Supernatural 13x11 EARLY Early Access!
Added 2025-11-19 14:00:21 +0000 UTC
Comments
This show does have that pendulum of swinging from utterly serious to utterly nonsensical episodes. The latter category, I know we have one such example, I think in about a month? Still wondering if said upcoming episode that Jess’s mom was talking about. This one was in the utterly serious category, and it was a doozy. Felt like Criminal Minds, which further reminded me of we won’t be seeing Jody again for a while. I presume, anyway. Heart goes out to Donna. Doug too. Man broke the heart with the farewell. I was, perhaps, the tiniest bit mean in that with the revelations about Donna’s hunting, and how Doug can’t handle that, I said, “Doug, it’s the hunting life. It’s not like Donna kept secret that she’s a Packers fan.” Not the time for those jokes, I know. Sorry. Would hope the two could still be friends. The parallel is the boys. Don’t think Dean has too much room to talk with the sleeping in until ten, though I’m with him on turning down pancakes is a big red flag. And how Sam admits, it’s not that he doesn’t want to help Donna. His energy is shot. Dean does have quite a bit of his mojo back. Not sure I would go so far as to say Dean feels balanced as I think both of the boys have been through too much to ever get that. He does, however, feel like he’s backed away from the edge, and is back in mellower waters. He had some good villains to combat. Given what a creep he was, Jess was certainly in favor of just killing the one twit, vampire or not. I was with her on that one. He was a cocky vampire, making me yell, “What, you think you’re like Bela or Sir Christopher Lee!? You’re not! You’re the fucking shittest vampire ever. You’re, you’re Edward fucking Cullen, that’s what you are!” Dean agreed, it seems, given his own Twilight comment. Clegg was the more mundane terrifying. Going back to Criminal Minds, his whole set-up felt reminiscent of the one plotline there, ten years ago, with the similar thing of trafficking. They did the good job of keeping Clegg normal, and not in the vein of like Dahmer or Gein. Scarier question mark was the other guy. We never got confirmation about who that was, and whether they were human or not. I assume they were human, given Donna stabbed them with the normal blade and they dropped dead, but that they don’t have anything concrete is scary. Leading to the scene with Doug. Feel like I’m nicer to Sam than what the narrative was intending. He didn’t strictly speaking feel negative. I even agree with him that what he said to Donna, he wasn’t wrong. Plus, compared to some of Dean’s abrasive spells, it felt rather tame, all things considered. It is contrary to Sam’s usual reputation for being more the optimist, and him being more realist is jarring, so it still works. Good note on how it’s his pain being on full display. I know the thing of what Jared pours into this. I’ve got my own struggles with mental health, and suffering from depression. Never stops, really. What happened in my head’s not exactly the sort of thing that ever gets better. At least, not entirely, anyway. You try to live with it. One outlet for it is like how you say Jared does with channeling it. And you know the boys have had their lows before. Their father dying being the big one especially after their mom died early. Especially prominent when Bobby died, and both Jared and Jensen were WAY too realistic with conveying the grief when losing one’s dad like how Bobby was for the boys, and how one is just helpless to do anything about that. Losing Castiel the times that they have, brings Dean down. Charlie’s death was a big low for them. Recently now, Kaia dying hurts Sam. And Sam is still contending with the very fresh and raw pain and grief for Eileen. Painful though that one is, I like how the show isn’t spelling out Sam’s pain on that one, and just lets the audience recall that on their own. Eileen’s death, that one’s going to stick with Sam for a long time. Thus Sam is at the level of low that Dean’s been, and it does hurt. One silver lining is as I said, he wasn’t as abrasive as Dean could get, and he still had a sound in his voice that he was trying to help Donna with what he said, particularly the words about how Doug making his decision is safer for him. So, there is the hope that’s still there. Tough though the episode was, it was a bit harder seeing how it got Jess bad. Wanted to give her a hug a few times. See how the next episode goes.
Thomas Corp
2025-11-19 19:00:04 +0000 UTCI really, really love this episode. It is probably my favorite episode of the season. Supernatural, to me, has always been at its best when it is dealing with either utterly serious, or utterly nonsensical episodes, and this episode definitely qualifies under serious. It is dark, and heavy, and there is a power in the writing, and the acting that is just... compelling, and indefinable. Just outstanding performances by the cast and crew this episode. In my opinion, this episode ranks up there with ones like Swan Song, or Sacrifice, or Abandon All Hope. It's like what they did in The Benders, back in season 1, but somehow even worse, even darker and more brutal (which is an impressive feat honestly). Honestly, and yes I know I am Sam-biased lol, Jared/Sam stole this entire freaking episode. Donna was amazing, of course, and her and Doug's story was beautifully, if tragically, done, especially considering Donna's history with guys named Doug, its a sad, but fantastic call back to her partners not being able to handle who Donna is, or her power and strength. And the actress, as always, did a fantastic job balancing the badass, clever, skilled hunter with the heartbroken, scared human. And Dean, of course... this felt very, very Dean-core. Even though this wasn't a normal case, everything that makes him Dean, that we know and love, was on full display. His determination, his care for the people he loves and their loved ones, his focus, his snark and badassery, and, of course, his concern and care for Sam, it feels like we get a resurgence of it all, and a return to the Dean we saw at the end of season 12, after BMOL were defeated but before Jack was born. This is the first real episode this season where Dean feels... balanced, again. Not depressed, and not almost manic from relief and happiness, but just Dean. And Clegg, and the vampire twit, were great villains. I love that they made the twit a vampire so that we had an excuse to kill him lol. He was the perfect mix of obnoxious and cruel and stupid that makes for a great red herring in this show. And Clegg, honestly, is amazing as a villain. Gives the Benders a run for their money. It doesn't always work out, when Supernatural goes the "humans are the monsters" route, that the human in question is portrayed as terrifying, usually its just serious, deadly, or psycho to the point of almost comedic, but Clegg was freaking terrifying. The callousness, the cleverness, the sadism, to just worked to make him beyond scary. He wasn't overdone, or exaggerated either, he was just...a human feeding his own kind to monsters. A trafficker. And his normalcy is what makes him such a frightening character, cause unlike the Benders, who are kind of... sensationalized (ie: Ed Gein for example), guys like Clegg are just every day, normal people. The show did amazing with showing that. But, Sam. Jared knocked it out of the freaking park this episode. He always does intense, dark, deep scenes so well, but we hardly ever get to see Sam this low. We've seen Sam enraged, we've seen him petrified. We've seen Sam without a soul, or desperate, or hurting. But Sam isn't... a negative person. He's always driven, always moving, always some kind of hopeful. Peaceful. But Sam, here... this is just... heavy. You can feel the loss, the weight on Sam. The sleeping in, the... not reluctance to help Donna, because you can tell he wants to, but the... inability to find the energy, almost, like it is taking everything he has just to move, to work. The edge that he speaks with, especially to Dean and Donna at the end. It isn't anger, even if it comes off as cutting. It's pain. A level of pain that Sam is in that we have never seen before. He is grieving and lost and confused and angry, and so completely overwhelmed that he has no idea how to even breath, let alone move forward. And, Jared, who has very publicly spoken about his own struggles with mental health, and suffering from depression, just channels his acting in such a way that he is radiating the helplessness he feels. You can tell he took his own experiences and incorporated them into his acting choices here, making a very vivid display. And you know, we've seen Dean this low before. When his Dad died, when Bobby and Cas died in season 7, literally any time Sam almost dies. So the beginning of this season, while Jensen nailed it perfectly... it was expected. But having never gotten this from Sam before, I feel like it hits that much harder. Definitely not an easy episode. No real humor or lightness at all to speak of. But the grimness of it, the weight, is so well done, and so powerful, that it shines that much brighter in the season overall
Elisia
2025-11-19 17:21:13 +0000 UTC
