Supernatural Season 3 - Episodes 14 to 16

Since the end of SPN I have been inspired to plan an SPN themed scarf.  Deffo a scarf and not a shawl, because scarves are more hunter-y.  To do this, quite possibly immense project, I need to finish my episode recap so I know what themes and events to include.  So, I opened up this draft and see that there are 18 words in it. Damn.  Better get writing again then, eh.

Ep 14 - Long Distance Call
This was about a Crocotta who lures victims in by pretending to be a a dead person over the phone.  I think there were some good scenes but it is mostly forgettable.

Ep 15 - Time is on My Side
Ahh, this is super creepy.  Doc Benton is a Dr Frankenstein type character, who is stealing people's vital organs to secure him everlasting life.  Sam tracks him down to use his knowledge to save Dean.  Oh Sammy...  Dean refuses.

We discover Bela has also done a crossroads deal, and is waiting for a hellhound to come and take her.  It's implied that her father sexually abused her when she was a teen, but it's that sort of coded menacing scene that doesn't really tell you anything.  Weird, because I wouldn't have thought this show would shy away from stuff like that.

Bela tells Dean that a demon named Lilith holds both their contracts.

Good ep.

Ep 16 - No Rest for the wicked

The absolute highlight of this ep is Dean's terror when the hellhounds get him, and his anguished cry for Sam when he's in hell.

There's other good stuff - Lilith as a creepy child and her family's terror, Dean's hallucinations, Bobby's declaration that family don't end with blood.  Lilith (in Ruby's meatsuit) tries to kill Sam but her demon powers don't work on him.  The song in the car - Wanted Dead or Alive - is a wonderful brothers moment.

Another great finale.

Supernatural season 15: episodes 16 - 19

If this doesn't make much sense it's because I'm writing the ep recap out of order, starting with the ones that make me happy.  Episode 19 made me happy. Episode 17 DID NOT.

On a different note, I've figured out one of the reasons why season 8 on doesn't work for me.  It's because there are far fewer monster of the week episodes.  I like the monster of the week eps.  It increases the (literal) mythology of the show, world builds and gets to see our boys use their skills.  It distracts from the fucking awful major arcs of the later seasons.

Episode 16 - Drag Me Away (from you)

Ah yes, the one with the weeChesters.  It was OK.  It did feel like the writers/producers (whoever calls the shots on these things) wanted to shoehorn even more bucket list type stuff in, as a last hurrah.  this style of storytelling doesn't work for me and it means that we haven't seen or heard anything from Chuck in quite a few episodes.  Which is a bit ridic if I'm honest.

This is a monster of the week episode, where Baba Yaga is the monster.  We didn't get to see enough of her though.  Dean is not telling Sam about Jack's impending death, which makes him a fucking idiot who hasn't learned anything.  In contrast, Sam calling out Dean's bullshit was very satisfying.

Two more things worth mentioning - the hotel decor is incredibly ugly and as making me feel ill.  The shot of the college guide, knife and gun together made me cringe.  I miss subtlety.

5/10.

Episode 17 - Unity

This episode really upset me.  I may well have been hormonal, I may well have been due to have a bad brain day, but this episode sucked the positivity out of me and left me feeling flat.  At the time it was on the UK was looking like it was going to go into another lockdown (it did the following week), and things felt uncertain and stressful, so it may have been that the episode triggered these negative feelings in me rather than causing them.  

I really, really did not like Dean saying that Jack wasn't family.  I don't believe that Dean thinks that.  I think he has a lot of anger towards Jack, I think he has difficulty trusting him and he doesn't respect him, but I don't think he mentally excludes him from their family.  It is clear that Sam and Cas count Jack as family, so I expect Dean to accept Jack as family-by-proxy.  I really didn't like how Sam didn't argue with Dean.

The title cards were weird and have not been referenced in any other episodes.

The Empty accepted Sam's story with very little questioning, which felt too easy.  Amara was so shocked about the brothers' plan to kill her, and that just didn't sit right either.  Her trouser suit was abominable, conversely Chuck was dressed well.

There was mention of Billie somehow taking hold of Dean with her plan.  If she had psychically affected him, and he had gone off the rails at this point so i wouldn't be surprised if that was the intention, that should have been made explicit.  During the corridor fight, Sam tells Dean that Dean protected him from everyone, including John.  At this point I wanted to scream.

I felt like I was watching a show which didn't explain or justify the character's actions.  We can see they are at the end of their tethers, but we don't see how they got there.  The characters are all behaving slightly off, nearly right, but not quite.  It is possible that Chuck is manipulating all of them to behave in this slightly off manner, to exaggerate personality traits and exacerbate tensions, but this was never confirmed.  Chuck says that he didn't orchestrate Amara/Dean but we don't know that for sure.  The show is so wonky and uncertain at this point that it's hard to take anything at face value.  There's no signalling or narrative prompts.

It wasn't a dull episode, all the components for a good story were there, everything just felt slightly wrong. At some point I'll rewatch it and see if it improves.

Episode 18 - Despair

I could do a proper review of this but quite honestly the lasting impression of this is Castiel's proclamation of love to Dean, which had me howling with laughter.  I know it wasn't meant to be that way, but it had me chuckling all weekend.  Castiel doesn't seem to understand Dean at all.

Dean's reaction to Cas' declaration tickled me, as it's totally in line with his shock/surprise/ uncomfortableness when he meets any gay man.

From my notes, I can see that Dean's concern for Jack is at odds with the previous episode, but it makes more sense.  Billie didn't have enough good lines, and it felt like the actors were phoning it in.  Jack and MegEmpty felt shallow.  Usually I love watching these guys.

Billie's plan to stop people coming back from the dead is a pretty good one.  The Winchesters used to fight for the greater good, beyond their little circle of acquaintances.  Now they fight for their inner circle and themselves.  This upsets me on a storytelling level and a characterisation level.  They may as well be the Men of Letters.

3/10.

Episode 19 - Inherit the Earth
After episodes 17 and 18 I was dreading this.  I know it's only a show, and I know that linking your moods to a telly show isn't a healthy thing, but I was left feeling pretty low after Unity and I was getting quite agitated and off kilter thinking about ep 19.  Maybe it wasn't the show making me feel edgy, maybe I was feeling edgy anyway (hormones? Lockdown? 2020's apocalyptic nature?).

This episode ended the season and it was satisfactory.  I enjoyed it.  It starts with the boys and Jack being the only people on earth, because Chuck has raptured everyone else.  Which wasn't clear to me from episode 18, but wevs.

Michael arrives, Lucifer arrives (he really could have stayed dead but I guess the writers wanted all the big bads in the finale), Michael kills Lucifer (Sam should have got to kill Lucifer), Michael betrays the boys but the boys have prepared for this.  Then the good stuff starts which is Sam punching Chuck in the face, a clever flashback reveal of the brothers' plan, Chuck beating the boys and the boys refusing to kneel.  Sam drags Dean up to face Chuck and my heart sang.

Sam and Dean are now free to live their lives how they want without interference from a bastard deity.  They have their arms round each other in the bunker.  I LOVE this.  I want loyalty and love and trust and codependence and a lifetime of the bros learning how to live with each other with kindness.  That's what I watch it for, and that's what we got in the early seasons.

The memory montage got me in the heart too.  I have no idea how episode 20 is going to go, I hope it's executed with grace and it doesn't turn this episode on it's head.

9/10 for pure fannish joy.

Supernatural Season 8 - a limited recap because overall I really dislike this season.

Hum.  This is the season I remember zoning out of when I watched it, and when I think about it I remember it's all about the trials, which I thought was done really poorly, and Naomi, signifying the start of the angelic accountants, and then the end has the angels falling from heaven giving us more dreary bank managers on earth.

Gah.

So I am most definitely being selective in the episodes that I rewatch.

Ep 1 - We need to talk about Kevin
So Dean comes back from purgatory.  Sam has been living with Amelia and didn't look for Dean.  Poor opener for the season...

Sam not looking for Dean feels really out of character.  Like it was put in there just to get Sam a domestic life.   It feels like the writers don't care about the motivations or history of the characters they are writing...Sam is not convincing in the conversation about his whereabouts. Dean is. But I can imagine it would be easier to play Dean's hurt rejection.

Ep 2 - What's Up Tiger Mommy

We did not get enough of Kevin's mum in this show.  She is bloody fabulous and saves the dreariness of it.

Ep 8 - Hunteri Heroici

I remember this episode being really dull, but on rewatch it's not. It's pretty damn solid.  The comedic stuff and the case stuff.  Cas deciding to be a hunter feels shoehorned in for laughs, but I can forgive it that.  The deaths are nicely gross too.

7 out of 10.

Ep 12 - As Time Goes By

This episode is FULL of ship fodder.  Sam is so jealous of Benny it hurts. We feel you Sam, we do.  

Dean is so emotionally close to Benny. I can agree that they may not have fucked in purgatory but the relationship is portrayed so tightly, with such intensity I do not see how Dean and Benny cannot be seen as having an queer-platonic-romantic relationship. It's as intense as him and Sam's relationship.  Christ, Dean warns Benny about his over protective brother, like a teenage girl in a high school show would warn her boyfriend about her over protective older brother.

This episode covers so many betrayals - Sam and Amelia, Sam and Dean, Dean and Benny, Benny and Elizabeth.  It's a messy minefield. So much emotion. So much love and so much hurt.

9 out of 10.

Ep 13 - Everybody Hates Hitler

I assumed from the title that I liked this because it featured Nazis being beaten up.  Not so!  This is the golem episode and the one where the boys find the bunker.  I adore golem stories. I adore Nazis getting defeated stories.  This episode is wonderful.

Made better by Dean getting freaked out by a gay bloke.  I love you Dean, but you are such a twat at times.  Especially when you consider your decidely un-heteronormative relationship with Benny and Sam. I don't think you are in the closet, I think you just fall head over heels for 2 men and you don't even register it as unusual.  It just is.  

Great episode, 10/10, would watch again.  The old-married-couple-settling-in -in-the bunker brothers scene at the end pushed it up from 9 to 10.

Ep 14 - Trial and Error

This is the one where Kevin deciphers the demon tablet and works out the trials.  Dean and Sam set out to kill a hellhound.  Sam kills the hellhound.  It's better than I remembered but I'm not sure I care to watch it again.

5 out of 10.

Ep 15 - Man's Best Friend With Benefits.

Dreadful.  A witch's familiar is a dog.  The boys know the witch.  It's dire.  Really not worth watching.

1/10.

Ep 16 - Remember the Titans

I planned to watch this and then...didn't.

Ep 22 - Clip Show

The penultimate episode.  The boys discover what the last trial is - to make a demon human.  Avaddon escapes, that's a pretty good scene - gross and delightful by turns.

Castiel is tricked by Metatron and believes he is performing angelic trials to close the gates of heaven.  Cas has made a lot of stupid decisions since the end of Season 5.

8/10.  I quite enjoyed this one.

By the way, the second trial was to take a soul wrongly held in hell and return them to heaven.  I cannot start to explain how stupid that idea was.

Sacrifice

Worth watching for the wonderful brothers scene in the church where Dean confesses his undying love to Sam and they decide not to seal the gates of hell because Dean can't cope with a dead brother.

In the next episode they choose Crowley.  Mark Sheppard does pretty well in this.

The Metatron bits reminded me of how skin crawlingly vile I find Metatron.  Good acting, I'll give you that, but I cannot bear to watch him.

The church scene gets 10/10.  The rest... 4/10.

Supernatural Season 15 - episodes 14 and 15

It's back on air! *does a happy dance*

Episode 14 - The Last Holiday
This got a lot of criticism online for being out of character. I loved it.  I am determined to love it.  The boys discover a wood nymph, Mrs Butters, in the bunker who is a cliched 1950s housewife type of character.  She's been brainwashed by the Men of Letters to be like that.

She sets about making the bunker a home for the boys - lots of holiday celebrations and lots of home made food.  Her magic fires up the bunker properly and they discover they have a monster radar, amongst other things.  She goes bad and tried to kill Jack, because she thinks he's a threat to the boys, but they all talk her down.

It's funny, it's sweet, it's got Dean flashing Sam and Dean throwing Jack through a door to free themselves, some truly gruesome finger torture, Lots of Jack, and lots and lots of feelgood scenes.  It's ends optimistically with everyone happy.

Dean is happy through most of it - he reminds me of how he was when he had memory loss in Regarding Dean. I Have A Theory (we can work it ouuuuuttttttt).  Mrs B's magic includes a glamour to take the angst out of those around them, make them happy and smooth the rough edges in their mindset.

I'm not sure how well this episode would have come across seen straight after Destiny's Child.  that was a fun and frivolous one too.  I think the 6 month break helped this episode come across well.

I like this episode a lot.  10 out of 10.

Episode 15 - Gimme Shelter

The brothers head out to see Amara and convince them to join in their plan to kill God, but decide not to say that means killing her too.  Duuuudes....

I don't think that it's ethical to kill Amara just because Chuck is a bastard, but it's been a while since the show was ethical...

Cas and Jack take on a case about people froma  church being murdered. The Cas'n'Jack crime investigation due always makes me smile.  They get to be delightfully weird together.  I adore Jack.  For some reason a demon wants to ride in the car with them and that bit kind of goes nowhere.  Maybe a scene didn't make the final cut.  Maybe the writers decided to put some odd humour in there.  It doesn't fit.

Jack signs up to this church for research and puts his gender as N, i.e. No.  I love him.  I think I've mentioned that right?!  I have a note about there being a creepy doll in the ep but now I don't remember what that referred to.  There's some awful hand torture - bit too soon after Last Holiday for my taste.

The Pastor's daughter turns out to be the killer, which, to be fair I did not see coming.  the Pastor doesn't seem upset about this though, which is odd.  Bad writing or bad directing, you choose.

Jack reveals that he will die when he kills Chuck and Amara.  What a thing to lay on Cas.  Especially when he's driving and needs to keep his eyes on the fucking road.

Back to the brothers.  They sit on the hood of the car, in the rain, which turns to slushy snow.  No one does that. It's blatantly been done so we get to ogle them looking pretty.  The show didn't used to do that.  Then Amara turns up and Dean and her have a heart to heart.  My main takeaway from this ep is how beautiful Amara is.  She really, really is.

It ends with Cas hinting to Dean that Jack will die.

6 out of 10. Some solid bits but could do better.  I found the monster of the week stuff a bit dull but I enjoyed the character bits.

Supernatural Season 7 recap

Season 7 episode 1 - Meet The New Boss

Jeez I dislike Castiel as God.  He goes around punishing the wicked and smiting angels, and generally being quite unlikeable.  There's some bad scriptwriting where Castiel gets described as sexy by a witness.  Sam's Lucifer hallucinations start - Lucifer is pretty vile and has a little pot belly, which feels incongruous to how characters like him are normally seen.  Dean doesn't notice that Sam is hallucinating.  Crowley and Death gets summoned, those two are always a pleasure to watch.  Most of the ep is about Cas though, and it does nothing for me.  At the end the Leviathans take Cas over and Misha's acting just gets on my nerves.  That might be because I find Misha himself quite unlikeable.

My verdict? Meh.  No reason to watch again.

2. Hello Cruel World

At the end of Season 6 Cas broke down the wall in Sam's mind.  This ep we get to see the effects of it. There is a lot of Hallucifer, who is defeated by the power of brotherly love and faith.  That makes the show sound more wholesome than it is..  Honestly though, the scene where Deam gets through to Sam and grounds him in reality, giving him the strength to reject Lucifer is powerfully good shit.

Bobby's house is burnt down by the Leviathans, so they team ends up in a cabin in the woods.  There's a lot of Leviathan bollocks in this, and Cas dies at the start of the ep.

The brothers don't seem to mourn Cas much thouh.  It's not strongly felt, not like when Bobby dies later on, not when Sam deals (briefly) with Amy's death,

3. The Girl Next Door

Sam works out a kitsune (Amy) is in the area and that he met her when he was a kid.  John and Dean were hunting the ma kitsune, Sam and Amy date without realising who the other is.  Amy saves Sam from her Ma.

Now Amy is feeding, but to save her sick son.  Sam decides to let her go.  Dean pretends to agree then kills her, and lies to Sam about it.

I hate this decision from Dean.  It's cruel and it makes no sense.

4 - Defending Your Life

Osiris finds Dean feeling guilty in a bar and so puts him on trial.  Dean's witnesses are Jo and Sam, he declines to have the third witness be called because he knows it will be Amy and he doesn't want Sam to find out about her.

I felt a bit better about the depiction of Osiris on this second watch.  On first watch it felt a bit too clunky, a bit too Smallville-gimmicky for me.  Either I'm able to gloss over that now or I feel it works better now I have more context for this season.

At the end of the ep Sam says Osiris didn't go for him because he doesn't feel guilty about what he's done because he's paid his dues, what with being in the cage and everything.  That felt a little too easy.  There were no signs before now that Sam didn't feel guilt, and it wasn't neccessary to ensure that dean got hauled up to face trial.

No leviathans in this ep!

5 - Shut Up Dr Phil

I had this on my rewatch list but gave up partway into it. I don't care for James Marsters' and Charisma Carpenter's performances, and I don't recall the couples therapy session being anything more than a cheap joke.

7 - Slash Fiction

The Leviathans impersonate the brothers and go on a killing spree.  Given how much I hate the leviathans, it's surprising that this is pretty good.  Ackles and Padalecki give good monster performances.  They also have to abandon the car.  sobs.  It doesn't come back until the season finale.  double sobs.

At the end Sam discovers that Dean killed Amy and leaves.  For non SPN fans, this means he leaves his brother, which is tantamount to someone walking out on their 30 year marriage.

The bad thing about this ep is the dreadfully contrived way they discover the chemical mixture that hurts a leviathan. It makes me cringe thinking about it.

8 - The Mentalists.

It's the town where everyone is psychic! And it comes with two problems. There is ZERO mention of Sam's psychic powers, which is a big missed opportunity and incredibly aggravating. You'd think there would be one throwaway line or something.

The second problem is Sam forgiving and seemingly forgetting Amy. Bad, bad writing. BAD CHARACTERISATION AND WRITING. I understand that he'll see Dean's point of view. He shouldn't be forgiving him. It makes no sense for him to just change his mind completely, with us seeing no pathway towards forgiveness. It felt like the writers just wanted to make Dean be in the right. However the way they did renders Sam's anger about Amy null and void and misses an opportunity to see Dean grow and take responsibility for his actions. Dean deserves to be bollocked and to feel the guilt. If we know his character we know that killing Amy likely is eating away at him, but that should be explored. This plot started off as a really solid moral quandary/ethical dilemma and was resolved by 'Dean is in the right because he's our favourite'. This scene did both brothers a disservice.

The monster of the week story was pretty good though.

8 - Time For A Wedding

Becky doses Sam with a love potion and they get married.  It feels like it's going to be played for laughs but this is evened out when Dean obviously has problems with it, and when Sam reminds Becky that she's planning to rape him.  Towards the end Crowley arrives and deals with the crossroads demon who is welching on deals.  Props to the actors for making this work.  It could have gone badly wrong.

Thought - Given how much of a fan Becky is, you'd think she'd have learnt right and wrong from the books.  She can't seem to understand that the boys are not things, they are real people.  I know she's a parody of the maddest kind of fan, but still....

11 - Adventures in Babysitting

I skipped Death's Door so it came as a shock to realise that Bobby had died in the previous ep... fuck man, the grief in this show really hits me hard.

One of Bobby's phones gets a call from a kid (Krissy) looking for Bobby.  She's not interested in talking to anyone else.  Nevertheless Sam goes after her.  She's a hunter kid and her Dad has been missing.  Turns out a Vetala has taken him (one of the Vetalas is played by Ruby from Once Upon a Time!). The kid and Dean bond, grumpily.  First appearence of Fraaaaaaank.

No real leviathan rubbish in this ep.  Great episode. 5 out of 5. 

12 - Time After Time

This is very much a silly, fun episode.  Dean is hunting Chronos and gets thrown back in time to 1944 where he meets Eliot Ness (who I hadn't heard of before watching this) and they take Chronos down together.  It feels like an excuse to stick Ackles in a natty suit and give Dean the chance to fangirl over someone.  Good shiz.

13 - The Slice Girls

Dean has a daughter.  I have certain moral and theological issues with this episode given that it posits the Amazons as evil.  On a rewatch, it's a good enough stand-alone episode, if you don't take the Amazon's depiction personally.  But I do.  Harrumph.

14 - Plucky Pennywhistle

Lots of clowns and creepy childhood nightmares.  Sam's fear of clowns is portrayed really well.  The unicorn killing someone with their horn is a favourite SPN death of mine.

Ep 16 - Out With the Old

There are lots of cursed objects - ballet slippers make a dancer dance her feet off, literally.  It gives us a particularly gory yet delightfully absurdist horror scene where the ballerina is lying dead on the floor, legs cut off at the ankles, in a pool of bright red blood.  The shoes are in perfect nick.  There's also a cursed teapot which gives a much ickier death scene, and a cursed gramophone.  Sam averts the gramophone death.

Dean wants the ballet shoes, that's amusing.

Sam is hallucinating Lucifer constantly.  Lucifer is talking to him all. the. time. so Sam is not sleeping.  The brothers are impersonating FBI agents and whilst all professional and courteous with the police, as soon as they get to the shop suspected to be selling the cursed objects, there is no charm from Sam. No grace, just sheer irritation at the objects being let into the wild and an impressive level of impatience to get the case solved.  I can't imagine this was scripted, I think it's all Padalecki's interpretation.  It works really well, it builds on Sam's character at the stuff happening in his head, and it makes him super real.  

Dean has a far calmer demeanour - he's unhurried and business as usual.  Sam's urgency makes sense in terms of sleep deprivation and the devil stuck in your noggin 24/7.

Ackles and Padalecki really make this show work - they put so much into the characters even when it's not in the script or the directions.  Their performances are solid and they tell so much of the story with their faces and body language, and it never looks contrived.  It's a wonder to watch.

The second half of the episode is Leviathan heavy, but interesting leviathans, for once.  The lady estate agent and her downtrodden assistant.  The scene where the assistant takes a taste of the boss from the sword, and the brothers' reactions, is telly show magic.  It's makes everything so much more real and draws you in and makes the bad plots worth it all.

17 - The Born Again Identity

Sam is checked into hospital because he's not sleeping as Lucifer is there all the time.  Padalecki gives a really good performance here.  Dean looks for someone to help him and comes across Cas, who has lost his memory and is now named Emanuel and is healing people.  Once Cas gets his memory back he takes Sam's pain and then he hallucinates Lucifer.  Good episode.  Really good episode.

18 - Party On Garth

Garth leads on a hunt and asks the brothers in for help.  It's a Japanese Shojo that people can only see when drunk.  Much hijinks (for the viewer) ensues.  Dean's alcoholism has really ramped up this season, I feel it got worse in season 5 then increased in season 6, but by this point Sam is making lots of comments.

The ep starts off wobbly, but ends up excellent. 

19 - Of Grave Importance
Sam and Dean go to help another hunter - Annie.  She ends up killed in a house filled with other ghosts.  Bobby is haunting his flask so he ends up there too, and finally manages to get a message to the brothers.

The house ghosts (ghuests?) are being held there by a particularly mean boss ghost.  the brothers do their salt n burn business and it's all cool.

Notable for - it being revealed that Dean, (soulless) Sam and Bobby all shagged Annie (at different times).  Lucky Annie.

Ep 20 - The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo. AKA Where we meet Charlie.
I decided to rewatch this as it's the episode where Dean talks Charlie through chatting up a bloke.  It's an amusing scene, in quite a lot of ways.  I wouldn't have guessed that it was this late on in the season.  It did reinforce my previously held opinion that I don't like Charlie's characterisation.

She's written and portrayed so obviously.  Her geek credentials are shoved in your face at every opportunity, but they are such, sorry to use the word again, but obvious.  She was born in 1985, which makes her 12 when the first Harry Potter book came out, so I understand her being a Potter fan.  Choosing to make Hermione her hero is too easy.  Choose any of the other women.  Choose Luna.  Choose Mrs Weasley or Professor McGonagall.  The Lord of the Rings laptop wallpaper is too easy.  The Star Wars references are too easy.  It's like she's been written for people who aren't familiar with sci-fi and fantasy.  Given that the show is Super-friggin-Natural this is ridiculous.

After the boys have outlined the plan she agrees to join them far too quickly.  She's not freaked out at all.  Her love of adventure stories is cited as the inspiration, but come on.

She does something in IT  She's an amazing hacker.

She does not read as one-of-us, she reads as some twat's idea of what one-of-us is.  I think the term is Mary-Sue or Manic Pixie Dream Girl.  We are meant to identify with her, but I just can't.

Friends have talked about how she doesn't fit in tonally with the rest of the show. I agree.  She's just so damn chipper.  She's not properly weird, she's kooky weird.  She's a man's idea of what a cool girl is. It's so disappointing.

21 - Reading is Fundamental

Kevin Tran the prophet is brought in.    I have issues with bringing in another plot this late in the show. It does not make for smooth viewing.

Ignoring that, this ep is otherwise pretty good.  Solid performance from Chau as Tran.  Great performance from Collins as crazy Cas.  Meg is delightful.  All languid drawl and relaxed suggestiveness, all overlaid with such withering scorn.

22 - There Will be Blood.

The boys realise that corn syrup is the thing that the leviathans are using to subdue humans, so much to Dean's disgust they have to eat actual vegetables.

They find out that to defeat the leviathans they need angel blood, ruler of fallen humanity blood (Crowley) and alpha blood. so off they fuck to get alpha vampire blood.

All does not go well, UNTIL the alpha vamp realises that the leviathans are going to kill the vampire race through contaminating humanity's blood via their corn syrup, and then he helps the brothers.

Better episode that I expected.  Crazy Cas remains fun and far more watchable than regular Cas.

23 - Survival of the Fittest.

The finale!

The opening montage and Carry on Wayward Son get me in the stomach every time.  I am so sad this show is ending. 

The boys get the car back. They go to defeat to the leviathans.  Dean and Cas are shot into purgatory.  It's good shiz, but not the best finale.

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.

Supernatural - episodes to watch out for

This isn't a proper blog.  I haven't been able to do much blogging lately, mostly due to busyness and feeling mentally dreadful.

I'm still watching SPN, just not had the space to write up episode synopses. Instead here is my list of Season 7 eps onwards that I intend to watch, that I think are worth watching.  Let me know if you think I've missed a good one.

Note - seems I really didn't like seasons 8, 9 or 13...

I know the lists are inconsistently formatted and it looks awful, but my allergies are making my eyes hurt and I can't look things up. 

SE7 -

2. hello cruel world

3. the girl next door

4 - defending your life
7 - the mentalist
8 - time for a wedding
11 - adventures in babysitting
12 - time after time
13 - the slice girls
14 - plucky pennywhistle
16 - out with the old
17 - The born again identity
18 - party on garth
19 - of grave importance
21 - reading is Fundamental

Se8
1 - we need to talk about kevn
2 what's up, tiger mommy
5 - blood brother
6 - southern comfort
8 - hunter heroica
11 - larp and the real girl
13 - everybody hates hitler
16 - remember the titans

Se9-
5 - dog dean afternoon
7 - bad boys - Young Dean in a home.
8 - rock and a hard place
12 - sharp teeth
13 - the purge
19 - alex annie alexis ann

Se10 -
2 - reichenback
3 - soul survivor
5 - fan fiction
6 - ask jeeves
8 - hibbing oil
9 - the things we left behind
12 - about a boy
15 - the things they caned
20 - angel heart

Se11:
1, 2, 3, 4, 7
8, 11, 12, 12
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

Se12
The eps up to and including Asa Fox.
First Blood (for Dean and Sam's escape from lockdown only)
ep 5  - the one you've been waiting for
Ep 11 - regarding Dean
Ep 12 - stuck in the middle with you
18 - the memory remains.
21 - finale.

Se13.
ep 4, 5, 9, 12, 17, 20

SEason 14 
I have no notes on this but I do know I generally enjoyed it. 

Supernatural Season 6 episodes 7 - 9

Episode 7 - Family Matters

I wasn't going to watch this because the blurb indicated it was a Grandpa Samuel heavy ep.  When I flicked ep 8 the catchup scenes showed the reveal of Soulless, so back I went to Family Matters.

This ep is worth it for the reveal of Soulless, and for the reveal of Crowley being the boss of Grandpa Samuel.  And therefore the boss of the boys.

I still do not care for the alphas (I'm banging the same drum in every write up aren't I, how dull), but I suppose I should note that this is the ep where the bros find out that Samuel is looking for the location of purgatory, as it turns out, on behalf of Crowley.  And Sam tells Grandpa Samuel that Dean has buggered off.  Sam is lying.

Cas is being an utter dick in this season.  I'm remembering that he is in league with Crowley and it's just a  really really dire plot.

Episode 8 - All Dogs Go To Heaven

A bro-centric episode, hoorah, with more frigging alpha bullshit, booo.

Skinwalkers disguised as dogs are infiltrating family homes in order to turn the families when the time is right.

Notable things (thing?) is that Sam acknowledges how being Soulless means he doesn't care about anything, but that he would like to try to be the old Sam again, with Dean's help.

I feel like these recaps are getting briefer and briefer as I care less for the episodes.  Maybe at the end of this season I'll write a list of episodes that are worth rewatching.

Episode 9 - Clap your hands if you believe

This one is excellent!  Great comedy from the brothers and an appearance from Voyager's Doctor.

The boys discover fairies.  Dean gets abducted, possibly services Oberon, then back home sees a tiny naked fairy and exclaims 'nipples!', before frying it in a microwave.  Sam can't see the fairies (because he hasn't been abducted by them) and acts with far less morals and ethics and ensouled Sam does.

Go to the SPN wiki for this ep to read an example of the dialogue - https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/Clap_Your_Hands_If_You_Believe

Honourable mention should also go to the opening credits, a pastiche of The X-Files opening credits.

This is a fun ep and and example of SPN being great.

Supernatural season 6 - eps 2 to 6

Woah.. new blogger interface... This is bizarre.  Lots of white space.  Have they taken a leaf out of Ravelry's book? I hope not.

Episode 2 - Two and a Half Men

Babies are going missing, the boys rescue one.  The kid turns out to be a shapeshifter, demonstrated when he changes from a white kid to a black kid.  That scene is pretty good.

Grandpa Samuel decides to raise the baby as a hunter.  No no no, stupid idea.  dean isn't impressed.  IIRC Sam doesn't argue much. Because Soulless.

Dean is uncomfortable with Ben and Lisa going out alone - that's the domestic shit I want to see more of.

The shapeshifter after the baby is an alpha shifter, which is what I don't want to see more of.

The episode ends with Lisa telling Dean to go hunt and come back to her and Ben between hunts.

The opening credits show Dean having a happy home life.  It's a brilliant set of scenes.  Domesticity storylines have always been appealing to me, I like seeing superheroes on downtime, doing day to day stuff.  Dean is trying to keep Ben naive and safe - protecting his family at all costs.  he is a bubble of panic - he wants to protect his family but he can't do that and give them a normal life.  I see parallels with covid-19.  Dean is driven by fear and he is so used to Sam being on the same page as him and obeying him, he is thrown when Lisa and Ben don't.

I noticed that Soulless puts his rubbish in the bin.  That was surprising...

On the baby, they seem to have the baby for a long time without it crying with hunger.  I am not impressed.  Then when it does cry in the supermarket Dean picks him up and just mock cries/yells back at him.  I found that scene really uncomfortable.  It's a real baby, someone comfort the poor thing.

Gwen Campbell looks like Sigourney Weaver.

Episode 3 - The Third Man

This is ace.  The skin is peeling off a copper and then he collapses into goo. Nice.

We then move to a scene where Sam has hired a sex worker, and the episode shows her nearly forgetting payment and offering to meet Sam on her day off, because Sam is just that good in bed.  i cannot roll my eyes hard enough.  Sex workers don't do that, if they did they would be out of a job.  

It's impressive how much Soulless wants Dean around.

The monster of the episode is not a monster. Someone has hold of the Staff of Moses and is using it to visit biblical plagues on people - river of blood, plague of boils, plague of locusts.

Castiel helps them find the person responsible - a black kid who's father was killed by cops who first planted a gun in his car then shot him. So, topical.  I'm with the kid on this tbh.

Cas performs a quite frankly horrific ritual on the kid which Dean objects to but Sam is happy with. I am very uncomfortable that they are harming an innocent kid, and that afterwards they leave him in the hotel to be found by cops.  The same cops who framed and murdered his Dad.  There is no way that kid is getting home safely.  Castiel, you are a cock.

It turns out another angel Balthazar, a very attractive angel I'll have you know, gave the staff of Moses to the kid in exchange for his soul. And suddenly I remember where this season is going. Sigh.  Frigging angel war leading up to the bloody stupid Leviathan plot, via Raphael who wants the Apocolypse to happen.  This feels like seriously lazy writing.

Dean confronts Soulless about how he is acting.

Episode 4 - Weekend at Bobby's

Another good episode.  Less infuriating than episode 3.

Bobby summons Crowley who refuses to give Bobby his soul back.  Crowley is stuck in a devils trap because somehow the demons always walk into the correct floor space. Sigh.  Crowley threatens Bobby with his pet hellhound and Bobby lets him go.

This ep really shows how vital Bobby is to the other hunters.  He helps Sam'n'Dean on a case, chews them out for being selfish assholes, helps Rufus destroy a monster, deals with his next door neighbour hitting him, puts a fancy pants cop off his scent, tortures a demon for Crowley's weak spot, summons the spirit of Crowley's son and sends the boys to Scotland to dig up Crowley's bones and finds out Crowley is the king of hell now.  Crowley is a shit king by the way.

I don't like the son of Crowley gubbins.  It's bollocks.

Ooh, super wiki tells me Jensen Ackles directed this ep.  He did good.

Episode 5 - Live Free or Twihard

This episode is important because Sam lets Dean be turned by a vampire.  Dean gets cured, but it's confirmation for Dean that there is something desperately wrong with Sam.  There's too much Grandpa Samuel in this ep for me.

Dean comments on a terrible vampire romance book cover calling it rapey, then takes up the same position in Lisa's bedroom.  In his defence he had gone there to say goodbye, but obvs he fanged up, shoved Ben and made Lisa very angry.

Dean and a wannabe vampire lad have a good back and forth about the value of glitter when hitting on women.

Episode 6 - You can't handle the truth

This is an excellent truth serum episode.  It's Veritas, the goddess of truth in play.  Veritas reveals that Sam is not human and Dean forces an explanation out of Sam, who claims that he knows he's wrong but he doesn't know why.  So Dean lamps him 14 times.  Mature.

This ep is important in the discovery of What Is Wrong With Sam.  Well worth rewatching.

SPN Season 3, eps 12 and 13

Brief post today.  I want to continue reading a 65k fic I'm nearly halfway through.

Ep 12 - Jus in Bello
(un) Cool Fact.  It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise that the Italian JIB con was named after this ep.
Bela sets the brothers up so that FBI Agent Henrikson can arrest them.  They are taken to the police station where we discover demons have possessed some of the coppers.  A demon shoots Dean, kills most of the people in the station and Henrikson and the few others left alive are beseiged, alongside the brothers.  Henrikson et al finally believe in demons and after much discussion covering areas such as it is ok to sacrifice a virgin to save the rest of them, the demons are exorcised via the exorcism ritual being played over the station's PA system.  I like this method of getting rid of them, I find it ingenious.
At the end Lilith demon turns up, in the form of a little girl,and blows up the station, killing Henrikson.  I am not amused by this, I like Henrikson and wanted him kept around.

There's a nice I Shot The Sheriff line, delivered excellently by Dean.

Ep 13 - Ghostfacers
I think I skipped this one.  As memory serves, Sam and Dean are great in it, but the Ghostfacers team are unbearably annoying.  If anyone wants to know what happens go read the Super wiki summary here.

SPN Season 3, eps 7 - 11

Ep 7 - Fresh Blood
This is a Gordon and vampire-centric episode.  Gordon is threatening Bela to tell him where the boys are.  Bela tells him, but on her own terms.  Because she is fabulous.  Then we cut to Sam n Dean on a hunt.  Dean cuts his arm to attract a vampire to him, and I find it a bit offputting, because self-harm scenes like these trigger me, and then the vampire turns out to be Buffy's Harmony.  She doesn't know she's a vampire.  Dean kills her anyway.  It's a really sad scene, and it's played as uncomfortable for both brothers.

Gordon and the brothers cross paths.  There is a fight (obvs).  Gordon gets caught by the vampire (Nixon) who is turning unsuspecting women.  Gordon remains brutal, even as a vampire.  He rips the two vampire women's heads off, with his bare hands.  Then he goes to visit his hunting partner, the mad religious one with the creepy iconography, and puts his hand through the dude's chest.

Nice parallels with Nixon being alone and desperate to get his family back, and how Dean felt when Sam died, and how Sam will feel when Dean dies.  I really like how the show continually drives this point home, torturing the boys and driving up Dean's guilt level, again and again.  Of course, he quashes it and buries it because is that how he copes.

Oh my, Sam's plea to Dean to stop the front and be his brother again... my heart.  And then... Dean is using his machete to shave hairs off his arm... *fans self*.

Dean get bitten by Gordon, so Sam decapitates Gordon with wire, but doesn't seem to worry about getting Gordon's blood in him.  Poor directing and detail there.

Gods, Dean looks so young in this ep.

Final scene - Dean gets Sam t ix the car...because he needs to know for the future, the future without Dean, in case you hadn't grasped that.  *bawling*.

Ep 8 - A Very Supernatural Christmas
I think this episode is highly thought of because of the insight we get to the wee Winchesters.  It doesn't really work for me.  The Weechesters are cute, and their upbringing is shitty, but I am just not  a Christmas person and don't really do schmaltz.  And it is a bit schmaltzy.  In a Supernatural screwed-up-childhood way.  I quite like seeing Sam give Dean the Samulet, but that's for the continuity-completist in me, not for the drama of the scene.

I am not keen on the monsters either.  I get that it's meant to subvert Christmas, but I just doesn't work for me.  Perhaps I'm being far too precious about them being pagan gods, but it feels like the show doesn't take these guys as seriously as they do more folklore-ish monsters.

Ep 9 - Malleus Malificarum
I had to read the episode summary of this to remember the plot.  I am hopeless at remembering episode names.  Once read I remember I liked it, mostly for the gory details.  Witches are casting curses - a woman's teeth fall out, bloodily, a man's hamburgers turns to maggots.  It turns out the witches are led by a demon.
There's quite a lot going on here, as the demon has links to Ruby, who also appears, and we learn from Ruby that demons used to be humans.  It's important stuff in terms of developing Season 3's storyline, but it does feel like a bit much in one episode.  Still worth watching though.  There are good Dean moments as he learns more about what waits for him in Hell.

Ep 10 - Dream a Little Dream of Me
I just read the episode summary of this on Super-Wiki and it 's only vaguely familiar.  Clearly this one did not make an impact on me.  I'll summarise briefly in the hope that I recall this later on -
Bobby is in a coma as he's been fatally poisoned.  The boys take dreamroot to go into his subconscious brain and wake him up.  Dean faces his own inner self doubts and loathing, Sam faces the guy who poisoned Bobby.  They get out. The end.
Red Dwarf did facing your insecurities better.

Ep 11 - Mystery Spot
I'm not sure I can say anything about this episode that hasn't been said before.
The boys go to investigate a case in Broward County, a so called Mystery Spot where weird things are purported to happen.  After a Tuesday of investigating, Dean gets killed, Sam reacts how you would expect, and then the day flips back to the start of the Tuesday.  Dean gets killed again,the day flips back again.  Over and over and over.  Sam withdraws into an angry, murderous, focused state as he has to see Dean dying day after day.  As he is the only one with memories of previous days he has to explain it to Dean every day.

He eventually works out that it's the Trickster doing this, who when caught says he's trying to prove that Sam can't save Dean (yeah right, because that will stop him trying...) and the Trickster flicks them to the Wednesday.  Then it gets dark, as Dean is shot in the car park by an ordinary human civilian.

Sam goes off the rails, hunting down the Trickster for I think 6 months.  He is willing to kill another human, any human to get his brother back.  It's at this point you might first realise that Sam is a little bit mad, and has always been a little bit mad.  But hey, that's hunter life for you.  Eventually he finds the Trickster who flicks them back to Wednesday and Sam stops Dean going to the car park alone, thereby avoiding getting shot.

Supernatural Season 3 - Ep 6 (Red Sky at Morning)

Superwiki has a list of physical fights the brothers have had with each other:
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/Fights
I bloody love fandom.

Ep 6 - Red Sky at Morning
People are drowning in strange locations, like the shower.  Our boys investigate and discover that the victims see a ghost ship before they die.  It's a pretty damn cool ghost ship. All the victims have caused the death of a family member.
Bela Talbot is also investigating- so that she can find the thing causing the haunting and sell it for profit - and they end up working together.  There is a sudden and inevitable betrayal at the end.  Of course there is.  And Bela also sees the boat and has to get the boys to help save her.  They get rid of the ghost in the nick of time and Bela gives them £10k each for their part in her job.

Notable points:
- Good visual effects, especially on the eyes when one victim is dying.  The eyes bulged and went red.
- The second victim, Peter, dies in front of the brothers and yet neither try CPR on him.
- Bela, and later on Crowley, are good British characters.  They have actual personalities, unlike the British Men of Letters we see in a dreadful later season.
- Dean looks incredibly sharp in a suit.  He is completely blindsided by Bela's confidence and forwardness and it's quite gratifiying to see.  He seems to give care and respect to his partners, whereas Bela knows she's sometimes just wants sex and it doesn't have to be nice.  Dean should have taken her up on the suggestion of angry sex.
- Sam gets harassed by Gert, the first victim's Aunt.  It's played for laughs, it is kind of funny, but I am a mite uncomfortable with the joke being that older women want sex.  If Sam had been a little more into it, or was reciprocating the charm, the humour would have been better.
- Sam mentions Castiel's name in a spell, but there is no hint that it is significant.
- The ghost is an old pirate that was hanged by his brother, the Captain of a ship.  Cain and Abel are mentioned.  I think this is the first mention of any parallel brothers-in-conflict storyline.  In later seasons we get the Michael/Lucifer and Dean/Sam fights, and obviously we get Cain himself.

SPN season 10 - episode 3

Oh yeah these recaps are going out of order.  I might end up combining them into one for neatness' sake at a later date.  Or adding to these posts.  Hmm.  What to do.  Maybe put a new post up saying that an older one has been added to.  That could work.

Season 10 episode 3 - Soul Survivor.
I have had a hankering for watching Mark of Cain and Demon Dean for a while now.  Demon Dean is intensely attractive.  I've seen discussions about whether Demon Dean is actually Dean or not.  Here's my take - yes he is.

Regular demons in human meatsuits (and ain't that just a great term) are condemned souls that have been tortured or so many years they have become utterly insane and hurt and twisted.  They become demonic.  They don't recall being human, despite Ruby's assertion otherwise.  These Demons are made of smoke and then come earthside and possess a new body.  The key point here being that it is not the demon's original human body.  Which makes me want to read a time travelling fic where a demon goes back in time and possesses their original human body, and their human consciousness knows what's going on.  That would be delicious.

Back to Demon Dean...well human Dean got the Mark of Cain, he was killed, but was only dead briefly.  The Mark affected him and twisted him, twisted his soul, so that he became demonic.  His demonic self didn't let his body die (as any demon doesn't let their meatsuit die).  Demon Dean's demonic soul stayed in his human body.  So, Dean body + Demon Dean soul is actually Dean.

Of course, now I'm thinking of the continuity where if demons who are possessing bodies keep the bodies alive while they are in it, but then the body dies when the demon exits, how is Dean's body OK once he's been returned to human.  There might be a canon explanation but I doubt it.

To the ep.
Dean has been a demon since the end of Season 9.  Sam intends to cure him, with sanctified human blood I think.  He's dressed as a Dr and has a priest saying the necessary words over a bag of human blood.  I would quite like to know the back story to this.
Back to the bunker.  Dean is tied up.  And still immensely attractive.  Then he gets splashed with holy water and then we have wet Dean.  We get hardly any topless Dean shots throughout the full 15 seasons, but we do get scenes like this.

Next up, 2 flashbacks.  The first is Sam doing yet more unethical things in order to fix Dean.  In this case it's using an innocent (relatively) human as bait for a crossroads demon.  Oh Sam, its this intensity of relationship that we love, but dude, that is a really shitty thing to do.

The other flashback is Demon Dean hanging out with Crowley, and I adore it. Carefree, selfish, no hang ups Dean.

Sam eventually cures Dean, after Dean has got loose and aimed a hammer at Sam's head. Sam looks genuinely terrified at this attack.  Whether it's because he know how dangerous Dean is, or because he's worried he won't be able to cure him, is up to the viewer's individual reading of the scene.  I think it's both.  Sam doesn't often look scared.

When Dean is cured Sam looks so intensely and genuinely happy.  Dean is slowly being crushed by guilt, again.  And makes a divorce joke.  And people say there's nothing unusual about their relationship.

And then there's the other (crap) sub plots that we get after Season 5...  Hannah and Castiel and some angel bullshit that I really do not care about.  At this point in the show the angels were tedious as fuck.  Hannah would have been more interesting had she been brought in earlier.  I would like to see her and Anna working together.  I have a note that I liked one of her outfits.  I think I remember which one.

The other crap in this season is the hell sub plot... Crowley is presiding over trials in hell.... whyyyy... just whyyyy.... The King of Hell should be smiting the condemned souls left right and centre.  Don't give them a trial, kill them.  Kill the (relatively) innocent too.  Strike fear into all their souls, sow chaos.  This is absolutely not the terrifying hell that Dean went too, and it's as ridiculous as the angels becoming shitty bureaucrats.

Final notes:
- The brothers have a fair few photos of themselves over the years.  I would like to know how took those photos as let's be honest they don't have many friends.
- Crowley has a bottle with a skull emblem on.  That tickled me.
- Hannah is not healing from her injuries, I don't know why.  I care only mildly.
- The lighting in the bunker is deliciously dark, just like in the first two seasons.
- Dean is intensely crushable when he is dangerous.

SPN recap - Season 6 episode 1

I have decided not to write up Se3 - 5 before viewing 6. Because it will take me forever.  I will watch what I like and blog it when I like. Hah. take that my compulsive needs to order things brain.

Episode 1- Exile on Main Street.  This is kind of a live blog thing...

After Sam jumped into the pit to keep Lucifer away from humanity at the end of Season 5, Dean is living with Lisa and her son Ben, having a normal life.
He finds signs of werewolves and demons and then Sam is back.  He doesn't know why.  Dean is distraught because Sammy has been back for a year... Now I know where this storyline is going this is a really hard watch.  Poor Dean.
Aaaannd now the bloody Campbells are here.  This is the first season where I genuinely didn't like 50% of the plot.

Aaarrgghhhhh Bobby knew Sam was alive, what the everloving fuck.  Right now I really dislike Bobby.

When I first watched this I wanted Dean to stay with Lisa and Ben, whilst still hunting. I wanted the domestic life alongside the hunting, I wanted to see it pan out, to see them manage their problems and to work things out. I know now that the pull of the brothers means the show was never going to go down that route, but I still find it a shame.

Oh man I really dislike the Campbells.  And the alphas storyline. I'm here for Soulless Sam and Dean and their relationship.

Oh christ Sam has stupid sideburns.  Again.  There is no warmth from him to Dean.  It's heartbreaking.

I am really not down for watching a season of the Campbells.  I am going to carefully skip some episodes and potentially scenes because the Campbells are dull dull dull.


Ps: - I have curated a vanity playlist of the music I think Sam would have listened to in college.  It's on spotify, here.

Supernatural Season 3. episodes 3- 5

Getting back into this....I will include my episode notes, which might account for the poor structure of this post.  Spoilers ahoy.
.
.
.
.

Ep 3 - Bad Day at Black Rock
My notes say that I do not care for Katie Cassidy who was the first actress to play Ruby.  I've changed my mind since then.  I think I prefer her to Genevieve Cortese actually.  That might earn me dagger looks from some parts of fandom.  I was left unconvinced by Cortese's acting.

INTERESTING TIDBIT.  Shoshannah Stern who played Eileen in later seasons auditioned for the role of Ruby.  I am intrigued by this possibility (potentiality?).  I would like to read fanfic where Stern is cast as Ruby instead.

Ruby turned up The Magnificent 7 (ep 1).  I have no idea why my notes for her are around this episode's notes.  Clearly I'm a poor note taker.  I have also written down that I do not like John.  Fuck knows what I was writing.

This episode - the boys come across a lucky rabbit foot.  Lucky to start with, then you lose it, and your luck turns bad.  This is probably seen as a classic episode.  I don't know fandom well enough to say for sure.*  I like it a lot.  The boys are acted well, the humour is funny, there is a horrible gory bit at the start, and Bela Talbot is introduced.  I love Bela.  She's attractive and snotty and confident and clever.  I feel that As A Feminist (TM) I shouldn't list her attractiveness as the first trait I like, but it's the truth.  I'm shallow.

Ep 4 - Sin City
Far better than the dreadful movie of the same name.

There's a once failing town somewhere in America with demonic omens.  It turns out that there are two demons there and they have been laying the framework for people to condemn themselves through sex, drinking, gambling, suicide etc.  Note to self: The demons are the lady bartender and the priest, no one else.

Question for the masses - Why do demons leave demonic omens wherever they go?  Is it something innate in them? Can they help it?  Do they like the uncertainty and discord the omens sow?  Or is it deliberate?  Demon omen fic needed ASAP please.

Other thoughts - Bobby is fixing the colt, Ruby offers to help.  I like Bobby's dedication to his work.  The concentration and perseverance he displays.  All hunters have it, but I really noticed it in Bobby in this ep.
- Dean has started looking tired in this episode.
- Richie is a very stupid hunter.
- Dean doesn't know the exorcism ritual by heart.  I don't really buy that.
- The theology of SPN really comes into it's own in Se3.  It fascinated me on the first watch.
- Azazel's name is revealed.
- Dean wonders if Sam came back from his Se2 death wrong.  For my money, no.  He's always been angry.  he's always been dangerous.  He's just not as upfront about it as Dean is.  I don't know whether that's Sam intentionally hiding it, or ifit's second nature to him by now. Perhaps he's just used to pretending to be normal an by the end of Se 2 he flipped his lid at the demon gate being opened and him being killed.

Ep 5 - Bedtime Stories.
An enraged soul who named Callie is in a coma.  In an attempt to get justice for the accident that put her in the coma she makes local citizens act out fairytales - The 3 little pigs, Cinderella, Snow White and Little Red Riding Hood.
- Dean claims he doesn't know any fairy tales.  I think this is macho bullshit on his part.  There's no way he didn't read any to Sam when young, or come across them on the telly.  He's not illiterate.
- Sam and Dean's argument about Dean's deal is very child/parent-ish in tone.  Dean hasn't accepted that Sam is an equal adult at this point.  He doesn't until late season 5 when he agrees to Sam taking Lucifer in.
- This season is already sunnier and more fun in tone than Season 2.
- Adult Callie is absolutely caked in makeup and someone has drawn her brows on.  That is a ridiculous thing for costuming and makeup to do.
- At the end of the ep Sam leaves and tries to make his own deal to protect Dean, but the demons won't play.
- Bobby has fixed the colt.


*It feels bizarre to not know this fandom, as in the fans in the community, very well.  I continually compare it to my time in comics fandom, and I feel very much like an outsider.  The politics of the fandom, the adoration of the actors is lost on me.  In comics folk idolise the creators, obvs because the stories and characters are 4 colour wonders, rather than real people.  Idolising actors bemuses me.  Sure, they are very pretty, but they are fallible, and I suspect have had many nasty moments.

Supernatural Season 3 - episode recap (the first)

Found this in my drafts. I reckon I started it late May, but never managed to finish it, or to recount the remaining season 3, 4 and 5 episodes I have since watched.   3 seasons in under 2 months isn't bad going.  If you keep track of that sort of thing.

I wasn't in a great state for most of June so I was watching SPN but without any ability to write about it.  Watching it gave me something to focus on and distract me from the awful shitstorm that is end of May and the whole of June.

By the time I had got into season 4 I realised that seasons 3-5 blend together really well, it's more like one loooong season than 3 separate ones.  Of course, seasons 1 and 2 are also part of the story, but they feel more distinct to me.  Season 1 is a show that is finding it's feet, that is developing the characters and working out what it wants to be.  Season 2 is pure gold.  It's very good horror and it's visibly and physically dark.  Seasons 3 - 5 have a different feel.  While the events of 1 and 2 are obviously key to the next 3, they just feel different to me.  So perhaps recapping them all in one go (but several blog posts, don't worry), before I go into season 6 will be helpful.  For me, at least.

I'm still bloody bowled over by how much I love such an aggressively masculine show.  Usually shows which are so male don't resonate with me, I am very aware that they are not for me, but Supernatural, it grabs me and pulls me in and sinks it's teeth into me.  I have discovered that there is a large queer and female fanbase, so it would seem that I am not the only atypical audience.  A lot of the fanbase seem to be older women too, which delights me.  I'm not sure I'd feel so comfortable chatting to other fans if they were mostly teenagers.

Anyway.  What follows is a post I wrote back in late May. Enjoy. Or not.

This may be a flawed recap as it seems I didn't take many notes whilst watching it.
A) Who the fuck takes notes while watching a show.  I realise I am odd.
B) I remember when I didn't have to take notes because I would not only remember the episode details, but I would also have the energy and brain function to be able to write things up straight after I watched the thing.

I do know that after the brilliance of season 2, this season was less interesting.  The lighting and colours in the show changed too, it became a lot brighter, which saddened me a little.  There's plenty of good stuff in the season though.  Dean coming to terms with his deal, Sam struggling with finding out about it and his determination to save Dean, Dean's refusal to let Sam do anything.  All of that, it's good to watch and absorb.

There are only 16 episodes in this season, I believe the writers strike cut it short.  I think this worked out well as it meant the planned storylines were lengthened into the next season, which I think probably benefited them.

Ep 1 - The Magnificent 7.  The boys fight the 7 deadly sins (demons).  Dean is reckless due to his deal, but also depressed.  I read him as having passive suicidal feelings.  The brothers meet 2 other hunters who call them out for opening the gates of hell.  That's quite a satisfying moment, because they really did fuck that one up.  I think this is the first episode where there is a mention of the Boy King.

Ep 2 - the Kids are Alright
At this point I got the impression that Dean will spend this season fucking.  I wasn't wrong.  This episode he tries to hook up with an old shag - Lisa, who now has a son, Ben.  My headcanon says that Ben is Dean's son, the show doesn't confirm this.  We get to see what a normal family life would be Dean, and it's kind of heartbreaking.
The monster in this ep is a Changeling, stealing children and replacing them with scary fascimiles.  It's quite a chilling episode.

Supernatural season 2 eps 18 - 22

Season 2 recap continues..  spoilers ahead.

Ep 18 - Hollywood Babylon
The boys investigate a haunted movie set, but it turns out to not be haunted.  Other things are afoot.  They manage to get jobs on the set, Dean makes a particularly good PA.  He also eats everything he can, I do enjoy Dean eating, and he gets laid, by the star actress no less.  We learn about Dean's love and knowledge of crappy horror films.  This is very much a Dean-centric episode and I heartily approve.  Particularly as I feel that season 2 is overall more Sam-centric.  It is about his psychic powers after all, and it's a good storyline, but I do like Dean stories.

Through looking at other recaps just now I see that Something Wicked in season 1 is also Dean centric.  Normally I would watch it, but it deals with ill children so I am so not up to watching it at the moment.

Ep 19 - Folsom Prison Blues
This is a bonkers premise.  There's a haunting in a prison so the boys get themselves arrested (easy enough to do with the files the police have on them), and they get sent to the haunted prison.  Convenient.  Dean fits in particularly well, he's all swagger and bravado and instantly gets on with some of the prisoners.  Others he gets into a fight with.  Of course he does, he's Dean.

Dean charms their lawyer and convinces her to get him information about the ghost's body, and the boys escape.

This is a wonderfully fun, charismatic episode.  Dean is having far too much fun and Sam thinks the whole idea is bonkers.

Ep 20 - What is and what should never be
Ooof. if you are a fan of Dean this might well break your heart.

Dean get attacked by a Djinn and is thrust into what he thinks is a new reality.  In this new reality his mum is alive, the family aren't hunters, and Sam and him don't get on.  Given that this is meant to be his greatest wish fulfilled, I find this ep a bit unbelievable, as I don't think he would ever dream of a reality where Sam and him weren't joined at the hip.

Their Dad is dead, of a stroke, small mercies and all that, but then Dean realises that all the people they have saved in the other world are dead in this one.  He decides that he needs to sacrifice his happiness and go back to his old world.  And that is why I love this show and I love Dean.  he's a hero through and through, he (nearly) always does the right thing and he's committed to improving the world.  He decides to give up his own personal happiness in order to do what is right.  That is amazing and something to aspire to.

Dean decides to go find the Djinn and kill it, thereby reversing the spell, and Sam comes along with him (because they are destined to be together), Sam finds out about the supernatural and then Dean realises this isn't a new reality, it's an illusion.  And he end sup back in the real world and he's quite broken.

Ep 21 - All hell breaks loose part 1
The start of the epic season 2 conclusion!

Sam get kidnapped to a weird deserted town. The other psychic kids are there.  They learn about Azazel's deathmatch plan.  Sam is stabbed by the remaining psychic kid and dies in Dean's arms.

My heart is broken, again.

This is an excellent death scene, watching Dean react to his brother's death tears me apart.

Ep 22 - All hell breaks loose part 2
And then I get torn apart even more.
Dean's words to Bobby and his monologing over Sam's body illustrates to me how much of a parental role Dean has to Sam.  He has seen his charge die, his role in life has been to keep Sam safe, at all costs, and now he's failed him.  Dean expected Sam to outlive him, but now Sam has died and it just reminds me so much of a parent's grief when their child dies.  Dean will do absolutely anything to get Sam back.  So he does.  He makes a deal with a crossroads demon - to get Sam back Deans gives up his soul in 12 months time.  Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

The thing I don't like about this episode is John's ridiculous return. It's not needed and it cheapens what has gone on earlier in the season.  The brothers have worked through their feelings about John's death and we've had a huge focus on the brother's relationship.  John does not belong there.

So, that's a shitty note to end the season on.  If we forget about that part then season 2 remains glorious and worth many many watches.  I've started rewatching season 3 already.

Supernatural Season 2 - eps 4, 6 - 17 and a pandemic related rant

Season 2 is absolutely fucking gold.  Pretty much all the episodes are great, and it's filled with memorable gems that I was sure were in later seasons.

This season really looked at how depressed Dean is.  He does the job, hes good at it, but he feels empty.  He doesn't have much hope.  He loves Sam, and he gets enjoyment out of things in life, but he is mostly just sad.

I've already talked about eps 1-3 and 5, now I'll recount the rest.

Ep 4 - Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.  So I didn't watch all of this again. It just didn't grab me.  I remember Dean being very angry, and rightfully so.  His dad has just died, he's grieving.

Ep 6 - No Exit. Jo from the Roadhouse joins the boys on a hunt.  She's clever that one.  She's capable and ambitious but not quite got enough experience.  It's another creepy episode, with an excellent ending to the ghost.

Ep 7 - The Usual Suspects.  Sam and Dean get arrested for murder, we get another excellent female supporting characters as Diana, a lady cop, played by Linda Blair.  Diana learns about the supernatural, we find out who wronged the ghost and the boys get away to hunt another day.  We also get a great pea soup gag at the end.  Sounds simplistic but the execution is marvellous. The interviews with the boys, both focusing on the hunt and seemingly not bothered by the arrest, and the way the story of the ghost pans out is marvellous.

This episode means that from now on the boys are on the run from the law, which makes for a slight change in attitude from them, and is followed through in future episodes.  Back when the season arcs made sense and we had continuity.

Ep 8 - Crossroad Blues.  We meet a crossroads demon and learn about hell hounds.  The opening to this is just wonderful, the blues scene is full of soul (pardon the obvious language, I'm tired and lockdown has turned my brain to jam), and the arrival of the hellhound is masterful.

Ep 9 - Croatoan.  Dean tells San what their dad told him before he died, but honestly I'm ambivalent about that.  I know it provides angst, but I do not give two shits about John.  The Croatoan demon virus is what is really interesting and what grabs me.  I feel like The Darkness' plague in season 13/14(?) repeated the Croatoan madness.  Lazy writing in later seasons.

Ep 10 - Hunted. I don't think I paid too much attention to this one either, not after looking at a  synopsis.  Gordon turned up and tried to kill Sam.  That was never gonna work, or take, let's be honest.  I have no interest in Gordon.

Ep 11 - Playthings.  I found this difficult to watch because of the daughter's near death.  Powerful episode though.  The case is found in a hotel.  A mother, daughter and grandma live there and the hotel is getting sold.  The Grandma had a sister who died as a young child, 9ish.  The Grandma has been keeping her ghost at bay with hoodoo all her life, but now she's had a stroke so her ghost now befriend the daughter and kills people.

Ep 12 - Nightshifter.  Super wiki tells me this is mostly about a bank robbery and apparent suicides.  I have no idea. Brain jam you see.

After running out of steam the other day, I am coming back to this post and will try to finish it tonight. But first, a rant.

I have been so eager to do a re-watch and write a recap of the episodes, I've been daydreaming about how to do it, thinking about the episodes that had the most impact on me, trying to spot the foreshadowing and Easter eggs and all the innocuous but important bits that you notice when you adore something.

Yet now I am in the situation where I want to continue writing, and I want to wrap up each season before starting the next, but it feels like another pressured thing to do, on top of all the other endless things to do that are stacking up and up and up an becoming unbearable, because we're in fucking lockdown, stuck at home, with a shit incompetent government who would rather make money than protect people, doing our best to avoid catching a virus that could well fucking kill me, stuck far away from family who I cannot visit because they are vulnerable, with next to no space to myself, no time to think and relax because there is always someone else around.  I am hardly ever alone and it's ruining me.

There's homeschooling (or whatever it is that we're calling it), checking the school website for lesson plans and educational ideas, trying to catch up with people on video chat, meal plans, sorting out food deliveries, working out when to do a supermarket shop, paying attention to my asthma and mood meds, going for daily exercise, cleaning the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, doing the laundry, trying to read, trying to junk model, trying to think of exciting things to make with what we've got, negotiating the post office, trying to manage my trichotillomania (and failing), thinking of how we will keep the lad at home when schools allegedly re-open, worrying about the lad's social interaction with other, being convinced that family or myself will die of this disease, worrying about my family's actual real non-covid related hospital admissions, getting up, going to bed, wondering when I can have another eyesight test, remembering to take my iron tablets, trying to work out balanced meals for everyone, trying not to drink too often.  Remembering to adjust my chair when I sit down to work, trying to do my work from home, trying to manage my family's expectations and prevent them from falling into a pit of despair.  Trying to do my hobbies.

There is probably far far more also on my plate, which leads to me rage typing this.

I'm not the only one, most people feel like this.  We've had 67 days of lockdown and it's awful.  Sometimes it's good.  But mostly it's awful.  I miss normal contact with people, I miss being able to go places.  I hate homeschooling.

Fuck this shit, fuck this pandemic and fuck this virus.  Fuck the Tory government and their lies and half truths and misinformation and piss poor strategy.

Now this is off my chest, let's go back to writing up the episodes.

Ep 13 - Houses of the Holy.  This might be my favourite ep of the season.  It's where the boys discover angels, or it seems like they do.  This feels like the start of theology in the show.  Sam believes in God, Dean doesn't and he is shaken by Sam's belief.  I feel like given all the shit (dead mother, shitty father, many horrible demons and supernatural stuff hurting people) that Dean has witnessed he can't believe in the christian God because what God could allow it.  Whereas Sam, well Sam never knew his mother, he doesn't feel the loss like Dean does, and he never witnessed the change in John's parenting.  Dean was young, sure, but he remembers bits of Mary.  He parented Sam and protected him, kept him safe, but he didn't have anyone to do that for him.  I'm not surprised he doesn't have any faith and that he can't accept the existence of angels.  At this point in the show they believe that angels represent goodness.  They'll learn.

Then at the end Dean is forced to reconsider his stance, and it's so touching, so emotional, and seeing him start to feel differently, to consider the possibility of the divine, is just a stellar piece of telly.

Ep 14 - Born Under a Bad Sign.  This is also an exceptionally good episode.  Sam gets possessed by Meg, the demon from season 1.  MegSam kills people.  Dean finds out and his first instinct is to cover up the murder and protect Sam.  My heart, it bursts.  I'm a sucker for deep, abiding, I will move the earth for you love, and the Winchesters have it in spades.  There's a reason the show is also known as The Epic Love Story Of Sam And Dean.

Ep 15 - Tall Tales.  The Trickster arrives.  I adore this guy.  I was so pleased he came back in later seasons.  I'm not that fussed about the plot for this ep, but it's got some great character moments.  The scenes where the boys are recounting their evening in the bar to Bobby, and we see their versions of events, is just top quality.

Ep 16 - Roadkill.  There are 2 ghosts haunting a stretch of road and the boys lay them to rest.  The plot twist is that we think one of them is a living human until the end of the episode, and so does the ghost.  I know this is a trope that has been done before, but it feels fresh and compelling in this episode.  I have a note that says that the way Sam explains why ghosts exist echoes how Dean saw him explain stuff to the guy in Tall Tales.  I think this is referring to Dean's version of events in tall tales where Sam gives an uninterested witness a hug and is very emotional slash supportive slash puppy eyed at them.  So I guess it shows where Dean's version of events comes from.

I feel that these episodes are good examples of how Dean is very practical, very much in the here and now, wanting to solve the immediate problem then emotionally ditch it.  Whereas Sam is more of a thinker.  I believe that Sam and Dean are just as emotional as each other, they just express or hide the emotions in different ways.  Dean certainly isn't stupid either, he's framed as the least educated one, because he didn't go to University and he isn't widely read, but he's a good hunter and can put two and two together perfectly well enough.  I think he's more reckless than Sam, and I think he's more willing to take risks (so long as they don't risk Sam), and he's more willing to get killed in the line of duty.  Sam nearly got out. He tasted a normal life.  Dean has never felt he's had that option.

Ep 17 - Heart.  Dean goes to a strip club, Sam gets laid and the boys argue over what makes a monster worth killing.  All in the context of a werewolf hunt.  There's a discussion about an abusive ex and I think the scene did a reasonable job at showing how women get away from domestic violence and recovery.
The scenes were Sam has Madison tied up and is trying to get her to admit to being a werewolf are really compelling.  Especially when viewed in parallel with the earlier discussion of DV.  Sam switches to terrifying and Madison is genuinely terrified.
Dean offers to shoot Madison for Sam, and then cries on behalf of Sam when he does it.  I feel like this is quite a Wincesty moment.  Even though by the end Season 2 finale Dean is in more of a parental place with Sam.  These Winchesters are complex.