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SPN 5x16
Before the next episode airs, my very late reaction to Dark Side of the Moon.
OMG I loved this episode. Loved it. What I loved about it most was that it was a return to the issues between Sam and Dean from season 1.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yourlibrarian has done an excellent breakdown of these issues, the differences in Sam's and Dean's perspectives and insecurities, here. She's done so well, I don't have to restate them all.
But what I liked was that it showed that Sam and Dean have never really dealt with Sam's leaving for Stanford. Sam no longer is bucking for a normal life, but not because what he wants has changed, or that he has realized Dean's view of things is right (which is what I think Dean assumed, right up until this episode), but because Sam has stopped believing a normal life was possible. So all of those old emotional wounds between them have never been healed, they've just been ignored. And this episode--pow! Right for the gut.
Also, I think I squeaked when Ash appeared. Ash! Hacking heaven! Two things that I love, giving a character I liked a happy ending and continuity! It also makes me feel weirdly better about Ellen's and Jo's deaths now that I can picture Ash yanking them out of their individual heavens to hang in the heavenly Roadhouse. And I loved seeing Pamela again, too.
And Mary! And Dean so Jensen Ackles so perfectly playing an adult and a four-year-old. That hug with Mary could have been creepy, but was so adorable. And Dean's heaven is watching Sam happy. Aw... Of course it is.
One thing I've been reading in a lot of metas is that Dean throwing away the amulet is him rejecting Sam. I don't really buy that. Or I think that's only part of it. Before the amulet was just a sign of Sam's love. Now it's a failed god detector. After Castiel says it's worthless, I just can't see Dean putting it back on. It means something different than it did before. So I see him throwing it away as him finally throwing away the last of his faith in a lot things--Sam, God, but also that there is some way out of this for them. Cause now Dean knows what will happen when he dies. He'll go to his own bubble heaven, isolated and controlled by angels, and maybe he'll share it with Sam, but right now I think he thinks Sam doesn't want him in it. So throwing away the amulet is rejecting Sam, but it is a more profound giving up than just that.
Also, Sam totally grabbed that out of the trash.
I've been kind of avoidant about SPN lately, ever since they KILLED A CERTAIN TWO CHARACTERS. Actually, no. Ever since the atrocity that was the fan convention episode. But this has me stoked for tonight.
OMG I loved this episode. Loved it. What I loved about it most was that it was a return to the issues between Sam and Dean from season 1.
yourlibrarian has done an excellent breakdown of these issues, the differences in Sam's and Dean's perspectives and insecurities, here. She's done so well, I don't have to restate them all.But what I liked was that it showed that Sam and Dean have never really dealt with Sam's leaving for Stanford. Sam no longer is bucking for a normal life, but not because what he wants has changed, or that he has realized Dean's view of things is right (which is what I think Dean assumed, right up until this episode), but because Sam has stopped believing a normal life was possible. So all of those old emotional wounds between them have never been healed, they've just been ignored. And this episode--pow! Right for the gut.
Also, I think I squeaked when Ash appeared. Ash! Hacking heaven! Two things that I love, giving a character I liked a happy ending and continuity! It also makes me feel weirdly better about Ellen's and Jo's deaths now that I can picture Ash yanking them out of their individual heavens to hang in the heavenly Roadhouse. And I loved seeing Pamela again, too.
And Mary! And Dean so Jensen Ackles so perfectly playing an adult and a four-year-old. That hug with Mary could have been creepy, but was so adorable. And Dean's heaven is watching Sam happy. Aw... Of course it is.
One thing I've been reading in a lot of metas is that Dean throwing away the amulet is him rejecting Sam. I don't really buy that. Or I think that's only part of it. Before the amulet was just a sign of Sam's love. Now it's a failed god detector. After Castiel says it's worthless, I just can't see Dean putting it back on. It means something different than it did before. So I see him throwing it away as him finally throwing away the last of his faith in a lot things--Sam, God, but also that there is some way out of this for them. Cause now Dean knows what will happen when he dies. He'll go to his own bubble heaven, isolated and controlled by angels, and maybe he'll share it with Sam, but right now I think he thinks Sam doesn't want him in it. So throwing away the amulet is rejecting Sam, but it is a more profound giving up than just that.
Also, Sam totally grabbed that out of the trash.
I've been kind of avoidant about SPN lately, ever since they KILLED A CERTAIN TWO CHARACTERS. Actually, no. Ever since the atrocity that was the fan convention episode. But this has me stoked for tonight.
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I'm sure he did too. I think the really interesting thing that this episode put forward was how much Sam learned about Dean that he needed to know, and that he needed to see now that they're both adults and his perspective is able to shift. What's more, I think Sam's faith may be renewed. To know that the God he prayed to all that time has been watching him and forgave him, has to be a powerful thing.
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You're right. This episode is about Dean losing faith in the few things he had left: that God could save them; that Sam loved him; that there was something better after death, not for him necessarily, but for everyone else. Now that he's seen heaven, seen that it is a lonely place where he'll be manipulated by angels for eternity, he's clearly lost faith that there's a better place for anyone.
For Sam, on the other hand, this is about learning that God has forgiven him.
This goes back to what you were saying about the differences between the insecurities for the two of them. For Dean, it's always been about comforting the people he loved--both his memories were about that--and in this episode he has concluded that all of his efforts are worthless. For Sam, it's about feeling like a freak, like a monster, and what he learned is that even what he's done can be forgiven.
I just keep loving this show.