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"Gods and Monsters" – Supernatural S14E2 Review

Have I mentioned it's good to have Bobby back? It's good to have Bobby back. One wonders if they're going to graphically kill him off to demonstrate Michael is a bad ass. Why else keep listing Jim Beaver as a Special Guest Star? How long can you be a Special Guest Star before they either make you a show star or kill you off?

Heck, Samantha Smith as Mary Winchester has appeared 31 times as of tonight and she's not a SGS, much less a regular. Granted, that means Beaver has a better agent. Or maybe it reflects which one the fans and producers like better.

On with the recap. After a teaser with Michael experimenting with vampires, blood, and angel grace, Sam, Bobby, and Mary head off to Duluth to investigate reports of the bodies turning up. This gives Misha Collins a lot to do, as he has heart-to-heart chats with first Nick (Mark Pellegrino) and then Jack (Alexander Calvert). The whole Castiel/Nick thing digs up some memories, about Lucifer tempting Nick to let Nick loan him his body, and about Jimmy Novak, aka Castiel's host body. Nick pretty accurately calls it as body-snatching, and tells Castiel he's just as bad as Lucifer is. Which... he isn't, right? Jimmy did voluntarily loan Castiel his body.

Nick is also dreaming of what Lucifer did in his body, and reflexively does the finger-snapping disintegration thing. It doesn't work, but Castiel "scans" Nick and says his psyche is more damaged than they thought. Whatever that means.

Jack is feeling down in the dumps about not having his powers and being useless. Castiel tells him to think about his future more than his past. For some reason, this leads Jack to do the exact opposite and seek out his past. Specifically, his grandparents. They assume Jack is Kelly's government co-worker and comment he looks a lot like Kelly. Awkwardness ensues, and Jack goes back to the bunker and tells Castiel what he did. This leads into a conversation with Jack saying if it comes down to killing Michael and Dean if they can't get Michael out of Dean's body, they kill both of them. Needless to say, Castiel isn't down with this.

Meanwhile in Duluth, we get the old Bobby, with a slight spin. He poses as an FBI agent, but he's a bit rusty about it and starts tossing out alt-earth initials at the coroner. Who has the broadest Minnesota accent this side of Donna Hanscum. And again, let me note that I've really missed Jim Beaver. What can I say? I really like Beaver.

The trio figure out that all of the dead people were vampires. They track one survivor, Lydia Crawford (Meganne Young), from the morgue surveillance cameras. She's a vampire as well, and tells the trio where Michael was doing his experiments.

Meanwhile, Michael has a brief conversation with Dean, who shows up as Michael's reflection in a mirror. Michael easily puts the kibosh on Dean's efforts to free himself. He then picks up a woman, Melanie, at a bar, knowing full well she's a werewolf. When she tries to bite him, Michael throws her across the room and demands to see her master. Said master, Philippe, soon shows up and Michael offers to make Philippe a monster "top dog" over the humans. And give the monsters an energy boost as well.

We then get a bit of Michael paying Lydia a visit, saying she was bait, and obliterating her. Then it's onto the... church, I think. Werewolves attack Our Trio, and the trio discover the werewolves are immune to silver. After a bit more of a struggle than usual, they chop, hack, and decapitate the werewolves to death. Michael staggers out of a door and then reveals he's actually Dean, back to normal.

Presumably this is a trap. Because Michael says it's a trap. He tells Lydia she's bait. And earlier he says he can easily control Dean. It'd be nice to think Dean has the willpower to break an archangel's possession of him. But it's pretty unlikely, isn't it? So presumably getting Sam & Co. to think Michael is Dean, or Michael can take control back anytime he wants, is much more likely to happen. Hopefully they won't play the whole "Dean is back" thing for too long. Because it's pretty easy to figure that a) they're not going to toss out the whole "Michael is the Big Bad" thing after two episodes, b) we'd lose Jensen Ackles playing super-angel, and c) it leaves Michael's plan to enhance the monsters and turn the planet over to them to just fizzle out.

I suppose the creative team figured the viewers couldn't handle a lack of "real" Dean. So they brought him back for more than just a man in the mirror appearance.

Also, Nick pays a visit to his former neighbor Arty, who was the witness who saw someone leaving Nick's house on the night of the home invasion. Arty recanted his testimony, and Nick soon turns nasty, demands to know who he sold out to, and beats him to death with a hammer. So even if Lucifer isn't coming back, Nick is going very Lucifer-ish.

"Gods" was an okay episode. We get a little more of Michael's plan, even though it seems a tad self-defeating. So he wants the vampires on his side, presumably, but starts by killing off a nest of them. That doesn't seem very diplomatic. Whether he'll use the werewolves as yet another stepping stone to get what he really wants, we'll see. You also wonder why he's bothering with the whole "Infiltrate the bunker as Dean" thing. I suppose to find out if Team Sam has anything that can do him harm. But they don't other than the usual angel cuffs and magic spells. Probably they'll find something and Michael will be right there with them to put the kibosh on their plan. Just in time for the mid-season finale. Maybe he's looking for allies: Lucifer helped him last year, and Nick is still around. Speaking of which...

Mark Pellegrino is good as always, although I wish they'd give him something a little less... evil to do. I liked him more as conflicted Nick than "acting Lucifer-ish" Nick. And worse (or better), Nick may have killed his wife and child in the first place, making a good reason for Lucifer to choose him. If he's already inclined to being a homicidal maniac, wouldn't that make him a better host for Lucifer? It would also explain why Arty recanted his testimony: if Nick was never found, Arty would have to worry the police wouldn't catch Nick and good ole Nick would pay him a visit.

Alexander Calvert has never done anything for me as Jack, sorry. I'd rather see him back as Anarky on Arrow. There's nothing bad about Jack or Calvert's performance. It just doesn't seem that anything with Jack is going anywhere. Last year he was a powerful god child, this year he's a former powerful god child getting used to not being powerful. It doesn't help that they don't give him much more to do than that. The bit tonight where he's all hot and bothered to sacrifice Dean to get Michael is promising, even if it seems a bit out of nowhere. It's not like Jack is going to settle down with his grandparents. He seems to be there mostly to bring out emotional pep talks in others. Sam last week, and Castiel this week. Misha Collins certainly got the pep talk workout this week, with Nick and with Jack.

Jensen Ackles continues to impress as Michael. This week let Ackles do both Dean and Michael. Whether Michael is cheerfully experimenting on vampires, or flirting with a werewolf woman, or laying out his grand plan for the werewolf leader, Ackles coves all the base of Michael being a powerful psychopath.

So overall, the good parts were the acting by Beaver, Pellegrino, and Collins. The so-so parts were Michael's not so secret trap, and Jack in general. No really bad parts.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

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FYI, is anyone else already sick of those stupid Halloween ads where they feature a clip from the show, someone says "(the archangel) Michael", and they cut to Michael in Halloween?

I suppose if they ever come out with a movie with a serial killer named "Castiel", we'll never hear the end of it.

Written by Gislef on Oct 19, 2018

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