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innocent_lexSpoilers abound.
Overall I really liked this episode. Really liked it. I got so much character stuff out of it that I've had to watch again to see it all (there's probably more) but the one thing that really hit me sideways was Sam and the prostitute. Probably my favourite episode was 401 with Dean back from hell and Sam's "I don't pay, Dean" with his "why would anyone possibly think that about me" face on when he thought Dean was asking him how much the 'girl' had cost. That his emotional shutdown has gone as far as anonymous sex with someone he was never going to see again and didn't care about? Yeah, okay. That he was paying for it just to make sure that was the case and that he could be in control of everything that happened? That is one massive change, and just adds to the worry about Sam. The Snow King stuck a shard of ice stuck in his heart and Dean needs to figure that out and help Sam work out how to melt it. Once that's done, we might even make progress to PTSD. Still, at least this time Sam was showing some more emotion at times, and the one thing he'll never give up on is Dean, so I have faith.
All the complexity with Sam goes for Dean as well. He's doing a good job as a parent who's away for work, and it's sweet that he's dreaming about Lisa. He's back as an excellent hunter. He's right up there in the angels' faces and taking Cas to task for not answering Sam. As usual, he's doing his best at everything while worrying about other people: Sam, the kid, people in general.
Cas is back to being Cas. It's excellent to see him being so utterly crap at human interaction again. It's also absolutely fascinating to see the impact that Cas's actions have had in heaven: if he can rebel and do what he wants, then so can other angels. He has no recourse to have a go at them about it, and the idea of a civil war is an intriguing one. So the boys have their problems with weird monsters, weirder creepazoid family, and getting to the bottom of Sam's issues, and Cas has his own problems that are bubbling over into the real world but still not really things that Dean and Sam can fathom let alone truly help with. Cas's desperation and the fact that he's obviously utterly overwhelmed by his problems don't stop him from taking action - but then they never really have. This time, though, he's not following Dean's lead and that'll be an interesting new dynamic. Actually, the fact that neither Sam nor Cas nor Lisa are following Dean's lead must be pretty odd for him, and yet another adjustment for him to make in a never-ending existence of peculiarity and horror.
Back to the elephant in the room. Dean put Sam on the spot about his, well, everything. His behaviour, his demeanour, what he does and doesn't care about these days. Sam's response was spot on in a way: the brothers are very different people and always have been, they've had horrifying but different experiences, and they're going to react to them in different ways. But (and it's a huge but) there's more to it than that. With all the talk of souls, it seems like we're being led down a route that perhaps Sam doesn't have all of his soul. We know Bobby doesn't have his soul (and in my world that's the explanation for why he'd not tell Dean about Sam being back, and also that would work for why Sam didn't say - they're both missing the empathy chip at the moment). Still, the show has never gone the obvious route, and the soul missing would be the obvious route, so I'm fascinated to know what's the real issue here. I'm guessing we'll know at the same time we find out who brought Sam back and why.
All fascinating stuff, and worth watching several times to get the nuances. Complete lack of nuance in dropping two angels on Sam's car, though, which sent me into hysterics. And actually, some lovely banter between the boys which shows there's still a lot of hope there for the future. What I won't be happy with is if they're still like this half a dozen eps down the road - get to the bottom of Sam's problem and then between them the boys can save the world again, one monster at a time.
ETA: why was Sam trying to get hold of Cas when the last he saw of Cas was him exploding into chunky soup again? How did Sam know Cas was back? *ponders*.
Overall I really liked this episode. Really liked it. I got so much character stuff out of it that I've had to watch again to see it all (there's probably more) but the one thing that really hit me sideways was Sam and the prostitute. Probably my favourite episode was 401 with Dean back from hell and Sam's "I don't pay, Dean" with his "why would anyone possibly think that about me" face on when he thought Dean was asking him how much the 'girl' had cost. That his emotional shutdown has gone as far as anonymous sex with someone he was never going to see again and didn't care about? Yeah, okay. That he was paying for it just to make sure that was the case and that he could be in control of everything that happened? That is one massive change, and just adds to the worry about Sam. The Snow King stuck a shard of ice stuck in his heart and Dean needs to figure that out and help Sam work out how to melt it. Once that's done, we might even make progress to PTSD. Still, at least this time Sam was showing some more emotion at times, and the one thing he'll never give up on is Dean, so I have faith.
All the complexity with Sam goes for Dean as well. He's doing a good job as a parent who's away for work, and it's sweet that he's dreaming about Lisa. He's back as an excellent hunter. He's right up there in the angels' faces and taking Cas to task for not answering Sam. As usual, he's doing his best at everything while worrying about other people: Sam, the kid, people in general.
Cas is back to being Cas. It's excellent to see him being so utterly crap at human interaction again. It's also absolutely fascinating to see the impact that Cas's actions have had in heaven: if he can rebel and do what he wants, then so can other angels. He has no recourse to have a go at them about it, and the idea of a civil war is an intriguing one. So the boys have their problems with weird monsters, weirder creepazoid family, and getting to the bottom of Sam's issues, and Cas has his own problems that are bubbling over into the real world but still not really things that Dean and Sam can fathom let alone truly help with. Cas's desperation and the fact that he's obviously utterly overwhelmed by his problems don't stop him from taking action - but then they never really have. This time, though, he's not following Dean's lead and that'll be an interesting new dynamic. Actually, the fact that neither Sam nor Cas nor Lisa are following Dean's lead must be pretty odd for him, and yet another adjustment for him to make in a never-ending existence of peculiarity and horror.
Back to the elephant in the room. Dean put Sam on the spot about his, well, everything. His behaviour, his demeanour, what he does and doesn't care about these days. Sam's response was spot on in a way: the brothers are very different people and always have been, they've had horrifying but different experiences, and they're going to react to them in different ways. But (and it's a huge but) there's more to it than that. With all the talk of souls, it seems like we're being led down a route that perhaps Sam doesn't have all of his soul. We know Bobby doesn't have his soul (and in my world that's the explanation for why he'd not tell Dean about Sam being back, and also that would work for why Sam didn't say - they're both missing the empathy chip at the moment). Still, the show has never gone the obvious route, and the soul missing would be the obvious route, so I'm fascinated to know what's the real issue here. I'm guessing we'll know at the same time we find out who brought Sam back and why.
All fascinating stuff, and worth watching several times to get the nuances. Complete lack of nuance in dropping two angels on Sam's car, though, which sent me into hysterics. And actually, some lovely banter between the boys which shows there's still a lot of hope there for the future. What I won't be happy with is if they're still like this half a dozen eps down the road - get to the bottom of Sam's problem and then between them the boys can save the world again, one monster at a time.
ETA: why was Sam trying to get hold of Cas when the last he saw of Cas was him exploding into chunky soup again? How did Sam know Cas was back? *ponders*.
