Picspam Reaction: Supernatural 8.10
Warning: Contains profanity, serious profanity, and even more serious profanity.
Spoiler and Theory Summary
I've seen no actual spoilers, or promo material at all, not even the title. However, based on posted opinions of the promos, I'm pretty sure Castiel, Kevin and Crowley will be likely be in it in some way, the tablet and Castiel plotlines will have development of some kind, and someone's probably going to tell the boys to deal with their interpersonal issues in a Bobby-ish way.
Of course, the show's about due for most of that regardless, so it's not much of a stretch to theorize that from nearly nothing.
Also, from the flurry of vague reactions to the episode above the cut line, it seems to be making some people really unhappy, and not in a good way. I try to focus on the positive in these posts, so if anything makes me want to be unpositive about this episode, I'll be trying to skim past it. Trying.
Picspam Reaction, with handwaving, angst, gnashing of teeth and failure to cope for Supernatural 8.10 - "???" "Torn and Frayed"
Contains some bits of vague unpositiveness distinct irritation, and occasional moments of definite non-squee, despite my best efforts. I'm sorry.
-After a brief montage check, skipping the "THEN"... whoops, no wait. MONTAGE OF PURGATORY! And other things to catch everyone up again, set to "Katmandu" by Bob Seger. Cool.
-And now I've been earwormed by "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger. My earworm has skipped a groove.
-...Ulp. Well. Good to see Alfie the Weiner Hut Angel is still alive... Although I uh. Don't know if he'd share that sentiment in his current situation. What was it I said last time? Oh yeah. "DDDD-:" That still applies. DDDD-:
-"Naomi? Naomi, Crowley has-" Oh, really? Alfie's in contact with Castiel's Handler. Hmm. Not a shock, but interesting nonetheless.
-OW. I feel a sympathetic migraine coming on. Poor Alfie. DDDD-:
-Hello, title. "Torn and Frayed." Yeah that's about the size of it, looks like.
-Sam, you did not just nearly slam the door in your brother's face. Okay, maybe you did. Arg. Admittedly Sam's shorts are no doubt in a major wad still over the Benny thing, but really, whoever's going to shout some sense into these two yahoos better get on with it tout suite.
-I'm not playing favourites or anything, but Dean's arguing face is making a better case than Sam's right now.
-"You think this is just about Benny?" Please Sam, tell us what the hell is up, so you can both get past it or wall it up or something. I'll be shouting at you two before anyone else will tonight I think, but no surprise there.
-And it's not about Dean tricking Sam with the text from Amelia either, because this *makes gestures* thing that's going on with them started before that.
_"To be afraid that what happened to Jessica happened to-" Oh, oh oh my god. I'm not sure how to react to that name-tagging of Jess there. It's understandable, but it's kind of being used as a weapon too, and... eeaaarrgghhh... Moving on.
-Yeah, whoever's going to be shouting some sense into these boys tonight better start soon, 'cause I'm already getting hoarse.
-Meanwhile, Castiel's going around healing random babies. Nice to have a hobby. And Tie Report: ...It Castiel's tie a lighter shade of blue? *reviews prior caps* ...Maybe? Could just be the outdoor light? But it's flipped upside down too. With a hint of green plaid. So, something about plaid being crossed stripes, on a normally hidden part of Castiel's tie, he has the job of watching over the Winchesters and is being used in a second job to spy on the Winchesters against his knowledge and it's all turning him upside-down inside with subliminal conflict and *handwaves* something about washing out his normally deep blue tie to a deep teal which is part green part blue, so more conflict. Or something. I am rusty at this.
-Written by Jenny Klein. Is she new? Nope, she's had a writing credit on "Out with the Old" and story credits on "Caged Heat" and "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester." Still, newish. Directed by Robert Singer, far from newish.
-"It was your idea to rescue Samandiriel, not mine, not Heaven's." Well, at least Naomi seems to care about her operatives falling into Crowley's hands? Whether that's for the sake of her operatives or for the sake of the mission, whatever that might be, remains to be seen.
-Aw, sleeping with a bottle. Like a baby. An incipient alcoholic baby. *pats*
-Castiel: *flutter-hi*/Dean:"*startle-splash*" Me: *snerk*
-I take it as a sign of how messed up the boys are that Dean hasn't thought to ask why Castiel can find him now with the warding sigils carved on his ribs? Unless he called him, or Naomi fed him their location (since we've only got her say so that she's an angel) or Naomi and whoever she's working with have figured out how to trace cellphone/GPS/Dean's laptop wifi connections. Still. No one's asking about it.
-"So who snatched Heaven's most adorable angel?" Heee!
-"When you torture an angel, it screams a- and that kind of pain, it creates a ripple effect of strange incidents." Okay, adding that to the general muddle of stated knowledge about angels. Also DDDD-: Also, oh Castiel, with the slight speech stumble and rattledness.
-Meanwhile, as angels are getting tortured, Sam's watching a TV show about dung beetles. *headdesk*
-"I was okay, settled in, content. But here you are. What am I supposed to do with that?" *headdesk headdesk headdesk* He came because he thought you were being murdered or something. THIS IS NOT A NOOKIE RUN. Also, MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS, AMELIA. And own your own responsibility for making them. Aaaaaarg.
-And is she back with Sam, or is she back with her undead spouse or have she and said undead spouse talked it over and decided to go poly or- *headdesk* Hell with it. Moving on.
-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT THE MIND PROBE! Okay, so it's a modified cervical halo set up specifically for trepanning angels and manually disconnecting them from the Angel network, which... how does that work anyway? Some part of the brain structure of the host acts as the receiver? From the depth and angle of that spike thing, it might be hitting the corpus callosum. Does angelic possession use the corpus callosum as a sort of antenna, or is the big metal spike stuck between the hemispheres of the brain sufficient to just mildly short out the possessing entity enough to disconnect them? So, anyway. Ech. And it still seems weird that possessing entities (angels and demons) choose to fight or hurt each other by damaging each other's vessels, but at least previous brawling is some precedent for angel radio having a meat antenna. Everything else aside, that is one disturbing prop, but anything involving spikes in the brain should be disturbing.
-Okay, chanting. Chanting is... good? Something more than the angelic equivalent of name, rank and serial number it seems. O.o
-Shrubbery. He's making the shrubbery talk. Oh dear. Don't get too close, office-looking dude, talking bushes have a biblical history of bursting into flames, as I recall. And Tie Report for the possibly soon to be immolated random guy: griddy-spotty-squarish-circley things in shades of blue. A confused tie, for a confused person.
-Ahahahaha! I warned you! Not sure how that helps Alfie, or if his torturer just hit Alfie's "Speaker to Shrubbery" neurons, but a bush bursting into flames would act as a sort of signal flare for anyone scanning the area after that blip on the radio.
-HI CAR! HI! Pretty. *pats*
-Tie Report Cas'n'Dean edition: BLUE. We are all so freaking solid blue up in here it's spreading to Dean's shirt. Crossed pinstripes on Dean's jacket though, conflicting duties. Family, job, friendship, fate of the world, all that jazz, yeah.
-"I'd laugh to if I didn't feel like the sun just ate my face."/"It's a metaphor." Simile, actually, but Castiel's learning to not take everything so literally, which I'm sure is saving a lot of people's sanity.
-"That's his serious face, yes." Pffft! Hahaha. *pats Castiel*
-He was making a bush say "Obey me" in Enochian. Hunh. Well, it certainly worked as a signal flare.
-...Really? *headshake*
-Amelia pinning her own behavior to Sam's actions and evading personal responsibility instead of making her own choices, just... Yeah. Moving on. :-/
-Sam, you really aren't helping.
-Meanwhile, the 'rescue Alfie the Weiner Hut angel' plot-line is making progress by finding the only abandoned factory with demon guards posted and angel warding. Handy. If Crowley had some strategic sense though, he'd have posted a few visible demon guards on every nearby abandoned structure, had them all slap up some of those invisible to mortals angel-warding sigils everywhere and have anyone searching have to go through every single one as they came to them in case that was the one Alfie was in. (Insert Mario Bros. "your princess is in another castle" joke of your own here.) Crowley's King of Hell, he can pull up all the demons he wants to. Though I suppose since they got away with keeping Alfie, they figure the heroes think he's dead and aren't too likely to go looking for him, and the guards and sigils have been put up here due to the angel radio message Alfie got out and as a precautionary measure against random humans coming by or, I dunno, over-flying angels. Hm.
-"Okay. I'll get Sam." Heh. Wouldn't that be a quick resolution to the Amelia sub-plot. Instead of Sam being at the hotel, it's Castiel. Although that also could be the opposite of quick.
-Fizzles' Folly. Houseboat. Oh crap it's Garth. Him, I was not anticipating.
-OH HI KEVIN! Right, Kevin's staying with Garth. Forgot about that.
-"You look horrible." Castiel, the ever blunt. Whose tie now looks closer to the usual shade. All theories and meta aside, it's probably just the lighting.
-As Kevin's listing off the shopping list for Demon bombs here, I'm wondering if Castiel isn't going to just pop out and pop back in with an armload of stuff. He's got the capacity to travel, and he did pop off and snag some Holy Oil, so it's feasible, I think. I do get that the show is trying to keep some power balance like any good GM by giving the party a major magic weapon but restricting it's use through prep time and accessibility.
-"Give me the list, I'll get what we need." Of course, power balance is a bit moot when you've got a celestial being in the party.
-"I've given you every torture instrument known to man, short of a Neil Diamond album." Pfft. Also Crowley tie report, still mottled shifty marbley blue-green on black. Still the same inscrutably evil Crowley.
-"'You, celestial being, have been created to be an Angel of the Lord.'" So, childhood memories of a sort then? That spike is in the general area of the right frontal lobe, so if possessing entities file their stuff in the same locations the human host brain has used for stuff, a memory is possible, and metal (or special demon metal *handwav*) sticking into a big electric jelly is going to cause a few short circuits here and there. Not finding the roboticness of the way Alfie says it reassuring though. That bodes very very very ill.
-"You've got into his operating system." Oh crap, brain-hacking by torture. Very ill- boding indeed. DDDD-:
-"I mean come on. How long does it take to get a calf skull from Egypt?" Pft. How about you go do it if you think you can get it done faster, Dean? Yeesh.
-"Your mom's hot." *facepalm* Yeah that's one way of testing that he can't hear you. Also she is, in a badass, family-protecting sort of way. Where is she anyway?
-Hi Benny. You know, this is the second time we've had Benny calling Dean while casually human-watching. It's kind of creepy and makes me think Benny isn't as off the fresh stuff as he claims. And his rationale about Martin is seeming a bit weak.
-"Just hitting a rough patch I guess, doin' this whole solo thing." *facepalm* Benny is calling Dean like someone in Alcoholics Anonymous would call their sponsor, isn't he?
-"One day at a time, man." Yep. He is. And Benny doesn't look like that future coffee is going to hold him off for long. Too bad Lenore and her cow-suckers weren't still around, or Benny could go meet his identical twin and they could keep each other off Human and learn the myriad joys of Cow.
-"This is my desert." A crapped out industrial ship of some kind that's been converted into a houseboat. Sure, why not. And his mom's somewhere safe because she was distracting. Sure, okay. ...I feel like I should be handwaving something here, so *handwave*
-Ha ha. Yeah. Castiel's off gathering spell components. Like Sam. Well played, Cas.
-"I got what we need." Hehe. And I'm detecting an inbound 'get your crap together and deal with it' Bobby-like speech coming from Castiel very soon, yes?
-"I need both of you, as you say, to stow your crap! Can you do that?" Yessss. Thank you. \o/
-Castiel should draw on people with Sharpies all the time. Though, do the symbols need to be written in a specific material, or did Castiel just angel-proof Sam's hand? And is that going to become important later, considering Crowley and his torturer have been trying to get control of Alfie this whole time, or not?
-"This doesn't just kill angels it works on demons too." Oh, okay, fine then. You could have said something earlier, maybe?
-The demon flunkies are not getting any smarter I see. Actually, the smart demons are probably all safely being tormented in Hell, far away from the Winchesters, and other hunters, and angels, and miscellaneous hazards of topside.
-I'm going to assume they really needed the actual keys to get in because of some demonic hoody-hoo Crowley has set up, not because they'd rather kill some poor possessed bastard than pick a standard lock. Yeah. *handwave*
-Painting an X over the sigil makes it ineffective? Okay. Though a quick gouge in the dry wall wouldn't involve loud hissing noises and the need to carry extra equipment like a spray can. Unless the spray can's going to get used for something else later. They can be turned into flamethrowers or explosives with relatively little effort, so it is a multi purpose piece of equipment. Also, since you're only going to need to paint that x four times, and there are other sigil eradication methods readily at hand, you could just spray over all the sigils you find while you're there. Might be handy not to have angel restrictions of any sort in place later is all I'm saying. Just put your finger on the button and hit anything you walk past.
-*draws hearts all over the boys for using hand signals* YAY! \o/
-Meanwhile, Crowley is still brain-hacking and getting closer to stuff about the tablets. Torture aside, the kid playing Alfie really does scream well. But yeah. Poor Alfie! DDDD-:
-Heh. Sigil painted on the 'Accident-free Days' work safety sign. They've used that a lot. Also, I supposed the hissing of spray cans is a bit hard to hear over the screaming.
-"Thanks."/"You're welcome." *headdesk* HONESTLY, BOYS, TALK TO EACH OTHER AND DEAL WITH THIS CRAP. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG!!!!!1!
-Sam looks far more alarmed than Dean about the guards finally getting a clue and tracking them down when 3/4's of their defenses vs angel incursions have been removed. I'm more surprised that the guards have caught on at all.
-Two demon bombs go boom. Far be it from me to pick tactical holes, but since humans aren't effected by demon bombs, the boys could have scooted a bit further down the hall, waited for their followers to converge and taken the lot of them out with one bomb, allowing them to keep one in reserve. Just saying. Though who knows, maybe they've got a bandolier of the things somewhere. *shrug*
-"It must be the sigils. I'm not at full power." *facepalm* I TOLD YOU. JUST SPRAY ALL THE THINGS.
-Castiel's turn for some flashbacks and... What the hell is Naomi doing to Castiel with a Dremel??? O.o with a side of DDDD-:
-Hey! Are the angel-damping sigils interfering with Naomi's influence over Castiel's memory and will and letting him remember things he's been told to forget? Ooooo. Oooooo....
-"Plan B" involves shoulder checking a locked reinforced door, which flexes. I must say, I approve of Plan B, as ineffective as it is. Seriously thought guys, you have a paint can and a lighter. Improvised explosives might help here, yes?
-This speed interrogation by Crowley, as DDDD-: as it is with the torturing and brain-hacking of Alfie the adorable Weiner Hut angel, is making me giggle for reasons I can't explain.
-"Pa deh wrah."/"Holy mother of sin." What? What??? Translation please. (Although for a second with the background noise it sounded a bit like he said 'party rock' which would be a whole different level of WTF.) Did Crowley know about the tablets having 'how to cut off Hell/Purgatory/any other interesting places that might be the source of things that require Hunters to keep them in check from the plane of Earth' instructions, or is he just now finding that out?
-"There's an angel tablet." Well, of course there is. Is that all? Pfft. Hardly worth sharpening a probe for.
-And Crowley buggers off just as the Winchesters break in the door, leaving his designated torturer (belated Tie Report; black bow tie. Out of step with reality and also nerdy-evil) holding the bag of brain-hacked angel. Bye-bye torturer guy.
-Seriously, I never thought she was up to any good, but Naomi has some explaining to do.
-Aw, Alfieeeeeeeeeee *flails a little* because look at that faaaaace! And Castiel with the squinchy kind of mid-flashback, mid-rescue face of, of... not sure actually. Distracted yet concerned emotional constipation? He's not having a very good day. But anyway. YAY FOR BROTHERS RESCUING BROTHERS, I'LL TAKE WHAT I CAN GET AND CLING TO IT AS HARD AS I POSSIBLY CAN. *flail*
-"Wait, I know things!"/"Cas, go!" Wise tactical decision. Adversary appears to be beginning a possible delaying tactic of some kind, get the rescue part of the mission done and cleared, then start asking questions.
-Who is this actor, I know I've seen him in something... Hah. Hahah. He played one of the guys who did a crossroads deal in Crossroad Blues, the one they kept the hellhound from getting. Looks like that Deal thing worked out fine for him in the end after all, eh? (No, I don't think it's meant to be the same character, it's just a funny sort of casting synchronicity.)
-"You need me!"/"Yeah, I don't think so. *stabby*" Also probably wise, though an exorcism would have been kinder to the poor host. And you might have actually gotten some information from him, although given the lie to truth ratio average for demons, you might not risk believing it anyway.
-I'm just going to make some bwee noises for a while about little brothers getting whumped and big brothers rescuing them and stuff, as one does, though I'm sure that's all going to go south real fast here unless they get moving.
-"I'm taking you home."/"No! You can't take me back there, Castiel!" Yep. And the plot continues. Because flashbacks and Naomi is up to some nasty business and there is way too much time left on the counter for all to be well.
-"They're controlling us, Castiel." Well, that whole free will thing got a bit out of hand and caused problems for the previous regime, so I can see how whoever has stepped into the power-vacuum would want it made a non-issue. Cold as the depths of space, but a rational strategy, given the track record. *shiver*
-"Kill him!" Well, Naomi's worried enough to order assassinations, that's... really not a good sign whoever's side she's really on. (Please don't kill Alfie!!)
-"What did you do to me?" Installed a lo-jack or free-will-bypass I'm thinking, or maybe a bit of fishing through the base code, or maybe the 'you'll forget you were here' trick has a more meaty process than magical.
-Nice lift though, especially while in those heels. Her leverage would likely be miserable, I'd think, considering she's still shorter than him while wearing them.
-"This is a direct order. Kill him!" Oh crap. Nooooooooo.... DDDD-:
-Nonononoononononononooooo. No. Please, no. DDDDDDD-:
-Fuck.
-*walking away from the computer for a while*
-They were just starting that whole little brother-big brother thing going, I- Damn it. *taking a little while longer*
-I mean, I understand why the show did that, to demonstrate that Naomi's orders are not something Castiel can resist and that things are not all fine and dandy in Heaven, or wherever Naomi actually represents because all the angel-brains are so scrambled right now it's hard to say whose perceptions reflect what's actually going on, but that, that... Just. FUCK. That's going to take some processing. Later. In retrospect, since Samandiriel was wearing a red shirt the whole time, I should have known better than to get so attached. Also, Naomi can die now. Whatever she is. Whatever her aims are and whatever side she's on, I hope she gets terminally thwarted.
-*gets more tea* So. Right.
-"Samandiriel was good! And I was trying to atone-!" And Castiel's conditioning, be it by angel/other supernatural being magic or by Dremel in the eye is about to bust a gasket all over Naomi. This is what happens when you order someone to do something that conflicts with their baseline motivations. They tend to backfire and go boom.
-"Samandiriel was broken. He revealed the existence of what I would die to protect, what any of us would die to protect." I second Castiel's face. This sadly swings the 'who is Naomi, really' arrow back towards her actually being in some leadership capacity of Heaven, which really needs Chuck or Whoever to get back from vacation because the recent runs of interim leadership have been utterly crap and very hard on the general population of celestial beings.
-"I just murdered one of our own to protect a tablet?" Not even. Crowley already knew by that point, so it was too late anyway, and like destroying a hard drive after someone's already seen the info on it. More like a Naomi-ordered punitive murder, OR, Samandiriel knew something about what was really going on and she didn't want him talking to Castiel. Or both.
-"You've done Heaven a great service." Not really, but that's the way she's spinning it to try to keep control over Castiel by appealing to his known motivations.
-"And that's what I tell Sam and Dean?" Ooof.
-Oooooooooooooof. Ow. Fuck.
-"You tell the Winchesters that Samandiriel had been compromised." Yeah, that's really going to go over well. The Winchesters have several seasons of experience of getting jerked around by Heaven and entities who think they are in charge of it. Dropping some bullshit covert ops sounding reason for offing one of your few remaining brethren is going to fly like a lead balloon made of neutronium.
-"He came at you and you acted in self-defense." Seriously? What was the kid gonna do, ooze brain matter on his coat? If Naomi is going to play puppet master, she'd better find some more sensible lines to feed her thralls.
-And this is yet another reason not to give orders that conflict with baseline character motivations. Bleeding from the eyes. Tends to be a giveaway. Though that could be from the Dremel if she's going in and manually scrambling Castiel's brain on each command.
-Between the constant back-and-forth to the Handler room and the emotional turmoil and the rapid-fire orders and the internal conflict, Castiel's vague teary-eyed head-bobbling shockiness is really understandable. I'm feeling about the same way myself right now.
-"Thank you, both, for everything you've done." Yeah, that seemed really natural. Sure. If Sam and Dean don't figure out something's wrong with Castiel after this, and they don't deal with their mutual crap and get on with it, I might start biting things.
-Yup. Blocking Castiel out to discuss him behind his back, that's one option. Tactically wise given he's a walking wire-tap right now, even though it's crappy friendship-wise.
-"Why would the angels have him kill another angel?" It's not without precedent from several directions, Dean, you know that.
-"You know what, man? I got this. You go."/"What?" Oh really. There could be some shouting left in the episode yet.
-Well, Benny seems to be being good and sipping on a juice box rather than going out and sinking his fangs into any of the frolicking herds of wild, juicy human fruit running around... that metaphor got away from me there.
-Yah know, Benny, maybe if you switched from AB negative to something less rare, it'd be easier to come by. Also perhaps a pleasant change of pace. You could even have a mixed cooler and peel all the labels off, so it'd be more like hunting and you wouldn't know which blood type you'd get until the first sip. Taste the adventure!
-"Everything you've done for me I'll never forget, but uh, this is it." Er. Wait. Is some kind of parallel 'break-up'? O.o There is a slight difference between having a mundane romantic relationship and helping a vampire stay off the live-source sauce, Dean. It's like preventative hunting. Set up a chain of blood banks and support groups and you could cut the need to hunt vampires drastically. Just a thought. Because this isn't going to come back to bite Dean in the ass later this season at aaaaaaaalll. *eyeroll*
-Yep. Well, I suspect we'll see her again too if someone needs a hostage for a handle on Sam. She did make a decision there though, even though it was a decision that still depended on someone else's actions. Hope her marriage works out! It should be an interesting one after all this waffling around.
-And they're back on the same team again. Sort of. Beer and chili and boxing, anyway. It's... a start?
So. That happened. Let's see how it goes from there.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO UNAIRED EPISODES IN COMMENTS! Any and all promo material for unaired episodes is considered to be a spoiler in this journal. The further definition of what constitutes a spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)
Spoiler and Theory Summary
I've seen no actual spoilers, or promo material at all, not even the title. However, based on posted opinions of the promos, I'm pretty sure Castiel, Kevin and Crowley will be likely be in it in some way, the tablet and Castiel plotlines will have development of some kind, and someone's probably going to tell the boys to deal with their interpersonal issues in a Bobby-ish way.
Of course, the show's about due for most of that regardless, so it's not much of a stretch to theorize that from nearly nothing.
Also, from the flurry of vague reactions to the episode above the cut line, it seems to be making some people really unhappy, and not in a good way. I try to focus on the positive in these posts, so if anything makes me want to be unpositive about this episode, I'll be trying to skim past it. Trying.
Picspam Reaction, with handwaving, angst, gnashing of teeth and failure to cope for Supernatural 8.10 - "???" "Torn and Frayed"
Contains some bits of vague unpositiveness distinct irritation, and occasional moments of definite non-squee, despite my best efforts. I'm sorry.
-After a brief montage check, skipping the "THEN"... whoops, no wait. MONTAGE OF PURGATORY! And other things to catch everyone up again, set to "Katmandu" by Bob Seger. Cool.
-And now I've been earwormed by "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger. My earworm has skipped a groove.
-...Ulp. Well. Good to see Alfie the Weiner Hut Angel is still alive... Although I uh. Don't know if he'd share that sentiment in his current situation. What was it I said last time? Oh yeah. "DDDD-:" That still applies. DDDD-:
-"Naomi? Naomi, Crowley has-" Oh, really? Alfie's in contact with Castiel's Handler. Hmm. Not a shock, but interesting nonetheless.
-OW. I feel a sympathetic migraine coming on. Poor Alfie. DDDD-:
-Hello, title. "Torn and Frayed." Yeah that's about the size of it, looks like.
-Sam, you did not just nearly slam the door in your brother's face. Okay, maybe you did. Arg. Admittedly Sam's shorts are no doubt in a major wad still over the Benny thing, but really, whoever's going to shout some sense into these two yahoos better get on with it tout suite.
-I'm not playing favourites or anything, but Dean's arguing face is making a better case than Sam's right now.
-"You think this is just about Benny?" Please Sam, tell us what the hell is up, so you can both get past it or wall it up or something. I'll be shouting at you two before anyone else will tonight I think, but no surprise there.
-And it's not about Dean tricking Sam with the text from Amelia either, because this *makes gestures* thing that's going on with them started before that.
_"To be afraid that what happened to Jessica happened to-" Oh, oh oh my god. I'm not sure how to react to that name-tagging of Jess there. It's understandable, but it's kind of being used as a weapon too, and... eeaaarrgghhh... Moving on.
-Yeah, whoever's going to be shouting some sense into these boys tonight better start soon, 'cause I'm already getting hoarse.
-Meanwhile, Castiel's going around healing random babies. Nice to have a hobby. And Tie Report: ...It Castiel's tie a lighter shade of blue? *reviews prior caps* ...Maybe? Could just be the outdoor light? But it's flipped upside down too. With a hint of green plaid. So, something about plaid being crossed stripes, on a normally hidden part of Castiel's tie, he has the job of watching over the Winchesters and is being used in a second job to spy on the Winchesters against his knowledge and it's all turning him upside-down inside with subliminal conflict and *handwaves* something about washing out his normally deep blue tie to a deep teal which is part green part blue, so more conflict. Or something. I am rusty at this.
-Written by Jenny Klein. Is she new? Nope, she's had a writing credit on "Out with the Old" and story credits on "Caged Heat" and "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester." Still, newish. Directed by Robert Singer, far from newish.
-"It was your idea to rescue Samandiriel, not mine, not Heaven's." Well, at least Naomi seems to care about her operatives falling into Crowley's hands? Whether that's for the sake of her operatives or for the sake of the mission, whatever that might be, remains to be seen.
-Aw, sleeping with a bottle. Like a baby. An incipient alcoholic baby. *pats*
-Castiel: *flutter-hi*/Dean:"*startle-splash*" Me: *snerk*
-I take it as a sign of how messed up the boys are that Dean hasn't thought to ask why Castiel can find him now with the warding sigils carved on his ribs? Unless he called him, or Naomi fed him their location (since we've only got her say so that she's an angel) or Naomi and whoever she's working with have figured out how to trace cellphone/GPS/Dean's laptop wifi connections. Still. No one's asking about it.
-"So who snatched Heaven's most adorable angel?" Heee!
-"When you torture an angel, it screams a- and that kind of pain, it creates a ripple effect of strange incidents." Okay, adding that to the general muddle of stated knowledge about angels. Also DDDD-: Also, oh Castiel, with the slight speech stumble and rattledness.
-Meanwhile, as angels are getting tortured, Sam's watching a TV show about dung beetles. *headdesk*
-"I was okay, settled in, content. But here you are. What am I supposed to do with that?" *headdesk headdesk headdesk* He came because he thought you were being murdered or something. THIS IS NOT A NOOKIE RUN. Also, MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS, AMELIA. And own your own responsibility for making them. Aaaaaarg.
-And is she back with Sam, or is she back with her undead spouse or have she and said undead spouse talked it over and decided to go poly or- *headdesk* Hell with it. Moving on.
-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOT THE MIND PROBE! Okay, so it's a modified cervical halo set up specifically for trepanning angels and manually disconnecting them from the Angel network, which... how does that work anyway? Some part of the brain structure of the host acts as the receiver? From the depth and angle of that spike thing, it might be hitting the corpus callosum. Does angelic possession use the corpus callosum as a sort of antenna, or is the big metal spike stuck between the hemispheres of the brain sufficient to just mildly short out the possessing entity enough to disconnect them? So, anyway. Ech. And it still seems weird that possessing entities (angels and demons) choose to fight or hurt each other by damaging each other's vessels, but at least previous brawling is some precedent for angel radio having a meat antenna. Everything else aside, that is one disturbing prop, but anything involving spikes in the brain should be disturbing.
-Okay, chanting. Chanting is... good? Something more than the angelic equivalent of name, rank and serial number it seems. O.o
-Shrubbery. He's making the shrubbery talk. Oh dear. Don't get too close, office-looking dude, talking bushes have a biblical history of bursting into flames, as I recall. And Tie Report for the possibly soon to be immolated random guy: griddy-spotty-squarish-circley things in shades of blue. A confused tie, for a confused person.
-Ahahahaha! I warned you! Not sure how that helps Alfie, or if his torturer just hit Alfie's "Speaker to Shrubbery" neurons, but a bush bursting into flames would act as a sort of signal flare for anyone scanning the area after that blip on the radio.
-HI CAR! HI! Pretty. *pats*
-Tie Report Cas'n'Dean edition: BLUE. We are all so freaking solid blue up in here it's spreading to Dean's shirt. Crossed pinstripes on Dean's jacket though, conflicting duties. Family, job, friendship, fate of the world, all that jazz, yeah.
-"I'd laugh to if I didn't feel like the sun just ate my face."/"It's a metaphor." Simile, actually, but Castiel's learning to not take everything so literally, which I'm sure is saving a lot of people's sanity.
-"That's his serious face, yes." Pffft! Hahaha. *pats Castiel*
-He was making a bush say "Obey me" in Enochian. Hunh. Well, it certainly worked as a signal flare.
-...Really? *headshake*
-Amelia pinning her own behavior to Sam's actions and evading personal responsibility instead of making her own choices, just... Yeah. Moving on. :-/
-Sam, you really aren't helping.
-Meanwhile, the 'rescue Alfie the Weiner Hut angel' plot-line is making progress by finding the only abandoned factory with demon guards posted and angel warding. Handy. If Crowley had some strategic sense though, he'd have posted a few visible demon guards on every nearby abandoned structure, had them all slap up some of those invisible to mortals angel-warding sigils everywhere and have anyone searching have to go through every single one as they came to them in case that was the one Alfie was in. (Insert Mario Bros. "your princess is in another castle" joke of your own here.) Crowley's King of Hell, he can pull up all the demons he wants to. Though I suppose since they got away with keeping Alfie, they figure the heroes think he's dead and aren't too likely to go looking for him, and the guards and sigils have been put up here due to the angel radio message Alfie got out and as a precautionary measure against random humans coming by or, I dunno, over-flying angels. Hm.
-"Okay. I'll get Sam." Heh. Wouldn't that be a quick resolution to the Amelia sub-plot. Instead of Sam being at the hotel, it's Castiel. Although that also could be the opposite of quick.
-Fizzles' Folly. Houseboat. Oh crap it's Garth. Him, I was not anticipating.
-OH HI KEVIN! Right, Kevin's staying with Garth. Forgot about that.
-"You look horrible." Castiel, the ever blunt. Whose tie now looks closer to the usual shade. All theories and meta aside, it's probably just the lighting.
-As Kevin's listing off the shopping list for Demon bombs here, I'm wondering if Castiel isn't going to just pop out and pop back in with an armload of stuff. He's got the capacity to travel, and he did pop off and snag some Holy Oil, so it's feasible, I think. I do get that the show is trying to keep some power balance like any good GM by giving the party a major magic weapon but restricting it's use through prep time and accessibility.
-"Give me the list, I'll get what we need." Of course, power balance is a bit moot when you've got a celestial being in the party.
-"I've given you every torture instrument known to man, short of a Neil Diamond album." Pfft. Also Crowley tie report, still mottled shifty marbley blue-green on black. Still the same inscrutably evil Crowley.
-"'You, celestial being, have been created to be an Angel of the Lord.'" So, childhood memories of a sort then? That spike is in the general area of the right frontal lobe, so if possessing entities file their stuff in the same locations the human host brain has used for stuff, a memory is possible, and metal (or special demon metal *handwav*) sticking into a big electric jelly is going to cause a few short circuits here and there. Not finding the roboticness of the way Alfie says it reassuring though. That bodes very very very ill.
-"You've got into his operating system." Oh crap, brain-hacking by torture. Very ill- boding indeed. DDDD-:
-"I mean come on. How long does it take to get a calf skull from Egypt?" Pft. How about you go do it if you think you can get it done faster, Dean? Yeesh.
-"Your mom's hot." *facepalm* Yeah that's one way of testing that he can't hear you. Also she is, in a badass, family-protecting sort of way. Where is she anyway?
-Hi Benny. You know, this is the second time we've had Benny calling Dean while casually human-watching. It's kind of creepy and makes me think Benny isn't as off the fresh stuff as he claims. And his rationale about Martin is seeming a bit weak.
-"Just hitting a rough patch I guess, doin' this whole solo thing." *facepalm* Benny is calling Dean like someone in Alcoholics Anonymous would call their sponsor, isn't he?
-"One day at a time, man." Yep. He is. And Benny doesn't look like that future coffee is going to hold him off for long. Too bad Lenore and her cow-suckers weren't still around, or Benny could go meet his identical twin and they could keep each other off Human and learn the myriad joys of Cow.
-"This is my desert." A crapped out industrial ship of some kind that's been converted into a houseboat. Sure, why not. And his mom's somewhere safe because she was distracting. Sure, okay. ...I feel like I should be handwaving something here, so *handwave*
-Ha ha. Yeah. Castiel's off gathering spell components. Like Sam. Well played, Cas.
-"I got what we need." Hehe. And I'm detecting an inbound 'get your crap together and deal with it' Bobby-like speech coming from Castiel very soon, yes?
-"I need both of you, as you say, to stow your crap! Can you do that?" Yessss. Thank you. \o/
-Castiel should draw on people with Sharpies all the time. Though, do the symbols need to be written in a specific material, or did Castiel just angel-proof Sam's hand? And is that going to become important later, considering Crowley and his torturer have been trying to get control of Alfie this whole time, or not?
-"This doesn't just kill angels it works on demons too." Oh, okay, fine then. You could have said something earlier, maybe?
-The demon flunkies are not getting any smarter I see. Actually, the smart demons are probably all safely being tormented in Hell, far away from the Winchesters, and other hunters, and angels, and miscellaneous hazards of topside.
-I'm going to assume they really needed the actual keys to get in because of some demonic hoody-hoo Crowley has set up, not because they'd rather kill some poor possessed bastard than pick a standard lock. Yeah. *handwave*
-Painting an X over the sigil makes it ineffective? Okay. Though a quick gouge in the dry wall wouldn't involve loud hissing noises and the need to carry extra equipment like a spray can. Unless the spray can's going to get used for something else later. They can be turned into flamethrowers or explosives with relatively little effort, so it is a multi purpose piece of equipment. Also, since you're only going to need to paint that x four times, and there are other sigil eradication methods readily at hand, you could just spray over all the sigils you find while you're there. Might be handy not to have angel restrictions of any sort in place later is all I'm saying. Just put your finger on the button and hit anything you walk past.
-*draws hearts all over the boys for using hand signals* YAY! \o/
-Meanwhile, Crowley is still brain-hacking and getting closer to stuff about the tablets. Torture aside, the kid playing Alfie really does scream well. But yeah. Poor Alfie! DDDD-:
-Heh. Sigil painted on the 'Accident-free Days' work safety sign. They've used that a lot. Also, I supposed the hissing of spray cans is a bit hard to hear over the screaming.
-"Thanks."/"You're welcome." *headdesk* HONESTLY, BOYS, TALK TO EACH OTHER AND DEAL WITH THIS CRAP. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG!!!!!1!
-Sam looks far more alarmed than Dean about the guards finally getting a clue and tracking them down when 3/4's of their defenses vs angel incursions have been removed. I'm more surprised that the guards have caught on at all.
-Two demon bombs go boom. Far be it from me to pick tactical holes, but since humans aren't effected by demon bombs, the boys could have scooted a bit further down the hall, waited for their followers to converge and taken the lot of them out with one bomb, allowing them to keep one in reserve. Just saying. Though who knows, maybe they've got a bandolier of the things somewhere. *shrug*
-"It must be the sigils. I'm not at full power." *facepalm* I TOLD YOU. JUST SPRAY ALL THE THINGS.
-Castiel's turn for some flashbacks and... What the hell is Naomi doing to Castiel with a Dremel??? O.o with a side of DDDD-:
-Hey! Are the angel-damping sigils interfering with Naomi's influence over Castiel's memory and will and letting him remember things he's been told to forget? Ooooo. Oooooo....
-"Plan B" involves shoulder checking a locked reinforced door, which flexes. I must say, I approve of Plan B, as ineffective as it is. Seriously thought guys, you have a paint can and a lighter. Improvised explosives might help here, yes?
-This speed interrogation by Crowley, as DDDD-: as it is with the torturing and brain-hacking of Alfie the adorable Weiner Hut angel, is making me giggle for reasons I can't explain.
-"Pa deh wrah."/"Holy mother of sin." What? What??? Translation please. (Although for a second with the background noise it sounded a bit like he said 'party rock' which would be a whole different level of WTF.) Did Crowley know about the tablets having 'how to cut off Hell/Purgatory/any other interesting places that might be the source of things that require Hunters to keep them in check from the plane of Earth' instructions, or is he just now finding that out?
-"There's an angel tablet." Well, of course there is. Is that all? Pfft. Hardly worth sharpening a probe for.
-And Crowley buggers off just as the Winchesters break in the door, leaving his designated torturer (belated Tie Report; black bow tie. Out of step with reality and also nerdy-evil) holding the bag of brain-hacked angel. Bye-bye torturer guy.
-Seriously, I never thought she was up to any good, but Naomi has some explaining to do.
-Aw, Alfieeeeeeeeeee *flails a little* because look at that faaaaace! And Castiel with the squinchy kind of mid-flashback, mid-rescue face of, of... not sure actually. Distracted yet concerned emotional constipation? He's not having a very good day. But anyway. YAY FOR BROTHERS RESCUING BROTHERS, I'LL TAKE WHAT I CAN GET AND CLING TO IT AS HARD AS I POSSIBLY CAN. *flail*
-"Wait, I know things!"/"Cas, go!" Wise tactical decision. Adversary appears to be beginning a possible delaying tactic of some kind, get the rescue part of the mission done and cleared, then start asking questions.
-Who is this actor, I know I've seen him in something... Hah. Hahah. He played one of the guys who did a crossroads deal in Crossroad Blues, the one they kept the hellhound from getting. Looks like that Deal thing worked out fine for him in the end after all, eh? (No, I don't think it's meant to be the same character, it's just a funny sort of casting synchronicity.)
-"You need me!"/"Yeah, I don't think so. *stabby*" Also probably wise, though an exorcism would have been kinder to the poor host. And you might have actually gotten some information from him, although given the lie to truth ratio average for demons, you might not risk believing it anyway.
-I'm just going to make some bwee noises for a while about little brothers getting whumped and big brothers rescuing them and stuff, as one does, though I'm sure that's all going to go south real fast here unless they get moving.
-"I'm taking you home."/"No! You can't take me back there, Castiel!" Yep. And the plot continues. Because flashbacks and Naomi is up to some nasty business and there is way too much time left on the counter for all to be well.
-"They're controlling us, Castiel." Well, that whole free will thing got a bit out of hand and caused problems for the previous regime, so I can see how whoever has stepped into the power-vacuum would want it made a non-issue. Cold as the depths of space, but a rational strategy, given the track record. *shiver*
-"Kill him!" Well, Naomi's worried enough to order assassinations, that's... really not a good sign whoever's side she's really on. (Please don't kill Alfie!!)
-"What did you do to me?" Installed a lo-jack or free-will-bypass I'm thinking, or maybe a bit of fishing through the base code, or maybe the 'you'll forget you were here' trick has a more meaty process than magical.
-Nice lift though, especially while in those heels. Her leverage would likely be miserable, I'd think, considering she's still shorter than him while wearing them.
-"This is a direct order. Kill him!" Oh crap. Nooooooooo.... DDDD-:
-Nonononoononononononooooo. No. Please, no. DDDDDDD-:
-Fuck.
-*walking away from the computer for a while*
-They were just starting that whole little brother-big brother thing going, I- Damn it. *taking a little while longer*
-I mean, I understand why the show did that, to demonstrate that Naomi's orders are not something Castiel can resist and that things are not all fine and dandy in Heaven, or wherever Naomi actually represents because all the angel-brains are so scrambled right now it's hard to say whose perceptions reflect what's actually going on, but that, that... Just. FUCK. That's going to take some processing. Later. In retrospect, since Samandiriel was wearing a red shirt the whole time, I should have known better than to get so attached. Also, Naomi can die now. Whatever she is. Whatever her aims are and whatever side she's on, I hope she gets terminally thwarted.
-*gets more tea* So. Right.
-"Samandiriel was good! And I was trying to atone-!" And Castiel's conditioning, be it by angel/other supernatural being magic or by Dremel in the eye is about to bust a gasket all over Naomi. This is what happens when you order someone to do something that conflicts with their baseline motivations. They tend to backfire and go boom.
-"Samandiriel was broken. He revealed the existence of what I would die to protect, what any of us would die to protect." I second Castiel's face. This sadly swings the 'who is Naomi, really' arrow back towards her actually being in some leadership capacity of Heaven, which really needs Chuck or Whoever to get back from vacation because the recent runs of interim leadership have been utterly crap and very hard on the general population of celestial beings.
-"I just murdered one of our own to protect a tablet?" Not even. Crowley already knew by that point, so it was too late anyway, and like destroying a hard drive after someone's already seen the info on it. More like a Naomi-ordered punitive murder, OR, Samandiriel knew something about what was really going on and she didn't want him talking to Castiel. Or both.
-"You've done Heaven a great service." Not really, but that's the way she's spinning it to try to keep control over Castiel by appealing to his known motivations.
-"And that's what I tell Sam and Dean?" Ooof.
-Oooooooooooooof. Ow. Fuck.
-"You tell the Winchesters that Samandiriel had been compromised." Yeah, that's really going to go over well. The Winchesters have several seasons of experience of getting jerked around by Heaven and entities who think they are in charge of it. Dropping some bullshit covert ops sounding reason for offing one of your few remaining brethren is going to fly like a lead balloon made of neutronium.
-"He came at you and you acted in self-defense." Seriously? What was the kid gonna do, ooze brain matter on his coat? If Naomi is going to play puppet master, she'd better find some more sensible lines to feed her thralls.
-And this is yet another reason not to give orders that conflict with baseline character motivations. Bleeding from the eyes. Tends to be a giveaway. Though that could be from the Dremel if she's going in and manually scrambling Castiel's brain on each command.
-Between the constant back-and-forth to the Handler room and the emotional turmoil and the rapid-fire orders and the internal conflict, Castiel's vague teary-eyed head-bobbling shockiness is really understandable. I'm feeling about the same way myself right now.
-"Thank you, both, for everything you've done." Yeah, that seemed really natural. Sure. If Sam and Dean don't figure out something's wrong with Castiel after this, and they don't deal with their mutual crap and get on with it, I might start biting things.
-Yup. Blocking Castiel out to discuss him behind his back, that's one option. Tactically wise given he's a walking wire-tap right now, even though it's crappy friendship-wise.
-"Why would the angels have him kill another angel?" It's not without precedent from several directions, Dean, you know that.
-"You know what, man? I got this. You go."/"What?" Oh really. There could be some shouting left in the episode yet.
-Well, Benny seems to be being good and sipping on a juice box rather than going out and sinking his fangs into any of the frolicking herds of wild, juicy human fruit running around... that metaphor got away from me there.
-Yah know, Benny, maybe if you switched from AB negative to something less rare, it'd be easier to come by. Also perhaps a pleasant change of pace. You could even have a mixed cooler and peel all the labels off, so it'd be more like hunting and you wouldn't know which blood type you'd get until the first sip. Taste the adventure!
-"Everything you've done for me I'll never forget, but uh, this is it." Er. Wait. Is some kind of parallel 'break-up'? O.o There is a slight difference between having a mundane romantic relationship and helping a vampire stay off the live-source sauce, Dean. It's like preventative hunting. Set up a chain of blood banks and support groups and you could cut the need to hunt vampires drastically. Just a thought. Because this isn't going to come back to bite Dean in the ass later this season at aaaaaaaalll. *eyeroll*
-Yep. Well, I suspect we'll see her again too if someone needs a hostage for a handle on Sam. She did make a decision there though, even though it was a decision that still depended on someone else's actions. Hope her marriage works out! It should be an interesting one after all this waffling around.
-And they're back on the same team again. Sort of. Beer and chili and boxing, anyway. It's... a start?
So. That happened. Let's see how it goes from there.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO UNAIRED EPISODES IN COMMENTS! Any and all promo material for unaired episodes is considered to be a spoiler in this journal. The further definition of what constitutes a spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)