SPN 8x01
I miss the days when this icon was accurate. Which is my subtle way of saying, any show where Sam doesn't even bother to attempt a token search for Dean when he disappears is not the show I started watching seven seasons ago. "Character growth" cannot ever account for such a bizarre change on Sam's part. Sure, Sam made Dean promise not to search for him, take vengeance, whatever, when he went to hell. And we all know how that turned out, when Dean kept that promise -- it ate him up inside. He couldn't get past it. But I'm sorry -- did I miss something in the plot-hole-filled minefield we call Supernatural canon?? When did Sam make that same promise to Dean??? And since when does the ultra-uber-responsible Sam just completely shut down his phones, which they've always kept charged even on the off chance that someone important from the past would call?? (See as evidence: John's phone, which Dean kept charged forever and which led them to his storage locker.) If Sam truly believed there was no one left to call, why go to so much trouble to ditch the phones? Possibly that's the most painful part of this for me.
Mostly, I think the first 15 minutes of this episode amounts to epic Sam-related character assassination, which isn't all that surprising, but it still leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. Sam didn't search at all for Dean. He fixed up the Impala (which looks gorgeous, btw), and just drove. Uh, right. (If the self-reporting there is to be believed, which, who knows.) And then tripped and fell into a house with a (sort of bitchy) veterinarian and a dog, or something. IDEK.
Meanwhile, Dean apparently hooked up with a vampire who has gorgeous eyes, and Castiel...something dreadful happened to Castiel, which had BETTER NOT BE PERMANENT, and frankly, given the above-mentioned character assassination issues, the purgatory part of this show is the only thing I'm actually interested in, at the moment. That, and getting Castiel back, and learning more about the interesting new guy with teeth.
Jensen Ackles is pretty, whether covered in blood or freshly groomed and hitchhiking. (Sideside note: wow, those poor traumatized campers, heh - nothing is as scary as Dean in full survivor-hunter mode, covered in blood and desperate.) Jared Padalecki, on the other hand, really needs a haircut, and it's crazymaking to me. He looks awful. (Maybe the shaggy hair is a sign that our Sam has been replaced by a pod person.)
The hug was nice. If a bit lacking in emotion. Which basically is my quibble with everything related to the brothers, at this point. I liked the scene with Sam packing to leave while his girlfriend was sleeping; it had some tiny echoes of Sam packing to leave in the pilot. And I liked that the dog was clearly a metaphor for Dean. Or for Sam's wrecked life. Pick your poison.
So. That happened.