SPN 4.16; or, this is REALLY why I usually don't write ep reviews

[aesc]

NO NO NO NO NO WHY THE FUCK DID YOU HAVE TO GO KILLING OFF URIEL????? aesc DISAPPROVES OF THIS VERY VERY VERY STRONGLY.

*heaves* Of course they do it in the episode when my Uriel!appreciation was grounded in more than just my perverse love of people I'm not supposed to like. He's the funniest angel in the goddamn garrison! He's starting to like Sam and Dean, even if he's totally sarcastic about it. WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, WRITERS? SERIOUSLY! COME ON!

Even though I try to make it a policy not to hate on characters... I would have liked it if the culprit was Anna, despite the fact she's probably the obvious suspect, if it isn't a demon: known history of disobedience, questioning authority, that sort of thing. It sounds right up Lucifer's alley.

I will try, I will try to put aside my resentment of Uriel being killed off, because the rest of the episode is so deeply made of awesome. Why, you ask?

Because we got like, what, five times Dean calling him Cas? And I like to think that the angels picked up the habit of calling him that, since Anna and Uriel both use it once.

Because there's another layer in the angel/demon war, and lingering resentment among the host that's responsible for how royally fucked up things have become--why Castiel is being ordered to make Dean torture Alastair even though he really really sincerely wishes he didn't have to.

CASTIEL CASTIEL CASTIEL CASTIEL. I love how much development we got here, his fear, the resolution he's slowly starting to come to. How the People Upstairs have gotten wind of the fact that he's a bit too partial to Dean and think that's compromising his effectiveness, and he clearly resents it, and resents having Uriel in charge of him again.

THERE ARE GIRL ANGELS!

Sam and his fear for Dean, knowing that Dean's busted up and hasn't been himself. I was on the point of becoming truly exasperated with him, but this saved him for me. He knows Dean hasn't been himself since he came back--who would be?--and this is the only way he can see to deal with things, when strength beyond what Dean's physically and psychically capable of is required.(The bloodsucking thing, however, gross. And my distrust in Ruby = 100% renewed.)

And Dean. Dean all the way through, but especially at the end, broken, frightened, overwhelmed, oh my heart. I can't even talk about it.



In my head, just after the fade out, Castiel takes his hand and heals him, and things still suck in astronomical proportions, but there is, for one moment, a lessening of pain.