stacked day 40: 4.07
happy halloween! pt. 1
My neighborhood really likes Halloween decorations. I find myself startled on multiple occasions on my daily walks: witches hanging from trees, blow-up figures attached to mailboxes that look real in the distance, gravestones with gravel-covered feet sticking out at their base. One neighbor even has a giant dragon at their front door. Maybe unsurprising, I am not big on these celebrations of Halloween. It is not something my family cared that much about when I was growing up; of course, I would trick-or-treat, but I never really dreamed of what my costume would be. Our decoration peaked at a pumpkin on the doorstep and I transitioned into handing out candy at the ripe old age of fourteen. What I looked forward to more than candy at school, though, was Halloweentown on Disney Channel, and an influx of network television's greatest gift: holiday tie-in episodes. Halloween episodes are especially good, with the allowances the day grants—everything can become genre television as magic finds its way in the narrative, just this once. It's fun for the world to be in tune this way: outside, everyone is expressing their excitement. It matches my time spent inside, with my best friend Television.
Supernatural begins on Halloween; it feels natural, of course, to return to that day more often than others1. Most episodes are appropriate for the season regardless! But, there's nothing like the thrill of grabbing a chocolate from the Halloween Candy Bowl before trick-or-treaters come and settling in to watch a cold open where a guy does the same, except his candy is filled with razor blades that cut his mouth and throat from the inside out. It makes the toffee feel a little sharper. Immersion!
This week, a witch is attempting to raise Samhain, which happens to be one of the seals to release Lucifer from the cage. The angels return to give Sam and Dean a choice: either they stop the witch, or Uriel can destroy the entire town in order to keep the seal from breaking. Obviously, dealing with the witch is preferable. But, they unfortunately do not stop the creepy brother-sister witch duo, posing as a teen girl and an art teacher with major beef. The seal is broken and Samhain walks, terrorizing the town. Dean is charged with helping teens trapped in a crypt with ghosts while Sam goes after the demon. Despite the warning from the angels, and his promise to Dean, Sam exorcises Samhain using his demon-blood-powers.
I really love this episode for the ways it expands the angels lore. So far, Castiel has been a strange, alien force; intense, intimidating, mysterious. Uriel, too, is intense—Robert Wisdom has an incredible command about him, but where Misha’s performance is more distant, his is calculating, confident. The reality is, the direction Misha received for how to portray an angel wasn’t given to anyone else later on, but it’s fun! It’s fun, it gives us two distinct personalities to play with and makes the world bigger.
My first favorite moment in this episode is when Sam and Cas finally meet. Sam, nerdy and giddy, sticks out his hand. Cas accepts, and clasps Sam’s hand between both of his, says “Sam Winchester. The boy with the demon blood.” I love this moment, for the way Sam’s face falls and how Cas does not understand why what he says offends. I don’t think Cas meant to be an asshole, here—he’s just stating a truth.
At the end of the episode, Sam and Dean are paired off with each angel. Uriel visits Sam at the Winchesters’ motel room. He is there to put Sam in his place, taunts him about the time of year. Halloween is an anniversary for Supernatural; it’s when Sam and Dean reunited four years earlier, but it is also the precipice for both Mary and Jess’s deaths. As a show that engages with the spirit of Halloween-episodes weekly, Supernatural invents their own significance for the date. Uriel asks Sam, if he truly mourns his mother and his girlfriend, why would he use the powers that the demon who killed them cursed him with? It’s a nasty, nasty blow, setting Uriel apart from Castiel in another way. As much of an asshole he’s been so far, when Cas reads Dean, it’s probing his lack of self-worth; here, Uriel is cutting in how he sees Sam. It solidifies the important dichotomy between the brothers for the season that will carry into Season 5: the angels favor Dean, the demons favor Sam. (and it all sucks)!
Carrying from that sort of devastated, intense-gaze of a last shot between Dean and Cas in 4.03, Cas seems apologetic for much of this episode. My second favorite moment is, while Uriel and Sam are talking, Dean and Cas chat on a park bench. Cas tells Dean that the case was a test: their orders were to go with whatever Dean chose in how to handle the raising of Samhain. They admire the aliveness of children on the playground and Cas confesses he prayed Dean would save the town. He asked Dean if he can tell him a secret, to which Dean says yes. He admits he has doubts, that he doesn’t know if the orders he receives from God are the “right” thing to do. This scene is the basis of their relationship; a communing over their struggles with following their fathers or indulging an independent instinct. The inclusion of Uriel lets us see this shift in Cas, a move from divine order as brought out in him by Dean. I love it, I love it.
Stray Observations
There’s a scene in the Barbie movie where Barbie is sitting at a bus stop and observing humanity; overcome with emotion, she sheds a tear. It’s kind of a shitpost of a thought, but the thing about the Barbie movie? Happened to my buddy Castiel.
Billie Eilish, famously a Supernatural fan… “What Was I Made For” IS about Castiel
My affection for Dean getting a tummy ache from eating too much candy vs how vile I find him when he makes a creepy comment about a teen girl - fight!
And that teenage girl is Ashley Benson!!!! Yaaaaayy love her
I like that Uriel tells Sam Dean remembers hell, and again, something happened there. We’re getting to the big reveal…
I think Valentine's Day is the only other holiday they do multiple episodes for? lol. At the end of the day, what is the show but a horror romance…