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Supernatural: Patience

"Just another day at the office."

It did indeed feel like another day at the office, as in a so-so episode.

Does anyone else feel cheated? It took twelve seasons for them to bring back psychic Missouri Mosely (Loretta Devine) and in five minutes, oops, she's dead. Yes, it was a cool death. Missouri saw her end coming, saw no way out of it, so she met death head on, choosing the only version that would also result in the death of her killer. But still.

This episode was more about the introduction of Patience, Missouri's granddaughter, as a new character for the upcoming Wayward spinoff. And I did like her. I liked her friend's description of Patience as a "secretly athletic bookworm," and having a psychic on Jody's future team can only be a plus. But the actress, Clark Backo (great name), while undeniably young and beautiful, didn't seem young enough to be a senior in high school. Or was that just me?


It also seemed utterly unfair to Missouri that her son James kept her granddaughter away from her. I was confused about his motives. Was it because Missouri had told him his wife Tess would live and then Tess died anyway? Or was it to keep Patience away from the hunting life? And see, I sort of get that. Being related to or associated with a hunter definitely has an effect on one's life expectancy. But Missouri could have been part of Patience's life in many ways. At the very least, she could have taught Patience to use her psychic ability, couldn't she?

I always enjoy seeing Jody Mills and it was fun to see her partnering with Dean this time. (She partnered with Sam last time in "Who We Are" to take down the British Men of Letters.) And I liked that, while Dean was telling Patience that there was no joy in hunting and never to start in the first place, Jody was thinking about how she lost Claire because of Claire's need to hunt. So if you discover that you have a need to fight monsters, Patience, who you gonna call? The lead character in the upcoming spinoff, that's who.

This episode's general parenting-and-self-determination theme was better served by the B plot, which was Sam "babysitting the Antichrist." That pencil thing: was that a deliberate Buffy reference? I was sort of expecting it to fly through the air and end up in the wall. But what it told us was that Jack doesn't have conscious control over his powers. They just manifest when he's upset, and Jack is already associating those powers with evil. (Jack also likes to hide in dark places so that we can see his eyes glow dramatically.)

It was nice to see Jack watching Kelly's recorded message to him. Will it help? Because it certainly didn't help Jack to hear Sam and Dean fighting about him – guys, when you're fighting about your adopted Antichrist, make sure he can't hear you! Because it's obvious that Dean's threats are having a serious negative effect on Jack. I love Dean, but he is being so unfair. Dean even said that Sam deserved to be saved back when he was the Antichrist, but not Jack. How is Jack different? Yes, he's the son of Lucifer, but he's also a freaking newborn.

It is also completely unreasonable for Dean to blame Jack for Castiel's death, and to accuse Sam of befriending Jack only in the hope of reopening the portal to Mad Max world. While I'm sure that's a contributing factor, it seems pretty clear to me that Sam is trying to help Jack because he identifies with him and feels badly for him. Befriending a hugely powerful being is also a smart thing to do. Come on, Dean!

At the end of the episode, Jack called out to Castiel, and voila! there he was, obviously in the Empty. (We haven't seen the Empty before, but it sure looked Empty to me.) If Jack can open a portal to another dimension, can't he retrieve Castiel from the Empty?

Bits:

— When Dean met Jody and Missouri, I was actually thinking, which one does he hug first? And then he said he didn't know which one to hug first.

— Patience's father James Turner was played by Adrian Holmes, who was also a demon in "Time is On My Side" and who also played continuing characters on Arrow and Continuum.

— Actually, I was surprised that James was alive at the end of the episode. I thought for sure they were setting up an orphan situation for Patience.

— Missouri and James used lithomantic gems for divination. "Lithomantic" doesn't seem to be a real word, but "lithromantic" is.

— This particular wraith was unexciting, even though he had a specific food preference. It was indeed creepy that he planned to keep Patience alive and feed on her for a long time.

— Wraith spikes seem way too easy to break off, even if they grow back quickly.

— This week: Omaha, Nebraska and Buckhead, Georgia.

— Misha Collins' credit card was at the end so they wouldn't spoil us.

Quotes:

Missouri: "Oh, honey. I'm sorry for your losses."
Dean: "Leave it to a psychic to cut right to the chase."

Dean: "This life, hunting, monsters, there's no joy in it. There's nothing but pain, horror and death. So if you get a chance at normal, you take it."

Sam: "Dad told you to put a bullet in me, but you didn't. You saved me. So help me save him."
Dean: "You deserved to be saved. He doesn't."
Sam: "Yes, he does, Dean. Of course he does."
Dean: "Look, I know that you think you can use him as some sort of an interdimensional can opener, and that's fine, but don't act like you care about him."

Not bad, but not terrific. Two out of four interdimensional can openers,

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.

3 comments:

  1. I'm totally with you on this one, Billie. Kind of meh overall, and you're quite right to call Dean out. I wish Sam had interjected that no doubt Dean would have preferred Jack let Dagon kill Castiel.

    I'm a little worried that Jack may only be able to use his powers when he gets angry, like the Incredible Hulk.

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  2. I also find it interesting that Dean sent the Antichrist off with a pat on the back and an admonition that he COULD be good, but with Jack, it's an automatic litany of "you're evil no matter what you do." I also wonder why Sam didn't tell Jack that Lucifer killed Castiel. If anything would help inure Jack against Lucifer's influence, it would be that.

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  3. I hope the spinoff actually works this time. The girl version of Sueprnatural with our favorite recurring sheriff sounds like a milion times better then the Originals in the supernatural-verse previous attempt.

    Too bad they had to reintroduce Missouri just to kill her. But that's what Supernatural does.

    ReplyDelete

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