6.11 episode reaction/review...

[ash48]

1. Sam got his soul back. *does the Sammy Soul-back Shuffle*

2. Dean is awesome. Period. I love this character SO much. There is nothing he will not do for his brother - sell his soul, kill himself, be Death for a day. This man's devotion to his brother is ALL ENCOMPASSING! And he's still eye rolling, and defying, and caring, and scared, and brave, and thinking about food.. and so self sacrificing. I also love that Sam's soul is very important - but (and this is VERY Dean I think...) not for the sake of other people's lives.

I reckon he's of the all time great TV characters. (there's a lot more here to Dean in this ep, but it's all too deep for me. I know this will be examined to pieces over hellatus..\o/)

3. Sam got his soul back. \o/ \o/(and it was bright and shiny!)

4. Death was FANTASTIC! So happy to see him back. Love that Show made Death sympathetic to Dean's need. The Winchesters RULE the universe.

5. Tessa! \o/ I'd be happy to see her face in death...

6. Bobby! Being clever one minute and somewhat stupid the next. Hee! During that scene I was yelling at him.."don't go down there" and then remembered the corn fields...:) Of course you go into places you shouldn't. I also thought..."Sam vs Bobby"? Soulless!Sam is ruthless and efficient. No contest. Though Bobby gave a good (ish) fight.

7. Sam got his soul back! \o/ \o/ \o/ And he was TIED UP in the panic room. Oh be still my heart.

8. Cas is Sam's boyfriend. He is! Sam admitted it... :)

9. Sam and Dean had a long, loooong moment staring at each other through the panic room window. *dies*

9. Sam got his soul back. \o/ \o/ And yes, I know we don't know what Sam will be like, or how he will react to what he did without a soul, or how angry he will be at Dean for giving it back to him, or how much he will remember.... but AT LEAST IT WILL BE ALL SAM!!... won't it? It will be SURELY!!! Ack! Cannot think about that... I need Sammy....

10. And most important for me:

My biggest concern for the moment Sam got his soul back was that nothing that went before would make sense. And ok, there are things that remain unanswered but I can believe that Sam has been driven this whole time by the need (aka agenda) to NOT the get his soul back. He didn't tell Dean about being around because he knew Dean would fight to get his soul back. He lied and was deceitful so he would never have to face getting his soul back. Flimsy maybe... but I can go with it at the moment. Everything else he did was because he had no empathy or care.

I'm still not sure why he fought so hard to save Dean in the last episode (yes, I can live with that he did it because he understood what it is to be a brother...) especially if the argument was that Dean could help him get his soul back. He didn't want his soul back - or did he only come to that conclusion last episode?? Ack! I hope not. I can go with his motivation (since the very beginning) as not wanting his soul back. Perhaps I better not think too hard about that.... just yet...

11. Sam got his soul back!!! \o/ AT LAST!! (I remember posting a while back that I'll give them until the hiatus... musta heard me. *g*)

And they've left it open for lots of angst... and even maybe a hug?! Could we would be so lucky?

Though with Sam's "wall" will it feel as though he's only been away for a day?

Oh Show. You win this round.

<3333

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

"I think it depends on how you define 'supernatural'. Sam clearly wasn't human - the fact that he didn't sleep made that clear even if Veritas had kept her mouth shut. And they're still in the midst of exploring what souls are and what they mean, so there's a lot still unknown."

Yes. I'm with you on the bits of Sam here belong here and I think the argument you are making is valid. Except for one thing: the sleeplessness. That's what brings me up short and I struggle to make sense of it.

I was on board with the animalistic theory until that was revealed. I am still not quite sure why they made that an issue and what it is supposed to signify. It's more than not natural, it not only directly contradicts the animalistic nature of Sam's (that he is still part of nature, he misses the parts of him that make him human, but in every other way he is an earthly creature) but it is a trait that up to now has been a clear sign of supernatural according to the rules of the show. This is what keeps bugging me and I still haven't come up with a satisfying explanation other than a vague "supernatural".

Pandora

[maenad.livejournal.com]

Yes. I'm with you on the bits of Sam here belong here and I think the argument you are making is valid. Except for one thing: the sleeplessness. That's what brings me up short and I struggle to make sense of it.

I was on board with the animalistic theory until that was revealed. I am still not quite sure why they made that an issue and what it is supposed to signify. It's more than not natural, it not only directly contradicts the animalistic nature of Sam's (that he is still part of nature, he misses the parts of him that make him human, but in every other way he is an earthly creature) but it is a trait that up to now has been a clear sign of supernatural according to the rules of the show. This is what keeps bugging me and I still haven't come up with a satisfying explanation other than a vague "supernatural".

Well - possibly. I'm not sure how clear cut that is. Zombies I'll definitely grant you. Angels I'll almost certainly grant you - that is, they definitely don't sleep in Sam and Dean's experience, but they only know them in human form; how they behave in their natural state is considerably more mysterious. But vampires sleep - remember all the clambering amongst the hammocks in Dead Man's Blood? Werewolves seem to be all about sleep - it's implied that they have to be asleep to transform, and once they do they act on their subconscious desires; they're essentially the world's most dangerous sleepwalkers.

I think they are defining sleep, dreaming and rest as aspects of the soul rather than of the body. They've laid some groundwork for this - Dean talked of dreaming in Hell as a kind of solace. Meg talked of dreaming again after Lucifer rose - it's clearly something demons are capable of, but which they've been denied; being dead already they can't die from a lack of sleep, but it can be one among the many things that torments them.

Most monsters have souls - so it's unsurprising that they need to sleep, and it logically follows from the fact that most monsters are ex-humans. And most monsters are clearly people - even demons have demonstrated affection and loyalty between themselves. I think 'animalistic' is probably the wrong word, because animals clearly do sleep and many of them dream. 'Machine-like' might be closer: Dean ran through his entire film repertoire to find 'machine' metaphors for Sam, although I think he was pushing his luck by the time he got to Bladerunner. A machine might need to be shut down if a part wears out or if it overheats - but it's never in need of a nap. Admittedly Sam was something of a backwards machine - rather than things being added together to make something new, something was taken away. But still: as he has been recently he was made rather than born, but no more 'supernatural' than my computer.

I think the point is to play with the concept of monstrosity: over the years we've met ethical vampires (Dean among them), an ethical werewolf, an ethical zombie in Karen Singer and plenty of ghosts who just wanted to help. Having or being souls (or at least I assume so - their zombie mythology confuses me), being people, they had the power to choose to do the right thing, even at a great cost to themselves. Sam, who was not a person, had no such capacity. In the end it wasn't being a supernatural freak that made him a monster - you could pour demon blood down his throat all day and he'd still be Sam - it was quite the opposite.