React-o-matic: SPN 5.3

Sep 30, 2009 09:21

I keep meaning to write this, and then just running out of enthusiasm once I sit down to it. Rarr.


God bless you, Sam Winchester, for going to bed shirtless for the teaser. *happy sigh*

Yaaaay montage with rock song!

"Eat it, Twilight!" *snerrrrrk* Oh, I didn't know I was waiting for a Twilight reference from Show until we got one.

Apparently Sam gets a job as a busboy, but for some reason, the first time I watched the ep, I thought he was a short-order cook. This amused me, since I just started reading Odd Thomas a week ago.

It's been pointed out to me that per Show canon, there is no sex in Heaven, so it really makes no sense for Cas to be anything but a virgin and it makes even less sense for him to seem vaguely embarrassed about it. But there's definitely Old Testament precedent for angels getting it on with humans, so...whatever.

I know the whole brothel thing really put a lot of people on edge. I...I don't know, I try to take things in the spirit in which they're intended with Show (because the alternative is to be really annoyed with Show all the friggin' time) and I'm pretty sure in this instance they were, as sarcasticval is wont to say, "going for the lulz." I didn't really laugh, but I gave a long-suffering chuckle and an affectionate "Oh, Dean," because who else genuinely thinks buying his angel a hooker is a perfectly good idea? On the upside, much love for Castiel in this scene.

Is Castiel's hair defying less gravity these days? I only just noticed, but it seems like it's been less epic ever since he got rebooted.

Lindsay kind of annoyed me with all her nosy prying, but I loved that she's an AA faithful and recognizes in Sam a fellow recovering addict.

It's making me really sad to watch Bobby be all bitter and unhappy in the wheelchair, but he's still just so awesome. "Oh...that'd be you." *hugs him forever*

I love the Dean & Cas Show. Not so much that I don't want the Sam & Dean Show back, but while I wait for the inevitable brother-hugging, the Dean & Cas Show is an enjoyable substitute. I love how impatient they both are with each other in completely different ways. Dean's all eye-rolly and cannot believe his angel is such a clueless dork. And you get the impression that Castiel periodically has to go sit alone in a quiet place and beseech God for the strength not to just lose it on Dean. One day he's going to flip and burn "Dean Winchester is an angel condom!!!" into Dean's forehead. *pets them both*

And Raphael is played by Hector from the Unit! Hi, Hector!!

Okay, so the whole episode has a pretty heavy-handed theme of absent fathers, and that's the context in which I got my first impression of Raphael: we have Castiel, the faithful child who still believes Dad is coming home, and we have Zachariah, the kid who doesn't really care where Dad is or when he's coming back as long as there's time to throw a kegger while he's gone. Now we have Raphael, who read to me as the kid who doesn't think Dad is ever coming back and has to tell himself stories about how Dad died in a car crash chasing Russian spies in order to feel less abandoned. Granted, we're talking about a kid who can black out the Eastern seaboard and smite just about anything into non-existence in 0.3 seconds, but he still seemed to me a sad character at the core. Mileage varies, of course, but I think all his scariness and doomy threats can be sourced back to that sadness. And I actually have a lot of sympathy for his "We're tired. We just want it to be over. We just want...paradise."

I just spent a great big paragraph discussing how a minor antagonist is actually a poor, misunderstood woobie, didn't I? I knew this day would come, I saw it coming back when I first got entangled in Harry Potter fandom and marveled at the lengths to which people would go to redeem Draco Malfoy. And alas, here we are. Fandom, look what you've done to me!

It seems like when they were writing this episode, someone went "I think we should make Castiel swear. That would be cool!" And this was agreed upon, so much so that Cas calls Raphael both a bastard and a bitch. And it feels like trying too hard. Maybe if we'd just had that last time, where Cas says "But today you're my little bitch," and Dean follows up with "What he said." (Dean!!) But having Cas mouth off like that twice in one ep sort of diluted the impact, I thought. Oh well.

Aaaand Sam is Lucifer's vessel. Which is fine, in a predictable sort of way. I am mildly interested to see where they go with that. I do love Sam's beleaguered hope that this time is different, this time he really can shake the darkness that keeps claiming him.

I forgot to mention it in my reaction to the premier, but I really like how they're playing Lucifer. He's not the Bwahahahahaaa supervillain bad guy. He's the bad guy who will gently, sympathetically, talk you into hitting the big red button and then sadly ask you why on earth you would do such a thing while the clock counts down to zero. This is the serpent that talked the first humans into getting themselves kicked out of Eden. And I like that he apparently is not a one to fix what ain't broke: he's used the appearance of dead lovers to communicate with two people so far. Dude knows what he's doing.

We don't even need to assert here that Dean's "I'm okay" speech is not actually the trufax, right? Because how can he be okay when there has been no brother-hugging?? Silly Dean.

supernatural

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