Just watched last night's show!!!
Yeah! And all else will be under the cut :P Don't look if you haven't seen it yet!
Alright... so I was pretty excited to see the new episode. I was really upset that my normal venue for watching it didn't have it last night so I read fanfic instead and tried to ignore all the posts coming up on my flists and comms :P So... anyway..
first impressions: Interesting show, but not the best.
1) I now get antsy anytime the boys stop on the side of the road anywhere. As soon as they showed the Impala parked at the end I knew we were getting an emotional moment and I was a bit disappointed that it was so predictable. They did it at the end of Heaven and Hell, we see it at the end of Wishful Thinking and now here. Yeah, the end is a good place to wrap up a bit of emotional baggage from the show, but to have so many episodes in a row that do the same thing? At least the boardwalk in Wishful Thinking was understandable. The moment in Heaven and Hell was necessary. This one? Felt more like... wow... we like to make Dean and Sam angsty and hurt... lets do it again here. Not a criticism of the acting because I think they play the scene as well as the writing will allow, but the writers really needed to think this through. And um... hello... did they think we wouldn't be rewatching Heaven and Hell right before this to get back in touch with the characters again?
2) I've seen it posted elsewhere that there was no real emotional connection in this episode and I completely agree. No where really. I liked it and I disliked it. First, no connection with the family. Even if Dean and Uncle don't get along, a few throw out lines and Dean about to kick his ass just wasn't enough. It felt like there should be more outright hostility towards the boys, especially after they come in and everyone knows they were lying before. The family itself worked as a whole I thought, but there was no connection with them and the boys, good or bad. Secondly, not much of a connection with Sam and Dean, which I felt worked in this episode. I feel like the boys are working their way towards a snap. Dean's getting angry again and Sam is too. First it was Dean keeping him out, and now Sam is having to deal with all the things Dean is saying about himself. It's a sort of role reversal from past episodes where Sam was convinced he was going evil and Dean had to keep listening to Sam and talk about killing him. Sam is getting pissed and I think that while he is trying to sympathetic and understanding, it's getting under his skin. And Dean is Dean and is turning to his anger again.
3) Yeah for liking it! OK, yeah totally wrong of me to think that's awesome, but honestly I think if you were torturing people for 10 years you'd have to find some way of enjoying it or you couldn't walk out of Hell sane. Well, maybe he isn't exactly sane (and was he ever, honestly? His whole take care of the family bit has always seemed a little off the beaten path if you know what I mean :P). He was asked once if what he brought back from Hell was 100% Sam, but now I think we need to ask what Castiel brought back. Sure, it's Dean and we haven't seen any black eyes, but what does it take to be a demon? What has to happen to you to make you become that when you're in Hell? Maybe Castiel was able to pull Dean back because he WAS a demon already? Maybe that mark on his shoulder is binding the demon inside Dean, letting the original Dean take himself back (yeah... I really want a reason behind that hand, other than it looks pretty when Anna touched it :P)
4) I now have an uncertainty about the good vs. evil showdown I thought was coming this year. At the beginning of the season I thought for sure we would see evil!Sam show up and angel-ish!Dean backing him down. Now, I have to wonder if Dean isn't the one thats going to turn evil and Sam, with his demon powers, being the only one that can bring Dean back from the edge. Damn. I have to go write some fanfic about that now. :P
5) Overall, fun episode. I didn't like them going back to a human monster thing but it did have some very tense moments because of that. Also, didn't like that little psycho girl was beating up on Dean. She's just human, and admittedly, Dean wasn't expecting the attack, let alone for it to be a human attack. The fact that she didn't slice him is good. I can believe he was just stunned by the fact she was human, and therefore unable to lash out at her the way he would a spirit. After all, he's lamenting how many he tortured in hell. It would have to suck to be the one to send someone down there. The bit with the brother was a strange, the unknown brother that comes from nowhere and Dean has to kill.
6) Love the way Jensen does little things in scenes that make Dean so real. IE: After Sam slumps back down in the back to go to sleep, Dean rubs the side of his finger just under his lip. Don't ask me why but that was such a real moment to me that it totally sold the whole thing for me. And I love the way Jared plays Sam's resignation. The combination of impatience and sympathy is pretty awesome. Plus... he has the eyes :P
Anyway.. that's all i'm going to say for now.
Alright... so I was pretty excited to see the new episode. I was really upset that my normal venue for watching it didn't have it last night so I read fanfic instead and tried to ignore all the posts coming up on my flists and comms :P So... anyway..
first impressions: Interesting show, but not the best.
1) I now get antsy anytime the boys stop on the side of the road anywhere. As soon as they showed the Impala parked at the end I knew we were getting an emotional moment and I was a bit disappointed that it was so predictable. They did it at the end of Heaven and Hell, we see it at the end of Wishful Thinking and now here. Yeah, the end is a good place to wrap up a bit of emotional baggage from the show, but to have so many episodes in a row that do the same thing? At least the boardwalk in Wishful Thinking was understandable. The moment in Heaven and Hell was necessary. This one? Felt more like... wow... we like to make Dean and Sam angsty and hurt... lets do it again here. Not a criticism of the acting because I think they play the scene as well as the writing will allow, but the writers really needed to think this through. And um... hello... did they think we wouldn't be rewatching Heaven and Hell right before this to get back in touch with the characters again?
2) I've seen it posted elsewhere that there was no real emotional connection in this episode and I completely agree. No where really. I liked it and I disliked it. First, no connection with the family. Even if Dean and Uncle don't get along, a few throw out lines and Dean about to kick his ass just wasn't enough. It felt like there should be more outright hostility towards the boys, especially after they come in and everyone knows they were lying before. The family itself worked as a whole I thought, but there was no connection with them and the boys, good or bad. Secondly, not much of a connection with Sam and Dean, which I felt worked in this episode. I feel like the boys are working their way towards a snap. Dean's getting angry again and Sam is too. First it was Dean keeping him out, and now Sam is having to deal with all the things Dean is saying about himself. It's a sort of role reversal from past episodes where Sam was convinced he was going evil and Dean had to keep listening to Sam and talk about killing him. Sam is getting pissed and I think that while he is trying to sympathetic and understanding, it's getting under his skin. And Dean is Dean and is turning to his anger again.
3) Yeah for liking it! OK, yeah totally wrong of me to think that's awesome, but honestly I think if you were torturing people for 10 years you'd have to find some way of enjoying it or you couldn't walk out of Hell sane. Well, maybe he isn't exactly sane (and was he ever, honestly? His whole take care of the family bit has always seemed a little off the beaten path if you know what I mean :P). He was asked once if what he brought back from Hell was 100% Sam, but now I think we need to ask what Castiel brought back. Sure, it's Dean and we haven't seen any black eyes, but what does it take to be a demon? What has to happen to you to make you become that when you're in Hell? Maybe Castiel was able to pull Dean back because he WAS a demon already? Maybe that mark on his shoulder is binding the demon inside Dean, letting the original Dean take himself back (yeah... I really want a reason behind that hand, other than it looks pretty when Anna touched it :P)
4) I now have an uncertainty about the good vs. evil showdown I thought was coming this year. At the beginning of the season I thought for sure we would see evil!Sam show up and angel-ish!Dean backing him down. Now, I have to wonder if Dean isn't the one thats going to turn evil and Sam, with his demon powers, being the only one that can bring Dean back from the edge. Damn. I have to go write some fanfic about that now. :P
5) Overall, fun episode. I didn't like them going back to a human monster thing but it did have some very tense moments because of that. Also, didn't like that little psycho girl was beating up on Dean. She's just human, and admittedly, Dean wasn't expecting the attack, let alone for it to be a human attack. The fact that she didn't slice him is good. I can believe he was just stunned by the fact she was human, and therefore unable to lash out at her the way he would a spirit. After all, he's lamenting how many he tortured in hell. It would have to suck to be the one to send someone down there. The bit with the brother was a strange, the unknown brother that comes from nowhere and Dean has to kill.
6) Love the way Jensen does little things in scenes that make Dean so real. IE: After Sam slumps back down in the back to go to sleep, Dean rubs the side of his finger just under his lip. Don't ask me why but that was such a real moment to me that it totally sold the whole thing for me. And I love the way Jared plays Sam's resignation. The combination of impatience and sympathy is pretty awesome. Plus... he has the eyes :P
Anyway.. that's all i'm going to say for now.