SPN 8x3 review
So I went back and forth about putting this up because my doubly unpopular opinion about this show is that it's gorgeous writing about a terrible relationship. But eh, whatever. Fairly warned; read it or don't. I'm just not going to argue about this.
[weekly feminist side-eyeing]
Like last week, this highlights the male default problem in a big way. Women are women For A Reason. Betsey is female because otherwise we might all catch ghey. Dr. Hottie is female because we don’t feel like explaining why a Real MD would risk his medical license handing out confidential files without a warrant, so the easiest way to deal with that was for her to be led astray by Dean’s flirtatious wink (see above re: ghey). And then, sigh. There’s Amanda. Because her corruption and fearlessness have to be the same thing, and because they have to be signified by sex. So, female. The use - no, misuse - of the XWP reference isn’t just your average application of the vaginal transitive property, where any given woman can substitute for any other. It’s also co-opting an icon for female self-determination and free will, known in pop culture for picking on those who are twice her size, who fights gods instead of throwing other humans to them, as if courage in a woman is so very bizarre that it eclipses anything else about her. I KNOW XENA AND YOU MA’AM ARE NO XENA. All of those characters whose gender is irrelevant are, once again, male. I don’t think this is maliciousness on anyone’s part. I think it’s just a supremely lazy unwillingness to acknowledge unconscious bias.
In the end, this episode lets them have the easy way out, not having to sacrifice someone who wasn’t reveling in the violence. I’m okay with that, actually. We got enough doubts on Sam’s part - “are you sure this will actually work?” - to remind us that this is a trade-off and a gamble, the stakes of which include someone else’s life, and to keep it on the table for every episode. So many choices, and the fact is, you don’t even know what the options really are, or even when you’re making a choice.
I’m far more okay with them having a relatively easy question to answer because this is an episode that doesn’t muddle the waters. Sam’s okay with carrying it out, he just wants to be sure the tradeoff is worthwhile. Here’s a general philosophical thing I have, which is a subset of how everybody lies: the ends, as a general principle, pretty much do justify the means. It’s usually a question of being intellectually honest about how effective the means really are toward accomplishing a greater end, and having the humility to know that we usually don’t have the information to make that determination. And if a person feels the need to tell themselves “the ends justify the means” without further inquiry, it’s a dead giveaway that their ends suck donkey balls and it’s a moot point.
Sam, Sam the sunshine man, you break my heart. The continued references the show makes to being so tired; Sam’s morbid dwelling on Brick’s final thoughts; his identification with Betsey who didn’t care whether she lived or died as long as Cacao’s hold over her was broken. Being “just tired” isn’t about being “merely tired,” it’s about the way exhaustion sucks you dry of everything else. I don’t think he’s suicidal like Brick was. He’s planning for a future, enjoying the things he can, looking around for a way out. He just knows, as he’s always known, that trying to live this life will destroy him. The times Sam has been super-hunter were after Dean’s death, and then his own - he was on a three-year self-destruct mission. Like Eleanor, Sam would rather not die, but he actively doesn’t want to live under these conditions anymore.
The picture we’re seeing of Amelia and Sam’s life with her is still hazy. Right now I’m trying not to get too attached to my idea of the person we’re seeing. Because I think I really like her, you guys! I really want to, at least. Amelia seems to understand principles better than people, at least, when she’s in a stressful moment, as we see when she pushes Sam into taking the dog. Her heartfelt emotional gestures can miss the mark, because she’s either ignorant or insensitive, but it’s clear that she makes them to someone whose happiness does mean a great deal to her. And she’s damaged enough to watch that someone leave without a fight. The very broad strokes of the character set up someone who is, well, a lot like Sam.
The MOTW is about the idea of self-care, as opposed to destruction. Dean equates them even possessing healthy food with PEOPLE DIE!!! because the balance of the world depends on pointless sacrifice of human well-being. After a decade of taking the time for sit-down meals that Dean likes, walking through a market to buy food something Sam likes to eat on the go is a luxury that they can’t afford. Can we just appreciate this hilarious face?:
NOT PICTURED: someone impressed with this shit.
Sam’s self-silencing here remains key, and I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for him, but I understand why he’s doing it. He makes a point of refusing to engage with Dean’s needling. When he does answer Dean opening his emails OH MY GOD, he actually says “I’m not talking about anything.” In a relationship that's in the ballpark of being healthy, this default freeze-out is pretty harsh, but the episode is really clear on Sam having a lifetime of good reasons to be this protective of as much of is autonomy and privacy as possible. The difference now, I think, is that he knows this is what he is doing. How long he’ll be able to keep it up for is another issue, but it’s different now that he knows that’s not the only way to have a relationship with another person.
Similarly, their conversation about whether or not they feel like warriors makes good use of the MOTW for characterization. This is something that I’ve tried not to let myself hope would be addressed. Dean really does get something he enjoys out of the life. That doesn’t invalidate the damage and suffering it’s caused him - in some ways, I think his enjoyment of parts of the life makes it harder for him to cope with the rest of it, because he feels complicit in it all. But, maybe in part because of that, his instinct is always to be dragging someone else down with him. (“I tortured souls, and I liked it.”) Being in the life is harder for Sam in the day-to-day, but he’s the one that can make the clean break with it. (“I just feel like my past is my past.”)
Dean’s small step toward self-awareness about this, in his admission of sympathy for Brick, is less of a negative sign than anything I’ve seen from him in a long time, but he has a long, long way to go before he acknowledges that Sam doesn’t have to be the same person as he is. He could go by himself, or find Benny, or meet up with some other hunters if he doesn’t want to be alone. But Dean is determined to set the terms of their interactions - anything less than Sam making a big joyful-submission show of giving in to Dean’s extremist way of life is a rejection of Dean. The alternative that won’t destroy Sam is no way a thing that CAN’T work. There’s nothing to preclude Sam going back to Amelia and building a little guest apartment above the garage so Dean can have holidays with them. The feel of this is very different from S1, to me, in that there are options, and they are better able to assess those options. The episode comes down really hard on Dean’s refusal to acknowledge that.
The “people die” justification Dean keeps throwing out is a feature, not a bug. Living on the edge and seeking out life-or-death situations is a way to avoid quality of life issues. A perfectly understandable lifestyle choice for an adult Dean to make for himself, but the way he selectively flings that in Sam's face to shut down any and all challenges is a shaming campaign that veers into straight-up blackmail. Something is desperately wrong somewhere in the world, and therefore YOU have to shut the fuck up and get in line because YOUR concerns are irrelevant. YOU expressed an opinion, which is so SELFISH and STUPID that you have to PROVE you aren’t horrible by doing absolutely everything MY WAY, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. It's all very Richard Dawkins.
Not only that, but you DO have to like it, and if you don’t, well, I’ll tell you better! “I think that’s just how you feel right now.” I’m sure this was written well before the wank went into overdrive, but I got a particular wry meta-based enjoyment out of Dean’s line here. Sam can’t possibly want something other than what Dean/we are used to watching him have! He/the writers must be wrong about his own mind, that can’t possibly be what he really wants! Nope. This is Sam, and he’s being honest with Dean, with us, and with himself. He’s done with this life, and whether that’s accepted with grace is a referendum on Dean and us, not him. The show is using excellent writing to be painfully honest about this relationship.
That said, I actually could see Sam being more than okay with part-time hunting. I think he’d really like stepping into Bobby’s shoes as researcher-in-chief. He's so like my Wesley, I don't even know how to talk about it. (Tellingly, when Sam does take initiative toward the researcher role I think he’d like, he gets a dirty look from Dean. Dean wants Sam doing as he’s told, not as is best for the mission.) But if hunting has to be all or nothing, he knows that he wants nothing. He can’t do it anymore, and Dean simply telling him to suck it up and like it isn’t going to change that. Like the last couple of episodes, I think the finished product is meticulously showing its work on just how unsustainable this arrangement is, and why the excuses made for it are paper thin.
As with the premiere, I like the way the characterization plays in with the themes of the worldbuilding. Another mention of Thor, in an episode revolving around Mayan gods - there’s more than one deity, more than one plan, more even than just good and evil, more options than “give up organic tomatoes OR people die.” So many choices.
[weekly feminist side-eyeing]
Like last week, this highlights the male default problem in a big way. Women are women For A Reason. Betsey is female because otherwise we might all catch ghey. Dr. Hottie is female because we don’t feel like explaining why a Real MD would risk his medical license handing out confidential files without a warrant, so the easiest way to deal with that was for her to be led astray by Dean’s flirtatious wink (see above re: ghey). And then, sigh. There’s Amanda. Because her corruption and fearlessness have to be the same thing, and because they have to be signified by sex. So, female. The use - no, misuse - of the XWP reference isn’t just your average application of the vaginal transitive property, where any given woman can substitute for any other. It’s also co-opting an icon for female self-determination and free will, known in pop culture for picking on those who are twice her size, who fights gods instead of throwing other humans to them, as if courage in a woman is so very bizarre that it eclipses anything else about her. I KNOW XENA AND YOU MA’AM ARE NO XENA. All of those characters whose gender is irrelevant are, once again, male. I don’t think this is maliciousness on anyone’s part. I think it’s just a supremely lazy unwillingness to acknowledge unconscious bias.
In the end, this episode lets them have the easy way out, not having to sacrifice someone who wasn’t reveling in the violence. I’m okay with that, actually. We got enough doubts on Sam’s part - “are you sure this will actually work?” - to remind us that this is a trade-off and a gamble, the stakes of which include someone else’s life, and to keep it on the table for every episode. So many choices, and the fact is, you don’t even know what the options really are, or even when you’re making a choice.
I’m far more okay with them having a relatively easy question to answer because this is an episode that doesn’t muddle the waters. Sam’s okay with carrying it out, he just wants to be sure the tradeoff is worthwhile. Here’s a general philosophical thing I have, which is a subset of how everybody lies: the ends, as a general principle, pretty much do justify the means. It’s usually a question of being intellectually honest about how effective the means really are toward accomplishing a greater end, and having the humility to know that we usually don’t have the information to make that determination. And if a person feels the need to tell themselves “the ends justify the means” without further inquiry, it’s a dead giveaway that their ends suck donkey balls and it’s a moot point.
Sam, Sam the sunshine man, you break my heart. The continued references the show makes to being so tired; Sam’s morbid dwelling on Brick’s final thoughts; his identification with Betsey who didn’t care whether she lived or died as long as Cacao’s hold over her was broken. Being “just tired” isn’t about being “merely tired,” it’s about the way exhaustion sucks you dry of everything else. I don’t think he’s suicidal like Brick was. He’s planning for a future, enjoying the things he can, looking around for a way out. He just knows, as he’s always known, that trying to live this life will destroy him. The times Sam has been super-hunter were after Dean’s death, and then his own - he was on a three-year self-destruct mission. Like Eleanor, Sam would rather not die, but he actively doesn’t want to live under these conditions anymore.
The picture we’re seeing of Amelia and Sam’s life with her is still hazy. Right now I’m trying not to get too attached to my idea of the person we’re seeing. Because I think I really like her, you guys! I really want to, at least. Amelia seems to understand principles better than people, at least, when she’s in a stressful moment, as we see when she pushes Sam into taking the dog. Her heartfelt emotional gestures can miss the mark, because she’s either ignorant or insensitive, but it’s clear that she makes them to someone whose happiness does mean a great deal to her. And she’s damaged enough to watch that someone leave without a fight. The very broad strokes of the character set up someone who is, well, a lot like Sam.
The MOTW is about the idea of self-care, as opposed to destruction. Dean equates them even possessing healthy food with PEOPLE DIE!!! because the balance of the world depends on pointless sacrifice of human well-being. After a decade of taking the time for sit-down meals that Dean likes, walking through a market to buy food something Sam likes to eat on the go is a luxury that they can’t afford. Can we just appreciate this hilarious face?:
NOT PICTURED: someone impressed with this shit.
Sam’s self-silencing here remains key, and I’m not sure if it’s a good idea for him, but I understand why he’s doing it. He makes a point of refusing to engage with Dean’s needling. When he does answer Dean opening his emails OH MY GOD, he actually says “I’m not talking about anything.” In a relationship that's in the ballpark of being healthy, this default freeze-out is pretty harsh, but the episode is really clear on Sam having a lifetime of good reasons to be this protective of as much of is autonomy and privacy as possible. The difference now, I think, is that he knows this is what he is doing. How long he’ll be able to keep it up for is another issue, but it’s different now that he knows that’s not the only way to have a relationship with another person.
Similarly, their conversation about whether or not they feel like warriors makes good use of the MOTW for characterization. This is something that I’ve tried not to let myself hope would be addressed. Dean really does get something he enjoys out of the life. That doesn’t invalidate the damage and suffering it’s caused him - in some ways, I think his enjoyment of parts of the life makes it harder for him to cope with the rest of it, because he feels complicit in it all. But, maybe in part because of that, his instinct is always to be dragging someone else down with him. (“I tortured souls, and I liked it.”) Being in the life is harder for Sam in the day-to-day, but he’s the one that can make the clean break with it. (“I just feel like my past is my past.”)
Dean’s small step toward self-awareness about this, in his admission of sympathy for Brick, is less of a negative sign than anything I’ve seen from him in a long time, but he has a long, long way to go before he acknowledges that Sam doesn’t have to be the same person as he is. He could go by himself, or find Benny, or meet up with some other hunters if he doesn’t want to be alone. But Dean is determined to set the terms of their interactions - anything less than Sam making a big joyful-submission show of giving in to Dean’s extremist way of life is a rejection of Dean. The alternative that won’t destroy Sam is no way a thing that CAN’T work. There’s nothing to preclude Sam going back to Amelia and building a little guest apartment above the garage so Dean can have holidays with them. The feel of this is very different from S1, to me, in that there are options, and they are better able to assess those options. The episode comes down really hard on Dean’s refusal to acknowledge that.
The “people die” justification Dean keeps throwing out is a feature, not a bug. Living on the edge and seeking out life-or-death situations is a way to avoid quality of life issues. A perfectly understandable lifestyle choice for an adult Dean to make for himself, but the way he selectively flings that in Sam's face to shut down any and all challenges is a shaming campaign that veers into straight-up blackmail. Something is desperately wrong somewhere in the world, and therefore YOU have to shut the fuck up and get in line because YOUR concerns are irrelevant. YOU expressed an opinion, which is so SELFISH and STUPID that you have to PROVE you aren’t horrible by doing absolutely everything MY WAY, NO QUESTIONS ASKED. It's all very Richard Dawkins.
Not only that, but you DO have to like it, and if you don’t, well, I’ll tell you better! “I think that’s just how you feel right now.” I’m sure this was written well before the wank went into overdrive, but I got a particular wry meta-based enjoyment out of Dean’s line here. Sam can’t possibly want something other than what Dean/we are used to watching him have! He/the writers must be wrong about his own mind, that can’t possibly be what he really wants! Nope. This is Sam, and he’s being honest with Dean, with us, and with himself. He’s done with this life, and whether that’s accepted with grace is a referendum on Dean and us, not him. The show is using excellent writing to be painfully honest about this relationship.
That said, I actually could see Sam being more than okay with part-time hunting. I think he’d really like stepping into Bobby’s shoes as researcher-in-chief. He's so like my Wesley, I don't even know how to talk about it. (Tellingly, when Sam does take initiative toward the researcher role I think he’d like, he gets a dirty look from Dean. Dean wants Sam doing as he’s told, not as is best for the mission.) But if hunting has to be all or nothing, he knows that he wants nothing. He can’t do it anymore, and Dean simply telling him to suck it up and like it isn’t going to change that. Like the last couple of episodes, I think the finished product is meticulously showing its work on just how unsustainable this arrangement is, and why the excuses made for it are paper thin.
As with the premiere, I like the way the characterization plays in with the themes of the worldbuilding. Another mention of Thor, in an episode revolving around Mayan gods - there’s more than one deity, more than one plan, more even than just good and evil, more options than “give up organic tomatoes OR people die.” So many choices.