SPN: Sometimes it's Terrible and sometimes it's not.
I did not like It's a Terrible Life (4x17). At all. In fact, I hated it.
Why? Why go to the trouble to bring Dean to a believable crisis in faith - in himself and in what he can do - only to use the last 2 minutes of the next episode to tell him to stop whining and get over it? Hey Dean, lose your mom, dad and for a brief wrenching amount of time your brother and your own soul? Oh, and it looks like you started the Apocalypse and thereby failed not only your dad but probably all of humanity and God and the angels besides? Well, walk it off, boy! Yeah. Right. And what's this shit about Zachariah being Castiel's superior? Pfft. In title only, bub. Zachariah is like most middle management in that he's apparently been promoted to his incompetence, is completely ineffectual and absolutely clueless about what's really going on. I sincerely hope that Castiel is off somewhere pocketing office supplies or the heavenly equivalent.
If you're interested in seeing Dean living in another reality check out the far superior The Common Fate of All by gretazreta. This is how you do it.
From what I've heard this 4th season was suppose to be the last (it's not) and in many ways it shows. They wasted no time bringing out the big guns (Apocalypse anyone?) and relationships that are normally subtextural have been brought to the fore (Dean and Castiel).
Dean and Castiel. For me, the question isn't whether or not they'll hook up but whether or not a man like Dean, who is at an extremely low ebb in his life, can accept love from a source who demands Dean's best as much as he believes in the best in Dean. And who is, by the way, male. I can't and I don't really want to discount that fact and I don't think Dean should either. He was quick to refer to Uriel (and angels in general) as "junkless" and maybe as a purely angel entity they are but when Castiel is inhabiting a human man I think it's safe to assume that the junk is there and fully functional. Whether or not Castiel has made the connection between love and sex is debatable but then the same could be said for most humans, so ... ::shrugs::
Dean is not the only one left to flounder. Castiel has gone from a soldier of God who believably threatened to toss Dean back in the hot box over a lack of respect to someone who has gone from loving humanity in general to loving one human in particular.
There were signs of the change in Castiel before It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester but the agonized look on his face when he knows that he's going to have to test Dean's character and resolve speaks volumes.
I was just about as excited as Sam was when he finally got to meet Castiel but ...
... it also made me nervous. If Castiel rejected Sam he might as well go home. Any kind of alliance he might want to build between him and Dean would be moot at that point but if he embraced Sam then going home is moot, too.
(Dean's reaction to Sam's fanboy reaction also speaks volumes.)
Castiel diffuses several scenarios by marching down the middle ground. That long excruciating moment when he hesitates to take Sam's hand ...
... and then pointing out Sam's demon blood linage for Uriel at the window while he tries to convey something altogether different to Sam with both of his hands.
Please please please pay attention to my hands and not the words that are coming out of my mouth.
Judging by Sam's hurt and confused expression he was only partially successful but Castiel is only just beginning to figure out his role in their lives so I cut him some slack. Every week I hope for more interaction between these two.
Lovely - and telling - visuals in this episode. Castiel on the side of the brothers ...
... and with Dean.
Not that they're lovey-dovey or above throwing each others daddy-issues around when pushed but I'm of the school of thought that if you don't fight - you don't care.
Getting up in each others space is just a bonus.
Uriel and Castiel were having some kind of important conversation here but ...
... I was distracted by the pretty.
Same park, different couple ...
... a confession about uncertainty ...
... and a more genuine - if still tenuous - connection is made. Once again, a nice visual of that: together but at separate benches.
They would probably get a lot further if not for Castiel's penchant for flitting away whenever the playing field levels out. He's worse than Dean who gets a taste of his own hit-and-run style of relating.
In Heaven and Hell it kind of cracked me up that Uriel told Dean that Castiel likes him in much the same way that a 5th grader might rat out a friend who likes someone out of their league. "He has this weakness. He likes you." But it's not like Uriel was lying about it. Check out Castiel channeling Liz Lemon when he witnesses Anna bestowing a forgiving goodbye kiss.
I want to go to there.
I guess it could be argued that he wants to experience a kiss with Anna but since he pulls away from her (twice!) in On the Head of a Pin I'm thinking, No. It's Dean he looking at like that. Canon slash. Even if it's still more than a little one-sided.
Character actor Mark Rolston obviously had a ball playing Alastair. The speech patterns alone deserve special mention. He sounded like Truman Capote riffing on Marlon Brando playing Don Corleone. What's really amazing is that another actor (Christopher Heyerdahl) takes the same odd characterization and does it even better.
Side note: And while we're here I just have to say that whoever Castiel is inhabiting those are not his clothes. The collar and cuffs of the shirt dangle around his limbs and the pants are just this side of too short. I get the feeling that whoever is - or was - in there was probably on the run from something or trying to disguise himself for whatever reason. Time will tell, I guess.
After seeing Castiel throttled twice by Alastair and once by Uriel I'm starting to think that fighting is just not his forte.
(Guess who saves him the first time? Yep. Dean.)
Castiel seems almost baffled by violence and since this beatdown is coming from Uriel - someone he considers a brother - it probably is baffling. Never mind that he's the one who threw the first punch.
aesc's oh-so-excellent A Geometry for Spirits goes a long way towards explaining why he's part of a garrison but not necessarily its best fighter.
Meanwhile, Dean confesses that he remembers his time in hell, and later on, what he did there. Unfortunately, his sense of shame creates a gulf between them that's only widened when a siren spell causes them to express their fears and resentment. It's ironic that despite Sam's demon blood and questionable supernatural powers it's Dean who has wrecked the most havoc and that most of it has been turned back on himself.
Which makes Uriel's demand that Dean torture a captured Alastair to find out who's killing angels not only a bad idea but a spectacularly bad idea. Which it turns out is what Uriel was going for. It's interesting how the dynamics have shifted. Dean has no problem giving Castiel shit over the death of Pamela Barnes but it's with Sam standing just ahead of him and doing his best to mediate while Uriel is clearing the running the show from his side.
Castiel's dubious sense of humor aside, Dean still turns to him to find out why Uriel is calling the shots.
When Castiel tells him that it's because he's become too close to the humans in his charge - and "you" specifically ... ( \0/ )
... Dean takes that bit of information like a gut punch ...
... and then a moment later tests it ...
... when he walks right in front of Castiel just to make him shiver.
And shiver he does. Dean. Is a tease.
Still following someones orders, Castiel tells Dean that he would give anything if it meant Dean didn't have to deal with Alastair.
Dean's belief that no one will like what comes out of the slaughterhouse once he's gone in is heart wrenching.
The adage that a hero is only as good as the villain he's up against is brought to shocking life with Christopher Heyerdahl playing Alastair. He takes Mark Rolston's characterization - weird accent and giddy innuendo - and runs with it.
With his toes dancing up off the floor and singing "Cheek to Cheek" (heaven ... I'm in heaven ...) Alastair begins to decimate Dean again as soon as Dean opens the door. This is the kind of mindfuck that Dean endured for 3 months/30 years depending on your locale. It doesn't seem to matter at all that Alastair is the one chained up in a devil's trap and Dean is the one with all the weapons.
Their scenes together are full of violence and gore and often obscenely intimate. Behold a monster deeply in love.
And Castiel is left by himself to witness it.
To my eye, Sam and Ruby play out a more subtle decimation but it is meant to end in the destruction of one of them. I like that Ruby inhabits a more unassuming beauty because it makes it believably harder for Sam to track her real motives. This demon looks like the lost Jane Doe that Ruby claimed. It has been a coup for her. I can't imagine Sam drinking from the arm of Ruby from last season with her mean-girl prettiness and snapping attitude.
I shouldn't love the scene where Castiel refuses to partner up with Anna as much as I do but,
I do. Castiel already has a partner and, sorry Uriel, it's not you either.
I adore Anna, by the way, because I think she's one of those disgruntled former employees who's going to expose the man - or angels - behind the curtain. Also, she saves Castiel and you can never go wrong with me on that front.
Sam, rejuvenated by Ruby's demon blood, saves Castiel who saved Dean. The fan opening in the background makes Sam look like he has a corona which makes me wonder if angel blood would be toxic to him or if it would act as an anecdote to his demon blood.
It's interesting how with very little exposure to each other (I hope that changes) that Castiel sometimes knows more about Sam than Dean does.
With Dean hurt, I would not want to be Castiel and watch Sam come at me.
When Sam tells Castiel to get in there and heal Dean it's very much an order and not a hopeful prayer.
With Uriel gone, Castiel seems more inclinded to "consider disobedience" although in a different vein than Uriel did. No surpise that his first dicision is to be by Dean's side.
(Seriously. I would pay to see SPN if it meant that I didn't have to look around the CW's ginormous and fugly adverts and logo.)
Wow. These two really have a whole lot to talk about. Dean's actions in hell broke the first seal and Castiel pulled him out of hell even after the fact. It sounds like Castiel was thinking for himself at that moment and then had to make good on it whether Dean wanted to or not. But that's changed, too, because in the process of pushing Dean he's been pushed back in a way that is transforming him.
So, how do you restore a man who no longer believes in himself? Run a filler episode and tell him to get over it? No. You stay by his side even when you don't have all the answers ...
... and even when he tells you to go find someone else.
Not likely, sweetheart.
Thank you leggyslove and marishna for the screencaps!
Why? Why go to the trouble to bring Dean to a believable crisis in faith - in himself and in what he can do - only to use the last 2 minutes of the next episode to tell him to stop whining and get over it? Hey Dean, lose your mom, dad and for a brief wrenching amount of time your brother and your own soul? Oh, and it looks like you started the Apocalypse and thereby failed not only your dad but probably all of humanity and God and the angels besides? Well, walk it off, boy! Yeah. Right. And what's this shit about Zachariah being Castiel's superior? Pfft. In title only, bub. Zachariah is like most middle management in that he's apparently been promoted to his incompetence, is completely ineffectual and absolutely clueless about what's really going on. I sincerely hope that Castiel is off somewhere pocketing office supplies or the heavenly equivalent.
If you're interested in seeing Dean living in another reality check out the far superior The Common Fate of All by gretazreta. This is how you do it.
From what I've heard this 4th season was suppose to be the last (it's not) and in many ways it shows. They wasted no time bringing out the big guns (Apocalypse anyone?) and relationships that are normally subtextural have been brought to the fore (Dean and Castiel).
Dean and Castiel. For me, the question isn't whether or not they'll hook up but whether or not a man like Dean, who is at an extremely low ebb in his life, can accept love from a source who demands Dean's best as much as he believes in the best in Dean. And who is, by the way, male. I can't and I don't really want to discount that fact and I don't think Dean should either. He was quick to refer to Uriel (and angels in general) as "junkless" and maybe as a purely angel entity they are but when Castiel is inhabiting a human man I think it's safe to assume that the junk is there and fully functional. Whether or not Castiel has made the connection between love and sex is debatable but then the same could be said for most humans, so ... ::shrugs::
Dean is not the only one left to flounder. Castiel has gone from a soldier of God who believably threatened to toss Dean back in the hot box over a lack of respect to someone who has gone from loving humanity in general to loving one human in particular.
There were signs of the change in Castiel before It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester but the agonized look on his face when he knows that he's going to have to test Dean's character and resolve speaks volumes.
I was just about as excited as Sam was when he finally got to meet Castiel but ...
... it also made me nervous. If Castiel rejected Sam he might as well go home. Any kind of alliance he might want to build between him and Dean would be moot at that point but if he embraced Sam then going home is moot, too.
(Dean's reaction to Sam's fanboy reaction also speaks volumes.)
Castiel diffuses several scenarios by marching down the middle ground. That long excruciating moment when he hesitates to take Sam's hand ...
... and then pointing out Sam's demon blood linage for Uriel at the window while he tries to convey something altogether different to Sam with both of his hands.
Please please please pay attention to my hands and not the words that are coming out of my mouth.
Judging by Sam's hurt and confused expression he was only partially successful but Castiel is only just beginning to figure out his role in their lives so I cut him some slack. Every week I hope for more interaction between these two.
Lovely - and telling - visuals in this episode. Castiel on the side of the brothers ...
... and with Dean.
Not that they're lovey-dovey or above throwing each others daddy-issues around when pushed but I'm of the school of thought that if you don't fight - you don't care.
Getting up in each others space is just a bonus.
Uriel and Castiel were having some kind of important conversation here but ...
... I was distracted by the pretty.
Same park, different couple ...
... a confession about uncertainty ...
... and a more genuine - if still tenuous - connection is made. Once again, a nice visual of that: together but at separate benches.
They would probably get a lot further if not for Castiel's penchant for flitting away whenever the playing field levels out. He's worse than Dean who gets a taste of his own hit-and-run style of relating.
In Heaven and Hell it kind of cracked me up that Uriel told Dean that Castiel likes him in much the same way that a 5th grader might rat out a friend who likes someone out of their league. "He has this weakness. He likes you." But it's not like Uriel was lying about it. Check out Castiel channeling Liz Lemon when he witnesses Anna bestowing a forgiving goodbye kiss.
I want to go to there.
I guess it could be argued that he wants to experience a kiss with Anna but since he pulls away from her (twice!) in On the Head of a Pin I'm thinking, No. It's Dean he looking at like that. Canon slash. Even if it's still more than a little one-sided.
Character actor Mark Rolston obviously had a ball playing Alastair. The speech patterns alone deserve special mention. He sounded like Truman Capote riffing on Marlon Brando playing Don Corleone. What's really amazing is that another actor (Christopher Heyerdahl) takes the same odd characterization and does it even better.
Side note: And while we're here I just have to say that whoever Castiel is inhabiting those are not his clothes. The collar and cuffs of the shirt dangle around his limbs and the pants are just this side of too short. I get the feeling that whoever is - or was - in there was probably on the run from something or trying to disguise himself for whatever reason. Time will tell, I guess.
After seeing Castiel throttled twice by Alastair and once by Uriel I'm starting to think that fighting is just not his forte.
(Guess who saves him the first time? Yep. Dean.)
Castiel seems almost baffled by violence and since this beatdown is coming from Uriel - someone he considers a brother - it probably is baffling. Never mind that he's the one who threw the first punch.
aesc's oh-so-excellent A Geometry for Spirits goes a long way towards explaining why he's part of a garrison but not necessarily its best fighter.
Meanwhile, Dean confesses that he remembers his time in hell, and later on, what he did there. Unfortunately, his sense of shame creates a gulf between them that's only widened when a siren spell causes them to express their fears and resentment. It's ironic that despite Sam's demon blood and questionable supernatural powers it's Dean who has wrecked the most havoc and that most of it has been turned back on himself.
Which makes Uriel's demand that Dean torture a captured Alastair to find out who's killing angels not only a bad idea but a spectacularly bad idea. Which it turns out is what Uriel was going for. It's interesting how the dynamics have shifted. Dean has no problem giving Castiel shit over the death of Pamela Barnes but it's with Sam standing just ahead of him and doing his best to mediate while Uriel is clearing the running the show from his side.
Castiel's dubious sense of humor aside, Dean still turns to him to find out why Uriel is calling the shots.
When Castiel tells him that it's because he's become too close to the humans in his charge - and "you" specifically ... ( \0/ )
... Dean takes that bit of information like a gut punch ...
... and then a moment later tests it ...
... when he walks right in front of Castiel just to make him shiver.
And shiver he does. Dean. Is a tease.
Still following someones orders, Castiel tells Dean that he would give anything if it meant Dean didn't have to deal with Alastair.
Dean's belief that no one will like what comes out of the slaughterhouse once he's gone in is heart wrenching.
The adage that a hero is only as good as the villain he's up against is brought to shocking life with Christopher Heyerdahl playing Alastair. He takes Mark Rolston's characterization - weird accent and giddy innuendo - and runs with it.
With his toes dancing up off the floor and singing "Cheek to Cheek" (heaven ... I'm in heaven ...) Alastair begins to decimate Dean again as soon as Dean opens the door. This is the kind of mindfuck that Dean endured for 3 months/30 years depending on your locale. It doesn't seem to matter at all that Alastair is the one chained up in a devil's trap and Dean is the one with all the weapons.
Their scenes together are full of violence and gore and often obscenely intimate. Behold a monster deeply in love.
And Castiel is left by himself to witness it.
To my eye, Sam and Ruby play out a more subtle decimation but it is meant to end in the destruction of one of them. I like that Ruby inhabits a more unassuming beauty because it makes it believably harder for Sam to track her real motives. This demon looks like the lost Jane Doe that Ruby claimed. It has been a coup for her. I can't imagine Sam drinking from the arm of Ruby from last season with her mean-girl prettiness and snapping attitude.
I shouldn't love the scene where Castiel refuses to partner up with Anna as much as I do but,
I do. Castiel already has a partner and, sorry Uriel, it's not you either.
I adore Anna, by the way, because I think she's one of those disgruntled former employees who's going to expose the man - or angels - behind the curtain. Also, she saves Castiel and you can never go wrong with me on that front.
Sam, rejuvenated by Ruby's demon blood, saves Castiel who saved Dean. The fan opening in the background makes Sam look like he has a corona which makes me wonder if angel blood would be toxic to him or if it would act as an anecdote to his demon blood.
It's interesting how with very little exposure to each other (I hope that changes) that Castiel sometimes knows more about Sam than Dean does.
With Dean hurt, I would not want to be Castiel and watch Sam come at me.
When Sam tells Castiel to get in there and heal Dean it's very much an order and not a hopeful prayer.
With Uriel gone, Castiel seems more inclinded to "consider disobedience" although in a different vein than Uriel did. No surpise that his first dicision is to be by Dean's side.
(Seriously. I would pay to see SPN if it meant that I didn't have to look around the CW's ginormous and fugly adverts and logo.)
Wow. These two really have a whole lot to talk about. Dean's actions in hell broke the first seal and Castiel pulled him out of hell even after the fact. It sounds like Castiel was thinking for himself at that moment and then had to make good on it whether Dean wanted to or not. But that's changed, too, because in the process of pushing Dean he's been pushed back in a way that is transforming him.
So, how do you restore a man who no longer believes in himself? Run a filler episode and tell him to get over it? No. You stay by his side even when you don't have all the answers ...
... and even when he tells you to go find someone else.
Not likely, sweetheart.
Thank you leggyslove and marishna for the screencaps!