Dean has a dream about slicing and dicing people until he’s
covered in blood. That’s bad Mark news. On the plus side he does wake up as if
it were a nightmare so, hope!
he seems better later watching the three stooges and eating cholesterol in its most solid form – but Sam is leery of his Mark.
And to a girl, Claire Novak, who is clearly very troubled
and often in trouble at that. She is visited in her cell by… Castiel. Jimmy
Novak, her father, is the body Castiel is possessing. Alone things are… tense,
Claire is not thrilled. Castiel tells her (to my great relief) that Jimmy’s
soul isn’t in residence any more because the body has been so badly mangled.
Claire doesn’t particularly want a visit from the guy who took her dad from her;
especially since after her dad was taken, her mother took off and she’s ended
up in a group home. But that’s exactly why Castiel wants to help – a somewhat
belated attack of conscience.
She wants him to get her out – which means putting on a tie (which Cas isn’t good at) and trying to get custody of “his” daughter and having a very very very awkward interview. Sandy, the nice social services woman, is not that impressed and says no.
Unable to get her out through legitimate means, Castiel
stages a gaolbreak in the middle of the night, complete with unconscious guard.
He takes her to a diner and Claire notes the change in
Castiel and Castiel nicely sums it up with him used to be so assured of
righteousness and now he doesn’t think there is such a thing just “people
trying to do their best in a world where it’s far too easy to do your worst.”
Castiel thinks they should stick together – Claire’s not so sure. So she steals
his wallet and ditches him. She hitchhikes away
And Castiel calls Dean and Sam and Dean is very much
doubting that this constitutes an emergency (unlike apocalypse #3, and yes this
show has had numerous apocalypses) nor does Dean especially see why Castiel
feels responsible. Sam goes off to check the Group Home while Dean and Castiel
stay in case she comes back, ostensibly, but really so Dean can question what’s
going on with Castiel (and assert that ketchup is a vegetable.) Castiel lays
out his motives and Dean points out that to keep going and manage life you have
to move on and not think about those you fail or those you can’t save. In an
equal moment of self-awareness, he agrees that he doesn’t actually do that but
also points out that he’s not exactly in an ideal state because of that.
Castiel takes the chance to turn it round and inquire as
to how Dean is handling things (and Castiel’s sad eyes won’t accept “fine” as
an answer). After much worry about the mark, Dean has Castiel promise to kill
him of the Mark turns him evil.
To the actual hunt for Claire, Sam hear at the Group Home
about a friend Claire had at the home called Dustin who now works at the Wiener
Hut.
Claire is with Dustin now – and Randy the old man who
Dustin is placed with who happily takes the wallet Claire stole from Castiel. Randy
is in debt to someone called Salinger who doesn’t sound like a nice guy. Randy
guilts Claire for not stealing enough to pay off the debt and on the back of
that guilt they convince her to do an armed robbery for him.
Dustin goes to work and is intercepted by Sam, Dean and
Castiel who starts throttling him. Oooh, flashback Castiel. Which means they’re
in time to stop Claire going through with the robbery. Claire is not willing to
listen to moral lectures from the guy who effectively killed her dad nor Sam
and Dean who were happy to let it happen – she points a gun at the Winchesters
(since bullets tend not to be that effective against angels). They talk about
Randy, but, even if he’s using her he was there for her – which is more than
any of them were
They guys go to a bar where Castiel feels guilty, Sam
tries to be comforting and Dean does his uncomfortable truth thing where he
admits that Claire kind of has a point. Castiel also has difficulty empathising
with close and loving fathers because he’s an angel and… yeah. He asks the
Winchesters about their dad which is a great big put full of angry demon snakes
so they tell a cute little anecdote of their dad and his ability to, basically,
intimidate anyone. At the end they resolve that Claire is in trouble and the
parental thing is to look out for her.
Claire has returned to Randy and is passionate in her
defence of him in the face of his creditor, Salinger. Randy is, unsurprisingly,
less in Claire’s corner and is willing to sell her to Salinger. Claire tries to
fight her way free, accurately placing a kick, which is also when the Winchesters
arrive with Castiel throwing around angel-mojo. Claire gets her hits in with
the distraction provided until Castiel stops her kicking the guy.
As they leave, Dean covers their exit and one of them hits him in the head. He staggers, goes down and the Mark flares. He warns them to back off – and Salinger kicks him
Outside, Sam and Castiel hear chaos back in the house. Inside Dean is replaying his dream – he’s covered in blood, has a knife and is surrounded by bodies. Sam grabs Dean in a panic and begs Dean to tell him that Dean had to kill them, especially when Dean says “I didn’t mean to”. Castiel hurries Claire away from the carnage
Over to Hell where the witch Rowena is the prisoner of
her son, Crowley, the king of Hell. She’s apparently been locked in there for
weeks, or so she tells her guard as another woman is locked in the same cell
(and degraded as a dog). Rowena’s cellmate is there because she was smuggled to
Earth when apparently she wasn’t on the list to be allowed up there. And Rowena
admits to being a horrible mother
Which is what Crowley is now ranting about to a
completely uninterested underling, Gerald, who has a far more traumatic story. Really,
we’re doing Crowley mummy issues now? Though I do like Gerald blatantly
puncturing Crowley’s self-pity. Gerald also suggests just killing Rowena but
Crowley thinks they can get a few more episodes out of this.
Crowley decides to bring Rowena to him so he can shout
his mummy issues at her. She does her very best to flip the script and tell him
what a loving caring mother she is.
They return her to her prison and when it looks like they’ll
leave her there, Rowena reveals it is Gerald who has been smuggling souls (like
her cellmate) up from Hell – Gerald tries to kill Rowena which is pretty much taken
as a confession and Crowley kills him – and releases Rowena. It’s apparent the
cell mate lied for Rowena’s sake to get her out – but Rowena doesn’t seem
especially invested in that.
So, mid-season finale and we’ve managed to recover some
of the meta which has kind of being lurking around but not going anywhere for
much of the season. The Mark of Cain was revolved rather stunningly quickly and
then we didn’t really get anything. Castiel topped up his grace and Hannah
decided to go back to Heaven... it left the whole series kind of drifting
without a clear direction. We fretted about Dean but didn’t do all that much. I’m
hoping that Dean’s mark and Rowena (not a storyline I’m looking forward to
since Crowley seems to have lost a lot of the cunning awesomeness that made him
such a good character before. He used to be believable as King of Hell… now?
Not so much) will get the season back on track.
I have liked the little look backs at what has past –
sometimes just a small element like mentioning Adam in the silly play (and
lampshading how everyone had forgotten there was a third Winchester brother),
but Hannah recognising they were possessing people and Castiel remembering
Jimmy had a family are nice call backs to some of the casualties they’ve scattered
behind them on the way and how many of these people really deserved better than
that.
On marginalised issues, Supernatural is always a hot mess. In terms of gender I think this
season has tried to be less so – but it has been a case of not being as bad as
it could have been (or I feared it would be) than actually being good at
anything. Several episodes have had some pretty decent female characters or, at
least, have avoided the misogynist tropes I’ve come to expect from this show –
including the barmaid in Black,
the Lester murder in Reichenbach,
Kate the werewolf in Paper
Moon, Rowena and the sex workers in Girls,
Girls, Girls and, of course, Jody Mills and Donna in Hidding
911. it’s not flawless by any means (the hot mess “cougars” of Ask
Jeeves for example) but Supernatural
has sufficiently lowered my expectations that I was surprised to see this.
In terms of POC we’ve had virtually nothing, bit parts and
non-characters (such as one of the characters in the Fanfiction
episode) that are largely
disposable as well (like Gerald). The only LGBT inclusion all season has been a
teeny tiny part of two lesbians in Fanfiction
which was largely used for Supernatural’s
ongoing offensive
slashbaiting – also added to with the cringeworthy Dean/Crowley thing that
infested the beginning of this series.
Supernatural continues to push this homophobic game with no intention of
following through with respectful inclusion.
On the whole, I haven’t hated this season but I have been
decidedly underwhelmed, and even Castiel hasn’t enthralled me. There’s no
particular meat, Crowley’s gone all floppy, Sam and Dean seem to be circling
without purpose - Castiel is the only
one acting with any kind of direction and that’s usually alone and, again, lots
of mini-spurts. The monster-of-the-week episodes have been largely blah as well.
I haven’t hated it, but “blah” kind of sums it all up. I’m giving this episode
3 fangs and the season so far gets a solid 2.5 fang Meh.
