9.09, or, Dean, you poor bastard

[brightly_lit]

Another surprisingly lovely outing from Ross-Leming and Buckner, beautifully directed, with stellar effects. Plus, we got Cas! I liked nearly all of it, aside from all the boring angel-war stuff. The "wars in heaven" haven't gotten more interesting with time, perhaps because we never actually SEE any of it ... not that that would probably make it more interesting, but hearing about these VERY IMPORTANT BATTLES--TRUST ME, THEY'RE WAY IMPORTANT for three solid seasons is wearing thin.

And of course it was terrible to see Kevin die (SURE am glad I had the spoiler on that one, or I'd have had a much harder time enjoying the episode after the fact), but at least his death was meaningful, and seeing Dean's reaction, after everything he's put poor Kevin through ... you kind of couldn't see another end for the kid. (And maybe the writers were out of ideas for the character.) His life sucked, hunted and terrorized by demons and angels (and Dean) alike. Kevin said it himself--he was working so hard because he HAD to get out of being a prophet, but there's no way out of being a prophet. A tragic end, sort of Sam and Dean's story in microcosm, of suffering and herculean effort and finally a redemptionless death. (I'm hoping for a happy ending for Sam and Dean, though, so maybe we can see this in Kevin and NOT have to see it in Sam and Dean, however likely an end it may be for them.)

Otherwise, I thought it pulled together a lot of confusing stuff we've been seeing all season quite nicely, especially the Ezekiel stuff. I kept wondering why Jared's acting seemed so off sometimes all season, but then knowing the spoiler also that Gadreel says Sam's "been gone for a long time," it made perfect sense and all came together here as in the first scenes I was like, "HE'S NOT ACTING LIKE SAM AT ALL--oh, riiiiiight." I mean, have we ever heard of an angel retreating behind a vessel's consciousness, or of a vessel being able to eject an angel at any time? Nooo, it's pretty much the vessel's the angel's to do with whatever it pleases as soon as it gets in, so this rather gracefully addresses those issues in retrospect.

Metatron's his deliciously devious self, Cas is his adorably righteous self ... and oh Cas, if you didn't think your reputation among angels could get any worse, you managed it. This development opens things up for a potential Theo/Cas amalgam that could be quite interesting in that we could see Cas do bad, unrighteous things that come in some part from his own motivations instead of pure-evil leviathans making him act entirely out of character.

I'm SO GLAD Gadreel is a deeper character than just plain old bad, and I love love love the parallels between him and Sam: their father's favorite, locked up in a life and with a reputation they don't deserve but couldn't escape, led ever further down a questionable path by the only person they have faith might be able to deliver them back to purity.

I really loved it. YAY, a very nice note on which to end the first part of the season before the hiatus!

Comments

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

You had the spoiler about Kevin? I avoid spoilers at all costs. Nice write-up! I can see the parallel with Sam and Gadreel, but they already did that with Lucifer. And who doesn't have daddy issues on this show? Oh, right, Sheriff Mills. That's part of why she's so AWESOME.

Here's hope they get some non-white folks back on the show. Are there no actors of color in Vancouver? What is this?

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I go by gut feeling with spoilers; sometimes I avoid them, but most of the time I'm able to enjoy the way an episode is made more if I'm not so fixated on what's going to happen, you know? ;-)

That's true that they made the parallel with Lucifer, but it was so heavy-handed and obvious; I like this subtler one, plus the way it keeps echoing how little choice Sam has had in all this, since he is now an angel he never even (knowingly) said yes to. OH SAM!

Seriously! Whatever happened to the days when there was always a Rufus or a Gordon or a Henriksen?? I miss all three of them. :-( But especially Gordon.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Wait, you think Sam was actually Gadreel more than we realized before 9.09? I didn't get that impression.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

They weren't specific about how long (and it wasn't clear if Gadreel was even telling the truth), but I hope that's it; it would make more sense and have cool potential implications if so.

[strgazr04.livejournal.com]

I've been debating this point myself. Part of me thinks he meant that he screwed with the spell sigil to push Sam into the background of his own mind and take full control. I mean if not, then the blue eye flash thing makes no sense. I doubt he'd do that for show. No angel has before. What plot points had you saying that Sam was acting a little off? I didn't spot those. Now I want to go back and watch to see if I can see what you did. I don't remember Gadreel saying Sam's been gone 'for a long time', just that he's 'long gone' and that he's been playing Sam convincingly. But again, not sure for how long he's insinuating. So many questions! lol

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm thinking. If he hasn't been mostly Sam all along, there would be no flashy blue eyes.

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Darn, I tried to look up the transcript so we'd know for sure how he phrased it, but it isn't up on the Superwiki yet. :-( I know people have been debating when Gadreel took over, and I thought if it could have been at the beginning of this episode, it could just as easily have been before this episode, as well--I mean, couldn't it theoretically have been any time since he entered him (tee hee), if he can pretend to act like him? And didn't he do the flashy-blue-eyes thing at least a couple of times after we could be pretty sure he'd been Gadreel-pretending-to-be-Sam? I agree that would make no sense, but it wouldn't be the first time something didn't make sense on this show. ;-) No angel's ever done that for show, but no angel's ever done that before, period, switching personalities between the angel and the vessel.

I like your idea that he screwed with the sigil in order to take control, but I doubt that could be it, since he only talked about how any change, no matter how slight, could screw it up, and his fingers were smudged, implying he'd just wrecked what Dean had drawn, rather than adding his own changes.

Maybe Jared's acting's just been crappy lately, lol, but in a lot of the bunker scenes for the last several episodes he seemed ... not all there, which would make sense if he's playing someone trying to play someone else, but Jared's usually really good. I kind of suspect the writers haven't decided yet when to make it that Gadreel had taken over. I guess we'll only know for sure after the hiatus. So many questions, indeed! At least it makes for fun discussion. :-)

[strgazr04.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen any instances of Sam being 'off' besides this Gadreel stuff. I'll have to go back and look.

As for the sigil, I thought that just him smearing the ink or changing it somehow so his fingers end up stained was enough to "add his own changes" as you mention. I figured this was enough to alter the spell and let him gain the upper hand for control of Sam's body. Idk but I can't wait to find out!!!