Summary from Goodreads: In this follow-up to Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas begins seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep, and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong. These aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.
Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.
Why I’m Waiting: I haven’t gotten my review for ADIB up yet, since my life has been crazy, but I really, really enjoyed it and book #2 looks like it’s shaping up to be just as good. The hell aspect intrigues me, and I can’t wait to find out how Cas intends to grip her tight and raise her from perdition save Anna.
What are you waiting on this Wednesday? Comment below and let me know/link me back to your WoW post.
IN CASE YOU DID NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THE ABOVE WARNING, THERE ARE MASSIVE SPOILERS HERE. ALSO, MUCH SOBBING AND PENULTIMATE FANGIRLING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
In case you aren’t aware of the depths of my Cas obsession, dear readers, I’m going to give you a little backstory so that you’ll understand how much this episode meant to me.
When Cas first showed up, he was kind of a bastard. I wasn’t very fond of him– dramatic entrance aside, I was pretty ticked about the whole burning-out-Pamela’s-eyes stunt. I mean, I LIKED him because I enjoy it when SPN actually does their research, and to me he fit the mold of a Biblical angel to a T: ruthless, emotionally barren, and basically an obedient tin soldier. Halfway through season 4, however, I started seeing something a little different in him, compared to the other angels; it was a bit of a softening, if that’s the right word to use, as he became more and more attached to the Winchester brothers. By season 5, I was totally smitten, as Cas started to show more and more of the loyalty, naivete, and clueless humor that has so endeared him to both new and old fans of the series. This was also when I started to identify personally with the poor little angel: I understand how it feels to put all of your faith in a father who is less than perfect, and how lost and alone you feel when that connection is severed. Season 6? I think EVERYONE EVER understands what it’s like to be on a track that you KNOW will end badly, but that you stick with because you’re pretty sure it’s the best thing for everyone.
Likewise, I think most people understand, at least to some extent, what it’s like to make a mistake that you could never, EVER fix, and just how hard it can be to make amends–which brings me to Friday’s episode, “The Born Again Identity”.
The episode begins with Sam having sunk to the depths of his Lucifer-induced insanity. You can’t blame him– Mark Pellegrino is flawless here as the annoying, sadistic thorn in Jared Padalecki’s side, not allowing Sam to sleep even under the influence of various pills, drugs, and alcohol. He gets hit by a car and admitted to the hospital, where they almost immediately place him in a locked psych ward. Dean, meanwhile, is doing exactly what Dean does: fighting with doctors, fighting with Sam about how they’re going to fix him, fighting, fighting, fighting. Sam just wants to sleep. Dean, however, immediately begins doing something else he does well: he begins researching faith healers and various alternatives to “modern medicine”, with the help of Bobby’s old books (and, perhaps, the help of Bobby himself– yes, Dean’s Vanishing Drink is also in a Special Guest Star role this episode). All of this leads him to this guy who heals the sick and the crazy like it’s no big deal; he goes by Emanuel and is, as Meg aptly puts it, “the spitting image of poor dead Castiel”.
What you don't see here is that there was a rather awkward butt-shot right before this. Umm, producers? Fanservice much? (Not that I mind...)
Oh, yes, Meg. Yeah, she’s in there too. Haters procede to hate. I actually like Meg, and I feel like she should get kudos for having been the only woman to survive 7 seasons of SPN. Bravo, Meg Masters. Bravo.
So, opinion time. Hang tight, people. I have a lot of feelings and opinions about this episode, and even after two rewatches I’m still having a hard time expressing all of them, so.
What I Liked:
Castiel’s return, obviously. Been waiting for that ever since he walked into that reservoir.
Meg. She’s a welcome note of humor in an otherwise heavy episode.
This sequence where Castiel/Emanuel regains his memories in a badass montage with lovely backing music ala “O Death”.
This scene. Dean’s empathy for Castiel’s situation is really visible here– after all, he’s been there.
Dean. He responded to a situation that was very emotionally fraught for him with the same grace and forgiveness that he extended to Sam just after the whole demon blood incident.
One more sequence where Cas takes on Sam’s madness in typical faith-healer I-can-take-this-in-and-deal-with-it-myself-mentality, knowing full well what it will mean.
Dean’s Vanishing Drink. I am now 99.9% sure this is Bobby. (The .1% is for God, in case he’s finally decided to stop being a douchebag of a dad and help out.)
What I Didn’t Like
There were so many plotholes in this episode that it looked kind of like Swiss Cheese by the time it was done. Hopefully the next few eps will help with that.
There was too much in this episode, and it went far too fast. I expected these events to be a multi-episode arc, not 45 minutes.
What I Would Have Liked to See:
One scene between Dean and Cas at the end. Dean reassuring him, maybe, that they WILL come back, even if Cas is busy boring a hole in Lucifer/Wall with his eyes. Just… something, between the two of them, to show that Dean has forgiven Castiel, and that once all this is over, they will slowly begin to heal what has transpired between them.
Maybe a scene with Dean threatening Meg. Something along the lines of “hurt him and I will end you.”
Final Verdict: Nice, solid episode that brings Castiel back into the picture, even if it didn’t help much in the overarching plot. A for some really nice, emotional performances from Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins.
Coming Up Next: After this phenom of an episode, I really am not very excited about this ep, which seems like a cheap excuse to get drunk, fight a MotW, and ignore the fact that the Leviathan are UP TO SOMETHING.
Because I Can’t Shut Up: I just have to throw in two three songs for Castiel, okay? Just ’cause. (ETA: The Raconteurs came up when I searched Mumford and Sons and it seemed appropriate.)
This week’s SPN episode was definitely a throwback to the old days, complete with season 4 flashbacks and a clever integration of part of season 4’s plot. However, it was a difficult episode to figure out; I’m not sure what, exactly, they were trying to achieve.
The basic summary is this: way back when they were hunting down Lilith, Sam and Dean got a hold of one of her lieutenants– Jeffrey’s demon– and tortured him in order to obtain information. They dumped the injured, recently possessed Jeffrey at a hospital and took off. Now, years later, Jeffrey’s demon is back and the boys are after him. They hunt Jeffrey down and discover that things between the possessor and the possessed might not have been quite what they thought. Meanwhile, Sam’s hallucinations are growing worse and worse, despite his various coping mechanisms…
The story itself was good. I thought the writing was solid and the acting ability showcased by Padalecki in particular was of a higher quality than we’ve seen in the past few episodes. They seemed to be trying to draw connections between both of the Winchester boy’s “situations” and Jeffrey’s psychotically codependent relationship with his demon: granted, Sam/Lucifer fits this mold better than Dean/Cas, but when Jeffrey was going on about being a drunk and wanting to die, it definitely paralleled Dean’s depression, which was definitely brought on – if not entirely caused- by Cas’ death. I think that if they really wanted this to work, they could have taken it a step further, but then again, this episode was all about setup, rather than being a pure MoTW episode, so maybe we’ll see a more thorough exploration of the boys’ headspace in the upcoming episodes.
Pros
Lucifer. I love Mark Pellegrino’s take on Satan- always have, always will- and he brought his trademark malicious sass to this episode and brightened up a few scenes that would otherwise have been pretty dull. And I LOVED the way that Luci helped Sam on the case when Dean was in trouble.
They tied their plot neatly back to season 4, which I really liked.
Cons
I have one huge Con with this episode, and with the showrunners in general: Wicca is a religion. Witches are practitioners of magic. They are not one and the same.
Final Rating: B+.
Coming Up Next: I am so, so excited for this episode. Or these episodes, I guess, since this looks like it’s probably a teaser for both 7.16 and 7.17. Now, if you’ll excuse my rudeness, I need to analyze a still from this promo in order to prove a point of mine.
Left: the shoulder of Dean’s jacket. Right: A woman with dark brunette, wavy hair. So we have Dean and Meg here. Now, from the buzz that’s been going around, a lot of people have been assuming that Cas is coming back as an amnesiac. However, this look, right here? This is not the look of someone who does not remember what he’s done. This is the look of someone who remembers all too well what has happened. He can’t even meet Dean’s eyes, and I’m glad to see it, because while I do love our nerdy little angel, I really wanted him to learn something from his experience, which he can’t do if he can’t remember it.
It’s also time for Dean to learn a little bit about forgiveness. And what a perfect opportunity!
Waiting On Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine and showcases releases we just can’t wait to get our hands on. 😀
Title: Girl of Nightmares (Click the cover to add to your Goodreads!)
Left: the shoulder of Dean’s jacket. Right: A woman with dark brunette, wavy hair. So we have Dean and Meg here. Now, from the buzz that’s been going around, a lot of people have been assuming that Cas is coming back as an amnesiac. However, this look, right here? This is not the look of someone who does not remember what he’s done. This is the look of someone who remembers all too well what has happened. He can’t even meet Dean’s eyes, and I’m glad to see it, because while I do love our nerdy little angel, I really wanted him to learn something from his experience, which he can’t do if he can’t remember it.
easyreadinganddamnhardwriting 