9.17 ep reaction/review

[ash48]

This is a little later than usual. I watched the episode and then had to go out (argh...on a show night!). I had lots of thoughts about it and I wanted to make some gifs and use some caps, so I waited until I could gather that altogether.

Comments

[amberdreams]

That picture on the wall of the town, I'm pretty certain that is the place where Metatron and Cas met up for the first time - whether that is supposed to be significant or whether it just happened to be a town they use so had a picture of it or not I have no idea.

You aren't the only one to have a problem with the whole soullessness connection but I confess, that one didn't bother me. Sam when he was soulless was devoid of certain restraints but remember he was brought up in a very military style and would have a lot of disciplines ingrained - and he did still follow certain ingrained patterns of behaviour. Witness his desire to please Dean even though most of the things he had to do to keep Dean happy clearly made no sense to him. Previous canon seemed to imply a soul was like a conscience - rip it out and what would stop someone giving in to anger when provoked? As for the other people who'd been brought into the police custody, we don't know what they'd been doing, only that they'd been acting out of character for a few days and they were all acting differently in their cells.

It could probably have been explained better but I thought that it was ok.

[ash48]

I'm pretty certain that is the place where Metatron and Cas met up for the first time

Oooh, I'll have to check that. I thought it was the town they were in, but it would be cool if it was somewhere else.

Re the soulless catch by Sam. I actually get how Sam might be different to the others (he and Dean are very different to the "norm" and Sam would have much more control over himself than others might) - what I had trouble with was Sam actually seeing that from his past experience. I mean, it's probably a handwave kind of moment (they needed to bring souls into the storyline and this was a good way to do it), it was just very weird that Sam picked that from his experience.

Previous canon seemed to imply a soul was like a conscience - rip it out and what would stop someone giving in to anger when provoked?

Oh yes. I get that too. I can see how these people were acting without souls (one banging his head bloody on the bars) and I actually really like that idea. It was simply about Sam picking that up - maybe he could sense it? Maybe he could see something in them that he saw in himself when he was soulless.

It's a minor quirk though. I really enjoyed the episode and I figure souls are going to be important in the future (and certainly have been in the past) so they needed Sam to "get" it quickly. :)

[amberdreams]

Ah gotcha. Mmm I suppose it was a bit of a leap - unless we are thinking that once soulless you are likely to recognise the same condition in others through some sort of fellow feeling?? I just put that down to Sam being bloody sharp as a box of knives.

[ash48]

ha! I'll take it as Sam being bloody sharp! :)) I'll just have to hand wave that one. Show often has them discovering what's happened without a heap of info. The show doesn't have time for them to spend toooooolong researching it.
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[amberdreams]

Oh I've double checked via screen caps and that town is different (the one where Metatron and Cas met up had blue street lights and this one doesn't). Damn.

[ash48]

Ah. Yes, I think it was a shot of the town they were in. I think it still works nicely as a bluff. You usually get those kind of shots as establishing shots - which I thought it was until...it wasn't. I felt like a real Misha touch - messing us around.
xx