So the archangel
Gabriel, who has moonlighted as the trickster god Loki, is now being decidedly
untrickster-ness. And deciding to stab someone with some magical wooden sword.
He wins, but is
injured in the process. So what is prompting the trickster archangel to go all
murdery? Well the dead man is Fenrir - one of the sons of Loki. And yes he’s a
man but he kind of has a wolf effect to him and big claws so I can kind of see
it - but he dies too quickly to develop this massive wolfy-murderer of
Odin-ness to us. Gabriel has a list of more people to kill: he crosses off
Fenrir leaving Narfi and Sleipnir. That would be two more spawn of Loki.
Injured, he turns to
the only people he knows who can help - Sam and Dean (since Sam and Dean are in
town following him since he’s still the only source of Archangel Grace they
know of). He hoped they may actually have some of his Grace left but they
don’t. Which is a shame since after being so tortured and drained by Asmodeus
and then frying Asmodeus he is now running on empty which is why he has
resorted to stabbing people.
Fenrir’s brothers,
Sleipnir and Narfi decide to hunt Gabriel down for their brother being murdered
and we have a god fight. And while Dean seems able to fend off a not-really
invested Sleipnir but Sam is nearly strangled by Narfi before Gabe stabs him in
the back. At which point the horseman flees
And, yeah, ok I’ll buy sort of werewolf Fenrir - but Sleipnir being a dapper prettyboy? I could get behind this is there were some development of Loki’s children instead of it just kind of not wanting to be bothered with CGI or monsters or special effects.
So with two of the
brothers dead, Gabriel wants to kill the last one - and then kill Loki. And he
explains why in a long exposition that Dean really really really doesn’t care
about. Way back when, Gabriel was tired with all the Archangel stuff so he
decided to go undercover - he ran into Loki (who owed him after he freed him
from his cave where Skadi’s snake was dripping poison into his eyes) who agreed
to teach him how to be a trickster and take his identity. Which worked for Loki
as he was kind of in the outs with his family anyway and needed to go a little
low key
They don’t specify
why Loki needed to hide from his family but even a cursory reading of the Eddas
says yes yes he does.
And when Gabriel
decided to go into hiding AGAIN, because Lucifer was coming in, he decided to
turn to his good friend Loki and sons so he could hang out with them. Until
they betrayed him, captured him and delivered him over to Kentucky Fried
Asmodeus for lots of money and now he wants revenge
And Dean is not
impressed. Dean doesn’t think revenge is helpful - because he’s been there and
done that over and over. Lots of epic revenge and it never actually made Dean
feel better. Also Gabriel’s revenge plan is so theatrical and nonsensical that
Dean can’t help but mock its nonsense.
Dean is a
professional - he may be a brutal emotionally co-dependent killer, but he IS a
professional. And this nonsense of killing someone’s kids first to make them
suffer is just dramatic nonsense.
But Sam realises they
can make a deal and recruit Gabriel to their side if they help him with their
revenge. And this is where the rather sociopathic killer part of Dean comes in.
They hunt down Loki and Sleipneir - with Gabriel brutally killing him even as
he begs for his life. And Dean makes a play for Loki who explains why they
betrayed Gabriel - because when he gave Gabriel his identity back in the day,
he also had Gabriel agree to stop getting involved in all the big bad dramatic
angel stuff. Because it always ends badly
And instead he got
involved in the whole summit that had Odin (his dad - which isn’t any version
I’ve seen before) murdered by Lucifer. I think it’s a bit convoluted to blame
this on Gabriel, but then I think holding a grudge for Gabe just opting out of
all of that is fairly reasonable
Dean doesn’t care. He
doesn’t care if Gabriel is right or Loki -he’s here to kill Loki to complete
the deal. Of course Loki is kind of THE trickster so isn’t easily murdered and
he and Gabriel get to fighting bare handed - and Loki is winning until sam and
Dean show up with his magic wooden swords and tip the balance. But Loki spits
some savage home truths before he dies.
And I think this is
why Gabriel is now willing to join Team Winchester. Not necessarily because he
made a deal. But, as he says, Tricks are for Kids - I think the immortal
Archangels decided to grow up and take things more seriously and recognise his
responsibilities with Loki’s scathing words
Which is going to
matter because in the evil realm Michael is gathering his armies in one place,
having been helped by Kevin the prophet to find a place where the world is
naturally thin
Mary’s worried
because even though Jack is winning a lot of battles, he’s also getting really
arrogant, wanting to run off alone and confront Michael and not really
considering his human allies or reinforcements. Mary is terrified of it all
falling apart - and losing another boy. Yes it looks Like Mary has half adopted
Jack
A lesson that is
brutally brought home when Kevin (who has been massively traumatised by his
time with Michael) sets off an angel bomb that has been carved into his chest.
Mary and Jack’s
relationship has definitely evolved a lot - and I think this super powered
being could do a lot worse than have a Mary advisor.
In fact, one
commentor already suggested Jack as the new leader of Heaven. I see this more and more - and double
it down with Mary being his advisor and grounding force
We also have Dean doing some analysis - Sam confronts him about being sidelined all the time and Dean reminds Sam that the last time they faced Lucifer and Michael, Sam died and went to hell. Dean can't do that again - and we have another of those glimpses at how broken Dean is: he doesn't give his own life any value at all. He doesn't care about dying... and hasn't for a long time
Of course Sam isn't letting Dean sacrifice himself on his own but Dean definitely needs some therapy. Which isn't news but still
We also have Dean doing some analysis - Sam confronts him about being sidelined all the time and Dean reminds Sam that the last time they faced Lucifer and Michael, Sam died and went to hell. Dean can't do that again - and we have another of those glimpses at how broken Dean is: he doesn't give his own life any value at all. He doesn't care about dying... and hasn't for a long time
Of course Sam isn't letting Dean sacrifice himself on his own but Dean definitely needs some therapy. Which isn't news but still
