(finally back and able to reply! thanks for putting the post back up! :-)
I might be alone in my reactions to the ep because I mostly liked it, even though Sam and Bobby's behavior baffled the hell out of me. It felt as if the writers had two betas, each with totally different takes on the story and the characters, and the writers tried to satisfy everyone, with predictably unsatisfactory results! :-)
Sam had to be all over the place: justifying a deception by claiming he wanted to get Dean the life he wanted for himself but wouldn't take for himself and Bobby agreed with him, but showing very little investment in said life, to the point where by the end of the hour he seems to consider it a given that Dean should walk away from it.
This is the part about Sam's behavior that I couldn't figure out at all. It seemed to me more likely that, at the end of the ep, Sam would have said something like, "It was great hunting with you, bro. We're outta here now, but call if you need us." And then made puppy eyes to get Dean to admit that maybe, just maybe he missed the old life. Then, we could have had a couple of eps of Dean waffling until he finally gets off the fence and returns to hunting.
But the way it played out made Sam look extra special duplicitous to me--as if he were hiding some other, more important/sinister secrets from Dean about his missing year and the reason he didn't contact Dean (especially given the flickering street light--zomg a demon approacheth!--from the end of last season's finale)--which I don't think was the intention of the writers. I don't think that we were supposed to suspect Sam's motives here.
Dean's the newbie who isn't respected by anyone else in that team because he lived in a house with InStyle Magazine
This part was so bizarre to me, especially since Sam and Dean seemed to be considered major bad-ass hunters (not to mention the fact other hunters were gunning for them after they started the apocalypse and Sam and Dean kept eluding them). I mean, after being trained to be a hunter since he was 4 years old, killing all kinds of monsters, demons, and angels, one year out of the game and *poof* Dean is no longer considered to be a 'professional'? Huh? That left me scratching my head.
The mocking about golf, etc. was especially baffling since Samuel, Deanna, and Mary all lived in a nice house complete with books, magazines, records, and frilly curtains, too. Not to mention that we've seen other hunters living in nice suburban-type houses. It all made me wonder if the Campbells have a bad name of being batshitnuts as hunters, like Gordon did. With these folks as examples, no wonder Mary wanted out!
It seemed almost like Dean had to stay with Lisa and Sam because it was the only place where he was treated like a man.
I see what you mean, but I didn't quite get that vibe. To me, I got the sense that Dean actually liked the life he was living with Lisa--possibly especially the part of having a foster-son--but that he couldn't make peace with the fact that his happiness was coming at the expense of Sam's suffering. Also, I think that Lisa's conversation with him at Bobby's (which, btw, I think was one of the better written scenes in the whole show!) made him realize that he wasn't imposing upon Lisa and Ben, rather that they truly wanted him as part of the family, PTSD, OCD, and all. So now, he might be able to have both things: this family he is now part of, and the knowledge that Sam is alive and well. (Granted I might be over-reading the ep!)
I'm really hoping that they don't end up killing off Lisa and Ben. I'm probably in a teeny tiny minority here, but I actually like the Dean, Lisa, Ben dynamic.
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I might be alone in my reactions to the ep because I mostly liked it, even though Sam and Bobby's behavior baffled the hell out of me. It felt as if the writers had two betas, each with totally different takes on the story and the characters, and the writers tried to satisfy everyone, with predictably unsatisfactory results! :-)
Sam had to be all over the place: justifying a deception by claiming he wanted to get Dean the life he wanted for himself but wouldn't take for himself and Bobby agreed with him, but showing very little investment in said life, to the point where by the end of the hour he seems to consider it a given that Dean should walk away from it.
This is the part about Sam's behavior that I couldn't figure out at all. It seemed to me more likely that, at the end of the ep, Sam would have said something like, "It was great hunting with you, bro. We're outta here now, but call if you need us." And then made puppy eyes to get Dean to admit that maybe, just maybe he missed the old life. Then, we could have had a couple of eps of Dean waffling until he finally gets off the fence and returns to hunting.
But the way it played out made Sam look extra special duplicitous to me--as if he were hiding some other, more important/sinister secrets from Dean about his missing year and the reason he didn't contact Dean (especially given the flickering street light--zomg a demon approacheth!--from the end of last season's finale)--which I don't think was the intention of the writers. I don't think that we were supposed to suspect Sam's motives here.
Dean's the newbie who isn't respected by anyone else in that team because he lived in a house with InStyle Magazine
This part was so bizarre to me, especially since Sam and Dean seemed to be considered major bad-ass hunters (not to mention the fact other hunters were gunning for them after they started the apocalypse and Sam and Dean kept eluding them). I mean, after being trained to be a hunter since he was 4 years old, killing all kinds of monsters, demons, and angels, one year out of the game and *poof* Dean is no longer considered to be a 'professional'? Huh? That left me scratching my head.
The mocking about golf, etc. was especially baffling since Samuel, Deanna, and Mary all lived in a nice house complete with books, magazines, records, and frilly curtains, too. Not to mention that we've seen other hunters living in nice suburban-type houses. It all made me wonder if the Campbells have a bad name of being batshitnuts as hunters, like Gordon did. With these folks as examples, no wonder Mary wanted out!
It seemed almost like Dean had to stay with Lisa and Sam because it was the only place where he was treated like a man.
I see what you mean, but I didn't quite get that vibe. To me, I got the sense that Dean actually liked the life he was living with Lisa--possibly especially the part of having a foster-son--but that he couldn't make peace with the fact that his happiness was coming at the expense of Sam's suffering. Also, I think that Lisa's conversation with him at Bobby's (which, btw, I think was one of the better written scenes in the whole show!) made him realize that he wasn't imposing upon Lisa and Ben, rather that they truly wanted him as part of the family, PTSD, OCD, and all. So now, he might be able to have both things: this family he is now part of, and the knowledge that Sam is alive and well. (Granted I might be over-reading the ep!)
I'm really hoping that they don't end up killing off Lisa and Ben. I'm probably in a teeny tiny minority here, but I actually like the Dean, Lisa, Ben dynamic.