S07.E01: Meet the New Boss

[Demented Daisy]

Castiel believes he is the new God and becomes obsessed with power. Sam, Dean, and Bobby try to find a way to stop him before he explodes with power, even if that means talking to Death himself.

 

One of the better season premieres, I think.  

Edited August 11, 2014 by Demented Daisy

[AwesomO4000]

Oh thank you, @Demented Daisy for starting this.

 

I agree with your assessment. For me this was one of the better season finale and season opener combinations the series had. I liked the season 1/2 combination the best, but this one either comes second for me or is in a close tie or right behind season 3/4.  Story-wise for me this was stronger than the season 4 opening, which while it had the great opening scene, bogged itself down in trying to be too "tricky" later on with all of the unnecessary "mystery" with Sam's side of the narrative. (If you are just going to show us 20 minutes later that this is Ruby, why have a muddled attempt at subterfuge to begin with. The payoff wasn't worth the confusion in my opinion.)

 

This episode: This was one of the better episodes for me showing time jump. I liked Dean discussing with Bobby and then later keeping tabs on what Castiel was doing through the news briefs with the improvements to Baby showing the passage of time. Then Sam and Dean commenting on what was going on and how Castiel seemed to be getting farther and farther into handing out questionable "judgement" like destroying publishing houses, motivational speakers, and alternative religions. The Castiel as God scenes were well done and suitably creepy. The Crowley parts were good here - "These Boots Were Made for Walking:" (hee) and "You do want to conspire, don't you?"

 

Even though there was the usual secret-keeping from Sam, I did understand the motivation here, especially after Sam overheard the discussion between Dean and Bobby in the garage.  I loved Death. I'll forgive them the logistics of tying up the couple to get the lightening-made thing, because the exchange was amusing and I especially enjoyed the woman looking around for the big reveal and at first not seeing anything. I liked how it was Sam who called for Castiel, and I liked that Dean got at least some closure there with Castiel. Sam freaking out and losing it was understandable, considering where they were.

 

The story moved along with the exposition and emotional parts woven in well. I guess there was just a whole lot in this episode for me to like. Bobby was good here - a nice throwback to the more concerned Bobby of old where he was asking Dean how he was holding up and showing real concern for Dean rather than worrying about how that related to the situation brewing with Castiel. Even the continuity here was well done. Sam made reference to the heavenly weapons from season 6. Dean's conversation with Bobby about Baby was a nice throwback to season 2 where Dean couldn't really do anything else at the moment, but he could fix the car, so that was what he was going to do. More points for paralleling patching up damaged Sam to fixing the car - hee! And a nice reference to the season 2 opener where Sam insisted on keeping the Impala, not only because Dean would want to fix it, but because of what the Impala meant to Dean and what it represented to Sam - now reversed.

 

Okay, that's enough.. yeah, I just all-around loved this episode.

[DittyDotDot]

I liked this one too, other than Crowley hiding out in a trailer park and the car fixing stuff, Death is some of my favorite bits. I do love me some Death! Hee!

 

I'm not there on the re-watch yet, so I'll be back so my thoughts are a bit more present.

[catrox14]

I can never get enough of Death. Every scene between Dean and Death gives me life.

 

Also, I cannot watch the scene by Baby where Dean tells Sam that they can't trust Cas without picturing the outtakes of Jensen and his beautiful laugh because he can't get through the scene because Jared reasons.

Edited August 12, 2014 by catrox14

[mertensia]

Dean introducing Sam and Bobby to the tied -up couple always makes me laugh. Death calmly sitting down and eating the fried pickle chips while snarking and assuring the tied-up couple they weren't the deaths he was anticipating makes me laugh as well.

 

Personally I like season seven- except for the Osiris episode- so I rewatch it. 

[Amerilla]

I can never get enough of Death. Every scene between Dean and Death gives me life.

 

 

Death really should have his own spin-off. Well, OK, maybe not, but I love those scenes.

 

My favorite scene was Dean's voice message to Bobby: "You cannot be in that crater back there. I can't… If you're gone, I swear I am gonna strap my Beautiful Mind brother into the car and I'm gonna drive us off the pier." 

[Demented Daisy]

I say this entirely too often, but Death's "Don't worry -- not you" to the married couple always reminds me of Dogma.  Skip ahead to the end and the elevator (if you watch the whole thing, it contains a little NSFW language):

 

[DittyDotDot]

Finally got to S7 on the re-watch. I think S7 starts very strong here. They set up Sam and Dean losing everything quite nicely; I enjoy Castiel's turn as God and his regrets later; Crowley in a trailer park is absolutely delightful as is his being terrified of conspiring for fear of the wrath of Cass; and I'm actually thinking the Leviathans are kinda of an interesting monster; and I thought it was really nice having Sam not giving up on Castiel because Dean's never given up on him. Mostly though, I absolutely love watching Dean work on Baby. I could watch episode after episode of this alone. ;) 

 

And there's Death! I hope I never tire of seeing Death show up to eat some junk food and insult those annoying little protozoa known as the Winchesters. Seriously, the scenes with Death are just wonderful silliness that reminds me of why I adore this show.

 

 

 

Demented Daisy, on 12 Aug 2014 - 10:59 AM, said:

I say this entirely too often, but Death's "Don't worry -- not you" to the married couple always reminds me of Dogma.

 

DD--I gotta go watch that movie. I just gotta.

Edited December 20, 2014 by DittyDotDot

[Diane]

Also, I cannot watch the scene by Baby where Dean tells Sam that they can't trust Cas without picturing the outtakes of Jensen and his beautiful laugh because he can't get through the scene because Jared reasons.

 

Just damn near burns the underwear right off.

[GirlyGeek]

Oh the outtakes- I'd forgotten about that!  So funny

Good strong start for season 7, actually.  And all the hell scenes work really well here.  I prefer this version of Sam's headHell much more than the random flashes of his face burning that we got last season.  Seeing him strung up by his neck or the room changing to torture chambers, etc is very effective.

And I love the throw back to fixing the car- its Dean's default mode.  What else can he do but fix the car?  

[Hanahope]

Well, God-Cas sure didn't last long.  I thought that part of the story-line would be around a bit more.  Now its just another "big bad monster" as head villain again.  I think it would have been much more interesting to continue the conflict with "God" at least a few more episodes.   Oh and, I know this kindof does lean towards one main religion, but I kept wondering the whole deal with Cas becoming "God," where was Jesus, you know "God's son"?  

Of course, Misha getting to play a real villian will be fun for him, I'm sure.  It almost always is more fun to play bad guys.  And now the boys will have to go back to the 'old fashioned' way without their helping angel/crutch.

Crowly, always good for laugh, and Death is great character as well.  I certainly hope we continue to see more of them, even if sporadically.  The whole scene with the Boys and Bobby calling/binding Death was hysterical with the couple right there.  I had presumed they'd just take the lightning thing and go, but nope, they did the whole ritual right in the house.

BTW, I love Dogma!

Edited June 1, 2017 by Hanahope

[Katy M]

On ‎6‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 0:16 PM, Hanahope said:

I had presumed they'd just take the lightning thing and go, but nope, they did the whole ritual right in the house.

I have to admit I found it a bit ridiculous that they decided to do the ritual right there.  After all, there is a security guard outside that Dean knocked out who will presumably regain consciousness shortly.  And, they probably tripped an alarm, or should at least worry that they did.

[bettername2come]

Season 7...so many issues with season seven, but not really in this episode. 

Castiel has lost his mind. With great power, comes great instability. Misha plays crazy angel well. Did Dean just try to fix the Impala's roof with the power of his legs? Nice shot. Use those powerful bowlegs, Dean. Dean's shirt has writing. His shirts never have writing. "Tell your flock where your genitals have been before you speak for me." Sam's vision is horrifying. I like the montage of radio news and Dean fixing the Impala, sometimes while wearing coveralls. Mark Shepherd is great in his scene with Cas expecting to be smited. Dammit, why do they always choke Sam?! "I pray to God it's true." "We need to come up with a new saying for that." Bobby called Sam "sport." He's such a dad. All-powerful Castiel has to look in a mirror to see his face is messed up? He's really not using that omniscience to its full potential. "Old age is overrated anyway." That should be stitched on throw pillows in the backseat of the Impala. Dean tying up the rich couple offscreen is just amusing. Nice use of Death. Death cannot be bought with pickles, Dean. "Because... We said so, and we're the boss of you. I mean... Respectfully." "Death is our bitch." That's not respectful, Dean. That poor, confused couple. Beautiful overhead shot of Sam praying to Cas.at the salvage yard. I feel like we see a lot more of the salvage yard in this episode. Mark Pellegrino is amazing as usual. He made Sam flinch. I like that concept of Sam not believing he's out of the cage. "Cas, you child. Why didn't you listen to me?" I have a feeling they mutually think this about each other. Misha also plays Leviathan well. 

[RulerofallIsurvey]

Good continuity on the start of this one with the end of S6.  I guess they filmed those first scenes when they were filming the finale.  That would make sense, but then again, that would mean that they'd have had to pretty much had the script already written for the episode, and I don't know if they would have.  They certainly could have.  I just don't think it's very typical.  But who knows?  Maybe Sera actually planned ahead that way.  

I don't think there's anything I don't like about this episode.  I like seeing Dean work on Baby.  I think Sam's hallucinations were very well done.  I remember they got me at first - especially the chain around his neck one.  What a great mind game with Lucifer telling him he was still in the cage.  Makes the viewer wonder if that's the truth too, as I think it's a very plausible explanation.  Crowley was funny with the boys and Death was great as usual.  

[DittyDotDot]

3 hours ago, RulerofallIsurvey said:

Good continuity on the start of this one with the end of S6.  I guess they filmed those first scenes when they were filming the finale.  That would make sense, but then again, that would mean that they'd have had to pretty much had the script already written for the episode, and I don't know if they would have.  They certainly could have.  I just don't think it's very typical.  But who knows?  Maybe Sera actually planned ahead that way.  

No, I don't think they did. I'm guessing that was a set and they probably just left it up over the hiatus, then carefully re-staged it when they came back. They probably shot the scenes at the beginning and the end together, but I've never heard they shot the beginning scenes when they shot the finale.

I do remember Misha telling a story about the scene at the end when they're trying to open the porthole again at a con, though. I guess Misha was really, really, really sick that day but he didn't want to hold up filming and was trying to be a trooper. Apparently Jensen took pity on Misha and told them Misha needed to go lie down. So, they filmed everyone else's parts and used a stand in for Misha and filmed Misha's parts last after he'd had a chance to rest a bit. Misha said he was very limited in that scene to what his stand in had done and was disappointed because he had some ideas he wanted to do, but they didn't have time to reshoot everyone else's sides of it and the continuity wouldn't have lined up.

Anyway, I think those shots of Cass sitting on the floor looking like death (heh) warmed over are Misha being very sick.

Edited September 17, 2017 by DittyDotDot

[Iju]

this season took a while to get around to. last season was so brutal and hard on the nerves i stopped watching for around 2 months. it had gotten to the point when i thought i wasn't even interested in the show anymore. turns out, i just needed to have a break. now this show is just as i was when i was watching the first seasons.

 

(btw, i just reached S9, just catching up on the seasons up to now.)

-----

okay, so cass did some....really horrible things, yes. but at least he regretted it so soon! idk the exact timeline of when he comes to terms, but he really regrets it. i would even go to say he wasn't even in his right mind. idk i just damage control him a lot, i didn't know how much i liked him.

Edited August 16, 2018 by Iju

[KSenniaV]

I just chose a random eppy to rewatch today, and this ended up being the one. It was so great

Spoiler

to see Crowley again, and real Bobby, and to revisit their lives before the bunker and Jack. I enjoyed it muchly. OG Death was there, and poor Cas trying hard to do the right thing and ucking it up again. He plays crazy really well, quite enjoyable. I still don't like Lucifer. Never did. His actor just really annoys me

. But that was the only part I didn't like. 

[The Companion]

On 8/11/2014 at 4:47 PM, DittyDotDot said:

I liked this one too, other than Crowley hiding out in a trailer park and the car fixing stuff, Death is some of my favorite bits. I do love me some Death! Hee!

I'm not there on the re-watch yet, so I'll be back so my thoughts are a bit more present.

Death is the best! That would sound really odd out of context.

This was a strong episode. I enjoyed seeing who Castiel targeted. I feel like they could have steetched this a little longer, mainly because i would love to see what else he did. Wish he had pulled Ellen and Jo back. 😭

There were some fantastic character moments and the pacing was great. I don't have much to add. I really enjoyed this one.

[MagnusHex]

I was surprised to hear that the budget for this season was the lowest of all series because I had assumed the opposite. You had some terrific shots here (like when Castiel massacred all the angels or when Leviathan's veins popped up on Castiel) that I had thought the budget had been raised. It just goes to show that with great cinematography and maybe some cheap post-production editing, you could take advantage of a small budget to have some unforgettable shots. Buffy did this beautifully after all.

Speaking of which, I was kinda hoping that Supernatural would follow the vampire slayer's route of milking as much as you could from a big bad that spouts philosophical musings. I wanted to see more of Godstiel wielding his god powers and stopping evil in the world, but in turn making us question whether Castiel was doing good (the KKK disbanded; 'nuff said). On the one hand, he did cause a lot of collateral damage in the corrupted politician's office, carrying his punishments too far by killing those who've merely ran her campaign, not to mention those hypocritical priests (or whatever the deal was with those "motivational speakers"). On the other hand, the Old Testaments were pretty bloody too, and the measurement of morality when it comes to religious texts is rather murky. And again, the KKK. C'mon. Also would've been cool to see Godstiel go against Lucifer, perhaps starting another war on heaven against the spawns of Hell (think Spawn or any of Neil Gaiman's Sandman-related literature). The show probably wouldn't have the budget for it, but I wouldn't mind settling for a one-on-one match between Godstiel and a series of Helldemons and their minions across season 7 (kinda like how they did the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse).

That said, maybe it's a good thing Godstiel was gone so fast, because the free-will supporting Cas doesn't seem like much of a power-mad authoritarian who punishes people Old Testament style. It did seem out of character, and you could at least blame it on him being drunk on souls when his powers were gone so quickly.

The appearance of Leviathan seems promising, but everything else in the episode did drag a little due to how routine it felt; Dean's despair of how everything has gone to shit again, Sam causing problems for Dean again (albeit inadvertently), Sam hiding shit from Dean again, hitting the books to beat the Big Bad again, them finding a MacGuffin to beat the Big Bad again. I get that that's the show I signed up for, but I did tune out a little bit because I was waiting for something more exciting to happen. But honestly, it's somewhat of a nitpick because (as I've said before) I don't watch Supernatural expecting these flaws to go away. I do like the show for what it is, campy fun. It's just that, I was ready for Sam and Dean to go back to being brothers just saving people, hunting things, doing the family business again without dumb tween drama that could've been resolved if they bothered to talk to each other, so I was a little disappointed that Sam felt compelled to lie (because of course he just happen to stumble onto Dean at the right moment without Dean realizing his presence, which is unlikely given how sharp Dean's instincts can be).

Seeing Lucifer again was kinda fun though. He reminds me of The Joker from Patterson's Batman: being this renowned Big Bad that's just floating around in the periphery rather than being the main star. Mark Pellegrino really chewed the scenery here, but he made the scene work and kept me engaged. I hope they don't overuse him and just keep him at a distance for now.

Let's call it 4/5 for the short but great use of Godstiel. Can't wait to see what Leviathan's all about.

Edited April 22 by MagnusHex