Supernatural 8.17: Heaven Hates Good Little Angels
Posted By Jen Sylvia on March 22, 2013
What’s more horrifying than any demon? An agent of heaven training another angel to kill his best human friend that he’s sworn to protect.
Naomi has been doing her damndest to ensure Castiel’s ability to kill Dean. By providing copies of Dean for Castiel to kill over and over and over again. Castiel has become empty inside, something scarily evident by the vacancy in his eyes.
This is bad.
This is worse.
At the Men of Letters bunker, which is hereby now to be called Winchester HQ, Dean’s been going through the artifacts (mad props for the Spear of Destiny!) stored there, Sam researching the strange deaths surrounding a stream of people. What makes it their kind of thing? “Because each of the victims had severe burns around their eyes, hands, and feet, puncture wounds through the back of their hands, eyes and internal organs liquefied.” Ah, that’s on everyone’s google search, yes?
The Winchesters go to Lincoln Springs, Missouri, where the latest death of Ann Morten took place. In talking with her husband they find Ann had been looking for something, not sleeping, just digging. Before her death, the husband had seen his wife’s eyes turn black. While Sam and Dean know what that means, they don’t educate the spouse. Which is just as well. The bigger problem? Who’s killing the demons?
Wendy Rice, a city historian of sorts, was the last person to speak with Ann, so they go for a visit. Ann had been looking for an original map of the city, but Wendy didn’t know why. They’d planned to meet, but Ann never showed. Death will do that. Unsurprisingly, three demons arrive. One of which, after a scuffle, infests Wendy. Cas shows up and begins smiting, keeping demon Wendy alive to interrogate her. And here is where we watch Cas be the celestial waveform he is, half in the mortal world, the other half conversing with Naomi. And he’s heard Dean’s prayers, but clearly is being withheld by Naomi, who encourages – no, orders – Cas to lie to Sam and Dean. It’s going to get a teeny tiny bit worse. It has been five episodes since we’d seen Castiel. Glad to have him back. Mostly.
Cas tortures the demon, killing it when it nearly exposes the lies Cas is telling. Cas flits off to go find the hostage and smite the demon nest. That hostage? Meg. A blonde Meg. Who knows what the black eyed evil bastards have been Indiana Jones’ing: the angel tablet. And she knows the location of that tablet, which is in one of Lucifer’s crypts. Cas confers with Naomi (without his physical vessel actually ever leaving, which out of all the crazy happenings, is the most creeptastic part of this episode), who begrudgingly allows for Meg’s continued existence. Dean and Sam realize Castiel’s lying, just not about what.
Castiel helps Meg with her wounds. The two are fond of each other, Supernatural always expertly blurring that line of what good and bad actually means. Intent and action meaning much more than heaven and hell. Gotta say, though, the two of them playing Pizza Man, and the little smiles and insinuations, is intensely heartwarming. And Dean calling the two “Megstiel” has its own ridiculous, if terrifying, sweetness.
Meg: “I’m kinda good, which sucks. And you’re kind of bad – which is actually all manner of hot.”
The demon that escaped Wendy’s house returns to the hotel, finding his co-demons dead, Meg gone. Crowley appears, irritated, and kills it. King of hell on the scene, now. Ugly before gets uglier now.
Meg directs Castiel, Sam, and Dean to the crypt, where the most unlikely argument ensues. Dean stating he knows Sam’s coughing up the red, and Cas affirming that Sam cannot be healed, even by angelic means. Which, scary.
Cas locates the crypt, and finding the chest which is angel-warded, watches, uncertain, as Dean opens it. Dean refuses to give Cas the tablet. What ensues is even more heartbreaking than Naomi’s abuse and Meg’s heart. Watching Castiel, against his will, against what he holds most sacred, beat Dean, coming within inches of simply murdering him. Naomi demands that Castiel choose heaven or humans. Faced with that choice and Dean’s absolute supplication and appeal to Casteil’s truth, Castiel chooses. Naomi’s ugly re-wiring can’t stop even that. When Cas bends down to pick up the tablet, it glows, breaking Naomi’s hold, snapping Castiel -fully- back to himself. Castiel sees what he has done to Dean and reaching out, heals him. Watching Dean flinch, not knowing what was coming next, is difficult at best.
It ain’t a Glow Worm.
Outside, Sam and Meg swap tales over the happenings of the last year when more demons attack. When the unlikely Moose-Meg team disposes of those, Crowley pops in for a friendly little visit. Meg, resigned, sends Sam to save Dean, facing Crowley by her lonesome. A fight we all know will simply end with her dead. Cas has left the crypt, but not before telling Dean about Naomi, explaining that he knows he “just has to protect the tablet now.” “From Naomi,” Dean… asks. Castiel, looking Dean in the eyes, starkly replies, “And from you.” And angels off.
Sucker punch, anyone?
Sam and Dean run to the Impala, ready to bolt, waiting for Meg, only to watch her inevitable death. Not exorcism. Killed. In full. The brothers, unable to do anything, peel out, leaving Crowley.
The most difficult part of tonight’s episode has deciding which has been more heart wrenching: watching Castiel be manipulated and used by Naomi; or, learning just how dearly Meg holds Cas, her unicorn. It’s also hard to decide who the worse villain is, now: Crowley, the known baddie? Or Naomi, the heartless user. The exchange the two have in the crypt hark back to a long ago relationship the two clearly had. The only redeeming thing about Naomi is her retort to Crowley, “What do you want, you cockroach?” before leaving Hell’s King alone in the crypt.
In the Impala, Dean pleads with Sam for full honesty, quoting Lord of the Rings to help alleviate the crazy and pain of the past day. This is the normal for the Winchesters. We wouldn’t last an hour. And next week, they’re going to be confronted with what it means to be raised hunter.
And Cas. Where did our favorite angel go? Well, the where certainly can’t be answered, but the means, a travel bus, can. And for the first time since Purgatory, Castiel looks, dare I say, content. The episode’s title, “Goodbye Stranger,” having much more meaning now.
What the what?
1. Why did the tablet react to Castiel’s touch?
2. Why is Castiel using mundane means of transportation?
3. What is Naomi’s end game? And her chat with Crowley means what?
4. How’s Kevin?
5. If the Winchester HQ has so many artifacts, why aren’t they figuring out what they are and using them?
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