Life's A Witch: Supernatural Review, 11x10, "The Devil In The Details"

This episode pissed me off enough to actually write a review!  Yeah, a lot of fans were creaming their jeans over badass!Sam (with hurt and blood); Cas/Dean, Mark Pellegrino, Dean DONTFUCKWITHMYBROTHER Winchester, and other stuff I can't remember or will mention farther down in my review.  There are spoilers.  Why do reviewers and recappers warn for spoilers?  What are they supposed to say: "Sam's in Hell. Dean finds him. Crowley's nasty, Lucifer's nastier, uh, that's all we can tell you.  Oh, the Darkness is in there somewhere."

Directed by Thomas J. Wright with a thoroughly uninspired script by Andrew Dabb, "The Devil In The Details" is as hokey as its title. Seriously, when the cold open is by FAR the best part of the episode, we are in trouble.

THE ROAD SO FAR:

Loud rock song, Winchesters killing stuff, Impala sliding, until they have to go into a buttload of exposition to get us to the present.

NOW:

Christmas morning!  Adorable Crowley in pajamas!  Rowena in antlers and a blinking red nose!  A Funko Sam!  Lucifer as Santa!  Satan Claus kills Crowley with a candy cane.  Crowley collapses, wheezing, "I've been a good boy..."! Turns out it's a recurring nightmare of Rowena's, but Lucifer shows up to free her!  IT IS AMAZING!


Sorry for the poor pic quality but this set was the only one that caught the epicness of Crowley in footie pajamas.

TITLE CARD!

Dang.  Lucifer and Sam in the Cage.  They never should have shown Sam's "vision" of the Cage.  It's so much cooler than this traveling circus lion cage crap.  Lucifer monologues to Sam about the world ending and Lucifer will torture Sam and Sam will say yes and Sam says no and we pretty much know enough to skip most of what goes down between them because that is Exactly.What.Happens.

Rowena is madly in love with Lucifer and intends to be his queen.  Crowley and Rowena fight--she threatens him that all he'll have for protection is Sam Winchester.  To quote Crowley in S6, "Am I the only one who doesn't underestimate those denim wrapped NIGHTMARES?"  (Hee!)  Since none of the heavenly/demonly characters have real powers any more, it's tossed aside that Crowley is the King Of Hell, a powerful demon, that he can snap in and out of anywhere...he's now just another actor with a stunt guy who's paid to be thrown across rooms.  And a character who has spent much of the season in a cheesy men's room with chipped tile.


Another epic moment. Too bad it's the last one.

Soon, Dean has to pull over to the side of the road to puke his guts out.  Have we only seen anyone barfing oncamera once in all this time?  Back when Dean had the MOC and wasn't killing anybody? But that went away in Season 10 and he didn't need to kill anyone. Just be an asshole.

Pimpmobile!  Yay!  I love the pimpmobile.  Cas runs to Dean and gently caresses him.  Dean pretends not to like it.


Smiting Sickness?  Is Can using that just to touch Dean?

"The last time there was a smiting this [whatever] Lot's wife turned into salt."  What?  Supernatural has been fucking around with the Bible forever.  But didn't Balthazar turn Raphael's vessel into salt with the heavenly weapon in S6?  MY HEAD IS EXPLODING AND IT'S ONLY TEN MINUTES IN.

Cas concerned blah blah Dean sick blah blah Cas goes off to search for Amara's body blah blah he used to be able to search entire states in a split second but now he's just a guy who glows once in a while.  Dark Forest of Doom and Destruction blah blah our angel boy runs into a little Stereotype Young Asian Girl With Glasses angel (who works in statistics, no less) who tells him they're both expendable Cas is bummed blah blah.  Unlike the last 7 seasons, Castiel has lost the ability to recognize angels by sight blah blah "we're expendable but Sam and Dean are the real heroes we're not superheroes but we do the job no big loss."

Are you shitting me?  You're talking to the angel who helped save the world?  Who turned into God?  Who helped kill Dick Roman, the head Leviathan?  Yeah, Castiel has been a bit of a wet washcloth recently, but he used to be a warrior until it was convenient that he's not.

Little angel finds Amara and in your basic horror movie trope AMARA IS ALIVE!  She sucks down little Stereotype Young Asian Girl With Glasses Angel's grace.  The Dark Forest of Doom becomes bright and shiny.


They brought in a writer from Law & Order to write Amara's lines.

 Cas confronts Amara, who snarks like a prostitute in a cheesy cop procedural.  “Seriously? I mean, Heaven brought the thunder and it barely even scratched my paint job. But you and a shiny knife, sure, that’s gonna work.”  She then gives Cas the "weak full of self loathing" blah blah blah same shit Dean's always getting wait a minute has Dean even been in this episode never mind Cas gets blown back to Hell where he gets to do his patented Cas Is About To Fall Over move.

She's carved I AM COMING into Castiel's chest.  But no, she doesn't mean she's going to do the dirty with Dean.


It's insane how much better this pic is than the episode.

Lucifer takes Sam back in time.  First to his first make-out session (COLIN FORD! COLIN FORD!) then to Stull Cemetery to relive Sam jumping into the Cage


"Wow, my face was so much fatter then!"
"You were doing steroids trying to get a movie part. Didn't pan out."
"Shut up. I only want to be in this show.  For the rest of my natural life."
"You have Stockhold Syndrome, Jared."

Lucifer takes Sam to Amelia.  We've all done our best to forget her.  (NO! MORE COLIN FORD!) The writers do a little fan-pleasing soft shoe.  Lucifer says "this is the worst thing you've ever done".  They do a retcon blah blah blah Sam isn't strong enough blah blah if I hear "not strong enough" I will shoot out my tv.  One more time a character lectures Sam about his "insane bond" with Dean.  Blood is coming out of my ears.  Hasn't anyone noticed that the Winchesters are basically conjoined twins?  You can't have one without the other?


The worst torture Lucifer devised--bringing back Samelia.

Dean has to sing "Camptown Ladies" (hee!) so that Billie The Reaper (wtf is it with this show tossing around Reapers/Angels/Demons together?) will let him into hell blah blah blah Dean does the "I'm going to Hell" soundbite on his phone.  Somehow, Dean's traumatic memories of 40 years in Hell have been erased and he trots on down.

Back to Lucifer monologuing (I love you, Mark Pellegrino but shut up).  Lucifer makes a throwaway joke about Michael--wait, isn't Michael supposed to be in the Cage?  Go jump off a cliff, writers. "We can beat her," Lucifer urges beautifully lit Sam.

Dean brings a Witchcatcher.  Crowley locks his mom in it.  This gives him complete power over her.  Has anyone else noticed that Dean has bupkus to do in this episode?  Rowena is forced to do a spell to extinguish Lucifer.  Wait, what?  Witchcraft can overcome THE DEVIL?  What bullshit is this?  Why not leave Luci in his Cage and do a spell on Sam that banishes the visions...too simple.  Sorry.


Dean: "I'll just wait here, then."

Sam rejects Lucifer, in the best dialogue in the episode: “My answer is ‘No.’ This isn’t cuz of Dean or the past. This is about me having faith in my friends, having faith in my family. We will find a way. I’m ready to die. And I’m ready to watch people I love die. But I’m not ready to be your bitch.”

So, Lucifer proceeds to beat the shit out of him.  Dean and Castiel show up, get zapped into the Cage, and Lucifer kicks their collective asses.


I so wish that was my hand in Sam's hair...


Lucifer pulls Supernatural's signature move.  Have the Winchesters ever thought of kicking the enemy in the chest? Just me?

Rowena's spell works, the Winchesters and Castiel leave Hell, but wait...Cas is acting strange!  The boys drive off.

Dumbass Cas has said yes to Lucifer.  Meanwhile, since Rowena has to do his bidding, Crowley asks his mother why she hates him. When she looks into this eyes, she sees the pathetic woman she was before magic: when he was born, his father went back to his wife, leaving her on her own. Most important, if she didn’t hate him, she’d love him, and love is a weakness.  Then Casifer/Lustiel shows up, comes on to Rowena and snaps her neck.  That's how it works in this show.  Help out a Big Bad and your delusional ass gets kicked out of the land of the living.

Misha does his best Mark Pellegrino impression, using his real voice.  He does the head tilt thing that he did as the Leviathan saying, "This is going to be so much fun".

Cue Supernatural echo bongoes, and we're done!

Random thoughts:

I'm bummed that Ruth O'Connell is leaving.

Isn't there anything that villains can do besides grabbing a Winchester's neck and lifting them off the ground?  Would levitating them cost too much?

When they do the big season montages, does anyone else notice that the killings look alike?  Exploding in smoke, exploding in fire, exploding?

Shout out to Lucifer's line about moving to LA and solving crimes. A nice shot at "Lucifer", which premieres next week on FOX. And features Satan as a police consultant. *snort*

Cas and Amara have no chemistry whatsoever.

Amara still needs a bra.

I miss Abbadon.

Mark Pellegrino is a better actor than Misha Collins.

Lucifer banged Sam during the latter's turn in Hell.  Does this mean Casifer seduces Dean?  Count me in.

NEXT WEEK:

Dee Wallace guest stars.  There are creatures.  Casifer swanks around.  Misha gets to use his real voice.

Slicing And Dicing: Supernatural Review, S10 Ep10, "The Hunter Games"

Eugenie Ross-Leming and Brad Buckner are fabled as the writers of the worst episodes. (Black woman in dog collar, anyone?) And while this script was no great shakes, the direction of John Badham and the high-powered performances by the cast kept the episode popping along.  The visual aspects were beautifully done.

What was missing was any feeling of resolution.  Still, it was fun.

Disclaimer: My reaction was colored by the fact that I was watching with my husband, who dislikes the show.  However, he was sucked into the scenes with Crowley and his mother, laughing his head off. He wants Castiel's pimpmobile.  He enjoyed the episode, particularly Crowley and Metatron.  Since I loves me some Metatron, this was a truly special occasion.  He was easily persuaded to walk the dog after the show.  I might never recover.

The Road So Far: Kick. Ass.  These segments are always the best part of any premiere or finale, tightly edited, packed with action.  Edited to ELO's "Long Black Road," this gets the main storylines across with a brevity I wish they could manage in the episodes themselves.  Plus lots of cool beheadings and crashes and stuff.

Now: A frightened Crowley runs through the corridor of the mens room castle or whatever. His demons surround him and stab him to death. He wakes up and finds mother Rowena (Ruth Connell) standing over him solicitously. The use of premonitions and dream sequences during the openings is really starting to piss me off. Do they write these solely for the purpose of the promos??

A-Story: Dean and Sam trying to get the MOC off Dean by any means necessary.  First, Castiel brings Metatron (Curtis Armstrong) to the bunker.  It kind of gets stupider from there.

B-Story: Crowley and his mother, Rowena. She is machinating all over the place. Crowley, initially mistrustful, loses 75% of his intellect and trusts her.  I do love that she calls him "Fergus".

C-Story: Castiel and Claire. That's all you're getting out of me. She and her annoying hairdo go off into the horizon at the end.  Please, please don't come back.


"Bye, Claire. I have to get back to my true love, Dean."

My fervent hope for "The Hunter's Game" was for Dean would go crazy and slaughter Claire, thus driving a wedge between Dean and Castiel.  Alas, she lives.


The MOC could probably use some antibiotic cream the way he keeps handling it.

Dean sits on his memory-foam mattress, having flashbacks from the massacre.  Very nice intercutting between now and then.  He looks at himself in a broken mirror (symbolism!).  Then he goes to the main room to jaw with Sam and Cas.  No lore about the MOC, no nothing.  Dean is seriously fucked.

Castiel calls in some favors and an angel named Ingrid brings a hooded figure to him.  Castiel removes the hood, revealing Metatron.  Now, you might think the hood shouldn't be revealed until after Metatron is in the dungeon, so that HE DOESN'T KNOW WHERE IT IS.  But that would spoil the reveal!  Jesus Christ, these writers are idiots sometimes.

Metatron, as always, brings the snark bigtime.  When he gets a look at the dungeon, he says, "Is this where you bring the kinky chicks?" Sam, who is not allowed to have any discernible personality, ignores him and chains him up.  He proceeds to grill Metatron, who is ecstatic that Dean is alive and completely out of his mind. "He's gone nuclear!" However, the Scribe of God stops laughing when Sam reveals Dean.  Who is, if you think about it, looking completely out of his mind.  In a quiet, brooding Dean kinda way. Oops.



Metatron needs a change of pants.
Once Dean is in the dungeon, Sam loses all of the good lines. Metatron says the cure starts with The First Blade.  Sam and Dean do a walk-and-talk about why this is a stupid idea, which you know they're going to do because every tv show in the known universe has a character at some point say "this is the stupidest idea we've ever had." I can't remember why Sam leaves Dean alone with Metatron, but he does, and everything goes to shit.  Metatron baits Dean, activating the Mark.  Which is a really suicidal thing to do when you're chained to a chair and Dean has an angel blade.

Does anyone remember in Season 5 when Dean punched Castiel and nearly broke his fist?  No, I don't either. Since then angels have gotten a lot more spongy.  Dean not only beats the crap out of Metatron, he slices and dices.

Sam, who has been hanging out finishing Catcher In The Rye, hears the screams.  He and Cas run to the locked door.  Instead of having spare keys, Sam tries kicking in the door.  Instead of not wasting time by watching Sam kick in the door, Cas blows it open.  Sam restrains Dean while Cas doesn't heal Metatron (buh?) but takes him back to Heaven.


"Say my name! Say my name!"


(I had to put this kid from Episode 1 back in!)


"Listen, man, there is this incredible scene in Catcher In The Rye where Holden--"
"Shut the fuck up, Sam, you know you aren't supposed to have any real dialogue."

They call Crowley and have a meeting in the rain to convince him to get the Blade.  Crowley says no. "Can't we catch a movie? Hang out?"  Hee.  Back at the men's room, Rowena casts a spell to let her spirit find her son.  There's a nice visual of the city below, but then it keeps going and going and going until I thought we were going to end up in Jakarta.

 
Rowena has an orgasm when she sees THIS:


OMG OMG OMG MINE MINE MINE MINE

Damn, that's one fine looking hunk of man.

Back in the men's room, Rowena henchman blah blah blah Crowley finds First Blade missing blah blah blah Rowena kills henchman blah blah convinces Crowley everyone is plotting against him except his dear sweet mother.  Oh, for God's sake, Crowley, you didn't get to be the King of Hell without knowing who your enemies are.  You can't see through the obvious lies your mother is spewing?  It's just...MOVING ON!


No, Crowley's not snorting cocaine.

Sam looks up from Catcher In The Rye and exposits that Cain had retired from killing for centuries, so Dean should be able to do the same thing.  This is demonstrated at the end where, instead of taking out two of Claire's buddies who are trying to kill him, he beats a park bench to death.

The closing scene is Castiel bidding farewell to Claire then running her over with his car.

Random Thoughts:

Beyond carving Metatron like an ice sculpture, was there any forward momentum?


FINALLY, Claire and her annoying hairdo acknowledged that she is looking at her dead father.

If Sam can't have any storyline, can he have good hair?  Please?  I saw some vids from the San Francisco convention and GOOD LORD THAT IS HAIR THAT IS A NATURAL WONDER SHOW WHAT ARE YOU DOING??


Next week: Stuff.  I forgot.  Sorry.

Photograph of Ruth Connell copyright Ruth Connell

Big Evil Comes In Little Packages: Review, Supernatural S10, Ep7, "Girls, Girls, Girls"

This year, "Supernatural" is preceded by "The Flash," the CW's biggest hit, which has three times the budget of the older show. On my DVR, there is always the last minute or two of the Flash. While not as ludicrously funny as last year's "The Originals," it's getting old listening to the sleek eevvilll dude mutter at some creature or another.

This week's episode had many plot threads intertwining. Some let the audience know the show knows the outstanding questions that have been around for a a long time.  The foremost one being, what happens to the angel's human vessel?  Castiel has been in Jimmy Novak--tee hee, I'm twelve--for six years.  This writer has assumed that Jimmy Novak was killed the first or second time Cas was killed in Season 5.  "Like a bowl of chunky soup," as Chuck Shurley described it.  There's a lot of plot in this episode, so to try to stay with me, okay?

 
It's the Shondells - the white girl version!

"Girls, Girls, Girls", written by the estimable Robert Berens and directed by Robert Singer* is first about demons forcing human females into prostitution, and using them to lure clients into signing over their souls.  Berens is particularly adept at writing female characters.  And there are plenty of them, which is a change of pace.

And the episode asks, how fucked up is Dean right now?  Some fans complain that this season the writers don't seem to know what to do about Sam, but I strongly disagree.  In Season 3, Dean's going to hell drove the season.  Since then:

4. Sam drank demon blood; Dean was tormented about his brother 5. Sam turned into Lucifer; Dean was tormented about his brother 6. Sam came back from Hell without his soul; Dean was tormented about his brother 7. Sam went crazy; Dean was tormented about his brother 8. Sam hit a dog and had the dullest flashbacks imaginable, then went through the Three Trials and nearly died; Dean was tormented about his brother (and a flicker of PTSD from being in Purgatory) 9. Sam got possessed by an angel, then was too pissed at Dean to speak to him through much of the season; Dean was tormented about his brother and, well pretty much everything.

I grant you, there are long stretches during the last two seasons where Sam's usefulness to the story was gone and he got Castiel's job of standing around watching the exposition.  And last year he got knocked out and tied up almost every episode.  Huh? Jared Padalecki is so big that if he stood up straight in front of an opponent they'd back away, saying, "Sorry, dude, uh, I gotta--gotta--byee!"  But the guy's got a glass jaw, as they say. One punch to the chin and down he goes.

So why not have Sam being tormented about his brother?  It's a nice change.  Besides, Sam is fun, giving Dean shit as only a little brother can.

THEN:  A series of scenes throughout the series about witches and how their magic involves too many body fluids.  Tiny Crazed Marine!  Angel stuff.

NOW: A young blonde hooker is running down an alley from someone.  Her boot heel snaps off, she grabs it and keeps running.  DUN!!!  Her pimp stands before her, grinning.

 
This is actually Genevieve Padalecki in a blonde wig...don't tell anybody.

She stabs him in the eye with her boot heel.  You go, girl!!  It doesn't phase him.  He snaps her neck.  'Doh!

Sam and Dean sit in a steakhouse.  To my astonishment, Sam has a big ole steak in front of him.  Did he already eat the salad?  Is this out of character?  I'M STARTING A META!  Whoops.  Sorry.

Dean's phone is pinging away.  “Dude, you are blowing up. Who is that?”  Dean attempts to dodge the question, claiming it's “monster stuff.” Sam grabs Dean’s phone and discovers that his brother has a dating app.  There's a picture of Dean, with his real name and location.  Dean, what is wrong with you?  Don't you know that anyone can come in the bunker by now?

 
"Impala 1967..."  Thanks, Jared, I just came.

“There’s like a million messages here,” Sam says, from a woman named Shaylene.  The problems I had with this and the following scene are 1) since when has Dean had to drive any distance for nookie? 2) he's done it with plenty of hookers, and so has Sam.  Thank God you suddenly developed standards in time for the plot device, Bowlegs.  It's a fun, brotherly scene.

Meanwhile, Castiel and Hannah are holed up in the motel room.  They exposit that most of the rogue angels have been rounded up, which begs the question, now what is Cas going to do with himself?  Meanwhile, Hannah strips down and announces she's going to take a shower.



Sorry, gang, this is only gratuitous angel nudity I have to offer this go-round.


"Castiel, are you displeased that I am not Dean?"

Dean is about to do the beast with two backs with Shaylene.  But she's a prostitute.  For payment, she wants Dean's soul.  Not again, Dean groans inside.  When her pimp shows up with the paperwork, the Winchesters are waiting.  "Winchesters," he drawls.  Can they keep a straight face at the table read when an actor says this any more?  Shaylene stabs him.  Dead Pimp worked for Raul's Girls, a whorehouse.  It's forced prostitution, hookers working for souls.  Why don't they use demon hookers?  I don't know.  And where's the demon blade?  There must be a warehouse full of angel blades somewhere.

Raul, sporting a nifty eyepatch, is issuing a command to his minion to beat the shit out of a recalcitrant prostitute (like we need more proof he's scum?).  The door opens, and a small redheaded woman with Morticia Addams eye makeup, in a long black dress enters. "Is this Raul's Gels?" she asks in a thick Scottish accent...hmmmm...

 
I knew there was something fishy about that lead singer...

She's Rowena, a powerful witch who looks to be this season's Big Bad.  Damn.  I had so hoped Dean would be the Big Bad.  Maybe he can be the Medium Bad?  She's awfully tiny to be a big bad.  But wow, she's fierce.  She tosses Raul a hex bag, and he barfs up more crude oil than the Alaska pipeline. His fellow demon smokes out and the host body drops dead.  Answering the what-happens-to-the-demon-possessed side, perhaps?  She leaves with the remaining hookers, and the trio go to dinner at a fancy restaurant.  When the waiter gets snotty, she puts a spell on him.  Instantly, it's a 10-course tasting meal, on the house.  Scottish actress Ruth Connell's performance verges on drag queen.  An extremely dangerous wee drag queen.  Rowena's a flirty sociopath.

She is recruiting for a new coven.  The other two women are eager to join, even when Rowena kills the waiter for what seems to be no reason.

We might have our new Magnus!

Once Hannah is dressed, she starts to check out of the motel but is stopped by her vessel's husband, who addresses her as "Caroline."    She babbles out a lie that she left him for Cas, then gives Cas a big, wet kiss that leaves Cas shaken (and probably with a boner) and her husband devastated.  The angels split.

Sam finds the hex bag and spell on a web page that says "Bind and Purge."  There are a lot of illustrations, which makes it a little odd when Sam says only the witch who created it--Rowena--knows the spell.  It's right in front you, isn't it?

Meanwhile, a big biker demon is tied to a chair in a devil's trap, being doused with holy water by--TINY CRAZED MARINE!  Who, if anything, looks another decade older than he did in his last appearance.  Stress will do that to you.  I'm still wondering if he killed that librarian from "Reichenbach".  Collateral damage and all that.  Not much happens, but we know Tiny Crazed Marine is here and shit will get real.  Only it kinda doesn't.

Caroline, Hannah's vessel, is still in there.  When she saw her husband, she screamed at Hannah that she wanted her life back.  Hannah agrees with the original mission, that humans come first.  To that end, she leaves, and Caroline wakes up in Castiel's arms. "Castiel?" she says.  It must be noted that Hannah is a tiny little angel.  None of the huge roaring and white light that's accompanied all other angel comings and goings.  But it's a lovely image.  (How's Cas's borrowed grace going?  When are we going to see Metatron again?)

 
"It's going to be such a relief not to have a clitoris any more."

After she leaves, Castiel gets back in the pimpmobile.  He takes out his laptop and looks up Jimmy Novak. There are several pictures of different Jimmys (including one of JN as "Employee of the Year") and a picture of Jimmy with MISSING under it.  "Where's the porn?" Castiel wonders.

Rowena and her coven-ettes are lounging at a hotel when two demons show up to drag them to Crowley.  Who, in an earlier scene, is aggravated that Raul and Demon #2 opened a brother to collect souls.

Demon #2:  "Raul said, your decree last month, soul deals way down after the war with Abaddon?  He said that you were looking at proactive and out of the box strategies to get numbers back up."
Crowley: "So you and your half-wit pal threw me into the sex trade? I'm evil.  That's just tacky."  Hee.

Demons come to drag Rowena and her coven-ettes to hell, but the Winchesters show up.  Rowena puts a spell on the blonde woman that turns her into a human attack dog.  Dean runs after Rowena while Sam locks Pit Bull Blonde in a closet.  Dean catches up to Rowena and puts the gun to her head, while the other coven-ette runs away--

"Put the gun down, Deano."  It's Tiny Crazed Marine.  That line alone made me want him to die.  Dean puts down the gun, the witch scrambles out of there.

First, Dean tries to make nice with Cole, saying he's not a demon any more.  And that Cole's dad was a monster.  Doesn't work.  Dean and TCM go at it.  Honestly, Travis Aaron Wade looks ridiculous in a fighting crouch, in part because then he barely clears Jensen Ackle's belt buckle.  Lots of punching and kicking guns out of the way.  For me, the best part was this:



Tiny Crazed Marine is bested.  But Dean is the better (?) man. He hands Cole his own gun, and proceeds to give a speech.  Cole's father was a monster, which ate human livers.  Dean has never seen such a monster before or since.  That sounds incredibly lame.  I was hoping Tiny Crazed Marine would yell, "My father HATED liver," take a shot, miss, and then get knocked out.  But no, he stares at Dean with big, teary eyes, with "I wuvved dead Da-Da" as Dean goes on about how he went into the darkness and was brought back by "people who loved me." But "I'm past saving," he goes on.  Sam gives Tiny Crazed Marine--Crazed No Longer--a pep talk about family.  Staring at Dean, he says, "You family needs you. Whole."  OUCH!  Fucking anvil.  Cole gets into his Hummer and drives off.

What?  A guy spends his entire life on a quest for vengeance and gives it up because of a teary smear of self-pity and a pep talk?  WHAT?  Farewell, Tiny Crazed Marine, we barely knew ye.  He's going home to one pissed-off wife.  "Now that your quest for revenge is over, you better get a damn job!"   There's a possibility he'll be back, either because he realizes how lame that scene was, or he turns into the same never-before-seen monster his father was.

After the break, Sam asks if Dean meant that part about being "past saving."  I hope so, but I know Sam disagrees with me.

Crowley is taken to the witch, who has been tortured.  Rowena is hanging by chains, bloodied but just as nasty.  "Are you the King of Lilliput?" Crowley stares at her. She goads him,  "Cat got your tongue?" and meows.  It's great.



Crowley says, "Mother?"   AND into credits!

Next week, Sheriff Jody Mills and a new partner join Sam and Dean for "Hibbing 911."

Random Thoughts:

I loved the phone scene.  But honestly?  They both look a little old to be doing this. Marie was on to something.

Sorry I slagged off Rowena in "Soul Survivor."  She's a welcome addition.  Crowley is going to be soooo whipped.

Also sorry that Hannah is gone.  I didn't care one way or another whether or not she and Cas hooked up.  The less angel war, the more badonkadonk, the better.

*After 10 years, how do you "direct" an episode?  Is it just pointing and nodding your head by now?

Screencaps by homeofthenutty.com Gifs by spnfans.tumblr.com