Heaven and Hell
*sigh*
Where to start?
If you'd asked me last night whether or not I'd continue watching SPN after last night's ep, I'd have been hard pressed to answer in the affirmative. The ep was such a muddled, contradictory, depressing mess that I just don't think I'll be able to adequately express my disappointment in the written word.
I've expected something like this to happen for a very long time (ever since "Faith," actually), and time and time again, they turn things around and I actually like it. Even Castiel, after my initial "bzuh?" and especially after his exchange with Dean at the end of ItGPSW, I'm loving Cas.
And I'm still hoping that the other shoe will drop with Ruby. (May I request that it drop on Ruby?)
After a night's sleep and hi-res re-watch, I'm feeling a little bit better, but I'm not holding out much hope right now.
But let's start from the beginning,
Previouslies, and the "Now" starts immediately where we left off.
"heartless sons of bitches." "As a matter of fact, we are." And what's that supposed to mean? Last time I checked, Cas, you understood appreciation of beauty, you understood doubt, you understood faith. That doesn't sound . . . heartless . . . *is confused*
"She is far from innocent." I knew there was more to her story than the death of an innocent.
And Uriel finds Anna to be worse that Ruby? The demon? Worse than a demon? *raises eyebrows*
And I really didn't mind Uriel tossing Ruby around, but it's it kind of weird that Dean was the one who went to her defense? Maybe it's just that he's the first of the brothers to jump into a fight.
And how much do I love that Sam asks Castiel to stop, and Cas does his little forehead touch thing. No harm to Sam, and Cas can continue with his mission. Castiel really isn't into smiting unless he has to.
Uriel, otoh, is getting way too much pleasure out of beating on Dean.
And Anna sends the angels away with a blood spell? At this point, my hand is on the door knob, ready to shut the door on Show.
Title flash. Ravens.
Return to the panic room. Yay.
Dean and Ruby snarking at each other. Yay.
Hex bags? To hide from angels? Really, Show? What. Ever.
And Dean? Please don't be taken in by Ruby. It makes me nervous that Dean seems to be developing an acceptance for Ruby. It annoys me that TPTB seem to be making her good; it's so cliche. Last year, I didn't really like the character of Ruby (she's a demon; she's not supposed to be likable). But Katie Cassidy was fine. This year, I don't like the character or the actress.
"How's the car?" "I got her. She's fine." Yay! First, Sam picked up the Impala. Second, Sam picked up the Impala. Third, Sam referred to Impala as "she." Oh, Boys. Boys and their cars.
Also, Bobby's in the Dominican? Hunting real honest-to-goodness Haitian voodoo zombies, I assume. (I read once that there's actually a law on the books in Haiti making it illegal to turn anyone into a zombie. Zombification involves a poison similar to that found in puffer fish . . . right. TMI.)
Kinda like the image that Dean paints when he says that if Bobby's not on a case, he's being a hedonist. I'm with Sam. Not an image I needed, thank you.
"Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again." Funny, and yet so true of people addicted to porn. The distorted image of what women (or men) should look like or act like. You immerse yourself in it, like anything else you immerse yourself in, it changes your perception. I'm not saying that Dean is that far gone. I'm sayin' that there's a grain of truth in that joke. A joke which, admittedly, I found amusing.
The return of Pamela. I love when she's playing the Boys. I particularly love how she's all "Sam? It that you?" And Sam's all "It's me. I'm right here." And then she smacks him on the behind. Oh, Sam. You're so gullible.
"Any chance I can dick over an angel, I'm takin' it." That line? Made me cringe. Seriously.
"They stole something from me." Um . . . really? You mean, Castiel didn't warn you multiple times NOT to look at his face? And you didn't go ahead and do it anyway? Sorry, hon. You were warned. Now you have to live with the consequences of your actions.
But, I still like her vibrant demeanor. I'm just not as squeeful of her as the rest of the fandom.
And Dean is right there to try to comfort a flailing Anna. He's so all about helping the innocent. *hugs him*
"I'm an angel." And immediately Anna becomes suspect to me. *deep breath, reserve judgement, see where they take it* But seriously, that door on Show is starting to close.
"She fell to earth. Became human." The door is now closed. Fallen angels are demons. But wait . . . this is Show . . . they're playing it a little different . . . and this isn't exactly new. There's cinematic precedent for this . . . *cracks the door open to see where they're going with this*
"I ripped out my grace." And Dean's expression says it all. Because aside from that just truly grating on me (because grace isn't a substance that can be removed. It's a state of being that is granted). Besides that, it sounds so . . . contrived.
The whole retrieving the grace and "divine bong hit" . . . No. But Dean's "I like this plan"? I love Jensen's delivery.
Anna fell as a meteor. A falling star. Somebody's been watching Stardust.
". . . a meteor vanished in the sky over northwestern Ohio." BWAH!!! I'm sorry, but as a transplanted Buckeye, I'm always amused with they reference Ohio. And the fact that it's northwestern Ohio, i.e., Toledo, i.e., Kripke's hometown . . . It just amuses me no end. 1985 . . . I wasn't at Bowling Green yet . . .
"You're pretty buff for a nerd." Ruby obviously hasn't seen dodger_winslow's In my fandom, this is the geek graphic. (Scroll down about half way. You can't miss it.)
But the grace ended up in Kentucky? There's a joke in there somewhere, I'm sure.
Ruby wants to ditch Anna. She's still the self-serving twit I hope she is.
And . . . she wants Sam to use his powers. Yay, she is still the bad influence. And Sam refuses. Yay Sammy!
"Then you better pray that Anna gets her groove back." And you know, I want to comment on that line, but it's so ironic that I just can't.
Dean and Anna bonding in the junkyard. There "word association" is cute. But when Anna starts dissing angels, that's when the door closes. Only four angels have seen God? (And I bet I can name them.) Honey, read the book. 'Cause I'm pretty sure there are more than four angels in the throne room.
Unknowable father. "I can relate." Yeah, I knew he could.
Grace Ground Zero is pure creation. That I can go along with. And how delightful to see a supernatural something that is beautiful and good.
Dean and Ruby arguing. That's much better.
"Dean Winchester gives us Anna by midnight, or we hurl him back to damnation." And how much information does Jensen convey in his response to that. Utter shock and fear. And he looks to Sam, like "don't let that happen." And then his look when Sam asks about weapons against angels. I just . . . how can Jensen be so awesome? Isn't there some kind of law or something?
And btw? Jared looks really good.
Dean, reading by lamplight, at the trunk of the Impala. I can only assume he went to look something up in a book that was in the trunk, and that he wanted to read it right now. (Of course this is just the set-up for what's to come, but I've got to make some sense of it.)
Anna disobeyed. She is a fallen angel. Lucifer is a fallen angel. Maybe she has to pay. I really don't like the direction they've gone in this ep, so I've tried to find a way to explain Anna. You know how I said, back in ItGPSW, that Castiel was an excellent representation of a believer? Well, Anna's disobedience--and purposeful fall--is unrepentant sin. There are consequences to her actions, and unrepentant sin cannot be forgiven. It's one of the hard truths I was finally able to dig out of this muddled ep. Of course, this particular analogy ends when we come to Anna's retrieval of her grace. Grace cannot be taken; it can only be given and received.
I want to say more, but that's getting into some very deep and personally interpretive thoughts that I can't really express right now.
But here, Anna is halfway acknowledging that she should submit herself for judgement. She never says she's sorry for what she did, but she seems . . . "humble" isn't the word I'm looking for . . . but the opposite of arrogant . . . she seems humble enough to know that she does have to face the consequences of her actions.
Which is giving her a lot more benefit of the doubt than I did last night.
Moving on . . .
In other news, Jensen looks really good by lamplight.
"You should forgive yourself." Anna mentioned forgiveness in their previous conversation. And she'll mention it again before the ep is over. Perhaps she's so aware of forgiveness because she knows there is none for her. I don't know if Show means for me to read it like that, but there ya go. Forgiveness is a great theme to work with. Unfortunately, Show doesn't see it that way.
In contrast, Dean is truly remorseful of what he did. And he needs to hear that he's forgiven. And I like how Anna comforts Dean (no, not like that), reminding him that he has people who want to help him when he's ready.
"You're stealin' my best line." Oh, Dean. Heh.
Oh, izhilzha? I asked Geo if he recognized the music they used for the Impala scene. He said yes, he did, it's from the '70s. I'll have him give it another listen and get an artist and title from him.
Now, I know a lot of people are drawing parallels between Sam's demon sex and Dean's angel sex, but my observations are much . . . shallower (and go farther back than just these two eps). More on that later. I will say that aside from the slightly over calibrated music (they could have brought it down a couple notches, it was almost overpowering for the scene, imo), I liked this. Off comes the amulet (which gets placed on the back deck of the car). Off comes the t-shirt. Slow and sweet. But I'll save it.
Hand on the steamy window. How . . . cliche.
Okay, so who is the actor playing Alistair trying to channel? His lisp and pronunciation and cadence seem familiar, but I can't quite place it.
And this scene makes me rather miss Katie more than usual. I picture Katie playing it . . . I don't know . . . stronger, I guess. More layers, maybe? I don't know. Something.
Again with the monkey reference. Uriel . . . I don't exactly "like" him, but he does make things interesting.
Castiel likes Dean. And I like Castiel. Thus far, the best representative for the angelic hosts we've had this season. Sadly, he doesn't do much in this ep.
Okay, so, grace can be kept in a vial on a chain? Why does that so remind me of Stardust?
But overall, that scene was pretty cool.
The Ruby torture scene, otoh. Was that truly necessary? I mean, yeah, I suppose, so that we know that Ruby's being tortured for information, but seriously? Seriously? With the leather straps and the dripping blood? This isn't CSI.
Poland, '43. Oh, my word. He's a cruel and evil bastard and needs to be destroyed.
Back in the barn, and Dean's drinking again.
And . . . Enter Castiel. Dang but I wish they'd given him more to do. There's some serious depth there, and a connection--if not understanding--with Dean.
Anna tells Cas he's not sorry. He doesn't know the feeling. To which I say, huh? If Cas can feel things like a fondness for Dean, or an appreciation of the beauty of humans, or loyalty to his Father, why wouldn't he be able to feel regret or sorrow?
Angel/Demon smackdown. And Uriel finally gets to do some smiting. Meanwhile, apparently Alistair is relatively more powerful than Castiel, because was that an "exorcism" Alistair was trying to do on Cas? But Dean rescues his angel friend. Yay!
And Anna steals her grace back. *eyeroll* And transforms back into an angel (her eyes going yellow on the way).
And . . . so what happened to Alistair?
And the whole showdown was Sam's plan. Which means that Ruby got herself captured and tortured for Sam. Showing her loyalty to him, right? I really hope there's another shoe that's going to drop. The more Sam trusts her, the bigger the betrayal.
The Sam-Dean-Impala heart-to-heart. I knew where this was going, I just had a feeling, and still, it just . . . hurts. Not in a shocking kind of way, but in an "Oh, Dean" kind of way. As if he doesn't have enough angst already to last him a couple lifetimes. Also? I am now totally convinced that he didn't remember "everything" until Yellow Fever. Because Monster Movie was the happiest we've seen Dean, ever, and I just can't buy that he'd have that kind of genuine joie de vivre if he remembered "everything." I kept thinking back to his talk with Jamie, and "big pretzel" and "I have been rehymenated" and oh, Dean.
And Jensen just rocks that last seen. It makes my heart hurt. And Jared. My word. On the edge of tears, reacting to what he's hearing. They're just both so great here.
Dean doesn't want to feel anything. No wonder Anna's description of being an angel sounded so appealing.
And the last shot is sad and lovely.
Okay, then. It's late, and I feel like I've lost focus. Long story short, I'm coming to terms with this ep. I still don't like it, but I don't hate it as much as I did last night. Which is good, but I was so incredibly depressed that this is where they were leaving us for hiatus.
So, yeah, I'll still be watching to see what happens with Sam and Dean, but the mytharc? Took a serious turn south for me in this one.
Where to start?
If you'd asked me last night whether or not I'd continue watching SPN after last night's ep, I'd have been hard pressed to answer in the affirmative. The ep was such a muddled, contradictory, depressing mess that I just don't think I'll be able to adequately express my disappointment in the written word.
I've expected something like this to happen for a very long time (ever since "Faith," actually), and time and time again, they turn things around and I actually like it. Even Castiel, after my initial "bzuh?" and especially after his exchange with Dean at the end of ItGPSW, I'm loving Cas.
And I'm still hoping that the other shoe will drop with Ruby. (May I request that it drop on Ruby?)
After a night's sleep and hi-res re-watch, I'm feeling a little bit better, but I'm not holding out much hope right now.
But let's start from the beginning,
Previouslies, and the "Now" starts immediately where we left off.
"heartless sons of bitches." "As a matter of fact, we are." And what's that supposed to mean? Last time I checked, Cas, you understood appreciation of beauty, you understood doubt, you understood faith. That doesn't sound . . . heartless . . . *is confused*
"She is far from innocent." I knew there was more to her story than the death of an innocent.
And Uriel finds Anna to be worse that Ruby? The demon? Worse than a demon? *raises eyebrows*
And I really didn't mind Uriel tossing Ruby around, but it's it kind of weird that Dean was the one who went to her defense? Maybe it's just that he's the first of the brothers to jump into a fight.
And how much do I love that Sam asks Castiel to stop, and Cas does his little forehead touch thing. No harm to Sam, and Cas can continue with his mission. Castiel really isn't into smiting unless he has to.
Uriel, otoh, is getting way too much pleasure out of beating on Dean.
And Anna sends the angels away with a blood spell? At this point, my hand is on the door knob, ready to shut the door on Show.
Title flash. Ravens.
Return to the panic room. Yay.
Dean and Ruby snarking at each other. Yay.
Hex bags? To hide from angels? Really, Show? What. Ever.
And Dean? Please don't be taken in by Ruby. It makes me nervous that Dean seems to be developing an acceptance for Ruby. It annoys me that TPTB seem to be making her good; it's so cliche. Last year, I didn't really like the character of Ruby (she's a demon; she's not supposed to be likable). But Katie Cassidy was fine. This year, I don't like the character or the actress.
"How's the car?" "I got her. She's fine." Yay! First, Sam picked up the Impala. Second, Sam picked up the Impala. Third, Sam referred to Impala as "she." Oh, Boys. Boys and their cars.
Also, Bobby's in the Dominican? Hunting real honest-to-goodness Haitian voodoo zombies, I assume. (I read once that there's actually a law on the books in Haiti making it illegal to turn anyone into a zombie. Zombification involves a poison similar to that found in puffer fish . . . right. TMI.)
Kinda like the image that Dean paints when he says that if Bobby's not on a case, he's being a hedonist. I'm with Sam. Not an image I needed, thank you.
"Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again." Funny, and yet so true of people addicted to porn. The distorted image of what women (or men) should look like or act like. You immerse yourself in it, like anything else you immerse yourself in, it changes your perception. I'm not saying that Dean is that far gone. I'm sayin' that there's a grain of truth in that joke. A joke which, admittedly, I found amusing.
The return of Pamela. I love when she's playing the Boys. I particularly love how she's all "Sam? It that you?" And Sam's all "It's me. I'm right here." And then she smacks him on the behind. Oh, Sam. You're so gullible.
"Any chance I can dick over an angel, I'm takin' it." That line? Made me cringe. Seriously.
"They stole something from me." Um . . . really? You mean, Castiel didn't warn you multiple times NOT to look at his face? And you didn't go ahead and do it anyway? Sorry, hon. You were warned. Now you have to live with the consequences of your actions.
But, I still like her vibrant demeanor. I'm just not as squeeful of her as the rest of the fandom.
And Dean is right there to try to comfort a flailing Anna. He's so all about helping the innocent. *hugs him*
"I'm an angel." And immediately Anna becomes suspect to me. *deep breath, reserve judgement, see where they take it* But seriously, that door on Show is starting to close.
"She fell to earth. Became human." The door is now closed. Fallen angels are demons. But wait . . . this is Show . . . they're playing it a little different . . . and this isn't exactly new. There's cinematic precedent for this . . . *cracks the door open to see where they're going with this*
"I ripped out my grace." And Dean's expression says it all. Because aside from that just truly grating on me (because grace isn't a substance that can be removed. It's a state of being that is granted). Besides that, it sounds so . . . contrived.
The whole retrieving the grace and "divine bong hit" . . . No. But Dean's "I like this plan"? I love Jensen's delivery.
Anna fell as a meteor. A falling star. Somebody's been watching Stardust.
". . . a meteor vanished in the sky over northwestern Ohio." BWAH!!! I'm sorry, but as a transplanted Buckeye, I'm always amused with they reference Ohio. And the fact that it's northwestern Ohio, i.e., Toledo, i.e., Kripke's hometown . . . It just amuses me no end. 1985 . . . I wasn't at Bowling Green yet . . .
"You're pretty buff for a nerd." Ruby obviously hasn't seen dodger_winslow's In my fandom, this is the geek graphic. (Scroll down about half way. You can't miss it.)
But the grace ended up in Kentucky? There's a joke in there somewhere, I'm sure.
Ruby wants to ditch Anna. She's still the self-serving twit I hope she is.
And . . . she wants Sam to use his powers. Yay, she is still the bad influence. And Sam refuses. Yay Sammy!
"Then you better pray that Anna gets her groove back." And you know, I want to comment on that line, but it's so ironic that I just can't.
Dean and Anna bonding in the junkyard. There "word association" is cute. But when Anna starts dissing angels, that's when the door closes. Only four angels have seen God? (And I bet I can name them.) Honey, read the book. 'Cause I'm pretty sure there are more than four angels in the throne room.
Unknowable father. "I can relate." Yeah, I knew he could.
Grace Ground Zero is pure creation. That I can go along with. And how delightful to see a supernatural something that is beautiful and good.
Dean and Ruby arguing. That's much better.
"Dean Winchester gives us Anna by midnight, or we hurl him back to damnation." And how much information does Jensen convey in his response to that. Utter shock and fear. And he looks to Sam, like "don't let that happen." And then his look when Sam asks about weapons against angels. I just . . . how can Jensen be so awesome? Isn't there some kind of law or something?
And btw? Jared looks really good.
Dean, reading by lamplight, at the trunk of the Impala. I can only assume he went to look something up in a book that was in the trunk, and that he wanted to read it right now. (Of course this is just the set-up for what's to come, but I've got to make some sense of it.)
Anna disobeyed. She is a fallen angel. Lucifer is a fallen angel. Maybe she has to pay. I really don't like the direction they've gone in this ep, so I've tried to find a way to explain Anna. You know how I said, back in ItGPSW, that Castiel was an excellent representation of a believer? Well, Anna's disobedience--and purposeful fall--is unrepentant sin. There are consequences to her actions, and unrepentant sin cannot be forgiven. It's one of the hard truths I was finally able to dig out of this muddled ep. Of course, this particular analogy ends when we come to Anna's retrieval of her grace. Grace cannot be taken; it can only be given and received.
I want to say more, but that's getting into some very deep and personally interpretive thoughts that I can't really express right now.
But here, Anna is halfway acknowledging that she should submit herself for judgement. She never says she's sorry for what she did, but she seems . . . "humble" isn't the word I'm looking for . . . but the opposite of arrogant . . . she seems humble enough to know that she does have to face the consequences of her actions.
Which is giving her a lot more benefit of the doubt than I did last night.
Moving on . . .
In other news, Jensen looks really good by lamplight.
"You should forgive yourself." Anna mentioned forgiveness in their previous conversation. And she'll mention it again before the ep is over. Perhaps she's so aware of forgiveness because she knows there is none for her. I don't know if Show means for me to read it like that, but there ya go. Forgiveness is a great theme to work with. Unfortunately, Show doesn't see it that way.
In contrast, Dean is truly remorseful of what he did. And he needs to hear that he's forgiven. And I like how Anna comforts Dean (no, not like that), reminding him that he has people who want to help him when he's ready.
"You're stealin' my best line." Oh, Dean. Heh.
Oh, izhilzha? I asked Geo if he recognized the music they used for the Impala scene. He said yes, he did, it's from the '70s. I'll have him give it another listen and get an artist and title from him.
Now, I know a lot of people are drawing parallels between Sam's demon sex and Dean's angel sex, but my observations are much . . . shallower (and go farther back than just these two eps). More on that later. I will say that aside from the slightly over calibrated music (they could have brought it down a couple notches, it was almost overpowering for the scene, imo), I liked this. Off comes the amulet (which gets placed on the back deck of the car). Off comes the t-shirt. Slow and sweet. But I'll save it.
Hand on the steamy window. How . . . cliche.
Okay, so who is the actor playing Alistair trying to channel? His lisp and pronunciation and cadence seem familiar, but I can't quite place it.
And this scene makes me rather miss Katie more than usual. I picture Katie playing it . . . I don't know . . . stronger, I guess. More layers, maybe? I don't know. Something.
Again with the monkey reference. Uriel . . . I don't exactly "like" him, but he does make things interesting.
Castiel likes Dean. And I like Castiel. Thus far, the best representative for the angelic hosts we've had this season. Sadly, he doesn't do much in this ep.
Okay, so, grace can be kept in a vial on a chain? Why does that so remind me of Stardust?
But overall, that scene was pretty cool.
The Ruby torture scene, otoh. Was that truly necessary? I mean, yeah, I suppose, so that we know that Ruby's being tortured for information, but seriously? Seriously? With the leather straps and the dripping blood? This isn't CSI.
Poland, '43. Oh, my word. He's a cruel and evil bastard and needs to be destroyed.
Back in the barn, and Dean's drinking again.
And . . . Enter Castiel. Dang but I wish they'd given him more to do. There's some serious depth there, and a connection--if not understanding--with Dean.
Anna tells Cas he's not sorry. He doesn't know the feeling. To which I say, huh? If Cas can feel things like a fondness for Dean, or an appreciation of the beauty of humans, or loyalty to his Father, why wouldn't he be able to feel regret or sorrow?
Angel/Demon smackdown. And Uriel finally gets to do some smiting. Meanwhile, apparently Alistair is relatively more powerful than Castiel, because was that an "exorcism" Alistair was trying to do on Cas? But Dean rescues his angel friend. Yay!
And Anna steals her grace back. *eyeroll* And transforms back into an angel (her eyes going yellow on the way).
And . . . so what happened to Alistair?
And the whole showdown was Sam's plan. Which means that Ruby got herself captured and tortured for Sam. Showing her loyalty to him, right? I really hope there's another shoe that's going to drop. The more Sam trusts her, the bigger the betrayal.
The Sam-Dean-Impala heart-to-heart. I knew where this was going, I just had a feeling, and still, it just . . . hurts. Not in a shocking kind of way, but in an "Oh, Dean" kind of way. As if he doesn't have enough angst already to last him a couple lifetimes. Also? I am now totally convinced that he didn't remember "everything" until Yellow Fever. Because Monster Movie was the happiest we've seen Dean, ever, and I just can't buy that he'd have that kind of genuine joie de vivre if he remembered "everything." I kept thinking back to his talk with Jamie, and "big pretzel" and "I have been rehymenated" and oh, Dean.
And Jensen just rocks that last seen. It makes my heart hurt. And Jared. My word. On the edge of tears, reacting to what he's hearing. They're just both so great here.
Dean doesn't want to feel anything. No wonder Anna's description of being an angel sounded so appealing.
And the last shot is sad and lovely.
Okay, then. It's late, and I feel like I've lost focus. Long story short, I'm coming to terms with this ep. I still don't like it, but I don't hate it as much as I did last night. Which is good, but I was so incredibly depressed that this is where they were leaving us for hiatus.
So, yeah, I'll still be watching to see what happens with Sam and Dean, but the mytharc? Took a serious turn south for me in this one.