Rewatch S14: Gods & Monsters

[hells_half_acre]

Hi! I know I'm a week late on this. I'm still trying to find a balance between over-scheduling myself and under-scheduling myself, and I haven't quite got it yet. That being said, new goal is to do these twice per week while SPN is on winter hiatus, and then once per week after that. We'll see if I accomplish that.

I'm still going to be going with the very loose format, rather than the indepth analysis. 

Let's jump into 15x02....


Gross beginning - with Michael trying to improve on the monsters. It's interesting in light of seeing our Michael again in S15 - this Michael is already well aware of how his notion of God disappointed him - and his solution, whether he says it or not, is to basically replace him - by creating his own people (improved monsters) and populating the earth with them - killing off Chuck's people (humanity).

It's definitely a BuckLeming episode, because it's ALL NEEDLESS EXPOSITION. UGH.

I miss Jack.

Nick's memories of Lucifer... seriously, it really bugs me that Lucifer somehow brought back Nick's soul to his body when he resurrected the body - because Nick was dead. Why bring back the soul? I suppose it's Lucifer, so needless torture? I think the reason it bugs me is because I know it's actually just the writers not thinking things through and/or just doing what's most convenient to them for the story they want to tell, rather than the story that makes the most sense given the plot and the characters.

Nick had somehow forgotten that his family was dead? Yeah, because that makes sense... again, why the hell? Also, I think MarkP really overacts in this scene. Let's try for subtlety people... nevermind, I forgot who the writers were.

OOO, they're at the morgue at the Police Museum in Gastown. That's a nice old-school morgue. Or maybe it's a set? But it's definitely at least modeled after the old morgue. Fun fact - the Police Museum plays movies there now. They set up chairs and a projector (which they place in front of the body-drawers in the other room) and they sell popcorn, and you can sit a morgue and enjoy the show.  

Jack's trying to figure out how long until his grace replenishes - a month or a century, but human component slows process. Basically "we'll regrace you when we feel like it - sincerely, the writers."

Cas: At the time of the Great Fall...
- I love in-universe events getting epic historical-event names.

Cas trying to impress on Jack that what matters is that Jack is still Jack - and that it's important to persevere and learn, and that Jack can still do great things.

I DO like Nick's instinctual response to snap his fingers at Castiel when Cas tries to touch him. I also love Cas's flinch back - I do think Misha and Mark acted that moment REALLY well. The rest is too much exposition again that they can't really act their way out of.

The actress who plays the vampire does a good job with the exposition monologue though.

Michael and a monster using the same tactics of cat-fishing each other. :P

That being said, since I'm complaining on this one anyway - I hate how every werewolf is in control of their werewolf-ism now and can change at will and keep their conscience. They've basically turned werewolves into vampires, and I hate it, because I love werewolves and hate vampires.

Back to Cas and Nick expositioning.

RAR... I'm bored.

I DO like the conversation where Castiel tries to relate to Nick by telling him about Jimmy, and it doesn't go well. Castiel's residual guilt about the Novaks is a REALLY interesting character point. So, I DO really appreciate it being in here and mentioned.

Michael talks to the werewolf pack leader and does a really good job of pretending to be me when I was 9 - I was pretty genocidal back then. It was during one of the waves of "save-the-planet" attempts, and my solution really was that obviously it was the humans that were the problem and we could solve everything if we just killed humanity. Ah, childhood, so precocious. 

Oh, I forgot about Jack going to visit his grandparents. This scene is pretty heart-wrenching. It's well done.

Lydia the vampire dies as we find out that she was deliberate bait.

Castiel trying to hold the fort while Sam is away... Where's this one? Oh, he's back! Yay! Wait, now I've lost track of the other one! Why is it so hard to keep track of only two people?!

I do love that Castiel realizes part way through yelling at Jack that he's taking the wrong tactic, and immediately falls silent and just listens and nods and does his best to convey 'I understand'. "I suppose there are worst ways of being human than to be kind" - good line.

Now Jack is pretending to be me at 9 years old. Jack willing to kill Dean to stop Michael is actually - well, as Jack, says, it's what Dean would want. Jack's not WRONG, no matter what puppy-eyes Castiel gives him. And I think Castiel knows it too. But it's all different in theory than in practice.

I will say that I like the bookends in this season of it starting with Jack willing to kill Dean, and then ends with Dean willing to kill Jack (until theory becomes practice, of course.)

I'm sad about Artie's death here, because like - what do you do when your former neighbour returns and is clearly a psychopath? You just end up getting murdered. I guess.

And Sam, Mary, and Bobby spring the trap. Oh yeah, I remember this scene, because we get them yelling during a fight "Werewolves!" thanks, couldn't put that together given that we just had Michael talking to werewolves and then explicitly telling us that he's laid a trap for the hunters. "Silver bullets aren't working!" They can clearly see that Sam. "Nothing's working." Yes, we can see that. "Well, that worked" Yes, we can see that as well.

Oh yeah, and then we get the fake-out of Dean suddenly inexplicably returning unpossessed. Like that's not SUPER SUSPICIOUS.

And Nick is a murdidilyurderer.


As usual, if you have any thoughts to add, or want me to talk about a specific point, let me know in comments. :)