Supernatural 9.06: It was actually good, so I am a bit flummoxed.
I’m gonna level with you guys. This episode (“Heaven Can’t Wait”) fell into the Very Good (though not AMAZING) category of episode four, “Slumber Party,” so I’m finding it difficult to say stuff about it. And yes, I have a lot of papers to grade, and I’m ON IT.
Then, I had a lot of mixed FEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLINGS about 9.07, “Bad Boys,” about which I could go on forever and ever, so I’m trying to tamp those down in order to appear like a (relatively) sane person.
And in this point in my rocky and mutually abusive relationship with Show, I’m basically just holding on for the next episode, episode 8. Seriously, look at this preview and this clip. I don’t care if it’s the worst episode in the history of the world…unlike “bestiality jokes,” this is something I can laugh about and enjoy even if it’s terrible. You see? I am immature. Just not about dog jokes.
So. “Heaven Can’t Wait.”
The Cas Came Back, the Very Next After a Few Episodes!
We find out what happened to Cas after Dean kicked him out of the Bunker (without even letting him finish his burrito!). And I like that it was neither Amazingly Awful nor Amazingly Adjusted — it was pretty mundane.
Cas has a job at the Gas N Sip, working as a “sales associate.” We see him doing his job — pretty well, for the most part, except for an incident with a slushie machine. He looks to other humans for cues as how to act “normal,” but he isn’t like, “Wait, what is toothpaste?”
It was a good balance — not playing Cas as unrealistically naive for a cheap laugh, but addressing how he doesn’t quite fully “get it,” yet.
He thinks that his boss, Nora, is asking him out on a date, but it turns out she is asking him to babysit. This is a could-only-happen-on-TV kind of misunderstanding, but I went with it because it’s true in spirit, if not logistically. This is what human life is about, the episode seems to suggest: pride in small achievements…getting your hopes up about something and getting disappointed…dusting yourself off and moving on.
Single-Mom Nora, who should be more specific in her baby-sitting requests. Image via idiot box
We also got scenes with Cas attempting to care for a baby — singing to it and then freaking out that it has a temperature — which was a pretty obvious ploy for the “awwww…adorable!” but it worked, so I went with it.
The scene of him singing the “Great American Hero” theme to the baby is pretty moving, as i09 points out.
But…unfortunately, all I could hear was George’s answering machine version on Seinfeld and I had “Believe it or not, George isn’t at home…Believe it or not, I’m not hooooooooooooooome!” stuck in my head for hours.
Dean Would Like Some Lies with His Scrambled Lies, Please
Upon hearing from Cas that there’s a potential case (random people vaporized into pink goo), Dean takes off. Of course, he can’t take Sam with him, because he told Sam and Cas different stories, so he lies to Sam and Kevin that it’s probably not a real case, and explains his eagerness to leave by using his (very real) disinterest in more Angel Tablet research as a cover.
Upon meeting up with Cas, clearly there’s the “I told you to bounce when you were at your lowest” elephant in the room, and I like how they handled it. Cas was a bit pissy…
…but he didn’t shut Dean out completely, which made me think fairly highly of Cas’ maturity (plus, honestly, who else does Cas have? No one. Which is sad. As the episode points outs, Cas is scared and lonely and trying to do his best to hold it together).
Also, here’s where the “Jensen Ackles is a good actor” factor came into play. Despite the fact that Dean was a bit of a dick, looking down at Cas’ job, etc., you could tell from the way that Ackles played it that all the lies are getting him down, and that he cares about Cas.
Image from Tv.com
I also thought that the episode pointed out that the brothers are actually kind of lucky that they have a “skill” they enjoy: Dean is like “Why don’t you just become a hunter?” and Cas points out, reasonably, that Dean has often said Cas sucks as a hunter. Despite the fact that the show likes to go on and on and on about how terrible and sucky the boys’ lives as hunters are…they have a skill set, and a community to tap into when they need it. Without that, what would they do? End up working a lonely gig at the Gas N Sip, that’s what. Maybe they should think about that next time they get into one of their “HUUUUNNNNNnnnnnttTTTTTTTTiiiiiiiiiing suuuuuuuuuCCCCCCCCCkkkkkkkkssss….” moods. Better than cleaning out dirty bathrooms, dudes.
Anyway, Dean ultimately ends up urging Cas to continue living his human life. When Dean finds out some new information about the angels, he of course conceals it from Cas because Lies Solve Everything.
But we see — mostly from Ackles performance — that Dean cares about Cas and is regretful about the way everything is going down.
A Whole New Kind of Angel
We discover that the baddie of this episode — pink goo vaporizer — is a new kind of Angel species, one that has never been to earth before. This is basically an Angel Triage Medic, whose job it was to put wounded Angels out of their misery on the battlefield.
On earth, this Angel doesn’t know the difference between a legitimately suicidal person and a teenager who says, “Ugh, I might as well be dead” over a break-up. So, once this Angel got a vessel — in a call-back to the televangelist of episode three — he basically went on a killing spree, vaporizing anyone who had a bad day.
Turn all the sad people into pink goo! Image via here.
I liked learning that there were differently types of Angels — it has a new element to the “fallen Angels” plot line, mixing it up in a refreshing way. I was worried that the fallen Angel plotline basically made Angels the new Demons/the new Leviathans, but finding out that they can have different powers and agendas opened up some new avenues.
It was also a nice parallel to Cas’ story — in a non-falling-anvils way. Compared to this confused medic who was indiscriminately killing people, Cas is a veritable expert on human ways, which leads him to wonder if he should be helping the other Angels on earth, not living as a human. It’s always been Cas’ struggle — side with the Angels or the humans — and now the difference is even more marked. For now, he’s choosing living as a human, but he’s probably going to try and help out the angels again, because he always tries to help the angels (and it always goes spectacularly badly. Waaaaah–woooooomp).
The fact that the Triage Angel also came to kill Cas — since Cas is lonely and scared and wondering if human life is worth it — drew attention to the difficulties of Cas’ human life. But the episode ended with Cas choosing to live, and taking pride in his human job. As he points out, there’s a dignity in what he does. There’s a dignity in living a simple human life. It’s not dramatic and heroic and awesome all the time, but it can be worth it. Even if your crush actually just wants you to babysit and sometimes you have to clean the bathroom.
Sam and Kevin and Crowley in the bunker, oh my!
Before he leaves the bunker, Dean warns Sam and Kevin not to get sucked into Crowley’s “quid pro quo” thing. Naturally, Sam and Kevin immediately agree to do Crowley a favor if he’ll help them translate the Angel tablet.
I know, Kevin. But you’re all stupid sometimes!
I’ll suspend all disbelief about Crowley being able to help (because Kevin translated the tablet into a dead language and reasons…) and the fact that Kevin’s ability to translate a tablet seems to be always directly in proportion to how far along in the season we are, because I love me some good Captured Crowley scenes.
Crowley does manage a few great moments of bad-ass snarkiness with Sam, even if he’s virtually powerless. Image from tv.com
Crowley wants a “phone call to Hell,” which he does the old-fashioned way…using Kevin’s blood. The phone call gives a glimpse of lovely, sexy, Abaddon…
…and gives Crowley a reality check that he is no longer in power. Abaddon is taking souls before their time, not sticking to Crowley’s “deals,” and she basically tells Crowley that he’s finished.
Poor Crowley ends up looking a bit pathetic.
As Dean put it before he left, Abaddon’s “scarier than you’ve been in years.” I like the meta-joke…Crowley’s always worked better as a reluctant/can’t-really-trust-him ally than a Big Bad. FallenFromPower!Crowley is interesting in its pathos (and I suspect Crowley might use the “I look pathetic and powerless” angle to his advantage). I’m interested to see where it goes.
There’s a mysterious scene at the end, where we see Sam observing that Crowley is mournfully injecting himself with Kevin’s (?) blood. This was very weird — if Sam was seeing it, why didn’t he say something? Or was that Zeke? And why with the blood? Is Crowley trying to make himself human…? I don’t get it, and I’m intrigued.
ANGEL SPELL STUFF
We find out through Crowley’s help with the tablets (though it’s always possible that Crowley is lying because…demon) that the spell Metatron used to cast the angels out of heaven is irreversible. I don’t know what I think about this. If true, there’s a lot less urgency in dealing with the problem…no? If fallen Angels are the new status quo, and there’s nothing to be done, isn’t that a bit anti-climatic?
Naturally, when Dean finds out about this via Sam, he doesn’t tell Cas because LIES.
Let’s Stand By the Water and Process Our Feelings
Ultimately, this felt like a placeholder episode, but a good one. Nothing radically changed, but we got some character development for Cas, and some threads that offer some intriguing possibilities (what is up with Crowley and the blood? Is he lying about the spell being irreversible? What other kinds of Angels are out there?).
We’re sort of human, after all: Cas (“It’s Steve now”) and Crowley. Image via Zap2It
All in all, this episode felt kind of…quiet and…(gasp!) subtle. Which is nothing short of amazing if you compare it to the Master Class in Unsubtly of the previous doggie-sex episode. I liked that Cas’ human journey was presented without any big flourishes; it felt believable and real, as did Cas and Dean’s interactions.
Kudos to new writer Robert Berens. You done good!
