SPN 2x17: Heart

[vaznetti]

So there I was, thinking that this episode was surprisingly low on the boy/boy melodrama, and then wham!, the ending: Sam and Madison reversing the scene of possessed-Sam and Dean (and how much of that, I wonder, does Sam remember?), as Madison begs him to kill her before she hurts anyone else. And then Dean stepping in to do this thing, because this is his role, and Sam's the innocent -- and after all, he'd already killed Glenn, one innocent dead, what does one more death on his hands matter? And then Sam demanding to take that burden on. Beautiful.

If only I didn't have the irresistible urge to mock Dean's single perfect tear. I'm sorry, fandom. I know this makes me a bad person. I know how important the scene was. It's just -- Single. Perfect. Tear. I can't help it.

But that said, I loved that Dean was the final shot, because a lot of what was important here happened in Dean's head -- Sam might have drawn the first connection, but it's Dean who can see the whole of what happened here, all the implications, even more than Sam can. And I wonder whether Dean is driving a bargain of his own: every half-innocent he kills is another sacrifice to keep him from having to kill Sam.

* * *

Sam had sex, too. That was nice.

...sorry, where was I? Sam looked really good in this episode.

* * *

The two scenes which made the director's cut this week did not stop being awesome. And I maintain that in the second scene, all Dean is thinking is, "scissors! that's a good one -- I'll go with scissors!"

And I think I had better officially apologize to vee_fic about being all nit-picky about parking the Impala in San Francisco. Or even in Vancouver trying gamely to look like the city.

* * *

But mostly, it was all about those final scenes: Sam and Dean, and what they do. And what they might be or become.


Spoilers under the cut, of course.

Comments

[vaznetti]

Did have to mention, though, that as the ep has time to sit a little longer in my head, I am getting tired-er and tired-er of dead girl syndrome.

Yeah. I mean, it looked to me like there were two options, once she was the werewolf (or a werewolf) -- that she's an innocent who has to be killed or that she knew all along and was playing them, and thus also has to be kiled. But that leaves out the third option -- the Oz plot from Buffy -- which is to figure out some way to control the change, or keep her locked up at night. Emotionally, the killing worked, but logically, it was stupid and part of a disturbing larger patternt.

[cofax7]

Yup, yup, yup. It was Croatoan, reversed, with exactly the same logical problems--force the issue, don't give the justification, just go for the angst. And let's forget about the other victim(s).

I would have loved it if it turned out Madison was playing Sam. I really would. Ah, well.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

At this point, I'd like to see the boys come across a woman or three who are neither evil nor dead. Bad is okay, of course.

[vaznetti]

I would have loved it if it turned out Madison was playing Sam. I really would. Ah, well.

I would have liked this too, but to be fair I think that then people would complain about how women are all too often evil on the show.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

Yes, the OZ plot. Especially because of all the menstrual symbolism of Werewolves, when it is a girl werewolf, it shouldn't be all that complicated. Women are used to keeping track of cycles! I kept thinking, "send her to the good vampires. She can't turn them into werewolves because they are sort of dead. And they are strong enough to contain her, and understanding enough about their own dual natures of good and evil to help her deal. Once she got over the idea of vampires. She'd have fit right into the "semi-evil things Sammy has saved with his manpain" community.

Killing her was evidence of a failure of their own logic with the vamps, or a growing dismissal of women that is even more disturbing because it's women who seem to be writing those eps, and being gleeful about the girl-death in interviews.

It also disturbed me because within the logic of the show, given Sammy's fears about his own evil nature and guilt about what he has done in the past and just then, we should have heard a second shot, found Sammy on the floor too, and no more show.