SPN: Sometimes it's Terrible and sometimes it's not.

[true_enough]

I did not like It's a Terrible Life (4x17).  At all.  In fact, I hated it.

Comments

[true_enough]

Thank you! smilla02 is made of win.

This current season is just amazing, isn't it? Especially with the casting (Collins and Heyerdahl stand out for me) and allowing the characters to chart a lot of territory that's normally subtextural. Castiel telling Dean, I'm in trouble because I love you, is just mind boggling it's so wonderful.

I think I can see how the problems with Zach's speech are deliberate--it's consistent with how dickish the angels are, how Dean is merely a weapon to them.

Yes! Now that I've had a bit of time to simmer down I think that my biggest problem with Zach's speech is that I assumed it worked. That Dean will show up the rest of the season as if he is unscathed by what has happened to him simply because Zach told him to. Which is impossible - or should be. It makes much more sense that Zach is simply a garden variety angel (i.e. kinda dickish) especially in comparison to Castiel who really is quite unique even when it comes to Anna. If I remember correctly, Anna fell from grace so she could experience an entire life whereas Castiel might fall in order to be closer to Dean. Damn. I just made myself shiver. Please please please TPTB, don't lose your nerve now when you've come this far!

Part of Castiel's love of Dean I feel would be that Castiel is the angel who gets the Dean-Sam bond.

Oh, absolutely yes. I keep thinking about the time that Castiel showed up in Bobby's kitchen and there's Dean and Sam asleep on the floor and that too small sofa. I guess they could have been doing that so that they were guarding the front of the house while Bobby had the back but I tend to lean towards the theory that the brothers just didn't want to be far from each other and that on some level Castiel picked up on that and respects it. Right from the start he refers to the 6 angels that were lost as brothers and then later on refers to himself and Uriel as brothers. And I don't think it's just a word to him. He gets that connection. (Which makes me wonder about the loss of Uriel to Castiel. That slow, shocked blink from Castiel as he's standing over Uriel's body speaks volumes. And how ironic that Castiel and Uriel are the ones who play out the scenario of brothers, with one who goes darkside and the other who has to defend himself against it and not Sam and Dean.)

I haven't felt for characters so much in a very long time. They break my heart but I'm not complaining.

[dotfic]

my biggest problem with Zach's speech is that I assumed it worked. *nods* Me too. It's much more interesting if it doesn't work, and it's meant as a way to show how tunnel-visioned the angels are in relation to humans. Castiel really does seem to be unique. As you said, Anna fell, but she's more about the experience overall of being human. Castiel is changing because of one human in particular. Anna could see the big picture; Castiel needed Dean as a window before he started to see what Anna saw. Which maybe fits with Anna being a higher ranking angel and Castiel being more of a...technician. And the angels are big picture oriented; Anna just shifted that from the angel way to her wish to be human. Castiel has shifted from the big picture to seeing the individuals.

Castiel and Sam fascinates me almost as much as Castiel and Dean--because I'm so smitten with Dean/Castiel, and it's impossible to extricate Sam from Dean. So as Castiel and Dean evolve, Sam and Castiel also do and I love especially how you showed that interweave.

Oh, yes. This season has been going for the jugular.