The Converging: Mark of the Demon

She could have her own spin-off even. My one tiff with the episode is how Castiel felt Dean was overreacting. I felt that was just thrown in to keep the brothers separate and as a plot device to remind us that the mark is ever still the cause of woe in this season. They could have done a little better with this or actually had Dean go maniacal on the guy with a beatdown that Castiel would have stared wide-eyed at. What really did stand out the most though was how Sam and Dean interpreted growing up alone. On one hand, Dean believes growing up alone makes you stronger, while Sam believes going it alone is no way to live and having support whether they want it or not is good for everyone.

So, basically Sam is right in the long run.

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It was an uplifting moment and a promise of good directions for Claire, even though she now owns a stuffed grumpy cat, but hey, angel sword. Claire gets the award tonight. She showed courage, strife, and most of all growth in her personality which had been a long time coming. Her banter with Dean rivals that of most minor characters that get to banter with the man and together they have great chemistry.

It is very much all down here from here. This was the last episode that gave us warm fuzzy feelings and now from here on out, downhill, very fast. Blood-soaked mayhem, mark of the butcher-everything-Cain is on. I wonder if the show is preparing us for something very strange in our future regarding this. It seems it was more a status symbol than anything and angels rocking swords since the beginning would have had a cooler look, my opinion anyway. It would also have been interesting if Jimmy and Castiel had one more scene together, more of reflection on Claire and what taking care of her or looking after her would mean.

Taking two equally funny golf movies The only ones I might add and showing how Dean and Claire make fun of each other. Claire got the send off she needed even though the cost was a bit high with losing her mother. When character A requires item B to accomplish task C, item B tends to be one or more of a few things; well guarded, well hidden, and contained by some elaborate trap.

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She needs specific codecs that will help decrypt the book of the damned and Sam learns that Magnus had created a device to protect it, but it took the lives of two men of letters which led to his banishment. Sam finds the house keeping the device and Dean follows him. They infiltrate the house and the girl living in it, who is now decades older and still suffering from watching her family take their lives due to the device.

Suzie falls victim to the ghosts of her family and Dean finds himself back in Purgatory with Benny, his subconscious ally. Rowena appears to help fend off the trap while Sam uncovers the means to deactivate the device and open it. It requires men of letters blood which he sheds freely. After the codecs are recovered, Sam chains Rowena in an abandoned location with incentive to translate the spell needed in exchange for killing Crowley. Rowena is distraught by her capture but Sam is resolute. The men of letters may not be the most inventive and entertaining plot device, but the details of certain elements of their past has proven to put Sam and Dean through creative instances that so far have been rewarding.

Will it take a lot to convince Dean to kill Crowley, or will Sam even follow through with it, knowing Rowena is the greater of two evils? Will he pay it, and almost as importantly, will Dean fight against it because the mark will make him? Even with all these unknowns, Sam and Dean handled a self-contained artifact for tonight that played as well as any old school episode from years past. There were mysterious elements that came and went, but the crux of the Werther project was how it almost fooled Sam into killing himself.

Benny made a heck of an argument for him. Dean and Benny get a co-award this time. I can easily see this as a Dean and Crowley versus Sam and Rowena finale. How does Sam plan on killing the king of hell?

Will he go about it alone or will he in fact convince Dean to help him. Or, is Sam just bluffing? Only a few more episodes left. Good track record toward the end. The meat of the plot deals mainly with Charlie escaping a man and his henchmen who represent the Stein family, an old bloodline who are looking to reclaim an old book bound in flesh and written in blood that contains the oldest spells and how to undo them, including the mark of Cain. She meets with the brothers as they try to decrypt its contents. Meanwhile, Metatron lures Castiel to a library where he uses his blood to subdue him long enough to uncover a demon tablet and escape, but not before Castiel finds his grace and becomes a full angel once more.

Jacob, the villain of this episode tracks Charlie and Dean to the cabin where a battle of bullets and knives ensue. First and foremost, props for continuing Charlie on this much more gritty and serious path. Giving her a small sword probably works better than a gun and she seems to be able to take care of herself better than the demure, hacker-type of previous seasons. Maybe I watched too much Breaking Bad. For Sam, this was the start of a natural catharsis he really needs. Even though it elevates the stature of witches, spells, and the use of that kind of power, I think attributing the mark as a curse deflates the mystique a bit.

Witches are not directly associated with the demon and angel war and yet, somehow the near root of spells is now trumping the aspect of the demon as a whole. This ties into Rowena who is prepared to assist Sam for a price. We all know this is going to do some serious biting in the keester for him and her for certain. I disagree with this direction. The last two scenes.

Most times its Sam and Dean in the car lamenting the foreboding and the storms to come while either conversing or not conversing about their current aches and worries. Tonight it was different and vastly inviting. Tonight, Sam takes the reigns. He needed that scene with Charlie more Dean needed his moment to digest his situation. He needs to open more and not rely on creased eyebrows and head tilts when something bothers him. Not to mention, how did he get a hold of her at all? Maybe Castiel helped, doubt it though. How will this intact demon tablet play a part in the final arc of the season?

Metatron has an ace up his sleeve, but what it he going to do with it?

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• Smashwords – The Converging: Mark of the Demon – a book by George Straatman.
• Requisition For: A Thief ~ Book 1 ~: A Diamond for the Taking.
• THE RED MOTHER: Fantastic Erotica;
• Los embajadores (Spanish Edition)!
• Sadie Adams Angel.

Does it include the way to close hell for good? Or will he use it to ruin or usurp heaven once again? I hope not the latter. Is Castiel fully healed at this point. Almost a 9 but Metatron was really bad this time around. Good tunes, and great dialogue were had while interjecting another piece of history into the mix. Keep up the good work, fellas. To create a grand presentation, one needs a foreboding musical theme that increases its ominous style, a few glorious camera power shots, and a few dedicated characters representing their polar opposites or their mirror-like qualities.

Cain is finally returning to old roots but tries to justify his need to kill by eliminating those of his bloodline, whether guilty of innocent of murder. The brothers track him down and with the help of Cass and Crowley, Dean fights the oldest demon and is forced to kill him, but not before being told that eventually Dean will kill everyone closest to him ending with Sam. Finally the heart of the matter is recognized and pushed to the surface.

Dean holds his own but Sam suspects that Dean is suffering now more than ever. From the start of the opening, everything worked. It was a little different than the typical murder of an unknown element in the middle of a low-populated town. Cain returns and satisfies his need by killing a deathrow inmate. I mention the music being important earlier and you can tell that something prominent is brewing even as the scene takes place.

The music played a large role in the formation of this episode and I appreciate the effort the composer took to make this plot feel enhanced and relevant. As the two finally drop the curtain on their acts, he agrees to help his mother dispatch the leader of the grand coven.

And I agreed with everything she said at the end. The crux of the episode is the fight between Dean and Cain. It was very well handled and not overtly brutish. There was a lot to juggle in a short amount of time, enough that Cain and his aikido had to continually subdue Dean and explain what the mark will eventually do to him.

He says Dean will kill in the order of Crowley, Castiel, then Sam and explores how each death will affect Dean almost in a precognative state. This show is nothing if not critical with who remains as a supporting character and Crowley has become a mainstay and a temporary ally at best. I however hope that Crowley thinks on a much bigger scale and tries to restart some new apocalypse.

Then we can handle Castiel and Sam later. The big fight was definitely the highlight. While there were plenty of well shot scenes, such as Castiel finding Cain at the burial site, and the intro to the episode, I liked how Dean and Cain handled their final confrontation. It was a fine cap to the scene and I enjoyed it a lot. He motivated every character to do what they had to do and had a presence about him that was far improved since his appearance last season.

In any case, Cain proved to be a valiant villain and went down swinging, much as Dean would have done. Will Rowena try to eliminate the grand coven leader herself, or will Crowley do it for her? Will this even involve Sam and Dean? Either way, the brothers need to share a little main character spots. Huge 8 out of I expect Metatron to be tasked once more with revealing that cure and perhaps one of our main four will be permanently put to rest. Not counting on it, but you never know. Here we can lol our way through a show attempting to capitalize on ten year old wifi themes mixed with a plethora of online communication profiles, all complete with the tablet to boot.

These are the ghost stories that live on as they get weaved into each season between the good filler episodes and the truly bad ones. Was this one bad? After Dean pushes another case onto Sam to avoid dealing with the mark, they find themselves on the trail of a vengeful spirit after four college students whose careless driving antics while devouring their phone tech caused the death of an innocent man. His wife more or less represents his anchor and he communicates with her until his need for revenge takes him away as he murdered three of the four students by way of wifi-using objects. The ghost plot in itself was very run of the mill.

There was salt and iron throwbacks along with burning objects and of course the ghost-meter-thingy. All in all it fulfilled the purposes of what a ghost plot should be and tried to throw in various bits of technology once more putting Dean in the hall of shame.

The Converging: Mark of the Demon

From beginning to end it maintained the production quality and for the most part the guest stars acted well enough. It felt like it was part PSA and part pop-culture required. I forgot to include any stars in my previous review! I hope this doesn't hurt the overall stars of the book! With this book Mr.

Mark of the Demon

Straatman firmly establishes one of the protagonists as an antagonist as well and does so brilliantly. All his characters are deep and rich, well thought out and he brings them all to life wonderfully. Franz McLaren on April 10, Few authors can equal their first success with a great sequel. Mark of the Demon", George Straatman has exceeded his first effort. In addition to an enviable mastery of story, plot, characterization, and description, he has added the skill of making even the landscape seem ominous. He deftly weaves subplots, horrors that the viewer sees and the protagonists do not suspect, into a chilling series of nightmares.

Noose after noose tightens as the ultimate evil spins an inescapable web of terror. Straatman has demonstrated that he deserves a place amongst the masters of horror. This novel too, is a must read for all dark horror fans. Brian DeGrechie on Dec. As soon as I purchased the novel I eagerly started to read it with much anticipation.

All novels should be progressively better when published as a series. Unfotunately, that is not the case most of the time. The plot is fantastic, it is like a roller coaster ride and my ideas who would survive the epic battle concluded much differently than I thought! There are two events in the novel that I have never read anything like it. For instance, when Contayza attacked the Night Queen's evil mind through Nathaniel.

In my opinion the era of great horror writing is on the decline especially since immortal characters follow the same "rules", ie, silver bullets will kill them. That particular plot is a culture unto it's self. This novel is so refreshing in that regards. The only other boook I have ever read that did not follow tradition roles for immortal entities is "The Keep" by F.

You will be pleasantly surprised!