Rewatch S6: Mommy Dearest (6.19)

[hells_half_acre]

Next up, Mommy Dearest...

It occurred to me this morning that technically the clothes in Frontierland are costumes, and therefore can't go in the Clothing Catalogue. I was kind of bummed about that, even though it would save me a lot of work...so, I made an exception for the duster and Sam's white shirt. Just because I happen to really like coats, and I make the rules, so I can break them if I want.

I'm kind of not in the mood to do this today, but I really do want to get done before November, so I'll do it anyway! I always enjoy Supernatural, even when I'm not feeling as ethusiastic as usual. I also don't think it helps that we're getting to the episodes that I've seen recently. I haven't given myself enough time to forget them. 

Anyway, let's see what we see...

"Back where I'm from, it was like 3 dollars a beer..."

-Where are you from? In Prague, the beers were 50 cents. I'm not saying it was GOOD beer...

Anyway, thank you one dude in bar who actually asks if the barefoot girl in the bloody nightie is okay. I'm sorry you get turned into a spontaneously-combusting monster.

I also like the use of Sexy Thing in this episode. 

I can really see why stunt guys like working on this show. Haha.

"Hey, how're you doing?"

"Five shells, that's how I'm doing."

-See, I thought they should pack the phoenix ash into something more compact than shotgun shells - more chances! But I guess it's harder to put phoenix ash in other sorts of bullets.

"This stuff is supposed to burn the bejesus out of Eve, doesn't even give me a sunburn."
-I like how Sam jumps when Dean smears it on his arm. That being said, they shouldn't be too surprised by this - like Sam says, it's not like they are hurt by silver or iron like monsters are.

"Why does it always have to be me that makes the call, huh? It's not like Cas lives in my ass, the dude's busy." *Cas appears* "Cas! Get out of my ass."

"I was never in y-" *squinty eyes.*

-Ah, humour. You will be sadly lacking in the future - and I think this is the last bit of humourous Dean/Cas stuff that we get for...well...ever. *sadface*

"I remember. Your hunter friend tried to kill me."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, he turned into a vampire and I chopped his head off."

"Yeah, with razor-wire. Wicked."

-Haha, I love Dean - it's like he's a fan of his own show. 

I like the way Lenore talks...also, she has nice eyes.

"Hold on, I didn't tell you this out of the goodness of my heart. I need something."

"What?"

"Kill me"

...

"You're not like the rest of them."

"I'm exactly like the rest of them..."

- I thought it was inordinately (and accidentally) cruel of Lenore to ask this of Sam - to beg SAM. Because Sam is the champion of nurture over nature and will over fate.

"We needed to move this along."

-When I first watched this, I thought that Castiel was doing Sam a kindness, by killing Lenore instead of waiting until she forced Sam to do it. Other people saw it as a callous/cruel act. I'm not so sure which it is. I do, though, appreciate it on Sam's behalf - because either way, it took the decision out of his hands and made it so that Sam didn't have time to dwell on what Lenore's failure might mean.

"Well, if she is here, I'm glad we got Smitey McSmiterson on our squad."

-I use the -black-y Mc-blank-ton/son all the time, so I just love that Dean does it too here. Mostly when I'm driving behind Slowy McSlowerton.

"Alright, I finally got the police database, no thanks to this. I asked for a computer!"

"It is a computer!"

"No, a computer has buttons."

-I'm with Bobby on this one.

"I'll search the town. Give me a moment."

"Cas, we can still see you."

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"Ok, you don't have to wait on us."

-I don't really have any notes on this. I just like it.

"Something's wrong."

"What are you stuck?"

"I'm blocked. I'm powerless."

"You're joking."

"Something in this town is effecting me. I assume it's Eve."

"So, wait, mom's making you limp?"

"Figuratively, yes."

"How?"

"I don't know, but she is."

"Oh that's great, because without your power, you're basically just a baby in a trench coat."

Sam *whispers*: "I think you hurt his feelings."

-Awww, and SO IT BEGINS! Technically, Dean's not wrong...but it's never good to point these things out so blankly. Actually, the more I watched this episode, the more I realized that Castiel's final arc here is a lot like Sam's S4 arc, where he's trying to prove to Dean that he's a badass dude who can handle everything AND save Dean too. Only, he goes about it all wrong and just pisses Dean off. This isn't a criticism of course, because there are differences, but it's a similar bent. Dean is coddling too much, Castiel is screwing up independence, and the world is going to pay the price.

"What kind of Doctor calls the CDC and then stashes the patient's corpse in the shed."

"I don't know what's going on here."

-This is very similar to the exchange Dean and Sam often have ("What the hell?" "I don't know" "No seriously, what the hell?" "I DON'T KNOW!") except that Cas looks REALLY annoyed like he doesn't realize that this is just what Dean does, and he doesn't actually expect Castiel to know. My sister once had a friend who did this during movies, "who's that guy? Is he the bad guy?" Me: "How should I know? Did I get here before you? Did someone send me the script ahead of time?"

The silver Chrysler Dean is in - we used to have one like that. It was an oddity, because up until then my family only drove German or Russian cars...and then suddenly we had this American car. We called it The Boat. It got infested with snakes one year (we obviously weren't driving it at the time.)

"I'm fairly unpracticed with firearms."

"You know who whines? Babies."

-People get so mad at Dean for being mean to Castiel. It reminds me of the whole MEAN TO DEAN thing, where people STILL haven't forgiven Sam for making fun of Dean's homemade EMFmeter. In Dean's defense though, he is just being a guy. You rib your friends. You also say this sort of stuff when you are really trying to say, "prove to me you are competent, and I'll stop making fun of your inability to do anything." 

I want THAT Extra-gig - lie around and be dead, while covered in blood. Mind you, you'd have to be good at not breathing, and I'm not sure I can do that. I've tried, but even when I hold my breath, my chest moves with my heartbeat.

"We got a Vamp over here. No, scratch that, we have a wraith - what the hell? What has teeth and spike?"

...

"Well congrats, you discovered it, you get to name it."

"Jefferson Starships - because they're horrible and hard to kill."

-I love how Dean takes Bobby so seriously, and then is so proud of himself for the name. Brilliant.

"Looks like the whole bar has been turned into these-"

"Jefferson Starships!"

"Fine. But why are all the..starships dead?"

-I also love how Sam tries to resist calling them Jefferson Starships, and yet, he has to.

*Sam sees that the police men are monsters*
"Jefferson Starships!"
-It's like a split second, but you can almost see Sam's mind go "Must warn other's about Monsters, but only name they'll understand is ridiculous - bah! Must say it anyway!" This my friend, is how nouns are born...when there is no other option.

Ah the Winchester's kryptonite...cute little brothers from broken homes.

"Dean, millions of lives are at stake here, not just two. Stay focused."

"Are you kidding?"

"There's a greater purpose here"

"You know what, I'm getting a little sick and tired of the greater purposes. I think what I'd like to do is save a couple of kids. We'll catch up."

-Ah, it's out theme of The End Do Not Justify The Means. Cas is looking at the bigger picture, and Dean doesn't want the bigger picture if it means that they can't save adorable orphaned boys. Technically, although Cas is right about these particular orphans, Dean is right over all. If you are only focused on the end goal and will do anything to get there, you'll soon find that the end goal is dissatisfying and not at all worth it.

"Hey, you should get some rest"

-Awww...if only they weren't secretly evil monsters. They make Sam and Dean look sort-of-at-each-other all loving-like.

"They won't take long."

"You don't know that. They may find more wayward orphans along the way."

"Don't get cute."

"Right, pardon me for highlighting their crippling and dangerous empathetic response with 'sarcasm.' It was a bad idea letting them go."

"Oh come on, you don't let Sam and Dean Winchester do squat. They do what they gotta, you know that..."

-We don't get very many scenes with just Bobby and Castiel, do we? I mean, there's this one, and the brief ones in Frontierland...but I can't really remember any before those. 
-I do like that Bobby points out that Sam and Dean can't be forced into anything...really, Castiel should have headed this advice when he thought he could slow them down by destroying Sam's wall.

"I need five-minutes alone with him."

...

"Eve's at 25 Buckley St. Call Sam and Dean."

-Now, this was what I see as the first MAJOR red-flag when it comes to Castiel in this episode. Well, that and just how adamant he was that Dean and Sam forget about the orphans. He's REALLY keen on Eve, and technically, Eve should have nothing to do with the war in heaven.

"Crap crap crap..."

"Starships?"

"Yeah"

"Is there anyone in this diner who's not a flesh eating monster?"

"Me and you."

-I like this.

"So I dusted off some of the old classics. I needed help."

"To what? tear apart the planet?"

"You misunderstand me. I never wanted that. Not at first. I liked our arrangement."

"What arrangement?"

"The natural order. My children turn a few of you, you hunted a few of them. I was happy."

"Okay, so what changed?"

"My children, no thanks to you, started getting kidnapped and tortured - even my firstborns. I was pushed into this. After all, a mother defends her children."
- And here's where we find out that Eve is actually a little sympathetic. A LITTLE. Before this point, she was a little like a Reaper - a monster, but there to preserve the perceived natural order of things. Her hand has been forced into doing otherwise, because someone else went against the natural order first...no one is supposed to find purgatory, and demons aren't supposed to hunt and torture monsters.

"You know what, maybe you'll believe it if I look a little more like this...."

-I like Samantha Smith. I really like how she plays Eve too, because she keeps the teenage-quality of the original Eve, but also has the more mature-quality that any good villain should have.

"Crowley's alive."

-And with this line, Eve reveals her true Red Herring-ness. It's not with her that we should be concerned.

"That's impossible"

"I see his face through the eyes of every child he strings up and skins. Any idea why he's hurting my babies?"

"He wants purgatory, location location location-"

"Is that what he told you? It's about the souls..."

-Again, reiterating the fact that Eve isn't the end-game of the season, solving this soul-mystery is. She's just a passing level on the Winchester's way to the TRUE big-bad.

"Fuel, each soul a beautiful little nuclear reactor, and together, you have the sun....now Crowley wants to siphon off my supply and torture my children to do it. Fine, I'll turn you all - every soul, mine, see how hot his hell burns when every soul comes to me."

-It's an interesting plan, but only works if Eve can guarantee that no one will ever find purgatory.

"You look upset. If it makes you feel any better, Ryan was bound to work on you - little wayward orphan, like yourself. There's nothing you can do about it now. So let's talk!"

"Nothing to say,"

"I have an offer to propose: Crowley. As you know, not so easy to find. So, you find him, bring him to me. I let you live."

"Pass"

"Dean" 

"Sam, no. The answer is no."
-This season is all about deals, blackmail, and desperation.

"And you, wondering why you're so flaccid - I'm older than you, Castiel, I know what makes angels tick. As long as I'm around, consider yourself unplugged."

-I do like the idea of things older than angels. I also have a fondness for Castiel-Unplugged.

"...we don't work with demons, we don't work with monsters, and if that means you gotta kill us, kill us!"

- I do like that the Winchesters seem to have finally learnt this lesson.

Eve: "Don't test me."

Dean: "Bite me"

Sam: "NO!"

Cas: "DEAN!"

- Dean's parents are always getting possessed and going all pervy on him - haha. Seriously, it's like...a reverse Oedipus or something.
- On a more serious not, I do like the reactions of Sam and Castiel.

"Phoenix ash! One shell, one ounce of whiskey, down the hatch. Little musty on the afterburn...*mumbles something I can't here*"

- I was wondering, because when Dean handed out the shot-gun shells, he said "one for each of us." And there's only four of them, but they made five shells. I wonder when he took the whiskey shot.

So, someone mentioned (and I guess technically this is a S7 spoiler, so if you haven't seen S7 yet, don't read this paragraph), that there was a theory that Eve was a leviathan. In which case, phoenix ash would kill the leviathans - if they still have any left (they should have at least two shells, maybe three.) And, I guess, it's because Eve bled black gooey water when she died, along with blood. The problem with that, I think, is that the black goo probably isn't unique to the leviathans. It's probably a trait of any Purgatory-based being. As in, any creature who is of purgatory and not of earth. So, yeah, I don't think Eve was a leviathan...she was just from the same genus.

"SHUT YOUR EYES!"

Bobby: "We gotta take you on more monster hunts."

- Does any one think that another one of Cas' problems might be that he thinks people only like him when he's all powerful? I don't think that should be true, because he did a pretty good job in S5 when he was cut-off...but sometimes I wonder. He IS pretty awesome.

"We gotta go"

"Where?"

"The kid. The little kid was one of them"

"Unbelievable"

"I know, Cas, you told me. Let's just go."
-This is the thing with Dean - yes, he made a mistake with the orphans, and Cas was right, but Dean ADMITS it. Castiel hasn't learnt to admit when he is wrong yet.

"So what do you think?"

"I think demons don't give a crap about monster twins unless they're told to."

"So you think she was telling the truth."

"Truth about what?"

"She says that Crowley's still kicking."

"But I burned his bones, what. Was she certain?"

"Sounded pretty sure. According to her, Crowley's still waterboarding her kids, somewhere."

"I don't understand."

"Well he's a crafty son of a bitch."

"I'm an angel. I'll look into it immediately."

- Castiel does a pretty good job of lying here.

"What? What?"

"How did Crowley get away? It's not like Cas to make mistakes like that, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless he meant to."

"Bobby, this is Cas we're talking about. Do you believe this? Sam?"

"It's probably nothing, it's just...no, you're right. It's probably nothing."
-And now we get all sadface, because Dean is going to have to start second guessing his bestest-buddy-in-the-whole-world. And Sam doesn't really want to believe it either - and even if he does already, he doesn't want to shatter Dean's faith in his friend unless he has to.

"Really Cas, this is getting ridiculous. How many times am I going to have to clean up your messes."

- So, here's the thing about the S5 finale. A lot of people were all upset that Sam basically left Dean ALL ALONE AND LONELY. But, Sam sent Dean to people who could look after him the way he needed - someone who was empathetic and would understand human grief and suffering at least on the basic level. Really, at the end of S5, Dean wasn't alone at all. The person who was left all alone was Castiel. And yes, he isolated himself by hesitating going to Dean...but inevitably, Crowley could prey on the fact that Castiel really had no one else to turn to when he needed someone to save him from the mess that Dean and Sam left behind (or rather, Michael+Raphael left behind). Crowley has sold sin to saints for centuries...I think Castiel was relatively easy prey.


Now, with the rest of my afternoon, I think I might go to the hardware store and buy screws so that I can fix the inside doorknob on the front-door of my apartment. It comes off in your hand at the moment. If I don't fix it, I fear that I might actually DIAF, because it takes me about two minutes to open the door. Isn't my life thrilling?

I do have a physio appointment today too, which will be nice :) Also, more good news on that front: because I am poor, the BC government WILL pay for my physio appointments! So yay! Cute physiotherapist AND I don't have to pay to see him. Life is not that bad after all! I'm glad I live in Canada.