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astri13Supernatural Last tandem review for the Season.
This had potential but didn't really make the most of it. Something that troubled the last Gamble episode "It's a terrible life" as well. Somehow last year when the whole Season sucked, Gamble did great (minus the first offering) and now that the Season pretty muhc rocked, I felt she stumbled (minus the first offering.) Karma chameleon, I guess.
I tend to adore vision quest episode but for this particular setting the internal struggle was missing. Basically the progression of Sam's hallucinations all played very much on one level - he felt victimized and brutalized, encompassed through Alistair and his younger self as well as Harsh!Dean - and he felt misunderstood and right - encompassed through Mary. Who incidentally came across as a stand-in for Ruby because I so can say Ruby subtly making such digs at Dean "weak" and props of Sam "they can never know how strong you are". Besides, Ruby is "nursing" Sam in a way, giving her a creepy maternal vibe.
Of course at least Sam's subconsciousness can't bring itself to attribute that much worth to a demon so he conjures up real-Mary, the real mother to validate him. On some level surely knowing that no mother worth their salt would talk such crap about her children "you're weak" and "you're evil - awesome".
But what was missing were the parts that went "are you fucking kidding me, self?" parts. Sure, he expressed self-loathing and fear of rejection but to me he was clearly still in the "lalalalala" stage where the addict doesn't WANT to realize they have a problem. Which, while valid, wasn't as suspenseful as it otherwise could have been. For one, the detoxing failing was a foregone conclusion at this point. Even if Cas hadn't let him out.
I'm kinda shaking my head at Bobby here because apparently he was in on the detox-plan? Agreeing to it? It is his house after all. And now he has flip-flopped to "maybe we should let him use his demon powers, even if it kills him". And yet again back to "and now we're killing him, boohoo." Goodness gracious, man, make up your mind and stop hounding Dean. Who, for better or worse, HAS made up his mind.
It kinda reminded me of Bobby's "buzzuh" about exorcizing Meg in Devil's Trap because the host would die then. Clearly leaving her trapped in one for all eternity and keeping the host "alive" in such state would be preferable. *headdesk*
Loved Castiel's conflicted little face. Aww, he still cares. He even gave Dean a little leevay with the oath "obey as you did your earthly father". Well, even Season 1-Dean didn't do everything earthly Dad wanted.
Hope we haven't seen the last of Anna.
There were some touching brotherly moments nonetheless, like Dean staring at Sam when they restrained him, the way they padded the skin under the cuffs and Sam's little face when the Harsh!Dean hallucination totally rejected him.
Of course, Ruby enters the picture and brings misery and strife to a boiling point. I can totally understand Dean not wanting to "join" that little dream team, where apparently he wouldn't even be valued because he was so "weak". Having a demon picked over you? Ouch. Can't be dumped for lower vermin. And then Ruby's utterly insincere attempts to show "sympathy" to the brother's relationship. God, I cheered when Dean had her at knifepoint.
Too bad, so sad.
The choking was pretty shocking and definitely a line crossed. This is something I think the demon blood has no little part in because if demon blood can give (demon) powers, there is no reason to think it wouldn't infuse the host with demonic traits as well. Part and parcel.
In light of that I don't see the ultimatum the same way as with John. At least I assume John wasn't lying on the floor, bloodied and choked, when he spoke those infamous words. :-p
Onto part II
Really liked it though there were some missteps in it.
First off, unpopular opinion afoot (at least from what I'm seeing it is unpopular):
Let me begin with the part I shall refer to as "SHUT THE FUCK UP, BOBBY".
Seriously, if someone lied to me for months, told me I'm weak and whiny in light of me having confessed some hurtful trauma on my part to my face and then proceeded to choke the crap out of me, I would feel betrayed and enraged and hurt like hell. And if then someone comes along and tells me I have no right to these feelings, are a whiner, should shut up and run after that first person, I would punch that jerk through a freaking glass door. I don't even have a glass door but I would install one, just so I could punch them through it.
"Family is supposed to make you miserable". Are you giving this wonderful piece of advice to abused kids by any means, Bobby? Battered wifes? Because it's BS. Noone is "supposed" to make you miserable. And if someone is, you are SUPPOSED to decide where your line is about it. It's family not freaking slavery.
Besides, it's fucking rich to lecture Dean of all people on how family isn't always sunshine and lollipops and you have to sacrifice for them. DEAN??? His problem is that he goes much, much, much too far in doing so already. The deal, anyone?
I felt Bobby acted like John here and I didn't like it one bit.
So yeah, in conclusion SHUT THE FUCK, UP! And I hope someone "boohoo's" you someone on a touchy subject, maybe a "boohoo, you had to kill your wife", then see how it feels. I HATE those fucking boohoos. Next time someone says it, I want Dean to punch their living daylights out.
And Bobby, if you wanted to make the - not invalid - point that Dean shouldn't make hasty decisions he might regret on the premiere relationship of his life, well, there were about 67 million ways to have said that better.
Now back to the regularly scheduled episode.
Not sure about Azazel's tie-in here. I hadn't pegged him for a follower and kinda liked that about him. That makes him a little less awesome now. Sigh.
Ruby acts more and more like a desperate pusher. She really seemed to enjoy torturing/killing that nurse. Which I get, she is an evil demon but so far she at least played it like she wasn't.
Sam - ouch, when he listened to the fake voice-mail. He looked incredibly defeated.
By the by, Dean is a much better person than me for trying to reach out there - in his place I would honestly sooner drop dead but I'm generally big on holding grudges.
The Angels wanting the apocalypse - predictable. And completely logical. They are foretold to win. They already established that they don't care about the eggs to make their omelette.
Too bad their champion is an egg. A stubborn one at that. Loved the Dean-Zack scenes. The snark. Hee. Zack is awesome, so smug and "righteous", you wanna punch him.
Dean/Castiel? Off the charts. That one scene with the hand and the wall and the ghghghgh.
Chuck. I love Chuck. His little pat on Cas' shoulder. Awww.
Sam hearing Dean's voice over that pumped up heartbeat. Awww.
Sadly, Ruby (and the angels) have done too good a job separating them and the seal is broken. And now Ruby turns incredibly dense, gloating how awesome she is and completely misjudging Sam's utter horrification as "a little angry". What in the hell did you think was supposed to happen now? He gets over it?
I cheered and danced when they ganked her because I had to suffer for one Season a little and one Season a LOT and I needed some retribution.
Not that I think - hope - all is fine and dandy with their relationship now. What an incredibly cheap and disappointing ploy that would be. It isn't that easy and shouldn't be. But, it is still better than they have been all Season long.
We'll see what happens in Season 5.
In generally, well played, Season 4 of show, well played.
This had potential but didn't really make the most of it. Something that troubled the last Gamble episode "It's a terrible life" as well. Somehow last year when the whole Season sucked, Gamble did great (minus the first offering) and now that the Season pretty muhc rocked, I felt she stumbled (minus the first offering.) Karma chameleon, I guess.
I tend to adore vision quest episode but for this particular setting the internal struggle was missing. Basically the progression of Sam's hallucinations all played very much on one level - he felt victimized and brutalized, encompassed through Alistair and his younger self as well as Harsh!Dean - and he felt misunderstood and right - encompassed through Mary. Who incidentally came across as a stand-in for Ruby because I so can say Ruby subtly making such digs at Dean "weak" and props of Sam "they can never know how strong you are". Besides, Ruby is "nursing" Sam in a way, giving her a creepy maternal vibe.
Of course at least Sam's subconsciousness can't bring itself to attribute that much worth to a demon so he conjures up real-Mary, the real mother to validate him. On some level surely knowing that no mother worth their salt would talk such crap about her children "you're weak" and "you're evil - awesome".
But what was missing were the parts that went "are you fucking kidding me, self?" parts. Sure, he expressed self-loathing and fear of rejection but to me he was clearly still in the "lalalalala" stage where the addict doesn't WANT to realize they have a problem. Which, while valid, wasn't as suspenseful as it otherwise could have been. For one, the detoxing failing was a foregone conclusion at this point. Even if Cas hadn't let him out.
I'm kinda shaking my head at Bobby here because apparently he was in on the detox-plan? Agreeing to it? It is his house after all. And now he has flip-flopped to "maybe we should let him use his demon powers, even if it kills him". And yet again back to "and now we're killing him, boohoo." Goodness gracious, man, make up your mind and stop hounding Dean. Who, for better or worse, HAS made up his mind.
It kinda reminded me of Bobby's "buzzuh" about exorcizing Meg in Devil's Trap because the host would die then. Clearly leaving her trapped in one for all eternity and keeping the host "alive" in such state would be preferable. *headdesk*
Loved Castiel's conflicted little face. Aww, he still cares. He even gave Dean a little leevay with the oath "obey as you did your earthly father". Well, even Season 1-Dean didn't do everything earthly Dad wanted.
Hope we haven't seen the last of Anna.
There were some touching brotherly moments nonetheless, like Dean staring at Sam when they restrained him, the way they padded the skin under the cuffs and Sam's little face when the Harsh!Dean hallucination totally rejected him.
Of course, Ruby enters the picture and brings misery and strife to a boiling point. I can totally understand Dean not wanting to "join" that little dream team, where apparently he wouldn't even be valued because he was so "weak". Having a demon picked over you? Ouch. Can't be dumped for lower vermin. And then Ruby's utterly insincere attempts to show "sympathy" to the brother's relationship. God, I cheered when Dean had her at knifepoint.
Too bad, so sad.
The choking was pretty shocking and definitely a line crossed. This is something I think the demon blood has no little part in because if demon blood can give (demon) powers, there is no reason to think it wouldn't infuse the host with demonic traits as well. Part and parcel.
In light of that I don't see the ultimatum the same way as with John. At least I assume John wasn't lying on the floor, bloodied and choked, when he spoke those infamous words. :-p
Onto part II
Really liked it though there were some missteps in it.
First off, unpopular opinion afoot (at least from what I'm seeing it is unpopular):
Let me begin with the part I shall refer to as "SHUT THE FUCK UP, BOBBY".
Seriously, if someone lied to me for months, told me I'm weak and whiny in light of me having confessed some hurtful trauma on my part to my face and then proceeded to choke the crap out of me, I would feel betrayed and enraged and hurt like hell. And if then someone comes along and tells me I have no right to these feelings, are a whiner, should shut up and run after that first person, I would punch that jerk through a freaking glass door. I don't even have a glass door but I would install one, just so I could punch them through it.
"Family is supposed to make you miserable". Are you giving this wonderful piece of advice to abused kids by any means, Bobby? Battered wifes? Because it's BS. Noone is "supposed" to make you miserable. And if someone is, you are SUPPOSED to decide where your line is about it. It's family not freaking slavery.
Besides, it's fucking rich to lecture Dean of all people on how family isn't always sunshine and lollipops and you have to sacrifice for them. DEAN??? His problem is that he goes much, much, much too far in doing so already. The deal, anyone?
I felt Bobby acted like John here and I didn't like it one bit.
So yeah, in conclusion SHUT THE FUCK, UP! And I hope someone "boohoo's" you someone on a touchy subject, maybe a "boohoo, you had to kill your wife", then see how it feels. I HATE those fucking boohoos. Next time someone says it, I want Dean to punch their living daylights out.
And Bobby, if you wanted to make the - not invalid - point that Dean shouldn't make hasty decisions he might regret on the premiere relationship of his life, well, there were about 67 million ways to have said that better.
Now back to the regularly scheduled episode.
Not sure about Azazel's tie-in here. I hadn't pegged him for a follower and kinda liked that about him. That makes him a little less awesome now. Sigh.
Ruby acts more and more like a desperate pusher. She really seemed to enjoy torturing/killing that nurse. Which I get, she is an evil demon but so far she at least played it like she wasn't.
Sam - ouch, when he listened to the fake voice-mail. He looked incredibly defeated.
By the by, Dean is a much better person than me for trying to reach out there - in his place I would honestly sooner drop dead but I'm generally big on holding grudges.
The Angels wanting the apocalypse - predictable. And completely logical. They are foretold to win. They already established that they don't care about the eggs to make their omelette.
Too bad their champion is an egg. A stubborn one at that. Loved the Dean-Zack scenes. The snark. Hee. Zack is awesome, so smug and "righteous", you wanna punch him.
Dean/Castiel? Off the charts. That one scene with the hand and the wall and the ghghghgh.
Chuck. I love Chuck. His little pat on Cas' shoulder. Awww.
Sam hearing Dean's voice over that pumped up heartbeat. Awww.
Sadly, Ruby (and the angels) have done too good a job separating them and the seal is broken. And now Ruby turns incredibly dense, gloating how awesome she is and completely misjudging Sam's utter horrification as "a little angry". What in the hell did you think was supposed to happen now? He gets over it?
I cheered and danced when they ganked her because I had to suffer for one Season a little and one Season a LOT and I needed some retribution.
Not that I think - hope - all is fine and dandy with their relationship now. What an incredibly cheap and disappointing ploy that would be. It isn't that easy and shouldn't be. But, it is still better than they have been all Season long.
We'll see what happens in Season 5.
In generally, well played, Season 4 of show, well played.
