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So I'm going through a couple of things in my head: the ep itself (which I have downloaded and plan to watch again this weekend sometime), posts by other people, and some thoughts I've developed as I've commented to others.
a. I've been seeing a lot of speculation that Sam's powers are synergistic in nature and that his telekinetic cabient-moving in "Nightmare" was due to his ability to link up with Max. I find this intriguing, but until I see more proof, I'm not willing to put much stock in it.
b. I was not spoiled for anything, and I think I'm going to try to keep that way next season (shut up, there WILL be a next season; I have decreed) because it made the suspense that much more powerful.
c. Re: demons, what's up with them sometimes showing in the eyes and sometimes not? The ones at the apartment complex showed all the time, but Meg, her "brother", and Papa!Demon only showed occasionally. Does it relate to demonic power, or is it just Kripke being inconsistent? I think it might have been creepier to have Papa!Demon not show the shiny gold eyes, and have it just be Papa sans special fx, taunting Dean... that might have been more powerful.
d. Papa!Demon, when he's still pretending to be Papa, tells Dean he's always taken care of their family. I actually turned to my roommate and said "Dean's the mommy," which made him laugh, but in a sense, as much as Dean is the blow-shit-up kind of guy, he's really feminized (um. in the literary definition, not in a physical way.) a lot by his characterization. I guess that's *why* Kripke writes him as such a blow-shit-up guy: to try and prove that Dean's still a GUY.
e. Firemen. No, really. Stripping out of the firefighter uniforms? I may have gasped a little. Fortunately, the roommate was in and out of the room so often I don't think he saw that.
f. This ep, for all that was right with it, didn't have nearly enough banter. I know it's hard to banter when your daddy's been kidnapped by demons, so I won't hold it against them, but this ep was all ANGSTCAKES which are not my favorite kind of dessert, if you know what I'm saying. They sold it to me, and I bought it wholesale, but I wish there had been a little more levity. Dean's bit about his corgi, though: ♥
g. Sam was shopping for rings, huh? Papa!Demon's throwaway "I bet he never told you this" to Dean about that particular detail isn't such a throwaway when you contrast it with Sam's "you never told me that" about Dean wanting to be a fireman. Both are, I think, significant glimpses into their respective guys -- Dean's protectiveness (and, okay, saving people from burning buildings) and Sam's love for Jess. The bit about the rings, though, tells us that Sam and Jess were Really Serious, which I think some people have been debating. Unless you're Chad Michael Mayhem or Britney Spears, you don't get married on a whim.
h. The ending. I have gone back and forth over this, and probably will continue to do so, because with things that are such radical changes, I have a tendency to not commit to one camp or the other until we find out what happens next. HOWEVER. I think that if this was an attempt to sell us on the ironies and vagaries of fate, using the demon as the truck driver was a terrible idea, and if it was an attempt to have the demon (ETA: it has been pointed out to me that the driver's eyes are black, not gold, so he is probably A demon, not THE demon) do them in, there are so many better ways to do it than with a car crash. That said, if this turns out to have all been a vision, I will be Most Upset, as that's just shoddy writing.
A few points need to be made about the ending: first, that Dean was not wearing his seat belt, so he was *flung against the side of the car*. The truck crashed pretty much right into Papa. Unless they have some really unbelievable twist (which, hey, it's this show, so it could happen), there will be Serious Damage if not death. Unfortunately, this point leads me to believe that it will All Be A Vision, which bugs me a lot.
Second, even if they do all survive, the demon (ETA: see above WRT: "a demon" vs. "the demon") is RIGHT THERE. What's to stop it from destroying them collectively?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
idiosyncratic made the point that Sam drew devil's trap sigils on the trunk; she theorizes that perhaps these protect the whole car, not just the trunk as we are led to believe. If that's true, the demon could not get at them while they're in the car. Which, of course, does not say what will happen when they get *out* of the car, but hey.
Third, I did not love it. Sure, half of my brain went "WHEE SMASHY THINGS!" but the other half went "you can't be serious, right?" We can debate the meaning of this ending until the cows come home (and probably will), but my gut reaction was just that: "you can't be serious." The sense of fandom I get is that much of it is similarly conflicted, which means I'm not the only one going "WTF?!" rather than "YAYE!" and that makes me feel a little better. It's not that I don't feel comfortable in my position, but more that when I stood alone in my hatred of "Something Wicked" it was hard to read a lot of my friendslist squeeing about it -- I was all "...did we watch the same *show*?" Here it seems that everyone's got the "WTF?!" reaction, but differs in how that affects them. Good to know.
a. I've been seeing a lot of speculation that Sam's powers are synergistic in nature and that his telekinetic cabient-moving in "Nightmare" was due to his ability to link up with Max. I find this intriguing, but until I see more proof, I'm not willing to put much stock in it.
b. I was not spoiled for anything, and I think I'm going to try to keep that way next season (shut up, there WILL be a next season; I have decreed) because it made the suspense that much more powerful.
c. Re: demons, what's up with them sometimes showing in the eyes and sometimes not? The ones at the apartment complex showed all the time, but Meg, her "brother", and Papa!Demon only showed occasionally. Does it relate to demonic power, or is it just Kripke being inconsistent? I think it might have been creepier to have Papa!Demon not show the shiny gold eyes, and have it just be Papa sans special fx, taunting Dean... that might have been more powerful.
d. Papa!Demon, when he's still pretending to be Papa, tells Dean he's always taken care of their family. I actually turned to my roommate and said "Dean's the mommy," which made him laugh, but in a sense, as much as Dean is the blow-shit-up kind of guy, he's really feminized (um. in the literary definition, not in a physical way.) a lot by his characterization. I guess that's *why* Kripke writes him as such a blow-shit-up guy: to try and prove that Dean's still a GUY.
e. Firemen. No, really. Stripping out of the firefighter uniforms? I may have gasped a little. Fortunately, the roommate was in and out of the room so often I don't think he saw that.
f. This ep, for all that was right with it, didn't have nearly enough banter. I know it's hard to banter when your daddy's been kidnapped by demons, so I won't hold it against them, but this ep was all ANGSTCAKES which are not my favorite kind of dessert, if you know what I'm saying. They sold it to me, and I bought it wholesale, but I wish there had been a little more levity. Dean's bit about his corgi, though: ♥
g. Sam was shopping for rings, huh? Papa!Demon's throwaway "I bet he never told you this" to Dean about that particular detail isn't such a throwaway when you contrast it with Sam's "you never told me that" about Dean wanting to be a fireman. Both are, I think, significant glimpses into their respective guys -- Dean's protectiveness (and, okay, saving people from burning buildings) and Sam's love for Jess. The bit about the rings, though, tells us that Sam and Jess were Really Serious, which I think some people have been debating. Unless you're Chad Michael Mayhem or Britney Spears, you don't get married on a whim.
h. The ending. I have gone back and forth over this, and probably will continue to do so, because with things that are such radical changes, I have a tendency to not commit to one camp or the other until we find out what happens next. HOWEVER. I think that if this was an attempt to sell us on the ironies and vagaries of fate, using the demon as the truck driver was a terrible idea, and if it was an attempt to have the demon (ETA: it has been pointed out to me that the driver's eyes are black, not gold, so he is probably A demon, not THE demon) do them in, there are so many better ways to do it than with a car crash. That said, if this turns out to have all been a vision, I will be Most Upset, as that's just shoddy writing.
A few points need to be made about the ending: first, that Dean was not wearing his seat belt, so he was *flung against the side of the car*. The truck crashed pretty much right into Papa. Unless they have some really unbelievable twist (which, hey, it's this show, so it could happen), there will be Serious Damage if not death. Unfortunately, this point leads me to believe that it will All Be A Vision, which bugs me a lot.
Second, even if they do all survive, the demon (ETA: see above WRT: "a demon" vs. "the demon") is RIGHT THERE. What's to stop it from destroying them collectively?
idiosyncratic made the point that Sam drew devil's trap sigils on the trunk; she theorizes that perhaps these protect the whole car, not just the trunk as we are led to believe. If that's true, the demon could not get at them while they're in the car. Which, of course, does not say what will happen when they get *out* of the car, but hey.Third, I did not love it. Sure, half of my brain went "WHEE SMASHY THINGS!" but the other half went "you can't be serious, right?" We can debate the meaning of this ending until the cows come home (and probably will), but my gut reaction was just that: "you can't be serious." The sense of fandom I get is that much of it is similarly conflicted, which means I'm not the only one going "WTF?!" rather than "YAYE!" and that makes me feel a little better. It's not that I don't feel comfortable in my position, but more that when I stood alone in my hatred of "Something Wicked" it was hard to read a lot of my friendslist squeeing about it -- I was all "...did we watch the same *show*?" Here it seems that everyone's got the "WTF?!" reaction, but differs in how that affects them. Good to know.
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