SUPERNATURAL: Heaven and Hell

Well, first the sad news: this is the last episode of Supernatural until 2009. We have almost two months until we will see the brothers Winchester in a new ep, but did we ever get some good stuff to tide us over until then. Specifically, this episode was all Jensen Ackles, and he killed it.

There was a lot going on story-wise last night and I think we all mostly want to discuss the major points so I’m not going to recap the episode moment by moment. Instead, I’m going to start off by saying that if ever there was an Emmy-deserving scene of this show (and contrary to the lack of nominations in the past, there have been a few) it was the last few minutes, which had me crying like I was watching Friday Night Lights (the one show I can count on to bring me to genuine tears on a regular basis).

Anna is an angel, or a fallen angel. She remembered this last night after a little help from the randy psychic Pamela Barnes, who may have lost her vision but has certainly not lost her desire to get with a Winchester. It seems Anna was pretty high up in Heaven – she was in charge of both Castiel and Uriel while there – but she had too strong a desire to experience the humanity of earth. After watching over it silently for 2,000 years she committed the ultimate act of disobedience and ripped out her grace (or her angel juice) and fell to earth. This is a sin punishable by death up where she came from. So, apparently is questioning the existence of God. You see, only four angels have ever seen God with their own eyes – the rest have to take it on faith, just like earthly believers. Nice twist, Kripke! I love how the view of good/evil and the existence of god are fluid concepts on this show. I was a little worried about the fact that we had such a clearly defined “Good” side and “Bad” side at the beginning of the season with the introduction of the angels, but they have clearly chosen not to go that route and the show is all the more interesting for it.

Knowing that Anna is an angel doesn’t make her predicament any different: she is still being hunted by both sides; one who can use her “listening abilities” to their advantage and one who wants to keep her from spilling information forever. Dean, Sam and Ruby spend most of the episode trying to block both sides from finding them and protecting Anna. One night while Dean and Anna are talking she reveals that she knows what he did in Hell – she heard the angels discussing it. Jensen Ackles was so good in this small moment – you really felt his terror at the thought of reliving what he went through. Anna encourages him to open up when he’s ready, because he has people that care about him and that will listen to him (Sammy, of course). She also tells him to forgive himself, which judging by the look on his face, is not going to be happening any time soon.

Anna and Dean really bond over the fact that they’ve both spent their existences in service to a “father” that they rarely, if ever, saw and having to operate purely on faith. Pretty soon the two can’t take the chemistry that’s building between them any longer, they decide to experience one of the earthly pleasures that Anna gave up her heavenly existence for (not chocolate cake) and head for the backseat of the Impala. I loved when Anna said it felt like their last night on earth and Dean said “you’re stealing my best lines” – gah! I’m not even going to talk about how hot he looked throughout because I’ll devolve into a twelve year old fangirl pretty quickly. Suffice it to say, Jensen is hot. Super hot. (Between this scene and the shower scene in Chuck we’ve had a lot of pause-worthy moments in tv land this week!)

In what is ultimately revealed to be Sam’s plan all along, the angels and demons are lured to where the Scooby gang is hiding out and Castiel and Uriel go head to head with Alistair. In all of the commotion, Anna sees that Uriel has been wearing her grace in a vial around his neck and smashes it on the floor, absorbing it back into her body. She disappears in a flash of brilliant light, taking out Alistair (who reminded me at various times of the episode of both Hannibal Lector and Marlon Brando in The Godfather) at the same time, and leaving everyone else in tact.

Then come the tears. Sam and Dean are talking by the car alone, and Dean decides it’s time to open up to Sam about his time in Hell. During the fight Alastair had referred to Dean having “potential” in Hell, and Sam’s been dying to ask but hasn’t so as not to push his big brother. Dean begins a monologue explaining his time down there which was the equivalent of forty years, and the fact that he spent the first thirty being tortured and ripped apart every day only to be made whole again so that they could start in on him again the next day. At the end of each day Alastair gave him a choice: come down off the torture rack and inflict the same pain on others, or stay where he is, forever. For thirty years he chose to take the pain himself, but then he couldn’t do it any longer. He came down off the rack and he began to torture and he did it for his remaining ten years until he was pulled out.

The emotion of this scene was overwhelming – Jensen Ackles really just flat-out nailed it. His voice, the tears, the way his lip quivered when he spoke – it did not seem “acted” at all. Amazing.

Next up in January, it looks like Lilith and the 66 Seals will be the focus (kind of sounds like a bad rock band) but for now I encourage you to keep this episode on your dvr so you can tide yourself over watching Jensen Ackles in his glory repeatedly until then.

Nicole is a lawyer by day and will be GMMR’s resident Supernatural and Privileged expert this year. She lives just outside of Toronto, and as such, you’ll have to forgive Canadian spellings and maybe the occasional “eh” when they pop up in her reviews. Nicole is still in mourning over the loss of Arrested Development and desperately hoping that the movie happens soon. While she’s a lover of music and movies, television is near and dear to her heart and she’s really excited to be a part of the GMMR team!