hells_half_acre: (Confused!Dean)
[personal profile] hells_half_acre
 Hello!

Tonight i haven't been drinking, but hopefully this will still be entertaining for you all...but I still took crappy notes, so everything is still recapped only to the best of my memory and all quotes are paraphrased, probably.

Oh, as I'm sure you know, there was a moment in tonight's episode that filled me with so much joy... so much... however too brief joy.

But, let us start at the beginning...

We start with a poor guy named Dale (I think by now that name has been ruined, has it not? Do people in the south still name their children Dale? I suppose Dale Urnheart made it cool for a while. Do people remember Dale Urnheart? Am I even spelling his last name right? Don't bother to answer, I don't actually care.

Poor Dale gets loved-spelled into robbing his local corner gas. When I thought they were just scamming him to get him to pay for their gas, I thought for a moment that they really didn't need the love spell for that, Dale looked fairly hooked before they bespelled him - but, getting him to murder someone he sees everyday is another matter altogether. Luckily, Dale doesn't get to live a life-time of remorse, because they kill him.

We also find out that these two witch girls are on their way to Lebanon, KS. THIS CAN'T BODE WELL FOR OUR HEROES, WHO LIVE IN LEBANON, KS.

We join our heroes in their secret bunker, where they research unaware of the impending shenanigans. Dean has dug up every book to do with alternate realities, one of which is called Jour et Nuit, which Dean pronounces wrong - it is my belief that Dean knows perfectly well that it is french, as Dean is not actually uneducated nor uncultured - but that his mispronunciation was an attempt to both amuse Sam and make him feel superior, which might also help to cheer him up. I know, personally, that I used to read French anglo-phonetically for my friends in order to make them laugh when I was a teen.

ANYWAY.... my point is, Dean is trying to cheer Sam up, to limited success.

Meanwhile, in a cells in Fall River, Rhode Island, Castiel and Lucifer languish. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Lucifer and wish they would just kill him and or rid my world of him finally and for the last time? Because my feelings on that matter have only grown, not diminished. 

Alas, I do not write this show, and the writers are either unaware of my feelings or simply do not care. 

So, instead we get a scene where Lucifer is being taunted by the guard, who I like more than Lucifer, because I like everyone more than Lucifer. Okay, sorry, I'll shut-up.

When the guard is gone (or possibly before he shows up), Lucifer reiterates a request to Castiel to allow Lucifer to consume part of his grace so that he might become more powerful. Castiel is not entertaining this request at all. He is amused by the guards taunts of Lucifer though, and gives us little smiles, that show us that he quite enjoys Lucifer's plight, if not his own.

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Dean has gone out for beer (where he has seemingly only bought a single six pack. WHO DOES THAT? Do they have a limited budget? You drink so much beer, Dean - admit to your vices and buy a 24. Or do you LIKE going to the store every single day? Possibly twice? Is Sam not drinking ANY of the beer? Or should we take this as a sign that Dean isn't actually drinking that much anymore - Good for you, Dean? I don't know, I'm confused.)

The witch girls catch Dean outside the market and love-spell him. 

When he returns to the bunker, it is to tell Sam that he is in love - much to Sam's confusion and momentarily amusement. But then Dean takes out the Black Grimore, or however you spell it, and tells Sam that it is a gift for his new love - who has a sister, and perhaps they can all live together now. Sam sees what's up, and tries to prevent Dean from leaving, but is thwarted when Dean clocks him and triggers his hair-trigger unconsciousness-switch which I figure is so sensitive because Sam has been knocked out so much he would realistically have permanent brain damage at this point.

Lucky for Sam, he must fall on the car keys, because Dean still chooses to walk into town - giving enough time for Sam to regain consciousness, jump in the car, and prevent Dean from being sledge-hammered in the head - even though the girls still abscond with the book.

Sam is saved from the sleeper-hold by Rowena, who coincidentally appears... OR IS IT! (I mean, it IS Rowena, it's just not actually a coincidence.)

Lucifer and Castiel begin to talk about the threat of AU!Michael. Lucifer tries to mentally torture Castiel by describing Michael torturing Mary, in order to make Castiel desperate in his love for the Winchesters to agree to Lucifer again - thankfully, Castiell is not so easily tricked, and instead he turns the tables - telling Lucifer about Jack, and how good he is, and how thoughtful, and how he is nothing like Lucifer and everything like his human mother.

This makes Lucifer angry, and in his angry he finds himself more powerful than before.

Also, at one point, Lucifer calls Castiel Cassandra, and while this could be Sam(anatha) situation, he calls him Cassandra in reference to truthfulness. So, I thought that was really interesting - and I'd like to think what other people thought of that comparison. Cassandra, for those of you who need the reminder, was a figure from Greek mythology who was cursed to speak true prophecy but never be believed. 

Back with Sam and Dean and Rowena.

We get an explanation from Rowena - both for her resurrection (magic in place to prevent death, but took a while to heal) and knowing that the book was in play again (supposedly a tracking spell). She suggests they help each other. Apparently, her magic is actually partially bound, and she would like to break the binding spell so she might be at full power. Sam and Dean refuse - in order to change the subject, no doubt, Rowena asks after Crowley and where he is.

We go momentarily back to the witches, who now want to do a spell from the book, and are buying supplies at the hardware store. The spell calls for the sacrifice of a human soul (ie: This is the spell that the witches almost sacrificed Sam in Regarding Dean last season.) They steal a store clerk with a love spell.

Sam and Dean tell Rowena that Crowley is dead. She is distraught. Which I think it a little unbelievable and much be overplayed for sympathy, since Rowena tried to have Sam kill Crowley in S10 and I didn't think that their relationship changed that much in S11-12 for Rowena to grow found of him again, after all, I'm pretty sure their last interaction was Rowena encouraging Gavin's death as revenge against Crowley for having "made" her kill her surrogate son what-his-name in order to remove the Mark of Cain in S10. ANYWHO...

Sam assures her that Crowley died so that Lucifer would be sealed away in an alternate reality. Rowena does not think the danger of Lucifer has passed (and she's right - man, I feel so bad for Sam.)

Then there's some witty-banter with Rowena making fun of Dean for falling for a love spell. "Did she get to fifth base?" Rowena asked. "There's no such thing as fifth base," Dean answered, to which Rowena laughs and calls him "sheltered." Rowena is basically taking Crowley's spot here as the "villain" who most knows how to read and manipulate the Winchesters. Emotions are sympathy. Distract Dean with sex and banter - engage Sam with strategic thoughts of the enemy and warnings of greater threats, etc.

Meanwhile, we rejoin the witches, who fill time by being unsure of themselves, and then sure of themselves, and we find out that they are trying to resurrect their mother. 

Sam, Dean, and Rowena, arrive in Stillwater, OK, where Rowena says the book is "somewhere in the area" - which should have been their clue right there, because before Rowena supposedly tracked it to a single parking lot, but now only knows the town. Dean will not let Rowena participate in the investigation - she must wait in the car with Sam to watch her. Rowena does suggest that Dean talk to the women, who will no doubt not like the witches due to their MO.

We rejoin Castiel and Lucifer as the guard approaches again, and hears Castiel's unending insults to Lucifer. This, as we find out, is with purpose, as Lucifer has now grown so angry that he has broken the wards on his cage (and Castiel's) and the begin their escape plan with a dual effort smiting of the guard. 

Back int he Impala, Sam and Rowena talk. Rowena claims boredom. They get into a discussion about why she wants the book. The words "you could, but you shouldn't" are said by Sam, to which Rowena responds that it's an accurate description of her whole life. 

Sam continues on his journey into depression, reiterating that even more power won't change anything for Rowena, she'll still feel the same - helpless.

But what it boils down to - and I actually don't think Rowena was lying about this, but I could be wrong - is that Rowena is terrified. Before her death, she saw Lucifer's true face and it is apparently the stuff of nightmares. Sam knows this well, because he's seen it too. Rowena asks him how he deals with it, and he admits that he doesn't - he just represses it and tries to focus on the world-ending task at hand. Although he knows that he could talk to Dean about it - that Dean would listen - Sam doesn't, because he doesn't know how to go about sharing that experience.

AND MAN, it's only been SEVEN YEARS! I'm so glad that the show is FINALLY admitting that MAYBE being tortured by Lucifer for 160-1000+ years depending on your reckoning, MIGHT HAVE AFFECTED SAM A LITTLE?!?! Don't get me wrong, I know we had the Wall in S6 and the soul-damage/hallucinations/insomnia in S7, we've not been completely devoid of repercussions, but both those storylines were about PHYSICAL affects, not mental affects... even the hallucinations in S7, once we got past the first few episodes, were not talked about - nor did they seem to affect Sam's overall personality, save for when he got too physically exhausted to continue... and more importantly, he never really talked about it either. Like, try to think of a comparable Sam speech to Dean's speech in Heaven and Hell? There isn't one.

Anyway, sorry about sounding like a bitter Sam!girl there, but I am happy to at least have this sliver of a talk... this tiny acknowledgement that Sam never really did deal with his torture, that he never really did talk to Dean about what it was like or its lingering affects... that the way he moved on was just to keep silent and move on. Which, I'm not saying isn't a legit way to deal with things - mainly, because that's the way I deal with things, and it's COOL. EVERYTHING IS FINE. So, my non-bitterSam!girl side fully acknowledges that Sam shouldn't HAVE to make a speech for his experiences to be legit and to matter.

Moving on...

Dean finally stumbles upon the hardware store, where the girl behind the counter gives him the address for the witches, because she hates them. And, while... speaking as a woman.... that hardware store girl must REALLY know what the witches are doing in order to give their address to a MAN who is promising to be MEAN. Personally, I don't think I'd ever do that to another woman who just ANNOYED me or even just PETTY-THIEVED from my store. So, I'm giving hardware store lady the benefit of the doubt here, because otherwise SUPER NOT COOL. Also, she checks Dean out, and I just have "Get it!" in my notes.

Sam is still being nihilistic at Rowena - about how nothing she does will ever matter, that she'll ALWAYS be scared. Rowena (sees Dean approaching and) gets out of the car, needing some air. Dean announces that he has the address and allows Rowena to peak at it - which then allows her to freeze them in place with a hex bag and get there before them.

Once Rowena gets there, we find out that the witch girls had a deal with her - they steal the book, she resurrects their mother, then takes the book. The girls have attempted to resurrect their mother themselves and accidentally created a zombie. Who then attacks Rowena, forcing her to lock herself in the kitchen.

Sam, after much trying, is finally able to reach the hex bag, because, as Dean says "Come on! You're like 8 feet tall!" - and frees them.

Cas and Lucifer have escaped the Fall River building. Lucifer again tries to goad Castiel into giving him some grace. Castiel refuses. Lucifer strikes out and cuts  his side, but Cas clamps a hand down to it, reels Lucifer in, and then STABS HIM! Saying "This is me learning from my mistakes." And this is what my notes say:

"Please be dead. No, it's too good to be true."

But for one BRIEF moment, I knew what joy was. Was it cruel of the show to show me this hope and then rip it away? Perhaps... but at least they're waiting until next week to rip it away. At least there's that.

Back with the witches - Sam and Dean show up, and STUPIDLY (I swear to god, the show really needs to think of BETTER ways to do this, because IT GETS STUPIDER EVERY TIME) that ANNOUNCE that they have witch-killing bullets instead of, oh, I don't know, just KILLING THE WITCHES!!!! So, instead they get in a fist fight when the witches send them flying and then physically attack. 

Luckily they're able to tell Rowena how to dispatch the zombie, and she's able to do so with one of their fallen guns, and then Rowena uses her favourite spell, which I wrote down as "bestiality" but we all know that's not what I meant! But it's that "beastialum" spell that turns the girls into attack dogs... she then has them kill each other.

Rowena clutches the book, and Sam goes to take it... but she pleads with him, appealing to his sympathy and shared fear of Lucifer, and there is something just a LITTLE off about Sam's collection of the book, and how Rowena runs off, that had me suspicious that her appeal may have worked.

Back at the Bunker, Dean tries to make a "girl beat me up" joke, but Sam points out that girls beat them up all the time. Then Dean breaks out the big reveal and tells Sam that he knows he let Rowena have the page she wanted. 

Sam admits to it, and promises that if Rowena turns on them, then he'll kill her himself - but that if she's right, and Lucifer does get back, and she can do something, then he wants her to be able to do it. And given the earlier reference to Cassandra, I'm actually fully on Sam's side here.

Dean then confronts Sam about his dark mood. Sam indicates that he'll be honest, with an "Honestly..." but, we see that he is once again not completely honest, or maybe, he is only as completely honest as he is capable of. He feels helpless, because they have no plan - before he had the plan with Jack to get mom back, but now they don't have Jack or mom and no way to get them back, and Sam feels helpless and hopeless as a result. Dean tries to do the whole "we'll figure it out together. We'll find a plan" speech that USUALLY works, but this time, Sam just goes to bed - and Dean is left alone, as Sam slips further into his black mood.

Rowena, meanwhile, unbinds herself - becoming more powerful - and it is ominous, but I'm still with Sam on this one. I want to see where it goes first.

And the NEXT TIME is basically a sign saying "None of your dreams are coming true" - Only there is also DANEEL! So that's cool! :)


Let me know your thoughts!





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