Supernatural 6.03 The Third Man
I’m doing something I never do, and that is reviewing without watching the episode twice. But do to the fact that I have time constraints I will not be able to watch the show again until later.
I will start first with the things that I disliked about this episode; (while I found it enjoyable but…) Bugs on the brain, I am usually pretty good at ignoring the farfetched in these type of shows but this was clearly an attempt to gross out the viewer by Locust chewing through someone’s brain pan.
The second thing I didn’t like was the ‘weapons of God’ concept, just Lame, a magic glowing salt lick of Doom! How will we cope?
Third thing was Balthazar, he was just cliché and well, again lame. Am I the only one who thinks that the show hasn’t had a good villain since YED?
I like the compare and contrast aspect of Sam and Dean’s morning, Dean getting up stretching out the kinks while Sam works out (sweaty shirtless Sam, please ma’am may I have another?) the prostitute was an unpleasant surprise again trying to highlight something we’ve already figured out. Sam has changed like we need hookers to prove that, I found it highly offensive. (I just got through watching a show on sex trafficking so I was a little more sensitive than normal.) Any way, I absolutely adored the whole ‘my car is better than your car’ thing that was going on in the beginning, totally loved that the Impala beat Sam’s new car (sorry late new car) though I love Sam’s dearly departed car I have to say that it doesn’t have the history that the Impala does. There is just something wrong about Sam not being in the passenger seat when Dean is driving. Once again we are faced with the ever growing rift between the two brothers, Sam emotional disconnection with everyone and everything around him, and Dean’s new found squeamishness only highlights just how far apart they are from one another. Sam’s stone faced when looking on bloated disfigured bodies and Dean’s flinch when faced with locust on the brain. (We know how I feel about that.) I find myself wondering just how much of this new Sam in influenced by being in a symbiotic relationship with Lucifer, just how close do you have to be with someone before you take on those characteristics as well? Angels (in the show) tend to be emotionally disconnected, Castiel doesn’t really feel to the fullest until he rebels and chooses to follow his conscience, even then he struggles with the wealth of his new experiences and just how they make him feel. Sam fell into Hell body and soul, into a Cage with the devil riding shot gun how did time work in the lower regions? When Castiel ‘tortures’ that boy, the look on Sam’s face is partially appreciative and introspective all at once, I wonder just what Luci did to Sam’s soul while they were trapped together. I keep flashing back to Brady’s interesting theory about Sam being closer to a demon than he was a human. Something about it stuck, Sam’s twisted little smile while he killed Brady. The justification was Jess’ death, but the psychological ramifications of the action and Sam’s ease with it is quite telling to his mental state. It’s not normal to use a knife on another human being, not just once, but repeatedly as a preferred method of execution. It even falls farther outside of the normal boundaries to find someone who can enjoy killing at such an up close and personal range. The human mind shies away from the use of such methods.
Again, I am left to pull from seasons past, we know that the demon blood has done something to Sam’s body, in Lucifer Rising Sam’s eyes go black, and in the episode where Famine comes to town you find out that not only can he ‘sniff’ demons out, but his body has been modified in some way when Famine tells him to drink, that he doesn’t have to worry about drinking too much it won’t kill him. He can’t die from over consumption. I have a feeling that Sam’s time in Hell has only enhanced Sam’s differences.
The next scene proves what so many of us had previously suspected, that heaven is racked with violence once more and out of the power void two factions at least are fighting for dominance, one faction is lead by Raphael and the other is lead by Castiel. Guess whose side we’re rooting for? Cas’ shamed admittance that he had expected better from his brothers shows just how beaten down he is by what is happening at the absence of his Father.
In the scene where Cas confronts Balthazar the writers attempts to bring self doubt to Castiel when Balthazar tries to make it seem like he was following in Castiel’s footsteps fell horribly flat, because there were no contrasts between the two actions that made any sense. Castiel rebelled against his higher ups because he believed their cause was unjust, not because he didn’t want rules.
Raphael’s appearance and butt kicking of Castiel was rather off putting, Castiel seems to be a fairly decent sort of angel to have in a fight. In this case he just stood around and let his butt get handed to him on a silver platter, finally Balthazar steps in brandishing the ‘glowing salt lick of doom’ as I like to call it. Turning Raphael into a pile of salty goodness, where’s the buttered corn on a cob when we need it?
The fascinated look on Sam’s face when Balthazar talks about the commodity that souls have become and their inherit power was slightly creepy, what would Sam want to know about souls and how much they're worth? Castiel finally lets B go as a way of ending his dept to his old friend for saving him from Raphael.
This all ends in Cas disappearing once more and the brothers being left alone.
Dean asked outright if Sam was okay, it was absolutely painful, not only because Sam lied through his teeth but because he knew Dean knew he was lying. Sam has become a fearful liar lately. It brings to mind Season 4, the whole Ruby debacle, Sam was terrified that Dean would reject him, here again Sam is faced with the fact that Dean is the only person at the moment he has any sort of meaningful connection to, and Sam is desperate not to lose that. So he lies. Sam tries to convince Dean that he’s just “rough around the edges.”
Dean then confronts Sam about his willingness to torture and maybe damage a child to get information, “it felt like I was the only one there” Dean’s angered comment about Sam’s lack remorse of empathy toward the kid’s pain. Sam’s reply is equally as false as his first “it was horrible but…” brings back reminders of the previous episode where Samuel confronts Sam on his callous behavior. Dean then tries to breach the topic of hell; Sam’s face becomes haunted and truly remorseful “for you. Hell was torture for you.” Dean’s confusion because if Hell wasn’t torture for Sam then what was it? (I have a theory, but I won’t discuss it until the next episode.) “I’m fine.” Followed by “I’m just saying is that we’re different is all.” All lead to the question of what is so horrible that Sam feels he has no other choice but to lie? What has he done that he feels he can’t discuss with Dean? I’m hoping that next week’s episode will shed some light on the inner workings of Sam’s mind. I’m also hoping that Sam will actually come clean and stop trying to hide just how damaged he is. That’s the only way Sam will ever improve is to admit he needs the help and accepts the help offered to him by his brother.
The trailer of next week looked intriguing, truth is an ugly brutal thing when it’s devoid of compassion and I think Dean is going to be finding out the depths of just how ugly the truth about Sam really is. As much as I’m looking forward toward the reveal of what Sam went through in Hell I’m slightly irritated at how the writers are going about it. (If the trailer is to be trusted) Sam never once pressured or manipulated Dean into revealing his time in Hell. He waited until Dean was ready even when Dean clearly was worrying Sam. Sam afforded the kind of privacy that Dean seems unwilling to give his brother. It’s like Dean doesn’t believe that Sam has a right to hide anything from him. And while I agree that secrets are not something that has ever been beneficial in their relationship, Sam has at least let Dean keep his until he was ready to talk.