Uh, what was that?
Weird episode. Started strong, got all caught up in a cheap ret-con with some guy named Brady(they ret-conned who killed Jess), and ended without them killing(or seeing) Pestilence. Oh, and Crowley, who I love, offered to take over Bobby’s body. Is that what happened?
And the previews for next week make it look like they are going after Death.
But what about Pestilence?
And was Brady a character before this? Are we supposed to remember him?
I haven’t been watching faithfully – usually I wait for the DVD set and do a marathon.
But something weird I noticed was that Brady’s speech pattern is the same as the yellow-eyed demon’s and Lucifer’s. Or was that my imagination? They all do a min-Shatner, emphasizing a few words here and there, with breathy pauses. Would that fit the story – the yellow-eyed demon and Lucifer being the same guy? The YED is supposed to be dead, really dead.
He talked odd, but the Azrael(YED) is dead.
My DVR was all whacked out for some reason, so I missed the entire first 12 minutes, and a few spots along the way, AND I had no sound for the remainder so I had to rely on subtitles and lip-reading for the dialogue…argh. Still, I knew that there would be angry cries of “retcon!” So I’m about to fanwank a bit…
First of all, I have to say that retconning sometimes gets an unfairly negative reaction sometimes; yeah, sure, sometimes it’s just plain annoying, but sometimes it makes sense to establish or reinforce other major themes being developed…and back in the old days, what we now derisively call “retconning” used to be called “plot twists” and everyone seemed happy with that. So what ticks people off about retconning? Usually it seems to be when we have something that is firmly established as canon and then is rendered meaningless or false by the retcon, right? So let’s look at this whole “Brady killed Jess” thing a bit…
[Fanwank]Scenario A: Azazel (YED) killed Mary Winchester and Jess, using the same modus operandi: woman pinned to the ceiling, bleeding from the midsection, then bursting into flames. Sam and Dean join their Dad in hunting down Azazel and kill him, avenging Mary and Jess. Now the goddamn writers for no good reason are trying to say that it was Brady, not Azazel, that killed Jess, lessening the satisfaction of killing Azazel somehow and robbing Sam of his closure and vengeance (at least for the moment).
Why this doesn’t work for me: Although Mary and Jess were killed in nearly identical ways, I don’t think we actually see Azazel kill Jess, so maybe it is possible that Brady did it and just made it look like the way Mary died; but that makes no sense; Azazel clearly was invested heavily in Sam’s development into the Potential Future Vessel for Lucifer; even if killing Jess was part of the plan to get Sam out on the road and hell-bent on revenge, I would think that Azazel would want to handle that himself to make sure it all went as planned. So it would make more sense for Azazel to have killed Jess. So if they’re saying Brady really did it, boo! Retcon BAD!
Scenario B: Azazel killed Mary and Jess to get Sam started on the long road to corruption which included demons lying to him and betraying him and fanning the fires of his anger to presumably make him the Best Angry Little Vessel he could possibly be. Brady was Azazel’s aide in this mission and knew the plan but it really was Azazel who killed Jess. In keeping with the original plan to keep Sam angry and push him more and more Darkside, Brady lies to Sam about being the one who killed Jess. He knows how to push Sam’s buttons and that’s what he’s doing here.
Why this works for me: Well, it’s pretty well established that Demons are completely untrustworthy, and are masters of deception; hell, Ruby even had Dean beginning to trust her after a while, and Dean usually is Mister “Demons LIE!” So in this case there is no retcon, only a demon lying to Sam to tweak his anger over Jess’ murder. And that would be entirely in line with typical Demon behaviour and retains the accepted continuity with Azazel being Jess’ killer.
[/Fanwank]
Since I missed the first 12 minutes and all the sound I’ll have to catch it online to really comment on the episode as a whole. Still it looks like two horsemen are going to buy it in one episode now, though Crowley might pull a trick with a fake ring from Death or something.
Regardless of all that, I just hope the Metallicar survives. Adam might be John’s son, but the Impala is the third Winchester brother, dammit!
My interpretation was that demons have greater power when conducting a “deal.” So if Bobby would sell his soul to know where Death is, Crowley would have the abililty to grant that wish. But Crowley couldn’t do it on his own.
I thought that Brady clearly said sacrificing Jess was Az’s idea as part of the larger Az plan of getting Sam back on the Hunter Horse (hence Brady introducing Jess to Sam), but that he carried the deed out just for hoots and giggles. I don’t see that as retconning at all… it just adds an additional character to the mix.
In fact, it might make more sense that Brady was the hand that carried out Az’s plan- Sam had always known about the ‘Yellow Eyed Demon’ and thus would go utterly berzerker insane on him if he happened to interrupt the sacrificing of Jess (like John nearly did with Mary)… thus Az sends a lower-ranking but trusted associate Just In Case.
Of course, I could be totally talking out my ass. However, I would like to point out that my psychic connection to Kripke remains intact, as (per my theorizing last week),
Sam was shown considering doing a Buffy Summers Swan Dive. Of course this means it’s not going to happen, but still… :: patting myself on the back :: 
Can someone PLEASE tell me if the song they used to pimp next week’s episode is one written specifically for the commercial spot? I’d LOVE to get my hands on a full-length version of it, if it wasn’t. Or at least find out who the artist was.
I would disagree with this based on the fact that Sam was nowhere near ready to use any kind of Demon-killing ability at the time; Azazel would have been in no danger whatsoever even if Sam tried to stop him. I do think that one way or another the killing of Jess was a calculated move intended to further Azazel’s long-term plan for Sam.
Here’s the lowdown on the song.
Ditto that it was a weird episode, although it had some good moments, my favorite being:
Sam: I TOLD you!
Dean: Well, goooood for youuuu!
That cracked me up.
Sam thinks he can fight back from being possessed? What the fuck is he thinking? Are we supposed to forget the time he actually did get possessed, back in season 2? I don’t recall that he was able to fight back then.
The fangirls’ collective opinion is higher than my own. They seem to really like Crowley. I am not so hot on how Crowley is being used. He shows up, he disappears, tells everyone what to do with no evidence for his claims, they do it? What? Why? Why would Dean go with Crowley at all? I think it’s heavy-handed mirroring of Sam ditching Dean to go with Ruby from last season, but that had a two-season long buildup. This was just out of the blue.
Here’s hoping for some actual plot advancement next week. There are only two episodes left! What a weird place to put in a filler ep. (Maybe I’ll be proven wrong if something from this episode turns out to be a major plot point.)
And yeah, I think it’s clear that Brady killed Jess as a mission from the YED. In the “previously” segment, they showed the scene from the pilot, with Sam and Jess at the Halloween party. In retrospect, it must have been to establish that Brady was at the party, too, but I didn’t notice him.
How hot was Sam standing in the alley before he gacked Brady? Super-hot or mega-hot?
Yeah, I know, I’m a sad old woman. 
ETA: I forgot, I wanted to share this photo of the boys that I found - Where DO those homoerotic rumours come from?
Not as hot as the knock-down drag-out between Cas and Dean the other week. 
If they don’t want people to spread homoerotic rumors, they should consider not living together. And about a million other startlingly homoerotic things they’ve done in public, but that would be a good start.
OOoooh, yeah! I’m currently watching Season 4 while I exercise on the bike, and I’m being reminded of the Dean/Castiel chemistry. “You should show me some respect.” And poor Sammy, being all hated on by the angels in spite of his belief in God.
I assumed that Brady was supposed to be one of the unnamed friends Sam had in the first few minutes of the pilot, perhaps played by a different actor. There were a few of them going to a halloween party, weren’t there?
I was going to say there weren’t rumors like that about Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford when they were roommates but as soon as I googled the article about the Gossip Girl guys living together, rumors were the first thing to pop up:smack:
Hahaha yeah. I’ve never even seen Gossip Girl and I’ve still heard those rumors. It is a little eyebrow-raising when two people who could certainly afford their own places choose instead to live together. And, in the case of the Supernatural boys, vacation together, come up with cutesy names for each other’s parents, pretend to make out in front of cameras, etc. And then they’re like “why are you gossiping about us?” :dubious:
It’s amazing how much easier things are once you know they are possible:
Is there a thread up for this week yet?
Death was cool. He’s sorta like Galactus.
