A couple of tiny moments from 8.20

[ash48]

Man, that ep does get in. It's been a while since I've watched an ep 3 times. <3

A couple of little (tiny) reaction moments that had me thinking. (What? Obsessive? Me? Nah...)



Because I've been experimenting with gifs I've been looking extra closely at little moments.

This reaction from Sam made me think about how terrified he must have been after that very heartfelt hug from Dean. Dean's only really hugged Sam like this after one of them have returned from the grave (or elsewhere...). I wondered if Sam was thinking this was Dean acknowledging just how dangerous this is - acknowledging that Sam may well die and Dean was somehow accepting that. Sam might be thinking that Dean was getting a hug in before it's too late. And no, I don't mean that Dean has given up on Sam. This is about what Sam might have read from that hug.



zebra363 pointed this Dean reaction out to me:

This is after Charlie tells Sam that if anyone can do these trials he can. That's an eye roll! What's going on with that? He looks away as though he doesn't want to accept what Charlie's saying. He knows Sam is strong enough - maybe he doesn't want to hear someone else say it. Or something...?



While I'm here...

Awwww.... hand holding. :)

Comments

[maenad.livejournal.com]

While I have not watched the episode three times – I won't have my shiny iTunes download till tomorrow, and then I will :) – I wonder if Dean's eyeroll is less about Sam's capabilities than because Charlie is being a little bit embarrassing.

She's walking a line here, between being their adorable new best friend with basic hunting abilities, and being the admittedly obsessive fangirl who has just mainlined all the Supernatural books and can thus recite their life stories back to them.

Sam looks a little uncomfortable there too, and their expressions aren't too different to the unhappy ones they pulled at the beginning of the episode when Charlie was thanking them for saving the world and commiserating with Sam over his romantic woes.

It's very sweet that she's so supportive, but every time she reminds them she knows their history, they've got to be thinking '... Those books had sex scenes in them. And vomiting. And me crying my eyes out'.

Awkward. :)

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Oh yes - I think the fact that she's read the books makes for some awkwardness for sure. I think my reading on it is similar. Charlie has only said that from the reading she's done. I can understand them not wanting the "world" to know all about them (it's a lovely, more subtle breaking of the forth wall I feel).

Which has got me thinking. Can we assume that the books were written up to the end of S5? Chuck was still writing at the end of Swan Song, so I assume him saving the world was in there.

[maenad.livejournal.com]

Can we assume that the books were written up to the end of S5? Chuck was still writing at the end of Swan Song, so I assume him saving the world was in there.

Yes, I think we're meant to assume Chuck wrote a detailed account of the apocalypse. I mean, he wrote compulsively whether he was getting published or not, and the one time he threatened to quit in solidarity with Sam and Dean, Zachariah made it clear he had no choice but to continue.

And Charlie says the books are online, so even if Chuck didn't end up publishing through official channels again, some self-published ebooks would be fairly easy to pull off.

What I think is most interesting about this use of the Carver Edlund books is how it connects with the way Sam and Dean are being portrayed this season: that they are the senior hunters, the ones other hunters look up to. So here we've got Charlie, who has basically learnt how to hunt by studying Sam and Dean – and except for the combat skills, which you can't really learn that way, she's pretty good.

I completely understand why they hate those books, but at the same time I think it says lovely things about their legacy. Charlie says she wants John's journal, and sure, there are clearly a few interesting notes in there that she hasn't seen – but in practical terms she's basically got it, because she knows about every time Sam and Dean used it.

They're the ultimate hunting resource.

That said, you'd think the first words out of Charlie's mouth to Sam wouldn't so much be 'Sorry you have zero luck with the ladies' as 'Reports of your death have clearly been greatly exaggerated'. :)