Season Seven!!!

Welcome to season seven of Supernatural!! Our new title card is a bleak black and white that I first thought may be a comment on the blighted condition of our heroes, and then I thought perhaps it was letting us know that good and evil will be pretty cut and dry this season, but after the second episode, it may just be leviathan blood oozing into the world of Supernatural. Maybe it’s all three!!

Anyhoo, these episodes resolved some stuff, and set up what looks like is the Big Bad of the season, the Leviathan(s). They were fast paced and had some fun twists and turns.  I am so excited – and it’s been a while since this show really excited me.

Misha as Leviathan

First off, we resolved the GodCas issue much quicker than I expected. BOOM, and within an episode and an opening scene our sweet little angel did his Godly best to clean up the world, redeem himself in the eyes of Dean, and head off into the drink under the control of the Leviathans just before his vessel disintegrated into a black and red mushy mess. Misha Collins was freakin’ fantastic in this, and it makes me sad that smaller shows like this never get any Emmy love. Dean pulling the ever-present trench outta the reservoir was a sad, sad moment, and Jensen Ackles once again proves that he is the heart of this show. Poor Dean, had to say goodbye to his bestest buddy, and one of my favorite TV pairs bites the dust. Loved the dream of an all powerful god smiting the hypocritical and corrupt of the world, and the running newscasts of who and what were being destroyed was amusing. It was a good and sad end to the Castiel saga, and there is a teeny, tiny part of me that hopes he will turn up again one day… but I kinda hope not, too.

So it turns out, after the leviathans disperse into the water reservoir, and then throw themselves into some innocent bystander types a la the X-Files black oil, we find out that they seem to have a leader, have orders to follow, but certainly have got a bit of a learning curve to get through. After some stumbling about, and getting their bearings, they come up with a plan to open a buffet, of sorts, at Sioux Falls General Hospital, where Sheriff Mills just happens to be recouping from appendectomy surgery. She is recovered just enough to figure out there are shenanigans going on with her ridiculously handsome and charming doctor, and gives Bobby a heads up, alerting the Winchester crew that the leviathans are spreading. One by one, everyone heads out to the hospital… or do they???!!!!!

Lucifer as Dean

Here’s where the fun of Sam’s hallucinations takes hold in the storytelling. A nicely done trick makes us think that Dean needs Sam’s help, and we go on a twisty little trip through Sam’s pain, and being wildly entertained by Mark Pellegrino as Lucifer. I know some people hate the continuing story of poor widdle Sammy, but his journey with Lucifer taunting him wonderfully along the way has opened the brother’s relationship greatly. And we even get Dean talking to Sammy about his time in Hell! No more hiding, no more angsty stupidness. Dean gets to sympathize and console his brother, and after that awesome fight in the junk yard,we actually see concern and brotherly love! It is an aspect of the Winchester story that has been greatly lacking for many seasons, and I was thrilled to see it all through this last episode.

We end this two episode thrill ride with a crushed leviathan that seems to just be waylaid, Dean with a broken leg and Sam seizing as the ambulance careens our pretty heroes back to the Hospital of Doom, and Bobby disturbingly missing.

Oh yeah, and they BURNED DOWN BOBBY’S HOUSE!!!  Yowza, that is some good shit, writers.

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I have no idea what other SPN fans thought, because I have been out of town and have spent the week playing catch-up. I was lucky I got to see the finale on Saturday. You know what? Kripke brought it!

A few shocking, horrible, awful deaths; some brotherly love; a hot car that saves the world; and an Angel gets his mojo back. Nice.

I was sure Samifer was a terrible idea, and I was sure the whole Sam/Lucifer talking in the mirror thing was gonna suck, but they didn’t dwell and Jared pulled off the two characters quite well. Seeing Lucifer swallow our darling Sammy up was hard to see, and I can’t believe I was rooting for a damn car to pull him out of it. A car!!

I am also a sucker for this style of storytelling, and it helped that I am a big fan of Chuck the Prophet. The one thing I do know, is that a lot of people are supposing that Chuck is GOD. I am back and forth on this, and may need to watch again to get a more solid opinion. He was wearing white… but would Kripke be that obvious? Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past him.

So, the ending. If this was the verylastSupernaturalever, I would have been satisfied. It would have sucked to think that Dean wouldn’t have his brother, but it would have made sense to me. It would have felt final and tied up and bittersweet and gratifying. But we all know there is another season to come, and Samifer standing under the street lamp, glaring at Dean and Lisa was not only clique, but kinda cheap. And let me tell you, if we have to endure another season of those stunning boys at odds, I am gonna be pissed. I watch this show for the the pretty, the gore and the brotherly love. A few episodes of Sam trying to get back to the world is fine, but not a whole season! Plus, I am not sure how much more of Dean’s suffering I can take.

And who are we gonna blame when things go awry next season? I am so used to “Damn you, Kripke!”, but will it now have to be “Damn you, Sera!”. Just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

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I am sensing a pattern here, and I just hope that it means from now on that if the third-to-last episode of the season/series bores me (I’m looking at you, Lost), then the penultimate episode will be awesome, as occurred here.

All the goodness! Castiel came back to save those beautiful Winchesters from Pestilence, even though he is less angel-y and more human-y. How awesome is Castiel? Anyhoo, Bobby actually did sell (or lend?) his soul to Crowley, sealed with an iPhone documented kiss, and for his trouble, got the use of his legs back. Which was great as he and Sammy headed to firebomb the warehouse full of the Vaccine That’s Really Croatoan, where Sammy proceeded to be a BigDamnHero saving all the non-zombied workers from the Croatoaned zombies. Meanwhile, Dean finds Death at a diner in Chicago eating yummy pie. Turns out Death is just as sick and tired of Lucifer’s antics as everyone else, so he gives Dean a few tips about the rings, and makes him promise to throw his darling bother Sammy into the void. Which turns Dean into a liar as he agrees, because we all know he would never do that. Right?

I love how this show continues to tweak the presumptions we have about myth and religion, and much like Lost, has been toying with the idea of Good vs. Evil, and all those hues in between. I wonder if Darlton and Kripke are cursing each other for stealing each others ideas. Hee.

So, what can only be seen as the stupidest plan in the world seems to have been hatched. Sammy will let Lucifer use his vessel-ness and then, THEN! Sam will use his demony powers to make Lucifer jump back into whence he came, so the rest of the crew can seal him back in with the Horsemen rings. It seems like a really bad idea, although I certainly don’t have a better one, so I guess we’ll go with this.

I have no idea how it will all play out, but after this episode, I am very excited to find out.

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I would like to admit up front that I have always felt that Supernatural is really Dean’s story. Don’t get me wrong, Sam is vital, but I feel like the whole story of the Winchester’s is all about Dean’s journey more than anything.

So this week, we had to put up with sad, vaguely annoying Dean for half of the episode, as he whined about how useless it all was, and how he was just gonna let Michael have his way with him. Quite frankly, feeling-sorry-for-himself Dean is no fun. Imagine my happiness when Castiel showed up and kicked Dean’s ass all over that dark alley!

I like the addition of making BabyWinchester Adam part of the mix. Once he was dead, it never occurred to me that he might be brought back, but that Zachariah is a wily one! I thought it was pretty clever, because Dean just can not resist the family thing, especially someone he sees as an innocent.

So, we end up in Van Nuys, of all places, in the Angel room. After Castiel once again shows us his mad Angel skillz, Dean and Sam crash in on Adam and Zach, and all kinds of gory business takes place, resulting in the spectacular ganking of Zachariah, and the mildly unexpected taking of BabyAdam by Michael (who is a big, loud Angel, it seems!).

The best part of this episode, is that Dean finally stops feeling sorry for himself, and it looks like he is ready to embrace Sam again. Hooray! Hopefully, this is gonna be a race to the finish line of this apocalypse, our brothers fighting shoulder to shoulder.

I know that Lucifer is busy being Jacob over on Lost, but I sure hope we get to see him again soon.

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The first episode back after the winter break gave us a very different view of the brothers than we’re used to. Each had to come to grips with the demons (pardon the pun) they face, in his own way.

I think what I liked best about this episode was that just when we thought we knew what it was about, we were wrong. More than once.

Sure, in the end, the identity of the wraith was obvious, but what’s that they say about hindsight being 20/20? I’m consistently impressed by how original the show manages to be.

First, I want to say this about the episode’s final scene: I loved how it made Dean FINALLY forgive Sam, even though that’s not what it was about on the surface. Dean’s entreaty to Sam, “Are you WITH me?” wasn’t simply a question. It was a question, an invitation, a plea.

Those four words were Dean’s way of saying, “You’re my brother. What’s past is past. We have a world to save and the only way we can do it is together. I love you.” Well, that’s what it meant to me, anyway.

The show has spent so much time with Dean making cracks about Sam sucking down demon blood and trusting Ruby more than him, Dean took a real step here. And maybe part of it was that he gave himself a little therapy in the form of his imaginary (hot) doctor. Have to admit, we should have realized the second his doctor introduced herself that she was a figment of his insanity – she was way too attractive to have been the doctor. Not that psychiatrists can’t be attractive, but I even thought to myself, “Figures Dean would get a hottie for a doctor.”

In the end, though, the wraith was right: She ramps up the crazy in her victims, but the special brand of crazy that exhibits itself is all theirs. Dean is frakkin’ ANGRY. And I don’t think it’s because of what he’s done or that Lucifer is waiting to use him as his vessel.

He was born to be Lucifer’s vessel. Or, at least, after the demon blood was dripped onto him. Just like Dean is the vessel for the archangel Michael, and so no matter what he thinks he wants to do, he does the Right Thing, so Sam is the vessel for Lucifer and he bears this extreme rage inside him – the rage that Lucifer has felt against God since his fall.

Wow. Just got really philosophical there for a moment.

Think about it, though. Dean pretty much always tries to be bad, but he just always does the right thing and has dedicated his life to hunting demons and protecting people. Sam is always mad and when he didn’t have his brother around to watch over him, he crossed a line and drank demon blood.

Sure, in a way you can’t really blame Sam. He believed Ruby and thought he was doing the right thing. And I don’t mean it as a slam against Sam. But he was the reluctant hunter. I can’t help but think that the part of him that is Lucifer’s vessel made it so that he would be the one to spring Lucifer from hell, that didn’t really want to go around killing demons. It wasn’t really that he wanted to be “normal,” it was that he was the vessel for the greatest Demon of all.

I’d love to hear what others think. I basically came up with everything I wrote here as I was writing it and haven’t thought this through AT ALL. So please feel free to dispute what I’ve said.

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An interesting episode of Supernatural last night. The main question posed is one that seems to come up on all the shows I watch, somehow.

Can we change our future? Our past? Is the timeline immutable? If you see your future, is it possible to change the past, or are you stuck because you’ve seen it, so whatever you do to avoid it will end up just changing the details but not the end result?

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that the five-years-in-the-future zombie-ish apocalyptic reality doesn’t have to happen. First off, the angels as we’ve seen them have not been exactly honest with Sam and Dean up to this point, and I wouldn’t put it past them to show Dean a reality that could, but doesn’t have to happen.

Second, would Eric Kripke really have embarked upon a five-year journey like this and, in the end, let the Devil and his minions win?

Of course, one of the things I’ve liked about Supernatural is that it doesn’t always deliver the nice, happy ending (thinking right now of Season 4′s “Jump the Shark,” when it turns out the Winchester brothers actually did have another brother, but he was killed by the ghouls pretending to be that brother and his mother). So does that mean the world will survive the apocalypse?

I like not knowing. Makes it more interesting to watch.

OK, so back to last night.

First off, I see that Kripke/McG subscribe to the super-fast zombie model, a la 28 Days Later, as opposed to the slow, shuffling zombies of the Romero oeuvre. OK, certainly made for a more suspenseful scene there toward the beginning when Dean was trying to escape. Nice save (also a bit 28 Days-ish) by the military, though Dean had as much of a chance to be killed as the infected.

So then we have the issue of the Dean duo. Dean knows himself pretty well and wasn’t going to make it easy for himself to get free. So, of course, when Dean does get free, he pretty much goes out and about and freaks the crap out of a bunch of people, except for the no-longer-angelic Casteil who immediately sees that this is a former Dean.

Dean’s become hard. Harder than he already was. I suppose five years of fighting against the apocalypse when the angels and God have abandoned the planet and Lucifer has taken control of your only brother does that to a guy.

And speaking of, Jared Padalecki did one heckuva job channeling his dark side in playing the white-clad (interesting choice – reminds me of Lost, actually) Lucifer. Once again, Kripke shows the issue of black and white and evil and good isn’t quite as simple as it seems.

Of course, the fact that Lucifer infected humanity with some sort of zombiefying virus kind of makes him evil, but what of his point about the evil that men do? It’s all very philosophical, frankly. Fortunately, it doesn’t give me as much of a headache as Lost does. Or Fringe, even.

So in the end, we have the Winchester brothers together again. Does the simple fact that Sam & Dean are together change the future we saw? Will this prevent Sam from letting Lucifer in, or will it happen now anyway because he will believe he can control Lucifer?

Whatever the end result, the brothers are together again. No good ever comes of their being apart, because the demons and ghouls and other bad creatures just take advantage of that.

The world – the one on Supernatural, at least – needs the Winchester brothers together.

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Well, here was an interesting twist: As more hunters find out that Sam isn’t hunting and that he once drank lots of demon blood to fight demons, they’re gonna be looking for him.

The question is, now that all the demons of hell have been unleashed, will Sam be able to fight them using the demon blood?

Actually, the real question is, were Dean and Sam born to be vessels of heaven and hell? And when I say heaven and hell, I mean, Heaven and Hell. Dean is supposedly the vessel for the Archangel Michael. And Sam for Lucifer himself.

I don’t doubt Lucifer when he says Sam is his vessel. I think, actually, that he’s telling the truth when he says he doesn’t lie.

It’s just a matter of what truth is he telling. Didn’t we all hear all the fairy tales growing up where someone got three wishes and all the wishes turned to crap because they were taken literally? Remember, we often hear what we want to hear when someone tells us something. How many times have each of us been disappointed by believing someone meant one thing when it turned out the reality was far different?

Lucifer doesn’t need to lie. The question is, will Sam somehow convince himself that if Lucifer uses him as a vessel that he’ll somehow be able to control the demon within and help save the world?

And if Dean doesn’t allow Michael to use him as a vessel, will it all matter anyway?

This week, we get zombies (cool!) as Dean goes forward five years to see what happens if he doesn’t allow Michael to use his sword. So the question is whether this will convince Dean.

I wonder, however, who the demon was who killed the boys’ mother and Sam’s girlfriend. Was it a demon? Or was it actually an angel who was trying to set the boys on their life’s journey? We’ve seen enough of the angels now to know that we can’t put that past them.

The only thing that disappoints me about the upcoming episode is that its focus on the future means we probably won’t find out where God’s been hiding out yet. I’m really curious.

If you were an omnipotent being who controlled the planet to some degree or another, where would you go for R&R?

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Supernatural‘s fifth, and perhaps last, season premieres soon. Very soon. Sept. 10 soon, in fact.

There’s been lots of news tidbits here and there over the summer, but the most exciting of all, IMHO, came out of Comic-Con. Warning, there are some spoilers, but nothing that should spoil your viewing enjoyment, I think. Even so, be forewarned.

Sci-fi uber-site io9 talked to producer Sera Gamble and showrunner Eric Kripke at Comic-Con last month, and they confirmed that Season 5 is a big ol’ stew of apocalypse. We ended last season with Satan himself escaping from Hell, thanks to a completely duped Sam Winchester.

I would imagine, however, that the Devil is not quite as we might expect, given the twists SPN writers have given us on the angels and demons to this point. Though, to give Dean credit, Ruby was pretty much a horrible, evil demon who was using Sam. There is that.

Anyway, Gamble said Lucifer would be “very nice and likable.” Which actually makes sense. Because how else do you think he could get people to follow him? Through fear? It has seemed to this point that the God in the world of Supernatural is the one who rules through fear.

That’s not to say that the SPN team are Satanists, it’s just to say that nothing really is as  simple as it appears on the surface. And Lucifer was, once, an angel. (Reference point for nice demons: the late, lamented Reaper.)

Don’t expect all the battles to take place on screen, though. Kripke said, “We call it the Walmart apocalypse because of our budget.”

The four horseman of the apocalypse will show up, too. From io9:

Kripke said the four horsemen of the apocalypse will be introduced in different episodes throughout the season – Gamble is currently working on the first episode featuring one, called War. “He’s got great monologues,” Kripke said. “At one point he says, ‘I was in Germany. And then I went back to Germany. And then I was in Darfur. And then I got paged about coming here.’ Also, our horsemen won’t ride horses – they have muscle cars.”

Whether or not there’s another season is still up in the air, though they promised the apocalypse will be over by the end of this season. I’ve written previously about the likelihood that this would be the last season, and how that might not be such a bad thing. But it seemed at the time that Kripke wasn’t open to going beyond five. Perhaps things have changed?

Oh, and God apparently is missing. (And might not be a dude.) The archangels have started this apocalypse all by themselves. Nice. Just wait ’til Dad (or Mom) gets home!

Anyhow, lots more goodies are in the io9 article, so check it out if you want even more spoilage.

Anyhow, here’s a (veryshort) preview for Season 5:

Then, just when  you didn’t think things could get ANY better, we learn that none other than Paris Hilton herself is going to be a demonic creature, according to Watch With Kristin.

And Kripke told Maureen Ryan over at the Chicago Tribune:

“She’s flat-out awesome for playing along,” producer Eric Kripke says. “If you want to see a bloodthirsty Paris attack and kill somebody, this is your chance.”

And they created the part specifically for her after she agreed to be on an episode. She plays a demon who takes the form of Paris Hilton.

Look, I’m no fan of Paris Hilton, but given the goofy humor that’s always injected into SPN, I think this could be a giant mug of awesome. I trust them to do their job and do it well.

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I totally love it when my favorite shows start combining DNA.

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I reported earlier that BSG‘s Katee Sackhoff is going to join 24 for its New York season next year. Now, I found out, via Michael Ausiello’s blog, that Jacob is joining Supernatural AS LUCIFER.

Yeah, that’s what I said.

The man who played Jacob last season in Lost (and next season, of course), Mark Pellegrino, has signed on to play Lucifer in SPN.

If you recall, Lucifer was unleashed from his underworld in the season finale, but we never saw the evil dude himself.

I’m thinking that Lindelof & Cuse would never have signed up Pellegrino without ensuring he’d be around to the end. Or at least until the end they had planned for Jacob. And Ausiello points out that Pellegrino’s not signed on as a regular cast member for Supernatural, but rather a “recurring” cast member.

He’s had guest appearances in a whole bunch of shows, from Burn Notice to Prison Break, and even had a recurring role as Debra Morgan’s boyfriend on Dexter.

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