satisfying finale?
15.02—Raising Hell—The plot absurdities continue…the scary scenes continue to take place in bright daylight…Let’s get Osric back for a not-making-a- lot-of-sense plot thread so Kevin can have a farewell scene…Why do they have to have Rowena needing to get it on with Ketch in the middle of doing a critical spell? Yeah, they did the same thing with her and Gabriel. Supposed to be comic relief. Am I the only person that finds it diminishes her character?
At least the Amara and Chuck scenes made sense and were well-played. But the CGI ghosts in the last scene were pretty lame…
15.03—The Rupture—How many times can they say ‘it’s hopeless…oh, wait, here’s another super-duper powerful spell I just remembered’ until it’s like the boy who cried wolf and we stop believing there’s really a problem? Sigh. However, while this is not a great episode it’s the best one of the opening season arc and I wish they’d just started with this one. I was very perplexed, however, about how the boys, Rowena, and all just waltzed unaccosted through the battle zone—again in bright daylight—to the mausoleum. Then later Rowena makes a big speech about how Dean will have to wait by the hellmouth to throw in the ‘bomb’ and he will be unprotected—and nothing at all happens to him! What was the point in making us think Dean will be in danger and then not even a boo! from anything?!? That was a big missed opportunity. Sam and Rowena really saved the episode, gotta admit her death scene really hurt, even the second time around when I knew it was coming.
Ketch gets his good-bye scene…The Cas and Belphegor plot was…odd…It sort of made sense…Best part was when Cas just pushed Belphegor into the hole to get him to shut up—yay Cas!...Dean’s anger at Cas for taking out Belphegor before he powered up to become a god felt really misplaced—like the writers had to come up with a reason for the two of them to be estranged so they could write a big emotional forgiveness scene several episodes later.
But we do get the first of the brothers’ emotional turnarounds, with Sam in despair in the aftermath of killing Rowena and Dean trying to cheer him up with the belief they’ve taken care of Chuck’s last meddling…Even before that, when Rowena’s first spell attempt failed and they were ‘all going to die’ Dean weaponed up and was going to go out fighting as Sam struggled with the failure.
15.04—Atomic Monsters—Hands down, the best episode of the season to date, and I am really glad Jensen got a decent script to direct!
First off, the AU world dream sequence with Dean taking out the demons only to be taken out by demon!Sam was awesome (and shallowly, AU Dean with his beard and scarf and rolled-up sleeves was hot!) And oh, Benny gets a good-by nod. (Are they going to bring back everybody who’s ever had a panel at a Creation con??? Though apparently bringing Ty Olsson back was Jensen’s idea, it wasn’t in the script.)
Dean is in gung-ho mode for this one. But what really mattered was this was a shades-of-gray case where the monster wasn’t a monster by choice and while the kid had to die, it hurt and even Sam and Dean felt regret that it had to go that way. I was invested in the story and it was plotted out logically enough that I could accept the storytelling shortcuts (like why hadn’t the cops looked at the security camera footage before Sam and Dean?)
And I loved the Becky and Chuck B plot, accepted every line as real and I loved how Becky was written to have matured and owned her mistakes and how she was willing to help Chuck against her better instincts and it HURT when Chuck smoked her family and then her away. (Rob Benedict, for being one of the sweetest human beings on the planet, can play the scariest bad guy!!!)
Sam is still despairing about anything they’ve done making a difference and Dean gives an earnest pep talk about doing what they do for all the people they’ve lost, and besides, now they are free of Chuck. His positivity is going to take a hit very shortly…
Oh, and the song from Jensen’s album playing over the ending of the vampire was the icing on the cake.
15.05—Proverbs 17:3—I liked this one better on the rewatch because the huh? moments all made sense knowing the innocent girl, the werewolf story, and the way-too-on-point dialogue were all set-ups by Chuck. The actress playing Lilith certainly got into her role, though her character feels a lot like Ruby and Meg…I guess female demons are all badass snarky while male demons can have a range of personalities. Sam’s two nightmares—when he is Lucifer and kills Dean, and when Dean, with the Mark of Cain, kills him—were both really scary to watch. We are clearly getting an acknowledgment of all the AU fanfic versions of Sam and Dean. Using Sam and Dean’s season 1 IDs to poke fun at how much Jared has changed and Jensen hasn’t by reversing the expectation of Sam being called out on it jarred me a little—like, oh, this is supposed to be funny, haha.
And poor Dean takes a gut punch finding out Chuck isn’t gone after all. So Sam moves into ready-to-fight mode to shore his brother up.
15.06—Golden Time—Eileen comes back. This was a middle-of-the-road episode for me. The plot of the witches trying to get Rowena’s spells coinciding with Sam and Eileen needing the soul catcher spell was believable, and the behavior of the various characters made sense, especially Dean’s giving up. Cas’ storyline was okay, its’ purpose was to get Cas back into Team Free Will and it did that. At the end it’s Sam’s turn to give the ‘I can’t do this without my brother’ speech.
15.07—Last Call—I loved Dean’s story in this episode and therefore the parts of it that made no sense really stuck out. Dean meeting up with a fellow hunter from Sam’s college years was pretty cool and done believably within canon except for the choice of song Lee said John would put on before each hunt: the theme from ‘The Dukes of Hazzard?!’ When we know John is a classic rock lover?! Why would he play that??? But the clear ways Lee’s and Dean’s views of hunting changed, Dean’s hurt at Lee’s repudiation of what hunters were supposed to stand for, and the renewal of his own drive as he refuses to accept Lee’s belief that as a hunter he was owed a break were really well-written and acted. What threw me for a loop was Dean getting on stage and suddenly being a good singer. I know it was done to give Jensen and Chris Kane a chance to sing together, and yes it was lovely to see that, but it was clearly Jensen singing, not Dean. I wish they hadn’t done that. And Dean just dropping his cellphone in the basket at the bar, so that he will miss Cas’s call—who turns over their cellphone without seeing that it is going to be secure and that no one else will take it???
The Sam, Cas, and Eileen part of this episode was a mess, specifically the use of Sergei. Cas just tells Sergei where the Bunker is? And lets him see himself out? Really? Though I did love the glimpse of the original flavor Cas when he forced Sergei to cooperate by cold-bloodedly threatening Sergei’s niece. For a moment we had you-better-show-some-respect Cas back. Very curious if Sergei’s mention of the key to Death’s library is going to actually pay off down the line. But Sam’s gonna die, Sam’s really gonna die, oh hey, he’s all better now…well, it’s getting old.
When I reached the end all the episode rewatches and Sergei had been called two more times for ‘help’ I realized that for lack of any better ideas the writers are using him to replace Rowena as the omnipotent ‘source of help when the boys can’t figure it out.’ If you think about it, first Crowley, then Rowena were the replacement for Bobby. Apparently there has to be a backup person to step in with the answer when the boys can’t find it. Huh.
15.08—Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven—It’s so easy now to waltz in and out of Hell, it’s really too bad Sam couldn’t find that handy-dandy spell back in season 3…This is one of those ‘setting story points up for the season arc’ episodes. Usually written by the Buck-Leming duo and usually a hodge-podge. Sigh. Here comes the demon tablet so we can bring Donatello back for a good-bye…yep, that was a total red herring other than to show that Chuck is keeping an eye on them (Did Dean’s explanation of why the demon tablet would help make sense to anyone???) Quick drop-in to Hell (guess there’s no PTSD about Hell for either of the boys any more) so we can go ‘Rowena’s Queen of Hell now! We can stop feeling bad that Sam killed her!’ And surprise, Michael’s not in the Cage any more so there was no point to the whole Hell visit except for Rowena’s couples’ counseling for Dean and Cas….
Then the episode suddenly gets really, really good when Michael/Adam arrives on screen. Jake Abel did a phenomenal job and completely saved the episode. And then uh-oh, Chuck’s got Sam and Eileen!
15.09—The Trap—My entire reaction to this episode is ‘Sam! Why would you believe Chuck?!?!? You guys always go off book so why would you believe him when he says there’s no other possibility???’ The episode itself was decently intense—the reveal that Chuck manipulated events to connect Eileen and Sam, making Eileen wield the scalpel, the scenes Chuck shows of what happens after he is defeated (aside from the ridiculous vamp teeth)—all made me scared for both Sam’s physical and mental health.
Cas and Dean’s Purgatory trip—the entire purpose of that plot line was to give Dean a big emotional ‘I feel bad about how I treated you’ scene without having to actually talk to Cas because actually talking to someone would be too emotionally healthy for a Winchester. It was pretty obvious that they didn’t have time/budget/interest in a big Purgatory fight scene—Dean gets knocked out and when he stumbles upon Cas right before the Rift is going to close we get Cas’s verbal description of his big escape…
Dean standing up to Chuck and saying ‘I know you’re not going to kill us because you want your big finish’—that’s our big damn hero!!!
Returning to Sam’s loss of hope and failure to end Chuck after all of Dean and Cas’s hard work—that hurt. Really hurt. But I will accept it knowing Chuck pounded Sam’s weak spot: that everything they’ve done to save the world would be wiped out. Sam would have been willing to gamble on what would happen to Dean and him, but not the rest of humanity. What stunned me was Dean’s acceptance of that afterwards, in the Bunker. Especially contrasting his ‘I believe Sam’ with how he went off the rails over Cas’s killing of Belphegor. Double standard, much? But I’d rather it went that way than Dean castigating Sam—I want them working as a team for these last episodes.
Oh, surprise! Billie’s been hiding Jack in the Empty!
Something I noticed in the rewatch that completely escaped me on first viewing—the plan was that when the magic ball is destroyed Cas takes the Mark of Cain. And in Sam’s visions of the future, Dean says that the Mark made Cas go crazy and they had to bury him in the Ma’lak box.
Random observation—the catastrophic future Sam sees starts on April 17, 2020 which would have been the time when the last episodes were airing. The future ends on December 9, 2022.
15.10—The Heroes’ Journey—Okay, the premise of this episode made me really mad upon first viewing. First they start the season by implying that everything the boys have ever done has been orchestrated by Chuck, that their sacrifices were meaningless, there really was no free will. Now this episode takes away all the battles they’ve won by saying that their success came because Chuck had given them supernormal abilities, that none of it was because of their own hard work and efforts, and that pissed me off. Watching it again, knowing that the idea of the boys being ‘normal’ was replaced in the next episode with them being ‘out of luck’ made it a bit more palatable.
They spent a lot of screen time in the cage fight opener…Okay, Dean’s run of ‘normal’ is believable, but Sam grabbing a pot on the stove without potholders—that’s not normal, that’s just dumb. Sigh. Garth! I love Garth! And his inclusion in the guest stars’ farewell parade is written meaningfully so I don’t have a problem with it.
Naming one twin Sam and the other Cas—haha, what a funny tweak of fandom (sarcasm.) Did Garth even work with Cas? Oh, and here comes the physical comedy, let’s make Jared roll around on the floor after drinking cayenne pepper (because Dean eating ghost peppers a few episodes ago was a hoot, right?) And for Dean—well, first we’ll make him dance because why not, the fans will love seeing Jensen do that! (Bless Jensen’s talent for making that scene hypnotic despite it having no context at all.) And then we’ll give him a mouth full of bloody gauze that he can spit out randomly during the next scene. (Bless Jensen’s comedic chops for actually making that funny.) And then their ineptness on the actual hunt. Sigh.
Garth to the rescue makes up for it, he is awesome in his you-never-expect-it competence. Loose end that I guarantee only the fans will think of—when Garth blew up the building, they boys’ duffel bags of weapons and the grenade launcher were still in it. But I’m sure they will all show up again when needed… All the conversations between Garth and the boys are very genuine, and I love how they have grown fond of him and learned to respect his skills.
15.11—The Gamblers—We have another winner! Other than the fact that the premise for the bar, if you lose your luck you’re kicked out conflicts with there being regulars there…But the episode was so rewarding to watch I’m going to ignore that problem…
Pure love for Dean’s speech: “Now look, you’re better than me at pretty much everything, okay? That’s okay. I’m not mad. I’m proud. But I can wipe the floor with you when it comes to pool.” Of course then Sam rises to the occasion and returns the compliment. Fortuna: “You got me talking. You’re good.” Sam: “I learned from my brother.” Totally not Sam’s fault Fortuna clears the table before he gets a turn in the second game.
Our boys show why they are our heroes—not because of their monster-fighting prowess but because they truly want to save everyone. And Fortuna sees it and rewards it and I am happy again. Also the pool shot Dean makes jumping the one ball over the other—Jensen did that on the first take for real!!!
Oh yeah, there’s a B story here too, about Cas discovering Jack is back and eating Grigorie angel hearts. (Writers: What’s the most disgusting thing we can have Jack doing when he comes back that’ll make everyone think he’s gone evil?) The less said about that part of the episode the better. I did appreciate Sam and Dean’s reactions to seeing him again at the end, though.
15.12—Galaxy Brain—Oh boy. Well, the Dark Kaia thread did need to be resolved—apparently Jensen actually brought it up prior to the season being scripted because he felt Dean had broken his promise to her and he didn’t want to leave that open. Surprise, our Kaia somehow didn’t die, I didn’t understand why. All the kerfluffle about Jack not using his powers or Chuck will find him gets conveniently sidestepped. Kudos to Jack for outwitting the Reaper Merle. I liked her. Too bad she got shafted—er, scythed. I get that Dark Kaia’s from another universe and traumatized, but the way she was written/acted I just didn’t care about her. When they got to her world, what was the point of the creatures with glowing red eyes? Another disappointing instance of fake menace that doesn’t pan out. Why would our Kaia—whose ethnicity she herself referenced in the Wayward Sisters episode—be singing ‘Mary Mack’ which is an 1880s English nursery rhyme?
But here’s the boys we love back in business, in Sam’s own words: “Honestly? Feels like we're taking a big, probably stupid risk. Feels good. Disobeying cosmic entities, doing the, uh... dumb right thing? Feels like we're back.”
Billie’s appearance at the end give some hints as to where the Chuck arc may go—the details are in her books. (So was there an ending that showed Sam crushing the magic ball in ‘The Trap’ episode that then didn’t happen when he didn’t? I can’t help my mind thinking of these questions…Also her books weren’t so reliable about Dean and the Ma’lak Box…) I would put my money on the Winchesters managing to come up with a rewrite at the last minute.
And I wonder about this comment of Billie’s: "I see the big picture. I understand that one life means nothing in the grand scheme.” Because this entire episode’s point was to negate that viewpoint. And I wonder if the finale battle with Chuck will hinge upon the boys letting ‘the good of the one outweighs the good of the many’ and that will give us either a very satisfying ‘Ha! Our perspective wins!’ ending or the tragic one that it doesn’t…
Chuck is a dick…but we already knew that. Also, one of the AU universes on his TV screens showed what looked like the California wildfires that are really happening. So wait a minute, are we on one of the extra Earths that Chuck is getting rid of? It sure would explain 2020!
15.13—Destiny’s Child—Scene in the writers’ room: “You know, since it’s the last season, we should bring Genevieve Padalecki back as Ruby.” “We should bring Danneel back once more time, too.” “Hey, it would be really cool if we put them in the same episode with some scenes together.” “Yeah, the fans would love that!” “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny to have Jared and Jensen play AU Winchesters that are over-the-top opposite of our boys?” “Oh yeah, the fans would love that too!” And thus was birthed the mess that was this episode (and makes me despair again that TPTB really are clueless about what kind of ending the fans want…)
They needed to give Jack his soul back, so they concocted a story that completely contradicts Sister Jo’s backstory from her initial appearance in season 13 of getting her vessel after the angels fell from Heaven which was season 8. Ruby was killed off in season 4. There’s no way they worked together. Ruby hiding the Occultum from Jo, Jo hiding it from Ruby—the whole story about it and them made no sense! The entire trip to Hell (there’s that handy-dandy spell again!) looking for the Occultum was pointless. Jack’s trip to the garden of Eden was an excuse for flashbacks of his life. Dean and Cas standing around arguing in the church while Sam is the only one holding the doors against the Hellhounds—nobody noticed he could use some help? Sam and Dean have been out of the Bunker multiple times since Chuck’s reappeared and never worried about him looking for them there before so why the big deal about leaving stand-ins this time? And Chuck wouldn’t have noticed they were the wrong Sam and Dean after one sentence from them? Argh.
Not the best episode to wrap up on. Sigh.
I am so anxious about being disappointed, not only by the finale but since there are only 7 episodes left, can they all be well-written? I know, asking too much…Deep breath. Lower expectations…
So sharing my thoughts after watching till 4:30 am…
15.01—Back and to the Future—What a wasted season premiere. Okay, having Jack’s vessel commandeered by Belphegor was a cool way to keep Alex Calvert, and he did a great job being another personality. I could live with his character being the deus ex machina. It’s the ‘ghosts in the town’ that was just awful. First off, why have the big confrontation between Sam, Cas, and the ghosts in broad daylight? And the set-up—Sam and Cas going house to house makes absolutely no sense. Surely there could have been a more creative way to have a clown beat up Sam. As they are trying to escape, why did the little girl just stand at the pond looking in the water? For that matter why did all of them stand around so much? And what is the logic of having some of the ghosts possess the closest bodies, i.e., the cemetery zombie ghosts, and others, like Gacy’s clown, being able to conjure their original forms? I don’t want to pick my beloved show apart, but when I spend pretty much the whole episode going ‘huh?’ it’s not good. The whole episode smacked of the writer thinking of ‘cool scenes’ and not bothering to tie them together coherently.
And Sam and Dean could look at a bloody car windshield and quickly identify that the missing driver had been a victim of a Woman in White? And Sam jumps immediately to it’s their Woman in White? I mean, I know they’re good…but maybe two clues?
However I will give the writers credit for setting Dean up as the brother struggling with having been a rat in Chuck’s maze all these years while Sam is optimistic. In fact, the emotional struggle of free will vs. Chuck plays very well as a through line for all 13 episodes, the hopelessness switching between the boys in a way that makes organic sense. Maybe there’s hope for an emotionally satisfying finale?
15.02—Raising Hell—The plot absurdities continue…the scary scenes continue to take place in bright daylight…Let’s get Osric back for a not-making-a- lot-of-sense plot thread so Kevin can have a farewell scene…Why do they have to have Rowena needing to get it on with Ketch in the middle of doing a critical spell? Yeah, they did the same thing with her and Gabriel. Supposed to be comic relief. Am I the only person that finds it diminishes her character?
At least the Amara and Chuck scenes made sense and were well-played. But the CGI ghosts in the last scene were pretty lame…
15.03—The Rupture—How many times can they say ‘it’s hopeless…oh, wait, here’s another super-duper powerful spell I just remembered’ until it’s like the boy who cried wolf and we stop believing there’s really a problem? Sigh. However, while this is not a great episode it’s the best one of the opening season arc and I wish they’d just started with this one. I was very perplexed, however, about how the boys, Rowena, and all just waltzed unaccosted through the battle zone—again in bright daylight—to the mausoleum. Then later Rowena makes a big speech about how Dean will have to wait by the hellmouth to throw in the ‘bomb’ and he will be unprotected—and nothing at all happens to him! What was the point in making us think Dean will be in danger and then not even a boo! from anything?!? That was a big missed opportunity. Sam and Rowena really saved the episode, gotta admit her death scene really hurt, even the second time around when I knew it was coming.
Ketch gets his good-bye scene…The Cas and Belphegor plot was…odd…It sort of made sense…Best part was when Cas just pushed Belphegor into the hole to get him to shut up—yay Cas!...Dean’s anger at Cas for taking out Belphegor before he powered up to become a god felt really misplaced—like the writers had to come up with a reason for the two of them to be estranged so they could write a big emotional forgiveness scene several episodes later.
But we do get the first of the brothers’ emotional turnarounds, with Sam in despair in the aftermath of killing Rowena and Dean trying to cheer him up with the belief they’ve taken care of Chuck’s last meddling…Even before that, when Rowena’s first spell attempt failed and they were ‘all going to die’ Dean weaponed up and was going to go out fighting as Sam struggled with the failure.
15.04—Atomic Monsters—Hands down, the best episode of the season to date, and I am really glad Jensen got a decent script to direct!
First off, the AU world dream sequence with Dean taking out the demons only to be taken out by demon!Sam was awesome (and shallowly, AU Dean with his beard and scarf and rolled-up sleeves was hot!) And oh, Benny gets a good-by nod. (Are they going to bring back everybody who’s ever had a panel at a Creation con??? Though apparently bringing Ty Olsson back was Jensen’s idea, it wasn’t in the script.)
Dean is in gung-ho mode for this one. But what really mattered was this was a shades-of-gray case where the monster wasn’t a monster by choice and while the kid had to die, it hurt and even Sam and Dean felt regret that it had to go that way. I was invested in the story and it was plotted out logically enough that I could accept the storytelling shortcuts (like why hadn’t the cops looked at the security camera footage before Sam and Dean?)
And I loved the Becky and Chuck B plot, accepted every line as real and I loved how Becky was written to have matured and owned her mistakes and how she was willing to help Chuck against her better instincts and it HURT when Chuck smoked her family and then her away. (Rob Benedict, for being one of the sweetest human beings on the planet, can play the scariest bad guy!!!)
Sam is still despairing about anything they’ve done making a difference and Dean gives an earnest pep talk about doing what they do for all the people they’ve lost, and besides, now they are free of Chuck. His positivity is going to take a hit very shortly…
Oh, and the song from Jensen’s album playing over the ending of the vampire was the icing on the cake.
15.05—Proverbs 17:3—I liked this one better on the rewatch because the huh? moments all made sense knowing the innocent girl, the werewolf story, and the way-too-on-point dialogue were all set-ups by Chuck. The actress playing Lilith certainly got into her role, though her character feels a lot like Ruby and Meg…I guess female demons are all badass snarky while male demons can have a range of personalities. Sam’s two nightmares—when he is Lucifer and kills Dean, and when Dean, with the Mark of Cain, kills him—were both really scary to watch. We are clearly getting an acknowledgment of all the AU fanfic versions of Sam and Dean. Using Sam and Dean’s season 1 IDs to poke fun at how much Jared has changed and Jensen hasn’t by reversing the expectation of Sam being called out on it jarred me a little—like, oh, this is supposed to be funny, haha.
And poor Dean takes a gut punch finding out Chuck isn’t gone after all. So Sam moves into ready-to-fight mode to shore his brother up.
15.06—Golden Time—Eileen comes back. This was a middle-of-the-road episode for me. The plot of the witches trying to get Rowena’s spells coinciding with Sam and Eileen needing the soul catcher spell was believable, and the behavior of the various characters made sense, especially Dean’s giving up. Cas’ storyline was okay, its’ purpose was to get Cas back into Team Free Will and it did that. At the end it’s Sam’s turn to give the ‘I can’t do this without my brother’ speech.
15.07—Last Call—I loved Dean’s story in this episode and therefore the parts of it that made no sense really stuck out. Dean meeting up with a fellow hunter from Sam’s college years was pretty cool and done believably within canon except for the choice of song Lee said John would put on before each hunt: the theme from ‘The Dukes of Hazzard?!’ When we know John is a classic rock lover?! Why would he play that??? But the clear ways Lee’s and Dean’s views of hunting changed, Dean’s hurt at Lee’s repudiation of what hunters were supposed to stand for, and the renewal of his own drive as he refuses to accept Lee’s belief that as a hunter he was owed a break were really well-written and acted. What threw me for a loop was Dean getting on stage and suddenly being a good singer. I know it was done to give Jensen and Chris Kane a chance to sing together, and yes it was lovely to see that, but it was clearly Jensen singing, not Dean. I wish they hadn’t done that. And Dean just dropping his cellphone in the basket at the bar, so that he will miss Cas’s call—who turns over their cellphone without seeing that it is going to be secure and that no one else will take it???
The Sam, Cas, and Eileen part of this episode was a mess, specifically the use of Sergei. Cas just tells Sergei where the Bunker is? And lets him see himself out? Really? Though I did love the glimpse of the original flavor Cas when he forced Sergei to cooperate by cold-bloodedly threatening Sergei’s niece. For a moment we had you-better-show-some-respect Cas back. Very curious if Sergei’s mention of the key to Death’s library is going to actually pay off down the line. But Sam’s gonna die, Sam’s really gonna die, oh hey, he’s all better now…well, it’s getting old.
When I reached the end all the episode rewatches and Sergei had been called two more times for ‘help’ I realized that for lack of any better ideas the writers are using him to replace Rowena as the omnipotent ‘source of help when the boys can’t figure it out.’ If you think about it, first Crowley, then Rowena were the replacement for Bobby. Apparently there has to be a backup person to step in with the answer when the boys can’t find it. Huh.
15.08—Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven—It’s so easy now to waltz in and out of Hell, it’s really too bad Sam couldn’t find that handy-dandy spell back in season 3…This is one of those ‘setting story points up for the season arc’ episodes. Usually written by the Buck-Leming duo and usually a hodge-podge. Sigh. Here comes the demon tablet so we can bring Donatello back for a good-bye…yep, that was a total red herring other than to show that Chuck is keeping an eye on them (Did Dean’s explanation of why the demon tablet would help make sense to anyone???) Quick drop-in to Hell (guess there’s no PTSD about Hell for either of the boys any more) so we can go ‘Rowena’s Queen of Hell now! We can stop feeling bad that Sam killed her!’ And surprise, Michael’s not in the Cage any more so there was no point to the whole Hell visit except for Rowena’s couples’ counseling for Dean and Cas….
Then the episode suddenly gets really, really good when Michael/Adam arrives on screen. Jake Abel did a phenomenal job and completely saved the episode. And then uh-oh, Chuck’s got Sam and Eileen!
15.09—The Trap—My entire reaction to this episode is ‘Sam! Why would you believe Chuck?!?!? You guys always go off book so why would you believe him when he says there’s no other possibility???’ The episode itself was decently intense—the reveal that Chuck manipulated events to connect Eileen and Sam, making Eileen wield the scalpel, the scenes Chuck shows of what happens after he is defeated (aside from the ridiculous vamp teeth)—all made me scared for both Sam’s physical and mental health.
Cas and Dean’s Purgatory trip—the entire purpose of that plot line was to give Dean a big emotional ‘I feel bad about how I treated you’ scene without having to actually talk to Cas because actually talking to someone would be too emotionally healthy for a Winchester. It was pretty obvious that they didn’t have time/budget/interest in a big Purgatory fight scene—Dean gets knocked out and when he stumbles upon Cas right before the Rift is going to close we get Cas’s verbal description of his big escape…
Dean standing up to Chuck and saying ‘I know you’re not going to kill us because you want your big finish’—that’s our big damn hero!!!
Returning to Sam’s loss of hope and failure to end Chuck after all of Dean and Cas’s hard work—that hurt. Really hurt. But I will accept it knowing Chuck pounded Sam’s weak spot: that everything they’ve done to save the world would be wiped out. Sam would have been willing to gamble on what would happen to Dean and him, but not the rest of humanity. What stunned me was Dean’s acceptance of that afterwards, in the Bunker. Especially contrasting his ‘I believe Sam’ with how he went off the rails over Cas’s killing of Belphegor. Double standard, much? But I’d rather it went that way than Dean castigating Sam—I want them working as a team for these last episodes.
Oh, surprise! Billie’s been hiding Jack in the Empty!
Something I noticed in the rewatch that completely escaped me on first viewing—the plan was that when the magic ball is destroyed Cas takes the Mark of Cain. And in Sam’s visions of the future, Dean says that the Mark made Cas go crazy and they had to bury him in the Ma’lak box.
Random observation—the catastrophic future Sam sees starts on April 17, 2020 which would have been the time when the last episodes were airing. The future ends on December 9, 2022.
15.10—The Heroes’ Journey—Okay, the premise of this episode made me really mad upon first viewing. First they start the season by implying that everything the boys have ever done has been orchestrated by Chuck, that their sacrifices were meaningless, there really was no free will. Now this episode takes away all the battles they’ve won by saying that their success came because Chuck had given them supernormal abilities, that none of it was because of their own hard work and efforts, and that pissed me off. Watching it again, knowing that the idea of the boys being ‘normal’ was replaced in the next episode with them being ‘out of luck’ made it a bit more palatable.
They spent a lot of screen time in the cage fight opener…Okay, Dean’s run of ‘normal’ is believable, but Sam grabbing a pot on the stove without potholders—that’s not normal, that’s just dumb. Sigh. Garth! I love Garth! And his inclusion in the guest stars’ farewell parade is written meaningfully so I don’t have a problem with it.
Naming one twin Sam and the other Cas—haha, what a funny tweak of fandom (sarcasm.) Did Garth even work with Cas? Oh, and here comes the physical comedy, let’s make Jared roll around on the floor after drinking cayenne pepper (because Dean eating ghost peppers a few episodes ago was a hoot, right?) And for Dean—well, first we’ll make him dance because why not, the fans will love seeing Jensen do that! (Bless Jensen’s talent for making that scene hypnotic despite it having no context at all.) And then we’ll give him a mouth full of bloody gauze that he can spit out randomly during the next scene. (Bless Jensen’s comedic chops for actually making that funny.) And then their ineptness on the actual hunt. Sigh.
Garth to the rescue makes up for it, he is awesome in his you-never-expect-it competence. Loose end that I guarantee only the fans will think of—when Garth blew up the building, they boys’ duffel bags of weapons and the grenade launcher were still in it. But I’m sure they will all show up again when needed… All the conversations between Garth and the boys are very genuine, and I love how they have grown fond of him and learned to respect his skills.
15.11—The Gamblers—We have another winner! Other than the fact that the premise for the bar, if you lose your luck you’re kicked out conflicts with there being regulars there…But the episode was so rewarding to watch I’m going to ignore that problem…
Pure love for Dean’s speech: “Now look, you’re better than me at pretty much everything, okay? That’s okay. I’m not mad. I’m proud. But I can wipe the floor with you when it comes to pool.” Of course then Sam rises to the occasion and returns the compliment. Fortuna: “You got me talking. You’re good.” Sam: “I learned from my brother.” Totally not Sam’s fault Fortuna clears the table before he gets a turn in the second game.
Our boys show why they are our heroes—not because of their monster-fighting prowess but because they truly want to save everyone. And Fortuna sees it and rewards it and I am happy again. Also the pool shot Dean makes jumping the one ball over the other—Jensen did that on the first take for real!!!
Oh yeah, there’s a B story here too, about Cas discovering Jack is back and eating Grigorie angel hearts. (Writers: What’s the most disgusting thing we can have Jack doing when he comes back that’ll make everyone think he’s gone evil?) The less said about that part of the episode the better. I did appreciate Sam and Dean’s reactions to seeing him again at the end, though.
15.12—Galaxy Brain—Oh boy. Well, the Dark Kaia thread did need to be resolved—apparently Jensen actually brought it up prior to the season being scripted because he felt Dean had broken his promise to her and he didn’t want to leave that open. Surprise, our Kaia somehow didn’t die, I didn’t understand why. All the kerfluffle about Jack not using his powers or Chuck will find him gets conveniently sidestepped. Kudos to Jack for outwitting the Reaper Merle. I liked her. Too bad she got shafted—er, scythed. I get that Dark Kaia’s from another universe and traumatized, but the way she was written/acted I just didn’t care about her. When they got to her world, what was the point of the creatures with glowing red eyes? Another disappointing instance of fake menace that doesn’t pan out. Why would our Kaia—whose ethnicity she herself referenced in the Wayward Sisters episode—be singing ‘Mary Mack’ which is an 1880s English nursery rhyme?
But here’s the boys we love back in business, in Sam’s own words: “Honestly? Feels like we're taking a big, probably stupid risk. Feels good. Disobeying cosmic entities, doing the, uh... dumb right thing? Feels like we're back.”
Billie’s appearance at the end give some hints as to where the Chuck arc may go—the details are in her books. (So was there an ending that showed Sam crushing the magic ball in ‘The Trap’ episode that then didn’t happen when he didn’t? I can’t help my mind thinking of these questions…Also her books weren’t so reliable about Dean and the Ma’lak Box…) I would put my money on the Winchesters managing to come up with a rewrite at the last minute.
And I wonder about this comment of Billie’s: "I see the big picture. I understand that one life means nothing in the grand scheme.” Because this entire episode’s point was to negate that viewpoint. And I wonder if the finale battle with Chuck will hinge upon the boys letting ‘the good of the one outweighs the good of the many’ and that will give us either a very satisfying ‘Ha! Our perspective wins!’ ending or the tragic one that it doesn’t…
Chuck is a dick…but we already knew that. Also, one of the AU universes on his TV screens showed what looked like the California wildfires that are really happening. So wait a minute, are we on one of the extra Earths that Chuck is getting rid of? It sure would explain 2020!
15.13—Destiny’s Child—Scene in the writers’ room: “You know, since it’s the last season, we should bring Genevieve Padalecki back as Ruby.” “We should bring Danneel back once more time, too.” “Hey, it would be really cool if we put them in the same episode with some scenes together.” “Yeah, the fans would love that!” “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny to have Jared and Jensen play AU Winchesters that are over-the-top opposite of our boys?” “Oh yeah, the fans would love that too!” And thus was birthed the mess that was this episode (and makes me despair again that TPTB really are clueless about what kind of ending the fans want…)
They needed to give Jack his soul back, so they concocted a story that completely contradicts Sister Jo’s backstory from her initial appearance in season 13 of getting her vessel after the angels fell from Heaven which was season 8. Ruby was killed off in season 4. There’s no way they worked together. Ruby hiding the Occultum from Jo, Jo hiding it from Ruby—the whole story about it and them made no sense! The entire trip to Hell (there’s that handy-dandy spell again!) looking for the Occultum was pointless. Jack’s trip to the garden of Eden was an excuse for flashbacks of his life. Dean and Cas standing around arguing in the church while Sam is the only one holding the doors against the Hellhounds—nobody noticed he could use some help? Sam and Dean have been out of the Bunker multiple times since Chuck’s reappeared and never worried about him looking for them there before so why the big deal about leaving stand-ins this time? And Chuck wouldn’t have noticed they were the wrong Sam and Dean after one sentence from them? Argh.
Not the best episode to wrap up on. Sigh.
I am so anxious about being disappointed, not only by the finale but since there are only 7 episodes left, can they all be well-written? I know, asking too much…Deep breath. Lower expectations…
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Date: 2020-09-21 10:06 am (UTC)Yeah, show just can't juggle all those storylines. If the show isn't centered around Sam and Dean then what's the point?
Loved the good eps you mentioned, especially "the gamblers" Even though the other eps weren't the best, every time J2 were on screen I couldn't look away.
Hoping for a well written series end 🙏
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Date: 2020-09-21 01:31 pm (UTC)That's the heart of the show right there.
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Date: 2020-09-21 08:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-21 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-21 08:47 pm (UTC)But mostly I agree with all your comments, you've reminded me of all the things that niggled me, as well as the few things I enjoyed...
I'm very apprehensive for the next few episodes, but ready to be totally disappointed by the two finales.
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Date: 2020-09-21 10:07 pm (UTC)The Heroes' Journey really did upset me the first time but knowing it is followed by The Gamblers helped through the rewatch.
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Date: 2020-09-21 11:25 pm (UTC)Yep. I mean, yep to a lot of this, but especially that bit.
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Date: 2020-09-21 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-22 09:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-23 02:28 am (UTC)Glynn and Perez will probably get another episode each in the final 7, so that's 2 against 5 that we can count on not to be a total dog's breakfast : /
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Date: 2020-09-23 03:02 am (UTC)I think you hit the nail on the head there.
I don't think Andrew Dabb gets the heart that Kripke gave the show initially, and he certainly doesn't know how to craft episodes that mean something, his specialty is one-shot novelty ideas. :(
no subject
Date: 2020-09-23 03:54 am (UTC)