hells_half_acre | Rewatch S14: Game Night (14x17)

Okay! Obviously mid-week doesn't work for rewatches, since I didn't factor in needing to cook dinner for myself and then getting too sleepy.

So, weekend rewatches! I will try to be good and finish these in the next 4 weeks, given that I only have 4 episodes left of this season.

Also, here's a tip: If you want to fix your DVD player, just buy a new DVD player and then your old one will magically start working again and you'll have two DVD players.

Game Night

And we get into the final run-up to the season finale... so, no more easy MotW episodes for me! Also, I have to put up with Nick again.

If you forgive me, I may skip his scenes again. We'll see though.

Does Donatello survive? I can't remember. I wonder if at the end of the series he got his soul restored. That's what *I* would do if I were God.

I could have bought his mixer at the set-sale, but it didn't come with the bowl, and I have a small kitchen, so passed it up.

Pretty earrings. Anael was supposedly Joshua's right hand... I thought her backstory was that she counted the souls going into heaven. Am I remembering incorrectly?

Anyway, Castiel is trying restore Jack's soul - and 'only God can restore a soul' so that answers my earlier question. So, definitely a realm for fanfiction where the new God restores the souls of those who lost theirs during Chuck's reign of (sometimes bad) storytelling.

And we start setting up for Mary's death, with her apologizing for herself.

Mary: "I can be closed off, hard..."

Dean: "Yeah, that's where I get it from :)"

Mary: "Listen, I just need you to know, I'm grateful - every day I get to spend with you and Sam"

- Way to telegraph your death.

- Also, given how much Mary has somewhat avoided living with her boys, I don't think that line makes any sense. I think she's probably grateful to be able to see them, to know them as adults, but "grateful for every day?" If she was grateful for every day she spent with them, you'd think she'd spend more days with them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to shit on Mary here - I think it makes a LOT of sense that their expectations of her, the history they have with her memory, would make it REALLY UNCOMFORTABLE for her to be around them, so I completely understand why she always spent most of her time away. (Plus she's dealing with her own trauma and grief). But yeah, I just would phrased that differently.

Nick... yarg....

Nick: "If you kill me, you kill him. Do it, go! What have I got to live for?"

- DO IT! Ugh. Donatello is lucky he doesn't have me as a friend, because I'd be like "sorry my dude, but I hate this guy more than I like you." :P

I have a prop from this episode! It's the inventory list from this antique shop that this guy is writing in when they walk in.

Mary: "It doesn't make any sense to me either, but-"

- A sign that they should have worked on the script/plot more.

Seriously, TRY TO TELEGRAPH THIS DEATH A LITTLE MORE.

Ah, Anael DOES explain how she can go from right-hand to Joshua to a button-pusher.

I want to talk about this episode in the context of the series finale - and I was kind of holding off for spoiler reasons - but I think I'll treat this as "if you haven't watched the game, don't go to the pub"...

...so I think it's interesting that Anael disagreed with God not "meddling" which is how she came to be a miracle-worker after the Fall... and also why she was demoted in the first place when she raised a fuss about the pain-and-suffering that God allowed to happen.

It's interesting, because Jack specifically says that he's not going to meddle either - and that's generally seen as a good thing in the eyes of Sam and Dean, as it means they have free will - because Chuck DID meddle, just not in a way that helped people, but instead in a way that entertained him. So, essentially, after the series finale, Sam and Dean are living in the godless universe that Dean believed (pre-S4) they had always lived in, only with a confirmed God (that's also their son), but one that they know won't interfere.

Anyway, I just typed all that over the scene where Nick antagonizes Jack into getting close enough to headbutt enough so that he bleeds.

Poor Cas... his son doesn't have a soul and he's the only one who knows it for sure. And he can't even find the telephone to call God about it. :P

Castiel finds a Samulet look alike at the last moment though! Good job, Castiel. It didn't work, but good attempt!

The Impala in the snow looks super pretty.

Cas: "Just because God's not with us, doesn't mean we're alone."

Anael: "Why? Because we have each other?"

Cas: "Yes."

- Aww, Cas, you hippie.

How did Nick hide something inside his wrist? Especially the INSIDE of his wrist? That doesn't make any sense.

Just shoot him, Sam. UGH... I also hate the metallic Lucifer thing. Seriously, SPN really lost something when they started trying to show things instead of leaving it up to our imagination.

Don't get me wrong though, I'll always go for some Dean frantically panicking over an injured Sam... that's the h/c stuff that I'm here for.

And I also ADORE Jack completely obliterating Nick and stopping Lucifer's return, and saving Sam. Like - YES, huge powertrip! Yay!

Mary yelling "stop it" while Jack kills Lucifer. I mean, at a certain point, Jack STOPPING it would be more cruel than continuing.

Jack: "Mary? I had to."

- I agree, Jack. No worries. You're alright in my book.

And then Mary is a dumbass and crowds someone who is OBVIOUSLY having an anxiety or panic attack. Like, seriously, fine - be honest about Jack not being okay, and your opinion that he shouldn't have done that, but GIVE HIM SOME SPACE TO CALM DOWN.

Not saying she deserved to die, of course - but it DOES effectively make it both something that can come between Jack and the Winchester brothers, and also something that you can't really blame Jack for - so it's a good way for Mary to accidentally get herself killed. Also, since introducing her, they didn't really know what to do with Mary all that much, so it makes sense that she would have to die sometime.

ANYWAY....

COMMENTARY

Oh god, the commentary has Mark Pellegrino. WHY AM I TORTURING MYSELF WITH THIS.

It also has Samantha Smith - she's at least night, as far as I know.

Mouse trap used to be one of my favourite games as a kid too. I forgot to mention that before - terribly important facts to impart, I know.

MarkP thought that he might get a love-story with Sister Jo/Anael... (glad THAT didn't happen)

Samantha loved the dynamic between Mary and Lucifer in the AU - she thought there was a mutual respect. (Really? I wouldn't respect someone who tortured my kid for years, but hey, that's me!)

Samantha thinks that as a character Lucifer is good about being patient - because he has a long life - and the way he'll play the long-game reflects that. And I agree. I loved that about the set-up in S4, where you find out that Sam and Dean are part of a plan that's been going since the 1970s.

Samantha talking about how Mary and the boys had trouble separating Lucifer from Nick... and MarkP saying "yeah, they looked the same" and Samantha is like "yeah, it was also the same way of talking and method of speech" and I'm like haha BURN (though I don't think she meant it like that), because all I can think is how different Misha made Jimmy from Cas. I mean, granted, you can only do so much with scripts... but Misha, even to a ridiculous degree, has always been able to separate his characters really well.

Samantha compliments AlexC's acting (Sidenote, MarkP saying "Alex is so cute here" REALLY threw me off, because that sounded like my name and I totally forgot Jack was played by an Alex)

Samantha and MarkP talking about how they film the car scenes - and how there's a guy named Frank "the car wrangler" that shakes the car as you film with a 2x4 under the back.

They talk about the weather and how cold MarkP was, and how Jared doesn't get cold because his metabolism runs so hot.

MarkP also thinks it's insane the way Nick had a lock-pick stuffed under his skin.

They talk about the sets and how amazing they are.

They talk about Nick's death and the layer of crulty and whether it was right and the sort of debates we can have around stuff like that - like is the death penalty just, etc.

Samantha thinks that Jack is the same as a 2 year-old having a tantrum, which to her means that Mary DIDN't make a mistake in bugging him while he was having his panick attack, but I still think she's wrong.

Let me know if there's anything about this episode that you'd like to discuss in more detail!