Upending the Hunter’s Ethos: Reversed and Upside Down Shots in “Sin City” (3x04)

[bowtrunckle]

A little post-turkey meta.

This is late. Sorry. Meta hasn’t been coming so easily lately, which is strange because I thought writer’s block was reserved for fiction. *doublepalmface* But because we don’t have an episode prompt entry for 3x04, I thought I should do one, and this was such a mytharc-juicy episode that it deserves to be talked about

Comments

[kentawolf]

Nice meta.

Dean's hunting ethos has been rather tortured these past three years, eh? From "Supernatural = evil" to "Evil = evil" to now "Evil = Good(?)" It was very telling that he yelled at Sam to stop when Sam took it upon himself to exercise the new Colt.

Nice nit-picky eye for the placement of the Devil's Traps and the mirrored-ceiling shot. Love the camera work in Our Show.

The whole idea of Humanity being more closely equated with Demons is an interesting one. It seems as if we the audience are being hand-held into a Future Episode where Sammy is to be Evil, and so it's not such a stretch when it happens. Maybe we're even to think that not just "Demon-Blood-Infected"/"Boy-king"/"Anti-Christ" characters that can make this jump, but anyone can.

And will.

[bowtrunckle]

It was very telling that he yelled at Sam to stop when Sam took it upon himself to exercise the new Colt.

*nods* I was suprised that Dean did that, but I liked it nonetheless. I can't think of another instance where Dean was the one to hestitate on a hunt like that (is there one?). It'll be interesting to see if this hunting role reversal will play out again and how Dean takes it. Will he think he's lost is hunting edge? Will he think Sam's lost a little of his humanity?

Love the camera work in Our Show.

Ditto!

It seems as if we the audience are being hand-held into a Future Episode where Sammy is to be Evil

*shivers in anticipation* I love your brain. :) You know, Sam really is the perfect example of the two sides of Krikpe's single good demon/evil human coin. Sam's got both sides in him, and depending on which way you look at it is he a good demon or an evil/tainted human? And thanks to "Sin City" both those options are now possibilities. :)

And will.Eee. When we get Our Show back after the strike and this happens,

[kentawolf]

I can't think of another instance where Dean was the one to hestitate on a hunt like that (is there one?).

The only situation of any possible relevance I could possibly think of - which, tellingly, is an action which also made me just as disturbed - is in "Croatoan," when Dean goes into the storage room to shoot the infected mother. He doesn't so much as hesitate as ask Sam if he was sure. And then he just pulls the trigger. *shivers*

Sam's got both sides in him, and depending on which way you look at it is he a good demon or an evil/tainted human? Or is he Just Human? Remember in "Sin City," Casey!Demon did say that all the terrible, demonlike actions people were committing were just demons nudging full humans the right way. Perhaps the demon blood was just for the connection to "'Ol Yellow Eyes" (so the YED could mess with the Psykids, "find ways to break us"), as Sam is referred to as not 100% only AFTER he is resurrected. We still don't know what the whole "100%" means (I have my theory which is a little Buckets of Crazy but

[bowtrunckle]

"Croatoan" *nods* ... that was an interesting episode--one that's still begs to be explained. I connect it with "Skin" because in both Dean acts so ... ruthless, and both start with a flashforward. Intereseting that the S1 episode is not!Dean and the S2 episode is very much Dean. Character development anyone? :)

We still don't know what the whole "100%" means (I have my theory which is a little Buckets of Crazy but still ties into the show's mythos and Rules of the Verse). But we DO know that humans are capable of committing terrible acts that could be mistaken as demonic.Buckets-o-crazy seem to be in abundance around here. *grabs own bucket and grins

Mini-meta, it seems

[kentawolf]

You're right, it would be more chilling if Sam got a little dark and it was just him making the decision to do so. But, to be honest, I would prefer that to happen. It seems to me that free will and personal choice are such important themes in this show (and in much contemporary fiction writing/story telling in general) that it would be terribly unsatisfying if Sam just went dark because of external factors out of his control. I think doing that for an episode (his possession in BUaBS) is fine, but for a good portion of the mytharc? :(

I've been pushing this on forums, because I, too, felt that it would be (1) cheap way to make Sam evil,(2) not fair to Sam's character development, and (3) an very unwelcome "tricked ya!" to fandom when the "real" Sam came back. So, yes, it would be terribly unsatisfying to have Sam turn evil JUST FOR external factors.

I think they could be used to his advantage (*coughCroatoancough* ... I don't think that's the last time we're going to hear about that demonic virus), a way to level the playing

Re: Mini-meta, it seems

[bowtrunckle]

Just out of curiosity, what forums do you frequent?

Sam would seem to go evil, but it's him tricking his demon legion to do Good.

Have you read this fic? *grins*

http://pheebs1.livejournal.com/129047.html

You're right about Azazel having a paternal "twisted pride" in his crazy kids. He also seemed a little perturbed at John in "IMToD" that Dean took out his two kids (namelessbrother!demon and Meg!demon), which could be interpreted as he might've cared about them a tiny bit or he was just peeved because some of his underlings were indisposed. Which makes me wonder how the heck demons have/create kids.

I would love it if Ruby wasn't all bad. In fact, I would love it if she's human *somewhere* in there (even if she was an "evil" human). Humanity in a demon would freak Sam out (I love Sam angst) and just make the whole two sides of the human/demon coin just that much more awesome. But I get carried away with my wishful thinking sometimes...

Are demons DESTINED to be