okay this episode pissed me off so much I had to talk about it.
Firstly, Mary and John both have the same emotional arc of getting me to like them less the more theyâre on my screen. And itâs nothing against them as people cause as people, theyâre kinda heroes. They save people, kick ass, yada yada yada. But theyâre just such sucky parents, itâs amazing. Mary shows up every once in a while with takeout and going on a hunt together while keeping huge secrets from them. Which again, is amazing, because thatâs almost word for word from the John Winchester parenting playbook you would think they actually got the chance to be parents together.
Intellectually, I donât blame her, I get why she canât bond with Sam and Dean yada yada yada. But the writers are not doing her any favours. For so long, they spent the previous seasons painting her as the perfect flawless mother/wife (for John and Dean to put on a pedestal), and now we actually meet her, theyâre showing us so many of her flaws without giving her rootable moments to balance it out which kinda sucks cause I WANT to like her. So we feel betrayed like Sam and Dean probably do when she doesnât live up to the pedestal she was placed on, even though she probably couldnât. Which is great for getting us to empathize with Sam and Dean, not so much for the Mary Winchester fan club.
Secondly, the Crowley-Rowena-Gavin dynamic. I just have to say: this show is doing an amazing job of making me root for Crowley everytime he is on my screen. Itâs like the opposite of the Mary problem. Mary does something shitty, the boys forgive her almost immediately, family bonding time, yay! Crowley does something good for them, the boys immediately forget about it, screw Crowley over time, boo! His character on the show is getting more kicked puppy like every episode and I once nursed a sick dog back to health.
Rowena also sucks as a mom. That said, she avoided the Mary writing pitfall because we start out knowing this. We have absolutely zero expectations so when she does something even mildly cool, weâre astounded and applaud. Also her powerset is so fucking cool.
Gavin. Wasted potential. This episode was amazing but it would have hit so much harder if we had seen more scenes of Gavin, and Gavin and Crowley.
Winchester bros. Related to the Crowley thing. I hate when they screw over families. I love Sam and Dean but it feels so bloody hypocritical cause theyâve LITERALLY fucked the world over like five times over in the name of family. I get the gavin thing and it makes sense and is logical, but that they brought it up and kept saying it was right to send him to his death was like kinda fucked iâm ngl. The same brothers who are the flagbearers of âthere has to be another wayâ canât see any other way but his death? Fake. I donât buy it. At least Rowena owned up that she accepted it for the sake of petty revenge. I wish they also admitted they did it because they didnât care.