Season 8 of Supernatural left us off on a high note, leaving a world of opportunities for the season to follow, and it all lead to one of the most underwhelming seasons we've ever had in the series. While looking back at the episodes, I realized that only about 11 of the total 23 episodes were necessary for the plot. Even in previous seasons, such as season 5 with Lucifer as the main enemy, while the brothers weren't on a 24/7 hunt for the devil, they were still progressing forward while also focusing on other aspects. This season, however, had the plot practically take a seat on sidelines while we were expected to be invested in one-episode plots that not only didn't progress the overall plot, but were also the cause of many inconsistencies and continuity errors.
To summarize, season 9 begins from where season 8 left off: Castiel was tricked by Metatron and all of the angels in heaven fell to earth, and as this is happening Abaddon is trying to take over Hell. Sam is dying and Dean makes the decision to have him possessed by the angel Ezekiel (who we now know is actually Gadreel) in order to heal him, and Castiel is now a human trying to run from the angels who want to kill him. It had a strong start, but by episode 3, we were met with a facefull of plot developments that didn't make sense, and then the episodes proceeded to have several unnecessary mini-plots that were not related to any of the things that the season started with. We had endless situations of Sam being healed by Gadreel, and it was cool the first few times, but at a point it was just tedious. Cas disappeared for the majority of the episodes for no reason, and even our beloved prophet Kevin was written as some sideline character, when he truly could have had a much larger role to play, because, you know, he's a prophet! Midway through the season, the writers threw in the Mark of Cain so that we could have some new material. And after this development, we were still watching week after week of episodes that did not have anything to do with it! - So, where am I going with this? Well, practically nothing note-worthy or necessary happened for the majority of the season, and then the writers decided to get back on track in the last few episodes to salvage what was left of the plot.
Now that I've complained enough about the season in general, let's talk about this episode.
Do You Believe in Miracles?
After Dean slashes Gadreel across the chest in "Stairway to Heaven," we continue where we left off in this episode with Sam and Cas trying to hold Dean back from killing Gadreel. They lock Dean up, where Sam claims that there is something wrong with Dean, and leave him like that so that they can go try to help Gadreel. Since all of them have the same goal, it was obvious that they would work together to try and defeat Metatron.
Dean is still dealing with the effects of the Mark of Cain, and those effects are turning out to be even stronger than before. The Mark was one of the best decisions the writers made for Dean, because it ended up being the most exciting aspect of the season. Gadreel teaming up with them was also a very memorable part of the episode. In previous episodes, he has clearly shown that he is looking to redeem himself to them, since he was the one who killed Kevin Tran, and in this episode he had some of the best parts, in my opinion.
Jensen Ackles (as Dean) worked very hard to make the struggle seem real in his acting, and it came across very well on screen. All of the actors worked hard in this episode, and I can't think of even one complaint about any of their acting, they all did a spectacular job and put effort into bringing the emotions and characters to life.
This episode was very exciting and engaging in so many ways. And like all Supernatural season finales, it had a gripping cliff-hanger with some new developments that could potentially lead to some amazing stories.
So, what I'm saying is that this season itself did not impress me, but this episode was definitely worth watching. The writers once again have the opportunity to make an amazing season ahead of us, and I sincerely hope they manage to impress me with season 10. But, then again, I had thought that season 9 would be the goldmine of seasons, and I was proved wrong with that. I hope I won't be let down.
Very exciting season finale. Definitely worth watching. 8/10
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