I’m a bit confused by the purpose of this episode.  Or rather, the events that led to this episode.  Didn’t Castiel just take control of the angelic resistance just a few episodes ago?  After much of a season of wandering about with little or no purpose?  Did we even have time to get used to the idea or see him actually lead the resistance in any meaningful way?

 

I’m also a bit confused about Tessa.  Had it been revealed in some previous episode (out of the nine seasons worthy, mind you) that Reapers are also Angels?  I suppose one could come to that reasonable conclusion, given their role in the whole afterlife and “Angels of Death” or something like that, but it was a bit of a head-scratcher for me.  That, and the need to bring in a sporadic female guest-star just to kill her off.  Supernatural, you are not doing your press agents any favors.

 

But back to the main issue: Metatron’s “victory”.  It was just all too easy, and the reminders of the weaknesses of “Meta Fiction” weren’t a happy circumstance, either.  I understand that Team Free Will is the core of the series at this point, so much so that this season has suffered from the relative lack of it, but Castiel’s role as the reluctant leader of the resistance, and his struggle to come to the decision to wear that mantle, might as well have never happened!  It just doesn’t add up.

 

The best thing about the second half of the season has been Dean’s struggle to control the impulses from the Mark of Cain.  It has not been going well, and it gets significantly worse in this episode.  It would be one thing if Dean was himself when not wielding the First Blade and getting influenced by violent situations; that’s all but old hat for the Brothers Winchester.  The most worrisome part is that Dean’s entire worldview and attitude has shifted, making it a lot easier to conceive that he would sacrifice Sam if he deemed it necessary.

 

It’s a reasonable enough extension of the main Sam/Dean dynamic this season that it serves as the lifeline for the struggling narrative.  For much of the season, Dean was most upset by the notion that Sam didn’t want to be saved and wouldn’t do the same for him.  It never occurred to him that Sam wouldn’t think the same way; letting Sam die again, even to save the world, just wasn’t an option.  To go from that to a mental state that could, thematically, end up with not just letting Sam die, but killing him, is a huge swing.  It’s the part that the writers did correctly this season.

 

In the larger view, it also balances the books.  Dean’s time in Hell pushed him to the moral limit, but he managed to remain himself and find a way back from it.  Sam’s experience with the demon blood and Lucifer possession was far more corrupting, and Sam has never been the same.  Dean has occasionally made it clear that he still blames Sam to a degree for choices made “under the influence”.  Well, now Dean is the one dealing with that sort of thing, and when it’s all said and done, I think the brothers will be stronger for it.