some boys try and some boys lie, but i don't let them play
SPN 8x2 review! Non-spoilery nutshell: YES YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS SEASON.
Yes.
Again, in two parts because that's how I roll now, I guess. The first part is me crabbing about gender representation on the show generally; the second part is a LOT of thoughts about the episode.
SPN’s woman-issue continues to be (a) nowhere near as bad as it was in the earlier seasons and (b) still uncomfortably pronounced. If a female character is introduced, she is female for A Reason. Your random character with any other purpose is always going to be male, because male is neutral. (Seriously, the only exceptions I can think of are Rachel and Charlie Bradbury.) Mama Tran is female because her position as Kevin’s mother gives us the paternity mystery Crowley drops in our laps, and it gives us a parallel to the Winchesters’ Mary baggage. All the other characters are “neutral.” Madrigel the angel, an inherently non-gendered being, appears in a male vessel. The thief with the bone is a male-presenting demon. Would've been a perfect moment to give us demon!Bela, but clearly we cannot have nice things. The auctioneer is male.
Unfortunately, the Reason For Being Female still includes victimization. The other women with speaking roles in the episode are the VOTW in the bank, and Kevin’s mother’s possessed friend. Either the bank worker’s death was completely egregious (ew) or it was implied that she was the virgin Clem killed and tried to trade. The second explanation might seem a little bit better, because at least it’s slightly plot-relevant torture porn, but that dredges up all kinds of sex and sexuality issues of virginity as female, and of being the thing which determines the “value” (I mean, a BANK) of a woman’s body. Kevin’s mother’s friend is victimized by the demon, re-victimized by Sam’s enforced possession, and then killed.
There are cases where the overwhelming preponderance of agendered characters presenting as male does, or at least could, make sense. The leviathan’s preference for male bodies makes sense, because they planned to hack human power structures generally, which required maximizing the privilege which would be afforded to their humanoid forms. A Dana Roman would’ve had to establish more credibility for less return, and would have been subject to greater scrutiny. Whether or not that was a conscious choice on the part of the writing team is a separate question; whether or not it was a good move ethically or narratively is another. (I would say probably not and probably, respectively; however, I’m uncomfortable giving too much credit for this particular answer without anyone having shown their work.) But there’s an in-universe explanation which makes sense. Now, though, I’m not seeing a reason for it, and so I’m really hoping for some improvement.
When we do get a Female-For-A-Reason Character, the show does as good a job characterizing her as anyone else in the cast. That should go without saying, but it doesn’t, and credit where it’s due there, particularly as I sense that as the show matures, there’s a conscious effort toward improvement on that front. And with Amelia in the premiere and Kevin’s mother in this episode, we are two for two on episodes introducing new recurring female characters.
Kevin’s mom. KEVIN’S MOM! She’s as much of a joy as I was hoping she would be. She’s a fun, well-rounded character. She has a sharp, strong mind; she’s a clearly delightful mother without being anything like the apple-pie Good Woman stereotype. And I think that’s a really important representation of where the Winchesters are in their journey. They, especially Sam, are set up to really relate to Kevin at the beginning of the pilot; here, she gives up her soul and they recognize her as a peer (or rather, themselves as her peers). Sam starts out with the whole MOMMY LOVE MEEEE act, jumping in to show off his math skills; he and Dean end up having a sober, straightforward talk with her about what to expect in this new, horrible thing they’re about to share. (Um, it was kind of a lie, unless I misheard that line?! I don’t remember Soulless ever wishing he were dead; if anything, his survival instinct was his driving motivation. That line feels like it deserves a tag because I don’t know what it means yet.)
We’re getting much shorter, bolder lines from Dean’s Purgatory issues to his present state of mind than we did with his hell-trauma in S4. (I don’t actually agree with the apparent consensus that that thread was dropped, I think it was a big part of his decision-making that season, but it was used very subtly, maybe too much so.) My issues with Dean come from a place of really, really wanting not to have them, so every explanation that’s not MAN PAIN fetishizing goes a long way. Dean’s hardness is an over-commitment to this idea that he does what he ABSOLUTELY HAS TO DO, NO EXCEPTIONS. Because if he can choose anything other than the most relentless course of action, that means he can choose, and he didn’t choose Cas.
At first glance, the flashbacks to Purgatory and Cas felt a bit disconnected, more of a preemptive move against criticisms that any plot threads are being dropped. Cas is still here, he’s still relevant. He bailed to protect Dean, and he’s been facing his screw-ups of the last couple of years directly. The scene is major shipper-bait, right down to the background music. Benny, the demon on Dean’s shoulder, wanted to pry Dean away from his angel, and it looks like he succeeded one way or another. Dean’s hope to go home is sweet for him, but it’s hardly helpful to Castiel, who can never go home.
Cas also, I think, fits into the discussion about souls and sacrifice toward the end of the episode. Crowley conceptualized the souls as currency in and of themselves, because they are powerful. But we’re dealing with a god, who doesn’t need the power in the way angels and demons do. His big story was about his own sacrifice, of both the certainty of his angelic existence and of his human connections. Too much heart was always Castiel’s problem; it is also the beating, pounding source of his greatness.
I actually wasn’t bothered by Dean’s reasoning for his attack on Kevin’s mom. It’s not like she is inherently worth more than her friend, who they knifed happily just to keep a bit of information from Crowley. Sam’s special-snowflaking is completely understandable, I’m not bothered by that emotionally or from a characterization perspective, but Dean’s position is the easier one to justify ethically. (See? MATURE.) What does disturb me is the way this is the first time in ages either of them has taken a direct shot at Crowley, implying that even the KING OF HELL scans as vulnerable in a female body.
Confession: I was a little worried we were never going to see another dark-Sam arc. Is this what being wrong is like? Because it feels so good. Forcing a possession goes farther than anything we saw him do at the height of his demon-meddling (where he occasionally did disregard the host, but always took his demons as he found them); doing so in order to make the demon vulnerable to killing and therefore knowingly sacrificing the host was almost certainly a tactically sound self-defense necessity (Crowley and his minions would’ve been there before they could’ve made it out to the Impala, let alone actually fled the scene) but still made my blood run cold, in a way nothing he’s done so far did.
The other piece of it is: this is something he has been working on. Oh, yeah, he “just” said the words backwards. In Latin. Off the top of his head. In a heated physical confrontation. Sam is very, very smart, but not usually that creative on his feet, and not shown as someone with the rare cognitive particularities that allow people to do such things readily. (Not as easy as it sounds! Say the alphabet backwards. Now spell “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”* backwards. That’s what I thought. And you’re not facing down a herd*** of demons.) Maybe that’s something he learned and committed to memory a long time ago - though again, that doesn’t change the fact that OH MY GOD, FORCED POSSESSION, WHO DOES THAT EVER. Aside from the difficulty inherent to just spitting out the words, there’s also the fact that…that shouldn’t work? The exorcism rituals say things like “GET THE FUCK OUT, DEMON!” The opposite of that isn’t “DEMON, OUT FUCK THE GET” it’s “GET THE FUCK IN, DEMON!” If he were just seizing on the idea in the heat of the moment, the easier answer of substituting a few prepositions here and there would have also been the best guess. Which brings us to the really ugly question of how he figured out that the unlikely solution was what would work.
I mean. I’m not saying this as a criticism, since my love of any character (especially this one) has nothing to do with whether they’re a shining beacon of blah blah saccharine vomit, and again, I think the self-defense angle of this particular incident is pretty inarguable. But I hope that goes where I think it should.
That fits, I think, with Sam’s sharpened hacking capabilities. He’s spent the past year learning, because that’s what he likes to do. The other explanation, which doesn’t necessarily conflict with my guess but could hold up on its own, is that there’s a whole new dimension to those kill-you-with-his-brain powers that we never knew about. I think I’d like it best if it were a combination of the two things - he’s intellectually curious about and has an aptitude for new demon-screwing innovations, but is also drawn to and uncannily good at it because of his weird self - but I think as long as this moves in any direction at all, it will be very, very interesting.
In turn, Sam’s intellectual endeavors of the past year fit into what’s shaping up to be an overwhelming motif of the season: that knowledge is power. The hunk of rock itself is worthless; it’s about the exclusive rights to understand the information on the tablet. Crowley arguably should’ve snatched up the hammer of Thor and used it to smash Kevin’s tablet detailing all demon vulnerabilities. But he didn’t, he kept it, because he needs to know. Kevin Tran was in Advanced Placement, now he can read the Word of God.
The other thing the episode does is to considerably complicate the mythology. The season premiere held out the promise of an actual victory. Banish all demons to hell; sounds pretty final. But that does nothing to deal with the monster problem - wendigos and skinwalkers and vampires and fairies and all those other creatures indigenous to this dimension - it doesn’t seal off Purgatory and the leviathan; it doesn’t deliver us from the next power-hungry angel. Even within the Judeo-Christian-ish mythological framework, sealing off hell is far from a final win. And now there are other deities coming back into play, for the first time since Hammer of the Gods. There are so many claims laid on this world. Going after the gates of Hell isn’t a bad idea, but they have to keep this in perspective, and remember that it’s a battle, not the war.
*Hey, you guys, my spellcheck recognizes “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”**
**It does not recognize “spellcheck.”
***“Herd” is silly. I think it should be a “murder” of demons. Like a murder of crows.
Yes.
Again, in two parts because that's how I roll now, I guess. The first part is me crabbing about gender representation on the show generally; the second part is a LOT of thoughts about the episode.
SPN’s woman-issue continues to be (a) nowhere near as bad as it was in the earlier seasons and (b) still uncomfortably pronounced. If a female character is introduced, she is female for A Reason. Your random character with any other purpose is always going to be male, because male is neutral. (Seriously, the only exceptions I can think of are Rachel and Charlie Bradbury.) Mama Tran is female because her position as Kevin’s mother gives us the paternity mystery Crowley drops in our laps, and it gives us a parallel to the Winchesters’ Mary baggage. All the other characters are “neutral.” Madrigel the angel, an inherently non-gendered being, appears in a male vessel. The thief with the bone is a male-presenting demon. Would've been a perfect moment to give us demon!Bela, but clearly we cannot have nice things. The auctioneer is male.
Unfortunately, the Reason For Being Female still includes victimization. The other women with speaking roles in the episode are the VOTW in the bank, and Kevin’s mother’s possessed friend. Either the bank worker’s death was completely egregious (ew) or it was implied that she was the virgin Clem killed and tried to trade. The second explanation might seem a little bit better, because at least it’s slightly plot-relevant torture porn, but that dredges up all kinds of sex and sexuality issues of virginity as female, and of being the thing which determines the “value” (I mean, a BANK) of a woman’s body. Kevin’s mother’s friend is victimized by the demon, re-victimized by Sam’s enforced possession, and then killed.
There are cases where the overwhelming preponderance of agendered characters presenting as male does, or at least could, make sense. The leviathan’s preference for male bodies makes sense, because they planned to hack human power structures generally, which required maximizing the privilege which would be afforded to their humanoid forms. A Dana Roman would’ve had to establish more credibility for less return, and would have been subject to greater scrutiny. Whether or not that was a conscious choice on the part of the writing team is a separate question; whether or not it was a good move ethically or narratively is another. (I would say probably not and probably, respectively; however, I’m uncomfortable giving too much credit for this particular answer without anyone having shown their work.) But there’s an in-universe explanation which makes sense. Now, though, I’m not seeing a reason for it, and so I’m really hoping for some improvement.
When we do get a Female-For-A-Reason Character, the show does as good a job characterizing her as anyone else in the cast. That should go without saying, but it doesn’t, and credit where it’s due there, particularly as I sense that as the show matures, there’s a conscious effort toward improvement on that front. And with Amelia in the premiere and Kevin’s mother in this episode, we are two for two on episodes introducing new recurring female characters.
Kevin’s mom. KEVIN’S MOM! She’s as much of a joy as I was hoping she would be. She’s a fun, well-rounded character. She has a sharp, strong mind; she’s a clearly delightful mother without being anything like the apple-pie Good Woman stereotype. And I think that’s a really important representation of where the Winchesters are in their journey. They, especially Sam, are set up to really relate to Kevin at the beginning of the pilot; here, she gives up her soul and they recognize her as a peer (or rather, themselves as her peers). Sam starts out with the whole MOMMY LOVE MEEEE act, jumping in to show off his math skills; he and Dean end up having a sober, straightforward talk with her about what to expect in this new, horrible thing they’re about to share. (Um, it was kind of a lie, unless I misheard that line?! I don’t remember Soulless ever wishing he were dead; if anything, his survival instinct was his driving motivation. That line feels like it deserves a tag because I don’t know what it means yet.)
We’re getting much shorter, bolder lines from Dean’s Purgatory issues to his present state of mind than we did with his hell-trauma in S4. (I don’t actually agree with the apparent consensus that that thread was dropped, I think it was a big part of his decision-making that season, but it was used very subtly, maybe too much so.) My issues with Dean come from a place of really, really wanting not to have them, so every explanation that’s not MAN PAIN fetishizing goes a long way. Dean’s hardness is an over-commitment to this idea that he does what he ABSOLUTELY HAS TO DO, NO EXCEPTIONS. Because if he can choose anything other than the most relentless course of action, that means he can choose, and he didn’t choose Cas.
At first glance, the flashbacks to Purgatory and Cas felt a bit disconnected, more of a preemptive move against criticisms that any plot threads are being dropped. Cas is still here, he’s still relevant. He bailed to protect Dean, and he’s been facing his screw-ups of the last couple of years directly. The scene is major shipper-bait, right down to the background music. Benny, the demon on Dean’s shoulder, wanted to pry Dean away from his angel, and it looks like he succeeded one way or another. Dean’s hope to go home is sweet for him, but it’s hardly helpful to Castiel, who can never go home.
Cas also, I think, fits into the discussion about souls and sacrifice toward the end of the episode. Crowley conceptualized the souls as currency in and of themselves, because they are powerful. But we’re dealing with a god, who doesn’t need the power in the way angels and demons do. His big story was about his own sacrifice, of both the certainty of his angelic existence and of his human connections. Too much heart was always Castiel’s problem; it is also the beating, pounding source of his greatness.
I actually wasn’t bothered by Dean’s reasoning for his attack on Kevin’s mom. It’s not like she is inherently worth more than her friend, who they knifed happily just to keep a bit of information from Crowley. Sam’s special-snowflaking is completely understandable, I’m not bothered by that emotionally or from a characterization perspective, but Dean’s position is the easier one to justify ethically. (See? MATURE.) What does disturb me is the way this is the first time in ages either of them has taken a direct shot at Crowley, implying that even the KING OF HELL scans as vulnerable in a female body.
Confession: I was a little worried we were never going to see another dark-Sam arc. Is this what being wrong is like? Because it feels so good. Forcing a possession goes farther than anything we saw him do at the height of his demon-meddling (where he occasionally did disregard the host, but always took his demons as he found them); doing so in order to make the demon vulnerable to killing and therefore knowingly sacrificing the host was almost certainly a tactically sound self-defense necessity (Crowley and his minions would’ve been there before they could’ve made it out to the Impala, let alone actually fled the scene) but still made my blood run cold, in a way nothing he’s done so far did.
The other piece of it is: this is something he has been working on. Oh, yeah, he “just” said the words backwards. In Latin. Off the top of his head. In a heated physical confrontation. Sam is very, very smart, but not usually that creative on his feet, and not shown as someone with the rare cognitive particularities that allow people to do such things readily. (Not as easy as it sounds! Say the alphabet backwards. Now spell “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”* backwards. That’s what I thought. And you’re not facing down a herd*** of demons.) Maybe that’s something he learned and committed to memory a long time ago - though again, that doesn’t change the fact that OH MY GOD, FORCED POSSESSION, WHO DOES THAT EVER. Aside from the difficulty inherent to just spitting out the words, there’s also the fact that…that shouldn’t work? The exorcism rituals say things like “GET THE FUCK OUT, DEMON!” The opposite of that isn’t “DEMON, OUT FUCK THE GET” it’s “GET THE FUCK IN, DEMON!” If he were just seizing on the idea in the heat of the moment, the easier answer of substituting a few prepositions here and there would have also been the best guess. Which brings us to the really ugly question of how he figured out that the unlikely solution was what would work.
I mean. I’m not saying this as a criticism, since my love of any character (especially this one) has nothing to do with whether they’re a shining beacon of blah blah saccharine vomit, and again, I think the self-defense angle of this particular incident is pretty inarguable. But I hope that goes where I think it should.
That fits, I think, with Sam’s sharpened hacking capabilities. He’s spent the past year learning, because that’s what he likes to do. The other explanation, which doesn’t necessarily conflict with my guess but could hold up on its own, is that there’s a whole new dimension to those kill-you-with-his-brain powers that we never knew about. I think I’d like it best if it were a combination of the two things - he’s intellectually curious about and has an aptitude for new demon-screwing innovations, but is also drawn to and uncannily good at it because of his weird self - but I think as long as this moves in any direction at all, it will be very, very interesting.
In turn, Sam’s intellectual endeavors of the past year fit into what’s shaping up to be an overwhelming motif of the season: that knowledge is power. The hunk of rock itself is worthless; it’s about the exclusive rights to understand the information on the tablet. Crowley arguably should’ve snatched up the hammer of Thor and used it to smash Kevin’s tablet detailing all demon vulnerabilities. But he didn’t, he kept it, because he needs to know. Kevin Tran was in Advanced Placement, now he can read the Word of God.
The other thing the episode does is to considerably complicate the mythology. The season premiere held out the promise of an actual victory. Banish all demons to hell; sounds pretty final. But that does nothing to deal with the monster problem - wendigos and skinwalkers and vampires and fairies and all those other creatures indigenous to this dimension - it doesn’t seal off Purgatory and the leviathan; it doesn’t deliver us from the next power-hungry angel. Even within the Judeo-Christian-ish mythological framework, sealing off hell is far from a final win. And now there are other deities coming back into play, for the first time since Hammer of the Gods. There are so many claims laid on this world. Going after the gates of Hell isn’t a bad idea, but they have to keep this in perspective, and remember that it’s a battle, not the war.
*Hey, you guys, my spellcheck recognizes “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”**
**It does not recognize “spellcheck.”
***“Herd” is silly. I think it should be a “murder” of demons. Like a murder of crows.