Reactions to "Let It Bleed" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much"
I never, ever thought I'd have to use my The Hell? icon on a finale. I'm not as disappointed as those followers that were expecting to be Raptured this week, but I'm still pretty let down. I didn't hate them, don't get me wrong, but I didn't love them, either. I kept feeling like these should have been eps 6.20 and 6.21, and then the finale is still coming, y'know? Only it isn't. I suppose it's a fitting end to such an uneven season to have a rather uneven ending, but as tight and well-written as the last few eps have been, I really thought the writers, et al, had it together again. Apparently not.
It's like...okay, this is going to be a REALLY weird analogy, but I keep thinking back to it, cuz for some weird reason, it fits. Remember Apollo 13? In a way, Season 6 of Supernatural proceded just like that ill-fated mission. It began with shooting for the moon: the 5-year mytharc was done, so the opporunity to go to new frontiers in the SPN world was right there in front of them. Everyone was ready for whatever would be thrown at them, since, with five seasons in the can, the writers, cast, and crew were well-seasoned and knew what they were doing. So Season 6 blasts off with a blend of ideas new (monsters attack!) and old (heaven and hell) as well as a slew of returning characters, like Lisa and Ben, and Samuel, and new ones, like Christian and Gwen. And of course, there was the return of Sam himself, and for a few brief moments, it seemed like our brothers were back on the same team, and the gang had new and interesting mysteries on their hands, and everything was gravy.
But then something went wrong.
Just like with the simple oxygen stir on the space mission, Sam was revealed to be Sham, i.e. Sam without a soul, and it blew a huge hole not only in the show, but in the fandom's PATIENCE with the show. Dean got kicked while he was down--AGAIN--and Sam was being the villain--AGAIN. After two seasons of the brothers at odds, most of us had had enough: we wanted our brothers back! Really back, not just phoning-it-in back. But it wasn't happening--and things would only get worse before they got better. Cas and the enormous heaven civil war storyline only popped up on occasion. The collection of monsters to find Purgatory became more about Purgatory itself instead of all the interesting monsters we could have seen! By the time Dean was desperate enough to kill himself just to talk to Death about getting Sham his soul back, a lot of viewers had bailed, feeling the show was too far off course to be saved at this point.
Luckily, Kripke stepped back in and the Show, like Apolo 13, caught a break. Sam got his soul back and was our SAM again! The monsters storyline finally went somewhere, as Eve, the Mother of All Monsters, was introduced! Dean got his groove back! Not to mention the chance to wear a fucking sexy leather duster and kick some phoenix ass in the Old West. Things were MUCH better...but they still weren't home. Not yet.
6.21 and, to a greater degree, 6.22, feel like the part of the movie where they have to do that jump with what little power they have, with only the earth to guide them. They have almost no control of the capsule, and they veer all over the place, but the burst works, and they end up closer to home, but they still aren't actually there. In SPN terms, the writers were able to bring the crazy season around and get us closer to being the show we all fell in love with, but it was a very clumsy attempt that veered wildly off course. We can look through the targeting system and SEE our show out there, right in our sights. But we're not there yet. And so ends that long analogy. Thank you for bearing with me :)
On to the eps themselves.
Of the two, 6.21 was a stronger ep, IMO. Loved how they incorporated H.P. Lovecraft into it. Loved how Dean, Sam, and Bobby were ALL involved in the episode's action. That's so nice to see! No one sitting on the sidelines, no one going on and on and on about something someone else doesn't know--and no, I'm not counting what Bobby said to Dean about Lovecraft. I've read SOME Lovecraft, but I know plenty of people who have never even heard of him, and they are pretty well read, as Dean as shown himself in the past to be. Plus, Dean's comeback was classic, so yeah, I liked the exchange. It was Baby Bear's porridge: juuuust right :) I also loved both Dean and Castiel being painfully honest with each other. Nothing hurts Dean like betrayal. I mean, betrayal hurts everyone hard. Dante even put Betrayers in the deepest circle of Hell! But for Dean, it's the absolute worst thing you can do to him. When he puts his faith and trust in someone, it's pretty much for life. Betray him? You'll cut a wound that will never heal. And you could see how much it pained Dean, even when Castiel did what he could to do something right (healing Lisa) and knew, even before Dean said it, that it didn't change anything. He didn't heal Dean, after all--couldn't, because he's the one that cut Dean with his betrayal. Strong stuff, show. ANd as always, Jensen KILLED me with Dean's struggle to keep going/do the right thing/keep the hurt inside.
But asking Cas to erase Lisa and Ben's memories? Dean Dean Dean... ::shakes her head at her boy:: I mean, I get why you did it. In your twisted notion that Everyone Else Comes Before Me, Especially When It Comes to Happiness, you decided that you were keeping them from being safe and happy. In your black and white terms, you were the problem, so you had yourself removed from their lives. What was that you were saying to Cas just last ep, about just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you should? Yeah. That. So glad Sam called you on it, because it was a VERY shady thing to do, especially in light of everything that happened with Sam and his memory problems this year. Not your best moment, Dean.
Doesn't mean I didn't still cry when you were saying your goodbyes and they didn't know you and you were trying to keep it together and dammit I'm crying just thinking about it. Damn Jensen and his awesome acting...
At least you got to kick some ass when you were fighting your way to Lisa and Ben. I kept thinking DAMN, Lisa, do you hear that? Do you SEE that? HE is fighting for YOU, and you're all hot and cold with him. But that's not your fault--it's the writers for not being able to decide what to do with you. That was actually one of the things that pissed me off most about Season 6. One episode you're telling him to get out of your life. The next episode you're bitching at him about not answering your calls. Then he comes over and you're dating someone else and you break up with him all over again, even though you're still upset that he's there at all, and just as upset that he's about to leave. Jeebus, Lisa, what the hell is Dean supposed to do with all those mixed signals?! ::sighs:: At least you didn't get killed. I really liked you before you got all weird. I'm going to miss you and Ben, but in a way, it is really, REALLY nice to have the show back to being streamlined and just the boys and Bobby again.
I suppose that leads us to the next ep, huh. :;sighs, does not want to go on, but does cuz she knows she has to::
This ep did NOT feel like a finale to me. I remember having viewing parties with my SPN coffee buds and how it was an EVENT, and not just cuz I made an awesome Crossroads Cake one year ;) This year's finale, though...a lot of it felt like somebody tossed all the storylines of the year into a blender and hit puree. We got chunks of different and important answers every so often, but chunks only; the rest of it was slush. And the most disappointing chunk was, unfortuantely, Sam. Looks like he's functioning decently without his wall, so why was there all the worry in the first place? And though I did love the idea of Sam having to confront the different sides of himself (and CHEERED when he shot Sham, yay!), again, what was the POINT if he--and all of us in turn--wasn't going to learn anything important? When I had heard the spoiler about a lot of the ep being inside Sam's head, I was intrigued. I had hoped that maybe he was going to have to confront everything he had done and would have to find a way to forgive himself in order to pull himself back together again. Nope, didn't happen. I had also hoped that maybe he had learned something important while he was down in the cage, maybe even something that could stop Purgatory from being opened, but nope, no intel, just sadness and pain. And now what? Are they going to be dealing with Sam's PTSD next year, or are they just going to give him the occasional headache and that's it? Either way won't work: the former will piss me off to high heaven for the unfairness of screentime, since they screwed poor Dean over in dealing with HIS PTSD back in Season 4, and the latter will piss me off, too, because it'll be like this entire ordeal for Sam was nothing more than a footnote. The writers have written themselves into a corner--AGAIN. Seriously, WHY does this show not have a beta reader? Preferably a fan who knows what the hell she is talking about? I volunteer. I'll do it for free! Call me, Kripke.
At least Jared did a fantastic job acting, especially as wounded!burned!Sam who remembered Hell. And at least the boys are back on the same team again. Guh, when Sam was saying he couldn't leave his brother out there alone, and Dean wanted to stay right there with Sam, Purgatory door be damned? ::HUGS her boys:: GOD I've missed the bond! I'm so glad it's back again. But with all the other crap going on, the bond isn't enough right now. It's like the little garden in front of my condo: my parents and I spent most of the day de-weeding it, since it's been neglected for YEARS before I ever moved in. We knew there was beauty underneath, but we had to clear out all the unsightly overgrowth to reveal it. That's exactly what Show needs to do: get out their dandelion digger and get rid of those weeds. And the biggest weed, sadly, is our dear Castiel.
Don't get me wrong--I do NOT want Cas gone from the show! I adore our favorite angel. But what the FUCK did they do to him? The idea of Cas as a bad guy was compelling, especially in the wonderfully-performed and written "The Boy Who Would Be King." But Cas as a new, basically unstoppable god?! How can they fight something like that? It's ridiculous! It isn't scary, it's just creepy...like the Serial Killer vibe I got from this guy at speed dating a few weeks ago. And there are only two ways they can do next season: either fix Cas right away (which would render the finale's plot pointless) or drag it out all season (which...blech.) There is no lesser of two evils here--BOTH ways will piss me off. It's like they didn't know what to do, and someone got the idea of hey, what if we make CAS the bad guy? LIke supremely bad guy with a god complex and similar powers? And everyone else okayed it just so they could go home for the night. It's lazy and both Cas and Misha deserve better. No sir, I don't like it. Plus he killed Balty, whom I loved :( At least Crowley got away, that makes me happy. But why did they flip the Impala and shoot her windows out? The bastards! She deserves better, too. ::Hugs her tight::
I'll still be tuning in to Season 7--this is still my favorite show. But right now I'm so upset with the writers that for the first time in the history of the show, I'm not on pins and needles to find out what happens next. The hiatus will not be long and unbearable as it usually is, but rather a good length of time where, hopefully, SOMEone on the writing staff will find a way to truly bring our show back to its former greatness. As an optimist, I can and will only hope :)