Thoughts on SPN 6.07
Y'know, I just realised how much I'm loving this season. The pace has been fantastic, every episode is intense and relevant to the plot (although there are times that I miss the fillers), and while quality hasn't always been consistent (6.01 and 6.02, the latter in particular, formed a very weak start to a season that really caught fire from the third episode), the thing I've loved most is that it's allowed us to get a nice, long look into Sam and Dean's heads, and even made that character analysis central to the plot. Did I mention I love this?
And so yeah. We come to the episode. SPOILERS under the cut.
6.07: Family Matters
Obligatory something-is-wrong-with-Sam (SIWWS?) THEN sequence, complete with the Vampire-Episode!Smirk, greets us. Right. Okay. *rubs hands* Answers, Show? Right. Answers.
Sam wakes up, all woozy, to find he's tied to a chair and Castiel in his face. He's barely surfaced to full consciousness and wondering what the hell Cas is doing there when the angel goes all House on him, pulling up his eyelids (to check the... bulbar conjunctiva? Demonic trickery manifesting like Jaundice! I wonder if they'd actually show yellow if the sulphur... okay. What the hell am I talking about?), checking his carotid pulse, asking if he's felt feverish. Sam's uncomfortable and confused and asks what the hell is going on, when Dean pipes up from the background, and tells him to shut his hole and just answer Castiel's questions. Yeeowch. Sam's quiet, confused, but he listens to Dean. Castiel asks him how much he sleeps, and Sam says he doesn't, not since he got back from Hell. This freaks out Dean, and I must admit I'm confused at this point.
I know Sam's missing a soul (thank you, super-spoilery CW promo!) but why does that mean he can't sleep? Is he perhaps talking about how he can't dream anymore? That sleep is not sleep anymore, but a time to shutdown and recharge like the robo he's become? What? I cannot believe his body is still running without sleeping for nearly a year. It's not super-healing; he can get hurt, he can get knocked into unconsciousness. I don't know. But this soul question is nagging me. How do you define a 'soul', Show?
Cas then asks what Sam is feeling right then, and Sam says... he doesn't know. Bursting with rage, anxiety, fear? Nope. I'm just confused here, not particularly angry or upset that you beat the shit out of me, tied me up and started snapping at me like I'm some sort of scum you found under your shoe.
Oh, Sam.
Then, Cas pulls out his belt, and Sam's hilariously uncomfortable at that, and then the angel asks him to bite down on the leather, and informs him what he's about to do will be very painful. For the first time, genuine terror registers on Sam's face, and then Cas plunges his hand into Sam's chest, and Sam starts screaming, straining his neck, muscles corded and blood vessels glowing bright red. You can actually hear the sounds of organs shifting and bones stretching and creaking as Cas roots around, and I have to wonder if it hurts like somebody's actually torn apart your chest and checking out your thoracic cavity like a well-stocked fridge. Finally, Cas pulls his hand out (:p), and Sam slumps, spent. And Cas reveals: Sam has no soul. Right, right, revelation, moving on. So Dean's all where is it, and Cas says his best guess is that it's still stuck in the Cage. Hm. So is he still Sam, asks Dean.
And yeah, Cas. It's an interesting philosophical question. :p Not that Dean cares about philosophy at that point.
So Dean and Castiel are busy discussing the situation, while Sam's getting restless, working the ropes tying his wrists. He asks if he's going to be untied, that he's not a psycho (O RLY?), that he didn't want Dean to get hurt by the vamp, just that he --
And then he sees it's not working, and he pulls the Puppy Dog Eyes. Seriously, he lifts his eyebrows up, goes all wide-eyed and imploring, and says "I'm sorry. It won't happen again" with all the sincerity of an exasperated teenager riding out yet another lecture from a fussy parent, and I AM LAUGHING SO HARD. (go Padalecki!) Dean though is upset, and says he's not letting Sam go anywhere. Sam insists that it's still him and Dean's all, oh yeah? Finally, Sam shakes his head, says, "I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this" and shakes off the bonds that he'd been working on over the past few minutes. Yay, Sam so awesome! And is it wrong that I sniggered at Dean's flabbergasted expression?
Sam says Dean can't just lock him down - that, yeah, Dean's stuck with a "soulless guy" and that he might as well work with him to figure shit out. Dean says he'll be watching every move Sam made, and Sam's okay with that. Huh. Cas fixes Sam's physical injuries, and they all decide that the best lead they have regarding Sam's missing soul is Grandpa Campbell who was pulled back from the dead along with Sam.
So Sam and Dean go to the Campbell Lair, where the Family is busy preparing for a hunt. They barge right into Samuel's office (he's studying something in his hand very intently that he quickly hides when Sam and Dean burst in; at first I thought it was a piece of paper, but I think it might be a photograph). Dean asks him to tell what happened the day he was resurrected, to "recap it for our wingman", which apparently refers to Castiel, because the angel Flapparates next to Samuel right on cue. ("My true form is approximately the size of your Chrysler building." AHAHAHAHA.) So Samuel says he just got back - no idea how, or why. Dean asks Cas to double-check, and apparently that involves more hand-plunging into chests. Cas confirms after the "angel cavity check" that Samuel's soul is intact. Samuel's all, "what the hell, of course my soul is intact" before he sees Sam's downcast expression and asks him what's going on. Sam tells him his soul is missing, and Samuel sighs, and Sam immediately asks, "did you know?" and Samuel has a go at covering up his own secrets, saying he'd always known there was something wrong with Sam, that he was willing to help in getting Sam's soul back. Riiight, Samuel.
Castiel, meanwhile, is staring off into the distance, before he tells them that he needs to get back to Heaven, that he's in the middle of a Civil War. Dean goes, "be sure to root around for answers to Sam's missing soul" and Cas says, "Of course. Your problems always come first," and he disappears. Yay, Cas has learned how to successfully employ sarcasm! Also, Dean. Really? Sure, Cas was rudderless in s5, and he followed you around, and both of you had converging agendas (not to mention Cas was at his lowest ebb - without power or faith or his fellow angels' support), but now? He's back to full power and has his own shit to deal with - and it is some major shit. Despite this, he's still doing all he can to help you. C'mon,Dean.
Dean asks Samuel what's going on with the Family, and Samuel says they're preparing for a hunt. Sam figures out that they've found the Alpha Vampire, and immediately he's excited, and disappointed that he wasn't called earlier. Hi, Creepy!Sam, welcome back. Samuel doesn't answer, and Dean says it's because Grandpa Campbell doesn't trust him. Samuel says that's not it; he doesn't know Dean, not like he knows Sam. (Right. Because robo!Sam somehow = Sam). Whatever. Samuel makes it clear he doesn't want Dean on the hunt. But Dean wants in, he's willing to follow Samuel's orders, and trust him.
As soon as they're outside, however, Dean makes it clear he doesn't trust the Campbells, that he only wants to blend in and find out what they're really up to. Sam asks why, and Dean says Samuel was lying; that if Sam weren't "Robo-Sam" (he actually said it! Yay! \o/) he'd know it, too. Sam's confused, asking him if he doesn't trust family. And Dean brings up a good point: family doesn't mean the same thing to the Campbells as it does to the Winchesters. So they both go back inside, ostensibly to 'blend in'. The Family is getting the weapons ready: knives, machetes, lots and lots of dead man's blood. Dean sneaks off to break into Samuel's office, before he is caught by Christian Campbell. Christian is basically a dick to Dean, and it nearly devolves into a fight before Christian reminds him of the hunt the next day. Dean lets him go, and says, "I got your back," which is becoming an entirely overused phrase, right up there with "son of a bitch".
So. They're all ready to go, and the music they put for the vehicles revving up reminds me of the s4 blooper reel. (or was it s3). Similar music, amirite? Padalecki... doing something, presumably goofy.
The morning of the hunt, Dean and Gwen are left behind with the vehicles to take care of any runaways while the others take out the nest and the alpha. Gwen's annoyed at that, asking why she's left behind with the "reject" but once they're alone, she apologises. She and Dean get a good rapport going, and when a vampire does arrive, she severs its head with one stroke of her machete. Wow. I'm starting to like her.
Dean hears gunshots, and he's running toward the noise, ignoring Gwen's protests of "we're supposed to wait here." He finds a house, the front courtyard littered with headless vampire corpses. And from inside the house, a vampire flings herself against the window and screams "Dean!" (I think?) before she is beheaded, too. He continues to sneak around, until he sees the Campbells force a struggling, covered figure into the back of their van. Dean figures out that it's the Vamp Alpha. Sam senses that somebody's watching them, but Dean's gone by the time he turns his head. So... Sam's in on this, but hasn't told Dean. *sigh*
Dean goes back to Gwen, who asks him where the hell he'd been. Before he can answer, however, Samuel and the others arrive, and ask Gwen if everything was okay. She hesitates, wondering if she should tell about Dean up and disappearing on her for a while, but chooses not to, and I love her for it. Samuel says that they caught and killed and burnt the Alpha Vampire, and oohh yeah. Dean knows that's a load of bullshit.
Then cut to Sam and Dean in the Impala, and Dean's asking Sam if everything was okay with the hunt, if there was anything weird. Sam says, yeah, everything was fine, and that's it. Dean's had it. He stops the Impala by the side of the road and both of them get out. Dean tells Sam that he saw them bundling the Alpha into the van; that there's no use lying anymore. Sam expresses nothing more than mild surprise, and says Dean was not supposed to know that. He says that Samuel takes these creatures and 'grills' them for information. "You mean, torture," Dean says, and uh, Dean-o? You're no greenhorn when it comes to torture, yourself, y'know.
Dean asks if it was Samuel's idea to keep him in the dark, and Sam says no, it was his. Why? Because Dean tended to shoot first and ask questions later, and they needed to ask questions. Guys, I want to laugh. This is so hilarious. Robo!Sam, now that he's stopped pretending to be Sam, is fabulous.
Dean then says he doesn't care if Sam's soulless, or whatever, but how could Sam not see it? He asks if Sam's ever wondered at Samuel's practices being "shady", if he had actually ever visited these interrogations ("no"), if he ever thought of anything but trusting the man. Sam simply says that he's family, so there. All the while, having this mild bewilderment on his features (what's Dean going on about when things make sense?). I imagine that's driving Dean crazy. I LOVE IT.
Then Dean tells Sam, "you've got no instincts". Perhaps he means the ability to tell right from wrong? Gut instinct, where you put together emotion and perception and memory and knowledge and come to a lightning-fast conclusion? Whatever it is, Dean's pretty sure Sam's right royal "messed-up". Then, DEAN LAYS DOWN THE LAW. You want to hunt with me? he says. Then I drive the bus; I make the rules. No secrets: nothing is too much or too less important. He says, Sam can't tell the difference between the two anymore. Either this, or you go back to Samuel and see how that goes along. Freaked!taking-charge!Dean to the fore! Although I'm not sure it's such a great strategy.
Cut to Samuel's office in the Campbell Lair. Sam meets Samuel, says Dean's left him for good because they don't see eye-to-eye anymore. Sam's chosen the Campbells, yay! Sam says he wants in on the interrogations, the grand plan, everything. Samuel's all no-can-do, son, not until the matter of your soul is cleared up. Until then, you keep doing the good work you've been doing so far, okay? And here it struck me just how Robo!Sam can be used by the people he sort of entrusts his moral compass to. Now it's Dean he's entrusted it to, and Dean needs to be careful of that responsibility. It makes me very sad. :(
Sam comes out and sneaks into the Campbell van (the music + expressions + gait + hair in this sequence = WIN \o/), pulls out a mobile and fiddles with it. Later he's back in the Impala, and Dean's mildly surprised to see Sam back. Sam asks him if he didn't think Sam would come back, and Dean admits it was "sixty-forty". Sam acknowledges that like it makes perfect sense and I'm laughing again. He flips open the laptop and opens a GPS-locator-thingamabob program. Says he can track the GPS on the phone he'd just fiddled with straight to the Alpha. Yay, I always do love me some technologically-competent!Sam! ("he thinks Velcro is big news". AHAHAHA.)
"There. Got 'im." They track the Campbell van to where they're keeping the Alpha. (and everybody's absolutely right: The Impala is way too conspicuous to be driven while tailing somebody! A trained somebody, at that.) The door is smeared with dead man's blood ("lock the place down with vamp repellent.") Dean picks the lock, and they get in. They look around for a bit (and there are containers of dead man's blood everywhere. Ew.), nearly get caught by Christian, before they finally come across the room where the Alpha is kept.
The Alpha is kept behind bars, chained to a chair, nails driven through his hands and feet, that are connected to electrodes. Dead man's blood is constantly fed to him through a line stuck in his neck. Samuel is interrogating him, asking him where some place is, where they can find it. When the Alpha doesn't answer, he turns on the current. But the Alpha isn't fazed. (I love how he says "Ow. ow. that hurts." in this completely dead-pan voice.) Samuel's desperate, trying everything to frighten some information out of the vamp, but the Alpha is unfazed, even bored. I love how he's playing Samuel here, and not the other way round. Samuel stalks out of the room, and the Alpha laughs, before he says, "you planning to hide there all night, boys?" The brothers exchange looks - busted - before appearing in front of the Alpha.
Dean steps easily into the role of interrogator, says he's got questions. Turns out the Alpha hasn't got enough "juice" to exercise his telepathic powers (or "psychic bat-signal" as Dean put it). But the Alpha's toying with Dean, now, asking him if he enjoyed his brief time as a vampire, as "[his] child." Dean falls right in, gets hot and bothered, and turns on the electric charge although he knows that it does nothing; he just saw it.
Shockingly, the Alpha is fine. He says he's got aaall night; that he's willing to field their questions. Why? Because he's going to kill them, you see ("suck the marrow from their bones" to be more specific. That... doesn't sound appetising or enjoyable at all.) Sam asks first: is the Alpha vamp really the first of the species? Yes. Who created the Alpha, then? "We all have our mothers. Even me." Oooooh.
More questions. Why so many vamps lately? "We're going to war". (Whaaaat.) Why did Samuel bring him here? What was he asking? What's really going on?
The Alpha ignores all of that, and says to Sam, "you smell cold." He further elaborates, "You have no soul. What an oddity - do you feel how empty you are? What does it feel like, to have no soul?"
Woah. Wait up there. What exactly can this Alpha vamp smell? I mean, I understand the ghouls way back 4.19 commenting on how Sam's blood tasted different because it had a demonic tinge to it, but how do you smell the absence of a soul? Oh, and supernatural creatures continue to find Sam even more... supernatural. :(
Then he talks about the souls of the supernatural "freaks" - when these creatures die, their souls go neither to Heaven nor Hell, but to Purgatory. Uh, okay? Turns out Samuel was trying to eke out the location of this Purgatory place. The Alpha vamp says he keeps telling Samuel that he has no idea where it is, but Sam throws this little knowing smile and says, "you know exactly where it is." But why would Samuel care about where Purgatory is? Well, he doesn't. But whomever he works for does. Just as they're mulling over this revelation, Samuel and a couple of Campbells appear, training their guns on the Winchesters.
Sam and Dean are forced to empty their weapons (and it's impressive how much they've got stashed away on their person). Dean pulls Samuel into a verbal confrontation, and in a single, almost choreographed movement, both Winchesters tackle their captors (it's lovely to see them so in sync, still, even if it is only when they're hunting). Just as Dean's about to pick up his gun, he hears the tell-tale sound of another gun being cocked behind him. Turns out Gwen's arrived on the scene. Did I mention she's awesome?
Meanwhile, a Nameless Campbell (NC) has been left to keep watch over the Alpha. The Alpha taunts him even as he continues to wear through the metal wrist-binding with his fingernail. When the NC has gotten close enough to the cage, the Alpha escapes and kills him. The others hear the screaming and come rushing, only to find the dead NC and an empty cage. Despite the fact that they have very little dead man's blood left, and that it would take the Alpha less than an hour to regain full power, Samuel wants to get him back in the cage. Dean's all NO WAY, we have to kill the sucker, or we'll all die instead. He immediately takes centre-stage, shooting orders left and right - and, interestingly enough, Gwen and Christian follow him. Maybe the Alpha's freaked them, too. Maybe it's the dead NC. But they move to Dean's word. Samuel smoulders for a moment before shrugging and joining Sam and Christian in scouting out the place.
So they're searching, searching, and just when I'm thinking this is dragging way too long, the Alpha jumps behind Christian and breaks his neck and startles the shit out of me. He throws Samuel aside, and knocks the knife out of Sam's hand. He tackles him to the wall, and starts choking him (yay!). "Body with no soul," he breathes, "I've got big plans for you. It's amazing how that pesky little soul gets in the way. But not for you. You will be... the perfect animal." Again, it's always Sam getting used for something. Chilling.
Just when the Alpha's about to bite Sam, the supposedly-dead Christian - now with demonic-black eyes - takes down the Alpha with dead man's blood. There's a flash, and there are several demons restraining the Alpha. Another flash, and they're all gone. What the hell? Demons can Flapparate, too? *racks brains* I guess... Crowley himself, and, uh. I don't remember. Ruby?
A slow clap echoes across the room, and the camera shifts to... Crowley! HEY, CROWLEY!!
"Well. That was dramatic."
♥
Samuel demands Christian back, because, y'know, he just got possessed, right? Crowley goes, nope, he was possessed long back. He asks Samuel to "keep an eye on [his] investments." (and just how tall is Mitch Pileggi? Sheppard is practically craning his neck to look at his face).
Dean explodes ("you know each other?"), and Crowley says he has a business relationship with Samuel. Sam puts it succinctly: "You're Crowley's bitch." Thank you, Sam. Samuel is basically rounding up powerful monsters for Crowley, mainly Alphas, and when Dean asks why, Crowley doesn't answer. Sam says they know he's trying to find Purgatory, and asks him why he needs that info.
"Location, location, location," says Crowley. "I am a developer. Purgatory is vast, underutilised, and hell-adjacent - and I want it." And I wish I could just simply transcribe all of Crowley's dialogue.
♥
What for, Dean asks, but Crowley doesn't answer the question - instead reveals that they've all been working for him for sometime, thanks to Samuel; that Grandpa Campbell knows a lot - practically a "walking encyclopaedia of the creepy and the crawly" and that Sam and Dean are "so hung up on family and loyalty" that he could just set them up to do his work. Meeeeaning, CROWLEY PULLED SAM AND SAMUEL OUT OF HELL AND HE HAS SAM'S SOUL OMG.
WHAAAAAT.
Too. Many. Revelations. In this episode.
Sam's more hung up on the fact that Samuel knew but deceived them, while Dean's asking how a "punkass crossroad demon" had enough power to pull Sam out of the cage. But the Crowley of Now? KING OF HELL. OMG. "Believe me," he says quietly, "I have the mojo. I snap my fingers, and Sam gets his soul back. Or - you can be you, and I shove Sam back into the hole."
"So! We clear? Me, Charlie. You, Angels."
Aaand he's gone. Gotta say, if Crowley's the Big Bad this year, he's probably the first SPN villain I've absolutely adored since Azazel. Yay! \o/
Samuel asks Gwen to take the van, but she doesn't move. She asks him how he's letting a demon call the shots, but Samuel's having none of it. "We hunt! Period," he says. Gwen's still not going anywhere, and Samuel asks her if she trusts him or not. Finally, she leaves to get the van.
"Working with a demon, huh?" Sam says, walking toward Samuel. "You're not the man I thought you were." And, you know, I've heard cries of hypocrisy! over here, because, hello, Ruby, but Sam's accusation was not so much being in cahoots with a demon as it was for deceiving them all this while. So Dean asks Samuel why he's working for Crowley ("girls? money? hair?" and i will admit i sniggered at that), but Samuel just says he has his reasons and leaves it at that. But Dean's not letting it go. Samuel asks Dean to go ahead and make a move. Or what? Or nothing, because Sam and Dean are family. "So, the way I see it, you got two choices: put a bullet in your grandfather, or step aside."
And Sam actually pulls out his gun and trains it on Samuel, before Dean stops him. "Let it go," he says. "Why?" Sam asks. Like he can't imagine a reason for just not offing the person who's been lying to them all along, but who's also their grandfather, family.
Sam may be the consummate hunter right now, but he's far more vulnerable than he's ever been. It's almost something bordering on... naivete? Maybe something starker.
Did I mention Padalecki rocked in this episode?
Samuel leaves, and Sam and Dean discuss their situation. Dean doesn't like the idea of working for a demon, not after their history, but Sam points out that they don't exactly have a choice, seeing as Crowley practically owns Sam's soul. Sam says that they'll go with this for now - until they find another way. Then? They'll "track Crowley down, and give that son of a bitch what's comin' to him."
"You with me, Dean?" he asks. A loaded, loaded question.
End episode.
EGADS. So much awesome.
And so yeah. We come to the episode. SPOILERS under the cut.
6.07: Family Matters
Obligatory something-is-wrong-with-Sam (SIWWS?) THEN sequence, complete with the Vampire-Episode!Smirk, greets us. Right. Okay. *rubs hands* Answers, Show? Right. Answers.
Sam wakes up, all woozy, to find he's tied to a chair and Castiel in his face. He's barely surfaced to full consciousness and wondering what the hell Cas is doing there when the angel goes all House on him, pulling up his eyelids (to check the... bulbar conjunctiva? Demonic trickery manifesting like Jaundice! I wonder if they'd actually show yellow if the sulphur... okay. What the hell am I talking about?), checking his carotid pulse, asking if he's felt feverish. Sam's uncomfortable and confused and asks what the hell is going on, when Dean pipes up from the background, and tells him to shut his hole and just answer Castiel's questions. Yeeowch. Sam's quiet, confused, but he listens to Dean. Castiel asks him how much he sleeps, and Sam says he doesn't, not since he got back from Hell. This freaks out Dean, and I must admit I'm confused at this point.
I know Sam's missing a soul (thank you, super-spoilery CW promo!) but why does that mean he can't sleep? Is he perhaps talking about how he can't dream anymore? That sleep is not sleep anymore, but a time to shutdown and recharge like the robo he's become? What? I cannot believe his body is still running without sleeping for nearly a year. It's not super-healing; he can get hurt, he can get knocked into unconsciousness. I don't know. But this soul question is nagging me. How do you define a 'soul', Show?
Cas then asks what Sam is feeling right then, and Sam says... he doesn't know. Bursting with rage, anxiety, fear? Nope. I'm just confused here, not particularly angry or upset that you beat the shit out of me, tied me up and started snapping at me like I'm some sort of scum you found under your shoe.
Oh, Sam.
Then, Cas pulls out his belt, and Sam's hilariously uncomfortable at that, and then the angel asks him to bite down on the leather, and informs him what he's about to do will be very painful. For the first time, genuine terror registers on Sam's face, and then Cas plunges his hand into Sam's chest, and Sam starts screaming, straining his neck, muscles corded and blood vessels glowing bright red. You can actually hear the sounds of organs shifting and bones stretching and creaking as Cas roots around, and I have to wonder if it hurts like somebody's actually torn apart your chest and checking out your thoracic cavity like a well-stocked fridge. Finally, Cas pulls his hand out (:p), and Sam slumps, spent. And Cas reveals: Sam has no soul. Right, right, revelation, moving on. So Dean's all where is it, and Cas says his best guess is that it's still stuck in the Cage. Hm. So is he still Sam, asks Dean.
And yeah, Cas. It's an interesting philosophical question. :p Not that Dean cares about philosophy at that point.
So Dean and Castiel are busy discussing the situation, while Sam's getting restless, working the ropes tying his wrists. He asks if he's going to be untied, that he's not a psycho (O RLY?), that he didn't want Dean to get hurt by the vamp, just that he --
And then he sees it's not working, and he pulls the Puppy Dog Eyes. Seriously, he lifts his eyebrows up, goes all wide-eyed and imploring, and says "I'm sorry. It won't happen again" with all the sincerity of an exasperated teenager riding out yet another lecture from a fussy parent, and I AM LAUGHING SO HARD. (go Padalecki!) Dean though is upset, and says he's not letting Sam go anywhere. Sam insists that it's still him and Dean's all, oh yeah? Finally, Sam shakes his head, says, "I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this" and shakes off the bonds that he'd been working on over the past few minutes. Yay, Sam so awesome! And is it wrong that I sniggered at Dean's flabbergasted expression?
Sam says Dean can't just lock him down - that, yeah, Dean's stuck with a "soulless guy" and that he might as well work with him to figure shit out. Dean says he'll be watching every move Sam made, and Sam's okay with that. Huh. Cas fixes Sam's physical injuries, and they all decide that the best lead they have regarding Sam's missing soul is Grandpa Campbell who was pulled back from the dead along with Sam.
So Sam and Dean go to the Campbell Lair, where the Family is busy preparing for a hunt. They barge right into Samuel's office (he's studying something in his hand very intently that he quickly hides when Sam and Dean burst in; at first I thought it was a piece of paper, but I think it might be a photograph). Dean asks him to tell what happened the day he was resurrected, to "recap it for our wingman", which apparently refers to Castiel, because the angel Flapparates next to Samuel right on cue. ("My true form is approximately the size of your Chrysler building." AHAHAHAHA.) So Samuel says he just got back - no idea how, or why. Dean asks Cas to double-check, and apparently that involves more hand-plunging into chests. Cas confirms after the "angel cavity check" that Samuel's soul is intact. Samuel's all, "what the hell, of course my soul is intact" before he sees Sam's downcast expression and asks him what's going on. Sam tells him his soul is missing, and Samuel sighs, and Sam immediately asks, "did you know?" and Samuel has a go at covering up his own secrets, saying he'd always known there was something wrong with Sam, that he was willing to help in getting Sam's soul back. Riiight, Samuel.
Castiel, meanwhile, is staring off into the distance, before he tells them that he needs to get back to Heaven, that he's in the middle of a Civil War. Dean goes, "be sure to root around for answers to Sam's missing soul" and Cas says, "Of course. Your problems always come first," and he disappears. Yay, Cas has learned how to successfully employ sarcasm! Also, Dean. Really? Sure, Cas was rudderless in s5, and he followed you around, and both of you had converging agendas (not to mention Cas was at his lowest ebb - without power or faith or his fellow angels' support), but now? He's back to full power and has his own shit to deal with - and it is some major shit. Despite this, he's still doing all he can to help you. C'mon,Dean.
Dean asks Samuel what's going on with the Family, and Samuel says they're preparing for a hunt. Sam figures out that they've found the Alpha Vampire, and immediately he's excited, and disappointed that he wasn't called earlier. Hi, Creepy!Sam, welcome back. Samuel doesn't answer, and Dean says it's because Grandpa Campbell doesn't trust him. Samuel says that's not it; he doesn't know Dean, not like he knows Sam. (Right. Because robo!Sam somehow = Sam). Whatever. Samuel makes it clear he doesn't want Dean on the hunt. But Dean wants in, he's willing to follow Samuel's orders, and trust him.
As soon as they're outside, however, Dean makes it clear he doesn't trust the Campbells, that he only wants to blend in and find out what they're really up to. Sam asks why, and Dean says Samuel was lying; that if Sam weren't "Robo-Sam" (he actually said it! Yay! \o/) he'd know it, too. Sam's confused, asking him if he doesn't trust family. And Dean brings up a good point: family doesn't mean the same thing to the Campbells as it does to the Winchesters. So they both go back inside, ostensibly to 'blend in'. The Family is getting the weapons ready: knives, machetes, lots and lots of dead man's blood. Dean sneaks off to break into Samuel's office, before he is caught by Christian Campbell. Christian is basically a dick to Dean, and it nearly devolves into a fight before Christian reminds him of the hunt the next day. Dean lets him go, and says, "I got your back," which is becoming an entirely overused phrase, right up there with "son of a bitch".
So. They're all ready to go, and the music they put for the vehicles revving up reminds me of the s4 blooper reel. (or was it s3). Similar music, amirite? Padalecki... doing something, presumably goofy.
The morning of the hunt, Dean and Gwen are left behind with the vehicles to take care of any runaways while the others take out the nest and the alpha. Gwen's annoyed at that, asking why she's left behind with the "reject" but once they're alone, she apologises. She and Dean get a good rapport going, and when a vampire does arrive, she severs its head with one stroke of her machete. Wow. I'm starting to like her.
Dean hears gunshots, and he's running toward the noise, ignoring Gwen's protests of "we're supposed to wait here." He finds a house, the front courtyard littered with headless vampire corpses. And from inside the house, a vampire flings herself against the window and screams "Dean!" (I think?) before she is beheaded, too. He continues to sneak around, until he sees the Campbells force a struggling, covered figure into the back of their van. Dean figures out that it's the Vamp Alpha. Sam senses that somebody's watching them, but Dean's gone by the time he turns his head. So... Sam's in on this, but hasn't told Dean. *sigh*
Dean goes back to Gwen, who asks him where the hell he'd been. Before he can answer, however, Samuel and the others arrive, and ask Gwen if everything was okay. She hesitates, wondering if she should tell about Dean up and disappearing on her for a while, but chooses not to, and I love her for it. Samuel says that they caught and killed and burnt the Alpha Vampire, and oohh yeah. Dean knows that's a load of bullshit.
Then cut to Sam and Dean in the Impala, and Dean's asking Sam if everything was okay with the hunt, if there was anything weird. Sam says, yeah, everything was fine, and that's it. Dean's had it. He stops the Impala by the side of the road and both of them get out. Dean tells Sam that he saw them bundling the Alpha into the van; that there's no use lying anymore. Sam expresses nothing more than mild surprise, and says Dean was not supposed to know that. He says that Samuel takes these creatures and 'grills' them for information. "You mean, torture," Dean says, and uh, Dean-o? You're no greenhorn when it comes to torture, yourself, y'know.
Dean asks if it was Samuel's idea to keep him in the dark, and Sam says no, it was his. Why? Because Dean tended to shoot first and ask questions later, and they needed to ask questions. Guys, I want to laugh. This is so hilarious. Robo!Sam, now that he's stopped pretending to be Sam, is fabulous.
Dean then says he doesn't care if Sam's soulless, or whatever, but how could Sam not see it? He asks if Sam's ever wondered at Samuel's practices being "shady", if he had actually ever visited these interrogations ("no"), if he ever thought of anything but trusting the man. Sam simply says that he's family, so there. All the while, having this mild bewilderment on his features (what's Dean going on about when things make sense?). I imagine that's driving Dean crazy. I LOVE IT.
Then Dean tells Sam, "you've got no instincts". Perhaps he means the ability to tell right from wrong? Gut instinct, where you put together emotion and perception and memory and knowledge and come to a lightning-fast conclusion? Whatever it is, Dean's pretty sure Sam's right royal "messed-up". Then, DEAN LAYS DOWN THE LAW. You want to hunt with me? he says. Then I drive the bus; I make the rules. No secrets: nothing is too much or too less important. He says, Sam can't tell the difference between the two anymore. Either this, or you go back to Samuel and see how that goes along. Freaked!taking-charge!Dean to the fore! Although I'm not sure it's such a great strategy.
Cut to Samuel's office in the Campbell Lair. Sam meets Samuel, says Dean's left him for good because they don't see eye-to-eye anymore. Sam's chosen the Campbells, yay! Sam says he wants in on the interrogations, the grand plan, everything. Samuel's all no-can-do, son, not until the matter of your soul is cleared up. Until then, you keep doing the good work you've been doing so far, okay? And here it struck me just how Robo!Sam can be used by the people he sort of entrusts his moral compass to. Now it's Dean he's entrusted it to, and Dean needs to be careful of that responsibility. It makes me very sad. :(
Sam comes out and sneaks into the Campbell van (the music + expressions + gait + hair in this sequence = WIN \o/), pulls out a mobile and fiddles with it. Later he's back in the Impala, and Dean's mildly surprised to see Sam back. Sam asks him if he didn't think Sam would come back, and Dean admits it was "sixty-forty". Sam acknowledges that like it makes perfect sense and I'm laughing again. He flips open the laptop and opens a GPS-locator-thingamabob program. Says he can track the GPS on the phone he'd just fiddled with straight to the Alpha. Yay, I always do love me some technologically-competent!Sam! ("he thinks Velcro is big news". AHAHAHA.)
"There. Got 'im." They track the Campbell van to where they're keeping the Alpha. (and everybody's absolutely right: The Impala is way too conspicuous to be driven while tailing somebody! A trained somebody, at that.) The door is smeared with dead man's blood ("lock the place down with vamp repellent.") Dean picks the lock, and they get in. They look around for a bit (and there are containers of dead man's blood everywhere. Ew.), nearly get caught by Christian, before they finally come across the room where the Alpha is kept.
The Alpha is kept behind bars, chained to a chair, nails driven through his hands and feet, that are connected to electrodes. Dead man's blood is constantly fed to him through a line stuck in his neck. Samuel is interrogating him, asking him where some place is, where they can find it. When the Alpha doesn't answer, he turns on the current. But the Alpha isn't fazed. (I love how he says "Ow. ow. that hurts." in this completely dead-pan voice.) Samuel's desperate, trying everything to frighten some information out of the vamp, but the Alpha is unfazed, even bored. I love how he's playing Samuel here, and not the other way round. Samuel stalks out of the room, and the Alpha laughs, before he says, "you planning to hide there all night, boys?" The brothers exchange looks - busted - before appearing in front of the Alpha.
Dean steps easily into the role of interrogator, says he's got questions. Turns out the Alpha hasn't got enough "juice" to exercise his telepathic powers (or "psychic bat-signal" as Dean put it). But the Alpha's toying with Dean, now, asking him if he enjoyed his brief time as a vampire, as "[his] child." Dean falls right in, gets hot and bothered, and turns on the electric charge although he knows that it does nothing; he just saw it.
Shockingly, the Alpha is fine. He says he's got aaall night; that he's willing to field their questions. Why? Because he's going to kill them, you see ("suck the marrow from their bones" to be more specific. That... doesn't sound appetising or enjoyable at all.) Sam asks first: is the Alpha vamp really the first of the species? Yes. Who created the Alpha, then? "We all have our mothers. Even me." Oooooh.
More questions. Why so many vamps lately? "We're going to war". (Whaaaat.) Why did Samuel bring him here? What was he asking? What's really going on?
The Alpha ignores all of that, and says to Sam, "you smell cold." He further elaborates, "You have no soul. What an oddity - do you feel how empty you are? What does it feel like, to have no soul?"
Woah. Wait up there. What exactly can this Alpha vamp smell? I mean, I understand the ghouls way back 4.19 commenting on how Sam's blood tasted different because it had a demonic tinge to it, but how do you smell the absence of a soul? Oh, and supernatural creatures continue to find Sam even more... supernatural. :(
Then he talks about the souls of the supernatural "freaks" - when these creatures die, their souls go neither to Heaven nor Hell, but to Purgatory. Uh, okay? Turns out Samuel was trying to eke out the location of this Purgatory place. The Alpha vamp says he keeps telling Samuel that he has no idea where it is, but Sam throws this little knowing smile and says, "you know exactly where it is." But why would Samuel care about where Purgatory is? Well, he doesn't. But whomever he works for does. Just as they're mulling over this revelation, Samuel and a couple of Campbells appear, training their guns on the Winchesters.
Sam and Dean are forced to empty their weapons (and it's impressive how much they've got stashed away on their person). Dean pulls Samuel into a verbal confrontation, and in a single, almost choreographed movement, both Winchesters tackle their captors (it's lovely to see them so in sync, still, even if it is only when they're hunting). Just as Dean's about to pick up his gun, he hears the tell-tale sound of another gun being cocked behind him. Turns out Gwen's arrived on the scene. Did I mention she's awesome?
Meanwhile, a Nameless Campbell (NC) has been left to keep watch over the Alpha. The Alpha taunts him even as he continues to wear through the metal wrist-binding with his fingernail. When the NC has gotten close enough to the cage, the Alpha escapes and kills him. The others hear the screaming and come rushing, only to find the dead NC and an empty cage. Despite the fact that they have very little dead man's blood left, and that it would take the Alpha less than an hour to regain full power, Samuel wants to get him back in the cage. Dean's all NO WAY, we have to kill the sucker, or we'll all die instead. He immediately takes centre-stage, shooting orders left and right - and, interestingly enough, Gwen and Christian follow him. Maybe the Alpha's freaked them, too. Maybe it's the dead NC. But they move to Dean's word. Samuel smoulders for a moment before shrugging and joining Sam and Christian in scouting out the place.
So they're searching, searching, and just when I'm thinking this is dragging way too long, the Alpha jumps behind Christian and breaks his neck and startles the shit out of me. He throws Samuel aside, and knocks the knife out of Sam's hand. He tackles him to the wall, and starts choking him (yay!). "Body with no soul," he breathes, "I've got big plans for you. It's amazing how that pesky little soul gets in the way. But not for you. You will be... the perfect animal." Again, it's always Sam getting used for something. Chilling.
Just when the Alpha's about to bite Sam, the supposedly-dead Christian - now with demonic-black eyes - takes down the Alpha with dead man's blood. There's a flash, and there are several demons restraining the Alpha. Another flash, and they're all gone. What the hell? Demons can Flapparate, too? *racks brains* I guess... Crowley himself, and, uh. I don't remember. Ruby?
A slow clap echoes across the room, and the camera shifts to... Crowley! HEY, CROWLEY!!
"Well. That was dramatic."
♥
Samuel demands Christian back, because, y'know, he just got possessed, right? Crowley goes, nope, he was possessed long back. He asks Samuel to "keep an eye on [his] investments." (and just how tall is Mitch Pileggi? Sheppard is practically craning his neck to look at his face).
Dean explodes ("you know each other?"), and Crowley says he has a business relationship with Samuel. Sam puts it succinctly: "You're Crowley's bitch." Thank you, Sam. Samuel is basically rounding up powerful monsters for Crowley, mainly Alphas, and when Dean asks why, Crowley doesn't answer. Sam says they know he's trying to find Purgatory, and asks him why he needs that info.
"Location, location, location," says Crowley. "I am a developer. Purgatory is vast, underutilised, and hell-adjacent - and I want it." And I wish I could just simply transcribe all of Crowley's dialogue.
♥
What for, Dean asks, but Crowley doesn't answer the question - instead reveals that they've all been working for him for sometime, thanks to Samuel; that Grandpa Campbell knows a lot - practically a "walking encyclopaedia of the creepy and the crawly" and that Sam and Dean are "so hung up on family and loyalty" that he could just set them up to do his work. Meeeeaning, CROWLEY PULLED SAM AND SAMUEL OUT OF HELL AND HE HAS SAM'S SOUL OMG.
WHAAAAAT.
Too. Many. Revelations. In this episode.
Sam's more hung up on the fact that Samuel knew but deceived them, while Dean's asking how a "punkass crossroad demon" had enough power to pull Sam out of the cage. But the Crowley of Now? KING OF HELL. OMG. "Believe me," he says quietly, "I have the mojo. I snap my fingers, and Sam gets his soul back. Or - you can be you, and I shove Sam back into the hole."
"So! We clear? Me, Charlie. You, Angels."
Aaand he's gone. Gotta say, if Crowley's the Big Bad this year, he's probably the first SPN villain I've absolutely adored since Azazel. Yay! \o/
Samuel asks Gwen to take the van, but she doesn't move. She asks him how he's letting a demon call the shots, but Samuel's having none of it. "We hunt! Period," he says. Gwen's still not going anywhere, and Samuel asks her if she trusts him or not. Finally, she leaves to get the van.
"Working with a demon, huh?" Sam says, walking toward Samuel. "You're not the man I thought you were." And, you know, I've heard cries of hypocrisy! over here, because, hello, Ruby, but Sam's accusation was not so much being in cahoots with a demon as it was for deceiving them all this while. So Dean asks Samuel why he's working for Crowley ("girls? money? hair?" and i will admit i sniggered at that), but Samuel just says he has his reasons and leaves it at that. But Dean's not letting it go. Samuel asks Dean to go ahead and make a move. Or what? Or nothing, because Sam and Dean are family. "So, the way I see it, you got two choices: put a bullet in your grandfather, or step aside."
And Sam actually pulls out his gun and trains it on Samuel, before Dean stops him. "Let it go," he says. "Why?" Sam asks. Like he can't imagine a reason for just not offing the person who's been lying to them all along, but who's also their grandfather, family.
Sam may be the consummate hunter right now, but he's far more vulnerable than he's ever been. It's almost something bordering on... naivete? Maybe something starker.
Did I mention Padalecki rocked in this episode?
Samuel leaves, and Sam and Dean discuss their situation. Dean doesn't like the idea of working for a demon, not after their history, but Sam points out that they don't exactly have a choice, seeing as Crowley practically owns Sam's soul. Sam says that they'll go with this for now - until they find another way. Then? They'll "track Crowley down, and give that son of a bitch what's comin' to him."
"You with me, Dean?" he asks. A loaded, loaded question.
End episode.
EGADS. So much awesome.