yourlibrarian (yourlibrarian) wrote in mind_over_meta, @ 2010-04-23 18:21:00 |
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Entry tags: | supernatural |
SPN 5.18 - The flies in the soup
I was pleasantly fooled here. From the previews, it seemed we were about to take a turn into a poorly placed MotW story. However, as was the case last season, once the final six episodes arrived, the series finally started picking up the pace in addressing the seasonal arc.
As I mentioned to someone in an earlier episode discussion about S4 versus S5, I still feel that S4 is remembered well by many people largely because it started out strong and ended well. Throughout that season I found it quite annoying that the supposed seasonal arc of the heaven/hell war and the specter of Lilith remained largely that – a specter – throughout many of the episodes. However, the writers did much better in keeping a focus on Sam and Dean’s disintegrating relationship. I suspect this is why people were more satisfied with the season, as well as having Castiel, a new character, also being developed.
In S5, however, the writers have done fairly well in continuing to remind us of the apocalypse’s presence, even in episodes that bear no real connection to it. Conversely, I think many people have been much more disappointed by how poorly Sam and Dean’s relationship has been developed throughout the season and in Castiel basically having no arc at all. I don’t know why the writers can’t seem to focus on two arcs at once, but if they’re going to err, it’s definitely better to do it on the myth arc.
In any case, this episode was like Children Are Our Future and MBV. It was only set up as a MotW, but it was really an arc story all along. Moreover, this story wasn’t even about Sam and Dean. Technically, one could have removed them entirely from the episode and still have had much the same story (rather like Kriss Angel). As much as Zachariah’s opening scene last week was a love letter to actor Kurt Fuller for what he’d brought to the series, this episode is set up to give Richard Speight a fitting goodbye. As usual, there are things I think could have been done better. But I think Dabb and Loflin continued to show their growth as not just TV writers, but SPN writers, in an episode which seemed to have relatively little of the stuff they enjoy exploring.
Continuity with Development, Yay!
Although Yellow Fever remains something of an outlier in many ways, Dabb and Loflin appear to be real continuity hounds. So being able to develop a bit of a backstory for a continuing character was probably a treat but on the whole not much of it appeared here. I noticed that there’s a David Reed who has been working on BSG comics, writing the back story of the cylons, and I wondered if he might be the same one who wrote this story, given Dabb and Loflin’s own jump from comics to SPN. I mentioned some episodes earlier that, particularly in its final seasons, BSG and SPN are starting to have a lot of overlap in their themes. Certainly this episode, dealing with a pantheon of gods and the love of humanity winning out, applies as well.
But the key scene to me of this episode, where Dean and Sam speak over a meal, was likely not in the original story. In part, this is because the scene allowed for a bit of “episode setting” in acknowledging previous events and also suggesting that it may have been a while since Point took place. Dean mentions all the consultation they've done with supernatural experts (which we haven’t seen once this season).
What I liked about this scene is that it gave us some insight into the state of Sam and Dean at the moment. Although there have been other episodes that have hit the reset button on their relationship (Children, arguably, among them) and despite the nostalgia of certain elements, this feels less like a reset and more of a natural outcome after their rapprochement in Point.
In this scene we have:
(1) Dean acknowledging that he’s not the only one who has been overstressed and not dealing with it well this season. We have a recall of S1, where Sam is fixated on the issue of the day and Dean is the one trying to get him to see that, for them, this day is like any other so there’s no point in burning themselves out. I would also like to think that if he knows Sam hasn’t been getting enough rest, it’s because he’s starting to acknowledge he needs more of it himself. Dean and Sam have both been guilty in the past of projecting their own issues onto one another, and in Dean’s case I think his caretaking has gone hand in hand with this.
(2) “Bobby’s got his feelers out.” An interesting turnaround from Point in which “Bobby’s looking into it” was equated with “nothing.”
(3) “Nobody’s giving up, especially me.” I loved this line. He’s reassuring Sam here that they’re on the same page, neither giving ground to despair anymore.
(4) I also welcomed the acknowledgment that what happened to both Castiel and Adam continues to matter to them. That’s part of their mission right now, even if they’re at a loss as to where to go with finding answers. Dean may say the line, but Sam’s anxiety gives it meaning. Although the last episode ended with both seeming to be rather nonchalant about Cas and Adam’s fates, this moment just reinforces that it was only because Dean and Sam had been taking a needed moment to acknowledge one another there, and not because they were feeling indifferent.
(5) “But you’re no good to me burnt out.” Also, an excellent way of putting it. Dean explicitly pushes Sam’s responsibility button of being a valued and needed partner to Dean while at the same time subtly promoting the idea that Dean’s the one in charge. Of course, Sam’s pretty used to Dean being in that position and I don’t think it tends to chafe that Dean’s the senior partner, as long as Dean’s acting like they are partners. In short, this is the way Dean needs to be a leader – at least when it comes to Sam.
Sam acquiesces and they, hopefully, take a bit to enjoy their meals. What’s so satisfying about this scene and the start of the next one is that it bears out Dean’s words. They have stopped becoming liabilities to one another, in the sort of anxious tension that has occurred at different points this season. Instead, they're seeing one another as assets again. Even though we saw moments when it was clear that Sam and Dean could work together smoothly as a team, no matter how far apart they were emotionally, in this episode we see them mostly working together as brothers. I think one thing that’s become very clear about Dabb and Loflin’s work is that they connect very strongly to the whole idea of the two being siblings. They are attracted to writing their history, yes, but they take a POV on their sibling nature of connected yet separate mental spaces in a way I’ve really grown to like.
It shows up in small moments like the chocolates issue. It’s a pleasure to see Dean enjoying pie, a nice room, and even his anticipated porn viewing for the night. But the way he snatches Sam’s chocolate greedily, as if afraid Sam will change his mind (as if after that buffet, either of them would still be hungry!), is a nice way of expressing both their joint childhood deprivation and the innate competitiveness for everything that they would have built up.
I also like that, although Sam scoffs, it isn’t the same scoff he gave Dean in the hallway when looking at the newlyweds. It’s more that despite presumably eating, Sam’s mind is still in work mode, and Dean’s not succeeding in distracting him. No telling if Dean would have talked him into a night of porn watching if they hadn’t been interrupted by their neighbors' disappearance. (Although I was kind of sorry it happened so quickly that we didn’t see a return of the bitchface, as Sam contemplated having to listen to them all night).
Throughout the episode we get continued small moments of Dean trusting Sam’s instincts and vice versa.
1) We have the potential throwaway lines of Sam getting to have his “I told you so” after Gabriel shows up. Dean acknowledges it and moves on without either of them making a big deal of it.
2) Sam wants to use evil power to their advantage, but Dean realizes Sam has a point.
3) Sam holds Dean back from saving the freezer victim when he realizes it’s too late. And Dean listens.
4) Sam’s not too keen on Dean’s less than polite deal making, but he backs his play as well.
Everything in this episode points to the two bridging the gap that had grown between them, without making too much of a point of it. I like this sort of writing and acting, and I wish we'd gotten it more consistently in previous episodes.
Bye bye Gabriel, bye bye
So given that this episode was really more about Gabriel than Sam and Dean, what did we get out of it?
For one thing, we’ve seen evidence of it before, but he can truly be in separate places at the same time, doing different things. While he was no doubt stalling the legion of doom, he was also telling Sam and Dean he’d come to be their bodyguard and ensure that Michael and Lucifer still got to have their showdown. He was also, later, planning for his own death while trying to plan a getaway. Presumably, all the archangels can do this. This certainly makes the notion of anything human being able to kill one hard to grasp, and it’s easier to understand why Gabriel’s so certain they can’t when it comes to Lucifer.
It also explains why he’d prefer they get their combat over with and move on, since this would leave him at least part of the planet to play with, or, perhaps, as he suggested to Kali, they could go off to other worlds. I thought it was interesting that he suggested Pandora, however. On the one hand, sure, a possible shotout to Avatar. But Pandora was a completely virtual world – something Gabriel’s quite capable of creating and living in. I don't know that we can assume he meant literally going off to other worlds (otherwise, why create such a fuss over this one?)
The question, though, is for how long. I thought the line about the can of diet Slice (product placement?) was interesting in that it explained that his constructs are actually made of other matter, they’re not simply illusions. So regardless of how well he can manipulate matter, it has to already have been created for him to do anything with it.
At the same time, we have Kali, who survives, telling Gabriel that he is bound to her now and forever. Does this mean she can bring him back from the dead? Bound to her presumably doesn’t mean bound together in fate, though, as if that was the case she would have died when Gabriel did and Sam and Dean would have died when she did.
I believe Gabriel that he really did come for Kali as much as for Sam and Dean, and that she really cared for him as well. When she said that Baldur was not complicated, this seems to suggest that she broke it off with Gabriel when she realized who he really was. She tells him she has known for some time. This seems pretty understandable. Being in a relationship with a Trickster would never seem like a wise move, and then to discover that he’s pulled the biggest con of all on you – well, no trust, no relationship. They must have made an interesting couple though. Despite his running away from his family, he’s still clearly a risk taker.
Also, while Dean’s speech to him in the car would seem to be a motivation, my guess is that it was still largely about her. Kali was passionate about wanting the world to continue, and about feeling people should as well. She seems to have been the convener of this meeting. I think she convinced him. He knew she wouldn’t back down, knew she would die, and he knew he agreed with her. But while Dean suggested that he and Gabriel were a lot alike in the way they pretended not to care about the things that mattered to them, Gabriel’s running away and having a (normal for an angel) life makes him more like Sam – right down to having a lover who his brother considers demonic. Either way, he steps up and really is ready to kill his brother.
What I found interesting was “the truth” he told about what happened in the family. Lucifer couldn’t handle no longer being the favorite. But while he’s Michael’s younger brother, he’s not the youngest. No telling where Rafael lies in this, but we could see Gabriel as Adam here. He’s the brother who was off on his own, living a completely different life from everyone else. And he just wanted to continue to be left alone, but was pulled into it over a woman. Of course, in Adam’s case, this was his mother. But when we see Gabriel killed at the end, for taking a stand over where he thought his loyalties should lie, I rather wonder about Adam’s fate as well.
Also, Lucifer taunts and kills Mercury while suggesting that the squabbling and backstabbing among pagan gods makes them worse than demons or humans. Yet the apocalypse is nothing more than a family squabble writ large, and Gabriel is about to turn on his own kind. No real difference at all. One assumes then, that the real problem he has is that the pagan gods have the audacity to put themselves on the level of his god.
Gabriel’s final message to Sam and Dean proved that while stepping in to save Kali was important, neither did he want to see Lucifer and Michael get away with destroying everyone. Dean was right; he did care more about the world and people than he ever let on. And Gabriel's guidance on what needs to be done ties together the horsemen rings we’ve been seeing this season. I'm sorry he's gone – he was a fun character and Speight did a great job with him, but he certainly got a heroic (and useful) end.
Questions Not Particularly Answered
1) As I mentioned last week, although it isn’t a given, one would expect that a weapon which can kill an angel will also kill a demon. We see Dean kill a god here, during the attack in the kitchen, with what appears to be the stake they’d always tried on the Trickster. So, where did the angel swords go and why aren’t they using them?
Also interesting is that Gabriel suggests that when it comes to archangels, it must be their own sword that kills them. This is rather vague, since Gabriel might well be speaking of “real swords” as opposed to the fake construct Kali used. And since he faces off against Lucifer with his own sword and believes he can kill him, then at the least any archangel sword can kill another archangel. As we’ve seen before, for any lesser angel, whose sword is doing the killing seems completely unimportant.
But this did make me think of how Dean, specifically, was spoken of early in the season as Michael’s sword, not his vessel. And I also realized that, as far as we know, Lucifer doesn’t have one, as surely he wouldn’t have been trapped with one (although presumably he has one now as Gabriel's is on hand). That would make Sam his sword as well. I wonder if that language use will end up being important?
(2) There was more insight given to the role of non-Christian deities. I’ve been wondering ever since the beginning of S4 how other gods such as the Trickster figured into the heaven/hell divide, and only grew more curious when we had additional figures added to the total in episodes like SPN Christmas and Fallen Idols. I don’t think we got a clear answer here, but certainly what was implied by the gods themselves was that the host of heaven was just one more set of supernatural beings with delusions of grandeur.
Lucifer’s slaughter of the entire cabal may have put the lie to that notion. But I did like the at least passing nod to the idea that “you believe your beliefs are so much more realistic?” In a show where prophecy and destiny have been such recurring themes, the idea that there are multiple destinies expressed within that room, with multiple prophecies and beliefs, itself provides a different perspective on the idea that Sam and Dean are “destined” to do anything. Chosen, or even manufactured, yes. But given an inevitable future, no.
Returning to the issue of the rare unity of multiple gods, certainly the discussion by the gods in Christmas suggested that at one time all the gods had their spheres of influence which slowly diminished (and, perhaps, with the decline in their worship and tributes, came also a decline of their powers). I think the issue of belief and tributes are not negligible. According to Anna and Castiel, angels have been fairly removed from the earthly sphere for some time, and God for longer than that. Thus the growing power creep of the Christian traditions would seem to have less to do with the actual presence or activity of any of Christian actors than with the growing allegiance of their followers and believers. This speaks, again, to the power not of destiny, but of belief.
My own interpretation of these scenes is that the gods were created through belief and were themselves once human and made into gods through the collective power of others, as well as their skills in particular areas of human life. This would certainly make more sense of Kali’s words about there being “billions of us” -- either because she is speaking of her human roots, or because she feels a continuing connection to human life (which Anna and Castiel indicated the angels certainly do not). Having thus come into being, it would seem perfectly logical for them to see the Christian god as being nothing more than a similar manifestation.
I also think that an actual Loki existed whom Gabriel later possessed. Although SPN plays fast and loose with all sorts of legends and myths, Loki certainly had been around during the same time as when Gabriel was still appearing on earth. The fact that his body is left behind when he is killed (just as Zachariah’s possessed body was) indicates that there was a body there TO be left behind. One might speculate as to why Loki would give permission for possession, but I could certainly see it happening as a very symbiotic relationship, with both merging their personalities over time and Loki gaining the advantage of a significant power boost.
What’s not clear is if Loki/Gabriel had ever been the only Trickster. When Bobby first discusses them in Tall Tales, it’s in the plural. Given what we’ve seen of Gabriel, it’s pretty easy to believe that it was only ever one in many guises, as very little was beyond his abilities, and it would suit his purposes to be thought of as one of many.
Lucifer suggests that the ancient gods were around before the angels, but I suspect that this mostly means that their influence predated that of the angels and Christian belief, not that they actually preceded angelic creation.
What also comes of this gathering is political commentary about world power relations. None of the gathered individuals, who also represent regions if not nationalities, are happy about the way the world at large is being brought to suffer due to the internecine disputes of a few powerful players. At the same time, the message conveyed is a very conservative one, suggesting that these various players are out of touch with what is really going on, overestimate their own importance, and can’t see past their own personal issues. They are, as Lucifer’s killing spree proved, even in unity just a weak threat. Of course, given the size of the world’s population compared to that of the U.S. or even the Anglo-European nations, the reality is exactly the opposite, but as Stephen Colbert famously said, “reality has a well known liberal bias.”
Regarding SPN’s treatment of non-Jewish or Christian beliefs, I’m in a poor position to offer much commentary there. Having no particular beliefs of my own makes me less aware of how the particular religious traditions of others are being skewered. I think it’s also possible to argue that taking on your home country’s majority beliefs and representing them in a somewhat negative light is more courageous than to take on someone else’s in the same way. It seems to me that in general the SPN writers don’t seem to think much of anyone’s religious dogma or formalized hierarchies, and the dyad or local community is definitely considered to be the superior moral force. However, I am sure someone more tuned into these issues has already written a good meta on the topic somewhere and I look forward to reading it.
I would have appreciated this nod to diversity a lot more had it not come off as a convenient opportunity to finish off Gabriel’s storyline. For example, Dean and Sam rush off with Kali – and then what? As Mike said, “What happened to her?” More importantly, what happened to the blood spell she still supposedly has to both? As far as we know it was never broken. Given that we had enough time to have several minutes of Pestilence being gross, we had enough time in this ep to wrap things up with her.
3) Back when Castiel first put the sigils on their ribs, there was speculation about whether or not suffering broken ribs would be enough to break their invisibility. Kali, at least, seems to think it would. This leads me to assume that neither of them have done so all season, and that Castiel may have been rather careful not to do so either when he fought with Dean.
Other Bits
1) I’m glad that the title of the episode was changed because Hammer of the Gods lends itself better to events in the episode as well as the series as a whole.
2) I really enjoyed that shot of the Impala pulling into the Elysian Fields hotel – a retro hostelry from her time. I imagine Wanek and company had fun doing something along these lines. I also liked the fact that they had the Impala pull up to the door but not find a convenient parking space right next to it, given that the hotel was pretty busy.
3) Ha, I’m not surprised Dean found the buffet better than heaven. Pie, without all the anguish of it coming from Mom. I enjoyed the irony in that exchange since the buffet was as fake as anything in Changing Channels, yet the setting was the Elysian Fields. Also, Dean is not the sort of guy you want eating at the same buffet as you.
4) I completely loved the exchange Dean had with Kali as he walked by her table. How I wish I’d see more women like this on television. Despite both being on Dark Angel, I don’t recall that they ever had a scene together. But she’s not the first actor to have done both shows besides JA. Given that she’s also been on BSG and V, I wonder if she’ll be able to give Mark Sheppard a run for his title someday.
5) One thing I found rather funny about the “Rockefeller” –like hotel rooms is that, apart from a nicer form of furnishing and appointments, they didn’t look any different than most of Sam or Dean’s rooms. For one thing, their “low-class” locales are nonetheless often very large spaces, and even include kitchenettes on occasion, something that’s just not that common. And I’ve never once seen a motel or hotel room use dividers the way we always see on the show.
6) Sam’s efforts at trailing Mercury just made me laugh. Sam is about the least inconspicuous person I can think of for this sort of job. Aside, perhaps, from Ganesh.
7) Always nice to see the return of the EMF.
8) I loved the subtle use of Ganesh in his room, though really, why was the door open in the first place?
9) Nothing good ever comes of seeing how your food is made.
10) The name tag bit was nicely constructed – although Mike said it also gave him flashbacks to BtVS’s S4 episode,”Fear Itself” and Oz’s Halloween costume.
11) “Don’t mock my world turtle!” HEE! I think fans should adopt this phrase for any time nonsensical arguments break out in a fandom.
12) Although Mercury’s choking scene is completely reminiscent of the Empire committee meeting scene in Star Wars, I also thought it was interesting that as the god of communication, the messenger, he suggested dialogue just as the goddess of destruction advocated violence. This recalls the title of the episode in a rather amusing sense, in that to a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
13) “Maybe later, big boy.” I have been seeing more Gabriel slash around, haven’t I?
14) It really takes four gods to hold down one victim for a knifing? No wonder Lucifer walked right through them.
15) “you can eat me. Literally.” Heh. Yep, time to be careful of your invectives, Dean.