#spn s2
1x22: Devil’s Trap
Rating: ★★★★★
Lookhere for my explanations of these reviews.
Written by: Eric Kripke
Directed by: Kim Manners
Y’all, Alpha Dean showed upin this episode! Here I was thinking that this version of Dean didn’t show up until after John died, but I guess it just became permanent then because damn. Also, Bobby’s here, yay!
What I liked: All of it, dog. Can you believe this my first 5 out of 5 in the series? I’ll talk about Dean down below, but holy shit, Jensen? Alpha Dean wasn’t the only thing to come out in this episode; so did Jensen’s Oscar. Actually, fuck that, allthe acting in this episode was so insane? Not the least of which is because Azazel!John is like Negan on crack. I’m just going to end up talking about the characters, so I’m moving on.
What I didn’t like: That Azazel hurt Dean’s feelings? That Dean has to be put through so much shit? That John couldn’t have been a better father before this episode basically sentenced him to death in 2x01? That Sam was forced to lose his chance at revenge because he didn’t want to break up his family? That this episode hurt me?
There’s nothing wrong with this episode, for real. I can’t think of anything at all.
Character work: Where do I begin this essay? Honestly, and this isn’t just me being biased, most of the development was Dean’s. This episode was very much about Dean being absolutely terrified to lose his father, his family. In the beginning, when he was interrogating Meg, the rage he had literally set me back because it was so present in every gesture Dean made and every word he spoke. It’s so fascinating that Dean both ran away from the fight and ran toward it during this episode. Dean wanted to get John back before facing Azazel, but he was ready to walk into Hell to get him. And the tortured expression he has when he’s talking about the lack of remorse he feels for killing a possessed human is such a harrowing foreshadow of what he’ll feel in S4.
I also loved the acknowledgement that Dean holds his family together because that role kind of gets passed to Sam by the later seasons, even though everyone still gathers around Dean. Maybe it’s just that Sam holds Dean together so Dean can hold everyone else together. That acknowledgement comes during an episode, too, where Sam is compared to John; this mention of Dean protecting his family shows a way in which he’s like Mary. Plus, on top of all that, his greatest fears are exposed by Azazel: that his family doesn’t need him as much as he needs them, that Dean will lose his family, despite all his efforts. The shit they did with Dean this episode is something else. Some of the best development I’ve seen come out of this show.
Favorite scene: I know this is kind of a cop out because the scene was, like, a full six minutes long, but the scene where Azazel is taunting the boys before he leaves John’s body is so good. Jeffrey’s acting is so captivating, plus the pain you see on Dean’s face coupled with the confliction on Sam’s when he’s trying to decide if he should kill John or not is next level. Also, the fearthat Dean has when he thinks he’s going to die? Y’all, Dean rarely ever looks thatscared after this point, so relishing it here is where it’s at.
Favorite moment: Weird, but when the Impala gets run off the road. It’s so impactful. I’ve seen my fair share of surprise crashes in TV shows, but after all the build up during this episode, the crash at the end was timed exactlyright. It also scared the shit out of me, even though I knew it was coming.
Iconic quote: “You know, you fight and you fight for this family, but the truth is they don’t need you. Not like you need them. Sam—he’s clearly John’s favorite. Even when they fight, it’s more concern than he’s ever shown you.” That’s pain right there.
This is up there for one of the best SPN season finales. I’m hyped to continue because I’ve got a lot of stuff I’m gonna be looking out for after this episode. I know there are amazing things in the later seasons, but the story just doesn’t poplike it does in this episode.
If you want to read my season review, check it out on my blog.
1x12: Faith
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Lookhere for my explanations of these reviews.
Written by: Sera Gamble & Raelle Tucker
Directed by: Allan Kroeker
First angel of the series, lads. I was pleasantly surprised by this episode because I hadn’t noticed before that it starts hinting at Dean’s role in the apocalypse. There’s other interesting Dean stuff in here as well, but let’s talk about other stuff first.
What I liked: Mostly what I liked came in the form Dean’s development, though the actual plot was fairly interesting. I think it came across so unique to me because Reapers, from this point onward, read more as angels rather than creatures (which may seem obvious because they areangels, but remember, Tessa comes in in 2x01, when the audience doesn’t know yet that angels exist, and she still reads as an angel to me); in this one, it felt like the opposite.
What I didn’t like: I don’t think there was anything that I didn’t like necessarily, but the tone of this episode was sort of weird. I don’t want it to sound like it was bad necessarily, but it wasn’t my favorite thing in the world.
Character work: One of my favorite topics to discuss: Dean. Like I said, this episode hints at his role in the upcoming apocalypse, and that’s so cool to realize in a rewatch. Not only does Roy say that Dean has a job and a great purpose to fulfill, but Mrs. Rourke asked Dean why he deserved to live more than her daughter. It’s not as though the Reaper healed Dean because he was set to be Michael’s vessel, but when you listen to the scene again, that fact does get brought to mind.
Another interesting thing that happened in this episode was Dean suggesting that he and Sam kill Roy since Dean thinks Roy traded somebody else’s life for his. Since Cas’s dialogue in 10x22 is burned into my brain, we know that Dean wouldn’t normally kill a human being, at least by the later seasons. I mean, he has suggested it since this episode, but he seemed really clear-headed about killing Roy here. It’s interesting that he suggests it, and I think it has to do with him exhibiting a characteristic in this episode that will become very fundamental to his character as the seasons go on: the belief that his life isn’t worth that much. So, yeah, lots of great Dean stuff in this episode. Plus, of course, we see the first threads of the unhealthy habit Sam and Dean have with trying to save each other as Sam strives to save Dean.
Favorite scene: This is kind of difficult because “scene” means… a whole scene, and there aren’t a lot of entire scenes in this episode that stand out—it’s mostly dialogue that stands out. The scene at the end where Dean is talking to Layla is probably what I’d choose because she talks about faith, which is a theme Dean will be confronted with a lot throughout the series, and you can see a bit of how he struggles with it during this scene.
Favorite moment: There’s a bit at the beginning of the episode where Dean comes back to the motel room because he doesn’t want to stay at a hospital where “the nurses aren’t even hot,” and Sam smiles when he opens the door and finds him, despite having just been distraught on the phone with John. It’s a nice little moment because you can see that, even though Sam is scared to lose his brother, he’s still happy to be with him.
Iconic quote: “I guess if you’re gonna have faith… you can’t just have it when the miracles happen. You have to have it when they don’t.”
I’d also like to point out that Dean says you can’t kill Death in this episode, which is obviously not true, and very funny in its irony. I don’t know that I’d rewatch this one without doing a full rewatch, but it’s still a fairly solid episode.
