Hola, Mishamigos! It's that time of the year again, and Supernatural is back with another season, that looks - as opposed to the name of the song in the Road So Far recap - like one hell of a ride. Wow, I missed this show. Lots of stuff went down, and we've only just begun! So let's meet the new boss...
Good God, Ya'll!
As usual, the show delivers another awesome rock-recapping of last season's events. We had a season of Alphas, Campbells and Braedens, but it all came down to Cas absorbing the souls from Purgatory and becoming the new God.
Now, before the season started, I thought maybe we'll actually get to see God, the actual God, because...I mean, if I was God and some angel of Thursday declared himself the new me, I'd be pretty pissed. But I guess, as Zachariah said in the season 4 finale, God has really left the building. Hell, he let the apocalypse happen, so what's an impostor, right?
So Cas asks the guys to bow down and profess they're love, which Bobby does. Understandable. Being destroyed doesn't sound fun. But then Cas regrets. He wants to be worshiped, loved. Not feared. Sam starts talking, but gets interrupted.
"Sam, you have nothing to say to me, you stabbed me in the back."
Would it be too obvious if I write LITERALLY? it will? well too bad, I just did.
Cas keeps talking about how disappointed he is from the boys, and warns them not to try to rise against him. He also refuses to "repair" Sam, since they tried to stop him from becoming a douchebag. He poofs away, and Sam stumbles down and cuts himself after having some flashbacks from hell.
It's a minor detail, but I just found it curious - Why show him cutting his hand? Is there some significance to it? Did Jared have an accident on set and they used some hand-double to fit it in? Is it just there? To be continued...
Cas beams up to heaven, and starts telling the other angels that he is the new God, and all of those who supported Raphael back in the day are basically doomed. The camera zooms out to reveal that, well, apparently all of heaven supported Raphael...No love for Cas.
BOOM! New title card! I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that's not ink. Do our new baddies bleed black? Some people say it's that black goo stuff seen at No Exit, After School Special, And Then There Were None, etc. Anyway, it's awesome. Me likey.
Déjà Vu
Back in Bobby's place, Dean is starting to fix the precious Impala after the backflip it took in the finale. He discusses with Bobby about how to find Cas, which is obviously pretty impossible. I'm pretty sure God won't be found unless he wants to be.
Sam wakes up, and this makes me think about Like A Virgin, where he woke up after getting his soul back. That scene was all hugging and emotional, whereas this one is pretty casual, like he woke up from a nap or something. He tells Dean he's fine, which we know Dean doesn't believe from the jump, but he doesn't say a thing yet. After Dean leaves, Sam's Hell-sense begins to tingle, but he doesn't see anything...
What Religion?
Meanwhile, a priest is preaching something about Hollywood and Lady Gaga (She really does need to shut up), when Cas bursts in and chokes him for lying in his name. Yup, God no longer works in mysterious ways, folks. He just storms into churches and chokes people. Cas trips as he starts hearing creepy voices. He leaves, but not before making the most awesome church window ever.
In Bobby's basement, Sam is getting something, when suddenly the basement turns INTO A GIANT MEAT PLANT! NOOOO! Ok, I guess it's supposed to be hell. Hey, they gotta save budget for other cool stuff. Luckily, Bobby comes to call Sam, and he snaps back to reality.
Boy, Cas was busy. Mostly with killing religious leaders and motivational speakers plus dismembering the KKK. Sam again suggests they try to talk some sense into him, but Dean refuses and says the time for words is over.
Hell of A Time
Aaaaand scene to a trailer covered with protective sigils. The inhabitant of this trailer is a black-wearing booze-loving demon we all know. The former king of Hell is just getting comfy when God comes to visit. Wow, that's a weird thing to write. Crowley is sure Cas is there to smite him, but the megalomaniac angel has other plans. He will give Crowley his job back, but will keep track of the soul flow.
"So what you're saying is Hell is being downsized."
-"I would've done away with it completely, but I need a threat to hold over my enemies."
That's kinda funny. Can you imagine Cas going to the pit like "Hey guys, I'm the new God, and I'm making some changes, including removing this place from existence, so….yeaaaah." What would happen to all the residents of Hell? Would they go to heaven? Would they just vanish?
Due to lack of option, Crowley accepts Cas's offer, and the latter vanishes after his hand starts melting. I've always said, Cas and Batman should have a competition to see who's better at vanishing when people are looking away for a sec.
Meanwhile, Sam is minding his own business when another hallucination begins. This time, a chain comes down from the ceiling and yanks him up by the throat, but he wakes up after a few moments. Damn, these things are getting worse and worse…
He goes to the garage and hears Dean telling Bobby he doesn't think Sam's fine (Duh). Dean says the reason is that they never "catch a break". Well Dean, if you did, the show would get kind of boring (See – Lisa). Even though he hears this, Sam tells them again he's fine. He then asks Dean if there isn't anything to use to stop Cas.
This felt kinda out-of-character to me. I mean, a few scenes ago you wanted to talk to the guy, and you're going full-on offense? That's kind of a big change… But Sam does tell them the bodies keep stacking, so maybe he decides to do it for all the potential dead people. What a sweetheart.
Deathly Hallows
Dean suggests calling Crowley. And he doesn't react well to their "invitation". They ask him for a spell to bind Death. Now, this is another pretty weird thing.
Death was first released by Lucifer, who bound him to do his will for the apocalypse and all, but Death teamed up with the brothers to lock Lucifer away so he'll be free again. Now, I guess Death didn't like being bound, so why not track and destroy every trace of the binding spell as soon as he was free? If he can kill God, how hard can doing that be? Was he positive that no one would try it again? Did he hide it, but Crowley found it anyway? Did he think no one actually owned a crystal-thingy?
Cas is doing his second good thing (After healing lepers in India or something) and restores a blind man's vision. Nice try, Cas. You're still a power-hungry douche to us. Cas begins to have marks on his face as well, plus he hears the voices again, which appear to be the souls inside of him, and they want out. (The "other cool stuff" I said they were saving budget for earlier – this is an example).
The first time he heard the voices, a few seconds before I realized it's the souls, I thought maybe it was people. You know that scene in Bruce Almighty, after he becomes God and starts hearing people's prayers and it drives him crazy? At first, I thought it was something like that – Cas is hearing prayers because he's the new God. But nah, it's the souls. Though it would've been cool if that happened.
Back to the episode. Crowley mails the guys the spell they need, but there's something they don't have – an act of God, AKA perfectly crystallized sand. Bobby tracks down an owner of one of those things, and they hit the road to find it. (Come on, show! After being fixed for half an episode, this is all we see of the Impala driving? The post-fixing scene in season 2's Bloodlust with Back In Black in the background was way cooler).
After getting to the guy's house, knocking out a cop and tying up the house's residents, the gang finds the crystal and begins the ceremony. In that family's house (What? They're not gonna drive 9 hours back and do it at Bobby's). The house begins to shake and crack, and at first it seems nothing happened. Until…
God VS Death, Round 1(?)
Welcome back, Julian Richings! Man, I love Death. Don't wanna meet him, though. He's one creepy dude. Dean offers him some pickle chips (Silly Dean, you should've brought Pizza!) but Death cuts straight to the chase, telling them he assumes they called him to fix Sam's hallucinations. Whoops. Dean and Bobby both give Sam the "we'll-talk-about-this-later" look. But come on, guys. You knew he wouldn't be OK. Is it really that surprising?
They tell Death they want him to get rid of Cas, which he told Dean he will do someday back in season 5. Death asks them why he should obey them.
"Because…We said so…And we're the boss of you. Respectfully."
Jensen's acting in this whole scene is really great, but he delivers that line perfectly – ballsy, but also terrified as hell.
Cas appears and looks both shocked and surprised about how far they went in attempt to kill him. He says he must regretfully kill them, but Dean reminds him he can't, because Death is their bitch. Death says Cas looks mutated, and warns him he won't be able to fix it, because what he absorbed from purgatory wasn't only souls, but also the first beasts that walked the earth – Leviathans.
Cas has heard enough, and he and Death begin some divine cock-fight about who's more powerful and who's gonna kill who first. Dean interrupts them and tells Death to finish Cas. Just as he is about to, Cas releases him from his binds – much to the horror of everyone - but decides to poof away.
Even God Knows Politicians Are Evil
He goes to a senator's office, who he believes is abusing her power. I love how Cas just walks into places, telling people he's God, like it's obvious. Dean mentioned earlier that there's some of the old Cas left in him, and I think that the naïve part also stayed.
Back in the house, the gang asks Death for help again to defeat Cas. Death says they had enough time to stop Cas from getting to where he is now, and it's their fault it's happening. Sam says that Death must care a bit about the people on Earth.
"You know, I really don't."
Haha, ouch. Sorry, humans, Death cares only for Numero Uno. Eventually, Death decides to help them anyway, since he's angry with Cas's arrogance. He says he will arrange another eclipse (Yeah, he can do that) so they can re-open purgatory and make Cas put the souls back. It will happen on Sunday, 3:59 AM (Damn, sucks to be up in such an hour. But the world is at stake, so…)
Cas wakes up in a pool of blood and finds out he massacred all of the people in the senator's office. Well, it wasn't really him, something possessed him, probably a Leviathan. Guess this is their idea of fun. I like them already.
Me Love You Long Time
At Bobby's, Dean tells Sam he's already given up on the plan, because making Cas even come to the place AND putting back the souls seems impossible. He also confronts him about the hallucinations.
"I gotta find out from Death?!"
That sounds funny. Like a mother asking her kid about a bad thing he did which she heard from someone else.
Sam says he didn't tell Dean because he can't help him. Ouch. Very brotherly of you, Sam. But his excuse is pretty accurate – After the betrayal by Cas and the wrecked Impala, Dean was so depressed Sam didn't wanna make him deal with this too. Dean sticks to his decision to do nothing but eating, drinking, and watching Asian cartoon porn. Sounds good to me.
Dean finds a video of Cas from the senator's office. He's talking to someone, then after being possessed, looks at the camera with a creepy grin and the feed dies. Going back to his original plan, Sam walks outside and prays for Cas to come to them and get help. He returns inside, and Dean offers him a drink while executing his plan.
"Only if you turn that off."
Well said, Sam, well said. They sit down to drink WHEN CAS APPEARS!
Before The Devil Knows- Oh Crap, He's Here!
(Little thing I noticed, this episode had a lot of blood – Sam cutting his hand, Dean cutting his arm for the ceremony, all those dead people at the office, and now blood-covered Cas. And there's even more blood coming with the purgatory sigil. Bloody hell.)
The gang goes with Cas to…Crowley's old hideout (Thanks, SN Wiki! I didn't remember what that purgatory-door place was) and starts preparing it while Sam goes to get the blood. Cas apologizes to Dean, but neither of them are comforted. Sam finds the blood but runs into LUCIFER!
Welcome back, Mark Pellegrino! Wow, I didn't notice his name at the credits, so this was without doubt the Holy Crap! moment of the episode for me. I'm kinda sorry for people who did notice it and got the surprise ruined. He should've asked to remove his credits, like Mark Sheppard did in season 6. That would've totally blown people's minds.
Lucifer drops a possible game-changing bomb on Sam – He never left the cage, and everything he's seeing so far is one big hallucination. Which means the entire season 6 and this episode aren't real. I would rather think Lucifer is BSing, and just trying to drive Sam insane by deceiving him (Which is supported by next week's promo).
Meet The New-New Boss
Dean goes to find Sam, but he vanished. Now they're really messing with our heads. Which is awesome, and leaves a "where-the-hell-is-Sam" cliffhanger. Dean grabs the blood, and they begin the ritual. Cas belly-vomits the souls back to purgatory and collapses. For a few moments it seems like he's dead (Dean raises an interesting question – Do angels actually breathe?) but he revives shortly.
Cas apologizes again and promises to redeem himself. Suddenly, he's getting all shaky again. Apparently, the Leviathans held on and remained inside him. Uh oh. By the way, kudos to Misha for the sudden creepy voice change.
"Cas, he's….He's gone. He's dead. We run the show now."
Wow, is it just me, or did Misha just channel Heath Ledger? That was some creepy Joker shit right there. He then throws Dean and Bobby on tables. So much for redemption. "This is going to be so much fun," he says, followed by a creepy laugh, as brown vein-things appear on his face.
THE END
Rating – 11 Fried pickle chips out of 10
That's it?! NO! I want more! I NEED MORE!
A-hem. Wow, this episode was mind-blowing! A series classic, and easily the best premiere ever! This was the guest-filled beginning of a wild roller coaster ride that is season 7. As long as they can keep out boring relationship storylines, I see a bright future for this season.
We now know the Big Bad for the next while – Leviathans. In definition, they're biblical sea monsters (Livyatan in Hebrew is Whale), but will they all be sea-related? I don't think so, but we'll have to wait and…sea!......*chirp chirp*
There's also a little analogy – In the season 6 finale, Cas was standing as the new God, with the boys at his mercy. Now they're standing there again – minus Sam – in his mercy, only this time, he's a Leviathan. Will he be as merciful as God-Cas was? Or does he have different plans? Bottom line, how will they get out of this one?
I have two theories – 1. Cas will manage to regain control for long enough to save them somehow. 2. Cas's vessel will explode, releasing all of the Leviathans to the world. It was said that the next episode will be Misha's last appearance for now. I hope it won't be his last.
Now Sam – Where the hell did he go? Is Lucifer right and he's still in Hell? That doesn't make any sense. Did he slip out of there? And if so, where to, and why? Also, while talking to Lucifer, he was still in the storage room. So how did the jar get to the middle of the hallway? The possibilities are various here, so I don't really know what to think.
See ya next week!
Some nice quotes:
"What a brave little ant you are."
"So are you fixin' her or primal screaming?"
"He was young…And sexy. He had a raincoat."
"What do you think he's gonna do when he finds out we've been conspiring?....You DO wanna conspire, don’t you?"
"Excuse me, you got any Grey Poupon?"
"I found the God-thingy."
"Sorry, Death. This isn't what it seems." (Plus almost every line from that scene)
"Too late!"
