Review - Supernatural 10x13 "Halt & Catch Fire" - Finding Peace

-by sweetondean

A ghost, a salt and burn, smart Sam, empathetic Dean, honest bro talks…weeeeeeeeeee!

Everything above is why I liked Halt & Catch Fire so much. It was old school with a helping of new school – being this new found, grown up, honest dialogue between the brothers that has been an absolute highlight of season 10 for me. They’re talking and I’m in love with it!

From the moment I first saw the promo pics for Halt & Catch Fire I was excited (yeah, yeah, I always am!). There was Sam and Dean with a jerry can and a flaming matchbook! I thought to myself, if they add salt to this picture I’m going squee! Why? Because I love me a salt and burn! We don’t get them that often anymore. The brothers’ lives have become way more complex, with way more complex enemies. A good ol’ ghost hunt is reminiscent of a far less complicated time for Sam and Dean, when the enemy was obvious, the bad guys were the bad guys and the Winchesters were the good guys full stop. Of course now, the Winchesters are sometimes bad, the bad guys are sometimes good, and everything is a morally, grey, murky mess! I love me that mess. That mess is as interesting as hell. But it is nice, every once in a while, to get an episode that throws you back to the beginning of the show and reminds you of some of the things you originally fell in love with. Halt & Catch Fire definitely did that for me, it was an old school monster of the week episode that also shone a mirror on the brother’s journey, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Ghosts are creepy. I find them way creepier than most things that Supernatural does, because ghost stories are what we’re raised on and a lot of us believe or half believe or don’t exactly not believe that ghosts might be maybe possibly real! Like, I don’t believe in vampires but I don’t not believe in ghosts…even if I don’t really believe, I don’t totally not believe. I watch some of those paranormal shows; sometimes they’re down right freaky! So ghosty episodes tend to give me the heebie jeebies more than other creep-out episodes. Unless it’s clowns. Or dolls. Or scary kids *shudders*.

In the world of Supernatural, if a spirit hangs around too long, if it can’t let go of its life or loved ones, it becomes all twisted and broken. It becomes an angry spirit, murderous and evil. It becomes what the brothers hunt down and destroy. 

We found out about what creates an angry spirit back in season two’s “In My Time Of Dying” when the Reaper Tessa explained to Dean what would happen to him, if he decided to stay in the spirit world and not go on with her. Of course, we also saw this thread with Bobby. These spirits get attached to something or someone on Earth and don’t move on to the next plain. Consequently, they go mad. I love it when the show harks back to what we know. I love it when we revisit old lore.

There may have been something else happening here with the spirit of Andrew, other than holding on too tight to his old life and his love for his wife. We’ve never found out if the gates of Heaven reopened, so we don’t know if all the spirits are still stuck in the veil. I’m assuming they are – because we haven’t heard any different. So what this episode also did was make me worry like crazy for Kevin! Still stuck in the veil with all the other spirits (and with his mum 24/7)! Is what happened to Andrew happening to Kevin? A-wahhhh! Now I’m sad! I don’t want Kevin to become an angry spirit and get all revengey! Please don’t make that happen, Show!

Andrew not only died and got stuck/decided to stay, but he also got zapped into the wifi routers! It’s a nice twist on a horror trope we’ve seen in movies like Shocker or the X-File’s episode, Kill Switch. It gives the concept of ‘a ghost in the machine’ a modern vantage point that makes it all the more creepy because the spirit is targeting his victims through things we use everyday! Our wifi speakers (I have the coolest little wifi boombox which I’m pretty sure isn’t out to kill me), our computers (thankfully I don’t have a mouse!), our SatNavs (I’ve never trusted that SatNav woman, I always feel like she’s judging me when I go the wrong way) and our phones, (personally, I never turn on my phone’s location thingy, because I feel like I’m going to be tracked or something, because basically that’s what happens and it kind of freaks me out! I mean I get freaked out when I go to Google Earth and see a satellite photo of my car in my driveway! It’s weird. I don’t like it.) Sorry I digressed with my paranoia! I promise I don’t wear a foil hat with coat-hangers on it or anything! Anyhooooo it means that we got some pretty fun/cool murders in this episode! Okay, you know you’re a Supernatural fan when you use the term, fun/cool murders! My favourite was the exploding speaker boy! Though the killer SatNav was great too…that truck going over the cliff looked amazeballs! There sure were some nice VFX in this episode!

I loved all the boys' interactions in Halt & Catch Fire. I loved that we started with Sam telling Dean that Cas is on to something regarding Cain’s whereabouts. The fact that Sam and Cas are staying in touch via phone fills me with squee. I absolutely love it. Once upon a time, Cas was very much Dean’s friend, but now he feels very much like a friend of the Winchester brothers, not one brother exclusively. His friendship with Sam has been a delight to watch come to fruition. There is an understanding between them that transcends their mutual love of the elder Winchester. 

Dean has been running on hope for a while now, hoping that they will find a cure for the Mark of Cain, but here, he finally says no more. He’s right in pointing out that if Cain could have cured the Mark he would have cured his own a long time ago, but I’m not so sure it’s that’s simple. The Mark for Cain and the Mark for Dean are two different things, acquired in two different ways. Who’s to say that a transferred Mark can’t be somehow removed? But I understand Dean’s unwillingness to pin his hopes on that, or anything else at this point and his willingness to get back to the job of saving people and hunting things. That’s where Dean has always found solace and clarity. That’s where Dean feels in control. Doing a job he knows he does well. I love how fiercely Sam wants to help his brother though. I couldn’t love it more. And I love how Dean is recognising that and thanking Sam. Damn, these boys are so awesome; they will be the death of me.

There were simply some lovely brother moments in this episode, both together and as individuals. I assume Dean’s food consumption and complete distraction when faced with college chicks was the Mark, once again demanding to be fed, and Dean feeding it the only way he can, or is willing to. On the other hand, Dean’s always loved food and chicks! I totally enjoy the hedonistic side of Dean; I find it unbelievably attractive. So when he’s eyeing off all the girls walking by, I really like it. Like, a lot. A. LOT. I’ve always found Dean’s total love of the women and his rather casual attitude towards sex, charming…the fact that he’s so gentle when he gets a girl in the sack just adds to that Dean Winchester enigma! Dang. I’ve gone and distracted myself! He really needs to learn to eat noodles though…but seeing Jensen just about to crack as those noodles came spilling out of his mouth and seeing Jared’s perfect Sam look in response, was a delight…and please let there be more of that on the gag reel.

Sam was uber smart in this episode and I love me some smart Sam. He was all over everything to do with the computers, figured out the wifi stuff, and even managed to quickly work out the only way to save Dean when that 911 call came through. I love that he knew straight away that to get through to Andrew was to have his wife talk to him. 

I didn’t know what a Trinni was. I figured it was like a Siri or a SatNav brand or something, but I’d never heard of it, but I was pretty sure Dean would have – and known a bit more about computers than he was allowed to show here. Remember what Frank taught him, and remember he did have a dating app and a translator app for his phone! But I’ll let it slide, because seeing Sam be all brilliant was lovely and Dean had his moments of brilliance later.

Actually it was more moments of empathy. And empathetic Dean rocks. I loved his conversation with Delilah, talking about being haunted by his mistakes and how he deals, or doesn’t deal with it, and that he does his best to put things right. When he says you can’t bury things like that, it seemed to me that Dean might have somehow turned a corner (I'm nothing if not optimistic). All the self-analysis that he would have been doing over the past weeks, as he looks to a future with the Mark of Cain, and what that may mean for him, has made him a more honest person, with himself and with Sam, and now with complete strangers. Because now he knows, burying stuff may be the difference between being able to live with that nasty ass tattoo and not being able to live at all. Sometimes Dean seems like the oldest and wisest person on the planet…this was one of those moments.

As was the moment with the spirit Andrew, once again, Dean talking from personal experience…

“The more you kill, the crazier you get, the blood fuels the rage, so it looks like to me you have two choices, you can keep killing, and become something that you won’t recognise or you can move on because that is the only thing that can give you peace......pain or peace.”

Dean has lived through this; he knows the sound of blood rushing in his ears as he gives in to need to kill. I adore that he’s admitting to this and using his experience to help others…which brings me to the end of the episode.

The closing scene between the brothers was another high point of season 10 for me. I’m just so blown away by these two and how they’re talking and especially Dean, who’s never been that great at sharing his feels. Hearing Dean talk about how helping people is his peace, it’s all he wants to do and he’ll fight the Mark until he can’t fight it anymore and he’ll go down swinging…well yes, I cried buckets of tears. I love that he now believes the answer is with him. I think Sam’s unwavering belief in Dean has brought Dean to a new place with his problem, and though I don’t think he’s at a point where he believes he can win the battle, just fighting it on his own terms will give him strength and power. Dean can’t live on false hope. We’ve seen that before. He needs to feel like he’s in control of his own destiny, not that destiny is in control of him. Damn, I couldn’t be more proud of Dean right about now. 

Or more proud of Sam, heartbreak etched on his face, who you just know is not going to give up on trying to find a way to help his brother, no matter what Dean says. His resolve to find a cure for the Mark of Cain is just as strong as Dean’s resolve to find a way to live with it. This may end up being an issue between them down the track, but right now, Sam is letting Dean have the space he needs, letting Dean call the shots, because he knows his brother back to front and he knows, this is what Dean needs. But what’s a bet he’s up all hours of the night researching and staying in touch with Cas…well we know he is, because… NEXT WEEK!

Halt & Catch Fire was about as old school as Supernatural gets, without losing touch with where we are now and how far we, and the brothers have come. An old school salt and burn complete with rock alias’ and the new school Sam and Dean, talking, sharing, respecting. Have I told you guys how much I’m loving season 10?

-sweetondean