Huge improvement this episode. The writers did a good job with humor leavening horror and fear.

"My car," Moaned Sam.
"Silver lining," Dean answered.

Spoiler

The staff of Moses. I wonder how many pieces are still floating around? For that matter, did anyone actually see what Cas did with the piece he got off Aaron?

What the Hell ARE they doing with souls, anyway? Demons used them for chew toys. What kind of angel needs more power? Not to mention, I'm pretty sure that the kid was too young to be accountable for any Deal. At least when made with a demon.

Why wouldn't Castiel simply put the kid in a deep coma or even just remove the memory of pain?

Did Sam and Dean pick up *any* of the angel blades sliding around various floors? Seems like a missed trick to me.

Did the angel who fell on Sam's car die?

Poor Cas. He thought the worst was over.
Did anyone else think he looks even more scruffy than last season? That degree of unshaven is going to be a *bitch* to maintain.

Sam paying for sex isn't a shocker. He's completely lost any *value* that sex ever had to him. Now it's merely scratching an itch. The prostitute startled me when she actually started to leave without collecting her pay. Apparently Sam is [irresistible pun] damn good in bed.

Sam, shirtless, working out.
I'll be in my bunk...

 

Spoiler

Cas was awesome. Balthazar was awesome (Sebastian Roche is awesome in Fringe too). Getting a clearer picture of this season, maybe...

Ol' Raphael wants the apocalypse, but since Lucifer and Michael are out of commission, I think he's stirring up trouble with monsters and such and trying to start an imbalance of sorts. Not a bad plan, I guess, and if that's how the season goes, I won't mind.

Cas, as I said, was just awesome. "I think we can rule out Moses as a suspect."

Sam getting a hooker was kinda funny, and I loved his car getting destroyed if only for his and Dean's reactions. "I guess there's a silver lining..."

Looking forward to the next few weeks as well.

 

Spoiler

Cas was indeed awesome, how he completely dominated this episode and his interactions with Balthazar (wasn't that a demons name?) were pretty cool too.

Sam gets weirder and weirder but it seems we will get the answers in the next episode.

Only thing that keeps to annoy me is when two Angels fight, I expect something grander, not two guys grappling around with short silver knifes :/ I know I can't expect huge battles with explosions or anything like that but I would appreciate to see something more...angelic or impressive.

 

"I can't expect huge battles with explosions or anything like that but I would appreciate to see something more...angelic or impressive."

Scorched feathers flying through the air and piled up in corners, maybe.

Spoiler

When Cas and his friend were talking (what was that angel's name again, and who was the actor who was playing him, 'cause he looked familiar,) there was a flash and a low rumble outside. The friend asked Cas if he was the one doing that. For some reason, that memory is much funnier in retrospect. An *angel* hoping he misunderstood...

Zachariah would be foaming at the mouth if he caught an angel doing the self-delusion thing. Actually, I can see ol' Zach stroking out at ALL the latest developments. The mud monkeys really screwed up The Plan. And the ANGELS are acting like repressed brats finally let off the leash...

The more I think about it, the more amusing it becomes thinking about Zachariah's reactions. I wonder if his hair would catch on fire.

 

It is just, when you imagine two angels fighting, I don't think the first thing that comes to your mind is two dudes fighting with knifes :/

 

Hey, I agree with you. I guess it would cost too much and take too much time to train some actors how to make a knife fight look scary. The way I remember it, Under Siege had a good knife fight - although that was long ago and I might be polishing it up in retrospect.

I kinda wish that they were fighting with *different* weapons and weapons styles. You know, two short swords vs a two-handed sword vs a long sword and dagger or a mace/shield combination. The way they do in fanfiction...

There's a lot of possibilities inherit in the Vessel idea, as well. I'm *sure* the TV show doesn't have the budget for any of it, but there's no reason that a Vessel has to be human. Angels need consent - but any sapient creature can consent.

(I wonder if the "consent" prohibition still obtains, since the Angels are breaking codes and customs left and right.)

Picture an angel whose Vessel was a Ki-rin, or a dragon, or a Thranx-style alien, or maybe an intelligent dinosaur, or ...
The mind *boggles.* Why not an orca? It isn't like the angel is actually ... er... limited by the vessel's usual limitations - Jimmy wouldn't have lasted an instant in some of the situations that Cas simply walked into.


Edited to add: Can you imagine the reaction to an Angelic Thranx? How anyone would react to a 7' tall insect, saying "Be not afraid, I bring tidings of great joy..."
* wanders off to giggle *

 

Might be even harder to convince people of your good intentions if a dinosaur starts to talk.

And yeah, I know, it was the budget but maybe we will see better fights in the anime adaptation? As long as they don't turn it into DBZ fighting it should be pretty good if they make the fights cooler.

But I like the idea of every angel having a different weapon or at least real swords. Still, they didn't do a bad job. They still conveyed how much an angel outclasses an human for the most part.

 

"angel outclasses a human"
So true. Cas and the hotel room angel charged at each other, and Dean and Sam didn't even *try* to get involved: they dodged and got the hell out of the way. They knew they wouldn't be of any use to Cas in an angel-on-angel combat, not even as backup.

 

One of the biggest contraints of supernatural was the budget, they just didnt have enough to show really cool shit happening but they tried their best with what they had and it still looked fucking great. Though the anime should allow for grandoise action scenes ( Like angel battles and perhaps the whole of season 5(really apocalyptic shit)) and for this reason alone i will watch the anime, but im going to watch it cause i like Supernatural.

This episode was substantially better than the earlier episodes and we have an overarching plot and it doesnt look like fail so will be watching religiously every week.

 

If Raphael is the only archangel left, who can stop him at all?

So far he seems to act like a regular angel and doesn't display half the power we've seen from Lucifer, Micheal and Gabriel.

 

I'm probably mistaken here, but I could swear Cas got a levelup post-revival in Swan Song from what he was talking about with Dean.

 

That's what I thought but he seems to be a regular angel in this episode. No mention of beastly upgrades and Raph hands his ass to him.

 

As far as we know, there is some serious difference between normal Angels and Archangels and within the Archangels, there is a huge difference between Raphael, Gabriel and Michael, Lucifer.

With Cas power-up I thought that he would be an Archangel now but maybe it is impossible to be promoted to an Archangel unless you were "born" as one or he just didn't get as much power.

So, probably Cas is as strong as a normal Angel can get but not as strong as an Archangel, who are a different class on their own.

 

Or, alternately, as Kripke is no longer writing, they just ignored that part of last season.

 

If Castiel had become the strongest Angel ever, he would hardly appear anymore or need Dean's and Sam's help since it would make him one of the top three strongest beings who are free at the moment. How boring would it be if Castiel was nearly unstoppable :/

 

Random question. Where's the Colt?

I'm pretty sure the Colt could have wasted a lot of those angels as well as that King shapeshifter thing from episode two.

 

Although Supernatural is still a pretty good watch, I have to say that Fringe has taken its spot as my favorite show.

Lets see if Supernatural can reclaim its position....

 

IIRC, Lucifer said he was one of three things in the whole of creation that the colt couldn't kill (or some other small number like that), I'm assuming him, Death and God (if I remember that right).

Although when was the last time we saw the colt? I last remember seeing it when Dean popped Lucifer in the face and got laughed at for his trouble. I don't remember seeing it after that though, a rewatch is in order it would seem

 

I thought it was five. I could be wrong, but if it is five I figured that four out of the five are God, Death, Lucifer and Michael (I'm assuming that if Lucifer is immune Michael should be too).

Speaking of Colt; This needs to happen!