SPN 5x02 Meta: Smile like you mean it...
Sep. 17th, 2009 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
errant_janeSome thoughts on 5x02
Note: Sorry. Was listening to the Killers again. Again? Still...
So, hey! Let's talk Good God, Y'all, shall we?
Bobby:
I like that Bobby is not as stiff-upper-lipped as he was last episode. That the truth of his injury is finally sinking in and it's affecting him. It has not hit Sam and Dean yet and I think the repercussions will be interesting when it does.
Castiel:
I’ll get the shallow out of the way straight off the bat. Let’s take a moment to appreciate how gloriously hot Castiel is stalking down the hospital corridor.
…
Okay, then!
I must say, I am a fan of the new Castiel. CHECK OUT THIS GQMF! HE’S AN ANGEL OF THE MOTHER FUCKIN’ LORD YOU BEST RECOGNIZE!! HE’LL ETCH SHIT INTO YOUR MOTHER FUCKIN’ RIBS TO HIDE YOU FROM ANGELS EVERYWHERE AND THEN TRACK YOU DOWN WITH YOUR GODDAMN CELLPHONE. SO STFU, SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND SHOW SOME GODDAMN RESPECT!!
Dean, it seems, has not noticed this shift. Well, he might have a clue now. I guess I’m fully outing myself as a non-shipper here, because this scene did not scream OTP to me. Castiel stopped just short of telling Dean to DIAF (which, all things considered, would be overly dickish of him).
Castiel did tell Dean he failed.
Own paragraph because it’s that important. Castiel straight-up called Apocalypse!Avoidance Fail. He used the word FAIL, the foundation upon which all of Dean's self-esteem issues are built. And then he says he did it for Dean- That he did it for nothing.
This signifies a shift in that this is not a Castiel who's going to Dr. Phil Dean through his issues. This is a Castiel who gambled and lost and he is not fucking around anymore. He was pissed when he got there and Dean calling bullshit on God was crossing A Line.
And their relationship was never smooth sailing to start with. I love it! I think it's compelling and their chemistry is hot like burning, but, no, I don’t think Castiel is writing "Castiel ♥ Dean" in his sparkly unicorn notebook anymore.
One other thing I've seen mentioned a few times is Castiel's role in getting things started: He let Sam out. But Castiel does not see it in that way. At that time, he was following orders. He broke with Heaven to help Dean. What he did before is not significant. Had it not been him, it would have been someone else. This is not even worth consideration from his perspective.
Side note: The x-ray was awesome, though I admit to being slightly disappointed that Castiel didn't actually write, "Castiel was here LOLZ!" That would have been awesome. Even more awesome? If he'd written it on Dean's tailbone.
Ellen:
I absolutely loved Ellen. So much. Full stop. There was nothing about her that wasn’t 100% fan-fucking-tastic. You only wish you were that BADASS!! (There was not enough Jo, TBQH, or she would get her own section. I hope this is not the last we see of them this season.)
War:
Huh! I love War. Dig the actor, dig the spin. The whole plot line overall was great. Well played, show.
Okay, now that that’s done, let’s talk about Sam and Dean, shall we?
The Sam and Dean Show
Just when I think they've hurt me all they can, they go and dial that bitch up another notch. Instead of the break I sort of expected after Sympathy for the Devil, they started this episode out limping along, desperately trying to make things work without actually trying to resolve anything.
A few things WRT Sam:
I think it's interesting that neither Bobby or Sam caught Castiel's "You both destroyed the world." Though, I wonder if they just chalk that up to Dean being unable to stop Sam and not any sort of larger role.
It also occurred to me that, as far as we've seen, Sam does not know that Dean didn't leave the message he heard in Lucifer Rising, which makes it that much more painful. He wavers between the earnest desire to make amends and the temptation to say "Fuck it!"
So Sam's "I'm leaving" speech was, while honest, a test of sorts. Did Dean really see him as a monster? And the answer he got was "yes". Dean didn’t put up a fight at all and that is unprecedented. From Sam's perspective, he is completely justified in believing that Dean no longer cares. How he reacts to that could be very very bad. Yeah, Bobby said that he wouldn't be kicking Sam to the curb. But Dean has always been the one person who didn't believe Sam was a monster, when even John issued the order that Dean might have to kill him. For Dean to turn aside now, after the voicemail on top of everything else, Sam has nothing to fall back on.
The last time Sam had nothing to fall back on, he hooked up with Ruby.
Which brings us to Dean:
This episode, in a way, was all about Dean going against every instinct he has.
First we have the amulet, which is something so fundamental to who Sam and Dean are to each other, and he had to take it off. Give it to someone else. And he did it with much less of a fight than he might have given at any other time.
Next, when Sam got captured, Dean’s first overwhelming instinct was to GO GET SAM OUT OF THERE. And he visibly stopped himself. Made himself go back and work out another plan.
This is significant because there have been at least a couple instances in the show where Dean has not run off to Sam's rescue because he knew in those cases that Sam could take care of himself. And while he believed that to be the case here as well, that wasn't why he didn’t go.
He didn't go because Dean is trying very hard to not let Sam be his weakness anymore. Because Sam is. He is Dean's big, flashing, neon sign of weakness. He always has been, and there isn't a sentient being in creation that is not fully aware of that. Dean fails at life and Sam is his weakness, ergo, eliminate the weakness.
Several times through the episode we see Dean stop, consider, and go against his "go to Sam" reflex. Most importantly at the end. It takes everything Dean has to let Sam walk away. To let him shoulder the blame and go.
Dean is very busy Not Thinking About It. He tried pretending like everything hadn't irrevocably changed and when that didn't work, he started lashing out, frantically throw up walls. What he is not doing is dealing. Because, as I said last week, dealing with Sam's sins means dealing with his own.
Letting Sam leave is a knee-jerk reaction, like chopping off his arm because he cut his finger. And sure, the cut fucking hurts and the shock of the lost limb seems like a good alternative at first. But really, Dean's just hopping around, spurting blood everywhere and saying, "'Tis merely a scratch! A flesh wound!"
If he doesn't bleed out, the phantom limb pain should start almost immediately.
Did I take that too far?
Right now, Dean's got everything precariously damned up. He's been plugging leaks since he got out of Hell. When reality really starts to sink in and that shit comes crashing down?
That's when the real pain begins.
In conclusion: Damn, Show! Why you gotta make it hurt so good?
Note: Sorry. Was listening to the Killers again. Again? Still...
So, hey! Let's talk Good God, Y'all, shall we?
Bobby:
I like that Bobby is not as stiff-upper-lipped as he was last episode. That the truth of his injury is finally sinking in and it's affecting him. It has not hit Sam and Dean yet and I think the repercussions will be interesting when it does.
Castiel:
I’ll get the shallow out of the way straight off the bat. Let’s take a moment to appreciate how gloriously hot Castiel is stalking down the hospital corridor.
…
Okay, then!
I must say, I am a fan of the new Castiel. CHECK OUT THIS GQMF! HE’S AN ANGEL OF THE MOTHER FUCKIN’ LORD YOU BEST RECOGNIZE!! HE’LL ETCH SHIT INTO YOUR MOTHER FUCKIN’ RIBS TO HIDE YOU FROM ANGELS EVERYWHERE AND THEN TRACK YOU DOWN WITH YOUR GODDAMN CELLPHONE. SO STFU, SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND SHOW SOME GODDAMN RESPECT!!
Dean, it seems, has not noticed this shift. Well, he might have a clue now. I guess I’m fully outing myself as a non-shipper here, because this scene did not scream OTP to me. Castiel stopped just short of telling Dean to DIAF (which, all things considered, would be overly dickish of him).
Castiel did tell Dean he failed.
Own paragraph because it’s that important. Castiel straight-up called Apocalypse!Avoidance Fail. He used the word FAIL, the foundation upon which all of Dean's self-esteem issues are built. And then he says he did it for Dean- That he did it for nothing.
This signifies a shift in that this is not a Castiel who's going to Dr. Phil Dean through his issues. This is a Castiel who gambled and lost and he is not fucking around anymore. He was pissed when he got there and Dean calling bullshit on God was crossing A Line.
And their relationship was never smooth sailing to start with. I love it! I think it's compelling and their chemistry is hot like burning, but, no, I don’t think Castiel is writing "Castiel ♥ Dean" in his sparkly unicorn notebook anymore.
One other thing I've seen mentioned a few times is Castiel's role in getting things started: He let Sam out. But Castiel does not see it in that way. At that time, he was following orders. He broke with Heaven to help Dean. What he did before is not significant. Had it not been him, it would have been someone else. This is not even worth consideration from his perspective.
Side note: The x-ray was awesome, though I admit to being slightly disappointed that Castiel didn't actually write, "Castiel was here LOLZ!" That would have been awesome. Even more awesome? If he'd written it on Dean's tailbone.
Ellen:
I absolutely loved Ellen. So much. Full stop. There was nothing about her that wasn’t 100% fan-fucking-tastic. You only wish you were that BADASS!! (There was not enough Jo, TBQH, or she would get her own section. I hope this is not the last we see of them this season.)
War:
Huh! I love War. Dig the actor, dig the spin. The whole plot line overall was great. Well played, show.
Okay, now that that’s done, let’s talk about Sam and Dean, shall we?
The Sam and Dean Show
Just when I think they've hurt me all they can, they go and dial that bitch up another notch. Instead of the break I sort of expected after Sympathy for the Devil, they started this episode out limping along, desperately trying to make things work without actually trying to resolve anything.
A few things WRT Sam:
I think it's interesting that neither Bobby or Sam caught Castiel's "You both destroyed the world." Though, I wonder if they just chalk that up to Dean being unable to stop Sam and not any sort of larger role.
It also occurred to me that, as far as we've seen, Sam does not know that Dean didn't leave the message he heard in Lucifer Rising, which makes it that much more painful. He wavers between the earnest desire to make amends and the temptation to say "Fuck it!"
So Sam's "I'm leaving" speech was, while honest, a test of sorts. Did Dean really see him as a monster? And the answer he got was "yes". Dean didn’t put up a fight at all and that is unprecedented. From Sam's perspective, he is completely justified in believing that Dean no longer cares. How he reacts to that could be very very bad. Yeah, Bobby said that he wouldn't be kicking Sam to the curb. But Dean has always been the one person who didn't believe Sam was a monster, when even John issued the order that Dean might have to kill him. For Dean to turn aside now, after the voicemail on top of everything else, Sam has nothing to fall back on.
The last time Sam had nothing to fall back on, he hooked up with Ruby.
Which brings us to Dean:
This episode, in a way, was all about Dean going against every instinct he has.
First we have the amulet, which is something so fundamental to who Sam and Dean are to each other, and he had to take it off. Give it to someone else. And he did it with much less of a fight than he might have given at any other time.
Next, when Sam got captured, Dean’s first overwhelming instinct was to GO GET SAM OUT OF THERE. And he visibly stopped himself. Made himself go back and work out another plan.
This is significant because there have been at least a couple instances in the show where Dean has not run off to Sam's rescue because he knew in those cases that Sam could take care of himself. And while he believed that to be the case here as well, that wasn't why he didn’t go.
He didn't go because Dean is trying very hard to not let Sam be his weakness anymore. Because Sam is. He is Dean's big, flashing, neon sign of weakness. He always has been, and there isn't a sentient being in creation that is not fully aware of that. Dean fails at life and Sam is his weakness, ergo, eliminate the weakness.
Several times through the episode we see Dean stop, consider, and go against his "go to Sam" reflex. Most importantly at the end. It takes everything Dean has to let Sam walk away. To let him shoulder the blame and go.
Dean is very busy Not Thinking About It. He tried pretending like everything hadn't irrevocably changed and when that didn't work, he started lashing out, frantically throw up walls. What he is not doing is dealing. Because, as I said last week, dealing with Sam's sins means dealing with his own.
Letting Sam leave is a knee-jerk reaction, like chopping off his arm because he cut his finger. And sure, the cut fucking hurts and the shock of the lost limb seems like a good alternative at first. But really, Dean's just hopping around, spurting blood everywhere and saying, "'Tis merely a scratch! A flesh wound!"
If he doesn't bleed out, the phantom limb pain should start almost immediately.
Did I take that too far?
Right now, Dean's got everything precariously damned up. He's been plugging leaks since he got out of Hell. When reality really starts to sink in and that shit comes crashing down?
That's when the real pain begins.
In conclusion: Damn, Show! Why you gotta make it hurt so good?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-20 11:44 pm (UTC)Me. Next?
So now Dean's kicked him out and another girl he loves is dead, plus she was playing his ass all along and he should have known better...dude's gotta be way fucked up.
Yeah, Sam has a basis for some issues, definitely.
If I was a demon, I think I would use this opportunity wisely, I'm just sayin'.
ITA. Which is why I think that them splitting up was a bad, bad idea and not at all based on logic.
It actually is all the Sam fangirls' nightmare: Dean is actively replacing Sam with Castiel. But it had to happen, so they can stfu.
Well, the thing is, there's a difference between him substituting Castiel for Sam and replacing him. Castiel might factor into Dean's dysfunctional processing for awhile, but he's not ever going to replace Sam. It's a silly thing to be upset over.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-20 11:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-21 12:06 am (UTC)But, really, all things considered, did Sam ever stand a chance against her? She came in at the right times and did all the right things. I honestly think the amount of responsibility he's accepting for everything shows how fucking awesome he is.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-21 12:09 am (UTC)Where I am going with this is Sam post Dean break up moping in a hotel room hating on himself for all his mistakes. It's a happy fic!