Supernatural: Good Intentions

March 3, 2018 11:55 AM - Season 13, Episode 14

Sam, Dean, and Castiel continue to search for a way to open a breach; one of their own may be working against them and costing them precious time.

I felt like the first part of the imdb episode summary was a tad spoiler-y for the ep, so I cut it out: "Jack and Mary escape Michael's clutches and end up finding an ally in Bobby Singer."

This episode had some nice moments. A few highlights:

- Jack making his shadow puppets was so cute. Also, "Sam and Dean, they wouldn't run away"
- Dean and Castiel having a heart to heart about how Cas is doing.
- "I don't get words wrong" and Dean's eye roll response.
- Gog and Magog were just too good for this world:
"He-" "-or she"
"I'll kill the pretty one"
"They're equally pretty"
"I hate doing this. You are very beautiful"
- "Ask them about the loincloths"

I like to imagine some alternate universe where Gog and Magog decide to help team free will, and they follow Cas and Dean back to the bunker and hilarity ensues.

posted by litera scripta manet (8 comments total)

So, what do you guys think of Cas's actions in this episode? I wouldn't mind too much if this is a sort of return to "good soldier" Cas of season 4, but I really hope this isn't going to be a re-tread of season 6 Cas.

Although in this particular case, I'm pretty sympathetic to his perspective. What exactly were they planning to do with Donatello if Cas hadn't stepped in? I get that killing him would have sucked, and him being brain dead isn't much better, but he's secretly working for Asmodeus, has no soul, and apparently has been corrupted by the demon tablet, and they won't get another prophet while he's alive.

Also, how long are they going to make us wait for more Gabriel? I was really hoping for a follow up in this episode, but it figures they would make us wait a while before delivering on the previous episode's reveal.
posted by litera scripta manet at 3:55 PM on March 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

So, what do you guys think of Cas's actions in this episode?

I thought 'give Donatello a clean death' was the least-worst option they had available, and would've preferred that over what happened. I do think Cas was right that they could neither help him nor properly contain him though.

(Poor Donatello, regardless.)
posted by mordax at 5:30 PM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

yeah i actually came up with "kill him to activate the next prophet to help" just as Cas was saying it. like... morally it's iffy but Dean did say he was willing to "do anything" to get mom and Jack back. and killing a soulless corrupted prophet hell bent on killing you instead of helping might not even approach the "lines to not cross" when you're willing to do anything. (i'll give them that they didn't find out he was working for Asmodeus until after Cas read his mind)
posted by numaner at 6:44 PM on March 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

In the early days of this show, I used to tell people it was kind of like X-Files crossed with Buffy. And it was! These two guys would wander around in the Canadian woods taking out horrible monsters, and it was all very MOW X-File-y but with Whedon-ish quips. As it went on it became very much its own thing, but in those early days you could see the influences pretty clearly.

I hadn't thought about that for years, but something about Gog and Magog struck me as so Whedon-y, and specifically so Angel-y. These two hulking, mystical warriors who are intimidating but also speak in a kind of modern, funny way, and keep interrupting the battle to argue about which of the boys is prettier. I could SO picture Angel's gang going up against those two!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:09 AM on March 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

Gog and Magog cracked me up (and yeah, @Ursula Hitler, I definitely get the Angel vibe you picked up on.)

"If bacon's what kills me, I win" is such a Dean thing to think that I'm kind of amazed it was never said before. Also, he's not wrong. (Dean eating like Homer Simpson and Sam fussing about it is up there with the laziest Sam and Dean interaction at this point, but he's still not wrong.)

This Zachariah is so much a demotion from actual Zachariah that I wish they hadn't even tried to trade on the name, but it raises some neat ideas about how different angels could be if they took different hosts in this world. (I forget, do we know if Earth 2's Castiel is alive? Nothing against Misha Collins at all, but it'd be cool to have another actor's take on him.)

Somewhere in the DNA of that scene with Castiel and Donatello was a writer asking herself if she could come up with a reason for Castiel to take his coat off for once. Never hurts to remind the viewers at home that the guy out here saving the world and lobotomizing the prophets in business formal. Frying his brain without actually killing him, thus technically avoiding murder in the strictest human legal sense and also not activating another prophet, seems like an odd way to walk that particular line, though. (And raises interesting questions that I doubt will go addressed on what ways Castiel's absorbed human morality over the years. I like the angels on this show better when there's something about them that's fundamentally alien in their interaction with humans.)
posted by jameaterblues at 12:41 PM on March 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

i mean, most of the angels are still alienating assholes, or as-greedy-and-self-serving-as-human assholes, or just whimpering cowards. Cas is the most human-like morally ok angel so far, and i think hunters like Sam and Dean would rather have that on their side at this point, disregarding sentiments.
posted by numaner at 8:50 PM on March 4, 2018

Quotes

Dean: [is eating a plate of bacon]
Sam: Don’t you think you should, uh, take it a little easy on the nitrates?
Dean: Dude, if bacon’s what kills me, then I win.

Dean: [laughs at Gog and Magog who are dressed in armour and loincloths.]
Castiel: This is serious.
Dean: Yeah, no, no, I know. But… they’re wearing — they’re wearing loincloths.
Castiel: Dean.
Gog:[speaking ancient Canaanite] Well met, fellows!
Magog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] But where are their armies?
Castiel: It’s ancient – ancient Canaanite. They wanna know if we brought armies.
Dean: Armies?
Castiel: To fight them.
Gog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] Whichever warrior releases us must face us in combat! He—
Magog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] Or she—
Gog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] Why interrupt me? You always do this.
Magog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] Do what?
Gog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] Contradict me!
Dean: What now?
Castiel: Uh, they’re… arguing.
Dean: Ah. Ask ‘em where they got their loincloths.
Castiel: Dean.
Magog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] … as soon as we kill these fellows!
Gog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] Good! Good! Which shall we kill first?
Magog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] I will kill the pretty one.
Dean: It’s a furry diaper.
Castiel: Dean.
Gog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] They are equally pretty.
Magog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] The smaller one, then—
Gog: Eh.
Magog: [speaking ancient Canaanite] Enough! You! Embrace your beautiful death! [takes out his sword and walks toward Dean]
Castiel: Uh, he just said that he’s gonna — he’s gonna —
Dean: No, I got it.
Magog: [shatters Dean's angel blade with his sword]
Dean: Cass! What the hell?!
Castiel: He said their blades were forged by a god!
Magog: [kicks Dean to the ground]
Dean: [gets up] Cool.

Gog: [about to stab Castiel; speaking ancient Canaanite] I hate doing this! You are very beautiful!
Dean: [runs Gog through with Magog's sword] Forged by God, touched by God, same thing.
Castiel: Yeah. Apparently.

Alt world Bobby Singer: [to real world Mary Winchester] Well, hell, I thought you were a damn ghost. Turns out you're just from a whole other world. Which is... weirder, when you think about it.

Trivia

This episode aired on Jensen Ackles' 40th birthday.

The spell which Donatello gives Sam and Dean includes the ingredients Balthazar used to send them to the our universe in "The French Mistake" (ep. 6.15): "Cleanse the holy altar with sacramental water, built on a bed of godsroot. Bless the altar in the tongue of God. Coat a bronze bowl with Oil of Abramelin. Combine dragon's blood, wolfsbane, angelica root. Crush into a fine paste. Sprinkle with goofer dust [...] Mortar and pestle, combine with dead sea brine, virgin lamb's blood and the bone of a lesser saint [...] Mixture, paint three symbols [...] surrounding the altar [...] pastes into the [...] mix thoroughly, top with dried [...] Hearts of Gog and Magog."

In the scene where Dean, Sam and Castiel talk about what happened with Donatello, Dean asks Castiel what gives him the right to do what he did and Castiel said, "No one gave it to me, I took it." This mirrors directly what Lucifer said to Baldur in "Hammer of the Gods" (ep. 5.19).

According to Mary Winchester, Jack is supposed to be six months old, which implies that this episode is set in November 2017.

There is a deleted scene where Dean and Castiel talk in the place where they come to find Gog and Magog. It was posted on director P.J. Pesce's Instagram page.

When Gog and Magog are dead and Castiel examines Gog's body, sand pours out of Gog's chest and on the ground. But in the following scene, the sand is gone.
posted by orange swan at 4:55 PM on February 15, 2022

Mary really ought to have told Bobby what Jack was and what they were running from before setting foot in his camp.

Magog believes in gender inclusion, which is pretty woke for an ancient Canaanite.

It was funny seeing Jensen Ackles look like such a little guy next to the actors playing Gog and Magog -- he really isn't small! It does seem as though Gog and Magog weren't up on their fight training the way Dean is -- they just rely on their size and brute force.
posted by orange swan at 4:57 PM on February 15, 2022