I don't think I'm goona be okay for a while, guys. I mean, how am I supposed to cope with Cas as an awkward father figure, Crowley and his mama, Sam's perfect hair and DEAN GOING BERSERK? from start to finish this was a wild ride to finish out the first half of Supernatural's season 10. Someone hold me. Without further ado, let's dive into "The Things We left Behind."
Crowley and Rowena
The king of hell has been keeping his long lost witchy mother imprisioned in hell for weeks. His demonic henchman, Gerlad (perhaps my favorite demon name ever) drops by to saddle Rowena with a surly cell mate, who's in trouble for sneaking out of hell without the King's permission. Crowley is having some complicated emotions about reuniting with the mother who saddled him with the name Fergus and once tried to trade him for three pigs. (He was worth at least five!). Nevertheless, he agrees to meet with her to hash out some family drama.
The confrontation between Rowena and Crowley is fraught to say the least. He's a bit peeved that she abandonned him when he was eight, and was a horrible mother in general. But she assures him that she still loves him and is proud of him, and now they can be a family again. Crowley, er, Fergus, is not buying what mama is selling and sends her back to her cell. Gerald offers to killed her. Crowley seems okay with this, until, back in the cell, Rowena blurts out that she knows who's been smuggling souls out of hell: Gerald of course.Her ellmate confirms it. Gerald is not so happy about this and tries to kill Rowena...and gets stabbed in the head. Bye, Gerald.
Crowley leaves the cell, waiting for Rowena to follow. She assures her cellmate, who she convinced to lie, that she'll be back in a flash - just as she said to eight-year-old Fergus. Methinks, mama is lying.
The Family Business
The meat of our episode if focused on Castiel and his vessel, Jimmy Novak's, daughter Claire. When Cas and Claire meet, Claire is in isolation in the children's group home where she lives. She's not happy to see Cas, who informs her that her father died years ago, the first time Castiel's body was blown up by an archangel. Claire's mom bailed and Claire has been stuck in the system since. They only thing Cas cas do for her is get her out of the home.
Cas, sweet angel he is, makes a try at getting Claire out the normal way, pretending to be Jimmy with adorable, but ineffective results. He can't convince the head of the group home that hes been traveling for the last six years as an exterminator, seeing as his solution to bed bugs is to sleep tight and not let them bite. The group home head tell him that claim needs a father, not a friend, and won't let Claire go.
Cas, being Cas and master of screwing things up more with good intentions, goes with plan B and just breaks Claire out of the home. Afterwards they bond a bit over burgers. Claire recognizes that Cas doesn't have as big a stick up his ass as when she knew him before, though he's still a bit of a doof. She wants to split, but Cas insists she stay with him - so he can make up for what he's taken from her. Claire pretends to go along with that and bolts.
Lost teen? Who better to call than Sam and Dean! Dean has been having some grizzly nightmares of kneeling among hacked up bodies, covered in blood with a knife in his hand, but he hasn't told Sam and is keeping up a good facade - eating grilled cheese and alughing a it too hard at the Three Stooges. Dean is a bit miffed at Cas for calling them to track down a chick who bolted (that's every Friday night for Sam!) but still sends Sam off to check in at the group home while he and Cas have a nice lunch date.
On their date, while sitting entirely to close, Dean and Cas discuss why Cas is trying to help Claire. it's because of his guilt for the people he's hurt, which Dean tells Cas he should just forget. Dean, of course, will never take his own advice, but 's not a good role model. Except to Cas, apparently who still looks at Dean like he's the sun and stars. He also sees through Dean's bull crap "I'm fine" act. Dean, knowing he can trust Cas asks him to promise to take him out if he goes darkside again, because he can't bear to become "that thing" ever again. So many feels in one scene.
Sam, actually working, finds that Claire has a boyfriend from the home, Dustin. We immediately see Claire coming home to Dustin and their surrogate dad, Randy, in a ramshacke house. In a not surprisins (Oliver) twist, it seems randy uses kids to steal for him. Unfortunately for randy, he's in deep with a loan shark and needs a lot more cash from Claire than what she stole from Castiel's wallet (yes, after exploding three times and traipsing through purgatory, Cas somehow still has Jimmy Novak's wallet. Go with it). THis means Claire will be kocking over a conveniece store. Happily Cas chokes that information out os Dustin before Claire gets a chance to commit her first felony.
Cas drags Claire into an alley where a tense confrontation between her and team free will ensues. Claire blames Cas for ruingher life, taking her father and never caring until now. She prayed to him every night and he knew and ignored her. Now he's here just because he's guilty. Randy and Dustin are her real family, because they are the ones who have always been there and Cas and the boys can go to hell. Ouch.
The boys take Cas to a tiki bar to console him. They tell him a pretty interesting story about thier father, John Winchester. Dean ended up drunk and maybe a bit drugged with a bad crowd at CBGB in New York when he was a teen and John came and grabbed him before anything too bad could happen. Dean, being a teen, complained about it but John explained that it wasnt his job to be liked, it was his job to raise his sons right. The moral: Cas shouldn't worry about Claire liking him, and certainly shouldn't let her hang with a dude named Randy.
This is good advice, as it turns out the loan shark and his posse are at Randy's when Claire gets home. They make a deal that Randy can clear his debt if he lets them have Claire. YEAH. I know. Claire is left alone with child rapist one, but puts up a damn good fight until Cas and the boys swoop in to dave the day and get her the hell out. It's nice to see Cas truly helping her AND Claire holding her own.
Sam, Cas and Claire bolt, leaving Dean witha gun trained on the bad guys to let them get away. UNfortunately Dean gets trapped in the house and someone hits him over the head with a ottle before he can make his exit. Dean starts having flashes of the influence of the Mark of Cain and being a demon and the audience begins to collectively freak out.
In the IMpala, Cas is hugging Claire (aww) but Sam notices Dean's not following...then heres a roar from the house. When they all get inside, Claire (and most everyone watching) screams at what they see: just like in his dream, Dean is surrounded in slashed corpses and covered in blood. He's killed everyone of the bad guys. Sam grabs his brother, demanding that Dean assure him he had to do this, that he had no choice...The answer, is of course, that Dean did have a choice, but he could stop himself from making the wrong one.
Cut to black and six week hiatus! AHH!
Shipping News:
Did I mention Dean and Cas' lunch date? Dean opening up to Cas more than anyone else? Dean stealing Cas' food? The heart eyes and Dean blushing and getting all flustered when Cas calls him a role model? I did. Oh good.
Also, these morons in love obviously just need to adopt Claire and raise her up right.
Other Highlights:
Rowena is still such fun to watch. It's a treat to see someone who can out manipulate Crowley.
Cas pretending to be JImmy yo try to get custody of Claire, higher voice and all.
Dean eating nearly constantly through out the episode, even as Cas is choking poor Dustin.
The next episode isn't until January 20, but rest assured I'll have losts of Supernatural and queer content for you in the mean time! Happy Holidays!
