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Supernatural: Angel Heart

"In this line of work, death isn't always goodbye."

The earlier episodes about Claire Novak weren't all that satisfying. This one was.

Until now, Claire was reacting like a rebellious teenager. She was understandably angry that Castiel had "stolen" her father's body, and her mother Amelia had run away and disappeared. Here, Claire took an obviously big step into adulthood by deciding to find her mother. She did it, too, with a little help from her friends.

I felt bad for Amelia. Jimmy's decision to give his body to Castiel wasn't her choice and she suffered for it. Imprisoned by the Grigori angel for two whole years and having the essence drained out of her (much like the djinn) Amelia's happy retreat was imagining that she and Jimmy had been reunited in their former home, a lovely set-up for that last scene in Heaven. I'm assuming that Jimmy and Amelia are truly together in Heaven, not seeing simulations of each other, because these are indeed special circumstances and because they deserve it. It made me cry.

It also made me think about John and Mary Winchester. They deserved something like this, and didn't get it... as far as we know. Where are they? Will we ever find out?

I particularly liked the personal exchanges in this episode, and not just that Claire finally forgave Castiel and even hugged him. I liked how the Winchesters treated Claire like an adult. Sam communed with Claire about the life of a hunter and losing their mothers, and I was touched by Sam talking about how his strange life dealing with the supernatural had allowed him to get to know the mother he had lost as a baby. Claire played miniature golf with Dean and talked about bad movies and Castiel. The way she called Dean "old" was meant to be funny, of course, but I think it was also acknowledgement that Claire is the next generation and that she has probably caught the hunter bug. If she ever decides to go hunting, she has a shiny and powerful kickass angel sword of her very own. What was in the book Dean gave her? Was it just a text about The Enochian Myth, or was there something physical concealed in the book?


In the end, as Claire rode off to her new digs at the Jody Mills home for wayward girls, I couldn't help thinking again about an all female Supernatural spinoff. Jody and Donna, Alex the teenage vampire lure, Claire, and Charlie. If Castiel showed up now and then, I could get into that. Make it so.

Bits and pieces:

— Amelia was played by Leisha Hailey, one of the stars of The L Word, and not Wynn Everett, who played Amelia in season four's "The Rapture." Interesting that they recast both Claire and Amelia.

Angel Heart was a noir Mickey Rourke movie that ended with (spoiler alert! highlight to read) the lead character going to Hell. I saw it once but don't remember it well; except for the obvious supernatural reference, I'm not sure if this episode relates to it much. (Feel free to enlighten me if I'm wrong.)

— Since this was an obvious "coming of age" story, Claire turned eighteen during this episode.

— Dean distracted Sam at a bad time with a phone call. Maybe he should have sent him a quick text. "Grigori rogue angels! Beware!"

— "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain." Very nice.

— Claire had much better hair this time. She looked a lot more grown up, which I'm guessing was the point.

— This week: Tulsa, Oklahoma. We got an old school Supernatural motel room with oil well décor, wood paneling, and orange and green linoleum. Dean and Sam were agents Clapton and Page. I don't think they're even trying any more to confuse us with obscure rock names.

Quotes:

Dean: "Three men and a lady. Let's do this."

Castiel: "Happy birthday. I got it at the Hot Topical."

Dean: "It's 'bring your daughter to work' day at the Bureau."

Claire: "You got all that from a putter?"

Dean: "Happy birthday. Don't shoot me."

Dean: "You already got your revenge. If you go down this path, our path, it's not a long life."
Claire: "I don't know. You seem pretty old."

I often say that if an episode makes me cry, it gets four out of four. So okay, four out of four birthday presents from Hot Topical,

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.

6 comments:

  1. I loved it. This had all my favourite things! Though for a moment I forgot the drinking age in the US and wondered why the woman behind the bar wasn't more sympathetic when Claire said it was her birthday tomorrow!

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  2. I wouldn't want a steady diet of it, but I really liked all the quick cuts between plotlines.

    The only thing I recall about the movie "Angel Heart" is that there's hot sex between Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet... who, it's revealed, was likely his daughter. I'm afraid I waited squickily for something to happen between Castiel and Claire. Thank God they didn't go anywhere near that road.

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  3. I really enjoyed this episode. They finally wrapped up Cass's loose ends. We'd all been wondering what happened to Jimmy and to a lesser extent, Claire and Amelia. Cass can never restore the family to their pre- Touched By an Angel state, but at least they're no longer the walking wounded collateral damage of his original mission.

    I also really enjoyed an episode that focused on Cass without isolating his story line from Dean and Sam. Usually an episode about Cass has him off somewhere handling angel business while Dean and Sam deal with the Monster of the Week/ MoL business elsewhere. This was the perfect blend for me. The best part though was finding a legitimate, engaging problem that couldn't be solved with Cass' angel powers. This is something the producers have struggled with when it comes to letting Sam, Dean, and Cass work together and I think they hit the perfect note here.

    In my opinion, Misha doesn't do the Cass/ Jimmy switch nearly as well as Jared did the Sam/Gadreel switch or Jensen did the good dean/ DeanMon switch, but it was fun to see Misha get to perform a range as Jimmy that he almost never gets to hit as Cass.

    And the exit song "Blue eyes crying in the rain" was so perfect that I rewound it three times to watch it again. Misha and Kathryn Newton hit their emotional spots perfectly. The episode is definitely in my top ten.

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  4. Once again gold acting stars for Misha Collins for giving Jimmy completely different mannerisms than Castiel. Ash told Sam and Dean that soulmates get a shared heaven, so yes, Jimmy and Amelia are truly together. I imagine John and Mary Winchester are also in heaven together for the same reasons.

    I assume the book Dean gave Claire was just a book. I'm guessing it was an encyclopedia of monsters kind of thing so if she decided to use her new sword she could read up on what she was fighting first.

    I found it interesting that Dean and Sam were treating Claire like an adult (wisely so), but Castiel was treating her more like a child (the stuffed animal birthday gift); she seemed to appreciate both, which is more evidence of her new maturity.

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  5. Great episode and I like the idea behind the grigori angels . hope they come back

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  6. I loved the episode but felt bad for poor Sam getting knocked out again. Poor dear! I cried at the ending and yes, agree that Blue eyes was a good song to end on. I also like that Dean is still standing as strong as possible against the Mark. He has so much more force of character t than he is giving himself credit for! As a person with low self-esteem its a constant struggle to sometimes just to get out of bed in the morning, let alone continuing to try to do the strong, moral or human things that define us between weak or evil... So yes, it's weariness but Dean is doing what he can. JA is doing a fantastic job portraying the nuances of it. JP and MC too are doing a tremendous job knocking it out of the park with trying not to "freak" with every little step Dean does, that he will potentially blow and go Full Rouge Demon. Incredible job by all.

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