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Supernatural: Family Feud

I'll take "troubling family relationships" for a hundred, Alex. No, wait. That's Jeopardy.

This one didn't do a lot for me. Maybe there was just too much going on. Starting with the huge dangling plot thread that was Crowley's son Gavin, retrieved from 1723 by Abaddon and left hanging about the United States feeling out of place for a couple of seasons and a half. I'm sort of glad they wound it up and closed the time-travel-could-mess-up-everything gap, but wasn't it sad that he was so miserable and out of place in the present that he was ready to go die on that sunken ship with his girlfriend, Fiona? A little romantic perhaps, but depressing.

The ghost of Fiona went all out for the gruesome body parts, and hey, so unfair that she victimized teachers (they suffer enough), but as a vicious ghost, she wasn't all that unique in the Supernaturalverse. I did like the opener where we were led to believe there was a monster in the closet, but it turned out to be under the bed... except that the scene was so drawn out that I saw it coming.

Rowena seemed so kind and sane and reasonable, so of course she had an evil agenda: revenge on Crowley for killing her immortal adopted whatever, Oskar. Another tied up dangling plot thread. I was sort of enjoying Crowley and Rowena building toward a positive relationship. Not anymore.

Love this photo.
And now we have Crowley versus Lucifer. Who will win? Come on, Crowley is clever, but we know who's gonna win. I swear I was actually thinking, "Crowley is playing with fire," and then they went for the obvious and did the song "Playing with Fire" at the end.

We did get some interesting exposition to go along with it, though: the chains holding Lucifer are made of the same metal as his cage, and the Mark Pellegrino vessel was "repaired and improved." Improved how? So that he won't go up in flames any time soon? I'm still confused about why Crowley wants Lucifer around in the first place. Isn't it like having an immense, feral tiger staking out your living room?

More family stuff, as Dagon, the Princess of Hell, did indeed show up as advertised in last week's episode to save Kelly from a couple of angel assassins. I liked Dagon. She could be fun. Although it sounded like she was there solely as an agent of Lucifer. Could these princes and princesses of Hell be like Lucifer's children, since they were the first generation that Lucifer turned? Are they loyal to him? It might be more interesting if she was after Rosemary's Baby for reasons of her own. I'm sure she is completely uninterested in poor Kelly, who I assume will eventually die horribly. Maybe I shouldn't assume, though.

What is going on with Mary and Ketch? Is it more than the fun of testing out rugaru-killing guns? Was he coming on to her? If he thought he could order Mary to avoid her sons, he has another think coming, doesn't he? Dean and Sam were unthrilled with her confession that she's working with Ketch, but again, it felt like just another bit of information jammed into an information-packed episode.

Although I do like how every time we see Mary, she talks about doing something Dean-like, like magic fingers, hamburgers and beer.

Bits:

— It's a boy!

— Nice to see Abaddon again. It's been awhile.

— Very prettily filmed snow scenes. I suppose that's one of the perks of filming in Canada. And for some reason, I really liked the frozen stream of water going into the sink. Looked cool, pun intended.

— This week: Andover, Massachusetts; Des Moines, Iowa; Newark, New Jersey; Leith, Scotland in 1723.

— The Pembroke Day School for Girls again looked very familiar. I'm certain they've filmed there before. Wasn't it the Diocese, too?

Quotes:

Waitress/angel: (to Kelly) "Whenever it pops out, you're totally going to love the little devil."

Dagon: "Come with me if you want to live."
Really. She gets points for quoting Terminator.

Crowley: "It turns out that behind that whole moron facade, you and your brother are, in fact, morons."

Ketch: "When you hunt, Mary, you're one of the best I've ever seen. You might play at being the good mummy, but when you're in the thick of it, nothing but a blade in your hand and blood in the air, that's the real you. The best you. And I think you know, and I think that scares the hell out of you."

Lucifer: "I love that. You and I, both single fathers. I could use a little dad advice right about now. When do you let them date?"

Gavin: "Grandmother? She can't be alive."
Dean: "Well, technically, dude, neither can you."

Gavin: "Father, I want to do this."
Crowley: "What you want is a gym membership, happy hour at Hooters and Cubs tickets, none of which are available anywhere else but here."

Rowena: (to Crowley) "I'm your mother, dear. Who better to crush your shriveled heart?"

Too many storylines, a bit much with the exposition. Two out of four single fathers,

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. There was a lot going on in this episode, but I think there was some foreshadowing going on as well.
    Gavin sacrificed himself for someone he cared about. Mary will also sacrifice herself for one or both of her boys. Let's face it hunters don't last. She is also a Winchester and self sacrifice is their go to move.
    I am glad that Lucifer 1.0 is back. His line delivery is so much fun to have back.

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  2. I just hope Crowley won't hold a grudge against the Winchesters for long about this. He will be needed when Lucifer breaks free yet again.

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  3. You're right that the episode had too many subplots going on at once. There wasn't much of a main plot arc...hardly an investigation at all, though the story of Gavin and Fiona was rather poignant.

    That said, I liked it from a season-plot-arc point of view. Marc Pellegrino is back, and I enjoyed Dagon. And Mary finally confessed to her dealings with the men of letters. I was disturbed that she didn't tell them after last episode. Winchesters keeping secrets from Winchesters always causes problems.

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  4. After an episode where Dean lost his memory it was cool having him be the one to remember an arcane bit of info like the name of Gavin’s ship. Great review Billie!

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  5. I didn't really care for this one. The Lucifer bits were the only ones I liked, because let's face it, Mark P is the only perfect vessel. I'm not even questioning the things they have done to bring him back, even if it smells like ret con to me. And he's gonna bite everybody in the ass, I think. Very, very poor move from Crowley, and we know that this show have a history for revenges going sour.
    The ghost.. meh. Nice that they solved the Gavin stuff, but.. meh. Rowena? Meh. I see her motives and they fit the character, but I didn't really care either. It's not an ep i'm gonna to rewatch soon.

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  6. And I like the fact that Mary cme clear with her boys, but she sounded a lot like Sam with the demon blood, didn't she? "I'm doing the wrong thing for the right reasons" is a path we already know, and it usually leads to bad, bad things. (Yes, I really don't like the BMOL)

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