Recap of Supernatural
Season 10, Episode 9
The Things We Left Behind
Written by Andrew Dabb.
Directed by Guy Norman Bee.
Air Date: December 9, 2014.
Body Count:
For this episode: 6 humans and 1 demon.
For the series so far = At least 1110 angels, 1076 humans (of which 8 were witches), 177 demons, 62 vampires, 49 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 22 gods, 19 zombies, 12 werewolves, 10 hellhounds, 7 shapeshifters, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 5 reapers, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 Thule, 2 vetalas, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, 1 deer, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 Khan worm, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 pishtaco, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes:
- Attempted Rape: The loan shark comes up to Claire's room after Randy essentially sells her to him and quickly tries to initiate sex. She fights him until Castiel interrupts and hauls her out of there.
- Broken Bird: Oh Claire.
- The Bus Came Back: Claire Novak since The Rapture (although
played by a different actress and perhaps a little older than she would really be). - Call-Back: Castiel confirms that Jimmy is dead, since the vessel was destroyed at the atomic level by an archangel. Castiel tries to comfort Claire by telling her Jimmy is in Heaven, but she finds it repugnant that her father is dead while Castiel gets to live on in his restructured body.
- Continuity Nod: Subtle, but the episode reminds us how difficult it is to get Castiel drunk, an ability of his that was highlighted in "Abandon All Hope (S05, E10)" and "99 Problems (S05, E17)". The three order shots of whiskey and Dean sips his, while Castiel downs his entire shot in one go and does not appear affected in the slightest.
- Criminal Found Family: Castiel tracks down Claire, and discovers she's a teen delinquent who has been living with an older man who expects her and other delinquent teens to steal for him. Claire is initially loyal to this man until he sells her to pay off his gambling debts.
- Defiant Captive: Claire does everything she can to escape the pervy loan shark who has her cornered and outweighed at least by half.
- Department of Child Disservices: Claire's been bounced in and out of foster homes since her Parental Abandonment. Subverted however, in that the woman in charge of Claire seems to genuinely care for her, doesn't accept Castiel's flimsy lies and refuses to release Claire to the custody of a man who showed up out of nowhere after five years and doesn't seem to understand parenting at all.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Castiel tries to buy a teen magazine, assuming that Claire would enjoy it. When he gets an odd look from the cashier, he says it's for a teenage girl. She then gives him another odd look, although he likely didn't understand the image he was presenting.
- Disappeared Dad: Castiel says that he never knew his Father, and that He was distant.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Dean wakes up at the beginning of the episode from a nightmare of being surrounded by butchered corpses. The same one's he's killed by the episode's end.
- Friendship Moment: Dean commiserates with Cas about Claire over burgers.
- The Fagin: Randy has been using both his foster kids to pull heists for some time. If that's not bad enough he also proves willing to trade Claire to the rapey loan shark.
- Groin Attack: Claire slams her foot into the crotch of the thug trying to rape her.
- It's Personal: Castiel promised his vessel, Jimmy, that he would watch out for Jimmy's family, but the promise is abandoned in the chaos of preventing the apocalypse and the insanity that followed. When Cas realizes that Jimmy's wife, Amelia, has completely disappeared and his daughter, Claire, has become a troubled delinquent, he uses every resource he can, including the Winchesters, to try to get Claire the help she needs.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: After her would-be rapist is knocked to the ground, Claire continues to kick him violently until Castiel stops her.
- Leaving You to Find Myself: Amelia Novak, Claire's mother, is still alive but she's on some kind of navel-gazing odyssey.
- Meaningful Echo:
- Castiel greets Claire with "I am not your father". This was the first thing he said to her in The Rapture.
- Claire says "I prayed to you, Castiel. Every night!" like Dean did in What's Up, Tiger Mommy?.
- Mundanger: Although demons and a witch appear in the episode, the main antagonists are very human gangsters.
- Neck Lift: Castiel lifts Dustin by the neck and pins him against a brick wall when the teen tries to blow off Cas' and Sam's attempts to get information about Claire's whereabouts.
- Papa Wolf: Castiel is not Claire's father, as she painfully reminds him, but when he and the Winchesters show up to pull her out of trouble, he whips out telekinesis, an ability he's hardly ever used on the show before, smashing doors and blowing a mook across the room to get to her.
- Parental Abandonment:
- Claire mentions that her mother left her at her grandmother "to find herself" and never came back.
- Jimmy's abandonment of Claire has taken its toll on her.
- Rowena left Crowley when he was eight.
- Parental Substitute: Cas mostly fails to be a substitute father to Claire, but he tries.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Mark of Cain returns in full force, and Dean easily and mercilessly kills Randy and the loan sharks.
- Shout-Out: Trish, Rowena's demon cellmate, calls her "Braveheart". Rowena shows that she gets the reference by croaking "Freeeedom!"
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Claire gives Castiel a couple for callously breaking up her family.
- Dean gets this from Sam after his rampage.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Crowley resent his mother for naming him "Fergus" because it sounds like a venereal disease.
