![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsosFirst off, two things regarding this week's The Vampire Diaries that I absolutely do NOT consider spoilery:
1. Caroline Forbes is more awesome than you.
2. I want to be Nina Dobrev when I grow up.
Now, where can I get me an animated GIF of Caroline kicking Mason's ass? 'Cause that shit was HOT-TASTIC.
*
And now on to last night's SPN. I did want to say before I go on that the whole thing with Friday/Saturday brain is that it's very thinky-thoughts and a definitive attempt to be as objective as possible. Admittedly, I usually fail on some level -- God knows I love every character, and usually can attribute the things I don't like about them to decisions by the writers, whom I freely reserve the right to want to smack with a frozen trout.
In any event, who's up for the usual Saturday-brain meta-riffic extravaganza? :D
I'm going to do this in sections today, since there's a few points I took out of last night's episode that don't really tie together the way I'd like into one massive lost post but I generally wanted to expound on.
First up: the whole "family" theory I brought up last week.
So here's what we have as of this episode:
Who's Having The Best Familial Relationship?
1. The monsters
2. Sam and Dean
3. The angels
Which is kind of hilarious, all things considered, because it's hard not to call the angels monsters what with all that we've seen them do.
The thing is, the monsters and the angels being at where they are with their own families intrigues me considering that Dean and Sam are, as per usual, not telling each other everything and therefore most of the good rapport they may be having at times is more than a bit forced. For added amusement, the angels and monsters have presented us with two extremes they could be at -- either being honest and having that honesty result in conflict, or being honest and having that brotherly love we adore out of them as an audience.
It's kind of scary when the two of them would be helped out a lot if they just used the monsters as their example for family.
*
I can't help but be fascinated by Dean's sex dream with just plain old vanilla sex with Lisa. And not just because ... heh, shirtless Jensen. Yum. ;)
It just makes my heart happy to see how far he's gotten. Remember when he dreamed about strippers? Now he dreams about being at home with his girlfriend and having sleepy morning sex. Aw.
That said, it strikes me as telling that he's dreaming about it, when you attach it to that clip in the "Soon" montage of Dean saying to Lisa he doesn't want to bring his "life" home. I do think that on some level he still thinks this is a dream, and he doesn't want to sully it with the hunting because if he sullies it he won't get to keep it. I do believe that he wants both, that he wants to go hunting AND he wants to go home to Ben ad Lisa at the end of the day, but he doesn't know how to do that. Hell, I don't think there's any version of Dean that would know how to do that. It's part of the reason he's kind of floating in the middle between the two worlds at the moment.
It also harkens back to his line when he went to see Lisa last season, when he basically told her that when he dreams of a normal life, he dreams of her and Ben. For all that he is not a stupid man, he's got more than enough examples in his own family of people who could not have a normal life and a hunter's life at the same time -- his mom, dad and Sam have all been unable to have both at once, and it's hard for him to believe that he can have both when there's so much evidence in his own life that you can't.
So which does he latch onto? He can either choose Lisa and Ben or hunting. Lisa and Ben have the virtue of being something he wants, and being there for him when things went bad and he needed support. And hunting is the only thing that he's known since he was four, something he was born and trained for.
It's just interesting to watch him swing back and forth. When he's at Lisa's, he dreams of hunting. When he's hunting, he dreams of Lisa.
(Although to be fair, I've had the same dream about Lisa. Mmm, Lisa.)
*
So, yeah. Sam.
I've already hit a few reaction posts and I know how it's all, "Oh, Dean thinks something is wrong with Sam again? That old chestnut? We get that every season!" Which is true, I'm not going to lie, but how often is he actually right?
Season One:
Dean - "Is something wrong with you?"
Sam - "No, no, I'm fine."
End of season - Sam is right.
Season Two:
Dean - "Is something wrong with you?"
Sam - "No, no, I'm fine."
End of season - Sam is right.
Season Three:
Dean: "Okay, seriously, you came back from the dead last season. Is something wrong with you?"
Sam: "No, no, I'm fine."
End of season - Sam is right.
Season Four:
Dean: "I went to Hell, and I'm in a VERY bad mood. But is something wrong with you?"
Sam: "..."
End of season - Er ... no, actually, there kind of was something wrong with Sam that time.
Season Five:
Dean: "So, you know how every season I ask you --"
Sam: "Look, Dean, tell you what. You know how you will know if there is something wrong with me this season? If I'm stuffed full of the devil."
Dean: "... was that a euphemism?"
Sam: "*headsmack*"
End of season - The only thing wrong with Sam is that he's not actually Sam. Until he IS Sam, at which point he's awesome.
Anyhoo.
The thing is, Sam is not perfect, of course, but he's rarely as bad as Dean suspects he might be. Which leads us to his current state. Let me put it this way -- we've seen Sam spend an extended time hunting without Dean twice before, and both times he turned out profoundly fucked up.
I hate to break it to you, Dean, but you know how you're always worried that your brother's out nailing demons or drinking blood or whatever? There's some pretty definitive evidence that what turns him into a creepy nutjob the best is when you're not there to babysit him.
Sam needs an emotional connection to get by. He's that sort of a guy. The mental recovery from Hell is one thing. If he puts himself to a task and devotes himself to doing it (as in, the hunting life), it gives him something to focus on to keep him from losing his mind. So, great! He hasn't lost his mind, thanks in no small part to hunting.
That said, who was going to give him that emotional connection over the past year? Which of the stone-cold Campbells was going to have weepy heart-to-hearts with him? As much as it breaks our hearts in a good way to see the boys pout in poignant reminiscence with one another over how much their lives suck, that's how those enormous bastards bond. The only place he could have possibly gotten than was from Bobby, and I stand by what I wrote in "Vacation Slides", because I really don't believe that Sam either spent a great deal with Bobby after alerting him to his resurrection or talking with him afterward. The impression I got was not of two people who were hooking up regularly for tea and snuggles.
I find myself wondering if Sam hasn't cut himself off from his emotions on purpose. For example, he hires a hooker rather than going out to a bar and picking up a girl, which God knows he is more than capable of doing. It's the sort of thing you do (in his situation) when you want to avoid human contact or making any kind of connection in general. I keep trying to remember if Dean's ever paid for sex and I can't recall, but he's always seemed to be the sort who hits up a bar for women. Why waste money on hookers when you can get a girl for free? And they can. They both can. Hell, Sam almost got the hooker for free.
Sam never does well when hunting without Dean. Never. Living a normal life without Dean, sure. Hunting without him? He's either gone heartless commando when Dean was dead, or gone bloody demon junkie when he knew Dean was in Hell. Now, he's been the one in Hell and Dean's been off making Halloween costumes and pancakes.
If he's fine, he's either doing a fucking miraculous job of recovering from kidnapping, assault and torture, or he's not Sam.
1. Caroline Forbes is more awesome than you.
2. I want to be Nina Dobrev when I grow up.
Now, where can I get me an animated GIF of Caroline kicking Mason's ass? 'Cause that shit was HOT-TASTIC.
*
And now on to last night's SPN. I did want to say before I go on that the whole thing with Friday/Saturday brain is that it's very thinky-thoughts and a definitive attempt to be as objective as possible. Admittedly, I usually fail on some level -- God knows I love every character, and usually can attribute the things I don't like about them to decisions by the writers, whom I freely reserve the right to want to smack with a frozen trout.
In any event, who's up for the usual Saturday-brain meta-riffic extravaganza? :D
I'm going to do this in sections today, since there's a few points I took out of last night's episode that don't really tie together the way I'd like into one massive lost post but I generally wanted to expound on.
First up: the whole "family" theory I brought up last week.
So here's what we have as of this episode:
1. The monsters
2. Sam and Dean
3. The angels
Which is kind of hilarious, all things considered, because it's hard not to call the angels monsters what with all that we've seen them do.
The thing is, the monsters and the angels being at where they are with their own families intrigues me considering that Dean and Sam are, as per usual, not telling each other everything and therefore most of the good rapport they may be having at times is more than a bit forced. For added amusement, the angels and monsters have presented us with two extremes they could be at -- either being honest and having that honesty result in conflict, or being honest and having that brotherly love we adore out of them as an audience.
It's kind of scary when the two of them would be helped out a lot if they just used the monsters as their example for family.
*
I can't help but be fascinated by Dean's sex dream with just plain old vanilla sex with Lisa. And not just because ... heh, shirtless Jensen. Yum. ;)
It just makes my heart happy to see how far he's gotten. Remember when he dreamed about strippers? Now he dreams about being at home with his girlfriend and having sleepy morning sex. Aw.
That said, it strikes me as telling that he's dreaming about it, when you attach it to that clip in the "Soon" montage of Dean saying to Lisa he doesn't want to bring his "life" home. I do think that on some level he still thinks this is a dream, and he doesn't want to sully it with the hunting because if he sullies it he won't get to keep it. I do believe that he wants both, that he wants to go hunting AND he wants to go home to Ben ad Lisa at the end of the day, but he doesn't know how to do that. Hell, I don't think there's any version of Dean that would know how to do that. It's part of the reason he's kind of floating in the middle between the two worlds at the moment.
It also harkens back to his line when he went to see Lisa last season, when he basically told her that when he dreams of a normal life, he dreams of her and Ben. For all that he is not a stupid man, he's got more than enough examples in his own family of people who could not have a normal life and a hunter's life at the same time -- his mom, dad and Sam have all been unable to have both at once, and it's hard for him to believe that he can have both when there's so much evidence in his own life that you can't.
So which does he latch onto? He can either choose Lisa and Ben or hunting. Lisa and Ben have the virtue of being something he wants, and being there for him when things went bad and he needed support. And hunting is the only thing that he's known since he was four, something he was born and trained for.
It's just interesting to watch him swing back and forth. When he's at Lisa's, he dreams of hunting. When he's hunting, he dreams of Lisa.
(Although to be fair, I've had the same dream about Lisa. Mmm, Lisa.)
*
So, yeah. Sam.
I've already hit a few reaction posts and I know how it's all, "Oh, Dean thinks something is wrong with Sam again? That old chestnut? We get that every season!" Which is true, I'm not going to lie, but how often is he actually right?
Season One:
Dean - "Is something wrong with you?"
Sam - "No, no, I'm fine."
End of season - Sam is right.
Season Two:
Dean - "Is something wrong with you?"
Sam - "No, no, I'm fine."
End of season - Sam is right.
Season Three:
Dean: "Okay, seriously, you came back from the dead last season. Is something wrong with you?"
Sam: "No, no, I'm fine."
End of season - Sam is right.
Season Four:
Dean: "I went to Hell, and I'm in a VERY bad mood. But is something wrong with you?"
Sam: "..."
End of season - Er ... no, actually, there kind of was something wrong with Sam that time.
Season Five:
Dean: "So, you know how every season I ask you --"
Sam: "Look, Dean, tell you what. You know how you will know if there is something wrong with me this season? If I'm stuffed full of the devil."
Dean: "... was that a euphemism?"
Sam: "*headsmack*"
End of season - The only thing wrong with Sam is that he's not actually Sam. Until he IS Sam, at which point he's awesome.
Anyhoo.
The thing is, Sam is not perfect, of course, but he's rarely as bad as Dean suspects he might be. Which leads us to his current state. Let me put it this way -- we've seen Sam spend an extended time hunting without Dean twice before, and both times he turned out profoundly fucked up.
I hate to break it to you, Dean, but you know how you're always worried that your brother's out nailing demons or drinking blood or whatever? There's some pretty definitive evidence that what turns him into a creepy nutjob the best is when you're not there to babysit him.
Sam needs an emotional connection to get by. He's that sort of a guy. The mental recovery from Hell is one thing. If he puts himself to a task and devotes himself to doing it (as in, the hunting life), it gives him something to focus on to keep him from losing his mind. So, great! He hasn't lost his mind, thanks in no small part to hunting.
That said, who was going to give him that emotional connection over the past year? Which of the stone-cold Campbells was going to have weepy heart-to-hearts with him? As much as it breaks our hearts in a good way to see the boys pout in poignant reminiscence with one another over how much their lives suck, that's how those enormous bastards bond. The only place he could have possibly gotten than was from Bobby, and I stand by what I wrote in "Vacation Slides", because I really don't believe that Sam either spent a great deal with Bobby after alerting him to his resurrection or talking with him afterward. The impression I got was not of two people who were hooking up regularly for tea and snuggles.
I find myself wondering if Sam hasn't cut himself off from his emotions on purpose. For example, he hires a hooker rather than going out to a bar and picking up a girl, which God knows he is more than capable of doing. It's the sort of thing you do (in his situation) when you want to avoid human contact or making any kind of connection in general. I keep trying to remember if Dean's ever paid for sex and I can't recall, but he's always seemed to be the sort who hits up a bar for women. Why waste money on hookers when you can get a girl for free? And they can. They both can. Hell, Sam almost got the hooker for free.
Sam never does well when hunting without Dean. Never. Living a normal life without Dean, sure. Hunting without him? He's either gone heartless commando when Dean was dead, or gone bloody demon junkie when he knew Dean was in Hell. Now, he's been the one in Hell and Dean's been off making Halloween costumes and pancakes.
If he's fine, he's either doing a fucking miraculous job of recovering from kidnapping, assault and torture, or he's not Sam.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-09 06:22 pm (UTC)