In the twenty-first episode of the ninth season of Supernatural, Castiel recruits the Winchesters in tracking down Metatron; Crowley must make a difficult decision. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.
Some of this was neat, some of this was head-scratching. Let’s discuss!
Castiel
There’s a whole lot of worldbuilding and characterbuilding here that’s given to us in the span of a few minutes, and I’ll admit that I just wanted more. Castiel’s decision to become the leader of the anti-Metatron unit is a huge one for his character, undoubtedly so! So why is there so little time spent on it within the episode itself? We get glimpses of the impressive, pedantic headquarters that Castiel has had built, but we get no information on how this group even formed. We watch him guide a few of his fellow angels, but we don’t get to see how he interacts with the group as a whole. Even when he seeks out Gadreel and speaks with him, the scenes are more to suggest growth of Gadreel and not Castiel.
That’s not to say I don’t want Gadreel’s growth. I think that’s probably the most promising thing in this entire episode. I loved the idea that Castiel was able to recognize that Gadreel sought redemption and validation in Metatron, which is unfortunately what got him in trouble in the first place. But where is Castiel’s story in all of this? Admittedly, this could come later, but I do wish I’d seen more of this aspect of his character.
Crowley / Gavin
While I can’t deny that there’s something appealing to the exploration of Crowley’s fatherhood and humanity, Gavin’s inclusion here confuses me. I think I understood Abaddon’s intent: exploit Crowley’s humanity in order to get him to bring the Winchesters to her. So, she brings Gavin from the past, tortures him, and forces Crowley’s humanity to come to the surface. I get that!
So why allow Crowley to hang out with Gavin unimpeded for so long? The scenes where he “teaches” Gavin to read and explains who he is are kind of neat, but I don’t understand their purpose. Hadn’t Abaddon already won him over? On top of that we get that moment where the Winchesters go out of their way to explain to Crowley why he can’t save his son, and then Crowley does exactly the opposite of that. Which… not surprising. It’s Crowley. He double crosses absolutely anyone if it serves him well. But did he honestly leave a man from 1723 in a field with no money, no understanding of the modern world, no way to contact anyone, and no assistance? WHY MUST YOU HURT THIS MAN THIS WAY? That’s super fucked up, isn’t it????
The First Blade
Hahaha everything is so fucked up????
I don’t know that Sam and Dean’s relationship has ever been this fragile, y’all, and it’s definitely a difficult thing to witness. There’s obviously a lot of volatile emotional history between these two, and Winchester angst has always been a part of Supernatural. But holy shit, this feels really bad. From Dean lying to Sam about the Poughkeepsie warning to his UNREAL attachment to the First Blade, Dean is different. He’s unmistakably so, and I don’t know how he can come back from this. Can you even get the Mark of Cain removed? What’s the endgame of this season? Killing off Crowley or Metatron? What then? I see Dean’s story as heading in a single direction and nothing more, and that’s kind of frightening.
I mean, how am I supposed to deal with him killing Abaddon in the way that he did??? His outright refusal to give up the First Blade is not a good sign, y’all. It’s inevitable that it’s going to lead to something else, but I truly don’t know what that thing is. Sam’s been trying his damnedest to understand Dean and to support him, but you can’t help someone who rejects your help, you know? Dean has become methodical because of the Mark of Cain. He knows exactly what he’s doing, so he can’t hide behind intentions or misunderstandings. He knew he was lying to Sam, and he knows that he wants to keep the First Blade by his side as long as he can.
That’s scary as hell.
The video for “King of the Damned” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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