SPN Ep Rxn 6.6: Truth Serum. Just Do It.

Oct 31, 2010 20:55

OMG, this was a weird episode. If a normal ep is a sandwich with the case as the bread and the character development as the meat and cheese, this ep was a low-carb lettuce wrap made from an entire package of sliced turkey. Character development is ALL IT'S HERE FOR.
Has something like this ever been done on TV before? Serial novels? Comic books ( Read more... )

spn-episode

Leave a comment

euphonious_glow November 1 2010, 14:13:14 UTC
I love this review. Insightful and funny synopsis!

New Sam has a very straight face, even if his professional smile now looks a bit like he wants to eat her, with fava beans.

Best description of Sam during that scene I've read. He was such a creeper, but this line made me grin :D And you pointed out how he was also like a puppy waiting for a pat on the head from Dean for his good work. Still some of the old Sam there, I swear!

Sam clearly has emotions. I mean, he was practically jumping off the wall with excitement about the case. My guess is that it isn't that he can't feel--he just doesn't have empathy or fear anymore. I believed him during his final conversation with Dean, but there might be more to the story than just a missing soul. We still need to find out how and why it is missing. And Sam still doesn't get off the hook with me, because he lied to Dean from the start. My guess is that, logically, he thought the best thing for them was for him to not tell Dean, so that he could go on being a great hunter, even if he knew something was wrong. He would have gone on lying if he weren't desperate.

But I have a little more faith in Sam than some of fandom. I don't think he was ever immoral or heartless. He's always been a good liar, yes, and his empathy could sometimes be a manipulative face, even in S1, but he genuinely cared about people, about his brother. I'd like to believe that this new Sam isn't what he's really like on the inside. I can't wait until we get a look at his missing year. I know the whole "Something's wrong with Sam!" thing has been done before, but this season, I'm interested.

This says to me that this season is going to be a redemption story - a steep challenge to write, but with some of the greatest rewards possible in storytelling.

Oh god, I hope so. I think this season is going for a pared-down, much more personal story than the past few seasons. I'm sure it will be about more than just getting Sam's soul back by the end, but at this point, the relationship between the brothers has gotten really interesting. Sure, I miss their closeness of previous seasons. They reached a kind of resolution by the end of S5, so this has been a little jarring. But I think it has potential. I NEED to see Dean gain more faith in himself. Which is why I want to see more of Lisa and Ben. I need to see him realize his self worth. Because this episode was even worse than all of S4 in some ways. Dean reached a low so bad that he could beat his brother. That really says something.

I think Sam will end up going back to normal, but I also want to see Sam reconcile with what he's done the past few years. I want to see him truly care about Dean again. I want to see the boys find something healthy in their relationship with each other. I want a happy ending for SPN, which I know isn't what Kripke ever intended, but I think Sera might just go that route. Let's see the brothers work through their issues this season.

Sam being Not!Sam might be the best thing that has ever happened to Dean. Because Dean has had to really examine his relationship with his brother and understand the bad as well as the good. He's always defined himself as Sam's protector, and I think in this season he will start to get a sense of why that's a bad thing.

This episode made me a lot more enthusiastic about this season, like I haven't been since 6.01.

Reply

rokhal November 1 2010, 15:35:55 UTC
I agree so much with just about everything you say here.

But I do have to admit, unlike you, I did used to think Sam was heartless. Not immoral, just compensating for some subtle Azazel-induced lack of human empathy by reading a lot of pop-psych books and trying to be nice, when he remembered. When Sam went off the deep end in Lucifer Rising because Dean *hurt his feelings* on the fake voicemail, that should have been a big tipoff to me, but oh, well.

But now that Sam actually is heartless? Big difference. Apparently he runs a lot more on emotion than I'd ever guessed.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up