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rev·e·la·tions – noun
- Something revealed, especially dramatic disclosures of things not previously known or realized.
- Informal the last book of the New Testament, containing visionary descriptions of heaven, and of the end of the world
Yeah, I’d say that pretty much sums up last night’s episode of Supernatural. “On the Head of a Pin” was revelations-city about Dean’s place in the coming war, Sam’s trip down that long dark path and apparently even angels get the blues.
The episode began with a visually intriguing if not totally necessary scene of Castiel walking through a parking lot of trashed cars. In the center of it all is a dead woman and as the news helicopter circles above, their bright spotlight illuminates two long shadows fanning out from the woman’s body – hmm…looks like angel wings.
Cut to first sign of the apocalypse, Sam is driving the Impala and Dean doesn’t seem to care. They’re on their way back from Pamela’s funeral and Dean looks tired and beaten (emotionally, not literally). Sam, on the other hand, is charged by this. He’s done with being a pawn in this no-win game and an angry Sammy is a dangerous Sammy. Just you wait and see.
Long time fans, think back to first season, to Dean driving, hell bent on hunting while Sam fades away in the passenger seat, too overwhelmed by Jessica’s death to even think straight. The juxtaposition is perfect, they’ve switched roles and Sam is now, quite literally in the driver’s seat. All he needs is one more little push and that comes in the form of the angels snatching Dean right out of the motel room in order to have him do their dirty work.
Actually, dirty doesn’t even begin to cover it. The angels want Dean to torture Alistair to find out who is behind the angel killings. But that’s like asking an alcoholic to step up to the bar. Dean’s afraid he’ll lose what little humanity he has left if he goes down that road again, but I have faith in you Dean. I know you can do it and still stay strong. Just don’t listen to Alistair spouting all those stories about torturing dad and about how Dean broke when Daddy didn’t. . . oh yeah, and how Dean himself broke the first seal when he took up the knife in hell. Yeah, that did it. Once again Dean is felled by self-esteem issues. Seriously, he needs a chat with Tyra Banks because this boy needs to get his fierce on!
Near the end of the episode, when Dean is lying in a hospital bed, eyes misting with tears and he says that line about not living up to the expectations of his or Castiel’s fathers – geez, I just wanted to slap him upside the head but I was too busy reaching for the tissue box. Jensen Ackles cries like nobody’s business and I think he and Dean are going to need therapy when this is all over and done with!
Meanwhile, we’ve got a very determined Sam ready to do whatever he has to in order to save Dean. I don’t care what people have been saying about Sam’s path this season, it’s clear that he still loves his brother. It’s that love that made him cross the line and do something he truly didn’t want to do. But Ruby hops on to his lap, slits herself open and he licks that blood right up. Did you catch her creepy little smile while he was macking on her arm? She’s evil, I tell you, and not just in a ‘hey, she’s a demon’ way. I think she’s been manipulating Sam all along. Offering him that shoulder to cry on. The one person who doesn’t judge him. The one person who understands his issues. Oh boy, he’s a chocoholic headed for Hershey Town, PA. There’s no turning back now.
So Sam defends Alistair with relative ease, then he gives Castiel an embarrassed look like, “pretend you didn’t see that.” Then he’s off to the hospital with Dean, we assume, because we were deprived of any kind of scene with Sam tending to his wounded brother. (Notice no wide shots in that entire fight scene with Sam and Alistair. I don’t think Jensen was there at all, thus no brother hug at the end.)
That’s when the episode does something unusual, it spends the next full act (from commercial break to commercial break) without Sam or Dean. It’s Castiel, Uriel and Anna mixing it up and it was more than I needed to see. The Uriel as the bad guy stuff was fine, but I don’t get the return of Anna, particularly the fact that she returns in the same body. Nice trick. I think Castiel should have finished off Uriel so he could feel some of what Dean’s feeling. Betrayal sucks, big time, doesn’t it?
By the end of this episode, Dean’s pretty much broken and alone in this world. Sam might still be walking around on two legs, but the little brother that Dean devoted his whole life to is gone.
I’ve always seen Dean as the mother-figure in the Winchester family. He’s the caretaker, the one who nurtured not just Sam, but Dad, too. He was the cook, the nurse, the teacher and the cheerleader of the family. And now, literally, the fate of the world is in his hands.
When I was a kid, my mother had a needlepoint sign that she would hang on her bedroom door when she needed some alone time. The sign said, “mommy has had it.” Dean Winchester needs to put that sign on his door then maybe Sammy will surprise us all and become the savior of the world instead of the one that leads us all into the pit.
Watch Supernatural every Thursday night at 9:00 on The CW.
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Can’t wait to see what we’re in store for tonight!
Having rewatched Heaven and Hell at the weekend, I saw Sam and Ruby’s exchange in a new light: Ruby says Sam is getting flabby and knows what to do to tone up, Sam replies that he’s ‘not going that again’. It seems like he changed his mind.
You know what getting a little tired of people judging Sam then telling me what poor Deans been through.
This show has over done and played on the poor Dean thing way to much.
What do some of you think that stupid deal and the consquences of it did to Sam?NO you dont think you just see Dean, this show as gone on about how he feels until it is coming out of our ears.
While Sam gets shoved in the background like a nothing so two pointless angels can have more air time.
What a wonderful show this is.
This was a great episode all around. Jensen was OUTSTANDING and gave one of his finest performances of the series. I can’t say enough about him, he’s been simply amazing this season in handling Dean’s emotional state. But my god, what more can they put Dean through??
Cynthia said:
“When I was a kid, my mother had a needlepoint sign that she would hang on her bedroom door when she needed some alone time. The sign said, “mommy has had it.” Dean Winchester needs to put that sign on his door then maybe Sammy will surprise us all and become the savior of the world instead of the one that leads us all into the pit.”
IMO this would be HORRIBLE. Dean already feels weak because of what Sam said to him in Sex and Violence and because of everything that’s happened to him. So you’d like to see Dean being shown up by Sam (again) and basically prove him right when Sam said that he’s stronger, smarter, and better than Dean? Ugh.
Everything Sam does now, with the aid of his girlfriend’s demon blood of course, is so that he can prove to Dean that he’s BETTER. To me, Sam is at the height of arrogance right now. He acts like a cocky show-off when he uses his powers and this was especially apparent when he confronted Alastair.
I think Sam loves feeling that he’s stronger, better, and smarter than Dean based on what he said to Ruby. [And the fact that Sam talks to Ruby about Dean's issues really angers me. I certainly hope Dean keeps everything to himself from now on]. So if Sam (fueled by demon blood) becomes the savior of the world while weak and pathetic Dean is curled up in a ball on the floor … I just … wow, I WOULD HATE THIS.
Just because Dean isn’t a demon blood addict like his brother, doesn’t mean that he isn’t capable of being a hero. Dean is at a low point right now (with good reason), but I am certain that he can come back from this, stronger than ever.
I agree with others that it’s been implied heavily that Sam had been drinking demon blood before this, probably before Dean’s resurrection. His demon Yoda told him before, “You know what you have to do” to get stronger. He said no, he wasn’t going to do that again. Hence, this wasn’t the first time, he just went back to doing what he’d done before. I also didn’t see helping/saving Dean as any motivator for his actions and I’m not seeing any great affection for Dean from him. I don’t doubt for a moment he meant every word he said in the Siren episode, he repeated it pretty much to Ruby in this ep. Jared said himself that Sam “resents” Dean’s coming back. At this point, Sam is just looking for excuses/rationalization/justification for not only using, but enhancing, the taint of the demon that murdered most of his family (mother, father, maternal grandparents) and his fiance. I think he once knew it was wrong and wouldn’t lead anywhere good (I recall his begging Dean way back in “Playthings” to kill him if he became something he wasn’t) but I don’t believe he’s capable of seeing that now and he shuts himself away either physically (cutting Bobby off after Dean’s death) or emotionally (lying to Dean’s face about what he was doing even when he knew full well Dean knew what was happening) from those who will tell him the truth. He has Ruby, who I still am not convinced doesn’t have her own agenda (and I don’t think it’s about saving humanity), the one, and only, being in his life who feeds his darkest impulses and fuels his basest character flaws (pride and arrogance).
I enjoyed the scenes of the Angels. Jensen and Jared have often commented on how tough it is working relentlessly long hours week in, week out, I’m sure they appreciated the break not having to carry the entire load for once. But I do agree it should have been Castiel and Uriel. Anna is totally unnecessary (and totally outclassed in acting by both Wisdom and Collins) other than as a booty call for Dean and the boy has more important things to deal with these days. The way the writers handwaved her managing to reconstitute her human body was ridiculous as was her Mary Sue-esque role of coming in at the last minute to save the day. Castiel should have been allowed to save himself.
I love the way the Dean/Castiel relationship is developing, I enjoy watching these two talented actors who have great acting chemistry, share the screen.
I was very disappointed in the way Dean’s story was handled earlier in the season, coming back from the worst experience imaginable and seemingly just fine. I’m glad they’re finally showing he’s not fine, and he shouldn’t be after everything he’s been through. The longest relationship of Dean’s existence has been with his torturer. How messed up is that?
I hope that in the end, the brothers are working together to end Lilith and whatever plans Azazel had of his own, and not at opposite ends, but I think Sam is going to have to take a hard fall before he sees past the self-delusion, to what he’s allowing himself to become. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening soon and with only a few eps left in this season, doesn’t look like the brotherly bond will be mended by season’s end.
I didn’t explain that very well, let me try again.
We had Rev. LeGrange in Faith, saying Dean had a purpose that he hadn’t fulfilled yet and that’s why the Lord has guided his hand to him. It was as though “God” if you will was using a bad situation created by a human(SueAnne) in order do some good with it. Dean was saved from would have seemed to be his death yet again, in IMTOD. Then we had Dean relating to Archangel Michael in Houses of the Holy.
This is one reason why I do not believe John was really meant to break the first seal and that Alastair was lying. Dean is the one who was presented as having a purpose, though it was subtly done, that had not yet been fulfilled.
I don’t think Dean’s purpose was so much to break the first seal as that by Dean breaking the first seal, it insured that Dean would be the one who would finish it, whether that means stopping the last seal or somehow stopping the apocalypse after it starts.
There is too much balance to that for it be “Here Dean, you go sit in a corner and take a rest, let Demon powered Sammy do it because you’re just too weak”. In Death Takes a Holiday they even pointed up Dean’s rather complicated “relationship” with death, who happened to be personified by Tessa, which is a subtle thread I’ve always appreciated on the show and I’m glad they didn’t forget about it. On the one hand he longs for it to a certain extent, yet I on the other he has work to do. Stopping the Apocalypse, however that is supposed to happen, really ties into that.
” It’s that love that made him cross the line and do something he truly didn’t want to do. ”
I disagree here, because Sam has clearly been drinking blood since at least Criss Angel. So he didn’t “do it for Dean”. That is what he and Ruby were cryptically talking about early in that episode and what he decided to do when he got into the car with her at the end. He was already going to see Ruby as he talked to Dean about, at the beginning of this episode. Sam was clearly going to get his hit from her prior to the angels coming to get Dean. He even talks like an addict “I need it”.
““Dean Winchester needs to put that sign on his door then maybe Sammy will surprise us all and become the savior of the world instead of the one that leads us all into the pit.”
Wow that would suck. So it would be like “Hey Dean you are really are a pathetic weak loser, let the big boys do this”. After how low the show has pushed Dean nothing less than Dean rising like a phoenix out of ashes to save the world will be enough to balance out how low they’ve taken him. Sam’s just a junkie, as soon as he stops drinking demon blood, he’ll be fine. Dean was in HELL, responsible for breaking the first seal by turning torturer himself, though he had no way of knowing that at the time, he’s been pushed as low as anyone possibly could be. Nothing less than being the one to “save them”, as the angels said in Anna’s Angel Radio days, can balance that out.
If Kripke did what you suggest, it would be terrible storytelling, in my opinion.
“Dean Winchester needs to put that sign on his door then maybe Sammy will surprise us all and become the savior of the world instead of the one that leads us all into the pit.”
Aw, that’d be awful, though, wouldn’t it? After everyone telling him as much, Dean really IS a weak failure who can’t do anything, and has to just shut himself up in a room and cry while his brother saves the world? No, thanks. I’d be out of here so fast it’d make Kripke’s head spin. I’d like both boys to have some agency, thank you very much! :)
It was good to see Sammy caring about his brother , I liked him in this ep. and how he saved them . Dean was heartbreaking , Cas marvelous , Alastair was a great demon . Great great episode , more episodes like this one !!!
So, 13 eps ago Dean was told by Castiel to stop Sammy from honing his power or he would smite him (Sam), 13 eps later that said power saved his ass? Seriously?
Sammy’s sums it up for me about what I want for this season’s convoluted mytharc: “Miracle, Now!”
I loved Jensen’s portrayal of Dean sinking into the “joy” of torturing as he moved from reluctant, to determined, to sadistic, to cold, to professional. You can tell Hell/Dean really had a flair for it. Kinda scary! I’m hoping both boys are hand-in-hand to save the world, and I’m sure that’s what its going to take.
Did anyone else notice Sam’s pupils went totally black when he was driving to retrieve Dean? Scary!
If I try real hard, I might can say NECESSARY one more time!! Sheesh. :)
I find Anna’s role in this episode more necessary than before. In this light, she’s going to become necessary for Castiel the way Castiel is going to become necessary for Dean as Sam goes down his path. I can accept this Anna much more readily than that other. She fell, so she knows first hand the doubts Cas faces, which I find intriguing. And she’s pretty kick-ass now. Which I like. Keep her like this.
Uriel’s declaration that “There is no God” just turned the series on its ear. They got rid of him way too soon.
Sam has other issues going on but he does still care for Dean, and vice-versa. That’s the core.
And Chris H. . .OMG what a performance! So different from his SGA roles… A+++ on that!!!
I don’t care what people have been saying about Sam’s path this season, it’s clear that he still loves his brother. It’s that love that made him cross the line and do something he truly didn’t want to do.
*sigh* I seem to be saying this a lot lately, but…
AMEN SISTER!
Awesome article. I think the reason this episode was so lacking in brothers, is because I BELIEVE this is the week of Kim Manner’s death. I also believe there was somethng else going on when this episode was being filmed as well. But this episode rocked. Dean just broke.