Rewatch S14: Jack in the Box (14x19)
Jan. 10th, 2021 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreHappy 2021!
Now that the holidays are over, it's back to work! Which means I will FINALLY watch the final 2 episodes of S14 and update the clothing catalogue in the next few weeks - and 2020 is firmly behind us.
Unfortunately, much like the rest of 2021, we're starting off on a bit of a rough note - because this episode was written by BuckLeming, who couldn't write their way out of a paper bag, let alone a box.
Jack in the Box
We start off with Mary's memorial. I don't really like the Hunter-Memorial thing that they started off after S12... it goes against the rest of the world building we got where hunters are loners.
And also you can't convince me that the hunters wouldn't reach for their hunters as soon as Bobby killed that dude.
AU!Bobby isn't Bobby, but I guess he's better than no Bobby at all.
For instance, our Bobby WOULD help Jack, in my opinion. At this point, I'd have to go back in time to S1-7.5 and post a hypothetical to the writers before I believed them if they argued against me.
Jack is experiencing a super big amount of grief to not have a soul anymore - so it's really not the same as soullessness in humans. In my opinion anyway. I think it's more that he's mostly just angel now and this is how angels process feelings/morality. They don't have a soul to guide them, and they don't feel things as keenly without it being EXTREME. If that makes any sense. And I'm basing this on original angel lore from S4, btw. Where Anna fell so that she could experience the breadth of human emotion/experience, because without falling she couldn't.
Cas only started getting human-like emotions the further he got from Heaven or the more grace he lost. I really liked the storyline where Cas was hinting at the fact that he's now become something other than an angel... I wish they would have leaned more into that.
I'm not even talking about Lucifer still around - that's BuckLeming and their wank fest over MarkP.
And Cas is unwittingly giving Heaven a whole bunch of intel on Jack, who they have always desperately coveted - so that's great. Let's just make our heroes idiots.
Sam: "We know the truth [...] she's in a good place. She's in a great place. She's with dad!"
Dean: "You know what else. There wasn't even enough left of her to try to bring her back."
- I think they really did write themselves into a corner with this one. Like, it's best to not even touch the subject. Castiel didn't try to fetch Mary's soul because he was told that she was at peace. That should have been the end of it. Why does it matter that she was killed (originally) without leaving a body behind? You can be upset about someone not being on your plane of existence anymore, but just say that you are. Like, admit that it's not about them, it's about you. You know they're happy where they are, but you want them to be with you on earth - that's fine. But it justs seems weird to me that Dean is upset that he doesn't even have the option of FORCING MARY TO RETURN EVEN THOUGH SHE IS HAPPY BEING DEAD. If they wanted me to be on Dean's side here, they shouldn't have included the fact that Mary is at peace and happy being dead - because it'd be a super dick move for Dean to bring her back, so he's like "Jack didn't even give me the OPTION of being a dick! I MUST KILL HIM!"
I don't know. It just makes him such a typical entitled prick... but then again, that's the kind of character that BuckLeming love, given their fetish for Lucifer, so I shouldn't be surprised.
Just keep it focused on the fact that Jack might be a danger to humanity, and I'd be more on Dean's side of things - don't make it about his personal grief, or him being upset that he doesn't have the option to be selfish. Have it be about his quest to protect humanity even possible through the sacrifice of someone that he was starting to see as a son.
Have it REALLY be an Abraham and Isaac parallel. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac because he was BELOVED, not because Isaac had accidentally killed Abrahams mom and Abraham was super pissed about it. The whole point of the story is a test of faith - Dean doesn't have faith in God, but he DOES have faith that humanity is worth protecting/saving - so what is he willing to sacrifice to that cause and is he right or wrong to do so? THAT would be a far more interesting set-up.
Duma sweet-talking Jack
Oh right, they're going to punish the evil-doers... which in this case are best-selling atheists.
I don't have much to say about this plot. It suddenly makes Duma, who was previously at least a LITTLE sympathetic, an absolute psychopath... again, BuckLeming love psychopaths.
This isn't the first time they've seen someone turned into a pillar of salt, they shouldn't need it explained to them. Also, they've both read the bible backwards and forwards at this point, they should know the story of Lot's wife.
It also doesn't make any sense why Duma would bring him on a killing spree BEFORE trying to get him to do the actual important thing that she needs him to do... like, "first, let me leave a trail for Sam and Dean over a frivolous concern, and then let's have you do the thing that will prevent Heaven from completely collapsing."
Sam: "Wait, so this is another bible thing?"
- Again, Sam isn't an idiot - at that point there's a clear pattern, you'd assume it was a bible-thing first.
Also, if Cas knows it finishes with "and breathed his last" - he would have checked to make sure the dude wasn't still being eaten by worms, and maybe healed him or something - but nope, they just walk out.
Dean: "But I know that kid's not right, and now Heaven's got its hooks in him? We don't have a choice."
- This is slightly better than personal grief. I think they should have leaned into this more, but made Dean more torn up about it. Jensen acts this WAY too...non-emotional... and I don't mean that in the way where no-emotion is a plot point. I mean it in a no-basis-in-the-characters-emotional-journey way. I don't know if it's the script, the directing, or if Jensen just doesn't even know what to do with either any more. Jared does a much better job of tying emotions into his dialogue - though, he also has the easier job of it, since Sam is cast in the role of the resistor.
Like, Dean's come up with this whole lying plan that, in my opinion, is just COMPLETELY OUT OF CHARACTER for him. I don't think Jensen CAN do anything with this garbage, so all he can do is play it as written and remind himself that there's a reason they decided to end the show.
Did Jack actually create new angels? I actually didn't remember this part. Do they die afterwards? I didn't remember this working, but maybe it did.
Ugh, I hate these writers... we get angel politics just for the hell of it, to add another few minutes on the episode. They don't know how to fill 42 minutes otherwise.
Castiel keeps killing whoever is in charge in heaven. It's kind of hilarious. He's like the one-man power-vaccuum-making machine.
I guess he does make angels. Good to know. That solves that plot-point, which I thought was never resolved because I always try to forget BuckLeming episodes.
And this would be a higher stakes scene of them lying to Jack, if it was about protecting humanity, rather then them being pissy that he called Mary's death "the accident" (WHICH IT TOTALLY WAS - HE ISN'T WRONG). I mean, the other thing you could do is go the other direction and have Jack kill Mary maliciously and purposefully, but then you have to commit to that and you'd have to completely change the ending of this season and the villain for S15 etc. So it'd be way better to NOT have it be about Mary.
The other thing that annoys me about this episode is that they have Jack blow a hole in the ceiling in an (underground?) bunker and then they never address fixing that roof... or the rest of the compromised structural integrity of the building.
It's OVER! Yay!
Alright, I only have one episode left, so I may try to do it next week instead of waiting two weeks, but I'm also not making any promises any more, because I obviously can't keep them.
CUT SCENE
Spoke too soon, it's not over, there's a cut scene... let's see what it was and why it was cut...
Deleted Scene 22
It's Aramael in the park. It's the fight scene between Cas and Aramael that they skipped in the final episode. I guess it was just cut for time, but they kept other scenes in there even though they were way more annoying? I would have prefered a brief fight scene to some of the dialogue I had to sit through.
Okay, NOW I'm done. Sorry for being snarky.
Let me know any stray thoughts in comments.
Now that the holidays are over, it's back to work! Which means I will FINALLY watch the final 2 episodes of S14 and update the clothing catalogue in the next few weeks - and 2020 is firmly behind us.
Unfortunately, much like the rest of 2021, we're starting off on a bit of a rough note - because this episode was written by BuckLeming, who couldn't write their way out of a paper bag, let alone a box.
Jack in the Box
We start off with Mary's memorial. I don't really like the Hunter-Memorial thing that they started off after S12... it goes against the rest of the world building we got where hunters are loners.
And also you can't convince me that the hunters wouldn't reach for their hunters as soon as Bobby killed that dude.
AU!Bobby isn't Bobby, but I guess he's better than no Bobby at all.
For instance, our Bobby WOULD help Jack, in my opinion. At this point, I'd have to go back in time to S1-7.5 and post a hypothetical to the writers before I believed them if they argued against me.
Jack is experiencing a super big amount of grief to not have a soul anymore - so it's really not the same as soullessness in humans. In my opinion anyway. I think it's more that he's mostly just angel now and this is how angels process feelings/morality. They don't have a soul to guide them, and they don't feel things as keenly without it being EXTREME. If that makes any sense. And I'm basing this on original angel lore from S4, btw. Where Anna fell so that she could experience the breadth of human emotion/experience, because without falling she couldn't.
Cas only started getting human-like emotions the further he got from Heaven or the more grace he lost. I really liked the storyline where Cas was hinting at the fact that he's now become something other than an angel... I wish they would have leaned more into that.
I'm not even talking about Lucifer still around - that's BuckLeming and their wank fest over MarkP.
And Cas is unwittingly giving Heaven a whole bunch of intel on Jack, who they have always desperately coveted - so that's great. Let's just make our heroes idiots.
Sam: "We know the truth [...] she's in a good place. She's in a great place. She's with dad!"
Dean: "You know what else. There wasn't even enough left of her to try to bring her back."
- I think they really did write themselves into a corner with this one. Like, it's best to not even touch the subject. Castiel didn't try to fetch Mary's soul because he was told that she was at peace. That should have been the end of it. Why does it matter that she was killed (originally) without leaving a body behind? You can be upset about someone not being on your plane of existence anymore, but just say that you are. Like, admit that it's not about them, it's about you. You know they're happy where they are, but you want them to be with you on earth - that's fine. But it justs seems weird to me that Dean is upset that he doesn't even have the option of FORCING MARY TO RETURN EVEN THOUGH SHE IS HAPPY BEING DEAD. If they wanted me to be on Dean's side here, they shouldn't have included the fact that Mary is at peace and happy being dead - because it'd be a super dick move for Dean to bring her back, so he's like "Jack didn't even give me the OPTION of being a dick! I MUST KILL HIM!"
I don't know. It just makes him such a typical entitled prick... but then again, that's the kind of character that BuckLeming love, given their fetish for Lucifer, so I shouldn't be surprised.
Just keep it focused on the fact that Jack might be a danger to humanity, and I'd be more on Dean's side of things - don't make it about his personal grief, or him being upset that he doesn't have the option to be selfish. Have it be about his quest to protect humanity even possible through the sacrifice of someone that he was starting to see as a son.
Have it REALLY be an Abraham and Isaac parallel. God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac because he was BELOVED, not because Isaac had accidentally killed Abrahams mom and Abraham was super pissed about it. The whole point of the story is a test of faith - Dean doesn't have faith in God, but he DOES have faith that humanity is worth protecting/saving - so what is he willing to sacrifice to that cause and is he right or wrong to do so? THAT would be a far more interesting set-up.
Duma sweet-talking Jack
Oh right, they're going to punish the evil-doers... which in this case are best-selling atheists.
I don't have much to say about this plot. It suddenly makes Duma, who was previously at least a LITTLE sympathetic, an absolute psychopath... again, BuckLeming love psychopaths.
This isn't the first time they've seen someone turned into a pillar of salt, they shouldn't need it explained to them. Also, they've both read the bible backwards and forwards at this point, they should know the story of Lot's wife.
It also doesn't make any sense why Duma would bring him on a killing spree BEFORE trying to get him to do the actual important thing that she needs him to do... like, "first, let me leave a trail for Sam and Dean over a frivolous concern, and then let's have you do the thing that will prevent Heaven from completely collapsing."
Sam: "Wait, so this is another bible thing?"
- Again, Sam isn't an idiot - at that point there's a clear pattern, you'd assume it was a bible-thing first.
Also, if Cas knows it finishes with "and breathed his last" - he would have checked to make sure the dude wasn't still being eaten by worms, and maybe healed him or something - but nope, they just walk out.
Dean: "But I know that kid's not right, and now Heaven's got its hooks in him? We don't have a choice."
- This is slightly better than personal grief. I think they should have leaned into this more, but made Dean more torn up about it. Jensen acts this WAY too...non-emotional... and I don't mean that in the way where no-emotion is a plot point. I mean it in a no-basis-in-the-characters-emotional-journey way. I don't know if it's the script, the directing, or if Jensen just doesn't even know what to do with either any more. Jared does a much better job of tying emotions into his dialogue - though, he also has the easier job of it, since Sam is cast in the role of the resistor.
Like, Dean's come up with this whole lying plan that, in my opinion, is just COMPLETELY OUT OF CHARACTER for him. I don't think Jensen CAN do anything with this garbage, so all he can do is play it as written and remind himself that there's a reason they decided to end the show.
Did Jack actually create new angels? I actually didn't remember this part. Do they die afterwards? I didn't remember this working, but maybe it did.
Ugh, I hate these writers... we get angel politics just for the hell of it, to add another few minutes on the episode. They don't know how to fill 42 minutes otherwise.
Castiel keeps killing whoever is in charge in heaven. It's kind of hilarious. He's like the one-man power-vaccuum-making machine.
I guess he does make angels. Good to know. That solves that plot-point, which I thought was never resolved because I always try to forget BuckLeming episodes.
And this would be a higher stakes scene of them lying to Jack, if it was about protecting humanity, rather then them being pissy that he called Mary's death "the accident" (WHICH IT TOTALLY WAS - HE ISN'T WRONG). I mean, the other thing you could do is go the other direction and have Jack kill Mary maliciously and purposefully, but then you have to commit to that and you'd have to completely change the ending of this season and the villain for S15 etc. So it'd be way better to NOT have it be about Mary.
The other thing that annoys me about this episode is that they have Jack blow a hole in the ceiling in an (underground?) bunker and then they never address fixing that roof... or the rest of the compromised structural integrity of the building.
It's OVER! Yay!
Alright, I only have one episode left, so I may try to do it next week instead of waiting two weeks, but I'm also not making any promises any more, because I obviously can't keep them.
CUT SCENE
Spoke too soon, it's not over, there's a cut scene... let's see what it was and why it was cut...
Deleted Scene 22
It's Aramael in the park. It's the fight scene between Cas and Aramael that they skipped in the final episode. I guess it was just cut for time, but they kept other scenes in there even though they were way more annoying? I would have prefered a brief fight scene to some of the dialogue I had to sit through.
Okay, NOW I'm done. Sorry for being snarky.
Let me know any stray thoughts in comments.
