ep reaction
I work two Friday nights a month, so I missed the first ten minutes... which sucks, but I'll be downloading as fast as I can. i bet there was a ton of awesome brotherly banter in the Impala that I missed ?
At any rate, I liked the setup with the black and white flashbacks... i loved Jared's acting as he switched back and forth between soul and no soul. He is so good these days!! I loved how Grandpa was kind of horrified by no soul-Sam.
It's really too bad how no-soul Sam's callous disregard for the possibility of helping the men, led to their becoming monsters. I guess if they had been taken to the hospital, the nature of the toxin or whatever would have been revealed.
And then Sam has to deal with the fact that he created all these monsters and ruined Brenna's life. :( To me, yeah, that would pretty much trigger the hellish flashback. the way it came on all of a sudden like that was really shocking and effective, and it totally reminded me of when Sam used to get visions... in fact that's what I thought was happening until they showed him in Hell. Poor Sam!!
I'm really glad Dean backed Sam up when he asked for help. Yay.
I also think Sam's true depth of character shows where he is trying to clean up his messes, and also the way he tries to face up to what he did -- even though he can't even remember doing it, and it wasn't even mostly him. Poor Sam!! I admire his determination, even as I am kind of with Dean that it is not really Sam's fault.... but it is definitely a very tangled web. Like, I agree with Sam that it was him... it was a person with all his skills, his memories, and his intelligence -- but without the emotional intelligence to do the right thing, and apparently with only one rule of ethics, that the good of many (kill the monster at any cost) outweighs the needs of the few. I can imagine in Sam's mind the horror he must be feeling at the lives he took as he regained his memories in this episode.... how very awful! But the ep does leave Granpa with some heavy culpability, in terms of the way he didn't try very hard at all to curb Sam's coldness (unlike Dean, who was quick and ready to play moral compass -- which no soul Sam appeared to honestly appreciate, in his fashion.)
I thought the eyes of the Arachne (I already forgot his name, sorry -- i doubt it was Webb ETA Roy Dobbs) were very creepy and cool.. can't show this one to my son though! he claims show is getting grosser. :(
Okay, one more thing on a bit of a meta level -- remember that post on noir? whereas last week we had grateful hugs and deep heartfelt humility, this week we really get down to the level of What the Other Sam Did. Y'all who were very optimistic that things would be looking up -- what say you now? I have learned never to say "it can't get any worse." He wasn't able to do anything to ameliorate his crimes, except that he did satisfy Brenna's desire to learn what happened to her husband, and he laid that particular monster to rest.... but I have a feeling that the pattern will continue in terms of wrongs he discovers and is helpless to make amends. Poor, Poor Sam!!!
At any rate, I liked the setup with the black and white flashbacks... i loved Jared's acting as he switched back and forth between soul and no soul. He is so good these days!! I loved how Grandpa was kind of horrified by no soul-Sam.
It's really too bad how no-soul Sam's callous disregard for the possibility of helping the men, led to their becoming monsters. I guess if they had been taken to the hospital, the nature of the toxin or whatever would have been revealed.
And then Sam has to deal with the fact that he created all these monsters and ruined Brenna's life. :( To me, yeah, that would pretty much trigger the hellish flashback. the way it came on all of a sudden like that was really shocking and effective, and it totally reminded me of when Sam used to get visions... in fact that's what I thought was happening until they showed him in Hell. Poor Sam!!
I'm really glad Dean backed Sam up when he asked for help. Yay.
I also think Sam's true depth of character shows where he is trying to clean up his messes, and also the way he tries to face up to what he did -- even though he can't even remember doing it, and it wasn't even mostly him. Poor Sam!! I admire his determination, even as I am kind of with Dean that it is not really Sam's fault.... but it is definitely a very tangled web. Like, I agree with Sam that it was him... it was a person with all his skills, his memories, and his intelligence -- but without the emotional intelligence to do the right thing, and apparently with only one rule of ethics, that the good of many (kill the monster at any cost) outweighs the needs of the few. I can imagine in Sam's mind the horror he must be feeling at the lives he took as he regained his memories in this episode.... how very awful! But the ep does leave Granpa with some heavy culpability, in terms of the way he didn't try very hard at all to curb Sam's coldness (unlike Dean, who was quick and ready to play moral compass -- which no soul Sam appeared to honestly appreciate, in his fashion.)
I thought the eyes of the Arachne (I already forgot his name, sorry -- i doubt it was Webb ETA Roy Dobbs) were very creepy and cool.. can't show this one to my son though! he claims show is getting grosser. :(
Okay, one more thing on a bit of a meta level -- remember that post on noir? whereas last week we had grateful hugs and deep heartfelt humility, this week we really get down to the level of What the Other Sam Did. Y'all who were very optimistic that things would be looking up -- what say you now? I have learned never to say "it can't get any worse." He wasn't able to do anything to ameliorate his crimes, except that he did satisfy Brenna's desire to learn what happened to her husband, and he laid that particular monster to rest.... but I have a feeling that the pattern will continue in terms of wrongs he discovers and is helpless to make amends. Poor, Poor Sam!!!