Rewatch S8: 8x10 Torn and Frayed
Nov. 10th, 2013 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreTwo days in a row! Let's see if I can do this...
Oh yeah! This was the mid-season opener, so we get a cool song over the intro! Yay!! Kathmandu.
Oh man, more torture scenes... there's really only so many times I can watch these, so I will focus on this text box that I have open here. Samandriel successfully contacts Naomi after he gets the spike out of his head - that's the only important bit.
Let's get back to Sam and Dean, who aren't being tortured... except by their EMOTIONS.
Sam's chillin' in his old hotel room home, and there's a knock on the door. I think Sam was expecting Amelia, but Dean actually arrives first.
Interestingly, Sam's in the same shirt he was wearing last episode - but Dean has changed to his OTHER green jacket. Maybe there was too much blood on the one he wore in Louisiana.
*Sam goes to slam the door, but then doesn't*
Dean: "Who'd you expect?"
- Jesus, Dean, you are not making this any better.
Sam: "Long drive."
Dean: "Yeah, well I wouldn't have had to make it if you hadn't have hung up on me."
Sam: "I heard all I needed to hear."
Dean: "No, you heard what you wanted to hear. I told you wasn't killing. Hell, I watched him end the fang-banger who was."
Sam: "How about Martin? How did he end that?"
- This is the issue Sam has. Even if Benny wasn't a killer before, he is now. But again, it comes down to the issue of who MADE him a killer - the Hunters. Martin wanted Benny to be a bad guy, so he forced his hand - so IS Sam justified in judging Benny as a threat now?
Dean: "Stupid, just like I said he would. Crazy son of a bitch didn't give Benny a choice, it was self defence."
Sam: "Seriously, Dean? That's the story you're going with? That the vampire was the real victim here."
Dean: "Well like it or not, that's the truth. There was a time where that actually meant something."
- I'm with Dean on this one, though I do see Sam's point of view of course.
Sam: "Yeah, yeah, no kidding."
Dean: "What does that mean?"
Sam: "You think this is just about Benny?"
Dean: "What the hell are you talking about?"
Sam: "What the hell do you think I'm talking about?
- Where Sam pulls a cliche sitcom-housewife.
Dean: "Amelia!? Come on man, I sent you that text because I needed you to- to-"
Sam: "You needed me to what? To tear ass to Texas? To be afraid that what happened to Jessica, that what happened to... everybody that we care about... would happen to her?"
- And again, I don't think that Dean really did realize the full extent of what he was doing - even if by all purposes he should have just because of the fact that it worked... but, again, Dean doesn't seem to understand that Sam's brand of PTSD takes the form of believing that everyone he loves is going to die sooner rather than later. That Sam is still S7, who had absolutely everything taken away from him - and DIDN'T get to go to an alternate dimension where he enjoyed killing monsters with his two best friends. (Okay, I know, I know, that's an extremely simplified and overly positive way to describe purgatory - which DID leave Dean with PTSD too - my point is just that it's a different brand of PTSD).
Dean: "You were going to kill Benny, what was I supposed to do?"
Sam: "Is that what we are? You save a vampire by making me believe that the woman I love might be dead?"
- Again, I'll believe it when I see it. It's still nice of Sam to repeatedly tell us that he loves Amelia, even though we don't understand why. (Also, in yesterday's rewatch,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
claudiapriscus figured out that the problem with the Amelia storyline is that it fails the Sexy Lamp Test.)
- Sam's also making a point about the state of the brotherhood though - in that it seems to be in dire straits, when Dean has to resort to such tactics in order to get his way.
Dean: "What do you want to hear, Sam? That I was wrong? Fine. I was wrong. Okay?"
*Sam becomes furious*
- Seriously, they're having a cliched couple fight like... to the EXTREME. Where the dude apologizes to try to make his girlfriend stop yelling at him, but not because he's actually sorry, or is actually regretful of his behaviour, or willing to change said behaviour.
Dean: "But if you had just heard me out, if you had trusted me, all of this could have been avoided."
Sam: "You didn't want me to trust you, you wanted me to trust Benny, and I can't do that."
- Hmm.... I disagree, Sam. Dean DID want you to trust him, because DEAN is the one that KNOWS Benny. "Trust me when I tell you that my friend is cool" is not the same as "Trust my friend when he says he's cool." And again, I think that ordinarily, Sam is one to give Monsters the benefit of the doubt... YES, he's been burned in the past though for doing so, so maybe times have changed. Fine. But I'm more inclined to believe that Sam isn't trusting Dean about Benny because Sam doesn't want Benny to be cool - he doesn't want Benny to be a better brother than Sam is.
Dean: "Right. Okay then, what the hell do we do now?"
Sam: "That depends on you - on whether or not you're done with him."
Dean: "Well, honestly, I don't know."
*Stare at each other*
Dean: "Glad I made the drive."
- So, Sam DOES kind of give Dean an ultimatum here. Not explicitly, but he does imply that Dean's future with Sam hinges on whether Dean is going to remain friends with Benny. He is basically asking Dean who's more important to him - Sam or Benny... and Dean is basically telling Sam that he doesn't know, and then leaving as though Sam has disappointed him. Sam, of course, is close to tears at this point and it's all very heartbreaking... especially because I think Dean's pissed that he already KNOWS he's going to have to never talk to Benny again, because Sam is the more important to him, but it sucks. Much, I guess, like Amelia choosing Don over Sam, because Don was there first (if we lived in the universe where Amelia actually got to choose) even though Amelia loved Sam (as much as a sexy lamp can love anyone, anyway.)
Cut to Cas healing babies, and then being pulled back up to heaven.
Naomi: "Castiel, we have a situation. Samandriel has been captured."
Cas: "I thought Samandriel was dead."
Naomi: "He's been missing, and now we know - Crowley has him."
Cas: "Where?"
- I do love how protective Castiel is of the other angels - it makes his constant screw-ups even more heartbreaking. And explains why the thought of returning to heaven to see the devastation left in his wake made him think suicidal thoughts back in 8x07.
Dean: "Damn it, Cas! How many times have I got to tell you? It's just creepy!"
- Hehe, poor Dean.
Cas: "I uh... heard his distress call this morning."
Dean: "What on angel radio? I thought you shut that down."
Cas: "Well, my penance is going well, I thought it was time to turn it back on. I've been helping people, Dean."
- Firstly, Cas is a terrible liar. Secondly, I love how Cas says that last sentence - like he's trying to get Dean's approval. Again, this season has very much been about Cas trying to get Dean's approval. I have a feeling that Cas' need for forgiveness still extends to his acts against the Winchesters back in S6/S7 too... even though Dean's long since forgiven him.
Cas: "...which is why I need your help. It seems this is going to involve... talking to people."
Dean: "Come on, Cas, I thought you were a hunter now."
- I love both these lines. Firstly, because Cas is treating Dean the way Dean used to treat Sam - as the more sociable and sympathetic member of the team - the one that talks to people. Secondly, because of the way Dean says his line, which through tone alone, tells us that Dean hasn't changed his opinion about amateur hunters, even if they happen to be his angelic best friend.
*Dean opens laptop, which is on the Busty Asian Beauties page* "You saw nothing!"
- Hehe... dude, Cas can see inside your dreams, and your head, and he put you back together once molecule by molecule - I don't think a pornsite is going to shock him.
Sidenote: I like the made-up operating system they have for the computers. The desktop icons and background resemble Windows, but when you close a program, it resembles a Mac. Also, the bottom left hand has the storage capacity of the harddrive rather than the time.
Cas: "Where's Sam?"
- I love how Cas looks around, like, 'There's something wrong here, and I can't quite put my- WAIT! Where's Sam?'
Dean: "Sam's gone. It's alright. We'll find Alfie ourselves."
- I don't know, maybe Dean DID choose Benny over Sam? It's hard to say... mind you, in Dean's opinion, Sam doesn't even want to be hunting anyway, so maybe he just figured that Sam was getting what he wanted. Not realizing that all Sam ever wants is Dean.
Cut to Sam, who is watching nature documentaries, because he's cool like that...
Sam hasn't changed clothes, even though Dean has had the time to drive to Montana (from Texas) and it's clearly the next day...and Sam has been wearing that shirt since they arrived in Louisiana at LEAST.
Amelia: "Look, last night at the bar, I just wanted to make sure it was you - you know, peeping in my windows."
Sam: "Peeping? You make is sound so-"
Amelia: "Stalkerish? Look, I ran out because he was leaving - he travels a lot since he's been back."
- So, this is what makes the last scene of the previous episode ridiculous... they wrote a cliffhanger scene that they couldn't even follow through on. Instead we just believe that Amelia walked in and confronted Sam, only to turn and run out of the bar with no explanation? WEIRD...seriously, what does Sam see in this sexy lamp?
Amelia: "Are we going to have a whole conversation with me finishing your sentences?"
- No, because it's annoying, and also the lamest finishing of sentences I've ever heard. UGH, okay, that was too negative - I apologize.
Amelia: "I was okay. You know, settled in. Content. But here you are. What am I supposed to do with that?"
Sam: "Give me five seconds and I'll be gone. I didn't come here to make trouble for you. I came because-"
Amelia: "You cared?"
- Basically, Amelia can't resist temptation. Just because your ex comes back to town, doesn't mean you HAVE to cheat on your husband. Does Sam caring for her justify it? No.
Let's get back to Samandriel getting tortured, that's slightly less painful. (Again, apologies for the negativity here. I just really don't like the Amelia storyline.)
Demon guy: "When we demons possess a human, we invade all of them - their muscles, their bones, their brains. I can't help but wonder if it's isn't the same for angels."
- This IS an interesting piece of mythology - in that the beings overlap, even though the angels are squeezing a lot more things into the vessel (I mean, Zachariah had five heads or something.)
Okay, back to Dean and Cas interviewing burned guy...
Dean: "I'm going to need exact words."
Burned guy: "Are you serious?"
Cas *leans forward to look at Dean's face*: "That's his serious face, yes."
- Adorable.
Cas: "... the amount of pain an angel must be in not just to manifest through shrubbery, but to burn - Dean, we have to find him before it's too late."
- I love the very very subtle Monty Python reference in this. Really, anytime anyone uses the word shrubbery, it's because of Monty Python in my opinion.
Back to Sam and Amelia... sigh... at least Sam's shirtless.
Amelia: "It's official, I hate motels. Say something."
Sam: "What would you like me to say? That was great? That was a mistake?
Amelia: "I don't know, both I guess."
Sam: "I understand."
Amelia: "Do you? Do you understand that I have a life here, and good man who loves me? A man I don't want to hurt."
Sam: "I know."
Amelia: "And do you know that you're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing before I go to sleep. It's tough to let something like that go."
Sam: "Yeah"
Amelia: "Especially if you keep showing up here."
- DUDE! He showed up ONCE and he hardly forced you to have sex with him - that's on you. Just because you love someone and wish you could have them AND your partner, doesn't mean that you have to run them out of town just to make your life easier.
- Also, worst pillow talk ever.
Amelia: "I'm telling you that if you stay, against everything I believe in, I would be with you. But if you leave, don't come back, I can't have you with one foot in my life and one foot out there doing whatever it is you do - that life of yours that I have no idea about."
- Seriously, if he stays, she'll leave her husband for him, even though she doesn't want to be that type of person...dude, statements like that tell me that perhaps you should leave your husband anyway, because you obviously want to. Listen, hells_half_acre's relationship rule: If you will leave your spouse for someone else, but not leave them just to be alone, then you need counselling... and you should not leave your spouse (nor cheat on them, unless they are cool with an open relationship.) If you are using some good-looking person as an excuse to leave your spouse, and you are alright with living alone too, then you should just leave your spouse and don't put your issues on the good-looking person - it's not his fault that your marriage is broken. His hunkyness did not break it. YOU broke it.
- Also, she's perfectly okay with leaving her husband for a man that she knows VERY LITTLE ABOUT!?! Really? I mean, I get the whole mystery is sexy thing - but she has NO IDEA what he does in his life other than the fact that he catagorically refuses to talk about it. Red flags, lady - red flags everywhere. DO NOT APPROACH.
- Anyway, we get the second ultimatum of the episode - this time from Amelia to Sam: Either let her run away with you, or leave town so that she's no longer tempted to leave her husband. (Because that's fair.)
Sam: "It's a big step."
Amelia: "For me or you?"
Sam: "Both. I need to think about this. You need to think about this. Words will never cover what you mean to me, but we should-"
Amelia: "Think about this. Okay, how about two days from now, around 7:30, I'll be off work by then. One of us will be here, and we'll know. Neither of us will be here and we'll know, or both of us will be here, and we'll know."
- I just figured out why I can't stand Amelia's version of "finishing your sentences" - because she finishes them when Sam's still trying to complete his thought. She basically interrupts because she's impatient for him to finish. Seriously, it's annoying, I should know, because I do it to my mum all the time and she then yells at me about how goddamn annoying it is.
- Anyway, this IS a nice solution, especially since it's a built in way to reject someone without actually having to do it to their face. (Another one of the multitudinous reasons why I don't date: I suck at rejecting people to their face. I'm the sort of person who will break up with you in a text message and then block you on every social networking site so that I don't have to see your sadness. Does that make me a bad person? Perhaps. Do I care that I'm a bad person? Not especially.)
Dean: "...what do you say this doesn't pan out, we head back to that beer and bacon happy hour a mile back, huh?"
- Aw Dean - he just wants to hang out with his friend. Seriously though, as I mentioned in 8x08, Dean always knows when something is up with Cas when Cas actually HANGS OUT. Dean never gets to spend time with Cas unless something is going down - they have the weirdest friendship.
Dean: "If Crowley's got that many hell monkeys outside, he's got to have at least double inside."
Cas: "And angel warding. I can feel it."
Dean: "Well you, me, and the demon knife aren't going to cut it."
Cas: "Okay, I'll get Sam."
Dean: "No, we don't need Sam."
Cas: "But you just said-"
- I love how badass Sam comes across in this exchange. I mean, Dean, Cas, and a demon knife aren't going to cut it - but Dean, Cas, a demon knife and SAM and they might have a shot! It's kind of ridiculous and awesome.
Dean: "Look, if Sam wanted in, he'd be here, okay?"
- I wonder if both Dean and Sam are viewing this argument as their brother choosing something else over them. Sam thinks Dean's chosen Benny, and Dean thinks Sam's chosen "not-hunting."
KEVIN! I love Kevin.
Cas: "You look horrible."
Kevin: "Yeah, thanks."
Dean: "He's right, are you okay, Kevin?"
- I think Dean and Sam have to learn how to take care of Kevin better, but it's nice that they TRY.
Dean: "I get it, I get it, ingredients are hard to come by."
Kevin: "That's just the first three ingredients!"
Cas: "Give me the list, I'll get what we need."
Dean: "Ah."
- Oh Dean, you are way too proud of having an angel friend.
Back to torturing Samandriel...
I know it's kind of riduculous that angels have an "operating system" and "factory settings" that you can just drill into...but, I kind of love it? I love the fact that they've got ingrained rules and behaviour - it makes Castiel's uniqueness all the more interesting. It also reminds me of baby birds, who even when brought up in isolation without parental figures or environmental cues, will respond to the shape of a bird of prey overhead as a threat (while not reacting to other shapes - meaning that there's something ingrained in them that just KNOWS.)
Back to Kevin getting annoyed by Dean...
Dean: "Kevin? Kevin? Your mom's hot. I'm serious, your mom is one sexy-"
- Heheh. (For those fans who complained that this was another example of Dean fetishizing Asian woman: I really think it's more about Dean amusing himself at Kevin's expense then it is about what how hot or not hot he finds Kevin's mom. The whole point of the gag is that Dean is saying stuff that he knows would piss Kevin off if he said it when he could hear.)
*Benny calls*
Dean: "Hey, I thought I told you to go underground."
Benny: "Hey, I am so far underground I'm breathing through a straw, brother-
...
Benny: "You know what? A cup of coffee sure would do me good."
Dean: "Alright, as soon as I'm done with this case, I'll be there."
- They need a sponsor program for Supernatural creatures. Dean doesn't necessarily make a good one - yes, Benny's attached to him, and wants to do well in order to not fall back on his promises to Dean, but Dean is a very busy man with other things to deal with. The nature of his life means that he's not capable of dropping everything to drive to the Catskills before Benny eats a picnic.
Dean: "Hey, where is your mom?"
Kevin: "Somewhere safe."
Dean: "You kicked your mom to the curb?"
Kevin: "She was too distracting. I couldn't focus. The angels said I had to go to the desert to learn the word of God - this is my desert."
Dean: "Yeah, but your mom's your mom."
Kevin: "I can't enjoy a world I need to save, Dean. I can enjoy it when this is all over with, but for right now, there's nothing more important than this."
- Okay, so, Kevin did at least put his mom "somewhere safe" - I had forgotten that line and assumed that he just kicked her to the curb, thus leaving her vulnerable to demons. But, she must have gotten captured by making another mistake like Delta or something...or maybe Crowley just infiltrated wherever she was. Anyway, that's a problem for later.
- Kevin's idea that he can't enjoy a world that he has to save is an interesting one - and there are things I want to say about it, but I'm not sure what they are. I want to compare him to Sam and Dean... hmmm... maybe we should discuss this in comments? What are your guys' thoughts?
Cas scaring Sam is awesome.
Cas: "Watching humanity, it never gets old, does it."
- I really love Sam and Cas together. I think they have so much in common. I love that Cas just assumes that Sam is watching humanity, because he finds it as interesting as Cas does - not that Sam is sitting there trying to decide if he's going to give up hunting forever and be with Amelia or not.
Cas: "I got what we need."
Dean: "About time. What's he doing here?"
Sam: "Don't worry, Dean. Once we save Alfie, I'm out."
Dean: "No, once WE save Alfie. Don't hurt yourself, Sam, Cas and I can handle it."
Sam: "Not according to Cas."
Dean: "I told you we didn't need him."
- Yeah... I'm no longer wondering where Sam got the idea that Dean didn't want him around. Personally though, I think Dean's on the defensive here because he thinks that Sam doesn't want to be around, so Dean is just trying to give him what he wants.
Cas: "We need EVERYTHING, Dean. And I need both of you, as you say, to stow your crap. Can you do that?"
- I love Castiel when he's had enough of this shit. :P
I also love Castiel drawing an angel warding symbol on Sam's hand... I wonder if Sam can now hurt angels if he smacks them. Hahahahaha...okay, sorry...that's just... hilarious to me. I just pictured Sam going around slapping angels... and yeah...
Cas: "..after killing so many, I need to save at least this one."
- Oh Cas, you are going to break my heart.
Cas: "Wait, here," *gives Sam his angel blade* "This doesn't just work on angels, it kills demons too."
- Firstly, again, the Sam+Cas brotp lover in my loves the fact that Cas gave Sam his sword. Secondly, FINALLY, after 4 seasons, they cement the fact that it's perfectly logical for angels to carry around angel blades - in that they don't only kill angels. I remember wondering back in S4 why Cas found it so astonishing that there were bad angels, when he was issued a weapon that KILLS ANGELS. But apparently, he thought it was for demons. Makes sense.
Sam's still in the same shirt, btws - also the one that Amelia wore after they copulated... he must smell very interesting. :P
I love Dean's little wave before Sam ganks the demon. I do like the fact that the Winchesters are such a well-oiled machine that they can work together even when they're super super mad at each other.
More torture...
Sam and Dean skulking around the warehouse - spray painting things, killing demons, the family business...
More torture...
More skulking...
*Cas starts freaking out*
Sam: "Dean, hurry up!"
Dean: "I'm trying!"
- I think Cas' PTSD is done pretty well here. Hearing Samandriel's torture makes him flashback to his own - in both cases, someone is trying to get at the core of the angels mandate, the core of what they've been created for. I also, like the fact that Sam rearms Castiel, to try to make him feel like he can defend himself - even as Sam realizes that it's not going to work.
Dean: "Time for plan B"
Sam: "We have a plan B?"
*Dean throws himself bodily at the door*
*Sam also throws himself bodily at the door*
- I also love how Sam just goes with it. "Okay, plan B!"
Crowley: "Holy mother of sin."
Demon dude: "What what is it?"
*superzoom on Crowley*: "There's an angel tablet."
- So, this didn't come as a shock to me. I just assumed that there was a tablet for all of god's creations. Leviathan, Demon, Angel... maybe there's just one for human-based monsters.... vampires, werewolves, etc... hell, there might even be one for mammels. Who knows!
Demon dude: "Wait! I know, I know things!"
Dean: "Cas! Go!"
Demon dude: "Good good, there's so much you don't know - you need me!"
Dean: "Yeah, yeah, I don't think so."
- I love the fact that it was never an option... like, "we've been down this road before, buddy."
Cas: "It's okay, you're safe now. I'm taking you home."
Samandriel: "No, no, you can't take me back there Castiel."
Cas: "Why not?"
Samandriel: "You don't understand, I told Crowley things - things he shouldn't have known. He got to our coding our secrets, secrets I didn't even know we had!"
Cas: "What secrets?"
Samandriel: "Heaven. Naomi."
Cas: "Who's Naomi?"
Samandriel: "Who's- Listen to me. Listen to me closely. I've been there. I know. They're controlling us, Castiel."
Cas: "What do you mean?"
Naomi: "KILL HIM!"
- Awww, poor Samandriel, and poor Cas... in breaking into Samandriel's brain, they unblocked the part of his memory that Naomi had blocked. He must have remembered where he got his orders, how he obeyed even against his will. Meanwhile, him telling Castiel is a threat against Naomi's already tenuous hold on authority over Cas.
Cas: "What did I just do?"
Naomi: "You killed a traitor."
Cas: "Samandriel was good. And I was trying to atone-"
Naomi: "Samandriel was broken. He revealed the existence of what I would die to protect, what any of us would die to protect. The angel tablet, Castiel. Crowley knows."
Cas: "I just murdered one of our own to protect a tablet."
- No, Cas, you just murdered one of your own for nothing, because the tablet's protection had already been jeopardizes. Actually, scratch that, you murdered one of your own to protect Naomi's authority - because Samandriel would have rebelled against her, now that her hold over him had been broken.
- On another note, I do like the contrast between Castiel and Naomi here - where Castiel still values life, and humanity in a way, over the angel's central mandate. The angels are programmed to protect the tablet, and Castiel right away admits that it's ridiculous and had he been given the choice, he would have protected his brother over the tablet. I really do wonder, when Naomi drilled into Castiel's brain, if she found any programming at all, besides the "angel of the lord" bit. :P
Naomi: "If the demon tablet can seal demons in hell, what do you think the angel tablet could do to us?"
- Foreshadowing!
Ugh, the way Castiel is leaning against Samandriel's dead body just completely kills me. On another note: there should be angel wings in the dust on the side of the Impala, I'm kind of mad that there isn't, because I think it'd look cool.
Sam: "Cas! What the hell happened"
...
Cas: "He was compromised."
...
Cas: "He came at me. I killed him in self-defense."
...
Dean: "Cas, you okay?"
*Cas is bleeding from his right eye*
Cas: "My vessel must have been damaged in the melee. I have to go. Samandriel's remains belong in heaven."
Dean: "Cas, wait."
Cas: "Thank you, both, for everything you've done." *Still bleeding from his eye*
Dean: "Cas!"
- I think Cas is bleeding because he's trying to resist Naomi's influence and failing.
- Also, I'd like to point out that the last time Castiel talked about going to heaven, he told Dean that he might kill himself if he saw it... so, I think Dean has a great reason to worry that Castiel is going back, especially that he doesn't seem upset by it...well, I mean, he's obviously behaving REALLY oddly, but it's not the sort of oddly that denotes upset, it's the sort of oddly that denotes "something is seriously wrong."
Sam: "Okay, that should do it. Cas can't see or hear us now."
Dean: "Okay. What the hell?"
Sam: "I know."
Dean: "I told you something was off with him since he got back from Purgatory!"
Sam: "So you think someone's messing with him or something?"
Dean: "Who?"
Sam: "The angels?"
Dean: "Why would the angels have him kill another angel?"
- Listen to Sam, Dean.
- Seriously though, the thing I love about this is that you can tell just how much the Winchesters have forgiven Cas for S6, because Sam - who arguably, is the person that Cas betrayed THE MOST - immediately puts forth the idea that someone is messing with Cas. That it's not CAS who killed Samandriel and lied to them, but someone else forced him to.
BTW: Sam has FINALLY changed his shirt.
Dean: "You know what man, I got this. You go."
Sam: "What?"
- I love Dean's face here, because you can see him come to the realization that he's dragging Sam back in again - just by freaking out with him about Cas. He finds himself treating Sam like Sam's not about to leave... and if Sam wants out, Dean should let him be out.
Dean: "Don't you have a girl to get back to?"
Sam: "Yeah, I guess I do. Since when are you on the Amelia bandwagon?"
Dean: "I don't know. I'm just tired of all the fighting. And you know, maybe I'm a little bit jealous. I could never separate myself from the job like you could. Hell, maybe it's time for at least one of us to be happy."
Sam: "You being such a big hugger and all."
- Sam's last line there drives me nuts, because I can't figure out what the hell he means. I know it's supposed to be sarcastic, because Sam doesn't believe Dean is a big hugger (even though he secretly totally is)...but, ugh, I just don't get it. I guess he's joking that it's uncharacteristic of Dean to wish happiness on Sam? That just seems odd to me.
- That being said, I think I'm starting to see why Dean "chose Benny" in Sam's ultimatum... it was a way of letting Sam out. They've been fighting since Dean got back, and the topic hasn't just been Benny - it's been why Sam didn't look for him, it's been about Sam quiting hunting, it's been about Amelia (which Sam even admitted was what their fight at the beginning of the episode was really about - not Benny). So, I think Dean is recognizing that if Sam doesn't want to hunt, maybe Dean SHOULDN'T guilt trip him into doing it anyway and have a miserable little brother on his hands - maybe he should let Sam live his normal life and be happy.
Sam: "She does make me happy. She could be waiting for me if I went back, I'd be a very lucky man if she was-"
-WERE, goddamn it, Sam, use your subjunctive!
Sam: "-but now, with everything staring down on us, with all that's left to be done. I don't know."
Dean: "Huh."
Sam: "Yeah."
- I think Sam's already made his decision. I think he may have made it even before he slept with Amelia again - before her big speech about deciding for good. But even if that isn't the case, I don't think Sam would ever leave Dean when there's a possibility that Cas has been compromised. I think Sam cares too much both about his brother, and Cas... and hell, even Kevin. Sam DID make a mistake when he left Kevin to his own devices after Dean died, and Dean absolving him of his responsibilities towards Kevin by letting him go won't actually get rid of the guilt that Sam feels about the mistake.
- I also think that Dean is genuinely surprised here - that he was so convinced that Sam didn't want to hunt anymore, that he's surprised that Sam actually might CHOSE to. That Sam will chose to hunt without Dean guilt-tripping him into it, as per usual.
Dean: "Well, I do know this. Whatever you decide. Decide. Both feet in or both feet out. Anything in between is what gets you dead."
Sam: "Yeah, I keep hearing that. I'm going to take a walk, clear my head."
- I also don't see this as an ultimatum from Dean. I see it as a warning - Dean tried to have his cake and eat it too with Lisa and Ben, and that went horribly wrong. I still think it's possible, but the Winchesters have always been more pessimistic than I am.
Dean: "I'm sorry man, I'm - not going to make it."
Benny: "You mean now or-"
Dean: "Listen Benny, everything you've done for me, I will never forget, but this is it."
Benny: "End of the line?"
Dean: "End of the line."
- So, Dean makes his own decision. Without, I should point out, Sam pressuring him into making it or redelivering the ultimatum he tried to give back in Texas. Dean just hears himself tell Sam that he needs to decide, and then realizes that it applies to himself too. If Dean's tired of fighting with Sam, and Sam's willing to sacrifice his sexy lamp girl in order to stay with Dean, then Dean might need to make a sacrifice too... and the fact of the matter is that Dean doesn't have a life where he's capable of being a vampire's sober companion.
- I also love the fact that they used the term "End of the line" because it once again harkens back to their first meeting and the idea of Dean as a "soul train" for Benny to hitch a ride. Dean's carried him out of Purgatory, and that's when it was supposed to end - but Benny's been asking him to carry him further, and it's not like Dean doesn't want to - but at some point it just becomes too much.
Benny: "Yeah, well I never liked these cellphones anyway."
- This line absolutely breaks my heart, because it basically implies that Dean is the ONLY contact in Benny's cellphone. Dean is the ONLY human that Benny knows, now that he had to flee Louisiana, anyway.
Dean: "You uh, you stay good, alright."
Benny: "You too, Dean. And uh, thanks for the ride."
Dean: "Yeah man, adios."
- Awww, break-ups suck. This is why I do them over text, cruelly, and then flee.
And Amelia walks into the motel room to find it empty. Amelia, you just decided to leave your husband for a guy who wouldn't even tell you about his life before he met you - take this opportunity to figure out what that means.
Cut back to Rufus' cabin, where Sam brings Dean food, and Dean opens Sam's beer for him while they watch boxing. Sam and Dean will always choose each other, after all.
And we're finally done with the storyline I didn't like! Yay! :D
Oh yeah! This was the mid-season opener, so we get a cool song over the intro! Yay!! Kathmandu.
Oh man, more torture scenes... there's really only so many times I can watch these, so I will focus on this text box that I have open here. Samandriel successfully contacts Naomi after he gets the spike out of his head - that's the only important bit.
Let's get back to Sam and Dean, who aren't being tortured... except by their EMOTIONS.
Sam's chillin' in his old hotel room home, and there's a knock on the door. I think Sam was expecting Amelia, but Dean actually arrives first.
Interestingly, Sam's in the same shirt he was wearing last episode - but Dean has changed to his OTHER green jacket. Maybe there was too much blood on the one he wore in Louisiana.
*Sam goes to slam the door, but then doesn't*
Dean: "Who'd you expect?"
- Jesus, Dean, you are not making this any better.
Sam: "Long drive."
Dean: "Yeah, well I wouldn't have had to make it if you hadn't have hung up on me."
Sam: "I heard all I needed to hear."
Dean: "No, you heard what you wanted to hear. I told you wasn't killing. Hell, I watched him end the fang-banger who was."
Sam: "How about Martin? How did he end that?"
- This is the issue Sam has. Even if Benny wasn't a killer before, he is now. But again, it comes down to the issue of who MADE him a killer - the Hunters. Martin wanted Benny to be a bad guy, so he forced his hand - so IS Sam justified in judging Benny as a threat now?
Dean: "Stupid, just like I said he would. Crazy son of a bitch didn't give Benny a choice, it was self defence."
Sam: "Seriously, Dean? That's the story you're going with? That the vampire was the real victim here."
Dean: "Well like it or not, that's the truth. There was a time where that actually meant something."
- I'm with Dean on this one, though I do see Sam's point of view of course.
Sam: "Yeah, yeah, no kidding."
Dean: "What does that mean?"
Sam: "You think this is just about Benny?"
Dean: "What the hell are you talking about?"
Sam: "What the hell do you think I'm talking about?
- Where Sam pulls a cliche sitcom-housewife.
Dean: "Amelia!? Come on man, I sent you that text because I needed you to- to-"
Sam: "You needed me to what? To tear ass to Texas? To be afraid that what happened to Jessica, that what happened to... everybody that we care about... would happen to her?"
- And again, I don't think that Dean really did realize the full extent of what he was doing - even if by all purposes he should have just because of the fact that it worked... but, again, Dean doesn't seem to understand that Sam's brand of PTSD takes the form of believing that everyone he loves is going to die sooner rather than later. That Sam is still S7, who had absolutely everything taken away from him - and DIDN'T get to go to an alternate dimension where he enjoyed killing monsters with his two best friends. (Okay, I know, I know, that's an extremely simplified and overly positive way to describe purgatory - which DID leave Dean with PTSD too - my point is just that it's a different brand of PTSD).
Dean: "You were going to kill Benny, what was I supposed to do?"
Sam: "Is that what we are? You save a vampire by making me believe that the woman I love might be dead?"
- Again, I'll believe it when I see it. It's still nice of Sam to repeatedly tell us that he loves Amelia, even though we don't understand why. (Also, in yesterday's rewatch,
claudiapriscus figured out that the problem with the Amelia storyline is that it fails the Sexy Lamp Test.)- Sam's also making a point about the state of the brotherhood though - in that it seems to be in dire straits, when Dean has to resort to such tactics in order to get his way.
Dean: "What do you want to hear, Sam? That I was wrong? Fine. I was wrong. Okay?"
*Sam becomes furious*
- Seriously, they're having a cliched couple fight like... to the EXTREME. Where the dude apologizes to try to make his girlfriend stop yelling at him, but not because he's actually sorry, or is actually regretful of his behaviour, or willing to change said behaviour.
Dean: "But if you had just heard me out, if you had trusted me, all of this could have been avoided."
Sam: "You didn't want me to trust you, you wanted me to trust Benny, and I can't do that."
- Hmm.... I disagree, Sam. Dean DID want you to trust him, because DEAN is the one that KNOWS Benny. "Trust me when I tell you that my friend is cool" is not the same as "Trust my friend when he says he's cool." And again, I think that ordinarily, Sam is one to give Monsters the benefit of the doubt... YES, he's been burned in the past though for doing so, so maybe times have changed. Fine. But I'm more inclined to believe that Sam isn't trusting Dean about Benny because Sam doesn't want Benny to be cool - he doesn't want Benny to be a better brother than Sam is.
Dean: "Right. Okay then, what the hell do we do now?"
Sam: "That depends on you - on whether or not you're done with him."
Dean: "Well, honestly, I don't know."
*Stare at each other*
Dean: "Glad I made the drive."
- So, Sam DOES kind of give Dean an ultimatum here. Not explicitly, but he does imply that Dean's future with Sam hinges on whether Dean is going to remain friends with Benny. He is basically asking Dean who's more important to him - Sam or Benny... and Dean is basically telling Sam that he doesn't know, and then leaving as though Sam has disappointed him. Sam, of course, is close to tears at this point and it's all very heartbreaking... especially because I think Dean's pissed that he already KNOWS he's going to have to never talk to Benny again, because Sam is the more important to him, but it sucks. Much, I guess, like Amelia choosing Don over Sam, because Don was there first (if we lived in the universe where Amelia actually got to choose) even though Amelia loved Sam (as much as a sexy lamp can love anyone, anyway.)
Cut to Cas healing babies, and then being pulled back up to heaven.
Naomi: "Castiel, we have a situation. Samandriel has been captured."
Cas: "I thought Samandriel was dead."
Naomi: "He's been missing, and now we know - Crowley has him."
Cas: "Where?"
- I do love how protective Castiel is of the other angels - it makes his constant screw-ups even more heartbreaking. And explains why the thought of returning to heaven to see the devastation left in his wake made him think suicidal thoughts back in 8x07.
Dean: "Damn it, Cas! How many times have I got to tell you? It's just creepy!"
- Hehe, poor Dean.
Cas: "I uh... heard his distress call this morning."
Dean: "What on angel radio? I thought you shut that down."
Cas: "Well, my penance is going well, I thought it was time to turn it back on. I've been helping people, Dean."
- Firstly, Cas is a terrible liar. Secondly, I love how Cas says that last sentence - like he's trying to get Dean's approval. Again, this season has very much been about Cas trying to get Dean's approval. I have a feeling that Cas' need for forgiveness still extends to his acts against the Winchesters back in S6/S7 too... even though Dean's long since forgiven him.
Cas: "...which is why I need your help. It seems this is going to involve... talking to people."
Dean: "Come on, Cas, I thought you were a hunter now."
- I love both these lines. Firstly, because Cas is treating Dean the way Dean used to treat Sam - as the more sociable and sympathetic member of the team - the one that talks to people. Secondly, because of the way Dean says his line, which through tone alone, tells us that Dean hasn't changed his opinion about amateur hunters, even if they happen to be his angelic best friend.
*Dean opens laptop, which is on the Busty Asian Beauties page* "You saw nothing!"
- Hehe... dude, Cas can see inside your dreams, and your head, and he put you back together once molecule by molecule - I don't think a pornsite is going to shock him.
Sidenote: I like the made-up operating system they have for the computers. The desktop icons and background resemble Windows, but when you close a program, it resembles a Mac. Also, the bottom left hand has the storage capacity of the harddrive rather than the time.
Cas: "Where's Sam?"
- I love how Cas looks around, like, 'There's something wrong here, and I can't quite put my- WAIT! Where's Sam?'
Dean: "Sam's gone. It's alright. We'll find Alfie ourselves."
- I don't know, maybe Dean DID choose Benny over Sam? It's hard to say... mind you, in Dean's opinion, Sam doesn't even want to be hunting anyway, so maybe he just figured that Sam was getting what he wanted. Not realizing that all Sam ever wants is Dean.
Cut to Sam, who is watching nature documentaries, because he's cool like that...
Sam hasn't changed clothes, even though Dean has had the time to drive to Montana (from Texas) and it's clearly the next day...and Sam has been wearing that shirt since they arrived in Louisiana at LEAST.
Amelia: "Look, last night at the bar, I just wanted to make sure it was you - you know, peeping in my windows."
Sam: "Peeping? You make is sound so-"
Amelia: "Stalkerish? Look, I ran out because he was leaving - he travels a lot since he's been back."
- So, this is what makes the last scene of the previous episode ridiculous... they wrote a cliffhanger scene that they couldn't even follow through on. Instead we just believe that Amelia walked in and confronted Sam, only to turn and run out of the bar with no explanation? WEIRD...seriously, what does Sam see in this sexy lamp?
Amelia: "Are we going to have a whole conversation with me finishing your sentences?"
- No, because it's annoying, and also the lamest finishing of sentences I've ever heard. UGH, okay, that was too negative - I apologize.
Amelia: "I was okay. You know, settled in. Content. But here you are. What am I supposed to do with that?"
Sam: "Give me five seconds and I'll be gone. I didn't come here to make trouble for you. I came because-"
Amelia: "You cared?"
- Basically, Amelia can't resist temptation. Just because your ex comes back to town, doesn't mean you HAVE to cheat on your husband. Does Sam caring for her justify it? No.
Let's get back to Samandriel getting tortured, that's slightly less painful. (Again, apologies for the negativity here. I just really don't like the Amelia storyline.)
Demon guy: "When we demons possess a human, we invade all of them - their muscles, their bones, their brains. I can't help but wonder if it's isn't the same for angels."
- This IS an interesting piece of mythology - in that the beings overlap, even though the angels are squeezing a lot more things into the vessel (I mean, Zachariah had five heads or something.)
Okay, back to Dean and Cas interviewing burned guy...
Dean: "I'm going to need exact words."
Burned guy: "Are you serious?"
Cas *leans forward to look at Dean's face*: "That's his serious face, yes."
- Adorable.
Cas: "... the amount of pain an angel must be in not just to manifest through shrubbery, but to burn - Dean, we have to find him before it's too late."
- I love the very very subtle Monty Python reference in this. Really, anytime anyone uses the word shrubbery, it's because of Monty Python in my opinion.
Back to Sam and Amelia... sigh... at least Sam's shirtless.
Amelia: "It's official, I hate motels. Say something."
Sam: "What would you like me to say? That was great? That was a mistake?
Amelia: "I don't know, both I guess."
Sam: "I understand."
Amelia: "Do you? Do you understand that I have a life here, and good man who loves me? A man I don't want to hurt."
Sam: "I know."
Amelia: "And do you know that you're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing before I go to sleep. It's tough to let something like that go."
Sam: "Yeah"
Amelia: "Especially if you keep showing up here."
- DUDE! He showed up ONCE and he hardly forced you to have sex with him - that's on you. Just because you love someone and wish you could have them AND your partner, doesn't mean that you have to run them out of town just to make your life easier.
- Also, worst pillow talk ever.
Amelia: "I'm telling you that if you stay, against everything I believe in, I would be with you. But if you leave, don't come back, I can't have you with one foot in my life and one foot out there doing whatever it is you do - that life of yours that I have no idea about."
- Seriously, if he stays, she'll leave her husband for him, even though she doesn't want to be that type of person...dude, statements like that tell me that perhaps you should leave your husband anyway, because you obviously want to. Listen, hells_half_acre's relationship rule: If you will leave your spouse for someone else, but not leave them just to be alone, then you need counselling... and you should not leave your spouse (nor cheat on them, unless they are cool with an open relationship.) If you are using some good-looking person as an excuse to leave your spouse, and you are alright with living alone too, then you should just leave your spouse and don't put your issues on the good-looking person - it's not his fault that your marriage is broken. His hunkyness did not break it. YOU broke it.
- Also, she's perfectly okay with leaving her husband for a man that she knows VERY LITTLE ABOUT!?! Really? I mean, I get the whole mystery is sexy thing - but she has NO IDEA what he does in his life other than the fact that he catagorically refuses to talk about it. Red flags, lady - red flags everywhere. DO NOT APPROACH.
- Anyway, we get the second ultimatum of the episode - this time from Amelia to Sam: Either let her run away with you, or leave town so that she's no longer tempted to leave her husband. (Because that's fair.)
Sam: "It's a big step."
Amelia: "For me or you?"
Sam: "Both. I need to think about this. You need to think about this. Words will never cover what you mean to me, but we should-"
Amelia: "Think about this. Okay, how about two days from now, around 7:30, I'll be off work by then. One of us will be here, and we'll know. Neither of us will be here and we'll know, or both of us will be here, and we'll know."
- I just figured out why I can't stand Amelia's version of "finishing your sentences" - because she finishes them when Sam's still trying to complete his thought. She basically interrupts because she's impatient for him to finish. Seriously, it's annoying, I should know, because I do it to my mum all the time and she then yells at me about how goddamn annoying it is.
- Anyway, this IS a nice solution, especially since it's a built in way to reject someone without actually having to do it to their face. (Another one of the multitudinous reasons why I don't date: I suck at rejecting people to their face. I'm the sort of person who will break up with you in a text message and then block you on every social networking site so that I don't have to see your sadness. Does that make me a bad person? Perhaps. Do I care that I'm a bad person? Not especially.)
Dean: "...what do you say this doesn't pan out, we head back to that beer and bacon happy hour a mile back, huh?"
- Aw Dean - he just wants to hang out with his friend. Seriously though, as I mentioned in 8x08, Dean always knows when something is up with Cas when Cas actually HANGS OUT. Dean never gets to spend time with Cas unless something is going down - they have the weirdest friendship.
Dean: "If Crowley's got that many hell monkeys outside, he's got to have at least double inside."
Cas: "And angel warding. I can feel it."
Dean: "Well you, me, and the demon knife aren't going to cut it."
Cas: "Okay, I'll get Sam."
Dean: "No, we don't need Sam."
Cas: "But you just said-"
- I love how badass Sam comes across in this exchange. I mean, Dean, Cas, and a demon knife aren't going to cut it - but Dean, Cas, a demon knife and SAM and they might have a shot! It's kind of ridiculous and awesome.
Dean: "Look, if Sam wanted in, he'd be here, okay?"
- I wonder if both Dean and Sam are viewing this argument as their brother choosing something else over them. Sam thinks Dean's chosen Benny, and Dean thinks Sam's chosen "not-hunting."
KEVIN! I love Kevin.
Cas: "You look horrible."
Kevin: "Yeah, thanks."
Dean: "He's right, are you okay, Kevin?"
- I think Dean and Sam have to learn how to take care of Kevin better, but it's nice that they TRY.
Dean: "I get it, I get it, ingredients are hard to come by."
Kevin: "That's just the first three ingredients!"
Cas: "Give me the list, I'll get what we need."
Dean: "Ah."
- Oh Dean, you are way too proud of having an angel friend.
Back to torturing Samandriel...
I know it's kind of riduculous that angels have an "operating system" and "factory settings" that you can just drill into...but, I kind of love it? I love the fact that they've got ingrained rules and behaviour - it makes Castiel's uniqueness all the more interesting. It also reminds me of baby birds, who even when brought up in isolation without parental figures or environmental cues, will respond to the shape of a bird of prey overhead as a threat (while not reacting to other shapes - meaning that there's something ingrained in them that just KNOWS.)
Back to Kevin getting annoyed by Dean...
Dean: "Kevin? Kevin? Your mom's hot. I'm serious, your mom is one sexy-"
- Heheh. (For those fans who complained that this was another example of Dean fetishizing Asian woman: I really think it's more about Dean amusing himself at Kevin's expense then it is about what how hot or not hot he finds Kevin's mom. The whole point of the gag is that Dean is saying stuff that he knows would piss Kevin off if he said it when he could hear.)
*Benny calls*
Dean: "Hey, I thought I told you to go underground."
Benny: "Hey, I am so far underground I'm breathing through a straw, brother-
...
Benny: "You know what? A cup of coffee sure would do me good."
Dean: "Alright, as soon as I'm done with this case, I'll be there."
- They need a sponsor program for Supernatural creatures. Dean doesn't necessarily make a good one - yes, Benny's attached to him, and wants to do well in order to not fall back on his promises to Dean, but Dean is a very busy man with other things to deal with. The nature of his life means that he's not capable of dropping everything to drive to the Catskills before Benny eats a picnic.
Dean: "Hey, where is your mom?"
Kevin: "Somewhere safe."
Dean: "You kicked your mom to the curb?"
Kevin: "She was too distracting. I couldn't focus. The angels said I had to go to the desert to learn the word of God - this is my desert."
Dean: "Yeah, but your mom's your mom."
Kevin: "I can't enjoy a world I need to save, Dean. I can enjoy it when this is all over with, but for right now, there's nothing more important than this."
- Okay, so, Kevin did at least put his mom "somewhere safe" - I had forgotten that line and assumed that he just kicked her to the curb, thus leaving her vulnerable to demons. But, she must have gotten captured by making another mistake like Delta or something...or maybe Crowley just infiltrated wherever she was. Anyway, that's a problem for later.
- Kevin's idea that he can't enjoy a world that he has to save is an interesting one - and there are things I want to say about it, but I'm not sure what they are. I want to compare him to Sam and Dean... hmmm... maybe we should discuss this in comments? What are your guys' thoughts?
Cas scaring Sam is awesome.
Cas: "Watching humanity, it never gets old, does it."
- I really love Sam and Cas together. I think they have so much in common. I love that Cas just assumes that Sam is watching humanity, because he finds it as interesting as Cas does - not that Sam is sitting there trying to decide if he's going to give up hunting forever and be with Amelia or not.
Cas: "I got what we need."
Dean: "About time. What's he doing here?"
Sam: "Don't worry, Dean. Once we save Alfie, I'm out."
Dean: "No, once WE save Alfie. Don't hurt yourself, Sam, Cas and I can handle it."
Sam: "Not according to Cas."
Dean: "I told you we didn't need him."
- Yeah... I'm no longer wondering where Sam got the idea that Dean didn't want him around. Personally though, I think Dean's on the defensive here because he thinks that Sam doesn't want to be around, so Dean is just trying to give him what he wants.
Cas: "We need EVERYTHING, Dean. And I need both of you, as you say, to stow your crap. Can you do that?"
- I love Castiel when he's had enough of this shit. :P
I also love Castiel drawing an angel warding symbol on Sam's hand... I wonder if Sam can now hurt angels if he smacks them. Hahahahaha...okay, sorry...that's just... hilarious to me. I just pictured Sam going around slapping angels... and yeah...
Cas: "..after killing so many, I need to save at least this one."
- Oh Cas, you are going to break my heart.
Cas: "Wait, here," *gives Sam his angel blade* "This doesn't just work on angels, it kills demons too."
- Firstly, again, the Sam+Cas brotp lover in my loves the fact that Cas gave Sam his sword. Secondly, FINALLY, after 4 seasons, they cement the fact that it's perfectly logical for angels to carry around angel blades - in that they don't only kill angels. I remember wondering back in S4 why Cas found it so astonishing that there were bad angels, when he was issued a weapon that KILLS ANGELS. But apparently, he thought it was for demons. Makes sense.
Sam's still in the same shirt, btws - also the one that Amelia wore after they copulated... he must smell very interesting. :P
I love Dean's little wave before Sam ganks the demon. I do like the fact that the Winchesters are such a well-oiled machine that they can work together even when they're super super mad at each other.
More torture...
Sam and Dean skulking around the warehouse - spray painting things, killing demons, the family business...
More torture...
More skulking...
*Cas starts freaking out*
Sam: "Dean, hurry up!"
Dean: "I'm trying!"
- I think Cas' PTSD is done pretty well here. Hearing Samandriel's torture makes him flashback to his own - in both cases, someone is trying to get at the core of the angels mandate, the core of what they've been created for. I also, like the fact that Sam rearms Castiel, to try to make him feel like he can defend himself - even as Sam realizes that it's not going to work.
Dean: "Time for plan B"
Sam: "We have a plan B?"
*Dean throws himself bodily at the door*
*Sam also throws himself bodily at the door*
- I also love how Sam just goes with it. "Okay, plan B!"
Crowley: "Holy mother of sin."
Demon dude: "What what is it?"
*superzoom on Crowley*: "There's an angel tablet."
- So, this didn't come as a shock to me. I just assumed that there was a tablet for all of god's creations. Leviathan, Demon, Angel... maybe there's just one for human-based monsters.... vampires, werewolves, etc... hell, there might even be one for mammels. Who knows!
Demon dude: "Wait! I know, I know things!"
Dean: "Cas! Go!"
Demon dude: "Good good, there's so much you don't know - you need me!"
Dean: "Yeah, yeah, I don't think so."
- I love the fact that it was never an option... like, "we've been down this road before, buddy."
Cas: "It's okay, you're safe now. I'm taking you home."
Samandriel: "No, no, you can't take me back there Castiel."
Cas: "Why not?"
Samandriel: "You don't understand, I told Crowley things - things he shouldn't have known. He got to our coding our secrets, secrets I didn't even know we had!"
Cas: "What secrets?"
Samandriel: "Heaven. Naomi."
Cas: "Who's Naomi?"
Samandriel: "Who's- Listen to me. Listen to me closely. I've been there. I know. They're controlling us, Castiel."
Cas: "What do you mean?"
Naomi: "KILL HIM!"
- Awww, poor Samandriel, and poor Cas... in breaking into Samandriel's brain, they unblocked the part of his memory that Naomi had blocked. He must have remembered where he got his orders, how he obeyed even against his will. Meanwhile, him telling Castiel is a threat against Naomi's already tenuous hold on authority over Cas.
Cas: "What did I just do?"
Naomi: "You killed a traitor."
Cas: "Samandriel was good. And I was trying to atone-"
Naomi: "Samandriel was broken. He revealed the existence of what I would die to protect, what any of us would die to protect. The angel tablet, Castiel. Crowley knows."
Cas: "I just murdered one of our own to protect a tablet."
- No, Cas, you just murdered one of your own for nothing, because the tablet's protection had already been jeopardizes. Actually, scratch that, you murdered one of your own to protect Naomi's authority - because Samandriel would have rebelled against her, now that her hold over him had been broken.
- On another note, I do like the contrast between Castiel and Naomi here - where Castiel still values life, and humanity in a way, over the angel's central mandate. The angels are programmed to protect the tablet, and Castiel right away admits that it's ridiculous and had he been given the choice, he would have protected his brother over the tablet. I really do wonder, when Naomi drilled into Castiel's brain, if she found any programming at all, besides the "angel of the lord" bit. :P
Naomi: "If the demon tablet can seal demons in hell, what do you think the angel tablet could do to us?"
- Foreshadowing!
Ugh, the way Castiel is leaning against Samandriel's dead body just completely kills me. On another note: there should be angel wings in the dust on the side of the Impala, I'm kind of mad that there isn't, because I think it'd look cool.
Sam: "Cas! What the hell happened"
...
Cas: "He was compromised."
...
Cas: "He came at me. I killed him in self-defense."
...
Dean: "Cas, you okay?"
*Cas is bleeding from his right eye*
Cas: "My vessel must have been damaged in the melee. I have to go. Samandriel's remains belong in heaven."
Dean: "Cas, wait."
Cas: "Thank you, both, for everything you've done." *Still bleeding from his eye*
Dean: "Cas!"
- I think Cas is bleeding because he's trying to resist Naomi's influence and failing.
- Also, I'd like to point out that the last time Castiel talked about going to heaven, he told Dean that he might kill himself if he saw it... so, I think Dean has a great reason to worry that Castiel is going back, especially that he doesn't seem upset by it...well, I mean, he's obviously behaving REALLY oddly, but it's not the sort of oddly that denotes upset, it's the sort of oddly that denotes "something is seriously wrong."
Sam: "Okay, that should do it. Cas can't see or hear us now."
Dean: "Okay. What the hell?"
Sam: "I know."
Dean: "I told you something was off with him since he got back from Purgatory!"
Sam: "So you think someone's messing with him or something?"
Dean: "Who?"
Sam: "The angels?"
Dean: "Why would the angels have him kill another angel?"
- Listen to Sam, Dean.
- Seriously though, the thing I love about this is that you can tell just how much the Winchesters have forgiven Cas for S6, because Sam - who arguably, is the person that Cas betrayed THE MOST - immediately puts forth the idea that someone is messing with Cas. That it's not CAS who killed Samandriel and lied to them, but someone else forced him to.
BTW: Sam has FINALLY changed his shirt.
Dean: "You know what man, I got this. You go."
Sam: "What?"
- I love Dean's face here, because you can see him come to the realization that he's dragging Sam back in again - just by freaking out with him about Cas. He finds himself treating Sam like Sam's not about to leave... and if Sam wants out, Dean should let him be out.
Dean: "Don't you have a girl to get back to?"
Sam: "Yeah, I guess I do. Since when are you on the Amelia bandwagon?"
Dean: "I don't know. I'm just tired of all the fighting. And you know, maybe I'm a little bit jealous. I could never separate myself from the job like you could. Hell, maybe it's time for at least one of us to be happy."
Sam: "You being such a big hugger and all."
- Sam's last line there drives me nuts, because I can't figure out what the hell he means. I know it's supposed to be sarcastic, because Sam doesn't believe Dean is a big hugger (even though he secretly totally is)...but, ugh, I just don't get it. I guess he's joking that it's uncharacteristic of Dean to wish happiness on Sam? That just seems odd to me.
- That being said, I think I'm starting to see why Dean "chose Benny" in Sam's ultimatum... it was a way of letting Sam out. They've been fighting since Dean got back, and the topic hasn't just been Benny - it's been why Sam didn't look for him, it's been about Sam quiting hunting, it's been about Amelia (which Sam even admitted was what their fight at the beginning of the episode was really about - not Benny). So, I think Dean is recognizing that if Sam doesn't want to hunt, maybe Dean SHOULDN'T guilt trip him into doing it anyway and have a miserable little brother on his hands - maybe he should let Sam live his normal life and be happy.
Sam: "She does make me happy. She could be waiting for me if I went back, I'd be a very lucky man if she was-"
-WERE, goddamn it, Sam, use your subjunctive!
Sam: "-but now, with everything staring down on us, with all that's left to be done. I don't know."
Dean: "Huh."
Sam: "Yeah."
- I think Sam's already made his decision. I think he may have made it even before he slept with Amelia again - before her big speech about deciding for good. But even if that isn't the case, I don't think Sam would ever leave Dean when there's a possibility that Cas has been compromised. I think Sam cares too much both about his brother, and Cas... and hell, even Kevin. Sam DID make a mistake when he left Kevin to his own devices after Dean died, and Dean absolving him of his responsibilities towards Kevin by letting him go won't actually get rid of the guilt that Sam feels about the mistake.
- I also think that Dean is genuinely surprised here - that he was so convinced that Sam didn't want to hunt anymore, that he's surprised that Sam actually might CHOSE to. That Sam will chose to hunt without Dean guilt-tripping him into it, as per usual.
Dean: "Well, I do know this. Whatever you decide. Decide. Both feet in or both feet out. Anything in between is what gets you dead."
Sam: "Yeah, I keep hearing that. I'm going to take a walk, clear my head."
- I also don't see this as an ultimatum from Dean. I see it as a warning - Dean tried to have his cake and eat it too with Lisa and Ben, and that went horribly wrong. I still think it's possible, but the Winchesters have always been more pessimistic than I am.
Dean: "I'm sorry man, I'm - not going to make it."
Benny: "You mean now or-"
Dean: "Listen Benny, everything you've done for me, I will never forget, but this is it."
Benny: "End of the line?"
Dean: "End of the line."
- So, Dean makes his own decision. Without, I should point out, Sam pressuring him into making it or redelivering the ultimatum he tried to give back in Texas. Dean just hears himself tell Sam that he needs to decide, and then realizes that it applies to himself too. If Dean's tired of fighting with Sam, and Sam's willing to sacrifice his sexy lamp girl in order to stay with Dean, then Dean might need to make a sacrifice too... and the fact of the matter is that Dean doesn't have a life where he's capable of being a vampire's sober companion.
- I also love the fact that they used the term "End of the line" because it once again harkens back to their first meeting and the idea of Dean as a "soul train" for Benny to hitch a ride. Dean's carried him out of Purgatory, and that's when it was supposed to end - but Benny's been asking him to carry him further, and it's not like Dean doesn't want to - but at some point it just becomes too much.
Benny: "Yeah, well I never liked these cellphones anyway."
- This line absolutely breaks my heart, because it basically implies that Dean is the ONLY contact in Benny's cellphone. Dean is the ONLY human that Benny knows, now that he had to flee Louisiana, anyway.
Dean: "You uh, you stay good, alright."
Benny: "You too, Dean. And uh, thanks for the ride."
Dean: "Yeah man, adios."
- Awww, break-ups suck. This is why I do them over text, cruelly, and then flee.
And Amelia walks into the motel room to find it empty. Amelia, you just decided to leave your husband for a guy who wouldn't even tell you about his life before he met you - take this opportunity to figure out what that means.
Cut back to Rufus' cabin, where Sam brings Dean food, and Dean opens Sam's beer for him while they watch boxing. Sam and Dean will always choose each other, after all.
And we're finally done with the storyline I didn't like! Yay! :D
