Supernatural: Tombstone
November 18, 2017 8:48 PM - Season 13, Episode 6 - Subscribe

Following an emotional reunion, the team heads to Dodge City, Kansas, for a gun-slinging showdown with possible zombies.

The goofy parts of this episode was terrific! I love it when the show lets loose with the core personalities of the brothers.

Sad that Jack and Castiel only got some father-son bonding in for one episode. But I'm sure that'll come full circle later.

"I'm your Huckleberry"
posted by numaner (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Yeah, that was fun. I didn't think they'd spend so much time making me sympathize with the Antichrist this season, but here we are. Good show, show.
posted by mordax at 10:39 PM on November 18, 2017


Fun, but Cas is NOT Cas. When in the car with Jack and Sammy, Cas starts giving a pick me up speech to Jack about how he lost people he LOVES. The camera cuts to Sam's face of surprise - Cas has called the Winchester's family, but an expression of love?

My guess is VoidCas plans to get near Jack to figure out how he is powerful enough to awaken slain angels/demons and destroy Jack so VoidCas can go back to sleep.

Also - was anyone else having tiny heart attacks waiting for Dean to die for real? Billie mentioned in the previous episodes that one of the binders of how Dean dies is in a cemetery by a ghoul. Or maybe she made sure that one didn't come to pass?
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 2:41 PM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


My guess is VoidCas plans to get near Jack to figure out how he is powerful enough to awaken slain angels/demons and destroy Jack so VoidCas can go back to sleep.

Oh, not a bad theory. I thought this one was kind of an anti-climax after all the drama about Cas being for-real DEAD this time. He was just suddenly alive again now, and the next thing we knew they were all off on a Monster of the Week adventure. It felt like they were trying to get back to business as usual too soon. I also wondered why Sam and Dean were so quick to accept this was really Castiel, with zero skepticism. But if Castiel ISN'T Castiel, that might explain why the boys were a little too quick to buy the story. If they demanded he prove himself he might fail, so for the sake of the story the boys are suddenly a little too trusting. (Of course the writers could have done a thing where Cas DID pass some test, only for it to later turn out Castiel was really Mr. Inky all along but he was able to fool them because he's just that superpowered and sneaky.)

But whatever we're thinking, it's probably not that. For good or ill, this show rarely goes the way anybody expects. I've heard some very good fan theories over the years, but I don't remember any of them turning out to be right!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 5:06 PM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I've heard some very good fan theories over the years, but I don't remember any of them turning out to be right!

The only one I ever held that panned out was Chuck being God. I have no personal speculation regarding this being real vs. Void Castiel. (I assume we'll be seeing Inky again either way, but that's just an obvious Chekhov's Gun thing.)
posted by mordax at 5:36 PM on November 19, 2017


Quotes

Dean: Cass, is that really you?
Sam: No. You're – you're dead.
Castiel: Yeah, I was. But then I annoyed an ancient cosmic being so much that he sent me back.

Dean: Can I say that I'm getting real sick and tired of fighting things that look like other things?

Sam: So what do we tell Athena?
Dean: Well, we keep it simple, tell her the guy she's banging eats dead people, and we're here to kill him. Or we could lie.
Sam: Yeah, we definitely lie.

Dave: [to Dean] Hands up. Oh, I think you heard me. Raise 'em! High! Attaboy.
Athena: Dave? Don't.
Dave: It's okay. I'm doing this for us, baby.
Athena: There is no "us."
Dean: Ooh. Ouch. Breakups can be a bitch.

Trivia

Dean, Castiel, Sam, and Jack use the aliases Russell, Kilmer, Elliott, and Paxton, respectively, all of which are actors from the 1993 movie Tombstone.

The title of the episode is taken from Tombstone, which recounts the shootout at The O.K. Corral between lawmen Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and a group of outlaws, who are also referenced throughout the episode.

Sarah Troyer, who plays Athena in this episode, was in the first episode of Wynonna Earp. Wyatt Earp, played by Kurt Russell in Tombstone, was the supposed grandfather of the fictional Wynonna Earp.

"Two salty hunters, a half-angel kid, and a dude who just came back from the dead... again. Team Free Will 2.0, here we go!" is said by Dean in the bunker. This echoes an earlier line, "One ex-blood junkie, one drop-out with six bucks to his name, and Mr. Comatose over there," from season 5 when Dean coined the term "Team Free Will" to mean those fighting against the archangel Michael.

First appearance of Castiel's new trench coat.

The name on the mausoleum where Sarge gets pulled under ground is Lopez, possibly named for the director of the episode, Nina Lopez-Corrado.

While Dean is crawling through the tunnels underneath the graveyard, he paraphrases John McClane's line while crawling through the air vents in Die Hard: "Sure. Come to Dodge City. We'll have some laughs."

The episode is set in Kansas, yet the distinct large, jagged Rocky Mountains can be seen in the background. Kansas is too far from the Rockies, and as part of the plains, would have no similar geography. Any hills or mountains in Kansas would be rounded and rolling.

After telling the team about Dave Mather, Dean says "I'll get my boots on!" He has been pacing the entire time, with sound effects of boots on wood flooring.
posted by orange swan at 3:48 PM on February 8, 2022


How did Athena not figure out that there was something amiss with her boyfriend before the events of this episode?

Jack does show aptitude for being a hunter. He just needs better control over his zapping skills.

Castiel's trenchcoat is also a different shade from the old ones. I suspect what happened was that the trenchcoat(s) he had been using for years had gotten too worn out and wardrobe couldn't find any more exactly the same, so they had to go with a similar but slightly different style.
posted by orange swan at 3:49 PM on February 8, 2022


Davy Perez wrote some of the strongest episodes of season 12 and some of my favorites of the Dabb era overall, and I’m glad he got the first crack at Jack and Castiel's dynamic. I thought they always had an interesting one, especially in the moments it’s most obvious to both of them that Sam and Dean are human and they are very much something else. But sweet of Dean, in his Dean way, to give the Wild Bill Suite to his newly alive BFF (and, sure, also the kid) who, politely, could not possibly care less.

“Well, in Heaven good’s a relative term.” not far off from this show’s cosmology in a nutshell.
posted by jameaterblues at 9:08 PM on May 30, 2022


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