S07.E17: The Born-Again Identity

[Demented Daisy]

Lucifer is driving Sam into madness. Desperate to save him, Dean tries to find someone who can help. He finds Castiel with amnesia, instead.

 

 

The return of Castiel.  Honestly, I was surprised that it took most of the season to bring him back.

[DittyDotDot]

I so want to love this episode. There's finally some resolution to the Hellucinations, Cas is back, and there's Meg...sigh...in the end though, they have three different episodes going on that I didn't think came together seamlessly. But I was overjoyed to see Castiel back!

[Amerilla]

I really wanted to love this episode unstintingly, because it has so many of the elements I love: the return of Castiel, Meg reuniting with Team Free Will, Dean's fear and angst, Sam's heroic suffering in the face of Hallucifer's torments...but it ended up falling a little flat for me, and I came away a bit disappointed. The problem is, I think they tried to shove too much story into a single episode - and as a result, the final act felt more rushed than it should have for the end of a 16-episode build-up.

 

I kind of wish they had split it into two episodes, one Sam-centric, one Cas-centric. That may have felt a little filler-y, but again, this was the end of a huge story arc for both characters, so why rush it?

 

This was his big return, but Cas's story really got the short end of the stick here. There was some great dialog with Dean, we got the basics of the story, and I realize they were saving some reveals for later. But he had obviously been living a very different life as Emanuel the faith healer, and we don't really learn much about it or what it might mean to him to give that up....if anything. I mean - Castiel was *married* to someone who found him stumbling around naked and memoryless along a riverbank. That seems like it was worth more than a few lines of dialog.

[DittyDotDot]

I always wonder if Emanuel's wife isn't still sitting around waiting for him to return or if other demons found her and didn't believe her that he was gone and killed her. I thought it was a weird choice that they just left her behind when she was not safe, IMO. It's one of those loose ends that could have been better served with splitting the episode up. It's really a shame, it's another one that could have been really something, but in the end wasn't much at all.

 

I do remember thinking it was weird that they were trying so hard to hide the revel of Castiel in the episode proper, but they released a promo for it that showed Castiel in it before the episode aired. It's really such a shame when the CW spoils the things the show is trying to keep secret.

[DittyDotDot]

Another random thought of weirdness about this episode...I didn't understand how they swapped Cas for Sam. Didn't the doctors or orderlies notice that there suddlenly was a short, trench-coat-wearing, dark-haired comatose man in the bed of a the Ginormatron? I'd have thought that would have raised some eyebrows. Plus, half of their staff getting their eyes burned out on the same day? And, if the demons knew Sam was in that institution, wouldn't they have sent more demons after Sam and Dean left...how is Meg or Castiel any safer now?

 

I really want to like this episode...I really do. Just too many loose ends, I think.

Edited August 21, 2014 by DittyDotDot

[Amerilla]

Another random thought of weirdness about this episode...I didn't understand how they swapped Cas for Sam. Didn't the doctors or orderlies notice that there suddlenly was a short, trench-coat-wearing, dark-haired comatose man in the bed of a the Ginormatron?

 

 

Some of that I can head-canon: Sam and Dean just walked out. (Given the number of times they've been critically injured, can you imagine how many millions the Brothers Winchester have stiffed hospitals out of over the years? Good for them!) Meg stashed Cas somewhere in the basement - along with the eye-burned corpses - until she could get hired on and faked an identity for Cas. Something like that. 

 

But, yeah, overall, too many loose ends indeed.

[rue721]

This is kind of irrelevant in the grand scheme, but I thought Lucifer was really poorly written in this episode, and since so much time is spent on Lucifer harassing Sam, that brings down the episode as a whole. It wasn't just that he wasn't scary, a lot of the time he also seemed really easy to tune out. Most of the time, he was just reading bedtime stories from across the room or something, he wasn't even in Sam's personal space or anything. I know that wasn't the point, but I think it undermined the whole vibe they were trying to create. Tbh, I think it would have been better if Lucifer hadn't said anything, he were just THERE all the time, and Sam were the one saying the weird stuff. Or if it were like in "Repo Man" and he was not just being a pain, he was also being helpful, so Sam shouldn't even ignore him completely. One moment I actually thought was scary, though, is when Sam is trying to pour the salt circle for Marin, and it starts blowing apart, and Sam gets this OMFG look on his face and scoots way back and tells Marin she's got to do it herself.

 

Didn't care about the Cas storyline, because they ignored everything interesting about it -- like wtf was going on with his wife?! I don't understand SPN's love of giving Cas storylines that are basically "Cas takes nearly the whole episode just driving from Point A to Point B." Who wants to see that? I did like him in that very neat and clean sweater as Emmanuel, though. Like I said way back in the day for "Exile on Main Street," my personal kryptonite is Suburbia Porn. Shiny, neatly combed hair? High quality, department-store-looking clothes? House that looks to be in such good repair it's uncanny? I'M THERE. So I would have liked if they'd spent more time on Cas's new life altogether, but am ready to admit that that's probably idiosyncratic.

[DittyDotDot]

I stand by my statements above after re-watching it--needs to be at least two separate episodes, but I can easily imagine it being three also. It feels like they were trying to recapture what was Faith, but didn't understand what made Faith work in the first place.

 

I really want to know more about Cass's life for the last few months. While I don't mind Sam's little case in the institution I really feel like it sucked the life out of Castiel's side of things. And Meg basically shows up to snark at them and then is left to watch over Cass? The end of the episode is so rushed it's seriously anticlimactic to me. That scene where Cass gets his mojo back is staged so laughably--the demons basically just stand there and politely wait their turn to be smited. Don't even get me started on the stupidity and simple resolution of Sam's Hell pain. I just feel really underwhelmed when done watching. It's really such a shame, it should've been epic, IMO.

[Goldmoon]

As others have said, there was too much packed in here to really hang together coherently.  I want to mention the musical score when Cas took out those demons was brilliant. I could have used more Dean/Cas flashbacks during the scene though.  What, I'm greedy!  I was not happy to have Meg show up and interrupt the Dean and Cas Show.  Sam's story was great and I enjoyed that he was trying to help the girl while his own melon was falling apart.  Unlike some other posters, I DID like Luci sitting there being annoying like a child sibling would.  It was obviously effective, so I guess he sussed out what would best work.  But too much packed into one episode. 

[RulerofallIsurvey]

Watched this last night.  I actually skipped a couple nights in my straight through watching (usually one to two eps a night)..cause I knew this one was coming and needed a break. I decided just to list my favorite Sam and Dean moments of the ep for me.  Okay, qualifier here - any Sam and/or Dean moment is good for me.  That's why I watch the show.  I usually get completely bored when at least one of the brothers isn't on the screen.   Other characters are fine - as long as they are interacting with either Sam or Dean, or their other scenes are mercifully short.  Sam and Dean TV!  All Day All the Time.  Now that's something I need in my life.  :)  So onward:

• Liked all the Sam scenes.  Favorite Sam moment?  Well, all the ones in the hospital.  The acting showing Sam's exhaustion was great.  And Sam still helped the other inmate.  That was nice.  But I guess he also needed the distraction.
• Favorite Dean moment - when he first visits Sam in the hospital and sits on the bed.  I just liked his expression and determination to find a way to help his brother.
• Favorite Meg moment (yeah, I can't believe I'm even writing this, cause I really don't like Meg, but...) the end as Nurse Ratchet.  Or whatever her alias was..
• Favorite Cas moment: when he was smiting the demons.  I liked the show of power.  Awesome.  Second favorite favorite Cas moment: the shot of him sitting catatonic on the bed at the end.
• And while I'm thinking of Cas catatonic on the bed, can I ask just how Cas was able to siphon off Sam's halluciferations?  I thought they were all  in his head?  And I'm pretty sure that's not how psychosis works.  So then Cas was able to see Lucifer...huh...which makes it seem, to me, that maybe it wasn't all in Sam's head all along.

Anyway, I enjoyed the ep.  Which is a really weird thing to say considering the content.  Wish we'd see more of the guy who got his eyesight fixed.  He seemed cool.  And as someone upthread pointed out - whatever happened to Cas' wife? 

[Dobian]

This was an emotionally strong episode and I really liked it despite its flaws.  The two things that I had to scrutinize of course were Cass' wife and Cass taking on Sam's affliction.  The whole wife thing was pretty strange because it sounds like she just ran into him, knew he had total amnesia, so she just gave him a name and married him anyway.  Just desperate for a man?  LOL, eeeeokay.  That said, I don't mind if they never resolved that plot thread, since it was so half-baked to begin with.

Cass taking on Sam's psychosis didn't make sense in a different way.  If it wasn't some spell or curse, just a natural mental breakdown, that isn't something you transfer from one mind to another.  It's specifically part of Sam.  Obviously the writers had written themselves into a corner and needed to sprinkle some angel dust to get out of it.  I would also like to know how the conversation with the head doctor went down.  "Uh...Sam's okay now, but this new guy here has the exact same problem Sam had.  You might want to lock him up."

I liked Meg in this episode.  The enemy of my enemy and all that.

Edited June 24, 2016 by Dobian

[AwesomO4000]

6 hours ago, Dobian said:

Cass taking on Sam's psychosis didn't make sense in a different way.  If it wasn't some spell or curse, just a natural mental breakdown, that isn't something you transfer from one mind to another.  It's specifically part of Sam.  Obviously the writers had written themselves into a corner and needed to sprinkle some angel dust to get out of it. 

Don't worry, they do specifically address this later on. I can't give specifics without it being a spoiler, but for me the explanation did end up making sense.

As for it not being a thing you can transfer, I looked at it like how Castiel could manipulate Lisa's memories, so he kind of did something similar here with Sam. He couldn't take them away perhaps, but could lessen them some - unfortunately in doing that, Castiel kind of had to live some of them temporarily himself. That was my fanwank anyway.

[DittyDotDot]

14 hours ago, Dobian said:

This was an emotionally strong episode and I really liked it despite its flaws.  The two things that I had to scrutinize of course were Cass' wife and Cass taking on Sam's affliction.  The whole wife thing was pretty strange because it sounds like she just ran into him, knew he had total amnesia, so she just gave him a name and married him anyway.  Just desperate for a man?  LOL, eeeeokay.  That said, I don't mind if they never resolved that plot thread, since it was so half-baked to begin with.

Cass taking on Sam's psychosis didn't make sense in a different way.  If it wasn't some spell or curse, just a natural mental breakdown, that isn't something you transfer from one mind to another.  It's specifically part of Sam.  Obviously the writers had written themselves into a corner and needed to sprinkle some angel dust to get out of it.  I would also like to know how the conversation with the head doctor went down.  "Uh...Sam's okay now, but this new guy here has the exact same problem Sam had.  You might want to lock him up."

I liked Meg in this episode.  The enemy of my enemy and all that.

As @AwesomO4000 said, Cass didn't take on Sam's psychosis so much as just shifted it in some way. The mental breakdown was how Sam experienced the soul damage, but the psychosis wasn't the actual problem. I tend to think of it as Cass healing Sam's soul to a certain degree--Sam still has his Hell memories, but they aren't coming out and playing with him anymore--but doing that weakened Cass so much it put him in a coma. I don't know how or why Cass couldn't do the same thing back when Sam got his soul back, or why he couldn't help Sam when he had the powers of a God at the beginning of the season, but that's how I make it work in my head anyway.

My general stance is, as long as Sam and Dean make sense, I can go with the plot nonsense. There is a lot of plot nonsense in this one, though; it surely does make my head hurt! It's funny how much the writers have complained about how hard it is to keep Cass powered up and in the story, but also how quick they are to sprinkle some of that angel dust around to solve a problem they wrote themselves into. 

[RulerofallIsurvey]

8 hours ago, AwesomO4000 said:

Don't worry, they do specifically address this later on. I can't give specifics without it being a spoiler, but for me the explanation did end up making sense.

Can you spoiler tag this?  Cause I'm drawing a blank - and this was one thing that bothered me about this little plot contrivance too.

[DittyDotDot]

11 minutes ago, RulerofallIsurvey said:

Can you spoiler tag this?  Cause I'm drawing a blank - and this was one thing that bothered me about this little plot contrivance too.

I'm not @AwesomO4000, but think I can don passable disguise for this one (I'm pretty sure she'd use one of the Bon Jovi's for her rock alias ;) )...

Spoiler

In Reading is Fundamental, while Dean is with Kevin in the "sex torture dungeon" and Meg sneaks off to kill those demons trailing them, Sam and Cass have a little talk. Sam asks him about the burden he lifted from Sam and if he sees Lucifer or not. Cass said he did at first, but it was just projection of Sam's. I think he said he saw "everything" after Sam's projection faded away. He also mentions how taking on Sam's weight actually helped with his own feeling lost. They get interrupted quickly after that.

[AwesomO4000]

That's pretty much exactly what I was referring to @DittyDotDot, and good call on the Bon Jovi alias ; ) ... And yet another thing amplified and/or LoLcanoned for season 8, since apparently Castiel changed his mind

Spoiler

and decided that he still felt too guilty and needed to pay for his mistakes... sort of throwing the Sam/Castiel conversation there out the window. It seemed from that Sam/Cas conversation in RiF that helping Sam out had helped to lift some of Cas' lost feeling at having caused so much damage and gave him a "purpose" and something he could focus on as having done something useful and good. From that conversation, Castiel almost seemed at peace with it - Cas seemed surprised when after Sam thanked him for everything Cas tried to do and said "And we're gonna help you get better, okay?" he answered "What do you mean 'better'?"

So Cas seemed at peace much like Sam had been with his Lucifer hallucinations earlier in season 7... which now that I think about it, that's sort of brilliant and a potentially wonderful connection/bond between Sam and Castiel. Maybe Cas got that from Sam?

But then also as I said, they then threw all that out the window in season 8 in favor of Castiel and Dean angst. So much season 7 potential wasted.

There's also a theory under the spoiler tags about what I speculate the conversation @DittyDotDot referred to above meant.

[GirlyGeek]

I enjoy this episode every time, but it's not without flaws.

while I normally love Meg, she seemed very off here to me- speech, looks, and purpose in this episode. Like many others have mentioned there was about 5 extra  things happening in this episode that should have been fleshed out in another way.

the ending makes me cringe. It's rushed, with a voiceover from Dean explaining why it's ok to just up and leave? Just no. 

I like the B plot with Sam and the girl and Sam helping someone else out while marching to his own death- very heroic in a non-cheesy way ?

This was an emotional roller coaster episode for Dean: Sam in a car crash, Sam dying slowly, searching for help, finding Cas, being hunted, Cas says he can't fix Sam... You could just see Dean's face fall when Cas said that, and Dean kinda slumps against the wall.  Poor guy. He needs a vacation

[Hanahope]

I agree that it seemed like Cas's story of how he survived and got married (??!!!) and learned his healing skill got glossed over real quick to get back to Sam and to try and help him.  I suppose if anyone can help Sam it would have to be an angel and it would have some consequences.  I lol at Meg watching over Cas though. 

[bettername2come]

I do love when we see the guys in the first five minutes. Damn, Sam getting hit by that car. Major respect for Jared's stunt double there, that looked awesome. Hey, they used Sam Smith! I know they've been using Smith aliases for awhile, but I'm choosing to take this as a Samantha Smith shoutout like I've been wanting them to do since they named him Sam Wesson in that season 4 ep. He looks so pretty in white. I had forgotten just how long they kept Cas dead. Fourteen episodes is a long time to go without Misha. "I'm sensing you kill a lot of people." How does he say that calmly? I'm not a big fan of New Meg, but I do like her weird thing for Cas. I like Marin the mental patient and her rapport with Sam. Cas is badass. It's nice to see him back to his old self and trying to make amends. Dean is just collecting mementos this season. Can Cas's powers be used to clean the blood from his trenchcoat? Misha plays that moment where he chooses to take on Sam's hallucinations very well. He just looks so certain of his decision no matter what it costs him. I feel like the Sam hallucination plot was overall an enormous waste of time. It doesn't affect the leviathan plot and doesn't do much except put Sam through emotional turmoil and bring Mark Pellegrino back. I think Jared played it well, it just feels like it should've led to something. 

What happened to Castiel's wife?! How does his time as Emmanuel not justify a whole episode flashback? Who marries a random amnesiac after only knowing him a few months? How's a guy with no name get a marriage license? Did they sleep together? Does he remember her after regaining his memory? Did she look for him? Does she keep getting calls from missing posters saying the guy's named Jimmy Novak and he disappeared in 2008? I'm wondering way too much about this. 

Edited August 1, 2017 by bettername2come

[DittyDotDot]

7 hours ago, bettername2come said:

I feel like the Sam hallucination plot was overall an enormous waste of time. It doesn't affect the leviathan plot and doesn't do much except put Sam through emotional turmoil and bring Mark Pellegrino back. I think Jared played it well, it just feels like it should've led to something. 

I agree. I think Jared did some of his most nuanced work on the series this season with the hand scar and such, but it really should've tied back into something. Although, I guess it ties Sam and Cass's storylines together and ties Sam and Dean's storylines together... .

7 hours ago, bettername2come said:

What happened to Castiel's wife?! How does his time as Emmanuel not justify a whole episode flashback? Who marries a random amnesiac after only knowing him a few months? How's a guy with no name get a marriage license? Did they sleep together? Does he remember her after regaining his memory? Did she look for him? Does she keep getting calls from missing posters saying the guy's named Jimmy Novak and he disappeared in 2008? I'm wondering way too much about this. 

I know, right? So many questions here.

[Katy M]

16 hours ago, bettername2come said:

I feel like the Sam hallucination plot was overall an enormous waste of time. It doesn't affect the leviathan plot and doesn't do much except put Sam through emotional turmoil and bring Mark Pellegrino back. I think Jared played it well, it just feels like it should've led to something. 

I don't feel like everything needs to lead to something.  It did lead to getting Cas back.  It did lead to Cas going crazy (though I'm not really all that crazy about Crazy Cas).  

16 hours ago, bettername2come said:

What happened to Castiel's wife?!

There are a lot of people who just lose family members because they get possessed and disappear.  I mean like a lot. 

[RulerofallIsurvey]

Rewatched last night.  Jared's acting was just just wonderful portraying sleep-deprived Sam in the hospital.  I could feel his exhaustion and despondence.  This is one of the few times when Mark P didn't annoy me during the Halluciferations plot line.  Oh, Lucifer still annoyed me, but I thought MP did a very good good being not just annoying to Sam, but unnerving as well.  I didn't used to like Meg, but I think she's grown on me. 

Spoiler

I'm kind of sad she never got to kill Crowley.  I'm sure it's because MS was too well liked as a character on the show and they didn't want to get rid of him + the actress' illness.  But after all Crowley did to her, it would have been very satisfying to have her be part of his demise. 

I paid more attention to the special effects of when Cas shifted Sam's hallucinations?  psychosis?  whatever it was.  And...it still didn't really make sense to me!  Lol!  I do like @DittyDotDot's theory of Cas healing Sam's soul a bit, so I'm just going to go with that. 

On 7/31/2017 at 11:59 PM, bettername2come said:

What happened to Castiel's wife?!

Daphne.  (I paid attention to her name this time too.)  Poor Daphne.  She really got the short end of the plot stick here. 

On 7/31/2017 at 11:59 PM, bettername2come said:

Who marries a random amnesiac after only knowing him a few months?

Not just a random amnesiac.  A naked, random amnesiac.  Er...maybe that's why she decided to marry him.  The naked part, of course. ? 

Cas did say that she said that God wanted her to find him, which I suppose is why she took in this naked random amnesiac who walked out of the river.  Maybe Daphne was really another angel really sent by Chuck to take care of Cas, kind of like when he blinked the boys on to the plane even though Sam had messed up big time.  But then that doesn't explain why Cas couldn't see Daphne's real face like he could see the demon's real faces, unless Daphne was really an angel named Daphne so he just thought everyone could see her 'real' face since it was really her.  Yep.  I think I just talked myself into an explanation! ?

[S Cook Productions]

On 6/24/2016 at 8:39 AM, DittyDotDot said:

As @AwesomO4000 said, Cass didn't take on Sam's psychosis so much as just shifted it in some way. The mental breakdown was how Sam experienced the soul damage, but the psychosis wasn't the actual problem. I tend to think of it as Cass healing Sam's soul to a certain degree--Sam still has his Hell memories, but they aren't coming out and playing with him anymore--but doing that weakened Cass so much it put him in a coma. I don't know how or why Cass couldn't do the same thing back when Sam got his soul back, or why he couldn't help Sam when he had the powers of a God at the beginning of the season, but that's how I make it work in my head anyway.

My general stance is, as long as Sam and Dean make sense, I can go with the plot nonsense. There is a lot of plot nonsense in this one, though; it surely does make my head hurt! It's funny how much the writers have complained about how hard it is to keep Cass powered up and in the story, but also how quick they are to sprinkle some of that angel dust around to solve a problem they wrote themselves into. 

Did we ever actually see Cas in a coma, or just catatonic?

[Iju]

ah sam. he's almost dying from his own insanity and he's still working his way to help others. that's so winchester. if it's not i don't know what is.

also this ep made me so desperate to make sam get some SLEEP. i know what it's like to want to kill to get some sleep. luckily that hasn't been in a while.

[The Companion]

On 8/16/2018 at 7:28 PM, Iju said:

ah sam. he's almost dying from his own insanity and he's still working his way to help others. that's so winchester. if it's not i don't know what is.

also this ep made me so desperate to make sam get some SLEEP. i know what it's like to want to kill to get some sleep. luckily that hasn't been in a while.

Being a new parent, I could relate. True story, I googled whether you could die of sleep deprivation when the baby was 2ish weeks. Lol.

I was excited to see Castiel and happy they didn't unnecessarily extend the amnesia plot. My theory on the moving objects was him, so this episode put that one to rest. 

There was a lot to like about this episode, even if it was jam packed. I am apparently an outlier in liking this Meg. I loved all of her angel jabs. 

On 7/31/2017 at 10:59 PM, bettername2come said:

What happened to Castiel's wife?! How does his time as Emmanuel not justify a whole episode flashback? Who marries a random amnesiac after only knowing him a few months? How's a guy with no name get a marriage license? Did they sleep together? Does he remember her after regaining his memory? Did she look for him? Does she keep getting calls from missing posters saying the guy's named Jimmy Novak and he disappeared in 2008? I'm wondering way too much about this. 

This is my problem with any show or movie where someone comes forward in time. 😆