Supernatural - Analysis and Review of season 8 (ep 1 to 5)
[Major spoilers season 8 (ep1 to 5)]
Hello dears. So, I was waiting for the right episode to start reviewing again, and well, 8x05 really did it for me, so here I am, after a while, sharing my opinion with you guys yet again, and of course, dying to know what you thought of last night episode and most of all, of season eight in general and the paths its following. Enjoy.
- Dean’s ache and ashes.
“The end of the world happens when you stop to trust” Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska
- Ache, your name is Sam.
Last night, we watched Dean & Sam sharing some not-so-easing going banter, in a level of bitchness and tension rarely reach during those eight years of the show.
Apparently, a lot of you don’t know what to make of “post-purgatory Dean” anymore. Actually, based on the numerous comments and others reviews that I read, a lot of us fans, stamped Dean as a jerk, not with a capital J but almost, since we all discovered his dirty little secret, namely Benny, the same secret he was hiding from Sam, Sammy, his baby brother, the man to whom he apparently swore indefectible honesty and support (and where was I when that happened?)
Ok. Let’s cut the sarcasm and get to the blunt point, no matter how much some of us out there don’t want to hear it: Dean is pissed, and no among of cheese-burgers or half-ass reasons or heartfelt apologies are going to fix this quickly and peacefully. Dean is hurt and never mind the fact that he’s out of purgatory and free to move on to the next hunt in the real world, he’s back where he doesn’t feel wanted and that stink like a bitch. Which is why Dean is bitchy but what did you expect when we saw him swallowing down the most of his anger after the initial shock he felt from discovering that Sam, Sammy, his baby brother and the man to whom he swore undying love and support (never said the words but boy, did he act on it), didn’t even bother to move his butt to look for him? And then informed him that a dog and a girl were basically enough to make him forget about his brother, the same brother that sold his soul for him?
Well.
Like Jared said about Sam’s POV on Dean this season “It’s not that I don’t need you, but… I don’t need you. No hard feelings?”
We’ve got the message loud and clear, but there are definitely some huge hard feelings here. Because Dean is not Sam and he need his brother, no matter how angry and betrayed he feel about him. This is why when shit will hit the fan next time, Dean will not sit around and do nothing if Sam is the one going MIA. There are brothers, yes, but there are very different.
So, dears, I got to say that I’m a little surprised by the hard judgment that was set up on Dean, because of the little snips and cranky attitude he’s been giving to his brother those last episodes. And please, don’t give me the “Sam is his baby brother, he’s fragile and vulnerable and he has to be protected” That doesn’t work anymore. Sam is an adult, bigger, stronger and smarter than most things that would want to hurt him. He’s not a kid anymore, and he’s as a stage of his life when he should have realized that siblings look out for each other, this is how it’s work, and the one-side show that had been going on was over since middle of season seven.
When Sam had to step up and be the rescue to his brother, like Dean has been to him so many other times, he didn’t even bother. And we cannot say that the notion didn’t occur to him, but Sam choose to hide behind the sanctified last wish “I want you to have a normal life, don’t look for me” phrase said but never meant, and for the last part, always utterly ignored. Expect this time. So maybe, just maybe, Sam always meant those words when Dean never did.
But in Dean’s mind, in Dean’s heart, filled with so much self-doubts, self-loath, self-recrimination and other joys , what Sam did, or rather didn’t do just confirmed what he always suspected and later firmly believed about himself: he’s not worth it.
So. Let’s recap, shall we? Dean is pissed. Dean is hurt. Dean is bitchy. The conclusion to this epiphany: He has every right to be, not matter the Benny-plot. Get. Over. It.
Speaking of the devil… I mean the vampire…
- Ashes, your name are Benny.
I hope he occurred to some people that the fact that Sam didn’t lift a finger when Dean was missing, even if he had no proof that Dean was dead or not, but when some brotherly instinct definitely should have kicked in, is proof enough that Dean have the right to question or not if he can trust Sam to still have his back.
Dean’s life has been killing, surviving and relying on Castiel and Benny, then just Benny during a whole year. Trust and unselfishness were the two motors of the well-oiled war machine that was Benny and Dean during their time in the dark forest. Well, I’m sorry to break it like that, but Sam hasn’t shown himself to be the epitome of those two characteristics since Dean came back.
Therefore, I’m not surprised that Dean chooses to hide Benny’s existence from his little brother. Now, I know that Dean had decided to do just that before Sam’s laziness came into light, but again, the older Winchester is nothing if not loyal. Putting his word to his fellow comrade and battlefield friend before satisfying Sam’s curiosity is not a shocker, not to me anyway.
Benny. Oh Benny. You’re sexy. I really hope you won’t end up being a backstabbing bitch like Ruby, even if I’m sure that the writers are not stupid and tasteless enough to rewrite that storyline. Painful enough to watch the first time around. I like your beard, you remind me of Captain Haddock, and that’s definitely a plus for you man. I like that Dean wasn’t alone to face whatever crap went on in purgatory after Castiel ditched him, no matter how pure his intentions were. I like that you didn’t put up with his crap either and told him flat out what you wanted from him, didn’t pretend to be a docile pet underneath a lonely-harden-shiny-rock-monster-armor.
I liked the sarcastic comments towards Castiel and the helpful snide about Dean having his head so far up his own ass. I liked that even if you obviously didn’t appreciate the angel, you didn’t hesitate to save his life. I like that I can actually see something different in you, compared to all the other nasties. I like that maybe, just maybe Dean’s got a real friend, damaged good, yeah, but friend nonetheless. And I loved the insight in your past. Good job on ganking your sire, as for Andrea… it’s too bad. I won’t get my hopes up, because it’s Supernatural, but know that I vouch for you buddy.
- Sam’s jail and fear.
“You can only count on yourself. Then again, not so much.” Tristan Bernard
- Jail, your name is Dean.
Ok. After reading the Dean’s part above, you must be thinking that I’m out there for Sam’s blood. Well, I’m not. I love Sam so much. So, so much, and that’s the reason I have been so disappointed in the season’s first episode. Really, it was like a shot in the heart, but strangely, I wasn’t angry during 8x01, or the next episodes. I was… down, a little crushed and vastly disappointed. But not angry, I think maybe I didn’t grasp the hugeness of Sam’s abandonment of Dean. But I’m really starting to, and by the look of the 8x06 promo, Dean too.
If I wasn’t angry at the beginning, it was because I understood. At least a part of it, the obvious part. Sam went through the most awful, difficult, traumatic year of his life before Dean’s disappearance. Barely accepting the fact that he was a psychotic asshole while he was soulless, he found himself with his safety wall broke down by what was supposed to be a friend and then Lucifer, his former bunk buddy and personal corner of despair logged himself permanently in his head, breaking his sanity and destroying his well-being with a sweet slow rush that drove Sam to resort to self-harm to keep it together. Dean was drinking for two or three, leviathans were running the show, Castiel was a shitty God and then, the most devastating blow: Bobby, strong, unbreakable, reliable Bobby died.
I have no doubt that before Castiel man up or angel up and take responsibility for his actions; things have been too much for Sam. Hunting is one thing, what they’ve been doing during that year was just torture. Sam couldn’t keep up, and even after Lucifer deserted him, things stayed hard.
When Dean went poof, my guess is that Sam just didn’t have the strength anymore, nor did he wanted to find it. He was done. And the fact that he was all alone in the world was the last thing he wanted to acknowledge. Searching for Dean and killing himself to do so, much like in Mystery Spot (3x11) would have mean acknowledge the loss. So he didn’t. But we’ll get to that later.
Right now, season eight offered us a priori a very selfish Sam who doesn’t seem that happy to have Dean back among the living if it means giving up the dog and the veterinarian. We have a Sam who actually told his brother that he would be better off alone, without him, hunting by his lonesome and without back-up. We have a Sam who apparently never saw a birthday cake in his life (and what a load of crap is that, seriously?), we have a Sam who forgot that the last time he banked for the apple-pie life, his girlfriend end-up on the ceiling much like the mother he never wanted to acknowledge, since she was the reason of a childhood confined in motel-rooms with a gun under his pillow.
Today, the reason behind the hunting life is his brother Dean. His own personal jail, restriction, chain, whatever seems to stop Sam from having a fidelity card to the bio-shop. Things are bonded to snap and fast.
You know, I always thought that the relationship the boys had would overruled everything, that they would somehow, always, sooner or later, put what they had first. But I’m starting to think that maybe it would be for the best if they part away. Sam doesn’t want to be here. No matter how painful it is to admit to the fans, Dean’s girls or Sam’s girls, Dean’s doesn’t mean the same thing to Sam that Sam means to Dean. I’m not saying Sam doesn’t love Dean, but he doesn’t need him. Jared’s words not mine.
But after 8x05, I came to conclusion. Sam doesn’t need Dean unless Dean is the last one standing. And the jail cell becomes a velvet box.
- Fear, your name is loneliness.
So, yeah, Amelia. Hn. First of all, dear God, where is the chemistry here? So far, I have seen nothing, nada. During the first episode, I was kind of indifferent to her, I was too busy focusing on the purgatory part, but I did manage to notice a lot of bitchness coming from the character. Sassy? No Bitchy is more like it, let’s be honest. Then, to my utter surprise, my disinterest turned into a mild irritation. I will never forgive the writers for that ass-lame outrageous scene with the birthday cake and the borderline sickening picnic-summer-dress-sunny-day-dog-running-lady. It make Dean appear like the biggest asshole in the world, for supposedly never giving his brother a good birthday and why is that that in this show, a perfect stranger can always put one of the brother down unfairly? Ugh.
Sam, for some unclear reason, has built up a romance with the woman, and everything was peachy and disgustingly sugary until Dean popped out of nowhere right? Wrong. And we had our first clue last night.
I think Sam went into this relationship with the despair of someone, completely alone and scared of it. He’s not Dean, and I think that we are going to see that Sam doesn’t cope well with loneliness. The first contours of Sam-my-name-is-creepy-the-stalker are starting to show. I think the whole Amelia-thing is going to take a darker and unhealthy turn, simply because Sam is still screw in the head and need someone. He can’t be alone with himself, apparently it doesn’t matter if it’s Dean or someone else, but he clearly needs an anchor.
I was hoping like hell that Amelia was a huge hallucination that play in his mind but it sounds too good to be true. We’ll see where this “romance” leads us.
Ok, I’m done here. I’m very eager to watch the next episode and I hope that you comment on this little (haha) review and tell me what you thought of season 8 so far.