Season 9, Episode 1: I Think I’m Gonna Like it Here

Season 9, Episode 1: I Think I’m Gonna Like it Here

Season 9! Season 9! Its finally season 9!

I should probably start with a mild recap of season 8. Oh, and this:

SPOILER WARNING!

If, like Kage, you havn’t kept up with the last 3 seasons of the series

If you don’t listen to this HUGE warning, continue reading, and yet STILL get pissed at me then

Its not my fault you ignored the warning and I wont be chewed out for “spoiling” the episode(s) you havn’t seen yet. I’ve given plenty of warning and your choosing to ignore it in favor of reading what I have to say. You’re a dip for continuing if you think this article wont contain spoilers.

So! Recap!

So Kevin, the profit, has been reading the demon tablet and found a way to close the doors of hell for good. In order to do that someone has to perform three trials. Dean says he’ll be the one to do the trials but because of circumstances Sam ends up finishing the first trial, ganking a hell hound. Sam and Dean have a pissing match (as per usual) and Sam finally wins the argument that he’ll finish the trials. Trial two is save a soul from hell and three is reform a demon.

Just as Kevin has translated the second trial the brothers find out that Crowley reneged on the deal he made back in season 6 (SHOCKER) and when the boys put Bobby to rest back in season 7 his soul went right to hell. When I finally get to review season 8 I’ll put my views of this little bit of coincidental information gathering up but for now I’ll just say “seriously?” Anyway. The choice of what soul to save from hell is pretty obvious. Sam descends into hell (if you want to know specifics go watch the episode) and saves Bobby.

Trial three is yet another bit of “convenient” information farming. While trying to figure out what “reform a demon” actually meant the boys randomly find a hidden room in the Men of Letters bunker that contains an old fashion movie real and equipment depicting a priest performing an interesting ritual that, in the end, resulted in a demon repenting for his sins and basically getting a new lease on life. I’ve mentioned this before in an entry on LJ about how I absolutely LOVE this idea of reforming demons. I’ve seen some say how it spits at established lore but it really doesn’t. Since Supernatural’s demons are firmly grounded in Christian lore and traditions and mythos the idea of repentance and reform is NOT jumping the shark. Its what the bible’s new testament is based on. Anyone can be forgiven if they are truly repentant. The bible says that once you’re in hell you’re beyond repentance but it really only sites that hell is out of the reach of Gods angels. Being back on earth they are no longer out of reach of Gods senses and angels thus repentance can easily be accepted just as a repentant living sinner.

Oops…this is a recap, not an analysis of past episodes…sorry!

Anyway. The brothers think its an amazing idea to take the KING OF HELL and perform the reformation spell on him

I guess I shouldn’t get into that right now…I’m not analyzing old episodes here.

Along the way our hero’s meet another angel hiding himself ala-Gabe style named Meditron. He says he wrote the tablets, both angel and demon. Did I mention the angel tablet? Ya. Thar be an angel tablet. It gets stolen by Crowley before Kevin can read it. Meditron tells Cas not to worry! He wrote it so he knows what it says! Yay! He tells Cas they can close the gates of heaven and make the angels deal with their own problems up in heaven without dragging humanity into it anymore. Sound awesome? Totally! If he wasn’t pulling shit out of his ass…

Meditron’s not leading Cas on the angel equivalent of Sam’s epic quest. Hes tricking Cas into collecting items of a spell that basically gives a middle finger to the angels and evicts them from heaven like a bunch of winged squatters.

Likewise our boys quest to close the gates of Hell is thwarted when Dean finds out that if Sam finishes the last trial he’ll kick the proverbial bucket. Obviously Dean cant let THAT happen.

And this is where season 9 picks up.

Lets start with the Glairing problem of this episode.

Rewind to the season 8 finally final scene. Sam wants to finish the spell but Dean, in true Dean fashion, launches into the worlds chicky-ist flicky-ist moment EVER telling Sam that his perceived greatest sin is bunk. Sam sees his greatest sin is abandoning and betraying his brother. Its true but we wont go into that. Dean informs him that the past and future don’t matter. Despite the past fuck ups, Dean still loves his brother and will always put him first.

The brothers recommit to their lives together (Wincest fans take that as you will) and re-devote themselves to the job at hand.

FINALLY wrapping up 8 Frigin YEARS of mutual sibling emo-ness.

Everyone rejoices!

Except not.

Despite stopping the final ritual Sam is still dying. Personally, this doesn’t bother me. Sam was going downhill since the hell hound incident. It was obvious from day one that these trials were NOT going to end like the brothers kept saying it would. Dean’s insistence that Sam should not do it was really meta in my eyes, like he KNEW. But since nothing EVER ends in rainbows and sunshine for the Winchesters it would have been really REALLY bad writing for Dean not to insist on putting himself in the middle of the unknown to make sure Sam was safe. But the fact that as soon as Sam recites the spell at the end of the first trial makes it painfully clear that this was not going to end well. If a spell from God was meant to end with a shower of kittens I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t cause Sam so much obvious agony.

Chuck isn’t that mean… BAD DP! BAD GIRL! No discussing past episodes!

So ya. I wasn’t upset to see that Sam was in fact still dying. It’s a great mini plot for season 9 and I cant wait to see how it pans out. As long as its handled better than Soulless Sam…

So what IS my problem then?

My problem is that, once again, Sam is Emo McEmosin and has no sense of self worth. He actually tells Dean; er the Dean his mind created to represent the part of himself that wants to fight to live (because THAT’S not confusing AT ALL); that if he’s still dying doesn’t that mean he SHOULD be dying? Sam’s head then creates a Bobby who convinces him that he should just let go and die. Make Believe Bobby is then killed by Make Believe Dean (DAFUQ?!) who proceeds to beat the shit out of Sam. Sam gives a speech that contradicts what he learned and accepted at the end of season 8 and MBDean disappears. Sam meets up with Death; yes the Horseman Death himself; who is there to collect his soul. Sam continues his emo pout-fest and makes a deal with Death that if he goes with Death that no one can reverse his death this time. That no one will ever be hurt because of him again.

…

Did Sara I-Hate-Sam-Winchester Gamble write this BS? No? That is very surprising… :/

To be fair, however, when Sam is with Dean; or what he thinks is Dean; his massive emo baggage seems to dissolve into almost nothing. “Dean” comes to Sam and reiterates the speech he’d made before in the church and Sam realizes how STUPID he’s being. Seriously. This ENTIRE subplot was a rehash of the last 10 minutes of the season 8 finally. For NO REASON. If they had not written Sam retarded then my next problem wouldn’t have even crossed their minds.

This leads to the second big issue I had with this episode.

FUCK CONTINUITY!

In seasons 4 and 5 we were introduced to angels and the way there mythos works in the Supernatural universe. So lets talk about vessels for a bit shall we? Angels need to have Express non-coerced Permission to take someone as a vessel. Angels need someone of a Specific Bloodline in order to actually use their abilities without it being a detriment to the hose meat suit.

Ezekiel spits on these clearly created facts in order to do what? Add a new angel to the mix? Remove Cas from the roll of 3^rd Winchester brother? I’m really not clear here. The whole “Angel Pacemaker” thing could have been done much differently. This whole mini-plot is Great and I cant wait to see how it plays out. But it could have, SHOULD have been done without breaking the already established lore.

“But DP! Ezekiel did ask for permission!”

No. Ne he didn’t. He used trickery and ass hatery that even Lucifer didn’t resort to. Ezekiel used the image of Dean to get Sam to agree to a vague plan to save his life. No explanation what or how.

Dean: I have a plan!

Sam: What is it?

Dean: Don’t worry! Just say yes!

If Luci and Mike had tried that then the apocalypse would have gone a lot differently.

“But DP! Sam is an angel vessel!”

Ya. SATIN’S vessel. Since we are never told otherwise we can assume that Ezekiel’s vessel’s are from a different bloodline than the Winchesters and the Campbells.

“Well…Luci rode around in the wrong vessel for almost a year so…”

He was a distant relative on the Campbell side of the family. He was still in the right bloodline for Luci to take him as a vessel. And Luci couldn’t use his full power without burning out the vessel anyway. Ezekiel is in Sam for the sole purpose of using his angelic powers to heal Sam. If Sam doesn’t start showing signs of power decay (and something just tells me this isn’t going to happen) its just going to spit on what has been accepted about angels since season 4.

Ok. Lets move on to something less…negative?

Lets talk about Hael.

Oh Hael. I love and LOATH you so. Hael is one of the angels evicted from heaven and the first one Cas meets after losing his own wings. Hael is first presented as a lost puppy type that looks up to Cas like some sort of celebrity. After a quick talk Cas convinces Hael that because of the fall she now has the freedom to do whatever she wants to do. She decides she’d like to go see something she created the last time she was on earth. The frigin Grand Canyon…ya…Anyway! Cas quickly calls Dean to check in and finds out Sam is dying and there are angels out there that want to kill him. Cas, being Cas, automatically wants to go and help Sam in any way he can despite his lack of grace and the obvious danger it puts him in. Cas assures Hael that she is capable of doing things on her own and begins to walk away. Hael responds by BEATING CAS UPSIDE THE HEAD with a 2-by-4. Seriously? Hael then kidnaps Cas and starts traveling towards the Grand Canyon. She informs him that they are going to be much more than friends, they are going to become one.

Ok. Seriously. Wow…

I first hated Hael for reasons I didn’t quite understand. Cas as a teacher to other angels is an epic concept for me and something I love seeing in fanfiction. It’s a lot better than Cas trying to subjugate heaven in a similar manner that Raf and Mike did. *coughseasonsixsuckscough* But Hael… Well, I saw the season 9 promo more than a week ago and what I got out of it was it was a promo of the whole season, not just episode one. So I expected Hael to be a continuing character and when I saw her introduced in this way I was like “Oh fuck. There pulling another forced romantic interest for Cas just like the Meg unicorn fiasco.”

My love for Hael, then, started when..she…beatCasovertheheadwiththe2by4. DON’T KILL ME! Let me explain.

One of my favorite movies as a kid was the movie Misery, a movie based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Hael feels like she was taken directly out of Misery. Leme do a recap of the movie for people who don’t know it.

The movie tells the story of a writer, Paul, who is disenfranchised with the character that made him famous and decides he wants to finish the arch he started in order to begin anew. Oh his way to a big convention/meeting he gets into a car accident and he’s saved by his “number one fan” Annie. Paul lets Annie read his new manuscript and she decides its utter crap. After reading the last book he published where he killed the main character she loved, Annie forces Paul to burn his manuscript and write Misery (the character) back to life. Paul finds out that no one knows where he is and that Annie has kidnapped him and tries to escape several times but fails. Annie eventually confronts him about his escape attempts and BREAKS HIS ANKLES. Annie then shoots a cop that came to investigate Paul’s disappearance and she comes to the conclusion that they need to die together in order to stay together. Paul convinces her to let him finish her story to give Misery back to the world before they die but when he does finish it he burns it in front of her. A fight breaks out and Paul ends up killing Annie.

Hael IS Annie. Her introduction is very much “I’m your biggest fan!!!!!!1111ONEONEONE” only, yaknow, the angel version. At first Cas is ok with this and seems to see a way to begin repenting for his past mistakes by teaching Hael about being human. However, when Hael realizes that her hero is going to abandon her she halls off and BRAINS Cas in order to kidnap him. She then uses the typical psychotic suicide line of “becoming one” which is almost identical to Annie even if Hael actually meant a literal melding vs. actual suicide.

In the end I was actually pretty pissed that Hael died so soon. Once she was established as Misery’s Annie and not an angelic version of Becky I really liked, no, LOVED Hael. I wish we could have seen more of her. There is just so much that could have been done with this cute little angelic psycho. Its such a waist of a great Misery reference.

I feel like I’ve done nothing but rag on the episode for…wow 7 pages now… @.@ I don’t want to give the impression that I hated this episode. Far from it. Aside from the continuity issues that could easily have been avoided with a few small tweaks; this was a great season opener that harkens back to “In my time of Dying” the season two opener and God knows how I feel about THAT…God does…you guys don’t yet…

Lol.

Despite harping on the stuff that went on in Sams head I ADORED the 3 Stooges-esk comedy between Sam, MBDean, and MBBobby.

Sam: Enough! Both of you! I cant hear myself think!

MBDean, MBBobby: *crickets*

MBDean: Well I’m in the front seat and Sam put me here because he wants to fight. Right?

MBBobby: *is teleported to front seat between the brothers* Well…that just got real uncomfortable…

I mean REALY! How could you NOT LOVE that?!

Then we have the awkward good Samaritan that gives Cas a lift despite obviously thinking hes NUTS. And the biker that comes very close to removing Misha from the cast list permanently… :3

Crowley POUTING in Deans trunk? Beautiful! I have high hopes that our little dethroned king of hell will go back to being more like the Crossroads King that we fell in love with in season 5 and early season 6 (and by season 6 I mean Weekend at Bobby’s). Crowley and the crossroads demons are the only demon that I find myself really liking. They don’t inherently have aspirations of ruling things, not from what we see of them pre season 6 anyway. They are the defenders of the status quo. They represent temptation which we, as humans, have to actively work to overcome. I cringe to use one of Sara’s episodes to make a point but Crossroad Blues shows us that the crossroad demons “victims” know what they’re getting into. They’re told they’ll get their hearts desire, their greatest dreams, at a cost. They willingly accept the consequences. Just like Dean I have a hard time feeling sympathy for someone who brings something like that on themselves (the exception being, like the last victim in CB, they make the deal for someone else).

You take Crowley out of this element, His element, and all you get is a dick akin to season 1 Meg and the rest of her family. I’d like to see Crowley come back in almost a Team Rocket fashion. PUT DOWN THE TORTCHES AND LISTEN TO ME. Team Rocket are BAD GUYS. Despite their stupid antics, their goals tend to revolve around the subjugation of humans and pokemon alike and sometimes even causing pain and misery to said humans and pokemon. That is a BAD thing. I’d be PISSED if Crowley was reduced to their level of stupid, don’t get me wrong. I’d probably storm the CW headquarters and demand the head of whoever wrote the Crossroads King like that. But to see him in a roll of occasionally giving the Winchesters a migraine while other times helping them because it will help him (like season 5) but he never quite gets to the point of open confrontation with them? That would be awesome.

Or, yaknow, give my Bobby/Crowely headcannon some merit…that would be awesome too… :3

And finally, Cas the mass murderer. Seriously! That look the old woman gives him when he walks into the laundry mat covered from head to foot in blood is totally, “I’m gona go call the cops now KTHXBY!”

And if I don’t see a clip of Cas striping put to sleazy 80’s porn music within a month I think I might cry. IT NEEDS TO BE DONE FANDOM!

Over all, I liked this episode despite its flaws. Its possible that my problems will be addressed in latter episodes and possibly fixed…but I doubt it. This show isn’t really known for fixing mistakes like that…