Supernatural Season Fine!!!
Episode 9.01: "I think I'm Gonna Like It Here"
I am very very happy to see the return of my favorite Show from Hellatus. I did not get to see it live, and if you follow me on Facebook you know why, but I was able to watch while Jared was live-tweeting -- and wasn't that a hoot? And then I watched it again with my husband tonight. I'm really excited for where this season could lead. But I have a couple issues...
I did not realize just how angry the end of Season Eight made me until I watched this episode. I remember feeling
somehow disappointed in the season finale, and not being willing to post a reaction until I sorted things out -- and then I just decided, meh, nobody wants to hear my opinion, I'm just gonna harsh their squee. But watching "The Road So Far" brought back the anger I felt. Specifically, (1)the scene in the church, and (2)Castiel alone.
Heresy, I know, but hear me out. I was very disappointed in Castiel's gullibility; after all this time on Earth, among humans, he is still a very popular character (and rightly so) that the writers do not know what to do with. Either he is a powerful Heavenly warrior -- far too powerful to be allowed in the plot without some fatal flaw -- or he is a naive, easily led astray little child-man, desperate for Dean's approval. That he has both need and reason to redeem himself for past mistakes is clear, and is apparently the fatal flaw that allows him to remain without completely skewing the balance of power overwhelmingly to the side of the Winchesters and completely ruining the delicate good vs. evil balance the Show tries to maintain. But why should that turn him into a being who, without Dean (or Sam, or even Bobby) to hold his hand and guide him through his daily life, is willing to fall for whatever scam is pitched his way? Every time he is separated from the brothers he does something unwise that must be kept secret from others because he is convinced they will thwart his well-intentioned plans. Here's a clue, Castiel: If you are afraid Sam or Dean will try to talk you out of your scheme, perhaps experience has shown that they would be right to do so.
Yeah, yeah, season arc, plot point, character motivation, yada yada... it just left me feeling bad for the character of Castiel that he should need to be so badly used for the sake of the story. But given that it's hard to write around a frickin' Angel, for pete's sake, I was willing to grumble lightly but overlook the issue.
What really made me angry was the scene in the church. Yes, that scene, where Dean swears love and loyalty to Family. It angered me so much that I could not join the squee over the scene or the episode. My first issue was that I felt used. All season long we had been building toward a tremendous climax: the closing of the Gates of Hell. Did I believe it would actually happen? Part of me thought it might. Part of me thought it wouldn't. But almost all of me thought that if it didn't happen it would be because of a mistake being made in The Trials, or interference from some other entity that would prevent The Trials from being completed, or almost anything but what we got: we just quit. It was just, hey Sam, if you're gonna die, trapping all the demons in Hell forever and saving humanity from evil is just not worth it. I never once thought that such a selfish motive as "I can't live without you" would be the cause of the Winchesters just bailing at literally the last second. All that work, all that suffering, all that heroism in the cause of saving the world -- all that sacrifice, episode after episode -- and Dean couldn't live with the one final, inevitable sacrifice?
Do not misunderstand me. I LOVE the bond between the brothers. It's what the Show is built on. Their relationship is what makes Supernatural, Supernatural. That each is willing to sacrifice himself, repeatedly, for the other, is inspirational. Codependent and dysfunctional, yes, but also heartwarming and heroic. I have understood and accepted each sacrifice -- until this one. This one felt like a cheat.
Sam and Dean are both, each of them, Big Damn Heroes. My heroes. Intensely flawed human beings who somehow manage to muddle through a horrific destiny and do the right thing. That they are also unwilling to do such thankless work alone is not surprising. They need each other. I get that. But this? This felt forced. To come that close, to have the victory they had sought all season literally within their grasp,, and then QUIT voluntarily, was just... what? A huge "Just Kidding" from the writers? It's the writers I am so angry with, both for cheating the brothers out of a righteous ending, and for taking Dean's need to have his brother by his side from the realm of brotherly bond to absolute pathological selfishness. Dean has appeared as the desperately needy four-year-old boy he is inside on many occasions, but this felt to me like character assassination. The writers expected me to believe that Dean was so unwilling to live without his brother that he would not only let the world burn but deprive his brother of the noble victory his sacrifice deserved?
That we can't live without both brothers is obvious. But I was angry that the writers apparently could not find a different, less cheating, more functional way of saving them both. I guess I'm still angry about it, since I've just written such a long post.
I do give the writers kudos for giving us The Fall. The scene of falling angels raining from Heaven was visually stunning, and it was a bold move that allowed an intriguing start for a fresh new season.
And oddly contradictory as it seems, I find Dean's subterfuge in this opening episode believable. He gave up everything to NOT give up Sam, he made Sam give up the Win that should have followed all the losses, and Sam was as good as dead anyway. (Life's a bitch that way, especially for the Winchesters). I get that he felt he had to set that right. I do.
What bothered me about THIS episode was Sam. That the One True Hope that Sam had was Death... contractually-agreed-upon final, irrevocable death -- breaks my heart. Just...breaks it into tiny little pieces.
In short, I guess, a fitting season premiere. In any case, I feel good about Show at the start of a fresh new season. I hadn't realized until I felt that good, how bad I felt about the end of the last.
I am very very happy to see the return of my favorite Show from Hellatus. I did not get to see it live, and if you follow me on Facebook you know why, but I was able to watch while Jared was live-tweeting -- and wasn't that a hoot? And then I watched it again with my husband tonight. I'm really excited for where this season could lead. But I have a couple issues...
I did not realize just how angry the end of Season Eight made me until I watched this episode. I remember feeling
somehow disappointed in the season finale, and not being willing to post a reaction until I sorted things out -- and then I just decided, meh, nobody wants to hear my opinion, I'm just gonna harsh their squee. But watching "The Road So Far" brought back the anger I felt. Specifically, (1)the scene in the church, and (2)Castiel alone.
Heresy, I know, but hear me out. I was very disappointed in Castiel's gullibility; after all this time on Earth, among humans, he is still a very popular character (and rightly so) that the writers do not know what to do with. Either he is a powerful Heavenly warrior -- far too powerful to be allowed in the plot without some fatal flaw -- or he is a naive, easily led astray little child-man, desperate for Dean's approval. That he has both need and reason to redeem himself for past mistakes is clear, and is apparently the fatal flaw that allows him to remain without completely skewing the balance of power overwhelmingly to the side of the Winchesters and completely ruining the delicate good vs. evil balance the Show tries to maintain. But why should that turn him into a being who, without Dean (or Sam, or even Bobby) to hold his hand and guide him through his daily life, is willing to fall for whatever scam is pitched his way? Every time he is separated from the brothers he does something unwise that must be kept secret from others because he is convinced they will thwart his well-intentioned plans. Here's a clue, Castiel: If you are afraid Sam or Dean will try to talk you out of your scheme, perhaps experience has shown that they would be right to do so.
Yeah, yeah, season arc, plot point, character motivation, yada yada... it just left me feeling bad for the character of Castiel that he should need to be so badly used for the sake of the story. But given that it's hard to write around a frickin' Angel, for pete's sake, I was willing to grumble lightly but overlook the issue.
What really made me angry was the scene in the church. Yes, that scene, where Dean swears love and loyalty to Family. It angered me so much that I could not join the squee over the scene or the episode. My first issue was that I felt used. All season long we had been building toward a tremendous climax: the closing of the Gates of Hell. Did I believe it would actually happen? Part of me thought it might. Part of me thought it wouldn't. But almost all of me thought that if it didn't happen it would be because of a mistake being made in The Trials, or interference from some other entity that would prevent The Trials from being completed, or almost anything but what we got: we just quit. It was just, hey Sam, if you're gonna die, trapping all the demons in Hell forever and saving humanity from evil is just not worth it. I never once thought that such a selfish motive as "I can't live without you" would be the cause of the Winchesters just bailing at literally the last second. All that work, all that suffering, all that heroism in the cause of saving the world -- all that sacrifice, episode after episode -- and Dean couldn't live with the one final, inevitable sacrifice?
Do not misunderstand me. I LOVE the bond between the brothers. It's what the Show is built on. Their relationship is what makes Supernatural, Supernatural. That each is willing to sacrifice himself, repeatedly, for the other, is inspirational. Codependent and dysfunctional, yes, but also heartwarming and heroic. I have understood and accepted each sacrifice -- until this one. This one felt like a cheat.
Sam and Dean are both, each of them, Big Damn Heroes. My heroes. Intensely flawed human beings who somehow manage to muddle through a horrific destiny and do the right thing. That they are also unwilling to do such thankless work alone is not surprising. They need each other. I get that. But this? This felt forced. To come that close, to have the victory they had sought all season literally within their grasp,, and then QUIT voluntarily, was just... what? A huge "Just Kidding" from the writers? It's the writers I am so angry with, both for cheating the brothers out of a righteous ending, and for taking Dean's need to have his brother by his side from the realm of brotherly bond to absolute pathological selfishness. Dean has appeared as the desperately needy four-year-old boy he is inside on many occasions, but this felt to me like character assassination. The writers expected me to believe that Dean was so unwilling to live without his brother that he would not only let the world burn but deprive his brother of the noble victory his sacrifice deserved?
That we can't live without both brothers is obvious. But I was angry that the writers apparently could not find a different, less cheating, more functional way of saving them both. I guess I'm still angry about it, since I've just written such a long post.
I do give the writers kudos for giving us The Fall. The scene of falling angels raining from Heaven was visually stunning, and it was a bold move that allowed an intriguing start for a fresh new season.
And oddly contradictory as it seems, I find Dean's subterfuge in this opening episode believable. He gave up everything to NOT give up Sam, he made Sam give up the Win that should have followed all the losses, and Sam was as good as dead anyway. (Life's a bitch that way, especially for the Winchesters). I get that he felt he had to set that right. I do.
What bothered me about THIS episode was Sam. That the One True Hope that Sam had was Death... contractually-agreed-upon final, irrevocable death -- breaks my heart. Just...breaks it into tiny little pieces.
In short, I guess, a fitting season premiere. In any case, I feel good about Show at the start of a fresh new season. I hadn't realized until I felt that good, how bad I felt about the end of the last.