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Supernatural: The Spear

"Impossible odds. Feels like home. Let's do it."

This episode left a bad taste in my mouth.

And it started out so well. With Jack experiencing some well-deserved joie de vivre and Cookie Crisp, even. With Castiel assuring him that since happiness is required, it's unlikely the Empty will take him away anytime soon.

Followed by the great idea of a double heist – Sam and Jack after the mystical egg at the Federal Express in Joplin, and Dean and Castiel after Kaia and her magical spear north of Omaha. It could have been a lot of fun... but no. It was all about dread. We can just feel that something bad is going to happen all through the episode. There was no joy, even during the obvious tribute to Die Hard as our four heroes, ready to attack, did the full Spielberg to the strains of "Ode to Joy" in the parking garage.

The long-awaited return of Garth felt like such a set-up, too. I never once got the feeling that Garth and his undercover werewolf activity had fooled Michael, so I just kept waiting for the hammer to come down. And sure enough. Michael, in his new and beautiful female vessel, melted the mystical egg and took Jack hostage, and was just waiting for the boys to show up. He didn't even send monsters after them. Smug.

Michael's great big plot was to use his new super monsters to take over and turn the entire city of Kansas City, Missouri, just in time for Christmas, because he has all these pleasant memories of leveling Kansas City back in Apocalypse world. (How nice. Michael is sentimental.) Was Michael faking his interest in Jack? Is Jack really Michael's only living relative? How could anyone as cruel as Michael even care about family?

Michael does care about getting Dean back, though, and that was the point. Michael was all complaining about, hey, Dean was resisting way too much, squirming to get out, and that's why Michael dropped him for awhile. And now Dean is supposedly gone, completely submerged inside Michael. Why would Dean give up now? It makes absolutely no sense.

So, to conclude: this episode just didn't satisfy. The double heist was completely lacking in fun, and there was no emotional pay-off for all of the ominous foreboding they dumped on us. I actually thought Jack would die again. Then I thought it would be Castiel, happy moment or not. Or Garth, at the very least. Not that I wanted any of them to die or anything.

Instead, what we got was a cliffhanger that didn't feel earned, because we all knew that Michael would take Dean back, anyway. Am I right? Did I just not get it this time?

Bits:

— The "previously on" was all about how monsters never really go away. Stating the obvious.

— Garth mentioned that he had a daughter and that he'd come out of hunting retirement to help Sam. And now he's in the trunk of the Impala, where many other characters have been before him. I hope he lives through January's episodes.



— I usually track holiday episodes in our Let's Doux Christmas page, but even with the Christmassy soundtrack and the many references to Die Hard, this didn't feel like a Christmas episode.

— But speaking of Die Hard, which I reviewed several years ago: Hitomi Plaza, the office party, "Ode to Joy." What else? I bet I missed something.

— Why has Dean been having dizzy spells if Michael wasn't hiding inside him?

— Dean was much nicer to Kaia this time, and in return for the Spear, he promised to help her get home. Dean lied, and Castiel backed him up. Castiel has become a lot more human lately, hasn't he?

— At one point, Garth said, "Balls." I assume that was a petite homage to Bobby.

— I enjoyed seeing Ketch again, even if it was just on Skype. I kind of like him now.

— Fortnite? I've literally never heard of it. IMDb says it's a video game.

— This week: Kansas City, Missouri; north of Omaha, Nebraska; and Joplin, Missouri.

— This was the midseason finale. Supernatural returns on Thursday, January 17, 2019.

— I don't usually mention casting spoilers, and move on if you don't want to know, but there was a major one. Highlight the white space to read! Jeffrey Dean Morgan returns to Supernatural in episode 300, which will air in February!

Quotes:

Castiel: "If you can't sleep, that's understandable, given recent events."
Jack: "You mean dying and coming back to life."
Castiel: "Yeah, we've all been through it. It's something of a rite of passage around here."

Castiel: "The secret password is 'cookietacular'."

Werewolf: (to Garth) "He says he's immune to silver now. Pretty cool, right? The only thing that can take him down now is the full Ichabod."
A nice reminder, right before we saw it, of the only way to take down the Michael monsters.

Sam: "It's literally a trip to the post office."

Sigh. Two out of four melting eggs and broken spears,

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

10 comments:

  1. I might be more forgiving than you are, Billie. Maybe because I was relieved that the Michael shoe finally dropped.

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  2. It was a peculiar episode and while I totally understand you're not liking it, it's a well-constructed and logical storyline. It's just not very satisfying.

    As soon as I saw Garth appear, I was both happy and horrified because I knew there was no way he was going to fool Michael...but Garth hasn't had the Winchester's experience with angels and archangels and just doesn't understand what he's dealing with. So I can buy that he would try to break in as a spy though his failure was inevitable and predictable.

    Similarly, we all suspected Michael wasn't done with Dean; hell, Michael himself points out that it was obvious he wouldn't just leave. When Michael makes no attempt to stop them from getting the spear, you know he has no fear of it. I suppose even if Castiel had been wielding it instead of Dean, he was confident he could escape by possessing Dean. It's logical...but it's a little frustrating that our guys walked right into it, knowing it had to be a trap. And where the heck have all the other hunters gone?

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    Replies
    1. They said a bunch of hunters are out in the city, ready to protect the city if the main squad fail. I suspect the real answer is they're always out hunting/ too expensive to pay.

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  3. "Why has Dean been having dizzy spells if Michael wasn't hiding inside him?"

    I guess that was because Michael "left the door open a little bit" (as he put it after repossessing Dean).

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  4. I really enjoyed this episode, for the most part cuz they could just write off Michael but actually atuck with him on Dean´s body, and of course the Thanos cliffhager!

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  5. Thank you for your review. It was another complicated episode but not in a very satisfying way. Fans were left connecting too many dots without enough lines to connect them.

    Michael can repossess vessels whenever he wants.
    If the show is going to introduce new canon it needs to be explained. If Michael had a connection to Dean a few blurry moments didn't cover it.

    Garth was given a blood/grace cocktail. Why isn't Michael being depleted of grace. He's making a monster army his grace has to be running low as per Gabriel and Lucifer. He can't be eating other angels as Lucifer did there aren't any left.



    The episode fell flat for me because it had little emotional connection to the brothers. Also when the viewer is trying to keep up with new canon (or contradicting canon) that isn't explained it's hard to connect to the story being told.

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  6. I love how the Christmas tree decorations behind Sam in the photo you picked are the colors of Michael's evil eyes.

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  7. I actually really liked this episode, but I have the feeling that that might be because it plays better on DvD when you can immediately jump to the next episode. Honestly, I feel like all of season fourteen works infinitely better when binged. It's easier to follow along with all of the new added mythology, and it's a lot less depressing when you can see the resolution the same day.

    Or it might just be because I'm a sucker for Jack, so I was really into all the Jack-stuff they were doing this season.

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  8. I am glad that Michael himself stated, weren't you just a bit concerned, curious, etc about my sudden leaving? (Paraphrasing) but I hollered,Yes!! Otherwise, I agree I did not much care for this episode.

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  9. I actually miss season 12, so much... it's just, as infuriating as it was to see the show show a torture scene involving Sam with yet another smug "detached" villain, it was so cool and so vindicating to see Dean promise retribution and almost immediately deliver on it, forcing the BMoL to sort of backpedal and try to make nice with the Winchesters. That stuff was the last time with the boys, well Dean, in their element. So badass, and coldly effective. I'm thinking that might be the last satisfying season, with Crowley's departure (RIP this show clearly needed you still) capping it and possibly becoming my personal cut-off point for a distant revisit.
    Oh but I loved the shot of Garth being tackled by Jack and them kind of pirouetting ridiculously in the air. It's actually really satisfying lol and to me reinforces that you don't need ridiculous choreography to make enjoyable fight scenes. And outside of the disappointment of the Michael confrontation that followed it I did enjoy the Ode to Joy thing they did.
    Also I hate noticing this but please, show, let us see the violence against villainous women. I get that it's iffy to see against-women violence that we might relish for the wrong reasons (ie completely ignoring context), but I personally don't see how this is worse than the genuinely upsetting and gratuitous things they show happening to civilian vics and the good guy women. How is Bela deserving of that awfulness but not the BMoL women who got immediately fatal bullet shots? And more immediately, the Michael crony who we don't see get decapitated in combat though her male counterpart did. I get it, but I hate it.
    Also on my wish list I want some mutilation for Michael's end... PLEASE DELIVER ON THIS! I need the good guys to properly break him somehow. Fucking linger on it, and not with some cringey speech about never giving up. Not some "killing light" bull either that leaves behind a perfectly preserved corpse... why must you blue-ball me like this? None of the temporary villain victories make their end satisfying because their dispatching is infuriatingly "respectful" and curt anyway. It's only ever the good guys that have to endure some sort of humiliation ritual every time. I find this deeply unfair! This is not the correct way to emotionally engage your audience! And I'm not fooled by the jarring "feel-good" scenes at all! The best stuff is always snuck in, not these overt placating gestures.
    tl;dr Worst cliff-hangar ever. You're MICHAEL, you're supposed to be the Champion! Why couldn't they make you an interesting obsessed zealot? How did they manage to rationalize turning you into one of the female BMoL? "Humans are like... insects." Wow. angry-garden-gnome.jpg

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