SPN meta-picspam on Sam Winchester in Season 4, Part 3 (of 3): no getting out, no going home
It's the birthday of the fabulous deirdre_c. *throws confetti* Which means I've brought something Sam-shaped. Hope you're having a terrific day, Dei!
A picspam/meta of Sam in season 4 couldn't be contained to just one post. Here's the conclusion, 4x17-4x22. For deirdre_c, enabler of the Sam fangirling.
Also, even though I swore up and down that Jared Padalecki's face was worth thousands of words of meta, I got a little teal deer although I tried not to. *sheepish*
+Screencaps by oxoniensis, http://caps.oxoniensis.org/ and marishna, http://summerskin.under-my-umbrella.org/supernatural.php
+Resized, colored, and filtered by me.
Part 1 of the Sam in season 4 picspam: Not that guy any more
Part 2 of the Sam in season 4 picspam: What if we could win?
4x17 - It's a Terrible Life
Meet cubicle!Sam. Isn't he adorable? ♥ ; cubicle!Sam and corporate!Dean having an old-school style hunt initiation. With their memories wiped, the boys are falling into this by sheer instinct; Sam: "feels like I should be doing something else. There's just something in my blood." There's a double-meaning there, unintended by memory-wiped Sam. He's talking about instinct, but literally, it's Sam's demon blood, and all of that--Sam as Just Sam, but also what he's been doing with his powers--has been a factor in forming who Sam is becoming in Season 4; I didn't include the cap of what Sam's looking at here, which is Dean in peril. Do not mess with Dean when Sam is around; Sam confesses that his dreams included hunting with Dean--"we were friends...more like brothers." (Excuse me, there's something in my eye.); cubicle!Sam rejecting the false world constructed for them (even if he's not conscious of that yet). Go cubicle!Sam.
4x18 - The Monster at the End of This Book
Sam's "brooding and pensive shoulders" as observed by Dean; Dean wants to run, Sam wants to go after Lilith; could this get more meta? Sam unburdens his fears to someone who has written him. He's scared of what's going on inside of him, and post-Hell thinks Dean isn't what he once was, but there's no condemnation here--"He's looked after me my whole life. I can't return the favor?" Chuck, though, wonders at Sam's real motivations. "Maybe the demon blood makes you feel stronger, more in control." To me it seems like Sam is 100% sincere in wanting to carry Dean and be the protector while at the same time, Sam, sick and tired of seeing the ones he loves suffer, might find the feeling of power enticing. It's like he's doing things for the right and wrong reasons simultaneously; Sam, the little brother who is used to looking to his big brother to point the way in a crisis, says "No" to Dean. I think it's the first time in the series we've seen him do that flat-out and unable to be swayed.
This scene goes right back to their scenes in the motel room at the end of "Salvation," and the start of "Devil's Trap." (Sorry, no screen caps). An entire meta-picspam could be done comparing those two scenes to this (*makes note to self*). There's so much that's starkly different, and so much the same. This scene is maybe one of the biggest in terms of showing how distant Sam and Dean have become in Season 4, even if things haven't really changed--the performances of the actors show us the cracks in their new armor. We also know Dean doesn't accept Sam's decision, and he'll go against his own belief system to try and save him.
Even though Sam seems like he might be careening down a bad road here, he's also doing what he believes is right and that means going against the person most important to him in the whole universe.
4x19 - Jump the Shark
So, Sam's all grown up now, so much so that he's going to take little brother Adam under his wing and teach him the ropes; scary, strong-willed, competent, bad-ass hunter; ... who still needs his big brother to rescue him; Sam mentoring Adam while Dean looks on seeing the one he mentored become the mentor; and again, Sam still needs his big brother no matter HOW scary and badass he gets.
Aw. ♥ Although I was struck by how awkward they are together there--Sam says "thank you," and Dean says, what is family for? They're conscious of the split between them, and all season keep reaching towards each other even if they can't always get there.
4x20 - The Rapture
"I'm just being realistic." Sam takes a fairly hard-line regarding Jimmy and it sounds a little like what Sam said about Adam, that it's dangerous for Jimmy to just go on his way as usual. Once that door is open, it's open. Big contrast to Sam in S1, at the end of Something Wicked, regretting the loss of innocence; "you can never be with your family. So you either get as far away from them as possible or you put a bullet in your head...but there's no getting out and there's no going home." Wow, harsh Sam, harsh--yet we see how he arrived at that viewpoint. Sam's not only let go of his own innocence, he's given up hope on everyone else's. Sam, who once said hope's kind of the whole point.; oh Sam, what are you doing? D:
4x21 - When the Levee Breaks
For the last two episodes of the season, I feel like Jared Padalecki's face is worth thousands of words of meta. Some attempt at commentary anyway -- Sam in a cross; Sam bathed in a white light, like an ironic underscore to the loss of innocence; his anguish wondering what he's become; while Sam will disagree with Dean and act on it, when he thinks he's lost Dean's love and regard, that's it for Sam, that's the bottom, Dean is everything to him; a glimpse of hopeful Sam, who still exists, that they can patch things up when it's over; Dean finally says it, you're a monster, and the bottom falls out of Sam's world.
I need a moment.
4x22 - Lucifer Rising
After that quick glimpse of hopeful Sam in 4x21, it's even worse to have him saying here, "you're talking like I got an after." He's given up, and you can see by the look on his face, as he says "I'm okay, let's go" to Ruby--he's far from okay and what Dean said utterly devastated him. But (ironicaly, a little like Gordon Walker), he'll do this one last thing, and kill Lilith; Sam listening to the faked voice mail from Dean, and it's pretty much the end of the world right there in his face; and then the return of hope, which is Dean-shaped, and I love how it's Dean's voice that gets through to Sam; even Dean isn't quite enough to shake Sam from his path, although I think Sam's already stopped his freefall; after, tearful apologies and hey, apocalypse, shmapocalypse, who cares, Sam and Dean are reunited, clutching in each bathed in a white light. EPIC.
A picspam/meta of Sam in season 4 couldn't be contained to just one post. Here's the conclusion, 4x17-4x22. For deirdre_c, enabler of the Sam fangirling.
Also, even though I swore up and down that Jared Padalecki's face was worth thousands of words of meta, I got a little teal deer although I tried not to. *sheepish*
+Screencaps by oxoniensis, http://caps.oxoniensis.org/ and marishna, http://summerskin.under-my-umbrella.org/supernatural.php
+Resized, colored, and filtered by me.
Part 1 of the Sam in season 4 picspam: Not that guy any more
Part 2 of the Sam in season 4 picspam: What if we could win?
4x17 - It's a Terrible Life
Meet cubicle!Sam. Isn't he adorable? ♥ ; cubicle!Sam and corporate!Dean having an old-school style hunt initiation. With their memories wiped, the boys are falling into this by sheer instinct; Sam: "feels like I should be doing something else. There's just something in my blood." There's a double-meaning there, unintended by memory-wiped Sam. He's talking about instinct, but literally, it's Sam's demon blood, and all of that--Sam as Just Sam, but also what he's been doing with his powers--has been a factor in forming who Sam is becoming in Season 4; I didn't include the cap of what Sam's looking at here, which is Dean in peril. Do not mess with Dean when Sam is around; Sam confesses that his dreams included hunting with Dean--"we were friends...more like brothers." (Excuse me, there's something in my eye.); cubicle!Sam rejecting the false world constructed for them (even if he's not conscious of that yet). Go cubicle!Sam.
4x18 - The Monster at the End of This Book
Sam's "brooding and pensive shoulders" as observed by Dean; Dean wants to run, Sam wants to go after Lilith; could this get more meta? Sam unburdens his fears to someone who has written him. He's scared of what's going on inside of him, and post-Hell thinks Dean isn't what he once was, but there's no condemnation here--"He's looked after me my whole life. I can't return the favor?" Chuck, though, wonders at Sam's real motivations. "Maybe the demon blood makes you feel stronger, more in control." To me it seems like Sam is 100% sincere in wanting to carry Dean and be the protector while at the same time, Sam, sick and tired of seeing the ones he loves suffer, might find the feeling of power enticing. It's like he's doing things for the right and wrong reasons simultaneously; Sam, the little brother who is used to looking to his big brother to point the way in a crisis, says "No" to Dean. I think it's the first time in the series we've seen him do that flat-out and unable to be swayed.
This scene goes right back to their scenes in the motel room at the end of "Salvation," and the start of "Devil's Trap." (Sorry, no screen caps). An entire meta-picspam could be done comparing those two scenes to this (*makes note to self*). There's so much that's starkly different, and so much the same. This scene is maybe one of the biggest in terms of showing how distant Sam and Dean have become in Season 4, even if things haven't really changed--the performances of the actors show us the cracks in their new armor. We also know Dean doesn't accept Sam's decision, and he'll go against his own belief system to try and save him.
Even though Sam seems like he might be careening down a bad road here, he's also doing what he believes is right and that means going against the person most important to him in the whole universe.
4x19 - Jump the Shark
So, Sam's all grown up now, so much so that he's going to take little brother Adam under his wing and teach him the ropes; scary, strong-willed, competent, bad-ass hunter; ... who still needs his big brother to rescue him; Sam mentoring Adam while Dean looks on seeing the one he mentored become the mentor; and again, Sam still needs his big brother no matter HOW scary and badass he gets.
Aw. ♥ Although I was struck by how awkward they are together there--Sam says "thank you," and Dean says, what is family for? They're conscious of the split between them, and all season keep reaching towards each other even if they can't always get there.
4x20 - The Rapture
"I'm just being realistic." Sam takes a fairly hard-line regarding Jimmy and it sounds a little like what Sam said about Adam, that it's dangerous for Jimmy to just go on his way as usual. Once that door is open, it's open. Big contrast to Sam in S1, at the end of Something Wicked, regretting the loss of innocence; "you can never be with your family. So you either get as far away from them as possible or you put a bullet in your head...but there's no getting out and there's no going home." Wow, harsh Sam, harsh--yet we see how he arrived at that viewpoint. Sam's not only let go of his own innocence, he's given up hope on everyone else's. Sam, who once said hope's kind of the whole point.; oh Sam, what are you doing? D:
4x21 - When the Levee Breaks
For the last two episodes of the season, I feel like Jared Padalecki's face is worth thousands of words of meta. Some attempt at commentary anyway -- Sam in a cross; Sam bathed in a white light, like an ironic underscore to the loss of innocence; his anguish wondering what he's become; while Sam will disagree with Dean and act on it, when he thinks he's lost Dean's love and regard, that's it for Sam, that's the bottom, Dean is everything to him; a glimpse of hopeful Sam, who still exists, that they can patch things up when it's over; Dean finally says it, you're a monster, and the bottom falls out of Sam's world.
I need a moment.
4x22 - Lucifer Rising
After that quick glimpse of hopeful Sam in 4x21, it's even worse to have him saying here, "you're talking like I got an after." He's given up, and you can see by the look on his face, as he says "I'm okay, let's go" to Ruby--he's far from okay and what Dean said utterly devastated him. But (ironicaly, a little like Gordon Walker), he'll do this one last thing, and kill Lilith; Sam listening to the faked voice mail from Dean, and it's pretty much the end of the world right there in his face; and then the return of hope, which is Dean-shaped, and I love how it's Dean's voice that gets through to Sam; even Dean isn't quite enough to shake Sam from his path, although I think Sam's already stopped his freefall; after, tearful apologies and hey, apocalypse, shmapocalypse, who cares, Sam and Dean are reunited, clutching in each bathed in a white light. EPIC.