a dark grey number, seemingly going undied due to her inability to properly communicate slash her apparent disinterest in fashion!
the leggings are WOVEN?!?!
i might kill her
she went out of her way to sacrifice the aesthetic push of the garment for modality and functionality. thats the handiwork of a good craftsman, knowing what your client is actually after.
taylor would do really well for herself if she retired and became a cape couturier, she understands how to define clear, recognisable visuals, she has an eye for maximising function and she is creative and resourceful enough to work around most logistical problems
i hope she and parian get along well
SHATTERBIRD?????
they need to have killed her by now, or left her with the protectorate, keeping her around is the worst idea i can think of
anyway back to fashion
:(
its a good fit but im sad she didnt get to update her look like the fashion gworl she is
unbelievably vague, disappointing. hows his mask?
a nice change, more refined, reflects his sisters costume, a nice upgrade.
>:(
so we're only getting a meaningful upgrade with rachels huh
Okay, but here’s a thought. With all the questions about “who is Bel, really,” has anyone considered...
Gabriel?
We know that the Shadow is involved in Endgame, reluctantly or otherwise, and one presumes that Gabe ended up there, same as all the other winged dead brigade. So it’s entirely possible that Death and the Shadow yanked him out of his nap. Probably grumbling all the way. An archangel would be useful to have back in the fight...but they’d want to hide him in plain sight, so Lucifier and Michael wouldn’t know.
Evidence? Well, he would be highly likely to know spells that rank-and-file seraphim wouldn’t; he’d certainly have a reason to help TFW but also the urge to poke them while he did so, and he’d know where all of Castiel (and Dean’s) buttons were located and just how hard to push them.
And personally, there was just something about Bel’s physical mannerisms that reminded me of Gabe-as-Loki. Just replace lollipops with sunglasses....
Both those things are fine, of course shouldn’t want it to be bad, and matter of fact I didn't need nor want it to be great, better to save great for the finale.
But thing is, it was meh.
The premiere episode of your final season should be tight, tight, tight - no extraneous information or scenes, get in and get out, convey the most crucial of information, lay a foundation upon which to build.
And, well....
Meh.
[Of course, spoilers below cut]
Before we go on - If you're new, hi, I'm Nash. I don't so much recap these things (though I have been known to on occasion, time permitting) as break 'em down regarding the writing. I don't go in any particular order, sometimes it's in order of the ep, sometimes it's topically organized. Bail now if you're interested in meta and reading into shit or whatever. This is constructive critique, where I call it like I see it, both the nailed it-s and the whiffed it-s.
To begin with, let's get this out of the way - because it's relevant to what I'm about to say - that whomever is responsible for approving the release of the Jake Abel-as-Michael shots and the Sam-might-be-Samifer shots and the Dean-Mark-of-Cain shots and hey-is-that-Gabriel's-horn shots is a goddamned dimwit. They just blew some of their wad, right there. That should've been saved for gut-punches in episodes, not in previews and behind-the-scenes and all that other marketing jazz.
That foundation I mentioned before - I get what the season is going to be because, even if I hadn't picked up on it before-----
I had.
-----then I certainly did thanks to Sam's exposition anvil there at the end. *insert eye-roll* And speaking of the end, that flashback to the shutting of the trunk was so hamfisted, it just... it just wasn't necessary. I've said this before: leave little treats for your longtime fans. That could’ve been one, that echo back to the beginning, but they whiffed it with that insert of the clip. And that's what the entirety of this season should be, frankly. There should be *zero* explaining, *minimal* flashing back, because if somebody's coming into this on year fifteen, then welcome to the fam and all, and also I am so sorry, you need to binge the fuck out of everything and then join in, we ain't got time for that. Neither should the writers. Them's the breaks. They don’t need to accrue new fans for higher/sustained ratings, it’s the end of the goddamn show, so quit spoon-feeding explanations, and with that nice little moment getting skewered, I groan at the thought of all the flashing back and explaining that could potentially lie ahead.
So, foundation: is the foundation we're building upon this little town? Since that’s where we spent 98% of our precious season premiere time? This town where the ghosts who were interchangeably referred to as souls from hell are all clustered instead of flying away to wherever the fuck they want? Also, don't monster “souls” go to Purgatory? That specific clown was a creature, a rakshasa, not a ghost. If this is the ghost of that monster, did Purgatory bust open, too? If not, why? Why weren't souls also expelled from Heaven? From the Empty? From the Veil? The logical answer is, of course, because Sam and Dean would be no match for all of those, and we have to get them to the end of the season. But those are some nice places to start for laying a foundation: the rules of the game. At least some of the rules, so that they aren’t all dropped in one fell swoop with an exposition anvil from someone later down the road.
****
---> ETA: Several people have brought up to me that the clown is Gacy, not the Rakshasa who appeared as a clown in Season 2 Episode 2 "Everybody Loves A Clown".
Two things here:
(1) Yes, I checked, and see what y'all mean - the clown we saw is indeed dolled up just like the Gacy ghost from end of S14. I think the writers whiffed this because...
(2) ...the Rakshasa fits more with what they've shown in 15.1 (the Rak went after a child at her house in 2.2), and it also fits the theme of ghosts from the way-back-when, re: Bloody Mary and Woman In White, so since they've got such a hard-on for this Sam-and-clowns thing and apparently want to drive it into the ground, they should've chosen the Rak
Also worth noting, the writers never should have made it Gacy in the first place, the most cursory google of Gacy would've told them that the clown thing has been blown way out of proportion and has essentially nothing to do with his murdering (i.e. - it wasn’t his killin’ costume/part of his killing m.o./routine). I won't go into detail here, you can go on that journey yourselves, but his jam was not going after a cabin full of teens, nor children’s birthday parties, nor was it just willy-nilly murdering whomever he laid eyes on.
It was stupid call by the writers, and they should feel stupid.
****
[pause]
The reason I mention all of these places: these aren’t just the monsters that Dean and Sam have killed. This is what it *should* have been. But I feel - at this point, having no other info - that this is a major whiff on the writers’ parts, having all the souls in hell come to the surface. Because that’s what new demon friend said - that all the doors opened, that hell was chaos. So it’s not just the ones that Sam and Dean killed, at least that’s what I’m divining from that statement.
[unpause]
I give no fucks about this little town. Try this: Have them going back to the bunker to re-group and seeing things along the way, such as that car on the side of the road like they did. Perhaps they hear about a massacre at a slumber party from Jody. Perhaps Sam is checking the internet while Cas is frowning and looking at his wound, and is like "A mother and child escaped from a birthday party where a bunch of people were killed and they swear it's a clown. Dean - these are all our old cases."
[pause]
Stop with Sam and clowns. We got it.
NO REALLY WE GOT IT
Or if gonna do it, be creative about it.
---> shameless plug <---
[unpause]
Then speaking of Cas and the bullet wound - another bit of bad writing, here. Subtlety, writers. Look it up. Here's how it should've gone:
.
Cas: [frowning as hand hovers over Sam's shoulder]
Sam: What?
Cas: [narrows eyes; hesitates] Something... I'm not certain. [meets Sam's eye] I don't think I'm able to heal it completely. Are you in much pain?
Sam: [seeming a bit surprised at his own answer] No, actually. It's not-----
[Sam cuts himself off as Cas' hand makes contact with his shoulder; sees blurry, muddled flashes of suggestive visions; gasps and stumbles back]
.
See? We arrived at the same place, but elegantly. Less "YOU'RE TOTALLY GONNA BE LIKE A SAMIFER SOMETHING-SOMETHING YOUR VISIONS ARE BACK BLEEEECCCCHHH VOMITS CHUNKY FORESHADOWING"
The point is, the fuck with this town? We're back there next week, too? WHO CARES. And I bet you money, with how much time they wasted in this ep and the time I betcha they're gonna waste next ep, that I----
Er, um. I mean that "they". Ahem. The writers.
----could've combined whatever is going to be accomplished next ep into this one for an actually meaty season premiere. Which this was not. This was not a hearty, filling steak. This was yesterday's meatloaf that's still pretty tasty but soggy.
It's the little things. You scrap every single extraneous bit. Seconds are precious because when you add up enough clumps of them, they can equal minutes. Here's a tiny example: Sam laying on the floor of the crypt and being like "I hear water" then it's like "you hear water?" then "yeah maybe it's a drainage line" then "or a sewer" then "let's break this open", then the breaking, then here comes corpsey friend.
Instead: They're talking and there's increasingly aggressive banging on the door, they all scootch a little closer to the opposite wall, then corpsey busts through. We don't need all that blah-blah. And as much as I love new demon friend, I genuinely do, there was too much blah-blah-banter with him, as well. Huge props on the Alastair callback, *that* is the shit I was talking about earlier, callbacks with no other explanation, just the look on Dean's face when he said it was plenty. Well played, there.
Otherwise, let's goooooooooo. The pacing was all off, there was *way* too much time wasted, especially with all the Sam and Cas going through the town stuff. Easily two-to-three minutes could've been shaved off of that alone.
Because here we are: what was accomplished that was of import? Jack's body is possessed (and that demon is great, best part of the ep), and he confirmed the cage is open. This is interesting info to have. We got a glimpse of the return of Sam's visions, which hints at a return to how the guys were in the past, so might make us think they - along with the world - are in rewind mode, as well. Also interesting to ponder upon.
[pause]
Which, this then begs: why is Cas not being reset, too? Why are his powers still wonky? Wouldn't THAT have been a real kick in the pants, seeing Cas whup some ass, even if just moderately here at the first and everybody having a "WHOA" moment of looks at each other? And then if so, continuing with the earlier questions that at least should have been asked - I don’t expect answers in ep one but lay the foundation via asks - are all the angels back, as well? Is Billie still officially Death? Because Dean killed Death, did he not? So is O.G. Death back?
[unpause]
And... that's it. That’s what we learned. We knew at the end of last season that Chuck was resetting things. This wasn't new information. We were given the scenes of Bloody Mary and the woman in white and the clown at the end of 14's finale. So this information doesn't count. And like I said above, the guys catching on to this could've been handled in a more expedited fashion so that we can get on with it. The writers have very little time to wrap up the show, and thus far I’m not encouraged by what I’ve seen.
