SPN 9x11 - First Born

[pocochina]

So this episode. It had a lot of stuff I really wanted to see and more than a few things I wouldn’t have thought to want but am really happy about anyway, but it still left me weirdly unsettled in some ways? And I’m not sure if it’s the kind of unsettled I want to be because it is on the right trajectory of this whole fucked up story, or if

Comments

[cuddyclothes]

Nasty comments about John Winchester never get old. But we FINALLY get a female approximately Dean and Sam's age or a little older, a seasoned hunter--and she gets torn to bits by a lackey demon. Sheesh.

[pocochina]

Yeah, I kind of...regretted knowing better than to get too attached to her.

Still, John trash-talk.

[percysowner]

Tiny nitpick here but the story from the horse’s mouth is that Lucifer wanted Abel first, and Cain killed Lucifer and became Lucifer’s favorite. I think you mean killed Abel

[pocochina]

ooooh, fixed, thanks!

I was struck by the fact that Cain was clear that Lucifer WANTED Abel, not that Abel in any real way was moving toward doing what Lucifer wanted. Cain's refusal to believe that Abel could ever possibly make a good choice is so strikingly like Dean's similar claims about Sam.

Yeah, the most striking thing about the whole story is how much Cain's actions look like petty jealousy. Lucifer wants Abel and not ME, I'll show HIM! Abel might leave ME, I'll put a stop to that!

And like...both of Cain's big murders, Abel and Colette, mirrored Dean's aborted attempts on Sam's life: the first because the victim was ~corrupted by Lucifer, the second because the victim was possessed by one of his own mistakes. There but for the grace of Cas....

Dean getting never ending understanding for HOW HARD he is on himself does grate. I mean he talks about how he hates himself, but he's not locking himself up in panic rooms or actually apologizing to Sam for roofieing him and gaslighting himUgh, exactly. He still prioritizes his

[a_white_rain]

Anyway, I gleefully reveled in all the slams on John. Rustic obsessive, hahahaha.
I LIKE HOW HE'S BEING COMPARED TO DEAN AND FANDOM'S OUTRAGE.

[pocochina]

*cackling*

It really is impressive just how willfully people refuse to consider points of view that aren't explicitly spelled out for them? Like, they're romanticizing Cain as the ~~protector, because of course we haven't heard from Abel, CAN'T hear from Abel, taking that comparison as something that says good things about Dean - but Dean is still alive to criticize John, so John is UNTHINKABLY AWFUL.

[a_white_rain]

I am wary and untrusting I will like where this goes but fandom is so silly in their defenses I'm almost comforted. His biggest fans are bad about textually justifying him so it's likely the writers aren't intending for us to.

[pocochina]

Yeah, it's not outrageous character defenses that worry me, it's the slippery gray-area arguably plausible if taken out of context ones. People who are excusing Dean's crap have pretty much been forced out into the open, and that's a good sign.

[duckondebut]

Sam and Cas tend not to speak up with their thoughts and needs, but they’re big on doing, and so a physical show of affection makes sense from both of them.

♥ . So much.

Even so: Sam needs to talk to someone who is Not Dean. Gosh, if only Jody came back now... *plots fic*

He got played by Gadreel, and then he got played by Crowley, making the exact same mistake about Crowley as Gadreel himself did last week. Crowley admits he is a self-preservationist, therefore he must be a coward, and therefore anything that takes nerve is not something he’s doing. And so Crowley could lay it on so hilariously thick (the sign of the cross, looool) and Dean doesn’t notice because that’s the role he has Crowley slotted into, rightly or wrongly.

AHAHAHAHA. It was so glorious to watch in a way, though?

lol. Dean getting compared to John and then finally becoming freakin' Cain. But you're right; the show did pussyfoot a little at the end there with Crowley's "nobody hates you more than you~" and the nth emphasis on Sam's ~endless mistakes.

[pocochina]

Even so: Sam needs to talk to someone who is Not Dean. Gosh, if only Jody came back now... *plots fic*

JODY. I mean, I think the isolation trap Sam is in is very real: he needs someone to snap him out of it, but he would need to feel a lot better about himself than he does in order to reach out to someone who will snap him out of it.

lol. Dean getting compared to John and then finally becoming freakin' Cain.

AND PEOPLE STILL ARE NOT GETTING IT. Cain murdered Abel to protect him, apparently.

But yeah, pulled punches. It's not the worst sign in the world, that the writing team knew the Cain comparison is so damning and still felt it was worth making. Still. RME.