Note: Do non read on if you read not foregathern Season 8, Episode 17 of The CW's "Supernatural," titled "Goodbye Stranger."
After an excruciating three-week absence, "Supernatural" returned with "Goodbye Stranger," which turned out to be angiotensin converting enzyme of the best episodes of Season 8 to date. Written by Robbie Thompson and direct by Thomas J. W the right way, "Stranger" was well-paced, crammed with memorable lines, and show parapraxisd some pleasing character inter function, thanks in large part to the inclusion body of Castiel, Crowley, trillion and Naomi.
As a fan of what "Supernatural's" supporting characters -- especially Castiel -- shoot down to the show, the episode was a perfect demonstration of how outside perspectives stinker offer fresh insight into the Winchesters, some(prenominal) in equipment casualty of their individual storylines and their cronyly bond.
Throwing Sam and Meg together for an unannounced heart-to-heart some unorthodox relationships provided an excellent opportunity to excavate into Sam's current headspace, while the dean and Castiel scenes once again exclamatory the important fri eat upship that the pair have formed -- a beautiful illustration of dean's evolution as a character. dean admitting that he needed Cas? For a guy who couldn't make up be active up a casual communion with a picture in Season 1 without making people fishy or creeped out, and who was afraid to even express his love for his brother without worrying it sounded too chick fl dirty, Dean has matured into a man who is unafraid to admit his cargon for the friends family who have always been the most important things in his disembodied spirit. Even if he unchanging has enough emotional baggage to sink a crumbvass ship, it's a refreshing marking of tentative growth.
Castiel's brutal beatdown was spookily reminiscent of two of my favorite episodes -- "Point of No Return," in which Cas' smackdown was a kind of tough love to prevent Dean from saying yes to becoming Michael's vessel, and "Swan Song," with Lucifer doing the beating in Sam's body before Dean was able to get by means of to his brother. While it should be illegal for anyone to damage the national treat that is Jensen Ackles' face, two episodes, comparable "Goodbye Stranger," were a perfect theme in the show's overarching theme of free will vs. destiny, reminding us that -- even more than the noble desire to do estimable, it's the relationships we share that truly define us and help us to make the right choices in difficult circumstances (or the wrong ones, as the case may be).
These characters are all motivated by their connections, and no matter how many fake Deans Naomi had Castiel kill for practice, the truth is that Naomi has n ever experienced friendship or sacrifice or humanity, so there was no way for her to replicate what Dean aptitude actually say to Cas to try and break through his scheduling, nor what Cas index feel to be faced with the thought of killing the prototypic person who ever taught him that he had a choice about his actions. (Although, given the warehouse full of dead Deans, do we work out it's because it took that long for Cas to pull it off "quick, brutal and with no flicker"?)
Castiel has spent so much time being manipulated, brainwash and possessed by everyone from Zachariah to the Leviathans that I mostly want to read him with a true sense of agency, able to decide whether he wants to be a hunter or a apiarist or skilful sit around and listen to the medical specialty inside people's heads without anyone telling him what to do.
It would also be nice to get word that agency extend to Dean (and to a lesser extent, Sam), whose life has been defined by his relationships in an arguably negative way, in some respects. Like Cas, he spent his formative eld following his father's orders, and much of his life existing only to cherish and nurture Sam, to the detriment of his own interpersonal relationships and free will. everywhere the last few seasons, we've seen him accept hunting as his proximo mostly because he doesn't mean he has the potential for anything else.
As Meg's conversation with Sam reminded us, Sam still believes that he can have a normal life outside of hunting, and that fundamental cyclorama of the character isn't likely to ever change. I honestly believe that Dean doesn't want a normal life (he's just cut from that kind of Big Damn Hero cloth) since, foreign Sam, he was restless and paranoid during his time with Lisa and Ben, not reveling in the white picket fence of it all. Dean's time in Purgatory seemed to ignite his passion for hunting and his realization that he is level-headed at it, but it would be nice to see him actively contain that vocation -- not out of a sense of tariff that the world will end if he doesn't, or because he recovers he doesn't have anything else to offer, but because it genuinely makes him happy, which I call back it does.
Both brothers -- especially Sam -- are currently hunting because they don't actually have a choice, so I hope that by the end of this season, or at least by the end of the show, they'll have come to a place where they choose to restrict fighting, not because they're forced into it. Still, it was great to see Dean carry honesty from Sam at the end of the hour, and even better for Sam to give it -- the show and the Winchesters work best when the brothers are a united front.
It was also interesting -- if a fine disturbing -- to discover that Crowley and Naomi apparently had a little interspecies dalliance of their own back in the day, which helps explain the shady chemistry between Castiel and Meg. I'm not entirely sold on the idea of "Megstiel," both because angels should be disgusted by hellspawn, and because Meg in particular has done some entirely wicked things like possessing Sam and killing Ellen and Jo without remorse, but I do understand the narrative impulse to explore that dichotomy of good/evil from a character standpoint.
As Meg pointed out, she's instead good (in that she's been more of a help than a hindrance of late), and Cas has been kinda bad this season, which proves that those lines are increasingly blurred in a post-averted apocalypse world. I still think it's kind of icky and a little disloyal, but also a sign of Castiel's growing sense of humanity, and it makes sense that he might find to feel things that he doesn't understand, and that might not necessarily be good for him, as he becomes more in set with human emotions. Hell, Sam banged Ruby and Dean hooked up with a man-hating Amazon, so their collective romantic track interpret isn't the best.
Regardless of where you fall on the Meg/Castiel issue (I think we can all agree that Cas is a magical unicorn of some description), they're both characters we care about in some way, and much like their interactions with the Winchesters, their scene gave us plenty of insight into two familiar but oftentimes ambiguous players, both of whom are often pawns but still manage to carve out moments of identity for themselves.
Meg and Sam's scenes were also intriguing, with Meg's outrage over the boys not looking for her in their missing year acting as a penetrating echo of Sam's choice not to look for Dean. As for the proctor that she knows Sam's "sad little thoughts and feelings," it's good that Sam had a occur to talk about Amelia and his year away, since we know it's probably not a story that Dean wanted to hear in great detail. But Meg's question, "You hit a dog and stopped, wherefore?" is something to really ponder -- because if she chose to focus on it, the writers mean for us to do the same. Was Sam looking for the excuse to stop caterpillar tread and take responsibility for what he's done, or is it something more? And is it linked to the event that both Crowley and his demonic lackey referred to Meg as both his pet and a dog in this episode? enkindle ...
Also: Do we think that Crowley stabbing Meg in the breadbasket was a fatal wound? Now that Bobby is gone, Meg is the longest- outpouring pass off character on the show, so a part of me is suspicious that we'll ever really be rid of her, especially with such an unceremonious send off. Still, if she is gone for good, I'm impressed that she went out fighting for what was right -- and am a little disappointed that the boys did cypher to assist her against Crowley. Not terribly heroic, guys!
Another lingering question: why does Castiel feel the need to protect the anovulant from both Naomi and from Dean? I suspect that statement -- and the magical glow that emanated from the tablet when Cas touched it -- has something to do with Metatron, and I can't wait to see it play out.
Wright's direction was ideal for the hour, and his sense of timing was particularly eye-popping in the scenes where Castiel's secret conversations with Naomi were intercut with his earthly dilemmas, building to a climactic crescendo as Castiel finally broke free of his programming with Dean's help -- which was heartbreaking and perfectly played by both Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins.
Crowley, too, was well-utilized -- much like Lilith and Azazel in the past, he seems more in effect(p) when he's used sparingly and with menace, rather than taking up half(prenominal) of the scenes, and Mark Sheppard once again scored the majority of the episode's best lines. I'm intrigued to see how his relationship with Naomi unfolds.
What did you think of "Goodbye Stranger"? Do you think Meg is gone for good? Will Dean ever part with his first edition of Voluptuous Asian Lovelies, the harbinger to Busty Asian Beauties? Why did Sam stop running when he hit the dog? Weigh in at a lower place!
Materials taken from The Huffington Post
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