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raloriaI've abandoned my full-length episode reviews for these shorter, First Impressions posts.
With each of these reviews I'll include 2 cropped caps from the episode. One of Dean and one of Sam. I decided to do something different and make them b&w.
Consider these fanart. If you take either of them, please give credit. :)
I'm trying to get this posted as soon after the episode as possible, again by using caps made from my recording of the episode. Hopefully there's still some squee left out there. ;)
Normally, I would take notes during the episode that you would see here, but the intensity of the episode made that impossible. So I watched the episode, then watched it again and took my notes. They'll be a bit longer than normal, and far less broken up and rambly.
Note: "==============" signifies a commercial break.
Recap: Lilith, Anna, Castiel, Alastair, Uriel, Pamela, Dean admitting to liking torturing souls in Hell, Sam and Ruby, Pamela's death
Oooh....Castiel has car alarm skills....heh
That's a lot of wrecked cars...
She's pretty.....and dead....whoah..angel wings
Sam's driving the Impala!!!
And Dean's been sleeping.
Dean's not in a good mood....is tired of burying friends and doesn't want to hear about Ruby at all.
Dean's tired, but Sam wants him to get angry.
“Home, crappy, home”...heh, but kinda sad, too.
Uriel & Castiel...and Dean isn't happy to see them.
The boys just came from Pamela's funeral.
Seems like Uriel is calling the shots here....hmmm
Seven angels have been murdered, all from their garrison.
They have Alastair, but he won't tell them who's killing the angels and they want Dean to interrogate him....eeep.
Dean says they can't ask him to do that....Uriel says they're not asking.
And whoosh! there they go.....taking Dean with them.
They aren't backing down.....and Dean wants to talk to Cas alone.
“Uriel's the funniest angel in the garrison. Ask anyone.” LOL Seriously????
Cas has been getting too close to humans, to Dean and it's impairing his judgement.
Dean: “You ask me to open that door and walk through it? You will not like what walks back out.”
Castiel: “For what it's worth. I would give anything not to have you do this.”
Alastair is amused...and singing an old song “Cheek To Cheek”.....cute
“Are they serious? They sent you to torture me?”
Dean has his game face on, but Alastair knows Dean all too well....
“You left part of yourself back in the pit.” Love how he spits out that line, so full of venom. Nice!
Dean gets ready and Alastair keeps taunting, saying he must want some revenge for what he did to him down in Hell or what he did to John....oooooh
Ruby shows up, but is less than thrilled with tangling with angels again.
Sam says Dean can't get the job done, that he's not what he used to be, he's not strong enough.
But Sam will be.....oooooh.
Alastair made the same daily offer to John that he did to Dean.
John never cracked.
But then came Dean....”But daddy's little girl. He broke. He broke in 30. Just not the man your dad wanted you to be huh, Dean?” OUCH! Alastair's pushing all of Dean's buttons.
Dean dreamed in Hell....about torturing Alastair....ooooh.
===================================
Alastair isn't giving up yet....gotta love the humor, though that biting demonic snarkiness never quits.
Ruby doing some cool tricks to find Dean.....
Uh oh....”Ruby, it's been weeks. I need it”....Sam....no
He doesn't want to do it, “but I need to be strong enough.”
Good golly, look at him go at her blood.....the boy has definite problems....eeek!
Oooooh.....Ruby with that sly smile.....don't trust her!!!
Wow.....Dean's eyes....so cold.
Alastair: “I carved you into a new animal Dean. There is no going back”
Dean: “Maybe you're right, and now it's my turn to carve”
EEEEP!
Uh oh.....what turned that water on????? This can't be good....
Anna!
She got her old body back.....kinda convenient.
More torturing.....Alastair being a smartass.....
Anna tells Cas to stop this, that this can't be God's will. You go girl!
Dean's going heavy with the Holy Water now....yikes
Anna: “These orders are wrong and you know it, but you can do the right thing.”
Cass won't work with Anna....orders her away.
Alastair says Dean really doesn't have the resources here....as Dean goes for salt....eeep
Jensen is so rocking this stuff, which is impressive and frightening at the same time.
Sam....driving....his eyes look very....black here.....oh, no
Ugh...this is getting ugly now.
Now we learn the truth....it was supposed to be John to break the first seal....but it was Dean.
Dean doesn't believe him....at first.
“And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in Hell. As he breaks, so shall it break.”
Now Dean believes.....oh......poor Dean....*hugs him*
Alastair notices the water breaking the devil's trap.....uh oh
And he's loose! Yikes!
==========================
Oh God! Dean!!!!!! This is awful! Bloody and broken Dean!!!!!!
Ouch! Thumb in the throat! That's gotta hurt.
Castiel! to the rescue! Just in time, too.
Alastair is pretty tough....and poor Dean is out for the count.....eeep.
Wow...Cas is in trouble....Alastair is about to send him back to Heaven.....cool effects, btw.
Sam!!!! Alastair's still not impressed....but he should be. Sam's skills have gotten a lot stronger...yikes!
Alastair says it's not demons killing the angels....it's not Lilith...she would kill thousands of angels, not just seven.
Alastair challenges Sam to send him back to Hell, but Sam says he's stronger, now he can kill....and he does. Bye bye Alastair. Whoah....even Cas is stunned.
Dean....*weeps* in the hospital again....Sam at his side.
Cas shows up and Sam tells him to heal Dean, but Cas says he can't and apologizes for the devil's trap breaking.
Sam's right, this whole thing was pointless.....and they broke Dean because of it. No wonder Sam's pissed.
He says Alastair wasn't lying, the demons have nothing to do with the deaths.
Check out that snow!
Uriel is back and he's frustrated because their orders are now to stop hunting the demon responsible for the deaths.
Cas admits that maybe something is wrong, that the orders aren't coming from God anymore.
Cas has gone to meet Anna.
He's considering disobedience. She tells him it gets worse, it's terrifying choosing your own course of action.
He wants her to give him some direction, but she leaves him, saying it's time for him to think for himself.
Cas is back at the warehouse, checking out the water pipes.....
“No demon can overpower that trap. I made it myself.”
Uriel....gah!!!! I knew he was bad news!
=================================
He was the one killing the angels....and broke the DT that allowed Alastair to beat up Dean. Bastard!
He wants to convert Cas....have him join the fight to free Lucifer.
“God isn't God anymore. He doesn't care what we do. I am proof of that.”
Uriel only killed the angels who turned him down.
Uriel: “Help me. Help me spread the word. Help me bring on the apocalypse. All you have to do, is be unafraid.”
Castiel: “For the first time in a long time....I am.”
Oooh....angel smackdown!!! Yes! *cheers Castiel on*
Wouldn't you think they'd have some powers to fight each other?
Whoo-hoo!!!! Anna! Great timing with the sword there. Good riddance Uriel.
The wings are cool though.
=================================
OMG....Jensen's voice....so deep and broken and *guh*
Cas tells Dean about Uriel working against them.
Dean asks him if it's true, that he broke the 1st seal....the answer is yes.
They tried to get to him before he broke it, but they were too late.
Dean: “Why didn't you just leave me there then?” Awwww....no, Dean.
“The righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can finish it. You have to stop it.”
Oh, Dean....*wibbles & cries internally for him*
Cas doesn't know what it really means, only that their fate rests with Dean.
Dean says he can't do it, he's not all here, he's not strong enough.....*cries*
“I guess I'm not the man either of our dads wanted me to be. Find someone else...it's not me.”
*hugs Dean super tight*
What else can I say except "Go Show!!!!!" OMG What a stunning episode! When my jaw wasn't dropping to the floor my heart was breaking over what's happening to the boys. I already knew the two big secrets, thanks to the Space Promo, but it really didn't detract from the episode. There were plenty of other surprises to be found.
First of all....Ben Edlund, you amaze me. You write wacky, insane humor like a giant talking teddy bear and then you pull this out of your hat???? *bows to the master* And Mike Rohl....awesome direction on an episode so full of information that it easily could have taken two episodes. The camera angles were great with lots of profiles and lighting with deep, dark shadows. Excellent work! As for the acting, well it was top notch all around. I didn't even care about Alastair's weird voice this time. Maybe I finally got used to it? And Jensen.....my God! I sometimes feel I've become accustomed to his acting. I know he's good, but then I see him in an episode like this and I really realize how good he is. Lots of emotions, lots of nuances...he can do it all. I can only imagine what he went through to pull off those intense scenes. They had to be draining. When his eyes turned cold and oh, so dark in front of Alastair.....oooooh. *shudders* It still gets to me.
Good to see two bad guys gone: Alastair and Uriel. I figured Sam would take out Alastair, so I'm glad I was right about that. Uriel was somewhat of a surprise. I always thought he was a bit off for an angel and didn't really like him that much, but I figured that was the idea, to play off of Castiel. I guess his dislike of humans should have been a big warning flag. Since we know he was the one killing off the angels, was he also the one passing down the bizarre orders supposedly from God? Or is that problem still around? If so, who the heck is doing it? This weak communication line from Heaven really sucks!
Then there's Sam and his apparent addiction to Ruby's demon blood. Who knew this was going on??? His attitude towards Dean is still puzzling. He wasn't worried about Dean using his torturing techniques, but instead was worried because Dean wasn't strong enough to take out Alastair? WTH???? I dunno, I'm still sorting it all out in my brain. He said he didn't really want the blood, but he needed it to take out Alastair. So he did it anyway. *sigh* It was nice to see him at his brother's bedside at the hospital and even demand Castiel heal him. But where on earth was he by the end of the episode??? And the next question is...will Dean tell him that he broke the first seal? Hmmmm....
Now about my poor Dean. Where do I begin? Kripke? You genius bastard you....you broke my boy. I love you for it, but man, was it painful to watch. And he wasn't broken once, but multiple times. He has to torture Alastair, learn his father was tortured by Alastair, find out that he broke the first seal, get beat up by Alastair, and then learn that he has to be the one stop the seals from being broken, to stop the apocalypse. As if the poor guy hasn't had enough guilt and pain heaped on him for 50 people, now he literally has the very fate of the entire world on his shoulders! It's frightening to imagine where this might end up. His admission that he can't do it, that it's too big is understandable. Dean's strong, despite what Alastair might have thought, but it's a huge task. It'll be interesting to see in the episodes to come how Dean ends up reacting to this revelation.
As for Anna and Ruby? It was great to see Anna again and she had quite a bit more to do in the episode than I thought she would. Then there's Ruby. Just what is she up to? It's nothing good as far as I can see. Something is definitely going on....
So part of my brain is mush now from watching this eppy, but it's a good kind of mush. Heh. The episode met and way exceeded my expectations. It wasn't an easy one to watch, but at the same time it was a delight to see the show go to this level. Superb!!!
With each of these reviews I'll include 2 cropped caps from the episode. One of Dean and one of Sam. I decided to do something different and make them b&w.
Consider these fanart. If you take either of them, please give credit. :)
I'm trying to get this posted as soon after the episode as possible, again by using caps made from my recording of the episode. Hopefully there's still some squee left out there. ;)
Normally, I would take notes during the episode that you would see here, but the intensity of the episode made that impossible. So I watched the episode, then watched it again and took my notes. They'll be a bit longer than normal, and far less broken up and rambly.
Note: "==============" signifies a commercial break.
Recap: Lilith, Anna, Castiel, Alastair, Uriel, Pamela, Dean admitting to liking torturing souls in Hell, Sam and Ruby, Pamela's death
Oooh....Castiel has car alarm skills....heh
That's a lot of wrecked cars...
She's pretty.....and dead....whoah..angel wings
Sam's driving the Impala!!!
And Dean's been sleeping.
Dean's not in a good mood....is tired of burying friends and doesn't want to hear about Ruby at all.
Dean's tired, but Sam wants him to get angry.
“Home, crappy, home”...heh, but kinda sad, too.
Uriel & Castiel...and Dean isn't happy to see them.
The boys just came from Pamela's funeral.
Seems like Uriel is calling the shots here....hmmm
Seven angels have been murdered, all from their garrison.
They have Alastair, but he won't tell them who's killing the angels and they want Dean to interrogate him....eeep.
Dean says they can't ask him to do that....Uriel says they're not asking.
And whoosh! there they go.....taking Dean with them.
They aren't backing down.....and Dean wants to talk to Cas alone.
“Uriel's the funniest angel in the garrison. Ask anyone.” LOL Seriously????
Cas has been getting too close to humans, to Dean and it's impairing his judgement.
Dean: “You ask me to open that door and walk through it? You will not like what walks back out.”
Castiel: “For what it's worth. I would give anything not to have you do this.”
Alastair is amused...and singing an old song “Cheek To Cheek”.....cute
“Are they serious? They sent you to torture me?”
Dean has his game face on, but Alastair knows Dean all too well....
“You left part of yourself back in the pit.” Love how he spits out that line, so full of venom. Nice!
Dean gets ready and Alastair keeps taunting, saying he must want some revenge for what he did to him down in Hell or what he did to John....oooooh
Ruby shows up, but is less than thrilled with tangling with angels again.
Sam says Dean can't get the job done, that he's not what he used to be, he's not strong enough.
But Sam will be.....oooooh.
Alastair made the same daily offer to John that he did to Dean.
John never cracked.
But then came Dean....”But daddy's little girl. He broke. He broke in 30. Just not the man your dad wanted you to be huh, Dean?” OUCH! Alastair's pushing all of Dean's buttons.
Dean dreamed in Hell....about torturing Alastair....ooooh.
===================================
Alastair isn't giving up yet....gotta love the humor, though that biting demonic snarkiness never quits.
Ruby doing some cool tricks to find Dean.....
Uh oh....”Ruby, it's been weeks. I need it”....Sam....no
He doesn't want to do it, “but I need to be strong enough.”
Good golly, look at him go at her blood.....the boy has definite problems....eeek!
Oooooh.....Ruby with that sly smile.....don't trust her!!!
Wow.....Dean's eyes....so cold.
Alastair: “I carved you into a new animal Dean. There is no going back”
Dean: “Maybe you're right, and now it's my turn to carve”
EEEEP!
Uh oh.....what turned that water on????? This can't be good....
Anna!
She got her old body back.....kinda convenient.
More torturing.....Alastair being a smartass.....
Anna tells Cas to stop this, that this can't be God's will. You go girl!
Dean's going heavy with the Holy Water now....yikes
Anna: “These orders are wrong and you know it, but you can do the right thing.”
Cass won't work with Anna....orders her away.
Alastair says Dean really doesn't have the resources here....as Dean goes for salt....eeep
Jensen is so rocking this stuff, which is impressive and frightening at the same time.
Sam....driving....his eyes look very....black here.....oh, no
Ugh...this is getting ugly now.
Now we learn the truth....it was supposed to be John to break the first seal....but it was Dean.
Dean doesn't believe him....at first.
“And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in Hell. As he breaks, so shall it break.”
Now Dean believes.....oh......poor Dean....*hugs him*
Alastair notices the water breaking the devil's trap.....uh oh
And he's loose! Yikes!
==========================
Oh God! Dean!!!!!! This is awful! Bloody and broken Dean!!!!!!
Ouch! Thumb in the throat! That's gotta hurt.
Castiel! to the rescue! Just in time, too.
Alastair is pretty tough....and poor Dean is out for the count.....eeep.
Wow...Cas is in trouble....Alastair is about to send him back to Heaven.....cool effects, btw.
Sam!!!! Alastair's still not impressed....but he should be. Sam's skills have gotten a lot stronger...yikes!
Alastair says it's not demons killing the angels....it's not Lilith...she would kill thousands of angels, not just seven.
Alastair challenges Sam to send him back to Hell, but Sam says he's stronger, now he can kill....and he does. Bye bye Alastair. Whoah....even Cas is stunned.
Dean....*weeps* in the hospital again....Sam at his side.
Cas shows up and Sam tells him to heal Dean, but Cas says he can't and apologizes for the devil's trap breaking.
Sam's right, this whole thing was pointless.....and they broke Dean because of it. No wonder Sam's pissed.
He says Alastair wasn't lying, the demons have nothing to do with the deaths.
Check out that snow!
Uriel is back and he's frustrated because their orders are now to stop hunting the demon responsible for the deaths.
Cas admits that maybe something is wrong, that the orders aren't coming from God anymore.
Cas has gone to meet Anna.
He's considering disobedience. She tells him it gets worse, it's terrifying choosing your own course of action.
He wants her to give him some direction, but she leaves him, saying it's time for him to think for himself.
Cas is back at the warehouse, checking out the water pipes.....
“No demon can overpower that trap. I made it myself.”
Uriel....gah!!!! I knew he was bad news!
=================================
He was the one killing the angels....and broke the DT that allowed Alastair to beat up Dean. Bastard!
He wants to convert Cas....have him join the fight to free Lucifer.
“God isn't God anymore. He doesn't care what we do. I am proof of that.”
Uriel only killed the angels who turned him down.
Uriel: “Help me. Help me spread the word. Help me bring on the apocalypse. All you have to do, is be unafraid.”
Castiel: “For the first time in a long time....I am.”
Oooh....angel smackdown!!! Yes! *cheers Castiel on*
Wouldn't you think they'd have some powers to fight each other?
Whoo-hoo!!!! Anna! Great timing with the sword there. Good riddance Uriel.
The wings are cool though.
=================================
OMG....Jensen's voice....so deep and broken and *guh*
Cas tells Dean about Uriel working against them.
Dean asks him if it's true, that he broke the 1st seal....the answer is yes.
They tried to get to him before he broke it, but they were too late.
Dean: “Why didn't you just leave me there then?” Awwww....no, Dean.
“The righteous man who begins it, is the only one who can finish it. You have to stop it.”
Oh, Dean....*wibbles & cries internally for him*
Cas doesn't know what it really means, only that their fate rests with Dean.
Dean says he can't do it, he's not all here, he's not strong enough.....*cries*
“I guess I'm not the man either of our dads wanted me to be. Find someone else...it's not me.”
*hugs Dean super tight*
What else can I say except "Go Show!!!!!" OMG What a stunning episode! When my jaw wasn't dropping to the floor my heart was breaking over what's happening to the boys. I already knew the two big secrets, thanks to the Space Promo, but it really didn't detract from the episode. There were plenty of other surprises to be found.
First of all....Ben Edlund, you amaze me. You write wacky, insane humor like a giant talking teddy bear and then you pull this out of your hat???? *bows to the master* And Mike Rohl....awesome direction on an episode so full of information that it easily could have taken two episodes. The camera angles were great with lots of profiles and lighting with deep, dark shadows. Excellent work! As for the acting, well it was top notch all around. I didn't even care about Alastair's weird voice this time. Maybe I finally got used to it? And Jensen.....my God! I sometimes feel I've become accustomed to his acting. I know he's good, but then I see him in an episode like this and I really realize how good he is. Lots of emotions, lots of nuances...he can do it all. I can only imagine what he went through to pull off those intense scenes. They had to be draining. When his eyes turned cold and oh, so dark in front of Alastair.....oooooh. *shudders* It still gets to me.
Good to see two bad guys gone: Alastair and Uriel. I figured Sam would take out Alastair, so I'm glad I was right about that. Uriel was somewhat of a surprise. I always thought he was a bit off for an angel and didn't really like him that much, but I figured that was the idea, to play off of Castiel. I guess his dislike of humans should have been a big warning flag. Since we know he was the one killing off the angels, was he also the one passing down the bizarre orders supposedly from God? Or is that problem still around? If so, who the heck is doing it? This weak communication line from Heaven really sucks!
Then there's Sam and his apparent addiction to Ruby's demon blood. Who knew this was going on??? His attitude towards Dean is still puzzling. He wasn't worried about Dean using his torturing techniques, but instead was worried because Dean wasn't strong enough to take out Alastair? WTH???? I dunno, I'm still sorting it all out in my brain. He said he didn't really want the blood, but he needed it to take out Alastair. So he did it anyway. *sigh* It was nice to see him at his brother's bedside at the hospital and even demand Castiel heal him. But where on earth was he by the end of the episode??? And the next question is...will Dean tell him that he broke the first seal? Hmmmm....
Now about my poor Dean. Where do I begin? Kripke? You genius bastard you....you broke my boy. I love you for it, but man, was it painful to watch. And he wasn't broken once, but multiple times. He has to torture Alastair, learn his father was tortured by Alastair, find out that he broke the first seal, get beat up by Alastair, and then learn that he has to be the one stop the seals from being broken, to stop the apocalypse. As if the poor guy hasn't had enough guilt and pain heaped on him for 50 people, now he literally has the very fate of the entire world on his shoulders! It's frightening to imagine where this might end up. His admission that he can't do it, that it's too big is understandable. Dean's strong, despite what Alastair might have thought, but it's a huge task. It'll be interesting to see in the episodes to come how Dean ends up reacting to this revelation.
As for Anna and Ruby? It was great to see Anna again and she had quite a bit more to do in the episode than I thought she would. Then there's Ruby. Just what is she up to? It's nothing good as far as I can see. Something is definitely going on....
So part of my brain is mush now from watching this eppy, but it's a good kind of mush. Heh. The episode met and way exceeded my expectations. It wasn't an easy one to watch, but at the same time it was a delight to see the show go to this level. Superb!!!
