Your thoughts on season 9?

Not much really to talk about, as the season has come full circle on us, and are not far from hitching a ride with season 10 on this current road trip. So how do you all really feel about season 9 so far, and have your thoughts differed along the route? Living up to your expectations feels such a boring phrase these days, but did it? Was it too easy perhaps to work out the story that was looming? Could we sense what path Dean was about to take from the jump. Signing a deal with the angels to save Sam, and then ending up in a deal himself. This season hasn’t bode well for Dean. In the dog house with Sam over the possession, and Gadreel. I thought Gadreel was the bad guy, but I was proved very wrong. I still find he turned out to be the real hero, who only wanted to clear his name. Thus sacrificing his own life to save his fellow angel Cas who could save the bigger picture, killing Metatron.

Is this season all about those shady, unflattering deals that we know by now result in a horrible ending that never get fully resolved. Do we sense tension in camp that the deals are coming between the boys and not doing them very much good mentally or physically? Many have found it increasingly hard to forgive Sam for his words to Dean that Sam could be so cruel and actually say it. I felt I was right in the fact that those words were heading somewhere, that yes Sam would save Dean by supernatural means. I feel I’ve been here before!! That marching into season 10 Sam will find a way to save his brother. He has already made a start on his quest to summon Crowley. But was he too late, as Crowley already appears to have found Dean.

So onto my next port of call, which is Crowley? I still feel Crowley is as guilty as hell, in pushing Dean into taking the mark of Cain. I explained this fully on Supernaturally Devoted for those who have not seen it. I also feel that Crowley must have met up with Cain previously as would Cain so easily pass on his crest to someone he’d only just met? Crowley being so scared of Cain, the father of murder, was all an act. It was a cover to show off Dean and set him up for the fight against those demons. Dean had previously informed Crowley that he had clocked him that he had worked out Crowley had set him up. Why was Dean so damned stupid? Why did he accept the mark so willingly just because it gave him a free ride to kill Abaddon? Yes he was mission oriented of course he was. But not to question it fully in his own mind. Just to have a few minutes to contemplate this deal. But no, in true Dean style he wades right in and is on the receiving end of this nightmare. So what am I saying that it made Dean look stupid? I thought that Dean was smarter than this, I thought it would have registered that working with Crowley would only bring him grief. That he should have knifed the Son of a Bitch in that bar before he’d even met Cain. But Dean continued to listen to Crowley and look where he is now?

Crowley is a plot device to move the story along, without secondary characters our heroes would certainly be boring. I think using Crowley as the lynch pin the writers could have perhaps made it less obvious that he was trailing Dean for his destiny, his new project pet whatever we wish to call it. Did Crowley perhaps think he was too old for the job, and needed a younger, fitter model to do his bidding? He certainly had it all planned out one would like to believe….. If Crowley is innocent and he was telling us the truth in the finale that it was fundamental. Then I will roll around the floor screaming and cursing. I don’t believe for one minute that Crowley is as pure as the driven snow. Dean certainly had an incline of what Crowley had been up to.

I think there were some strong elements this season. But I found it sad that so many characters had fallen by the way side. Kevin, Abaddon, Gadreel, Tessa, Garth even though technically he’s a werewolf and of course not forgetting Charlie who also isn’t technically dead. But were all these deaths really necessary. I felt bad for Kevin, Gadreel and Tessa who I fear didn’t deserve the fate they received. It was like the writers think what do we do with these characters this season. Are we all in agreement that we’ve come to a dead end, shall we kill them off. Without any real rhyme or reason a life is no longer useful that the story telling no longer requires them, or to even come back in the future they are just slaughtered.

What has Sam’s part been in all this story telling? That since he found out about the possession has Sam been an ass for treating Dean the way he has and regretted it later? Has he been so badly hurt that he felt it were warranted that he be so miserable to his brother that he cut ties with him only to remain as his co-worker. Had the pain of the possession been too much for him to really bear and cope with mentally? Was lashing out at Dean his only way of bringing some normallacey back into his life? In the finale he said he lied, and Dean appeared okay by this confession that he was relieved that they were at least back on track and on speaking terms and that their bond had merged again and were united as one, as corny as that phrase sounds. Did the possession really shake Sam up that much that he couldn’t really open up to his brother, that he felt badly betrayed that Dean had gone against his wishes that he needed time to process the extend of what had gone down, that he was alive and kicking because a creature had possessed him from the inside and that Dean had tricked him into agreeing with the ordeal. Had the brothers come to some place in their minds that they were both okay with the past that had really shaken them both up. Could they see a way through this mist and be what they once were, or is it a little too late? Has the bond suffered through these supernatural deals that it’s burnt its bridges and it can’t be un-done, even if Dean does come back human, where does this leave Sam. If Sam tries the spell to cure a demon, will he die? Crowley is already half way there.

I also keep thinking about what Jeremy said about the three years connecting as a mini arc. I wonder what might be in store for season 10. Season 8 we saw a different Sam, hot-headed and angry about Benny and still craving for that normal life. Sam also ends up with trial tuberculosis and going through a suicidal phase that he’d let his brother down. Sam ends up in hospital where we see Dean contacting the angels in a bid to cure his dying brother, of the trial sickness. Gadreel then takes over Sam and ends up ejecting from Sam mid season by Crowley. I did put up a thread today, and some think the tablets could be a connection to all three seasons. Some also think that the tablet that was broken might have been fake.

Did the writers tie up all those loose ends? That so many appear to talk of. Are they right in assuming that loose ends needed to be tied up? The one area I did find annoying that they didn’t overly talk about and clear up was getting the angels back into heaven. It was like they took a whole season to finally bring it to our attention and just use Metatron’s backdrop to pump out the story line. Some still say it was rushed, that it’s still one last struggle to fit everything in and that it appears to be a regular fault with the fans. I think the ending was climatic even though we sussed out earlier on where it might end up. For once we were not far wrong.

Two areas’s also bugged me and that was Abaddon’s death and Cas’s human story. Both displeased me. Many felt that Abaddon’s death lacked lustre and that it didn’t hit any emotional content. They knew it was coming and felt so flat and a bit forced. Cas’s human story infuriated me as I didn’t want to see Cas having sex; to me he lost his mystique and charm. Kevin’s death also saddened me and hoped he may make a return. Also I thought Magnus was executed well before his time, just to appear in one episode. I thought he could have been a real threat to Dean, and Crowley could have honed in on his skills and used his power to his discretion. I was also angry over the death of reaper Tessa.

So how did you all feel about season 9? As ever I would love to know your deepest lurking thoughts, as to what season 9 was really all about,  have you worked out if there is a connection to the three seasons, and if we have a mini arc looming. Is it something big as seasons 1-5 were with the boys being vessels to Michael and Lucifer?