Robin’s Rambles, Supernatural Season 9, Episode 21, King of the Damned
1. Loved this episode, and not just because Dean killed off Abaddon’s in a wonderful scene. The brothers seem to be rebuilding their relationship again. Give this one a nine. You?
2. I loved the network of followers Cas had built, complete with computers, maps and milling co-workers. Yet he has brought in the braggart angel from the bar from Metatron’s camp and brings in the Winchesters to perform the torture. First he hugs them. Great scene, kind of ironic. What did you think?
3. Crowley meets his own advisors to restore confidence. No one is with him. Abaddon shows. First blade, mark of Cain. He can die, too. Join her in killing the Winchesters, then they need only deal with each other. No, says Crowley. She shows up with his son, Gavin, but Crowley hates him. She knows about his humanity, the blood addiction, etc. She tortures Gavin, which upsets Crowley, to his disgust. What did you think of Abaddon’s tactics? Pretty clever, right?
4. Dean is eagerly about to commence torture on the angel, but Sam stops him; he’s probably a nobody, anyway, he’s just a wannabe. The angel reveals a private portal that moves around. Sam convinces Dean to use psychology instead of torture on this prisoner, a wise move. Why?
5. I enjoyed the brothers’ angel interrogation. He was so dumb and bombastic, and they were having such a great time baiting him. Was any of his info factual, do you think?
6. Crowley revealed to his son that he sold his soul for an extra 3 inches of willie and that he’s now king of hell. I loved his true confessions to Gavin. What was your favorite exchange between father and son during this ep?
7. Angel kill? Who is lying? Gadreel felt misunderstood, not hostile. But he killed Kevin. Cas and Gadreel. Wrong master, led to fall. Reclaim loyalty. Been deceived by Metatron. Cas and Gadreel kill attacking angels to survive. My question is, whose side is Gadreel on? Will he help the Winchesters when they need it?
8. Crowley calls Dean. He’s found Abaddon. Knows where blade is. Trap! Abaddon is there at his elbow! But he mentioned Poughkeepsie! Blade hidden in corpse. Hellhound attacks them. They call Crowley, who forces the hellhound to stand down. Sam extracts it from the goo.
9. Abaddon is unable to keep Dean pinned to the wall after he draws the fallen knife to him and, at long last, stabs and kills her. Sam has to order him to stop slashing at her. What an exciting scene, huh?
10. Crowley pulls out his own bullet. He warned them about Poughkeepsie. He wants to keep his son here instead of on a ship destined to go down. He can’t bend the rules, insist the brothers. Crowley hates feelings! Avoid cheap whiskey/hookers, he tells Gavin. I loved this exchange.
Between Sam and Dean: Warning, partners, knew he wouldn’t be stopped, not hero thing, just calm, go it alone. Protect me, couldn’t screw this up. Glad it worked out. Blade is doing something bad to Dean, lock up blade someplace safe. No, says Dean. Something bad is going to happen, of course. We know that. The question is, what?
1. Loved this episode, and not just because Dean killed off Abaddon’s in a wonderful scene. The brothers seem to be rebuilding their relationship again. Give this one a nine. You? [b]Maybe a seven. I don’t know if it was the writing or the direction but my attention wandered a bit. I liked what happened, I just thought it didn’t get there as well as it could have.[/b]
2. I loved the network of followers Cas had built, complete with computers, maps and milling co-workers. Yet he has brought in the braggart angel from the bar from Metatron’s camp and brings in the Winchesters to perform the torture. First he hugs them. Great scene, kind of ironic. What did you think? [b]Ironic and a callback to getting Dean to torture Alistair. Cas wants to keep his hands clean, but wants the dirty work to get done. We know from season six that Cas knows how to torture, he tortured Ellie Visniak, he just would rather push it off on Dean. Part of that is strategic to keep his followers believing in him, but he still is willing to corrupt Dean’s soul even though he knows about the MOC.[/b]
3. Crowley meets his own advisors to restore confidence. No one is with him. Abaddon shows. First blade, mark of Cain. He can die, too. Join her in killing the Winchesters, then they need only deal with each other. No, says Crowley. She shows up with his son, Gavin, but Crowley hates him. She knows about his humanity, the blood addiction, etc. She tortures Gavin, which upsets Crowley, to his disgust. What did you think of Abaddon’s tactics? Pretty clever, right? [b]I liked Abaddon’s tactics and I liked Abaddon. I wish we had seen her more this season or at least I wish I had a better sense of why she was so much worse a choice for ruler of Hell than Crowley, because really six to one half a dozen to the other.[/b]
4. Dean is eagerly about to commence torture on the angel, but Sam stops him; he’s probably a nobody, anyway, he’s just a wannabe. The angel reveals a private portal that moves around. Sam convinces Dean to use psychology instead of torture on this prisoner, a wise move. Why? [b]I think Sam is truly worried about Dean and how the Mark is affecting him. I think Sam is trying to keep Dean from falling further under the sway of the Mark by keeping Dean from acting on his violent impulses.[/b]
5. I enjoyed the brothers’ angel interrogation. He was so dumb and bombastic, and they were having such a great time baiting him. Was any of his info factual, do you think? [b]Maybe. I think that Metatron deliberately offered him a job and then let him go so he could give the information to Cas. We know there is a door to Hell that is being guarded. Gadreel said so. So I think flunky bunky angel’s claims had some basis in truth, but I think there is a lot that he never found out.[/b]
6. Crowley revealed to his son that he sold his soul for an extra 3 inches of willie and that he’s now king of hell. I loved his true confessions to Gavin. What was your favorite exchange between father and son during this ep? [b]Probably “Are you angels?” What is interesting is that Gavin knew that Crowley sold his soul for 3 extra inches in Weekend at Bobby’s and he didn’t here. Is it possible that this is a time loop, not a butterfly effect?[/b]
7. Angel kill? Who is lying? Gadreel felt misunderstood, not hostile. But he killed Kevin. Cas and Gadreel. Wrong master, led to fall. Reclaim loyalty. Been deceived by Metatron. Cas and Gadreel kill attacking angels to survive. My question is, whose side is Gadreel on? Will he help the Winchesters when they need it? [b]I don’t trust Gadreel. I think he is on his own side. After all Lucifer felt HE was misunderstood, too. He wanted to stay in Sam for a reason when he had a perfectly suitable vessel in the barkeeper. He has changed his story on letting the snake into the Garden as well. He was tricked. He did it to help humans. I think he’s a very slippery character who is not as gullible and naive as he looks.[/b]
8. Crowley calls Dean. He’s found Abaddon. Knows where blade is. Trap! Abaddon is there at his elbow! But he mentioned Poughkeepsie! Blade hidden in corpse. Hellhound attacks them. They call Crowley, who forces the hellhound to stand down. Sam extracts it from the goo. [b]Crowley did set it up so he could warn them.[/b]
9. Abaddon is unable to keep Dean pinned to the wall after he draws the fallen knife to him and, at long last, stabs and kills her. Sam has to order him to stop slashing at her. What an exciting scene, huh? [b]Yes.[/b]
10. Crowley pulls out his own bullet. He warned them about Poughkeepsie. He wants to keep his son here instead of on a ship destined to go down. He can’t bend the rules, insist the brothers. Crowley hates feelings! Avoid cheap whiskey/hookers, he tells Gavin. I loved this exchange. [b]I love Crowley in general. I don’t trust him, but I love him. Gavin was fun as well.[/b]
3. I liked Abaddon, too. But *gasp* I agree with Crowley’s assessment: she’s too chaotic which might have made her worse in the long run since Crowley’s more subtle and less obvious to the gen pop. I also wish they’d made more out of her character though she’s the best badass beauty they’ve ever had.
Here we go:
1. Maybe an 8 at most but I’m not sure how much their relationship is repaired. Yeah, Sam is worried and Dean is actually talking, which is a step in the right direction, but Dean is going down a dark path and not listening when Sam advises caution which does not bode well.
2. It looked like CTU in there! Super cool and I get Cas not wanting to shed any more angel blood if he doesn’t have to. After all, Sam and Dean are better at getting info and Cas isn’t so good at the whole interrogating thing (Hero Heroici anyone?) so Cas had a point with asking them to help. Right now isn’t the best time to ask Dean as he was willing to go straight to torture techniques … totally opposite of On the Head of a Pin. I shivered when he said “Who said I didn’t want to do it”?
3. Pretty clever, but Crowley is cleverer.
4/5. Thank whoever is up there Sam stopped him and reminded him you don’t need to torture someone to get the answers you seek, sometimes you just need to be smarter. What could have ended up being a horrible scene of Dean cutting someone up ended up being super hilarious! As to the accuracy of Ezra’s info … as accurate as he knows, but I doubt he knew that much to begin with. Even from the first scene in the bar he seemed like he was trying to get attention so either he’s just a braggart or is feeding them (and by extension Cas) false information. I’d go with the first option but time will tell.
6. Dunno … it was all fine, sometime hilarious but nothing really stood out.
7. I do wonder who killed Ezra … I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Metatron has a mole (yep, I like spy movies) in Cas’s ranks and the angel who went it to talk to him before Cas came in had more of a “you’re an idiot, couldn’t keep your mouth shut and got caught” attitude with him that felt unusual so he could have done it before Ezra revealed anything else. Either that or since Metatron probably has a mole he knows where they are and flew in and killed him himself … they can’t ward the building against angels because they’re all angels and Metatron is the only one with wings. Gadreel … he killed Kevin. But … as I said on another thread he’d lived at the bunker for months (??) with Kevin and never once threatened him, it was only once Metatron got to him and dazzled him with redemption and a place as his second-in-command and then told him to kill Kevin that he really went bad. He had Dean lying to Sam and Cas and made Dean kick Cas out before Metatron got to him but that was mostly motivated by fear. I’m hoping that he will take the right side of the fight but we’ll see, a lot can happen in two episodes (swallows nervously).
8. OMG the goo! Been a while since something has made me go “gross” when I can’t even really see it because it’s so dark but the sounds are making me cringe! Oh, and Sam’s face! Given everything those boys have seen in their lives, for it to gross him out …
9. So, Dean can resist a Knight of Hell’s power? And he used his “Jedi powers” get the First Blade after he dropped it? So scared he’s going dark side! I mean, yeah, Abaddon is gone and that’s good for everyone but WOW! Sorry, had to mention Jedi powers because that bit reminded me of Luke Skywalker hanging upside down in a frozen cave trying to will his light saber into his hand so he could escape.
10. Crowley’s awesome … I would never trust him though because he’ll tell you what he needs to to get you to do what he wants but there’s always more. He’s always got schemes going on within his schemes. Gotta respect that, just don’t trust him. Although I wonder if not returning Gavin to his own time will have some effect on how the season will end. Most of us have seen Back to the Future and Sam made a pretty big case to Crowley as to why they had to return Gavin even though he was going to die on that boat so wonder if things are going to shift slightly before the end of the season. That’s my wild car for any of my end of season theories …
1. Agreed, but a solid 8.
2. Me, too. I’ve been on the “On the Head of a Pin” train for a while and no I don’t think we’re gonna like what walks back out of that door. Abbadon maybe down, but Dean is NOT done with the Mark and the Blade. I wish he’d stop being a [i]pinhead[/i] about it…but seriously though, Sam is trying to stop him long enough to get some answers to reach the bottom of it. Dean is sill so pissed at Sam over what he said and his little brother walking away after Kevin [i]just[/i] said quit fighting that he isn’t getting the message, but it makes another message equally clear: the anger is feeding his desire to use the Blade.
7. He could have a spy or given next week’s promo someone murdered him for righteousness. (Spy would be cooler–I like spy movies too and [i]that[/i] would be an awesome “Tinker Tailor” move :D) You bring up two great points: Cas can’t ward the place and no Gadreel didn’t display any lethal threats until Metatron caught up with him.
8. All that gloopy mess with no gloves?! I’da been sick–probably from the smell of it alone, but then I don’t dig up corpses either. Most salt-and-burns are long dead though.
9. Sam resisted Famine so why can’t Dean resist a Knight? The Force powers just seemed really [i]forced[/i] though with the whole summoning the Blade to him. I didn’t care much for the rig they obviously had her hung up on to make that scene either–why couldn’t she been standing regularly? And no no no: you totally called it! Dean was just pinned to a wall instead of trapped from the ceiling. 😉
10. Definitely
Puck – do you think Sam really resisted Famine? In so far as not slitting the demon’s throats and “having at them”, I guess… but I think Sam was more enamored with the feeling of power/control he had after ingesting demon blood, wasn’t he?
And I agree, the floating Abaddon thing was a little cheesy
1. Loved it but like I said it needs to be mind blowing that I will give a ten. So nine it is and well deserved.
2. Loved it and it was weird to see Cass fit so well to that scene. He looked like Columbo. And asking them to torture. He didn’t want an angel do it and it felt a little that he expected Dean to say no or like he was testing him.
3. Abaddon was awesome and smart. Using that and later the gun. I just loved her character. 🙂
4. Guy was bragging in a bar about Metatron. That is all that is needed to know. The guy wasn’t smart.
5. Loved them working together like that with the interrogation (Glad it wasn’t torture). I think the main and important thing was the backdoor and that it “exists”.
6. Gavin: You must be angels! Crowley and Abaddon: Wow…
7. Gadreel is still an enigma and a wild card. I hope he stays in the series somehow. But the path he will take? Your guess is as good as mine.
8. Okaaaay, this scene was totally disgusting… I mean, the smell and ugh on… Yeah… The dogs name was Juliet and the boys are still scared about them! That was so awesome and you can’t really blame them to feel what they feel against the dogs.
9. Totally gasped to the fight scene. It was different and fresh air against ninja and fist fighting. And as a Star wars fan… It made me squee if that’s the term? And totally worried about how Dean is and his powers.
10. Messing with timelines… Well, thinking about it even gets me a headache. The past was already changed when Abaddon killed the guy that arrived to the cabin. And well, we will see what other and if there is consequences to leave him to 21 century. What I thought was that he was leaving with the ship like immediately and it would have drowned and also the people he would have been contact with, but still he didn’t die. The present and future he can change now but the rest. We will see.
And to last question… We should all be very, very afraid what ever it is.
– Lilah
1. I don’t think they’re rebuilding the relationship; Sam is obviously showing concern, and they’re getting along better, but all indications are Dean is ready to go it alone; he is starting to view Sam as an impediment; similar to how Sam started to view Dean in S4, that he was slowing him down. After my second watch, I gave it a 7.
2. Yep, Castiel’s time as human has changed him for the better.
3. Pretty shrewd move by Abaddon, though I don’t know why she didn’t just shoot Crowley with the demon trap bullet and threaten to kill him if he didn’t help her.
4. Dean would’ve just ended up killing the angel and they needed info; Sam could also see that Dean is too eager to torture.
5. IMO he was a plant by Metatron.
6. Looks like Gavin is being brought in to play off Crowley in S10. I liked when he asked about cooking a pigeon on the light bulb.
7. Very much up in the air; I wouldn’t trust Gadreel though, and I hope they don’t continue down the path of whitewashing his possession of Sam, like it was no big deal.
8. The hellhound standing down was pretty funny.
9. Yes, though I thought the Abaddon floaty thing was a little cheesy. You kind of knew how this was all going to play out when Dean sent Sam to the basement (or knocked him out, tied him up, sent him out for beer, whichever plot device works best to get Sam out of the way).
10. Yep, Crowley and Gavin play off each other nicely – I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of them together next season. Though, gotta say I don’t like them relying on the time travel stuff – too easy an out for the writers.