Review -Supernatural 11x06 "Our Little World"

-by sweetondean

You know, I’m pretty sure a show’s not supposed to get better in its 11th season. Pretty sure. I’m also pretty sure Supernatural doesn’t know this, because the start to season 11 is the strongest start to a season we’ve had for a while. And I know I say that most seasons…but see…it’s getting better! And it’s already AMAZING!

I love every season…and pretty much every episode. But this unrelenting pace, this six episodes in and not one that hasn’t dealt squarely with the season mythology thing is so cool. Even bromantic “Baby” gave us scared monster reveals and visions staring Matt Cohen as who know what. I freakin’ love it. Love it. I’m so excited about every aspect of this season’s mythology. It’s so massively EPIC. I mean…GOD’S SISTER? That’s BIG…like big bang big!

“Our Little World” left me all twitchy and excited and wanting to talk about our show in the best possible way. Everyone was in it. We were jumping from Crowley and Amara, to the Winchesters, to Cas and Metatron and it kept ramping up and up, and the scenes got shorter and shorter, and the pace got more frenetic and that music drone got more foreboding and by the time the episode finished I was sitting, quite literally on the edge of my bed, gobsmacked and feeling, well…incredibly nervous. Yep, I’d say nervous is about how I was feeling.

I love Amara. I love the mystery of her. I love how she’s growing like a weed. I love that she looked at that older girl, Goldie and said she wanted to be like her, sucked her soul and became the same age, taking her clothes and boots. It was almost like she was thinking like a normal girl, when you’re young and you look at someone older and wish you were older just like them, or cool just like them, or had their clothes. Of course how Amara obtains all of that is nasty! But doesn’t come across as evil. She’s not outright, evil, just as she’s not good. She’s neither thing. She’s simply focused on her goal. She actually reminds me of how Supernatural wrote Lucifer. Not your typical Devil. Not all brim and firestone. Lucifer just wanted what he wanted and went about what he had to in order to get it, in a kind of calm way. He had a goal, and pursued it. That’s how Amara is coming across to me, and I like it a lot. She’s a slow burn and that’s helluva interesting.

We all knew Crowley was in deep and it was only Crowley’s hubris that stopped him realising it. Trying to protect Amara, like she’s not the most powerful entity he’s ever crossed paths with? When she was a little girl, I get it, how could she inconspicuously get around. And she needed to bone up on what had been going on in the world in her prolonged absence. But now she’s a rebellious teen, she don’t need you no more, Crowley, because FYI, she’s more powerful than Lucifer. And that just showed how little he knew. And really, way to try to big up yourself Crowley, but someone else put the Devil back in his box. Pfft.

Crowley is still coming across to me as lost. He doesn’t like his job, though he obviously loves the power. He couldn’t care less for the minions who work for him. I’m not sure what his grand plan for Amara and her abilities was, but now he’s left feeling humiliated again, lesser again, losing the respect and fear of those in his court, like after the whole Dean Winchester incident. His big play has gone out the window, he’s left to listen to the daily machinations of running Hell and board meetings about the impact of legalised marijuana on the collection of souls (great moment). I’m interested to see what his next move will be? Will it now be revenge for being so unceremoniously pushed aside?

One thing’s for sure, he’s over the whole Dean bromance thing. That changes his relationship with the boys…for now.

I detest Metatron…but I love him. Hate him but love him. Just like we should all good villains. There’s something in Metatron that’s so pathetic. He’s a whiney little creep, who, without his angel powers, is horrible without being able to do anything potent about it. The snivelly begging because he has to live life as a human. I couldn’t feel sorry for him, he deserves it; horrid creature that he is. But I could be in awe of Curtis Armstrong. That was a cracker of a scene…brilliantly written and brilliant performed. I hung off every, single word.

I’m glad Cas didn’t kill him. He gave over the information about the true nature of the Darkness, but also, killing, it isn’t who Cas is (and Metatron is fun to have about). Cas has always been God’s angel at heart. Wanting to do right by humanity, even when he screws it up royally. I think that’s why he’s struggling with the recent past. All the violence he’s either perpetrated or had perpetrated against him…all through no fault of his own in these instances. I understand why he’s hiding out in Sam’s room binge watching trash TV. We’ve all been there. All of us. It was a recognition of sorts as to how TV can get you through tough times…either to block those times out, give you respite from them, or somehow help you deal with them in someway. Isn’t that what Supernatural has done for so many of us? Yes it has. Clever, Show. You’re so smart.

I’m still waiting to see where Cas’ story goes this season. He’s found Metatron now…who may well be back at some point, I kinda hope so. He has the Demon tablet, which he can’t read without a prophet and there currently aren’t any, so unless they’ve got Kevin’s notes somewhere? Maybe Kevin translated something without knowing what it meant at the time. Metatron knew about God’s sister when none of the other angels did, because God let it slip to Metatron about Amara, when God was feeling a bit tired during their writing sessions....but did anything get written down? Did God’s scribe, jot any of it down? Or was it just spoken about in passing over a cuppa! I did giggle to myself when I wondered if Darkness was God’s nickname for his sister when she pissed him off! Heh.

So is it Team Freewill 4 Ever? Is Cas going to be back at the Bunker researching? Or will a new mission present itself to him that ties through to the season arc. I feel like he needs a wee sabbatical to get his head together. Maybe that’s what he’ll do. Go recharge his angle mojo. Stop everyone pulling his strings.

Ahhh boys. How I love you happily working together, even if you’re still withholding. You wouldn’t be Winchesters if you didn’t nervously keep information close to the chest and away from your bro!

Seriously though, season 11 Sam and Dean are shaping up as favourites. I like them having age and wisdom and experience…no matter how horrific…on their side. The depth of their relationship as grown men is a beautiful thing (as are the eye crinkles).

I love how they work together – tag team phone calls, drawing devils traps on ceilings…(and the fan art that followed). One dumps the body while the other researches. The body dumping line was one of my favourite in the episode, and not just because of Dean’s sassy school yard come back, but because, I ALWAYS WONDER ABOUT THAT STUFF! I always wonder about the dumping and the cleaning…even the laundry and getting the blood out! All that stuff!

I also love how Sam is sticking to the saving people thing. He was keen to save that first demon’s meatsuit, until he saw the bullet hole in the chest. And he tried to save all the demons he fought in Crowley’s lair, managing to get away with only having to kill one of the three. I did wonder if after the dust settled, he went back and exorcised them, or did Sam and Dean just beeline it out of there and leave them cuffed on the floor?

And Sam’s vision. Man these visions are doing my head in and I love it. It was interesting to me that when Sam was in close proximity to the Darkness, he had a vision…you couldn’t see what that was so much…just some sigils carved into something and some fingers poking through. But when he stopped at the end of the episode and we saw the vision play out in its entirety. Oh man. That’s the cage, right? Though I did see some theorise that maybe it was Amara’s prison in the Empty, due to the fingers poking through the holes looking less like blokey fingers and more feminine, and that maybe the visions were showing Sam how to contain her.

But my assumption was that it’s the cage – with all the chains in space, like when Dean was suspended in Hell, and it points clearly to the exciting direction we’re heading. The two people in that cage. God’s favourite fallen son and his favourite warrior son. Brothers. Eeeeeeee! It’s so exciting. And…did you all hear the elongated whisper at the end; “Deeeeeeeeeeeeean”? I have listened to it 1000 times. Okay, maybe not 1000... but still! Here… listen I’ve included it for you! It's at 19 seconds!

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? I did wonder if this vision was a memory of Sam’s, pointing him to the cage. Which would tie into the weird torture visions he had first - if they were a memory. I don’t know. I’m not going to theorise. I just freakin’ loved it. It’s the cage. Lucifer and Michael. My heart started racing and didn’t settle down again for ages.

We finally got to see Amara’s bond with Dean playing out. Dean could not kill her and in turn she protected Dean from Crowley.

“Tell me what is happening here, between us? You save me, I save you. Why? You were the first thing I saw when I was freed, and it had been so long. Maybe that's it. My first experience of His creation. You can't help but represent that for me, the sweet triumph and the even sweeter folly of what He's wrought. There's no fighting it. I'm fascinated.”

Yeah me too, Amara. I get it. Dean Winchester = fascinating as hell.

It was like Dean was frozen, he couldn’t speak. Was that fascination too? Or was that Amara’s hold binding him from moving or talking…because he barely said a word to her, except to ask her what her mission was. Settle an old score. God chose humanity over his own sister, and betrayed her. Sounds familiar.

“In order to create the world, God had to give up the only thing He'd ever known. He had to betray and sacrifice His only kin. The Darkness -- His sister.”

I don’t think this is going to be good for humanity. Winchesters saving the world again!

I loved the scene between Amara and Dean. It was creepy and uncomfortable, probably added to by the youth of the actress playing this ancient…well, is she a deity if she’s the sister of God? But it was more her calmness in how she spoke to Dean that was chilling. That fascination…like she could dissect him, take him apart bit-by-bit, just to see how he works. Pin him to a board, or lock him in a glass case so she could study him. It made my blood run cold.

And then she hurt Sam and Dean lunged at her and Amara looked pissed. And there we go; there we have it, the one thing that every bad critter underestimates in the Winchesters, the bond between Sam and Dean. I mused about this last week, that maybe Amara has underestimated the single most important bond in Dean’s life. Remember, Dean was able to overcome the power of the Mark of Cain to prevent himself from killing his brother at the end of Season 10. No matter what he thought or felt, in the end, his love for and bond with Sam trumped everything else. I definitely think we’ll see this playing out at some point. Maybe in 3 episodes time in the mid-season finale! Eeep!

And before we go to the incredible music cue of Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon, we see Dean doing some epically obvious concealing of the facts and Cas and then Sam, picking up on Cas, seeing right through him. The dude cannot lie for shit! I always think it’s because part of him wants to tell, and of course the guilt is written all over his face. And yeah, I get why he’s not telling them. He’s freaking out. Just like Sam’s freaking out about his visions and not sharing all the details. But maybe they should compare notes! Boys? Boooooys? *crickets*

This was a great episode. Bob Berens has become one of my favourite writers on the show. His script was witty and insightful, managing to get cracking one-liners in there, while also making commentary on modern day media and our consumption of it. I feel like Bob has a special talent writing multiple action sequences and stories happening consecutively and being able to keep it coherent. That would also go towards the wonderful direction by veteran John Sholwater. Add into that the amazing score and the crazy good editing…the editing in this episode was exceptional – yeah, “Our Little World”, got a great big WOWZERS from me.

This show has and will always be about family, and to create a season arc that resonates with that theme by brining in God and a betrayed and hurt sibling is mind-blowing! Who’da ever thunk it! It’s like everyone’s lives is reflected in the Winchesters relationship and history…and that is unbelievably cool.

Though God…how about manning up and coming and facing your sister instead of letting your kids carry all the weight. Huh? HUH?

Supernatural season 11 is rockin’ it.

Damn, I freakin' love this show.

-sweetondean