SPN 6:04: Weekend At Bobby's

[oselle]

I haven't looked around for any of the reactions to last night's episode, because I suspect the main topics of discussion (in my corner of fandom, at least) will center around two things: kudos for Jensen's directorial debut, and why the show chose to devote an entire episode to a secondary character.

Getting the first thing out of the way: Jensen seems like a great person and his description of how he studiously prepared to direct his first episode was so sweetly endearing that part of me really does want to turn into a ball of treacle and gush on about how incredibly happy I am for him. However the more down-to-earth part of me recognizes that there's something a little odd about being happy for the accomplishments of a perfect stranger (except of course if you're talking about the compassionate philosophy of "sympathetic joy" -- sort of the Buddhist opposite of schadenfreude -- but I'm sure no one here wants to talk about sympathetic joy). My selfish side also has to admit that I vastly prefer Jensen in front of the camera, not behind it.

As to the second thing, I've always reacted badly to any show (that's not an ensemble) turning over an entire episode to a supporting character. To me, this always smacks of a show that's lost its creative steam. The first time I recall being annoyed by this was during one of the later seasons of Miami Vice, when one whole episode revolved around the two comic-relief undercover detectives who went around the in the phony exterminator van with the giant bug on top. As if I really wanted to know anything about those guys instead of the delectable Sonny Crockett (my fixation on prettyboys goes way back, alas). It became clear to me then that Miami Vice was past its prime and I think I more or less drifted away from it after that. I don't even remember watching the series finale.

This episode wasn't quite as bad as the Miami Vice bug-guys debacle but I still didn't understand the point of it. If the intent was specifically to create a Dean-lite episode so that Jensen would be able to direct, then the time would have been better spent by focusing on Sam, about whom we still know nothing except that, as usual, "something's wrong" with him.

However, as adored as Jensen seems to be by the entire cast and crew, I still find it unlikely that they'd create an entire episode just for him to direct. That may have been part of it, but I rather suspect that the writers are nowhere near as weary of Bobby as the audience has become, and thought it would be both fun and funny to have an episode that was all about him.

The one little thing I liked was that scene of Bobby manning his makeshift switchboard...I have always kind of wondered what Bobby does all day. Of course, that scene only makes you question why someone who appears to be both the 911 and the 411 for the entire hunter community had never heard of the Campbells but...oh, never mind.

The scene of Bobby torturing the demon in his cellar was both revolting and infuriating and I'm not surprised that it came from Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin, whose writing debut was the unforgivably ugly "Yellow Fever" back in Season 4. First of all, the very image of a scruffy guy with a young woman imprisoned in his backwoods basement only calls to mind Silence of the Lambs and the myriad serial-killer flicks that mimicked it (the prisoner screaming for help while the peach-cobbler neighbor lady was at the door also recalled serial-killer horror movies and was not remotely amusing). Second, I suppose we finally have to abandon once and for all any concern for the human hosts of these demons because, between scenes like this and all of Sam's demon-blood drinking, these unfortunate possessed people are apparently collateral damage whenever the situation demands.

What pisses me off the most, however, is that Bobby was torturing that chick. Now, we've been told since Dean's return from hell that TORTURE IS BAD. Dean succumbing to becoming a torturer (after being tortured for 30 years) was so BAD that it opened the First Seal and unleashed the Apocalypse. Upon Dean's return to earth, he's twice been forced back into that role -- the first, when the angels ordered him to torture Alistair for information in "Head of a Pin." The second, in "The End," when 2009!Dean finds out that his future self has started torturing again to uncover the whereabouts of the Colt. In both of these cases, it's obvious that TORTURE IS BAD and that Dean will only do it under extreme coercion or because something "is broken" inside him, as 2009!Dean pointed out to his 2014 version. Just two weeks ago, the repellent Campbells were sneering at Dean over what he'd done in hell and there was a fair amount of audience uproar over why Sam would tell the repellent Campbells such an awful secret about Dean...awful because, of course, TORTURE IS BAD.

Apparently TORTURE IS BAD only when Dean does it. Bobby went about his inquisition with no more reluctance or compunction than...The Inquisition. Making it all worse is that Bobby tortured that woman for his own selfish ends. Whenever Dean was reduced to such cruelty, it was either under duress (30 years of torture) or because there was something larger at stake (finding the Colt and killing Lucifer). Bobby does it for no reason other than to save his own ass. Then he compounds his crime by torching her to cinders, even after she's divulged the information he needs. We all know that Bobby knows how to do an exorcism, so his murder of that woman was nothing more than spiteful sadism. If two years of yelling at Dean didn't make you hate Bobby, then that certainly should have.

Speaking of yelling at Dean, I figured that there'd be some yelling at Dean in this episode, considering it was, after all, about Bobby. While I'm happy that Bobby was at least yelling at both Dean and Sam this time around, I was still left unmoved by Bobby's ire. I've heard Bobby tell Dean to "sack up" so many times that it has no effect on me anymore and it seemed no more justified here than it ever has. Also, unless I'm mistaken, neither Sam nor Dean even knew that Crowley had broken his promise, so it was ridiculous for Bobby to get so furious at them without explaining what was going on. When he does explain, they of course jump to help him. Considering that Bobby has a whole ten years to figure this out, it seemed pretty selfish of him to be in such an angry panic -- I don't recall a similar sense of urgency when Dean's one-year clock was ticking. This whole scene felt to me like more of the writers' favorite "poking fun at the Winchesters" or "taking them down a peg." I got the impression that Bobby was supposed to be speaking as a stand-in for the audience -- all that criticism of their "issues" was the tip-off. Parts of Bobby's speech could have been lifted straight off the TWoP message boards...which is exactly where that kind of shit needs to stay. The writers who created all these endless Winchester "issues" in the first place are not doing themselves or the audience any favors by using Bobby to mock or hang a lampshade on them. It's a dumb stunt that's neither enlightening nor amusing.

This scene did yield one pleasant surprise -- that little look that Sam gave Dean when Bobby complained about how they called him to "bitch about each other." It was such a tiny thing and yet it was the most charmingly open moment I've seen pass between these two characters in a very long time. We talk a lot out here about how the show needs to repair Sam and Dean's relationship...hell, even Jensen has told Sera that she needs to "give Sam his soul back." This little moment was the first inkling that Sam even still has a soul. I'm sure the writers have stalled on repairing Sam and Dean's relationship because they think it will require BIG DRAMA. It doesn't have to. Sometimes the smallest things can pack the biggest punch.

Other things...

Considering the legions of fallen angels that exist in folklore and literature, the notion that a 400-year-old Scotsman dumb enough to sell his soul to enlarge his prick is the new king of hell is beyond stupid. Crack open the first book of Paradise Lost and you've got a rogue's gallery of Beelzebubs, Molochs, Belials and Astaroths to choose from. And can anyone tell me why a Scotsman would develop an English accent in hell?

While we're on the subject of Scotsmen, I'm glad they didn't write Dean's legendary fear of flying out of existence, but find it very hard to believe that either Sam or Dean would have a passport, or anything close to the necessary documentation it takes to get one. Hunters may have all sorts of underground resources but high-end black ops they're not. Even on domestic flights they scan your driver's license to make sure it's not a fake. This could have easily been gotten around by having the erstwhile Crowley expiring in the Colonies instead of his native soil, and they hardly had to send the Winchesters all the way to Scotland to keep them out of the episode. There was a widespread rumor last year that Jensen's wedding was supposed to take place in Scotland, and part of me wonders if shipping Dean and Sam off to the Hebrides, of all places, wasn't some kind of inside joke.

I did enjoy the tiny rental car though, and for a moment I was completely baffled as to what the steering wheel -- and Dean -- were doing on the wrong side of the car.

That is all.

Comments

[mangokulfi.livejournal.com]

I think the whole phone conversation was what you said at first -- a contrivance. They put those words in Dean's mouth so that Bobby would have an excuse to go off on him and holler some of the things the writers have heard the audience holler about. It doesn't matter that it was out of character for Dean, they just needed someone to give Bobby an opening. What makes it so ridiculous is that we've never seen Dean call up Bobby just to vent or whine or whatever, so it literally made no sense for Bobby to suddenly start yelling about how he's sick of these guys' issues -- unless Bobby's been reading the TWoP messageboards too. Yeah but beyond just pandering to TWoP, I think the writers just thinks it's funny to take Dean down a peg or give every episode. I guess it's switch up from having someone call him stupid so that's something. The other thing that I have observed is that whenever they want to prop another character, the do it at Dean's expense. I guess it's because they don't think Dean can be damaged in the audience's estimation. What they don't get is that all they're doing is damaging the other character.

I do think there was a lot of goodwill towards Jensen, which I suppose is nice, but I think the feel of a television episode (unlike a film) is more dependent upon the writing than the direction. I don't see why anyone would be relieved that Jensen did a good job since I can't imagine how Jensen -- or any director -- could fuck up an episode. Absolutely the quality of an episode is dependent primarily on the writing (and acting) but director's have a lot of influence over acting choices and also pacing and the visual elements of story-telling so they too can really screw stuff up even where there is a reasonably good script. For eg. Croatoan, I thought had all the elements to make a block buster episode, but the I never got the feel of the massive threat from zombiefied town so it felt really flat to me. Another example would be in the manwitch episode where the final poker game for old Dean's life should have been tense and anxious but I didn't get any of that between the leisurely chatting that Sam was doing while he was drawing out the bluff juxtaposed with Dean having a heart attack and twitching on the floor. Mind you, that epi wasn't teribly well-written either but still, in terms of pacing and visual story-telling, that felt very much like a directorial fail to me. Anyway, I thought it was good that Jensen didn't fall into the trap of letting the show get too static while people were doing their blabbing and he kept things moving along nicely with lots of stuff happening in the background of shots while characters were interacting and things like that.

I think I'm in something of a minority because I've always felt SPN is at its best when it knuckles down and takes itself seriously -- and by that, I don't mean teary roadside confessions. "Lazarus Rising" and "The End" were great episodes because they were intense, not because they were melodramatic. It sometimes seems that this fandom thinks there are only two choices: the show can be lighthearted and fun or lugubrious and angsty. There's an awful lot of middle ground between those two poles and I wish the show would venture into it more often. Again I agree for the most part. But I think I've just come to realize that kind of brilliance is almost accidental on this show so I'm always happily surprised when they get the dramatic vs. comic vs. action elements balanced and I feel they managed to get that mostly right this episode even though ITA on how horrifying the demon torture scene was.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

The other thing that I have observed is that whenever they want to prop another character, the do it at Dean's expense. I guess it's because they don't think Dean can be damaged in the audience's estimation.

I agree and for the most part, that's true. I'd actually have to see Dean doing something awful for me to think less of him; no amount of other characters yelling at him or humiliating him is going to do the job. However, as you say, it will make me think less of the other characters, not to mention the writers.

Croatoan, I thought had all the elements to make a block buster episode, but the I never got the feel of the massive threat from zombiefied town so it felt really flat to me.

LOL, I'd suspect this had more to do with a low budget. It's hard to pull off a zombie apocalypse with a cast of...fives. And since that was Season Two, I'll bet they blew most of the season's budget on "Nightshifter." Helicopters and SWAT teams don't come cheap.

that kind of brilliance is almost accidental on this show

I know, I know. I can't understand why after all this time I keep expecting the show to live up to its potential.