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Supernatural: Heaven and Hell

Anna: "There's loyalty. Forgiveness. Love."
Dean: "Pain."
Anna: "Chocolate cake."
Dean: "Guilt."
Anna: "Sex."
Dean: "Yeah, you got me there."

What do you do when killer angels and killer demons are after you? Godzilla versus Mothra. Of course. The main reason Supernatural has been my favorite show the past two seasons is their gutsy storytelling. They just go for it.

So Angels have to follow their heavenly father's orders and take it on faith, just as Dean did with his own father. While Uriel continued to be a real prick (as well as stupid, telling Dean where he was carrying Anna's "grace"), Castiel showed that he cared about both Anna and Dean. He even looked mildly disturbed when Anna kissed Dean goodbye. Maybe being with Castiel will make Anna's return to grace a little easier for her. Anna intimated that angels don't have sex, and have to be emotionless, but clearly, they do have emotions; they just have to keep them tamped down.

Typical. Sam has sex with a demon, and Dean was touched a whole lot by an angel. That love scene didn't really work for me, though. Maybe it was too carefully explicit and went on too long. Maybe it was that we usually get an average of one love scene per season, and two in two weeks was overkill. At least Sam didn't walk in on them. Although maybe that would have made it better. I did think it was hilarious that Anna was wearing a fluffy white bra.

And I can't believe I just spent an entire paragraph complaining about a Dean love scene. The motivation wasn't faulty, though. If it were my last night on earth and I had a chance to spend it in the back seat of an Impala with Dean Winchester... and that's a second whole paragraph talking about a Dean love scene. Okay. moving right along.

Ruby proved her loyalty again. She allowed herself to be captured and tortured by the extremely ooky Alastair so that she could eventually feed him the right information. We all know that demons ignore injuries and walk around in dead bodies. Are they all in constant pain? I assume not, that it was just because Alastair (who sounded like Marlon Brando with a lisp) was using Ruby's magic knife. Which has now found its way back to her.


Dean's final revelation to Sam about what really happened to him in Hell was intense, and explored an interesting philosophical question. What's worse? To suffer the agonies of Hell yourself, or to inflict them on someone else? I think we know what Dean thought was worse. He said he wished he couldn't feel anything. (Another comparison of Dean to the angels.) It also explained why humans in Hell eventually become demons. Are demons redeemable? Will love for Sam, or whatever is motivating Ruby, eventually turn her into something else? If so, what?

Bits and pieces:

— Dean's fate in Hell was like that of the titan Prometheus in Greek mythology, who had his liver torn out every day and was renewed every night. Prometheus suffered for eons because he defied the gods and gave fire to humanity.

— When Anna got her "grace" back, white smoke entered her body through her mouth. Just like a demon. Nice touch. I bet this isn't the last time we see Anna.

— According to Uriel, fallen angels are even lower on the totem pole than demons. What happens to a fallen angel's soul when she dies? Would Anna have gone to Hell or Purgatory if she hadn't angeled up?

— Only four angels have seen God's face. I bet that's in the Bible somewhere.

— It was good to see Pamela Barnes again, with her white plastic eyeballs that make her look "even more psychic." I'm glad she's still sassy. Good character. She's obviously decided to be a little more careful, too, before she loses something else.

— Gold acting stars for Jensen Ackles. That scene at the end could not have been easy to do, and he gave it his all. Jensen Ackles is such an accessible actor. You feel like you know him.

— Now we wait for January 15. At least they didn't leave us with a Dean-in-Hell cliffhanger.

Quotes:

Sam: "Is he working a job?"
Dean: "God, I hope so. Otherwise he's at Hedonism in a banana hammock and a trucker cap."
Sam: "Now that's seared in my brain."

Dean: "The plumber? A little snake in the pipes?"
Sam: "Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again."

Ruby: (to Sam) "You're pretty buff for a nerd."
Just a few minutes later, she told him his power was getting flabby.


Ruby: "What?"
Dean: "Nothing. It's just... an angel and a demon riding in the back seat. It's like the set-up to a bad joke. Or a Penthouse Forum letter."
Sam: "Dude. Reality. Porn."
Dean: "You call this reality?"

Uriel: "You cut yourself a slice of angel food cake, didn't you?"
Dean: "What do you care? You're junkless down there, right? Like a Ken doll?"

It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darned good. Three and a half stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux adores Supernatural which is a good thing since apparently, it's eternal.

14 comments:

  1. The "angel food cake" thing killed me, especially since it was delivered from Uriel. He sure does have a lot of...hatred? disdain? Despite being a creature who can't feel these things.

    Was it just me, or was the hand on the condensated window a satire on Titanic, where Jack and Kate slept together in that antique car, and she put her hand up just like that and trailed it down, leaving a mark on the glass?

    I wonder if Alistair/Marlon is dead now or not. Probably not.

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  2. I *knew* that hand on the condensated car window looked familiar! Thanks so much, Sephen.

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  3. Hey Billie, Love your comments, all of them, but specially the ones over Supernatural. I just agree with you on everything, but you also always point out details that pass through me. Actually I became a fan of SN thanks to you, and it wouldn’t be the same without your comments. So far I’m loving season four. Also to get to your site is so refreshing, while almost in any other forum I only see complains and complains full of mind-square, intolerance and lack of imagination. So, thanks again and keep going, C.

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  4. C.,

    What a lovely comment. Thank you so much.

    I think I know what you mean about some forums. Way back when I was deeply devoted to Buffy, I spent some time on Television without Pity. It took awhile for me to realize that that level of snark just isn't me.

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  5. Good episode...nice to see Uriel smite a demon instead of focusing his anger on Sam and Dean. Castiel continues to be a very fascinating character and I agree he seems to have some kind of emotion other than blind loyalty, although it's hard to say exactly how he feels.

    And I must say that was the most awkward sex scene I have ever seen. But, oh well, at least Dean got to do something fun for once.

    Here starts the long wait to January.

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  6. Slowly catching up. Great review as always. One thing caught my eye. They made certain to return Ruby's knife. If they didn't - the boys would have had to return to the days of salt and holy water alone. And it's clear that they're fighting something *bigger* than that now. All of this reminded me - what did Bela ever do with the Colt? It never got resolved - - wonder it we'll see it again.

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  7. Also love this one, this two-parter is phenomenal and making Anna an angel is a good thing, I hope.
    And btw, if I had only one night on earth, I would probably spend it with Dean.

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  8. Good second part. Your review pretty much covers it, Billie.

    I was kind of lukewarm about the love scene as well. I think they were trying to contrast last week's heat and passion (demon sex) with a more tender and gentle (angel sex) scene. It was all right until the hand on the window, at which point I just rolled my eyes. Really? That's the best they could come up with?

    The final scene was incredible. Poor Dean who now has to live with the impossible choices he made. Poor Sam who could only listen and not take on any of,the pain. Beautifully played by both actors.

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  9. Anna's night with Dean amused me, Anael is the name of an angel associated with romantic love. Of course, I can't tell if this is a coincidence or actual research, sometimes Supernatural gets stuff so far off base it makes the nerd in me cry a little.

    See their pronunciation of 'Samhain' from the earlier Halloween episode. It's a Gaelic word so it is NOT pronounced phonetically as if it were English, and it gave me a great big sad that whoever wrote the episode didn't even do that much research to figure it out.

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  10. Great review, and being the love scenes always feel kinky to me, no matter who it involves, I agree that it felt off. I am a little disappointed that their was a way out with Anna. I was hoping the writers would be willing to define the angels completely. We know where Uriel falls, but not Castiel. It makes me wonder if each angel views emotion on a case to case basis. Interesting to see where this goes.

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  11. I like the difference between the sex scenes

    Sam and Ruby were rough

    Dean and Anna were slow and gentle

    It shows the difference between demons and angels lol

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    1. I don't know, I always thought it showed the differences between assertive, dominating, passional Sam and sweet, giver, submissive Dean. Wich is fun twist on their working, daytime persona.

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  12. Hey, Doux, just realized an error I made, hope it doesn't spoil anything. I made an earlier comment a few episodes ago about Jensen having to take a walk after a scene. That is actually from this episode (haven't seen S4 in a while, oops). Just wanted to mention it, don't know that there is anything you can do about it.

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