Supernatural 8.21: To Hell With Angels
Posted By Jen Sylvia on May 3, 2013
Fake Sam and Dean are obvious fake.
[Full episode recap with a side of review!]
What the hell. Literally.
Kevin’s not dead. He’s alive and safe. Sam and Dean are there and helping, even magically bringing him the other half of the demon tablet. Sure. However, anyone who knows anything about the brothers aren’t surprised when they walked off the boat and turned back into the demon minions they really are. Supernatural’s again gone meta, subtly this time with a brand spanking new tangent. It’s a dirty pleasure watching Crowley describe to his black-eyed children how Sam and Dean talk and behave. Congrats, Crowley, you’ve reached troll-stalker levels.
Crowley’s production control center.
All the while, Kevin’s looking like the cat’s dragged in rodent kill. That’s been eaten. And regurgitated. Which, sadly is all sorts of normal for Kevin.
Kevin needs a nap. And a shower.
The real Sam and Dean are at their lair where Sam’s in pretty much the same shape as Kevin. Dean’s trying to papa bird Sam, while Sam tries to explain that he’s being changed and it’s nothing tea or aspirin can magically fix. While they argue, they get a video email, complete with research notes, from Kevin. Who’s pretty sure he’s dead. The terrified kid justifiably loses it for a moment; he’s doing all this crazy stuff and he wasn’t kept safe. And the worst part of it, while he [rightfully] blames them, he blames himself for not being able to finish the tablet translation, apologizing at the end of his video. Dean, who struggles with not being able to save everyone, is furious with himself. And he states what everyone’s been thinking all along, “We should’ve moved him here.” No joke! You boys left him on a freighter, alone.
Dean’s coping worse than Sam is with what’s happening to Sam.
Sam prints out Kevin’s notes, recognizing something from his days at Stanford. Man, what an easy out his college education gives the show writers sometimes. It’s a petroglyph that roughly translates to “messenger of God” and points to a tribe of native Americans in Colorado. Sam’s thinking is that going there will lead them to Metatron, to which Dean replies “On that hunch? You can barely function.” Truth. To which Sam rebuts, “I’m only going to get worse.” Also truth. That Metatron is hanging out in Colorado? Shaky possibility.
In Colorado, Sam and Dean arrive at an eerily empty hotel casino. The reason for its emptiness never gets explained. For Sam, things get a bit weird once he’s in the hotel. There’s a persistent ringing in his ears and he’s getting that tunnel-like flu-vision. He also starts remembering things with unnerving detail right alongside being a sick sack of potatoes.
Dean does some solo investigating and is told the legend of the Great Spirit’s messenger who came to this reservation and blessed the people here, giving them eternal youth in exchange for stories. Not a bad deal. Sam believes he can feel Metatron in the hotel, and Dean, with his new info, thinks it’s possible. As they walk, Sam tells Dean a memory he has of Dean reading him The Knights of the Round Table. He specifically remembers Sir Gallahad and thinking how he could never go on a quest like Gallahad, because even then he thought he wasn’t good, that he wasn’t clean. He feels the trials are purifying him of this long-held taint. And Dean can only watch, helpless. How to deal with that kind of baggage your little brother’s been carrying around for twenty-plus years?
Sam has been feeling unclean for decades. The sad, deep feels for this are intense.
Inside the room Sam leads them to are piles of books, floor to ceiling. There’s also a guy with a gun, aimed at them. He’s an angel. And he is, indeed, Metatron; he’s been holed up here since he fled heaven, when man was living in caves. It’s an interesting intersection of evolution and religion that’s plopped in our laps. Most importantly, Metatron knows nothing of what’s been going on. He was, after all, just an executive secretary who hid to protect the Word. He recognizes Sam’s symptoms as part of the trials. When he’s clued in to recent happenings, he takes action, if a bit hesitantly.
And finally we get to see where Castiel’s been: at a Biggerson’s (noooooooo). He, thirdly, is looking terrifically haggard. We find out through Ion, one of Naomi’s pet monkeys, that he’s using the restaurant as a way to cloak his movements and evade the agents of heaven. Each restaurant looks the same and while he flits from one Biggerson’s to the next, they can’t pinpoint where he is by seeing through his eyes since every single food joint looks exactly like the last. It has got to be mind numbing and exhausting for our favorite feathered one. Still, fistbump for Castiel staying ahead of the nutso Naomi. Except, as she learns of tactics, she’s now going to use some horrible leverage against him because they can’t catch him. “Very well. You say he can’t be caught. Then we will simply have to make. him. stop.”
Naomi’s heavenly version of getting an errant angel to do what she wants is to simply murder every human in a Biggerson’s that Castiel’s been to. Castiel stops. His nature isn’t to allow such suffering, especially if it’s because of him. Naomi doesn’t care. With the same lack of conscience, she murders the last survivor in the restaurant before sitting to chat with Castiel.
This is an especially revealing conversation as Castiel learns that his mind has been wiped over and over, with Naomi confirming what we’ve always believed, telling Cas, “You have never done what you were told. Not completely. You don’t even die right, do you.” Naomi is all that is wicked in upper management. When she demands the angel tablet, Castiel tells her to bite him. Huzzah for Dean’s influence!
When Naomi’s soldier boys return, unable to locate the tablet, the beating of Castiel begins. But of all the surprises… Crowley shows up, shoots one angel dead, wounds Ion, and shoots Cas later for funsies. Crowley has melted an angel blade into bullets. So smart. So terrible. Naomi goes all bright-eyes when Crowley calls her “Love” (hinting again at a past relationship between the two evils), winging away before she gets shot. Oh, and Ion’s working for Crowley. He doesn’t like what’s being done in Heaven and switched teams. If an angel is willing to work for the King of Hell, something stinks. Crowley, though, has figured out where the tablet is and proves it by shoving his hand into Cas’s belly, pulling the prized artifact out.
Meet the angel Ion. Who is working for the denizens of hell.
Meanwhile, the captured Kevin is still hard at work duping Crowley’s minions. Even at his worst, remember that Kevin is genius. Crowley, angel tablet in hand, teleports to chat to the smug prophet. Kevin could care less. This only serves to enrage an already pissed off demon. Before Crowley can squeeze the life out of Kevin, Metatron pulls Kevin away from harm and into his hotel home.
Angry demon is angry with smug genius.
Which is swell, but what rankles here is when Kevin awakens, he is utterly unsurprised about his whereabouts or at seeing the real Sam and Dean. How does he know what’s even going on? Anyway, the third trial is revealed: cure a demon, y’all. No big.
As Sam and Dean head home (without Kevin, who I’m assuming stays with Metatron), a beaten and bleeding Cas, who’s freed himself from Ion by blinding him with the angel blade bullet he pulled out of his stomach, is lying in the middle of the road. Right place, right time.
Next week, Crowley goes after everyone the Winchesters have saved? I’m confused by the teaser. But as one of the last two episodes, things will probably, as per the usual, get ugly.
What the what?
1. Metatron asks Dean after hearing Dean’s plans for closing the demon gate, “It’s your choice. I mean, that’s what this has all been about. The choices your kind make. But you’re going to have to weigh that choice. Ask yourself, what is it going to take to do this, and what will the world be like after it’s done?” SO MUCH FORESHADOWING.
2. If it doesn’t happen in the last two episodes, Naomie’s back story better be covered in Season 9.
3. Uhm, I’m probably not supposed to care, but I do. What happened to Ion after Castiel blinded him?
4. Which demon is going to get the healing treatment? Taking all thoughts now! Random or a specific someone?
5. Is Metatron going to keep his wings buried in the sand now?
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