Supernatural 13x04 EARLY Early Access!
Added 2025-10-01 14:02:33 +0000 UTC
Comments
I know I was happy to have John Badham back in the director’s chair; great that the show keeps hiring him back. They did have the strong focus on mental health in this one. Jack is in that thing of he is for all intents and purposes, a baby, so it’s less he feels nothing, and more he has yet to define what he feels. Speaking from experience of feeling nothing, even when you do feel nothing like when going through severe depression, you still feel a lot, it just overwhelms to the point that the mind and body just numb themselves with the proverbial novocaine. The idea of the therapy offered, I can get behind it. There would be some wariness as to how effectively the shapeshifter would pull it off. Though the episode implies that she has a good track record. And it does serve as a form of catharsis and closure. Especially with being able to say goodbye, something that, if this would work, I’d take the lady up on it to say goodbye to those I’ve lost, particularly my dad. She speaks true that monster is a relative term. Just very sweet how she helped Jack by appearing as his mom. Allows a comfort that Sam can’t provide. Meantime, good to see the young man enjoying Clone Wars, though the scene sent me on a nerd rant that I’ll spare you that. One note I will say: Jack saying that he likes Ahsoka, (horrific butchering of her name notwithstanding,) and that he doesn’t like Anakin, the subtext of that does not go unnoticed. Sammy does break the heart on that one. Definitely a case where I’m the younger brother myself, so I know exactly what he’s talking about. How you say, Dean had those four years, he had nothing. And even when Mary came back, she mostly spent the time with Dean, and he only ever really got the hunting time in with his mom. Rest of the time, she kept her distance. Considering the guilt, and that facing it would mean having to face what her death did to her baby boy, near impossible to even really hold it against Mary. The fallout is that yeah, Sam still did not get that which he badly wants, and he now holds out all the hope that he can get his mom back just for the chance. Him yelling at Dean, he’s had that in the barrel for a LONG time, and it is good for him to get it off his chest. And sweet though Dean’s thing of needing Sam to keep the faith, I sort of get defensive of Sam for it always seeming to fall on his shoulders, though I try to focus more on the nice sentiment. With Dean, maybe not so much a breakthrough, but certainly a baby step in the right direction. You’re right about him lashing out as it’s easier for him to do that. Having to look after Jack during a hunt does seem to help him focus a bit more. And like you say, he does appreciate effort, so, although not unreasonably wary of Jack, he is starting to ease up on Jack. The therapy helped. Still say he needs to have the sitdown with Sidney Freedman and/or Dr. Kroger. And he did get a lot of shit off his chest via his partial projection on Sam. That line about if he admits about Mary being dead, then it’s real, is definitely about him, and Sam calls that out. Much though it is starting the mellowing process for Dean, I was yelling some, “Ok, Dean, I need you to calm down. There’re other people in the room. You’re being a fucking asshole right now.” That said, letting some of the harsher anger out, combined with Sam throwing some anger right back does seem to have done the trick. And maybe, just maybe Dean does sense Castiel in some form. Think the idea is plausible. Rather love how Castiel got out of the nothingness. In his place, I’d have pissed the being off by not having the concrete answers, offering, “I got woken up by Jack-ex-machina, at least that’s my guess.” and if pushed for specifics, I’d admit I have none, which the nothingness being would get more irate, leaving me to say, “Well, I don’t know what to say.” I’d also ask what the hell accent he had was. Was that European or Southern or both? Memorable for sure. I’d definitely lean into just annoying the being until the being sent you back to Earth strategy, especially by saying, “Thank you, Sir! May I have another.” after the being started the hitting. Or hell, when the being says about not wanting to be a festering continuous disappointment, I have a long list of comebacks on that one. Love you and Jess having the great reads on this one. Still need to have the good cry about Jess grasping the feeling that Crowley is dead, even then, she still has the hope that he’ll somehow return. That got me good.
Thomas Corp
2025-10-01 21:26:52 +0000 UTCThis is such an underappreciated episode. It is... quieter, I guess, then some of the other ones, especially this season, but it is so beautifully written and performed. One of my favorite things, back from season 7, was the focus it had on the boys mental health, and season 13 is doing a really good job of emulating that, specifically, so far, with Dean, and his grief and depression, but I love that this episode we got a look into Jack and Sam as well Jack, I think is really interesting here because, this is a baby. Literally only probably... weeks, maybe months old at this point. And I think, when Jack says he feels nothing, what he is really saying is he doesn't know how he is feeling, which makes sense with how young he is. Because you can look at Jack and tell he doesn't feel nothing (we've seen what someone who doesn't feel anything looks and acts like, aka Robo-Sam). But separating out the nuance of anger, versus fear, versus sadness is complicated and difficult even for adults (which was brilliantly demonstrated this episode with the family therapy), let alone for someone as innocent and vulnerable as Jack. I personally love the therapy that the shapeshifter was offering, because it wasn't a permanent thing, it was simply to give closure and that last goodbye which can offer a lot of healing, as we saw with Jack. And even that phrase- even a monster can do good in the world. It uses monster as a descriptive term, like hunter or human, which frees it from automatically being assumed evil. We've met good monsters before, Benny, Lenore, Madison, and Jack needed to hear that from a fellow monster, because as much as Sam tries, and succeeds in being able to relate and empathize with Jack, it isn't quite the same. Sam... I really love that we got that therapy scene with Sam, where he got to explain to Dean why he needs to hold onto the belief of his mom being alive. Because he is absolutely right. Dean and Mary had four years together, when Dean was a child, to build that mother/son bond. And then Dean was the first one to meet Mary when she came back, and they had those days looking for Sam to restore that connection. And all through season 12, it was Dean Mary texted, and played Online Scrabble with, it was Dean who went into Mary's mind to break the mind control, it was Dean who Mary leaned on 90% of the time, and got the heart-to-hearts. Sam spent some time with Mary, but it was either as a hunter (like with the vampire raid and the BMOL compound), or with Dean as well. And then, Mary was do distant, so cold with the boys, especially Sam, because of the guilt she felt, that there was always this barrier between them. Sam is just craving that same bond with the mother he never got to know, but was, essentially, forced to idolize his entire life, thanks to the permanent shrine to Mary that his childhood had become with John's vendetta against the demon. He wants Mary to see him, to establish that connection that comes so easily to Dean because, really, he and Mary are strangers. And just when he finally has that chance at a fresh start... Lucifer, of all freaking people, takes her away from him. Of course he is clinging to the idea of her still being alive, of getting that chance to know her, because he has never, really, had that chance before. And Sam has always been the more faithful, the more believing of the brothers, and I just love that Dean acknowledges that, that he admits he is depending on Sam's faith, on his strength to believe for them both. As for Dean... I feel like this is a breakthrough episode for Dean. He is still angry, and depressed, and hurting. He is lashing out at Sam and Jack because he it is easier than for him to admit the truth to himself. But being forced to overcome that, to put aside his emotions and focus on the hunt, with Jack there, I think was exactly the kind of push he needed to get his head out of his ass a little bit. Sam was right, after all, Dean appreciates what he can see, effort, and Dean needed to see that Jack wasn't evil, wasn't just waiting for the chance to hurt people. He couldn't do that cooped up in the bunker. And, of course, Jack saved Sam's life. That is a huge way to score big points in Dean's book. Meeting with the therapist, getting some of his pain off his chest (admittedly in a cruel, viscous kind of way) and seeing Jack do something inherently good, almost reflexively, was a breath of fresh air Dean needed. Also, and this is purely my own theory, I think a lot of the shift in Dean, the sort of mellowing out that we see by the end of the episode, is the profound bond between Dean and Cas let him sort of... sense that Cas was back. Not in a premonition kind of way, just in a... maybe Cas isn't as far away as he felt before kind of way. And lastly... Misha lol. I love what he did with The Empty lol. At a con, he explained that the choice to use that particular voice was driven by his desire to make a clear distinction between The Empty and Cas, and unintentionally created the funniest voice ever lol
Elisia
2025-10-01 15:23:38 +0000 UTC
