Spikeface (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} spikeface) wrote,@ 2008-02-19 00:03:00 |
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"Mystery Spot" Thoughts
It was at the end of this episode that I realized how much of my emotional health is invested in this show. I love both Sam and Dean, but I realized that aw, damn, I love Sam and Dean. That first time Dean died just killed me. There was so much fear on his face, and he couldn't even say anything. Gah. I identified with Sam a lot in this episode, and most of that came from how much I loved Dean.
I also loved the Groundhog Day Device. It worked out really well on Xena, and it worked great, if in a very different way, here. It had a lot of the same humor (light-hearted killings, anticipation of other characters' words and actions etc.) but had a much bigger emotional toll. I liked how quickly Sam caught on at first, but how his efficiency at dealing with the situation waned as he watched Dean die over and over again.
I'm also really liking the Trickster. He's shaping up to be my favorite new character of the third season, and I hope we see more of him. Of the pagan god figures we've seen, he rocks the hardest, since his hang ups are sugar and fitting consequences, not freaky leather suits or Christmas sacrifices. I don't know how much of his power is manipulating time and space and how much is just fucking with Sam's head, but he's definitely powerful. I kind of doubt that he's omnipotent enough to manipulate time, but I definitely think he could create a time warp if he wanted to. I also doubt he's playing any demon politics, since he's so generally self-centered. I think his interest in Sam and Dean is personal, not political. The Trickster, like any ancient god figure, is very confident in his right to interfere with the lives of mortals, and Sam and Dean seem to be his favorites. Unfortunately, his plan has apparently backfired: instead of making Sam less focused on saving Dean and more focused on the demon war, Sam is now even more obsessed about not losing Dean. It's a nice traditional trope: instead of changing a character's fate, he seems to be securing it. Sam's closer to being a demon king than ever, just to save Dean.
I think what I loved so much about this episode was the way it brought you into Sam's head. Usually as an audience we get both the boys in equal measure, watching them from the outside. With this episode a lot was from Sam's perspective: we relive the day with him, conscious of the repeating days, unlike Dean. We also stay on earth when Dean kicks it, instead of visiting Hell (or wherever the Trickster put Dean if he wasn't actually killing Dean and then manipulating time and space). Other episodes, like the Djinn episode, have shown how much Dean needs Sam, but here we get how Sam needs Dean. Even before those dark three months after the fateful Wednesday, you can see how much Sam leans on Dean, how much he relies on him for. It's Dean who gets him up in the morning, who gets him to a diner and gets all excited about breakfast, who cracks all the jokes. When Dean's there, we witness how he throws himself into everything he does, how he sings along to that same stupid song, how he always gargles with abandon, how every damn day he gets excited about a pig in a poke. When Dean dies we see the world the way Sam sees it: the colors seem to bleed out, and our sense of time becomes blurred.
I also loved seeing in a detailed way how the boys live together when they aren't going over exposition or cleaning their weapons or having tearful heart to hearts. And they're so close. They brush their teeth together, for crying out loud. When Sam is watching Dean gargle with his broody face of death, Dean is like "What's wrong?" rather than "It's not a peep show, you freak."
I wonder what the ramifications of this episode will be for the rest of the season. I really hope we see the Trickster again. He's a very powerful figure, and it would be a shame to use him as only the occasional plot device. I also hope that Sam will be visibly affected by those three months he spent without Dean, methodically brushing his teeth, even though at the end he seemed prepared to shrug it off as "just a dream."
My only real complaint about the episode was that Sam just cut his shirt open a bit to remove that bullet. Very butch, yes, but come on, Sam can't take his shirt off every goddamn once in a while? Inquiring fangirls need to drool!
Oh, and I can't figure out the title. I know that the fun house thing was called a Mystery Spot, but that seems like a red herring, since it turned out to be irrelevant. Is the Mystery Spot Sam's weakness for Dean? The Trickster's role in the demon war? Sam's experiences in general? I'm probably over thinking it, but SPN is usually pretty good about coming up with significant titles.
It was at the end of this episode that I realized how much of my emotional health is invested in this show. I love both Sam and Dean, but I realized that aw, damn, I love Sam and Dean. That first time Dean died just killed me. There was so much fear on his face, and he couldn't even say anything. Gah. I identified with Sam a lot in this episode, and most of that came from how much I loved Dean.
I also loved the Groundhog Day Device. It worked out really well on Xena, and it worked great, if in a very different way, here. It had a lot of the same humor (light-hearted killings, anticipation of other characters' words and actions etc.) but had a much bigger emotional toll. I liked how quickly Sam caught on at first, but how his efficiency at dealing with the situation waned as he watched Dean die over and over again.
I'm also really liking the Trickster. He's shaping up to be my favorite new character of the third season, and I hope we see more of him. Of the pagan god figures we've seen, he rocks the hardest, since his hang ups are sugar and fitting consequences, not freaky leather suits or Christmas sacrifices. I don't know how much of his power is manipulating time and space and how much is just fucking with Sam's head, but he's definitely powerful. I kind of doubt that he's omnipotent enough to manipulate time, but I definitely think he could create a time warp if he wanted to. I also doubt he's playing any demon politics, since he's so generally self-centered. I think his interest in Sam and Dean is personal, not political. The Trickster, like any ancient god figure, is very confident in his right to interfere with the lives of mortals, and Sam and Dean seem to be his favorites. Unfortunately, his plan has apparently backfired: instead of making Sam less focused on saving Dean and more focused on the demon war, Sam is now even more obsessed about not losing Dean. It's a nice traditional trope: instead of changing a character's fate, he seems to be securing it. Sam's closer to being a demon king than ever, just to save Dean.
I think what I loved so much about this episode was the way it brought you into Sam's head. Usually as an audience we get both the boys in equal measure, watching them from the outside. With this episode a lot was from Sam's perspective: we relive the day with him, conscious of the repeating days, unlike Dean. We also stay on earth when Dean kicks it, instead of visiting Hell (or wherever the Trickster put Dean if he wasn't actually killing Dean and then manipulating time and space). Other episodes, like the Djinn episode, have shown how much Dean needs Sam, but here we get how Sam needs Dean. Even before those dark three months after the fateful Wednesday, you can see how much Sam leans on Dean, how much he relies on him for. It's Dean who gets him up in the morning, who gets him to a diner and gets all excited about breakfast, who cracks all the jokes. When Dean's there, we witness how he throws himself into everything he does, how he sings along to that same stupid song, how he always gargles with abandon, how every damn day he gets excited about a pig in a poke. When Dean dies we see the world the way Sam sees it: the colors seem to bleed out, and our sense of time becomes blurred.
I also loved seeing in a detailed way how the boys live together when they aren't going over exposition or cleaning their weapons or having tearful heart to hearts. And they're so close. They brush their teeth together, for crying out loud. When Sam is watching Dean gargle with his broody face of death, Dean is like "What's wrong?" rather than "It's not a peep show, you freak."
I wonder what the ramifications of this episode will be for the rest of the season. I really hope we see the Trickster again. He's a very powerful figure, and it would be a shame to use him as only the occasional plot device. I also hope that Sam will be visibly affected by those three months he spent without Dean, methodically brushing his teeth, even though at the end he seemed prepared to shrug it off as "just a dream."
My only real complaint about the episode was that Sam just cut his shirt open a bit to remove that bullet. Very butch, yes, but come on, Sam can't take his shirt off every goddamn once in a while? Inquiring fangirls need to drool!
Oh, and I can't figure out the title. I know that the fun house thing was called a Mystery Spot, but that seems like a red herring, since it turned out to be irrelevant. Is the Mystery Spot Sam's weakness for Dean? The Trickster's role in the demon war? Sam's experiences in general? I'm probably over thinking it, but SPN is usually pretty good about coming up with significant titles.
