Recap
In the Supernatural episode “The Song Remains The Same,” Anna pays Dean a visit within the confines of his mind. She’s broken out of a Heavenly prison, and wants to meet him. Castiel chooses to meet her, knowing that Anna can lead the Angels to Sam and Dean. He has a tense meeting with Anna where they both play their cards. She tries to convince him that Sam has to die, but Castiel will have no part of it.
Our trio (Sam, Dean, Castiel) decide to find Anna. She’s clearly got some macabre plan in mind, stopping her is a necessity. The only problem is she’s gone back in time. To 1978. A time when Mary and John Winchester were enjoying a quiet life after the brutal events of episode 403 (which, features Dean time-traveling to try and stop the Yellow Eyed Demon.)
It turns out Anna wants to kill Mary and John. A weak Castiel is placed in a hotel, physically spent after sending himself, Sam and Dean to 1978. Sam and Dean track down Mary and John, convincing them to go on the run after Anna nearly kills John. Anna enlists the help of Uriel, who even in 1978 is her underling. They track down Sam and company. John is brutally beaten, and Sam is killed. Before things can get worse, St. Michael convinces John to be a vessel. He quells the scene, takes care of Anna, forces Uriel to leave, and renders Mary unconscious.
Michael and Dean have a heart to heart. The former tries to explain to Dean why he has to be a vessel, filling him in on how the Winchester bloodline was destined to be pitted in eternal battle against each other. He leaves Dean to think about that, and then wipes the memories of John and Mary so events can play out as they always did.
He sends Dean, Castiel and Sam back to the present day. Sam and Dean discuss whether they can outrun being vessels, and are left with the sobering thought that each day brings them closer to the brink.
The Review
This episode begins with Dean having a sexualised dream that plays on the old ‘Madonna/Whore’ complex. Namely the simplified view of woman as virginal, or sexual. Interestingly, here the two women are dressed as an Angel and Satan respectively. Aside from the obvious connotations (Dean like dress-ups), it’s presenting another aspect to his psyche.
Namely that, part of him, dreams of a co-existence between Heaven and Hell. Not in the ‘everything is hunky dory’ way, but how things used to be. Namely Dean smiting demons without Angelic intervention. It’s fun to look back over the show and see how simple the adventures once were. Demons were bad, Winchesters were good. Now there’s moral ambiguity, and it’s shot everything they stood for straight to Hell.
Which is the cue for Anna to return.
She’s the opposite of Dean. He wants things as they were. She wants them as they should be. It’s the eternal fight. One side wants to preserve the status quo, the other side wants to readjust the status quo. There’s a simple disagreement of intent that starts a chain reaction causing Anna to believe that killing Sam (and Dean because, well, Dean will never let anyone else kill Sam. Deep down, I get the sense Dean, in his mind, is delaying the inevitable there.)
This throws back to Castiel. In this episode, he’s effectively running against time. Like Anna, he’s rebelled against the throne… but wants to save Sam’s life. Castiel has made a human connection. Him losing his power literally through the time-travel is an extension of him mentally losing the nature of an Angel. They aren’t human, they’re divine servants of God. Each time Castiel shows a human characteristic, he loses touch with the divinity that he is part of. Which is arguably the point, and the reason we root for him. He’s choosing to suffer in the hope that Sam and Dean can – however unlikely – stop the nuthouse from going loco.
We also see consequence for Castiel turning Anna into the Angels. Back then, Castiel was misguided and driven by faith. He’s changed, but the loyalty he showed is a cornerstone of the show. If I can deviate for a moment, the core difference between Angels and Humans is that Angels can’t choose – theoretically – what orders to obey or not. They don’t have overwhelming free-will. If they disobey the throne, they are cut off. Humans, on the other hand, can choose not to believe in God. They can kill, maim, commit the most deviant acts. It was God’s gift for mankind to do with as he/she saw fit. The cost of enlightenment, of knowing God truly exists beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that servitude is required.
But with that (lengthy diatribe), comes an interesting snag. Anna escaped from Heavenly prison, something no-one should be capable of doing. And Dean escaped from Hell. This suggests a plan is in order. Both events are nearly impossible from the sounds of the confinements. So, as Lucifer has a plan, does God? Was given mankind free-will and the freedom to choose part of that? So they could see beyond servitude and enable people like Jo the opportunity to throw a spanner into the works? Jo, Ellen and Bobby are unimportant to the religious story in terms of a direct connection – yet they fight and they love and they die because they believe in Sam and Dean.
It seems that fate and deus-ex-machina take us to the endgame. People are the missing ingredient, the TNT that Angels and Demons don’t see coming.
In regards to the episode’s title, it’s very telling. Sam and Dean paying their parents a visit in 1978 (via Castiel) to save them from Anna is interesting. But when the title is ‘The Song Remains the Same?’ It becomes far more interesting. During the episode, I wondered if this was how things had always played out. When Sam and Dean had the tearful conversation with Mary, I started thinking about whether her and John had always known this was going to happen. The only crux there was her refusal that Sam and Dean grow up hunters. She’s a proud, strong woman – I can’t see her bending on that if she always knew. And so, naturally, there is a memory wipe of sorts.
But, and this ties in with the title, the memory wipe makes sense. No matter how Sam and Dean try to fix the past, it all happened. The song never changes. You can jazz it up, but the core of what the song is will always remain. The intervention of St. Michael here was very telling in regards to that.
I got goose-bumps when we first saw him. He took over John to save everyone from Anna and her cohort… and he just spoke with such a clear voice. Like Lucifer, there was no doubt. No wavering. Michael believed in what he was doing. It was iron-clad. To the extent where he didn’t even try and manipulate Dean into becoming his vessel there and then. Sam was dead, and Michael could have used. But instead, he still believes in choice. The Angels may hate that we have it, but they understand that Dean has to choose this. Lucifer can trick Nick into being a vessel, and would do the same for Sam – but Michael shows a purity of spirit that wants this to end properly.
In the end, Michael sets things the way they had to be. Sam and Dean get to see their parents in action, and realise how close they came to changing the past. At the same time, they realise that they edge closer to becoming a vessel. After all, what if Michael offered to bring Jo back… or even the Winchester parents. Would Sam and Dean turn that down? Could they?
Final Thoughts
The first thing to mention is that simply sensational acting by Amy Gumenick in the role of Mary. She was terrific back in S4, but here? Stunning. She has to run an emotional arc. Finding out that Angels want her dead… having her future children visit her… discovering what happens. It’s powerful and challenging stuff. Amy, however, rises to the challenge. She’s strong and committed to the role. We even get a terrific bridge between Young Mary and Pilot Mary, as she puts on a maternal front at the end. It breaks the heart to know her character will always die horribly on the show.
Equal amounts of kudos must go to Matthew Cohen for playing Young John so deftly. He didn’t get too much to work with in S4, so this is – in effect – an origin episode for him. The story of how John began. In a crisis, he took on a leadership role. The guy didn’t know anything about hunting at the start, and yet by the end the guy was a force to be reckoned with. We even got Matthew putting on a vastly different set of mannerisms for Michael. Whereas John was a work in progress, Michael was utterly convicted. To jump from one character to the other with such ease was some phenomenal work. TV episodes shoot quickly, so seeing someone effortlessly manage that shift is incredible. Especially given that I’m too familiar with his non-Supernatural work.
Another highlight was discovering how far the bloodline stretches. Discovering that Sam and Dean’s ancestry reaches back to Cain and Abel was jaw-dropping. It explains so much about the fall of man, about their relationship, about destiny and yet… at the same time… puts across that the final endgame is all up for grabs. Everything boils down to them in the end. Which makes things far better than if Supernatural went down the ‘what was will be, and what is will be no more’ line of thought. Nihilism doesn’t work for a TV series where we have to believe that hope can prevail.
The episode worked brilliantly for me. One can say that it veered too close to Back To The Future (time-travel) and Terminator (Anna will kill you.) However, I think the show earns it. There aren’t an infinite amount of stories, only an infinite amount of perspectives. Supernatural has made a cracking go of meshing basic story ideas from geeky eighties properties with the things that interest them. Namely psychology, wise-cracks, and a terrific soundtrack. Supernatural uses these sci-fi/supernatural tropes as background for the intensely dramatic and exhilarating character work.
To them, the time-travel is a plot contrivance for us to see all four Winchesters act as equals. It’s not about Anna, it’s about Sam and Dean. The hallmark of a good show is to have everything thematically revolve around the lead characters. Supernatural does this as well as anyone. It’s why the show is revered, why it is far more than a ‘male version of Buffy.’ The show deserves infinitely more kudos than it gets, considering it manages to entertain you and engage the brain without pandering to some loose sense that it’s above either entertaining or enlightened thought.
The Grade: A+
