Supernatural: Torn and Frayed
October 19, 2021 5:07 AM - Season 8, Episode 10 - Subscribe

Dean, Sam, and Castiel endeavour to rescue Samandriel from Crowley, and Sam tries to decide whether he should continue hunting or be with Amelia.

Quotes

Crowley: What on earth could you possibly need now, Viggo? I've given you every torture instrument known to man. Short of a Neil Diamond album.

Dean: So who snatched heaven's most adorable angel?

Dean: [about "Demon TNT"] Let's whip up another batch.
Kevin: Sure. West Bank witch hazel, skull of Egyptian calf... the tail of some random-ass newt that may or may not be extinct....

Dean: [Castiel is watching a sleeping Dean. Dean's eyes flutter, he sees Castiel watching him sleep, jolts awake] Damn it, Cass! How many times I gotta tell you? It's just creepy.

Trivia

The boat owned by Garth that Kevin is hiding out on is called Fizzles' Folly. Mr. Fizzles is the name of the sock puppet Garth used to talk to the little girl in "Party On, Garth" (ep. 7.18).

After Sam and Dean kill a demon by way of Dean standing in front of him and waving hello to attract his attention and then Sam stabbing him from behind, Dean says, "Well, not my most original work, but..." He is referring to when the Winchesters killed a demon in an identical fashion on "What's Up, Tiger Mommy?" (ep. 8.2).

First time an angel blade is used to kill a demon. Usually angels just killed them by smiting.

Sam is staying in the same motel room Amelia was staying in during an earlier episode.

When Sam and Castiel are watching Crowley's holdup, there is a car outside that bears a striking resemblance to Castiel's "pimp mobile" in later seasons.

After the man in the hospital says, "It feels like the sun just ate my face," Castiel tells Dean it's a metaphor, but that is an incorrect term; it actually is an idiom (it feels like) with some personification (the sun just ate) added in.

Dean had his neck cut in "Citizen Fang" (ep. 8.9). That mark is gone when he confronts Sam in hotel just a day or so later.

Usually when an angel is killed, you can see a scorched outline of their wings, but after Samandriel is killed his wings are not visible.
posted by orange swan (4 comments total)
 
Dean should have told Sam more about the circumstances of Martin's death, and that Benny did it to save his great-granddaughter.

Poor Samandriel. To be tortured as he was for so long, and then murdered by one of his own. It doesn't make sense that Naomi should order Castiel to kill him. She must surely have realized it wasn't Samandriel's fault he told Crowley what he did, that killing him would not unring that bell, and that heaven was running short of angels as it was.

Amelia didn't even know what Sam did, or what she was getting into. Of course, her husband joined the military without talking to her about it first, probably has PTSD, and is away a lot, so it's kind of a toss up between the two men.
posted by orange swan at 5:13 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


Why didn’t Samdriel’s body disintegrate and leave a winged imprint like other dead angels?

By abandoning Benny, Dean has created a dangerous situation and potentially put lots of lives at risk.

If the point of being a prophet it is to interpret the word of God, Kevin shouldn’t be struggling with it this much. It’s not as if there’s a test: prove you’re worthy. The prophet is deemed to be worthy by simply being. The role is ordained.
posted by sardonyx at 2:27 PM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


I really could’ve lived without the Busty Asian Beauties callback (like forever, seriously, jesus christ) but Dean trying to distract Kevin a few scenes later by talking about how hot Linda is takes it to a creep-ass different level.

Seeing Samandriel tortured was really unpleasant, seeing the moments around Naomi torturing Castiel just kept distracting me why in Heaven they even look like people, let alone inflict or experience pain like people. (I mean I understand literally why there are humans in a room on my TV screen, I just think this is in the column of stuff it's better to leave to the imagination.)

Watching it through this time, the Sam and Amelia stuff is still pretty bizarre in execution, but I think there's something to the idea that Amelia is meant to be, not just someone who bonds with Sam because they have this huge unresolvable grief in common, but someone who can show the anger and spiky lostness that Sam is repressing. They both bolted from their cratered former lives and maybe built this escapist fantasy to keep each other going, I think they do really care about each other, but they also both probably wound up with the right person.

So now that I just said that, acknowledging that without unhinged codependency there’s no show, there’s something both loving and sad in Sam and Dean deciding to set aside people who are genuinely important to them, even though I don’t think it’s at all weird or bad for your most significant relationship to be with a relative rather than a friend or partner. I think they do get back to a point where it feels like they stay together because they want to be together, but this particular time doesn't feel like anybody won or overcame anything.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:29 PM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


n-thing the Busty Asian Beauties bs for a cheap laugh. Does Dean hit on an East Asian woman that he finds physically attractive, ever? This is simple and crude fetishization and objectification, and I'm pro ethical pornography.

That fucking "gong" sound effect. This shit is worse than the actual misogynistic racist porn out there. Commercial porn is in it to make money; this is hate crime territory.

I don't love Samandriel's torture, but points to "tickling" the brain with metal probes and eliciting a response - the crudeness and glee/ fascination sells and reinforces that demons lack empathy and are bad (additionally so because they're unsophisticated).

The vaseline-filters for the Sam-Amelia stuff despairs me of the showrunners.

Why didn’t Samdriel’s body disintegrate and leave a winged imprint

!!

The Angel Sword that Cas has in hand - where did he get it from? Is Naomi (geez, she's annoying) gaslighting Cas even more than the memory fuckerery that the audience sees? This makes me also wonder if Samandriel is a ringer or there was a body swap.
posted by porpoise at 7:59 PM on October 19, 2021 [2 favorites]


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