Reaction to 11x21, "All In the Family"
So I hate to admit this, but I must: Midseason, I was a little bored with Show. I still love it, don't get me wrong, but this series has been on for 11 seasons. Not every episode is going to be a Wow anymore, y'know? And yes, we had the excellent "Baby" ep, but I honestly thought that was going to be the main Wow of the season. Hoo boy, was I wrong. Last week's "Don't Call Me Shurley" and this week's "All In the Family" were a one-two punch of not only WOW, but, to quote Dean, HOLY CRAP. Show still knows how to bring it when it wants to, and I love it :)
I'm going to be focusing mainly on Jensen/Dean and Rob/Chuck for this post. Not to say that Jared/Sam weren't excellent--they were, especially Sam's fanboying and all the questions he wanted to ask Chuck and some pretty badass handling of the Impala. All great stuff. But what really drew me in and moved me were the Dean and Chuck scenes. I tweeted to Jensen and Rob that they were going to get my medical bill, since they were both KILLING me with their performances, and I stand by that ;) When Chuck was explaining why he stopped stepping in, hoping that by ending his helicopter parenting, the human race would be able to learn independence and make the world a better place, Dean's simple statement, "But it didn't get better" pretty much broke me, and Dean, too, for that matter. Note that there were TWO manly tears for proof! Dean, like so many of us, just want to know WHY, and Chuck won't ever be able to answer correctly, IMO. Look at how he told Dean to not confuse him with John Winchester in the justifying-why-I-wasn't around department. One, Dean wasn't confusing anyting, and two, after everything he and Sam have been through, I think he's perfectly justified in not buying what Chuck is selling.
That same frustration and fear came up again in the park scene. Oh quick question--was that the same park, playground, and bench on which Dean and Castiel had a Big Talk back in season 4? Pretty sure it was, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, it was interesting that Chuck called Dean (and, I would assume, Sam) the "firewall between good and evil"--interesting in the sense that it makes me wonder if it's meant as a real compliment or as a sad truth. He said he's always had faith in the Winchesters, but why? Because he loves them, as he told Metatron last week, or because they have been set up, through fate and angel interfrence with Mary and John, to BE that very firewall? Are they the warriors or just the weapons? I wonder. At any rate, Dean is so overwhelmed that he nearly cries again, saying he's just a hunter, not some Powerful Force like Chuck seems to think he is (again, not feeling his own worth, sure he's unimportant as always :( Gotta stop doing that, Dean and that Chuck needs to stop Amara, not just give up. Bu Chuck doesn't seem to have changed his mind by the end, and if he did, we don't know because of the stupid editing of that scene. More on that in a moment. I just feel for Dean and how helpless he feels, just thrown into the middle of an impossible mess again and expected to fix it. Sometimes it's hard to be a Winchester :(
So here's my beef with the editing: Basically, there were two scenes, both with Dean, that were very important, and both seem to have been either cut short or squeezed in--or both, who knows? The first one was the scene I was just talking about, with Chuck and Dean in the park. Before the commercial break, Sam and Dean were with Metatron at a bar. After the commercial break, Dean is alone, in a park, where he comes across Chuck, who says, "You wante to talk?" First off, Dean never said that he did. Maybe Chuck read his mind, I don't know. But when is it taking place? is it real or in a dream? is it before or after sam and Dean got back from the bar? I have no freaking clue because the scene ends abruptly and, in absolutely zero transition, Dean is back in the bunker, getting Donatello a beer. How much time has elapsed since the park talk? Is it even the same day anymore, or night or what have you? I don't know, but it really bothered me. And then they go and DO IT AGAIN! This time it's when Dean goes to meet Amara. Again, no idea where these woods are or how he got there (did Sam drop him off on the way to get Luci back, but he's there, and he's talking to Amara and trying to convince her that they can never be together. After some back and forth, Amara suddenl realizes, somehow, that Dean has talked to God, in doing so has betrayed her. You think she'd be pissed, right? Well she is, but we'll never know what she said or did to Dean because they fucking cut the scene short AGAIN. Amara goes to where Lucifer was nd, after Metatron sacrifices himself, goes after Sam, Luci, and Donatello. She's going to do SOMEthing to them, but Chuck teleports them, Impala and all, back to the bunker. And where is Dean through all of this? WHO FUCKING KNOWS! We don't see him again until the very last scene. How did he get back from the woods? How much time has passed? And most importantly, if Amara was upset at his betrayal, as I"m sure she was, why oh WHY didn't they show the aftermath?!?!?! It's as sloppy as it is assinine, and it keeps a good episode from being great. /end rant
At least we got to see Kevin again, for 3 whole seconds. Has he been in the veil all this time? And why didn't they ever do anything with that awesome storylinge about the dead being unable to move on? Alas. They did prove that they remember canon for once, discussing the time Crowley went after all the prophets. Of course, then they have all those scenes with Metatron with absolutely no mention of the last time they were all together, when Metatron killed Dean. Not even a throwaway line! ::shakes head and resists urge to pull hair out::
And yet, despite all of those annoyances, I still really, REALLY enjoyed the episode. No idea how this is all going to play out but I guess we'll see. What did you think of it?