Supernatural S14E5 - a review (with spoilers)

“Nightmare Logic”

I have very conflicting feelings and worrisome thoughts about the latest episode and about the direction the show is taking in regards to its main characters. Sam is obviously cracking under the strain of leading and teaching a bunch of hunters from the apocalyptic world, losing his confidence faster than gaining it, neglecting to eat and sleep and telling Dean not to worry about him. I think I might have snorted at that. Have you met your brother, Sam? Hell will freeze over before he stops worrying or taking care of you. Dean, in the meantime, seems to have been shunned by the writers to the sidelines – almost as though he has done something wrong and they decided to punish him for it. He looks more and more like a ghost roaming the halls of the bunker for all the recognition that he gets from the other hunters – or his own mother. However, just as promised, he is there for Sam. He supports him with words of encouragement when he needs to hear them, rationalizes with him and gets him on the right track when things go south for one of the hunters, defends and praises him when his leadership skills are questioned by cranky old fools and so on, while recovering from his post-possession ordeal inside his own head – and when his brother doesn’t need him, he keeps quietly to himself. The only person who seems to care about what Dean is actually going through is naturally Sam. His mother doesn’t seem to care one way or another.

I was actually surprised when we didn’t get a single Mary/Dean scene or even a mention that a conversation regarding his ordeal and what he was going through now had taken place at some point. So until we do, I will continue to assume that it never had. Instead we got a scene between Mary and Sam after Bobby decided to chew him out for allowing Maggie to go on a hunt solo. I think this particular misstep as a leader on Sam’s part was devised deliberately in order to give Mary an opportunity to talk to Sam about her “boy troubles”. Mary started the conversation by praising Sam for growing into his leadership shoes, which he had been born to fill according to her (personally, I find his leadership stint forced and unconvincing), before talking his ears off about Bobby. I couldn’t care less about Bobby and Mary together or otherwise. But, apparently, Bobby’s trials and tribulations are more important to Mary than Dean’s, because she has obviously set her sights on him and she is determined to get him whatever it takes, running after him and whatnot. Frankly, I cannot believe that we determinedly continue to perpetuate the notion that a woman absolutely must have a man in her life – and that a man can and will come before her children.

So instead of giving us at least one Mary/Dean bonding moment, where Mary would actually show her concern for Dean, we were subjected to more of Bobby’s drama in the form of his dead son whose death he blames himself for. I was tempted to ask Bobby whether he had been that much of a dick to him too when that djinn-induced manifestation started beating the hell out of him. Have I mentioned how much I dislike this version of Bobby? He is irritable, quarrelsome, unpleasant, opinionated, superior, critical, judgmental, vitriolic, and just plain boring. He has no filter between his brain and mouth and has a habit of rushing off without warning anyone of his intentions; on one occasion this left Dean, who was counting on him, without a backup, and put Mary in danger, because she ran after him like a silly schoolgirl with a crush on her cranky old professor, on the other. I really, really, really don’t care about Mary and Bobby and their budding romance. I find it boring and out of place, especially considering that it takes up so much screen time and turns the show into some sort of soap.

I found Dean calm, patient, supportive, understanding, reflective, and introspective in this episode. It was through his conversation with Sasha that we got a glimpse into his own on-going parent-related struggles and how he is dealing or trying to deal with them from day to day. “Let it go,” he said. Later, upon reflection, I wondered whether his outward calmness was in fact defeat and resignation. He has been trying to let go a lot of things lately, including, I assume, his father’s expectations and his mother’s indifference among other things. His calm façade, that he seemed to maintain so well throughout the episode, was once again shattered into pieces when he was brought face to face with another of Michael’s traps – this time in the form of a djinn with enhanced abilities – that the latter had set up all over the place while using Dean. Now djinns can bring forth people’s worst nightmares just by touching them – but when the djinn touches Dean, he sees or experiences something that frightens him a lot and even makes him choke on air. Of course, I'm not the only one who wonders what it was and why he kept repeating “you… you…” as though he couldn't believe whatever it was that he was seeing. I was disappointed that we didn’t get another Michael flashback.

In the end of the episode Mary and Bobby go away to some cabin, ostensibly because Bobby needs to recover. After all, we don’t have a rogue archangel on the loose, who set up traps all over the place to catch hunters like flies, and we obviously don’t need such an experienced hunter as Mary around. I remember that her attitude was quite different back in S13 – but, of course, she didn’t have a man back then to play house with. I really thought that when Bobby took Sam aside to take back what he had said before about him as a leader that we would finally (finally!) get that scene between Mary and Dean that I was so waiting for and that would serve as proof that she cares and worries about him too – but no. Dean had to be the one to hug her and tell her to go and be happy. It was as though their roles were reversed and he was the parent here, telling his child to go and make her own way in life. He was letting go. And you know what? I don’t really think that Dean would have confided in her anyway. I just don’t think that she has earned his trust or that he truly sees her as someone he can talk to about what is troubling him.

But he is visibly troubled as he sees Mary and Bobby off. It is clear that there is something on his mind. He is waiting for the right moment to talk to Sam. We learn in the course of their conversation that Dean had been trying to move on after what happened while he was being possessed by Michael and that he had almost succeeded. Almost. Sam instantly reassures Dean that they will find a way to track Michael down and kill him. Dean says that he hopes that Sam is right, feeling resigned and defeated, but trying for his brother’s sake to cling to that bit of hope. In the end of the day Sam and Dean have no one but each other to rely on. I was shocked that not one hunter greeted Sam when they brought Maggie back home. Not one of them even looked at him or nodded in acknowledgement or clapped him on the back to show that they were happy to see him too. No one said, "Hey, Chief! Glad you're back." At that moment, when Sam and Dean stood to the side, while the rest of them gathered around Maggie laughing and cheering, they looked like complete strangers in their own home. Isolated. Alone. Invisible. Unappreciated and unwanted by everyone – including the writers who seem determined to make them and their stories less important than other characters’. I have an unpleasant feeling that they are slowly but surely being erased… and that’s what’s troubling me about the direction in which this season seems to be going.

In the past whenever new characters were introduced into the story, they always had some form of interaction or connection with the boys – they became part of their lives in some way or another for however long they were present there. But now all the new characters (bland and colourless and way too many of them) exist parallel to them, as though separated by an invisible wall. I’m sure I’m not imagining it. I mean, even Maggie, who was sent on a hunt by Sam, was guided through the process by Mary and Bobby! There simply is no connection or interaction or growing bond of any kind between Sam and Dean and the new characters anymore. So far they are a nameless mass of annoying flies that buzz around without any use or purpose - just extraneous baggage that the show doesn't need - unless the writers have plans for them that don't involve the main leads. Dean is banished to the sidelines; presumably still hiding in his room most of the time, he barely knows anyone and no one seems to want to go to the trouble of getting to know him. These hunters have basically invaded his home and they don't even have the common decency to do that? Sam is said to be their leader (we are constantly reminded of that fact through other characters, which doesn't necessarily make it true or even remotely believable if the writers have to go out of their way to convince us of that), but his job as such seems to be limited to giving them pointers, sending them on cases and getting their reports without any personal sort of interaction involved. There is no spending time together after working a case - there is no working a case together either, which would have, I imagine, brought them closer together and would have given them an opportunity to get to know each other better. I don’t want to sound paranoid but it almost feels as though the writers are preparing us for the time when there will be no Sam and Dean around – as though they will be exiting at the end of the season, leaving the next generation of freshly-minted hunters in the bunker to continue their work…