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Supernatural Season 14


Lisafer

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Supernatural peeps? Anybody? If you're out there, get in here! Supernatural is back for its 14th season! Spoilers below!

The season opener, for me, hovered at "okay" with a bit of "meh." I have almost infinite patience for the show, though, and am hoping that this exposition episode sets the scene for some better action later on.

Dean as Michael: cool to see a different character by Jensen, but the cold, emotionless expression could get boring quickly. And I'm already over the Peaky Blinders outfit. I like Jensen in his flannels! There were actually very few scenes with Michael/Dean, and they were a bit dry. I'm a Dean girl, so I'm biased.

Sam: much more fun to watch in this episode. He's leading the hunters from the other universe, and fighting exhaustion and despair. The crowning moment of awesome was when he stabbed Kip and announced to the assembled demons that "There will be. No. New. King of Hell!" Whereupon the demons vacated their vessels. No "exorcizamus te, omnis immundus...": demons fear Sam Winchester so much that he tells them to "get out" and they do it. Super cool.

Castiel: poor Misha, wouldn't the writers even allow you to throw a punch? My Chuck, your only role was to get beaten to a pulp.

Jack: learning to accept life in a weakened condition, taking boxing lessons from AU Bobby, and struggling with feeling useless since his grace was drained by Lucifer. And speaking of Lucifer...

His vessel is alive. Welcome back, Nick, vessel of Beelzebub since Season 4! He's on lockdown in the bunker, his bed set on top of a demon trap just in case. He tells Sam that he can't understand why he's alive, and Sam says maybe it's because the angel blade is meant to kill the angel inside the human, not the human body itself. (Foreshadowing?)

And there's Mary, kicking ass and taking names and keeping the faith that Dean is alive and that they'll find him. I still think Mary should have stayed dead, but I'm not as annoyed by her as I was last season. She seems to be making a place for herself, and the Bobby/Mary thing is totally going to happen, haha. (Slashfic names: Mobby? Bary? Sinchester?)

In the last few minutes, Sam gets a lead from Sister Jo as to Dean's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Michael has found a creature of pure desire, somebody he deems worthy of survival. He's done with beaten-down angels and weak humans. He's about to create a new world order. 

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SE 14, Ep. 2, Of Gods and Monsters

After the lackluster season opener, I was relieved to see a far stronger episode 2. It was not as tight as it should have been, but the plot was advanced nicely, with some surprising twists and turns.

While Sam, Mary, and AU Bobby are following a lead on Michael/Dean involving bodies with burned-out eyes, Cas is left to babysit Nick and Jack in the bunker. Poor Misha, again...what is he, a doorstop? 

Jack makes a covert visit to Kelly Kline's parents. He's struggling, still trying to figure out where he belongs. He doesn't tell the Klines who he is, but I still feel like this move may come back to bite him in the ass later. Cas reams him out in a fatherly manner when he returns, and gives him a rousing speech about relying on inner strength. It's sweet, but preachy. 

Nick is wandering about the bunker, apparently having crossed the devils' trap without a problem. He's experiencing flashbacks of both his time possessed by Lucifer and horrible memories of his wife and child being killed. The murder case has gone cold--he called a detective to check--but he learns that there was one witness, who recanted his story of seeing a man leaving Nick's house on the night of the murder. This has potential...I have a feeling there's more to this story.

But something's wrong with Nick: when Cas angers him, Nick whips around with a snap of his fingers, just like good old Luci when he used to blow people into fragments. He's confused when Cas calls him on his gesture, as if he didn't realize he was doing it. 

Michael/Dean, meanwhile, is wearing a tuxedo and cavorting with werewolves in fancy hotels. He has a grand plan--to help the bloodsuckers of the world achieve supremacy. Super lame, Michael. Dean is struggling: he's in there, and he wants Michael out. "I own you," Michael says, and shoves Dean back down inside his handsome meatsuit. 

Nick has evaded Cas's babysitting (Nice going, Cas, both your charges have escaped, seemingly in one day) and sought out Arty, the solitary witness to the crime that took Nick's wife and child. It doesn't go well. It's like a five-minute version of The Shining.

Dean's set up a trail of crumbs, or rather, dead bodies, to lead Sam and the hunters to an abandoned building where they're jumped by super-werewolves who don't die when they're shot by silver bullets. Sam whips out a machete and finds that beheading still works. Mary saves Bobby with some badass axe-throwing. The creatures are dead, the doors swing open, and Tommy Shelby--whoops, Michael the Archangel--stretches out his hand to smite the hunters.

But no, wait. He grabs a post and leans against it. It's Dean. Thank Chuck, my Dean is back! They ask him if he forced Michael out, and he says no. "He...just left," he says. "Why?" Sam asks. "I don't know," Dean answers, and there's terror in his voice. "I don't know."

Meanwhile, Nick, his face and neck splattered with gore, looks pensively at his old home through Arty's window, holding a bloody hammer in his hand. Arty's skull is smashed in, his glasses hanging askew. Is this Nick, the man? Is it Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness? I keep waiting, watching for that sly side smile that would remove all doubt.

But he never smiles.

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SE 14, Ep. 3, The Scar

I enjoyed this episode even more than the preceding one--so far, this season is improving from its lackluster start!

Dean's back at the bunker, still wearing the crisp white shirt and black vest that were Michael's, and making delightfully snarky remarks on Sam's scruffy beard. Duck Dynasty wants it back, and being busy is no excuse for not shaving. 

Dean is also shocked by the amount of people in the bunker; home isn't what it used to be. He assures Sam, Cas, and Jack that he's all right and doesn't remember anything from when he was Michael's vessel. In his room, he impatiently shrugs out of Michael's clothing and finds a huge double scar on his upper arm. No objection to looking at Jensen's muscular upper arm from this section of the peanut gallery!

Later, he insists that Cas do the "Vulcan mind-meld thing" to find out why Michael left. Cas sees Dean being stabbed by a hooded figure with a long spear--the same figure that crossed over from an alternate universe after Kaia's death last season. Sam and Dean team up with Jody, who's been following a trail of bodies whose death wounds match the scar on Dean's arm, and track the killer deep into the woods, where they find werewolf heads stuck on poles in a gruesome warning around a campsite. (Always a pleasure to see Sheriff Jody Mills, and if the show writers ever kill her off I'll be more pissed than when Crowley died. 

Cas is back at the bunker attempting to remove a hex from a dying young woman that a hunter has rescued from a witch. Jack, who was forbidden to go with Sam and Dean and who is about ready to run away from his three fathers and make his own way in the world, sees what's going on and stays to help. I love his compassion, and he's horrified when Cas fails to save the young woman and she shrivels up and dies right there in the bunker. 

Dean narrowly misses a repeat stabbing at the mysterious campsite, and the three hunters, after a brief battle, follow the spear's owner even farther into the woods. They've seen her face--she looks like Kaia, but they know that Kaia is dead. Dean gets ahead of the others and delivers a solid punch that brings down his prey. He's got one thought in his mind: to get the spear that's capable of hurting Michael. He's been through a lot, and he's suffering mentally, but it's still awful to see him threatening and proposing to torture this young woman with Kaia's face. To be fair, he thinks of her as Kaia's killer, but she tells him that herself and Kaia shared a bond he would never understand. They were both dreamwalkers, and she recognizes Dean's anger stems from fear. She's afraid too--of the endless streams of werewolves that Michael's been sending after her.

A group of werewolves, the 2.0 version, burst into the remote cabin where Sam, Dean, and Jody have the AU Kaia tied up. They're very strong, and have all three hunters pinned down in no time. Dean fires a bullet into AU Kaia's chair and releases her, whereupon she jumps out the window and disappears. A werewolf breaks Jody's arm. Don't you hurt my Jody, SPN writers!

Buuut she's back, with the spear, and wipes out the werewolves in about three seconds. Dean stares at the spear, but doesn't make a move. You can tell he's taken her words to heart when she accused him of being exactly the same as Michael. She vanishes, but I'm sure we'll see her again later. Jody heads home, knowing she's going to have to explain herself to Claire (per their agreement to loop Claire in on anything "monstery"). 

Jack had a lightbulb moment on where Lora's life force has gone--to the witch who's lying dead in a morgue. He thinks maybe he can still save her by breaking the witch's charmed necklace. He's not sure, but he grabs the necklace, brings it to the bunker, and smashes it. For a moment it looks like he's failed: but then Lora sits up, takes a huge breath, and asks what happened. Jack's whole face lights up. Finally, he's done something that he feels good about.

Cas talks to him later, and apologizes for neglecting him. He says he's proud of Jack's abilities, and offers to take him on a hunting trip. Jack coughs, says okay, and coughs some more. "I'm human now...I must be getting my first cold." But we all know that's not true. Later, Jack sits alone, coughing blood into a tissue. 

Dean, driving home with Sam, finally confesses that he remembers being possessed, feeling like he was drowning, and that he wasn't strong enough to get rid of Michael. He brought Michael into the world, and people are getting hurt, and it's his fault. But good for him for actually talking to his brother and expressing his feelings! We knew you weren't okay, Dean. Let it all out.

Altogether an enjoyable episode, and good to see Sam and Dean back together again. Would have liked to see more interaction between Dean and Cas, but poor Cas is still relegated to the bunker and having angel dysfunction issues. Maybe they can find a medication to treat his AD or something. I'd like to see Cas a bit more juiced up. 

Looking forward to next week!

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I'm so happy I just saw this :highfive:

Yay!  I wasn't the only one doing the 'meh' dance after the first episode!  I'm not too sure I was digging the chick flick moment monologue in the car in last nights episode either.  I'd been watching the first 5 with the husband during the off season so it's hard to come back to current activity...I miss those dark moments and the wit.  Some days I just feel like the writers are trying way too hard.   I do feel the Sam love tho from the first ep of this season, I like Sam with some umpf to him!  (I'm a Dean gal too but I have a healthy appreciation for Sam)

 

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1 hour ago, Imrlgoddess said:

I'm so happy I just saw this :highfive:

Yay!  I wasn't the only one doing the 'meh' dance after the first episode!  I'm not too sure I was digging the chick flick moment monologue in the car in last nights episode either.  I'd been watching the first 5 with the husband during the off season so it's hard to come back to current activity...I miss those dark moments and the wit.  Some days I just feel like the writers are trying way too hard.   I do feel the Sam love tho from the first ep of this season, I like Sam with some umpf to him!  (I'm a Dean gal too but I have a healthy appreciation for Sam)

 

Yay, somebody's actually reading this! Lol! 

Yes, it's lovely to see Sam taking charge and being a leader--I do like that! I don't think Supernatural will ever be what it was in the earlier seasons, but I've learned to just enjoy what it is now, while forever loving the original 5-season story arc the best. I don't know what it would take for me to stop watching; even Sam's "found a dog" character assassination in Season 8 didn't turn me off. :my_biggrin: #spnforever

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I'm here reading and glad for your excellent summaries - we are a SPN family but we don't have any television reception; I don't see them till the next year on Netflix.  I don't mind finding out what's going to happen beforehand.  :)

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TNT hosted a daytime marathon, when I got home around 5 they were in the middle of season 4. 

@danvillebelle if you download the CW app, you can watch the newest ones a day after they air! 

in-our-fandom-sis-the-nerd-we-win-7816877.png

Edited by Imrlgoddess
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@danvillebelle Thanks for the comment! Looking forward to recapping tonight's episode--I don't have cable or anything, so I just wait until the episode hits the CW website the next morning and watch it! 

@Imrlgoddess omg, I love it! Yes, we win! I'm going to need to use that meme sometime, lol

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Season 14, Episode 4, The Scar

OH MY GOD IT'S A CLASSIC. IT WAS CLASSIC WINCHESTER. HALLELUJAH!

This episode is a stand-alone, and it can absolutely stand on its own two feet! No angels, no demons, no drawn-out angst...oh, fine, maybe a little angst--just classic hunting with Sam and Dean in the Impala.

The scene opens at a little comic-book store in Salem, Ohio, where a hipster employee is unpacking a shipping box late in the evening. The last item--a Thundercats Panthro--captures his attention, and he admires it before stuffing it surreptitiously into his backpack. His phone rings; it's a young woman named Sam, who gives him a mild lecture about his customer service and sighs at his diatribe on Superman: "I could beat him if I was wearing Kryptonite gloves: it's science!" "Stuart, I've seen you get winded eating a taco." She agrees, however, to meet him for game night, and Stuart locks up and leaves, taking Panthro with him.

In the bunker, amid a pile of trash and leftover pizza, Dean sits entranced before the tv in his room, hugging a blanket around his knees and enjoying every gory moment of "Hatchet Man: All Saints Day," muttering "Time to slice and dice!" as he watches the titular character slam his ax into a custodian's knee and spray blood across the wall of an empty hospital. It's the most adorable Dean moment in a long time: he's gone into his little-kid mode, which he obviously hasn't had time for lately.

Sam walks in and THE BEARD IS GONE. Dean, of course, can't let that pass without a comment. "It's so smooth...like a dolphin's belly." Hahaha. But Sam is on a mission to get Dean out of the bunker and he has a case he knows Dean can't pass up...a killer toy. A Panthro figurine attacked a young man in Ohio, and the video of Stuart ranting with a bloody face has gone viral. 

It's Halloween as the boys approach the toy store, dressed as insurance agents or LDS missionaries, I'm not sure which. Sam even has a pocket protector. Sam (the female store owner) is working, and Dean immediately compares her to his brother, noting her "soft, delicate features and luxurious hair." Sam immediately points out that if she's the female version of him, then the nerd with a lollipop looking at videos is Dean. Dean has to pull his own lollipop out of his mouth to argue the point, but is immediately distracted by a life-size figurine of David Yeager, the Hatchet Man. It even has a button to activate the key phrases like "slice and dice." Dean wants to buy it, of course, but the nerdy guy tells him it's not for sale.

The Winchesters track down Stuart at his mom's house: he's in the basement, exploding in rage while playing Fortnite. He says the video was a hoax, but he's a bad liar, and he's burning sage like his Wiccan almost-girlfriend suggested. He gets mad at the questions Sam and Dean are asking, and kicks them out. They scope out the house from the car, while Dean demands to know the origins of Sam's Halloween hatred. Sam doesn't want to tell him, and they're interrupted as the mother leaves the house in a costume with poodle skirt. 

A few minutes later Stuart bursts out of the house, screaming and injured. Dean rushes inside and follows the blood trail to the basement, where a floating chainsaw hurls itself at him across the room and plunges deep into a poster of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's a ghost, Dean's pretty sure of it, but they need more information.

Stuart's in the hospital (two ghost attacks and he's still alive: is that some kind of Supernatural record?) Sam goes back to the house, but can't find any EMF. He goes to the store and starts asking female Sam questions. Dean runs into the nerdy guy, Dirk, hanging around Stuart's room waiting for his best friend to wake up. Dean and Dirk bond: Dean was always better at bonding with men than women. They share a geek moment over the Hatchet Man movies. 

Sam's questions lead him to believe that the former owner of the store, Jordan, is most likely the ghost. He hates thieves, and he's out for revenge on Stuart for stealing. Ice starts forming on the case in the corner, and Sam whips out his EMF detector. But too late--the life-size Hatchet Man knocks him across the room and out cold. When he wakes up, Samantha is unhurt, but they're locked in and the Hatchet Man took the keys. Shatter-proof glass and a stubborn lock, so Sam's going to have trouble getting out. He calls Dean at the hospital, who is totally excited to hear that Hatchet Man is on his way.

Hatchet Man makes his way through crowds of trick-or-treaters to the hospital, which is oddly empty. Dirk confronts him to save Stuart's mom, and then runs away. The security guards are busy watching a Hatchet Man movie, enjoying the scene where a girl flees from the monster through the halls of an empty hospital. Meanwhile, Dirk is living it out in real life and not enjoying it very much. He catches up with Dean in the morgue and tells him Hatchet Man is here. A figure rises, axes in hand, from one of the morgue tables. "Oh, hell," says Dean. He hasn't been this excited in a long time. 

Sam's making a bomb in a Scooby-Doo lunchbox to blow the back door off its hinges. "Cool!" he and the other Sam say simultaneously, as they rise from behind the counter and see that it worked. Samantha realizes that the keychain Stuart's been using is the object that Jordan has attached himself to: and right now it's at the hospital. They take off. 

Dean is talking to Jordan/Hatchet Man. Two choices: go into the light or have Dean send him there. Hatchet Man presses the red button on his chest. "Time to slice and dice!" "I was kinda hoping you'd say that," Dean says, delighted. They battle each other through the morgue. They should have done something more like this during the Michael/Lucifer battle; it would have looked a lot better. Dirk steps in and stabs Hatchet Man in the back. Both Sams burst in and Dean tosses them the keychain. It goes up in flames, and so does Jordan's ghost. 

On the way home, Dean says thanks to Sam for getting him out of his funk. He still wants to know why Sam hates Halloween, and finally the truth comes out. It was a 6th grade party; Sam's crush, Andrea, had invited him, but he was so nervous that when he bent over to bob for apples, he hurled everywhere. Mostly on Andrea. And then hid in the woods until Dean came to pick him up. 

"You've got to get over that," says Dean. "Next year we're doing Halloween right." Sam listens disapprovingly as Dean lists their costume choices, ending with Thelma and Louise. LOL. 

Back at the hospital, a confused security guard wanders through the morgue and finds the disfigured Hatchet Man on the floor, still muttering mechanically, "Time...to...slice...and dice."

Sorry this one is so long, guys. I was totally excited and taking notes so I could do a good review for y'all. Also my toddler was up most of the night coughing and then throwing up on me from coughing, so I'm a little punchy this morning. I hope you enjoyed the episode as much as I did!

 

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Oh, and since it's too late to edit, the title of the episode is actually Mint Condition. Sorry!

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Season 14, Episode 5, Nightmare Logic

Although still a bit scattered, this episode was fairly solid with a case-of-the-week that also served to advance the major story arcs. 

Maggie, the hunter that Luci murdered and brought back to life, is hunting alone in a private cemetery in Claremore, Oklahoma. She's thinking that her prey is a ghoul, and she straps on a bodycam and goes into a crypt to look for it. She's attacked by something, and the camera goes blank. 

At the bunker, Sam is encouraging the hunters to study lore. "Details matter," he tells them. Dean walks in as the meeting breaks up and ribs Sam about the "camp-counselor vibe." Sam's definitely taken the lead in this group, and it's an adjustment for everyone. Sam's phone is beeping incessantly with hunter check-ins, but Maggie's missed her check-in and the video from her bodycam is alarming. Sam and Dean take off to Claremore to find her.

In the crypt they find drag marks, but no blood, and are confronted by a man in 1850s clothing (seriously, writers, do you think people in Oklahoma still dress like that?!). They tell him they're from the Historic Preservation Society and he directs them to the house to talk to the owner.

A man named Neil greets them and brings them into the parlor, telling them their colleagues are already there. Sam and Dean round the corner to see Mary and Bobby sitting on the couch. Sam suggests that they should have checked in with the main office before coming out, but Bobby (who seems to have stolen the Peaky Blinders cap) says the main office is "run by a bunch of idjits." Haha!

The owner of the house, Mr. Rawling, is upstairs in a coma, with tubes and bags of blood everywhere. Neil, his nurse, seems more interested in the historical preservation of the house than anything. They're interrupted by Sasha, Rawling's daughter, who's only staying to get things in order before her dad dies. She's stressed, tense, and kicks out all the hunters.

Bobby starts chewing Sam out for letting Maggie go hunting alone. Mary takes charge, splits up the group to go search the woods, and tries to comfort Sam, telling him that leading the group is what he was born to do. She's worried about Bobby, and Sam encourages her to talk to him. It's an awkward but sweet conversation between a mother and son who really haven't known each other very long. While talking, they stumble upon a fire containing all kinds of false hunter IDs from a hunter they don't know.

Dean defends Sam to Bobby as they walk through the woods and find a deserted shack full of furs. As they begin to enter, Bobby sees somebody hurrying through the trees and disappears after him, silently leaving Dean. Not cool, Bobby, jeez. Dean wanders through the shack and finds a dead body in a pile of debris right before being attacked by the same ghoulish figure that attacked Maggie earlier. He stabs it, and it vanishes in a pile of dust. 

At the house, Sasha is doing paperwork when she hears rattling upstairs. She goes up to the attic door to check, but a fanged creature leaps out at her. She curls into a ball on the floor, but nothing happens. It's gone. 

Mary and Sam are back at the house, where Sasha tells them what happened and they give her the "monsters are real" talk. Neil seems disappointed that they're not from the Historical Society after all. Dean comes in and Sam tells him that he thinks something is targeting and killing hunters. Mary goes out to find Bobby, who was going to his truck for something. Sam goes to check out the attic, and Dean sits with Sasha and sharpens his knife. 

Sasha tells Dean about her messed-up childhood and how her father never apologized. "Let it go," he tells her. "Is that what you do?" she asks. To which he replies, "I try. Every day."

Sam finds Maggie, barely alive, being drained of blood, and stabs the vampire-looking creature, who vanishes in a cloud of dust. He frees her and gets her out of the attic.

Bobby is in the woods, looking for something. A young man with burned-out eyes confronts him. "Daniel?" Bobby says. "Hi, Dad." It's Bobby's son, and he's looking for vengeance. He stabs Bobby in the chest with an angel blade and pins him to a tree. Mary rushes in and tries to save Bobby, but Daniel pins her down and is choking her when Bobby rips out the blade in his chest and uses it on his own son. Or the apparition of his son, whatever it is. 

Dean and Sasha are upstairs, watching Mr. Rawlings lying in a coma, when Dean begins to realize there's an awful lot of blood bags hanging around. He stares at Neil. "Sasha...why don't you go...make me a sandwich?" he asks, in a hilariously awkward moment where even Dean realizes how sexist he sounds. Sasha, at first offended, realizes what's going on. "I'll just...go make that sandwich," she says, and leaves the room.

Dean confronts Neil. Turns out, 1. Neil is a djinn and has been pulling the strings in the whole event. 2. He thinks Dean is Michael, and that he's being tested. He had an agreement with Michael--extra powers in exchange for setting up a trap for hunters. 3. There's more like him: Michael is booby-trapping the world to get rid of hunters. 

"Don't worry," he tells Dean, "I won't ruin his favorite meatsuit." But there's no rule against torture. He grabs Dean and tries to probe his mind, but something goes wrong and he stumbles back. "You're..." he says. You're what? Dammit, I want to know! What happened? We don't find out, at least not yet, because Dean grabs a paperweight and beats the djinn's head in before shooting him seven times. Ouch. 

Mr. Rawlings starts to come out from under the influence, and the hunters leave Sasha holding her father's hand. Back at the bunker, everybody is happy to see Maggie walk in. Bobby finally tells Mary the tragic story of his wife and son, and admits that his non-stop hunting was basically a death wish. Mary isn't about to let that happen. She takes him away to Donna's cabin (aw, I love Donna Hanscum) for some R&R. Dang, Mary/Bobby is happening. If Jeffrey Dean Morgan ever comes back on the show, things are gonna get awkward!

Sam and Dean are calling hunters everywhere, warning them about the new breed of monsters and Michael's traps. Dean is struggling. Even if they find Michael, he doesn't know how they can kill him. Sam tries to encourage him, but Dean's hope is fading fast. 

Overall good episode! I'm a little bothered by the man in 1850s clothes who showed up at the crypt and was never seen again. Maybe it was meant to be a red herring, but it felt more like a loose end, as if he was supposed to have significance and then the writers changed the story. Also, when Michael was in Dean, why didn't he just start killing hunters himself, with his powers of teleportation and everything? Questions, questions...

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I liked the latest one. It's feeling right, that first episode threw me but now they're on a good track.

In the meantime hubby & I are working our way through the old seasons. We just hit 6 & I've been giddy over fiiinne ass Soulless Sam  :evil-laugh:

 

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@Lisafer yes mam! I think it was 5? Maybe 4. But the guys were looking for him & he's in a room with a chick doing his pull ups. Nom mom nom......... ? 

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Ok, y'all, my weekly recap will be delayed this week (most likely until Sunday). I am going to drive 8 hours round-trip tomorrow to visit a family member in the hospital, and then I work Saturday, so I probably won't have a chance to watch my SPN boys for a couple of days. I won't forget to come back and recap, though!

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Season 14, Episode 6, Optimism

 

The writers should have learned their lesson from S1E8, Bugs: Supernatural can't do insects. Apart from the stilted tale of the Musca, however, it was a solid episode with action and a lot of those nerdy in-jokes that we love.

The episode starts with an upbeat scene in McCook, Nebraska, where a chipper blue-eyed chick named Harper runs the cute little public library. She's in there shelving books when someone taps her shoulder and startles her. It's just her nerdy friend named Winston reminding her of their date...er, dinner...that night. An awkward coworker, Miles, charges around the corner with a stapler after hearing Harper's startled shriek. Harper assures Winston that Miles is "just overreacting because nothing ever happens here."

Winston, looking forward to dinner with Harper, leaves the library and goes grooving down the street with a "Stayin' Alive" soundtrack...not a good sign on Supernatural. He's snatched into the bushes, and a spurt of blood shoots out from the leaves.

At the bunker, Jack is practically dead of boredom and oversugaring his coffee because nothing tastes right since he lost his powers. He bitches to Dean about how Sam and AU Charlie are on an exciting case: quick cut to Sam and Charlie sitting in a truck near Memphis, bored out of their minds and watching a bus stop.

Jack is still coughing; Dean gives him a worried look, but Jack brushes it off. He wants to go hunting, but he's being held back by Winchesters. "Sam's just trying to keep you safe, okay?" Dean tells Jack. "He's a smart guy." Cut to Sam going nuts with a fidget spinner. OMG that was actually quite funny. Dean finally gives in; Jack has found a missing persons case in Nebraska (our friend Winston, of course). 

Winston's favorite spot was, apparently, "Dick's Red Roost Diner" (ew, what a name, haha). Agents Charles and Berry start questioning the waitress: Jack isn't quite getting the FBI thing right, but he's taking it very seriously. The waitress flirts with him, but the poor kid doesn't even understand the word "courting" yet. Dean teaches him the importance of pie and promises to have "the talk" with him back at the bunker. It seems like that would be awkward for Dean; but then again, he did take Cas to a brothel once...

The name Harper Sayles comes up in the investigation. Apparently any man involved with her dies; she's bad luck, the townspeople tell Dean and Jack. They've got a lead.

Meanwhile, Sam is picking his teeth and worrying about his brother. "He used to have a pretty good wingman," he tells Charlie. "So call him," she suggests. "That wingman was you," Sam tells her, and she gives him a look. "No, it wasn't." She refuses to be confused with the other Charlie, dead Charlie, the one that I think the Winchesters have never forgiven themselves for. It's so typical of Charlie in any universe to be so much her own person. She admits to Sam that she had a lover, Kara, who died in the angel wars, and because of what happened she's lost faith in humanity. She wants out of hunting, out of everything. She has no optimism. "It all falls apart," she says.

"Not here," Sam says after a pause, and she gives him an almost-pitying look. "Not yet," she tells him.

Jack plays tough guy to Dean's FBI impersonation to impress Harper at the library. It seems to work. Jack is so adorable, and you can almost see sparkles and butterflies around him and Harper. They go to her apartment to find a book, although Miles is suspicious and upset. He goes out to the alley with the trash.

Dean, following Jack, hears a scream and finds Miles dead as a doornail in the alley, with nobody in sight. 

Harper's apartment is clean and neat, very librarian-esque. Jack drops silver on the floor, puts holy water on his palms, coughs "Christo!" into his hand--he gets no results. Harper seems very human, and very into Jack. She tells him her first boyfriend, Vance, left her because she wanted to stay in her hometown. She tries to stay positive in spite of all the mysterious things that happen to her lovers. She and Jack are bonding on the sofa. 

Based on some goo she found, Charlie thinks she and Sam are hunting a "Musca," a half-man, half-fly. They are mostly harmless, and nobody's ever seen one according to Sam, but the lore says that occasionally one will go rogue and leave their tribe, subsisting on humans. As they discuss it, a verrry oddly dressed "something" sits down on the bench next to two ladies: something dressed all in black with a huge, boxy veil on its head and carrying a suitcase. Nothing happens, though, and the hunters wait to make a move.

Harper puts the moves on Jack, and he panics and heads for the bathroom to call Dean and tell him that Harper is making "googly eyes" and he thinks she's in love with him. "Just in case," he tells Dean, "I need to know everything about sex. Go." But Dean's having his own problems: something jumps him in the alley. Jack comes out of the bathroom to find Harper anxiously asking if she's too intense. Dean bursts in with something right behind him, banging at the door. "At first I thought it was a ghost, but then it punched me in the face." Zombie Vance, the boyfriend, breaks in, and Dean tells Jack and Harper to run. Dean really seems to be enjoying his monster fights lately...probably working off steam. 

Sam and Charlie see their creepy suspect drag somebody behind a fence, and they follow the creature into a nasty basement buzzing with flies, smelly, and containing a pile of dead bodies in a corner. Charlie is checking on the victims when something grabs her from below, and she falls and is knocked out on the concrete. A bug-headed man rises from the bodies and attacks. Sam gets gooped by the fly, Charlie wakes up and stabs it, Sam shoots it. Goop everywhere. At this point I wrote in my notes, "Sooooo bad...sooo bad. Shades of Bugs." That's how terrible it was. 

Zombie Vance follows Jack and Harper to the library, and Harper lets him in. Oh, shit, they're in it together. I actually didn't see that coming. Harper's a necromancer and very much in love with Vance: "I did have to kill him to keep him here after college," she admits. Jack manages to stay alive until Dean gets there and helps him handcuff Vance to a pole. Harper runs, eliciting a classic "Son of a bitch!" from Dean. They don't catch her, but they take care of Vance by putting him back in his grave with a silver stake through his heart.

Charlie and Sam are heading home. Sam talks about how sad it is that the Musca went rogue and left his tribe. "I get it," Charlie says, "I am just like the bug." She's not convinced about the hunting life, but Sam tells her it's worth it. He still has hope, and he gives her enough optimism to agree to think about staying.

Dean and Jack have a father-son talk back at the bunker, and Dean agrees to let Jack go on more hunts. Jack has a severe coughing fit. "You sure you're ok?" Dean asks, really starting to worry. "I don't know," Jack answers. He's bleeding from his mouth and nose, and he hits the floor, unconscious. Aww, Jack. Not my precious angel-faced baby! 

So it ended on a cliffhanger. It really was a solid episode, but everything with Sam and Charlie just felt like filler, and the Musca was cheesy as hell. Dean and Jack interacting and hunting together totally made up for it, though. 

 

 

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Btw: you know you're a Supernatural fan when Heat of the Moment by Asia comes on the radio and you immediately think of the Mystery Spot episode!

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Season 14, Episode 7, Unhuman Nature

Excuse me a moment while I emote all over my keyboard. Jack, Jack, my poor sweet baby, what are those nasty writers doing to you? How can they hurt that precious angel-face?

Ahem. Sorry. Great episode, although traumatizing to watch! Jack is definitely in deep trouble; but we open to Nick's voice, as if confessing. He hates what he is, he "hates that it feels so good." He is struggling to find peace as he speaks to his neighbor Arty's priest, the one who heard Arty's confession after the murder of Nick's wife. But the priest refused to break his vows; he's dead, crucified in the doorway by Nick, who tells him: "There is a devil, and we should try to fight him...sometimes, we just can't."

Castiel is trying to heal Jack, but it's not working. Sam and Dean are pacing the hall. Jack goes into a grand mal seizure and they take him to the hospital, where they hit a wall of red tape. To be fair, if I was working at that hospital, I'd be totally suspicious of three grown men dragging this boy around. "Cause of father's death?" "He was stabbed through the heart, and he exploded." Thank you, Cas. 

Nick meets a reporter who covered the murder of his wife and son. She gives him the name of the beat cop on duty that night; Frank Kellogg in Montauk. Nick's tracking down every lead until he gets some answers. He's still hoping for peace, for release from the urges that plague him.

The doctor says all the tests are negative, but Jack is in "total systemic failure." She is not pleased when Sam, Dean, and Cas take Jack away for a "second opinion." That second opinion turns out to be Rowena. Sam told her that Dean was sick, and she's not pleased to find out that they want her to treat the son of Lucifer. "I hope he's rotting," she says. (Remember that for later, peeps). She softens when Jack talks to her and thanks her for saving them from the Apocalypse World. When he collapses in a coughing fit, she mutters "bollocks!" in resignation. 

Meanwhile, Dean is having weird, distorted vision issues. Of course he says nothing; Dean never does.

It's night, and Nick is sitting in his car, watching a hooker talk on her phone in an alley and struggling with himself. He approaches her and hesitates, with a knife hidden behind his back. Beating down the urge to kill, he tells her to get away from him. For once, a woman escapes death on Supernatural! 

Jack is packing his things. He tells Dean he wants to be normal, live a normal life for whatever time he has left, and die. Dean is having vision issues again. Surprisingly, he agrees with Jack. They leave Sam, Cas, and Rowena to look for answers, and hit the road. 

Holy cow, Dean is letting Jack drive...poor Dean, haha. It's like the ultimate sign of love for Dean to let someone else drive Baby. And Jack is loving it. "It's like I'm you!" he tells Dean gleefully. "No, it's not," Dean promptly replies. They speed down the open road.

Castiel tracks down a shaman that Ketch suggested, and is trapped in a ring of holy fire when the shaman comes out of his trailer, loaded for bear. He's cautious: no wonder, considering the people he associates with. But he lets Cas inside and gives him a vial of vintage Gabriel grace and a spell to reboot Jack. He wants the Winchesters to owe him. That always ends well...

Nick has tracked down the beat cop, Frank Kellogg, at his house. Frank tries to slam the door, but Nick gets him by the throat. It's obvious how this is going to go, for the officer anyway.

Dean and Jack are fishing in the woods; Jack remembers Dean telling him about doing the same thing with John Winchester. Jack admits that he won't miss seeing all the sights in the world; he just wants time with his loved ones. Dean is hurting; you can see it in his eyes.

Nick is beating Frank up, and the real story starts coming out. Nick's wife had called the precinct, thinking she heard a prowler. When Officer Kellogg answered, he met a guy on the front walk: a guy by the name of Abraxas. OH SHIT. Next thing Frank remembered, he was in his car, covered in blood. The police covered up the murders by one of their own, and he left town. Nick recognizes the name Abraxas, but also knows it's a memory of Lucifer's, not his own. And anyway, as he tells Frank, "You were possessed...but even if it wasn't you, it was still you." He swings the hammer. He looks like he's almost sexually satisfied as he beats Frank to a pulp. (I'm sure this was intentional: this scene is really dark, even for Supernatural, but in line with the actual psychological profile of a serial killer). 

Sam, Dean, Cas, Rowena, and Jack are performing the ritual at the bunker. Jack powers up, everybody looks relieved, Dean especially. And then Jack hits the floor again. I'm surprised he isn't covered in bruises at this point. Cas calls the shaman, who admits it was an "experiment." Oooh, I'm sure we'll be seeing this guy again. Cas is furious.

And here's the turn I didn't see coming, even though Castiel's resurrection paved the way. Nick is drunk and praying on Frank's floor, admitting that he's still not at peace. He likes to kill. Lucifer awakened a part of him that had always been there. He's not praying to God, he's praying, crying out for someone else, for something else.

And in the dark and formless void where the monsters and angels sleep, something awakens, with red eyes and grasping hands.

Oh hell. Literally, oh hell

Sam and Cas try to comfort Dean at the bunker, telling him that he made Jack happy, that he did more for him than anybody else. Rowena says to take care of Jack: "Watch over him, stay by his side...as he dies."

This episode was really enjoyable. The sweetness and light of Jack's love for his family was juxtaposed with Nick's dark and twisted journey of the soul, and the contrast was really strong. I have to say, putting Jack in mortal danger works better than putting the Winchesters in danger, and I'm sure the writers know that. After all, the Winchesters have died and come back over and over. With Jack, we have no guarantee, so it makes for a more riveting story. And the Lucifer twist: maybe I'm an idiot, but I didn't see that happening in that particular way. I love the fleshing out of Nick's background; it shows why he was Lucifer's chosen vessel. He had the will to do evil already inside him. 

Can't wait for the next episode!

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Season 14, Episode 8, Byzantium

This was the most emotionally-laden episode so far this season, and we get a taste of that when the scene opens on Dean's grim face and tight jaw. He's in Jack's bedroom with Cas and Sam, and Jack is coughing himself to death in the bed and trying to assure his three fathers that maybe this was meant to be. "This isn't part of some damn plan!" Dean says, and leaves the room. Jack looks at Sam. "Can you tell him it's okay?" he asks. He wants to know what happens next for someone like him, but Sam doesn't know. Jack smiles. "Then it's going to be an adventure."

Cas follows Dean out into the hallway. He knows Dean is hurting, but tells him he needs to be there for Jack. They come back into the bedroom, but Sam is sitting there trying not to cry. "He's gone." Hoo boy, this is killing all three of them. Sam walks away and Dean tells Cas to give Sam some space.

Dean leaves an agonized voicemail for Mary while Sam heads for the door with a bag of gear. Cas sees him but lets him go, because Dean said to give him space...of course, Dean didn't mean that much space. Cue Dean in the passenger's seat of Cas's car as they drive after Sam.

They find Sam in the woods, sitting by Baby. "Tell me you didn't make a deal!" are the first words out of Dean's mouth. But no, Sam was trying to cut down trees for a pyre and broke the axe. They stand there in the woods, all struggling, trying to cope with the meaningless, unnatural death of their family member. Finally Dean says they'll take care of the pyre tomorrow. "Tonight...we get loaded."

They drink whisky in the bunker, eat candy, go from somber to laughing as they remember Jack. Sam taps out, then Cas. "We did everything we could, right?" Dean asks as Cas leaves the room, but Cas doesn't answer. 

Jack is eating a burger, off with the guys on a hunt, but he quickly realizes things aren't right, and steps through a door into a glowing white hallway. He's in heaven. But things are not right even here: a wave of black goo that looks like the tidal wave of blood from The Shining washes through the halls of heaven as Jack flees. 

Dean wakes up with his head on the table and hears voices in the bunker. A woman's voice? He staggers out to the main room and finds Sam and Cas with Lily Sunder (Season 12, Ep. 10, Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets). She looks much older, as Dean ungraciously points out. Sam says it occurred to him that Lily might be able to read Kevin's angel tablet translations and figure out a way to use magic to save Jack. Apparently, Jack's human body has died, but Cas might be able to pull Jack's soul back down long enough for Lily to teach him the magic to keep himself alive--the magic she's been using on herself for over a hundred years. But it will take a small piece of Jack's soul to do it. "What are we even talking about?" Dean asks, and I totally agree with this question. This is so convoluted I'm having trouble following it. 

But Lily will only teach Jack the magic in trade for the boys making sure she gets into heaven. She figures, after everything she's done, that she's going to hell, and all she wants is to make it to heaven to see her daughter again. Apparently, since Chuck left (bless his holy name) Anubis makes the decisions on who goes to heaven or hell (what the heck? I'd like to know what the writers were smoking for this episode!) So the boys need to summon Anubis and try to make a bargain, while Cas goes to heaven and finds Jack. None too soon, either: angel radio is playing a distress call.

Jack finds his mom, Kelly, in heaven. He's so happy to see her, and she's excited to see him, but gets upset when she realizes he's dead. 

Dean is not happy with what's going on, and he doesn't trust Lily. Sam says making crappy deals is what they do: Dean points out that it bites them in the ass. He asks Lily why she's let herself get old. Turns out, she stopped using bits of her soul because she's hanging on to the last sliver in hope of seeing her daughter again. They summon Anubis, who appears in a business suit with a briefcase. He pulls out an abacus and measures Lily's life: it's not good news. What's more, he can't change it. Neither he nor Chuck decides who goes where: only the humans who make decisions until the moment of their death. The boys have to let him go. 

Cas finds two angels either dead or unconscious on the floor of heaven. Dumah snaps awake: the black stuff touched her and knocked her out. She's afraid, and she goes with Cas. They walk through Jack's memories and meet Naomi. She tells them that the Shadow that rules the Empty has attacked heaven, seeking Jack because he is part angel. She tells Cas to give Jack to the Shadow, but he refuses. Naomi turns into the Shadow, and Cas and Dumah run.

Jack is hiding with Kelly, telling her to run while he protects her from whatever is coming. Cas knocks on the door. He is so happy to see Jack. He apologizes to Kelly, but she says she doesn't blame him. Cas explains the spell to Jack and tells him they need him to come back to life, because they love him and because that way the Shadow will stop attacking heaven. Uh oh, Dumah is the Shadow, because of course she is. She flings Cas across the room.

Lily's getting ready to leave the bunker, refusing to help. "He's our kid!" Sam snaps at her, but it's Dean who calls her on the carpet. How can she have any soul left, he wants to know, if she'll allow someone to lose their child after how she lost her own? She finallly sees their point and stays to do the spell.

Dumah as the Shadow (Erica Cerra) does a really good job here: her acting evokes the Shadow just like when Misha Collins portrayed it. And the Shadow really, really hates Cas. Cas, getting all manly (angel-y?) offers himself in place of Jack. "But you're already mine," the Shadow says. "Not yet," Cas says. He offers to go to the Empty now, when it's not his time. But the Shadow doesn't want him now; it wants him when he's not ready, when he's allowed the sun to shine on his face, when he feels happiness. Then it'll come for him.

And Cas takes the deal. The Shadow disappears. Cas tell Jack not to tell the Winchesters, and then Jack says goodbye to his mother, and Cas pulls him back into his body. Jack, with a huge gasp, sits up, and Sam and Dean thrust the spell into his hands. "Read this!" they tell him. He reads, and he is truly resurrected. He feels great. Dean hugs him, hard. 

Lily has staggered to a chair and is sitting in it, dead. Her spirit, freed from her body, walks through a dark backroom full of files to Anubis' desk. He pulls out the abacus and offers to let her try again. This time the good outweighs the bad. He smiles. "Say hello to your daughter for me." Awwwwww. 

Naomi is talking to Cas in heaven. She gives him a lead on Michael's location as a thank-you for saving heaven. The episode closes with Sam, Dean, Jack, and Cas sitting around the table. Jack is chowing down on a burger and gets uncomfortable because they're all staring at him.  They tell him they're just glad to have him back. For once, everybody is feeling optimistic.

Well, that was interesting! The Lily/Anubis/magic/soul thing was wayyyyy too convoluted, but everybody's emotions and acting were on point. Seeing Sam and Dean suffering is still like a gut punch after 14 years of Supernatural. Cas finally had a storyline where he got some action and was able to do something self-sacrificing. How his deal plays out should make for some good episodes later. Also, Lily's magic is able to keep Jack alive as long as he uses it just to sustain his body: so what happens when he inevitably tries to do something superhuman to save his friends? Yeah, you can see that plot twist coming a mile away...

Overall a good episode, fun to watch, with that good old-fashioned angst that we love. Next week: midseason finale!

 

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I'm really not OK with the lack of music in these episodes. 

I mean the story is cool, the characters are staying fairly consistent.... but the tunes man! Where's the tunes?!

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11 hours ago, Imrlgoddess said:

I'm really not OK with the lack of music in these episodes. 

I mean the story is cool, the characters are staying fairly consistent.... but the tunes man! Where's the tunes?!

Must be money...they don't want to shell out $$$? But I agree, more music, please!

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2 hours ago, Lisafer said:

Must be money...they don't want to shell out $$$? But I agree, more music, please!

I think that's it too. Netflix changed a handful of songs on various episodes bc they couldn't handle the royalties on some of them. 

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