SPN 6:11: Appointment in Samarra

[oselle]

Strangely enough, this episode didn't bore me senseless, and I chalk that up to the excellent interaction between Dean and Death, which was as good here as it was the last time around. I should whisper that, because if anyone from the show hears someone say so, they'll gleefully add Death as a recurring character and then he'll proceed to bore us all to...well, death.

Put me down for a big eye-roll over Dean writing a farewell letter to Ben. Put me down for an "oh for fuck's sake" while you're at it.

Yay for someone finally mentioning Adam but it was a day late and a dollar short and while I'm not at all surprised or disappointed that Dean so quickly chose Sam over Adam, I really don't like that they have ignored Adam's predicament all year only to prove that he's irrelevant to what passes for his family. If I were a writer for this show, I think I'd have Adam come back at some point in a justifiably righteous fury and go after both of his worthless half-brothers because man...if anyone has a bone to pick, it's Adam.

I really want to know what's going on in that box that is so much worse than anything Dean endured during his tour of hell. A couple of ancient arch-enemies like Lucifer and Michael have nothing better to do than boot Sam's soul around? I guess I could buy that if it's really boring in there but you'd think they'd much rather beat the shit out of each other for eternity. And once again, what about Adam? He's locked up in there too. Do they just ignore him?

The ridiculousness about Sam's soul continues apace and I have to repeat what I said last week -- the point of getting Sam out of hell should NOT be reuniting his soul with his body, it should be GETTING SAM OUT OF HELL. Which distinction was again ignored, and I don't know why. As far as I'm concerned, Sam's soul is the only Sam there is. Soulless Sam is not Sam. When Dean was giving Sam that strangely LOOOONG stare through the panic-room door, I was pretty sure he was contemplating slipping Death's ring on and just going in there and killing that soulless, not-Sam thing and then getting back to the business of freeing the real Sam without having to worry about not-Sam trying to stop him.

Meanwhile, Soulless Sam reached all new levels of dickishness, not only making dirty deals with fallen angels behind his brother's back (all the while knowing that said brother was literally killing himself -- and others -- to save Sam's soul), but trying to ice Bobby in the bargain. I'm very glad Dean couldn't last the whole 24 hours as Death because imagine if he'd have gone through all that only to find out that Sam had screwed him over? Alas...it's difficult to find much difference between Soulless Sam's behavior and that of plain old Sam from recent seasons. Sam's outburst at the beginning of the episode not only sounded like plain old me-me-me Sam, but also (and once again) contradicted the idea that Sam has no feelings or emotions because he sure as hell can get his dander up over himself, and quite loudly too.

I had a Sinking Feeling when Death dropped his heavy hints about the great value of human souls, because I assume this is the lead-in to some bloated red herring that's going to float around intermittently for the rest of the season before it gets flushed out to sea.

Dean was looking exquisitely pretty, as pretty as I've seen him look yet this season. I don't know how many times I've seen him die on this show but he always looks so lovely when he kicks it that it's no wonder that giving him a good fanfic whumping is so irresistible. But if they're going to defibrilate the guy, I'd like a longer shot of him with his shirt rucked up, and I'm SO very disappointed that they didn't shove that adrenaline needle right in his chest, Pulp Fiction-style, because that would've been right in my wheelhouse. Oh yes.

And hey, Freddy Kreuger!

One final point: CASTIEL IS NOT SAM'S BOYFRIEND. HE BELONGS TO DEAN.

(I was home yesterday and "Head of a Pin" was on the TNT morning reruns and oh, when Castiel busts in to save Dean from Alistair, the look on his face...he's just always loved Dean so very, very much.)

Enjoy the hiatus and happy holidays!


ETA: Once again proving that everything in the universe has been covered by Seinfeld or The Simpsons, this entire episode reminded me of The Simpsons' "Reaper Madness:"

"Death enters the Simpson house attempting to take Bart but the family goes on a Benny Hill-style chase to elude him. However, Death eventually manages to pin Bart's shirt to the wall with its scythe. As Death sentences Bart to an eternity of pain, Homer kills him with a bowling ball (in revenge for Snowball I and President John F. Kennedy), but when he does, he learns that no one can die since the Death is dead. The scene then cuts to two examples of a world where no one can die: Frankie the Squealer (last seen in “Insane Clown Poppy”) being repeatedly gunned down by the Springfield Mafia and Moe hanging himself from the ceiling. On trash day, Marge tells Homer to take the dead Death to the curb. Homer does, but puts on the robe, inadvertently turning himself into the new Grim Reaper. At first, he refuses to reap souls, but when the cloak begins to crush his crotch, he complies. He kills many people on God's list (and some who are not) until he is asked to kill Marge. Homer does not want to kill his wife (or himself, an alternative he is given but quickly rejects), and he tries to plead to God that he wants to get out of the job after leading Him to believe that he killed Marge. God agrees, but He finds that Homer tricked Him by substituting Patty's body for Marge (which God initially mistakes for Selma before Homer corrects him). The annoyed deity tries to punish Homer with a sunbeam but simply gives up after a chase. At the house Marge gives Homer an extra pork chop for not killing her. Homer then says, "I'm gonna not kill Marge every week."

Comments

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I suspect Sam and Dean will have to die to set things right cosmically or something.

If there's a Season 7 then this could be the cliffhanger -- are Sam and Dean finally going to die for good to set the world straight? It would be nice if they provided some evidence as to how the world has been thrown out of whack by Sam and Dean's repeated resurrections.

Also I definitely think Bal is peeved that Cas is so excessively fond of Dean.

I really do have to do some investigation into why Balthazar has such a hate on for Dean. I think I probably recorded over that episode. For now I'm going with unrequited love at first sight.