Supernatural Review: Fate’s a B**ch and Then You Die
April 17, 2011 by Nicole C.
Filed under Television
After a brief hiatus, Supernatural returns with our favorite duo of demon hunting, ass kicking brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester. In this episode they learn that there is a reason for all those clichéd sayings involving fate. You know what I’m talking about, you can’t outrun fate, tempting fate, fate strikes when you least expect it, etc.
The brothers get to know one of the three fates from Greek mythology when mysterious deaths start happening all around the country. After leaving a very angry Bobby (Jim Beaver), who is still unwilling to deal with the death of Rufus, the boys head up to Pennsylvania to investigate a string of strange, accidental deaths involving three people in the same family. Suddenly though another woman with no connection to the others is killed when her scarf is pulled into a copier machine and she is strangled to death.
The first inkling of real strangeness happens though when Ellen appears with groceries at Bobby’s house after Sam and Dean leave. In the quick recap before the episode started, there was a flashback to last season when Ellen and Jo died while setting a massive explosion to take down hellhounds. So now we know why, this episode is an alternate reality.
We soon find out it is because Balthazar went back in time and prevented the Titanic from sinking, thus causing a huge domino affect and in this timeline – Ellen and Jo are alive with Ellen being married to Bobby. Admittedly this is a much happier seemingly reality all things considered.
But things aren’t what they seem to be. The librarian looking blonde Fate attempts to kill Sam and Dean by gas explosion but Cas saves them in the knick of time, bringing them to White Russia. White Russia is yet another indicator of how history was altered, where the people of Belarus were suppose to rise against Russia for occupying their land. Cas explains to the brothers that Fate is gunning for them because they stopped apocalypse, essentially ruining her life. The angel though says that the only solution is to kill Fate. Apparently Balthazar has a weapon for that very job. Of course he does!
Sam and Dean are then used as bait to bring Fate out into the open. The boys walk around extremely paranoid as any little thing could kill them. Even a regular street becomes a stroll through a gauntlet. Just then as a large air conditioning unit is about to pancake the brothers to the ground, time stops and Cas and Atropos have a little chat.
The three Fates are Clotho (who spins the thread of life), Lachesis (who decides how long the thread is), and Atropos (who cuts the thread and arranges how one dies).
Atropos is seething with rage at Cas for throwing out the book once he and the Winchesters stopped the apocalypse from happening. She declares how God had given her a job to do and now everything is in chaos because there is no longer a script to follow. Cas counters saying that he’s fighting for freedom. But what freedom is this exactly?
We learn from Atropos that Cas had been the one to send Balthazar back in time to stop the sinking of the Titanic to create fifty thousand new souls and that it somehow has to do with the war in heaven. But she implies that this is a shortcut and it’s wrong. Cas can’t change the past willy nilly just because he is desperate.
The plan of killing her though is stopped just as Balthazar is about to stab her in the back. Atropos reminds Cas that she has two other sisters who will make it their job to eliminate Sam and Dean if they kill her. How much do the Winchesters mean to Cas? Is he willing to kill them to take down one of the three Fates?
To set things right, the two angels restore the original timeline by sinking the Titanic. Sam and Dean find themselves asleep in the Impala with the memories of the alternate reality in tact because Cas wanted them to understand that they had taught him something about fate, that you could chose something else for yourself. This is the freedom that Cas appears to be fighting for, the ability to be free from a pre-ordained script that you have no control over.
The episode raises some great issues on fate and free will. Fate can be seen as unfair, depending on the circumstances but something that we cannot control. Sam and Dean throughout their lives appear to have challenged this over and over again as they return from the dead multiple times. But as we learned from Death, there is a certain order to things and every action causes a chain effect. Atropos is presented as a creature of order and what Cas and the Winchesters have done is negate that order. Ultimately which one is better, having fate or free will? That is a hard complicated question and there is no definitive answer.
But watching the Winchesters attempt to figure that out is worth watching and dare I say, addicting.
We’ve gotten another tidbit on the importance of souls that’s been hinted at all season long and I can’t wait to see how this all plays out. How does the civil war in heaven, monster mother Eve and her creature fest, Death, the Fates, and the Winchesters all fit into this puzzle? Well, thank goodness the hiatus is over.
Season 6, Episode 17: My Heart Will Go On (originally aired April 15, 2011)
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I love how the show makes you jump in the alternate time shift from Dean’s mustang and Bob and Ellen talking to each normally. It was interesting to see Bobby such a “Grinch” to Ellen, however. I was sad that we didn’t get to see Jo even though she was mentioned. And it made me wonder that the episode didn’t show is if Jo and Dean would of ended up together, instead of being with Lisa and Ben. Heck it would of been fascinating to see that they would have a kid. Then it could have brought a more emotional ride for both Bobby and Dean to let Ellen and Jo go. I really loved the joke of Balthazar’s name on the Titanic: “I. P. Freely”.
I didn’t like how Fate looked like some Librarian from a porn movie, but I did like how it showed how Fate bends the rules of nature to cause the fates of the descendants of the Titanic pretty harsh deaths. It comes to show that Castiel is too stressed over his Civil War that he would willingly change History to the extent to gather souls for some machine. I wonder than if we will learn that Castiel is the one who brought back Sam as soulless. Also it shows that Castiel will not stop Fate, yet he will stop predestination of the Jewish Christian Apocalypse . Not to mention SUPERNATURAL is now saying that Greek Gods and Goddesses exist. Does that mean Zeus does?
I also loved the end of this episode that Dean helps Bobby sleep by taking his book and gives him a blanket while Bobby’s sleeping. It shows how Bobby is the father figure for the boys and how much he means to them. Dean also won in rock paper scissors with Sam!
I can’t wait for the old West Episode.