After spending a dreary Memorial Day watching the Falling Skies marathon on TNT, I thought I might start watching & discussing it. But nearly halfway into season 2, I’m dropping out. It’s gotten darker (literally and figuratively), and I dislike shows of humans vs. a (theoretically) superior enemy. It’s one of the reasons I never watched the revised Battlestar Galactica.
So let’s move on to something that really matters—Supernatural. 🙂 Combining my TNT viewing schedule with the CW’s, there are four episodes to review. We’re covering the first two here.
The Born-Again Identity (717)
This was one of my favorite episodes of season 7. So why does it get only 4 stars? Because Meg brings it down a bit, and the “hunt” was a bit dull.
But everything else was perfection. Sam is hospitalized after being hit by a car. But he’s put in the psychiatric ward because Lucifer is tormenting him so horribly, he can’t sleep. Which is why he ran into the path of an on-coming car.
Dean searches for a cure, referencing the faith healer Sam found in season 1’s “Faith.” In what I believe is Rufus’s cabin, he goes through both his father John’s and surrogate father Bobby’s journals, searching for help. It comes in the form of a card falling out of one of the journals. We later learn in “Party On, Garth” this is one of the signs of Bobby’s ghost trying to help.
The card eventually leads him to a faith healer named “Emmanuel,” who is in fact an amnesic Castiel. How fitting that Castiel repair Sam’s head-wall, since he’s the one who tore it down. Except the wall is so crumbled, Cass can’t repair it. But he’s able to fix Sam by transferring Sam’s broken psyche to himself. Cass (memory restored by smiting some demons) believes it’s fitting punishment for causing seasons 6 and 7’s messes and destruction.
It’s always nice to see Misha Collins in a different persona and something other than Castiel’s trench coat. Leave it to Dean to have saved the damn thing.
– Written by outgoing show runner Sera Gamble; directed by Robert Singer
– TV Fanatic fan rating 4.8 (out of 5); IMDB rating 8.4 (out of 10); TV.com rating 8.6
We Need to Talk About Kevin (801)
The season 8 opener excited me for the series, something that hadn’t happened in a few years. In rereading my initial thoughts, there’s only a couple things I can add.
Gosh, I enjoyed Kevin this year, something that surprised since I was rather lukewarm about him in his two season 7 appearances.
The show hinted throughout the first several episodes there was more to Sam and Amelia’s relationship than met the eye. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out the way I’d hoped and thus almost justified all the bitching Dean/Jensen Ackles fans voiced. I say almost, because the complaining was particularly vitriolic and I found it horribly offensive.
– Written by new show runner Jeremy Carver; directed by Robert Singer
– TV Fanatic fan rating 4.6; IMDB rating 8.6; TV.com rating 8.5
Stream of Conscience 