Let’s Speculate: Supernatural 13.14 “Good Intentions”
NOW – It’s dark and we hear echoing voices. Jack is asleep on a pillow in a bedroom in the bunker. He sits up as he hears Sam and Dean discussing how happy they are now that Jack and Mary are safely back. Jack smiles, but suddenly an alarm goes off and the sinister red warning light suffuses the bunker. Jack runs to the hallway which is beginning to fill with smoke. He hears Sam and Dean calling for help from behind a locked door. Flames lick under the door as their voices become more panic-stricken, begging him to rescue them. Jack tries desperately to open the door with his power, but he can’t!
There’s a sudden close-up of his face, passive and still and lit by a cold bluish-gray light. Alt!Michael stands behind him, obviously manipulating what he’s been seeing in his mind. Michael needs Jack to open a rift large enough to march an army through. He commands another angel, a bearded, blonde male – to make Jack use his powers. If fear won’t force Jack to manifest his ability, then Michael knows something that WILL.
Title – “Good Intentions”
Donatello is translating the demon tablet, but something is wrong: there are unpleasant sounds, the Enochian symbols are flashing, his pen is scratching. He seems upset. Cas brings in a plate of bacon and eggs, saying Sam and Dean wanted him to have breakfast and asking if Donatello is OK. Donatello says that the tablet has raw energy and power. Can is concerned but silent. Donatello says he is making progress. His focus returns to the tablet and the ominous music rises in the background.
There’s a quick focus on a plate of bacon. We’re in the bunker’s kitchen, and the bacon is Dean’s breakfast. Sam warns him that it’s not healthy, but Dean says, “If bacon is what kills me, then I win.” Cas tells them that they need Lucifer. For now, they have to focus on Donatello’s translation of the tablet so they’ll know what they need for the spell to open a rift into the alternate world.
The scene changes. Jack is standing by a tranquil lake. It looks like the same landscape as his birthplace, only there is no house there. Cas appears beside him and tells him how destructive humans are, how they damage and destroy the beauty of the world. He says he’ll show Jack how evil humans can be: images of icebergs melting, war, an oil spill with a dead bird. “You have to help them,” says Cas, because humans can’t help but be ruinous and harmful. “What about Sam and Dean?” asks Jack. Cas tells him that they’ve never accepted Jack or his power, and Jack realizes that this isn’t Cas. “Cas” begins to laugh. Jack’s now awake and aware and not on the shores of a lovely lake; he’s in the ruined church where Lucifer and then Mary had been held. A cross glows in the background, a light in the grim surroundings. Michael hurls Jack across the room, then lashes out at the other angel too. He declares that now they’re going to do it HIS way as he grabs Jack by the front of his shirt.
We are back with Donatello; the Enochian symbols are still wavering; weird sounds are still in the air. Then he shrieks, “Eureka!” and goes running down the hallway to show Sam, Dean, and Cas that he has cracked the code. Amazingly, they don’t need archangel grace. Even better, they already have everything they need, except for one ingredient — the hearts of Gog and Magog, ancient warriors so fierce they’ve been locked away out of time and place. Cas and Dean determine to go face them while Donatello and Sam gather the rest of the supplies needed for the spell.
We see feet being dragged down a hall. Everything is greyscale again. We’re in Alt World. Michael literally throws Jack into a cell. The door is locked and we see that he has a cellmate: Mary. She says she’s seen him before, but doesn’t know who he is. When he says that Sam and Dean sent him, she is thankful that they aren’t there. She talks briefly to Jack about his mom; she’s confused that he’s not a baby, but he verifies that he is, contrary to appearances, actually only six months old. He tells Mary that he opened a door into this world, and now that he’s here, Michael is in his head. Mary says Michael is in her head too and that Michael wants to bring an angel army to our world. Jack says that Michael can do anything to him; he’ll never give in, but Mary says that Michael will hurt HER to try to influence Jack.
Dean and Cas are preparing to leave the bunker. Dean is concerned about Cas. Castiel says he was brought back from the dead for a reason. He feels bad that he hasn’t protected Jack and says that they need to be prepared for war because war is what Michael does. Dean says they will do whatever it takes.
In a remote wooded area, Cas recites an Enochian spell. At first nothing happens. Dean thinks Cas might have spoken something incorrectly, but Cas, completely serious, states that he doesn’t get words wrong. In this case, he’s right: two huge barbarian warriors appear. Dean isn’t intimidated: he’s too busy laughing at their loincloths. The warriors argue. Will they fight each other? No, they’re just discussing who should fight whom: “I’ll take the pretty one.” “They’re equally pretty.” “Well, the short one then.” “Embrace your beautiful death!” they declare and attack. Armed with angel blades, Dean and Cas feel confident, until the huge sword of Gog (or Magog) smashes Dean’s blade into pieces. He keeps fighting, at one point clinging to the warrior’s back like the Dread Pirate Roberts gamely trying to choke Fezzik the giant. Eventually, he gets hold of the warrior’s sword and with one swing, swipes off his head. The other warrior is about to kill Cas when a sword point comes through his chest; Dean has slain him just in time. Cas reaches into the fallen warrior’s chest to get the heart only to find sand. Gog and Magog do not have hearts.
Back in the cell in Alt World, Mary tells Jack that he has to let Michael kill her; no matter what, the rift CANNOT be opened. Jack says he should be able to rescue them both — he’s strong – but somehow this world has messed up his powers. They realize that there is powerful warding on the building, but it is less near the window. Jack starts to try to melt the bars over the opening.
In the bunker, Sam is gathering supplies on the library table when Donatello enters and blindsides Sam, hitting him over the head with a bottle. That puts Sam on the floor; Donatello hits him again and everything goes black.
Michael is not pleased that Mary and Jack have escaped. He tells his angelic underling to get them back and calls him by name: Zachariah.
Mary and Jack are walking through a desolate landscape, dominated by dirt, when they are found by two humans. It’s Alt!Bobby who calls her Mary Campbell. He knows her, but she doesn’t know him though she remembers that her boys had mentioned him. Her boys? Oh, yeah – “the day trippers!” Bobby realizes, remembering Sam and Dean from when they briefly appeared in that world (when battling Lucifer). Bobby invites them to his camp of human refugees.
Cas and Dean return to the bunker. Supplies are scattered in the messy library and Sam is holding an ice pack to his bruised face. Dean is surprised the “muppet professor” attacked him, but Sam shows them a screen: Donatello is bound to a chair in their dungeon in the middle of a devil’s trap. They realize that Donatello had set them up. They need to find out why. Sam and Dean confront Donatello who says that they are covetous of his knowledge, the word hissing off his tongue. Cas is watching remotely from the library. Donatello accuses them of only wanting to use him, then utters a spell aimed at Dean. At first it seems impotent, then Dean starts to gasp, hand going to his heart. Sam helps him from the room; once they’re in the hallway, the power of the spell ends. Cas comes running, eying Donatello.
In the refugee camp, Bobby tells Jack and Mary that angels did this to his world and that it is no longer a war but an extermination. He says their camp is safe and he’s glad to have Mary there because she’s saved him many times before. Jack entertains the children of the camp with amazing shadow puppets (“That’s Satan’s son!” exclaims my daughter, watching with me and amused as he forms dogs and deer on a sheet to the delighted laughter of children.). Bobby tells Mary that HIS Mary was complicated, brave, sad, and full of regret. She hadn’t made the demon deal, she’d lost her one true love, and her sons had never been born. Mary says that in her world, she’d made the demon deal and brought her boys pain, but they had stopped the angels from devastating their planet with war. Bobby tells her that she’d made the right choice. He says Sam and Dean are good; they’d wanted to rescue him and take him back to their world, but he needed to stay in his ruined one. Our world has Sam and Dean, but Alt World only has him! Bobby doesn’t take it well, however, when Mary tells him that Jack is a nephilim. Once the humans had thought the angels were on their side, but the angels had turned against humanity. Jack will turn too. He has to go. Mary says if Jack goes, she goes, and Bobby says they’ll need to leave in the morning.
The Winchester brothers and Castiel are discussing why Donatello snapped. This didn’t happen to Kevin when he translated the tablet! Then they remember that he doesn’t have a soul! Cas says that Donatello can’t be fixed. When Sam was soulless, he was saved because Dean bartered with Death to get Sam’s soul back, but Amara had swallowed Donatello’s, making his soul irretrievable. If things are this hopeless, perhaps all they can do is kill Donatello, suggests Cas. Then another prophet will appear and the translation can continue. The brothers don’t want any killing. They just need the spell! Cas heads determinedly for the dungeon to deal with Donatello. He locks Sam and Dean out.
Jack is happy in the camp; he says the people are brave, but Mary says they have to leave. Suddenly a siren sounds. Angel bomb incoming! It impacts nearby and Mary and Jack are thrown off their feet. “Run!” shouts Jack as Zachariah stands up in the human camp. Jack and Mary run into Bobby who says the angel attack is Jack’s fault. He directs Mary to find all the children she can and get them to safety. Mary tells Jack to hide. (“This Bobby sucks,” says my daughter, feeling defensive of Jack.). The angels are decimating the camp. Their orders are to find Jack and kill everyone else. Zachariah finds Mary. She tries to shoot him, but he strikes her to the ground. Jack appears: “I said, ‘Stop!'” He holds out his hand; his eyes glow. He lifts Zachariah off the ground. The angel hovers in the air, surrounding by the flame-like evidence of Jack’s power. Then – poof! – he explodes! More angels, like missiles, are arcing across the sky toward them. Jack lifts his hand and they explode in the air into nothing but smoke. Bobby and Mary are in awe. As the humans begin to regroup from the attack, Bobby thanks Jack who says that Sam and Dean wouldn’t run, and he won’t either. He’ll stay: he has to kill Michael. HIs face is mature and determined.
In the bunker’s dungeon, Cas removes his trench coat. He will do whatever he has to to save those he loves. He will take the spell by force without permission from Donatello’s mind, leaving him brain dead. Sam and Dean aren’t happy with Cas’s decision, but Cas doesn’t waver: Donatello was a danger; he was working with Asmodeus; “some people can’t be saved.” “Who gives you the right to decide?” asks Dean. Cas replies that they have no time. War is coming, and he has done what soldiers must do. He has the spell and knows the ingredients needed: only four — the grace of an archangel, fruit from the tree from the Garden of Eden, the seal of Solomon, and the blood of a most holy man. Cas says they can beat Lucifer and Michael; they can survive. He will do “whatever it takes.”
THE END
- Did anyone besides myself think that maybe in this world Zachariah might end up as a good guy and turn on Michael?
- Bobby tells Mary Winchester that she was right to make the demon deal. Do you agree?
- How does the title “Good Intentions” apply to Mary, Jack, and Cas especially? (We’ll all be writing entire dissertations if we listed all the times in the past seasons when Sam, Dean, and Cas ALL had good intentions that didn’t turn out as they’d hoped. Will this be another one of those times?)
- How far will Cas go to do “whatever it takes”?
- If you could chose how you would die, would you chose Death by Bacon? Would you embrace that as a beautiful death?
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