Rewatch S4: Ep 22 (Lucifer Rising)
So much for trying not to blow off work too much...
I finally got to Lucifer Rising! Which means the next thing on my agenda is to update the timeline.
Lucifer Rising
First off, I love how everything starts at a convent called St. Mary's in a town called Ilchester. That's brilliance right there, because it completely suggests that it wasn't just luck-of-the-draw that Sam and Dean got saddled with their lives - that it was meant to be them from the beginning.
Wished they'd have given me more times, sadly, the last few episodes of the season are complete guesswork/unknowns when it comes to time-lining.
Anyway, let's actually talk about the episode:
Sam: "I've changed...for good. Dean's beter of as far away from me as possible."
-As we know from the episodes of S5 that have aired, Sam still feels this way five days later :(
Dean: "He's my blood? Is that what you were going to say?..."
Bobby: "He's your brother and he's drowning..."
-I love how Bobby is always the one to emphasis that family isn't blood, it's choice.
Dean: "No! Damn it! No. I gotta face the facts: Sam never wanted part of this family. He hated this ife growing-up, ran away to Stanford first change he got. Now it's deja-vu all over again...Sam's gone. He's gone. I'm not even sure if he's still my brother anymore, if he ever was."
-Here Dean takes Bobby's "family is choice" lesson and raising him a "then it's his choice too". Does he mean that Sam isn't his brother because he's a monster? I don't think so...I think he means that Sam has CHOSEN not to be his brother, has chosen Ruby over him - chose to abandon Dean, and not for the first time in his life. I think this is Dean's old issues coming back: Everyone abandons me...I was obviously forcing Sam to stay against his will.
Bobby: "You stupid stupid son of a bitch! Well BOO HOO. I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess! Are you under the impression family is supposed to make you feel good? Bake you an apple pie maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable, that's why they're family!"
- Bobby's going all in, folks! It's rare for Bobby to get really really angry at Dean, and it's especially rare for him to call him a whiny son of a bitch and a princess...but Dean totally had it coming this time. Bobby has ALWAYS been more aware of Dean's insecurities than the rest of the Winchesters - he called Dean out on his low self-esteem in AHBL2 and he's calling Dean out now on the fact that he's basing abandoning Sam on the fact that Sam abandoned him first.
Dean: "My Dad was a lot of things Bobby, but a coward?"
Bobby: "He'd rather push Sam away than reach out to him...you are a better man than your Daddy ever was, so you do us both a favour - don't be him"
-I love the fact that Bobby tells Dean that he's a better man than his father...because Dean might have a lot of issues with his father, but I think he still feels irredeemable after what he did in Hell...especially since Alastair teased him that his father never broke in 100 years. I also think it's this line that gets Dean to change his mind about abandoning Sam...which is why it's at that exact moment that the angels kidnap him.
Zachariah: "Hello Dean. You're looking fit."
-Way to be creepy, Zach.
"Suite life of Zach and Cas" - hahaha...oh the things Dean watches in motels.
We find out that the final seal is going to be broken "tomorrow night" - which means that in this episode Dean spends a day and a half (at least) in that green room and DOESN'T EAT. Wow.
Cas's guilty face...
The real voice-mail message - I love the way Dean's slightly choked at the end when he says "Sammy, I'm sorry." I really wish Sam had heard that message...sigh...I really wish they would bring that up in the show in S5.
Ok, um...relative bone to pick linguistically. In 1972, Azazel calls Lucifer "Padre", now that's something I've noticed a lot about Supernatural - they often say "Padre" instead of father...and I attribute that largely to the heavy influence of Spanish in the United States...it makes sense from a cultural-linguistics point of view that there is a good deal of bleed-over from Spanish to English these days, given that the majority (or close to) of the US speaks Spanish as a first language. (We have the same bleed-over in Canada with English words in French and French words in English). That being said, I don't think, in the 1970s that the bleed over had really started happening yet...I could be wrong though, I suppose. The South has always been heavily influenced by Spanish...anyway, it just sort of irked me that Azazel used it the way he did in 1972. I see it more as a modern thing, or something to be said with a southern accent. Maybe Azazel was Spanish when he was alive or something :-P
The newspaper article about the disemboweled nuns is dated October 16th, 1972.
I love Dean's face after he smashes the angel and then realizes that Cas is standing right there.
I also love the gradual fade to the usual grey-tone of the show as Dean realizes that the angels are working against humanity...I also love the crushing horror and devastation in his eyes...so well done.
Zachariah: "Sam has a part to play. He might need a little nudge in the right direction, but I'll make sure he goes through with it."
-And there is your answer as to who changed the voice-mail.
I love when Dean ducks his head in order to catch Castiel's eyes and pull them back up to look at him. Such a nice little touch that they didn't HAVE to do, but added so much to the emotional punch of the scene.
Dean: "I'll even take Sam as is!"
-Just as Dean found his line in the last episode, he's found his next line in this episode - your brother being a drugged up possible monster is preferable over being everyone being dead.
Again, Jensen does this great slight choke in his voice the second time he says "we're done!" Awesomesauce.
Cas won't let Dean eat! It's been MORE THAN A DAY! I wondered about the timing of that, because it made me think of Persephone and the pomagranates. It was probably just coincidence, but for some reason I now think that something horrible would have happened if Dean had eaten that burger.
And yet again, our characters are working off book! Defying prophecy! It makes me wonder what Chuck originally saw for this - was Dean going to stay with the angels, was Sam going to be killed by Lucifer? We'll never know. All we know is that Dean and Sam were NOT supposed to be reunited.
Then we get the horrible climax...I love the way this scene is done in slow motion, Sam's pounding heartbeat over everything, the confusion of it all even though it's slow.
And yes, I love the way Sam says he's sorry...and I love the fact that Dean calls him Sammy.
Extended Scene
-Chuck and Cas facing off against the archangel...and Cas has a really bad joke, and I'm glad they left it out, because ugh.
Commentary by Eric Kripke
Part way through the commentary, Kripke states that they are actually still editing the episode while he is commentating - there are a few scenes in the episode where Kripke doesn't speak at all, and given Kripke's usual chattyness, I'm inclined to believe it might be because the scenes hadn't been completely edited properly yet...but I could be wrong about that, maybe he's just distracted.
Kripke had to scale back the nun violence. Originally it was quite gruesome, and then he was told that they really couldn't do that to a bunch of nuns, so he toned it down. Still, he tells a story of how Serge felt like he was going to go to hell as they worked on the scene...Kripke is Jewish, haha.
Kripke directed because originally Kim was slated to direct. Kripke tried to direct the episode Kim-Manners-Style as a tribute to him...and worked really really hard and wanted it to be perfect and something Kim would be proud of, and he didn't eat or sleep the whole time he was working on it, but he had a great time.
Kripke says that nun-murdering and baby-eating were the "only place left for Supernatural to go."
He talks about Sam's self-hatred, and how he and Jared talked about it, and said "you're suicidal and you hate yourself for what you did to Dean." He praises Jared (after calling him a giant) for doing things right on the first take nearly all of the time. He says that he really didn't have any points or corrections to give the guy. He praises both Jared and Jensen with being "wonderful technical actors" - they know how to angle their faces to make a shot interesting, and they know what poses to hold from take to take to make editing seamless.
This episode ties together ALL the mythology of the past 4 seasons, because we find out that everything - the whole demonic conspiracy - was all done on Lucifer's orders to Azazel...and he teases us for S5 telling us that there's even more to it that we have yet to discover.
Kripke credits Misha for making the angel storyline work - because he is so awesome.
He praises Jensen some more, saying that he brings a vulnerability to Dean in everything he does. That this episode is like a redemption for Dean - who wanted in 4x10 to be an angel so he wouldn't feel - now he realizes he would rather be human, even with the pain, than be an unfeeling heartless angel. In Kripke's universe perfect=cold and hateful, and things are much better imperfect. It's Humanism. Hope and Salvation are found in family. When you turn away from family the world is destroyed, and when you turn towards family the world is saved.
Phil Sgriccia actually directed the scene where Cas stops Dean from eating the burger and cuts his arm - because they were crazy behind schedule. It was the very last scene shot. (If any of you were at LA con, or saw the videos from it, you might remember Jensen saying that they were wrapped for S4, but him and Misha still had to go back and shoot one more scene - well, this must be it.)
And there you have it! Next, I'll review the bonus features.