Friday, February 12, 2016

Supernatural, Season 11, Episode 13: Love Hurts



It’s time for a holiday themed episode – Valentines Day. One of Dean’s favourite holidays because there are a lot of single women out there thoroughly sick of the holiday making them feel bad who think a nice night with Dean Winchester will take the sting out of things (I can definitely see there point – though one woman apparently dismissed Dean for having a “dad bod”. Clearly more shirtlessness is needed to see if this is true).

The magic du jour involves people ripping out hearts (which Dean dubs an “ironic werewolf”. Which would have been so much much much more awesome). Specifically, a babysitter is killed by a monster that looks like her employer (who she is having an affair with) who in turn is killed by a monster that looks like said dead babysitter

After a brief check in for shapeshifters, the wife quickly crumbles when her apparently dead husband comes looking for her and spills to beans – she went to her handy local witch for a love spell to try and keep her cheating husband.

Said witch has a very depressing definition of “love”

A little investigating and they find that this heart-rippy curse is actually contagious – and caught by kissing which is why the widow is now being hunted. Dean, never one to hesitate at martyrdom (and being torn by guilt which is kind of his ground state of being) kisses said widow so that the monster can hunt him instead

Sam is not amused and realises there’s a little more than the usually background level of guilt going on here.

Some research follows revealing the witch has caught a being that appears as your “deepest darkest desires” (I can understand why one’s spouse may be you deepest desire – but darkest?) before ripping out hearts. While there’s much snarking about which woman that will be for Dean, no-one is surprised when it turns out to be Amarra. Though Dean’s a little shaken. While Dean do-si-do’s with the monster, Sam goes witch hunting


Said witch is pissed off with doing love spells to keep cheating spouses from straying only to have the same women come back with the same problem again and again. She’s decided the best thing to do is kill the cheating spouse and the women who want to keep their unfaithful partners on board. Damn, that’s some epic victim blaming here – I think a stern “learn to love yourself!” and a night out on the town may be a better method, but that’s just me.

For extra not-goodness Sam snarks about her being a feminist – now it’s clear he doesn’t mean it and by tone alone it’s clear she’s doing feminism wrong but it’s still on the cusp since the whole violent man-hater with extreme-over-reactions is a typical straw man used to attack feminism.

Unsurprisingly said witch and monster end up dead and, for once, Sam doesn’t let Dean shut down his sad torn emotions and demands to know what Dean saw. Dean confesses to his connection to Amarra and is torn by the terribad guilt. Sam isn’t surprised – he’s suspect and he points out that when the sister of god actually focuses on you it’s not ENTIRELY unsurprising that a connection is formed. “Able to resist god” is a high standard


Of course, the real reason Dean is hurting is the harsh truth he admits – that he doesn’t know if he could kill Amarra. Which is basically the same as admitting that he doesn’t know if he has Sam’s back. After the last two seasons, in particular, where they’ve really driven home that the Winchester relationship is almost unhealthily co-dependent… that’s a big admission