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llywelaCatching up on outstanding recaps, since I've had a little bit of time on my hands - not much but enough. This one got pretty ridiculously long, again, but it's not my fault, I swear! There's just too much to say, too much to analyse! Also, I think, I kind of argued myself around in circles just as much as Sam does in this episode.
So, without any further ado, here goes: one recap in which I rattle on at length about the circular structure of the episode, Sam's hallucinations and what they reveal about his tormented subconscious and tangled motivations, Dean's desperation to save his brother, Bobby's ever stalwart support, Ruby's machinations, Castiel's manipulations, that heartbreaking final scene, and much more besides.
To read the recap, click the link below:
"I mean, they come on like shady politicians from Planet Vulcan!"
Screencaps found at Screencap Paradise and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
marishna
And now we shall wait and see if I actually manage to get the finale written up before the new season starts!
So, without any further ado, here goes: one recap in which I rattle on at length about the circular structure of the episode, Sam's hallucinations and what they reveal about his tormented subconscious and tangled motivations, Dean's desperation to save his brother, Bobby's ever stalwart support, Ruby's machinations, Castiel's manipulations, that heartbreaking final scene, and much more besides.
To read the recap, click the link below:
"I mean, they come on like shady politicians from Planet Vulcan!"
Screencaps found at Screencap Paradise and
marishnaAnd now we shall wait and see if I actually manage to get the finale written up before the new season starts!
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 05:08 pm (UTC)Yes this is exactly what I don't get and I'll admit, I've asked this question a few times in a few different places. If Kripke wanted us to agree with Bobby's POV on Dean, which it seems he did, then why have Sam's actions be so extreme? Sam could have just walked out with trying to strangle Dean first. But his final act sets up the viewer sympathy for Dean, which is fine. But then the pay-off is that Dean gets told to quit over-reacting? It just doesn't make sense.
Same goes for the Hell-trauma. Why make Dean a torturer in Hell and less of a manly man than Daddy Dearest, if the final pay off is suck up your Daddy issues and quit whining?
There's such a huge disconnect for me between the set-up and the resolution and I really don't understand what the point of it all is. It's doubly disappointing because in past seasons, despite plotholes and dubious writing, I thought the emotional arcs (especially for Dean) were incredibly well done. Everything up to Dean choosing to go to Hell rather than let Sam risk his soul by using his powers, made perfect sense to me. But all that remarkable lead up just fizzled with the way the writers turned it all back on Dean as if he had spent the last four years throwing temper tantrums instead repeatedly sacrificing himself for the good of his family. I dunno, it's just puzzling.
Sorry I know that sounds very, very critical and I don't mean to be because overall I have loved where they've brought Dean as a character and I have to say that season 4 is still my favorite. But it's these little character details that stop this show from reaching it's full potential, in my opinion.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-26 05:24 pm (UTC)I get the impression, though, that they really didn't think it through in depth. They sent Dean to hell more for the shock value than anything else, and then didn't have any clear vision for where to go after that. Sam's arc for the season was already pretty much mapped out - an elongated version of what they had originally intended for S3, pre-strike, but Dean actually going to hell had never been in the game plan. So they came up with this creative way of getting him out and tying him to the mytharc, but from there on out they were just making it up as they went along, and got so carried away with the excitement of the shiny new toys they'd given themselves in the form of angels and apocalypse, Dean's story kinda got lost along the way. Over the course of the season, his progression is very stop-start, jumping around all over the place. The writing is inconsistent - it shows that JA had no clear idea of where the character was going. And it's disappointing, because the character had always been so well served before, and deserved a hell of a lot better.
A friend of mine, glathea_snb, recently wrote a lengthy retrospective of S4, and basically summarised everything I think about it - http://galathea-snb.livejournal.com/47959.html#cutid1
no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 04:38 am (UTC)Yes I think you're right in many ways. Your friend made the very the excellent point that they spent too much time focusing on Dean as torturer rather than Dean being tortured which robbed him and the other characters of the opportunity to show him any real sympathy.
I also think part of the reason for this is because they really could not come up with a realistic way for Dean to express what really happened while he was a victim and then have him pick up his shotgun and go hunt down the next demon. Fixing that would likely require institutionalization and years of therapy, so they basically just went la-la-la, we're not talking about that anymore.
The other thing I think, is that by the time they revealed Dean's memories, they were gearing up for Sam's downward spiral. As it was, Sam would already look unsympathetic for becoming more and more disdainful of his brother, so they couldn't have it happen at the same time that Dean was suddenly having flashbacks of being dismembered or raped, etc. Sam being unable to show sympathy for that would have made him completely unredeemable in many people's eyes. As it is, I think the blood addiction storyline was their get-out-of-jail-free card when it came to the break down between the brothers.
I think there was an issue of pacing here where they took too long to reveal Dean's time in hell. If they had moved that reveal up, there would have been time to let Sam show some comfort before he started drinking blood again and started to get all twisted up and resentful of his brother.
I guess we'll never really know for sure but it is fun to speculate. ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-27 07:50 pm (UTC)The pacing issue I tend to feel basically comes down to them not really knowing which direction to take the story in at first. I absolutely cannot and will never believe that Dean returned from hell with all his memories intact - there is absolutely no way that the man who crawled out of that grave and was collected enough to find the nearest sign of civilisation from which to steal supplies, break into the till, leer at a girlie magazine, recall telephone numbers, was coming fresh off 40 years of unimaginable torture that he remembered in intimate detail. No way did he remember what he had been through. JA certainly believed the amnesia was genuine and played it that way. And yet...there is no clear progression from there to total recall, so we are left not knowing how to understand his storyline in those early episodes.
So frustrating. Badly done, Show! Let us hope for a more character-focused season five!