Mark Watches ‘Supernatural’: S04E16 – On the Head of a Pin

In the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Supernatural, the eternal nopeness brought to this show reaches unbearable heights. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.

WHAT HAS THIS SHOW’S MYTHOLOGY EVEN BECOME AT THIS POINT? And for the record, I actually do appreciate the complexity at this point. Yeah, I’m frustrated because I can’t figure out this season’s endgame, but what else is new? It’s also true that “On the Head of a Pin” makes things even more difficult to parse. What’s going on with the angels? Do we now have to worry about rogue angels? WHAT ABOUT SAM OH MY GOD?

Let’s try to address all these things.

Dean / Alistair

I thought that this episode would largely focus on Dean torturing Alistair, but it’s actually a trick. I’ll get to the real focus of “On the Head of a Pin” later, but I don’t want to diminish what a huge episode this is for Dean’s characterization. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to say about Dean while I was watching this, since I couldn’t find the right word. What I enjoyed about Dean’s growth here is that it’s all part of his refusal to violate his own moral certainty and his refusal to ever open the door that was opened down in Hell. It’s a remarkably personal stance for Dean, but all the justification for it can be found in episodes prior to this. We know that Dean was struggling with the guilt and shame he felt for what he’d done in Hell; we know he has long-standing issues with self-worth; and we know that he has become increasingly frustrated with being a pawn of the angels. That last bit is particularly infuriating for him once you consider that his main problem with what the angels ask of him is that he doesn’t want to be at the mercy of yet another force. He already did that for forty years’ time in Hell; how is it going to feel any better if it’s angels this time? And so much of what Dean does here also feels like the writers acknowledging how bullshit it is when mystical characters try to compel people to do shit for them WITHOUT BEING SPECIFIC. I love it. I love the attitude Dean has here because he’s so on-the-nose. How can the angels expect Dean to do as they wish if they constantly speak so ambiguously of everything?

Of course, what Uriel and Castiel ask of Dean is the literal worst thing imaginable: to use what he learned in Hell to torture information out of Alistair. It’s not that Dean thinks he won’t be able to do it. No, he’s more worried about how easy it will be for him to jump right into it. That’s exactly what we see unfold, but not before Dean has a heart-to-heart with Castiel about why the angels need this. Even then, Dean has to take Castiel’s word on faith, doesn’t he? And it’s not like Dean works off faith all that much anyway. Still, he agrees to help out after Castiel assures him that there’s nothing left at the angel’s disposal that could get Alistair to cough up the name of whom killed seven angels. Dean is their last resort.

I don’t need to give a play-by-play on what Dean does to Alistair because WORLD OF NOPE, but my gods, look how Jensen Ackles just turns Dean into a shell of a man during these sequences. He doesn’t flinch or smile or do anything aside from looking half-dead. And who could blame the man? I’m sure that despite that there was probably some retributive justice in the act, Dean was still completely fucked up by what the experience was doing to him. It was ripping open all of his wounds. How could it not? How could that act not be reminding him of every minute spent in the pit?

So it’s just an extra and completely tragic punch in the heart that this ends so horribly. Alistair finally reveals that Dean himself – or, rather, the first person tortured by Dean – was the first seal Lilith needed to break. WHICH IS JUST SO AWFUL AND HORRIBLE BECAUSE IT’S NOT LIKE DEAN NEEDED YET ANOTHER REASON TO HATE HIMSELF. But even worse than this? Dean’s torture of Alistair was pointless. Alistair was never going to reveal who killed the angels because he didn’t actually fucking know. He wasn’t behind it, and neither was Lilith. It served no purpose, and the whole thing was a con perpetrated by Uriel. Dean never needed to experience any of this. EXCEPT HE DID. AND IT HURTS. AND I AM SO FURIOUS WITH THIS SHOW FOR MAKING ME HURT, TOO. OH, WAS THAT NOT ENOUGH? THEN HOW ABOUT THAT REVEAL THAT DEAN HAS TO BE THE ONE TO END THE APOCALYPSE??? Can we make this show take back Dean crying, begging Castiel to find someone else? WHERE IS THE PETITION TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN?

Sam

are you fucking kidding me

As if what I just described wasn’t enough, WE FIND OUT THAT SAM IS DRINKING DEMON’S BLOOD FROM RUBY. WHICH CANNOT BE GOOD. IT CAN’T. Like, I’m pretty much prepared to believe that Ruby is not actually a force for good? Now I realize why I was so confused about all the hints that Sam was addicted to something. IT’S DEMON’S BLOOD. HE’S ADDICTED, ISN’T HE? And drinking the blood of a demon gives Sam UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE power, enough power to permanently kill a demon. !!!!!!!!! LOOK AT CASTIEL’S FACE AS HE WATCHES WHAT SAM DOES.

I suppose the one contradiction to my suspicion of Ruby is that I cannot fathom how it’s good for demons to let Sam gain enough power to kill them. That… makes no sense? So maybe this is all a messy moral conundrum. Maybe Sam has to do something that might hurt him in order to do good. I DON’T KNOW. I KNOW NOTHING.

Castiel

Dean’s emotional journey here is extremely important and, again, I don’t want to discount it. But my favorite part of “On the Head of a Pin” is how this episode is quietly centered on Castiel’s story. It’s the first time he’s ever been so prominently featured on Supernatural, and it’s one fantastic story. We’ve certainly gotten hints before that he’s doubted his role in the battle to stop the apocalypse, so some of what is revealed here isn’t new. It’s the degree to which he doubts that felt refreshing and intriguing to me. There was that moment early in this episode where Cas started to express sympathy for what Dean was being asked to do, but Uriel shut him up quickly. I honestly expected that this was all we’d see from Cas for most of this story, since we’ve only gotten these brief and fleeting glimpses of who he is.

So I was surprised by the scene with Dean and Cas later on! I wasn’t used to this much time spent with Cas, and we were finally getting a glimpse behind the curtain. Again, I wasn’t surprised that he was developing sympathies for humanity; we’ve seen that a few times in this season. But when Cas offers up a promise to Dean that demonstrates that he understands how horrible it is to ask Dean to torture, it finally clicked for me. I knew Destiel was a thing, but nothing prior to this ever shed light on what others saw in them as a pairing. Granted, I was in season four of a TEN SEASON SHOW, and Cas just showed up! But this felt like the first moment where Castiel’s interest in humanity extended to Dean specifically. He looked sorrowful when he admitted the angels’ desperation.

BUT THEN ANNA RETURNS. AND HOLY SHIT, THIS EPISODE GOT SO GOOD. Look, I love Anna as a character, and she’s even more meaningful in “On the Head of a Pin,” especially since she’s the agent to inspire change in Castiel. She recognizes that he’s doubting God’s plan, but Castiel is stubborn in his faith. That actually seems like a common characteristic in the angels, Uriel included. (WELL, TO A POINT, OH SHIT.) It’s almost like they’re bred to believe wholeheartedly and without question. But as we learn more about the hierarchy of the angels, it’s clear that faith is necessary because the angels are largely as ignorant about the greater scheme of things as the humans are. They don’t have access to a wealth of knowledge, nor do they even have access to God Himself. So when Anna shows up, insisting that Castiel knows that these orders seem wrong, Castiel tries to fall back on what he knows. He insults Anna for having fallen, knowing it’ll hurt, but even I could tell he didn’t quite believe what he was saying.

And so, after witnessing Sam get the truth out of Alistair and kill the demon, Castiel has to question what happened. But I love that Anna refuses to give Castiel the easy way out of this. Independence from God is a tricky, nasty struggle, and she cannot make it palatable for him. If he is to truly question his role in God’s plan, then he has to do so completely on his own. So he does. And it’s interesting to me that this conversation happens after his conversation with Uriel, who also expressed his doubts in God’s plan. Of course, it was all part of a con, though I believe Uriel was actually slyly admitting the truth when he said he felt something was wrong in heaven.

While I do love the introduction of the rebel angels, I gotta say I was disappointed once again by this show’s constant need to give us a shit-ton of potential in a character and a storyline, and then immediately kill it off by the end of the episode. Y’all, the very idea that Uriel is leading a group of angels who have converted against God for creating humanity is about the coolest thing in the universe. And sure, that story could continue beyond this, but this really felt like the death of Uriel was the death of this plot. What if Dean had to fight demons and angels to stop Lucifer? WHAT IF??? (Of course, it’s not lost on me that practically every character who qualifies under this – Henriksen, Meg Masters, Pamela, Gordon, and so on – is either a woman or a person of color or both. WHOMP WHOMP.) I’d love to see more of this, particularly since I think Castiel is moving towards questioning God himself, but I’m sad that Uriel is dead. NO, HE JUST GOT SO INTERESTING.

The video for “On the Head of a Pin” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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About Mark Oshiro

Perpetually unprepared since '09.
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