yourlibrarian (yourlibrarian) wrote in mind_over_meta, @ 2010-02-06 12:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | supernatural |
SPN 5.13 - Four dot, a way to map the universe
Fortunately there was no truth in advertising in this week's episode title. I imagine Sera Gamble was delighted to have a crack at this storyline. They would also have to have bungled it a lot more than they did for me to be unhappy with it. For one thing, who hasn’t wanted to see an episode with all the Winchester family units present? Second, this episode moved the story forward in some ways and also provided details in other areas. Third, although it had logic gaps, as a whole the story spun out fairly well, providing various memorable moments that I am sure will become even more memorable as they get reworked in future fan creations.
So there’s certainly good here. But let me start with something that upset me a lot, even though, at this point, you’d think I’d be immune to it. I am so, SO sick of characters being killed off unnecessarily, and the death count for the female characters is even more damaging in the long run. There’s always someone pointing out how many men are killed on the show (and sure, death is almost mandatory in every episode) but there are fewer female characters of any note to start with, so their constant elimination from the show is all the more noticeable. And SPN doesn’t actually kill everyone that comes on the show. How many kids have died (that weren’t already dead when they appeared)?
So yes, I had hoped that we would be getting a bit of a storyline for Anna this season, but apparently she was considered just another loose end to be jettisoned here. No further appearances means no further development, or any greater explanation about the bits we did get for her earlier. I guess we weren't supposed to care about her. On the one hand, I understand why Gabriel wasn't chosen. Given his last meeting with the Winchesters he would want both to live, at least long enough to be inhabited. Anna, on the other hand, is the one angel who is most tied to humanity and the planet. She's lived here, she's been one of us, and she wants to save the world. Sam and Dean should be going along with her on this one, and I don't buy Dean's explanation for a moment that not having lived at all is different from dying later. He and Sam have both already died and lived, I really don't see what it matters if they both died now.
And yet Gabriel could have had a change of heart. He's mercurial, after all. The biggest problem, of course, is not really his motivation but his power. Unlike Anna, he could have had them dead with a thought were he near them. And while he might have chosen to waste time killing John and Mary, he would have had the power to do it easily. With Anna, there's a simple explanation for why she takes so long to do so. However, she ends up pulling Uriel into the mix anyway, and I would have found a confrontation between Michael and Gabriel much more interesting (but I also suspect they wouldn't have had the budget for an archangel showdown). The point is, these storylines don't have to go the way they do.
I also found that while Anna's appearance in Dean’s dream was momentarily amusing, I found it rather unpleasant in retrospect. The gratuitousness of the dancers’ appearance just seemed to highlight her later gratuitous death to me. As a female character she seems just as disposable as Dean's nameless dream girls. I wonder if Dean found it awkward that Anna invaded his dream because he would have found it awkward had anyone done it, or because she was a woman he had actually slept with. The difference between fantasy and reality was rather stark and I liked that aspect of it at least.
All About Angels
So, Anna is hunting down Sam and Dean because she has decided Sam must die to save the planet. I can’t say I disagree with her, and it was interesting to hear that reconstituting Sam (or Dean) would only be possible if the genetic material were largely intact to recover. Again, following from last week as well as what Michael said, it’s their genes that are important to the angels. Less clear is how their souls would be retrieved if the body were reformed and animated. Why would they be necessary? This is still very unclear.
Also unclear, and no more resolved in this episode, is how Anna and Castiel had their host bodies reconstituted and by whom. However, Anna and Castiel’s circumstances were also different. I am assuming that Anna had inhabited an empty body, thus when she returned to it, there was no other soul present. So in fact a human soul in the body is not needed. It’s possible Anna inhabited a body that did have a new soul in it, but given that angels need consent, this seems unlikely. (It also seems pretty awful to contemplate someone possessed from birth).
Speaking of host bodies, one wonders how long it takes to convince someone that they should allow their own possession. Presumably Uriel didn’t spend much time doing so, nor did Michael do so with John. But what I wonder is how John was able to hear Michael’s offer, given that all the Winchesters were affected by the sound of Uriel speaking? Castiel seemed surprised that Dean couldn’t communicate with him but it didn’t seem like any of them could, nor did Jimmy have an easy time of it at first.
Castiel was right about one thing regarding Anna though, she was clearly ready to do whatever it took to achieve her goals, regardless of her regrets. I wondered if regret was why she summoned Uriel in particular, reasoning that she would never have had to kill him had Sam and Dean not been born in the first place.
Given their bleeding and weakness, it also seems that Castiel and Anna's forms are indeed human bodies, not simply a representation of one. I do wonder, though, if Anna’s death would be possible through any archangel, or if it was possible simply because she is already so weakened.
This episode also clarifies that the angel warding sigil must be done in human blood, confiming that in 5.01 it was Dean’s blood that had drawn the sigil in Chuck’s house. Presumably Castiel was able to do so in the Green Room because he was using Jimmy’s blood. This also debunks the idea that it must be vessel blood that is used – or at least Dean doesn’t differentiate. It seems an awfully powerful device for any run of the mill human to have, however temporary.
Speaking of human blood and vessels, despite Michael specifying John’s bloodline, I’ve been convinced for some time that what makes Sam and Dean special is the fact that they both share John and Mary’s combined bloodline. You’d think there would be other families out there with merged lines, but the fact that Azazel had the cuckoo in the nest probably made Sam and Dean unusual in that respect. In his later discussion refuting random chance it did seem that Michael meant both parents' genetic lines.
And, of course, we finally have Michael appear in this episode. Perhaps he hasn't been around because he's been busy preserving the historical timeline (you'd think someone would have to, given all this back and forth by angels). I actually found this part disappointing, because up until now there's been speculation that no one really knows why Michael was absent or what his motivations might be. So in that respect, this fell into the predictable. His conversation with Dean was interesting in other respects though, more about that later.
Sam and John
Although I love how Sam was so moved and awed at meeting his mother that he was choked up and speechless at the door, it was clearly his reunion with John that affected him the most. I think there’s probably few fans who didn’t want to see him get the chance to reconcile with his father, completing the arc that began in the first season where he was still stuck in the role of the misfit child of a dictatorial parent. Despite having come to terms with his father over the past few years, here Sam is finally able to see John as a person, and not as the Father figure who was both unreachable and yet controlling. And I think it surely must have struck him to see a man his own age and so out of his element, very unlike the father he’d known.
That said, it struck me as out of character for John to be so vehement about Sam’s well being as a child, when he himself is feeling out of the loop on the whole hunting business. Also, John is later on not the most empathetic of people, which would indicate to me that it's likely he started out a little disconnected from others. Suggesting that Sam should have stayed ignorant seems to be odd timing. I can only assume that what he’s really channeling here is outrage on Mary’s behalf, which he can’t yet bring himself to accept. John has no connection to Sam, but he has a deep one to Mary. In general, this scene played out rather too much like Sam wish-fulfillment.
Mary the Hunter, and her legacy
One of my favorite parts of the episode is that despite being Victim with a capital V in this episode, Mary showed both common sense and courage when it came to her family’s profession. She not only recognized Dean’s sincerity about the danger coming, but also demanded answers later on. She also took point in attacking Anna in the garage so that Sam would have time to save them.
What a blow it must have been to Mary to hear, not only that her kids turned out to be hunters, but that their lives were so rotten that both were eager to never have been born. There she is, pregnant, and she’s a failure as a mother before she even begins.
It was interesting to me how stuck Dean is in that psychological moment of when she dies. I remember reading someone's profile on Dean once that mentioned the moment of her death is something he's never moved past. It's ever-present with him. Even now, he’s still advising her to change history by not going into the nursery. Sam steps in to point out, quite obviously, that it hardly matters what particular moment the YED chose to return. They’d all been marked years before they were speaking; it was a legacy that was running (literally) beyond time itself.
But Dean's psychological sticking point is, in many ways, more hopeful than Sam's, and also explains why Dean can find saving people so rewarding. Each time he does so, he combats the helplessness and confusion of Mary's death. He has probably convinced himself he could have saved her at the time, had he only been able to warn her. But Sam gets no such self-deception. This scene suggested to me that the psychological moment that Sam can’t shake happened that night in Cold Oak. When Azazel showed him what had taken place in the nursery that night, it wasn’t Mary’s death that stuck with him. I'm sure it was painful, but he'd never known Mary like Dean did, nor any other life. He wasn't reliving a traumatic moment. Instead it was the realization that had Mary died or not, Sam, if not the whole family, would still have been marked and in danger forever.
Sam's psychological moment happens when he's an adult, where he can apply adult reason and recognize long-term consequences. Jess would likely have died just like Ava’s fiance died, like Lily’s girlfriend did, like Max’s family did, no matter what had happened that night in Lawrence. There was no place to escape to, and in this episode there isn't even any time they can escape to. Sam has internalized his fate to be inescapable, whereas Dean still holds onto the belief that an act on his part could make everything come out right again. This seems to explain, in a nutshell, why Dean suffers from depression and Sam from anger. Dean has always believed he had an opportunity to make his world right, but he failed at it very early. Each day is a struggle to prove himself again. Sam never had that sense of failure, rather he believed in his capacity for success. But he has always felt trapped and different. That vision in Cold Oak shattered his belief in escape for good. His reaction isn't internal, it's external against the forces that are controlling him which he is powerless to defeat.
This also explains Sam and Dean's big picture versus small picture thinking for most of the series. Sam realizes that changing Mary's death would only be of short-term benefit, and likely wouldn't mean anything in the larger plan. For Dean, there is nothing more important than what happened that night in Lawrence. He's been moving past that, to being a leader with big picture thinking, but we can see here that it's only been a small change on his part. Emotionally, he is as immobilized as ever. Thus I think it was also quite hard for Dean to tell Mary how little choice she had about the future, since this is something he’s unable to face himself. And yet Dean clings to the idea of choice, of measurable action, bringing up the nursery fire yet again with Michael, who reminds him that this singular event could have taken place in many other ways.
I also think that both Sam and Dean's conversations with John, and Michael as John, do not bode well for the future. Sam has come to terms with the fact that his father did not need to be fought, to be defeated. He and his father are, in the end, on the same side. Not having the anger to keep fighting strikes me as exactly the wrong response if he is to continue holding Lucifer off. Similarly, to see Michael using his father's form to tell Dean he has no choice and must give in and obey? Regardless of how he's started to pull away from his father's memory, it's still powerful – just as much as losing his mother. Dean's response to John saying "No" has always been (as far as we know) "Ok."
Further food for thought
1) So Dean must have called Castiel after he woke up. That conversation should have been interesting, since Dean wouldn’t have thought much of Castiel selling out Anna either. I wonder if that’s the reason that Castiel makes the improbable statement that Sam is his friend and he won’t betray him. Because, had it been Dean, it would have been understandable. Castiel has already given his life for him once and seems to have committed himself to keeping Dean possession-free. But why Sam? Sam himself makes clear that he is willing to die. Sam and Castiel have hardly had any interaction, and unlike Bobby, who has also rarely spent time with Sam, they don’t have a long history where we could assume there has been much more closeness there in the past. The only psychological explanation I can come up with is that Anna’s presence makes Castiel feel guilty – enough so that he doesn’t want to repeat the action he feels guilty about. After all, he sold out Anna, whom he had a much longer relationship with than Sam, and is willing to kill her yet again even though her plan is sensible and he’d been in the wrong
2) Also missing is the talk Sam and Dean must have had once they returned. They apparently went out for booze once they were back, and surely Sam remembered dying, since their memories of the past are still intact. At least that scene gave us the best laugh of the episode, with MC’s wonderful line reading for “I’m very surprised."
3) So the angel killing sword is still in their possession. Pity no one can think of using it against one until now. I wonder how Castiel knew Anna had a knife?
4) Looks like Anna was supposed to drop into 1978 accompanied by Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good.” I’m guessing royalties are behind the change, but I wonder why that song in particular was picked. I thought that the Grease poster marked the year -- suggesting that these events took place in June or July for Mary to have been pregnant long enough to know it, although it’s rather inconsistent with what everyone was wearing -- but the poster also represented John and Mary. Not only did they somewhat resemble Danny and Sandy, but the movie itself was a musical throwback to the 50s. Regarding the episode's other musical change, I'm guessing someone realized how inappropriate the use of “Chevy Van” would have been in that scene where Sam is staring at Mary.
5) Interesting that Castiel must perform a ritual to pinpoint Anna’s location. These seem awfully mundane activities since surely angels don’t have to do this when they are in their usual non-physical form? Could humans also perform these?
6) So John and Mary did sell her parents’ home and move into their own. And apparently they moved yet again before Sam was born, but possibly not before Dean was – it’s hard to tell from the nursery scene. But that’s a small house they’re in.
7) So Mary saw Dean disappear in ItB?
8) It makes sense that John wouldn’t remember Dean. Not only was their meeting brief and likely not that memorable to him, overshadowed as it would have been by succeeding events, but had he done so it should surely have struck him as strange to have his son grow up to be the spitting image of the long-ago stranger.
9) Some reason Dean wouldn’t have automatically said “mechanic”? I thought Sam might have said scrap metal because his mind automatically went to Bobby.
10) Although John’s line about turning the car around was clearly meant to be amusing, and was, it was also a little “Eh?” I can only assume he meant he’d refuse to take their word for everything and continue to the hunter hideout but instead return them to his house.
11) What did Anna reach into the wall for, and stab Sam with? Why not do so with the knife on the floor?
12) Probably my favorite moment of the episode came towards the end. Sam and Dean’s conversation over their drink was the most connected, meaningful exchange they’ve had in too many episodes. Dean’s comment about Team Freewill was amusing, Sam’s acknowledgment of his past weakness, heartfelt, and his calling Dean on his bluff something only Sam could do. And Dean’s silence meant he knew it, too. Sam never saw Michael possess John, so clearly this is something Dean told him afterward. But I suspect Sam would not see John's capitulation as in any way encouraging.
13) I thought it amusing that Dean had thighs of steel even when in the womb.
Problems
1) Anna tells Dean she can’t find them. Yet she then gives him an address that is vague with no city. How would Dean know where that is, and how would Anna expect that they were anywhere near it, even if he had? That was just bizarre.
2) What is with sleeping on top of beds fully clothed? Also, when Dean wakes up he seems to be alone in the room. Where’s Sam?
3) So Castiel is running low on juice these days but he can still set lights to explode?
4) How does Anna know about the Colt and the search for God? If she has been tracking Castiel for long enough to know that, she should have come upon Sam and Dean sooner.
5) In what way is Anna like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction? Anna’s not after Sam as an attack on Castiel or on Dean, and she certainly isn’t doing so out of jealousy and possessiveness. It really irritated me how she was trivialized and dismissed in this way. Sam even points out that the plan might be workable but Castiel rejects it, seemingly in deference to Dean, who doesn’t seem to want to consider it. I am less suspicious of Anna's actions in this episode than Castiel's, which have never been properly explained. If he wants to save humanity, which he seemed sympathetic to, why isn't everyone on the same page with this?
6) The desk clerk being high sure explains how he overlooked Castiel’s condition when Dean dragged him into the hotel. But how did Dean pay for the honeymoon suite? With his 2010 dollars (even assuming he was carrying a couple of hundred)?
7) John believed Samuel had had a heart attack when he awoke beside a body with a big old knife wound?
8) Why would Anna bother luring John to the garage alone? Did she know Sam and Dean were there and figured she was too weak to take on four humans? Also, how did they have any idea where John went? I would have also thought they’d hear the Impala starting up – Dean in particular would be pretty attuned to the sound of his car.
9) Why, after sneaking up behind John, didn’t Anna just stab him and be done with it instead of throwing him around the garage? This is even stranger because she was weak and would want to end things quickly. And yet again in the hunter hideout, she shoves him away from her rather than just twisting his neck.
10) As Mike constantly points out in TV shows, why are people always slicing their palms to draw blood? This tends to make use of those hands pretty difficult if not impossible in the short term – and is definitely a bad move if you’re expecting hand-to-hand combat anytime soon.
11) Despite the powerfully sentimental scene of John and Sam together I found myself distracted by JP. He seems bloated and tired in this scene (as well as other parts of the episode) and it was distracting to see him looking considerably older than the actor playing his father when they’re the same age. Of course, on this show Sam and Dean should both look like they’re in their 40s given all they’ve been through, but if they can recover from bullet wounds in a few hours, looking unnaturally fresh and healthy doesn’t seem that much of a stretch.
12) Ok, maybe the angels could have snuck around damaging the sigils while everyone had their big talk, but how could the oil have simply been made to disappear from under them?
13) If Uriel had really been choking Dean, he wouldn’t have been able to yell.
I'm hoping that next week we don't see a big reset button being pressed and we have some follow through on events in this episode.