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nerdylittleshit · 5 years ago

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Thoughts about Spn 15x02

SPOILERS AHEAD! BEWARE!

So, round two. And we are still not any closer how to get rid of all the ghosts. All the solutions so far have been temporary, and while the episode moved the plot along it also felt kind of redundant. If anything the episode raised a couple of questions, which will probably become more relevant once the season moves along. And as usually with Bucklemming episodes I felt the episode had at least 2 or 3 characters too much, that again kind of felt redundant as well. All in all it felt like one of those “you can skip this one”-episodes, once we all will start our rewatch.

But, as always, let’s take a closer look.

Ghostapocalypse: The Return

See, I’m still not invested in the whole ghost storyline and now we will get 3 episodes dealing with it. While last week’s ghosts were somehow connected to the Winchesters, I don’t see this pattern in this week’s episode. The ghost that is featured most prominently is the one of Francis Tumblety aka ‘jack the Ripper’. The name would suggest a connection to our Jack, though I don’t see why. However he is quite literally connected to Rowena: they used to date back in the day. More so all of Francis’s victims were women. It seems like they both even back then were aware of each’s other dark secret: that Rowena is a witch and Francis a serial killer. But unlike Francis Rowena has changed and works together with hunters now. Will she be the key to get all the ghosts back to hell? Will she sacrifice herself in order to do so? (The promo for next week suggests so)

It was also Francis who brought up the theme of the episode (perhaps the season?): doors. The warding is a door and door can be opened. Some of the town’s people sneaked into that door, despite being told not to (and died because of it). Last episode we learned that all the doors have been opened in hell, including the cage, so Michael will (possibly) be free as well. The (temporary) solution to deal with ghosts is to trap them again. Belphegor creates a door inside the warding so Kevin can leave. Kevin himself is not free to go where he wants: he can only stay on earth or return to hell. He is trapped as well. And there is of course the return of Amara, who once has been sealed away by Chuck, who is now facing the same fate: he is trapped inside our world because he is too weak to leave. So yeah, doors/being trapped will be a big theme this season I guess.

And speaking of Kevin: why would Chuck make an exception for both John and Bobby but would then send Kevin to hell? What did he gain in that? Or was there some sort of risk in sending Kevin to heaven? Unless this plot development becomes relevant again I feel Kevin’s return was… useless. He could not help the Winchesters and we only learned that Chuck broke his promise and is a dick, which we already knew before, and now Kevin’s fate is to wander the earth as a ghost. I get it, it is the last season and they probably try to bring back as many guest stars as they can, but it should be relevant to the plot you know. The only thing we learned is that there isn’t a solution to every problem and sometimes you have to accept that, which might be a bit of foretelling of what is to come for the Winchesters. (Also, both Sam and Dean have been to hell, so does that mean they can’t go to heaven as well?)

Cogito, ergo sum

Let’s get philosophical (trust me, it’s fun). In the perhaps best scene of the episode Dean and Cas have a short conversation, showing us that Dean is still angry at Cas for what happened with Jack and Mary and that he is in an existential crisis. After he learned the truth about Chuck Dean questions everything. To him his entire life has been a lie and none of his choices are his own. Cas however sees the entire situation different. While Chuck might have designed the obstacles of their lives, their choices, their feelings are very much their own. To Dean’s question what is real his answer is ‘We are’. Of course the ‘we’ might refer to all of Team Free Will, but in that very moment only Cas and Dean are present. The subtext of that scene is Dean asking whether his feelings for Cas are real or yet another manipulation by Chuck, and Cas reassuring him that they are real, that everything between them, their bond, their feelings, are real.

Personally I do believe Cas is right. It is true that Chuck has designed the story, the life of Sam and Dean Winchesters, and that he did manipulate them to act in a certain way. However he has no control over their feelings. Otherwise he could have forced Dean to kill Jack. Dean acted on his own, against Chuck’s intention. While Dean has no control over what is happening to him he has control over how he feels about it. His feelings and his choices are still his own. Which is pretty much how life works: we can’t control what is happening to us but we can control how we react to it.

But speaking about things that are not what they seem: what is the deal with Belphegor? After last week everyone agreed that there is more to him, and that he might not be who he says he is. Though I’m not sure he is indeed someone else, there is definitely something sketchy about him. We learn that another demon named Ardat is after him and that apparently he is a terrible threat to humanity. Dean doesn’t seem to trust him either and if we can trust anything than it is Dean’s bullshit sensor. Also Belphegor claims he is just a good soldier, the same way Dean once said he is a good son (which given the way John raised his sons means the same as being a good soldier), the same way Michael once said he is a good son. Along with Belphegor admiring Dean’s work as a torturer there is definitely a connection between these two.

You are the yin to my yang

This episode also marks the return of Amara. Yeah. She is living her best life, mostly because she got rid of her brother. While these two made their peace it is not like they are friends. Amara has neither forget nor forgiven what her brother has done to her. She sees right through him, realizing that he only wants to spend time with her because he needs her. We learn that Sam was right in his assumption that now that the Winchesters know the truth Chuck got bored and wants to leave this world, however he is too weak to do so. He needs Amara’s help, who in return has no intention to help him, leaving him trapped the way he had sealed her away for so long. Amara says Chuck can only do parlor tricks and has no real power. While Chuck is weakened I think he is still a threat to the Winchesters. And perhaps the only one who can defeat him is still Amara, who might become an ally to the Winchesters.

On a meta level we had chuck calling the Game of Trones ending ‘great’. Personal feelings aside in general most people would not agree with Chuck. This is yet another sign that Chuck is not a good writer. Most people criticized that the ending of GoT felt too rushed, with the characters acting out-of-character. Which is exactly what Chuck wanted: to see the ending he wanted despite having characters acting against their nature. If Chuck would have understood Dean as a character he would have known that Dean could never kill Jack, despite manipulating the story in every way for that to occur. Whenever you write a story you have to accept that stories create a life of their own and as you move on what you had planned to happen might not feel right anymore.

In that regard I think it is quite interesting what Andrew Dabb said about Chuck in a recent interview:

And the type of writer he is, I don’t think that’s a very good type of writer … A good writer will tell you that if you write good enough characters they’ll go their own way and talk to you themselves. And we’ve seen that on Supernatural with Sam and Dean over the years. I think Chuck is the kind of writer who just wants his characters to do what he wants them to do and he gets frustrated when they – because they have a little bit of agency – kind of refuse.

Source

The other odd couple we had this episode were Rowena and Ketch. Which I think was another Bucklemming thing, because they like to bring back the characters they invented and they love some sexy times I guess. I still don’t get why Ketch was there at all and why in the world Rowena would be attracted to him. I mean he tortured her, reason enough to transform him into a toad or something.

Also, why couldn’t Cas heal Ketch? He had no problem healing Sam last episode. Is Cas getting weaker or has this something to do with Ketch? Is he hiding something as well?

Guess we will find out eventually. Til next week <3

#supernatural #spn 15x02 #raising hell #spn meta #my meta

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