Meta: Season H8--on Sam-hate, Amelia-hate, and the direction it took SPN

[brightly_lit]

A couple nights ago, I rewatched 8.03 (to see Jensen’s dad!). Though it aired third, it was filmed first (so Jensen, who directed, would have time to prepare)--it is fun to see J2’s hiatus tans, so unlike their usual Vancouver pallor

Comments

[freya922]

I actually love Season 8, especially once they get to the trials. There were some incredible episodes and brotherly moments of angst. The one thing I wish they'd resolved more is Sam's reasons for not looking for Dean. All it would have taken was one line: "I thought you were in Heaven and I was devastated but knew you were in a better place." Something like that.

I'm with you about Amelia. I liked the story - it was really interesting seeing Sam hook up in this kind of sad relationship based on mutual loss and loneliness. It's not a relationship I would have expected to last, built as it was on this kind of sad, lost foundation, but it was interesting. Man, did I hate Amelia's father for being such a dick to Sam! I thought they actually did a pretty decent job of dealing with Sam's decision not to go back to Amelia.

I think you hypothesis about the fury directed at poor Sam that season may be the right one, but if they'd only clarified a couple of points, maybe people would have been kinder to Sam. I mean, jeez, he's entitled to want a life of his own, and he's been through so freaking much... People do break, you know. They do. And it's no wonder he wandered off in grief and confusion after Dean disappeared.

[brightly_lit]

All it would have taken was one line

YES, and they keep doing that to Sam, what with the "I wouldn't" [have saved your life] speech in S9. Someone left a comment on another post of mine, saying she feels the drama is contrived this season, and I can't help but agree, when a few words would fix so much.

this kind of sad relationship based on mutual loss and loneliness.

Yeah, I liked that, too--liked that she's a character who's more realistic and less idealized--more unpleasant and bitter than women almost ever get to appear on t.v. It's a good point that the relationship probably couldn't have lasted, anyway. But what was with Sam just up and leaving her in the middle of the night for no particular reason? That never gelled for me.

I mean, jeez, he's entitled to want a life of his own, and he's been through so freaking much...

YES YES YES. Dean has had it the way he wanted it for so many seasons; I'd love to see Sam finally get his turn.

Thanks for the comment.

[freya922]

I just remembered, reading your post, that Amelia's 'dead' husband also returned unexpectedly, so that simplified things for Sam, in a way. Funny, how I never quite took in before that both Sam and Amelia had their lost loved ones returned...

[liliaeth]

My problem with Sam was never that he wanted a regular life. It was that as the show put it, he never bothered to look. And then when Dean came back, instead of being happy that his brother had returned, he was pissed off that Dean's return would screw up his chances for a normal life.

All they had to do, and it's not much, is have Sam say, "I tried to find you, but there wasn't any trace and I thought you were dead."
That's all, and it would have made Sam look a million times better.

But instead they did the opposite, they had Sam blackmail Dean, basically pretty much tell him that if he dared to show any of his pain over Sam not looking for him, that he'd leave.
Acting pretty much throughout the season that he didn't want anything to do with Dean, and then at the end of the season it was suddenly "oh I never thought I was good enough and I don't want you to have anyone else"

It's that what made me hate S8 Sam, not his desire to have a normal life, but the way he treated Dean all through the season.

[brightly_lit]

Yeah, Sam's behavior through S8 seemed both very out-of-character for him and very inexplicable. I'm a Sam!girl and I feel like I understand him well, but even I felt like it was strange and cold, the way he was treating Dean. I mean, your dead brother shows up and you don't even act happy, you just act like you wish he hadn't so you could go on living the way you had been? Harsh!

... Which is giving me ideas like that Sam--ooh, it would be so cool if this was it!--said yes to Lucifer while Dean was in Purgatory, believing he could again overpower him and that it would give him the ability to save Dean, but Lucifer has control and is deliberately driving Dean over the edge with the Mark of Cain. It's about the only thing that would explain Sam's baffling behavior. If only it were that! But alas, I think it was just weak writing.

[liliaeth]

Honestly, up until s8, Sam was my second favorite character, right after Dean. But s8 Sam and as a consequences of that s9 Sam, feels like he's being written by Sam bashers.

I don't want to hate Sam. Dean loves Sam and I'd hate not to love someone that means to much to Dean. But it's hard to keep liking Sam when you have to keep coming up with excuses for Sam's asshole like behavior in the past two seasons.