Reap what you sow. SPN 6.13 Unforgiven overview: Part 3

[water_fowl182]

Part 1, Part 2 

Comments

[water_fowl182]

The heartbreak of Dean's loosing Lisa and Ben (and possibly, regaining them again) is one of the premises for Dean's major inner conflicts this season, the way I see it. It's downplayed, but consistently threadneedled over the episodes. I'm really looking forward to see Dean attest to a fact that his personality exeeds the confines of being his brother's wet-nurse and keeper. However, I'm not holding my breath, for as of now - with Sam's wall cracking - I can't see a viable way for Dean to turn his back on Sam's needs to attend to his own. That's one of the reasons I'm about done with the whole 'Wall' concept - let Sam face his memory of Hell and deal with it, alreAady. Hell *can* be faced and accomidated by the mind - we've got Dean's experience for the reference pattern.

I really believe that,among other things, this episode served to showcase that RoboSam didn't come from nowhere. It's all in Sam for the use, has been for quite some while - tempered by levers of soul (consciousness) usually, but coming out to play whenever those are slack (I think it's for a reason RoobSam's actions for the most part pose callbacks to s4 Sam - Sam at his least inhibitied and reined in by 'humanity').

"I must confess that it is disappointing that it appears Sam's repeating the very same personality traits that really boned him in the previous seasons: the tunnel vision, the dismissal of Dean & his feelings & his smart impulses, the desire to be the one to fix things. And there's no realization on Sam's part that it's his own behavior and actions that are in many ways forcing Dean to be the caretaker,"

Actually, I'm at a loss what to think of this blatant unapologetic characterization angle of Sam's. It's not inconsistent, it's in keeping with prior build up - yeah, Sam is capable of being self-abrobed, self-centered, self-righteous, obsessive, prideful, arrogant, single-minded - what else is new? It 's just the episode showcased all thos qualities in full bloom - I can't fathom it wasn't intentional. So my question is - where the writers are going with this? One of the reasons may be the one I tried to point out - the obvious lack of imediate correspondence between the dreamt up for half a season (by the audience and by Dean) image of 'our Sammy' that was presumably to emerge from the ashes of desoulment. You wanted soulful Sammy? Soulful Sammy you got - the full package: anger, disregard of Dean's needs, selfish drive and all. Another reason, my guess is, might have something to do with a set up to meet Sam's planetside persona with the experiences of his soul in the Cage. And it might not end up *just* as a neat pain-fest, but as something far more scary, if Sam (and the writers) continues with his current ways.

The lack of acknowledgment of Dean's part in conquering Lucifer so far - really bothers me. I'm usually not the one to read against the text, so it's always been narratively deductible for me that Sam's unilateral plan in Swan Song (well-intended or not) spectacularly failed when left to it's own devices. And it took the Natural Order defying power and drive of Dean's love/devotion/loyalty/self-sacrifice to temper with the scenario Sam had already been neatly tucked into and evoke Sam's individual will from within Lucifer's depths. Even that toy army man to have triggered the flashback was not a coincidence anymore - but Dean's deliberated doing. A marveloulsy symbolic touch, if you ask me. So it appears, Sam's 'win' was anything, but Sam's own, or even anything Sam was depicted as capable on his own (copious amounts of demon blood or not). So to have Dean's part in it be moot point now, upon Sam's glorious resoulment - rings too disturbingly as authorial intent. The kind, that, sadly, doesn't do Sam's characterization any favors for now.

[water_fowl182]

"I think a lot of how you and I end up viewing this season really depends on how the season ends since if S5 had ended with both brothers standing against the angels, I would have given the overall season a pretty high grade despite the wonkiness."

I do concede that, most likely, this current season will be for the utmost appreciation only in retrospect: plot, myth-arc and characterization-wise.

Actually, I might be in the fandom minority on this one, but don't have that much of a problem with how Swan Song panned out. Precisely, 'cause Sam initial giving in to Lucifer turned out to be a lot less about heroics (we now how it'd have ended up were it not for Dean's intervention) but about a final and necessary step of implicit character exploration. Accordingly - Dean abstaining from angel possession till the end, Dean being capable to literally rewrite the Scripture and fish his brother from inside the Devil - was about a fundamental way of Dean's character assessment, about the overwhelming humanity that is uniquely his, and that in the end that's what it takes (and helps) to battle Satan within. So message-wise I'm okay with what the show managed to tell.

"Dean will either get a more thoughtful sibling OR be able to really consider other options than be Sam's wetnurse for the rest of his life."

I know it's too much to ask for, but I'd truly and whole-heartedly prefer both. For not only it would do Dean good to regard a wider framework of his existence outside protect-Sam mono-focus (which he showed signs of early on in the season but effectively abndoned due to the Sam!soul predicament), but it would also do both Dean and Sam good to appreciate *Dean* for many a thing he's worth.

"But I got to say that it seems a lot of fandom doesn't want anything better for Dean and LIKE Sam treating Dean like a bitch."

Well, that's just something I don't get, in all honesty. For acting bitchy, regardless of whom the action is directed at, is *not* in any way a positive nor an admirable characteristics of the one bitching.
Besides, I don't think the show narrative has ever translated it as such. If anything, the RoboSam scenario and some other Sam characterization techniques are unapologetic at best, homing in on the least amiable features. To my mind, to disregard the canon characterization slant by perceiving what's being repeatedly hammered in as a flaw, is a disservice to the narrative efforts.