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Supernatural: First Born

"You're good. But I'm Crowley."

When the Winchesters do penance, they don't fool around. Why do the Winchesters run toward death?

Dean usually hangs with angels and Sam used to be besties with demons, so a reversal was way overdue. Dean hated working with Crowley and looked angry during the entire episode, which was very much in character. Usually Dean is the one with the lines that make me laugh, but this time he was mostly a straight man for Crowley, who probably achieved a personal best in quips.

Tara was cool. I liked her and her biceps, her demon-detecting knee and her up front flirting with Dean and thinking, gee, isn't it nice that one of John's old flames managed to survive? And then they had to go and kill her horribly. I wish they'd stop doing that. I should have known better than to root for a female character on this show. Cain's wife Colette died horribly, too.

No surprise that Cain liked Dean. Even Crowley likes Dean, although that didn't stop him from manipulating him out the wazoo. Interesting interpretation that Cain killed his brother Abel to save him because he'd been talking to Lucifer, not God, although I bet they went that way because it relates to the Winchesters. I'm just confused about where Cain's love of bee-keeping came from. That wasn't in the Bible, was it? Were there a lot of beehives east of Eden?


While Dean and Crowley went after a weapon they could use against Abaddon (and wow, did they get one) Sam and Castiel were hot on the trail of Gadreel. Sam very obviously felt compelled to suffer horrible pain because of what happened to Kevin. It was also obvious that Castiel could have gotten more grace out of Sam if he'd continued with that great big needle and killed him. And unfortunately, it was also obvious that the prop needle in Jared's throat was moving around a bit too much to be real. Oh, well.

But it was nice that being human for awhile did indeed change Castiel. He can relate to Sam now. He even hugged. Wait, I think I get it. Sam is a metaphorical peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

Bits and pieces:

— Crowley crossed himself when he saw the Mark of Cain. Hilarious, even though Crowley was just selling the deception.

— The book that Castiel consulted was On the Inner Workings of Angels, "filed by James Haggerty." Was that someone we've seen in Men of Letters flashbacks?

— Dean pronounced the name Colette "Koo-lot." That's the skirt that's really weird pants, right?

— The Blade is at the bottom of the ocean. No problem, says Crowley. Does Hell have a fleet of submersibles?

— Dean's new Mark is on the same arm where he had Castiel's hand print.

— This week: Jasper Springs, Mississippi in 1863, and somewhere in Missouri. Cain's place in Missouri looked a bit like Bobby's.

Quotes, mostly Crowley and Castiel, of course:

Crowley: "This bar is a bust. That waitress is trouble with a capital VD, and your prey, Gadreel, has left the building."

Dean: "You want to hunt? With me?"
Crowley: "I do love a good buddy comedy."

Crowley: (to Dean) "Are you going to play hard to get? Do we have time for a montage?"

Castiel: "Tastes like… molecules."

Castiel: "I enjoyed the taste of food. Particularly peanut butter with grape jelly. Not jam. Jam I found unsettling."

Crowley: "Is all this really necessary? I've been inside your brother. We're practically family."

Crowley: "What do you call this decor, anyway? Rustic obsessive? Paranoid deco?"

Crowley: "Didn't they teach note-taking at the Hunters Hogwarts?"

Sam: "They didn't have a guinea pig. We do."
Castiel: "We have a guinea pig? Where?"

Tara: "I couldn't find one ingredient: essence of kraken."
Crowley: "Kraken? I got a warehouse full of kraken essence in Belize."

Crowley: "I feel something dark."
Dean: "What? Darker than you?"

Castiel: "Sam, may I ask you a question?"
Sam: "You just did."
Castiel: "Can I ask you another question?"
Sam: "Well, technically… yeah, whatever. What's up?"

Cain: "Since when does the great Dean Winchester ask for help? That doesn't sound like the man I've read about on demon bathroom walls."
There should be an HGTV show on demon bathrooms. I'd watch it.

Three out of four... I wasn't sure if I should go with bees, guinea pigs, submersibles, unsettling jam, or warehouses full of kraken essence in Belize,

Billie
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Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

19 comments:

  1. Good episode. Not my favorite of the season, but close. I LOVED Tim Omundson as Cain. He brought just the right level of menace/compassion. This was totally Crowley's episode. Mark Sheppard owned the screen.

    I really liked the Cas and Sam stuff. Cas being human even for a few months seems to have really changed him. The hug was precious. Also Cas's seeming excitement at getting a guinea pig. :)

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  2. Three out of four PB&Js.
    I think this version of Castiel is my favorite so far. HE's still got some of that new human wonder, and has a little bit of the badass back. The guinea pig bit was one of my favorite parts of the episode.
    My question is, now that Dean has the Mark, how bad are things going to get for him this season? It IS his turn, after all.

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  3. Guinea pig cuteness: http://annamiltyn.tumblr.com/post/74148444345/mishasminions-mishasminions-cas-really-wants (via my tumblr) :)

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  4. I enjoy your reviews they are very even and I can not tell if you have a favorite or not.It hard to find a review where after reading the opening part and not tell if their a Sam or Dean person.well done

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  5. omg, sunbunny, that link was hilarious.

    Thanks so much, robinl2. :) It's pretty obvious in my reviews of early seasons that I'm deeply into Dean, although Sam has gotten to me more in the past few.

    Adam, I think this is my favorite Castiel, too.

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  6. I'm just confused about where Cain's love of bee-keeping came from. That wasn't in the Bible, was it? Were there a lot of beehives east of Eden?

    No idea about east of Eden, or west of it, but beehives and bees in general were symbols of memory in the late classical era and Middle Ages. Honeycomb-as-memory-palace kinda thing.

    So maybe that's how bees get linked to Cain (bet he's got some repressed memories!) and Sherlock Holmes, who I believe mentioned retiring to become a beekeeper at one point, which Michael Chabon and Laurie King have both picked up on in their Sherlock novels.

    There might be a much simpler explanation, though.

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  7. My favorite Crowley yet. Just when I was beginning to think he had lost his way, I realized he just had to be playing Dean. He did it so well, spouting some of the funniest lines ever on this show.

    The whole buddy comedy/montage exchange made me laugh out loud. This show can turn tropes on their ear.

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  8. I laughed so hard at the guinea pig bit, that my kids came to check that I was ok. I told them "well, that's going to be in the review" lol

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  9. When I saw Cain in the beekeeper outfit, my first thought was of Castiel in season 7 (when he was crazy). He had the comment about "following the bees." And Dean said that Cas had shown up on his car, naked, "covered in bees." I thought that the bees showing up again might be some kind of in-joke. Also, loved the look that Crowley gave that lone bee hovering near his head, just as Cain walked up to them.

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  10. I've finally caught up! This was a very interesting episode. A new addition to the mythology and Dean now bearing the mark of Cain. Should be interesting. It is so easy to get lured in by Crowley's charm that I don't blame Dean for being duped. I'm worried that even the blade of Cain won't work on Crowley who is the king of hell not just a knight. It did seem weird that Crowley would cower in front of Cain. It seems that Abbadon can't really kill Crowley either or she would have done it by now so is Crowley just patiently playing the boys in order to deal with this little problem? I'm not sure I ever bought that they could contain Crowley the way they did. Even after nine seasons, they still manage to find a new angle and keep things interesting.

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  11. I'm with Doc. Very interesting episode. I always love when they add new layers to the mythology and give us another Supernatural twist on Bible stories. And I, too, thought Tim Omundson was really great as Cain. I'm glad we'll probably get to see him again down the line. Of course, I'm sad the same is not true for Tara. It's not a surprising development, but it still bums me out every time a potentially interesting new female hunter gets horribly killed. Is it any wonder Sam and Dean are swimming in "everything we touch turns to ash" guilt?

    Like so many of you, I really, really loved the guinea pig moment. Cas's wondrous excitement about the idea they had a guinea pig was just delightful!

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  12. I'm finally getting caught up with this show, and I gotta say Cain is by far one of the more interesting characters they've introduced(though Abbadon has been quite fun and of course Crowley is brilliant but I'd expect nothing less from Mark Sheppard). I love the mythology they've created for Cain, including the twist on the story about why he killed his brother. And a big part of his appeal is definitely due to the performance of Tim Omundson, he was a fantastic casting choice. Seeing him take on a role like this after watching him play comedy for so many years on Psych(and play it well) is just awesome. He manages that perfect balance of menace, sympathy, world-weariness, and grief.

    But I have to say, this review omitted what I felt was the best quote of the episode:

    Crowley: "You're good..." (stabs demon with the angel blade) "...but I'm Crowley."

    C'mon, who didn't love that scene? :)

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  13. Patrick, this quote is at the top of the review. It's so good that it ended up in the teaser ^^

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  14. Whoops, don't know how I could've missed that :)

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  15. Easy to miss. It's not hanging out gossiping with the other quotes. :)

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  16. It's the kind of quote that would come off as incredibly cheesy in lesser hands, but works brilliantly when it's coming from someone like Mark Sheppard. :)

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  17. No argument from me. I'm such a Mark Sheppard fan.

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  18. Just watched this episode again for the first time since last spring, and I'm even more blown away by Tim Omundson's performance as Cain. The quiet menace he projects is incredible, and the moment at his wife's grave was heartbreaking.

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