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Supernatural: Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire

"We did this, Sam. We broke it, we bought it."

Lots of bright sunshine and flowers in this episode, at least in the beginning. Were they going for a thematic contrast, perhaps?

Man, zombies are so "in" right now. Except that these zombies are using fists and tools, and I think they can drive. I kept suspecting that Jenna, the nice three-weeks-on-the-job deputy, would turn out to be evil, or infected, or something else. So of course, it was the baby who is "something else."

The Darkness told Dean, "No matter where I am, who I am, we will always help each other." So she can be other people. Is she the baby, since she has a tiny little mark on her shoulder? Are we going to get all kinds of people who are secretly The Darkness with tiny red marks on their shoulders? For the sake of my sanity, please tell me Dean doesn't have one of those. Enough already.

At least we finally got Dean back, even if he and The Darkness appear to be bonded and hot for each other. But even though Dean didn't deserve the suffering he experienced with the Mark of Cain, a lot of people in Superior, Nebraska just died because Sam made Rowena remove it. And a lot more are going to die, too. Except that I am betting Sam will find a cure, especially now that it's creeping up his own neck. It's somewhat karmic that Sam was infected, since he was the one who set it free. Not that I want Sam to die a rabid zombie, of course. I'm pretty sure he won't.

For me, there were two things I loved about this episode. The first was Sam saying to Dean that they had to change, that they're only doing half of the "saving people, hunting things" bumper sticker. I'm really, really glad that they finally addressed this, because much like the scene in last season's finale where the brothers talked about whether or not they had become part of the evil they hunted, it was way overdue. How about exorcising the possessed instead of stabbing them? How about saving the baby and her father? (Not this time. Poor Mike.)

I'm not sure I'm on board with all this set-up for The First Evil The Darkness. It depends on where they go with it. But the second thing I loved about this episode was that something finally happened with The Cage. Someone inside The Cage is going crazy because of The Darkness and possibly trying to warn Hell. Are we finally going to return to Michael and Lucifer and poor, poor Adam? Please tell me we are.

I'm also wondering if there will be fallout from Death's death? I hate that Death died. I liked Death. How come The Darkness didn't know who Death was? Because The Darkness is from before Death?

What happened with our good/evil supporting cast seemed disconnected from the main action. Of course, I'm unhappy with what just happened to Castiel. I don't get the feeling his "brothers" (and I mean brother angels, not the Winchesters) are going to help him with Rowena's bloodshot eyes curse. Will Rowena herself have to remove it? And what could possibly make her do that, since she's tremendously powerful and on the loose with The Book of the Damned and the codex?

At least Crowley was fun. Why not have an orgy of sex and death with some hicks before returning to his old body? (The scene where the husband was explaining why he was on board with the wife swapping was pretty funny. Okay, maybe a little condescending with the Fargo-like stereotypes.) But wouldn't Castiel have known that Crowley isn't that easy to kill?

Bits and pieces:

— This season's new credit card is gold letters, with the Darkness in the background. Not as awesome as last season's, but it has to be hard to keep coming up with these things. (I got this one from the terrific wiki page that has them all.)


— If The Darkness only saved Dean, how come Sam was okay back in the car? Unconscious, but okay?

— Mike's description of how his wife Janie gave birth sounded weird to me. Was it the performance? The script?

— "Her name is Amara." The baby's name? The Darkness's name? She needs a name. "The Darkness" is a bit generic and doesn't lend itself to nicknames. (Anyone else thinking of the gem of Amara? Do they make cufflinks, too?)

— Jenna was played by Laci J. Mailey, whom I recognized as another character the boys didn't save in "There Will Be Blood." She also had a continuing role on Continuum as Dillon's daughter.

— So Jenna just walks off with the baby? Adoption isn't that simple. I hear there are forms.

— This week: Superior, Nebraska and outskirts.

— Why haven't I noticed before that angels and demons have pretty much the same black, white and gray wardrobe? Or did I notice it before? Eleven seasons, guys. Eleven.

Quotes:

Sam: "And she told you she was the Darkness?"
Dean: "No, she was wearing a name tag. What do you think?"

Dean: "She's been locked away since the beginning of time. Does she even know what a cheeseburger is?"

Jenna: "Show me some skin."
Dean: "Huh?"
Sam: "What?"
Jenna: "Both of you!"
Dean: "Is this, like, a Magic Mike moment?"
I thought we were going to get a glimpse of the anti-possession tatts.

Jenna: "This job is supposed to be saving people."
Dean: "Well, it sounds better on paper, doesn't it?"

Hubby: "So I called Dale, and he said…
Dale: "H-E-double hockey sticks, yeah!"
Hubby: "Dale ran it by Deb…"
Deb: "We were only gonna get buffet, anyway."
Hubby: "And here we are!"

Castiel: "The Darkness is a woman?"
Dean: "That's what we're asking you. We were hoping you could tell us what kind of DefCon screwed we are."

Crowley: "What about the other white meat suit?"

Crowley: "Speak."
Demon #2: "It's just, you barely escaped assassination, you're arguably on the run from the most powerful witch on earth, not to mention an angel of Heaven, uh…"
Crowley: "And, uh?"
Demon #2: "You didn't call for help until after the orgy?"

Sam: "Saving people means all of the people, Dean. Not just that baby. Not just each other."

There was a lot of set-up here, and I'm not sure I'm on board with all of it. What did you guys think?

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.

13 comments:

  1. I was really pleased that the funny was here in force in this episode, especially in Crowley's orgy, but in Dean's dialogue too. Glad Cas actually phoned to say he was in trouble, even if they can't do anything about it.

    I'm sure Amara means bitterness but I can't remember where I heard that - Anne Rice maybe?!

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  2. I liked it as well, mainly for the reasons you mentioned. Sam telling Dean they had to change was great, and something I've been criticising the show for a while now for not addressing/changing.

    However it does feel quite familiar. The darkness contagion feels too similar to the Croatoan virus and the 'Jefferson Starships'. Also the zombie trend is really getting tired.

    They remind us in the episode that they killed Death. Shouldn't that mean that no one can die? So how did all the humans killed by the 'zombies' die? Hopefully they'll address it later.

    As someone who's been quite disappointed with Supernatural recently, I really hope the writing improves this season. While I don't think I'll ever stop watching this show, I'd rather be happy with where the story and characters are going then 'hate-watch'. I'm not there yet (although Charlie's death brought me close), so here's hoping this season brings me back on-board completely.

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  3. I think Sam wasn't harmed because he was in the car. They said something about it only affecting people outside. I suppose that does beg the question of why Dean had to be zapped outside of the car? Probably just so that she could thank him.

    I'm not 100% convinced that it was Death that Dean killed. I thought the line about her not knowing Death and Death not knowing her was a hint that that wasn't Death that Dean was talking to. However, if that's the case, then why the heck did Cas and Crowley immediately know who or what the Darkness was.

    I'm not sure how I feel about a return of the Cage trio. i love Lucifer. More luke-warm on Michael and never really felt the need of Adam (who has been tortured for 500 years, btw). It already seems like there's a lot going on this season. There's the Darkness which includes zombie viruses, (although that may only last the one episode as the Darkness isn't still spewing out all over the place as far as we can see), Metatron is stil out there, Rowena has the Book of the Damned, Crowley's always more or less of a threat, angels have Cas and apparently have some nefarious plan. Do we really have room for the devil and the highest archangel?

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  4. I got the idea that Death was like the CEO of Reap, Inc. The army of reapers will continue on to keep the world from getting cluttered up with unreaped souls. But Death was destined to reap God, so that could be a problem someday.

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  5. katymvt - Death's 'death' last season did make him come across as being pretty stupid and trusting, which doesn't fit with what we know about him. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

    Pucklady - That did occur to me, but it has the unfortunate effect of making Death seem much more superfluous than we were led to believe. I just hope we see some consequences to actually killing (or trying to kill?) Death, as opposed to everyone just carries on as normal.

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  6. Amara supposedly means eternal. That was also the name of the first doppelgänger in vampire diaries. Well I guess she was the first and all the rest are her doppelgängers.
    Anyway I loved the Crowley scenes. Mark Sheppard spent all summer telling fans at cons that Crowley was dead. I saw him in Dallas after the first trailer and he was still insisting Crowley was dead. Best panel. i highly recommend finding his panels on YouTube except he spends his entire time walking around the room, which is great for pictures.

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  7. I looked it up and amara is also the feminine form of the Latin amarus, bitter. What I can't remember is whether I know that because I know Latin, or whether it came from some kind of vampire story. I don't remember any of the Latin texts I've worked with talking about bitterness much, but maybe they did - though I still think some form of vampire literature is equally likely!

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  8. I really hope they explore the cage with Lucifer and Michael more, the darkness is so powerful that all hands are on deck and Michael and Lucifer are needed to help defeat it.

    I dont like how Sam preaches through the whole episode about how they need to change and yet when he got that nasty stuff growing on his neck, he doesn't tell Dean about it. Around and around we go with the lying. That is a cycle they really need to break.

    I'm hoping that with the upcoming episodes, my jaw drops even lower than this episode did. I was expecting too much and I was content but not fully satisfied with the result. I guess we'll just have to wait and see,

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  9. I'm glad they are exploring the cage as well. i have been waiting for that or maybe even a return of yellows eye's soldiers or plan. i think if they mention yellow eyes that may bring a close to the series though, so let me stfu.

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  10. Flat. Flat, flat, flat. Not a good start.

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  11. When the Darkness appeared did anyone else think the show was going to introduce Nox and more greek mythology? Amara is also an Igbo word meaning grace.

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  12. People can still die even though death has been killed, People died when he was sealed up and only reapers were around. In the episode where people couldn't die, back in season 4. It was because there was no reaper in the area as they had been kidnapped for a ritual. So as far as I can tell people died before death was unsealed and can still die even though death is dead.

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  13. I kept waiting for Jenna to turn evil and also how was it she never got sick, even though she too was exposed outside? Need a babysitter? One side note JA is a very maternal person, and it shows when he was dealing with baby. So cute!

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