Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The End Approaches

Is it me, or did this season just fly by? I mean, I don't feel like I ever stopped longing for the show to come back, and now we're about to say goodbye again. But I also can't wait to see how it ends.

Back in January, I was talking about season 6 with some friends. A couple of them expressed some of the same disappointment a lot of you have, and said the season has felt sloppier or more haphazard, with too much going on.

At the time, I agreed but said I had hopes that it wasn't going to end up that way overall. I thought that once we got to the end of the season, we'd look back or rewatch and find it extremely well done. And it's shaping up to be that way.

It's DIFFERENT, for sure. In all the past seasons, we knew what the goal was, and every detail fed that goal. We had the framework of a puzzle already put together, and every piece of information filled it in and gave us a better picture.

This season, we started with a jumble of pieces and no picture of what we were making. As we got pieces and started to fit things together, we got different parts of the whole put together. Instead of filling in from, say, top to bottom, we got two pieces in the top left corner, and then a chunk in the middle, and a bit from the right side.

Now we only have a few key pieces missing, and everything fits together. I really can't wait to see the end and then watch again from the beginning.

Going back to last week's episode...

I loved that they kept Mark Sheppard's name out of the opening credits. When he was killed, I felt let down because it seemed so easy and final. I always had a tiny seed of hope that it wasn't the end of him. And then the big reveal came, and it would have been totally ruined if we knew he was going to be there. (I'm good at avoiding spoilers during the week, but despite hating to know ahead of time, I can't stop myself from reading the guest star list!)

I also liked that once they came up against the "big bad," they vanquished her in the clever, determined way they used to do. They could have dragged it out longer, but making the Mother more powerful than Lucifer would have been a mistake, in my opinion.

So now we have three episodes left, and we finally can see a glimmer of everything tying together. I'm thinking it all comes down to the war in heaven. Purgatory, the Mother, the souls, bringing back the Campbells, maybe even leaving Sam's soul in the pit all connect to whatever stakes Cas is fighting for (or against).

I'm betting next week's Cas-centric episode will give us a lot of the answers, and then the last two episodes will be the big fight and the setup for season 7.

You know what? I might just go start watching season 6 from the beginning right now...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nat, I'm with you! I would have noticed Mark's name and thought it was cool not to know he was coming back. (BTW, just discovered that not only will he, Misha, and Jim B be at DragonCon, Samatha Feris is now on the list. yay! FINALLY some Supernatural love.)

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Oh, what a great group! Misha and Jim in particular are awesome, but I'd love to see Mark and Samantha, too! Lucky you! :)

Anonymous said...

I have been rewatching the earlier Season 6 episodes and looking for clues to Castiel's duplicity.
Do any of you think it's strange that both Cas and Crowley said that it would be too dangerous to return Sam's soul to him? Was it really in the cage? Death didn't say where it was, just that it was a "trifle flayed to the raw nerve".
That to me would be the ultimate betrayal of Castiel to Dean. To use and abuse his little brother's soul.
I could be totally wrong (and hope so-I love Mischa and Cas), but - I'll just leave that hanging.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Oh, what a scary thought, Patricia!

Anonymous said...

Very disturbing. Add to it that Cas' best buddy Balthazar was all ready to help Sammy scar is vessel so he could never get his soul back.....

Gailann said...

I just posted a relatively long comment, only to get timed out. (Blogspot/Blogger is so hard to comment!)

Do you feel you got some answers from last night's episode? I didn't. I'm more confused than ever. *sigh*

MJFredrick said...

I feel more confused than ever, too. Glad that wasn't my night to recap, because it would say, "Huh?" a lot.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I hate when Blogger eats the comments!

I didn't feel that we got much last night that we hadn't already been shown. I wouldn't say I'm confused, but that there are a couple of things that they didn't really explain. Like what "having souls" means, and how they use the power. Did Cas use the souls Crowley spotted him to do that handy light thing to send Raphael away? If so, are they destroyed? How do the souls supply power? How do they determine which of the souls already in heaven belong to Raphael, and how many belong to Cas?