Review - Supernatural 11x02 "Form and Void"

That was one hell of an episode! Wasn’t it? I was so stressed. Like super stressed. TENSE! I didn’t even realise until how freaked out I was until the episode ended and my shoulders seemed to be up around my neck and I was clutching a pillow to my heart! OMG! OUR SHOW IS AMAZING!

“Form and Void” left me a little formless, like a jittery, melty, puddle of anxious! I loved it. It was scary…like I was spooked out! Creepy kids do that to me…creepy babies even more so! It was like watching a horror movie! Every little beat of drama was right on the money, and the pace kept ratcheting up. It was unrelenting and really damn awesome.

I never like it when the bros are apart and aren’t fighting shoulder to shoulder, but I do like it when they’re apart, yet still feel very totally together. There was never a time where I was pining for them to be physically in the same space, because, well I couldn’t really breathe for an hour, and when they are emotionally connected, as they are now, I don’t notice the physical distance between them. They still feel like one unit. I love it when they are together, even when apart...it's so them!

Sam, oh Sam. SamFuckinMacGyverWinchester. I think we all have a bit of a kink for the boys being highly capable. Smart Winchesters are my favourite kind of Winchesters. Or maybe it’s funny Winchesters. Or badass Winchesters. Or emotional Winchesters. DO NOT MAKE ME CHOOSE BECAUSE I LOVE THEM ALL! But Sam, in the hardware store, grabbing bits and pieces to battle the Rabids. SO COOOOL. That makeshift cattle proddish device he concocted was brilliant. As was bucket speaker! And working out the Holy Oil thing was Sam at his brainiac best. The Holy Oil toasted marshmallow (okay, gauze bandage)! I loved it! So glad Dean decided to slip that ancient urn into the duffle!

Oh and Sam's prayer in the chapel *sniffle* praying for his brother because he deserves a life…oh Sammy, you both do…but how I loved that he was thinking of Dean in that moment. I thought it was because he wasn’t sure right then and there if he’d ever see Dean again…so he prayed for him to be okay. Oh I’m going to make myself cry! The weight of the guilt Sam’s obviously feeling over releasing the Darkness on the world is obviously heavy, but as he said last week, he’d do it again to save Dean and I’m sure the fact that he knows that, also weighs on him…

Sam has always had a connection to God, outside of the obvious vessel status! He surprised Dean way back in season 2’s Houses of the Holy, when he said he prayed every day. Even though the brothers both know that God has not always been there for, well anyone, Sam still has faith and hope and that's something so beautiful and Sam Winchestery, and I dearly hope that he will never ever change.

Running into Billie the Reaper, as he did, felt super troubling. I think I winced when she talked about how Sam and Dean can die now. It felt like a point was being made by the show. All bets are off and the stakes are back up to eleven. The Winchesters can die again…not that I expect them to…but the risks have been elevated, if not for us, certainly for the boys. They've always had that get out of dead free card, but not anymore, and that'll make them even more protective of each other's back!

I liked Billie a lot. I liked hearing her to sing O Death. I found that super powerful. Like humming while she worked – a song that we know so well and is deeply rooted in the show’s mythology around Death and the Reapers. The shadowy hand reaching for the dead Rabid. Her anger at Sam and Dean. Her threat to let them drift off into the Empty…which does not sound good! And then telling Sam that he was unclean, in the biblical sense. Of all the things to say to Sam! The boy with demon blood, the boy born to be the Devil’s vessel in the Apocalyptic war; I don’t know that I could think of anything worse.

Billie was creepy and scary and sexy and powerful and I hope she is a reaper we see again. I’ve always loved the reapers. I love their place in the Supernatural Universe and I love the relationship we and the Winchesters have developed with them. They are shadowy. Not good. Not bad. Pragmatic. Frightening. I’m sure Sam was well wigged out by what Billie said. I hope he fills Dean in. Pretty sure he’s not going to tell his brother about being infected – though I see that as Sam proving to himself as much as anything, that he can do this, and do it without putting Dean at threat. How could he know that he wouldn’t be so far gone, he’d turn on his brother? I saw this as Sam in protection mode as much as anything. I wonder if he’ll tell Dean about his freaky visions, or like Dean and his Darkness visions, maybe he’s keeping that little nugget close until he can work out what they are. They had to be cage visions though right?? Cage memories - he looked like he was being hung on hooks, like Dean was in Hell. Or were the visions being sent to Sam from the cage? I mean, the whole mention of the cage is a big deal. Now Sam’s having these visions. Sam is right to yell out, “What the hell does that mean?!” I loved that scene though, as mysterious as it was, because the whole cage thing being back in play has me salivating.


Deaaaannnnnnnnn OMG. This character. He was soft and badassed and sassy and heroic and all the things I love. Plus he’s so damn handsome, I can’t even. Him walking down the hallway, all bowlegs and fury, GUH. Holy cow.

The whole chicks dig me. Then the spin around back to rescue Jenna. All so Dean. How I've missed him. I loved that he was snacking in the car on his way back to Sam! And that he rang Sam to get his thoughts on the Rosemary’s Baby thing going on back at Jenna’s grandmas. The way Dean can just roll with his situation has always been one of my favourite traits of his. Not much fazes him. He just gets on with it. He already feels in a much better place, emotionally speaking, and though you know he’s wigged out by all the Darkness stuff, and harbouring his own level of guilt over the Darkness and Mark of Cain stuff, the shift in him is palatable. I love it. I was worried when we got back to the bunker and he saw the pile of books he’d be all…oh God the things I did…but he was, WE NEED A MAID (I offer myself as Tribute!). Bless Dean Winchester. I love this move back to a less dark Dean, and Jensen plays the subtle shift magnificently. Not enough to be jarring, but enough to notice and feel right.

His post breakup banter with Crowley was super fun. Those two can out eye roll and snark the world! Dean’s face when he saw Crowley…and his ebbing tolerance as Crowley made him wait while he finished his tea. Every single conversation between them was magic. Velma. Gold!

Having Crowley almost back to his evil bastard self is great. I say almost, because he didn’t kill Dean and I’m pretty sure he wasn’t bored when soulless Jenna had Dean pinned. I don’t think Crowley is ready to kill the elder Winchester, at least not just yet. Their breakup is still fresh after all! Same goes for Dean not killing Crowley. Though I also think Dean knows that at least with Crowley, they have a pretty good idea what they’re getting, and getting into. Better the devil you know, and all that jazz.

Then finishing the episode with Crowley luring the creepy, now a little more grow’d up, Darkness child into the van with the promise of treats ­– being souls – was all kinds of wrong, and yet so right. Ewww. I think Crowley may have bitten off more than he can chew.


I was sad that we lost Jenna, I liked her and already had visions of her joining forces with Jody and Donna! I was also sad that we lost Hannah…though not those other angels.

How did dickheads like these guys become angels anyway? I mean, surely you have to have a trace of decency to be an angel! They were total tools. And sure I know they have a slanted opinion of Cas due to his patchy history of late with Heaven, and killing all the angels, then the whole Metatron thing...but still... DICKS! 

I’m so glad Cas lost his shit and killed the pair of them, because badassed Cas rocks, and dick angels need to DIE! And they killed Hannah, and there was obviously still a connection between our trench coat wearing friend and his old sidekick, even if she did betray Cas here. The actor who played Hannah the last two times we saw her, was wonderful. I'm sad to lose the angel and both the actors associated with her.

And thank goodness Cas bee lined it to the Bunker – which he either has a key to or Sam left unlocked when he went to meet Dean - or the door is still busted after the Stynes. Yeah, probably that. He still can’t zap without the tattered wings, so he must have driven to the Bunker and then let himself in! Maybe there’s a key in a fake rock in the garden out front! Heh. Anyhooo…glad he’s safe with the boys and hopefully, hopefully, they can help him sort out this attack dog spell business. 

This was a chock-a-block, action packed,  roller-coaster of an episode. A show delivering its A game. It looked gorgeous and sounded amazing. How was that music? Especially at the backend of the ep! That was a very different music choice, but worked so well and increased the tension...like we needed it. There was an amazing sense of flow from one scene to the next, via a sharp edit that often had the audio from the incoming or outgoing shot, playing under the surrounding shot. You'd hear Crowley start talking under the outgoing shot of Cas, for example. This made it feel like the action was all happening at the same time, in the same time period. The scenes also got shorter and shorter, giving a sense of increased urgency. Nice job. Sorry, for the technical, but as well as producing, I also edit my promos! 

I remember at the start of season 10, we had Carver and Dabb episodes leading off the season, and we’ve had this once again and what a treat. Andrew Dabb’s “Reichenbach” was one of my favourite season 10 episodes, and his “Form and Void” feels like it’s going to be a favourite too. So much happened, but it felt cohesive and beautifully paced. Such good storytelling. We have a terrifying Big Bad in a creepy little body! We have the King of Hell feeling like a threat again. We have a new Reaper that is pissed with the Winchesters and feels otherworldly and scary. We have Cas being all stabby, but in a good way, even though he’s in a really bad way. And we have the Winchesters, on solid footing with each other and being pretty damn smart and awesome (if a little secretive – change can’t happen overnight!). It’s a truly epic start to season 11.

-sweetondean