#is this is the first spn xmas episode since the one with the pagan gods in season 3?

[bibliophileiz]

The Spear Rewatch Notes

So I missed the season finale of Supernatural because I was out of the country, but now I’m back and have had some time to watch it and my thoughts are thus:

- First scene -- Garth is a dad and Michael’s new vessel is perfection.

- The cereal scene is really cute. - Thematically, I actually find Cas and Jack’s relationship really boring -- I know that’s an unpopular opinion, but Jack’s relationship with Sam is more interesting than his dynamic with Cas and Cas’ parental feelings toward Jack are fascinating primarily in that they’re at least partially rooted in Cas’ loyalty to Kelly, which I don’t think the show explores enough. And I feel like the pair-offs this season have been Cas + Jack (and once Dean + Jack, which was great) and Sam + Dean instead of the more interesting pairings of Jack + Sam and Dean + Cas, which is what we got this episode. But I do like this cereal scene for a number of reasons. - This is the scene where Jack realizes that Cas not only gave up his soul for him, he also gave up his happiness. Both Cas’ deal and his refusal to tell Sam and Dean about it mean he’s going to be in this state of perpetual loneliness. I do think Cas thinks his death is a long way off -- he probably is expecting Sam and Dean to die first, the logic being that the Empty wants Cas miserable and being without Sam and Dean will make Cas miserable. Unlike Jack, Cas has a frame of reference for just how long an angel can live compared to humans -- which is going to come up later in this episode in Jack’s scene with Michael, which is also amazing. - (This isn’t to say that I don’t think Cas’ deal will come back to bite him in the course of the show, because I do think that. I just don’t think Cas thinks that.) - “Did you take the decoder ring out of the box?” “Maybe.”

- Another thing I find fascinating about this episode is the subtle but persistent opposition of Sam’s sense of caution and Dean’s borderline manic optimism. The first scene with Sam, he’s worrying about Garth and Dean’s just like, “He’ll be fine” -- even though Garth will absolutely NOT be fine if he thinks he’s going to outsmart Michael with a trick that didn’t even work on his mom. And Dean’s just like, ‘no biggie, we’ll get him’ which is an attitude he carries all episode, even when Jack gets kidnapped and Michael melts the egg. 

- Also I will give you a hundred dollars if you can give me a good reason why Ketch is still in this show.

- Who is the backwards cap teen werewolf, and why is Robert Berens so obsessed with awkward teen intern monsters? (There’s an intern demon in the episode where the guys rescue Linda Tran from Crowley’s prison, an episode which I’m pretty sure Berens also wrote. It makes me think Berens likes this kind of character.)

- So Michael obviously doesn’t bother sending monsters to get Kaia’s spear because he knows Dean’s going to get it. I did it.

-”When was the last time we had a big, no-strings-attached win like that?” Cas, don’t you feel BAD? - He just doesn’t want to tell Dean about his deal with the Empty because the last time Cas pissed off an all-powerful cosmic being in a way that would get him killed in the near future, Dean didn’t speak to him for a week. - I actually don’t like this scene that much though. Dean’s monologue about wanting to kill Michael needs more weight and more room to breathe-- some pauses, some dramatic music, a little more time which we could have had if you cut the Ketch scene that was drawn out for no reason. - Oh, well, at least Dean and Cas are getting their date finally this season.

- Likewise, the scene between Michael and Sam needed to be heavier, more drawn out. I want Michael to actually be worried about Sam, about how successfully Sam has coordinated and trained the apocalypse hunters from Michael’s world. I want there to be some sense of long-expected meeting, instead of it just looking like Michael bumped into Sam in the post office parking lot and decided to throw him into a van. - Seriously, do you have any idea how long I’ve been WAITING for their one-on-one? (I mean, since the end of Season 13, but still.) - I super want Sam to be the one to kill Michael. Dean killed Lucifer, Sam should get to kill Michael. Also, I like the idea of the brothers killing each other’s tormentors.

- Scene with Kaia is excellent and not just because I’m obsessed with the character. - Her introduction is great -- I’m such a sucker for the girl appearing out of nowhere and threatening a dude with a weapon. (Chalk it up to Arwen in The Lord of the Rings or Jane Barnet in Swashbuckler.) - DarkKaia music theme!! - Dean’s acting like he has a bit more respect for her than he has the last two times he meets her, but he still lies to her face. I’m a Dean girl and all, but I am going to enjoy watching Kaia kick Dean’s ass when she finds out Jack can’t get her back to the Bad Place. - Also you can tell Cas thinks lying to Kaia is a bad idea but he doesn’t want to say anything while Kaia’s got a spear pointed at Dean. Instead he tries to manage the damage on the front end by pointing out Kaia’s withholding things from them. He’s got a lot more emotional intelligence than he used to. - Maybe DarkKaia has a DarkClaire she needs to protect in the Bad Place. - She doesn’t, if she did she wouldn’t have tried to kill original flavorClaire.

- Cas: Sam, don’t you go in there alone.  Sam: I know. *immediately goes in there alone*

- The scene between Michael and Jack is amazing. (TBH, the second half of this episode is better than the first half, which is also kind of typical of Robert Berens. It’s like he just kills time before the high-stakes climax, and said climax is so good it makes you forget the rest of the episode may have only been meh.) - WHO IS PLAYING MICHAEL, SHE’S SO GOOD. According to IMDb, her name is Felisha Terrell and she doesn’t appear to be in the next episode. Fuck you, Supernatural, you’re going to bring Mark Pellegrino back and not this goddess? - Seriously though, she’s really good, I don’t understand how she doesn’t have more credits on IMDb. Maybe she’s more of a stage actress? - She manages to deliver her lines in this scene with a mixture of casualness and gravitas that really nails the topic of the passage of time and how it changes family and loyalties. - If the cereal scene is Jack understanding what Cas lost by making the deal to bring Jack back, then this scene is Jack understanding what HE lost by coming back. As an all-powerful being with archangel grace in his veins, he was bound to be all but immortal anyway, and now he’s using Enochian magic to keep his body functioning -- magic that kept someone who was constantly using it and burning up her soul to do different spells alive for more than 100 years. Imagine how long it’s going to keep Jack alive when he’s not using it for any spells other than keeping his body working and when he’s eventually not even going to need it for that because his grave will naturally regenerate. - Jack told Dean that he wanted to live his life spending more time with his family and then die when that life was over -- now he’s realizing that time will be long after the rest of his family (including Castiel if Michael has his way, it sounds like) is already dead. Long enough that Kelly, Sam and Dean will become just a tiny percentage of his life.  - Of course what Cas knows and Michael DOESN’T know is that longevity doesn’t equal loyalty, or Cas wouldn’t have chosen Dean even after Naomi’s constant reprogramming. - Anyway, Felisha Terrell may be my favorite thing about this episode.

- Love the return of Hair Werewolf and Overly Zealous Intern Werewolf. - Also love the return of Sam Motherfucking Winchester, who takes out even the werewolf who had advance notice he was coming, because he’s Sam Motherfucking Winchester. (Something else Berens does great.) - Can Sam rescue Jack all the time? That really is my favorite of Jack’s relationships.

- Did anyone else think the scene spent a weird amount of time emphasizing Jack’s injury by Garth and Cas’ healing of it? Is Cas’ grace used to heal Jack going to make Jack able to use some of his powers next episode? - Seriously, there was so much time spent on that that I was afraid Jack was about to turn into a werewolf. (Which would have been so dumb, I’m glad they didn’t do that.)

- Fidgety Michael is something I find fascinating. I don’t think we’ve ever seen an angel fidget before. - Michael is so obsessed with these guys knowing his plan/seeing it all play out. He’s the biggest drama queen in this show. (Sorry Crowley.) -  I don’t really understand what Michael says to Cas in the scene where he’s beating him up though. -”You got it.” “I sure did.” He was counting on you getting it, stupid. - I love, love, love how Sam sliding the spear across the floor to Dean is a parallel to Sam throwing the archangel blade to him during his battle with Lucifer in Season 13 (about the only good part of that battle, tbh).

- I guess no one was surprised Michael possessed Dean again. - When Kaia finds out Michael broke her spear, she’s going to kick his ass too. - Also, can we appreciate Michael’s level of drama? He starts his Scotch in one vessel and then finishes it in another. That’s some Extra shit right there. Somewhere in the Empty Crowley’s wishing he’d thought of that.

Overall thoughts: Not the best episode but not the worst either. Ringing endorsement, I know. I just felt it had a lot of potential that it didn’t tap into because it was too busy giving Ketch an unnecessary scene (What would have been wrong with Sam grumbling, “Ketch put the egg in the mail” like in every other episode this season?) and spending a lot of time on Intern Werewolf and other, more boring werewolves when it should have been building the tension in scenes like the one between Michael and Sam, which felt a little rushed and flat.

That said, I loved the new Michael and pretty much all Jack’s scenes were good. And since it looks like there’s going to be some trapping of Michael and some invading of Dean’s head, maybe the high-stakes emotional character stuff is all going to come next episode. I want Michael taunting Cas and Sam about how they’ve failed Dean, Jack doing some rescuing of his own, and Dean being pissed off that Michael changed his clothes again. I also want Mary and Sister Jo to save Kansas City and for Garth to puke up the angel grace and be totally fine and home in time to spend Christmas with his daughter.