Review: Revisiting Supernatural 8x22: “Clip Show”
Written by Andrew Dabb
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
The penultimate episode of the eighth season continues to drive the story towards the big finale, as one would expect. However, I do have some issues with some of the character decisions that drive the action.
While searching for what it might mean to “cure a demon”, the Brothers Winchester work through the Men of Letters archive. In the process, they find a tricked-out dungeon (the bunker is huge!) and old film records of a special type of exorcism that can cure a human of demon possession. They look into it further, and determine that they have all the elements of the spell in hand. What they need is a demon.
Here is where I don’t quite understand their thought process. There are plenty of demons out there, and there has to be a way to get one to come calling. Instead, they decide to unearth Abaddon and put her (mostly) back together. They seem to have her trapped and bound, but then they get a call from Crowley. Both of them leave Abaddon alone to handle the call, however, and sure enough, she manages to escape.
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First of all, they know that Abaddon is extremely dangerous as a Knight of Hell. They are planning on “curing” her as soon as possible. (Would something meant for regular demons work on a Knight of Hell? Maybe they should have considered that.) What does it matter if she overhears what Crowley has to say? At least one of them should have stayed in line of sight with Abaddon to make sure she stayed bound.
Of course, they can’t immediately try to get Abaddon back, because Crowley informs them that he’s systematically killing off everyone they’ve saved. In a nice little twist, Crowley is using Chuck’s novels as research material to identify each new victim. Crowley has been a great villain this season; he is utterly ruthless, as a King of Hell should be. (Though why Sam and Dean didn’t consider using Crowley as their demonic victim is a good question.)
It puts the Winchesters on the clock, to say the least. They can’t predict all the ways that Crowley will conceive to murder the people they saved, so they need to move fast. Sam is demoralized to the point of nearly giving up, but Dean pushes for them to keep going. Is there even any doubt that they will?
Meanwhile, because Dean is very angry with Castiel and won’t let him help, Castiel is bit aimless. Enter Metatron, who tells Castiel that there are also trials inscribed on the Angel Tablet. Those trials, according to Metatron, would close the gates of Heaven. Metatron makes a bit of a case and Castiel, still feeling like all the issues in Heaven are his fault, reluctantly agrees to undergo the trials.
Here is another part of the episode where I have to take issue. Sure, Castiel can be a bit naive, but doesn’t this seem all too convenient? Especially after everything that Metatron said about his reasons for hiding from Heaven and Hell in the previous episode. There’s no way this is fully legit. Especially with Metatron pushing Castiel so hard to get moving on the trials right away.
Of course, bad decisions are a good way to set up an exciting season finale, and there are some big stakes at play by the end of this episode. I’m looking forward to seeing how the season wraps up. I remember really liking this era of the series (second only to the original Kripke Era), so hopefully it lives up to my recollection.
