Review of Supernatural 6x16: "And Then There Were None"
HOLY CRAP, THIS WAS AWESOME.
I thought this was going to be a refreshingly short reaction post as I often don't seem to have much specific to say when I love an episode of a show just this much. But then I got into some pretty detailed meta about friendship between hunters and why we so often see these kinds of relationships having gone bad, so then that kind of went out the window. Heh.
- Okay, so I am freaking loving Eve already. She is a legitimately scary and formidable villain and also has somewhat understandable motivations and all, which is what I really liked about Ruby in the end. I think she could make as good an archenemy as any others this series has had. I mean damn, this shit just got real...
When this "Mother of All" business first came up, I thought the most convincing theory about her identity being tossed around was that she's based on Tiamat, a Babylonian goddess who is especially associated with dragons. I'm still seeing this as a strong possibility, and I'm kind of surprised how many people seem to be taking the name Eve as more than just a metaphor and are trying to make sense of her being connected to the actual Biblical Eve. :/ Nah, I really doubt it. I'm guessing that being able to figure out what she really is will be the key to Sam and Dean finding out what her weakness could be.
- I was kind of pissed the moment Gwen got killed because I was just totally unprepared for it at that moment, though as the episode went on I saw the reason in it. I think the way the character was handled while she was around was satisfying, and you know, it's good that I felt some regret to see her go.
- I can't even say why I find this so cute but I was squeeing ridiculously over it when we saw that Sam has Dean's number listed in his phone as just "D."
- I may be a big defender of this season and all, but still this one and "Weekend At Bobby's" are the only episodes in it so far that I'd actually count among my favorite episode ever (If you think about it, though, every season of SPN doesn't exactly start out the strongest in the first half so this may not be much of an indicator of anything). I'm just pointing this out because it's probably not a complete coincidence that these are both episodes involving Rufus.
RUFUS. :'((( What can I even say? He and Bobby are so fucking awesome in this episode and it's so sad he's gone. I'm kind of okay with it because I just have to appreciate it if characters at least get a good end and leave the show before they become arbitrary presences that the writers can no longer seem to put to good use. This is why I don't really get everyone's lamenting that Gabriel needs to come back. (Seriously, out of anyone, why is it always about Gabriel? :/ Or Crowley, but I can at least begin to understand having complaints about how suddenly he was killed off.) I generally trust that in the writers' room the purpose of any character death is fairly weighed against the kind of purpose they can realistically imagine this character continuing to have in the future of the show. And it's a logical point in the story for Sam and Dean to lose someone and start feeling greatly threatened. Considering the really minor character he started out as way back, this episode gave Rufus a lot of importance and focus that was great to see but might never have seemed such a justified/natural narrative choice except in the case of his death.
- The conflict left between Rufus and Bobby is really tragic, but I felt there was some bittersweet silver lining in the meaning of that final scene between Bobby and the boys. It seems like hunters are not quite the loners they always say they are, they just tend to take for granted how many people they've got who care and would stick their necks out for them. The kind of relationships they form through their work are often tumultuous in a lot of ways but also undeniably strong in others, so much that even though Rufus still held something against Bobby it couldn't devalue all that they'd been through together. Even if he still couldn't quite forgive Bobby for his mistake, I don't think there can be any doubt that he'd come to completely trust him again, possibly more than he trusted anyone.
All hunters generally have good intentions but still seem to make messes a lot doing what they do, which makes messes between them and whoever else is involved. We've heard about these situations with John a lot especially, and lots of characters are always referring to other hunters they're associated with but have somehow pissed off at some point. The kind of things they do don't make it easy to look back much, and I think in some ways they're often reluctant to fight to hold onto the relationships they have. Rather than deal with their mistakes, it's probably easier to just move forward and start over. Maybe more than anything Rufus just didn't want to be haunted that much more by whatever happened in Omaha by continuing to work with Bobby after that, and given that Bobby was the one responsible I'm sure the feeling was more than reciprocated. Probably Bobby's mistake was in acting like anything he said could ever make it okay, when it would seem the reason Rufus wasn't willing to talk about it and absolve him wasn't really about him and the grudge he couldn't help holding wasn't even exactly personal in nature.
I keep remembering how when Rufus was first introduced, he seemed like the most unsociable, bitter, hardened bastard of all the hunters we'd ever seen and it was this unsettling moment when he told Dean, "I'm what you've got to look forward to if you survive." And now we know that Rufus has had some really horrible loss in his life which I'm guessing he's never really recovered from and has made him hardly recognizable as the same person he might have been at the time he and Bobby met. But since that first episode he was in, we've seen him as not quite as cold as he seemed at first, certainly far from what you'd call friendly but very much an alright guy if you get to know him. It's like all hunters put up these tough walls because they have to at least sometimes to deal with the things they face, and a lot of them claim that they work better alone and prefer it that way, and they don't tend to be the most pleasant kind of people in general. Yet under all this, the community they belong to can be a much stronger and more supportive family than you'd ever guess.
Rufus died as kind of a tragic figure because of the fact that he couldn't manage to just forgive Bobby, but at least he overcame the past enough before dying that he could work with Bobby again and he died with friends instead of just working on his own. Ultimately I see something optimistic in the idea that Sam, Dean, and Bobby can all openly forgive each other for everything. It seems to mean they aren't just bound to the same typical kind of lousy fate of most hunters even though normal lives are officially out of the question again. Bobby has been through some unbelievably difficult stuff, but it's been very good for him becoming a father figure for the boys and it seems to have made him a little less of a standoffish grouch than he was initially characterized as. Dean used to easily accept that he's bound to end up alone eventually and (therefore hopefully) die young, but now his approach to the job is more sound and mature. It used to be a lot more of a tragic idea that Sam and Dean are doomed to always have this life, but now I don't find it so depressing because in the long term I can see all three of these guys being alright because they have each other.
As sad as it is, the death of Rufus is maybe quite timely as it can help Sam and Dean appreciate what they do have. It seems like the final scene of every recent episode has essentially been about this, but even though they weren't dealing so directly with that idea in this last scene, this is the first time I've seen quite so much resolve in the characters' acceptance of their situation.
I thought this was going to be a refreshingly short reaction post as I often don't seem to have much specific to say when I love an episode of a show just this much. But then I got into some pretty detailed meta about friendship between hunters and why we so often see these kinds of relationships having gone bad, so then that kind of went out the window. Heh.
- Okay, so I am freaking loving Eve already. She is a legitimately scary and formidable villain and also has somewhat understandable motivations and all, which is what I really liked about Ruby in the end. I think she could make as good an archenemy as any others this series has had. I mean damn, this shit just got real...
When this "Mother of All" business first came up, I thought the most convincing theory about her identity being tossed around was that she's based on Tiamat, a Babylonian goddess who is especially associated with dragons. I'm still seeing this as a strong possibility, and I'm kind of surprised how many people seem to be taking the name Eve as more than just a metaphor and are trying to make sense of her being connected to the actual Biblical Eve. :/ Nah, I really doubt it. I'm guessing that being able to figure out what she really is will be the key to Sam and Dean finding out what her weakness could be.
- I was kind of pissed the moment Gwen got killed because I was just totally unprepared for it at that moment, though as the episode went on I saw the reason in it. I think the way the character was handled while she was around was satisfying, and you know, it's good that I felt some regret to see her go.
- I can't even say why I find this so cute but I was squeeing ridiculously over it when we saw that Sam has Dean's number listed in his phone as just "D."
- I may be a big defender of this season and all, but still this one and "Weekend At Bobby's" are the only episodes in it so far that I'd actually count among my favorite episode ever (If you think about it, though, every season of SPN doesn't exactly start out the strongest in the first half so this may not be much of an indicator of anything). I'm just pointing this out because it's probably not a complete coincidence that these are both episodes involving Rufus.
RUFUS. :'((( What can I even say? He and Bobby are so fucking awesome in this episode and it's so sad he's gone. I'm kind of okay with it because I just have to appreciate it if characters at least get a good end and leave the show before they become arbitrary presences that the writers can no longer seem to put to good use. This is why I don't really get everyone's lamenting that Gabriel needs to come back. (Seriously, out of anyone, why is it always about Gabriel? :/ Or Crowley, but I can at least begin to understand having complaints about how suddenly he was killed off.) I generally trust that in the writers' room the purpose of any character death is fairly weighed against the kind of purpose they can realistically imagine this character continuing to have in the future of the show. And it's a logical point in the story for Sam and Dean to lose someone and start feeling greatly threatened. Considering the really minor character he started out as way back, this episode gave Rufus a lot of importance and focus that was great to see but might never have seemed such a justified/natural narrative choice except in the case of his death.
- The conflict left between Rufus and Bobby is really tragic, but I felt there was some bittersweet silver lining in the meaning of that final scene between Bobby and the boys. It seems like hunters are not quite the loners they always say they are, they just tend to take for granted how many people they've got who care and would stick their necks out for them. The kind of relationships they form through their work are often tumultuous in a lot of ways but also undeniably strong in others, so much that even though Rufus still held something against Bobby it couldn't devalue all that they'd been through together. Even if he still couldn't quite forgive Bobby for his mistake, I don't think there can be any doubt that he'd come to completely trust him again, possibly more than he trusted anyone.
All hunters generally have good intentions but still seem to make messes a lot doing what they do, which makes messes between them and whoever else is involved. We've heard about these situations with John a lot especially, and lots of characters are always referring to other hunters they're associated with but have somehow pissed off at some point. The kind of things they do don't make it easy to look back much, and I think in some ways they're often reluctant to fight to hold onto the relationships they have. Rather than deal with their mistakes, it's probably easier to just move forward and start over. Maybe more than anything Rufus just didn't want to be haunted that much more by whatever happened in Omaha by continuing to work with Bobby after that, and given that Bobby was the one responsible I'm sure the feeling was more than reciprocated. Probably Bobby's mistake was in acting like anything he said could ever make it okay, when it would seem the reason Rufus wasn't willing to talk about it and absolve him wasn't really about him and the grudge he couldn't help holding wasn't even exactly personal in nature.
I keep remembering how when Rufus was first introduced, he seemed like the most unsociable, bitter, hardened bastard of all the hunters we'd ever seen and it was this unsettling moment when he told Dean, "I'm what you've got to look forward to if you survive." And now we know that Rufus has had some really horrible loss in his life which I'm guessing he's never really recovered from and has made him hardly recognizable as the same person he might have been at the time he and Bobby met. But since that first episode he was in, we've seen him as not quite as cold as he seemed at first, certainly far from what you'd call friendly but very much an alright guy if you get to know him. It's like all hunters put up these tough walls because they have to at least sometimes to deal with the things they face, and a lot of them claim that they work better alone and prefer it that way, and they don't tend to be the most pleasant kind of people in general. Yet under all this, the community they belong to can be a much stronger and more supportive family than you'd ever guess.
Rufus died as kind of a tragic figure because of the fact that he couldn't manage to just forgive Bobby, but at least he overcame the past enough before dying that he could work with Bobby again and he died with friends instead of just working on his own. Ultimately I see something optimistic in the idea that Sam, Dean, and Bobby can all openly forgive each other for everything. It seems to mean they aren't just bound to the same typical kind of lousy fate of most hunters even though normal lives are officially out of the question again. Bobby has been through some unbelievably difficult stuff, but it's been very good for him becoming a father figure for the boys and it seems to have made him a little less of a standoffish grouch than he was initially characterized as. Dean used to easily accept that he's bound to end up alone eventually and (therefore hopefully) die young, but now his approach to the job is more sound and mature. It used to be a lot more of a tragic idea that Sam and Dean are doomed to always have this life, but now I don't find it so depressing because in the long term I can see all three of these guys being alright because they have each other.
As sad as it is, the death of Rufus is maybe quite timely as it can help Sam and Dean appreciate what they do have. It seems like the final scene of every recent episode has essentially been about this, but even though they weren't dealing so directly with that idea in this last scene, this is the first time I've seen quite so much resolve in the characters' acceptance of their situation.