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Supernatural: The End
Spoilers, obviously.
Top 10 Things I loved:
10. I just have to say it: you know it's the apocalypse when Sarah Palin is president.
9. Future Chuck seeming sober and helpful and generally useful-guy-to-have-in-apocalypse. Way to turn yourself around, Chuck!
8. Future!Castiel is so damn hilarious! Though I have to say, I actually liked best the juxtaposition between orgy!Cas and right-hand man!Cas, the gun-carrying backup man. If he had only been the stoner orgy guy, that just would have been a kind of weak stereotype, but I kind of like the way this Cas really is modelling his humanity on Dean, both the good points (defense of humanity) and the bad points (why not bang a few gongs before the lights go out--especially since it seems like Dean is banging multiple gongs in the camp himself).
7. Future!Dean as the leader of the community, the one everyone defers to, making the tough decisions. Damn, he was HOT. And I was simultaneously very proud of him, and very very sad that the future had made him into the guy who could make those decisions like killing a friend with no warning and sending other friends in as distracting canon fodder and killing whatever might be left of his brother in order to kill Lucifer. (Actually, I have a hard time believing Dean ever really could make that decision--maybe that's how Lucifer got the drop on him?)
6. Speaking of which, I loved the conversation between FutureDean and PresentDean about Sam's "death," because you could see how completely shocked PresentDean was that FutureDean hadn't been there when Sam died, or talked to him for 5 years, even though he had just had the conversation in which he told Sam they were each other's weakness and should probably move to separate hemispheres. Clearly Dean doesn't really believe his own advice; when push comes to shove he wants to be with Sam if Sam's in danger. (More on that below)
5. If I might continue in the FutureDean/PresentDean vein for a bit (and that slash is deliberate--I hope someone is already writing them together as I am writing this review!), I love how well Dean knows himself--apologizing for undercutting FutureDean's authority, knowing when he wasn't telling the truth, all of that stuff. Umm. Not to mention it's now canon that Dean likes wearing women's panties.
4. Lucifer!Sam was hot, persuasive, and rocking the whole "I'm really a good guy, you should trust me" vibe. Damn, JP, the way your acting has grown since season 1 continues to impress me. Though I also have to say I was impressed with Dean completely not buying his line of bullshit, saying he was the same kind of cockroach Dean always hunted except with a bigger ego.
3. Holy suspense, batman! Very rarely am I actually scared for Sam or Dean when it's not actually a season finale, because I watch episodic TV and know the leads are not going to get killed off or have really bad things happen unless it's the end-of-season cliffhanger--but in this episode there were 2 moments when I was really scared for Dean: when he first woke up in the future and the "Croats" were all chasing him (nice action adventure, there, SPN!) and then we he returned and there was a minute there when I really thought he was going to say yes to Michael, because it looked like the only possible option.
2. Present!Dean, holding onto hope and faith in Sammy even though the future looks hopeless--because that's the right decision, I have to believe that. I refuse to believe that Lucifer is right and all roads lead to him standing over Dean's dead body, because despair is the ultimate sin, dammit.
1. That conversation between Sam and Dean at the end. I know a lot of people were upset at the idea that Dean might only get back together with Sam because he was afraid otherwise Sam would give in to Lucifer, but I think that speech made it clear that Dean is doing this for both of their sakes: because there's only hope for remaking the future if they're together. And "we keep each other human" is telling. I think Dean was really shaken by his future self, not just the future world--that he had gone back to torturing, for example, or that he would turn his friends into canon fodder, and even more than that, that things without Sam had gotten so bad his future self would be begging him to turn into an angel condom. I really believe that together they can avert the apocalypse. (*Claps hands and hopes this means Castiel gets his wings back. Or something.*)
0. Can I do a number zero? I just remembered one more thing: I loved that it was Sam that first made the overture about coming back, and I really liked the fact that he framed his quest to kill Lucifer not as revenge but as redemption.
Oh, and I'm not going to spoil the teaser for next week, but I will say it made me laugh and laugh.
Top 10 Things I loved:
10. I just have to say it: you know it's the apocalypse when Sarah Palin is president.
9. Future Chuck seeming sober and helpful and generally useful-guy-to-have-in-apocalypse. Way to turn yourself around, Chuck!
8. Future!Castiel is so damn hilarious! Though I have to say, I actually liked best the juxtaposition between orgy!Cas and right-hand man!Cas, the gun-carrying backup man. If he had only been the stoner orgy guy, that just would have been a kind of weak stereotype, but I kind of like the way this Cas really is modelling his humanity on Dean, both the good points (defense of humanity) and the bad points (why not bang a few gongs before the lights go out--especially since it seems like Dean is banging multiple gongs in the camp himself).
7. Future!Dean as the leader of the community, the one everyone defers to, making the tough decisions. Damn, he was HOT. And I was simultaneously very proud of him, and very very sad that the future had made him into the guy who could make those decisions like killing a friend with no warning and sending other friends in as distracting canon fodder and killing whatever might be left of his brother in order to kill Lucifer. (Actually, I have a hard time believing Dean ever really could make that decision--maybe that's how Lucifer got the drop on him?)
6. Speaking of which, I loved the conversation between FutureDean and PresentDean about Sam's "death," because you could see how completely shocked PresentDean was that FutureDean hadn't been there when Sam died, or talked to him for 5 years, even though he had just had the conversation in which he told Sam they were each other's weakness and should probably move to separate hemispheres. Clearly Dean doesn't really believe his own advice; when push comes to shove he wants to be with Sam if Sam's in danger. (More on that below)
5. If I might continue in the FutureDean/PresentDean vein for a bit (and that slash is deliberate--I hope someone is already writing them together as I am writing this review!), I love how well Dean knows himself--apologizing for undercutting FutureDean's authority, knowing when he wasn't telling the truth, all of that stuff. Umm. Not to mention it's now canon that Dean likes wearing women's panties.
4. Lucifer!Sam was hot, persuasive, and rocking the whole "I'm really a good guy, you should trust me" vibe. Damn, JP, the way your acting has grown since season 1 continues to impress me. Though I also have to say I was impressed with Dean completely not buying his line of bullshit, saying he was the same kind of cockroach Dean always hunted except with a bigger ego.
3. Holy suspense, batman! Very rarely am I actually scared for Sam or Dean when it's not actually a season finale, because I watch episodic TV and know the leads are not going to get killed off or have really bad things happen unless it's the end-of-season cliffhanger--but in this episode there were 2 moments when I was really scared for Dean: when he first woke up in the future and the "Croats" were all chasing him (nice action adventure, there, SPN!) and then we he returned and there was a minute there when I really thought he was going to say yes to Michael, because it looked like the only possible option.
2. Present!Dean, holding onto hope and faith in Sammy even though the future looks hopeless--because that's the right decision, I have to believe that. I refuse to believe that Lucifer is right and all roads lead to him standing over Dean's dead body, because despair is the ultimate sin, dammit.
1. That conversation between Sam and Dean at the end. I know a lot of people were upset at the idea that Dean might only get back together with Sam because he was afraid otherwise Sam would give in to Lucifer, but I think that speech made it clear that Dean is doing this for both of their sakes: because there's only hope for remaking the future if they're together. And "we keep each other human" is telling. I think Dean was really shaken by his future self, not just the future world--that he had gone back to torturing, for example, or that he would turn his friends into canon fodder, and even more than that, that things without Sam had gotten so bad his future self would be begging him to turn into an angel condom. I really believe that together they can avert the apocalypse. (*Claps hands and hopes this means Castiel gets his wings back. Or something.*)
0. Can I do a number zero? I just remembered one more thing: I loved that it was Sam that first made the overture about coming back, and I really liked the fact that he framed his quest to kill Lucifer not as revenge but as redemption.
Oh, and I'm not going to spoil the teaser for next week, but I will say it made me laugh and laugh.
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Speaking of slash, 2009!Dean/Cas was screaming at me.
Does the despair thing get hammered down in other religions? Just asking because for some reason, the anti-suicide stereotypes tend to fall on Catholics.
And redemption, I really really dig that. This whole time, they’ve been doing what they do out of revenge. Or at least, revenge is what got them into this and I don’t think they’ve spent much time exploring any other motive. But something has to make Sam and Dean special besides having superbodies capable of hosting angels. And the redemption angle is something I’ve never heard any other hunter talk about. We humans are very flawed things but, once in a blue moon, we are capable of great things. And that’s something the angels seem to miss.
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That's a good question about despair. In Christianity it's usually interpreted as the unforgiveable sin against the Holy Spirit that's mentioned in the New Testament, but I'm not sure it occupies such a prominent role in other religions.
I like the redemption angle too. And both of them clearly feel the need for it--Dean is still haunted by what he did in hell--so it would be great if that turns out to be what lets them save the world.
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Now see, in Transformers fandom, in some continuities, some robots get “reformatted” so fic writers don’t even need to go AU, they just need to time travel to slash a character with an alternate version of themself.
I like the redemption angle too.
I like how 2009!Dean was devastated to learn that his future self had taken up torture again. I think his pleasure in torture can be juxtaposed with Sam’s addiction to demon blood since they’re both some very dark means towards an end goal of more power and control. Sometimes I think that because it was only one episode that people tend to forget that Dark!Dean was very dark.
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Now, it's not the most serious canon ever, but Lister does sleep with his AU girl!self in Red Dwarf.
He also gets pregnant (with twins!) in the process.
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And in Deep Space 9, evil mirror-verse Kira puts the moves on normal Kira.
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8. And in both those soldierly and slackerly ways, Cas took Dean's traits and turned them up to eleven--which fits, 'cause once he decided to rebel against Heaven, he (as has been said a lot this season) *full-on* rebelled. It's telling that his work ethic survives his becoming human.
6. During his phone conversation with Sam, I may have kept telling Dean what a masssive, lying liar he was. I *may* have. You can't prove I did!
4. The consistency of performance Lucifer has had thus far has been *phenomenal*. We've seen four actors play him now, and each one has put across the same general *personality*: quiet, almost beatific, but yeah, with an ego the size of the universe. Padalecki did a *great* job with that.
1. "We keep each other human" makes me grin like a dork every time I think about it. Because, YES. :D :D :D
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8. He *definitely* turned them up to 11. Though I have to wonder about what made all the angels vanish and prompted him to fall--is this linked to Lucifer assuming Sam's body, somehow? Because it's quite curious that Dean can't get himself possessed, after a certain point; that, more than anything else, made me wonder if the whole vision was just perfectly contrived by Zachariah to get Dean to let Michael possess him.
6. Hee! Somebody wrote a really great coda to last week's episode talking about when Sam first went to Stanford, and how Dean's lies to himself then paralleled his lies to himself last week, and, I would say, his lies to Sam on the phone.
4. ITA about the Lucifer portrayal--it's great how consistent they're keeping it.
1. Oh BOYS. *Squishes them*
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On the other hand, Michael didn’t off Lucifer in the first place, only trapped him. Lucifer in his backup vessel would have been very do-able. However, a point was made in last season’s finale that Sam didn’t need the demon blood to attain his powers, he had them all along. So, Lucifer in Sam = holy **** we are all doomed.
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And the GLOW in this episode, the white suit and the bright flowers and everything, it was gorgeous.
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Yes! *That.* He's entertaining me greatly with his sad-eyed "Have compassion for meeeee!" manipulations. *g*
The contrast of the suit in that garden--and the way that scene was lit--that worked *well*.
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My favorite thing about this show right now is Castiel. I loved his thing about "The voice is telling me I'm almost out of minutes." Hee!
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I really don't understand the folks who hate Castiel, because I agree with you. One of my all-time fave sci-fi tropes is "the outsider who doesn't really understand things"--and he combines that with angelness with humor; what's not to love?
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Yes! It's the fish out of water thing.
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YES. He was a jerk but it was utterly understandable due to how he was broken, and he had finally learned how to be in charge and that was indeed hot. In a Dean/Dean fashion, too. And also perfect at the end when Dean was all "I won't let you" and future-Dean punches first.
Sam&Dean together. The only hope for the world. I have faith. And I am really glad that they got back to that point.
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Anyway, I totally believe Sam and Dean can save the world if they work together.
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I haven't been keeping up with fic at all, but pssshaw. He wasn't mean for kicks. He was tough because he had to be. He would only have been raping anyone if it was what was necessary to kill Lucifer. And he probably wouldn't even have enjoyed it. Poor guy. ....Which is a sarcastic way of saying that he pretty much had nothing left. Sigh. Dean turned up to 11 with the dark filter on.
We've come a long way since the day Dean first shot a possessed guy, when it was a huge line for them to cross. But I do love how the story has NEVER stopped saying that such things are wrong and a big deal, even as we can watch the characters get desensitized. The bodies pile up and our good guys do bad things, which are admitted to be bad, but they are still good guys, and we can condemn and yet sympathize all at the same time. I don't think there's any apologetics, any "but it's okay when THEY do it, because the hero is always right." These heroes are wrong wrong wrongity wrong, yet still heroes. It's a tough balance and I think the show does it well.