Episode 6.22 reaction & review

[ash48]

filling me with GLEE!! WOOT! What an ep! \o/

Where oh where do I start?!

Let's start with my favourite first...

1. SAMMYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh you magnificent, smart, brave, daring, clever, soulless, soulful, angsty, bloody BEAUTIFUL MAN!!

I was really anxious about the way they were going to deal with the wall coming down. But this? Going into Sam's mind to join each part of his psyche? Brilliant! And inspired! Love LOVED it. And Jared rocked it completely. It's kind of weird to me that as much as I hated having to watch soulless!Sam in the first 10 eps I absolutely LOVED seeing him again in this episode. Jared oozed power and charisma and control. WOOT! And in contrast... IN CONTRAST!... His pained, hell experienced, tortured Sam was totally believable and *guh*... amazing. And soulful, confused and amnesic Sam (they did AMENSIA!SAM \o/) was clever and resourceful. <333 (and WOW... Cas was the one to bring it all down...*dies*)

I don't think we've ever seen such a clear example of WHO SAM IS! \O/

But the ultimate for me? The moment I repeated the line out loud and clutched my heart? Sam saying "I'm not leaving my brother alone out there." WHAAAAAA!! Come on!! Surely Sam has now redeemed himself?! Surely Sam has PROVED his undying love for his brother?! This was NOT a selfish act. Allowing the memories of hell in to his mind shows us the lengths he is prepared to go to for Dean. It's no less then Dean would do for Sam.

BOYS!!!!! \o/ God! I LOVE them!

Ok. So there was other stuff. :D OF COURSE! *BG*

2. Wayward Son? NEVER gets old...<33

3. Love the mysterious, WTF! beginning... Sam on the run, trying to piece together what's going on. Meeting Robin... who we KNOW is more than she seems. And I loved that reveal. Soulless! Sam killed her.... just. DAMN! Then I kept thinking.. Where's Dean? He must be going out of his mind with Sam lost. Hee.. but of course...

4. ... HE'S HOLDING VIGIL OVER SAM!! *dies* Though... poor Dean. After what he just went through with losing Lisa and Ben. And now Sam! How much can that boy take?! Just like Sam's concern for Dean in the previous episode we now get to witness Dean's concern and heartbreak for Sam.

(and was I yelling at the screen "touch his head" when he left Sam??! Damn right!! It would have totally been acceptable *g*. )

5. Bobby. What a guy. He holds it together, does the research. He's a quiet achiever. I love him for that. <33 We also see him lose someone else he has loved. We are constantly being reminded that hunters cannot be close to anyone. Or if you are? Be prepared to lose them. (I love that they introduced Eleanor early on so they could use her now. Good thinking Show...)

6. Castiel! HOLY HELL!! I gotta say, they got me on this one. HA! God!Castiel made me squee just a bit! I just. Wow... they actually went there.

I have no idea what the fan reaction has been to Cas turning on Dean and Sam and being generally not very nice. I imagine there might be some hurt, some disappointment even (?) but for me I loved the way this played out. I know how I felt when Sam was making his dubious decisions at the end of Season 4. Totally devastated! So I imagine that might be how some people are feeling over Castiel's turn. (?). But it's all part of the way they like to play these characters. Making these dubious decisions (see Dean 6.21). So now it's Castiel's turn. I wonder if part of S7 will be Cas reconciling with Sam and Dean somehow. NO idea... but I doubt they will leave it up in the air.

Apart from all that, I love the way Castiel played his side of the game. So clever really. He got what he wanted in the end. Yes, he wanted Dean's approval - he couldn't understand why a friend wouldn't support him. But he played Crowley and Raphael and won in the end.

Ack! Power hungry, single minded, BAMF Cas! What a journey for a character who started out merely as an angel who pulled Dean out of hell.

Things that made me go..... what?

Hee. Show wouldn't be Show if some things didn't hold together. I think the logistics of wiping Lisa and Ben's memories in 6.21 is one of the big ones in terms of implausibility but my big one in this ep is... how the hell is Jimmy's body managing to hold all those POWERFUL souls?? Sam had to drink gallons of demon blood to take on Lucifer. Jimmy has had Castiel in him for AGES.. and now.... thousands of souls?

Also... and this is minor really but still bugs me. How did Sam "sneak" up behind Castiel in order to stab him in the end? Without ANY of them seeing him?!... Just.. /o\(I know, I know it's filming stuff. But I would like some sort of plausible way Sam could have got in there unnoticed.

And a wee wee niggle. Dean saying that he had lost Sam (along with Lisa and Ben..). As though he really had. I know he probably thought he had but my heart pinged then because it felt like Dean had given up on the belief that Sam would be ok. I think I may have liked him to believe that Sam could fight what ever was going on in his brain. Or at least denied (for himself) that Sam was lost forever. I don't know. Maybe this was defeatist!Dean. It's all going to shit.. so why not Sam. *sadface*

In summary...

Dean is awesome and amazing! He STANDS HIS GROUND! No matter what. No matter how painful it will be for him. He follows what he believes. He doesn't make deals or work with demons (now). He desperately wanted to believe in Cas but just couldn't. He knew what Cas was doing was wrong. (just like he did with Sam in S4). It hurts, but this boy can handle pain. *hearts him* (he's someone that would have spoken up during the McCarthy era, or during the Salem witch trials. Random comment I know.. but that's how I see Dean...total admiration.)

Sam is awesome and amazing. He faces the painful truths about himself, he makes selfless sacrifices (now), he has battled his so called destiny and WON! He has heart and soul (thank god!) and is ALL those things I mentioned above. *adores him to pieces*

Show is awesome and amazing. It constantly pushes the boundaries. It's (and I'm quoting from a coment on a previous thread) AUDACIOUS! It made Cas a God for God's sake! (Um... Cas' sake?). It gave us soulless!Sam and domestic!Dean. It's given us brothers who would (and have!) died for each other. It gives us flawed characters, it's EPIC and give us MAN PAIN! What's not to love?!

And now we have to wait. :((( I am totally going to spoil myself going into S7. There is NO WAY I can last that long without a fix!!

Though I'm gonna need lots of fic to see me through me thinks...

Comments

[el1ie.livejournal.com]

2. Wayward Son? NEVER gets old...<33

Agreed.

3. Love the mysterious, WTF! beginning...

Did you notice he was outside John's storage locker? I love show so much when they do stuff like this...

how the hell is Jimmy's body managing to hold all those POWERFUL souls??

Well, the way I look at it is that it's Castiel's true form, the one thats "bigger than the Chrysler building" wasn't it? Yeah, that's where the souls are, the meat suit is still more of a vessel just for Cas - hey, it made sense until I wrote it down! *stamps foot* (actually the Jimmy thing is pretty strange anyway, some god remade Cas twice now, so maybe he's a bit different?)

Dean saying that he had lost Sam (along with Lisa and Ben..).

That one didn't really bother me as much as you, I figure there, Dean hasn't really LOST Ben and Lisa, they're still alive, he just can't talk to them, same with Sam, he's still alive, but will he wake up and be able to BE Sam again, Dean doesn't know. So for now the loss of Sam is as sharp as the loss of Lisa and Ben, he hasn't given up on any of them, just none of them are right there WITH him.

I think the thing with me is this, in season 4 Sam was doing all these "wrong" things, this time as you point out Castiel is going down the exact same path. Dean warns both of them, problem is, there is no other way. Just as Dean admits later, the plan to kill Lilleth with the knowledge they had at the time was a good one, it was the execution of it by Sam using his evil powers that was Dean's problem. Again here, IF Cas hadn't done the deal to open purgatory, then his war in heaven was lost and Rafael would have brought on the apocalypse and made him/herself god. Dean was right, he tells them what they are doing is wrong, the path they are taking will destroy them, but neither Sam nor Cas, nor even Dean have another plan and that kind of hits home really hard, because in both cases, ultimately the world was saved from the brink. I'm not sure how to process that.

I'm staying out of specific spoilers for season 7, I might find someone I trust to share a few generalities, but I'm still very happy having this lot dropped on my head!

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Did you notice he was outside John's storage locker?

YES! I loved that. I first I thought that's where he was headed and he was going to be retrieving something from it. Great continuity.

I like your reasoning for Jimmy as vessel. It's totally screwy really and open for interpretation I suppose. But I really hope Jimmy isn't still in there. From all accounts it's not pleasant being possessed.

Ahhhh... so "lost" as in just not reachable. Hmmm.. ok. I can go with that. In fact, that works for me. I know he still believed Sam would make it because he left the note for him'

And it's very interesting about the chosen paths when there really wasn't another solution. I've been trying to work out a way Cas could have won the war AND done the "right" thing. Maybe if he became a "good" god... not a "you will bow down before me" kind of god.. his actions might be seen as a "good" means to an ends. He did win the war in heaven, and by all accounts he needed to. He's become exactly what he fears Raphael would be. Now maybe he needs to return the souls and go back to being a angel. Maybe that's what will happen next season... (?).

Wow.. thinky much. :)

I have a casting spoiler for next season and that's all. I will probably read stuff that comes up, probably even do promo pics etc. I just can't hang out for 4 months without a little bit of something! <33