Supernatural, you rock my world.

[stillane]

Yeah. If you haven't seen Nightmare, don't go here. Trust me.

Still with me? HEEEEEEEEEEE!

(Incidentally, if you're expecting coherence here, you don't know me very well. I'll be lucky if I achieve chronological consistancy.)

Things that are good:

- Dean. In all ways, shapes and forms. Guh.

- Sam freaking out in the middle of the night, and Dean driving faster.

- Not that it's anything new, but Dean worrying himself sick.

- Sam and Dean. In priest gear. Ahem. Yeah. Now, you see, I've been aware from the first that, given half a chance, I would throw Dean (and/or Jensen Ackles himself) down and have my way with him. Sam, though? I love Sam, and under other circumstances I might appreciate his gorgeousness more, but I never wanted to bed the man until he wore a collar. This disturbs me on several levels.

- Speaking of kinks... Dean cleaning weapons. I was self-aware enough to expect this one, though.

- That beautiful and painful pause between 'You can't tell me this doesn't freak you out' (and that was a plea, by the way) and 'This doesn't freak me out.'

- They didn't forget that the police exist. No, really, this is good. They thought to remove their prints, even though Dean is technically dead. (And, note to self: that bunny that's been kicking your rear? There's your answer.)

- The guest cast. They could act. After the Cassie debacle, that's not a given.

- 'You're...dark.' Hee.

- The tear was clever.

- Sam putting himself between Dean and the gun, and staying there. He makes himself the target right from the start, keeping Max's attention throughout. His 'Yes, you are.' was perfect.

- The continued abuse was another smart touch, story-wise. It brought immediacy to the whole issue.

- Continuity is a beautiful thing, and this show has it so often. Please, please don't ever go the way of the polar bear. I honestly feel like this is building to an answer, and I love that.

- Count the displays of the puppy dog eyes. Go ahead, I dare you. It could be a drinking game.

- That last vision was brutal, even knowing that it wouldn't stick. That isn't a visual you get over quickly. And Sam's reaction to it was priceless, from the initial gut-punch denial to the wide-eyed shock at his new mental toys.

- The stepmother at the end was interesting. If you didn't know better, you might have felt for her. And then she turned to the camera with utter calm. *shiver*

- 'We're lucky we had Dad.' Dean's look of surprised happiness was a little heartbreaking. He wants peace between the two people who mean everything to him so badly.

- The confession. 'Bend this.' Dean is scared to death, under it all, and he can't let on for Sam's sake. On cue, the humor trots right out there. The 'You've got me' explanation made me all fuzzy.

- That last look in Dean's eyes was a perfect blend of fear and... well, the only description I've got is tenderness. There's a softness there, and the whole thing just screams everything Dean won't say. Sam scares the hell out of him, and I don't think it has anything to do with what will happen to Dean. Ackles owns me.

Things that are bad:

- Ew. This one was a bit messy for my tastes. Ironic, when you consider I had my first dissection lab in the new class today. Bizarrely enough, on-screen gore squicks me far more than the real-life version. *shrug*

 

Things to ponder:

The priest-wear brought on a tangent. Okay, so there's this brilliant set of AU stories out there by traveller  in which the Winchesters went the holy route (well, sort of... it's complicated). There is also a truly horrible little movie in which a priest wields kungfu on a bunch of zombies. His battle cry is, 'I kick ass for the Lord!' See where I'm going with this? Now, I couldn't bring myself to actually associate these deep and wonderful stories with that line without feeling dirty, but the boys undercover in canon? That I can do.

There's this tendency to see Dean as the simpler of the two, world-view wise, and I don't think that's true. In their own ways, I think they both simplify things to keep the crazy at bay. No, hear me out. Dean doesn't have distinctions between humans and monsters. For him, it's all good and evil. Humanity doesn't confer some special level of protection, particularly if you're playing with bigger forces. For Sam, you're either a person or you're not. In many ways, I think that might be a defensive reaction. He's becoming something he can't explain, and the division makes it easier to recognize himself. I would love to see these two run into a 'good' monster.

The idea of Sam being afraid of Dean is interesting. He's the one person in the world who could hurt Sam worst with the least effort. (John would need to work harder, I think, because Sam has defenses against him already in place.) Sam's begun expecting Dean to pull away from him; he's hyper-sensitive to the way his brother looks at him, to the way he reacts to him. Sam's waiting to be a freak. The first time Dean flinches there will be damage, even though I don't think any power on this Earth could make Dean hurt Sam willingly (given that they are in their right minds, and bodies).

Final thought: I have to wait a week now?! Crap. That promo was glorious.

Comments

[haunted-attics.livejournal.com]

Got to this post through maygra's lj and now I've friended you, I hope that's all right.

Can I just say um...Oh my god, YES regarding everything you said about them both simplifying and the different ways they distinguish betweeen 'save' and 'kill'. And again, YES on all the hurting that will happen to Sam if Dean ever shows him that he's freaked out about him.

Which is why it was brilliant and important that Dean didn't. Oh, Dean.

[stillane.livejournal.com]

I am infinitely all right with friending :>

And, oh Dean, indeed. I love that boy.

There are just so many places this arc can go, and I'm cautiously optimistic that this show won't back away from them. I like that all the promotional material and interviews stress the fact that this is a story about two brothers as much as it is about the ghoulies. It gives the writers so much leeway to make the show about interaction and emotion, along with the ghostly ass-kicking. Not that I'm not a huge fan of the ghostly ass-kicking, too.

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that's a good point, about the "good vs. evil" and "person vs. not person" distinctions they make. I do think Dean's willingness to kill bad people suggests that he has done it before, but Sam obviously doesn't know about that, which raises the question of how clued in to Dad's and Dean's hunting Sam was.

Also an interesting idea that what Sam's scared is becoming something that Dean would hunt down. Because you're right, there's nothing in the universe that would make Dean hurt Sam willingly, but it's easy to see how Sam might not see that even though we -- the loving fangirls! -- don't doubt it for a second.

That last look in Dean's eyes was a perfect blend of fear and... well, the only description I've got is tenderness.

Yes! Man, does that boy know how to rock the last-look-of-the-episode. *sigh*

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Dean's an interesting guy, morally. I have this feeling that, were the world suddenly free of demons and the like, Dean would either be a police officer (albeit one that drives his superiors insane with unorthodoxy) or a vigilante. He's all about the justice, one way or another. He's Batman.

Now Sam, Sam is the idealist, in some ways. He's the 'human nature = good' sort, usually. The thing is, I think that might be a setting that he clings to consciously, tooth and nail. Not to say that he's naive, because he isn't. He gets the concept of vengence, (Max against his parents) and he's fully able to see murder as a fact of life (Roy's wife). I think he doesn't see himself or Dean as responsible for fixing it, though. He's marginally growing into the idea that they are de-facto fighters of supernatural evils by virtue of their knowledge, but more human things make him nervous. He doesn't like casting the first stone. It will be very interesting to see whether his own transformation makes him at all more sympathetic toward the less-mortal things they run across.