Thursday, October 08, 2020

Supernatural season 15 - a selective episode recap (6 to 13, more or less)

This is selective because I've only got a few episodes available to rewatch.  The final 7 episodes start again tonight. I'm excited. Very very excited. Even though it likely won't end how I want.  I'm not sure how I want it to end.  For the boys to be happy I think.  For Chuck to get his comeuppance.  I'd quite like lots more Jack screen time and some big explosions too.   Maybe not the big explosions.  That could go wrong.  I want the boys being badass but also soft and dorky.  Smart assed.  Capable and clever and competent.  I want them to remain relaxed with each other, and to trust each other.  I want them to enjoy themselves.  I don't think I want them dying.  I def don't want them going to the heaven where they relive their greatest moments.  they don't want that.  I want them to be treated with respect.  I want more fancyChesters too.

15 x 6 - Golden Time
From the credit montage of this just happened I can see that Rowena died in the last episode.  that was actually quite well done and made me sad.  The intro music and the cinematography is pretty good.
Dean makes a vicious circle joke and it's adorable.  The brothers seem so relaxed, so free of hang ups.  It's in their body language and their dialogue and relationship.  It's nice to see.

Eileen turns up as ghost.  I like Shoshanna Stern who plays Eileen, I respect her as an actress, I don't mind Eileen as a character, but I have issues with how she and her Deafness was portrayed when she was first introduced, and I have no idea why they chose to bring Eileen back over other characters.  It doesn't feel like virtue signalling, and maybe there wasn't anyone else it would have made sense to bring back, but nonetheless it's an odd choice.  Thankfully they had Sam learn some ASL. I have no idea if it's correct or not.  Sam becomes a witch and brings Eileen back to life.  Because otherwise she'd return to hell.  Fuck knows why she's in hell, according to the show's ethics she should be in heaven. Unless I've forgotten something awful she's done.

15x 7 - Last Call
In the recap we see that either Cas ditched the brothers earlier in the season, or that Dean ditched Cas. I can't remember which.  I don't want to google it in case I get spoiled for the next episode.

This episode is set partially in a rock bar, with an old hunter friend of Dean's.  Dean gets up and sings with the band.  I get the feeling the writers wanted to shove as many bucket list things in this final season as they could.  I'm all up for seeing Ackles singing, but when you consider how bad DemonDean's karaoke was this is another thing that doesn't make sense.

It turns out that Dean's mate is controlling the monster of the week. Dean kills the monster by cutting off it's head, but we don't see how.  He didn't have a knife or sword in the scene and we don't see the actual kill.  I have a note mentioning the key is for the door to Death's library, which strikes me as an obvious connection to L-space.

Back at the bunker we have the start of Sam/Eileen, in which Sam looks thoroughly uncomfortable and it's not pleasant to watch.  They have no chemistry.  Castiel probes Sam and we meet Sergei, Castiel's hitherto never seen before Russian friend that they have just thrown in with no backstory.  It's maddeningly hilarious.

I have another note saying that Lilith is back although now, a few days later, I don't remember the context.

15 x 8 - Our father, who aren't in heaven
The recap shows Chuck trying out different story endings for our boys.  It's a really lazy god plot with absolutely no subtlety or nuance.  It's a god as a spoiled, petulant child and it's dull.  The idea that you can't kill god without the balance of creation falling apart also irritates me.  Then the brothers decide they should lock god up somewhere... this is so far from the horror stories the early seasons told..

Donatello the soulless prophet comes back, and he's very entertaining.  More Donatello please.  But only in past seasons for me to rewatch, thank you very much.

Gaahhh... then the brothers just walk into hell... way to take all the mystery out of it.  Maybe it was meant to show they are such good hunters that they can do anything.  Maybe it was Chuck fucking with their brains and lending them the skills to do so.  It's bad writing whatever it is.  In hell they find Rowena as Queen.  She's not as warm as she was earthside, and she looks quite different with her hair up.

Adam is back earthside too... Michael is riding him but they have equal shares in the body.  I adore Jake Abel playing Adam/Michael.  He's wonderful.  He is the shining light in this episode.  Lilith is back in a very incongruous-to-the-setting meat suit.  She's all bubbles and brights.

Dean keeps trying to push Sam to Eileen and argh I want to shake him.  Sam is not into this Dean, so just stop it.

There's a bit in this episode where someone is talking and Eileen can't see to lip read, yet there's no acknowledgement that this is an issue or that she will have missed the conversation.  That infuriates me.  Eileen receives a case from an old friend who turns out to be Chuck in disguise, and he captures the two of them.

That's a quite a lot in one episode, but it worked.

15 x 9 - The Trap
In the recap we see dead Jack with those shades.  I love Alexander Culvert and I love Jack, in all his forms.  We also see the absolutely awful town of ghosts, walking in daylight.  The least scary thing I have ever seen. Awful.  I think it shows Jack taking lots of souls in and Cas probing him.

Sam is tied to a chair and Chuck is torturing him by making Eileen drive a knife into him.  Sam looks so kindly at Eileen while she's doing it.  Chuck has admitted he was pushing the romance angle between them, which might explain why Sam looked so unsettled with it all.

Cas and Dean have gone to purgatory to get a flower to incapacitate god.  There is a dreadful prayer from Dean begging for Cas forgiveness and saying sorry to him, and it just came out of nowhere.  Or I wasn't paying attention.  Either is possible.

Dean and Cas get back earthside and Eileen manages to call Dean's phone for help.  Dean shouts Eileen into the phone.  Repeatedly.  Dude, she's Deaf, she can't hear you.  There is nothing on screen to suggest a speech to text app on her phone so that is really fucking stupid.

15 x 10 - Heroes Journey
Oh christ. Possibly the worst episode they've made.  Everything starts going wrong for the brothers.  Dean get toothache, Sam trips, the car doesn't start, their credit cards don't work etc etc.  The in episode explanation, given by Garth, is that god has removed all divine assistance he has been given them all their lives.  Without that divine luck they cannot do anything.  That undermines the characters and everything we have believed in for 15 seasons.  It's insulting.

So my headcanon is that Chuck has cursed them and blessed Garth.  Garth is suddenly really strong, can do everything the brothers can't, and is somehow a qualified dentist.  Just... no.  Then there's a hallucination where Dean and Garth tap dance.  It's not cool, it's not iconic, it's not funny, it's terrible and it falls really flat.

And then Chuck shows Dean the brothers possible endings and Dean is turned into a vampire and he hisses.  It's awful. It looks like an outtake.

15 x 11  The Gamblers
The boys hear of a place where they can play pool for luck.  This feels like a bad rehash of the season 4 (?) episode where they gambled for years.  Fortuna is running the tavern and, I will give credit where credit is due, her explanation of god creating the world and humanity creating all other gods does sit right with me.

The gambling den serves as a lessons to the boys that they can be heroes without fancy skills or god's blessing.  Unfortunately the bit where this is proved to them, when the bar folk are released, is supremely unsatisfying.

15 x 13 - Destiny's Child
Now this episode is gold.  It's so much fun.  Things I like:
Dean's wtf reaction to Cas calling Sergei.  I know Dean, we don't know who the dude is either.
Our boys reactions to the FancyChesters.
Fancy Dean's love of the bunker life and FancySam's horror at it.
FancyChesters playing rock paper scissors.
FancyChesters' car.
EmptyMeg.
Billie.
Jack.
Jo's amazing green leopard print trews and gold lame top.
All the pizza in the opening credits, for one pizza reference later on.
World's being destroyed in the recap.
The whole multiversal shenanigans.
Savage Garden introducing the FancyChesters.
Hammy FancySam with his little finger out when he drinks beer, and his goreous effete manner.
Sam fighting the door! Alone!
Jack swallowing the occulum.  Soulless Jack is just darn good fun.

I like all of it. It's wonderful.  Best episode of the season.  Easy.

Bring on episode 14.

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