All Over but the Shouting

[oselle]

I changed my tagline to read "Sera Gamble never went anywhere with that," because now that it's all over...wow. She really never went anywhere with that.

It's kind of extraordinary that we started out the season with that huge mish-mash of storylines and ended it with one that no one saw coming -- Castiel's ascent (or Castiel's fall, depending on how you look at it).

I'm going to try to make a list of all the stories this season tried to incorporate:

- Lisa and Ben
- The extended Campbell clan
- Whatever Samuel Campbell was trying to do with Mary
- Alpha monsters
- Mother-Of-All
- Crowley and purgatory
- Sam-and-Dean role reversal
- Soulless Sam
- War in heaven

Of all of these, only the war in heaven wound up being important. They managed to tie the Crowley and Purgatory storyline into that, and, to some extent, the alpha monsters and the Mother-Of-All, although IMO the discovery of Purgatory could have been easily pulled off without either the alpha monsters or the M-O-A (both of which, I'm sure, were originally meant to get much more play).

Every single other story was completely irrelevant and that includes Soulless Sam -- that entire part of the season wound up having nothing at all to do with the war in heaven, and the hasty way they cleaned it up in the last episode is the final proof of how little it mattered. I think that Jared did a good job with those scenes but they were anticlimactic compared to the build-up for them, and I couldn't help being amused by how the "horrors" of Sam's whole lost year were embodied by the death of some random brunette, while everything he did to Dean went completely unmentioned. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised because the writers never expect Sam to feel any guilt over anything he does to Dean, with or without a soul.

I so, so don't want to get excited over Season 7 because I know they will screw it up. In fact they will have to screw it up, because they'll soon realize that they've left themselves with a story that revolves almost exclusively on Castiel and Dean. I know they keep trying to bring Sam (and even Bobby) into the circle, but you'd have to be blind not to see that there are really only two characters in this story -- the hunter and his erstwhile guardian angel. Presumably the fate of the world is going to hinge upon this dynamic. And now we have a genuine role reversal, because if anyone's going to save Cas from his own perdition (thereby no doubt saving the world), it'll have to be Dean.

Now, this happens to be totally in my wheelhouse, and you could probably write some incredible fic off this premise...but they're not going to be able to build the whole season on it. Actually they probably could, but they'd have to plan it very thoughtfully and take some real risks...and then be able to manage the consequences of those risks instead of just sweeping them under the rug when they get messy. Thoughtful planning, risk-taking and dealing with consequences have not exactly been the writers' strong suits to date. The best we can hope for is some more great emotional stare-downs between Dean and Cas, and of course, anytime Cas wants to pop in and watch Dean sleep, that's a-ok with me. I really, really dig that.

Comments

[muffaletta.livejournal.com]

There were also the plot threads of why Dean was monster bait early in the season (including becoming a monster himself), the intrepid detective assignment, Death's reasons for wanting Dean to understand the natural order/rescue Sam's soul. I'm sure I could think of some more but I have a headache as it is.

I was just saying that this entire season was fairly pointless and could have been told in about 5 episodes, tops. What a bloody waste.

"I couldn't help being amused by how the "horrors" of Sam's whole lost year were embodied by the death of some random brunette, while everything he did to Dean went completely unmentioned. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised because the writers never expect Sam to feel any guilt over anything he does to Dean, with or without a soul."

I was laughing over that one myself. Really, Sam? You're actually in the motel where you were with your vamped brother and you remember random chick?

But then again, this was Kripke's episode. He's the dude who thought Bobby screaming at Dean in "LuR" was hilarious because Dean was being a pussy. Or that Sam didn't need to apologize for choking Dean because it wasn't a big deal. Or made the decision to have aplastic soldier no one had ever seen be the thing that jogged Sam's memories of Dean and not Dean's own bloody face. At least I got to hand it to Kripke- he's consistent.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

There were also the plot threads of why Dean was monster bait early in the season (including becoming a monster himself), the intrepid detective assignment, Death's reasons for wanting Dean to understand the natural order/rescue Sam's soul.

I see these as elements of the major storylines. Monster bait/vamped up Dean was part of the alpha monster story; I think Death was supposed to be dropping hints about what Castiel was up to with all the soul business; I don't remember the intrepid detective assignment at all.

You're actually in the motel where you were with your vamped brother and you remember random chick?

OMG, seriously? The Nite Owl was that motel? God, I'm just remembering what a foul little plot twist that was. Actually that whole episode was hopeless.

At least I got to hand it to Kripke- he's consistent.

Again I have to say that the audience wouldn't have latched onto Castiel the way they have if he hadn't emerged as the only character who seems to give a shit about Dean. In fact, Castiel has found himself in the position where Dean usually is -- desperately needing someone to have his back, and not getting it.