Supernatural 2x02 Thoughts: Round 2

[stillane]

Not necessarily more coherent. More likely just more. In case you haven't figured it out, I just ramble to hear myself think. It makes me happy.

- So, is the music vid intro a standard thing now? Cracks me up every time, Kripke and co. being all fangirly. (Except when it makes me wibble.)

- As mentioned previously, I'm endlessly amused that clowns creep my mother out. How did I not know this? Hee.

- Kids, lesson #1: Clowns are your friends. Except when they look like 1930's hobos on the end of a three day bender and show up at your house in the middle of the night. Then, they are immediate cause for alarm.

- Still in love with the exploding flames. Whee.

- The funeral... oh. Nice work, making it so quiet and practical. I get the feeling that they didn't say a word between that last scene from 2x01 and here, that they didn't discuss any of it. Broke into the morgue, built the pyre, all of it in silence. Sam falling apart, and Dean swallowing it down sets up the entire dynamic for the rest of the episode.

- Bonus points to the makeup crew for no magically healed wounds. Except for, you know, the actual magically healed wounds.

- Sam sucks at car repair. Hee. Clearly, they have never seen the results of that one photo shoot. Not that those pictures are proof that he could fix a toaster... just that no one would care about the damn toaster.

- Ahem. More of the shallow...that shadow of dirt on Dean's ear. Yeah. Or really just dirty Dean in general. *cough* I have a thing for the scruffy. So sue me.

- Minivan. *snort*

- The bug zapper was interesting. You think either of them will ever be able to be around flickering electricity without jumping out of their skin? Yeah, me neither.

- Oh. Again with the ouch. Sam explaining about the demon getting John before John got it... Missed that angle until now, but if that's what he's thinking, then there's more than just the arguments themselves for Sam to feel guilty over. Much more.

- Ash. Heh."You ever been struck by lightning? It ain't fun." See previous commentary on why Ash is a princess, and how much I enjoy that.

- Dean failing utterly to want to hit on a pretty girl is a sure sign of (emotional) apocalypse.

- Sam's clown phobia cracks me up. Given the hell he gave Dean about the flying, and the rats, payback is a bitch. All 6'4" of Sam looking like he wants to run screaming from a clown that comes up to his knee... Not to mention flinching when he's forced to have a wooden clown head at his back... *snort*

- Dean is historically not batting 1,000 with the visually impaired. First Roy, now eventually-to-be-revealed-as-evil knife dude. Dean, you can't win this. We love to watch you try, though. So does Sam. It makes him do the superglue laugh.

- The accent thickening when Sam declares they worked in Texas is cute. Doesn't actually sound like his unguarded accent, though. Reminds me of James Marsters 'faking' an American accent. Hee.

- The whole 'I don't want to be normal anymore' tack from Sam is interesting for a variety of reasons. First of all, there's the fact that I buy that he's thinking that way just now, but not that he always will. There's only so much guilt to power him, and one day he'd reach a bridge that it couldn't push him over. Dean, though, might, just by virtue of being there. Sam could leave, before. Once they got the demon sorted out, he could go back to his normal life secure in the knowledge that Dean wouldn't be hunting without a net, not with John for backup. Now... Sam's the only thing keeping Dean off the edge, and sooner or later he's going to realise it. If he hasn't already.

Then there's the way Dean reacts to it. That very first moment, he looks suckerpunched. He gets to the cautiously hopeful in a minute, but it feels like there's something more in there. I'm thinking that Dean wanting them all to be together, and more importantly expressing that want back in season one, was the biggest selfish goal he allowed himself. Don't hit me; I'm not saying it's selfish to want that in general (although it certainly is impractical), or even that it was selfish for him to want it then. The thing is, I see Dean as having three central motivations in life: protect his family, be with his family, and stop any nasty thing that needs stopping. When he lets himself want something for himself, it's always that second one. The other two are more facts of life - about as questionable as the sun rising. I think they're in a state of flux, though. By the end of last season, stopping the badies had lost out to protecting the family, at least in very concrete situations (as in, "No, Sam, we do not play with fire. I don't care how pretty it is.")

In the abstract, though... I think it took losing John to make Dean realize that this is a dangerous life.  Again, don't hit me. Yes, he knew he could go at any moment, and Faith proved that very well. But that was Dean. John was invincible - enough hero worship there to power small nations - and 'Sam' and 'dead' didn't even belong in the same sentence. I don't think that bone-deep knowledge ever really sank in until now. And that's why it was never selfish to want them to stay together, to keep hunting, until now.

Now, Sam just might be better off out of the game. In my mind, the whole rest of the episode, and Dean's reactions to Sam's sudden worship of John's way, is about this. Sam scares Dean most when he's most like John, and for him to feel like he needs to become John forever... That's got to frighten the hell out of Dean. I read everything from here on out as Dean doing his damnedest to make Sam do anything else.

- Yes, I jumped at the skeleton.

- Oh, boys. Not only does one of you have a rap as a (dead) serial killer, now you're perverts.

- Boys in a wheat field. I need an icon. Yes, this would be another of my kinks.

- "You ever notice Dad had a falling out with just about everybody?"

Why, yes, Sam, we did. Seriously, some of his best friends threatened to shoot the man. Is there anyone John ever knew that he didn't piss off?

- Which brings us to the big conversational wince. See earlier comments on Dean scared to death. The second after it sinks in just what he's said, that lost look is like a kick in the teeth. Doesn't mean the hollow look on Sam's face hurts any less, though.

- I'm not going to say too much about the whole monster plot resolution. Only that it's a really good thing that carnival didn't skimp on the props. Just imagine if that had been brass alloy?

- Ah, Sam. May you never gain tact. It's way more fun this way.

- Ash. Hee.

- And then we come to the last scene... oh. All of Sam's little pauses...Those are all the places where Dean is supposed to tell him that it will be alright. That John knew. (Because he did. Whatever that secret is, it doesn't change the fact that the very last thing Sam said to him was in concern, nor that John understood him better than Sam ever thought.)

And after, with Dean... I love that there's no soundtrack here. (The only thing that made this scene anything other than perfect, really, was the music added to the very last bit. It's still pretty damn close, though.) Other people (specifically, ignipes and marinarusalka) have analyzed better than I could all the things that the Impala represents to him, and just why it hurts to watch him attack that. It's home, it's John, it's a simple purpose, and it's all the things Dean doesn't have anymore. In the end, he can't even want what he does without being a bastard. All it would take to keep Sam there indefinitely is silence.

Now, if he could only get that other silence sorted out...

Final verdict: Is there anybody who watched it through and didn't flinch? I so love these guys.

Comments

[enname.livejournal.com]

- Kids, lesson #1: Clowns are your friends. Except when they look like 1930's hobos on the end of a three day bender and show up at your house in the middle of the night. Then, they are immediate cause for alarm.

So very, very true. *nods* I bow to your wisdom.

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Heh. You can't go wrong with advice like "Avoid the scary psycho non-clowns." *g*

[skyebanshee.livejournal.com]

think it took losing John to make Dean realize that this is a dangerous life. Again, don't hit me. Yes, he knew he could go at any moment, and Faith proved that very well. But that was Dean. John was invincible - enough hero worship there to power small nations - and 'Sam' and 'dead' didn't even belong in the same sentence. I don't think that bone-deep knowledge ever really sank in until now.

Of all that he really needed in life, his dad who is gone, his car which is battered beyond belief and his little brother who is so broken at the moment...I'm surprised Dean's holding on as he is.

And there was fliching and jumping and OMG NO! at that last scene...JA nailed it with that tire iron (and JP stomped on my heart with his vulnerability and his tears and his 'guilty as hell')

[stillane.livejournal.com]

Oh, those boys. They can make me cackle gleefully like nobody's business, and then they turn around and rend me into tiny bits. Ackles and Padaleki win at life.

[ignipes.livejournal.com]

Which brings us to the big conversational wince. See earlier comments on Dean scared to death. The second after it sinks in just what he's said, that lost look is like a kick in the teeth. Doesn't mean the hollow look on Sam's face hurts any less, though.

I love that little scene. It rings so true to the most awful family arguments. Sam looks like SUCH a kicked puppy, and Dean totally knows that he just kicked the puppy, and they both feel horrible about it, but what's said is said.

(Of course, had it been the other way around, and Sam kicking the puppy -- god, that sounds dirty -- the fandom would be SHRIEKING about what a horrible brother Sam is and how he's always so mean to Dean and how that scene is proof that he's the worst person in the universe. People are weird.)

Your comments about Dean's dangerous life are interesting. In many ways, I see his reaction to John's death not only as a son reacting to his father's death, but in the same way a cop would react to a partner's death. It has that angry, aimless overtone, the unspoken assumption that it could happen to other guys but not to the guy who supposed to be by your side. And you're right -- while Dean has always known that his life is dangerous (heck, I think he loves having a dangerous life, but that's a topic for another meta), the reality of it is to fresh and too new for Sam to be all eager beaver about jumping in and joining the police force and going under cover with the mob, all barely a week after John died. (How's that for a mixed metaphor?)

[stillane.livejournal.com]

It rings so true to the most awful family arguments.

It does! Everybody's had that one thing that they wish they'd never said, and that growing hollow in the pit of their stomach as it really settled into the air.

the fandom would be SHRIEKING about what a horrible brother Sam is

Sad, but true. Poor Sam gets such a bad rap. Really, though, after Faith and In My Time of Dying, how could anyone doubt the Sam love? He moves frickin' armoirs out of love! I'll second that People Are Weird, and raise you a *headdesk*.

I've even seen a little murmuring about how nasty Dean was here, and how much that's out of character for him. *sigh* Which it would be, if he were being mean for meanness' sake. But he's not. He's just panicking, in ways that only a fully grown, suddenly orphaned, newly minted man of the house can, given that the house is made of cards and falling down around him. Possibly while on fire.

And Sam would have just as much justification for going a little smackdown on Dean, verbally or otherwise. They're both about as stressed out as a human being can get, and history has proven that they need each other most in those situations. I could see them having it out physically. (Not that they'd hurt each other. Much.)Which... come to think of it, has anybody written that yet? Because someone really should.

The whole cop analogy is exactly what I didn't know I meant. *g* It's just so perfect, with the sudden mortality and the rookie Sam and the mob. Because the demon is totally in the mob. He's the Godfather of Evil. He even made John an offer he couldn't refuse. Make me stop now. For the good of humanity.

[feartheotter.livejournal.com]

- As mentioned previously, I'm endlessly amused that clowns creep my mother out. How did I not know this? Hee.

I can sympathise. Creepy bastards.

I have a thing for the scruffy.

eeeeeeexcellent *tents fingers*

Minivan. *snort*

Personally I thought "Do That to Me One More Time" was a nice touch as well. :D

[stillane.livejournal.com]

I can sympathise. Creepy bastards.

Yeah. They didn't bug me much until we got to the whole "terrifyingly amused little boy" bit, but then the goosebumps set in.

Personally I thought "Do That to Me One More Time" was a nice touch as well. :D

So much delightful cheese around the edges. Supernatural is like a giant fondue pot, really, complete with nicely molten center. And, you know, the occasional crispy bit. (To the ghosts of Mary and Jess: um, sorry. That was in poor taste... and apparently I can't escape the puns. I'm going to stop now, while I'm behind.)

*g*

(And, FYI, the goods showed up this morning. Haven't gotten to watch any yet, but I've been wandering around being covetous and mwahaha-ing all day. Will keep you posted.)

[feartheotter.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Clowns are always a bit shady. Clowns and freaky kids... eep. D:

Hehe. Well... for what it's worth, I'll be right there in hell with you - I'm still laughing.

Splendiferous! *resists urge to chatter about it* I shall wait for yer thoughts. *g*

Also, come on iChat, you. :p

[stillane.livejournal.com]

*pokes* Day late and a dollar short - what else is new - but I'm on now. *g*