The Super Sleepy Dispatch
Recap and Review of Supernatural 10:16 “Paint It Black”
By P.S. Griffin
Frankly I am not thrilled about rewatching this episode which was tedious and predictable. To keep things more interesting for me I am going to focus on the B story first and finish with the A story. Onwards!
So this episode heavily features more of Crowley and Rowena’s wee family drama which is seeming a lot like the song remains the same every darn time! Rowena is a manipulative bwitch and Crowley is still bored with Hell, missing Dean and craving emotional connection.
Rowena is still peeved at Crowley putting her needs on the back burner to help Dean (“The Executioner’s Song”). She continues to cloak her anger as disappointment in her son for being weak and con sorting with hunters. Now she’s acting out by torturing his minions whilst still hinting that she’s the only person that he can trust.
A beleaguered demon demands that Crowley deals with Mommy dearest because she’s gone too far and given him two faces, the second one on the back of his head; “Your mother remains … vexed with your highness and vents her frustration by abusing the court. No one dares retaliate, of course, and, yes, one expects to suffer in Hell, but I fear I’ve reached my limit.”
Actually this is old school Hell torture and I heartily approve. So would Hieronymus Bosch judging by his “Damnation” panel in his masterwork “The Garden of Earthly Delights”. Crowley’s Hell is so mundanely earthly and sooo boring. Rowena ’16!
Of course Rowena has her reasons… herself free to live in all her glory, “I’m capable of greatness. Given free reign, I’d be unstoppable.” Yep. She still wants her wee sausage’s help in killing Olivette to free herself from the Grand Coven’s iron fist. She is happy with her son as long as he’s useful. Whatever… Yawn. I am so over this family and it’s eternal squawking over centuries old behavior. Get a life!
Anyhow, eventually Crowley decides to make his mommy happy and presents her with a wee gift. It’s her heart’s desire, Olivette in chains! She can do whatever she wants to the witch. Yawn. First it’s verbal torture, then physical torture, and finally magical death which segues into magical torture. Let’s just say that Rowena’s face lights up with joy as she’s inflicting pain and death. Hybrid Crowley deserves a better Queen Mum.
I will cut the torture short and cut to the chase. She turns Olivette into a wee hamster complete with fabulous coral necklace. Of course those that haven’t died of boredom learn a few interesting facts along the way as well as the obvious conclusion that Rowena is one sick bwitch.
First… Rowena’s problems with the Grand Coven began because she chose to have relations with a normal man. This still disgusts Olivette and means that Rowena lied about Crowley’s daddy being an unknown spring solstice orgy tickle and wink. Who is Crowley’s daddy dearest?
Anyhow Rowena is pleased as punch to inform Olivette that her half-normal spawn is now the bloody King of Hell. She even seems proud, but I reckon she’s thrilled to have something to Lord over Olivette and her genetic small mindedness.
Second… the Grand Coven is pretty much kaput because they were interfered with centuries ago by a insidious organization of… men. According to Olivette, “The coven is a pale relic of its past power, weakened by witch-hunts, burnings at the stake, endless persecution; all of it was engineered by them… a rabid group of sanctimonious do-gooders dedicated to our downfall… They whipped the church and the public into a panic. Our best were killed or driven underground. They then plundered our spells and secrets and shipped them to hidden bunkers all around the world… They tried to destroy our world! Hoarding unbelievable power for their own amusement. Smug, self-righteous bastards. The Men of Letters.”
Now who didn’t see that coming. I knew as soon as she blurted “sanctimonious do-gooders”!
Rowena is truly peeved that the Grand Coven was stupid enough to lose all of that powerful magic. But then it makes sense because Olivette has called her reckless in her quest for power. Rowena is a power hungry bwitch. Good thing those MOL bunkers are heavily warded.
And good thing that the only two living Men of Letters that are known to Olivette are Dean and Sam Winchester. The Winchesters are enemies with Rowena. They know she’s a big bad baddie that kills. Whew! All of that dangerous magic is safe and sound.
Rowena has a lovely rant before finishing her business with Olivette, “The Winchesters? Again with the Winchesters. Perpetually, the Winchesters.” She’s both incredulous and matter of fact. Life and it’s eternal ironies…
With incredible evil relish, made all the more potent and portent by Olivette’s knowledge of spellcasting, Rowena grabs her creepy bowl of bird bones and starts to cast some death chant that makes Olivette bleed from her orifices. Olivette in her desperation reminds Rowena that witch on witch murder is anathema. Rowena doesn’t care. Instead she stops because death is too short a punishment. She starts to cast another spell, and later enjoys the sight of hamster Olivette running in circles on her little wheel. Sick, twisted Rowena is not a lady to trifle with. God forbid that she gets her hands on more powerful magic.
So the A plot is obviously the Winchesters. They’re in the Impala following up on a weird spate of grotesque and unusually slow and painful suicides. The teaser sequence showed us a guy at confession who leaves and is presumably possessed in the church. He grabs a large candlestick with a big spike to engage the candle, and once outside uses it to slowly and methodically disembowel himself. Major yuck… and Dean is right to assume that this is no normal suicide.
So anyways it’s another week of Dean wanting to hunt until he can no longer control himself and concerned Sam who is worried that hunting will trigger Dean’s dark impulses. When will Sammy learn that NOT killing is the trigger.
Sam also still has his head in his cell phone which annoys Dean mightily, who just wants to enjoy life in the moment. Sam wants to cure Dean… case closed.
While the brothers are in transit, we are privy to a an emotional encounter between two nuns. A young brunette named Isabella appears to have lost her heart in the real world. She tells Sister Mathias about her former love including the ominous line, “There is not much difference between madness and devotion. I was obsessed with him.” This is sooo Winchester, n’est-ce pas?
We get a flashback as Isabella talks and Sister Mathias commiserates. It’s obvious that Isabella and her inamorato Piero live in Renaissance Italy. Therefore we immediately know that their relationship ended badly and Isabella is a vengeful ghost taking her anger towards her dead lover out on other men. Case closed. Sigh.
So yeah… the A story is also yawn inducing except for some very pointed dialogue, and the themes of dangerous scorned women and the things folks do when they are unhinged by the power of their love for another. Cough… Sam… cough. Oh and maybe we see demonic Dean peaking through. I could really use some major Dean 2.0 right about now.
So the next death has an interesting twist because our ghost Isabella possesses the wife instead. She’s in the church waiting for her husband to finish confession. Back at home she does him in with a pair of large shears as he searches for a “midnight” snack. Of course it’s a murder not a suicide and the wife is very distraught once Isabella departs. Cue horrified screams.
This new trick doesn’t fool the brothers. Agents Allman and Betts are on the case! They talk with Father Delaney who won’t disclose the contents of the victims’ confessions. He palms the brothers off on Sister Mathias. She’s attractive enough for Dean to totally get his flirt on… meow! Sam seems both offended and amused so he leaves them to it and checks for EMF readings elsewhere. We later learn that he eavesdrops on their pointed conversation full of character arc anvils.
At Dean’s prompting Sister Mathias admits that she’s heard credible gossip that the last victim was cheating on his wife. When Dean is curious as to why she became a nun and asks, “I guess I’m just wondering how somebody quits one life for something completely different and… and then believe in it so much.”
OMG! I’m agog. Dean has been a hunter with Sam by his side since he was a kid. Is he thinking of a different life now that he has the Mark! Does Dean 2.0 want to howl at the moon, hang out with Crowley, do something that pleases him… Is the Mark helping Dean to see his potential by helping him focus on his needs gor a change and showing him different possibilities. Does he want out of the life that was chosen for him by John and nourished by their family trauma and his damaged self-worth.
Let’s face it… a well satisfied man doesn’t pound back the booze the way our Dean has for… forever. I have to admit that my hope for the demonic Dean (and angelic and whatever other mojo he has going) was for him to think more of himself and want more for himself. I spelled this out clearly in my review of “Black”.
The Mark seems to augment the damaged human with some much needed positive reinforcement. I liked demonic Dean’s sense of self-worth and the fact that he cared about his emotional and physical needs. Dean 2.0 thought that he was important. It’s a character reboot that I can get behind.
Oh well… back to our grinding story…
Sister Mathias replies, “In my case, I felt I had no choice. My life had become painful. There was hopelessness. I felt I had to find something larger than myself to focus on. A kind of mission, I guess.” She assumes that Dean has no idea about the feelings she has described. She’s wrong. Of course our Dean understands this mindset of selfless giving your own personal needs up to achieve something “greater”.
Sam returns from checking for EMF and asks if there’s a graveyard nearby. Like many old churches, this one has subterranean burial crypts, hence loads of EMF I guess. However Sister Mathias is dismissive when the Winchesters ask whether she’s seen or heard anything strange… like… um… cold spots or the feeling of someone else in the room. She replies, “Rattling chains and teacups that fly across the room… Really? The FBI believes in ghosts? I’m afraid I don’t. If you’ll excuse me, Agents, I have to get back to work.” She’s a very good liar because we know that she’s been talking to Isabella.
Dean and Sam leave the church and as soon as they’re out the door Dean comments that the nun is hot and into him. Sam reminds him that she’s married to Jesus with just the slightest eye roll verging on a bitchface. As they walk and talk they are oblivious to the heavy anvil painted on the sign outside the church: “He’s Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother – The Hollies and Jesus.” My turn for that eyeroll. That’s some anvil.
So… the Winchesters aren’t sure exactly what they are dealing with, however Dean’s head is totally in the hunt. He has sussed that the victims were most likely men that did their ladies wrong, and they all confessed in church before they died. Dean wonders when his last confession was. Sam knows that Dean has never been to confession. There’s always a first time!
Meanwhile Sister Mathias is having another heart to heart with Isabella who is appearing increasingly unhinged. Typically her romance ended with a broken heart. She was so distraught that she stopped eating and sleeping. So her father did what any father of means in Renaissance Italy would do. He got her to a nunnery pronto. Isabella wasn’t thrilled, “Everything that was mine was lost to me … except my journal.”
We cut to Dean being clueless in the confessional as he pretends that he is suddenly bothered by his fake lothario lifestyle enjoying the Gina’s of this world and their copious lasagna whilst cheating on them with numerous other women. It’s a sordid tale told in the bawdy manner of an unrepentant horndog.
The priest assigns the requisite “Our Father’s” and “Hail Mary’s” and says he hopes penance will bring about some self reflection. Dean hesitates and then begins his true confession. It’s a whopper.
Dean has been thinking deeply about his life. He’s always thought that he would die bloody and by the proverbial sword that he wields so well. It’s just that now he sees that future coming at him fast and furious and he’s not ready.
In Dean’s words, “What if I said I… I didn’t want to die… yet, you know, that I wasn’t ready… Now, um… recent events, uh… make me think I might be closer to that than I really thought. And… I don’t know. I mean, you know, there’s… there’s things, there’s… people, feelings that I… I… I want to experience differently than I have before, or maybe even for the first time… I’m just starting to think that… maybe there’s more to it all than I thought.”
The Father suggests that believing in God can be a comfort. Dean’s response is both wry and heartbreaking, “I believe there is a God. But I’m not sure he still believes in us.”
This time I am gobsmacked. Not about Dean’s fatalism in regards to a disinterested diety. That’s pretty much expected considering what he knows and what he’s been through. Although his sureness that God doesn’t care gives me the first and only glimmer that the Mark could be removed.
I’ve said previously that the only thing that should be able to remove it is a literal deus ex machina. Well out of Dean’s mouth to God’s ears. Not that I won’t still think it’s all too easy, or that an exploration of Dean’s inherent darkness and the Mark’s full effects don’t still have great legs.
We still don’t really know what Dean is or what Cain was (see my review of “The Executioner’s Song”). When Metatron confronted Dean with the First Blade his take was what the hell are you and what can you do, “The First Blade. Nasty piece of work, isn’t she? Okay, let’s say you win, Dean, and I die. What’s the world left with then, hmm? A herd of panty-waisted angels and you? Half out of your mind with lord knows what pumping through those veins?” Dean echoes that thought in “Soul Survivor” when he tells Sam, “You don’t even know if this is gonna work, do you? You know, I got a hell of a lot more running through me than just demon juice.” Of course Sam assumes that he’s talking about the Mark of Cain, however, Dean’s response nor how it was delivered, “That’s right.” isn’t exactly a definitive answer because whatever he is now is because of the Mark.
Anyhow… I think there’s a lot more to explore regarding Dean’s status and the Mark, and far too much to reveal before the end of the season in addition to any sort of “cure”. This tells me even if they deus ex machina the Mark away, Dean won’t be normal Dean. I tend to think the oh sh.. reveal we’ve been teased in the finale ( http://www.ew.com/article/2015/04/17/spoiler-room-scoop-vampire-diaries-supernatural-blacklist-and-more) hinges on what Dean is and subsequently the cure not being the panacea that they hoped for.
Dean’s words about experiencing things differently also made me think of Crowley’s monologue in “Do You Believe in Miracles?”, “Listen to me, Dean Winchester, what you’re feeling right now… it’s not death. It’s life… a new kind of life. Open your eyes, Dean. See what I see. Feel what I feel. And let’s go take a howl at that moon.” Is demonic/angelic/thingamaDean rearing his gorgeous head again, just wanting to howl at the moon? As any frequent reader knows, I think he’s been waiting quietly all along for the right opportunity.
Dean exits the confessional and confers with Sam without knowing if his speech did the trick. Meanwhile Isabella enters the Priest and kills him for absolving these adulterers. The implication is that she was unable to possess Dean because of the Mark. Please note that we have seen a ghost possess Dean despite his tattoo to ward off demonic possession (“Southern Comfort”).
Meanwhile Sister Mathias has been reading Isabella’s journal and has finally cottoned onto the fact that her ghost friend is seriously psycho. Isabella escaped the convent to destroy her portrait and found Piero in loud flagrante delicto with a hot blonde. She picks up a knife and brutally stabs Paolo to death. There’s a lot of anger and sexual frustration behind those frenzied knife thrusts. I am thinking that the nunnery was not the right place for Isabella.
So Sister Mathias brings the Winchesters up to speed regarding her extracurricular ghost whispering because there’s no bringing Isabella into the light. Isabella arrived with a trove of church artifacts from Tivoli. In other words exactly when the deaths started.
It is convenient that Isabella’s murder of Piero was so brutal that she was burned as a witch. All they need to do is burn the artifacts associated with her. Sister Mathias is upset that the journal might be burned and Sam looks hesitant to do so because it might contain useful information. Oh Sammy you dedicated researcher you! However Dean practically orders Sam to burn it. He’s not quite yet in dictator mode (“Stairway to Heaven”)… so close and yet so far from the Deanatorship of Death.
Dean and Sister Mathias go out to find Isabella whilst Sam is left with ghost burning duties. He’s putting things in the fireplace to burn but stops because he’s distracted by the lure of the journal. He starts reading more about Isabella’s twisted love and learns that her blood and part of her finger were ground into the paint used in her portrait. Ding! Ding! Ding! Sam realizes that the portrait has her DNA and must be the item that her spirit is attached to. Now where is the darn thing…
Meanwhile Dean has found the dead priest and is being thrown about and throttled by the very possessed Sister Mathias. She is holding him against a wall by his throat and brandishing a sharp blade which she has positioned against his belly. Where is demonic Dean when you need him. Well judging by the hardness in his face, and the intensity in his eyes which is reminiscent of his “LOOK AT ME, BITCH!” moment from “Alex Annie Alexis Ann” (all caps to convey the intensity), Dean 2.0 emerged to prevent Dean’s death. I mean one would think a ghost strong enough to throw Dean across the room and lift him off the ground with one hand would be able to stab his tummy with ease.
Luckily Sam has finally found the crated painting and opens it with a handy crowbar. I stop to marvel at the quaint, old-fashioned and out of date packing technology, that sort of thing being part of my former bailiwick.
Finally Sam douses the painting with lighter fluid to burn that beeyatch back to oblivion. The ghost guilt trips Sister Mathias before she flames out. Sister Mathias looks sympathetic but Dean and I are not. That girl was violently looney tunes well before her death.
Dean 2.0 really must be in the proverbial driver’s seat again because… wonders of wonders… Sam is driving the Impala, and being a bit smug and all too pleased with himself about being right about not burning the journal. Dean concedes that Sam saved his life by not listening to him yet his face is tight despite his smile. Yikes! Dean seems sooo wrong right now.
Dean just doesn’t look like himself. He’s not talkative and flashing looks Sam’s way. If looks could kill… So Mr. Mojo rising himself, Dean 2.0, is still walking and talking methinks. I think Dean is so going to paint the town black and red and dead all over by the time the finale rolls around.
Sam, proud of his big win and suddenly hopeful, tries to talk Dean away from the dark side. He tells Dean that he noticed that he was in the confessional for a long time; he wants Dean to know that he can tell Sam anything. But will Sam really hear what he is saying?
At least Sam heard and understood something crucial today, “I heard what Sister Mathias was saying about, you know, hiding pain by taking on a mission, and I know that’s what you’re doing a little bit. And it’s okay. I mean, it’s fine. I get it. I’ve done it before, too. But… I don’t buy for one second that the Mark is a terminal diagnosis, so don’t go making peace with that idea. There has to be a way. There will be a way, and we will find it.”
Dean’s words agree with Sammy’s heartfelt hopes; however, his face speaks to his belief that his fate has been determined by his past choices (and demonic Dean is in the house! Respect!) There’s no dealer’s choice or a wildcard in his future, unless of course the Big Gun decides to step in, and Dean knows more than anyone that God has left the building.
He also knows that he’s been permanently changed by the Mark into something other than what he once was. But to keep the peace he throws out a desultory “Okay, Sammy.” and then another “Okay.” when Sam insists on Dean’s agreement that they will find a way.
Additional Thoughts:
It’s rather ironic that Dean leaves the church feeling less hopeful than when he entered it, and probably less human too.
The brothers are not on the same wavelength or page. Fans know that this is a recipe for bad decisions with cosmic implications and mucho bloodshed.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and there is no woman more scornful, spiteful, evil than Rowena. At this point it’s obvious how she intersects in this season’s endgame. Well at least she’s smarter and more powerful than Ruby. That’s a step up for Sam in my book. Of course she’s capable of wreaking so much more havoc all by her lonesome.
I am more convinced than ever that the Book of the Damned is a dark grimoire than I was after “There’s No Place Like Home” and “The Executioner’s Song”. Sam’s dark arc is patently obvious except for the will he or won’t he in regards to the devil he knows all too well, heaven’s baddest and brightest… Lucifer dummies!
I loved the comparison of Dean’s restricted life serving others to that of a cloistered nun serving Christ.
I love Dean wanting more out of life and more for himself. Do you agree that this is his enhanced self talking… the dude formerly known as demonic Dean.
Did you catch that Crowley reads his mother like a book and is tired of the hamster wheel that she has him on. She’s barely finished playing with the last present he got her before she asks for another. I also loved his loyalty to Dean by hedging his answer and flat out refusing to kill the Winchesters.
They are really being slow to parse out Dean’s human-supernatural hybrid status. Come on… it’s obvious, especially after “The Executioner’s Song”. Cain acts like a human with roid rage, yet has the attributes and manifest powers that are both demonic and angelic in nature. Folks! Demons don’t smite. Do you think he was demonic Dean adjacent in those later scenes.
Do you think “Paint It Black” wasted a perfectly nihilistic Rolling Stones anthem on (hopefully) the lamest episode of the season. I sure do. I was jonesing for dark Dean antics galore.
Paint it Black
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
I see a line of cars and they’re all painted black
With flowers and my love, both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a newborn baby it just happens ev’ryday
I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and I want it painted black
Maybe then I’ll fade away and not have to face the facts
It’s not easy facing up when your whole world is black
No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the setting sun
My love will laugh with me before the morning comes
Well, this was a depressing review. I know there is lots of chatter about Dean being a hybrid, but I am not seeing it. That’s probably because I don’t think these writers are consistent enough to make anything of it.
I hated Dean’s confession (and him saying he was ‘tired’ in the last episode) and here is why. For years now, Dean has been saying he is tired of hunting and tired of fighting and every time he says it, it brings up a nagging question I have had since he got Sam’s soul back in S6. Why are the Winchesters still hunting? They are unhappy, unfulfilled, half of the time incompetent and inept, and appear to be emotionally retarded, since they angst over what they want to be when they grow up and have coming of age stories. How can they possibly be the heroes when they think their lives suck. How am I to believe in them as heroes and hunting as an honorable thing to do, if they don’t believe it themselves? Sure, they are courageous, loyal, trustworthy, and seem to have integrity, but why continue when all they feel they do is lose? IMO, they and the audience should have some sense that the Winchesters hunt because they have the skill and knowledge and; therefore, feel a degree of responsibility — not feel old and tired.
Charlie, Garth, Krissy, Cole, Claire are every bit as much heroes in this show as the Winchesters are. Charlie has taken up hunting as a choice, the same as Claire no doubt will. They could both walk away if they so choose to. Garth has a life with people (monsters) who love him, as does Cole. They can hunt and go shopping online and keep up with the latest celebrities all at the same time, and are still masters at swordplay, gunslinging, military ops, and probably archery and spear throwing too. The Winchesters? Well, they were raised as hunters and trained to be so, but they aren’t any better at it than the latest teenager or donut eating sheriff.
I was so excited about “The Year of the Deanmon,” but the story has run in the background the entire season. I’m sure the finale will be all exciting and may or may not have a resolution to the MoC, but the season has been wasted, as far as the Winchester story is concerned. We are four episodes out and still nothing has happened beyond Sam thinking he is playing Rowena, Rowena thinking she is playing Crowley, Dean not playing at all, and Cas and Crowley…well, they aren’t doing diddle squat.
Yeah, I think Paint It Black was a complete waste, as most of the episodes this season have been, and I am very disappointed at all the squandered potential the season had.
Why did I depress you? Yes I am still hopeful. I think normal Dean still thrives on saving people. He was a Debby Downer in s 7 however he had reason. He was losing everything and everyone and every year their was a new Apocalypse of sorts for him to fix.
Sorry I was late replying. I had site issues.
Wow, this is response to Ginger as well as CC: I think the heroism comes from ‘WAY early on, in Wendigo, in which Dean states that their family is so screwed the only thing to do is to keep OTHER families from getting screwed by the Supernatural. He may “hate” that he doesn’t have a life, but he will never walk away from defending the defenseless.
CC, I did not think Dean was in worse shape AFTER his confession. I really liked the priest. So many times on TV the ministers (of any stripe) are hypocrites but this priest was a good man, trying to help individuals. Like Sister Mathias a LOT, she was a throwback to the nuns I remembered. No nonsense.
In earlier times I was not surprised that Isabella was considered possessed. Her murdering Piero was inexplicable to the society she lived in. Say, a mom murders her children. It happens in our society. We may understand post-partum depression. All they had was “possession” to go by. A crime beyond all understanding.
I agree with you, CC; Rowena is an unending sea of suck, she just wants and wants and wants some more. I did not catch that she may KNOW who Crowley’s dad is (Azazel was supposed to LIKE sexing with the human females so maybe Azazel) but I tend to believe that her problem with the Grand Coven wasn’t JUST from sexing a human man it was her blatant disregard from all prudence in dealing with the humans. Say, I wonder if her modus operandi brought the MOL onto the Grand Coven? She is just a psychopathic sociopath in my opinion. She’d want the world to have one neck that she could kill us all at once, and take what is left over. Crowley has one morality: he doesn’t LIE to his “clirents” and he KEEPS his bargains. She has no morality at all. She’d sell out everybody and everything to get whatever shiny thing she wanted today.
Hi Evavie. I think that normal Dean still thrives on saving people. So I question whether his mindset is currently being influenced by dark Mark Dean… demonic Dean…. supercharged Dean… whatever you want to call him. That Dean still retained humanity and morality for the most part yet he had no goals or objectives. That Dean is wondering if there is more to life. At least that’s what I think.
As to leaving in a worse mood… he doesn’t look very happy in the car. I assume that’s supercharged Deano.
@evave2: Dean talking about the family business was eight seasons ago, and it showed the difference between John and Sam, who hunted for revenge, and Dean, who hunted for saving people and the consequences that happened because of the difference. There has been no thought given by the writers since the end of S5 to the family business. It’s all how awful hunting is and how the Winchesters have been turned into losers and how hunting has become something that teenagers and anyone else can do. The Winchesters entire backstory has been diminished, along with the two characters themselves. John was ruined as a character, Bobby was ruined as a character, Cas has been ruined as a character, Crowley has been ruined as a character, and the Winchesters have been ruined as characters (from what they used to be). I keep asking myself why the Winchesters continue to hunt, and CC has kind of alluded to that in saying that Dean wanting something different in his life. She thinks he wants to be a powerful supernatural being, part Dean, part demon, and part angel. I question what good that would do to the character that I idolized. I started the season anxious and interested in seeing Dean shed his guilt and low self-esteem. I am not thrilled at the thought of making Dean a different character in order to do this. I must admit, though, that I have always thought Carver wanted to turn this show into something other than what it was; i.e., the tonal change, diminishing hunting, giving them a stationary set as a home.
Ginger actually I think he’s a hybrid now and the dude we saw in Black and Reichenbach is questioning why and what he should be doing. I don’t see Dean ever relying on powers. He hasn’t yet. It’s not his style. He can be a hybrid and hunt but he is different and has to figure out why it still has meaning to him.
I agree that this storyline should give Dean self esteem and a sense of self-worth. He’s fighting it now. He has to accept himself before this can happen. Maybe he ends up saving the day because he is powerful and this is a turning point. Anyhow, that’s for s 11 I suspect. Fyi… I discuss my hopes for Dean’s storyline as a reboot out of those old character traits in my review of Black if you’re interested.
I don’t think we’re that different in our hopes.
Having issues getting comment to post. Retrying once more.
Im making comments as I read, also a little stream of conciousness so this may ramble. Sorry CC, I think you got it all wrong. The verbal torture was the physical torture! 😉 Rowena in ’16! Hillary has nothin’ on our gal!!! Wee sausage. I cant help but wonder how that wee coral necklace stays on the wee hamster? Wouldnt it be cool if “daddy dearest” turned out to be Magnus? Oooh! (Way OT. Watching Bugs. Why is it Sam aka Jared can hold a tarantula with nary a blink but freak over a snake? Granted its a large snake but large, hairy spider trumps snake on my personal Fear Factor. Ugh. Plus side though Jensens glorious freckles. I love how they are sprinkled over his nose…and I hate freckles) I digress. Half normal spawn! LOL! I think that is how we should refer to Crowley from here on out. Ah Rowena, always with the bird bones. Switch it up a wee bit, darlin’ Bleeding from orifices just sounds all kind of wrong. Disemboweling – what could that represent or foreshadow for the Winchesters, individually and together? Alas poor Paolo, I knew him well.. *stabs repeatedly* Not the right place for Isabella indeed. You might say Isabella gave Paolo the finger. Sorry. 😉 Deantatorship. Nice TWD shoutout. Ill have to go and look for DemonDean as I didnt catch it the first time there. My guess is that I was either overcome by a sudden case of narcolepsy or I blacked out due to boredom and whiskey. Interesting your observation about the possessed sister not being able to fillet Dean . Yeah well, “U Haul 100% Buyback Guarantee” just doesnt carry quite the proper ambiance for the storage of artifacts now, does it? 😉 Mr. Mojo rising! Awesome. There better be some black and white and red and dead all over before this is all said and done by seasons end or Im going to hunt down Carver and company. I have to do a rerun – Dean was definitely off. I think I was so busy looking for BAMF DemonDean to showup that I never thought about it being he who is waxing poetic for something different other than Deans current existence.. It fits tho. After all DemonDean was nothing if not free from all the guilt and restraints from the prior life, so your idea regarding the bleedthrough here is an interesting concept. The scene at the end where Dean was clearly in a lot of pain (I say a lot otherwise he never would have let Sammy suspect). What the Hell was that? Pain/feeling sick as in Season 9 because he didnt kill? Why would that manifest now? Did they edit a scene that was needed to clarify what was happening? Something to do with his possible extracuricular acivities that we just discovered this Weds. past? Sympathy pains for the previously disemboweled? What!?! Surely there was a logical reason for what Jensen made sure he got across. I wonder what else Sammy has learned from her witchy joirnal? Good catch on Isabella not being able to possess Dean due to the MOC and turning on the priest who had just absolved his sins. Thoughtful review. You made me notice more in a episode that I was giving a pass to as a boring, overly heavy anviled MOTW. I dont remember the earlier episodes in the series being so anvilicious. Am I wrong? Good job avoiding the sudden onset of narcolepsy. Im sure you drank copious amounts of stiff black coffee. I have read several reviews of this episode and each time before I did, as with this one, I found myself dreading it because of how I felt about the damn thing. Its easy to write great reviews when the show gives you something rich and exciting, you managed to write one on a fairly uninspiring, dull episode while making me laugh and contemplate different thinky thoughts other than my own at the same time. Nicely done.
Now I blush… it’s Piero not Paolo… I had to edit out a lot of Paolo ‘ s myself. To me Dean doesn’t look hurt. He looks scary and as if his veneer has worn thin.
It’s funny what you notice when you are forced to think .
@ PSG: I know you think Dean is a hybrid, but I remain unconvinced. I know from JA’s performance; or at least I can tell, that he is trying to portray Dean as fighting against the Mark and the Mark winning. I believe it is the writers’ intent that is what is happening and JA is trying to portray that, despite the scripts focusing on the guest characters and not the Winchesters. I would think it is hard for an actor for an actor to step up to give full understanding through performance when the their character is being driven — plot driven, that is — by other people’s stories and they have to react to that while maintaining some bit of consistency in their character and in their story.
Here is my overall problem, not just with this episode, which was very much the story of the nun and her lover with the Winchesters along for the ride. Throughout this season (and most of S9), the characters are not being written. There is a two-dimensional flatness to them, and they are stuck in a story that is not being developed. Dean has had the MoC for a 1.5 years now, but rhalf that time it was used to get Dean to being a demon. That was dropped after three episode, so for seven months now, Dean has had the second part of the Mark story — the one asking the question of whether or not he can control the Mark. During all of that time, though, the audience has been told that he cannot control the Mark. I see no ‘hybrid’ in that story at all. It is possible that in the finale he will miraculously discover that he can and miraculously discover that because he can, he has gained self-worth and shed accepting guilt for all that is wrong in the world, but that is asking a lot from a finale when the overall story has not been developed in any way, let alone a logical, progressive way.
So I will ask you, what good would it be to Dean’s character to evolve into a permanent supernatural hybrid? What is the benefit to the character for that, especially while Sam is left behind as purely human? How does that serve the Winchester story and the original premise of the show? To me, the premise of the whole show was that the Winchesters had the training and the knowledge to hunt evil, and because they had the skill and the knowledge, they felt a responsibility to do something about it in order to save other families and people from what had happened to them.
Yes, Sam was a supernatural being for the first five years and once Dean got his soul back, is purely human, Dean was always purely human, and together they fought the evil forces ending in them stopping the Apocalypse. That story is over. At this late stage of the game, I see no benefit to turning Dean into a supernatural being, and especially since they have no big forces to fight. Since Carver came on-board, they fight their personal issues, so far without any success at all.
Honestly, I have followed your thoughts and reasons for thinking Dean is turning into a hybrid, and I am not being ugly or unkind in saying this, but I question whether Dean being a hybrid is more what you would like to see happen than what is really being shown happening. I just don’t think this bunch of writers have the ability to think that far ahead, nor do I think any of them cares enough about telling a Winchester story to take it to that level. They seem quite happy mucking around with their ‘ideas,’ like this nun’s story we watched.
Jensen has said he’s playing Dean as if demonic Dean is below the surface. That tells me that Dean wasn’t cured. For whatever reason he’s a hybrid like Crowley is a hybrid. The blood had an effect but it didn’t cure them.
Now I think Dean was never a straight up demon for a lot of reasons. He sure didn’t act like one. What I saw in Black and Reichenbach was a Dean that had self worth and was not all about Sam. I call it good.
Dean barely used his powers then so I see no reason to have him be like a superhero.
No I don’t see it all happening in the finale. There’s too much baggage from other storylines to clean up. I can still see something happening in the Long run with Dean’s mytharc. I am still enjoying it more or less. I am not married to it being just the two of them anymore, Howe very I wish they would write better side characters and I want Charlie angel sword dead.
I am starting to wonder if Dean will have to clean up Sam’s mess again and makes a deal with Crowley to save Sam or some such. Which would mean Sam realized his worst nightmare when his supernatural brother was a rude dick at worst.
Cain and Dean still had their humanity. They obviously were/are different.
Yes, JA has said and, I believe, playing that Dean was not ‘cured,’ which makes him a hybrid already, just like Crowley and just like Cas, too. It really is impossible to speculate, since the MoC story has been just an ‘idea,’ and not developed beyond that. We still don’t know how the Mark works, what it does, what it’s purpose is, or how it affects a soul. All we really know is that it corrupts the soul…somehow…and supposedly will eventually turn the person into a demon. In Dean’s case, when he was a demon, he was self-serving. In Cain’s case, he and the KoH he trained slaughtered people, before he decided he would be a demon/human hybrid. Also, turning Dean into a human/hybrid would mean that TPTB did not completely tell a bald-faced lie about it being “The Year Of The Deanmon.”
Here is the problem with Dean, though, whether he makes a deal with Crowley or whether he just becomes a demon again somehow in order to clean up Sam’s mess. First off, the show has completely destroyed Crowley and Cas’ characters by making them a hybrid, and it has left both characters with no path to to go, because the show has been reduced to the MoL bunker and MotW hunts sandwiched between an excess of other-character focused episodes. That has left nothing for Crowley or Cas to be involved in full-time on the supernatural level; i.e., their really awful side stories about human emotions. If the writers wanted an ensemble cast, they needed a common enemy, someone who threatened all three dimensions – Heaven, Hell and Earth – that gave an excuse for them to be reluctant team players. Even from the recently released synopsis for the finale, we see that Cas is stuck off with Crowley and Rowena and their ongoing drama.
The second thing is there is much to be worried about if the writers try to resurrect the Demon Dean story. They have done that with Bobby’s character repeatedly, and each and every time, the story is meaningless and has nowhere to go, although I am sure we will revisit Bobby’s ‘punishment’ for a filler episode next season — but that is what the character ends up being — filler.
The third thing is if they plan on a poached Soulless Sam story for Dean next season, what story is there to tell? Dean goes off and does…stuff…and Sam tries once again to find another ‘cure’ to save him.’ That would suit the writers purpose of giving the Js time off, as we would have another season of episodes dedicated to characters nobody cares about — a Jody/Donna episode, Claire will return for a couple or three times, Cole will be around for a couple or three episodes, Charlie will be around or resurrected for a time or two, Cas will be doing something and Crowley will be doing something, and then there is the Bobby episode.
If they try to poach the Soulless Sam story for Dean, that would be boring and anti-climatic. The audience has already seen that one.
If their intent is to set up for the Michael/Sam an Lucifer/Dean showdown that so many fans have whined about not seeing in S12, then the writers will have to completely trash the first 5-year arc, because it was stated over and over again that Dean was Michael’s one true vessel and Sam was Luci’s one true vessel. That is foundation canon. Easily dismissed, I know, by saying it is the bloodline that counts, and I could very well see the writers trying to rework that, but it would still be major foundational canon-trashing to the original No writer should trash canon (even though these wannabe writers often do and see how the fans go into an uproar).
Oh, the side characters. With the exception of Cole, who I can barely tolerate, I hate every recurring character since Carver took over.