way down inside, honey, you need
The Office
Man, I don't even know what to say about Michael and Jan, except I tried really hard not to watch most of it because it really made me cringe.
Kelly! The difference between talking trash and talking smack! Ping pong! How BAD Kelly and Pam are at ping pong! the last shot with Mose and Dwight rocking like a ping pong machine! I was vastly amused, and sad that that was the last episode until the strike is over.
*
So I am trying to pull together my thoughts on "Fresh Blood" but I don't think I'm near coherent yet, so this is just a bunch of bullet points, I guess.
* I was sad they didn't get more use out of Harmony Mercedes McNab. I am choosing to think the lack of mention of Lenore was intentional, though watching Dixon feed his, um, daughters from a jar made me think of Angel warming his mug of pig's blood in the microwave, and I did kind of expect a mention of feeding her up on animal blood, but then having no place to put her and no way of contacting Lenore to make sure she wouldn't revert. I think we're supposed to read the glances between Sam and Dean as Dean waiting for Sam to bring the option up and Sam feeling it wasn't a job they could undertake. I think both of them felt for her, especially with her whole, "I just want to come down!" thing, but I don't think they thought they had any real feasible way of helping her.
* The Croatoan callbacks - vampirism is a virus but unlike in the Buffyverse, you are still you when you are turned (rather than a demon taking up residence in your body after your soul and your essential you-ness has vacated the premises; how one's memories aren't one's essential you-ness is still a problem in that scenario, but we're not discussing the Bverse here, so please drive through), but with heightened senses and, at first, raging, insatiable hunger. And Sam giving Dean the nod, Sam approving the killing of Harmony Lucy, but still letting Dean do the killing, much like what happened with Mrs. Tanner in Croatoan.
* Gordon, Gordon, Gordon. Oh, how I at least will miss your hardcore anti-Sam zealotry. You were a little crazy, but you weren't necessarily wrong about Sam being the most dangerous thing you've ever hunted. Sterling K. Brown acted the HELL out of this episode, and I felt for Gordon all the way through, how he was turned into the thing he hated the most, and how he believed he had to be a monster, he became a monster, because he couldn't face the idea that he was still himself, and had a choice, because that would mean he might have killed vampires who weren't 100% evil, that they did in fact have the capacity to change. I liked the he was smart and ruthless as well as sorrowful over Kubrick's death, that he believed he would have ended himself after killing Sam, because he was a monster now and couldn't be allowed to live. That he would do two last good deeds, because he was still a hunter.
I also don't really have a problem with him turning the girl at the end - I don't think that was about lack of control so much as it was about strategy. He knew Sam and Dean wouldn't be able to not try to save the hostage, and then when he separated them, he would kill Sam and the girl could kill Dean, or at least make it a lot harder for him to be able to save Sam. It was smart, imo.
* Bela! I am so happy she sold them out! That makes me gleeful, because it makes her one nasty, yet consistent, piece of work. And she was totally lying about hating people having grudges against her - she was 1. surprised that Dean actually sounded like he meant to kill her (and I believe in that moment, he did mean it, and had something happened to Sam, I think Bela would have followed soon after), which meant 2. he would be a lot less likely to want to have angry sex with her the next time they met, and so she had to fix that.
Sure, there were other ways Gordon could have gotten the info about the Winchesters, but this was more fun, and also if they have to have the character, they might as well use her. I want to know who she spoke with on the other side, who gave her such a stern warning for Dean.
* Dean smells good and he tastes good too. As if there were any doubt. (I was really creeped out by Gordon's, "your scent was all over the store, but I can't smell you now." That was seriously creepy stalker territory.)
* I really loved the way they shot the whole Sam v. Gordon in the warehouse thing. It was very Silence of the Lambs, which is one of my favoritest movies of all time, and I'm sure that was deliberate.
* Sam's "Yeah, we'll kill him." And Dean's nod of agreement. I said in destina's comments that I think Dean needs to believe Sam can make those hard decisions, and then carry them out, because if Dean's not going to be around, Sam can't afford to leave (relentless, smart and deadly) enemies alive at his back. I think Sam learned that lesson in AHBL1 (well, what Sam should have learned was, "Don't turn your back on an enemy when you've left weapons in his reach," but for all his brains, Sam's a little slow on the uptake sometimes), and his stores of mercy have slowly been depleted, but especially when Dean is in danger. Even in this episode, Dean kills Harmony, but he looks to Sam for agreement with this judgement. But Dean's not going to be around to do the killing at Sam's behest anymore, and so Dean needs to believe that he's going to be capable of doing it himself, to survive, once Dean is gone.
What Dean refuses to see is how far down that road Sam is going to go, in order to save him.
I LOVE how twisted the road of Sam's descent is - that he never would have followed this path except to save Dean, and only Dean saving him by selling his soul would have put him in such danger that Sam would cross these lines. It's like a snake eating its tail.
* As an aside, I see people evincing shock that Dean had the Colt, but yeah, now that they know how to make bullets for it (or Bobby does, at any rate), why wouldn't they bring it to a vamp fight? It's a gun that kills anything! I'd be sleeping with it under my pillow if I were Dean! Dean has it out when he's all, "I'm gonna go after Gordon alone!" and you KNOW Dean wanted to be the one to kill him, had totally planned to be the one to do it.
* Dean! You are not a ninja! But I love you anyway.
* BOYS! OH BOYS! The scene in the motel room where Sam is all, "I want my brother back, because... just because." His face! (it totally makes up for what I felt were rather... unfortunate line readings on Jared's part in the earlier motel scene.) How he goes from ruthless badass to lost little boy so easily never fails to amaze me. And I'm so happy he finally just flat-out told Dean that he's always looked up to him and always wanted to be just like him and oh man, that scene made me all teary.
* The cooler! full of beer! And working on the car together! I just. I can't even! the car as metaphor over and over again, the car as home, and the car as legacy, and Sam's disbelief and wary eagerness - "You barely even let me drive it!" - and Dean, knowing he still has things to teach Sam, things he needs to teach him, then Sam's realization as well.
That Gamble was able to pull that off so beautifully, with so few words that meant everything... I think that's why her anvils and her plot issues make me so frustrated, because she's totally capable of subtle, nuanced writing, but she often eschews it for over the top melodrama and anviliciousness. (This is one reason I really do think she must be in fandom somewhere, or was in fandom, because these are hallmarks of fan writing, and her strengths are definitely those of a fanfic writer as well.)
I can't believe it's a month until the next episode! Wah!
Oh, and what was the song at the end? It was "Crazy Circles" by Bad Company. (thanks, innie_darling and scarlet_avatar) Can someone share?
As mentioned in the cut tag, there are minor spoilers for 3.08 below.
CHRISTMAS EPISODE! ANTI-CLAUS! FLASHBACKS! CANON CONFIRMATION THAT SAM GAVE DEAN THE AMULET! *FLAILS* Is it wrong to hope for a Ben Edlund ep? I love his Tick Christmas episode. <- I am not spoiled beyond what is contained in this one line of stuff, so please do NOT spoil me further. Thanks.
***
I suppose I should do some work now. Sigh.
***
Man, I don't even know what to say about Michael and Jan, except I tried really hard not to watch most of it because it really made me cringe.
Kelly! The difference between talking trash and talking smack! Ping pong! How BAD Kelly and Pam are at ping pong! the last shot with Mose and Dwight rocking like a ping pong machine! I was vastly amused, and sad that that was the last episode until the strike is over.
*
So I am trying to pull together my thoughts on "Fresh Blood" but I don't think I'm near coherent yet, so this is just a bunch of bullet points, I guess.
* I was sad they didn't get more use out of Harmony Mercedes McNab. I am choosing to think the lack of mention of Lenore was intentional, though watching Dixon feed his, um, daughters from a jar made me think of Angel warming his mug of pig's blood in the microwave, and I did kind of expect a mention of feeding her up on animal blood, but then having no place to put her and no way of contacting Lenore to make sure she wouldn't revert. I think we're supposed to read the glances between Sam and Dean as Dean waiting for Sam to bring the option up and Sam feeling it wasn't a job they could undertake. I think both of them felt for her, especially with her whole, "I just want to come down!" thing, but I don't think they thought they had any real feasible way of helping her.
* The Croatoan callbacks - vampirism is a virus but unlike in the Buffyverse, you are still you when you are turned (rather than a demon taking up residence in your body after your soul and your essential you-ness has vacated the premises; how one's memories aren't one's essential you-ness is still a problem in that scenario, but we're not discussing the Bverse here, so please drive through), but with heightened senses and, at first, raging, insatiable hunger. And Sam giving Dean the nod, Sam approving the killing of Harmony Lucy, but still letting Dean do the killing, much like what happened with Mrs. Tanner in Croatoan.
* Gordon, Gordon, Gordon. Oh, how I at least will miss your hardcore anti-Sam zealotry. You were a little crazy, but you weren't necessarily wrong about Sam being the most dangerous thing you've ever hunted. Sterling K. Brown acted the HELL out of this episode, and I felt for Gordon all the way through, how he was turned into the thing he hated the most, and how he believed he had to be a monster, he became a monster, because he couldn't face the idea that he was still himself, and had a choice, because that would mean he might have killed vampires who weren't 100% evil, that they did in fact have the capacity to change. I liked the he was smart and ruthless as well as sorrowful over Kubrick's death, that he believed he would have ended himself after killing Sam, because he was a monster now and couldn't be allowed to live. That he would do two last good deeds, because he was still a hunter.
I also don't really have a problem with him turning the girl at the end - I don't think that was about lack of control so much as it was about strategy. He knew Sam and Dean wouldn't be able to not try to save the hostage, and then when he separated them, he would kill Sam and the girl could kill Dean, or at least make it a lot harder for him to be able to save Sam. It was smart, imo.
* Bela! I am so happy she sold them out! That makes me gleeful, because it makes her one nasty, yet consistent, piece of work. And she was totally lying about hating people having grudges against her - she was 1. surprised that Dean actually sounded like he meant to kill her (and I believe in that moment, he did mean it, and had something happened to Sam, I think Bela would have followed soon after), which meant 2. he would be a lot less likely to want to have angry sex with her the next time they met, and so she had to fix that.
Sure, there were other ways Gordon could have gotten the info about the Winchesters, but this was more fun, and also if they have to have the character, they might as well use her. I want to know who she spoke with on the other side, who gave her such a stern warning for Dean.
* Dean smells good and he tastes good too. As if there were any doubt. (I was really creeped out by Gordon's, "your scent was all over the store, but I can't smell you now." That was seriously creepy stalker territory.)
* I really loved the way they shot the whole Sam v. Gordon in the warehouse thing. It was very Silence of the Lambs, which is one of my favoritest movies of all time, and I'm sure that was deliberate.
* Sam's "Yeah, we'll kill him." And Dean's nod of agreement. I said in destina's comments that I think Dean needs to believe Sam can make those hard decisions, and then carry them out, because if Dean's not going to be around, Sam can't afford to leave (relentless, smart and deadly) enemies alive at his back. I think Sam learned that lesson in AHBL1 (well, what Sam should have learned was, "Don't turn your back on an enemy when you've left weapons in his reach," but for all his brains, Sam's a little slow on the uptake sometimes), and his stores of mercy have slowly been depleted, but especially when Dean is in danger. Even in this episode, Dean kills Harmony, but he looks to Sam for agreement with this judgement. But Dean's not going to be around to do the killing at Sam's behest anymore, and so Dean needs to believe that he's going to be capable of doing it himself, to survive, once Dean is gone.
What Dean refuses to see is how far down that road Sam is going to go, in order to save him.
I LOVE how twisted the road of Sam's descent is - that he never would have followed this path except to save Dean, and only Dean saving him by selling his soul would have put him in such danger that Sam would cross these lines. It's like a snake eating its tail.
* As an aside, I see people evincing shock that Dean had the Colt, but yeah, now that they know how to make bullets for it (or Bobby does, at any rate), why wouldn't they bring it to a vamp fight? It's a gun that kills anything! I'd be sleeping with it under my pillow if I were Dean! Dean has it out when he's all, "I'm gonna go after Gordon alone!" and you KNOW Dean wanted to be the one to kill him, had totally planned to be the one to do it.
* Dean! You are not a ninja! But I love you anyway.
* BOYS! OH BOYS! The scene in the motel room where Sam is all, "I want my brother back, because... just because." His face! (it totally makes up for what I felt were rather... unfortunate line readings on Jared's part in the earlier motel scene.) How he goes from ruthless badass to lost little boy so easily never fails to amaze me. And I'm so happy he finally just flat-out told Dean that he's always looked up to him and always wanted to be just like him and oh man, that scene made me all teary.
* The cooler! full of beer! And working on the car together! I just. I can't even! the car as metaphor over and over again, the car as home, and the car as legacy, and Sam's disbelief and wary eagerness - "You barely even let me drive it!" - and Dean, knowing he still has things to teach Sam, things he needs to teach him, then Sam's realization as well.
That Gamble was able to pull that off so beautifully, with so few words that meant everything... I think that's why her anvils and her plot issues make me so frustrated, because she's totally capable of subtle, nuanced writing, but she often eschews it for over the top melodrama and anviliciousness. (This is one reason I really do think she must be in fandom somewhere, or was in fandom, because these are hallmarks of fan writing, and her strengths are definitely those of a fanfic writer as well.)
I can't believe it's a month until the next episode! Wah!
Oh, and what was the song at the end? It was "Crazy Circles" by Bad Company. (thanks, innie_darling and scarlet_avatar) Can someone share?
As mentioned in the cut tag, there are minor spoilers for 3.08 below.
CHRISTMAS EPISODE! ANTI-CLAUS! FLASHBACKS! CANON CONFIRMATION THAT SAM GAVE DEAN THE AMULET! *FLAILS* Is it wrong to hope for a Ben Edlund ep? I love his Tick Christmas episode. <- I am not spoiled beyond what is contained in this one line of stuff, so please do NOT spoil me further. Thanks.
***
I suppose I should do some work now. Sigh.
***