Just dropping the stuff I actually *liked* in this comment, since the negatives have been more accurately conveyed by everyone else.

I liked how calm the episode was, spn is a show that frequently rushes to action to try and make things interesting, but here it actually lets things develop, so that was a nice change. I liked the writing of soulless Jenna, kind of a minor thing, but it wasn't like it made her evil, just that she stopped caring. The idle thought about killing someone or dislike of small statuettes are entirely normal, it's just she no longer has any reason not to act on those thoughts. Dean was rather stupid for trying to talk her down, I mean, he hung out with Souless!Sam for a few months he should know how entirely pointless that is. I liked Sam actually finding a cure for the stuff, made a nice change from normal spn operation. I liked how Sam didn't react with anger to Billie, just a fairly calm conversation, also nice.

Still don't like the darkness having a body. Kind of nonsensical, the darkness predates humanity so the idea that it has to wear flesh, or that the death of Amara might kill the Darkness is pretty nonsensical. By rights literally nothing should work on the darkness, but it's not like it should be evil anyway. The idea of applying moral standards to the primordial abyss is also pretty silly.

I kind of hope the random rage virus thing we saw *doesn't* come back. I like the idea that there's no real concerted plan to the Darkness, that it can't be easily quantified, that stuff will just happen and they won't understand it. Don't actually expect the writers to pull that off, but I hope anyway.

Lrnu guvax ur zvtug trg gur jebat vavgvny vzcerffvba nf jryy, juvpu vfa'g gung fhecevfvat V thrff? Ubj bsgra ner gur snve sbyx *rire* qrcvpgrq guvf jnl? V qb nccerpvngr n irefvba jvgu pynffvpny ybeqf naq ynqvrf, nxn, gbgnyyl haercragnag zbafgref jvgu abg gur fyvtugrfg fuerq bs pner sbe nalguvat orarngu gurz. Gurl'er ernyyl perrcl naq V ybir vg, naq V guvax Znex'yy unir sha jvgu vg.

He's the showrunner, he has control over the content. You'll note that episodes written by Moffat during the RTD era don't have a tenth of the sexism they have when he gained creative control.

I think it's because so much of this episode *isn't* scifi. If in scifi they introduce some fictitious force made up on the spot, or some undiscovered exploitable part of science then you can go along with it.

But this episode works mainly on mundane science, rocketry, mass, gravity, tidal effects. And the thing is we *know* how those things work. We've known how they've worked for quite some time, so it's harder to let the egregious errors go. (Example. The mass that they mentioned the moon has gained is about a fiftieth of the moons' mass total. The effect on the tides would be so small as to be unnoticeable without instrumentation, not the world-ending catastrophe they describe it as.)

If a show introduces an Distortion Drive that uses Flux Instability to generate thrust, you can just nod along with it. If a show suggests you could propel a planet by everyone on a planet jumping at the same time you're going to be irritated.

This episode made me utterly livid. Completely totally livid.

It isn't the utterly absymal science, or the way it doesn't answer any questions or make the slightest lick of sense, for example, saying the moon is alive doesn't actually explain where the extra mass came from. It doesn't just appear from nowhere.

It isn't the extreme pro-life/anti-choice slant that can be read into the story. Well, okay, it is that, that set my blood boiling. It's not something you could potentially argue to be there if you squint a bit, it's utterly blatant.

It's Moffat's continued cowardice (and horrendous sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, etc.)

Why exactly, is Moffat so afraid of having there ever, ever be consequences for things? It's damned perpetual. The consequence of choosing not to use the nukes here, based on every indicator in the episode, and every single rational metric is the extinction of the human species. But it all just gets handwaved away. Turns out there is never any reason ever for aborting a baby making that choice. Humanity decides to let the creature live and goes out into space, Except humanity didn't decide that. Humanity decided not to die horrifically when rubble would have eradicated life on the planet, and Clara decided to ignore them. Sorry, no. She was written to do that.

Then we have the Doctor. Do you remember back in the RTD era when he took the time to tell ordinary people that they were special? That they mattered, no matter what they did in their life? Then we have this.

Imma be honest, I really didn't care for this episode. It felt absurdly contrived and relied on not a single person doing a single thing that any person ever would do. Dealing with childhood fears? Neat! Interesting concept!

No character taking the requisite tenth of a second to just go, is there a monster? No. Problem solved, move onto the next adventure. Like, I genuinely don't mind the root concept, but the Doctor deciding to investigate something, but then refusing to take a single action which would actually answer his questions annoyed me beyond words.

It's like someone spontaneously deciding for no reason their closet must lead to Narnia, then oohing and aahing in front of the door but bafflingly never opening it to check.

I'm recommending Death Parade, an anime which...okay I don't think I really want to even give the premise? Think I'll just let any succeeding comments and support speak for whether or not it's a good suggestion.

Ya, absolutely recommend PoI, the creators put a lot of research and thought into the show, and it well, shows.
And holy frick the characters.

I think the thing with Death wanting Sam dead was meant to be simply that Death knew if Sam wasn't dead he'd continue doing stupid shit to save Dean, like he'd try and summon Dean back from space somehow.
It really wasn't conveyed well, but I think that was the point. Kind of rendered moot when Dean kills Death for literally no reason. Seriously, why? Why any of this? It's incredibly clear that dumping Dean in space is the moral option and the writers just won't let any of this stop.

a/w agreed on the Darkness. It should be a cloying abstract horror, not generic black smoke apparently coincidentally adjacent to Dean in a very small patch of the ground.

Also, I have to ask, what fanfic?

Mythology Talk!

So. The Darkness. Not quite as far out of left field as you might think, though calling it just 'The Darkness' is a bit weird and just makes me think of the band. w/e to that I guess.

What the Darkness refers to is more commonly known as Chaos, or the Primordial Darkness. From a religious/mythological perspective it refers to the state of being of Creation *before* Creation. It is described as endless roiling darkness, substance without form of any kind. There's kind of an interesting word derivation from it, in fact. Chaos comes from Chasm, meaning in this context a yawning expanse, the origin term in hebrew is Tehom, meaning 'a surging water-deep'

The idea of a primordial state existing prior to existence is one of the oldest pieces of mythology in existence, granted most notably in Greek mythology, the ancient Near East, and old Abrahamic mythology.
The Christian idea of Creation Ex Nihlio that Death refers to, aka from nothing, is actually the more modern form, the older texts refer to Creation having being formed out of Chaos. So the Church has rather changed their position there over time.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The waters here are the chaos before creation. Similar and relating terms are emptiness, vast void, chasm, and abyss.

So this is what Supernatural is bringing up here. It's a pretty huge idea, but realistically speaking we all know they won't do anything interesting with it, more's the pity.