Quick Reaction: 5x16 Dark Side Of The Moon

[hells_half_acre]

One man's heaven...

Wow, that was a depressing episode...but, let's start at the beginning.

The death scene: Awesome! I love how some things remain true...Dean is still PISSED that someone killed Sam. I love how beautiful Sam looks when he's dead. That seems a weird thing to say, but ...yeah, it's like when young people sleep and they look beautiful and innocent and YOUNG.

I LOVE the idea that Dean and Sam are the elite of the Hunting world - that you don't want Dean Winchester on your ass. I love that Dean KNEW he was coming back. 

The first memory of Dean's in heaven nearly had me crying. I don't even have words....just, the absolutely love for his brother and happiness because SAM was happy.

Cas telling him he's in heaven and asking him what he sees - "some see a river...for you it's a road" I love the reference to mythology there.

And finding Sam in the memory of Thanksgiving was amusing...and then Dean's "I wuv hugs" shirt...hilarious, just for the fact that we have Sam saying "wuv." Of course, it immediately becomes heartbreaking when Sam tries calling to his mother and she ignores him.

Then we learn that John and Mary's marriage was only perfect after she died. And man, how I LOVED Sam's line that he didn't realize/forgot "how long you've been cleaning up Dad's messes." Man, it upped my heartbreak for Dean ten-fold and who knew that was possible?

Then we get Sam in Flagstaff - apparently Sam ran away for two weeks once, and Dean thought he was dead and got in trouble. Meanwhile Sam was living it up and actually had a dog - of course named Bones, that's adorable. And then the pieces start falling into place, because this is the second happy memory of Sam's that doesn't involve Dean whatsoever - meanwhile Dean's very first happy memory was all about Sam.

Then to top it off, we get the night Sam ditched them for Stanford - and Dean suddenly realizes that all Sam's memories were of Sam alone, or Sam against the world, and Dean didn't factor into any of them, not even as an afterthought. For someone who basically devoted his whole life to keeping Sam safe and happy, that's a pretty hard pill to swallow.

It's cool that Zachariah can't find them even in heaven. Those enochian symbols are tattooed to their ribs on the bodies they left behind, but apparently that's good enough - or maybe it's different finding souls.

ASH!! Nice to see him again...and Pamela. I like Ash's throw-away line about a "practical use of string-theory."

I also like the idea that Ash finds them every time they come to heaven - which really isn't THAT much. I mean, Sam twice, Dean - well, I guess the Trickster really did kill him all those times, but sent him to heaven each time instead of jumpstarting his time in hell?

I don't like Pamela telling Dean to say yes. I really don't. That didn't sit well at all.

Then we get a twisted memory - with Zach using Mary to play on Dean's crippling self-esteem issues. That was just really mean, and I love how upset Sam gets about it. Being all sleazy with their Mum was a nice touch - sure fire way to piss a dude off is to come on to his mother.

Joshua...ok, for this scene, as soon as it changed to "the Garden" my sister was like "*gasp* AWESOME!!" because that's the Bloedel Conservatory and is one of our favorite places in the city! It's true, there's one aspect of living in the city where the show is filmed where it kind of takes you out of the action a bit when you recognize where they are, on the other hand though, it's frickin' awesome on a whole other level.

But then we find out that yes, God is alive and on earth, but no, he will not be intervening further. And man, there was a while there where Joshua was talking, and I really have to watch it again, because he was staring at Dean while he was saying very specific things...and I can't help but think that there's some meaning behind that. Still...

Then the boys wake up on earth, covered in blood. And man, those Hunter's were dumb, because if *I* was going to kill a Winchester, I would make damn sure I immediately salted and burned the bones....but now, those two idiots just left them there.

And then they had to break the news to Castiel - and that just killed me. But the worst, the absolute WORST was the fact that Dean didn't put the amulet back on - that he just ditched it too. That's not just God-EMF Dean, it's a gift from SAM! A symbol of the connection with to your brother that you wore for almost 20 years of your life! And good lord (irony!) how much more depressing can this show get?!

I'm really worried that Sam isn't going to hang on to the amulet. I'm really worried that it's just going to disappear like Dean's ring and bracelet.

Man...I don't even know...I'm worried about a whole ton of stuff.

Anyway, a couple of questions from the episode:
1. If Ash can't find John or Mary in heaven, where are they?
2. There had to be hidden meaning behind Joshua's speech...but what?
3. Why is heaven so goddamn dark? I need to download the episode now so that I can actually see what happens and not just hear it (for those who don't know, the brightness level of my TV is permanently set to "annoyingly dark". THAT + Supernatural, means that this isn't the first time I'll have to rewatch on my computer just to see people's facial expressions.
4. What's Castiel going to do now? I really wished Dean would have hugged him like he did his Mum and told him that God still loved him - but I guess that's a little bit too Touched By An Angel. :-P
5. If God is on earth, where is he?
6. If God is not going to intervene, what are the Winchesters going to do? Give in? Just keep resisting?

Oh man...

So, unlike the show, I'm going to end on a positive note. Susie and I are pretty positive people, we can't really help it. Tonight, Susie turned to me and said:

Susie: You know, they're actually quite lucky if you think about it.
Me: Who?
Susie: Sam and Dean.
Me: How so?
Susie: Well, for most people, once their parents die, they don't ever get to see them again.

Now I'm going download it, because there was a WEALTH of time-line information in there.

Comments

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Though, I still felt for Sam (damn my empathy(, because I've been in those kinds of situations before, where it's like "oh crap, I've been an absolute asshole and now even though I'm trying to apologize, I'm just making it worse..."

I'm sure there was a way Sam could have phrased his apology so that it wouldn't have been an added insult - but, being on the run from Zach wasn't conducive to thinking of it :P

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

Oh I understood Sam and I have totally been in that place where it's "oh crap, I've been an absolute asshole and now even though I'm trying to apologize, I'm just making it worse..." so I got Sam there. And I know that running from Zach and being encountered with his greatest hits and being happy in them and then realizing that they're Dean's worst moments as well as figuring out "This Is Heaven" wasn't really conductive to his thinking.

I think as viewers, we get the ability to see both brothers' standpoints that we forget the characters themselves don't have that objectivity. They only see what they understand, within their own subjective worldview. So even though *WE* know Sam's trying to apologize, trying to explain he didn't think of how the repercussions of his actions influenced Dean, Dean just took Sam's apology as I didn't even think of you...I'm your whole world and there is never a moment when you don't consider me, but this here is a moment where you and your feelings didn't even cross my mind." and it was most definitely colored by his own insecurities.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I think as viewers, we get the ability to see both brothers' standpoints that we forget the characters themselves don't have that objectivity.

Yes! I think this is the main problem with a lot of those out there that overly criticize one brother or the other - they forget that they have the advantage of being on the outside looking in, and can look at the predicament objectively.

The Winchesters, especially when it comes to their relationship, do not have objectivity...as Lisa said, they have the most codependent twisted thing...it no wonder that at the worst of times, they can not deal with it in a healthy way.

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

That's why I try not to be too judgmental of either brother -- they don't get the "whole picture" we get. They just see what their own point of view allows. They don't have the luxury of stepping back and then trying to analyze the other's perspectives. We don't have that luxury in RL -- we have only our limited focus on life, and our subjectivity is colored by our pasts, our current moods, our emotions, where we come from, where we're going. And I treat the characters in that way -- we don't have the foresight in our own lives, and neither do they. They can only be human and deal with their emotions and make choices based on their experiences and emotions in that moment. So, really, neither of them can be blamed.

Also? They really are codependent. And unhealthily so. Neither of them have the best coping mechanisms either -- Dean practically spells out in SAM INTERRUPTED that he gets about 4 hours of sleep per 48 hours and is well on his way to dying of liver cirrhosis. And Sam's not much healthier. He's just less external than Dean. So they aren't going to deal with each other, their relationship, and everything else crashing around them in a well-adjusted manner.

They're both flawed and seriously screwed up and that's why we love them.