Supernatural : The Things We Left Behind

Tonight is the eagerly anticipated mid-season hiatus, or Hellatus for season ten of Supernatural. Hopefully it’ll be momentous and have me screaming at my television by the end. We may or may not get to see the return of Deanmon. I hope we get more information on Rowena and Crowley and find out what Castiel has been up to since Hanna left him.

Dean is dreaming about killing. He’s covered in blood but holding a regular blade. Not the First one.

A teenage girl gets picked up by the police for shoplifting. Her name is Claire Novak. She’s being held in a group home, when Cas comes to see her. Flashback to him telling her he’s not her father. They discuss, because she’s got questions and Cas tells her Jimmy is in Heaven. So , at least we got the big question of Jimmy out of the way. Naturally, she resents Cas for taking everything from her. Claire’s mother left her with her grandmother and now she lives in the home. She tells him she wants out of there and they hatch a plan to get her out. The scene where she fixes his tie, before their meeting with her caseworker,  is both cute and heartbreaking. Because.

Cas tells the caseworker he wants custody of his daughter, now. She wants to know why and he says he was traveling for work and wants to be her friend.The caseworker is reluctant to let this happen and denies his application for custody.

Dean is watching the Three stooges and …laughing! It’s so good to see him feeling and looking so happy… and eating. It’s interesting that we’ve seen Dean eating so much since he regained his humanity and he really seems to be enjoying it. When he first got the Mark of Cain, he mostly stopped eating and  I don’t recall him eating much as a demon. He did drink a lot, then, but now, not so much.

So there’s Dean and Sam enjoying old sitcoms, together, but there’s still a sour note as Sam looks worryingly at the Mark on Dean’s arm.

Cas breaks into the home to get Claire.

Rowena, still being held prisoner, pleads with her guard to let her see her son, Crowley.

Claire is eating her vegetables, while she and Cas talk about how he’s different from the douche he used to be. (She’s right.) Claire says it’s time for them to split and doesn’t need a babysitter, after Cas says he’d like to stick around. Of course, she ditches him the moment she goes to the bathroom, after stealing his wallet. Since his wallet  and daughter are both gone, who does he call? Dean.

Cas needs help finding her and keeping her safe. The brothers disagree. Dean sends Sam off to do some detecting, while he talks with Cas. Once again, Cas is having an important conversation with someone while watching them eat French fries and I wonder what’s the significance? They talk about the Mark, and Dean flashes back to his nightmare. He tells him that he wants Cas to kill him if he should ever become a demon again. The same directive that Cain gave to him. He says he can’t, won’t,  go back to being a demon. He mentions letting go of life’s disappointments to Cas and I wonder if this advice has anything to do with all the self loathing that comes from being a demon.

Another woman has been paired with Rowena in her cell. She’s a demon who is not supposed to be on earth. So she smuggled her way up top. For that sin, she was imprisoned. Rowena says her sin was being a horrible mother.

Crowley is bitching about that but still reluctant to kill her.

Sam questions the caseworker about Claire and one of her friends from the home named Justin.

Claire apparently is Dodgering for some guy, named Randy, who owes a loanshark. Cas cash is not  enough money to pay the debt but he’s got a plan for her to commit armed robbery. Sam, Dean and Cas find Justin and reach her just in time. Cas gives her some Angel stink eye.

And here we see Dean eating again. We almost never see Sam eat or drink anything, since the beginning of this season.

Claire does remember the brothers, calling Dean “Hassehoff”. (Why is that, even remotely, funny to me?)  We’ve got, yet another,  person with Daddy issues. Cas killed her father. Maybe she should team up with Cole. The gun she was going to use for the robbery, she now points at Dean. For the third time this season, Dean is being held at gunpoint for killing someone’s dad. Claire’s had enough. She’s out of here.  I do wonder why the writers are bringing up all these Parenting issues this episode. Is it just because of Cas’ storyline, or is there some payoff later in the season?

Tonight’s show is all about family. Most especially, absent and neglectful parents, I  guess. Rowena is taken to see Crowley and they talk. It’s a momentous conversation. She’s a master bullshitter just like him. Crowley says she hated him and abandoned him when he was eight.  I’d still like to know where did she come from and where she’s been? Crowley claims he has a family and doesn’t need her and I wonder who he’s referring to. If he means Sam and Dean, I  don’t think I can express just how pathetic that sounds. If he means the demons, then that’s even worse. She says she can help him and he can trust her.

The brothers and Cas visit a  bar and discuss Claire. There follows a beautiful interaction of the three of them with Sam and Dean recounting their trip to New York with their dad, where Dean sneaks off to CBGB.  John finds him, high on something and  managing to somehow straighten out a room full of punks, just by showing up. Moral of the story: John, ” It’s not my job to be liked. It’s my job to raise you right.”

The  loanshark has caught up with Randy. Claire shows up and  pulls her gun on them. I guess it’s easier to pull it then to shoot it because every time she’s pulled it, she hasn’t. Randy sells her out to have his loan forgiven. Color me completely unsurprised. He just looked like a giant weasel to me, anyway.

Rowena and Crowley are not bonding. I guess Crowley wasn’t buying her crap. Rowena tells Crowley that it’s the guard who is smuggling souls up from hell and the other prisoner corroborates her story. When the guard tries to kill her, Crowley intervenes. In return for her information, he sets her free.

The loanshark comes to Claire to get his payment. She fights back but doesn’t stand a chance. The three stooges  get there, just in time to prevent her possible rape. Sam and Cas hustle Claire to safety, but Dean gets ambushed. He’s flashing back to his nightmare again as he warns the shark and his henchmen not to “do this”.

Sam returns too late. Dean is reliving his nightmare, covered in blood in a room full of death. Sam runs in and grabs him. He doesn’t seem especially surprised by this. He’s just been waiting for this to happen, but still doesn’t want to believe it. He demands Dean tell him it was in self defense, but Dean has no answer. He appears to be in shock.

I guess the Mark of Cain wins this round.

This episode was not as awesome as I thought it would be, but it’s not bad.  A lot of questions from the fandom got answered. Where’s Jimmy? Where’s Claire? Will Dean go dark side? The loose ends of Cas life got tied up.

I did not scream at my TV, but I am satisfied with the meatiness of this episode. We got to see the brothers enjoying each other’s company. They still look uncomfortable because the Mark of Cain is just hovering there between them but at least they’re trying to reestablish. They’re laughing just a little too hard and loud but at least they’re  making progress. We might even get a genuine hug by the end of the season.

Baby steps, people! Baby steps!