5.22 Swan Song: I Got Something To Say (Part 2 of 2: Meta Commentary & Production Notes)

[bardicvoice]

Please note:  the "But Nothing Really Ends, Does It?" section below contains possible spoilers, since it mentions the CW's general description of season six during my speculations on what might happen.

5.22 Swan Song: I Got Something To Say

Lucifer takes Sam;
Dean and the car bring him back.
Promises break hearts.

Comments

[blackcat333_99]

Great review. I found both good and bad in the ep for myself, mostly because I hit a conflict between following the story on paper vs. the emotions it was invoking in me as I watched.

One of those big buttons was this:

Sam, I could see many different roads the story could take. The one and only route I would truly hate to see the writers take would be if they had Sam - seeing Dean dutifully following through on his reluctant promise - unilaterally deciding not to tell Dean he was back in the belief Dean would be better off without him because he thought Dean wouldn’t feel free to choose to abandon the hunting life if he knew Sam was alive and hunting again. I would hate this for two reasons: first, because it would be beyond cruel for Sam to leave Dean suffering in the belief his brother was still trapped in a cage in Hell with Lucifer and Michael just to leverage him into a normal life; and second, because it would indicate Sam hadn’t really learned or understood anything either about what his brother truly wants or needs, or about the wrongness of making a decision for someone else adult and capable on the arrogant assumption you knew better than they what would be best for them.

Unfortunately, I read this as a very strong possibility from how the ep and scenes played to me -- letting go, for the supposed good of the other person. Only in this case... Sam letting go of Dean wouldn't be letting go, so much as that act of unbelievalbly cruelty in the name of kindness... I don't buy it. And I hate that that possibility is on the table, because I really thought Sam was growing beyond the "I didn't think of it that way" narrow view he'd viewed certain past choices and the impact they had on Dean. But the implication in the ep played to me that it will indeed go this way. I hope, REALLY hope, that I am wrong. I want to be wrong so very badly. But if I'm not... well, I have to admit that Sam has a lot of growing up still to do. He may have faced certain elements of pride and rage, etc within himself, but there's still ... maybe a lot more room to grow.

I just don't know. Dean had that moment of realizing and ACKNOWLEDGING out loud that maybe he needed to grow up too. Sam has faced his flaws, but hasn't really seen things in terms of growing up, so much as being acknowledged as a grownup. Interesting distinction.

Maybe this will be Sam's test -- to finish growing up. Not just in terms of facing questions of Destiny, but in facing self, and the flaws that seems inherent to Winchesters. It's not his place to decide for Dean. Maybe he still needs to learn that, because he's never had opportunity to have to face that issue. I was so pissed at the final 5 seconds of the ep. Now I'm trying to back off and look at the possibilities.

Wait and see, I guess. This could be all for naught. Or ... whatever. Writers' character vision. My dissociation with writer's vision. Can't tell yet. Is it September yet?

[ann_tara]

Dean had that moment of realizing and ACKNOWLEDGING out loud that maybe he needed to grow up too. Sam has faced his flaws, but hasn't really seen things in terms of growing up, so much as being acknowledged as a grownup.

Yahtzee.

This is the problem I have with Sam to the bitter end - it's little "show" and lots of "tell" on the part of the other characters, like the Fan Service Producer Commentary at the end of Two Minutes ... to Dean's yada, yada in the junkyard of Swan Song. And those are just the two latest versions of the same ol' problem Kripke and Sera et. al. have with allowing Sam to truly grow up, which means making him look bad without turning around and whitewashing every bad act away by having the other characters pat him on the head. Sam deserves better.

I agree that Sam needed to toss himself into that big black plot hole for releasing Luci - but the fact of the matter is, Sam never has, and maybe never will, acknowledged his not choosing family when Dean returned from Hell, which allowed his arrogance and pride to reign free. But until I hear Sam actually say what Dean says too much of the time (often for stuff he didn't do), "I'm sorry", and say it for the right reasons, I don't feel Sam's truly been redeemed, especially given what may happen when the season opens, if that is Sam - and it better be because anything else is so been there, done that. If Sam is continuing to dictate terms to Dean by not contacting him to let him know he's out of solitary confinement - and I always assumed God would pop him out of the box pretty much immediately - then the swan dive was all for nothing in terms of Sam's "self-awareness" redemption. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Other than that, I'm afraid I have to disagree that Dean and Sam were mirror images of Michael and Lucifer if for no other reason than once the writers tossed away the Michael story they were supposed to tell in #100, and then took away Jensen's turn to play Michael by giving it to an understudy instead, Michael became a nonentity. What ridiculous version we saw at Stull's Cemetery was so unrecognizable from the tiny bit we got in SRtS, that I don't even know why they bothered to introduce the Michael side of the equation in the first place now. In fact, what was Dean being set up to do in season four? I find it hard to even watch those episodes anymore since they seem to bear no relation at all to how this whole story ended.

I do agree that Dean honoring his promise to not try and bring Sam back or wallow in anger and grief was the act that finally broke the destructive Campbell/Winchester cycle of self-sacrifice. As for whether Dean could make it work with Lisa and Ben, given how much story was taken away from Dean toward the end of season five, and how much I felt Ackles was tossed under the bus, I find myself hoping they do give him at least this much.

I mean, yes, I agree it would be hard. Hey, I've served in the military in peace time, and I can attest that simply leaving the service to go back to civilian life is a shock to the system. It's different and not instantaneous. So, yes, a battle-weary career warrior trying to adjust to life in the real world is going to find it possibly the hardest thing he's ever done. But I'd like to see Dean try, and I'd like to see him find some peace and happiness with Lisa and Ben - though at the same time, I agree this becomes problematic once the series returns for a sixth season. However, in keeping with the military analogy, they could portray the Braedens as a military family that has to live with their soldier loved ones being yanked off to war zones for long periods of time, waiting and hoping they come back alive. Happens every day, and the writers could keep them as part of the mix in portraying Dean's return to the hunt as a temporary Stop-Loss kind of situation, especially if Dean does so to insure their safety.

While I didn't like this episode as much as you did, bardicvoice, I did anticipate your commentary and enjoyed reading it. I hope reviews like this eventually make me feel at least somewhat more positive about where this arc went and didn't.

p.s. The Adam problem

[ann_tara]

I too hope that we get some indication when the season opens that Adam was, if not brought back to life, then at least given salvation by God by being returned to Heaven to be with his mom, which is what he wanted in the first place.

But as much as I hated the secret illegitimate child trope that the writers fell into with Adam, and more so hated that they brought him back as canon fodder once they decided to ditch the Michael arc, it still annoyed me when Sam grabbed Adamichael to condemn him to the Pit with himself since Adam isn't the one who started this whole ball rolling or had anything to do with breaking the world; and I also didn't appreciate hearing Dean say, "All I got was my brother in a hole." Well, no Dean, what you got was TWO brothers in a hole. I find it hard to believe for as much as we know Dean loves Sam, that Dean wouldn't at least acknowledge Adam's very unwilling sacrifice and being pulled into a story that he shouldn't have been in the first place.

So I hope for at least a passing line by someone, most likely Castiel, that Adam was saved at the end.

Re: p.s. The Adam problem

[blackcat333_99]

I agree about Adam to a point. He's family too, like Dean told him back in Point of No Return. I also feel sorry for the poor boy. He was another victim of John's Winchester's clumsy parent skills. His childhood wasn't exactly pure joy, he died a hideous death, lost his mother equally horribly, was brouht back from Heaven only to be abused by Zachariah and then was grabbed by Michael. Now, my two scents on the matter. When Dean tried to tell Adam that he was sorry, Michael's answer was that Adam was not home. So I think that, unlike Sam, Adam wasn't trapped with Michael within his own body. My guess is that he was sent back to Heaven as soon as Michael took his body. I don't know if this is a logic explanation but that's what I want to believe.

The situation was desperate and Sam did what he had to in the circumstances. By taking Michael with him into the pit he eliminated any danger that Michael could still represent, possibly to Dean. Between Adm and Dean, he chose Dean. I did notice Dean's "ONE brother in the hole" but it's understandable if you think about it. He feels sorry for Adam as he said himself, but he barely knew Adam while Sam is his Sammy, the little brother he raised and loved.

That said, I do hope to see Adam's fate addressed in Season 6 and I wish him a good one. Also, unlike many other fans, I'd like to see him again.

Andrea

Re: p.s. The Adam problem

[ann_tara]

When Dean tried to tell Adam that he was sorry, Michael's answer was that Adam was not home. So I think that, unlike Sam, Adam wasn't trapped with Michael within his own body. My guess is that he was sent back to Heaven as soon as Michael took his body. I don't know if this is a logic explanation but that's what I want to believe.

It's a nice way to look at it, but I kind of doubt it because Michael's claim that "Adam isn't home right now" is essentially the same thing Lucifer said when he told Dean in Detroit that "Sammy is long gone". I really just think it means that the archangels are running the vessel show, and the essences of the humans they took over are buried too deeply for the hosts to affect what the parasites are doing. Even Jimmy couldn't affect Castiel, and Castiel is much lower on the angelic totem pole - nowhere near as strong as an archangel.

So I think it is what it is, but I still hope to hear that God pulled "Adam" out of the pit, as he did with "Sam", left the angelic essences of Lucifer and Michael to battle it out for all eternity; and when He plopped Sam on earth, he plopped Adam back into Heaven where he came from in the first place. I do think the writers owe the audience a canonical on-screen explanation on that point. Obviously we know Sam has to be explained, but so should Adam, especially if we don't see him again.

Re: p.s. The Adam problem

[bardicvoice]

I wasn't disturbed that Dean didn't acknowledge Adam's situation when he bled off his anger to Castiel; Sam had been his life, while Adam wasn't someone he even truly knew. He'd risked himself and Sam to rescue Adam from Zachariah, but Adam could never occupy the same place in his heart as Sam, simply because they didn't share the same lifetime of experience. Adam's exclusion in the heat of the moment was simply human to me, nothing more, and in the extremity of Dean's grief over Sam willingly sacrificing himself, Adam was simply lost for a bit.

I really do hope we hear someday that Adam is in Heaven with his mom, since that is what he truly wanted. He was an innocent overwhelmed by events, and I grieve for him. I think Dean would grieve too, but not until the initial sense of Sam's loss muted enough to let him feel anything else.

[bardicvoice]

Thanks for coming by! I hope you become happier with season six; I'm not going to prejudge anything of what we're likely to see, but I do hope it will show us more of Sam's growth.

I never thought or said that Sam and Dean actually were mirror images of Lucifer and Michael; quite the opposite. I always thought the angels' claim of their brotherhood as reflecting Sam's and Dean's was specious, nothing more than an attempt to manipulate the brothers by making them think they were fated and unable to choose otherwise than the angels had.

I didn't have the problem you did with Michael, I think perhaps because I never believed in the whole "Dean is Michael's vessel" thing. I never truly thought that Kripke would have the story boil down to a fight between the brothers as avatars of the angels, not when Kripke's whole theme seemed to be "family saves the world." So I don't think the writers ever threw away the Michael storyline, simply because I never believed that storyline was remotely the point. I think the angels believed it, which was why they were so focused on Dean in season four, but I believe they were wrong; that the whole point all along was that Dean would spike destiny by choosing humanity despite what Zachariah and others believed he was meant to do and tried to force him - and us - to believe he was destined to do.

As for Dean and Lisa, I too would like to see them make a go of it in the end; I think it would make a fascinating backdrop to the series if the idea of Dean returning to family of his own continued to be part of it, even as Dean processed the need to hunt as well as the strangeness of trying to adjust to normal life and real people rather than idealized images. My big concern with them being real is that they didn't truly have a relationship before now: for Dean, Lisa plus Ben represented an ideal he didn't think he could have, while for Lisa, Dean was first just the memory of the best weekend of sex of her life, and later, a confused memory of fear, resentment, and gratitude all mixed from the changeling situation. Still, people have built real relationships on less, so there's hope.

I just really want season six to begin, and be good ... Hope you're along for the ride, and get happier with it as time goes on.

See you in September!

[bardicvoice]

Thanks!

On the next steps for Sam thing: I think Jared was directed to make Sam's expression unreadable precisely to create questions and debate right up until the season six premiere. I'm with you in hoping the writers DON'T take Sam down the road of making Dean's decision for him, particularly since I don't think they need to in order to have Dean decide on his own to stop hunting, given where he wound up psychologically after the last few seasons. I would love it if the new season began with Sam having grown enough to choose to let Dean make his own decision - even if the very next thing he does is to wind up having to argue the need for him to give up that decision to save the people he loves.

See you in September!