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I typed the tagline for the title card for this one several weeks ago, before I came to a hard decision. Quoting the Animals song from the beginning of the episode, We gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do... it kinda feels on the nose now. Since everyone can probably already guess what I mostly have to say about this one, I'm gonna use this space for a personal status update.
I've got an incredibly busy couple of months coming up, and have been seriously stressing about finding the time to write and record episodes through like... the end of summer. I've also been stressing over continuing to use spotify as my podcast host. It was bad enough before, but now to post there I have to agree to their "ai features" being applied to my little podcast, and I just... can't with that.
So for now, this will be the last episode I'm recording for a while. That doesn't mean this project as a whole is going away though! I already have the next episode "in the can," completely written up for AO3. And written more "properly" and completely than the notes I've been posting there to this point.
Considering my schedule, though, updates might be more or less frequent, and won't stick to the weekly posting schedule I've maintained for years now. What I will do is write up my complete notes, and then just post them when they're done. Some weeks, you might get two, other weeks none at all, depending on how stressful my life is being. But recording and editing the audio essentially doubles the amount of time these episodes take for me to do, so hopefully I can still mostly stick to getting out 3-4 a month still. We shall see!
Thank you to everyone who has been listening along (and reading along now!). I'm just finding it hilarious I started the podcast because I wanted to do a thorough meta rewatch without having to type everything out again, and here I am just deciding it's easier to just type everything out again...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My very long post of why i think Cas could’ve gone through the Purgatory portal with Dean
A brief post about destiel in early season 8 (and a much longer one…) (oh wait look here’s more) (look there a LOT in my tag for this one…)
Sometimes my old posts hurt me for multiple reasons (i miss you alex)
The beginning of Naomi’s influence on Cas
The Male Gaze shot (and a second post about it)
Homework for next week: Watch Duck Amuck
Garth! That's really all we need to know to enjoy this one, right? Good!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from July 2019
A bit of Set Dec Appreciation via the Angry Pig sign
Rewatch notes from May 2017 (i.e. garth is Doing His Best and you can too!)
Amy Pond vs Benny (more tied into 8.09 than here, but also tangentially relevant)
We have call sheets and script sides!
You can read my notes for this one here on AO3
And I will say here very briefly, there will be a change to the format coming up in a couple weeks, more on that soon!
no, really, how does benny know how this portal works? how is he the only being in the universe that seems to know about it, and exactly how it works? how does he know it’s only for humans to pass through? why does cas so easily believe it’s truly only for humans to pass through? i have always believed that it’s because it suits their respective agendas to believe that, whether it was the truth or not. In this essay I will…
Okay, that's just one of my usual questions around the beginning of season 8, and I will continue to ask them! But there's plenty of other things to wonder about in this episode, like how did Sam end up spending an entire year with Amelia... mysteries we will never really understand, I suppose. But at least we do get some insight into just why Dean trusts Benny so much. All this and more! including Dean's exasperation with Sam, Sam's exasperation with Dean, and interesting new facts about vampires!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
My rewatch notes from November 11, 2020
My rewatch notes from January 2018
Some Destiel for you (i swear, completely relevant to this episode, but still important)
I forgot to mention the cut scene on the dvd for this one, or maybe I just blanked it out of my mind, but Sam tries to call someone from a phone booth and then hangs up. When she calls back, he hangs up again. After Sam and Dean leave, Kate runs over, calls the last number dialed, and gets Dr. Amelia Richardson, veterinarian, who is very confused about Kate asking if she consults for the FBI.
I think the only thing this tells us is that Sam is having conflicted feelings about having left her, even despite the circumstances we’ll learn about in a few weeks. But I can see why this scene was cut for time. This episode is already jam packed, even if this likely would’ve helped make Amelia feel like less of an imaginary character.
But there are many scenes that did air, so let’s talk about those.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My Tag
A short essay on What Makes a Monster, and why I love this episode
The feminist lens of Bitten (written while s8 was still airing)
Lizbob’s excellent thoughts on the character of Kate
why is dean always the target of heartache, heartbreak, heart attacks, and other various and sundry attempts to stab, poke, crush, fold, spindle, mutilate and impale his heart? it is a mystery! but we're gonna wail about it for a bit today...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
oh look a destiel mirror
down the bunny hole…
My tag for this one is short, but it’s almost entirely about the heart imagery in the series that gets pinned to Dean. I kind of regret pushing that so hard for so long, considering what happened in 15.20, but >.>
The notes for this episode are on AO3 right here
We all remember the origin of the tagline, “the destiels will never have that now,” right? When Sam hugs Cas in 9.11, folks cheered that Cas hugged Sam before he hugged Dean, as proof that Dean doesn’t like Cas or some nonsense. And then everyone else just laughed at them, because the destiels had already had the destiel reunion hug in this episode for like a year and a half. So we decided we will also have THIS now!
I swear this episode is about a lot of other stuff, too. We can have it all now!
Including some LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series, revived for one last ride… (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) And now that all of those are posted, we’re on our own for the destiel insight. But trust us, it’s there all over the place :’)
Welcome to Carver Era! Sam hit a dog, and Dean spent a year in Purgatory. Wait, where's Cas, and why is Dean resurrecting and then hugging a vampire? Now you're all caught up! Kinda... :'D
Sometimes I think we need to talk about Kevin so we won't have to talk about any of THAT ^^ yet. But since we're here to talk about all of it, that's what we're gonna do. :)
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
A post on how I understand the purgatory portal to work
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
Why Dean’s so pissed Sam didn’t try to look for him
Vending Machine Meta
This week's notes on AO3
As we bid farewell to the Gamble Era and usher in Carver era, Kevin goes from having leviathan troubles to demon troubles, Cas chooses to take responsibility for himself and he and Dean are destined for Purgatory, and poor Sam is left standing all alone in the aftermath... at least the leviathans are effectively washed from the earth...
Gosh that makes it sound like not much of import happens in this one. I'm really underselling it here, so instead let's just jump to...
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
my tag (there is A LOT of good meta posts in the tag for this one, but not so many that it’s overwhelming. Probably a good week to spend half an hour reading :)
lizbob’s dean and cas are in love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3)
I just realized how threatening the subheading on that graphic looks... I am not actually out for blood over Dabb's nonsense car things... >.>
For those unfamiliar with our longstanding feud with Andrew Dabb over car and driving continuity issues, there’s some pretty glaring examples in this episode. Obviously the Supernatural Universe is not OUR universe, they have cities we don’t and vice versa, you know, like their Lebanon, Kansas is a thriving small town on the show and barely exists enough to mark on a map here, as just one example.
But Hoople, North Dakota to Missoula, Montana is not a 7 hour drive. It’s nearly 15 hours on a good day, on the highway. If that wasn’t enough, they doubled down on looking for somewhere within a 300 mile radius of Hoople. And Missoula is over 900 miles away. So either take this as your occasional reminder that the Supernatural universe is not our universe, and it’s kinda silly to make these sorts of comparisons because of that, or use it to fuel your personal vendetta against Mr. Dabb for not apparently knowing how to read a map.
We’ve reached the penultimate episode of season seven though, and we’re finally almost free of Gamble Era! Everything is coming together now, including a weapon they’re hoping will finally be able to kill the Leviathan, so we get a lot of plot to plow through.
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My Tag
My rewatch notes from July 2019
KEVIN! This poor kid... just add him to the list of Terrible Things Chuck Did.
We have a Leviathan Tablet and a new prophet to read it, which wakes Cas into a state of abject denial and depression of what he did, brings the angels back into play, and sets Sam and Dean on a big scavenger hunt for parts for a weapon powerful enough to end the leviathans.
Also, bees.
I think that about sums it up... oh and there's a lot of suffering of the personal emotional kind for everyone! Wheeee! Thanks, Ben Edlund!
LINKS!
The Superwiki page
My tag
Chuck is a real jerk
A reminder of why I don’t give too much credence to heaven/angel hierarchy
Rewatch notes and general yelling from October 2019
Thoughts on bees and honey on a very very old post
Cas and games and bees by ladyofthesilent
A more recent post by ilarual about the bees and guilt
A post from s13 that covers how I see the tablets and their power
Rewatch notes from January 2018 (focusing on the thread of being sorry and playing sorry connecting back to 4.22)
Lizbob’s Dean and Cas are In Love series (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)
From the publisher's feed