Further thoughts on 10x03
Okay, so the more I think about it, the more annoyed I'm becoming with this episode. Not that it wasn't well-directed and interesting to watch, but looking back on it now, I can't help but feel totally let down by it.
After 10x02 and that amazingly chilling conversation between Demon!Dean and Sam in the Impala, I had high hopes for 10x03. We finally got a glimpse of what Demon!Dean really was, and how scared Sam should really be... I had seen the clip from SDCC of the cat-and-mouse game in the Bunker and I couldn't wait to see the rest of that, to see what happened next, to see the 'big showdown....
... and I'm still waiting.
Turns out, that was it - they showed basically the entire scene in the sneak peek. There was nothing else. And now I'm left feeling empty and pissed off with it. Where was the 'mercy' Dean wasn't going to give Sam? Where was the fear and the discovery that Dean is f-ing dangerous, where was the development of Demon!Dean as a character?
So much for the whole 'Year of the Deanmon' that's apparently been promoted by the CW.
Try 15 days.
15 days is all we got of Demon!Dean (October 7th to October 21st). And it's such a disappointment to me. This should have been an episode that hit me emotionally, that was gut-wrenching for the brothers, that involved sacrifice and fear and suspense... and all we got was them roaming the halls for a bit and Cas swooping in at the last minute to solve everything easily.
Now, I'm kind of hoping this isn't the end of Demon!Dean - that there's something we don't know yet and he's not completely cured, but from what I've heard from J2 at cons lately and from what I know of the next 2 episodes (MOTW next week, written by Glass, and then the 200th episode), I have a feeling that's not going to happen.
Demon!Dean was quite possibly one of the best storylines to have come out of the last few seasons. It's the most excited I've been for a storyline in a long time and I stupidly thought that maybe, just maybe, the current writers would get their heads out of their arses and realise that they had been doing a pretty crap job with following through on storylines for the last 3 seasons and make the most of this opportunity.
If this storyline had occurred in the early seasons of the show, I'm sure it would have been amazing, or at least very satisfying for me. I watched the first 5 seasons all in one go about 3 years ago, and for me, the show was unique in the fact that it was completely satisfying for me to watch - they tied up (most) loose ends, when they introduced a concept it wasn't abandoned, the plot development was well-paced and logical, and everything that I secretly hoped was going to happen always did - when they introduced new potential storylines they pretty much always followed through.
The last 3-4 seasons however, have left me feeling very unsatisfied... pretty much nothing that I hoped would happen and all the potentially great storylines have either been abandoned, cut short or twisted beyond recognition. So, each year I'm finding myself feeling underwhelmed by the majority of the season, then my hopes are raised with the season finale and I see so much potential for the writers to get things right again, and then the new season starts and I realise they still don't have a clue what good storytelling is and they abandon the good plots in favour of something mediocre (Why, oh why do Brad and Eugenie keep being given the plot-heavy episodes?).
This is what I think would have made the Demon!Dean storyline epic:
- As per 10x03, Sam takes Dean back to the Bunker and tries the cure. All the while, Dean is scaring the shit out of him (sorry, Jared, but I got more emotion from you those last few seconds of 10x02 than in all of this episode). Dean escapes, the cat-and-mouse game plays out and we get to the scene with the kinfe against Dean's throat.
- Cas doesn't show up yet (and Sam preferably isn't in a sling!). They fight, Sam trying to get through to Dean, but Dean just doesn't care - we really see how chilling and scary he can be. We see Sam frightened by his brother, knowing he has to cure him, but having no clue how to do that or how to even get away from him..
- Somehow, battered and bruised, Sam gets Dean trapped (maybe with Cas' help now?). They try the ritual/cure again, but it's heartbreaking to see it - Sam is suffering, Dean is resisting and menacing and frightening. They think it's worked and Dean is released, but he's not cured at all.
Then either:
- Dean pretends he's cured and starts playing a long con (kind of hoping this is what's going on, but I bet it's not), toying with Sam and Cas, plotting something that will cause major hurt, being quietly dangerous and giving them a false sense of security (I'm thinking Alastair-esque in terms of how it's played).
Or:
- He escapes, leaving Sam shaken and afraid of him and for his own life. He has no idea where Dean is, no idea when he will come for him or what game he will play next, no idea who he will kill... or worse. He tries to get on with his life, working cases, but in constant fear of Dean and trying desperately to find a way to bring his human brother back.
- Meanwhile, Dean is off being a demon, making connections, finding a purpose, devising plans. He becomes the new big bad. The episodes explore Dean's nature now, his connection with Cain (maybe bringing Cain back to the show), how he finds an identity for himself as a demon, what his motivations are now etc.
- This carries on for a few more episodes until Sam finds some new radical, risky way to take down Dean, just as Dean is about to do something completely unforgivable. It would probably involve Cain and the Mark. There's another big showdown, maybe someone dies, it's heartbreaking and angst-filled, but finally Demon!Dean is brought down and human Dean returns (in an epic, will-they-or-won't-they succeed, will Dean even survive, kind of way)
- Then the next few episodes can deal with Dean struggling to come to terms with what he did as a demon and to make peace with himself
Now, whether anything like this will happen in regards to the Mark later in the season, since they still have to deal with that, I don't know, but if things remain as they appear to stand right now (Dean completely human, no more demon, back to MOTW cases and working together), then I don't see what the point of the Demon!Dean storyline was at all.
Why make Dean a demon and open up amazing potential storylines and a way to possibly get the show back to the epicness that it used to be... if you're just gonna shut it down within 3 episodes, before we've even had a chance to explore it?
I'm not writing this all off completely yet, and I'm hoping the writers will find a way to do right by this storyline even if Dean is no longer a demon, but given the last couple of seasons, I'm not sure they will.
After 10x02 and that amazingly chilling conversation between Demon!Dean and Sam in the Impala, I had high hopes for 10x03. We finally got a glimpse of what Demon!Dean really was, and how scared Sam should really be... I had seen the clip from SDCC of the cat-and-mouse game in the Bunker and I couldn't wait to see the rest of that, to see what happened next, to see the 'big showdown....
... and I'm still waiting.
Turns out, that was it - they showed basically the entire scene in the sneak peek. There was nothing else. And now I'm left feeling empty and pissed off with it. Where was the 'mercy' Dean wasn't going to give Sam? Where was the fear and the discovery that Dean is f-ing dangerous, where was the development of Demon!Dean as a character?
So much for the whole 'Year of the Deanmon' that's apparently been promoted by the CW.
Try 15 days.
15 days is all we got of Demon!Dean (October 7th to October 21st). And it's such a disappointment to me. This should have been an episode that hit me emotionally, that was gut-wrenching for the brothers, that involved sacrifice and fear and suspense... and all we got was them roaming the halls for a bit and Cas swooping in at the last minute to solve everything easily.
Now, I'm kind of hoping this isn't the end of Demon!Dean - that there's something we don't know yet and he's not completely cured, but from what I've heard from J2 at cons lately and from what I know of the next 2 episodes (MOTW next week, written by Glass, and then the 200th episode), I have a feeling that's not going to happen.
Demon!Dean was quite possibly one of the best storylines to have come out of the last few seasons. It's the most excited I've been for a storyline in a long time and I stupidly thought that maybe, just maybe, the current writers would get their heads out of their arses and realise that they had been doing a pretty crap job with following through on storylines for the last 3 seasons and make the most of this opportunity.
If this storyline had occurred in the early seasons of the show, I'm sure it would have been amazing, or at least very satisfying for me. I watched the first 5 seasons all in one go about 3 years ago, and for me, the show was unique in the fact that it was completely satisfying for me to watch - they tied up (most) loose ends, when they introduced a concept it wasn't abandoned, the plot development was well-paced and logical, and everything that I secretly hoped was going to happen always did - when they introduced new potential storylines they pretty much always followed through.
The last 3-4 seasons however, have left me feeling very unsatisfied... pretty much nothing that I hoped would happen and all the potentially great storylines have either been abandoned, cut short or twisted beyond recognition. So, each year I'm finding myself feeling underwhelmed by the majority of the season, then my hopes are raised with the season finale and I see so much potential for the writers to get things right again, and then the new season starts and I realise they still don't have a clue what good storytelling is and they abandon the good plots in favour of something mediocre (Why, oh why do Brad and Eugenie keep being given the plot-heavy episodes?).
This is what I think would have made the Demon!Dean storyline epic:
- As per 10x03, Sam takes Dean back to the Bunker and tries the cure. All the while, Dean is scaring the shit out of him (sorry, Jared, but I got more emotion from you those last few seconds of 10x02 than in all of this episode). Dean escapes, the cat-and-mouse game plays out and we get to the scene with the kinfe against Dean's throat.
- Cas doesn't show up yet (and Sam preferably isn't in a sling!). They fight, Sam trying to get through to Dean, but Dean just doesn't care - we really see how chilling and scary he can be. We see Sam frightened by his brother, knowing he has to cure him, but having no clue how to do that or how to even get away from him..
- Somehow, battered and bruised, Sam gets Dean trapped (maybe with Cas' help now?). They try the ritual/cure again, but it's heartbreaking to see it - Sam is suffering, Dean is resisting and menacing and frightening. They think it's worked and Dean is released, but he's not cured at all.
Then either:
- Dean pretends he's cured and starts playing a long con (kind of hoping this is what's going on, but I bet it's not), toying with Sam and Cas, plotting something that will cause major hurt, being quietly dangerous and giving them a false sense of security (I'm thinking Alastair-esque in terms of how it's played).
Or:
- He escapes, leaving Sam shaken and afraid of him and for his own life. He has no idea where Dean is, no idea when he will come for him or what game he will play next, no idea who he will kill... or worse. He tries to get on with his life, working cases, but in constant fear of Dean and trying desperately to find a way to bring his human brother back.
- Meanwhile, Dean is off being a demon, making connections, finding a purpose, devising plans. He becomes the new big bad. The episodes explore Dean's nature now, his connection with Cain (maybe bringing Cain back to the show), how he finds an identity for himself as a demon, what his motivations are now etc.
- This carries on for a few more episodes until Sam finds some new radical, risky way to take down Dean, just as Dean is about to do something completely unforgivable. It would probably involve Cain and the Mark. There's another big showdown, maybe someone dies, it's heartbreaking and angst-filled, but finally Demon!Dean is brought down and human Dean returns (in an epic, will-they-or-won't-they succeed, will Dean even survive, kind of way)
- Then the next few episodes can deal with Dean struggling to come to terms with what he did as a demon and to make peace with himself
Now, whether anything like this will happen in regards to the Mark later in the season, since they still have to deal with that, I don't know, but if things remain as they appear to stand right now (Dean completely human, no more demon, back to MOTW cases and working together), then I don't see what the point of the Demon!Dean storyline was at all.
Why make Dean a demon and open up amazing potential storylines and a way to possibly get the show back to the epicness that it used to be... if you're just gonna shut it down within 3 episodes, before we've even had a chance to explore it?
I'm not writing this all off completely yet, and I'm hoping the writers will find a way to do right by this storyline even if Dean is no longer a demon, but given the last couple of seasons, I'm not sure they will.