Supernatural: The Stoned Angel... or, actually, The End

[fajrdrako]

Another week, another Supernatural. This time, 5x04, "The End". I am being drawn more and more into this show - and I thought I was already smitten last season.

This week, the highlight was Dean, being so true to himself I wanted to cheer. He doesn't care what anyone tells him to do; he sees his own reality and remains true to it, and as far as I'm concerned, that is the best depiction of heroism.

Except when it's solipsistic. Or just plain wrong.

Ahhh, Dean. Best scene: Dean telling Castiel, "Don't change."

And now we know where the orgy comes in. explodedteabag made the analogy to Baltar in Battlestar Galactica. I already made the parallel to Heroes in the "Five Years Later" fantasy AU scenario. But it managed not to be derivative... Or if it was, I didn't care. Lots of familiar images from just about every post-holocaust TV show or movie ever.

Notable:

1. I continue to love every appearance of every version of Castiel. As funny (and sad) as the stoned-hippie-guru version of Castiel was, his best moment was when he told Dean he'd wait for him, and then... he did. It reminded me of Rose waiting for the Doctor in DOctor Who's "The Girl in the Fireplace". Four hours, five hours, not much difference.
   
   
2. Zachariah remains the scummiest angel ever.
   
   
3. The scene that delighted me in the promo shots, of Castiel with a gun stalking the city as a Hunter, turned out to be irrelevant and unremarkable.
   
   
4. Beautiful acting from everyone, especially Jensen Ackles, playing against himself, subtly older in the hard, jaded, desperate five-years-later version. It made the 2009 Dean's caring seem all the more poignant.
   
   
5. The image of Bobby's overturned wheelchair was chilling.
   
   
6. It was almost an episode without Sam. Of course, Dean was wrong to turn him down in the beginning, right to call him in the end, and I was so pleased he knew that.
   
   
7. Good acting too from Jared Padalecki, as Lucifer. Loved the use of the rose. The colouring in general. And while I'm commending the acting, of course I loved Misha Collins as the focussed, struggling Castiel of the present and then the lost, hedonistic, sad, rudderless Castiel of the future.
   
   
8. There was really no reason for Dean to take the future scenario seriously, any more than the scenario in "It's a Terrible Life". Zachariah lies. Zachariah plays with their heads. I love it when Dean foils Zachariah.