“Stranger
In A Strange Land”
There was so precious little
I liked about this episode, I think I’ll start with that. I really liked the
very first shot of Sam, alone, struggling with grief, intent on the mission
ahead, driving Impala along a dark, deserted, rain-washed road, a classic rock
tune blaring from the radio until he softly switches it off; it’s too painful
to listen to without Dean not steering the wheel by his side, drumming and
humming along, maybe even cracking a joke or two. It was a very poignant and
powerful visual – a lighter shade of blue on the horizon as a hint of hope,
perhaps? – a perfect setting… for about a second... We later find out that his
errand turned out to be a bust.
The next scene is Michael scene
and it is riveting. I have never had any doubts about Jensen’s acting skills
and yet I was not prepared for how different it would be to look at his face and
see no trace of Dean anywhere. Michael is cold, calm and collected. He shows no
emotions. He has no emotions. He smiles but he is not amused. He is in no
hurry. He takes his time. He has a question and he seeks the answer that will
not disappoint, that will gratify, that will serve his purpose. But what is his
purpose? A better world. Well, that’s what he says. But is it truly? “What do
you want?” he asks. But what do you want, Michael? His scenes, however short
and episodic, are phenomenal. I could watch the whole episode just of Michael
asking different people what they want.
And then comes the title
card and it is… so very disappointing. It looks like something a five-year-old
would have patched up with minimum skills and resources: splotchy and clumsy
and so very unrealistic.
Then the first glimpse of
the bunker and it is a scene of much activity, all very business- and
military-like. But Dean’s absence feels like a void and it seems that the
writer is trying to fill it with other hunters – but mostly with Bobby and his
old man’s ramblings and lectures. It doesn’t work. I have to confess that I found
him annoying and unsympathetic in this episode. “Life is a little different
when you can’t just zap people around, eh?” he tells Jack, who is struggling
with the loss of his powers, that have never been truly explored or delved into
on the show. Jack, lost and hurt, is lying at his feet after he has knocked him
down and told him with a chuckle to “watch for that left”. There were so many
things that one could say to Jack on that occasion, I thought; so many parallels
that one could make about people who lost certain physical abilities due to
disease or in an accident and had to learn to live and deal with it – instead of
a bunch of commonplace nothings.
Mary is often hovering
uncertainly over Sam as though on the brink of breaking into a mother mode, but
after two seasons, during one of which she was actively distancing herself from
her sons, it doesn’t come easily or naturally. Their interaction is hollow and
strained, filled with Mary’s platitudes and empty promises, and it’s almost as
though Sam wants to say “don’t bother on my account now”. Of course, without
his brother by his side nothing looks right anymore. Dean must be here. But he
isn’t.
Almost as though it is inevitable,
we are introduced to another King of Hell wannabe – or, to be more precise, another
Crowley wannabe – another copycat demon who uses fancy lingo and silly endearments that
sound off and has a penchant for unnecessary drama. I suppose it would be too
much to ask to bring in another Queen of Hell for a change. Personally, I think
Rowena would have been a much better choice, not to mention that it would be a
rather interesting turn of events. However, instead we are subjected to this
demon’s popinjay ways and long-winded prattle and it is boring as hell and just
as trite and it wastes precious screen time. I thought back in S12 that Crowley
had outlived his usefulness as a character, that he had become too soft to
return to his more nefarious ways, but looking at these poor substitutes and
their failed attempts to emulate him I wish he were back.
Mary is once again hovering uncertainly
in the doorway when Sam and Jack are having a conversation about strength and
faith that she interrupts in order to tell Sam that “he’s awake”. Jack is
visibly disappointed and hurt when Sam leaves. The “he” in question comes as a
shock. It is incredible, unbelievable. Mary says that she can barely look at “him”
and hastily retreats (I wonder what happened to that badass hunter that she was
so persistently shown to be throughout the last two seasons), leaving Sam on
his own to take care of – wait for it – Lucifer’s vessel! Miraculously, after all
this time, the man – Nick – Lucifer was possessing is alive. I must say that this
was an unexpected turn of events that I thoroughly failed to appreciate. I
hoped never to see Lucifer or his vessel ever again. I thought that Dean’s
sacrifice put an end to that long-winding saga. Alas, no. Apparently, “the archangel
blades were meant to kill the archangel inside and not the person they possess…”
Is it just me or does it sound a little too far-fetched – and extremely convenient?
Just another gimmick. It rather reminded me of that cock-an-bull story that
Arthur Ketch was spinning last season about his twin brother Alexander. Of
course, that, at least, was later confirmed to be untrue.
Sam steels himself before
entering the room and you can see a whole range of emotions playing across his
face. It seems to be a recurring theme recently, isn’t it? Last season Sam had
to take care of Gabriel – the archangel who killed his brother over and over
and over again to teach him a lesson – and this season he has to take care of the
vessel of the archangel who possessed him, tortured his soul in hell and, in
the end, forced his brother to say “yes” to Michael in order to defeat him once
and for all. “I’m glad Lucifer is dead,” says Sam through a lump in his throat.
“Me too,” replies Nick. I hope it’s true; otherwise Dean’s sacrifice was all
for naught, wasn’t it? A real slap in the face, if you ask me. When Sam finally
leaves the room, you can see how much it took of him to be inside that room
with Nick.
However, he doesn’t get a
break for the very next moment he receives a call from this week’s king-of-hell-wannabe
who wants to make a deal with him in order to become one (what a bewildering
concept!) and who took Castiel hostage in order to have some leverage during
the negotiations. Sam instantly assembles a team, knowing full well that it’s a
trap, comprising himself, Mary, Bobby, Jack, and, bizarrely enough, out of all
the seasoned hunters in the bunker… Maggie? I was pleased that (despite the inevitable
danger) Sam showed Jack that he had faith in him not only through empty words
but through his own actions by allowing him to join them. But why take Maggie? I
do not recall her being a hunter in the first place – and at the start of the
episode she could barely handle staring at blood. What a strange decision on
the writer’s part – to put another young and wide-eyed girl in harm’s way!
The fight that ensued was quite
brutal and for a while it seemed that our side was going to lose. I’m sorry to
say that Castiel had very little to do throughout the episode. He somehow managed
to miss the fact that he walked into a demon-infested bar, was then instantly overpowered,
beaten up and, finally, forced to impersonate a trussed-up turkey, while the
others fought all around him. At one point Mary gives Maggie an angel blade with
the help of which she later saves Mary’s hide. And yet, for whatever reason, no
one thought to teach Jack to use something other than his fists in order to
defend himself, considering how badly he was doing. Is this another bone carelessly
thrown into the “girl power” camp? I’ve noticed that it has become this writer’s
staple to make the girls look stronger by deliberately making the boys look weaker.
I appreciated
Castiel's speech - self-deprecating ("To be fair, we've all got punched in
the face"), sympathetic, encouraging and rallying - to Jack after the
fight when he felt even more useless than before and believed that without his
powers he had nothing: "You've got your family. And we are going to find
Dean. And we are going to beat Michael. And we are going to do it together.
Because that's what we do." I think it is something Dean would say if he
were there and I want to believe that Castiel learned it from him.
It was a right decision to
end the episode with another Michael scene. He might be cruel and calculating
but he is also enigmatic and mesmerizing and it is simply fascinating to watch
him move and hear him talk.
I've said it before and I'll
say it again: this show needs writers who know how to craft stories instead of
going at them with a butcher knife. I don't usually do this but I have to say
one more thing: Andrew Dabb has to go. His writing is lazy and incompetent, it
is devoid of imagination, consistency, subtlety and finesse, and he is simply
an awful storyteller.
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