Supernatural - Episode 9.22 - 'Stairway to Heaven' Review

We’re up to the penultimate episode of the season. The blade is no longer just a weapon Dean wields. We’ve seen Dean slowly become the weapon, a development symbolically mirrored by angels acting as suicide bombers, and reminiscent of season 4, when the penultimate episode focused on Sam losing himself to demon blood and becoming a weapon that would kill Lilith, triggering the apocalypse.

In fact, a lot of this season mirrored season 4. I’ve been tossing around a lot of theories in the past few weeks, but in this episode, the outline of the story seemed to become clearer: Metatron, an angel who had once had an important job as God’s scribe, was outsourced and became bitter after God left, the Winchesters changed the Apocalypse plan, and Castiel introduced free will to angels. Metraton says he knows the story’s ending, and that the path the story takes doesn’t matter. This point was reinforced as his comments were replayed in the episode’s “Previouslies.” Metatron is trying to put God’s plan back on track and restart destiny and the Apocalypse. He’s rewriting the Winchester Gospels, and is currently on When the Levee Breaks – except that he’s made some character changes and cast Dean in the role of the brother who loses himself to killing.

Before I get into talking about the episode more, let’s take a step back and look at the parallels of this season to season 4:

- In season 4, Dean felt betrayed by Sam and questioned the brother relationship. He told Bobby, “I'm not even sure if he's still my brother anymore. If he ever was.” In season 9, Sam felt betrayed by Dean and he was the one to question and disavow the brother relationship.

- Sam’s arc, which actually started in season 1, was launched when Jess was killed by YED and he went on a revenge quest. This was partially fueled by a feeling of guilt. Sam had been having psychic visions and had foreseen Jess’s death, but hadn’t warned her of the danger. Dean’s arc was launched when Kevin was killed and he went on a revenge quest. This was fueled by a feeling of guilt because Dean hadn’t warned Kevin that there was an angel present.

- In season 4, Dean asked Sam to stop working with Ruby but Sam went off with Ruby anyway. In season 9, we saw Dean go off with Crowley against Sam’s wishes.

- In season 4, Ruby served as a source who helped Sam access his powers and fed him demon blood. In season 9, Crowley brought Dean to Cain, which gave Dean the opportunity to obtain The First Blade and the Mark of Cain.

- In season 4, Sam and Dean fought, with Sam starting to choke Dean. In season 9, Dean has become more aggressive toward Sam – with many predicting a brother-against-brother fight before the season is out.

Weapon for What?

The $64,000 question seems to be, if Dean is being turned into a weapon for a purpose, what is the ultimate target?  I'm eyeing Gadreel.  That angel comes with a lot of really old backstory that hasn't been properly explored yet.  I would say he's a contender for being a key to major shift.  And like Lilith was to Sam, Gadreel is to Dean, in that he was the original source of Dean's revenge quest.

Crowley's Motivation

Last we heard, Crowley didn't want the apocalypse.  But if my speculation is correct, and that this is all about Metatron trying to restart the apocalypse, then Crowley has been a willing and active participant for a while now.  What could have changed?  Could the threat that Abaddon posed, and Crowley's blood addiction, been incentive enough to make Crowley make a deal with Metatron?

Tessa, the Reaper-Angel

There’s been a lot of debate in the fandom about this one – the blending of what always seemed to be two different species. I’m not going to reopen that debate much, other than to say I’m not pleased with the development of blending the mythologies – the biggest reason being that the there are too many ramification for the implications for death. It’s been established that if reapers can’t find humans, then people can’t die. But humans can hide from angels with proper warding, and apparently reapers too as Cas was able to hide from rogue reapers for a time earlier this season.  But most of this retcon started much earlier – starting with Taxi Driver really – and I’ve moved on. My bigger gripe with Tessa’s appearance in this episode was seeing her corporeal and wearing the face she had adopted back in season 2. For angels to take a physical form they need to possess humans, so if Tessa is an angel and is corporeal now, it follows that she is possessing someone. What are the odds that she would find a doppelganger with the face she assumed seven years ago?

On the other hand, I thought Tessa’s explanation, that she was tortured by the cries of people who couldn’t move on to Heaven, made sense and seemed consistent with what we know of reapers. They have one job – protecting the natural order by managing the dead – and it makes sense that they would be deeply disturbed – pained even – when the balance is disrupted. I also see parallels with Tessa’s suicidal act to Dean’s arc. Tessa was Dean’s reaper, so there’s a symbolism to Deans’ reaper killing herself as Dean loses himself to the blade – and possibly foreshadowing of a more direct connection.

The more interesting question to me around the angels as reapers retcon is “why?” There are canon mistakes, and then there are changes that are so big that they must have been intentional. Are we to believe that reapers have always been angels, but we weren’t made aware of it until now? Or is it a sign that Metatron has been altering reality in small ways to make his story work? Or, were reapers made part of angels’ story to create a doorway for Death to play a pivotal role?

Oh Cas, I Really Don’t Get You Sometimes

Overall, I liked the episode - mostly because it felt like the storyline was finally starting to come together. I can't say I'm excited about the current storyline, but I'm curious enough to keep watching for now.  My biggest criticism with this episode were the continuing uninteresting drama around the angels and the way Cas has been written lately.

This season is giving me a new appreciation of Sera Gamble and her creative choice in season 6 to tell the angel-war storyline off-screen.  I’ve long since given up trying to follow what’s going on with the angel battles, and I lost interest somewhere in the first quarter of the season, but I expect to be able to follow Cas. A few weeks back in Meta Fiction, we saw Metatron spell out his big evil plan – to make Cas the villain – right to Cas’s face. And then we watched Cas turn around and do exactly what Metatron said he wanted Cas to do. I figured Cas must have a counterplan, but it became clear in this episode that that was not the case. Cas walked right into the trap that Metatron had told him about.

I’m also scratching my head over the big moral quantry Cas faced – whether to back Dean or not. It’s not the choice of backing Dean that’s bothering me. It’s that it never even occurred to me that this was a question. Cas has appeared closer to the Winchesters than he has his fellow angels for several seasons now, and it seems like just yesterday Cas was crashing at the bunker, eating popcorn as they were watching movies. Was there an arc where Cas became obsessed with power again, which made this a dilemma for Cas, that I missed? This miniarc about Cas’s big choice was underdeveloped and seemed like wasted screen time in an episode that is too important for building suspense for the finale.

So next week is the season finale. Share your thoughts and speculations in the comments.