Team free will!
May. 19th, 2010 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I was wondering whether or not to post something about the Supernatural season finale. At first I thought not to, since my thoughts are still kind of disjointed, but then ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
losseniaiel watched it herself, and I realised I had some stuff to say. This normally falls under the category of 'stuff I'd post about on Wordpress', but the slight incoherence suggests that it's probably more suitable for my LJ.
This show has always, always appealed to me because, at its heart, it tells one of my favourite stories: misfits save the world. Why do I enjoy seeing this story being told a thousand times? It's because although the basic theme is the same, the reasons for the misfits being misfits are always different, and the worlds they save always need saving for slightly different reasons. Buffy is not Dean Winchester is not Mal Reynolds is not Elspeth Gordie is not Mario Ferrone.
The characters in Supernatural - the Winchester brothers, and an ever-changing group of others (I hesitate to call them 'secondary characters') - are misfits because they struggle with emotions and connections. They cannot deal with, process or express emotions, and they cannot form meaningful relationships - or rather, they struggle to articulate how much said meaningful relationships mean to them. Everything is so repressed and bottled up insides - feelings (of fear, of self-hatred, of rage, of despair) and words are internalised, never demonstrated or spoken. On watching it, I was struck by how, for the main characters (Dean in particular, but all of them have it to a certain extent), words seemed to be forced out with great effort as a sort of desperate, last resort. Unlike the characters of a Whedon show, who use words as weapons both defensive and offensive, the Winchesters and their gang are repeatedly tricked, deceived and manipulated by words, and as such, they don't trust them.
Because they don't have this verbal weapon that the Whedonverse characters possess, characters in Supernatural rely much more on actions and deeds to get their point across. The most powerful moments in the series are those where words are undercut with dramatic gestures - Castiel's spreading of his wings, to show the doubting Dean his true nature, Bobby's speech to Dean where he gets a gun and bullet out of his desk drawer to illustrate how close he is, every day, to ending his life, Castiel beating the crap out of Dean, etc etc.
All this was underscored by the finale. These four characters (Dean, Sam, Cas and Bobby) all struggle with words, feelings and relationships. But they're good with actions and dramatic gestures. So the finale was riddled with actions and gestures that demonstrated the depths of the bonds between all of them. None of them ever said, 'I love you' or 'I trust you' to one another (I don't think), and yet their every action expressed those words. It was utterly perfect, and utterly beautiful.
Note, of course, that this entire season hinged on words, their power and their ability to deceive. Nothing could happen until Dean (and then Adam) and Sam said 'yes'. In light of how much the brothers distrust slippery, tricksy language, it's significant how this was resolved. Sam, the brother who has shown the greatest penchant for being deceived by words, masters the ability to deceive through words himself, saying yes and yet ultimately prevailing (at least as much as being trapped in Hell can be said to be 'prevailing'). In this way, the brothers' (and Cas' and Bobby's) actions and deeds outwit the deception of words, a triumph of the emotionally screwed up misfits.
That's all I want to say about what I see as the main theme of the series (and in particular of this season), but I just have a couple of other points to add.
1. I am so happy that Sam FINALLY HAD A GO OF GETTING IT RIGHT. I've always come down more on the Sam side of things (I like my men morally ambiguous, yes), and it always infuriated me that, time and time again he would make a decision based on moral greyness for the sake of expediency, and time and time again he would be deceived and screw up. This time, he made such a decision, but with the support and agreement of Dean and the others, and managed to save the day (and the entire world). I admit I cheered a little bit!
2. That being said, there were some flaws. The whole thing felt a bit too rushed. Aslosseniaiel remarked, the last 10 minutes could easily have been an entirely separate episode.
3. Some people have been reacting with disbelief to Dean's retreat to white picket-fenced comforts at the end of the episode, saying that it's completely out of character. No, what would be out of character would be for him to remain there forever. I don't read Dean's arrival at Lisa's house as his enthusiastic embracing of ordinary apple pie life. I see it as a grief-stricken retreat to a place where he feels safe. Remember, he's just seen his two brothers go tumbling into Hell.
4. If Chuck is God, does this mean that the writers are making some comment about the writer-viewer relationship? And what does that make the creators of fanworks, in light of Becky and Chuck's relationship? :D (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
5. Ass-butt.
losseniaiel watched it herself, and I realised I had some stuff to say. This normally falls under the category of 'stuff I'd post about on Wordpress', but the slight incoherence suggests that it's probably more suitable for my LJ.This show has always, always appealed to me because, at its heart, it tells one of my favourite stories: misfits save the world. Why do I enjoy seeing this story being told a thousand times? It's because although the basic theme is the same, the reasons for the misfits being misfits are always different, and the worlds they save always need saving for slightly different reasons. Buffy is not Dean Winchester is not Mal Reynolds is not Elspeth Gordie is not Mario Ferrone.
The characters in Supernatural - the Winchester brothers, and an ever-changing group of others (I hesitate to call them 'secondary characters') - are misfits because they struggle with emotions and connections. They cannot deal with, process or express emotions, and they cannot form meaningful relationships - or rather, they struggle to articulate how much said meaningful relationships mean to them. Everything is so repressed and bottled up insides - feelings (of fear, of self-hatred, of rage, of despair) and words are internalised, never demonstrated or spoken. On watching it, I was struck by how, for the main characters (Dean in particular, but all of them have it to a certain extent), words seemed to be forced out with great effort as a sort of desperate, last resort. Unlike the characters of a Whedon show, who use words as weapons both defensive and offensive, the Winchesters and their gang are repeatedly tricked, deceived and manipulated by words, and as such, they don't trust them.
Because they don't have this verbal weapon that the Whedonverse characters possess, characters in Supernatural rely much more on actions and deeds to get their point across. The most powerful moments in the series are those where words are undercut with dramatic gestures - Castiel's spreading of his wings, to show the doubting Dean his true nature, Bobby's speech to Dean where he gets a gun and bullet out of his desk drawer to illustrate how close he is, every day, to ending his life, Castiel beating the crap out of Dean, etc etc.
All this was underscored by the finale. These four characters (Dean, Sam, Cas and Bobby) all struggle with words, feelings and relationships. But they're good with actions and dramatic gestures. So the finale was riddled with actions and gestures that demonstrated the depths of the bonds between all of them. None of them ever said, 'I love you' or 'I trust you' to one another (I don't think), and yet their every action expressed those words. It was utterly perfect, and utterly beautiful.
Note, of course, that this entire season hinged on words, their power and their ability to deceive. Nothing could happen until Dean (and then Adam) and Sam said 'yes'. In light of how much the brothers distrust slippery, tricksy language, it's significant how this was resolved. Sam, the brother who has shown the greatest penchant for being deceived by words, masters the ability to deceive through words himself, saying yes and yet ultimately prevailing (at least as much as being trapped in Hell can be said to be 'prevailing'). In this way, the brothers' (and Cas' and Bobby's) actions and deeds outwit the deception of words, a triumph of the emotionally screwed up misfits.
That's all I want to say about what I see as the main theme of the series (and in particular of this season), but I just have a couple of other points to add.
1. I am so happy that Sam FINALLY HAD A GO OF GETTING IT RIGHT. I've always come down more on the Sam side of things (I like my men morally ambiguous, yes), and it always infuriated me that, time and time again he would make a decision based on moral greyness for the sake of expediency, and time and time again he would be deceived and screw up. This time, he made such a decision, but with the support and agreement of Dean and the others, and managed to save the day (and the entire world). I admit I cheered a little bit!
2. That being said, there were some flaws. The whole thing felt a bit too rushed. As
losseniaiel remarked, the last 10 minutes could easily have been an entirely separate episode.3. Some people have been reacting with disbelief to Dean's retreat to white picket-fenced comforts at the end of the episode, saying that it's completely out of character. No, what would be out of character would be for him to remain there forever. I don't read Dean's arrival at Lisa's house as his enthusiastic embracing of ordinary apple pie life. I see it as a grief-stricken retreat to a place where he feels safe. Remember, he's just seen his two brothers go tumbling into Hell.
4. If Chuck is God, does this mean that the writers are making some comment about the writer-viewer relationship? And what does that make the creators of fanworks, in light of Becky and Chuck's relationship? :D (Sorry, couldn't resist!)
5. Ass-butt.
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 01:47 pm (UTC)2. I think it was flawed because there's going to be a sixth season and they wanted there to be a hook for it. Otherwise the ending would have been perfect (and considering Kripke only planned to have five seasons - the ending it was always going to have.
3. If you remember in What is and What Never Should Be, Dean has the chance of living a perfect life with his mother not being killed by Azazel (or I guess, Brady) and he throws it all away because he knows it's not the one he's meant for. I think he'll probably have a go at being the white picket-fence guy, but will either be failing at it by the time we see him in the sixth season, or will already have flown the nest.
4. The Chuck being God thing is weird. Why didn't Dean's amulet glow in his presence? Some part of me now likes to think that Becky was an angel of some sort or something. One of God's groupies, perhaps? :P
5. Best. Word. Ever. *glomps you*
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 02:26 pm (UTC)2. Yes, I agree with your reasoning, I just really dislike rushed finales. They always seem to occur when a show's renewal has been screwed up in some way (eg Season 2 Dollhouse, where the show wasn't going to be renewed, so they had to cram five seasons' worth of resolution into 40 minutes).
3. I agree completely, which is why I don't agree with the people who are freaking out and saying that Dean's actions are out of character. As I said, it's not Dean riding off into the sunset to enjoy a lifetime of peace and tranquility, it's Dean retreating in shock and misery in the face of his brother's descent into Hell!
4. Nice to know we'll have some things to be explained in the next season. While I'm looking forward to Season 6:
DeanOrpheus andSamEurydice (note, this is no comment on Sam and Dean's relationship; I'm not a Wincester, but the parallels are too good for me to resist making this allusion), I want it to be about more than rescuing Sam from Hell.5. Indeed. Very much so.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 04:07 pm (UTC)It's not at all out of character. In some ways, it's what he's always thought he wanted (note the fact that his best memories in the heaven episode are distinctly of the white picket fence type). It's a place of safety for him, and if we want to be all psychobabble about it, reversion to childhood. He's not embracing apple pie life so much as he feels he was nothing left; with Lucifer imprisoned and Sam gone, he has nothing left to fight for and desperately needs the safety of a nest. Without a place of safety as you have in many other series (such as Serenity in Firefly), he has nothing but an idea to retreat to. My problem would be if this was where we were leaving Dean: this is not a happy ending for him. In some ways, while he thinks this is what he wants, it is the antithesis of a happy ending as it represents the end of the life he and Sam have lead.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 07:06 pm (UTC)They do have the Impala, though...
In some ways, while he thinks this is what he wants, it is the antithesis of a happy ending as it represents the end of the life he and Sam have lead.
Oh, absolutely.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 07:17 pm (UTC)I never expected to like the Impala; I thought I'd find it gimicky. But I do like it very much.
I didn't think I was the person you were commenting about; it just sparked thoughts in myself about why that ending made me so down.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 09:03 pm (UTC)YES, this. People kept making a big deal about that, but it seemed obvious (to me, anyway) that he was only there because he promised Sam he'd go, but once he gets his bearings back, he'll leave again.
4. A friend noticed that Chuck's clothing in that final "God" scene was different, and that previously Chuck was really Chuck. Her theory is: God stepped in at the end to finish Chuck's story while the real Chuck was off boning Madam what's-her-name.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 09:30 pm (UTC)Also, love your icon, of course!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-19 09:46 pm (UTC)Ass-butt is my new favorite word. :)