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hells_half_acreQuarantine rewatches begin! Let's get back at this folks... I've got 12 episodes to go to finish off S14, and due to a temporary production shut-down, we're not actually sure anymore when the Series Finale will be - which means that THIS IS MY CHANCE to finish my S14 rewatch and get the clothes posted before the series concludes.
So, we return, after my time away - and try to remember where the heck I left off...
The Spear
Ah, yeah, it's either this episode or the next one that has the epic Resevoir Dogs style walk (they've done it before, but I love it ever time.) Also the first time I watched this I got confused as to what the Tower was called in Die Hard and thought they had used the exact same name, but nope! It's slightly different.
I don't like the weird new teeth on these monsters - they look too cartoony.
I like Michael as this woman.
GARTH!!!! I still love him.
He plays this part well, but a LITTLE too forward with his cover story in retrospect.
Sweet cereals gross me out now, but as a kid I know I'd be super envious that Jack's dad's let him eat something called "Cookies Crunch".
Cas is checking up on Jack, since he's not sleeping. Jack's worried about Kelly's safety, and is also disillusioned with heaven. Castiel is confident in Naomi though (big change since he tried to kill her! Haha)
Cas also explains that he doesn't want Sam and Dean to know about the deal, because he sees it as a burden to them... I think he's worried about them forming a quest to get him out of it, and he knows that as much as deals are a bad idea, questing to get out of them tends to lead to worse things.
Sam's worried about getting Garth killed - solid worry, you DO get all your friends killed. (Burn! I'm so mean.)
Ketch is still alive, and that fact still annoys me, no matter how much I like the actor.
That egg kind of drives me nuts. I'm kind of glad that they destroy all the magic weapons in this episode (or next one - I forget which).
And Garth gets powered up - which eventually is a good thing, given that he remains our ally and good.
This episode is mostly filler.
Garth lies to Sam about not being turned/powered-up. And also continues to lay the trap Michael is setting, because he doesn't realize that he's been made as a spy.
AH - throw-away line from Cas in this episode tells us that "Bobby's been working on the angel cuffs - they might be able to hold him" - which explains why the cuffs that couldn't hold Lucifer in S13 can suddenly hold Michael in S15.
And Dean calls getting Jack back a "no strings attached win" and Cas has to give him a fake smile and pretend that's the truth. Aww. :(
Dean really wants to kill Michael himself too - for once that's not actually going to happen for him. Usually Dean DOES kill everyone he wants to kill, but... actually, now that I think about it, the two enemies he had that victimized him the most, he didn't kill. Alistair and Michael are killed by Sam and Jack, respectively, not Dean.
Jack's learned how to pick locks.
Sam's knocked out (again) and Michael destroys the egg. The jig is up for Garth. Dean and Cas successfully find Dark!Kaia. Dean successfully bargins with Dark!Kaia...
Kaia wants to go back home. Dean promises that Jack will open the door for her - even though at this point, Jack can't use his powers without burning up his soul. We never see Kaia again after this, so hopefully they wrap this storyline up somehow in S15 or it'll be a dangling thread.
Sam breaks the news that Jack has been kidnapped.
Michael's pitch to Jack that eternity will make him like Michael... it reminds me of my favourite passage in the book Immortal Lycanthropes... about how morals/ethics can also be a cultural trend, that the only thing preventing people from doing bad things is a failure of time and circumstance - that if you lived forever, eventually you'd find yourself in a situation where you'd kill a man, etc. Anyway, it's an interesting take on it.
Also, I like how Cas is like "don't go in alone!" and Sam is like "yeah, I know" and then goes in alone.
A strange first meeting of Jack and Garth - but Sam successfully subdues Garth long enough to stuff him in a trunk.
I love Beethoven's 9th and this reservoir dog's walk!
And Dean fails to make the killing thrust, because Michael's still partially in his head. And we get the villains victory speech... dun dun dun!!
Nihilism
I remember liking this episode... I wonder if I still do! (Probably, I like liking things.)
Dean's dream bar - so fun, and also very interesting in light of the episode in S15 where his friend retired to the same dream. (I should point out that Dean isn't retired here though).
I also like that he has Pamela as his business partner/co-worker.
And it's kind of hilarious that he named his bar after (sort of) Crowley's nickname for him.
Pamela is so built. It's impressive.
Pamela: "Besides, you don't want me - you just like to flirt."
- I like the fact that Dean's dream woman has become a woman who knows he's not interested in a romantic relationship.
When did Michael!Dean change his clothes? Did he just leave Sam, Cas, and Jack standing there and was like "give me a sec" and they just STAYED?! I guess I'll just suspend my disbelief.
Oh right, the ridiculousness of having Maggie be the leader of the AU!Hunters. I mean, I like her as a character, but they should have just made her a basic signalman and her her relating a more competent hunter's messages.
I like Violet - at least the actress - haha. I also like the fact that Sam's the only one can see her.
Sam: "How did you do that?"
Violet: "I didn't. Have fun."
- Do we get an answer to who did? Or does Billie show up? I don't remember. I'm thinking too much about S15 probably.
I love how they walk another 3 feet away when Michael says he can hear them talking - in a severely echoey room.... that's really going to make a difference, guys, good work.
Jack has absolute faith in Dean. It's touching... and I love Jack.
Michael: "I know how sad he was when you died - on the outside. On the inside, well, it's not like he was happy - he just didn't care. Because you're not Sam, you're not Cas, you're just a burden..."
- Ah Michael... trying to go for Jack's weaknesses.
Seriously, just make Maggie the signalman if you want her to have lines, her giving a motivational speech to some balding dude with grey hair who probably has way more experience than she does is pretty ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with being a signalman - you can still be a sympathetic character that people care about, so that they're sad when you die.
We find out Michael's motivations - he wants to burn the world, because he's disappointed in God. The apocalypse was supposed to bring him back, but he still didn't return. Michael's realized that his world was an abandoned draft and is bitter about it. And Cas DOES see Michael's point - see that he might have one, anyway.
The difference is though that the value of a world isn't weather or not God cares about it - and I think Cas knows that deep down.
Michael wants to kill God for creating and then abandoning him.
Oh yeah, and Cas goes quickly through Dean's mind, thinking Michael would bury Dean in his worst memories - as torture. But Sam figures it out - a true distraction would be contentment.
I also love how Sam knows when he's hearing something that never happened.
I think other people have waded through the sound-clips and identified where they're from. So I'll leave that meta to those people. It'd take me WAY too long, though I'd find it interesting.
Michael continues to try to seed discord between everyone... but Cas calls it - Michael is stalling.
And Jack wastes the monsters, thus burning off more of his soul.
Dean: "It'll hold. My mind, my rules - I'm the cage."
- I do love that line. Even though I think that Dean should be incapable of holding Michael at bay in his head.
Jack gets a stern talking to.
Ah, it was Billie with the Reaper assistance. I figured.
Billie says that the books on Dean's death have all been rewritten with the ending that Michael escapes and burns the world, except one (which we find out later is the Malek box) - but the thing is, what both Billie and Dean fail to realize is that the box were RE-written. Meaning, that his (a other people's) actions change his possible destinies. So, things might be bleak now, but that doesn't actually mean that those will forever be the two options - they're just the two options RIGHT NOW, until something else changes.
Anyway, good times, still a good episode! Let me know what you thought in comments! I'll be back either on the weekend or next week - depending on when I get bored of the other things I have to do in my apartment. :)
So, we return, after my time away - and try to remember where the heck I left off...
The Spear
Ah, yeah, it's either this episode or the next one that has the epic Resevoir Dogs style walk (they've done it before, but I love it ever time.) Also the first time I watched this I got confused as to what the Tower was called in Die Hard and thought they had used the exact same name, but nope! It's slightly different.
I don't like the weird new teeth on these monsters - they look too cartoony.
I like Michael as this woman.
GARTH!!!! I still love him.
He plays this part well, but a LITTLE too forward with his cover story in retrospect.
Sweet cereals gross me out now, but as a kid I know I'd be super envious that Jack's dad's let him eat something called "Cookies Crunch".
Cas is checking up on Jack, since he's not sleeping. Jack's worried about Kelly's safety, and is also disillusioned with heaven. Castiel is confident in Naomi though (big change since he tried to kill her! Haha)
Cas also explains that he doesn't want Sam and Dean to know about the deal, because he sees it as a burden to them... I think he's worried about them forming a quest to get him out of it, and he knows that as much as deals are a bad idea, questing to get out of them tends to lead to worse things.
Sam's worried about getting Garth killed - solid worry, you DO get all your friends killed. (Burn! I'm so mean.)
Ketch is still alive, and that fact still annoys me, no matter how much I like the actor.
That egg kind of drives me nuts. I'm kind of glad that they destroy all the magic weapons in this episode (or next one - I forget which).
And Garth gets powered up - which eventually is a good thing, given that he remains our ally and good.
This episode is mostly filler.
Garth lies to Sam about not being turned/powered-up. And also continues to lay the trap Michael is setting, because he doesn't realize that he's been made as a spy.
AH - throw-away line from Cas in this episode tells us that "Bobby's been working on the angel cuffs - they might be able to hold him" - which explains why the cuffs that couldn't hold Lucifer in S13 can suddenly hold Michael in S15.
And Dean calls getting Jack back a "no strings attached win" and Cas has to give him a fake smile and pretend that's the truth. Aww. :(
Dean really wants to kill Michael himself too - for once that's not actually going to happen for him. Usually Dean DOES kill everyone he wants to kill, but... actually, now that I think about it, the two enemies he had that victimized him the most, he didn't kill. Alistair and Michael are killed by Sam and Jack, respectively, not Dean.
Jack's learned how to pick locks.
Sam's knocked out (again) and Michael destroys the egg. The jig is up for Garth. Dean and Cas successfully find Dark!Kaia. Dean successfully bargins with Dark!Kaia...
Kaia wants to go back home. Dean promises that Jack will open the door for her - even though at this point, Jack can't use his powers without burning up his soul. We never see Kaia again after this, so hopefully they wrap this storyline up somehow in S15 or it'll be a dangling thread.
Sam breaks the news that Jack has been kidnapped.
Michael's pitch to Jack that eternity will make him like Michael... it reminds me of my favourite passage in the book Immortal Lycanthropes... about how morals/ethics can also be a cultural trend, that the only thing preventing people from doing bad things is a failure of time and circumstance - that if you lived forever, eventually you'd find yourself in a situation where you'd kill a man, etc. Anyway, it's an interesting take on it.
Also, I like how Cas is like "don't go in alone!" and Sam is like "yeah, I know" and then goes in alone.
A strange first meeting of Jack and Garth - but Sam successfully subdues Garth long enough to stuff him in a trunk.
I love Beethoven's 9th and this reservoir dog's walk!
And Dean fails to make the killing thrust, because Michael's still partially in his head. And we get the villains victory speech... dun dun dun!!
Nihilism
I remember liking this episode... I wonder if I still do! (Probably, I like liking things.)
Dean's dream bar - so fun, and also very interesting in light of the episode in S15 where his friend retired to the same dream. (I should point out that Dean isn't retired here though).
I also like that he has Pamela as his business partner/co-worker.
And it's kind of hilarious that he named his bar after (sort of) Crowley's nickname for him.
Pamela is so built. It's impressive.
Pamela: "Besides, you don't want me - you just like to flirt."
- I like the fact that Dean's dream woman has become a woman who knows he's not interested in a romantic relationship.
When did Michael!Dean change his clothes? Did he just leave Sam, Cas, and Jack standing there and was like "give me a sec" and they just STAYED?! I guess I'll just suspend my disbelief.
Oh right, the ridiculousness of having Maggie be the leader of the AU!Hunters. I mean, I like her as a character, but they should have just made her a basic signalman and her her relating a more competent hunter's messages.
I like Violet - at least the actress - haha. I also like the fact that Sam's the only one can see her.
Sam: "How did you do that?"
Violet: "I didn't. Have fun."
- Do we get an answer to who did? Or does Billie show up? I don't remember. I'm thinking too much about S15 probably.
I love how they walk another 3 feet away when Michael says he can hear them talking - in a severely echoey room.... that's really going to make a difference, guys, good work.
Jack has absolute faith in Dean. It's touching... and I love Jack.
Michael: "I know how sad he was when you died - on the outside. On the inside, well, it's not like he was happy - he just didn't care. Because you're not Sam, you're not Cas, you're just a burden..."
- Ah Michael... trying to go for Jack's weaknesses.
Seriously, just make Maggie the signalman if you want her to have lines, her giving a motivational speech to some balding dude with grey hair who probably has way more experience than she does is pretty ridiculous. There's nothing wrong with being a signalman - you can still be a sympathetic character that people care about, so that they're sad when you die.
We find out Michael's motivations - he wants to burn the world, because he's disappointed in God. The apocalypse was supposed to bring him back, but he still didn't return. Michael's realized that his world was an abandoned draft and is bitter about it. And Cas DOES see Michael's point - see that he might have one, anyway.
The difference is though that the value of a world isn't weather or not God cares about it - and I think Cas knows that deep down.
Michael wants to kill God for creating and then abandoning him.
Oh yeah, and Cas goes quickly through Dean's mind, thinking Michael would bury Dean in his worst memories - as torture. But Sam figures it out - a true distraction would be contentment.
I also love how Sam knows when he's hearing something that never happened.
I think other people have waded through the sound-clips and identified where they're from. So I'll leave that meta to those people. It'd take me WAY too long, though I'd find it interesting.
Michael continues to try to seed discord between everyone... but Cas calls it - Michael is stalling.
And Jack wastes the monsters, thus burning off more of his soul.
Dean: "It'll hold. My mind, my rules - I'm the cage."
- I do love that line. Even though I think that Dean should be incapable of holding Michael at bay in his head.
Jack gets a stern talking to.
Ah, it was Billie with the Reaper assistance. I figured.
Billie says that the books on Dean's death have all been rewritten with the ending that Michael escapes and burns the world, except one (which we find out later is the Malek box) - but the thing is, what both Billie and Dean fail to realize is that the box were RE-written. Meaning, that his (a other people's) actions change his possible destinies. So, things might be bleak now, but that doesn't actually mean that those will forever be the two options - they're just the two options RIGHT NOW, until something else changes.
Anyway, good times, still a good episode! Let me know what you thought in comments! I'll be back either on the weekend or next week - depending on when I get bored of the other things I have to do in my apartment. :)
