In lieu of writing a review, I’m going to rank the winter finales. I find when I don’t have good things to say, it’s best to say very little. Here’s my very little: Castiel and Claire = boring; Crowley and Rowena = boring; Sam and Dean moments too few; still good.
Wish the MoC had been seeded better from Ask Jeeves to here, but I have been terribly spoiled by Person of Interest’s far superior writing and their ability to seed upcoming events so far in advance and with such attention that when the “event” arrives, we’re ready, waiting, and excited. While I enjoyed a positive John Winchester story, it made little sense. First off, where in Dean’s teenage years does this fit? Nowhere. Secondly, no way Dean, the Dean we know, ever told Dad off; however, finally something fond from both Sam and Dean about John.
Now, while I realize Cas’s and Crowley’s journeys are both in their fledgling states, sad to say I find them beyond boring at this moment. Hopefully they’ll get better, but if not, hey, I watch for Sam and Dean, I can dismiss the rest.
So, with my ‘review’ of the episode now out of the way, let’s spend some time on all of the show’s past winter finales and see where The Things We Left Behind fits.
What should a winter finale achieve? I think it’s simple: answer some questions, open up new ones, move storylines ahead, give us a big moment that leaves us breathless for the next episode.
Our past breathless moments range from interesting to mind blowing. Aslyum’s was pretty tame, while Croatoan was pretty intriguing. Sam regaining his soul was overdone for me, as I truly despised the entire storyline leading up to it and knew that what was to come was going to be equally as bad, or worse. Sam gone with Gadreel in control and Kevin dead no doubt left some breathless, but I never cared for Kevin, and was glad when he was gone, and I also disliked the angel possession storyline, so again, I didn’t find those interesting. Demon Dean returning, and knowing that the brothers are together working to rid Dean of the Mark is pretty cool, so Season 10 ranks well, so as far as excitement goes, I’m pretty excited for the demon Dean storyline. So in that respect, this episode ranks well in the winter finale category.
Did it answer questions? No. “Heaven and Hell” filled in the blanks for Dean’s time in hell. “Abandon All Hope” concluded Ellen and Jo’s story, and revealed that the Colt is useless against Lucifer, “Appointment in Samarra” returned Sam’s soul, Kevin died and Gadreel went rogue, finally leaving Dean no choice but to reveal his existence in “Holy Terror”, so “The Things We Left Behind” didn’t answer any questions – other than to have Amelia, the loving mother we met in “The Rapture”, decide to abandon her daughter and go “find herself.” Um, no. It does not rank well here.
How about moving the story forward, did “The Things We Left Behind” move the story forward? Yes, in the last 30 seconds. Did it do its job as well as say Season 5’s “Abandon All Hope”? Nope. That entire episode flowed as Bobby, Ellen, Jo, Sam, Dean, and Castiel all teamed up, for the first and only time, to try to stop Lucifer. Enter Crowley with the Colt, Meg with hell hounds and a devastating loss that still emotionally crushes me to this day and “Abandon All Hope” sets the standard for winter finales, to which “The Things We Left Behind” falters and faints beside. Same goes for Croatoan which begged a number of questions – most were not that well answered later on but that’s not the fault of this episode, and directly tied into the season’s overall mytharc: Sam and the special kids. Also, Croatoan had some fabulous brother moments and a scene I’ll still rewind and rewatch with Dean and the Sarge squaring off in the street with their guns. Great scene.
How does The Things We Left Behind stand up against Asylum, a straight up monster of the week episode? In some ways better, in other ways not. First off, Asylum had supernatural as part of it, the haunting at the asylum. This had supernatural elements tagged everywhere with an angel, a demon, and a human dealing with a supernatural mark on his arm, and the personal elements are everywhere, something I do adore, but they were disconnected and as I stated above, two out of three bored me and the third, which I did like, was too little.
On the other hand, Seasons 6, 7, 8, and 9 all are lumped together for me in the negative category. I’m glad that some of those episodes finally dealt with storylines that had languished far beyond their due date, but the death of Bobby was criminal and the brothers split up because of Benny and Amelia was overly dramatic – in the soap sudsy bad way. Those four seasons fall to the bottom of any ranking for me, and they tie for which is worst.
What of Season 3’s A Very Supernatural Christmas? Well, that episode just isn’t a winter finale, but it ranks up there with my top ten all-time favorite episodes. It was not constructed to be a winter finale, and it didn’t serve as a winter finale, other than through timing. The writers’ strike had so much influence on Season 3 that much of that season is an anomaly in that manner. So, for the purpose of this article, there are only nine episodes to rank, as Season 3 gets a pass.
So, just where does Season 10’s winter finale rank?
Well, the bottom tier is all full with Seasons 6 through 9.
Things get a little tougher from there. I guess to make a decision I’ll put “Asylum” as fifth ranked, which leaves “Croatoan”, “Heaven and Hell”, “Abandon All Hope”, and “The Things We Left Behind” as the final four. So, how do I rank them? Well, for episodes I’ll watch again and again, “Abandon All Hope” and “Croataon” are the top two, and depending on if I want to weep over Ellen and Jo’s death, or enjoy the brother moments that are scattered throughout Croatoan, then they’ll swap spots in Number 1 and/or 2. When it comes to distinct moments that I enjoy, such as Dean telling Sam about hell or Dean and Sam watching the Stooges or drinking whiskey or the final scene, or Dean and Cas talking in the restaurant, then “Heaven and Hell” and “The Things We Left Behind” will swap spots as Numbers 3 and 4.
For me, the most important part about an episode is the whole episode. When it comes down to it, the whole is more important than the part. I enjoyed parts of The Things We Left Behind, but not enough to watch it again.
If you feel like it, feel free to rank your own finales, and/or feel free to explain why you enjoyed this better than I did. Sometimes hearing another’s point of view changes how I view things, so feel free to expound on the positives. J
Until next time, thanks for reading, Elle2
Ooh, I’ll play! But first, I admire your ability to say very little. My WIP review is way more direct! Not a good episode by any standards.
Okay, here we go, from best to worst
1. A Very Supernatural Christmas – Duh, one of the best ever, like you said.
2. Abandon All Hope
3. Appointment in Samarra – Strangely I loved this one. Probably because of Death.
4. Croatoan
5. Holy Terror
6. Citizen Fang – I really liked this one actually. Not a classic, but well done.
7. Asylum
8. Heaven and Hell
9. Death’s Door – I’ll never ever never ever never never never ever forgive them for killing Bobby. It still isn’t right.
10. The Things We Leave Behind – words can’t describe how awful it was.
Thanks for the idea!
Well I will be the opposing probably outnumbered POV….I went into the episode knowing what it was going to focus on. I has read some negative comments on a site that generally never has anything good to say about the show so I went in with a negative attitude. I just watched it again and knowing what was going to happen I just watched the episode for what it was. I let it happen. I will have to say I loved it. I won’t rank it as a midseason finale until the rest of the season plays out. We don’t know at this point what is going to happen relating to this episode. So I will reserve judgment on that til later. I keep getting timed out on this site so I can’t go into detail what I liked so sorry about that. Thanks for your honest review as always Elle
At first airing I was “Meh” and didn’t think I would re-watch. I did because well… I did. The second time around there was far less whiplash from a packed episode. The Cas/ Claire story is a vehicle to pull in the man arc with Dean and to examine the parental issues of the 4 leads as well as Claire. The second view gave more back story to Crowley and Rowena and I am not buying his reconciliation. He has another self serving motive. There are fine moments in a busy script. Dabb manages to weave the threads that lead up to the final scene. So, it was not the top mid season finale but it does work.
Hi, Alice, Cherly142 and debbab,
Thanks for the comments. Alice, you and I spoke privately, so I’m glad you played, as I know you hated it. Cheryl142, I kinda knew from the spoilers that had been released that this was to be fairly Cas-centric, and, if I cared about Cas-centric episodes, it would have been quite good. I actually might do a wee character study on Cas’s journey from Lazarus Rising to where he is in this episode, and overall, despite some drastic upheavals, it has been a good character journey. I just don’t care that much for him. I prefer him when he’s part of the action, not “the” action. so, it’s really more of a ‘mileage may vary issue’ here.
Debbab, you’re 100% correct that this episode moves Cas’s story forward greatly and gets Crowley’s moving a bit with Rowena, but again, it’s a mileage may vary issue for me. I just don’t care that much about these characters and their side issues. That’s all right though, there are plenty of episodes that I do adore, and I can ignore those that I don’t like that much, especially this season which has given me eight episodes I enjoyed, some supremely (Paper Moon (the brother moments) Fan Fiction (all) Reichenbach, and others that I enjoyed from mostly to a lot, (all the rest). I can live with one episode that I liked ten minutes of, a whole lot, and the rest was good for walking away and cleaning the bathrooms (which, hey, those need to be cleaned! 😉
I’m happy with the season, this episode just didn’t thrill me. But I’ll enjoy reading other reviews because I always learn something. So, thanks all for reading mine and adding your thoughts.
My hiatus articles (at least one, possibly three) will be available on TWFB, once I get them done in a week or so. Have fun!
So agree with your review, but I’ll play.
1. A Very Special Supernatural Christmas
2. Croatoan
3. Asylum
4. Citizen Fang
5. Abandon All Hope
6. Appointment in Samarra
7. Holy Terror
8. Death’s Door
9. Heaven and Hell
10. The Things We Left Behind
Hi, Ginger, Thanks for playing. Great ranking you have. Makes me want to go pull out Croatoan and watch it again…in fact, I will likely do that over hiatus. As for AVSC, well, that’s a holiday staple! 🙂
Hmmmm… I dispute whether S1 & S2 count as “mid-season” finales. Well a case could be made for S2 and the story structure but I don’t think it was really adapted as a “thing” until late in the show’s run. S5 is inarguable (they shot Satan, IN THE FACE!) so it seems like the debate on the line is S2-S4. Will say more BUT FIRST!
Wish the MoC had been seeded better from Ask Jeeves to here, but I have been terribly spoiled by Person of Interest’s far superior writing and their ability to seed upcoming events so far in advance and with such attention that when the “event” arrives, we’re ready, waiting, and excited.
Agreed there. Well I don’t watch PoI much yet (I know I know, I need to) but I do catch up on Once Upon a Time when it’s on Netflix and it’s story structure is STUPENDOUS. Especially in S3 (and it looks to me like they’re doing it in S4) where they’re actually dividing the season in half between 2 arcs, like they’re doing British TV structure within American confines.
So looking at it from a purely scientific view… (since I have no heart or anything ;))
Abandon All Hope (S5) – #1 and standard setter. They advance the plot, a big twist happens but it retains story logic, and it puts the audience on edge for January to arrive, even though we and the show makers need a break after that. And THEY SHOT SATAN IN THE FACE!
So going from that measurement.
Asylum (S1) – N/A. Nothing much advances the story. You could put this episode almost anywhere in the season and you’d hardly notice any difference. Show was just getting started so it makes sense that mid-season finales weren’t “a thing” yet.
Croatoan (S2) – Debatable N/A and part of that is the later use of lore & canon set up in episode. However, if you look at it purely from a S2 only perspective it doesn’t have a a mid-season finale flavor to it. Some story is advanced which means we can see what I think is the start of the mid-season trend, but it’s still not born yet.
A Very Supernatural Christmas (S3) – Hmmm…. harder because it does have a very important character arc and story moving moment but still not quite at the full realization of a mid-season finale. Now from a raw episode standpoint, this is the best of the 10.
From then on, the seasons do show a more clear standard of the mid-season finale. So as a mid-finale, how would I rank them?
#2. Death’s Door (S7) – Bobby gets an exit worthy of his character and pushes the show into new territory. Love it or hate it, you have to admit that it shook things up and few other mid-finales can top fighting a reaper within your own mind.
#3. Appointment in Samarra (S6) – Starts the fiddling with canon that grew worse in later seasons, but this episode is notable and placed higher because it is the first time we get a sense of the “double arcs” in SPN. After this episode, the saga of Sam’s state is brought to a close and the story about Purgatory moves into center focus.
#4. Heaven & Hell (S4) – Trying hard not to let my adoration of Anna come into play, but this moment did change a lot of things for the arc in S4 and gave us our first clue that not everything may be kosher in Heaven.
#5. Citizen Fang (S8) – Take everything I said about the S1 mid and the S6 mid and smash them together. It’s not really arc focused, but it divides the season between the fallout of Dean’s return and the saga of closing the Hell Gates.
#6. The Things We Leave Behind (S10) – I think a convincing case could be made that this belongs with the “not/applicable” section above as there’s been very little arc in the first half. On the other hand, this could be like S6 & S8 where we’re going to see MoC wrapped up for good very soon and a new arc take over for the second half. Time will tell.
#7. Holy Terror (S9) – Season 9? Always sucks. Actually you ever seen those “nailed it” baking fails ([url]”http://www.sunnyskyz.com/blog/133/I-Saw-It-On-Pinterest-So-I-Did-It-Myself-And-NAILED-It-20-Hilarious-Pinterest-Baking-Fails”[/url])? S9’s mid is so very much like that. It has all the ingredients and raw materials of any other mid-finale (An ally dies! A winchester is lost! We have to fight a big bad! Dean doesn’t have any pie!) yet is so ineptly assembled that it just falls apart upon execution. Really this is so opposite of the S5 standard setter that if I ever taught a creative writing course I’d assign a compare/contrast paper to my students on the two. It’s tragically hilarious how both have almost identical elements between them, yet the final products couldn’t be more different (unless one of them turned into a romantic comedy somehow).
Season 9 – No matter what, you’re always at the bottom of the list.
Nate, great ranking! I love all your reasoning, and, yes, you’re right, midseason finales really didn’t become “a thing” until the last few years. You make great points about division of seasons and set up of arcs. This felt so much more like it was merely trying to push some stories forward that had been heretofore pretty quiet and then give us a big dramatic “gasp” moment neatly tacked on. I’m eager for demon Dean and that fallout, but it doesn’t really bring bunches of elements together and then propel them off into a new direction.
PoI, oh, my, you need to watch that. It starts off formulaic in Season 1, and if, like me, you enjoy a procedural now and then, you’ll be just fine. However, for me, the procedural elements, while very evident, were also balanced with great characters that continually developed, slowly to be sure, but that’s what makes it so good. I’ve learned from a cooking show or two (to pick up on your reference a bit) that slow cooking gives better flavor than flash it in the pan and throw it on the plate (although for a steak that still remains best! — well, flash it on the fire, not the pan.) Last season, PoI did a three-part arc right before midseason that was gut wrenching and closed a major storyline and then, just before its short winter hiatus it introduced a whole new plotline and then dangled that as the midseason finale. This season it opened a three-part arc, giving us the first installment and leaving us hanging until January 6th (thankfully short) for parts two and three but it is ratcheting up the speed, suspense, and danger of one of its two major current story arcs. Like Arrow, it was a pretty impressive midseason finale.
Love your comment and love your reasons. Yes, Death’s Door is a beautiful episode — but having the heart that I do ( 😉 ) I just can’t forgive Sera for killing off Bobby, glorious sendoff notwithstanding!
Thanks for writing. You write beautifully!
[quote]Love your comment and love your reasons. Yes, Death’s Door is a beautiful episode — but having the heart that I do ( 😉 ) I just can’t forgive Sera for killing off Bobby, glorious sendoff notwithstanding![/quote]
Well that’s the other hallmark of a finale, mid or end regardless: strong emotion, whether good or bad. And sometimes they’ve got to tear your heart into pieces and make you cry, so that the victory that comes later is all the sweeter…