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Supernatural: The Hunter Games

"You know us. When we screw ourselves, we like to go whole hog."

'The Hunter Games' felt like a continuation of the mid-season finale: Castiel and his vessel's daughter, Crowley and his mom, and Sam trying to fix Dean. So I guess what I'm saying is, not much that was new here.

Fixing Dean is of course the priority, and it doesn't appear that it will be happening any time soon. Except that after Dean carved up and nearly killed Metatron, Sam might have hit on the key: that Dean could control the Mark if he truly wished to do so, but deep down, he wants to give in to it. That makes sense to me. Dean has always had a death wish combined with an inferiority complex. (And yet, I love him anyway.)

Every time they bring Metatron back, I'm certain he's going to break loose and wreak havoc again, but no. And up until Dean started getting too free with that angel blade, Metatron was having the best time. He loves drama. Chained to a chair, eyes twinkling, his legs casually crossed as he screwed around with Dean, for some reason, Curtis Armstrong's Metatron reminds me of an evil Muppet. "Try messing with the Scribe of God, bucko!"

"The river ends at the source." Okay. The river that leads to Eden?

As Dean was having nightmares about his Randy-inspired killing spree, Crowley was experiencing persecution nightmares created by his dear Mumsy's hex bag. Clearly, Rowena is planning to overthrow Crowley and take over Hell. It's not that I don't find Rowena amusing because I most certainly do, but please, please, please tell me that Crowley is playing her? I'm going to be so disappointed with our beloved King of Hell if he is actually falling for her crap.

Meanwhile, Castiel was all wrapped up in trying to make things right with Claire, who still refuses to see Randy for the scumbag he was. I thought that couple moving in on Claire were demons or something, but instead they were nearly Dean's next victims. No big loss if they had been, but I do hope that Dean's killing spree is over.

As much as I love Castiel and as interested as I am in Jimmy, I don't think this Claire plot worked all that well. Maybe it's because Claire's motivations don't make sense to me. When I was a troubled teen way back when, I would have been so thrilled if a powerful supernatural creature came into my life and wanted to take care of me. Claire could have gotten Castiel to do nearly anything for her: set her up in a nice place, college education, new clothes, Playstation 4, he'd have done it. Instead, she decided on a life of poverty and danger on the road. Kids these days, what can you do?

Bits and pieces:

— "The road so far" was set to ELO's "Long Black Road." Appropriate.

— Dean staring at himself in a broken mirror. Gee, that's not obvious symbolism at all.

— Poor Guthrie the butler. I liked Guthrie.

— I'm glad they finally addressed that they can't just cut or burn the Mark off Dean's arm. I was imagining the solution would be amputation, and we absolutely cannot have that.

— I love Crowley calling Dean "Squirrel." It's nearly as good as "Not Moose."

— I also love it when Dean and Sam walk through all those hallways in the bunker.

— Could I also add that I loved Crowley's selection of tasteful black ties?

— Castiel exploded a door. That was cool.


— "In memory of Matt Riley, 1971-2014."

Supernatural just got early renewal for an eleventh season. Eleven. Seasons. Eleven.

Quotes, mostly from the "Row and Crow show:"

Rowena: "Darling, what can I do?"
Crowley: "Not a thing, you evil bitch."
Rowena: "Not a thing, you evil bitch… mother."

Dean: "There was a time I was a hunter, not a stone cold killer."
Sigh.

Rowena: "It was no environment for a child!"
Crowley: "So locking me away in a squalid workhouse was your solution?"
Rowena: "I will not apologize for being a career woman!"

Metatron: "Why do you assume I'm not going to be helpful?"
Sam: "Because you're a dickwad."
Metatron: "But I'm your dickwad."

Metatron: "I have a special place in my non-heart for you both. To which end, ta da! I would be tickled to help you pop this Biblical zit."

Rowena: "Of course, you recall the lovely lullaby I sang to you nightly after you fed the goat."
Crowley: "You never sung me a lullaby. You dosed me with whiskey until I passed out."
Rowena: "Even then I had a touch for pharmacology."

Rowena: "Shall I wait dinner for you?"
Crowley: "You don't cook. I don't eat. It's a perfect arrangement."

Castiel: "I like texting. Emoticons."

I have decided that I cannot be objective about a rating for Supernatural any more, unless it's a four out of four. So how many Biblical zits out of four for this episode?

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

15 comments:

  1. Random thoughts are random...

    I love all the Claire/Castiel stuff - I care about the characters enough to be invested in it, and there's less repetition in that plot than the brothers' stuff, even though I can relate way more to the sibling stuff (there are surface similarities between the Winchesters and me and my brother in some ways, but I was a massive goody-two-shoes with a happy family life, nothing like Claire). I find their complicated relationship fascinating - I get why she's mad at him, and at the same time, it's pretty clear that he could help her, and she also seems vaguely fond of him on some level (she was his vessel briefly, I'd love it if they brought that up again).

    Crowley and his mum bore me I'm afraid, but at least they don't take up too much time. And I hope he's playing her too.

    Every time I see Curtis Armstrong on New Girl I think "Metatron!" and every time I see him on Supernatural I think "the Principal!"

    Dean's red shirt towards the end reminded me of Spike. But then, lots of things remind me of Spike.

    I love the Castiel stuff, am reasonably interested in the Winchesters' stuff, and don't like the Crowley stuff. Two and a half Biblical zits?

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  2. I can't stand Rowena, her accent is overdone, she is overdone.
    Claire/Cass bore me so much. I really really don't care about it. Claire is so badly acted, it is scary. Her story is boring boring boring. I still don't buy that her very religious mother would abandon her. They really don't know what to do with Cass lately.
    I stop wanting to watch/ear Metratron after Metafiction.
    Why oh why Sam and Dean didn't kill him, I am afraid that it is because we will have to support an other of his scene where he likes to hear himself talking.
    This season I have only one word for Crowley, it's pathetic? Today, I wish that Abandon had won.
    Not enough of the Winchesters.
    I really miss my show. The myth arc episodes involve too many characters, stories with no relation, it is badly written.
    I should stay on the standalone episode from now on.
    0,5 biblical zits.

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  3. To confess, I wasn't crazy about this episode, although I imagine that having waited so long, I expected too much. I certainly hope that they turn Claire around -- the writers should know that troubled, traumatized teenagers are a penny a pound and that fans of the show will get annoyed if she puts her own angst above and beyond common sense. And if Crowley is not playing his mother, I will join in the howls of fans everywhere -- "you're good, but I'm Crowley" needs to count for something more than just a cool line.

    The next issue: while I love Dean, I'd like to see this issue addressed and turned into something more meaningful than just another "I hate me" issue for Dean. Maybe he can come to grips with the good he's done or something and live with the idea that the world exists in shades of gray -- boring white paladins are also a penny a pound. I do hope that the writers are going to go somewhere good with this, because it deserves intelligent treatment.

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  4. @audrey L

    Not sure what you mean by "her accent is overdone?" That's the actress's accent.

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  5. @Cold Run
    I know it is her accent but it is her job as an actress to work on her accent when she plays in an other country. Mark did.
    My problem is that I don't understand what she says.

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  6. I have to agree with audrey. I'm amazed the actress playing Rowena really is a Kelt. She sounds like a cartoon leprechaun. I keep expecting her to say "Put up yer dukes, boyo!" or "Top o' the marnin' to ya!" or "Sure an' ta God that's enoof!" Maybe next week...

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  7. She is actually Scottish so maybe it's just her interpretation of a three-hundred-year-old Scottish witch.

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  8. Don't hit me, folks, but I think that her accent is charming. (I still stand by the idea that I don't want her to outsmart Crowley when it's so patently obvious to us that she's not Mary Poppins.

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  9. No worry, no one will hit you, you are free to like her.

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  10. Just to be clear, I have no problem with Kelts and I myself find women with Keltic accents charming (two examples would be Karen Gillan and the actress who plays Anna on Downton Abbey). Hers just seems so over-the-top that I thought she had to be a non-Kelt doing a caricature. No offense was intended to the actress, and I stand corrected.

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  11. I like Rowena's accent, but I do agree that the way she speaks and acts is a bit over the top. I'm constantly torn between annoyance and amusement when she's around.

    I think the biggest problem with her is that she is way too obvious. It seems impossible for anyone to fall for her crap, let alone Crowley, who is supposed to be a smart guy. So either he's playing her (which would be a relief), or he's incredibly stupid (which would be a huge disappointment).
    Maybe his human feelings and his need for love are blinding him ("I deserve to be loved!"). Ugh. Please, anything but that.
    It would be so much better if she was more subtle, more ambiguous, and more discreet. Then she would be a plausible match for Crowley, and it would make the whole thing much more interesting.

    I liked Claire in the previous episode, but I didn't really care about her in this one.
    And what was the deal with this couple anyway? At first, with all those suspicious smiles, I thought they were like Randy, looking for a lost kid that they could manipulate. Or maybe demons.
    Then came the axe.
    So what, they were just two random crazy people looking for an opportunity to axe someone? How does that make any sense?
    I did love the scene with Claire and Dean, though. Jensen Ackles looks really good with an axe (or without it).

    As for Metatron, I don't like him. Never have. I actually growled when Castiel brought him back.
    Why did Castiel have to get him out, anyway? Couldn’t he question him in his cell? Having him out made me nervous.

    I would have preferred if Cain had been the one to tell Dean that he could control the Mark if he really wanted to. Since he is the only one who knows how it feels, it would have been more appropriate.
    But maybe it's just because I can't wait to see him again.

    Congratulations to Guthrie, who joined the team of the cool-demons-that-died-way-too-soon. Right next to Cecily.

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  12. I really don't care about Claire. She's whiny and she bores me.

    I also figured that the first thing the boys would think of when it came to removing the MoC was...well...CAIN. It seems obvious.

    As to Crowley (my favorite character)...I also find this storyline kind of unbelievable, insofar as Crowley believing a word she says. While learning about Crowley's background via their conversations is interesting, I just want to stab Rowena in the face. She's sneaky, manipulative and treacherous, and I can't wait til Crowley ends her (I mean, he's going to get her soul anyway, so if he wants face time with mommy, he can get it after she's dead.) I seriously cannot believe that Crowley would fall for any of what she's saying, or that he wouldn't put two and two together...could he honestly believe that every damn demon in hell is plotting against him, and he just didn't see it until she came along to point it out to him? Crowley has proven himself to be much smarter than that in the past. A touch of humanity wouldn't turn him into an idiot. Plus, he's not one to underestimate his opponents, and I think he definitely sees her as his opponent.

    I have faith in Crowley. He will prevail.

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  13. Billie, I'd like to address Claire and her motivations and why they are spot on. Like Cas, I am an older first-time single parent with a teenage daughter as my first parenting experience. In my case, I fostered a runaway teen girl. All I wanted to do for her was to give her the home and the chance she never had in her previous life. Safe home, check. New clothes, check. Playstation (well, new laptop computer), check. College, check, whenever that happens.

    It didn't happen. She ran away back to the street after a month. She was happier in her comfort zone of homeless runaway grifter than she was in a warm safe bed with every advantage.

    It doesn't have to make sense to us, Billie. It makes sense to the teen, and Claire's portrayal was the most honest thing I've seen in the show.

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  14. Re Claire: You may not have been so up on taking help from an angel if he had been responsible for your father's death.

    And, I love your characterization of Metatron as an evil muppet.

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  15. Megatron... evil muppet. I love it.

    I am growing a bit disappointed with the ... well, um... character idiocy that seems to be going on with our guys of late. It kind of feels like the writers aren't caring like they used to. I hope that things pick up. I look forward to some more good stuff on a television series on which I've invested nine and a half seasons.

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