SPN Pre-Finale Wrap-up & SPN S7 MIX
So today is SPN S7 finale day. Can't say it really feels like it.
The back nine of this season have felt really aimless after so much hype. They heightened expectations with the setup and then just dropped the ball and left us all stranded. I don't even have the energy to review all the reasons why that is the way it is. Simply, when the season began I hadn't been so excited for the show in years. For episodes upon episodes, it was shaping up to be one of my favorite seasons. Plots were progressing, things felt like they were going somewhere. And then suddenly, it was like they just...gave up. I don't know if they thought this was the last year and had a place they were moving and then veered course once a renewal looked likely or what. But suddenly, they were turning out episodes that made the second half of last year look interesting and those bored me to pieces.
I could hardly tell you what has happened since the clown episode, except that Sam's hell hallucinations, one of the best damn storylines of the show, was zapped away from him before they got to really do anything interesting with it. Oh and they brought Bobby back thus severely undercutting one of the most moving episodes they've ever made. I've kept waiting and holding back posting, hoping for something to change. But after last week, that was one of the most underwhelming penultimates this show ever produced. I had been worried when I saw Dabb & Laughlin, but the episode wasn't even their kind of bad. It failed because it was completely devoid of any bit of HEART. The emotional core was completely stripped. Plot wise, it leads right into the finale. But character wise, it leaves Sam and Dean stranded in mid-air. Literally. Those two were like wallpaper in the last episode. A bold reminder that they have felt like that for much of the back nine. Remember those subtle character arcs Sam and Dean had in the first 13? It's like they did a magic trick and just went, WAIT WHUT? WHAT CHARACTER ARCS?
So, I don't have much hope that one forty minute finale can salvage this disappointment. I'm reserving complete judgment until I see it tonight. Perhaps they have something up their sleeve [there's been some all a dream spec which I simultaneously hate and maybe kinda...no, I'd pretty much hate it I think, because ultimately I liked what this season first set out to be and if it's all a mirage that kinda sucks because even fic potential is kicked out the door.] After seeing a number of excellent finales to cap some excellent seasons this month, and I look at where SPN's been going (or not been going) lately, I'm kinda not holding my breath. And let me tell you, it KILLS me to say that. I friggin LOVED the core of what this season first started out to be. Unlike last year post-reensouling, there was so much POTENTIAL for this year. Ugh, I can't even let myself really think about it, I'll drown myself in my sea of tears yo.
So I turn to music for solace, as I always do.
At the beginning of this season, I made an SPN S7 playlist. I got attached to it enough, I added to it as the season progressed, and somewhere around Christmas I discovered the awesomeness that is 8tracks. After falling down the Hunger Games hole for a good month and drowning in vidspecs and music meta, I came back to revisit the playlist, and decided to post it. My finale fever playlists for years have been about getting PUMPED UP FOR THE FINALE WE KNOW IS GONNA RIP OUR HEARTS OUT. This one, is more a reminder of what this season COULD have been. Though I guess depending on your views of the season, it could operate as either. So I thought I'd share with you all.
'Another Day' [An SPN Season 7 MIX]
The Winchesters' world closes in on them in their seventh season
as the hunters become the hunted, allies/resources are stripped away,
and both are hanging on by a thread. A year of big losses and small
comforts, but as a first in years, also gives the boys time....
to breath, cope with old wounds, and rebuild.
36 tracks. Part boys back on the road, part 'Hell flashbacks make me
a little crazy', part 'What problem, I'm fine?', part hope/forgiveness
acoustic, part epic 'we've gotten this far' feel...
1) Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons
"Serve God, love me and mend, This is not the end. Live unbruised, we are friends, I'm sorry"
2) Road Trippin - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"So much has come before those battles lost and won, this life is shining more forever in the sun"
3) Roll Away Your Stone - Mumford & Sons
"Roll away your stone I will roll away mine, together we can see what we will find,
don't leave me alone at this time, for I am afraid of what I will discover inside"
4) I Wanna Live In A Dream - Oasis [egocentric!god-Cas]
"Show me, the path that leads to all the glory, the words that tell a sacred story"
5) Dead Cowboys - Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys
"Are you vast, like an ocean, as an earthquake, a potion, that would bring all our loved ones back to life"
6) No Excuses - Alice In Chains
"Laying' low, want to take it slow, no more hiding, or disguising truths I've sold"
7) Daisy - Brand New
"Well if we take all these things and we bury them fast, and we'll pray that
they turn into seeds, to roots and then grass, it'd be all right"
8) Falling Slowly - The Frames
"You have suffered enough, and warred with yourself, it's time that you won"
9) Rooks - Shearwater
"There's nowhere to flee for your life, so we stay inside,
and we'll sleep until the world of man is paralyzed"
10) Lord Don't Slow Me Down - Oasis
"Keep saying that my head’s locked up in the clouds,
keep praying that the Lord won’t slow me down,
I’m tired and I’m sick, got a habit that I can’t, won’t lick"
11) Sleeping Lessons - The Shins
"Jump from the hook, you're not obliged to swallow anything you despise,
see, those unrepenting buzzards want your life, and they got no right"
12) The Toll - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
"And the distance will always be home"
13) Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
"I want to tear down the walls, that hold my insides"
14) Ride - Cary Brothers
"The scars of all I'll ever know..."
15) Crawl - Thisway
"Promises you tell me, in a thousand ways, moving on forever, living life this way"
16) 30 Bones - Fistful of Mercy
Instrumental
17) Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
"I survived, it's good enough for now"
18) Red Bricks - Young Rebel Set
"So take your running shoes and just throw them away,
and find a pair that fits you and just will you to stay,
cos your heels are so worn from running from the past,
and shoes like those are never built to last."
19) Better Days - Goo Goo Dolls
"I wish everyone was loved tonight, and somehow stop this endless fight,
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days"
20) Ain't It The Life - Foo Fighters
"All you gotta do is try, pray you're just getting by...
try living a lie and kicking out the same old guise, wasting time"
21) Read My Mind (Like Rebel Diamonds Mix) - The Killers
"I don't mind, if you don't mind, 'cause I don't shine if you don't shine,
before you jump, tell me what you find when you read my mind"
22) Americana (5.22 score) - Jay Gruska
"It never occurred to them that, sure, maybe they never really
had a roof and four walls, but they were never, in fact, homeless."
23) Truth Begins - Dirty Pretty Things
"You lose your will, and I can lend you mine...
the westway wall’s so tall and bleak, reflect the words we dare not speak...
Manifestations of fear and doubt, I just forgot who I used to be,
so now I’m strung somewhere between a dream, and humdrum day to day routine"
24) Live Forever - Oasis
"Maybe I just want to fly, I want to live I don't want to die,
maybe I just want to breath, maybe I just don't believe,
maybe you're the same as me, we see things that will never be"
25) Nara - E.S. Posthumus
Instrumental
26) Magnificent - U2
"Justified, till we die you and I will magnify"
27) In Time - Mark Collie [Hallunciation!Luci]
"I can hear what you're thinkin', all your doubts and fears,
and if you look in my eyes in time you'll find, the reason I'm here"
28) Golden Slumbers - The Beatles
"Once there was a way, to get back homeward"
29) The Lengths - The Black Keys
"The care he took, the lengths to which he'd go.
Coals are hot to walk across without your shoes,
but in the end, know that you got nothin to lose"
30) Kings & Queens - 30 Seconds To Mars
"We stole our new lives, through blood and pain, we were the victims of ourselves,
maybe the children of a lesser god, between heaven and hell"
31) The Sun Is Shining Down - Mofro
"How many more days can you hold out, how much longer can you wait?...
I'm alive, and I'm feeling, feeling fine"
32) Devil - Stereophonics [Hallucination!Luci]
"Ever dance with the devil baby?"
33) On the Water - The Walkmen
"It’s all I can do...you know I’d never leave you, no matter how hard I try,
you know I’d never leave you, and that’s just how it is"
34) Me And You (Against The World) - Joe Jackson
"I've lost my heart i'm losing half my mind, but I don't care,
there's no past there's no future and no fear, what can they do"
35) Hey Jude [Guitar Cover] - Stephen Bennett
"Take a sad song and make it better, don't carry the world upon your shoulders,
for well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool, by making his world a little colder"
36) The Masterplan - Oasis
"You know they're gonna go, which way they want to go, all we know is that we don't know,
how it's gonna be, please brother let it be, life on the other hand won't let us understand"
Happy Finale Day, everyone! And happy S8 renewals! Eight years, crazy to think about, isn't it?
The back nine of this season have felt really aimless after so much hype. They heightened expectations with the setup and then just dropped the ball and left us all stranded. I don't even have the energy to review all the reasons why that is the way it is. Simply, when the season began I hadn't been so excited for the show in years. For episodes upon episodes, it was shaping up to be one of my favorite seasons. Plots were progressing, things felt like they were going somewhere. And then suddenly, it was like they just...gave up. I don't know if they thought this was the last year and had a place they were moving and then veered course once a renewal looked likely or what. But suddenly, they were turning out episodes that made the second half of last year look interesting and those bored me to pieces.
I could hardly tell you what has happened since the clown episode, except that Sam's hell hallucinations, one of the best damn storylines of the show, was zapped away from him before they got to really do anything interesting with it. Oh and they brought Bobby back thus severely undercutting one of the most moving episodes they've ever made. I've kept waiting and holding back posting, hoping for something to change. But after last week, that was one of the most underwhelming penultimates this show ever produced. I had been worried when I saw Dabb & Laughlin, but the episode wasn't even their kind of bad. It failed because it was completely devoid of any bit of HEART. The emotional core was completely stripped. Plot wise, it leads right into the finale. But character wise, it leaves Sam and Dean stranded in mid-air. Literally. Those two were like wallpaper in the last episode. A bold reminder that they have felt like that for much of the back nine. Remember those subtle character arcs Sam and Dean had in the first 13? It's like they did a magic trick and just went, WAIT WHUT? WHAT CHARACTER ARCS?
So, I don't have much hope that one forty minute finale can salvage this disappointment. I'm reserving complete judgment until I see it tonight. Perhaps they have something up their sleeve [there's been some all a dream spec which I simultaneously hate and maybe kinda...no, I'd pretty much hate it I think, because ultimately I liked what this season first set out to be and if it's all a mirage that kinda sucks because even fic potential is kicked out the door.] After seeing a number of excellent finales to cap some excellent seasons this month, and I look at where SPN's been going (or not been going) lately, I'm kinda not holding my breath. And let me tell you, it KILLS me to say that. I friggin LOVED the core of what this season first started out to be. Unlike last year post-reensouling, there was so much POTENTIAL for this year. Ugh, I can't even let myself really think about it, I'll drown myself in my sea of tears yo.
So I turn to music for solace, as I always do.
At the beginning of this season, I made an SPN S7 playlist. I got attached to it enough, I added to it as the season progressed, and somewhere around Christmas I discovered the awesomeness that is 8tracks. After falling down the Hunger Games hole for a good month and drowning in vidspecs and music meta, I came back to revisit the playlist, and decided to post it. My finale fever playlists for years have been about getting PUMPED UP FOR THE FINALE WE KNOW IS GONNA RIP OUR HEARTS OUT. This one, is more a reminder of what this season COULD have been. Though I guess depending on your views of the season, it could operate as either. So I thought I'd share with you all.
'Another Day' [An SPN Season 7 MIX]
The Winchesters' world closes in on them in their seventh season
as the hunters become the hunted, allies/resources are stripped away,
and both are hanging on by a thread. A year of big losses and small
comforts, but as a first in years, also gives the boys time....
to breath, cope with old wounds, and rebuild.
36 tracks. Part boys back on the road, part 'Hell flashbacks make me
a little crazy', part 'What problem, I'm fine?', part hope/forgiveness
acoustic, part epic 'we've gotten this far' feel...
1) Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons
"Serve God, love me and mend, This is not the end. Live unbruised, we are friends, I'm sorry"
2) Road Trippin - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"So much has come before those battles lost and won, this life is shining more forever in the sun"
3) Roll Away Your Stone - Mumford & Sons
"Roll away your stone I will roll away mine, together we can see what we will find,
don't leave me alone at this time, for I am afraid of what I will discover inside"
4) I Wanna Live In A Dream - Oasis [egocentric!god-Cas]
"Show me, the path that leads to all the glory, the words that tell a sacred story"
5) Dead Cowboys - Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys
"Are you vast, like an ocean, as an earthquake, a potion, that would bring all our loved ones back to life"
6) No Excuses - Alice In Chains
"Laying' low, want to take it slow, no more hiding, or disguising truths I've sold"
7) Daisy - Brand New
"Well if we take all these things and we bury them fast, and we'll pray that
they turn into seeds, to roots and then grass, it'd be all right"
8) Falling Slowly - The Frames
"You have suffered enough, and warred with yourself, it's time that you won"
9) Rooks - Shearwater
"There's nowhere to flee for your life, so we stay inside,
and we'll sleep until the world of man is paralyzed"
10) Lord Don't Slow Me Down - Oasis
"Keep saying that my head’s locked up in the clouds,
keep praying that the Lord won’t slow me down,
I’m tired and I’m sick, got a habit that I can’t, won’t lick"
11) Sleeping Lessons - The Shins
"Jump from the hook, you're not obliged to swallow anything you despise,
see, those unrepenting buzzards want your life, and they got no right"
12) The Toll - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
"And the distance will always be home"
13) Where the Streets Have No Name - U2
"I want to tear down the walls, that hold my insides"
14) Ride - Cary Brothers
"The scars of all I'll ever know..."
15) Crawl - Thisway
"Promises you tell me, in a thousand ways, moving on forever, living life this way"
16) 30 Bones - Fistful of Mercy
Instrumental
17) Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
"I survived, it's good enough for now"
18) Red Bricks - Young Rebel Set
"So take your running shoes and just throw them away,
and find a pair that fits you and just will you to stay,
cos your heels are so worn from running from the past,
and shoes like those are never built to last."
19) Better Days - Goo Goo Dolls
"I wish everyone was loved tonight, and somehow stop this endless fight,
just a chance that maybe we'll find better days"
20) Ain't It The Life - Foo Fighters
"All you gotta do is try, pray you're just getting by...
try living a lie and kicking out the same old guise, wasting time"
21) Read My Mind (Like Rebel Diamonds Mix) - The Killers
"I don't mind, if you don't mind, 'cause I don't shine if you don't shine,
before you jump, tell me what you find when you read my mind"
22) Americana (5.22 score) - Jay Gruska
"It never occurred to them that, sure, maybe they never really
had a roof and four walls, but they were never, in fact, homeless."
23) Truth Begins - Dirty Pretty Things
"You lose your will, and I can lend you mine...
the westway wall’s so tall and bleak, reflect the words we dare not speak...
Manifestations of fear and doubt, I just forgot who I used to be,
so now I’m strung somewhere between a dream, and humdrum day to day routine"
24) Live Forever - Oasis
"Maybe I just want to fly, I want to live I don't want to die,
maybe I just want to breath, maybe I just don't believe,
maybe you're the same as me, we see things that will never be"
25) Nara - E.S. Posthumus
Instrumental
26) Magnificent - U2
"Justified, till we die you and I will magnify"
27) In Time - Mark Collie [Hallunciation!Luci]
"I can hear what you're thinkin', all your doubts and fears,
and if you look in my eyes in time you'll find, the reason I'm here"
28) Golden Slumbers - The Beatles
"Once there was a way, to get back homeward"
29) The Lengths - The Black Keys
"The care he took, the lengths to which he'd go.
Coals are hot to walk across without your shoes,
but in the end, know that you got nothin to lose"
30) Kings & Queens - 30 Seconds To Mars
"We stole our new lives, through blood and pain, we were the victims of ourselves,
maybe the children of a lesser god, between heaven and hell"
31) The Sun Is Shining Down - Mofro
"How many more days can you hold out, how much longer can you wait?...
I'm alive, and I'm feeling, feeling fine"
32) Devil - Stereophonics [Hallucination!Luci]
"Ever dance with the devil baby?"
33) On the Water - The Walkmen
"It’s all I can do...you know I’d never leave you, no matter how hard I try,
you know I’d never leave you, and that’s just how it is"
34) Me And You (Against The World) - Joe Jackson
"I've lost my heart i'm losing half my mind, but I don't care,
there's no past there's no future and no fear, what can they do"
35) Hey Jude [Guitar Cover] - Stephen Bennett
"Take a sad song and make it better, don't carry the world upon your shoulders,
for well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool, by making his world a little colder"
36) The Masterplan - Oasis
"You know they're gonna go, which way they want to go, all we know is that we don't know,
how it's gonna be, please brother let it be, life on the other hand won't let us understand"
Happy Finale Day, everyone! And happy S8 renewals! Eight years, crazy to think about, isn't it?