Hee. I kind of loved 6.1 - I thought it had a whole lot of layers and back references and was deeply infused with meaningful coloration - for instance, the house that Dean and Lisa first occupied was a dead ringer for the color of the Djinn's eyes in WIAWSNB. I don't think that was incidental to the dream reality quality of the episode, but pointed to it.
As for Sam, I'm not sure what's wrong with him exactly - but I think we have two clues. 1) Crowley may have had something to do with his exiting from hell. There was that odd bit last episode where Dean wanted to off Crowley once he had reached the gravesite in Scotland, and Sam stopped him, coming to Crowley's aid, by saying, "Dean, a deal is a deal." And then Crowley insulted Sam again - but that may have just been cover because Sam was acting atypically by stopping Dean. Crowley may have Sam's soul or may know what happened to it at least. And what happened to Sam. But he's not going to give that up for free.
And 2) at the end of the Third Man, we had the visual of the Wendigo's mask in the top part of the otherwise empty trunk, by the side of which Sam laid his paltry worldly goods, which Sam commented on as realistic. Last time we saw masks after a tour through hell they had a meaning. Here, Wendigos are cannibals - so it's a hint that something may have eaten Sam in hell - and not his body, but perhaps his soul.
And I'm wondering whether 3) has Sam eaten or drunk anything this year to our knowledge? Have we seen him consuming anything? He was holding a beer bottle this episode, but not drinking it and not paying any attention to it. I have to check the earlier episodes to discover this.
Sorry about the late reply. My yesterday was entirely devoted to kids birthday/Halloween party, heh. Too bad there wasn't a mysterious "best week of my life" Dean Winchester came crashing the party.
Anyway, getting back to what we were discussing: I really liked 6.01 as well. But then, I'm a Dean!girl. And I thought everything pertaining to Dean was excellent here. I also have no problem with the plot twist of Sam came back being less/more/different. It's just I found the way he was portrayed somewhat lacking. As character goes, I thought Sam was 2 dimensional in 6.01. It wouldn't bothered me so much if Jared didn't put out brilliant performances before. As it was, I felt Sam's flatness jarring.
Whooo, I really like you pointing out the coloration of 6.01. You are quite right in saying that wasn't a coincidence. That's a neat connection you noticed between the color of the little house and Djinn's eyes. Now I feel like rematch the episode again!
Huh, your theory on Sam is intriguing. I would love for more Crowley story lines. The idea that he's deeply in the midst of what's going on excites me. On the other hand, I don't like the idea that Crowley, a mere demon, is able to bust souls/beings from the same prison Lucifer is incarcerated. With that being said, I can totally see Crowley is somehow in on the secret and gaining fringe benefit from the knowledge/event.
I almost forgot about the masks we saw in S4. OMG! You are right. That Wendigo mask can't be a simple throw away here, can it? *ponders*
Hmmm, now that you mentioned, I can't remember if they showed Sam actually ingest food/drink. But if he never ate/drink, and Dean is traveling the road with him again, I'm sure Dean would've picked up on the oddity by now.
oo bad there wasn't a mysterious "best week of my life" Dean Winchester came crashing the party.
LOL xwacky. Too bad that doesn't happen at all my parties! But hope yours was fun in any case.
Hmmm, now that you mentioned, I can't remember if they showed Sam actually ingest food/drink. But if he never ate/drink, and Dean is traveling the road with him again, I'm sure Dean would've picked up on the oddity by now.
Yeah - that was just a throwaway theory - Pandora below has already pointed out that he was eating in 6.2. LOL, so much for that one. Starting from scratch!
About Jared's performance of Sam - I didn't feel that it was 2 dimensional, but for sure you weren't the only one who felt it was off. In one of the con reports, or an interview, the boys mentioned that they found the beginning of season 6 harder to act than before - so maybe you are picking up on that in Jared's performance.
Damn! I did not remember Sam eating a sandwich in 6.02. Now I feel like I need to rewatch that one too. =p
Yeah, I felt Jared was a bit off in 6.01, but then again I suspect the post production editing exacerbated the problem - Jared might have acted using body language while his facial expression was bland. However there was a lot of zoomed in camera shots we ended up getting when the episode aired, and we didn't get to see his body movement - in particular, I'm referring to the scene where the boys hugged. Judging by the gif fans made from promo vid, I'm fairly certain what they shown in the episode was slightly different in terms of camera angles.
Also I want to clarify that I thought Jared was fantastic from 6.02 and onward.
Speaking of interviews, it just occurred to me that some of them are rather misleading. For example, I recall I read (from Sera Gamble's interview?) that Sam in S6 is like Dean in early season (S1?). That is so not true as far as I'm concerned. *pouts*
in particular, I'm referring to the scene where the boys hugged.
My impression was that was supposed to seem wrong. Sam was supposed to be flat there and not emoting in a way that was recognizable to the audience from prior hugging scenes. Our first indication, maybe, that something is wrong with Sam.
I recall I read (from Sera Gamble's interview?) that Sam in S6 is like Dean in early season (S1?). That is so not true as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe she didn't mean it in a straight up kind of way.
It strikes me that Dean, now, is POV character, the character that resonates with the audience because he is the normal one, the one who is doing familiar things, the way that Sam was our initial POV character in Season 1 - the one we could relate to because he went to college, was ambitious for grad school, did well on SATS and LSATS, wanted to be a lawyer, seemed normative in every way. Initially.
And Dean was the character who would break into Sam's house in the middle of the night to grab a beer, and who was the conduit leading Sam back into the esoteric world of hunting and credit card scamming and hustling pool, all things Sam did not entirely approve of, cutting off all his ties with normal type school friends. And etc.
And Sam is now doing that to Dean, he's the conduit back into the world of hunting with the Campbells and creating conflict for Dean with his normal ties with Lisa and Ben. So there definitely is role reversal going on.
So maybe she didn't mean it precisely the way fans took it - especially fans who wanted Season 6 to be a return to Season 1 - and there are seemingly a lot of them. Instead, we are having these role reversals, this time at a more mature point in the boys' lives.
Or, not - heh, and this theory will be disproved next week. [g] We'll see.
As for Sam, I'm not sure what's wrong with him exactly - but I think we have two clues. 1) Crowley may have had something to do with his exiting from hell. There was that odd bit last episode where Dean wanted to off Crowley once he had reached the gravesite in Scotland, and Sam stopped him, coming to Crowley's aid, by saying, "Dean, a deal is a deal." And then Crowley insulted Sam again - but that may have just been cover because Sam was acting atypically by stopping Dean. Crowley may have Sam's soul or may know what happened to it at least. And what happened to Sam. But he's not going to give that up for free.
And 2) at the end of the Third Man, we had the visual of the Wendigo's mask in the top part of the otherwise empty trunk, by the side of which Sam laid his paltry worldly goods, which Sam commented on as realistic. Last time we saw masks after a tour through hell they had a meaning. Here, Wendigos are cannibals - so it's a hint that something may have eaten Sam in hell - and not his body, but perhaps his soul.
And I'm wondering whether 3) has Sam eaten or drunk anything this year to our knowledge? Have we seen him consuming anything? He was holding a beer bottle this episode, but not drinking it and not paying any attention to it. I have to check the earlier episodes to discover this.
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pandora
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Good to see you here, making contact!
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Anyway, getting back to what we were discussing: I really liked 6.01 as well. But then, I'm a Dean!girl. And I thought everything pertaining to Dean was excellent here. I also have no problem with the plot twist of Sam came back being less/more/different. It's just I found the way he was portrayed somewhat lacking. As character goes, I thought Sam was 2 dimensional in 6.01. It wouldn't bothered me so much if Jared didn't put out brilliant performances before. As it was, I felt Sam's flatness jarring.
Whooo, I really like you pointing out the coloration of 6.01. You are quite right in saying that wasn't a coincidence. That's a neat connection you noticed between the color of the little house and Djinn's eyes. Now I feel like rematch the episode again!
Huh, your theory on Sam is intriguing. I would love for more Crowley story lines. The idea that he's deeply in the midst of what's going on excites me. On the other hand, I don't like the idea that Crowley, a mere demon, is able to bust souls/beings from the same prison Lucifer is incarcerated. With that being said, I can totally see Crowley is somehow in on the secret and gaining fringe benefit from the knowledge/event.
I almost forgot about the masks we saw in S4. OMG! You are right. That Wendigo mask can't be a simple throw away here, can it? *ponders*
Hmmm, now that you mentioned, I can't remember if they showed Sam actually ingest food/drink. But if he never ate/drink, and Dean is traveling the road with him again, I'm sure Dean would've picked up on the oddity by now.
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LOL xwacky. Too bad that doesn't happen at all my parties! But hope yours was fun in any case.
Hmmm, now that you mentioned, I can't remember if they showed Sam actually ingest food/drink. But if he never ate/drink, and Dean is traveling the road with him again, I'm sure Dean would've picked up on the oddity by now.
Yeah - that was just a throwaway theory - Pandora below has already pointed out that he was eating in 6.2. LOL, so much for that one. Starting from scratch!
About Jared's performance of Sam - I didn't feel that it was 2 dimensional, but for sure you weren't the only one who felt it was off. In one of the con reports, or an interview, the boys mentioned that they found the beginning of season 6 harder to act than before - so maybe you are picking up on that in Jared's performance.
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Yeah, I felt Jared was a bit off in 6.01, but then again I suspect the post production editing exacerbated the problem - Jared might have acted using body language while his facial expression was bland. However there was a lot of zoomed in camera shots we ended up getting when the episode aired, and we didn't get to see his body movement - in particular, I'm referring to the scene where the boys hugged. Judging by the gif fans made from promo vid, I'm fairly certain what they shown in the episode was slightly different in terms of camera angles.
Also I want to clarify that I thought Jared was fantastic from 6.02 and onward.
Speaking of interviews, it just occurred to me that some of them are rather misleading. For example, I recall I read (from Sera Gamble's interview?) that Sam in S6 is like Dean in early season (S1?). That is so not true as far as I'm concerned. *pouts*
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My impression was that was supposed to seem wrong. Sam was supposed to be flat there and not emoting in a way that was recognizable to the audience from prior hugging scenes. Our first indication, maybe, that something is wrong with Sam.
I recall I read (from Sera Gamble's interview?) that Sam in S6 is like Dean in early season (S1?). That is so not true as far as I'm concerned.
Maybe she didn't mean it in a straight up kind of way.
It strikes me that Dean, now, is POV character, the character that resonates with the audience because he is the normal one, the one who is doing familiar things, the way that Sam was our initial POV character in Season 1 - the one we could relate to because he went to college, was ambitious for grad school, did well on SATS and LSATS, wanted to be a lawyer, seemed normative in every way. Initially.
And Dean was the character who would break into Sam's house in the middle of the night to grab a beer, and who was the conduit leading Sam back into the esoteric world of hunting and credit card scamming and hustling pool, all things Sam did not entirely approve of, cutting off all his ties with normal type school friends. And etc.
And Sam is now doing that to Dean, he's the conduit back into the world of hunting with the Campbells and creating conflict for Dean with his normal ties with Lisa and Ben. So there definitely is role reversal going on.
So maybe she didn't mean it precisely the way fans took it - especially fans who wanted Season 6 to be a return to Season 1 - and there are seemingly a lot of them. Instead, we are having these role reversals, this time at a more mature point in the boys' lives.
Or, not - heh, and this theory will be disproved next week. [g] We'll see.
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