In the seventeenth episode of the tenth season of Supernatural, Sam and Castiel go to drastic lengths to help Dean, while Rowena goes to drastic lengths to help her son. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.Â
YES. YES. Gods, this was such a solid episode of this show. We’ve got worldbuilding for heaven, the brief return of Bobby (!!!!), and two parallel stories about desperation. SO GOOD, MORE OF THIS PLEASE.
Rowena / Dean
The beauty of Ruth Connell’s acting (and the ambiguous writing) is that I can never quite nail Rowena’s motivations down. And it’s not frustrating to me! I like that I never quite know if she’s manipulating Crowley or if she’s being genuine. I think that “Inside Man” finally lands more on the side of genuine disappointment than a long con, and that fascinates me. While Rowena has always kept her own plans and desires at the forefront of her life, I think that this episode truly shows us that there was a part of her that wanted the best for Crowley. Of course, that’s her version of what she thinks is best, and she understands power and rule in a different way than her son.
If I consider this to be true, I think I can see why she behaves as she does here. After Crowley hands Olivette over to her, she wants to return the favor. What might make her son appreciate her? Well, she can sever his ties with the Winchesters, allowing Crowley to be free of his responsibilities to those characters. However, Rowena’s flaw comes in her interpretation of the situation. She thinks that deep down, Crowley wants to be rid of the Winchesters, but that’s not the case, is it? Shit, re-watch that scene in the bar between Dean and Crowley. There’s a very strange but undeniable sense of respect between these two characters. Where does it come from? From their mutually terrible lives? From the experiences they’ve shared? Remember, there was a time when Dean was eager to off Crowley the first chance he got, and now? He’s inviting him for a drink and a supportive conversation. If anything, I think that’s a sign of how Dean’s priorities are changing, especially in terms of his emotions. Why fight Crowley? What gain is there?
I like the idea that Dean just wants to be happy, and if that means burying the hatchet with Crowley, so be it. It was definitely surreal to see him and Crowley speak so honestly with one another, but I really liked it??? It’s different for the show, and with so many mediocre or uninteresting storylines this season, I appreciate that this feels refreshing.
Which is also why I’m so into Rowena’s story. I think she wanted some form of validation from Crowley, which was a mistake to begin with. Not because that’s a terrible idea in and of itself, but Rowena’s approach was never going to work. Again, there’s a parallel here between what she does and what Sam does. She goes behind Crowley’s back to do what she thinks is best for him, and she doesn’t consider that her perspective is skewed. I think she truly thought that he’d appreciate her trying to kill off Deah! Unsurprisingly, that does not work, and Crowley ends up kicking her out of Hell. I have no idea what the next step is for her, either. I kind of expected her confrontation with Dean to lead her to whatever spell or information was in the bunker, but I misjudged how well-protected Dean was by the Mark. So what now? Will she seek out other bunkers? Come at Dean with a new weapon? Go after Crowley now that he’s rejected her? There are so many directions for her story to go, and I dig that. There’s actual potential here!
The Inside Man
Goddamn, WHAT A SURPRISE. I didn’t feel like Bobby’s return was a crass attempt at nostalgia because it fit this story so well. Like I said, this episode tracks the desperate measures that Rowena and Cas/Sam go to get what they want. That is an important distinction: both sets of characters are doing what they want, believing it’s best for someone else, without considering that this is going to backfire spectacularly precisely because they didn’t include them in it. I mean, let’s also be real: the plan Sam and Cas had involved breaking Metatron out of Heaven’s prison, SO CLEARLY THIS WAS A TRULY AWFUL IDEA TO BEGIN WITH.
But let me first talk about Heaven because HOLY SHIT. I loved all the new details about Heaven that we learned from this episode. Just in terms of the imagery, this episode fell in line with the bureaucratic absurdity of the aesthetic of Heaven. Long, sterile hallways; the endless organization; the hidden doors within each private Heaven. THEY ALL FIT WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW OF THE PLACE. Y’all, I loved that Bobby’s plan to let Castiel in was simply to let everyone out of their own Heavens just to confuse the angels. Of course the angels would get overwhelmed by something so simple because it had never happened before.
So, I went into this thinking that there was absolutely no way freeing Metatron could ever work because he’d just escape and everyone would hate Cas and Sam, and then CASTIEL AND SAM STEAL METATRON’S GRACE AND SHOOT HIM IN THE LEG AND IT IS LITERALLY THE CLEVEREST THING THESE GOOFBALLS HAVE EVER DONE. I was actually impressed with them, y’all!!! They finally did something that absolutely would work in their favor! That of course makes the end result super ironic because as it turns out, Metatron was bluffing about the Mark of Cain. GREAT. GREAT. But Castiel’s grace? Yay? Maybe?
I don’t even know if this gamble was worth it. What happens to Bobby now that the angels know that he helped Castiel break into Heaven??? What’s his fate? And then this show has to go and crush me with Bobby’s letter to Sam. I do appreciate it, though, because it really is a good point that needed to be made. When has a secretive plan like this ever panned out well? Isn’t Sam doing something that he decried just a season ago? Again, I get that this episode had to feature desperate acts, so this is not a complaint about the writing at all. This story must be frustrating and baffling for it to work, and I’m pleased that it does. I wish more of this season was as good as “Inside Man”!
The video for “Inside Man” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Mark Links Stuff
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