Supernatural: Captives
November 15, 2021 6:55 AM - Season 9, Episode 14 - Subscribe

Kevin's spirit returns to ask Sam and Dean to find his mother. Castiel is taken to Bartholomew.

Quotes

Kevin: No, this is not happening. Didn't spend months struggling to break through the veil just to get stuck listening to Dean Winchester having a self-pity session. Didn't hear enough of those when I was alive.

Dean: Why aren't you in heaven? I mean, if anybody deserves an express pass to paradise --
Kevin: I couldn't. I can't. No one can. Heaven's closed for business. Everyone who's died since the angels fell are just stuck inside the veil, waiting. And it's bad in here. Like DMV-line-times-infinity bad.

Sam: I dug up some stuff on Candy. Turns out she was the kept woman of a powerful Congressman. Gossip blog said he worshiped the ground she walked on, literally. He, uh -- had a foot fetish.

Dean: She died here?
Sam: Yeah.
Dean: Dude, what got her? A bear?
Sam: I'm still stuck on the fact that we're trying to summon a ghost named "Candy".

Del: [mocking Crowley's voice] "Trust me," he says. "You definitely want to be a part of this, a chance to get in on the ground floor of my operation, a real learning experience. Consider it a stepping stone, my lad -- like an internship." Should've known. Internships suck.

Del: The boss, M.I.A. Too important to show for work, to even return my calls. And you know the worst part? I wasn't even allowed to kill anyone. I was told to *protect* them. I mean, how sick is that? Am I not a young, vital demon with basic demon needs and rights?

Dean: Me and Crowley, we're tight now. Thick as thieves. Saw him just last month. We had a grand ol' time.
Del: So, that's where he's been. Out partying with humans, with hunters? While I languish here in this go-nowhere, no-kill joke of a job!
Dean: "Partying" is a bit of an exaggeration.
Del: This job blows! [he rips off his nametag] I quit!

Trivia

At the storage unit, Dean identifies Sam and himself as Agents Nicks and McVie. Both Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie are female singers in the band Fleetwood Mac, and John McVie plays bass in the band.

The song Dean is listening to with headphones while laying in bed is "Lonely is the Night" from Billy Squier's 1981 Don't Say No album.

In the storage facility, Sam asks, "D. Webster? What, as in Daniel Webster?" Daniel Webster is the main character in a Stephen Vincent Benet short story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster", about a farmer who sells his soul to the Devil and the lawyer who represents him.
posted by orange swan (7 comments total)
 
If Linda was held captive in a storage unit for a year, she was going to have some pretty major trauma/PTSD. Which of course this episode doesn't indicate that she has.

Sam and Dean should have asked Linda to come live in the bunker, where she would be safe, and failing that, should have looked for Linda sooner. Crowley may have said she was dead, but they should have known better than to trust his word, and should have investigated it to be sure what the truth was, for Kevin's sake and Linda's too, should she still be alive.

That said, I don't blame Sam and Dean for everything that happened to Kevin. They didn't choose him or rope him into their world -- he became a prophet according to a divine plan -- and they (eventually) moved him to the bunker, which should have been the safest place he could be. I don't even blame Dean for Gadreel. Dean was desperate to save Sam's life, and he thought he was dealing with Ezekiel, whom Castiel vouched for. The one thing I think Dean was at fault for was not telling Kevin about Ezekiel's possession of Sam.
posted by orange swan at 7:04 AM on November 15, 2021


I think what Dean did with Ezekiel/Gadreel is very consistent with who the show has shown us he is and how he feels about Sam. The fact that Gadreel lied about who he was is IMO secondary to that--trusting the wrong person in desperation compounds the consequences, but even if it really had been Ezekiel, Dean fundamentally couldn't live with a choice Sam was making about his own life and took control of that decision himself, and then kept lying about it to maintain that control. He knows that's kind of a messed up thing to do to someone even for really good and loving reasons, but living with that, and even with the people Gadreel kills, is bearable; losing Sam isn't. It's horrifying in the horror movie sense, but this entire story is built off and runs on the horrifying things people do for love.

I don't think the show ever settled on what reasonable duty of care the Winchesters had towards this eighteen year old maybe-orphan who got roped into essentially the same shitty destiny as them, let alone how much they like or really care about him. It is one of the times where I think Dean's whole "we're a family and we have to stick together" feels the most like reaching, more on the writer's part than the character's, if that makes sense, and one of my favorite parts of Osric Chau's performance is how he never really comes around to trusting any of them more than necessary (except Linda, who he's also trying to protect.) Thinking through this story from Kevin's perspective, I don't think see how Winchesters come out looking that great. Anyway--I'm glad that even if the Trans don't exactly get a happy ending, they get a less awful ending than Linda being tortured out of her mind and Kevin going crazy as a ghost stuck listening to Sam and Dean argue.
posted by jameaterblues at 10:13 PM on November 15, 2021 [1 favorite]


if that makes sense

Totally. A 'tell' rather than 'show' situation because the writers aren't very skilled. otoh, the counterargument is that - have we seen Dean actually sacrifice for someone he considers family, other than the woe-is-me taking-care-of-young-Sam (frankly, which he was bad at it)? Dean's actions have been pretty selfish other than token/ performative/ convenient - and "family" is his way-of/ attempt-at manipulating people he finds useful.

he never really comes around to trusting any of them more than necessary

Yeah, this might have been touched on in another episode, but I find it easy to believe that Sam and Dean on this show are what Sam and Dean think they're like - and are actually super sketchy weird-looking guys in the eyes of 'civilians' or other objective observers (likewise the overabundance of conventionally attractive women that they hook up with). Like, Garth and his werewolf wife are actually normally attractive and the Winchester boys denigrate their appearance/ mannerism out of insecurity/ jealousy (like TXF episode 'Bad Blood' where Mulder and Scully have rather different recollections of the sheriff's [Luke Wilson's] appearance).

I dig that Linda knows standard US electrical code. And that she knows immediately what Sam is reluctant to tell her, and she responds with drive instead of despair (or overt blame, but you know she's thinking it).

I kind of want Linda to go full gaze-into-the-abyss Evil-evil.

major trauma/PTSD. Which of course this episode doesn't indicate that she has.

I wonder who took the time to dye and cut her hair over that year she was in captivity.
posted by porpoise at 10:58 PM on November 15, 2021


otoh, the counterargument is that - have we seen Dean actually sacrifice for someone he considers family, other than the woe-is-me taking-care-of-young-Sam (frankly, which he was bad at it)?

I maybe go easier on them here than you do there, I don't know he did much worse with Sam than any other kid would've in his situation, which was shitty for all concerned. And there was the selling his soul thing. Though, as we see here, questions of Sam being alive are also sort of a self-preservation thing for Dean.

I wonder who took the time to dye and cut her hair over that year she was in captivity.

It's like how Meg escaped a year with Crowley and suddenly had bleach blonde hair, I'm happier with no Watsonian explanation whatsoever.

Yeah, this might have been touched on in another episode, but I find it easy to believe that Sam and Dean on this show are what Sam and Dean think they're like - and are actually super sketchy weird-looking guys in the eyes of 'civilians' or other objective observers

Are you maybe thinking of the Ghostfacers episode in season 3 with the found footage necrophiliac birthday party? Sam and Dean are swearing profusely and running up yelling at ghosts to be dead and it's pretty enjoyable, which raises the bizarre and delightful idea that the Sam and Dean we see are, somehow, different from the Sam and Dean in someone else's camera eye. (The first Ghostfacers episode, Hell House, and first Trickster episode, Tall Tales, also do the Bad Blood thing of the same story through multiple viewpoints.) Without getting into a ton of spoilers, who's telling this story does get dealt with in fairly literal terms in the last couple seasons, though I'm not sure what you'd think of the answer.
posted by jameaterblues at 6:52 PM on November 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


I don't know guns and I didn't get a good look at the gun shoved in the Ghostfacer's waistband, but I found it ironic that Dean referred to it as a ladygun (or something like that). It was also pearl handled, wasn't it? And so are Dean's and Sam's.
posted by sardonyx at 8:09 PM on November 16, 2021


Ah, sorry. Posted on the wrong thread. I've got too many tabs open, and saw the comment referencing the Ghostfacers above, and....
posted by sardonyx at 8:36 PM on November 16, 2021


I'm glad the characters are getting conclusions or resolutions this season--at least to some degree--but how they're going to keep Kevin from going mad when even Bobby was having a tough time as a ghost is a pretty big open-ended question. I guess they figure once Heaven is restored all the souls destined for there are just going to ascend.

Kevin's story is definitely a sad one, but one that could be rooted in reality: just because you're smart and dedicated doesn't mean circumstances (or fate or whatever) will respect that intelligence and willpower. Sometimes/often, it's not enough to be smart and strong-willed. If the breaks and luck don't go your way, then none of that matters, as you're still screwed.

It is nice to see, however, that Mrs. Tran ended up more than a stereotypical one-note character, even if, at her very essence, she is still a very competent woman.
posted by sardonyx at 8:45 PM on November 16, 2021 [1 favorite]


« Older Stove League: Episode Fourteen...   |  Yellowjackets: Pilot... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster