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Supernatural: Reichenbach

"Why don't you do us all a great big favor and pick a bloody side?"

Demons doing good, angels doing bad. Possibly some shades of gray.

Is Dean the demon (I hate typing 'DeanMon') truly evil? If he is, why is he drinking so much as if he's trying to dull the pain? If he were irretrievable, he would have killed Mindy Morris, whose only crime was promiscuity, instead of her husband Lester, who made a crossroads deal in order to watch her die. Or was Dean just screwing with Crowley? How fascinating that the crossroads deal could be broken that way, too. I never even considered that it would be null and void if the signee didn't get what they asked for.

We don't know what really happened in 2003, but human Dean, our Dean, didn't kill innocent people. Cole's father had to be a monster, or possessed, or whatever, or "Dean" was a shapeshifter. Whatever. Dean was blathering on about how what he did to Cole was worse than killing him, and that may have been true, but I'm pretty sure the writers were going for ambiguity there. By letting Cole go and even telling him about demons and what Dean was, Dean was giving Cole ammunition, and even some measure of protection. And Cole would make a great hunter, wouldn't he?

Poor Sam. He looked sicker and more fragile than when he was slowly dying from the trials. But even beaten and wearing a sling, he managed to capture Dean. Okay, with Crowley's help. See, demons doing good, sort of? Crowley gave Dean back to Sam. Where do we go from here? Hypnotherapy? Spells? Won't being without the Blade drive Dean mad?

(Poor Crowley, too. He was all "Dean Winchester completes me," and now he's listening to "Hey There, Lonely Girl" and looking wistfully at their party photos. No more Misadventures of Crowley and Squirrel. Sad.)

The angel portion of our episode was in line with the good/evil thing, too. Metatron admitted that he wanted to kill everybody, and yet Hannah was going to bargain with him for Castiel's grace, a very bad and dangerous thing to do. I'm growing to like Hannah. She cares about Castiel and could be his best wing woman ever, and I honestly didn't intend for that to be such an obvious pun.

Sam told Castiel that getting Dean back was a priority, but you know, I think Castiel would be a lot more help if he was back to full strength. I'm ready for Castiel to get better now. I don't like that we're getting vibes that Castiel is ready to die, like Sam awhile back. Castiel can't die. He's done it too much already.

Bits and pieces:

— What does the title mean? There are a lot of Reichenbachs. It's a name, it's a place, it has falls…

— The incident with Cole's father happened on June 21, 2003, making Cole a good bit younger than the Winchesters. Was that before the start of the series? At one point, the kids outside the bar were calling Dean 'Grandpa.' Wow. Ten seasons. I'm still used to the Winchesters being younger than anyone else, and now they're not.

— Angels don't dream. We knew that, didn't we? I also liked the Road Runner cartoon, because it's been mentioned before.

— Where exactly is Castiel's grace? I honestly don't remember. Do we know?

— Crowley took the Blade and will hide it somewhere. Because that's worked out so well before.

— Crowley called Sam "Bullwinkle" and "Samantha." And of course, Metatron called Cas "Asstiel."

— This week: Killdeer, North Dakota and a flashback to Nyack, New York.

Quotes:

Sam: "Look, I'm not a psycho. And I'm not lying."
Cole: "Well, you see, that's exactly what a psycho liar would say, so… see my dilemma?"

Crowley: "In my day, we respected our elders. Of course, back then, anyone over thirty was ancient. Now forty-year-olds are still living with Mommy, lying on OkCupid, and taking pictures of their food."

Hannah: "Castiel, I think the Winchesters are a bad influence on you."
You think?

Hannah: "I understand the three beans, but what's the surprise?"

Dean: "Listen, and this is Murder 101, when you hire someone to kill your wife, you don't wanna be around with the hit goes down. It's called an alibi."
Lester: "Yeah, I know what an alibi is. I watch Franklin and Bash."

Dean: "Like I said, loser with a capital L, rhymes with 'you suck'."

Little girl: "One time I dreamed that my snot was a rocket and it shot into space and knocked down the stars to make room for more rockets."
Castiel was just too adorable in that scene.

Dean: "What did you think was going to happen? You would walk in all 'My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die'?"

Sam: "This thing is filthy."
Dean: "It's just a car, Sam."
Sam: "It's just a car? Wow, you really have gone dark."

Three out of four snot rockets,

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

14 comments:

  1. Superb episode. I'm really liking the really and truly bad-ass Dean who doesn't care anymore and doesn't care that he doesn't care.
    He just wants to f*ck things, and people, up!

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  2. I like the title, but it seems more appropriate to 'Swan Song', plot-wise (Sam pulling Lucifer down with him like Sherlock and Moriarty) - at this point, a title that promises the death and resurrection of our heroes isn't really telling us much!

    Dean went to a strip/pole-dancing club called 'Angelz'. Of course he did. Could have done without him sexually harrassing the dancer - I know he's a demon, but that's just not entertaining to me. The scene where he killed Lester was great though. You're half cheering him on, half horrified that he's taking pleasure in murder.

    I think my heart broke a little when he called the Impala 'just a car'! I want regular Dean back now. This one is unsettling!

    I want Cas mortal a while longer though - he has more story potential that way since he can't solve everything with glowy angel powers. I wish he'd join up with the others, but I was glad we got the scene where Sam phoned him, I was wondering if Sam was gonna call him to warn him if he runs into Dean, he's in for a shock! I like Hannah and she seems to be being set up as Castiel's new love interest, so maybe she'll stay alive a few more episodes...

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  3. I am willing to go wherever Supernatural takes me, and I enjoyed the episode, but I'm ready for our Dean to come back now... and yes, a fully-restored Castiel. I laughed out loud when Metatron called him "Asstiel".

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  4. Great review! I really liked this episode! I find Demon Dean to be extremely entertaining, and, let's face it, pretty sexy. Like you, I'm not entirely sure how evil Dean is supposed to be, but I'm definitely having fun trying to figure it out.

    I also really enjoyed the interactions between Castiel and Hannah. I agree with Juliette that they seem to be setting her up as his love interest, which I'm excited for. Although aren't all angels supposed to be brothers and sisters, technically? Are they just going to turn a blind eye to that or do they just assume that their viewers are pretty comfortable with sibling incest, given the popularity of 'Wincest'?

    One last thought: If Cole is supposed to be from New York, why does he have what sounds like a southern accent? I'm from upstate New York originally, and he does not sound like anyone I knew.

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  5. Shannon, I totally hadn't thought of the fact angels usually call each other brother and sister - maybe they're just going to slowly stop doing that and hope no one notices! They've done that with a few little retcons over the last couple of years...

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  6. Personally I'm hoping that the writers don't try to push the whole 'romance' thing with Cas and Hannah. Or at least that they develop Hannah as a character in her own right for quite a while first. (Of course I do think that trying to retcon the whole 'brother, sister' thing would be a bit much and quite obvious...)

    I'm really liking the way they're pushing Dean's character with this whole demon arc and I'm glad they're not shying away from the darker aspects of it all. I don't know why I was worried. This show rarely drops the ball.

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  7. Loved the scenes between Sam and Deanmon, Perfect.

    DIdn't like that once again Sam is the worst hunter on earth, come on, the Sam I know would have known right away the escape was a trap. Writers have to stop to make him look stupid and such a bad fighter just to make shine a guest. In two episode, Sam has been knocked out twice, tied, beaten. I wonder how this guy has been able to defeat Lucifer because he sucks. Are they trying to beat the recors of Sam tied to a chair of season 9. Didn't think this one was possible but I was wrong.

    As for the other show inside the show, can it get even more boring ? And no, I am not forgetting angels are sibling and will not tolerate incest. We got Cass and Hanna ride a car, Cas and Hanna have a car accident, Cass is tired and takes a nap, Cass and Hanna make a trip to heaven and Metatron returns for an 8th boring monologue.
    I trully think at one time, I also took a nap.

    Still, the reunion between the brothers was the best.

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  8. I think the title "Reichenbach" is referring to the Cocktail that was served to Crowley...what tipped me (a German Native Speaker) off was that Crowley accepted it with a "Danke" ("thank you" in German), so I googled it and voilĂ , there is such drink ;)

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  9. I loved this episode -Supernatural Gold but enjoyed the review and the comments even more. I loved that Crowley's drink had a little devil's fork in it! And I thought the bit with "Lonely Girl" and Crowley looking wistfully at a picture of he and Dean was hilarious. Of course there is a German drink called a Reichenbach -thanks@Anonymous.

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  10. Evil Dean is something to watch. The coldness is what is getting to me. Underneath all his issues, there has always been a warm heart. This guy is cold.

    Crowley, the drink, and the picture. Loved it.

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  11. I don't think the angels are blood brothers and sisters. Our church refers to other members with the title of Brother or Sister meaning a member of the group. Similarly to Sons of Anarchy referring to other members as Brothers.

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  12. Re: whether the death of Cole's father was before the series started, it was, but only by a year or two.

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  13. I interpreted the Lester/Mandy/Death scene much differently, I think the reason he killed Lester instead of Mandy was apathy.

    He did hesitate to kill Mandy at first, but there's no indication that he wouldn't have gone through with it before Lester showed up. But then Lester pulled up, Dean went down to make sure because he was all like "the heck is happening, why are you here?", and then Lester just annoyed him to the extent that Dean killed him out of spite. Then, because he had already killed someone and didn't need another murder to satiate himself, he just didn't see the point of going to murder Mandy when he could go back to the bar.

    Dean only really did anything besides drink and chase tail in this episode when it was absolutely necessary.

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