SPN Rewatch #10
Four episodes for the price of three...
7.5 Blood Brothers
Character development! We get the background on Dean, Benny, and Cas in Purgatory and then Benny and Dean bond back in this world.
Little touch I appreciated--when Dean and Benny are going through Quentin's things and Dean opens the wallet, finds a wad of cash and sticks it in his own pocket without a thought. Again, just a little reminder that the Winchesters are no saints, that they are criminals. (I know, it was money from a dead vampire's wallet, but I could see Dean doing this nonchalantly in other situations because he did it without a second thought.)
Sam's line when Dean tells him on the phone that he's taking out a vamp nest with a friend:
A friend? Dean, you don't have any - all your friends are dead.
Nice, Sam.
I really think they did Sam a disservice by spreading his Amelia flashbacks over half a season. Recall how we got the story about Ruby in season 4? All in one episode, and it made sense.
I wish someone would collect all the Amelia scenes, put them in sequence and make a little vid to give that plot a chance to be looked at as a whole.
Anyway, we get several Sam flashbacks in this ep. First he gets the job of being the motel handyman, no Amelia involved, but that leads to him being asked to fix the sink in what turns out to be her room.
She is prickly and snarky and Sam backs off after calling her on not making any connections to other people even though she's been 'in town' for 3 months. I confess I did love this exchange:
Amelia:You stalk helpless women and you break into their motel room... and you fix their plumbing? Why are you fixing my sink?
Sam: Well, because somebody jammed about 800 limes down the drain...and blew out the disposal. Then he pulls a bag of limes out of her shopping bag...
Amelia: Oh. Right. Don't touch the produce.
The third flashback is the 'meet cute' when the dog, still being called Dog, runs into Amelia's open door. Again the awkward conversation, but Sam sits down and starts talking to her despite Amelia's tough veneer, getting to the point where they both admit to losing someone.
Again, some decent dialog:
Sam trying to call the dog back from Amelia's room: ...no, dog... don't bother the...angry lady.
And I could see Sam continuing to talk to her, his innate empathy sussing out a kindred wounded soul:
Amelia: You come from nowhere, you appear to be going nowhere, and you've, quote, "seen a lot of stitches." It's all pretty solid creepy.
Sam's great response: You have no idea where you're going, either, do you?
The above flashback takes place while Sam is driving at 90 miles an hour in a stolen car to get to Dean when Dean admits to being in the middle of taking down a vamp nest. You can't tell me that Sam isn't frantic at the thought of losing Dean again!
And then the masterful scene of Sam shaking Benny's hand, realizing Benny's a vampire, Sam reaching for his weapon, Dean slightly shaking his head, Sam backing down from the instinct to kill--but then clearly furious about being told to back down.
Oh, it's complicated...
7.6 Southern Comfort
There is so much to love in this episode that I will tie myself in knots trying to justify the very last scene...
First, Garth. He has become such a real, human character, amusingly awkward to watch and yet he owns every bit of himself. He went to college, was a dentist "for a hot moment," does Civil War reenactments, and stepped into the void in the hunting community that Bobby's death left. This last one pisses Dean off, and I positively cheered Garth standing up to Dean in the scene over the computer when he says Bobby belonged to us all...I'm just taking what he showed us and trying to do something with it, that's all and Dean backs down--he knows that he was out of line.
Why can't Dean and Sam communicate like this???
Here are Ben Edlund's words on the subject, from an old interview:
So why do they lie (and lie, and lie some more)? Edlund says that the reason is surprisingly simple.
"Ultimately, they are pathologically dishonest with each other because John Winchester was pathologically elusive to them," Edlund says. They learned that the truth is this dangerous thing, and that you shouldn't speak it. He even taught them to keep secrets from each other for strategic purposes...When you look at the dysfunction that they show to each other, it comes directly from how they were brought up, and that's a kind of dysfunction that people in this world continue to face. 'Why didn't my dad tell me that he loved me yesterday?' We're just people sharing the same kind of thing," Edlund says.
I confess to pulling chunks of dialog from the Superwiki transcript to try and make sense of Sam and Amelia and Sam and Dean in this episode.
When the episode opens, Sam is pissed that Dean didn't tell him about Dean's vampire friend. Sam gives Dean a pass for working with a vamp while in Purgatory--I know you had to do what you had to down there--but Sam questions why Benny gets to keep living when Dean felt it necessary to kill Amy. That was decent continuity, and Dean deflects that by pointing out that they just let the werewolf girl live. Of course when Sam says people do change, Dean immediately throws out: Yeah, I got a vampire buddy, and you turn your phone off for a year. Way to shut down that discussion, Dean. :(
Now I am going to the 3 Amelia flashbacks. In the first, they are in bed, obviously after having sex (and WHY does Sam still have his t-shirt on???)
Amelia: It's been a long time since I let myself go like that.
Sam: Yeah, I know what you mean.
Amelia confesses that she lost someone--her husband died in Afghanistan 8 months ago, how they were together forever when one day Don just up and enlists, there was some communication and then he was dead. And she up and ran because she couldn't face the pity.
Amelia: So I moved here...and became even more of a hot mess than I already was. And you hit a dog.
Second flashback--Amelia is on her way out the next morning, Sam still in bed. Amelia clearly thinks last night was a mistake, wants Sam to forget whatever she told him, and she doesn't want his pity. She leaves with Sam looking like 'WTF was that?'
Third flashback--Now we see that it was Sam who pursued a relationship with Amelia. I think he was responding to another person with a hole in her life, and honestly, I think Amelia's walls-up style of communicating drew Sam because it was a familiar dynamic.
He starts out by saying he doesn't pity her, he understands her because he lost his brother and ran too. Amelia lets him in, gives Sam a drink, and they each agree they want to talk about their loss.
Putting these flashbacks with the ones from episode 8, I don't have a problem with Sam having settled with Amelia. I can read into his actions that the loss of Dean affected him so badly that he did just stop anything that reminded him of Dean. Think back to how Sam reacted when Dean went to Hell, falling apart and looking to do anything to get Dean back or else avenge him. There was nothing for Sam to avenge this time, Roman was vaporized along with Dean, so what purpose did Sam's life have? His breaking off hunting can be seen as making psychological sense, as can his picking a partner as damaged as himself.
On to the Sam and Dean parts of the episode...What Dean says when under the influence of the coin.
His anger that Sam left him in Purgatory--if only earlier Sam had bothered to talk about how he hit rock-bottom, how Amelia and the dog gave him a reason to get out of bed. Surely Dean could have related to that, given his time with Lisa and Ben. But no, it was never talked about, just bitter snark tossed out I went to Purgatory. He hit a dog allowing Dean's bitterness to fester.
But Sam stays calm: What do you want me to say? That I've made mistakes? I've made mistakes, Dean. Dean promptly lists Sam's failures, some of which aren't even Sam's fault--he didn't know he was soulless--and Sam says they've both played a little fast and loose.
But Dean is hung up that Sam betrayed him by leaving Dean in Purgatory for a girl. Which wasn't it at all, but Sam's never explained so Dean only sees himself abandoned.
Then they have a killer awesome fight--knowing how evenly matched they are makes it riveting! Dean raises the gun to finish Sam and Garth flings himself in the way, believing that Dean isn't interested in killing him, not considering that he might end up as collateral damage. Garth is just completely heroic in this moment, there is no other word for it.
Garth is trying to talk Dean down, and unlike how Sam just accepted Dean's accusations minutes ago, now Sam decides to fight back by flinging Benny back into the argument. Which gets Dean's impassioned: Benny has been more of a brother to me this past year than you've ever been! That's right. Cas let me down. You let me down. The only person that hasn't let me down is Benny.
Why did the cynic in me think, that's because you've only known him a little while, Dean...
Then we get Garth frantically trying: I know you're angry. But man, you got to fight this thing. Do not do this! Just let it go. Come on, Dean. And Garth slugs Dean, causing Dean to drop the blasted penny. Garth rocks!
I'm still on board with where everything has gone in this episode so far. Until we hit the final talk by the Impala.
Sam starts out by opening up a little, giving 'the girl' a name. And Dean tries to apologize for what he doesn't remember saying...and Sam jumps down his throat: But you didn't mean it? Oh, please, You and I both know you didn't need that penny to say those things.
Dean: Come on, Sam.
Sam: Own up to your crap, Dean. I told you from the jump where I was coming from, why I didn't look for you. But you? You had secrets. You had Benny. And you got on your high and mighty, and you've been kicking me ever since you got back. But that's over. So move on, or I will.
??? Where is that coming from? No, Sam, you never really explained what happened to you when Dean and Cas disappeared. How about admitting to both yourself and Dean that you feel guilty that you didn't look now that you know there'd been someplace you could have looked. But you really didn't know what to do. I get that Dean saying this Benny vampire who he met in Purgatory is a better brother is uncalled for, but cut Dean some slack about the coin pressuring him to say that and ASK about why Dean and Benny are friends. Find out that Benny saved your brother's life and get the details why he is the reason Dean is back. And Dean, for heaven's sake, explain it!
Yeah, Dean's been kicking Sam ever since he got back, but the ultimatum--move on, or I will--plays exactly into Dean's expectation that Sam is going to abandon him again. AAUUGH! BOYS! TALK!!!
7.7 A Little Slice of Kevin
So after all the anger at the end of the last episode, suddenly we have vulnerable Dean and caring Sam! It's a stormy night, Dean, awake, sees Cas outside after he thought he'd seen Cas earlier walking along the road. Dean goes to the window and Sam wakes up in response to his brother's distress. Dean admits he's freaked and Sam offers comfort, offers that Dean's feeling survivor's guilt (Sam would know that one.) This is what fanfic gives us all the time, the two of them actually connecting. It was perfect...and made no sense coming right after the harsh words from Sam what, a few days ago???
We got to see so much of Dean with his walls down as he struggles with his memories of leaving Cas in Purgatory, the guilt of his failure warring with his relief at Cas' return fighting with Dean's natural suspicion of an unexplained return of a loved one, since those have always gone so well...
I didn't like that they dumbed Mrs. Tran down. The writers should have been able to figure out a way to have Crowley find her and Kevin without making her stupidly naive. Because they then gave her the ability to take down a demon all by herself. Consistency, please!
Those poor back-up prophets...It was amusing that they thought they'd been abducted by aliens, nice poke in Crowley's ego. Once again, Sam goes to rescue the innocents while Dean goes after the bad guy.
I have to say that seeing Cas power up his angel mojo, glowing eyes and wings against Crowley felt really good! Finally Crowley didn't win, he ran!
Then we get the jarring shift of Cas into Heaven's white room and find out Naomi is pulling Cas' strings, and it's 'oh shit' time again...
7.8 Hunteri Heroici
It's the Sam/Amelia part of this episode that fascinated me. They've moved into a house together, Sam is unpacking her things...she is anxious about her dad, Stan, meeting Sam. Her dad is a bit of a jerk to Sam, though understandable given that Amelia has done a 180 in her behavior, and Stan doesn't know what kind of influence Sam is. Stan challenges Sam as to why he's working at a maintenance job in a motel when he went to Stanford, and later says that Sam has the haunted look of a someone who'd been in the military and seen too much bad stuff. He then says that Sam and Amelia are holding on to each other because they are both scared of something, and he asks what Sam is running from.
Sam's next flashback is tied in to an orderly in the nursing home saying some of the residents are in their own dream world, and Sam remembers overhearing Stan arguing with Amelia that she is living in a dream world, that she needs to stop and come home with him. Amelia responds that she and Sam are both messes, but let them be messes together. When Stan comes back to where Sam is washing dishes and offers to help, we see Sam rubbing the scar on his hand from his Lucifer days.
I was convinced at that moment that all the Amelia memories were fake and that Sam had been under some kind of spell. Especially because we get this impassioned speech from Sam to Fred a few minutes later:
Look, it can be nice living in a dream world. It can be great. I know that. And you can hide, and you can pretend all the crap out there doesn't exist, but you can't do it forever because eventually, whatever it is you're running from--it'll find you. It'll come along and it'll punch you in the gut. And then...then you got to wake up, because if you don't, then trying to keep that dream alive will destroy you...It'll destroy everything.
Doesn't that make you think Sam was dreaming too???
But then we get the ah-ha final flashback where just as Sam is opening up to Stan--I lost my brother...and I ran...Amelia gets the phone call the her dead husband Don is alive.
So Sam's impassioned speech is referring to real-life events taking his dream away. I could still have lived with that...There was a girl...and then there wasn't...
I realize I haven't said anything about the case in this episode at all...it was amusing and a stretch and one that shouldn't be thought about too hard or the logic of it becomes kind of sketchy...but it gave us some decent one-liners and lots of visual jokes, and some episodes that's what you get...