(no subject)

[switchbladesis]

Supernatural!

Oh show! You know what I like and you decide to give it to me all at once. 'What do I like?', you might ask?

WELL LET ME TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT.

CROWLEY! TWO CROWLEYS! Mark Sheppard is even more awesome when there's two of him. I don't actually beieve he's dead-things are *never* that easy with him, and how many times did he fake out the brothers just this episode? But nice callback to earlier this season with the bones.

MEG! My favorite fictional molester, creeping on everyone, puppies and rainbows for all! She's fun evil, and so long as she stays evil (and fun!) I'll still like her. The strategically-placesd straps were a bit . . much and gave be Ruby flashbacks, but it didn't seem to last as long. Smart and awesome!

CAS! Oh god, this episode was all Cas fanservice, all the time. And I am not complaining. Going toe to toe with Sam! (which okay, was kind of hilarious because of the height difference. . . Misha was really craning his neck there, but the delivery was shivery and amazing). Having soulful conversations with Dean! Watching porn! (I'm not supposed to talk about it, hee). Being a BAMF-can you get us what we need? No? Goodbye then. If Cas were a super villain, he wouldn't bother giving a monologue, he has not patience for them. Using his new porn knowledge for BAMF-ness! Which leads us to. . .

CAS/MEG: Okay, that was hot. And the perfect reaction-not getting Meg the satisfaction of riling him up or disgusting him, but not caring either. And still kind of not getting it.

DEAN! You're making sense this episode! Especially with the having a point about the stupid sacrificing family trait. So far, we have:

Mary sacrificed herself for John
John sacrificed himself for Dean
Dean sacrificed himself for Sam
Sam tried to sacrifice himself for Dean but that didn't quite work out.
The other Samuel sacrificing himself for Mary . . .

And that's all we know about I'm sure Deanna sold her soul to protect her second cousin somewhere along the line. Makes me wonder if demons specifically go after angel vessels to specifically corrupt them. Or maybe it's just a hunter thing.

Also! Thanking Cas for his hard work and offering to help! Not giving up on his brother! Being Dean!

SAM: One of the reasons why I like Robo!Sam it's sort of like Darryl in the Walking Dead-half of the conflict of the episode is wondering if he's just going to end the plot early because he just doesn't care about anyone else's feelings, and it opens up a full range of badass reactions to him. But. . . okay, the devil's trap scene. How the hell did he manage to get that on the ceiling without being woozy? And wasn't he saying about five minutes before that there was a lot of shit (or blood, or other offal) on the floor? Why didn't he just use that? It'd have been easier. But still, Robo!Sam, you are growing on me more and more every episode.

ROLLERDERBY REFERENCE: uh, yes. I'm just that easy.

Comments

[twirlycurls.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons why I like Robo!Sam it's sort of like Darryl in the Walking Dead-half of the conflict of the episode is wondering if he's just going to end the plot early because he just doesn't care about anyone else's feelings

Hmmm, that's not how I see Daryl at all -- I see him more like early-seasons Dean, someone who cares a lot about other people but due to his upbringing feels compelled to put on a big act. Daryl is very practical and clearly sees what needs to be done in order to survive and doesn't have a lot of patience for sentiment, but look how quickly he backed down when he saw how distressed Glenn was in the last ep.

But anyhow, I guess you were talking about SPN here... and have nothing to say about Not!Sam except that I want real!Sam back pronto.

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

Oh don’t worry, I can talk about the Walking Dead here, too! : D

Yeah, I didn’t see him backing off of Glenn as any sort of move of sympathy-he wouldn’t have been bitching about it later if it was. He didn’t seem to understand or be all that sympathetic to any of the other emotional people in the group-he was weirded out by Carol (hee) and certainly didn’t have any patience for Andrea. I got the idea that the only reason why he didn’t take action was that he realized that he wouldn’t survive long if he realized that he crossed Glenn or the group.

Even early in Season One, they put Dean into situations that made sure he was softened up-maybe not with Dean, but the first conversation with a kid about his mom was pretty early on. And I really can't see Darryl being quite as self-sacrificing as Dean was, even early on.

Part of what really made last week’s episode so tense for me was that I expected Darryl to just up and shoot the infected at some point, damn the consequences. Sometimes shows will sort of hint that it’s a possibility, but I actually expected him to just take the shot at 30 feet. Just like I was waiting for Robo!Sam to start siding with Samuel/Crowley or pull out of this soul business completely. So far, Sam has been doing things just because he knows that they’re the right thing to do-he knows he’s broken, he knows how to get fixed, and he knows that the logical action to take is fix the broken thing. He’s with Dean because he knows he’s supposed to want to be with Dean. But he could easily decide to go the other way at any point.

It reminds me of a scene in the pilot of Firefly, when the alliance guy is holding Simon hostage and Mal walks in. The action is supposed to stop there, we’re supposed to stand and talk and try to work things out. That’s how TV Drama works. But instead, Mal just keeps on walking and shoots the alliance guy without even breaking his stride. Because at that point (this is still the pilot, after all), he doesn’t really care about Simon too much, and he was reasonably sure he could hit his target. And if he missed, or misjudged the speed the alliance guy could pull his trigger, then, oh well. Mal’s less of a hardass than Darryl or Robo!Sam (Jayne’s more in their territory), but it’s the same sort of feeling.

[twirlycurls.livejournal.com]

Part of what really made last week’s episode so tense for me was that I expected Darryl to just up and shoot the infected at some point, damn the consequences. Sometimes shows will sort of hint that it’s a possibility, but I actually expected him to just take the shot at 30 feet.

You know, I was expecting that too and was really nervous for Andrea -- I figured that if Amy didn't eat her face, Daryl was going to miss with his crossbow and wind up taking her out. I'm still holding out hope that he cares more than it seems but you may be right.

So far, Sam has been doing things just because he knows that they’re the right thing to do-he knows he’s broken, he knows how to get fixed, and he knows that the logical action to take is fix the broken thing. He’s with Dean because he knows he’s supposed to want to be with Dean.

Is that what's going on with him? I honestly have no freaking idea and I'm not even being snarky. His characterization has been wildly all over the place this season, seemingly changing to fit each week's plot. But -- if he doesn't have any feelings, why would he identify himself as being "broken" or want to be fixed? Why would he care about doing the right thing, either? We've seen plenty of evidence that he's quite willing to do the wrong thing when it suits his... well, not "mood", because you need a soul to have moods, so whatever unexplained thing is providing his day-to-day, moment-by-moment motivation.

But instead, Mal just keeps on walking and shoots the alliance guy without even breaking his stride.

Oh man, I LOVED that scene. Such a perfect way to SHOW us everything that we needed to know about Mal in one quick moment. Not a single long, boring speech required. I miss Firefly and its genius writing so very much.

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

Is that what's going on with him? I honestly have no freaking idea and I'm not even being snarky. His characterization has been wildly all over the place this season, seemingly changing to fit each week's plot. But -- if he doesn't have any feelings, why would he identify himself as being "broken" or want to be fixed? Why would he care about doing the right thing, either? We've seen plenty of evidence that he's quite willing to do the wrong thing when it suits his... well, not "mood", because you need a soul to have moods, so whatever unexplained thing is providing his day-to-day, moment-by-moment motivation.

Yeah, part of this is just fanwanking to make sense of his characterization: I don't think they've done a good job of explaining what it means to have no soul on the show.

As to why he would identify as being broken: well, he KNOWS he came different-he knows he's not sleeping, and that he's not feeling much of anything (not sure why he's feeling anything at all-vestigial soul?). And one doesn't usually think about stints in Hell as making people better, the logical thing to assume is that he's wrong. Plus, everyone is constantly telling him he's broken.

What's really interesting is, viewed from a different perspective, Sam's decision that he doesn't need his soul back could be a message of empowerment-he doesn't need to be souled like everyone else.

[twirlycurls.livejournal.com]

What's really interesting is, viewed from a different perspective, Sam's decision that he doesn't need his soul back could be a message of empowerment-he doesn't need to be souled like everyone else.

Hmmm. That IS an interesting perspective, but it me it sounds more like arrogance: "I don't need a soul like all of you lesser beings." Which is nicely consistent with real!Sam's core personality fault and what I want to see -- indications that this current character played by JP is, on some level, really Sam.

I hope not!Sam sticks to his decision because it's the first logical thing I've seen him do. Of COURSE he shouldn't want his soul back; being re-souled will end that body's current occupant.

The writers really should have given this whole plotline more thought and further pondered the difficulties of creating a character without feelings. I've seen it attempted a lot of times and never once convincingly.

[wandersfound.livejournal.com]

Oh god, this episode was all Cas fanservice, all the time
YESSSSSS YES IT WAS. :DDDDD

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD FEEL DIFFERENTLY ABOUT BEING PANDERED TO, BUT THEY DO IT SO WELL.

[weirdwednesday.livejournal.com]

MEG! My favorite fictional molester, creeping on everyone, puppies and rainbows for all! She's fun evil,

Yes! Meg is the perfect demon.

Dean admitting the sacrificing thing is a real problem was such a good moment. It was probably coming, seeing as he didn't try to resurrect Sam either, but it was good to hear him actually say that. Though he said this while working for a demon to save his brother and somehow, now that Sam's physically around, I doubt Dean'll be able to hold on to this no-sacrificing rule.

I like Robo!Sam because he makes sense. Why would he want a soul back after all the bad things that he's expecting to happen when he does? Also, it doesn't really look like he has lost all emotions. Sometimes he cares too much for it to be him just pretending.

Oh god, this episode was all Cas fanservice, all the time. And I am not complaining.

I'm not complaining either. He had the whole death-threats/I-need-your-help scene with Sam, several special moments with Dean, made out with Meg and saved the day. CAAAAASSSSSS!

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

Meg gets all of the best lines, I'm so jealous of her.

Yeah, Dean's figured out that it's a problem, but I don't think he's figured out not to do it himself yet-it's just part of who he is.

I was kind of surprised that Robo!Sam didn't call the thing off earlier than he did-and am wondering about the emotions he does have.

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I loved this episode of SPN so much! Two Crowleys - be still my heart!!!

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

One can never have too much Mark Sheppard :D

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

There's no such thing as too much Mark Sheppard! :D