We're back! I got so confused last week, was there an episode, wasn't there...? But guess not, because the big return came this week with 'My Heart Will Go On' - an awkwardly titled but none the less super interesting take on how a slight alteration of history could affect the present day... and that's always fun! And of course, this is the last bit of the season, the homestretch... and we don't even know if there'll be a season 7. Don't know about you guys but I'm feeling pretty nostalgic, already shedding a little tear at Ellen's smiling face in the 'Previously On.' This should be fun.
Don't forget to visit Out of the Box, a freelance television/entertainment blog with lots of features, reviews and more from yours truly! :) Leave some reviews, it'd be much appreciated.
Wait, that's not the Impala...
After the almost one-and-a-half minute long (!) previously on, the episode begins. A guy props a garage door up with a stick and I'm thinking, Scream tribute? He reaches for his beer bottle to find it has moved, and wow, accidents just follow this guy around. Very well orchestrated sequence, great directing with all the accidents coming together... and yes, definitely Scream-reminiscent. Ugh.
Meanwhile, Dean and Sam are trying to reach Bobby, who is still suffering after Rufus' death. But... turns out Bobby is business as usual, so the awkwardness was kind of for nothing. "This ain't about Rufus," Bobby insists, but the brothers aren't buying it.
There's a job to be done: apparently three family members died in freak accidents in Pennsylvania - and now I'm thinking a little less Scream, a little more Final Destination. And I don't even like horror films.
But Bobby doesn't want to come, so Sam and Dean go alone... in a weird car with ugly stripes. And they talk about a "she" who is returning. Hmm.
"Accidents don't just happen... accidentally. You know what I mean."
Just as the brothers leave... Ellen appears! And Bobby doesn't seem surprised to see her! She... brings groceries, and it's all so... normal.... clearly something weird is going on heeere. Ellen's been "hunting with Jo" and is sorry that Rufus is dead and... clearly, this is a reality bend where Ellen and Jo didn't die, and Ellen married Bobby huh? Well I don't know about y'all, but I like it!
But in Chester, Pennsylvania, things aren't as rosy and cute. Because much like in Final Destination, it looks like course correction is going on. The brothers find gold randomly in the garage, which is weird.
Dean goes to a cousin of the Russos (which originally came from Italy) to learn more about the dead family. He wants to know about "something so dark that would sully future generations" lol, yeah I'm sure he'll tell you everything you want to know, Dean. Real smooth. Then he tries the "your life is in danger" approach... not threatening, no, just "if you don't watch your back, you're gonna die." Jeez Dean, what happened to years of manipulation and deceit!? I guess Dean's lack of tact is the second sign that something is different about this world! Very funny scene though, the man's reactions were priceless.
If ooonly I could tuuuurn baaack tiiimeeee...
Meanwhile, what looks like the next victim is seen in an office which begins to give us some ideas about subtle differences: Detroit was voted America's top city, and the #1 holiday destination is Cuba... Americans, I'm not sure but this is wrong, right?
Oh, but suddenly something strange happens... just a little strange, in that time freezes and a random girl comes in with a book and moves the woman's keys - like the garage man's beer was moved - clearly about to set up another epic catastrophe of Final Destination proportions. Really, woman, couldn't you be a little less dramatic about it and just like, inject them with something painless? So much flair.
Poor doomed woman resumes her life, only to die, and sometimes I worry about people who have the creative minds for something like this... really, writers? The printer gets water in it and her necktie is caught, and she is strangled. Sadface. The woman crosses off another name on the list, and again drops a little strand of gold (convenient). Are the brothers going to think it's a leprechaun who did it... because that wouldn't be surprising at this point!
Really, Bobby and Ellen should have shacked up years ago!
In the early years, Sam and Dean used Ellen a lot whenever they had questions or a big problem they couldn't solve themselves. It soon became more common for them to use Bobby, though. But what if they'd had both, like now? They make a hell of a team and I think despite all the tragedy, they're happy together!
But, despite the fact that I know it already since the press release for the episode was very spoilery, the big question remains as to how Ellen being alive is linked to a girl with a book running around America making sure people die.
"Jo and her crew" is working the same case in California, and no one knows what's going on. Dean is still concerned about Bobby, but Ellen is taking care of him.
Ellen did find ONE connection... the families all came to America in 1912........... a random, completely unremarkable boat named something liiiike... the Titanic. Hmmmmmmmmm nope doesn't ring a bell! Wow, random! But I like it! But here's the thing about course correction: ONE thing is making sure all the people who were never meant to be alive die (not counting the fact that really, this shouldn't have waited for several generations, this should have happened straight away), but what about all the people who SHOULD HAVE BEEN alive but aren't? Say, all the people whose conceptions might have been somehow hindered by the survival of the Titanic passengers? A passenger might have met and married someone who, had they never met the passenger, would have married someone else and had other children, who'd have had other grandchildren etc. Seriously, I know it's a small thing but it's really half the whole fate issue and it makes me a little annoyed that it's always overlooked.
Sam and Dean research the Titanic, and find out it was the biggest boat to cross the Atlantic at the time, but that's it. There was a close call, it always hit an iceberg, but the first mate spotted it just in time. Lucky. But the first mate's name? I.P. Freely, as in... Shia LaBeouf? Oh, um, it's Balthazar. LOL um, what?
"No Kutcher references." Guess that dude wasn't course corrected, huh?
Question: are they calling it a boat because they don't want to use the word "ship" in canon?
Anyway, the brothers call on Balty and he's pretty quick to explain that he decided to save the Titanic randomly, not for any particular reason... other than the fact that he hated the movie! HAHAHA oh my god, best line ever or what?! "What movie?" Dean asks, and Balthazar happily exclaims, "Exactly!" Oh wow, if ever there was an angel using his powers for good...
He also made sure Celine Dion never got her career started, and as she is an almost-namesake of mine can I just be affronted? Oh well, I'm over it. But fair warning, if I hear one more 3rd grader call me Selena Gomez, I'm gonna smack someone.
"Haven't you noticed," Balthazar says, giving us a bit more relevance to the plot (although as a standalone it's awesome enough as it is), "There are no more rules." Since Michael and Lucifer almost ended the world and the brothers killed most of the horsemen, things really have changed, and this is apparently one of the ways. The angels can do anything they want, and if they're mischievous like Balthazar (suddenly makes me sad/relieved that the Trickster is dead), this can mean really, really messed up things.
But this particular change only caused "small details" to change... well, for the brothers at least, probably not true if you were the Russos! But one of the small things is that they don't drive an Impala - oh that's why! What a sucky world! Oh, and the Ellen and Jo thing... so guys what's the verdict, Ellen or the Impala? What would you choose? :P
Of course the news that Ellen and Jo are meant to be dead in a massive explosion (is this the confirmation that Jo didn't die from her hell hound wounds and therefore didn't go to Hell that I've been waiting for?? I'm gonna tell myself yes.) are upsetting to the boys. Because when it was just random casualties, I'm sure they were all for course correction, but now? Now it's PERSONAL dun dun dun. Oh god I don't want to see Ellen die bloodily, once was enough.
Fate, Hope & Trick
"I'm sorry, you have me confused with the other angel. You know... the one in the dirty trench coat who's in love with you?" HA. I'd like to see the reaction of the shippers to that one. Hilarious! But Balthazar doesn't care about the 50,000 people who are now going to die, and leaves.
Sam and Dean tell Bobby - and Bobby tells them that they're up against Fate. Of course. Why not? At this point, should the brothers even be surprised? Next week it'll be Buffy.
But it's actually, according to Bobby, one of the Fates from Greek mythology. Oh please if SPN gets renewed can we have an episode about demigods born half human half Greek god, like a modern-day Hercules?? I know it's basically the plot of Percy Jackson but it'd be so much fun! Also, nice to get away from the all-consuming Catholicism every once in a while. I'd also like to meet the Buddha.
So how do we stop Fate? Good question. Bobby doesn't understand why they won't just resink the boat, so they tell him about Ellen and Jo. Sad times at the B&E Scrap Yard. I wonder when Bobby and Ellen got married, if it was recently or if in this timeline they got married a lot earlier.
So what do they do? Well, they know one person who's a descendant: Shawn Russo, the cousin who Dean royally pissed off at the beginning. So they go back, intent on saving him.
Date w/Death.
It looks like another accident bound to happen - but how can the brothers stop it, when Fate can stop the clock at any moment? And haven't they seen Final Destination?! But this time, the guy survives - but he would have done either way, so guess this wasn't the time... the time he got hit by a bus, however, was. So clearly the brothers factored into the plan from the beginning.
And notice the bus number 666.
In a window, Sam sees Fate looking out, and she sees him too. She looks like... "your kind of librarian or my kind of librarian" haha. Dean goes with a gun - intending to kill her? And ah, guys, again I'm thinking accident waiting to happen! Fate stops time... and sets her plan in motion. Were the brothers meant to die then?? Like... one of the many, many times they evaded death? Because again I ask, why act now and not sooner? Or is she simply trying to protect herself?
And here's another little nitpick for you: Fate stops time, yet when she turns on the gas, the gas begins to leak out! Surely it should not begin before she started the clock again! Anyway... just saying. It's the little things, people.
Dean's flashlight stops working, so he pulls out a lighter. Which luckily doesn't seem to work. But suddenly it does - and WHAM! But hey, it's the angel who's in love with Dean! :D He moved them to White Russia, and explains that Fate is mad at the boys because they've evaded her so many times (add this to the list). "if I know her, and I do, she won't stop until you're dead." So Cas tells them that the only way to save themselves is to kill Fate with one of Balthazar's weapons.
"You need new friends, Cas." "I'm trying to save the ones I have, Dean." Ouch. Long, lingering stare.
"Tempting Fate." Ahahaaa I get it. Clever.
Meanwhile, at B&E's, Bobby is super worried. Ellen echoes Bobby's earlier sentiment that it's a lot better to never be born than to die bloody... but this time Bobby's got his own stakes in it. "You're talking about people. People who are loved, who'll be missed." So he tells her. Hey, is my close-up director friend from the spider episode back?
"If it was meant to be then... whatever happens happens." But Bobby admits that he needs her. Awww BOBBY we know what he's like without her, and I'm sensing a very unhappy end this episode!
So, Fate's set in motion. "Just walk, act natural." Blondie's "One Way or Another" plays... ah, scary but funny. Especially the part with the juggling weapons and fire hahaha. The world is a scary place.
Whoa! It's almost a fallen piano (why not, writers?? Would have been an awesome callback to 'Tall Tales'!), but instead it's a fridge which almost falls and smashes the boys, but time is stopped and Castiel intervenes.
Freedom is chaos! Order is bliss! Power is control!
Cas and Fate have a heart-to-heart... she says that Cas ruined her life when he threw out the book. But Cas is determined to fight on Team Freedom, despite Fate's claim that all you get without rules is chaos (um, way to go Balty).
Apparently Fate went to Heaven and I'm sorry, but, a Greek mythological creature in Heaven? I DON'T like the idea of Catholicism as some over-religion which allows all the "small" religions like Greek mythology, Buddhism, Nordic mythology, Hinduism etc. to exist under it. No way. That's not cool, show, no matter what religious belief any one individual holds. But this isn't the time to preach that, I just want to say it, because I don't like how it seems to be just taken for granted, either. It was like that episode where Lucifer just killed a bunch of gods from other religions. I mean, WHAT? I love SPN, but I don't like this message. So much for Team Freedom.
Back to the plot though, where Cas tells Fate that her services are no longer required. And we find out... that Balthazar didn't sink the Titanic because of Leo (oh the relief), but because Castiel told him to. Say whaaaa? I love this, it's so long since we've had such a cool, unforeseeable (no pun intended) twist towards the end of an episode! He did it... because of the souls. He needed to change an event which would create 50,000 new souls for his war. Uh-oh, I wonder what the souls are needed for.
Castiel looks pained, and I like seeing another look on his face for once, heh. And actually, Fate talks a lot of sense. She gives him an ultimatum: if the SHIP isn't sunk, Fate is going to kill his "two favourite pets". And if he kills her, she's got two sisters to take her place.
Yoooooooooooou're heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere, there's noooooooooooooooooothing I feeeeeaaaarrr!
Haha, Balthazar was just about to kill her. But he can't, obviously, as Castiel wants Dean and Sam to survive.
But oh no. The Titanic is sunk, and the song is back. As is the world as we knew it, but at least, with all the sadness, we've got the Impala back. I'm just surprised Dean would ever be caught dead with that song blasting out of the speakers!
And it's a "I just had the weirdest dream" episode ending. Oh, how many people feared that this was the way Lost was going to end. Sam and Dean find out that it wasn't a dream, and Castiel explains what happened. And... is he wearing a tie, backwards?
"So you killed 50,000 people for us?" "No, Sam, just for Dean, because I'm in love with him."
Nah, Balthazar hasn't gone back in time and rewritten the episode to be more fun. ;)
And they also crushed my tiny hope that for once, a weirdass episode wouldn't end with a return to the status quo, and said that Ellen and Jo were dead again. I would have loved it if for once, a nice change was allowed and we'd see Ellen come out of Bobby's house. But I guess it's also an actor thing with scheduling... can't expect miracles in corporate America.
Castiel wanted them to remember the incident to remember what Fate is, cruel and capricious. He tells them that they don't have to be ruled by Fate, that they can make their own destiny, like they once told him. "You can choose FREEEDOOOOOMMMM!" And then he turns into William Wallace. But he doesn't tell them how he was actually trying to create the extra souls for his war... hmmm.
"Besides, Titanic didn't suck that bad." HEY DEAN WHAT HAPPENED TO NO CHICK FLICK MOMENTS?! Pwned.
They go back to find Bobby sleeping, alone, and again stand watching him from the doorway. They let him sleep... and Dean even tugs him in. The picture is back, Ellen-less. And all is right with the world... or wrong.
Quotables:
Dean: Why did you unsink the Titanic?
Balthazar: Because I hated the movie!
Dean: What movie?
Balthazar: Exactly!
Balthazar: I'm sorry, you have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trench coat who's in love with you.
Rating: 4.5/5!
I might hear people call it a gimmick episode. Fine. But the way I see it, I haven't enjoyed an episode like this in a long time. It wasn't, like the TV show episode, good mostly because of how out there it was and how many limits it crossed... this episode was just good. The Titanic sinking was a random, but plausible storytelling device, and giving it the purpose of creating 50,000 more souls for Cas' army made perfect sense to me. Of course, we could think of other places in the world he might be able to save a lot more but accepting that this an American show with a very American setting (the brothers never hunt demons in China), the Titanic was perfect. It was also an event which would likely change reality in small but ultimately insignificant ways, which was perfect for Castiel's needs. That the show was able to bring back Ellen just added such a beautiful, personal angle to the story, and it was so great to see her again - like a breath of fresh air. Balthazar is always fun, I thought the acting in general was outstanding, and the random comic relief (you have to appreciate the attention to detail with things like the backwards tie) didn't distract from the serious parts of the episode. In a lot of ways it reminded me of 'Tall Tales,' a classic, and in others in was more like 'Mystery Spot' - hilarious, but in a poignant, deeply resonating way. I guess in a way Balthazar is our new Trickster, and that's fine with me. After the last episode before the break - which I didn't like at all, something a lot of you took offense at - I was so happy to come back and get an episode which took a gimmicky concept and made it work. It doesn't get 5 stars because I think to get 5, it would have to end up in the classic hall of fame of episodes I love and could rewatch whenever ('Tall Tales', 'Mystery Spot', 'Ghostfacers', 'All Hell Breaks Loose' etc), and I don't think it's quiiiiite there... but it's certainly one of the best episodes we've had all year.
Here's to next week's episode 'Frontierland,' which I know I'm looking forward to like whoa and hope the rest of you are too!
Sign Up for the SpoilerTV Newsletter where we talk all things TV!
Recommendations
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
