...And if you’re so smart, what do I really want?
Oh this is a good start for season 14! If Dabb’s premiere is the showrunner’s manifesto for the season, then we have major cards on the table in terms of plot and intentions. Key words of the episode are ‘want’ and ‘love’, continuing the exploration of the theme from the previous seasons, and Dabb tells us exactly what is the purpose of Michael’s character in the narrative: reveal the pretenses and the lies, uncover what the characters really want, which is love - “to belong, to have a family, a home”, as Michael tells Jo (interestingly always referred to with her ‘human’ name instead of her angelic one, as Michael reveals her “very human” desires). (Anyone at all suspect that they might pair her with Sam?)
Also interesting how, while Jo’s desires are centered around a generic ‘family’ thing, Michael’s confrontation with Jamil Hamed follows a double register - the friends he left behind in Syria to die, and the wife he cheated on. In this case, there are two registers of love, a friendly one and a romantic/sexual one, so we do have a reiteration that different kinds of love and desires exist.
The episode was different and in a way sort of risky, as it’s literally the first time the show has an episode without Dean at all, although it was well paced (I like how the episode is crafted around Michael’s trips around the world, which keeps the storylines together in addition to spread the concepts of want and love over everything, good Dabb - also, making the demon’s motivation born from Michael’s encounter subtly tells the audience that Cas wasn’t stupid to seek him, because he indeed had seen Dean) and to be fair the episode half leans on Jensen’s performance anyway, so the risk was quite relative. Dude is good. And looks good. Can’t wait for the internal confrontation between Michael and Dean, or whatever is happening in front of that mirror.
Also can we have Sam looking floof at all times? Thank.
I like how the episode uses a healthy dose of self-awareness to sell its weakest parts - we’re outright told that the show won’t try to introduce a ‘new Crowley’, Cas’ tendency to get kidnapped is called embarrassing (basically a ‘sorry guys, plot reasons, won’t happen again’) and the question of ‘how is Nick alive’ is given a ‘uh… because’ (I mean, that’s what it basically was). We all know Nick being alive makes no sense but the show asks us to accept it on the grounds of Sam storyline. I’ll take it, I understand that Lucifer dead means you have to keep a tether of that in the story so that the narrative can continue exploring Sam’s state about it, so I’d rather have an external tether rather than hallucinations or nightmares from Sam himself. External trauma exploration point is good and narratively the only way that makes sense for the storyline to go, so I’m good with Nick. Also Mark Pellegrino might be a bag of dicks but he’s always acted brilliantly what he’s been given to act.
Three recurring female characters in an episode even without wayward sister characters is not bad for the show’s standards, I guess. I like Maggie as a mirror for Jack, his helplessness in a very Winchester style versus her framing as the ‘one sane woman’ of the situation, and how she plays a role that isn’t a supernatural being or a skilled fighter (that’s why the wayward sisters concept works so well, the range of different skills and personalities, but okay). I hope we see her consistently.
Mirrors, mirrors… Kip is a dark mirror for Cas (the coffee thing, for instance) and it’s interesting how he wants “everything”, possibly foreshadowing how Cas will actually achieve the “everything” he wants (but unlike Kip, that’s not being a king… more like being joined at the “everything” with Dean) but possibly also a mirror for Michael in his attempt to reach for power and control. There’s probably also something relevant for the current narrative in how Kip claims he’s “trying to be Crowley” instead of just doing what he’d otherwise do (eat Sam’s heart, interestingly) but he’s not being Crowley at all, because Crowley was motivated by *Crowley hiss* feelings. Then of course we have Jo and Jack who mirror all of our protagonist, and Nick who mirrors Sam, in pretty obvious ways. Mary’s parenting of Sam mirrors Sam’s with Jack.
It’s also interesting how indoors the episode is - the only technically outdoors scenes are the ones with Michael and Jo on the street - but it’s dark and the scene is directed in a way that it makes the environment look pretty confining - and a brief moment where they get out of their cars before getting into the diner. Everything else takes place inside a room of some kind or the car (again with darkness, so we don’t actually see what’s outside), and there are almost no windows (the ones we see are either covered in curtains, or not see-through, or it’s dark outside). The camera work is extremely focused on close-ups, there are almost no wide shots. It gives a pretty stark sense of being enclosed and confined, and you can sort of sense Dean even when he’s not there at all.
Drinking beer while staring at each other sort of intensely is romantic, have you noticed? How peculiar.
