Don't drink the water!
Promo 7x02 - Hello Cruel World
7x01 - Meet the new boss
0.01 – White background with black smokey-drippey text? Very different from earlier seasons. I’m assuming that it’s a deliberate symbolic statement. This should be interesting.
0.09 – Nice morphing of Lucifer into Sam. That’s not really how it happened of course, but we’re on a tight schedule here so let’s go with it. There probably aren’t any new viewers at this point in the series anyway.
0.12 – The scene that I assume spawned a gazillion fanfics. Castiel feeling up Sam’s soul does look pretty kinky.
0.22 – Oh, hello Death. Sorry, I just like saying that. Move on, shall we?
1.20 – And then the camera went right up Castiel’s nose for the remainder of the summer. It would be fun if the very first shot of this season would have it backing out again.
1.29 – Nope, no such luck. I should totally be running this show instead. There would be a lot less clothes, I can assure you. But I have this theory that the wardrobe department keeps putting the Winchesters in triple layers so that people can concentrate on the plot. I’m not even joking.
1.34 – There’s some pretty great tension going on in this scene. Despite looking every bit the same as always, Castiel is not even recognizable. Even the ever-loyal Dean realizes that this is not the Cass he knows.
2.42 – Ants and pets? Shut up Cass! And stop looking so hot, I’m mad at you!
3.26 – And here come the Hell-memories. I don’t really like that “Burning-Sam”-shot that we already saw a glimpse of last season, it looks a little cheesy, so I hope they come up with something new soon.
3.52 – This is a cool long shot of Misha Collins, but it’s making me motion-sick, and will we ever get to see if he’s actually talking to someone?
4.30 – Oh. All rightie then… And I assume that the non-smote angels could hear him too.
4.48 – There she is, hi baby! The Impala is looking a little worse for wear and Dean is fixing her up. Hello season 2-flashbacks. Interesting directing choice to spin the camera 180 degrees. My dad used to do that back in the early nineties to make “cool effects” when I was lip-synching to Whitney Houston. (I think it’s a symbolic way of “turning things right” after the much abated season 6, but maybe I’m reading too much into it.)
5.30 – I don’t really know what to say about this scene. Dean and Bobby are being grumpy about not having any good books for the Cass-situation. They both seem strangely cavalier about the fact that Sam has apparently been unconscious for while. Um, hello guys? Hell wall breaking down, kind of a big deal? Go look after the guy, ya idjits.
6.46 – Sam’s up and running again! There is a strange atmosphere in this conversation between him and Dean though, they seem a little stiff around each other. Did they have a fight at the end of last season that I forgot about?
7.08 – Dean accepts that Sam says he’s good way too easily. Man, sometimes I miss the early seasons. Remember how Dean tried to make Sam rest after he was unknowingly brought back from the dead in the season 2 finale? That Dean would have been a lot more concerned for his brother after seeing him collapsing with nosebleeds. I know that a lot of crap has happened between these two since, but I hate it when it feels like there is a gap between them.
7.27 – Yeah, of course Sam is not really good at all. I wonder where this is going.
From one thing to another, I’m not giving the verdict on the season 7-hair just yet. In this scene it is somewhat less than flattering, but in season 2 it was horrible for two episodes before turning into perfection.
7.37 – Oh, this is so my favorite scene of the whole episode. “You’re wrong, I’m utterly indifferent to sexual orientation” and “Tell your flock where your genitals have been before you speak for me” are such epic lines that I don’t even know where to begin. Wouldn’t it be freaking awesome if God actually did this for real? The smiting wouldn’t even be necessary.
9.17 – Why do I get the feeling that Misha absolutely loved that glass window of himself? I bet he stole it from the set and put it up in his living room.
9.50 – See, the Sam-hair is already looking better! And here we go with the hell flashbacks. I hope they don’t drag this out for too long before they explain it, because it will start to get annoying pretty quickly.
Also, what the hell Bobby?! Sam is panting in the corner of the empty basement with a wrench raised as a weapon. Does he look okay to you? Give him a damn hug and ask how he’s feeling!
10.14 – “He was young. And… and sexy.” As a marketing master student, I can’t help but notice that a Castiel would be the perfect marketing tool for Christianity if they want to attract new, young followers. Just sayin’.
10.46 – New age motivational speakers? Hee! Although Cass should probably get a PR advisor. Sorry, I’ll cut the marketing crap.
11.15 – I get that Dean feels betrayed by Cass, but his grumpiness and can’t-do attitude is getting on my nerves. True, Dean has had it pretty rough lately, but I hate it when he takes out his bad mood on Sam. His life ain’t exactly peaches and cream either.
I just want them to hug already. Maybe next episode.
11.33 – Yay, we got a great music moment in the season premiere, ‘These boots are made for walking’. Hiya Crowley! You must really be scared of Cass if you sink so low that you’re hiding in an RV. I hope at least that’s Craig you’re drinking.
12.00 – So much for hiding. Since Sera Gamble offed pretty much every single character on the show during her killing spree last season, I’m very glad that she doesn’t have Castiel smite Crowley. Mark Sheppard is a wonderful addition to the show. “Then I graciously accept – boss.” Deliciously smarmy.
14.03 – I read somewhere that it isn’t an official episode of Supernatural until Sam has gotten strangled or choked at least once, and that is oh so true. Maybe it’s payback from the writers for some old practical joke Jared played in the early days of the show?
14.19 – Now hang on a sec, the book that Sam kicked to the floor in his hallucination is actually lying on the floor when he wakes up?! It’s pretty subtly filmed, so it might just be that he swooped it down with his arms during the hallucination and it was edited out for some reason, but I don’t think so, especially not given what happens later in the episode. So, there is some amount of reality in Sam’s freaky Hell-visions then? Hmm.
14.44 – I know absolutely nothing about cars, but is it really possible to smooth out banged up metal like that? Ah whatever, as long as the Impala is fine.
15.49 – So Dean doesn’t believe that Sam is fine for the simple reason that they never catch a break. I like that he says that, because one of the reasons that this show is so good is that it doesn’t do easy solutions and happy endings. But at the same time it annoys the hell out of me that he says that, because Dean, the freaking nose-bleed-fainting-collapse might otherwise have been a pretty good indicator that Sam is not fine!
16.17 – And then Sam lies to try to spare Dean the trouble. Of course. Sam is the one who is having flashbacks from hell, and Dean is the one who is grumpy about how much their lives suck? I’m giving Dean a lot of crap today, but he’s being pretty selfish.
16.38 – Finally Dean is thinking in terms of solutions. Took you long enough.
17.00 – Why is Crowley always calling Sam animal names? The ones I can pick of the top of my head are dog, moose (which was awesome) and now giraffe, but I’m sure there have been more.
17.19 – Sometimes I wish I was more like Dean in terms of disrespect for authority. He wants something done, he thinks to enslave Death. I don’t even e-mail my professors unless it’s an absolute emergency, because I don’t want to bother them.
18.51 – Now this is just gross. I sure hope Castiel isn’t going Alien on us.
19.30 – For some reason I find it hilarious that Crowley sticks an envelope with the spell and a little note under Bobby’s door and then disappears. It’s cute.
19.44 – What the hell would Sam and Dean do without Bobby? Sam usually gets credit for being the smart one, but Bobby is a freaking genius.
20.41 – Heh, Grey Poupon? Seriously Dean? I never took you for a Moutarde de Dijon type of guy. Do you put it on your bacon cheeseburgers?
22.00 – This little moment is worth watching a couple of times just to make sure you don’t miss any details, because there is so much fun stuff going on. Dean’s sheepish and yet slightly smug look when he introduces Dr. and Mrs. Weiss, Bobby’s very tired balls-I’m-too-old-for-this-shit eye-roll, and Sam’s facial sequence of mild surprise, polite “Hi”, brief bitchface in Dean’s general direction and then apologetic “Sorry” to the bound and gagged Weiss’s. All three actors truly own their characters in this scene. Ah, these are the people I know and love.
22.29 – Poor Dr. Weiss, it seems he really liked that grey disproportionate thing that looked like a charred stick.
22.37 – Hee, Dean came prepared, he’s brought some fast-food to appease Death after enslaving him to do his dirty work. Nice thinking.
22.52 – I basically understand the Latin that Bobby speaks here. Or I don’t and just think I do. Just wanted to brag. Moving on.
23.36 – Oh, hello Death. I got to say it twice in one episode! Me so happy! Although, it sounds weird when Dean says “I’m sorry Death, this isn’t what it seems”, as if Death is just a name like Mary or Joe or Eugene.
23.50 – Fried pickle chips? Seriously? Americans are a little weird about food sometimes. Also, it reminds me of a youtube-clip from a convention where someone asked Jared and Jensen if they had ever tried a pickle stuffed with fried rice, and Jensen laughed so much he started crying. That was fun. What were we talking about?
24.07 – Did the special effects team forget to edit in Death’s bindings here? Because it kind of seems like they should have been visible. Either way, Julian Richings is just so damn good in this role. I totally buy him as Death, and that’s saying something, because I don’t really think that Death is an actual dude.
24.34 – “Because we said so, and we’re the boss of you.” Oh Dean, you didn’t! “I mean… Respectfully.” Yeah, nice save. Very smooth.
24.50 – Um, Cass, your… face? Also, Cass was actually going to make Dean explode?! I miss the nerd-angel, Terminator God!Cass has no soul. Aside from the whispery ones trying to punch a hole through his stomach, but they don’t really count.
25.00 – Poor Dr. and Mrs. Weiss are having a really rough night. First they were tied up, then their charred stick was destroyed and now God and Death are having a pissing-contest in their living room. I hate it when that happens.
25.21 – So, here we go with the setup for this season’s festivities. Leviathans, huh? One Wikipedia-search later I’m not any wiser about where this may lead, because I assume that Supernatural’s version of these creatures won’t be giant sea snakes.
I’m really enjoying this scene, but then again, I could listen to Death reading the phone directory for that matter. That makes him this show’s Elijah.
27.00 – Dean orders Death to kill Cass, but Cass unbinds Death with a snap of his fingers and a steely stink-eye towards Dean. Awkward!
27.42 – Oh please, show, don’t kill this sweet little guy with ridiculously luminous complexion who is strangely nice and respectful towards the weird man in the bloody trench coat with a terrible rash on his face that looks both smelly and possibly contagious.
28.21 – A word of advise, don’t pause the frame right here. I did and I’ll be having nightmares about Misha Collin’s madman laughter for weeks. Stellar acting tonight Misha. Gold star for you.
28.25 – More awkwardness as Death calmly chews up the last of the pickle-chips and Sam wordlessly urges Dean to talk to him. He doesn’t get further than “Um” before Death tells him to shut up, which is great. Like I said, I love Dean’s lack of respect for authority, but it’s nice to see him actually being intimidated by someone for once.
29.11 – “You have to care a little bit about what happens to us.” I’m going to assume that Sam refers to the planet Earth when he says ‘us’, but it sounds more like he’s referring to himself, Dean and Bobby, which is just dumb, because if Death gives a crap about them, it is most likely because he wants to see them dead, so I wish they had rephrased the line a little. But at least Death gives them their solution.
29.33 – Hee, the look on Dean’s face when he disbelievingly says “Compel?” Oh, if that’s not an intentional dig at the Vampire Diaries, I’ll eat my MacBook. And the best part is that Dean’s reaction to the word makes it seem like he gets the reference too. I bet Dean is a closet Damon-fan. A crossover between those two shows is at the top of my Christmas wish list this year, but I’m pretty sure it will never happen, because the vampire lore is not the same. Although Supernatural has managed to pull off some crazy crap before (Amen Padaleski) and gotten away with it, so you never know.
30.18 – Nooo, they did kill the sweet guy with they ridiculously luminous complexion! Damn you, Gamble! (It was always much funnier to say ‘Damn you, Kripke’. Had a better ring to it.)
30.49 – Nice camera-work here as Castiel wakes up from his binge-killing. Worst hangover ever, right?
31.33 – Here’s Grumpy again. Day drinking and watching Asian cartoon porn sounds like a great solution to the problem with the mutilated God-angel. Keep up the good work, Dean! I’m sorry, I know he’ll be back to regular Dean as soon as he gets the Impala fixed, but he’s just so damn stubborn sometimes.
And of course lying to Dean about his Hellucinations would come back to bite Sam in the ass. We all saw it coming from a mile away, so I’m glad we got it out of the way.
33.06 – Oh beautiful, beautiful, beautiful scene! Everything is perfect. The light morning sun, the mist rising from the grass and Bobby’s cars gleaming in the sunlight, broken and battered like their owner and our two heroes. The camerawork makes Sam look so small as he addresses the sky with his simple, hopeless prayer (it can’t be that easy to make Jared look small). And then Jared’s acting as Sam tries to reach out to Castiel despite everything Cass has put him through, because somehow, no matter how many times he has been beaten down in his life, Sam still manages to hold on to that faith of his. Nice job of everyone involved in this scene.
34.07 – “Only if you turn that off.” Hark who’s talking, Mr. Casa Erotica. Although the sounds from Dean’s Asian cartoon porn are deeply disturbing, so I can’t disagree. Did they use all those rubber ducks people sent them this summer to make sound effects?
34.21 – Poor Cass doesn’t look so good. Did they put tape around his eyes to make them look extra droopy, or does Misha have the most capable face-muscles in the history of mankind?
34.48 – “I feel regret.” I’m very glad that Castiel tries to make amends with Dean. Even though it doesn’t make either of them feel better, their relation has majorly improved from when they both tried to kill each other in the Weiss’s library a couple of hours ago.
35.34 – Gah! Don’t sneak up on people like that Lucifer. Jeez. “Long time, no spooning.” Are there Lucifer/Sam shippers? Congratulations to you, have fun writing fanfic for the rest of the night!
36.19 – No offense to Mark Pellegrino, who is a great actor and a generally nice-looking bloke, but doesn’t he look a little… pregnant? I’m serious. Maybe there’s a little devil-spawn in there? Wouldn’t that spice up the season.
36.46 – Oh god, Sam flinches at Lucifer’s movements. Since when does Sam Winchester flinch? Poor Sammy! And Lord help me, here come the puppy eyes. You’re making my heart bleed Jared, knock it off!
36.58 – Could we just pause right there for a second and consider this? The rational thought is of course that Sam’s hallucinating all of this, but let’s go totally nuts and say that what Lucifer tells Sam is actually true, he’s still in the box. Would that mean that the entire season 6 never happened? (Sorry Campbells. I still hated every single one of you, every single second of your screen time.) Or here is another thought, is there some sort of a passageway from the box to Sam’s brain that is open now that the wall is down, so that Lucifer can sneak through and mess with him?
I’m never going to try to explain this show to an outsider, they’ll have me locked up in a padded room.
37.22 – Where is Sam?!
37.35 – WHERE IS SAM?!?
38.19 – Aw, “I’m sorry, Dean”. Castiel follows in the great Supernatural tradition of taking the road paved with good intentions. He got in this mess because he wanted to stop Raphael from restarting the apocalypse, but everything backfired, just like when Sam drank demon blood to kill Lilith.
39.20 – “Maybe angels don’t need to breathe?” Poor Dean, all grudges are gone and Castiel is back to just being his friend again, but only when it’s already too late.
39.52 – Psych! Magic healing. I’ve seen some speculation whether this is really actual Cass or if it’s the Leviathans playing Dean and Bobby just like Lucifer did when he took over Sam, but I’m positive that it’s the real Castiel. This is his apology, his good-bye and also he leaves a sincere promise to redeem himself, which I’m sure will become relevant further into the season.
41.10 – Holy freaking shit, Misha, unhinged much?! You already had the MVP in the bag for this episode, now you’re just showing off. Hat’s off and standing ovation. Please don’t leave the show!
41.38 – “Oh this is going to be so much fun.” I sure hope so! It looks pretty promising, and aside from a little too much bullheadedness from Dean I really liked this season premiere.
Last season Sera claimed that they were going back to basics, what with the Alpha monster hunting and all, but it didn’t really work out. Hopefully they learned from their mistakes. Of course the characters can’t be regressing after everything they’ve been through, but I do hope we’ll get to see some brotherly bickering and light-hearted fun in between all the angst and despair. Lord knows were starved on that after season 6’s “noir”.
I would end this recap with yet another “WHERE IS SAM?!?”, but I’ve already seen next week’s promo, and I know he’s in a warehouse or something, losing his shit completely and almost shooting Dean. It’s a Ben Edlund episode, so expectations are sky high.
See you next week!