rusty_halo

1x11: Scarecrow

So their dad finally does call them, and it's to tell them to stop looking for him and to send them off on a job. Sam argues, rightly, and wants to know what the hell is going on; Dean takes the phone and obeys, without question. But see the look on Dean's face as he obeys--he wants, desperately, to plead for his father's return. His obedience isn't strength, but weakness--this immense sense of responsibility in Dean, this belief that his must always obey his father and always protect his brother, it comes from fear that his family will fall apart, the desperate need to believe that if he is just the perfect son and the perfect brother he can hold on to what he has left. Unlike Sam, Dean's spent so much time suppressing his own needs that he probably doesn't even know that they exist anymore.

And Dean's machismo, his need to present a front of strength and competence and authority? Of course it's a facade--of course he's vulnerable and scared underneath. But he puts on the front because he believes he needs to, because he wants to earn John's approval and he wants to be strong for Sam.

Here's another of their core conflicts: Dean wants to do the job and help people, while Sam says screw the job, let's go get vengeance for Mom and Jess. This is the conflict where I actually think Dean is in the right--Dean always wants to help others, while Sam puts his desire for revenge first. Dean's martyr complex often sinks to pathological levels, but at his core he really does care strongly about helping people--as he said in the second episode, he wants to save other families from suffering the way his family did.

Dean tells Sam he's right, that he's got to live his own life, that he's proud of him for standing up for himself, and even admits that he wishes he could stand up to their dad himself. Awww. Dean's a much better parent than John is--he gives Sam the validation and approval he needs, but that Dean himself doesn't get. And, of course, Sam responds by coming back to Dean; how he could he not, after all that? But you see the reason that Sam comes back, not because he wants this life, but because he loves his brother and knows that Dean needs him.

The scene of the parents in the rain under the umbrellas talking about sacrificing the kids to support their town's evil secret could've come directly from "Die Hand Die Verletzt"; plus, bonus Cigarette-Smoking Man! If I were channel surfing I'd think I was on X-Files.

This episode is just all-around good: creepy too-good-to-be-true small town, genuinely scary scarecrow, Dean getting called on his John Bonham alias, "You fugly," Meg showing up right after John's warning that demons are everywhere, Sam and Dean both almost calling the other within hours of breaking up and then apologizing within a day, Dean joking to diffuse the tension of Sam's final... heartfelt ode to their relationship is the best phrase I can think of to describe it, the revelation that Meg's evil and the bonus thematic tie-in that even she has issues with her father. In retrospect, I guess we're supposed to assume that Meg is one in a long line of demons who has fucked with the direction of Sam's life, though it's ineffective here--Meg's the first of many women the Winchester boys reject in favor of each other.

The MOTW plot reflects what's going on with the boys: here the aunt and uncle leap to sacrifice their own niece, while Sam puts family first by returning to Dean. It's not a direct parallel, though, because Sam isn't rejecting his family for the "greater good" but for his own good and because he wants revenge. The MOTW plot has a great Shirley Jackson The Lottery feel to it, and that the scarecrow kills the aunt and uncle who were so eager to sacrifice their niece is delicious irony--their selfishness is made apparent by their willingness to sacrifice others but not themselves.

Bechdel test: Yes, Emily and her aunt talk about why they're sacrificing her.

1x12: Faith

Probably the best episode of the series so far. Yay for nuance and moral ambiguity, and for Julie Benz's fantastic acting ability. This is a unique premise for an episode, and it's nice to see them breaking the usual MOTW structure.

Sam vows to do whatever it takes to save Dean... ah, another first-of-many moment.

Sam wants to believe in miracles; Dean only believes in the reality he's seen, and most of the reality he's seen is bad. (Yet in the end, he's inspired enough by Leila's faith to pray for her.)

Even before Dean finds out that someone else died to save his life, he's deeply disturbed by it--he simply can't accept that he deserves to be saved. (Oh Dean, how your self-esteem issues endear you to me.) Sam, OTOH, is pretty much okay with it even after he knows the price--he values Dean, yay, but he's also willing to put his own desires above the wellbeing of others in a way that's, yes, a bit creepy. He doesn't have Dean's moral compass.

Both boys are morally ambiguous in this ep: Dean's immediate impulse to kill Roy is disturbing, but so is the fact that Sam thinks Dean's life was worth a random stranger's.

Dean takes Leila's situation utterly to heart, and doesn't run from the reaper--he almost seems relieved to sacrifice himself for her, and disappointed when he can't. Dean's a good guy, really--he takes the martyrdom too far, in a self-hating way, but he does it because he really deeply cares about saving people. It's sad how blind he is to the fact that this is what makes him a good person, that he really is worth saving.

(Dean and Lymond ought to get drunk together someday and commiserate over how much they'd like to sacrifice themselves for people more "innocent and pure" than they are.)

You can see how much Sam understands and cares about Dean: he sees through Dean's bravado when he's dying, and he knows to call Leila so Dean can have some closure at the end. I love how Dean deflects the heavy emotional stuff with humor or by refusing to talk--it's not exactly healthy, but it's realistic, and I find stoic Dean a bit more palatable than tears-in-every-episode Dean we get later.

Bechdel test: Yes, briefly: Leila, her mother, and Sue Anne all talk about Leila's cure.

1x13: Route 666

I miss conversations that didn't start with 'This killer truck...'

Oh, show. You're trying so hard, but this episode is too preachy and maudlin to work, and it loses major points for the fact that Cassie is never mentioned again. It's all well and good to have interracial couples in the Very Special Episode About Racism, but if you never show them again, as part of the world, unremarked, you're still failing.

Cassie is a great character, Dean's in love with her, and they're ridiculously hot together--the fact that she's never mentioned again is pretty egregious. OTOH, I do love Sam's shock at the fact that she broke up with Dean--it would never occur to him that his big brother could get dumped. And Dean's reticence about emotions makes more sense, because the first time he did open up to someone he loved, he got rejected. It's all a little too neat and simplistic, but the better choice would've been to bring Cassie back and complicate it, not to pretend she never existed.

This is the most explicit we've seen of Dean longing for a normal life (though we've had hints before, in his envy of Sam for having gone to college and dated Jess). But here Dean clearly longs for Cassie and, even if he's not willing to admit it, even if he would prefer the life of a hunter, he clearly recognizes that it's a trade-off and regrets what he's missing.

Bechdel test: Not really. Cassie talks to her mom, but mainly to introduce Sam and Dean and for her mom to give the exposition about all the tragic stuff that happened with the men forty years ago.

Next: 1x14-1x16

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