"Angel Heart"
Original Airdate: April 29, 2015
“Truth is, you’re not her dad. In fact, you’re not anything to her except a constant reminder or someone that’s gone.”
For a lot of people, guilt can be a difficult thing to stomach. It’s often hard to live with oneself, knowing that someone’s life has been greatly worsened by your own actions. However well-intentioned they were, it still leaves one with a heavy conscience and a desire to make things right with said person. And usually, that’s something easier said than done.
For Castiel, he knows that fateful night he took Jimmy Novak as his vessel changed everything, setting off a domino effect that to this day still has affected the life of Jimmy’s daughter, Claire. Despite the fact that he really isn’t her father, he still feels a sense of responsibility for her, and believes it’s up to him to make sure she’s safe, because he’s the only one left in her life to do so. Because of him, her father was taken from her, and not long after that, her mother left. He can’t fix what’s already been done, but he can help her do one thing: track down her missing mother. And with the assistance of Sam and Dean, he decides to do just that.
I will admit, I didn’t care very much for all the Claire storylines at first. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her, but I just didn’t really see the point to them. Little did I know they would be helping wrap up the Jimmy storyline for good, giving him and his wife, Amelia, closure once and for all. And to me, that was probably my favorite thing about this episode, if not one of my favorite things about this entire season by far. I have ALL THE FEELINGS about it, so forgive me if this particular review is a little bit scatterbrained sounding (plus, completely focused on Castiel/Amelia/Jimmy/Claire. Sorry Sam and Dean!) and all over the place as opposed to my usual recap style. I’m still not over it.
With a lot of characters in this show, there isn't much closure. More often than not, their lives end bloody, and that’s it. With Jimmy, his life truly ended around six years ago when he said yes to Castiel, even though he didn’t really die for a while after that. This episode made it clear that not only was he really in Heaven, but once Amelia died, they were finally together again. He’d been waiting for her all that time, and if that scene didn’t make you shed a few tears for someone actually getting a happy ending for once, I don’t know what will. Oh, and don't forget about what Ash (oh gosh, major throwback -- I miss Ash so much, but that's beside the point) mentioned about Heavens. In most cases, the only time anyone actually shares their Heaven with someone else, it's because they're soulmates. Just in case you needed another reason to cry all the happy tears.
Okay, okay, I’ll try not to get too ahead of myself, here. I told you, I just have a lot of feelings.
Back to the actual plot of the episode: Claire still really doesn’t want anything to do with Castiel or either of the Winchesters, but she reluctantly agrees to allow them to help track down her mom, who has been missing for two years after being taken and fed off of by a type of angel called a Grigori, who goes by the name Tamiel. While Sam and Cas go investigate the house Amelia’s at, Dean is stuck on babysitting duty with Claire.
“Your dad’s sacrifice was not meaningless. Yeah, he gave up his body, his vessel. Because he did that, Cas -- Cas was able to save the world. The world. Your father’s a hero. He did not die in vain.”
It’s these words that I believe finally pushed Claire into being more sympathetic and forgiving towards Castiel. She’s blamed him all this time, but by the end of the episode, she knows how much he’s been through, as well.
Don’t even get me started on the scene between Amelia and Castiel. Actually, you know what? I’m going to anyway. I can’t begin to comprehend everything that Amelia has been through. From losing her husband, to being forced to abandon her young daughter to find him just so she could put her family back together. Being slowly tortured over the course of two years, only to wake up and find out Jimmy was gone, shortly before being killed herself.
If I’m being honest, I never really gave Amelia’s character a second thought after her brief appearance in season four, but watching this episode, this scene in particular, something about it tore my heart out. The moment Castiel expresses his guilt for failing her, she immediately assures him that as long as Claire’s alive, he hasn’t failed them. And then the very short-lived reunion between Amelia and Claire… yeah, I was pretty much a fountain of tears at this point, the previously mentioned Heaven scene included.
All in all, if someone were to tell me earlier this season that by the end of it Claire Novak would grow on me, that she would become a character I sympathized with almost the most out of all the other characters on the show, I wouldn’t have believed them. But she managed both of those in just this episode, and now I really hope we get to see her again, maybe an episode next season where it’s just her and Jody kicking monster butt together? We can only hope.
Memorable Moments/Quotes:
- “You were both troubled teens. You speak her language.”
- “Give me something to punch already. I’m kidding. I’m fine.”
- “Then why do you do it?” “To help people. To make a difference.” “That’s it?” “That’s not enough?”
- “I got it at the Hot Topical.” I laughed for ten straight minutes about this scene. As if Cas getting her a birthday present wasn’t adorable enough.
- Am I the only one who doesn’t think Dean’s behavior at the bar with Ronnie wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be? Sure, it was a step above Dean’s regular anger zone, but in all seriousness, he probably would have been rough with the guy regardless of the Mark or not, especially with the comment Ronnie made towards Claire.
- “Bill Murray? Caddyshack? It’s a classic!” “Never seen it. Not a fan.” “How DARE you?”
- “Did you--- did you see that? Did that go in the hole? I wasn’t watching. Did the ball go in the---” “Happy Gilmore. Well played.”
- “Someone just tell me she’s gonna be okay.”
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