rewatching supernatural
Jun. 27th, 2006 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiWe now return to our regularly scheduled programming
I am rewatching episodes of Supernatural in no particular order. The other day it was "Home." One of the odd things about coming into a fandom at the end of the first season is that you pick up hints and echoes of other fans' reactions; I was vaguely aware that there was a school of thought that went something like "We don't like Missouri! She's nasty to poor Dean!" I pretty much disregarded it at the time, but upon a rewatch it struck me that actually, Missouri is hard on Dean, much more so than on Sam. Sam is playing the emo pain card for all it's worth, despite the fact that he clearly thinks that a trip back to Lawrence is kind of a cool idea. Whereas Dean really is revisiting the scene of his Major Childhood Trauma, and is deeply freaked out -- he's practically in tears during that phone call to John, and you can see the panic just below the surface when they're back in the house.
So assuming for the hell of it that Missouri isn't gratuitously being a bitch, here's what I have. First of all, she's pissed off at John, who's camped out in her house refusing to see his sons and generally being cryptic and annoying, and she's taking that out on Dean because he's John's representative. I'm not sure that's all of it, though, if only because it isn't clear when John turns up in Lawrence. My other thought -- and I think this is slightly more plausible -- is that she's distracting Dean from his overwhelming panic and misery by giving him something else to think about, even if it's just "Why's the psychic lady being such a bitch to me?" For all her harshness, Missouri is oddly respectful of Dean's external shell -- Sam wears his pain on his sleeve, so it's OK to comfort him, whereas making it clear that she can see how deeply upset Dean is would only upset him further. Instead, he gets to pretend to be that tough guy a little longer.
Now that I think about it, if you were a psychic, Dean's inner panic would probably set your teeth on edge in a very short time.
And then there's John. Despite his final line to Missouri about not seeing his boys until he "learns the truth" (whatever!) I see nothing here to disprove my theory that the reason John is keeping as much distance as possible from his sons is that he's terrified that if he has to choose between their lives and killing the demon he'll sacrifice his own sons to his need for revenge. Of course being back in Lawrence, the scene of Mary's death, just makes it that much more frightening -- especially while he thinks that the demon might have returned. And I think that John can barely admit this fear to himself, let alone try to explain it to Dean and Sam.
I'm so sad that John didn't get a final scene with Mary's ghost. And I completely refuse to believe that Mary is really gone forever. Missouri's been wrong before about the spirits in that house. She's also very capable of lying about something like that. (Hunh. Plot bunny.)
I really like this episode.
I also rewatched the pilot recently, and you know, both Dean and Sam look a lot younger at the beginning of the year than they do by the end. Not surprising -- it's a long, bad year.
Oh, and also a meme -- I will do top five lists. Top five whatevers.
I am rewatching episodes of Supernatural in no particular order. The other day it was "Home." One of the odd things about coming into a fandom at the end of the first season is that you pick up hints and echoes of other fans' reactions; I was vaguely aware that there was a school of thought that went something like "We don't like Missouri! She's nasty to poor Dean!" I pretty much disregarded it at the time, but upon a rewatch it struck me that actually, Missouri is hard on Dean, much more so than on Sam. Sam is playing the emo pain card for all it's worth, despite the fact that he clearly thinks that a trip back to Lawrence is kind of a cool idea. Whereas Dean really is revisiting the scene of his Major Childhood Trauma, and is deeply freaked out -- he's practically in tears during that phone call to John, and you can see the panic just below the surface when they're back in the house.
So assuming for the hell of it that Missouri isn't gratuitously being a bitch, here's what I have. First of all, she's pissed off at John, who's camped out in her house refusing to see his sons and generally being cryptic and annoying, and she's taking that out on Dean because he's John's representative. I'm not sure that's all of it, though, if only because it isn't clear when John turns up in Lawrence. My other thought -- and I think this is slightly more plausible -- is that she's distracting Dean from his overwhelming panic and misery by giving him something else to think about, even if it's just "Why's the psychic lady being such a bitch to me?" For all her harshness, Missouri is oddly respectful of Dean's external shell -- Sam wears his pain on his sleeve, so it's OK to comfort him, whereas making it clear that she can see how deeply upset Dean is would only upset him further. Instead, he gets to pretend to be that tough guy a little longer.
Now that I think about it, if you were a psychic, Dean's inner panic would probably set your teeth on edge in a very short time.
And then there's John. Despite his final line to Missouri about not seeing his boys until he "learns the truth" (whatever!) I see nothing here to disprove my theory that the reason John is keeping as much distance as possible from his sons is that he's terrified that if he has to choose between their lives and killing the demon he'll sacrifice his own sons to his need for revenge. Of course being back in Lawrence, the scene of Mary's death, just makes it that much more frightening -- especially while he thinks that the demon might have returned. And I think that John can barely admit this fear to himself, let alone try to explain it to Dean and Sam.
I'm so sad that John didn't get a final scene with Mary's ghost. And I completely refuse to believe that Mary is really gone forever. Missouri's been wrong before about the spirits in that house. She's also very capable of lying about something like that. (Hunh. Plot bunny.)
I really like this episode.
I also rewatched the pilot recently, and you know, both Dean and Sam look a lot younger at the beginning of the year than they do by the end. Not surprising -- it's a long, bad year.
Oh, and also a meme -- I will do top five lists. Top five whatevers.
