So the gang needs
Gabriel to get hold of his grace to open the portal to get Jack and Mary and
fight Michael and save the world. Which means they need ideas.
Sam and Dean call
Rowena as the most powerful with in the world now supercharged beyond measure
she’s a useful ally to have.
And she’s Rowena of course. Honestly I love her, I would happily watch a show all about her merrily slaughtering her way through life with excellent taste, excellent drinks, hot guys and a general sense of Not Giving a Fuck.
Which is her reaction
when asked to save the world - no thanks, she’s too busy killing people and
drinking.
We have to comment on
her introduction - she’s done nothing wrong they know of. Rowena is always
flawless
Castiel’s idea is to
go to heaven and ask for help there. Which is worrisome because the angels in
heaven don’t like him very much. Dean is against but relents surprisingly
easily… I think he’s getting desperate. But it’s still unlike him to let the
others put themselves at risk. This is a shift
So Castiel - he heads
to Heaven’s gates, ready to do battle with its guardian. And meets Indra, an
angel who is desperately drinking as much as he can, refusing to fight and
definitely not guarding the gates. He even passively suggests Castiel kill him
because life ain’t great
And in Heaven Castiel meets Duma and quickly explains everything before she attacks. Except attacking doesn’t seem to be on the cards. She listens and seems very excited when he mentions that Gabriel is alive (after all, he’d probably make a better leader than Lucifer). They have him wait (Cas has zero respect for heaven, puts his feet up, pokes god’s throne) and all the while the lights keep flickering off
Eventually he’s met
by Naomi - yes,
she’s still alive despite the brain drill. Yes, Castiel remembers what she did to
him. No he hasn’t forgiven her. No she isn’t saying sorry. Things are… tense to
say the least. But they may have some common goals so are willing to put that
aside
I also think there’s
some… respect there? They don’t like each other and have severe history but I
get a definite sense of respect.
The angels also want
Gabriel in Heaven. But can’t help him find Gabriel they don’t have the manpower
to do so. And they don’t mean they have other priorities, they literally don’t
have the people. There are 9 angels left and maybe 2 on Earth.
Nine - I joked before
about how many angels were constantly being massacred and is there an infinite
supply. Well, apparently not. Between the Leviathan and Castiel and the civil
wars and the demons and the fall and Metatron and Amara, the angels have
suffered horrendous losses
Not only is this
driving the angels to clear extinction but there’s a problem for Heaven. Each
angel is a walking battery, together their grace powers heaven. Except there’s
barely enough angels left to keep the lights on - hence the power outages. If
heaven falls then all those souls up there will fall to Earth as ghosts -
billions and billions of ghosts. This is… not a good thing. Naturally Gabriel,
with an archangel’s power, would definitely tip the balance
It also explains why
they’re so utterly desperate that they were willing to even tolerate Lucifer.
So they’re working
together but still no closer to finding Gabriel
While Sam and Dean
hunt Rowena since they’ve followed the news and found that a lot of people have
been murdered by her. Dean is especially scathing to Sam for letting her have
the page of awesome witch magic to protect herself from Lucifer and Sam is both
beating himself up and trying to defend Rowena. And that latter is actually
possible - because Rowena since she’s killing pharmaceutical executives who
lied about their product which harmed many people and then used their money to
duck responsibility. As she herself will say, they’re far more monstrous than
anything Sam and Dean has killed
She’s also killing them while drinking wine and dancing with her new buff bodyguard. Because she’s Rowena and she has STYLE.
Dean also makes a
great comment that they want the “fun, flirty Rowena who occasionally helps us.
But be prepared for not that.”
Which says a lot
about Rowena and Crowley. In many ways both of them are major evils far worse
than most of what the Winchesters kill, but they get a pass. They get a pass
because they’re wiley enough to keep evading but mainly because they’re
charming as hell and occasionally helpful. They always dance that line around
doing something TOO unforgivable that the Winchesters can see while always
being juuuust useful enough to be worth keeping round.
Along the way they’re
met by Jessica -
the Reaper. She’s been following them around at the orders of Billie, the new Death
who is somewhat invested in the Winchesters despite their antagonistic history.
She offers to help because Rowena is actually killing people before their time
which has massive implications as far as fate etc is concerned - and if it
keeps up they will have to do a reset. Which means killing a whole lot of
people with a war or a plague or something
Absolutely no-one questions this and how this means fate is very much written in, free will is a myth and, above all that, that the last 13 seasons have been fated?! I mean does this even fit with the canon even slightly? The Winchesters have come from the dead so many times it’s almost boring, they’ve killed Death himself - to say nothing of Archangels and a whole lot of other random shenanigans. This was all fated? Really? Fate is even a thing in this situation? God himself was put in situations he clearly didn’t want to be in. What is this? What sense is this? Who designs fate? Who makes its rules? Who changes it? You can’t just introduce the concept of fate into this setting!
Even Dean, when he
was dead, learned there were hundreds of thousands of ways he could die, all
written. Because he’s a man without a set fate just a mass of possibilities.
That isn’t fate!
But Rowena? Well
Jessica reveals that there’s only one way Rowena is fated to die - at the hands
of Sam. Which is why they’re latching on to him. Sam is all torn about this
because he has a soft spot for Rowena. Because she’s awesome.
When they investigate
they find another reason Billie wants to be involved - not only is Rowena
killing people, she’s killing Reapers as well.
And her eyes are
glowing all blue which is usually a sign of divine power. Why is she killing
Reapers? Because she wants an audience with Billie
Instead she arranges
to meet Sam and Dean to explain. She does point out she’s only killing very
very evil people but she wants to see Billlie because she wants her son back.
Yes, Crowley. And Rowena has built a whole narrative that her son went to hell
because of the way she abandoned him, that he never had a chance to be better.
And while it does make the point that arbitrary tests of good and evil without
considering the conditions people were in are deeply flawed, let’s be honest,
Crowley was not a nice man. The Winchesters try to tell her to accept the death
of a loved one and not try to change it
She throws THAT
hypocrisy right back in their faces because wow how did they even say that
straight faced!? They do tell her she’s fated to die at Sam’s hand which upsets
her because she and Sam have a connection.
Oh quick aside on the
connection - I said before that Sam risked becoming a sidekick in this show
because Dean has the big epic connections with pretty much every other iconic
character so I think it’s a great idea to make Rowena, especially as she
becomes more emotionally, vulnerable, powerful and involved character,
connected more to Sam and Dean. And I think that works - I think Dean connects
well with the others, the bro-ness, the lack of emotional examination or open
expression while still having a deep connection all works. But with Rowena it
wouldn’t, she’s more open, expressive and doesn’t have the very masculine “I
cannot express my emotions let me Manpain at the Screen” trait. Sam is more
expressive, more emotionally intelligent and more likely to view a crying woman
as someone to connect to than run from. He’s also willing to parse moral shades
of grey which come with these characters rather than just ignore them which is
Dean’s thing
They try to grab
Rowena and we have magical shenanigans. She escapes - taking Sam with her - but
not before he tries to shoot her with a witch killing bullet to find that her
magic can stop bullets now. She’s also deeply deeply hurt that he would
actually try to kill her
While Dean fights her
bodyguard. Who isn’t mind controlled - Rowena is gorgeous, powerful and paying
him a small fortune. He doesn’t need to be. Dean and the man fight it’s rather
epic and bloody and surprising because normally Dean can smack down most
humans, even a man this much bigger than him. It’s only when Dean, covered in
blood, finally chokes the man out that Jessica pops in to applaud him for being
able to take down a highly trained military operative.
Which reminds us that
the Winchesters have been fighting long enough to be considered a veteran in
their own rights.
Sam tied up, as
Winchesters often are, Rowena tries to explain herself both her desire to save
Crowley and her own desire for redemption as well as throwing in Sam’s face
what the Winchesters are willing to do for their family. Rowena is such a
complex mass here of grief and fear and sadness and even trauma (recall she
first sought this power because she was terrified of Lucifer after the horrendously
brutal way he murdered her) all mix together with a suggestion that the new
level of power has left Rowena mentally unbalanced. Ok, no, let’s not have a
woman being unstable because she’s powerful - Rowena has more than enough
reasons to be shaky here
She now plans to kill
Sam since Billie is invested - and Billie appears to say go ahead. Sure she
needs Sam around, sure the world will fall apart without him. Doesn’t matter,
Billie doesn’t do Blackmail. Do it, bring on the world destruction, Billie’s
not impressed and she’s not bringing Crowlie back
Because Billie is a
terrifying force of nature and a truly awesome Death. I think I prefer her to
the junk food loving ex-death.
Rowena snaps and
unleashes all her power against Billie… who isn’t impressed. Billie is Death.
She’s not impressed by a witch no matter how powerful she is.
When Rowena
collapses, Billie is clear she knew that Rowena wasn’t going to kill Sam -
because that isn’t Rowena any more. She also has a really epic speech:
“Life is unfair,
sometimes we lose things, sometimes we make mistakes and some of these things
cannot be fixed no matter how powerful we become. Somethings just are.”
And is there anything
more powerful than the Avatar of Death, the ultimate non-negotiable (unless
you’re a Winchester) saying how unfair life is, that some things are
unchangeable, that some
Of course she could
have added “Cats are nice” (if you don’t get the reference, you have no soul or
are a deeply deprived person)
She also not coming
to collect Rowena, who is now collapsed on the floor. But she does say “see you
again soon” to Sam and Dean (yes Dean has finally arrived) which is… ominous.
And vanishes
So everyone has a
drink and talk. Rowena feels weaker now so she’s a powerful witch but not god
like any more. I don’t dislike this because I think there’s an issue with
characters being too powerful and they end up getting sidelined so they don’t
ruin the plot.
Dean, while not a fan
of Crowley, is clear Rowena isn’t responsible for his choices - and points out
ALL of them have made dubious choices in the past. And they’re responsible for
them and need to live with them
And they recruit her
- but not before telling her that Lucifer’s back. She handles this knowledge
despite it completely horrifying her. After all, she’s just learned that her
fate isn’t to die at Lucifer’s hands - but Sam’s
