Supernatural (TV Series) I'm No Angel (2013) User Reviews

Forced plotting gets in the way of pathos

[CubsandCulture · 8/10 · 14 September 2020]

Everything involving Cas learning with dealing his new humanity is absolutely wonderful. It is funny, endearing and just quirky in the way the show is. I don't even mind that the writers got him into a sexual situation basically as soon as possible. I love the angels being the early villains in the season and the Buddy Boyle aspects have a nice anti-clerical that the show sometimes has.

But BOY are there two really forced plotting choices that weaken the episode. First, I am pretty sure the writers decided to turn Reapers into a class of angel-out of left field and against 8 prior years of text showing reapers to be a different faction, beings than angels or demons. This gets much worse later in the season when a Reaper is explicitly said to be an angel. Second it is unbelievable that April found Cas and the brothers found April in the time they did.

Decent

[danajs24 · 8/10 · 7 September 2016]

If you took a step back and looked at what this episode consisted of, this episode sounds like it wouldn't be too great. This being the case, I still oddly enjoyed it. If you would have told me that I would like an episode with Cas being without his powers a season or two ago I'd wouldn't have believed it, but this actually was an interesting episode. I liked Cas "roughing it" on the streets, and knew something was up when that random girl had sex with him despite BEING A HOMELESS MAN SHE DIDN'T KNOW that she met that day. Bummer for Cas though. Super bummer for Cas when Zeke says no way to him staying there. Still don't understand why he couldn't stay there with them... aren't they invisible to all the angels there? Douchey Zeke.

Would be a 10 if not for poor acting by Jared Padalecki

[danamae51479 · 9/10 · 28 August 2023]

I love Supernatural and have watched this series multiple times so I've taken my time coming to this conclusion.

First, this episode: Castiel, poor guy, is once again duped because he believes he's doing good. Metatron, the archangel you love to despise, fooled him good and now everyone is holding Castiel responsible. All the angels think he's in on it because no way he's that naive, right? Seriously where have they been the past few years? This is kind of his thing. That's a bit of a plot hole in my opinion but forgivable because when angels get angry in this show they do tend to blame the easiest target as opposed to the responsible party.

Side note: Misha Collins handles the change for his character beautifully and Jensen Ackles nails his performance as the stressed-out-hanging-on-by-a-thread-deceitful-big-brother-but-bad-ass-hunter, Dean. Then there's Jared. Oh boy. The shift between Zeke and Sam just makes me laugh. I've always thought his acting was poor. He's already a very exaggerated actor and relies heavily on sighs, exhales, and a furrowed brow to sell his performance. The funniest thing to me is when I watch 'French Mistake' and JP is supposed to play the part of Jared Padalecki, an actor, but Sam is no actor but he gives it a shot. You can see he thinks he's changed his character to portray a bad acting job but in reality it's no different. He always sucks. Jensen and Misha did have a noticeable difference as their alternate versions as they were meant to. That is because they are actually talented actors. Jensen Ackles carried the show all by himself until Misha Collins came along then when Mark Sheppard joined the trio of awesome, everything was perfect.

Back to the episode, I still think Cas got the shaft as he usually does because Dean screwed him over again. When will Dean learn to quit with the lies? They never lead to anything good. Maybe that's the overall lesson of the series. Lies are the real evil and they always come back to bite you in the rear. Lol.

Incredibly Done

[horseygurlz · 10/10 · 27 October 2013]

Not being American, I saw people discussing this online before I actually saw the episode and it made me very wary. Everyone seemed to be complaining about it - the main source for complaint being that Castiel sleeps with someone other than Dean. I found that ridiculous. Sure, I ship Destiel as much as any fan, but with all the fan-created stuff out there it's not like it's mandatory for it to be canon. I prepared to watch the episode with some trepidation, curious as to what was going to happen in it.

I was amazed.

The episode was amazing. It chronicled Castiel adjusting to his new, human life extremely well, focusing on lots of points that many other shows would simply have skipped over. It highlighted how he was struggling to deal with ordinary things like urinating, hunger and emotions whilst still having an interesting enough plot to keep the viewer engaged. I was captivated. Misha's acting was brilliant, and you started to see hints of 2014!Castiel, which gave a lot of things to think about. (There's another thing - there has been so much speculation that things are heading towards the season 5 episode The End. Castiel is a drug and sex addict in that episode - so how can him having intercourse with someone be unexpected?).

I was equally impressed with the transitions between Ezekiel and Sam - both Jared's acting and the special effects made that very clear, and Dean's reaction to the regular changes was perfect. Perhaps not much has been suggested about the main plot of the season yet, but this episode still advanced the series quite significantly and prepared for something big to happen in the coming episodes.

Castiel on the run...

[skjoe-1 · 10/10 · 23 October 2013]

This episode has a kind of chase feel to it, we switch between Castiel evading the angels and learning to become human, Sam and Dean trying to find him and the angels hunting down Cas. With Castiel being human, we see him hang around with the homeless, feel hungry and even have "intercourse" as he puts it. There's hope for his character this season, but at the moment he is weak and lost, something we are not used to. I miss Castiel being the kind of "muscle" for Sam and Dean. I imagine eventually he will come to a choice as to whether he wants to get his grace back or stay human, to find a purpose. Who knows he could even become a hunter! Sam and Dean are back in detective mode, picking up the mess of the angel's search for Cas. Although Dean has lied to Sam and holds a great secret, its nice to see their chemistry back, as when the pair have fallen out, it creates an awkward tension when watching, probably because its just well acted. Jared is having to act in a whole new way when he switches to Ezekiel and plays him so well, lets hope he turns out to be a good guy after all. Bartholomew, a new boss angel, arrives to lead the faction of angels. Im liking this baddie, suit wearing, very straight forward and serious. He reminds me of the agents from the Matrix, just powerful and to the point. I hope him and Abaddon meet at some point... Overall a good episode, well paced and interesting. Not much really pushing the plot along but at least we know where all our characters are now. Lets hope we get more demonic/supernatural threat to really drive the plot some more...

Good

[wolfordcheyenne · 8/10 · 25 March 2020]

I like the idea of human Castiel and I was glad they included him struggling with his newfound humanity. I also enjoyed the idea of the angels assembling into fractions. The only thing that bothered me was how thin the plot was at times.

More the same!

[mm-39 · 6/10 · 27 October 2013]

More the same! Dean holds a secret about saving Sam's life again. Cass, Sam and Dean are hunted. Sam and Dean have to track someone down Cass. There is a new villain, Bart, in the mix which is similar to Dick Roman. The same formulated story. However, the characters and character development make the redundant storyline entertaining. Sam's two personalities is exciting to watch. Dean juggling several problems at once with humor, wit and swaggers in great drama. What will save season nine is the creation of new characters for the series. Will the new characters make new twists in the main and sub story lines. Season nine is more about characters and character story lines then the main story. I'm No Angel is six stars out of ten.

Cass and reapers

[shwetafabm · 6/10 · 28 June 2020]

In the ep where Sam goes to hell to free Bobby we see a reaper. Reapers are pretty interesting and it makes sense that they are kind of lower level angels or something. But that means they are very powerful and can be invisible. So this nerfing is just annoying me. The whole we can't track him now is annoying me too. Just tell us he was warded from the start. I like Cass and i liked seeing him out of his element but the ep was too slow for me and not engaging enough. Also show please, wasn't he married when he was Emmanuel or something in S7...didn't he do it then... I guess not.

"I'm No Angel"

[Shane3182 · 3/10 · 24 October 2013]

Castiel is missing. Dean and Sam (plus Ezekiel) go searching for him, fearing that he might be in trouble.

This episode is difficult to review. I am a huge fan of Castiel and was very excited to watch this episode because it was supposed to be all about Castiel learning to adjust and struggle with his new humanity while also running from all the angels that want his head on a platter. At supernatural convention panels prior to this, the actors made mention of things they enjoyed or thought was interesting, such as 'Castiel's bathroom scene' or 'Castiel living under a bridge with the homeless', or 'Castiel having trouble sleeping'. These were things many people were eager to see play out. – However, what did this episode consist of? Well, the parts we expected to see, such as Castiel's difficulties with eating, sleeping, and temporary living arrangements took up so little of the episode that it might as well have not been mentioned.

What we did get, however, was a new "love interest" for Castiel. I use the term 'love interest' very, very loosely. When the promo for the episode came out, we all saw footage of Castiel meeting a woman and then a brief clip of them kissing. There was some uproar about this particular footage, some positive and some negative. But the one thing I heard constantly from the fans was "don't f*ck this up" and I too was sincerely hoping that the writers would create a scenario that was believable as well as interesting.

How did it play out? Well, I won't say anything for spoilers sake...but take a gander at the picture right next to the title on IMDb or take one glance at the promotional pictures shown before the episode even aired. How did this 'love interest' play out or help the plot? In my completely honest opinion: it did /not/ help at all. When things turn sour, as things normally do on SPN, it wasn't even a "wow, what a crazy twist!" it was more along the lines of "are you kidding me?" and "was that necessary?" because there are so many times when the writing felt forced, fast, or just unnecessary.

I would have been much more interested in seeing Castiel battling his hunger, or trying to find shelter on the streets instead of this forced "relationship" between Castiel and a strange woman. There are so many ways this could have been written differently and more effectively in terms of Castiel's development.

Castiel felt out of character. I'm just going to say that now. And I know that many other people felt the same way. Castiel said some things in 9.01 that I felt were very powerful, only to have it all take a complete flip in this episode. His line in 9.01 that I loved the most was "I'm one of you (angels), I will never stop being one of you." And...well, this episode's title is "I'm No Angel," not only is this the title, it is something Castiel says. Did he truly lose all of his certainty in a matter of days?

There is Supernatural lore that is thrown out the window for the sake of making the episode 'fit', which either means the writers did not care to follow up on their own rules or they simply thought we wouldn't notice.

This all sounds very harsh and negative. I'm aware. However, it's very hard to shake off these negative feelings when we're dealing with a main character that is adored by so many. When the writers brush off years of character consistency for the sake of one episode, people will be disappointed or even angry.

There were certainly some scenes that were enjoyable and left me excited for future episodes. Jared Padalecki does an amazing job flipping between Sam and Ezekiel (Zeke), and this part of the plot is still very interesting. Many fans are still unsure whether to trust Zeke. He has been and still is very helpful and offers his assistance in the search for Castiel, but Dean is having issues with Zeke just 'showing up' whenever he feels like it. And with Sam still in the dark about being possessed by an angel, Dean is constantly having to lie or dodge questions in order to avoid telling Sam the truth.

At one point in the episode, Dean is forced to choose between two things, both of which are unpleasant; I hope the decision Dean made will be further explored and questioned.

Episode 1 and 2 of season 9 were fantastic. As I said, I am a huge Castiel fan and was holding so much hope for this episode, only to be left disappointed. I hope things are redeemed later on and that any inconsistencies or plot holes are fixed. For now, though, I think we can still look forward to great episodes ahead. Despite this little bump in the road, season 9 is still looking very promising.

You can't stay

[Aries_Primal · 7/10 · 28 September 2023]

At some point I think Dean's character has been compromised. You find him caring and ready to sacrifice himself for Sam and Cas, but at the same time he betrays both of them for what?

It was heartbreaking seeing Cas starving, freezing, hurt. And absolutely hot seeing him shirtless and with a girl. And tied up. But... There are a lot of "buts". Since angel was strong enough to bring him from dead, he is not strong enough to heal Sam once and for all? And Dean is so stupid to let some winged freak to ride his brother? Come on!

The top of all was telling Cas to leave. That was unrealistic and so disappointing. He would find a way ward him again to hide him, not throw him away like a garbage.

Bad episode, strong but bad.