Episode Reaction SPN 4.11

[chasingtides]

So, um, incest anyone?

I liked the episode up to a point.

Where did the brother come from? I mean... that could be a really, really interesting thing to play with on this show, especially since they've already crossed the incest line in this episode. That could have been really cool, instead of just dropping the brother in as an evil!Dean plot device.

And the info drop at the end? I hope it's not becoming a pattern. Because... Okay, I think we can incorporate Dean's issues into the episodes a bit better than just having the last three minutes be a random scene with the boys standing next to the Impala while Dean tells Sam a story about Hell. (Also, Sam? Hug your brother.)

I'm really happy with the dark!boys in this episode. They both killed humans. Dean was heading toward the darkside in Hell. Well, I'd like it if they were both human, but they're equals now, if that makes sense? It really helps with my fic writing. All of the problems I was having with Dean and my Big Bang fic? Totally gone. I feel like the emotions and things I was playing with are canon now - Dean was dark, has been changed by Hell and Sam is totally willing to kill for Dean.

Most of the episode was pretty good. I think the family has never read Steven King, Snopes, or heard a fairy tale, but I'm sure people like that exist. The doll head was really creepy. And the fact that they were human really got me (although a lot of the lines reminded me of Torchwood's Countrycide).

I just wish that it didn't fall apart in the last quarter. It could have been an exceptionally strong stand alone episode.

But I am so freaking happy that Dean is both strong and kind of dark. He totally can hold his own with Sam now. It's... I think it relieves a lot of tension that's been around since season two.

(Also, the LJ cut came from the episode commentary at mishaland, where we decided that Sam is Shaggy, Dean is Velma, Castiel is Fred, and the Impala is Scooby. I think Ruby could be Daphne. I really want to get a picture of this.)

Comments

[static-pixie.livejournal.com]

This actually reminded me of this episode of The X-Files, Home, actually,what with the creepy incest out in the country themes (only that ep was actually more unsettling).

I hated the info-drop as it was happening but thinking about it, I think that was about as effective as they could make it. Because if they put it in anywhere else in the episode, that's what the final scene between Sam and Dean would have been about and they'd have hashed it out and it wouldn't have been nearly as much of a punch to the gut. Like that really hurt hearing Dean say that and then just having it end. No resolution, no forgiveness, no nothing.

And I mean, Sam can't hug him after he says something like that. Because that would be like his saying, 'it's going to be ok' when it's not and Dean doesn't want it to be. It would be a kind of trite response to something to horrific to contemplate. I think that's the big problem now. What Dean's gone through is just so huge and alienating, there's this huge chasm gaping in between them and Sam just can't know how to respond to the things he's being told.

...I am so much more articulate in people's comments than I am in my own entries. XD

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

I know he can't hug Dean... but Sam's doing this thing - and I noticed this as I rewatched the earlier season four episodes over hiatus - where he's always hovering in the background and darting in to save Dean and it's making me jumpy.