Rewatch S5: 99 Problems (5x17)
I've got 99 Problems and a bitch ain't one...oh wait...
This also happens to be the 99th episode of Supernatural too! Yay!
We open the episode in medias res, as Sam and Dean are being chased by something - while Sam's arm is bleeding and he's making "I'm in pain" noises.
The Impala has 9789kms on the tripometer. (What's the proper name for the tripometer? There's the odometer and the tripometer, but spellcheck isn't liking me using that term for it, so it must be called something else). Who want's to bet that they never reset the tripometer? We really only used ours when our gas gage broke.
The holy-water firehose is pretty cool.
That kid is to pretty to live. I called this the first time I saw it too.
"So you're a preacher?"
"What did you expect?"
"Well, dude, you're packing."
-Um, hello, Paster Jim? You know THE OTHER PRIEST IN BLUE EARTH?!?! Or...who WAS in Blue Earth...who looked after you as children and had an armory in his basement? Bueller?
"You've reached the voice mail of *beep* I don't understand why do you want me to say my name? *bloop* *bleep* *bloop* *bloop* *beep*"
-Hahaha, Cas...don't ever change.
"So did you get a hold of Cas?"
"Yeah, I left him a message...I think."
-*smiles at this*
"We're all going to die Sam, in like a month, maybe two?"
-This is where Dean officially throws my timeline into a tautology. I guessed that Abandon All Hope was in November, based on the fact that Lucifer says that he'll see Sam in 6 months in Detroit, and they usually match up season finales with the month of May...then Dean says this, and I record that this episode happens in mid to late March, because Dean must be referring to what Lucifer said back in November. So, yeah...really, I've got no justification for these guesses. I miss S4, when I knew when everything was happening. I really hope there are dates in the coming episode, or else I'm screwed really.
"Who says they're all going to die? What happened to us saving them?"
-Sorry Sam, I got distracted by timelining, but you are right - the real issue here is that your brother has given up all hope, and you're the sole person rowing this ship and you aren't usually the rower.
"Want to go to church?"
"You know me - down right pious"
-For some reason Dean's sarcasm here really turns me on. Maybe because I'm an atheist. I love a man who doesn't believe in God, even when he knows God exists...hahaha.
I love it when Sam uses the demon!knife as a throwing knife during the attack. I have quite the thing for throwing-weapons. Mmm....
Told you that kid was too pretty to live. Also, he was drinking a beer when he died - totally sweet setup for the upcoming prohibition laws...I didn't catch that the first time.
"No drinking, no gambling, no pre-marital sex. Dean, they basically just outlawed 90% of your personality."
-Haha, oh Sam, you are funny...but maybe this isn't the time to be making fun of Dean. He's fragile.
The Whore does tell Dean what he wants to hear...that if he gives in, sure a lot of people will die, but they'll be happier, and the people who are left will be in a world with "no monsters, no death" and "you're just with the people you love." - I think that's basically all Dean dreams of these days.
"Who's going to save these people? It was supposed to be us, but we can't do it."
-You know, Dean has never dealt with failure very well. When was the last time he failed epically (in his eyes?)...Sam's death, right? His ONE JOB and he screwed it up. Any of you remember what brilliant decision he made when faced with that failure? Yeah...like I said, Dean does not deal with failure very well. The colt and God were his only chances, and neither worked.
"So what your just going to stop fighting, roll over?"
"Maybe"
"Don't say that."
"Why not?"
"Because you can't do this."
"Actually I can"
"No, you can't. You can't do this to me. I got one thing, one thing keeping me going. You think you're the only one white knuckling it here, Dean? I can't count on anyone else, and I can't do this alone."
-Poor Sam. He's in just as hopeless a situation as Dean is...say yes to Lucifer and burn the world, or keep saying no and watch the world burn anyway...and the only thing keeping him going is that Dean's there with him. The problem is Dean doesn't depend on Sam the same way. Dean's the responsible adult who is supposed to have the answers, and if he doesn't have the answers than he's a failure, and if he's a failure...sigh.
"I got your message. It was long, your message. And I find the sound of your voice grating."
"What's wrong with you? Are you drunk?"
"No!...yes."
"What the hell happened to you?"
"I found a liquor store."
"And?"
"And I drank it! Why'd you call me?"
"Are you ok?"
"Don't ask stupid questions."
-Everything about this scene is hilarious.
I also LOVE Cas' look of extreme exasperation when Sam tries to argue that the girl really is a prophet.
Poor Paul, he is dead.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"On a bender!"
"You...did he say on a bender?"
"Yeah, he's still pretty smashed."
"It is not of import!"
-Hahahahaha, so much love for this...especially the way Castiel delivers that final line.
Poor Father Gideon...I like you, but your daughter is dead and the thing using her body is the whore of Babylon.
"The Whore can only be killed by a true servant of heaven"
"Servant like...?"
"Not you, or me. Sam, of course, is an abomination"
Sam: :(
-Awwww.....I can see why Sassy fans find the pairing hot though...and angel of the lord with an abomination? Too bad slash in this fandom is too unbelievable for me to enjoy.
"Why does it have to be me?"
"Because you're a servant of heaven."
"And you're an angel"
"A poor excuse for one"
-Awwwww.....
Then we get the very beginnings of End'verse!Cas, when Dean throws him some pills. And you know Dean has lost all hope, because he obviously figures there's no way for him to prevent that future.
"...big expert on dead beat dads, so I know how you feel."
"How do you manage it?"
"On a good day, you get to kill a Whore."
-So, I know when this episode aired, I could see the outcry of feminists everywhere on the blatant misogyny and I thought, you know, if they had just changed a couple of lines...said "whore" a little less. But, the truth of the matter is that I don't give a flying fuck about the complainers (I apologize if you are one of the complainers). The Bible is misogynistic and that's their source material for this MOTW. It also works brilliantly for the plot, and futhermore...the way Dean says this line, the complete lack of humour in his voice, the forced smile at the end. He's not actually saying that killing a Whore is a good day. He's saying that there are no good days but he hangs in anyway...until he doesn't.
Anyway, I get kind of sick of the hoops people have to jump through in order to please the feminist-watchdogs out there. I've posted about this before on the journal. If people wrote women the way the more extreme feminists wanted them to write women, every single show would suck because every girl would have to be perfect (in personality, not in body shape), intelligent, independent, and strong....you'd basically have a whole bunch of Mary-Sue's running around...you wouldn't actually have a VALID REPRESENTATION OF FEMALES. Because, I'm sorry to say, some females are vapid air-heads who spend their days obsessing about men...others are simpering idiots...it's the same with men! Some men are douches, some are hicks, some are backstabbing bastards...it's called being human, look it up.
And SOMETIMES the MOTW is a female villain refered to as a Whore because she was named by misogynists in the middle ages. ANYWAY, don't yell at me about this rant in the comments - I'm just venting. I do realize that there are reasons to be concerned with the portrayal of women on TV, I just think we should be more concerned about Sex in the City than we should be about Supernatural. Lord god, I want to stab whoever came up with Sex and the City. That show only makes all our lives worse.
Anyway, I think there was a huge discussion on this in the comments of my Quick Reaction to this episode...so, you could always go read that if you want to see what arguments were resolved or not at the time of airing. I remember people making some very good points on both sides of the issue.
What the heck does she do to Cas? Poor Cas? He's like...internally bleeding or something! :(
"This is why my team is going to win. You're the great vessel?...pathetic...faithless...it's the end of the world and you're just going to sit back and let it happen?"
-No, because Dean's just been waiting for a good opportunity to ditch Sam and say yes. I think maybe he's been trying to passively drive Sam away a little...
"Are you going to do something stupid?"
"Like what?"
"Like Michael-stupid."
-Sam knows.
And I love the growl of the Impala starting...how we and Sam all know what it means.
As Dean drives off, Sam clutches his head with his hands - just as Dean does in Swan Song after Sam says yes. Very nice tie-together.
"I have no illusions. I know how the life that I live is going to end for me, and I'm ok with that. But I wanted you to know, when I do picture myself happy. It's with you and the kid."
-This is heartbreaking...just the line "when I picture myself happy." It's been so long since Dean's been happy. Think of the last time he saw Lisa. It was S3 just after his deal, so he was going to hell...she offered him a life that he couldn't have because whether he stayed with her or not, he was being dragged to hell in a year. So, he goes to hell, spends 40 years there, comes back and has the relationship with his brother fall apart and the fate of the world placed on his shoulders. Of course he's not going to be happy.
The thing is though, Hunting USED to make him happy....back in S1, when the stakes weren't that high. Gank monsters with his favorite brother while they casually looked for their father. It was a good life. Flashing ahead to S6, I think that's what Dean sort of realizes after a bit with Lisa...he MISSES that form of Hunting - freedom of the open road, saving people. Now that the apocalypse is over, he can have that back....now that his brother's back from the dead, he can have it back and not be alone, not be reminded that the person he loved most in the world is dead.
Anyway, my point is that at THIS point in the series, Dean has built Lisa and Ben up into an ideal. Into the thing that would make him most happy. I talked in one of my last reviews about memory - about how we remember the good stuff and forget the bad stuff. This also happens when with people - we meet someone that we think is attractive, and we start building them up...oh he's so sensitive, oh he's so ambitious, oh he loves me so much, we're just perfect for each other. Then after a while, it becomes "god, he's so sensitive, I can't say anything without hurting his fuckin' feelings. He's got these stupid dreams that aren't ever going to work out, why can't he just do something practical so that we can pay our frickin' bills? He's SMOOTHERING ME!" I'm not saying that Dean couldn't be happy with Lisa...I'm just saying why it is that he's idealized her rather than other ex-girlfriends. She's an attractive woman who comes with a ready made family...and that's all Dean sees. Someone who once offered to take him in and give him a family that wouldn't die or leave him.
"You don't have to say anything"
"No, I know, I want to. Come inside and let me get you a beer"
-This is heartbreaking, because at this point Lisa hasn't realized this is a suicide speech - and she seems genuinely happy about the prospect of having Dean back in her life.
So, I'm going to ramble on about that now. Why would Lisa be so accepting of Dean? When she only spent a weekend with him at the age of 20 and then he saved her kid 8 years later? Well...maybe because she spent a weekend with him at the age of 20 and then he saved her kid 8 years later. The way a man has sex says a lot about him. We've all seen Dean have sex. Furthermore, there's a bout a 20 minute waiting time (at least) where you're going to have a conversation - a weekend can be a lot of time to get to know someone. Or at least to know that someone is a sweet, kind person, who loves their family and has a wicked sense of humour/adventure. Then, that same sweetheart you met comes back and is respectful and your kid loves him, and he saves your kid, and then looks kind of sad when you tell him the kids not yours...then almost 3 years later he shoes back up and tell you that he thinks about you all the time and would like to stay with you and the kid...and you are still a single mother and your kid is about to a teenager and how the hell are you going to deal with THAT alone? Yeah, I'd invite him in.
"I don't have a choice"
"You do, you do, you can come inside and let me get you a beer and we can talk"
-And it's here that Lisa realizes that it's a suicide speech and that she has to stall him...and kudos to her for pulling out all the stops...
"Just come inside please, and whatever your thinking of doing don't do it."
"I have to"
"Just stay an hour. At least say bye to Ben"
"No, it's better if I don't. Goodbye Lisa."
:(
I'm so happy I'm done with the depressing episodes! As you may be able to tell from my review today, they made me all ranty. I apologize if I offended anyone's delicate sensibilities with my sailor's mouth.
Next time...EVERYTHING IS OK BECAUSE DEAN WINKS AT US!