Rewatch S7: Defending Your Life (7x04)

[hells_half_acre]

Unrelated: On Sunday, I found a restaurant/bar in Vancouver that basically had Ash as a bartender. It's not that far from the hotel where they hold the convention - so I kind of hope that he's still working there come August.

Okay, now we tackle the episode that Jared has decided is his least favourite (according to him at the Dallas Convention,

Comments

[borgmama1of5]

Sigh...This is where the weird writing of Sam's mental state starts...

Sigh...Lost potential...

[hells_half_acre]

Yeah...

*SIGH*

[raloria]

Okay, now we tackle the episode that Jared has decided is his least favourite (according to him at the Dallas Convention, though he didn't say why.)

Wow. I'd love to know why, too. I always liked this episode.

Can't believe they didn't cut that stealing the ram's horn scene and cut something else. Where is the logic here, folks? *sigh*

[hells_half_acre]

Agreed, there were a lot of "kill time" scenes in this episode, which just bugged me. I think they cut the wrong one - or should have stretched out some of the scenes that at least had a bit of substance.

I'd love to know why it's Jared's least favourite too. He probably wouldn't say... I think they make it a habit to not talk to negatively about anything for fear of being misunderstood (since that seems to happen every time they do.) But yeah, I didn't think this episode was too bad, besides the pointless-scenes problem.

[et_tu_lj]

I love how quickly Bobby picked up that Dean would be grade A meat to Osiris. <3

Sam: "So, Dean, when you came and got me, did you know Jess would die?"
Dean: "course not."
Sam: "No, how could you. I mean, are you psychic?... that's a question."
Dean: "No, definitely not psychic."What I really like about this is the reminder that Sam WAS psychic. His confession to Bloody Mary that he'd seen Jess' death coming was one of my earliest perfect details in the series. (I've only watched through once so maybe I missed it, but did Sam ever tell Dean that secret? I don't think he did.) He's arguing against Dean's guilt here, but the way he's arguing it has a deeper subtext. Dean couldn't have prevented it because he didn't do know, but Sam did and what if? An earlier more guilt-ridden Sam might have blamed himself for not preventing it (never Dean) but as he's grown up and gotten past his own guilt, now he accepts it wasn't his fault either. I love that the subtext is still there though, because a darker interpretation is that Jess' death

[hells_half_acre]

Oh man, you're right about Sam. Actually, I might go back and add that in to the post. He did actually tell Dean about that - I think in Home 1x09. So, yeah, this is actually a little dig at himself, even if he has since forgiven himself (after all, Jess' death was his first vision, I think - so he couldn't have known what it was or what it meant.)

[et_tu_lj]

Did he? Awesome, I'd forgotten. Then yes, even more so then, he's reminding Dean that Jess wasn't his fault, he didn't have the info he would've needed to stop it. Sam did, but didn't understand it well enough to do anything with it. (I'm glad he left it in subtext, so we didn't point it out to Osiris, but it was there for the two brothers to pick up on.)

[hells_half_acre]

Yeah, I agree. I like how subtle it was. I mean, Osiris didn't really have much to go on with Sam anyway, since Sam's heart wasn't heavy with guilt like Dean's was... but still, I like that they left it so subtle. Also, because then they didn't have to explain why Sam wasn't psychic anymore :P

[hells_half_acre]

Okay, that's what I originally thought - but then I thought maybe "agnostic" just meant someone who wasn't sure whether they believed in God or not. Now I'm thinking that I was just confused by the people who I've known who have claimed to be "agnostic" and not what the word actually means. :P

Thanks!

[etoile444]

This episode would have been fine if the things the boys were guilty of were more revealing. For example, what if Dean saw Azazel go into Sam, s room, but instead of calling for help he stayed quiet and hid under the covers? And we all know that Dean taking Sam from Stanford changed nothing. Brady would have killed Jessica anyhow. It was all part of a plan. And I love Alona Tal, but the part she played felt forced, like the writers just had to have her baco and made something work.

[hells_half_acre]

True. It would have been a kick-in-the-face if Dean saw Azazel go into Sam's room, rather than just rehashing things we already knew about Dean in terms of what he blames himself for.

I DID think it was interesting that Dean blamed himself for picking Sam up at Stanford, even though it would have changed nothing. I mean, even if it WAS Azazel going into Sam's room instead - it probably wouldn't have changed anything either, so it's the same thing. But I see your point, they could have illuminated past experiences that we DIDN'T know about rather than ones that we did.

I didn't feel like Alona's part was too forced, myself.