scribblinlenore | Last night's SPN ep

To quote Dean, why did it have to be clowns? *shudders* My father once took me to the circus when I was a kid, just the once, because I shrieked and cried in terror at the clowns. There's a reason why John Wayne Gacy dressed up like one, peoples! *shudders again* So I did find the idea of an evil clown scary, and yet the plot was still full of holes. Why didn't the clown kill the kids, too? That question gets asked, but never answered. Why couldn't adults see the bad guy when he was a clown, but they could when he was the blind knife-thrower? *puzzles*

Oh, well, whatevers. It's not like I watch for the plot anyway. And damn, the brothers just tore my heart out. That scene where they're burning John's body...God. Both boys' faces are all battered, reminding us of everything they've been through, and they both look like they want to cry, but of course, won't. Can't. As an aside, one of the many, many reasons that I'm so glad I'm a woman is that you can cry when you need to. Can you imagine what it would be like to hurt and not be able to get it out? To have to keep all the difficult feelings inside and have them cut you and it all start to fester? Honestly, sometimes I don't know how men manage to live as long as they do.

Okay, aside over, I thought that both Sam and Dean's reactions to John's death were spot on and affecting. Dean would be a stoic simmering pot of rage, and Sam would try to fix what was wrong between them after death when it was all too late. Sam's continuing to ask Dean if he's all right, and the way Dean won't answer, and finally lashes out at Sam, and then looks like hell afterwards encapsulates what's so poignant about these boys, how much they truly care for one another, and yet how difficult it is for that care to translate into any sort of comfort. They're an interesting contradiction in that they're so elementally connected, so fierce in their attachment, and yet in some ways they really don't get one another at all.

Then after that difficult moment, they both try to lighten the mood, teasing each other a little, and we get to see that sometimes they do get it. Awwww, boys!

I liked Ellen and Jo well enough, Ellen better than Jo, but then, women are just more interesting to me in stories than girls. Unless the girl happens to be Buffy or Veronica Mars. Also, that actress used to play a police lieutenant or something like that on some show I watched, and there's a quality about her that I just like. I would find it so much more fascinating if Dean had a thing with her, because he feels pretty sure his father was involved with her, and it's a twisted, tormented way of trying to be close to his dad again, while at the same time there's a spark of anger, as irrational as it is, that there was someone for his father besides his mother, and that anger adds a hot edginess to their relationship, which is part convenience, part comfort, part searching for something neither of them can ever get back.

But, hey, this is the CW, so it's going to be the cute young blonde girl. I really liked that actress when she was on Veronica Mars, liked that she started out being a sweet young thing, and developed edges. I hope as her character develops on Supernatural that we get to see more dimensions to her. At the same time, I think I found her scenes with Dean so uninspiring because Dean really is a man's man (I don't mean that in the gay way!) and he's just uninteresting to me with women. I don't think Dean has any idea how to connect with women. I'm sure he's never had a female friend. He's always playing a role with women, either the smarmy horndog or the hero coming to the rescue. Even with Cassie, I didn't get a sense of Dean being authentic. It's really only with other men, with his father and Sam and Bobby, etc., that he seems in his natural element. It's another way in which he and Sam really are opposites, because Sam seems at his most comfortable with women, seemed to really connect with Jessica and Sarah and even with Meg in that first episode that we saw her, in that conversation they had in the bus station. All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I'll be interested to see what they do with this relationship between Dean and Jo. I think they have some real challenges ahead of them to make it work, simply because of who Dean is.

On a fangirly side note, I would LOVE to see Sam get all jealous and "you can't take my brother away from me" on Jo. Hee.

The final scene between Sam and Dean (and the Impala!) broke my freakin' heart. I've read a few reviews where people think Dean's last look, after Sam has gone, is really angry, like he blames Sam. I thought he looked regretful, because he said what he said in part because it was true, and in part because he's just so damned angry, about everything and at everyone, and Sam's the closet to him, so he took it out on him by saying the one thing he knew would hurt Sam more than anything else. I read his taking the tire iron to the Impala as anger directed at himself, because he's tearing up something that's very important to him, and maybe also a certain anger at their fucked up lifestyle that's led them to this place.

I think Dean's anger that Sam is choosing now to be the good son is layered. Dean loves his dad, so there is anger at Sam for never being able to get along with him. But I also think there's a part of Dean that respects that Sam had to be his own person and doesn't want him to suddenly turn into a yes-man to their father's memory. For me, that ambivalence also comes through in the conversation about whether Sam is going back to school or not. On the one hand, Dean sounded kind of guardedly hopeful. On the other hand, he seemed almost...disappointed. Dean isn't the same gung-ho, let's kill some evil things, pick up the family business guy he was in the first episode. He's seen too much of the toll this life takes, has tasted the futility of going up against this power they really don't know how to fight, and I think there's a protective part of him that would like to send Sam back to Stanford. Even if there's also a part of him that clings to the last family tie he has and wants Sam to stay with him.

Okay, now for speculation about the future. No spoilers here, and please don't comment with any. Thanks!

I may actually die from wanting to know what John whispered to Dean. There are so many possibilities. Of course, the most obvious one is that it's the secret about Sam and the other kids like him. But maybe it has to do with the deal John. Maybe he's going to hell, becoming a demon, and he was warning Dean not to trust him if he ever sees him again. Maybe he wanted Dean to burn his body, so he wouldn't come back as a demon. Maybe it was some kind of insight into how to kill the demon. Maybe it was that they have a sister out there somewhere. Heh.

The one thing I really hope they don't do is make either Sam or Dean not John's son. They did such a great job of constructing this fascinating relationship among the three of them, and to me, making Sam the spawn of some demon, or making John a demon turned good, and Dean the "normal" son of Mary's first husband, or something like that, would be such a cheap mindfuck. I honestly don't think they will do that. They haven't shortchanged the family dynamic before, and I'm going to trust that they won't do it in the future.

The whole thing about the kids like Sam and Max really is a mystery to me. I mean, Sam's powers are pretty feeble at best, and he's so very normal in so many ways. Max, too, confuses me, because while he used his powers for harm, it was all very personal, aimed at people who had hurt him. He didn't seem to have any epic evil ambitions. And why kill their mothers? What does that accomplish? Even if Sam was half demon what would be the point? *doesn't know the answer*

Next week, we get to see Dean go all "let my brother go" when the other hunter pulls a knife on him. Yay! Dean being the protective big brother...that just never gets old for me.

Current Mood: pleased

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

quinnponders.livejournal.com

I thought he looked regretful, because he said what he said in part because it was true, and in part because he's just so damned angry, about everything and at everyone, and Sam's the closet to him, so he took it out on him by saying the one thing he knew would hurt Sam more than anything else.

YES! Thank you. I have seen so many people think the look was one of anger and it has been making me crazy.

From:

Not a homecoming queen

Last night's SPN ep

Navigation

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags