his game is called survivin'
Jesus Christ jogging on a swimming pool. They've really hit their stride with the funny episodes that take a dark turn, haven't they? Sure, this week everyone knew to expect it, but it was still twice as horrible coming on the tails of the lighthearted funny bits.
Notes from along the way:
∼ Seeing things I want to see: it made me chuckle that they cut from Sam's "Crowley?" to a shot of a freeway interchange. I was pretty sure they'd be referring to Aleister Crowley, not the one that kept moving road markers when the M25 was being built, but I got a warm feeling out of that anyway.
∼ Well, it's nice to see someone criticize homophobia on this show, even if it's a demon.
∼ Hi, Castiel, I missed you. I see you'll be looking extra pretty this week.
∼ Oh, of course. What else would true evil watch than Nazi parades? (I need to condense "this show is about giving us stereotypes we expect and recognize" into a mantra for moments like this.) I don't recognize the music, but it's meant to be an insult to "good" music, isn't it?
∼ ♥__♥ I LOVE THIS CROWLEY DUDE. I love that Mark Sheppard is having an awesome time being a magnificent bastard, making the Winchesters stand around in slack-jawed confusion and look like toolish extras in their own story. LOOOOOVE.
"It's called survival." Awesome, I'll have Guns of Brixton stuck in my head for the rest of the day now.
"And three, HOW ABOUT YOU DON'T MISS, OKAY? MORONS!" DID I MENTION AWESOME. It's possible they were going for a Good Omens shoutout after all. ♥
∼ Dude, they're being hardcore about further corrupting the angel. (He fell already, guys, mission accomplished.) They brought in reinforcements! Their little Satan-busting gang is made of win and I could so get used to them all being around until the apocalypse is thwarted. ♥
∼ Thanks for shaking me out of my happy feelings about this scene with that gratuitous ass-shot of Jo reaching into the fridge. Really.
∼ But then she has a fantastic moment of telling Dean she chooses self-respect over last chance to have sex ever. &JO; I don't actually have a problem with spending your last hours before certain death having sex with any friendly body, but there are good ways of doing that in fiction, and then there are speeches like Dean's. Four for you, Jo Harvelle! You go, Jo Harvelle!
∼ What's with the hilarious music choices in this ep, incidentally? Oye como va? Really?
∼ I teared up when they took that photo. Also, Dean's look when Castiel echoed the last night on earth sentiment. I get it's supposed to be a sobering moment (like they weren't already) but hey, remember the last time it was supposed to be Castiel's last night on Earth and Dean took it to himself to make sure angel boy wouldn't die a virgin? And then saw to it personally. Where's the fic where they reprise that?
∼ "Ever heard of a door handle?"
Throwaway crowning moment of awesome ♥
∼ I love the reapers. I love that most of them look like undertaker caricatures. I also love this episode's Cas!vision, and that they're getting so much casual use of his teleportation ability. I love the town's abundant religious billboards: "Anti-God is anti-American", "Jesus Saves", etc.
∼ Lucifer ♥
"I'm told you came here in an automobile."
"Yes?"
"What was that like?"
"Slow. Confining."
"What a peculiar thing you are."
MARK PELLEGRINO YOU ARE SO GOOD. This exchange was so good. This episode is so good.
∼ Wasn't there a time when Meg was kind of cool? I seem to remember there was. I don't think it's all Rachel Miner's fault that the character is so flat and annoying these days. (Her boasting of her daddy's awesomeness at Cas later, ugh. Spare me.) I could be remembering her as more interesting than she was--and she'd definitely already lost a lot of the appeal by the time the boys killed her for the first time.
∼ Oh, Jo. Oh no. I'm so torn about this. On one hand, I was genuinely moved by her death, and feel that they did give her some character development--she came across much younger, more stubborn, inexperienced and having false expectations when she was first introduced. But on the other hand, that wasn't even close to a full character arc--there was so much more they could've (and I think ought to have) done with her. And she's a girl--I can't help comparing this to Bobby's spinal cord injury. He's still alive and part of the fight, but Jo and Ellen are dead. I don't even know how to feel about Ellen. The scene broke my heart, sure, but it feels like there must've been a way to achieve the same result without both women sacrificing themselves. (And yeah, I absolutely expected Cas to free himself faster and be an angel ex machina somehow. Imagine how handy teleportation would have been in setting off those charges and still getting out of the building alive. And, I don't know, he can clearly teleport whatever he's got on his person--does that extend to, say, women with massive stomach wounds?)
∼ Holy... It absolutely did not cross my mind that the Colt might be useless. Nor, clearly, did it occur to anyone in-universe, and it really should have. Did Crowley suspect? Did he know? What is that guy's game really? His comment about Lucifer not being a demon makes me suspicious, in retrospect, though of course the Colt also kills other beings than demons.
∼ Mark Pellegrino is an absolute delight. This is something that I just got to say every so often, because he is. I don't want the vessel to rot like it's doing because that means no more Pellegrino!Lucifer, and that'll be a sad day.
∼ ...You know what. I love being this invested in this show. I'm thrilled that I am. It's just the other side of the coin that pisses me off. If I've ever cried out of pure frustration with a TV show before, don't remind me what that was; just now, it was this show. Specifically, I was already sore about Ellen and Jo, and then they have Castiel walk over a woman's body while she's burning. That she's a demon and can escape the pain by leaving the body justifies it in-universe (not to mention the fact that she's fighting for the other side) but here in the real world, where the show is made and watched, that just don't fly. Augh.
∼ Yeah, and then they burn that photo and I feel brokenhearted a little more. Annnnd... then the final focus is on Dean and Jo, and her death feels a little too much like it's about Dean and how much guilt and grief they can pile on him with this. It's bordering on a manpain moment, and I really, really want it not to be.
The end. I want to see Death, but, yeah, that wasn't going to happen this episode. I was under the impression that this was the fall season finale but now I don't know why I thought that. Someone fill me in? I'm too lazy to look it up myself (IMDb does think there's an ep next week bu they don't seem so sure).
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