Spoilers Supernatural Season 13

^^ Also the location where Star Trek filmed "The Empath."

Well, it is the CW, after all.

 

Did they not rewatch the S1 Missouri episode before writing this? She was a hunter? She had powers with objects? Her abilities seem to be totally different this time, honestly.

 

OK, now we're talking, people. I really enjoyed this episode. Teamwork with the boys and Jack, answers (sort of) about where Cas is/was and...HOORAY! So, not a surprise, but so very glad for that ending. Also loved the little smile on Jack's face when Dean says "Good job." Awww.

This one had the stuff that Supernatural does best: brotherly angst, hunting monsters, and some scary paranormal/mystic/magical shit goes down. I love this stuff.

You know, for a minute there, I thought The Big Empty's Keeper sounded like Alistair.

Also, the woman who played Mia the shapeshifter also starred in the episode, "The Mentalists,"--that was the one about the town full of psychics. She played Camille Thibideaux, who was murdered by a ghost.

 

Was I seeing things or was Cas wearing his original outfit again at the end of the episode? (Aside: the music the moment we saw him was terrific.) I wonder if that means...dare I say it...he's got his wings back?

 

He already had his wings back, they just were pretty beaten up. It'll be interesting to see exactly what shape he will be in when he returns to the Winchesters--will he be back at full power or not? Will he remember the Big Empty? We shall see.

But all of that is pretty unimportant compared to a Castiel and Dean reunion. Can't wait!

 

I meant full and unbroken--considering he was in The Empty with his more recent outfit, and then suddenly back in his season 4-8 outfit. The showrunners have said he's got a big role to play this year. I wonder if finally finding a way to reverse Metatron's spell (Jack maybe?) is what they meant. Distant hope, I know, but it's bothered me ever since season 9 wrapped without resolving that plotline.

It'll be emotional, that's for sure, but we'll have to wait until week after next for that...looks like next week we get a straight filler episode.

 

The show harder to kill than the Winchesters themselves.

 

Killing the Winchesters isn't much of a problem. It's getting them to stay dead that's the issue.

 

Well, that was interesting. It was a good, old-fashioned monster-hunting episode that led to a fake therapy session which turned into a real therapy session-- looks like Dean is finally starting to deal, and may be starting to accept that Jack can be a good guy. And we have another good monster. Mia is an interesting character who's not dead-- I wonder how long it will be before they kill her off.

And Cass is back, after a rather surreal encounter with the sleepy guardian of The Big Empty, who apparently pre-dates Chuck and Amara and wants nothing more than to spend timeless eternity napping. Perhaps his name is Dagwood. Dagwood is oddly playful and well-versed in the vernacular for something that has been slumbering since the creation of the universe, but also angry and stubborn-- and takes the form of Cass because his real body is too freaky deaky for Cass to see. Although Dagwood refuses to send Castiel back to Earth, Cass does indeed appear
in a sunny field at the end of the episode.

Still no update on what's happening in the alternate universe, though. It's been a couple of weeks now.

Ah, I was trying to remember where I saw her before.

 

Well, I really enjoyed that : Dean angst, Death as/and/or Billie is back and, hooray, Cas!

So Sam and Dean have to save the world AGAiN...from Lucifer? Jack? Tears in the fabric of the universe?

 

If I were Dean: I would have asked Billie why reapers never bothered to help those ghosts in the first place. Isn't that basically their only job?

 

On the one hand, Lisa Berry is a terrific presence on screen whenever she appears...but it's hard to ignore the fact that her promotion means no more Julian Richings. That guy was PERFECT as Death.

That aside, for what amounted to a filler episode, this one actually managed to be really good. There was purpose and context to what we were seeing, and nothing felt forced or awkward. If you have to do a MotW case, this is how you do it.

I'm not exactly thrilled about having a western episode next week...but it'll at least be gratifying to start seeing Cas for more than five seconds per episode again.

 

And, yes-- Billie returns! But not in the way I expected. I thought that she-- and maybe a couple of others-- might slip out of The Big Empty on Cass's coattails. But, no-- she has been promoted to Death (I kind of know the feeling ). Which sucks a little, because that means we'll never see Old Death again, but this makes sense and we get Billie back. With a scythe. And since she's returned from the dead, she really shouldn't be bitching about the Winchesters doing it.

I got a big kick out of the sequence at the beginning when Sam is trying to be nice to Dean. "That strip club got great reviews."

And that was a really freaky haunted house. Good stuff. Just the boys on a mission, like in the good old days-- except for Billie and Cass's cameo at the end, there were no supporting characters in this one. Which, on the other hand, makes me more anxious to see what's going on in the Alternate Universe.

"There are rules."

 

Reapers aren't supposed to interfere and the ghosts wouldn't leave until someone found their bodies.

I AM going to miss Julian Richings; he was so very good in that role.

 

"Is that why you're making me wear this ridiculous hat?"

Best. Line. Ever.

 

Nice set-up episode. Now Jack is in the wind, where Hell's Colonel Sanders to get ahold of him.

Enjoyed seeing Dean get all fan-girly over the cowboys; the reunion with Castiel was nice, too--maybe more subdued than imagined but coming back from the dead now is kinda a thing for them now.

 

I just have one question...so angels and demons go to The Empty when they die, right?...so if God truly has no power there, then how is it that Cas got resurrected all those times?

 

Maybe Chuck has a small window of opportunity before the angel/demon reaches The Empty...or Cas could just be wrong.

 

I'm thinking God took Cas before he got to the Empty. Maybe he put some sort of protection on him.

In other words, "hand-waving, look over here, not over there."

 

Something that bothers me about this episode...as soon as we got back to the bunker and Jack started talking about his feelings, I knew it was building up to "I must go," just like Mary last season. Am I the only one that was hoping this one would turn out differently? I'm all about owning guilt, but it feels like we've been to this well before.

That said, hooray for flapping angel wings when Jack teleported away! I'm still waiting to see if Cas can zap again...the showrunners are saying he's back at full power, but I wasn't encouraged by what I saw last night. We've seen Gadreel--a regular angel--resurrect people twice, and we've seen Cas do it many times...so why couldn't he do it to the security guard? He seemed genuinely surprised when nothing happened.