Supernatural: Heaven and Hell
July 22, 2021 5:24 AM - Season 4, Episode 10 - Subscribe
The angels want Anna dead, and Sam and Dean go on the run with the frightened girl, and endeavour to discover the secret that has set the furies of heaven on her.
Quotes:
Sam: When [Anna] was two and a half, she'd get hysterical any time her dad got close. She was convinced that he wasn't her real daddy.
Dean: Who was? The plumber, hmm? A little snaking the pipes?
Sam: Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again.
[Dean is driving, Sam is beside him, and Anna and Ruby are at the backseat. Dean looks in the rear-view mirror and laughs.]
Ruby: What?
Dean: Nothing. It's just, an angel and a demon riding in the back seat. It's like the setup to a bad joke. Or a Penthouse forum letter.
Sam: Dude, reality. Porn.
Dean: You call this reality?
Pamela: Sam, is that you?
Sam: I'm right here.
Pamela: Oh... Know how I can tell? [grabs Sam's butt] That perky little ass of yours. You could bounce a nickel off that thing! Of course I know it's you, Grumpy. [nods toward Ruby and Anna]
Same way I know that's a demon, and that poor girl is Anna. And that you've been eyeing my rack!
Sam: ....
Pamela: Don't sweat it, kiddo.
Dean: That's another question. Why would you fall? Why would you want to be one of us?
Anna: You don't mean that.
Dean: I don't? A bunch of, of miserable bastards, I mean, eating, crapping, confused, afraid...
Anna: I dunno, there's loyalty, forgiveness... love?
Dean: Pain?
Anna: Chocolate cake.
Dean: Guilt?
Anna: Sex.
Dean: Yeah, you got me there.
Anna: I was stationed on Earth, two thousand years. Just... watching. Silent, invisible... out on the road, *sick* for home, waiting on orders from an unknowable Father I can't begin to understand, so don't tell me that...
Dean: [chuckles]
Anna: What is so funny? What?
Dean: Nothing, sorry, it's just... I can relate.
Trivia:
The episode title was "Hell's Angels" until just a few days before airing. It was changed after notice of trademark infringement by the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Corporation.
This is the first episode that mentions angel's grace.
The hand slamming onto the fogged car window at the end of Dean and Anna's sex scene is a reference to the film Titanic in which Rose and Jack also had sex in a car. Julie McNiven has said that they "just had to do it", as it was too easy an opportunity for a pop culture reference to pass up.
When Dean describes his experience in hell, he explains that he was hacked, sliced, and ripped open, only to be healed so that he could be tortured again. This mirrors the punishment for sowers of discord in The Inferno, Dante's description of hell. Sowers of discord have those who have committed fraud against their faith, and Dean re-examines and reconstructs his faith time and time again because of what he does.
Anna says that when she fell to Earth she fell at 10,000 miles per hour. For perspective, meteors enter Earth's atmosphere at from 25,000 mph to 160,000 mph. It is almost poetic that falling angels descend slowly compared to falling stars.
Quotes:
Sam: When [Anna] was two and a half, she'd get hysterical any time her dad got close. She was convinced that he wasn't her real daddy.
Dean: Who was? The plumber, hmm? A little snaking the pipes?
Sam: Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again.
[Dean is driving, Sam is beside him, and Anna and Ruby are at the backseat. Dean looks in the rear-view mirror and laughs.]
Ruby: What?
Dean: Nothing. It's just, an angel and a demon riding in the back seat. It's like the setup to a bad joke. Or a Penthouse forum letter.
Sam: Dude, reality. Porn.
Dean: You call this reality?
Pamela: Sam, is that you?
Sam: I'm right here.
Pamela: Oh... Know how I can tell? [grabs Sam's butt] That perky little ass of yours. You could bounce a nickel off that thing! Of course I know it's you, Grumpy. [nods toward Ruby and Anna]
Same way I know that's a demon, and that poor girl is Anna. And that you've been eyeing my rack!
Sam: ....
Pamela: Don't sweat it, kiddo.
Dean: That's another question. Why would you fall? Why would you want to be one of us?
Anna: You don't mean that.
Dean: I don't? A bunch of, of miserable bastards, I mean, eating, crapping, confused, afraid...
Anna: I dunno, there's loyalty, forgiveness... love?
Dean: Pain?
Anna: Chocolate cake.
Dean: Guilt?
Anna: Sex.
Dean: Yeah, you got me there.
Anna: I was stationed on Earth, two thousand years. Just... watching. Silent, invisible... out on the road, *sick* for home, waiting on orders from an unknowable Father I can't begin to understand, so don't tell me that...
Dean: [chuckles]
Anna: What is so funny? What?
Dean: Nothing, sorry, it's just... I can relate.
Trivia:
The episode title was "Hell's Angels" until just a few days before airing. It was changed after notice of trademark infringement by the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Corporation.
This is the first episode that mentions angel's grace.
The hand slamming onto the fogged car window at the end of Dean and Anna's sex scene is a reference to the film Titanic in which Rose and Jack also had sex in a car. Julie McNiven has said that they "just had to do it", as it was too easy an opportunity for a pop culture reference to pass up.
When Dean describes his experience in hell, he explains that he was hacked, sliced, and ripped open, only to be healed so that he could be tortured again. This mirrors the punishment for sowers of discord in The Inferno, Dante's description of hell. Sowers of discord have those who have committed fraud against their faith, and Dean re-examines and reconstructs his faith time and time again because of what he does.
Anna says that when she fell to Earth she fell at 10,000 miles per hour. For perspective, meteors enter Earth's atmosphere at from 25,000 mph to 160,000 mph. It is almost poetic that falling angels descend slowly compared to falling stars.
The more I think about Pamela's unrealistically stellar coping skills, the more it bothers me. It's like how, in "Heart", Madison calmly and matter-of-factly resigns herself to her own death for the greater good, and the closing scene centres itself on Sam and Dean's feelings about having to kill her. It gives me the sense that this show has no time for women's thoughts or emotions.
posted by orange swan at 5:57 AM on July 22, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by orange swan at 5:57 AM on July 22, 2021 [6 favorites]
Uriel saying "I've been waiting for this" as he knocks Dean's block off; up to this point he has spoken to Dean for at most ninety seconds? I believe him though.
It is 1000% true that this show barely if ever has time for the interiority of women and you would really not know Pamela had her eyes burned out of her skull doing these guys a favor a couple of months ago. Though "just one look, that's all we need" is both an extraordinarily bold statement coming from Pamela, and in that one particular instance, it feels like being someone who wants to look a little farther than is safe is part of who she is and that hasn't changed. One of many characters on this show who I wish they'd been half as interested in as I was.
Anna screaming and sobbing in terror that her father's going to murder her is pretty disturbing, no less for knowing what it really means to her. But Castiel looks at her with what always looked to me like awe, which I think was a good choice.
I was so confused why Dean kept saying "at hedonism" and "from hedonism" like it's a place where Bobby is, because who uses the word hedonism that way, and oh. oh I see.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:32 PM on July 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
It is 1000% true that this show barely if ever has time for the interiority of women and you would really not know Pamela had her eyes burned out of her skull doing these guys a favor a couple of months ago. Though "just one look, that's all we need" is both an extraordinarily bold statement coming from Pamela, and in that one particular instance, it feels like being someone who wants to look a little farther than is safe is part of who she is and that hasn't changed. One of many characters on this show who I wish they'd been half as interested in as I was.
Anna screaming and sobbing in terror that her father's going to murder her is pretty disturbing, no less for knowing what it really means to her. But Castiel looks at her with what always looked to me like awe, which I think was a good choice.
I was so confused why Dean kept saying "at hedonism" and "from hedonism" like it's a place where Bobby is, because who uses the word hedonism that way, and oh. oh I see.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:32 PM on July 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
Thanks for the hedonism link. That was unexpected. Not to mention the marketing language describing the playroom gave me a good chuckle.
I'm another one who really likes Pamela and thinks her character was woefully underserved.
I have also been impressed by the easy command Anna displays whenever she's interacting with Castiel, and his obvious reverence and respect for her, in spite of her actions.
At the start of this show, if you had told me that Sam winds up with a demon and Dean gets together with an angel, I wouldn't have believed it. I'd have been more likely to buy Sam and an angel and Dean with a demon. My reasoning would have been Sam is more straight-laced while Dean is more of a rule bender (or breaker) out for a good time with a (pun not intended) devil-may-care attitude. I would have said I could see Dean enjoying something purely physical with a demon, especially one who revels in lust and sexual acts. I would have also expected an angel to be more about pure love and feelings, and would only use sex to underscore that emotional (or divine) love. The one thing this show is good at is flipping those kind of assumptions and expectations on their heads.
posted by sardonyx at 8:49 PM on July 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
I'm another one who really likes Pamela and thinks her character was woefully underserved.
I have also been impressed by the easy command Anna displays whenever she's interacting with Castiel, and his obvious reverence and respect for her, in spite of her actions.
At the start of this show, if you had told me that Sam winds up with a demon and Dean gets together with an angel, I wouldn't have believed it. I'd have been more likely to buy Sam and an angel and Dean with a demon. My reasoning would have been Sam is more straight-laced while Dean is more of a rule bender (or breaker) out for a good time with a (pun not intended) devil-may-care attitude. I would have said I could see Dean enjoying something purely physical with a demon, especially one who revels in lust and sexual acts. I would have also expected an angel to be more about pure love and feelings, and would only use sex to underscore that emotional (or divine) love. The one thing this show is good at is flipping those kind of assumptions and expectations on their heads.
posted by sardonyx at 8:49 PM on July 22, 2021 [1 favorite]
Pamela is a firecracker for sure. Her performance always crackles with energy and self-assurance.
Sam and Dean are more complex than you'd gather from just looking at their initial "straight As pre-law student" and "smartass rebel" presentation. When it comes to serious matters, Sam tends to take a more nuanced approach and to want to explore different avenues, while Dean tends to be more hardline/black and white. So yes, initially it's a surprise to see straight arrow Sam bang a demon while horndog Dean condemns it, but it makes sense once you reflect on their individual approaches to hunting and the supernatural.
posted by orange swan at 5:06 AM on July 23, 2021
Sam and Dean are more complex than you'd gather from just looking at their initial "straight As pre-law student" and "smartass rebel" presentation. When it comes to serious matters, Sam tends to take a more nuanced approach and to want to explore different avenues, while Dean tends to be more hardline/black and white. So yes, initially it's a surprise to see straight arrow Sam bang a demon while horndog Dean condemns it, but it makes sense once you reflect on their individual approaches to hunting and the supernatural.
posted by orange swan at 5:06 AM on July 23, 2021
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Anna will be in four more episodes after this one.
Pamela is very chipper for someone who has so recently lost her eyes.
Dean is definitely beginning to develop a more mature and functional perspective on his father.
The battle of the angels and demons was pretty cool. Good on Sam for plotting that one out. And it ended with Anna getting her grace back -- I doubt he even hoped for that.
It just makes no sense that Dean would spend the equivalent of 40 years in hell, and come back seeming so normal and functional -- for him -- until Uriel told Sam that Dean really did remember what happened in hell, at which point Dean is suddenly having flashbacks and nightmares and all that. Writing fail there.
posted by orange swan at 5:28 AM on July 22, 2021 [1 favorite]