Supernatural: Metamorphosis

[norwich36]

Shallow positive responses to the episode

Dean was rocking the funny lines tonight, between "Manburger helper" and "hungry hungry hippo" and "that's my word of the day" and "Go vegan, stay human."

Also, he calls Castiel "Cas"? And he knows about that KY that Sam keeps stashed under his mattress? Oh, the slash on this show just writes itself

Shallow negative responses to the episode
EWWWWWW. I can't remember ever being so grossed out by a MOTW, even before he turned cannibal. Just watching him eat turned my stomach in a big way. YUCK. I had my eyes closed a lot in his scenes.

Somewhat more rational analysis, the Sam edition
I've been reading tons of reviews talking about how happy people were that Sam got his comeuppance for lying to Dean, and I just find myself...puzzled? perplexed? bewildered? at how many people seem to be uncritically adopting Dean's POV on Sam's use of his powers. I mean, I actually expected Sam to really go dark after Dean's death--to become the scary obsessive freak he clearly was after Dean died in "Mystery Spot," and it's so clear to me that he hasn't, actually, gone that route. In fact, this seems like the Sam of season 2 who was raising the important moral questions about whether their dad's policy of "if it's supernatural, kill it" was actually the best policy to adopt, as opposed to the Sam of season 3 who I kind of hated for his conversion to "burn witch burn."

And the fact that Dean said that if he didn't know Sam, he'd want to hunt him? Despite the fact that JA acted the hell out of that scene, my sympathies were not with Dean there, especially when his solution to the problem of possession was to use the knife--which, as Sam pointed out, always kills the host. WTF, Dean? And wtf with trying to kill Ruby before even finding out what the hell was going on? I mean, Dean was justifiably angry at Sam for withholding information from him, and I can see why he now doesn't trust Sam to be telling him the truth, but honestly his response seemed way out of proportion to me.

It's true that Dean now thinks he's acting on angelic (and therefore divine) orders, which reinforces the suspicions he's always had about Sam's powers, and that excuses him somewhat, but I have to be honest: I kind of wanted Dean to have more faith in Sam, and was disappointed that he didn't. I mean, Sam really is saving lots of people--and from all we've seen of Ruby, she's helping him. It's true that the MOTW seems to foreshadow that Sam may pass some tipping point in using these powers that he can never recover from, but I guess I've always been more sympathetic to Sam's position that supernatural beings ought to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty, so I tend to side more with Sam in this argument.

The Travis edition
I've seen some people suggest that Jack was foreshadowing Sam's future (not really going evil until the person he loves most is threatened), and I agree that that was rather anviliciously dropped on our heads, but I also think Travis could be foreshadowing Dean (or any hunter) who is too quick to assume the worst about supernatural creatures (e.g. Sam). Because Travis would still have been alive if he hadn't tried to take out the innocent wife and child--in fact, he caused the very outcome he was trying to prevent. (Hmmm...perhaps a Travis/Castiel parallel is more apt? Because like Castiel, Travis was older, presumably more wiser and experienced, someone Dean was inclined to trust, etc. And both of them are going to take out the threat if Dean won't--but maybe this will lead to consequences "Cas" isn't expecting)

The Dean edition
I think it's very interesting that while Dean used to argue with Sam, constantly, about the ethical issues in hunting (siding with the shoot first, ask questions later side himself), he nevertheless respected Sam's moral conscience--to the extent that last year he actually missed it when Sam started getting more hard-edged. Yet now his first assumption when Sam questions whether they should just go ahead and kill Jack or not is that Sam is identifying with Jack's inner demons. Of course, he's right that Sam is--but I also think Sam is authentically concerned with killing someone who might be able to change--just like Lenore, just like Madison. So I was really glad Sam made Dean pull the car over so they could have their second fight, with Sam pointing out Dean was implying he no longer knew the difference between right and wrong.

And yet--despite the fact that Dean will really strongly press his brother on the choices he is making, and punch him in the face, and destroy motel rooms--I love that he still has Sam's back, even in such a simple thing as defending Sam to Travis when Sam wants to look more into the lore of saving rougarous. Though it was devastating to me that he ever considered leaving Sam to hunt with Ruby (and clearly that showed exactly how betrayed he felt--god knows how much fanon there is built up around the idea that Dean would never leave Sam, it's always the reverse).

Oh, I almost forgot my favorite scene, which was Dean telling Sam about Mary. "She almost kicked my ass"--Almost, Dean? Now who isn't telling the truth? :D