Supernatural: Hunter Games

Tonights episode deals with the aftermath of Dean’s massacre, at the ranch, in the last episode. Sam and Castiel are both desperate to save him, and they try to come up with a plan. Claire, Castiel’s daughter, has it in for Dean, for killing her father-figure at the massacre, so I wonder how long she’ll last. I could definitely do without seeing Metatron, so I hope he gets beaten up really, really good, as I still hate him for what he did to Cas.

Rowena and Crowley are still toeing around each other. I wonder  if her game is now to be Queen of Hell? Crowley isn’t blind to her manipulation. C’mon, it’s Crowley. But I wonder what this particular storyline means for his future.

Ooh! we got a nice long “road so far” flashback this week.

We open on a scene with a frightened Crowley. He’s having a nightmare about being killed by his minions, but Mommas there to wake him up. No, he doesn’t trust her, though she wants him to. He shouldn’t because her hex bag caused his nightmare.

Dean Is alone and flashbacking to the ranch massacre, while Cas complains about being unable to emotionally reach Claire. Sam, Dean and  Cas all acknowledge that the killing at the ranch was too far over the edge. Dean wants them to get rid of The Mark. Cas suggests finding the demon tablet or …

Rowena gets caught rummaging through Crowley’s things by his majordomo, Guthrie. Betraying others is a common tactic for her. And yes, she is shamelessly sucking up to Crowley, too. Apparently, she has a long history of deception, which is why she was, so often, on the run from various groups. I can see she is not the schemer that Crowley is. She’s really not as good at playing the “long game” like him. She’s too ham-handed.

Castiel goes to Metatron to ask for help. (Did I say how much I hate Metatron’s smarmy grin?) Sam and Cas tie him up in the bunker and state their request. He takes such glee in delineating Dean’s problems, that even I want to smack the piss out of him. Metatron requests Dean be kept from him and part of me thinks this is a ploy to get Sam to do the exact opposite. Of course, Sam does the exact opposite. So, now Metatron can needle all of them together and I get to hear more of his self-ingratiating bullshit.  Yippee!

At the Astoria hotel, Claire is running out on Castiel. Of course she is. That’s her superpower. She’s also given up on accepting Cas help or having a normal life. She insists that it wasn’t Randy who was the monster, but Dean for killing him. She has to be on her own. The girl is a train wreck waiting to happen. She refuses any responsibility for the part she played in Randy’s death. After her father left her, she made one bad decision after another. A series of decisions, which left her locked in a room, about to be assaulted, by a man who bargained for her, in return for her beloved mentor’s debts. She’s not to blame for her mentors bad decisions , but she has to accept responsibility for the decisions that landed her in the presence of this lowlife,Randy, who used her and cared nothing for her safety.

So now, we get another scene of Metatron blabbing at the brothers, and he’s not saying anything helpful, of course. I wouldn’t believe anything that comes out of his mouth, after what he did to Cas and I wonder whatever possessed any of them to believe he would help them. He tells them they need The  First Blade.

Rowenna is still buttering up Crowley, when Dean calls him to ask a favor. When Crowley leaves, Rowenna starts a locator spell.

Claire is in a bar being talked into doing something stupid by her friends, while Cas repeatedly calls her. Claire does not strike me as the brightest penny in the wrapper. I understand where she’s coming from, but still, it’s really difficult to watch dumb people make one dumb decision after another. Claire’s situation is a mirror to the Winchesters and Crowley. They’re continuing to trust people who mean them harm. Claire in trusting Randy,  Castiel’s trust of Metatron and allowing him to live to cause problems later, and Crowley’s trust in his mother. They know these individuals are dangerous snakes yet refuse to remove these problems. I guess I’m a lot more pragmatic and hard hearted than these characters, and that’s saying something, when you consider the people I’m talking about.

The brothers present Crowley with their request and promise to keep Dean away from The Blade. Crowley is incredulous. Rowena’s spell involves spying on their conversation, so when Crowley says The Blade is in a crypt with his bones, Rowena now has ammunition. Rowena gets Guthrie to retrieve The Blade.

Cas suggests Dean reach out to Claire to bring her back into the fold. That’s a mistake I can see a mile coming.

Crowley returns to his crypt to find The Blade missing. And yeah, I saw Guthries death, at Rowena’s hand, coming from a mile away too. Jeebus, but she’s a horrible actress. And I’m screaming at myTV not to trust her, man!

Okay, I don’t trust Claire’s friends. They are entirely too interested/disinterested in Randy, Cas, Dean,Claire’s personal problems. And their offer, to kill Dean for her, is all I need to know they’re probably pretty dumb, too.  It’ll probably be their last, worst decision.

The Winchesters get the blade from Crowley and Dean goes to tell Metatron, who wants them to do his bidding, in return for information. Dean offers to torture the information out of him. Please proceed, Dean.

Yay! There’s  the old-school Demon!Dean, torturer, I remember. (Oh, alright! There are a handful of shows that bring out my bloodthirst. I refuse to apologize for that.)

Metatron tries to make  a moral equivalence between the horrible things he did for his self- aggrandizement… to the Angels, to Cas, to the Prophets and the world,  and the decisions Dean has made to save lives, but I call foul on that. It’s not the same thing. He’s trying to place everything that went wrong on Dean, but I’m not buying it, because while intention may not be magic, it is certainly a significant factor in whether or not someone can be called actively, maliciously evil  or just stupid.

Sam and Cas get there in time to save Metatron. But Metatron left one clue. “The river is the source.”. I think he meant Cain. Sam lays out his thinky-thoughts to Dean: Cain has lived with the Mark for years and if he can do it, so can Dean, if he deals with that part of himself that Sam believes is helping power the Mark.

Claire calls to set up a meet with Dean. On boy. This is gonna be bad. Claire’s dumb friends are gonna try to take out Dean. But he spares their lives, at Claire’s plea and then of course she runs away. Cas finds her and they talk about the little monster inside her. Cas is, I guess, going to leave her by the side of the road after this little talk. This is still not a resolved issue for me but maybe it is for the writers, I guess.

I guess the take-away from this scene is that the Mark can be controlled. Dean doesn’t have to slaughter, so maybe, he actually was listening to Sam during that scene and not just watching Sam’s lips move. Unfortunately, Dean is in a job that requires killing and I don’t see him giving up hunting any time soon.

I give this episode a 3.5 on my crap-o-meter because of the repulsive presence of Metatron. Of course I’ll watch this episode again because I got my wish. (Ftr, I’m only a fan of TV torture. Not a fan of real-life torture. Get it! Fake violence vs real life violence…oh, never mind.)