Red Sky At Morning: thinky thoughts
(Contains spoilers for all aired episodes of season three of Supernatural.)
Let me start by cheering the apparent demise of "Look, Dad's gone now. We have to carry out his legacy. And that means hunting down as many evil sons of bitches as we possibly can" from the previouslies. I cringe every time it plays – it's such a total over-sell, like if it were in a comic book it'd be distractingly bolded and the character's face would be set in an expression that's supposed to be stony and fiercely determined but winds up just looking constipated. Was the line even in any episode, ever? It's the only time I remember hearing Jensen overdo it, and it grates.
It's not the only thing that seems overdone this season, though. I admit it, I miss the dark blues, the greys, the washed-out greens of the first and second seasons. Not only did they add to the mood of the show, but it meant that when there was color, it popped. The blood red or poisonous ocher of the demons' eyes. Gordon's red plaid shirt, washed out but still impossible to miss in the shadowy colors of the episode. The vivid green grass and blue sky of the wishverse in What Is And What Should Never Be. Even the sleek black gleam of the Impala stood out against the dark, soft, faded colors of the world she drove through.
Now, almost every place they go looks like the wishverse, and along with the noticeable decrease in classic rock – did they run out of material they could get the rights to? – it's changing the feel of the show. But maybe that's the point. A lot is changing this season – a lot has to, just from a story-telling perspective. Things are heating up, and Sam and Dean have to change, have to grow, or the story stagnates into a re-tread of itself.
And growth hurts. No one ever says "hey, it's a learning experience, I'm growing as a person," about something that's fun and easy. And not many people move forward in their personal growth from height to height. One of the many things I love about this show is that it faces the wrongness and failures in its heroes. Dean is damaged, and Sam does have a darkness in him that we've barely glimpsed, and that may have nothing to do with the YED. Sam is damaged, too.
And this season, Bela's around to point that out to them. Well, or to Dean, at least. Oh sure, others have done it too – Bobby springs to mind, God love him. But that's the thing – he loves the boys. Bela doesn't give a damn, so she can go further and say more.
The show is still struggling with how to fit her in, but her character does make sense. It's actually kind of impossible to believe that there would be no one trying to make money off the same things that the hunters either fight or use. Seriously, a gun that can kill anything? And no one's going to want to buy or sell it? Come on.
But Bela isn't there simply because someone realized she must exist, she's there to be Dean's foil, to shine a light on the parts of his character that the writers don't want us to miss, don't want to let us gloss over. And maybe at first glance we'd think the light's trained on their differences: where Bela's focused on separating people from their money, Dean is focused on helping them, protecting them, saving them if he can. Where Bela looks at a guy and sees cannon fodder, Dean sees someone he has to try to save even though the guy insulted the Impala and is clearly a paranoid moron. Bela couldn't care less what happens to him, or to Dean, or to anyone else. She doesn't care that the price of the hand comes at the cost of people's lives every thirty-seven years when the Espírito Santo comes back – she's got a buyer for it and that's all that matters.
Dean, on the other hand, cares. She says he's doing this out of vengeance and obsession, and maybe he was once, but not anymore. However tired he is of the job, he can't not care. It isn't in him.
Their differences, though, throw into sharp relief the ways that they're alike. And they are very alike. They're both cocky and smart-mouthed, and hiding their hearts behind walls six feet thick. They're both smart and extremely capable, too. Bela's an accomplished manipulator, an excellent pick-pocket, and a pretty good shot. And she can pretend all she wants that Dean's stupid or incompetent, but he's still the one she goes to for help. He's the one who disarms the alarm and steals the hand, and he's the one she comes running to when she sees the ship and knows she'll die. He's just as competent as she is, maybe more-so, and she knows it.
And – bonus! – she's even more sexually aggressive than Dean is, and wow, does he not know how to handle that. She's hot and she wants to have angry sex with him, and that should be an automatic win, right? But he can't let her be the one to say it. He can't let her be the one who wants it, all on her own, for herself. He can't let her beat him to the come-on. So what's he come back with? The prototypical feminist response to men like Dean: "Don't objectify me."
AHHHHAHAHAHAhahahahahaomg*snarf* And the look on his face! So confused, such wounded pride! L.M.A.O. Dean, dude, remember this the next time you're hitting on some sweet young thing whose name you'll forget before you tell her goodbye in the morning – if you even stick around 'til then.
But anyway, back to the point.
For all their differences, Dean and Bela are alike in more than just superficial ways. So when Dean tells Bela she's damaged and she throws it right back at him, it sticks, because they are alike. He is damaged, and there's no getting away from that. They're both broken somewhere down deep.
That's reiterated in the final conversation between Sam and Dean in this episode. Since last season Sam and Dean have been slowly changing places, with Sam becoming the determined hunter and Dean just wanting a normal life – something he's so sure he can't have that he gives up his soul so Sam can have it, except Sam doesn't want it now, he just wants his brother beside him. And now, with less than a year to live, Dean's started talking. Well, or at least, started to start to.
"I want you to know I understand why you did it," he begins. "Why you went after the Crossroads Demon." Sam sighs in an oddly Deanish fashion, but Dean seems oblivious, or presses on anyway, determined. "Situations were reversed I guess I'd've done the same thing." Cue irritated eyeroll from Sam. "I mean I'm not blind," Dean goes on in a lovely piece of irony, because wow, how blind is he when it comes to this with Sam? "I see what you're going through with this whole deal. Me goin' away and all that. But you're gonna be okay."
"You think so," Sam says. It's not a question. More a, "wow, you're really fucked up if you think that."
Dean ignores it. "You'll keep hunting. Y'know, you'll live your life. You're stronger than me. You are."
And either Dean's too intent to notice how angry Sam is getting, or he sees it, but he can't let himself acknowledge it. Dean has to be right about this, or else he's going to Hell for nothing.
"You are," he insists, "you'll get over it. But I want you to know I'm sorry. I'm sorry for – putting you through all this, I am."
Fangirls everywhere sigh with adoration. Dean has apologized to Sam. Now it's Sam's turn to tell Dean it'll be okay, he's going to find a way to save him, and then there'll be that moment when there's a hug sort of stranded in the air between them, and then the credits will roll.
Except that Sam's had enough. "You know what, Dean," he says. "Go screw yourself."
Dean's surprised. Fangirls are shocked. But Sam's got every right to be angry. That isn't to say that Dean didn't have the right to sell his soul – it's his soul, he can do what he wants with it. But it's a symptom of his deep crazy that he thinks Sam could ever, ever be okay with it. It's nuts, and it totally dismisses the deep and profound love that Sam has for Dean.
And it really pisses Sam off.
"I don't want an apology from you," Sam says, and he's getting angrier with every word. "And by the way, I'm a big boy now, I can take care of myself."
"Oh well excuse me," Dean starts, but Sam just rides right over him.
"So would you please quit worrying about me? I mean that's the whole problem in the first place – I don't want you to worry about me Dean, I want you to worry about you. I want you to give a crap that you're dying!"
Because this is what it all comes down to for Sam and Dean, and I expect that this is what's either going to damn them both or save them: Sam and Dean each cares more for the other than for himself. Dean wants Sam to live, and Sam wants Dean to live and to want to live. So Dean sells his soul to save Sam, and Sam...
...Sam shot Casey without blinking, even though she was just standing there, wasn't doing anything. He shot the Crossroads Demon like a parting insult. Killed two human beings and hasn't shown an instant's remorse.
And I don't think it was for the sake of the people whom the demons in them had yet to corrupt; he didn't have the look of a guy who was doing something because it was right. Sam has a little fallen angel on his shoulder, and a love so fierce he'll kill for it. It's looking more and more like he's going damn himself to save Dean, and what's Dean going to do when that happens?
The storm's still coming, and Sam and Dean are smack in the middle of it. Red sky at morning, indeed.
"Can I shoot her?"
"...not in public."
"...not in public."
Let me start by cheering the apparent demise of "Look, Dad's gone now. We have to carry out his legacy. And that means hunting down as many evil sons of bitches as we possibly can" from the previouslies. I cringe every time it plays – it's such a total over-sell, like if it were in a comic book it'd be distractingly bolded and the character's face would be set in an expression that's supposed to be stony and fiercely determined but winds up just looking constipated. Was the line even in any episode, ever? It's the only time I remember hearing Jensen overdo it, and it grates.
It's not the only thing that seems overdone this season, though. I admit it, I miss the dark blues, the greys, the washed-out greens of the first and second seasons. Not only did they add to the mood of the show, but it meant that when there was color, it popped. The blood red or poisonous ocher of the demons' eyes. Gordon's red plaid shirt, washed out but still impossible to miss in the shadowy colors of the episode. The vivid green grass and blue sky of the wishverse in What Is And What Should Never Be. Even the sleek black gleam of the Impala stood out against the dark, soft, faded colors of the world she drove through.
Now, almost every place they go looks like the wishverse, and along with the noticeable decrease in classic rock – did they run out of material they could get the rights to? – it's changing the feel of the show. But maybe that's the point. A lot is changing this season – a lot has to, just from a story-telling perspective. Things are heating up, and Sam and Dean have to change, have to grow, or the story stagnates into a re-tread of itself.
And growth hurts. No one ever says "hey, it's a learning experience, I'm growing as a person," about something that's fun and easy. And not many people move forward in their personal growth from height to height. One of the many things I love about this show is that it faces the wrongness and failures in its heroes. Dean is damaged, and Sam does have a darkness in him that we've barely glimpsed, and that may have nothing to do with the YED. Sam is damaged, too.
And this season, Bela's around to point that out to them. Well, or to Dean, at least. Oh sure, others have done it too – Bobby springs to mind, God love him. But that's the thing – he loves the boys. Bela doesn't give a damn, so she can go further and say more.
The show is still struggling with how to fit her in, but her character does make sense. It's actually kind of impossible to believe that there would be no one trying to make money off the same things that the hunters either fight or use. Seriously, a gun that can kill anything? And no one's going to want to buy or sell it? Come on.
But Bela isn't there simply because someone realized she must exist, she's there to be Dean's foil, to shine a light on the parts of his character that the writers don't want us to miss, don't want to let us gloss over. And maybe at first glance we'd think the light's trained on their differences: where Bela's focused on separating people from their money, Dean is focused on helping them, protecting them, saving them if he can. Where Bela looks at a guy and sees cannon fodder, Dean sees someone he has to try to save even though the guy insulted the Impala and is clearly a paranoid moron. Bela couldn't care less what happens to him, or to Dean, or to anyone else. She doesn't care that the price of the hand comes at the cost of people's lives every thirty-seven years when the Espírito Santo comes back – she's got a buyer for it and that's all that matters.
Dean, on the other hand, cares. She says he's doing this out of vengeance and obsession, and maybe he was once, but not anymore. However tired he is of the job, he can't not care. It isn't in him.
Their differences, though, throw into sharp relief the ways that they're alike. And they are very alike. They're both cocky and smart-mouthed, and hiding their hearts behind walls six feet thick. They're both smart and extremely capable, too. Bela's an accomplished manipulator, an excellent pick-pocket, and a pretty good shot. And she can pretend all she wants that Dean's stupid or incompetent, but he's still the one she goes to for help. He's the one who disarms the alarm and steals the hand, and he's the one she comes running to when she sees the ship and knows she'll die. He's just as competent as she is, maybe more-so, and she knows it.
And – bonus! – she's even more sexually aggressive than Dean is, and wow, does he not know how to handle that. She's hot and she wants to have angry sex with him, and that should be an automatic win, right? But he can't let her be the one to say it. He can't let her be the one who wants it, all on her own, for herself. He can't let her beat him to the come-on. So what's he come back with? The prototypical feminist response to men like Dean: "Don't objectify me."
AHHHHAHAHAHAhahahahahaomg*snarf* And the look on his face! So confused, such wounded pride! L.M.A.O. Dean, dude, remember this the next time you're hitting on some sweet young thing whose name you'll forget before you tell her goodbye in the morning – if you even stick around 'til then.
But anyway, back to the point.
For all their differences, Dean and Bela are alike in more than just superficial ways. So when Dean tells Bela she's damaged and she throws it right back at him, it sticks, because they are alike. He is damaged, and there's no getting away from that. They're both broken somewhere down deep.
That's reiterated in the final conversation between Sam and Dean in this episode. Since last season Sam and Dean have been slowly changing places, with Sam becoming the determined hunter and Dean just wanting a normal life – something he's so sure he can't have that he gives up his soul so Sam can have it, except Sam doesn't want it now, he just wants his brother beside him. And now, with less than a year to live, Dean's started talking. Well, or at least, started to start to.
"I want you to know I understand why you did it," he begins. "Why you went after the Crossroads Demon." Sam sighs in an oddly Deanish fashion, but Dean seems oblivious, or presses on anyway, determined. "Situations were reversed I guess I'd've done the same thing." Cue irritated eyeroll from Sam. "I mean I'm not blind," Dean goes on in a lovely piece of irony, because wow, how blind is he when it comes to this with Sam? "I see what you're going through with this whole deal. Me goin' away and all that. But you're gonna be okay."
"You think so," Sam says. It's not a question. More a, "wow, you're really fucked up if you think that."
Dean ignores it. "You'll keep hunting. Y'know, you'll live your life. You're stronger than me. You are."
And either Dean's too intent to notice how angry Sam is getting, or he sees it, but he can't let himself acknowledge it. Dean has to be right about this, or else he's going to Hell for nothing.
"You are," he insists, "you'll get over it. But I want you to know I'm sorry. I'm sorry for – putting you through all this, I am."
Fangirls everywhere sigh with adoration. Dean has apologized to Sam. Now it's Sam's turn to tell Dean it'll be okay, he's going to find a way to save him, and then there'll be that moment when there's a hug sort of stranded in the air between them, and then the credits will roll.
Except that Sam's had enough. "You know what, Dean," he says. "Go screw yourself."
Dean's surprised. Fangirls are shocked. But Sam's got every right to be angry. That isn't to say that Dean didn't have the right to sell his soul – it's his soul, he can do what he wants with it. But it's a symptom of his deep crazy that he thinks Sam could ever, ever be okay with it. It's nuts, and it totally dismisses the deep and profound love that Sam has for Dean.
And it really pisses Sam off.
"I don't want an apology from you," Sam says, and he's getting angrier with every word. "And by the way, I'm a big boy now, I can take care of myself."
"Oh well excuse me," Dean starts, but Sam just rides right over him.
"So would you please quit worrying about me? I mean that's the whole problem in the first place – I don't want you to worry about me Dean, I want you to worry about you. I want you to give a crap that you're dying!"
Because this is what it all comes down to for Sam and Dean, and I expect that this is what's either going to damn them both or save them: Sam and Dean each cares more for the other than for himself. Dean wants Sam to live, and Sam wants Dean to live and to want to live. So Dean sells his soul to save Sam, and Sam...
...Sam shot Casey without blinking, even though she was just standing there, wasn't doing anything. He shot the Crossroads Demon like a parting insult. Killed two human beings and hasn't shown an instant's remorse.
And I don't think it was for the sake of the people whom the demons in them had yet to corrupt; he didn't have the look of a guy who was doing something because it was right. Sam has a little fallen angel on his shoulder, and a love so fierce he'll kill for it. It's looking more and more like he's going damn himself to save Dean, and what's Dean going to do when that happens?
The storm's still coming, and Sam and Dean are smack in the middle of it. Red sky at morning, indeed.
What's In Your Trunk is a labor of love only. No money is being made, and this blog has no connection whatsoever with the CW or anyone involved in the creation of the television show Supernatural. All images and quotes used comply with my understanding the doctrine of 
16 Comments:
I really like your review! I'm glad I'm all caught up now so I can read these. :)
@grace - Thank you!! I'm glad you're caught up too. :D And I've been loving your posts with the running commentary - so awesome!
Oh, I just love you! Well, I do, but I love you for this review! This so wonderfully encapsulates this episode, and particularly Sam.
It's looking more and more like he's going damn himself to save Dean.
Bingo. Damning in the far more traditional sense than any deals with devils.
Oh, Sammy still cares about the job and about people - his sad little "It just seems like I can't save anyone lately" speaks volumes for his mindset. So his conscience is still there, still fully functional ... but he's also got a breaker in his thread that snaps with deadly finality when it comes to his brother. Sam is ruthless when it comes to anything that threatens Dean. (Bela better watch out, if she ever puts Dean's life directly in danger ...) I don't think there's anything bad or wrong come back from the dead with him, I think Sam has just finally. had. enough.
Anyroad, love, love, love this review! You've articulated about a jillion things I just haven't found words for. Thanks! *hugs you up tight*
~ Erin
aka ErinRua
*who can't remember if she has a Google/Blogger Identity ...*
Okay, *now* I have a proper account. :-D
~ Erin
I love reading your thinky thoughts! And I so agree with you about change being painful but also /necessary/. I do think there's also a method to the madness, from a storytelling side. I've seen people (not you) complain that Dean is so much more closed-off and hardened this season than last, and I think to an extent that's true, but I think it's Dean's way of being able to deal with the day-to-day knowledge that he's going to burn in hell for all eternity and as much as he'd never admit it, that scares the shit out of him. Not that he'd do anything differently if he could go back, but still -- it's a horrifying thing. I think we'll continue to see little hairline cracks in his 'I laugh in the face of death' routine, and that it's leading towards an emotional payoff at the end of the season (*crosses fingers that the strike is settled so we actually get the end of the season*)
*snorgles you*
Also, I think you should post this to Hey! Nielsen! Maybe post the first couple of paragraphs and link to the rest here?
@erinrua - Thank you so much! I'm so worried for Sam and Dean this season, especially Sam. Just - what he'll do for Dean, you know? Last season was all "oh, Dean would let Sam go on a killing spree before he'd kill him," and that's still true, but now Sam's a worry too. :( *hugs you lots*
@monica - I'm so glad you like my thinky thoughts! And yeah, poor Dean! He needs so much for Sam to just be okay with this so that his impending doom means what he wants it to, but there's no way that Sam can. I've never seen the boys so on the outs, and it's hurty. I'm hoping for an emotional payoff, omg yes.
Also, I'm not sure whether I can link from there to here, not with the NC17 stuff that's linked to from elsewhere on the site. So now I'm dithering: do I link anyway, or do I ask and draw attention to myself? Is it easier to get forgiveness than permission?
Fantastic post/analysis. I really loved your insight into Dean and Bela - how they're alike, in terms of their bedrock character and desires - because it really verbalized what I've been thinking from the start. And, like you said, that's one reason why I've made a point of writing fanfic about them. I don't want anything to happen - on-screen - in canon between them right now, but I can definitely buy off-screen sex that just doesn't get mentioned. Like you said, they are both emotionally damaged with huge walls around their hearts. And, with the way those sparks were flying between them? DAMN, if their chemistry wouldn't lead to some really hot sex.
Thanks for all of this. It was a great read. :)
Excellent review. To add more about Bela, I think her stealing what pretty much amounts to Dean's unchanging sanctuary had more significance than just humor, especially since they didn't make the reason she stole it important, just the fact that she did steal it. She is there to push Dean into realizing that the little world he's created for himself isn't the only one out there in ways Sam can't because, like Dean, she lives in her own little bubble and there's bound to be friction. Everything they did with Bela in this episode sorta pushed Dean out of his comfort zone up until the very end, when Bela herself was pushed out of hers. And of course, they both react in keeping with the worlds they do inhabit; Dean sticks gum to the champagne fountain and scarfs down appetizers while Bela says 'thank you' with money. And, of course, her line there about not being in debt reflects Dean's own attitude in the prison episode in season 2. I think this is why I'm starting to warm to her as a character; because she's sorta necessary for Dean. Thanks for this very thoughtful meta!
Just wanted to say that I loved your meta. The difference between Bobby and Bella, and Sam about to damn himself...good job.
@liz - Thank you very much! Yeah, I don't want Bela/Dean on-screen (I'm not sure foils work anymore if the relationship gets that intimate), but I'd totally take it in some fanfic. *g*
@anonymous - Thank you for commenting! And you're right - I didn't even think about the significance of the Impala as Dean's sanctuary when Bela had it towed! Oofah, there's something to chew on....
@lucy - Thank you so much for reading and for letting me know what you thought! :D
Was the line even in any episode, ever? It's the only time I remember hearing Jensen overdo it, and it grates.
*sigh* Thank god. I thought I was the only one who felt that way about that intro.
I admit it, I miss the dark blues, the greys, the washed-out greens of the first and second seasons. Not only did they add to the mood of the show, but it meant that when there was color, it popped.
Good point. It was the silence around them that framed the colors and made them visually and thematically relevant.
One of the many things I love about this show is that it faces the wrongness and failures in its heroes.
Hmm. Interesting point about Bela's role, then. *ponders* You know, someone on my flist mentioned that the difference between Gordon and Sam and Dean is that the first was a prisoner of his prior choices, but Sam and Dean were free to reassess themselves and make new choices ("it's my destiny" v. "You have a choice." and hiding fear behind bluster as a means of attempting to protect Sam v. being vulnerable/real to protect Sam). So, I find it really interesting that Bela's function of highlighting Dean's flaws comes before his reassessment of how he's been approaching Sam recently.
*g* Thanks for setting off that line of thought in me. I always love how we set off brain implosions in each other.
~Hearseeno at LJ
@Hearseeno - Oh wow, thank you for such an interesting comment! I stopped by your LJ and discovered that you know WAY more about color theory than I do, oofah. Very impressive, and fascinating!
And this: "it's my destiny" v. "You have a choice." It's funny, because your comment came through just as I was proofreading this week's post, which deals in great part with exactly that - well, or "it's my nature" vs "it's my destiny" vs "you have a choice." They're really doing such interesting things this season, and so much of it seems to be around that. I'm really looking forward to the next new ep. :)
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