Lower Decks

The following review contains spoilers for Supernatural through the current episode, “Heaven and Hell,” originally broadcast November 20th, 2008.

I don’t have all that much to say about this episode because, to be quite honest, I found it incredibly disappointing. Last week’s episode, the first half of this two-part story, introduced the character of Anna, a young woman who could eavesdrop on the conversation of angels. For understandable reasons, demons were anxious to get their hands on her. Sam and Dean, with help from Ruby, had their hands full trying to protect Anna. And then Castiel and Uriel showed up. Cue cliffhanger. Unfortunately, aside from the ending and a few select scenes, “Heaven and Hell” was an underwhelming follow-up to “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”

At the start of “Heaven and Hell,” Castiel and Uriel attack Sam and Dean, who decline to turn over Anna. Castiel quickly dispatches Sam by simply touching his head while Uriel takes great joy in pummeling Dean. Suddenly, the two are literally pulled out of the building and disappear. Anna was responsible for getting rid of the two angels but aside from being covered in blood she has no idea exactly what she did. Still, for the moment, they are safe. Ruby provides a few hex bags that should keep them invisible to angels and demons alike. Sam does some digging into Anna’s past and learns she has been institutionalized several times in the past.

Anna interrupts the Brothers Winchester and berates them for discussing her past rather than simply asking her about it. Then she confesses not knowing what was going on with her when she was freaking out about her real father trying to kill her. So, Sam and Dean take Anna to see Pamela (the psychic who lost her eyes in an earlier episode). Pamela tries to get Anna to recall her youth but no dice. However, when Anna wakes up she remembers everything. She’s an angel! Actually, she’s an angel whose fallen from grace (by her own hand, apparently) and became human decades ago.

This was where the episode started going south. Anna was a very interesting character at first but learning she was a former angel seemed like a cop out. It was as if the writers weren’t sure where to take the character so they took the easy route. Let’s make her an angel! But never explain why she fell from grace or why her grace fell with her. And then have her remember everything just because. And make her Castiel and Uriel’s former boss, just for good measure. That’ll be awesome.

Ruby isn’t exactly thrilled with the revelation that Anna is an angel. She wants Sam to use his ability to kill Alistair but Sam shoots her down. Dean and Anna have an interesting conversation about the respective merits of humans and angels. Dean thinks being an angel must be pretty sweet while Anna is keener on being human (they both agree sex is great). Anna explains that angels have no free will and only four of them (out of how many she never says) have seen the face of God. The rest just have to accept him on faith. If they don’t, they die.

The group heads to where they think Anna’s grace fell and made a tree. It isn’t there. Dean and Anna have another long talk and this time Anna tells Dean she knows about what he did in Hell. Dean quickly switches the subject to sex and the two have it, seeing as they both think it’s peachy keen. While Dean and Anna are going at it, Ruby sneaks off to meet with Alistair. She offers to turn over Anna if Alistair will allow her and the Brothers Winchester to walk away free. Alistair responds by having a pair of demons grab Ruby. Later, Dean has a dream in which Uriel threatens to send him back to Hell. He tries to bluff by saying Anna was able to get her grace back but Uriel reveals that he wears Anna’s grace on a chain around his neck (creepy).

The next morning (presumably, I’m never sure of the timeline during episodes of Supernatural), Castiel and Uriel show up and confront Sam and Dean and Anna. Ruby is nowhere to be found. Castiel reveals that Dean was the one who told them where to find Anna. Sam is aghast but Anna knows what happened: Uriel threatened to kill Sam if Dean didn’t spill the beans. Anna agrees to go with Castiel and Uriel and she agrees. But then Alistair and two demon goons show up with Ruby. Fisticuffs begin quickly. Alistair easily overpowers Castiel and starts an incantation while Uriel deals with the goons.

Anna is able to rip her grace off Uriel’s neck and, after screaming for everyone to close their eyes, grows brighter and brighter. As Castiel looks on, Alistair lunges at Anna. The two disappear in a blinding flash. Ruby’s demon-killing knife is left behind. Castiel and Uriel leave. Sam hopes Anna is happy wherever she is; Ruby and Dean share a glance and Dean says he very much doubts Anna is happy. But the plan to bring the angels and demons together worked. Ruby just had to be tortured in order to get it done.

As the episode winds down, Sam and Dean are sitting on the car drinking and Dean finally decides to share with Sam what happened to him in Hell. First of all, it wasn’t just four months, it was more like forty years. He tortured every single day, torn and ripped apart and then put back together to go through it all again. And Alistair would offer, every single day, to take Dean off “the rack” if he would only agree to torture other souls. For the first thirty years, Dean told Alistair to stuff it. But then he gave in. He did horrible things to those souls. He tells his brother he wishes he couldn’t feel anything anymore. Sam tries to comfort Dean, saying he held out longer than anyone would, but they both know there’s nothing Sam can say.

As I mentioned earlier, this last exchange was truly the standout scene of the episode. Everything else just felt forced. And the “twist” that the whole thing had been a plan, that Ruby had gone to Alistair in order to “trick” him into confronting Castiel and Uriel? Come on. It didn’t even make all that much sense, given that Ruby snuck off before Dean had his encounter with Uriel, but somehow everything still worked out perfectly? I didn’t buy it while watching the episode and I don’t buy it now, thinking about it.

I did very much enjoy Dean’s dirty mind considering the possibilities when Anna (an angel) and Ruby (a demon) were sitting together in the back of the Impala, plus Sam twice telling Dean he’s confusing porn with reality. But other than that, the episode lacked the usual Supernatural humor. I didn’t care that Dean and Anna slept together, just as I didn’t care that Sam and Ruby did the deed (as shown in “I Know What You Did Last Summer”). But the episode as a whole fell flat. And we don’t get another episode until January 15th, 2009!