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ash48So, in between trying to get my damn Sam vid sorted out and watching the latest episode, I've been doing some pondering...
Acknowledgment vs denial
Initially I was going to blather in about whether Dr. Cartwright was partially real or entirely imagined. Personally I like the idea that she was entirely imagined, but when putting forth an argument for that I found there really isn't a lot to go on. I think I just like the idea that Dean was psychoanalysing himself from the get go. He seemed to be acknowledging how screwed up his life is.. no sleep, lots of drinking, no long term relationships, daddy issues still present and then later on the biggie - having to save everybody and the weight (still) on his shoulders.
I also thought there might have been some weight behind the argument because no other characters interact with her and she has an uncanny resemblance to demons from the past (namely new Meg and the Crossroads demon) - and thus something Dean may well "conjure" up as his own personal demon.
But I think I might be grasping at straws. It seems more plausible that she was real and then became imagined. I don't think Show gives us any strong evidence for either case.
So I've decided instead to blather about character development and whether the boys are simply denying their issues or acknowledging them and thus taking some steps forward.
See, I think this episode was about Dean making some more steps toward maturing. I believe Kripke set out to make it one of the themes this season and here we have Dean acknowledging everything that is screwy about his life and discovering that for him to survive all this he needs to repress it. Now this could be seen as troublesome. Denial is not a solution. But I don't see this as denial. I see this as acknowledging.. "Yep, this is all the crap I carry around" and the way he deals: "I know it's there and either it drives me crazy or I put it away and more on".
Also, I love this:
Dr. Cartwright: (and imaginary at this stage I believe) "How do you get up in the morning?"
Dean: "Good question".
Damn good question. I've been asking the same thing since he returned from hell because I still struggle with the notion of anyone surviving 30 years of torture. (Yes, yes I know. Fictitious character, but the show does like to ground itself in reality even when dealing in the realms of the completely "unreal").
The fact that it's been addressed is what I like about it. So if it's Dean asking himself all these questions then it works as a way of voicing his "crap" out loud and acknowledging the way he deals with it. Which of course becomes important at the end when he has his talk with Sam.
Now Sam. Giant Sam. Sam has made some acknowledgments too. He's (I think finally!) acknowledged some anger issues and, for me, saying it out loud is a step closer to maybe coming to terms with it. (yes, yes very anvilious but would not be Show if it wasn't the case..).
So at the end I don't believe Dean was shutting Sam down, or not listening to him. He was giving him some big brother advice. "This is how it works for me, maybe it will work for you". Because what other option do they have?! Really? Sit and discuss it for hours? Weep? Throw things around? Hug? (well yes, hugging would work wonders.. please...) No. They need to acknowledge their issues for what they are, put them some place else (for the moment) and MOVE ON. They have the world to save after all.
So for me they have both moved forward some more. Sure, they have a long way to go and if anything had been resolved at the end of that episode what the hell would they doto ramp up the angst for the rest of the season?
I mentioned elsewhere that I would love to see the issue of Sam's anger turned on its head later on. If Lucifer is so desperate for Sam to be carrying all that anger around inside him maybe if he somehow resolves his anger (and instead discovers an inner peace *don't laugh!*) Lu won't be successful in possessing Sam. If it ever comes to that. Which I hope it doesn't I have to say.
Actually from my previous post the lovely![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ancastar suggested that it would be great to see this season finish with the smiting of Satan etc. and season 6 would be a season of healing. That works for me because in some ways it would be like one big epilogue. Five years of angst build up and one year where they can in fact start to feel their worth, do the weeping and hugging (yeah, right) to heal their psyches and keep on saving people and hunting things. Things that are not as evil and as soul destroying as demons and the devil for god's sake.
Any finally. The issue of Sam growing up comes to the fore again. Recently he asked Dean to "let him grow up". Well Sammy, it's time to now grow up. Stop blaming all and sundry for your woes and face your responsibilities, past decisions and actions. That's not to say everything has been your fault, not by a long shot, but it's happened and it's time to deal. And by acknowledging his anger issues out loud I think he might have just taken a step in the right direction.
And the boys are still together at the end. Stronger? Maybe. (If Sam's telling the truth that is....)
Dean: "Are you with me?"
Sam: "I'm with you".
And now for some pictures because pictures are nice (though excuse the crappy quality of these...)
First up: Giant Sam... it's not my imagination I'm sure of it:
I thought it might have been the side burns, or his newly cleaned and quaffed hair... but I think he's just HUGE!
A little reminder of where our boy started....
He's got sideburns there as well .....
Also, bondage Sam. I do like my Sammy all tied up... Just had to make comparisons to recent tied positions, 'cause they seem to like him tied like this. Not that I'm complaining... *g*
And of course these are usually followed up by hero Dean rushing in to save him. Which I'm sure doesn't help Sam with his growing up issues, but hey. I do love Dean all protective like.. Especially when accompanied by lines like "Get away from him"... But I am immature like that.. *g*
Thanks for indulging me. No idea why I've taken to blabbing lately. It's kinda fun I think. :)
Acknowledgment vs denial
Initially I was going to blather in about whether Dr. Cartwright was partially real or entirely imagined. Personally I like the idea that she was entirely imagined, but when putting forth an argument for that I found there really isn't a lot to go on. I think I just like the idea that Dean was psychoanalysing himself from the get go. He seemed to be acknowledging how screwed up his life is.. no sleep, lots of drinking, no long term relationships, daddy issues still present and then later on the biggie - having to save everybody and the weight (still) on his shoulders.
I also thought there might have been some weight behind the argument because no other characters interact with her and she has an uncanny resemblance to demons from the past (namely new Meg and the Crossroads demon) - and thus something Dean may well "conjure" up as his own personal demon.
But I think I might be grasping at straws. It seems more plausible that she was real and then became imagined. I don't think Show gives us any strong evidence for either case.
So I've decided instead to blather about character development and whether the boys are simply denying their issues or acknowledging them and thus taking some steps forward.
See, I think this episode was about Dean making some more steps toward maturing. I believe Kripke set out to make it one of the themes this season and here we have Dean acknowledging everything that is screwy about his life and discovering that for him to survive all this he needs to repress it. Now this could be seen as troublesome. Denial is not a solution. But I don't see this as denial. I see this as acknowledging.. "Yep, this is all the crap I carry around" and the way he deals: "I know it's there and either it drives me crazy or I put it away and more on".
Also, I love this:
Dr. Cartwright: (and imaginary at this stage I believe) "How do you get up in the morning?"
Dean: "Good question".
Damn good question. I've been asking the same thing since he returned from hell because I still struggle with the notion of anyone surviving 30 years of torture. (Yes, yes I know. Fictitious character, but the show does like to ground itself in reality even when dealing in the realms of the completely "unreal").
The fact that it's been addressed is what I like about it. So if it's Dean asking himself all these questions then it works as a way of voicing his "crap" out loud and acknowledging the way he deals with it. Which of course becomes important at the end when he has his talk with Sam.
Now Sam. Giant Sam. Sam has made some acknowledgments too. He's (I think finally!) acknowledged some anger issues and, for me, saying it out loud is a step closer to maybe coming to terms with it. (yes, yes very anvilious but would not be Show if it wasn't the case..).
So at the end I don't believe Dean was shutting Sam down, or not listening to him. He was giving him some big brother advice. "This is how it works for me, maybe it will work for you". Because what other option do they have?! Really? Sit and discuss it for hours? Weep? Throw things around? Hug? (well yes, hugging would work wonders.. please...) No. They need to acknowledge their issues for what they are, put them some place else (for the moment) and MOVE ON. They have the world to save after all.
So for me they have both moved forward some more. Sure, they have a long way to go and if anything had been resolved at the end of that episode what the hell would they do
I mentioned elsewhere that I would love to see the issue of Sam's anger turned on its head later on. If Lucifer is so desperate for Sam to be carrying all that anger around inside him maybe if he somehow resolves his anger (and instead discovers an inner peace *don't laugh!*) Lu won't be successful in possessing Sam. If it ever comes to that. Which I hope it doesn't I have to say.
Actually from my previous post the lovely
ancastar suggested that it would be great to see this season finish with the smiting of Satan etc. and season 6 would be a season of healing. That works for me because in some ways it would be like one big epilogue. Five years of angst build up and one year where they can in fact start to feel their worth, do the weeping and hugging (yeah, right) to heal their psyches and keep on saving people and hunting things. Things that are not as evil and as soul destroying as demons and the devil for god's sake.Any finally. The issue of Sam growing up comes to the fore again. Recently he asked Dean to "let him grow up". Well Sammy, it's time to now grow up. Stop blaming all and sundry for your woes and face your responsibilities, past decisions and actions. That's not to say everything has been your fault, not by a long shot, but it's happened and it's time to deal. And by acknowledging his anger issues out loud I think he might have just taken a step in the right direction.
And the boys are still together at the end. Stronger? Maybe. (If Sam's telling the truth that is....)
Dean: "Are you with me?"
Sam: "I'm with you".
And now for some pictures because pictures are nice (though excuse the crappy quality of these...)
First up: Giant Sam... it's not my imagination I'm sure of it:
I thought it might have been the side burns, or his newly cleaned and quaffed hair... but I think he's just HUGE!
A little reminder of where our boy started....
He's got sideburns there as well .....
Also, bondage Sam. I do like my Sammy all tied up... Just had to make comparisons to recent tied positions, 'cause they seem to like him tied like this. Not that I'm complaining... *g*
And of course these are usually followed up by hero Dean rushing in to save him. Which I'm sure doesn't help Sam with his growing up issues, but hey. I do love Dean all protective like.. Especially when accompanied by lines like "Get away from him"... But I am immature like that.. *g*
Thanks for indulging me. No idea why I've taken to blabbing lately. It's kinda fun I think. :)
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 01:04 pm (UTC)Wonderful meta here <3 I have to say though, I think the lady doc was completely imagined. Not only does she give off that 'evil/tough-girl' vibe like most chick demons in this series do (and your picspam up top backs up that point, I think), but no one else interacts with her...no one else even looks at her. The real doctor passes her by when she and Dean are by the mirror without giving her a second glance, waving, saying hello...odd behavior from a coworker, isn't it? Not to mention she appeared to Dean when he was playing checkers with an imaginary friend :)
Since Dean had the potential to be crazy from the moment the nurse touched him (on his arm, yeah right...) it's my opinion that we can assume she was part of the wraith's way of figuring out Sam'n'Dean were hunters from the very start. As a nurse, the wraith wouldn't have total access to what Sam'n'Dean's "problems" were, but a hallucination posing as a doctor could gather a ton of information, while Nurse Wraith just chilled in a corner and listened. At the end of her role, when she said, "I'm not real" - I was very chilled, and I assumed she meant she wasn't real at all, wasn't ever real. Then there's the Bonanza-like name mentioned above...
Which, if she was totally in Dean's head, says something about his acknowledging how much pressure he has on him, his daddy issues, how little he sleeps, how much he drinks...Dean, to me, is not a talk-about-it guy, and it's kind of sad that the only way he can deal with his issues is with an imaginary therapist who "therapes" him. D:
I do see this as Dean sort of admitting he might have issues, but I think there at the end was a step backwards. While Sam realized he was always angry and didn't know why, his tone of voice - surprised, upset - suggested he saw it as a problem that needed an immediate fix. Dean, however, sounded thoroughly unsurprised when he admitted to the sleeping/drinking thing and in the end said he was just going to put it away like always and Not Deal. True, they don't have many other options, but for two guys who are stuck in a car together for "eight hours a day" they sure don't seem to do a lot of talking about the stuff that matters.
Ah, and I am sorry I have gone off and rambled on so much! Just wanted to say I really did enjoy your meta. XD Very interesting read. And who doesn't love bondage!Sam? <3