Thursday November 20, 2008
3T7510
Dean and Sam figure out why Castiel and Uriel want Anna dead. Alastair and his minions try to track down Sam, Dean and Anna.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)The second part of the mid-season finale. An outstanding episode hampered by a slightly lackluster direction and one unfortunate choice. hide show
With Kim Mannes behind the camera, this episode could have been great, a sure, solid ten out of ten. But J. Miller Tobin, who proved himself quite capable with a introverted, melancholic episode like 'A Very Supernatural Christmas', isn't quite able to seize the epic momentum the brilliant script from Eric Kripke offered him. His direction falls pretty flat and I would have really preferred to see Robert Singer or Phil Sgriccia direction this action-packed episode full of unexpected twists and thrills. The other thing I didn't like, and it's best to get it out of my system right away, so that I can concentrate on the good stuff, was the 'Titanic Hand' scene. I have nothing against the scene per se - Dean and Anna are so similar that I found only natural that they were attracted to each other - nor against Titanic, but nonetheless the hand scene felt to me completely tacky. Why a show like 'Supernatural' should make a nod to 'Titanic'? I don't know: it felt me out of place and even misconceived. It's fine, more than fine actually: brilliant, when the show borrows some imaginary from horror or sci-fi movies, but the nod toward 'Titanic' disrupted my feeling of immersion, making me awkwardly aware that they were trying hard to imitate that scene, which I even found cheesy in the original.
Aside from this note, the episode is really great: the discovery of Anna's nature is powerful and emotional and the dialogue between her and Dean is one of the most clever piece of writing I've ever enjoyed. Eric Kripke has a real gift to discuss even the most somber, serious subjects in an offbeat, corporeal and almost tangible way that makes these matters all the more fascinating - and Anna's description of her angel status and her longing for humanity was both heart-throbbing and painfully realistic. Moreover, the epic resolution of the episode was beyond brilliant and 'Godzilla and Mothra' is a quotation that I really dug, since I felt that it was more coherent with the spirit of 'Supernatural', more down-earthed and sarcastically delivered. But then, it was the last five minutes that stand out: Jensen Ackles delivered perhaps his best performance ever and his final confession of what he did in Hell was both impressive and overwhelmingly intense, visceral and overwrought, warmhearted and mentally agonizing. It was the moment where, forgotten the talks about demons and angels, the show returned to its most sincere root: humanity. Struggling, suffering, loving humanity.
"We cant fight Heaven and Hell!" hide show
Sam and Dean help Anna try to remember. It turns out she's a fallen angel who loosed her powers when falling to Earth. Alasitair are after them. And now, the angels are after them too.
I was rlly excited about this episode, the continuation of the previous one which had been rlly great, Sam and Dean running from hell AND Heaven, helping Anna. And... I was right! This episode was amazing! So great, so thrilling and full of action and drama, and suspense! Was awesome to see them running from the demons and the angels! This made the episode's plot great!
This is an absolute beast of an episode, and with a title like 'Heaven and Hell', would you expect anything less? hide show
This is an absolute beast of an episode, and with a title like 'Heaven and Hell', would you expect anything less? Kripke's script thrusts our protagonists squarely in the middle of an epic tug of war between the forces of 'good' and 'evil' and cleverly predicates the whole thing not on the survival of the character they're both jostling over, but on which faction gets to slaughter her first. It's this kind of complex blurring of binaries, the deliberate rejection of categorical oppositions, that sets the Supernatural we now know and love apart from the one The WB gave birth to four short years ago. There is no black and white here: Allister and his cohorts may be 'evil', but Ruby, one of his kind, helps our heroes as much as she can and hell, Sam has demon blood pumping through his veins. Castiel and Uriel, angelic as they may proport to be, are firmly on the side of murdering poor Anna, all because she rejected the cold, emotionless, obedient existence of the angels and fell to Earth to experience that beautiful thing called life. They would rather kill her than have her return to Heaven - and that may be because their master ordains it, but then, what does that say about the forces of 'good', about God himself? Sam and Dean are caught amongst all of this, forced to make the tough decisions and call for themselevs exactly what is right and wrong and it is this conflict that enriches every scene, every line, of this episode. It's an impossibly overwhelming situation and one that forces the viewer to ask themselves questions about faith, morality and all of that other good, juicy stuff. And it certainly helps that the action sequences are massive, Julie McNiven is an absolute star and, magnificently, Jensen Ackles has us all shedding tears at episode's end. What would've turned into a corny schmaltzfest in the hands of a lesser actor is a harrowingly poignant tour de force thanks to his general, all round genius. God damn terrific. Again.
Sam and Dean finally understand why Castiel and Uriel want Anna dead. However, they disagree with the angels' orders and try to help Anna restore an important part of her past so she can be saved. Meanwhile, Alastair and his demons continue to close in to the brothers. The title says it all there is a great clash of both demons and angels in a thrilling climax I really enjoyed it. The scene that follows this is a very sad scene with Sam and Dean, Dean reveals what happened it was greatly acted . awesome episode 9.5 out of 10 .
One week its Sam, the next its Dean! Explain...? hide show
Its episodes like this that make me watch the show! Angels and demons - this is the episode we have been waiting for and it didnt disappoint. What the hell (no pun intended) is Alistair made of? I mean neither Sam or Cstiel can draw him out of the human he inhabits and I wanna know why :) I just love this episode - Anna's re-gracing scene was exciting as was her very own therapy session. I liked the return of Pamela, sassy and witty as ever. But the scene that clinched it for me and as a guy found it very sad the way Dean talked about his 40 years in Hell!
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