Buckner and Ross-Leming strike again.  Yet another big moment that feels strangely muted and downplayed, yet another introduction of a character that makes a first appearance, as though he/she was already a large part of the story.  It’s textbook for this duo, and it comes at the worst possible time, considering that the ninth season has been in a tailspin.

 

Shouldn’t the defeat of Abaddon been a bit more meaningful?  Granted, it kicked what was happening within Dean into a higher gear, which is just not going to end well, but that was about as straightforward as it gets.  That was far less of a satisfying payoff than a season and a half of build-up required.  All the Cain/Abel allusions in the world aren’t going to make up for that lack.

 

And surely there was a better way to put pressure on Crowley than to go back in time and abduct his useless son Gavin, who was fated to die anyway?  It was just an unnecessary wrinkle that seemed designed to overcome the unfortunate fact that the story was threadbare as it was.  Well, it keeps Gavin in the mix so they can continue this ill-advised notion of humanizing Crowley, which hasn’t exactly been handled well up to this point.  Keeping Crowley around as the semi-honorable “devil you know” was always one of the best aspects of the post-apocalyptic world.

 

The shining light in the episode is Dean’s struggle, because he’s not even struggling that much anymore.  The influence of the Mark of Cain is holding sway, and I love how it takes Dean down this much darker path.  Remember when Dean was forced to use his hell-derived torture skills in the fourth season, and how hard that was on his conscience?  Now he’s volunteering.  Dean may not be back on the road to demonhood, but he’s not far off the beaten path.

 

Meanwhile, Castiel’s resistance against Metatron continues, though it’s hard to imagine how this will escalate quickly enough to make the struggle a key point of the season finale.  Castiel’s arc this season has been all over the place, and I can’t help but wonder if budget was a factor.  Could they only get Misha Collins for a certain number of episodes?