SPN 6.01: Exile on Main Street reaction post
I found a lot to love about this episode, much that could have been improved upon and nothing to hate. There are some things I'll have to reserve judgment on.
I really loved the opening montage. The music choice was perfect. "You just can't have it all". Yeah, sing it, Seger. Visually, it paralleled my favorite opening montage, which was the one from "Free to Be You and Me," where the mundane and the supernatural are mirrored and paralleled on the screen. I was a little surprised at Dean being a carpenter. I believe that his most marketable skill is auto repair, not carpentry. How would he have even learned that skill? Considering that the Winchesters never had a home of their own once they left Lawrence, and he's spent the majority of the last several years either squatting or living in cheap motels.
His friend and neighbor, Sid Dead Meat, had some nice moments, particularly his reaction to Dean with his gun out to shoot a Yorkie. (What is it with Dean mistaking Yorkies for evil supernatural beings? This is the second time he's done that!) Why was the Yorkie shut up in the shed in the first place?
I was really disappointed that Ben was not more present in the episode. He was really the very best thing about "The Kids are Alright," with his very Dean attitudes and demeanor. This episode demoted him to wallpaper, to the story's detriment. I felt that some of the screen time devoted to the Campbells should have been reallocated to a short, funny, poignant Ben 'n Dean scene.
I was happy about the scene on the stairs between Lisa and Dean. I'm glad she told him that he was an idiot at that point, although I suspect her "best year of my life" comment was hyperbole. Really wish her SAYING, "You're really great with Ben" had been SHOWN via the aforementioned short, funny, poignant Ben 'n Dean moment. I also wish she had pressed more when she suspected he was hunting. One of the things I appreciated the most, however, was her comment that, when the man that just saved the world shows up on your doorstep, you expect him to be messed up. She's not stupid. She's not completely doormat, good-li'l-woman, baking a pie and waiting for you to get home type.
Another comment I read expressed surprise that she would uproot and go to Bobby's on Dean's say so. I would only have been surprised if she hadn't. She's not someone that doesn't know anything about Dean's former life. She's seen the things that go bump in the night. And one of those things captured Ben a couple of short years ago. If she had fought him with "What about my job? What about Ben's school?" I would have bitch-slapped her.
Now, for the main reason I was looking forward to the premiere: Sam and Dean, reunited.
This could have been a near replay of "Lazarus Rising," and I'm glad they found a way to change it up, by Sam performing all the tests on himself. I don't think Dean's numb shock at the beginning of the scene was unexpected at all. I was so grateful for the hug - I thought it was well played.
Dean's anger at Sam and Bobby was definitely righteous. For all of his complaints that Dean treats him like some stupid little kid, Sam turns right around and does the exact same thing to Dean here. "I know what you really want/what's best for you/what you should do/think/be" is a very condescending place to come from. Sam knows, because it has been illustrated time and again, is that he is the most important person in Dean's life. The theme of family, and the brothers sticking together, begun in the first moments of the Pilot and reinforced countless times over the course of the last 5 years (well, the first 4 of those last 5, and the last half of the fifth) should have informed his decision to deceive Dean about his resurrection, let alone to enlist Bobby's collaboration in the deceit. And, I don't buy Bobby going along as easily as he apparently did.
"I wanted my BROTHER!" Amen.
It would have been truer and more interesting on many levels, for Sam to have left Dean on his own for his own reasons. The years since Sam's own death and resurrection have contained so much pain and loss and anger and fear that I wish he would have said, "I needed to be on my own, to do something different, to get some perspective and figure myself out after allowing Lucifer to use me as his vessel and spending time in the cage" instead of the insulting "Brother Knows Best" reasons he spouted.
I also found it jarring that the essential Sam and Dean reunion was cut short by the immediate introduction of the Campbells. I would have preferred for the introduction of those characters to get the short shrift in favor of really focusing on the boys and perhaps their grandfather. It would not have hurt, and would probably have helped, for the cousins to remain cyphers for another episode or two. I probably would have liked the whole "Golf? Really?" scene if Sam and Dean were alone. As it was, it felt like Sam was adding insult to injury, to whit: I was honestly insulted at their attitude towards Dean. Michael's potential vessel. The man that stopped the Lucifer/Michael cosmic grudge match with a beat up Def Leppard tape. A man raised from the tender age of four to be a hunter. A man that has literally been to Hell, Heaven and back. And they dismiss his "delicate features" and ask him to "leave this to the professionals?" REALLY? Shut. The Fuck. Up.
And Sam never calls them on it. He should have. The Sam I thought I knew would have.
And speaking of the Sam I thought I knew, he wouldn't have tried to save the neighbors? Uh, since when?
Surely there aren't that many isolated pockets of hunters that no one, in all these years, ever heard of the Campbells. No one at the Roadhouse? Not Bobby? Not Pastor Jim, Caleb, Daniel Elkins? And Sam never saw Samuel Campbell - Dean did. How did he know this mysterious stranger and his asshole descendants could even be trusted? I can only presume that there was some resurrection halfway house, with Sam and his grandfather wearing "Hello, I'm ..." name tags. And Mitch - I love you. A lot, actually. But regrow the fringe and stop pursing your lips in that weird manner. You look like you're...simpering.
Speaking of hair - Sam and Dean, I approve. Dean has enough to run fingers through now - YOW. And Sam's isn't so weird and funky.
The case was interesting - I liked the new djinn (appearing and disappearing tattoos - COOOOL) and I liked the idea of monsters acting differently and new monsters no one has ever heard of, though I hope they aren't completely scrapping the urban legends and heavy research the show is well-known for in favor of winging it and making shit up. It certainly sounds like a hook to hang a season or more on. I was delighted to see Fred Lehne again - I love that man! And there is a family mystery arc, too - what resurrected Sam and why? One of the things that frustrated me last season was the way the march of the apocalyptic arc often rolled over everything else, leaving the show with too few ways to lighten up. After all, how can one laugh during the Apocalypse and have it be anything except forced and inappropriate?
I was glad that Dean didn't up and abandon Lisa and Ben. Walking out on a boy that looks up to you as a father and a woman that took you in when you were broken, drunk, and a little crazy is not something that a writer should hand wave. Women are too disposable on this show as it is.
The moment Sam rejects the Impala was - ouch! But I can see it from the standpoint of character and plot for a lot of reasons, but the main one is that the Impala IS Sam and Dean. We're not there yet.
I see a lot of reasons to hope, and I look forward to next week.
I really loved the opening montage. The music choice was perfect. "You just can't have it all". Yeah, sing it, Seger. Visually, it paralleled my favorite opening montage, which was the one from "Free to Be You and Me," where the mundane and the supernatural are mirrored and paralleled on the screen. I was a little surprised at Dean being a carpenter. I believe that his most marketable skill is auto repair, not carpentry. How would he have even learned that skill? Considering that the Winchesters never had a home of their own once they left Lawrence, and he's spent the majority of the last several years either squatting or living in cheap motels.
His friend and neighbor, Sid Dead Meat, had some nice moments, particularly his reaction to Dean with his gun out to shoot a Yorkie. (What is it with Dean mistaking Yorkies for evil supernatural beings? This is the second time he's done that!) Why was the Yorkie shut up in the shed in the first place?
I was really disappointed that Ben was not more present in the episode. He was really the very best thing about "The Kids are Alright," with his very Dean attitudes and demeanor. This episode demoted him to wallpaper, to the story's detriment. I felt that some of the screen time devoted to the Campbells should have been reallocated to a short, funny, poignant Ben 'n Dean scene.
I was happy about the scene on the stairs between Lisa and Dean. I'm glad she told him that he was an idiot at that point, although I suspect her "best year of my life" comment was hyperbole. Really wish her SAYING, "You're really great with Ben" had been SHOWN via the aforementioned short, funny, poignant Ben 'n Dean moment. I also wish she had pressed more when she suspected he was hunting. One of the things I appreciated the most, however, was her comment that, when the man that just saved the world shows up on your doorstep, you expect him to be messed up. She's not stupid. She's not completely doormat, good-li'l-woman, baking a pie and waiting for you to get home type.
Another comment I read expressed surprise that she would uproot and go to Bobby's on Dean's say so. I would only have been surprised if she hadn't. She's not someone that doesn't know anything about Dean's former life. She's seen the things that go bump in the night. And one of those things captured Ben a couple of short years ago. If she had fought him with "What about my job? What about Ben's school?" I would have bitch-slapped her.
Now, for the main reason I was looking forward to the premiere: Sam and Dean, reunited.
This could have been a near replay of "Lazarus Rising," and I'm glad they found a way to change it up, by Sam performing all the tests on himself. I don't think Dean's numb shock at the beginning of the scene was unexpected at all. I was so grateful for the hug - I thought it was well played.
Dean's anger at Sam and Bobby was definitely righteous. For all of his complaints that Dean treats him like some stupid little kid, Sam turns right around and does the exact same thing to Dean here. "I know what you really want/what's best for you/what you should do/think/be" is a very condescending place to come from. Sam knows, because it has been illustrated time and again, is that he is the most important person in Dean's life. The theme of family, and the brothers sticking together, begun in the first moments of the Pilot and reinforced countless times over the course of the last 5 years (well, the first 4 of those last 5, and the last half of the fifth) should have informed his decision to deceive Dean about his resurrection, let alone to enlist Bobby's collaboration in the deceit. And, I don't buy Bobby going along as easily as he apparently did.
"I wanted my BROTHER!" Amen.
It would have been truer and more interesting on many levels, for Sam to have left Dean on his own for his own reasons. The years since Sam's own death and resurrection have contained so much pain and loss and anger and fear that I wish he would have said, "I needed to be on my own, to do something different, to get some perspective and figure myself out after allowing Lucifer to use me as his vessel and spending time in the cage" instead of the insulting "Brother Knows Best" reasons he spouted.
I also found it jarring that the essential Sam and Dean reunion was cut short by the immediate introduction of the Campbells. I would have preferred for the introduction of those characters to get the short shrift in favor of really focusing on the boys and perhaps their grandfather. It would not have hurt, and would probably have helped, for the cousins to remain cyphers for another episode or two. I probably would have liked the whole "Golf? Really?" scene if Sam and Dean were alone. As it was, it felt like Sam was adding insult to injury, to whit: I was honestly insulted at their attitude towards Dean. Michael's potential vessel. The man that stopped the Lucifer/Michael cosmic grudge match with a beat up Def Leppard tape. A man raised from the tender age of four to be a hunter. A man that has literally been to Hell, Heaven and back. And they dismiss his "delicate features" and ask him to "leave this to the professionals?" REALLY? Shut. The Fuck. Up.
And Sam never calls them on it. He should have. The Sam I thought I knew would have.
And speaking of the Sam I thought I knew, he wouldn't have tried to save the neighbors? Uh, since when?
Surely there aren't that many isolated pockets of hunters that no one, in all these years, ever heard of the Campbells. No one at the Roadhouse? Not Bobby? Not Pastor Jim, Caleb, Daniel Elkins? And Sam never saw Samuel Campbell - Dean did. How did he know this mysterious stranger and his asshole descendants could even be trusted? I can only presume that there was some resurrection halfway house, with Sam and his grandfather wearing "Hello, I'm ..." name tags. And Mitch - I love you. A lot, actually. But regrow the fringe and stop pursing your lips in that weird manner. You look like you're...simpering.
Speaking of hair - Sam and Dean, I approve. Dean has enough to run fingers through now - YOW. And Sam's isn't so weird and funky.
The case was interesting - I liked the new djinn (appearing and disappearing tattoos - COOOOL) and I liked the idea of monsters acting differently and new monsters no one has ever heard of, though I hope they aren't completely scrapping the urban legends and heavy research the show is well-known for in favor of winging it and making shit up. It certainly sounds like a hook to hang a season or more on. I was delighted to see Fred Lehne again - I love that man! And there is a family mystery arc, too - what resurrected Sam and why? One of the things that frustrated me last season was the way the march of the apocalyptic arc often rolled over everything else, leaving the show with too few ways to lighten up. After all, how can one laugh during the Apocalypse and have it be anything except forced and inappropriate?
I was glad that Dean didn't up and abandon Lisa and Ben. Walking out on a boy that looks up to you as a father and a woman that took you in when you were broken, drunk, and a little crazy is not something that a writer should hand wave. Women are too disposable on this show as it is.
The moment Sam rejects the Impala was - ouch! But I can see it from the standpoint of character and plot for a lot of reasons, but the main one is that the Impala IS Sam and Dean. We're not there yet.
I see a lot of reasons to hope, and I look forward to next week.