SUPERNATURAL! (Aka Sympathy for the Devil)

[norwich36]

Oh, it's back and I'm loving it even more than ever! Spoilers behind the cut, obviously.

SO: Best episode ever, or BEST EPISODE EVER?

The squee is interfering with my ability to organize my thoughts, so I'm just going to give the "Top 10 things I loved about Sympathy for the Devil."

10. FANGIRL!! Ok, it tripped my embarrassment squick a wee bit, but mostly I was howling too loud with laughter to be embarrassed. I can't decide what I love most--that she was writing truly terrible Wincest, that she sent Chuck marzipan, that she couldn't stop touching Sam's chest (hee!!!), that Dean didn't look a thing like she pictured (hee hee hee!), or that seconds after assuring Chuck that she knew the difference between reality and fiction, she was totally onboard the "Sam and Dean are real" train. Ok, I lie. My absolute favorite thing was that she was just about to tell Sam and Dean all about the Wincest she wrote, when she clearly realized how inappropriate that was and STOPPED. (If only all fangirls at cons were so perspicacious).

9. CHUCK! I really love Chuck--I hope he recurs every so often--and I especially loved his blend of concern for Sam (your eyes were turning black) with his completely self-absorbed response to seeing Castiel "explode like a water balloon full of chunky soup." Yes, Chuck, your destiny of being a B novelist author of scripture is assured with lines like that.

8. MEG!!! I love Meg, so I'm happy to see her pop up again! Her snark is terrific ("these are the days of miracle and wonder"--damn, girl, I wouldn't have pegged you for a Paul Simon fan) and I love her vicious banter with Dean.

7. Lucifer's vessel-to-be: ok, his tragedy is a little bit cliched, but by the end of Nick's dialogue with Lucifer I could kind of see why he decided to let him in. But really, Nick won me over when Lucifer introduced himself and he said "Could you do me a favor, Satan, and remind me to quit drinking before I go to bed?"

6. Lucifer! I'm so happy they're going with the "wounded and angry at God" scenario, rather than the heartless destroyer-of-worlds scenario. I don't believe him when he says he doesn't lie, of course. And I think it's fascinating that he has to follow the angelic rather than the demonic rules about vessel-taking. I wonder if this applies to all fallen angels, or only him?

5. DEUS EX MACHINA, where have you been for the past four seasons while the boys have been getting tortured all my life? Because that must really be who is mysteriously putting Sam and Dean on planes (???and shifting the Impala to Maryland???) and resurrecting Castiel. So God maybe actually hasn't left the building, unless there's a player I'm forgetting (Anna? Michael?)

4. CASTIEL! Damn, it was terrific to see the return of badass Castiel, especially when he was aiming his smiteyness at Zachariah instead of Dean. And holy CRAP, his obsession with marking the boys protecting the boys is strangely hot and will undoubtedly inspire many a threesome fic--I mean, carving his Enochian symbols on their ribs? DAYUM. (Also, I'm very glad his death was not permanent).

3. BOBBY!! Dude, before I realized he was a demon I was really shocked and horrified at his response to Sam, though I thought "wow, this is really setting the tone for the season if even Bobby can't forgive him," so I was really pleased when he told Sam at the end of the episode "I ain't cutting you out boy, not ever." But really what made me love Bobby with a clear pure love was how he (like John) managed to fight off the demon for just a second to prevent him from killing Dean, but he went even further than John and stabbed himself to stop it. Bobby, you're my hero.

2. SAM!! Oh sweetie, I have so much sympathy for your desire to apologize to everyone on the planet, though I hope Bobby's fake reaction has shown you it's not really a good idea. Especially don't let the hunters find out, please! The last thing you need is another front in a war that is already against the angels and demons. Still, even though all that apologizing is unwise, I love that we're back to sympathetic Sam. Yeah, you started the apocalypse, but I still want to give you hugs and cuddles, what can I say.

1. DEAN. OMG, you were so made of awesome through so much of this episode I will forgive you for being unable to forgive Sammy, because I'm sure you will eventually, it will just take time. And you had at least 4 moments that were completely made of win: (1) being all prepared for the angels to show up at Chuck's house, and vanquishing their asses; (2) coming up with the key to Chuck's mystery prophecy, even if it did turn out to be a trap; (3) your total and complete defiance of those fuckhead angels, and your refusal to be an angel condom despite Zachariah's blackmail--that was HARDCORE AWESOMENESS; and (1) your speech to Bobby about how you were planning on defeating both the angels and the demons, and how they could go find another planet to fight on if they wanted a war because this one was ours. HELL YES. You, your GED and your give 'em hell attitude (and Sam's assistance) IS all you need, even if you don't believe it yourself. Of course, it's not going to hurt that you clearly have God on your side.

Is it next week yet? Clearly this season is going to be the BEST SEASON EVER, and I am totally excited.

Comments

[yaycoffee.livejournal.com]

yes, yes, yes! This episode KILLED!

I'm so happy they're going with the "wounded and angry at God" scenario,... I'm not so sure about that. I think he said what he did as a MASTER manipulator. He fed that poor grieving man exactly what he needed to hear so that he would surrender. CRAFTY!

Glad to have Sam's normal face back, if it was super puppily wounded throughout... (OH, SAM :-(() Last season, he was just so HARDENED, and it made his face different. Good job, Jar. ;-)

Dean got his balls back, YAY!!

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Good point about Lucifer as the master manipulator. I knew, of course, that the vessel wouldn't refuse him (at least in part to highlight how significant it was that Dean refused to be Michael's angel condom), and yet I was still kind of hoping he'd say no.

Yeah, no kidding, JP was awesome in this--his affect was so different than Sam at the end of last season.

[elandrialore.livejournal.com]

???and shifting the Impala to Maryland???

They were driving a rental car to Chuck's. Bobby brought the Impala with him when he showed up. Or actually the demon showed up in his body. I have to wonder when Dean's going to realize that a demon drove his baby.

Also, yes to everything else you said. Bobby was complete awesomesauce, though I was totally not taken in my the demon. As soon as he said that stuff to Sam I was was all, "No way would the guy who said, 'family's not just about blood,' say that to Sam. And then keep going with it when talking to Dean."

Also, Bobby totally should have read them the riot act about not testing him with holy water as he so often does to them.

And Dean! Oh poor Dean. He was awesome and heartbreakng and noble and funny and I just want to hug him forever. I feel sorry for Sam and all, but the thing is, this is Dean. Dean who has lived for Sam his whole life. Dean who has given up everything for Sam more than once. Dean's going to forgive him because Dean doesn't know how to not love Sam. The trust is going to take a while, be he can't not love him. And one day Dean's going to forget and just trust Sam automatically because that's what he's used to, and then that will start happening more and more and the boys will be together again, so I know it's just going to take some time. And I think somewhere deep inside Sam maybe expects that because even when they're fighting Dean's never not had his back.

But Dean! Dean doesn't believe that right now and it's absolutely heartbreaking because he so obviously feels that he has nothing but himself to depend on. *sniff*

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! I couldn't quite tell what they were driving, and I guess I missed the fact that "Bobby" brought the Impala.

You twigged to Bobby being demonized faster than I did. I just thought maybe they were twisting the knife a little about Sam's guilt (or else that Bobby realized how angry *Dean* was and was trying to get him to back off by criticizing Sam, since generally nobody gets to do that but Dean).

I actually hope we get some backstory about how Bobby came to be possessed (surely he wears amulets all the time?) and maybe then he can get on their case about the holy water.

I totally see your point about where Dean is coming from--a few people's reviews have talked about that scene as the breakup, and that makes a lot of character sense to me. It just turns out I have absolutely NO immunity to the Sam Winchester puppy face of doom--plus I've had the whole summer to get over him picking Ruby over Dean, and Dean hasn't.

[syllic.livejournal.com]

Yes to JP's softening o' awesome.

Yes to the master manipulative skills, though I think they're combined with an interesting take on Lucifer that I'm looking forward to seeing more of.

I'm hoping that Dean will be a little self-reflective this season, and try to think about his own role in last season's debacle--they both screwed up (granted, the scale of Sam's screw-up was, uh, greater) and inflexibility went a long way towards driving them down that path, you know?

I think elandrialore is right, though, because Dean has, as far as he's concerned, never been put first in his life. That's just--well, it has to sting generally, and a 'confirmation' of that like he got with Ruby really has to crush the life out of someone. Then again, "You picked a demon over me"--well, yes, but he also asked you, desperately, to come with him, and you were unwilling to make the concession, to do it together and see where it all led. And yes, you turned out to be right in the end--but that doesn't mean your inflexibility was more justified; at that point, you were gambling as much as he was, and quite frankly, Ruby seemed like the best bet, as she was the only one providing you with any information.

I want an episode that is like chash's 4.22 coda, where he reads Mystery Spot and the unpublished book that covers the time after he went to hell and realises that Sam was putting him first, has put him first.

I want fixin', is all I'm simplistically saying.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

There is definitely blame on both sides. Eventually Dean has to admit to Sam he broke the first seal, for example. (Sometimes I forget he hasn't in canon, yet, since I've read it in fic so much).

And I totally agree with you that Dean's position on Ruby was just as much a gamble as Sam's; it's just that Dean "won." Unfair to blame Sam for picking the losing side.

On the other hand, there was a really good comment in one review I read about how Dean is basically projecting his own self-hatred on to Sam; he still hasn't come to terms with everything he did in hell, and he's always set Sam apart from the stains of the hunting life, so it's really that his image of Sam has been shattered, which is even more devastating given his own transgressions.

I want this fixed, too, but since I *know* it's going to be heading in that direction, I don't mind if they stretch it out a little bit, because angsty Sammy is a pretty nice flavor of Sammy.

[elandrialore.livejournal.com]

I'm actually shocked that I made sense last night as I was pretty much babbling. And yes, absolutely, we've totally had more time to come to terms with Sam's choice and we, of course, have a better sense of why he was trying to do what he was trying to do and that it wasn't all about selfishness or even revenge. He was doing the best with the information he had just as much as Dean was, and yes, he made the wrong choice. Apocalyptic wrong, but that doesn't really make it any less defensible.

And, you know, Dean's choice to go to hell and his eventual breaking of the first seal wasn't exactly and unselfish act either. He wanted Sam to live, sure, and for a lot of good reasons, but his main reason is that he couldn't live without Sam.

And if he hadn't broken the first seal, then Sam couldn't have broken the last one.

The real assholes are still the angels and demons who did pretty much have all the info and manipulated the boys like the meat puppets they see them as.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Hee! I was just going to post some similar observations in response to Syllic. Especially the part about Dean's choice to go to hell not really being unselfish.

*Pets her poor dysfunctional boys*

[clari-clyde.livejournal.com]

“angel condom”

Honestly, if that were the last thing Dean ever said, it would have been a great way to go out.

There’s a part of me that wonders if I should go into hibernation and then just watch the entire season in one marathon and let it overwhelm me… or watch it real time and squee with everyone else. Oh, choices choices.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

It really is one of the best lines of the series.

I don't know HOW you could wait an entire season! I can barely wait until next Thursday!!!

[starry-dawn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know what you mean. I marathoned this entire last season, and I enjoyed it way, way more than I did when it was airing. But then I missed out on all the squeeing and had to go back and read reviews and recaps and that was kinda depressing. I don't know what to do either.

[starry-dawn.livejournal.com]

10) AHAHAHAHA, agreed. I laughed out loud when they showed her writing fanfic. OMG. So terribly terrible. There was something there about pressing clavicles and that just made me burst out laughing. Oh, fans. Oh, Kripke.

9) I love Chuck. I want him back for all episodes. The actor playing him is wonderful, and he's the perfect parody of Kripke. What's not to love?!

8) Eh, I didn't enjoy Meg 2.0 so much. I think she's being overused, and I can't get used to anyone else after Nicki Aycox played her. I mean, Sam was okay, but the repeated body-hopping is getting boring. Also, what was the point of bringing her back, exactly? She didn't last very long.

7) I loved Nick's dry sense of humour, heh. But yeah, boo hoo to your problems, dude. Doesn't mean you let Satan in.

6) I like what we've seen of him so far. He seems ... complex, and while that's a personality trait I've grown to dislike in SV's villains, it seems not-so-bad here. I'm interested to learn more.

5) The first thing I thought of when Castiel and Zachariah were discussing who put the boys on the plane was God. IDK, I don't know if they want to go there, but I wouldn't mind if they did. I mean, they've shown us Satan ... might as well show us God, right?

4) I was glad to see Castiel back too! And I kinda surprised myself with that reaction, because I was pretty pissed at him for quite a while during my rewatch of the last season because of all the douchey things he did. But no matter, he's back now and he seems as pissed at the boys for having been used, so yay!

3) Bobby Singer is MADE OF AWESOME. That's all. (I was all "Why are you shouting at Sam when you yelled at Dean for doing exactly that last season?!", but then we found out he was possessed and I scolded myself for ever doubting his awesomeness.)

2) SAMMY! I can't be mad at him, I just can't. I felt SO sorry for him throughout this episode. And man, the puppy eyes he gave Bobby when he got that speech from him? Broke my heart. Damn you, Sam Winchester. You can jump start the apocalypse all you want, but I will ALWAYS love you. <3

1) DEANO. He was awesome! I loved all the moments you mentioned (I was especially pleased at his 'fuck off' attitude with Zach because I was feeling pretty much the same way) and I'm not particularly heart-broken at him not being able to forgive Sam because I know he'll come around soon enough.

Oh, who am I kidding. It did break my heart to see him tell Sam he couldn't trust him and that their relationship would never go back to the way it was, but I still think he'll come around and they'll live happily ever after. THE END.

Um, sorry for the long comment. I get carried away. ;)

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

No need to apologize for enthusiasm.

Re: Meg, I expect she's going to be recurring this season, just in different meatsuits. Otherwise they would have just killed her off rather than just fleeing the body.

I confess to being a LEETLE worried about what SPN might do with God, but hell, they already have Lucifer, so it does seem like a logical step.

[rsadelle]

I actually did not like the fangirl. I loved it in "The Monster at the End of This Book" where they were laughing with us at themselves, but she crossed the line for me into them laughing at us.

I loved Meg's voice. I don't know who that actress was, but she can talk to me any day of the week.

I loved what demon!Bobby says to Sam - it's totally his fight with John all over again.

Somehow I always forget how incredibly good looking Jensen is.

Did you see that Misha's in the opening credits as the third star? That's new this season, isn't it?

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Well, you are in the majority in disliking the fangirl. I didn't feel at all insulted, personally, but most of fandom did, apparently.

They did a terrific job of casting new!Meg--too bad she had to body jump so soon.

I didn't actually see Misha's name in the credits, but I knew he was going to be a regular this season.

[rsadelle]

He was right after Jared and Jensen, and before the guest stars.