SPN - 9.08 - "Rock and a Hard Place"
My two favorite things about this episode:
1) Jody Mills.
2) Jensen Ackles
1. I really like Sheriff Jody. I wish she's be a more regular recurring character. She's very real. A "peer" character to myself, you might say. And level-headed. One of my favorite lines from this ep: "This wack-a-doo stuff keeps coming. The more I know, the better armed I'll be." Plus, if she were to become a hunter with a specialty (such as Daniel Elkins' specialty was vampires), her specialty would be pagan gods. She helped Sam retrieve Dean from Chronos. This time she bests Vesta. I was also pleased to see her make the kill.
Her other specialty is helping Sam rescue Dean. First from zombies, then from Chronos. Now from Vesta. This makes me very partial to Jody. :)
2. Jensen Ackles. He sold Dean for me in this.
The way Dean was written in this one didn't feel quite right to me, like a caricature of his womanizing, written on a superficial level. Dean has always flirted, traded lines with, and openly appreciated the physical attributes of women. But he only takes it as far as their returned interest. He's always respected a woman's choices. He makes his thoughts, intentions, and desires known, then lets her choose. Or he lets her make the first move. Dean walking home a woman who has chosen chastity, with the intention of hitting on her, getting her to break her vow . . . that's not the Dean I've been watching for the past eight years. He doesn't force himself on her, and the way Jensen played it--more mischievous than heavy-handed--is the reason I can go along with this. But I couldn't help but think, "This isn't the same guy who remained faithful to the same woman for a year and treated her son as his own." I mean, she wasn't even a bar hook-up. It was just . . . weird.
Then there was Susie. A former porn star turned chastity leader takes her hoodie off to reveal a clingy tank top (with bra straps showing) to a man who has taken a chastity pledge and admits that it's new to him? As if she's got no idea what kind of effect that will have on a man who just an hour ago (if that) described what he likes about the physical act of sex, but has ostensibly taken a vow to give that up? She also seemed very eager to break her own vow once Dean expressed admiration for the lifestyle she chose to leave.
(As an aside, there's at least one church that ministers specifically to workers in the porn industry who want out. People who have gotten out helping people who want out to do so. That's the church I thought of when her past was revealed.)
At any rate, she was a leader and a counselor and responsible for her actions.
Maybe it was the way it was written, but their hook-up just seemed . . . meh.
But as I said, Jensen's presentation of it made it palatable, and people are fallible and do slip from time to time.
I've watched the Jensen stuff a few times since the ep aired, and thanks to him, the stuff that didn't sit well the first time around has become more palatable. Of course Susie looked familiar to him; he'd seen her movies, and he was now seeing her out of context. Of course he'd think he had a shot with her; she was "the good dreams." So over all, Jensen made it make sense. Still . . .
But Jensen. Yeah.
ETA: I was also a little annoyed with the way they used the term "born again." I've never belonged to a chastity group, so I don't know if such a group would use the term specifically in regards to a vow of chastity. But I'd think that being a "born again virgin" is misleading. When one is "born again" (i.e., baptized into the Christian faith), it doesn't change their past. It changes their future. The things they've done, the sins they've committed, are forgiven, but the experience is still part of their testimony, of who they are. This is how Susie would be able to be a counselor to those struggling with a vow of chastity--she's been where they are. Like an AA sponsor helping a newly recovering alcoholic stay on the wagon. Recovering from alcoholism doesn't make a person not an alcoholic. Just . . . the way the ep used the term "born again" in very limited terms indicated that they (the writer and therefore the characters) don't really understand the concept. /ETA
Something I did like about the ep was the presentation of church as a place of comfort (for Jody) and Honor's assertion that God forgives even Susie and Dean's indiscretion.
That's about it, I guess. An okay ep. With Jody! \o/ And if one ignores the circumstances of the hook-up, Jensen photographs really well in those types of scenes (as I'm sure you know if you've read my other meta on Dean and his women). ;-)
I don't really have any thoughts one way or the other for the upcoming ep, other than I'm expecting a problematic cliffie since it's the mid-season finale. Oy.