Saturday, May 12, 2018

Supernatural, Season 13, Episode 22: Exodus




So we have a reunion with everyone and Lucifer tries to act like he’s one of the gang and everyone loves him. Needless to say no-one buys it and Mary clocks him good.

They all also try to keep Lucifer away from Jack - except Jack, after a due amount of moping, is super intrigued about his dad and wants to hear more about his family and the power he has. Lucifer does a decent act of not being entirely awful, especially since he sells the whole “fake news” meme (are Supernatural making comparisons between Trump and Satan? Well if they won’t I will!)  quite well, saying it’s all god’s propaganda and he was locked up so it can’t have been his fault

Disturbingly, Jack starts calling him dad. And mopes a lot about his mother

Dean and Sam get over the whole I-thought-you-were-dead thing because emotion. Dean also wants Gabriel to kill Lucifer but that’s not exactly possible: even at full grace we know which brother is more powerful.

The first snag in the plan is that Mary doesn’t actually want to come home because she’s leading the rebellion and it matters and she can’t abandon her comrades in arms. Dean, of course, loses every last bit of his ever-loving shit over this - because family must be together forever and ever until the co-dependence becomes REALLY unhealthy.

Sam can see her point and manages to find a middle ground between abandoning them and staying in apocalypse world. He thinks they should take the Apocalypse soldiers with them so they can use the Winchester Cave with all of its Men of Letters lore to try and figure out how their tiny, losing forces can actually defeat Michael. Sam is actually much more diplomatic with the soldiers - led by Bobby - than Dean’s utter lack of patience and visible scorn. Dean is a weapon, never a diplomat

But first they have to rescue Charlie and Ketch (and I like that it’s clear Charlie is in charge, less so that she’s being rescued) who have gone to rescue some hostages. Only it turns out to be a trap. The angels decide to torture them for information, calling in their specialist: Evil Castiel (who has developed a German accent and a Nazi style uniform). While the good guys use Good Castiel to question the mole and find out

Yes Castiel kills himself, making it very clear he prefers humans to angels as he kills his evil counterpart. So the rescue happens quite easily

Lucifer is awkwardly trying to be a dad to Jack and decides to introduce him to the family, specifically uncle Gabriel. And Gabe isn’t here for this. As far as he’s concerned Lucifer is the worst, his lies are terrible, his corruption of humanity was unforgiveable and an act of jealousy and, basically, he’s a terribad awful CANCER on humanity that god was very right to lock up and it’s only a shame he didn’t do it sooner before the damage was done. His actual words. And this seems to hit home - there’s actual tears in Lucifer’s eyes in the face of his brother’s rage. Gabriel is pretty savage here

Perhaps because of this he is able to convince Jack to come with them - since Jack very much wants to kill Michael

Everyone is convinced to go to the new world and they all gather at the portal to go through (and see a very surprised and exhausted Rowena who has managed to hold it open with her magic) until Michael arrives


The archangels are running a rear guard - and again, Supernatural, invest in some CGI! How can you make a three way battle between the Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer so BORING?!

Tragically, Gabriel dies - completing his redemption arc for running away in the first place. He stood his ground so the humans could… stand watching him. But I’m going to say let them escape to pretend it has meaning

Lucifer doesn’t sacrifice himself but he is injured by Michael… and rushes to Sam to go through the portal. And Sam pushes him back. Because did Lucifer think they were going to help him? He leaves through the portal, which closes behind them, trapping Lucifer with Michael

Which means in the Winchester Cave we now have a small army which is going to be interesting. What was noteworthy about this season is how Supernatural went out its way to pare down their characters - Castiel, Rowena, Crowley were all killed, Mary vanished - it felt like the writers wanted to return to much narrower cast; focusing nearly entirely on the brothers (they’ve tried this before)

Except not only did they creep back through a series of resurrections but now we have an army. We even have Ketch. And, of course, most eagerly we have Charlie and Bobby - one character who was horrendously treated by this show to my infinite rage (DO BETTER!) who I am very happy to see. Bobby… I’m not so sure. I mean, I loved Bobby. Bobby was amazing. But Bobby was amazing because he was the dad the Winchesters never had (don’t come at me with you John apologetics - worst dad ever!); but now we have a Bobby who has no relationship with them? And I’m not even sure a paternal Bobby would work any more; the brothers are pushing 40 now, the dynamic is too different. I fear nostalgia may ruin whatever Bobby becomes

I also thinks he may become a semi-antagonist: taking over in a way that Dean, especially, will find more and more intolerable… though younger Dean was ALWAYS happier following the lead of an older man he respected - I always thought that part of Dean’s looking for John in the first seasons was less parental and more because he didn’t want to lead. The soldier needed his general. Even now we see a Dean who is bad at diplomacy, bad at planning and bad at communicating or expressing himself. Dean is a weapon, but a terribly directed one without Sam’s influence

But this cast? Sam, Dean, Castiel, Mary, Jack, Bobby, Charlie, Ketch, Rowena… that’s a lot. Someone’s going to die. A lot of people are going to die.... Or return to the apocalypse realm at least. They can’t all hang around

And further twist: Lucifer is working with Michael to open a portal… but he clearly feels guilt about it

My theory: Lucifer sacrifices himself saving Jack/the world from Michael and then Jack goes to Heaven to provide their angelic charge. Mary, Bobby and Charlie return to apocalypse world to help rebuild it. Ketch probably goes with. Rowena doesn’t - she continues to hang around doing her own thing because she’s Rowena.