Supernatural S04 E20 – Meet the meat suit

Previously: The boys found out they had a little brother. And then he died. Because that’s what Winchesters do best.
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The Rapture

Kirsti: We open with Dean sitting on the end of the world’s smallest dock. He’s fishing, and he looks peaceful and happy for the first time in EVER.

Castiel appears behind him and says they need to talk. Dean’s all “Noooooo, get out of my happy place”, and asks if he’s dreaming. Cas confirms that he is, and says they need to talk somewhere private. Dean’s confused because they’re in his head. Cas is all “Yeah, people could be listening”. He hands Dean a piece of paper, tells him to meet him there ASAP, and disappears. Dean wakes with a start.

Marines: Couldn’t the people listening to Dean’s head just follow Dean to find Cas? Dream!Cas, I don’t think your logic isn’t sound.

K: RIGHT?!

Cut to the boys walking through a dark warehouse-y looking building. Sam demands to know what’s so important that they had to meet Cas in the middle of the night. Dean has no idea. They walk into a big open area, and there’s twisted metal everywhere. Sam says it looks like there’s been an explosion. Dean says there was a fight there, and his torch hits a symbol scrawled on the wall in blood. It’s like the ones Anna used to send the angels away, so clearly the fight was between angels.

Dean spots Cas lying in the rubble and rushes over to him. He shakes him awake, and there’s much confusion. “Castiel. I’m not Castiel. It’s me,” Cas says. I’d never really realised before just how different Misha Collins’ voice is when he plays Castiel, but having spent SO MANY HOURS listening to him be all gravelly and “HELLO DEAN”-y, it’s insanely obvious here. “Who’s me?” Sam asks in confusion. Jimmy, Not!Cas says. He’s Jimmy. Castiel’s gone. The boys look freaked.

Mari: They probably miss the gravelly voice. 

K: CREEPY BIRDS!

After the Not Credits, Jimmy stuffs a hamburger into his mouth in delight, and tells the boys he hasn’t eaten in months.

He tells them that all he remembers of the fight is a bright light, and that he has no idea what happened to Cas. Sam asks if he remembers being possessed, and Jimmy replies “Yeah, bits and pieces. I mean, angel inside of you, it’s kinda like being chained to a comet.” Sam asks if he remembers what Cas wanted to tell them, but NOPE. They ask what he DOES remember, and he tells them that his name’s Jimmy Novak and he’s from Pontiac, Illinois.

That throws us into a flashback, one year ago. Jimmy voiceovers that he has a family, as we watch Past!Jimmy sit down to dinner with his wife and daughter. He says grace, then we cut to Jimmy asleep in front of the TV. Suddenly, the screen fills with static. He tries to shut off the TV, but nothing happens.

There’s a high pitched buzzing noise, which gets louder and louder, and Jimmy falls to his knees with his hands over his ears, just like Dean did when Cas raised him. Unlike Dean, Jimmy ends up on the ground, having a seizure as the buzzing noise continues. (M:Further proof that angels are kind of dicks.) (K: As if we needed further proof.)

Back in the present, the boys are outside the Motel of the Week. Sam asks what they do, and Dean says they send Jimmy home to his family because he doesn’t know shit. Sam disagrees, saying that Jimmy’s their only lead. He thinks they should take him to Bobby’s and see if they can hypnotise him or something. They can’t let him go when there’s something so big going down that it causes an angel smackdown.

Dean sighs and pines wistfully for the days when their job was simple, helping get people home to their families. Sam bitches that they’d been doing him a favour by getting him to Bobby’s, because if they’re interested in what he has to say, you can bet the demons will be. Dean sighs in resignation.

Back inside, they tell Jimmy their plan, and he’s all “LOL NOPE”. He’s been stabbed and shot and dragged all over the planet and he’s done with the angels and their bullshit 5eva. He just wants to go home. Sam insists that he’s safer with them, but Jimmy NOPEs his way towards the door when Sam says he has no idea how long it’ll take them to sort things out. The boys point out that going home means putting his wife and daughter in danger, and Jimmy gets super pissed because he’s not okay with being a prisoner.

Cut to 4.34am. Jimmy’s asleep in one bed. Dean’s asleep in the other. Sam paces between them, and his face totally says “DAMMIT, IF CASTIEL WERE HERE I’D HAVE A WHOLE BED TO MYSELF.” Or maybe that’s my headcanon. (M: Ha, “maybe.”) Sam sneaks out, and Jimmy’s eyes pop open. Sam heads to the soda machine and Jimmy sneaks out of the room behind him. At the soda machine, Sam looks around shiftily, then pulls out a hipflask. He tips some blood into his palm and sucks at it like a total junkie. He does it again, and we fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, it’s the next morning. Sam yells at Dean to hurry the fuck up, but Dean dawdles through cleaning his teeth while chuckling about Jimmy giving Sam the slip. He asks where Sam was, and Sam snaps that he was getting a Coke. “Was it a refreshing Coke?” Dean smirks, which I mention only because it’s said in such a total sibling way. Sam bitchfaces and tells Dean to hurry up.

Meanwhile, Jimmy is on a bus. He stares out the window and throws us into another flashback. In the flashback, Jimmy chops vegetables for dinner, then stops when the radio fills with static. He leans in close and listens to it. Later, his wife comes home to find him elbow deep in a pot of boiling water and perfectly calm.

She freaks, but Jimmy insists that he’s fine. He pulls his arm out and dries it to show her that he’s not hurt.

“He told me to do it!” he says excitedly. She’s all “WTF WHO TOLD YOU TO STICK YOUR ARM IN BOILING WATER WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU”, which is a pretty legit reaction. He tells her that Castiel told him to do it, to prove his faith. He calls it a miracle, and she looks worried. Cut back to Jimmy on the bus.

Mari: I’d be worried too. Who the heck wants an arm in boiling pot miracle? Not I. 

K: Truth.

Meanwhile, the boys are speeding along in the Bromobile when Anna appears in the back seat. Dean swerves onto the wrong side of the road, then suggests that she call ahead next time. He tells her she looks terrific, and it’s pretty clear he’s having flashbacks to their back seat sexytimes. Anna awkwards, and changes the subject to Jimmy. Dean tells her Sam’s to blame for that. She studies Sam for a second, and tells him he looks different. Sam looks shifty, and says he’s had a haircut. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Sam Winchester doesn’t get haircuts.

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Anna says. She studies him some more, then asks if Jimmy knew anything because Cas got dragged back to Heaven, so he must have pissed someone off. Dean mentions that Cas had something important to tell him, but that neither he nor Jimmy have any idea what. Anna says they have to find out for sure, but that Jimmy’s probably dead by now.

With that, we cut to Jimmy, arriving at his house. He stares at the house feelsily, then climbs the stairs. He sees his daughter through the window, doing her homework. He watches as his wife – Amelia – joins her, then has another flashback. In it, Amelia tearfully begs him to take some medication, but he insists that he’s not sick and that Castiel chose him. He asks if she believes in God and angels, and when she says she does, he asks why she can’t believe in this. (M: “Because you were trying to cook your arm for dinner, honey. That’s why.”)

He says Castiel chose him because he’s special, down to his blood, and that God has chosen him for a higher purpose. She asks what the purpose is, and he says it’s God’s will and not his place to ask. He tells her to have faith and that God will provide for them. She looks freaked, and tells him that if he won’t take the pills and get help, that she’s taking their daughter and going to her mother’s. She heads upstairs.

Jimmy changes into a suit and trench coat and heads outside. He stands on the front path, and prays out loud. He asks Castiel for help because he’s about to lose his family, and says he needs to know what Castiel wants from him. A bright light appears over him, and there’s a faint whispering. Jimmy stares up into the light, then says “Yes, I understand. Promise my family will be okay and I’ll do it… Then, yes.”

A white pillar of light swirls around him, and when it fades, Castiel stares around him in confusion. Jimmy’s daughter comes out onto the porch, and says “Daddy?“. Castiel looks at her, and does the confused dog head tilt. Then he turns away, and says “I am not your father“. He walks away, leaving her looking feelsy.

Mari: I mean, I hate to keep pointing out what dicks angels are, but the least he could’ve done after hitchhiking in Jimmy was say, “daddy will be back later.” 

K: True, but that’s less dramatic.

Back in the present, Jimmy rings the doorbell. Amelia answers. She looks feelsy, then tells him that they stopped looking for him because they thought he was dead. Jimmy tells her that he’s okay. Later, he and Amelia sit in the living room. Their daughter, Claire, comes downstairs, and Amelia sends her back to her room. Jimmy asks to see her, but Amelia says she doesn’t know yet.

She asks where he was, and he tells her he was in a psychiatric clinic. She asks why he didn’t phone, and he awkwards but insists that he’s okay now. He says he was completely delusional before, but that none of it matters any more. He gets teary as he says he just wants to come home. Amelia looks feelsy and says she’s not sure she’s ready for that. He suggests they start with something small, like dinner.

At a truckstop, Sam leaves a junkie-esque voicemail for Ruby saying that he’s completely out and needs more, and that she needs to drop everything and give it to him. Back at Jimmy’s, there’s a feelsy reunion between Jimmy and Claire. Amelia walks in with a plate of sandwiches, and they sit down together as a family. Jimmy smiles and says it’s perfect, and reaches for a sandwich.

Claire’s horrified, and asks if he’s going to say grace. Jimmy tears up and replies “No, honey, I don’t think I am.” She asks why he’s crying, and he insists it’s because he’s happy.

But it’s clearly because being possessed by an angel has destroyed every ounce of faith he ever had. He’s seen the truth now, and he can’t go back.

Mari: It’s kind of how you may like someone but you couldn’t possibly live with them? I’m sure Jimmy really liked angels until one was piggyback-ing inside of his skin, or whatever. 

K: Or how once you notice someone you like’s flaws you can’t stop noticing those flaws and they kind of become a giant walking flaw and you never want to see them again.

The doorbell rings, and Amelia goes to answer it. It’s their neighbour, who’s all “Did I just see Jimmy come home???”. Amelia insists that it’s not a good time, but Pushy Neighbour pushes right in and greets Jimmy with a hug. He pulls him aside for a chat, and Amelia goes to get them some beers. Pushy Neighbour asks what happened, and Jimmy says he wouldn’t believe him but that it’s all over now and everything’s good.

Pushy Neighbour smirks and insists that it’s not, because “I’m going to gut your daughter while you watch“. Jimmy stares in horror as his eyes turn black. Amelia returns with the beers. While Pushy Neighbour’s distracted, Jimmy grabs a candlestick and starts smashing Pushy Neighbour over the head with it. Amelia stares in horror. Jimmy yells at her to run because Pushy Neighbour’s a demon. She stares and screams as we fade to black.

After the Not Commercial break, Jimmy shoves Amelia and Claire into the pantry and pours salt across the doorway. He tells them to stay put, but they think he’s gone crazy. Claire makes a run for it, and by the time Jimmy and Amelia catch up to her, Pushy Neighbour’s got a knife at her throat. Jimmy begs him to let Claire go, but he’s all “LOL NOPE”.

Pushy Neighbour’s Wife – also possessed – jumps on Jimmy’s back before knocking him to the ground and punching him repeatedly. Amelia tackles her, but gets thrown off. Dean appears out of nowhere and kills Pushy Neighbour with Ruby’s knife. Sam sticks a hand out and does Constipated Face on Pushy Neighbour’s Wife. He yells at Dean to get Jimmy and his family out of the house.

But Sam’s lack of demon blood means his powers aren’t working. Pushy Neighbour’s Wife sasses that he can’t get it up. “No, but I can!” yells Dean. It’s meant to be incredibly dramatic, but it’s just ridiculous when you’re watching this a few seconds at a time. (M: Or if you have trouble taking this show seriously. *raises hand*) He lunges at her with the knife, but the demon NOPEs its way out of her and disappears into a vent.

Outside, the boys hustle Jimmy and family into the Bromobile and speed away. Later, at a petrol station, Jimmy admits that the boys were right. They tell him that the demons don’t just want to question him, they’ll want to find out what makes a vessel work. So, like, vivisection. Sam snaps that Jimmy’s putting his family in danger and he needs to leave with them.

Jimmy looks at his family, sitting in the car, and asks how long. “Don’t you get it? Forever. The demons will never stop. You can never be with your family,” Sam snaps. Dean’s all “Wow. Cold.”, which is legit. Sam bitchfaces that someone has to tell Jimmy the truth. Jimmy sad pandas.

He heads over to the Bromobile to talk to Amelia while Claire sleeps. Amelia cries as she says she owes him a huge apology and she’ll never forgive herself for letting him leave. They smile at each other in disbelief over the existence of demons, then she asks what they’re going to do. He says the boys will get her a car and she has to take Claire and go stay with friends. She refuses to go anywhere without him, but he says they don’t have a choice. He tears up as he watches Claire sleep.

Later, Sam hotwires a car for Amelia as Jimmy bids farewell to his family. He gets in the Bromobile with the boys and the bro off into the night. Claire tearfully asks why he’s leaving again, and Amelia watches the Bromobile disappear into the night before turning and slapping Claire. Her eyes turn black, because obviously she’s possessed. “Because it’s just not my day, is it? You little bitch,” she says, earning us a nice round of misogyny shots.

Mari: I have no idea why the boys didn’t suspect this would happen. As if the demons wouldn’t possess the person closest to Jimmy, or possess the neighbors but not Amelia. It just would’ve been a good time for suspicion. 

K: RIGHT?!?! At least toss some holy water around before leaving.

Meanwhile, the Bromobile keeps on bro-ing. Jimmy’s asleep in the back seat. Dean asks what the hell’s going on with Sam’s powers because he, like, just murdered Alastair’s face off and yet now he can’t deal with a super low level boring demon. Sam mopes. Said moping is interrupted by his phone ringing. He answers and wakes Jimmy because it’s Amelia. Jimmy takes the phone and the zoomy cameraman does a shaky little zoom as Jimmy listens, then says “Oh my God.” Fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, the Bromobile arrives at a warehouse. The boys tell Jimmy that “they” are expecting him to be alone so he has to go in solo and stall while the boys get into position. Dean assures him that no one will get hurt, and Jimmy scoffs. Probably because he saw Dean slit Pushy Neighbour’s throat without a second thought like 5 minutes ago. BUT WHATEVER.

He asks for a minute and walks away. Sam’s all “This is totally a trap”. Dean agrees and says he has a plan. Jimmy stands alone in the dark and screams to Castiel for help. Cas promised that Jimmy’s family would be safe and they’re totally not, so what the fuck, dude?! There’s no answer. “Typical…” Jimmy mutters. He heads into the warehouse to find that Demon!Amelia has Claire tied to a chair.

She sasses at him some more, and says he should have come alone. He insists that he did, but LOL NOPE the boys have been captured by demons. Sam grumbles about Dean’s plan being terrible. One of the demons takes Ruby’s knife from Sam, and Demon!Amelia informs them that she was super sad to get this gig because BORING but now the Winchesters have fallen into her lap.

Sam says she should let Claire and Amelia go, but she’s all “Nah”. The punchline, she says, is that everybody dies. She pulls out a gun and aims it at Sam. He looks freaked, but she swings around and shoots Jimmy in the gut. Dean’s face screams “NOOOOOOOO, NOT THE BAE” as Jimmy collapses on the ground. Demon!Amelia heads out – so…not “everyone dies” so much as “I’mma do a half arsed job of killing one guy and then bail” – and tells one of her minions to kill Claire as she passes.

Minion #1 stalks towards Claire and grabs a metal pipe. He swings at her, but she wakes suddenly, grabs the pipe and slams a hand into his forehead. He screams as his head fills with white light and he’s angel exorcised. The boys spring into action, fighting off Minions #2 and #3. Claire burns through the ropes holding her to the chair and walks towards Jimmy. “Castiel,” he says in horror.

The boys keep fighting the Minions. Claire-stiel takes care of Minion #2. Sam manages to grab Ruby’s knife and slices at Minion #3’s neck. He drinks her blood with glee, then turns to see Dean and Claire-stiel staring at him in horror. (M: Everyone is making the most questionable decisions this episode.)

He turns away and murders Minion #3’s face off. Then he shoves out a hand towards Dean, who’s all “the fuck?”. But it’s actually for Demon!Amelia, who’s appeared behind him. Sam tilts his head creepily as he uses his powers effortlessly. Contrivance dictates that Amelia doesn’t die like the rest of the people Sam exorcises.

Dean rushes over to her, then looks at Sam in disgust some more. Meanwhile, Claire-stiel is crouched down by Jimmy’s side. She tells him that he has Heaven’s gratitude and that it’s time for him to go home to rest in the fields of the Lord forever. Jimmy begs Castiel to let his daughter go, but Cas is all “Nah” because Claire’s got Jimmy’s blood and is chosen like him.

Jimmy begs Castiel to take him instead. The boys and Amelia keep their distance. “I wanna make sure you understand. You won’t die or age. If this last year was painful for you, picture a hundred, a thousand more like it,” Castiel says. Jimmy spits blood as he tells Castiel to take him instead of Claire.

“As you wish,” Claire-stiel says, and now I want to watch The Princess Bride. (M: Yes please!)

She touches Jimmy’s face, and a bright white light passes between them. Castiel, back in Jimmy’s body, stands and walks over to the boys. Amelia rushes over to Claire and holds her as she cries. Castiel starts to leave, and Dean asks what he was going to tell him right back at the start of the episode. Cas turns to him coldly and says “I learned my lesson while I was away, Dean. I serve heaven, I don’t serve man, and I certainly don’t serve you.” He walks off, leaving Dean looking startled. Fade to black.

After the Not Commercial Break, the Bromobile speeds through the night. Sam’s all “okay, do your yelling about me being a disgusting blood junkie”, but Dean insists that he’s not angry and he has no speeches to make. He gives zero fucks about Sam’s explanations. He’s just tired and generally over everything. Sam’s phone rings, and it’s Bobby. We see him down in his panic room with a bed set up as he tells Sam to get the fuck over there because the apocalypse has arrived.

Cut to the boys arriving at Bobby’s. He ushers them down to the panic room and says he wants to show them something inside. Sam strolls on in, then looks back to see Dean and Bobby standing in the doorway. He asks what the latest demon problem is, and Bobby says “You are. This is for your own good“.

He and Dean lock Sam in the panic room, and Sam’s all “WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK IS GOING ON?”. Fade to black.

I…have mixed feelings about this episode. I know I’ve been saying that a lot recently, and I think it’s a side effect of recapping this show, because I actually really like season 4. It’s just that there’s a consistent problem with it not standing up when you watch it slowly. Each episode takes me upwards of three hours to recap, and so all the bad parts really stand out and often overweigh the good things. Especially if I end up recapping over multiple days. I love getting Jimmy’s backstory and seeing a little bit of how angel vessels are chosen. But I wanted this to be more about Jimmy and Castiel than it was about the Winchesters, and it didn’t really end up that way.

Mari: I’m not sure if I realized that angels possessed people too. If I had, previous to this episode, it’s a thought that didn’t really stick or that I didn’t fully process. Castiel as I know him has actually been riding around in Jimmy’s skin suit. The more I get to know of angels, the more not like angels they seem. We see so many people possessions on this show and a lot of times, human causalities kind of play out in the background. We’ve definitely had mention of trying to get rid of demons and not killing the human vessel, but more often than not, people die and the Winchesters move on.

I just bring all of that up now because of how freaky it is to think that all of the angels we’ve met have also been riding around in people. Sure, they might think they are “willing vessels,” but if Jimmy taught us anything, it’s that he didn’t know what he signed up for and also that it’s possible to become less willing. Besides, all the tactics of boiling arm miracles and static seizures are awful and manipulative.

If this show was going to do angels, it couldn’t make them plain good, of course. In that way, they are succeeding. I do have more questions about what it means exactly to have an angel inside of you, but this episode seems happy to not answer them and move on.

I found Sam interesting in this episode, especially with his loud exclamations of having to tell the truth and being upfront when all this time, he’s been sipping on that demon blood. It makes a good set-up for him finally being discovered. Just in time for the end of the season.

 

 

Next time on Supernatural: Dean and Bobby hold an intervention for Sam and his (demon blood) drinking habits in S04 E21 – When the Levee Breaks.