The Spear “pierced”with precision in the mid-season finale!

Attention, Supernatural fans! You are being re-trained! I’ll speak for myself. I guess I certainly am! Everything up to now has been delivered from the perspective of our boys, Sam and Dean usually armed with any number of, in hindsight, stupid, stupid, decisions. But each and every one of them had an overwhelming sense of altruism. Sam was going to sacrifice his life to complete the trials when Heaven expelled the angels. Dean gave himself up (hell deal) so that Sam could live. Sam throws himself into the pit with Lucifer. Cas (after realizing what his thirst for power did to him) warned the boys of the Leviathan. You get the picture.

From the opening holiday themed music with the panoramic view of Kansas City, MO, this episode had a sense of uncomfortable routine. (Just like the holidays for many of us.) You were waiting for the other shoe to drop, but you didn’t know where it might come from. This huge task, defeating the most powerful being in the AU and this U, (with Jack having no juice) came off like the crew was hunting a vampire nest or a vengeful spirit. It’s not like the altruism was totally void, but there was definitely a different feel to their approach now that they were armed with info on where AU-Michael went after he left Dean.  AU-Michael, now an attractive female still referred to as “sir,” is having every human in the city’s tallest building slaughtered or turned by his super-monsters. I was very comfortable in knowing he was ‘really gone’ from Dean! One of the last two werewolves remaining is Garth, who’s working “under-cover” for Sam, to get intel on AU-Michael for team MOL.

First shoe drop: Garth is cavalier in his approach, thinking he can fake his way thru and avoid really drinking Michael’s grace to become a super-soldier, like he’d fool his mom when he was a kid. EPIC FAIL! Michael made sure he swallowed it! “Uh Oh!” Meanwhile, the band is back together! (Sort of???) Dean is sans Michael. Sam is leading and organizing the troops. Cas is in tow armed with his secret stupid deal with “The Empty.” Jack is back, with no power. They have nothing that can stop AU Michael but did speak of Bobby toying around with some angel handcuffs. It kind of felt like it did when the crew took that last photo before they went head-to-head with Satan, but that was a battle everyone figured they’d lose and go out like heroes; fighting until their final breath. This time, they seemed ‘jolly!’ “It’s the Holidays!” Everything seems jolly! But our world is about to go the hell!  

With the help of Ketch, the guys find out that the powerful egg that can wipe out just about anything, and loose angels from their hosts, has been express mailed to Lebanon, Kansas! (Ketch didn’t realize the gravity of the situation.) So based in part on intel coming from Garth, Sam and Jack goto break into the “post office” and steal the egg, while Dean and Cas go to find AU Kyia, who is holed up in a warehouse in another part of Kansas, and where Michael has sent his troops after her to kill her and get that magical, damaging, spear!

Shoe drop number 2: Garth is providing great intel. Too great! Au Michael is playing him and everyone else! Nobody has gone to confront AU Kyia, who after some convincing and outright lying by Dean, who promises Jack will open a rift and place her back home, gives Dean her spear. (Now why wouldn’t he invite her along for the fight? She was obviously way more skilled with the spear than he ever will be.She took AU-Michael down with it once! But Dean being ‘Dean,’ loves imagining himself as a super-hero! Routine!) Jack picks the lock and he and Sam make easy work of getting the egg. However, they are ambushed by AU-Michael and his minions. Michael destroys the egg and hurts Sam a little. His boys kidnap Jack! Nobody shows at Kyia’s hide-out for Cas and Dean to battle.

Dean convincing AU Kyia go ‘loan’ him her magical spear

They all head to KC to conquer the enemy, armed with the one weapon that could kill AU Michael. Sam is stressed, but Dean is ‘happy’ even though the tape deck in “Baby” is busted! He plays around with the spear like a man who is trying to spin a baton for the first time! Sam has beaten Dean and Cas to the spot, and in his altruistic manner, gone in without back up. He dusts a few bad guys with a swift machete’ to the neck and easily gets to Jack. The crew hooks up with Garth, who turns super monster on them! Michael is in his head, (has been all-along) ordering him to kill the intruders, but Sam subdues him and they place him into baby’s trunk. (At least they didn’t have to kill him!) Meanwhile, a plan is devised to send Cas after AU Michael first, knowing Michael would sense him. Cas takes a bloody beating for the team. Sam and Jack can do nothing…but Dean sneaks in from behind, armed with the spear.

The final shoe drop: We have now learned that AU Michael wants to keep Jack at his side until he fully regenerates. By then, “he will have turned to the dark side” or at leastAU-Michael’s side. Michael has super monsters placed throughout the city, and at midnight, they will attack, killing and turning every human being in the city, and the war for earth will be “on!” Now, if Dean can get lucky with the spear.“Nope!” Michael is easily dispatching of our hero, knocking the spear from his hand, he even reminds Dean that all this (The Michael world order) is on Dean because of his decision. (He let Michael in out of altruism.) But just like in the season 13 finale’ Sam slides the weapon to his brother in the fight against an arc-angel. Dean lands a blow to AU Michael’s arm, and has a chance to kill him. Jack even yells, “Kill him!” But we get that blurred vision from Dean.Female Michael falls unconscious on the floor…and Dean is there with spear and back turned. He breaks the spear over his knee and turns toward the team, blue eyes and all! “Damn! They got me again!” My wine glass actually broke at the shaft I squeezed so hard! (it was empty.) Michael even talks to ‘us’ and them. “Did you ever ask why? (He left Dean).” “Dean was always squirrelly because of his love for you…all of you.” “I left…but left a back door open, just a crack.” And with the snap of his finger, the war on KC and the world presumably begins!

Wow! I never saw that one coming! I was comfortable knowing Michael was in someone else! Even though clues were given (I’ve railed about them here.) all along that this Michael-Dean thing wasn’t over! So Michael pulls a demon move and enters back into Dean without Dean’s permission, only to “break him!” This time, with all his hopes crushed, Dean would remain dormant inside there, never to squirrel again! “Dean’s gone!” Michael pronounced.

Where I am now:

The end of days is near, starting with Kansas City? What can our heroes do now, first, to save Dean, secondly, to stop Michael? Then, how do you save Cas (when they discover his stupid deal) from an entity even God has no jurisdiction over? Don’t forget, it appears red-eyed Lucifer has been awakened in “the empty” by the impassioned call of his ‘vessel’ Nick. It doesn’t look too good for our crew, and this season the writers and producers have allowed us to fall into the routine, just to snatch it from us and place us back into desperation! (Doesn’t life tend to do just that?) I hate it and love it at the same time! We know about teamMOL, who ‘might’ have some angel cuffs to fight with! Rowena is back. AUCharlie is staying. AU Bobby is doing Mary. (Yuck!)

Team Kyia: No spear and no love for either side!

Team Michael: The most powerful arc-angel, a regenerating Jack?, (could take ions) and a ton of super monsters taking KC.

Team Lucifer??? (if he escapes the empty.) Has Jack’s powerful Nephilim grace, which makes him a little more powerful than Michael. (Where’s the arc-angel blade?)

Team YOU: What do you think of season 14 so far? What about the predicament? Let me know.

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

What was “Byzantium”trying to tell us?

First, I had to look up, “Byzantium.” It was an ancient city in what is present day Istanbul,Turkey. It was a former Greek colony assimilated by the Romans. In about 330A.D., the emperor Constantine had the city rebuilt and named it “Constantinople.” This was one of the places where many religious councils took place, literally shaping and defining much biblical doctrine and lore. Constantine also had his fascination with religious practices ignited by the Greco-Roman conquering ofEgypt, which is why we may have been introduced to the Egyptian god Anubis in this episode.

Death often strikes when we least expect it

Jack was given the grace, got sicker and died so unceremoniously to start this episode! Dean left the room where he lay, unable to face the death of another someone close to him! Jack was gone within 2 minutes! Jack was dead, but the reaction was different. Jack was to me, a ‘thing’ that became human, but I hadn’t grown to love him, like others we lost. (Kevin andCharlie.) I guess it doesn’t take long to love…Because our main trio felt different from much of the audience.  All found a way to express a love for Jack, first born out of responsibility to protect the Nephilim. So the writers did a great job of making jack’s death feel “unfair” and ‘unresolved.’

The more things change, the more they remain the same

Sam, who even admits that the Winchester’s often make some daring moves in attempts to change fate and cheat death, contacts Lilly, the angel killer who used angelic magic to stay alive and young long enough to avenge the death of her daughter at the hands of angels over a century ago. Sam contacted her looking for a way to bring Jack back. Maybe she can read the angel tablet. NOT!!! Lilly, who has only a sliver of her soul left (the cost of practicing angel magic) and looks 30 years older to boot (different actress played her this time) says she might be able to help bring Jack back by using apiece of his human soul to keep him alive. (Angel magic) In exchange, she wantsa guarantee that she’ll get into heaven, despite the fact that she has several strikes against her for multiple angel murders. Here’s where it got interesting. Anubis, for the first time I can remember in 13 plus seasons of this show, is mentioned as the one who is solely responsible for determining the fate of a human soul.

For those who might not be familiar, Osiris (killed by our boys a few seasons back) conducts a trial of the heart/soul, while Anubis weighs the heart against the feather of Ma’at, (Truth and Righteousness, amongst other virtues). If your heart was lighter on the justice scale carried by Anubis, you went to join all your loved ones in the heavenly kingdom. This is part of the “Osirian Drama,” as it is called, which is thousands of years older than any widely accepted religious texts. Many scholars believe it is where many of our biblical foundations originated, especially under the influence of Constantine who was enamored with Egyptian religious lore!  Sam, Dean, Cas and Lilly summoned Anubis, who indifferently passes our heroes the message, “Your actions determine whether you go to heaven! Not me!” Couple of interesting notes here: Anubis is Arab, (TV and movies still won’t admit ancient Egypt was African!) and now, thanks to Greek influence, even gods are even ‘assimilated.’ Anubis carried an abacus, a Greek instrument, to weigh deeds, not the justice scale as the African legend depicts. Lilly’s score wasn’t too good either!

The Shadow is not happy!

   I guess Anubis’ test determined that the human side of Jack was good enough to make heaven, while “The Shadow” from “the Empty” is awakened once again. He wants Jack because he has claim to all angels and demons who die. The black goo attacks the severely depleted heaven and demands Jack, possessing whatever angels he sees fit to reach his goal. Cas is in heaven trying to locate Jack, who finds his mother Kelly there, and is getting to know her a bit better. Naomi wants to give Jack up rather than see heaven fall, which could happen any minute with “The Shadow” running amuck!

Move over Sam and Dean

    Now, when the goo finally corners Jack (after possessing Uma) and is about to take him to ‘forever-sleepy’ land, Cas pulls a Sam or Dean! He makes a stupid deal and offers himself up in exchange for Jack to be spared. “Because I love you Jack!” says Cas! Well, shoot! Cas goes and does the same thing we’ve cussed at Sam and Dean for doing over and over again: making bad deals out of their love for one another! Now, the unusually malevolent “Shadow” agrees, but decides he’s gonna come back and take Cas when he reaches his happiest point in life! I guess goo-man’s pissed to be awake again! He’s gonna make us all wonder when Cas’ time is up! Cas also promises Jack not to reveal his secret to Sam and Dean! Bad deals and secrets! What would Supernatural be without them?

Rewards for certain sacrifices

Cas saves heaven by offering himself up for Jack. As a result, Naomi tells him the location of AU-Michael! “WHAT???” He’s really not in there with Dean? Think about it! Dean couldn’t be AU Michael’s ‘ultimate vessel,’ because in the AU, Dean and Sam are never born! So now, with Jack in tow, our heroes discuss going to find and defeat AU-Michael! Lilly used the last of her soul to bring jack back, but her selfless act, resulting in her death, gives her enough ‘Heavenly points’ to earn entry and reunite with her daughter! (Egyptian lore)

Final Thoughts

If “Shadow” admitted (To Cas) to not having been awakened in ions, (we have watched 700 angels die over the past several seasons) why did he wake up when Jack died? Did Lucifer wake him? Why is “Shadow” so mean? If he goes back to “The Empty” and returns to sleep, how will he know when Cas is at his happiest? Why are angels who die taken to a place of ‘nothing?’ Is this a way of saying, they have no choice in their behavior? Like demons don’t? Why not just disintegrate into atoms, or is this what “the empty” represents? If Michael’s not bad enough, what will they do against “Shadow?” (Even God has no jurisdiction over him.)

Here we go! The roller coaster is at full speed heading toward the mid-season finale! What do you think fans?

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights reserved.

“Unhuman Nature” creating our empathy???

So in this episode, we were led to form some very blunt conclusions, at least up to now here in season 14. First, Jack without his grace, is more human than most ‘humans.’ The cough that caused him to collapse at the end of the last episode is a symptom of Jack’s ‘humanity,’ to the degree that he is dying faster than he even grew into young adulthood after his birth. Cas couldn’t cure him, the hospital confirmed that all his vital organs are shutting down, and Rowena (armed with the book of the damned that she ‘borrowed’) is called to try to cure him with a spell, which fails. Finally, they reach out to Ketch, who knows a Shaman ‘healer’ who is contacted by Cas, and winds up giving Cas some of “Our World” Gabriel’s arc-angel grace, obtained as he partied with porn stars in Monte Carlo, and a spell to go along with it, that should restore Jack? There was something shady about the Shaman, and our suspicions proved to be correct. He didn’t even want anything in return for these valuable items, just for Cas to tell the Winchester’s that, “They owe me.”

In between all this exhaustive searching for a cure, Jack shows his unbelievable maturity once again, deciding he wants to leave the bunker and live whatever life he has remaining to the fullest. He wants to go to Vegas or Tahiti and have some fun, even be bored before he checks out for the last time. Dean, who treated him as if he were an abominable monster when they first met, feels very guilty about that, and decides to join Jack on his final adventures. He teaches Jack to drive. This is monumental in the Supernatural Universe! Dean is nuts about his car, “baby” and Sam is the only other person to drive it, but Dean throws Jack to keys and lets Jack get behind the wheel. Jack mastered this skill in a few hours. (He is a Nephilim.) They also decide to do some fishing, to which Jack realizes the importance of life’s smaller pleasures, and spending time with those you care about. That’s most important. All this brings about even more guilt from Dean. Jack remains innocent and logical, which sometimes drives me nuts, just like many young people who have very little wisdom.

Dean is “Dean” except for a couple of instances of blurred vision, once occurring when the conversation moved to the Shaman who could help Jack and another time when Rowena talked about a spell and Jack’s condition creating a situation where he doesn’t have enough grace to balance his powers between arc-angel and human. I believe this is Michael inside Dean, almost taking the wheel back because now he can lock in on those who might be able to hurt him: Rowena, a most powerful witch, the Shaman, and even Jack if he returns to full power! Otherwise, why would Dean be phasing in and out the way he is? Michael is still in there! He’s gonna pop out very soon! I just know it!

Cas brings the grace back from the shady Shaman, Sergei, and Jack ingests it as Rowena reads the spell. Jack appears better for a few seconds, (his eyes even glow gold) but then collapses on the floor! It appears the spell didn’t work and as a result, Cas is furious, threatening the Sergei, who is ordered to come by the bunker and attend to Jack, which he refuses. The Shaman is smug, and sure he will not be found even if Cas comes looking! So, Jack lay in the bunker, dying???

While Jack is literally dying, Nick (Lucifer’s former vessel) is showing he is a true psychopath. Maybe it’s remnants of Satan left behind. Maybe he had this potential all along. Either way, he is relentlessly trying to find out what happened the night his wife and son were brutally murdered. We open with him having brutally murdered and crucified a priest, speaking to him post-mortem! We see him resist the temptation to kill a party girl in an alley behind a night club, but what little humanity he has left, overtakes ‘psycho’ and yells to the girl to get away from him. She obliges.

Through a reporter who worked the murder, Nick learned that a beat cop, Frank was on the scene, but left town before he could be properly questioned by authorities. He finally finds and confronts Frank, and my theory crashes. (I really thought Nick murdered his own family.) Turns out Nick’s neighbor did see a man leave the house that fateful night. Frank was possessed by a demon, Braxis, who murdered Nick’s family to set Nick up to later be occupied by Lucifer himself. In fact, Nick remembers the name as one Lucifer has used. Even though he knows it wasn’t Frank who murdered his family, Frank was the vessel, so Nick can’t let that go! Nick slaughters Frank with a hammer, and falls to his knees to beg to be free of guilt…He begs Lucifer in prayer to come back to him….and just like Jack did when he called out to Cas, whose soul was in “the empty,” we see a skeleton covered in black goo, with those unmistakable red glowing eyes awaken in what I think is, “the empty.”

So as Jack is dying, Lucifer, the one who stole his son’s original grace, might be coming back? Hard lessons learned; for us humans, death is inevitable. Jack’s plight is teaching us that. Nick’s plight is showing us that sometimes death is perhaps the most generous way out of a life, where all one can muster is darkness and pain. We finally learn that no matter how hard we love and how much we care, we have very little power over the inevitable ending. We can actually manifest light and darkness based on our approach and outlook. Many of our major characters are trying consciously, or sub-consciously, to suppress something within their deepest personal desires. Nick, the murderous psychopath. Jack, fighting off the very human path of mortality. Dean, perhaps trying to hold back Michael, who is hiding inside, and fight off all that guilt he always seems to carry. Where is it all going? I am certain it’s coming to a head with 13 episodes remaining this season. Stay tuned!

 

Eric “FeelingSupernatural” Clemons

Photos: The CW. All rights Reserved.

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