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flowrs4ophelia—The hug we've all been waiting for, yaaaay, *melts.* I love that Sam is the one who grabs him and hugs him while Dean is still barely processing all this and his reaction is actually kind of surprised because he's not used to getting hugs and Sam being Sam again yet.
And then Dean spends the rest of the episode looking at Sam with his face like ♥_♥ and :DDD when he's being compassionate and tactful with people like he's supposed to be. Heee.
—OH MY GOD THEY DID NOT USE JETHRO TULL IN THIS EPISODE, FUCK YES. I actually already had that same song on my dorky playlist of classic rock Dean would totally listen to that I listen to when writing SPN fic, so when I heard it in that scene I was flailing the hell out, LOL.
—Awwww Cas and Sam. Sam and Cas. Awkwardly not hugging. This is too much...
—Okay, so...It seems whenever a lot of fans are expecting the worst about where a show is going, I almost always feel like they're losing faith too much too soon based on too little information. But I did have my own mild concerns based on some things we've heard from the creators, especially something I kept hearing about Kripke saying "The show has never been about Sam and Dean getting along" as an explanation of what to expect from their relationship in season 6. I figured he might mostly be talking about how they end up at odds with each other while Sam still doesn't have his soul, but it still worried me a little. Sure, it's not like everything should always be perfect between them with no conflict at all, and I've almost never found it an unbelievable/unnecessary development when they start fighting or growing apart before (in fact, the only time I can think of when it bothered me a little was near the end of Season 3 when they were still not totally on the same wavelength and kept running into more awkwardness trying to just work together at last to save Dean).
But after "Swan Song" put a very final period at the end of the bigger story arch that defined the first five seasons, there's a danger of this season taking away from the meaning of that whole arch as essentially a complete story. A big part of that story was not just the constant conflict in Sam and Dean's relationship, but the way those conflicts were overcome and learned from as their relationship changed over all that time. Though I've been a lot more satisfied than most with the writing of S6 so far and I still generally trust the creators, I was a little bit worried about all the epic and awesome and beautiful ways this relationship has come a long way by the time of "Swan Song" just being undermined if they continue to have the kind of problems they should really be past by now just for the sake of some juicy conflict to try to make things interesting.
Thankfully, this episode definitely put those worries to rest. I was a little concerned by Dean's choice to keep the whole truth from Sam, as it's exactly the kind of thing they should know better than to do by now. But it was understandable that he at least didn't want to deal with it right away, and in the end the way it worked out just ended up proving as much as anything that it does take a lot more than that now to get them fighting. When Sam tells Dean he's heard the whole story from Cas, Dean actually seems relieved, and I got the idea that all the while he really didn't want to have to keep this from Sam anyway. Now that he finally has him back, the last thing he wants is to have to feel any kind of distance between them because of something like that. And I love that Sam can just talk to him and explain why he feels that he needed to know about the things he did and shouldn't just be let off the hook, rather than making it all about blaming him for lying at first. Even early on when he's just woken up and gets suspicious that Dean must have done something really stupid to save him, and also later when he brings up Dean's promise he obviously didn't stick to, Sam doesn't just get really unhelpfully accusatory but allows him to explain. Maybe Dean initially tries to protect him more than he should by hiding the truth, but Sam doesn't have to lash out against the effort like it's a patronizing threat to his independence in their relationship; they've both known they're over that kind of bullshit ever since Dean told him it's his own choice whether he says "yes" to Lucifer or not.
Yeah, basically, I STILL LOVE THE BOYS TOGETHER, and I love seeing how far they've come. I think it's really something that a series centered on just two main characters can thrive for this long on their relationship as the main focus and keep it this rich and interesting and changing all the time but still consistent and believable. I've been saying ever since that scene when Lisa described how messed-up their relationship is that I think this season will be about them finally becoming part of each other's lives in a way this is no less close but no longer so potentially unhealthy and destructive. Dean had a year surviving without Sam and now they're both stronger as individuals, which is bound to actually make their bond stronger now. Co-dependance has been fun to watch for a long time but never exactly makes a good basis for any kind of relationship.
—To follow up with some more brief thoughts about a lot of the good observations I've seen so far about the noir feel of this season:
I remember seeing a somewhat misleading official synopsis of this ep that said something about Dean having to prove himself worthy of drawing out a special sword to kill the dragons. I thought that sounded pretty awesome in a cheesy way, but I'm actually really glad I saw that and had kind of wrong expectations about where this plot point would go, because the idea of him just blowing up the rock is so hilarious and perfect. If this season is taking a page from the conventions of hard-boiled mystery and going with a sort of dark outlook on human nature (or even having non-humans like Balthazar get comfortable with totally rotten corruption), then no wonder Dean has to just cheat his way to getting the sword and uses a bomb saying "Welcome to the twenty-first century," demonstrating how the idea of a purely heroic knight might not have been naive long ago but is ridiculous and obsolete in this world. It amused me, anyway.
I can't help but see this situation as one that interestingly contrasts the time Dean unexpectedly proved himself to be a "true servant of Heaven," by the definition of who-knows-Who-exactly that's still ambiguous, by being able to kill the Whore of Babylon. Somehow I'm not bothered by how there's a definite shift in the mentality of the show now that we're in more of a prolonged epilogue to the completed Hero's Journey arch. And anyway it's nice to think that the noir influence is possibly present in some subtle ways that fit the kind of philosophy influencing the writing now but still don't feel out of place in the world of Supernatural and in this case can actually be humorous and not drag the show down into really depressing territory like you might expect.
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 07:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 12:39 pm (UTC)Also, I hope the actress for this Mother character is good. I secretly hoping the new big bad would be Adam, but I guess this is good too as long as the actress is good.
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Date: 2011-02-06 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 01:03 pm (UTC)Otherwise I agree with you mostly, I liked the multiple references to shows and movies, the 'brave knight' parody and the whole 'dragons' thing even if the ending was indeed a little disappointing. Also cliff-hanger!
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Date: 2011-02-06 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 07:35 pm (UTC)Aside from "A Weekend at Bobby's" this has been the only episode this season that hasn't left me throughly disappointed. I feel like now that a "Big Bad" has shown itself, this season FINALLY have a direction. It's what I felt like was absent in the first half of the season and what frustrated me so.
I think the Sam/Cas "hug" was meant to be funny because of its awkwardness, but it was just painfully awkward and not funny at all. The thing is, I think they could have shared a short hug without it being out of place. He only has those lingering hugs with Dean of course, but with Bobby it's not weird. He considers Cas a friend, otherwise, he wouldn't have called him. I also noticed how happy he was when he found out Sam was alive. I honestly tired of them not giving my bb Cas any lovin'.
I will also say that I'm so excited about this "Mother of All" character. I know there was Lilth, Ruby, and Meg, but I feel like this new addition is about to make up for the fact that most of the awesome chicks die on this show. Like she's gonna give the Winchesters a run for their money and it'll be for women everywhere, lol. I read an interesting theory on who she might be exactly and if it's the right myth, I'm can't want for this particular arch to get underway.