Salvation

[feliciakw]

We had, as Geo called it, a Supernatural-polooza viewing of the three-part S1-finale/S2-opener this weekend.



"The Road Thus Far" . . . and I about flailed off the couch from the sheer awesome the first time I saw this recap.

Meg walking into a church twigged me out, because demons shouldn't be able to violate hallowed ground. Then I saw all the stuff in Jim's basement (which bothered me that a pastor would have occult-type stuff in his basement), and it made sense. However, upon further viewing, I notice that most of what is visible is weaponry and probably research, as opposed to occult artifacts. Also, after having talked about it with Izhi the first time I saw the ep, I was okay with it--at least okay enough that it didn't turn me off of the show.

The best parts of this ep are, of course, the family stuff. Dean, calling his dad on the "you pick up the phone and you call me." Right. Because that's been such an effective way of getting in touch with John thus far. Yay, Dean! And I like that John is man enough to recognize that Dean is right. "Though I'm not to crazy about this new tone of yours . . ." Well, John, you have Sam to thank for that, I think. See, traveling with Sam for the past year has been very good for Dean. He hasn't been living in your shadow, he's grown into his own man, and he's more confident.

I also love John's "I want you to go to school. I want Dean to have a home. I want Mary alive." John loves his boys so much it hurts. And yet he can't see how his "no matter what it takes" attitude pretty much terrifies his eldest.

I also find it interesting that Dean is the one who's gone kind of quiet, only speaking up when he's questioning John's plans or asking for clarification. Or expressing his concern in the best way he knows how. Sam is the one ready and rarin' and eager to jump into the fight. Sam is the one who wishes his father luck and "We'll see you later." Because where Sam sees an end to their life-long quest for revenge, Dean sees the very real possibility that he will lose the two people who mean everything in the world to him.

For Dean, it's always been about "saving people, hunting things. The family business." Saving families (going clear back to "Wendigo"). Revenge has been a part of it, but it's been secondary. It hasn't been the be-all and end-all purpose of the hunt.

We'll see the culmination of Sam's similarities to John in "Jump the Shark," but that won't come for another three years.

Another gem in this ep is Sam's "thank you" speech as they're waiting in the Impala for the demon to show up. "You've always had my back. Even when I couldn't count on anyone else, I could count on you." And Dean totally doesn't want to hear it. He doesn't want to think about the possibility that they (particularly Sam) might not make it out of this.

And the final scene in the motel room. Sam's admission that he doesn't care if he has to sacrifice himself, and Dean's admission that it would pretty much kill him if it came to that. "The three of us . . . it's all I have."

And . . .

To Be Continued . . .

The next ep will provide much chewy information about Dean's relationship with John (at least how Dean perceives it).

Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really need to spend some time this week watching "Dead Man's Blood" up through "In My Time of Dying." Because...yeah. Stunning, and heart-wrenching, and it's been a year since I saw those eps (with you and Marie over the phone!).

[kalquessa.livejournal.com]

I remember being so sad that Pastor Jim got offed in the teaser. He looked so awesome and had a friggin' arsenal in his church. My kind of preacher.

It has always sort of annoyed me that holy ground doesn't work on some demons and that apparently even some of the black-eyed demons like Meg don't have to sweat it. It annoyed me even more that Azazel wasn't affected by holy water in the next episode. I love my chewy rules! Do not bend them like that!

[leelust.livejournal.com]

He hasn't been living in your shadow, he's grown into his own man, and he's more confident.
Actually Dean already was living on his own with solo hunts so i think he was on his way to be more confident with John. I think Dean allowed John to order him because he was keeping family together and if he'd stand up to John as Sam did there'd be no family anymore (considering John's character and temper).

I also love John's "I want you to go to school. I want Dean to have a home. I want Mary alive." John loves his boys so much it hurts
Maybe he loved his sons but it's so sad to know that from those words John couldn't do anything with Mary's death and Sam did go to college but the only thing John could do was to give Dean a family and he didn't. *sigh*

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

But Dean was only on his own for three weeks. If he had previous solo hunts, John and Dean were never out of touch long enough for Dean to get worried. Three weeks is a little different that almost a year traveling with someone who isn't your commanding officer or superior (or even your parent). Or, if you do want to pick up Dean's new-found confidence during the three weeks when John went missing, the situation is still the same. It wasn't until John was no longer in Dean's immediate circle of influence that his confidence in himself started to really take root. Of course, throughout the entire series, we can see that his self-confidence is a constant struggle for him.

What makes me think that Dean always sees himself as inadequate in John's eyes are two comments and reactions from "Dead Man's Blood" . . . The first is about the car, when John snarks at Dean about he wouldn't have given him the Impala if he knew he wasn't going to take care of it. Maybe that was John's ill-expressed attempt at good-natured ribbing. Maybe it was his fear being expressed as anger (something I think John does a lot). But either way, it hurt Dean, and John didn't notice. Sam did.

The other thing was when Dean offers John the use of an extra machete. John declines the offer, "I think I got it covered." And Dean's reaction to John's weapons cache in comparison to his own is just . . . it kinda hurts. John didn't do or say anything wrong in this instance, but Dean's reaction shows that Dean feels inadequate next to his dad.

And when he does start voicing a differing opinion or questioning John, he does it with a note of "I know I'm gonna get reamed for this, but . . . " So, no. I don't think Dean really started stepping out from John's shadow until he was on his own and with Sam and out of touch with John for months, close to a year. In retrospect, I see this as the point at which Dean really starts to grow and to see his father as more than a hero; he begins to see him as a fallible human being. We've gotten glimpses of his desire to stand up to his father ("Scarecrow"), but this is the first time he's actually done so--addressed his father as an equal adult rather than a dutiful son or a good soldier.

The biggest problem, the way I see it, is lack of communication.

Maybe he loved his sons but it's so sad to know that from those words John couldn't do anything with Mary's death and Sam did go to college but the only thing John could do was to give Dean a family and he didn't. *sigh*

But what exactly was he supposed to do? Remarry? Settle down? Put the boys in little league baseball? Put them up for adoption or place them in foster care while he went on his hunts? (And then we would have no Show.) John did the best he could in keeping his family with him. Unfortunately, he had sort of a soldier mentality that neglected the emotional impact of what he was doing.

I think you and I are also reading John's home/school/Mary statement differently. He couldn't save Mary. He was terrified that something would happen to Sam if he was separated from the family (and as it turns out, Sam lost his girlfriend and had to drop out of school), and he couldn't provide Dean with a stable home. He's a tormented soul, caught between the evil that went after his family and his own bad decisions.