Upon thinking about "Playthings" ...

[apocalypsos]

... and everybody's complaints about it, I think if I would have written the episode, the major thing I would have done different is this.

And just pretend I'm defacing a painting in a museum. Heh.

1. Take out X-Acto knife. Slice out Drunken!Sammy scene.
2. Glue it at the very far right of the painting after everything else.
3. Take a Sharpie and scribble over the part of the painting where Tyler takes a breath and comes back to life.
4. Slice out the scene at the car when Sam says, "You promised." Scribble out background with gum eraser. Draw in motel room and glue to painting to the right of the Drunken!Sammy scene.

I'm not sure it would have helped, but that's what I would have done to try and fix the big thing that bugged me.

The rest of it, I liked, though, for the most part.

Meanwhile, I turned on the television and saw another commercial for the Sarah Silverman show. I ... uh, really don't get why talking about poop and boogers is supposed to be funny when you're not four, 'cause at least a four-year-old has being tiny and adorable to back it up.

Comments

[deirdre-c.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh hell, YES.

Tyler dying is exactly what would've motivated that scene.

Thank you for the fix. *trots away happy*

[shehasathree]

i really thought she was going to...

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised she didn't. I can go on for hours about how much I loathe horror, action, and sci-fi entertainment and their reluctance to kill off children. The only exceptions seem to be children who die violently, come back from the dead as ghosts and kill others or children in major apocalyptic disaster movies when they don't have much of a choice but to kill some children.

One of my favorite movies is The Poseidon Adventure. In the book the movie is based on, the little boy falls into a hole and presumably dies, but they've turned the story into a movie three damn times now and the kid lives every fucking time. SHEESH.

[shehasathree]

indeed! it was certainly much more predictable for her to live, but i guess there was a moment (when everything had gone slo-mo, so it made it seem like she'd been not-breathing for longer than she actually had) when i was convinced they were actually gonna do it. dammit, show!

[jfc013.livejournal.com]

Clever adjustment! I like that a lot! (I still would have had the little girl ghosts fade away at the end, having been released to heaven or wherever, so they wouldn't get pissed off when the hotel gets torn down...)

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

Wow. I think I would be in love with the episode if that had happened.

Yeah, the more I think about it the more I love it. Because if she had died and not some random dude that Sam I don't think even saw before then Sam getting drunk and begging Dean to kill him would've made much much more sense.

[budclare.livejournal.com]

I kind of like it the way it is, because of the "wtf?"ness of it. Because it highlights the brave-little-toasterness of the scene where Dean accused Sam of being too well-adjusted or healthy or whatever he said. Sam's good at sounding rational even when he's deluding himself. But if the little girl died and that made him get drunk, then he maybe wasn't deluding himself as to his coping ability (because who wouldn't get drunk after a little girl died?), and that's just not as fun.

[shehasathree]

thanks for sharing. actually, the more i think about it, the more i agree with your perspective on the ordering of the scenes and the drunkenness. plus, kudos for 'brave little toasterness'.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

See, I still would have bought that he'd been deluding himself about his coping ability if Tyler's death drove him to drink because ... well, name the OTHER time he's been drunk onscreen. I mean, Dean talks about getting wasted occasionally and has given the impression more than once this season that he sometimes smokes up. You offer him a drink, his first request is always a beer.

But Sam? Sam barely if ever drinks. Aside from one beer here or there with dinner or at a bar, he doesn't. "Two beers and he's singing karaoke," right? And certainly not during a job. Yeah, sure, that could be an argument for him doing it this time being a sign that he's deluding himself about being okay, but over some guy he'd presumably never even seen at a point when they had no idea what was going on and there was no possible way he could have EVER saved him?

And the thing is, if Sam were all right, I wouldn't buy him getting drunk over the death of a child they were trying to save. Dean, sure, but not Sam. It impedes the emo. ;) For a guy who made so many bitchy little comments to Jess about John being lost in the woods with "Jim, Jack, and Jose," I just felt like it should take more than some random guy dying early in the case to make Sam go that far, regardless of his mental state.

[ailawho.livejournal.com]

Recently de-lurked and here via deidre_c's journal.

I definitely agree about Taylor. I was actually disappointed when she pulled through; In the moments before, I'd been thinking "Wow, they're going to kill her. My show is growing up so well!" and then, of course, I felt like the whole thing was a cop-out. I do think that the drunk!Sam wasn't executed well enough for it to merit being there AT ALL. I love JP to death, but he plays a lousy drunk. It's a shame about these bits, because Playthings was promising to be one of my favourite episodes, what with all the gay and the banter.

Meh.

Hey, you mind if I friend you? As a lurker I read your journal quite often, so you're kind of on my list of people to add.

[gillianinoz.livejournal.com]

I'm glad they didn't kill the kid, because I think Sam really needed to save someone in this ep. That's why the timing of the drunken scene worked for me right where it was. It didn't take a horrible tragedy like failing to save a little child to push Sam over that edge. Just a month of searching fruitlessly for Ava and then failing to help another person on top of that.

I love the fact that Sam gets so caught up in saving the life of a complete stranger. I remember how he was in Shadows when he arrived at Max Miller's house to find they were too late to save Max's father. He was really devastated at the pain of the people who had lost their loved one. Everyone's important to Sam.

I loved the promise - although I would have written the drunken scene a little differently myself.

[mcee.livejournal.com]

*TOUCHES NOSE!!*

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

EEE, NOSE!

*claps hands over nose*

*scampers off*

[dragonsinger.livejournal.com]

*Tries to sort out your painting* This might take me a minute. ;)

In the meantime, my hubby adores Sarah Silverman. If he had met her first, I wouldn't have stood a chance. *Sigh*

[foenix.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I liked this episode too. Not the greatest, but was good to get back to basics of hunting down some urban legend. And who doesn't love a good haunted hotel story? With a Shining reference, to boot!

Of course, I also liked last season's black truck episode, and that's been generally hailed as the worst episode ever. =P