By: Megan Farquharson (@mykarate)
The Supernatural midseason premiere kicked off with their 250th episode: First Blood, written by Andrew Dabb, and directed by Robert Singer.
Spoilers ahead
When we last saw the boys they were in chains, getting driven away by the Secret Service. They had been caught standing over an unconscious President of the United States, in what was a very uncharacteristic move for them. Castiel had just lost track of the woman who is pregnant with Lucifer’s child. Mary is off trying to understand the world after being resurrected. And the British Men of Letters are busy being vaguely evil but also kind of helpful.
This episode had a lot to catch up on. The season seems to be heading toward a path of too many storylines, and I’m hoping they’ll find a way to tie them all together.
First Blood was strikingly different from your standard monster of the week episode. I noticed a lack of heavy dialogue. It was all actions, events, and moments. I wasn’t even once tempted to play on my phone (and that’s kind of a big deal). Dabb’s episodes have always been among my favorites, and this one really demonstrates just how well he knows the characters and how much he trusts Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) as actors.
Cas and Mary meet up early in the episode, and are super awkward together. Mary blames Cas for letting the boys get captured. Cas also blames Cas. They go their separate ways to hunt and research, and meet up to discuss their progress. It’s important to note that their lives didn’t just stop because the boys were missing. They were worried, they tried to reach out to connections, but the world kept moving and they kept hunting. Well, Cas tried to hunt, but that didn’t work out. But at least they were both trying.
Crowley is a delight, and also the only one not concerned about the boys. He even throws in an “I pity the fool” quote about anyone who messes with the Winchesters. I just wonder how long it will be before he betrays them. They should really stop relying on him so much.
When we return to the prison the boys are found dead in their cells, and I was not even remotely worried. This is Supernatural, these things happen. And the flashbacks at the beginning of the episode were about all the times Sam and Dean have died. So mostly at this point I was curious, and assumed Billie is in some way involved because she’s awesome.
Was anyone surprised when it turned out they weren’t permanently dead? No? Ok. They get out, and call Cas. After being extremely vague about where to meet up, we get to have a nice hunters being hunted in the woods sequence. They set a trap and take out all of the soldiers, without killing them, with a lot more finesse and stealth than I’m used to seeing from them.
When they meet up with Cas and Mary in the woods, it’s all thanks to the help of Mick Davies and Mr. Ketch using their connections to track them. When Davies and Ketch find out that the Winchesters left the soldiers alive, they are appalled, and obviously then head off to kill them all. Because they are potentially the bad guys of the season. It’s really hard to tell sometimes. I’m fairly certain that every character on this show is ambiguously evil.
Sam and Dean decide to not mention anything about how they got out of prison until the car dies and Billie appears. Why? Drama. Their deal was that she kills and brings them back one last time, and in exchange one Winchester must permanently die.
Dean thought this was a good deal because apparently a couple months in his cell was worse than being in hell…that doesn’t seem legit to me.
Winchesters are all about sacrificing themselves for family, so obviously Mary volunteered. I thought the episode was going to end with her holding the gun up to her head, but like most of the writers for Supernatural, I forgot about Castiel. He stabs Billie with an angel blade (which sucks, because her character is fantastic). I have a feeling they’re all going to forget about Billie’s little speech about consequences for not going through with deals. This is definitely going to cause something to happen later on.
Cas also gives a nice little speech to the Winchesters. It seems he’s pretty fed up with them always trying to sacrifice themselves and making bad deals. He throws out the sweet sentiment, “You know this world? This sad, doomed little world. It needs you. It needs every last Winchester it can get,” and then follows it up with telling them to stop being so stupid.
And then we see Mary getting the British Men of Letters recruitment spiel, and actually showing interest in it. She’s not dumb, and this is Supernatural, so this has to be more than it seems.
I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, and it was refreshing to have an episode not based around Lucifer. I also hope this is a prelude to Mary sticking around more.
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via The Nerd Machine
http://www.nerdhq.com/supernatural-season-12-midseason-premiere-and-250th-episode-first-blood/
