Thoughts on SPN 7.17
Hmm. I feel as though I should really, really like this episode, but at the end, I'm just... confused, and maybe a little upset.
SPOILERS under the cut.
7.17: The Born-Again Identity
Okay. Let's get the good things out of the way, first:
1. SAM. Every single scene he was in. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. His descent was frightening and so wonderfully portrayed--the insomnia, being driven to madness by Lucifer, his slow physical and mental deterioration. Good God. And despite all of that, despite not having the strength to even open a candy bar wrapper by himself, he successfully hunts down and banishes a ghost. SAM, ILU.
2. Hallucifer. Goddamn! Was Pellegrino having fun, or what? I loved every second he was on-screen, and I had to laugh with him when Marion talked about the falling hair and nails. He remains one of the major reasons I've followed this season so faithfully thus far.
2.5. Mr. Padalecki. Yep, he deserves a mention. He rocked, and totally sold Sam's suffering--both physical and mental. I've rewatched Sam's bits alone about four times now, and each time I'm in tears.
3. The sequence where Castiel/Emmanuel regains his memories. The music, the acting, the editing, the direction... A+, Show. Thoroughly enjoyed that.
4. Meg! Because Meg is always awesome. An evil, twisted sort of awesome, but awesome nevertheless. It's interesting that she's after Emmanuel/Castiel--all the better to use him in her personal war against Crowley, I suppose. It'd be interesting to see more of that particular conflict, and an actual, proper showdown between Meg and Crowley. I think that would be awesome.
Now, for the things that, uh, made me uncomfortable:
1. The final transference bullshit. So, see, here's the thing: in the week preceding this episode, I spoiled myself as thoroughly as I possibly could. I watched all the clips, read all the interviews, reviews, tweets, everything. Then, as we have done for the past few episodes now, anu24 and I chatted on facebook while she watched the livestream of the episode. She'd tell me what was going on, and we'd both spaz/rant/squee over it. Toward the end of the episode, she stopped replying for some time, then went, "Oh dear... do you want to know the ending?"
"Yes!" I went, being the gullible spoilerphile that I am.
She told me the ending, and I went, "what the hell." about four times, before: "Butbutbut... Hallucifer is SAM's!" (She laughed at the last one, but I stand by it, okay? :p )
With that knowledge in mind, I didn't enjoy the episode as much as I could've; not when I knew it was building up to such a bullshit ending. I thought you weren't going to go for a ~magic fix~, Show! It just seemed like a rushed, overly simplistic way to resolve something that I'd genuinely thought of as way more complex and multi-faceted.
2. What is Hallucifer, Show? Seriously. I'd always thought that Hallucifer was a construct of Sam's mind--a single, edifying, horrifying representative of everything that happened to Sam in the Cage. It's Sam's memories that were creating Hallucifer; it was his own mind tricking him in order to cope with the centuries-worth of horrific memories.
Then Cas slaps a hand on Sam's head and voila! Hallucifer transfer complete!
Again, I call BS, Show. So, what you're saying is that, either Castiel took all the memories that were responsible for creating Hallucifer (and if that's the case, I might just spontaneously combust, because bad or not, those memories are a part of Sam and you don't just take that away and slap it with angel dust and Fevicol onto something else!), or, Hallucifer is an actual, tangible part of the devil that's hitched a ride with Sam (this theory has its possibilities--but, look. It's a big deal! It's not something to be just randomly inferred--Sam's carrying a goddamn part of the devil with him, in his head! You can't introduce this frightening thing without making something of it, Show, you can't.)
Okay. Okay. Moving away from that--so, Castiel's now seeing Lucifer in his Nick avatar (I guess you could somehow argue that into making sense), and as he needn't eat or sleep, he's pretty much going to be haunted by Hallucifer for the rest of eternity. It's a major step in trying to fix the wrongs that he did, yeah, okay.
On a selfish, personal level, however, I can only think that now Sam doesn't have Hallucifer. It has been said that we will see Lucifer a few more times before the season ends, so... it's likely that we'll see Hallucifer tormenting Castiel. And, I say fuck that shit. I have no interest in seeing that. Sam/Hallucifer was one of the major reasons (aside from finding out the Leviathan endgame) I was even watching s7. It's a fabulous dynamic, and the only, only way Sam got to have a story of his own, the only way we got those rare glimpses into his head. And now that's gone, and become Castiel's. We'll just have to consider ourselves lucky if Sam's Hell experiences are referenced ever again. Rewind, reset!
Yeah, I'm a little bitter. I miss Sam-Hallucifer already.
3. Castiel. I wish that the writers had shown a little more creativity when it came to Emmanuel, but, yeah, okay--there were too many things to deal with in this episode, anyway (I would've gladly endorsed removing The Slice Girls from the lineup so that this could've been spread over a two-parter and told in a more coherent manner). It's very odd that they married him off to the woman that found him--even weirder when she turns out to be not Leviathan, not demon, not Meg, and, well, alive. Also, never referenced again. What was the point of that, Show? other than to get all the Cas fans riled up
The whole thing was... tired. I'm not terribly invested in the Dean-Cas dynamic, so I was pretty bored all through their in-car heart-to-hearts. (I legit facepalmed when Dean handed Castiel his trenchcoat. I, just, it--felt like a wave to fandom, and I found that annoying. I might be alone in this.) I was hoping that the Leviathan experience had changed Castiel for good. That, while his moral compass is back on track, he would've actually moved somewhere. Except--I found him stale. As much as I would like to see Misha Collins on the screen, I really don't want to see any more Castiel The Holy Tax Accountant And His Haha, Inexplicable Ignorance of Human Interactions.
Okay, a regretful angel bent on redeeming himself, to be sure. But still.
(A question, something I've been wondering about Castiel for a long time: why is he characterised like that, seriously? No other angel in the show behaves like him. Even Uriel seemed more savvy of the ways 'mud-monkeys' talked and behaved. Hell, Lucifer was pretty much up to date with pop culture, and he's been stuck away in a cage for a hell of a long time.)
4. Also, a sad lack of Sam-Dean interaction. The one scene they have together was released as a sneak-preview (that I may have watched several, several times over the last week). I was surprised that that scene was the sum total of their interaction in the whole episode. I know Dean was busy trying to find a way to save Sam, but--it still felt weird, you know?
5. I'm glad at least Sam's feeling bad about leaving Castiel in the asylum. Again, Show: what was with that ending?
Gyaaah. I will continue to watch Show, of course, but as far as I'm concerned, it's dealt itself a pretty huge blow with this episode.
SPOILERS under the cut.
7.17: The Born-Again Identity
Okay. Let's get the good things out of the way, first:
1. SAM. Every single scene he was in. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. His descent was frightening and so wonderfully portrayed--the insomnia, being driven to madness by Lucifer, his slow physical and mental deterioration. Good God. And despite all of that, despite not having the strength to even open a candy bar wrapper by himself, he successfully hunts down and banishes a ghost. SAM, ILU.
2. Hallucifer. Goddamn! Was Pellegrino having fun, or what? I loved every second he was on-screen, and I had to laugh with him when Marion talked about the falling hair and nails. He remains one of the major reasons I've followed this season so faithfully thus far.
2.5. Mr. Padalecki. Yep, he deserves a mention. He rocked, and totally sold Sam's suffering--both physical and mental. I've rewatched Sam's bits alone about four times now, and each time I'm in tears.
3. The sequence where Castiel/Emmanuel regains his memories. The music, the acting, the editing, the direction... A+, Show. Thoroughly enjoyed that.
4. Meg! Because Meg is always awesome. An evil, twisted sort of awesome, but awesome nevertheless. It's interesting that she's after Emmanuel/Castiel--all the better to use him in her personal war against Crowley, I suppose. It'd be interesting to see more of that particular conflict, and an actual, proper showdown between Meg and Crowley. I think that would be awesome.
Now, for the things that, uh, made me uncomfortable:
1. The final transference bullshit. So, see, here's the thing: in the week preceding this episode, I spoiled myself as thoroughly as I possibly could. I watched all the clips, read all the interviews, reviews, tweets, everything. Then, as we have done for the past few episodes now, anu24 and I chatted on facebook while she watched the livestream of the episode. She'd tell me what was going on, and we'd both spaz/rant/squee over it. Toward the end of the episode, she stopped replying for some time, then went, "Oh dear... do you want to know the ending?"
"Yes!" I went, being the gullible spoilerphile that I am.
She told me the ending, and I went, "what the hell." about four times, before: "Butbutbut... Hallucifer is SAM's!" (She laughed at the last one, but I stand by it, okay? :p )
With that knowledge in mind, I didn't enjoy the episode as much as I could've; not when I knew it was building up to such a bullshit ending. I thought you weren't going to go for a ~magic fix~, Show! It just seemed like a rushed, overly simplistic way to resolve something that I'd genuinely thought of as way more complex and multi-faceted.
2. What is Hallucifer, Show? Seriously. I'd always thought that Hallucifer was a construct of Sam's mind--a single, edifying, horrifying representative of everything that happened to Sam in the Cage. It's Sam's memories that were creating Hallucifer; it was his own mind tricking him in order to cope with the centuries-worth of horrific memories.
Then Cas slaps a hand on Sam's head and voila! Hallucifer transfer complete!
Again, I call BS, Show. So, what you're saying is that, either Castiel took all the memories that were responsible for creating Hallucifer (and if that's the case, I might just spontaneously combust, because bad or not, those memories are a part of Sam and you don't just take that away and slap it with angel dust and Fevicol onto something else!), or, Hallucifer is an actual, tangible part of the devil that's hitched a ride with Sam (this theory has its possibilities--but, look. It's a big deal! It's not something to be just randomly inferred--Sam's carrying a goddamn part of the devil with him, in his head! You can't introduce this frightening thing without making something of it, Show, you can't.)
Okay. Okay. Moving away from that--so, Castiel's now seeing Lucifer in his Nick avatar (I guess you could somehow argue that into making sense), and as he needn't eat or sleep, he's pretty much going to be haunted by Hallucifer for the rest of eternity. It's a major step in trying to fix the wrongs that he did, yeah, okay.
On a selfish, personal level, however, I can only think that now Sam doesn't have Hallucifer. It has been said that we will see Lucifer a few more times before the season ends, so... it's likely that we'll see Hallucifer tormenting Castiel. And, I say fuck that shit. I have no interest in seeing that. Sam/Hallucifer was one of the major reasons (aside from finding out the Leviathan endgame) I was even watching s7. It's a fabulous dynamic, and the only, only way Sam got to have a story of his own, the only way we got those rare glimpses into his head. And now that's gone, and become Castiel's. We'll just have to consider ourselves lucky if Sam's Hell experiences are referenced ever again. Rewind, reset!
Yeah, I'm a little bitter. I miss Sam-Hallucifer already.
3. Castiel. I wish that the writers had shown a little more creativity when it came to Emmanuel, but, yeah, okay--there were too many things to deal with in this episode, anyway (I would've gladly endorsed removing The Slice Girls from the lineup so that this could've been spread over a two-parter and told in a more coherent manner). It's very odd that they married him off to the woman that found him--even weirder when she turns out to be not Leviathan, not demon, not Meg, and, well, alive. Also, never referenced again. What was the point of that, Show? other than to get all the Cas fans riled up
The whole thing was... tired. I'm not terribly invested in the Dean-Cas dynamic, so I was pretty bored all through their in-car heart-to-hearts. (I legit facepalmed when Dean handed Castiel his trenchcoat. I, just, it--felt like a wave to fandom, and I found that annoying. I might be alone in this.) I was hoping that the Leviathan experience had changed Castiel for good. That, while his moral compass is back on track, he would've actually moved somewhere. Except--I found him stale. As much as I would like to see Misha Collins on the screen, I really don't want to see any more Castiel The Holy Tax Accountant And His Haha, Inexplicable Ignorance of Human Interactions.
Okay, a regretful angel bent on redeeming himself, to be sure. But still.
(A question, something I've been wondering about Castiel for a long time: why is he characterised like that, seriously? No other angel in the show behaves like him. Even Uriel seemed more savvy of the ways 'mud-monkeys' talked and behaved. Hell, Lucifer was pretty much up to date with pop culture, and he's been stuck away in a cage for a hell of a long time.)
4. Also, a sad lack of Sam-Dean interaction. The one scene they have together was released as a sneak-preview (that I may have watched several, several times over the last week). I was surprised that that scene was the sum total of their interaction in the whole episode. I know Dean was busy trying to find a way to save Sam, but--it still felt weird, you know?
5. I'm glad at least Sam's feeling bad about leaving Castiel in the asylum. Again, Show: what was with that ending?
Gyaaah. I will continue to watch Show, of course, but as far as I'm concerned, it's dealt itself a pretty huge blow with this episode.