ep reaction
Feb. 11th, 2011 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fannishlissI work two Friday nights a month, so I missed the first ten minutes... which sucks, but I'll be downloading as fast as I can. i bet there was a ton of awesome brotherly banter in the Impala that I missed ?
At any rate, I liked the setup with the black and white flashbacks... i loved Jared's acting as he switched back and forth between soul and no soul. He is so good these days!! I loved how Grandpa was kind of horrified by no soul-Sam.
It's really too bad how no-soul Sam's callous disregard for the possibility of helping the men, led to their becoming monsters. I guess if they had been taken to the hospital, the nature of the toxin or whatever would have been revealed.
And then Sam has to deal with the fact that he created all these monsters and ruined Brenna's life. :( To me, yeah, that would pretty much trigger the hellish flashback. the way it came on all of a sudden like that was really shocking and effective, and it totally reminded me of when Sam used to get visions... in fact that's what I thought was happening until they showed him in Hell. Poor Sam!!
I'm really glad Dean backed Sam up when he asked for help. Yay.
I also think Sam's true depth of character shows where he is trying to clean up his messes, and also the way he tries to face up to what he did -- even though he can't even remember doing it, and it wasn't even mostly him. Poor Sam!! I admire his determination, even as I am kind of with Dean that it is not really Sam's fault.... but it is definitely a very tangled web. Like, I agree with Sam that it was him... it was a person with all his skills, his memories, and his intelligence -- but without the emotional intelligence to do the right thing, and apparently with only one rule of ethics, that the good of many (kill the monster at any cost) outweighs the needs of the few. I can imagine in Sam's mind the horror he must be feeling at the lives he took as he regained his memories in this episode.... how very awful! But the ep does leave Granpa with some heavy culpability, in terms of the way he didn't try very hard at all to curb Sam's coldness (unlike Dean, who was quick and ready to play moral compass -- which no soul Sam appeared to honestly appreciate, in his fashion.)
I thought the eyes of the Arachne (I already forgot his name, sorry -- i doubt it was Webb ETA Roy Dobbs) were very creepy and cool.. can't show this one to my son though! he claims show is getting grosser. :(
Okay, one more thing on a bit of a meta level -- remember that post on noir? whereas last week we had grateful hugs and deep heartfelt humility, this week we really get down to the level of What the Other Sam Did. Y'all who were very optimistic that things would be looking up -- what say you now? I have learned never to say "it can't get any worse." He wasn't able to do anything to ameliorate his crimes, except that he did satisfy Brenna's desire to learn what happened to her husband, and he laid that particular monster to rest.... but I have a feeling that the pattern will continue in terms of wrongs he discovers and is helpless to make amends. Poor, Poor Sam!!!
At any rate, I liked the setup with the black and white flashbacks... i loved Jared's acting as he switched back and forth between soul and no soul. He is so good these days!! I loved how Grandpa was kind of horrified by no soul-Sam.
It's really too bad how no-soul Sam's callous disregard for the possibility of helping the men, led to their becoming monsters. I guess if they had been taken to the hospital, the nature of the toxin or whatever would have been revealed.
And then Sam has to deal with the fact that he created all these monsters and ruined Brenna's life. :( To me, yeah, that would pretty much trigger the hellish flashback. the way it came on all of a sudden like that was really shocking and effective, and it totally reminded me of when Sam used to get visions... in fact that's what I thought was happening until they showed him in Hell. Poor Sam!!
I'm really glad Dean backed Sam up when he asked for help. Yay.
I also think Sam's true depth of character shows where he is trying to clean up his messes, and also the way he tries to face up to what he did -- even though he can't even remember doing it, and it wasn't even mostly him. Poor Sam!! I admire his determination, even as I am kind of with Dean that it is not really Sam's fault.... but it is definitely a very tangled web. Like, I agree with Sam that it was him... it was a person with all his skills, his memories, and his intelligence -- but without the emotional intelligence to do the right thing, and apparently with only one rule of ethics, that the good of many (kill the monster at any cost) outweighs the needs of the few. I can imagine in Sam's mind the horror he must be feeling at the lives he took as he regained his memories in this episode.... how very awful! But the ep does leave Granpa with some heavy culpability, in terms of the way he didn't try very hard at all to curb Sam's coldness (unlike Dean, who was quick and ready to play moral compass -- which no soul Sam appeared to honestly appreciate, in his fashion.)
I thought the eyes of the Arachne (I already forgot his name, sorry -- i doubt it was Webb ETA Roy Dobbs) were very creepy and cool.. can't show this one to my son though! he claims show is getting grosser. :(
Okay, one more thing on a bit of a meta level -- remember that post on noir? whereas last week we had grateful hugs and deep heartfelt humility, this week we really get down to the level of What the Other Sam Did. Y'all who were very optimistic that things would be looking up -- what say you now? I have learned never to say "it can't get any worse." He wasn't able to do anything to ameliorate his crimes, except that he did satisfy Brenna's desire to learn what happened to her husband, and he laid that particular monster to rest.... but I have a feeling that the pattern will continue in terms of wrongs he discovers and is helpless to make amends. Poor, Poor Sam!!!
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:50 am (UTC)I love a redemption tale. Let it get as dark and noir-y as it wants! It will make the turn-around that much more awesome. So says I. :D
no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:03 pm (UTC)such an awesome ep!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-16 09:54 pm (UTC)Personally, I can't wait for the sh*t to hit the fan! I lurvs me some drama. Lurk in my posts any time; it makes my dust (and plot) bunnies feel all warm and squishy. ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-16 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 06:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 06:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 02:00 pm (UTC)But the ep does leave Granpa with some heavy culpability, in terms of the way he didn't try very hard at all to curb Sam's coldness
No kidding, right?! No wonder Grandpa Sam said Sam's scares him sometimes. I think during that year of souless!Sam, Samuel must've been wondering what kind of kids Mary raised--I bet he was thinking if the younger brother is so psycho what must the old kid be like. :P I would be interesting to see an interaction between Samuel and real Sam now.
i doubt it was Webb
But Webb would've been so much more appropriate for this episode! Heh.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 03:06 pm (UTC)I've seen elsewhere some people saying that Sam's "inhuman" behavior goes a long way towards shedding light on Samuel's opinion of Sam, in terms of his own duplicity.
What a tangled web!
:P
love your icon!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-12 09:40 pm (UTC)It's really too bad how no-soul Sam's callous disregard for the possibility of helping the men, led to their becoming monsters.
I think it was interesting he presented it as compassion (not letting them suffer as the poison eats them from within) to convince Samuel when we the viewers know he couldn't have been feeling that. Between that and Castiel in the previouslies saying it would be better if Dean had just cleanly killed Sam, it makes me wonder if in the final ep Dean will be forced to kill Sam because he is suffering (I doubt the wall truly fell in this ep, although I was shocked they went there at all so soon, so what do I know).
Anyway, the darkness maybe you were implying is that his callous actions led to more monsters being released? If that continues to be the trend that would be interesting and angsty for Sam, but I don't know how dark I the viewer would find it.
For me, S4 was the darkest because the brothers were fighting and lying and so far from being on the same page that they were in different books entirely. That's not to say it was noir dark, but dark to me is more about destroying the basic relationship the show is built on. Obviously ymmv.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 12:00 am (UTC)For me s4 is my favorite of all. I guess I am cruel, but I was intensely invested in watching the two of them struggle with these great moral quandaries, sacrificing everything, their relationship, the things that made them most who they were, in the grip of this awful set of external forces. Dean, with trying to recover from Hell, while trying to maintain his integrity while being lied to by Angels -- and Sam, having to deal with the tantalizing nature of his Powers and the Blood, driven by his paramount desire to save Dean and destroy Lilith (ultimately to save Dean). The way they're entirely wrapped up in each other while they tear each other apart -- man, that ep with the Siren was like, MAJOR.
This season, the very dark aspect for me is that Sam has really no idea what he's done, or how culpable he is. Terrifying!