Episode Review – I’m no Angel

So… yeah…

The Good:

The scenes where Castiel interacted with civilians were really good.  I like that the show continues to show us religious people who are actual people and not caricatures.  The bit in the church was MOSTLY ok (it should have ended a minute earlier).  April was also easy on the eyes, the hottest guest star on the show since Julie McNiven. (who also played a girl with a name starting with ‘A’…)

The Bad:

So the angels tortured and killed some people.  Why?  Anna, Castiel, and Lucifer all showed us that angels can invade the mindspace of people (particularly dreams).  So why not just jump into the brains of the priests and get answers there? (which will also have the benefit of keeping a low profile)  I’m going to give the show a slight pass on this as the removal of wings could be an explanation.  Regardless, do ANGELS really need to torture PRIESTS to get answers?  One would think that they could just reveal their true forms (a little) and, like the tv preacher, the priests would happily provide answers to what they perceive to be fellow servants and allies.  Again, a slight pass as perhaps they did try that at first and when the priests honestly didn’t know, the angels restored to worse methods.  Which just kind of shows how right Metatron may have been and the angels do need to spend sometime outside of the pearly gates.

Like I said above, the scene between Castiel and the woman was mostly good until it nosedived there at the end.   I don’t mind that Castiel has forgotten that twice in his life he’s seen real evidence that “someone” IS listening – the guy’s in a low spot in his life and it’s easy to forget things when despair and depression loom (speaking from experience).  Still when faith shows up on screen, one can be sure it will be treated much like mathematics: extremely simplistic with denial or ignorance of more complex facets.  It all gets tiring.

While I know we need drama to keep the show from being boring, the same old drama also gets boring.  Really the “keeping secrets” part of the main’s relationship is starting to get a bit ludicrous.  Remember way back when Dean first sold his soul to keep Sam alive?  Remember how Sam, with much less experience, figured out the truth within a few days?  Why now, when he has so much experience with this (seriously, shouldn’t the Winchesters’ have some kind of “frequent customer card” with the spirit world?) has Sam not pieced together that SOMETHING is up?  Really one wonders that ANYTIME either boy wakes up from being unconscious (or worse) for a period of time they don’t immediately turn to their brother and ask “Ok, what’d you do?” (which would make for an entertaining comedy scene when one of them actually DOESN’T do something deal like).

The Ugly:

*deep breath*

Boy, remember when the show actually gave a damn about its own lore and canon?  Like say… reapers?  Here we have a reaper following Sam & Dean around.  That’s a dangerous job what with the Winchesters’ rep and all.  Good thing the reaper didn’t bother being invisible since… uh… hm that didn’t seem to work out well.  Well, when was the last time we saw that reapers can’t be seen by mortals? Season 1?  And there was season 2.  Then season 4.  Don’t forget season 5.  Uh… and season 6.  There was no reason for this slip up!  Castiel established for us back in the aforementioned season 5 that angels can perceive reapers.  What if a side effect of having Zeke inside made Sam more perceptive?

To quote Chuck of SF Debris: I don’t mind a minor slip up.  If you forget some trivia or a single line from some way back episode I’ll comment, but let it slide.  However when you devote ENTIRE EPISODES to something then it’s unacceptable. At least be consistent with your bullshit.

Speaking of consistency:

Angel blades do not kill reapers.

Angel blades do NOT kill reapers!

Angel blades DO NOT kill reapers!

Angel blades DO NOT KILL reapers!

Remember how it was a big deal that you can’t exactly “kill” death? You know unless you had THE scythe of Death himself (which can kill anything).  Do you have any idea how many plot holes this opens up in past episodes?  Why bother risking Death’s ire? (yeah they said he was eager for the apocolaypse but given his later reaction to it… that statement is questionable)  Why not just borrow Lucifer’s sword?  Why bother mucking about time to gather souls?  Why doesn’t Castiel & company just run around stabbing reapers?  Then people stay alive and you can get more souls that way too.  How is Cas dying if the nearby reaper was “killed”?  If reapers go “freelance” does no one die in their previous territory?  Is there like… ANY reaction by Death and other reapers? (or is that why all these freelancers are now dying stupidly? passive-aggressive attacks by former coworkers? if so, why aren’t say… the rouge reapers reacting to seeing their fellows hovering nearby?)

Oh hey, there’s a line about the reaper possessing April.

Wait… what?

Just… no!  This makes no Kripke-damned sense!  Look, the show had set up 4 patterns of possession that fit an elegant pattern:

• Ghosts could only possess living humans without permission and even then for only limited amounts of time.
• Angels could possess any human indefinitely AND keep them from dying but have to have permission to do so.
• Demons (being the mix of the two) can possess any human indefinitely without permission, but they don’t keep them from dying as much as keep animating the body.
• Leviathan occupied a sort of null ground where they don’t exactly possess as much as replace a host.
  • Their experimenter Eve did make the Khan worm as a sort of aping of the concept

Now what?  Their death even looks like the angels’ dying form so are we saying reapers are now just fallen angels?  It’s shit like this which keeps me from purchasing or even acknowledging anything past season 5 where the screw-ups were at least lesser!

Oh and don’t forget that this episode reveals to us that the poor folks being possessed by the angels don’t die until they are stabbed.  Heck Bobby proved that it’s SOMEWHAT possible to stab a demon and keep the host alive (if he/she is still such).  But you know, the angels, since they keep the body healthy and hale (see also: Sazekiel), nice to know the protagonists are killing off all these poor schmucks caught in the crossfire.  OH WAIT NO IT ISN’T!  I sign up for this show to see the boys fighting for the common man, the ordinary joe.  Wasn’t “keeping innocents out of the crossfire” the ENTIRE point of season 5 and team Free Will?  Then again, it’s not like we’ve ever seen anything like an exorcism ritual for angels OH YEAH WE HAVE!  At least with demons it can somewhat be mitigated that the bodies are probably already dead and effort does need to be made to keep even greater numbers from suffering from demonic plots.  What are the angels up to?  In episode 9.01 we saw that most of them WEREN’T BOTHERING ANYONE until Dean kicked the hornets’ nest.  So far this season it’s shaping up that a lot more innocent people would live if the protagonists were… well if they just surrendered or weren’t around at all.  When this happens YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING VERY WRONG WITH THE SHOW!

Chuck preserve us and please let Felicia Day wash the bad taste of this episode out of our mouths.

(cross posted @ http://www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/article-archives/episode-review/18137-nate-winchester-s-journal-supernatural-9-03-i-m-no-angel)