Supernatural, Seasons Eight and Nine

Season Eight

I said that Season Seven, while bearing glaring flaws that kept it from being a truly good season, had the most potential. I stand by that, but it is not the only season with potential. I have to say that Season Eight had a good thing going, but unfortunately, we all knew it was going nowhere from the getgo.

Probably the first thing I need to talk about is Benny and Purgatory. By which I mean, Purgatory on its own, and being stranded there, is a brilliant idea. Yeah, I hate Castiel's guts all over again for basically abandoning Dean at the altar, but this is another spot where Supernatural starts to lean into its horror side, which has frankly always been better than its heroic gods and monsters story angle.

You could have made an entire season just out of that--Purgatory, the afterlife of monsters, an endless expanse of woods where the strong eat the weak and all beings are part of one big food chain. We've already seen Dean, through agony and torment, take up the mantle of the Slaughter (in The Magnus Archives terms--becoming much more ready to spill blood and hating himself for it). Now we see they were almost ready to throw him to the Hunt. But we got robbed, as always.

Picture it. Picture Dean, eyes wide and mouth slightly slack, stalking through the woods with a blade in hand. His constant alertness is highlighted by the way he constantly checks his surroundings--scanning right to left, down and then up. His hands twitch whenever he hears something that could be a monster. His breathing is always a little too heavy, making sure he has enough oxygen to fight back. He's become the predator in order to avoid becoming prey.

So, naturally, we don't do that. Instead, we introduce a dead vampire named Benny who for some reason forms an alliance and apparently a friendship with him. Now, I'm not unwelcome to the idea of Dean making friends with the fallen, the monsters in the night--but I wanted to see that, not have it skipped and shown in flashbacks. There goes the horror angle, because it's a well-known fact that horror is strengthened by helplessness and solitude and dampened by partnership. True to form, between Benny and Castiel showing back up, Dean's trek through Purgatory is more like a stroll.

But at least we still have the Leviathans, right? The oldest creatures in creation, shapeshifters that hunger eternally and can't be killed, and they're the top of the food chain here! And now they don't have a scheme in place that requires them to blend in. Imagine if we saw them in their true forms--aka, formless masses of black goo sprouting clawed limbs and gaping tooth-lined maws, that chase down any living thing with the intention of eating it. But no, all we get is humanoid forms that can be easily decapitated despite the fact that these Leviathans presumably have never had human DNA to expose themselves to, so they don't trouble the heroes too much.

(Hence, this is where it became really apparent that this show badly needs a CGI budget--like, really really bad).

Okay, so no more Purgatory. What's Benny's deal? Well, nevermind--it involved a woman now, and everybody hates Sam's latest plot about getting together with a woman and settling down, because that went so well the last few times Supernatural tried that--after Lisa and Ben were already as annoying as they were, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that no one liked Amelia from the word 'go'. So, new plot time! This one, as it happens, actually works, kind of like the Leviathans worked for Season Seven--and as a bonus, it actually carries over from Season Seven. It's the tablets containing the Word of God, inscribed by Metatron. The last season used it to finally, finally find a way to kill a Leviathan, given that borax and beheading are only temporary stalls. This one introduces the concept of other tablets, which contain potential solutions to the problems of the other two gigantic pains in the asses of the Supernatural script--demons and angels.

This of course means that Crowley is our returning antagonist, along with newcomer Naomi...who I honestly expected to be more annoying. It really does do wonders for an antagonist if they genuinely believe they're hurting people for the right reasons, not to mention dropping the habit of intense smugness like prior examples have had. Naomi is actually quite enjoyable--you know she's an untrustworthy bitch, but she has a plan and will get shit done instead of talking smack. Unfortunately, of the two, only the one that had already long since worn out his welcome got to stay, and the refreshing one got dead.

The problem with the plot that picks up in the second half of Season Eight being, of course, the trials to seal demons in hell. And although the actual concept is great, I was not born yesterday. That would entail a change to the beloved status quo, and we can't have that. I knew all along that the plot to essentially kick demons out of the show would go nowhere, so I just ended up resenting all the effort that went into it. It was a good plot! Demons and angels alike have been worn out, and I hate them. I just don't want to see them anymore. The Leviathans were underwhelming but original. This would've forced new material to get written, which I guess is why the SPN staff found it too scary to commit to. And as the cherry on top, the character they were going to reform was going to be Crowley! Crowley's motherfucking annoying, so think of what we could've had...it hurts.

Kevin Tran returns, of course, as the translator for the tablets, and he and his mother are actually interesting characters. Kevin is a lot like Charlie, being relatively human and relatable, necessary to the plot he's in but not overtaking it or detracting from it. I loved his character arc and his growth, and I liked how he was tied to the plot, which forced him to act and become that fully-realized character! Which is another reason that essentially being lied to with this plot hurt, because it undermined Kevin. We had a good thing going, but it was going nowhere. Thanks.

But what happens to Kevin is not truly lamentable until...

Season Nine

The fact that Supernatural, Season Eight set up its finale with Sam Winchester a) punking hard on Abbadon after she looked ready to be a real pain in the ass, b) about to get rid of Crowley's sorry ass after he's caused so much grief, and c) was prepared to help the entire world by sealing demonkind in Hell even at the cost of his own life, only to yank that away at the end because that would, again, change the status quo...it bites. The demon trials plot went nowhere, Metatron has officially booted out the much-more-interesting Naomi for the position of main antagonist, and Sam's still dying even though the trials never got finished?

That pretty much embodies "all for nothing", or better yet, "waste of my time". Given that Metatron made the angels fall at the end of Season Eight, the plot is officially 100% angel-related at all times, which I fucking hate. I'm sick of demons and angels! Sick! They cling to the show like leeches and it's been bland ever since they pretty much absorbed it. Now there's an angel civil war going on--which is a rehashed plot, lovely--and we get to spend more time than ever focusing on Castiel's sorry ass that I still hate. And that means two things! It means a shit ton more humans getting their insides melted into goo because no one cares about angels killing humans in this show, and it means recycled angelic antagonists that fail to compel, like Bartholomew and Malachi.

The truth is that Season Nine doesn't have a plot of its own until the First Blade and the Mark of Cain, which is the solution chosen to dealing with Abbadon, who is still around and wants to control Hell because *sigh* she's a power-hungry generic villain that performs better than the likes of Eve or Ruby, but not by much. The whole Ezekiel-inside-of-Sam plot was annoying because it was just another way to keep angels in the plot even when they weren't, and bring back characters who weren't supposed to die yet (meaning, Castiel, and I guess Charlie can have some resurrection too.) The Mark of Cain plot finally starts in Episode 11 of the season, but it at least has the right idea.

It goes unremarked on, which is a shame, but Dean is basically the perfect meal for an artifact like the First Blade which compels the user to become bloodthirsty and violent--Dean in Hell + Dean in Purgatory + Mark of Cain = the Perfect Killing Machine. I do admittedly like plots where the character is walking down a descending, spiraling path of violence and wants to stop, but can't. Unfortunately, Abbadon might have been Azazel in a red wig, but Metatron is just annoying. You might be wondering what happens now to that lovely character Kevin now that the plot that relied mostly on his involvement has been swept under the rug.

He dies, of course, because why keep around characters who are actually interesting? We never do that here at Supernatural. Now, unfortunately, they didn't stop with pissing me off by killing Kevin, which on its own would've been bad enough. No, they have the nerve to make a big fuss about Kevin dying and Dean being responsible for his death and his mother grieving how he's gone and whatnot, as if we're going to actually remember him going forward instead of giving Castiel more unearned fellatio. Except, there's a tiny problem with this:

KEVIN TRAN DOESN'T HAVE TO BE DEAD. THEY CAN BRING HIM BACK. THEY JUST DON'T BOTHER.

It's not like this is some minor forgotten detail that got lost long before Season Nine! Angels can bring people back to life. That was the whole reason Season Five played out the way it did! The plot to get Dean and Sam to say yes to Michael and Lucifer couldn't just be nipped in the bud with a couple of spiteful suicides on the heroes' parts because the angels would just bring them back to life with a snap of their fingers! Hell, it's a plot point in this very season! A mere few episodes ago! Ezekiel/Gadreel brought back both Castiel and Charlie! And it's not like Castiel couldn't do it for some reason--by the time Kevin dies, he's already got his Grace back, so snapping people back to life is no problem! Hell, Castiel brings back Ezekiel from fatal damage near the end of the season, and Metatron starts bringing the dead back to life as shows of miracles in the finale!

The plot wouldn't function if certain characters didn't just cheap out on staying dead, and yet everyone fails to mention the prospect of bringing back Kevin even though everyone else is getting resurrected left and right, making it abundantly clear that the writers had nothing else for Kevin to do now that the only plot he was important to was yanked out from under him, and were now unceremoniously ushering him out.

I do not respect that.

So, anyway, the season ends with Crowley being an ever-present ass, Abbadon dead at Dean's hands, Metatron chained up, and Dean becoming a demon, as one does when one dies after the Mark of Cain's influence has taken hold. This, of course, sounds like a very promising plot with a lot of potential, which if the last three seasons are any indication, means it will promptly go all of nowhere and waste everyone's time come Season 10.

This show is true garbage sometimes.