Supernatural Love

Trish did a fantastic recap on Supernatural Sisters last night, but after watching the show twice (J won't watch with me and Number One, so I always watch it a second time with him) and reading the recap and the comments, I have so much to say about the episode, it needs a full post. :)

First, let's go deep:

Okay, yes, I busted a gut laughing at the "acting" scene, and Misha was hilarious, and there were tons of quotable lines. But the moment I loved the most was brief and subtle. Dean was pointing out to Sam how nice this alternate world is, where Sam has tons of money and a great wife and there's no hunting. And then he waits expectantly for Sam's response, which is "...I mean, here we're not even brothers." It was an awesome touch, considering in the first half of the season Dean's brother was a sociopath, and before that Dean didn't have him at all.

I thought it was brilliant how in character the meta-ness was, at least regarding Sam and Dean. Dean was so totally disgusted with his real self. I loved how they took everything we love about the behind-the-scenes world of Supernatural and poked constant fun at it. Misha a Twitter-holic weenie, Kripke an uncaring douche, Sera Gamble being called "new" when she's been on the show since day one. Jensen and Jared not talking to each other, when the whole fandom swoons at how much they like each other IRL. Show!Jenson and Show!Jared had tons of money, which I doubt they do in real life, since their show is a low-rated CW program, but to Sam and Dean, what the real J&J get probably seems like what the Show!Js get. Know what I mean?

I got a very "Mystery Spot" vibe from this episode, with the Balthazar/Virgil/Castiel/Raphael elements, and the shift from humorous to horrible as Kripke and everyone got mowed down. I did feel slightly let down at the end. By the middle of the episode, I was ready to call it my all-time favorite. By the end, I'd canceled that. "Mystery Spot" had tension that wound tighter and tighter. The shift to serious was intense, and that intensity never let up. The ending was all emotion—from Sam and from the Trickster, and it ended with a reverberation and foreboding of things to come.

"The French Mistake," on the other hand, wound up the storyline with no complications (they all got back from the AU, Castiel kept control) and was all external-plot oriented. Hmmm. I think that might be why the season's major story arc isn't as compelling as in past seasons. It's not personal to the boys. They have no emotional entanglement with The Mother—they don't even know she exists. Ditto the civil war in heaven. Probably my least favorite aspect of season 6 is Dean's insensitivity and lack of interest in Castiel's problems. He demands that Cas help him, and rarely offers the same, only complaining that Cas won't tell them what's going on. The Winchesters have no stake in the war in heaven, so they dismiss it.

This will definitely be one of my favorite episodes of the season, however, and I AM intrigued by the questions it brings up. Balthazar is helping Castiel now? Awesome!

So, what did you think?