Supernatural - 6.20 - The Man Who Would Be King - Recap by Selina

This episode was heavily focused on Castiel, obviously. And can I just join the chorus of "FINALLY" which I'm sure the Supernatural fans have been collectively chanting? I mean honestly, Cas has been insanely underrepresented all year, and considering all the fuss about making him a regular, it's so ironic that Jim Beaver has been so much more heavily featured. I understand the absence of Castiel was partially because Misha Collins became a father and understandably needed time off, but at the same time, where's he BEEN all year? It's been a weird, awkward absence and I was really excited for this episode to give us all the answers. And along with a weirdly high number of references to fish, I think it absolutely delivered. There was so much to get into, so this recap is kinda-sorta really long, but I hope you enjoy my analysis.

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"Don't step on that fish, Castiel." *SQUIIISH* "...Oops."


Freshly reminded of Cas' shocking alliance with Crowley, the episode opens with the angel pensively brooding in a forest. And what follows is probably one of the most profound, chill-inducing speeches in Supernatural history, I don't think we've seen anything like it since Dean's early season carside-cries. Well possibly with the exception of last season finale, where, well, Dean's carside-cry was pretty epic too. But what I love about Castiel's speech is that first of all, it's Cas, and his voice can just melt bridges (random parallel, please excuse), and it puts his entire character in a whole new light - reminding us that Cas is more than the brothers' go-to angel, more than his vessel; he is a being who has existed long enough to witness the dawn of man, and that means that the way he perceived the would-be fall of man is just beyond anything any of us could imagine. I transcribed the speech for y'all's analysing pleasure:


"You know I've been here for a very long time. I remember many things. I remember being at a shoreline, watching a little grey fish heave itself up on the beach. And an older brother saying, 'Don't step on that fish, Castiel. Big plans for that fish'. I remember the tower of Babel. All 36 feet of it, which I suppose was impressive at the time. And when it fell, they howled, 'Divine wrath!' But come on. Dry dung can only be stacked so high. I remember Cain and Abel, David and Goliath, Sodom and Gomorrah. And of course, I remember the most remarkable event. Remarkable because it never came to pass. It was averted by two boys, an old drunk, and a fallen angel. The grand story. And we ripped up the ending, and the rules, and destiny. Leaving nothing but freedom and choice. Which is all well and good, except... what if I've made the wrong choice? How am I supposed to know... I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me tell you my story. Let me tell you everything."


He finishes his beautiful monologue looking into the camera. Castiel isn't just telling the story, he's telling this story to YOU, to ME, to US. Who is behind the camera? The audience? Or God? I guess we'll have to wait until the end of the story to find out. I like the breaking of the fourth wall, in any case. Kind of a Supernatural-specialty.

And you know what this really strongly reminded me of? The opening scene of Return of the King, with Smeagol recalling how he became Gollum. It's the fish thing I think, and the eerie voice-over. I loved it though.


Oh, where'd Sam go?


First scene after the credits, we see Dean driving the Impala as usual. But we pan out - and no Sam! Was anyone else like, huh? I know I stopped for a second thinking the shot looked really unbalanced.

Oh, but good thing there WAS no Sam because otherwise we'd have him very squished here when Castiel apparates in on top of him. And the Dean/Cas shippers would NOT be happy about that (congrats on the victory over Dan/Blair in the shipping poll, by the way. See, I'm not bitter... *face twitch* ;)), so moving swiftly along.

Castiel "just wanted to check in" on Dean. It's no secret he likes Dean better (Bobby does too, poor Sam), but I still wonder. How does he even find Dean? He doesn't even know where Sam is, he has to ask. Sam is apparently "tracking a Jinn" in Omaha... hmmm. They should learn that the bad guys always come to them with some fatal flaw they can explore, there's no point wasting like looking for semi-omniscient creatures like Crowley. Castiel continues to lie about his association with Crowley, and listens to Dean talking about finding and killing him as though he agrees.

"But Cas you'll call, right? If you get into real trouble?" Awww. I read something recently, I'm not sure it was an interview or a fan commentary of an interview, which said that Dean basically considers Cas a part of his family now. He loves him, in the same way as he loves Sam and Bobby, and while it has usually been the brothers calling on Castiel, I think it's really great to see that the support goes both ways. Of course, realistically speaking anything Cas couldn't deal with himself the brothers would have no real chance against, but it's the thought that counts.

Cas isn't one for chick flick moments though (he fits right into the family, then) and disapparates (I knoooow, he's not a wizard or whatever, but it's like the same thing so just..... 'kay?), leaving Dean in sulky silence once again.


The Devil You Know.


The next scene is less lovely and more um, gruesome. Rather than staying with Dean as we would any other run-of-the-mill random episode, we follow Castiel to a well, slaughterhouse, where Crowley is dissecting things. I guess there's no romantic way of saying that.

Now I know a lot of you are big Crowley fanboys and girls so I'll keep my negativity to a minimum. I'm just not a fan, I guess. I wasn't a fan of the Trickster either, I think it's for the same reasons but I can't quite put my finger on it. Anyway the point is that I wasn't super excited when it turned out he wasn't dead after all, but I can appreciate that he's a fan favourite, so I'll say a symbolic 'yay' in honour of everyone who squealed at their TV screens when he returned.

Crowley is dissecting the body of Eve, and has found a bunch of eggs inside her. Yuuuuuck. There's also a captured vampire, who feels pain every time Crowley "hurts" the dead body of Eve. I'm sure this information will be useful later.

This much we know: Crowley and Castiel are both looking for a way into Purgatory, and they believed that Eve could open the door. However, Crowley says she'd have to be alive for that to work - well, drat! Now we just need to know WHY they need to get in there. Who/what are they looking for?

"I am holding up my end."
"Ah yes, but is that all you're holding? See, the stench of that Impala is all over your overcoat, angel."

Okay, is this just me? What fanfic writer on crack snuck into the writer's room, guys? You can tell me. This dialogue just felt off to me, and made me laugh, but maybe I've just been spending too much time on the IMDb message boards.

Cas and Crowley continue to argue - Crowley is, understandably, upset that Cas' "pets" are continuing to hunt him down and that Cas is still fraternising with them. He accuses Cas of having a conflict of interests and I think that's the most spot-on thing he's said in a while. Whatever he needs Purgatory for, it can't be good since he's keeping it secret from the boys, but still, he can't let them go. He's way too attached, and it's distracting him from whatever his mission is. Whatever he needs the souls for, whatever he has planned.


The Plot Thickens...


Castiel's monologue continues. I like that this is recurring throughout the episode.

"Crowley was right, of course. My interest was conflicted. I still considered myself the Winchesters' guardian. After all, they taught me how to stand up, what to stand for, and what generally happens to you when you do. I was over. And then the most extraordinary thing happened. I was put back. And we had won. We stopped Armageddon. But at a terrible cost. And so I knew what I had to do next. Once again, I went to harrow Hell, to free Sam from Lucifer's cage. It was nearly impossible, but I was so full of confidence, of mission. I see now, that was arrogance. Hubris. Because I hadn't truly raised Sam, not all of him. Sometimes we're lucky enough to be given a warning. This should have been mine."

While he's talking we see flashbacks from last year's season finale ("Hey! Ass-butt!"), and are reminded that Lucifer exploded Castiel. I guess I never realised that he'd remember that, I figured the time would be reset in some form. But then, Cas is an angel, it makes sense that he'd remember.

We continue to hear about how Castiel raised Sam... and okay awkward question: did we already know this?? Because I was NOT surprised when I heard it, so I figured we'd been told that Cas raised Sam. But have we? Maybe we haven't and I've just been assuming? Anyway if it was a huge reveal then what I mean to say it OMFG I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT IT WAS CAS WHO RAISED SAAAAMMMMM... etc. If not, then never mind. Apparently, Sam coming back wrong (like Buffy! I only just realised!) was the warning he should have paid attention to. Hmm, the warning that he was trying to have too much power, trying to take control of situations he couldn't control?

We exit our collective reverie to find ourselves back with Crowley in the torture chamber, where the poor vampire is still suffering. Crowley asks him to "just kill the Winchesters." Why? Why do they need to go? Do they constitute some special threat, or is it because Crowley doesn't want them serving as Castiel's moral compass? I wish I understood what was happening - I think this is one of the episodes it will be interesting to go back and watch after the season/series is over.

Crowley lists all the Big Bads that the Winchester brothers have destroyed; nice trip down memory lane. I guess it mainly is that he's worried they'll foil his plan again, and I can't say I blame him. But still Castiel insists, they are not to be harmed. Aww, warm fuzzy bunny feelings.

And then it gets interesting: "Just find Purgatory. If you don't we will both die again, and again, until the end of time." Huh. But... why?


"A Superman Gone Darkside." Like Spiderman and Dark Spiderman! But hopefully not like the Spiderman 3 movie in general, that movie sucked.


Well there's a blast from the past. It's a good old-fashioned demon exorcising - slightly jarring that Sam is there when we were just told he was off hunting a Jinn but whatever - a demon who's been acting as a hunter and cleared out a nest of vamps. Really it's a shame these demons are working for Crowley because as Bobby and Sam admit, they're pretty good at the hunting thing.

They're looking for Crowley of course, but the demon isn't talking. Oh look, Ruby's knife. And Bobby sticks the knife in his thigh while they go to see Dean who's returned. And... oh, Dean lied to him. Interesting. Guess that explains why Sam is there, Dean threw Cas off the trail. "He doesn't know that we're close to finding Crowley." Dean doesn't want to lie - he trusts Cas (of course he shouldn't but it's still nice), but Bobby and Sam remind him that Castiel is an angel and that he shouldn't have made the mistakes he did. It's nice that the characters are catching on to what's happening though... don't you just hate those contrived shows where there's some big "misunderstanding" and we have to sit for the entire episode waiting for the characters to see something that's totally obvious to us? Supernatural has never been like that, which is refreshing. It's one of the reasons I like Bobby so much, he's just got so much sense.

But oops, as Sam and Bobby try to convince Dean that he shouldn't trust Cas so blindly, guess who decides to pop by! Cas stands watching the whole thing (and since when did Sam become the Lois Lane to Cas' Superman, anyway?) but they don't see him, and he doesn't make himself known.


"So they already suspected. And the worst part was Dean, trying so hard to be loyal, with every instinct telling him otherwise."

I guess that kind of sums up Dean perfectly, doesn't it? Dean is above all else loyal, and despite his surfacey debauchery ways, it makes him so pure and fundamentally good. It's like torture to Castiel, a good being who finds himself on an unexpectedly dark path.


Speaking of Dark Side... looks like there's a Gollum to every Smeagol!



Meanwhile Bobby's cracked the demon, and he tells them of a demon middleman - "a demon counterpart to Bobby Singer," Castiel comments. Interesting. And WHOA, he even looks exactly like him! He dispatches demons like Bobby sends hunters on various missions, he poses as police and FBI agents like Bobby does... but he does mispronounce "Wendigo." Ah, rookie mistake. I really like the similarities though, as OTT as they are.

"These demons would lead the Winchesters to Crowley," Castiel continues. "And Crowley would tear their hearts out."

So naturally Castiel appears and kills them all. The demon tries to escape Fake Bobby (Fobby?) but Castiel with the most badass move ever forces the demon back into the man and kills it. Yippicayeeeh, Mother F***er! Too bad his way kills the humans the demons are inhabiting, too, otherwise I'd say we found a replacement for the knife. But then, we're not really supposed to care about the humans caught in the crossfire anymore...

"I had no choice. I did it to protect the boys. Or to protect myself. I don't know anymore." And thus we begin to see Castiel unravel, to slip further into the grey area.


What if God Was One of Us...


"Hiding, lying, sweeping away evidence. And my motives used to be so pure." (It's called becoming human, Castiel.) "After supposedly saving Sam, I finally returned to Heaven. Of course there isn't one Heaven, each soul generates its own paradise. I favour the eternal Tuesday afternoon of an autistic man who drowned in a bathtub in 1953."

Interesting. I think this says a lot about Castiel - in a lot of ways he has a very innocent outlook on life, or at least he used to, and I think him returning to this place speaks of his desire to return to a simpler, clearer time, and it also means that he is beginning to be aware that it is slipping away from him because he's losing his innocence and becoming corrupted. And to further that metaphor, in the memory Castiel turns away from the happy man flying his kite to find himself facing seven angels who look very out of place in the calm, unchanging scenery. Something as unexpected as that would to an autistic man be akin to torture, and I think it symbolises how the facade is unraveling for Castiel, how he can't hold onto his simple and pure outlook anymore.

But Castiel is happy to see his angel friends. And the other angels are amazed that he's alive. They want to hear about God saving them - and next to that his surprising "No, it was the Winchesters" revelation seems to fall a little flat, but maybe that was just me.

You know, for a while I've kind of played with the idea that maybe, just maybe, Castiel was God - masquerading as just your average Joe Angel. But I don't really think so anymore, after this episode. Still it would have been neat.

"But you beat the Arch Angels," the angel insists. "God brought you back. He chose you, Cas. To lead us." But Castiel didn't want to lead them back then, surprisingly I guess, considering that these days he's practically the king of heaven (oh wait, is that what the title means?). Castiel doesn't want a leader, he wants freedom. But the angels just want to know what God wants them to do. They are like soldiers without a commander, they need someone to lead them, they need a purpose. Free will is all well and good if there is something you want, but some people/angels need to be given a specific purpose, a task to complete, by which they can measure the success of their life.


"Like teaching poetry to fish." Again with the fish.

He continues to describe the next few weeks in Heaven, where he tried to give the angels a purpose. They listened to him, because they believed he was chosen by God. Honestly, I don't think God is orchestrating any of this, I think we're looking at a situation like the nature god Pan from Greek Mythology (as referenced in the Percy Jackson novels). "Tell the world that the great god Pan is dead," Pan told the traveler, and lamented the people who continued to search for him. But I wonder if we will ever see God return, if we'll see God in some form (JDM! JDM! JDM! Sorry, what?), and if we even should. SPN is already stretching the religious themes; I have no problem seeing them personify religion and all, but depending on in what light they'd portray God it has the potential to be really cheesy and alienating both to the Catholics and the non-Catholics.


In the memory, Rafael proves to be a further nuisance to Cas. Borrowing Ken Lay's heaven - "I still question his admittance here." "He's devout. Trumps everything." (too soon? You tell me. I love the snarky satire though, way to make the heavy religiousness of the scene a little less heavy) - he's sought a meeting with Cas. He wants Cas to kneel and pledge his allegiance to him.

Rafael wants to free Michael and Lucifer and get the Apocalypse back on track. It's God's will that it is fought, after all. But Castiel, ever the trooper, vehemently fights back against this. I don't know where Cas stands on the whole God-involvement issue, but I think he's had enough taste of free will to not make what he thinks God wants a top priority. It's important to note that right now, Castiel is fighting for what he believes is right, and not once in this scene does he counter back that he believes he is following God's plan. He told the other angels that he believes God wanted them to have free will - and I think he truly believes that. And with free will comes freedom, and to have freedom, God can no longer lead them or control them. So does Castiel believe that God is gone, and that it's time the young birds flew from their nest? I think maybe he does, and that's what propels him forward into action, this combination of the ideals he believes in and the belief that God isn't going to swoop down and give them guidance, and he's not going to vote yay or nay on anything they do.

But Rafael is powerful and sends Castiel back to the other heaven, where he lies bleeding on the ground. Rafael warns that if Cas doesn't kneel, he will kill Cas and everyone he cares about.


Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth...

Returning to the present day, Bobby, Dean and Sam have found no trace of the demons, and Dean insists on calling Castiel for help. "This is Cas, guys. I mean when there was no one and we were stuck, like really stuck, he broke ranks. He's gone to the mat cut and bleeding for us so many freaking times. This is Cas. Don't we owe him the benefit of the doubt, at least?"

So Sam calls on Cas (makes you wonder how many times Cas has already been in the room watching them before appearing when they called, doesn't it?), but it doesn't work. Even when Dean calls, Castiel doesn't make himself appear. Guess the humans are on their own this time.

and WHOA! Okay so I was partially distracted cause I was typing, but OMG I just got half a heart attack when that demon jumped Dean!! I was not expecting that at all, and it's the first time in a while a show's really surprised me like that. Whoa, still breathing a little shallow over here, guys.

"Crowley had sent his very best. I was caught as much by surprise as the rest of them." (AND ME, HELL TO THE WHOA.) "I was left with yet another choice. I could reveal myself and smite the demons - of course Crowley wouldn't like it but on the other hand, they were my friends. For a brief moment, I was me again."

I'm glad Castiel came to save them. It's so evident on his face how much he cares about these people, and doesn't know what to do. Of course he comes with more lies, too. "I firmly believe that Crowley is alive." lol. In an episode with not many laughs, a deadpan like this made me chuckle.

Castiel pretends (laying it on a little too thickly) that he's surprised that the hunters suspected him of working with Crowley.

"Wonders never cease. They trusted me again. But it was just another lie."


Oops. But of course, in a moment Castiel goes too far. He quotes their earlier conversation, "Superman going to the dark side," and naturally Cas doesn't know anything about pop culture, so Dean immediately catches on.

"Of course I didn't realise it at the time, but it was all over. Right then. Just like that."

Oh no. Did anyone else feel their heart break just a little bit at that moment, right then, just like that? Because in that one moment, Dean - who had been trusting Cas so unconditionally - realised that their entire relationship was based on a lie, that Castiel was playing them and lying to them for his own selfish reasons. And being betrayed by someone you trust, someone who is supposed to be like family, is the worst possible sin in the eyes of Dean Winchester. It's fitting that it's Dean who discovers it, I think, as sad as it is too.


"I'm Fine." Famous last words...


"They're MY FRIENDS!" Castiel rages at Crowley, but Crowley calmly responds, "You can't have friends." And poor Cas, because he honestly believes that he can. These humans, with their trust and their flawed righteousness, are really Castiel's link to well, humanity at this point, to his sense of self and a reminder of what and who he's supposedly fighting for, and like the simplicity of the autistic man's heaven, Castiel is clinging to this connection with everything in his might.

Crowley furthers this point too, saying that as long as the brothers believe that Castiel is still good and righteous, Castiel can believe it himself. "Well I got news for you, kitten: a whore is a whore is a whore..."

But Castiel will not stand for this absurdity! So he slams Crowley into the nearest paper mache wall to show how annngry he is. And still he insists that the brothers stay safe at all costs, or the deal is off. "I'm still an angel." Wonder if that double meaning (as in, angel being known as a GOOD thing) was intentional?

"I asked myself, what am I doing with this vermin? As if I didn't already know the answer. Rafael was stronger than me, and I wouldn't survive a straight fight. So I went to an old friend for help. But watching him, I stopped. Everything he sacrificed, and I was about to ask him for more."


"It all comes down to the souls in the end, doesn't it?"

Ah. Now we're getting somewhere.


Just as he is debating whether to drag a domesticated Dean back into the fight, is when we see him form his allegiance with Crowley. It's all about souls. "Happy endings for all of us, with all possible entendres intended." I don't understand any of these possible entendres, but feel free to enlighten me in the comments.

"I was no fool. I knew what Crowley was and what he did. But I was smarter than him, and stronger. I see now that I was prideful, and in all likelihood, I was a fool."


Next we go to Hell, where all the bad guys are waiting in line FOR ALL ETERNITY. Crowley's got them in the worst kind of torture! And I have to say, while I'm not like yaaay Crowley omg sealclap, I thought his presence managed to light up this very dark episode in a nice, fitting way. Not too much, but he has a nice air of sarcasm about him that fits SPN, and he and Castiel play really well off each other.

"God's favourite buddy-boy, you've got what they call sex appeal." Not gonna comment, just gonna... let that one lie there.

Crowley talks about how Castiel could get a lot of angels on his side, and this I guess is how the Heaven civil war we've heard so much (i.e. little) about got started! Interesting. As Castiel sees it, Crowley is asking him to be the next Lucifer - even more interesting! I hadn't thought of it that way at all, because when we look at this I guess we only see Rafael=bad, Castiel=good. But Lucifer started out that way too, didn't he? So in a way we're exploring the root of Lucifer without actually showing the root of Lucifer, if you catch my drift.

And Crowley has a way to beat Rafael...... Purgatory, full of souls (40 million? Random number. Not too small?), ready to be used for nuclear power in the Heaven war. All Crowley wants is half the souls, and I sense that the Devil We Know is pulling a fast one on old Cas, but of course Castiel is desperate. And I think literally it's like choosing between Hell and Hell, there's no right answer. Crowley even loans him 50,000 souls from Hell to take to Heaven for power. Loans... are never a good idea. And Crowley is SO tempting! The angel being tempted by the devil, how symbolic. Castiel wants so badly to believe that God chose him, and pride and dare I say greed began to fuel his actions.

Castiel continues down the dark road and expels Rafael using borrowed power. His intentions are good, of course, but then, the best laid plans and all that.

"And so went the long road of good intentions. The road that brought me here."


JU-DAAA-JU-DA-AH-AH... *dances*


Yeah, it's the betrayal we saw coming but hoped wouldn't happen. It pains Dean even to call him there, and predictably they've got him trapped in that fire thing (predictably because we were refreshed on how it worked in the 'Previously On'. Seriously, CW, get with the programme).

This whole scene is just so sad. At least when Sam betrayed them, we always knew why. This time Castiel is completely sane and himself... he's just made bad choices. I think it was a brilliant move on the writers' part to make Cas into this semi-villain (Hey! The devil we know!) figure, but also devastating.

Castiel tries to reason his way out of their proof... but it's when Dean asks Cas to look him in the eye and tell him the truth... that's Castiel's kryptonite.

I mean... he still has good intentions. In that situation I think I'd trust him. He does want to beat Rafael. But, yeah, looking at the big picture he probably does want the power too. There must be a reason why Castiel couldn't come out and tell them the plan from the get-go, I mean if it meant stopping the Apocalypse, don't you reckon the boys would have helped him find Purgatory?

"I'm still me. I'm still your friend. Sam, I am the one who raised you from perdition."

...Oh. I guess we didn't know. Why did I think we knew already? Sorry. I have no idea what happened in my brain, I think I've read too many theories. I also liked the callback to season 4 when he raised Dean "from perdition." Too bad sentimentality isn't going to help him now.

And I like that this scene is more of an emotional moment between Castiel and Sam. It's always Dean who's in the middle of emotional outbursts, but here, finally, we see SAM react properly to something that pertains to his own situation. His face when he asks whether Castiel brought Sam back soulless on purpose, and Castiel's broken "how could you think that?" was just... ah, where are the tissues?


"When crap like this comes around we deal with it. Like we always have. TOGETHER."


Okay, I added the together. I felt like it should have been there. Point is, everyone is very hurt and betrayed. "What we don't do it go out and make another deal with the devil!"

OKAY HOLD UP AND HOLD THE PHONE. I'm sorry. But Dean, calling the kettle the pot or black or whatever MUCH? I love this episode and the intensity is great, but I feel like this isn't fair. I mean, Castiel is basically following TRADITION in the little messed up family, making a deal with the devil to save the world/one of the people in that room! First John Winchester did it. Then Dean did it. Then Bobby did it, though I don't really remember why. And I'm not sure if Sam literally did it but he sure as hell made a lot of deals with Ruby so... oh snap, Dean. I get that it's wrong and I'm not saying the hurt-and-betrayal-ness is wrong, but on this particular point I just had to stop and marvel at the irony. Okay moving on.

"It all sounds so simple when you say it like that. Where were you when I needed to hear it?"
"I was there. Where were you?"

We flash back to the moment when Cas made the wrong decision, when he chose to follow Crowley rather than approach Dean - and although again, him wanting to protect Dean was a very noble reason, it's neat to see the one moment, the exact time he fell (too bad it wasn't Thursday eh eh eh?? ;)).

Of course it's too late, because the demons are coming. "Cas we can fix this!" "Dean, it's not broken!" Ooh good comeback. He tells the humans to run and they leave him trapped in the fire. And in comes Crowley, who dispels him from his prison.


The New God and the New Devil, working together.


In an ideal world, sure. But of course Castiel isn't far enough gone, isn't too carried away by arrogance that he's going to pretend to assume such a blasphemous title.

Crowley leaves Castiel with a question: What are you? What are you willing to do? Two excellent questions.

Dean is sleeping, protected from angels with blood on the windows... but clearly he missed a spot because Castiel can just waltz right in there. He comes because he needs Dean to know the truth - again, the Sam fan in me is kind of ticked that it's always Dean who Cas goes to (but the Dean fan doesn't mind), but still, the way the show's been set up at this point I suppose it would be a bit out of character for Castiel to go to Sam. Still though. I miss the brothers being equal, and having equal importance to the story.

"Look, next to Sam, you and Bobby are like the closest things I have to family. You are like a brother to me. So when I'm asking you not to do something... you gotta trust me, man."
"Or what?" (Ouch.)
"Or I'll have to do what I have to do to stop you."
"You can't, Dean. You're just a man. I'm an angel."
"I don't know, I've taken some pretty big fish."
"I'm sorry, Dean."
"Well I'm sorry too then."

Oh man. I realise I'm typing out a lot a dialogue in this recap but I think it's just all so GOOD and it cuts straight to the point on so many of the issues we've been dealing with all year! I mean Dean coming out and flat-out saying that Castiel is like a brother to him is just amazing, and Castiel then turning around and effectively rejecting that trust... Honestly I can't say I 100% understand Dean when he's just point-blank refusing to hear Castiel out on what he has to do, but I think this confrontation before they separate as enemies was beautiful. All those pairs Castiel mentioned in the beginning - Cain and Abel, David and Goliath, etc - they were all epic rivalries, but Cain and Abel were brothers. I'm not sure what D and G were I only ever saw the cartoon, but still. Epic fights, that boil down to two men. Two sides of the same coin. And this time it's Castiel and Dean. Brothers, friends, and one wrong move, leading to trust once lost... and now here we are.


"So... that's everything. I believe it's what you would call a tragedy from the human perspective. But maybe the human perspective is limited, I don't know. That's why I'm asking you, Father, one last time. Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? You have to tell me, you have to give me a sign. Give me a sign. Because if you don't I'm gonna... I'm gonna do what ever I... whatever I must."

But no sign comes. What does that mean? I think it means that Castiel is on the path he needs to be on, for whatever purpose, but maybe ultimately his role will he small - a catalyst, for what comes next. Or maybe it means God isn't listening, I don't know. And look at the camerawork, the way we see his mouth but don't hear him talk. Castiel is cut off from his lifeline now, and is truly beginning to unravel, to lose his way.

I don't know guys, I'm getting really worried about Castiel returning next year. This episode, getting a proper insight into his psyche, only made me like the character so much more and I don't want to see him die.


Quotables:

Rafael: Do I look like I'm joking?
Castiel: You never look like you're joking.

Crowley: Submit or die? What are you, French?

Crowley: God chose you to save you. And I think, deep down, you know that.


Rating: 5/5
More like 10/5! While I like the funnier episodes like 'Frontierland,' this episode just took me back to the early years in such a big way. Back before the show needed gimmicks to be amazing, back when the story was just deep and rich but yet came down to the story of the two brothers and their relationship. Now, six seasons on, we've added another brother and a new father but it's still ultimately the story of family and trust and betrayal. And seeing them fall apart this spectacularly, while it was sad it was also beautiful. Classic Supernatural, in my opinion, and I thought the way they just turned everything on its head in the 11th hour - Eve turning out not to be the Big Bad, seeing behind-the-scenes on events that changed our perspective on the entire season - was masterful. How Castiel really was the man who would be king, and could potentially be the devil we know... True SPN genius, and I think for the first time I'm convinced that the show can still continue to be brilliant without Eric Kripke. I know, it took me that long, but at least I got there.

And that's it. Next week - two episode finale, right? At least that's what I gathered from the promo. Man that's gonna be a long-ass recap... and you know, a very exciting, long-anticipated end of the season. All the pieces have been set up to fall, and as the promo ominously states, "It all comes down to one angel." I'm scared.

Edit: Apparently the finale is two weeks away. Damn them and their anticipation-inducing scheduling.