Source: CW // Supernatural
“You took everything from me – what do you want now?”
Over the past ten years there have been so many fantastic mid-season finales that made us wait desperately for the season to continue in January. I have some mixed feeling about Tuesday’s episode ‘the Things We Left Behind’. Whereas it left me with some pretty heart shattering feels towards the end of it I also feel they could have done a bit more with it but knowing Supernatural, they undoubtedly have a lot more things planned we don’t yet know about. This episode was focused on Castiel and more importantly his vessel, Jimmy Novak’s daughter Claire. We were briefly introduced to Claire a few seasons ago when she was younger and found out that Castiel had taken over her dad’s body. We quickly learn this episode that Claire is a teenager that struggles to accept the changes that’s happened to her family over the past few years.
The episode starts with Claire being arrested and put in a cell at a Youth Transition Centre when Castiel comes to visit her, telling Claire he wants to help her because he feels guilty about everything that he’s put her and her family through. Claire learns that her father’s soul is no longer in his body but in heaven because Castiel explains there is only so long a human soul is able to survive in that state. Claire immediately rejects Castiel’s offer to help and tells him to go to hell but then realises that Castiel is her only way out of the Youth Transition Centre and agrees to leave with him. They seem to briefly call a truce whilst having dinner at a restaurant until Claire steals Castiel’s wallet and makes a run for it.
The next day, Cas has called Sam and Dean to help out with Claire because he has nobody else to turn to, however Sam and Dean seem less impressed as they expected an emergency to involve a dead body of some kind but they soon realise how important this is to Castiel so Dean decides to stay whilst Sam heads off to deal with other things. After Sam leaves Dean and Cas have a heart to heart where Dean eventually tells Cas that if he ends up going dark-side despite everything, Cas needs to take him out. He specifically tells Cas that it has to be him because Sam wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Source: CW // Supernatural
“You’re having a midlife crisis?”
“I am extremely old, I think I’m entitled.”
Meanwhile in Crowley’s dungeon he’s had his own heart to heart with his mother, Rowena the witch and we see a different and fairly emotional side of Crowley which is something new and it makes me realise that even though demons are purely evil, there’s still some traces of humanity left in them at least where family is concerned. Meanwhile, Sam has gone back to the Youth Transition Centre to ask about Claire and find out more about the kind of trouble she used to get into. We find out Claire’s ‘job’ is to steal things for a guy called Randy and eventually Dean an Castiel manage to find her in a small shop which she was intending to rob. Claire ends up having an emotional go at Castiel calling him a monster and tells Sam and Dean that they both deserve to be shot for letting it happen.
Just when you think all’s well that ends well it of course isn’t. Back at Randy’s Claire gets into more trouble when another criminal enters the picture and offers a deal for her. Sam, Dean and Castiel manage to eventually rescue her but things don’t end well there. Sam, Castiel and Claire head back to the impala where Cas asks her if she is okay. This is the bit that hit my feels hard, Dean goes back into the house where Randy and co are still there and ends up killing them all in cold blood, leaving Dean standing with a bloody knife in his hand and blood all over his face with the Mark of Cain obviously having affected him.
This episode had some heartfelt moments, Castiel’s years on Earth have certainly made him more human and empathic than he was at the beginning of Season 4 and you can tell he genuinely wanted to take care of Claire. I think a part of Jimmy Novak is still probably in him and it’s probably more than just him feeling guilt for what happened to the Novak family. This season has had a lot of character development for Castiel which is nice to see and it’ll be interesting to see where this season takes him.
As far as Dean is concerned, now that he’s killed and the Mark of Cain is obviously still causing a lot of trouble, will he be able to forgive himself for it and what will Sam do about it? Is there any way for them to get rid of the mark at all? I hope the next half of the season will give us some more answers.
Source: CW // Supernatural
“Tell me it wasn’t you!”
