Five Minutes of Flailing over 2 sentences in 6.01
I rewatched "Exile on Main Street" last night.
And I just have to express my complete melt-down over Jensen Ackles' performance. Specifically the reunion scene, and more specifically, the first thing he says when he sees Sam:
Dean: So I'm dead? This is heaven? Yellow eyes killed me, and now --
The emotion in it struck me the first time, but on the rewatch I realized why. Dean's voice is different than ever before--it is soft, tentative, the antithesis of both the hard-ass snarky Dean and the broken, despairing Dean that we have seen before. For that initial moment, all of Dean's walls are down. There is a child-like quality in the way he speaks the words, and I heard fear, bewilderment, wonder, disblief, relief, hope--all just in the way he said those 12 words.
And when I saw that last night, I thought, damn, how can he get the accolades he deserves for his acting talent?
And then watched as he transformed 'domesticated Dean' back into 'hunter Dean' through facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language. The level of skill in creating a new persona for Dean, the 'fitting in and trying very hard to find some peace in normal' and then in 42 minutes letting each event shift him back--with resistance--to the man he used to be--it was so gradual as to be imperceptible and yet we can see the difference from the first shot to the last shot in the tension in his face, the resumption of his hunting posture.
We are so lucky Supernatural has him--it would not be anywhere as compelling a show without him.
And not to leave out Jared--he has created a new Sam as well. It is harder to interprete because we don't know what is behind it, but from my perspective, he has walled up all his emotions to protect himself, to the point where he could not remember the connection he had with Dean, or how lost he was when Dean was in Hell. That inability to feel, to recall what they have meant to each other, is the only justification I can see for Sam's insistence that Dean was fine without him.
With that in mind, when we saw Sam's expression during the hug, I saw the start of the thaw of the ice around Sam's heart. At least I hope that's what I saw.
Does anyone else feel slightly ridiculous to be so excited that there is another episode tonight? Like really, 8 pm Fridays is now the highlight of my week?
And I just have to express my complete melt-down over Jensen Ackles' performance. Specifically the reunion scene, and more specifically, the first thing he says when he sees Sam:
Dean: So I'm dead? This is heaven? Yellow eyes killed me, and now --
The emotion in it struck me the first time, but on the rewatch I realized why. Dean's voice is different than ever before--it is soft, tentative, the antithesis of both the hard-ass snarky Dean and the broken, despairing Dean that we have seen before. For that initial moment, all of Dean's walls are down. There is a child-like quality in the way he speaks the words, and I heard fear, bewilderment, wonder, disblief, relief, hope--all just in the way he said those 12 words.
And when I saw that last night, I thought, damn, how can he get the accolades he deserves for his acting talent?
And then watched as he transformed 'domesticated Dean' back into 'hunter Dean' through facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language. The level of skill in creating a new persona for Dean, the 'fitting in and trying very hard to find some peace in normal' and then in 42 minutes letting each event shift him back--with resistance--to the man he used to be--it was so gradual as to be imperceptible and yet we can see the difference from the first shot to the last shot in the tension in his face, the resumption of his hunting posture.
We are so lucky Supernatural has him--it would not be anywhere as compelling a show without him.
And not to leave out Jared--he has created a new Sam as well. It is harder to interprete because we don't know what is behind it, but from my perspective, he has walled up all his emotions to protect himself, to the point where he could not remember the connection he had with Dean, or how lost he was when Dean was in Hell. That inability to feel, to recall what they have meant to each other, is the only justification I can see for Sam's insistence that Dean was fine without him.
With that in mind, when we saw Sam's expression during the hug, I saw the start of the thaw of the ice around Sam's heart. At least I hope that's what I saw.
Does anyone else feel slightly ridiculous to be so excited that there is another episode tonight? Like really, 8 pm Fridays is now the highlight of my week?