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apocalypsosYeah, so I hate Bonnie.
I know I was meh before, but I'm sort of sick seeing the whole "She's only being this bitchy person because she's heartbroken!" line of excuses that come around every time she casually ignores her hand in something when it goes terribly wrong or when she, say, treats Caroline like dog shit she's scraped off her shoe for being a vampire, all while doing Stefan (the one who's a prime example of a vampire turning out okay if you just give him a chance) the "favor" of helping her best friend in the world NOT BE A GODDAMN KILLER. Nobody in Mystic Falls is particularly all that well-adjusted, every one of this circle of friends has lost a loved one in the past year or two (Elena's parents, Vicki, Tyler's dad, etc.), everybody's dealing with supernatural changes even if they don't know they are, and there are scenes in which I just wish Elena would grab Bonnie and shake her and yell, "Look, do you want to engage in a hearty round of 'It Sucks To Be Me'? Because let me tell you, the list of depressing, horrifying, and fucked-up things in my life has killed a dozen more rainforests than yours will for a LONG time."
Bonnie's life has had some shit things in it the past year, but ... yeah, no. I want to sympathize with her, but mostly I just want to shout at my TV, "Jesus jitterbugging Christ, Bonnie, put on your big girl panties and get over it!"
Ahem. ANYWAY.
Yay for Alaric kissing Jenna! Boo for how his hair looks when he grows it out!
Caroline and Katharine are still my favorites, even while Caroline is totally fucked up and Katherine's off elsewhere for most of the past two episodes, and while I'm all, "NOOOOO, Caroline, don't listen to her!", I really rather desperately want Caroline and Katherine to be beffies. I may be having Darla and Drusilla flashbacks. The Flying Spaghetti Monster help us all.
I sort of enjoy Elena screwing with Damon, mostly because he needs it and it's amusing and it's one of the few things that gets through to him. Also, for the most part, she seems to be able to give him kicks to the ego without pulling a Katherine and spurring him to do something horrible in response. Damon's like a twitchy puppy with behavioral problems. If you pet him just the right way, he'll let the occasional spanking for peeing on the carpet slide. If you taunt him and treat him like dirt, he'll eat your CDs and shit in your best shoes. Elena's good at the former, Katherine's a whiz at the latter, and for their respective purposes it works out.
That said, Elena, he killed your brother. I know you're dating his brother, but it IS possible to avoid him. Or attempt to, anyway. Also, Damon, have you thought of apologizing to -- oh, I don't know -- the guy whose neck you actually broke? (That said, I feel like that scene with Damon and Jeremy at the boardinghouse last week was their way of apologizing to each other, but they were just being MEN MANLY MEN WE'RE MEN IN TIGHTS about the whole thing.)
Stefan's growing on me this season. I will freely admit my tinhat wants me to say it's because Katherine's in town. Heh.
Mason's hot and all, but can we FINALLY get down to Tyler shifting? Pretty please?
*
So I did read a few episode reactions before I watched the episode, and was surprised upon watching the episode to see this, which no one else mentioned:
Because when the set decorator puts Sam's name on something, it ... means nothing, I suppose. Heh. :)
Anyway.
So let's get the basic facts out of the way first. Dean is clearly doing the best he can with a good situation, considering he's currently got ALL of the PTSD. Lisa is clearly not buying his shit, but is more than willing to help him work out his PTSD because part of his "therapy" is being awesome with Ben. Bobby is clearly trying to keep his kids happy even if means sending one of them off to a nice but stifling foster home and lying to that kid about the other one, aaaaand everybody with Campbell blood save Dean is clearly acting PROFOUNDLY creepy.
Not to overuse an adverb (too late), but something is clearly fucked up.
What gets me about the whole episode is the way Jared portrayed Sam's emotions throughout the episode. Jensen played Dean exactly as I would have expected -- happy, sad, hurt and betrayed at all of the right spots. Which makes Jared's acting throughout the episode strike me as ... odd. Sam comes off as distant and less than emotional, even for someone who hasn't spent the last year oblivious to the truth. I know there's an air of "Sam's acting OOC" going around, but I'm not buying the badly-written argument as much as I ... well, I can't stop dwelling on that poster, I suppose.
The thing is, the Campbells are up to something. We haven't gotten much out of any of the cousins just yet, but Samuel isn't what he appears to be. My bet? We're going to end up with a "The Campbells were the original Syndicate" thing going on. Sure, the Campbells were killing vampires on the Mayflower, but I find myself wondering. If they're such a hunting dynasty, it's not much of a leap to theorize that in the process, they've found new ways to kill all sorts of creatures. Somebody had to, after all, down through the years. Given the end of the episode, I wouldn't be surprised to find out the Campbells have been capturing and experimenting on monsters for decades if not centuries.
Which brings me to Sam, since I highly doubt he's spent the last year out of the loop on that count. His tone and mannerisms throughout the episode make me wonder if Sam wouldn't have just left Dean exactly where he was if it weren't for the fact that he needs him for something. He didn't say as much, obviously, but I buy that wheedling attempt at the end of the episode to get Dean to come back on the road with him, even if the whole thing fell apart because Sam's just as big of a mess as Dean is. I know it's been a year, but Sam's "I don't want to talk about it" about Hell and the general handwaving over the Great Campbell Corpse-Raising Infestation of 2010 are two unsettling aspects of the current situation that made my ears perk up.
And all of THAT brings me to the poster.
It may be nothing, but I'm not sure I buy that. Sure, it's set dressing. It's also set dressing that almost literally gets slammed in the audience's face. We get an image of a young man in a dark hoodie and shaded sunglasses -- the universal signs for being shady -- paired with the name DJ Sam.
So it works into my current theory, which is: In the vein of the DJ Sam poster, what if all of this is Sam "mixing it up"?
I don't believe Sam is still possessed by Lucifer, obviously, but I wonder how much of him and his powers rubbed off on Sam. The easiest way to lie is to stick to the truth as much as possible, so I believe Sam's story of being in the cage one moment and being in the field the next. I thought maybe the cage kicked him out (Oh, and about that ... Adam who?), but now I suspect he may have gotten out on his own. And that he may have been needy for family and gotten Samuel out, although I'm not sure if I think Samuel knows or not. (I know Sam bringing back John or Mary might have been pushing it, but somewhere between JDM being big enough not to have to come back anymore and Mary not really wanting to hunt at any point in her life no matter how kickass she might have been at it, I've managed to stifle my disappointment.)
It does sort of strike me as telling that at the end Sam was all, LOL BEING WARD CLEAVER WAS FUN, BUT LET'S GO BE SUPERHEROES AGAIN, SAY BYE-BYE DEAN-O. He's terrible at the playing-on-Dean's-emotions shit, which is weird because he used to be phenomenal at it. His lip would quiver and his big saucer eyes would well with tears, but that was before Lucifer apparently ate all of his woobieness and spit him out. And he doesn't have "Dad's missing" to fall back on. He's got to dangle family in front of Dean to get him to do anything the same way Dean dragged him away from his normal like, and ... well, they didn't have any family life.
Cue the Campbells. I may have gotten a bit of morbid amusement out of reading reaction posts saying they barely got any development (in one episode?) or that Gwen's a Sue (and such a powerful Sue, apparently, that she becomes one simply by saying two lines and holding a gun she barely gets a chance to use). What gets me is that if we go by the theory that Sam's the puppetmaster here, these are lousy fucking puppets. Not because they're badly written or anything, but because Dean doesn't play that way. Dean's loyalty to blood only goes so far. Samuel was a nice shot, but the others are like Adam -- Dean's not just going to bend over backwards for them if they don't bend a little themselves. Dean goes by connections, and has gotten through life making up his family as he goes along. John and Sam are his by blood, but Bobby, Ellen, Jo and others became his family through strength of emotions. If Sam, in all of his disconnected behavior, thinks that dangling Campbells in front of Dean as a lure will bring him back into the life, he really IS as detached as he gives off.
I think Sam realizes there is a problem, though -- that HE is a problem -- and that that's part of his attempt to lure back Dean into the life. But I also feel like he (and the Campbells) need Dean for something. The only question is for what.
*
My mom is taking me to Kohl's for my birthday to buy me new clothes. Woohoo! I need some new jeans, as the ones that fit me the best are currently well-worn enough to not fit me that good anymore.
That said, I am not allowed to take a hundred bucks from my next paycheck and go buy a new chinchilla. Even if I can afford it next week (well, sort of), I don't NEED a chinchilla. Dexter keeps looking at me as though I've sent Eliot away and Dex wants him to come back, though. Aw.
I know I was meh before, but I'm sort of sick seeing the whole "She's only being this bitchy person because she's heartbroken!" line of excuses that come around every time she casually ignores her hand in something when it goes terribly wrong or when she, say, treats Caroline like dog shit she's scraped off her shoe for being a vampire, all while doing Stefan (the one who's a prime example of a vampire turning out okay if you just give him a chance) the "favor" of helping her best friend in the world NOT BE A GODDAMN KILLER. Nobody in Mystic Falls is particularly all that well-adjusted, every one of this circle of friends has lost a loved one in the past year or two (Elena's parents, Vicki, Tyler's dad, etc.), everybody's dealing with supernatural changes even if they don't know they are, and there are scenes in which I just wish Elena would grab Bonnie and shake her and yell, "Look, do you want to engage in a hearty round of 'It Sucks To Be Me'? Because let me tell you, the list of depressing, horrifying, and fucked-up things in my life has killed a dozen more rainforests than yours will for a LONG time."
Bonnie's life has had some shit things in it the past year, but ... yeah, no. I want to sympathize with her, but mostly I just want to shout at my TV, "Jesus jitterbugging Christ, Bonnie, put on your big girl panties and get over it!"
Ahem. ANYWAY.
Yay for Alaric kissing Jenna! Boo for how his hair looks when he grows it out!
Caroline and Katharine are still my favorites, even while Caroline is totally fucked up and Katherine's off elsewhere for most of the past two episodes, and while I'm all, "NOOOOO, Caroline, don't listen to her!", I really rather desperately want Caroline and Katherine to be beffies. I may be having Darla and Drusilla flashbacks. The Flying Spaghetti Monster help us all.
I sort of enjoy Elena screwing with Damon, mostly because he needs it and it's amusing and it's one of the few things that gets through to him. Also, for the most part, she seems to be able to give him kicks to the ego without pulling a Katherine and spurring him to do something horrible in response. Damon's like a twitchy puppy with behavioral problems. If you pet him just the right way, he'll let the occasional spanking for peeing on the carpet slide. If you taunt him and treat him like dirt, he'll eat your CDs and shit in your best shoes. Elena's good at the former, Katherine's a whiz at the latter, and for their respective purposes it works out.
That said, Elena, he killed your brother. I know you're dating his brother, but it IS possible to avoid him. Or attempt to, anyway. Also, Damon, have you thought of apologizing to -- oh, I don't know -- the guy whose neck you actually broke? (That said, I feel like that scene with Damon and Jeremy at the boardinghouse last week was their way of apologizing to each other, but they were just being MEN MANLY MEN WE'RE MEN IN TIGHTS about the whole thing.)
Stefan's growing on me this season. I will freely admit my tinhat wants me to say it's because Katherine's in town. Heh.
Mason's hot and all, but can we FINALLY get down to Tyler shifting? Pretty please?
*
So I did read a few episode reactions before I watched the episode, and was surprised upon watching the episode to see this, which no one else mentioned:
Because when the set decorator puts Sam's name on something, it ... means nothing, I suppose. Heh. :)
Anyway.
So let's get the basic facts out of the way first. Dean is clearly doing the best he can with a good situation, considering he's currently got ALL of the PTSD. Lisa is clearly not buying his shit, but is more than willing to help him work out his PTSD because part of his "therapy" is being awesome with Ben. Bobby is clearly trying to keep his kids happy even if means sending one of them off to a nice but stifling foster home and lying to that kid about the other one, aaaaand everybody with Campbell blood save Dean is clearly acting PROFOUNDLY creepy.
Not to overuse an adverb (too late), but something is clearly fucked up.
What gets me about the whole episode is the way Jared portrayed Sam's emotions throughout the episode. Jensen played Dean exactly as I would have expected -- happy, sad, hurt and betrayed at all of the right spots. Which makes Jared's acting throughout the episode strike me as ... odd. Sam comes off as distant and less than emotional, even for someone who hasn't spent the last year oblivious to the truth. I know there's an air of "Sam's acting OOC" going around, but I'm not buying the badly-written argument as much as I ... well, I can't stop dwelling on that poster, I suppose.
The thing is, the Campbells are up to something. We haven't gotten much out of any of the cousins just yet, but Samuel isn't what he appears to be. My bet? We're going to end up with a "The Campbells were the original Syndicate" thing going on. Sure, the Campbells were killing vampires on the Mayflower, but I find myself wondering. If they're such a hunting dynasty, it's not much of a leap to theorize that in the process, they've found new ways to kill all sorts of creatures. Somebody had to, after all, down through the years. Given the end of the episode, I wouldn't be surprised to find out the Campbells have been capturing and experimenting on monsters for decades if not centuries.
Which brings me to Sam, since I highly doubt he's spent the last year out of the loop on that count. His tone and mannerisms throughout the episode make me wonder if Sam wouldn't have just left Dean exactly where he was if it weren't for the fact that he needs him for something. He didn't say as much, obviously, but I buy that wheedling attempt at the end of the episode to get Dean to come back on the road with him, even if the whole thing fell apart because Sam's just as big of a mess as Dean is. I know it's been a year, but Sam's "I don't want to talk about it" about Hell and the general handwaving over the Great Campbell Corpse-Raising Infestation of 2010 are two unsettling aspects of the current situation that made my ears perk up.
And all of THAT brings me to the poster.
It may be nothing, but I'm not sure I buy that. Sure, it's set dressing. It's also set dressing that almost literally gets slammed in the audience's face. We get an image of a young man in a dark hoodie and shaded sunglasses -- the universal signs for being shady -- paired with the name DJ Sam.
So it works into my current theory, which is: In the vein of the DJ Sam poster, what if all of this is Sam "mixing it up"?
I don't believe Sam is still possessed by Lucifer, obviously, but I wonder how much of him and his powers rubbed off on Sam. The easiest way to lie is to stick to the truth as much as possible, so I believe Sam's story of being in the cage one moment and being in the field the next. I thought maybe the cage kicked him out (Oh, and about that ... Adam who?), but now I suspect he may have gotten out on his own. And that he may have been needy for family and gotten Samuel out, although I'm not sure if I think Samuel knows or not. (I know Sam bringing back John or Mary might have been pushing it, but somewhere between JDM being big enough not to have to come back anymore and Mary not really wanting to hunt at any point in her life no matter how kickass she might have been at it, I've managed to stifle my disappointment.)
It does sort of strike me as telling that at the end Sam was all, LOL BEING WARD CLEAVER WAS FUN, BUT LET'S GO BE SUPERHEROES AGAIN, SAY BYE-BYE DEAN-O. He's terrible at the playing-on-Dean's-emotions shit, which is weird because he used to be phenomenal at it. His lip would quiver and his big saucer eyes would well with tears, but that was before Lucifer apparently ate all of his woobieness and spit him out. And he doesn't have "Dad's missing" to fall back on. He's got to dangle family in front of Dean to get him to do anything the same way Dean dragged him away from his normal like, and ... well, they didn't have any family life.
Cue the Campbells. I may have gotten a bit of morbid amusement out of reading reaction posts saying they barely got any development (in one episode?) or that Gwen's a Sue (and such a powerful Sue, apparently, that she becomes one simply by saying two lines and holding a gun she barely gets a chance to use). What gets me is that if we go by the theory that Sam's the puppetmaster here, these are lousy fucking puppets. Not because they're badly written or anything, but because Dean doesn't play that way. Dean's loyalty to blood only goes so far. Samuel was a nice shot, but the others are like Adam -- Dean's not just going to bend over backwards for them if they don't bend a little themselves. Dean goes by connections, and has gotten through life making up his family as he goes along. John and Sam are his by blood, but Bobby, Ellen, Jo and others became his family through strength of emotions. If Sam, in all of his disconnected behavior, thinks that dangling Campbells in front of Dean as a lure will bring him back into the life, he really IS as detached as he gives off.
I think Sam realizes there is a problem, though -- that HE is a problem -- and that that's part of his attempt to lure back Dean into the life. But I also feel like he (and the Campbells) need Dean for something. The only question is for what.
*
My mom is taking me to Kohl's for my birthday to buy me new clothes. Woohoo! I need some new jeans, as the ones that fit me the best are currently well-worn enough to not fit me that good anymore.
That said, I am not allowed to take a hundred bucks from my next paycheck and go buy a new chinchilla. Even if I can afford it next week (well, sort of), I don't NEED a chinchilla. Dexter keeps looking at me as though I've sent Eliot away and Dex wants him to come back, though. Aw.
