Supernatural Talk

Tarts talk about 9.03: I'm No Angel

By Suzette Chan
December 23, 2013

Welcome to Supernatural Talk, where Tarts talk about Supernatural, their favourite show about demon-hunting brothers. This week: 9.03: "I'm No Angel."

Barred from Heaven and bereft of his angel grace, Castiel begins to learn what it's like to be human. Living among the homeless in Indiana, Castiel hears of the strange death of two priests and call Sam and Dean, who go to the area to investigate. They find a link to a televangelist, but don't yet know that the televangelist is being used to recruit vessels by the new head of Heaven, Bartholomew.

Meanwhile, Castiel moves on to Detroit, where a good Samaritan takes him home. However, she is really a rogue reaper, and kills him. But the Winchesters make it in time and Dean asks Ezekiel to bring Castiel back to life. The angel complies, but after they all return to the Men of Letter bunker, Ezekiel says it's too dangerous for Castiel to stay. Reluctantly, Dean tells Castiel to leave.

What was this week's monster?

Suzette Chan, Features Editrix: The immediate threat is from a rogue reaper, April. Her death makes me wonder if Castiel is going for Sam Winchester's dalliance-and-die record. Seriously, you don't even have to go all the way with Castiel. Meg survived for centuries, until she started flirting with Castiel, and then she died (okay, after a couple of seasons).

The long-term threat is from an angel, Bartholomew, the "new sheriff" of Heaven. Sadly, the episode confirms that Naomi is dead. While she was played as a villain, in the end, she really did have humanity's best interests in mind. Bartholomew seems to be more focused on revenge and persecution. There will be no end to his meddling in human affairs.

Meanwhile, Ezekiel is nothing but helpful to Dean. However, his insistence on staying away from Castiel is suspicious. Had he been working against Castiel? Cas remembers Ezekiel's name, but few other details about him.

Katherine Keller, Culture Vultures Editrix: "But at least now, they're with the angels." Oh, I certainly hope not.

Though he is a protege of Naomi, Bartholomew's style, dress, and demeanor remind me a lot of Zachariah. Naomi made a lot of hard-edged and zealous choices, but she didn't come off to me as being incredibly callous or indifferent. Bartholomew, like Zachariah, is very callous and I think that makes him very dangerous. I have to say that Bartholomew's (darkly comedic) use of the televangelist is an example of how calculating he can be.

Anita Olin, Staff Writer: Angels and freelance reapers. And televangelists, because I don't like them even when they aren't being manipulated by an angel named "Bartholomew." Angels have it in for Cas; even though their fall wasn't really his fault, they can't have forgotten how he attempted to rule Heaven. I really wanted to like April, too, but alas.

How did the episode relate to the season?

Suzette: We're seeing what's happening to angels on the ground (so to speak) after the fall, and we're seeing Castiel's early days as a human (in the previous episode, Dean said Castiel was human "ish" -- we don't the full extent of the changes to Castiel).

Rather than throwing up scenes of social foibles like confetti, the episode focused on how Castiel meets the most basic needs of food and shelter. It would have been nice to have seen more character development of the homeless man who showed Castiel the ropes of living on the streets. There was a parallel between him and Castiel -- and between the homeless and angels: they've been cast out and left to fend for themselves in a hostile environment.

We also know that Heaven is more organized than Hell. No one is running the place downstairs, while Heaven is tenuously organized under a mad angel. Actually, when Castiel ran it, he was also mad. Naomi and Zachariah were wily leaders with narrow agendas. Maybe Heaven is better off without a boss. I'm curious about their corporate succession model.

We also learned more about Ezekiel's powers: he is still tuned into Angel Radio; he can identify reapers; and he can bring people back to life. However, we don't know how Dean knows the state of Sam's health. Sam says he feels fine. Is Dean being over-protective? Is he getting used to Ezekiel's supernatural help? Or is Dean delaying the questions that Sam will inevitably ask about his recovery?

Katherine: I'm enjoying Castiel's fall from grace more than I expected to. Aside from the comic relief of his running commentary about bodily functions, he's certainly learning how very bad the human condition can get, but even in the worst of places and times he's seeing the glimmers of compassion and hope that are the best of humanity, such as when he's in the homeless camp and he remarks that he's discovering that many times those who seem to have the least are the most generous.

I also found the scene with him in the church quite interesting. I wonder why he goes there, given that he is so certain that there's nobody there to listen, that God has abandoned creation. And yet, the woman praying for her husband has such unshakable faith, telling him, "Your lack of faith doesn't cancel what I believe." She insists that "Someone is listening." I think that's a big hint about what's coming up this season. Someone is listening, but Cas cannot open his heart enough to discover this, and that he can neither hear, nor listen to what the divine might have to say to him.

"Who do you love?" Well, even though he tells Samzekiel that "this is Cas!", Dean chooses to save Sam in the end. Also, Dean has to think quickly more than once to keep the deception going. He commits a huge slip when he says, "Why do you think the angels are organizing?"

And, speaking of Ezekiel, he just got a few more layers of mystery added this episode. Without hesitation or being asked, he heals Castiel, raising him from the dead, but at the same time, he insists Dean kick Castiel out of the MOL headquarters, saying that if the angels find Castiel, he will die, too. I got the implication that he might be wanted for something beyond aiding and abetting a Winchester.

Anita: Everyone seems to be trying to find their places and make the best of unfortunate situations. Ezekiel is healing up in Sam while ostensibly healing Sam, Castiel is learning what it truly means to be human (and have sex), and Bartholomew is planning something big. Dean's the one left spinning in circles while trying to keep plates spinning, trying to figure out if he did the right thing, and figure out what's coming next.

How did it fit into the Supernatural universe?

Suzette: The show continued to explore angel hierarchy and picked up on the rogue reapers idea introduced in 8.19 "Taxi Driver." The idea is interesting, but I'd like to know why Death would allow it.

There was an interesting scene where the Winchesters ask the homeless folk if they look like cops to them, and the answer was a silent, "Yes." The Winchesters have gone so far away from their outsider roots that they're starting to look like the cops they often pose as. If the Winchesters are losing their connection with the underclass, I hope they start exploring why and how that loss could affect their effectiveness as hunters.

Katherine: I'm curious about how Death lets there be rogue reapers, but I'm also curious about any relationship Ezekiel may have with Death and reapers, given that he's so famously cheated them.

As for Sam and Dean, I'm getting a bit tired of them always impersonating FBI agents to get things done, but I also found their interactions with the homeless people quite interesting, because, yes, they did come off a lot like undercover policemen, and it certainly didn't help that they used police jargon. I agree with Suzette that they may be losing their touch when it comes to blending in with the underbelly of society and I hope we see how that causes problems they previously didn't have as hunters.

Anita: I agree that Sam and Dean are coming off more and more like authority figures. Part of that is their reliance on posing as FBI or other law enforcement all the time, but I wonder if part of it has to do with their new headquarters.

We still have angels and reapers and death, so we know we're in familiar Supernatural territory.

What were the highlights for the characters?

Suzette: Castiel learning to be human without the Winchesters around meant that he was truly on his own and bereft of any of the Winchesters' resources, human or supernatural. It was interesting that Castiel didn't try to find other hunters. The episode doesn't bring this up, but neither of the Winchesters are popular with other hunters, and a former angel could find himself in danger if he associated with the wrong group of hunters.

Castiel is canny enough to go to homeless shelters and to get a tattoo to ward off angels: food, shelter, and security. His circumstances also allow him to reflect on human society and on his own choices. He recognized his own hubris in past episodes. He used to operate according to the virtue ethic: I am virtuous, therefore what I do is virtuous. However, Castie's next assertion is based logic: "If my grace were the key to empowering the spell, I may be key to countering it."

The highlight for Dean is potentially a lowlight: he is starting to spin so many lies, he's almost caught by Castiel. He even admits, ironically, "I lied. I do that."

Sam continues to feel great -- which is terrible news! He has no idea that there's an angel powering him, and Dean has no idea how much of Sam's improvement is due to Ezekiel's presence. It's like Sam is a clockwork boy, only he doesn't know it. He's also now more angelic than Castiel, who has had his grace removed. Sam is living on Ezekiel's grace.

Katherine: I discussed the more serious bits of Castiel's journey above, but dear goodness, this episode was quite funny in how it handled all the absurdities of the human body. Castiel's loss of virginity provided some comedy gold -- "Did you use protection?" "I had my angel blade" -- but it also gave us that moment of Castiel learning that the morning after can be quite a let down. Castiel obviously wasn't in love with April, but they shared a moment of great intimacy and he got his heart stomped on when she betrayed him.

Anita: Poor Cas. There's so much to being a human that angels never consider. Like bodily fluids and condoms. But Cas is also proving to be fairly resourceful on his own without Sam and Dean to help him along. Smart of him to get a warding tattoo, and using an alias was a good idea, too, even if it's a name Meg used to call him that he didn't understand the allusion of.

Sam's going to end up with a lot of missing time that can't be accounted for if Zeke keeps popping up all the time. He's feeling so great, but he's never thought about how or why. That's not really like Sam, so I wonder if Ezekiel is somehow keeping Sam from wondering about it.

What other observations did you have?

Suzette: Dean and Ezekiel need to agree on a safe word.

I was really excited to see Shannon Lucio's name in the credits. She and Autumn Reeser pretty much saved The O.C. in its latter days. Alas, no such delightful addition to the cast here. I should have known: any female who gets inside a member of Team Free Will's pants is doomed. Still, she was a fantastic turncoat villain. It was odd that April took a stranger home after just meeting him. Was she naive? Did she have a hobo fetish? Nah, she's just an evil rogue reaper!

Ezekiel pointed out that Cas was warded when April found him and killed him. So, is that tattoo useful at all, or did she have other means to find him?

Toward the end of the episode, Castiel says that there's "a lot to being human." Heh. The way he said it highlighted the last two words. Being Human is the show that Supernatural executive producer Jeremy Carver was co-showrunning before he returned to Supernatural.

Katherine: The scene where Sam and Dean torture the reaper was pretty dark and ruthless. Normally they only reserve that level of savagery for demons.

Castiel: "You lied." Dean: "I do that." Oh, the irony.

Once again, Sam makes a statement that he's happy and feeling great, letting us know it's all going to come down in flames.

Even with Samzekiel's help, I'm not quite sure how they found April. Did she announce on angel radio that she'd found him?

It was a clever move of Castiel to tattoo himself with the warding against angels, but I don't know how he would have been found by reapers or others, so long as he stayed in the bunker or kept a very low profile. Remember, the reaper in question was using Sam and Dean as a way to try to find Castiel. So ... as awesome as Ezekiel has been, his need to get Castiel out of the MOL headquarters makes me a bit suspicious.

Samzekiel is such a BAMF, but as Suzette says, he and Dean need to agree on a "safe word."

Anita: I'm highly suspicious of Ezekiel's motives for casting Castiel out of the bunker. I do think that the Samzekiel situation is way more complicated than "I'll heal him, then I'll leave." He now knows everything that Sam knows. I somehow don't think that's a good thing. Sam is the walking encyclopedia of weird, after all.

I hope Dean gave Cas a few pointers on staying alive and not getting any STIs before Cas left.

Always be suspicious of a "good Samaritan." They're either an axe murderer or a demon or an angel or a reaper or something bad.

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