I know it was called ‘Paint it Black’, but this episode felt more gray than anything. There were some things I liked very much, and others that left me scratching my head.
I’m always jarred by the episodes that bounce back and forth between story lines, and this one gave me a bit of whiplash. Every time we returned from a commercial I didn’t know if we’d be following Crowley and Rowena or Sam and Dean. I enjoy Crowley and Rowena (and enjoyed her snarky showdown with Teryl Rothery, especially the creative hamster ending). I liked realizing that Olivette was talking about the Men of Letters before the reveal, and I liked that it ties the Crowley and Rowena storyline back into the Winchesters’ directly. (And oh how I loved Rowena’s exasperated “Perpetually the Winchesters.”) Story of my life, Ruth Connell!
I’m still fascinated by the complicated relationship between Crowley and Rowena, and Mark Sheppard and Ruth Connell continue to knock it out of the park whenever they’re onscreen together. Watching two essentially evil manipulative characters interact and trying to figure out if they give a damn about each other or are just experiencing a twisted pride at each other’s feats of badness is intriguing. We got a few more tidbits of information here – Interesting that the grand coven held it against Rowena that she had Crowley. Is that why she resented him so much? Or why she abandoned him?
