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Supernatural: Yellow Fever
Let me get a couple of things I found disturbing about the episode out of the way before I get to the squee:
1. I get that the title, "Yellow Fever," is supposed to be connecting Dean's fear episodes with Sam's yellow eyes later in the episode, but considering the racialized overtones connected to using "yellow" as a synonym for "fear," I was a little uncomfortable. ESPECIALLY since the "ghost sickness" was actually caused by a Japanese variety of ghost. Um, Kripke, for god's sake, THINK about these things.
2. And don't compound the problem by having the source of your ghost's violence be a death that has strong overtones of racialized violence--and the good guys have to actually *repeat* that violence to get rid of the ghost.
Nevertheless, there were a number of things about the episode that were entirely made of win
1. This was Dean's "Bad Day at Black Rock," wasn't it? And Ackles was really bringing the comedy. There's something really hilarious at seeing a guy who's literally been to hell and back get scared by (a) snakes; (b) teenage kids; (c) a cat in a locker; (d) left turns; (e) cute little puppies with bows in their hair; and (f) the dark. (I can't wait for all the fic that has Sam comforting that night when he can't sleep!)
2. Bobby speaks Japanese! Bobby, just when I think you can't get any more awesome.
3. Dean's whole speech to Sam about how their job was completely crazy. I may have rewatched that, oh, about 6 times, because it was such a hilarious critique, and revealed so much self-knowledge on his part (he knows he drives Sammy crazy listening to the same 5 albums over and over and over again and singing along to them, but he doesn't stop doing it). Oh, Dean. And the revelation that Sam is gassy just made me laugh and laugh.
4. As did Dean's complaints about bad diner food, skeevy motel rooms and scary rashes on truck stop waitresses. OMG, I was dying laughing. I suspect poor Dean's skin is no longer as unmarked as it was a few weeks ago!
5. Sam was AWESOMELY competent, even when saddled with a completely useless Dean. Yum yum yum. I find competence very sexy, and Sam is all about putting the puzzle pieces together and figuring things out this season, isn't he? The only thing sexier is when he is actually turning evil.
6. The acknowledgement that Dean is a dick. Because, let's face it, even though he's my favorite character, he actually is a dick sometimes. (So is Sammy, of course. I am assuming Sam's immunity is like his immunity in Croatoan and not because he's actually nicer than Dean--that may have been true at one time but is not any ore). Of course, it helped that this textual acknowledgement of Dean's dickery was accompanied by actual unselfishness in the episode; I was really impressed, for example, at the fact that he was still trying to save the sheriff after the sheriff tried to kill him and when he was being scared to death himself.
7. Sam and Bobby teasing Dean at the end of the episode. OMG so cute.
8. Not really part of the ep, but JENSEN ACKLES SINGING EYE OF THE TIGER WAS TOO DORKALICIOUSLY HILARIOUS FOR WORDS.
Things that gave me food for thought
1. It was interesting to see Dean's most authentic fears, of course. He's clearly haunted by the hellhounds and hell in general, and I'm taking this episode as confirmation that he does remember hell, since it was basically his subconscious talking to him. 40 years? OH DEAN. *Squishes him* And he's still really terrified that he'll have to go back there when he dies. Interesting that he chose to cling to the Bible to try to avert his fate--does that show he is, actually being influenced by Castiel? Oh very interesting that he seems to remember Lilith personally tormenting him in hell.
2. And of course, his biggest fear is Sam actually choosing to go evil. I think it was more than the yellow eyes; it was Sam actually saying "This is what I want to become, and there's nothing you can do about it." Ouch. (And I don't know *how* to interpret that flash of yellow eyes at the end. Flashback or something worse?
3. Dean consistently drinks throughout the episode to fight his fear. Interesting, since there is such a fannish debate about whether John actually was an alcoholic when they were growing up, or if that's just something Sam said in the Pilot in front of Jess because he couldn't tell the truth about his father's obsessions.
4. Sam displays a certain amount of concern for Dean in this episode (e.g. hunting him down after Dean gives the speech and runs off), but doesn't seem nearly as concerned as his brother is about the deadline. Just faith in his own competence? Or has he become so emotionally closed off after losing Dean once (really more than once if you count Mystery Spot) that he can't display (or feel) his own fears? I'm not sure. I'd rather he actually save Dean than be all emo and fail, of course, but he didn't really seem all that worried.
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I can't believe this episode was intitled 'Yellow fever'. At some point you have to ask yourself if they are stupid or just don't care.
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They've demonstrated before that they don't, actually, give much thought to how their racial politics come across to viewers, so I can't say I'm too surprised.
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I loved both his speech to Sam and the teasing at the end. I find it so fascinating that only now that Dean's recommitted to hunting that we hear about him being dissatisfied with it.
I don't know that Lilith could have personally tormented him in hell. I guess we could assume that whatever happened at the end of "No Rest for the Wicked" sent her back down, but I don't think we have any textual confirmation of that. I've been assuming that she's still free in the world and working to open the seals.
Dean drinking: I am a detail-oriented pragmatist, and I kept worrying about drunk driving.
Sam is pretty cavalier about the deadline. Three other possibilities: 1. He thinks that if Dean dies, he'll go to whatever afterlife most people go to. (Whereas Dean's Lilith encounter pretty clearly shows that Dean thinks he's going back to hell when he finally dies.) 2. He figures that if the angels pulled Dean out of hell once, they would do it again. 3. He figures that if the angels pulled Dean out of hell, they're not going to let him die now.
I love Bobby, but I kind of worry that he's a bit of a deus ex machina for them (although not as much as God is). I've been noticing it a lot in fic that every time they have a problem, they go to/call Bobby and he has the answer. Kripke (or someone like that) said (I think) that they burned down the Roadhouse because they didn't want to have a centralized place for information and answers, and now they just have Bobby filling in that role.
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Re: Lilith and hell: I'm not sure that the uber demons are as constrained in their movements as other demons. Azazel seemed to be able to come and go from hell whenever he wanted to, without reference to gates or things of that nature, so I assume Lilith has the same problem.
There are, unfortunately, a lot of fans who are *hoping* Bobby gets killed off because he's too much of a deus ex machina for them, but I think right now he's too popular to be killed off; the fangirls would rise up and lynch Kripke or something.
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But why would she go back? What do demons gain by coming and going from hell rather than staying once they're out?
Oh, Bobby. They've kind of painted themselves into a corner where he knows too much and everyone loves him too much. What can they do?
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I really want to focus on #5 though, because in general *that* is what was missing in most of S3 and the reason I hated the season. I understand that there are hunters out there that can be as good as they are, but their bumbling incompetence last Season to make others look more competent was so much WTF, I prefer to think of S3 as not existing (except for a couple of episodes). But S4 we are back to canon competence and, as you mentioned, it was great to actually see Sam step-up and take control on his own.
I think I laughed myself sick when the cat had Dean screaming and then the spirit had him running away :-)
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I do like how *quickly* Sam is figuring things out this season--he immediately knew last week it was Mina just based on the lipstick, and he very quickly figured out what was up with the ghost in this episode. This is clearly the Sam who spent months hunting on his own and had to compensate by becoming even smarter and faster.
Dean being a scaredy cat was just hilarious to watch.
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Absolutely. There are a number of good story reasons to structure it so Dean gets sick and Sam doesn't, but they could have just swung it so Sam wasn't exposed, or hinted that he's demonically immune, or something. Sam is coldhardcallous down inside in a way that Dean never has been, and it was weird how that was narratively denied in the set-up despite being completely obvious in the story (his smugness at apparently not being a jerk, his response to Dean's worries, his treatment of the ghost, tearing up those pictures, etc).
I did love seeing Dean's fears, though. And that little girl is still so good as Lilith!
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That little girl is uncanny as Lilith, really. It's almost a pity she's no longer being possessed by Lilith.
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Omg, I feel like kind of weird about how much I'm loving every SPN episode this season, sometimes more than SV. Aside from the Clark/Tom pretty, SV is just not grabbing me as hard as it normally does. I still love it, but I'm finding myself more entertained by SPN.
The scream at the cat in the locker about had me falling off my couch laughing. Jensen was a RIOT in this episode, and that music video of his... LMAO! What a riot!
I also found yellow-eyed and dangerous Sam off the charts HOT.
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And yeah, Jensen was just so damn funny. I want a Jensen clone of my very own!