SPN 4.11
This goes out to my friends who were not as psyched with 4.11 as I was.
I especially liked Bowtrunckle's well-argued meta, tho we argue to different ends, so I tried to credit where I agree with her. She also made a hilarious parody of the writers' room as they came up with 4.11.
Anyway, I loved Family Remains. I so loved how SCARY it was, by far the scariest Spn ever for me. The moment when the girl sets her foot across the salt line, I so had the blanket over my head. To compare, this episode for me approached the great old creepiness that had me glued to the tube every Friday night during the first several seasons of XFiles. And btw, this was WAY better than the XFiles episode about the crazy incest family (theirs was just revolting).
For me, the whole episode worked thematically. I loved how Sam and Dean immediately used the old "county code/asbestos" ruse to get the family out of the house -- a ruse they've tried in various permutations several times before. I especially love how authoritative Dean can be when he's trying to get folks to get out before they get killed.
I loved the scary ghost, and I thought she looked just like Missy Bender before the incest reveal was made.... I guess little incest daughters all end up looking like that? (I'm totally kidding, but I think we know by now that Show has a very narrow set of thematic visuals for their Creepy Little Girls) and this was the incest variety.
Bowtrunckle astutely pointed out how much better the plot would've worked had the siblings been identical twin girls, instead of a boy and girl we can only assume were twins. As she said "showing the “ghost” in multiple places inside the house almost instantaneously would’ve been a more effective way to foreshadow the plot twist. It certainly would’ve been felt more earned having two girls crawling out of the woodwork instead of a never-seen-before brother launching out of the shadows. " right on Bowtrunckle! Though I think in the mind of the writers, the idea was that the first sibling was the brother, that their mother raised him at least for a while, enough that he learns to read and write, for example, but that she kills herself after the birth of her daughter--- possibly she witnessed her dad and the continuation of the incest cycle? -- which is why the girl hates grownups and why she eventually comes out to kill the evil incest dad.
I think the idea of the brother was that he was more violent, stronger, more territorial-- in the way Dean interpreted the siblings as territorial and animalistic-- unfortunately maybe another example of Spn not necessarily being as forward in its understanding of gender roles as we might prefer.
I think a lot of people reacted negatively to the part at the end where Dean and Sam have a Car Chat. To me, though, the scene worked in a couple of ways. First, I really do think this case would have called up this reaction in Dean. Dealing with humans gone bad, like in the Benders, or with monsters who cannot be deemed pure evil, as introduced to Dean's great dismay in 2.3, Bloodlust with the vampire Lenore, are things that have always led to Dean's emotional outpourings. I rewatched Bloodlust on Friday, and it totally presages all the issues that Dean has here with killing monsters and how he can justify himself. The Car Chat at the end is right there.
I also feel very strongly that Dean would not be able to admit everything that happened in hell in one fell swoop. After admitting that he tortured souls in Hell, back before Christmas (or according to Sam, "a month" ago), he had said as much as he could at the time. It took another month of stewing for him to admit that he did it for "the sheer pleasure" or as he amended, to push aside the pain of his own torture. i also think there's more that he hasn't admitted..... maybe dealing with the yellow-eyed version of Sam from Yellow Fever, or pertinent to that long look he shared with Ruby after Alistair cut her.... hm. I can wait.
My favorite moment in the ep was when Dean had to admit to the family that he failed to save Uncle Ted. To me, that moment was just superbly staged and executed. Dean's incredibly guilty posture was all out of proportion to his failure.... then it was reinforced by his having to kill the incest!brother.... and the feeling of ambivalence and regret that Sam and Dean both conveyed when they realized that the Family dad had killed the girl. Ultimately, we've never known Dean to feel that the job he did was good enough -- and post hell, he feels that way times a thousand. :(
I think the theme of the episode was fairly complex and brought forward themes that spn has been working with throughout the show. Not just that "monsters are made" but that as monster hunters, Sam and Dean have to face their own culpability in killing the monsters that threaten human beings. (I have kind of a meta on this regarding the Kids are Alright--- tho Sam and Dean didn't seem to reflect on that theme themselves...) In 4.11, they had to face the fact that the monsters were horribly neglected children, who became fatally dangerous (if not "evil") through no fault of their own. Dean's regret has to do with his feeling that the siblings were acting "naturally" in their situation. Dean used to be able to shut down his empathetic response (like when they first encountered the Cylon Woman who didn't know she was dead, and led her through a journey into the light, at Sam's instigation)..... Sam has been the brother who empathetically spoke on behalf of the monsters (like when he refuses to hunt Lenore, or when he desperately searches for a way to save Madison from her lycanthropy)... but Dean is looking those issues in the eye from the other side, since he remembers himself in Hell and the process by which Hell was attempting to make him into a demon. He is forcing himself to come to terms with how "evil" he became in Hell, certainly a slow and piecemeal process. I think these ideas were strongly foregrounded by the ep and so his conversation with Sam at the end wasn't surprising or out of the blue for me.
Bowtrunckle asks "Are humans turned demons truly evil and should they be held accountable for what they’ve been fashioned into under years of torture?" I think this is a very important question and would certainly be raised by this case.... as it was by the previous two parter, when you consider how Ruby self-sacrificially and with no guarantee of survival, put herself under Alistair's knife to get the boys out of a tight spot.... the extent to which Demons are evil actually came up way back in Sin City, when we first met the essentially sympathetic (though certainly amoral and demonic) Bartender Girl Demon. Just in my own speculation, I'm afraid that Sam has been destroying Demons (not merely exorcising them, though that's what he claims to be doing)--- if so he's essentially murdering them, since he does have the recourse of exorcism instead. A lot of Demons seem to just want OUT of Hell (I can't blame them.....)
Bowtrunckle correctly points out that Spn has developed "a formula to MotW episodes, such that they must be bracketed by five minutes of brother-relationship dialogue." This is certainly the case; it's so much worse on Smallville though, I have to completely be careful to tune in at EXACTLY the right moment, to avoid Clark and Lana's Tearful faces. Blech. BUT I just can't stay mad at Spn. I remember how incensed I was the first time I watched "Children shouldn't play" because I thought Sammy's dialogue was so inappropriately emo. Brothers just aren't like that. But I got over it and didn't mind nearly as much on subsequent reviewings... and I totally LICK IT UP when Dean has just HAD ENOUGH, when he grips the dresser and just begs Sammy not to leave him again..... and I understand how great the temptation must be to rely (maybe too much) on Jensen's ability to nail a tearful monologue. I really feel for Jared, though I do think his silent empathy is perfectly in character and just what is called for to help Dean get a little farther each day towards confronting what he did in hell and reconciling it to himself as the price of survival.
I think what I loved most about this episode--besides the Boys' seamless teamwork and how well they continually adapted to manage a situation that kept revealing things they hadn't guessed -- was the strong reluctance and regret the brothers felt towards killing the siblings in the walls. The Winchesters knew their first responsibility was to get the family out alive, and when the brother messed with the Impala, they lost that option. They had to hunker down and defend themselves. The price of survival becomes the definition of us against them. Dean is really not psyched when he has to shoot the brother, but what choice does he have? --he's in a life or death grapple. And if we are to believe that the brother is the far more violent sibling (sexist though it is), the question becomes whether the little girl was a threat after all? tho clearly, she went after Dean with a knife and we know she doesn't like grownups....
To end with a random note: I also really liked the rat scene. The crazy little girl, hopelessly demented, gleefully offers her new friend a delicious rat! Horrifying and heartbreaking at once.
I especially liked Bowtrunckle's well-argued meta, tho we argue to different ends, so I tried to credit where I agree with her. She also made a hilarious parody of the writers' room as they came up with 4.11.
Anyway, I loved Family Remains. I so loved how SCARY it was, by far the scariest Spn ever for me. The moment when the girl sets her foot across the salt line, I so had the blanket over my head. To compare, this episode for me approached the great old creepiness that had me glued to the tube every Friday night during the first several seasons of XFiles. And btw, this was WAY better than the XFiles episode about the crazy incest family (theirs was just revolting).
For me, the whole episode worked thematically. I loved how Sam and Dean immediately used the old "county code/asbestos" ruse to get the family out of the house -- a ruse they've tried in various permutations several times before. I especially love how authoritative Dean can be when he's trying to get folks to get out before they get killed.
I loved the scary ghost, and I thought she looked just like Missy Bender before the incest reveal was made.... I guess little incest daughters all end up looking like that? (I'm totally kidding, but I think we know by now that Show has a very narrow set of thematic visuals for their Creepy Little Girls) and this was the incest variety.
Bowtrunckle astutely pointed out how much better the plot would've worked had the siblings been identical twin girls, instead of a boy and girl we can only assume were twins. As she said "showing the “ghost” in multiple places inside the house almost instantaneously would’ve been a more effective way to foreshadow the plot twist. It certainly would’ve been felt more earned having two girls crawling out of the woodwork instead of a never-seen-before brother launching out of the shadows. " right on Bowtrunckle! Though I think in the mind of the writers, the idea was that the first sibling was the brother, that their mother raised him at least for a while, enough that he learns to read and write, for example, but that she kills herself after the birth of her daughter--- possibly she witnessed her dad and the continuation of the incest cycle? -- which is why the girl hates grownups and why she eventually comes out to kill the evil incest dad.
I think the idea of the brother was that he was more violent, stronger, more territorial-- in the way Dean interpreted the siblings as territorial and animalistic-- unfortunately maybe another example of Spn not necessarily being as forward in its understanding of gender roles as we might prefer.
I think a lot of people reacted negatively to the part at the end where Dean and Sam have a Car Chat. To me, though, the scene worked in a couple of ways. First, I really do think this case would have called up this reaction in Dean. Dealing with humans gone bad, like in the Benders, or with monsters who cannot be deemed pure evil, as introduced to Dean's great dismay in 2.3, Bloodlust with the vampire Lenore, are things that have always led to Dean's emotional outpourings. I rewatched Bloodlust on Friday, and it totally presages all the issues that Dean has here with killing monsters and how he can justify himself. The Car Chat at the end is right there.
I also feel very strongly that Dean would not be able to admit everything that happened in hell in one fell swoop. After admitting that he tortured souls in Hell, back before Christmas (or according to Sam, "a month" ago), he had said as much as he could at the time. It took another month of stewing for him to admit that he did it for "the sheer pleasure" or as he amended, to push aside the pain of his own torture. i also think there's more that he hasn't admitted..... maybe dealing with the yellow-eyed version of Sam from Yellow Fever, or pertinent to that long look he shared with Ruby after Alistair cut her.... hm. I can wait.
My favorite moment in the ep was when Dean had to admit to the family that he failed to save Uncle Ted. To me, that moment was just superbly staged and executed. Dean's incredibly guilty posture was all out of proportion to his failure.... then it was reinforced by his having to kill the incest!brother.... and the feeling of ambivalence and regret that Sam and Dean both conveyed when they realized that the Family dad had killed the girl. Ultimately, we've never known Dean to feel that the job he did was good enough -- and post hell, he feels that way times a thousand. :(
I think the theme of the episode was fairly complex and brought forward themes that spn has been working with throughout the show. Not just that "monsters are made" but that as monster hunters, Sam and Dean have to face their own culpability in killing the monsters that threaten human beings. (I have kind of a meta on this regarding the Kids are Alright--- tho Sam and Dean didn't seem to reflect on that theme themselves...) In 4.11, they had to face the fact that the monsters were horribly neglected children, who became fatally dangerous (if not "evil") through no fault of their own. Dean's regret has to do with his feeling that the siblings were acting "naturally" in their situation. Dean used to be able to shut down his empathetic response (like when they first encountered the Cylon Woman who didn't know she was dead, and led her through a journey into the light, at Sam's instigation)..... Sam has been the brother who empathetically spoke on behalf of the monsters (like when he refuses to hunt Lenore, or when he desperately searches for a way to save Madison from her lycanthropy)... but Dean is looking those issues in the eye from the other side, since he remembers himself in Hell and the process by which Hell was attempting to make him into a demon. He is forcing himself to come to terms with how "evil" he became in Hell, certainly a slow and piecemeal process. I think these ideas were strongly foregrounded by the ep and so his conversation with Sam at the end wasn't surprising or out of the blue for me.
Bowtrunckle asks "Are humans turned demons truly evil and should they be held accountable for what they’ve been fashioned into under years of torture?" I think this is a very important question and would certainly be raised by this case.... as it was by the previous two parter, when you consider how Ruby self-sacrificially and with no guarantee of survival, put herself under Alistair's knife to get the boys out of a tight spot.... the extent to which Demons are evil actually came up way back in Sin City, when we first met the essentially sympathetic (though certainly amoral and demonic) Bartender Girl Demon. Just in my own speculation, I'm afraid that Sam has been destroying Demons (not merely exorcising them, though that's what he claims to be doing)--- if so he's essentially murdering them, since he does have the recourse of exorcism instead. A lot of Demons seem to just want OUT of Hell (I can't blame them.....)
Bowtrunckle correctly points out that Spn has developed "a formula to MotW episodes, such that they must be bracketed by five minutes of brother-relationship dialogue." This is certainly the case; it's so much worse on Smallville though, I have to completely be careful to tune in at EXACTLY the right moment, to avoid Clark and Lana's Tearful faces. Blech. BUT I just can't stay mad at Spn. I remember how incensed I was the first time I watched "Children shouldn't play" because I thought Sammy's dialogue was so inappropriately emo. Brothers just aren't like that. But I got over it and didn't mind nearly as much on subsequent reviewings... and I totally LICK IT UP when Dean has just HAD ENOUGH, when he grips the dresser and just begs Sammy not to leave him again..... and I understand how great the temptation must be to rely (maybe too much) on Jensen's ability to nail a tearful monologue. I really feel for Jared, though I do think his silent empathy is perfectly in character and just what is called for to help Dean get a little farther each day towards confronting what he did in hell and reconciling it to himself as the price of survival.
I think what I loved most about this episode--besides the Boys' seamless teamwork and how well they continually adapted to manage a situation that kept revealing things they hadn't guessed -- was the strong reluctance and regret the brothers felt towards killing the siblings in the walls. The Winchesters knew their first responsibility was to get the family out alive, and when the brother messed with the Impala, they lost that option. They had to hunker down and defend themselves. The price of survival becomes the definition of us against them. Dean is really not psyched when he has to shoot the brother, but what choice does he have? --he's in a life or death grapple. And if we are to believe that the brother is the far more violent sibling (sexist though it is), the question becomes whether the little girl was a threat after all? tho clearly, she went after Dean with a knife and we know she doesn't like grownups....
To end with a random note: I also really liked the rat scene. The crazy little girl, hopelessly demented, gleefully offers her new friend a delicious rat! Horrifying and heartbreaking at once.