SPN 3x01: seven something-or-others

[vaznetti]

Yeah, I'm back. I'm still feeling a little discombobulated, but I'm back.



The start of the episode, including the "then" portions, felt very meta... a kind of clunky conversation with the fandom, if that makes any sense. But then the plot got rolling, in its clunky way: I liked the idea of the demon clubhouse, but it seemed like there was a lot of exposition. On the plus side, Bobby lost his temper, and some new girl kicked a lot of ass, and the demons all know who Sam is, and like to mock him.

OK, actually, I really like the idea that Sam had a destiny, and now all he has is power, and that it's open season on him because he fucked his destiny, as I said to phantomas to hell and gone. Or else Dean did.

I really miss John, by the way. Just thought I'd add that in.

The final conversation left me with some reassurance that we will see some depth to Dean again, eventually. Interesting that he still feels tired, even without his secrets to carry, that we see the return of the "after everything I've done for this family" line.

Apropos the final exchange with Bobby, if we're having the seven deadly sins, can we have the Four Horsemen too? I reckon that Kronos could claw his way out of hell if someone went ahead and left the door open. That episode would definitely get my squee going. Kronos and Bobby Dean (because I can't type) could bitch about how their brothers don't appreciate everything they've done for them.

Hi cool hunting couple. Bye cool hunting couple. Alas. Perhaps we'll see Tamara again? But hello cool new ass-kicking girl. Presumably you too will develop some characterization, someday.

All in all, I'm glad the show is back. I do like it.

Comments

[dotfic.livejournal.com]

Heh. I was thinking the same thing about the Four Horsemen.

That was kind of brutally effective and the mood was a bit bleak. I really liked it, I'm just...kind of blinking at it.

[vaznetti]

I would totally love to see Dean making jokes about Caspian's cannibalism habit, and Methos being all grumpy about having to get the other three killed again. Crossovers aside, I think we've got a better-tan-even chance of seeing some kind of Four Horsemen by the end of the series.

I'm still feeling out-of-sorts with the fandom, but I liked the show itself. As you say, it was grim, but I like that.

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

I'm still feeling out-of-sorts with the fandom

Me too. It never was easy, given my falling for John right away, but now, in between the female characters bashing, the John bashing, the Dean woobiefication, the Sam-as-a-girl insertions (which I do like at times, but not always)...*sighs*

I still like the show. I think I'll have more time for writing, though ;)

[phantomas.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Four Horsemen! Spendid idea. Can we get Peter Wingfield to play Death, pretty please? After all, he's already comfortable in the part *G* though, MEthos is all busy playing doctor (again) in Holby City. *snickers*

Yes, I do like your observation about the demons taunting Sammy because now there's no Yed around anymore, so it's Sam Open Season.

Dean and feeling tired...he's been hunting for four years alongside John. Loses John, finds Sam again, loses John terminally, loses Sam terminally, deals away his life for his brother. Yep, I'd be tired too. I was thinking, looking at him playing with matches throwing the matches in the ex-demons' grave...how much grave-digging and corpses' burning one has to do before his will to live is consumed? Just the visuals, the smell, the frequent contact with decaying bodies, scary things that go bump in the night...how much horror one can withstand before caving in?

John Winchester is larger than life, and has a burning fire in him, rage and revenge and protection (saving people, hunting things, not the other way around), and a war in his past. He's been tempered already. John had the boys to live for. And to die for. In this, too, Dean is so much his father's son.

:)

[vaznetti]

Dean and feeling tired...he's been hunting for four years alongside John. Loses John, finds Sam again, loses John terminally, loses Sam terminally, deals away his life for his brother. Yep, I'd be tired too. I was thinking, looking at him playing with matches throwing the matches in the ex-demons' grave...how much grave-digging and corpses' burning one has to do before his will to live is consumed? Just the visuals, the smell, the frequent contact with decaying bodies, scary things that go bump in the night...how much horror one can withstand before caving in?

Yes, this makes sense. And I saw elsewhere the suggestion that Dean's wish in "What is etc." wasn't for Sam to be safe or his mother to be alive, but for him not to be hunting. It is an exhausting life -- physically and emotionally, and I guess Dean feels that so long as he's living he can't stop, especially not now, with hundreds of demons roaming the countryside. Death starts to seem like the easier option.

And yet... he knows damn well how he felt after John sacrificed his life for him, and it wasn't like John wasn't worn out with the struggle, too, no matter how tempered he'd been. The events of Devil's Trap were his limit.

Your issues and my issues with regard to the larger fannish dynamics are the same, I think. Although I am also allergic to the incest -- but yes. Could we have a moratorium on John bashing, at least? The man's dead and not coming back -- people who don't like the character can go ahead and ignore him.

[cofax7]

> Could we have a moratorium on John bashing, at least?<

Yeah. Every once in a while I open a pre-series story and discover that the writer loathes John. Throws me right out, and it's frustrating to find it in a story that's otherwise very good.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

I love Dean's final conversation. It's like he's got a diagnosis. He accepts it. He doesn't have to worry about anything anymore. It's tiring, but peaceful making.

[se-parsons.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is how it felt to me, too.

[vaznetti]

It reminds me of how he acted in Faith -- he had much the same attitude their as well.

[e-juliana.livejournal.com]

Very much this.

Welcome back, show. Welcome back, vaznetti.

[muridae-x.livejournal.com]

I liked the episode. It was a small scale picking away at a tiny piece of the much bigger war that will fill the season ahead. Just the seven demons to deal with.

I always like having Bobby there too, because he can tell Sam and Dean the home truths that they won't listen to from anyone else. He was entirely right about the need to stay back and watch, sizing up the enemy first. The rules of the hunting game have changed, and they need to learn the new ones and get a feel for their limits.

And I can entirely believe in Dean's continued tiredness. Sam at least had a few years off from the relentlessness of the life; Dean's never had anything else since he was a small child. I also wonder if perhaps it's liberating for Dean at the moment. He doesn't have to worry about when he'll go up against a demon that can best him; it's already happened. So for a few months at least he can push the fears of not being good enough to the back of his mind and just get on with the job of slaying bad things, confident in the knowledge that it's a finite task. I imagine he'll get less flippant about it as the year goes on and his date at the crossroads gets closer though.

And I would utterly adore to see the Four Horsemen. That one's got to be ripe for a fanfic crossover at the very least. Methos might object if the Winchesters tried to take him out alongside his brothers though.

[vaznetti]

I loved Bobby here, and the way they accept his guidance -- it's an interesting dynamic.

I also wonder if perhaps it's liberating for Dean at the moment. He doesn't have to worry about when he'll go up against a demon that can best him; it's already happened. So for a few months at least he can push the fears of not being good enough to the back of his mind and just get on with the job of slaying bad things, confident in the knowledge that it's a finite task.

That's good point -- in a way, his mind is settled. He's already both won and lost the one fight that really counts, so everything from that onward is extra. Although presumably at some point the eternity of hellfire will look a little less comforting. And he's not panicking about the war, because he already knows he won't be there for the end of it.

I don't know about being tired of the hunting life, though. I mean, Dean does love hunting, a lot of the time. I don't know whether he'd know what to do with himself if her weren't hunting. It's just the last couple years which have been tough.

Methos and Sam would totally bond. It would be amusing.

[muridae-x.livejournal.com]

I don't know about being tired of the hunting life, though. I mean, Dean does love hunting, a lot of the time. I don't know whether he'd know what to do with himself if her weren't hunting. It's just the last couple years which have been tough.

No, you're right. He gets a kick out of killing the bad things. But I think that he does need mentors to give him an approving nod from time to time, and now that John's gone (*hands out hankie*) there are only really people like Bobby who join forces temporarily before going back to their own hunts. I got the impression that he and John were a team for much of the time before John went missing, and that maybe he cruised on the strategy a bit more back then.

The dynamic with Sam is different. It works, but he can't ever have a bad day and drop back to being sidekick rather than an equal for a couple of hours.

And as for the fandom, urgh. I never go near it. This is one show that I treat as lightweight horror fluff than I never analyse or pursue any further than my friends list.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

I have had problems with this fandom since the wincest started proliferating like kudzu, and all the kerfluffles since have just narrowed the window of where I will hang out.

I was not as happy with this episode as some people, and thought it was kind of clunky and paint-by-numbers, but I am thinking that things will come back together in an episode or two. When the new blonde character showed up, and Dean said, who is that masked, etc., my initial reaction was, "that's Jo Harvelle with a bigger knife." If they were going to have a Jo-clone they might as well have kept the character they had. Jo was fine as a kid-sister figure, I think. She was just kind of wrong vibe for a Dean love interest.

I did like Tamara, and wish she was the semi-regular instead. Woman with sensible short hair, with a cool accent, who actually looked strong and competent, and she added a little diversity to the cast. Want her back.

[vaznetti]

You know that we have a challenge for Tamara over on spn_xx this week, right? You could write something quick!

I agree that the episode was clunky and exposition-full, but I think a lot of people are happy to have the show back at all.

I am reserving judgment on the new girl until I see and hear more of her; fans tend to be so hard on new female characters that I find it easier to come at them with a clean slate, so to speak. I do miss Jo, and Ellen as well, and would love to see more of both of them, and of Tamara. I didn't really get the sense that this new character was much like Jo, except roughly in her coloring, but I'm not spoiled and she didn't get much characterization yet.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

I didn't really get the sense that this new character was much like Jo, except roughly in her coloring, but I'm not spoiled and she didn't get much characterization yet.

I thought she looked a lot like Jo, the same pouty around the mouth look, and long flirty hair. She just looked to me like she'd be more concerned about breaking a nail than killing demons. I am not anti-blonde--I thought Meg was totally kick-ass, and a protag like that would have me cheering. Maybe if the just whacked off her hair. . .

I'll be looking forward to reading more stories about Tamara, but I don't really have one myself right now. I'm busy trying to resist a crossover in which Dean Winchester meets Lily Ryan.

[vaznetti]

I'm busy trying to resist a crossover in which Dean Winchester meets Lily Ryan.

Ahahahaha! You should totally write that, for the sheer confusion value. Poor Dean would not know what hit him.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

Poor Dean would not know what hit him.

Lily would certainly like the pretty. And she almost never breaks her toys. Go away, plot bunny! Shoo!