I typed the tagline for the title card for this one several weeks ago, before I came to a hard decision. Quoting the Animals song from the beginning of the episode, We gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do... it kinda feels on the nose now. Since everyone can probably already guess what I mostly have to say about this one, I'm gonna use this space for a personal status update.
I've got an incredibly busy couple of months coming up, and have been seriously stressing about finding the time to write and record episodes through like... the end of summer. I've also been stressing over continuing to use spotify as my podcast host. It was bad enough before, but now to post there I have to agree to their "ai features" being applied to my little podcast, and I just... can't with that.
So for now, this will be the last episode I'm recording for a while. That doesn't mean this project as a whole is going away though! I already have the next episode "in the can," completely written up for AO3. And written more "properly" and completely than the notes I've been posting there to this point.
Considering my schedule, though, updates might be more or less frequent, and won't stick to the weekly posting schedule I've maintained for years now. What I will do is write up my complete notes, and then just post them when they're done. Some weeks, you might get two, other weeks none at all, depending on how stressful my life is being. But recording and editing the audio essentially doubles the amount of time these episodes take for me to do, so hopefully I can still mostly stick to getting out 3-4 a month still. We shall see!
Thank you to everyone who has been listening along (and reading along now!). I'm just finding it hilarious I started the podcast because I wanted to do a thorough meta rewatch without having to type everything out again, and here I am just deciding it's easier to just type everything out again...
LINKS!
My very long post of why i think Cas could’ve gone through the Purgatory portal with Dean
A brief post about destiel in early season 8 (and a much longer one…) (oh wait look here’s more) (look there a LOT in my tag for this one…)
Sometimes my old posts hurt me for multiple reasons (i miss you alex)
The beginning of Naomi’s influence on Cas
The Male Gaze shot (and a second post about it)
Homework for next week: Watch Duck Amuck
Garth! That's really all we need to know to enjoy this one, right? Good!
LINKS!
My rewatch notes from July 2019
A bit of Set Dec Appreciation via the Angry Pig sign
Rewatch notes from May 2017 (i.e. garth is Doing His Best and you can too!)
Amy Pond vs Benny (more tied into 8.09 than here, but also tangentially relevant)
We have call sheets and script sides!
You can read my notes for this one here on AO3
And I will say here very briefly, there will be a change to the format coming up in a couple weeks, more on that soon!
no, really, how does benny know how this portal works? how is he the only being in the universe that seems to know about it, and exactly how it works? how does he know it’s only for humans to pass through? why does cas so easily believe it’s truly only for humans to pass through? i have always believed that it’s because it suits their respective agendas to believe that, whether it was the truth or not. In this essay I will…
Okay, that's just one of my usual questions around the beginning of season 8, and I will continue to ask them! But there's plenty of other things to wonder about in this episode, like how did Sam end up spending an entire year with Amelia... mysteries we will never really understand, I suppose. But at least we do get some insight into just why Dean trusts Benny so much. All this and more! including Dean's exasperation with Sam, Sam's exasperation with Dean, and interesting new facts about vampires!
LINKS!
My rewatch notes from November 11, 2020
My rewatch notes from January 2018
Some Destiel for you (i swear, completely relevant to this episode, but still important)
I forgot to mention the cut scene on the dvd for this one, or maybe I just blanked it out of my mind, but Sam tries to call someone from a phone booth and then hangs up. When she calls back, he hangs up again. After Sam and Dean leave, Kate runs over, calls the last number dialed, and gets Dr. Amelia Richardson, veterinarian, who is very confused about Kate asking if she consults for the FBI.
I think the only thing this tells us is that Sam is having conflicted feelings about having left her, even despite the circumstances we’ll learn about in a few weeks. But I can see why this scene was cut for time. This episode is already jam packed, even if this likely would’ve helped make Amelia feel like less of an imaginary character.
But there are many scenes that did air, so let’s talk about those.
LINKS!
A short essay on What Makes a Monster, and why I love this episode
The feminist lens of Bitten (written while s8 was still airing)
why is dean always the target of heartache, heartbreak, heart attacks, and other various and sundry attempts to stab, poke, crush, fold, spindle, mutilate and impale his heart? it is a mystery! but we're gonna wail about it for a bit today...
LINKS!
My tag for this one is short, but it’s almost entirely about the heart imagery in the series that gets pinned to Dean. I kind of regret pushing that so hard for so long, considering what happened in 15.20, but >.>
We all remember the origin of the tagline, “the destiels will never have that now,” right? When Sam hugs Cas in 9.11, folks cheered that Cas hugged Sam before he hugged Dean, as proof that Dean doesn’t like Cas or some nonsense. And then everyone else just laughed at them, because the destiels had already had the destiel reunion hug in this episode for like a year and a half. So we decided we will also have THIS now!
I swear this episode is about a lot of other stuff, too. We can have it all now!
Including some LINKS!
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series, revived for one last ride… (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) And now that all of those are posted, we’re on our own for the destiel insight. But trust us, it’s there all over the place :’)
Welcome to Carver Era! Sam hit a dog, and Dean spent a year in Purgatory. Wait, where's Cas, and why is Dean resurrecting and then hugging a vampire? Now you're all caught up! Kinda... :'D
Sometimes I think we need to talk about Kevin so we won't have to talk about any of THAT ^^ yet. But since we're here to talk about all of it, that's what we're gonna do. :)
LINKS!
A post on how I understand the purgatory portal to work
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
As we bid farewell to the Gamble Era and usher in Carver era, Kevin goes from having leviathan troubles to demon troubles, Cas chooses to take responsibility for himself and he and Dean are destined for Purgatory, and poor Sam is left standing all alone in the aftermath... at least the leviathans are effectively washed from the earth...
Gosh that makes it sound like not much of import happens in this one. I'm really underselling it here, so instead let's just jump to...
LINKS!
my tag (there is A LOT of good meta posts in the tag for this one, but not so many that it’s overwhelming. Probably a good week to spend half an hour reading :)
lizbob’s dean and cas are in love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)
I just realized how threatening the subheading on that graphic looks... I am not actually out for blood over Dabb's nonsense car things... >.>
For those unfamiliar with our longstanding feud with Andrew Dabb over car and driving continuity issues, there’s some pretty glaring examples in this episode. Obviously the Supernatural Universe is not OUR universe, they have cities we don’t and vice versa, you know, like their Lebanon, Kansas is a thriving small town on the show and barely exists enough to mark on a map here, as just one example.
But Hoople, North Dakota to Missoula, Montana is not a 7 hour drive. It’s nearly 15 hours on a good day, on the highway. If that wasn’t enough, they doubled down on looking for somewhere within a 300 mile radius of Hoople. And Missoula is over 900 miles away. So either take this as your occasional reminder that the Supernatural universe is not our universe, and it’s kinda silly to make these sorts of comparisons because of that, or use it to fuel your personal vendetta against Mr. Dabb for not apparently knowing how to read a map.
We’ve reached the penultimate episode of season seven though, and we’re finally almost free of Gamble Era! Everything is coming together now, including a weapon they’re hoping will finally be able to kill the Leviathan, so we get a lot of plot to plow through.
LINKS!
KEVIN! This poor kid... just add him to the list of Terrible Things Chuck Did.
We have a Leviathan Tablet and a new prophet to read it, which wakes Cas into a state of abject denial and depression of what he did, brings the angels back into play, and sets Sam and Dean on a big scavenger hunt for parts for a weapon powerful enough to end the leviathans.
Also, bees.
I think that about sums it up... oh and there's a lot of suffering of the personal emotional kind for everyone! Wheeee! Thanks, Ben Edlund!
LINKS!
A reminder of why I don’t give too much credence to heaven/angel hierarchy
Rewatch notes and general yelling from October 2019
Thoughts on bees and honey on a very very old post
Cas and games and bees by ladyofthesilent
A more recent post by ilarual about the bees and guilt
A post from s13 that covers how I see the tablets and their power
Rewatch notes from January 2018 (focusing on the thread of being sorry and playing sorry connecting back to 4.22)
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
CHARLIE!
That's all I need to say, right? Oh, we also get the plot set in place for the rest of the season, with the awesome heist they pull on Dick's Brick. Dean gets to be both a lil geeky AND a lil queer. And Bobby goes terrifyingly close to vengeful. So much happening, and we're at least now pointing directly toward the season finale, so borax ahoy!
LINKS!
scene analysis of the flirting split screen
my rewatch notes from July 2019
an interesting discussion of queer subtext
It's another one of those episodes I always used to forget existed until it came back around on the loop again. Yeah, we get some weird Bucklemming-flavored ghost lore, but it proves at least interesting in context with Bobby's ghost. Because we also finally get to see Bobby's ghost again, right along with Sam and Dean, with the reminder of the mytharc happening elsewhere feels like a throaway line in this episode.
But this one is worth watching, and we can find enjoyment, especially in meeting the hunter Annie, and reuniting with Bobby. Because after this week we'll run headlong into a cascade of mytharc leading up to the season finale. We can enjoy one last little deviation from that plot.
LINKS!
Also, I've finally started importing all my past scripts into Ao3, in case anyone is interested in reading them. Partial notes/intro scripts begin with 3.13 Ghostfacers, and full scripts begin with Chapter 82, Episode 138 - 7.12 Time After Time. I'll be adding scripts weekly when podcast episodes drop, since now that I write them out in full, they might actually be interesting to read. Maybe. If you're really super nerdy about this show like I am. :'D
We officially have a Gross of SpnGeorg! wheee!
I sincerely appreciate Garth as a person, and as a friend to Sam and Dean. If anyone could've made them feel even a little bit better about the universe after last week, it was Mr. Fizzles Garth.
I also appreciate the expansion of the supernatural universe, especially through the medium of Beer Brands. We talk about beer in Supernatural having meta relevance (think El Sol, Kingdom, and Schultz, for starters), so the genesis of an entirely new category of beer brands (the trendy independent brewery that makes beers that dean ends up enjoying unironically) is fascinating to me personally. I love anything that expands the spn universe like this!
Also filed under things I love about this episode: Dean gets to be the sober one, and for once in his life, it works against him, especially after a season where his excessive and growing alcohol intake had been a lowkey running theme.
LINKS!
My rewatch notes from July 2019
A liveblog chat with Lizbob from July 2017
A Tidy Metaphor for Performing Dean, and Sam’s recurring inability to really understand his brother
Do I need to introduce this one? Really? We're all here for the return of Cas, and a massive turning point in the structure and narrative of the series. There's just so much good here, even if Cas gets shoved back in a box at the end of the episode. At least he's ~there~ again.
So much changes after this point, but first and foremost, Dean reclaims just a tiny shred of hope. And in season seven, that's huge.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page (in addition to all the usual great stuff, scroll to the bottom for LOTS of links to PR
My tag (far more robust than most other s7 episodes lolol)
The Studio and Network Draft script
thevioletcaptain’s post about DaphnE AlleN
My rewatch notes from October 2019
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5)
Shipper Zero discusses the song choice of Turn Into Earth
A long collaborative post about Daphne
there’s so much more in my tag, though, so please if you have an hour to kill, think about scrolling through :)
Yes, things locked in boxes unwittingly released to wreak havoc and ruin lives. Again. Still kinda shocked at how many times Sam and Dean still attempt to lock things up to solve their problems after all the escaped things they've had to round up and deal with over the years.
We also get a lot of innuendo and queercoding for Dean, and Sam's decompensating fast now that that he can't stuff his hallucinations back in their box with the scar button on his hand. We also finally begin to learn some of what the Leviathans have been planning. And while they may be practically invincible and invulnerable, they're also apparently largely... not all that competent as a whole.
Okay, I think I'm pas de done for now, so let's have some LINKS!
And I guess that’s all for this week, which is probably for the best. Next week is gonna be A Lot.
Does this make Dean the dog again? Also, a very good reminder that antipossession symbol tattoos are a thing in this universe, and maybe it would've been a good thing for them to have shared with a heck of a lot more people than they did, you know?
Also, some very interesting parallels through the MotW, a guy who went to extraordinary measures to bring back the demon (angel?) because he was in love with him. Two episodes before Cas comes back...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page (including links to minutiae and trivia about the episode, transcripts, promo clips, etc. as usual… I stopped adding all those things separately a while back, so every once in a while I like to remind folks how much interesting info is on the Superwiki page for every episode!)
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series
A life well-lived comes from the structured pursuit of meaningful happiness. (rewatch notes from January 2018)
I love this episode. After half a season of beating on Dean emotionally, while all of Sam's crazy fit under the Hallucifer umbrella he could control with the button on his hand, Sam finally gets some horror from the outside.
From clowns.
I mean, Dean has to face some baggage from his childhood, as well, but it's not as dramatic as Sam getting pounded on by maniac clowns. Plus we get an actual (magically created, anyway) unicorn!
This whole episode just feels like a reprieve from their otherwise unrelenting series of losses, and we really needed the break right about now...
LINKS!
My Rewatch Notes from July 2019
Lizbob’s notes on Sam and Dean characterization that use this episode as one example
My fic Dean’s Days Off (14k, fluff, destiel) exploring what I always felt Dean was up to when he dumped Sam off at places like Plucky’s for a few hours
My rewatch notes from March 2016
Lizbob’s rewatch notes (long, but worth the read, because we might be the two largest appreciators of this episode in the world lol)
Oh, bucklemming with their fast-growing monster babies... only they foisted this one off on Dean. To me, this one has always felt like a ham-fisted attempt to balance out the Amy Pond storyline from earlier this season, that just makes it all the more unbalanced.
Sam might think the scales are balanced now, but mostly because he's not exactly in touch with reality himself here... or at the very least not seeing Dean clearly. This is the part of s7 where the writers seemed to forget Sam was constantly hallucifering all over the place, but that makes a hell of a lot more sense when we do remember that while watching.
LINKS!
My tag (only two pages of posts!)
The People’s Choice Pantsless Promo video
My rewatch notes from July 2019 (mostly about Sam and Dean and their main conflict throughout s6 and s7, really… and Sam’s dependence on his Magic Anti-Hallucination Button to the exclusion of actually perceiving reality unless it fits with his personal understanding of it. Plus, proof there can be good stuff even in egregious bucklemming episodes… Seriously, if you only click one link here, make it this one.)
Time travel, and Dean gets to meet a personal hero in the flesh, while Sam and Jody have to save his ass from 1944. I love watching them all work at the same problem from opposite directions, and are able to make everything come together in the end. Plus who can resist Dean in that suit? Or resist just how much Dean loves that suit? Plus he's absolutely brilliant throughout this one (thank you Robbie Thompson, yet again!), and brilliantly queercoded. I could talk about this one for ages, but I already did...
Fine, just enjoy this one. I know we all will.
LINKS!
My Dean is a Genius post from July 2020
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (yes, the same one as for the last few episodes)
Lizbob’s post about the final deleted scene from this episode
Sam and Dean each try to cope with Bobby's death and honor him in their own way-- Sam by helping a young girl asking for Bobby's assistance, and Dean by obsessively trying to decode the numbers Bobby died to give them. It's all not particularly healthy, but they all learn something by the end.
Sam learns that Vetalas usually hunt in pairs, and Dean learns that if he doesn't want to quit, to walk away from hunting entirely, he should convince himself he'll be fine until the end of the week and then paste on a smile and be a professional. Thanks for that helpful advice, Frank!
Have I mentioned I kinda love that guy? I mean... the advice itself is kinda horrifying, but it reveals new hidden depths in Frank. Plus we meet Krissy and her dad, who I always wish had been truly able to free themselves from hunting. But this is Supernatural, so you know how that goes...
LINKS!
My rewatch notes from May 2017 (where two is better than one)
A reminder of lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series post from 7.09 (which will also be relevant in 7.12)
