A totally not creepy man wants to check out an item from
his safety deposit box in a bank. That item would be in box number 1 – so already
very very old. Inside the box is a bone, a very old bone. Once he has his bone
he turns to the nice helpful bank employee – there’s a scream and a classic
Supernatural blood spatter. The monsters of Supernatural are so messy with
their food.
With the Winchesters, Ken is worried about his mother
having seen Channing killed by demons last episode. He’s worried that she’s not
ok and could be in demon hands. Dean doesn’t want to go, it’s out of their way,
it’s probably a trap, Crowley needs Ken’s mother alive for leverage and, of
course, a trip to Purgatory has burned away several more layers of Dean’s
empathy. Ken doesn’t give up and Dean agrees to the road trip.
At Ken’s mother’s he notices she’s ok – but sad. Dean
notices 2 demons scoping out the place. After stabbing them both with the doom
dagger (have they forgotten how to perform exorcisms?) they go in, slightly
spoil the touching reunion by dousing Ken’s mother with holy water, and then
stabbing her good friend, Eunice (they actually use an exorcism to stop the
demon escaping them get with the stabbing – exorcism guys, at least try to
leave people alive).
Ms. Tran takes a minute to absorb the vast amount of
knowledge they drop on her in a very short period of time. She takes a breath –
then decides to get with the programme and get to it, including packing a bag
to come with them. They try to talk her out of it, but she’s not having it, she’s
coming with. They set conditions, including that she and Kevin both need to get
anti-demon tattoos, he seems reluctant, she says “like it’s my first tattoo”
leaving Kevin a little poleaxed
They go to collect the Word of God where Kevin stashed it
in a locker – but it’s been removed. There were a string of thefts from the
lockers by the ex-guard who is now in gaol. They go to question him but while Sam is
asking the questions, Dean gets a flashback to purgatory, questioning monsters
to try and find where Castiel was. He grabs the prisoner and holds a knife to
his throat – the prisoner tells them where the Tablet is.
They go to the pawn shop for the tablet and he isn’t
answering questions. Dean starts to get menacing but Ms. Tran takes over and is
much much better at it, threatening him with tax evasion over the car he has.
Going to collect a tablet they have a problem – it’s not
there and it’s up for supernatural auction. But they’re invited to attend, at the
behest of the right-hand man of Plutus, god of greed, who is running the show.
They consider what little they have to offer (briefly consider selling Dean’s
car but he threatens Sam for even suggesting it) before deciding they can just
take Kevin in and he can memorise the relevant spell on the tablet without
having to buy it.
When they get into the auction – and Dean has his weapons
stripped from him – they find that there is a plate placed on the tablet,
preventing it from being read. To make matters worse, Crowley is in attendance,
ready to taunt everyone – but Ms. Tran smacks him good – it’s beautiful to see
and I like Crowley. Dean has also acquired the nickname “Squirrel” to go with
Sam’s “Moose.”
Dean also runs into Semandriel – and angel using a teenaged
fast-food worker as a vessel to try and get the Word of God back. He also has
questions for Dean about Castiel – what happened to him. Dean tells him they
were sent to Purgatory – Semandriel asks if Castiel managed to escape and Dean
is sadly silent. The angel tells Dean that some in Heaven knew that Castiel did
what he did for the right reasons – and that too much heart was always Castiel’s
problem.
Dean has another Purgatory flash back to him and Benny
the Vampire finding Castiel, ragged and dirty, by a lake. Castiel also says he’s
perfectly sane – if you can trust that given most psychotics think they are.
Dean is extremely happy to see him – but Benny wants to know why Castiel ran
out on Dean. Dean starts to make excuses for the angel, but Castiel says he ran
away and heard Dean’s prayers, but ignored them. Since he arrived Leviathan
have been hunting him and he’s been running to keep ahead of them and to keep
them away from Dean. There’s lots of Castiel trying to convince Dean to leave –
with Benny agreeing, but Dean is determined, he’s not leaving without Castiel.
 |
| Castiel, Castiel, Wherefore Art Thou, Castiel? |
Back at the auction, the bidding begins on various
magical artefacts in which they find that they don’t have a whole lot of money
to bid – and that the bidding is in esoteric currency anyway. (Creepy guy from
the beginning of the episode is bidding on Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. He offers a
finger of an ice giant for it and later he hugs the hammer saying he missed him
– was this Thor?)
Dean pretends to go to the bathroom, pickpockets a key
and has a look in the vault – but there’s 2 guards inside so that nixes that
plan. And when biddings atarts on the word of god, Crowley opens with 3 billion
dollars. Semandriel counters with the Mona Lisa (aren’t angels powerful enough
to just smite their way to the word?). The bidding continues in the ridiculous:
the Real Mona Lisa where she’s topless, Vatican City, Alaska (“Palin, and the
bridge to nowhere? No thanks” – quote of the night), the Moon. The reserve has
not been met (seriously? They were both upping the already ridiculous bids
further, crappy auctioneer) so to sweeten the pot they throw in Kevin, Prophet
of the Lord.
In horror, Ms. Tran offers everything she owns for her
son, but her assets are negligible. She then offers her soul. Semandriel
refuses to trade in souls, angels won’t. Crowley offers a million souls but
Plutus says it’s the sacrifice that matters, Ms Tran’s soul represents
everything she has – is Crowley going to give up everything? Crowley gathers
his courage and bids his own soul – Plutus laughs, Crowley doesn’t have a soul.
She wins the auction.
Afterwards she asks Sam and Dean what losing her soul will mean. Sam tells her she won’t die – but she will wish she was dead, he knows having lost his soul before. Semandriel offers to protect Kevin but she says the last time the angels protected him, the angels died and Kevin disappeared for a year – she’d rather have the Winchesters look after him.
They go to the vault with excessively (and unnecessarily –
seriously, there was no need for the implied sexual abuse of what he will do
with her soul) creepy Plutus. She steps forwards – but then Dean spots that the
anti-possession tattoo has been burned off. Ms. Tran’s eyes turn black – she’s
possessed by Crowley – she got past the wards with the help of Plutus’s right
hand man (who was more than happy to take an island as payment) he and the assistant
quickly kill Plutus and his guards.
Crowley/Ms Tran runs, chased by Dean. Sam and Kevin are
held at gun point by the assistant, until Sam grabs Mjolnir and hits him across
the head with it. He then turns round and kills creepy guy with it since he
paid with “5 8ths of a virgin”.
Dean catches up with Crowley/Ms. Tran just as Kevin
arrives. The distraction allows Crowley/Ms. Tran to push him away long enough for
Crowley to leave her (red and black smoke) and return to his normal body. In
her head he learned that they plan to close the gates of hell – and he has the
tablet. He also warns Kevin that the Winchesters use people up and they tend to
die bloody around them – then he leaves with Dean giving him a pretty poor
glare – c’mon Dean, you can do better.
After the fight, Ms. Tran is left catatonic. Kevin doesn’t
want to talk to Dean or listen to him and just wants a moment alone with his
mother. Sam and Dean leave and Sam asks Dean if he really would have killed her
– Dean said yes, Crowley was in there and it would have been worth it. He would
hate himself for it – but he already has so many nightmares that one more wouldn’t
make a difference.
They notice the silence and return to the room to find
Kevin and Ms. Tran gone. They left a note behind saying that since they don’t
have the tablet they don’t need him (Sam protests that Crowley still needs Kevin
and will hunt him) And the note leaves another barb – people Dean doesn’t need
any more end up dead. Sam says it’s not true, but Dean has another flashback of
Purgatory and Castiel, reaching out and calling Dean’s name. Nooooo… Castiel!
Ok, “Tiger mom”? No. It would have been bad enough in any
situation, but a show that has taken 8 seasons to finally pull out a regular
POC character should refrain from them using said character for stereotypes and
jokes – especially in the episode titles. I like that Dean objects furiously to
someone calling her “mail-order” and then backs down when Ms. Tran says she can
handle it. Other than that Ms. Tran is all kinds of awesome, especially how
quickly she adapts and how strongly as well. She would be a truly excellent character
and is played by a brilliant actor as well. So why oh why oh why did we have to
deal with yet another strong woman being effectively killed and sacrificed?
Whyyyyy?!
I am glad to see Dean fraying – and it’s really well done
the way they interspace the present with the past in Purgatory. After a year of
constant fighting for survival (after all the other things Dean has gone
through) it should have a lasting effect on him. Seeing him dismiss just one
more nightmare and his flashbacks as well as his hyper-awareness is really
highlighting how hurt he is.
The assistant to Plutus has some camp mannerisms so, of
course, Crowley has to have a snarky “girl Friday” joke which is just so damn
typical of Supernatural.
Also, needs more Castiel.
