#4x02 confirmed dead

[ljones41]

Locke & Sawyer in "Confirmed Dead"

Recently, I did a rewatch of the "LOST" Season Four episode, (4.02) "Confirmed Dead". And I had enjoyed it as much as I did during previous viewings. However . . . there was something about Oceanic 815 survivors John Locke and James "Sawyer" Ford that had eluded me during those past viewings.

How can I put this? There seemed to be a great deal of hypocrisy emanating from both Locke and Sawyer in this episode. For example, while questioning Locke's sanity in "Confirmed Dead", Sawyer had pointed out the older man’s murder of Naomi Dorrit, an inhabitant from the newly arrived freighter Kahana, in the Season Three finale, (3.22-3.23) "Through the Looking Glass, Part II". Locke had killed Ms. Dorrit in an effort to prevent her from contacting her associated aboard the Kahana. He had considered them a danger to the island and its inhabitants.

Also, Sawyer had recently committed two murders during late Season Three - Anthony Cooper in (3.19) "The Brig" and Other member Tom Friendly in "Through the Looking Glass". It turned out that Cooper was Locke's father, whom the Others had captured to test Locke for the position of their leader. Unable to kill his father, Locke had discovered from one of the Others, Richard Alpert, that Cooper was also the man who had swindled Sawyer's parents from their money some twenty-eight years earlier. This act had led to Sawyer's father murdering his wife for adultery and committing suicide. Sawyer, who had been eight years-old at the time, spent nearly three decades needlessly vowing revenge. Thanks to the manipulations of both Richard and Locke, Sawyer committed the murder. As for Tom Friendly's murder, Sawyer had killed the man out of pure spite. In the Season Two episode, (2.11) "The Hunting Party", he claimed that Friendly had shot him, when he was aboard Michael Dawson's raft in the Season One finale, (1.23-1.25) "Exodus". In "Through the Looking Glass", he claimed that his murder of Friendly was in retaliation for the kidnapping of 10 year-old Walt Lloyd, Michael's son.

Despite Locke's efforts, Oceanic survivors' leader, Dr. Jack Shephard, managed to contact the Kahana occupants. This led the survivors to split into two groups - those who saw the Kahana as a means to their rescue and those who followed Locke, certain that Ms. Dorrit's associates meant to harm them. Locke led the doubters on a trek to the Others' abandoned compound, on the other side of the island. Sawyer was among them. I know what you are thinking. What does this recap of the late Season Three/early Season Four events have to do with hypocrisy? And why target John Locke and James Ford?

Among those who had decided to follow Locke to the Others' compound out of safety was their leader, Ben Linus. Both Locke and Sawyer already had a personal grudge against the man. Ben had tried to murder Locke in (3.20) "The Man Behind the Curtain" in an effort to prevent the latter from replacing him as the Others' leader. Ben had kept Sawyer, Jack and Kate Austen hostage as a means to receive a much needed operation in early Season Three. When Sawyer had interfered in a slightly hostile conversation between Ben and one of his former followers, the adolescent Karl, the former Others leader made insinuations that Kate (whom Sawyer was attracted to) preferred Jack over the con man. As it later turned out, he was right. In a fit of anger, Sawyer gave Ben a beat down and suggested to Locke they should "execute" - namely kill - Ben, because the latter was being a nuisance. Locke refused, claiming they needed Ben's assistance in dealing with the island's newcomers. But this was not the last of it.

Four of the Kahana's passengers finally arrived on the island via a helicopter and parachutes. One of them proved to be Dr. Charlotte Lewis, a cultural anthropologist. Ben feared that Charlotte might contact the freighter and confirm his exact location to her associates aboard the Kahana. He also feared what the freighter's arrival would mean for the island's other inhabitants. Driven by these fears, Ben tried to kill her by shooting her in the chest with a gun he had stolen from an unsuspecting Karl. At that moment, Locke decided to follow Sawyer's advice. He decided to punish Ben by killing the latter. Sawyer offered to do the job, but Locke decided he must be the one to "clean his own mess". Only Ben’s revelations of his knowledge of Charlotte’s background, the reason the freighter had arrived at the island and his spy aboard the Kahana had saved his life.

Watching all of this unfurl had made me shake my head with amazement every time I had viewed "Confirmed Dead". But it took this last rewatch for me to realize both Locke and Sawyer's hypocrisies. Locke had been willing to execute Ben for attempting to do to Charlotte what he had recently done to Naomi in "Through the Looking Glass" - namely kill someone from the Kahana for his self-preservation and the safety of the island's inhabitants. As for Sawyer . . . he had punched Ben for making insidious comments about Jack and Kate. And he also wanted Ben dead for the attempt on Charlotte’s life. This all reminded me of Sawyer's second reason for murdering Tom Friendly. The con man had claimed he did it for 10 year-old Walt Lloyd’s kidnapping in "Exodus". Yet, Sawyer had never went after Ben for the same reason. And by late Season Three and early Season Four, he knew that Ben was the Others' leader and the one who had ordered Walt's kidnapping. Yet, Sawyer had never went after Ben for that reason.

For years, I never understood why so many "LOST" fans had turned a blind eye to the crimes of most of the Oceanic survivors. Or made excuses for their crimes. I now realize one should consider personal bias toward certain characters as a major reason. But after my rewatch of "Confirmed Dead", I am surprised hardly anyone had noticed the Oceanic castaways' penchant for hypocrisy, including that from John Locke and James Ford in this episode.

[sneakyboymerlin]

OBJECTION! (respectfully)

Victims of the Dorocha die on impact (although it was vital that our main protagonists were not entirely aware of this, so as not to draw suspicion to Merlin’s survival).

Below is an example from 4x02. The man whose home Merlin and Lancelot take shelter in for the night is, quite literally, frozen in place at the Dorocha’s touch. Note the rigidity of his body and the open, unseeing eyes. He was dead in seconds.

The knight in the next example below was implied to be dead within seconds of impact (he is canonically confirmed dead, as there have been no survivors by the next morning), and this is the shot that was used to convey that. Again, our main visual indicator is the open, unseeing eyes.

When Merlin is struck by the Dorocha, we are given a shot which is inclusive of the precise details that were used to imply the aforementioned men’s deaths—the eyes, especially. By all appearances, he is dead. Yet, the next episode opens with him in a functional (if painful) condition, a vast improvement on this.

Essentially, he died here, only to be resuscitated and revitalized, but not to full health: only enough that his body could support life, until the Vilia were able to heal him.

The first night after the Dorocha were released, at least 50 of Camelot’s people died. This accounts for every individual who was struck by the Dorocha, as Gaius follows this statement with the fact that no mortal has ever survived their touch.

Now, this line could have been phrased in a number of ways: no one has ever survived their touch, few people have ever survived their touch, etc. But a deliberate choice was made for Gaius to specify that no mortal has ever survived their touch, in the very episode where Merlin survives their touch (a choice was also made to have Merlin looming in the background here).

So, let me ask you: remind you of anything?

I rest my case.

Do you ever think about how Merlin’s immortality was always implied (and teased) from the start but was never confirmed until the time skip?

1x04 The Poisoned Chalice: Merlin’s heart stops. Gaius and Gwen are already mourning when he wakes up from it. There is some plausible deniability here (a common theme for this arc), but Merlin dies with no resuscitation efforts made. The cure takes effect after he dies.

1x07 The Gates of Avalon: Merlin receives a hit from the Sidhe staff, a magical weapon which kills Aulfric and Sophia upon impact. Gaius claims that Merlin owes it to his powers that he survived, yet the (mortal) fae have great power and still die. Most likely, he died as he did from the Mortaeus poison, but resurrected with some recovery time. Merlin also sees Avalon itself, which is only meant to be visible to mortal humans in death. Merlin was not dead or dying, so he must not be mortal.

1x08 The Beginning of the End: Merlin is first referred to by the name of “Emrys,” which directly translates to “Immortal One.”

1x12 To Kill the King: Merlin hits two men with a staff blast, only for the third to be reflected back at him. The fates of the two men are unknown, but everyone quickly deems the situation resolved, so it’s likely they did not survive, whereas Merlin came back from a second hit.

2x01 The Curse of Cornelius Sigan: Gaius plainly states, “Sigan is immortal and you are not. If you face him, he will destroy you.” However, Merlin survives and defeats Sigan. Plausible deniability aside, Merlin’s immortality has been implied before this, so it’s likely an intentional hint.

3x06 The Changeling: Even the immortal fae can be killed with the Sidhe staff; they may have Merlin’s longevity, but they lack his invulnerability (if it can be called that—he does die, frequently).

3x08 The Eye of the Phoenix: Merlin is paralleled to The Fisher King, who has been confined to an unnatural long life and asks Merlin to aid him in his death. Merlin’s immortality likely has a different function than his, despite the parallel: it’s difficult but not impossible to kill The Fisher King, but if Merlin dies, he simply comes back.

3x13 The Coming of Arthur, Part 2: An ironic piece of dialogue between Lancelot and Merlin:

Lancelot: Aren’t you forgetting something? [The Cup of Life] is guarded by an immortal army.

Merlin: Aren’t you forgetting something? I have magic.

Lancelot: It doesn’t make you immortal.

Merlin: No…

This isn’t evidence of anything except that we were being strung along even during quiet, romantically lit mercelot moments.

4x01 The Darkest Hour, Part 1: Those who are struck by the Dorocha die instantly. Gaius informs Arthur, Merlin, and Agravaine, “No mortal has ever survived their touch.” All of the victims we are shown have died on impact, hence the high body counts with each night that passes. Merlin runs headlong into a Dorocha in order to save Arthur and is shown to have all of the same effects as the other casualties, yet survives.

4x02 The Darkest Hour, Part 2: Merlin is soon healed from his encounter with the Dorocha, but he plans to sacrifice himself to the Veil in Arthur’s place. While it’s uncertain to viewers if it is possible for Merlin to be the offering (it seems possible to the Cailleach, who phrases it not as a death, but a life lost: “Will you give yourself to the spirits to save your prince?”), the Cailleach tells Merlin, “Your time among men is not yet over, Emrys, even if you want it to be.” While this does not strictly indicate his immortality, it does foreshadow that his time among men is lengthy. 1,500 years lengthy and counting. Her words can also be interpreted as “Your time among men is not yet over, Immortal One, even if you want it to be,” which is a strong implication of immortality.

5x12 The Diamond of the Day, Part 1: Balinor tells Merlin, “Believe what your heart knows to be true: that you have always been… and always will be.” This has far-reaching implications. Merlin has always existed, even before his human incarnation. He is magic itself—son of the earth, sea, and sky. He is, essentially, a sentient piece of magic in human form. Just as energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred and transformed, you cannot kill Merlin in a way that matters. decay is an extant form of life 🍄 There is still some plausible deniability in Balinor’s insistence that “You will always be, just as I will always be.” Balinor is not immortal as Merlin is, which has the potential to mislead Merlin, but he lives on anyways—as a ghost and in Merlin’s memory.

5x13 The Diamond of the Day, Part 2: Kilgharrah leaves with final words of: “The story you have been a part of will live long in the minds of men.” After Arthur’s funeral and Gwen’s ascension as the sole ruler of Camelot, we cut to a disguised Merlin walking along a roadside, approximately 1,500 years after the events of Camlann, pausing where he laid Arthur to rest, the lake now a grassland. The memory does indeed live long in the minds of men, in Merlin’s mind at least.

Now, there are other events besides the mortaeus flower, the Sidhe staff blasts, and the Dorocha where Merlin may have died but come back, with both the audience and himself unaware of it due to plausible deniability.

The Serket sting in 3x01, which Kilgharrah heals him from

The poisoning in 5x08, which features a moment that is eerily similar to Merlin’s temporary death by poison in 1x04

Merlin’s fall from a cliff in 5x09: Arthur’s own fall is far less drastic. By all rights it should’ve killed Merlin, and it’s entirely possible it did

The arrow to the gut in 5x10; once again, Kilgharrah swoops in to save the day in just the nick of time… or does he?

He’s also left unconscious periodically throughout the series, with some cases deemed more severe, so pick and choose

I’m not the only one messed up by that, right?

[girlinthefireplace16]

Lost Rewatch - 4x02 Confirmed Dead

“You say you are not here on a rescue mission and the world at large believes us to be dead. But here we are alive and well and you don't seem remotely surprised to see us.”

[thuskindlyshescatters]

Wait, which confirmed dead characters have we been told multiple times IRL are coming back? Sorry I don’t really follow the outside-the-show side of things

OH I think I see where my confusion came from (I’m the anon asking about dead characters said to be coming back)—in your post answering why you don’t think the place they fell into is the afterlife, did you mean to say there are several confirmed dead characters that have been confirmed IRL to *not* be coming back?

Yeah, typo on my part, sorry!

There’s two that immediately come to mind: Pyrrha and Adam. After the outcry when Pyrrha died, Jen Brown (her voice actress) confirmed that she knew about her fate before she accepted the role and would not be returning to play Pyrrha, implying that the character does not appear in any form past her last appearance in 4x02. Jen Brown returned to RWBY to portray Pyrrha’s mother in 6x09, a nail in the coffin for hopes of Pyrrha’s return. A similar phenomenon occurred after Adam died, in which the CRWBY made it super clear to the complainers on Twitter that he was dead and gone, in defiance of people decrying “no body, no death”.

Furthermore, when the CRWBY wants to be cryptic about a character’s status, they’ll be careful not to discuss their death in any meaningful sense. Think Cinder after Volume 5, Neo before Volume 6, and Penny before Volume 7. Two examples of this being applied to characters that actually ARE dead are Roman and Clover, whose deaths were not frequently spoken of so as to not spoil the arcs forthcoming (for Neo and Qrow respectively). Additionally, Gray G Haddock (voice of Roman) has left RT, so the likelihood of him returning as Roman is slim, meaning recasting his distinctive voice is a barrier to his return.

Overall, RWBY does not typically bring back members of the cast with non-contiguous appearances between Volumes, the most prominent exceptions being Penny and Neo. The biggest reveal to the audience that someone is actually alive would be Summer, which at this point is still implied and under wraps, as it has been for the entire show! To put it simply, the probability based on previous evidence that the ENTIRE cast of dead characters will appear in Volume 9 is extremely low, and I feel like we’re just setting ourselves up for Atlas Ball Part 2 by theorizing so heavily around it.

[ohdesmondo]

“Wanna know why we're here?

I'll tell you why we're here!”

// [ 🌸 ; ✨ ; 📜 ]

4x02 “Confirmed Dead”

[princeescaluswords]

How do you think Stiles knew about Derek and Kate's relationship in 3x10? I'm pretty sure Scott didn't find out until much later?

There is very little we can say for sure.  We know that Stiles revealed he knew that Derek had a relationship with Kate in The Overlooked (3x10) and that Peter informed Scott in 117 (4x02).  Kate guessed in Formality (1x11) that Derek hadn’t told anyone about it, but since Derek neither confirmed nor denied her guess directly, all we have is speculation.

But I think that there is a lot of indirect evidence about which we can speculate effectively: Stiles figured it out because he’s curious, intelligent, and he notices connections.  After the events of season one, he had everything he needed to figure out how the Hale Fire occurred.

1. Kate Argent was behind the fire, but she hid that from her brother.  Stiles personally confronted Chris Argent about her sister’s violation of the Code.  Given Chris’s reaction -- his denial in the hospital room in Code Breaker (1x12) and his defending Scott against his sister -- it’s logical that Kate did something with which he would violently disagree.  Chris certainly didn’t start out the series with a reluctance to kill werewolves, and given that his best friend was in danger, Stiles would certainly look into it.

2. Derek left clues that he had a relationship with Kate.  Stiles became friends with Allison; Derek’s fear of her and especially his immense dislike of the relationship between Scott and Allison -- one which Stiles saw nothing wrong with -- seemed extreme.  If Scott told Stiles -- and I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t -- about Kate’s predatory behavior toward him, that was simply another important clue.

3.  Stiles has a piece of information that the police didn’t have.  He knows the true motivations of Kate: the Hales were werewolves.  This is a mystery that only he could solve, and he demonstrated repeatedly that he loved solving mysteries.  We see him researching werewolves in Wolf Moon (1x01), researching auto accidents involving deer in Tattoo (3x01), and digging through school records in Parasomnia (5x02).   

4. He wouldn’t be deterred by boundaries.  Even though Kate was supposedly dead, Stiles would still want to understand what happened, because it would help protect Scott and his father.  Derek was an antagonist in Season 1 and a villain in Season 2.  Given his reaction to Theo in Season 5, it’s more than likely that he would dig through police records and school records.  If he found out that Kate Argent was a substitute teacher at Beacon Hills High School at the same time that Derek was a student there, which he might have been able to discover through yearbooks or school newspapers or school administration records.  “I may have broken into the administration office.”   It’s not unreasonable to believe that he put two and two together.

He didn’t say anything because he’s not completely without tact, but in the tense moments in the hospital during The Overlooked (3x10), his temper might have gotten the better at him and he lashed out at Derek in fear for his father’s life, making an intuitive leap with the information he had gathered.

Stiles isn’t always right, but a combination of curiosity, intuition, the need to protect Scott and his father, and his willingness to break the rules to get information could easily allow him to make the leap that Derek and Kate had a relationship.

I’m more curious how and when Peter found out, personally, but I have even less evidence to make an informed speculation about that.

[xdaddywalshx]

Connor Walsh and PTSD

I’m going to start this off by saying I am in no way diagnosing Connor. The purpose of this is to point out the PTSD symptoms that he shows throughout the show. I’ve noticed a lot of them more recently and wanted to see if anyone else had noticed these things too. Again, not meant to offend anyone. None of this is canon, or confirmed, so don’t take what I say to be fact.

1. Panicking when reminded of the trauma:

In 3x14 when Connor was explaining what happened the night Wes died, you could tell he was getting somewhat hysterical and he does the same thing talking to Annalise later on in the episode. He seems to constantly be in a state of panic, especially after what happened with Wes, most of the time it feels like you’re just waiting for him to start freaking out again.

2. Being easily upset or angry:

Like I said in the last one, it feels like he’s constantly on the edge. In particular, 5x04 showed just how easily upset/ angry he could get. All it really took was one small white lie and Annalise bringing up what he told her last year, and Connor just snapped. Annalise yelling back at him only seemed to make everything worse.

3. Irritability or aggressive behaviour:

Do I even have to mention 5x07? With Nate Sr getting murdered the other week, Connor was already on edge but usually one bad thing doesn’t make you go around doing stupid things unless there’s something that tells you that’s what you should do. He could’ve walked away from that homophobe, yet something inside him just snapped. According to Oliver, he had to pull Connor off of that asshole because it was bordering on Connor almost killing him. Throughout the rest of the show, he can be aggressive in other situations but this one in particular stuck out the most to me.

4. Self-destructive behaviour or recklessness:

Season 3. Do I have to say anymore? He spent most of season 3 being self-destructive. Connor lost his safe place and acted out because of it. Not to mention, him finding Wes dead on the basement completely broke him to a point where he almost did something stupid. After the season 5 finale, I can’t even begin to imagine how worse this issue is going to get.

5. Feeling like you have to keep busy:

Connor spent the entirety of season 4 distracting himself. He buried himself in work, so he didn’t have to think about what happened. He continued this into season 5. It always feels like he keeps distracting him with work, especially after Wes.

6. Feeling emotionally numb or cut off from your feelings:

“I don’t even care that Wes is dead. I don’t. Honestly, I don’t- I feel nothing.”

7. Using alcohol and drugs to avoid memories:

I noticed that he spent the majority of season 4 drinking. There are quite a few scenes of him in a bar or getting drunk- another form of distraction.

8. Blaming yourself for what happened:

In 3x14, he told everyone how it might have been his fault and later on in 4x02 he told Laurel how much he hated himself for what he did. Even when he talked with Annalise, he said “we did so many bad things” and then followed that up shortly with “Wes in the basement”. His guilt follows him around and pops up in subtle ways.

9. Overwhelming feelings of anger, sadness, guilt or shame:

The overwhelming sadness sticks out the most throughout his devolpment, in the beginning of 3x14 and 4a to be more specific. I’ve noticed how in season 4 he says how happy he is to be working on the class action- like a lot. Not in a grateful way, but almost as if he’s trying to convince himself that he is, which breaks my heart in so many ways.

In conclusion, I’m not saying he has PTSD at all but he definitely shows a lot of symptoms and usually if you are showing at least one avoidance symptom and at least two arousal and reactivity symptoms, and have been dealing with it for over a month then you are most likely suffering from it.

I hope the show discusses his mental health in future because this topic shouldn’t be brushed under the carpet, as real people deal with it and it might help to know that one of their favourite characters is dealing with it too.

Sorry for any mistakes, I don’t have time to proofread it.

[thebitchet]

my guesses for 8x02

One thing that was very obvious to everyone who watched Sunday's premiere was how much the GOT writers them a circular narrative. It's almost as if they went out of their way to reference previous premieres, not just the pilot. There were callbacks to 7x01, 2x01, 5x01, 6x01 and even maybe 3x01 and 4x01 if you stretch it. And while second episodes aren't as big of a deal as first episodes, if tptb are really tied to this structure below is what I'd be expecting for the second episode. This is 100% based on what we saw in 8x01 and the previous episodes referenced. I have no spoilers and will likely be 100% wrong.

- If Dany doesn't already know that Gendry is Robert's bastard, she'll find out now as it would just mirror what's happening with Jon but will also refer back to what happened in 2x02 and 3x02 where Arya's identity was revealed twice. Gendry may even get legitimized as again, it will mirror Jon's current arc and the offer Stannis made Jon in 5x02 (which itself echoes Cat's speech to Talisa in 3x02). The question is who would be doing the legitimizing?

- On that Gendry note, if there's a chance of him being Cersei's son with Robert, this is the episode to announce that as it was 1x02 where we first heard about him.

- If Howland Reed's going to show up, it's now or never. Not just with the North assembling to Winterfell but his kids made their first appearance in 3x02. Also it would help regarding the news about Jon. Maybe he will "legitimize" Jon Snow by confirming what Bran and Sam have said.

- If Cersei is pregnant, this is the episode where she miscarries - she mentions her first son with Robert in 1x02, Joffrey dies in 4x02, and Myrcella's funeral was in 6x02.

- If Theon wants to get back to Winterfell, having him arrive in 8x02 would bookend him parting from Sansa in 6x02 and his attempts to win Balon over to Robb's cause in 2x02.

- Also, if we're ever going to find out what happened to Ellaria or get a reference of Dany's alliance with the Greyjoy/Tyrell/Martell forces it's this episode as it was 7x02 where they first teamed up with Dany. Maybe Theon is salty he had to go it alone to get Yara back.

- I kind of feel like Euron should show up in Winterfell too but that just seems like a lot? Then again it is the last season. And he does kill Balon in 6x02 and go up against Yara in 7x02!

- Speaking of a lot, Bronn should arrive in Winterfell as 5x02 has references to Cersei's hunt for Tyrion and Bronn has prominent roles in 3x02 when he trained Jaime and 5x02 when Jaime asked Bronn to go to Dorne with him in exchange for money. Also, Joff's cool new crossbow had a moment in 3x02 when he threatened Margaery with it. So there's that too.

- There should be some choice Jaime and Brienne scenes as it was 3x02 when they traveled to King's Landing and 4x02 when they were reunited at Joff's wedding.

- Speaking of Jaime, maybe he does pledge to Sansa. Brienne first did it in 5x02. (Though she was rebuffed.)

- I think everyone who has been calling for Ghost might regret it. Lady died in 1x02. And we found out Shaggydog died in 6x03 so it could happen just at the end, like Lady, and we don't get it confirmed until the next episode.

- As I don't want to see Ghost die, maybe Jon's dragonriding (the literal dragons, I'm not being cute) alienates Ghost and he turns from him like Nymeria parting from Arya in 1x02 and again in 7x02. It would be a sad contrast to 6x02 Ghost where he stayed by Jon's side as he returned from the dead.

- Bran might do .... something? There was a lot of warging in 3x02 and 4x02 and Bran's time travel trip began in 6x02. [INSERT MAGIC STUFF HERE]

- 7x01 was Dragonstone with 8x01 being Winterfell. 7x02 was Stormborn so I'm guessing the 8x02 title could refer to Jon Snow - King of Winter/The Bastard (bonus if we get some stuff about Gendry)/ The White Wolf (Ghost is super dead if they go with this title)/The Snow of Winterfell?

- Other stuff - maybe Dany will consent to Jaime joining the cause with the same caveat about lighting him up if he betrays her that she gave Varys in 7x02. But 5x02 is also the episode where Dany has Mossado executed (but after a trial like she promises Barristan so she's not like her dad) which doesn't go great for her so.... Or maybe Varys betrays her this episode! Tyrion freed the dragons in 6x02, maybe they get chained again or someone talks about chaining them up? Jon Snow was also made Lord Commander of the Night's Watch in 5x02 after leaving for the Wall in 1x02. And Janos Slynt was exiled to the wall in 3x02. So maybe someone offers to take the black? Theon? Jaime? Ghost???

[thementalistmuseum]

The Mentalist Creative Fest

Don forget to participate. Here so prompts to inspire you, the full list is here

#038 - In 4x01, Jane loses the poker game in jail and isn't able to come up with bail money. Worse, his cell mates now know he lied about the vintage car collection. His only option is now murder for hire, unless he can convince Lisbon to bring him a blueberry muffin (or any other means of escape)...

#039 - 4x01: "Well first, eggs," said Jane in the car before they go see Sally Carter. Lisbon's thoughts about Jane's behaviour and situation.

#040 - Debbie Lubin manages to escape on her own while Sally Carter hosts the memorial party for Timothy Carter. Lisbon has to smuggle Jane out of there before the cops search the house.

#041 - Jane's thought process between then moment he thinks RJ is dead until the moment Rosalind confirms Timothy Carter was not RJ (covering 4x01 to 4x02).

#042 - Van Pelt has had a crush on Lisbon for a long time, and when Lisbon pulls her aside to reprimand her for using excessive force against a suspect again, Van Pelt decides to give into her feelings and kisses the boss. Sex ensues. ;)

#043 - Set in early season 4. Grace is strong, stronger than most believe of her, and if Jane keeps giving her those pitying looks she'll dump his tea all over him.

#044 - Post 4x10. After getting back his memories, Jane's mind is still fragile and every time he's in danger, he briefly reverts back to his conman persona. The only way to stop it is for the team (one member of your choice or the whole team together) to provide him with safety and an anchor to reality.

#045 - Jane doesn't get his memory back after 4x10. Lisbon's having conflicting feelings about that. Jane makes a wrong comment and they get into a heated argument and other things.

#046 - Amnesiac Jane tries every trick in the book to seduce Lisbon.

#047 - The almost-drowning causes some complications (like pneumonia), but Jane keeps it secret from the others until he collapses at the office or on the field. Lisbon orders Cho to look after Jane for a few days to make sure he recovers properly.

#048 - To encourage good relationships between teams, Wainwright organises a "Secret Santa" event. Haffner picks Lisbon's name and asks her team for help. But Jane's eagerness to help find the perfect gift is suspicious, and Haffner cannot decide if the man is really trying to help or deliberately sabotaging him.

#049 - Summer makes Cho deal with his back pain.

#050 - Cho isn't the only stuck-up person in the SCU. Summer helps Jane work through a few issues.

#051 - Cho's back is bothering him again and Jane offers to give him a massage.

#052 - Set in 4x12. Janpen wants to escape police custody. She isn't quite sure how to convince Van Pelt to let her go yet, but that's alright. She has experience on her side, and Van Pelt isn't immune to her charms.

#053 - I'd love to see anything with Jane and Jack - friendship or slash, whichever you prefer. The two of them catching up after the case, Jane telling Jack why he's working for the cops now, the story of the fifty bucks, some shared shenanigans from their carny days...

#054 - Set post 4x22. After finding out about his wife's infidelity, Greg seeks (platonic) comfort in Lisbon's company. But that does not sit well with Jane, who finds his emotions suddenly stirred by Lisbon spending time with her ex-fiance.

#055 - On the 10th anniversary of the death of his family, Jane gets drunk and visits Lisbon's house late at night. Things happen and they end up having sex. Then he leaves for Vegas the next morning without a word. One month later Lisbon finds out she is pregnant with Jane's child. Will Jane ever come back and will he ever love another child given the killer of his first child is still alive.

#056 - What happened in Vegas... is supposed to stay in Vegas.

#057 - Red John watches as Jane and Lorelei have sex. Alternatively, Jane knows that Lorelei is working for Red John and is imagining that Red John is watching them.

#058 - Darcy takes longer than anticipated to convince. Or the plans just change. Either way, Jane is kidnapped by Lorelei and delivered to Red John to continue their mind games in person. Whatever condition he is left in, he MUST be left in his own house, beneath the smiley face drawn in his family's blood. Because Red John can't allow Jane to think it would be so EASY to manipulate him. This is Red John's game. He decides how it is played. He can have Jane any time in any way he wants.

#059 - Post-Vegas. Jane starts getting withdrawal symptoms from having spend the last six months under the influence of drugs/alcohol. Cho, who's still angry at Jane for lying to the team, reluctantly ends up having to care for him.

If you have questions, please contact Leaf (Leafenclaw) on Twitter or Fanfiction.net

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Gracie/Beth Entanglement

Okay, so over the summer I did a post about how many child and baby references there are around Beth and Daryl. Check out all those references and my analysis of them HERE.

There are a few more I didn't catch when I first did that post, and now we have a baby (Gracie) in the show. So I was going to just add on to that post, but re-reading it, I kind of want to take this in a different direction.  

First, I'll do a quick list of all the references we've had:

Season 2:

In 18 Miles Out, Beth criticizes Lori for bringing a baby into such a horrific world. While it was a negative frame of mind, it also shows what she's thinking/worrying about. What's gonna happen to that baby?

Sophia, because Daryl searched for her and told Andrea the story about how no one looked for him when he got lost as a child. Daryl has a soft spot about these things.

Season 3:  

In 3x01, around the fire before Beth sings, she tells Lori that they've found a safe place for the baby. She shows a lot of concern for both mother and child.  

Daryl gets food for and then feeds Baby Judith, refusing to lose her. Beth brings him the bottle, standing by with worry and then takes over daily care of Judith.

Later, Sasha even mistakes Beth for being Judith's mother. Beth has to tell her that Judith isn't biologically hers.

Beth tells Carol that she's always wanted a child and talks about Daryl saving Judith.

Season 4:

Daryl saves kids when Patrick attacks the cell block in 4x02.

Beth asks Michonne if any kids were killed. She says they have words like widows and orphans, but why don't they have a word for a parent who loses a child? (Anyone seeing a POSSIBLE parallel to S8 in that?)

When the prison goes down, Beth leaves the bus to look for Judith, but doesn't find her. When she reaches Daryl before they leave the prison together, she says she was looking for the kids, to get them on the bus.  

In Inmates, during her diary voice over, she specifically mentions Lori's baby and needed a safe place for it to be born.

Later, they follow Lizzie and Mica's tracks, which because they are small, they assume to kids. Beth names Luke and Molly, who were the other two children at the prison, whose fates we haven't seen. Later, when they find the small, disembodied shoe by the railroad tracks, Beth starts to cry, assuming incorrectly that the tracks they'd been following belong to the dead people the walkers are eating.  

When they argue in Still, she specifically brings up Sophia, calling her, "That little girl," which shows she understands what that meant to Daryl and the soft spot he has for lost children.

Season 5:

In 5x02, we saw colored pictures of Baby Moses in his basket and the Burning Bush. I'm going to come back to this because it's what brings the whole theory together. Let me go through these other instances first.

We don't get too many after that before Beth is shot in Coda. But they continue after that.

In 5b, we still see Daryl showing concern for Judith, but we don't see him interacting with her or other children in the same way he did before leaving the prison. Most of us believe he purposely distances himself from children now because they remind him too much of Beth, which makes him sad.  

Then we have more in S6. There are the baby carrots Rick finds on one of the wolves while he's in the RV.  

And then Denise's stuff is pretty compelling. We all know what a major proxy she was to Beth. Not long before her death, while in the apothecary, she sees some really disturbing baby stuff that parallels Beth. Apparently someone was taking care of a baby in the back room. That person is now a walker. Hush, hush is written on the wall, and there's a sink full of black water with a baby shoe laying on one side. 

Though they didn't ever confirm it, I honestly think they meant to show that whoever this person was drowned the baby in the sink. That would have been too disturbing to show in detail on this show, but the point is it was very dark symbolism about a dead child. The shoe, though, was a perfect mirror to the one Beth saw on the tracks, which is just more ways in which Denise parallels Beth.  

I suppose you could argue that the shoe Beth saw didn't belong to the children she was tracking (lizzie and mica). She thought they were dead, but they actually weren't, so maybe the same was true of Denise. But I don't think Denise's situation is the one that really matters here. I'll come back to this idea.

Now, I could add Carol and Tyreese parallels to this. I won't because it would take too long and I want to keep this specifically about Beth and Dary. But I could add a lot more references by showing how those two characters are paralleled with Beth and have lots of baby references around them as well.  

So now fast-forward to S8. (I don't remember any specfic baby references in S7 other than Judith stuff in general. Anyone else) And we have Gracie. (Ignore the arrows in this pic; it was from one of last week’s posts.)

Gracie is interesting because, along with all the other things (like a billion) pointing toward season 8, she may be the embodiment of this baby symbolism. Most of what I'm going to say here is just conjecture. Things I think COULD be the case, but they would just line up really well with all the other stuff we've seen and theorized.

I've already talked about that maybe Beth was the one staying in the happy room, and/or the one who got out of the cuffs Daryl saw. If so, there's a good chance she's been taking care of Gracie up to this point.  

As someone noticed yesterday (X), there are definite parallels between the episodes in this season and S5. In 5x02, we saw the Baby Moses pictures in FG's church. In 8x02, Gracie shows up.  

Then there's what I said above about Beth believing the child's shoe she saw belonged to the person she was tracking, and they were dead, except they weren't. 

I've seen comments about how, if there was a woman, such as Gracie's mother, taking care of her, why would she just leave her baby? There could be many reasons, and maybe we'll see them as the story plays out. But based on that past symbolis with Beth and Denise, I’m wondering if at some point, this mysterious SHE comes back for the Baby, but Rick and Daryl already took her. Given that Rick killed the guard outside, she might think the baby was dead. 

We've also seen precedence for that with Judith's death fake out in 4x08. Just saying.  

Then there's all the rabbit symbolism, and the rabbit in Gracie's crib. I guess the point is that it's all coming together in a way that makes tons of sense to those of us who have been paying attention for the past three seasons.  

Baby Moses

So back to the pictures of Baby Moses and the Burning Bush in FG's church. Both of those are from the Moses story in Exodus.I never knew what to make of them, and didn't even connect them to Beth after we realized she'd come to Oceanside and started looking at the water symbols around them. Then, when @wdway and I started talking about Daryl = Fire, Beth = Water, the Moses pictures came up.

So my first thought was that the Moses story was being used as a template for Beth. We've seen them do such things with other bible stories and fairy tales. The two aspects of the stories we see are Baby Moses and the burning bush.  

So here's the story in a nut shell: Moses's people were enslaved to the Egyptians (bad guys) but there was a prophecy that a deliverer had been born, and the Egyptians believed it. So they decided to kill all the baby boys to make sure they took out this deliverer. To save him, Moses' mother put him in a basket and floated him down the Nile river. The Pharoah's sister found him. She couldn't have children, so wanted to raise him, and she did. He grew up knowing who he was and that one day he'd free his people. When he realized his Egyptian family was not cool with that idea, he ran away and ended up with another community called the Midianites after a long journey across the desert. He lived with them for a time and actually did find some happiness and peace there. Then he saw the Burning Bush. That was when God appeared to him, told him his people were still enslaved and he needed to go lead them out of bondage. And he did.

So in relating this to Beth's story, I was thinking that Moses was put upon the water to save his life. We think Beth will reach D.C. via water, so the a similar concept may apply. Perhaps getting on the water saves her from the "bad guys." (*Coughs wolves*) We also think she'll come through Oceanside. So maybe that's the parallel to the the second society Moses lives in. Maybe Beth will find Oceanside, see that it's a decent community, and plan to stay there for a time. But then SOMEONE has to be her burning bush, that tells here where TF is and that they're enslaved to Negan. Just about anyone at Oceanside could do that. Cindi, Rachel, Beatrice, Natanya. It would just be a matter of her letting slip some names they would recognize.  

So that was my first thought about the Moses stuff. Now, seeing Gracie, I'm wondering if it's something else entirely. We saw the pics of Baby Moses in the church in 5x02. Now Gracie shows up in 8x02. As I said HERE yesterday, there are also other parallels between episodes in S5 and S8, so this is important.

Also, who is fire? That would be Daryl. So the pictures of Baby Moses and the burning bush are a perfect representation of Daryl (Fire), Beth (Water) and the baby symbolism (Moses).  

It's also interesting to note that 5x02 is the same episode where Daryl saw the Grady car with the white cross and took off to look for Beth. That, combined with the 101 Days Without an Accident poster convinces me more than ever that 8x02 is the start of the sequence of events (just as 5x02 was) that will eventually lead to Beth. And Gracie is probably key to that.

Now let's say for argument sake that the Baby Moses picture was not about Beth, but just Gracie. Okay, maybe it was just to foreshadow Gracie herself in 8x02. Fair enough. But if Gracie travelled somewhere on the water to save her life, well, she wouldn't have done that all on her own, right? Someone else had to have travelled with her. Given all the water stuff we've seen around Beth, it STILL suggests her involvement WITH Gracie. Or, put another way, perhaps the pics in 5x02 were pointing to a baby showing up about the same time Beth does.

And then there's Morales. I don't think It's a coincidence that Rick ran into a long-lost, resurrected face from the past just after finding Gracie. Morales isn't Beth obviously, but I think we're looking at some symbolism there. A hint and a foreshadow that resurrection accompanies Gracie. Obviously they didn't want to reveal Beth quite yet, so they went with a smaller resurrection. I'll talk about this in particular more after the episode airs. I have some things to say that I gleaned from spoilers, but I'll just wait until after the episode airs tonight.  

Gonna throw one more piece of evidence out there. Full creds to @frangipanilove for noticing this. I'll post an edit in just a few minutes here to show you this visually, but when Rick (sheriff) walks into Gracie's room, in the FAR background (not the mural painted on her wall) you can see a framed picture of a heron. Guys, it's the EXACT same bird (I even think it's the exact same painting) that's on the wall behind Beth in the golf club. It shows up in the shot where she says, "We made it." Coincidence? Oh puh-LEASE. No way that's a coincidence. Beth is mixed up with Gracie somehow. I'm sure of it.  

So yeah, that's pretty much it. Just wanted to show how well this is all coming together and how much hope it's giving me.  

Oh, and if the S5/S8 parallels continue, well, 5x04 is Slabtown, and you all know I've been leaning really heavily toward her appearing in 8x04. Fingers crossed that we're interpreting this stuff right!  

[jeffcameron]

I just watched Lost 4x02 "Confirmed Dead"

[ninewheels]

NineWheels Rewatches Lost 4x02 “Confirmed Dead”

Let’s talk exclusively about Lost this time!!

Another all-skate (sorta), but this time only for the new characters off the freighter. Although Charlotte is a series regular and Frank will be one eventually, this is the one and only time either of them will get a flashback. Charlotte in particular is drastically underdeveloped for a main character.

Jeremy Davies is a really underrated character actor, and for my money, Faraday is an underrated character. He’s a very Later Seasons Of Lost kind of character, but that’s not bad, it’s just particular. He’s got the high-concept backstory and is directly related to the lore stuff.

Okay, maybe we’re not talking exclusively about Lost, because I know Jeremy Davies played Charles Manson in a movie once, and on the one hand he’s totally got the look for it and I’m sure he was excellent, but on the other hand it’s hard for me to imagine him not being a soft boy, because between this, Saving Private Ryan, his guest spot on Hannibal, etc. he’s just always a guy I want to give a hug.

[ettadunham]

Day 9 - One Night in October

It’s the 9th anniversary of the Fringe pilot!!!! But that episode was already on this list, so let’s move onto today’s entry, 4x02 - One Night in October.

There’s a very specific way in which Fringe makes you feel for serial killers.

I was mentioning this with Inner Child already, how the serial killer there wasn’t necessarily the norm on this show - the themes of Fringe center around family, love, human connection, and sometimes even forgiveness. The perpetrators are more likely to have sympathetic motives, even if it’s twisted and wrong and undeniably needs to be FUCKING STOPPED.

This episode however puts a bit of spin on that sympathy, because it’s not the serial killer we’re focusing on, but his alternate universe self who instead of becoming a killer spent his life trying to understand, and in his own word, ‘help people like him’. So it’s through him, through his conviction that he can help this alternate self of his, that we’re humanizing the killer.

And I know what kids these days would say on this site: ‘cool story, still murder’. And honestly, that’s a good mindset to counter being asked to sympathize with certain “”type”” of (= white male) murderers while often ignoring their victims’ narratives... But it’s not really the takeaway from this story, I think.

Because, again, at the end of the day, we’re asked to sympathize with the guy who despite coming from an abusive home, despite possibly having some mental health issues giving him those “urges” that were made worse by his father trying to “beat it out” of him... manages to turn his life around in the end. Because he ran away from that environment, and found someone who loved him after all. Not even a romantic interest, but a mother figure, who taught him how to control and counter these negative impulses and thoughts.

We’re also shown him failing to convince his serial killer counterpart to stop doing what he was doing. Because love can’t actually save everyone - or at least not without a cost of our own, one that we don’t owe to anyone.

So, in the end, what I took away from this story is that children need LOVE, and that having bad thoughts doesn’t make you a bad person. And I think that’s a pretty fucking good message.

Despite having an intriguing and memorable week of the case, this episode doesn’t lack stories for our own characters either - quite the opposite, really. The whole case is a joint operation between the two universes’ Fringe divisions, and remember, it hasn’t been that long that the bridge has been up, and our teams stopped being at war with each other. What’s interesting to me though, is that it’s Altlivia who brings up the idea in the first place.

You see, I always pegged Altlivia as more of the soldier type compared to Olivia. Sure, she seems more laid back and all that, but that also means that she’s more of a follower instead of a leader, and that she’s comfortable in that position. She does question authority and her orders, but mostly when there’s a good reason for it, and doesn’t just go around doing her own thing all the time like our Olivia. And that’s why I found it unusual to see her take the initiative here, pushing through an idea that their Broyles was opposed to as well.

And God bless her for doing so, because it gave us an entire episode of O2 goodness.

There are also some heavy moments after Olivia mentions his own abusive stepfather when they’re talking with John, and Altlivia overhears it. And Olivia not only confirms to her what we’ve already known, but says that SHE KILLED THE BASTARD DEAD IN THIS TIMELINE. And she does it in her usual dinner chat tone, the way only Olivia Dunham can talk about murder, bless.

And that made me think about which version of Olivia was better off in that regard. The one who didn’t kill her own stepfather as a child, the one that merely shot at him, and got terrorized by him with him sending letters on her birthday EACH FUCKING YEAR... Or the one who did kill him. Which must have been traumatizing as a child, but now he’s gone, and she was raised by Nina in return. Given the episode’s theme, it also feels like the show is trying to tell us that the difference that made Prime Universe Olivia hesitate perhaps was her encounter with Peter, who repeated his mother’s words to her “You gotta imagine how you want things to be, and then you can try to change them.” And isn’t that a message of hope, something to hold onto? But what does that hope truly worth when it comes with a price of living in fear for so many years?

Frankly, it feels like neither of those options are necessarily better than the other, that Olivia probably didn’t feel a peace of mind as a result either way. And perhaps that’s why the differences between amber and blue universe Olivia are so incredibly subtle.

Meanwhile Walter is struggling with his own issues, hearing Peter everywhere. Except of course, he doesn’t know it’s Peter. John Noble, as usual, nails these scenes, but that goes without saying.

This is definitely an episode that stayed with me, and as can be seen from all these rants, made me feel and think about a lot of shit. And that’s peak television for me.

Bullet points!!!!

Confession time: I definitely cross-shipped the Olivias and Lincolns at the beginning of S4. Not necessarily based on these small interactions, but because the idea seemed rather appealing. Of course, this show somehow found a way to kind of give me what I wanted in a way that I most certainly DID NOT want it to happen. Dammit show.

Scarlie is mentioned! Apparently he thought that Altlivia’s idea was crazy, but he was also “too busy sipping Mai Tais with Mrs. Bug Lady”. Which is a fancy way of saying that Kirk Acevedo had another show, so he didn’t have the time anymore to come over to Fringe for these Red!Verse episodes, but I appreciated that they tried to explain his absence nonetheless.

[ohdesmondo]

“Wanna know why we're here?

I'll tell you why we're here!”

// [ 🌴 ; ✨ ; ✈️ ]

4x02 “Confirmed Dead”

[elizabethrobertajones]

12x10 watching notes

tl;dr Yockey owes me dinner

There's a large part of me (the part that's getting larger) that just wants to eat pasta in a mug in peace and watch this episode before midnight :P But I always regret not starting to write meta on an episode as I watch if I don't do it, so here I am, cup of pasta and all.

Expectations - well, the spoilers all suggest some crazy angel hijinks in period costume. I'll be fine if we make it through this episode without Cas turning out to have had a baby with Lily in the past or something.

If the spec is true and he's in a female vessel I am however always going to have an exemption that Cas can be lesbians with her in the past, and may even WRITE Cas being gay with her in the past if I have to. >.>

The sanctity of the OTP has a few override buttons :P

Aside from that, well, it's Yockey, and I loved his first episode and he seems like he should be mostly unproblematic, after 12x06, but of course we barely have a handle on him and he's never written a full plot episode or Cas, and it seems like he'll not only be writing Cas but presumably a past version of Cas in a different vessel so... This is going to be a bit of a wild ride no matter how chill 12x06 made me feel about Yockey as a writer :P

-

The trouble with pasta in a mug is that it's still really hot towards the bottom of the mug so you have to keep stopping eating it, and I think that is a perfect metaphor for how I approach watching new SPN episodes >.>

-

Right back to 4x02 as a starter of the recap :')

-

I may be getting older but I swear recaps didn't habitually re-tell entire chunks of the story like this re: the entire everything that happened with the nephilim plot so far.

Side note: I really don't want to think this much about the nephilim plot and would rather it just kind of went away and didn't come back until like, season 30 or something when the kid's a bit older and ready for the drama.

Honestly the show has a sort of built in expctation of longevity at this point, why not, uh, plant some seeds.

Anyway maybe just because Buckleming are the only ones with direct contact with it so far, but I really don't trust the show to be equipped to deal with this, ethically, or maybe even in good storytelling way. Which just leaves me with a ton of dread that problematic shit is coming >.>

-

Also recapping an entire chunk of the story for Billie getting killed :< Thinking of problematic stuff and lazy editing.

I supopse it's a terrible balance between the netflix bingers (who'll skip it anyway) and the casual viewers who may not remember everything or are not reliable enough viewers to have caught every episode so they need a weighty reminder. It may just be that whoever's editing the recaps has changed because they used to be much more efficient at conveying everything and now they're just sort of laying everything out. The mini road so far last episode was really bland. I think the art form's disappeared :P

-

If anyone's wondering, the arcade game angel is now my favourite character forever. It reminds me of in Steven Universe when Garnet got addicted to an arcade game, and couldn't be budged. Weirdly specific but excellent trope: immortal black ladies who have terrible impulse control around arcades.

I'm going to be so sad when Lily kills her.

-

[crazy awesome fight scene interlude]

[kind of sad we already know she's called Lily because even though Lily Sunder is an incredible name, I wanted to call her Eyepatch Lady and I don't have to]

-

Aw Benjamin :< God dammit why did she have to die first and SO soon after Billie... I mean I knew they were killing off the angels and have flashbacks to flesh them out so I assumed some would bite the dust immediately, and basically all of them but Cas are probably gonna die in the long run because haha recurring friends for Cas... But ugh, it seems kind of cruel to end the recap killing one badass WoC, and then start the episode and introduce and kill another >.> I mean I guess not intentionally cruel but definitely making a depressing trend REALLY obvious.

I don't think anyone will care about the representation when no matter what awesome roles the characters have, they keep on dying >.>

-

I'm going to sulk off and get some tea, because I saw that coming from a mile off and it's still annoying me :P

-

I also did the dishes and gained some dark humour perspective on it because of the little glimpses of the angels standing around doing seemingly nothing while Benjamin warned them - at least Benjamin doesn't have to have the conversation, "so what have you done since we last saw you?" "I have been playing video games since they were invented, non stop." "Oh, cool. Cool. I rebelled against heaven and stopped the apocalypse and was god and - "

-

"Cas has been pretty busy, huh?" - confirmed, all the other angels are lazy butts and Cas has been hard at work.

I assume his fixation on finding Lucifer's offspring and dragging out all the noticeboards to set it up is a continuation of what's up with him and hunting. He was feeling more than useless with just some vampires, and so now he is trying 1000% of his hardest to do this right, especially as it's the loose end he's got left in the way of any attempt at happiness... He basically ALWAYS has one of these... times like this I miss Steve!cas and his simple happiness (uh on top of a yawning void of depression) at doing a few human things right, like Nora's praise that he did basically everything to open the store without her because when he has a few simple things to accomplish, he can get it all done, and everything is ordered and in the right place, and... God I feel bad for Cas being at loose ends and feeling useless.

Dean immediately is a dick about Cas NOT finding Kelly yet, so I assume he's in a good mood since last episode...

-

I do like that Cas is clearly at least allowed to hang out at the Bunker and use their resources even if Sam and Dean aren't helping him or part of this project, and just sort of walked in on it. I guess this is a "good morning" meeting, only they walked into Cas staying up all night on this. There's no weirdness about the fact Cas is here or has been doing it, he's just an accepted part of their living space, albiet one doing weird art projects that mean they can't use the war room for their own crap :P

They're also really enjoying sprawling on their furniture now they're free

-

Transitioning to the ongoing disappointment in Mom not making chicken soup for them - Dean continues finding it hardest to accept Mary has apparently adjusted, but to a life without them, instead of adjusting to a life living in the Bunker with them. It's also bitterly amusing me that now Cas is finally kind of just around them by default, they have another character who is explained away in the opening of the episode...

-

Oh god Dean and Cas are "walking past each other in the kitchen" while not making eye contact. WHY is Cas in the kitchen. HE DOESN'T EAT. Is he strategically walking in past Dean? Bothering Sam to know if he wants coffee so he has an excuse to go get it while Dean is making a sandwich? How long has this been going on?? I want this entire soap opera episode pls.

-

Oh no DEAN IS PISSED BECAUSE HE IS WORRIED ABOUT CAS. He says it's just about the consequences in a vague way, but CAS is the one who clearly incurred them because it's not like this deal had any strings attached to random stuff in the universe a la releasing Amara, it was a blood pact between Winchesters, on a family level, therefore Dean is most worried about Cas.

Halp.

I don't like this new trend of Sam and Dean actually communicating and talking about their shit. This is awful. Can we go back to them not talking about anything?

-

Cas walks in on Sam defending him. My heart.

Although tbh he can hear through walls so unless the Bunker maaagically dampens that, he's come stomping back because he can't take listening to them going in circles about why Dean is ignoring Cas, because ouch, hearing how Dean is concerned about Cas's actions... I bet HE'S taking it as Dean thinking that he made a mistake >.>

-

*snipey snipey Destiel arguing* (Yeah, Dean just pretty much accuses Cas of that :P)

-

I love the old "all our friends are dead" type moment that they all have when someone comes up with "personal" business elsewhere. Like when Dean ran off to help Benny or Sam wandered off to deal with Amy Pond. Personal??? we don't get personal lives! aaand Cas is truly a Winchester now.

-

Oh third wheel Sam. Cas wants Dean to come but snarks at him like he's not gonna, Sam looks at Dean, Dean looks at Sam and Cas and rolls his eyes and accuses Cas of doing stupid things, but comes anyway because he will still look after Cas even if they're not talking...

-

Aaand the promo scene which left me amazed Sam did not open the car door, jump out onto the road, and take his chances there.

-

[patented angry Cas squinting]

-

I think that was the stage direction - Yockey might be new at this but he knows what he's doing.

-

Oh NO the bit we saw before the episode wasn't even the half of it. Dean and Cas are having an Actual Married Argument, deliberately projecting their fight onto talking about Benjamin. I am waiting for Sam to roll down his window and climb out to spend the rest of the drive on the roof.

-

The fact Cas says "Benjamin wouldn't call for help lightly" as well as about putting himself in harm's way - Dean probably latches onto that last part because it suits their argument more - also firmly confirming very clearly and loudly that Dean is worried about what will happen to Cas because he's upset that Cas put himself in harm's way, so this argument is now definitely, textually, 100% on Dean's side about how CONCERNED he is for Cas (and probably now a heaping of that Cas wouldn't deserve it and that Dean wasn't worth it because self-esteem issues... (The way this is going they'll probably say THAT in text too in like 3 lines) But yeah, also raising the issue that Cas doesn’t ask for help. Watched him rake leaves, anyone?

-

Dean is going to CRASH THE CAR. Sam's breaking point is Dean literally rotating 180 degrees in his seat to talk back at Cas. :P

*sound of a car horn and something narrowly missing them* 

GUYS.

-

Cas values sarcasm as a trait he really likes (nice, perfect need for someone who is going to resentfully be married to Dean forever), but would also like to be appreciated more :<

-

Aaand the info about Benjamin and his vessel has officially murdered me, especially as he's already dead. :< Angel/human friendships! *flails emotionally* Also no angel has ever been shown so close to their vessel. Hannah came to appreciate Caroline and gave her back, but without bonding with her (rather, traumatising her, I guess); Cas being so happy Jimmy was devout now has retconned emotional impact about Cas knowing how his friend appreciated his vessel and Cas was excited to have that same bond. But Jimmy died early on, Cas didn't have the luxury to be kind and friendly to him or to start doing that later; although he returned in 4x20 saying of course he'd keep his word to Jimmy and look after him (in that very angel way that Cas had back in season 4), it took him until Hannah and Caroline to remember this bond with a vessel and go attempt to make it right with Claire and Amelia.

*flops over and slowly slides off my chair*

-

*resumes watching from the floor because of Cas staring at Benjamin's wings* You know how we spend way too much time as fandom imagining crap about Dean having Cas's wings burned on him or his car or whatever? This is like that but with a character I've known for like 8 minutes of the show and I have a tear in my eye.

Poor Cas :<

-

*continues a non-stop "poor Cas" litany through this scene*

-

Oh my god even though all the angel blades look the same, Cas can TELL which angel they belong to THIS IS THE WORST NEW INFORMATION I'VE EVER HEARD.

-

Well, aside from the longing retcon. Hey, it must be 2 years old around now - that was 10x10

-

Having Cas being upset about losing a close friend that he fought together with right after saving Dean, a dear friend he has fought together with, and getting super judged for it, is way on the nose. Ow.

-

It's pretty cool that Lily has learned to talk on angel radio.

-

Oh gosh, Lily has a dead child I WONDER WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT

-

I love as well that Lily is dressing like angels used to, in a black and white suit, can talk on angel radio, has an angel blade... She's like the ultimate hunter becoming the thing she hunts in a sort of parallel to grizzled old hunters wearing a big ol bear skin or something :P

-

place behind them when they get out the car called "The Wright Spot"... guess which director is directing this episode. Go on. :P

-

"If I plan to do anything else stupid, I'll let you know" - I honestly did not think it was possible to love Cas more than I already did but he keeps on proving me wrong.

-

Cas is catching up on what feels like a 3 year backlog of angry squinting. He's definitely gone over the edge since last episode, as a result of last episode, but at the moment I think as long as Dean and Cas make up, in a good way where he's getting to vent some things about not feeling appreciated and so on, this will be okay.

-

Hang on this is the diner scene - aren't Sam and Dean going to crush into this both with Cas? I need to see how this happens...

-

Anyway AAAAAH Cas talking to angels! Angels who aren't trying to kill him immediately!

They are judging him for being careless and having to take a different vessel. Lol. "I liked the old you better" *Cas inspects himself*

Mirabelle then gets at Cas for the angel fall which obviously I was expecting since I already joked about this exact scene at the beginning of the episode :P I like that they went right ahead and addressed it. It's quite an elephant in the room, and of course the fact Cas's old battalion hadn't crossed paths with him at any point in the angel drama previously... Well, they HAD to have not picked Raphael or they wouldn't have made it past season 7. They may or may not have picked Metatron but they can't have been in Cas's army because he'd have actually chatted to them. There were still angels after season 10 who hadn't really got involved in all that at all, so I assume they laid low, perhaps knowing Cas better than most, or thinking they do >.>

-

Oh yeah just go ahead and remind him of how terrible things went with Uriel and Balthazar while you're at it :P

-

The "i just stared at a wall in a church for 100 years" angel is very boring. Mirabelle seemed to be pooossibly meant to be standing in Heaven's prison when the call went out? There were bars in front of her or something like that, so I assumed she was doing some job there. No idea what beardy angel was doing.

-

Also pls stop reminding Cas of literally everything he's ever done because in every previous encounter with angels, bringing stuff up like that is a fast way to manipulate or upset Cas and he's in a wee bit of a precarious place right now...

-

"spanner in the works" has someone actually called Cas that in canon or is that maybe like, something Edlund said in an interview or something?

-

"I'm not a hero, but sometimes doing the right thing requires sacrifices" You know what, not that I wasn't already thinking it, but Yockey can keep Cas :P

-

In this case, that line is tapping into his fight with Dean as well. He knows he didn't do anything particularly noble and definitely not honourable in a literal sense as he broke a blood vow, but it was what Cas deemed the "right" thing and he's in a sort of waiting zone to see if he broke the world again or what will be coming for him next... The sacrifices he's willing to take to make sure Dean etc are safe, because to Cas Dean is his moral compass and what is "right" is Dean and has been since season 4, even if Cas often goes against it or struggles with it or doesn't live up to Dean's standards or Dean has no idea Cas is trying to do right by Dean's way or -

(My mum's on holiday so I'm stuck at the start of season 7 wallowing on the end of season 6 fight right now :P)

-

"But it always seems like it's other angels sacrificing for your good deeds" Yeah, buddy, we've watched Cas every freakin' step of the way and he has SUFFERED for this okay, so back off. CAS KNOWS ALREADY AND IF HE SLEPT HE WOULDN'T BECAUSE HE'D BE LYING AWAKE THINKING ABOUT THIS

-

"Are you here to insult me or talk about Benjamin?" "Can we do both?"

ily Yockey

-

"We didn't think you'd care"

fuck off Yockey :P

(I love that this contrasts with at the start Dean complaining about Cas caring as part of his rant to Sam about it all - drawing a line between what Cas cares about here and there... Obviously Cas DOES care a lot about these angels because ARGH his reaction to Benjamin HURT SO MUCH. But he's been understandably distracted for the last few years, and with these guys off having their own problems, say this started RIGHT after the angel fall, CAS WAS HUMAN and would potentially have missed anything on angel radio meant for him to warn him about this because he was so bad at tuning into it. If he never answered the call the first time one of their number was murdered, well, of course they'd think he doesn't care)

-

Also I love that this episode clearly shows that Yockey has a very full awareness of the show's story so far.

-

Ahahaha Sam no. (Please keep Sam-ing like this. You are the Sam I love so very much :P)

He has been observing Dean's behaviour all his life and he knows when Dean's patience snaps when it comes to worrying about Cas.

-

Describe them in one picture

-

Why does Sam cram in on the end though.

He doesn't wanna be left out either, though the bench is only big enough for Dean n Cas

If you want to talk definitions of third wheels, Sam is definitely it this episode, but he's got enough of a sense of humour that knowing he's along for the ride trapped in a lovers' spat, he can at least have some fun with it, since he's basically got to be the buffer between them. Or else towed in their wake.

(I also like how this shows Sam knows there's no point arguing with Dean about this, so going along with it mocking him for his behaviour is about the one sort of resistance he has left to him :P)

-

"My friends who don't listen very well" *Dean smirks at Cas* Okay, but I'm taking a screencap of that to use as like, a phone background or something.

-

This has mostly turned into me not listening to the conversation and screenshotting their faces so I need to go back and try again

-

Mirabelle better not get killed just because Sam and Dean showed up.

-

Noooooooo

-

I can see these coming from so far off but

-

"Who wants some pie"

-

Dean trying to play happy families with this weird group of people.

Well, one weird rando angel, since Mirabelle is now dead, which means that I was right but this is an even more alarming rate of side character death than I was expecting

-

Still don't think I've caught beard!angel's name

-

He accuses Cas of "how far he's fallen" *shot of him being lovingly elbowed in the kidney by Dean* I wonder what the implication is here :P

The description of him as a warrior is interesting but we already knew that. I like "angel's angel" though because it mirror's "man's man" I suppose as a phrase, which is the sort of stereotype of a manly dude who does all the manly dude stuff, well, like Dean presents the front. I think, like, the sort of dude who goes fishing with his mates every weekend rather than stay home with the wife :P

idk if angels go fishing aside from Daniel but that's the second time I've thought of him in a few minutes of TV time so

-

*Dean and beard!angel really stare down each other* Not jealous at all, are we Dean? ("want some coffee with that sugar" I am so amused) Beard!angel accuses Cas of being homeless, which is really mean because he lives at the Bunker now, but, uh, essential to the arc of Cas REALISING that he lives at the Bunker and is in fact his home and GOOD ENOUGH and also he's totally welcome there and Dean loves him and Sam's only being weird about this because he feels like a third wheel and is making DEAN'S life hell for it in the only way a little sibling who learned to punish people through well-meant bratty little sibling behaviour can... :P

Well, home will still be very snarky and passive aggressive when he lives there but at least it will feel like HIS snarky passive-aggressive hunter-filled home.

(Angels referring to humans as monkeys is an age old sign they can't be trusted or have the Wrong Morals, like Uriel especially since that's how we were introduced to the idea that calling us "mud monkeys" was "close to blasphemy" - which already undermines that Cas was always an "angel's angel" because it sounds like this is exactly how to describe beard!angel, and hey MAYBE CAS WAS PROJECTING BASED ON HIS ENVIRONMENT, NOT LIKE DEAN DOES THAT ALL THE TIME TO FIT IN OR ANYTHING)

I have collected so many emotional parallels between season 4 Cas and early seasons Dean in this one conversation that will utterly destroy me next time I wander through season 4, which was already riddled with this parallel in the original subtext >.>

-

Also not for nothing but beard!angel does look vaguely like John & seems like him in the older male alpha authority figure way he acts. Dean is rejecting him which is great, but he has standards about what makes an angel (read: man) which doesn't fit with the true self we know of Cas (read: Dean, who is of course, "humanity") and clearly these are outdated societal angel things which he holds to...

welp

-

"have some pie" (why do I feel like he's walking off to be Lily Sundered?)

Great parting words though. Dean is like "don't mind if I do" when he sees how much money the angel threw down. Of course it's mocking them for their attachment as family, but it's a value that is the CORE of the show - humanity and love and family - which pie represents in all its forms. A barb telling them to have pie because it's apparently demeaning to like these things (and below an angel to care for a family of humans like this) is no insult at all to the people who ACTUALLY LIKE PIE.

-

Sam moves over so Dean and Cas can share the seat together. Nicely done.

-

Captain of the SS Destiel and desperately trying to steer it through the storm to its berth :P

-

"Ishim" apparently. Dean immediately defends Cas against him once he's gone, like, Cas doesn't deserve to be treated that way. BECAUSE DEAN APPRECIATES HIM.

Not that Cas may be able to recognise what just happened there because wow they're all dug in on their fight :P

-

"No one gets to be a dick to my husband except me"

-

Not surprisingly, Ishim then gets attacked and lightly stabbed.

(that was a pun. Because angels bleed light -

I'll show myself out)

-

Cas shows up and injures Lily in a surprisingly similar way.

-

I'm still impressed with her absorbing and using an angel smiting for power.

-

Ishim says "I'm fine" which is such a part of the SPN vocabulary I don't even know what that means except that he's absorbed the same rules about it somewhere or other. :P Cas had to explain it to Hannah about why humans do it, but I think angels come on a range of personality types and Ishim is definitely of the better socialised type than say, Mirabelle, who was very angel-y, especially with how she stood the whole time watching them, and still had more of a uniform look to her clothes then Ishim who's just wearing a nice suit.

-

I do like the church they're holed up in

-

Hrm, vaguely annoyed about the "came to earth" turn of phrase, because I always took the watching over it to mean they were literally around on earth, though not in vessels and obviously as true forms very distant and above it all.

It's making my thumb itch that Cas had a vessel before Jimmy but I've been bracing myself for this retcon for ages so I'm just going to have to live with it :P

The fact that Ishim is the one dude and the other angels are all in female vessels does look, in this period costume, kind of odd. He has a little flock or something :P Weird gender role stuff going on here. I mean, from an outside view. To Cas, gender is nicely explained by that little exchange where Dean was like "Benjamin's a woman?" and Cas was like, "Benjamin's an ANGEL. His vessel is a woman" - so pronouns apply to them if they like them, but the real distinction is really not that important because what they are is genderless wavelengths with a consciousness that may like to be one or the other in a vessel or for it not to matter, or to prefer a pronoun that applies to them regardless of vessel or... it's wobbly. The important thing is they're angels :P Idk if I should have celebrated this louder back in the car discussion because I always took it as canon and especially with Hannah in season 10 something the show sort of went over again to make it a bit more clear, but with more hindsight maybe this really is taking what was strictly still sort of headcanon when it comes to expressly TALKING about how angels identify, and putting it in the text, aka definitely and finally queering all the angels ever, forever)

Anyway I had it paused on a lady with the Perfect Eyebrow and idk how the casting went for this but it was probably "can you do Cas's Eyebrow" so now I should see how she handles the rest because I'm sold just on her resting Cas face :P

We know since 4x20 Cas would possess Claire, with absolutely no weirdness about it, but there's enough blah about the circumstances that he might only have done it because the bloodline, emergency moment, Jimmy was in trouble etc... But here we have Cas clearly having freely chosen a female vessel (maybe an ancestor of the Novaks? Which would limit his choice if she was the only suitable one around at that point but eh >.>) and so that's sort of... a big moment I guess... *see above: conversation about angel gender* I'm so used to thinking this is a totally normal thing that I have no idea how mindblowing this is for them to happily show Cas in a female vessel like this :P There was so much weirdness about Raphael swapping vessels - several characters got a shot in towards the end of season 6. And at least Metatron made a crack about Hannah swapping out Caroline and using a male one. But Cas is a major character and unlike Crowley briefly possessing women, the way angels possess people is very different (and the reminder that Benjamin was friends with his vessel from the start of the episode sort of works in general to show how angels have to have a more mutual compatibility with their vessel...)

It’s a pretty big thing, I guess. 

-

Benjamin is complaining about how wet it is on earth, but Ishim just confirmed all the spec that this is a human marrying an angel and I'm contemplating going out to stand in the rain and shriek into the sky so he's got that all wrong. Rain is great, when you need to shriek :P

-

Obviously this is forefront a parallel to the Lucifer and nephilim thing, buuut I mean they're in LOVE and MARRIED

who else in this episode is MARRIED

Oh right Sam had to yell at them to not drive into oncoming traffic because they were too busy being MARRIED

-

For the record, the description of the Nephilim here is killing me - it has grace and a human soul, and I've been speculating that Cas never lost his soul he had after being human, so he too has both. (Which makes him dangerous)

Revisiting nephilim is all Dabb because he wrote 8x22 which originally introduced the idea, and so I am now in a sort of danger zone for getting sucked riiight back into angel fall spell nonsense :P I have picked up a real aversion to wild speculation but this is my weak spot. The season 8-9 crazy Destiel optimism about that damn spell, and Dabb's picking at all the loose ends this season, especially to get to the Nephilim, which plays such a key part in that beautiful, horrible idea that the last ingredient was "the grace of an angel in love with a human" and this is specifically WHY the spell makes the angels fall... Brings them down to the monkeys' level :P Ishim would hate to know that detail of why he has no wings :P But, yeah, that the spell was a punishment or reward that comes as a result of angels mingling with humans (and I still think God preferred angels to like humans, so this taboo comes from angel society, that Ishim represents and is denouncing in front of Cas)

It's times like this I remember the translation to the angel tablet is just sitting in the bunker in a language Cas can read and I need to go shriek in the rain some more

-

I guess Ishim is like the homophobic, racist uncle, we should treat this accordingly :P

(Benjamin also confirmed this is an angel-made rule)

-

Castiel moves like the Cas we know better :P I like her a lot.

-

I mean, she IS Cas, after all.

-

Aww Lily's husband has great hair.

-

Ishim says that he was only supposed to watch and instead he took up with a filthy animal... hahahahahahahahaha *flashback within a flashback to the diner scene and Cas all crushed up against Dean*

No I'm fine why do you ask

-

"How could anyone know them and not love them" (re: humanity)

Help meee

-

Oh no, Castiel does the whole speech about why this angel broke the rules before they kill him :<

I mean... Delicious irony making Castiel say it because obviously later Cas has done a complete about turn on this, at least where loving humanity is concerned. Maybe not the fathering nephilim bit as he's still out to get Holly and this is explaining WHY he knows it's such a big deal (8x22 also showed him hesitant to kill the nephilim there until she turned on them and proved she was ready to act monstrously, and then he had no hesitation) although I hope this inspires him to be more sympathetic, remembering HOW cold and angelic he was back here and how he's all in contrast to this now.

(I don't think it's weird Akobel makes that speech about humanity being great in front of Castiel, because although Cas clearly softens towards humans later and has a more sympathetic feeling than say, Uriel, who clearly is on a level with Ishim on this subject, by the time we meet him, or at least, after 3 episodes putting up with Dean, this mirrors Dean's 4x22 speech, which means that this is a trial run that doesn't convince Cas, because, well, there's no weight behind it to TRULY make Cas think. 4x22 in contrast is SO powerful that Dean's similar words have a huge weight of their friendship, his growing understanding of humanity, etc, that they land squarely on him and convince him to rebel)

-

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah and then Castiel flinches, clearly affected by this even though he knows the nephilim is an abomination and has to die :<

Always had that crack in his chassis...

-

I am glad that this is HOPEFULLY, via what they've set up in Cas's emotional landscape here so far, going to let him get to a place where he chooses to either let Holly go and forget about this, or at least track her down but give her a choice and maybe some actual HELP with having to raise a devil baby if she chooses to do so. >.> Definitely showing us Cas feeling bad about killing nephilim that haven't done anything, or given a chance to live their lives normally might NOT grow up awful (Jesse the forgotten antichrist comes to mind, never mind the nephilim we saw before who was living a completely peaceful life until Metatron ruined everything, as he tends to do)... I suppose it's been Cas vs 2 nephilim now and Lucifer's baby is the 3rd, so...

-

The message in 12x08 was so weird about it, there's so much salvage work for me to even be sure I know which way is up with this but as a bare minimum making Cas conflicted about what to do about this issue is a start to make it less crazy with all these guys coming rushing to tell the woman what to do with her baby, even if it seems justified by the story that they seem to know best >.>

-

"It was necessary, it was right," Cas says, looking horrified.

(Sam and Dean do too, and as I said, emotional compass...)

-

This is such a terrible plotline :P A sensible response back in 12x08 would have been like "hey you were coercively raped by the actual devil, just FYI about your baby" and she'd be like "oh shit that's terrible" and go willingly choose to have an abortion (and therapy probably >.>) without anyone telling her to do it but the main characters weighing in with their info on nephilim and anti-christs they've already met and dealt with to give her some best case/worst case scenarios to help her decision >.> That's the most political route because of actual choice and agency on the mother's part but eh. A lot of times in media they toe a safe line of considering abortion and confirming it's a thing that happens and isn't inherently evil but then the preggers character involved magically decides that they're fine and will keep the baby for personal reasons for the story to avoid going there and praising abortion for saving desperate people >.> Or well, unless it's a tragedy, but still a terrible idea to have the baby for everyone involved, in which case stories tend to throw a last minute miscarriage their way...

12x08 was just a mess though so had the poor woman in a room full of people yelling at her and attacking her in Lucifer's case about what she was supposed to do, and then she legged it and immediately decided to keep the baby and - this could have been better handled, even in a toeing a really safe bland line, is all I'm saying >.>

-

"we completed a mission, it was necessary, it was right." - Cas falling back on old angelic behaviour to explain it because the mission and their purpose was absolute and you didn't question it.

"You say so," says Dean, still annoyed with Cas for the last big decision he made where he thought he was doing something necessary and right by killing Billie.

(I notice this involves a lot of murder for the protagonists to work out how they feel about the big issues... Great :P)

But yeah, killing kids is like the no.1 no-no and used to show Dean stepping over the line in 10x22, and now Cas reveals he was complicit in killing a kid before. (Ishim is probably not going to make it out of the episode, and certainly doesn't deserve to, by SPN's rules :P)

-

I love the exchanges where they're like just "Dean." "Cas." because saying each other's names is enough to say everything they need to because they've been over arguments like this so much by now.

(I think Sam and Dean do it too but for some reason I don't pay as much attention to it :P)

-

Meanwhile: Sam puts his foot in his mouth implying to Cas that the angels sort of deserved what was coming to them (which is a fair opinion but maybe don’t tell Cas if you think that :P)

The following orders thing tends to go pretty far with angels when you throw in brainwashing (and how Cas was already at this point many many layers of reprogrammed by Naomi since she refers to doing it to him in Biblical times, so if he felt bad about this it may have been hammered back out of him for a while after) but Ishim really is kind of being presented as a total dick about it in a sort of unrepentant way that paints a target on him as a rightful character to feel deserves it, while though Cas and the others were following orders and enforcing their society's rules that they never questioned (and would be killed if they questioned too hard or lost faith in the power structure) and in COMPARISON to Ishim who is being used as a scapegoat by the story, clearly are less deserving of punishment, especially Cas who has learned SO HARD in many ways what is right and wrong (though this seems to be a big hurdle he has left). It makes it a bit unfair to only have left the most symapthetic angel by a billion miles compared to any of the others, because we've been so far with him, and Ishim, who has clearly not changed a jot :P

-

Sam says Cas is "different now" :3

-

Clearly the easiest way out is to be like, "look Cas is now married to Dean so OBVIOUSLY has changed his ways" and honestly Captain Sam of the SS Destiel, I'm not sure he's not suggesting it.

-

Cas talking about how she "won't quit" to avenge her family reminds me that this is a plot we have had before, with whatsisface in 10x02 coming back for Dean. I also watched 7x03 last, with Amy Pond's poor son who vowed vengeance on Dean and disappeared to grow up some more and honestly season 7 is now so long ago he MUST be ready to come kill Dean but here we are with Cas finally having it happen to him :P Oh the Dean and Cas story overlaps :')

-

I really really really love Lily Sunder and her actress is great :D That healing scene was, no pun intended, SO CHARGED.

(little bit of a pun intended)

-

(Kinda sad after seeing the flashback I can't write her and Cas as lesbians :P)

-

Meanwhile in Cas's healing scene - weird shades of 8x17 and Cas and Meg, with the way Cas is tending to an ambiguous friend with a history (Wait. Same director? Yeah, same director), and clearly caring about him enough to heal him (didn't heal Meg magically and I've always suspected angel magic is a bit of a blunt weapon that would had smote her if he'd tried, even if he meant no harm >.>) - something about Cas's face while he tends to him, especially, because he's poking around instead of just flinging some glowy light at him, which makes this whole set up of playing nurse, which Cas never normally has when healing people since he just puts his hand on them and fixes them. It's automatically a much more tender, intimate scene. If this was Dean and Cas, people would spontaneously combust.

-

God damn this episode is doing some amazing things with inverting and playing with gender and stuff

-

Ishim has to ruin it by complaining about Cas letting the 'simians' talk to him...

"When did you get so gooey" I mean really, this is so seductive the way he's lying there and Cas is messing around with taking off his clothes? He and Lily had very similarly placed wounds for this parallel... but.

But yeah, calling Cas "gooey" really, really sounds like Meg.

oh god this speech from him...

"You know why we're meant to stay away from humans? It's not because we're a danger to them. They're a danger to us."

UGH

Brb

/rain /shrieking

etc

-

If this episode has not already confirmed on at least 3-4 occasions already that Cas is totally in love with Dean I don't even know what it's for :P

-

"My friendship with Sam and Dean has made me stronger" "You can't really believe that" NO AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM RIGHT NOW.

Dean needs to do the whole boombox held up outside Cas's window love declaration and fix this >.>

I mean it is true that Cas is stronger, infinitely, than when we first met him, because of all he's been through for Sam and Dean, but... He doesn't see it :<

-

I think it's stopped raining so if I need to shriek I don't know where to go

-

I LOVE that after Cas is done healing the ding from the elevator overlaps him fixing Ishim and almost seems like a microwave ding telling us he's ready.

-

The fact this is about someone killing angels (never mind the Uriel reference) really does make the plot mirror 4x16 on Cas's side; that episode ditches Sam and Dean not long past the halfway point to become completely about angel drama and Cas's decision... Nice.

-

Lots of Edlund mirroring this season.

-

"Then we burn that bridge when we come to it" HAH. :D Love that messed up idiom so much. It's such the Winchester way.

-

I love how they just walk into Lily in the corridor.

"We don't wanna kill you" "I don't want to kill you" "Okay! Good, look, there we go, agreed" Sam you fucking third wheel master level dork. He's been mediating so many fights that even when he's in the middle of one as a participant he takes on this role :P

-

Also aaaaaaaah saying Cas is their family. I mean it gets said a fair few times, but it's always so lovely to hear it coming out of Dean's mouth.

-

Oh my god Alicia Witt is amazing

-

*looks around for something to scream into*

*picks Mittens's chat bubble since the sky is not in the right setting*

Love triangle plot twist!

Which I probably should have seen coming if I wasn't comparing what Ishim said to Cas so much that I forgot he was also saying it about himself. I sort of dimly registered it without thinking it would apply to something immediate :P

I guess now we know Cas has been super lied to he's even more blameless (in the narrative) for acting out orders that were wrong, aka basically all the Heaven nonsense where the angels get manipulated. LIKE 4x16 WHERE HE HAD BAD ORDERS TO ASK ALISTAIR WHO WAS KILLING ANGELS... Now it's WHY she's killing angels (showing again in 2 words how the show has changed in tone :P) Anyway... because they were clearing up Ishim's petty family feud for him in an abuse of power, it makes the other angels victims of Ishim's choice, especially now Lily is killing them for it.

-

I wonder if her research ended up with the MoL because it's always been a weird question of how they had so much info about research on angels and if this is clearing up a weird thing from 9x11, well... Robbie's being taken to the cleaners this episode on a few things already :P There’s literally so much going on I haven’t managed to cover it all.

-

ANYWAY everyone's in love with humans, and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

-

What is this episode even saying about Cas.

-

I mean I know what I will interpret it as saying but

-

Yockey, explain yerself

-

"I loved you" "You were obsessed with me, that isn't love" Oh dear, we're getting into details about what is and isn't love now.

-

You know, like the whole "love and... love" distinctions.

-

angel love triangle drama is so tense.

-

"You are powerless" So she goes and becomes the Most Powerful Ever - a human literally on the level of angels, or BETTER than them, to get her revenge. Nice.

I really love Lily Sunder, and I thought I would because of the name, but yeah, good hunch about that. :P

-

"You broke my heart so I'm going to break yours" :< :< :< :<

-

....

TERRIBLE timing to bring it up, but... 6x20 > 6x22, Cas breaking Sam's wall to keep Dean out the way. >.>

-

Oh no the daughter was human... WAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

-

This is like 1000% worse. I suppose for the previous stuff I was saying about it comparing to the Nephilim arc, Cas's guilt over this if/when he finds out will I suppose be a really heavy blow about Heaven's rules about Nephilim, since his obedience to them was used against him - and all the others who were in the dark - for this petty, evil revenge.

-

I like how Dean is just "he's a tool" about Ishim and phones Cas to... check Ishim is a big old tool?

Letting Cas know while he's alone with Ishim seems like a great way to flip from hunting Lily to needing her to help save Cas and get revenge on Ishim :P

Also I suppose Ishim turning on Cas (I hope but AAAH NOO CAS) would be a good way to convince Lily he's not evil/complicit if Ishim is having problems with him.

-

Heh, Sam's being left with Lily and Dean goes to check on Cas. What a wild surprise.

-

Oh dear, Cas is sassing Ishim which means even Cas knows he's contemptible now. The "oh goodie" sounds like Cas in the same room as CROWLEY. I suppose we're meant to assume Ishim stole his phone as well now

This would be a very good time to address that Lily can hack angel radio to message them but Dean doesn't think to pray?

Anyway Cas is not doing so great which seems to parallel that Lily healing herself seemed to really hurt her?

-

Can't believe they cover a plothole with Lily being like, nah, I just thought I'd wait and see what happened and if any of them came back to Earth I'd get them. 

Then had the angel fall spell dropped in her lap.

It seems like there should be a way to bridge her research with Metatron and the fact he made up his own spells including potentially that one. Off the books angel know-how. Like the MoL have... 

The show is never ever going to link this all up so it will just continue to bug me forever I guess :P I'm patient, I can wait over 100 years for more information to drop from the sky.

-

The fact the angel fall spell is connected to nephilim and has been mentioned a couple of times is making me reeeeally itchy in those old thumbs again

-

If Dabb wants a second crack at all that teasing, BE MY GUEST

-

Sam asking questions about magic... uhoh.

Nah, the price is soullessness, of a sort. Maybe becoming an angel? Is that possible? She might just burn out, hand of God style. Anyway Sam won't go for it. HE KNOWS THAT COST. 

FOILED AGAIN. No witch!Sam this year.

Meanwhile: actually tearing at my own soul in horror about the fact she's burning away her soul to use angel magic and I am of the opinion Cas has a soul and HE does angel magic but... he's caring more and more?? Can you do this in reverse? Use up your angel grace and if you have a human soul waiting underneath, just reboot in a different operating system?

What the heck.

I need to eat more pasta. Can't deal with this.

-

But yeah the episode has made a big deal about human souls and angel grace, and suggesting how they can live in a body together, either with Lily slowly replacing her soul, or with the nephilim having both naturally... Cas of course is an abomination.

(sorry Cas, your own words will eventually always come back to bite you :P)

-

Oh no, Lily's reached the stage where she doesn't dream any more :( Oh no Lily.

-

Lily is so good at patience. I love her. Although argh it's because she's got the emotional room to wait. Less soul to worry her. She just has to hope she reaches the end goal before she runs out of caring for it, or that her robo-self like Soulless Sam did, will carry on the "job" they define themselves by without emotionally caring for why they do it - also very Mark of Cain-y, taking on a thing like that to fling themselves at the target without a care for what happens to them in the process...

-

I'm guessing by now that Ishim has done something to Cas to make him weak :<

-

I did the "AAH OTP INTERACTING" fist pump when Dean rushed over to Cas all urgent and worried, and now Dean's just... like. Holding Cas. Help. I think I dislocated a finger making frantic handwaving :P

-

My arm legit really hurts.

-

Oh god Ishim is making Cas choose between "heaven" aka Ishim’s shitty side, and Dean. Guess we're back at 9x22.

-

"Why do his words bother you so much, Ishim" Ooooooh

This is going to be so bitchy

so so bitchy

-

*Cas squints harder*

-

"Well it sees some of my choices may need to be questioned" if you HAVE to concede a fight with your husband, this is the most badass way to do it so that it still seems like you at least half-won :P

-

Aw Caaaas all the beating up on him from the promos we assumed Lily did were Ishim's fault.

-

Dean just needs to know a human girl was killed and that's it, he goes for Ishim with a knife :D ("You're not going to like the answer" says it all, by implying that Cas's love for humanity will of course be what makes him hate it... AAAH)

-

"I used to envy you, Castiel" was that because he WASN'T in love with a human and now that's changed? :P

-

Oh no, he "just" cites Cas being chosen by God, before pointing out he's now sad and weak. Ishim sees that love as weakness.

-

Also Cas getting straddled by Ishim goes with that weirdly erotic subtext from earlier when Cas was healing him.

-

:< Cas lying there miserably after being beaten into submission. Now this has shades of 10x22 at the end - Ishim in the place of Dean - are we working through THAT trauma too... I am not up to this. Ow.

-

10x22 getting a little revisit (OH CAS NO) followed by Ishim saying he's going to go "cut out Cas's human weakness" by going to kill Dean

uh

paralleled directly to how he KILLED HIS HUMAN LOVER

I also thought from “cut out” it was going to be a reverse 8x23, and Ishim would split his throat and literally take something from Cas, like a SOUL or something. Then he said about himself, but split second panic there.

-

no biggie this is only literally THE MOST DESTIEL SHIT TO HAPPEN IN YEARS

-

HOLY CRAP then Dean picks CAS over banishing Ishim when he shows Cas is Dean's weakness too i

am probably burning my dinner in the oven

-

Yay hi Lily

-

KILL HIM

-

YAY more teamwork

I love when they do the teamwork thing. It’s a reoccurring theme this season, or maybe Yockey just likes it because 12x06 had the best teamwork ending.

-

AAAH LILY

-

This parallels 4x16 and Sam vs Alistair almost directly in staging

Except then Cas backstabs Ishim

he had it coming :P

-

Oh god and then Cas is on his knees, I mean, he drops to them because he's weak but it also puts him in a penitent position in front of Lily

LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL BLOODSTAINED SON

This also mirrors 4x16 and how he was on his knees in front of Uriel, the real threat of the episode for him.

-

I guess she decides not to kill Cas

-

Nice.

-

Oh look at poor Cas sitting there :(

-

I love that even though Lily's threat was she'd be beyond emotion, Dean tries to make this about revenge and killing some more to handle what next, but Cas goes straight to "i'm sorry" and Lily looks genuinely moved

-

Oh CAS you're so good.

-

And Lily thanks him and walks off :')

-

Oh dear, some over-running the episode length into a scene at the Bunker

Awww Dean giving Cas a beer and a shoulder pat and secret loving shoulder stroke. Dude. Someone needs to gif that in slow mo.

-

Oh god they're actually giving Cas a REAL you're family speech without any reasons to cut this short or make it not feel good

-

Sam's there too despite this having been all about Dean and Cas, just to smooth things over. :P

-

"I'm not mad I'm worried" Oh man all this stuff in the main text sucks because I deduced this back at the start through clever analysis of their dialogue and now what I can tell from this line is that... Dean is worried about Cas.

-

Look at their eyes

-

Waaah

-

Cas still looks beat up which is rare for him not to immediately snap back to normal. I worried.

-

Heh, Cas hasn't changed that much - all that and he still has carefully set separate rules for each situation, and KNOWING that Lucifer's baby really is Lucifer's, well... Unless he's been lied to about HOW dangerous Nephilim are... He still thinks he has a point.

Sam tries to compare scenarios

And Cas says he doesn't know what he'll do or if he'll hesitate. It HAS affected him. YAY. Episode’s goal accomplished in the final moment.

-

Okay this is clearly a motto of the ENTIRE show: "let's drink, and hope we can find a better way"

-

Can't believe Dean and Cas are married.

[mdwatchestv]

Sherlock 4x02: The Hugging Detective

Well hot damn ya'll. What a comeback from that utter crap first ep. It is confirmed now that the first episode was merely moving the pieces on the board in order to create the emotional set ups in the second episode, but all in all it was worth it. I would rather have one on-point Sherlock than two kind of mediocre Sherlocks.

After the disappointing all filler no killer episode penned by Gatiss, Steven Moffat now takes the helm. Moffat and I have a long and storied history, one that I hope he will actually acknowledge one day. He has both written some of my favorite Doctor Who episodes, and was also the reason I gave up the show. I struggle with his depiction of women, his diversity void, and also his inability to make characters stay dead. That being said, this episode was a highlight reel of everything he does best (and one thing that still drives me crazy).

First off: the story was great. This episode was a pretty close adaptation of the Conan Doyle story 'The Dying Detective' where Sherlock pretends to be dying of poison in order to entrap a murderer (as one does). Unlike the 'The Six Thatchers', the mystery was at the core of this episode and was the closest we have gotten to the standalone episodes of yore in a long while. Not only was the story mystery driven, the mystery was engaging and genuinely thrilling. Toby Jones is always the ultimate secret weapon and his performance was genuinely unnerving. I got chills ya'll.

Second: the twists. There is nothing I hate more than an obvious plot twist, and conversely nothing gets me going better than a twist I didn't see coming. The first twist - that Sherlock had orchestrated his hitting rock bottom in order to reach John - was predictable but still satisfying. The 'go to hell' teaser at the end of the previous episode snapped neatly in place with Mary's actual missive to Sherlock. But while I was preening my feathers and enjoying some light gloating as a master of storytelling we got hit with THIS:

I am a person who looks at and identifies actors professionally, and I was knocked on my ass. The sheer joy of being blindsided by this very clever spin on the third Holmes sibling approached Moriarty at the pool levels. (Yes there was a brief, horrifying moment, where I thought the therapist was going to be Andrew Scott in drag, but it turned out ok.)

Third: the feels. There were QUALITY feels to be felt here. I loved the playful but creeping specter of Mary so much that I wish the show had killed her off ages ago. Her haunting of both John and the literal frames of the show was top notch ghost work and a wonderful way to keep a much needed female character around.

Ok, ok, we can talk about it now, I know you want to. That hug tho.

I think it is fair to say that this is the emotional payoff we have all been waiting for for seven long years. It was beautiful, it was natural, it fit so snug into the storyline. As snug as the hug. It was heartbreaking to see the two men finally able to come together at a story point where John was most in denial of his emotions and Sherlock was most in touch with his. 

The one Moffat quirk that continues to irk me is his constant reiteration of the heterosexuality of his characters, especially after such an intimate moment. I am not personally a shipper of the two male leads (hellooo Tumblr), but the extended conversation about Sherlock's (maybe sexual?) relationship with Irene felt like the dialogue equivalent of 'no homo'. This was just especially glaring to me in what was otherwise an episode filled with beautifully written and honest emotion.

 I would also like to thank this episode for making my text tone culturally relevant again. A relief honestly. 

Also, rull quick, WHO did Benny C have to bribe to get to do that manic Henry V monologue? Literally every actor's wet dream right there. God bless those Brit's for always being Shakespeare ready.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN NEXT WEEK????

XO MD

PS. Mrs Hudson the real MVP