Preview and Episode Discussion: “The Man Who Would Be King” (6.20)

This episode marks the fourth in Castiel’s deepening slide to the dark side, and if this one is anything like last weeks, we are in for a real shocker, as if last week’s didn’t already knock our socks off.  Crowley is alive, and is working with Cas to find Purgatory so the two of them can “keep from dying again and again until the end of time.”   
 
 
Castiel tells us, the audience, his story through flashbacks. We’ll learn exactly how much trouble Castiel is really in, his current embattled situation, a lot about his history, and even some tidbits on Castiel’s childhood, as much as angels can have a childhood.  
 
 
Rachel, Castiel’s lieutenant, will be back to help tell Castiel’s story, as will Raphael, in his original vessel played by Demore Barnes.  And, yes, we do get to see more showdowns between the two.  

We know Castiel and Crowley have teamed up, and hopefully we will also be getting some reasons as to why the two of them are working together,and for how long this has been going on.  We see Bobby, Dean and Sam corner Castiel in a ring of holy fire to get some answers out of him, most importantly for Dean, is Castiel working for Crowley. 

Sera Gamble describes it as a serious episode with a “significant impact.” She says, “It’s an episode that’s largely from Castiel’s point of view. We get pretty deep into what he’s feeling, and we illuminate his character quite a bit.”  Gamble says. “We’re sort of opening up that story a little bit. We’ll see more of Raphael and more of the civil war. What’s going on with Castiel, and what he’s thinking when he gives [the Winchesters] that look that says, “I really need a nap and I don’t have time to take one.'”
 
 
What does Misha Collins think about the episode?  “It was terrible!” Collins jokes. “I had to work every day! That’s not what I signed up for! It’s actually kind of tough being the heaviest character in an episode.” 
 
One a more serious note, Collins continues, “It’s a big expositional episode about the whole war in heaven and Cas’s relationship with that and Cas’s whole inner story and the dilemmas that he’s faced with,” Collins says. “His storyline gets played out a lot more at the end of the season,” Collins confirmed. “We are going to see a little bit of the landscape in heaven. We’re not going to see any epic battles, but we are going to see Cas acquiring the ultimate heavenly weapon. He’s assembling as powerful an arsenal as he possibly can.” Collins adds, “He’s going to use all of those weapons to the best of his ability.” That “ultimate heavenly weapon’, Collins says, is really Castiel’s only fighting chance, even more than any assistance the Winchesters might provide. 
 
Ben Edlund, writer and director, said the episode will “bring to fruition some serious friendships.”  Edlund, continues, “It’s kind of him looking over his life. And as we move toward the end of this season, Cas is going to make some very, very big, difficult choices. He takes stock of what his life is as an angel and what it’s been since the Winchesters came into it and what that’s meant to him. It’s a pretty interesting character portrait [and] it leads to a pretty interesting path. We’ll [also] see some elements of Heaven, a very kaleidoscopic place. We’ll reveal some things about the mechanics of Heaven.” Basically, it all boils down to control of heaven and the impact it will have on earth. 
 
Executive producer Bob Singer also weighs in on the episode during a recent interview.  “We always thought that a war in heaven is best told off screen, but you’re going to see a lot of Castiel dealing with his problems coming up. The last run of episodes is very Castiel-heavy. There’s some very interesting stuff that we’re doing with him. His problem in Heaven will certainly be impacted by Sam and Dean.”
 
However, even though Crowley and Cas are working together, they don’t seem to see eye-to-eye in all areas, especially when it comes to the Winchesters.  To say Crowley is a bit miffed at the boys is an understatement.  
 
 
“Please. I’m begging you, Castiel. Just kill the Winchesters,” Crowley says.  Despite the fact that Castiel is clearly lying to his friends, he doesn’t want to kill them as Crowley has requested.  When Cas refuses Crowley threatens to do the deed himself,and put the boys were even Cas can’t reach them.  (Now where haven’t the boys gone?)
 
When Castiel tells him not to worry, Crowley goes on a rampage.   “What, like Lucifer didn’t worry?” Crowley rants. “Or Michael, or Lilith, or Alistair, or Azazel didn’t worry?”  Seems he feels Cas should realize that the boys are a force to be reckoned with, and Crowley doesn’t like the idea of having the brothers on his tail. 
 
Cas holds his ground however, forcing Crowley to concede.  In the end, Crowley says he hopes the boys do come after him.  He will “tear their frecking hearts out!”  Temper, temper!  
 
But Crowley isn’t the only one to have a rage attack.  In the trailer, we get to see a few more angry faces,.Castiel for one.

Cas REALLY gets pissed at some poor souls who apparently got in his way.  Be they angels or demons, or just plain humans, dispatching them is no problem for an angel,

Question, who is he looking at here?

 
More anger from Dean and Sam when they find Cas is in league with Crowley.  Now they know that Crowley is still alive, and while Bobby and Sam believe Castiel is acting extremely suspicious, Dean doesn’t want to believe that someone he trusts would betray them.  Like Raphael and Gabriel, the boys and Bobby trap Cas in a ring of fire to get the truth from him.  

Dean: “Tell me you’re not working for Crowley”
 
Ben Edlund commented on Cas’ betrayal of Dean in a recent interview.  “He won’t like it. Familial betrayal is his kryptonite, so to speak. It’s his thing. It’s the thing he hates worse than any other thing, and he has brought Cas into the family, so the math there has a clear outcome. It’s going to hurt him deeply even to discover what we understand to be the case right now, which is that Cas is capable of working with a demon. Even that is going to be so painful. It’s going to be a hard week for that good-looking bastard.”

That however is not all that we see in the trailer.  We also get a glimpse of a man being thrown through a glass door, which some believe is Crowley throwing Bobby, but no one is sure. And one of the more emotional scenes, Castiel sitting in a park, begging God for assurance that he’s “doing the right thing”. 
 
 
He certainly has a few friends wondering the same thing. 

The official synopsis: Castiel tells Sam, Dean and Bobby about the war in Heaven and how he and Raphael became enemies. Bobby believes Castiel is hiding something, but Dean refuses to believe it.
 
Guest cast : Misha Collins, Jim Beaver, Mark Sheppard (Crowley), Demore Barnes (Raphael), Rachel (Sonya Salomaa), John Trench (Ellsworth)
 
Ben Edlund wrote and directed this episode, and for SPN this is his directorial debut.  Edlund’s only other TV directing credit is Angel”s “Smile Time,” which he also wrote. It has been called “possibly one of the best episodes of TV ever”
 
Be it drama or comedy, Edlund’s is confident in his writing skills. He has expertly handled mythology heavy episodes before like season 4’s “On the Head of a Pin”, but he also wrote the hilarious “Clap Your Hands if You Believe”, and the meta episode “The French Mistake”.
 
When Edlund was asked whether there were reservations in exploring Castiel’s dark side, he admitted, “I had my hesitations, because I like the fish-out-of-water, dumb jokes, and I like Cas. I like the thing on camera that Misha created that complemented this new strain of creature, this angel coming into our world and gave a body and character to it. That’s a really great thing. But one of the rules of ‘Supernatural’ is loss, and losing things. You have to love something before you can feel its loss.”  Doesn’t sound too happy for Team Free Will.
 
The cast was very happy about Edlund directing. Misha, for example, said he was a director “who knows about the entire series and can give the actors very good insight about their characters’.
 
On Edlund, Padalecki says, “It was nice to have the passion.” Padalecki jokingly continues. “I’ll say that, and then I’ll make fun of him”, good-naturedly of course. “A lot of directors will come in, not with a lack of love, but they’re like, “Okay everybody, you go there, you go there, I need you to hit this mark.’ And that’s what I do. I hit that mark if you need me to hit it, in five minutes or five seconds. And [Edlund], god love him, would be like “Jared, I want you to walk to this mark, and while you’re walking you should think about how tough it’s been. And maybe you hesitate for a second, because it’s really hard, and you love your brother,’ and I was like, “You can just tell me to go somewhere.'”

Photos for the episode are in our Photo Gallery and the CW promo videos for the episode are below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEj004kox-I
  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr2dMRi0ydQ
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8XZ8aXc7-w
 
In this episode, we’ll finally see some explanation for Castiel’s desperate actions throughout the season and the extremes Cas has had to go too.  We’ve been hearing all season how things are not going well for him in the civil war, and now we know many in heaven are questioning whether to continue to follow Cas at all.  Maybe his alliance with Crowley is the reason why.  I’m thinking maybe Dean should have burnt Crowley’s bones in Scotland when he had the chance! 

Obviously Cas and Crowley have been working together for some time and just as obviously Cas feels it is to benefit heaven in the long run.  Logical assumption here is that there is a weapon/monster in Purgatory that Cas feels will help him win the war in heaven, and only Crowley can help him get it.  Again we are back to the concept ‘do the ends justify the means’ scenario, and somehow those situations never seem to work out well.
 
Castiel does seems to question that himself in the trailer and I guess we have to wait to see if Cas REALLY betrays Dean, or decides that dealing with the devil has too many strings attached to it, and we all know Crowley has his own personal agenda.   
 
What does Cas have over Crowley to keep him in line? That’s another mystery which I hope we get answered this episode.  Why would the King of Hell work for/with an angel?  Crowley must see a benefit to this but how can who rules in heaven make a difference to hell.  Demons are still going to be demonic no matter what.  Maybe Cas’s stash of angelic weapons keeps Crowley in line,after all it seemed to worry Raphael a few episodes back.  
 
Given the spoiler that the last few episodes are Castiel-heavy we may not get too many answers this week, but we can always hope.
 
Happy episode all!  Come back and tell us what you think!

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