I’m ever so sorry that my review wasn’t up immediately after last night’s episode, but I had to let this one marinate a bit. Robbie Thompson’s “Goodbye Stranger” was – review spoiler – awesome. Mr. Thompson has established himself, at least for me, as the Supernatural writer. All of his episodes from season gr8 have been mind blowingly good.
After happening upon news of three bizarre deaths, Sam and Dean discover that Crowley has sent demon teams to find Lucifer’s crypts, in which he believes lies the location of the Angel tablet. The boys reunite not only with Castiel along the way, but also Meg. She, despite being tortured for a year or more, has been supplying Crowley’s hordes with false locations of the crypts. Meg joins up with the team and two men, an angel and a demon set out to find the tablet before Crowley can get his hands on it.
And thus ends the spoiler free part of the review.
The Good:
- So, tumblr is probably going to divorce me, but I loved the idea of Meg and Castiel. Maybe it’s because the first time I ever felt moved by a comic was a certain panel in the first issue of “Preacher” (yeah, that panel), but an angel and a demon together in the Pizza Man way just make me smile. But… Note the past tense.
- Oh, Meg. I never thought I’d shed a tear for you and your pop culture quoting human hating Winchester baiting persona, but I did. I am so sorry you never got your unicorn, Meg. I hate to list her demise under a “good” post point, but it was a well written ending that worked emotions without being sappy.
The Better:
- Can we just talk about the set design tonight? The model of the town in vic #1’s basement, the maps, the scenes at the Batcave, Lucifer’s crypt? Good god that was some beautiful art direction!
- Agents Tandy and Lynne? I’m sorry Supernatural, did you just make an ELO reference? Oh, bravo!
- Castiel had some zingers this week but they were delivered without the traditional Cas naivete, which in my estimation makes them ten times funnier. Some favorites: “I’m going to interrogate the strange haired demon in the kitchen” and “You know I can hear you both. I am a celestial being.”
The OH MY GOD THIS IS WHY I WATCH THIS SHOW YES THANK YOU AWESOME:
- I tweeted Robbie Thompson once last night during the episode, and wanted to do it at least three more times. But I’m a little too old to be a twitter stalker. But the pacing! This episode should be used in screenwriting classes to teach neophytes how to plot an episode of terse drama and incidental humor. I rarely took time to write notes until commercials came on because I could not tear my eyes away from the screen.
- Did you feel a disturbance in the force around, oh, say, 9:45 EST last night? Did your cat and dog run to the window and stare without purpose? Did you hear the collective sigh and elated singing of hundreds of thousands of fangirls? ‘Cause that’s what happened. There are several alliances out there in fandom; those that love Cas, and those that don’t feel his presence adds anything to the show. OK, more specifically there are those that hate him and there are the shippers. But regardless of your stance, last night, through solid writing, incredible performances, and characters, even Winchesters, sharing their wants and needs in an appropriate way, Cas was given purpose. Not just by fans – we’ve been giving him purpose for four years. But the show finally gave him a reason to stick around. “We’re family! We need you! I need you!” If your mouth wasn’t agape and your eyes watery, well… You must be new here.
The show is finally moving on from the “brothers withholding information from themselves and others causing internal and external strife” template. It’s time. The characters are growing and the show just keeps getting better and better.
New weekly feature, I think: Dean Winchester’s Quip of the Week! “The Rudy Hobbit always gets a pass.”