Join us in covering S14E9, "The Spear", or the one where Sam and Jack take a trip to the post office, Dean and Cas take a scenic stroll, Garth is a terrible spy, and Kaia still doesn't get to eat her beans. Tune in for a Very Merry June Christmas, where hopefully the epic score and delicious Michael eye candy makes up for Supernatural's continuing streak of hilariously bad prop designs.

Remmy: Hell — [laughs] Hell...

Bea: Hell!

Remmy: Hell. Oh, hell. Hello, everybody. Hello, hello! This is (No) Chick Flick Moments. I'm your co-host, Remmy.

Bea: And I am your other co-host, Bea.

Remmy: And this is our Supernatural watchcast, and today we are talking about the mid-season finale!

Bea: Dun-dun dun!

Remmy: Season 14, episode 9: "The Spear". It was an episode written by Robert "Bobo" Berens and directed by Amyn Kaderali. The description reads: Sam and Dean enlist the help of their pal Garth to gain inside information on what Michael may be planning. The brothers split up to each go after weapons that can aid in their fight against the Archangel, but this may be a fight our heroes cannot win.

Bea: [tense breath]

Remmy: [laughs] You always do that deep sigh.

Bea: It's always tense! This season, they just are head down, feet running about the whole thing.

Remmy: Yeah. That's true. True that.

Bea: Yeah, and they are wasting no time in bringing bloodbath to us. [laughs]

Remmy: [laughs] But it's a festive — it's a festive bloodbath.

Bea: Oh, I know. The little "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" playing, because we start off in Kansas City, Missouri. We're going through this building. They called it Fleecewell Capital Advisors. I'm like mhmm, a little on the nose there. I like it. [laughs]

Remmy: [laughs]

Bea: It feels like the whole Christmas vibe is going on, but as we are looking through the items on the ground, it's not just discarded plates and clothing. It is also blood and shattered objects. A man has run out of a room. He's pounding on the elevator only to be caught by a vampire in a Santa hat. [laughs] What did you think about the little gag here?

Remmy: [laughs] Well, of course, my first thought is those f****** teeth. Ugh.

Bea: I know!

Remmy: And Bea, you actually told me right before we started recording that this was a vampire. I thought it was a werewolf — what? [laughs]

Bea: I know. My notes had "vamp?" crossed out, then "wolf?" crossed out, then vamp again.

Remmy: [laughs] He has the thick wolf teeth! They're bad, but they're still like...

Bea: It's like, "Same hat? Same hat!"

Remmy: [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So apparently the wiki says vampire. So let's just go with that.

Bea: Yep.

Remmy: Yeah, we hear some screams. We see the bloody abandoned floors of this complex, but then we see a man running through the hallway and doing the David Yaeger pounding on the...

Bea: Yeah, terrible survival instincts. Go for the stairs.

Remmy: Go for the stairs!

Bea: Maybe I'm thinking of fire rules instead of vampire rules, but anyways.

Remmy: [He's] pounding on the elevator button and he turns around and surprise: Santa werewolf — Santa vampire. I have Santa werewolf in my notes, though.

Bea: It's like 50/50. We can call 'em both. [laughs]

Remmy: Yeah. It's Santa beasty, and he grabs the guy by the throat and then there's this little gag that he looks up and he sees mistletoe, and then he leans in close like he's gonna kiss him and then... breaks his neck instead. I'm like, I'm like, I'm bored. Let's move on.

Bea: [laughs]

Remmy: That's how I felt about the gag.

Bea: Yeah. I don't know how I felt about it. It was just one of those terrible pun moments. Like, you hear it. You're just like, oh come on, really?

Remmy: Yeah, really? Did we have to?

Bea: But I guess it was important because when the dude disposes of this body and returns to Michael, he says that he didn't feed and he's all prepped for the plans tomorrow.

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: And we get to see Michael in his new vessel for the first time.

Remmy: Lady Michael. I love her.

Bea: Gorgeous, stunning, amazing.

Remmy: [laughs] Exactly. Show-stopping. Spectacular.

Bea: Yes, and she's staring out of the window at the rest of the city. The dude asks why here, why this building, and she's just like, "I like the view."

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: And then Melanie, who was the werewolf from episode 2, she returns with a couple of volunteers. Here, we see Garth!

Remmy: The last of the new recruits and Garth! Yes. We have this dudebro-looking character in a red hat and hoodie, and then we slowly pan over and it's Garth! And me, I'm like, I'm gobble-gobbling up those tidbits. Like when we namedrop him, or when we saw his photo in the Men of Letters surveillance in season 12, but then we actually have Garth back. I don't even know how long it's been, but it's been a while.

Bea: Yeah, I was going to ask, but it's one of those things that's like, I'll say it once, I'll say it again: anytime that they do those little namedrops, it just helps bolster the worldbuilding that we're seeing. And then here, we get to actually see him.

Remmy: Yes. Yes, I think season 9 was the last time that we saw Garth, but don't quote me on that. Michael says, "I know you. I recognize you."

Bea: Yeah, "You're one of Dean's friends," and Garth does the surprising turn here and says, "Yeah, I still am."

Remmy: Yeah, I know and I was like, oh Garth. Aww.

Bea: I know, it was like [breath hisses] risky biscuits right off the bat.

Remmy: But he says, "Once a friend of the Winchesters, always a friend of the Winchesters. But this is a war. This is your war that you started, and I have a family to think of. I have a daughter and when push comes to shove, you have to be on the winning side of that war."

Bea: Yeah.

Remmy: Like it or not, and Michael just gives him a speculative look and accepts it.

Bea: Yeah, we don't question any further than that.

Remmy: But I'm like, oh Garth! So serious. Where's my Garth?

Bea: [laughs]

Remmy: Yeah, so we're left on this tense note, but...

Bea: Yes, and then we follow immediately to a light note. Jack is sneaking cookies cereal in the middle of the night.

Remmy: He is sneaking a midnight snack and he's caught out by Cas.

Bea: Yeah. A light snaps on and just immediately hand-in-the-cookie-jar moment.

Remmy: Literally.

Bea: "Don't tell Sam," Jack says, and Cas is basically saying that okay, if you have insomnia, I kind of get it, because the whole dying and reviving thing.

Remmy: Yeah, it's been a rough week.

Bea: Yeah, and just Jack being like, "Yeah, I died and I came back," and Cas being basically, "Yeah, we've all been through it." It's something of a rite of passage around here. I'm like, thank you for lampshading that one.

Remmy: Hey, we've only had one resurrection this season, thank you very much. But Jack says no, it's not that. He's worried about Heaven, right?

Bea: Yes, and in specifics, his mom.

Remmy: Yeah, he says, "Is Heaven okay, because it's not looking good up there." He was only there for five minutes.

Bea: Yeah, and it's not lining up with his expectations too. What he heard of [Heaven] was just this perfect place where everyone wants to be, and now Jack goes, well, how did The Empty get in? How is it not perfect? How could this happen?

Remmy: Yeah, and Cas says Heaven's gonna be okay. He puts a little plug in for Naomi here. He says, "Naomi is complicated, but she will do everything in her power to protect the souls in her charge."

Bea: Yeah. Cas, he taps the table twice. He's getting ready to get up, and then Jack brings up the fact that, "Y'know, you made that deal for me. Why aren't you telling Sam and Dean?"

Remmy: Yeah. He says, "Your deal," and it's obviously something that's like eating away at him. I mean, one part that this is a burden of something to know, and one part Jack doesn't keep secrets. It's not in Jack's nature, I wouldn't think.

Bea: Yeah, and to have someone do this for him, I think, is a little foreign for him as well.

Remmy: Yeah, and he says, "Why can't we tell Sam and Dean?" and [fondly] Cas.

Bea: Yeah!

Remmy: Cas.

Bea: You were doing so good.

Remmy: Oh my God, he says it's not that they can't know. "They can know. I just don't want them to know."

Bea: Yeah, they don't need this burden.

Remmy: You [Jack] don't need this burden.

Bea: But Jack is like, "You did that for me." Like, I do feel some responsibility here, and the fact that you are isolated with this? Not a good scene.

Remmy: And Cas tries to be reassuring in the most depressing way possible. He says, "Oh no, don't worry. Don't worry." Speaking on the terms of the deal, he says, "The darkness says that it will only take me when I'm truly and uncomplicatedly happy. When I am absolutely content," and he says, "I don't see that happening anytime soon." [laughs]

Bea: Yeah. Yeah. "Have you seen this life? It's rarely happy." So like, we're good. [laughs] The Empty got the raw side of this deal.

Remmy: I know! he's like — I'm just looking, I'm just red-faced looking at, fuming at, the screen. Oh my God, Cas! No, bad!

Bea: Augh. And Jack here goes, "I'm sorry," but it's not just like a 'I'm sorry that you're experiencing this.' It's also like, "I'm sorry you think that's true."

Remmy: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like you said, Cas has been doing really good, right, with his — you know. What's the word I'm looking for...?

Bea: Taking steps to feel like he's part of the family. He's united front. He doesn't feel like he's just this extraneous element.

Remmy: Right. His... self confidence isn't exactly the right word, but he's been becoming more comfortable with his place and he's been happier. But for him to come out and say this, it's like, oh. It's such a blow, just because...

Bea: It's backsliding. It's going back to that "lone wolf" thing that is such a problem for any of our leads when they start doing that.

Remmy: Yeah, but he also says it so... He seems very settled in what he's saying. I don't know. He does it with a mellowness.

Bea: Yeah, nonchalance.

Remmy: Yeah, just this mellowness, this acceptance, and I don't know what to think of it.

Bea: I mean, if you have this level of internalised acceptance that your life is going to be miserable, I'm like, please see a therapist. I'm concerned for you, and I want things that are better for you than that.

Remmy: [laughs] Exactly. But then Cas. Okay. Half of my notes for half a page are just in allcaps CAS!

Bea: [laughs]

Remmy: He's like, "It's okay, Jack," and then to deflect or distracted, he snatches away the Crunch Cookie Crunch and says, "Hey, you know, enjoy the little things in life." [laughs] He says, "At least we have Crunch Cookie Crunch," and he sticks his whole big ol' hand in there and he takes out a handful and he crunches down with such smugness. I'm just like, [inhales] Cas, your f****** face!

Bea: It's such a parent move too, like, I'm gonna distract the kid with sugar. [laughs]

Remmy: [laughs] I know. Cas' f****** face and then it's just aww. He's smiling and then Jack says, "Were you the one who took the decoder ring out of the box?" and oh my God.

Bea: I pulled my eyelids halfway down my face. This is suffering.

Remmy: [laughs] He has a little conspiratorial moment with his son and says, "The—" what did he say?

Bea: "The password is Cookietacular."

Remmy: [laughs]

Bea: I'm like, I hate this cereal but I love this moment.

Remmy: I hate it so much, and I love it so much.

Bea: Yep.

Remmy: Sam and Garth are on the phone and yay! Big reveal: Garth has not actually turned traitor.

Bea: Yep. He's not betraying the Winchesters here. He's actually just feeding them information.

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: Essentially, Sam and his network have heard these rumors about volunteers being picked by Michael, and so they needed eyes and ears on the scene, and Garth got pulled out of retirement to do this.

Remmy: Yeah, and Sam, Garth is just talking a mile a minute. I'm like, yeah, there's my Garth! There he is.

Bea: [laughs]

Remmy: And Sam is trying to get a word in edgewise. He says, "Just be safe," basically. "This is great, Garth. You're doing great. But..."

Bea: "Don't go too deep into this persona that you're playing."

Remmy: Uh-huh. Uh-huh, and Garth relays that they want him to become one of Michael's monsters. They want him to get this Michael powerup, which is a bit of Michael's grace mixed in with blood, and Sam says, "No no no, no, no. No, you can't do that. No. No." [laughs] "Bad idea."

Bea: Yeah, Sam's, "Too bad, we ain't doing that one."

Remmy: And Garth is like, "Oh no, it's fine. I'll just do the old swallow and spit trick."

Bea: Yeah, "The cough syrup trick I used to use on my mom." Sam's like, "Are you seriously comparing your mom to an archangel at this moment? One is going to be significantly trickier to fool."

Remmy: And Garth is like, "No. No, I'll be fine," and then it gets cut off because dudebro Chad comes in. His name's not Chad, but we agreed to call him Chad.

Bea: Yeah, he's a Chad.

Remmy: He's totally a Chad.

Bea: Yeah. Sam's super-worried; Garth is confident and Sam's like, "Are you seriously hanging up on me right now?" and Garth's like, "Yeah, love you, bye!" [laughs]

Remmy: [laughs]

Bea: He's immediately gone and off. Dean enters seeing that Sam is still super worried, and Dean tries to comfort him, saying, He'll be okay. He's fooled Michael so far."

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: But Sam is still worried about the repercussions. He pulled Garth out of retirement, and if anything happens to Garth then it's on Sam, as far as Sam's concerned.

Remmy: Yeah, but Dean is being very optimistic here. He says, "The way I see it, we're actually a step ahead this time, and this is more than we've had to work on before."

Bea: Yes. He's bolstered by their latest victories, particularly with Jack and now the information coming in, and Dean just says, "I like our odds."

Remmy: Yeah, which is funny, seeing as they don't actually have anything against Michael yet. We don't know about these things yet, but we are going to learn about one right now when Cas comes in and says, "It's Ketch."

Bea: Yes, and it's like, oh, we've namedropped him already this season, but now we actually get to see him, or at least see him on screen, on-screen. [laughs]

Remmy: I know, I know. I was happy for this little cameo, too. We have video — Ketch on a video call. The laptop is on the war table and he's talking to Jack as we enter this scene. Jack is sitting in front of the computer and Ketch is regaling Jack with his heroic deeds in finding and extracting this egg from this criminal compound. It's total storytime. Jack is just sitting in front of the computer with this big smile on his face and he's so engaged.

Bea: Oh, yeah. Ketch is so happy to have a captive audience, too. You can see he's like, "No big deal, you know, there were dogs, there were security systems." This angry Hungarian that he was stealing the egg from.

Remmy: Uh-huh.

Bea: And so we find out that when Ketch was getting ready to fly back to the United States, he was ambushed by a bunch of mercenaries. In order to lose their scent, he put the egg into the mail and, you know, it should be arriving the day after tomorrow. it's just — oh my God, Dean's face here.

Remmy: Everyone's face! I watched the scene like three times because I — you had to. I mean, everyone had these priceless moments where [laughs]. Poor Ketch. He's telling a story to Jack and he's having a great old time of it. But then when Sam, Dean and Cas walk in, they're like, "Okay, what's up? Let's go," and Ketch is like, "What, no hello?" and they're like, "No. Come on. Let's go." And he's like aww, pouty.

Bea: Yeah. Cas and Dean are just like, "Cut to the chase. We need the important s***." They're just super impatient.

Remmy: I know. Pouty Ketch. I was like, aww, he got his story interrupted.

Bea: [laughs]

Remmy: And Ketch as going through, saying, "I had to drop it like a hot potato, and it's in the mail," and they're like, "You put the one weapon that we have against the Archangel Michael in the mail?" Everyone is just — oh my God. They're like, oh my God.

Bea: Yeah, Ketch is like, "I'm sorry, was that on the list of things not to do? Because I didn't see it when I signed up for this."

Remmy: [laughs] And then Sam says, "No, no, Ketch. It's okay. We're not mad. We appreciate the effort," and then Dean just bursts out, "Do we?"

Bea: [laughs] I know! Dean just has zero time for Ketch, and zero appreciation of what had just unfolded here.

Remmy: Well, so does Cas.

Bea: Oh, I know. They both are just eyerolls abound. They need the egg now. They do not care [that] Ketch paid for certified priority express.

Remmy: He paid extra!

Bea: Aww. I was with Dean there too, which is the, oh, he paid extra? Like that makes it fine?. No!

Remmy: Oh my God. I was with kicked puppy Ketch on this one, I think.

Bea: And you know, Ketch goes, "Okay, sorry, chaps," and Cas walks off, and Dean just kind of gestures to Ketch like, "Look what you just did." [laughs]

Remmy: Like I said, every person on the screen was so on-point with their complete doneness and in very individual ways. It was just appreciated from me, as the viewer.

Bea: Yes, a good light moment considering how serious this episode is going to be.

Remmy: Aww.

Bea: Because we go from the scene right there. We now are back at the Kansas City high-rise where Garth and Chad are waiting. The dude is just chatting about the change, "The ultimate powerup. You know Fortnite?" and I'm like, again? Who on the writing staff plays this?

Remmy: Yeah. He's dropping Fortnite terms in his conversation, and Garth just keeps looking at him like, "What?" He says, "Dude, Fortnite," and I'm like oh my God, come on, guys.

Bea: Yeah. Know your audience.

Remmy: It's fine. I am not — I'm not bitter. I'm not a bitter old person. Bea, you can be a bitter old person.

Bea: I'm not bitter, I'm just old. [laughs] But Melanie now enters and she gives a vial of Michael's powerup to Chad. Chad just glugs it right back, and his eyes do the glowy bit. Now it is time for Garth.

Remmy: Uh-huh. Uh-huh, and Garth takes the vial with trepidation and Melanie is standing in front of him, just looking, "Go on, go on." And she says, "It's okay. Only about one in seven of our volunteers explode after they drink it." [laughs]

Bea: And Garth: "Ah, Russian Roulette odds. Yeah, I like that." [laughs]

Remmy: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, "That sounds like my kind of game." But I really wanted in that moment, when she said that, for them to cut to Chad looking startled and betrayed.

Bea: Yeah, like, "I just did what?"

Remmy: [laughs] Yeah, just like, "I would have liked to have known that before." No, but that's what I choose to believe. Chad had a little existential crisis moment right there.

Bea: Or he maybe just wasn't self-aware enough to realize that, "Oh, I could have been one of those seven." He's like, "Yeah, dude, it's fine. Buck up."

Remmy: So. So Garth just says, "Salut," and then bolts it back and he's very obviously and uncomfortably holding this liquid in his mouth. Melanie is still — and I like the Melanie actress too, she was good for this — she's just the mom face like, mhmm?

Bea: Honey, your eyes glow once you've drank it. You aren't fooling anybody. Sure enough, when Michael enters into the room Garth has no choice but to swallow the elixir down.

Remmy: Yep. Yeah.

Bea: So he takes the shot and we get — we're getting a sense of his hearing. He is focusing it towards Melanie and Michael's conversation on the other side of the room, while Chad is going on and on about like, "Hey, my buddy felt like he broke out in sweats, and then he got—" blah blah. Garth is just, "Mhmm mhmm, anyways. I'm listening to this whole information about an abandoned recycling center in Omaha that has her with the spear."

Remmy: Yeah, and Michael is saying, "Send forces to eliminate her. I want this weapon off the table."

Bea: Yeah. I want it destroyed and off the board. The bro is chatting, but Garth is just like [shushes] "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." He hears also Michael and Melanie mentioning tomorrow's plan, and that their monsters are taking position waiting for Michael's order. What that order is is left unspoken in the scene, but we go back to Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack, and they are looking at a computer on the war table and they have a map pulled up for Joplin, Missouri.

Remmy: Yep. Sam is saying, "Yeah, it's actually pretty close. It's at the post office in Joplin." He has a little self-deprecating laugh there, he's like, "It would have gotten to us here in Lebanon if it wasn't for the holiday. They're closed for the holiday."

Bea: Yeah, and aren't you happy now that Ketch sprung for the tracking? Because honestly, if you had to find this routing during Christmas deliveries? Come on, let’s give him a little bit of points there.

Remmy: Yeah. He paid extra!

Bea: [laughs] But they decide that they're going to just break into the facility and grab the egg, you know, "We need it now. This is the best way."

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: But Garth calls and he now brings the information about Omaha to them. [He] gives the address to them and namedrops the spear into the conversation.

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: When Sam asks him about it, Garth lies and says that he didn't drink Michael's elixir. He just heard Michael's plan.

Remmy: The big Plan with a capital P. We have Sam standing in front of the war table, relaying what he just heard from Garth. Dean says, "The whole damn town?"

Bea: Yep. "It's gonna be a bloodbath," says Sam. Cas is pensive. He's sitting close by Dean. Jack is sitting there as well, and they are going through the logistics of attacking and turning Kansas City on a whole on a night when everyone's guard is down. It's going to be Christmas.

Remmy: Yeah. Yeah. “Everyone's eggnogged up. What a dick move.”

Bea: Yeah, and if the plan is tomorrow at midnight then they want to get there with the spear before Michael gives the signal.

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: So Dean points to the spear, says, "Well, if Michael's after it, maybe it might even kill him. If it's a big enough threat that Michael wants it off the board, then we ought to grab it." Cas also brings up the fact that new Bobby is working on improving the angel cuffs. It might be able to hold Michael and Sam goes, "Yeah, and then we have the egg. We have Rowena's spell. We might be able to put Michael in the Cage."

Remmy: So this is a lot, in a good way. I mean, we actually have a solid plan here. We have options. This is good.

Bea: Yeah, for the first time it's not like, here is our last-ditch effort item that we're going to use because it's the only thing available to us. They're like, "We actually have a to-do list? We have a checklist of things to prep? Guys, I don't think we've ever been this organized."

Remmy: And you see how Dean is bolstered by this. He says, "All right. I say we get both. We don't have to choose."

Bea: Yep. Dean is like, "Me and Cas, we're going to get the spear. Jack and Sam, you go get the egg. We will meet at Hitomi Center, at the place where we know Michael is at, and we're just going to f*** s*** up."

Remmy: Yeah, we have a plan, and they seem to feel good about the plan. We cut to some long shots of the Impala on a mission.

Bea: Yep. Dean is driving hell-bent. We're taking those corners rough. You're lucky no oncoming traffic is coming.

Remmy: Aww.

Bea: And they arrive at the recycling facility outside of Carter Lake, and Dean and Cas climb out. Cas is kind of amazed that Dean seems so happy because he points out, "We just drove this whole way with broken tape deck and you didn't b**** once." Like, wow.

Remmy: Yeah. He says, "You seem good lately. Happy, even," and Cas, your face is betraying you.

Bea: Oh I know, and then the longest silence ever follow[s] when Dean says, "I'm fired up because we got Jack back, no strings attached."

Remmy: Oh my God. So, I mean — okay. Last week with the Cas deal, it blew my mind at the time of watching. I was just worried sick for the whole season on this Cas deal, but then last week when we re-watched, I had a bit of an absence of those sinking, "Oh my God, Cas made a deal," feelings for the most part. Oh my God. Guess what? They're all coming back to me now.

Bea: [laughs]

Remmy: Oh, man. Because yeah, Dean says — he is so, so peppy — and he says, "We had a win, and when was the last time we had a no-strings-attached win?" And Cas, like you said, the longest silence, he just...

Bea: Cas is just crickets.

Remmy: He just doesn't know what to say.

Bea: No, he's not good at lying here.

Remmy: He drops his eyes and he just nods to himself a couple of times and he's like, okay, buck up. Buck up.

Bea: Yep, they're gonna go walk and talk, and Cas points out that it's a big risk going after the spear. But Dean says that Michael conned him, kept him trapped and drowning in his own body, and he thought he understood what it was like for Cas and Sam when they were possessed — respectively by Lucifer — but he didn't get it at all.

Remmy: Who's going to talk about the fact that Dean is voluntarily opening up to Cas without any prodding? I just want to sit down.

Bea: I know. We saw Dean, for episodes, trying to deny the fact that he had been through something with Michael. We said that he just wanted to parcel it up into a box and tuck tape it closed, and put that box away. But here, he is almost casually — or I would say maybe confidently — mentioning that. He is acknowledging he was tortured.

Remmy: Yeah, and it's to Cas, and it's the first time this season that we have a solid conversation between Cas and Dean solo. I think that we get this a lot. I don't think that my little shipper heart is stretching to say that when we get Dean and Cas alone, Dean just blooms. He just opens up like a f****** flower.

Bea: He has so much trust in Cas that it's [without] any hesitation that he would say something like this.

Remmy: Exactly, and it's just so solid, this relationship, and it just breaks my f****** heart. It doesn't break my heart. It breaks my heart and mends it and also gives me a stomachache from the feels.

Bea: [laughs]

Remmy: That's shipping in a nutshell, right?

Bea: [laughs] “Hey, I'm suffering. Thanks.”

Remmy: [laughs] I love it. Thank you.

Bea: So Dean says that yeah, he'd be happy if they could trap Michael, but he won't actually be happy until he gets to kill Michael himself.

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: And so they continue walking through this abandoned center. Dean gets out his gun; Cas gets out his angel blade. They enter the facility.

Remmy: Well, that was a great shot. That was a great little cinematic moment when they approached this warehouse door and Dean draws his gun at the exact same moment that Cas summons his blade. It was just, you know, I like the directing there. Kudos.

Bea: And I like the fact that when they entered into the facility, we get this little shot of the door being left ajar. It makes me think of the end of the episode, what Michael was saying.

Remmy: Oh, we did zoom in on that, didn't we? I thought that was a little odd, and I get it now. [strained laughter]

Bea: Literally, I'm like, "Here is my Tumblr post. I'll talk about the symbolism—" that's where I'm at. You could leave the door open for practical reasons, but.

Remmy: I just — you couldn't just let me have my nice little hunter husbands moment, could you? Could you?

Bea: I gotta find the pain. I'm like, oh that hurt. I'm gonna touch it again. [laughs]

Remmy: [laughs] So they enter the enter into this warehouse, but we don't really see what's going on yet because we cut immediately to Sam and Jack at the post office

Bea: Yep. They're at Joplin, and Sam has disconnected the security system. He's getting ready to lockpick the door, but Jack says, "No, I want to."

Remmy: Uh-huh.

Bea: He succeeds and he said that, you know, "I learned it online and I just wanted to stay useful."

Remmy: "Used to be I could do this just by touching the handle, but that's — I can do it the hard way, or the human way," and he's so proud of himself. Sam is impressed as well. He opens the door after he successfully picks a lock and he's like this little ‘after you’ moment. And it's just so cute.

Bea: Yeah, it's a really sweet little beat there and it reinforces still that Jack is worried about his usefulness, but we can see perhaps that is a bit more abated because now he actually has some skills that he picked up in the past that he is able to put into action. We talked about how it takes time to get to this place, and here we can see the payoff happening for some of that time that he's put in.

Remmy: Yep. Yep.

Bea: But back to the recycling facility.

Remmy: [laughs]

Bea: Dean has his flashlight out and they split up their search. There's a bunch of boxes and machinery that they are wandering through. Dean sees this camping cot and he goes over to the kerosene... fire? I don't really know what to call it.

Remmy: It's not like a hot plate, but it's just a little burner. Like you said, a kerosene burner. There's a pot over it and he pulls the same move, the same exact move.

Bea: Kaia and her beans! She's interrupted every time.

Remmy: I know! Poor girl.

Bea: She's gotta have such an instinct at this point that as soon as she sits down for food, she's just like, hackles raised: "Someone's going to come and interrupt me."

Remmy: Right? The first episode when we had Dean, Sam, and Jody at the campground, and Dean goes over to the fire pit and he's like, "Still warm. She was here recently." It was like, "Same hat. Hey, same hat."

Bea: Yeah, just let her eat in peace, guys. She's earned it at this point.

Remmy: The pot is still warm, and Cas says she's not here but Dean says, well, she was recently.

Bea: Yeah. She's either hiked or she's hiding, but Cas points out that we haven't seen Michael's forces at all here. So how did that happen if they were closer and they had a head start?

Remmy: Yeah, and do you think that they beat us to it, basically, is the question being asked.

Bea: Yes, but Dean doesn't think so.

Remmy: Jensen, your Texas is showing.

Bea: [laughs] Tell me more.

Remmy: He is drawling those words so hard. I can't do the accent. I'm sorry. I can't do it on command, but when he says things like, "And they have a shorter drive," and he's saying, "There's no signs of a struggle, looking around. The Kaia I know would've put up a fight." When he says all of those things, it's so f****** Texas.

Bea: [laughs] See, I didn't even notice. I'm gonna have to re-watch and have my ear out for that.

Remmy: Please do. It was glorious.

Bea: I definitely will. But in the meantime, back at Joplin, Jack comes out carrying the parcel and he's just like, "Oh, it's lighter than I thought it was." He's admiring the Happy Holidays sticker on it and there's this black van nearby.

Remmy: Awww. Well, Jack's face though, when he points at the Happy Holidays stamp on the packaging, he says, "Happy Holidays!" and [laughs]

Bea: Bless your child-heart.

Remmy: His little face! But we can't have nice things. Without warning, Sam gets clobbered on the back of the head.

Bea: Yeah, our vampire and/or werewolf dude, he comes out from behind, strikes Sam with the bat, and Sam goes down ringing.

Remmy: Oh, hard, oof.

Bea: Jack is dragged off into the van and Sam is struggling to get up, but as he rises, Michael is there.

Remmy: Yes.

Bea: Now he grabs the egg and goes, "Happy holidays."

Remmy: Michael has the egg in his hands and Sam is — it's not good, lads.

Bea: No, he is immediately asking, "How did you find us?" and gets his angel blade out. She's like, "So what are you going to do?" and Sam's like well, you're going to kill me anyways, and so goes to fight, but Michael just tosses him into a delivery van nearby.

Remmy: But I like that Sam moment. He was brave. Brave Sam

Bea: Yeah, defiant to the end.

Remmy: I know. He's so good.

Bea: And just with that — presumably, you’re at least close to a concussion there, lad, and yet you still get up swinging. Bless you.

Remmy: Yeah, and he is thrown as a ragdoll into the side of delivery postal van, and he goes ring-a-ling-aling once again.

Bea: Yep. Michael is stalking forward. He has the egg in hand and just melts it, just makes it molten, and it falls between his fingers. And then [he] throws Sam back again, and Sam is knocked out for good this time.

Remmy: Poor, poor Sam.

Bea: Yeah, and as Sam's lying there we hear his phone ringing and we cut immediately back to Omaha. Cas and Dean are worried because Sam isn't answering.

Remmy: Oh, yeah.

Bea: So Dean basically just hangs up the phone and immediately gets another call. Cas is like, "Sam?" ears pricked forward, but it's Garth calling Dean instead since Sam obviously isn't answering for him either.

Remmy: Yeah, it's obvious that they've tried Sam a few times and he's not answering and they're getting increasingly worried and also at loose ends, you know. Kaia is not here, so what do we do?

Bea: Yeah, exactly. We're supposed to regroup with this weapon. We don't have the weapon and now we don't even know how things are going for you. So where do we head next? Do we go back to the bunker? Do we keep on to Kansas City? Like, what do we do?

Remmy: Yeah, no answers here though yet.

Bea: No, but Garth at least helps give a nudge in which direction they want to go, because Garth says Michael just left a few minutes ago and was going to quote unquote back up his forces.

Remmy: Right.

Bea: And Dean's just like, "What f****** forces? Because there's none in Omaha."

Remmy: Yeah, he says — a bit accusatory — he says, "You mean the forces that were supposed to be here? Because guess f****** what."

Bea: "We've been fed literal garbage."

Remmy: [laughs] Garth doesn't know what to say. He says, "I'm sorry, man. That's what they said. This is what they told me," and now we're getting a little worried — and we haven't even talked about. Okay, let's pause for a second.

Bea: Okay. Okay.

Remmy: Because we are ping pong on these scenes right now, but what are you thinking in this moment? Not in this moment; throughout the episode so far. What are we anticipating? Because I know that as I was watching, I'm just like — the tension is rising, right?

Bea: Yes.

Remmy: It was never a doubt in my mind that Michael is the eyes and ears of his monsters, or he has eyes and ears in all of his monsters. I mean, the second that we started imbibing Michael’s grace, I'm like, oh my God. Zombie Michael brainwashed monsters.

Bea: Yeah, hive mind scenario happening.

Remmy: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, and then we always have [that] in the back of our mind, bolstered by Dean's fuzzing out moments two episodes ago.

Bea: Yeah, a lot of question marks that got raised by that instantly.

Remmy: Yeah, where, again, we weren't told but you gotta think, is this Michael?

Bea: Yeah, there's these foreshadowing elements that are carrying forward, and you're asking where I was sitting at this point in the episode? It's like, we know that Michael is [an] Archangel. [A] terrifying force. He's been through a war in his world, so he was definitely [of a] strategic mindset and has had practice at this. He has seen what worked and what didn't in the previous world, so [he has] literally advantages across the board when it comes to whatever he wants to do here. But all we're hearing is this suspicious plan at midnight, and that there are these volunteers that are being infiltrated throughout the city. So the fact that things seemed like they were going so smoothly for our heroes, and now there's these questions being raised? I'm sitting here banging the table. I'm like, "It's Michael! It's Michael!"

Remmy: It's Michael! Exactly, exactly. You know, we've been so optimistic about our plan. Well, not "we" because me, I'm like, no, no, no.

Bea: [laughs] Optimism gets you f***ers killed.

Remmy: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. The heroes are like, yeah, let's go, and I am just, oh my God. Michael is gonna f*** you guys ever so hard. You have no secrets! So, oh, I'm rubbing my hands together evil villain style, because I am just taking the sick pleasure in waiting for the moment when we figure out exactly what's going on with Dean.

Bea: Yeah, we get this narrative element that's going right now where we as the audience can sense a bit more than what the characters are going through, and you can feel this building tension. And you can also guess that all of these questions that we have with the relationship between Michael and Dean might be breaking soon, too.

Remmy: Yes. Yes.

Bea: And I'm glad that you brought up Michael basically having all of his monsters being walkie-talkies, because when I was watching at first, I was thinking about how risky it was for Garth to be on the phone on a floor where an archangel is. I'm like, those b****es have Wi-Fi hearing. They hear within infinite range compared to what humans [can] do, so the fact that you went into the coffee-room and are like, "Oh, yeah, and then I heard this, and then I heard this," I was like, Michael for sure is listening in on this. That is just a dangerous position for you and the people you're feeding the information to, aka the Winchesters.

Remmy: Exactly. I mean, hell, when Garth first took his little grace shot and Michael immediately moves over to the corner and he's talking in a quote-unquote undertone to Melanie about his plan and the spear and all this, I was yelling at the screen, "Garth, he's feeding you information! Nooo."

Bea: Yeah! You are a tool in this element too, because the fact that right off the get-go Michael's going, "Yeah. I know you from Dean's memories," and you said, "Yeah, we're still friends." I'm like, okay, you're f***ed. Whatever you think you are doing is going to have been twisted by Michael and used.

Remmy: Yeah. Yeah, which is where we're at right now.

Bea: Yeah, we finally see that the confidence isn't quite enough to carry us through. Dean is starting to get a little shaken by the fact that things are no longer going specifically to plan.

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: And he signs off the phone call with Garth basically saying, "Call us if there's any news," and when Garth hangs up, Michael appears right behind [Garth]. We hear a fluttering of wings and [Michael] goes, "Let's talk."

Remmy: Augh. Busted.

Bea: Dun dun dun.

Remmy: Uh-huh.

Bea: But with Dean, he turns to Cas and is just asking, "Was this a setup?" and Cas almost sounds exasperated, just saying, "I don't know." They're trying to guess what they should do next.

Remmy: Yeah, Sam's not answering. Like we said before: do we go to Joplin? Do we go to Kansas City? What do we even do?

Bea: Yeah, if our plan is falling apart then what are we supposed to do until we could regroup? Where is that going to be and when? Like, when, when, when? What is going on with Sam?

Remmy: Yeah, but Cas has a breath — his heart stops in his chest when Dean is threatened by Kaia appearing from the darkness.

Bea: Dean's looking at Cas and Cas was looking offside. When he turns back to Dean, his eyes are a couple of saucer plates, because the camera pulls back and we see that Kaia's spear is now nestled so lovingly between Dean's shoulder blades, and she is ready to f*** them up.

Remmy: Yeah. Yeah, Kaia says, "Why are you here?" and Dean says, "Hey." [laughs]

Bea: Yeah, yeah. Cas is very alarmed. Kaia wants to know what they want, what they're doing here. Cas encroaches, but Dean immediately is going, "No, no, no. No, Cas, no."

Remmy: Yes.

Bea: Bad idea.

Remmy: He, hands up, slowly turns around and drops his weapons bag and says, "We're just here to talk."

Bea: Yeah, we're not here to fight, and so in him telling Cas to stop, I think that Dean was already forming the plan in mind here. We can't let this escalate to violence because the last time this happened she kicked our a** and then she bailed.

Remmy: A spooked horse. Absolutely. They can't afford that in this moment. This is their one shot.

Bea: Yeah, if the plan is falling apart, well at least if they can get this then they know 50% of the plan kind of carried through, and then question mark question mark question mark until Sam becomes available.

Remmy: Yeah.

Bea: But Dean is trying a new tactic. He just wants to ask for the spear and puts the case forward saying, “If you don't give it, kill me.”

Remmy: Dean, come on. Oh my God, I'm sorry. I'm tired of it. I'm so tired of it. Dean. [sighs] It's fine.

Bea: How well did he think that Kaia was going to react to this? Did he come into this plan thinking that Kaia was an empathic person and would see his plight and go for it? Or did he genuinely YOLO it thinking odds were 50/50? Or did he just not care because he was genuinely so hell-bent on the fact that, "If we aren't able to kill Michael then I don't want to live anymore." Like whaat.

Remmy: Oof. I mean, I think it's a bit, you know — I think it might be a 50/50 of the latter two of what you said. One, that he’s just taking a gamble — Is it going to work? It might not — but in taking that gamble, it's a, "If you don't give it to me then I genuinely — this is all I have. This is—" I mean, I don't know. It's a different tactic of what we saw, but the same determination and the same driving feelings from episode 3.

Bea: Yeah, "I have to go all-in on this because if we don't have this we're f***ed."

Remmy: But I'm like...

Bea: Just having that fortitude as a person to say, "I am willing to put everything on the line, and I think that me putting everything on the line will be sufficient to make you bow."

Remmy: F****** Sam charging an archangel with a blade that wouldn't kill him.

Bea: Augh.

Remmy: “Oh well, f*** it. You're going to kill me anyways.”

Bea: Exactly. The alternatives that I could do in this moment won't save me, so I'm going to put all my chips on this one move.

Remmy: And Dean is — well, when he says, "If you're not going to give it to us, then you should just kill me now," I'm like, oh, I want to shake him. Stop it, Dean. But yes.

Bea: Yeah, he's saying his family is in danger and thousands are going to die without that spear, and [laughs] Cas is so ready to cut a b****.

Remmy: I know. I know. Cas, shake him for me, please. I know you want to.

Bea: Yeah, just see if you can knock that sense — that logic part of his brain loose, because it's been jammed in some corner; it's not being used right now.

Remmy: [laughs] But Dean says, "And this spear is the only — our only shot at hurting or killing Michael. The Michael that tortured me; the Michael that tortured you. If you don't care about any of that — that I would lose everyone; that thousands would die; and that I could actually have a shot at killing the man who's been hunting you down for months — then you should just kill me now because the world is ending anyway."

Bea: Yeah, and Kaia is almost maybe taken aback?

Remmy: I think it's — I think she sees it as surprising move. I mean, if I want to get real deep into it...

Bea: Do it. Do it. Do it. 20 seconds. Go.

Remmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So [laughs] man, you put me on a timer and now I'm nervous.

Bea: You put the timer on me last time —

Remmy: I did. [laughs]

Bea: — and I was so stressed!

Remmy: [laughs]

Bea: Even editing the episode afterwards, I was like, oh f***.

Remmy: [laughs] Yeah. Okay. Okay. No, so, I think that she is taken aback by this because it is an unexpected move from Dean, at least in her eyes. I mean, "The Scar" episode, the last that she saw Dean, he tied her to a chair, he beat her, and he was willing to torture her — well, he didn't beat her. He knocked her out. He tied her to a chair. He was willing to torture her to get the information that he needed. He was in her face, violent and angry, and here he is supplicating himself.

Bea: Yes. Straight off the bat he's saying, "We're not here to fight." And I'm so glad you brought it up because Kaia, I think, really in "The Scar" episode had Dean pegged, or at least she was so confident in her analysis of him that it shook Dean. And so now that still would be her perception of him, and yet now he is [taking a] complete 180 on his approach, and so, wow.

Remmy: Yeah, the tables have turned.

Bea: I think when she saw him in "The Scar", she was basically wounding him with the fact that she can see the facade. She can see him and knows that the front that he is projecting is fake. Then in this episode here, now Dean is actually showing some sincerity, and the fact that his sincerity involves "I am willing to die for this" is kind of like whoa. She's taken aback by it, like we constantly say.

Remmy: Well, what she pegged as the truth behind the facade, in Dean's case, is: "You are just like Michael." That hit Dean right in his deepest darkest fears, right?

Bea: Yes.

Remmy: And then now — but now, like we said, he's doing it differently and he... [sighs] It's almost an apology, I think, because in the recap, we revisited that whole ‘Dean pulling the gun on Kaia’ and then the fact that he did tie dark Kaia to a chair and was going to torture her for information.

Bea: Yeah, and if this is an apology then Dean is also showing that he has learned from what he did last time. He's not repeating the same mistakes, and I think that just further bolsters the plea that he has here.

Remmy: Yep. Yep.

(pt. 2)