SPN 3x09-3x13
I really, really like S3 so far. It’s hard to say which season I like best because I watched S1 and S2 in such a disjointed manner, but I feel pretty comfortable saying that I like S3’s arc better than the others’, in spire of it being more emotional than action-driven; in fact, that’s probably why I like it better. Watching the boys come to terms with Dean’s impending damnation, their individual struggles, Sam’s denial and Dean’s self-loathing, satisfies me so much more than the find-John road trip and the find-the-YED arcs in S1 and S2. Plus, S3 just has a ton of creative MOW episodes, not to mention BELA AND RUBY, adflkajdfljadlfjadfjadf!
3x09: “Malleus Maleficarum”:
HOLY REVEAL OF NEW MYTHOLOGY BATMAN! DEMONS ARE FORMER HUMANS WHO WERE DAMNED TO HELL. I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
And suddenly Ruby became a billion times more fascinating to me and I loved her. PLEASE CAN WE HAVE SOME RUBY BACKSTORY??
(DON’T TELL ME)
That was pretty much my main reaction to this episode, other than cringing, gasping “oh God oh God oh God oh God,” and literally turning away from the television screen during the opening scene with poor Janet. Eyes, fingers, and teeth are my biggest squicks (obligatory FUCK YOU, JOSS, FOR DOING THAT TO XANDER), so when that toothbrush came out I started cowering. I could not watch it. I was in the basement lifting weights while watching, and I turned around and faced the other way.
Aside from that appallingly horrifying scene, I liked this episode on its own merit and not just for the excellent new mythology. The women’s book club being a cover for a coven was clever, and I thought they did a good job of giving the women different personalities (the hesitant one, the psychotic murderer, the oblivious but not actually evil rich one). When I read the episode description I figured the women would all just be nasty, greedy cardboard cutouts. I really liked that Amanda tried to banish the demon at the end.
When the boys asked Ruby why she fought for their side, I was really hoping she would say that if their side won, demons would become human again. Fanciful, I know, but I’d like to think there’d be some way for Ruby to regain her humanity (her actual humanity and not just body-hopping, obviously). I could super ship Ruby and Sam… Probably not with Dean, although I really enjoyed seeing him come to understand that Ruby was indeed on their side. I yelped in giddy happiness when Ruby ordered him to stop calling her a bitch. Watching Dean come to terms with the gray areas of life, compared to his black and white view in S1, is really fascinating- not to mention it’s pleasant to watch him be humbled on occasion.
So…Dean could eventually become a demon. I’m guessing the process takes a very long time, since John was not a demon after one year, so Dean is probably not going to be a demon by the time Cas rescues him. But Dean doesn’t know that, and I can’t imagine how terrified he must feel. Poor baby. L
Last note about the mythology, I am curious to know more about witches and their connection with demons since there was no mention of demons in “Shut Up, Dr. Phil.” I hope they resolve this in the future and it’s not an inconsistency (DON’T TELL ME).
3x10: “Dream a Little Dream of Me”:
DEAN!!! OH, BABY! I didn’t care much for this episode on its own- dream episodes as a genre freak me out because all the logic goes out the window and anything can happen (and as you can probably tell, I really don’t deal well with physical horror/mutilation/mutation, which is always a possibility in dreams; think of “Hellbound,” which is dreamlike if not an actual dream; I can’t watch parts of that episode, which is a shame, since there is naked!Spike); it’s more difficult to preemptively cower while watching dream episodes than normal episodes.
(And in case anyone was wondering, “Restless” is not an exception to this rule. I don’t dislike it but I don’t squee over it the way most people do. I’ve only seen it once, though, so maybe that would change on a re-watch.)
However, the moment Dean’s dream self started confronting him about his fear of dying and his self-loathing, I was like, “YES, PLEASE, THIS JUST GOT WONDERFUL, EXCEPT FOR THE PART WHERE MY HEART IS BREAKING.” I mean, dude, this is the level of introspective emotional trauma I tend to only expect from Joss Whedon. It was extremely satisfying to watch, in a traumatic sort of way.
I love that we finally got a hint of Bobby’s backstory (and like Ruby, he just got more interesting). It stinks that said backstory entailed the murder/fridging of yet another woman, but killing his possessed wife is not an unrealistic reaction, just unfortunate, so I can deal. I didn’t use to care for Bobby much (in S1 and S2 he seemed like nothing but a recurring deus ex machina device, conveniently able to help the boys whenever they needed it), but he got a lot more interesting to me when he flipped out at Dean about bringing Sam back, and since then I’ve appreciated him a lot more.
I was definitely weirded out by Sam triggering the bad guy with his abusive father. 95% of me thinks it doesn’t matter that it was “below the belt” because, hey, the guy was trying to kill the brothers; the other 5% of me shuddered at the idea of purposefully triggering someone like that. In any case, it was a clever move on Sam’s part. I suppose it was yet another example of how he has become darker. I’ll talk more about that in “Jus in Bello,” but it all still works for me.
OH! I almost forgot about Bela! Sam’s sexy dream and ensuing reaction to her actual presence were amusing but came out of left field. I suppose Sam/Bela wouldn’t be bad, but I’m still waiting for my Bela/Dean angry hate!sex.
3x11: “Mystery Spot”:
Well, this episode was an interesting mix of funny and depressing. After Dean’s first few deaths the shock value wore of a little (I was actually really freaking out), and the humor became apparent. Said humor was vastly undercut by Sam’s mental trauma. Groundhog Day seems like an amusing concept in theory, but when you actually think about what it would be like to live it, it’s horrifying. Granted, most of what the boys go through is horrifying, but at least they’re together and they usually know how to solve those problems. My heart was breaking for Sam even before Dean died on Wednesday, and then, well, THERE WAS NO MORE HAPPINESS.
I’ve been reading a series recently where something similar happens between extraordinarily close siblings and you see the fallout. I don’t know if this episode would have resonated with me as much if I hadn’t been reading that concurrently, but I definitely appreciated how much Sam spiraled in the last few minutes, especially because he has always been the better “adjusted” brother; if Dean had died in S1, there’s little doubt in my mind that Sam would have been able to pick up the pieces of his life and move on; not immediately, obviously, but I don’t think it would have inherently changed him. It would now, though, and will. I’m already mentally gearing myself up for the heartbreak coming at the end of S3, and while I’m sure that Sam’s spiral after Dean’s death will be discomforting to watch, I’m equally sure it will be fascinating, the same way Buffy’s S6 depression is discomforting but important.
It was great to see the Trickster return. I really like him. I don’t want him to win, but I want to see more of him. It helps that the actor playing him is superb in the role. He’s the perfect combination of charismatic, slimy, gleeful, and authoritative.
3x12: “Jus in Bello”:
THIS EPISODE. Not what I would call fun but so ripe with characterization. I loved Henriksen!!! Even at the beginning when he was the “bad guy,” I still sympathized with him a little because while he was clearly hurting our boys, if you look at it from his perspective, he’s a damn fine upstanding citizen. He has every reason to think that these boys are savage serial killers; I’d hate them just as much if I were in his position. And I’d probably be a lot less gracious and humble about it when I found out I was wrong. It was very clever to have him kill the sheriff while possessed, and his grief added a lot to his character. I’m going to miss him. Geez, the writers kill off all the good characters (not to mention he was easy on the eyes). Wonder how much longer we have Bela and Ruby… (DON’T TELL ME).
One of my favorite things about the episode was seeing Henriksen and Dean fight back to back. They aren’t that different after all, and it was lovely to see them both realize that. The execution wasn’t subtle, but that’s okay; it was worth it. If Sam were ever dead/temporarily gone, I think Henriksen and Dean would make a great team. They would get the job done, and Henriksen would be stoic enough to be able to put up with Dean’s grief/lashing out, there for him if he needed it but not trying to force Dean to open up. Shame that would be totally AU now…
I also really liked Nancy, the secretary with the rosary who offered to sacrifice herself because she was a virgin. In a show that usually relegates its one-off female characters to damsel-in-distress mode, she was a welcome anomaly. She was sweet and wide-eyed and “innocent” but didn’t fall head over heels for one of the boys in gratitude; best of all she didn’t let the men shame her for being a virgin. As someone who also would also have been an available sacrifice in that situation, I really appreciated her protective attitude toward her virginity. I also didn’t think it was a stretch for her to agree to the spell. I.e., her self-sacrificing attitude didn’t seem contrived and thus offensive. Her fear for her friends and neighbors was always obvious and made her willingness to die understandable.
I thought the writing also treated her virginity rather respectfully. Obviously Dean was shocked, but I think that fits his character, and even he wasn’t cruel or denigrating about it. Considering how vehemently he was against using the spell, I was surprised he didn’t offer to sleep with her then and there; that would have prevented its use, and as a joke, it would have been perfectly in-character and non-offensive, given the circumstances. Wasted opportunity, SPN…
I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I didn’t actually think Sam and Ruby were The Worst People Ever for supporting the virgin-sacrificing plan. In the big picture I’m on Dean’s side that they should have explored all other alternatives (and they came up with such a clever one!! I’m so proud of our boy!!), but if they had had absolutely zero other options, would it really have been evil to sacrifice one woman in exchange for saving a whole town? If the woman agreed, which Nancy did, I think the answer is no. If Nancy had not agreed, then while it might still be the more “pragmatic” option, I agree with Dean that it would have meant being as bad as the demons.
In any case, I don’t think his way of thinking makes Sam a bad person, and I LOVE how his character has developed. His nature has become consistently darker this season, but at no time has it seemed contrived or OTT; his actions and feelings make sense in light of all that he has lost and is going to lose, and while I may not ultimately like who Sam becomes (I think I will, though), I’m loving his journey. It was a little weird to see Ruby come over all gung-ho about sacrificing Nancy when in her last appearance she emphasized how she retained her humanity, but it was “nice” of her to offer to sacrifice herself, and I loved how much she yelled at the boys about losing the Colt. However, I did not like when she yelled at them at the end when they realized what Lilith had done; that was basically victim blaming. The loudspeaker plan worked; it’s not their fault Lilith decided to punish the survivors anyway. What, Ruby, you think that even if that one demon hadn’t escaped, Lilith wouldn’t have been able to figure out who destroyed her army?
Speaking of Lilith: so she’s disturbing. Kudos to the writers for thinking to put their demon queen into the body of a little girl. She was only on screen for approximately 10 seconds but was already creepier than the Annoying One in all of his scenes combined.
Oh, and before I forget, BELA!! Until I mentioned the Colt I had forgotten about the role she played in this. I’m still happily awed by her cleverness, and I’m intrigued by her motives, but I’m disappointed that she might have sent the demons after the boys. I can’t wait to know more about her background.
3x13: “Ghostfacers”:
This was an entertaining episode, and it was hella clever, but the treatment of Corbett, the gay intern who dies, left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not really sure what to think because on the one hand, Dean and Sam explicitly call Harry and Ed on their exploitation of his death at the end of the episode, but on the other hand, the narrative itself exploits Corbett’s sexual orientation for a good thirty minutes. I think this is one of those situations where the writers knew they were writing something potentially problematic and tried to mitigate the offensiveness but just didn’t do enough. If SPN had ever had well developed, long-lived LGBT characters, this episode probably wouldn’t have rubbed me quite as wrongly because unfortunately, homophobes like Ed and Harry exist all over the place and so they weren’t unrealistic, but considering that the only other gay character I can think of also died (the lesbian in “All Hell Breaks Loose”), I’m not inclined to give this episode a pass.
Also, the villain was poorly characterized. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the mentally disturbed janitor did not actually kill people when he was alive, right? He just took their bodies, which is wrong and twisted, but is very different from straight-up murder. So why in death did he suddenly become so psychotic and violent? Maybe I missed something.
The “Ghostfacers” frame narrative was super cool, even if the plot itself was lacking. I’ve heard that SPN has progressively more creative MOW episodes as the series goes on, so I look forward to more similarly wacky premises.
ETA: I watched 3x14 and 3x15 today, and I ONLY HAVE THE FINALE LEFT, I AM UPSET WITH BELA FOR KILLING HER PARENTS BUT SHE HAD STILL BETTER NOT BE DEAD, DON'T TELL ME ANYTHING, AAAAAHHHHH, I THINK I MIGHT WATCH THE FINALE NOW, TME TO UNWRAP S4.