4:09: I finally saw it

[oselle]

Well, I finally saw it. I was so spoiled for this episode that I guess it didn't strike me as being as BAD as I expected. I think if I'd gone in cold there would've been a lot more WTF reaction on my end, but as it was, I was prepared for all the WTFness.

That said, a few comments:

The big bang (no pun intended) of this episode was the raunchy Sam/Ruby sex scene which...I must be getting old or something because this was almost too explicit for me. I found it kind of embarrassing to watch, actually. But far worse than that was the "seduction" scene that preceded it and I put "seduction" in quotes because as far as seductions go, this was just dreadful. I don't even know what we're supposed to take away from it because it came out of NOWHERE. All of a sudden, I mean literally all of a sudden Ruby's throwing herself at Sam like a desperate teenage stalker. Huh? And Sam goes from being grossed out by the very idea one second to rolling around on the floor with her the next. Double huh? And the writing...oh God...the writing. What on earth was Ruby babbling about this being so "bad and naughty and wrong" or whatever the hell that was? I had my hand over my mouth to keep myself from laughing out loud and somehow, I don't think that was the writers' intent.

The question is: what DID they intend us to think about Ruby and Sam having sex? I THINK we're supposed to imagine that Sam just did it out of desperate loneliness. Okay I can totally buy that but it doesn't explain what Ruby got out of it. Did she just need to scratch an itch? Is she really evil and using everything at her disposal to lure Sam into her web of deception? Or are the writers setting us up for a genuine Sam/Ruby romance that they think is deliciously fucked up and the rest of us will just find a boring distraction? Remember, these are the folks who loved Bela so...this last possibility is not out of the question.

Frankly, everything about Ruby has turned into a hot mess for me and the only way I see to fix it is if Ruby turns out to be no good in the end. And the only way that can work is if it's revealed that Sam is also playing her because otherwise he just looks like an idiot. A horny idiot, because there's no way the writers could expect us to believe that their hot coupling was a one-time deal. They lived together for five months after that. Are we supposed to think they did so chastely?

Unfortunately, right now there's no evidence that Sam is anything but wrapped around Ruby's finger. He thinks she's awesome and it looks like Dean's starting to think so as well. Yeah sure, his "thanks" to her was kind of gritted through his teeth but he clearly has a newfound admiration or at least respect for her -- it's written all over his pretty face. He even seemed taken aback when Uriel referred to her as a "stain" -- I'm eternally grateful that Dean didn't say something to defend her there because that would have been just stomach turning.

I don't have much to say about Dean in this episode because he wasn't around much. I did, of course, greatly enjoy the shoulder relocation followed by application of ridiculously tiny icepack. Seriously, prop department? Seriously?

But my enjoyment of that can't take the sting out of Sam's shallow grief. For crying out loud. I mourned for my dog longer and harder than Sam mourned for Dean. I'm still in mourning for that dog, damnit! The grief-stricken Sam of "Mystery Spot" was so convincing and now we get one drunken attempt at a deal and then nothing but Sam boozing and feeling sorry for himself and then apparently forgetting all about Dean just because Ruby says there's nothing anyone can do for him and they should focus on Lilith instead...oh, and has sex with him. Behold! The Miraculous Healing Power of Pussy! What. The. Fuck?!

All right, a few other points:

Anna would be a lot more interesting if she hadn't been written as such a doe-eyed, mealy-mouthed victim. Wouldn't it have been more fun to make her a really strong character who is genuinely going mad from hearing these things and not being believed? In the beginning of the episode, we're told that she attacked someone with such force that it took four people to restrain her -- where's that girl? I wanna see that girl. Oh wait, they can't do that because they're setting her up for some violin-backed kissyface with Dean next week followed by damsel-in-distressing and we can't have either of those things if she's remotely interesting as a character. Got it.

There were so many inconsistencies in this episode that I can't even count them but the biggest one for me was that Lilith -- the mighty Lilith -- was powerless against Sam but Alistair was not. So who's Alistair? A bigger bad than Lilith? I love the way this show just plays fast and loose with its own internal logic. I can deal with a little hand-waving now and then but COME ON PEOPLE. Try.

Uriel is irritating me and I liked it better when Castiel was the only angel on the scene. Now it suddenly seems like Castiel can't do anything on his own and if Castiel's the one who pulled Dean out of hell then why do we suddenly need Uriel shadowing him? Or being his boss? Or whatever is going on there?

Both of the "other" Rubies in the episode were better than G. Cortese's rendition. I especially liked blonde "secretary" Ruby who not only resembled Katie Cassidy a little but did a better job of mimicking her attitude. Unfortunately it seems that since Ruby's turned out to be a love interest after all, we have to settle for an actress who's there more for her looks than her talent.

So overall...I don't know. Right now, for me, everything hinges on what they do with Ruby. If they're genuinely pursuing this Mary Sueish approach with her, it's just gonna drag the season down from the heights of those first few episodes. If she's working an angle, it could get interesting. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Comments

[oselle.livejournal.com]

the Buffy/Spike relationship they're so obviously trying to imitate

I'm gonna fall back on my usual complaint that anytime Whedonesque elements creep into this show it goes off the rails. Although at least with Buffy she had sort of a...track record of sleeping with vampires.

that Ruby is bad and the rest of it is all a big ruse on Sam and Dean's part

There's still a possibility that Ruby is bad. There's also a chance that Sam is in on it and is playing her...but I can't see any way that Dean is in the know. Even in private conversations with Dean, Sam does nothing but praise Ruby, there's not even a hint of anything else. So if Sam's playing Ruby he's also playing Dean and while there may be some justification for that (protecting Dean?) it still wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for Sam to keep Dean in the dark. Alas, the more I think about it the more I believe that she really is St. Ruby the Good and we're supposed to love her as much as Sam and Dean and Anna already do and no doubt the angels themselves eventually will.

Well gosh, where would he find the time to think about Dean when he's so busy taking Ruby to see Indiana Jones movies and putting together playlists for her on his new iPod?

One of the most unfortunate effects of this week's episode (and one that I think was wholly unintended by the writers) was making me believe that except for one drunken month, Sam adjusted pretty well to Dean being gone and the knowledge of him being in hell. I find myself rethinking the season premiere and how Sam's lackluster reaction to having Dean back now reads as genuine oh-shit disappointment and wow...bad call, Show. Bad fucking call.

[ghyste.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna fall back on my usual complaint that anytime Whedonesque elements creep into this show it goes off the rails. Although at least with Buffy she had sort of a...track record of sleeping with vampires.

Though I was somewhat of a minority in Buffy fandom at the time, I thought Buffy itself went off the rails with Buffy/Spike because they had to fundamentally change everything about the characters in order to justify it. Kripke has already changed Ruby beyond all recognition and the lack of interest Sam has shown in either Dean’s return from Hell or keeping him from going back there would argue that they’re doing the same with Sam. Now, if that’s all in the service of some awesome double-bluff scenario that’s fine, but it’s equally likely that (like Spuffy) there’s no purpose beyond getting a ‘romance’ into the story.

BTW: Re the oft raised issue (not by you, of course!) of sex with Whedonverse vampires being the same as Demon Sex in SPN, all I have to say is “utter tosh”. Joss may have stated off by saying that a Vamp was a corpse possessed by a Demon but he soon dropped the idea and, Angel/Angelus aside, his vamps were precisely the same as their human counterparts.

Alas, the more I think about it the more I believe that she really is St. Ruby the Good and we're supposed to love her as much as Sam and Dean and Anna already do and no doubt the angels themselves eventually will.

I admit that at my heart of hearts that’s what I believe too (after all, these are the people who thought we should believe that Bela was “classy” and Cassie was "fearless”) but at least for this week I’m going to pretend very hard that there’s something cleverer at work.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

the lack of interest Sam has shown in either Dean’s return from Hell or keeping him from going back there would argue that they’re doing the same with Sam

In retrospect, we should have seen this coming with "Yellow Fever." True, a lot of that episode was written for laughs but there really was no explanation for Sam being so cavalier about Dean's very real illness and impending death. No explanation until this episode, that is -- because now we know that Dean has become relatively unnecessary in Sam's life. That isn't to say that Sam wants Dean to die, or would prefer that Dean were still in hell, but there definitely seems to be some regret...not that Dean is alive and well, but that Dean is once again part of Sam's life. If this really is a double-bluff then Sam's doing a great job of keeping everyone in the dark, including Dean, but I'm just not getting any sensation of that dramatic tension. Once again, going back to "Yellow Fever" -- since Sam was essentially joking about Dean having a few hours to live, that would be one hell of a charade for Sam to keep up, if it actually were a charade.