SPN 4.20 - Who are you?
Hmm. Looks like at least some guesses are going to be confirmed. I know I'm not the only one who wondered for a while if Spike's line about "it's always got to be blood" would prove true in the Winchesters' case. Not that the show has said this yet, but it's certainly seeming likely that Campbell blood was important well before Azazel made his first visit to Sam. Certainly Castiel seemed to expect Dean to be different from other humans, only he reacted like they did (does it have anything to do with his time in hell?). So I wonder if Azazel's plan was to taint as many potential vessels as possible early on?
Well, we'll probably know soon enough. So moving on, I love that we got to see inside Dean's head, and he was fishing. It makes me wonder if John ever fished with his kids. Given the photo last week it seems we're supposed to assume that. I rather figured it was a dream right off the bat, given the visual tone, the fact that Dean was actually relaxing and that we'd never seen him do it before. As others have pointed out, Dean's fishing while being spoken to in his mind by an angel was rather symbolic, and in some ways an interesting segue for what we're going to find out about just how people get chosen to work with angels (if by "work with" one means completely screwed over). But I also thought it seemed significant that Dean was alone and content. If we count WIaWSNB as a dream, and the bits we saw in Dream, this seems a change for him. Of course, what's also changed is that Dean was in hell since S3 and we know he's been dreaming about it since. Sitting by a quiet lake would seem like the most wonderful thing in the world by comparison.
If the angels are inside people's heads all the time, why are they ever surprised by anything that happens? Why wouldn't Anna, for example, just know what Jimmy knows? Or is Dean's head special? Is he, like Anna, an angel radio station, just set on broadcast?
I am assuming that Castiel wanted to warn Dean about what was happening among the angels, but that by the time Sam and Dean were able to get to the warehouse it was too late. However if that was all it was, you'd think no place was safe? Why make Dean go somewhere physically instead of going to him? So I'm assuming the whole point was for them to do what they did, to take care of Jimmy. The wall markings would seem to be a way to draw Castiel away forcibly and he fought this. Anna confirmed he had been taken, but then how did he happen to come back so conveniently?
I think MC did well in portraying Jimmy and Castiel as noticeably different. I was amused by the eating scene, imagining JA's schaudenfreude more than anything. But I was also amused by the episode title coming over a scene of enraptured food consumption.
I planned to mention this in a discussion on Chuck sometime in the next few days – but all I could think of when I saw Jimmy's TV scene was that he was uploading an intersect. Which he actually did, just not right then.
Sam and Dean's argument about letting Jimmy go home reminded me of JiB. There, Dean and Sam headed out, ready to let everyone get back to their normal lives – and then Lilith arrived. This season Henriksen came back to tell Dean what happened after that. But even so, here he's arguing to just let Jimmy go. I'm not sure what this says about Dean's thinking right now – maybe that death is inevitable and you might as well grab what you can, while you can. But ultimately, of course, Sam is right on this one.
It certainly seems, given the scenes in this episode as well as the preview for next week, that the addict metaphor is going to be used for Sam. Which, while very Dark Willow, leaves me rather disappointed. On the one hand, it's a way out for the show, because if Sam is an addict, then he can be cured and we can avoid blaming Sam for following this road. On the other, that's really not as psychologically interesting. I suppose I'll reserve judgment until we see how this season wraps up but I'm feeling kind of "eh" about that.
I'm also feeling a little "eh?" about Sam drinking blood from a flask. Um, wouldn't that have coagulated? Or is demon blood like a natural thinner? That might explain why Ruby has no cholesterol worries.
I did think the whole "testing" idea was rather interesting – both because I wonder whether all angels do that, and because it says something about the timeline. It sounds like Jimmy was contacted by Castiel weeks before he was possessed. Which means that the possession wasn't inspired because Castiel needed to talk to Dean – rather that he needed to move among people in general. And why is it that they need to test the vessels? Is there some rule about free will involved? The angels seem such believers in destiny, that seems a little contradictory, doesn't it?
I also wondered, though, if Jimmy wasn't being paralleled to Sam here? I mean my reaction, as well as his wife's, to seeing him boil his arm, was horror. In fact, the food chopping scene alone instantly made me think of Metamorphosis (as did Sam's later blood face). And when Jimmy talks about being chosen, there's pride in his voice. He's going to be special. It's "in his blood." If Azazel wasn't so obviously demonic, it seems to me he'd have had a lot of willing victims by just calling himself an angel. How is Castiel's call that different in what it drives Jimmy to do – to be virtually obliterated, an afterthought, in his own body? He's just as cut off from everyone he loves as Sam has become, and just as dangerous in some ways as well. Here, he wants out, he wants to be able to return to what he had. Sam is brutal with him, it will probably never be possible. By the end of the episode, Jimmy has come to believe that, too. That's one of the reasons he's willing to sacrifice himself. Part of it is to saveDean his daughter. But part of it is also because he realizes that "Jimmy" is quite literally dead. His child can go on, but there's no future for him. Why not sacrifice his rest for what little good he can still do? (And I say "little" because Jimmy seems to know even less about what's at stake than Sam and Dean do).
Why was Anna in this episode? Not that I wasn't happy to see her character return, but there didn't seem to be anything gained by the car scene. We didn't get any new information that we don't get before or after elsewhere. Was this some sort of contractual obligation?
Amelia offering Jimmy pills to "cure" his addiction to angel chatter seems, again to be paralleling what happens to Sam by episode end.
JIMMY: This is the most important thing that's ever happened to me.
AMELIA: I thought we were the most important thing that ever happened to you.
JIMMY: Have faith.
AMELIA: You're scaring me.
Of course with Dean and Sam it's:
DEAN: I don't want to pick a fight, it's just that you're scaring me.
SAM: I'm scaring myself.
Sam, of course, has a much better idea of the seriousness of what's happening to him. With Jimmy, it ends with Amelia's ultimatum, that they will leave him if he doesn't seek help. Jimmy then asks Castiel what he wants from him – the answer would seem to be "everything." Castiel told Dean that Jimmy had prayed for this, but I'm fairly sure Jimmy had no idea what he was praying for. At the end he tells Claire that he is not her father. Makes me wonder if at some point we're going to hear "Sam" telling Dean, that he's not his brother. We can only hope Jimmy's confession to Amelia is how things will end with Sam and Dean.
JIMMY: I can't undo what I've done, but I just want to come home again.
Heh to Jimmy suggesting dinner and then Sam calling Ruby about being out of blood. I have to admit, I didn't see the demon possession coming in the form of the visitor. I thought we were going to get something about his wife having moved on with his buddy, but they decided to twist that. I did, however, expect the demon to have possessed Amelia, because it smacked to me of what had happened in ItB with Samuel. Amelia's "monster" view of Jimmy came back full force with his attack on "Roger," thus leading to what followed. Not that Jimmy telling her the truth, rather than letting her believe what she wanted, would have done any good.
I was amused by Dean's reaction to Sam's "you have to give up everything you love for all time and that means candy too" speech. I couldn't figure out if Dean was more disturbed by Sam's approach or if he just thought it went overboard. Sam was right, though. Jimmy really has given up everything for a long time, including sweets, by episode's end.
I was also interested by the conversation "Amelia" and Jimmy have. She tells him what he wants to hear, offering him an apology for not believing in him. It reminds me of how the YED praised Dean, and tipped him off that John wasn't John – and how he did it again as Samuel (tipping me off). And that made me think of how Anna offered Dean forgiveness. Seems to me that demons give people what they believe they deserve, and Anna's offer to Dean was important because it's what he didn't believe he did. We later see Jimmy berating Castiel for things he thinks Castiel owes him. He wants an apology from the angel as well as his wife. But angels, it seems, don't work that way. Castiel comes, yes, but he doesn't save Jimmy, not how he wanted. Jimmy wanted his life back, Castiel will only offer him peace in heaven.
In fact Castiel's choice seems rather odd – why wait until Jimmy was shot, or until Sam killed the possessed woman, to act? Also, Sam didn't need to use his power to exorcise Amelia, Castiel could have done it (and why they were just standing around watching Sam with a demon at their back…). I'm guessing from the look on his face, Sam was getting his own back for being taunted. I wondered if part of the point of that was to demonstrate Castiel's new lack of concern for human life. His words to Dean seemed to smack of "doth protest too much." I'm wondering if the demons, as a threat, will be fading away to be replaced by the angels as the main villains of S5.
Sam and Dean's final conversation left some interesting questions. Dean had, presumably, already talked to Bobby, just as he may have been in contact with Castiel to set up his "plan." Which provided an interesting contrast. In this episode, it is Dean's head we have not been in (except for the opening scene – heh). We see Sam sneaking around, we see him calling Ruby, we get a pretty clear picture of what Sam is thinking all through this episode. But Dean? He's been the one sneaking off and making phone calls in this episode. But I think his words to Sam aren't just to throw him off the scent. Dean means them to a great degree. Like Jimmy – he wants to be done and out, only I think he believes it's going to be alone. He's just planning to do his duty until the bitter end because, like Sam, he knows there really isn't any way out for him.
From Sam's side, I think he wanted Dean to be angry, because he himself is so angry. He made a decision in Kriss Angel – he was still in denial there, but it's moved to anger (and maybe next week it's going to move to bargaining). He's grieving for the loss of himself. I think Sam knew then, that he was going to be killing off "Sam" for whoever he was going to become. Dean went through it too, in S3, in Dream. He'd been in denial, grieving the loss of himself he could see coming, and he moved to anger in that episode. Dean's sacrifice was a very obvious one, I think Sam's has been somewhat hidden. But they both seem to be going through the same things – and it was hard on the other brother who had to watch and couldn't do much. I'm thinking, too, of Sam's speech at the end of Red Sky. He wanted Dean to care about himself, whereas Dean was thinking about how Sam would go on without him. Perhaps, having been separated from Sam for so long, Sam isn't that worried about how Dean will go on without him.
In the end, I don't have as much to say about this episode, and for once I was reading other people's comments about it before writing my own. I think part of this has to do with the heavy focus on Castiel/Jimmy here. It's not because I have anything against the character – I think he's been proving a good addition to the show and cast. But I think at this point that I am unaccustomed to have shows so heavily focused on someone other than the Winchesters. Even in "Dream" Bobby's storyline was more of an excuse for the episode than in any way about Bobby. But the focus here really was about Jimmy (since we're still not sure what's going on with Castiel). I think that this was useful in several ways. For one, we explore the character further. Second, it's a great distraction from the somewhat shocking ending (two weeks in a row, SPN, go you!) And third, it introduces further connivances by the higher ups that will likely come into play in these final episodes. I also think the paralleling of the blood and possession elements are rather significant, though I'm not sure what they'll be doing with that.
Final Bits
1) Isn't Amelia rather young to be Claire's mother?
2) "Stunt demon number three." Hee!
3) The actress playing Amelia did a great job – like MC, she too had more than one role to play and she did them all quite believably. This role would give any actor a lot to chew on, when you think of everything she had to portray here, and with no audience investment to help her.
4) The actress playing Claire seemed really familiar but I couldn't figure out why.
5) ETA: Almost forgot about Dean's tooth brushing scene -- two weeks in a row!
And now for something somewhat related. Delving into what the show only skimmed over – Sam's state of mind during Dean's absence – is "Out of My Mind" by sweetiejen. I liked how the vid opened with images of grief and obsessiveness. Although he's at a different point now, I like how the vid suggests that Sam has become lost to himself by the whole process.
The vid is full of lovely bits: for example Sam being grabbed as he lays flowers at a grave, and then the rise of Dean's hand out of the grave at the very end. Sam seems to think he's going crazy, but maybe he's just being haunted. I really enjoyed how she paralleled all these activities the boys used to do together, but which Sam now does alone. He isn't adjusting well to it, he's always aware of who isn't there. Sam continues hunting, continues searching for Dean, questions his own sanity, but he goes on. Those moments at 2:57 when the song talks about Dean being a "ghost" in Sam, and it's questionable who Sam even is at that point, it's like his old self, too, is just a ghost in him now. I think these quick overlays speak so strongly about the following scenes with Ruby, and Sam gaining power. Dean's sacrifice-at-all-cost ethos has sunk into Sam, so that he's ready to go down the most appalling paths if it will get him his goal at the end. But who is Dean going to find when he does return? The vid leaves a number of questions open that we can fill in as we like.
Well, we'll probably know soon enough. So moving on, I love that we got to see inside Dean's head, and he was fishing. It makes me wonder if John ever fished with his kids. Given the photo last week it seems we're supposed to assume that. I rather figured it was a dream right off the bat, given the visual tone, the fact that Dean was actually relaxing and that we'd never seen him do it before. As others have pointed out, Dean's fishing while being spoken to in his mind by an angel was rather symbolic, and in some ways an interesting segue for what we're going to find out about just how people get chosen to work with angels (if by "work with" one means completely screwed over). But I also thought it seemed significant that Dean was alone and content. If we count WIaWSNB as a dream, and the bits we saw in Dream, this seems a change for him. Of course, what's also changed is that Dean was in hell since S3 and we know he's been dreaming about it since. Sitting by a quiet lake would seem like the most wonderful thing in the world by comparison.
If the angels are inside people's heads all the time, why are they ever surprised by anything that happens? Why wouldn't Anna, for example, just know what Jimmy knows? Or is Dean's head special? Is he, like Anna, an angel radio station, just set on broadcast?
I am assuming that Castiel wanted to warn Dean about what was happening among the angels, but that by the time Sam and Dean were able to get to the warehouse it was too late. However if that was all it was, you'd think no place was safe? Why make Dean go somewhere physically instead of going to him? So I'm assuming the whole point was for them to do what they did, to take care of Jimmy. The wall markings would seem to be a way to draw Castiel away forcibly and he fought this. Anna confirmed he had been taken, but then how did he happen to come back so conveniently?
I think MC did well in portraying Jimmy and Castiel as noticeably different. I was amused by the eating scene, imagining JA's schaudenfreude more than anything. But I was also amused by the episode title coming over a scene of enraptured food consumption.
I planned to mention this in a discussion on Chuck sometime in the next few days – but all I could think of when I saw Jimmy's TV scene was that he was uploading an intersect. Which he actually did, just not right then.
Sam and Dean's argument about letting Jimmy go home reminded me of JiB. There, Dean and Sam headed out, ready to let everyone get back to their normal lives – and then Lilith arrived. This season Henriksen came back to tell Dean what happened after that. But even so, here he's arguing to just let Jimmy go. I'm not sure what this says about Dean's thinking right now – maybe that death is inevitable and you might as well grab what you can, while you can. But ultimately, of course, Sam is right on this one.
It certainly seems, given the scenes in this episode as well as the preview for next week, that the addict metaphor is going to be used for Sam. Which, while very Dark Willow, leaves me rather disappointed. On the one hand, it's a way out for the show, because if Sam is an addict, then he can be cured and we can avoid blaming Sam for following this road. On the other, that's really not as psychologically interesting. I suppose I'll reserve judgment until we see how this season wraps up but I'm feeling kind of "eh" about that.
I'm also feeling a little "eh?" about Sam drinking blood from a flask. Um, wouldn't that have coagulated? Or is demon blood like a natural thinner? That might explain why Ruby has no cholesterol worries.
I did think the whole "testing" idea was rather interesting – both because I wonder whether all angels do that, and because it says something about the timeline. It sounds like Jimmy was contacted by Castiel weeks before he was possessed. Which means that the possession wasn't inspired because Castiel needed to talk to Dean – rather that he needed to move among people in general. And why is it that they need to test the vessels? Is there some rule about free will involved? The angels seem such believers in destiny, that seems a little contradictory, doesn't it?
I also wondered, though, if Jimmy wasn't being paralleled to Sam here? I mean my reaction, as well as his wife's, to seeing him boil his arm, was horror. In fact, the food chopping scene alone instantly made me think of Metamorphosis (as did Sam's later blood face). And when Jimmy talks about being chosen, there's pride in his voice. He's going to be special. It's "in his blood." If Azazel wasn't so obviously demonic, it seems to me he'd have had a lot of willing victims by just calling himself an angel. How is Castiel's call that different in what it drives Jimmy to do – to be virtually obliterated, an afterthought, in his own body? He's just as cut off from everyone he loves as Sam has become, and just as dangerous in some ways as well. Here, he wants out, he wants to be able to return to what he had. Sam is brutal with him, it will probably never be possible. By the end of the episode, Jimmy has come to believe that, too. That's one of the reasons he's willing to sacrifice himself. Part of it is to save
Why was Anna in this episode? Not that I wasn't happy to see her character return, but there didn't seem to be anything gained by the car scene. We didn't get any new information that we don't get before or after elsewhere. Was this some sort of contractual obligation?
Amelia offering Jimmy pills to "cure" his addiction to angel chatter seems, again to be paralleling what happens to Sam by episode end.
JIMMY: This is the most important thing that's ever happened to me.
AMELIA: I thought we were the most important thing that ever happened to you.
JIMMY: Have faith.
AMELIA: You're scaring me.
Of course with Dean and Sam it's:
DEAN: I don't want to pick a fight, it's just that you're scaring me.
SAM: I'm scaring myself.
Sam, of course, has a much better idea of the seriousness of what's happening to him. With Jimmy, it ends with Amelia's ultimatum, that they will leave him if he doesn't seek help. Jimmy then asks Castiel what he wants from him – the answer would seem to be "everything." Castiel told Dean that Jimmy had prayed for this, but I'm fairly sure Jimmy had no idea what he was praying for. At the end he tells Claire that he is not her father. Makes me wonder if at some point we're going to hear "Sam" telling Dean, that he's not his brother. We can only hope Jimmy's confession to Amelia is how things will end with Sam and Dean.
JIMMY: I can't undo what I've done, but I just want to come home again.
Heh to Jimmy suggesting dinner and then Sam calling Ruby about being out of blood. I have to admit, I didn't see the demon possession coming in the form of the visitor. I thought we were going to get something about his wife having moved on with his buddy, but they decided to twist that. I did, however, expect the demon to have possessed Amelia, because it smacked to me of what had happened in ItB with Samuel. Amelia's "monster" view of Jimmy came back full force with his attack on "Roger," thus leading to what followed. Not that Jimmy telling her the truth, rather than letting her believe what she wanted, would have done any good.
I was amused by Dean's reaction to Sam's "you have to give up everything you love for all time and that means candy too" speech. I couldn't figure out if Dean was more disturbed by Sam's approach or if he just thought it went overboard. Sam was right, though. Jimmy really has given up everything for a long time, including sweets, by episode's end.
I was also interested by the conversation "Amelia" and Jimmy have. She tells him what he wants to hear, offering him an apology for not believing in him. It reminds me of how the YED praised Dean, and tipped him off that John wasn't John – and how he did it again as Samuel (tipping me off). And that made me think of how Anna offered Dean forgiveness. Seems to me that demons give people what they believe they deserve, and Anna's offer to Dean was important because it's what he didn't believe he did. We later see Jimmy berating Castiel for things he thinks Castiel owes him. He wants an apology from the angel as well as his wife. But angels, it seems, don't work that way. Castiel comes, yes, but he doesn't save Jimmy, not how he wanted. Jimmy wanted his life back, Castiel will only offer him peace in heaven.
In fact Castiel's choice seems rather odd – why wait until Jimmy was shot, or until Sam killed the possessed woman, to act? Also, Sam didn't need to use his power to exorcise Amelia, Castiel could have done it (and why they were just standing around watching Sam with a demon at their back…). I'm guessing from the look on his face, Sam was getting his own back for being taunted. I wondered if part of the point of that was to demonstrate Castiel's new lack of concern for human life. His words to Dean seemed to smack of "doth protest too much." I'm wondering if the demons, as a threat, will be fading away to be replaced by the angels as the main villains of S5.
Sam and Dean's final conversation left some interesting questions. Dean had, presumably, already talked to Bobby, just as he may have been in contact with Castiel to set up his "plan." Which provided an interesting contrast. In this episode, it is Dean's head we have not been in (except for the opening scene – heh). We see Sam sneaking around, we see him calling Ruby, we get a pretty clear picture of what Sam is thinking all through this episode. But Dean? He's been the one sneaking off and making phone calls in this episode. But I think his words to Sam aren't just to throw him off the scent. Dean means them to a great degree. Like Jimmy – he wants to be done and out, only I think he believes it's going to be alone. He's just planning to do his duty until the bitter end because, like Sam, he knows there really isn't any way out for him.
From Sam's side, I think he wanted Dean to be angry, because he himself is so angry. He made a decision in Kriss Angel – he was still in denial there, but it's moved to anger (and maybe next week it's going to move to bargaining). He's grieving for the loss of himself. I think Sam knew then, that he was going to be killing off "Sam" for whoever he was going to become. Dean went through it too, in S3, in Dream. He'd been in denial, grieving the loss of himself he could see coming, and he moved to anger in that episode. Dean's sacrifice was a very obvious one, I think Sam's has been somewhat hidden. But they both seem to be going through the same things – and it was hard on the other brother who had to watch and couldn't do much. I'm thinking, too, of Sam's speech at the end of Red Sky. He wanted Dean to care about himself, whereas Dean was thinking about how Sam would go on without him. Perhaps, having been separated from Sam for so long, Sam isn't that worried about how Dean will go on without him.
In the end, I don't have as much to say about this episode, and for once I was reading other people's comments about it before writing my own. I think part of this has to do with the heavy focus on Castiel/Jimmy here. It's not because I have anything against the character – I think he's been proving a good addition to the show and cast. But I think at this point that I am unaccustomed to have shows so heavily focused on someone other than the Winchesters. Even in "Dream" Bobby's storyline was more of an excuse for the episode than in any way about Bobby. But the focus here really was about Jimmy (since we're still not sure what's going on with Castiel). I think that this was useful in several ways. For one, we explore the character further. Second, it's a great distraction from the somewhat shocking ending (two weeks in a row, SPN, go you!) And third, it introduces further connivances by the higher ups that will likely come into play in these final episodes. I also think the paralleling of the blood and possession elements are rather significant, though I'm not sure what they'll be doing with that.
Final Bits
1) Isn't Amelia rather young to be Claire's mother?
2) "Stunt demon number three." Hee!
3) The actress playing Amelia did a great job – like MC, she too had more than one role to play and she did them all quite believably. This role would give any actor a lot to chew on, when you think of everything she had to portray here, and with no audience investment to help her.
4) The actress playing Claire seemed really familiar but I couldn't figure out why.
5) ETA: Almost forgot about Dean's tooth brushing scene -- two weeks in a row!
And now for something somewhat related. Delving into what the show only skimmed over – Sam's state of mind during Dean's absence – is "Out of My Mind" by sweetiejen. I liked how the vid opened with images of grief and obsessiveness. Although he's at a different point now, I like how the vid suggests that Sam has become lost to himself by the whole process.
The vid is full of lovely bits: for example Sam being grabbed as he lays flowers at a grave, and then the rise of Dean's hand out of the grave at the very end. Sam seems to think he's going crazy, but maybe he's just being haunted. I really enjoyed how she paralleled all these activities the boys used to do together, but which Sam now does alone. He isn't adjusting well to it, he's always aware of who isn't there. Sam continues hunting, continues searching for Dean, questions his own sanity, but he goes on. Those moments at 2:57 when the song talks about Dean being a "ghost" in Sam, and it's questionable who Sam even is at that point, it's like his old self, too, is just a ghost in him now. I think these quick overlays speak so strongly about the following scenes with Ruby, and Sam gaining power. Dean's sacrifice-at-all-cost ethos has sunk into Sam, so that he's ready to go down the most appalling paths if it will get him his goal at the end. But who is Dean going to find when he does return? The vid leaves a number of questions open that we can fill in as we like.