10.4, or, That’s what I’m talkin’ about!
This was a review that kinda turned into a meta, but no longer than my usual reviews ...
Not that Kate is my favorite, or the best actress. Not that I was eager to revisit Kate, period. And it had all the annoyances of Carver-era SPN: a dead woman by the end, two tons of exposition, a focus on subjects of dubious interest to fans (judging by what I’ve seen others saying so far, and I can’t say attending to every moment was effortless myself, though I loved the episode), such as reconnecting to characters they invented who weren’t all that popular in the first place (though I loved “Bitten”).
Taking that all as a given, with very low expectations, there were nevertheless so very many things to love. I loved Kate’s on-the-run, young tragic figure and her David Banner exit there at the end. Sam and Dean have tragic lives, but of a different flavor--at least they always had each other; and at least they always had a home, of a sort, in the Impala; and at least the only thing that drove them out of a town was their own illegal or nefarious doings. Yet she reflects some aspect of the boys few people they meet can. Yay for the monster of the week reflecting what’s going on between Sam and Dean, but it’s more than that--deep down, for a variety of reasons, they’ve both felt all their lives like fundamentally bad people trying to make amends for it, even though whatever evil they believe is inside them was not a deliberate choice on their parts (if it exists at all).
So, like Kate, and like Dean said there at the end, they’re driven to try to ‘make up for’ something, even though, at least before all this low self-esteem started making them make questionable choices, everything they did was with the very best intentions: saving lives and eradicating evil, at great cost to themselves. I loved it when they let Kate go, calling her ‘kid’--like she’s one of them, a kid sister, rather than any more a monster than they are, since after all, she too is only trying to save lives and make amends. (“Paper Moon” refers to a movie [that, incidentally, terrified me as a kid, though it’s technically a comedy] in which a sleazy criminal type who makes consistently terrible, self-destructive choices finds a kindred spirit in a girl who may be his own child--so apt for this ep: “I am just trying to do the right thing, man. 'Cause I am so sick and tired of doing the wrong one.”)
I don’t know where all this is taking Show (and I don’t want to know; I just want to be surprised), except that clearly (and deliciously) we will learn of Sam’s nefarious doings on Dean’s behalf; we FINALLY got an acknowledgment that these guys just need some rest (with, okay, the occasional ‘easy’ case); and, at least for this episode, we saw the boys--especially Dean!!--genuinely trying to communicate and work past some of this ocean of water under the bridge between them. Also, I LOVED the way Jared played Sam: fragile and anxious for his brother’s mental and physical health, positively desperate to keep things as all right as things can be for a Winchester.
I loved it because it was the first time in two full seasons that Sam appeared to be evincing something that seemed Sam-like and that made perfect sense in context of where they are in their lives, imo. Sam tried to get away from the terrible dysfunction of being a Winchester and failed, dragged back into the cause, upon which that would indeed become exactly his state of mind: fragile, desperate, and dependent more than anything on everything being all right with Dean ... which was reflected nicely in the photo of Kate’s little sister toddling up a hill after her when they were both very young, JUST as Sam said he hero-worshipped and followed around Dean from todderhood, as he would. Sam’s world, and state of mind, is incredibly uncertain right now (and unlikely to maintain any stability for long) ... so thank heaven Dean appears to be falteringly but determinedly finding his way back to himself, because Dean is now all Sam has. This is a terribly sad state of affairs, but inevitable when two people want two different things and one of them surrenders his desires for the other’s. It’s a thing that happens, and I love Show for delving all the way down into the darkest consequences of it.
What made me happiest about this ep was the way it finally, thoroughly, acknowledged the way the show and the characters have actually been going all this time that the show oft-times seemed to want the viewer to somehow overlook, like the fact that Sam and Dean have been, or are, monsters themselves, which makes the idea that they’re qualified to be some sort of moral judges doling out ultimate punishment to other monsters ludicrous. As they walked up to the gate, weapons out, leaving Kate screaming in the car, having betrayed her trust and intent on killing her sister, only Sam showing any hint of remorse (but, naturally, not giving in to it--how long has it been since he did?), I thought, “Look at them--they’re so evil.” Exploring how Sam and Dean appear evil to outsiders is something I love to do in fanfic (such as this one), and finally, in this episode, I feel like we got past all the denial and just admitted it.
Even from the early seasons, I’ve been uncomfortable with Sam and especially Dean’s black-and-white approach to killin’ monsters, as plainly was the show, now and then devoting an episode to this troubling dissonance, but there seemed to be a belief among the producers that unless Sam and Dean were the undeniable, unmistakeable heroes, no one would want to watch them. Suddenly Show’s really digging deep into this issue, raising these questions, finally seeing what happens when Sam and Dean go down dark paths, and not because a monster made them do it, but as humans, making the kinds of choices--sometimes incredibly terrible, destructive choices--regular humans make, and (judging by the ratings) I ain’t the only one riveted to see what happens next. Sam and Dean the fallible human beings, the antiheroes, are at least as interesting to me as Sam and Dean the superheroes. (Plus, I love that the experience of letting himself go as dark as he wanted inspired Dean to TRULY want just to do good again--he took a journey and resolved some small part of what’s plagued him his whole life. Dean was always a bad boy doing good like Dad taught him and hard suppressing his darkest urges (although I LOVE that aside from the urge to kill brought on by the Mark, the worst Deanmon gets is to be a dick to chicks he's slept with and torment audiences with bad karaoke); it’s such a relief to see him finally get to give in to them and take something healing away from the experience.) Too much to hope that on this rocky road they’ll eventually TRULY resolve the mountain of issues between them? Maybe, but this was a lot.
And now for some lighter observations. I liked the way Dean said “team building” and “dirt nap” like they were completely unfamiliar terms, emphasizing the wrong word: “Are you Team Sam, Team Dean, or Team Building?”
So cute/sad that the Winchesters have never heard of this phrase “me time”--for them, it’s “we time.” <3
And was that a “no hunting” sign they were sitting by as they looked out over the lake? Ba haa ....
Not that Kate is my favorite, or the best actress. Not that I was eager to revisit Kate, period. And it had all the annoyances of Carver-era SPN: a dead woman by the end, two tons of exposition, a focus on subjects of dubious interest to fans (judging by what I’ve seen others saying so far, and I can’t say attending to every moment was effortless myself, though I loved the episode), such as reconnecting to characters they invented who weren’t all that popular in the first place (though I loved “Bitten”).
Taking that all as a given, with very low expectations, there were nevertheless so very many things to love. I loved Kate’s on-the-run, young tragic figure and her David Banner exit there at the end. Sam and Dean have tragic lives, but of a different flavor--at least they always had each other; and at least they always had a home, of a sort, in the Impala; and at least the only thing that drove them out of a town was their own illegal or nefarious doings. Yet she reflects some aspect of the boys few people they meet can. Yay for the monster of the week reflecting what’s going on between Sam and Dean, but it’s more than that--deep down, for a variety of reasons, they’ve both felt all their lives like fundamentally bad people trying to make amends for it, even though whatever evil they believe is inside them was not a deliberate choice on their parts (if it exists at all).
So, like Kate, and like Dean said there at the end, they’re driven to try to ‘make up for’ something, even though, at least before all this low self-esteem started making them make questionable choices, everything they did was with the very best intentions: saving lives and eradicating evil, at great cost to themselves. I loved it when they let Kate go, calling her ‘kid’--like she’s one of them, a kid sister, rather than any more a monster than they are, since after all, she too is only trying to save lives and make amends. (“Paper Moon” refers to a movie [that, incidentally, terrified me as a kid, though it’s technically a comedy] in which a sleazy criminal type who makes consistently terrible, self-destructive choices finds a kindred spirit in a girl who may be his own child--so apt for this ep: “I am just trying to do the right thing, man. 'Cause I am so sick and tired of doing the wrong one.”)
I don’t know where all this is taking Show (and I don’t want to know; I just want to be surprised), except that clearly (and deliciously) we will learn of Sam’s nefarious doings on Dean’s behalf; we FINALLY got an acknowledgment that these guys just need some rest (with, okay, the occasional ‘easy’ case); and, at least for this episode, we saw the boys--especially Dean!!--genuinely trying to communicate and work past some of this ocean of water under the bridge between them. Also, I LOVED the way Jared played Sam: fragile and anxious for his brother’s mental and physical health, positively desperate to keep things as all right as things can be for a Winchester.
I loved it because it was the first time in two full seasons that Sam appeared to be evincing something that seemed Sam-like and that made perfect sense in context of where they are in their lives, imo. Sam tried to get away from the terrible dysfunction of being a Winchester and failed, dragged back into the cause, upon which that would indeed become exactly his state of mind: fragile, desperate, and dependent more than anything on everything being all right with Dean ... which was reflected nicely in the photo of Kate’s little sister toddling up a hill after her when they were both very young, JUST as Sam said he hero-worshipped and followed around Dean from todderhood, as he would. Sam’s world, and state of mind, is incredibly uncertain right now (and unlikely to maintain any stability for long) ... so thank heaven Dean appears to be falteringly but determinedly finding his way back to himself, because Dean is now all Sam has. This is a terribly sad state of affairs, but inevitable when two people want two different things and one of them surrenders his desires for the other’s. It’s a thing that happens, and I love Show for delving all the way down into the darkest consequences of it.
What made me happiest about this ep was the way it finally, thoroughly, acknowledged the way the show and the characters have actually been going all this time that the show oft-times seemed to want the viewer to somehow overlook, like the fact that Sam and Dean have been, or are, monsters themselves, which makes the idea that they’re qualified to be some sort of moral judges doling out ultimate punishment to other monsters ludicrous. As they walked up to the gate, weapons out, leaving Kate screaming in the car, having betrayed her trust and intent on killing her sister, only Sam showing any hint of remorse (but, naturally, not giving in to it--how long has it been since he did?), I thought, “Look at them--they’re so evil.” Exploring how Sam and Dean appear evil to outsiders is something I love to do in fanfic (such as this one), and finally, in this episode, I feel like we got past all the denial and just admitted it.
Even from the early seasons, I’ve been uncomfortable with Sam and especially Dean’s black-and-white approach to killin’ monsters, as plainly was the show, now and then devoting an episode to this troubling dissonance, but there seemed to be a belief among the producers that unless Sam and Dean were the undeniable, unmistakeable heroes, no one would want to watch them. Suddenly Show’s really digging deep into this issue, raising these questions, finally seeing what happens when Sam and Dean go down dark paths, and not because a monster made them do it, but as humans, making the kinds of choices--sometimes incredibly terrible, destructive choices--regular humans make, and (judging by the ratings) I ain’t the only one riveted to see what happens next. Sam and Dean the fallible human beings, the antiheroes, are at least as interesting to me as Sam and Dean the superheroes. (Plus, I love that the experience of letting himself go as dark as he wanted inspired Dean to TRULY want just to do good again--he took a journey and resolved some small part of what’s plagued him his whole life. Dean was always a bad boy doing good like Dad taught him and hard suppressing his darkest urges (although I LOVE that aside from the urge to kill brought on by the Mark, the worst Deanmon gets is to be a dick to chicks he's slept with and torment audiences with bad karaoke); it’s such a relief to see him finally get to give in to them and take something healing away from the experience.) Too much to hope that on this rocky road they’ll eventually TRULY resolve the mountain of issues between them? Maybe, but this was a lot.
And now for some lighter observations. I liked the way Dean said “team building” and “dirt nap” like they were completely unfamiliar terms, emphasizing the wrong word: “Are you Team Sam, Team Dean, or Team Building?”
So cute/sad that the Winchesters have never heard of this phrase “me time”--for them, it’s “we time.” <3
And was that a “no hunting” sign they were sitting by as they looked out over the lake? Ba haa ....