Supernatural 8.16: Zeus is a Douche
Posted By Jen Sylvia on March 3, 2013
Supernatural’s Trio: Sam, Dean, and Castiel.
With seven episodes left in Season 8, the Winchesters have a lot going on. Sam has completed one of the three trials; he’s also still coughing up blood since last week. Kevin hasn’t deciphered the second trial yet (it’s been three-plus weeks). Crowley knows about the angel tablet. Some crazy angel nasty is going on in Heaven, and Naomi is (we can assume) orchestrating it. Castiel hasn’t been seen in weeks and is broken in ways an angel shouldn’t be. So, while they wait, the Winchesters go check out a possible zombie case in Great Falls, Montana.
“Remember the Titans” opens with a man getting hit by a car and being left by the jerk who hit him. Montana State Trooper Jack happens upon the dead guy the next morning, innards being snacked on by an eagle. Jack calls it in, but, once he turns his back, the absolutely stone-cold dead guy heals, gets up, and runs into the forest.
Sam and Dean, back at the Man of Letters bunker in Kansas, catch the case from a rag and set off on a zombie hunt. Once in Montana, Trooper Jack assures Agents Bonham and Jones that this is a zombie case! When the trooper’s assistant pulls up the same man, dead again, this time by grizzly, he tells the brothers to “aim for the head.” We’re treated to shots of Sam and Dean just barely not rolling their eyes. To Livingston, Montana they go.
At the morgue, the brothers inspect the body, Dean grossly touching it without gloves, checking for fangs. Outside the examiner’s office, Dean’s disappointment manifests at his inability to shoot zombies because dead guy is not-zombie. Dean calls it an open and shut case while Sam is still perplexed at the details involved, thinking that there’s something further going on. Meanwhile, not-zombie does a repeat performance of healing, waking up, and attempting to run. It’s that last part where Sam and Dean, mid-conversation, see not-zombie and run him down. Unsurprisingly, Dean pulls his gun on not-zombie. Not-zombie, scared and tired, tells them that all he does is die, and begs them to make it stick if they shoot him. Oh, and his name isn’t Kenny. It’s Shane.
The Winchesters take not-zombie Shane back to the motel, testing him with the standards. Shane only remembers the last seven years, after being rescued from an avalanche. He’d realized that people might not be comfy with his daily deaths, so he went into the wilderness until a couple of pot farmers shot him. So he’d left, only to get mowed down.
Later that night, Shane gets a surprise visit from a beautiful woman, who is surprised when Shane doesn’t remember her. After she attempts to impale him, the two fight. Sam and Dean burst in, ready to help, but are swatted aside by the mysterious woman’s powers. Shane corners her, only to have her disappear in a puff of smoke that is decidedly, and thankfully, not demon smoke. Shane then has the heart to die again.
Morning arrives with Sam and Dean watching over Shane’s body, waiting for him to rise. A knock at the door reveals another woman, this one with a little boy at her side. Her name is Hayley and she’s looking for Shane. Who happens to presently be dead. This does not surprise her in the least. Oliver, Hayley’s son, is Shane’s.
While Supernatural is generally a Sisyphean exercise to begin with, it’s moreso with Shane. Sam’s research leads him to determine that Shane is a Titan, a pre-Olympiad god, punished by Zeus for stealing fire from Mount Olympia itself, and giving it to humans. Making Shane none other than Prometheus. Needless to say, Zeus, who is tragically always a dick to those who have slighted or disobeyed him, chained Prometheus to a mountain in Europe to live and die every single day. And the woman who attacked Shane the night before? Artemis. She can kill immortals with her weapons.
So, like the absolute wonders they are, Sam and Dean decide, hey, god curse – let’s break it! It’s at that point that Hayley brings Oliver in, badly hurt and dying. But, no need to call an ambulance, Oliver does this regularly now since turning seven. The brothers decide to take everyone over three states to their Kansas HQ. Excuse me, lair.
Prometheus on a casual visit to the Winchester lair.
Hayley, only moderately surprised to find out that this death thing is something her son and Shane share, handles it with envious calm. It does help, one might suppose, that her son dies daily now, too. After some research and conversational laughs, they find a spell and weapon that will summon and kill Zeus and hopefully remove the curse. Fulgurate, one of the main ingredients, is needed. Dean, all prepared to hunt a piece down and do a little b&e ala “Meet the New Boss” from Season 7, gets the sass handed to him by Hayley who wryly informs him fulgurate can be found in any new age shop. Meanwhile, Sam and Shane go and dig up a bone of one of Zeus’ worshippers.
Ingredients and weapon in hand, the group drives to an abandoned warehouse and summon Zeus. And does Zeus ever appear. Rides in on lighting. Suit and tie. A merrily manipulative attitude. Zeus says hello to Prometheus, who tells Zeus to break the spell. Zeus realizes it’s Shane’s kid, also marked by the curse. When Zeus doesn’t cooperate immediately, Dean begins to leave, threatening to leave Zeus to rot. Only Hayley, desperate, breaks Zeus’ containment. In one of the best scenes of the night, Zeus, laughing, stomps his foot, causing lightning to fork out from the ground to Dean, Sam, and Shane. When Dean and Sam try to rush Zeus again, Artemis appears, pinning them against the wall with her godly powers.
Zeus. Doing it lightning style.
Zeus explains the situation to Hayley, things we’ve already learned. But what we didn’t know, is what a disgustingly happy megalomaniac Zeus is: “I must admit, I could never have conceived such a horrible fate for such a beautiful child. Just goes to show, we must all leave room for happy accidents.”
Excitedly, Zeus asks Hayley if Prometheus has experienced Oliver’s death yet. After Hayley nods yes, he goes on to darkly opine on the death of a thousand of his children at once. And then simply calls to Artemis as he stoops to speak to Oliver privately. Artemis escorts Dean and Sam out of the room, Sam talking up a storm, trying to get to Artemis. And it works. She’s the goddess of hunters. Not so powerful anymore. And in love with Prometheus, a secret they’d kept from Zeus. Dean’s “Really, Sam? Trash talking a god?” as she has them pinned against a wall, is a fantastically light moment in a dark scene. Sam figured out their illicit affair, his intuition kicking in much like it did in “Route 666.” Sam’s ability to see to the heart of matters speaks to Artemis’ heart, especially when she hears Prometheus scream again.
Back in the main room, Zeus is taking great pleasure in catching up on seven years of lost torture. As Zeus prepares to kill Oliver – repeatedly, we can presume – Artemis returns, bow up, arrow knocked, demanding Zeus to stop. Zeus, being the jerk he is, tells Artemis, “I am your father, and you will obey me.” Artemis disagrees and looses her arrow. Only to have Zeus pull Prometheus in front of him to take the arrow. Zeus gleefully whispers in Prometheus’s ear that now Oliver will go on the mountain, prompting Prometheus to push the arrow through his body into Zeus’. Moral here: don’t mess with little kids, people. It even gets the gods killed. Artemis disappears with Zeus.
Voltage danger. YOU DON’T SAY.
Later, Sam and Dean burn Prometheus on a pyre while Hayley and Oliver watch. Because if not-dying wasn’t enough, watching your new-found father die while another man threatened to torture you, then watching your father burn, might be more than. When Sam asks Oliver if he’d like ice cream, Oliver speaks for the first time, saying in a very clear, eerily adult voice, “No, I’d like to stay.”
In the Impala, on the way back to the lair, Dean and Sam have their usual heart to heart, Sam expressing doubt at his ability to do the trials. Once home, Dean calls out to Cass. He’s worried. Sam’s hurting and Dean’s noticed. When Cass doesn’t appear, we see Dean’s concern only deepen. But what will come of it is left to next week.
What the what?
1. With Zeus dead, what happens to Oliver? He will no longer die every day, but he is still a demigod.
2. If one trial has Sam coughing up blood after his arm went all glowstick, what will trials two and three do to him?
3. How’s Benny doing? Let’s face it, we’re all rooting for that AB-positive Cajun vamp.
4. It’s been four episodes. Where is Castiel and what is Naomi’s whole deal of pulling Cass out of Purgatory and going all Sith on his poor angel brain?
5. Crowley’s looking for the angel tablet, is that why he’s not busy busting the boys’ balls?
6. Are Sam and Dean going to lock the gates of Hell with Adam still inside?
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Sorry but I loathed the Benny character. I hope he stays gone. The :actor was totally stiff and I couldn’t give acrap about his character. I like Cas but the show is about the Winchester brothers. I love the scenes with the boys. I merely tolerated anything with Benny.
You may be getting your wish! There’s been no sight of him since Dean gave him the sad goodbye. Although I think he may be one of the evil things that isn’t really evil that saves the brothers’ bacon eventually. Time will tell.
Seems Benny is good and dead…. for the moment post “Taxi Driver!”