SPN - 8.10

[feliciakw]

It's good to have the show back. I've missed Dean. I've missed Jensen and Jared. I've missed the storytelling.

But.

This ep leaves me dissatisfied and melancholy.

I haven't really liked where they've taken the angel characters since early/mid-S4. (Cas was awesome when he showed up, but things started going downhill somewhere after "Great Pumpkin.") The trend is continuing. Angels, with the exception of Cas, and Alfie, who's now a goner, are apparently never going to be anything more than one more adversary for the guys. Meh.

I'm disappointed with where they left Benny and his storyline. I get why Dean cut off contact with Benny. Still. He's left a friend who is an addict--and a deadly one--to twist in the wind. I know that was their original plan, but still. I hope we see Benny again, and I hope he's not a bad guy.

Glad the Amelia storyline is over, though. I never really felt one way or the other about her until tonight. And tonight, I decided I don't really like her. Why? Because she seduced Sam. She has a husband, and she seduced Sam. I am not down with that.

What I did like about tonight was Dean cutting Sam loose and giving him every opportunity to have "normal," to go back to Amelia. So Sam chose, of his own free will, to stick with the job. No more blaming Dean for it, kthanx.

I liked that in the course of letting Sam go, Dean admitted that he's just tired of the fighting. We all are, dude. We all are.

I liked the apparent truce that has been called. Now if they could just learn to read one another again, maybe we'd get somewhere.

It felt like a very "distant" episode, which makes sense, since they were each dealing with their own problems. But as much as the guys were sitting together drinking beer and watching TV, it still felt distant at the end.

Admittedly, it did get a laugh or two out of me and Geo. When Cas appeared and woke Dean up, Geo loled. I did the same when he appeared next to Sam. Sam, you've never really had that experience, have you, of Cas just suddenly showing up in your personal space. Now you know.

I'm not sure how many people still read these blurbs I write, as it seems that most of my f-list that watched the show don't watch it anymore. So I'm mostly writing this out of habit. And maybe a little nostalgia, seeing as how I've been writing these since S4, and have done pretty much the whole series at one point or another.

And on a final note, Jensen looked really, really, good. Like, really.

Comments

[gluisa88.livejournal.com]

I agree, I was sad to see Dean let Benny go but for the character, it made sense. Sam made it a "him or me" thing and of course Dean will always choose Sam.

I was so mad at Amelia- especially after she blamed Sam for cheating on her husband. "blah blah blah you were the one who came back" or whatever it was she said. I was like, are you kidding me? She may have caught him peering through the window but not only did *she* go chasing him down, but it was also *her* that followed him back to his motel room.

Whatever.

You put it well- it was a "distant" episode and left me feeling dissatisfied. I had heard there was going to be a very candid, very emotional talk between the brothers where they put everything on the table but I had thought I had heard it wasn't until ep. 12. I hope that wasn't the promised talk because frankly, it left me wanting. It didn't feel like anything was really resolved. It felt like a good start but it didn't feel like enough.

I hope that's not the end- I hope the show plans to further address/heal the brother's relationship.

And yes, Jensen was breath-taking!

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Sam made it a "him or me" thing and of course Dean will always choose Sam.

I got the sense that it was more than that. Not so much "him or me," but "If Sam is gonna give up Amelia, I need to do my part." I'm so torn. Ot1h, Dean's not gonna go behind Sam's back, which is good. And that was Dean and Benny's original plan--go their separate ways. Benny's the one who's been reaching out to Dean. Otoh, Dean is like Benny's AA sponsor, and my heart just kind of sank when the sponsor cut the addict loose like that. "Sorry, buddy, you're on your own." The thing is, both Dean and Sam should get this. Dean was a vampire (thanks to Sam), so he understands the hunger. (He also knows it can be resisted.) And Sam. Well, we all know Sam's history with demon blood, yeah? That there was a powerful addiction.

If I had some sort of sense that there was more to it than Sam hating and being jealous of a monster--like genuine fear for Dean's safety, I might feel differently. But right now, I'm bummed.

What you said, about Amelia.

This felt like it should have been the ep to take us into hiatus. It seemed dissatisfying as a come-back from a weeks-long break.

I'll watch it again, maybe pick up more than I got on first watch, but a lot of it was just unpleasant (Crowley, Naomi, etc.).

[gluisa88.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess you're right but still, my thought as I was watching the scene was, "Yeah, Dean always gives up what he wants for Sam."

Maybe not so much a fear that he'd lose Sam if he didn't but still, Sam wanted him to say goodbye to Benny and so Dean did.

Carver had spoken about the brothers having a more mature, healthy relationship but still that scene smelled very co-dependent to me. I mean, what? Dean's not allowed to have friends?

Yeah, yeah, vampire whatever. I honestly don't believe for one second that that was Sam's issue with Benny.

I feel like perhaps that's the last we'll see of Benny- at least, I feel that's all tptb have planned at the moment. I just really, really hope they don't plan to bring him back long enough to kill a human and then Dean has to kill him.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm afraid of--that either Dean will have to put Benny down, or Benny will ask Dean to put him down and send him back to Purgatory, where he was not tormented with the bloodlust. I want Benny to be a stronger character than that, though.

I really can't suss out what Carver and Co. are doing, so I'm not even going to try. They claim to know what the fans want, but they're obviously not traveling in my circles or reading my LJ. Benny is a very popular character, it seems, where I run, and he's popular because he's Dean's friend. So, you know, I give up.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, when I first started watching the series, Izhilzha, who got me into the show, used to tell me, "Trust the writers. Trust Kripke," because things always turned out really well. Maybe not as expected, but they always took a cool, interesting turn. That ended somewhere in S4. Haven't really "trusted" the writers since. I trust the production crew far more--trust Jensen to keep Dean, Dean. You know?

[gluisa88.livejournal.com]

For me, I have a bigger problem with the quality of the writing. I'm willing to follow the show where ever it takes us but sometimes the lines make me cringe and I wonder what happened to the writing of the first five- heck, four seasons. Jensen does pretty well, even with bad lines, he's just such a good actor that you don't mind them as much but the others suffer quite a bit.

I think it's the snark that gets me the most. I love snark but not stupid lines that are trying to pass as clever/snarky.

I actually could deal with Benny asking Dean to kill him. As much as I don't want Benny to die, I would prefer that to having him give in to his bloodlust. I would prefer Door #3 but if it's one or the other, I would prefer Benny asking Dean to send him back to Purgatory.