Quick Reaction: 9x02 Devil May Care
Oct. 16th, 2013 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreAlright!! So, I watched this episode on the east coast feed and then took off to a local Vancouver event for free drinks - so, not only did I watch the episode hours ago and I now have to remember it, but I've also been drinking since then...It's a good thing I'm unemployed, because I sound horribly irresponsible for a Tuesday night. But, come on, free booze!!
No song for the cut-text this week...so, ummm... maybe I'll use a quote from the show or something... I'll think about it while I type.
We open with an extremely brief scene of someone dragging a charred body into a bathtub. Gross. Would a body really burn that much on it's own? I don't know the science of bodies burning, but I always just figured that there was a limit to how much bodies would burn without an outside fuel source to feed the fire. But, um, probably if I can buy the angels and demons, I should just shut up about how scientifically realistic the charred body is given the circumstances of the burning..
Cut to Dean, who is just chilling on a picnic bench. How did they get there? Is this something they do..just stop the care so that Dean can nap on a picnic bench while Sam wanders off somewhere? I'm not complaining, I really like it. I love seeing the Winchester's in mundane "domestic" tasks.
Anyway, there they are, napping in the shade, chatting it up - and then Dean's like, "oh hey, I've still got the King of Hell in my trunk." :P
Oh! But before that, I loved the conversation where Sam was like, "Did you kill him?" and Dean said, "well, I was going to, but then I thought - What Would Sam Winchester Do?" and Sam says, "I'd stab him in the neck." And Dean is just like, "Oh." Hahahahaha... seriously, I love these brothers so hard.
Anyhow, it's off to the Bunker to torture Crowley into giving up the names of all the demons and whatnot. Yay!
Kevin is there and freaking out! Kevin always gets so sweaty and unshowered when he freaks out - I mean, seriously, he should start working in showers to his panic routine, rather than just overturning tables and finding crossbows....though I do commend him on that part. I love Dean just humouring Kevin with the whole "things must have started working again when you came home" thing.
Kevin is not impressed to see Crowley - and you can understand why. He DID lose a finger to the guy... and a mother... and honestly thought that he was going to be killed by him in their last encounter.
Sam and Dean haul Crowley to the torture room and start the interrogation process. I loved how awkward Dean looked when Crowley made the "put the S-A-M into S-&-M" comment - me and my friend made "tippity tap tap" hand motions to each other and giggled. (Did I mention that my mum is visiting? My mum is visiting. This is the first full episode of Supernatural that she's ever seen, though for the past two years I've watched the livestream of Jared's NerdHQ panels with her in the summer - and she frequently reads the comments to this blog - so, say hi to my mum in comments! She's READING YOU!)
I actually thought that Sam and Dean's method of torturing Crowley (solitary confinement) was quite ingenious given his personality. Torture really would only make him happy - and Sam knows enough about him now to know that Crowley secretly may crave attention/love. Also, I think Dean learned from Alistair that using physical torture isn't effective against someone who is a pro at psychological torture too... so it's better to go with psychological torture - and since Sam and Dean can't weave words the way Crowley can, it makes sense that they'd do it through other methods.
Then it's back to the library to get yelled at by Kevin and start researching demonic activity.
Meanwhile, there's a demon resurrecting Abbadon (Abaddon?...to the SuperWiki!...Abaddon). Anyway, Abaddon is getting resurrected and BAM, she's a naked gorgeous woman, who I have to say looks different with her hair down...
She summons demons to her and then is like "What the heck, demon minions? Why are you okay with Crowley being King of Hell?!?!" Okay, it sounds like I'm making fun, but I actually loved her speech about how a king should fight. It's the warrior-king vs. the governor-king. Crowley governs. I loved the grandma-demon - she was good. And Abaddon actually does take what she says and start the journey to try to appease her and the demons who might think like her...she needs Crowley's body.
Now, this is something I'm curious about? Can the demons tell if a demon was killed in a dead body or if it's just a dead body? Because it's a vessel right - it's not like Abaddon can show up with a dead puff of smoke. So, there's still a certain amount of trust going on here, unless the demonds can tell that the demon died inside the vessel just by examining the dead vessel. But again, I guess I'm being super nitpicky.
Meanwhile, Dean is calling his friends to tell them about the angels, and there's a Canada shot out!! Werewolf twins in Saskatoon!!! Bobby always talking about it everytime he drank Labatts! I LOVE IT!
Also, there's a girl getting picked up at the side of the road while wearing shorty shorts... and a vampire picks her up! And you're like "Oh man, vampire!! Are we going to have a vampire problem in this episode too?! But nope, it's a trick! She's not a stereotypical female horror victim, she's a hunter!
Sadly though, she's an abducted hunter.
Abaddon is trying to track down the Winchesters, and she's asking hunters to find them. I love the mirrors in SPN, how Sam and Dean are trying to get demon whereabouts out of Crowley, and Abaddon is trying to get Hunter wereabouts from Hunters.
Oh, possibly before all that happened though - Abaddon and her cronies stole some soldier bodies....poor soldiers. But, that leads Dean and Sam to investigate the three dead people found on the bus and the missing soldiers. They get there and discover that the military police person isn't just going to let the FBI in on her crime scene and wants to talk to their supervisor. The boys don't have Bobby anymore, and I guess Garth never set up a line for the Winchesters or he's MIA or something... so Dean puts in a call to Kevin, who is most confused.
But he's Kevin Solo - oh! and I forgot to mention how Sam and Dean were using Banner and Stark as their aliases! Awesome Avengers love!! Also quite fitting personality-wise for the brothers. Anyway, back to Kevin Solo... I love that Kevin uses the skills he DOES have to help Sam and Dean. He might not know how to impersonate and FBI official that sounds older than a 19 year-old, but he does know how to hack into a military database in less then 30 seconds and come up with blackmail material. Seriously, I'm looking forward to the episode where Kevin meets Charlie... it's gotta happen eventually, PLEASE!
It was Kevin's BAMF moment, and I loved it. I also loved Dean's "good job" - like Kevin just delights him.
Anyhoo, the boys find out that the people on the bus all had fatal wounds... some decades old. I had a momentary thought that maybe Crowley secretly wasn't as evil as we thought and he was using bodies that had died already or something for his demons...but then I remembered that Crowley killed Kevin's girlfriend and tortures people and... yeah... so, that thought was short-lived. That being said, I do think Crowley is a safer King of Hell than Abaddon!! Maybe I'm falling for the "devil you know" syndrome, but honestly...Abaddon terrifies me.
Meanwhile, Abaddon is calling Kevin...and threatening him...and STAY AWAY FROM KEVIN, ABADDON!! Oh man... seriously, Abaddon is going to kill everyone I love and I'm going to be super sad.
But the jist of the phone call is that she's got two hunters tied up in an abandoned town and wants Sam and Dean to come get them and walk into a trap. So, Sam and Dean do, because that's the way they role. Whilst they do that, Dean sends Kevin to the records room to find info on the Knights of Hell and how one might go about killing them.
Kevin, of course, stumbled upon Crowley...or rather, stumbled into proximity of Crowley and Crowley heard him and recognized his footsteps... which I think is cute, because of my own experience with recognizing footsteps (I used to be able to hear my bestfriend approaching my dorm room from the moment he got off the elevator on my floor.)
Sadly, although Kevin was told to stay away from Crowley, he suffers from Marty McFly Syndrome, and cannot withstand someone calling him weak... so he walks into the room and let's Crowley goad him into getting his anger out. And more power to him, Crowley DID torture Kevin, and kill his girlfriend and his mother...if Kevin were a Winchester, Crowley would have been dead by now. Crowley, of course, teases Kevin that his mother is still alive and maybe just wishes she were dead... and then launches into a lengthier and more emphatic speech than his line in 8x02 about how the Winchesters just want to use Kevin up and then leave him for dead like they do with everyone, blah blah blah... Seriously, both 8x02 and 9x02 have the same Crowley to Kevin message. Both times, Kevin lets Crowley convince him of this too... though, in this case, Crowley also emphasizes how Kevin's a prisoner, and that if he frees Crowley they can walk out of Winchester prison together, etc.
Meanwhile, Sam and Dean are walking into a trap! They're going to a section of a town that was abandoned due to a chemical spill... Dean is concerned for his balls. :P Seriously, I think walking into a demon's trap is more dangerous to your balls than walking over contaminated ground.
They rescue the hunters and then discover that the demons have assault rifles...that's not good. I like how Travis(?) asks Dean what the plan is though... again, I'm a sucker for the fact that the Winchesters are basically the absolute elite of the hunters now. I also love the fact that Dean just thinks and comes up with a plan.
The plan, is to lure the demons into the diner and then circle around and take them out. It's very similar to what happened at Stalingrad actually - only with far less people of course. Anyyyyyyyyyyyyyway.... the plan gets momentarily scuffered when the girl doesn't want to work with Sam because the demons that killed her entire family were all happy that Sam had released Lucifer. Sam's feelings are super hurt by bringing up that mistake in his past - a mistake, I would like point out, that he has ALREADY made up for by, oh yeah, DEFEATING LUCIFER AND BREAKING HIS OWN BRAIN! Geeeez... luckily Dean is Team Sam and totally schools the girl on the fact that Sam was only trying to do the right thing and had it blow up in his face.
Sam meanwhile, travels with Travis(?) to the otherside, but Travis has other plans - because speaking about making absolutely horrible mistakes in your past - Abaddon had tortured him into giving up the other hunters and it's ALL HIS FAULT that one of them is dead and Sam and Dean and the girl might soon be dead and sadface forever. In his protests about taking on a suicide mission, he accidentally walks out from out of cover and gets shot in the chest - so, now, not only did he give up his friends, but he also has left Sam with absolutely no backup! Nice one.
Sidenote that just occurred to me: I wander how he and Bobby got across the border with their weapons? Or did they have a connection in Canada for the necessary guns? Or did they rob a gun shop once they were here?
On the other side of the pincer movement, Dean and the girl are ambushed by Abaddon, who is wearing a kevlar vest so the girls' gun does nothing to slow her down, even though they're the special devil's trap bullets in them. THIS IS WHY WE DO HEAD-SHOTS PEOPLE!!! Honestly.
Dean distracts with some holy water and gives the girl the keys to the Impala so that she can drive in and hopefully save him (or Sam). Abaddon and Dean have a talk, after it really looks like she breaks his arm, but apparently she just twists it something fierce. I really liked this conversation and Dean was right, it WAS very mixed signals about whether she was going to kill him or make out with him. But no, she wants to peel the tattoo off his skin and then possess him and torture him that way. Lovely... I'm starting to think that Cas should have taken the time when he was still an angel to crave that antipossession charm into their bones too.
While all this is going on, Sam is getting his ass handed to him by three soldier demons. He lasts a good long time, but it's just to much, and eventually they knock him unconscious... which is when Ezekiel is like OK ENOUGH! And gets to the smiting. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the broken angel wings!!! That was super super cool. And yeah, that whole scene was bad-ass and awesome.
Zeke smites the demons and Abaddon realizes that Dean brought an angel to the party and disappears. Dean runs into the diner place to check on Sam and finds Ezekiel there, giving the dead demons knife wounds as an alibi. This scene was great between the two of them, and Jared did much better with this scene (actually the first filmed) then the scene in the 9x01... I think he's still a little bit robotic, but yeah... I think I'm spoiled by Misha S4 performance. Ezekiel really does remind me of S4 Cas, so I think I keep wanting him to be like that, you know? But yeah, Jared did a good job in this episode.
We also find out that Dean's not only upset because he can't talk to Sam about how he's lying to Sam, but that he's also upset because he feels that all of this is his fault because he was the one that insisted Sam stop the trials - that chose his brother over freeing the world of demons. (Arguably, not only that, but he and Sam were also the ones that killed Abaddon and then sewed her back together again and didn't WATCH HER CLOSELY ENOUGH.)
So, yeah, Dean's feeling hella guilty and he's not even sure if he can trust Zeke. "I'm going to call you Zeke". And I loved Zeke's "I am a good guy. Though, I suppose that's what a bad guy would say..." or whatever the line was. But Ezekiel knows that what Dean did, he did out of love, and that's why Ezekiel is helping them, because apparently Ezekiel digs that sort of thing (if Ezekiel can be trusted that is!!). I also loved Dean's line about "I don't usually talk about the... love... or the... love."
Anyway, Ezekiel gets back into position and Sam wakes up confused - apparently Dean killed three demons while Sam was unconscious. He can't believe it, but Dean insists that he's just that awesome, and Sam agrees... and it's gotta twist the knife a little further into Dean that he's not only lying to his brother, but Sam thinks he's awesome for something he didn't even do...
Then the girl shows up with the car. Seriously? Didn't Dean say it was only 3 blocks away? I thought Dean and Sam should test her for demon possession because that was CRAZY suspicious!! But nope, apparently she's fine.
Then it's back to the bunker to bring Kevin a bucket of chicken....only Kevin's not immediately visible - so they run off to the dungeon to discover that someone has worked Crowley over. More than that, Crowley is giving them demon names as a gesture of sorts. Apparently, Crowley gets a kick out of winding Kevin up... personally though, I think their isolation torture was working, because Crowley was getting flashbacks and human-emotion thinky-thoughts and latched onto being cruel to Kevin and having Kevin torture him as a way to distract himself from those thoughts.
Anyway, Sam stays with Crowley and Dean runs off to find Kevin, who has packed a bag and is storming off. Kevin didn't fall hook-line-and-sinker into Crowley's words, but maybe just hook. Crowley is still locked up, but Kevin is taking off because his mom might still be alive out there and Dean and Sam are just using him.
And then Dean tells him that's not true - and I NEARLY cried at this speech. I have to say that Jensen and Osric did a fantastic job with this scene. Dean tells Kevin that he's not just useful, he's family - that all he, Sam, Kevin, and Cas have are each other, and that they'd die for Kevin. And OH MAN THE FEELINGS! Kevin cries, Dean is basically telling him that they love him... even though he told Ezekiel that he doesn't do that sort of thing.
Final scene of the episode - Sam and Dean are chillin' while Kevin sleeps off the angst. Dean asks Sam how he's doing - and Sam actually says that he's great, that he's got his friends and his family and he feels like he can make a difference in the world, and that he's actually HAPPY for the first time in...forever... and Dean's like "good to know, I'm going to try not to look shady right now."
My friend: "Angels are an anti-depressant! Who knew!"
So, this episode was all about setting up the season, and even though I'm terrified of Abaddon, and there's someone inside Sam that I'm not sure we can trust...the Winchesters are actually in a pretty good place, and they still have Kevin on their team too - which is good news. So, yeah, I mean, it seems like they've just created WAY more problems by NOT closing the gates of hell for arguably selfish reasons... so, yeah, the shit is going to hit the fan soon, for sure... but I really hope they're able to stay in a relatively good place for a LITTLE bit. I know when Sam finds out about Zeke, he's going to be SO MAD...and I know Dean is slowly drowning in guilt (seriously, he's the worst secret keeper among the Winchesters...John was the best, Sam is second best, even Adam was probably better than Dean.)... but yeah, hopefully all that fall-out will be mitigated by something?
So, good episode!!
Let me know what I missed in comments!!
Mum says: Are you still typing about that one episode? You sure got a lot out of that one episode.
(She said that 15 minutes ago and has since said that she'll see me in the morning. I DID warn her that I'd be a horrible host on Supernatural night! She finished crocheting herself a scarf while I wrote this... seriously, it's been 2 hours. There is nothing "quick" about my "quick reaction.")
No song for the cut-text this week...so, ummm... maybe I'll use a quote from the show or something... I'll think about it while I type.
We open with an extremely brief scene of someone dragging a charred body into a bathtub. Gross. Would a body really burn that much on it's own? I don't know the science of bodies burning, but I always just figured that there was a limit to how much bodies would burn without an outside fuel source to feed the fire. But, um, probably if I can buy the angels and demons, I should just shut up about how scientifically realistic the charred body is given the circumstances of the burning..
Cut to Dean, who is just chilling on a picnic bench. How did they get there? Is this something they do..just stop the care so that Dean can nap on a picnic bench while Sam wanders off somewhere? I'm not complaining, I really like it. I love seeing the Winchester's in mundane "domestic" tasks.
Anyway, there they are, napping in the shade, chatting it up - and then Dean's like, "oh hey, I've still got the King of Hell in my trunk." :P
Oh! But before that, I loved the conversation where Sam was like, "Did you kill him?" and Dean said, "well, I was going to, but then I thought - What Would Sam Winchester Do?" and Sam says, "I'd stab him in the neck." And Dean is just like, "Oh." Hahahahaha... seriously, I love these brothers so hard.
Anyhow, it's off to the Bunker to torture Crowley into giving up the names of all the demons and whatnot. Yay!
Kevin is there and freaking out! Kevin always gets so sweaty and unshowered when he freaks out - I mean, seriously, he should start working in showers to his panic routine, rather than just overturning tables and finding crossbows....though I do commend him on that part. I love Dean just humouring Kevin with the whole "things must have started working again when you came home" thing.
Kevin is not impressed to see Crowley - and you can understand why. He DID lose a finger to the guy... and a mother... and honestly thought that he was going to be killed by him in their last encounter.
Sam and Dean haul Crowley to the torture room and start the interrogation process. I loved how awkward Dean looked when Crowley made the "put the S-A-M into S-&-M" comment - me and my friend made "tippity tap tap" hand motions to each other and giggled. (Did I mention that my mum is visiting? My mum is visiting. This is the first full episode of Supernatural that she's ever seen, though for the past two years I've watched the livestream of Jared's NerdHQ panels with her in the summer - and she frequently reads the comments to this blog - so, say hi to my mum in comments! She's READING YOU!)
I actually thought that Sam and Dean's method of torturing Crowley (solitary confinement) was quite ingenious given his personality. Torture really would only make him happy - and Sam knows enough about him now to know that Crowley secretly may crave attention/love. Also, I think Dean learned from Alistair that using physical torture isn't effective against someone who is a pro at psychological torture too... so it's better to go with psychological torture - and since Sam and Dean can't weave words the way Crowley can, it makes sense that they'd do it through other methods.
Then it's back to the library to get yelled at by Kevin and start researching demonic activity.
Meanwhile, there's a demon resurrecting Abbadon (Abaddon?...to the SuperWiki!...Abaddon). Anyway, Abaddon is getting resurrected and BAM, she's a naked gorgeous woman, who I have to say looks different with her hair down...
She summons demons to her and then is like "What the heck, demon minions? Why are you okay with Crowley being King of Hell?!?!" Okay, it sounds like I'm making fun, but I actually loved her speech about how a king should fight. It's the warrior-king vs. the governor-king. Crowley governs. I loved the grandma-demon - she was good. And Abaddon actually does take what she says and start the journey to try to appease her and the demons who might think like her...she needs Crowley's body.
Now, this is something I'm curious about? Can the demons tell if a demon was killed in a dead body or if it's just a dead body? Because it's a vessel right - it's not like Abaddon can show up with a dead puff of smoke. So, there's still a certain amount of trust going on here, unless the demonds can tell that the demon died inside the vessel just by examining the dead vessel. But again, I guess I'm being super nitpicky.
Meanwhile, Dean is calling his friends to tell them about the angels, and there's a Canada shot out!! Werewolf twins in Saskatoon!!! Bobby always talking about it everytime he drank Labatts! I LOVE IT!
Also, there's a girl getting picked up at the side of the road while wearing shorty shorts... and a vampire picks her up! And you're like "Oh man, vampire!! Are we going to have a vampire problem in this episode too?! But nope, it's a trick! She's not a stereotypical female horror victim, she's a hunter!
Sadly though, she's an abducted hunter.
Abaddon is trying to track down the Winchesters, and she's asking hunters to find them. I love the mirrors in SPN, how Sam and Dean are trying to get demon whereabouts out of Crowley, and Abaddon is trying to get Hunter wereabouts from Hunters.
Oh, possibly before all that happened though - Abaddon and her cronies stole some soldier bodies....poor soldiers. But, that leads Dean and Sam to investigate the three dead people found on the bus and the missing soldiers. They get there and discover that the military police person isn't just going to let the FBI in on her crime scene and wants to talk to their supervisor. The boys don't have Bobby anymore, and I guess Garth never set up a line for the Winchesters or he's MIA or something... so Dean puts in a call to Kevin, who is most confused.
But he's Kevin Solo - oh! and I forgot to mention how Sam and Dean were using Banner and Stark as their aliases! Awesome Avengers love!! Also quite fitting personality-wise for the brothers. Anyway, back to Kevin Solo... I love that Kevin uses the skills he DOES have to help Sam and Dean. He might not know how to impersonate and FBI official that sounds older than a 19 year-old, but he does know how to hack into a military database in less then 30 seconds and come up with blackmail material. Seriously, I'm looking forward to the episode where Kevin meets Charlie... it's gotta happen eventually, PLEASE!
It was Kevin's BAMF moment, and I loved it. I also loved Dean's "good job" - like Kevin just delights him.
Anyhoo, the boys find out that the people on the bus all had fatal wounds... some decades old. I had a momentary thought that maybe Crowley secretly wasn't as evil as we thought and he was using bodies that had died already or something for his demons...but then I remembered that Crowley killed Kevin's girlfriend and tortures people and... yeah... so, that thought was short-lived. That being said, I do think Crowley is a safer King of Hell than Abaddon!! Maybe I'm falling for the "devil you know" syndrome, but honestly...Abaddon terrifies me.
Meanwhile, Abaddon is calling Kevin...and threatening him...and STAY AWAY FROM KEVIN, ABADDON!! Oh man... seriously, Abaddon is going to kill everyone I love and I'm going to be super sad.
But the jist of the phone call is that she's got two hunters tied up in an abandoned town and wants Sam and Dean to come get them and walk into a trap. So, Sam and Dean do, because that's the way they role. Whilst they do that, Dean sends Kevin to the records room to find info on the Knights of Hell and how one might go about killing them.
Kevin, of course, stumbled upon Crowley...or rather, stumbled into proximity of Crowley and Crowley heard him and recognized his footsteps... which I think is cute, because of my own experience with recognizing footsteps (I used to be able to hear my bestfriend approaching my dorm room from the moment he got off the elevator on my floor.)
Sadly, although Kevin was told to stay away from Crowley, he suffers from Marty McFly Syndrome, and cannot withstand someone calling him weak... so he walks into the room and let's Crowley goad him into getting his anger out. And more power to him, Crowley DID torture Kevin, and kill his girlfriend and his mother...if Kevin were a Winchester, Crowley would have been dead by now. Crowley, of course, teases Kevin that his mother is still alive and maybe just wishes she were dead... and then launches into a lengthier and more emphatic speech than his line in 8x02 about how the Winchesters just want to use Kevin up and then leave him for dead like they do with everyone, blah blah blah... Seriously, both 8x02 and 9x02 have the same Crowley to Kevin message. Both times, Kevin lets Crowley convince him of this too... though, in this case, Crowley also emphasizes how Kevin's a prisoner, and that if he frees Crowley they can walk out of Winchester prison together, etc.
Meanwhile, Sam and Dean are walking into a trap! They're going to a section of a town that was abandoned due to a chemical spill... Dean is concerned for his balls. :P Seriously, I think walking into a demon's trap is more dangerous to your balls than walking over contaminated ground.
They rescue the hunters and then discover that the demons have assault rifles...that's not good. I like how Travis(?) asks Dean what the plan is though... again, I'm a sucker for the fact that the Winchesters are basically the absolute elite of the hunters now. I also love the fact that Dean just thinks and comes up with a plan.
The plan, is to lure the demons into the diner and then circle around and take them out. It's very similar to what happened at Stalingrad actually - only with far less people of course. Anyyyyyyyyyyyyyway.... the plan gets momentarily scuffered when the girl doesn't want to work with Sam because the demons that killed her entire family were all happy that Sam had released Lucifer. Sam's feelings are super hurt by bringing up that mistake in his past - a mistake, I would like point out, that he has ALREADY made up for by, oh yeah, DEFEATING LUCIFER AND BREAKING HIS OWN BRAIN! Geeeez... luckily Dean is Team Sam and totally schools the girl on the fact that Sam was only trying to do the right thing and had it blow up in his face.
Sam meanwhile, travels with Travis(?) to the otherside, but Travis has other plans - because speaking about making absolutely horrible mistakes in your past - Abaddon had tortured him into giving up the other hunters and it's ALL HIS FAULT that one of them is dead and Sam and Dean and the girl might soon be dead and sadface forever. In his protests about taking on a suicide mission, he accidentally walks out from out of cover and gets shot in the chest - so, now, not only did he give up his friends, but he also has left Sam with absolutely no backup! Nice one.
Sidenote that just occurred to me: I wander how he and Bobby got across the border with their weapons? Or did they have a connection in Canada for the necessary guns? Or did they rob a gun shop once they were here?
On the other side of the pincer movement, Dean and the girl are ambushed by Abaddon, who is wearing a kevlar vest so the girls' gun does nothing to slow her down, even though they're the special devil's trap bullets in them. THIS IS WHY WE DO HEAD-SHOTS PEOPLE!!! Honestly.
Dean distracts with some holy water and gives the girl the keys to the Impala so that she can drive in and hopefully save him (or Sam). Abaddon and Dean have a talk, after it really looks like she breaks his arm, but apparently she just twists it something fierce. I really liked this conversation and Dean was right, it WAS very mixed signals about whether she was going to kill him or make out with him. But no, she wants to peel the tattoo off his skin and then possess him and torture him that way. Lovely... I'm starting to think that Cas should have taken the time when he was still an angel to crave that antipossession charm into their bones too.
While all this is going on, Sam is getting his ass handed to him by three soldier demons. He lasts a good long time, but it's just to much, and eventually they knock him unconscious... which is when Ezekiel is like OK ENOUGH! And gets to the smiting. I LOVED LOVED LOVED the broken angel wings!!! That was super super cool. And yeah, that whole scene was bad-ass and awesome.
Zeke smites the demons and Abaddon realizes that Dean brought an angel to the party and disappears. Dean runs into the diner place to check on Sam and finds Ezekiel there, giving the dead demons knife wounds as an alibi. This scene was great between the two of them, and Jared did much better with this scene (actually the first filmed) then the scene in the 9x01... I think he's still a little bit robotic, but yeah... I think I'm spoiled by Misha S4 performance. Ezekiel really does remind me of S4 Cas, so I think I keep wanting him to be like that, you know? But yeah, Jared did a good job in this episode.
We also find out that Dean's not only upset because he can't talk to Sam about how he's lying to Sam, but that he's also upset because he feels that all of this is his fault because he was the one that insisted Sam stop the trials - that chose his brother over freeing the world of demons. (Arguably, not only that, but he and Sam were also the ones that killed Abaddon and then sewed her back together again and didn't WATCH HER CLOSELY ENOUGH.)
So, yeah, Dean's feeling hella guilty and he's not even sure if he can trust Zeke. "I'm going to call you Zeke". And I loved Zeke's "I am a good guy. Though, I suppose that's what a bad guy would say..." or whatever the line was. But Ezekiel knows that what Dean did, he did out of love, and that's why Ezekiel is helping them, because apparently Ezekiel digs that sort of thing (if Ezekiel can be trusted that is!!). I also loved Dean's line about "I don't usually talk about the... love... or the... love."
Anyway, Ezekiel gets back into position and Sam wakes up confused - apparently Dean killed three demons while Sam was unconscious. He can't believe it, but Dean insists that he's just that awesome, and Sam agrees... and it's gotta twist the knife a little further into Dean that he's not only lying to his brother, but Sam thinks he's awesome for something he didn't even do...
Then the girl shows up with the car. Seriously? Didn't Dean say it was only 3 blocks away? I thought Dean and Sam should test her for demon possession because that was CRAZY suspicious!! But nope, apparently she's fine.
Then it's back to the bunker to bring Kevin a bucket of chicken....only Kevin's not immediately visible - so they run off to the dungeon to discover that someone has worked Crowley over. More than that, Crowley is giving them demon names as a gesture of sorts. Apparently, Crowley gets a kick out of winding Kevin up... personally though, I think their isolation torture was working, because Crowley was getting flashbacks and human-emotion thinky-thoughts and latched onto being cruel to Kevin and having Kevin torture him as a way to distract himself from those thoughts.
Anyway, Sam stays with Crowley and Dean runs off to find Kevin, who has packed a bag and is storming off. Kevin didn't fall hook-line-and-sinker into Crowley's words, but maybe just hook. Crowley is still locked up, but Kevin is taking off because his mom might still be alive out there and Dean and Sam are just using him.
And then Dean tells him that's not true - and I NEARLY cried at this speech. I have to say that Jensen and Osric did a fantastic job with this scene. Dean tells Kevin that he's not just useful, he's family - that all he, Sam, Kevin, and Cas have are each other, and that they'd die for Kevin. And OH MAN THE FEELINGS! Kevin cries, Dean is basically telling him that they love him... even though he told Ezekiel that he doesn't do that sort of thing.
Final scene of the episode - Sam and Dean are chillin' while Kevin sleeps off the angst. Dean asks Sam how he's doing - and Sam actually says that he's great, that he's got his friends and his family and he feels like he can make a difference in the world, and that he's actually HAPPY for the first time in...forever... and Dean's like "good to know, I'm going to try not to look shady right now."
My friend: "Angels are an anti-depressant! Who knew!"
So, this episode was all about setting up the season, and even though I'm terrified of Abaddon, and there's someone inside Sam that I'm not sure we can trust...the Winchesters are actually in a pretty good place, and they still have Kevin on their team too - which is good news. So, yeah, I mean, it seems like they've just created WAY more problems by NOT closing the gates of hell for arguably selfish reasons... so, yeah, the shit is going to hit the fan soon, for sure... but I really hope they're able to stay in a relatively good place for a LITTLE bit. I know when Sam finds out about Zeke, he's going to be SO MAD...and I know Dean is slowly drowning in guilt (seriously, he's the worst secret keeper among the Winchesters...John was the best, Sam is second best, even Adam was probably better than Dean.)... but yeah, hopefully all that fall-out will be mitigated by something?
So, good episode!!
Let me know what I missed in comments!!
Mum says: Are you still typing about that one episode? You sure got a lot out of that one episode.
(She said that 15 minutes ago and has since said that she'll see me in the morning. I DID warn her that I'd be a horrible host on Supernatural night! She finished crocheting herself a scarf while I wrote this... seriously, it's been 2 hours. There is nothing "quick" about my "quick reaction.")
