Reaction to Swan Song
This is a reaction to tonight and the show as a whole. Perfect, so perfect. Did I cry like a bitch with a skinned knee? Yes so much that I think I’ll have a crying hangover in the morning. Did I like it? No. It wasn’t enjoyable it was very painful. But did I love it? Yes. Here’s the thing: it was bleak, awfully bleak but it was so fitting. The show progressed and that was the most fitting ending it could have.
We met Sam, a boy alone at college who didn’t talk to or about his family. His brother turns up and literally breaks back into his life and asks for help. Sam says he wants a normal life, Dean makes fun of him, Jess dies and Dean feels ashamed. They hunt ghosts, a lot, it makes sense. A demon takes over airplane passengers through (in retrospect terribly weak CGI) smoke and a whole new twist: demons. Sam has visions, again it makes sense. Then Dad dies, Sam finds out he once drank demon blood, Dean feels ashamed for Dad’s death and Dean sells himself for Sammy because he figures he should already be dead. By this point demons start being the normal fare as opposed to the occasional treat. This really hot chick turns up and is like, “I’m Ruby, I’m a demon, I’m awesome, don’t call me bitch.”
They can’t save Dean. He dies so does hot Ruby. Sam gets a hard on for Lilith because she took his brother. A less hot, less well written, Ruby comes back and Sam starts drinking her blood and being even more powerful. Lilith is let out of her cage because a good man was broken by hell. Poor Dean. Cass pulls him out of hell and they fight against Lilith as she tries to free Lucifer. They lose, Ruby’s evil, they kill her but Satan walks.
Now, apocalypse time, not just an apocalypse --as in an event that changes human life-- but the biblical one. So Dean’s angry at Sam for being with Ruby and riding the red pony and Sammy never once says, “Fuck you, dude, you were the one who started this when you sold yourself for me and then broke in hell.” So they fight each other, and wake up and fight together. And they couldn’t win, not really: they’re two boys and a car with severe abandonment issues and guns. They can save the world but they couldn’t win. Never.
Dean gets a happy ending that he doesn’t want and isn’t happy. It’s Sam’s happy ending that he can’t have. So Dean is actually fucked. All Dean wants is his brother, his car and his guns. He wants to save people and have fun, he likes ghosts. Dean only started longing for something else when it got too heavy. When Lucifer was using Sam to beat the hell out of Dean and we saw that vision of them in the car that was the real happy part. Because that’s what the show is at its core: it’s the car and the music and the beautiful boys who love each other so much. And the show always made sense, it grew. They couldn’t win because they were just boys looking for their dad and they got dragged into something much bigger.
It started as a show about urban legends. It was a weekly horror show and it was fun, scary and silly. It was awesome to watch a horror movie where the main characters could split up and not die. The boys grew up so the show did too. But even when it got dark they still brought it back. Getting dark? Suicidal teddy bears. Even darker? The Winchesters have blue collared office jobs and Dean goes on the Master Cleanse, an episode about fandom, and an episode with a half brother all in a row to reboot the fans. This season was so dark, so we get Paris Hilton playing evil!Paris, Dean eating large lumps of ham throughout an entire episode, a CSI and Grey’s Anatomy take off, a fan convention, and a body swap. Thank you, Eric et al.
I thought it was a perfect ending for a perfect series. And it was clearly written and shot before they renewed. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch next season. I might treat that last shot of Sam the same way as we treated the shot of Jess in Bloody Mary. I’m not sure yet. I liked this too much to watch it die. Eric always said it was a five season show, then it got big and he said, “Well Buffy went on beyond its original run.” But guess what? Everything after season three kind of sucked a little bit more each season. I said that right at the beginning of the season. So I’m not sure if I’m going to watch it. We’ll see come September. But right now, let me say for the record, I love this show.
We met Sam, a boy alone at college who didn’t talk to or about his family. His brother turns up and literally breaks back into his life and asks for help. Sam says he wants a normal life, Dean makes fun of him, Jess dies and Dean feels ashamed. They hunt ghosts, a lot, it makes sense. A demon takes over airplane passengers through (in retrospect terribly weak CGI) smoke and a whole new twist: demons. Sam has visions, again it makes sense. Then Dad dies, Sam finds out he once drank demon blood, Dean feels ashamed for Dad’s death and Dean sells himself for Sammy because he figures he should already be dead. By this point demons start being the normal fare as opposed to the occasional treat. This really hot chick turns up and is like, “I’m Ruby, I’m a demon, I’m awesome, don’t call me bitch.”
They can’t save Dean. He dies so does hot Ruby. Sam gets a hard on for Lilith because she took his brother. A less hot, less well written, Ruby comes back and Sam starts drinking her blood and being even more powerful. Lilith is let out of her cage because a good man was broken by hell. Poor Dean. Cass pulls him out of hell and they fight against Lilith as she tries to free Lucifer. They lose, Ruby’s evil, they kill her but Satan walks.
Now, apocalypse time, not just an apocalypse --as in an event that changes human life-- but the biblical one. So Dean’s angry at Sam for being with Ruby and riding the red pony and Sammy never once says, “Fuck you, dude, you were the one who started this when you sold yourself for me and then broke in hell.” So they fight each other, and wake up and fight together. And they couldn’t win, not really: they’re two boys and a car with severe abandonment issues and guns. They can save the world but they couldn’t win. Never.
Dean gets a happy ending that he doesn’t want and isn’t happy. It’s Sam’s happy ending that he can’t have. So Dean is actually fucked. All Dean wants is his brother, his car and his guns. He wants to save people and have fun, he likes ghosts. Dean only started longing for something else when it got too heavy. When Lucifer was using Sam to beat the hell out of Dean and we saw that vision of them in the car that was the real happy part. Because that’s what the show is at its core: it’s the car and the music and the beautiful boys who love each other so much. And the show always made sense, it grew. They couldn’t win because they were just boys looking for their dad and they got dragged into something much bigger.
It started as a show about urban legends. It was a weekly horror show and it was fun, scary and silly. It was awesome to watch a horror movie where the main characters could split up and not die. The boys grew up so the show did too. But even when it got dark they still brought it back. Getting dark? Suicidal teddy bears. Even darker? The Winchesters have blue collared office jobs and Dean goes on the Master Cleanse, an episode about fandom, and an episode with a half brother all in a row to reboot the fans. This season was so dark, so we get Paris Hilton playing evil!Paris, Dean eating large lumps of ham throughout an entire episode, a CSI and Grey’s Anatomy take off, a fan convention, and a body swap. Thank you, Eric et al.
I thought it was a perfect ending for a perfect series. And it was clearly written and shot before they renewed. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch next season. I might treat that last shot of Sam the same way as we treated the shot of Jess in Bloody Mary. I’m not sure yet. I liked this too much to watch it die. Eric always said it was a five season show, then it got big and he said, “Well Buffy went on beyond its original run.” But guess what? Everything after season three kind of sucked a little bit more each season. I said that right at the beginning of the season. So I’m not sure if I’m going to watch it. We’ll see come September. But right now, let me say for the record, I love this show.