Rewatch S8: 8x19 Taxi Driver
Feb. 7th, 2014 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreBack to rewatches! And back to the main plot...
Kevin is having a hard time. Seriously, Dean and Sam really need to take a "how to care for your prophet" class.
Sam: "What's the second trial?"
Kevin: "An innocent soul has to be rescued from hell and delivered unto heaven."
Dean: "What?"
Kevin: "Unto - that's, that's how God talks."
- hahaha
Sam: "How do you get a soul unto heaven - how do you even get a soul out of hell!"
Dean: "We're going to need an expert."
*traps crossroads demon*
- You know, crossroads demons have the worst jobs... they're the most vulnerable of all the demons because you don't need a name to summon them.
Demon: "For a price, y'all can be smuggled across hell's border."
Dean: "By who?"
Demon: "Rogue reapers..."
- So, one thing about this plot is that I really don't know how I feel about rogue reapers - which they bring back in S9. I really really liked reapers being more of a force of nature, rather than kill-able free agents. I liked them being like... a natural process that happened to have sentience.
- That being said, because they're "rogue" I can explain away all the mythological discrepancies that occur with "rogue reapers", by saying that once they no longer work for Death, and no longer function as a natural force, they lose abilities that reapers are supposed to have. So, the result is that: 1)You can see them and 2)you can kill them.
I did like Ajay though, mainly because he's a supernatural middle-eastern taxi driver, and that always reminds me of the Ifrit story in American Gods, which is possibly my favourite short-story in that book. I also liked the one where the woman's vagina ate a dude... ANYWAY...
Sam: "You say that like you know us."
Ajay: "Of course, you're the Winchesters."
- YES! Thank you. The Winchesters SHOULD BE KNOWN BY NOW.
Dean: "Sorry, have we met?"
Ajay: "I am the reaper who took Bobby Singer to Hell."
Sam: "Bobby in Hell? We burned his bones, once we did that, it was over, end of story."
Ajay: "Hmmm, not necessarily."
Dean: "No no no, see, Bobby was on the good side, and good guys go to the penthouse."
Ajay: "Usually, it depends on who you know, what palms get greased. If you're on the King of Hell's no fly list, there's no way you cruise the friendly skies."
- The other thing about there being rogue reapers, is that it means that even the process of death and the afterlife is corrupt.
- Also, what did Crowley have to benefit from Bobby being in hell? Also, Crowley, I thought, KEPT his deals, and he agreed that he no longer owned Bobby's soul back in S6. So... yeah.... not cool Crowley.
- Also, this confirms the fact that it's extremely hard to have an "atheist funeral" in the Supernatural universe - though that's obviously what our main characters would prefer. I think the only way to avoid the afterlife at this point is being killed with the Colt.
Dean: "Alright, let's do this. How much for two tickets down and three back?"
- Oh Dean... I feel so bad for him, because this was supposed to be his quest - his big victory, and he doesn't get to do it because Sam killed that Hell Hound, ironically, given the events of S9, in an attempt to keep Dean from making the trials into a suicidal mission.
Also, why does Ajay have an old-timey taxi?
Ajay: "...he'll be back in exactly 24 hours time. Return for him then."
- So, I worked it out on the timeline, but given the events of this episode, Sam actually ends up spending around, or at least, 48 hours in purgatory.
And homeless dude has overheard the entire conversation... this is why you do not conduct sensitive business on the street.
I love the sequence with the graffiti melting into the door. It's so cool!
Sam: "So this is hell?"
Ajay: "No at all. This is purgatory."
Sam: "What do you mean this is purgatory. This isn't what I paid for. I booked the Hell tour!"
Ajay: "Whoa who, Winchester, detach. This is... Hell Adjacent."
- Firstly, I love how he calls Sam "Winchester", because although he knows the Winchesters, I have to wonder if he knows which one is which.
- Secondly, I love the return of the comment that Purgatory is "Hell Adjacent."
- Thirdly, it's interesting that in S6, Crowley never went after rogue reapers for the knowledge of where Purgatory was... unless he did, and they just couldn't tell him, because they enter through different doors and not ones where you can suck all the souls out at once. But still... introducing easy entries into Purgatory now kind of undermines the difficulty Cas and Crowley had in finding it back in S6.
And Sam gets to experience Purgatory a little bit. I think this episode does go a long way to kind of help repair the rift that was between Sam and Dean in the beginning of the season - because Dean had had an experience that Sam hadn't. By Sam getting just a little bit of knowledge as to what that was like, he can better understand where Dean's head was probably at when he first came back.
Kevin: "Just tell me when this all ends. That's all I want to hear."
Dean: "Well, like I told you before. This isn't going to end. Look man, other guys they got it easy. It's all backyard barbaques and bowling teams. But you and me, we've got to carry a little extra weight."
Kevin: "I can't take it."
Dean: "Yes you can, hey, look at me. This whole thing sucks, I know, but you suck it up, and you push through - because that's what we do. Once you get on bored with that, the ride is a lot smoother. French fry?"
Kevin: "I'm going to be in my room. Let me know when there's a good day."
- So, firstly, if Kevin isn't sleeping well, then Dean should realize that his pep talk isn't going to do much good. People go insane when they can't sleep well, and everything is horrible and everything sucks forever.... and if everything actually IS horrible, and you're told that it's going to be forever...yeah, that's not going to go over well.
- Secondly, Kevin's line about letting him know when there's a good day is absolutely heartbreaking and I love it.
- Thirdly, this is just reiterating the fact that Dean carries a burden of responsibility for the ENTIRE WORLD.
- Fourthly, don't ever tell anyone that the job they hate is never going to end. The promise of eventual retirement is the only thing that keeps a lot of people going in this world. (Says the girl who has absolutely no retirement savings plan.) I think this is also why Sam wants out of hunting, because he's hunting with someone who has resigned themselves to hunting until they die, whereas Sam would prefer to have a retirement to look forward to.
And Crowley finds Ajay...
Ajay: "...as you know, I do moonlight, as a freelancer."
- So, this to me, says that Ajay is Crowley's rogue reaper, and works primarily for him.
And rogue reapers are killed angel-style with angel-blades.... interesting.
So, again, the weird thing about this is that if there's a door from Purgatory into Hell, how come Crowley didn't know about it? Does no one ever go down that hallway in Hell?
Girl: "You came. I knew you would. I've been praying for it. Forever."
Sam: "I'm not...him. Sorry."
- You do have jesus-like hair though, Sam.
When this episode aired, there was some criticism about how easy it was for Sam to find Bobby. So, from the timeline: Ajay, the rogue reaper, is killed only 7 hours after taking Sam to purgatory, and “17 hours” before he has to go pick him up. If we use the chronology of scenes, then it appears it took Sam approx. 7 hours to find the door into Hell from Purgatory, probably 10 hours to find Bobby in Hell and escape back to Purgatory, and then 7 hours to walk back to the spot where they were supposed to meet Ajay again.
... they waited approx. 12 hours before Benny showed up, and then it took them 12 hours to find the portal (which, took way more than 12 hours for Dean, Benny, and Cas to find, which means that either they were super close to it for some reason, Benny remembered where it was better...or before Dean met Benny in purgatory, he had wandered VERY far away from the portal.)
Also, if physical locations in purgatory are fixed to physical locations in the real world, that's pretty interesting, because it suggests that purgatory is another dimension overlaid on-top of our own - which would suggest that perhaps heaven and hell are the same. BUT, it takes SHORTER time to travel between two distances in purgatory then it does in the real world, so there is some funky physics going on. Because Sam walks from Missouri to Maine in the time it takes Dean to drive from Missouri to Maine.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself....
BOBBY!!
Love the punch and fade to commercial.
Bobby: "Get the hell out of here you black-eyed son of a bitch."
Sam: "What?! Bobby, it's Sam!"
- I love how offended Sam is.
Bobby: "Move your ass!"
Sam: "Bobby-"
Bobby: "Get!"
Sam: "IT'S ME!" *suddenly realizes he yelled really loud and then does that awkward bobbing thing Sam does*
- Sorry, some of Sam's idiosyncrasies are just adorable to me.
Sam: "Alright, if it's not Sam, then how do I know all about you and Tori Spelling."
Bobby: "What?"
Sam: "You're a fan. Or what about your free pedicure at the Mall of America. You told Dean not to tell another living soul how it changed your life."
- I love how Sam is just an extension of Dean here - like admitting that Dean told him, doesn't count as Dean breaking his promise to Bobby. I think it's actually THAT fact that convinces Bobby it's Sam. Because demons, I think, could probably easily get inside Bobby's head enough to maybe learn that he told Dean these things, but they wouldn't necessarily get the fact that Dean would have told Sam.
Bobby: "I'm sorry, Sam, but you're the 200th Sam I've seen today. It's how they screw with me, just endless Sams and Deans all wearing the same black eyes...."
- Makes sense, by the end of his life, there was nothing Bobby cared more about then Sam and Dean.
Bobby: "...wait, what are you doing here? Please don't tell me it's what I think it is."
Sam: "No, Bobby, I'm good..."
- Awww. I love that Bobby's worry is that Sam's dead and in hell.
Crowley: "Am I the only one who sees the urgency of the situation? My hellhound is gone. Winchester jumbo-size is trying to break into the mothership and that prophet of theirs is madly translating away. Add it up!"
- This is what makes Crowley a formidable enemy. He's not stupid.
Crowley: "I need Kevin Tran. Apparently his half of the tablet has the goodstuff, whereas mine has the acknowledgements and about the author!"
- Might be useful for next season... though, it's not like it stays in anyone's hands for long.
Kevin: "Getting rid of the tablet just takes off some of the pressure."
Dean: "Wait, getting rid of it?"
Kevin: "Temporarily. I hid it."
Dean: "What?!"
- See, if you had gone to your "how to care for your prophet" class, all this could have been avoided.
Naomi: "Kids, so cute when they're little, then they turn into teenagers and the party's over."
- Personally, I have a really hard time with kids between the ages of 2 and teen. So, I prefer teenagers to cute children. I need them to be capable of logical thought processes, and little "cute" kids are most definitely not.
Naomi: "We haven't been formally introduced, Dean. My name is Naomi."
Dean: "Oh, I know who you are."
- I love how Dean immediately moves away, and his whole demeanor changes. He's not that startled when she first appears, but as soon as she says her name, you can see his body language immediately change.
Dean: "...and I know what you did to Cas after he got out of Purgatory."
Naomi: "After I rescued him from Purgatory, you mean. At the cost of many angels lives."
- I love the way Naomi tries to spin things... she's such a politician. Cas would HATE the fact that angels died to get him out of Purgatory though...man, poor Cas. No matter what he does, he always seems to end up killing his brothers and sisters.
Dean: "You screwed with his head and had him spy on us!"
Naomi: "Well, it is true that I have spoken to Castiel many times. Trying to reach out to him, trying to help him. Dean, you must have noticed how Purgatory changed him. I mean, he's been unstable in the past, but I was shocked about how damaged he is now."
- The thing is, I don't necessarily think Naomi is lying here. From her point of view, Cas is broken... the Cas that hangs out with Dean Winchester and exercises free will is damaged. Whereas, for Dean, the Cas that hangs out with him and exercises free will is the BETTER Cas.
Dean: "...you think I don't know that you told him to try to kill me?"
Naomi: "Yeah, I suppose that would be how he would hear it. When I learned of the angel tablet, I did tell Castiel to get it at any cost. That's my job. To protect heaven. I'm a warrior just as you are, what would you expect? And now Castiel is in the wind with a hydrogen bomb in his pocket. And I'm scared, for all of us."
- Naomi is basically the NSA or Homeland security or whatever the hell that agency is in the US that does questionable things in order to protect America from terrorism. I mean, yes, she's lying about not telling Cas to kill Dean - but her other words are all cloaked in the same rhetoric of certain Americans who justify their actions by making the world seem like a scarier place than it actually is. I mean, now the angel tablet is a bomb?! Ridiculous.
Dean: "Save it. See, I don't trust angels, which means I don't trust you."
Naomi: "And yet, you haven't warded this place against us. I know, you're hoping Castiel will return to you. I admire your loyalty. I only wish he felt the same way. I know you don't want to believe it, Dean, but we're on the same side. Shutting the gates of hell, bringing Castiel in from the cold. Take a moment; think about what I've said...."
- Naomi is so clever, trying to cut Dean's loyalty to Castiel by making it seem one-sided, while simultaneously trying to win him over by claiming that helping her will help Castiel. It's all emotional manipulation, of course - and I think Dean is smart enough to see it as such, but she still does it very very well.
Naomi: "...oh, I know you've been doing business with Ajay. He did mention, didn't he? That his way into hell was through Purgatory? I knew you'd want to know. You see, we can be of help to each other."
- Of course, the only reason this is in here is so that Dean knows how to rescue Sam and Bobby... but, since Ajay has already been killed, Naomi is actually helping Dean preemptively. So, yeah, still counts.
Meanwhile, Sam and Bobby are fighting their way out of hell... and we get the two Sams dilemma, where Bobby has to figure out which is the real one...
*Bobby kills fake!Sam*
Sam: "You knew somehow, right?"
Bobby: "Took a chance. Fifty fifty."
- Hehehe
And Dean discovers Ajay is dead.
Bobby: "What the hell is this?"
Sam: "Now don't get all pissed off.... Purgatory."
Bobby: "Balls!"
- Hehehe
I really don't think they should have left the door open like that.
Dean: "Yeah, it's me. I know, I know, man, it's been a long time. I mean, I wanted to call, I did. I just thought it might be better if I didn't."
Benny: "It's so good to hear your voice, Dean. I mean that."
- Seriously, how are these two NOT considered a canon-couple. It could be a non-sexual relationship, but it's DEFINITELY a romantic one.
Benny: "I'm just happy as hell to hear from you."
Dean: "You might change your mind about that."
Benny: "Why? What d'you mean?"
Dean: 'Benny, I gotta ask you a favour. It's a big one."
- Oh, Dean, you're face.
Bobby: "Well, you saw back there in Hell, I don't got a lot of rust. Might be handy to have me around again, I could help!"
Sam: "Bobby, I'd love that, believe me. The thing is, for this trial to be completed, your soul has to enter heaven. And besides, if that weren't the case, we burned your bones, Bobby, there's nothing to tie your spirit to earth."
Bobby: "Yeah, well, I always figured that'd be the end of it. Just, hunter's funeral, that's it, nothing, and I was okay with that! Imagine my surprise..."
- I have to admit that one of the things I love about Supernatural is how they'd PREFER to be atheists. They'd prefer atheist afterlives. The fact that they get to go to heaven at the end of their turbulent lives isn't actually a solace. They want to cease existing entirely... and it's because of the reasons Bobby outlines in this episode. 1)They know that heaven isn't all candycanes and lollipops, that it's corrupt just like the rest of the world. 2)They don't want to live through their greatest hits, they want to live NEW greatest hits, and 3)at least some hunters just don't have retirement IN them. The thought of stopping isn't appealing.
- I do wonder if they could have resurrected Bobby, Benny-style. I mean, Benny's head was severed and he'd been dead for 50 years, but Dean managed to restore his body with a few latin words. What was that? Does it only work on monsters?
- And I ask that, because again, I didn't like the Ghost!Bobby storyline. Personally, I think Bobby should be smart enough as a hunter not to go down the vengeful spirit route - or, the "become a spirit and eventually go insane when all your loved ones die" route.
Sam: "Well, I guess if there has to be an eternity, I'd pick Heaven over Hell"
Bobby: "Yeah, because there's nothing screwy going on up there."
Sam: "I wish I made the rules."
- Okay, so I know this is just a throwaway line from Sam here - but DUDE! Wouldn't it be cool if at the end of the series, SAM STARTED MAKING THE RULES! Man... I've love that. I'm such a huge fan of the Winchesters ascend to become Gods storyline...which Ben Edlund was also a huge fan of, which is why I'm super super bummed that he left the show, because I felt like as long as he was there I had a chance to see it happen.
And the cabbie doesn't show, and Sam pretty much flips out right away about it and realizes that something has gone wrong.
Dean: "Benny, sending you back there is the last thing I ever wanted to do."
Benny: "I know, I know."
Dean: "But my little brother is stuck down there."
Benny: "This'd be the little brother that wants to kill me, right?"
Dean: "You got access to the place."
Benny: "By access, you mean getting beheaded?"
Dean: "Yeah, you're right, it's too much. It's not like I've exactly been there for you lately."
Benny: "What? Ah, come on, Dean, you know I love a challenge."
Dean: "You serious?"
Benny: "Hey, he's your brother. I say let's do this."
- What's interesting to me here is that Dean didn't insist. If Benny had said no, and Dean expected him to say no at this point, because he realized how big of an ask it was, Dean would have respected his decision. I wonder what Dean would have done? Just go hang out in the forest in Maine and hope that eventually Sam and Bobby would find the portal themselves?
Dean: "I owe you."
Benny: "You don't owe me nothing. Truth is, I could use a break from all this."
Dean: "Has it really been that tough?"
Benny: "I'm not a good fit, Dean. Not with the vampires, and for sure not with the humans. I don't belong. After awhile that starts to weigh on you. Right, cry me a river, like you need to listen to all this."
- I really feel for Benny - too human for purgatory, too monster for anywhere else. He was GOOD in purgatory though. He had fifty years of killing things day in and day out, and I'm sure it got monotonous, but probably, much like Dean, part of the adjustment of being back was NOT having that 24/7 hyper-vigilance. The world is a pretty chill place really. It makes me wonder if maybe Benny would have had an oddly easier time of it if Dean had sent him to Damascus after his resurrection, or wherever else there is weird warfare going on.
Dean: "Well when you get back up here, we're going to fix all that, okay?"
Benny: "When I get back?"
Dean: "Yeah, you find the portal and you ride out of purgatory with Sam, just like you did with me. As soon as I send you back, I'm going to haul my ass to Maine and I'm going to be waiting for you when you get topside."
- I don't think even Dean registers what Benny's words mean, but they mean EVERYTHING... because Benny just agreed to be beheaded with the understanding that he was NEVER COMING BACK. He didn't know Dean's plan was to have Sam carry him out again, he thought Dean was just asking him to die. Geez...
- And the sad thing is that this jaunt would have ingratiated Benny to Sam, heck, it did a little...and that would probably mean that Sam would be less pissy about Dean hanging out with Benny, so Dean COULD have been Benny's sober companion. But, then, at this point, Benny had already made his choice.
Benny: "Yeah, that sounds like a plan, chief. Let's get on with it."
Dean: "You sure about this?"
Benny: "Not my first rodeo, mate."
*hugs*
Dean: "Thank you."
Benny: "Come on you wimp! Hahaha"
- Oh Benny. I also love how well Benny knows Dean, because he knows right away to lie to him. To let Dean believe that he plans to come back... and then he calls Dean a wimp to undercut what is an extremely emotional goodbye for Benny. Dean just thinks it's temporary, but Benny knows it's forever... and ugh, I also love the fact that he calls Dean a wimp, because probably the absolute first thing Benny learned about Dean in Purgatory, before he even met him, was that he was not a wimp.
Bobby: "Dean spent a year in this place?"
Sam: "Running and fighting, all day every day."
Bobby: "Must have been hell on you not being able to get him out all that time. *pause* You did try?"
Sam: "Bobby, Dean and I had an agreement-"
Bobby: "I know that agreement, I taught you that agreement - that's a non-agreement. I get the feeling that a lot must have happened while I was gone."
- Lines that that make me think that there IS something funky with Sam and his sudden non-codependency on Dean, I gotta admit. I mean, technically, Sam abiding by a "don't raise the dead" agreement makes complete sense, given how bad things tend to happen when they break it... but at the same time, the fact that no one else can see how not looking for Dean was in-character for Sam is very suspicious. IS Sam in character and he's just grown as a person and no one else has caught up to that fact yet? Or did something happen to Sam - a psychotic break? Something else? Is it a positive change or a negative change? You'd think if something did happen, we would have found out what it was in S8.
Benny arrives and rips a guy's throat out.
- You gotta admit, that Benny must find joy in finally being able to kill indiscriminately again.
Sam: "Why are you here?"
Benny: "Dean sent me."
Bobby: "Dean? Not my Dean!"
Sam: "He's a buddy of Dean's, Bobby."
Bobby: "A buddy?"
Benny: "Good buddy."
- Hahaha, well, Dean is doing unexpected things too from Bobby's point of view - but at least we KNOW why Dean bonded with Benny and considers him a friend.
- Also, yeah, seriously, bromance is still romance - and Benny is definitely a good buddy. I think the way he says "good buddy" is the most sexually suggestive thing in their entire relationship.
Sam: "Alright, come on, Benny, it's your turn."
Benny smiles
Sam: "Hurry up!"
Vampires: "Benny! And still working with the Winchesters."
Sam: "Hurry!"
Benny: "Time for you to go, Sam."
Sam: "Benny?"
Benny: "Go on, it's me they want. Just be sure to tell Dean I said goodbye. I was never any good up there anyway."
Sam: "Benny, wait." *throws him the purgatory weapon.*
- I'd like to think that in the end, Benny and Sam both knew that each other were decent people - I'm sure Benny was half-expecting Sam not to follow through on towing him through the portal. And Sam, of course, was probably won over just by the fact that Benny agreed to die in order to help Sam.
*REUNION HUGS!*
Dean: "Purgatory right, a real garden spot ain't it."
Sam: "Yeah."
Dean: "You get 'em out?"
Sam: "Only Bobby."
Dean: "What? I mean, that's fantastic about Bobby."
Sam: "Dean, look, Benny...he got us out. A bunch of vamps showed, he used himself as bait. I got the feeling that even if that didn't happen, he didn't want to come back, you know. I'm sorry."
Dean: "You're probably right."
- You were supposed to tell Dean that Benny said goodbye, Sam. Get the message right! :P
- On a more serious note, I love the way that Jensen and Jared act this scene... because Sam knows that Dean loved Benny, and Dean is trying his best not to let on how heartbroken he is that his friend is dead - that his friend basically CHOSE to be dead again. Man, Dean has a bad track record with people choosing to die...
Dean: "Let him go, Crowley, he doesn't belong in hell!"
Crowley: "Hey does if I say he does. He's inflicted untold damage on my kind. Actually, from where I sit, Hell's too good for him."
- Oh, so we do get the reason for why Crowley wanted Bobby's soul in hell. Revenge for all the demons he killed, and helped Sam and Dean kill... still, KIND of weak. And also, that should have guaranteed him angel interference and a spot in heaven - but then, I guess angels are dicks, so they probably didn't really care when Bobby didn't show up.
Crowley: Siding with them, Naomi? You don't know those two, before their done, we'll both be locked away."
Naomi: "I'm just hoping they lock you away, dear, the rest, I'll figure out."
- Naomi joins the long list of people who thought they could use the Winchesters to get rid of their enemies first and then figure out a way not to have the Winchesters get rid of them second. :P A list that includes Crowley on multiple occasions, I might add, so he can't really criticize the strategy.
Naomi: "I told you, you could trust me."
- Doing one nice thing is not enough to inspire trust.
And this is the first time that Dean actually sees the immediate effect the trial has on Sam.
Back to Kevin....who Crowley finally catches up with. This is why we don't put the demon proofing on breakable glass.
Crowley: "If you want to find one Tran, find another. Your mom, quite a pain threshold on that one, but even she could only take so much."
Kevin: "She never would've told you."
Crowley: "Mom's are like that, aren't they. So we killed her and got your address off her smartphone."
- Sad times forever.
Crowley: "What you people never seem to understand is that you are nothing - fleeting blips of light. I am forever."
- I just love this line and Crowley's description of humanity.
Dean: "You okay."
Sam: "Yeah, I'll live."
Dean: "I buried Benny, but I didn't burn his bones. After he said he'd try to get you out of there, it just didn't seem right. I know you got no use for him-"
Sam: "No, no, no, I get it. I do. He's uh, he's a little different from what I thought. So, go ahead and leave the door open if you want."
- Awww... brothers. I love the fact that Dean kept the door open, and that Sam understood why, and yeah... I just love everything.
The Winchesters discover that Kevin is gone... but the windows are still intact. So, what Crowley in his head, making him flee of his own accord so that Crowley could pick him up outside? Or did they put the windows back in somehow?
CUT SCENES
1)
Dean running into the alley to find Sam gone. I'm guessing this is just after Ajay leaves with him and before Ajay gets back?
2)
Dean praying to Cas, after Kevin steals his pie: "Hey Cas, you out there buddy? I need you to come in, man. I need you to come back, and I need you not to be nuts."
- Aww... I guess this scene is just setting up why there's no angel proofing on the boat - but Naomi covers that in her speech, so it's extraneous. Though, from a character standpoint, it's lovely to see.
3)
Dean talking to Benny in the alley, at some point in their conversation: "You ever fall off the wagon and feed?"
Benny: "Some questions, you just don't want to ask, brother."
- I'm torn on them cutting this last one. It's such a huge character point for both Benny AND Dean - the fact that Benny wasn't perfect, the fact that Dean obviously forgave him anyway and still "left that door open" for him.
In conclusion - good episode, but I think they could have stretched it out a bit somehow - made it into a two parter with Dean's discovery of Ajay's death as the cliffy... and then we could have gotten more of Sam wandering through hell and purgatory, so it wouldn't have felt far too easy/short - but more like the 48 hour event it was (at the least)...and we could have gotten more Sam+Benny conversations or something.. I don't know. Sometimes I think Supernatural's reluctance not to have two-parters midseason is a hindrance to good storytelling.
Now that Supernatural is on hiatus for a couple weeks, I'll hopefully get these done a little faster - though, I know I said that back in December too.
Kevin is having a hard time. Seriously, Dean and Sam really need to take a "how to care for your prophet" class.
Sam: "What's the second trial?"
Kevin: "An innocent soul has to be rescued from hell and delivered unto heaven."
Dean: "What?"
Kevin: "Unto - that's, that's how God talks."
- hahaha
Sam: "How do you get a soul unto heaven - how do you even get a soul out of hell!"
Dean: "We're going to need an expert."
*traps crossroads demon*
- You know, crossroads demons have the worst jobs... they're the most vulnerable of all the demons because you don't need a name to summon them.
Demon: "For a price, y'all can be smuggled across hell's border."
Dean: "By who?"
Demon: "Rogue reapers..."
- So, one thing about this plot is that I really don't know how I feel about rogue reapers - which they bring back in S9. I really really liked reapers being more of a force of nature, rather than kill-able free agents. I liked them being like... a natural process that happened to have sentience.
- That being said, because they're "rogue" I can explain away all the mythological discrepancies that occur with "rogue reapers", by saying that once they no longer work for Death, and no longer function as a natural force, they lose abilities that reapers are supposed to have. So, the result is that: 1)You can see them and 2)you can kill them.
I did like Ajay though, mainly because he's a supernatural middle-eastern taxi driver, and that always reminds me of the Ifrit story in American Gods, which is possibly my favourite short-story in that book. I also liked the one where the woman's vagina ate a dude... ANYWAY...
Sam: "You say that like you know us."
Ajay: "Of course, you're the Winchesters."
- YES! Thank you. The Winchesters SHOULD BE KNOWN BY NOW.
Dean: "Sorry, have we met?"
Ajay: "I am the reaper who took Bobby Singer to Hell."
Sam: "Bobby in Hell? We burned his bones, once we did that, it was over, end of story."
Ajay: "Hmmm, not necessarily."
Dean: "No no no, see, Bobby was on the good side, and good guys go to the penthouse."
Ajay: "Usually, it depends on who you know, what palms get greased. If you're on the King of Hell's no fly list, there's no way you cruise the friendly skies."
- The other thing about there being rogue reapers, is that it means that even the process of death and the afterlife is corrupt.
- Also, what did Crowley have to benefit from Bobby being in hell? Also, Crowley, I thought, KEPT his deals, and he agreed that he no longer owned Bobby's soul back in S6. So... yeah.... not cool Crowley.
- Also, this confirms the fact that it's extremely hard to have an "atheist funeral" in the Supernatural universe - though that's obviously what our main characters would prefer. I think the only way to avoid the afterlife at this point is being killed with the Colt.
Dean: "Alright, let's do this. How much for two tickets down and three back?"
- Oh Dean... I feel so bad for him, because this was supposed to be his quest - his big victory, and he doesn't get to do it because Sam killed that Hell Hound, ironically, given the events of S9, in an attempt to keep Dean from making the trials into a suicidal mission.
Also, why does Ajay have an old-timey taxi?
Ajay: "...he'll be back in exactly 24 hours time. Return for him then."
- So, I worked it out on the timeline, but given the events of this episode, Sam actually ends up spending around, or at least, 48 hours in purgatory.
And homeless dude has overheard the entire conversation... this is why you do not conduct sensitive business on the street.
I love the sequence with the graffiti melting into the door. It's so cool!
Sam: "So this is hell?"
Ajay: "No at all. This is purgatory."
Sam: "What do you mean this is purgatory. This isn't what I paid for. I booked the Hell tour!"
Ajay: "Whoa who, Winchester, detach. This is... Hell Adjacent."
- Firstly, I love how he calls Sam "Winchester", because although he knows the Winchesters, I have to wonder if he knows which one is which.
- Secondly, I love the return of the comment that Purgatory is "Hell Adjacent."
- Thirdly, it's interesting that in S6, Crowley never went after rogue reapers for the knowledge of where Purgatory was... unless he did, and they just couldn't tell him, because they enter through different doors and not ones where you can suck all the souls out at once. But still... introducing easy entries into Purgatory now kind of undermines the difficulty Cas and Crowley had in finding it back in S6.
And Sam gets to experience Purgatory a little bit. I think this episode does go a long way to kind of help repair the rift that was between Sam and Dean in the beginning of the season - because Dean had had an experience that Sam hadn't. By Sam getting just a little bit of knowledge as to what that was like, he can better understand where Dean's head was probably at when he first came back.
Kevin: "Just tell me when this all ends. That's all I want to hear."
Dean: "Well, like I told you before. This isn't going to end. Look man, other guys they got it easy. It's all backyard barbaques and bowling teams. But you and me, we've got to carry a little extra weight."
Kevin: "I can't take it."
Dean: "Yes you can, hey, look at me. This whole thing sucks, I know, but you suck it up, and you push through - because that's what we do. Once you get on bored with that, the ride is a lot smoother. French fry?"
Kevin: "I'm going to be in my room. Let me know when there's a good day."
- So, firstly, if Kevin isn't sleeping well, then Dean should realize that his pep talk isn't going to do much good. People go insane when they can't sleep well, and everything is horrible and everything sucks forever.... and if everything actually IS horrible, and you're told that it's going to be forever...yeah, that's not going to go over well.
- Secondly, Kevin's line about letting him know when there's a good day is absolutely heartbreaking and I love it.
- Thirdly, this is just reiterating the fact that Dean carries a burden of responsibility for the ENTIRE WORLD.
- Fourthly, don't ever tell anyone that the job they hate is never going to end. The promise of eventual retirement is the only thing that keeps a lot of people going in this world. (Says the girl who has absolutely no retirement savings plan.) I think this is also why Sam wants out of hunting, because he's hunting with someone who has resigned themselves to hunting until they die, whereas Sam would prefer to have a retirement to look forward to.
And Crowley finds Ajay...
Ajay: "...as you know, I do moonlight, as a freelancer."
- So, this to me, says that Ajay is Crowley's rogue reaper, and works primarily for him.
And rogue reapers are killed angel-style with angel-blades.... interesting.
So, again, the weird thing about this is that if there's a door from Purgatory into Hell, how come Crowley didn't know about it? Does no one ever go down that hallway in Hell?
Girl: "You came. I knew you would. I've been praying for it. Forever."
Sam: "I'm not...him. Sorry."
- You do have jesus-like hair though, Sam.
When this episode aired, there was some criticism about how easy it was for Sam to find Bobby. So, from the timeline: Ajay, the rogue reaper, is killed only 7 hours after taking Sam to purgatory, and “17 hours” before he has to go pick him up. If we use the chronology of scenes, then it appears it took Sam approx. 7 hours to find the door into Hell from Purgatory, probably 10 hours to find Bobby in Hell and escape back to Purgatory, and then 7 hours to walk back to the spot where they were supposed to meet Ajay again.
... they waited approx. 12 hours before Benny showed up, and then it took them 12 hours to find the portal (which, took way more than 12 hours for Dean, Benny, and Cas to find, which means that either they were super close to it for some reason, Benny remembered where it was better...or before Dean met Benny in purgatory, he had wandered VERY far away from the portal.)
Also, if physical locations in purgatory are fixed to physical locations in the real world, that's pretty interesting, because it suggests that purgatory is another dimension overlaid on-top of our own - which would suggest that perhaps heaven and hell are the same. BUT, it takes SHORTER time to travel between two distances in purgatory then it does in the real world, so there is some funky physics going on. Because Sam walks from Missouri to Maine in the time it takes Dean to drive from Missouri to Maine.
Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself....
BOBBY!!
Love the punch and fade to commercial.
Bobby: "Get the hell out of here you black-eyed son of a bitch."
Sam: "What?! Bobby, it's Sam!"
- I love how offended Sam is.
Bobby: "Move your ass!"
Sam: "Bobby-"
Bobby: "Get!"
Sam: "IT'S ME!" *suddenly realizes he yelled really loud and then does that awkward bobbing thing Sam does*
- Sorry, some of Sam's idiosyncrasies are just adorable to me.
Sam: "Alright, if it's not Sam, then how do I know all about you and Tori Spelling."
Bobby: "What?"
Sam: "You're a fan. Or what about your free pedicure at the Mall of America. You told Dean not to tell another living soul how it changed your life."
- I love how Sam is just an extension of Dean here - like admitting that Dean told him, doesn't count as Dean breaking his promise to Bobby. I think it's actually THAT fact that convinces Bobby it's Sam. Because demons, I think, could probably easily get inside Bobby's head enough to maybe learn that he told Dean these things, but they wouldn't necessarily get the fact that Dean would have told Sam.
Bobby: "I'm sorry, Sam, but you're the 200th Sam I've seen today. It's how they screw with me, just endless Sams and Deans all wearing the same black eyes...."
- Makes sense, by the end of his life, there was nothing Bobby cared more about then Sam and Dean.
Bobby: "...wait, what are you doing here? Please don't tell me it's what I think it is."
Sam: "No, Bobby, I'm good..."
- Awww. I love that Bobby's worry is that Sam's dead and in hell.
Crowley: "Am I the only one who sees the urgency of the situation? My hellhound is gone. Winchester jumbo-size is trying to break into the mothership and that prophet of theirs is madly translating away. Add it up!"
- This is what makes Crowley a formidable enemy. He's not stupid.
Crowley: "I need Kevin Tran. Apparently his half of the tablet has the goodstuff, whereas mine has the acknowledgements and about the author!"
- Might be useful for next season... though, it's not like it stays in anyone's hands for long.
Kevin: "Getting rid of the tablet just takes off some of the pressure."
Dean: "Wait, getting rid of it?"
Kevin: "Temporarily. I hid it."
Dean: "What?!"
- See, if you had gone to your "how to care for your prophet" class, all this could have been avoided.
Naomi: "Kids, so cute when they're little, then they turn into teenagers and the party's over."
- Personally, I have a really hard time with kids between the ages of 2 and teen. So, I prefer teenagers to cute children. I need them to be capable of logical thought processes, and little "cute" kids are most definitely not.
Naomi: "We haven't been formally introduced, Dean. My name is Naomi."
Dean: "Oh, I know who you are."
- I love how Dean immediately moves away, and his whole demeanor changes. He's not that startled when she first appears, but as soon as she says her name, you can see his body language immediately change.
Dean: "...and I know what you did to Cas after he got out of Purgatory."
Naomi: "After I rescued him from Purgatory, you mean. At the cost of many angels lives."
- I love the way Naomi tries to spin things... she's such a politician. Cas would HATE the fact that angels died to get him out of Purgatory though...man, poor Cas. No matter what he does, he always seems to end up killing his brothers and sisters.
Dean: "You screwed with his head and had him spy on us!"
Naomi: "Well, it is true that I have spoken to Castiel many times. Trying to reach out to him, trying to help him. Dean, you must have noticed how Purgatory changed him. I mean, he's been unstable in the past, but I was shocked about how damaged he is now."
- The thing is, I don't necessarily think Naomi is lying here. From her point of view, Cas is broken... the Cas that hangs out with Dean Winchester and exercises free will is damaged. Whereas, for Dean, the Cas that hangs out with him and exercises free will is the BETTER Cas.
Dean: "...you think I don't know that you told him to try to kill me?"
Naomi: "Yeah, I suppose that would be how he would hear it. When I learned of the angel tablet, I did tell Castiel to get it at any cost. That's my job. To protect heaven. I'm a warrior just as you are, what would you expect? And now Castiel is in the wind with a hydrogen bomb in his pocket. And I'm scared, for all of us."
- Naomi is basically the NSA or Homeland security or whatever the hell that agency is in the US that does questionable things in order to protect America from terrorism. I mean, yes, she's lying about not telling Cas to kill Dean - but her other words are all cloaked in the same rhetoric of certain Americans who justify their actions by making the world seem like a scarier place than it actually is. I mean, now the angel tablet is a bomb?! Ridiculous.
Dean: "Save it. See, I don't trust angels, which means I don't trust you."
Naomi: "And yet, you haven't warded this place against us. I know, you're hoping Castiel will return to you. I admire your loyalty. I only wish he felt the same way. I know you don't want to believe it, Dean, but we're on the same side. Shutting the gates of hell, bringing Castiel in from the cold. Take a moment; think about what I've said...."
- Naomi is so clever, trying to cut Dean's loyalty to Castiel by making it seem one-sided, while simultaneously trying to win him over by claiming that helping her will help Castiel. It's all emotional manipulation, of course - and I think Dean is smart enough to see it as such, but she still does it very very well.
Naomi: "...oh, I know you've been doing business with Ajay. He did mention, didn't he? That his way into hell was through Purgatory? I knew you'd want to know. You see, we can be of help to each other."
- Of course, the only reason this is in here is so that Dean knows how to rescue Sam and Bobby... but, since Ajay has already been killed, Naomi is actually helping Dean preemptively. So, yeah, still counts.
Meanwhile, Sam and Bobby are fighting their way out of hell... and we get the two Sams dilemma, where Bobby has to figure out which is the real one...
*Bobby kills fake!Sam*
Sam: "You knew somehow, right?"
Bobby: "Took a chance. Fifty fifty."
- Hehehe
And Dean discovers Ajay is dead.
Bobby: "What the hell is this?"
Sam: "Now don't get all pissed off.... Purgatory."
Bobby: "Balls!"
- Hehehe
I really don't think they should have left the door open like that.
Dean: "Yeah, it's me. I know, I know, man, it's been a long time. I mean, I wanted to call, I did. I just thought it might be better if I didn't."
Benny: "It's so good to hear your voice, Dean. I mean that."
- Seriously, how are these two NOT considered a canon-couple. It could be a non-sexual relationship, but it's DEFINITELY a romantic one.
Benny: "I'm just happy as hell to hear from you."
Dean: "You might change your mind about that."
Benny: "Why? What d'you mean?"
Dean: 'Benny, I gotta ask you a favour. It's a big one."
- Oh, Dean, you're face.
Bobby: "Well, you saw back there in Hell, I don't got a lot of rust. Might be handy to have me around again, I could help!"
Sam: "Bobby, I'd love that, believe me. The thing is, for this trial to be completed, your soul has to enter heaven. And besides, if that weren't the case, we burned your bones, Bobby, there's nothing to tie your spirit to earth."
Bobby: "Yeah, well, I always figured that'd be the end of it. Just, hunter's funeral, that's it, nothing, and I was okay with that! Imagine my surprise..."
- I have to admit that one of the things I love about Supernatural is how they'd PREFER to be atheists. They'd prefer atheist afterlives. The fact that they get to go to heaven at the end of their turbulent lives isn't actually a solace. They want to cease existing entirely... and it's because of the reasons Bobby outlines in this episode. 1)They know that heaven isn't all candycanes and lollipops, that it's corrupt just like the rest of the world. 2)They don't want to live through their greatest hits, they want to live NEW greatest hits, and 3)at least some hunters just don't have retirement IN them. The thought of stopping isn't appealing.
- I do wonder if they could have resurrected Bobby, Benny-style. I mean, Benny's head was severed and he'd been dead for 50 years, but Dean managed to restore his body with a few latin words. What was that? Does it only work on monsters?
- And I ask that, because again, I didn't like the Ghost!Bobby storyline. Personally, I think Bobby should be smart enough as a hunter not to go down the vengeful spirit route - or, the "become a spirit and eventually go insane when all your loved ones die" route.
Sam: "Well, I guess if there has to be an eternity, I'd pick Heaven over Hell"
Bobby: "Yeah, because there's nothing screwy going on up there."
Sam: "I wish I made the rules."
- Okay, so I know this is just a throwaway line from Sam here - but DUDE! Wouldn't it be cool if at the end of the series, SAM STARTED MAKING THE RULES! Man... I've love that. I'm such a huge fan of the Winchesters ascend to become Gods storyline...which Ben Edlund was also a huge fan of, which is why I'm super super bummed that he left the show, because I felt like as long as he was there I had a chance to see it happen.
And the cabbie doesn't show, and Sam pretty much flips out right away about it and realizes that something has gone wrong.
Dean: "Benny, sending you back there is the last thing I ever wanted to do."
Benny: "I know, I know."
Dean: "But my little brother is stuck down there."
Benny: "This'd be the little brother that wants to kill me, right?"
Dean: "You got access to the place."
Benny: "By access, you mean getting beheaded?"
Dean: "Yeah, you're right, it's too much. It's not like I've exactly been there for you lately."
Benny: "What? Ah, come on, Dean, you know I love a challenge."
Dean: "You serious?"
Benny: "Hey, he's your brother. I say let's do this."
- What's interesting to me here is that Dean didn't insist. If Benny had said no, and Dean expected him to say no at this point, because he realized how big of an ask it was, Dean would have respected his decision. I wonder what Dean would have done? Just go hang out in the forest in Maine and hope that eventually Sam and Bobby would find the portal themselves?
Dean: "I owe you."
Benny: "You don't owe me nothing. Truth is, I could use a break from all this."
Dean: "Has it really been that tough?"
Benny: "I'm not a good fit, Dean. Not with the vampires, and for sure not with the humans. I don't belong. After awhile that starts to weigh on you. Right, cry me a river, like you need to listen to all this."
- I really feel for Benny - too human for purgatory, too monster for anywhere else. He was GOOD in purgatory though. He had fifty years of killing things day in and day out, and I'm sure it got monotonous, but probably, much like Dean, part of the adjustment of being back was NOT having that 24/7 hyper-vigilance. The world is a pretty chill place really. It makes me wonder if maybe Benny would have had an oddly easier time of it if Dean had sent him to Damascus after his resurrection, or wherever else there is weird warfare going on.
Dean: "Well when you get back up here, we're going to fix all that, okay?"
Benny: "When I get back?"
Dean: "Yeah, you find the portal and you ride out of purgatory with Sam, just like you did with me. As soon as I send you back, I'm going to haul my ass to Maine and I'm going to be waiting for you when you get topside."
- I don't think even Dean registers what Benny's words mean, but they mean EVERYTHING... because Benny just agreed to be beheaded with the understanding that he was NEVER COMING BACK. He didn't know Dean's plan was to have Sam carry him out again, he thought Dean was just asking him to die. Geez...
- And the sad thing is that this jaunt would have ingratiated Benny to Sam, heck, it did a little...and that would probably mean that Sam would be less pissy about Dean hanging out with Benny, so Dean COULD have been Benny's sober companion. But, then, at this point, Benny had already made his choice.
Benny: "Yeah, that sounds like a plan, chief. Let's get on with it."
Dean: "You sure about this?"
Benny: "Not my first rodeo, mate."
*hugs*
Dean: "Thank you."
Benny: "Come on you wimp! Hahaha"
- Oh Benny. I also love how well Benny knows Dean, because he knows right away to lie to him. To let Dean believe that he plans to come back... and then he calls Dean a wimp to undercut what is an extremely emotional goodbye for Benny. Dean just thinks it's temporary, but Benny knows it's forever... and ugh, I also love the fact that he calls Dean a wimp, because probably the absolute first thing Benny learned about Dean in Purgatory, before he even met him, was that he was not a wimp.
Bobby: "Dean spent a year in this place?"
Sam: "Running and fighting, all day every day."
Bobby: "Must have been hell on you not being able to get him out all that time. *pause* You did try?"
Sam: "Bobby, Dean and I had an agreement-"
Bobby: "I know that agreement, I taught you that agreement - that's a non-agreement. I get the feeling that a lot must have happened while I was gone."
- Lines that that make me think that there IS something funky with Sam and his sudden non-codependency on Dean, I gotta admit. I mean, technically, Sam abiding by a "don't raise the dead" agreement makes complete sense, given how bad things tend to happen when they break it... but at the same time, the fact that no one else can see how not looking for Dean was in-character for Sam is very suspicious. IS Sam in character and he's just grown as a person and no one else has caught up to that fact yet? Or did something happen to Sam - a psychotic break? Something else? Is it a positive change or a negative change? You'd think if something did happen, we would have found out what it was in S8.
Benny arrives and rips a guy's throat out.
- You gotta admit, that Benny must find joy in finally being able to kill indiscriminately again.
Sam: "Why are you here?"
Benny: "Dean sent me."
Bobby: "Dean? Not my Dean!"
Sam: "He's a buddy of Dean's, Bobby."
Bobby: "A buddy?"
Benny: "Good buddy."
- Hahaha, well, Dean is doing unexpected things too from Bobby's point of view - but at least we KNOW why Dean bonded with Benny and considers him a friend.
- Also, yeah, seriously, bromance is still romance - and Benny is definitely a good buddy. I think the way he says "good buddy" is the most sexually suggestive thing in their entire relationship.
Sam: "Alright, come on, Benny, it's your turn."
Benny smiles
Sam: "Hurry up!"
Vampires: "Benny! And still working with the Winchesters."
Sam: "Hurry!"
Benny: "Time for you to go, Sam."
Sam: "Benny?"
Benny: "Go on, it's me they want. Just be sure to tell Dean I said goodbye. I was never any good up there anyway."
Sam: "Benny, wait." *throws him the purgatory weapon.*
- I'd like to think that in the end, Benny and Sam both knew that each other were decent people - I'm sure Benny was half-expecting Sam not to follow through on towing him through the portal. And Sam, of course, was probably won over just by the fact that Benny agreed to die in order to help Sam.
*REUNION HUGS!*
Dean: "Purgatory right, a real garden spot ain't it."
Sam: "Yeah."
Dean: "You get 'em out?"
Sam: "Only Bobby."
Dean: "What? I mean, that's fantastic about Bobby."
Sam: "Dean, look, Benny...he got us out. A bunch of vamps showed, he used himself as bait. I got the feeling that even if that didn't happen, he didn't want to come back, you know. I'm sorry."
Dean: "You're probably right."
- You were supposed to tell Dean that Benny said goodbye, Sam. Get the message right! :P
- On a more serious note, I love the way that Jensen and Jared act this scene... because Sam knows that Dean loved Benny, and Dean is trying his best not to let on how heartbroken he is that his friend is dead - that his friend basically CHOSE to be dead again. Man, Dean has a bad track record with people choosing to die...
Dean: "Let him go, Crowley, he doesn't belong in hell!"
Crowley: "Hey does if I say he does. He's inflicted untold damage on my kind. Actually, from where I sit, Hell's too good for him."
- Oh, so we do get the reason for why Crowley wanted Bobby's soul in hell. Revenge for all the demons he killed, and helped Sam and Dean kill... still, KIND of weak. And also, that should have guaranteed him angel interference and a spot in heaven - but then, I guess angels are dicks, so they probably didn't really care when Bobby didn't show up.
Crowley: Siding with them, Naomi? You don't know those two, before their done, we'll both be locked away."
Naomi: "I'm just hoping they lock you away, dear, the rest, I'll figure out."
- Naomi joins the long list of people who thought they could use the Winchesters to get rid of their enemies first and then figure out a way not to have the Winchesters get rid of them second. :P A list that includes Crowley on multiple occasions, I might add, so he can't really criticize the strategy.
Naomi: "I told you, you could trust me."
- Doing one nice thing is not enough to inspire trust.
And this is the first time that Dean actually sees the immediate effect the trial has on Sam.
Back to Kevin....who Crowley finally catches up with. This is why we don't put the demon proofing on breakable glass.
Crowley: "If you want to find one Tran, find another. Your mom, quite a pain threshold on that one, but even she could only take so much."
Kevin: "She never would've told you."
Crowley: "Mom's are like that, aren't they. So we killed her and got your address off her smartphone."
- Sad times forever.
Crowley: "What you people never seem to understand is that you are nothing - fleeting blips of light. I am forever."
- I just love this line and Crowley's description of humanity.
Dean: "You okay."
Sam: "Yeah, I'll live."
Dean: "I buried Benny, but I didn't burn his bones. After he said he'd try to get you out of there, it just didn't seem right. I know you got no use for him-"
Sam: "No, no, no, I get it. I do. He's uh, he's a little different from what I thought. So, go ahead and leave the door open if you want."
- Awww... brothers. I love the fact that Dean kept the door open, and that Sam understood why, and yeah... I just love everything.
The Winchesters discover that Kevin is gone... but the windows are still intact. So, what Crowley in his head, making him flee of his own accord so that Crowley could pick him up outside? Or did they put the windows back in somehow?
CUT SCENES
1)
Dean running into the alley to find Sam gone. I'm guessing this is just after Ajay leaves with him and before Ajay gets back?
2)
Dean praying to Cas, after Kevin steals his pie: "Hey Cas, you out there buddy? I need you to come in, man. I need you to come back, and I need you not to be nuts."
- Aww... I guess this scene is just setting up why there's no angel proofing on the boat - but Naomi covers that in her speech, so it's extraneous. Though, from a character standpoint, it's lovely to see.
3)
Dean talking to Benny in the alley, at some point in their conversation: "You ever fall off the wagon and feed?"
Benny: "Some questions, you just don't want to ask, brother."
- I'm torn on them cutting this last one. It's such a huge character point for both Benny AND Dean - the fact that Benny wasn't perfect, the fact that Dean obviously forgave him anyway and still "left that door open" for him.
In conclusion - good episode, but I think they could have stretched it out a bit somehow - made it into a two parter with Dean's discovery of Ajay's death as the cliffy... and then we could have gotten more of Sam wandering through hell and purgatory, so it wouldn't have felt far too easy/short - but more like the 48 hour event it was (at the least)...and we could have gotten more Sam+Benny conversations or something.. I don't know. Sometimes I think Supernatural's reluctance not to have two-parters midseason is a hindrance to good storytelling.
Now that Supernatural is on hiatus for a couple weeks, I'll hopefully get these done a little faster - though, I know I said that back in December too.
