They say, best men are often molded out of faults
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad
-- Shakespeare, "Measure for Measure"
Definitely loving Lisa -- a woman of perception, blunt honesty, strength of character -- and best of all, she's not dead! I'm glad they disentangled Dean's home life while leaving the door open for her to be a recurring character.
Dear writers, please, please do not add her to the list of fridged women (Ellen, Jo, Pamela); women turned evil and then fridged (Anna); or disappeared entirely (Missouri).
I do wish that they'd seen fit to write (or include in the editing) a farewell scene between Dean and Ben. Since, as far as we know, Dean hadn't seen Ben since he yelled at him, he would never have left again without talking to him, especially given his fears of turning into John.
It makes me wonder if that was one reason (besides laziness) that the writers were pushing the "John was the worst. dad. ever." button so hard last season, to give Dean a viable reason for running so hard to (what he perceives as) the opposite extreme of a completely civilian life. It was long about time that someone reminded Dean that there are a spectrum of options between constantly-moving, burning-with-obsession hunter and completely defenseless civilian. Lisa and Ben can be taught how to defend themselves without somehow throwing away or tainting their ordinary lives. Ideally I would've liked for he and Lisa to come down on more of a "hunter with a home base" model -- as he's seen Bobby and the Campbells (version 1.0) operate -- but I understand, narratively, why the writers didn't.
Getting to the little plot device of the week --- I have a really low tolerance for wacky baby-and-poop hijinks, so I was gritting my teeth and preparing to cringe in embarrassment, but I think they actually balanced a little light humor with propelling the plot along well, and it helped that the babies in question were actually cute.
I like that they raised the idea that shifters might not have to be murdering psychopaths, and look forward to reading the AUs where the kid was raised by (fill in blank -- Sam and Dean, Bobby, other hunters), getting into what hir life would be as a biologically gender- and race-bending individual. Forming an identity in a constant stage of change.
Speaking of which, was it ever explained why shifters must always change, why their state is always unsustainable? By being malleable, their cells are inherently unstable? That would be very interesting, if someone could come up with a good biological explanation.
As for the Campbells:
They killed the monosyllabic one -- I liked the monosyllabic one!
And while they haven't killed the girl yet, given the fact that I can't remember her name, I fear she is also on borrowed time.
What was up with the alpha transforming into Samuel when he hadn't seen him yet? (That we know of -- dun dun And who was the mysterious person on the other end of the phone? -- DUNNNNN!)
Samifer was somewhat more like Sam this week -- like he went back and read up on his character Cliff Notes, plus realized that the hard sell was not the best method to get Dean to join the gang. (I'm able to emotionally divest from all things Sam-related by just accepting that it's Samifer and at some point everything will be explained. Until then, he's evil, he's not, whatevs. Call me when he/the writers decide.)
If this was totally Sam, I'd say it was surprising for him to jump so solidly on board the "because they're genetically related, they must be wonderful and we should totally be family and completely trust each other" bus, but if it was really Sam driving that, I could see it being his own version of Winchester Family Issues. When all the other blood keeps dying, you hold hard to what's left. However, him being Samifer, I'm sure they're all going to turn out to be evil and it's all going to end badly.
Or maybe I'm just too strong a believer in the Jossverse philosophy that your family is the one you make, not the one you're born into.
Anyway, to bring it all back 'round to the beginning, I'm hoping that Dean's arc this season is the one that starts bringing him back to a place of balance, finding his happiness again in hunting as a thing he's good at and a thing that's worth doing, but also being able to lay the faults of John and his own doubts behind him. Accept the good, learn from the bad, make himself the best man he can be. As Lisa said, life is not either/or.
I had let my paid Dreamwidth account lapse, since I've hardly used it (or LJ) in the past several months, but clearly this season is inspiring me to pull it out at least once a week (and I even had a point this time. coherent, and coming full circle and everything! that never happens.), so perhaps I should re-up it.
Renaissance Faire tomorrow and apple-picking on Sunday --- must be October. (How did that happen?)
Crossposted at Dreamwidth: http://casapazzo.dreamwidth.org/214910.html
For being a little bad
-- Shakespeare, "Measure for Measure"
Definitely loving Lisa -- a woman of perception, blunt honesty, strength of character -- and best of all, she's not dead! I'm glad they disentangled Dean's home life while leaving the door open for her to be a recurring character.
Dear writers, please, please do not add her to the list of fridged women (Ellen, Jo, Pamela); women turned evil and then fridged (Anna); or disappeared entirely (Missouri).
I do wish that they'd seen fit to write (or include in the editing) a farewell scene between Dean and Ben. Since, as far as we know, Dean hadn't seen Ben since he yelled at him, he would never have left again without talking to him, especially given his fears of turning into John.
It makes me wonder if that was one reason (besides laziness) that the writers were pushing the "John was the worst. dad. ever." button so hard last season, to give Dean a viable reason for running so hard to (what he perceives as) the opposite extreme of a completely civilian life. It was long about time that someone reminded Dean that there are a spectrum of options between constantly-moving, burning-with-obsession hunter and completely defenseless civilian. Lisa and Ben can be taught how to defend themselves without somehow throwing away or tainting their ordinary lives. Ideally I would've liked for he and Lisa to come down on more of a "hunter with a home base" model -- as he's seen Bobby and the Campbells (version 1.0) operate -- but I understand, narratively, why the writers didn't.
Getting to the little plot device of the week --- I have a really low tolerance for wacky baby-and-poop hijinks, so I was gritting my teeth and preparing to cringe in embarrassment, but I think they actually balanced a little light humor with propelling the plot along well, and it helped that the babies in question were actually cute.
I like that they raised the idea that shifters might not have to be murdering psychopaths, and look forward to reading the AUs where the kid was raised by (fill in blank -- Sam and Dean, Bobby, other hunters), getting into what hir life would be as a biologically gender- and race-bending individual. Forming an identity in a constant stage of change.
Speaking of which, was it ever explained why shifters must always change, why their state is always unsustainable? By being malleable, their cells are inherently unstable? That would be very interesting, if someone could come up with a good biological explanation.
As for the Campbells:
They killed the monosyllabic one -- I liked the monosyllabic one!
And while they haven't killed the girl yet, given the fact that I can't remember her name, I fear she is also on borrowed time.
What was up with the alpha transforming into Samuel when he hadn't seen him yet? (That we know of -- dun dun And who was the mysterious person on the other end of the phone? -- DUNNNNN!)
Samifer was somewhat more like Sam this week -- like he went back and read up on his character Cliff Notes, plus realized that the hard sell was not the best method to get Dean to join the gang. (I'm able to emotionally divest from all things Sam-related by just accepting that it's Samifer and at some point everything will be explained. Until then, he's evil, he's not, whatevs. Call me when he/the writers decide.)
If this was totally Sam, I'd say it was surprising for him to jump so solidly on board the "because they're genetically related, they must be wonderful and we should totally be family and completely trust each other" bus, but if it was really Sam driving that, I could see it being his own version of Winchester Family Issues. When all the other blood keeps dying, you hold hard to what's left. However, him being Samifer, I'm sure they're all going to turn out to be evil and it's all going to end badly.
Or maybe I'm just too strong a believer in the Jossverse philosophy that your family is the one you make, not the one you're born into.
Anyway, to bring it all back 'round to the beginning, I'm hoping that Dean's arc this season is the one that starts bringing him back to a place of balance, finding his happiness again in hunting as a thing he's good at and a thing that's worth doing, but also being able to lay the faults of John and his own doubts behind him. Accept the good, learn from the bad, make himself the best man he can be. As Lisa said, life is not either/or.
I had let my paid Dreamwidth account lapse, since I've hardly used it (or LJ) in the past several months, but clearly this season is inspiring me to pull it out at least once a week (and I even had a point this time. coherent, and coming full circle and everything! that never happens.), so perhaps I should re-up it.
Renaissance Faire tomorrow and apple-picking on Sunday --- must be October. (How did that happen?)
Crossposted at Dreamwidth: http://casapazzo.dreamwidth.org/214910.html